Microsoft To Offer Free Internet Across India Using “White Space” Tech

Microsoft to offer free Internet across India, Technology firm Microsoft has announced its plans to bring internet connectivity across India free of cost,the firm has proposed to use the “white space” – the unused spectrum between two TV channels – to provide free connectivity to large sections of the Indian population.
In the field of telecommunications, “White Space” refers to the unused spectrum between two TV channels. These unused frequencies are believed to hold the key for providing wireless broadband Internet access across the country. Devices which can be used in such white spaces are called “white space devices” (WSDs). Microsoft plans to use this white space technology to provide free last mile internet access to users in the most far-flung and hitherto inaccessible areas in India,according to the report.
The huge social networking giant (Facebook) and the most popular search engine (Google) are already working on their internet beaming drones and Project Loon (which involves placing balloon in high attitudes in the stratosphere) to provide internet access to remote areas across the country. Microsoft, not wanting to be left behind, will join them soon.

“Wi-fi has a range of only about 100 meters, whereas the 200-300 MHz spectrum band available in the white space can reach up to 10 km,” said Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft India. “This spectrum belongs mainly to Doordarshan and the government and is not used at all. We have sought clearance for a pilot project in two districts.”

At present, Microsoft is looking forward to prove that their proposed technology is commercially viable. For that, it will require a green signal from various Indian regulatory bodies for the use of spectrum. Considering that the project, if successful, could mean internet access at a speed of upto 4Mbps at a cost of only Rs 130 per user, it does sound like a great idea
If the pilot projects in these two districts turn out to be successful, the project might be rolled out all over the country. This could be a huge shot in the arm for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India campaign, Make in India initiatives and the Indian Prime Minister’s slogan of “IT+ IT= IT” (that is Indian Talent + Information Technology = India Tomorrow)
The new government which took over in May 2014 has shown keen interest towards the development of the IT sector. Under the leadership of the new Prime Minister, the government is working towards extending broadband access to 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country.
The ambitious Digital India project envisages providing broadband connectivity across the country by connecting 250,000 gram panchayats via optic fibre cables, thereby providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, digital governance and services on demand and digitally empowering all citizens.The plan was approved by the Modi Cabinet on August 30.

