A Solar plane which is soon set to fly round the globe

Bertrand Picard, a Swiss adventurer is all set to unveil a prototype of a solar-powered plane he hopes eventually to fly around the world.

According to a report by BBC News, the initial version of the solar plane, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly at night.

Picard, who made history by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon in 1999, said he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies.

Picard's Solar Impulse team has invested tremendous energy in trying to find what they believe is a breakthrough design.

"I love this type of vision where you set the goal and then you try to find a way to reach it, because this is challenging," he told BBC News.

Called the HB-SIA, the solar plane has the look of a glider, but is on the scale - in terms of its width - of a modern airliner.

The aeroplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors and propellers to get it through the dark hours.

Picard will begin testing with short runway flights in which the plane lifts just a few metres into the air.

As confidence in the machine develops, the team will move to a day-night circle. This has never been done before in a piloted solar-powered plane.

HB-SIA should be succeeded by HB-SIB. It is likely to be bigger, and will incorporate a pressurized capsule and better avionics.

It is probable that Picard will follow a route around the world in this aeroplane close to the path he took in the record-breaking Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon - going from the United Arab Emirates, to China, to Hawaii, across the southern US, southern Europe, and back to the UAE.

Although the vehicle is expected to be capable of flying non-stop around the globe, Picard will in fact make five long hops, sharing flying duties with project partner Andre Borschberg.

"The real success for Solar Impulse would be to have enough millions of people following the project, being enthusiastic about it, and saying, 'if they managed to do it around the world with renewable energies and energy savings, then we should be able to do it in our daily life'," said Picard.

A nose which can sniff out a wine's origin

Researchers in France have found a way to identify wine so accurately they can pinpoint where the drink was made and in which barrel it was fermented.

It uses an electronic nose to make even the most well established sommelier a little nervous.

The unique way exploits the complex mix of thousands of compounds found in each bottle of wine that gives the drink subtly different scents and flavours.

Researchers analyzed the compounds in vaporised samples of wine to produce detailed chemical signatures that can be matched against a database of characteristics to identify a wine's source. They did so by using a kind of electronic nose, known as a mass spectrometer, reports The Telegraph.

It means they can tell exactly which variety of grape a wine is made from, the region and vineyard where it was produced and the source of the wood used in the barrel.

Regis Gougeon, from the University of Bourgogne, in Dijon, France, who led the research, said: "In winemaking, several processes can subtly modulate the characteristics of wine.

"Wine experts use their eyes, mouth and nose as detectors and are able to distinguish wines according to their ages, grape varieties, terroirs.

"All we know is that so far, none of the sensory analyses of the wines we looked at could discriminate like we did.

"Our approach reveals the extremely high yet unknown chemical diversity of wine. It was exciting to be able to observe such a diversity at once, where many compounds, even in low concentration, may contribute to the body of the wine."

Charge your phone on the go in the Delhi Metro.

The next time you realise your mobile phone has run out of battery charge and you are commuting by the Delhi Metro, don't fret - just connect your phone to the charging points that will soon be available at stations for free.

For the convenience of its commuters, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will install 134 multiple mobile charging machines at stations by July this year in a phased manner.

'Metro commuters can charge their mobile phones at metro stations as soon as charging points at stations are ready,' DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said Sunday.

All major metro stations are already equipped with facilities such as bill-drop boxes, ATMs, tea and coffee vending machines, coin vending machines, eating joints, book shops and gift shops. The rent-a-cycle facility is also available at Patel Chowk, Pragati Maidan and Indraprastha metro stations.

Delhi-based Somya Enterprises is installing these machines, which will have multiple sockets to enable commuters to charge mobile phones of different brands and makes for free.

'The mobile phone charging machine will have six sockets or chargers and will be mounted on the walls in the paid area of the station,' Dayal informed.

In addition, charging points will also be available for laptops and mobile phones on board the 131 new trains which are being inducted for Phase 2 of Delhi Metro.

Portugal Star Deco To leave Chelsea

Chelsea midfielder Deco has confirmed that he wants to leave 'the Blues', following his differences with decisions taken by club owner Roman Abramovich.

"Chelsea is kind of his (Roman Abramovich) toy. Sometimes Abramovich makes decisions that go over the head of the director of football," The Sun quoted Deco, as saying.

The Portuguese star also criticised Chelsea for chucking Luiz Felipe Scolari.

"The exit of Big Phil was rash. Chelsea is a special club. . If Big Phil was perhaps at Manchester United or Liverpool, they respect the coach and give him time to work. But Chelsea is different," said Deco.

"Honestly, I did not like the experience at Chelsea. I'm looking for another club where I can feel good," he added.

King of Pop - Michael Jackson is no more.

MIchael Jackson the King of Pop, the Artiste of 'Thriller','Billie Jeans', The Superb Moonwalker is now no more. He died of a Cardiac Arrest in his house in Los Angeles.

One of the most influential artite of all times. Never can anyone match upto his standard of singing with such Fiery Passion, Such Buttering Dance moves and such an energetic and gripping voice.

'Jai Ho, MJ!' said Oscar winner A.R. Rahman, for whom pop legend Mhichael Jackson symbolised limitless energy, perfection and vision, while the death of his 'role model' has left dancing star Prabhu Deva numb.
'MJ, for most of our generation, was an icon who made uncompromising music. He pushed the milestone of pop music to unbelievable levels through the 80s and 90s. I am yet to find an artist with that energy, perfection and vision,' said Rahman, who had recently met the pop superstar following the Oscar awards.
'I met him personally after the Oscars in Los Angeles and we vibed very well. He said that he loved India and the Indian people. He said he heard good things about me and he was praising the chord progression of 'Jai Ho's' chorus.
'He was bursting with energy and told me that every dance move he did came from his soul and did a five second stunning example. It was like a lightning strike,' the composer recalled.
'He was concerned about developmental issues such as global warming and about wars and its damages to the human community. He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the likes of 'We are the World' for him. I nodded in awe ...!' Rahman added.
'I remember my late sound engineer Sridhar had brought me a video of the premiere of 'Remember the Time' when I was recording 'Kadal Rojave' for my first movie Roja. Seeing it inspired all of us that afternoon,' he said.

In a philosophical note, Rahman concluded his condolence statement: 'Life is short..! Artists and their art live for ever. Jai Ho, MJ ! We love you for your music, regardless of all the controversies!'
For Prabhu Deva, who is often called the 'Michael Jackson of India', the death of his 'role model' is more than a personal loss.
'He was my biggest inspiration and actually I idolised him. I am still in a daze and it will take time for me to come to terms with reality', said the choreographer-actor, who was struggling to get the right words.
Said Vidyasagar, another leading Tamil music director: 'MJ had been a youth icon for over three decades. He deserves a special place in history. His demise has robbed us of a great musician and a noble human being.'
The 50-year-old singing sensation died Thursday following a cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles, leaving millions of his fans around the world stunned.

