Sunday, December 7, 2008

Strange English Language

The English language

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?

Let's face itEnglish is a strange language.

There is no egg in the eggplant No ham in the hamburger And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.

English muffins were not invented in England

French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted But if we examine its paradoxes we find that

Quicksand takes you down slowly

Boxing rings are square And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing If the plural of tooth is teeth Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth

If the teacher taught,Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetableswhat the heck does a humanitarian eat!?

Why do people recite at a playyet play at a recital?

Park on driveways andDrive on parkwaysYou have to marvel at the unique lunacyOf a language where a house can burn up asIt burns down And in which you fill in a form By filling it outAnd a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computersAnd it reflects the creativity of the human race(Which of course a point for debate)

That is whyWhen the stars are out they are visibleBut when the lights are out they are invisible And why it is that when I wind up my watchIt startsBut when I wind up this observation,It ends.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Story of Software engineer funny

Story of Software Engineer
Apne Project ke bojh tale daba jaa raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,zindagi se hara hua hai,par "Bugs" se haar nahi manata,Apne application ki ek ek line ise rati hui hai,par aaj kaun se rang ke moje pehne hain , ye nahi janata,din par din ek excel file banata ja raha haiWo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,das hazaar line ke code main error dhoond lete hain lekin,majboor dost ki ankhon ki nami dikhayi nahi deti,pc pe hazaar windows khuli hain,par dil ki khidki pe koi dastak sunayi nahi deti,satuday-sunday nahata nahi, week days ko naha raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,Coding karte karte pata hi nahi chala,bugs ki priority kab maa-baap se high ho gayi,kitabon main gulab rakhne wala , cigerette ke dhuyen main kho gaya,dil ki zameen se armaanon ki vidayi ho gayi,weekends pe daroo peke jo jashna mana raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,maze lena ho iske to pooch lo,"Salary Increment" ki party kab dila rahe ho,hansi udana ho to pooch lo,"Onsite" kab ja rahe ho?wo dekho onsite se laute team-mate ki chocolates kha raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,kharche badh rahe hain,baal kam ho rahe hain,KRA ki date ati nahi,Income Tax ke sitam ho rahe hain,lo phir se bus choot gayi, Auto se aa raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,Pizza gale se nahi utarta,to "Coke" ke sahare nigal liya jata hai,office ki "Thali" dekh munh hai bigadta,maa ke hath ka wo khana baar roz yaad ata hai,"Sprout bhel" bani hai phir bhi, free "Evening Snacks" kha raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,aapne ab tak li hongi bahut si chutikiya,Software engg. ke jivan ka sach batati ye akhri kuch panktiyan,hazaron ki tankhwah wala, company ki karodon ki jeb bharta hai,software engg. wahi ban sakta hai, jo lohe ka jigar rakhta hai,hum log jee jee ke marte hain , zindagi hai kuch aisi,ek fauj ki naukri, doosri software engg. ki , dono ek jaisi,is kavita ka har shabd mere dil ki gehrayi se aa raha hai,Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sehwag lost century due to Umpire and India moves to 2nd in ICC ranking

India defeated England by six wickets in the fifth one-day international on Wednesday to take a 5-0 lead in the seven-game series.
India now leading the series 5-0 and wish it leads to 7-0 clean sweep.
Today Sachin completes his 90th fifty and blistering Virendra sehwag given LBW at score of 91 by ediot umpire Amish Saheba, on a delivrey going outside the legstump. Why umpire give the decision in so hurry ?

Indian politicians are not secular--- they are pseudosecular

What is Secular & What is Communal ?Congress says : Muslims getting killed by a few hundred is no less than a holocaust; But poor protesters getting shot in West Bengal under Left Govt is just a plain misunderstanding; 3,000 Sikhs getting slaughtered in thousands was only a big mistake; and 300,000 Hindus becoming refugees and thousands dead due to Islamic terrorists in Kashmir is a only political problem. Congress says : Congress denying Lord Rama's existence was simply a Clerical Error. But BJP saying it hurt Hindu sentiments is communal!Congress says : Haj subsidies for Muslim pilgrimage worth 3000 crores funded by Hindu tax money is secular; But Hindus questioning how their hard earned money is used are communal;Congress says : Banning Da Vinci Code was Secular But Modi Banning Parzania in Gujarat was Communal;Congress says : Chinese invasion in 1962 was just an 'unfortunate betrayal'; Kargil attack during BJP Rule was Government failure;Congress says : Reservation in every school and college on caste lines strengthen society; But same reservations in minority institutions is Communal;Congress says : Fake encounters under Cong-NCP in Maharashtra was only an instance of Police atrocity; But Fake encounters in Gujarat [Sohrabuddin] was Modi sponsored 'BJP' Communalism;Congress says : Talking about Islam and Muslim appeasement is Secular; But talking about Hindus and Hindu concerns is dangerous and Communal; Congress says : BJP freeing 3 terrorists to save Indian hostages was Shameful; But freeing 4 militants to save the life of the daughter of a minister [Rubina Sayed] was a Natural Political dilemma;Congress says : Attack on Parliament was the result of BJP ineptitude; But Congress Not hanging Afzal Guru,the mastermind despite Supreme Court orders is due to Humanity and Political dilemma;Congress says : (Manmohan) Muslims have the first right on India's resources; But Hindus questioning it is communal;
क्या आप धर्मनिरपेक्ष हैं ? जरा फ़िर सोचिये और स्वयं के लिये इन प्रश्नों के उत्तर खोजिये.....
१. विश्व में लगभग ५२ मुस्लिम देश हैं, एक मुस्लिम देश का नाम बताईये जो हज के लिये "सब्सिडी" देता हो ?
२. एक मुस्लिम देश बताईये जहाँ हिन्दुओं के लिये विशेष कानून हैं, जैसे कि भारत में मुसलमानों के लिये हैं ?
३. किसी एक देश का नाम बताईये, जहाँ ८५% बहुसंख्यकों को "याचना" करनी पडती है, १५% अल्पसंख्यकों को संतुष्ट करने के लिये ?
४. एक मुस्लिम देश का नाम बताईये, जहाँ का राष्ट्रपति या प्रधानमन्त्री गैर-मुस्लिम हो ?
५. किसी "मुल्ला" या "मौलवी" का नाम बताईये, जिसने आतंकवादियों के खिलाफ़ फ़तवा जारी किया हो ?
६. महाराष्ट्र, बिहार, केरल जैसे हिन्दू बहुल राज्यों में मुस्लिम मुख्यमन्त्री हो चुके हैं, क्या आप कल्पना कर सकते हैं कि मुस्लिम बहुल राज्य "कश्मीर" में कोई हिन्दू मुख्यमन्त्री हो सकता है ?
७. १९४७ में आजादी के दौरान पाकिस्तान में हिन्दू जनसंख्या 24% थी, अब वह घटकर 1% रह गई है, उसी समय तत्कालीन पूर्वी पाकिस्तान (अब आज का अहसानफ़रामोश बांग्लादेश) में हिन्दू जनसंख्या 30% थी जो अब 7% से भी कम हो गई है । क्या हुआ गुमशुदा हिन्दुओं का ? क्या वहाँ (और यहाँ भी) हिन्दुओं के कोई मानवाधिकार हैं ?
८. जबकि इस दौरान भारत में मुस्लिम जनसंख्या 10.4% से बढकर 14.2% हो गई है, क्या वाकई हिन्दू कट्टरवादी हैं ?
९. यदि हिन्दू असहिष्णु हैं तो कैसे हमारे यहाँ मुस्लिम सडकों पर नमाज पढते रहते हैं, लाऊडस्पीकर पर दिन भर चिल्लाते रहते हैं कि "अल्लाह के सिवाय और कोई शक्ति नहीं है" ?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Rahul Dravid needs support

After a great farewell to ganguly, there is lot of talks about Rahul considering his current low phase.
Rahul is legendary player and he is going through a bad phase he needs some strong backing.
I am sure Dravid will bounce back soon and will fire on full throttle.
MS Dhoni has finally spoke out something about Rahul.Currently, when everyone is worried about Rahul's form, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes he's too big a player to worry about. "All players go through a phase," Dhoni said. "But Dravid is a great player and has proved himself time and again for us. So we are not worried about his form."
Although in Mohali that was not the case. After a bright innings of 39 in the first essay, Dhoni, the stand-in captain, decided to bring himself up the order with quick runs being the need of the hour. The situation wasn't all that different here, but India chose to stick with the same batting order in the second innings. Rahul could not get double figure on his name again.
Dhoni said the good start India got in the second innings didn't call for a gamble to follow.
"We got off to a good start and decided to send Dravid in," he said. "It's better to send someone in this situation who hasn't been in touch of late."
That is something which may bring a ray of hope in Rahul's career.These words hold an importance from Rahul's point of view because he can get himself out of the pressure of being dropped.We will have to wait till England series (1st test match on 11 Dec.).

