Google ending Gmail? Google Starts Migrating Users To a All New Inbox

Google tests potential Gmail replacement, Inbox by Gmail

It seems that Google is planning  a quiet funeral for its veritable Gmail service. Since past weeks users have been receiving a notification by Google that its experimental ‘Inbox By Gmail’ service has now replaced their Gmail account.

The pop-up appears when Inbox users login and states “Thanks for trying Inbox! To make it easier we’ve updated Gmail to redirect you here”.  Even the old familiar inbox.google.com url has disappeared and now Inbox instead resides at gmail.com.

Inbox by Gmail, which Forbes reports offers more tech-savvy features like smart recognition of photos and documents, Google is now giving them the option to opt out. Some Gmail users are reportedly signing in and being redirected to inbox.google.com and given the option to stay.

Forbes also notes that Google has given the option of staying in the old format to users.  Any user who doesn’t want Inbox to replace Gmail has the option to “Turn it Off” which pushes both services back to their dedicated domains.

Inbox was introduced in October 2014 and seems to hold that Inbox is now ready for actual deployment among Gmail users. Upto now Inbox by Gmail was seen to run concurrently with Gmail but now it seems, it see Inbox as a replacement for Gmail rather than the separate service.

Interestingly, another website, 9to5 Google says that it has been performing this quiet migration for some time. And the results have been quite positive for Inbox by Gmail. So there you have it, sometime by end of 2016 we may have to say goodbye to Gmail.

RIP Gmail!

source: sabkura

Triathlete scales heights to help women in Nepal

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You just never know where life is going to take you.

If Albuquerque’s Christine Glidden had not struggled scaling Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro a few years ago, she would not be working so hard today on a project to benefit young women in Nepal.

Glidden’s project, Women to Be, delivers feminine hygiene products to girls in refugee camps and remote and poor areas of Nepal. Such things are taken for granted in more developed parts of the world. But when they are made available in Nepal, they can change, even save, the lives of the young women who live in this South Asian country in the Himalayas.

Glidden traveled to Nepal in 2014 to deliver feminine hygiene kits, containing underwear and sanitary pads, and she will do so again in April of next year. But her journey started in Tanzania.

In 2012, Glidden’s daughter, Jenna, a track star at Cibola High back in the early 2000s, asked her mom to accompany her on a climb of 19,340-foot Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Glidden was in her early 60s at the time, but she has been a triathlete since 1996 and is probably more fit than most people half her age. Besides, it so happens that her resolution that year was to do things she normally would not attempt.

“When my daughter came to me and said we should climb Kilimanjaro, I just said yes,” Glidden said. “I didn’t even think about it.”

Glidden was wishing she had thought more about it on that day in July 2012 when her climbing party made its push to the summit.

“You start at midnight and climb with headlamps for six hours,” Glidden said. “It is so steep that the Sandias, where I was training, seem flat to me now.”

Glidden made it to the top, but the climb took its toll on her.

“Kilimanjaro was way too hard for me,” she said. “I wanted to do something easier. I decided to go to Nepal and do something in the Himalayas.”

The Himalayas? That’s easier?

“Well, I wasn’t going to try Everest,” Glidden said.

As she was preparing for her expedition to Nepal, Glidden visited with Duka, a woman from Nepal she had met through a mutual friend.

Duka (Glidden prefers not to divulge her friend’s last name) told Glidden about tens of thousands of refugees, members of a Nepali minority, who had been forced out of Bhutan, a country on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, in 1991. Some of these people settled in refugee camps in the south of Nepal.

“Duka lived in a refugee camp for 17 years,” Glidden said. “There was no electricity, no running water. Six people lived to a bamboo shack.”

Duka told Glidden that the young women in these camps did not have access to basic hygiene items.

“Girls without these items can contract infection,” Glidden said. “They stay home to take care of themselves every month. They drop out of school, marry prematurely and begin to have children at an early age. They lead lives of indignity and dependence.”

