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Friday, 8 December 2017

Hyderabadi youth go bold with glossy eye makeup

Getting ready for a party? You might want to add a little gloss to your eyes. The city picked up this trend after Priyanka Chopra sported her nude glossy eyes on Instagram.

When we approached city’s favourite, internationally trained makeup artist Saba Khan who runs a makeup service named ‘MakeMeUp’ about this new exciting look, she says city’s youth is going bold with this glossy make up by adding glitter to it. About 25% of the partygoers today are adopting this look.

If you are thinking to make it your new everyday look, you might want to give it a second thought. “I wouldn’t consider this look for long hours as it gets very uncomfortable. It is interesting look for a photo shoot though,” says Saba.

For those who want to try this look at home by yourself, one of Hyderabad’s most celebrated makeup artists has this DIY for you.

DIY for glossy eyelid

– Apply a base colour and dab a little baby oil to it.

– Apply concealer.

– Apply your preferred eye shadow and a non-sticky lip gloss.

– Apply eye shadow and put on a lip balm, which is not oily, on your eyes or you can also use a tinted lip balm on your eyes.

While you are at this, following a few thumb rules will be a huge saviour:

– Do not use oily lip balms.

– Do not apply gloss on your crease; always apply the gloss above and below the crease.

– Do not look up till the product sets in as it results in unwanted creases.

– Do not forget to use a water-proof mascara.

Eye gloss is mischievous. It might turn out to be an utter disaster when you try for the first couple of times. But Rome was not built in a day ladies! Eventually, you’ll rock this look and be a showstopper.

Thursday, 7 December 2017

Artificial Intelligence-driven cyber-attacks to go up, says expert

Cyber criminals are poised to step up their attacks on the millions of devices now connected to the Internet of Things both in offices and homes.

Hyderabad: Cyber criminals caused major service disruptions around the world this year using their increasing technical proficiency to break through cyber defenses. In 2018, the trend will become more pronounced as these attackers will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to launch even more potent attacks.

Incidents like the WannaCry attack, which impacted more than 200,000 computers worldwide in May, are just the warmup to a new year of more virulent malware and denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Meanwhile, cyber criminals are poised to step up their attacks on the millions of devices now connected to the Internet of Things both in offices and homes.

Tarun Kaura, director, Product Management, APJ, Symantec, says, “The cybersecurity landscape in 2018 is sure to surprise us in ways that we never imagined.”

He adds further, as 2017 draws to a close, one can expect that blockchain will find use outside of cryptocurrencies but cyber criminals will focus on coins and exchanges, cyber criminals will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) to conduct attacks, supply chain attacks will become mainstream, file-less and file-light malware will explode, organisations will still struggle with Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) Security and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Security, and more breaches due to error, compromise & design will take place.

Financial trojans will still account for more losses than ransomware, expensive home devices will be held to ransom, IoT Devices will be hijacked and used in DDoS attacks and IoT devices will provide persistent access to home networks, he added.

No India- Sri Lanka series once we come back to power: Congress

Gandhinagar: In the middle of his Gujarat campaign, Congress (Vice) President Rahul Gandhi has already started pitching for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Speaking at an election rally earlier today, Mr. Gandhi said that once Congress returns in center, they will ban India- Sri Lanka tours on priority. This announcement from him was greeted with the loudest cheer of the day.

India vs LankaWe may never see this epic contest again post-2019

Addressing the crowd, Mr. Gandhi said ,”Today, there is a decisive 5th day of a Test match in progress but you are here at a political rally instead of watching that match. In a cricket mad country like India, isn’t it shocking? This is happening because of the really high frequency of India- Sri Lanka matches, across formats, and it is making people disinterested in Cricket. To get people interested in Cricket again, we will ban all bilateral series between these two countries and nobody will ever ignore a Test match involving India again.”

Taking a dig at the Modi government, he added ,”Current government is totally oblivious of the torture being inflicted on the dedicated Indian fans through these matches. RSS members only know Lathi, they can’t appreciate a bat and this government is run by RSS.”

