Miraculous Water

I guess, water plays a pivotal role in all our lives. To say it in brief , water is a perfect example of what we call a "perfect-balance" in this world. The nature is in a peaceful harmony , everything has been precisely designed.

So is water,which is composed of 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It's a universal solvent,ie, dissolves almost anything. What miracle I am talking about, is that, water is the only substance whose solid state(ice) is lighter than its liquid phase. As a consequence, ice floats on water. Why was this to be an exception? When every solid state is heavier than its liquid phase then why ice had to be lighter?Uh, the answer lies in the arctic poles. The temperature over there is so damn low that it can almost freeze anything(yeah, including water)! However, the irony is that marine life....yeah "marine life" exists over there. The reason? I mean, how is it possible? You know what, the temperature starts freezing the ocean surface (surface turns into ice), the ice floats on water, being lighter, and prevents further freezing!! It actually keeps the ocean below isolated as well as warm! If this exception wasn't there , life in arctic poles would have ceased to exist(no seals,no Eskimos as there wont be any fishes,the primary source of food there)!!

Thanks for reading,

Shahnawaz

Sehwag goes boom boom!

At the mumbai stadium today, the audience witnessed an extremely thrilling innings from probably the best batsman at present, Nawab of Najafgarh, Virendra Sehwag. . He scored an unbeatable 284 leaving the Sri Lankans helpless and tired.

Music maestro nominated for grammy!!

Double-deck oscar winner gets 2 more nominations..... and this time its the Grammy's for the 44 year old A.R. . With him are competitors , Bruce Springsteen's title track for 'The Wrestler', 'Once in a Lifetime' from film 'Cadillac Records', 'Decode' from 'Twilight' and 'The Client' from 'Hannah Montana: The Movie'. The song nominated is "Jai Ho" written by Samparan Gulzar from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire".

The Miracle of Creation-DNA

Uh, guys i usually read more and write less.(indeed i can write!).It was, i guess when i was in class 9th, that i looked around and observed what had to be observed,serving some purpose. Really, i started liking "science"and then I started reading debates(darwinism vs creation) and came to some sort of conclusions.

Questions like why is earth the only planet having life, troubled me a lot.Anyways without deviating you all from the topic i would like to give you sort of some mind blowing evidences of creation, yeah , the miracle in the creation of DNA.(no it didn't come into existence by chance ,as claimed by some scientists!!, there was a divine intervention, for sure !)

Mmmm.... lemme give you a background. Our body is made of organs,organs comprise of tissues, the tissues are made up of cells, each cell has a nucleus and each nucleus is comprised of a DNA. Imagine how small a cell is, and then within the cell we have a small nucleus, and then again within the nucleus we have A DNA. I wont tell you to imagine the size of A DNA, because you cant, so spare it!

Now see the irony(dont kick my ass off),cuz that DNA resting in that small nucleus is 3 meters(about 6 feet) in length!!You want more??Our entire DNA sequence would fill 200 1,ooo New York city telephone directories!!And if you unwound the entire DNA in our body it would reach the moon 6000 times..whoa...It would take a person typing 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, around 50 years to type the human genome(our DNA sequence), man, it contains so much info..... and you say life on earth came into existence by chance??If all three billion letters in the human genome were stacked one millimeter apart, they would reach a height 7,000 times the height of the Empire State Building(try it,dude!!) Man... and guess what , when a cell replicates itself in our body(a constant process, happens almost all the time) the enormous info is actually copied to the new cell in a time impossible for the fastest computers to attain, without any errors!!

This is certainly not occurring by chance,and yeah are we controlling the cell mechanisms by any means? But its happening,yeah it is!.... without we being informed about it. Guys, we are very complex, you cant even imagine!!

There are many more amazing facts about the DNA....but then i just wanted 5 mins of yours not 5 hours(the facts are too vast).

