Monday, December 16, 2013

To Beautify Bangalore - Send SMS to "Bangalore Mayor" to clear up garbage in your area.

Mayor of Bangalore Sri B.S.Satyanarayana has told in a newspaper interview that, people can call him up directly and give suggestions/complaints.
He has told that, his top priority is to clear Garbage from Bangalore and fill the pot holes on all the roads.

I think, unless people start complaining, things won't move. People should call him up or send SMS to complain about the problem. As more and more people start complaining, the BBMP will be forced to act. So, share this contact number with all your friends and relatives. Start sending your complaints to "Our Mayor". We will force the BBMP to act fast.

So, here is his contact number:
080-22975501 or 9341220836

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Mangalyaan's completed the tricky "Mid Course Correction" successfully!


1.    Mangalyaan has reached a crucial stage and is now in uncharted territory as far as ISRO is concerned. No Indian spacecraft has ever travelled so far!
2.    The mission was launched on November 5, 2013, from Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh. It revolved around the Earth till the end of November.
3.    On December 1st, it left the Earth's orbit and began its journey towards Mars after a crucial and tricky midnight operation to give it a nudge to escape the Earth's gravity.
4.    It was about 2.9 million km away from the Earth when the mid-course correction was done. It involved first re-orienting the spacecraft and then firing its smaller rockets to give it a nudge.
5.    The Trajectory Correction Manoeuvres or TCMs are done to fine-tune the mission, so that it keeps on the precise intended track. This was the first of four TCM, which will be carried out as the Mars Orbiter Mission heads towards the Earth's red neighbour.
6.    The Rs.450 Crore mission is expected to reach Mars on September 24, 2014. If it does that successfully, India will become the first Asian nation to do this.
7.    No country has succeeded in reaching Mars on the first attempt. More than half of all missions to Mars have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 1998.
8.    The Mars Orbiter Mission is not taking the shortest route to the Red Planet. ISRO explained that it is travelling about 680 million km in an elliptical orbit as this requires the least amount of fuel. On the shorter route, scientists said, a large amount of fuel would be needed to accelerate and later decelerate to match the planet's speed.
9.    Once it reaches Mars, the Mangalyaan will revolve around the 'Red Planet' for six months and announce India's triumph. The mission has made international headlines, at least in part for its cost-efficiency.

Courtesy: NDTV Website

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

2000 mice dropped by US on Guam by parachute — to kill snakes!!

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/02/21724382-two-thousand-mice-dropped-on-guam-by-parachute-to-kill-snakes?lite

They floated down from the sky Sunday — 2,000 mice, wafting on tiny cardboard parachutes over Andersen Air Force Base in the U.S. territory of Guam. But the rodent commandos didn't know they were on a mission: to help eradicate the brown tree snake, an invasive species that has caused millions of dollars in wildlife and commercial losses since it arrived a few decades ago. That's because they were dead. And pumped full of painkillers!!

The unlikely invasion was the fourth and biggest rodent air assault so far, part of an $8 million U.S. program approved in February to eradicate the snakes and save the exotic native birds that are their snack food.

"Every time there is a technique that is tested and shows promise, we jump on that bandwagon and promote it and help out and facilitate its implementation," Tino Aguon, acting chief of the U.S. Agriculture Department's wildlife resources office for Guam, told NBC station KUAM of Hagatna.

It's not just birds the government is trying to protect. It's also money. Andersen, like other large industrial complexes on the Western Pacific island, is regularly bedeviled by power failures caused when the snakes wriggle their way into electric substations — an average of 80 a year, costing as much as $4 million in annual repair costs and lost productivity, the Interior Department estimated in 2005.

The U.S. has tried lots of ways to eliminate the snakes, which it says likely arrived in an inadequately inspected cargo shipment sometime in the 1950s. Snake traps, snake-sniffing dogs and snake-hunting inspectors have all helped control the population, but the snakes have proved especially hardy and now infest the entire island. Guam is home to an estimated 2 million of the reptiles, which in some areas reach a density of 13,000 per square mile — more concentrated than even in the Amazonian rainforests, the government says.

But brown tree snakes have an Achilles' heel: Tylenol. For some reason, the snakes are almost uniquely sensitive to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the ubiquitous over-the-counter painkiller. If you can get a tree snake to eat just 80 milligrams, you can kill it. That's only about one-sixth of a standard pill — pigs, dogs and other similarly sized animals would have to eat about 500 of the baited mice to get a lethal dose.

