LG Accused of Selling Defective Optimus 2X (G2X) Handsets

Popular consumer electronics brand, LG has an impending court trial in the U.S District Court for Southern District of California in the wake of large scale defects being spotted on the T-Mobile’s version of Optimus 2X (G2X). Being sued at the Californian court, LG’s smartphones were found to randomly freeze, or shut down causing a lot of inconvenience to the users. These defects, the complaint stated occurred even when a call was on. If that was not enough, then the screen’s poor display qualities were exposed too making watching videos a hellish experience. As per the consumer complaints, the smartphone’s back light bled into the screen, thereby exposing its faults. The errors have been spotted on the T-Mobiles USA version of the prestigious Optimus 2X for a cool $250.

Defective?

Shockingly so, according to reports, these issues haven’t cropped up in a day. They have been around since the very beginning and LG too is aware of it, only that instead of addressing the issue, they chose to ignore it. Now, although a complaint has been filed solely under Terry Horvarth, it voices the displeasures of several other irate consumers. The complaint is a detailed account of Terry’s ordeal that began just days after he purchased his smartphone. Strangely, the problems persisted even after Terry got his model replaced. 

So either LG has to face a humiliating court trial or compensate the users - a number which is easily in thousands - in an out of court settlement, neither of which is going to help its image in the market.

Weather May Play Spoilsport Ahead of Atlantis’ Launch

On July 8th, 2011, Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to embark on what is going to be the last in NASA’s glorious 30-year space shuttle program history. Carrying a team of four astronauts, and a supply package, along with spare parts to the International Space Station, Atlantis is scheduled to launch from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Shrouded in uncertainty...

However, on the eve of the NASA’s final shuttle, according to a report on Space.com, worries of the weather not being compliant, may lead to scrapping of the scheduled launch, and setting it to another day. But, the officials are optimistic and believe that all they need to make that perfect launch is that one hole in the cloud. And, quoting Launch Director, Mike Leinbach who disregards delays, “We want to play the game Friday.” So, a Friday is all that we wait for.

Leh, a sight-seeing paradise

You’re in Leh embraced by its beauty and charm. Basking in nature and serenity. Falling in love with its rustic exquisiteness. But now enough admired, its time to get out and explore the fun side of this tranquil town.

Read on to find out more about the fun sight-seeing spots you must visit when in Leh.

Monastry

Leh Palace, Namgyal Tsemo Hill

The nine-storey high Leh Palace is one magnificent edifice, which was built by King Sengge Namgyal in the 17th century with an uncanny resemblance to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. With the Ladakh mountain range as its backdrop towards the north, the Leh Palace is an architectural marvel that opens up sprawling views of the entire town and its surrounding areas from the rooftop.

Further up from the Leh Palace, the Namgyal Tsemo Hill rises over it like a kingly ceremonial headgear and is the resting ground for an ancient fort ruin. This fort is said to have been the earliest royal residence of the Namgyal dynasty and is flanked by some temples built in veneration of the guardian deities.

Excursion to Khardung La Top
Khardung La or Khardung Pass – a much romanticized high altitude adventure trail – happens to be the gateway to Nubra and Shyok Valleys. Standing proud at an altitude of 5359 meters (17,582 feet), contrary to the signage and the local voice claiming it to be 5602 meters (18,380 feet) high, Khardung Pass is the road that’s sporadically trod by adventure-streaked bikers. Known by locals as Khardong La and even Khardzong La, it has a mesmerizing effect on people who visit it. So much so that sometimes tourists hang around patiently for days, waiting for the accursed road-blocking snow to shy away and leave the stage for some breathtaking tripping.

Shanti Stupa
This is an astonishingly unique structure that rests at an altitude of 4,267 meters (14,000 feet) on a hilltop in Changspa village, about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from Leh. Overlooking the Leh Palace from the steep hill (which can be reached by treading 500 steps), the white domed structure heralds the spread of a noble spiritual effort that began way back in 1914 in Japan.

Choglamsar SOS Village, Stok Palace
The SOS Tibetan children’s village (TCV), a milestone achievement and an enthusiastic foray into social development, is an institutional effort at spreading child education initiated through a joint collaboration of his Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Indian Govt.

