The 5 Smallest Countries in the World.

1. Vatican City

Size: 0.17 sq. mi. (0.44 km²)
Population: 783 (2005 census)
Location: Rome, Italy
The size of a golf course, the Vatican City [wiki | official website] is the smallest country in the world. It’s basically a walled enclave inside of Rome, Italy. It’s so small that the entire country does not have a single street address.
The Vatican City may be small, but it is very powerful. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See, or the seat of the Catholic Church (basically its central government), which has over 1 billion people (about 1 in 6 people on the planet) as constituents.
The Vatican City was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty (which was signed by one of history’s most repressive dictators, Benito Mussolini) and is ruled by the Pope, basically a non-hereditary, elected monarch who rules with absolute authority (he’s the legislative, executive and judiciary all rolled into one) – indeed, the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.
Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican (as well as their spouses and children) and is revoked when they stop working there.
The Vatican City is guarded by the smallest and oldest regular army in the world, the Swiss Guard [wiki]. It was originally made up of Swiss mercenaries in 1506, now the army (also personal bodyguards of the Pope) number 100, all of which are Catholic unmarried male Swiss citizens. The Swiss Guard’s Renaissance-style uniform was commonly attributed as to have been designed by Michelangelo – this was actually incorrect: the large "skirt" pants were a common style during the Renaissance. Only their uniforms seem antiquated: most of the Swiss Guards carry pistols and submachine-guns.
The official languages of the Vatican City are Latin and Italian. In fact, its ATMs are the only ones in the world that offer services in Latin! And here you thought that Latin is a dead language…
For a country that has no street address, the Vatican City has a very efficient post office: an international mail dropped in the Vatican will get there faster than one dropped in Italy just a few hundred yard away – in fact, there is more mail sent annually per inhabitant from this country (7,200 mails per person) than anywhere else in the world.
The Vatican City has a country code top level domain of .va – currently there are only9 publicly known .va domains [wiki]. It also has a radio broadcasting service, called Vatican Radio [wiki], which was set up by Guglielmo Marconi (the Father of Radio) himself!
The country’s economy is unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide (called Peter’s Pence – hey, even the Pope accepts credit cards!), the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.
Lastly, as an ecclesiastical paradise, the Vatican City has no taxes.

2. Monaco

Size: 0.8 sq. mi. (1.96 km²)
Population: 35,657 (2006 estimate)
Location: French Riviera on the Mediterranean
Monaco [wiki | official website] is the second smallest country on Earth (it’s roughly the size of New York’s Central Park), yet it’s the most densely populated (23,660 people per km²). Actually, Monaco used to be much smaller than it is now – about 100 acres were reclaimed from the sea and added to its land size. At the narrowest, Monaco is only 382 yards wide!
The Principality of Monaco, its formal name, means that the territory is ruled by a prince. For the last seven centuries, Monaco was ruled by princes of the Grimaldi family from Genoa. (The whole thing started one night in 1297 when François Grimaldi disguised himself as a monk and led a small army to conquer the fortress guarding the Rock of Monaco. The coat of arms of the Grimaldi bears the image of monks with swords!) Now, the Prince shares legislative authority with a National Council.
In 1861, Monaco relinquished half of its territory to France in exchange for cash and independence. When the reigning prince realized that most of Monaco’s natural resources were on the land that got bartered away, he decided to bet the whole economy on … what else, gambling (see, casinos aren’t only for American Indians, it’s a time-tested, universal solution!)
And so began Monte Carlo [wiki], a region of Monaco well known for its glamorous casinos (a setting for Ian Fleming’s first James Bond Novel Casino Royale [wiki]) and its Formula One Grand Prix.
In 1918, Monaco entered a treaty with France for military protection – the treaty, however, also stipulated that Monaco would lose its independence (and become French) should the reigning Grimaldi prince died without leaving a male heir! When Prince Rainier III took over, he was a bachelor and most Monegasques (that means people of Monaco) were gloomy about the country’s future. However, he ended up marrying Hollywood actress Grace Kelly[wiki] – the marriage not only produced a male heir, it also helped burnish Monaco’s image as a glamorous place to be for the wealthy. (Monaco can rest easy now, a new treaty with France stated that the Principality will remain independent even without a male heir).
For a long time, Monaco had no income taxes and was a tax haven for wealthy foreigners and international corporations. This caused a unique thing about Monaco’s population: most of its residents are not native – in fact, only about 1 in 5 people are native Monegasques. After a long dispute with France, Monaco started to impose income taxes on all of its residents who are not born there. Its natural citizens are forbidden from entering casinos, but to make up for it, they do not have to pay any income taxes.

