MyReview : Bol

This is from the makers of KHUDA KE LIYE and is probably the second Pakistani film released in India in recent years..... like the first effort, this film also espouses the cause of moderate, modern Islam in a problematic country like Pakistan while tackling a sensitive issue of the problems of a transgender ....melodramatic and banal at times, it has its moments of brilliance...the undertone of women empowering themselves in a feudalistic society, the biases against women, the poverty, all all captures in fine detail.... not an entertainer but a serious effort and worth a view

RSK

Aeronautics in Vedic India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBvYGj7zh1o&feature=related

                           

                                                       

America-- Shocking Prediction

 
SINCERELY HOPE THAT THIS TIME HE IS WRONG.

The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting a  revolution in America , food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.

Celente says that by 2012 America will become an underdeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

"We ' re going to see the end of the retail Christmas... we ' re going to see a fundamental shift take place... putting food on the table is going to be more important than putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression."

"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people ' s refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 percent. The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.

The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."

In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America. "There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It's not going to come yet, but it ' s going to come down the line and we're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D.C. in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."

"The first thing to do is organise with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."

"It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more."

"We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime.  And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs, over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be..  So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension."

The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster. "When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente." - CNN Headline News "Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right." - USA Today

"There's not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he's talking about." - CNBC

"Those who take their predictions seriously ...consider Gerald Celente and the Trends Research Institute."  - The Wall Street Journal

"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around." - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Mr. Celente tracks the world's social, economic and business trends for corporate clients." - The New York Times

"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority." - 48 Hours, CBS News

"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing." - The Detroit News

"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, 'green marketing,'and the boom in gourmet coffees."- Chicago Tribune

"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture." - The Los Angeles Times

"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente." - New York Post

So there you have it - hardly a nut job conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now.  Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start p.s. whatever happens to America, the whole world will be affected – so let's not dismiss this prediction.

==============================

                    

 

__._,_.___

__,_._,___

Do You Know Your Countries?

 

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

 

You hear the news. Do you have any idea WHERE they are talking about? Go to the site below. Drag the country's name onto the map where you think It belongs.There is no score nor time limit, but rather, this exercise is a learning tool.

 

Don't be afraid to make an error; and once you finish the  puzzle, you will be far more educated about this very intense part of our world -- and somewhat humbled.

It's not easy, and you soon realise you do not know everything about this world in which we live... This was very enlightening - have a go, you will be surprised.

 

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

 

 

The Last Woman...

Fertility rates

Aug 27th 2011 | from the print edition of the Economist

MANY women in the richer parts of Asia have gone on "marriage strike", preferring the single life to the marital yoke. This helps to explain why their fertility rates have fallen. But Asia is not alone. According to the United Nations, in 83 countries and territories around the world, women will not have enough daughters to replace themselves unless their fertility rates rise. 

In Hong Kong, for example, a cohort of 1,000 women is now expected to give birth to just 547 daughters. If nothing changed, those 547 daughters would be succeeded by 299 daughters of their own, and so on. Extrapolating wildly, it would take only 25 generations for Hong Kong's female population to shrink from 3.75m to just one. Given that Hong Kong's average age of childbearing is 31.4 years, the territory would expect to see the birth of its last woman in the year 2798. By the same unflinching logic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Spain will not see out the next millennium. Even China has only 1,500 years left.

Oh Women !

Medical Info Women Should Know     Q: Should I have a baby after 35?   A: No, 35 children is enough.    Q : I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?   A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.    Q : What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?   A: Childbirth.    Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational. A: So what's your question?     Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?   A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.   Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?   A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.   Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?   A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.    Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?   A: Yes, pregnancy.    Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?   A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.    Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?   A: When the kids are in college.  ********************************************************************    "ESTROGEN ISSUES" –  (10 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE "ESTROGEN ISSUES")   1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.   2. You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.   3. The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.   4. Your husband is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.   5. You 're using your cell phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says: "How's my driving".   6. Everyone's head looks like an invitation to batting practice.   7. Everyone seems to have just landed here from "outer space."   9. You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.   10. The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday.     ************************************************************************ TOP TEN THINGS ONLY WOMEN UNDERSTAND   10. Cats' facial expressions.   9. The need for the same style of shoes in different colors.   8. Why bean sprouts aren't just weeds.   7. Fat clothes.   6. Taking a car trip without trying to beat your best time.   5. The difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.   4. Cutting your hair to make it grow.   3. Eyelash curlers.   2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.   AND, the Number One thing only women understand:   1. OTHER WOMEN

