Wha is SIP Trunking ?

Unlike in traditional telephony, where bundles of physical wires were once delivered from the service provider to a business, a SIP trunk allows a company to replace these traditional fixed Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) lines with PSTN connectivity via a SIP trunking service.

A SIP Trunk is a logical connection between an IP PBX and a Service Provider’s application servers that allows voice over IP traffic to be exchanged between the two. When a call is placed from an internal phone to an external number, the PBX sends the necessary information to the SIP Trunk provider who establishes the call to the dialed number and acts as an intermediary for the call. All signaling and voice traffic between the PBX and the provider is exchanged using SIP and RTP protocol packets over the IP network.

If the number being called is a traditional PSTN telephone, the trunk provider routes the IP packets to a PSTN Gateway that is closest to the number being called, to minimize possible long distance charges. The provider can also terminate PSTN numbers, and route incoming calls for those numbers back to the IP PBX over the SIP can also Trunk. This allows businesses to offer local phone numbers in several geographical areas, but service them all from a single location.

If the number being called can be reached over a SIP Trunk, the call does not need to be routed over the PSTN, but can be carried on the IP network end to end. Providers can deliver these calls to their customers for very little cost, and many offer them at no charge. Some service providers have agreements and exchange calls for each others customers directly over their IP networks. Where no such agreements are in place, calls are routed over the PSTN, even though both endpoints may ultimately be reachable over a SIP Trunk.

The SIP Trunk can be provided by the Internet Service Provider, or by an independent Internet Telephony Service Provider. In fact, there can be several parties involved, each one providing a different part of the service needed to deliver the end-to-end communication: Internet access, SIP termination, PSTN gateway, etc.

Because a SIP Trunk is not a physical connection, there is no explicit limit on the number of calls that can be carried over a single trunk. Each call consumes a certain amount of network bandwidth, so the number of calls is limited by the amount of bandwidth that can flow between the IP PBX and the provider’s equipment.

World’s largest tidal power project coming to Korea

If there’s one thing we can depend on it’s the rising and falling of the tides. Up until very recently, tidal power has been a severely underutilized renewable energy source, but this won’t be the case much longer with the announcement of the world’s largest tidal power project in South Korea. A collaboration between Lunar Energy and Korean Midland Power Co (KOMIPO), and would create a colossal 300-turbine field in the Wando Hoenggan Water Way off the South Korean coast by 2015, providing 300MW of renewable energy, enough to power 200,000 homes!

World’s Largest Solar Energy Projects

Mojave Desert, Southern California

California not only boasts the highest concentration of hybrid cars in the United States, but it can now also claim the world’s largest solar energy project. Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems, working with utilities firm Southern California Edison, is developing an enormous, 4,500-acre thermal solar generating station in southeastern California’s Mojave Desert. The station will initially encompass 20,000 40-foot-tall, dish-shaped mirrors and produce 500 MW of electricity. And the site might expand to 850 MW—making it at least 500 MW more powerful than any of the other large solar plants in the pipeline. Stirling’s dish technology uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on the receiver of a device called a Stirling engine. When the hydrogen inside the receiver expands, it creates enough pressure to kick the engine into gear and drive an electricity generator without any need for gasoline or water, and without producing emissions. The company claims its process is nearly twice as efficient as other solar technologies, and Stirling is also planning to construct a 300 MW site in California’s Imperial Valley. Construction of the Mojave Desert facility is due to begin in the middle of this year.

World's Largest Diamond Mine

This diamond mine is located eastern Siberia is so deep that the surrounding "air zone... is closed for helicopters" after "a few accidents when they were 'sucked in' by downward air flow..."

The Largest Diamond Ever Exist

The largest diamond to ever exist was discovered on January 26,1905. It was called the Cullinan Diamond. It was found in the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa. This diamond weighed 3,106.75 carats (621.35 gms). The diamond weighed 1.33 pounds. It was discovered during a routine inspection by the mine superintendent, Mr. Frederick Wells. Fredrick Wells was 18 feet below the earth’s surface, when he spotted a flash of starlight just above him. The diamond was on the wall a few feet above him. He climbed up and got it out. His discovery was presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan who owned the mine. Cullinan then sold the diamond to the Transvaal Provincial Government. The stone was presented to Britain’s King Edward VII as a birthday gift on his sixty-sixth birthday. King Edward VII was worried that the diamond might be secretly stolen in transit from Africa to London. So he set up a decoy, with a phony diamond, aboard a steamship loaded with detectives.

Eventually the Cullinan was divided into 106 polished diamonds. One of the largest stones that was cut from the Cullinan diamond is called Star of Africa I or Cullinan I, and it weighed 530 carats. It is the largest, fine-cut, colorless diamond in the world. The second largest stone cut from Cullinan diamond is called the Star of Africa II or Cullinan II. It is 317 carats. These stones along with the Cullinan III, which is the third largest diamond cut, are displayed, and well guarded, in the Tower of London with other crown jewels from Britain.

