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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100804/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
By GREG BLUESTEIN and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writers Greg Bluestein And Tamara Lush, Associated Press Writers – Wed Aug 4, 6:22 pm ET
NEW ORLEANS – In the end, it was a crush of mud that finally plugged the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, three months after the offshore drilling rig explosion that unleashed a gusher of oil and a summer of misery along the Gulf Coast.
The government stopped just short of pronouncing the well dead, cautioning that cement and mud must still be pumped in from the bottom to seal it off for good.
President Barack Obama declared that the battle to contain one of the world's worst oil spills is "finally close to coming to an end."
Yet after months of living with lost income, fouled shorelines and dying wildlife, some Gulf Coast residents weren't so sure.
"I don't think we've finished with this," said 59-year-old Harry "Cho-cho" Cheramie, who grew up in Grand Isle, La. "We haven't really started to deal with it yet. We don't know what effect it's going to have on our seafood in the long run."
Still, it appeared there might finally be an end in sight to the disaster that closed vast stretches of fishing areas, interrupted the usually lucrative tourist season, and cost BP's CEO his job and the company's shareholders billions of dollars.
BP PLC said 2,300 barrels of mud forced down the well overnight had pushed the crude back down to its source for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers and sending tar balls washing onto beaches and oil oozing into delicate coastal marshes.
AFP/Getty Images – Ships work near the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. BP said Wednesday that it had succeeded
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100810/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_fires
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 10, 7:08 am ET
MOSCOW – Hundreds of wildfires that has swept western Russia and cloaked Moscow in suffocating smog has caused billions of dollars in damage, a newspaper said Tuesday.
(Fire near Moscow)
The business daily Kommersant said the damage from the fires was expected to amount to about $15 billion — or about one percent of the country's gross domestic product. The government has yet to release any damage estimates.
The hottest summer since record-keeping began 130 years ago has cost Russia more than a third of its wheat crop and prompted the government to ban wheat exports for the rest of the year.
Kommersant said a rise in grain prices would likely lead to a spike in inflation and stifle growth.
The acrid smog that has engulfed Moscow for a week eased a bit on Tuesday, but the concentration of pollutants remained high. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin summoned Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who said the situation in the capital was difficult but that city health authorities were doing what was needed to help the population cope with the heat and smog.
Ambulances calls have risen by nearly a quarter, compared with the period before the heat wave struck, Luzhkov said.
Later Tuesday, Putin was expected to tour two villages which were burned to the ground by fires southeast of Moscow to discuss rebuilding efforts. He previously has promised new houses to all those who lost housing in the fires before the fall, and ordered to place Web cameras at burned villages to raise pressure on local officials on reconstruction efforts.
Despite Putin's visits to the areas hit by fires, opinion polls have shown a drop in approval ratings for both him and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev was slow to interrupt his Black Sea vacation even as fires around Moscow grew worse, and, unlike Putin — who met with villagers and firefighters — mostly conferred with officials after his return.
A nationwide poll of 2,000 conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation earlier this month showed Putin's approval ratings dropping from 63 to 61 percent compared with a survey in late July, while Medvedev saw his popularity drop from 57 to 52 percent. The margin of error for the poll was about plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The business daily Vedomosti quoted Kremlin-linked political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky saying the Russian leadership was unprepared for the fires.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100810/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_giant_clock
By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI, Associated Press Writer Abdullah Al-shihri, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 10, 3:25 pm ET
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia will test what it is billing as the world's largest clock in the holy city of Mecca during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the official news agency reported Tuesday.
The four-faced clock tower will top a massive skyscraper that when completed will be around 1,970 feet (600 meters) tall, the second tallest in the world after Dubai's Burj Khalifa.
Click image to see photos of the giant clock
The clock will dwarf London's Big Ben, once the largest four-faced clock in the world, with dials more than five times greater in area.
The around 130 foot (40 meter) diameter Saudi clock dials are also bigger than the current world champion at the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul, which has a 36 meter face set in the transparent roof of the shopping complex.
The complex overlooks Mecca's famed Grand Mosque, which Muslims worldwide face during their five daily prayers and is part of Saudi efforts to develop the city visited by millions of pilgrims every year.
A three-month test run for the clock will start during the first week of Ramadan — the monthlong period of prayer, reflection and sunrise-to-sunset fasting, the report said. This year, Ramadan will begin Wednesday.
Only one of the clock's four faces has so far been completed and is covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics.
Each face will be inscribed with "God is greatest" in Arabic and fitted with thousands of colored lights. The clock will be visible from more than 16 miles (25 kilometers).
An observatory deck is planned at the base of the clock.
A huge golden crescent moon, 75 feet (23 meters) in diameter, will eventually rise above the clock on a 200 foot (61 meter) spire, from which some 15 beams will shoot up into the sky, the agency added. The entire clock, from the base up to the crescent, itself will be 820 feet (251 meters) high.
German and Swiss engineers designed the clock and according to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, the entire project will cost $800 million.
The seven tower complex is being built by developer Saudi Binladen Group, the press agency reported.
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Meenakshi Sinha, TNN, Aug 5, 2010, 01.12am IST
Dilip Kumar
NEW DELHI: Stylish and spectacular, Mughal-e-Azam is the grandest historical ever in Hindi films. And even 50 years after director K Asif's magnum opus was first released on August 5, 1960, the film's hero Dilip Kumar remembers every last detail of the movie. So does his wife, Saira Banu, but for other reasons.
(Dilip Kumar)
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(Madhubala in Mughal-E-Azam)
Set in 16th century Mughal era, the film told the love story of Emperor Akbar's son Salim and a courtesan Anarkali. "Mughal-e-Azam was an altogether different experience. Asif trusted me enough to leave the delineation of Salim completely to me. The shooting in Rajasthan was most memorable. Imagine my state with my body covered by armour in the desert heat!" the 87-year-old actor said.