Jaya Hé

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JltFQS9kFXA

Simple and Brilliant !

Air travel

Please be seated

A faster way of boarding planes could save time and money

Sep 3rd 2011 | CHICAGO | from the print edition

Alternatively…

THE job of the professional astrophysicist is to contemplate the music of the spheres. Given the global nature of modern science, however, today's astrophysicists often spend just as much time confronting the cacophony of the airport. Now, one of them has devised a way to make that experience a little less tedious. Jason Steffen, from Fermilab, near Chicago, has designed and experimentally tested a faster method of boarding aeroplanes. By his calculation, it could save airlines hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Dr Steffen spends his time thinking about such things as extrasolar planets, dark matter and cosmology. After waiting in a particularly long queue to board a flight, though, he began to harbour an interest in the mechanics of getting people on to planes. In 2008 he wrote a computer simulation to test different methods. Using a numerical technique familiar to him from his day job, he was able to find what looked like the best. He has put his answer to the test, and the results have just been submitted for publication to the Journal of Air Transport Management.

In the Steffen method, passengers are boarded by seat type (ie, window, middle or aisle) while also ensuring that neighbours in the boarding queue are seated in alternating rows. First, the window seats for every other row on one side of the plane are boarded. Next, alternate rows of window seats on the opposite side are boarded. Then, the window seats in the skipped rows are filled in on each side. The procedure then repeats with the middle seats and the aisles.

According to Dr Steffen, two things bog down the boarding process. The first is that passengers are often forced to wait in the aisle while those ahead of them stow their luggage and then get out of the way. The second is that passengers already seated in aisle or middle seats often have to get up and move into the aisle to let others take seats nearer the window. Dr Steffen's proposal minimises the former type of disturbance and eliminates the latter.

By boarding alternate rows in this way, passengers are spaced far enough apart along the aisle to stow their luggage in parallel, all at the same time. Because passengers in the same seat types board together, they do not have to step over each other to swap seats.

To test the idea, Dr Steffen conducted a test using passengers and a mock Boeing 757 fuselage. The fuselage had a single aisle and 12 rows. Seventy-two passengers (including families with children) boarded, towing their bags and roll-aboard suitcases. In addition to the Steffen method, the team tried boarding in a strict back-to-front order, block boarding (the system now used by most airlines, with passengers assigned to groups within the cabin) and boarding in random order (which made its debut at American Airlines earlier this summer).

Standard block boarding turned out to be the slowest way to do things, taking almost seven minutes to fill the 12 rows. Dr Steffen's system took half that time. Indeed, it was the fastest performing of the methods tested. With full-sized planes, the benefit should increase, as more people can stow their luggage simultaneously along the longer aisles.

Although Dr Steffen admits that the airline industry has shown no interest in his method so far, he points out that, in principle, there should be no barriers to its adoption. Though directing airline passengers on to a plane is a little like herding cats some airlines, such as Southwest, already try to get their passengers to line up in a certain order before boarding. If travellers believed that complying with the new arrangements really would make their lives easier, they would probably do so. And by Dr Steffen's calculations, airlines have a pretty strong incentive to persuade them. Previous work has shown that every minute a plane spends at the terminal costs $30. Assuming the average carrier runs 1,500 flights a day, saving as little as six minutes per flight would add up to $100m a year. For hard-pressed airlines running on razor-thin margins, that really would be astronomical.

