Thursday, May 17, 2007

Cheating Or What?

Last month, when the champion American cyclist Tyler Hamilton was accused of blood doping, or transfusing himself with another person's blood to increase his oxygen-carrying red cells, he offered a surprising defense: the small amount of different blood found mixed in with his own must have come from a "vanishing twin."

Tyler Hamilton has been suspended from competitive cycling for two years.
In other words, his scientific expert argued, Mr. Hamilton had a twin that died in utero but, before dying, contributed some blood cells to him during fetal life. And those cells remained in his body, producing blood that matched the dead twin and not Mr. Hamilton. Or perhaps it was his mother's blood that got mixed in during fetal life.

An arbitration panel did not believe those hypotheses and said there was a "negligible probability" that Mr. Hamilton was anything but guilty.

The test, they concluded in a 2-to-1 decision, shows a blood transfusion and that meant that Mr. Hamilton was suspended from racing for two years, the first and only person convicted for that offense. At age 34, near the end of his career, it could mean his championship days are over.

Mr. Hamilton has said he will appeal the decision. If he can prove the test was flawed, then not only might he return to cycling and his multimillion-dollar career, but other athletes could use the same defense. The new test, developed over two years by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the United States Anti-Doping Agency, would be all but useless.
More at:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/health/10bloo.html?ex=1273377600&en=645514722634f286&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Posted by Ajay :: 4:05 PM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo--------------- Baby Got Gun Permission

Bubba's father, Howard Ludwig, applied on his behalf after his grandfather gave him a shotgun as an heirloom.

Mr Ludwig said he had not expected to succeed, but he filled in the online form, paid $5 and the licence was his.

US gun laws are regularly the subject of fierce debate, renewed recently after April's Virginia Tech killings.

Gunman Cho Seung-hui was able to exploit a loophole in Virginia state law and obtain weapons despite having a history of mental illness. The loophole was later closed.
More at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6662213.stm

Posted by Ajay :: 4:00 PM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo--------------- Strange Alien World

A bizarre world of scorching hot ice shrouded in a steamy atmosphere may have been found, according to new observations. Characterising the Neptune-size planet is an important milestone on the way to detecting and characterising Earth-like planets that could harbour life.

Astronomers have discovered more than 200 planets orbiting other stars, called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. Almost all of these were detected by the way their gravity makes their parent stars wobble. But this technique, called the radial velocity method, reveals very little about the planet except for the size of its orbit and an estimate of its mass.

Astronomers can learn a lot more by watching "transits" of planets that pass in front of their parent stars as seen from Earth. Careful analysis of the dimming this causes can provide clues to the planet's composition and structure. But the brightness dips are small and difficult to detect for all but the largest planets.

Now, astronomers have observed the smallest ever transiting planet. It has turned out to be a strange world, unlike anything seen before.

The planet, which orbits a small star located 30 light years from Earth called GJ 436, was actually discovered in 2004 using the radial velocity method (see Two new rocky super Earths found). At that point, astronomers deduced that it was about as massive as Neptune.

Exotic ice
But now, a team led by Michael Gillon of Geneva University in Switzerland have observed the planet transiting its host star using a telescope at the Observatoire Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (OFXB) in Saint-Luc, Switzerland.

They have been able to measure the planet's width, which provides clues to its composition and structure. It turns out to be about 50,000 kilometres wide, roughly four times the width of Earth and about the size of Neptune.

The planet is therefore too compact to be made mostly of hydrogen gas, like Jupiter, the researchers say, but not compact enough to be a rocky 'super Earth', as some had speculated. Instead, they believe it must be made mostly of an exotic form of water.

Although the parent star is much cooler than the Sun, the planet orbits 13 times closer to the star than Mercury's orbit around the Sun. That means the surface must be a blazing hot 300° C or more, keeping water in its atmosphere in vapour form.

But the high pressures in the planet's interior would compress the water so much that it would stay solid even at hundreds of degrees Celsius – the expected temperatures inside the planet. There are a variety of exotic 'hot ice' states possible in such conditions, with names like 'Ice VII' and 'Ice X."
More at:http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11864-strange-alien-world-made-of-hot-ice-and-steam.html

Posted by Ajay :: 3:52 PM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo--------------- Dead Man's Last Laugh

In sharp galis of chandni chowk lived a man with golden heart and spent whole life giving and helping others as he was very successful Industrialist in his working years but as time passes and his children grow he become puppet in their hand and even when he was awaiting his death no children of him near to him.One day he felt he will not live more than hour so he called his servant ramu and handed him his (will) and said to him please give to my children when i died.
Next day Dinanath's home become filled with lot of relative and his children as everybody knows he was big industrialist so he must have lot of wealth left.After mourning for few minutes their children started looking for his (will) then ramu servant of him came forward and handed over them his WILL.
WILL says:
I've divided it into four parts .
Ist part:that money and property will get those children or relatives who never told lies in his life. After listening that nobody dare to came forward.
IIpart:this part of money those of my children and relative will get who never hurted any human beings in his life.Again,nobody came forward.
III part:This part of money will be given to those person who always took path of truth and non-violence.Again, silence..........
IV part:Now as I know all of you well i must tell you all three parts of my will possesses no money as I already spent most of them on my children who never cared about me and rest gave donation charitable trust.....Sooooooo........at last....I could say I got to know all of you however after death..........

Posted by Ajay :: 9:01 AM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo---------------