Tasty Truths... News You Can Use

Cell Phones - A Health Hazard?

2008-05-28T13:41:00.033+05:30

Cell Phones have become an integral part of our lives today. It is hard to find a person (who can afford a Cell Phone) without a Cell Phone. We use our Cell Phones day in day out for everything we can do with them. Besides dialing & receiving calls, we use them for “sms”ing, as an alarm clock, as a reminder, to connect to Internet, to listen to music, to click snaps of our loved one and many many more.

While Cell Phones have enriched our lives for sure, it’s being widely debated, whether Cell Phones are posing a health hazard for us! I think, I cannot write a conclusive write-up on this because there are so many facets to this subject (& so many Intellectuals are still debating on this!!! ;D). So I am going to provide you with information that will help us to know more about Cell Phones.

How Cell Phones Work

Cell Phones are like two-way radio sets which transmit & receive encoded data via radio waves. Those are also well-known as Radio Frequency (RF) waves. When one makes a phone call, the voice information is encoded & sent to the Cell Phone Base Station using these radio waves. Similarly the person who answers this call receives this information through radio waves, is decoded & heard. If we visit this page from Wikipedia Radio Frequency we come to know that Cell Phones use the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Frequency Band for communication.

These radio waves are at the core of the controversy about Cell Phone usage safety among many other.

What They Say:

Dr. George Carlo

Dr. George Carlo, a well-known American public health scientist, says that Humans are affected by the Radio waves emitted by Cell Phone Handsets. He has co-authored a book with Martin Schram describing many ill-effects of Radio waves on Humans, especially children: “Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age: An Insider's Alarming Discoveries About Cancer And Genetic Damage”

Click the image to know more about Dr. Carlo

Click the image to know more about the book

Radio Frequency Waves affect parts of our body which have more fluid content.

Since our brain is spongy & literally floats into Cerebrospinal fluid, it is quite prone to these ill-effects and is prone to dangers like Brain Cancer caused by RF waves. But there is no conclusive scientific evidence.

Here are some great informative videos on Cell Phone Health Hazards:
http://www.youtube.com/user/domi1928

Cell Phones can cause explosions at Petrol/Gas pumps!

Now you are going to find this weird as I found two videos which quite contradict each other.

The first one demonstrates how a Cell Phone can ignite petrol. Here it is...

The second one demonstrates how Cell Phones could not ignite petrol. This one’s hosted by famous Top Gear host Richard Hammond. Here it is...

Cell Phones may explode if you are in a call while it’s being charged!

Frankly, I could not locate any faithful resource which could ascertain above claim. They also say that one should not keep one’s Cell Phones being charged over-night & should recharge it 2-3 hours only, at a time. No one knows what the truth about this is!!!

Cell Phone “Do”s and “Don’t”s

“Do”s:

Do you want ME to tell you what things you can & should do with your Cell Phone?! :D I think, I should not waste my time on that! You are smart enough to know it all!

“Don’t”s:

*Note: These tips are beneficial to follow if all of it said above proves to be true tomorrow.

Do not use your Bluetooth headset, which again uses the Radio waves to communicate to your handset, whenever you are going to be in a lengthy conversation over your Cell Phone. Use your hands-free instead.
Do not put your Cell Phone close to your head when you go to sleep every night for obvious reasons. We are used to use our Cell Phones as alarm clocks & are habituated to put it near our heads when we go to sleep.
Do not use your Cell Phone when you are at a Petrol/Gas pump.
Do not talk over your Cell Phone when it is being charged.
Do not let your children, especially toddlers, speak over Cell Phones for longer duration.
Do not speak over your Cell Phone while driving. (We know this is true!)
Do not put your Cell Phone to ear as soon as you dial a number, wait for a while. When you dial a number, the Cell Phone uses its maximum power to search for the available network to connect the call. This is the time when intense Radio waves are dealing with your handset.
Do not develop habits with your Cell Phone which will harm you. Watch this funny video. ;)

Want to read more? Here are some interesting links:

*Note: YOU decide what to believe…!!!

