When his brain exploded

One day the ticking time bomb in Ashok Rajamani's head went off. In an 'anti-Oprah' memoir, he talks about how he put his life together again.

At age 25, Ashok Rajamani (below) had what he calls 'a bad day' when he experienced an extreme, near-fatal traumatic brain injury. Now, after more than a decade of overcoming brain damage, he recounts his experience in his memoir, The Day My Brain Exploded. 

His injury was caused by the sudden explosion of an undetected Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) in his brain, a result of a rare congenital birth defect, seen in less than 1 per cent of the population. After this injury, he went through a roller coaster of traumatic consequences - partial blindness, hallucinations, visual distortion and Grand Mal epileptic seizures. While his condition can be fatal, he has fought through it and is back leading a normal life.

US media websites under increased attacks as hackers deploy new tactics

Hackers promoting the Syrian Electronic Army simultaneously targeted websites belonging to CNN, Time and the Washington Post on Thursday by breaching Outbrain, a firm which publishes content recommendations on those sites.

That resulted in some WashingtonPost.com and Time.com customers being redirected to the website of the Syrian Electronic Army when they clicked on the content from Outbrain, said Outbrain Vice President Lisa LaCour. The CNN International site briefly displayed a headline that said "Hacked by SEA," she said.

The Syrian Electronic Army is an online group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has been linked to several high profile attacks. They include one on the Associated Press' Twitter feed in which a bogus message was sent out about explosions at the White House.

The latest attacks were significant because the hackers simultaneously targeted several sites by breaching a single supplier whose content is published on multiple platforms.

In previous campaigns linked to the Syrian Electronic Army, hackers have breached networks using similar tactics. But in those cases emails were sent to employees of a single specific media outlet they were targeting, which made preparations for the attacks more labor intensive.

Outbrain, which posts content on a large number of prominent news sites, took down its entire network at about 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Thursday, before the hackers could do any more damage, LaCour said.

The company's technicians, who are based in Israel, cleaned up the network and planned to restore service late on Thursday, she said.

Outbrain said the hackers got in after sending a phishing email to all company employees on Wednesday that purported to be from the CEO. An employee provided login credentials in response to that email and then the hackers were able to get other credentials for accessing internal systems, the company said.

Raw garlic can halve lung cancer risk

Eating raw garlic twice a week can nearly halve the risk of developing lung cancer, even lowering the danger for smokers, a new study has claimed.

Chinese researchers found that those who consumed raw garlic as part of their diet were 44 per cent less likely to suffer the disease.

Even when they allowed for whether people smoked – the biggest single cause of lung cancer the scientists found garlic still seemed to reduce the dangers by around 30 per cent, the 'Telegraph' reported.

Previous research has suggested that the popular herb can ward off stomach cancer and colon cancer, and a study at the University of South Australia suggested that it could reduce the risk of bowel tumours by nearly a third.

Scientists at Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention compared 1,424 lung cancer patients with 4,500 healthy adults.

They found that those who ate raw garlic at least twice a week were significantly less likely to get lung cancer, even if they smoked or were exposed to high-temperature cooking oil fumes, which is thought to be another trigger for the disease.

The key ingredient behind this effect seems to be a chemical called allicin, released when the clove is crushed or chopped, according to previous studies.

It is thought to dampen down inflammation in the body and act as an anti-oxidant, reducing damage from so-called free radicals to the body's cells.

However, it is not clear whether cooked garlic would have the same effect.

"Garlic may potentially serve as a preventive agent for lung cancer," researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Does it matter which charger I use?

Recently, news about two people getting electrocuted by counterfeit iPhone chargers made its way to the internet. Though Apple has officially started a programme to exchange fake chargers with genuiune ones (for a cost), many still prefer to use such third-party adapters to charge not only their smartphones and tablets, but also their laptops and other gadgets. 

But is it safe to use third party chargers (fake or branded) on a regular basis? Here's what you need to keep in mind... 

Make sure the plugs are right 

The first thing you really need to consider when you're grabbing a charger is the most obvious: if the connector fits. That means the plug on the end of the charger actually fits into your gadget properly. 

For something like a cell phone, this is usually a USB cable (of which various sizes exist), unless it's an Apple device with a special 30-pin or Lightning connector. Older phones might have a cylindrical connector. Likewise, laptops have all kinds of connectors, and many of them are proprietary to the manufacturer. In some cases, you'll need to order a special charger just for your device. 

What all this means is that if you have a charger that fits into your gadget, you're on the right track, but you're not done yet. It's time to look at the technical details. 

When voltage, amperage and wattage matters 

After you've figured out that you can actually connect the charger to your gadget, you need to figure out if doing so will make it explode or not. This means checking the voltage, amperage, and wattage on your charger to make sure it'll work with your device. 

On most chargers, you'll find the voltage listed somewhere on the power brick. Voltage is what pulls energy into the device. If the voltage is too high, you might end up shorting out your devices because you'll overload the circuits. 

For mobile phones and other mobile devices like the Kindle that charge with USB, the voltage is typically 5V. A laptop charger might be as high as 14V or 15V. You can usually find the voltage your device needs on the device itself, on the battery, or if all else fails, on the manufacturer's web site. You'll almost always find the voltage supplied by your charger on the charger itself. You want the the voltage on your device to match the voltage provided by the charger. 

Likewise, amperage is just as important. Amps are the current that's supplied to your device. Think of it like a river, and the amperage is how wide that river is. Amps are usually listed on your power supply as something like, 2.7A or 1A. This regulates how much power flows through from the power supply to your device. The amperage listed on your power supply needs to match or exceed the amperage required by your device. 

You will also often find wattage on your power brick, and that makes a difference as well, but it's not dangerous if your wattage doesn't match. Watts are supplied "on demand" to the battery that's being charged, so even if you're over the device's limit, it doesn't cause problems. 

For example, an iPad charger puts out 10W, whereas an iPhone charger puts out 5W. You can charge an iPhone with an iPad charger just fine, because the iPhone's battery will only take in 5W, even though the charger can supply 10W. A laptop will typically call for watts between 45 and 100. Not all chargers will list the watts, but if the amps and voltage match you're usually in the clear. 

