Mobile phone calls will be allowed on planes flying in European airspace under new European Commission rules. It means that mobiles could be used once a plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more.

The first services could launch next month. Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, has warned operators to keep the cost of calls made on planes at a reasonable level. The decision to offer the services now falls to individual airlines. However, there are other regulatory hurdles to overcome before the technology is considered to be fully approved. The European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to approve any hardware that would be installed in aircraft to ensure that it did not interfere with other flight systems.

The plan is to install small mobile phone base stations, called pico cells, in aircraft that will be switched on after take-off. The base station generates a bubble of coverage in and around the aircraft. Calls made via the pico cell will be routed to terrestrial networks via satellite link. Across Europe radio spectrum has been set aside for the technology. The services could stop working once aircraft leave European airspace.

Initially, only second generation networks will be offered but growing interest would mean that third generation, or 3G, services will follow.

Reference:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/08/220&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Do you believe in mysterious creatures? Or maybe you are an eyewitness of something like El Chupacabra is?

This name means "the goat sucker" in Spanish. The reason for this name derives from the fact that the victims of this creature were usually goats who died with two puncture wounds to the throat and all of the blood was removed from their bodies.

At first it was spotted in Puerto Rico in 1994, where distressed farm owners began finding their livestock in this rather garish state, since it migrated off the island and has recently been spotted in many locations including South America as well as the US. The occurrences began shortly after hurricane Hugo, and led any to believe that secret genetic testing had been being conducted by the US military, and that a facility deep in the rain forest had been destroyed or damaged, and these genetically altered animals escaped. Soon after, the sightings of the creatures began to spread, first from Central America, then to South America, Mexico and to the United States.

Like other creatures in the crypto zoologist’s barnyard, the chupacabra has been variously described. Some witnesses have seen a small half-alien, half-dinosaur tailless vampire with quills running down its back; others think that they have seen a panther like creature with a long snake-like tongue; still others have seen a hopping animal that leaves a trail of sulfuric stench. Some think it may be a type of dinosaur. Some are convinced that the wounds on animals whose deaths have been attributed to the chupacabra indicate an alien presence. Such creatures are known as Anomalous Biological Entities in UFO circles.

There have been, of course reports of attacks on other types of animals, as well as attacks on small children. There are other theories popular on the internet about these creatures, that they are "pets" of extra-terrestrial beings etc... Although some people say, that they have seen the Chupacabra's tracks, in many cases there are no signs of blood or tracks around the dead animals.

The El Chupacabra although seen by many has never been photograph and to this day we have nothing but the eyewitness accounts and artist renderings.

References:

http://www.elchupacabra.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra

Have you ever thought of an island that looks like a fish from the globe overview? Isn’t it funny a fishy island surrounded with fishes inside the sea? Oh, you may think that my geography is awful, but I’m able to proof this reality. You may check out yourself via the map. Follow the instruction: It lies 3.2 km east of Java and approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and 112 km north to south, with a surface area of 5,632 km². Oh, I think you have already found it – Bali itself – an island that makes your dreams true.

Don’t you wish to be there while your holidays, spending great time in a wild nature and wide your dreams horizon? Also you may appear a person who is always ready for innovations, who is not afraid of the highest point like Mount Agung at 3,142 m high, an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. Mount Batur is also still active. About 30,000 years ago it experienced a catastrophic eruption - one of the largest known volcanic events on the Earth. I’m a little bit afraid but still I’d like to be there, it seems to be an interesting advantage.

Bali consists of about three million people, nearly all of who practice the Balinese Hindu religion that is deeply interwoven with art and ritual, and is less closely preoccupied with scripture, law, and belief than Islam in Indonesia. Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali. English is a common third language of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the large tourism industry. Could you imagine that staff working in Bali's tourist centers is often, by necessity, multilingual to some degree, speaking as many as 8 or 9 different languages to an often surprising level of competence.

Also there is a luxury service provided by many companies, those offering high standard apartments mostly like villas in exchange of some money. But it’s not all; the main goal is that you feel like a “big fish” out the aquarium.

www.in-balivillas.com is one of those who give you an opportunity to find out yourself there. They introduce you the finest Villas in Seminyak in the Island of Gods. Surrounded by Attractively designed private homes or villas close with Seminyak beach, private villas and offer the real Luxurious stay. Some packages has dedicated to making family travel fun, rewarding, and affordable for the entire family for less than the cost of staying at a good Bali hotels in Bali.