Thanks for reading,

Shahnawaz

Paa: A Bachchan movie minus Big B

For the first time, the Shehanshah of Bollywood, will not play himself. Most filmmakers cast the big B for his sheer personality, aura and more so his characteristic. But this time round round, the big B of advertising has decided to take that creative risk, and convinced the bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan to be “under wraps”.

R Balakrishnan better known as Balki, the chairman of Lowe Lintas and the director of Cheeni Kum in his secondmovie Paa, has taken the creative liberty that most filmmakers dare not dream to do. Not only is Mr. Bachchan not in his regular avatar, Balki has also ensured that the film’s marketing campaign has Mr. Bachchan conspicuously missing.

A modest Mr. Bachchan responds, “ The advertising fraternity’s job is a lot more challenging. I’ve always believed that the ad world is filled with professionals and extremely talented people, and they have certain in built qualities which are commensurate with filmmaking The fact that they manage to tell a compelling story in 30 seconds is fascinating, that would just mean for them to extend it to three hours would be a fantastic product.

Part produced by AB Corp, Amitabh Bachchan’s film production company, which was on the brink of bankruptcy some time back, may just finds its fortunes changing with Paa, a project that AB Corp has taken on after three years. Ask why and Mr. Bachchan has lots to say.

“The whole business of owning your creativity has been far too stagnant in our country. If I am giving my creative input, and the product is going to have a certain amount of life, that I should also be beneficiary of that life. I was paid a lakh of rupees to act in Sholay, and 30 years hence, the value of that film has increased multi fold, but I was just paid a lakh. If today there is a value attached to me, and that value and enhanced since the days of Sholay, I should be remunerated accordingly.”

The film was conceptualized in a rather odd way. Balki flashes back, “I was sitting in Amitji’s office one day and Abishek walked in. Amitji was in his element and Abhishek was in of his rare mature moods and a thought just flashed through my mind. If I can in some way reverse the roles of this father son duo, it would make for a compelling film.”

Prod a little more and Balki reveals that after a month of that conversation, he came with a rather light hearted script.. A disallusioned Balki walked out of Mr. Bachchan’s office, when the Bollywood icon failed to show the enthusiasm that Balki felt. “When it comes to a script there are always sensitivities involved. I was in love with my script and was peeved that Mr. Bachchan didn’t share the same emotion. So essentially, I wrote two scripts for Paa, the first was c%#p, the second is this.”

Soon, your cell phone no. may have 11 digits

NEW DELHI: All 500 million mobile users in the country may have to change their phone numbers from January 1, 2010, and adopt a 11-digit cellularnumber if a DoT proposal is accepted by the industry. But, all leading operators said that it would be ‘next to impossible’ for the country to move to a 11-digit mobile number by January 2010 as this would involve making massive technical changes to both softwares and mobile network configurations, while adding that this process could take up to 12 months.

The DoT has prepared a draft notification in which it wants all mobile users to adopt a 11-digit numbering plan by pre-fixing ‘9’ to their existing cellphone numbers. A DoT official said that the country will eventually have to move to a 11-digit cellular numbers system.

The logic: Under the current 10-digit numbering scheme, only a maximum of one billion mobile numbers can be issued and the mobile connections in the country will cross this mark in the next couple of years. Pre-fixing an additional digit will allow the Indian telecom operators to issue up to 10-billion individual mobile numbers.

The existing numbering plan that was fixed in 2003 was expected to be in place till 2030. This is because, based on 2003-projections, India was expected to touch 500 million mobile customers only by 2030, but the country has reached this mark 21 years ahead of the projected date. India has been the world’s fastest growing cellular market for the last three years. Thirteen mobile phone firms are jostling for space in the Indian market that most analysts feel can support only 4-5 operators. India is adding an average of 15 million new cellular customers every month.

When contacted, all service providers denied having received any ‘formal’ notification to move to 11-digit mobile numbers from January 2010. “The proposal to migrate to 11-digit numbers from next year has been under discussion for a long time, but the government and telecom companies have not reached any consensus,” a top executive with one of the country’s largest operators said.