As Popular Mechanics points out, there's a bit more to picking the right charger, but for most of us voltage, amps, and watts all we need to consider. As Extremetech points out, if you're using a USB charger it doesn't really matter because they're almost all the same, but it's still worth double-checking to make sure you're in the clear. 

When to stay away from knockoffs 

Chargers can be expensive for no good reason, but you're better off sticking with official chargers or off brand chargers as opposed to knockoffs. 

The reason is that counterfeit and off brand chargers are poorly made, and that means they put your device (and your house) at risk. Many ignore safety standards completely, but they also just don't charge your devices that well because they don't push the amount of power they're supposed to. This means you're spending more time with these devices plugged in, which causes a larger risk to your safety, as well as your device. 

That's about it. If you pick the right charger, your devices will charge as quickly as they're supposed and your house won't burn down. 

Dharavi asia's largest puzzle

An eyesore of blue tarpaulin, or a complex warren teeming with promise and enterprise? Describe it how you will but there's no denying its endless fascination for poets and writers.

In Dharavi, there's always time. There's always space, " are Nisar Ahmed Khan's languid words to writer-poet Jerry Pinto. In an earlier chapter of Dharavi - The City Within, edited by American writer Joseph Campana - lies another gem, courtesy Ghulam Walis, proprietor and editor of Sapna Times. "Everything is made here...Legal, illegal, everything, " he tells Rachel Lopez. 

Walis and Khan capture the most overused of all clichês that describe Dharavi - that it is all kinds of worlds. Campana's able effort to probe those worlds is scarcely the first and will certainly not be the last. 

"For a long time, Dharavi stayed in the news as Asia's largest slum, " says Rashmi Bansal. "That's not true anymore, but it's still a popular subject. Almost every home will house a workshop within. It's like an incubator that takes in new people and trains unskilled labour. People also come to Dharavi to set up business. It's a very unique space. " Bansal, along with management consultant Deepak Gandhi has authored Poor Little Rich Slum - What We Saw in Dharavi and Why it Matters, yet another effort to document Dharavi's unique ecosystem. 

While the latter sweeps through the thriving industry within Dharavi and the entrepreneurial success stories of its residents with a soft-focus lens, Campana's effort is a more exhaustive chronicle of the people and problems in this 'city system', to use Jeb Brugmann's evocative coinage. The book also contains an extract from the Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia's Largest Slum, the acclaimed work on the area by Kalpana Sharma, published in 2000. 

"You immediately get a sense of vibrancy and selfsufficiency there, " is Campana's explanation for Dharavi's tireless documentation. "The problems have been well documented, but the real story is how stable and sturdy the community is. " Stories like Dharavi's Poster Boys by Suhani Singh, which detail the multireligious community's efforts to promote harmony in the aftermath of the 1992 riots, buttress that claim. We learn why Ramachandra 'Bhau' Korde and Waqar Khan's charming Hum Sab Ek Hain poster featuring kids from four communities will never lose context. 

Poor Little Rich Slum introduces you to the likes of tailoring centre owner Rani Nadar, who belies every stereotype you may have held about the lazy slum dweller. You also meet Fahim Vora and Tauseef Siddiqui, two Dharavi boys who give back to their community by running Be the Local - a travel agency that aims to dispel the negative image of the locality.

That's not to say Dharavi smells of roses. Its colourful tapestry is frayed with water woes, as Freny Manecksha's Water Wars illustrates;hard labour and hazardous working conditions lurk behind the ubiquitous pottery of Kumbharwada;and myopic redevelopment plans threaten the rhythm of its work life. 

"When I wrote the book in 1999, I was surprised that there hadn't been a similar effort, " says Kalpana Sharma. "Ever since, the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan has been the trigger for people's curiousity. Its real estate value has caught the attention of the media. " Dharavi is also unique for the way it came to be, she explains. "Many slums come up because people need a place to live. Tanneries sprung up because of its proximity to the Bandra abbatoir. Kolis made use of the swamp to start brew illicit liquor. The Kumbhars created their own settlement. Gradually, people reclaimed the swamp to extend their settlement. This gives Dharavi its variegated texture. " 

Naturally, Dharavi has seen many creative endeavours. Slumdog Millionaire aside, it has been the subject of documentaries by BBC and National Geographic, the site of public art installations like Artefacting Mumbai-a 2011 project helmed by urban planner Alex White Mazzarella and photographer Casey Nolan, and even produced Dharavi Rocks, a joint musical project between blueFROG and NGO Acorn Foundation. 

The frenzied attention has also lead to criticism of the endless romanticisation of Dharavi, something Campana was conscious of. "I tried to avoid fetishising Dharavi by making no essential claims. We came up with subjects that avoided making generalisations. No profile was meant to typify the place. Each person was just an individual, " he says. Journalist Sameera Khan, who in her chapter Schooling Dharavi touches upon the English-speaking dreams of its residents, adds, "While I think we still can do stories from Dharavi, we should not forget that there are other poorer areas in the city, and other areas of similar grit and initiative - we need to research/write/explore them as well. " 

It is the booming real-estate value of Dharavi, however, that continues to keep it in the news. Having first seen promise in the 1984 Prime Minister's Grant Project, under which the Rajiv Gandhi-led leadership granted Rs 100 crore for its redevelopment, Dharavi's residents have since seen multiple surveys, plans and committees in the name of 'upliftment'. Today, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, led by builder Mukesh Mehta, is held up by funds and bureaucracy. Sharma rues, "These delays have been the downfall of the slum. Even routine repairs and construction of drainage and toilets has stopped because everyone's waiting for redevelopment. " 

And yet, there is dynamism. "It struck me how despite differences, they still work together, " says Sharma. "I met a Muslim chikki maker and all his workers were Hindu, which hadn't even occurred to them. They get no help from the state, and wait for no handouts. I met people there who started out with nothing and have today, made a life for themselves. " 

Dharavi isn't just interesting to outsiders, it's also fiercely loved by its residents, who never stray very far. Pinky Santepola Ashappa, 15, who aims to be a chartered accountant, told Khan: "Dharavi has us. We are going to change its image. " Santosh Narayankar, the final year MBBS student and subject of Leo Mirani's study, A Pampered Slum, exemplifies this. Says Campana, "If you're from Dharavi you are always aware that others not from Dharavi have a sense of what it's like there. They have an opinion of it, probably a poor one. That doesn't square with your experience of your home, which is a complicated mix of good and bad. " 

As Narayankar says, contemplating whether to take a secure government job over the vagaries of a practice in Dharavi, "If I forget about Dharavi, I will never succeed in life. " Nor will Mumbai, if it attempts to chart a glittering development story while ignoring the needs of its most hard working and most fetishised residents.