“Fishy” Island has already amazed me I hope you do so, so the rest thing that I can do is to wish you an interesting journey. A “big fish” - let it out the aquarium!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali

http://www.in-balivillas.com/

Scientists have found the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East.

The team says it found a particular DNA signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades. The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA.

The researchers detected that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe. The scientists also found that Lebanese Muslim men were more likely than Christians to carry a particular genetic signature. But this one is linked to expansions from the Arabian Peninsula which brought Islam to the area in the 7th and 8th Centuries. But they emphasize that the differences between the two communities are minor, and that Christians and Muslim Arabs in Lebanon overwhelmingly share a common heritage.

The study focused on the Y, or male, chromosome, a package of genetic material carried only by men that is passed down from father to son more or less unchanged, just like a surname. But over many generations, the chromosome accumulates small changes, or copying errors, in its DNA sequence. These can be used to classify male chromosomes into different groups which, to some extent, reflect a person's geographical ancestry.

The team analyzed the Y chromosomes of 926 Lebanese males and found that patterns of male genetic variation in Lebanon fell more along religious lines than along geographical lines. A genetic signature on the male chromosome called WES1, which is usually only found in west European populations, was found among the Lebanese men included in the study.

References:

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lebanon.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Genographic_Project

The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps. A Google spokesman said that where the US military had expressed concerns, images had been removed. Google has now been barred from filming and conducting detailed studies of bases, following the discovery of detailed, three-dimensional panoramas online - and in particular, views of the Texan base.

"Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas," said the defence department in a statement quoted by AFP news agency. It said such detailed mapping could pose a threat.

Google spokesman Larry Yu said the decision by a Google team to enter the Texas base, which is in San Antonio, and undertake a detailed survey, had been "a mistake".

Military officials are currently looking into exactly what imagery is available - though it may not be able to order its removal if images are taken from public streets. Among the popular mapping services offered by Google are Street View, which allows web users to "drive" along virtual US landscapes with ground-level views, and Google Earth, which offers detailed satellite and 3D images of locations around the world. In this case, it was imagery offered on Street View that caused the concern. Also both have provoked complaints - from individuals depicted in the images and from governments concerned that satellite images could compromise security.

Gary Ross, a spokesman for the US Northern Command, told AFP that although such services could be useful, "there has to be a balance". But Mr Yu said Google would listen to concerns about privacy and security.

According to the MarketResearchAnalyst.com information the top five ethanol producers in 2006 were the United States (4.855 billion US gallons per year (bgy), Brazil (4.491 bgy), China (1.017 bgy), India (0.502 bgy) and France (0.251 bgy). Brazil and the United States accounted for 90 percent of all ethanol production. Also, it should be noted that the United States, now producing at a rate of about 4.6 billion US gallons per year, is widely considered the world’s largest ethanol producer. Strong incentives, coupled with other industry development initiatives, are giving rise to fledgling ethanol industries in countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Malawi. Nevertheless, ethanol has yet to make a dent in world oil consumption.

Major findings:

* World’s ethanol production will pass 20 Bln in 2012.

* Ethanol production is expected to grow in 2008 - 2012 with CAGR about 5%.

* U.S. and Brazil are leading the world in production of ethanol.

* Emergence of new ethanol producers in Asia and Latin America.

* Cuba has the capacity to manufacture as much as 3.2 billion gallons of ethanol annually from its sugar crop.

High oil prices; National energy security considerations; Ethanol tax incentives; Improved technology - lower costs of ethanol production; Climate change concerns – those all are factors driving ethanol market.

MarketResearchAnalyst.com is a panel of experts with extensive experience in custom and syndicated market research as well as strategic consulting across numerous technology-driven markets. They provide ‘best in class’ resource of featured market research papers and insightful analysis briefs to their clients worldwide by partnering them with best market research publishers.

It is to admire that in Brazil ethanol has become economically competitive with gasoline, and the country's biofuels program could serve as a world model for producing sustainable energy. South America's largest country is the world's reigning ethanol king, producing 4.4 billion gallons (16.5 billion liters) of the biofuel from sugarcane each year, on average. Biofuel is widely considered a way to reduce greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use and thereby reduce human-caused global warming.

References:

http://www.marketresearchanalyst.com/2008/01/26/world-ethanol-production-forecast-2008-2012/

The Earth that moves round the Sun, changing position once in several hours by replacing day by night and night by day, changes itself, too. And the disease of the Earth is called “Global Warming.” What are the changes the Earth underwent and what are the threats the inhabitants might face are analyzed in the data obtained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

• Record-low Arctic sea ice extent, which led to first recorded opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage;
• The relatively small Antarctic Ozone Hole;
• Development of La Niña in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific;
• Devastating floods, drought and storms in many places around the world.

