Lovely Video : Rains in Muscat

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‘Life began before Earth was born’

PTI | Apr 22, 2013, 05.09 AM IST

If genetic complexity progresses at a steady rate, then the social and scientific development of any other alien life form in the Milky Way galaxy would be roughly equivalent to those of humans, the report said.

WASHINGTON: Life existed long before Earth came into being, and may have originated outside

 our solar system, scientists claim. Researchers say life first appeared about 10 billion years ago —

 long before Earth, which is believed to be 4.5 billion years old.

Geneticists have applied Moore's Law— which states that computers increase exponentially in 

complexity, at a rate of about double the transistors per integrated circuit every two years -

 to the rate at which life on Earth grows in complexity.

Alexei Sharov of the National Institute on Ageing in Baltimore, and 

Richard Gordon of the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida , replaced the

 transistors with nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA and RNA — 

and the circuits with genetic material.

Their findings suggest life first appeared about 10 billion years ago, far older than

 the Earth's projected age of 4.5 billion years, Tech-NewsDaily reported.

Like in the 2012 sci-fi movie 'Prometheus' , as our solar system was forming, 

preexisting bacteria-like organisms , or even simple nucleotides from an older part

 of the galaxy, could have reached Earth by hitching an interstellar ride on comets,

 asteroids or other inorganic space debris.

However, the calculations are not a scientific proof that life predates Earth — there's no way

 of knowing for sure that organic complexity increased at a steady rate at any point in the

 universe's history . "There are lots of hypothetical elements to (our argument ) ... but to

 make a wider view, you need some hypothetical elements," Sharov said.

Sharov said that if he had to bet on it, he'd say "it's 99% true that life started before 

Earth — but we should leave 1% for some wild chance that we have not accounted for."

The theory of "life before Earth" , if found true, debunks the long-held science fiction

 trope of the scientifically advanced alien species.

Moreover, if genetic complexity progresses at a steady rate, then the social and

 scientific development of any other alien life form in the Milky Way galaxy would

 be roughly equivalent to those of humans, the report said.

"Contamination with bacterial spores from space appears the most plausible 

hypothesis that explains the early appearance of life on Earth," Sharov said.

So, which employees are likely to stay on ?

How software helps firms hire workers more efficiently

Apr 6th 2013 |From the print edition of the ECONOMIST

THE problem with human-resource managers is that they are human. They have biases; they make mistakes. But with better tools, they can make better hiring decisions, say advocates of “big data”. Software that crunches piles of information can spot things that may not be apparent to the naked eye. In the case of hiring American workers who toil by the hour, number-crunching has uncovered some surprising correlations.

For instance, people who fill out online job applications using browsers that did not come with the computer (such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on a Windows PC) but had to be deliberately installed (like Firefox or Google’s Chrome) perform better and change jobs less often.

It could just be coincidence, but some analysts think that people who bother to install a new browser may be the sort who take the time to reach informed decisions. Such people should be better employees. Evolv, a company that monitors recruitment and workplace data, pored over nearly 3m data points from more than 30,000 employees to find this nugget.

Some 60% of American workers earn hourly wages. Of these, about half change jobs each year. So firms that employ lots of unskilled workers, such as supermarkets and fast-food chains, have to vet heaps—sometimes millions—of applications every year. Making the process more efficient could yield big payoffs.

Evolv mines mountains of data. If a client operates call centres, for example, Evolv keeps daily tabs on such things as how long each employee takes to answer a customer’s query. It then relates actual performance to traits that were visible during recruitment.

Some insights are counter-intuitive. For instance, firms routinely cull job candidates with a criminal record. Yet the data suggest that for certain jobs there is no correlation with work performance. Indeed, for customer-support calls, people with a criminal background actually perform a bit better. Likewise, many HR departments automatically eliminate candidates who have hopped from job to job. But a recent analysis of 100,000 call-centre workers showed that those who had job-hopped in the past were no more likely to quit quickly than those who had not.

Working with Xerox, a maker of printers, Evolv found that one of the best predictors that a customer-service employee will stick with a job is that he lives nearby and can get to work easily. These and other findings helped Xerox cut attrition by a fifth in a pilot programme that has since been extended. It also found that workers who had joined one or two social networks tended to stay in a job for longer. Those who belonged to four or more social networks did not.

There is no point asking jobseekers if they are honest. But surveys can measure honesty indirectly, by asking questions like “How good at computers are you?” and later: “What does control-V do on a word-processing programme?” A study of 20,000 workers showed that more honest people tend to perform better and stay at the job longer. For some reason, however, they make less effective salespeople.

Algorithms and big data are powerful tools. Wisely used, they can help match the right people with the right jobs. But they must be designed and used by humans, so they can go horribly wrong. Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business recalls a case where the software rejected every one of many good applicants for a job because the firm in question had specified that they must have held a particular job title—one that existed at no other company.

