Months of speculation finally ended on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, when Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the release of the company’s latest gadget offering on the market: the iPad. Apple, the company that introduced revolutionary gadgets like the MacBook and the iPod, hopes that the new iPad will be the next big thing in the technology market. A slender tablet computer, the iPad looks like a crossover between the laptop and the smart phone.

However, the biggest question still remains as to whether or not this new gadget will duplicate the success that other Apple gadgets have had with consumers and the over-all market. The iPhone, another very popular gadget released by Apple a few years back, has the distinction of transforming the telecom landscape and forcing other mobile phone companies to catch up with its technology.

The device will be available worldwide this March and it is being positioned by the company as a “pioneer in a new genre of computing.” Steve Jobs admits that the bar has been set pretty high, and that is why the iPad should do better than its competitors in the key areas where it is expected to deliver.

The device is 0.5 inch in thickness and weighs around 1.5 pounds, making it very sleek and easy to carry around. The iPad will accommodate eBooks, newspapers, web pages and videos; all in its 9.7 inch glass touch screen. The release of the iPad opens up a new market for publishers to enter, especially since print media has been steadily declining through the years.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iBook application integrated into the newly-launched gadget, he added that five of the world’s largest publishing houses have already agreed and promised to provide eBook content for the new Apple tablet. These publishers include the HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.

Treating cancer, one of the most dreaded human diseases, has just taken a very huge step forward as a team of scientists from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California in Los Angeles completed the first genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell.

The said findings can greatly help scientists in identifying new molecular targets to be able to manufacture more effective and less dangerous drugs. This can also lead to more personalized treatments for cancer since genomic sequencing is different for individual patients.

The monitoring of brain cancer recurrence is also boosted by this big finding. Genomic sequencing will be able to correctly determine whether cancer cells, in the brain or anywhere, have been completely destroyed or not. This can help doctors better diagnose their patients and avoid overtreatment, especially with anti-cancer drugs that can become harmful and cause long term problems when taken too often.

The research was done by sequencing a glioblastoma cell line named U87, which has been and still is being studied by various laboratories around the world. The underlying principle for using this certain cell line by the UCLA team is mainly because whatever result they may find will benefit not only their research, but also other researches being conducted in other laboratories. The sequencing of U87 can help other researchers in their studies and allow them to reinterpret their own conclusions or even better, move into new research directions with it.

“This is very exciting because we, as scientists, can now move forward with revealing complete cancer genomes,” says Dr. Stan Nelson, the study’s senior author and professor of human genetics at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Gene Expression Shared Resource.

PLoS Genetics, at its online journal, wrote that the study was done using the latest and most advanced technologies. The brain cell sequencing was finished in less than a month and believed to have cost around $35,000.

Nelson further added that cancer cells are bottom line genetic and have acquired mutations that have made it very hard for doctors to solve, even in this advanced age and technology. Since cancer cells can be a subject that is too complicated to study, this genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell is a very huge advancement in the fight to destroy cancer.

Just outside the solar system, a planet not unlike ours exists. So goes the findings published on Dec. 16, 2009 in the science journal Nature.

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics have located the planet 42 light years away. They have categorized it as a “Super-Earth,” insofar as it shares unusually similar characteristics with this planet, only far larger.

Designated as GJ 1214b, the planet is about six times as massive as the Earth and three times as large. It is one of the smallest exoplanets — worlds discovered near the solar system — but it is the most Earth-like of them all.

With this size and density in mind, the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre’s scientists can confirm that the planet has an atmosphere — and very thick to boot. Moreover, the planet could be rich in helium and hydrogen.

According research leader David Charbonneau, the discovery will be the first super Earth that has a confirmed atmosphere, and it does not matter if the atmosphere will not be hospitable to and good for life.

The astronomers think GJ 1214b is mostly covered with water. With its low density, the planet could be submerged in three-fourths water, around 50% by mass. As for the water’s state, no one could identify it just yet.

For sure, GJ 1214b can be very hot. Although it revolves around a red dwarf, a manifold smaller star than the Sun, the planet may have temperatures hovering at 248 to 536°F (120 to 280°C).

Yet scientists bet the water would not be in a gaseous state. The planet’s thick atmosphere may contrive enough pressure — 20,000 times the Earth’s own — to liquefy water. Other scientists speculate that water in such environment could exist as “superfluid.”

Whether or not this planet sustains life as we know it remains to be seen. From the outset, life may not flourish in a highly pressurized realm. Worse, the planet is not situated within the star’s ’Goldilocks zone,’ where life is deemed possible. Granted, the hefty atmosphere would screen light from an otherwise small star.

GJ 1214b excites astronomers nonetheless; the exoplanet is relatively near. For a point of comparison, television signals from Earth have traveled way beyond the planet.

GJ 1214b was pinpointed using eight ground-based telescopes.

Texas’ health department will destroy millions of controversial blood samples as part of a lawsuit settlement approved Dec. 21, 2009.