Even during his life he made records crash with millions of cbpies being sold worldwide.

Now even in his death he has made website after website crash.

Twitter which reported this news crashed almost the news spread due to so many people posting messages.

GOOGLE suffered technical problems due to over traffic regarding the news of Death of Michael Jackson.

A flashmob of hundreds of dancing and singing Michael Jackson fans, some donning his trademark single glove, descended on a London train station on Friday to celebrate the life of their late hero.
The crowd at Liverpool Street station, alerted by social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, waved Michael Jackson posters in the air as the party started with "Billie Jean", followed by "Thriller" and "Bad".
After the final song was played, the crowd started chanting "we want more", leading to a "Bad" being played again as dozens of fans showed off their versions of Jackson's famous moonwalk.
Organiser Milo Yiannopoulls, who had contacted the crowd in a matter of minutes, paid tribute to the star, saying: "Obviously everybody's interested in the scandal and controversy, but really I think his legacy is the music, as we're here to enjoy the music."
One of the crowd, Anne Lovett from Normandy in France, said: "A genius of pop music and music in general died and I'm pretty upset about it.
"I'm a classical musician and a trained classical pianist and he really touched my heart as a performer."
For People who wished to see another live moonwalk of the King of Pop, they were blown apart to smithereens.

Pay tribute to the Legend @

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_en412;_ylt=AtfwyfIg4KIv.8jnmQAw0w.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJvOHFsaDZjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNjI2L3VzX29iaXRfbWljaGFlbF9qYWNrc29uBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNwYXl0cmlidXRldG8-

New Eco phone from Samsung

Leading white goods and mobile handset manufacturer Samsung Wednesday launched a low-cost solar-powered mobile phone, and said it was planning to introduce about 20 more models by year-end.

The new handset, launched under its low-cost line of products - 'Guru' - at a price of Rs.2,799, has a solar panel on the back, which can be used to charge the battery anywhere the sun is shining.

'We have developed this phone keeping in minds the needs of the consumers, especially for people in areas where the electric supply is unstable,' said J.S. Shin, president and chief executive of Samsung, Southwest Asia.

The phone, christened the 'Guru E1107', can provide around 5-10 minutes of talk-time with one-hour of solar charging when the handset is turned off and sunlight has adequate intensity.

'Solar charging can give you enough time to make few important calls when there is no electricity or you are not close to a plug point,' said Sunil Dutt, country head of Samsung India.

The battery will attain full power with about 40 hours of solar charging.

'But that is really not the intention behind the launch of this phone. It is to enable customers to make a call when there is no electricity,' said Dutt.

The handset, the 11th model in the Guru series, will be in shops by month-end.

The first few batches of Guru E1107 will be imported from South Korea.

Saumsung has already launched about 20 models this year and plans to take this number to about 40 across categories.

Asked whether the company would consider introducing solar charging features in high-end phones, Dutt said: 'We would definitely consider doing so.'

Samsung, which has invested about $44 million in developing its mobile manufacturing facility in Noida, also has ambitious plans for the huge Indian mobile market.

'Our market share is in the early double digits currently. We plan to increase it by about 5-6 percent this year,' said a company official.

The company is also planning to introduce in India its solar-powered touchscreen mobile handset, Blue Earth - unveiled at a technology conference in Barcelona, Spain early this year.

New Breakthrough that can bind Nano Particles to larger scale structures.

Researchers at New York University (NYU) have created a method to precisely bind nano- and micrometer-sized particles together into larger-scale structures with useful materials properties.

Their work overcomes the problem of uncontrollable sticking, which had been a barrier to the successful creation of stable microscopic and macroscopic structures with a sophisticated architecture.

The long-term goal of the NYU researchers is to create non-biological materials that have the ability to self-replicate.

In the process of self-replication, the number of objects doubles every cycle.

This exponential growth stands in sharp contrast to conventional materials production, where doubling the amount of product requires twice the production time.

At present, this linear scaling poses a major stumbling block for the fabrication of useful quantities of microscopic objects with a sophisticated architecture, which are needed for the next stages of micro- and nanotechnology.

The NYU team, comprised of researchers in the Physics Department's Center for Soft Matter Research and in the university's Department of Chemistry, sought to find a method to better control the interactions and organization of the particles.

To do so, the researchers took advantage of the ability of certain DNA sequences to fold into a hairpin-like structure or to bind to neighboring sticky ends on the same particle.

They found that if they lowered the temperature very rapidly, these sticky ends fold up on the particle-before they can bind to sticky ends on other particles.

The particles stuck only when they were held together for several minutes-a sufficient period for the sticky ends to find a binding partner on another particle.

"We can finely tune and even switch off the attractions between particles, rendering them inert unless they are heated or held together-like a nano-contact glue," said Mirjam Leunissen, a post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Soft Matter Research and the study's lead author.

To maneuver the particles, the team used optical traps, or tweezers.

This tool, created by David Grier, chair of NYU's Department of Physics and one of the study paper's authors, uses laser beams to move objects as small as a few nanometers, or one-billionth of a meter.

The work has a range of possible applications.

Because the size of micrometer-scale particles is comparable to the wavelength of visible light, ordered arrays of these particles can be used for optical devices.

These include sensors and photonic crystals that can switch light analogous to the way semi-conductors switch electrical currents.

Moreover, the same organizational principles apply to smaller nanoparticles, which possess a wide range of electrical, optical, and magnetic properties that are useful for applications.

Climate Change can impact Species Geographic range.

A new study by a team of researchers has provided insights into how climate change might impact geographic ranges of species.

The study, by researchers led by Jessica Hellmann, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, offers interesting insights into how species may, or may not, change their geographic range - the place where they live on earth - under climate change.

Researchers have hypothesized that populations near the northern boundaries of geographic ranges in the Northern Hemisphere would be pre-adapted to warming and thus will increase with warming, facilitating range expansions.

However, the assumptions underlying this theory have not been previously tested.

If these northern populations do not increase under warming, species may not track changing climatic conditions and instead decline under climate change.

Hellmann and her team describe how they tested the assumption that populations at the northern edge of a species' range will increase with warming and thereby enhance the colonization process by using two butterflies: the Propertius duskywing and the Anise swallowtail.

Hellmann pointed out that by comparing and contrasting two distinct butterfly species in the same geographic area, researchers can obtain general principles to help predict if species will change their geographic ranges under climate change.

Hellmann and her colleagues found that populations at the northern range edge in both butterfly species experienced problems when exposed to warmer conditions - the conditions that they will experience under climate change.

The duskywing performed well in the summer months, initially suggesting that populations could increase with warming conditions.