Muscat Ke Anaar

Jabal Akhdar is a hill station  about 150 kms from Muscat and it is at a height of nearly 2200 metres ( same as Kodai or Ooty).....the place grows some absolutely delicious pomegranates and it is a tough task getting them in Muscat as for some reason these are not sold commercially ....using all sorts of tricks and pleadings, I usually get one box every year...here is my 2011 procurement !

RSK

Wheels of Life ............

Russian Violinsts

Kalinka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&feature=related&v=ClG2IIh4I3c

Brahms

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j4QWxi4kSw&feature=related

MyReview : Mausam

The dapper Indian Air Force Squadron Leader steps out of his Scotland apartment with a bouquet in his hand to meet the girl and her Hindu-Muslim family....the girl waits endlessly but the SQLdr does not turn up....it seems the Kargil war broke out and he was summoned back to India for combat duty in such clinical, ruthless , efficient manner that he can't even tell the waiting girl and her family..... ( it is quite another matter that IAF can't take care of its fighter planes , having crashed more than 350 of them in the last 2 decades while on routine training missions) ...this is the tipping point so to speak, for what follows is an inane chase to locate each other which consumes a good part of the wretched film......

The Muslim girl first wears a burqa in her her entry shot and then switches effortlessly to western skirts and she lives in a house with two Dad-like persons, one Hindu and one Muslim.....and then there is the Mumbai Bomb blast ( of the 1993 vintage - one needs to be specific as there are so many of them....one thing we can proudly say about Mumbai is that it faces less violence than karachi !  Does that make RAW more effective than ISI ? Moot point....) and presto, the Hindu-Muslim family seamlessly relocates to Scotland to open a shop run by this secular family..... 

SqLdr flies fighter planes and attacks the Tiger Hills area in Kargil and we see a blaze of digitally- created blast and fire over the snow-capped Himalayas..... then having managed to land a burning aircraft, he is injured and his left hand is paralysed..... we next see him holidaying in Switzerland (  lesser mortals get decommissioned but our Shahid Kapoor is acting in his Pop's film, may I remind you !)....

Then the Gujarat riots break out  and miraculously ( for the viewers, that is) the boy and the girl meet , surrounded by arson and arsonists and for all the bad press that Modi routinely gets, I think this union should tilt the balance in his favour, no matter how very slightly  and prove beyond doubt that he is a secularist.....

Shahid and Anil Kapoor's daughter ( she should rightly be called Nil Kapoor) ham their way through the story set in the 90s..... the coy love , the exchanging of letters and the endless wait to unite : all this stuff sold well a few decades back but will it enthuse the facebook/iphone/sms generation, brought up as it is on instant gratification and shoot-n- scoot philosophy ? I bet not......

There are diverse opinions whether Pankaj Kapoor is a great actor or not but on his directorial capability, there will not be any such dispute ! He is absoutely in 180 degree synch with the mood of the time.....

If some one were to offer you free tickets, better instead watch a re-run of the recent IND-ENG test series or Modiji's 3-day fast... this Mausam is off-colour and no off-season discount should lure you into watching it ......

RSK

MySnaps : Muscat sky in a rare blaze............. ( late Aug 2011)

MySnaps : India Trip in Sept 2011

Pl take a look ............

https://picasaweb.google.com/117777307553234241527/MySnapsIndiaTripSept2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOdgo3foeyzTg

MySnaps :: Kaas -> The Plateau of Flowers

Last week, along with Anajali and Hemant Pardikar, we went to the Kaas near Satara in Maharashtra. This place is known as  is  a Plateau of Flowers.  The lateritic plateau of Kaas  becomes home to millions of tiny flowers in late monsoons.More than 300 varieties of wild flowers, herbs, orchids, shrubs, insectivorous plants etc. can be seen here in Aug and Sep ….. This plateau overlooks the lush evergreen forests that serves as a water catchment area of Koyna Dam  In the monsoons,  the whole area transforms into a carpet of flowers : the yellow  of Smithia and Sonki flowers, the pink  of Balsam, the purple  of Karvi etc…. here is a link to the pictures I clicked while there.......

https://picasaweb.google.com/117777307553234241527/KaasThePlateauOfFlowers?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7nv7yo2_2yvgE

Split Personality?

