Eating fish during pregnancy ups your child’s IQ

Children whose mothers ate an average of three to four servings during their pregnancy, had IQ scores that were 2.8% higher than those whose mothers ate less fish, experts say

    All you mothers-to-be reading this, take note. Eating fish every week during pregnancy may improve your child’s IQ and decrease their risk of developing some of the early signs of autism, a new study has claimed. Researchers studied about 2,000 mothers and their children, starting from the mothers’ first trimester of pregnancy, and continuing until the children turned 5.

Results showed that children whose mothers ate an average of three to four servings during their pregnancy showed no signs that mercury in fish negatively affected their developmental health. These children had IQ scores that were 2.8% higher than those whose mothers ate less fish, the study found

Women arrested for not cooking food in home

In a bizarre case, a 42-year-old Italian woman could be jailed for up to six years after her husband took her to court for not doing enough cooking, cleaning at home and chronically neglecting him, media reports said on Sunday.

The couple live in the village of Sonnino, in the countryside south of Rome. Her husband, 47, made a formal complaint to the police, saying his wife failed to put meals on the table and left their home in a dreadful mess.

Accusing her of "bad management of domestic affairs", the man complained that for the past two years, he had been chronically neglected by his wife. She failed to clean their house, refused to cook for him and on occasion kicked him out of the bedroom, The Telegraph reported.

The police decided to send the matter to trial, with the woman facing between two and six years in prison if found guilty of the charge of "mistreatment within the family", the report said. The Italian penal code "punishes whoever mistreats a person in their family or a person entrusted to them for reasons of education, care or custody."

The trial is due to start in the town of Latina on October 12 and will be presided over by a female judge Mara Mattioli

Man approach bank loan for Valentine day

‘Valentine’ loan application of Gujarat bank officer rejected

The application of a bank officer, who mentioned “Valentine” as a festival on a loan form, has gone viral on social media.

Twenty-five-year old Digvijay Singh, a probationary officer in State Bank of India in Junagarh at Gujarat, recently applied for an advance festival loan for Rs 42,970, mentioning “Valentine” as the festival. But the bank rejected his request, saying it was an “invalid festival”.

According to Digvijay’s friends, the young man again applied for a loan, this time mentioning “Basant Panchami” as the festival, which was accepted by the bank.

Singh says that he was not seeking publicity when applying for the loan. Though Singh had applied for the ‘Valentine festival loan’ recently, he goofed up in mentioning on his loan application the year for which he was applying for the advance and also the year of his joining.

“It was a mistake… But, it is not a matter worth discussing in the media. I have already explained the matter to my higher authorities and I am not authorised to speak to the media. You may contact my superiors on this matter. However, I wish to put it straight that I did not do it for cheap publicity,” he said when HT contacted him on phone

India world’s second largest smartphone market

India beats US to become world’s second largest smartphone market

HIGHLIGHTS

• India has surpassed the US to become the world’s second largest smartphone market
• Smartphone shipments grew 15% annually in the October-December quarter, crossing 100m units milestone
• The overall mobile handset market in India, however, has contracted on a yearly basis

NEW DELHI: India has surpassed the US to become the world's second largest smartphone market, crossing 220 million in active unique smartphone users in 2015, a year when Samsung maintained its leadership position and Apple made big strides.

"This speaks volumes for the scale India market provides for any player in the mobile connected ecosystem. India still has a long way to go as the smartphone penetration of the total potential population is still below 30%," Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.

The smartphone shipments in India also grew a healthy 15% annually in the October-December quarter, and rose 23% on year to cross 100 million units milestone, the research firm said.

JAPAN STARTS WORKS ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLOATING SOLAR FARM

Japan Does It Again, Starts Work On The World's Largest Floating Solar Farm

Japanese electronics giant Kyocera has begun work on what's apparently set to be the world's biggest floating solar farm. Built on a reservoir in Japan's Chiba, it is said to be big enough to supply enough electricity for as many as 5,000 homes.

Thanks to the shortage of space in the country, this won't be their first floating solar farm. In fact, Japan has had several of them since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The shutdown of the nuclear plants has made Japan rely more on fossil fuel important

The Yamakura dam will be using more than 50,000 solar panels covering an area of 180,000 square miles. The biggest on water, but relatively small when compared to land-based plants. Kyocera said it was turning to water because of a scarcity of land for a big enough solar power plant in Japan. 

There were reports of India following Japan's footsteps by setting up our own floating solar plants in Kerala, but apart from a few news stories in 2014, nothing has taken shape.