“It is impossible to migrate before January 2010 because all telecom networks have to be reconfigured. We also have to change all roaming agreements, both within India as well as with other telcos globally. Termination and interconnection agreements with global operators must also be changed so that incoming calls from abroad are directed to the new numbers and therefore the entire process will take about 10-18 months,” added the chief technological officer of a pan-India operator.

While the country has only about 500 million cellular customers, an industry analyst said that operators have already exhausted about 800 million cellular numbers. “A significant bulk of mobile phone users have changed their mobile operators over the last couple of years and some customers have done multiple changes — this has rendered these mobile numbers useless as most telcos discontinue a number that has been allotted once,” explained an industry executive.

The regulatory head with a telco pointed out that a lot of numbers were wasted in India because it was very cheap to get a new connection here. “There is no reward for refund. Numbers are not treated as a scarce resource. In most countries, governments are a little bit cautious before doling out huge numbers. If we had deposits on numbers, then people would cancel non-used numbers to get that deposit back. About 20% of numbers that have been allotted have not been used,” this executive added.

Man, is Maharashtra a country??

Shiv Sena head, Bal Thackeray slammed master blaster Sachin Tendulkar in an editorial piece published in party's mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ onMonday over the latter's ‘Mumbai for all’ remark.

Thackeray criticised Tendulkar saying there was no need for the cricket icon to take a "cheeky single" and hurting the Marathi psyche by moving to the pitch of politics.

"There was no need for him to take a cheeky single by making such remarks," Sena mouthpiece 'Saamna' quoted Thackeray as saying.

"By making these remarks, you have got run-out on the pitch of Marathi psyche. You were not even born when the 'Marathi Manoos' got Mumbai and 105 Marathi people sacrificed their lives to get Mumbai," he said.

Thackeray expressed displeasure that Sachin "left the crease" and moved to the pitch of politics by making these remarks which have hurt Marathi sentiment.

In a rebuff to the "Marathi Manoos" plank of Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray's MNS, Tendulkar had said on Friday that Mumbai is for all Indians.

"Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it. And I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that but I am an Indian first," said Tendulkar

Shiv Sena and MNS have often played the "Marathi Manoos" card in a bid to attract votes. Raj Thackeray's fledgling party had even unleashed an anti-north Indian campaign inviting criticism.

Umpire,David Shephard dies.....

To recognize most sports people, it is necessary to catch at least a glimpse of face or number. With umpire David Shepherd, who died of cancer at 68, the England and Wales Cricket Board said Wednesday, all you needed was the silhouette. Nobody else in cricket had quite that bulk or rotundity, topped with a silvery shock of hair.

If any doubt remained, you needed only wait until 111 — or some multiple of it — appeared on the scoreboard. A “Nelson,” named after the British admiral, is widely believed in cricket to be an unlucky number.

The superstition had no more devout follower than Shepherd, who sought to ward off ill fortune by keeping one foot off the ground for as long as the fateful number remained. Spectators were treated to the sight of his bulky white-coated figure perched delicately on one leg, or shifting rapidly from one to another.

That whimsy should not detract from his excellence as an umpire. Shepherd had been a moderate cricketer. He was a robust striker of the ball and a better fielder than his build suggested — he also played both rugby and soccer to a reasonable level — but averaged only in the middle 20s in a career in English county cricket with Gloucestershire.

He found his true métier as an umpire, joining the English county list in 1981 and rising to take charge of international matches within two years. It is not enough to make the right decisions. The good umpire has also to earn the trust of players. Shepherd did both.

He was not infallible. A series of errors in an England-Pakistan test in 2001 so upset him that he contemplated quitting. A highly questionable call against Pakistan’s best batsman, Inzamam Ulhaq, effectively ended the 1999 World Cup final as a contest.

But the good days outnumbered the bad, and nobody ever doubted Shepherd’s contention that “I never made a dishonest decision.”

As his fellow west-countryman David Foot wrote, he had “the advantage of an equable temperament.”

“The undeniable fact is that most top-class cricketers like him,” he wrote.