Why You Think Your Phone Is Vibrating When It Really Isn't

It happens to me maybe once or twice a month. Just the other morning I was in the elevator with my bike, riding up to our third-floor office. I felt a vibration in my pocket and reached for my phone. It wasn’t there. It was in my messenger bag, I quickly remembered as I tried to act casual.
I’m not alone in this experience. A handful of studies in recent years have examined the prevalence of phantom cellphone vibrations, and they’ve come up with impressive numbers, from 68 percent of the medical staff at a Massachusetts hospital to 89 percent of undergraduates at a midwestern university, to more than 90 percent of Taiwanese doctors-in-training in the middle of their internships.
“Phantom vibrations are this unusual curiosity that speaks to our connection with our phones,” said David Laramie, a clinical psychologist in Beverly Hills who did his doctoral thesis on people’s relationships with their mobile phones. Laramie’s thesis, published in 2007, was the first study to examine the prevalence of phantom vibrations and phantom ringing. Two-thirds of the people he surveyed had experienced one or the other. “It’s part of the modern landscape and our relationship with technology,” he said.
In 2012, the Macquarie Dictionary, the authoritative source of Australian English, chose “phantom vibration syndrome” as its “ Word of the Year .” (In what presumably was a coincidence, the readers choice award that year went to “First World problem.”)
OK, so it’s not among the most pressing issues of our day (indeed, the vast majority of people surveyed describe the sensation as not at all bothersome at all, or only a little bit bothersome). But it’s an intriguing phenomenon. Healthy people don’t often hallucinate. But lots of healthy people experience this particular hallucination. What could be causing it?
Hallucination may not be the most appropriate term, according to Laramie. “You’re misinterpreting something, but there is this external cue. You’re not totally making it up.” A compelling alternative, he suggests, is pareidolia. “That’s the phenomenon where you see a face in the clouds or hear ‘Paul is dead’ when you listen to the Beatles backwards.” (Or see the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich ). Essentially, it’s your brain getting a little bit carried away with its normally very useful talent for finding patterns in the world around you.
Laramie was inspired to study phantom phone phenomena by his own experience with phantom ringing. “Back then I had a certain ring that involved a pitch that was akin to sounds I bumped into in my life all the time,” he said. When he changed his ringtone, the phantom ringing stopped.
In his thesis research, he found the two biggest predictors of phantom vibrations and ringing were age (young people experienced them more) and the extent to which people relied on their phone to regulate their emotional state—checking their phone when they wanted to calm down, for example, or get an emotional boost. “My hunch is at this point it’s a generational thing,” Laramie said. Twenty- and thirty-somethings who grew up with cellphones and have them ingrained in their daily lives probably experience the effect more than older people or technophobes, he says.
For a more mechanistic explanation, I called Sliman Bensmaia, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago who studies the sense of touch. He was familiar with phantom vibrations, but says he didn’t realize how common they are. “I had no idea this is a thing,” he said. “But it’s happened to me on a few occasions, to the extent that I reached for my phone and was surprised it wasn’t there.”
There are two types of receptors in the skin that detect vibrations: Meissner’s corpuscles, which specialize in slow vibrations, and Pacinian corpuscles, which specialize in higher-frequency vibrations. Most cellphones vibrate at between 130 and 180 hertz, which falls in between the sweet spots of the two types of receptors. Those vibrations probably activate both types of receptors, but probably activate the Pacinian corpuscles more, Bensmaia says.
Like Laramie, Bensmaia thinks phantom vibrations are a result of the brain’s penchant for filling in the gaps to find patterns. A visual equivalent, he suggests, is seeing the outlines of furniture when you walk through your house in near-total darkness, or seeing the image of a Dalmatian in a field of black and white dots (it’s hard to see at first, but once you detect the pattern it’s almost impossible not to see it).
“What happens, I think, is that because your clothes are rubbing against your skin, you cause activity in the same receptors, and that activity is just similar enough to the activity caused by a vibrating phone that it triggers the learned association and the perception of a vibrating phone,” he said. It’s not clear exactly where in the brain that occurs, Bensmaia says, but it probably involves the primary somatosensory cortex and other higher-level areas that process the sense of touch.
If that explanation is right, you should only experience phantom vibrations where you commonly keep your phone, and probably not when you’re naked. Laramie says he’s had one or two people tell him they often experience phantom vibrations when they wear corduroy pants, which would seem to fit well with the pattern completion hypothesis, especially if the ridges slide across the skin at a frequency that approximates that of a vibrating cellphone. (It’s too hot in California to wear corduroys right now, but I pulled out a pair and did a quick calculation: at 14 ridges per inch, if an inch of fabric slid across the skin in a tenth of a second, say as you took a step, that would get you to 140 hertz, which is in the ballpark).
Now, if you happen to be one of the 5 to 10 percent of people who find phantom vibrations bothersome, it should be easy to reduce or eliminate them. If you stop using vibration mode or keep your phone in another place, your brain should soon learn to stop monitoring your thigh for vibrations. And whatever you do, don’t wear cords.