Out-of-form Rahul Dravid on Sunday got support from unexpected quarters with Australia coach Tim Nielsen backing the former India captain to get out of the lean patch soon.
Nielsen said Dravid's poor form was compounded by the fact that he got out to good balls in the ongoing series against Australia."I think Rahul has had one of those series where he seems to have got quite a few good balls. Every time he has nicked the ball, it has gone straight to the keeper or slips and they have caught it. One jumped a bit in the first innings (in the Test here) and he gloved it straight to short leg," Nielsen said."He is just having a bit of a rut at the moment where it seems as though he is a low spot as far as scoring runs and not having a lot of luck. It's interesting. He has been training hard," Nielsen added.Dravid's poor run in the series in which he has aggregated just 120 runs from seven innings with a lone fifty in it has raised question marks about his continued presence in the team when the two-Test series against England commences next month at Ahmedabad."We often see him down the nets when we are there having a session by himself and working hard. I know the quality of player that he is, I am sure he will make a lot of runs in the future. It was just his turn to have a bit of a dry spot this series and he will come back hard," Nielsen elaborated.Nielsen pointed out that the other Indian batsmen have made up for Dravid's indifferent form. "But his team has made up for it by scoring a lot of runs around him," he added.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Heroes - Salman Khan's movie releasing soon


After Akshay Kumar who portrays a Sikh in the movie Singh is Kinng, its the turn of Salman Khan to play a Sardar in his upcoming movie Heroes. The are reports that the actor has been growing his beard for his latest movie. The movie directed by Samir Karnik was earlier titled as Mera Bharat Mahan.
The multi starer also has Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta, Sohail Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Riya Sen and Amrita Arora. The film draws its inspiration from the 2004 movie Diarios De Motocicleta or The Motorcycles Diaries based on the journals of Che Guevara, the leader of the Cuban Revolution. The book narrates how Che and his friend crossed the length of South America in a motorcycle.
This much awiated flick is going to release soon perhaps 24th oct.

watch the trailer


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Aravind Adiga- The Indian Tiger wins Booker for The White Tiger


Brief BIO
Aravind Adiga was born in India in 1974 and raised partly in Australia. He attended Columbia and Oxford universities. A former correspondent for Time magazine, he has also been published in the Financial Times. He lives in Mumbai, India.

The Booker

Aravind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, for “The White Tiger” - his debut novel set against the backdrop of India’s growing wealth gap.Adiga took the 50,000-pound ($87,000-dollar) prize for a book described by the chairman of the judges as revealing “the dark side of India” at a glittering ceremony Tuesday night in London’s Guildhall attended by the literary who’s who of the British capital.
The 33-year-old former journalist said his book - the story of Balram Halwai, a village boy who becomes an entrepreneur through villainous means - aimed to highlight the needs of India’s poor.
“It is a fact that for most of the poor people in India there are only two ways to go up - either through crime or through politics, which can be a variant of crime,” Adiga, the fifth Indian-origin writer to win the prize, told the BBC.
“These people at the bottom have the same aspirations as the middle class - to make it in life, to become businessmen, to create business empires. They need to be given their legitimate needs - the schooling, the education, the health care - to achieve those dreams. If not, as I said, there are only two ways up: crime or politics.”
But Adiga said that although India has “an extreme divide between the rich and the poor” his book wasn’t a social commentary.
“It’s an attempt to dramatise this and get it into literature. It’s meant to be a fun book and to engage its readers,” said Adiga, who beat off competition from five other authors, including fellow Indian Amitav Ghosh, nominated for his “Sea of Poppies”.
Chairman of the judges Michael Portillo said Adiga - only the third debutant to win the award in its 40-year-history - won because judges felt that his book “shocked and entertained in equal measure.”
“The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader’s sympathy for a thoroughgoing villain. The book gains from dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour.”
The other shortlisted authors were Steve Toltz of Australia (”A Fraction of the Whole”), Sebastian Barry of Ireland (”The Secret Scripture”), and British writers Linda Grant and Philip Hensher (”The Clothes on Their Backs” and “The Northern Clemency” respectively).
Chennai-born Adiga is the third debut writer to win the award - after DBC Pierre in 2003 for his “Vernon God Little” and Arundhati Roy in 1997 for “The God of Small Things”.
He is the fifth Indian-origin author to win, joining the ranks of V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai.
Adiga, asked about winning the prize in the midst of a financial crisis, said: “India and China have come into their own and the fiction that comes from these countries should reflect the fact.
“What that means is writers from those countries need to be more critical in looking at those countries because they no longer need protection. As they step out into the world stage and potentially rule the world, it is even more important.”
Adiga dedicated the prize to New Delhi, where he has lived for many years.
“It’s a city that I love and a city that’s going to determine India’s future and the future of a large part of the world. It’s a book about Delhi, so I dedicate it to the people that made it happen,” he said.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Paul Krugman, Princeton University professor of economics and international affairs, wins Nobel