Its defendants, who include the Department of State Health Services’ David Lakey and Texas A&M Health Science Center’s Nancy Dickey, are due to surrender more than 5.3 million samples. Extracted from babies without parental consent, the samples collectively have until April 13, 2010 to be destroyed.

Texas Civil Rights Project Director Jim Harrington was “very pleased with the way it worked out.” His Austin-based nonprofit organization led parents in filing the suit in San Antonio’s federal district court.

Dickey’s office, meanwhile, was “saddened” over the loss of such a “superb database.” The samples have been stores as blood spot cards in the Texas A&M Health Science Center for the past seven years.

“This database could have continued to shed light on causes of congenital birth defects and potentially led to preventive measures saving thousands of infants and their families the distress these defects cause,” her office said in a statement.

According to defendants, the samples were identified using codes, not the babies’ names. However, the state legislature passed a law on May 27 ordering health care providers to inform caregivers and parents of any blood extractions from newborns. The law gave impetus to parental protests.

Since the signing of the law, nearly 6,900 Texans have affixed their signatures on requests to destroy the blood spot cards. The Department of State Health Services continues to get hundreds of them each week.

Under the terms of the settlement, the department must destroy samples 60 days from receipt of the request. Otherwise, the owner of the sample could request it when he or she comes of age.

In addition, the department is bound by law to reveal relevant data regarding the blood samples on its website. They must include info on any research projects the samples benefited.

More than 240,000 children have been born in Texas since the department started extracting the samples in 2002.

Routine space travel continues to outgrow its sci-fi connotations. In a pivotal point for space tourism, construction of the world’s first ever private spaceport has formally begun.

Set on the desolate tracts of New Mexico, the spaceport would give ordinary civilians bragging rights as astronauts. The facility, billed Spaceport America, will open in December 2010.

For this project, architects Foster and URS Corporation essentially updated the concept of airports for the space era. Like an airport, Spaceport America comes complete with terminals and hangars, where aerospace firms can lease space.

And space it has — the spaceport will sprawl for more than 10,000 m² on the desert floor. Gigantic planes can alight on its 10,000-foot runway.

New Mexican taxpayers would bear the project cost, estimated to reach $200,000 (£122,000). With year-long sunny days, the state should be a great host for the spaceport. The adjacent White Sands testing range additionally assures no-fly airspace over it.

Spaceport America’s anchor tenant is Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space travel company. At present, Virgin Galactic is readying its spacecraft called SpaceShipTwo in time for a 2010 maiden voyage from the spaceport.

Burt Rutan, the aerospace designer, is developing SpaceShipTwo from his California facility. Rutan had developed SpaceShipOne, the first commercially-built manned craft to fly into space.

To date, private space conveyances like SpaceShipOne are made for suborbital flights. These crafts are designed to reach space, insofar as they can briefly escape the earth’s atmosphere and gravitational field.

En route to that, passengers have to hurtle above the planet at almost three times the speed of sound. After two hours, they would experience six minutes of weightlessness as the spacecraft flies through the zero-gravity of space.

Privately built spacecrafts need to launch mid-air from aircrafts. In SpaceShipTwo’s case, a titanic aircraft called WhiteKnightTwo would take it to high altitudes. WhiteKnightTwo, still undergoing test glides, will be unveiled at a Wisconsin air show this July.

Passengers must cough up $200,000 a head for Virgin Galactic’s cosmic trips. Three-hundred people have so far booked the flights, dubbed as the “most incredible experience of their lives.”

Awe-inspiring in every respect, fossils of three new dinosaur species have recently been unearthed from the Australian outback. The finds effectively end Australia’s longtime drought in large fossil discoveries.

Two of the primordial monsters were massive herbivore sauropods, the other a meat-eating theropod that could reportedly surpass those in the Jurassic Park films. All were entombed 98 million years ago deep beneath a billabong near Winton, Queensland.

Paleontologists commissioned by the Queensland Museum and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum found the enormous fossils. Led by Queensland Museum’s Scott Hocknull, the team dug three feet of stubborn topsoil and thick layers of sandy clay to get through the dinosaurs.

Of the finds, scientists marveled most at the lone carnivore, the Australovenator wintonensis. At 1,100 pounds, its fossils are the biggest ever for a flesh-eating dinosaur in Australia. The team nicknamed it Banjo in honor of Australian bush poet A.B. “Banjo” Paterson.

Banjo’s diggers define him as equal parts cheetah and monster. Like the former, Banjo was an agile predator. It was also a 16-foot long tower of doom that hunted Australia in the mid-Cretaceous epoch. Hocknull even likened it to the Jurassic Park velociraptors, but many times bigger. Banjo additionally had bigger forelimbs than an average Tyrannosaurus rex.

When diggers found Banjo, it was embracing one of the herbivores, suggesting a prehistoric lockdown. That herbivore is the 52-foot long Diamantinasaurus matildae, nicknamed Matilda after Paterson’s 1885 song.