Glidden said life can be very different for those who do have these items.

“They can go to school every day of the month,” she said. “They learn a skill, marry later, have two fewer children and boost their incomes by 20 to 25 percent. They also speak up against violence and become economic drivers of their villages. They live with dignity and can care for themselves and their families.”

Suddenly, Glidden’s trek to the Himalayas in 2014 became a mission.

“When Duka told me about this situation in this refugee camp, I couldn’t get it out of my mind,” said Glidden, now 64. “I thought, ‘I’m going over there anyway. Now I have something to do.’ ”

She found out about an organization, Days for Girls, that had designed a kit, intended to last up to three years, that contains underwear, sanitary pads, a washcloth and a zipper storage bag.

Glidden managed to get 380 of these kits made, some by Albuquerque volunteers, some in a sewing center in Nepal, in time to take them to a refugee camp during her 2014 expedition.

“In April, my plan is to deliver 1,000 kits to a remote region of Nepal called the Kingdom of Mustang, high in the Himalayas near Tibet,” she said. “It was devastated by the (April 2015) earthquake. The people are very, very poor. There is no store you can go to. I will have a social worker who will guide me and act as interpreter. I will probably have to use horses.”

Again, some of the kits will be made in Albuquerque by volunteers at Ann Silva’s Bernina Sewing Center and the Hipstitch Quilting Store. Three Albuquerque Rotary Clubs – Sandia, Metro and Sunrise – are helping, either with sewing or through donations.

Glidden is also trying to raise money to establish a sewing center in Nepal that will not only make the hygiene kits but also pay Nepali women a living wage to work in the center.

There will be a fundraiser from 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, 7601 Jefferson NE. Tickets cost $35 and may be purchased by looking for “Women to Be” on Eventbrite.com. For more information, go to www.Women2Be.org or to www.facebook.com/WomenToBe.

source: sabkura

Hidden portrait ‘found under Mona Lisa’, says French scientist

An image of a portrait underneath the Mona Lisa has been found beneath the existing painting using reflective light technology, according to a French scientist.

Pascal Cotte said he has spent more than 10 years using the technology to analyse the painting.
He claims the earlier portrait lies hidden underneath the surface of Leonardo’s most celebrated artwork.
A reconstruction shows another image of a sitter looking off to the side.
The Louvre Museum has declined to comment on his claims because it “was not part of the scientific team”.
Instead of the famous, direct gaze of the painting which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the image of the sitter also shows no trace of her enigmatic smile, which has intrigued art lovers for more than 500 years.
But Mr Cotte’s claims are controversial and have divided opinion among Leonardo experts.Will Gompertz, Arts Editor

I’m sceptical. It’s perfectly common for an artist to overpaint an image as it is for a client who’s commissioned that artist to ask for changes. So it’s not surprising that there are those underpaintings on the Mona Lisa.
The data that the technology generates is open to interpretation, which needs to be analysed and corroborated by the academic and curatorial community, and not just an individual. I think the Louvre’s decision not to make a comment is telling.
This is the world’s most famous painting which, like a celebrity, always makes for a good story. But in this case I think caution is required.
The scientist, who is the co-founder of Lumiere Technology in Paris, was given access to the painting in 2004 by the Louvre.
He has pioneered a technique called Layer Amplification Method (LAM), which he used to analyse the Mona Lisa.

It works by “projecting a series of intense lights” on to the painting, Mr Cotte said. A camera then takes measurements of the lights’ reflections and from those measurements, Mr Cotte said he is able to reconstruct what has happened between the layers of the paint.
The Mona Lisa has been the subject of several scientific examinations over more than half a century. More recent techniques include infrared inspections and multi-spectral scanning.
But Mr Cotte has claimed his technique is able to penetrate more deeply into the painting.
He said: “We can now analyse exactly what is happening inside the layers of the paint and we can peel like an onion all the layers of the painting. We can reconstruct all the chronology of the creation of the painting.”