House Rules .....

Dickie Bird's All TIme Great XI

Sunil Gavaskar, not Sachin Tendulkar, in Dickie Bird's Test XI

TNN | Apr 19, 2013, 01.29 AM IST

Sunil Gavaskar is the only Indian in the XI as Sachin Tendulkar misses out. (AFP Photo)

BANGALORE: Umpiring legend Harold 'Dickie' 

Bird is someone who believes respect cannot be

 bought, but earned. While some of the cricketing

 world's greatest stars like Sachin Tendulkar and

Brian Lara surely have his respect, gaining entry

 into his all-time greatest Test XI is a tougher feat

 than they would have imagined.

Picking the side for a British daily ahead of his

 80th birthday on Friday, Bird suggested he

 has no issues leaving out Aussie legend

 Donald Bradman too. Curiously, the

 top-10 run makers in Tests don't figure in Bird's

 line-up.

His team is captained by Pakistani pacer Imran Khan, whose knowledge of the game

 "wasoutstanding". Sunil Gavaskar is the only Indian in the XI as he "was one of the two best

 opening bats I saw".

The list has South African batting great Barry Richards and his countryman Graeme Pollock, 

three Australians in Greg Chappell, Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee, as many West Indians in

 Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and Lance Gibbs and a lone Englishman - wicketkeeper Alan Knott.

Apparently, Bird gave Barry and Pollock the benefit of the doubt, stating that both careers 

were cruelly curtailed by the apartheid. Having said that, Barry's stint with Hampshire in

 county cricket would have given Bird enough reason to pick him for his playing XI.



That he has chosen to give the famed West Indies pace quartet - Michael Holding, Colin 

Croft, Joel Garner and Andy Roberts - the miss too, is interesting, as is his choice of captain 

at the expense of Clive Lloyd or his own countryman Mike Brearley.

His spinners - Shane Warne and Lance Gibbs - are doubtless world class but then his picks

 may lead to furrowed brows among Indians as the spin quartet of the 70s - Bishan Bedi

, BS Chandrashekar, EAS Prasanna and Venkataraghavan - had held the world in a thrall.

Close to two decades after he hung up his famous white coat, the cricketing world can't help 

but talk fondly of the Englishman who became the game's first superstar umpire. His quirky

 antics as a "not-outer" and strong values while playing the "benefit of the doubt" card made

 Bird one of the most respected invigilators of the game's laws.

"You can't buy respect, you have to earn it," Bird was quoted as saying. "And I can honestly 

tell you I had not one problem with any professional cricketer. If I go to Pakistan, Imran Khan

 and Javed Miandad invite me round for a meal at their place. If I go to Australia the first man

 to ring me is Dennis Lillee. If I go to West Indies, the first man on the phone will be Garfield 

Sobers, the greatest that's ever lived. You'll never see another like him, not in your lifetime,"

 the newspaper quoted Bird as saying.

A former batsman who made only two hundreds in 93 first-class appearances thanks to his 

anxiety issues, Bird always fancied himself as a player and compared his skills with that of 

Geoffrey Boycott.

Bird lamented in the interview the end of cricket's glory days with technological invasion putting

 paid to decisions going unchallenged and players not having a bit of a laugh on the ground. 

"The characters have gone out of all sports haven't they?" he was quoted as saying.

Bird, however, admitted that his heart still belonged to the game. "It's still the greatest game

 in the world, cricket," he said.

You just moved 3000 kms !

I'm Gaining It !

MUMBAI : Then and Now......

( from Housing.co.in)

From Bombay to Mumbai – In Pictures

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Category :

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From A Sleepy Koli fishing hamlet to the financial capital of India, Mumbai has come a long way. The Portugese who were its earlier occupants gave it its name – ‘Bom Bai’ or ‘The Good Bay’. Initially an archipelago of 7 islands, this port city rose to prominence after the British East India Company deemed it fit for trading and shifted base from Surat. After a series of reclamations and massive construction efforts, Bombay became what is it today – A mega metropolis. Join us in capturing this iconic journey, through seamless images of the past & the present.

 The Reclamation

The Archipelago and Its reclamation: The 7 islands of Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman’s Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion, underwent a series of reclamations, forming the island city of Mumbai that we see today. Full story here.

The seven islands

After Reclamation

Gateway of India
The former pier of Apollo Bander, now replaced by the ever popular Gateway of India, a 26m high archway built to commemorate the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary.

Apollo Bunder

Gateway of India

Churchgate Railway station
Bombay was a walled city and Churchgate, now called Veer Nariman Street was one of of three wall gates. It is now home to a new and revamped Churchgate railway station.

Old Churchgate Station

Old Churchgate Station

Churchgate Station

Victoria Terminus
Where gothic meets mughal. This lovely railway terminus building Victoria Terminus, now called the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, was built in 1887 and is the busiest railway station in India.