World leaders meet with multiple crises on agenda

Facing a world in turmoil from multiple crises ranging from wars in the Mideast and Africa to the deadly scourge of Ebola and growing Islamic radicalism, leaders from more than 140 countries open their annual meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday with few solutions.
The issue certain to top the agenda is the threat from Islamic terrorists intent on erasing borders, with the first U.S. and Arab airstrikes in Syria delivered Monday night in response.
Many diplomats hope that crisis won't drown out the plight of millions of civilians caught in conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza; the misery of the largest number of refugees since World War II; and global support for new U.N. goals to fight poverty and address climate change.
Looking at the array of complex challenges, Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende told The Associated Press: "It's unprecedented in decades, that's for sure."
He pointed to an unprecedented situation in which the U.N. and international donors are confronting four top-level humanitarian crises at the same time in Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria, which is now in the fourth year of a civil war which the U.N. says has killed more than 190,000 people
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will deliver his state of the world report at Wednesday's opening of the General Assembly ministerial session, gave a bleak preview to reporters last week: The world is facing "multiple crises," with all featuring attacks on civilians and having dangerous sectarian, ethnic or tribal dimensions.
In addition to the major conflicts, Ban said the world must not forget the continuing violence in Mali, the volatile situation in and around Ukraine, the chaos in Libya, the greater polarization between Israelis and Palestinians following the recent devastating war, and the advances of Boko Haram in Nigeria which "grow more alarming every day."
The secretary-general said he will call on world leaders to unite to uphold human dignity and the rule of law.
Soon after, U.S. President Barack Obama will step to the podium, and he is certain to dwell on the terrorist threat. Rights groups have called for him to explain how the campaign against the Islamic State extremist group is in accordance with international law.
Obama also will chair a Security Council meeting later Wednesday at which members are expected to adopt a resolution that would require all countries to prevent the recruitment and transport of foreign fighters preparing to join terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.
The opening of the annual U.N. meeting, which ends Sept. 30, follows the highest-level meeting ever on climate change, with some 120 world leaders responding to the secretary-general's call for increased political momentum to address the warming planet.
"For all the immediate challenges that we gather to address this week — terrorism, instability, inequality, disease — there's one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate," Obama said.
But Obama, along with China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, said he would not propose targets to reduce carbon pollution beyond 2020 until early next year. The summit also exposed longstanding political divisions between rich and poor countries, raising questions about whether a new climate pact will be reached by the end of 2015.
Such divisions on a wide range of issues are certain to be addressed in the week ahead. This year's VIPs include Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, French President Francois Hollande, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Two prominent no-shows are Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf because of the Ebola crisis that has hit her country hardest and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who gave no public reason.
While the assembly's newly renovated chamber will be the scene of constant speech-making, most of the real "business" during the General Assembly takes place in private meetings and dinners. This year's side events cover a number of crisis countries including Iran, South Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen and Somalia, with a recently added high-level meeting on Ebola.
Iyad Madani, secretary general of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said there are "a multiplicity of crises" that are unpredictable, but "I think we are relatively a more peaceful world than in World War I, II, Korea, Vietnam or the Cold War."

SpaceX Falcon Rocket Launch Has Been Delayed Due To Clouds,Rains

CAPE CANAVERAL Fla - Space Exploration Technologies delayed its cargo run to the International Space Station for NASA on Saturday after thick cloud and rain socked in its central Florida launch site.
Liftoff of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon freighter was rescheduled for 1:53 a.m. EDT/0553 GMT on Sunday. Meteorologists expected a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather.
The mission is the fourth under the company’s 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly cargo to the station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 260 miles (420 km) above Earth.
A launch on Sunday would come just two weeks after another Falcon 9 rocket blasted off to deliver a commercial communications satellite into orbit for Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd.
"We are ramping up for that launch rate, and actually even more than that," Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX vice president of mission assurance, told a news conference on Friday.
"In the future, I anticipate that this will be the norm."
SpaceX has a backlog of nearly 50 launches, worth nearly $5 billion, on its manife
st for NASA and commercial satellite operators, said company spokesman John Taylor.
On Tuesday, SpaceX also won a second NASA contract, worth up to $2.6 billion, to upgrade and fly its Dragon capsules for astronauts – and potentially paying passengers as well. A crewed Dragon spaceship is targeted for a debut test flight in 2016.