‘Shatter many myths’

Leonardo is believed to have worked on the painting between 1503 and 1517 while working in Florence and later in France.
There has long been debate about the Mona Lisa’s identity. But for centuries, it has been widely believed that she is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant.
But Mr Cotte has claimed his discoveries challenge that theory. He believes the image he has reconstructed underneath the surface of the painting is Leonardo’s original Lisa, and that the portrait named Mona Lisa for more than 500 years is, in fact, a different woman.
He said: “The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo’s masterpiece forever.
“When I finished the reconstruction of Lisa Gherardini, I was in front of the portrait and she is totally different to Mona Lisa today. This is not the same woman.”
He also claims to have found two more images under the surface of the painting – a shadowy outline of a portrait with a larger head and nose, bigger hands but smaller lips. And he says he has found another Madonna-style image with Leonardo’s etchings of a pearl headdress.

‘Mona Lisa is Lisa’

But Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, is not convinced.
Professor Kemp said: “They [Cotte’s images] are ingenious in showing what Leonardo may have been thinking about. But the idea that there is that picture as it were hiding underneath the surface is untenable.
“I do not think there are these discrete stages which represent different portraits. I see it as more or less a continuous process of evolution. I am absolutely convinced that the Mona Lisa is Lisa. ”
Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon has made a new BBC documentary called The Secrets of the Mona Lisa, studying historical documents linked to the painting alongside Mr Cotte’s scientific findings.
Mr Graham-Dixon said: “I have no doubt that this is definitely one of the stories of the century.
“There will probably be some reluctance on the part of the authorities at the Louvre in changing the title of the painting because that’s what we’re talking about – it’s goodbye Mona Lisa, she is somebody else.”
Mr Cotte announced the findings of his latest research at a press conference in Shanghai on Tuesday.
They will be included in an exhibition, Da Vinci – The Genius, which features displays of his research on the Mona Lisa over the last 11 years.
The show has travelled around the world and opens in Shanghai this week.
The Secrets of the Mona Lisa is on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on 9 December.

Source: sabkura

Nepal in Nat Geo’s Cool List amid tourism gloom

Dec 9, 2015- A drop in hotel bookings, empty airplane seats and fewer trekkers are what Nepal has experienced since the April 25 earthquake and subsequent trade embargo by India that has led to massive losses in the tourism industry this year.

But there is some good news too. Nepal has been included in National Geographic Traveller magazine’s Cool List for 2016. The UK-based popular travel publication has placed Nepal in the sixth spot among 16 cool locations to visit next year.

“Tourist numbers to Nepal plummeted by 85 percent after the devastating earthquakes, but the country is once more open for business and safe to visit, with a new government-backed website providing official updates on affected areas,” said National Geographic Traveller magazine.

“This is a nation that has long relied heavily on tourism, with many visitors lured by the chance to combine volunteerism with an adventure holiday in a stunning landscape.”

Ashok Pokhrel, president of the Nepal Association of Tour Operators, said that National Geographic Traveller magazine was highly popular among adventure travellers, and that the 16 must-see destinations for next year would help motivate them to travel to Nepal.

“Besides, the government should also promote Nepal more aggressively, and a large budget should be set aside for marketing for next year once the political tensions are settled,” he said. The government should lead the industry at this time as the private sector that is on the verge of bankruptcy is not in a position to promote Nepal, he added.

Tourist arrivals plunged 46 percent in the first 10 months as a series of disasters pounded Nepal’s tourism sector, a government report said.

According to a report prepared by the Tourism Ministry, Nepal lost 352,330 arrivals during the review period, hitting foreign exchange earnings and jobs in the industry. The country received 300,325 foreign visitors by air until October, down from 652,655 in the same period last year.

Bad times started for Nepal tourism with the accident of a Turkish Airlines jet at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport in March that led hundreds of potential visitors to cancel their trips.