Galli grit at Tate

Anand Patwardhan's controversial films being screened at Tate Modern, London show that the politics of protest transcend national borders, time and space.

India's smug politicians, lathi-wielding policemen, gritty slum-dwellers and self-absorbed elite have made their way into the Mecca of art. London's Tate Modern is screening the radical political documentaries of noted Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. 

Patwardhan's cinema, grounded in the reality of contemporary India, is in stark contrast to the abstract forms of art displayed at Tate Modern. He does not believe in art for art's sake. His art, activism and films are indistinguishable. 

He propels his audience into the rough and tumble of contemporary India with such dexterity that one can be forgiven for forgetting entirely about the man behind the camera and focusing, instead, on the politics of everyday life unfurling on screen. While politics takes centre-stage in Patwardhan's cinema, his form and technique often go unnoticed, and his aesthetic architecture is virtually invisible, points out writer-filmmaker Kodwo Eshun of the Ottolith Collective, co-curating Patwardhan's retrospective at the Tate Modern. 

Patwardhan's cinema, which lays much emphasis on the politics of protest in India, is being screened in London at a time when Britain's culture of protest is on the wane. As political activity recedes from the streets, it is being revived in public art galleries such as Tate, says Anjalika Sagar of Ottolith Collective. The changing nature of protest in Britain is mirrored by a similar process in India that Patwardhan has captured on screen. While street protests form a part of Patwardhan's cinema in the India of the 1970s and early '80s, he talks of how the country now aims at prettifying its metros and silencing voices of protest. Both Mumbai and Delhi have outlawed street protests and confined protesters to a tiny area. 

In his film, Bombay: Our City, on the brutality of slum-demolitions, a woman slumdweller glares into camera and asks Patwardhan to stop filming the poor as he can do nothing to help them. Patwardhan retains the moment because "it reminds both filmmaker and audience of the voyeurism inherent in films that focus on the misery of others. It forces us to introspect. " That the same woman loved the finished film after seeing it at one of the many screenings held across Mumbai's shantytowns was a bonus, but it never reduced the original chastisement. 

The life and death of dalit poet and singer, Vilas Ghogre, forms the thread that binds Bombay: Our City (1985) with Jai Bhim Comrade made 27 years later. Patwardhan's 14 year opus on the oppression of dalits opens with Vilas's song from Bombay: Our City. Then the film abruptly freezes to tell us that Vilas committed suicide in 1997 after 10 dalits were killed in a police firing. They were protesting because their statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar had been garlanded with footwear. 

Patwardhan has maintained political and financial independence as a filmmaker by not seeking co-production or corporate and NGO grants. Costs are kept to a minimum and the distribution earnings of each film are recycled into the next one. 

Patwardhan's films show 40 years of history largely through the eyes of India's poor and marginalised. They explore the complexity of the Emergency years, militancy in Punjab, communal violence and India's nuclear tests. He records the parallel and almost simultaneous rise of neoliberalism and the rise of the religious right, both of which grew in the 1980s and came into their own in the early 1990s. 

Art, for Patwardhan, is that which transcends time and space. His films have done both. A young woman from Argentina was initially daunted at the thought of watching a film on India, a country she knew so little about. On watching Patwardhan's films, she realised how similar his narrative was to the situation in her own country. 

While the events recorded by Patwardhan are local, and specific to India, the concerns they raise transcend national borders. "You cannot fight for human rights or the protection of the environment in only one part of the world, " he says. "Globalisation has come to mean the global exploitation of resources and labour by multinationals. It must be fought by citizens who share the idea and the fact of a resistance that is equally global. "

Pigs smart as dogs? Activists pose the question

There's extensive evidence that pigs are as smart and sociable as dogs. Yet one species is afforded affection and respect; the other faces mass slaughter en route to becoming bacon, ham and pork chops.

Seeking to capitalize on that discrepancy, animal-welfare advocates are launching a campaign called The Someone Project that aims to highlight research depicting pigs, chickens, cows and other farm animals as more intelligent and emotionally complex than commonly believed. The hope is that more people might view these animals with the same empathy that they view dogs, cats, elephants, great apes and dolphins.

"When you ask people why they eat chickens but not cats, the only thing they can come up with is that they sense cats and dogs are more cognitively sophisticated that then species we eat - and we know this isn't true," said Bruce Friedrich of Farm Sanctuary, the animal-protection and vegan-advocacy organization that is coordinating the new project.

"What it boils down to is people don't know farm animals the way they know dogs or cats," Friedrich said. "We're a nation of animal lovers, and yet the animals we encounter most frequently are the animals we pay people to kill so we can eat them."

The lead scientist for the project is Lori Marino, a lecturer in psychology at Emory University who has conducted extensive research on the intelligence of whales, dolphins and primates. She plans to review existing scientific literature on farm animals' intelligence, identify areas warranting new research, and prepare reports on her findings that would be circulated worldwide via social media, videos and her personal attendance at scientific conferences.

"I want to make sure this is all taken seriously," Marino said in an interview. "The point is not to rank these animals but to re-educate people about who they are. They are very sophisticated animals."

5 Games That Changed Gaming

Most of the games we see today try to ape the games of the past. By the looks of it, everyone can point at Final Fantasy and gleefully say every other role-playing game is based on it, or rather, Final Fantasy is a game that started off a new genre in gaming altogether.

Keeping that in mind, there are few games that have revolutionized the gaming industry in totality. MensXP puts on its best gaming face and presents games that changed the way you gamed!

1. Grand Theft Auto Series

Games That Changed Gaming - Grand Theft Auto Series

Games prior to the GTA series had a set road that you could take without giving you the slightest possibility to deviate from your mission. A racing game did not allow you to step out of the car, or a First-Person Shooter restricted you to get out of a building. The GTA series changed all that by bringing in the concept of open free world. The ability to do anything and everything you desire in a city completely at your disposal was unheard of, and GTA achieved just that. Right from driving around everywhere to shooting pedestrians to breaking into any house, you could do it all. Today, every game has incorporated this strategy and the impact clearly shows.