Brown tree snakes also love mice. It's easy to bait mice with acetaminophen, but how do you then deliver the mice to the snakes? "The process is quite simple," Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM. Helicopters make low-altitude flights over the base's forested areas, dropping their furry bundles on a timed sequence. Each mouse is laced with the deadly microdose of acetaminophen and strung up to two pieces of cardboard and green tissue paper. "The cardboard is heavier than the tissue paper and opens up in an inverted horseshoe," Vice said. "It then floats down and ultimately hangs up in the forest canopy. Once it's hung in the forest canopy, snakes have an opportunity to consume the bait."

Wildlife workers do have a way to chart how well the mice work. In addition to the acetaminophen and the parachutes, some of the poison pests also come equipped with tiny data-transmitting radios.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

An extraordinary book: "The Light Within"

In his latest blog post, L.K.Advani has written about a book release function he attended sometime back. I found the information interesting and posting some of it here. For reading the full article: http://blog.lkadvani.in.

Name of the book is:     The Light Within
Author of the book:      Sipra Das, a Photo-Journalist.
Publisher of the book:  Niyogi Books.

This unique book was released in Rashtrapathi Bhavan. But, it was not released by Rashtrapathi! It was released by Pragya and Prachi, twin sisters studying in XII standard, who are blind since birth!!

                      

Publishers of this book have summed up its contents as below:
“The Light Within captures the extraordinary lives of the visually Impaired through images that stimulate genuine empathy and a certain degree of awe.
They enthrall you with their wit, their perspicacity, their ability to see beyond the obvious. In the Light Within, Sipra has sought to narrate tales of struggle and survival, of despair and hope, of resilience and triumphs.
Each story in this book is filled with drama. The characters in the book open our eyes. They teach us to see life in a new light. They help us evolve as a human being. They bring us face to face with blinding flashes of truth that would have remained outside our ken had their amazing lives not touched us through this book.  They inspire us.”
Few interesting stories from the book (as given in the original blog):
Sangeeta, 38,
School Teacher

Daughter of an iron trader in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Sangeeta runs a residential school for the visually impaired, besides being the brain behind Shubham, an NGO that helps poor children from the villages in the vicinity.  Being sightless, she found all her efforts to study in a school for normal children thwarted.  But her academic record has been nothing short of spectacular.  She went to a school for the visually impaired and passed with flying colours, ranking tenth on the merit list.  She went on to acquire MPhil and PhD degrees.  In 1986, she was among the 300 university toppers who were invited by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for high tea.  She was the only visually challenged person on that select list of invitees.  The PM asked her what she wanted to do next.  Her reply was prompt.  She said she wanted to help the visually challenged lead normal lives the way she does.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Sangeeta has since gone from strength to strength in her mission.

Misri Sahani, 30
Fisherman 


Misri Sahani is a sightless fisherman in Buddhanagara village, Bihar. He never returns home empty-handed. The eldest of seven siblings, he lost his eyesight at the age of two.  He was under treatment for two months, but the doctor passed away. Misri received no medical attention thereafter – his family and neighbours believed he was a victim of black magic. His luck took a positive turn when he began accompanying his fisherman-father to the Barigandak river. Misri swims and is a more than competent fisherman. He earns up to Rs.5000 a month when the going is good. The haul, he says, is the best in the months of September and October.
Misri also owns a general Provisions store, which he set up with the help of a small government loan.  His father and mother run the shop when the young man is out fishing.  He often spends the entire night in his boat.


Reshmi Sonawane, 32
Beautician

Reshmi Sonawane isn’t your average beautician. Nor does she fit into the image of a visually challenged woman. The mother of a boy, she is genetically blind.  But that hasn’t stopped her from running a beauty parlour from her well-appointed Mumbai home. She provides a range of services – from basic beauty treatment to hairdressing to aromatherapy.  Reshmi’s condition was detected when she was a five-year-old student of Hillgreen school, Peddar Road. “I do not know the cause of my blindness,” she says. “It was during my 12th standard exams that the letters of the alphabet began to merge,” she recalls.  A counselor helped her tide over the disability and she completed her education – Reshmi is a History Honours graduate – with the help of readers and writers. She then went on to acquire additional training in export-import management. Because of her pretty eyes, Reshmi often encounters boorish behaviour from bus conductors who refuse to accept that she is actually sightless. “I find it very humiliating,” she says. Her husband is a Tata Motors dealer. She married him against her family’s wishes. Her parents severed all ties with her. Today, the gutsy Reshmi has no reason to regret her choice.

