Hats off to the new Rajya Sabha MP

Sachin has always been known for his honesty and dedication both on the field and off the field. Today, he proved it once again.

Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar today refused to accept the government bungalow he is entitled to as Rajya Sabha member, saying such a stay would be a waste of taxpayer's money.

In his words - "I am not keen on staying in any govt bungalow when I will be in Delhi for only a few days. I feel this would be a waste of tax payers money and it would be better if the bungalow is allotted to someone else who needs the bungalow more than me. For me the honor of being nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP matters much more than the perks and privileges like being given a govt bungalow."

Tendulkar, who took oath as MP on Monday, said he would prefer to stay in a hotel in Delhi every time he is in Delhi. Ever since his nomination, there have been questions over whether he would be able to devote time for Parliament over his cricketing commitments.Replying the same Sachin said, "Not taking a government bungalow would not affect my responsibilities as Rajya Sabha MP. I do hope to attend few days of parliament in every session."

Samsung plans for Galaxy S3 successor

In the past few months, we have seen a number of android smartphones from various manufacturers. Samsung has been on the top of these companies preceding HTC and LG. With such quick releases, one after another, users don't even get time to explore his new handset before its new version gets launched.

Following the same trend, Samsung ups the ante by planning to launch a variant of its new flagship, the Galaxy S3. The international variant ships with a 1.4 Ghz Exynos processor and 1GB RAM. The Korean mobile company is set to bring out a new Galaxy smartphone with the same processor but with 2GB RAM.

The recent release S3 runs on the new Android 4.0 and features Samsung’s revamped Android interface, the TouchWiz 4.0,

According to the reports, the newer model merges the best of both the variants that are being released around the world. This new version of the S3 will retain the acclaimed 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD screen along with similar features like the S-Voice, Smart Stay and Pop-and-Play.

The major variant in the European and Asian markets features the Exynos processor clocked at 1.4 GHz while the US Edition of the S3 sports a dual-core 1.5 GHZ Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB of RAM.

LinkedIn joins hands with FBI on password theft

LinkedIn Corp is working with the FBI as the social network for job seekers and professionals investigates the theft of 6.4 million member passwords.

A spokeswoman with the FBI declined to comment stating that LinkedIn is still in the early stages of the investigation. As per the investigation team, it was not yet determined whether the email addresses that corresponded to the hacked passwords were also stolen or just the LinkedIn accounts.

Earlier, on Wednesday, LinkedIn confirmed that millions of passwords were stolen. Taking immediate action,  the company sent affected members emails explaining how to change their passwords.

Several security experts said that LinkedIn's stolen passwords had not been adequately secured and that the company did not employ best practices utilized by the world's largest websites. Whereas LinkedIn officials said that LinkedIn had already boosted the security of its database and they place the highest value on the security of our members' data.

The most destructive batsman Gayle returns back to WI playing squad

Former captain Chris Gayle has been chosen by West Indies for the first time in 14 months as part of their one-day squad to tour England later this month. The 32-year-old opener, whose public spat with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) resulted in him being ineligible for nearly a year, was included in a 15-man squad announced on Monday for the three-match series that begins on June 16.

The powerful Jamaican left-hander is the most prolific West Indian century-maker in ODIs, with 19 hundreds in 228 matches since his debut in 1999. But Gayle played his last match for West Indies on March 23, 2011, the quarter-final defeat to Pakistan in the World Cup.

He was critical of the WICB in a radio interview in April 2011 after being omitted from the subsequent one-day series at home against Pakistan. Those comments, many hostile to current coach Ottis Gibson, led to his lengthy spell out of the team. Gayle instead played lucrative Twenty20 tournaments in India, Zimbabwe, Australia and Bangladesh.

Last March, a meeting between Gayle and the WICB, facilitated by CARICOM government ministers, cleared the way for his return. Last Sunday, the few residual matters in the long-running impasse were sorted out to clear the way for his return.

Arctic warms as tundra shrubs grow upto trees

We have always known Tundra as a cold, treeless region in the Arctic. Due to the harsh weather at the region, tree growth is stunted. But in the recent decade, scientists have observed shrubs and willows in some part of the region, some of them even growing upwards to the height of a tree. As per the scientists, the growth of these shrubs is really linked to temperatures. Therefore they are considering the sudden growth of trees in this treeless region as an indication of warming climate in such regions. This change first came to the attention of scientists, when nomadic reindeer herdsmen, the indigenous Nenets, said they were losing sight of their reindeer in the new trees.

Roughly 30 years ago, trees were nearly unknown in the region, but about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the land in the southern part of the north-western Eurasian tundra, which stretches between Finland and western Siberia, is now covered by new tree-size shrubs, which stand higher than 6.6 feet, new research has found. These shrubs are even growing further responding to the rise in temperature due to global warming.

To better understand the climate dynamics associated with the increase in growth in the north-western Eurasian tundra, Macias-Fauria and team studied information from the herdsmen’s observations, temperature data, growth rings in the wood of shrubs and satellite data, including observations of how much green covers the landscape during the growing season. The researchers, who detailed their work in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the shrubs grew most in years with warm Julys.

This a clear indication and a warning note for all of us towards the rate at which global warming is booming across the globe.