2. The Sims Series

Games That Changed Gaming - The Sims Series

Games in the ‘90s were strictly based on the point-and-shoot module where you were given a preset character and you had to aimlessly guide it like a hapless zombie. The Sims series changed that. Giving you the ability to create a character all by yourself from scratch was something unheard of. Right from choosing the apparel to the appearance that included the hairstyle, the skin color and practically everything else, Sims gave you the ability to create and nurture a human all by yourself. And nurture you did. You had to keep a tab on the diet, the bowel movements, moods, emotions, and practically everything else. These traits stood out, and as of today, they are seen in practically every game out there, right from Role-Playing Games to First-Person Shooters.

3. Mario

Games That Changed Gaming - Mario

A game adored by millions and one that has survived the test of time, dishing out one franchise after another, Mario is loved by one and all, and it definitely flipped the world of gaming. Set in a simple 2D world, the story was simple; the princess is kidnapped and you are supposed to save her. The task was daunting and expected you to jump over obstacles, kill evil turtles and eat magic mushrooms that made you grow. The game, a classic, was simple to play and completely addictive, and had the whole family hooked. Prior to Mario, games lacked a storyline, or a backbone; Mario filled that void by adding the right amount of mesmerizing element, and the rest is history.

4. Wii Sports

Games That Changed Gaming - Wii Sports

Nintendo Wii, although equipped with sub-par graphics was a groundbreaking innovation lauded by all. Gesture controls polished, Wii allowed people to physically do a particular motion in order to execute it on-screen, and the gamers gladly complied. Wii went a step further and added Wii Sports, a set of games that allowed gamers to play any outdoor sport right in the confines and comfort of their hope. Something revolutionary and unheard of, Wii Sports soon became the rage and what followed was a new path paved for gamers and game developers all over the world!

5. Guitar Hero

Games That Changed Gaming - Guitar Hero

There are many among us who have always wanted to play a guitar, or learn a new musical instrument but have failed to do so. Either the urge to learn has dwindled, or you find it downright daunting. Guitar Hero was the solution to just that. A game that came with a dummy guitar, it allowed a gamer to emulate a song of their choice while the game guided them through a crash-course in playing the dummy guitar. Revolutionary, Guitar Hero turned you into a bedroom Rock-star, giving you the ability to rock out in their own comfort zone, allowing you to live a childhood-fantasy of playing the guitar for a band. Simply put, Guitar Hero was the next level of air guitar-playing, and what followed was an array of games for drummers, vocalists and many other!

Home can be the place you want to leave

Amitava Kumar, 50, believes that his home town of Patna actually has three avatars - the elsewhere city that lives in the imagination of those who, like him, left it behind;the nowhere city, filthy and frantic, that is inhabited by those who cannot leave it;and the city of hope for those who come from poor districts. He attempts to capture the essence of the city in a short biography, quite unattractively titled 'A Matter of Rats'. But Kumar, who teaches English at Vassar College in the US, says he wanted to write not about rulers but about rats, both the four-legged as well as the two-legged variety.

From Megasthenes' eulogies to its magnificence to Shiva Naipaul's description of it as the 'heart of darkness', how difficult was it to chronicle the history of Patna's fall? 

We learn history and everything else through textbooks. The approach is serious and dull. It lacks imagination.

Making a scene

Sawing through a finger. Wrenching an ankle. Chasing after a cow. No matter what, the show must bleed, hobble and gallop on. Artists share bizarre anecdotes that highlight the unpredictable nature of performance art.

What happens when a performance artwork or street intervention doesn't go exactly as planned? Artists end up chasing holy cows, come within an inch of being lynched by angry city residents and find out while chopping off a finger that cutting through bone is harder than it looks. We invited five contemporary artists, whose street interventions have ranged from travelling atop bulldozers to milking cows outside illegally constructed malls, to give us a behind-thescenes look at the vagaries of performing in public. 

DEMOLITION MAN 

In 1994, the Mumbai-based artist Tushar Joag was deeply affected by the city-wide slum demolitions, which had displaced 90, 000 families.

Cracking under strain

The US-led war on drugs has caused social havoc in Latin America, which now wants to change track by treating it as a public health issue.

Even John Rambo didn't take himself so seriously. But these cops from Rio de Janeiro's anti-drug units were addicted to violence. They arrived over a shantytown in a chopper, tracking a car speeding through a lane. They were following Marcio Pereira, a trafficker known as 'Mathematician'. As the chase continued, a policeman began shooting at the car with his automatic. The bullets, streaking down like a hailstorm, hit houses, shops and street dogs but not the suspect, who escaped. Later, the cops found a bullet-riddled car, but they didn't bother to find out how many people in the crowded slum were struck by their bullets. 

Last week, one year after the incident, a video of the firing made it to a television network.

To steal perchance a dream

A 21-year-old Oxford student, whose debut novel is a futuristic fantasy about a young clairvoyant in a dystopian world, is being touted as the next JK Rowling.

It's early days yet, but protagonist Paige Mahoney has the personality and pluck to fill the void left by Hogwarts wizard Harry Potter. Many fictional characters and their authors have tried - and failed - to scale those magical heights of success that Potter's creator JK Rowling still enjoys. Now, the publishing house Bloomsbury hopes to relive its success through Samantha Shannon's debut novel, The Bone Season. It's the first of a seven-book series that will be unleashed next month on an audience always eager for a new fantasy fix.

Drawing from the rich tapestry of London and Oxford, Shannon weaves a dystopian world set in 2059;a world where clairvoyants are guilty of simply existing. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney works in Scion London, the city's criminal underworld. She uses her powers as a dreamwalker to enter the spirit world and break into the minds of people to gather intelligence for her boss, mine-lord Jaxon Hall, who offers protection to talented 'voyants' in return for their services. But one rainy night when Paige is captured by the secret police, she is flung into a world of government conspiracies that goes back to 1859. Instead of being executed at the Tower, Paige is taken to a penal camp, Sheol I, which is run by an alien race called the Rephaim. We learn that the prison city is Oxford, a place whose very existence was disavowed by the government so that the Rephaim could make it their home and harvest voyants for their powers. 

