Poll taken just after the presidential candidates debate

Last night's debate between the presidential candidates was a historical event, a moment that all of us have been waiting for. It was an opportunity to compare and judge each candidate on a fair stage with no special media attention or opportunity for any candidate.

This Facebook poll was taken at about 3:00 in the morning, just 3 hours after the debate. The target was the Maldives network which has just over 18'000 people.

As you can see that about 70% of the respondents were males and 50% are under age under 24.

Clearly this is not a good representative sample of the general population. This is just a segment of the population. It is a possibility that most of the respondents are from abroad.

You are welcome to share your thoughts about the poll.

India's Tata backs air-power car

An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a car in India that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at all in towns.
The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

The project is being backed by the Indian conglomerate, Tata for an undisclosed sum. It says the technology may also be used for power generation.

The car will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks.

The tanks, built into the chassis, can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car.

Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an on-board compressor will do the job.

For long journeys the compressed air driving the pistons can be boosted by a fuel burner which heats the air so it expands and increases the pressure on the pistons. The burner will use all kinds of liquid fuel.

The designers say on long journeys the car will do the equivalent of 120mpg. In town, running on air, it will be cheaper than that.

Analysts say the fact that the project has the backing of an internationally well known company such as Tata makes the idea much more marketable.

The Indian company - which will put the finishing touches to the engine - says it is even considering using the technology for power generation.

Parts of the country are desperately short of electricity supplies. On Tuesday officials announced that Delhi and Moscow had finalised plans for Russia to build four new nuclear power stations in India.

[more] on BBC News

60 cups of coffee can kill you!

After reading my friend Hammett's article on benefits of coffee, I found it biased on the Coffee pro side. Even though i love coffee i thought it is good to shed some light on it's darker side. We need to be aware of Caffeine's lethal dose.

LD50 (Lethal Dose) of Caffeine is 192mg/Kg. To put is simply this amount of Caffeine have killed rats and other animals when tested.

To make it even easier for readers to grab this, I calculated how many cups it would need to kill a person. So you can keep this in mind next time you call a friend for a 'coffee'. An average guy (60 Kg) would need 60 cups (150mg per cup) of coffee to kill himself! Some Espresso's have even higher amounts of Caffeine.

Caffeine is lethal and larger doses of coffee can cause arrhythmia, tachycardia, vomiting, convulsions, coma and death.

Lets look at some statistics.

• Two cases on Forensic Sci Int, 2005 reported to have killed 39 yr old female and a 29 yr old male. The found dead and the other died in hospital.
• Forensic Sci Int, 2004 reported 4 cases of a 54 yr old male, a 31 yr old male, a 21 yr old male and a 47 yr old female.
• An article on J Anal Toxicol reports 5 cases in 1985.
• Forensic Sci 1980 reported death of a 19 yr old girl from caffeine overdose.
• A 1987 article reports of a 2 yr old girls death in emergency care from caffeine overdose.
• Vet Hum Toxicol. 1989 reports a death of a 22 yr old girl from caffeine overdose which also says that it was the highest reported blood level of 1,560 mg/L of caffeine.

Also there are more non fatal reports of caffeine overdose cases. This does not mean that coffee doesn't benefit your health. Unless you are a heavy consumer of coffee, you don't need to be concerned. But Hammette.. yes you.. i think you have to consider this before your next cup of double espresso.

What Girls need to know about their geek Boyfriends

Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discuss an email about a geek about to marry a girl that just wont understand him on diggnation episode 129

Answering hammett the Poet.

The New Year's Eve

walls of stone, sky of couds
dark is the night, all that we have
last is the day, dusk is the year
hopes are the new, end is the dark
sleep is the king, night is the kingdom
destroyed is the splendid night.

Analysis of the IED exploded in Sultan park, Male'.

The explosion in male' was caused by a simple homemade IED device that used atrigger combined with washing machine timer and a mobile phone.



Components:

• Nokia 1110
• Washing machine timer
• Detonator Circuit
  
• 9V Battery and Clip
• Detonator
• Lighter gas can

Mobile Phone
The mobile phone used in the device is a Nokia 1110. The phone have two easy options to use as a trigger for the detonator circuit. One option is to use the connections to the phones vibrating motor. This connection provides a voltage of 3v when the phone is ringing.
The other option is to connect the detonator circuit to the phones ring speaker.

Washing Machine Timer
Once the device is armed, the device is ready to explode even for a false ring to the mobile number. To prevent this the washing machine timer is used. The washing machine timer usually have a delay of 15 - 20 mins. The timer provides a safe exit time of 15 mins. Once the washing machine timer is finished ticking then the circuit is completed for the detonator.

Detonator Circuit
The detonator circuit probable was powered by the 9V Battery. The main component would be a transistor to trigger the circuit on reception of a voltage from the mobile device to the transistor base.

Detonator
Detonator could be a wire from a small bulb or a single strand of thin copper wire. This wire could have been inserted into a paper tube of gunpowder from match sticks. Once the 9V is applied to the wire, the wire becomes red hot and ignites the gun powder and providing enough explosive power to ignite the lighter gas can.

Lighter Gas Can
The Lighter gas can was the main fuel in the explosion as is proved by the burn injuries of the victims. For make it more lethal hundreds of nails was used. These nails was probable wrapped around the can using paper that is visible in the picture above.

Conclusion
In concluding the analysis, the device is not very technically sophisticated. But the maker of the circuit and the detonator device must have a fair knowledge of electronics and chemistry. It is a work done by some amateurs. Any body who have access to the internet could have made a more powerful explosive with a more sophisticated detonating device with a digital timer.

Note: I have tried my best not to reveal the technical knowhow for such a device.

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