Victoria Terminus

Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus

Asiatic Town Hall

This iconic library founded in 1830 and is known to house some very rare book editions, including one of only two known original copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Asiatic Society

Asiatic Society

Bombay University
Iconic. Mammoth. Ancient. One of the oldest public universities in Maharashtra, the University of Mumbai is a landmark structure and is home to the famous Rajabai Tower.

University of Mumbai’s Fort Campus in 1870s. Rajabai Clock Tower was completed in 1878.

Completed Rajabai Tower and University Hall

Mumbai University

Bhendi Bazaar
The market with the curious etymology. This area was north of Crawford Market and the British referred to it as “Behind the Bazaar”. The natives picked this up as “Bhendi Bazaar” and the named stayed since.

Bhendi Bazaar 1880s

Bhendi Bazaar

Crawford Market
One of South Mumbai’s most famous & busiest markets where even dogs, cats & endangered species are sold. The architecture is predominantly a blend of Norman & Flemish styles.

Crawford Market

Crawford Market

Bhayander Bridge
Built over the Bayander creek and connecting Bayander to Naigon this bridge was so short that very few navigation vessel could pass through.

Bhayander Bridge

Bhayander Bridge

Colaba Causeway
A land link between Colaba & Old Woman’s Island, this commercial stretch of road was the first to host horse-drawn tram cars.

Colaba Causeway

Cafe Mondegar, marking the beginning of Colaba Causeway, with Taj Hotel in the background

Colaba Sea Face
All roads lead to the sea. Leading away from the bustling causeway are tiny perpendicular roads which lead to the serene Colaba seafront.

Colaba Sea Face

Colaba Sea Face

Dadar Station
The station that has terminals on both sides and has an odd penchant for starring in many Bollywood movies, owing to the mammoth number of local trains that pass through.

Dadar Station

Dadar Station

High Court

Inaugurated in 1862, Gothic Revival & early English style architecture were the inspirations behind this magnificent building.

Mumbai High Court

Mumbai High Court

Flora Fountain

Standing tall in Martyr square, this ornate fountain with the Roman Goddess Flora standing atop its restless waters, was built in 1864 to commemorate Sir Bartle Frère, the then Governor of Bombay.

Flora Fountain, 1904

Flora Fountain

Malabar Hill
Situated at a height of 50 metres, it is the highest point in South Mumbai and boasts of being one of the most upmarket residential areas in Mumbai. It is also home to the Walkeshwar Temple, founded by the Silhara kings.

Malabar Hill

View from Malabar Hill

Marine Drive
This iconic 4.3-kilometre-long boulevard is a C-shaped 6 lane concrete road overlooking the Arabian sea, and is home to some of the best art deco architecture in the city.

Old Marine Drive

Marine Drive

Lamignton Road

Lamington Road

Lamington Road Street View

Oval Maidan

Measuring 22 acres in area, this recreational ground is situated in the heart on South Mubai and overlooks many famous landmark like the Bombay High Court, & University of Mumbai.

Oval Maidan

Oval Maidan

Parsik Tunnel
Once the third largest tunnel in Asia, the Parsik Tunnel is the first railway tunnel to be built in India and is 1.3 Km in length.

Parsik Tunnel

A train entering Parsik Tunnel

Cuffe Parade
Cuffe Parade was named after T. W. Cuffe of the Bombay City Improvement Trust and was built mostly on reclaimed land. The Cuffe Parade of today is swanky & upmarket with some of its buildings reaching up to 30 storeys high.

Cuffe Parade

Cuffe Parade

Port of Mumbai
Is built natural deep-water harbor in the southern portion of the Ulhas River estuary and is primarily used for bulk cargo. The harbour spreads over 400 square kilometres.

Port of Bombay, 1890′s

Port of Mumbai

Elphinstone Circle

Found in the Horniman Circle Gardens, and was completed in 1872, this iconic heritage building housed many luxury brands and leading publication, Hermes and The Times of India to name a few.

Elphinstone Circle

Elphinstone Circle

Yacht Club
The Royal Bombay Yacht Club was founded in 1846 in the Colaba Area, when the British took to Sailing as a sport in India. The Yatch club sits pretty, overlooking the Gateway of India & the Bombay Harbor.

Yacht Club

Yacht Club

Wilson College

One of the oldest colleges in India, the Wison built in 1832, is a structure built in Victorian Gothic style and is known for elevated first floor classrooms with teakwood trusses.

Wilson College

Wilson College

Mumba Devi Temple

Dedicated to the Goddess Mumba, a local incarnation of the Devi, the Mumba Devi Temple is a six century old structure and is responsible for giving Mumbai its name.  Mumbai is a combination of ‘Mumbā’ and aī,  Marathi for “mother”.

Mumba Devi Temple

Mumba Devi Temple

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