The Amazing pictures of Blue Whale : Whale Facts

The Auckland Islands Marine Reserve protects an area 300 miles south of New Zealand’s South Island, where these two robust southern rights are part of a recovering population thought to include more than 1,000 whales.

Scars on this adult in the Bay of Fundy likely resulted from entanglement in fishing gear that cut through the skin.

Trawling with open mouth along the surface of Cape Cod Bay, a North Atlantic right whale feeds on the move. Water flowing into its mouth carries tens of thousands of copepods—crustaceans each about the size of a grain of rice—toward the sieve-like plates of baleen, which strain them out as the water flows back into the bay.

Signature V-shaped plumes of spray shoot from a North Atlantic right whale in the Bay of Fundy. The whale exhales, clearing water from the opening of its dual blowholes, then draws in air.

A calf's open jaws reveal a pink soft palate that releases excess body heat, and a hanging sieve of baleen that strains tiny prey from the sea. Unique to right whales, rough skin callosities develop in patterns that identify individuals as clearly as fingerprints.

A female gets a playful bump from her new calf in warm shallows near Florida's Amelia Island. North Atlantic right whale mothers give birth and spend winters off the south Georgia–north Florida coast.

Far from busy ship lanes, a 40-foot southern right whale swims in safety near the remote Auckland Islands.

source: national geographic channel

The Amazing Pictures of year 2008

Man and right whale size each other up in the winner of the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition's underwater category, announced on October 30.

"The whales were highly curious of us. Many of these animals had never seen a human before," Skerry told National Geographic.

Photographed off New Zealand for National Geographic magazine , the whales shared top honors with a comical, quizzical monkey, eagles in an air battle, and a battling lizard and snake, among others. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News and National Geographicmagazine.)

Under intense magnification, a long-fin squid's suckers--each no wider than a human hair--resemble the leafy star of Little Shop of Horrors.

This electron-micrograph image may have only won an honorable mention in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, but thanks to enthusiastic bloggers, these suckers were the breakout stars of National Geographic News's gallery of the contest's highlights, posted on September 25. Among the other marquee attractions: a bugged-out take on the Mad Hatter's tea party and a "glass forest."

Filled with forests, waterfalls, and fantastically shaped granite peaks and pillars, China's 56,710-acre (22,950 hectare) Mount Sanqingshan National Park was among the 174 wild sites--eight of them featured in this gallery--added to the UN World Heritage list in July 2008.

Chosen by a committee of the UN's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage sites are natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity.

After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted, generating on May 3 what may have been a "dirty thunderstorm." These little-understood storms may be caused when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles collide to produce static charges--just as ice particles collide to create charges in regular thunderstorms.

The eruption, which continued off and on for months, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and cattle from this corner of Patagonia.

A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, this alien-like, long-armed, and--strangest of all--"elbowed" Magnapinna squid is seen in a still from a video clip obtained by National Geographic News

The carcass of a colossal squid floats in a tank at the Museum of New Zealand on April 30, giving scientists their first close look at the elusive deep-sea creature.

The squid was frozen for months after being caught by fishers off Antarctica in 2007. A dissection of the thawed beast yielded astonishing discoveries, including the animal kingdom's largest eyes and light-emitting organs that may serve as cloaking devices, scientists said.

Glowing-hot carbon nanotubes form an expanding orange ball in this winning image from the 2008 Small World photomicrography competition, sponsored by Nikon and featured in an October 15 National Geographic News gallery. In nine other masterworks of magnification, a beetle danced on a pin, and drugs yielded crystal rainbows.

In a picture from National Geographic News's tenth most viewed photo gallery of 2008, Sylvia Renteria recoils as a wave churned by Hurricane Ike meets a seawall in Galveston, Texas, on September 12.

Before landfall, the National Weather Service's chilling warnings of "certain death" spurred officials and residents of the coastal town to gird for the worst--and stoked fears of a replay of the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 6,000.

source: national geographic channel.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer may be the new hacker's tool

Microsoft has issued a warning on its browser, Internet Explorer.

The company says that a flaw in the browser allows criminals to hack into computers, take control and use it however they wish.

The problem, first revealed last week, allows criminals to hijack computers and steal passwords if the user visits an infected website. As many as 10,000 sites have already been compromised to take advantage of the flaw, according to anti-virus software producer Trend Micro.

Microsoft says it will issue a security patch from Wednesday night onwards. Analysts suggest users switch browsers till the fault is rectified.

"It's a very serious threat, it affects all versions of Internet Explorer on all versions of Microsoft Windows and as I say, because there is no patch available, there is no mitigation available from Microsoft for that. What people should do to protect themselves, if they can, they should avoid using Internet Explorer and switch to an alternative browser," says Trend Micro's Senior Security Adviser, Rik Ferguson.

Google Rolls Chrome Out of Beta Garage

Google released the 15th update for its Chrome Web browser and officially ended the beta testing phase for the application Thursday.

