not making it into Indian team Yuvraj Singh disappointment

All-rounder, Yuvraj Singh, on Wednesday said that he was disappointed at not making it into the Indian cricket team. After successfully fighting cancer, Yuvraj, made a brief return to the Indian team when he played Twenty20 matches, but he has been a pale shadow of himself on his comeback trail. He last played for India in a ODI in December 2013.

"Definitely, a comeback to the Indian team is a goal. It's always disappointing when you don't make it to the side. However, that said, the last two years have been patchy, up and down. Hopefully, things will change, and I will be picked again, otherwise life will be very depressing. I can only try and do my best," the left-handed batsman told Wisden India.

When asked if the thought of not being picked for India again ever crossed his mind, he said, "Of course, there is a possibility that I may never play for India again. I have considered that. However, there is also the possibility that I might play for India again, and as long as I believe that I can come back and I have it in me, I'm going to keep pushing myself."

Yuvraj said that he along with other sidelined and struggling players like Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir often talk about the good days.

"We always talk about the time we spent playing for India. We all know that those were the most amazing years of our lives. However, life still goes on, even when you're not in the team. You just have to be positive and keep working hard."

Yuvraj did not do much to stake claim in the national team, but he has still not given up.

"I can't really speak about selection. What is the best opportunity that I have? Duleep Trophy, the Ranji and whatever other games I can get. As I said, if I can make it to the squad, it will be a great story. It will be awesome to come back and play for India in a World Cup again. If it doesn't happen, life goes on, and it will be hard to accept, but Ill have to accept it," he concluded.

exploding fireball from a nova star first ever data of an capture by astronomers

A team of astronomers have captured the first images of a thermonuclear fireball from a nova star, allowing them to track the explosion as it expanded.

The nova was detected last year in the constellation Delphinus by the Chara Array infrared telescope in the US.

Researchers from 17 institutions around the world, including the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, analysed the resulting data.

It revealed with “unprecedented clarity” how the fireball evolves as the gas fuelling it expands and cools, Professor Peter Tuthill, a co-author on the study, said.

“We haven’t had the ability to witness such exquisite magnification or high resolution of images until very recently, when we started building these powerful Array telescopes,” Tuthill, from the University of Sydney’s Institute for Astronomy, said.

“These explosions are quite unusual events caused by a white dwarf star, which is a burned-out remnant of a star made of very dense material – a teaspoon full of this stuff weighs tonnes.

“The white dwarf star is like a mosquito that buzzes around the companion star, slowly sucking hydrogen from its companion through a little gravitational straw.”

This created an “ocean” of hydrogen on its surface a few hundred metres thick, Tuthill said, with the pressure at bottom of the ocean eventually reaching critical mass and triggering a thermonuclear explosion called a nova.

“You get a fireball, like a massive hydrogen bomb that propagates outwards,” he said.

Despite the massive detonation, the white dwarf escapes relatively unscathed and continues to circle around its host accumulating more matter so the cycle can repeat again.

Measuring the expansion allowed researchers to establish the nova was about 14,800 light years away from the sun, meaning that the explosion witnessed in August 2013 actually took place nearly 15,000 years ago.

When last measured 43 days after the detonation, the nova had expanded nearly 20-fold, at a velocity of more than 600km per second, the research led by astronomer Gail Schaefer from Georgia State University, found.

The findings were published in the prestigious international journal Nature on Monday.

Kawasaki ER-6n India Launched priced at 4.78 lakh INR

Kawasaki has launched its new bike ER-6n, which share its engine with the Ninja 650. This new bike will share the mid sports bike segment alongside its Ninja 650 sibling. It is powered by a 649 cc, parallel dual-cylinder, four-stroke liquid cooled, fuel injected engine, which is capable of generating 72 PS of power. With a twisting force of approximately 63.7 Nm, this bike has been tagged at 4.78 lakhs INR (ex-showroom Delhi). It will compete against the Hyosung GT650N.