Mughal-e-Azam took nine years to make. But Yusuf Sahab, as Kumar is fondly called, says he never felt the film took too long to complete. "Such was the all-round commitment that nobody saw the delay as tiresome. We were experienced enough to know that a film involving such overwhelming craftsmanship, minute detailing, massive gathering of artistes and unit hands, strenuous schedules with large units of artistes and trained animals, day and night shoots cannot be a simple affair," says the thespian, famous for his roles in films such as Devdas, Madhumati, Ganga Jamuna and Kranti.
The actor adds, "We were acutely conscious of the hard work we would have to put in as well as the responsibility we would have to shoulder while evoking a historical period that shaped the cultural, political and social ethos of the years that followed. It's indeed wonderful to know that the film is being taken as seriously today as it was when it was first released."
His wife Saira Banu, well-known heroine of films such as Junglee and Shagird, too has very evocative memories of the film but for different reasons. She says, "I must tell you about a love story that was quietly unfolding while the love story of Prince Salim and Anarkali was being filmed. For an entire week before the premiere of Mughal-e-Azam, I prepared myself for the event, draping my mother's saris, applying and reapplying nail varnish, wearing high heels and practising to walk confidently in them just to be noticed and acknowledged by Dilip sahab."
That evening, there was a decorated elephant carrying the prints of the film to the gate and a massive crowd waiting to see the stars arrive for the opening night plus such pomp and splendour as bands and bugles playing, flashbulbs going off like lightning in the dark hall. "After all my preparation, when we arrived at the venue, we learnt from the hosts that Dilip sahab would not be gracing the occasion. I was so disappointed. Needless to say I sat through the film in a mood that was anything but bright. I did not know then that God had a splendid plan up his sleeve for me," she recalled. The two were married six years later in 1966.
"Many years later when the colour version of Mughal-e-Azam premiered in Mumbai, I was walking with him as his wife --- this time enjoying the adulation as the crowds waved out to Dilip sahab and saying a quiet prayer of gratitude to God for making my dream come true so beautifully," she said.
The movie's colour version was premiered in 2004 and drew houseful crowds underlining how the movie continues to occupy premium space in popular memory.
As Nasreen Munni Kabir, who penned the book, "The immortal dialogue of K Asif's Mugahl-e-Azam," says of the movie, "It's the Kohinoor, the diamond that shines bright in popular cinema. And that's because it is made from K Asif's single-minded passion and striving for excellence."
The film is considered a benchmark for its screenplay, dialogue, acting and scale. Kabir says what appealed most was that every element of the film equalled the other. "Photography matched the sets, music matched the lyrics. The brilliant Urdu dialogue and the sophisticated subtlety of expression equalled the actors' performances. Special mention must be made of the restrained acting of Dilip Kumar and Madhubala. Madhubala is known today as the great beauty, but in this film we see what an extraordinary actress she was," she says.
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Mughal-E-Azam in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal-e-Azam
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http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/18/news/international/china_straddle_bus/
The "3-D Fast Bus" uses ultrasound and laser technology to keep vehicles from colliding with it.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Struggling under mounting congestion problems and facing an explosion in automobile sales, China may build a novel bus-train hybrid people-mover that rolls over cars.
Resembling an open-mouthed whale, the vehicle, known as a "3-D Fast Bus" (which apparently sounds much more modern in Chinese), would run on stilt-like legs, whisking passengers along about 14 feet above the road and allowing traffic to pass underneath.
The vehicle can run either on rails laid on each side of the road, or on wheels programmed to stay on special lines painted on the pavement. Hitched together in a line of four, the transporter could move up to 1,200 passengers.
A spokesman for the Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment Co., the company building the vehicle, told CNN the firm is "definitely" signing a contract with the district of Mentougou, a suburb of Beijing.
Construction on a six-mile test road is set to begin at the end of this year, with groundbreaking on a 75-mile-long pilot project set for the end of 2011, said the spokesman.
A Chinese government official confirmed talks are underway, but was less optimistic on the time line.
"We're still discussing a contract," said Zhang Wenbo, Head of the Mentougou Science and Technology Commission. "There is no physical car in existence. At the earliest, we are still one to two years away."
The concept has been widely reported on China's state-run television.
The vehicle, which has attracted attention on blogs in the United States, would use a combination of lasers and ultrasound to alert others to its presence, and let drivers know when the are getting too close.
Electric powered - partly by solar - the transporter would run on a set of batteries, recharging at each station. It would have priority at red lights, rolling over waiting traffic when given the green signal.
Each vehicle is expected to cost about $4 million. State media reports have said the total upfront costs are about one-tenth of a subway.
Some transportation experts in the United States view it with a wary eye.
"If this is true, it's a horrible way to fix transport problems," said Lee Schipper, Project Scientist at University of California Berkeley's Global Metropolitan Studies program. "You can't roll over cars, they don't drive in straight lines."
Others thought the project "interesting," but said what's important is that China is trying, whether or not it succeeds.
"It's good to deploy stuff, it's how you learn," said Mark Muro, policy director at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "Learning by doing is one way you establish advantages in industry. It's one of the things China is seizing from us."
CNN Producer Eve Bower contributed to this report 
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By Bloomberg News - Aug 16, 2010 7:40 AM ET
China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three- decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower.
A worker assembles a vehicle at the Kia Motors Corp.'s factory in China. Photographer: Kevin Lee/Bloomberg
Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion, the Japanese Cabinet Office said today. Japan remained bigger in the first half of 2010, the government agency said. Japan’s annual GDP is $5.07 trillion, while China’s is more than $4.9 trillion.
China led the world out of last year’s global recession with an economy that’s more than 90-times bigger than when leader Deng Xiaoping ditched hard-line Communist policies in favor of free-market reforms in 1978. The country of 1.3 billion people will overtake the U.S., where annual GDP is about $14 trillion, as the world’s largest economy by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist Jim O’Neill.
China’s surpassing of Japan “is a marker of its increasingly dominant role in the global economy,” said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund. “The resilience of China’s growth during the crisis enabled a number of other countries, particularly commodity-exporting economies, to ride on its coattails.”
The benchmark Shanghai stock index rose 2.1 percent at the 3 p.m. close today, climbing the most this month.
Tricky Comparison
China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automobile market and Germany as the largest exporter. The nation is the world’s No. 1 buyer of iron ore and copper and the second- biggest importer of crude oil, and has underpinned demand for exports by its Asian neighbors.