Paul Krugman, whose relentless criticism of the Bush administration includes opposition to the $700 billion financial bailout, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his work on international trade patterns.
The Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist is the best-known American economist to win the prize in decades.
The Nobel committee commended Krugman's work on global trade, beginning with a 10-page paper in 1979 that knit together two fields of study, helping foster a better understanding of why countries produce similar products and why people move from the small towns to cities.
Krugman (pronounced KROOG-man) is best known for his unabashedly liberal column in the Times, which he has written since 1999. In it, he has said Republicans are becoming "the party of the stupid" and that the economic meltdown made GOP presidential nominee John McCain "more frightening now than he was a few weeks ago."
But at a news conference, Krugman said he doesn't think he won the prize because of his political views.
"Nobel prizes are given to intellectuals," he said. "A lot of intellectuals are anti-Bush."
Tore Ellingsen, a member of the prize committee, acknowledged that Krugman was an "opinion maker" but said he was honored solely for his research.
"We disregard everything except for the scientific merits," Ellingsen told The Associated Press.Krugman, 55, was the lone winner of the $1.4 million award and the latest in a string of Americans to be honored. It was only the second time since 2000 that a single laureate won the prize, which is typically shared by two or three researchers.
Krugman is the rare academic economist who is also part of pop culture. A YouTube video of Krugman's joint appearance with Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly on "Meet the Press" has been viewed by more than 100,000 people. Besides co-authoring textbooks, he has written two best-sellers, "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century" and "The Conscience of a Liberal," which has jumped into the top 25 on Amazon.com and is currently out of stock.
None of the books by last week's winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, reached that high on Amazon.
Always outspoken, Krugman has compared the current financial doldrums to the Great Depression, saying Monday that he hoped a global effort to address the crisis might work.
"I'm slightly less terrified today than I was on Friday," he said, referring to the weekend talks among European leaders that led to the partial nationalization of British banks and unlimited access to U.S. dollars for banks worldwide.
That said, he hasn't found much to praise about the Bush administration's actions during the crisis. In a Times column Monday, Krugman commended British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling, saying they "went straight to the heart of the problem ... with stunning speed" by demanding ownership stakes in banks in exchange for financial aid, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at first rejected that model
"And whaddya know," Krugman continued, "Mr. Paulson _ after arguably wasting several precious weeks _ has also reversed course, and now plans to buy equity stakes rather than bad mortgage securities."
The Bush administration would not comment Monday on whether Krugman would be invited to the White House, as is custom with American Nobel laureates.
Krugman said he hoped to continue focusing on his research and writing.
"The prize will enhance visibility," he said, "but I hope it does not lead me into going to a lot of purely celebratory events, aside from the Nobel presentation itself.
"I'm a great believer in continuing to do work," he said. "I hope that two weeks from now I'm back to being pretty much the same person I was before."
In awarding Krugman the Nobel, the Swedish academy said his theory helped answer pressing questions and inspired an enormous field of research.
Krugman's work looked at on how economies of scale _ the idea that as the volume of production increases, the cost of making each unit falls _ worked alongside population levels and transportation costs to affect global trade. Krugman's theory was that because consumers want a diversity of products, and because economies of scale make production cheaper, multiple countries can build similar products, such as cars. Sweden builds its own car brands for export and to sell at home, for example, while also importing cars from other countries.
"Trade theory, like much of economics, used to be discussed in the context of perfect competition: thousands of farmers and thousands of customers meeting in a market," with supply and demand governing prices, said Avinash Dixit, a Princeton economist who specializes in trade theory.
The theory changed as economists realized conditions in the market were imperfect, and that only a small number of companies in certain industries, such as autos, had economies of scale.
"Krugman was the main person who brought all the theory together, recognized its importance to the real world, produced a large expansion of international trade theory to make it more applicable to the modern world," Dixit said.
Krugman graduated with a bachelor's degree from Yale in 1974 and received a Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. Besides teaching at Yale and MIT, he also taught at Stanford. He is a native of Bellmore, N.Y., graduating from John F. Kennedy High School.
The last time an economist who was this well-known outside academia won the Nobel was 1976, when Milton Friedman, a University of Chicago professor who starred in a PBS series called "Free to Choose," took the prize.
The award is the last of the six Nobel prizes announced this year and is not one of the original Nobels. It was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel's memory.
The Nobels in medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and economics will be handed out in Stockholm by Sweden's King Carl XVI on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896. The Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in Oslo, Norway, on the same date.
At Monday's news conference, Krugman was asked about China's economic future. He said he did not have an answer. "I've spent the last few years trying to save my own damn republic," Krugman said.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sister Alphonsa to be Cannonised by Pope

A good news for religious types.
Sister Alphonsa from Kerala will become the first nun from our country INDIA to be canonised by the Vatican today. The date was announced after a formal meeting of the Pope and other cardinals in the Vatican on March 1. Her beatification - that is recognition by the Church of a dead person's accession to heaven - was ordered by the then Pope, Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Kerala in 1986. Sister Alphonsa was born at Kudamaloor in Kottayam District in 1910. She joined the Clarist congregation. She died in 1946 after suffering from various illnesses.
Sister Alphonsa was credited to have performed some miracles by the residents. She was beatified and made blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1986. According to residents, a disabled child was miraculously cured of his ailment and his limbs restored due to prayers at the altar of Sister Alphonsa's shrine. Sister Alphonsa is the first person to be conferred sainthood from the Kerala Church, which traces its origins to the visit of St Thomas around 2,000 years ago to preach the gospel in India.
In June 2007, Pope Benedict Fourteenth signed a decree approving the miracles that took place through the intercession of Alphonsa paving the way for canonisation. Her tomb at Palai in Kerala is a famous Christian pilgrimage spot.

Recession is also beneficial.

By Alice Thomson
The bankers are fleeing. I got a message from a friend this week. “We've decided to downscale and go to Venice for a bit. We're in a flat on the Grand Canal, the children are learning Italian, the weather is wonderful and it feels like we can finally relax after ten years of madness.”
That's fine then. The City folk are taking what remains of their money and fleeing to sunnier climes to recuperate and recharge, to return when the crisis is over. Everyone else in Britain will have to sit it out. Scotland, the North, graduates, the retired, everyone will feel the effects of the recession. The Home Office has given warning in a leaked memo of more crime, racism and extremism.
But recessions don't bring unmitigated woe. During the past ten years of boom, a small, rather Eeyorish, group of American economists and psychologists has been trying to work out whether people really are better off in what Gordon Brown once called “the Golden Years” and now refers to as the “Age of Irresponsibility”.
Their answer is that recessions (rather than booms or depressions) might actually be a blessing. People tend to drink less, smoke fewer cigarettes and lose weight. They enrol in higher education, the air is cleaner, the roads are less crowdedWhen times are good, research by Stanford University and the University of North Carolina shows that people of all classes tend not to take care of themselves and their families. The better off may have gym membership but all classes drink too much (especially before driving), they eat more fat-laden food - either pre-packaged from supermarkets or in restaurants - and are more likely to neglect their families. In downturns, people have more time to visit their elderly relatives and are more likely to look after their children themselves rather than booking them into expensive after-school activities or crèches.
Grant Miller, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford, says that in a boom people work longer, harder hours to take advantage of the conditions and are more stressed and less likely to do things that are good for them: “Cooking at home and exercising are seen as a waste of time.”
But when wages drop, and jobs are scarce, the young feel that it makes more economic sense to prolong their education, and the elderly will retire earlier because there is less incentive to keep earning.
This research backs up a paper, published in 2000, entitled Are Recessions Good for your Health? by Christopher Ruhm, professor of economics at the University of North Carolina. Professor Ruhm analysed death rates from 1972 to 1991, comparing them to economic shifts. He found that for every 1 per cent increase in unemployment rates, there was a 0.5 per cent decline in the death rate.
The number of suicides rose by an average of 2per cent during recessions in this period and cancer deaths by 23 per cent, but this was easily outweighed by the decrease in deaths from heart disease and car crashes. People not only eat more healthily in recessions but they tend to drive less, either as an economy measure or because they are no longer commuting to their jobs. When unemployment rates rise by a point, the number of fatal car crashes decreases by 2.4 per cent.
In another paper, Healthy Living in Hard Times, Professor Ruhm suggests that in America during the recession in the 1990s, smoking, particularly among heavy users, declined by 5 per cent.
Ralph Catalano, professor of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that it is an oversimplification to say that recessions are good for people, but he thinks that they do encourage healthier lifestyles. “People who are worried about losing their jobs do things that keep them from getting laid off - they drink less and take fewer risks.”
Environmentalists may also find their work easier during a recession. Only two years ago consumers were throwing away one apple in four, people bought a new television set on average every two years and redecorated their kitchens every time they moved house.
But those who have refused to be thrifty for green reasons have now to start rationalising their lives for economic ends. In the past six months councils have reported increased use of libraries and a fall in the quantity of household rubbish.
There are other benefits to this downturn. Prices for necessities are dropping. Food prices are beginning to level out as supermarkets compete with £1 pizzas. Petrol prices have gone down. House prices have fallen by 10.9 per cent, mortgage rates are dropping. More people are turning to eBay and even here prices are falling. The average selling price of a home entertainment system has dropped to £62.49 from £99.58 three months ago.
Shops on the high street have increased the number of bargains - even toothbrushes are now discounted. “This is the deepest and biggest discounting in years,” Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium said.
But at least the boom made people happy? That's not entirely true either. According to the Office for National Statistics, levels of contentment have remained the same, at around 87 per cent, for the past ten years and are lower than during the recession in the 1970s. No amount of espresso machines or mini-breaks seemed to satisfy people.
So while there is no such thing as a good recession, it doesn't have to cause unmitigated gloom and despondency.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Johnny Depp in Pirates 4 with bag ful of $75million


Reports are starting to emerge that Johnny Depp decided to reprise his role as captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 (something that is looking fairly likely and quite interesting),then Disney would be willing to pay him 32 million pounds (roughly $75 million) upfront for the performance. This would be the largest up front payment an actor has ever received for anything ever. Offcourse Pirates series is quite successfu, but still it is amazing price.