Green Monsters: The Electric Bike Wars

The roar of a Harley-Davidson engine is as distinctive as the popping of a champagne cork. But what if you could have all the power and beauty of a hog with a silent engine that doesn’t devour gas? That’s the question Harley asked earlier this year when it unveiled Project LiveWire, its futuristic prototype for an electric motorcycle.
Harley-Davidson is hardly alone in the e-bike wars, where several companies are seeking to become the Tesla of motorcycles. And not just because it’s good for the environment.
Last year the major motorcycle brands–including BMW, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Piaggio, Suzuki, Triumph and Yamaha–sold 561,000 bikes nationwide, up from 557,000 in 2012 but down a staggering 53% from the 1.2 million sold in 2006. This year motorcycle sales remained relatively unchanged, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, which tallied 139,922 new units sold in Q1, 17 units higher than the same period in 2013.
And while no one thinks electric bikes will save the industry, they could be a key factor in attracting the next generation of motorcycle enthusiasts. “Everybody is very concerned with getting this new young rider,” says Mark Hoyer, the editor-in-chief of Cycle World. “And younger people are realizing these electric bikes are genuinely fast. In fact, with the kind of performance electric motorcycles have these days, anybody who rides would be impressed.”
Electrics have been a niche market since 2010, when companies such as Zero, Brammo, Energica and Mission started experimenting with 50-plus-mile-range rides that looked just like traditional motorcycles but boasted zero emissions and gearless, aggressive, twist-and-go acceleration. The idea was that silent, maintenance-light bikes would be perfect for both urban commuting and off-road cruising. And that they might attract new riders, particularly women, intimidated by the heavy clutches and grimy maintenance responsibilities associated with cafe racers and street bikes. There’s certainly room for growth: Even though their numbers have increased by double digits since 2003, women still represent only 25% of motorcycle riders nationwide, according to industry statistics.
There were some early attempts at e-bikes (especially from obscure Chinese brands) that felt more like glorified Vespas than high-tech Hondas. Within the last year, however, electric motorcycles have become significantly more powerful, smoother and longer-lasting. Zero, for instance, has drastically improved the suspension and power-train technology in its $17,000 SR, which hits 60mph in 3.3 seconds on a battery range of 130 miles and takes seven hours to charge in a 110-volt outlet. Brammo’s $11,000 Enertia Plus gets 434 MPG e with a top speed of 60mph, and the $30,000, 160hp Mission R racer has a top speed of more than 150mph with a sub-3-second, 0-60mph sprint time. Then there’s the new Italian firm Energica, led by its young CEO, Livia Cevolini, which debuted the $68,000, 134hp Ego 45 superbike (0-60mph in 2.9 seconds) earlier this year. That bike will charge fully in just 3 hours.
“I like to say the electric bike does all of the things I ride for without any of the drama,” says Scot Harden, vice president of global marketing for Zero Motorcycles. “I ride a motorcycle for the excitement, the thrill, the acceleration, the sense of control, the sense of freedom. The Zero Streetfighter gives me all of that. What it doesn’t give me is loud noise, vibration, heat, exhaust fumes, oil stains in the garage. Plus I don’t have any routine maintenance on the power train. I don’t have to work on it. I just basically ride it.”
But it was Harley’s LiveWire prototype that truly escalated the e-bike battle when it was announced this summer. A 74hp motorcycle that goes 53 miles between charges and takes less than four hours to recharge, the bike won’t actually be for sale–Harley claims it’s using LiveWire just to test consumer response–but it’s a significant move because of the cult status of the American heritage brand. (Harley accounted for more than 31% of motorcycle sales nationwide last year.)

But there are still valid reasons to think e-bikes will remain a novelty market rather than a sales savior. The most general among them: People buy motorcycles precisely because they’re loud, dirty, heavy and fast. In fact, Harley fabricated a distinctive sound for the LiveWire bike so as to uphold that covenant with hog loyalists. (“Sound is non-negotiable,” says Adam Kallen, the owner of Brooklyn-based Jane Motorcycles.) Beyond that, gas motorcycles are already quite fuel-efficient–a Ducati Monster 696 gets nearly 40 miles to the gallon–and the price premium associated with the lithium-ion batteries that power electric bikes remains prohibitive for most riders. Battery technology alone can add tens of thousands of dollars onto the price of a regular bike.
“There is not a lot of technology or luxury sport happening now,” says Cycle World ‘s Hoyer. “You see all the manufacturers focusing on low-cost bikes, building the entry-level ladder to their brand. Electrics will have to do the same–it’s just a question of who will do it right first.”
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World's Safest Banks In 2014

US investors looking for a broad choice of safe banks to deposit their savings in have to look across the Atlantic, to Europe.
That’s where the majority of safest banks are, according to a recent survey of the World’s 50 Safest Banks  by Global Finance. Specifically, all ten banks that topped the list were Europeans, including KfW of Germany, which occupied the first position; and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten of Netherlands, which occupied the second position.
Only five American banks made it to the list, the same as last year— CoBank ACB, BNY Mellon, US Bancorp, Northern Trust, and Wells Fargo WFC +0.14%. The remaining were from countries scattered around the globe, mostly in Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle-East, South Korea and China.
For years, banks were a safe place to park cash, as governments implicitly guaranteed deposits. This premise changed in the aftermath of the Cyprus bailout, as depositors had to shoulder a big chunk of the bailout. That’s why now depositors must search for safe banks—banks with a low counter-party risk. “Counter-party risk is of prime importance to global CFOs and financial executives as economic uncertainty continues to trouble global markets,” says Global Finance publisher Joseph D. Giarraputo. “Global Finance’s Safest Banks ranking provides an independent analysis of each region’s banks that companies can use as a tool to benchmark their counterparties. The institutions that top our ranking of the Safest Banks are those that have shown their strength in times of turbulence.”