1. This website says: Cell Phones are safe!
http://www.cellphonesafetyguide.com

2. This website says: Cell Phones are killing us! And provide many gadgets to protect us from ill-effects of Cell Phones.
http://www.rfsafe.com

3. A good write-up.
http://www.goland.org/cellphonehazards

You agree/disagree with all this?! Please comment.

The Great Google: Tips & Tricks

2008-05-19T13:42:00.036+05:30

Today I am going to list a few tips here, about using Google search more efficiently. This is not something very new. Many geeks have written loads of books about Google hacks n all. But what I am going to list here today has got nothing to do with hacking Google. These are simple search helps which Google itself has provided to us but remain hidden. I have focused on only those tips which you will find most useful in your day to day life. If you know about any more of such tips, please let me know and I will add those to this list.

Here are a few of those tips & I m going to put them into increasing level of interest. ;) So, as you go on reading, I hope, you grow curious about the next one. Other than these tips, I am going to provide you with some interesting links which you will find useful for sure.

Here we go…

Finding a Definition

You are again thinking, “Mannn, what’s the meaning of this?” say “ezine”. Let it be an acronym OR a linguistic term, Google can tell you all about it. In that little search textbox of Google, just type, “define: ezine”.

A term, the definition of which you are looking for, may have different meanings depending on the context. Please select the relevant one from the search result.

Finding related stuff

Sometimes, it happens that you are searching with a particular term but would like to know about the stuff related to it. Yes, you can do that with the help of Google. Type you search term with a preceding “tilde”, the approx sign. For example “~Fitness”. Here are the results…

Google as a calculator

You can use Google simply as a calculator. One can do a calculation as difficult as one can think of. Try this one, “2^10 + 7*98 + 500%13”. Here is the result…

Don’t you want to crosscheck if the result is correct?! ;)

Knowing the Time

We have really grown Global and you always need to know global times. You have a Football match to watch in a foreign country OR need to send a conference invitation which will be held across countries. So here is a simple way to know local time anywhere in the world. Just type “time Tokyo”.

Now try “time Australia”

Bingo! and you find that we can look for time in any city or country with existing Time Zones!

Searching with a specific File Type

Suppose you are looking for a free e-Book but need it in PDF format only. But when you search Google for that e-Book, it is available in all formats (HTML, doc etc.) and you need to look for the PDF format yourself. You can save your precious time by firing following search. Just type “The Mathematics of Sudoku filetype:pdf”

Similarly look for doc, xls, ppt or whatever format you are looking for.

Searching a website

You want to search a specific website for a particular content/page. You need not go to that website and look for it manually. Simply fire following type of search in Google & you are there. Just type “admission site:www.stanford.edu”

Converting currency

Currency conversion rates keep on changing every day. If you deal with multiple currencies regularly, you always need to know, the conversion rate between two currencies. Google is at help again. Follow this format. “100 Euro in INR”

If you don’t know the acronym for a currency, that’s not an issue. Try this “100 USD in Australian dollars”

Looking for sets

Suppose you are looking for a set of items but know only a handful of them & would like to find more belonging to that particular set. There is an easy way to do this. Go to http://labs.google.com/sets and type the items you know of. Google will present you with the rest, belonging to the set you are looking for.

Looking for products

You are thinking of buying a product & Google search seems to be the easiest way to look for vendors & prices. Google has made it even more simpler for you. Just visit http://www.google.com/products and type what you are looking for…

Movie Time

This is the last tip and I know, you are going to love this. :D You decide to go for a movie right away and need to know which movie is playing where in the City. Go to http://www.google.com/movies and type the name of your city. Wowww! Here is the list of Theatres & Movies being played there… :D

Interesting Links I promised:

1. http://www.googleguide.com

Loved the above tips but interested in more such tips?! Here you will find a detailed list of more such stuff. Look for things helpful to you.