While China’s output was also larger in the fourth quarter of 2009, Japan’s GDP rebounded to exceed China’s in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. According to IMF data using purchasing-power-parity calculations to adjust for exchange-rate differences, China overtook Japan in 2001.
Quarterly comparisons between China and Japan are “a little tricky because they do not take account of different seasonal patterns between the two countries,” said David Cohen, head of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.
China’s economy is cooling as the government trims credit growth from last year’s record $1.4 trillion and discourages multiple-home purchases to cool surging property prices. July industrial output rose the least in 11 months, retail sales growth eased and new loans climbed less than estimated. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. said last month that its crude-oil processing increased at a slower pace in the second quarter as fuel demand faltered.
China is on course to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy around 2020. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Property Collapse
The country’s property market is beginning a “collapse” that will hit the nation’s banking system, Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief economist of the IMF, said July 6.
Still, China is on course to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy around 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a January report.
With China’s growth surging 10.3 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier and Japan expanding 2 percent, the “gap is going to widen” in future, said Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. “It is not likely that Japan will retake the No. 2 spot given the likely growth rates.”
Four of the world’s top 10 companies by market capitalization are from China, including PetroChina Co., Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Mobile Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp.
Agricultural Bank
Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. boosted the size of its initial public offering to $22.1 billion this month after selling more stock in Shanghai, making it the world’s largest first-time share sale. The IPO made the nation home to four of the world’s 10 biggest banks by market value, half a decade after the country’s first major state-owned lender went public.
China may be the biggest IPO market in 2010 as companies are likely to raise 500 billion yuan ($74 billion) in Shanghai and Shenzhen, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast last month.
Since introducing free-market policies, China has lifted 300 million citizens out of poverty, according to the United Nations. The country remains a developing nation, with its per capita gross national income ranked 127th in the world at $2,940 at the end of 2008, behind Angola and Azerbaijan, according to the World Bank.
China overtook the U.S. last year as the biggest automotive market and Germany as the largest exporter. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Cultural Revolution
In the first three decades of Communist Party rule before Deng took power, China’s economy was hobbled by the chaos of the Great Leap Forward, a failed attempt to transform the agrarian nation into an industrial powerhouse, and the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political upheaval led by Mao Zedong’s Red Guards.
“China has a large population, a weak economic foundation, relatively few resources and a large poverty population, which remains our basic situation,” Ma Jiantang, head of China’s statistics bureau, said in January. “Therefore, while we take note of our expanding size of economy and enhancing economic strength, we should also have a sober understanding that China remains a developing nation.”
China’s future influence on the global economy will increase, said Shen at Mizuho. The country’s “double-digit” expansion will contribute a third of global growth this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in March.
“Japan had a huge impact on the global commodities market and foreign direct investment flows in the 1980s” as China is doing now, Shen said. “The major difference is that China’s population is 10-times bigger than Japan’s, its economy is still growing at above 9 percent per year, and Chinese investors are just beginning to invest abroad. You can imagine that China’s impact will be so much bigger.”
--Kevin Hamlin, Li Yanping. With assistance from Marco Babic and Sunil Jagtiani in Singapore, Russell Ward and Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo and Zhang Shidong in Shanghai. Editors: Stephanie Phang, Cherian Thomas
To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Kevin Hamlin in Beijing on khamlin@bloomberg.net
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http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110344/what-the-double-dip-recession-will-look-like
By Douglas A. McIntyre
Monday, August 16, 2010
Provided by
"Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the economy has yet to hit bottom, a sharply higher percentage than the 53% who felt that way in January," according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.
A growing and vocal minority of economists believes that there will be a double-dip recession primarily because of the intransigence of high unemployment and the rapidly faltering housing market. The notion of a "jobless recovery" has been around since the recessions of the 1950s and 1960s. It is a concept built on a relatively simple idea: employment lags during a recession but it is always part of a recovery cycle. Production rises as businesses see the end of a downturn and anticipate improving sales. They are reluctant to hire new workers until the recovery is confirmed, but once it has been, hiring picks up.
The 2008-2009 recession was — if it is indeed over — different from any other because of its depth and causes. The first trigger was the drop in housing prices, which robbed many people of their primary access to capital. As that access disappeared, so did the availability of credit. Consumer buying power evaporated and business cut inventory and production. Joblessness rose. Finally, consumer confidence plunged.
The last downturn was so great that in some months more than 500,000 people lost jobs. The unemployment rolls are now more than 8 million, and perhaps more gravely, over 1.4 million people have been out of work for over 99 weeks — which means they are no longer eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits. This segment of the population has already begun to add to the number of indigent Americans and will continue to do so unless they can find homes with friends and family.
The second dip of the recession that ended in 2009, according to economists and the federal government, is likely to begin within the next two quarters if certain conditions are met.
Unemployment claims are running well above expectations, and recently hit a six-month high. The four-week average of initial claims rose 14,250 to 473,500 this week. The last peak, in February, was during a period when GDP was in the very early stages of recovery. There is nearly no jobs creation in the private sector. Real estate prices continue to drop, particularly in the hardest hit regions such as California, Nevada, Florida and Michigan.
The federal, state and local governments are in no position to lend assistance to businesses, most of which lack access to capital. Similarly, banks are not prepared to lend to small businesses, especially those with modest balance sheets and relatively low sales. This presents a problem for employment since companies with less than one hundred workers have traditionally been the largest creators of jobs.
This is what a double-dip recession would look like:
1. Housing
The cost of homes in the areas where prices have already dropped by 50% or more will continue to fall. These regions typically have the highest unemployment rates, the local governments are hard pressed to offer basic services, and potential buyers are aware that home prices could drop further. Real estate values in these areas could drop another 20%. In the rest of the country, protracted unemployment and the unwillingness of banks to lend would make otherwise attractive all-time low mortgage rates unappealing.
