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Variety: 2007

Monday, September 10, 2007


'Bush', 'Clinton' in Ukrainian zoo


Cellmates Bush and Clinton are the newest residents of an Ukrainian zoo, but they aren't complaining because the staff pamper them with fruit juice, their favourite drink.

The special pair, who are the last remaining skunks in captivity in the country, are named after current US President George W Bush and former president Bill Clinton.

The animals, known for their ability to excrete a foul-smelling odour when alarmed, were presented to the zoo in Kharkov city as a gift two weeks ago.

Their names were chosen to reflect the species' geographic origin -- North America, said a spokesman for the zoo, adding the duo has not sprayed anyone with their trademark odour so far.

"Most of all, they like juices," a zoo official said when asked what the skunks' preferred, according to a report by RIA Novosti.

But they eat almost everything from fruits and vegetables to fish and meat, he added.
Link The Timesof India

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Tired Beckham ruled out of Colorado match

David Beckham, fatigued after playing three games in six days, has been ruled out of Los Angeles Galaxy's Major League Soccer (MLS) match against Colorado Rapids on Sunday. The England midfielder has been hampered by a left ankle injury for the last two months and limped off the pitch after the Galaxy's 0-3 MLS defeat by Chivas USA on Thursday. "While it's regrettable that he will not get the opportunity to play in Colorado this season, we have to focus on healing David's injury," Galaxy president and general manager Alexi Lalas said in a statement on Friday. "He will rest this weekend in LA while preparing for our SuperLiga final match on Wednesday." The Galaxy, while struggling for form in the MLS, will host Mexican league champions Pachuca at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on Wednesday in the inaugural SuperLiga final. "I'd love to be on the pitch with my team this Sunday but our training staff has advised me that it would be detrimental to not only my health for this game but for the rest of the season," Beckham, 32, said. "I look forward to making it out to Colorado for our next scheduled match there."
The globe-trotting Beckham, signed by the Galaxy from Real Madrid on a $32.5 million five-year deal, competed in two matches in two continents on successive days this week. A day after playing the full 90 minutes for England in a 2-1 friendly defeat by Germany in London, Beckham was on the pitch throughout as the Galaxy slipped to their ninth defeat in 17 MLS games against Chivas on Thursday. Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said he had erred in leaving Beckham on for the entire match. "It wasn't the intention to play him at all but he came in and said that he felt okay," Yallop told reporters. "And obviously with our situation in the league we need points." "I didn't want to leave him on but in the end, at 2-0, he tried and all it needed was may be one set piece or one bit of magic by David." "Right at the end he looked hobbled. I used him tonight and I shouldn't have done that. You can still tell now that he is sore, he's still not 100 percent." Beckham twisted his ankle playing for his country against Estonia in a Euro 2008 qualifying match in June and aggravated it in his final appearance for Real 11 days later when his former team clinched the Spanish league title.
Link Timesof India

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Get ready for Spider Man







DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi

CAST: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe

RUNNING TIME: 121 minutes

GRADE: A

The 40-year journey of Marvel Comics' "Spider-Man" to the big screen is a twisted, meandering saga filled with so many contradictory claims But, finally, here it is, and it was worth the wait. As a special-effects particularly impressive.

Adapted by David Koepp (using an extended treatment by James Cameron), the film spends the first of its two hours establishing the character of meek teenager Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), who acquires certain super powers after being bitten by a spider one day on a field trip.

At the same time, it tells the story of industrialist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), a kind of corporate Dr. Jekyll who tests a chemical portion on himself that turns him into Spider-Man's nemesis, a super-powered Mr. Hyde the press dubs "the Green Goblin."

The two stories intersect -- and the stage is set for an eventual super-showdown -- when Parker and Osborn's troubled son (James Franco) become best friends, roommates and rivals for the affections of their beautiful high-school classmate (Kirsten Dunst).