Widescreen: Sudan Splits

Sudan's south will become an independent country on July 9, but fighting along the ill-defined border has raised tension ahead of the split. North and south have yet to resolve issues such as how to manage the oil industry and divide debt. Here’s a look at the current situation in Sudan through Reuters photographer Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah’s lens.

REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

A Sudanese from the south, who stayed in the north for 21 years, stands outside her shelter at Mandela camp,

 in the outskirts of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

A Sudanese from the south who was born in the north, plays near a shelter at Mandela camp in the outskirts 

of Khartoum July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

A Sudanese from the south who was born in the north, plays near a shelter at Mandela camp in the outskirts of

 Khartoum July 4, 2011.

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AP Photo / Pete Muller

Southern Sudanese boys take shelter from afternoon rains that disrupted rehearsal for independence day celebrations in the capital city of Juba on Monday, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Sudanese children from the south who were born in the north, play near a shelter at Mandela camp in the outskirts

 of Khartoum July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

A Sudanese child from the south, wearing a t-shirt with the picture of U.S. President Barack Obama, stands near

 a shelter at Mandela camp, in the outskirts of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Sudanese children from the south play at Mandela camp, in the outskirts of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Sudanese from the south load belongings onto a truck bound for southern Sudan at Mandela camp, in the outskirts

 of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Sudanese from the south load belongings onto a truck bound for southern Sudan at Mandela camp, in the outskirts

 of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

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REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Sudanese from the south load belongings onto a truck bound for southern Sudan at Mandela camp, in the outskirts

 of Khartoum, July 4, 2011.

Photos of the Week 27th June-3rd July

"Exceptional" Giant Squid Found Dying off Florida

"Holy mackerel!" Fishing party found rare beast still moving.

Main Content

Floating about 12 miles (19 kilometers) off Port Salerno (map), Florida, a stirring, intact giant squid gave a small fishing party a shock around 11 a.m. Sunday—and could give researchers new insights into the species, which has never been studied alive, scientists say.

"We looked at it [and] all three of us were like, Holy mackerel!" recreational fisher Robby Benz told WPTV. "It didn't seem it had been dead long, the tentacles were still moving and it was sticking to you when we got it in" the fishing boat.

After reaching shore, the men called wildlife authorities, and the then dead giant squid soon found a home at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Giant squid, the world's largest invertebrates, are thought to reach lengths of up to about 60 feet (18 meters) and can weigh nearly a ton. The Florida specimen, though, is about 25 feet (8 meters) long and weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilograms).

Like other giant squid, the new catch is white with patches of red skin, which contains chromatophores—pigment-containing cells that can change colors rapidly, presumably for communication or camouflage

"Very Rare" Squid

Giant squid are found in oceans worldwide, but the animals have seldom been spotted in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida, said Roger Portell, an invertebrate paleontologist at the natural history museum, who's helping to preserve the squid.

"These are very rare animals," Portell told National Geographic News. "They tend to be in very deep waters, so we don't see them normally."

The new specimen, he added, is "exceptional."

"There was very little trauma to it," he said. Though it was missing a tentacle, the squid doesn't look to have been attacked, he added.

Though not the sea monsters they were once depicted as, giant squid have been known to battle sperm whales in the deep.

Since the giant squid appears to have been intact yet on the verge of death when it was found, Portell thinks the new specimen—the gender of which is still unknown—may have just reproduced.

"As a general rule in cephalopods"—including, squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish—"both males and females die shortly after reproducing. It is assumed that this is what also happens in this species."

The fishers, ha added, deserve credit for the specimen's rare state of preservation, he added.

"They collected it right away, brought it to shore right away, and called the authorities, who put it on ice right away. So it worked out very well," Portell said.

Benz, the fisher, said he was partly motivated to haul in his giant catch because he didn't think anyone would believe him if he didn't.

"Nobody believes a fisherman," he told WPTV.

Giant Squid Body Saved for Science

At the museum, the specimen has been injected with a preservative called Formalin and is soaking in a chemical solution

Once the two-week preservation process is finished, the squid will become part of the museum's research collection. Its genetic data should be of particular interest to researchers trying to determine whether the beast we call the giant squid—Architeuthis dux—is actually more than one species, Portell said.

"We've already had some researchers contact us about coming down to look at it," he said.