3. Nauru

Size: 8 sq. mi (21 km²)
Population: 13,005 (2005 estimate)
Location: Western Pacific Ocean
Nauru [wiki] is the world’s smallest island nation, the smallest independent republic, and the only republic in the world without an official capital.
Nauru only has one significant source of income: phosphates from thousands of years’ worth of guano or bird droppings. This proved to be both a boon and a bane for Nauruans – for a long time, its residents enjoyed a relatively high level of income as the country exported its phosphate like there’s no tomorrow.
The government employed 95% of Nauruans, and lavished free medical care and schooling for its citizens. Most didn’t take advantage of this offer: only one-third of children went on to secondary school. The adults didn’t really work, either – office hours were flexible and the most popular pastime was drinking beer and driving the 20-minute circuit around the island. For a while, Nauru was a paradise – for a brief moment in 1970s, Nauruans were even amongst the richest people on the planet.
Nothing lasts forever and sure enough, Nauru’s phosphate reserves soon dried up and left 90% of the island as a barren, jagged mining wasteland. Wasteful investments (like buying hotels only to leave them to rot) and gross incompetence by the government (former presidents used to commandeer Air Nauru’s planes for holidays, leaving paying customers stranded on the tarmac!) didn’t help either.
As if that’s not bad enough, Nauru is also beset by obesity problem. Decades of leisurely lifestyle and high consumption of alcohol and fatty foods have left as many as 9 out of 10 people overweight! Nauru also has the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes – over 40% of its population is affected.
So now, Nauruans are poverty-stricken and fat – but they are trying to turn things around. With no natural resource left, in the 1990s, Nauru decided to become a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee. This attracted the wrong kind of money (but a lot of it): the Russian mafia funneled over $70 billion to the tiny island nation. Things got so bad that most big banks refused to handle transactions involving Nauru because of money laundering problems.
This led Nauru to another extraordinary money-making scheme: it became a detention camp for people applying for asylum to Australia!

4. Tuvalu

Size: 9 sq. mi. (26 km²)
Population: 10,441 (2005 estimate)
Location: South Pacific
Tuvalu [wiki] is basically a chain of low-lying coral islands, with its highest elevation being 16 feet or 5 meters above seal level. With total land area of just 9 square miles, Tuvalu is not only a teeny tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, it may not even exist in the next 50 years if sea level continue to rise (a controversial claim, nonetheless there were evacuation plans to New Zealand and other Pacific Islands). Even if the sea level does not rise, other problems such as population growth and coastal erosion still make Tuvalu a very vulnerable country.
During World War II, thousands of American troops were stationed on the islands of Tuvalu and the island became an Allied base. Airfields were quickly constructed and after the war, abandoned. In fact, today rusting wrecks can be found on the islands, a constant reminder of its role in the War.
Today, Tuvalu also derives income from renting out its Internet country code top-leveldomain .tv, as it is the abbreviation of the word ‘television’. This scheme got off to a rocky start (the original company who tried to do it failed to raise the necessary funds), but finally proved to be the largest source of income for the country.

5. San Marino

Size: 24 sq. mi. (61 km²)
Population: 28,117 (2005 estimate)
Location: North-central Italy near the Adriatic coast.
With the formal name of The Most Serene Republic of San Marino [wiki], it’s not surprising that San Marino has got lots of charms. Founded in AD 301 by a Christian stonecutter named (what else) Marino (or Marinus, depending on who you ask), who along with a small group of Christians, was seeking escape from religious persecution, San Marino is the world’s oldest republic.
Its history belies its simple motto: "Liberty." Indeed, San Marino was such a good neighbor that it was hardly ever conquered by larger enemies (it was briefly conquered in the 1500s and the 1700s, for like a month each). Even when Napoleon gobbled most of Europe, he left San Marino alone, saying it was a model republic!
San Marino takes its government seriously: for such a tiny country, San Marino has a very complex government structure, based on a constitution written in 1600. The country is ruled by an elected Council of 60, who appoints 2 captain regents (from opposing political parties, no less) to administer governmental affairs for six-month term. Talk about preserving liberties through division of authority!
Before World War II, San Marino was amongst the poorest countries in Europe. Today, with more than 3 million tourists visiting every year (half of San Marino’s income is derived from tourism), the people of San Marino are amongst the world’s richest people.

---

Processor Chip that thinks like a Human Brain.

Its not very often with Science that we create a technology equivalent of what humans are capable of doing. Brain has especially been the most mysterious and hardest to mimic part of the humans.

Although with AI (Artificial Intelligence), computers can learn, they are not smart enough to make independent decisions, they don’t think beyond what they are told and even this artificial thinking can be slow at times when its a cpu intensive operation. For instance, Face recognition is something human brain can do much faster than a household computer, but, when compared to mathematical operations, computers beat humans collectively. Its a challenge when we try training a computer to behave like a human brain.

Researchers at IBM have made a key step towards Cognitive computing, a methodology that let computer think like humans. IBM has built two chips that process data more like how humans. Its a new CPU architecture, that surpasses the current Intels and AMD (von Neumann architecture).

These chips, like human brain, are extremely efficient, to prove the point, these chips run at 10Hz and still beat most modern computers. 10Hz is roughly the same as the frequency of human brain.

The chips represent a significant milestone in a six-year-long project that has involved 100 researchers and some $41 million in funding from the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. IBM has also committed an undisclosed amount of money.

No Neurons or Bio-parts inside, yet
These are no biological chips but silicon chips inspired by human brain. They work as a human brain would. As IBM calls it, they are “neurobiology to make up what is referred to as a ‘neurosynaptic core’ with integrated memory (replicated synapses), computation (replicated neurons), and communication (replicated axons)”.

IBM demoed steering a simulated car through a maze, playing Pong using these chips. The chips’ ability to adapt to types of information that it wasn’t specifically programmed to expect is a key feature.

Dharmendra Modha, project leader for IBM Research, said the new chips have parts that behave like digital “neurons” and “synapses” that make them different than other chips. Each “core,” or processing engine, has computing, communication and memory functions.

“You have to throw out virtually everything we know about how these chips are designed. The key, key, key difference really is the memory and the processor are very closely brought together. There’s a massive, massive amount of parallelism.”

The project is part of the same research that led to IBM‘s announcement in 2009 that it had simulated a cat’s cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer. Using progressively bigger supercomputers, IBM had previously simulated 40 percent of a mouse’s brain in 2006, a rat’s full brain in 2007, and 1 percent of a human’s cerebral cortex in 2009. A computer with the power of the human brain is not yet near.

Worlds Smallest Petrol Engine fits your watch, runs for years.

If you thought batteries are greener Technology for tomorrow, let us raise the curtain over a Internal combustion engine that runs on Petrol and is more efficient that any other electrical equivalent.

Scientists have built the world’s  smallest petrol engine that is tiny enough to power a Watch.

The mini-combustion engine can run for two years on a single dose of a light fuel.

To give you an estimate of the power, it produces 700 times more energy than a conventional battery despite having a size less than a centimetre long . If the technology continues to innovate with the same pace, it could be used to power laptops and mobile phones for months.

Energy evangelists believe that this new mini-motor can make batteries look conventional and even phase them out in half decade.

The engine has been produced by engineers at the University of Birmingham.

“We are looking at an industrial revolution happening in peoples’ pockets. The breakthrough is an enormous step forward. Devices which need re- charging or new batteries are a problem but in six years will be a thing of the past.”

These tiny engines would find applications in other fields such as medical, military gadgets, and future robots.

Today, charging an ordinary battery to deliver one unit of energy involves putting 2,000 units into it. This is due to the fact that energy is wated at several steps before it is effectively stored. On the contrary this engine produces energy locally,  and hence  is far more efficient.

Micro engines have been produced several times in the past, but all of them failed at dissipating heat to surroundings, and burned themselves over a small period of operation. The Birmingham team overcame this by using heat-resistant materials such as ceramic and silicon carbide. They brought together all the engineering disciplines, both materials, chemical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering.

LG Touchscreen 3G Watch-Phone Calling Soon

LG Electronics recently announced that they will debut a 3G wristwatch phone at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which will be a fully-functional handset wristset? complete with touchscreen and video calling capabilities.

The LG-GD910 will support 3G and HSDPA for high-speed internet access and incorporate an MP3 player, putting two of the most common take-everywhere gadgets – the phone and personal media player – right on your wrist. Video calls can be made via a small camera located above the top right corner of the display.

It would seem LG have made a real effort to make this device usable, from the touchscreen that obviates the need for tiny buttons to the built-in text-to-speech that provides an intuitive alternative to typing.

Despite everything they have packed into this watch-phone, the thickness has been kept to a minimum – coming in at only 0.56-inches (13.9mm). It will feature a 1.43-inch (3.63cm) display, Bluetooth connectivity and is expected to launch in Europe later next year.