Unlike the first two Harry Potter books that had an Enid Blytonesque quality to them with their boarding-school backdrop, The Bone Season vibrates with darkness from the word go. "Yes, it's going to be a dark series, but perhaps not as brutal as George Martin's Game of Thrones, " says Shannon, who graduated from St Anne's College, Oxford, just a few weeks ago. 

The 21-year-old author's life makes for a compelling story. It has all the elements of a coming-of-age novel: a teenager's desire to write;the rejection of a sci-fi novel she wrote while still at school;the courage to try again. Shanon got the inspiration to write a story around clairvoyants during an internship with the literary agent David Godwin. His offices are located at Seven Dials, a junction in the Convent Garden district, where seven streets converge. 

Gentrification has altered Seven Dials, and today it's quite different from the poor and gritty landscape captured by Charles Dickens in Sketches by Boz. (Agatha Christie fans may recall The Seven Dials Mystery. ) During her lunch break, Shannon roamed the streets, catching glimpses of shops selling crystal balls. Seven Dials was the seed for The Bone Season, a place where the worlds of spirits, clairvoyants and underworld lords brush against each other;the place, she says, is "where it all began". 

Paige Mahoney was born during Shannon's second year at Oxford. Like the protagonist, Shannon was 19 at the time. "I'm nothing like Paige, but I live vicariously through her, " she has said. "She is hot headed, and has a life I'd like to lead. But Paige is not as independent as she'd like to think. " The three dominant characters in the voyant's life are all male. The good Dr Nicklas Nygard was the first to recognise her talents. Mine-lord Jax, who can switch from vicious ruthlessness to easy charm, has a strong hold on her. And finally, there's her captor and keeper, the Rehpaite Arcturus, whom she calls Warden even in their most intimate moments. "Warden is his title. Her use of the name is symbolic. " 

Shannon says that writing such an ambitious book was not an isolating experience. "I tried to control myself. I didn't want to flunk college because of my writing. The liberating thing about writing a sci-fi fantasy is that you can break the rules. " 

She gives full reign to her imagination, and this is reflected in her description of the Rephaim, physically perfect creatures that looked like humans before the Fall in Genesis. "The Rephaim are a race that feature in the Hebrew Bible, and their basic description inspired me to create a brand-new supernatural creature, " Shannon writes in a blog post. They are giants of the world. The Hebrew Bible also describes them as shades or spirits, inhabitants of the netherworld. 

In The Bone Season, they reside in Oxford, a mysterious and beautiful place that defies the ravages of time. "As students, we called it the Oxford Bubble. There was a sense of claustrophobia that contributed to this feeling. " Shannon draws on this sense of time standing still and carves a space between the action-packed pages to dwell on this. The gramophone is a recurring motif that evokes an anachronistic Victorian atmosphere. Often, the reader catches Warden listening to old music on the gramophone. "It was deliberate. The year 1859 is ever present, and has a bearing on the events in 2059. I indulged a bit by putting in my favourite songs. " When Warden questions Paige, you can hear Frank Sinatra's 'I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance (With You)'. In one scene, she wakes up to the soft strains of 'It's a Sin to Tell a Lie' by The Inkspots. 

When they read the manuscript, Bloomsbury offered Shannon a six-figure advance and the publicity machinery was set in motion. There's already a film in the pipeline. Perhaps comparisons with Rowling are not so farfetched. Shannon is uncomfortable with the comparison. "I really admire her, JK Rowling. I grew up on her books. I want to be known as Samantha Shannon."

Internet revolutionary

Wael Ghonim, poster boy for Egypt's Arab Spring, proves uprisings too can be 'liked, shared & tweeted'.

The accidental facilitator of the anti-Mubarak movement, Wael Ghonim, had a life many aspire to in Egypt. He was overseeing Google's marketing for the entire Middle East division, was married with an eight-year-old daughter, and had a villa in Dubai. 

His world changed in June 2010, with a post on his Facebook wall. It was the photograph of the dead body of a young Egyptian businessman-turned-activist, Khaled Said, who died in police custody. The photo caused a rupture in the apolitical life of this prosperous, introverted computer engineer and what he thought about his homeland. It was thus that Ghonim set up a Facebook page, We are all Khaled Said, which became a rallying point for the campaign against police brutality.

High learning, 'low' work

Kerala may have a record literacy rate for women but their numbers are growing only in low-paying jobs.

Kerala continues to hold on to a paradox - women have high levels of education as well as low levels of participation in the workforce. The recently released census figures show some improvement but not much. 

Female work participation in Kerala has inched up marginally from 15. 38 per cent in 2001 to 18. 23 per cent in 2011, according to Census data. It was 16. 6 per cent in 1981 and, 15. 9 per cent in 1991. 

Kerala has always boasted of other enabling factors for equity in the fields of education, life expectancy, and sex ratio. But a closer look at the data reveals that the rise in the number of women employees is in low-paying sectors involving casual jobs. The share of women in mainstream careers has actually come down by about 3 per cent between 2001 and 2011. Women account for nearly 94 per cent of those who have registered for MNREGS in Kerala, and this could partly explain the rise in the share of female participation in casual jobs. 

Studies by the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) reveal that only 18 per cent of women from the age group 15 to 64 were found employed in the state. Agriculture, plantation, coir and cashew were the main sectors providing employment to women in Kerala. 

"The crucial issue for Kerala is why the high levels of literacy and education of women are not enabling them to move from low value adding to high value adding activity;the mobility is from one low end to another low end activity, " says Mridul Eapen, honorary fellow, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. "Patriarchy in contemporary Kerala is apparent in a generalised social commitment to women's domestic role, implicit in their poor visibility in the public sphere reflected also in their poor employment profile. " 

"Patriarchal values go well with our hierarchical notions on work categorising certain jobs as inferior and certain others as 'decent'. Only some countries in South Asia and South East Asia like Philippines, Indonesia, China and Malaysia have been able to overcome the taboo against women taking up some jobs. But the working conditions in agriculture and other informal sectors in Kerala are technologically and organisationally very primitive and offer no security or safety for women. They can be motivated to take up jobs in informal sectors only by introducing appropriate technological and organisational modernisation, " says KP Kannan, economist at CDS. 

