web pruned by monkeys

From solving problems to flashes of inspiration, scientists are beginning to unravel the creative powerhouse that is the mind at night.

Read the article: Waiting for that life-changing idea? Just sleep on it

US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.

Read the article: US global dominance ’set to wane’

Millions of people in Malaysia have been banned from doing yoga because of fears it could corrupt Muslims. The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country’s Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots.

Read the article: Malaysia outlaws yoga for Muslims

Citgroup executives, faced with a plunging share price, began weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation.

Read the article: Report: Citigroup weighs potential sale

US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 52,000 new job cuts, on top of 23,000 cuts already made this year.

Read the article: Citigroup job cull to hit 75,000

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those who would tear the world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you.

Read the article: Full text: Obama’s victory speech

While many of the world’s best business brains are exercising themselves over the current global banking and equities crisis, there is another issue which has the potential to dominate our lives far more in the longer term — energy.

Read the article: The future of energy - CNN.com

A new feature introduced today in Gmail allows free voice and video chat right from within Gmail. Nice!

Read the article: Official Google Blog: Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail

India is celebrating the arrival of its Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft at the Moon.

Read the article: Indian satellite orbiting Moon

If you like the Chrome UI but love Adblock Plus, here is how-to get the best of both worlds! Via lifehacker

Read the article: Google Chrome: Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone

Free, open-source image processing app Qtpfsgui takes in groups of standard digital camera shots of the same scene or object and runs them through a high dynamic range imaging filter, creating striking images with more depth of color.

Read the article: Qtpfsgui Makes Standard Digicam Shots More Vibrant

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free online service.

Read the article: Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots

Nothing causes as much anxiety in a family as when someone falls sick. Nearly 65% of India’s poor get into debt and 1% fall below the poverty line each year because of illness, according to National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 2004. The answer, of course, is health insurance, but only 6% of India’s workers have it.

Read the article: Finally, a lifeline for India’s poor

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history by the skin of his teeth after a nail-biting Brazilian Grand Prix.

Read the article: Last-gasp Hamilton takes F1 crown

How Apple, Airtel and Vodafone are ripping off Indian iPhone users.

Read the article: How Apple, Airtel and Vodafone are ripping off Indian iPhone users

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005.

Do you work a lot with large files, or need to synchronize large blocks of files between two drives? For both of these applications, a free Windows application called TeraCopy is a much better solution than Windows Explorer and most of the file copying utilities out there.

Read the article: TeraCopy: A Free Way to Trounce Windows File Copying

The best presentation of Happy Life!

Read the rest of this entry »

Mr. Ratan Tata has said in his press conference that, “Two years ago, I said if somebody puts a gun to my head, you would either have to remove the gun or pull the trigger. I would not move my head. I think Ms Banerjee pulled the trigger.”

Read the article: An elegy for Singur

Breathtaking pictures from 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony!

2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony

“…a familiar line spouted by Americans these days is, ‘Why should the US curb energy consumption, when India and China are guzzling petrol and polluting the whole globe?’…”

California consumes more petrol than India!

Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China

Streaming allows the upload and download at the same time, without the first person completely uploading the file. New startup brings streaming of files to web — innovative!

Streamfile

VCs are collectively pumping about $7b per quarter on average in the US, with an average deal size of $7.5m, so approx 1000 new/renewed investments per quarter! The hot industries are usual suspects: software, energy and bio-tech.

VC Deals In Charts @ TechCrunch

Free, open-source boot disk utility Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) automatically and completely deletes the content of every hard disk it can find on your computer when you run it.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke Securely Wipes Your System in an Emergency