Data shows that the winter and spring is ranked 4°C higher than the long-term monthly averages for January and April. In contrast to Bulgaria, the South of the United States, in August, where the highest temperature was fixed, Australia recorded its coldest ever June with the mean temperature dropping to 1.5°C below normal. South America experienced an unusually cold winter, bringing winds, blizzards and rare snowfall to various provinces with temperatures falling to -22°C/-7.6°F in Argentina and -18°C/-0.4°F in Chile in early July.

The joint press release also indicates the results and consequences about sea level. It continued to rise at rates substantially above the average for the 20th century of about 1.7 mm per year. global averaged sea level by 2007 is about 20 cm higher than the 1870 estimate. Modern satellite measurements show that since 1993 global averaged sea level has been rising at about 3 mm per year.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 4th Assessment (Synthesis) Report, 2007, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”

Two posts were already covered on global warming at Blogvasion:
Green Ethernet Technology To Solve Global Problems,
Global Warming Effects and Ways of Informing Society.

The last one got two comments, that show the importance and actuality of the issue on the global arena of problems. The representative of Right Democrat: A Mainstream Populist Voice indicated in the comment that “the best way to slow global warming would be to expand nuclear power,” and asked me to visit the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsiE3Ldc8hM . I think that Video on You Tube “Dr. Patrick Moore on Nuclear Energy and Low CO2 Emissions” will be informative and productive for the Blogvasion readers, too.

European leaders celebrated Friday as the borders of nine countries along a Cold War frontier melted away, allowing a huge expansion to the EU's passport-free travel zone.

In Zittau, on Germany's eastern fringe — where the country meets Poland and the Czech Republic — Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso raised a border gate as children set loose dozens of blue balloons covered by stars — symbolizing the EU flag. "We are all quite happy to be able to celebrate this truly historic moment together," - Merkel said.

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta joined the EU in 2004, but could not be part of the Schengen frontier-free zone until now because their police and border guards were not considered in line with EU norms.

"It would have been better to wait a year or two longer to abolish the border controls," said Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the German state of Bavaria, which borders the Czech Republic.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said Friday his country will be ready to join the Schengen zone by 2011. "It depends, of course, on how prepared Romania will be, since it would be strange for Bulgaria to join, but to have a Schengen border with Romania." - Kalfin said

On the Polish side, in Porajow, Tusk said the day was "exceptional" for the Poles, Germans and Czechs who came of age in a divided Europe.

Hours before the controls ended at midnight Thursday, Polish and German officials gathered at the Frankfurt an der Oder border crossing, east of Berlin, cutting a symbolic ribbon.

But the move has also forced the EU to tighten controls on its new eastern borders to prevent infiltration by criminal gangs, illegal immigrants and even terrorists.

The EU's front line in the fight against illegal immigration remains to the south where thousands of poor Africans make a hazardous sea journey to the coasts of Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece, while would-be migrants from the Middle East and Asia take the overland route through Turkey and the Balkans.

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer dismissed concerns that the expansion would aid criminals or illegal immigrants as he symbolically joined Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico to saw through a barrier on the countries' border. "Schengen is not crime, not insecurity, not fear," Gusenbauer said. "Schengen stands for freedom, security and stability."

The Schengen agreement is named after the village in Luxembourg where it was signed in 1985 by France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to allow citizens to travel freely between them. Since then, they have been joined by Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, as well as non-EU nations Norway and Iceland.

Beginning Friday, Serbian citizens need the EU's Schengen visas to travel to neighboring Hungary, or even to Slovenia — the country they shared the old six-republics Yugoslav federation with until 1991.

Serbia's pro-Western officials hope that Serbia could by 2009 be placed on the so-called "white Schengen list" that would allow its citizens to travel visa-free.

But because of its perennial political instability, and fears that Serbs would flee en masse to the West if the visas were lifted, the EU has kept the requirement — although some categories, such as students, researchers, business people and journalists will be able to obtain visas to the EU more quickly as of Jan. 1.

A new species of spitting cobra - now the largest in the world has been named by researchers in Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The newly anointed Ashe's spitting cobra, or large brown spitting cobra (Naja ashei), can reach lengths of more than 9 feet (274 centimeters) and is believed to deliver more venom with a single bite than any other cobra on the planet.

