New “Donate Now” button on Facebook

While planning to launch different things such as video advertising and “Sympathize” button, Facebook Inc. has also launched “Donate Now” button on Monday giving the users a chance to show more respect to a cause or charitable organization instead of just “like” or “recommend” them.

This new button would appear on charities' pages and besides their posts, and would collect credit card numbers and other billing information. Facebook has started working with 18 non-profit organizations or charities as part of the launch. World Wildlife Fund, the Red Cross and UNICEF are among the first users of the new "Donate Now" button.

From Facebook blog,

Donate also gives nonprofits an easier way to reach out and ask for help, both to support their everyday mission and in the wake of major disasters. And, with a community of over one billion people on Facebook, every local cause can become a global one — and every global cause can become a personal movement.
Facebook has launched the button in the time of holiday season, when many people would like to donate.

Related article on SayPeople.com: Facebook is planning to attract annual $66.35 billion TV advertising market in U.S. (http://goo.gl/hJLxqX)

Further Reading:

Donate to Nonprofits Through Facebook - Facebook (http://goo.gl/sKmknk)

Antibacterial soap is not that effective as said

U.S.  Government has noted after about four decades of study and debates on Monday that chemicals in many antibacterial soaps and cleaning products — used daily in homes, schools and elsewhere — may not work against bacteria and may result in health risks by making humans resistant to antibiotics.

From FDA’s site,

In fact, there currently is no evidence that over-the-counter (OTC) antibacterial soap products are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water, says Colleen Rogers, Ph.D., a lead microbiologist at FDA.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new rules for the manufacturers of such soaps to prove that they work better than other normal soaps and water or they have to reformulate products.

From FDA’s site,

The agency issued a proposed rule on Dec. 16, 2013 that would require manufacturers to provide more substantial data to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps. The proposed rule covers only those consumer antibacterial soaps and body washes that are used with water. It does not apply to hand sanitizers, hand wipes or antibacterial soaps that are used in health care settings such as hospitals.

Experts are of opinion that many of such products would soon disappear from store shelves.

Further Reading:

FDA Taking Closer Look at 'Antibacterial' Soap - FDA (http://goo.gl/so57r9)

Image credit: Erik Herrera/Flickr

Pregnant women are not confused about the spaces around them

Main Point:

Scientists have found that pregnant women can equally judge the space around them as other people such passing through the doorways.

Published in:

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Study Further:

In the present study, researchers worked with 11 women during their course of pregnancies and found that the changing body shapes don’t affect the spatial judgments. This good judgment is attributed to a process called as perceptual-motor recalibration that helps people to adjust themselves according to the changing body shapes and sizes.

The possibilities to perform certain actions are shown by the balance between the body and environment, and are known as “affordances”. Affordances usually occur in the person’s life and change, when the body changes relative to the environment.

“Pregnant women accurately perceived the space needed to accommodate their growing bodies,” wrote Franchak, who stated that changes to the body must be considered with respect to a task and an environment, and what is possible to perform or not.

“The experience of weight gain or weight loss likely operates similarly to pregnancy— experience might be necessary to facilitate recalibration to changes in body size and compression, in other words, how much the body can be 'squeezed' to fit through a specific opening,” added Adolph.

“These findings indicate that experience facilitates perceptual–motor recalibration for certain types of actions,” Researchers wrote.

Related Article on SayPeople.com - Minimum time of Pregnancy (http://goo.gl/ESekJW)

Sources:

Life’s not a squeeze for pregnant women - AlphaGalileo (http://goo.gl/6DKWSH)

Gut estimates: Pregnant women adapt to changing possibilities for squeezing through doorways - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (http://goo.gl/43Ti06)

New method is relatively easy and efficient to produce hydrogen from water / Related Research Suggestions

Main Point:

Scientists have found a quick method of generating hydrogen from water using a catalyst in the presence of sunlight.

Published in:

Nature Nanotechnology

Study Further:

In the present study, scientists used cobalt oxide nanoparticles to break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

According to Jiming Bao, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UH, this is the first experiment to use cobalt oxide and the first to use neutral water under visible light at high energy conversion efficiency.

Nanoparticles for the present study were prepared in two ways, i.e. femtosecond laser ablation and through mechanical ball milling, and nanoparticles prepared through both ways worked well. Moreover, different sources of light were used including laser, white light simulating solar spectrum and natural sunlight.

The experiment worked equally well in the presence of sunlight and nanoparticles, hydrogen and oxygen were separated almost immediately from water. However, one of the problems in this process is the reduced lifespan of cobalt oxide nanoparticles that became deactivated after about an hour of reaction.

Research Suggestions:

Although the results were commendable in this study but the conversion rate is still too low with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency rate of about 5% that it cannot be used commercially at this time. According to Bao, better efficiency rate would be nearly 10%, i.e. 10% of solar energy would result in hydrogen chemical energy. You can work to improve the efficiency of this process.

Among the other research suggestions are reducing the cost of the process and increased the lifespan of cobalt oxide nanoparticles.

Sources:

Researchers split water into hydrogen, oxygen using light, nanoparticles - EurekAlert (http://goo.gl/2Wg8hw)

Efficient solar water-splitting using a nanocrystalline CoO photocatalyst - Nature Nanotechnology (http://goo.gl/OmtVBu)

María Gabriela Isler from Venezuela became Miss Universe, 2013

On Saturday night November 9,2013,  in Moscow(Russia) the occasion held in which  María Gabriela Isler from Venezuela was crowned by Olivia Culpo from the United States . Venezuela took the crown of Miss Universe for the 7th time in the history of Miss Universe.

87 contestants were looking for this auspicious title but Miss Venezuela won the title.The contestants from Spain, Philippines, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, the United States, Ukraine, Ecuador, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic were in top 10. Miss Spain has been announced as1st runner-up, Miss Ecuador as 2nd runner-up, Philippines’ Ariella Arida as 3rd runner-up and Miss Brazil as 4th runner-up.

Miss Venezuela. Isler, who was born in Maracay, is an accomplished flamenco dancer who also works on Venezuelan television.

 Winning answer from 25 years old Miss Venezuela's to judge Steven Tyler's question "What is your biggest fear and how do you plan to overcome it?" is "For me while one may have a lot of fears but nonetheless this is nothing negative. I believe we should overcome all of our fears and this in turn would make us much stronger and mostly we can become stronger persons. As soon as we overcome our fears and we are sure of ourselves then we can face any challenge.'

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An Imaginary yet True Love (Science Fiction Story)

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