Read this Link Spider Man

Friday, April 13, 2007

"Friendly Monkey Valley."
AFP writes

A white-handed gibbon eats a banana while sitting on a giant fruit display at the Everland amusement and animal park in Yongin, south of Seoul, during the opening of an anthropoid theme park called "Friendly Monkey Valley." (AFP/Jung Yeon-Je)

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The long and short of why dogs vary in size

The team of scientists attribute the dramatic variations in dog sizes to the IGF1 gene


Telegraph UK writes
From the smallest Chihuahua to the largest Great Dane, dogs dramatically vary in size, much more than most other creatures and an international team of scientists reports that it has found the reason is down to a scrap of DNA. Ranging from toy to giant, dogs have the biggest size variation of any mammal and the team of US and British experts believe it is due to variations in one gene.After analysing DNA samples from 3,200 dogs, they pinpointed IGF-1, a gene that makes a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1.Variants of the gene were very strongly associated with the different sizes of dogs and the scientists are now trying to determine the precise mutations occurring within the gene.


The scientists began by looking at Portuguese water dogs, which range from 25 pounds to 75 pounds. Small and large Portuguese water dogs had one region of their DNA that differed. It was here that the IGF-1 gene, which is known to influence body size in humans, was found. They then analysed the same region in hundreds of dogs from 14 small breeds.


The IGF1 gene's hormone helps humans and other mammals grow from birth to adolescence. Medium and large dogs have the IGF1 gene but lack the newly discovered piece of DNA. But in small dogs, this scrap of DNA next to the IGF1 gene suppresses the gene's activity, keeping small dogs from growing larger.


The study is relevant to human medicine because a vast majority of the genes in the human genome can also be found in the dog genome.The team, which reported its findings in the journal Science, was led by geneticists Elaine Ostrander and Nathan Sutter.


Mr Sutter told The Daily Telegraph. "There is strong support that IGF1 does promote growth and help determine body size in people. One example is a boy who was born without any IGF1 gene function - he was born extremely small and grew very slowly".


The research could help scientists looking for the genetic causes of human diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and cancer, said the researchers.
LinkTelegraph UK

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Tomb Sweeping Festival-Online tombs to honour dead

Beijing News reports

Chinese internet users are turning to online tombs as an easier ways to pay respects to deceased relatives and others during an annual festival to honour the dead, state media reported

At least five million people have logged on the web sites allowing them to offer the dead everything from simple message to the burning of electronic version of incense in the run-up to the yearly Tomb Sweeping Festival , the Beijing News reported

Chinese turn out in droves for the festival each year to clean the graves and tombs on their ancestors as assign of respect, leaving behind myriad offering to comfort them an the after life. The paper said the huge growth in online offering is likely due to large part to an increase in people paying respects to revered historic figures rather than direct relatives

Link Agence France-Presse

Saturday, March 31, 2007

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Monday, March 26, 2007


Boing Boing writes Buddha Machine: spiritual, generative transistor radio


The Buddha Machine from Chinese manufacturer FM3 looks like a cheap transistor radio. Turn the single dial, and it starts making crazy-ass, generative ambient music. Press the single button and a different kind of crazy-ass music emanates from the single small speaker. That's it -- one button, one dial, one speaker. There's also an LED to let you know it's on.

Friday, February 23, 2007

World Cup Cricket fever started...............

World Cup Cricket fever started in India. Indian are crazy for the cricket the bat and ball game. You can see people will be listening commentary in offices, colleges(with out the knowledge of the teacher of course). Cricket is being played in every small lane. some times keeping the stones and small sticks as stumps. That is height of craziness.

Four groups for world cup cricket matches.

Group A,St. Kitts & Nevis.
Group B,Trinidad & Tobago.
Group C,Saint Lucia.
Group D,Jamaica.


