iblog

Rushda: Facebook’s popularity has sky-rocketed over the past few years - from a small site designed for university-based social networking into a huge and indispensable tool for millions worldwide. Now that applications have been introduced, Facebook has become even more versatile than before, with many earning money from their programs. Even better is that now, in a new move to improve Facebook even more, software developers can be given up to £125,000 to develop applications for the site.

Currently, there are around 4,000 small programs of varying quality embedded onto profiles on the site, covering everything from dating to music to utilities for your profile. But Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg wants firms and individuals to create even more “innovative and disruptive programs.” At the TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco he recently announced that grants will come out of a $10m pot and be given for great ideas to boost Facebook’s popularity further. As the founder says:

“We’re doing this at Facebook to support the ecosystem and help it grow. Any application developer can submit their application and a little business proposal to us. If we think the project is good, we will give a grant for somewhere between $25,000 to $250,000.”

The only restriction is that companies can’t have made any money from their idea previously - Facebook should be the first avenue in which their ideas “get off the ground.”

Rushda: Our traditional image of a doctor in a long-sleeved white coat will soon be shattered as regulations are coming into place which forbid doctors from wearing such overalls for fear of transmitting bacteria. Far from being the symbol of cleanliness it once was, doctor’s coats have been found to be in fact harbouring germs, and by early next year they will be replaced with different clothing.

According to the Department of Health, it is the cuffs of the traditional coats which are most like to be contaminated, so a new style of coat will be introduced with shorter sleeves. Further rules include the banning of jewellery and watches as these can also transmit infection, and the wearing of ties will also be discouraged.

The new rules for what doctors can and cannot wear are only of a number of steps Health Secretary Alan Johnson is taking to combat the serious problem of infection in hospitals - indeed in some cases of infection, such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, they have even been known to be fatal.

Cleanliness in hospitals has long been in the cards for improvement but now, finally, a stricter regime will be in place. For example, now all matrons must report hygiene concerns to hospital boards four times a year, and hospital managers will also have a legal duty to report all instances of contamination to Health Protection Agency (HPA). As Mr Johnson says of the new clothing measures:

“I’m determined that patient safety, including cleanliness, should be the first priority of every NHS organisation. Today’s package of measures will give more responsibility to matrons and set guidelines on clothing that will help ensure thorough hand washing and prevent the spread of infections. This is a clear signal to patients that doctors, nurses and other clinical staff are taking their safety seriously.”

For those patients who do become infected by deadly hospital-related diseases, hospitals will be given better guidance over how to deal with them, with more single rooms being used and those with the same infection being treated together.

All this serves as a positive step forward in order to combat the terrible problems of hospital hygiene. Now after the new rules are put in place in England, both Scotland and Wales will be considering similar measures as well.

Rushda: Everyone knows how disgusting it is to find pieces of used chewing gum stuck to pavements, tables, and all sorts of other places, so it is good news that scientists in the UK have finally developed gum that does not stick. This will mean it is easier to remove than the current gum that is on sale.

The gum has been manufactured by chemical company Revolymer, from Bristol. They have developed a special material that can be added to the gum’s ingredients to make it easier for the gum to be removed from surfaces. A number of tests have been conducted to check the effects of the new polymers that have been added to gum, and have shown that they are even effective on hair, which is usually impossible to break free from gum once attached. As head of research Professor Terence Cosgrove, has said of the new procedure:

“The hydrophilic coating means that you always get a film of water around the gum and that is one of the reasons it is easy to remove - and, in some cases, doesn’t stick at all.”

Revolymer claims that using the new technology it will be able to fight the nuisance of gum deposits, which are said to cost thousands of pounds to clean up each year. Only recently, statistics have shown that London’s Westminster Council had to spend more than £100,000 a year to remove chewing gum from its streets.

All that needs to be done now is for the new invention to pass European health and safety tests, after which it could be in the shops as early as next year, and hence saving the government thousands of pounds.

Rushda: A plane from budget airline One-Two-Go crashed upon landing today in the Thai holiday resort of Phuket and killed at least 87 people. The plane was travelling from the capital, Bangkok, and it is believed that most of the passengers were internationals, with some Britons amongst them as well. Both the pilot and the co-pilot survived.

Though officials are still unsure as to how such a terrible catastrophe occurred, it is believed that strong winds and heavy rain contributed to the crash. The pilot had originally asked to abort the landing of the plane but it still ended up falling onto the runaway and slipping off it, after which it exploded into flames. Up to half of the passengers managed to crawl out of the wreckage, many of which are now in intensive care being treated for their severe burns. As a survivor Parinwit Chusaeng explains:

“I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane. I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode, so I ran away.”