Those qualities earned him appointment to 172 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, and 92 tests, third on both all-time lists.

His career saw international umpiring change profoundly, but he adjusted with equanimity — becoming a member of the International Cricket Council’s globetrotting elite panel of umpires and accepting that technological second-guessing had a role, although he feared that the job might eventually be reduced to counting the six balls in an over.

That he stayed at the top until statutory retirement age reflected both mental and physical fitness. The bulk reflected hearty appetites rather than sloth. He was in every sense a substantial figure.

Nokia India makes Social Networking easy for Airtel, Vodafone & Idea customers

Nokia, the leading handset manufacturer, has made Social Networking easy with the launch of cool deals for customers purchasing a Nokia E63, Nokia E71 or Nokia E75 ‘QWERTY’ device.

With these three phones, you can get ready to live life online with the complete confidence that all your buddies know exactly what you’re doing, and when you’re doing the same. The phones allow you to update every moment of your day, in details, with ease and speed.

Nokia E63:

• Stay on top of both work and personal emails

• Wi-fi and 3G for fast internet access

• Large landscape display

• 3.5mm audio jack

• Live blogging

Nokia E71:

• Fast, easy access to emails

• Email, calendar and contacts synchronisation

• Intelligent text input

• Use as a modem for Nokia PC internet access

• Dual home screen mode to switch between work and leisure

Nokia E75:

• Enhanced email interface with versatile features

• Open and edit attachments

• Easy messaging feature to update calendar, take notes, contact colleagues

• Full sliding keyboard

• Nokia maps

Now that you have seen these 3 greats Social-Networking phones, check out the hot offers which Nokia India is offering, in partnership with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea:

Airtel offers you 100 MB for Rs 98 per month, an offer which is valid only for pre-paid connections. Post the free free data usage, one would be charged at 30p/50 KB data sent/received on the device.

Vodafone offers you 100 MB for Rs 250 per month, an offer which is valid only for pre-paid connections.

Idea (Delhi) offers you 250MB for Rs 95 – available on both pepaid (Rs 95 recharge) and postpaid (Rs 95 GPRS rental).

Idea (Punjab) offers you 100MB Totally FREE – spread over 3 bill cycles (postpaid) or 3 months (prepaid). AFter the usage of 100MB in a bill cycle/month the data usage would be charged at a nominal rate of Rs 0.02/10KB. After 3 months, if the customer keeps the GPRS service active, he would be charged Rs 99 for UNLIMITED DATA usage. Note: This scheme is not available for customers already active on any GPRS pack.

Categori

Rule out the common perception that "Airtel rules", nah!! its Vodafone!

Vodafone, the mobile service brand of Vodafone Essar, has emerged as the “Most Admired Mobile Service Brand Online” in India followed by Tata Indicom and Aircel in an pan-India survey conducted by Drizzlin Media. The survey shows that Reliance Mobile emerged as the least admired brand.

Drizzlin Media, a Branding 2.0 consultancy, audited over 1,600 relevant conversations of the 7,000 conversations sampled around India’s top 10 telecom brands to identify the most admired mobile service brand in the Indian Online Space.

Admiration was defined as having a negative or a positive sentiment towards different aspects of the brand including Product/services, Tariffs/billing, Ads/promotions, Customer Care Service, Network Coverage and Brand Affinity. The Telecom brands covered for the purpose of the survey are Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Tata Indicom, Aircel, Reliance Mobile, BSNL Mobile, MTNL, Spice Mobile and Loop Mobile.

The Methodology of the survey based on 6 venue types were chosen for the purpose of the survey which were: Internet Blogs, Micro blogs, Twitter, Social Networks like Facebook and Orkut, Forums, Video Sharing: YouTube and Consumer review sites like Mouthshut.

For each of the venues, Goggle searches were conducted with advanced operators. For Orkut.com, however, site-specific searches were conducted, owing to the private nature of the social network for calculation of the overall admiration score, the sum of scores for each brand was computed.

