Monday, April 16, 2007

Beggar - Becoming Indian Treasure

Pulled up at the traffic lights the other day to be confronted by the usual tribe of beggars tapping on the window.

They are everywhere in this metropolis - at traffic signals, peering into taxi windows, bedraggled, haggard and breaking into a sudden smile when a few coins are dropped into their palms.

And it is these coins, given perhaps out of exasperation or a momentary flash of pity that add up to a staggering Rs 180 crore a year, which is the figure the government estimates that the three lakh beggars in Mumbai earn every year.

Those working in the field, however, say this figure is very difficult to verify independently, given the fluid nature of the population of beggars. They also point to the fact that a lot of begging in India is "commercial", run by gangs who use children to beg.

"There are many categories of beggars in India. Most of them are children, some of whom are used by gangs and coerced into begging," says Vijay Raghavan of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences that works with beggars on a regular basis.

"This is commercial begging and many a time, it is the family of the child that gets him into this."

Maharashtra government told the state legislative council that beggars in the city earn a whopping Rs 180 crore a year and that the number of mendicants had risen from 20,000 in 1963 to three lakhs at present.

"It would be difficult to come up with those kind of figures when the begging population in the city keeps changing. There are occasional beggars, those who are in the daily wage business and take to begging when the going is tough. There are also immigrants who come in search of jobs and then take to begging," says Raghavan.

Analysts, however, agree that begging sometimes proves a more lucrative option than working in a low-wage job.

"I know of beggars who were put in homes and given jobs but who have left and gone back on the streets because the job is not enough to sustain them and their families," says Armaity Desai of Childline, a helpline that works with street children.

"Begging is quite lucrative in Metropolitans, especially at places like airports and places of worship like temples where people are hounded for alms," she says.

Instead of giving to beggars indiscriminately, Indian residents should donate to a place where they will know how their money is being used.

But let me say - is it not shameful for the country to have such a huge population of beggars. Is it not the duty of the government to take some initiative for them and above all, is it not our duty to make them literate and capable enough to live a satisfactory life.

They are also human just like us, they also have the right to live and more over we all are Indians, so can't we do something for them, some initiative at least.

At least one out of four Indians is steeped in poverty. That’s one-fourth of one billion people, more than the population of the United States. Nearly half are denied basic education and healthcare. Nearly two-thirds of India’s girl children do not receive any education worth the name. Nearly one-third of the country’s citizens still suffer social discrimination on account of the caste system. In the coming years, can India hope to regain some of its past stature in the comity of nations?

On an average we spend 200 Rs daily just on us for cigarette or beer or other entertaining stuffs; we can also save some of our salary amount for the people like them.

They don’t need mercy, what they need is support. Only giving them few penny wont make a difference in there life style. Proper Counseling, offering them job and making them literate make a difference in there life style. Think about it.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Box Jellyfish (Carybdea alata)

The Box Jellyfish (also known as a Sea Wasp) is a very dangerous creature to inhabit Australian waters. The Jellyfish has extreme toxins present on its tentacles, which when in contact with a human, can stop cardio-respiratory functions in as little as three minutes.

This jellyfish is responsible for more deaths in Australian than Snakes, Sharks and Salt Water Crocodiles.

The creature has a square body and inhabits the north east areas of Australia. The tentacles may reach up to 80 cms in length. It is found along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef.

This deadly species of jellyfish is related to another deadly jellyfish, the irukandji jellyfish.

Google Acquires Internet (May 2017)

MAY 12, 2017 - BUSINESSWIRE.

Mountain View-based search giant Google Inc today announced they’ve acquired the internet for the astounding sum of $2,455।5 billion in cash। The deal had been rumored in various search blogs since the beginning of the year and was now confirmed by the company’s CEO. “This is in line with our vision to make information more accessible to end users,” says Eric Schmidt. “With the acquisition, we can increase the speed of indexing as everything will already be on our servers by the time it’s published.”

In a conference call earlier today, Larry Page explained the strategy behind the acquisition. “We realized it’s not very cost-effective to buy the internet in smaller portions.” During the past two decades, Google had acquired YouTube for $1.65, DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, AOL for $12.5 billion, and last year, Microsoft for the record sum of $120 billion.