However, it performed poorly under warmer winter conditions, which would likely offset the summer population gains.

Additionally, range expansion of the species is inhibited by the lack of host plants.

Northern populations of the swallowtail did not benefit from any of the warming treatments.

The species fared badly during heat waves occurring during the summer months when tested under field conditions and fared no better under conditions of steady, moderate warming in the laboratory.

Temperatures at the northern edge of the geographic range also impacted the host plant the species relies on, implying that interactions among species could change under climate change.

The results shed doubt on the assumption that populations near the upward range boundary are pre-adapted to warming and will increase with upward range expansions.

Robot from Japan which displays seven Human Emotions!!!!

Researchers at Waseda University in Japan have unveiled Kobian, a "humanoid" robot, which can express seven human emotions.

The ground-breaking robot can express feelings, including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike.

Kobian also uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions, according to pinktentacle, reports The Telegraph.

The robot, which features a double jointed neck that helps it achieve more expressive postures, can also walk around, perceive its environment and perform physical tasks.

It was developed and unveiled by researchers at Waseda's Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering in Tokyo on Tuesday June 23.

They were led by Professor Atsuo Takanashi, and worked with robot manufacturer Tmsuk, based in Kitakyushu, southern Japan.

Maria Sharapova Crashses out of Wimbledon.

Maria Sharapova's charmed life over three sets was ended as Argentine underdog Gisela Dulko held off a fightback to eliminate the 2004 champion 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 for a place in the third round at the Wimbledon Championships Wednesday.

The Argentine, ranked world No.45, needed five match points in the final game before a Sharapova forehand went long to end the contest after two hour, 13 minutes.

Sharapova had come back for victories over three sets four times at the French Open, but Dulko made sure the past was not repeated on grass.

The win was her first from three attempts against Sharapova, who only resumed playing a month ago after eight months out with a shoulder injury and surgery.

Sharapova, her ranking down to 60th as she slowly regains top form, began to lift, her screech increasing with the fervour of her fight, while trailing a set and 0-3. She won the second set and gave Dulko a huge scare in the third before the Argentine squeezed home a winner.

Russian tenth seed Nadia Petrova advanced over Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-2 while number 14 Slovak Dominika Cibulkova booked her place against Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-4.

Daniela Hantuchova upset China's 16th seed Zheng Jie 6-3, 7-5.

In men's play on the second straight day of sunshine and warm summer temperatures, fourth seed Novak Djokovic dispatched German qualifier Simon Greul 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.

Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga didn't have to strike as ball as Italian Simone Bolelli withdrew injured before their match to give the Frenchman a walkover.

Elsewhere in the second round as five-time champion Roger Federer took the court, Mardy Fish beat Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 and Israeli Dudi Sela knocked out 2008 semi-finalist Rainer Schuettler 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-2.

Other than this,

Sania Mirza lost to Sorana Cirstea of Romania 4-6, 4-6 in the second round to bow out of the singles competition of the Wimbledon tennis championships here Wednesday.

Indian Football Team Delayed Because of not getting Visas.

Indian football team's preparatory tour to Dubai and Spain is likely to be delayed by a day as some of the players are yet to get Spanish visa.

The team scheduled to leave for Dubai Thursday, may not board the plane if the players from Maharasthra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are unable to get the visa by evening.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary-general Alberto Colaco told IANS that the national federation was trying to sort out the visa problem.

'The Spanish embassy in Delhi insisted that the players from the four states must get their passports stamped at its Mumbai consulate. We are trying to get it as soon as possible,' he said.

According to rules, residents of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karanataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Daman and Diu have to apply to the Consulate General of Spain in Mumbai while other states can apply to the Spanish embassy in Delhi.

Unaware of the stipulation, the AIFF applied for visa for all players here Monday but the passports have now been sent to Mumbai and they are expected back by Thursday or Friday.

The team will practice in Dubai till July 7 and the will travel to Barcelona for a month-long camp at the Nou Camp till Aug 7. They also play against some local teams during their stay in Barcelona.

A new breakthrough for detecting Aliens.

A new technique for detecting signs of life on distant planets by analyzing reflected light could soon lead astronomers to extra-terrestrial life.
According to a report in the Telegraph, when scientists tested the method on Earth, they found unmistakably strong signs of life in the form of chemical "fingerprints".
They believe within one or two decades the same technique could reveal life on worlds orbiting stars far beyond the Sun.
Reflected light was already known to contain valuable information about a planet's atmosphere.
But, at distances of many light years the signals, from light wavelength patterns called spectra, are very faint and difficult to read.
The new technique takes a different approach by studying light passing through the atmospheric layer instead of reflected off it.
This kind of light pattern, known as a "transmission spectrum", was found to provide a much stronger signal.
Analyzing the light can reveal biologically important chemicals such as oxygen and water, which indicate the presence of life.
The test was carried out during a lunar eclipse by observing moonlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
This was equivalent to observing the Earth's spectrum from far away as the planet passed in front of the Sun.
The astronomers used the UK-run William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma in the Canary Islands.
"Now we know what the transmission spectrum of a inhabited planet looks like, we have a much better idea of how to find and recognise Earth-like planets outside our solar system where life may be thriving," according to Dr Enric Palle, from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canaries, who led the research.
"The information in this spectrum shows us that this is a very effective way to gather information about the biological processes that may be taking place on a planet," he said.
"Many discoveries of Earth-size planets are expected in the next decades and some will orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars. Obtaining their atmospheric properties will be highly challenging; the greatest reward will happen when one of those planets shows a spectrum like that of our Earth," said Dr Pilar Montanes-Rodriguez, from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canaries.
According to Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which funds the William Herschel Telescope, "This new transmission spectrum is good news for future upcoming ground and space-based missions dedicated to the search for life in the universe."

A Planet found outside the Milky way.

A team of astronomers has claimed to have seen hints of the first planet to be spotted outside the Milky Way galaxy, in the Andromeda galaxy.
According to a report by BBC News, the team, which has made the finding, is made up of researchers from the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy and collaborators in Switzerland, Spain, and Russia.
They exploited a type of gravitational lensing called microlensing to make the discovery.
The effect of large, massive objects between an observer and a distant planet or star can cause distortion or multiple images as the intermediary object's gravity bends the passing light.
Microlensing, by contrast, occurs when a less massive object lies in the middle. The technology is in place to truly see planets of Jupiter's mass and even less in other galaxies
Francesco De Paolis of the INFN and his colleagues developed a computer model to determine the likelihood of detecting an exoplanet via a microlensing event in the Andromeda galaxy.
They modelled the "light curve", the variation in light that a microlensed star would exhibit if it were being orbited by a companion - another star or a planet.
Having determined the clues that a planet in Andromeda would show, they returned to a survey completed in 2004 by the Point-Agape collaboration of astronomers that showed an unusual light curve.
That event, the group says, matches up to its theory and can be attributed to a companion of a mass about six times that of Jupiter.
That suggests either a planet, or a small companion star such as a brown dwarf.
Unfortunately, given that microlensing events from a given pair of objects happens just once, astronomers cannot return to the planet candidate to confirm the idea.
But, Dr De Paolis is encouraged by the possibility of detecting planets at such phenomenal distances.
"The interesting thing is that the technology is in place to truly see planets of Jupiter's mass and even less in other galaxies. It's an exceptional thing," he told BBC News.
Armed with the new theory, the authors of the work are looking to secure time on a larger telescope to continue with their observations in the hope of finding more candidates.
With about 350 extra-solar planets already found in our galactic neighbourhood, Dr De Paolis said, it was likely that such candidates were abundant.