Where Matilda evoked a hippo, the other herbivore resembled a giraffe. Wintonotitan wattsi, also known as Clancy, measures 52 feet and eats plants too. Both Clancy and Matilda come from the mighty titanosaur family, one of the largest creatures ever to roam on earth.

Their discovery was made public by science journal PLos One in a 51-page document. Hocknull’s group hopes to discover more fossils as he excavates other parts of Winton.

Hocknull’s finds elevate Australian paleontology alongside those of North America, Europe, South America, and Africa. Scientists believe Australia has untapped vestiges of prehistory beneath its largely geologically stable ground.

Europe’s space conquistadors successfully hoisted the world’s largest commercial satellite into orbit on July 1, 2009. The behemoth satellite, called TerreStar-1, was launched from the space base in French Guiana.

Owned by American telecommunications company TerreStar Networks, the satellite weighs 15,233 pounds (6.9 tons). Due to its mass, TerreStar-1 was the single payload aboard its vehicle, an Ariane-5 heavy rocket designed to bear two telecommunications satellites at a time.

Launching firm Arianespace used an Ariane 5 ECA rocket for TerreStar-1. The rocket and its freight departed from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at approximately 1:52 PM. Hours later, TerreStar-1 hovered above the planet in geostationary orbit.

At its fullest, TerreStar-1’s wingspan would stretch for 106 feet once it spreads its solar wings, which await deployment. The satellite would also unfurl its 60-foot S-band antenna in weeks’ time.

TerreStar should have launched in June. However, the inauspicious weather in French Guiana caused the launch to be delayed for the fourth time.

Arianespace has planned seven launches for Ariane 5 ECA in 2009 alone. The TerreStar-1 sendoff was third, 189th overall since the introduction of Ariane in 1979.

“Today’s launch is just the beginning of the TerreStar story,” said Jeff Epstein, TerreStar Networks’ president.

Although TerreStar Networks is based in Reston, Virginia, TerreStar-1 was developed in California by Space Systems/Loral. The satellite should give North Americans portable voice/data communications through handsets that use S-band.

Arianespace has other significant launches in the pipelines. According to Arianespace executive Jean-Yves Le Gall, the company is launching Vega, a new rocket, toward the end of 2009. Vega will be saddled with payloads of up to 1.5 tons.

ArianeSpace has also entered into a business deal with Russia to launch Soviet-era Soyuz rockets in 2010. The firm will be launching Soyuz 2, a leviathan that can carry payloads of up to three tones. In comparison, rockets launched from the Russian spaceport Baikonur could only transport 1.7-tonne payloads.

Dr. Michael A. Horn, a board certified plastic surgeon in the Chicagoland area, is one the region’s most popular cosmetic surgeons. He has performed hundreds of breast augmentations, keeping a high level of comfort and safety of his patients. In a recent interview, Dr. Michael Horn talked about this procedure.

Q: What kind of implants is most commonly used?
Dr Michael Horn: Saline implants are most commonly used. Saline has no harmful effects on the body.
Q: Do they come in different shapes?
Dr. Michael Horn: Yes, the most common shapes are either round or tear drop. In my opinion, the round implants look more natural. When the patient stands the round implant takes on a teardrop shape. When the patient lies on her back, the implant becomes round like a natural breast.
Q: How is size determined?
Dr. Michael Horn: It is very important that the size be determined before surgery. In my office, I have patients try on various sizes of implants to assure they are comfortable. I can help guide as to an appropriate size.
Q: Can I breast feed with implants?
Dr. Michael Horn: Yes. The implants do not prevent breast feeding or harm breast milk because they lie behind the breast tissue.
Q: How long is the recovery?
Dr. Michael Horn: Patients return home the same day of surgery. Most patients require three days off of work, with a gradual return of normal activity.

According to Dr. Michael Horn, the number of women getting breast augmentation has more than doubled since 1997. During the same amount of time, the number of people having any type of cosmetic surgery has jumped 304%. Most people seeking cosmetic surgery are women. These days, plastic surgery has gained greater social much social acceptance, and has shown to can increase confidence and self-esteem.

Dr. Michael Horn points out that women usually have breast enhancement surgery for personal reasons, including a desire to increase breast size, return to pre-pregnancy shape, or achieve the size and shape of their breasts during breast feeding. Breast augmentation can provide a nicely balanced figure.

Effective treatments are available for breast changes after pregnancy, Dr. Michael Horn says. The breasts may shrink to a smaller size, sag, and the nipple may move lower on the breast. When breast sagging is more severe, a breast lift can be performed.

Dr. Michael Horn explains that typically, a patient will have an initial consultation with a surgeon, where the appropriate treatment can be discussed. The cosmetic surgeon can inform the patient what can be realistically accomplished, what to expect from the experience, and what risks exists. The individual desires of the patient as well as any questions can be addressed at that time.

Zerona, a laser technology created by Santa Barbara Medical Innovations, has turned the world of liposuction upside down.

With the Zerona lasers, no incision is needed for the liposuction. The doctor points the laser at the skin on both sides of the body. The Zerona laser than creates a tiny poor in the fat cell’s membrane. This pore allows the contents of the fat cells to seep out of the cell and into the the space between the cells.