Reacting sharply to this statement by Rahul Gandhi, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said ,”Today Rahul Ji is attacking us for high frequency of India-Sri Lanka matches but he is forgetting the time during UPA government when there was an India-Sri Lanka match every other day. Indian players spent more time with Jayawardene and Sangakkara than their spouses during that time. Why didn’t he ask Manmohan Singh Ji to ban these tours then?”

Meanwhile, BCCI is already drawing up list of probables to replace Sri Lanka as the default opponent during any break for the Indian players. Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are the names currently under consideration.

OxygenOS 4.7.4 OTA update now out for the OnePlus 5T; brings big camera improvements

After the OnePlus 5T launch, everyone seemed to love the smartphone, but somehow could not get over the fact that the camera quality was still lacking. Soon enough OnePlus promised that it would work on improving the low light imaging of the camera and now a month later, we have the first camera-focussed update.

The OnePlus 5T features a longer display.The OnePlus 5T.

The new update is tagged as OxygenOS 4.7.4. It comes in the form of an OTA update package that is 285 MB in size.

The update does not bring Android Oreo, but brings plenty of optimisations apart from the main fixes, which come for the camera.

In the change log, OnePlus mentions that the team has worked on delivering an optimised UI for the Camera app. Additionally they have also tweaked the image processing algorithms that should bring about better photo quality.

Other tweaks to the system include optimisations for the audio quality (both speaker and earphones), face unlock and vibrations. There are also optimisations made for Wi-Fi battery usage, and the update also brings stability for fingerprint recognition and the GPS unit.

The update as always will be rolling out gradually in waves, but users in Canada seem to be the first to have received the update. You could try using your VPN to trick the server into getting it to download the update.

While the standard OnePlus 5T (yes, your OnePlus is not exactly special anymore) is available in 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage flavours. OnePlus already has a special edition of the smartphone that will be launched in India (and elsewhere) on 14 December.

The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition comes with some cool themes and also looks different with a Storm Trooper white finish that kind of reminds us of the Black and White Pixel 2 smartphones. Last we heard, all the tickets for the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition launch set for 14 December have already been sold out.

Osmania University students, Telangana govt on collision course as K Chandrasekhar Rao fails to deliver on jobs

I am unable to continue my studies. The exams are around the corner and I am scared that I will fail. I never wanted to fail in exams. Therefore, I have decided to end my life," read the suicide note of 21-year-old postgraduate student of Osmania University MSc (Physics) student E Murali Mudhiraj. He took his life at Maneru hostel on-campus on 3 December sparking off yet another clash between the police and the student community in Telangana.

The suicide note of Mudhiraj which displayed the frustration and despair among students on the bleak prospects of employment in the state has further aggravated the student-police skirmishes at the university campus. In the background of the ongoing Kolavula Kotlata rallies (struggle for jobs) being organised by TJAC (Telangana Joint Action Committee) headed by Kodandaram, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government has taken a tough approach to the suicide and jailed over two dozen student leaders in an effort to curb the protests. Mudhiraj hails from Gajwel, the constituency of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Student leaders of Osmania University stalled the shifting of Murali's body for post-mortem throughout Sunday night and staged dharna in his hostel room. "We suspect that the student committed suicide anticipating unemployment as the Telangana government has been delaying job notifications causing him depression," said Pratap Reddy and Manavatha Roy, office bearers of Osmania University Joint Action Committee.

Mudhiraj’s suicide reflects the level of frustration among students and jobless youth who have already lost one academic year due to the Telangana agitation and hoped that the TRS government would give them an advantage by hiking the age limit for government jobs and releasing notifications for two lakh jobs as promised. But none of that has materialised.

Instead the TRS and its chief minister are attacking students, for opposing their move to take over university land and spending on water projects and blaming them for siding with opposition parties and participating in the rallies and dharnas of TJAC leader Kodandaram.

"Over 30 students had been jailed since Sunday at a time when the OU exams are going on," said Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Uttam Kumar Reddy who led a delegation to the Chanchalaguda Jail where the student leaders were kept.

Student leaders are also unhappy about the draconian measures unleashed by the university authorities to drive away senior students in hostels by terming them as 'squatters', shutting down university canteens during vacations and posing restrictions on cultural activities like beef festivals.