Huns are Heroes not Villains

Recent archaeological and historical discoveries have challenged the widely held view that the Huns were savage barbarians, and has put forward them as heroes.
The Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe in AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe.
They are widely thought of as vicious brutes who appeared briefly in history, wreaked death and destruction, then disappeared again.
According to a report in Digital Journal, recent archaeological and historical discoveries are raising questions about this view.
Of the European countries, Hungary has the most legends about the Huns and in these legends; they are the heroes, not the villains.
Hungarian academic and researcher, Dr. Borbala Obrusanszky, has followed their trail all the way to China and Mongolia, where she did postgraduate work.
Responding to a question about the Hun's reported barbarism and savagery, Obrusanszky said, "Only the Western Roman chroniclers thought that. The other sources, for example the Chinese, always painted a realistic picture of the Huns."
"They were not wild or barbarians, but only had different customs, which the town-dwellers did not know. But, those who spent a long time among the Huns soon sang their praises, because they considered them a very hospitable people," she added.
What is more, certain researchers consider it possible that they stayed in contact with each other, or knew about each other.
Obrusanszky said that the most surprising thing about these so-called "barbarians" was that they built cities.
"The Huns also had settlements where they only stayed temporarily, but they had permanent trade centres and manufacturing towns, since they needed places where they could construct items both for weapons and military use as well as for their everyday lives," she added.
Obrusanszky turned next to the subject of Attila, King of the Huns.
Attila is the greatest figure in European history, many still tremble at his name. He created a great federal state from the foothills of the Caucasus to the Rhine.
He was victorious in practically all his campaigns. He went wherever he wanted to, because his military knowledge and his army stood above that of the Romans.
Despite this, at the Pope's request, he spared Rome. By contrast, the Vandals sacked it.
Obrusanszky explained that these recent discoveries and ongoing studies in China, Mongolia and Hungary, as well as other countries, are likely to change perceptions of the Huns and their historical achievements.

New hope for Mutiple Scelorosis patients.

A team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand claim that they have identified two new gene locations that appear to be linked to multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.
"For decades the cause of MS has remained a mystery. This discovery reveals important new insights into the genetic susceptibility to the disease," Nature magazine quoted Professor Trevor Kilpatrick, Director for Neurosciences at the University of Melbourne, as saying.
In a genome-wide study, the researchers have found two new gene locations in chromosomes 12 and 20.
"They also reveal a link between genetic susceptibility to MS and other autoimmune diseases including Type 1 diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Graves' Disease and the also the potential involvement of Vitamin D metabolism in the risk of developing these diseases," said Kilpatrick
"These results are like the key in the door - leading us to where to look for MS susceptibility," he added.
Dr. Justin Rubio of Florey Neurosciences Institutes, who coordinated the study along with Kilpatrick, said that the new discovery was a major advancement.
"We expect that within one to two years we will be able to fine map these new regions and identify the genetic changes that underpin these findings," said Rubio.
"Our next steps include studying how changes in these target genes might influence the development of MS. This work could provide insight into the development of novel therapeutics," he added.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics.

PLants "CHAT" with Each other.

Plants do talk to one another to warn about predators, and are "capable of more sophisticated behaviour than we imagined", according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of California and Kyoto University have found that subtle chemical messages to discuss pollinators such as bees, potential dangers and even animals, which might attack their enemies.
The team clipped sagebrush shrubs in a way that copied the behaviour of herbivores eating leaves.
The plants seeped chemicals to warn about the danger of being eaten by grasshoppers.
It was found that shrubs close to those that had been clipped were more resilient than damaged neighbours, which clearly indicated that plants were communicating.
"Plants are capable of responding to complex cues that involve multiple stimuli. Plants not only respond to reliable cues in their environments but also produce cues that communicate with other plants and with other organisms, such as pollinators, seed dispersers, herbivores and enemies of those herbivores," the Daily Express quoted Prof Richard Karban as saying.
He added: "We explored self-recognition in the context of plant resistance. Previously we found that sagebrush became more resistant to herbivores after exposure to volatile cues from experimentally-damaged neighbours."

Milk better than Juice during breakfast.

Drinking fat free milk instead of a fruit drink at breakfast helps you feel fuller and eat less at lunchtime, according to a new study.
During the study, Australian researchers found that drinking fat free milk in the morning helped increase satiety, or a feeling of fullness, and led to decreased calorie intake at the next meal, as compared with a fruit drink.
The milk drinkers ate about 50 fewer calories (or nearly 9 percent less food) at lunch.
In the study, 34 overweight but otherwise healthy men and women participated in two testing sessions - one in which they were served about 20 ounces of fat free milk, and one in which they were served the same amount of a fruit drink (both beverages contributed about 250 calories to the breakfast meal).
During the four hours between breakfast and lunch, the men and women gauged their feelings of fullness and were allowed to eat until comfortably full at lunch.
The researchers found that the milk-drinking adults reported feeling fuller, more satisfied and therefore ate fewer calories at lunch.
The researchers suspect that milk's protein content, the lactose or simply the thickness of the beverage may play a role in the satiety benefits.
Choosing foods that can help enhance satiety is an important success factor in any weight management plan, the researchers suggest.
The study has been published in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Grey Hair?? Wait for 2 years for a shampoo which can reverse it

A hair cream, shampoo, or conditioner capable enough to wash the grey out of your hair may be available in the shops within two years, say researchers.
Dr. Bruno Bernard, head of the hair biology research team at beauty firm L'Oreal in Paris, points out that hair goes grey when the pigment-producing cells, known as melanocytes, die or no longer work properly.
He, however, also highlights the fact that such cells often survive long after people go grey.
He and his colleagues have also found that the cells lack a certain enzyme, known as TRP-2, which is found in the skin and protects it from losing its pigment.
The researchers are now planning further studies in the hope that they will be able to mimic the enzyme's action on hair follicles, re-awaken the cells, allow people to maintain their hair colour for longer, or even reverse the -process.
"The hair whitening -process is slow and progressive, so we can -prevent it," the Daily Express quoted Bernard as saying.
Nick Ede, a GMTV lifestyle specialist, said that the discovery was "revolutionary".
He said: "This will be -welcomed with open arms. It will save a lot of people a lot of money and I think it will be very beneficial."
Angela Marshall, an image consultant and the owner of Surrey-based Appearance Management, added: "It is very exciting and it could be revolutionary in that so many people colour their hair and then worry about the colour they have used. This could save a lot of people, both men and women, a lot of money and worry."
She, however, also said that every one may not benefit from the new treatment.
"It could be problematic for -people with very dark hair as their eyebrows would probably still go grey and then their -colourings would not match well. So treatment would probably be better for people with blonde hair where there would not be such a stark -contrast," she said.