With some 10 million active users and 14 prior updates under its belt, the browser has improved its stability and performance in just 100 days, according to Google.

"Google Chrome is a better browser today thanks to the many users who sent their feedback and the many more who enabled automatic crash reports, helping us rapidly diagnose and fix issues," wrote Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson in a Google blog post.

Chrome spent a relatively short period of time in beta status, especially considering that Google is known for taking its time with beta projects, even in 

its most popular offerings. Launched in September, Chrome was in beta for just three months. By comparison, Google's Gmail began beta testing in April 2004, and more than four years later, the e-mail app is still there. "Google said that it applies a different time frame and standard to its client software than other offerings. Google also indicated that Chrome was fairly far along when it was released in beta, which compressed the interim period as well," Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, told TechNewsWorld.

Google has not simply taken the beta label off of Chrome and called it finished, he noted. There have been 14 separate updates during the beta period and a number of changes improving speed, security and stability, as well as bug fixes to address glitches with the audio and video in Chrome.

"While there could be other potential justifications or reasons for making Chrome available for general release, Google indicated to me it was because they felt the browser had progressed to a point where that was possible. Chrome also sees itself as a platform for Web applications. Firefox has a similar vision of in its future," he said.

Each product development team determines its own criteria for coming out of beta, according to Google. With Chrome, the company set standards for stability and performance and removed the beta when those standards were met. 

Chrome, according to Google, now offers users better stability and plug-in performance. Video and audio glitches -- among the most common bugs addressed during the beta period -- have been fixed.

Speed has also been a focus. Since the first beta version rolled out, the V8 JavaScript engine runs 1.4 times faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 1.5 times faster on the V8 benchmark, said Google. The company plans to increase speed even more in future updates.

The bookmark manager and privacy controls have also received a boost. It's now easier to switch between another browser and Chrome with bookmark import and export features. Google also worked to give users greater control of their data. To that end, all features in Chrome that affect user privacy are grouped in one place with an explanation regarding what each one actually does.

"The browser is very fast, which is one of its core features. In addition, the tabs operate like separate browsers to prevent the entire browser from crashing if there's a problem with an individual site. The 'new tab' page offers a nice display of frequently used sites and recent bookmarks. Tabs can also be manipulated and moved around, unlike other browsers," Sterling said.

source: technewsworld.com

US to educate India in the art of dealing with terror

US Ambassador David C Mulford on Monday met Home Minister P Chidambaram in the capital in the backdrop of Washington's offer to share information and collaborate with New Delhi following the Mumbai terror attacks.

The meeting at North Block lasted about half-an-hour, official sources said.

The officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have already questioned Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant involved in the November 26 strikes, to ascertain his role and those of his handlers in Pakistan.

The US, which witnessed the deadly 9/11 attacks seven years ago, is working through a package for India on dealing with the situation arising out of the "horrific" Mumbai strikes by way of information sharing, collaboration and cooperation, according to a top Pentagon official.

"We are working through the initial parts of a package. We would offer to India to help them understand some of the lessons that we very painfully learnt in the wake of our September 11 attacks, in information sharing, collaboration and cooperation," , Commander of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating, told reporters in Washington last week.

Praising India for its "measured response" in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Keating said that various agencies of the US government were working closely to keep a tab of developments in the region

Big B impresses Madhavan with golfing skills

Actor R Madhavan, known for his golfing prowess, says he was surprised by hisTeen Patti co-star Amitabh Bachchan's skill at the game.

Madhavan has won prizes for the game while Amitabh had never played golf before. "Or so he said," said Madhavan.

"But seeing how he played, I was shocked. No one except Mr Bachchan can be so good at a game he has never played before," Madhavan said.

It happened suddenly when one day Big B decided to join the young actor at the golf course in Pune where they are shooting for the movie.

"I thought I'd be privileged enough to teach him a few moves. I was stunned at the way he played. He was spectacular. And if this was his first time ever at golf then I've just become an even bigger fan of his," said Maddy who played an Amitabh admirer in Ramji Londonwale and even got the superstar to make an appearance at the end of the film.

"I don't know how he did it! He's unbelievably athletic. His hand coordination is extraordinary. Other people generally take four years for what he did on the golf course on his first day... and so easily. He has phenomenal pick up powers whether it's on the golf course or on the (movie) sets," Madhavan said.

In the film, Amitabh plays the professor who tutors five of his brightest proteges, played by Madhavan, Siddharth Kher and newcomers Druv Ganesh, Vaibhav Talwar and Shraddha Kapoor for high-stakes gambling. It is being directed by Leena Yadav.

Not much of a card player either, Big B picked up the card game so fast for Teen Patti that he left Madhavan and other team members gasping.

"He is extraordinary in whatever he does. I feel like his pupil," said Maddy.

"And then I go right back to playing the student in Raj Kumar Hirani's Three Idiots. But being around Big B, I always feel like a student."