( from a display in Lavasa, near Pune)

Why S&P downgraded the US - A short and simple explanation

Why S&P downgraded  the US ? See these numbers:  • U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 • Federal budget:    $3,820,000,000,000 • New debt:             $1,650,000,000,000 • National debt:     $14,271,000,000,000 • Recent budget cut:    $38,500,000,000 Confusing? OK , let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget: • Annual family income:                                        $21,700 • Money the family spent:                                     $38,200 • New debt on the family credit card:                     $16,500 • Outstanding balance on the family credit card: $142,710 • Total family budget cuts:                                         $385 Would you give this family an AAA credit rating?

_

--

Indian Lady Is Trinidad's Prime Minister

Indian Lady Is Trinidad's Prime Minister 

Page last updated at 09:17 GMT, Thursday, 24 June 2010 10:17 UK
By Nazma Muller (BBC)

Barely 24 hours after she was sworn in as the first woman prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar donned a life jacket and waded into the flood waters to tour areas affected by torrential rains sweeping across the Caribbean. A devout Hindu, she swore on the Bhagavad Gita - the Hindu holy book - to do her duty to her people.Even as congratulations poured in from around the world, she remained focused on "dealing with the people's business".
It was the most important task at hand, she told her 1.3m citizens during the live televised address of her historic swearing-in ceremony.
A descendant of Indian indentured labourers who came to Trinidad to work the sugar plantations from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917, Ms Persad-Bissessar grew up with traditional Indian values and strong religious ties.
'No novice'
The landslide victory of the coalition led by her United National Congress (UNC) party in last month's election has brought a sense of euphoria and feeling of hope to this incredibly wealthy republic.
Trinidad and Tobago has sailed smoothly through the global recession, cushioned by a sea of oil and natural gas.

A woman walks past graffiti promoting Ms Persad-Bissessar in Port of Spain on 23/05/2010
Ms Persad-Bissessar ran a high-profile election campaign
The squandering of billions of dollars by the former government and alleged corruption helped bring this 58-year-old grandmother- of-two into power.
She unseated former PM Patrick Manning whose People's National Movement (PNM) party had governed the country for 42 of the 48 years since its independence from the UK.
An attorney by profession, Ms Persad-Bissessar is no novice to politics having been the MP for her area Siparia, a rural town in the south of the island, since 1995.
She launched her bid to take over the UNC, Mr Panday, the opposition leader, unleashed an attack on her reputation, suggesting that she was an alcoholic.
Ms Persad-Bissessar called the accusation "total falsehood".

Ms Persad-Bissessar is of Indian origin
"It is a smear campaign of lies, half-truths and innuendoes. Smear campaigns do not win elections. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words cannot hurt me."
Indeed, they did not.
On 24 January, Ms Persad-Bissessar became leader of the UNC with a landslide victory.
When Mr Panday refused to step down as leader of the opposition, she dealt with that too - persuading his loyal MPs to cross over to her side.
After she was appointed leader of the opposition, she hired the strategist who worked on Barack Obama's presidential campaign to assist her.
After a blistering, hugely expensive campaign that used high-tech, slick advertisement in all the media, including the internet, Ms Persad-Bissessar and her coalition emerged victorious.
And on 24 May she became prime minister.

Ms Persad-Bissessar unseated former PM Patrick Manning
Ms Persad-Bissessar has shown admirable political savvy in the last few weeks, openly courting the media and reacting swiftly to public opinion.
In her 30 May Indian Arrival Day speech she touched on "soft" issues such as race, gender and class inequality.
"As a child in the rural district of Penal I remember sharing meals from the same pot with neighbours of different racial, ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, " she said.
"We all managed. If one had, then all had. Because then we were intuitively and instinctively our brother's keepers.

NETRA Project : MIT

http://web.media.mit.edu/~pamplona/NETRA/tech.html

MAGIC?

MAGIC

===========================================

     

__,_._,___