It's relatively simple to build a floating farm according to a UK-based solar advisor at the Renewable Energy Association. The main challenge would be to keep the wiring away from the water and put the inverters - that convert the electricity generated into a usable form - on structures that float. However, It is much cheaper to build solar on land than on water.

Kyocera has already built three floating solar farms in Japan, but all of them are much smaller than the current one that's supposed to be completed by 2018

picture of a potato sold for $1 million

This photographer takes $150,000 portraits of Silicon Valley's most powerful people, and he once sold a picture of a potato for over $1 million

Kevin Abosch

Kevin Abosch takes a portrait of himself.

Kevin Abosch may have the best network of anyone in Silicon Valley. He's met every high-powered executive from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to Twitter's Jack Dorsey.

But he isn't a tech executive running a Fortune 500 company or a multi-billion dollar startup. He isn't even based in California.

Instead, Abosch splits his time between Ireland and Boston, and the power connecter is actually an artist, best known for his photography. His claim to fame is snapping beautiful portraits of busy executives and celebrities in just a few seconds.

Zach Sims, the CEO of Codecademy, says Abosch is a friend who kindly agreed to photograph him. After taking just two pictures, Abosch told Sims he had all the shots he needed.

Abosch's iconic black backdrop shots have become something of a status symbol among the tech and entertainment elite. A simple portrait commission begins at $150,000 and can rise as high as $500,000 if commercial licensing comes into play. And this week, Abosch is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, because that's where all of his clients are.

"I can't afford not to be here," he joked to Business Insider.

In order to snap the great, quick photos, Abosch uses a few tricks. He begins each session with a simple question.

"Which side of your face do you like better?" he asks his clients.

They'll either reply automatically with a preference or say they aren't sure. But to Abosch, the answer is clear. Whichever side a person parts their hair on is usually the side they like best, leaving the unfavorable side hidden underneath hair, Abosch says.

Sims is just one of Abosch's many happy clients. Others include Malala and Johnny Depp. But Abosch's path to becoming a world-renowned photographer -trusted so much by the stars that he's been offered Ferraris and private jet trips for his camera and his time - is anything but traditional.

He didn't study art. Instead, he's a former biologist who likes technology and is familiar with deep coding languages like Python (he's the founder of a secure messaging app called OneOne).

Abosch attributes his success with photography to passion, some natural skill, and a few key moments in his career.

The first breakthrough moment was in the 1990s, when he was working with CBS Records. The record company needed a photographer to shoot one of its bands and Abosch volunteered himself for the job. But when CBS asked to see his portfolio, Abosch realized he didn't have one. Instead, Abosch pulled up eight of his favorite pictures, which he always carried around, and negotiated a $2,500 salary for a half day of work - not bad for a photographer's first gig.

Abosch says he arrived at the relatively high number because he read an article about one of Hollywood's most famous photographers, Herb Ritts, charging $10,000 a day. He told CBS he wanted a similar rate of $5,000 for the few-hour-long shoot. At first, CBS laughed and told him they could hire Ritts for that amount. Abosch replied, "Do you want Herb Ritts? Or do you want me?" CBS met him in the middle.

Since then, Abosch has had no trouble charging high prices for his time and work. And as more and more high-powered people ask him to take their photos, those prices keep getting met. Occasionally multiple people will go in on one of his pieces together, effectively time-sharing his art.

Last year he sold this photograph of a potato for 1 million Euros:

Kevin Abosch

Kevin Abosch's photograph of a potato sold for 1 million euros.

Another breakthrough moment for Abosch was when he photographed Johnny Depp. As he was taking pictures, he glanced down at his camera, saw this shot, and says he got chills:

This photo of Johnny Depp helped make Kevin Abosch's career, Abosch now says.

Abosch recalls saying to Depp, "Do you know what this picture is going to do for my career?" The actor just smiled.

While he's known for his photographic portraits, Abosch dabbles in a lot of other kinds of art too. In his next big project, Abosch wants to capture pictures of the human ego. To do that, Abosch will wear a fMRI machine strapped to his head and take pictures of his brain activity during ego-inducing situations (like Davos!). Then he'll blow up the photographs into massive 10-feet high collections of colorful art.

"The intersection of art and science often yields elucidating surprises!" Abosch says. "At the end of the day, I'm an ontologist, concerned with matters of identity and existence. Art and science is just the means to an end."

Jan 21 world hug day

      National Hug DayorNational Hugging Dayis an annual event dedicated tohugging. It was created by Kevin Zaborneyand occurs annually on January 21. The day was first celebrated on January 21, 1986 inClio, Michigan, USA.The holiday is also observed in many other countries.
       The idea of National Hug Day is to encourage everyone to hug family and friends more often.Zaborney cautions to ask first if one is unsure of the response.