Chinese pandas arrive in Malaysia after delay over MH370
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia welcomed a pair of pandas from China on Wednesday, after a month’s delay caused by tensions over the Malaysian airliner which disappeared in March with mostly Chinese passengers aboard.
The eight-year-old pandas — female Feng Yi (“Phoenix”) and male Fu Wa (“Lucky”) — arrived in Kuala Lumpur to an honour guard of water cannon, after a flight from Chengdu in southwestern China where they were bred. Feng Yi was briefly shown to the media before being whisked off to the national zoo with her prospective mate. She initially retreated into her cage when exposed to daylight and the clatter of camera shutters, before gaining courage and curiously peering between the bars.
“May the arrival of these two precious icons of China contribute to building an everlasting friendship and sustainable cooperation” between Malaysia and China, environment minister Palanivel Govindasamy said at a welcoming ceremony. The two countries agreed in 2012 that China would send the giant pandas for a 10-year stay, in Beijing’s latest use of “panda diplomacy”.
The pair were due to arrive on April 16 but Palanivel said at the time that before dispatching them, Beijing was awaiting further details on Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people including 153 Chinese on board. The airline and Malaysia’s government have come under withering public criticism in China over the loss, and the failure to find the plane that was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The Boeing 777 jet is believed to have have veered far off course for reasons unknown, before crashing into the remote Indian Ocean, where efforts are under way to locate its flight data recorders on the seabed. Chinese relatives of the missing passengers have accused the Malaysian flag carrier and authorities of bungling the response to the plane’s disappearance and withholding information. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Chinese authorities allowed relatives to stage a rare public protest at Malaysia’s embassy in Beijing, suggesting official support for the criticism. (AFP)
Rachmaninov score sells for $ 2.02 million
London: The 320-page handwritten manuscript of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, widely considered to be the Russian composer’s greatest work, sold for USD 2.02 million in London on Wednesday.
Sotheby’s auction house said that the score, which was discovered in a private collection in 2004 having been presumed lost after its 1908 St Petersburg premiere, was bought by a private collector. It is thought to be the sole surviving handwritten manuscript of the symphony, and has been on display at the British Library in London since 2005. The symphony, in E minor, was created in Dresden for a set of concerts organised by Rachmaninov’s cousin.
The score — heavily notated in black ink — was due to go on sale in 2004, but Rachmaninov’s family demanded it be withdrawn, saying they were the rightful owners. An agreement was reached in 2005. (AFP)
World’s smallest, fastest nanomotor created
Washington: Researchers have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date.
The team’s nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells. With the goal of powering these yet-to-be invented devices, UT Austin engineers focused on building a reliable, ultra-high-speed nanomotor that can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt.
Mechanical engineering assistant professor Donglei “Emma” Fan led a team of researchers in the successful design, assembly and testing of a high-performing nanomotor in a nonbiological setting.
The team’s three-part nanomotor can rapidly mix and pump biochemicals and move through liquids, which is important for future applications.
With all its dimensions under 1 micrometer in size, the nanomotor could fit inside a human cell and is capable of rotating for 15 continuous hours at a speed of 18,000 RPMs, the speed of a motor in a jet airplane engine. Comparable nanomotors run significantly more slowly, from 14 RPMs to 500 RPMs, and have only rotated for a few seconds up to a few minutes. To test its ability to release drugs, the researchers coated the nanomotor’s surface with biochemicals and initiated spinning. They found that the faster the nanomotor rotated, the faster it released the drugs. (ANI)
Selfie, hashtag latest words to be included in dictionary
Johannesburg: Selfie, hashtag are among some of the latest words that have been added to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
According to News 24, some of the words and definitions added to the latest edition of the dictionary are: Catfish, which means a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes.
Crowdfunding, which is the practice of soliciting financial contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online community.
Dubstep, a type of electronic dance music having prominent bass lines and syncopated drum patterns.
Fangirl, a girl or woman who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something
Hashtag: a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text, such as a tweet.
Selfie: an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera, especially for posting on social networks And social networking: the creation and maintenance of personal and business relationships, especially online. (ANI)
And the selfie capital of the world is…
Washington: London is the capital of the world when it comes to selfies, according to one web site.
Travel site Suggestme.com has researched the most popular places to take a selfie by analyzing 6.3 million social media messages from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others.
London came out in the top spot, followed by New York and Amsterdam, ABC News reported.
In New York, top selfie taking spots are Times Square and the Statue of Liberty.
In Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum is a hot spot, with Van Gogh’s sunflowers painting being particularly popular. Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Sydney, Istanbul, and Athens are the cities that complete the top 10. (ANI)
Now, robot that cares for you round the clock
Washington: A woman in Rome is enjoying 24-hour care courtesy her live-in android. The android has been named “Mr. Robin” by her. The machine consists of a tablet screen attached to a mobile unit, which is remotely connected to sensors around 94-year-old author Lea Mina Ralli’s home that monitor her vital signs and activity.
This device feeds the data to the carers who visit her regularly and signals them in a case of emergencies like a bad fall or elevated blood pressure, CNN reported.
The Italian is just one of six people who are participating in the ground-breaking trial of the GiraffPlus system – an EU-funded project which is trying to bring robots into the homes of the elderly and infirm – ahead of the commercial launch in 2015. Accompany’s Care-o-bot 3 design are currently undergoing a final trial with elderly subjects in smart homes, in which they provide many services, ranging from carrying items and opening doors, to monitoring the subject and recommending activities for them like exercise or drinking water. (ANI)
New ‘smart’ fan follows you around the room
Tokyo: A Japanese company has developed a new human sensing electric fan that follows you around the room and turns off on its own when you leave the place. The fan created by Irisohyama Inc automatically adjusts the horizontal swing angle of its head with the help of a human presence sensor. The device called ‘Human-sensing Oscillating Fan’ does not swing its head too widely and can efficiently send a wind to an area where there is a human. The fan comes with a price tag of USD 176 and Irisohyama aims to sell about 25,000 units in the first year, ‘TechOn’ reported. (PTI)