FACE to FACE
Come face to face with

Tejasuee Rajbhandari

With the set that matches the in ternational standard and Prabhat Rimal, one of the best Anchor around the city, Face to Face, a new talk programme is all set to be launched in the Nepal Television.

The talk show is brought up by Voxpop Production Pvt. Ltd, which also plans to come up with other shows in the future. The entire shooting of the show is taking place at Marco Polo Business Hotel, Kamalpokhari.

This new programme is conceptualised by Uma Rajbhandari, Managing Director of Voxpop, who also happens to be the first women lifeguard and first women drummer of the country and the founder member of first ladies band ‘Sparkle’ in Nepal.

Viewers who are tired of watching the old and unpleasant set of programmes, will get something new to pep up evening t.v. watching session. This show hopes to be different and more appealing and will definitely catch the attention of the TV viewers. The whole idea behind the programme is to improve the standards of Nepali Programme.

The programme will present the famous personalities in front of the spectators, who lack the real form of entertainment and the information about their loved ones.

The first few programmes will air famous personalities like Haribansh Acharya and the Pop Icon Navin Bhattarai, Karishma Manandhar and Nir Shah.

The programme plans to bring famous people from different walks of life, considered that they are public figures and liked by the huge mass.

Rajbhandari says that the programme won’t have the usual stuff like anchor asking questions followed by the answers of the invitees. This would be more interactive and such questions would be asked which spectators are interested in and which the invitee feels comfortable answering.

"Breaking down the usual pattern of talk programmes of Nepal Television, Face to Face is trying to show the better aspects of the country. We want to show Nepal as more beautiful place for many things and we feel responsible towards it," said Kismat Shrestha, Production Consultant of the programme.

We want to meet international levels, says the whole team, which consists of young, creative and energetic people.

Prasanna Malla, Co-ordinator of the programme and also a Model says that the whole team is working to make this programme exemplary. He further said that he is optimistic that the trend would be followed by other production houses as well.

March night sky

DR. DEEPAK RAJ PANT

The sky-map shows the sky as seen from Kathmandu at 9:00 P.M. to night. To use the map, put it over your head facing downwards so that the cardinal directions are correctly orientated. The centre of the map marks the zenith, the point directly overhead. The circular edges of the map represent the horizons. The constellation names are marked. Azimuth (Az) is the angular distance measured from north towards the eastward around the horizon. Altitude (Alt) is the angular distance of a star above the horizon. Correlate the sky-map with the heavenly objects you spot in the sky. Larger dots show brighter stars of lower magnitude. The faintest star visible to the unaided eye under excellent conditions is about 5th magnitude (Mg).

At the central-southern sky is the faint constellation of cancer which is not outlined by any bright stars at all. To locate the constellation look for Jupiter that is the brightest celestial object in the sky. The planet will dominate the central night-sky shining like a tiny light-bulb with a colour range from reddish-pink to blue-grey. Jupiter is the largest planet (11times bigger than the earth and only 10 times smaller than the sun) in the solar system, second in mass only to the sun and makes up 70 percent of the solar system’s planetary matter. Because it takes 12 years to orbit around the sun, Jupiter spends about a year in each zodiac constellation. Despite its huge size and tremendous internal pressures, Jupiter is only 1.3 times denser than water. This is only 25 percent of the earth’s density, which shows that Jupiter is a gaseous planet containing large amounts of the lighter elements hydrogen and helium.

As our solar system was being formed 4.6 billion years ago, Jupiter may have had the makings of becoming a star. It may have blazed like a second sun. However, Jupiter failed as a star and gradually began to cool and to collapse to its present size. Today Jupiter emits 60 percent more energy each second than can be accounted for by absorbed sunlight. It is self-luminous and its brightness is derived from energy stored from the time when it was contracting rapidly. Jupiter has the great red spot, which is an awesome brick-red colour feature of large circulating atmospheric disturbance. The size of the spot varies in size because sometimes it is three times the size of the earth, at other times it is smaller than the earth. The planet has sixteen known moons. The Ganymede is the largest moon (1.5 times bigger than our moon) in the solar system. It can be easily seen with a telescope of moderate power.