2. Unemployment
Unemployment would move back above 10% quickly. In the 1982 recession, the jobless rate was over 10% for 20 consecutive months and reached 10.8% for two months. During this period, the manufacturing base had not been destroyed. The economy is now arguably worse than it was in 1982. Many Americans who worked in manufacturing before the recession cannot be retrained, and the factories where they worked will not be reopened. Many companies have recently adopted the policy that they will keep as much of their work-force temporary for as long as possible. This keeps the cost of benefits low and allows firms to fire people quickly and without severance. A hiring strike by American businesses would contribute to putting 200,000 to 300,000 people out of work per month. At the peak of the recession that just ended, there were nearly six job seekers for every open job, according to the Labor Department. The job market could return to that point.
3. Consumer Spending
One of the primary reasons that consumer buying activity did not grind to a halt at the beginning of the last recession was that people still had access to a huge reservoir of home equity loans, most of which were taken out at the peak of the real estate market in 2005 and 2006. The New York Times recently reported that "lenders wrote off as uncollectible $11.1 billion in home equity loans and $19.9 billion in home equity lines of credit in 2009, more than they wrote off on primary mortgages, government data shows. So far this year, the trend is the same." Retail activity was helped somewhat by the capital available on these lines of credit, so store closings were probably deferred to the latter part of 2008. With more than 11 million mortgages underwater, 24% of the national total, and several million more within a few percentage points of being negative, the consumer will have no cushion as the economy deteriorates over the next six months.
4. Consumer Confidence
Consumer confidence, the critical gauge of the activity that represents two-thirds of U.S. GDP, will plummet again. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index would certainly move back toward the all-time low it hit in February 2009 when it reached 25. Currently, the measure in most months is closer to 60.
5. Auto Industry
Auto sales, one of the primary barometers of consumer economic activity and manufacturing output, would probably drop back to recession levels. People concerned about employment will defer car purchases. Annual car sales in the U.S. were over 16 million in 2005 but dropped to just above 10 million in 2009. The car companies hope that domestic sales will rise to 11.5 million this year. In a double-dip recession, at least 1 million of those annual sales would be lost.
6. Trade
The nominal balance of trade would almost certainly drop, probably to a deficit of $25 billion a month, as the U.S. takes in fewer imports due to low demand for consumer goods and business inventory. Exports would also drop because an economic crisis in the U.S. would spread quickly worldwide. This is because of the tremendous size of the U.S. GDP in relation to that of any other country. The drop in imports would be a signal that business activity had slowed in China, the rest of Asia and Europe. Demand for consumer and business goods would drop in most regions, forcing a nearly universal cut in jobs outside the U.S.
7. Budget
The budget deficit would grow beyond the $1.5 trillion it should reach this year. Treasury receipts fell to $2.1 trillion in the federal fiscal year 2009 and are down to $1.7 trillion so far in the 2010 period. If history is any guide, receipts in a second recession could drop by as much as $200 trillion a year as tax receipts from both business and individuals falter. The demand on the federal government to render aid to the unemployed could add $50 billion to annual government outlays. Unemployment insurance will cost Washington $44 billion this year. As states run out of money to cover benefits, more of the burden could fall to the federal government.
8. National Debt
The rise in the deficit and a rapid increase in the American national debt would cause concern among the capital markets investors who purchase U.S. Treasuries. The inability of the Treasury to rein in spending will cause borrowing to increase. This in turn could bring the government's debt rating down, in turn causing U.S. borrowing costs to rise. Increasing costs will then raise the annual expenditure to run the government by increasing debt service.
9. Stock Market
If the performance of the equity markets in 2008 and early 2009 is any indication, the S&P 500 would drop from its current level of about 1,100 to a low of 676, which it hit in March 2009. This would take trillions of dollars off business balance sheets and from consumer retirement and brokerage accounts. Businesses would become less likely to invest in new plants, equipment and services. For individuals, many would see a large part of their retirement disappear. That would cause a huge drop in consumer spending as people attempt to preserve cash, perpetuating further drops in the stock market.
10. Banking
The effect on most of the financial services industry would be catastrophic, particularly at the regional and community bank level where a number of home and commercial real estate loans are held. The FDIC would be forced to borrow money from the Treasury to cover bank closings. The number of failed banks could reach the level of the savings and loan crisis during which over 700 banks and mortgage lenders were shuttered.
11. Interest Rates
As the great majority of economists have pointed out, the Fed has already dropped interest rates to zero. This means the central bank is out of ammunition.
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PTI, Aug 23, 2010, 12.51pm IST
LONDON: Imagine searching the internet simply by thinking. Well, your imagination may soon turn into reality, say scientists who claim to be developing a computer which reads human minds.
A team at Intel Corporation is working on a new technology which will directly interpret words as they are thought.
A team at Intel Corporation is working on a new technology which will directly interpret words as they are thought, unlike current brain-controlled computers which require users to imagine making physical movements to control a cursor on a screen.
In fact, the scientists are creating detailed maps of the activity in the brain for individual words which can then be matched against the brain activity of someone using the computer, allowing the machine to determine the word they are thinking, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Preliminary tests of the system have shown that the computer can work out words by looking at similar brain patterns and looking for key differences that suggest what the word might be.
Dean Pomerleau, of Intel Laboratories, said, “The computer uses a form of 20 questions to narrow down what the word is." So a food related word like apple produces activity in those parts of the brain related to hunger. So the computer can infer attributes to each word being thought about and this lets the computer zero down on what the word is pretty quickly.
"We are currently mapping out the activity an average brain produces when thinking about different words. It means you’ll be able to write letters, open emails or do Google searches just by thinking,” Pomerleau said.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7955813/The-history-of-computers.html
Britons helped to pioneer early machines before the American behemoths took over.
By Claudine Beaumont,
Technology Editor
Published: 7:50 AM BST 21 Aug 2010
The Apple Lisa computer
The pace of technological innovation in the world of computing has been rapid – there is more processing power in the average modern day mobile phone than in the computer that helped the Apollo 11 astronauts to land on the moon.
US companies such as Apple and Microsoft dominate the modern computing landscape but historically, British mathematicians, scientists and engineers have been at the forefront of the computing revolution, helping to shape many of the rules and theories that underpin the concept of computing and problem-solving.
Charles Babbage is seen by many as the "father of computing", and his Difference Engine and related mathematical theories paved the way for the invention of mechanical computers.