TATA's Nano car Set to drive from Gujarat

Finally wait is over, Nano plant will now relocate to Gujarat.
Tatas have decided to roll out the Nano car from Gujarat, according to TV reports.
It is a huge gift for Narendra Modi as he completes seven years in office as Gujarat chief minister. The loss of W Benagal is gain of Gujarat.
The air was thick with anticipation as top Tata Motors honchos flew down from Mumbai late on Monday evening to take one final look at the site near Sanand, 25 kms from the western fringes of Ahmedabad, which has been identified for relocation of the Nano plant. Sources said the decks have been cleared for transfer of 1,000 acres of land to the Tatas. Modi's council of ministers will meet at 10 am before the Tata team arrives. The land which the Tatas have to finally select is located within a 2200-acre campus owned by the Anand Agriculture University which serves as a cattle and seed farm. The university has already transferred 1,000 acres back to the government which went into an overdrive to woo Tata Motors ever since the situation started worsening at Singur in West Bengal. Government officials were hopeful that the deal will be clinched on Tuesday, after a final round of negotiations on the concessions Tata Motors will be seeking. While Modi has been personally averse to giving concessions to industry, on the ground that such concessions given in the past had led to a huge loss of revenue to the exchequer, there is willingness to make an exception in the case of the Nano project. "We had to relax our rigid stand considering the fact that other state governments were going all out to roll the red carpet for the Nano plant. Losses due to concessions would be offset by the immense positivity created around the investment climate in Gujarat," a senior official of the industries department said, while admitting that there could be a tough last round of negotiations. While Tata Motors' scouts were scouring sites in Karnataka, AP and Maharashtra over the last two days(there was stiffness among farmers), there was an air of tentativeness in the Sachivalaya at Gandhinagar, even as officials went about clearing all the documents to transfer 1,000 acres in one go. "Our biggest advantage is that we can hand over the land to Tata Motors on Tuesday itself," a source said.

Monday, October 6, 2008

From Where first Nano car will rollout

Following its exit from West Bengal, the Tata Nano car project apparently has no dearth of governments willing to woo it to their respective states, with top officials from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat making no secret of their enthusiasm as they carried out site inspections on Sunday.
The Tata Motors team led by its managing director G Ravikant and accompanied by Karnataka Industry Minister Murugesh Nirani visited three places in and around the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka — the Belur Industrial area, Mummiatti and another site in the vicinity of the airport near Hubli.
The team also met Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to discuss the offer made by the state to the company to shift the Nano project to Karnataka. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Yeddyurappa said: “I have made an offer and assured them of all facilities, including land, water and power. Now it is for them (the Tatas) to communicate.”
He added that he would also hold talks with Tata chairman Ratan Tata. It is the fourth round of discussions that Karnataka had with the company after it pulled out of Singur.
But in Andhra Pradesh there was protest from farmers fearing forced land deals.
Gujarat chief minister going gaga over drawing TATA to Gujarat, Narendra Modi also roped NRI Swaraj Paul led group CAPARO for supplying raw material for Nano plant.
Wait and watch from whare first Nano will rollout.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Paul Newman, star with a twist of pain

As the heartfelt obituaries and tributes have been reminding us, Paul Newman never forgot that he was an actor before he was a movie star. His training at the Actors Studio during its 1950s heyday taught him to search out the self-lacerating contradictions and double-take complexities of his characters. His irresistible good looks suggested more of a romantic hero than an unregenerate rogue, but he had a way of incorporating into his seductive appeal (those oceanic eyes, those killer abs!) a startling barbed-wire-like menace.
Newman, however, didn't leave it there. Even his most fiendishly unapologetic cads are shown to be fighting more for their psychological survival than for their selfish advancement. To put it another way, something desperate is driving them to be baser than they really are. Whether or not they're fugitives of the law, they're almost always on the lam from secrets too shattering to share.
For some, he'll always be Butch Cassidy to Robert Redford's Sundance Kid. But it's three early film roles that drew out of Newman what only a playing opposite a woman could expose: a softness too vulnerable to be masculinely withstood.
Not surprisingly, two of the characters come courtesy of Tennessee Williams: Brick, the sexually repressed alcoholic locked in a marital stalemate with Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof" and Chance Wayne, the Hollywood hustler he originated on Broadway in 1959 opposite Geraldine Page's man-devouring diva Alexandra Del Lago, and later sensationally reprised alongside her for the 1962 film. The third role is the title character of "Hud," a rowdy, unscrupulous rancher whose estrangement from his deepest feelings is painfully glimpsed when Patricia Neal hops on a bus to escape his sadistic clutches.
"Sweet Bird of Youth" magnificently showcases the many lessons Newman picked up from his theatrical travels: Never play one emotion, when the truth is a barrage; don't give up on your character, even if he seems, morally speaking, to be a lost cause; and finally, don't worry about audience approval when the anguish you're exposing, ugly though it may be, is genuine.
I was only lucky enough to see Newman onstage once. It was in the 2002 Broadway revival of "Our Town," in which he played the Stage Manager, crisply establishing the Grover's Corners universe of Thornton Wilder's classic.
But I have another theatrical memory of Newman that radiates just as brightly. It comes from having sat behind him off-Broadway in 1999 at Playwrights Horizons, where Christopher Durang's "Betty's Summer Vacation" was galloping riotously. My companion and I were laughing in a way that was becoming dangerously out of control; I was afraid an usher might be forced to ask us to leave. But there was no need for embarrassment, as Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward were laughing just as uproariously as we were.
On Friday night, the lights on Broadway will dim in his honor

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A Shake-Up in Pakistan's Powerful Spy Agency