At least 70 of the passengers are believed to have been foreign nationals from countries such as Australia, Britain, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

The crash is indeed a terrible tragedy - being the worst one in almost ten years in Thailand. Hopefully the ones who are being treated will make good recovery.

Virgil: Those of you who have tried to set up a fast, free website - whilst also providing it with a catchy domain name - will have heard of Dot TK. Fewer, however, will have heard of the island Tokelau. But revenue generated from Dot TK has been generating 10% of Tokelau’s GDP since it began offering such a service in 2001.

When people make quick and simple websites - little hompages, or sites to advertise one event - they usually want to do it for free. This means signing up with a free hosting company - which is all well and good, but means that the ultimate internet address used to get to the site will include the company’s name, making your site’s name a non-central part of the address. For instance, if you sign up with Yahoo’sGeocities, your ultimate address will be www.geocities.com/yourpage, and if you sign up with Lycos-provided service Tripod, your ultimate address will be yourpage.tripod.com. 3 clicks away from this is www.dot.tk, where you can get yourself a much catchier address like www.yourpage.tk. Although the service is free, Dot TK sites come with targeted banner adverts, and these are what generate the island’s income.

The “.tk” part of the address is called the domain. Whereas the more expensive and definitive “.com” domain refers to websites which are commercial, and the common “.org” domain is used for organisations, Dot TK is what’s known as a country-level domain, specific to Tokelau. All these domains are registered through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - and whilst it has always been obvious that a Dot Com domain was needed for companies, it took a lot of persuasion to initially allow a domain specific to Tokelau. It was Joost Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur, who presented the case for his investment:

“It was a four year process. They didn’t believe the contract or even the island were real and it was only because a member of the board had been to Tokelau in 1978 that they finally agreed it was OK.”

Since 2001, millions of mini-website makers have been drawn to the attractive address Dot TK offers, bringing in huge revenue from advertising. With every domain registered, the Dot TK Company donates an undisclosed amount to Tokelau’s miniature economy: in 2007 contributing 10%. This has in turn enabled the tiny nation to start using the internet more; back in 2001 there were 12 computers on the island, now there are over 200, including ones in internet cafés. There is broadband internet, and people make phone calls no longer with radios but with Skype. The inhabitants have even been discovering YouTube, MySpace and music downloads. Even better, Tokelau hospitals are now able to receive medical advice from experts overseas.

Rushda: The person we often see on television programmes translating spoken words into sign-language could soon become a computerised avatar. Researchers at IBM have developed a technology that can detect and translate speech, then produce corresponding sign-language gestures, and this flexible new method may soon be used in a variety of different fields.

The system is called SiSi, short for Say It Sign It, and it was in fact created by a group of students. It uses speech recognition to animate a digital character. An intriguing video of it being used can be seen on this clip. The technology has gained approval from the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) who are excited by the developments. As a spokesperson from RNID, director of new technologies Guido Gybels says:

“RNID welcomes any development that would make the information society a more equal place for deaf and hard of hearing people. Sign language users are among the most disenfranchised citizens as a result of services and products not being designed with their needs in mind.”

He explains, however, that it may be quite a while before the system becomes common in everyday use as there is so much that needs to be done to boost the accuracy of the device and also make it easy to attach to appliances. Nevertheless, the technology is great news as there is a serious need in the UK for more facilities for the deaf, with a human interpreter not always being available. Computerised sign-language will eventually make it easy for meetings, radio and TV to employ automatic services for the deaf.

Rushda: A dramatic turn of events has made the nation question the apparent guilt of Gerry and Kate McCann - parents of the four-year-old girl who went missing in the Algarve, Portugal. What would have once been an unthinkable accusation has now almost become something of a certainty, as police and forensics put together more clues which could bring charges against the couple, who are now considered suspects.

Important discoveries - from the findings of blood and hair in a vehicle rented 25 days after the reported disappearance, to a confiscated laptop and diary - may reveal important clues. What is also particularly suspicious is that the couple refused to answer over 40 questions posed to them during questioning. The couple, who are doctors, insist that they had no part to play in Madeleine’s death and plead that the investigation to find her continues. Though they have returned to the UK they will still cooperate with the investigation. As Gerry said in a speech after reaching home:

“Whilst it is heartbreaking to return to the UK without Madeleine, it does not mean we are giving up our search for her. As parents, we can not give up on our daughter till we know what’s happened. Our return is with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police. Despite there being much to say, we are unable to do so except to say this: we have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter Madeleine.”

No one knows whether the little toddler is dead or alive, and what really happened on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance may always remain a mystery.