His protégé, Ada Lovelace, was, in effect, the first computer "programmer", creating a method by which instructions could be woven on to punch cards, using a language that was compatible with Babbage's model.
From there, mathematicians made the leap to Bletchley Park's ranks of machines to crack the Nazi Enigma code. But the Altair 8800, launched in 1975 by Ed Roberts, is widely considered to be the first personal computer; modern machines with displays, mice, keyboards and desktop icons came shortly afterwards.
The Apple Lisa, which went on sale in 1983, featured a pioneering graphical user interface, and the Apple Macintosh, launched the following year, used a mouse, menus and icons to help people navigate around the machine.
Indeed, Microsoft liked the design and user interface so much that it used many of these ideas in its first Windows operating system, launched in 1985.
One of the biggest innovations has been the creation of the internet and the world wide web. The concept of an internet – a global system of interconnected computer networks – first came about in 1969, when the US Department of Defense created Arpanet, a military computer network that made it easier for people to communicate between machines.
But it wasn't until the invention of the world wide web in the Nineties – the system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via a web browser – that the modern internet was born. Tim Berners-Lee wrote his theory of the web in 1989 but decided not to patent the world wide web, allowing people to freely embrace the new technology as a way of creating and sharing documents across the internet.
The rest, as they say, is history. There are now an estimated 29 billion pages on the web and we use it for everything from finding cheaper car insurance to booking a last-minute holiday, shopping and staying in touch with friends.
Faster, cleverer computers, combined with web-based software and services, are helping to drive a new era of computing innovation, in which even those with little technical know-how can create websites, build apps and contribute to the internet.
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Showing 8 comments
1) yeah-right
08/22/2010 09:20 AM
Apple (which I use) and Microsoft PC's, don't really have a huge amount to do with computing, they are more akin to a telephone or a pillar box. They have far more to do with communications than computing. If one looks at a task manager or equivalent on either of these machines, one will notice that it is difficult to get the processor/s to be any more than 2-3% utilised.
IBM (whatever their history) still make proper computers and indeed, they still dominate the computing business. Take a look at Forbes where MS and Apple don't get into the top 100 companies and where IBM are in the top thirty, behind the oil companies.
You see it is not so much to do with the amount of processing power one has, it is far more to do with what one does with it, and computing is really suited to scientific or accounting (mathematical processes), they excel at performing trillions of calculations very quickly.
When I started working with computers, 3 hybrid IBM 360/370 machines which took up a quarter of an acre of space, but looked like computing dwarfs compared to the modern PC with only 3MB of memory between the three of them, would still outperform a modern PC in terms of output. Current systems are limited by the quality of their peripherals and the people that use them.
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2) Jackthesmilingblack
08/22/2010 01:20 AM
There's a much bigger story here. Check the contribution of Thomas H. Flowers of Post Office Research, London. The Bletchley boffins were only able to decode the German High Command messages sent by the coding machine "Lorenz" very slowly to be relevant. This new machine used 12 rotors rather than the three or four rotors of "Enigma". Flowers invented and built the first programmable computer (Colossus), which exponentially speeded up the message decoding process. The US computer “ENIAC” got the credit for being the world’s first programmable computer. The US getting the credit for a British invention: So what else is new?
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3) quickstick4
08/22/2010 12:13 AM
The article is written from the point of view of a consumer. Britain still is at the forefront frankly, just the firms everyone uses and the languages used to program were developed in the US - e.g:
Java was developed by a Canadian :)
C++ was developed by a man from Denmark living in the USA
Haskell was developed by Brit
PHP by a Dutch.
Also the WWW was developed - yes by a Brit - But in Belgium, and a Belgian helped develop it at the beginning!
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4) upik
08/22/2010 09:35 AM
.22/08/2010 09:34:56
Thank you for this info. I used to live in Belgium and would be interested to know where Tim B-L was when he originated the www. I had previously thought he got the idea while at CERN in Switzerland.
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5) steveleeoflondon
08/21/2010 09:25 PM
The US air force developed a computer system with a light pen to point at targets on a RADAR screen to designate them before Xerox came up with the "idea" of an interactive interface.
Of course another missing link with the British here was Lyons (yes the corner shop company) they designed and built the world's first general purpose business computers (Leo range), indeed they were the first company in the world to run their administration (payroll, stock etc) on a computer, being British (naive and trustworthy) they gave the plans to IBM to look at with the view of IBM building and selling Leo machines under license, IBM nicked the whole design and came out with competing (ultimately triumphant) system 360, IBM went on to become the biggest and richest company in the world for a generation.
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6) Daniel 'saxon' Mayhew
08/21/2010 06:50 PM
Xerox let apple looking at the GUI research in exchange for stock,
I would like to add that what country does the designer of the apple range come from.
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7) edwardllewellynbridge
08/21/2010 01:57 PM
Bit more research required, Claudine. Xerox invented the graphical user interface. Microsoft and Apple 'borrowed' it. And the history of computing isn't all about the PC.
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8) joons
08/21/2010 01:54 PM
Apple Lisa - come on - that's why Apple hit the skids following on its second failure in a row after the Apple III and almost went out of business. Not one mention of the IBM PC that brought affordable personal computing to the masses.
I see a fan boy here!
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Gerbrand Ceder is developing a “materials genome," using computers to predict the qualities of materials that could be used in batteries.
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: August 18, 2010
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Most research on renewable energy has focused on replacing the electricity that now comes from burning coal and natural gas. But the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the reliance on Middle East imports and the threat of global warming are reminders that oil is also a pressing worry. A lot of problems could be solved with a renewable replacement for oil-based gasoline and diesel in the fuel tank — either a new liquid fuel or a much better battery.
Yet, success in this field is so hard to reliably predict that research has been limited, and even venture capitalists tread lightly. Now the federal government is plunging in, in what the energy secretary, Steven Chu, calls the hunt for miracles.
The work is part of the mission of the new Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, which is intended to finance high-risk, high-reward projects. It can be compared to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the Pentagon, which spread seed money for projects and incubated a variety of useful technologies, including the Internet.