According to TIME-- Pakistan may currently enjoy what seems to be a healthy if noisy democracy, but the office of army chief remains the most powerful one in the country - certainly exceeding the effective control of any politician or civilian bureaucrat. And now Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, is showing that he is truly in charge of the military - and hence the most powerfulman in Pakistan.
Just before midnight on Sept. 29, Kayani replaced the head of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency and elevated a slew of handpicked generals to key positions in a major shake-up of the military leadership. The most striking appointment is the promotion of Lieut. General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha to head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), one of the world's most powerful spy agencies - routinely described, and decried, as a "state within a state." Pasha, who had headed military operations in the tribal areas, replaces Lieut. General Nadeem Taj, an appointee and relative of recently departed President and ex–army chief Pervez Musharraf, who was infamous for intertwining military and political affairs.
The reshuffling comes at a sensitive time for Pakistan's half-million-strong and nuclear-armed military. In the Bajaur tribal agency along the Afghan border and in the Swat Valley, it is locked in fierce and enervating operations against the Pakistan Taliban. At the same time, the army's relations with its sponsors in Washington have sunk to a fresh low after the ISI was accused of aiding Taliban militants, and the ensuing breakdown in communication between the U.S. and Pakistan saw a flurry of unauthorized American air strikes that targeted militants in the tribal areas. U.S. special operations forces also mounted their first known ground assault within Pakistani territory this month.
Some observers in Pakistan criticized the personnel shake-up as a response to U.S. pressure. The changes came just weeks after Richard Boucher, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, publicly demanded that reform of the ISI be carried out. They also followed last weekend's secret meeting between Pakistan's recently elected President, Asif Ali Zardari, and CIA head Michael Hayden about what the U.S. intelligence agency called the "double game played by Pakistan's spy agency." While in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, Zardari told Roger Cohen of the New York Times, "The ISI will be handled; that is our problem. We don't hunt with the hound and run with the hare, which is what [former president Pervez] Musharraf was doing."
However, others argue against the notion that the U.S. forced the reforms on Islamabad. The timing of the promotions was not extraordinary and the changes were made "on the basis of merit," says Talat Masood, a retired general turned military analyst. "These postings were in the normal course of events, with many of the officers due for rotation or retirement," he says. "General Kayani used this opportunity to bring in new people according to his [priorities]."
Yet one of Kayani's priorities, analysts say, is restoring relations with Washington, the source of more than $6 billion in military aid since 2001. "There has been a strain in relations between the Pakistan army and the Pentagon," says Hasan Askari-Rizvi, a military analyst, referring to the recent U.S. unilateral actions that sparked sharp condemnation from Kayani as well as public outrage. "The army wants to deal with this through talks and negotiations. Now, with these promotions, you have a team at the top that is in line with General Kayani's thinking on terrorism and militancy in the tribal areas. There was a lot of skepticism about General Nadeem Taj's commitment to fighting militants." By appointing Pasha, who has been leading the military's campaign in the tribal areas and has been noted for speaking out against Islamabad's previous policy of supporting the Taliban, "General Kayani has an ISI chief who is behind in policy, and the American complaint has been answered," adds Askari-Rizvi.
In the wake of the July 7 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, the ISI was accused of being involved with and helping the Jalaluddin Haqqani network, which was blamed for the attack. Indeed, the dispute between Islamabad and Washington appears to center on the activities of the Haqqani network and other militants blamed for mounting cross-border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, which have led to a spike in violence in its eastern provinces this year. According to Pakistan military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, this may be because "the priorities are mismatching." While the U.S. is focused on Afghanistan, the Pakistan army sees the battle currently raging in Bajaur as its priority, he said. "We cannot risk opening up another front while we don't have the resources."
While the Pakistan army strenuously denies the charge of coddling the re-energized Taliban, its chief military spokesman concedes that the army maintains "indirect" contact with an assortment of militant groups it once cultivated. "Which agency in the world would break its last contact with them?" asked Abbas in an interview before the promotions were announced. However, critics contend that the Pakistan army is not yet prepared to sever its links with its former clients in the militant underworld, perhaps as a way of ensuring some kind of influence over Afghanistan, where radical Islamists are once again threatening the stability of the pro-U.S. regime.
Nevertheless, the change at the top of the ISI is likely to be welcomed by Washington and may even relax tensions with Islamabad, analysts say. While the shake-up helps Kayani advance a more coherent response to the challenge of rising militancy, it also underscores the army's enduring clout. The ISI nominally falls under the purview of the Prime Minister, but on this occasion the civilian government merely gave formal approval to a decision by the military leadership. Two months ago, the civilian government attempted to bring the ISI formally under its control. The move was vetoed by the armed forces, proving again where power truly lies in Pakistan.

Book ban ends Arab-Israeli cultural exchange really sad

For 15 years Israeli Saleh Abbasi has traded books between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors, fostering a rare cultural link.
But in August Israeli authorities suddenly refused to renew his trading license because he was trading with "enemy" states Lebanon and Syria, frustrating both Abbasi's business and the Arab and Israeli readers he has helped interest in each other's literary traditions.
"How can the People of the Book be against books?" Abbasi asked, evoking the Jewish Bible as the first monotheistic holy text. "Books are a bridge to peace between cultures."
An Israeli Trade Ministry spokeswoman declined to explain the timing of the ban. But she cited a recent legal opinion that forbade importing goods from four countries Israel views as enemies -- Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Israel has no diplomatic ties with Beirut or Damascus, so 57-year-old Abbasi uses Jordan and Egypt, the only Arab nations to sign peace deals with the Jewish state, as conduits.
Abbasi's original aim was to cater for Israel's 1.2 million minority Arab citizens, many of whom feel the perpetual absence of relations between Israel and its neighbors denies them cultural and ethnic ties to the Arab world.
But he branched out, and over the past 10 years has sold over half a million copies of some 16 Hebrew titles to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Arab countries, where the translated books reach Arab readers mainly through public libraries and universities.

Tests find melamine in 31 Chinese milk brands

An official news organization is reporting that the industrial chemical melamine has been found in another 31 brands of Chinese milk powder.
The results indicate an expansion in the scandal that has sparked product recalls in China and a host of other countries that received Chinese food exports from infant formula to chocolate.
Results of earlier tests had showed widespread melamine contamination among infant formula, later spreading to fresh milk and other types of dried milk and milk products.
The contamination is blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others.
The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine tested samples from 265 brands produced before Sept. 14, the Xinhua News Agency said

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Sequel to Will Smith starrer I Am Legend

I Am Legend screenwriter Mark Protosevich is already talking about a potential sequel. The LA Times writes:Of course, a sequel all depends on the box office success of the first film. I Am Legend is a modern day adaptation of the classic 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson. Will Smith stars as Robert Neville, a former scientist who is the last uninfected human in Manhattan, if not the world. Warner Bros has been developing the project since 1994.
At one point Ridley Scott was attached to direct while Arnold Schwarzenegger was in talks to star, but finally Will Smith decided and he did the job excellently.
Now for the sequel also Will Smith will do the job, hmmmmmmmm waiting for its release.

Is Sourav Ganguly thinking about to Quit?


This week could see the end of an unforgettable era, with Sourav Ganguly “set to quit” international cricket if not selected for the Australia series, and if it really happens it will be quite sad to saying googdbye to India's one of the most succesful captain.

The team for the first two tests will be chosen on Wednesday. If Ganguly, 112 short of 7,000 Test runs, does retire, he would be the first of India's ‘Fab Five’ — the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman — to call it a day, bringing to a close what has been Indian cricket’s most dramatic chapter. Sources close to the former India skipper told HT Ganguly’s mind was made up. “He said there is no point in trying to make yet another comeback after this,” said the source. “He has nothing to prove to anyone anymore.”Ganguly, who had not spoken to (or been spoken to) by any selector in the recent fortnight since his axing from the Irani Cup squad, was philosophical. “I’ve seen it all, whatever happens, happens,” was his view, the source added.

Interestingly, in the two years since South Africa and Ganguly's spectacular return from the wilderness, he has played 21 Tests, making 1667 runs at a very respectable 45.05, which is higher than his Test career average of 41.02. According to the selectors, “everyone who’s played first class cricket” was in line for a Test call up. But Ganguly will probably be battling for a berth alongside the much younger Yuvraj Singh and S. Badrinath. And if the new selectors are looking to begin the process of transition, he is where they will likely start.
Dada you should make another comeback, I never forget Dada without shirt shouting in Lord's balcony, that very moment give a new aggression to Team India.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Hitler's secret Indian army


This is the article I found on Internet By some Mike Thomson, quite amazing, so i am putting up it at my blog.

Thank u Thomson.