Rushda: An new study has shown that workers who spend time on popular social-networking sites such as Facebook could be costing their employers dearly for their procrastination, with alarming results showing an estimated £130m a day of loss. Though some businesses have already banned Facebook, it is still a serious issue for those who remain unaware.

The research, which was conducted by employment law firm Peninsula, was based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies. The results show that 233 million hours are lost each month as a result of employees wasting time on Facebook instead of working. Leading researcher Mike Huss, a director of employment law at Peninsula, urges that businesses have a more strict regime when it comes social-networking when at work. He argues that there is a huge loss of productivity and says:

“Why should employers allow their workers to waste two hours a day on Facebook when they are being paid to do a job? The figures that we have calculated are minimums and it’s a problem that I foresee will escalate.”

Though the study has found that there has been a huge loss of productivity due to Facebook, the decision to ban it isn’t that simple. Indeed, some companies have allowed workers to use it because it motivates and refreshes them if they can have some leisure time during work hours. It could indeed be that, while less work gets done when using Facebook, the quality of work is still much better and employees have more enthusiasm during the day.

Most agree that the best plan of action is not to ban Facebook altogether but limit and monitor its use, i.e. by allowing it during lunch breaks and so on.

Rushda: It is something most of us take no notice of when it comes to listening to music on our MP3 players, but new findings have shown alarming links between high use of music players and loss of hearing. Apparently more than two-thirds of young people who use MP3 players regularly are on course for premature hearing damage because the volume is too high.

The warnings come from the charity The Royal National Institute for Deaf People, who believe that the issue is very serious, especially as millions of MP3 players are sold each year, often to young children. They argue that manufacturers should put clear warnings on their packaging to alert users of the potential dangers. They also advise users to invest in in-ear filters for any headphones they use as they cut out background noise and make it less tempting to increase the volume as a result.

The research has found that the majority of users of MP3 players play their music too loud, with 72 out of the 110 users they tested in Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham listening to volumes over 85 decibels (the recommended limit to protect your ears). You might not think it, but this is the equivalent of a loud alarm clock continuously ringing next to you. Not only this, but the charity found that over half the users they studied listened to their player for more than an hour a day and a quarter listening for more than 21 hours a week.

What is most worrying is that the majority of those who were studied were unaware of the risk they were putting themselves in, with almost 60% having never been concerned about it and almost 80% never having seen any warnings on packaging. The latter is particularly serious news and the charity believes that manufacturers should take action. As Brian Lamb, chief executive of RNID, says:

“MP3 manufacturers have a responsibility to make their customers aware of the dangers by printing clear warnings on packaging and linking volume controls to decibel levels. It’s easy to crank up the sound levels on your MP3 player to damagingly loud levels, especially on busy streets or public transport. But if people can hear the music from your headphones from just a metre away, you’re putting your hearing at risk.”

Music does not have to be at deafening levels to be enjoyable, and it is important for everyone, especially young people, to take care of their hearing by understanding the dangers and acting accordingly.

Rushda: Ever found yourself helplessly yawning when you’ve seen someone else yawn? Well new research shows that this could say a lot about the type of person you are: no, not lazy, but empathetic. Apparently a susceptibility to infectious yawning shows that you have a high level of social empathy.

The studies, which come from the University of Leeds, show that even though yawning is common in many species, only some humans and their close animal relatives find yawning infectious, which suggests that it has a more psychological basis. As leading researcher, psychologist Dr Catriona Morrison says:

“Contagious yawning is a very interesting behaviour. You don’t need a visual cue, you don’t even need an auditory cue - you can just read about it or think about it and it gets you going. We believe that contagious yawning indicates empathy. It indicates an appreciation of other people’s behavioural and physiological state.”

Interestingly, neuro-imaging had previously found that the same part of the brain is used when reacting to yawning as the part which considers others. During the research an interesting experiment was conducted on students to test this concept. Each student was told to sit down in a waiting room for ten minutes, unaware that the person sitting next to them was actually a researcher (or plant) who then proceeded to yawn ten times in the ten minutes. He recorded the number of times the student yawned in response. Each student was also asked to complete a test about their empathy. The study found that there was a strong link between the two - those who yawned more were the most empathetic.

What’s even more interesting is that the differences in empathy between students also had a link with the subjects they studied. For example, psychology students were the most susceptible to contagious yawning, which shows they may have more empathy - perfect for their field. Engineers and those of other disciplines that did not require as much social interaction yawned less.

All this is incredible news, especially for those for whom contagious yawning is a regular occurrence. The fact that it can be put down to a higher level of social awareness can only be a good thing.