A weightage was also assigned to the brands, based on Expected Conversations v/s Actual Conversations found. This weightage multiplied by the score of each brand, gave the final admiration score for each brand. The Overall score for the brand determined the “Most Admired Mobile Service Brand Online”. Admiration scores were also calculated for each individual parameter across the 10 brands to identify the top brands. The score was calculated by assigning weights, based on conversations around the parameter, for each brand.

The Key Findings of The Survey-:

• Vodafone has been recognized as the most admired mobile service brand online in India. This feat has been achieved through its strong branding and advertising efforts both in the offline and online mediums.

• BSNL Mobile has scored highest in admiration for products and services while Vodafone appeared at the bottom of the stack. In the context of Tariffs and Billing, BSNL Mobile took the top honours while Airtel lagged at the bottom. Vodafone scored the highest in terms of admiration for ads and promotional messaging. Here BSNL Mobile scored the lowest.

• Tata Indicom scored the highest in network coverage while Loop Mobile was the laggard in this space.

• MTNL scored the highest in customer service, while Vodafone was rated to have the worst customer service.

• Tata Indicom scores the highest in brand affinity whereas Aircel scores the lowest. While MTNL and BSNL Mobile scored high on individual parameters, people talking of ads and promotions around brands was far higher, propelling active advertising brands like Vodafone, Aircel and Airtel to the top.

• Facebook, despite its phenomenal growth in the Indian online space, still does not see much activity by the telecom brands. Apart from Tata Indicom and Vodafone, all the other brands had negligible presence on the platform.

• 83% of the conversations, in which the gender could be clearly deduced, were found to be by men, while only 6% of these conversations were by women.

• The highest number of conversations was found to be around Ads and promotions, particularly on YouTube and Twitter.

GMR Hyderabad Airport to host Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’ Concert on 24th October

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.(GHIAL), will be hosting Oscar award winner A.R.Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’ Concert on Saturday, October 24th,2009. Over 50,000 people are expected to attend the event, which will be organized by Rapport Global Events and Wizcraft, and held at a specially created ‘GMR Arena’ near the Novotel Hyderabad Airport, just two kilometers away from the airport.

Mr.P. Sripathy, CEO of GHIAL, said that, “We intend creating a leisure destination outside and around our airport, so that the people of Hyderabad are provided newer, interesting avenues for entertainment and enjoyment. We will have these events on a regular basis. With the festival season starting middle of September, we have already lined up a host of activities that will lead in to the ‘Jai Ho’ Concert on 24th October.

“We will start off the festive celebrations with the Airport Festive Carnival from the 19th of September through the 25th of October. During this period, any passenger or their relatives and friends who purchase any goods or services worth a minimum of Rs.300, will be eligible for a lucky draw coupon which will enable them to be entered for the Grand Draw prize of a return ticket for two, to Singapore. Additionally, in the weekly draws, two lucky winners will get free tickets to the ‘Jai Ho’ Concert”, he added.

Mr. Sripathy said that the ‘Jai Ho’ Concert will provide the people of Hyderabad and surrounding areas, an international standard event experience, with state of the art equipment and facilities.

Plans are on to provide a special weekend package for outstation enthusiasts in collaboration with the Novotel Hyderabad Airport and Jet Airways.

Jai Ho chosen as Best Original Song at World Soundtrack Academy awards 2009

The World Soundtrack Academy announced tonight the winners of the World Soundtrack Awards 2009, the closing event of the 36th Ghent International Film Festival. The 9th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards was once again a highlight for film music professionals and fans. Two time Oscar nominee, Alexandre Desplat, was chosen as Film Composer of the Year 2009 and also took home the award for Best Original Film Score of the Year (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Double Oscar winner, A.R. Rahman, won Best Original Song Written for Film for Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire). Nico Muhly was the World Soundtrack Academy’s new discovery of the year with the score for The Reader and three time Oscar winner Marvin Hamlisch was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the ceremony and the concert were attended by an impressive list of VIPS from the film music world such as Alexandre Desplat, Marvin Hamlisch, A.R. Rahman, Reinhold Heil, Johhny Klimek and Alti Ovarsson, Jérôme Lemmonier and Andrew Lockington among others. During and after the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony, musical performances were held featuring Hamlisch, Desplat and last year’s WSA Discovery Of The Year honoree Marc Streitenfeld all backed by the 80 member Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé, Marvin Hamlisch & Alexandre Desplat