In the closing stages of World War II, as Allied and French resistance forces were driving Hitler's now demoralised forces from France, three senior German officers defected.
Legionnaires were recruited from German POW camps The information they gave British intelligence was considered so sensitive that in 1945 it was locked away, not due to be released until the year 2021.
Now, 17 years early, the BBC's Document programme has been given special access to this secret file.
It reveals how thousands of Indian soldiers who had joined Britain in the fight against fascism swapped their oaths to the British king for others to Adolf Hitler - an astonishing tale of loyalty, despair and betrayal that threatened to rock British rule in India, known as the Raj.
The story the German officers told their interrogators began in Berlin on 3 April 1941. This was the date that the left-wing Indian revolutionary leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived in the German capital.
Bose, who had been arrested 11 times by the British in India, had fled the Raj with one mission in mind. That was to seek Hitler's help in pushing the British out of India.
He wanted 500 volunteers who would be trained in Germany and then parachuted into India. Everyone raised their hands. Thousands of us volunteered Lieutenant Barwant Singh Six months later, with the help of the German foreign ministry, he had set up what he called "The Free India Centre", from where he published leaflets, wrote speeches and organised broadcasts in support of his cause.
By the end of 1941, Hitler's regime officially recognised his provisional "Free India Government" in exile, and even agreed to help Chandra Bose raise an army to fight for his cause. It was to be called "The Free India Legion".
Bose hoped to raise a force of about 100,000 men which, when armed and kitted out by the Germans, could be used to invade British India.
He decided to raise them by going on recruiting visits to Prisoner-of-War camps in Germany which, at that time, were home to tens of thousands of Indian soldiers captured by Rommel in North Africa.
Volunteers
Finally, by August 1942, Bose's recruitment drive got fully into swing. Mass ceremonies were held in which dozens of Indian POWs joined in mass oaths of allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
Chandra Bose did not live to see Indian independence These are the words that were used by men that had formally sworn an oath to the British king: "I swear by God this holy oath that I will obey the leader of the German race and state, Adolf Hitler, as the commander of the German armed forces in the fight for India, whose leader is Subhas Chandra Bose."
I managed to track down one of Bose's former recruits, Lieutenant Barwant Singh, who can still remember the Indian revolutionary arriving at his prisoner of war camp.
"He was introduced to us as a leader from our country who wanted to talk to us," he said.
"He wanted 500 volunteers who would be trained in Germany and then parachuted into India. Everyone raised their hands. Thousands of us volunteered."
Demoralised
In all 3,000 Indian prisoners of war signed up for the Free India Legion.
But instead of being delighted, Bose was worried. A left-wing admirer of Russia, he was devastated when Hitler's tanks rolled across the Soviet border.
Matters were made even worse by the fact that after Stalingrad it became clear that the now-retreating German army would be in no position to offer Bose help in driving the British from faraway India.
When the Indian revolutionary met Hitler in May 1942 his suspicions were confirmed, and he came to believe that the Nazi leader was more interested in using his men to win propaganda victories than military ones.
So, in February 1943, Bose turned his back on his legionnaires and slipped secretly away aboard a submarine bound for Japan.
Rudolf Hartog remembers parting with his Indian friends There, with Japanese help, he was to raise a force of 60,000 men to march on India.
Back in Germany the men he had recruited were left leaderless and demoralised. After mush dissent and even a mutiny, the German High Command despatched them first to Holland and then south-west France, where they were told to help fortify the coast for an expected allied landing.
After D-Day, the Free India Legion, which had now been drafted into Himmler's Waffen SS, were in headlong retreat through France, along with regular German units.
It was during this time that they gained a wild and loathsome reputation amongst the civilian population.
The former French Resistance fighter, Henri Gendreaux, remembers the Legion passing through his home town of Ruffec: "I do remember several cases of rape. A lady and her two daughters were raped and in another case they even shot dead a little two-year-old girl."
Finally, instead of driving the British from India, the Free India Legion were themselves driven from France and then Germany.
Their German military translator at the time was Private Rudolf Hartog, who is now 80.
"The last day we were together an armoured tank appeared. I thought, my goodness, what can I do? I'm finished," he said.
"But he only wanted to collect the Indians. We embraced each other and cried. You see that was the end."
Mutinies
A year later the Indian legionnaires were sent back to India, where all were released after short jail sentences.
But when the British put three of their senior officers on trial near Delhi there were mutinies in the army and protests on the streets.
With the British now aware that the Indian army could no longer be relied upon by the Raj to do its bidding, independence followed soon after.
Not that Subhas Chandra Bose was to see the day he had fought so hard for. He died in 1945.
Since then little has been heard of Lieutenant Barwant Singh and his fellow legionnaires.
At the end of the war the BBC was forbidden from broadcasting their story and this remarkable saga was locked away in the archives, until now. Not that Lieutenant Singh has ever forgotten those dramatic days.
"In front of my eyes I can see how we all looked, how we would all sing and how we all talked about what eventually would happen to us all," he said.
reposting from another thread about Indian contributions to the war. This is history that is overlooked fro various reasons.
"the BBC was forbidden from broadcasting their story and this remarkable saga was locked away in the archives, until now."
"After D-Day, the Free India Legion, which had now been drafted into Himmler's Waffen SS, were in headlong retreat through France, along with regular German units.
It was during this time that they gained a wild and loathsome reputation amongst the civilian population.
The former French Resistance fighter, Henri Gendreaux, remembers the Legion passing through his home town of Ruffec: "I do remember several cases of rape. A lady and her two daughters were raped and in another case they even shot dead a little two-year-old girl.""
India does not celebrate VE day or VJ day. They fought on both sides of the war.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Review of Movie "Saas Bahu aur Sensex"


It is differnet movie having two issues which eats up most of the time on TV, Saas-Bahu and at present bleeding Sensex.

Kirron kher and Faruq has done a good job, Tanushree is as usual average.

For the people who donot know the this and that of Sensex will feel some bored but after some time they take some knowledge of Bear and Bull Market.

Music is not at par, but after all an average 2 hrs of time pass with some different comedy.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Historical facts --- strange 20

3000 years ago, most Egyptians were considered old and died by the age of 30.
Amount American Airlines proved how economy could make us save a fortune by saving $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating just one olive from each salad served in first class.
Ancient Egyptians used slabs of stones as pillows.
In 1962, the schools in Tanganyika had to be closed because of an outbreak of contagious laughter that lasted for six months!
In 1980, workers in a Las Vegas hospital were suspended because they use to bet on when patients would die.
In ancient China, doctors could receive fees only if their patient was cured. If it deteriorated, they would have to pay the patient.
In ancient Egypt, people shaved eyebrows as a mourning symbol when their cats died.
In the 1800s, if you attempted suicide and failed, you would have to face the death penalty.
Niagara Falls experienced a break of half an hour in 1848, when an ice jam blocked the source river.
People have been wearing glasses for about 700 years.
Lochness Monster inhabits the fresh water lake of Scotland.
Spider webs were used to cure warts during the Middle Ages.
The custom of shaking hands with the strangers originated to show that both the parties were unarmed.
The number of people over hundred increased from 4,000 in 1960 to 55,000 in 1995 in US alone.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

strange facts about Earth ----- fact 19

Strange but true facts about the Earth

In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park, USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk. The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah'.
It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk.
The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters. Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade.
The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea.
The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

Monday, September 1, 2008

weird places names Strange facts 18

Would you like to live here? Most of the places have weird sexual touch.
These are names of actual locations:

Arsoli (Lazio, Italy)

Bastard (Norway)

Beaver (Oklahoma, USA)

Beaver Head (Idaho, USA)

Brown Willy (Cornwall,UK)

Chinaman's Knob (Australia)

Climax (Colorado, USA)

Cunt (Spain)

Cunter (Switzerland)

Dildo (Newfoundland, Canada)

Dong Rack (Thailand-Cambodia border)

Dongo (Congo - Democratic Republic)

Effin (Limerick, Ireland)

Fuku (Shensi, China)

Fukue (Honshu, Japan)

Fukui (Honshu, Japan)

Fukum (Yemen)

Hold With Hope (Greenland)

Intercourse (Pennsylvania, USA)

Lickey End (West Midlands, UK)

Little Dix Village (West Indies)

Lord Berkeley's Knob (Sutherland, Scotland)

Middle Intercourse Island (Australia)

Muff (Northern Ireland)

Nobber (Donegal, Ireland)

Pis Pis River (Nicaragua)

Sexmoan (Luzon, Philippines)

Seymen (Turkey)

Shafter (California, USA)

Shag Island (Indian Ocean)

Shitlingthorpe (Yorkshire, UK)

Tittybong (Australia)

Tong Fuk (Japan)

Turdo (Romania)

Twatt (Orkney, UK)

Wank (Germany)

Wankendorf (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)

Wankener (India)

Wankie (Zimbabwe)

Wankie Colliery (Zimbabwe)

Wanks River (Nicaragua)

Wankum (Germany)

Wet Beaver Creek (Australia)

Monday, August 11, 2008

Congrats Abhinav Bindra for GOLD after 28 yrs


Voilaaaa!!!!!! India win the Gold medal after 28 yrs, thanks to Abhinav Bindra.

