Gulf states order Blackberry users to cover their phones in a tiny Burqa

New laws in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will require that every Blackberry user dress their phone a miniature burqa and face veil.The Blackberry burqa means that people can still use their phones, said a Saudi government official, but the tiny niqab that covers the screen will stop them from reading emails or accessing the Internet.

The introduction of the burqa is intended to conceal the Blackberry from unwanted attention. With the veil in place only a tiny slit remains revealing just the time and date, thus preserving its modesty.

This is not about censorship or oppression, said UAE telecommunications regulator Mohammed al-Ghanem, this is about preserving the essential purity of the Blackberry and protecting it from being corrupted.

Some businessmen believe that making their phone wear a burqa can be very liberating. It’s great, said one, with the veil in place I am free to walk about with my Blackberry in public without the feeling that people are staring lustily at my multi-media application. It also covers my shame for not owning an iPhone.

Some religious groups have welcomed the policy. If the almighty had meant us to freely access the Internet He would have given us web browsers in our heads, said a local Imam, adding there is absolutely no mention of instant messaging in the holy texts and at no point did anyone, ever say LOL, ROFL or PMSL.

If the Blackberry burqa is successful it may spread to other countries. However, experts say that dressing your phone in a burqa could result in poor reception, especially in France and Belgium.

The British government has yet to declare an official line on phone burqas although Immigration Minister Damian Green said that to ban them would be very unBritish . He went on to explain that, the British thing to do, as always, is to grumble and tut.

The Saudi government have promised that anyone who refuses to dress their Blackberry in a burqa will face harsh punishment. I am not saying exactly what we will do, said their Minister for Justice, but suffice to say that it isn t so easy to text with your toes.

Southwest Terminal, Hobby Airport, Houston, TX

Champagne fizzles out if served with a splash! For best results, tilt glass and pour.

Not the best way to pour champagne.
If you want to enjoy champagne to the full, pour it out as you would a beer.
Sommeliers and connoisseurs may find the suggestion hard to swallow, but the evidence published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry1 seems irrefutable. Pouring champagne into a tilted glass helps it to retain the dissolved gas that is vital for the gustatory experience, say Gérard Liger-Belair and his colleagues at the University of Reims in France.
The French team compared the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide in a fresh flute of champagne poured the traditional way — splashing it into a vertical glass — with that after pouring along the inside of a tilted glass, as one does with beer to avoid giving it too much frothy 'head'. The researchers found that champagne served chilled (at 4 °C) contains about twice as much dissolved CO2 using the beer-like method.
A typical 75-cubic-centimetre bottle of champagne contains five litres of dissolved CO2. When uncorked, the release of pressure means that the liquid becomes supersaturated with the gas, which then begins to escape as bubbles. These contribute to the pleasure of drinking champagne in several ways: they give it a lively appearance, release aromas (the 'nose'), produce the stimulating oral sensation of collapsing bubbles, and create sharp tang owing to the conversion of CO2 to carbonic acid inside the mouth.
"CO2 has a strong effect on the sensory experience and flavour of champagne," says Susan Ebeler, an analytical chemist and oenologist at the University of California, Davis. "Flavour is a multisensory experience, including aroma, taste, colour, mouth-feel and even auditory cues. CO2 can affect many of these senses."

Cold comfort

The slower a glass of bubbly releases its CO2, the longer it remains vivacious. Yet it turns out that most CO2 is lost not through bubbles bursting but by simple diffusion across the liquid surface. That is why flutes are used in the first place: the narrow neck reduces the surface area from which gas can escape.

Tilting the glass helps to keep more carbon dioxide in solution.

Pouring has a big influence on the gas content, both because the 'tongue' of liquid falling from the bottle to the glass exposes a large surface area and because turbulence and entrapment of air bubbles as the liquid hits the glass can speed up diffusion of CO2 out of solution.
The beer-pouring action should cut CO2 loss on both counts: the column of flowing liquid is less exposed to air, and the gentler impact reduces turbulence. Liger-Belair and his colleagues have confirmed this, using a standard method for measuring dissolved CO2 concentrations (based on the activity of the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which reacts with carbonic acid), and using a method called thermography, which provides snapshots of CO2 levels in air based on how strongly it absorbs infrared radiation.
The researchers also show that both to maximize CO2 retention and to obtain the full benefits of the beer-pouring technique, the champagne must be chilled. When served at close to room temperature (18 °C), champagne served by the beer technique loses about two and a half times more CO2 than when chilled — almost as much as it loses when served in the traditional way at room temperature.
Liger-Belair and his team show that increased gas loss from warm champagne is mostly a result of two factors. First, the colder liquid is more viscous, and so gas-leaking turbulence is dampened more quickly. Second, CO2 molecules diffuse slowler in cold water, and so are unable to reach the surface as quickly.
Will champagne lovers be persuaded to alter their ways? "Champagne is a universe full of traditions," says Liger–Belair, who has worked as a consultant for the research department of Moët & Chandon. "But maybe champagne and science can mix to offer a better way of tasting," he says. He has at least one convert already. "Based on this paper, I probably will pour using the beer-like method now," says Ebeler.

Steve Job's future line-up!

Basket-mouth

The law of the wild says kill only when you are hungry!

Photographer Michel Denis-Huot, who captured these amazing pictures on safari in Kenya 's Masai Mara in October last year, said he was astounded by what he saw:

"These three brothers (cheetahs) have been living together since they left their mother at about 18 months old,' he said. 'On the morning we saw them, they seemed not to be hungry, walking quickly but stopping sometimes to play together. 'At one point, they met a group of impala who ran away. But one youngster was not quick enough and the brothers caught it easily'".

These extraordinary scenes followed.

Pregnant IVF women more at risk of death

Researchers believe the increased threat may come from the body rejecting donated eggs or underlying health problems that may come to the fore during artificial conception.
They want increased vigilance so that the exact nature of the risk can be calculated.
"Women should be counselled and made aware of the risks they are taking and deaths should be properly reported," Professor Didi Braat at Radboud University in the Netherlands told the Sunday Times.
Prof Braat looked at the deaths between 1984 and 2008 in the Netherlands but believes they will apply to any developed country.
She found 17 women who died in pregnancy who had had IVF treatment – a death rate of 42.5 for every 100,000 pregnancies.
The death rate is 12.1 in every 100,000 for women who conceived naturally.
The rising age of mothers may be increasing the number of complications. Last year nearly 27,000 women over 40 gave birth, a rise of 50 per cent in a decade.
The research was published in the journal Human Reproduction.