Notice Board (Articles On Anything And Everything)

TWO RECENT NEWSPAPER REPORTS ABOUT MY WRITING CAREER

2011-12-15T21:10:00.002+05:30

TIMES OF INDIA - "SPEED WRITER IN RECORD BOOKS" (ARTICLE IN YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPER ABOUT MY BOOKS AND MY RECORD ENTRY IN THE LIMCA BOOK OF RECORDS)....

2011-10-30T22:25:00.002+05:30

GURGAON IN FOREFRONT OF INDIA'S ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADE

2011-10-17T18:54:00.002+05:30

September 4, 2010 : My first book released....September 3, 2011 : 6 books published and 1 under publication....

2011-09-03T21:45:00.003+05:30

Article about me: "Writing a new chapter at 50 plus"...

2011-07-17T17:06:00.002+05:30

ARTICLE ABOUT MY FIVE BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

2011-06-23T14:59:00.002+05:30

Article about my books and me in the national daily The Hindustan Times

2011-05-23T16:19:00.002+05:30

Fields of watermelon burst in China farm fiasco

2011-05-18T19:52:00.002+05:30

Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of "land mines."

About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.

Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said in the report broadcast on May 16th night.

Chinese regulations don't forbid the drug, and it is allowed in the U.S. on kiwi fruit and grapes. But the report underscores how farmers in China are abusing both legal and illegal chemicals, with many farms misusing pesticides and fertilizers.

An article about my five books...published in eight months...

2011-05-13T23:36:00.002+05:30

MILLENNIUM CITY - Snapshot of book and publisher....

2011-04-11T12:36:00.001+05:30

Weight A Minute: Top Five Weight-loss Myths Busted

2011-04-09T21:19:00.002+05:30

Among the numerous myths floating around us all the times, myths about weight loss keep on surfacing every now and them.

They are all around us: on the Web, friends keep delivering sermons on them or they can be found in the latest issue of a celebrity magazine. On this World Health Day, let’s to rip apart five grave misconceptions related to weight loss.

Myth 1: Giving Up the Breakfast

Skipping breakfast would only undo your efforts of losing weight. A high-nutrient breakfast gives our body the much-needed calorie burning start. Just make sure that your breakfast is composed of healthy stuff like sprouts, juices, etc and it's not equivalent to the heavy meals you enjoy at weddings.

Myth 2: Carbs are my worst enemy

All carbs aren't bad. Soda, a carbohydrate, is bad but broccoli, another carbohydrate, is good. All you need to figure out is which carbs are good for you instead of worrying about the overall carb intake. Rely on veggies, fruits, and high-fiber whole grains (but do not indulge in gluttony). If you can't resist a tempting carb, say an ice-cream, burn it off with exercise.

Myth 3: I shouldn't eat after 6 in the evening

There's no magic time to get done with food for the day. Just stop devouring food which is bad for your health. For instance, if you're watching a late night movie on television force yourself to not eat junk food like ice creams, chips, burgers etc, rather go for salads, fruits etc.

Myth 4: All I have to do is to cut down calories

Not entirely true. While total intake of calories does matter, the source from which you get them is also important. You get almost the same number of calories from a handful of almonds and 3 apples as you would get from a cheeseburger and coke. But you know that you have to choose the former.

Myth 5: All I need is that magic pill to help me shed pounds

Sorry to inform but there are no miracle pills, potions, creams, belts and shoes which can help you grow muscles or cut flab in no time (as they might claim). These supplements may help but then you have to supplement them with right dietary and fitness programmes to extract the benefit out of them.

PRE-RELEASE COPY OF MY FOURTH BOOK ....

2011-04-08T15:31:00.000+05:30

MY SEVEN BOOKS (SO FAR) ...

2011-03-26T11:10:00.000+05:30

DECEIVERS (Pustak Mahal - Cedar) PUBLISHED : Thriller THE INHERITANCE (Atlantic - Peacock) PUBLISHED : Thriller THE LANDLORD'S SECRET AND OTHER STORIES (Atlantic - Peacock) PUBLISHED : Teenage Fiction / Mystery MILLENNIUM CITY (Prakash Books) ABOUT TO BE RELEASED : Crime / Mystery HIGH ALERT (Atlantic - Peacock) ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED : Thriller TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION (Atlantic - Peacock) ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED : Non Fiction A MILLION SECONDS TO LATE (Popular Prakashan) WILL BE RELEASED IN JULY : Crime / Mystery

INDIA - raw and unplugged

2011-03-24T13:49:00.000+05:30

Wishing everybody a very happy Holi. Enjoy the festival of colours. May your lives be always filled with beautiful colours and lots of laughter...

2011-03-19T14:23:00.000+05:30

The most prolific writers in literary history:

2011-02-06T21:50:00.001+05:30

The most prolific writers in literary history:
1. MARY FAULKNER (1903-1973) 904 books
Faulkner, a South African writer is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most prolific writer. She wrote under a number of pseudonyms, the most famous being Kathleen Lindsey.
2. LAURAN PAINE (b. 1916) 850 + books
Paine's contribution often goes obscured by the fact that she wrote under over seventy different pen names. Her novels were mainly American western stories with some mysteries and romance stories as well.
3. PRENTISS INGRAHAM (1843-1904) 600 + books
This American dime novelist is said to have been able to write a 35,000-word book overnight. One of his favourite subjects was Buffalo Bill and he managed to turn out over 200 books on that subject alone.
3. JOZEF IGNACY KRASZEWSKI (1812-1887) 600 + books
Kraszewski was a Polish writer of novels, plays, poetry, essays, biographies, history, memoirs, and political sketches.
5. ENID MARY BLYTON (1900? -1968) 600 books
Blyton was a British writer of children's books, which still have massive worldwide appeal. She is famous for creating such classics as the Secret Seven, the Famous Five and Noddy.
6. JOHN CREASEY (1908-1973) 564 books
A British mystery writer and the creator of Inspector West and Gideon.
7. SUYUTI (1445-1505) 561 books
The first author on the list to take us back before modern times. This Arab writer of encyclopaedias wrote on almost every subject and is probably best known for his commentaries on the Koran.
8. URSULA BLOOM (b. 1898?) 520 + books
This English novelist specialised in romances under a series of pen names and also wrote some non-fiction under her own name.
9. GEORGES SIMENON (b. 1903) 500 + books
The name may not be that familiar but having published 200 books under his own name and another 300 under a collection of other names he deserves his place on the list. It is from his most famous literary creation that he is best known, Inspector Maigret.
10. HOWARD ROGER GARIS (1873-1962) 500 + books
American writer of children's books and creator of Uncle Wiggily.
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10 Books About Real World Crimes

2011-02-06T21:34:00.001+05:30

There are a ton of stories and books out there that portray ruthless crimes and brutal murders but real-life crimes books should not only let you in on the hard facts of the crimes committed but also give some insight into the minds of the accused. The following books written after notorious real life- crimes are must reads:
• In Cold Blood
Written in 1966 by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood details the accounts of the brutal murders of Herbert Clutter, who was a wealthy Kansas farmer, his wife and two of their children. After reading a small news clip about the murders with no motives and no suspects, Capote became interested in the case and traveled to Kansas to compile information to write the book. The book is an examination of the intense relationship between two parolees who met in jail and conspired to committ the mass murder of the wealthy family.
• Helter Skelter
Written in 1974 by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter became a bestseller and won an Edgar Award in 1975 for the Best Fact Crime book. The book was written about the murders committed in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers who were also known as the Manson Family. Vincent Bugliosi was the prosecuting attorney in the the Manson trial and wrote the book based on his knowledge and accounts of what he describes as one of the most horrifying cases he had seen.
• Savage Son
Written by Corey Mitchell, Savage Son tells the story of Bart Whitaker, who was about to graduate from college, when his family was murdered. One night after Bart’s brother opened the front door to their house a masked intruder shot him, his mother, his father and Bart; Bart and his father, Kent survived the attack. The investigation uncovered a double life and a ruthless murder for hire plot on Bart’s behalf. Mitchell became intrigued with the reputed All-American boy and looked into the backgrounds of Bart and his friends, who were also involved with the murders, to write the book.
• Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders
Written in 1983, by Terry Sullivan and Peter T. Maiken, Killer Clown recounts the story of John Wayne Gacy who was convicted in 1979 of killing 33 young men. Gacy became known as the “Killer Clown” because he dressed up as a clown at children’s birthday parties and at fundraisers. Sullivan, who was the Illinois prosecuting attorney, wrote the book as he recalled the case, the interviews and the chilling discoveries of the boys all aged between 14 and 21; most were found buried in the crawl space underneath the basement of Gacy’s home.
• The Lives and Times of Bonnie & Clyde
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were well known outlaws born in Texas in the early 1900’s who, with the help of their gang, notoriously wreaked havoc in the Central and Southern U.S. during the Great Depression. The book, written by Dr. E. R. Milner, tells of the daily news worthy acts of the group as well as the frustration law enforcement endured as they managed to escape out of reach every single time. Milner spent 10 years researching the crew and their 2 year crime spree.
• While They Slept
Written by Kathryn Harrison, While They Slept recalls the story of 18 year old Billy Gilley, who bludgeoned his parents and 11 year old sister to death in 1984. Harrison writes on the alleged abuse and statements of Gilley, who believed the murder of his parents would free him from the abusive home and environment in which they lived. Gilley’s then 16 year old sister, who was in the home the night of the murders (and is now estranged from Gilley) argued the severity of the abuse and both siblings have made significant contributions with information to the composition of the book.
• Columbine
Written by Dave Cullen, Columbine recalls the 1999 school shootings at Columbine, in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold masterminded. Harris and Kleberg attempted to blow up their school but when their bombs didn’t ignite, they took out their guns and sprayed gunfire around the campus in every direction they could. Cullen explores the brutality of the masterminds, which were left in journals, letters, and notes, and compiled thousands of FBI pages, interviews, and files to compile the book.
• The Profiler
Written by Pat Brown and Bob Andelman, The Profiler shows how Pat Brown started her life as a criminal profiler. After a young woman was murdered near her home in 1990, Brown quickly suspected the young man renting a room in her house was responsible. After gathering evidence, police dismissed her accusations thinking she had too much time on her hands. Six years later the young man was finally sought and Brown is now one of the nation’s few female profilers and opens up about her determinations in this book.
• Tacoma Confidential
Written by Paul LaRosa, Tacoma Confidential tells the chilling story of David Brame, the chief of police in Tacoma, Washington who killed his estranged wife, Crystal Brame. Brame shot his wife to death in a busy parking lot a few feet away from their two children. The book explores the chain of events that led up to the murder-suicide, as Barme killed himself immediately following her murder. LaRosa also explains in the book how shocked the community was and how mishandled the investigation became.
• Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage and the Mind of the Killer Spouse
Written by pyschotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig and Mark Birkbeck, Till Death Do Us Part presents and explores the minds of notorious killers who have murdered their spouses or intimate partners. The book brings to light the personality types of killer spouses with examples from high profile cases such as Scott Peterson, and provides an analysis of their motives for the murders.

SOME BOOKS THAT HELPED CHANGED THE WORLD

2011-02-06T13:47:00.000+05:30

SOME BOOKS THAT HELPED CHANGED THE WORLD
Das Kapital
Karl Marx
His thinking may not be as popular as it was in the Sixties and Seventies, but it's as relevant. The cardinal critique of the capitalist system.
The Rights of Man
Tom Paine
Written during the heady days of the French Revolution, Paine's pamphlet - by introducing the concept of human rights - remains one of modern democracy's fundamental texts.
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
'Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.' How are we to reconcile our individual rights and freedoms with living in a society?
Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville
This treatise looked to the new country's flourishing democracy in the early 19th century and the progressive model it offered ‘old’ Europe.
On War
Carl von Clausewitz
The first, and probably still foremost, treatise on the art of modern warfare. The Prussian general looked beyond the battlefield to war's place in the broader political context.
The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli
Written during his exile from the Florentine Republic, Machiavelli's bible of realpolitik offers the ultimate mandate for those (still-too-many) politicians who value keeping power above dispensing justice.
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes's call for rule by an absolute sovereign may not sound too progressive, but it was based on the then-groundbreaking belief that all men are naturally equal.
On the Interpretation of Dreams
Sigmund Freud
Drawing on his own dreams, plus those of his patients, Freud asserted that dreams – by tapping into our unconscious – held the key to understanding what makes us tick.
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
No other book has so transformed how we look at the natural world and mankind's origins.

Most widely read books of all time:

2011-02-03T15:39:00.000+05:30

The Bible - 3.9 Billion Copies
Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung - 820 Million Copies
The Harry Potter series (by J. K. Rowling) - 400 Million Copies
Lord of the Rings (by J. R. R. Tolkien) - 103 Million Copies
The Alchemist (by Paulo Coelho) - 65 Million Copies
The Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown) - 57 Million Copies
Twilight - The Saga (by Stephenie Meyer) - 43 Million Copies
Gone With the Wind (by Margaret Mitchell) - 33 Million Copies
Think and Grow Rich (by Napoleon Hill) - 30 Million Copies
Diary of Anne Frank (by Anne Frank) - 27 Million Copies

My fourth book...

2011-01-29T22:11:00.001+05:30

My three books

2011-01-16T11:23:00.001+05:30

My third book....

2011-01-14T14:01:00.000+05:30

2011-01-12T13:41:00.001+05:30

My first book DECEIVERS can now be previewed on Google Books....(click on the link below)

http://www.a1books.co.in/searchdetail.do?a1Code=booksgoogle&itemCode=8122311458

An Excerpt From My Book: "A Matter Of Survival"

2010-12-19T20:11:00.001+05:30

I am an Olive Ridely Sea Turtle. I get my name from the olive (or green/grey) colour of my heart-shaped shell. I am also called the Pacific Ridely.

I am one of the smallest of sea turtles inhabiting the world’s oceans. I am only about two feet long and weigh just over thirty-five kilograms. The males of my species never weigh more than thirty three kilograms. I have come to the coastal waters bordering this beach called Gahirmatha, located on the eastern coast of the country called India, to nest.

Along with hundreds to thousands of my sisters, I nest two times a year on this beach and deposit between 100 and 110 eggs per nest. Hatchlings emerge from the eggs after fifty or sixty days of incubation in the nest.

After the eggs hatch, the little turtles, my children, along with many thousands of other hatchlings, will travel across the beach to the water – their new home.

Many will not make the short distance from the nest to the sea. They will fall prey to predators like vultures from the sky or jackals and snakes on the ground. But those who cross this most important challenge so early in their lives will, like me, go on to inhabit the waters of the open ocean and the wonderful world just beneath the surface of the undulating waves.

I have travelled many thousands of miles, thru’ choppy seas and dangerous waters, to get here. I do not have many enemies in the ocean – but sharks and killer whales do attack if they are hungry and a sea turtle is the only meal ticket in sight. My sisters and I migrate like this all together, in very large numbers, about twice a year. Once nesting is over, we go back from the beaches and shallow waters to the open ocean – our home.

I live in the middle of the ocean, inhabiting the upper, sunlit regions, where most ocean organisms live. Food is abundant there – lower down, in the unlit zones, water pressure is high, temperatures are cold, and food sources scarce.

I am not vey particular about what I eat: my diet includes crabs, shrimp, rock lobsters, jellyfish and tunicates. If nothing else is available, then even algae works for me. All this is abundantly available in the open ocean, in the upper, sunlit regions, where I live most of the year, except during the nesting season. Then I need to forage in coastal waters and estuaries.

The most remarkable characteristic of my species is our nesting strategy. Hundreds to thousands of us females converge in coastal waters then come ashore simultaneously in a spectacular mass-nesting event known as an “arribada” (this is a Spanish word meaning “arrival by sea”). Human scientists also term this behavior of ours as “synchronized nesting in mass numbers”.

During our massive nesting aggregations, known as arribadas or arribazones, many thousands of us female Olive Ridely Sea Turtles nest in large simultaneous waves over small stretches of beach.

We generally begin to aggregate near nesting beaches approximately two months before nesting season.

How do I know that the time is right for the arribada? Human scientists have conducted research in order to find the answer to this question and have offered several theories.

One theory suggests that we female turtles release a hormonal scent or pheromone that queues the beginning of the event. There is also evidence that these mass-nesting events coincide with certain phases of the lunar cycle. I really do not know. There is this instinct, passed down thru’ the generations, over a period of a million years, that tells my sisters and me – all of us around the same moment (give or take a few days or weeks) – when the time has come to begin our migration to the coast. For humans, this continues to be one of nature’s great mysteries.

The majority of us Olive Ridelys who live in the Indian Ocean nest in two or three large aggregations near Gahirmatha which is located in the Bhitarkanika Widlife Sanctuary of the province of Orissa in the country called India. I am told that this is one of the largest Olive Ridely nesting populations in the world, with about 400,000 of us sisters nesting every year. However, our numbers have come down very much. Legend has it that, not more than twenty years ago, 600,000 turtles, the mothers of our mothers, nested along the coast of Orissa, from Paradip to Chilika, in one week.

Since then, our numbers have reduced. We are suffering high mortality for various reasons. Many hundreds of my sisters have met their deaths due to near shore gill nets and trawl fisheries.

Humans are our biggest enemies. They hunger for our eggs. When given an opportunity, they slaughter my nesting sisters on the beach. They try to catch us at sea, with these huge nets, for commercial sale of both our meat and hides.

We Olive Ridely turtles are widely distributed across the globe in tropical and sub-tropical oceans of the world – but our largest nesting aggregations occur in the beaches of Orissa in the Indian Ocean. Nesting occurs elsewhere along the Coromandel Coast and Sri Lanka, but in scattered locations.

In the Pacific Ocean, arribadas occur only within the tropical eastern Pacific, in Central America and Mexico. In Costa Rico, arribadas occur at Nancite and Ostional beaches. There are two active arribadas in Nicaragua; Chacocente and La Flor; and a small nesting ground in Pacific Panama. My sisters tell me that there were several arribadas in Mexico, yet only one remains at Playa Escobilla in Oaxaca.

The primary threat to my species comes from human predation in the nesting habitat. The arribada with its large congregation of nesting females makes it possible for humans to collect huge quantities of eggs and kill or collect (to sell in the market) hundreds or even thousands of us turtles in one night. This practice of mass harvesting and killing over the past sixty years has caused local populations of Olive Ridelys to plummet in many areas of the globe.

I believe that the total population of my species worldwide has fallen by an astounding fifty percent during the last fifty years.

I believe that humans have labeled my species as endangered.

Another form of human intrusion that threatens us sea turtles is the permanent destruction of the nesting habitat through coastal degradation and so-called ‘development’.

‘Development’ like the huge factory complex and port that are being built near our favourite beaches in Orissa.

‘Development’ like the dredging and excavation activity that will be carried out on vast tracts of seabed near our favourite beaches to enable this port to be built. The digging up of the seabed for creation of the port will also destroy parts of the beaches we love to nest in and will disturb what human scientists call “aquatic ecosystems” – and what I know as sources of food and of life itself.

Where will we go to nest now?

The first buyer of my second book - Shivangi Dhingra....

2010-10-22T20:41:00.000+05:30

The first buyer of my second book - Shivangi Dhingra....

My second novel: "The Inheritance" has been published...

2010-10-15T22:00:00.002+05:30

Cheers! My second novel: "The Inheritance" has been published. Click on the following link to check out the details and also to place an order on the publisher's website: http://www.atlanticbooks.com/browse/details.asp?id=22396

10 Tips For A Healthy Heart

2010-10-11T11:43:00.001+05:30

A strong heart is a result of healthy lifestyle choices. Be active and stress-free.

Today's fast-paced life and workplace pressures escalate stress levels, taking a toll on one's heart. We must realise that the healing power of the body decreases when under stress, leading to many complications like hypertension and poor immunity. Today, even youngsters are prone to heart ailments. So, it's very important to stay healthy and manage your stress levels by understanding the risk factors — high cholesterol levels, stressful lifestyle, smoking, and lack of exercise — following simple changes in lifestyle.

Avoid smoking
Smoking reduces life expectancy by 15-25 years. If you are a smoker, you are twice more likely to have a heart attack than a non-smoker. The moment you stop smoking, the risk of heart attack begins to reduce.

Cut down on salt
Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Watch your diet Try to have a balanced diet. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, starch foods such as wholegrain bread and rice.

Monitor your alcohol
Too much alcohol can damage the heart muscle, increase blood pressure and also lead to weight gain. Avoid intake of alcohol or at least limit it to one to two units a day, gradually decreasing the consumption.

Get active
At least aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day. Keeping yourself fit not only benefits the heart but also improves mental health and well-being.

Monitor your BP, blood sugar and cholesterol levels
Routine medical check-ups will ring an alarm, if you need medical help.

Manage your waist
Cholesterol deposition in blood vessels begins in the first decade of life. Carrying a lot of extra weight as fat can greatly affect your health. Make small but healthy changes in your diet.

Manage your stress level
If you find things are getting on top of you, you may fail to eat properly, smoke and drink too much. This may increase your risk of a heart attack. Practice yoga/meditation. Take a vacation.

Check your family history
If a close relative is at risk of developing coronary heart disease from smoking, high BP, high cholesterol, lack of physical activity, obesity and diabetes, then you could be at risk too.

Laughter is the best therapy
Laughter anytime will work wonders for you. It is an instant way to unleash the pressure and it makes you feel light.

UK village offers 'public sex'...

2010-10-08T14:23:00.003+05:30

(Courtesy: Puttenham Journal)
PUTTENHAM, England — There was the man they called “Bob the Builder,” who wore only a hard hat. There was the naked sunbather who remarked, “Nice day for it, isn’t it?” to a woman taking a walk. And there was the moment, Jules Perkins said, when the dizzying array of sexual forces that have somehow descended on her blameless Surrey village came together all at once, like a scene from a one-size-fits-all X-rated film.
“There were two blokes sitting side by side, watching a man and a woman having sex,” Ms. Perkins said, describing what happened as she strolled with her dog on the hill between her house and the Hog’s Back ridge. “Nearby, there were two men sunbathing together, wearing nothing but tight little white underpants.”
Later, she found a pink vibrator in the bushes.
“I gave it to the police,” she said. “They said, ‘What should we do with it?’ I said, ‘Put it in Lost Property.’ ”
Puttenham, about an hour’s drive from London, has fewer than 2,500 residents and is famous for its ancient church; its friendly pub, the Good Intent; and its proud inclusion in both the Doomesday Book — an 11th-century survey of English lands — and “Brave New World.”
Unhappily for many people here, it is also famous for being featured on lists of good places to go “dogging” — that is, to have sex in public, sometimes with partners you have just met online, so that others can watch. So popular is the woodsy field below the ridge as a spot for gay sex (mostly during the day) and heterosexual sex (mostly at night) that the police have designated it a “public sex environment.”
Public sex is a popular — and quasi-legal — activity in Britain, according to the authorities and to the large number of Web sites that promote it. (It is treated as a crime only if someone witnesses it, is offended and is willing to make a formal complaint.) And the police tend to tread lightly in public sex environments, in part because of the bitter legacy of the time when gay sex was illegal and closeted men having anonymous sex in places like public bathrooms were routinely arrested and humiliated.
Enthusiasts’ Web sites alert practitioners to known dogging locations — more than 100 in Surrey alone — and offer handy etiquette tips for the confused or overly excited.
“Only join in or move closer if you are asked,” advises one site, Swinging Heaven, which says it has more than one million registered members.
Richard Byrne, a senior lecturer in countryside management at Harper Adams University College in Shropshire, said that modern technology has made dogging much more convenient than it used to be, thanks to search engines, Facebook groups and people tweeting about their experiences. “And of course, everybody’s got mobiles,” he said.
Swinging Heaven says that the practice began in Britain in the 1970s, and that the term comes from the phenomenon of voyeurs “doggedly” following people having sex. Others say that practitioners claim to be “walking the dog” when they are, in fact, going out to meet naked strangers in fields.
Britons are a tolerant bunch, and most probably would not care who watched whom doing what in whatever configuration, as long as they all went somewhere else. Why, Puttenham residents wonder, do they have to do it 400 yards from the village nursery school?”
“We have nothing against gays or whoever it is up there,” said Lydia Paterson, who lives here. “It’s just the principle of, ‘What on earth is going on?’ ”
A stroll through the field the other day unearthed no doggers (it was raining) but revealed much evidence of their existence. Debris — used condoms, things made of rubber, pages torn from pornographic magazines, snack wrappers, discarded tea cups — littered the area. The paths were dotted with black mats that people had conveniently left behind for the next time.
Residents have been pressing the authorities to do something, arguing that the government should simply close the rest stop that provides access to the offending field, just off the busy A31 road. That way, people hoping to have sex would have nowhere to park.
But local government officials refused, saying closing it would unfairly penalize motorists who genuinely wanted just to rest and would deprive the owner of the Hog’s Back cafe, also at the rest stop, of his livelihood.
Alternative suggestions, discussed at a recent meeting of the Surrey County Council Cabinet, included deploying rangers to patrol the site on horseback; encouraging hikers to roust doggers with actual dogs; and filling the field with potentially bad-tempered bulls.
“It was like, ‘Are you taking this seriously?’ ” Ms. Paterson said. “One cabinet member said, ‘If you close this site, there could be an increase in suicides because these people have nowhere else to go.’ ”
Some older residents sympathize with the council. “Honestly, it’s been going on for so many years,” said Jennifer Debenham, 71, a customer at the Good Intent.
Referring to a nearby village, an elderly man at the bar piped up, “At Wisley, there are two sites, one for males and one for heteros.”
Mrs. Debenham said, “I think we should just let them get on with it.”
The man added, “If you want to find out more, just put ‘dogging’ into your search engine.”
Meanwhile, frazzled residents trade tales of woe: The half-dressed men who materialize from the shrubbery and theatrically pretend to be foraging for nuts and berries. The Internet reviews (“One site listed us as the No. 2 dogging site in Europe,” Ms. Perkins said wearily). The occasion when an unsuspecting motorist went for a bathroom break in the bushes, only to be surrounded by a crowd of eager men.
“It was the quickest pee he’d ever done in his life,” Ms. Paterson said.
The council has agreed to institute an “active management plan” that might include cutting down some shrubbery and putting in security patrols. And the police recently put up a sign warning people not to engage in “activities of an unacceptable nature.”
“There was a lot of debate over the wording for that sign,” Ms. Paterson said. “I guess they didn’t want to say, ‘Don’t have sex.’ ”

The first buyer of my first book...

2010-09-08T09:17:00.000+05:30

2010-09-04T20:51:00.001+05:30

My first published book: "Deceivers" is now available for purchase online. Just click on the link:

http://www.pustakmahal.com/book/book/bid,,9553A/isbn:9788122311457/index.html

The front cover of my first book...

2010-08-19T18:53:00.002+05:30

India celebrates 63 years of Independence

2010-08-14T19:40:00.000+05:30

India celebrates its 63rd Independence Day on August 15th...

2010-08-13T22:15:00.001+05:30

Now, 'listen' to Kamasutra for better sex

2010-08-06T08:54:00.000+05:30

Imagine having to read out an instruction from Kamasutra while trying to get the move right - difficult right?

This age-old flaw has now been taken care of, by releasing the world's most famous sex manual in the form of audio books.

Now all you have to do is listen to the audio to get your moves right.

Beautiful Books, of London, has commissioned actor Tanya Franks to read aloud from the treatise, including its most notorious chapter, "On Sexual Union", which describes 64 different ways of making love.

The books can be downloaded for 8.99 dollars.

Kamasutra is based on ancient Hindu philosophies and was first translated into English in 1883 under the guidance of Victorian explorer Richard Burton.

"Now there's no need to feel embarrassed by reading a copy of this wonderful and important book in public - simply download it on to your mp3 player and liven up your commute to work," The Guardian quoted Simon Petherick, the managing director of Beautiful Books, as saying.

"When I was asked to read the Kamasutra I felt nervous and excited at the thought of it," Franks said.

When we finally did it I was completely relaxed and we had a great time. The only thing missing was the cigarette afterwards," she added.

Island up for sale in Australia

2010-08-04T10:46:00.001+05:30

Owning a private island on Tasmania's east cost may be affordable for many affluent people in Australia costing equivalent of a house worth USD 500,000.

The Picnic Island - resting in Freycinet National Park's Hazard Range in the middle of Coles Bay - is up for sale by expression of interest, according to 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

"You can't really value it as a normal block of land because it's so unique," Paul Whytcross, from Roberts Real Estate in Coles Bay said.

The island in southeastern state of Australia, is expected to sell for between USD 500,000 and USD 1 million. It has permits for a 10-person eco-lodge.

"If someone came along with a plan for a long-term lease to develop the eco-tourism side of things, that would be an option," Whytcross said.

The island's rugged sandstone rocks accommodate a large colony of little penguins and a nesting ground for short-tailed shear waters.

There are abalone, oysters and mussels, too. Despite being within 500 metres of the Tasmanian shoreline, it remains relatively untouched.

"The key thing is the conservation and preservation of the sea bird colony and that limits what you can do with it," Whytcross said.

Picnic Island is within sight of the upmarket Saffire resort and has a convict history.

The original landowner of the Coles Bay area forced his convicts to quarry sandstone on the island during downturns in the whaling season.

The vendor, a Queensland property developer, bought the island for USD 65,000 in 2005.

A planning application stipulates that the only development allowed is basic camping-style accommodation.

However, it has the unique selling feature of penguins and shear waters nesting near your campsite.

Men dread their wives' driving, finds survey

2010-07-22T09:50:00.000+05:30

Believe it or not, one in three men dreads getting into the car if his better half is driving, a new survey has revealed.

Wondered why?

Well, many say wives and partners brake too late and they find themselves pushing their feet down into the footwell or gripping the edges of the passenger seat, according to the survey by British market researchers 'OnePoll.com'.

One in 10 of the 3,000 male respondents said he had been forced to grab the wheel as his partner took her eyes off the road and careered towards the central reservation of a motorway, the 'Daily Express' has reported.

They say women are too easily distracted by children, other drivers, even scenery.

The website said: "Most men believe they concentrate a lot better than women, read situations quicker and have better reactions."

But female-only motor insurers Sheilas' Wheels spokeswoman Asia Yasir said: "Claims data proves women are statistically safer."

What came first the chicken or the egg?

2010-07-12T09:28:00.000+05:30

British researchers may have uncovered a partial answer to the age-old question, "what came first the chicken or the egg?"

According to a team, comprising researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield, the answer is "chicken" or at least a particular chicken protein.

There is, however, a further twist - this particular chicken protein turns out to come both first and last. That neat trick it performs provides new insights into control of crystal growth which is key to egg shell production.

Scientists have long believed that a chicken eggshell protein called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) must play some role in egg shell formation. The protein is found only in the mineral region of the egg (the hard part of the shell) and lab bench results showed that it appeared to influence the transformation of (CaCo3) into calcite crystals. The mechanism of this control remained unclear. How this process could be used to form an actual eggshell remained unclear.

University of Warwick researchers Mark Rodger and David Quigley, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield, have now been able to apply a powerful computing tool called metadynamics and the UK national supercomputer in Edinburgh to crack this egg problem.

Dr David Quigley from the Department of Physics and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said: "Metadynamics extends conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and is particularly good at sampling transitions between disordered and ordered states of matter."

Using these tools, the team was able to create simulations that showed exactly how the protein bound to amorphous calcium carbonate surface using two clusters of "arginine residues", located on two loops of the protein and creating a literal chemical "clamp" to nano sized particles of calcium carbonate.

While clamped in this way, the OC-17 encourages the nanoparticles of calcium carbonate to transform into "calcite crystallites" that form the tiny of nucleus of crystals that can continue to grow on their own. But they also noticed that sometimes this chemical clamp didn't work. The OC-17 just seemed to detatch from the nanoparticle or "be desorbed".

Professor Mark Rodger from Department of Chemistry and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said: "With the larger nanoparticles we examined we found that the binding sites for this chemical clamp were the same as the smaller nanoparticles but the binding was much weaker. In the simulations we performed, the protein never desorbed from the smaller nanoparticle, but always fell off or desorbed from the larger one. However in each case, desorption occurred at or after nucleation of calcite."

The researchers had therefore uncovered an incredibly elegant process allowing highly efficient recycling of the OC-17 protein. Effectively it acts as a catalyst, clamping on to calcium carbonate particles to kickstart crystal formation and then dropping off when the crystal nucleus is sufficiently large to grow under its own steam. This frees up the OC-17 to promote more yet more crystallisation, facilitating the speedy, literally overnight creation of an egg shell.

The researchers believe that this new insight into the elegant and highly efficient methods of promoting and controlling crystallisation in nature will be of great benefit to anyone exploring how to promote and control artificial forms of crystallisation. '

The study appears in the international edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Rich and Poor: London's tale of two cities

2010-07-06T21:18:00.000+05:30

Residents of the decaying Robin Hood Gardens estate, where grimy windows punctuate concrete, prison-like corridors, say they feel no connection with those living a short walk away in the luxury Canary Riverside complex.

Most of those in and around these overcrowded east London blocks live on incomes less than half the national average.

Their nearest green space is a small hill scarred with burned litter and the remnants of a fire.

The scene is a far cry from the gleaming business hub of Canary Wharf with its gyms and minimalist restaurants, where a penthouse flat can cost over $3.04 million.

That discrepancy - and the wider social gulf it represents -- is unlikely to pass unnoticed in the run up to Britain's May 6 general election.

The Labour party swept to power in 1997 with a promise to close the gap between rich and poor. Yet figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank indicate inequality is now higher than when Labour took office.

"It is an amazing area for all the wrong reasons," said Tim Archer, local councillor and opposition Conservative candidate for the London seat of Poplar and Limehouse, which includes both deprived Robin Hood Gardens and financial center Canary Wharf.

"We have a difference of 10 years in life expectancy within the borough. We've got huge unemployment rates, but, thanks to Canary Wharf, we also have one of the highest numbers of jobs per head. We have prosperity and deprivation cheek by jowl."

London is home to some of Britain's richest and its poorest. The city's main newspaper, the Evening Standard, ran a campaign titled "The Dispossessed" earlier this year, highlighting the plight of the capital's needy. It found that in one of the world's wealthiest cities, poor children are still being buried in mass graves.

TOUGH LONDON

London has four out of England's eight most deprived local authorities, according to official statistics.

Tower Hamlets in east London, which includes Poplar & Limehouse, is the third poorest local authority in England. Islington, spiritual home of New Labour -- the rebranded form of Labour politics that helped it to power in 1997, is eighth.

Islington shares a border with London's financial district and is known for its trendy boutiques and numerous restaurants. It was for years home to former prime minister Tony Blair.

But, the borough is deceptive. More than 40 percent of children in primary school here are defined as living in poverty and it has the highest suicide rate in England.

The problems, say residents in these boroughs, are manifold: a chronic social housing shortage, immigration, low-level crime, poor state education.

"We know that children go to youth clubs and after-school clubs and that's where they go for a meal," Kristina Glenn, the head of the Cripplegate Foundation which funds voluntary projects in Islington, told Reuters.

"The youth workers tell us that if they don't have a meal here, they're not going to eat tonight."

For many, the latest financial crisis has exacerbated the contrast between "them and us" -- prompting hand-wringing over what the opposition Conservative party calls "Broken Britain."

It has also fueled the popularity of minor parties like Respect, fronted by maverick politician George Galloway, who has capitalized on disaffection among east London's immigrant, largely Bangladeshi, population.

"The real division that counts in this borough is between the extremely rich and politicians who serve them and the rest, who are either poor or middle income, in either case struggling to get by," Galloway said in an interview, before an afternoon of hand-shaking and door-knocking at the Robin Hood estate.

This sort of complaint strikes a cord with many of London's poorest residents, who felt left out by the boom years and now say they feel the pain of rising unemployment and spending cuts.

Labour has talked down the criticism, saying crime levels have reduced, neighborhood policing has improved and unemployment remains below the levels seen in the 80s and 90s.

"When Labour came to power in 1997, there were two million homes below the decency threshold, we've now refurbished over a million, including tens of thousands in Tower Hamlets," said Jim Fitzpatrick, Limehouse Labour MP since 1997, and standing again.

But it's a tough message to sell to an electorate disaffected with politics and politicians following an expenses scandal in which many MPs were shown to be claiming for items many voters felt to be extravagant.

"There's always been this division in Islington," shopper Marion Jones said, browsing the local outdoor market. "The wealthy have got really wealthy and everyone else has just stayed the same. It's just the way it is. It'll never change."

Kundalini Yoga

2010-06-07T12:28:00.002+05:30

Kundalini is one of the more spiritual types of yoga.

Kundalini yoga is a form of physical and meditative yoga that comprises of various techniques using the mind, body and our senses.

The Kundalini is untapped spiritual energy at the base of the spine that can be drawn up through the body awakening each of the seven chakras of the body. Full enlightenment occurs when this energy reaches the Crown Chakra (topmost).

The Kundalini energy is often represented as a snake coiled at the base of the spine. This yoga gives special consideration to the role of the spine and the endocrine system – both essential parts for yogic awakening.

It goes beyond the physical performance of asanas with its emphasis on breathing, meditation, mudras and chanting. However, it can be very physically intense and appeals to those who are up for both mental and physical challenges.

Some of the benefits one can derive from Kundalini yoga are:

- Kundalini yoga helps in the better functioning of the digestive, glandular, cardiovascular, lymphatic and nervous system.

- It has a direct bearing with the glandular system and hence can enhance the ability to look and feel great.

- It heightens the senses. So, your ability to taste, smell, feel and see with sensitivity are increased.

- It helps eliminate and get rid of habits such as smoking and alcohol addiction.

- It also helps overcome negative feelings and encourages positive attitude and feelings.

- You can experience better sense of self-control and, overcome anger and resentment to find inner calm and mental peace.

- It strengthens the immune system too and helps you fight off several diseases and keep them at bay. A positive mind is a great weapon against all of them.

- Kundalini yoga helps to enrich your sense of well-being and confidence that comes from the process of self-discovery of your inner self and reaching a relaxed state of mind and body.

Short sleep ups risk of premature death

2010-05-06T12:24:00.001+05:30

People who sleep for less than six hours each night were 12 percent more likely to die prematurely than those who get the recommended six to eight hours.

The study by the University of Warwick and Federico II University Medical School, Italy, provides evidence of the direct link between short duration of sleep and an increased chance of dying prematurely.

The research also notes that consistent overlong sleeping (over nine hours a night) can be a cause for concern. While, unlike short sleeping, overlong sleeping does not in itself increase the risk of death, it can be a significant marker of underlying serious and potentially fatal illnesses.

The study looked at the relationship between the level of habitual duration of sleep and mortality by reviewing 16 prospective studies from Britain, the US, European and East Asian countries.

The study included more than 1.3 million participants, followed up for up to 25 years, with more than 100,000 deaths recorded, said a Warwick release.

Francesco Cappuccio, professor the University of Warwick and consultant physician, said: 'Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health.'

These findings were published in Sleep.

I have just returned from a week's stay in Alpbach

2010-05-04T20:41:00.005+05:30

I have just returned from a week's stay in Alpbach - a lovely village in Tyrol, Austria. I had gone to attend a conference.

'Aral Sea' one of planet's most shocking environmental disasters: Ban Ki-Moon

2010-04-05T19:05:00.000+05:30

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has termed the 'Aral Sea' as one of the planet's most shocking environmental disasters.

Ban Ki-Moon toured Aral Sea, once the world's fourth-largest lake, by helicopter as part of a visit to the five countries of former Soviet Central Asia.

"On the pier, I wasn't seeing anything, I could see only a graveyard of ships. It is clearly one of the worst disasters, environmental disasters of the world. I was so shocked," he said.

Ban Ki-Moon, who was on his six-day trip through the region called on the countries' leaders to set aside rivalries to cooperate on repairing some of the damage, reports the Telegraph.

"I urge all the leaders to sit down together and try to find the solutions," he said assuring United Nations support.

Uzbek officials complained Ban Ki-Moon that dam projects in Tajikistan would severely reduce the amount of water flowing into Uzbekistan.

It has been reported that the sea, which has shrunk by 90 percent has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wasterlands.

There are reports that the sea shrank largely due to a Soviet project to boost cottong production in the arid region and its evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds an carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.

6 Easy Slim-Down Strategies

2010-02-24T19:23:00.003+05:30

More from Prevention

Losing weight is about a series of small steps--one less dessert here, an extra 10 minutes on the elliptical there--plus smart lifestyle moves that continually inch you closer to your goals. But like any change, try to do everything at once and you could wind up feeling deprived and deflated (and not in the good way). So instead of vowing to cut calories AND exercise 7 days a week AND forsake ice cream and pizza for the rest of your life, start out with a few of these research-proven tricks that can help you drop pounds. Once you've mastered one, add in another; before you know it you'll see results on the scale--no drastic changes required.

1) Weigh yourself daily
Why It Works: Weekly weigh-ins are a staple of many popular weight loss programs, but some studies show that daily weighing can be key to lasting weight loss. When researchers at the University of Minnesota monitored the scale habits of 1,800 dieting adults, they found that those who stepped on every day lost an average of 12 pounds over 2 years (weekly scale watchers lost only 6) and were less likely to regain lost weight. Step on the scale first thing every morning, when you weigh the least. Expect small day-to-day fluctuations because of bloating or dehydration, but if your weight creeps up by 2% (that's just 3 pounds if you weigh 150), it's time to skip dessert.

2) Keep TV viewing under 2 hours a day
Why It Works: TV junkies miss out on calorie-burning activities like backyard tag with the kids; instead, they become sitting ducks for junk-food ads. One study found that adults who watch more than 2 hours of TV per day take in 7% more calories and consume more sugary snacks than those who watch less than an hour a day. Wean yourself off the tube by introducing other activities into your life. Eliminate the temptation to watch between-show filler by recording your must-see programs so you can fast-forward through the ads. Or subscribe to a mail-order DVD service like Netflix, and make a movie the only thing you watch all day.

3) Eat 4 g of fiber at every meal
Why It Works: A high-fiber diet can lower your caloric intake without making you feel deprived. In a Tufts University study, women who ate 13 g of fiber or less per day were five times as likely to be overweight as those who ate more fiber. Experts see a number of mechanisms through which fiber promotes weight loss: It may slow down eating because it requires more chewing, speed the passage of food through the digestive tract, and boost satiety hormones. To get 25 g of fiber a day, make sure you eat six meals or snacks, each of which contains about 4 g of fiber. For to-go snacks, buy a piece of fruit; it's handier than vegetables, so it's an easy way to up your fiber intake. One large apple has just as much fiber (5 g) as a cup of raw broccoli.

4) Sleep at least 7 hours a night
Why It Works: A University of Chicago study found that people deprived of Zzzs had lower levels of the hormones that control appetite. "The research suggested that short sleep durations could be a risk factor for obesity," says James Gangwisch, Ph.D., an epidemiologist from Columbia University Medical Center. Sure enough, his follow-up study of 9,588 Americans found that women who slept 4 hours or less per night were 234% more likely to be obese. The key number for most people is 7 hours or more a night, he says, so set an early bedtime and stick to it.

5) Drink 8 glasses of water per day
Why It Works: Water is not just a thirst quencher--it may also speed the body's metabolism. Researchers in Germany found that drinking two 8-ounce glasses of cold water increased their subjects' metabolic rate by 30%, and the effect persisted for 90 minutes. One-third of the boost came from the body's efforts to warm the water, but the rest was due to the work the body did to absorb it. "When drinking water, no calories are ingested but calories are used, unlike when drinking sodas, where additional calories are ingested and possibly stored," explains the lead researcher, Michael Boschmann, M.D., of University Medicine Berlin. Increasing water consumption to 8 glasses per day may help you lose about 8 pounds in a year, he says, so try drinking a glass before meals and snacks and before consuming sweetened drinks or juices.

6) Stick to an 8-hour workday
Why It Works: A University of Helsinki study of 7,000 adults found that those who'd packed on pounds in the previous year were more likely to have logged overtime hours. Lack of time for diet and exercise is most likely the cause, but it's also possible that work stress has a direct effect on weight gain through changes in hormones like cortisol. Set firm limits on your workday so that when you're done, you still have the oomph to take a bike ride and cook a healthy dinner. To help you stay productive enough to finish on time, set an hourly alarm; when it goes off, deal with your most pressing duties.

Kenyan wins Mumbai Marathon

2010-01-17T20:37:00.002+05:30

Kenyan sprinter Dennis Ndisso won the seventh Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) held in India's commercial and film capital Mumbai this morning while Bining Lyngkhoi stood first among Indian runners in the 42-km event.

Ndisso completed the marathon in 2 hours and 12 minutes while Lyngkhoi completed in 2.20 hrs.

Sandeep Kumar bagged the Half Marathon. Hele Kebebush of Ethiopia became the winner in the foreign women's category of the SCMM.

Indian Aki Irappa was adjudged winner of the 21 km long Half Marathon in the women's category. Over 38,000 participants ran Asia's largest marathon this year.

Celebrities came out in large numbers as every year to celebrate the spirit of Mumbai.

This year's race saw runners traverse the newly-opened symbol of resurgent Mumbai, the sea link between Worli and Bandra.

The prize money this year for the full marathon is close to INR 15 million.

Superstar status stifled MJ's creativity, says George Michael

2009-12-12T21:11:00.000+05:30

George Michael believes Michael Jackson's stardom corroded his musical potential.

The former 'Wham!' member thinks that the King of Pop's death was surreal in nature.

"(Jackson's death) was sad and a bit surreal, too. Jackson's influence on the industry was massive and he made some incredible albums, especially in the '80s," the Daily Express of London has quoted him as saying.

He added: "But I do feel there was some lost potential there. Maybe that level of celebrity simply puts a stop to any musical brilliance."

Jackson's 1982 album 'Thriller' had sold more than 100 million copies, but his last studio album, Invincible, had sold just over 10 million copies after its release in 2001.

Despite downturn, more Indians are wealthier now

2009-12-08T15:13:00.001+05:30

Despite the worst recession since World War II, affluent Indians have not only managed to survive but in fact grew wealthier than before.

More affluent Indians along with other Asians say they are wealthier now compared to six months ago. According to HSBC Affluent Asian Tracker survey, savvy wealthy Indian investors came through the financial turmoil at the end of 2009 relatively unscathed.

Leading Asia's affluent are 70% of mainland Chinese respondents who reported a rise in net worth compared to only 46% six months ago. Similarly, across Asia, the number of affluent respondents reporting an increase in wealth in the past six months nearly doubled. In India, 68 % have reported higher accumulation of wealth compared to 28% six months ago. In Taiwan 61% reported a similar trend against 33% six months ago. In Malaysia, 55% have seen their wealth multiplying in last six months.

Majority of respondents claimed they gained their wealth through their employment comprising 89% in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan, 88 % in Indonesia, 87% in Australia, 84% in Taiwan and 79% in India.

Sandy Flockhart, chief executive officer of HSBC Asia-Pacific has commented: "Asia's workforce is powering the region's affluent who are fast becoming savvy about growing and managing their newly-created wealth. Riding on Asia's recovery and improved market sentiment, the affluent in the region, most particularly in mainland China, are regaining their confidence as investors and are providing momentum towards a more robust wealth management market in Asia." The number of affluent Asians reporting a decline in net worth over the past six months decreased significantly compared to six months ago.

On planned changes in investment risk appetite over the next six months, the survey showed that 31% of affluent mainland Chinese are willing to accept greater risk followed by 30% in India and 28% in Malaysia.

Spy cameras to watch over cops

2009-10-22T20:47:00.001+05:30

Corrupt police personnel in India's capital city better be on guard.

Delhi Police have bought spy cameras and microphones to nail their rotten apples. The Crime Branch bought these gadgets after police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal green signalled the proposal.

"They were bought from Delhi Police's secret fund. The recordings can be used as crucial evidence against the corrupt people in the force," said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.

This year alone more than 200 policemen have been suspended on charges of "corruption". These include more than 15 inspectors.

These spy cams are hidden in notebooks, pens, rings and bags. Recently, nine policemen including an inspector, were suspended at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) after they were caught on camera colluding with touts in fleecing passengers.

"These operations are discreetly planned. The spy cameras are given only to officers who are trustworthy. Many people in the force have vested interests so we have to be doubly sure whether the operation would be a success or not," the officer added. Police said they are increasingly taking the help of these gadgets to contain corruption.

"These gadgets are also used to record evidence in important cases. These recordings are admissible in court if corroborated with other evidences," said the officer.

Delhi government's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) had last year nailed several corrupt officials with the help of "electronic traps". Apart from the traditional methods like physical traps (using conventional methods like powder /notes), the ACB officials emphasised more on electronic traps.

New Zealand Indians propose 20million-dollar Taj Mahal replica in Auckland

2009-10-21T19:42:00.002+05:30

An Indian group in New Zealand has come up with a proposal to build a Kiwi version of the Taj Mahal in the Auckland suburb of Eden Tce.

The planned 20 million dollar replica will rise on the site of the existing Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Auckland, and could include a marble mausoleum, reflection pool and gold-plated ornaments.

"New Zealanders have their Te Papa, and what we want is a building that will reflect the grandeur and the rich Indian culture and history, and be the pride of the community here," The New Zealand Herald quoted Kanu Patel, Mahatma Gandhi Centre's chairman, as saying.

"The new building will benefit not only the Indian community but also Auckland City - as a tourist attraction, maybe - so I think there is a good reason for us to be receiving support from local government and charities," he added.

The centre has over the years hosted some of the Indian community's most significant social, cultural, religious and musical events and festivals, and the Taj Mahal replica is expected to do the same on a larger scale.

"Having a piece of land this size in central Auckland is like sitting on a goldmine, and we just have to maximize its potential. Since we own the land, we will be putting all the 20 million dollars into the building, and I think it can go quite a long way," Patel said.

The project also has the approval of local business owners, who supported the whole idea.

"At the moment, what we are seeing is a lot of business moving out of the area. Hopefully, the project can attract other businesses to set up here," said Erica Liang, a cafe owner.

Paris Hilton jumps out of cake at birthday bash

2009-10-21T19:40:00.000+05:30

Socialite Paris Hilton jumped out of a giant-sized cake to surprise her boyfriend Doug Reinhardt on his birthday. The 28-year-old star threw a surprise birthday party for her beau and doubled the effect when she burst out of the huge cake wearing a sexy hot pink outfit and a black diamond mask, reported the New York Post.

"Paris went all out for her man's birthday. No expense was spared", reported the New York Post.

He had no idea about the party and was so happy," a source said. Hilton was so keen to impress ''The Hills'' star that she organised for rap group ''Three 6 Mafia'' and hip-hop star Ya Boy to perform for the party goers.

Guests including Hollywood beauties Hayden Panettiere and Kristanna Loken partied until 3am at the nightclub Hilton has built in her home, while home videos of the couple were screened throughout the mansion. Hilton began dating Reinhardt in February this year and split with him in June.

However, the couple reunited in August when he whisked her away on a romantic break to Fiji. Reinhardt is not the only star to be presented with a giant cake on his birthday.

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise had gifted his wife actress Katie Holmes with an enormous five-tiered sponge when she turned 30 last December.

2009-10-17T16:46:00.000+05:30

Marathi film on Phalke is India's Oscar entry

2009-09-21T20:18:00.000+05:30

In 1914, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, widely known as Dadasaheb Phalke, declined an offer to make films in London. "I have to keep making films in my country so that it gets established as an industry at home," said the man who gave India its first full-length feature film Raja Harishchandra. Nearly 95 years have elapsed since then and the Indian film industry has become the biggest in the world, but the father of Indian cinema continues to inspire and contribute to the industry. The latest instance of this is Harishchandrachi Factory.

This Marathi language film about how Phalke made his first film has been nominated as India's official entry to this year's Oscars in the Foreign Film Category. It's the second Marathi film after Shwas (2004) to bag this honour. Its selection was announced by the Film Federation of India (FFI) and the jury was headed by veteran actress Asha Parekh.

"The inspiration for the film came from Dadasaheb Phalke. His adventure of filmmaking is the basis of the film," says Paresh Mokashi, director and writer of the film. Harishchandrachi Factory - which faced competition from 15 recent Indian films including New York and Delhi 6 - captures the first two years of Phalke's cinematic career. The two-hour-long film starts with Phalke giving up his printing business after a fight with his partner. Soon, he accidentally comes across a tent theatre, screening a silent film. An awestruck Phalke decided to make a film and was encouraged by his wife and two enthusiastic children. The Oscar-nominated film ends with Phalke delivering Indian film industry's first hit using his advertising acumen.

Mokashi started working on the film in 2005. The script was ready after three months of research on Phalke's life. "After that started the magical hunt for money to make the film. I didn't want to make a low-budget film and make absolutely no comprises in creating this period drama," he says.

'Slumdog Millionaire' Kid Looses Father

2009-09-07T22:58:00.000+05:30

Mohmmed Azharuddin, who featured in the Oscar winning film 'Slumdog Millionaire', has lost his father in Mumbai.

Ismail Shaikh had been suffering from advanced tuberculosis since the past two years. He had a very painful death on Friday at his Santacruz home where the family had shifted a few months ago.

Shaikh, 46, is survived by his widow Shamim, son Azharuddin, an older son and two daughters.

Shamim said that Shaikh had neglected his health and was totally immersed in making a bright future for Azharuddin, especially after "Slumdog Millionaire" became an international box office hit. She said that Azharruddin did not know much about the serious health condition of his father since the family did not want him to ignore his professional advancements.

Director Danny Boyle has written to the family expressing his condolences and support to them in this hour of grief and he is expected to visit the family some time next month.

Not enough Facebook friends? Buy them

2009-09-03T21:09:00.000+05:30

Who says you can't buy friends? An Australian online marketing company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users.

Advertising, marketing and promoting company uSocial (http://usocial.net) said it was targeting social networking sites because of their huge advertising potential.

"Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool," Leon Hill, uSocial CEO, said in a statement.

"The simple fact is that with a large following on Facebook, you have an instant and targeted group of people you can contact and promote whatever it is you want to promote," he added.

"The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a following, which is where we come in.

The company offers packages for Facebook, the world's number one social networking site, that start at 1,000 friends up to 10,000 friends at costs ranging from $177 to $1,167.

"All we do is send them a welcome message or friend request from the client. If they decide to go ahead and add that person as a friend or a fan then they will; if not, then they won't," Hill told Australian media.

Facebook is now the world's fourth-most visited website.

The company, which counts venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, Microsoft Corp and Russian Internet investment firm Digital Sky Technologies among its investors, has more than 250 million registered users.

But uSocial's packages are not without controversy.

According to some Australian websites, Twitter tried to shut uSocial down, accusing it of spamming members, while the Los Angeles Times reported that Digg.com, a website where people vote for their top news stories or websites, has also tried to shut down uSocial because it sells votes.

Nooyi, Sonia Gandhi in Forbes top 15 most powerful women list

2009-08-20T16:07:00.002+05:30

Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI Bank India and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairperson, Biocon India are the only Indians in the Forbes annual list of the 100 most powerful women.

The list, which was released last night, includes fiery chief executives, brilliant politicians and beloved queens, but the model for all women who seek influence, is the cautious and uncharismatic German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Nooyi is listed as the third most powerful woman in the world, while Sonia Gandhi Kochhar and Shaw are ranked 13, 20 and 91 respectively. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed is the only other South Asian in the list and is ranked 78.

Americans make up 63 of the 100, while only four women from Britain make the grade

In assembling the list, Forbes looked for women who run countries, big companies or influential nonprofits. Their rankings are a combination of two scores:

Visibility - by press mentions - and the size of the organization or country these women lead.

The list is as follows:

1 Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany

2 Sheila Bair Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. U.S.

3 Indra Nooyi Chief Executive, PepsiCo U.S.

4 Cynthia Carroll Chief Executive, Anglo American U.K.

5 Ho Ching Chief Executive, Temasek Singapore

6 Irene Rosenfeld Chief Executive, Kraft Foods U.S.

7 Ellen Kullman Chief Executive, DuPont U.S.

8 Angela Braly Chief Executive, WellPoint U.S.

9 Anne Lauvergeon Chief Executive, Areva France

10 Lynn Elsenhans Chief Executive, Sunoco U.S.

11 Cristina Fernandez President Argentina

12 Carol Bartz Chief Executive, Yahoo U.S.

13 Sonia Gandhi President, Indian National Congress Party, India

14 Ursula Burns Chief Executive, Xerox Corp. U.S.

15 Anne Mulcahy Chairperson, Xerox Corp. U.S.

16 Safra Catz President, Oracle U.S.

17 Christine Lagarde Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, France

18 Gail Kelly Chief Executive, Westpac Australia

19 Marjorie Scardino Chief Executive, Pearson Plc. U.K.

20 Chanda Kochhar Chief Executive, ICICI Bank India

21 Mary Sammons Chief Executive, Rite Aid Corp. U.S.

22 Michelle Bachelet President of Chile

23 Paula Reynolds Chief Restructuring Officer, AIG U.S.

24 Carol Meyrowitz Chief Executive, TJX Companies U.S.

25 Andrea Jung Chief Executive, Avon U.S.

26 Patricia Woertz Chief Executive, Archer Daniels Midland U.S.

27 Guler Sabanci Chairperson, Sabanci Holding Turkey

28 Barbara Desoer President, Bank of America Mortgage, Home Equity and Insurance U.S.

29 Brenda Barnes Chief Executive, Sara Lee Corp. U.S.

30 Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Chief Executive, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation U.S.

31 Ann Livermore Executive Vice President, Hewlett-Packard U.S.

32 Cathie Lesjak Executive vice president, Hewlett-Packard U.S.

33 Marina Berlusconi Chairperson, Fininvest Group Italy

34 Melinda Gates Co-chairperson, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation U.S.

35 Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House, House of Representatives U.S.

36 Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State U.S.A.

37 Jane Mendillo Chief Executive, Harvard Management Co. U.S.

38 Margaret Chan Director-general, World Health Org. Switzerland

39 Susan Chambers Executive Vice President, Global People Division, Wal-Mart Stores U.S.

40 Michelle Obama First Lady of U.S.A.

41 Oprah Winfrey Chairperson, Harpo U.S.

42 Queen Elizabeth II Queen of U.K.

43 Nancy McKinstry Chief Executive, Wolters Kluwer Netherlands

44 Gloria Arroyo President of Philippines

45 Ana Patricia Botin Executive Chairperson, Banesto Spain

46 Ann Veneman Executive Director, UNICEF U.S.

47 Yulia Tymoshenko Prime Minister of Ukraine

48 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Supreme Court Justice U.S.

49 Janet Robinson Chief Executive, The New York Times Co. U.S.

50 Dominique Senequier Chief Executive, AXA Private Equity France

51 Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security U.S.

52 Neelie Kroes Commissioner for Competition, European Union Belgium

53 Gail Boudreaux President, UnitedHealthcare U.S.

54 Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court Justice U.S.

55 Mary Schapiro Chairperson Securities and Exchange Commission U.S.

56 Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of Health and Human Services U.S.

57 Ellen Alemany Chief Executive, RBS Americas and Citizens Financial Group U.S.

58 Susan Ivey Chief Executive, Reynolds American U.S.

59 Amy Pascal Cochairperson, Sony Pictures Entertainment U.S.

60 Helen Clark Chairman, United Nations Development Group New Zealand

61 Judy McGrath Chief executive, MTV Networks U.S.

62 Stacey Snider Chief Executive, DreamWorks SKG U.S.

63 Navanethem Pillay High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations South Africa

64 Janet Clark Chief financial Officer, Marathon Oil U.S.

65 Sherilyn McCoy Worldwide Chairperson, Pharmaceuticals Group, Johnson and Johnson U.S.

66 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf President of Liberia

67 Tarja Halonen President of Finland

68 Mary McAleese President of Ireland

69 Virginia Rometty Senior Vice President, IBM U.S.

70 Angela Ahrendts Chief Executive, Burberry Group Plc. U.K.

71 Sri Indrawati Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance Indonesia

72 Terri Dial Chief Executive, U.S. Consumer Bank, Citigroup U.S.

73 Deirdre Connelly President, North American Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithkline U.S.

74 Johanna Sigurdardottir Prime Minister of Iceland

75 Queen Rania Queen of Jordan

76 Christina Gold Chief Executive, Western Union U.S.

77 Colleen Goggins Worldwide Chairperson, Johnson and Johnson U.S.

78 Hasina Wajed Prime Minister of Bangladesh

79 Hyun Jeong-eun Chairperson, Hyundai Group South Korea

80 Amy Schulman Senior Vice President, Pfizer U.S.

81 Penny Pritzker Chairperson, Classic Residence by Hyatt U.S.

82 Drew Faust President, Harvard University U.S.

83 Melanie Healey Group President, Feminine and Health Care, Procter and Gamble U.S.

84 Elizabeth Smith President, Avon U.S.

85 Deb Henretta Group President, Asia, Procter and Gamble Singapore

86 Ann Moore Chief Executive, Time Inc. U.S.

87 Sallie Krawcheck Chief Executive Global Wealth Management, Bank of America U.S.

88 Pamela Nicholson President, Enterprise Rent-A-Car U.S.

89 Janice Fields Chief Operating Officer, McDonald's USA U.S.

90 Stephanie Burns Chief Executive, Dow Corning U.S.

91 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Chairperson, Biocon India

92 Eva Cheng Executive Vice President, Amway Greater China and Southeast Asia Hong Kong

93 Efrat Peled Chief Executive, Arison Investments Israel

94 Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi Minister of the Economy United Arab Emirates

95 Charlene Begley Chief Executive, GE Enterprise Solutions U.S.

96 Mindy Grossman Chief Executive, HSN, Inc. U.S.

97 Sharon Allen Chairperson, Deloitte and Touche U.S.

98 Anne Sweeney Co-chairperson, Disney Media Networks U.S.

99 Heidi Miller Chief Executive Treasury and Securities Services, JPMorgan Chase U.S.

100 Mary Erdoes Chairperson, JPMorgan Global Wealth Management U.S.

Jackson harmed himself before death: Reports

2009-08-19T23:34:00.000+05:30

In a bid to obtain powerful prescription drugs, Michael Jackson banged his head and hurt himself before his death in June, media reports say.

The pop music icon, who died June 25 after a cardiac arrest, was said to have been so desperate to fuel his addiction that he harmed himself to convince doctors to give him medication that included the strong pain killer Demerol, reports contactmusic.com.

'LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) detectives have interviewed some 30-35 witnesses so far, and it has come to light that Jackson was prone to self-harming. He'd bang his head against the wall, hit his fists and arms against furniture, anything to cause a cut or a bruise.

'He wanted to convince his doctors that he'd had an accident and was in a lot of pain -- a legitimate reason to ask for painkillers. This came up as part of the investigation into Michael's drug-taking. So far there's no evidence to prove or disprove the claims,' a source told Britain's Daily Mirror.

A family source told the newspaper that the late singer was an attention seeker and used to harm himself for that reason.

'Michael self-harmed as an attention-seeking mechanism or to gain sympathy. He enjoyed being cared for. It was a huge cry for help,' said the family member.

Now, a UFO-like flying shape photographed over stately home in England

2009-08-03T19:42:00.001+05:30

A UFO sighting claim has once again been made in the UK, with a mystery object now being photographed hovering above a magnificent stately home in Hertfordshire.

The picture of the flying shape was clicked hovering over the house at Hatfield, near Welwyn Garden City.

It was Chris Middleton, of Welwyn, snapped the mystery object during a a visit to the Jacobean house and garden, the home of the 7th Marquess of Salisbury.

"It made no noise and I didn't see it until I put the image on my computer. If you sharpen the image and zoom right in you can see its no normal aircraft and you can see a red heat source behind it," the Telegraph of London quoted him as saying.

"I think it's impossible for there not to be something like that out there - the universe is so vast. He had the intriguing image examined by professional photographers - and none of them could explain it," he added.

Richard Wiseman, a professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, who has an international reputation for research into the paranormal, said: "It's very difficult to tell what it is because it is tricky to know how far the object is from the camera. I guess that it could be a bird or a paraglider in the distance, or a small piece of dust or debris very close to the lens. Either way, I don't think Hatfield House should be bracing themselves for a close encounter of the third kind quite yet."

Japan's Gundam Robot Mania...

2009-07-26T19:41:00.003+05:30

Courtesy wsj.com...

Like something out of a science-fiction movie, the robot stands 18 meters tall and towers above the tree line. But to the thousands of visitors who have come by Odaiba's Shiokaze Park just outside Tokyo, it is a familiar sight. It's Gundam.

The statue, a "life-size" replica of the television anime (Japanese slang for animated series) character created in 1979, was erected this month and will stand in the park through August. It was built by Bandai, the parent company of Sunrise, the animation studio that created the original series, "Mobile Suit Gundam," to celebrate the iconic cartoon's 30th anniversary and acknowledge the $528 million franchise of spin-offs, toys and books it has spawned in that time. Some fans even say the fictional robot has played a part in Japan's rise in the world of robotics engineering and technology.

Set 100 years in the future on extraterrestrial mining colonies (colonies established on other planets or moons for the purpose of extracting minerals) as well as on Earth, "Mobile Suit Gundam" imagines a radical future, where robots are commonplace. A renegade faction, the principality of Zeon (an extraterrestrial colony), has declared war on Earth Federation (a global government of the future) in a bid to become independent. The weapon of choice (created by Zeon but quickly replicated by Earth) is a "mobile suit," a robot driven by a human pilot who sits inside. The RX-78 Gundam -- named for the fictional alloy, Gundanium, from which it is made -- is used by a young pilot in defense of Earth.

Since the first series aired -- and the many other series, movies and made-for-the-Web shows that followed -- children and adults have been hooked on the melodrama featuring these giant martial robots. The mania has fueled several animated series and original Internet animations, films, manga and novels, videogames and plastic models (called pura-mo), merchandise including clothing, costumes, beach towels and even government-issued postage stamps.

Jackson's hair made into diamonds -- for real

2009-07-25T20:29:00.000+05:30

Since Michael Jackson's sudden death on June 25, the rumor mill over details of his bizarre personal life has ground away nearly non-stop, and on Friday, one company said it was turning his hair into diamonds. That one is true.

The claims this week included a report in Rolling Stone magazine that a prosthetic nose he wore apparently went missing when he was taken to the morgue, and a British tabloid trumpeted a headline that he fathered a secret love-child.

In one by-product of the "Thriller" singer's death, a Chicago company said on Friday it had obtained some of the hair Jackson burned while filming a 1984 Pepsi commercial and planned to create a limited edition of diamonds from it.

"Absolutely this is for real," said Dean VandenBiesen, founder of LifeGem, which has a patent on a process that extracts carbon from hair, turns it into crystals and then into high-quality laboratory diamonds.

VandenBiesen told Reuters he thought the company could make about 10 diamonds. No sale price has been set but VandenBiesen said LifeGem created three diamonds from locks of Beethoven's hair in 2007, and sold one of them for around $200,000.

Separately, the Aug. 6 issue of Rolling Stone magazine reported that not only was the left arm of Jackson's dead body "scored with needle marks" -- claims that have arisen before -- but he wore an artificial nose that was missing when he was taken to the Los Angeles county morgue.

"The prosthesis that he normally attached to his damaged nose was missing, revealing bits of cartilage surrounding a small dark hole," the magazine said in an unsourced report.

While that report could not be confirmed, Los Angeles coroner's officials did say earlier this week they were probing security breaches in their offices.

The coroner's office is expected to release an official cause of death next week which could shed light on some of the reports, including Jackson's possible use of powerful drugs.

And even as custody of Jackson's three children is set to be decided in court on Aug. 3, The Sun newspaper speculated the singer may have had a love-child raised in Norway.

Omer Bhatti, 25, sparked interest when he was spotted sitting with the singer's immediate family at Jackson's public memorial earlier this month. Bhatti reportedly spent time with Jackson at his Neverland Valley Ranch in the 1990s and was known as "Little Michael".

But another of Jackson's former proteges, singer Ricky Harlow, told celebrity website People.com on Friday that although they were close he doubted Bhatti was Jackson's son.

"They had a father-and-son type of connection," Harlow, 26, told People, "but I never thought he (Jackson) was his biological father."

In Jackson's 2002 will, the singer listed only three children now living: Prince Michael Jackson, Jr, Paris Michael Kathering Jackson and Prince Michael Joseph Jackson II.

MOUNTAIN OF DEBT: Rising US government debt may be next (world) crisis

2009-07-04T13:36:00.000+05:30

MOUNTAIN OF DEBT: Legacy of debt from Founding Fathers not celebrated on Independence Day

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America left one legacy not celebrated on Independence Day but which affects us all (in the US and all over the world). It's the national debt.

The country first got into debt to help pay for the Revolutionary War. Growing ever since, the debt stands today at a staggering $11.4 trillion -- equivalent to about $37,000 for each and every American. And it's expanding by over $1 trillion a year.

The mountain of debt easily could become the next full-fledged economic crisis without firm action from Washington, economists of all stripes warn.

"Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told Congress.

Higher taxes, or reduced federal benefits and services -- or a combination of both -- may be the inevitable consequences.

The debt is complicating efforts by President Barack Obama and Congress to cope with the worst recession in decades as stimulus and bailout spending combine with lower tax revenues to widen the gap.

Interest payments on the debt alone cost $452 billion last year -- the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense. It's quickly crowding out all other government spending. And the Treasury is finding it harder to find new lenders.

The United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed $75 million in the war debts of the Continental Congress.

Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, said, "A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."

Some blessing.

Since then, the nation has only been free of debt once, in 1834-1835.

The national debt has expanded during times of war and usually contracted in times of peace, while staying on a generally upward trajectory. Over the past several decades, it has climbed sharply -- except for a respite from 1998 to 2000, when there were annual budget surpluses, reflecting in large part what turned out to be an overheated economy.

The debt soared with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and economic stimulus spending under President George W. Bush and now Obama.

The odometer-style "debt clock" near Times Square -- put in place in 1989 when the debt was a mere $2.7 trillion -- ran out of numbers and had to be shut down when the debt surged past $10 trillion in 2008.

The clock has since been refurbished so higher numbers fit. There are several debt clocks on Web sites maintained by public interest groups that let you watch hundreds, thousands, millions zip by in a matter of seconds.

The debt gap is "something that keeps me awake at night," Obama says.

He pledged to cut the budget "deficit" roughly in half by the end of his first term. But "deficit" just means the difference between government receipts and spending in a single budget year.

This year's deficit is now estimated at about $1.85 trillion.

Deficits don't reflect holdover indebtedness from previous years. Some spending items -- such as emergency appropriations bills and receipts in the Social Security program -- aren't included, either, although they are part of the national debt.

The national debt is a broader, and more telling, way to look at the government's balance sheets than glancing at deficits.

According to the Treasury Department, which updates the number "to the penny" every few days, the national debt was $11,518,472,742,288 on Wednesday.

The overall debt is now slightly over 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product.

By historical standards, it's not proportionately as high as during World War II, when it briefly rose to 120 percent of GDP. But it's still a huge liability.

Also, the United States is not the only nation struggling under a huge national debt. Among major countries, Japan, Italy, India, France, Germany and Canada have comparable debts as percentages of their GDPs.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, established by a former US commerce secretary and investment banker, argues that the $11.4 trillion debt figures does not take into account roughly $45 trillion in unlisted liabilities and unfunded retirement and health care commitments.

That would put the nation's full obligations at $56 trillion, or roughly $184,000 per American, according to this calculation.

Men find Miss Average more attractive than centrefold babes

2009-06-12T17:09:00.000+05:30

Melbourne, June 11 (ANI): Here's some good news for size 14 women:

Gentlemen find the homely shape of the girl-next-door more attractive than the 'perfect' proportions of models.

That's the conclusion of a new study which involved 100 male students.

Miss Average can be defined as a 5ft 4in female with a 30in waist and 40in hips.

Aussie boffins asked male volunteers to rate the attractiveness of more than 200 drawings of female torsos of different sizes, The Couriermail reported.

They then compared the most attractive torsos with the vital statistics of eight groups of women, including models, Playboy centrefolds and normal members of the population.

The New Scientist reports that the real women best matched the ideal body shape, with the best fit being a British size 14.

Researcher Dr Martin Grundl said: "Why the subjects prefer this body most of all is pure speculation."

"That is the nature of beauty - it is very easily to recognize but it is very hard to describe and to explain with words."

Enjoy world's most expensive curry in London for 2,000 pounds

2009-06-07T15:36:00.000+05:30

The world's most expensive curry has been launched in London, and it costs 2,000 pounds a portion.

The curry, named Samundari Khazana, or Seafood Treasure, is a mix of caviar, sea snails, a whole lobster and even edible gold.

It is served by London's top-notch eatery Bombay Brasserie.

Even though the expensive dish comes amidst the ongoing recession, head chef Prahlad Hegde says that it is still affordable by some.

"There are still people out there with money to spend and this curry is a real experience," the Sun quoted Hegde as saying.

Hegde prepares the dish with Devon crab and white truffle, while his assistant painstakingly pressed gold leaf on to half a cherry tomato, its flesh replaced with Beluga caviar.

The chef puts four sea snails - abalone - costing almost 300 pounds a kilo into a sizzling pan, as another cook coated an 80 pounds Scottish lobster in gold, while a third deftly hollowed out four shelled quails' eggs before filling them with more caviar.

"The idea is from a basic Indian recipe I got from my mum but we are using the finest ingredients in the world," Hegde explained.

"The fish and seafood is marinated in chilli and tamarind paste, then I'm going to slice truffle over the top to give it a nutty flavour," he added.

The five tiny shavings of truffle cost 90 pounds, while the shimmering, edible gold cost a staggering 1,000 pounds for just 10g.

The curry has been created to coincide with the DVD launch of Oscar-winning flick Slumdog Millionaire, which is set in India.

Eat greens, lower prostate cancer risk

2009-06-07T15:33:00.000+05:30

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables but low in fat and red meat is the new mantra for preventing and treating prostate cancer.

Robert Ma and K. Chapman of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, conducted an evidence-based review of dietary recommendations in the prevention of prostate cancer and in the management of patients with prostate cancer.

They found that a diet rich in fruits and vegetable but low in fat and red meat and cutting down on dairy products may help prevent prostate cancer. This diet is helpful for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer as well.

Specifically, consumption of tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, green tea and vitamins including Vitamin E and selenium appear to decrease the risk of prostate cancer.

Consumption of highly processed or charcoaled meats, dairy products, and fats seemed to be correlated with prostate cancer, said a UNSW release.

'Although not conclusive, results suggest that general dietary modification has a beneficial effect on the prevention of prostate cancer,' the authors concluded.

The study was published in the June issue of the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

Slim down to save the earth

2009-06-05T12:52:00.002+05:30

Fat people contributing to climate change, says UK's green guru

Fat people are a threat to the planet as they are contributing to climate change, believes Sir Jonathan Porritt, the British Government's chief green adviser.

In a lecture to representatives of the food industry, Sir Jonathan, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, said, "fat is a climate change issue", reports The Telegraph of London.

The ex-Green Party politician, who earlier caused controversy by suggesting that people should not have more than two kids to prevent over-population, pinpointed that overweight people eat more protein-rich food such as beef or lamb.

Such intake is responsible for giving rise to greenhouse gases because of the toxic methane livestock emits.

He also said obese people are more likely to use cars rather than walk or cycle, therefore producing more carbon emissions.

"The World Health Organisation recently published some data showing that each overweight person causes an additional one tonne of CO2 to be emitted every year," he said.

"With one billion people judged to be overweight around the world of whom at least 300 million are obese - that's an additional one billion tonnes," he added.

Finally, Archie Andrews to marry Veronica... not Betty

2009-05-28T18:46:00.002+05:30

Toronto: The age-old love triangle of Archie comics has finally been broken, after Riverdale's ultimate Playboy Archie Andrews picked the vixen Veronica over girl-next-door Betty to be his wife.

So what if Betty was a blonde, loyal and kind - when it came to popping the question Archie chose the raven-haired, charming and rich Veronica.

After 67 years of being in a dilemma, Archie is all set to tie the knot with the vixen - a choice that left many Archie comic fans in gasps.

Archie Comic Publications announced on May 27 that the flighty redhead from Riverdale picked Veronica over Betty Cooper.

Already in mid-May, the publisher sent speculation swirling when it announced a special marital-themed storyline for release in August, but didn't reveal the lucky lady.

The wedding will take place after the gang graduate from college, and venture out into the working world.

However, the response to the proposal has been markedly divided - Betty fans are outraged that the girl next door has been ditched yet again for the beautiful, yet spoilt, Ronnie.

While many fans are questioning whether Archie should marry at all, because it could mean a possible end to the enduring comic-book soap opera.

The cover of Archie Comics (issue 600) shows Archie proposing to Veronica.

The latest fad: Bikini jeans

2009-04-22T20:22:00.000+05:30

LONDON: Just when people thought fashion world couldn't get any weirder, along comes - the bikini jeans!

Priced at 62 pounds, the eye-catching apparel features a thong sewn into a pair of supremely low-slung jeans.

Brainchild of Japanese clothing company Sanna's, the booty-cut bottoms were born after a customer said she wanted jeans that sat lower than the hips but did not need to be hiked up in an unladylike fashion, reports Wales Online.

Designer Sandra Tanimura, who owns a pair of the bikini jeans herself, said: "This was very difficult without the trousers falling down, so I came up with the idea of using the bikini strings.

"They have already taken off in Japan and we believe they will be just as popular in the UK, especially with bold women who like their own bodies."

However, stylist Wenda James-Rowe said: "They are totally tasteless and terrible - it's taking things to the extreme.

"If you have a pair of jeans that fall down, just wear a belt. To wear these you would have to be stick thin or you would have big bulges coming out the gaps.

"It's not something I would wear - maybe they would appeal to really young girls but even if they do, I think the attraction will be short-lived."

When monkeys go on a fast - a folk tale from Karnataka, India...

2009-04-18T20:16:00.000+05:30

A group of monkeys decided to go on a day's fast to celebrate a religious festival.

“Before we begin, I think we should keep the food with which we’ll break the fast ready,” counselled the old monkey chief.

The monkeys nodded their heads in agreement. The youngsters were sent in search of food. They returned with huge hands of delicious-looking bananas.

“I think each of us should keep our share of bananas with us before we begin our fast, so that we don’t spend time distributing them after we break our fast. You can imagine how hungry we all will be by then!” said the chief minister of the monkey tribe.

The monkeys liked the idea and they all immediately collected their share of the bananas.

“Why don’t we peel one banana and keep it ready to eat? ” said one of the youngsters.

“Yes, let’s do that,” shouted a fat monkey in agreement. Just looking at the bananas was making him hungry.

“All right,” said the monkey chief. “We shall peel the bananas but under no condition should we eat them.”

So the monkeys peeled their bananas and carefully kept them ready for eating in the evening.

“Can I keep the banana in my mouth? I promise not to eat it till evening. Please!” a little monkey asked his father.

“Why don’t we all put a banana in our mouth? That way we can chew it immediately when we break the fast,” said his father, who had agreed to go on the fast only because his wife had not given him a choice. “As long as we don’t eat it, it should be fine,” he added.

So, the monkeys put the bananas in their mouths. One by one they eyed each other uncomfortably as they began their fast — and as you can imagine, within no time at all, the bananas disappeared down their gullets. And that was the end of their fast!

Our daughters gifted this to Priti and me on our nineteenth wedding anniversary

2009-04-14T00:06:00.002+05:30

Lipstick loses its gloss to foundation in race against recession!

2009-04-13T23:52:00.002+05:30

With the world struggling in the clutches of one of the deepest recessions in history, women are trying really hard to keep their spirits up .....by kissing goodbye to lipsticks and welcoming flawless skin.

A large number of women are dealing with economic crisis with liquid foundation, and thus supplanting lipstick as the essential item in make-up bags in the recession.

Cosmetic experts claim that British females are far more likely to plump for foundation, reports "The Scotsman".

Estee Lauder Chairman coined the term "Lipstick Index" during the 2001 recession to highlight the link between economic downturns and lipstick sales.

"When lipstick sales go up, people don't want to buy dresses," he said at the time.

"When things get tough, women buy lipstick."

However, L'Oreal, the world's largest beauty company, has found in the UK market that foundation has edged out lipstick as the "must-have" product for women, with more than one third of 18 and 19-year-olds citing it as their most essential beauty product against 8 percent opting for lipstick.

In the UK, foundation sales rose 15 percent last year, against 2.5 percent for lipstick, according to market research group Nielsen.

TNS Worldpanel, another consumer research body, reports foundation sales are up 25.3 percent in the year to February against a 5.7 percent decline in lipstick sales.

Austrian village offers free land to boost population

2009-03-21T18:28:00.000+05:30

A village in northern Austria, worried by its dwindling population, is offering free land to all who pledge to start a family in a decade.

Plots of 800 and 900 square metres (8,611 to 9,687 square feet) are up for grabs at Rappottenstein, near the Czech border, to both singles and married couples who pledge to have at least one child in the next 10 years.

Singles also have to get married. Other conditions stipulate that the new owners have to build a house on the plot in three years. If the conditions are not fulfilled, the owners will have to pay 12,000 euros (15,163 dollars).

The commune where the village is located is home to only 1,760 people.

Yesterday was Priti and my nineteenth wedding anniversary...

2009-03-17T22:52:00.003+05:30

2009 sees Friday the 13th occurring in two months in a row after 11yrs

2009-03-13T21:52:00.000+05:30

For the first time in 11 years, 2009 registered Friday the 13th falling in two consecutive months-February and March.

And what's more, the double whammy can only occur in certain non-leap years and only in a February-March combination.

In fact, one can look for another of the Friday the 13th combo in 2015. If this wasn't enough, the double threat isn't the only Friday the 13th claim to infamy for 2009, a particularly tough year for superstitious minds.

The ominous date falls on three Fridays this year: February 13; this Friday, March 13; and again on November 13.

However, three Friday the 13ths in one year is the maximum it can get, at least until we follow the Gregorian calendar, which Pope Gregory XIII ordered the Catholic Church to adopt in 1582.

"You can't have any [years] with none and you can't have any with four because of our funny calendar," National Geographic News quoted Underwood Dudley, a professor emeritus of mathematics at DePauw University in Greencastle, as saying.

The calendar works just as its predecessor the Julian calendar did, with a leap year every four years.

But the Gregorian calendar skips leap year on century years except those divisible by 400.

For example, there was no leap year in 1900 but one was observed in 2000. This trick keeps the calendar in tune with the seasons.

Thus, Dudley noted that we have an ordering of days and dates that repeats itself every 400 years.

And in this order, some years such as 2009 appear with three Friday the 13ths. Other years have two or one.

"It's just that curious way our calendar is constructed, with 28 days in February and all those 30s and 31s," said Dudley.

And there's one more revelation with the 400-year order in practice: The 13th falls on Friday more often than any other day of the week.

"It's just a funny coincidence," said Dudley.

Richard Beveridge, a mathematics instructor at Clatsop Community College in Oregon, authored a 2003 paper in the journal Mathematical Connections on the mathematics of Friday the 13th.

He noted the 400-year cycle is further broken down into periods of either 28 or 40 years.

"At the end of every cycle you get a year with three Friday the 13ths the year before the last year in the cycle ... and you also get one on the tenth year of all the cycles," he said.

Two thousand nine is the tenth year of the cycle that started in 2000.

Wishing you a very happy Holi...

2009-03-10T23:10:00.002+05:30

Best wishes on the occasion of the Festival of Colours. Have a great day!

Tibet's silent spring

2009-03-01T23:01:00.003+05:30

Losar, the ongoing Tibetan New Year, is likely to herald a silent spring. There will be none of the festivities that greet the arrival of spring that marks the most important holiday in the Tibetan calendar.

This year has seen Tibetans depart from tradition and mark the day by mourning those dead in the protests last March. By observing Black Losar, they will also be mourning Tibet's rapidly degrading environment which has brought increased socio-economic vulnerability in its wake.

There is growing social angst that, if left unchecked, there could soon be no spring left to celebrate.

For their part, many in Beijing may well wonder what the fuss is all about. After all, Tibet has been very much the poster child of China's Western Development Strategy. The policy was unveiled in the mid-'90s to make amends for regional disparities seen as "an eagle spreading only one wing for flight".

The strategy has been a fairly uncomplicated mix-and-stir model of development with an enormous infusion of funds to fast-track the region's growth. Huge subsidies and investments have poured in, transforming Tibet's skyline with gleaming engineering marvels. The Tibetan economy has posted double-digit growth rates for several years in a row. In short, an in-your-face prosperity that Beijing thought was guaranteed to end all debate.

Ironically, it has only started a raging debate on prosperity and its discontents.

Its all-consuming obsession with growth has meant that China's contributions to global warming are today as massive as those to the global economy. Chinese scientists have long warned that Tibet is warming up faster than any other part of the world. Rising temperatures on the plateau will melt glaciers, dry up rivers and set off droughts, floods and desertification. Tibet has also seen a relentless surge in footfall with four million tourists in 2007, outnumbering the local population of 2.8 million and overwhelming its fragile environment.

These ecological footprints are fast enveloping areas of North China; those have borne the brunt of powerful sandstorms, with one such storm depositing Beijing with 330,000 tonnes of sand in 2006. The same year also saw one of the worst droughts in over 50 years, leaving 10 million people without access to drinking water.

It remains to be seen if policy can be sensitised to securing the acceptance of local communities for resource development activities. This will essentially mean acknowledging that conservation and sustainable livelihoods of local people are inseparable.

Some of these questions will also bring with them an eerie sense of deja vu, particularly given that India's Northeast is also negotiating many of these challenges. Many large projects are being planned in areas that are traditionally revered as sacred landscapes and groves.

These concerns were brought out starkly, for instance, when China built a 108 km-long highway to the Mt Everest base camp last year to cut an easy trail for tourists and mountaineers. For the Tibetans, such acts defile the sanctity of sacred landscapes that need to be always preserved since "man should not walk in the house of a god".

Thus development projects that are seen as coming at the cost of traditions have little cultural resonance with communities.

If handled well, these debates can help define sustainable resource use patterns and the limits of acceptable use. It is true that, while there is deep resistance to accepting any curbs on growth, there is an emerging consensus on the severe extent of environmental degradation. China has set itself a number of ambitious environmental targets for the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). President Hu Jintao also called for a policy reprioritisation when he recently noted, "Development and conservation are equally important - and conservation should be put first." Environmental NGOs such as Friends of Nature and Green Watershed are expanding a small but growing organisational space to engage the state on the issue of environmental protection.

No less significant was the recent decision taken to scale down proposed dams on the Nu River from 13 to 4 in the face of a highly organised campaign led by local farmers and environmental campaigners. New literature coming out of China, such as Cao Jinqing's China along the Yellow River and The Blue Book brought out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also makes compelling reading, especially for the increasingly frank treatment of complex social pressures.

Losar and its larger subtext of environmental degradation hold the mirror up to China's future. If China is prepared to look in that mirror, Losar could be a metaphor for beginning a bold new conversation on change and sustainability while there is still time. If not, Rachel Carson's chilling warning of "a spring without voices" will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Tibetan New Year may indeed be less a time to celebrate than a time to reflect and unlearn.

1 in 5 Brit kids have imaginary friends

2009-03-01T18:54:00.000+05:30

One in five young British children have imaginary friends, says a new study.

What's more, nearly half of the kids take part in make-believe games every day, the BBC study, together with parenting skills expert Dr Pat Spungin, found.

To reach the conclusion, the research team examined the lives of children in 1,446 UK homes and looked at how often they engaged in imaginative activity.

One in five children have an imaginary friend with 62 per cent being girls aged between three and five, reports The Telegraph.

When parents were quizzed about the "kind" of imaginary pal their child had, most pointed to them as other little boys or girls, some parents thought their child had fantasy pets or characters from fiction and many attributed their child's alter-ego to an entirely made up creature.

A total of 43 per cent of children play at make-believe every day according to the report and girls were found to be "more imaginative" on a daily basis than boys.

Experience-based activities such as school, house and shop are top of the list of favourite make-believe games with imaginary fictional characters like princesses and superheroes a close second.

Dr Spungin said: "There are lots of psychological reasons why children play make believe. In games like 'house' and 'shop' children are practicing the adult roles they will eventually play and parents are often shocked to hear how closely their children imitate them.

"Wanting to playact princesses and superheroes is more aspirational; it's about having a bit of the power and glamour of the adult world."

The research was commissioned for the DVD launch of BBC children's series Charlie and Lola.

A R Rahman Wins Two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire

2009-02-23T20:53:00.001+05:30

Music director A R Rahman created history after he became first Indian to win two Oscars for the film Slumdog Millionaire at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony held in Los Angeles last night.

Rahman made the country proud by winning in the categories for best original score and best original song Jai Ho.

Earlier, he became the first Indian to win the British Academy (Bafta) Awards in the music category.

Rahman also won the Golden Globe Award for Slumdog Millionaire.

The film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle had a sweeping victory at the awards ceremony after it won eight Oscars out of 10 nominations.

The categories in which Slumdog Millionaire won the coveted award include best picture, best direction, best original score, best original song, best sound mixing, best film editing, best adapted screenplay and best cinematography.

It was an historic moment for another Indian Resul Pookutty as he won an Oscar for best sound mixing. He shared the trophy with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

Slumdog Millionaire is a story of Mumbai-based boy's journey from rags to riches by winning a game show.

Earlier, the film won prestigious Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy (Bafta) Awards and Critic's Choice Award in California.

Three India themed films in race for the Oscars...

2009-02-22T21:21:00.003+05:30

Courtesy...

'Slumdog Millionaire', 'The Final Inch', 'Smile Pinki'... in a first, three India themed films up for the Oscars, and all three dealing with poverty and disease!

India's poverty is under the global spotlight as never before with the blockbuster 'Slumdog Millionaire', tracing the rags to riches story of a slum boy, and the two documentaries, 'The Final Inch' focusing on the country's battle with polio and 'Smile Pinki' about a young child who can't get a cleft lip surgery because she is too poor.

The Oscars will be announced Sunday night (Monday morning in India).

According to a government survey, about 65 million Indians live in slums and out of them about 42 million live in city slums.

British filmmaker Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' highlights the pain and misery of this section. He set his story in Mumbai's teeming slums in Nehru Nagar and nearby Dharavi, which is home to more than a million people and is the largest slum in Asia.

Based on Indian diplomat Vikas swarup's novel 'Q & A', 'Slumdog Millionaire' is about an impoverished teaboy who wins a multimillion rupee quiz show. The director has, however, woven hope and romance in his otherwise grim narrative.

The film was lauded in the West and grossed more than $100 million. It bagged seven British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards and four Golden Globes.

But Boyle's film has been criticised by some in India for showing only the ugly side of the country and concentrating on its grinding poverty.

Another film with an Indian theme in the Oscar nomination list is American filmmaker Megan Mylan's short documentary 'Smile Pinki'.

The documentary is the heartwarming tale of a poor village girl called Pinki whose cleft lip made her a social outcast, till her life changed after a meeting with a social worker.

Unlike 'Slumdog Millionaire', Mylan's work didn't bag headlines but there is a similarity between the two films - they are both about hope and end on a happy note.

Mylan says the happy ending inspired her to show Pinki's story.

'As a filmmaker who focuses on social issue documentaries, it is rare that I get into a film knowing we're likely to have a happy ending. So, I was excited to tell the story of this beautiful hospital and a team of doctors and social workers treating their patients with such compassion and quality care and making a positive impact,' says Mylan.

This is the fourth documentary Mylan has produced - her first with an Indian theme, and her maiden Academy Award nomination has followed.

Another Oscar nominee, 'The Final Inch' by American documentary makers Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant, is based in India too. It is about health workers travelling throughout Uttar Pradesh, urging parents to vaccinate their children against polio.

'The documentary revolves around the fact that in spite of a good polio campaign, which has really worked, we still haven't been able to eradicate polio. The areas targeted in the film are Meerut and the whole of Uttar Pradesh,' said Mohammad Gulzar Saifihe, a polio-affected man who features in the documentary.

This is not the first time that India's impoverished section is being highlighted at the Oscars.

Veteran Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, was criticised by Nargis for 'selling Indian poverty abroad to win awards'.

Ray's masterpieces include the 'Apu' trilogy, 'Ashani Sanket', 'Jana Aranya', 'Mahanagar' and 'Pratidwandi'.

Dogs hit the catwalk in New York show

2009-02-14T20:09:00.001+05:30

Hundreds of carefully coiffed beauties hit the catwalk on February 9 before an adoring crowd in New York — and did their very best not to urinate or growl.

The Westminster Kennel Club show, the Olympics of dog beauty contests, got underway in Madison Square Garden with Bull Terriers, French Bulldogs and enormous Irish Wolf Hounds strutting their stuff.

About 2,500 dogs from some 170 breeds were competing in the two-day event culminating with the Best in Show competition late February 10.

In addition to the sell-out crowd of 20,000 at the Garden, millions are expected to watch on television and the Internet, with portions of the show broadcast live on US television.

Although the dog show has a carefully maintained veneer of old-world civility, the competition is fierce and both owners and dogs showed signs of nervousness.

Spencer, a two-year-old Bedlington Terrier about to go before the judges, quivered as his backstage handler applied last minute touches to his fleecy white coat.

"He's kind of nervous. He's quite a house pet so this is a culture shock," Megan Hof, 24, said.

Hof said the pooch, with his perfectly trimmed hair, shaven ears, and long legs, was a serious contender. "He's very white. He has to look like a lamb, which he does."

Out in the arena area of the Garden — one of the world's top venues for boxing, ice hockey and other less genteel events — judges maintained iron discipline.

"Males to the front, bitches to the back," one judge instructed as a new batch of contestants entered the pen.

The dogs were on their best behaviour, with virtually no barking, let alone any rogue cocking of hind legs.

The human element is trickier, some owners say.

"This can be a bit political to be honest," a disappointed Bill Peacy, 69, said after his friend's Irish Wolfhound Quest was beaten to the breed title.

"Just you watch the rear end on the one who did win. Just watch," Quest's owner Alic Kneavel, 61, said with a knowing wink.

Quest, who won the consolation Award of Merit, seemed oblivious to the machinations of the Irish Wolfhound world.

He folded his giant limbs, lay down, and licked thoughtfully at his paws. Maybe he was thinking of his lunch.

"He eats four to five cups of dog food, a whole can, and I give him little treats," Kneavel said. "If there's a turkey on the table, he doesn't walk away."

The Westminster dog show first took place in 1877 and attracts worldwide interest.

Judges are searching for a successor to last year's popular Best in Show winner Uno, a Beagle who became something of a celebrity with a visit to the White House, talk show appearances, and his own Facebook page.

Uno, making a star guest appearance at the New York show, is on the cusp of a potentially lucrative career.

"He's going to be put out to stud. But first he needs to settle down because when they're on the road the dogs get so stressed," said Dan Huebner, who owns the Texas ranch where Uno now lives.

Companies look at CSR initiatives for branding in slump

2009-02-09T20:48:00.002+05:30

New Delhi: Hurt by the global economic downturn in their operations, companies are increasingly seeking brand-building and other strategic benefits from their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, rather than straight philanthropy and charity work.

Philanthropy activities across the world are said to have taken a big hit and India is no exception, but CSR initiatives are expected to continue with some modifications here and there, experts believe.

“We feel they (CSR initiatives) would not be delayed, rather they will be modified and made more strategic as per the company core values,” global consultancy KPMG India Associate Director - Aid and Development Services - Parul Soni said.

However, philanthropy and charity-based CSR activities are likely to take a hit whereas sustainability-driven CSR initiatives would make more headway and emerge. Companies might try to use least resources for maximum branding and competitive advantage, Soni added.

Non-profit organisation SOS Children’s Villages of India, which gets contributions from corporate houses for well-being of children, also said there has been no impact of slowdown on the companies’ social benefit initiatives.

“Surprisingly, we have seen no decline in the interest of companies for CSR activities... What has been affected is the due diligence process in NGO selection,“ SOS Children’s Villages of India Dy National Director (PFR) Joygopal Podder said.

Corporates are now more cautious and selective and shortlist only NGOs with high credibility, transparency in accounting procedures and a long track record of high quality social work, Podder said.

From the corporate perspective, companies maintain that their socially-inclined activities has not be impacted by the credit crunch and they are continuing as before.

Global science products and services firm Dupont, which is a strong supporter of socially beneficial initiatives, has funded various programmes in India, which focus on improving village infrastructure, improving school and education standards for the under-privileged children.

Asked whether Dupont India would be initiating some new CSR activities this year in the midst of a global slowdown, a company spokesperson said, “our community projects are ongoing. We cannot comment on any new initiatives at this point of time.”

“I think the CSR initiatives by companies will remain constant and may be more strategically planned following the downturn in the global economy,“ Tata Capital managing director and CEO Praveen P Kadle said.

Moreover, Podder said that CSR budgets do not seem to have been hit by the current economic slowdown with trusts and foundations of MNC’s operating out of India, which are headquartered abroad, continuing to send contributions to SOS-India once they are convinced of the viability and quality impact of the project proposal that has been sent to them.

In a sharp contrast, a global survey of senior executives by advisory firm Booz & Co revealed that 40% of respondents expect ‘green´ and other corporate social responsibility initiatives to significantly slow due to the downturn.

“The pullback would be especially pronounced in transportation and energy industries, with, respectively, 51% and 47% of respondents in those industries saying CSR agendas will be delayed,” the survey pointed out.

Why some people become fat and others don't

2009-01-20T19:12:00.000+05:30

Researchers at Imperial College London, the French National Research Institute CNRS and other international institutions have discovered three new genetic variations that increase the risk of obesity, giving new insight into the reasons why some people become fat and others don't.

They suggest that if each acted independently, these variants could be responsible for up to 50 percent of cases of severe obesity.

According to researchers, the new findings should ultimately provide the tools to predict which young children are at risk of becoming obese.

For the study, the researchers looked at the genetic makeup of obese children under six and morbidly obese adults, most of whom had been obese since childhood or adolescence, and compared this with age matched people of normal weight.

The researchers discovered three previously unidentified genetic variations that increase the risk of severe obesity significantly.

The gene variant most strongly linked to childhood obesity and adult morbid obesity in the study is located near the PTER gene, the function of which is not known.

This variant is estimated to account for up to a third of all childhood obesity, and a fifth of all cases of adult obesity.

The second variant linked to child and adult obesity is found in the NPC1 gene.

Previous studies in mice have suggested that this gene has a role in controlling appetite, as mice with a non-functioning NPC1 gene suffer late-onset weight loss and have poor food intake.

This gene variant accounts for around 10 per cent of all childhood obesity and about 14 per cent of adult morbid obesity cases.

The final variant is found near the MAF gene, which controls the production of the hormones insulin and glucagon, as well as chains of amino acids called glucagon-like peptides.

These hormones and peptides are known to play key roles in people's metabolisms by metabolising glucose and carbohydrates in the body. Also, glucagon and glucagon-like peptides appear to have a strong effect on people's ability to feel 'full' or satiated after eating.

This variant accounts for about 6 per cent of early-onset obesity in children, and 16 per cent of adult morbid obesity.

The researchers reached their conclusions by conducting a genome-wide association study of 1,380 Europeans with early-onset childhood obesity and adult morbid obesity, and 1,416 age-matched normal weight controls.

The study revealed 38 genetic markers with a strong association to a higher than normal body mass index, which the researchers evaluated in 14,186 Europeans, identifying three mutations that are significantly linked to obesity.

The study is published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Social networking sites face digital advertising downswing crisis

2008-12-30T15:08:00.001+05:30

A large number of social networking companies face crisis as digital advertising is on a downswing, revealed a research from consultants Deloitte.

The researchers said that the websites, which had survived the downward trend, might be forced to supplement their revenue with pay-subscriptions, selling members' data or extra financing.

The eMarketer revealed that the predictions came as growth forecasts for digital advertising had halved from 17.2pc to 7.2pc for next year.

According to the Deloitte research, with the revenue declining, the cost of storing electronic data has soared to more than 100m dollars per year for larger sites, as users increasingly want to upload photos and videos, which consume memory.

"The book value of some social networks may be written down and some companies may fail altogether if funding dries up," the Telegraph quoted Paul Lee, Deloitte director of research for technology and telecommunications, as saying.

He added: "Average revenue per user for some of the largest new media sites is measured in just pennies per month, not pounds. This compares with a typical average revenue per user of tens of dollars for a cable subscriber, a regular newspaper reader or a movie fan."

Estimates have revealed that there are more than 1,000 social networking sites on the internet.

Among these are almost 100 big players, which are host to 22pc of UK internet users, and the most popular ones, including MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, are likely to be more resilient in the face of the advertising slowdown.

However, many of the most popular social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, do not yet generate large profits.

"Neither (Facebook or Twitter) has yet demonstrated that it can make money on a scale that matches its number of users. Twitter has yet to sketch out plans to monetise its blogging site. Revenue has always been an issue for Facebook," said Madan Sheina, an analyst at Ovum.

While Facebook was valued at 15bn dollars, Microsoft at the same time took a 240m dollars minority stake in October last year.

"With the economy spiralling into a downturn that figure might seem to be exaggerated right now," said Sheina.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has claimed that for the next two years, they are focussing on growth instead of making money.

However, many signs indicate that the company is feeling the strain of the downturn, as it recently cancelled a plan to allow its employees to sell off shares early owing to the current economic recession.

Biggest Tech Stories Of The Year 2008

2008-12-30T14:59:00.001+05:30

Courtesy: Forbes.com

Turbulent as the last 12 months have felt, 2008 may go on record as the year when the most important events in technology news were those that didn't happen.

Despite all the media's coaxing, Microsoft and Yahoo! failed to consummate their star-crossed love affair. Google came away empty-handed from its bid to buy up swathes of radio frequency in the FCC's spectrum auction. And even if he won't appear at 2009's Macworld, Steve Jobs did not die - a fact that may bewilder loyal readers of Bloomberg or CNN.com.

No, 2008 wasn't a year for dramatic twists or industry-shaking news bombs in the world of technology. Thanks in part to a growing recession and the financial crisis that quickly rippled through the tech economy, 2008 was a year in which incumbents stayed on top, disruptors crept in, ever so slowly, and the industry's laggards held on for dear life.

In fact, the biggest success story of the year was really a sequel to a 2007 coup d'etat: the iPhone 3G. When Apple's smarter smartphone officially launched in June with a smaller price tag and a game-changing application platform, Apple stopped flirting with the handset market and started owning it. The iPhone, originally an expensive wonder toy for elite technophiles, became--by some counts--the most widely-used cellphone model in the world.

Google also had some wireless successes. Though the search giant may not have won the wireless spectrum auction that began in February, it achieved its real goal: lobbying the FCC to open up its 700-megahertz frequency, a win that could allow users to access any wireless application on any network. And that vision became clearer with the launch of the G1, the first phone to use Google's Android operating system, and perhaps the only one capable of rivaling the iPhone's buzzing cloud of media hype.

Meanwhile, what was occupying fellow tech giants Microsoft and Yahoo!? A strange, many-months-long mating dance that ended in mutual frustration and extremely bored reporters. While the two companies played games largely based on pride and miscommunication, Google's share of Internet searches climbed above 70%, according to Web-tracking firm Hit wise, dwarfing its two major competitors. Microsoft's buggy Vista operating system became a running joke, with no relief from marketing stunts like "Mojave," a bizarre blindfolded taste test, or Jerry Seinfeld's mystifying ad campaign. Yahoo!, for its part, found no solution to its lagging second-place search ad platform, least of all getting in bed with its biggest competitor in a deal no one believed would be approved by anti-trust gatekeepers.

In the gaming world, too, big moves stalled. Electronic Arts' dramatic bid for Take-Two Interactive fizzled after the release of "Grand Theft Auto IV," Ear's main target in the deal. Spore, the most anticipated piece of software in years, disappointed gamers with its crippling digital rights management and disappointing game play. The only record it broke was the number of times it was illegally downloaded. Overall, the biggest winner of the year was the endlessly popular WI, a console that launched in 2006.

To be sure, big tech stories didn't disappear in 2008. But even more than in years past, innovation bubbled up from below, disrupting the market in ways only just beginning to become clear. Notebooks--those cheap, simple PCs aimed at pulling their applications from Internet--solidified as a new and dangerously appealing alternative to high-performance machines.

Smart phones started to look less like expensive handsets and more like cheap computers. Twitter emerged as the new digerati communication medium. (See "10 Steps for Staying Always On.") And while the Blu-ray high-definition format won its long battle against HD-DVD, the real winner in the future of video was far more stealthy: streaming sources like Hulu.com and Netflix, with popularity that's only beginning to percolate.

Some of the year's tech trends produced real victims: Web advertising, ADD for instance, continued to unnerve the journalistic world like a toddler with a machine gun. Venerated newspapers swooned as advertising went from their pages to their Web sites before vanishing into the digital ether. Book sellers, too, saw sales plummet. Oprah gave a rousing endorsement for Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle, which debuted in 2007, but those sales are still far from helping publishers make up the losses from their print divisions.

But most of 2008's failures were far slower. Deteriorating dot-com boomers like Nortel and Sun Microsystems eroded further in the weakening economy, and managed to lose enormous value without inspiring an acquisition. Since the beginning of the year, Sun's stock price has dropped by three-fourths, Nortel's by more than 98%. Motorola, the sick man of the cellphone market, has watched 75% of its value slip away, too.

In fact, the most heartening tech news of the year may not have been in business, but in politics, where a Twittering, Facebook-friendly, YouTube'd candidate trumped his e-mail-illiterate foe. Barack Obama isn't just focused on using tech to get elected. He also promises to use tools ranging from universal broadband to green tech in shaping the future of the country. And that shift in the government's attitude toward technology could mean 2009 will be a year when tech headlines are not just big - they may also be good news.

Bride exchanges wedding vows wearing coconut shell ornaments

2008-12-30T14:58:00.001+05:30

Giving a go-by to the Indian craze for gold and diamond jewellery, a newly married couple in the south Indian province of Kerala exchanged wedding vows yesterday wearing ornaments crafted from coconut shells.

Salman Rushdie says provoking people is in his DNA

2008-12-30T14:55:00.000+05:30

Author Salman Rushdie, who was once condemned to death by a former Iranian spiritual leader, has said that provoking people "is in his DNA".

Rushdie's fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was at the center of protests from Muslims in several countries. Some of the protests were violent and Rushdie faced death threats and a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran.

According to Khomeini, he had portrayed the prophet Mohammed in irreverent terms - and by doing so had forfeited the right to life.

In response to the call for him to be killed, Rushdie spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically.

Now, while in his interview with The Telegraph, London, 'The Enchantress of Florence' author says he "can't avoid making enemies."

When asked why he provokes such dramatic reactions, Rushdie says he can't avoid it, as if it's somehow stamped on his DNA.

"There's a quote by Robert Browning that I'm particularly fond of - "Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things." Something in me, not consciously willed, takes me to those edges. But, at the same time, part of the nature of the artist, at least as I see it, is to increase - by however little - the sum total of what it is possible for us to understand. Nothing of great interest for me is done sitting safely in the middle of the room. You want to push the boundaries as much as possible. But I suppose if you do that then people are going to push back," he said.

US employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years

2008-12-15T17:13:00.003+05:30

US companies slashed payrolls last month at the fastest pace in 34 years as the economy headed for its deepest and longest recession since World War II.

Employers cut 533,000 jobs, bringing losses so far this year to 1.91 million.

November’s drop exceeded all 73 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent, the highest level since 1993.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “We’re well on our way to the worst recession of the postwar period.”

The plunge may spur incoming President Barack Obama to come up with an even bigger fiscal stimulus package than economists’ projections of about $700 billion.

The job cut figures also will add to pressure on the Federal Reserve to take radical steps to revive credit markets and on lawmakers to bail out the auto companies.

“This is a huge downshift, much larger than we thought,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, who will be Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s chief economist in the new administration. “The upper bound on a stimulus package is going up, not down. As the hole gets larger, the amount you need to fill it gets larger.”

Payrolls are likely to keep sliding into next year as the collapse in credit and slump in spending hurt companies from General Motors Corp to Citigroup Inc and AT&T Inc Legg Mason Inc, a Baltimore-based fund manager, said today it will eliminate 8 per cent of its workforce.

Obama said in a statement the job loss demonstrates the “urgent” need for a recovery plan and offers an “opportunity to transform our economy” through investments in infrastructure and alternative energy technology.

He aims to save or create 2.5 million jobs over two years.

Stocks sank. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 2.3 percent to 825.51 at 10:11 am in New York.

Payrolls were forecast to drop by 335,000, according to the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey. The jobless rate was projected to rise to 6.8 per cent.

Revisions for September and October increased job losses by 199,000. The October figure was revised to 320,000 from the previous estimate of 240,000. November was the 11th consecutive drop in payrolls.

“You are seeing the impact of the lack of credit feeding through to a lot of companies, who are very fearful,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a former congressional staff economist. “Personal income numbers will be awful. It is going to be a difficult winter for a lot of people.”

Fed Chairman Ben S Bernanke this week outlined unorthodox policy action that officials can take beyond lowering interest rates. One option would be to purchase longer-term Treasuries on the open market to inject more cash into the financial system.

The central bank may also cut its benchmark rate from 1 per cent at its meeting December 15-16 in Washington. HSBC Holdings Inc economists today forecast the Fed will reduce it to zero, emulating the Bank of Japan’s efforts to defeat deflation earlier this decade.

Factory payrolls fell 85,000 after decreasing 104,000 in October, the Labor Department said. The slide would have been even worse without the return of 27,000 striking machinists at Boeing Co Economists had forecast a decline of 100,000 manufacturing jobs. The decrease included a loss of 13,100 jobs in auto manufacturing and parts industries.

US automakers have been particularly hard hit as sales last month dropped to the lowest level in 26 years. The top executives of General Motors, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC this week appealed to Congress for as much as $34 billion in government assistance.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research projects that a collapse of GM would lead to job losses totaling 2.5 million, including 1.4 million people in industries not directly tied to manufacturing. Chrysler had cut 5,000 jobs during last week of November.

Slowdown sonata...

2008-11-23T11:16:00.001+05:30

Dear Staff,

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown of the economy since last Christmas, Management has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 40 years of age on early retirement. This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early). Persons selected to be RAPEd can apply to management to be eligible for the SHAFT scheme (Special Help After Forced Termination). Persons who have been RAPEd and SHAFTed will be reviewed under the SCREW scheme (Scheme Covering Retired Early Workers). A person may be RAPEd once, SHAFTed twice and SCREWed as many times as Management deems appropriate. Persons who have been RAPEd can only get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants or Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance). Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTed or SCREWed any further by management. Persons staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Management has always prided itself on the amount of SHIT it gives employees. Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring to the attention of your Supervisor. They have been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle…

Sincerely,

The Management

The things celebs did before they became celebs!

2008-10-28T17:20:00.001+05:30

Not all celebrities are born with glamour, or at least such was the case with Madonna, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe to name a few.

While some of the A-listers had reasonably decent beginnings, some had to sustain themselves with filthy jobs before creating a niche for themselves, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Matthew McConaughey spent a year shovelling chicken manure, Mick Jagger worked as a porter in a mental hospital, Madonna used to serve customers at 'Dunkin Donut'.

Similarly, Russell Crow used to be DJ at 16, Robin Williams worked as a street mime, Eva Mendes used to sell hot dogs, and Brad Pitt donned a giant chicken suit and stood outside a store to attract clients.

Top-Earning Pirates

2008-10-21T19:05:00.000+05:30

Courtesy: Forbes.com

High seas piracy was the colonial era's version of investment banking. Through good positioning, aggressive go-getters could make millions from global trade and commerce in diverse sectors. They were frequently chased off shore to the Caribbean by angry governments. And in the end, they were sometimes sunk without a trace.

Soon after government-hired pillagers like Hernando Cortes started plundering the new world in 1503, an entire class of sailor realized he could profit by stalking the ships carrying the spoils.

Those riches couldn't be sent using wire transfers. So when Cortes wanted to send a bounty of Aztec gold to Charles V, he had to load it onto ships and sail it across the sea, where men like Jean Fleury were waiting. In 1523, the French privateer fell upon a Spanish treasure fleet--a score that helped him net $31.5 million in present-value dollars over his career, making him the sixth highest-earning pirate of all time.

The highest-earning pirate ever was Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, an Englishman who made his bones patrolling the New England coast in the 18th century. By our calculations, "Black Sam" plundered an estimated $120 million over the course of his career. His greatest windfall occurred in February of 1717, when he captured a slave ship called the Whydah, which reportedly held more than four and a half tons of gold and silver. Bellamy, known for his relative generosity, took the Whydah as his new flagship and gave one of his old vessels to the defeated crew.

In second place, with lifetime earnings of $115 million: Sir Francis Drake, a 16th century British privateer who saved England from the Spanish Armada and went on to a profitable life of plunder at the behest of Her Majesty's Government. Fellow Englishman Thomas Tew places third with earnings of $102 million. His biggest score came in 1693, when he pilfered a ship full of gold en route to the Ottoman Empire from India .

Our wealth estimates are based on information gathered from historical records and accounts from 17th and 18th century sources like Daniel Defoe, as well as contemporary historians like David Cordingly. Whenever possible, we used official records of pirate's claims. So when a 1718 North Carolina ledger says wares seized from Edward "Blackbeard" Teach sold at market for 2,500 pounds following his death, that source was trusted above Blackbeard's claims to a magistrate that a great treasure lay in a location known only to him and the devil. By our count, he amassed a total of $12.5 million in loot over his career.

Depletion of fortune due to rum and wenches was not assessed, nor were divisions of treasure among the crew. Plunders were often split in equal shares, with the captain receiving double--not much of a premium for leadership. A good lesson to modern shareholders: The best way to achieve fair compensation and rule out golden parachutes is to have your leaders expecting murderous revolts if they hoard profits.

All money and goods were converted into present value U.S. dollars. Present values were determined using the retail price index developed by the British House of Commons and MeasuringWorth, a research project founded by University of Illinois Chicago economics professor Lawrence H. Officer.

For the most part, pirates didn't make much money, and they certainly didn't save it. The amount of cash they needed to keep on hand to cover their liabilities cut into their fortunes. Crew members that lost limbs in battle could be compensated at a rate of 1,500 pound per limb. Since infection could easily cause death, the remedy for gunshot wounds was often amputation. With 100 men on a ship, if 10 limbs were lost during battle, that was a 15,000 pound loss, or about $3 million in today's dollars. It's easy to see why pirates tried to take ships without firing a shot. A few drunken sailors getting themselves nicked could negate the entire profit.

Pirates didn't have 401(k) plans, so burying a pile of gold was sometimes the smartest way to save for the future--that is, when they had one. Samuel Bellamy's treasure sank with him off Cape Cod, most of Bartholomew Roberts' fortune ($32 million) was taken after he died in battle in 1722 and Stede Bonnet's wealth ($4.4 million) was absorbed into the South Carolina treasury after his 1718 execution. Jean Fleury's Aztec gold wasn't recovered and was probably spread thin over brothels and saloons from Cuba to France ; it's likely been melted down over the last 500 years into gold bars lining national treasuries and formed into wedding rings the world over.

Most pirates died without honor or coin. It was an existence filled with murder, treachery, disease (both tropical and venereal), and it ensured a short life, even by the standards of the day. But for the chance to be rich and unbound from a life of farming or military service, it was an easy choice for many--even if it did come with scurvy.

Craig's 'Casino Royale' leap tops 'Best James Bond Stunt Of All Time' poll

2008-10-21T18:58:00.002+05:30

Daniel Craig's death-defying crane jump in 'Casino Royale' has topped a new poll of 'The Best James Bond Stunt of all Time'.

In the opening scenes of the film, Bond is featured chasing the bad guy into a building site and battling him 200 feet from the ground.

The 2006 film marked Craig's debut as 007 and the actor took part in the stunt himself.

"It was important to me that I do as many of my own stunts as possible for authenticity. I wanted to be seen jumping from crane to crane, physically exerting myself. I didn't get fit just to take my shirt off," the Telegraph has quoted him, Craig, as saying.

The scene has beaten classic stunts involving previous 007s Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, to top the poll for the Radio Times.

The downhill ski chase in 'The Spy Who Loved Me', which ends with Moore floating to safety under a Union Jack parachute came second, according to the poll of over 1,500 film fans.

The third spot went to Moore's 'barrel roll' car jump over a canal in 'The Man With The Golden Gun' while the speedboat leap from 'Live And Let Die' came fourth.

Rounding off the top five was Pierce Brosnan's speedboat chase in the 'Thames in The World Is Not Enough'.

The top ten 'Best James Bond Stunt Of All Time' are:

1 Crane jump - Casino Royale
2 Ski chase and Union Jack parachute jump - The Spy Who Loved Me
3 Car 'barrel roll' - The Man With The Golden Gun
4 Speedboat leap - Live And Let Die
5 Thames speedboat chase - The World Is Not Enough6 Aston Martin ejector seat - Goldfinger
7 Dive from the Verzasca Dam - GoldenEye
8 Ski chase - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
9 Jumping over crocodiles - Live And Let Die
10 Motorbike jump over a helicopter - Tomorrow Never Dies

Mens' ten best ways to impress women revealed

2008-09-25T15:06:00.002+05:30

No matter how much you hate it, but if you want to impress a woman, just help her carry those shopping bags.

And in case that's not enough to flatter your lady, below are 10 best ways that will surely make them fall for you, reports the Independent of London.

1. Ask questions: Over dinner, in a restaurant, nothing beats a good question or two.or instance "How was your day?"

2. Stop asking questions: After you have asked enough questions, particularly the right ones, there will come a time when you should stop - when you're in bed together.

3. Call me back straightaway: Verbose, over-worked text messages just look keen and girly. Be a man and say it in 350 characters or don't say it at all.

4. Don't be tight: When it comes to small change, taxi fares, coffee money, tips and treats, penny-pinching is a huge turn off.

5. Carry bags: If they're heavy, please don't make a fuss about it, just do it.

6. Don't hide your appreciation. There is no girl alive who doesn't want a priapic response to a new dress.

7. 'No' to: Clammy hands, grunting in public, salivating into earholes, 'sexy' tickling, jokes about love handles and twanging bras.

8. 'Yes' to: A firm touch and a smooth hand, a frank attitude to nudity, evident and matter-of-fact carnal enjoyment, and an attentive approach to often overlooked areas of the female body.

9. Talk about ex-girlfriends: Too much detail about ex-girlfriends is as harmful as not talking about them at all.

10. Criticism: Say what you like about her friends, work, flat, table manners.

Gourmet dabba-walas (office lunch box delivery services) blaze new business trend

2008-09-25T10:55:00.002+05:30

What happens when dabba-walas (lunch box delivery services) meet gourmet cooks?

A unique business idea is born.

Two young graduates of Delhi-based International Management Institute, Samarth Gupta and Pavan Kumar Varma, have fused two seemingly opposing ideas - homely meals and organised delivery of lunch at offices - to blaze a new trend, which, if it works could unleash housewife power on the corporate world.

The model is simple. Poshan, the startup betting on office-goers starved for mom-style meals, has a centralised kitchen in East Delhi. It invited housewives with a passion for cooking to a contest, and then threw open part-time day jobs to talented home cooks looking for recognition - and good pocket money.

A Bangalore-based executive turned home entrepreneur, Sonia Mahanti, runs a similar venture that specialises in regional cuisines.

"Cooking is my passion and it is not for the money but satisfaction that I work with Poshan," said Chanchal Aggarwal, a housewife who joined the venture. Financial terms are yet to be worked out though charges are expected to be given per visit.

Commercial operations for the Rs 45-per-pack meals began last July. Poshan delivers about 150 orders per day.

"This initiative was a part of our academic project and we found out that there is a demand for home-made food," said 25-year-old Samarth Gupta, who started out with 30-year-old Varma. "That is when we decided to run a competition earlier this year to spot women who cook well." The founders claim that three venture capital firms have already approached them.

Mahanti, who once worked for Samsung, picked up the idea of delivering speciality food after noticing the demand for north Indian food in Bangalore.

She now runs a home-made food delivery service that employs around 10 women who are experts in different Indian cuisines, especially Gujarati and Bengali. Her 'Sai Krupa Ghar ka Khana' charges Rs 35 for a regular meal while a more customised meal for a patient or for a party varies between Rs 45 to Rs 120.

Mohanti said the housewives make Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for two hours a day, five days a week.

In Delhi, four women who made it to the top grade in the cookery contest have joined Poshan, which has a base kitchen at Patparganj in the eastern suburbs, with a distribution hub at Asaf Ali Road.

"We have arranged a pick-up drop facility for women who come to our base kitchen to cook a meal," said Gupta. At present, the service caters only to offices in Delhi's Connaught Place area but the founders plan to expand it across the National Capital Region by end of the financial year.

An ad in space can come as cheap as 200 pounds!

2008-09-22T13:44:00.000+05:30

A firm in the United States is offering companies a chance to advertise themselves in space- with price ranging from 200 pounds to 2,100 pounds.

JP Aerospace, which calls itself "America's other space programme," is using lighter than air balloons to carry packages into the upper atmosphere.

The organisation involving voluntary staffers and plans to open up access to space to the general public, said that they have received requests to send toy figures, coffee beans, table tennis balls as well as advertising billboards in the space.

The balloon carrying the platform reaches a height of 20 miles, which is high enough for the sky to turn black and the earth's horizon to be a blue curve.

JP Aerospace then takes hundreds of pictures of the balloon before returning everything to earth by parachute.

"Companies are looking for ways to get above the over crowded field of advertisements," the Telegraph of London has quoted John Powell, President of JP Aerospace, as saying.

"There are a lot of race cars and basketball stars out there, but, not too many spaceships, they get noticed. The field is wide open," he added.

The spectacular 'sex fest' that followed the Olympics!

2008-08-25T16:29:00.000+05:30

August 25 (ANI): Olympic athletes eventually overcame the stress of strict discipline they faced during the two weeks of competition with a final burst of sexual release on the eve of the closing ceremonies in the Olympic Village.

"This sex fest . . . (happened) right here in Beijing," the New York Post quoted Matthew Syed, a past Olympian and table-tennis champion now working as a commentator, as writing in the Times of London.

"Olympic athletes have to display an unnatural - and, it has to be said, wholly unhealthy - level of self-discipline in the build-up to big competitions. How else is this going to manifest itself than with a volcanic release of pent-up hedonism?" he wrote.

He said that big winners were the principal objects of desire for many female athletes, included those "as geeky as Michael Phelps".

Even losers got their share, he said, adding that it was "a common sight to see recently knocked-out athletes gorging on Magnums and McDonald's, swilling alcohol and, of course, shagging like crazy."

The Beijing Government ensured the supply of free condoms so that the competitors would practice safe sex.

One Australian athlete said: "It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions." (ANI)

Happy Independence Day...

2008-08-15T11:08:00.001+05:30

India celebrates 61 years of Independence today. Cheers!

Panvi wins first prize in Independence Day song TV contest...for the second year in succession

2008-08-13T23:25:00.003+05:30

My elder daughter Panvi has composed and sung a song on "freedom" called "Swades" which she submitted for a TV contest in "Dilli Aaj Tak" channel. The programme name is "Azadi Ke Sur" ("Tunes Of Freedom"). Panvi has won the contest - which carries a trophy and a cash award of Rs.25,000/-.

The programme will be telecast on August 13th, 14th and 15th at 7 pm on each day in "Dilli Aaj Tak" channel.

The August 15th programme is a 30 minute exclusive on Panvi, with her receiving the award from the celebrity judges and singing various songs on freedom and giving an interview.

Last year, also, Panvi had sung this song in a competition in "Headlines Today" TV Channel - and she had secured fourth position out of one thousand contestants.

Abhinav Bindra bags first Olympic gold for India at Beijing - and first ever Indian invdividual gold medal...

2008-08-11T11:21:00.001+05:30

Great news for India - actually "historic" news is the right phrase. Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra has claimed the first ever individual gold for India after winning the men's 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics.

Add a hint of sex to elite sport, and it's gold

2008-08-10T23:46:00.002+05:30

Sex and sport. It's an irresistible mix and one that Olympians are no longer shy of using to fund their sporting careers, according to a recent Reuters report.

American Olympic swimming champion Amanda Beard posed naked in Playboy magazine last year and at Beijing stripped off for an advertising campaign to protest against fashion furs.

British athletes triple jumper Phillips Idowu, cyclist Rebecca Romero and swimmer Gregor Tait were photographed naked in sporting poses for a sports drinks advertising campaign.

Female beach volleyball players are first to admit that wearing bikinis has helped boost their popularity -- and envious male players have joked about following by playing bare-chested.

"In this competitive marketplace you have to separate yourself from other athletes and the taboo of posing for Playboy or modelling has started to wane," Richard Deitsch, associate editor at Sports Illustrated's website, said.

"People hardly batted an eyelid when Amanda Beard appeared in Playboy but 10 or 15 years ago this would have caused much more of an uproar in the (United) States."

With the Beijing Olympics underway featuring over 10,500 athletes in perfect shape, websites galore are carrying photo galleries and lists of the hottest Olympians.

Playboy spokeswoman Lauren Melone said they have published a special spread of Olympians who have appeared in the magazine over the years such as Athens gold medallist Beard, four-time Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff and figure skater Katarina Witt.

Swimmer Dara Torres, the oldest U.S. swimmer at 41, has appeared in a sexy photo shoot in Maxim magazine.

Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice was featured on the front cover of men's magazine FHM as well as posing for some underwear advertisements with her former boyfriend, fellow Aussie swimmer Eamon Sullivan.

Leryn Franco, 26, a javelin thrower from Paraguay, is competing in her second Olympics at Beijing, thanks to her second career, modelling.

"Modelling is a way for me to continue with my sport, the hours are flexible, and you can earn good money through photographic modelling and the catwalk," Franco told Reuters.

But Deitsch said for hard-core sports fans the appearance or sex appeal of an athlete might make them more interesting, but only if they were winning at their sport.

He said two good examples of sports stars who had used their looks to build a brand were English footballer David Beckham and Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova.

"Ultimately it does not get away from the fact that you have to be an athlete first and a beauty second," he said.

"But when you have someone who is fantastic at both, then you are looking at a global brand."

Academics unearth UK's oldest joke

2008-08-01T17:02:00.000+05:30

A 1,000-year-old double-meaning wry observation is what British academics consider to be their country's oldest joke.

They found it in the Codex Exoniensis, a 10th century book of Anglo-Saxon poetry held at Exeter Cathedral. It reads: "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?' Answer: A key."

Going through ancient texts, researchers from Wolverhampton University found the jokes laid down in delicate manuscripts and carved into stone tablets.

Reacting to the discovery, Paul MacDonald, a comic novelist and lecturer in creative writing, said jokes ancient and modern shared "a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of rebellion."

"Modern puns, Essex girl jokes and toilet humour can all be traced back to the very earliest jokes identified in this research," he commented.

Lost civilisations laughed at farts, sex, and "stupid people" just as we do today, McDonald said.

For instance, here is an earliest example of Egyptian humour: "Man is even more eager to copulate than a donkey - his purse is what restrains him," reads an Egyptian hieroglyphic from a period that pre-dates Christ.

And here's the world's oldest surviving joke: The 3,000-year-old Sumerian proverb, from ancient Babylonia, reads: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

The three-month academic search for British jokes is part of an assignment for a television channel programme on humour.

Wisdom...

2008-07-15T20:59:00.001+05:30

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you chances as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Email-like names cause controversy in China

2008-07-11T20:26:00.000+05:30

For ages, Chinese names have been the subject of interest and even jokes among some in the rest of the world. Now they are having the same effect in China.

A growing number of people in China are now using obscure Chinese characters and English words and numbers when naming their children. Names like Wang Com, Zhao C, Li U and others have sparked off a controversy among experts and local residents.

Unlike the African-American leader of the 1960s, Malcolm X, who dropped his surname to snap ties with his "white" slave masters, modern day Chinese names rarely make a political point. Rather, they have become the topic of discussion and often, ridicule among the people of China.

"These words sound more like e-mail IDs than names of people," says Zhou Huo, a Beijing government official.

Chinese parents have traditionally named their children after characters from epics, royal families or subjects of their favourite poets. More often than not, Chinese names have grand meanings. And at times they are also apt.

Some people regard giving children distinct names as social progress. Others, however, argue that English words and letters in Chinese names degrade Chinese culture and will cause trouble for children.

Global food crisis to hit finances of India, Pak

2008-07-02T20:23:00.000+05:30

The soaring global food prices will adversely impact government finances in countries like India and Pakistan and may result in bloating of their deficits by over five per cent of the GDP, according to a Standard & Poors (S&P) report.

India, Pakistan and Egypt would be hardest hit by the rise in food costs, with a general government deficits of 5.9 per cent, 6.5 per cent, and 6.9 per cent of GDP respectively, projected for 2008, says a S&P report.

India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, having revenue at less than 20 per cent of their GDP, have put these economies in precarious position of large deficits and narrow underlying revenue bases, the report added.

It said, even developed countries are vulnerable to food-price inflation and susceptible to increased political instability if there is a mismatch between higher revenues from food exports or domestic supply.

"Although global food price rise in itself is unlikely to be direct cause of adverse rating action, for many sovereigns it will significantly increase overall susceptibility to negative rating movements by exacerbating already weak external and fiscal positions, or through potential for political and social unrest," S&P Sovereigns and International Public Finance Ratings group's Agost Benard said.

The other main pressure points would be on fiscal balances, which would likely be from both the expenditure and the revenue side, it said.

Subsidies for staple foods are common in many nations in the lower and middle-income ranges, and in many cases governments derive significant revenues from sales taxes and import tariffs on food.