The next month, the country was struck by a killer quake which destroyed tourism infrastructure, heritage sites and trekking trails. The dreadful event on April 25 set off a mass departure of tourists and a flurry of booking cancellations.

Just as tourism was beginning to recover from the effects of the deadly tremor, a political problems following the promulgation of a much-delayed constitution resulted in a fuel crisis which dealt another blow to the tottering industry. The current scenario is even worse. The trade embargo and resultant fuel shortage has forced hotels and restaurants to shut down, cut down job numbers and reduced the tourist length of stay to all-time lows.  The ministry said that tourists were currently staying for less than six days in Nepal. Last year, the average length of stay was 12.44 days. The average occupancy of hotels plunged below 20 percent in October following the Tarai unrest and fuel crisis. A number of hotels have closed down and others have laid off their workers.

source: sabkura

Nepal face Kiwis in opener

Nepal will open their ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup campaign with a match against New Zealand at Fatullah, Bangladesh on January 28.

The tournament will begin on January 27 with 16 teams 10 Test playing nations and six Associate and Affiliate Member sides Nepal, Afghanistan, Canada, Fiji, Namibia, and Scotland vying for the youth World Cup title in Bangladesh.

The six qualifiers joined the 10 Test playing nations in the World Cup through regional and global qualifying tournament.

The 16 teams have been divided into four groups. Nepal are in Group D along with India, New Zealand and Australia. South Africa, Bangladesh, Scotland and Namibia are in Group A, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Canada are in Group B. England, the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Fiji are in Group C.

Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Dhaka and Sylhet will host 48 matches of the 19-day tournament, which will begin with the match between defending champions South Africa and hosts Bangladesh in Chittagong.

After the New Zealand match, Nepal will face Australia on January 30, before playing against India in Mirpur on February 1. Top two teams from all the four teams will advance to the Super League from February 5, while the bottom eight teams will fight for Plate Championship from February 4.

The Plate Championship final will be played on February 12, whereas the Super League final will be held on February 14. Before the tournament, all the participating teams will play two practice matches.

Nepal will face Pakistan on January 23 and take on Sri Lanka two days later. Nepal qualified for the U-19 World Cup for the seventh time when they won the global qualifiers held in Malaysia in October.

Nepal, who had qualified for five consecutive editions from 2000-2008 and in 2012, failed to make it to the Finals in 2010 and 2014.

Nepal had entered the Super League round in 2000 edition in New Zealand and won the Plate Championship beating the Black Caps in 2006 in Sri Lanka.

source: sabkura

Pokhara

     Pokhara is a wonderful place of excellence characteristic. Arranged at an altitude of 827m sea level and 200 kilometers west ofKathmandu (capital of Nepal) valley, the city is known as a focal point of the experience. This charming town is charming and offers all perspectives lakes staggered covering of Himalayan peaks. The tranquility of the lakes and the brilliance of Himalayasrising behind them make an atmosphere of peace and charm. So today the city does not just become the initial stage for trekking destinations and most popular rafting also a place to relax and appreciate the excellence of nature.

     Pokhara is a part of a lively exchange course once betweenIndia amplify and Tibet. Just 'til today, trains donkeys can see they were outside on the edges of the city, the transport of goods to exchange remote areas of the Himalayas. This is the place where Magars Gurung and dedicated farmers and valorous warriors who have earned general distinction as Gurkha soldiers. The Bramans, Chetries, Newars, ethnic Thakalis are another critical meeting here, are known for their company.

Ambient

     The atmosphere of Pokhara is slightly warmer than Kathmandu with daytime temperature drift around 17 degrees Celsius in winter and 32 degrees in summer. Storm season that lasts from mid-June to mid-September is very wet; in fact Pokhara records the highest precipitation in the nation. The best time to visit is in the middle of October and April.

     Remote clients exercises to Pokhara center around two locale known as Damside and Lakeside (or Pardi and Baidam, in Nepali, individually). These two territories, with lots of accommodation and restaurants, a few kilometers south-west of Pokhara primary Bazaar.