The Hyderabad Police and TRS leaders find fault with the student community for not focusing on studies and supporting opposition parties. The Hyderabad Police have denied permission to the students to take out processions to Assembly, Secretariat or the chief minister’s residence at least a dozen times in the past three years. "Even during the Telangana agitation permission was not granted to students to take out rallies but stay confined to campus in view of law and order. Same rules are followed even now," said Telangana DGP Mahender Reddy.

Farthest monster black hole found

Astronomers have discovered the most distant "supermassive" black hole known to science.

The matter-munching sinkhole is a whopping 13 billion light-years away, so far that we see it as it was a mere 690 million years after the Big Bang.

But at about 800 million times the mass of our Sun, it managed to grow to a surprisingly large size in just a short time after the origin of the Universe.

The find is described in the journal Nature.

The newly discovered black hole is busily devouring material at the centre of a galaxy - marking it out as a so-called quasar.

Matter, such as gas, falling onto the black hole will form an ultra-hot mass of material orbiting around it known as an accretion disk.

"Quasars are among the brightest and most distant known celestial objects and are crucial to understanding the early Universe," said co-author Bram Venemans of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.

This quasar is interesting because it comes from a time when the Universe was just 5% of its current age.

At this time, the cosmos was beginning to emerge from a period known as the dark ages - just before the first stars appeared.

The Gemini North observatory was among several involved in the discovery

"Gathering all this mass in under 690 million years is an enormous challenge for theories of supermassive black hole growth," said co-author Eduardo Bañados, from the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The quasar's distance is described by a property called its redshift - a measurement of how much the wavelength of its light is stretched by the expansion of the Universe before reaching Earth.

The newly discovered black hole has a redshift of 7.54. The higher the redshift, the greater the distance, and the farther back astronomers are looking in time when they observe the object.

Prior to this discovery, the record-holder for the furthest known quasar existed when the Universe was about 800 million years old.

"Despite extensive searches, it took more than half a decade to catch a glimpse of something this far back in the history of the Universe," said Dr Bañados.

The discovery of a massive black hole so early on may provide key clues on conditions that abounded when the Universe was young.

"This finding shows that a process obviously existed in the early Universe to make this monster," Dr Bañados explained.

"What that process is? Well, that will keep theorists very busy."

The unexpected discovery is based on data amassed from observatories around the world. This includes data from the Gemini North observatory on Hawaii's Maunakea volcano and a Nasa space telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise).

General Electric to shed 12,000 jobs

General Electric is to cut 12,000 jobs in its power business, 18% of the division's global workforce.

The US industrial group expects the "painful but necessary" job losses to help save $1bn next year as demand for fossil fuel power plants wanes.

GE intends to cut 1,100 jobs from its UK power business, mainly in Stafford and Rugby.

Elsewhere, one-third of the firm's Swiss workforce and one-sixth of German workers are likely to be hit.

Firm's 1,100 job cuts are 'major blow'

The reduction in jobs is part of a restructuring by new GE chief executive John Flannery, who took over in August from his veteran predecessor Jeff Immelt.

"Traditional power markets including gas and coal have softened," the company said.

In October, GE slashed its profits guidance after posting a 5% fall in third-quarter earnings to $1.8bn, due to weak trading in its power and oil and gas businesses.

GE Power is the company's largest industrial business, employing more than 55,000 people worldwide.

It makes turbines, generators and other kinds of plant equipment.

German union leaders denounced the cuts and said they would fight to preserve jobs.

Klaus Stein, the representative of the IG Metall union at GE's plant in Mannheim, said the announcement was "neither strategically nor economically justifiable" and served only to maximise short-term profit for shareholders.

'Simpler and stronger'

Russell Stokes, president and chief executive of GE Power, said: "This decision was painful but necessary for GE Power to respond to the disruption in the power market, which is driving significantly lower volumes in products and services.

"This plan will make us simpler and stronger, so we can drive more value for our customers and investors."

The boss of GE's UK and Ireland operations, Mark Elborne, said the firm remained committed to the UK and would remain one of the country's top five industrial companies.