THE RESULTS

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, COCO AVANT CHANEL, LARGO WINCH, CHÉRI)

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by Alexandre Desplat

BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN FOR FILM “JAI HO” from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

Music by: A.R. Rahman Lyrics by Gulzar and Tanvi Shah

Performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaksmi Iyver, Vijay Prakash Published by KM Musiq ltd

DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR NICO MUHLY “THE READER”

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD MARVIN HAMLISCH

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD “TWILIGHT” CARTER BURWELL

SABAM AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG EUROPEAN COMPOSER CHRISTOPHER SLASKI.

The World Soundtrack Awards are organized in cooperation with Port of Ghent, Sabam, the province East-Flanders, the Ghent City Marketing Fund and Belgacom.

For more info:www.worldsoundtrackacademy.com

Hey, I thought i would share this piece of info about MJ .....Her'es A.R.'s statement on his death..... A.R. Rahman issues statement on Michael Jackson's death. 25th June, 2009 I am shocked at the untimely passing away of Michael Jackson, one of the greatest musicians of our time. MJ, for most of our generation was an icon who made uncompromising music. He pushed the milestone of Pop music to unbelievable levels through the 80s and 90s. I am yet to find an artist with that energy, perfection and vision. I met him personally after the Oscars in Los Angeles and we vibed very well. He said that he loved India and the Indian people. He said he heard good things about me and he was praising the chord progression of Jai Ho's chorus. He was bursting with energy and told me that every dance move he did,came from his soul and did a five second stunning example. It was like a lightning strike :)

He was concerned about developmental issues such as Global Warming and about wars and its damages to the human community. He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the likes of "We are the World " for him. I nodded in awe ...!

He introduced me to his three lovely bright kids. The kids told him "I love you dad" and he replied “I love you more” as a proud father.
I wished him well for his concerts and he said “God Bless you”.

After hearing the shocking news I wished it was another rumor which would fade away soon. It took me time to believe that he is no more.

I remember, my late sound engineer Sridhar had brought me a video of the premiere of "Remember the Time" when I was recording "Kadal Rojave" for my first movie Roja. Seeing it inspired all of us that afternoon.

Now, there is no Sridhar and no Jackson anymore. I hope all of us value people's existence more and respect them when they are alive.

LIFE IS SHORT...! Artists and their art live for ever. Jai Ho, MJ !
We love you for your music, regardless of all the controversies!


A.R. Rahman
25 June, 2009.

Source- The times of india!!

KANPUR: Diwali this year was indeed quieter and cleaner. Call it the financial constraints playing the

spoilsport or the expensive firecrackersor increasing awareness about environment, this year's Diwali witnessed lesser noise and air pollution in the city.

According to Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) officials, less crackers were burnt this year in comparison to last year. The sound monitoring done in Shastri Nagar locality (residential zone) during the day of Diwali revealed that although the noise pollution level was found to be about 112 decibel (db) during the peak hours of cracker bursting, this was within the permissible limit. Notably, the permissible limit of the noise during the bursting of crackers is between 125-145 db.

Interestingly, the data for noise pollution in 2008 and 2009 show that the levels this year have actually gone down. While increase in the number of crackers burnt in 2008 were cited as the main reason for the high air and noise pollution levels, lower temperature and hardly any implementation of rules also added to the problem last year, said PCB officials.

"According to data provided by the UPPCB, noise levels during Diwali in 2009 were "generally lower" than during 2008 possibly because of ``bursting of lesser number of crackers," pointed out regional officer UPPCB, Radhey Shyam. However, the data was based on the monitoring of the noise pollution and that the levels of air pollution could be confirmed after getting the analysed data.