Tevezs and Santa Cruz move to ManC

Manchester City has completed the 40 million pounds signing of ace striker Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz.
Blackburn striker Santa Cruz, 27, agreed a 15 million pounds switch to Eastlands and completed a medical. His fee will increase to 18 million pounds based on appearances.
Tevez, 25, agreed to the astonishing move from Old Trafford, after a long chat with City boss Mark Hughes convinced him of the club's ambitions, The Sun reports.
The Argentinean striker became sick of being down the pecking order at United and Hughes told him he would be his main hit man.
His 25.5 million pounds move will be completed on July 1, when his two-year loan deal with United comes to an end.
City will give him a five-year contract worth 100,000 pounds-a-week.

Willpower or rather "Fillpower" is mostly what you need to reduce your weight.

A New York-based expert says that the best way to lose weight is to teach the body to stop craving for food and feel full sooner.

Dr. Louis Aronne, the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, has expressed this view in his new book 'The Skinny'.

"Weight loss isn't about priorities, willpower or wanting it badly enough. Rather, it's about your body, your brain and your hormones. And if you don't first re-sensitize your weight-regulation mechanisms, typical approaches to weight loss, such as portion control and calorie counting, just won't work," he says.

The book, written with Alisa Bowman, reviews the latest cutting-edge weight research, and delivers recommendations based on science.

Dr. Aronne says that our bodies are programmed to resist weight loss that goes beyond roughly 7 percent of total body weight, which means that a person weighing 200 pounds may be able to lose fewer than 14 pounds before the going gets tough.

According to him, it so happens because the body's metabolism and weight-regulating hormones, such as insulin and leptin, drop faster than the body loses fat and cause the brain to think that the body's weight is near normal, when in reality a person still remains overweight.

Dr. Aronne says that this makes dieters feel hungry, even when they have eaten all the calories they need.

To overcome this obstacle, he teaches readers to use the latest advances in the science of appetite and body weight regulation to flip off an internal biological switch that is driving them to eat.

He suggests that rather than using willpower to force themselves to stop eating, readers use "fill-power".

Dr. Aronne says that his plan is easy to follow, and can help many people to lose between 10 percent and 20 percent of their weight, and most can lose 7 percent or more.

He, however, cautions that the weight loss won't be immediate, and may take several months.

The payoff, he writes: "You will know what it feels like to fill up on a normal amount of food. You will eventually be able to stop obsessing about food. You'll be able to stop forcing yourself to eat less because you'll eat less automatically."

A Math Problem which has been solved after 50 Years!!!

A mathematical problem, which involves the relationship between different mathematical structures, has been finally solved after more than 50 years.

The problem, at the interface of two mathematical areas, topology and algebraic geometry, that was formulated by Friedrich Hirzebruch, had resisted all attempts at a solution for more than 50 years.

Professor Dieter Kotschick, a mathematician at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (LMU) in Munich, has now achieved a breakthrough.

Topology studies flexible properties of geometric objects that are unchanged by continuous deformations.

In algebraic geometry, some of these objects are endowed with additional structure derived from an explicit description by polynomial equations.

Hirzebruch's problem concerns the relation between flexible and rigid properties of geometric objects.

Viewed topologically, the surface of a ball is always a sphere, even when the ball is very deformed: precise geometric shapes are not important in topology.

This is different in algebraic geometry, where objects like the sphere are described by polynomial equations.

Professor Dieter Kotschick has recently achieved a breakthrough at the interface of topology and algebraic geometry.

"I was able to solve a problem that was formulated more than 50 years ago by the influential German mathematician Friedrich Hirzebruch," he said.

"Hirzebruch's problem concerns the relation between different mathematical structures. These are so-called algebraic varieties, which are the zero-sets of polynomials, and certain geometric objects called manifolds," he added.

Manifolds are smooth topological spaces that can be considered in arbitrary dimensions. The spherical surface of a ball is just a two-dimensional manifold.

In mathematical terminology, Hirzebruch's problem was to determine which Chern numbers are topological invariants of complex-algebraic varieties. I have proved that - except for the obvious ones - no Chern numbers are topologically invariant," said Kotschick.

"Thus, these numbers do indeed depend on the algebraic structure of a variety, and are not determined by coarser, so-called topological properties. Put differently: The underlying manifold of an algebraic variety does not determine these invariants," he added.

Scientists Report new breaktrough for Lithium Ion Batterties.

Scientists have laid the groundwork for a lithium battery that can store and deliver more than three times the power of conventional lithium ion batteries.

Research work into this technology is being done by an NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) funded lab at the University Of Waterloo, In Ontario, Canada.

The prospect of lithium-sulphur batteries has tantalized chemists for two decades, and not just because successfully combining the two chemistries delivers much higher energy densities.

Sulphur is cheaper than many other materials currently used in lithium batteries.

It has always showed great promise as the ideal partner for a safe, low cost, long lasting rechargeable battery, exactly the kind of battery needed for energy storage and transportation in a low carbon emission energy economy.

"The difficult challenge was always the cathode, the part of the battery that stores and releases electrons in the charge and recharge cycles," said professor Linda Nazar of the University of Waterloo.

"To enable a reversible electrochemical reaction at high current rates, the electrically-active sulphur needs to remain in the most intimate contact with a conductor, such as carbon," she added.

The Canadian research team leap-frogged the performance of other carbon-sulphur combinations by tackling the contact issue at the nanoscale level.

Although they say the same approach could be used with other materials, for their proof of concept study they chose a member of a highly structured and porous carbon family called mesoporous carbon.

At the nanoscale level, this type of carbon has a very uniform pore diameter and pore volume.

Using a nanocasting method, the team assembled a structure of 6.5 nanometre thick carbon rods separated by empty three to four nanometre wide channels.

Carbon microfibres spanning the empty channels kept the voids open and prevented collapse of the architecture.

Filling the tiny voids proved simple.