The body later gets rid of the fat cells along with the body’s other waste products.

A session with a Zerona laser generally takes 40 minutes (20 minutes for the front of the body and 20 for the back). Santa Barabra Medical Innovations recommends at least six treatments spread in a two week period.

Zerona does not cause any pain or side effects, and patients can go back to their normal lives after each session. The Zerona laser can be directed at the belly, hips, thighs, back, chin, neck and arms.

Dr. Gregory Nikolaidis, a dermatologist in Texa, says patients on average lose three to five pounds after the six sessions Key to the weight loss, Dr. Nikolaidis adds, is that the patient must maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet. Zerona can help melt away fat, but it’s up to the patient to keep it off.

Last year, doctors performed more than 341,000 liposuctions were performed in the U.S. With the zerona laser proving to be effective and far less painful than traditional methods, liposuction will never be the same.

National Geographic recently featured alternative methods in farming and food production proposed by scientists and agriculturists in order to address food security and global warming, which is expected to reduce crop yields, worsen food shortages and increase food prices.

Global warming will revolutionize the way we farm and grow food, according to several biotechnologists and agriculture experts.

It will trigger the diversification of crops and force farmers all around the world to adjust from the traditional homogenized crop farming. Because global warming changes rainfall patterns, temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations in the air, farmers must adapt to these changes.

Plant geneticist Stephen Jones of Washington State University is a proponent of diversification. He indicated that while homogenization has expedited the volume of food grown on larger tracts of land, it has also become difficult for farms that implement this strategy to adapt to the changes effected by global warming.

According to Jones, what is needed is a variation that the environment can work on.

There is a need to maximize land area in order to grow crops to feed an exponentially growing population. There are already existing hi-tech greenhouse gases that grow crops through hydroponics, a technique that uses nutrient-enriched water and minimal area. Basing on these concepts, some scientists are proposing the so-called “vertical farming,” which puts farming staple grains and greens at the heart of urban centers in high-rise buildings.

Dickson Despommier of New York’s Columbia University believes that vertical farming could grow enough food for billions while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that come from cross-continental shipping of agricultural produce.

Vertical farming as an idea has been criticized Bruce Bugbee, a crop physiologist at Logan’s Utah State University, who thinks it is too expensive since it can utilize gigawatts of power for growing the crops indoor. However, Despommier revealed that architects are currently creating buildings that can harvest natural light at the maximum level.

Rumors swirled around GlaxoSmithKline’s popular alli diet pill after the Food and Drug Administration announced it was investigating the possibility of liver damage. However, no clear evidence has emerged that alli can cause any liver damage. In fact, the FDA has recommended that users continue to use alli as directed by their primary physician.

Orlistat, the active ingriedient in the alli diet pills, has minimal absorption into the blood, and works mostly in the gastro-intestinal system. Because of where alli is active, there is no obvious connection between the alli diet plan and any effects on the liver.

Another aspect that must be taken into consideration is that many obese people already have preexisting liver conditions. According to the FDA, an estimated 15-20% of obese people have injured their liver due to excess fat in the liver. What’s more, the gradual weight loss that a person can attain from alli diet pills can help prevent liver injury and improve liver function.

Orlistat has been available to the general public since 1998. Out of the 40 million people who have used the drug, including the 6 million alli users, only two cases of liver damage have been reported. The orlistat in alli has been extensively studied and tested, with 100 clinical studies surveying more than 30,000 human test subjects.

Safety is priority number one for GSK, and the alli pills are no exception. GSK continues to test alli and orlistat, and closely monitors the drug’s effect on its patients. The August 24th announcement is just part of the FDA’s policy of publicly sharing information directly with consumers and healthcare professionals. As far as the FDA and GSK are concerned, alli’s track record speaks for itself. It’s a safe way to lose weight.

Anyone with concerns should talk to their doctor or pharmacist. For more information on the safety and efficacy of alli, please visit www.myalli.com and/or call 1-800-671-2554.

Forbes.com featured a story on New Jersey-based attorney Marty Shenkman’s volunteer work in aid of persons with chronic illnesses. Shenkman’s wife, Patti Klein, had been diagnosed in 2006 with multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS) characterized with mild or severe symptoms, from numbness to paralysis or vision loss.

From that time, Shenkman and wife had dedicated their time and energy to raising funds for the National MS Society, a national non-profit that focuses on research work and advocacy on MS.

Aided by their family and a group of friends, the couple has raised over $44,000 out of MS walkathons. Shenkman then thought of a more productive way to help not only MS patients, but all chronically ill individuals. He shifted his mode of giving to something he does best at – lawyering.

Shenkman has, for the past few years, volunteered hundreds of pro bono services to people with chronic illness. An estate planner who charges $500 an hour, he has devoted his time aiding people with chronic illness for free on how to plan their estate and manage their financial affairs.