Besides, the crackers have also affected the pest population, with large number of insects, especially leafhoppers, dead due to increased air pollution.

"Although there is not much impact on the mosquitoes, the population of insects attracted by light gets reduced significantly. Generally, Diwali is always the time from when we see a downward trend in the population of insects as most of them die due to the pollution that day," pointed out Dr S V Singh, Prof and head, Entomology department, CSA University.

He explained that since the insects breathe through perforations on their body, they take in vast quantities of pollutants. "On a typical Diwali day, this normally proves fatal for them. Thus, the insects and pests, which can otherwise be harmful to the crop, die due to bursting of crackers," he concluded.

Sound Effect
Timings Max noise LEQ Min noise
(in decibels)
7.00 pm 87.8 83.7 83.1
8.00 pm 89.3 82 81.2
9.00 pm 103.9 98.4 97.5
10.00 pm 109. 199.6 99.1
11.00 pm 113.3 87.9 87
LEQ is energy mean of air and noise level over a specific time period

Class XII marks to count more at IIT

Students aspiring to be IITians may have to study as hard for their class 12th board xams as they study for their IIT examinations. In hope of filtering only the bright children for the IIT'S as well as giving equal weightage to the class 12th board exams , Human Resource development minister Kapil Sibal wants the minimum %age for students appearing for the IIT to be around 80%-85% but the IIT officials want it to be around 70-80%..

However , officials at the IITs said the institutes were considering two ways of enhancing the weightage.

“One way is that the minimum eligibility criteria of 60% to write the IIT-JEE exams is raised to a higher percentage, say 70-80%. The other way is to work out a marking system where, while assessing a student for admission into the IITs, 70% of weightage is given to his score at IIT-JEE and 30% to his marks in plus two,” said IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua.

It's Corby time!!

amsung has launched its affordable, social media focused Corby in India. Few days back Samsung also announced the Samsung Corby Txt and the Corby Pro but they are yet to come to India. The Corby range of phones have been positioned by Samsung as social media focused phones. By affordable, I mean its one of the cheapest touch screen handset in India from a mainstream mobile phone OEM. The Corby will retail in India at a price tag of INR 9,600. The kind of features that Corby offers looks impressive on paper with 2.8 inch QVGA screen powered by Samsung's TouchWiz UI, gesture control and one finger zoom. The phone does not have Wi-Fi but has EDGE and GPRS connectivity, Bluetooth (A2DP), 2 meg snapper, microSD card support, FM radio with RDS and the most unique feature of the phone is that itsupports live feeds from sites like Twitter, Facebook and mySpace. I guess this phone will do good in theIndian market, thanks to its cheap price tag and social media support. Social networking and micro blogging is on the rise in India and Samsung its seems is the first one in India to take advantage of this situation.

It's raining nokia!

Its raining new Nokia phones this week .Nokia has launched the 5230 XpressMusic Touchscreen phone at an attractive price of Rs.10000. The 5230 and 5530 were launched today at New Delhi, India. It’s interesting to note that 5230 was launched today in India for the first time(in he globe). The device has not been spotted anywhere else in the world. Looks like Nokia is trying hard to retain its title of being the most trusted brand in India !!

Nokia 5230 Price and Features

• Entry level touchscreen phone
• 3.2 inch Resistive Touchscreen, 360X640 Resolution
• Music player with 33 hrs of playback (via headphones)
• 2 Megapixel Camera with VGA 30Fps Video Recording ( no flash)
• Contacts Bar and Media Bar
• 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, 115 grams
• 70MB Internal Memory, micro-SD Card Slot, 3.5mm Audio Jack
• GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD, 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, micro-USB
• GPS with A-GPS Support
• 1320mAH Battery, Black/White Colours ( customizable panels)
• Price : Rs.10000 before taxes

Nokia 5530 Price and Features

• Metal finish
• Media bar and contacts bar
• 27 hrs of music playback (via headphones)
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash
• Price : Rs.13999 before taxes