Shooter Abhinav Bindra has a knack of creating history. He has done it again in Beijing.
From being the country's first world champion in shooting to emerging as its maiden individual Olympic gold medallist, the 24-year-old Abhinav has displayed nerves of steel and a dogged determination over the years to attain the highest sporting glory.Growing up in an affluent Chandigarh family, Abhinav had the advantage of a private shooting range at home, but the mild mannered shooter has always been down to earth and kept a low profile despite his success at various international events.It has been a tough journey to Beijing for the 'silent killer', as his father A.S. Bindra calls him.
Abhinav bravely fought a career-threatening back injury, which forced him to opt out of the Doha Asian Games. He booked his Beijing berth by winning the 2006 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia - a first by an Indian. And on Monday he lived up to the expectations of a million fans back home to give the country its first Olympics gold in 28 years after the men's hockey team's triumph in Moscow, 1980.Right from his childhood, Abhinav showed promise, and became the youngest Indian participant at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he was also India's youngest Olympian at 16.He hit a purple patch in 2001, winning a flurry of medals in Europe and was also conferred the nation's highest sporting award - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. In the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, Abhinav bagged gold in the pairs event and silver in the individual event. He narrowly missed a medal at the Athens Olympics despite breaking the world record. After double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver in Athens, the pressure was on shooters to keep the country's flag flying high. This being his third Olympics, the focus was on Abhinav as well.Abhinav didn't let the pressure choke him as he held his nerves in a crunch situation to bring back smiles on the faces of a billion fans back home. At the final in the Beijing Range, Abhinav was tied with Finnish shooter Henri Hakkinen for the first place, but the Indian secured the gold with his best shot of the final - an outstanding 10.8.In contrast, Hakkinen's last shot was also his worst, a lowly 9.7, which allowed China's Zhu Quinan to beat the Finn and take the silver. Zhu, the defending champion, shot 10.5 in his last shot.

This day 11 aug 2008 is now golden history for India. Same day 100 yrs ago Khudiram Bose become martyr for freedom at the tender age.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Akshay --real singh of Bollywood







"Singh is Kingg" is not such a movie which will be remembered for long time but in the time of multiplexes this movie is economic success.
As far as story line is concerned nothing special, just a typical bollywood masala,but Akshay Kumar really rocks with his naughty and witty acts.
It seems like Akshay is in line with Govinda, giving smashing comedy hits.
Picturisation of movie is good, but music is just so-so.
Success of this flick after flop"Tashan" is clearly the saleability of Akki.
Crowd is giving huge response for every bit of Akshay-act. This seems like "Akshaymania" is high on dose.
Anyway a good watch , with closed mind.
Singh is really the king.....

Saturday, August 9, 2008

About Google Fact 17

Five Things You Did Not Know About Google – Strange facts17
1- Google spends $72 million a year on employee mealsweird facts - Seventy-two million dollars a year -- that works out to about $7,530 per Googler (a term Google uses to identify employees). While the exact details vary depending on location (the Google empire spans the globe), employees at Google's California headquarters, aptly entitled the Googleplex, are welcome to at least two free meals a day from 11 different gourmet cafeterias. As if that weren’t enough, another thing you didn’t know about Google is that in addition to the cafeterias, Google offers numerous snack bars that are chock-full of healthy morsels to munch on.And that's certainly not all. Is your car in a bit of a rut? Not to worry; Google offers on-site car washes and oil changes. The list of perks for working at Google is never-ending, making it no surprise that it's considered the No. 1 place to work, offering: on-site haircuts, full athletic facilities, massage therapists, language classes, drop-off dry cleaning, day cares, and on-site doctors, just to name a few. Oh, and if your dog is stuck at home and feeling a little lonely, just bring him to work -- Google doesn't mind.2- Google was originally called BackRubLike many other booming internet companies, Google has an interesting upbringing, one that is marked by a lowly beginning. Google began as a research project in January 1996 by cofounder Larry Page, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student at Standford University. Page was soon joined by 23-year-old Sergey Brin, another Ph.D. student, forming a duo that seemed destined for failure. According to Google's own corporate information, Brin and Page argued about every single topic they discussed. This incessant arguing, however, may have been what spurred the duo to rethink web-searching and develop a novel strategy that ranked websites according to the number of backlinks (i.e., according to the number of web pages that linked back to a web page being searched), and not based on the number of times a specific search term appeared on a given web page, as was the norm.Because of this unique strategy, another thing you didn't know about Google is that Page and Brin nicknamed the search engine BackRub. Thankfully, in 1998, Brin and Page dropped the sexually suggestive nickname, and came up with “Google,” a term originating from a common misspelling of the word "googol," which refers to 10100.The word “google” has become so common, it was entered into numerous dictionaries in 2006, referring to the act of using the Google search engine to retrieve information via the internet.3- Google loses $110 million a year through "I'm Feeling Lucky"There's not much to see on Google's main search page, and perhaps simplicity is one of the keys to Google's success. When searching Google, you are given two options: “Google Search” or “I'm Feeling Lucky.” By clicking the former, you are given that familiar list of search results; by clicking the latter, however, you are automatically redirected to the first search result, bypassing the search engine’s results page.Besides the fun factor, the idea behind the “I'm Feeling Lucky” feature is to provide the user with instant connection to the precise page they are searching for, thus saving them time that would normally be spent perusing endless search results. Sounds harmless enough, right? Not so fast. Because “I'm Feeling Lucky” bypasses all advertising, it is estimated that Google loses about $110 million per year in advertising-generated revenue. So why in the world would any Fortune 500 company not patch such a gaping leak? "It's possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what's delightful about 'I'm Feeling Lucky' is that it reminds you there are real people here," Google Executive Marissa Mayer told Valleywag, an online tech-blog.4- Google has a sense of humorGoogle also offers full language support for Pig Latin, Klingon and even Elmer Fudd. Anyone else still feeling lucky? Try typing, “French military victories” and clicking “I'm Feeling Lucky.” Behold the result.Some might remember the “miserable failure” fiasco when one typed those words and clicked “I'm Feeling Lucky,” and they were instantly connected to a biography of President George W. Bush on the White House website. Now, before you jump to conclusions, this trick -- which no longer works -- was carried out by members of the online community through the art of “Google bombing.” Google bombing works because of Google's backlink search strategy.5- Google scans your e-mailsNothing in life is perfect -- or without controversy -- and Google is no exception. Google scans your e-mails (at Gmail) through a process called “content extraction.” All incoming and outgoing e-mail is scanned for specific keywords to target advertising to the user. The process has brewed quite a storm of controversy, but Google has yet to back down on its stance.Google has remained similarly headstrong about other criticisms; in an attempt to remain partisan to local governments, Google removes or does not include information from its services in compliance with local laws. Perhaps the most striking example of this is Google's adherence to the internet censorship policies of China (at Google.cn) so as not to bring up search results supporting the independence movement of Tibet and Taiwan, or any other information perceived to be harmful to the People's Republic of China.Google Street has further been cited for breaching personal privacy. The service provides high-resolution street-view photos from around the world and has, on numerous occasions, caught people committing questionable acts. Moving from street to satellite, Google Earth has also come under fire from several Indian state governments about the security risks posed by the details from Google Earth's satellite imaging. When all is said and done, there are a lot of criticisms about Google and these few examples merely scratch the surface.SearchedUm, Google does the searching -- anytime, and every time, you search for something on the internet.InterestIt's hard to think of another search engine ever supplanting our beloved Google, but it's anyone's guess as to how the internet will work in the future. Maybe you'll just have to think of something and it will appear. Who knows? Try Googling it.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

New research Project of Microsoft--- MIDORI

Microsoft has started a new research project called Midori, to develop a software program that will help uncouple Windows from a single PC. The company has revealed that a decision to develop Midori was taken because Windows is unlikely to be able to cope with the pace of change in future technology, and way people use it. “If you think about how an operating system is loaded, it’s loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine. The operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware,” Dave Austin, European director of products at Citrix. He said that that created all kinds of dependencies that arose out of the collection of hardware in a particular machine, and raised concerns for Microsoft ‘s business in case Windows ends up being less important over time as applications become more OS agnostic.
Microsoft describes Midori as an ambitious attempt to catch up on the work on virtualization being undertaken in the wider computer industry.
Vitalizing generally signifies creating a software copy of a computer complete with operating system and associated programs. It also allows a reduction in numbers of machines one needs to manage, and easy shifting to another machine in case one physical server fails. A virtual machine on a PC also enables very old applications, which existing operating system would not run, to keep going.
Many virtual machines are tuned for a particular industry, sector or job. “People take their application, the operating system they want to run it against, package it up along with policy and security they want and use that as a virtual client,” said Dan Chu, VP of emerging products.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Monalisa's lips completed in 12 yrs fact 16


Jaw muscles can provide about 200 pounds of force to being the back teeth together for chewing.