     Lake Fewa lake Begnas and Rupa Lake, Barahi shrine, World Peace Pagoda Seti Gandaki, Cascada del Diablo, Gupteswar Gupha (hole), Mahendra Gupha (cave), Chameri Gupha (Bat Cave), The Old Bazaar, Bindbyabasini Matepani Gumbha Temple ( Buddhist monastery) Bhadrakali Mandir, Regional Museum, International Mountain Museum, Gorkha Memorial Museum, Museum Annapurna, Himalaya Night view and entertainment around Pokhara.

Around Pokhara:

     Pokhara is the starting point and the closure of much of trekking courses well known in Nepal. Longer walks (one to three weeks in duration, for example, the Jomsom trek, Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Sanctuary start here. On the off chance that Kathmandu is the social center point of Nepal, Pokhara is the focal point of experience. a charming town settled in a peaceful valley, is the initial stage of a series of trekking destinations and major rafting in Nepal, the air on the shore of Lake Fewa is one of energized essentiality explorers person so fashionable swarm numerous bars and restaurants that trade visitors suggestions. houses and perspectives, both over the lake or mists.

Getting Pokhara

     Pokhara is situated about 200 km west of Kathmandu (capital of Nepal) .The excursion between these two popular urban communities is certainly part of the experience of Pokhara. Flying over the snowy Himalayas to the north and Mahabharat reach the green south is exciting; while the last adventure inadequate settlements established provincial land along the river Trisuli gives a perspective of life specific to the slopes of central Nepal. Some days days betweenKathmandu plane and Pokhara. About Pokhara is set around 827 meters from sea level, and is 124 miles (200 kilometers) west of Kathmandu and can be reached by plane in 35 minutes or 5 hours in transport. Pokhara is the next destination afterKathmandu for some business and pleasure trips in and around Pokhara. Pokhara is regularly called the enchanting Himalayan valley with a heart of activities and significant commitments.

     Surrounded by excellent snow caped mountains, with a radiant pool entirely clear water Himalayan word, which lasts until satisfying climate, and inviting Pokhralis will welcome you with a smile and leave you with the most outstanding minutes of all its life. So pick up your package, camera battery, and prepare for the experience of Pokhara.

     Spots to visit Fewa lake 1.5 kilometers long, the second largest lake in Nepal, offers a magnificent view of the mountains and its appearance on the lake. Numerous visits and trekking managers and accommodations are located on the shore of the lake. One can without much of a stretch to find a place to sit, relax and appreciate awesome dinner while getting a charge out of sight here. You will also appreciate rowing on the lake.

    Pokhara is a normal position incredible excellence. Lake ofFewa tranquility and the splendor of the top fish tail Machhapuchhre (6,993m) rising behind it makes an atmosphere of peace and charm. In less than Kathmandu climb, which has a much more tropical feel to it, a reality in all the charming qualities refreshing variety of flowers that thrive in its surroundings. Undoubtedly, the valley covering Pokhara is home to thick timberland, waterways spitting, emerald lakes, and obviously the world and known prospects Himalayas.

     Pokhara is a part of an ongoing exchange once dynamic increase betweenIndia and Tibet. Just 'until now, the trains of donkeys can be seen outdoors in the foothills were out of town, the freight to exchange remote Himalayan districts. This is the place which is characterized by numerous ethnic encounters, dedicated farmers and valorous warriors who have earned a global reputation as Gurkha soldiers. The Thakalis, another important ethnic meeting here, are known for their company.

Swayambhunath Stupa

Swayambhunath Buddhist shrine, arranged on the top of a slope, west of Kathmandu point is high among the most prominent, and blessed in a split second the unmistakable images of Nepal. The shrine is known informally as the "Monkey Sanctuary 'because of the vast tribe of monkeys meandering protect the sanctuary.