Countries in each group

Group A
Australia
South Africa

Scotland
Netherlands

Group B
Sri Lanka
India
Bangladesh
Bermuda

Group C
New Zealand
England

Kenya
Canada

Group D
Pakistan
West Indies
Zimbabwe
Ireland


Opening Ceremony Sunday 11th March
Final Match Saturday 28th April at Barbadas

Enjoy world cup cricket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Ekalavya


Ekalavya

Ekalavya
Language of the film:Hindi

Type:Drama
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif ali Khan,Vidya Balan
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Year of Release:2007
Eklavya is about this loyal guardian (Amitabh Bachchan) of an ancient royal castle whose duty is to protect those who live within the castle. The guardian vows to burn down all the secrets of the royal family with the holy fire of his own funeral.Eklavya will be another treat for you to watch. The last world of dethroned Rajasthan royalty, complete with candle lit palace of Rajasthan, exciting interiors of ancient palaces and action sequensces are some of the main themes of the movie Ekalavya. It is human tragedy, wrapped up old parampara (tradition) and dharma (moral).

There is superb action sequences, color costumes, camels, trains bullets, sand dunes of Thar Desert, Rajasthani dances etc.

Amitabh Bachchan (Ekalavya) has proved himself exceptional actor with his performance played as royal guard whose is loyal to his royalty. His head guards and color ful costumes make us remember the ancient royalty of Rajasthan.

The love sequences between Saif ali Khan,Vidya Balan is filmy way.

The entire team of Parineeta is featuring in Eklavya including Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen.Vidya Balan is again playing the role of lead actress in this movie.In addition, Vidhu Vinod Chopra has roped in Big B to play the title role. The movie also stars Jackie Shroff, Boman Irani and Sharmila Tagore.Even the crew is same with Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire returning to handle the music and lyrics department while Nataraja Subramanian continuing to be the cinematographer
The director of Vidhu Vinod Chopra he has given superb line up of the sequences in the film like poetry.
After pursuing Amitabh Bachchan for almost two decades, Vidhu Vinod Chopra finally succeeded in getting the ace actor in “Eklavya” and says it’s a kind of performance that people have “never seen before”.
“We’ve been trying to work together since 1987. Words fail to convey how i felt after working with him,” Chopra told.
“Ralph Fiennes saw ‘Eklavya’ with me. He was so moved. At the end of it, he applauded spontaneously. On an impulse he went with me to Amitabh Bachchan’s house.
“Here was one of the greatest actors in the world praising Amitabh and telling him his performance in ‘Eklavya’ was among the best he has seen. For once, i think Amitabh took me seriously. i also keep telling him ‘Eklavya’ is his career’s best,” he added
Rating: ****

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Honesty is best Policy

Every body says to be honest is good, a honest person is always appreciated and every body wants honest person in the society whether he is yoyur driver, servant and the staff in the office etc. No body likes the dis honesty
Honesty is best Policy

Read this

Petrol bunks in Canada are self-serve stations. You fill petrol and pay by credit-card or walk into the station and pay the attendant. If there are several cars at the station, it can be difficult for the attendant to catch a driver who speeds away without paying. And yet the system works well. Why are people honest? Economics can throw some light on this subject.

People follow a system if there is incentive to do so. You may pay your taxes on time if the Income-Tax Department were to give you a 10 per cent discount on the total tax payable!

Alternatively, a system would work well if people are punished for cheating. Suppose the Income-Tax Department were to pass an order that those do not pay taxes properly will be sentenced to prison for five years and did indeed execute the order. Would you at all consider evading taxes?

It is the same argument with the gas stations in Canada. The desire to cheat is defeated due to fear of punishment. You may be prosecuted if you are caught. And that has its consequences.

You will have a criminal charge against you that will be reflected in your record when you apply for a job, transact business or apply for a CFA charter. Surely, no Canadian would want to pay such a high price for a few liters of petrol. In effect then, stealers become good economists, as they weigh the pros and cons of cheating. Of course, this does not mean that all Canadians are honest. There may be occasional ones who risk being caught. These are the one who do not understand economics! The Hindu Business Line 11Feb, 2007
 
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