The aggressive reptile was previously identified as a brown-colored variant of the black-necked spitting cobra, though researchers had long suspected that it merited its own species. Now blood and tissue analysis have confirmed this theory to be true.

The snake dwells in the dry lowlands of north and east Kenya, as well as in Uganda and Ethiopia. It is named after James "Jimmy" Ashe, a prominent herpetologist who founded the Bio-Ken snake farm and research center in Watamu, Kenya, where the snake is commonly found. Bio-Ken milks snakes for their venom and sends it to labs to develop antivenin.

The findings were first published earlier this year in the animal taxonomy magazine Zootaxa by researchers at the University of Wales and the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa in Buluwayo, Zimbabwe.

But they gained wider notice on Friday when the researchers announced the new species through the nonprofit conservation group WildlifeDirect.

Spitting cobras eat eggs, carrion, snakes, lizards, and birds. Their venom has two uses: to kill prey and for defense. The reptiles can spray venom several yards and usually aim for the attacker's eyes, giving the snake the best chance for escape.

A Healthy Appetite

Snake experts had long believed that the brown spitting cobra was fundamentally different from the black-necked spitting cobra. Other variants of the black-necked spitting cobra fought harder when handled and took longer to settle down in captivity. Once in their cages, they were picky eaters. But the Ashe's cobra was less resistant to handling, generally less alert, and less picky. And they were bigger. Ashe's cobras are not the only kinds of snakes that get lumped together.

Researchers suspect that many different species of snake, such as the highly venomous puff adders, have been grouped into species that need greater differentiation.

Ineffective Antivenin

The greatest significance of the new finding may be for residents along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, who are at risk of being bitten by the new cobra. Its venom is similar to the species it was previously grouped with, but it can deliver about twice the amount of venom with a single bite.

That means that doctors previously treating bites from what turned out to be Ashe's cobras were only administering half the necessary dose of antivenin to victims. New developments in antivenin may be made from studying the chemical makeup of the new cobra's venom, researchers add.

"The fact that this is a separate species raises a question of the efficacy of existing antivenins," said David Warrell, a herpetologist at the University of Oxford, who was not among the co-authors.

"It hasn't been studied at all, so that's a complete mystery."

That is a pretty nice and interesting question. But there is not one right answer to it. Different sources offer different answers: 189, 191, 192, 193 or 194.

“…there may be anywhere between 168 and 254 nations, depending on who is doing the counting. There are approximately 170 separate currencies, 239 two-letter country codes recognized by the ISO (International Standards Org.), and the Universal Postal Union has listings for 500,000 localities in 189 Countries. By a recent count, France and the US officially recognize 192 states, (though unofficially acknowledging the existence of several others!), Switzerland recognizes 194, Russia 172, The UK has over 200 diplomatic posts, and Germany also recognizes well over 200.” announces “World Facts” the subdivision of http://www.mapping.com/

As you could already guess the problem is not in difficulties of counting countries physically but the question is in the political status of different ones.

The United Nations counts 192 members, including Montenegro and Serbia. But Vatican is not included separately as an independent nation in this list.

England, Scotland and Wales (though they are independent countries) are identified in the boarders of UK.

The question of Taiwan is very interesting, too. Taiwan is considered as the province of China, although it operates as an independent country. Then the number of the countries is bringing the count down to 193 in the world.

The facts provided in the given news, states that there is not an absolute objective truth and that everything is comparative.

Anyway, there are 189, 191, 192, 193 or 194. They are too individual to be discussed only in the focus of number of countries?

And if you want to know more about your own country’s or neighbouring one’s individuality, and check your knowledge of the world? You should only visit http://www.infoplease.com/. I discovered too many things for one ordinary day.

The famous site of electronic sales, "EBAY" recently withdraw the declaration Belgium on sale from their list. The announcement was published on the 15th of September. Just in several days price of Belgium had increased from the initial price of 1 euro to 10 million euros ( 13.9 million $ ).

The author of the advertisement, a former journalist Geritt Seks divided Belgium into three parts (Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia ) and put them on sale separately, since according to him, purchasing the whole country would be too expensive.

The most amusing detail in this entire story is the fact that Seks warned the prospective owners about the 300 million national debt. In case of purchasing separate pieces of Belgium, each new owner would have to pay just 100 million euros each.

As Seks has later commented, his sole aim was to attract attention, what he undoubtedly achieved, as he has become a favorite respondent of the reporters

The Spokeman of the EBAY say : this is not the first time Belgium is put on sale.