Today (August 25th) in 1609, Galileo Galilei invented a telescope which has redefined the Astronomy that we know today. This is the telescope which proved the fact that sun is the center of the solar system and it has made us know many more interesting facts. And this is the telescope which made the Catholic Church to hang Galileo to death.

Thanks to Google for it displays apt logo that marks a specific date and occasion in history and a related link will cause people to know more information about it.

Babcock Ranch, a city in the southwest Florida will be the first solar-powered city in the world and is possibly the city of tomorrow. The city has recently made an agreement with the Florida Power & Light company to build world’s largest photovoltaic power plant. This 17,000 acre city will be the first city on earth to be powered by zero emission solar energy.

The city itself will feature sustainable water management and conservation, street lamps designed to reduce light pollution, electrical car chargers and an integrated smart grid system, and green roofs that minimize building energy requirements.

Subject to State of Florida approvals, the FPL solar facility is targeted for late 2009, with construction of the city center expected to begin in mid-2010.

Since, sun is a unlimited renewable source of energy, cities powered by solar energy would possibly become the wave of the future!

For more information, visit Babcock Ranch official website.

Some tech-geeks say in about 5 years, Mobile Industry can change our lifestyle as never before. Dump your credit cards, car keys, ID cards as your phone can substitute all of these in the near future. Most of these technical features are almost a reality in South Korea and Japan.

Mobile Phones are everywhere. About two in every three people has mobile subscriptions. So, its not illogical to think mobile phones are poised to overtake wallets with the available technology. But the point of discussion is not whether technology can make it true, it is whether we really need it or not.

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On this occasion when India turns 63, lets recollect some of the very ethnic videos related to India.

One of the mysterious questions of science is how and what has caused the evolution of apes to humans. What was that missing link which represented the evolutionary leap from apes to humans. Evolution’s biggest milestone is when this missing link creature instead of running away from fire, started making use of it. Evolution has also changed our goals. The biggest goal of the ape-like man who lived thousands of years ago was to hunt and get some food. But today, the goals of humans are far beyond reaching out to stars. Although life has existed millions of years, only in the past century and half have we begun to use science to explore the ancestral roots of our own species.

In 1856, when the first bones of the extinct human ancestors were encountered, the concept of previous human species was virtually unthinkable. Few years later, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species has triggered more research and exploration and by the end of 19th century, it has become the hottest topic of discussion.

The following documentary takes you through the evolutionary journey from Apes to Humans.

In this age of paperless and mobile banking, usage of paper becomes inevitable at least in some situations like making check deposits. If you stand in the never ending lines or visit ATM to make a bank deposit, then you are not making good use of technology because iPhone App Store has an app called Deposit@Mobile that might make your life easier. It is making a debut this week from a Texas-based privately held financial services and insurance company called United Services Automobile Association (USAA).

iPhone App - Deposit@Mobile

This new iPhone App has features like Deposit@Mobile, ATM Locator, Loan Calculator, Car Rental Locator. To deposit a check, you just need to take snaps of your check and send it to the bank as an email and thats it you are done!!

Get the App!!

Check out this video.

Last week, I read an article titled “Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals” in Scientific American August 2009 Edition. The article has put forward various possible reasons which might have caused the extinction of the Neandertals. It has also disclosed some interesting findings about Neandertals.

Neandertal (Homo Neanderthalensis) is a species which roamed on earth for nearly 2,00,000 years and which is not completely ape nor completely man. They are our closest relatives or atleast we have a common ancestor. These species were extinct some 30,000 years ago and what has caused their extinction remains a mystery. The last Neandertals were known to have lived in British territory in the Iberian peninsula called Gibraltar. The first Neandertal fossil was found in 1856 and since then scientists have great confusion regarding its placement in the family tree.

Two theories have dominated in the debate about Neandertals extinction. One theory states that Neandertals have experienced seesawing of climatic conditions within a short span over their long reign and due to the lack of their ability to adapt to the changing conditions, the race perished. The other one states that, modern man started invading their territory and Neandertal population could not survive the competition for food and resources and hence reached a point of no return.

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NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has passed its first big test by successfully detecting the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet. It is hence described as being capable of finding earth like planets in the outer space.

Kepler was launched early this past March from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is set to spend next 3.5 years in search of earth like planets. It’s designed to study between 100,000 and 170,000 sunlike stars and find Earth-like planets that may orbit them. James Fanson, the Kepler program manager, said in a previous interview that the telescope onboard the spacecraft will measure the brightness of those stars every half hour, allowing scientists to detect any dimming in their brightness caused by orbiting planets passing in front of them.

Based on the dimming of a star’s light, Fanson said scientists should be able to calculate the size of an orbiting planet and whether it has a solid surface and the potential for liquid water.

Sony releases two missiles called “Reader Touch Edition” and “Reader Pocket Edition” on Wednesday (August 5th) and both are targeted at Amazon’s Kindle. The 5-inch Pocket Edition is priced $199 and 6-inch Touch Edition for $299. Both of these products are expected to give huge competition for their Amazon’s 6-inch and 9.7 inch counterparts which are priced $299 and $489 respectively.

Both these devices use E-Ink screen technology which provides high quality black-and-white text and images which can be even seen directly through sunlight. These devices have internal storage memory equivalent to 350 e-books roughly and the battery life of 2 weeks.

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The ruler of the Desktop kingdom seems to have unfilled appetite and hence has made a stride to feed on internet zone. The much hyped alliance has finally come true. Microsoft and Yahoo signed a ten-year deal on Wednesday (July 29th) which allows Microsoft to use its search engine Bing on Yahoo’s website. This is a very crucial step taken by Microsoft to jeopardize Google in the internet kingdom.

Yahoo!, which will retain its distinct identity but feature the phrase ‘Powered by Bing’ on its page, will run the advertising sales team for both online services.

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