Alligator Blood May Be Source of New Antibiotics ?

Despite their reputation for deadly attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine, biochemists in Louisiana reported today at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. They described how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and “superbugs” that are resistant to conventional medication.

Their study, described as the first to explore the antimicrobial activity of alligator blood in detail, found a range of other promising uses for the gator’s antibiotic proteins. Among them: combating Candida albicans yeast infections, which are a serious problem in AIDS patients and transplant recipients, who have weakened immune systems, the scientists say.

“We’re very excited about the potential of these alligator blood proteins as both antibacterial and antifungal agents,” says study co-author Mark Merchant, Ph.D., a biochemist at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. “There’s a real possibility that you could be treated with an alligator blood product one day.”

Previous studies by Merchant showed that alligators have an unusually strong immune system that is very different from that of humans. Unlike people, alligators can fight microorganisms such as fungi, viruses, and bacteria without having prior exposure to them. Scientists believe that this is an evolutionary adaptation to promote quick wound healing, as alligators are often injured during fierce territorial battles.

In collaboration with Kermit Murray and Lancia Darville, both of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Merchant and colleagues collected blood samples from American alligators. They then isolated disease-fighting white blood cells (leucocytes) and extracted the active proteins from those cells.

In laboratory tests, tiny amounts of these protein extracts killed a wide range of bacteria, including MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), the deadly bacteria that are moving out of health care settings and into the community. These “superbugs” are increasingly resistant to multiple antibiotics and cause thousands of deaths each year.

The proteins also killed six out of eight different strains of Candida albicans, the researchers say. Their previous research also suggests that blood proteins may help fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The scientists are working to identify the exact chemical structures of the antimicrobial proteins and determine which proteins are most effective at killing different microbes. The gator blood extract may contain at least four promising substances, they estimate.

With the chemical structures in hand, scientists can begin developing them into antibacterial or antifungal drugs, including pills and creams, for fighting infections. These drugs show particular promise as topical ointments, Merchant says. Gator-blood creams could conceivably be rubbed onto the foot ulcers of patients with diabetes to help prevent the type of uncontrolled infections that lead to amputations, he says. The creams could also be applied to the skin of burn patients to keep infections at bay until damaged skin can heal, the researcher adds.

Merchant suggests that the proteins might be called “alligacin.” If studies continue to show promise, the drugs could land on pharmacy shelves in another seven to ten years, he estimates. Until then, don’t try to create your own home-remedies using alligator blood, as raw, unprocessed blood could make you sick or even kill you if injected, the researcher cautions.

Similar antimicrobial substances might also be found in related animals such as crocodiles, Merchant notes. In the future, he plans to study blood samples from alligators and crocodile species throughout the world to test their disease-fighting potential. The state of Louisiana and the National Science Foundation provides funding for this research.

The Largest Animal Alive

The largest animal alive is the blue whale. Fully grown, these great creatures reach a length of over 30 metres and weigh as much as twenty-four large elephants, or more than 1,500 men. The heart of a blue whale is more than a metre in diameter.

The blue whale is not a fish, even though it spends its entire life in the sea. Whales are mammals, just like us. A mother whale gives birth to a live baby whale, not an egg. She feeds her baby with her own milk. While fish are cold-blooded, whales are warm-blooded, and they have lungs and breathe air, like us.

For all its size, a blue whale feeds mainly on this shrimps. It is harmless to man. Unfortunately for the blue whales, men are not harmless to them. So many blue whales have been hunted and killed that very few of these magnificent animals are now left alive.

Blue whales may reach over 24 m (80 ft) in length; mature females are usually slightly longer than mature males. A small dorsal fin is set far back on the body. The skin has a light-gray-and-white mottled pattern, which appears light blue when the whale is just below the surface of the water on a sunny day. The mottled pattern, which is unique to each animal, has been used by researchers to identify individual whales.

Blue whales were heavily hunted for oil, baleen, meat, and other products from the 1930s to the 1960s. This hunting nearly caused the extinction of the species. They are now protected and may gradually be returning in several areas of their range; since 1985, blue whales feeding in Monterey Bay, California, have become a familiar sight in late summer. The blue whale is classified as an endangered species.

World’s Tallest Tree

In Redwood National Park, national park, located in northwestern California, established in 1968. The world’s tallest tree (112 m/367 ft) is located here. The park encompasses a 64-km (40-mi) strip of scenic Pacific coastal territory and contains virgin forests of ancient redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens). Heavy rainfall has produced a luxuriant vegetation that includes ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and, in places, an underbrush of azalea and rhododendron. The park preserves an undisturbed coastline of bluffs, beaches, rocky inlets, and lagoons. The park’s boundaries were expanded in 1978 and designated a World Heritage Site in 1980. Area, 45,532 hectares (112,512 acres).