He said: "These are not proposals we ever make lightly and we understand that this news will be difficult for many people.

"Unfortunately, we believe that these changes are necessary to ensure that we can remain competitive and secure the future of GE Power in the UK.

"We have shared our proposals with employees' representatives today and will now begin a consultation period before any final decisions are made."

What's behind the N Korean 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan?

Mysterious "ghost ships" have been washing up on the western shores of Japan over the few past years, thought to be fishing vessels from North Korea.

Many of the ships have only dead bodies or skeletons on board but in recent months, several have been found with their desperate North Korean crew still alive.

What are these 'ghost ships'?

They are called ghost ships because they are usually found empty or with only corpses on board off Japan's western coast.

In 2017 though, a number of ships have washed ashore with the crew still alive.

In November, eight men were found alive on a boat at Yurihonjo marina. They said they were fishermen from North Korea who had gotten into trouble at sea.

Another ship picked up by the Japanese coast guard was found to have 10 men on board.

The boats are often rickety and very simple vessels with no modern engines or navigation instruments on board.

Where are they from?

With most of the boats washing up empty or only with dead bodies, it was initially not clear where they had come from but some observers speculated they were North Korean fishing boats that had been searching for king crab, squid and sandfish.

Markings on some of the vessels, in Korean, indicated that they belonged to the North's military which is heavily involved in the fishing industry.

In the recent cases where boats were found with the crew still alive, the sailors confirmed they were from North Korea. One of the boats rescued in November also had a plaque indicating it belonged to the military.

Unsurprisingly, there has been no mention of the missing vessels from North Korea.

How did those on board die?

When boats with corpses wash ashore, Japanese officials usually try to investigate the cause of death. But as they tend to be in an advanced state of decomposition it is often impossible to determine that.

During the winter months and with little food on board, exposure and starvation are the most likely explanations for their deaths.

The wooden boats washed up are old and heavy and have neither powerful modern engines nor GPS navigation systems.

If they ventured too far out or got blown off course, they would lose their bearings or find it hard to beat the currents even if they knew which way to go.

According to news agency AFP, 2017 has seen a record number of North Korean fishermen rescued alive with more than 40 arriving so far this year.

Are they defectors? Or spies?

It has been suggested the sailors could be defectors trying to make it across the Sea of Japan to escape the regime in Pyongyang.

But the crews found alive have asked to be sent back to North Korea.

Also, taking the route all the way to Japan is significantly further and more dangerous than trying to sail to South Korea.

The speculation they might be spies is also thought to be unlikely. Despite a few sailors rescued alive, most of the boats still wash up empty or with the men dead.

The crews found alive in November was thought to have looted a small shelter off the coast of Japan before they were picked up by the coast guard.

The shelter for Japanese boats in distress was found broken into with appliances missing, including a rice cooker and a television. When the North Koreans were later spotted by the coast guard they appeared to hastily dump these items off their vessel, local media reported.

According to Japanese media, the sailors later admitted they had been stealing the missing equipment from the refuge hut.

Why would fishermen take this risk?

With international sanctions tightening due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, the regime is under pressure to boost agriculture and food supplies.

One hypothesis posed by Japanese media is that the North Korean leadership is demanding bigger catches and sailors are being forced to take chances to meet those targets.

What might be making the situation worse is that North Korea sold the fishing rights in some of its territorial waters to China last year. That means a smaller area for local fishermen to fish in and hence they might be having to venture further out in search for fish.

Profit-seeking has been suggested as another possible incentive to take such risks

It is common in North Korea for workers to keep some of the surplus they generate past the targets set by the state. This quasi-capitalist system has been credited with improving production, analysts say.

But this promise of some private surplus is also thought to drive people to take greater risks to improve their situation - which could well include taking desperate chances at sea.

Bitcoin breaks through the $16,000 mark

Bitcoin has breached the $16,000 mark, extending the digital currency's record-breaking surge.

The cryptocurrency began the year below $1,000 but continues to rise despite warnings of a dangerous bubble.