Shenkman observed how his wife ran her professional life despite being afflicted with a chronic illness. As a result, he realized that people are wrong when they misjudge chronic illness as something that impairs ill patients cognitively, of which they must give up to a certain degree their control over their estate and finances to other people.

To supplement his free legal services, he published self-help estate planning books for the chronically ill, including Estate Planning for People with a Chronic Condition or Disability and Funding the Cure, with royalties on both going to charity. These books give helpful advice ranging from donations of household items, appreciate stock and retirement assets, trusts and bargains. He is currently writing a book for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

To say that our lives are driven by technology is no overstatement. Information technology, particularly the Internet, has single-handedly expanded the horizon of possibilities for everyone. And that’s just one form of technology; there’s an entire industry full of them!

Communication technology, for instance, has brought people closer together. Distance has been rendered irrelevant with the advent of mobile, all-in-one phones. Then there are specific technologies for the myriad of professional work at present. In the medical field, breakthroughs in health and medicine are all made possible through research that makes use of modern technology. In actual medical operations, lasers, x-rays, prosthetics and microscopes have saved countless lives. Businesses are also heavily influenced by technology. Companies that manufacture goods rely on the production capacity of their equipment; the more advanced, the more efficient their processes become. Research and development in product innovation is recognized as a crucial department in the modern organization. The only way businesses with international divisions can thrive is with the use of technology for sales, accounting, marketing, etc.

Other technology fields include aerospace, agricultural, biotech, construction, environmental, process and chemical, transportation, geographic information systems and the ever-developing microtech and nanotech.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sums up the benefits of technology as something that empowers people to become productive and creative; something that allows people to learn things they didn’t think they could learn before. For Steve Ballmer, technology is all about potential. And many people have found success in harnessing that potential as a professional career choice.

Career choices in the technology field include:

• Chief Information Officer, Management Information Systems worker, IT manage, Data Analyst: Recent years have seen the rise of information officers in a company, even in non-strictly technological ones. The position of CIO is a recognized board level position, the role upgrading the level of the IT Director. The much-valued MIS team handles the creation and maintenance of processes and practices supporting the flow of information. They are also consulted in the creation of company strategies, in order to integrate technology in improving the competitive advantage of a business.
• Software and Application Developers/Analyst/Engineers: These are the people responsible for the creation of new programs that are meant to make our lives easier, whether it’s for school, work or fun. Involved in the software development process, they are involved in business problem analysis, writing/coding, testing, deployment and bug fixing. Beyond being technically competent, these are visionary employees who seek to provide the best business solutions they could think of.

Other less commonly-known jobs include that of information/data architect, enterprise project manager, desktop virtualization expert, storage directors, and statistical analysis system (SAS) managers.

More and more jobs are created to cope with the growing demand for technology across industries. To stay ahead of the curve, it pays to know more about the latest trends and developments in this field. This can easily be done through online sites such as:

• For mobile technology updates, forum, rankings, glossary and a lot of other neat stuff : www.gsmarena.com
• A wider range of gadget information as well as reviews can be found in: www.engadget.com, www.gizmodo.com
• Useful downloads as well as online tricks of the trade: www.lifehacker.com, www.downloadsquad.com
• Up-to-the-minute news on significant technology developments: www.allthingsd.com, www.silicon.com, www.gizmag.com , www.gizmag.com, www.technologyreview.com

To say that our lives are driven by technology is no overstatement. Information technology, particularly the Internet, has single-handedly expanded the horizon of possibilities for everyone. And that’s just one form of technology; there’s an entire industry full of them!

Communication technology, for instance, has brought people closer together. Distance has been rendered irrelevant with the advent of mobile, all-in-one phones. Then there are specific technologies for the myriad of professional work at present. In the medical field, breakthroughs in health and medicine are all made possible through research that makes use of modern technology. In actual medical operations, lasers, x-rays, prosthetics and microscopes have saved countless lives. Businesses are also heavily influenced by technology. Companies that manufacture goods rely on the production capacity of their equipment; the more advanced, the more efficient their processes become. Research and development in product innovation is recognized as a crucial department in the modern organization. The only way businesses with international divisions can thrive is with the use of technology for sales, accounting, marketing, etc.

Other technology fields include aerospace, agricultural, biotech, construction, environmental, process and chemical, transportation, geographic information systems and the ever-developing microtech and nanotech.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sums up the benefits of technology as something that empowers people to become productive and creative; something that allows people to learn things they didn’t think they could learn before. For Steve Ballmer, technology is all about potential. And many people have found success in harnessing that potential as a professional career choice.

Career choices in the technology field include:

• Chief Information Officer, Management Information Systems worker, IT manage, Data Analyst: Recent years have seen the rise of information officers in a company, even in non-strictly technological ones. The position of CIO is a recognized board level position, the role upgrading the level of the IT Director. The much-valued MIS team handles the creation and maintenance of processes and practices supporting the flow of information. They are also consulted in the creation of company strategies, in order to integrate technology in improving the competitive advantage of a business.