Black Hole Caught Eating a Star, Gamma-Ray Flash Hints

A huge "belch" of radiation from a supermassive black hole indicates that the cosmic monster recently devoured a star, scientists say.
Earlier this year astronomers spied a burst of high-energy gamma rays emanating from the center of a dwarf galaxy 3.8 billion light-years away. The odd flash, dubbed Sw 1644+57, is one is the brightest and longest gamma ray bursts (GRBs) yet seen.
In visible light and infrared wavelengths, the burst is as bright as a hundred billion suns.
"We believe this explosive event was caused by a supermassive black hole ten million times the mass of the sun shredding a star that got too close to its gravitational pull," said study leader Joshua Bloom, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.
"The mass of the star fell into the black hole, but along the way it heated up and produced a burst of energy in the form of a powerful jet of radiation, [which] we were able to detect through space-based observatories."

While supermassive black holes are thought to be lurking at the hearts of most large galaxies, events such as a star getting eaten may happen only once every hundred million years in any given galaxy.
"What makes this event even more rare is that we didn't just get a burst of x-ray emissions from the infalling stellar gas, but some of it actually got spit out by the black hole in the form of a gamma ray jet, and we just happen to be looking down the barrel of that jet," Bloom said.
"So I would say it's a combination of actually catching a monster black hole in the process of feeding on an unfortunate star that got too close to it, and because we are in a fairly special geometry."
Star's Death Caused Uncommon Flare
NASA's Swift satellite first detected the burst on March 28, 2011, and both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory followed the burst's progress.
The explosive event was initially thought to be an ordinary gamma ray burst. Originating billions of light-years away, these events are seen every few days across the universe, and they're thought to occur when very massive stars blow up or when two giant stars collide.
"Most of these [common gamma ray bursts] are detected and quickly fade away within the course of a day," Bloom said.

"But now after two and half months, this new GRB is still going strong. Because it stands out so much observationally, this decidedly makes it something different from any other GRB we have ever seen before."
In addition, common gamma ray bursts are normally spied off-center in the main bodies of galaxies. But Sw 1644+57 was found in an unusual location—at the core of a galaxy.
"That's the prime reason we started suspecting early on that a supermassive black hole was involved, because we know [galactic cores are] where these beasts reside."
Scientists already knew that actively feeding galactic black holes emit huge amounts of radiation, because material falling in gets superheated as it nears the black hole's maw. Sw 1644+57 is surprising, though, because of its spontaneous nature.
"What's amazing," Bloom said, "is that we have here an otherwise quiescent, starving black hole that has decided to go on a sudden feeding frenzy for a short period of time."
Our own Milky Way also has a quiet supermassive black hole at its center. The new discovery shows it's possible for our cosmic monster to spew powerful radiation jets should a star fall in, Bloom added.
Still, because such events are so rare—and the resulting jets are so narrowly focused—it's unlikely we'd detect anything like Sw 1644+57 shooting from our galaxy for millions of years.
The black hole eating a star is described in this week's issue of the journal Science.

Photo of the Day Springbok, Namibia

Top 5 Exercises that can be Done at Home

We understand that you have an extremely busy schedule. We also understand that there is not a good gym where you live or maybe you don’t really like going to one. So we tell about the top 5 exercises which can be
easily done at home. No excuses now!
Here are 5 great exercises that you can do at home, without the need for any equipment:

 

Push-ups

This is one of the most useful exercises that can be easily done at home. If done correctly it can rev up your stamina and build your pecs and triceps.
How to do it: Lie face down with your palms on the floor about shoulder width apart from each other. Push your whole body up with your back and legs in a straight line and then lower yourself back down towards the floor. To strengthen your chest more place your arms wider apart. To strengthen your triceps and back more, move your arms closer together.
Muscles involved: Chest muscles and triceps

Sit-ups

This is another great exercise to do in the house and can be done almost everywhere. This can help in the strengthening of the hip flexors and abdominal muscles.
How to do it: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Cross your arms across your chest and raise your body up to try and meet your knees. This can cause strain on the back, so if you have a weak back it may be better to do a crunch instead.
Muscles involved: Abdominal muscles and back muscles

Jumping on the Spot

This might sound a bit silly but it’s a great workout and is used to get the heart pumping and build stamina. This can also build your leg muscles.
How to do it: Literally just jump up and down raising your whole body off the ground by at least 5-6 inch or more.
Muscles involved: Calf muscles and thigh muscles

Squats

It is another easy but very useful exercise for your thighs and buttocks. It helps to shape your buttocks, strengthen thighs and build stamina.
How to do it: Stand up straight , bend your knees with your arms stretched outright parallel to the floor. Bend until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
Muscles involved: Thigh muscles and buttocks muscles.