Economists, sociologists and social activists who have studied the low levels of female work participation in Kerala at various stages suggest that the overall economic growth achieved by the state has enabled women to wait for the job of their choice. "Plus 2 level education has become near universal in the state and girls forma a significant share of the roughly eight lakh students studying at that level. Many of them were joining the workforce in the state earlier, but now they prefer to continue with education, " says CP John, member of the Kerala Planning Board. 

"A large section of women in the 15 to 25 age group in Kerala are students, and girls outnumber boys in most of the streams at the degree and PG levels. The pressure to join the labour market is higher among young males from the poor families than females because of taboos against sending women out for jobs. Interestingly, there has been a 6. 5 per cent growth in the share of women in the salaried class of employees in the state between 1993 and 2008, whereas the growth rate was only 1. 7 per cent among males, " says Prof Kannan. 

Gulf migration has contributed at multiple levels to push down female work participation in Kerala. On the one side the remittances reduced the pressure on them to do hard labour. But on the other had stress of running a family single-handedly forced educated women to opt out of highly paying jobs. 

"The state could not do much to augment the skill sets of those who had gained Plus 2 level education. Most of them were not inclined to take up manual labour but lacked the skills to take up the new jobs, " says CPM leader C P Naryanan, MP. 

The paradox of high social development and low economic growth, a basic feature of the Kerala model of development, has also contributed to low levels of female employment in the state. When the economy became more service sector oriented, women who were employed in the agriculture and traditional industrial sectors were rendered jobless. 

Also, the growth in the service sector could not keep pace with the demand for jobs from women. Many women were illequipped to take on these new jobs or simply lacked the facilitating social environment to do so, says Sumit Mazumdar, who is working with the Institute for Human Development, Delhi and has researched female work participation in Kerala.

Ph.D. students make advances in tethering & network security

The average American spends about seven hours a day looking at an electronic screen. With this much of a role in our daily lives, our electronic devices must be updated frequently with the newest technology to reflect usage patterns and make the user's experience more efficient and safe.

Two Ph.D. students in William & Mary's Department of Computer Science are doing just that. Hao Han and Nan Zheng recently received the Stephen K. Park Graduate Research Award to recognize their contributions to electronic efficiency and network security, respectively.

Han's research focuses on increasing battery life when a user "tethers" a smartphone to a laptop. Many laptop users tether" their smartphone and laptop, using the smartphone's data plan to access the internet.

"Tethering is very helpful because you can use it on many devices. In places without Wi-Fi this is very helpful," said Han. The problem, he said, is that tethering drains smartphone batteries. Han explained that in an area with no Wi-Fi there is likely to be no outlets to charge either device, leaving users in an unfortunate situation if they need either device for a long period of time.

Han, along with his mentors at Microsoft, are devising a strategy to put the smartphone into sleep mode to save precious battery time.

"Our goal is to have the phone go to sleep for a while so it doesn't run out of battery when you're not using it," said Han.

Wi-Fi coverage is expected to grow in the future, but Han believes tethering will still be useful because of the limitations of coverage. Han's research can also be adapted to conserve battery life on other devices. He says his research is valuable in today's world because of the number of people it affects.

"Every phone has a battery, and everyone is concerned about battery life. Solving this problem would help millions of smartphone users," said Han.

Zheng's research also has the potential to impact millions. Like Han's work with tethering, her research in network security could affect everyone that uses the world wide web.

"The web is now part of everyone's life. It's a critical problem if a malicious person wants to impersonate someone and post some comments online," said Zheng.

Zheng is aiming to make the web more secure by using mouse dynamics as an aid in user authentication. Zheng says that mouse movements as distinctive as handwriting.

"Each person has a unique way that they write," said Zheng. "Similarly, the curves people make and the dynamics of mouse movements are different from person to person."

Zheng explained that even though we have alternate methods of authenticating a person such as fingerprint or voice recognition, most people use passwords, which can be guessed or generated easily. By using an individual's mouse motions, a computer armed with mouse-recognition software can validate the user in as little as one swipe. Further, the software tracks mouse movements continuously. Zheng says continuous tracking means continuous user verification.

She points out that the current standard, password protection, offers protection only at a one-time log in—an unauthorized user who gets through that stage has complete access without having to go through another security check. Using mouse tracking as a backup to password protection means that a hacker who gets through one security check could still be shut down.

"If an attacker hacks into your account but they don't have the right password, this software can look at their mouse movements. From there we can determine it is not the correct person," said Zheng Both Han and Zheng say their research can be applied to future technological advances.

"As long as we use batteries in handheld devices, we will always want to save battery life," said Han. Recent inventions such as countertops that turn into stoves with a mere touch could benefit built in safety features using Zheng's research to preventing children from accidentally turning on the stove. By looking for certain finger movements, this device could be made to only turn on with a certain person's touch.

"When everything goes to touchscreen, mouse dynamics is something that could be adapted to new technology," said Zheng.

A beemer by the backwaters

Fuelled by a desire to drive home the right impression, Keralites are choosing high-end cars.

It was the year 1983. The big fancy of a small village called Kanjirappilly in Kerala for the newly launched Maruti 800 caught car makers by surprise, prompting them to initiate a survey of the Kerala market, which they hadn't seriously considered a large one till then. 

Three decades later, the craze for cars - and we're not talking hatches - seems to have spread from the sleepy, scenic village in central Kerala to the rest of the state, especially Kochi, where a number of luxury car makers have opened dealerships in the past couple of years. These include super luxury car deals like Maserati and Ferrari. It's not just businessmen who are flaunting hot wheels;IT professionals and doctors constitute a major portion of the buyers. 

"Malayalees see their cars as a signature statement. They want to drive home an impression, literally, " says GPC Nayar, chairman of SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, who drives a Rolls-Royce Ghost. 

Luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW sell between 25 and 35 cars every month in Kochi, say dealers. Jaguar, which opened a showroom in Kochi in 2011, gets at least 10 new customers each month. 

BMW sold around 250 cars in the last fiscal, with most buyers going for the 3 and 4 series priced between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. When it comes to Meredes-Benz, it's the E-class range, priced at Rs 42 lakh to Rs 55 lakh, that speeds out of the showroom faster than the C-class that is tagged at Rs 33 lakh to Rs 36 lakh. 