Riyazuddin, 55
Motorcycle mechanic


Riyazuddin is a motorcycle mechanic in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. His skills in his chosen field are legendary. Engineers and mechanics from around the country consult him when they need specialized help with repairs. One of ten siblings, Riyazuddin, also known as Munnabhai, lost his eyesight at 23.
In the early 1970s, he had been taken to a doctor with an insect bite on the eyelid. The doctor gave him a medicine that was past its expiry date. He lost vision in one eye. Six months later, the strain affected his other eye as well. His family was too poor to afford further treatment. In 1980, he went to a shop in Delhi to buy tyres. Hoping to take advantage of his sightlessness, the shopkeeper gave him a used tyre. Riyazuddin felt it with his hands and instantly realised that it was defective. He returned the tyre and asked for another.  The shopkeeper gave him three old tyres one by one.  Each time, Riyazuddin called his bluff.  Eventually, the shopkeeper realised the futility of his ploy.
The fifth tyre that he handed over to Riyazuddin was spanking new. As the latter turned to leave, the sheepish shopkeeper apologized. “I’ve shortchanged many customers over the years, but you’ve opened my eyes. I will never cheat a customer ever again,” he said.
Riyazuddin is a finicky mechanic – he handpicks every part.  His repairs come with a one year guarantee. The early days were tough, but thanks to the consistent quality of his service, his clientele expanded quickly. Today his eldest son, Faisal – Riyaz has nine children – has learnt the ropes from him.
Engineers from Enfield Chennai often come to Bhopal to seek his assistance.  Even other mechanics, when they cannot repair a motorcycle, turn to him for help.  He hears the sound of a motorcycle on the mobile phone and can tell what is wrong with the engine.  It is not without reason that his customers swear by Riyazuddin.


Preeti Monga, 49
Public Relations Executive


Punjab-born Preeti Monga is an exceptionally driven woman. Sightless since the age of six, she is a public relations executive with an eye hospital in Delhi.  “I follow my heart.  Nothing can prevent me from achieving what I want to. It might take time, but I don’t give up,” she says. Her life is a living testimony to that spirit. She was a student of Loreto Convent, Delhi Cantonment, until Standard VIII. Expelled because of her condition, she had to sit at home for a while. She then enrolled in an open school, but that didn’t help matters either. She felt frustrated and unhappy. Her marriage led to more problems. Her jobless husband, who fathered two children, was abusive and physically violent.  Back then Preeti was an aerobics instructor for the blind and earned enough to sustain herself and her children. She divorced her husband. Preeti’s second husband is a colleague ten years younger. “When I proposed, he took two days to decide,” she recalls. They’ve been married for over a decade now.  Today a proud owner of a flat in an east Delhi locality, she designed the interiors all by herself.  Preeti loves to be in control. 

Monday, October 21, 2013

Treasure Hunt - Has the government indirectly admitted that it has lost all hopes of reviving the Indian economy?

Sangrampur (Daundia Khera) is a small village in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. This sleeply village has suddenly hit headlines, when Shobhan Sarkar, a local saint dreamt of 1000 tonnes of gold treasure hidden in a nearby fort. A king by name Rao Ram Baksh Singh was ruling in that region, nearly 165 years back. He had built a fort in that place. He participated in the 1857 war of independence. When British defeated the revolution, they hanged the king to a large tree in the vicinity of the fort. Today fort is in a ruined state. Next to the fort’s ruins is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva. There have been stories that the king has hidden lot of gold in the fort and its surroundings. Some people have reportedly found some coins near that place. But, it seems, they brought bad luck to the finder and that made the people to stay away!


Few days back, Shobhan Sarkar had a dream. In that he saw loads of gold hidden in that fort. He gave information to his disciples and the government also got to know about it. So, the government has asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to dig the place and take out the treasure!

It is reported that, the godman was concerned by reports about India’s flagging economy and plunging rupee. So, he informed the government, so that it could be used to boost the country's gold reserves and help tackle the deficits. The government has also shown lot of interest and urgency - it has asked the ASI to dig the place immediately!



So, this brings a very important question. Has the government indirectly admitted that it has lost all hopes of reviving the Indian economy? Has the UPA brought us down to such a sorry state!? UPA has been in power for last 10 years. It is headed by Dr.Man Mohan Singh, who is an expert in economy and boasts of reviving the economy in 1991. It's finance minister is P.Chidambram, who is famous for his "Dream Budgets". The planning commission chairman is Ahluwalia, who is also an economic expert. With all these people at the helm, the country has reached the brink in just 10 years. So, what is the guarantee that, this treasure (if found) will also not go in the drain!?