Back Extension

Back extension is a strength training exercise. It is done for strengthening lower back muscles.
How to do it: Lie face down with your arms at your side. Slowly lift your head toward the ceiling and look up as far as you can go. You can extend this by lifting your legs and your head up as far as you can and hold for 5 seconds and release.
Muscles involved: Stomach muscles and Back muscles. (MensXP.com)

Five Fruits to keep you Cool this Summer

These are time of scorching heat. Sun is ruthless and the heat wave unsparing. But these are also the time when
exotic fruits bloom in plenty.
And these fruits can have an immensely chilling effect on us. But the problem comes when an entire generation falls for Coke and Pepsi and gets estranged with the bounties of nature. People are quite oblivious about the health properties of these fruits. And even if they know, few care about procuring them.
MensXP recommends these five summer fruits to beat the heat this summer:

Black Plum or Jambul

The fruit is useful in spleen enlargement. The seed of the fruit is well-known diabetes. It reduces the quantity of sugar in the urine and quenches the maddening thirst. The fruit is also a good source of antioxidants.

Litchi

The luscious litchi/lychee or Chinese Hazelnut is a very delicious fruit. People eagerly wait for its arrival during the summers. May-June is the best season for the fruit. This sub-tropical fruit has very good cooling, demulcent and aphrodisiac properties. It is also a good thirst-quencher.

Mango

It's not for nothing that Mango is called the 'King of Fruits' in India. The vastly delicious fruit is a storehouse of vitamins A and C. The ripe mango tones the heart, improves complexion, stimulates hunger, improves vision and is greatly helpful in liver disorders, loss of weight and physical abnormalities. The popular mango powder (amchur) made from green/unripe mango is very beneficial in scurvy and pyorrhea.

Muskmelon

Muskmelon is a popular tropical fruit which is readily available during the summers. The fruit contains Vitamin A, B, C and minerals like magnesium, sodium and potassium. It has zero cholesterol and is safe for blood cholesterol patients. When consumed with jaggery, it helps in the curing of skin diseases. It greatly reduces the body heat when consumed regularly.

Watermelon

The succulent, scarlet-red watermelon is a delicious and health-building fruit. It contains large quantities of easily assimilable sugar. Being an alkaline fruit, it can be easily enjoyed by persons with acidosis. Its juice quench the thirst like anything. Rich in vitamin A,B, and C, products based on its juice can serve as wonderful cooling drinks. The fruit is also beneficial for combating hypertension. (MensXP.com)

5 lies that women tell their friends

It has been revealed that women, who usually share everything under the sun with one another, tell five lies to their girlfriends when they do not want to reveal something very personal.

According to Madame Noire, a lifestyle publication, women especially lie when they want to keep things private.
1. How long they really made their new man wait. As they do not want their girlfriends to know about the actual date, they just say somewhere from 3 to 6 months.
2. How much they earn, and most lie so that the question of borrowing money won't be a factor, while others just refuse to answer. 3. When a haircut has gone bad. Women would tell their girlfriends that it does not look so bad just to spare them from feeling worse.
4. When the issue of what the man has bought arises. Women cover up whatever cheap gifts a man has bought them by naming a few gifts they wished he had bought.
5. About their ex not being in their lives anymore. Women do so because they have discussed all the negative aspects of their ex with their girlfriends.
When they start backing their ex they keep it away from their friends, as it is difficult to go back on all the negative things they have said about him to their girlfriends.
So instead, they deny any communication, at least to see if he's going to be in their lives for a while. (ANI)

Photo Gallery: Places of a Lifetime

Taj Mahal

Papua New Guinea

Jerusalem

Rio de Janeiro

Galapagos Islands

Vatican City

Pacific Islands

The Alps

Seychelles

Almalfi Coast