Kawasaki Motors launched the ER-6n along with the Z250 on October 16, 2014. The product portfolio of Kawasaki has been dominated by 800 cc and above bikes. The existing line-up comprises Z1000, Z800, Ninja ZX-10R, Ninja 300 and Ninja ZX14R. However, for making the brand more user-receptive, it is trying to manufacture smaller bikes, which has a bigger market in India. It is also an effort of the Kawasaki Motors India wing to introduce more such bikes in the current fiscal.

Kawasaki has kept the pace up for superbikes rising in tandem with the rapid growth of this segment in the nation. The 500 cc-800 cc bikes offer a better manoeuvring prowess as compared to the higher models. As the market possibilities of India look brighter, it is expected that global brands like Kawasaki will have their focus fixed here.

Kawasaki ER-6n is being assembled in the Bajaj plant located at Pimpri in Pune. It is expected that the total sales of this bike will go up to 100 units in this year.

Xolo One With Android 442 KitKat Launched priced 6599

Xolo has launched a new budget Android smartphone called the One, pricing it at Rs. 6,599. One of the most notable features of the Xolo One smartphone is that the company claims it is upgradable to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The company has listed the Xolo One on its website, however, there is no official word yet about the availability of the new Xolo smartphone. We expect that the company will announce the handset in the coming days.

The Xolo One runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box, and comes with dual-SIM support. It features a 4.5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) IPS display and offers a pixel density of 218ppi. The smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek (MT6582M) processor alongside Mali 400 MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The smartphone includes 8GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

The smartphone sports a 5-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with LED flash, while also houses a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The Xolo One's rear camera features scene detection, Panaroma, geo tagging, best shot, smile shot, and HDR options. Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, and 3G.

It packs a 1700mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 8 hours of talk time and up to 377 hours of standby time on 3G network. The Xolo One also includes sensors such as accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor.

The company recently launched the Opus HD smartphone, priced at Rs. 9,499.

The Xolo Opus HD is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device that runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box. It comes with a 5-inch (720x1280 pixels) HD IPS display; 1.2GHz quad-core Broadcom (BCM23550) processor; 1GB of RAM; 8GB of inbuilt storage; expandable storage via microSD card (up to 32GB); 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; 2-megapixel front-facing camera; 3G; GPRS/ EDGE; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; Micro-USB, and Bluetooth options. The smartphone packs a 2500mAh battery.

Loss of Antarctica Ice Results in Shift of Gravity

Antarctica has lost so much ice that it has caused a shift in Earth's gravity, according to a new study.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s GOCE satellite has shown that the ice lost from West Antarctica over the last few years has left its signature.

"The loss of ice from west Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 caused a dip in the gravity field over the region," ESA said in a statement.

More than doubling its planned life in orbit, GOCE spent four years measuring Earth's gravity in unprecedented detail.

Scientists are now armed with the most accurate gravity model ever produced.

This is leading to a much better understanding of many facets of our planet - from the boundary between Earth's crust and upper mantle to the density of the upper atmosphere.

The strength of gravity at Earth's surface varies subtly from place to place owing to factors such as the planet's rotation and the position of mountains and ocean trenches.

Changes in the mass of large ice sheets can also cause small local variations in gravity, ESA said.

High-resolution measurements from GOCE over Antarctica between November 2009 and June 2012 were analysed by scientists from the German Geodetic Research Institute, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, the Jet Propulsion Lab in US and the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

They found that the decrease in the mass of ice during this period was mirrored in GOCE's measurements, even though the mission was not designed to detect changes over time.

GOCE data could be used to help validate satellite altimetry measurements for an even clearer understanding of ice-sheet and sea-level change, ESA said.

ESA's CryoSat satellite, which carries a radar altimeter, has recently shown that since 2009 the rate at which ice is been lost from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet every year has increased by a factor of three.

Between 2011 and 2014, Antarctica as a whole has been shrinking in volume by 125 cubic kilometres a year, the statement said.