The goal of this agency, whose budget is $400 million for two years, is to realize profound results — such as tens of millions of motor vehicles that would run 300 miles a day on electricity from clean sources or on liquid fuels from trees and garbage.
One miracle would be a better battery. A pound of gasoline holds about 35 times more energy than a pound of lead-acid batteries and about six times more than lithium-ion batteries. Cars must carry their energy and expend energy to carry it, so the less weight per unit of energy, the better.
David Danielson, an Energy Department official, oversees a program to invest in start-up companies with new approaches to batteries, which is a new strategy; in the early 1990s, the department decided to concentrate all its efforts in lithium-ion research and gave up on other chemistries.
One new technology would allow every car, at modest extra cost, to shut down automatically at each stop sign or red light; when the driver tapped the accelerator, the battery would instantly get it going again. (Hybrids like the Prius do that, but at a substantial cost premium.)
A team at an infant company is using tiny carbon structures called nanotubes to store electricity. The goal is to create something the size of a flashlight battery, holding only about 30 percent as much energy, but able to charge or discharge in two seconds, almost forever.
The technology could form part of the battery pack for a car, cheaply delivering the energy for a jackrabbit start, without damaging conventional chemical batteries, which can store vastly more energy but can only accept or deliver it slowly.
It could also provide a cell phone battery that would charge in five minutes. That kind of battery is called a capacitor.
Joel E. Schindall, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a scientist on the project, pointed out that a capacitor was the original battery. Benjamin Franklin built a set of glass bottles that stored electricity and released it all at once; he called it a battery because, like guns, the bottles fired simultaneously.
But the nanotubes are modern. The walls of the tubes are about 12 atoms thick, and they grow, like leaves of grass, with just enough space between them to provide docking stations for charged particles. So a lot of charged particles can fit into a small space, with very light structures. He compares the device to a book shelf with very thin shelves placed exactly far enough apart to accommodate the books. Because the connection is physical, not chemical, the charged particles can attach and detach almost instantly. The result is a small, light, powerful package.
The project started out with a Ph.D candidate, Riccardo Signorelli, using tweezers to put tiny squares of aluminum into a vacuum chamber and then pumping in a hydrocarbon gas. When heated, the hydrogen burns away and the carbon atoms arrange themselves into tubes. The breakthrough was doing that on a surface that would conduct electricity.
Dr. Signorelli, now with his PhD, is chief executive of FastCap Systems, which, with government help, is converting an industrial loft into a factory.
In another M.I.T. lab, Gerbrand Ceder is developing a “materials genome,” using computers to predict the qualities of materials that could be used in batteries, and then fabricating the ones that the computer finds promising. A materials genome would speed the distribution of knowledge about materials and make development of new materials faster, he said, an idea that impresses officials at the Energy Department.
ARPA-E invested $3.2 million in a battery developed with a materials genome in a start-up company, run by Professor Ceder, that is exploring magnesium. In batteries today, whether they are lithium-ion or old-fashioned lead-acid, an atom shuttles between the positive and negative terminal, carrying a single electron, as the battery charges and discharges. But a magnesium atom would carry two electrons, so a battery storing a given amount of energy could be nearly halved in size and weight.
Another approach being financed by ARPA-E is to convert the tremendous amount of energy stored by plants and trees to a car fuel.
Scientists are tantalized by plants and trees because they store far more energy than is consumed by cars, trucks, trains and planes, and they do it by taking carbon out of the atmosphere. But they do not give that energy back in an easy-to-use form, at least not without taking millions of years to turn into oil. Instead, they make energy-bearing sugars in a form called cellulose, which forms the sinew or skeleton of the plant.
Cellulose is hard to break down. “Cotton is pure cellulose,” said Eric Toone, who is Mr. Danielson’s counterpart for biofuels at the Energy Department. “When you take your cotton shirt and put it in a washing machine, it still comes out as a cotton shirt.”
Engineers have tried using steam, acids and enzymes to break cellulose into useful sugars. The enzymes are usually made by gene-modified bacteria or fungi and resemble the saliva of termites, which is notoriously good at dissolving cellulose. So far, none are commercial, but with Energy Department help, some researchers are trying new methods.
Take Michael Raab, whose start-up, Agrivida, in Medford, Mass., is tinkering with the genes of grass and sorghum to develop plants that make the enzymes internally and digest their own cellulose on cue, leaving behind a murky brown concoction of sugars that can be converted into gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.
Deep inside their cells, his plants produce a smooth, nonreactive molecule, but when the plant is exposed to heat and a change in acidity, the molecule breaks open, like a beer bottle smashed against the bar. The jagged edges are enzymes. They rip apart cell walls and leave fragments that are useful sugars.
Sugars — both the common kind that comes in paper packets for coffee and some more exotic types — can be converted by yeast into ethanol, a technology known since ancient times. Or they can be fed to gene-altered bacteria that will excrete diesel or gasoline components. Or they can be converted chemically, with catalysts.
All these steps, including the tricky one of recovering sugar from cellulose, can be done already, but not cheaply enough to produce tens of billions of gallons a year.
The Energy Department is putting $4.6 million into Agrivida, and similar sums into other start-up firms, many of them intent on finding gasoline substitutes. It is, said one department official, “real science fiction stuff,” ideas promising enough to attract a few million dollars for research but not quite promising enough to draw the private capital required for small-scale production.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_bi_ge/as_pakistan_floods
(Flood in Pakistan)
By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer Ashraf Khan, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 17, 9:53 am ET
SUKKUR, Pakistan – The World Bank said Tuesday it will redirect $900 million of its existing loans to Pakistan to help in flood recovery, as the U.N. warned that many of the 20 million people affected by the disaster have yet to receive any emergency aid.
The floods began three weeks ago but the crisis could yet worsen, with authorities warning that the swollen Indus River may burst its banks again in coming days.
Pakistan's shaky government has been sorely tested by the disaster, which has affected about a fifth of the area of the vast country of 170 million people. It comes atop a pile of other challenges including a weak economy and a violent Islamist insurgency.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari acknowledged Tuesday that the government had responded poorly to the widespread flooding. Zardari's reputation sank to new lows after he chose to visit Europe as the crisis was unfolding.
