Nexus - 1604 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

GLOBAL NEWS INDUS VALLEY CODE SOON TO BE CRACKED? Ai eseareld mystery has been revived, with scientists claiming that the puzzling symbols found on Indus Valley seals are indeed the written script of a language from an ancient civilisation. Very little is known about the Indus Valley civilisation, unlike its river valley contemporaries in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China, largely because its "script" is yet to be deciphered, even though some of its ruins were discovered as far back as the mid-1800s. There appears to be little doubt that a reasonably advanced civilisation thrived in the Indus Valley but mysteriously vanished. For the past decade, scholars and scientists worldwide have argued whether engravings found on hundreds of Indus Valley objects, such as seals and tablets, are a mysterious script of a language— like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs— or merely non-lingual signs or pictograms. On 23 April, the US-based journal Science published a paper by a team of Indian and Indian—American scientists and researchers which claims that patterns of symbols on (ICANN). This is a private, not-for- profit corporation based in California which operates under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce. The decisions made by ICANN affect the way the Internet works all around the world. On 4 May, European Union Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding suggested a new model for overseeing the Internet from October this year, when the Commerce Department agreement ween Aeet Indus Valley objects have the definitive linguistic pattern found in written languages. Such a pattern is different from non-linguistic signs. The excavations in the Indus Valley region, covering areas in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, show evidence of an advanced urban civilisation. The ruins of excavated Indus Valley cities such as Mohenjo- daro and Harappa reveal elaborate urban infrastructure such as well- planned streets, brick houses, sophisticated drainage and water- storage systems, trading, use of weights, jewellery, knowledge of metallurgy and tool-making. Archaeologists say that many more Indus Valley cities are yet to be excavated. (Source: Asia Times Online, 30 April 2009, http://tinyurl.com/ddzuju) runs out. The new US administration's position on global Internet governance is not yet clear. However, during the Bush administration, Washington was steadfastly opposed to handing ICANN over to the United Nations. (Source: Business Week, 6 May 2009, http://tinyurl.com/cmpbcd) TOP DOCTOR FAKED DATA ON PAINKILLER BENEFITS prominent Massachusetts anaesthesiologist fabricated 21 medical studies that claim to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx® and Celebrex®, according to the hospital where he worked. Baystate Medical Center, in Springfield, Massachusetts, said that its former chief of acute pain, US FORECLOSURES AND REPOSSESSIONS RISING It April, RealtyTrac released its US Foreclosure Market Report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2009, which shows that foreclosure filings— default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions—were reported on 803,489 properties in the first quarter, a nine per cent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 24 per cent from Q1 2008. Foreclosure filings were reported on 341,180 properties in March, a 17 per cent increase from the previous month and a 46 per cent increase from March 2008. The March and QI 2009 totals were the highest monthly and quarterly totals since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005; these were despite a decrease in bank repossessions (REOs), which were down 13 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2008 and three per cent from the February total. (Source: RealtyTrac, 16 April 2009, http://tinyurl.com/onrngm) JUNE — JULY 2009 NEXUS ¢ 7 www.nexusmagazine.com