According to Coindesk.com, Bitcoin reached $16,663.18 (£12, 358.35), having soared over 50% in a week.

The new high comes days before the launch of Bitcoin futures on two exchanges, including the world's largest futures exchange, CME.

Spread betting firm CMC Markets said the rise had all the symptoms of a bubble market, warning "there is no way to know when the bubble will burst".

What's behind the Bitcoin gold rush?
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What is Bitcoin?

There are two key traits of Bitcoin: it is digital and it is seen as an alternative currency.

Unlike the notes or coins in your pocket, it largely exists online.

Secondly, Bitcoin is not printed by governments or traditional banks.

A small but growing number of businesses, including Expedia and Microsoft, accept bitcoins - which work like virtual tokens.

However, the vast majority of users now buy and sell them as a financial investment.

The digital currency's rapid ascent from around $1,000 at the start of the year has put it in the spotlight.

Critics have said Bitcoin is going through a bubble similar to the dotcom boom, whereas others say it is rising in price because it is crossing into the financial mainstream.

Financial regulators have taken a range of views on the status of digital currencies and their risks.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority warned investors in September they could lose all their money if they buy digital currencies issued by firms, known as "initial coin offerings".

But last week a US regulator agreed to let two traditional exchanges, CME Group and CBOE Global Markets, begin trading in Bitcoin-related financial contracts.

The announcement from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that it will allow investors to buy and sell "future" contracts in bitcoins - an agreement to buy the crypto-currency, for example, in three months time at a certain price - was seen as a watershed moment for Bitcoin.

Cambridge Global Payments director of global product and market strategy Karl Schamotta said that move was behind the latest rally: "The perception in households around the world that the CME and the CBOE are providing legitimacy to Bitcoin is really what is driving the massive rally here."

But Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, said the rise in Bitcoin's value was "mostly motivated by fear of missing out and greed".

Bitcoins are created through a complex computer process known as mining, and then monitored by a network of computers across the world.

A steady stream of about 3,600 new bitcoins are created a day - with about 16.5 million now in circulation from a maximum limit of 21 million.

Here are 18 amazing facts about your body, thanks to AsapSCIENCE.

Trillions of cells, nerves, and atoms make up the truly remarkable human body

Body positivity is a growing concept that many people struggle with, regardless of gender, age or race. However, the human body is full of surprises and incredible processes that make up a person, and YouTube science channel AsapSCIENCE wants everyone to know the facts.

1. Your body is made of about 7 octillion atoms (that’s 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms).

2. There are 37 trillion cells in your body.

3. Stomach acid can dissolve metal.

4. Your skin’s outer layer sheds every 2-4 weeks, amounting to roughly 0.7 kg of dead skin in a year.

5. Cells in the inner lens of the eye, muscle cells of the heart, and the neurons of the cerebral cortex are the only cells that will be with you your entire life.

6. If you were to spread out all the wrinkles in your brain, it would be about the size of a pillowcase.

7. There are a trillion nerves powering your memory. Studies have shown that after viewing 2,500 images for only 3 seconds, participants could recall if they had seen the images with 92 per cent accuracy.

8. You spend 10 per cent of the day blinking.

9. Your eyes can distinguish between 2.3 and 7.5 million different colours.

10. Your nose can differentiate between 1 trillion different smells.

11. Your fingers can feel a ridge as small as 13 nanometers in size (7,500x smaller than the diameter of a human hair).

12. Without your pinky finger, you would lose 50% of your hand’s strength.

13. Your heart beats 100,000 times per day, pumping 5.5 litres per minute, which adds up to about 3 million litres of blood a year.

15. Human decomposition begins around 4 minutes after death, a process known as ‘self-digestion’ where your enzymes and bacteria eat you away.

16. 3 to 5 lbs of your body is made up of bacteria. Between 100 million to 1 billion bacteria can grow on each tooth.

17. In terms of compression strength, the femur bone of a person weighing 83kg with US size 11 feet could withstand the weight of 16,000 people standing on it at one time.

18. If all the DNA in your body were uncoiled, it would stretch out to about 10 billion miles, which is from Earth to Pluto and back.