"Yes, the situation could be better. Yes, the arrangements could have been made better. Yes, everything could have been better. Alas! If we could have those resources," he told local aid groups in a meeting. "We have to move forward despite whatever criticism we get."
Local charities and international agencies have rushed food, water, shelter and medical treatment to the worst-hit areas in the northwest and Punjab and Sindh provinces. But aid agencies and the British government have complained that the international response to the disaster has not been generous enough.
The U.N. appealed last week for $459 million for immediate relief efforts. It has received 40 percent — about $184 million — of that so far, said Maurizio Giuliano, a U.N. spokesman. An additional $43 million has been pledged.
"We would like our pledges to turn into checks as soon as possible because the situation is getting very bad," Giuliano told The Associated Press.
The World Bank said the funds it is offering are to help Pakistan recover from the floods and would be redirected from ongoing and planned projects in the country. With huge destruction of roads and bridges and crops wiped out in many areas, authorities expect reconstruction to take years and cost billions.
For now, many victims are living in makeshift camps alongside their livestock or in flooded towns and villages.
"The vast geographical extent of the floods and affected populations meant that many people have yet to be reached with the assistance they desperately need," the U.N. said in a statement. It also said the number of children and breast-feeding mothers affected and rising diarrhea cases "point toward a clear risk of malnutrition among the affected population."
Flood area in Pakistan-Map
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10948275)
The floods have killed about 1,500 people and inundated 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares) of wheat, sugar cane and rice crops, raising the prospect of food shortages in the coming months in the already-poor nation. Prices of food have risen sharply since the floods began.
Authorities in Sindh province said more floods were likely over the next 24 to 48 hours. "The next two days are crucial for the safety of people," said Sindh's irrigation minister, Jam Saifullah Dharejo.
Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, said Tuesday that America had committed at least $87 million in aid and expected to give more in the coming days. More U.S. helicopters are expected to join the 19 already dispatched to help ferry stranded Pakistanis and deliver food and other items, U.S. officials said.
Patterson said it was too soon to fully understand the scale of the disaster, including its impact on the Taliban and al-Qaida-led insurgency on Pakistani soil. But she downplayed concerns that Islamist extremists are winning flood victims' support through their own relief activities.
"To be blunt, I think these stories about extremist organizations being the only players out there are greatly exaggerated," Patterson told a news conference in Islamabad.
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Associated Press Writer Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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Pakistan flood recovery could take years
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/08/23/pakistan.recovery/?hpt=T2#fbid=p49FPDUYvu6&wom=false
By Laurie Ure, CNN State Department Producer
August 23, 2010 -- Updated 2205 GMT (0605 HKT)
Washington (CNN) -- The State Department says long-term recovery and reconstruction efforts in flood-ravaged Pakistan could take "many, many months, if not years."
Pakistani children go to the top of a house surrounded by floodwater in Sindh province on Monday
"The sheer impact still needs to be assessed, but will certainly be staggering," said Dan Feldman, deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, at a press briefing on Monday.
Feldman, who surveyed the destruction by helicopter last week with a congressional delegation led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, described the damage as "epic and devastating."
"Agricultural fields, under water," said Feldman. "Roads and bridges, under water; roads continuously disrupted by water, so impossible to move people or food or supplies out; power plants literally under water."
Feldman said that in addition to the obvious need for immediate relief for what the United Nations describes as millions of displaced flood victims, the U.N. and other international donors will also need to focus on long-term recovery and reconstruction.
"We're looking at ways that we can redirect already existing funds through Kerry-Lugar-Berman and others to meet the needs of flood victims as soon as possible," Feldman said, "so programs for livelihood, for clinics, rebuilding schools, infrastructure that we had already planned, which can be redirected to get to flood victims as quickly as possible."
Feldman was referring to the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 sponsored by Kerry, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and Rep. Howard Berman, D-California. The law commits $7.5 billion in assistance to Pakistan over five years and is earmarked for "improving the living conditions of the people of Pakistan through strengthening democracy and the rule of law, sustainable economic development and combating terrorism and extremism," according to the law's sponsors.
Feldman described "a real galvanizing moment" last week, when greater amounts of contributions from the international community began to pour in.
"We've seen over $700 million pledged, including our own $150 million commitment, from over 30 countries, and an additional $300 million in as yet undefined commitments from a range of other countries," he said.
Feldman said U.S. helicopters have evacuated close to 8,000 people and delivered more than 1.6 million pounds of relief supplies.
Deaths are still relatively low at this point, "at about the 1,500, 1,600 mark," said Feldman, but officials are concerned about communicable illnesses breaking out among the millions of displaced victims. The World Health Organization announced Sunday more than 200,000 cases of acute diarrhea have been diagnosed, and there are more than 250,000 cases of disease including scabies.
Water levels remain quite high, Feldman said, though some are starting to recede. Broken dikes have aggravated flooding in some areas, he said.
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livescience.com – Fri Aug 6, 5:25 pm ET
Our personalities stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, from our early childhood years to after we're over the hill, according to a new study.
The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.
"We remain recognizably the same person," said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. "This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts."
The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Tracking personalities
Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 - 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.
They examined four personality attributes - talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one's importance).
Among the findings:
Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.
Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.
Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.
Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.
Changing personality
Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it's not an easy undertaking.
Personality is "a part of us, a part of our biology," Nave said. "Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well."
Future research will "help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality," Nave said.
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ANI, Aug 10, 2010, 12.00am IST
Six dental myths demystified (Getty Images)
Irrespective of brushing, flossing, and twice-yearly dental check-ups if you still face dental problems, then there are things you need to know.
Scientists have demystified the common dental myths and outline how diet and nutrition affects oral health in children, teenagers, expectant mothers, adults and elders.
Following are the myths generally associated with dental care, which we tend to overlook:
1. The consequences of poor oral health are restricted to the mouth
Expectant mothers may not know that what they eat affects the tooth development of the fetus. Poor nutrition during pregnancy may make the unborn child more likely to have tooth decay later in life.