Sulphur was heated and melted. Once in contact with the carbon, it was drawn or imbibed into the channels by capillary forces, where it solidified and shrunk to form sulphur nanofibres.

Scanning electron microscope sections revealed that all the spaces were uniformly filled with sulphur, exposing an enormous surface area of the active element to carbon and driving the exceptional test results of the new battery.

"This composite material can supply up to nearly 80 percent of the theoretical capacity of sulphur, which is three times the energy density of lithium transition metal oxide cathodes, at reasonable rates with good cycling stability," said Dr. Nazar.

No Need to type the Search term time and again on the Search Engine if a blank search shows up.

A search engine that would not require a user to change the search terms to get any information time and again may soon be a reality, thanks to the efforts of a Penn State researcher.

Jim Jansen, associate professor of Information Sciences and Technology, analysed nearly 1 million Web searches to detect patterns of query reformulation and create models to predict them, which may help create more advanced search engines.

The researcher believes that, once failed to find any information, such engines would make further searches on behalf of any person without the user having to change search terms.

"The key finding in the research is that we are moving from descriptive aspects to predictive models in Web searching," said Jansen.

Writing about the research team's work in the online edition of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Jansen revealed that the search terms in 22 percent of queries were reformulated or changed to more precisely convey the information for which the user was searching.

"They typically moved to narrow their query at the start of the session, moving to reformulation in the mid and latter portions of the sessions. It appears that the assistance to narrow the query and alternate query terms would be most beneficial immediately after the initial query submission," Jansen said.

The Penn State team also found low rates of users asking for system assistance in helping to find the desired information-perhaps because they are too focused on using their own search terms to find information.

"The implication is that system assistance should be most specifically targeted when the user is making a cognitive shift because it appears users are open to system intervention," Jansen said.

Jansen considers this study to be a critical step in helping to design more advanced search engines.

"Given that one can predict future states of query formulation based on previous and present states with a reasonable degree of accuracy, one can design information systems that provide query reformulation assistance, automated searching assistance systems, recommender systems and others," Jansen said.

Pakistan's Umar Gul leads Pakistan to victory against New Zealand

Umar Gul bulldozed the Kiwis with a sensational five-wicket haul as Pakistan thumped New Zealand by six wickets to keep their semifinal hopes alive in the Twenty20 World Cup here today. Gul's incredible fast bowling spell of five wickets for six runs resulted in the Kiwi's complete demolition as they were bundled out for a paltry 99 in 18.3 overs after deciding to bat in their Super Eight match at the Oval here last night.

Gul, introduced as late as in the 13th over, wreaked havoc in his three-over spell and emerged as the first bowler to claim five wickets in Twenty20 Internationals. Abdul Razzaq (2/17), playing his first match for Pakistan after quitting Indian Cricket League, celebrated his return to the national side by rocking the Kiwi top-order at the start.

Pakistan almost made a mess of an easy chase before reaching the target of 100 runs with 6.5 overs to spare. The victory has strengthened Pakistan's chances of making it to the semifinals as they play minnows Ireland tomorrow.

Shahzaib Hasan (35) and Kamran Akmal (19) began the chase in right earnest, putting up 36 runs in 4.2 overs but the departure of the latter triggered a mini collapse. Kiwi skipper Daniel Vettori (2/20) dismissed Abdul Razzaq (5) and Shoaib Malik (4) to jolt the Pakistani camp.

However, skipper Younis Khan (6 not out) and Sahid Afridi (29 not out) saw the team through with a 29-run partnership.

Nine Most Costliest transfers in Football History.

Robinho 32.5 million pounds Real Madrid to Manchester City - 2008

Christian Vieri 32 million pounds Lazio to Inter Milan - 1999

Cristiano Ronaldo `80 million pounds' Manchester United to Real Madrid - 2009

Hernan Crespo 25.5 million pounds Parma to Lazio - 2000

Gianluigi Buffon 32.6 million pounds Parma to Juventus - 2001

Luis Figo 37 million pounds Barcelona to Real Madrid - 2000

Andrei Shevchenko 30.8 million pounds AC Milan to Chelsea - 2006

Zinedine Zidane 46 million pounds Juventus to Real Madrid - 2001

Kaka 59 million pounds AC Milan to Real Madrid - 2009

Indian student makes a breakthrough in the field of health monitoring.

A health-monitoring system designed by an Indian origin MBA student at University of Houston has made it to the IShow finale in Palm Desert, California.

Created by Nithin Rajan and Steve Xu, the device, called the BlueScale, resembles a standard bathroom scale connected to a bicycle-like handlebar, which actually is meant to offer congestive heart failure patients both peace of mind and significant health-care costs savings.

"Nithan and Steve are developing a technology that is very useful medically, will benefit a large group of patients, and is simple for people to use. Such elegance and purpose of design are rare and tend to be highly sought by investors," said Dr. Cliff Dacso, director of the Abramson Center.

And if their unique health-monitoring device wins at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Innovation Showcase, also known as the IShow, the student duo could receive up to 10,000 dollars in seed funding from ASME.

What's more-the finalists will also get to pitch their inventions to venture capitalists and "angel investors" who will be in attendance to get their hands on the next big thing.

"The IShow is known for picking the cream of the crop. We know we're facing stiff competition. But, we're passionate about our design, our team and our company moving forward. I can tell you this: We're going to Palm Desert to win," said Xu.

BlueScale simultaneously records a variety of patient information, including weight, heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output, in a mere 10 seconds.

When combined, those daily measurements give a good picture of the health of the patient's cardiovascular system, and can even predict acute episodes, such as heart failure.

The inventors said that if used daily, the device will indicate when a patient needs to seek medical attention, potentially heading off dangerous episodes and preventing costly emergency room visits and ambulance rides.

"The design of Blue Scale is inspired by two everyday actions: stepping on a bathroom scale and riding a bicycle. Since everyone is familiar with these simple actions, the usage of Blue Scale is seamless," said Luca Pollonini, a post-doctoral fellow at UH who worked with the team.

Rajan said that the device has received good reviews from patients involved in preliminary clinical testing, which will make it easy for them to convince investors.

"I am excited about the marketing presentation, even with limited experience with investors, because I look forward to telling our story, which I firmly believe is compelling and important to changing the way we deliver health care in this country," he said.

Think, and a Computer 'translates' it.

Scientists have developed new brain-computer interfaces that "translate" what a person is thinking into words or actions.

For their study, researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands performed functional MRI brain scans on healthy participants.

The participants were instructed to "type" by performing mental tasks corresponding to different letters in the English alphabet.

The researchers used signals from the participants' brain activation patterns to decode information about the intended letter that a participant was thinking about.

And the alphabet could be used in a conversation with the experimenters without any spoken words.

Now, scientists are hoping that such technology can enable communication with 'locked-in' patients or assessment of consciousness in non-responsive patients.