• Software and Application Developers/Analyst/Engineers:
These are the people responsible for the creation of new programs that are meant to make our lives easier, whether it’s for school, work or fun. Involved in the software development process, they are involved in business problem analysis, writing/coding, testing, deployment and bug fixing. Beyond being technically competent, these are visionary employees who seek to provide the best business solutions they could think of.

Other less commonly-known jobs include that of information/data architect, enterprise project manager, desktop virtualization expert, storage directors, and statistical analysis system (SAS) managers.

More and more jobs are created to cope with the growing demand for technology across industries. To stay ahead of the curve, it pays to know more about the latest trends and developments in this field. This can easily be done through online sites such as:

• For mobile technology updates, forum, rankings, glossary and a lot of other neat stuff : www.gsmarena.com
• A wider range of gadget information as well as reviews can be found in: www.engadget.com, www.gizmodo.com
• Useful downloads as well as online tricks of the trade: www.lifehacker.com, www.downloadsquad.com
• Up-to-the-minute news on significant technology developments: www.allthingsd.com, www.silicon.com, www.gizmag.com , www.technologyreview.com.

An article from Longmont Times-Call titled “Amgen Hands Out $175K to Agencies” describes how the Thousand Oaks, California-based biotech company Amgen donated the sum of $175,000 to nonprofit organizations in Boulder County, Colo. It gave out $25,000 each to seven charitable organizations including The OUR Center, Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, The Emergency Family Assistance Association, The Sister Carmen Community Center, Community Food Share, Aging Services Foundation of Boulder County, and HospiceCare of Boulder and Broomfield Counties.

According to Amgen spokeswoman Diana Sherman-Palmer, the company wanted to take the extra mile in giving assistance to those who need help in a time of financial crisis. Moreover, this gesture is just one of the many that the company gives through its foundation and its employees’ volunteer time.

Founded in 1980, Amgen Inc. is an international biotechnology company that is considered as the largest independent biotech firm with around 17,500 employees and revenues of $14.77 billion as of 2007. The company employs cellular biology and medicinal chemistry in curing inflammatory disorders, kidney ailments, metabolic diseases, and cancers. Its leading drugs include Epogen and Aranesp for anemia; and Enbrel — which has become one of the best-selling drugs in the market — for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Other drugs include Vectibix for colon cancer, Kepivance for oral mucositis, Neupogen and Neulasta for neutropenia, Sensipar for secondary hyperparathyroidism, Nplate for chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura, and Kineret for rheumatoid arthritis.

Amgen is a blending of the company’s original name, which was Applied Molecular Genetics.

Article Source: Amgen hands out $175K to agencies

More Amgen News:

• Analysts maintain positive outlook for Amgen
• Amgen leads employers in annual game

On Feb. 19, 2009, UNESCO released the online version of its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, identifying some 2,500 endangered languages from around the world. The paper version of the atlas’ 2009 edition to be launched in May was funded by Norway, engaging a group of more than 30 linguists.

UNESCO has revealed around 2,500 languages in danger of extinction out of a total of 6,900 languages that are being used today. This sends out an alarming call to societies considering that the last atlas compiled back in 2001 listed 900 languages in danger of extinction.

Based on the degrees of endangerment designated by UNESCO, there are 538 languages that are critically endangered, 502 are severely endangered, and 632 are definitely endangered while 607 are unsafe.

Meanwhile, a significant number of languages have already journeyed down the road to extinction. In fact, over 200 languages have gone extinct over the last three generations. The Ubykh in Turkey has already been wiped out. Aasax in Tanzania has disappeared by now. The same can be said of Tefvic Esenc, the Alaskan native language Eyak, and Manx in the Isle of Man.

There are 199 languages in the world spoken by less than 10-12 people. The Indonesian language Lengilu now only has four speakers who remain alive while only six people use Karaim in Ukraine. There is now only one living native speaker of the Latvian language Livonian.

According to Christopher Moseley, Australian linguist and editor of the Atlas’ 3rd edition, the endangerment of language is a universal phenomenon. Linguists also said that an endangered language is not necessarily restricted to small or remote countries. India holds the most number of endangered languages with 196. United States is next with 192, followed by Indonesia with 147. Moreover, UNESCO predicted that languages in the Sub-Saharan Africa would reduce by at least 10% over the coming century.

In the United States, Wichita has merely 10 speakers in Oklahoma while no more than 35 people in northeast Wisconsin speak Menomonee. Gros Ventre of north-central Montana has fewer than 10 speakers and all of them are elderly with no one fully fluent.

For this reason, the UNESCO’s Endangered Languages Programme seeks to stimulate cooperation among countries so they can take heed of this disturbing situation. It also seeks to foster solutions from authorities, experts, and communities for the preservation of these languages.

UNESCO deputy director Francoise Riviere stressed the need for people to be proud of speaking their language in order for it to thrive. Efforts have been made by some societies to revive their languages. Cornish, for instance, is now being revived in Cornwall, southern England. Livonian in Latvia, Sishee in New Caledonia, and Hebrew are also being revived.