"Between the ages of 14 weeks to four months, deficiencies in calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein and calories could result in oral defects," said Carole Palmer, of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM).
Some data also suggest that lack of adequate vitamin B6 or B12 could be a risk factor for cleft lip and cleft palate formation.
"If a child’s mouth hurts due to tooth decay, he/she is less likely to be able to concentrate at school and is more likely to be eating foods that are easier to chew but that are less nutritious," said Palmer.
2. More sugar means more tooth decay
It isn’t the amount of sugar you eat; it is the amount of time that the sugar has contact with the teeth.
"Foods such as slowly-dissolving candies and soda are in the mouth for longer periods of time. This increases the amount of time teeth are exposed to the acids formed by oral bacteria from the sugars," said Palmer.
3. Losing baby teeth to tooth decay is okay
Palmer has noted that tooth decay in baby teeth can result in damage to the developing crowns of the permanent teeth developing below them. If baby teeth are lost prematurely, the permanent teeth may erupt mal-positioned and require orthodontics later on.
4. Osteoporosis only affects the spine and hips
Osteoporosis may also lead to tooth loss. Teeth are held in the jaw by the face bone, which can also be affected by osteoporosis. "So, the jaw can also suffer the consequences of a diet lacking essential nutrients such as calcium and vitamins D and K," said Palmer.
5. Dentures improve a person’s diet
If dentures don’t fit well, older adults are apt to eat foods that are easy to chew and low in nutritional quality, such as cakes or pastries. "First, denture wearers should make sure that dentures are fitted properly. In the meantime, if they are having difficulty chewing or have mouth discomfort, they can still eat nutritious foods by having cooked vegetables instead of raw, canned fruits instead of raw, and ground beef instead of steak. Also, they should drink plenty of fluids or chew sugar-free gum to prevent dry mouth," said Palmer.
6. Dental decay is only a young person’s problem
In adults and elders, receding gums can result in root decay (decay along the roots of teeth). Commonly used drugs such as antidepressants, diuretics, antihistamines and sedatives increase the risk of tooth decay by reducing saliva production.
The findings were published in Nutrition Today.
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ANI, Aug 17, 2010, 12.00am IST
Exercises for arthritis
Here are four types of exercises that can reduce pain, say experts.
Experts claim that people with arthritis who exercise have less pain, more energy, improved sleep, and better day-to-day function. Still, they tend to avoid exercising. “People with arthritis avoid exercise for a number of reasons,” explained Donna Everix of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals.
“Some avoid it due to fear of pain or injury, and others avoid if for the same reason many people without arthritis do - not wanting to make a lifestyle change.”
Inactivity, in addition to arthritis related problems, can result in a variety of health risks, including Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In addition, decreased pain tolerance, weak muscles, stiff joints and poor balance common to many forms of arthritis can be made worse by inactivity.
Following are the four types of exercises that can have a positive effect on reducing pain related to arthritis and other rheumatic diseases:
Flexibility
Flexibility exercises help to maintain or improve the flexibility in affected joints and surrounding muscles. Benefits include better posture, reduced risk of injuries and improved function. When focusing on flexibility exercises, range of motion exercises should be performed five to 10 times on a daily basis while stretching exercises can be performed at least three days a week with each stretch being held for 30 seconds.
Strengthening
Strengthening exercises are designed to work muscles. Strong muscles improve function and help to reduce bone loss related to inactivity. For people with arthritis, one set of eight to 10 exercises for the major muscle groups of the body two to three times a week is recommended. However, older individuals may find that 10-15 repetitions with less resistance are more effective. The resistance or weight should challenge the muscles without increasing joint pain.
Aerobic
Aerobic exercises include activities that use the large muscles of the body in a repetitive and rhythmic manner. Aerobic exercise improves heart, lung and muscle function. For people with arthritis, this type of exercise has benefits for weight control, mood, sleep and general health. Safe forms of aerobic exercise include walking, aerobic dance, aquatic exercise, bicycling or exercising on equipment such as stationary bikes, treadmills or elliptical trainers. Current recommendations for aerobic activity are 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week, preferably spread out over several days.
Body awareness
Body awareness exercises include activities to improve posture, balance, joint position sense, coordination and relaxation. Tai chi and yoga are examples of recreational exercises that incorporate elements of body awareness and can be a very useful part of an arthritis exercise plan.
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Arthritis strikes young!
TNN, Aug 1, 2010, 12.00am IST
Here’s a guide to keep your bones healthy
Arthritis (joint swelling) can be of many types. The most common type is osteoarthritis which is seen in most cases. While some cases fall into the category of inflammatory arthritis, eg, rheumatoid arthritis, gout etc. Osteoarthritis is primarily due to wear and tear of the cartilage. Inflammatory arthritis is due to the production of certain substances in the joint that directly damage the cartilage. The basic problem with all forms of arthritis is the resultant cartilage destruction. A cartilage is the cushion of the joint and in its absence the joint becomes rough, painful and deformed. Irrespective of the cause or type of arthritis, the final result in all these is end-stage arthritis in which the cartilage is completely lost and surgeries are the only remedy.
Studies have shown that osteoarthritis is now starting at an earlier age and younger people are presenting with end-stage disease. Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age.
Causes
It is felt that genetic and environmental factors cause this illness. Changing urban lifestyles, sedentary living, obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and increasing pollution are some of the reasons.
Prevention
Due to the genetic element, it is not possible to totally prevent arthritis but you can delay the onset and reduce its intensity. A healthy, well-balanced diet, regular stretching and strengthening exercise, weight control and avoiding smoking are some measures to delay the onset of osteoarthritis. As regards rheumatoid arthritis, it is very important that we treat it aggressively with medicines early on. With early diagnosis and long-term medical management of rheumatoid, surgeries can be avoided.
Treatment
In the early stages, the symptoms and progression of arthritis can be controlled with medication, physiotherapy, low-impact exercise, stretching, diet control, weight reduction, and activity modification. In end-stage arthritis, the treatment is the same irrespective of the cause. The affected joint has to be reconstructed with joint replacement and resurfacing surgery.
(Inputs by Dr Kaushal Malhan, knee and hip surgeon, Fortis Hospitals)
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Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP