Boosting your career with a computer degree

Computers are here to stay – and grow, evolve, spread out into every area of life. Having said that, anyone looking to broaden his or her career prospects will definitely have to consider the field of computer science before any other.

Computer science could mean anything from programming to development of hard-wired solutions for the IT industry. Unlike some other skills, an education in computing and its related fields can only be learned at professional institutions.

However, the Internet has made it convenient to obtain an online computer science degree, through academic programs that not only enroll you in reputed institutes and universities, but also provide the convenience of learning from home. More importantly, it offers the benefit of earning additional qualifications while still keeping your current job — you work at your own pace and at your own hours.

A little research on the Web will yield some great avenues to obtain your degree online from professors who will not only evaluate your work, but also offer expert advice on the advancement of your career. Some online institutes may even have a placement cell to assist you in procuring a job.

‘Billions’ of habitable planets in our galaxy

Billions of rocky planets with the right temperature to support life may be found in our galaxy alone, according to a research paper to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

A European team said that about 40 percent of red dwarf stars – the most common type in the Milky Way – have a so-called “super-Earth” (planets with a mass between one and 10 times the Earth ) planet orbiting in a habitable zone that would allow water to flow on the surface.

Since there are around 160 billion red dwarfs in the Milky Way, the number of worlds that are potentially warm enough and wet enough to support life is enormous.

Forty 40 percent was at the high end of what had been expected and the finding underscored the prevalence of small rocky planets, said Xavier Bonfils of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics in Grenoble, the leader of the team

Red dwarfs, which are faint and cool compared to the Sun, account for around 80 percent of the stars in the Milky Way.

After studying 102 of these stars in the southern skies using a European Southern Observatory telescope in Chile, Bonfils and colleagues found rocky planets were far more common than massive gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system.

Scrub tops redefined

For some reason, the very word ‘uniform’ immediately brings images of tradition and regiment… in other words, plain and boring. But, the fast-changing dressing and fashion scene have had their effect on ‘uniforms’ as well.

Anyone working in a hospital will understand immediately what I mean – the scrub tops no longer have to be classically plain and painfully flat. They have evolved with the times, and you can get a fantastic range of styles, colors and design options in scrub tops.

Matter of fact, a bright and cheerful looking scrub top will not only spice up your day at the hospital, but will also be a different and pleasant experience for the people you deal with, including your co-workers and inmates at the hospital.

Smoking set to kill 1 billion people

Smoking costs the world up to 2 percent of its gross domestic product each year and could kill about 1 billion people this century, according to the fourth edition of the Tobacco Atlas, which is published by the American Cancer Society.

The economic losses include direct and indirect costs such as healthcare spending for treating smoking-related illnesses and the value of lost productivity, said co-author Hana Ross.

The cost of tobacco, and especially smoking, may be difficult to calculate closely, since it invariably involves intangible costs like the suffering of family members or pain felt by patients.

“During the 20th century, tobacco killed 100 million people. The estimate is that in the 21st century, tobacco will kill 1 billion people,” lead author Michael Eriksen said at the launch of the book at a global health conference in Singapore.

China is the world’s largest consumer of cigarettes, with 38 percent of them in 2009, and saw costs due to smoking more than quadruple to $28.9 billion between 2000 and 2008, the authors said in the book.

Composting made simpler, faster, better

With increasing worldwide attention on the environment and recycling, it’s no wonder that many have looked at composting as a means to make the best use of mineral and vegetable wastes and get a greener garden in the bargain.

If you’re doing that from your home, the first thing you’ll need a machine to compost your stuff – in other words, one of those high-efficiency composting bins.

You can find a variety of compost bins to suit the way you operate. For instance, the kitchen compost bin works great indoors without odors while turning your used tea and coffee wastes as well as uneaten food into rich food for the plant life.

A garden compost bin is ideal for dumping the raked leaves and lawn clippings. You can also warm composters, as well other bins for your particular application.