Related Sources:

• UNESCO lists the degrees of endangerment categorized based on language transmission.
• UNESCO provides an interactive atlas of the world’s languages in danger
• UNESCO features an article on safeguarding languages in peril.

Corporate data breaches are on the serious rise. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of reported data breaches reported grew 47% in 2008 over 2007. Experts believe that situation will only grow worse in 2009.

The problem has become so widespread that the Federal Trade Commission has now mandated that the data security of all financial institutions, creditors, and other related business become more stringent by May 1, 2009. These strict new requirements are called the Red Flag Rules, which orders all these businesses to create, document, and execute exact procedures how they will respond to and prevent identity theft.

In response to these new federal regulations, The Affinion Security Center has published the Data Breach Response Guide. This free-to-download publication provides case studies, best practices, and sample written plans to deal with identity theft and data breaches, and how companies can comply with the Red Flag Rules.

The Affinion Security Center is very experienced in the field of data security. The company helps companies with data security through its BreachShield program, an all-inclusive system that includes support services, drafting of notification letters, and list management. The Affinion Security Center has recently supplemented BreachShield with CardCorps, a service that monitors chat rooms for stolen data and issues Automated Fraud Alerts for suspicious credit activities.

Tim Lukens, Senior Vice President of Corporate Solutions at Affinion Security Center, believes every company should carefully study the Data Breach Response Guide. “The Data Breach Response Guide contains valuable information on how to respond to a breach, alert customers, choose resolution services and defend a company financially and from reputational damage due to the devastating effects of data loss,” he said. “The guide comes to market at a critical time, as law enforcement develops stricter laws for companies that handle consumer data and harsher penalties for corporations that mismanage data breaches.”

The cost to business can be devastating. According to the Ponemon Institute 2009 survey, customers are likely to stop doing business with banks, health care companies and large retailers when a data breach occurs. The same study determined that more than 68% of the $6.65 million lost due to a data breach come from customer attrition.

The purpose of Affinion’s Data Breach Response Guide is to assist companies in setting up an “Incident Response Plan” to prepare for a possible data breach. The Guide also addresses how to protect a business relationship after a breach occurs. As the Affinion Security Center stresses, how fast a company responds to a security breach is of paramount importance. Not only a fast response limits the amount of data stolen or lost, but it also shapes how customers feel about a company’s safety.

Article Source: Affinion Security Center Publishes Data Breach Response Guide

• Verizon Breach Report challenges preconceived notions
• Chronicle of Data Breaches

Additional Affinion News:

• Affinion is profiled on the Forbes Largest Private Companies.
• Affinion Survey: Users Vulnerable To Tax and Employment Identity Theft
• Trilegiant secures patent for loyalty program
• Affinion Security Center Survey Finds Identity Theft Impacts Women More Than Men
• Affinion Group offering a $125 million add-on to its senior notes via Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.

In the United States, many people are getting up-to-date with their electronic devices and are cleaning their homes to make room for the more advanced TV sets and such. However, for the Environmental Protection Agency and activists who are concerned about soil, water and air pollution, careless ditching of old appliance is seen as something that must be hindered, if not stopped entirely.

EPA has made efforts to reduce pollution caused by careless waste management of electronic devices, such as TV sets and PC monitors, to name a few. Also called electronic waste, old appliance such as TVs contribute largely to pollution if not properly disposed of. EPA estimates that there about almost 100 million unused old TV sets sitting idly in millions of American households.

The call to surrender old TV sets to electronic waste recycling events has been quite effective, with many people coming out and lining to hand their decrepit electronic garbage to the EPA.

An old TV can be reduced to usable parts, as there are substantial amounts of cadmium, chromium, barium, and traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps of some flat screens.

For people who still own old types of television sets, EPA suggests that the best way to keep them is to use them. EPA is only after the unused ones to ensure that they are properly discarded and reduced to parts that are harmless to the environment.

TVs that are equipped with cathode-ray tubes, also known as the non-flat screen TVs, must not be disposed in landfills. There are already state-regulated laws that focus on TV disposal. According to Barbara Kyle of the San Francisco-based Electronics TakeBack Coalition, six states have already declared that improper disposal of TV sets is illegal. Five other states are slated to follow in 2010.

In a recycling event held in El Cerrito, California, TV sets were turned over for the recycling process.

The first step is dismantling the plastic case by removing the screws. Sometimes, a few medium taps with hammer is needed to loosen the really old ones. The cords are then taken out and put into a waiting bin. These are stripped of their copper. The fun part, according to the dismantlers, is the breaking of the vacuum seal on the cathode ray tube. Breaking this device is important since an intact cathode ray tube can “go off like a bomb” if it is accidentally dropped.

Using a hammer and an awl, methodical strikes are then made in the hole left in the tube when the air was sucked out of the tube when it was made. This helps fill in the vacuum safely.

Once the tube is broken, five to seven pounds worth of reusable lead can be collected from the funnel of the tube. However, the lead can only be extracted from recycling plants. Along with the funnel, the screens are also sent to the plants where they are melted down for reuse in new cathode-ray tubes.