2. http://www.soople.com

This site offers nothing but the power of Google in an easy way. Read “ABOUT SOOPLE” over the website & you are ready to go.

3. http://www.googlefight.com

You are writing a document and thinking: is it “at the restaurant” OR “in the restaurant”? Simply visit GoogleFight & know which phrase, people all over the world are using more. It’s not limited to only this but you can compare anything you would like to compare.

Refueling your vehicle

2008-05-07T10:00:00.010+05:30

We keep on reading about soaring petroleum prices but we need to keep filling our vehicles also. So spending on vehicle fuel is inevitable for us. In such a scenario, what we can do best is get most out of our spending. That includes, looking for a better mileage car OR choosing a road to our destination with minimum possible signal stops which again results in better mileage. But have you ever thought about the actual fuel we fill at the petrol/gas station?!! Most of us must not have…

So here are some facts which a layman may not come to know for his/her lifetime. These are invaluable & you will be astonished to know about them.

Early bird gets the worm

Fill up your car or bike only in the early morning when the ground temperature is quite low. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried under ground. The colder the ground, the more dense the fuel. When the ground gets warmer, petrol/diesel/any petroleum fuel expands. So while buying in or after the noon, your litre is not exactly a litre. In petroleum industry, the specific gravity & temperature of any petroleum product play an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a very big deal for this business. But the petrol/gas stations do not have temperature compensation mechanism at the pumps.

Slow is better

When you are filling up, use the slow mode. You will see that the fuel hose trigger has three stages: Low, Middle & High. You should always be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the petrol/gas station have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the fuel that goes into your car/bike tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked back into the underground storage tank, so you are getting less worth of your money.

When to fill it

Fill your car/bike when your tank is half full. The more fuel you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space, lowering down the evaporation of the fuel while filling up. Fuel evaporates faster than you can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal roof floating on the fuel. This roof serves as zero clearance between the fuel and the atmosphere minimizing the evaporation.

When not to fill it

Never fill up when a fuel delivery truck is pumping into the storage tanks. When the fuel is being pumped into the storage tank, the fuel is being stirred up. That stirring mixes the dirt settled at the bottom of the tank into the fuel and you will get that dirt into your fuel tank!

Hope this was worthy information for you and will help you get most value for your money.

-Ambarish :)

The First One

2008-05-03T22:06:00.012+05:30

Hi Friend,

Thanks for visiting!

Heartiest welcome to you… :D

This is my first blog. As the name of my site suggests, I will be sharing with you information/knowledge of whatever I know about or come to know about. These won’t be exactly my thoughts but some real information/knowledge which all of us can use in our daily practical life. Hence the name “Versatile News You Can Use”.

I am a software professional and to be precise, I am into Software Quality Assurance field. Being into this area of work, I keep on striving towards, improving the software product, I work on, to the greatest extent possible. In the course of life, that thought process of improving things is rooted into my subconscious now. I guess, that must be happening with every Quality Assurance person. :) Hence the effort of sharing knowledge which will improve our lives some way or the other.

Now, you must be thinking, so many people have written soooo much about softwares, what this guy is going to do different?!!! And the answer is, I am NOT going to write about softwares. I am going to share with you, all those useful facts, which most of us will be able to really use in our daily lives. Those facts will be from all facets of life and won’t be limited to only softwares.

Since my blogs, here onwards, will be a collection of factual things, I will be giving due credit to related web-link/person from where/whom I might have collected the information. So if you have something sharable, which can prove beneficial to all of us, please let me know. I will try to find more information about the subject & publish it here, with due credit to you!

I think, that is enough reading for you, without any useful tip for today. ;)

So, please let me know your thoughts about my blog.
Wish me luck to keep this effort going!!!

Warm regards & cheers to you,
-Ambarish :)