Wells Fargo, US Bancorp USB +0.62%, Northern Trust NTRS +0.33% and BNY Mellon, for instance, have all fared well during the financial crisis of 2008-9, and continue to display strong financials.
Financials of American Banks

Bank	Market Cap	Operating Margins (%)	Total  Cash	Total Debt
Wells Fargo	269.41B	43.80	328.82B	237.82B
US Bancorp	75.07	45.00	13.57	55.49
Northern Trust	16.22	27.24	22.48	5.96
BNY Mellon	44.76	26.01	189.38	54.28

Source: Finance.Yahoo.com
Still, Europe’s lead in the list may come as a surprise to many investors. Didn’t Europe just go through a debt crisis that hurt banks?
Yes, but that was mostly in Southern Europe. Northern and Central Europe escaped the crisis, especially Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
That’s where Europe’s safest banks are concentrated.
A few words of caution:  Investors should understand that the majority of European banks are semi-government institutions, and therefore, enjoy the protection of national governments—provided that these governments remain solvent and deposits stay below the official guarantee protection limits.

IBM now hires more in US than in INDIA

Over the past decade, IBM hired frenetically in India, and cut jobs in the US in an effort to be cost competitive with Indian IT services providers. Now, the Big Blue appears to be changing track, goaded perhaps by the Obama administration's social and tax pressures, and the US work visa restrictions.

However, other global IT services companies like Ireland-registered Accenture and France-based Capgemini are continuing to keep their hiring focus on India.

IBM's 'Jobs at IBM' website currently lists about 6,750 jobs, of which nearly a third, 2,150, are in the US. India follows way behind at a little over 700, and China is third with about 650. More striking are the entry level positions. Of the total of 446 entry level positions open as on September 2, as many as 172, or nearly 40%, are in the US. In India, there are a mere five.

An employee of the company in India said the internal job portal now shows certain IT positions with 1-2 years' experience reserved for US citizens. "I can't recollect such entry level positions earlier being reserved for US citizens," he said.

When contacted, IBM did not directly address the matter, but issued the following statement: "Managing resources and skills is an ongoing and critical component of our business model. IBM continues to meet the changing requirements of its clients, and to pioneer new, high value segments of the IT industry. To that end, IBM is positioning itself to lead in growth areas such as cloud, analytics and cognitive computing and investing in these priority areas. Investing in and hiring talent from over 100 college campuses in India continues to be part of the strategy."

READ ALSO: IBM to cut 15,000 jobs, India operations to be affected
US tech entrepreneur and academic Vivek Wadhwa said he would not know if the IBM hiring trends were accurate, but said it would not surprise him. "IBM, like other US companies, is surely under pressure from nativists to hire more Americans. The noise is only getting louder. But it may be that IBM is trying to balance its growth and that is what is behind such a strategy," he said.





The years of frenzied hiring has resulted in India now accounting for over a third of IBM's 4.3 lakh employees (these are estimates, given that IBM has stopped disclosing its headcount by geography). In the US, the number has dropped from a peak of 1.53 lakh in 2000, to an estimated 88,000 now.

Solar Storm Headed For Earth

Two solar flares have sent magnetic fields to our planet -- and scientists aren’t sure how they’re going to impact each other.


Solar Flare Eruption
An intense, X-class solar flare erupted from sun spot AR2518 on Wednesday afternoon.
NASA / GSFC / SDO

The sun has been regurgitating a lot of solar flares these days, and now, a couple will be knocking at Earth’s door this weekend.

The originator of these flares is a particularly complex sunspot called AR2518, which is currently facing our planet. Late Monday night, the spot produced a minor solar flare (class R1) that lasted for six hours, but then on Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. EST, it upchucked a whopping X1.6-class solar flare, which is pretty darn strong.