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Creation of Telangana - What went wrong!?

Telangana creation has witnessed widespread protests and violence. But, this is not the first time a bigger state is getting split. But, this is the first time a non-Hindi speaking state getting split! In the year 2000, the state of Madhya Pradesh was split to form Chattisgargh. Similarly Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar and Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh. When these new states were born, we didn’t see any violence or widespread protests. Also, the economic indicators are showing that the creation of new states has improved the economy of all the regions involved. For example, the table below shows how “Per Capita Income” has changed since the formation of new states:

State
Per-Capita Income 2000-01 (Rs.)
Per-Capita Income 2010-11 (Rs.)
Per-Capita Income of 2010-11 as a multiple of 2000-01
Bihar
6,554
13,632
2.0
Jharkhand
9,980
21,734
2.1
Madhya Pradesh
11,150
22,382
2.0
Chhattisgarh
10,808
27,156
2.5
Uttar Pradesh
9,721
17,349
1.7
Uttarakhand
14,932
44,723
3.0

So, why Telangana is creating so much trouble? What has gone wrong? What should have been done?

Monday, October 07, 2013

Narendra Modi's Trichy visit and Liquor bottles!!!!


When Narendra Modi speaks, India listens and the numbers at his rallies are a testament to his skill as an orator and leader with a vision. And to his detractors who might have something to say for the multitudes that throng to the grounds to listen to him, here is proof that the crowd comes to listen to the man and not for the alleged ‘freebies’. A Tamil daily carried this short anecdote, which has been translated, post Narendra Modi’s Trichy Youth Conference.

After Modi’s youth conference at Trichy, the very next morning when police were clearing up their mini-control room, they found few boys who were roaming there with bags and they found it to be strange! When police enquired, those boys told them, "Sir, we are from Subramaniapuram in Trichy. Whatever political meeting or conference is held in this ground, we come here on the same night or morning hours to collect the liquor bottles. We get 50 paisa to 1 rupee per bottle when we sell them at scrap shop.We earn Rs.200 to Rs.400 after each such event. Recently when DMK conducted a party meeting, we came here next day morning and we collected around 1500 bottles. Today we are disappointed! We could not find even a single bottle in the whole ground. We went around the ground many times and have searched all the corners. But, we could not find any bottles and we are really disappointed sir!".

Its perhaps incomprehensible for the opposing faction that usually relies on sops to attract a crowd, the fact that the people want to listen to Narendra Modi and no body has to dangle a carrot in front of them. People are even paying entry fee to attend Modi's lectures!!

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Is Dr|| Man Mohan Singh on the hitlist of Congress!?

In a recent article, M.J.Akbar writes:

"......what is doing fatal damage to Congress is the total disarray within the establishment. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being humiliated time and again, not by Opposition but by his own Congress party. The confusion and somersault over the convicted politicians' ordinance, is only one, albeit startling, instance....."

"Rahul Gandhi dismissed the ordinance as complete nonsense.........sounding more like a playground retort than a dispute over high policy. ......., if that is the Congress view, then Manmohan Singh, along with his Cabinet, should resign immediately. Such warfare between a ruling party and its Prime Minister is unprecedented. Rahul Gandhi walked away from a Cabinet decision not when it was made, but when the popular mood turned hostile"

"It is embarrassing to watch the last shards of credibility crumble around a Prime Minister who has been in office for nearly a decade. If Narendra Modi is on top of the Congress hit list, then it seems that Prime Minister Singh is second"

"To take punishment from the Opposition is part of the give and take of democratic politics, but to accept such dismissive barbs from one's own colleagues.....................Dr Singh feels that he should not rock the boat......., but that boat is being tossed into a tornado by his own navigatorsThere is no government left. What we have instead is a desultory squabble in which no minister can be sure of where he stands, or where he should stand, on any issue"

You can follow this link to read the full article: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/is-dr-singh-a-stoic-or-a-masochist

Friday, September 13, 2013

Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to go out of our Solar System!!


The general locations of Voyager 1 and 2 are shown in this illustration at the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble created by solar wind.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.
New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
"Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind's historic leap into interstellar space," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking -- 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are."
Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft's interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Rs 1 cr for cricketers; a pittance for Uttarakhand army heroes!!

