President Obama, Gap shopper, bought for his family

In town to headline a pair of Democratic fundraisers, President Obama stopped by a Gap store in New York City to pick up some gifts to bring back home while also commending the clothing chain for increasing its minimum wage.

The president told a sales associate in the nearly empty store that he was shopping for his wife and two daughters when he made the unannounced stop Tuesday afternoon.

After a quick scan of the options, Obama settled on a stack of sweaters. The employee recommended a V-neck, but the president was concerned.

China releases satellite images of possible Malaysia jet crash site

A Chinese military agency on Wednesday released satellite imagery of large pieces of debris floating in the South China Sea along the planned flight path of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet with 239 on board, news agencies in Beijing reported.

The images were captured early Sunday, a day after Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was last heard from on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said, the Associated Press quoted the New China News Agency as reporting. Bloomberg and CNN also carried reports citing the Chinese government.

Nasa seeks coders to hunt asteroids

US space agency Nasa is seeking coders who could help prevent a global catastrophe by identifying asteroids that may crash into Earth.

Its Asteroid Data Hunter contest will offer $35,000 (£21,000) to programmers who can identify asteroids captured by ground-based telescopes.

The winning solution must increase the detection rate and minimise the number of false positives.

Scientists are increasingly calling for help to make sense of vast data sets.

Four new gases that harm ozone layer found

Scientists have detected four new man-made gases that damage the Earth's protective ozone layer, despite bans on almost all production of similar gases under a 1987 treaty, a study showed on Sunday.

The experts were trying to pinpoint industrial sources of tiny traces of the new gases, perhaps used in making pesticides or refrigerants, that were found in Greenland's ice and in air samples in Tasmania.

The ozone layer shields the planet from damaging ultra-violet rays, which can cause skin cancer and eye cataracts, and has been recovering after a phase-out of damaging chemicals under the UN's 1987 Montreal Protocol.

Otter eats crocodile alive

They may appear cute and cuddly, but as one alligator soon learned, otters can be vicious predators.

These photos show an otter overpowering a juvenile gator and despite the reptile doing its best, it was no match for the fanged weasel-cousin.

The animals were spotted at Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in Florida,USA where it soon became clear that the otter was in it to win it.

Great white shark's epic ocean trek

A great white shark called Lydia is about to make history as the first of its species to be seen crossing from one side of the Atlantic to the other. 

The satellite-tagged 4.4m-long female is currently swimming above the mid-Atlantic ridge - which marks a rough boundary line between east and west. 

Lydia was first tagged off Florida as part of the Ocearch scientific project. The shark has travelled more than 30,500km (19,000 miles) since the tracking device was attached.

Massive asteroid to race past Earth

A giant asteroid, 100 feet wide, is set to fly past Earth early Wednesday evening, soaring fewer than 218,000 miles from our planet, which is slightly closer than the orbit of the moon itself.

Called asteroid 2014 DX110, the extraterrestrial visitor will stay a safe distance away from our planet, experts said.

But as it barrels by at 33,000 miles per hour, the comet will present quite a spectacle. You’ll be able to watch the flyby in a live webcast directly through the website of the Slooh space telescope, as well as the VirtualTelescope.com site.

World’s Oldest Cheese Found On 3,600-Year-Old Chinese Mummies

Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe to be the world’s oldest cheese. The astonishingly well-preserved cheese was buried beneath China's Taklamakan Desert some 3,600 years ago and was affixed to the chests and necks of ancient Chinese mummies – a yummy snack for the dead to nibble on during their journey into the afterlife.

According to Discovery News, the mummies were first discovered in 1934 by a Swedish archaeologist at a 17th-century B.C. burial site known as the Small River Cemetery No. 5, which lies in the barren, dry desert of China’s northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. But the cemetery’s location was quickly forgotten, and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that a Chinese expedition, aided by GPS, was able to pinpoint the site’s whereabouts once again.  

Britain unveils the world's largest aircraft

Britain has unveiled the world's largest aircraft—a 300 feet long monster which is part plane, airship and helicopter, capable of flying non-stop for three weeks without refuelling.

This £60 million new airship is about 60 feet longer than the biggest airliners, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.

Plans are to include two hovercraft type vehicles to the bottom so that the plane can land safely even on water. Capable of carrying 50 passengers on board, the company developing it says it is expected to transport 50 tonnes of freight.

Supersonic Jet Will Use Live Displays Instead Of Windows

Windows on a Airplane apparently make the planes less aerodynamic, and military airplanes generally do not come with them, although passengers on commercial airplanes and jest are used to them.

Now Spike Aerospace, who are developing a new Supersonic Jet, have come up with a solution, instead of windows, their new jet will feature large display that will give passengers a live view of outside the plane.

One in four Americans do not know the Earth circles the Sun

Just 74 percent of respondents knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, a shocking new study into the scientific knowledge of American has found.

The survey included more than 2,200 people in the United States and was conducted by the National Science Foundation.

Ten questions about physical and biological science were on the quiz, and the average score – 6.5 correct – was barely a passing grade.

Fewer than half (48 percent) knew that human beings evolved from earlier species of animals.

The result of the survey, which is conducted every two years, will be included in a National Science Foundation report to President Barack Obama and US lawmakers.

One in three respondents said science should get more funding from the government.

Nearly 90 percent said the benefits of science outweigh any dangers, and about the same number expressed interest in learning about medical discoveries.

