Piranha beats T Rex in bite force

Piranha beats T Rex in bite force

WASHINGTON Outsized jaw muscles allow the black piranha to exert bite force equivalent to 30 times its bodyweight, a feat unmatched in the natural world, according to results of a finger-risking study.
Other animals like the great white shark, the hyena and the alligator can deliver more forceful bites, but their crunching power becomes much less impressive when viewed in relation to their overall size and weight, it said.
In fact, relative to their size, piranhas outperform even prehistoric monsters like Tyrannosaurus rex and the whale-chomping megalodon, a massive shark that preceded the great white, said the study.
Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the research saw scientists catch 15 black piranhasinBrazil’sAmazonRiverbasinandrisktheir digitsbyteasingacustomisedforcegaugebetween their serrated jaws.
    Thefish,rangingfromabouteightto15inches in length, “readily performed multiple defensive bites” on the gadget, wrote the team from the United States, Egypt and Brazil.
    The measured bite force of the black piranha, at 320 newton (N), was nearly three times greater than that exerted by an American alligator of comparative size, said the study. One newton is the force required to move a kilogramme of mass at one metre per second squared.
    How does the tiny fish do it? It has jaw muscles of an “extraordinary” size and a highly modified jaw-closing lever, said the team. In fact, the muscle complex makes more than two per cent of the black piranha’s total body mass. AFP

NOT ALL GAMERS ARE LOSERS IN SOCIAL LIFE

NOT ALL GAMERS ARE LOSERS IN SOCIAL LIFE

Not all video game junkies are destined for lives filled with failing relationships and dwindling friendships. A lot depends on the role of the game-playing activity in the gamer’s life, researchers from the American Penn State university have found.
    “There’s a common stereotype that if you play video games, then you are a loner,” a researcher said, “But it may have more to do with how a person is involved in gaming that determines how their social support is affected.”
    In a study of people who played multi-player, firstperson shooter games, like the Call of Duty and Halo, gamers who organised their lives around gaming activities tended to experience a negative effect on their friendships and relationships.
    On the other hand, the researchers found that gamers who primarily played the game as a way to reinforce social bonds said they experienced higher levels of social ties and support. Behavioural indicators like the amount of time and money spent on games were not related to the gamers’ success in maintaining their social ties.
    “Players may actually be doing something positive when gaming becomes a way for games to connect with friends who they otherwise may not be able to spend time with, especially friends who they are not near geographically,” the researcher said.
    Multi-player, first-person shooter games allow video game players to compete online by themselves against other players around the world, or they can team with other players in a variety of combat scenarios, the study noted.
    The researchers, who relied on a scale that experts use to assess a person's involvement in leisure activities, said that the other factors of the scale, such as, deriving pleasure and self-identity from video-gaming, did not significantly affect social ties.
    To collect information for the study, the researchers surveyed the gamers who were waiting in line for a late night release of a new version of the video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, at two central Pennsylvania video game stores. Gamers who attend these new release gatherings tend to be both behaviourally and psychologically committed to the activity, the study observed.
    The researchers measured what role social bonding played in their gaming by asking them to what extent they agreed with statements such as, “Most of my friends are in some way associated with video gaming” and “I enjoy discussing video gaming with my friends.”    

A smartphone can flush your toilet

A smartphone can flush your toilet

    The Japanese, always at the forefront of innovative technology, now seem to have outdone themselves by devising a toilet that can be controlled by a smartphone. Designed by a Japanese firm, the toilet goes on sale early next year, which can be operated by a smartphone application, one that also tracks user’s bowel movements.
    The toilet uses Bluetooth to communicate with the mobile phone application. It can then control all of the toilet’s functions, and even play music through speakers built in to the toilet’s base.
    The application, which will be available for selected Android handsets, will work with three of the firm’s new range of lavatories. Toilet users will be able to control the Bluetooth-equipped bathroom fitting with their smartphone. Every feature, including flushing, lifting the toilet seat and sprays, can be controlled. Users can record their own preferred
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settings.
    The system also records each use to monitor both water and electricity bills. It also has a health function which creates a diary for users to see how often they have used the toilet.

Lost a phone? Here’s what to do...

TECH TONIC

Lost a phone? Here’s what to do...