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/rs-1-cr-for-cricketers-a-pittance-for-uttarakhand-heroes-905681.html?utm_source=MC_TOP_WIDGE



Politicians, right from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh downwards, have been singing paeans to our armed forces heroes who have been putting their lives on the line in the mission to rescue people in the thousands in the flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand. But these words come across as empty nothingness when one considers the compensation that those who died in Tuesday’s helicopter crash will receive – and contrasts with the “reward” for the Indian cricketers who won the Champions Trophy on Sunday.
Appearing on a CNN-IBN panel discussion late on Tuesday, Col Anil Kaul pointed to this as exemplifying the “platitudes” that politicians offer the armed forces in times of crises – without doing anything substantive once the crisis fades away.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Muslims of Gujarat love Narendra Modi!!

Narendra Modi has become a synonym for development and Gujarat has become a model state for the whole of India. But, still many people suddenly remember "Secularism" when Narendra Modi's name comes up. They argue that, Narendra Modi hates Muslims and Muslims hate Narendra Modi! But, the fact is that, Muslims of Gujarat have started liking Narendra Modi!! It is difficult to believe, right? Here below are the points supporting this fact:
1.   More than 31% of the Muslims voted for the BJP in the 2012 elections to the Gujarat assembly.
2.   In Gujarat, there are 8 constituencies with Muslim majority. Out of this BJP has won 6.
3.   This is the "first riot-free decade for Gujarat", in the last 60 years.
4.   Kutch and Bharuch cities of Gujarat have about 35% and 20% Muslim population. Both these cities are one of the fastest growing cities in all of India!
5.   Nearly 13000 families got effected due to "Riverfront Project" on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad. 68% of these families were Muslim families. Every single family has been rehabilitated in beautiful apartments.
6.   In 1969, more than 5000 Muslims were killed during a communal riot in Ahmedabad . Whole communities were wiped out without a trace, in this riot. Gujarat had a Congress government and Hitendra Desai was the CM during that time.  Major riots have occurred in Gujarat in 1969, 87, 89, 90, 92. Many people lost their lives and property worth crores of rupees was looted. Forget about punishment, not even a single charge sheet was filed. Even FIR's were not registered!! But now, for the first time, not only in the history of Gujarat but even elsewhere in the country, more than 200 miscreants belonging to the majority faith have been convicted for their role in the 2002 riots. Out of these, 150 have been given life imprisonment!

In a recent interview, actor Salmaan Khan's father and well-known script-writer of Bollywood Salim Khan said: "Does anyone remember who was the Maharashtra CM during the Mumbai riots which were no less deadlier than the Gujarat riots of 2002? Does anyone recall the name of the CM of UP during Malliana and Meerut riots? Does anybody know who was the Bihar CM (Congress government) during Bhagalpur or Jamshedpur riots? Do we hear names of earlier Chief Ministers of Gujarat under whose charge, hundreds of riots took place in post-Independence India? Does anyone remember who was in-charge of Delhi's security when the 1984 massacre of Sikhs took place in the capital of India? Why Narendra Modi has been singled out as the 'Devil Incarnate', as if he personally carried out all the killings during the riots of 2002? In fact, Modi has eliminated the evil of 'Divide & Rule Formula' of vote-bank politics from which the country is suffering from and has given a new formula of 'Inclusive Development' to our secular country by removing the labels of religion, castes and creed".

Eminent Muslim scholar Maulana Vastanvi, a Gujarati Muslim said, "Gujarati Muslims have benefited from the inclusive development policies of Modi's government".

Another prominent Islamic scholar, Maulana Mehmood Madni of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind, says that, "Muslims in Gujarat are better off in many disciplines as compared to other states".

In a recent interview given to 'Milli Gazette', former IG of Police, Maharashtra, SM Mushrif said: "Today the most safe place for Muslims is Gujarat"!

V V Augustine of Kerala was a member of the National Minorities Commission and had close interactions with Narendra Modi. He sums up his experience like this: "People who spread the canard that Modi is against the minorities are reflecting their own political biases. My experience is totally different. He listens very carefully and acts very fast in case of genuine problems. As a member of the Minorities Commission, I dealt with several states. Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar governments have also been good. But no CM is as good, as strong and as determined as Modi. Now even Muslims have realized that Modi is good for them. There are two kinds of Muslims in Gujarat - the rich and the poor. My experience tells me the poor Muslims are solidly with Modi because a riot-free Gujarat and a resurgent economy with new opportunities have benefited the poorer Muslims far more dramatically. It has provided them avenues of upward mobility. Truth is truth, how can I deny facts?"

These are the excerpts from an article. You can read the full article at: http://ibnlive.in.com/group-blog/the-india-blog/3581/why-gujarati-muslims-are-with-modi/64627.html