Jet lag was once called boat lag, beck before jets existed.

Jimmy Carter is a speed reader (2000 wpm).

Jimmy Carter was the first US president to have been born in a hospital.

John has a long moustache was the coded signal used by the French Resistance in WWII

John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and was found in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was found in a theatre.

John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.

Killer whales have such a good sense of touch that if you dropped a pill into a bucket and feed it to the orca it would eat the fish and spit out the pill.

King Kong in the only movie to have its sequel (Son of Kong) released the same year (1933)

Kleenex tissues were originally used as filters in gas masks.

Knitted socks discovered in Ancient Egyptian tombs have been dated back as far as the 3rd century AD.

Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during WWI

Lemon sharks grow a new set of teeth every two weeks! They grow more than 24,000 new teeth every year!

Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one had and draw with the other at the same time.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors, played the viola, and spent twelve years painting the Mona Lisa's lips.

Less than 1% of the Caribbean Islands are inhabited.

Less than 7% of the population donates blood.

Less than 2% of the water on Earth is fresh.

Li is the family name for over 87 million People in China.

Lightning strikes the earth about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.

Liquid paper was invented by Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951.

Lobsters have blue blood.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Reservation giving though time for IITs

Reservation in IITs and paucity of candidates

It is a shame that in a democratic country where there is much hoopla over justice and equality, candidates for prestigious IIT JEE feeling the burnt of the idiotic reservation policy.
In the recently released report General category student of last rank scored 297 marks but the candidate will not be given admission because ST topper candidate who scored poor 292 marks will be given chance, this is injustice to quality of institution.
Similarly SC topper scored only 322 marks, which mean very few candidates belonging to SC category, will go through. Also OBC candidates are few in numbers in comparison to General candidates.
So due to lack of able candidates in respective categories IITs are lowering the bar to fill the reserved seats, while candidates of unreserved category even after performing better than reserved category students are not getting admission due to reservation.
So there are around 430 seats vacant in the IITs, which is very disastrous waste of resources like that of IIT status institutes.
First they are lowering the cut off marks, thus compromising the quality. Then seats’ remaining vacant is waste of resources.
This problem is not only with IIT but other prestigious institutes and universities are also having though time in filling their seats.
In a country where education sector is already bleeding such happenings are really sad.
In the first place reservation should not be there in any field, but due to vote bank politics if it existed then central institutes of National importance must be kept out of the parlance of reservation, again it is difficult due to the demons known as leaders.
There is argument that reservation is to help the down trodden, but it is next to impossible for “real down trodden” candidate to go for IIT or AIIMS.
To improve the situation the government should work towards improving the secondary and higher secondary education level, so that institutes may get able candidates.
This can be done to improve the situation but it is a long term planning. For the time being if seats in institutes are remaining vacant then such seats should be filled as unreserved so that resources may not go in vain and an able candidate can secure the admission.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

color blind babies. Fact 15

Alaska got its name from the Aluet word “Alyeska” which means “The Great Land.”

Albert Einstein was cremated and his ashes were spread over a river located in New Jersey.

Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.

Alcohol beverages have all 13 minerals necessary for human life.

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf.

Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were both epileptic.

Alexander the Great made his troops eat onions as he believed it would prove their vitality.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed the Eiffel Tower, also designed the inner structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

All babies are color blind when they are born.

All dogs are the descendant of the wolf. These wolves lived in eastern Asia about 15,000 years ago.

Friday, August 1, 2008

My letter to Chetan Bhagat in context to new novel




Dear Cheatn sir,
I just finished “Three Mistakes of My life”, after finishing the novel my first reaction was “what a shit is this”, although it is not so bad but I expected more quality from a writer like u.
I like ur previous two novels very much, and I am also waiting for ur 4th book but I felt terribly bad for this “Mistake book”.
You tried everything from cricket, sex, religion, and politics to family drama but all such drama was in overdose.
It is perhaps due to- ur previous books are turning into Movies and now u r more associated with Bollywood , so like Bollywood masala u poured too much of masala in the book , particularly the description where 3 guys take on rioters ( in quite Bollywood masala manner ). Also don’t get monotonous with characters, girls are always dumb in ur novels be it Neha, Priyanka or Vidya. (Although I have no such problem with it because most of the girls are like that , perhaps girls may get angry over that, but that’s their issue ).
I also didn’t like the use of term “secular party”( as no party in India is secular ) everybody knows to which part u r indicating, , here u may argue not to be intellectual in a fiction book , but since literature has its own impact and being a creative person u should not be biased in use of ur terms. You are terming a party “Hindu party”, and then it will be justified if u calls another party “Appeasement party” instead of ‘Secular’.
Literature of any country and age becomes images of history as time passes be it fiction or something else.
You used the term “miscreants” for those who burn the coach and later u used the term “Hindu mob”; if mob can be “Hindu” then u should have guts to call “miscreant” as “Muslim miscreants”. Sir it would have been better if u kept in mind “mob” is “mob” it is not Hindu or Muslim, because “Mob” has no intuition.
Sir what do u mean by “angry Hindu chants”? I think it is not a good choice of word.
“Bittoo mama” chanting during that situation also seems not good in flavor.
Chetan, don’t think that I am a Hindu fanatic or a particular community hater; as far as my religious and political views are concerned I am completely neutral; in terms of religion partly atheist and partly agnostic.
I am compelled to write this because everywhere I have seen so called “intellectuals” just getting involved in harassing the major community and labeling a major party as extremist.
Small things matters, be it a media report or a fiction novel.
You may say that why I am creating so much noise about use of some words, I have reasons because ur books are runaway hit with youngsters (me also just completed my engineering this summer) and I think art hits deep inside-at the unconscious level.

Perhaps I am getting to harsh, but it is what came in my thoughts , if I am harsh or rude to you just ignore,,,,,,, hey who knows u read unto this line or just used the easy button “delete”……. Its ur choice completely.
But if u has read it I would like to have ur response, after all u r a writer who wants to be loved…… I will also post it to my blog.
Waiting…..
Ashwani

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Tree with circumference upto 180 feet Fact 14


African Baobab tree’s circumference can reach 180 feet. If the trunk is hollow, 20 people would be able to fit inside of it.


Acorns were used as a coffee substitute during the American Civil War.


Americans are responsible for generating roughly 20% percent of the garbage in the world.


Actor Charlie Chaplin made 81 movies over a career that spanned 50 years.


Actress Meryl Streep holds the record for the most Oscar nominated actress, with a record of 13 nominations.


Adolf Hitler wanted to be an architect, but he failed the entrance exam at the architectural school in Vienna.


Adolf Hitler was one of the people that were responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle. He came up with the idea of producing a car that was cheap enough for the average German working man to afford.


Adult earwigs can float in water for up to 24 hours.


African heart-nosed bats can have such a keen sense of sound that they can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from six feet away.


After being picked an orange cannot ripen.


After the “Popeye” comic strip was launched in 1931, spinach consumption went up by thirty-three percent in the United States.


After the death of the genius, Albert Einstein, his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study.


After the Eiffel Tower was built, one person was killed during the installation of the lifts. No one was killed during the actual construction of the tower.


After the Krakatoa volcano eruption in 1883 in Indonesia, many people reported that, because of the dust, the sunset appeared green and the moon blue. The moon was said to appear blue for almost two years.


After the U.S Civil War, about 33%-50% of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit.
Air is passed through the nose at a speed of 100 miles per hour when a person sneezes.


Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.