The planet Saturn (9 times bigger than the Earth) lies at the western sky on the constellation Taurus. It takes about 29 years to orbit the sun and spends about two years in each zodiac constellation. Saturn has eighteen moons of which Titan is the biggest (slightly smaller than Ganymede) with a fully developed atmosphere extremely rich in nitrogen, the same element that makes up the greatest part of the earth’s atmosphere. Titan atmosphere is very dense, nearly opaque cloud cover. From the Titan’s surface the sky would appear like a smoggy sunset on Earth. Notice the constellation Hydra on the southern sky with the star Alphard being one of its numerous stars. Hydra is the largest of all known constellations that covers the biggest sky area of 1303 in square degrees. Spot the pentagon-shaped constellation Auriga on the north-western sky speeding westward during the night carrying the star Capella which is the sixth brightest star. The motion is rapid enough that it is possible to detect it in a minute or so.

The sun passes from Aquarius to Pisces during the month. Today the moon (Rises: 5:59am, Sets: 5:11pm, Illumination: 0.18 percentage) is 29.13 days old and has the phase New Moon. Tomorrow is the new moon and the sun rises: 6:12am, sets: 5:50pm and the astronomical twilight time begins: 4:52am, ends: 7:10pm.

IT towards biotech…

Sudan Jha

Doctors look ahead to pacemakers for the brain

While some scientists try to tease out the mechanics of suscepti bility to seizures, others seek ways to predict them and head them off. Aided by smaller and faster computers, researchers say they will soon be able to predict seizures and to design tiny implantable devices that will interrupt them with jolts of electricity or tiny squirts of medication directly into the brain.

Until recently, scientists thought that seizures came on suddenly, with no warning. But new research has shown that seizures start with a tiny spark of activity and that they take hours to build to a surge. In fact, seizures are developed over time. According to Dr. Brian Litt, an assistant professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, "They don’t just strike you like lightning." After researchers realised how slowly seizures developed, they decided to study recordings of brain waves, electroencephalographs, to see whether they could discern any precursors.

As it turns out, scientists had a ready source of EEG’s that had been gathered from epilepsy patients who went to hospitals for surgery. All of the patients scheduled for surgery to remove damaged, seizing brain tissues have their brain waves recorded for several days. When researchers looked at these recordings with standard analyses, they could not find any warning signs before seizures. Then the scientists started using methods that are derived from chaos theory, and the seizure patterns started to become clear. In December, researchers from Arizona State University showed that they could predict more than 80 percent of seizures with a computer programme using chaos theory that analysed brain waves.

On average, warnings of impending surges occurred more than an hour before the seizure. The process is not perfect, though. The computer periodically issued false alarms. Such research could eventually lead to a "cure" for seizures. The experts have envisioned a device that would automatically release a very low dose of an anti-epilepsy drug or an electrical signal that would block the seizure. Among the experts, Dr. Litt and Dr. Iasemidis are few to name. They are from the department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, which has been constantly working on various aspects of technology through biometrics. According to them, the implementation of "pacemakers for the brain" is a few years away. Devices that react to the electrical start of a seizure, before the onset of overt clinical symptoms, are actually in early testing in humans now.

Internet refrigerator

Have you ever heard about Internet access through any of your home appliances? Are you ready for an Internet refrigerator? Are the world’s biggest consumers willing to shell out 8,000 dollars for a device that keeps beer cold and lets them download music, recipes and e-mail? South Korean electronics giant LG thinks so, and is rolling out its Internet refrigerator in the US market this month after it introductions the product in South Korea, Mexico and Britain.

The move into the US market is part of a strategy by LG to introduce a line of upscale appliances that will eventually include an Internet washing machine, air conditioner and microwave oven, all of which can be part of a home network for an electronically controlled home. The notion of an Internet refrigerator has been around for some time, and LG first started selling its device to Koreans in 2000. But many appliance makers have felt consumers were not quite ready for a cyberspace cooling device that, in theory could keep track of one’s food and order milk and eggs from an online store when supplies were low.