The National Science Foundation said nearly half of all Americans said astrology is either ‘very scientific’ or ‘sort of scientific’.

It said young people in particular were more likely than ever to consider the pseudoscience at least ‘sort of’ scientific.

‘Fewer Americans rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years,’ the 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators study report said.

‘In 2012, slightly more than half of Americans said that astrology was ‘not at all scientific,’ whereas nearly two thirds gave this response in 2010.

‘The comparable percentage has not been this low since 1983.’

Skepticism of astrology hit an all-time high in 2004, when 66 percent of Americans said astrology was total nonsense.

But each year, fewer and fewer respondents have dismissed the connections between star alignment and personality as fiction, the NSF said.

It claims the question was ‘focused on the public’s capacity to distinguish science from pseudoscience.’

Young people are also especially inclined to offer astrology scientific legitimacy, with a majority of Americans ages 18 to 24 considering the practice at least ‘sort of’ scientific, and the 25-34 age group is not far behind them.

John Besley of Michigan State University, the lead author of the report’s chapter on public attitudes toward science, told Mother Jones he thinks we need to wait ‘to see if it’s a real change’ before speculating about what the data really means, but said the data ‘popped out to me when I saw it.’

The results come just days after the recent debate between Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ and young-Earth creationist Ken Ham, but reveals perhaps views of what constitute a ‘real’ science are not as good as researchers had hoped.

By contrast, 92 percent of the Chinese public think horoscopes are untrue.

First Lady Nancy Reagan famously employed the services of an astrologer after the assassination attempt on her husband.

When asked in 1989 whether she thought astrology could be credited for her husband’s success at avoiding any further danger, she said: ‘I don’t really believe it was, but I don’t really believe it wasn’t.’


பூமி சூரியனைச் சுற்றி வருவதை அறியாத அமெரிக்கர்கள்

அமெரிக்கர்கள் அறிவியலில் ஆர்வம் கொண்டவர்கள். ஆனால் பூமி சூரியனைச் சுற்றி வருவது பற்றி நான்கில் ஒருவருக்கு (26%) தெரியவில்லை என ஒரு ஆய்வு முடிவு தெரிவிக்கிறது.

அமெரிக்காவின் தேசிய அறிவியல் அமைப்பின் சார்பில் நாடு முழுவதும் ஒரு ஆய்வு மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டுள்ளது.

பல்வேறு பகுதிகளைச் சேர்ந்த சுமார் 2,200 பேரிடம் இயற்பியல் மற்றும் உயிரியல் தொடர்பான 9 கேள்விகள் கேட்கப்பட்டன.

இதன்படி, ஆய்வில் பங்கேற்றவர்களில் 74 சதவீதம் பேர் மட்டுமே சூரியனை பூமி சுற்றி வருவது தெரியும் என கூறியுள்ளனர்.

இதுபோல, விலங்குகளிலிருந்து பரிணாம வளர்ச்சியின் மூலம் மனிதன் தோன்றினான் என்பது 48 சதவீத அமெரிக்கர்கர்களுக்கு மட்டுமே தெரிந்துள்ளது.

அறிவியல் துறைக்கு கூடுதல் நிதி ஒதுக்க வேண்டும் என ஆய்வில் பங்கேற்றவர்களில் மூன்றில் ஒருவர் கூறியுள்ளார். மருத்துவக் கண்டுபிடிப்புகளைத் தெரிந்துகொள்ள விரும்புவதாக 90% பேர் தெரிவித்துள்ளனர்.

இரண்டு வருடங்களுக்கு ஒரு முறை மேற்கொள்ளப்படும் இந்த ஆய்வு முடிவுகள், அதிபர் ஒபாமா, பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்களிடம் சமர்ப்பிக்கப்பட்டு தேசிய அறிவியல் அமைப்பின் அறிக்கையில் சேர்க்கப்படுமென தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

Test shows crows are frighteningly clever (Video)

In a test that would stump a small child, a crow has figured out an eight-stage puzzle in order to get to a piece of food.

Dr. Alex Taylor has been studying wild birds which he keeps three months at a time.

This particular crow, called 007, had been shown each of the puzzles individually but this was the first time it had had to solve all eight in order.

He had shown 007 the puzzles individually before. This, however, is the first time the crow will see them arranged in this order and he needs to figure out in which order to solve them to be successful.

The BBC showed the crow surveying the puzzles and then getting to work. He jumps up and unties the short stick from the rope. He tries the short stick to reach the treat but realizes he needs a longer one. He then uses the short stick to pull out three individual rocks from three individual cages.

When he looks like he’s stumped over what to do with the rocks, he figures it out and uses the rocks as weights to retrieve the longer stick needed to score the snack.

புத்திசாலிக் காகம் - ஆய்வின் மூலம் நிரூபணம்

குடத்தினுள் கற்களை நிரப்பி நீர் அருந்திய புத்திசாலிக் காகத்தின் கதையை சிறு வயதில் படித்திருப்பீர்கள்.

நேரில் பார்க்க இதோ ஓர் சந்தர்ப்பம்!

ஒரு சிறிய உணவுத் துண்டை பெற்றுக்கொள்ள காகமொன்று எவ்வாறெல்லாம் முயற்சிக்கின்றது என்பதை காணொளியில் காணுங்கள்.