Modeling Swayambhunath is an old religious building on a slope in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. Otherwise it called the Monkey Temple as there are blessed monkeys living in parts of the northwest sanctuary. The Tibetan name for the site means' Eminent trees, Hanes mixed bags Numerous trees found on the hillside. Anyway, Shing.kun may be a corruption of the name close to the Nepal Bhasa, Singgu complex, meaning "self-crack. For pilgrimagesites Buddhist Newar whose extravagant history and myth of the root and, moreover, daily religious practice, Swayambhunath implies a focal position, which is probably the most sacred Buddhist. For Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, it second only to Boudhanath.

Bankok complex consists of a stupa, a mixture of sites and shrines, some dating back to the Licchavi period. A Tibetan religious community, the historic center and the library are further increases. The stupa has eyes and eyebrows painted Buddha. Among them, the most obvious (in Devanagari script) is painted in the style of a nose. There are also shops, restaurants and accommodation. The site has two input Focuses: a long staircase with 365 steps, driving bluntly critical stage of the sanctuary, which is at the highest point of the slope to the east; and street car around the southern slope caused the passage Southwest. The main view to reach the highest point of the stairway is the Vajra. Tsultrim Allione portrays the experience:

We were short of breath and sweating As We Bumbled the last soak steps and for all purposes, fell as much (personal shaking thunder) Vajra did I ever saw. Behind this Vajra that the unthinkable, round, white dome of the stupa, similar to a strong skirt, at the highest point of which were two monster eyes cunningly Buddha facing the quiet valley, which was just beginning to wake up.

Some Swayambhunath's iconography originates from the convention Newar Vajrayana Buddhism. On the otherhand, the resort is also in the essential place for Buddhists of many schools, and is worshiped by Hindus alike.

Real Attractions

The Stupa

Swayambhunath Stupa is a brilliant tower delegated lush pending funnel. It is the most outdated and confusing of all heavenly places of worship in the Kathmandu Valley. It has a great arch and a bright sparkling tower made are unmistakable from all sides of the valley. Authentic records found in a stone engraving Show that did give the stupa at what time did the Buddhist travel destination imperative in the V century AD that is before the event to Buddhism in the valley.

Surroundings The Stupa

Swyambhunarayan around Stupa consists of Chaityas, shrines, painted images of gods and several different religious items.

Harati Temple

The shrine is dedicated to the goddess of smallpox and various pandemics. Around Devi Shrine Harati it means intermixing the pantheon of Hinduism and Buddhism in Nepal.

Construction Modeling

Astounding take a look at the magnificence of engineering Swayambhunath Temple offers route to the feelings of respect and love. The stupa includes a vault at the base and a cubic structure with the eyes of Buddha looking at the four bearings. There pentagonal Toran present on each of the four sides with statues recorded on them. Torana behind or over there are thirteen levels. During each of the levels, there is a small space above which the Gajur is available.

Mythology

According to Swayambhu Puran, the entire Kathmandu Valley, which once loaded with a huge lake, which grew into another world Lotus. The valley became known as Swayambhu, meaning "Self-Created" or "Self-existent". The Bodhistava Manjushri had a dream of Swayambhu lotus flower in love and settled there.

With a final specific goal to make the site more available for human explorers, Manjushri cut a rift through the mountains spanning the valley. The water runs out of the lake, leaving the valley in which is now Kathmandu. The lotus became a slope and rotation bloom at Swayambhunath Stupa.

Symbology

The dome at the base speaks to everyone. By the time a man is free (spoke Eyes of benevolence and self-learning) the obligations of the world, the individual attains the status of a top contact. After that, the individual needs to cross thirteen stages talked about the levels before achieving nirvana (salvation).

Step by step instructions to Reach

There are two approaches to reach the highest point of the Monkey Sanctuary: the first and most recognized is reached with the car but the most delicious approach to reach the highest point of this amazing sanctuary is climbing the 365 stairs of the Sanctuary,