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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Scientists unlock secret of eternal youth
Darwin kin says Mahua better than Scotch
Desi high: Darwin kin says mahua better than scotchJaideep Deogharia, TNN, Nov 27, 2010, 12.14am ISTHAZARIBAGH: It's time to say ''cheers'' to our desi brew mahua! Felix Padel, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin finds unadulterated mahua better than scotch for its better taste and 'kick'. A visiting professor of anthropology, Padel is presently engaged with Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). He prefers mahua to scotch because ''it is not just good for health but also economical and great to taste.'' He went to the extent of saying that scotch and wine could face a tough competition in India if local varieties like mahua and salpo, a local brew from Orissa, are made available in their unadulterated form. ''It is surprising that Indians prefer French wine and scotch when they can drink fresh taadi, salpo, mahua or rice beer,'' said Padel. Padel, who played a pivotal role in the movement against bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, was here recently to understand the economics of coal mining in Jharkhand. While talking to TOI at one of the CCL coal mines in Hazaribagh, he spoke about tribal culture of which beverages form an integral part. A big fan of French wine and salpo (local liquor), Padel has closely studied various Indian liquors, most of them manufactured in tribal households. ''When I married an Oriya girl in 1993, my in-laws restricted us from consuming alcohol in the marriage ceremony which prompted me to look for alternatives,'' he said. He said he succeeded in convincing his father-in-law to serve a good local brew to his family members. It was then that mahua was served to most of his English friends and family members, who found the experience unforgettable, Padel recalled and added, ''My sister still asks me to bring her mahua whenever I go to visit her in England.'' ''I have observed tribals consuming home-made liquor and then toil in agricultural fields and mines, which makes me believe that the drink must be safe because their vigour and agility remain intact over the years,'' he said. Padel blamed commercial interest of traders for ruining the reputation of mahua, ''a sacred drink.'' ''A drink that forms part of the rituals was adulterated with chemicals and intoxicants to make it more pungent and strong so that it helps earn few extra pennies,'' said Padel. ''Mahua could have attracted foreigners had there been some effort to preserve the originality because the mahua served in tribal homes is completely different to what is available in the market,'' he pointed out. |
Monday, November 29, 2010
A Matter of Timing !
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Great Wall of India
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Stay away from.....
The teacher gave an assignment to her fifth grade class :
Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.
The next day, the kids came back and, one by one, began to tell their stories.
There were all the regular types of stuff: spilled milk and pennies saved.
But then the teacher realized that only Janie was left.
"Janie, do you have a story to share?'
''Yes ma'am. My daddy told me a story about my Mommy. She was a Marine pilot in Desert Storm, and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory, and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol, and a survival knife. She drank the whiskey on the way down so the bottle wouldn't break, and then her parachute landed her right in the middle of 20 Iraqi troops.
She shot 15 of them with the pistol, until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke, and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands.
''Good Heavens,' said the horrified teacher. 'What did your Daddy tell you was the moral to this horrible story?
"Stay away from Mommy when she's drunk.
Asian Games
It is a matter of shame that India did not send Men or Women's TEam to the Asian Games, nor did
Leanader, Mahesh Bhupati, Coneru Hampy, V Anand, the Golfing Stars wanted to do anything
for an event where National Pride is at stake...and instead of bringing this up forcefully, nearly
the entire media is looking the other way......
::RSK
Pakistan slams India over no-show at Asiad cricket tournament
Guangzhou, Nov 27 : Pakistan has slammed India for
snubbing the XVIth
Asian Games by refusing to send its cricket team there.
Pakistan coach Sadiq Mohammad insisted that more pressure should have been put on India to respect the
Guangzhou tournament, The News reported.
"India said they would come and they said cricketshould be in the Asian Games. God knows why
they are not here. Somebody should have put added pressure on them," said Sadiq, after Pakistan's
six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the bronze medal play-off.
India chose to give a miss to the Asian Games because of the international commitments faced by
their national team, with a home series against New Zealand and an eagerly-awaited tour of
South Africa about to get underway.
But Sadiq pointed out that in spite of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also having Test
and One-day International programmes, all three still sent their second-string teams to both the
men's and women's events in Guangzhou.
"India said they had to play New Zealand, but our main team had matches to play against South Africa,"
he argued."India should have taken part in the Asian Games because this would have been a great
opportunity for the young players to gain experience," Sadiq added.It is for the first time that cricket
has become an official Asian Games sport. Bangladesh went on to win the first Asiad gold for
their country by defeating Afghanistan in the men's final, while Pakistan clinched the women's title.
Friday, November 26, 2010
The Advantages of living after 50 !
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ahmadabad 's Rapid Transit System .
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Ahmedabad's Rapid Transit System (BRTS JANMARG)
click to see it here......... |
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Asha Bhonsle On BBC Hindi
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/india/2010/11/101121_sunday_ashabhosle_as.shtml
A recent interview......most of the points she makes are probably known to most ..... hint of her complex relationship with Didi.....
RSK
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
You don't see with your eyes. You see with your brain :: Blind persons can use their tongue to see.......
Your Tongue Can See
Blind Man Gains Freedom Through His Tongue
Sept. 6, 2006 —
Mike Ciarciello has been blind since birth but says that in his dreams he can actually see.
"I have had dreams where I have been flying, you know, like in the air. I am not even bumping into any obstacles whatsoever. I am actually free, in my dreams," he said.
His dreams are closer to reality than you might imagine. He is about to participate in an experiment in which he will "see" by using his tongue.
At the University of Montreal, researcher Daniel Chabat prepared Ciarciello to walk for the first time through an obstacle course without his cane. Chabat began by mounting a small camera on Ciarciello's forehead. The camera sends electrical impulses about what it sees to a small grid placed on his tongue.
"It's a concept in which you replace a sense that was lost by another one that is there," said Maurice Ptito, the neuropsychologist supervising the study. "They sense the world through their tongue, and that gives them the feeling of seeing. You don't see with your eyes. You see with your brain."
When ABC News correspondent Bob Brown tried The BrainPort vision device in an informal experiment, his challenge was to identify black shapes placed on a wall in front of him. As the camera scanned the shapes Brown described the feeling on his tongue as a tingling sensation.
"It's a pulsing sensation that imprints in a crude way the shape of the object," he said. "The closer I move to the object, the more the feeling intensifies."
The tongue is used as the source of input because it is the first organ that we use, Ptito said.
"We've been using the tongue since we were born," he said. "It's easily accessible; it's a wet milieu, so it's a nice conductor. So it's a really fine tuned machine, so to speak."
Once Ciarciello had the camera mounted and connected to the grid on his tongue, he was ready to head into what for him was completely uncharted territory: the obstacle course.
"I hope it's going to be a great experience in the sense that I'm able to actually walk around an object without bumping into it and at my own will," Ciarciello said.
As he walked through the obstacle course for the first time, he bumped into objects. It takes training to learn to interpret the signals on the tongue, to sense the distance of objects and whether they're on the floor or in front of him, Ptito said.
"It took some getting used to, because I had to basically look up and down, left and right," Ciarciello said. "I am not used to doing that in an everyday world-type situation."
But after just two hours of training he was walking through the maze, hitting fewer and fewer obstacles. For the first time, Ciarciello was able to sense objects in the distance, too far away to touch. His tongue, in a sense, was substituting for his sight.
"They believe that they can see. In the sense that they appreciate the visual world, they can see things moving around, they can see things coming to them," Ptito said.
It may be more than just a belief, because when researchers scan the brains of sightless people who have used the device the scan shows activity in both the visual and motion areas of the brain, showing that one sense is being substituted for another.
The BrainPort" vision device was developed by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita of the University of Wisconsin.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Digital Will: Who gets your email account when you die?
Sun, Nov 21, 2010 | Updated 01.18PM IST
Who gets your email account when you die?
internet banking accounts and digital photo albums and data stored on our PCs,
but what of death?
Who gets access to those passwords and usernames? Who can log on as the
digital heir? This is why everyone needs a digital will. This is the document that
bequeaths a person's digital assets to his heirs.
How can this be done? The first step is to create a digital inventory –
an index of your "soft" assets. Second, get your digital
thousands (of rupees ) to have your digital will ready,"
There have been fights over a dead writer's manuscript on his PC, a deceased
photojournalist's digital photo library and a businessman's financial records in his
email account .
Service providers have different policies about passing on digital information after
an account holder's death. For example, Yahoo! terminates accounts and Google,
which manages Gmail (email), Orkut (social networking) and Picasa
(online photo-sharing ), gives conditional access to kin.
Google India spokesman Gaurav Bhaskar says, "Account details of a deceased can
be passed on only to someone who furnishes proof of authority under local law that
he is the lawful representative of the deceased, and presents the death certificate
and other documents. The process may take up to 30 days."
But most people, says Mumbai-based cyber behaviour expert Neeta Mehra, don't
want personal stuff such as email, social networking accounts or blogs to be passed
on.
"To avoid this, one can use the services of 'do-it-yourself account guardian'
websites where one can upload all secret data and opt for account incinerator
services (getting your account deleted in the event of death)," she says. Such
websites need a death certificate and a copy of the obituary. However, they are not
governed by any law.
Duggal says Indians are gradually waking up to this issue. "For the first time in India,
in April, a Delhi businessman opted for a digital will. Since then, six more have
followed suit. Many have approached me to discuss their digital estate and to
make their wills."
DIGITAL LEGACY
Passwords
Instructive memos
Digital contracts
Digital receipts
Pictures
Data stored on PCs
Sunday, November 21, 2010
MyReview : Guzarish
Friday, November 19, 2010
CricTrivia
Marvan Atapattu bagged a pair in his first Test. How many people have had this misfortune?
As I write 37 men have bagged a pair on their Test debut, the most recent being the New Zealander Mark Gillespie, against South Africa in Centurion in November 2007 (he did take a five-for when he bowled, which presumably cheered him up a little). Atapattu bagged his pair against India in Chandigarh in November 1990: it was part of a nightmare start to his Test career in which he made only one run in his first six innings. He didn't do too badly after that, though, finishing with 5502 Test runs in 90 matches. Other notable batsmen who started their Test careers with a pair include Graham Gooch, Saeed Anwar and Ken Rutherford. The most spectacular debut pair was the one acquired by the South African wicketkeeperTommy Ward against Australia at Old Trafford in 1912: he was dismissed first ball in both innings, each time being the third victim in legspinner Jimmy Matthews's unique haul of two hat-tricks in the same Test match.
Who has made the most ducks in one-day internationals?
There's rather a surprising name on top of this list: it's Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been dismissed for 0 on 34 occasions in one-day internationals now. He took the record from Wasim Akram of Pakistan (28). There are four men bracketed together with 25 ducks, three of them Sri Lankans: Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan. Shahid Afridi also has 25 one-day zeroes to his name. In Tests the leader remains Courtney Walsh, with 43, some way ahead of Glenn McGrath (35) and Shane Warne (34). Chris Martin of New Zealand is coming up on the rails with 28 so far.
Two- Liners
A bartender is just a pharmacist
with a limited inventory
I may be schizophrenic,
but at least I have each other.
Money isn't everything,
but it sure keeps the kids in touch.
Reality is only an illusion
that occurs due to a lack of alcohol....
I want to die while asleep like my grandfather,
not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.
New Words
RSK
Badaptation: a bad movie version of a good book.
Carbage: the trash found in your automobile.
Dadicated: being the best father you can be.
Ecrastinate: checking your e-mail just one more time.
Faddict: someone who has to try every new trend that comes along.
Gabberflasted: the state of being speechless due to someone else talking too much.
Hackchoo: when you sneeze and cough at the same time.
Iceburg: an uppity, snobbish neighborhood.
Jobsolete: a position within a company that no longer exists.
Knewlyweds: second marriage for both.
Lamplify: turning on (or up) the lights within a room.
Mandals: sandals for men.
Nagivator: someone who constantly assists with driving directions in an overly critical manner.
Obliment: an obligatory compliment.
Pestariffic: adjective describing a particularly pesty person.
Qcumbersome: a salad that contains too many cucumbers.
Ramdumbtious: a rowdy, energetic person who's not too bright.
Sanktuary: a graveyard for ships.
Testimoney: fees paid to expert witnesses.
Unbrella: an umbrella that the wind has turned inside-out.
Vehiculized: you own a vehicle.
Wackajacky: very messed up.
Xerocks: two identical pieces of stone.
Yawnese: the language of someone trying to speak while yawning.
Zingle: a single person with a lot of pep in his or her step.