Home Remedies for a 101 diseases.

USEFUL REMEDIES FOR ALL COMMON PROBLEMS.

INGREDIENTS FOUND IN YOUR OWN HOME EVERYDAY.

Useful Home Remedies

ACNE, BLACKHEADS, AND PIMPLES:

• Dab a small amount of toothpaste (paste, not gel) on pimples before bed; this helps dry out the pimples.
• Mix equal amounts of lemon juice and rose water, apply to face with a cotton ball, and allow to sit for 30 minutes before rinsing. 15-20 days of this application helps cure pimples and also helps to remove blemishes and scars.
• Apply fresh lemon juice on the affected area overnight. Wash off with warm water next morning.
• For acne that hasn't seemed to respond to anything, steep 2-3 tsp. dried basil leaves in 1 cup boiling water for 10-20 minutes, cool, and apply to affected area with a cotton ball.

ANEMIA:

• Avoid drinking tea (regular, not herbal varieties) and coffee immediately after meals, as the tannin present in these interferes in the absorption of iron from the food.
• Drink a cup of herbal tea mixed with 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses each day. This provides 80% of the iron needed in one day.
• Foods high in iron: lean beef, lean pork, skinned poultry, shellfish, fish, liver, organ meats, egg yolks, pinto, kidney, lima, navy, chick peas, black-eyed peas, lentils, split peas, green peas, spinach, kale, collards, beet greens, chard, broccoli, raisins, prunes, figs, dates, dried peaches, dried apricots, nuts, peanut butter, whole grain breads.
• Your body absorbs iron from meats easier than fruits and vegetables. To aid in the absorption of iron from fruits and vegetables, eat them with a good source of vitamin C.

ARTHRITIS:

• A daily serving of fresh fish or fish oil capsules helps to give relief of arthritis and other joint pains.
• 3-4 walnuts eaten daily, on an empty stomach, will help.

ASTHMA:

• Mix 1 tsp. honey with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and take it at night before going to bed.
• Avoid taking aspirin, as this may invoke an asthma attack.

BAD BREATH:

• Boil some cinnamon bark in a cup of water. Store it in a clean bottle in your bathroom. Use it as a mouthwash frequently.
• Parsley leaves are rich in chlorophyll, nature's own deodorizer. Chew some leaves regularly and your breath will remain fresh.
• You can chew some cardamom seeds to sweeten your breath.

BLADDER INFECTION: Take a bag of fresh or frozen cranberries and boil them in water (they will fall apart). Cool and drink. Don't add sugar! This remedy is also useful for people with kidney problems.

BLADDER STONES: Boil 2 figs in 1 cup of water. Drink daily for a month.

BRUISES: Slice a raw onion and place over the bruise. Do not apply this to broken skin.

COLD AND FLU: Here is a delicious recipe for a cold and flu soup: Sauté 6 crushed cloves of garlic in 1 tsp. vegetable oil until golden. Pour in a quart of beef or chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and whisk in 2 egg whites. Beat together 2 egg yolks and 2 Tbls. distilled white vinegar; pour this mixture into the soup. Season with salt and pepper and top with croutons, if desired.

CONSTIPATION (IN ADULTS):

• Eat a few black licorice sticks.
• Take apple pectin.
• Make sure you're getting enough Folic Acid in your diet.
• Drinking ginger tea will help start a bowel movement.

CONSTIPATION (IN SMALL CHILDREN): Soak 6-8 raisins in hot water. When cool, crush well and strain. When given routinely even to little infants, it helps to regulate bowel movement.

COUGHS AND ASTHMA: Steep 3-4 cloves of garlic in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks. Use several drops at a time, several times a day for coughs or asthma. Garlic is an exceptional cleanser for the body and has antimicrobial action similar to other antibiotics.

DAMAGED, DRY HAIR: A nourishing conditioner for dry or damaged hair which can be used for all hair types: Separate the white of an egg from the yolk, whip it to a peak. Add 1 Tbls. water to the yolk and blend until the mixture is creamy. Then mix the white and yolk together. Wet your hair with warm water, remove the excess moisture, and apply the mixture to your scalp with your fingertips. Massage gently until the froth is worked into your scalp, then rinse the hair with cool water. Keep applying the mixture until it is used up and then rinsed until all of the egg is washed away.

DANDRUFF: Pour distilled white vinegar onto the hair, as close to the scalp as you can manage; massage into the scalp; and allow to dry for several minutes before washing as usual. Repeat daily until the dandruff disappears, usually within a few days.

DARK CIRCLES AROUND EYES: Make a paste out of 1 tsp. tomato juice, 1/2 tsp.. lemon juice, a pinch of turmeric powder, and 1 tsp. of flour. Apply around eyes. Leave on for 10 minutes before rinsing.

DEPRESSION: 3/4 cup of cooked spinach a day is enough to give dramatic relief from depression if you are deficient in B vitamins.

DIARRHEA: Eat boiled sweet potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper before bedtime to cure chronic diarrhea.

DRY SKIN: Combine 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup warm water, 1 Tbls. vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup baking soda in a blender or food processor until you have a smooth paste. Pour this paste under the running water while drawing the bath.. Very soothing to dry, itchy skin.

EARACHE: Steep 1-2 tsp. chamomile flowers in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Strain out the water, and apply the hot flowers in a cloth for alleviation of the earache.

ECZEMA: Rub a whole nutmeg against a smooth stone slab with a little water and make a paste. Apply on affected parts. (Note: It is believed by some rural, old fashioned practitioners that instead of water, one's own early morning saliva can be used for better results.)

ENERGIZER: Simmer 1 cup honey and 3 cup water together slowly. Allow 1 cup of the water to evaporate. Strain off the top surface, and put the remaining liquid into a stoneware crock or dark bottle. Put a towel over it so it can breathe, yet be free of dirt. Place in a cool place. You can add cinnamon, clove, or the juice of 2 lemons, if you like.

EYE PROBLEMS: Simmer 1 cup water and 1 tsp. honey for 5 minutes. Dip a cloth in the liquid and apply to the closed eye.

FACIAL CLEANSER: Mix 2 Tbls. cornstarch, 2 Tbls. glycerin, and 1/2 cup water until smooth. Heat in a small pan placed in a water bath inside another pan. Heat until thick and clear; it will have the consistency of pudding. Do not boil. Cool completely, Use in place of soap to cleanse your skin. (If mixture is too thick, you may thin it by adding a little water, 1 Tbls. at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. )

FATIGUE: Take a glass of grapefruit and lemon juice in equal parts to dispel fatigue and general tiredness after a day's work.

GUM IN HAIR: Soak the gum-coated hair in Coke® and it should wipe out easily.