There’s no word on pricing, but you can count on it being many times more than a relatively basic view-screen spy watch.

Mobile Phones don't Cause Cancer

Mobile phones do not increase the risk of cancer, according to a large study involving more than 350,000 people by Danish researchers published Friday.

The results, released on the British Medical Journal's website, chime with a series of other studies that have reached similar conclusions.

Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen looked at people aged at least 30 who subscribed to mobile phone contracts and compared their rates of brain tumors with non-subscribers between 1990 and 2007.

Outside experts said the large scale of the trial was impressive.

"This paper supports most other reports which do not find any detrimental effects of phone use under normal exposures," said Malcolm Sperrin, director of Medical Physics at Britain's Royal Berkshire Hospital and Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

At the end of May, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer decided cellphone use should be classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans," putting then in the same category as lead, chloroform and coffee.

But just over a month later the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection's committee on epidemiology said the scientific evidence increasingly pointed away from a link between mobile phone use and brain tumors.

The number of mobile phones has risen hugely since the early 1980s, with nearly 5 billion handsets in use today, prompting lengthy debate about their potential link to the main types of brain tumor, glioma and meningioma.

Sharp to bring world’s thinnest 12.1 MP CMOS camera

The race to pack as many megapixels into the most pocket-friendly products has been heating up for awhile. While camera manufacturers have their work cut out for them, the smartphone industry has also taken notice. Picture quality has become important to smartphone users, which makes sense given that the iPhone 4 is one of the most popular cameras on Flickr.

And now Sharp has fueled the fire with the announcement that it has developed the world’s thinnest 12.1-megapixel CMOS camera module. The RJ63YC100 measures in at 11x11x5.47 millimeters and packs image-stabilization, a backlit sensor, standard AF, and full 1080p HD video capture.

The best part is we don’t have to wait: this isn’t some product that Sharp is testing and is simply showing off. Mass production of 100,000 units a month will begin in January.

One of the largest hardware pieces in smartphones is the camera module, and if Sharp’s product is as capable as it sounds, we could easily be seeing thinner phones in the near future. According to some new rumors, Apple and Sharp could be striking a business relationship for manufacturing parts. While this speculation was specific to the fabled iTV, it could spill over into iPhone camera parts.

LG to unveil 84-Inch 3D TV at CES 2012

LG Electronics appears poised to make a major push at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company has been offering a slew of announcements this week, with the latest being an 84-inch 3D Smart TV with ultra definition display technology.

Havis Kwon, president and CEO of the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Co., said LG is pushing the limits of home entertainment innovation with this 3D UD TV, on display at CES in Las Vegas Jan. 10-13.

"We are bringing together all our Smart TV and 3D knowledge in the 3D UD TV in order to demonstrate to the CES audience that LG is committed to being the world's leading brand for immersive home entertainment in 2012 and beyond," Kwon said.

High Resolution Advances:
LG's 3D UD TV, at 3740x2160, offers 8 million pixels. That's four times the resolution clarity of existing full HD TV panels. The new model offers a slim, narrow bezel design, 3D depth control to let viewers customize their viewing experience by controlling the 3D effect, and 3D Sound Zooming to offer 3D sound a la home theater systems.

With the new model, consumers access LG's Smart TV ecosystem, which offers more than 1,200 apps and gives users access to a growing range of premium content services. At the 3D Zone, for example, viewers can select from a wealth of 3D movies.

LG said the embedded 2D to 3D conversion engine expands the availability of 3D content. Users can browse and navigate the Smart TV ecosystem using LG's new, ergonomically designed Magic Remote, which recognizes four types of command input: Voice Recognition, Wheel, Magic Gesture and Point.

Cinema TV and 3D Glasses:
In other innovations, LG plans to introduce the LW6500, a Cinema 3D TV, at CES. The new model doesn't require shutter glasses, so images displayed on the set are free from flicker. Without the flicker, 3D viewing is more comfortable and less likely to cause a viewer's eyes to get tired.

For models that need 3G glasses, LG is rolling out a new collection, including a pair designed by eyewear designer Alain Mikli. LG said the new collection is lighter and more comfortable to wear and offers upgraded features like curved lenses and a clean frame structure.

"Compared to active shutter glasses, LG's 3D glasses are far more comfortable to wear and much more affordable, making it possible for large groups and entire families to watch 3D programs and movies together," Kwon said. "LG is addressing two of the biggest barriers to 3D acceptance head-on and we're confident consumers will react favorably to our strategy in the coming year."