Both flares have launched large outbursts of magnetic fields, known as coronal mass ejections – or CMEs – at high velocity straight toward Earth, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. The CME associated with Monday’s flare is expected to hit tonight, while the more intense CME is expected to arrive Friday afternoon to evening. Earth experiences CMEs all the time without issue, but if they're strong enough, CMEs can cause geomagnetic storms and sometimes, extreme radio blackouts.

Although Wednesday’s solar flare was somewhat strong, the magnitudes of these incoming CMEs aren’t that intense, historically speaking. (Although, as the Sun is nearing peak activity on its 11-year solar cycle, we may be seeing more -- and stronger -- storms soon.) What makes this event so unique, however, is that Earth will experience two CMEs in close succession to one another – a situation that is pretty rare. That means scientists are being cautious about what to expect. “The two CMEs could be interacting on their way to Earth’s orbit, or beyond Earth’s orbit,” says Thomas Berger, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), meaning the flares could potentially amplify each other in some way.

Ultimately, no one really knows how these storms will impact each other. Given this uncertainty, NOAA has issued a moderate to strong G3 geomagnetic storm watch for Friday. The rating indicates that the incoming magnetic fields may cause some problems with radio communications, as well as voltage irregularities in northern latitudes of the United States. Grid operators and even FEMA have been notified, just in case.

Fortunately, NOAA doesn’t expect the impacts of the CMEs to be unmanageable. “There’s really no concern for electronics down here on the ground,” says William Murtagh, program coordinator of the Space Weather Prediction Center. Murtagh notes that some studies have implied that electronics at higher altitudes and higher latitudes, such as planes flying near the poles, might be more vulnerable to geomagnetic storms. The biggest concern with electronics on the ground would be a loss of power, but Murtagh says the storms aren't strong enough to cause such a blackout.

Still, they’ll be watching the events closely. Additionally, Wednesday’s eruption also produced an Earth-bound solar radiation storm, but that has only amounted to an S1 rating (the lowest on the NOAA scale). When solar radiation storms reach a level of S3 or above, NOAA will advise the FAA to start rerouting flights away from the poles to avoid radiation exposure. NASA mission control will also direct astronauts into more hardened portions of the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, there is one pretty awesome byproduct of these two solar flares. The storms could produce some pretty intense auroras, which may be visible in northern parts of the United States tonight and tomorrow. So if you living in Maine or the Dakotas (or even New York), make sure you have your camera handy. Chances are your DSLR will work just fine.

Gmail Passwords Leaked By Hackers

Russian hackers have leaked the email IDs and passwords of as many as 4.93 million Google accounts. The same Google account password is used across all Google products, such as Gmail, Drive, Plus, YouTube, Maps etc.

The account details have been posted on bitcoin forum btcsec.com by a user named Tvskit. On the forum, Tvskit has said that approximately 60% of the passwords are still active.

Google in a blog post, however, refuted the claim and said that only 2% of the passwords still work and also said that its automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of the login attempts.

While acknowledging the leak, Google said that this is not due to a breach in its own systems.

It said: "Often, these credentials are obtained through a combination of other sources. For instance, if you reuse the same username and password across websites, and one of those websites gets hacked, your credentials could be used to log into the others. Or attackers can use malware or phishing schemes to capture login credentials."

3 Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing has become increasingly important in my recovery from depression and anxiety because I recognize that shallow breath contributes to my panic. In fact, at my worst hours, I would use a paper bag to keep from hyperventilating.
The practice of deep breathing stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), responsible for activities that occur when our body is at rest. It functions in an opposite manner to the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates activities associated with the fight-or-flight response.
I like to the think of the PNS as the calm sister and the sympathetic nervous system as the non-sympathetic crazy sister on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
 You know that woman in the movie “Airplane” that’s wigging out (watch this clip), and there is a line behind her of people with weapons saying “Get hold of yourself.” The woman represents the sympathetic nervous system, and the long line of folks with bats, ropes, purses, etc. are members of the parasympathetic nervous system trying to calm the panicked passenger.
Of all the automatic functions of the body — cardiovascular, digestive, hormonal, glandular, immune — only the breath can be easily controlled voluntarily, explain Richard P. Brown, M.D. and Patricia L. Gerbarg, M.D. in their book, “The Healing Power of the Breath.” They write:
By voluntarily changing the rate, depth, and pattern of breathing, we can change the messages being sent from the body’s respiratory system to the brain. In this way, breathing techniques provide a portal to the autonomic communication network through which we can, by changing our breathing patterns, send specific messages to the brain using the language of the body, a language the brain understands and to which it responds. Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior.
In their eight substantive chapters, the authors discuss several techniques of deep breathing to reduce stress and anxiety. They start off with three basic approaches which provide the building blocks for the others:

Coherent Breathing

 Coherent breathing is basically breathing at a rate of five breaths per minute, which is the middle of the resonant breathing rate range. I achieve this if I count to five inhaling and count to five exhaling. The five-minute rate maximizes the heart rate variability (HRV), a measurement of how well the parasympathetic nervous system is working. Brown and Gerbarg explain that changing our rate and pattern of breath alters the HRV, which causes shifts in our nervous system. The higher the HRV the better because a higher HRV is associated with a healthier cardiovascular system and a stronger stress-response system. Breathing at a rate that is close to one’s ideal resonant rate (around five breaths per minute) can induce up to a tenfold improvement in HRV.

 

Resistance Breathing

 Resistance breathing is exactly what its name suggests: breathing that creates resistance to the flow of air. Per the authors:
Resistance can be created by pursing the lips, placing the tip of the tongue against the inside of the upper teeth, hissing through the clenched teeth, tightening the throat muscles, partly closing the glottis, narrowing the space between the vocal cords, or using an external object such as breathing through a straw.
All that sounds a bit complicated to me. Breathing should be easy, right? So I simply breathe out of my nose, which, according to Brown and Gerbarg, creates more resistance than breathing through the mouth. I do think it’s interesting when they explain that singing and chanting – all musical sounds created by contracting vocal cords — are forms of resistance breathing, and that is why they provide that relaxed sensation you can get meditating (if you can meditate).

Breath Moving

 Breath moving is when the breath moves courtesy of your imagination. Brown compares this exercise to an internal massage. I’m not sure I’d go that far. I like the real deal. However, I do think sending your breath on a little journey around your body – as long as it doesn’t get too lost — does help you keep your concentration on the exercise and not on your to-do list because counting to five can get a little old. For example, here’s part of a circuit the authors offer in their book:
As you breathe in, imagine you are moving your breath to the top of your head.
As you breathe out, imagine you are moving your breath to the base of your spine, your perineum, your sit bones.
Each time you breathe in, move the breath to the top of the head.
Each time you breathe out, move the breath to the base of the spine.
Breathe in this circuit for ten cycles.
The history of breath moving is fascinating. According to the authors, the technique was created in large part by the Russian Christian Orthodox Hesychast monks around the eleventh century. The monks would teach the technique of moving the breath to the holy Russian warriors to help protect them from harm and to empower them as they defended their territory against invaders.

Hyderabad: Ganesha goes green, eco-friendly clay idols flood the market

The Pearl City is all set to celebrate the Ganesh festival in an eco-friendly manner and with the tallest Ganesh idol in the country this year.
The 60-feet high Ganesha in Hyderabad is drawing the attention of every passerby. The gigantic idol took almost three months and 200 artisans at the Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav Committee to complete. A gigantic laddu weighing five thousand kilos will also be offered to the Ganesha here.

"We are very happy to celebrate 60 years. Artists from different villages have arrived to complete this task," said the organiser of Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav committee, Raj Kumar
However, to suit the need of every household, idols in other different sizes have also flooded the market. The most popular of these are the clay idols. The eco-friendly Ganeshas are made from mud and are colored with natural, non-toxic dyes which are easily soluble in water. With the "Ganesha goes green" campaign, people are pledging to celebrate the festival in an ecofriendly manner.
"The campaign is to encourage people to use clay Ganesh idols that do not harm the environment," said Satosh Banpur, director of the campaign- Hyderabad goes green.
"We always make clay Ganesh idols and this year, we are buying one. I hope everyone will employ eco-friendly idols to save the environment," said Vijaya, a local resident.
Elaborate security arrangements have also been put in place to ensure peaceful festivities.