Questioned on the first steps the company would take integrating the internet onto their servers, Eric Schmidt announced immediate plans to redirect Yahoo.com to Google’s own search engine. “From an end user perspective, having two search engines is just bad usability, and [causes confusion]. While we appreciate Yahoo’s recent advances in search technology, we felt this move is best aligned with the interests of our advertisers, users and shareholders.” Eric added, “By leveraging third-generation mobile platforms in sustainable verticals, new monetization opportunities can manifest into an improved web experience, greatly benefiting investors and digerati alike – a true paradigm change synergizing the Web 6.0 framework on the enterprise level.”

Accompanying Google’s acquisition revelation, privacy groups today released a paper criticizing the move. However, Larry Page argues that privacy is improved by Google’s acquisition, explaining that “[the] main privacy issues for users today are data leaks to third parties. By eliminating all third parties, we closed this hole.” Eric Schmidt adds that Google intends to replace their current privacy policy with a “privacy scale” which better balances necessary compromises. “When you can improve the privacy of a large group of people by violating the privacy rights of a small number of people, in the end this improves overall privacy.”

The Chinese government in the meantime congratulated Google Inc on their move. Regarding the potentials of expanded censorship, Sergey Brin told members of the press that Google would now drop all search results filtering and instead “address the root problem from a publisher perspective” by directly blocking certain keywords the time they are entered in Google-owned tools such as Blogger, Gmail, Page Creator, Yahoo 360 and MSN Spaces. Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders were not available for comment at this time due to temporary technical problems with their web-based email clients.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Nanoparticles improve delivery of medicines and diagnostics


Nanoparticles improve delivery of medicines and diagnostics from PhysOrg.com

Tiny, biodegradable particles filled with medicine may also contain answers to some of the biggest human health problems, including cancer and tuberculosis. The secret is the size of the package.

[click to see more]

Stretching exercises shed new light on nanotubes


Stretching exercises shed new light on nanotubes from PhysOrg.com

Stretching a carbon nanotube composite like taffy, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Rochester Institute of Technology have made some of the first measurements of how single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) both scatter and absorb polarized light, a key optical and electronic property.

[click to see more]

Nanotechnology lab produces world's smallest book

(Nanowerk News) Using nanotechnology to make a book you can't read - this definitely qualifies as an entry in our "slow news Friday" section.

The world’s first, nanoscale book was published as a work of fine art, April 9, 2007 by Robert Chaplin at the Nano Imaging Facility of Simon Fraser University. This book, complete with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN-978-1-894897-17-4), is entitled ‘Teeny Ted From Turnip Town’. It was written by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin and is a fable concerning the success of Teeny Ted from Turnip town and his victory in the Turnip contest at the annual county fair. It is at present the world’s smallest published book.



The only catch — you’ll need a scanning electron microscope to read it.
At 0.07 mm X 0.10 mm, Teeny Ted from Turnip Town is a tinier read than the two smallest books currently cited by the Guinness Book of World Records: the New Testament of the King James Bible (5 X 5 mm, produced by MIT in 2001) and Chekhov’s Chameleon (0.9 X 0.9 mm, Palkovic, 2002).
The production of the nanoscale book was carried out at SFU by publisher Robert Chaplin, with the help of SFU scientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh. The work involved using a focused-gallium-ion beam and one of a number of electron microscopes available in SFU’s nano imaging facility.
With a minimum diameter of seven nanometers (a nanometer is about 10 atoms in size) the beam was programmed to carve the space surrounding each letter of the book.
The book was typeset in block letters with a resolution of 40 nanometers, and is made up of 30 microtablets, each carved on a polished piece of single crystalline silicon. The entire collection of microtablets is contained within an area of 69 x 97 microns square with an average size of tablet being 11 x 15 microns square.
The book is made up of 30 microtablets, each carved on a polished piece of single crystalline silicon.
The story, written by Chaplin’s brother Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, is a fable about Teeny Ted’s victory in the turnip contest at the annual county fair.
Considered an intricate work of contemporary art, the book is available in a signature edition (100 copies) from the publisher, through the SFU lab.
Source: Simon Fraser University; Robin Chaplin

Can you believe what you see

This is what people say Visual paradigm


Marma Points

If one touch can kill you how will be that?
If one look can make you still like a statue will you believe that? Not joking.


A marma expert can does these unbelievable things before you blink your eyes!

Marma Shastra, the ancient Indian martial art form that manipulates vital points in the body, can be used both for self-defence and healing. Marma adi is the science of manipulating marmas or vital points. These are nerve junctures usually close to the skin surface. The human body contains 107 marma points which, when struck or massaged, produce the desired healing or injurious results. Marma adi is now a near-extinct science, existing only in a few remote corners of the place of its origin. We are trying to explore the mystery behind marma points in Kerala.

Current Mohan: Electricity in Human Body

Can the human body hold electricity?

Though the anatomy of human body and science itself has confirmed that the human body does not carry any such mechanisms, there have been cases of people generating electricity through their body. Though the cases are few, they have proved to be the mysterious surprise of medical science.

Baba Harbhajan Singh: The living dead

He is a man living his life even after his death!

A dead soldier that continues to draw a salary and takes his annual leave! Believe it or not, according to the army folklore Baba Harbhajan Singh is a stickler for discipline and is known to admonish those who do not tow this line. At the shrine built for him, a camp bed is kept for him and his boots are polished and uniform kept ready every night. The sheets are reportedly crumpled every morning and boots muddy by evening. Is he alive or is he living after his death? In Jullundhar his family receives him 40 years after his death at the station and looks after him for two months till he returns to his temple home in Sikkim. A room is kept aside for him and 40 years after his death, he has even been promoted as a Captain!

Amazing-but-True Facts!

  • In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.

  • The increased electricity used by modern appliances is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.

  • The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.

  • Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.

  • Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.

  • The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.

  • Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.

  • SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below.

  • Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.

  • Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

  • Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

  • The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

  • The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.


  • You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.


  • Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water।
  • Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels.

Some English Language Interesting Facts

  • The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

  • Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions!

  • "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order

  • "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel.

  • The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Water Found in Far-Off Planet's Atmosphere

Astronomers have detected water in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system for the first time.

The finding, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal, confirms previous theories that say water vapor should be present in the atmospheres of nearly all the known extrasolar planets.

Even "hot Jupiters," gaseous planets that orbit closer to their stars than Mercury to our Sun, are thought to have water.


"We know that water vapor exists in the atmospheres of one extrasolar planet, and there is good reason to believe that other extrasolar planets contain water vapor," said Travis Barman, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona who made the discovery.

British Scientists Identify Obesity Gene

A gene that contributes to obesity has been identified for the first time, promising to explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim.

People who inherit one version of the gene rather than another are 70 percent more likely to be obese, British scientists have discovered. One in six people has the most vulnerable genetic make-up and weighs an average 3 kilograms more than those with the lowest risk. They also have 15 percent more body fat.

The findings provide the first robust link between a common gene and obesity, and could eventually lead to new ways of tackling one of the most significant causes of ill health in the developed world. One in four British adults is classified as obese, and half of men and a third of women are overweight.

Obesity is a main cause of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. An adviser to the Government’s health spending watchdog said recently that the condition was a bigger national danger than smoking, alcohol or poverty.

If the biological function of the gene, known as FTO, can now be understood, it could become possible to design drugs that manipulate it to help people to control their weight.

Google CEO, Co-Founders Get $1 Salary

The three executives who run Google Inc. each drew a salary last year of $1. But Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin more than made up for it in the large stakes they own in the online search leader, which has made them billionaires.

Besides his $1 salary, Schmidt, who was No. 116 on Forbes magazine's most recent ranking of American billionaires, received a bonus of $1,723 and "other compensation" valued at $555,742, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The bulk of that other compensation, $532,755, was for personal security.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Vote for 7 Wonders of the World

The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.

To keep Taj Mahal on the top 7, please browse this link and vote for it

Here is the link

http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=520

Please do vote as this is important.

15 minutes mail id

Have you ever heard about 15 mins mail id..??

well if not then check this out

http://www.guerrillamail.com/

Guerrilla Mail provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 15 minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame. You can also extends the time for the expiration.

Isn't it interesting ..... i know it is.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Some More..

  • The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.
  • A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species.
  • Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
  • The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.
  • The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
  • Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (Makes you think about ambidextrous people)
  • Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms.

Do you know..?

  • No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
  • Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
  • Fingerprints of koala bears are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans.
  • Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
  • As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates.
  • Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.
  • Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk.
  • Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.
  • In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.
  • The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006.

The Difference between Focus on Problems, and Focus on Solutions

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity. (Ink won't flow down to the writing surface) In order to solve this problem, they hired Andersen Consulting (Accenture today). It took them one decade and 12 million dollars.

They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, under water, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

The Russians used a pencil...

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Hello Friends

Hope you all are in good spirits.

This is my first blog, and of course my first posting.

My all postings in future will include my experiences in different circumstances.