HAIR LIGHTENER: To lighten hair, use 1/4 cup chopped fresh rhubarb to 2 cups boiling water. Cool, strain, and apply as a rinse.

HANG-OVER: Eat honey on crackers. The fructose in the honey will help to flush out the alcohol in your system.

HAY FEVER: Steep 1 tsp. fenugreek seed in 1 cup water, covered, for 10 minutes. Drink 1 cup a day to help hay fever symptoms.

HEADACHE: Eat 10-12 almonds, the equivalent of two aspirins, for a migraine headache. Almonds are far less likely to upset the stomach.

HICCUPS: Only 2 remedies have I ever know to actually work. The first listed makes the most sense, since a hiccough is simply a spasm of the diaphragm, and you need to disrupt this spasm. The second offers no rhyme or reason, but works nonetheless.

• Breath in as deeply as you can, then exhale as hard as you can; repeat 10 times; when exhaling the last time, keep the air pushed out, not taking another breath for as long as you can stand. This normally works the first try, but repeat if necessary. Be sure to sit down when doing this.
• This is a remedy only feasible when sitting at a bar. Have the bartender fill a small glass with club soda. Light a match and drop it, then drink the water quickly (being careful not to drink the match). It works, but I don't know why!
• Drink 1/2 glass water, slowly.
• Keep a tsp. of sugar in your month and suck slowly.
• Suck 2-3 small pieces of fresh ginger.
• Take a large mouthful of water with out swallowing, plug both ears, and slowly begin to swallow the water. Unplug your ears and you're hiccup free! (Submitted by Mrs T. Falkmann)
• Eat a heaping teaspoon of peanut butter all at once. (Submitted by Tracy Pletcher)

HICKEY:

• Coat area liberally with lotion. Rub with the back of a cold spoon vigorously for as long as you can stand to, changing out spoon for new cold one every 10 minutes. Recommended time for this treatment is 45-60 minutes. Why it works: a hickey is a bruise; the discoloration of a bruise is caused by blood accumulating under the skin from broken capillaries; this remedy breaks up the old blood so it can be reabsorbed by the body more quickly, therefore diminished the discoloration.
• Rub white toothpaste over the hickey, allow to dry, and later, wipe it off with a warm facecloth. After a few applications, the hickey will be faded. Do not use gel toothpaste. (Submitted by Hot Rod Anne.)

INSECT BITES: Mix water with cornstarch into a paste and apply. This is effective in drawing out the poisons of most insect bites and is also an effective remedy for diaper rash.

MORNING SICKNESS: Mix 1 tsp. each fresh juice of mint and lime, and 1 Tbls. honey. Take 3 times a day.

MOSQUITO BITES: Apply lime juice diluted with water on bites with cotton ball.

MUCUS IN COUGH: Pour 1 cup boiling water over 1/2 tsp. each of ginger, ground cloves, and cinnamon. Filter.. Sweeten with 1 tsp. honey and drink.

MUSCLE CRAMPS: Apply clove oil on the affected body parts.

NAUSEA: Boil 1/2 cup of rice in 1 cup of water for about 10-20 minutes. After it is boiled, drain the water into a cup and sip at the rice water until symptoms are gone.

OBESITY:

• Mix lime juice with honey and water; drink a glass of this every morning.
• Mix 3 tsp. lime juice, 1/4 tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. honey, and 1 cup water; drink a glass a day for 3 months.
• Mix 1 tsp. lime juice with 1 cup water and drink each morning.
• Eat a tomato before breakfast.

OILY SKIN: For oily skin, mix 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal, 1 egg white, 1 Tbls. lemon juice, and 1/2 cup mashed apple into a smooth paste. Apply to face and leave on 15 minutes. Rinse.

OVERWEIGHT: Effective at getting rid of fat, drink up to 3 cups of green tea daily. Regular tea can also be used with a lesser effect.

PAIN RELIEVER: Mix 3 Tbls. of honey in boiled water and drink. Honey has natural pain-relieving powers.

SMELLY FEET: Soak feet in strong tea for 20 minutes every day until the smell disappears. To prepare your footbath, brew two tea bags in 2 1/2 cups of water for 15 minutes and pour the tea into a basin containing two liters of cool water.

SMOKING HABIT: Lick a little salt with the tip of your tongue whenever you feel the urge to smoke. This is said to break the habit within 1 month.

SORE THROAT: Mix 1 tsp. lime juice and 1 Tbls. honey. Swallow tiny amounts slowly 2-3 times a day.

SPLINTERS:

• Lay scotch tape over the splinter and pull off.
• Soak the area in vegetable oil for a few minutes before removing with tweezers.

STOMACH ACHE: A simple cure for a stomachache is to dissolve 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon in 1 cup warm water, cover and let sit for 15 minutes, then drink it like tea. This remedy can also ease diarrhea and flatulence.

STOMACH ACIDITY:

• Drink coconut water 3-4 times a day.
• Have a plateful of watermelon and/or cucumber every hour.

SUNBURN: Mix 2 tsp. tomato juice and 1/4 cup buttermilk. Apply to affected area. Rinse after 1/2 hour.

TOOTHACHE & MOUTH PAIN: To ease toothache or other mouth pain, make a tea by boiling 1 Tbls. fresh peppermint in 1 cup water and adding a little salt. Peppermint is an antiseptic and contains menthol, which relieves pain when applied to skin surfaces.

VARICOSE VEINS: Take 2-3 tsp. black strap molasses orally daily. This also treats all kinds of circulatory ailments.

VOMITING AND NAUSEA:

• Sucking a piece of ice controls vomiting.
• Eat 1/2 tsp. ground cumin seeds.
• Cinnamon and sliced ginger work by interrupting nausea signals sent from the stomach to the brain. If you are an herbal tea drinker, simply sprinkle cinnamon on the tea and drink. To make ginger tea, simmer a few slices of ginger in hot tea water.

WARTS: Try taping a slice of garlic to the wart. Be sure to first protect the surrounding skin with petroleum jelly.

WEAK NAILS: To strengthen and shine nails, combine 2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. castor oil, and 1 tsp. wheat germ oil and mix thoroughly. Pour into bottle. Shake before using. To use, rub a small amount into your nails. Leave on 3-5 minutes and tissue off. Follow up with more plain castor oil, if desired.

WRINKLES & SKIN FRESHENER:

• Combine 2 Tbls. vodka, 1 Tbls. fennel seeds, and 1 1/2 tsp. honey. Stir well and allow to sit for 3 days. Strain mixture. Use full strength or add 2 Tbls. water to dilute. Use a cotton ball to apply to face as a toner.
• Apply coconut oil on the portions of skin and face where wrinkles set in and gently massage every night at bed time.

YELLOW TEETH: Mix salt with finely powdered rind of lime. Use this as toothpowder frequently.