Google’s Schmidt attacks education system

LONDON: Google chairman Eric Schmidt has attacked the country’s education system, saying a failure to appreciate the importance of computer science was holding the country back in the digital age.

In a lecture at a broadcasting conference in Edinburgh on Friday, the chairman of the Internet giant accused Britons of “throwing away your great computing heritage” by promoting a separation of arts and sciences in education.

“If I may be so impolite, your track record isn’t great,” he said.

“The UK is home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV. You invented computers in both concept and practice.

“Yet today, none of the world’s leading exponents in these fields are from the UK.”

He said he was shocked that computer science was not taught as standard in British schools, adding: “Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made.”

Schmidt also laughed off criticisms that Google was trying to “take over the world” and planned to make television content on a large scale.

“Trust me, if you gave people at Google free rein to produce TV you’d end up with a lot of bad sci-fi,” he said.

Schmidt was the first non-broadcaster to give the landmark lecture at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, a major event in British broadcasters’ diary.

Prominent figures from the broadcasting world have delivered it in the past, including News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch and his son James. AGENCIES

NASA finds new evidence of liquid water on Mars

LOS ANGELES: NASA scientists have discovered new evidence that briny water flows on Mars during its warmest months, raising chances that life could exist on the Red Planet, the space agency said on Thursday.

NASA first found signs of water on Mars more than a decade ago, but earlier indications were that any existing water would be frozen and concentrated at the poles.

Recently analyzed images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite show dark, finger-like features that extend down some slopes and crater walls on the planet during its late spring through summer, fading in the Martian winter.

“This is the best evidence we have to date of a liquid water occurring today on Mars,” said Philip Christensen, a geophysicist at Arizona State University, Tempe, in a NASA panel announcing the findings in Washington.

NASA scientists believe that if there is liquid water on Mars, it would be highly salty and lie beneath the surface. That would explain why it would not freeze in the planet’s frigid surface temperatures, which can fall to around 200 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 128 degrees Celsius), or evaporate in its low air pressure.

“It is more like a syrup, maybe, in how it flows,” said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator in charge of a special camera on the Mars orbiter called a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.

He also is the lead author of a report on evidence of water flows published on Thursday in the journal Science.

BETTER THAN ICE

The scientists on NASA’s panel stressed that liquid water is more likely to sustain life than ice, underscoring the importance of the latest discovery.

Past NASA discoveries revealed evidence of ancient shorelines and riverbanks on Mars. And analysis of gullies on the Red Planet five years ago turned up fresh mineral deposits that suggested recent water flows, but provided no categorical proof of that, scientists said.

The latest discovery is more difficult to explain away as evidence of anything but contemporary water flows, said Michael Meyer, Mars exploration program lead scientist at NASA.

Another possibility to account for the periodic darkening in the areas under examination is dust moving along the surface of the planet, McEwen said. But dust avalanches would occur at more random intervals, rather than on a seasonal basis, he said.

Scientists on the panel said the latest imaging evidence of flowing water also suggests the existence of liquid water closer to the planet’s equator than previously found.

Any liquid water would likely lie beneath the surface because the atmosphere on Mars is so thin that liquid water above ground would quickly evaporate, scientists said.

Some organisms on Earth thrive underground with little access to sunlight, and the same thing could be occurring on Mars, said Lisa Pratt, biogeochemist at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a participant on the NASA panel discussing the results on Thursday.

Pratt said further research is needed at the seven sites where recurring evidence of flowing water was found.

“It is our first chance to see an environment on Mars that might allow for the expression of an active biological process, if there is present-day life on Mars,” she said. AGENCIES

Shoaib Retirement Big Loss To Pakistan: Azher Ali

Pakistan top order test cricketer Azher Ali said that the retirement announce by Shoaib Akhtar will be a great loss for Pakistan cricket. He said that it is hard to imagine Pakistan without Shoaib Akhtar.  He added that the decision of Shoaib Akhtar during the world cup is little strange for the team.

Syria, Iran seek local fixes to region

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran”s interim Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on Monday that the troubles of the Middle East should be solved internally by the region”s countries, a local news agency reported.

Salehi arrived in Damascus on Sunday to discuss the Lebanese political crisis with Syrian officials.

The two men discussed “the latest regional developments” and international efforts to “find solutions to challenges facing countries of the region,” the news agency said after the meeting.

The news agency reported Assad and Salehi emphasised “the importance that solutions come from inside these countries according to their peoples” interests to help maintain their security and stability”.

External efforts to mediate Lebanon”s political quagmire have yielded little, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar all failing.

A national unity government led by Western-backed caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri collapsed on January 12 when 11 ministers from the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies resigned.

The walkout capped a long-running dispute over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri, the incumbent”s father.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implicate high-ranking members of his militant movement in the Hariri murder and has warned of grave repercussions.

Nasrallah has vowed to include all parties in a Hezbollah-led government, but both he and Hariri refuse to serve under each other.

Former prime minister Najib Mikati has put himself forward as a compromise candidate to try to form a government.

Assad and Salehi said they were “satisfied” with the formation of a unity government in Iraq, “stressing the importance of expanding the dialogue to all Iraqi” parties, the news agency reported.

The meeting also addressed “ways to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation between Syria and Iran”.

On Sunday night, Salehi held talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.

He then met the exiled leader of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Palestinian sources said.

The secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Ahmed Jibril, and a representative of Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhal, also attended the meeting, the sources said.

Road side saloon – Trend Pk VIDEO

Rehan Sheikh from Islamabad reports on the importance of road side saloon for the people middle class. (November 29, 2010)

Road side saloon – Trend Pk VIDEO

Rehan Sheikh from Islamabad reports on the importance of road side saloon for the people middle class. (November 29, 2010)

Traffic sign boards in Rawalpindi – Trend Pk VIDEO

Sadaqat Ali highlights the importance of traffic sign boards. (November 28, 2010)

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Sadaqat Ali highlights the importance of traffic sign boards. (November 28, 2010)

Traffic sign boards in Rawalpindi – Trend Pk VIDEO

Sadaqat Ali highlights the importance of traffic sign boards. (November 28, 2010)

Traffic sign boards in Rawalpindi – Trend Pk VIDEO

Sadaqat Ali highlights the importance of traffic sign boards. (November 28, 2010)

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