In contrast, the old school method of dismantling a TV set is toxic not only to the environment but for the dismantlers as well. Recycling plants in Asia, according to the Basel Convention, follow hazardous processes that potentially poison the workers.

Additional Information:

Take Back Coalition’s The Problem with Electronics.

California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s analysis of e-waste.

This USAToday article warns to be very careful when you recycle e-waste.

by Smit Mathur

Organizations and huge businesses completely rely on computers for accessing important information. Some major problems may arise in case of operator errors, user misunderstanding or system failures. These services provide Business IT support for the proper working of the whole system as well as individual workstations.

Network Support is all about understanding and applying the entire technical knowledge for the smooth working of an organization or business.

It is the responsibility of Computer Support Service to ensure the effortless running of all the computer systems. Business IT Support tasks may vary depending upon the infrastructure and size of the organization or business.

Some of the main responsibilities of IT Support service have been listed below:

• Providing proper PC support to all the email requests and telephone calls from the users regarding PC software, hardware and all the other associated peripherals.
• Logging IT support calls and documenting their detailed outcome in order to provide a basic solution for all the common queries.
• Escalating or redirecting Network Support requests to the concerned associate of the IT support centre.
• Providing pro-active information to the users about the progress of their outstanding Business IT Support calls.
• Contributing to ensure that all the software and the help desk systems are being kept up-to-date.
• Ensuring that all the messages are being passed on properly and a prompt feedback is being received.
• Taking care of the deployment and redeployment of PCs and their associated peripherals along with the existing equipments.
• Installing and configuring operating systems as per the agreed standards.
• Marinating the existing PCs and all the other associated peripherals by performing new installations, upgrades and routine procedures.
• Helping the Business IT Support assistants in developing their technical knowledge and skills in accordance with front-line Network Support.
• Assisting in maintenance and compilation of an appropriate inventory of software and hardware.
• Instantly establishing a healthy working rapport with all the other professionals for smooth running of the organization.
• Evaluating after testing the imminent technologies.
• Checking all the computer equipments for electrical safety.

The main aim of Business IT support and Network Support services is to find solutions to all those problems that can hinder the smooth working of an organization or business. On searching, you can easily find a number of companies offering Computer Support and PC support but it is better to find an authentic It support service for the proper functioning of your organization.

Smit Mathur is an expert for writing Articles and currently working for SwiftComputers. For more information related to IT support, IT services, PC support, computer support, please visit: http://www.swiftcomputers.com.au/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Smit_Mathur

Additional Information:

Why you should outsource your Technical Services.

How to know you’re getting good technical support.

A collection of amusing anecdotes from the tech help support desk.

As with any new medication, a lot of false rumors are flying around about GlaxoSmithKline’s weight loss pill alli. Some people have claimed that alli is responsible for their upset stomach, diarrhea, or excessive gas. Once these negative stories go around, people might think that everyone will get these symptoms if they try alli.

But here are the facts:

• If you don’t follow the alli plan closely, you may experience the mentioned side effects. Alli is not a miracle drug that will magically make your weight loss disappear. You must follow alli’s sensible, healthy diet plan to enjoy its full benefits.
• If you eat continue to eat foods high in fat, alli cannot be as effective as it can be.
• If you do eat a sensible diet based on alli’s recommendations, alli can and will help you lose weight quickly, and keep it off.

How does alli work?

Alli decreases the absorption of fat from the food you eat. Within your stomach and intestines, enzymes called lipases break down fat into smaller parts, which your digestive tract then absorbs in turn. What alli does is binds itself to lipases and limits their activity. The result is a decrease in fat absorption. Alli does not have any effect on carbohydrates or protein.

Benefits of alli

If the user follows a sensible and healthy diet, alli can give remarkable results. On average, Alli stops the absorption of 25% of the fat in the diet. Alli can help people lose 50% more weight than if they only dieted. Of course, the weight loss depends on many factors, including your diet, exercise habits, and personal body chemistry, but the FDA says users can expect modest weight loss, which would be about 1 to 2 pounds a week.

Another important thing to remember is that if you skip a meal, you should also skip the dose of alli. Also, if you do miss a dose, DO NOT take a double dose. As stated before, alli must be accompanied by a sensible, low-fat meal. The FDA recommends that fat should account for no more than 30% of your diet.

If the user follows the directions carefully, and consults with their doctor, alli is a safe and effective way to keep off those pounds. Alli is more than just a pill to make you lose weight; it’s a comprehensive program to transform your lifestyle by helping you embrace healthy habits. What alli does, in effect, is make the healthy lifestyle easier by speeding up the effects of a good, sensible, and nutritious diet.

Sample press releases for alli:

• alli™ – the OTC weight loss product – on shelves nationwide in the US later this week.
• GSK receives positive opinion for new non-prescription weight loss treatment alli to help in the fight against obesity across Europe.
• GSK addresses concerns about alli and its effects on the liver.