The luxury automobile segment is - obviously - minuscule in India. Of the 2. 2 million cars sold in the country, the luxury segment - which includes players such as Volvo, BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz - accounts for about 28, 000 units. It's a niche market and Kerala seems to be an important player in it. 

Volvo, for instance, which launched its luxury hatchback V40 Cross Country earlier this week, made Kochi the fourth stop on its countrywide tour, after Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, its top three markets. "The south has been very good for us for sales, " said Sudeep Narayan, marketing director, Volvo Auto India. "Our focus is on widening our reach here. " The two-litre, five-cylinder engine car, priced at around Rs 30 lakh was launched in Europe last year, and is loaded with safety and comfort features. It's these features that seem to draw a few discerning buyers who say they're looking for comfort, not speed, in a city with bad roads and chaotic traffic. Dr Nechupadam, who recently upgraded from a Chevrolet Optra to a BMW 320D, says, "I got fed up of changing gears every minute. An automatic car means I do not have to do much work. It is more comfortable to drive. " 

For many though, it's all about the image. Celebrity hairstylist Leo Alphons says style gets priority over comfort in his world. Leo is using the Meredes-Benz C220, and has his eyes on a CLS350 that costs Rs 80 lakh. "I love the fact that driving such a car sets me apart from others. Everyone's eyes follow you on the road, " he says. The local availability of cars that were once considered premium brands has fuelled the boom. "Many of these brands are now within the reach of buyers, " says Thomas Muthoot, managing director of Muthoot Pappachan Group, which owns the Jaguar and Land Rover showrooms in Kochi. 

Women too are vrooming down the streets in the Audi Q7 or BMW X6. "It takes very little effort to manoeuvre a luxury sedan on Kochi's chaotic roads. They are built so powerfully that driving becomes a pleasure, " says Diwia Thomas, web content writer and motor rally enthusiast. Many high-end cars are fitted with imported music systems or wider tyres, adding about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh to the bill. 

It's Kochi's way of telling other cities: 'Eat my dust'.

Eating eggs not linked to high cholesterol

Washington: Eating more than two eggs does not lead to higher serum cholesterol in teens, regardless of how little physical activity they do, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Granada analysed the link between egg intake in adolescents and the main risk factors for developing cardiovascular diseases, such as lipid profile, excess body fat, insulin resistance and high blood pressure.

"Health professionals traditionally insisted that eating eggs increased cholesterol levels, so in recent decades there has been a tendency to restrict intake championed by various public health organisations," Alberto Soriano Maldonado, primary author of the study, said.

However, the most recent research suggests that increased serum cholesterol is more affected by intake of saturated fats and trans fats - present in red meat, industrial baked goods, etc - than by the amount of cholesterol in the diet.

The results, part of the European study HELENA involving nine countries, demonstrated that eating larger amounts of egg is neither linked to higher serum cholesterol nor to worse cardiovascular health in adolescents, regardless of their levels of physical activity.

"The conclusions, published in the journal Nutricion Hospitalaria, confirm recent studies in healthy adults that suggest that an intake of up to seven eggs a week is not associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases," said Soriano.

Researchers suggest reviewing dietary recommendations for adolescents, although they add that it would be useful to conduct similar research on a sample group with higher egg intake.

"Egg is a cheap food that is rich in very high-quality proteins, minerals, folates and B vitamins. Thus it can provide a large quantity of nutrients necessary for optimum development in adolescents," researchers said.

In 1973, the American Heart Association recommended limiting egg intake to a maximum of three per week, an idea that was accepted by health experts for years.

However, although the majority of foods rich in cholesterol are usually also rich in saturated fats, a medium-size egg contains 200 milligrammes of cholesterol but has more unsaturated fats than saturated fats and only has 70 calories. 

The slum of all parts

Dharavi once had a flourishing sub-economy but its old businesses are fast disappearing thanks to the ambitious redevelopment plan. The tanneries have vanished, and next in line is the plastic recycling industry.

Mubarak Shah, a 70-year-old scrap dealer, is a regular visitor at Dharavi. There is not a single plastic recycling unit owner in the 13 compounds of sector 1 of Dharavi who does not know him. Almost daily, Shah comes to Dharavi with truckload of scrap, which gets recycled in over 50 waste processing units of Dharavi. Plastics, aluminium, copper, sheesha (lead) - Shah deals in all kind of waste materials. And, Dharavi is the best place to do business, as almost 70 per cent of India's plastic waste and scrap gets recycled in this notorious slum that rose to fame post the 2008 British film, Slumdog Millionaire.

Scientists design Facebook-like networks that could speed the development of new drugs

Social media has expanded to reach an unlikely new target: molecules. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created networks of molecular data similar to Facebook's recently debuted graph search feature. While graph search would allow Facebook users to find all their New York-living, beer-drinking buddies in one quick search, the NIST-designed networks could help scientists rapidly sift through enormous chemical and biological data sets to find substances with specific properties, for example all 5-ring chemicals with an affinity for enzyme A. The search approach could help speed up the development of new drugs and designer materials.

The NIST team will present their research at the upcoming American Crystallographic Association Meeting, held July 20-24 in Honolulu.

Choosing the Right Words

Molecules don't maintain their own online profiles, so a key challenge for the NIST research team was to develop a standard language for scientists to describe their research subjects. For example, one research group may describe a material's properties as glassy while another team might use the word vitreous, even though the two words have the same meaning, explained Ursula Kattner, a researcher in the Materials Science and Engineering Division at NIST.

One approach to the problem could be to define a standard set of words, but NIST scientists opted for a more flexible approach that could evolve with time. The search language they developed is similar to Indo-European languages like Sanskrit and Latin, which use short roots to build words based on a set of rules, said Talapady Bhat, a research chemist at NIST who has been leading the effort to develop a shared vocabulary for NIST's scientific databases. He gives the example of the Sanskrit word "yoga," which is based on the roots "Y(uj)", which means to join, "O", which means creator, God, or brain, and "Ga", which means motion or initiation. Similarly, scientists could take the three simple root words "red", "laser," and "light," and combine them into a single compound word "red-laser-light" that conveys a new concept. Using the root and rule-based approach will mean that scientists who know the roots can figure out the meaning of unfamiliar terms, and it also gives scientists flexibility to develop easily understandable new terms in the future.