    YOU can’t always be vigilant about your smartphone. It might get misplaced, forgotten or even stolen. But don’t worry, there are tools to help you get it back, or at least salvage your personal data.
For Android Lookout is a nifty app that backs up your device data (contacts, photos, call history) and it even helps you recover your handset in case you lose or misplace it.
    Install the app, create an account, and you’re set. After that, if you lose your phone or if it’s been stolen, simply head to www.lookout.com.
    In the Backup tab, one click will copy and store all your contacts from your lost handset. When you first install the app, you can backup your device at that point itself, and even set intervals for automatic backups. If you have upgraded to the Premium version (for Android only, costing $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year), you can also backup your pictures and call history.
    The Missing Device tab has a ‘Locate’ button to show the phone’s current GPS coordinates on a map. There is also a ‘Scream’ button to emit a high-pitched alarm tone from the handset. Premium users can also choose to lock the phone with a password, or wipe all the data on it remotely. Backed up data can be restored to the phone when you recover it, or to a new phone if you have the Premium version.
Note: Also works on iPhone
    If you lost your Android phone and didn’t have Lookout installed on it, there’s still hope. Go to the Play Store, login with your account and remotely install Plan B (also by Lookout) on your registered handset. This app gives you all the options of Lookout.
    It is still in beta, so we can’t recommend it for everyone, but Android Lost (www.androidlost.com) has the track and wipe features of Lookout and many additional tools – all for free. The app requires administrative rights, but comes with add-ons like clicking and emailing a photo of the thief who has your phone; setting a custom alarm or making it ring loudly at intervals; hiding Android Lost so the thief can’t stop it; making your phone ‘speak’ a distress message; and displaying popup messages in case a good Samaritan chances upon the device.
For the iPhone, iPad Set up an iCloud account, and download Find My iPhone from the app store. Turn it on in Settings > iCloud. You can then visit icloud.com at any time to get a GPS lock on your lost handset, send a message to it, play a sound, or remotely wipe the device. If the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch you want to locate is running iOS 6, Find My iPhone also includes Lost Mode, which locks your missing device with a 4-digit passcode. It then displays a contact phone number right on the lock screen. And while in Lost Mode, your device will keep track of where it has been and display its recent location history when you check in with the Find My iPhone app.
For BlackBerry Download BlackBerry Protect from the App World and set it up. It can wirelessly backup contacts, calendar entries, memos, tasks, text messages, browser bookmarks, Password Keeper entries and Wi-Fi profiles. The Options menu will let you stop the app from being deleted through Deletion Protection, and you can even activate its location tracking from there. If your device is lost, head to protect.blackberry.com to view its current location, make a sound or display a custom message on the home screen. You can also remotely lock the handset, change your password or delete all data from it.
For Windows Phone Just log on to the website www.windowsphone.com and in the dropdown menu of ‘My Phone’, sign in and click ‘Find My Phone’. Through the web-based menu, you can find the GPS coordinates of your handset, wipe all the data, lock the phone, and have it ring loudly. Also, this feature, by default, saves the GPS location of your device every few hours, thus helping save battery to track your phone for a longer time.

Build a great home theatre system

Build a great home theatre system

A few essential pointers for a great entertainment system setup at home

    Should it be a plasma or LED? And bookshelf speakers or large tower speakers? Decisions, decisions! If space is not an issue and your budget permits you to dish out enough dough that could buy you a medium-sized car, then you have the fundamentals in place to making yourself a home theatre system that will serve you for years to come.
    Although LED and HDTV sets are the way to go these days, LCD screens last much longer and are also more durable. If you are going the LCD way, then buy a high end set that will get you a truer black colour and avoid annoying artifacts that pop up in action scenes caused by the refresh rate of pixels in low-end LCD panels.
THE BLU-RAY PLAYER Did you think Blu-ray technology was passe? Hang on a bit — it’s still a great choice if you want the very best movie experience possible. If you’ve ever seen the Blu-ray version of Lord of the Rings, you’ll probably get what I’m saying. Picture and sound quality do differ by a certain margin among high-end Bluray players and you may not need to spend too much. Cancer surgeon, Dr Rajay Kumar, who likes to relax with a good movie after long hours in the OT, says, “I actually use the Blu-Ray player that comes inbuilt in my game console. It does the job pretty well.”
THE PREAMP/AMPLIFIER
COMBO While most of us manage to obtain decent sound with a no-frills stereo amplifier, which is also called a receiver, in the dream world, you’re going to want some extra muscle. That’s where the preamp comes in. The two-stage process is normally handled by an amplifier. But you’re going to want to separate these processes because amplifiers work best when they’re cool and not overheated multitasking to create the type of room-filling, realistic sound you’re going to be producing.
THE SPEAKERS Your speakers are the only part of your dream home theatre audio system that metaphorically touch the road. So you need them to be great. Musician and singer Priya Darshini says speakers are critical to any home theatre section. “I would mix and match my speakers. I’d probably get two studiolevel front speakers and combine it with say, satellite or cube speakers, which are pretty good these days.”
ROOM ACOUSTICS Acoustic tiles, sound diffusers and even rugs can be used to shape the sound of a room. This too is critical to setting up a good home theatre.

The greater the number of connection points there are behind your amplifier, the more options for adding peripherals