LG officials say their research shows the refrigerator is a good place to have an Internet connection because it is the gathering point of the home for many families. LG hopes a future in "smart" appliances, such as washing machines that can use the Internet to determine the ideal water temperature and detergent, and air conditioners that can be programmed from any computer connected to the Web.

The LG "multimedia refrigerator" includes a 15-inch monitor that allows its owners to watch television, play music and download MP3 music files from the Internet, through a modem or high-speed Internet connection. It also has a built-in digital camera that can take pictures and instantly e-mail them and an electronic calendar to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries and after-school activities.

As far as food management, LG officials say the Web fridge can eventually use a bar code reader that will keep track of what’s inside and when it needs to be replaced. But until the food industry updates its bar coding, consumers will have to programme that information in themselves — in other words, punching in that 12 eggs were purchased at a particular date.

Though the initial cost price of the refrigerator is fixed at $7,995, which is not for everyone, there are still many people who will have a need and find it useful. In the context of Nepal, it will definitely take many years for its consumption. So far, most other appliance makers have taken a wait-and-see approach before jumping into cyberspace.

Need for waste recycling

VINOD KUMAR SHARMA

A significant challenge for engineers and scientists in developing countries is the search for appropriate solutions to the collection, treatment, disposal or reuse of domestic waste. The technologies of waste collection and treatment that have been practiced by professional engineers for decades are the waterborne sewerage and conventional waste treatment system such as activated sludge and trickling filter processes. The above system does not appear to be effective in solving the sanitation and water pollution problems in developing countries. Supporting evidence for the above statement is the result of a UN survey on water supply and sanitation coverage for the decade 1981–90 and their projection for the year 2000 as shown in Table. Although the percentages of population served with adequate water supply and sanitation increased during the past decade, due to rapid population and urban growth, these percentages for the urban areas are expected to decrease in the year 2000. The same trends are observed for the Asia, Pacific region and globally.

Sanitation conditions in both urban and rural areas need to be improved as large percentages of the population still and will lack these facilities. There are approximately 9.1 million people per year who die from preventable water related diseases alone. Conventional waste treatment is rarely linked to waste reuse, such as irrigation and fertilisation. It does not generate income or employment, both high priorities in developing countries.

Besides the sanitation problem, our energy needs have also grown exponentially, corresponding with human population growth and technological advancement. Although the energy needs have been met by the discovery of fossil fuel deposits, these deposits are limited in quantity and exploration. The world wide energy crisis in the 1970s is an example reminding us of the need for resources conservation and the need to develop additional energy sources, e.g. through waste recycling.

Organic wastes such as human excreta, wastewater and animal wastes contain energy, which may be recovered by physical, chemical and biological techniques. Incineration and pyrolysis from of sewage sludge are examples of physical and chemical methods of energy recovery from municipal and agricultural solid wastes respectively. However, these methods involve very high investment and operation costs, which are not yet economically viable. Biological processes, employing the activities of microorganisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi and other higher life forms, can most effectively accomplish the treatment and recycling of organic wastes. The by-product of these biological processes includes compost fertiliser, biogas and protein biomass. Because the growth of organisms or efficiency of organic waste treatment/recycling is temperature-dependent, areas having hot climates should be most favorable for implementation of waste recycling schemes.

It is therefore technologies of waste management, which are simple, practical and economical for use, which should be developed. With the current energy crisis, the concept of waste recycling rather than simply waste treatment has received wide attention in most developing countries. A combination of waste treatment and recycling such as through biogas production and composting besides increasing energy or food production, when carried out properly will reduce pollution and disease transfer. Waste recycling also brings about a financial return on the biogas and compost, which may be an incentive for the local people to be interested in the collection and handling of wastes in a sanitary manner.

Another concern for rapid population growth is the pressure exerted on our fixed arable land area on earth. The figure gives the population growth of the world and arable land and projects that the ratio of arable land area over world population in the year 2063 will be less than half of that in the year 2000. There is an obvious need for either control population growth or to produce more resources for human needs.

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