The NIST team has already applied their root-based vocabulary rules to the chemical structures in PubChem, a "monstrous database" of millions of compounds and chemical substances, to the world wide protein data bank (PDB), and to specific NIST-based databases, said John Elliot, a biophysicist and another member of the team. While the scientific databases haven't reached a Facebook-like level of more than a billion users, they are actively used by many scientists in the NIST community and beyond.

Graphing Relationships

Once the preliminary vocabulary was established, the NIST team also worked to categorize the descriptions of molecules and scientific experiments in a hierarchical fashion that would allow a search to return comprehensive, yet precise results. A common problem with many search approaches is that they get too many results, said Elliot. Elliot described his team's approach as similar to the problem of locating the Doritos in a large Walmart store. "First you find the grocery market section, then the next level of hierarchy is snacks, after which you go to the chips section, and then you'll quickly know if they have Doritos or not," said Elliot. "So even if a store has a million products, you can find out if they have your product really quickly." The team said the hierarchical approach could also guide scientists who need to pick out key words to index in their research papers.

Organizing the huge amounts of data generated by science is a big challenge, the team said, but it has potentially huge payoffs. Effective graph searches could allow scientists to rapidly identify chemical structures and properties that are needed for the development of new drug agents or advanced materials (such as high efficiency jet turbines or flexible solar cells), results more than worthy of a Facebook like.

7 Ways To Banish Monsoon Stress

India is dying... and it’s a slow, silent death! The monsoons have all but drowned the country and we find ourselves swimming to work. Do you find yourself preparing for war every time you get into your car to go to work?

Do you find yourself feeling anxious at the thought of dealing with the ordeal of taking public transport? Do you find yourself looking for excuses to bunk work the moment it rains? Do you find yourself worrying about basic survival when you think about getting around in the monsoons? If you have an affirmative answer to even one of these questions, then you’re allowing the horror of stress to dictate your life and affect your health.

Stress is one of the worst habits you can inculcate. Something as essential and basic as the drive to work during the monsoon can stress you out completely. Stress by itself is unessential and the worst part is that it leads to a host of health complications such as heart disease, anxiety, headaches, obesity and many more ailments.

MensXP thinks that it’s time to give the big S the boot and try and enjoy the good ol’ monsoons by incorporating these seven steps.

1) Accept the Season

Banish Monsoon Stress - Accept the Season

You can moan and groan all you want, but the monsoons have a date with India for four months every year. Time to stop greeting those raindrops with a grumpy face, man-up and accept that no matter what you say or do, it IS going to rain. Now that you’ve acknowledged this, prepare for your travel to work accordingly. If you take the road, give yourself a 30 minute buffer because with rains, come traffic jams and chaos. Additionally, look for alternate routes to work. If the main roads get jammed, try and find inner roads that’ll be less congested. If you take public transport, prepare yourself with several transport options besides a 60 minute time buffer. When you have your transportation and timings sorted, you’ll see that stress won’t bother touching you.

2) Meditate

Banish Monsoon Stress - Meditate

If you don’t meditate already, it’s about time you get start. There are different meditation techniques such as Vipassana, Om meditation, The Art of Living, etc. Find out what works best for you and which form of meditation appeals to you the most. Once you get that sorted, enrol yourself for formal training and inculcate meditation in your daily life. You’ll find yourself at peace and the chaotic trip to work won’t be as bad as it is. If you’re strapped for time and you can’t enrol for a meditation course just yet, spend a few minutes of silence every morning and do some Om chanting... peace will be a given.

3) Listen to Calming Music

Banish Monsoon Stress - Listen to Calming Music

There’s something about music, isn’t it? It can uplift your mood, transport you to a different realm and put you at peace. In fact, if music were to beat stress, it would serenade it out of your life. It’s time to plug into your favourite music and make that trip to work melodious and calming. Choosing a genre depends completely on your taste; but, research has gone proved that listening to classical calming melodies, puts you at ease.

4) Do Breathing Exercises on Your Way

Banish Monsoon Stress - Do Breathing Exercises on Your Way

Sometimes, in spite of your morning meditation and calming music, traffic and the sheer effort to get to work can be de-motivating. Stress not because breathing exercises are here to your rescue. If you feel yourself losing your cool or you find that wily old foe you know as stress, threaten your circle of peace, just inhale and exhale. Do this when you’re stuck in traffic and when you stop at a signal. Concentrate on your breathing and you’ll find a sense of calm settling in.

And when you’re at work...

5) Use Noise Cancelling Headphones At Work

Banish Monsoon Stress - Use Noise Cancelling Headphones At Work

As much as you may like a lively office, sometimes decibel levels can be exasperating, especially when you’ve managed to maintain your calm on your way to work. Fret not because it’s time to put your ears together for noise cancelling headphones. These babies will block out that unsavoury mayhem and allow you to optimise your productivity. Of course, productive you = stress-free, happy you.

6) Dress Up Your Desk

Banish Monsoon Stress - Dress Up Your Desk

Let’s admit it, we’re a visual race and all things fine, appeals to us, which is absolutely great. Take a quick look at your desk at work. Pictures of your family, an unforgettable trip, your pet, indoor plants – all of this makes work a lot more fun. Why, you wonder? It’s simple – one look at everyone and everything that means something put everything else in perspective. Just looking at a familiar face, even though it’s smiling at you through a photo-frame, is therapeutic. If you don’t have happy things already, it’s time you adorn your desk and have it mean something. One glance is all it takes to set things straight.

7) Go Green With Green Tea

Banish Monsoon Stress - Go Green With Green Tea

Don’t turn your nose, please; green tea isn’t as distasteful as people say it is. It’s an acquired taste. Besides, green tea is loaded with tannins, Vitamin C and E, B1, B2, plant pigments, saponins and a host of other health boosters, which enhance your overall health. However, green tea also calms and mellows you down. So, if you’re feeling stressed during the day or stressed thinking about making your way back home in the rains, green tea is a perfect stress alleviator!

Considering that you’ve successfully shown stress the door, notice how calm you are on your drive back home. The monsoons wash away a lot of things; it’s time to put stress on a paper boat that sails away into oblivion!