Each computer leaves a toxic trail

>> Computers, the hub of modern business and lifestyle, are considered to be the vanguard of clean technology that has freed us from the use of paper and unnecessary transportation. By default, the industry that produces computer is also perceived to be clean. However, a un study reveals that each computer at its birth uses at least 240 kg fossil fuels, 22 kg of chemicals and 1.5 tonnes of water-more than the weight of a rhinoceros

>> Behind every sleek global brand of digital desire, farmers and residents around component plants face the severe effects of toxic residue from the manufacturing plants in hich they are produced

>> The three major sectors of this industry are:
* Printed wiring board (pwb) manufacture
* Semiconductor chip manufacture
* Component assembly: facilities involved in the assembly of computers and other electrical devices

>> Far away from the glitzy headquarters of these brands, pwbs are largely produced in China and Thailand, while semiconductor chips are produced in Mexico and Phillipines

>> A chip of 2 grammes uses 30 kg of materials, including water, a large part of which is turned into highly toxic waste

>> Input for pwbs:
* Copper compound, flame retardants (tetrabromobisphenol), photoinitiators (thioxanthones)
* Epoxy resins, formaldehyde, chelating chemicals (a chelate is composed of a metal ion and a chelating agent.


A substance whose molecules can form several bonds to a single metal ion)
* Metallic solders (lead-tin or lead-free alloys, nickel, gold)

>> Input for semiconductors:
* Silicon, gallium, germanium, hafnium
* Hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, sulphuric acid
* Arsenic, boron, antimony, phosphorous

>> Wastes impact groundwater:
* A pwb facility in Thailand contained chlorinated volatile organic chemicals, a group of chemicals widely used as solvents and reported as contaminants in groundwater
* Nonylphenol ethoxylate and a range of nonylphenols, persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances, used as surfactants, were found at a Mexican site


Waste and its health impact (common to pwbs, semiconductors and component assembly)

>> Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, widely used as brominated flame-retardants: endocrine disruptors, interfere with growth hormones and sexual development, affect immune system

>> Phthalates, widely used as plasticisers (softeners) in plastics: They are found in air and dust and are toxic. Affects liver and kidney at higher doses. Runs the risk of affecting food chain through crops. Also affects proteome formation and physiology and morphology of some crops during growth

>> Chlorinated solvents: Carcinogenic, affects central nervous system, liver and kidney. Affects skin, eyes, mucous membrane

>> High levels of heavy metals such as copper and nickel: pwb manufacturing processes use water-soluble copper compounds that can have serious impact on aquatic organisms and reduction in growth and fertility rates as well as increased morality. Some nickel compounds are toxic. They can have gastrointestinal and cardiac effects.

About 5 per cent of the population are nickel sensitive and can suffer at far lower doses. Some nickel compounds are carcinogenic as well.

(Source: Cutting Edge Contamination, Greenpeace, February 2007)

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300:Movie Review

300, a movie full of action sequences, a story of Spartians who faces a very big army of Persians to save there land and there prestige with only a army of 300 peoples.The movie is all about your determination and how you can face a very big problem with a big determination.The movie dont have any part where you will feel bore, or it feel slow to you.And i didnt find any area to point out its defaults, since everything is superb but yes its not for those peoples who cant see too much of blood on screen so they can just ignore it.Its loaded with lots of action scenes and multimedia effects, those are really awesome.So if till you didnt watch it then you must go to your nearest theatre.And atleast i can assure you that you will not feel that i had wasted my time and money both.

Rating: Excellent

Another big, fat paycheck on its way

Never mind inflation. India is still the hottest job market in the Asia-Pacific region, with salaries in key sectors expected to rise by 14.5 per cent on an average in the month, according to a survey by global consulting firm Hewitt Associates. That is just a notch above the 14.4 per cent average rise in 2006, but will mark the fifth year of double-digit increases.

Banking and finance, insurance, hospitality, telecommunications and engineering sectors are expected to fuel the northward trend of salaries in 2007, while IT- enabled service sectors are relatively less hot. The health care, pharmaceutical and electronic/electrical industries are among those expected to see the lowest raises among the sectors covered.

Banking and finance has displaced insurance as the hottest category, with an anticipated increase of 16.5 per cent in salaries, although down from 17percent in 2006. Insurance employees are expected to get 16.1 per cent raises, compared to 17.1 per cent last year. Telecom is hotter at 15.7 percent compared 15.1 percent last yea r.

Notably, IT and IT-enabled services like business process outsourcing and call centres —have been edged out of the top five category by hospitality and restaurants where the expected rise in salaries is 15.5 percent.

Locally owned organizations are awarding higher salary increases than multinationals in India. In 2006, local companies saw an overall salary increase of 14.9 per cent while foreign-owned organizations raised their salary bill by 14.3 percent.

Source:Hindustan Times
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Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, born on March 14, 1879 at Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany. We know about his valued contribution to Physics and that E= mc2 got him the Nobel Prize in 1921. But, most of us remain oblivious to the fact that this day marks the 120th birth anniversary of Albert Einstein.

In 1999 Time magazine named Einstein the “Person of the Century”. Four of Einstein’s publications in 1905 radically changed the way physicists viewed the world. They are together known as the Annus Mirabilis Papers (Annus mirabilis meaning “wonderful year” in Latin).

According to wikipedia.org, in 1924, Indian Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose sent a statistical model to Einstein. This model proposed that light could be understood as a gas. Consequently, Einstein published the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomena.

When Einstein died in 1955 of internal bleeding, the Princeton Hospital pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein’s brain for preservation, in hope that the neuroscience of the future would be able to discover what made Einstein so intelligent. Today, after52 years of his death, Einstein still lives as the 2001 aestroid Einstein, as the chemical element 99 einsteinium and as the Einstein, a unit used in photochemistry.


Source: HT Horizon
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

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Wet March sets a record, chills Delhi

This is the wettest March Delhi has seen in the past five years. The city has recorded 43 mm of rainfall so far this month, breaking the previous record of 34 mm in March 2005. On Monday, it rained for the second consecutive day bringing down the maximum temperature to 21.3 degree Celsius, nine degrees below normal. Between 8.30a.m. and 5.30p.m., it rained 17 mm. Later, some areas witnessed a hailstorm.

“All of north India is witnessing these severe conditions,” said S. Khindri, a meteorological expert formerly with the Indian Air Force. It has grown extremely cold in places like Katra and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, following heavy rain and snowfall. Five pilgrims to Vaishno Devi died due to the cold on Monday.

Noted economist and a former RBI director S.S. John said the rain was bad news for farmers. “The mustard crop will be severly affected and there could be an impact on the wheat crop too,” he said.

J.S.Samra, director, Indian Council for Agricultural Research, blamed the change in climate pattern over the past 10 years upon greenhouse gas emission.

Source: Hindustan Times

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La Nina may replace El Nino in Pacific

The La Nina weather anomaly may form in the equatorial Pacific in the next two to three months, possibly increasing the risks for more hurricanes later this year in the Atlantic. “A transition to La Nina conditions is possible during the next two to three months,” the U.S. Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in its monthly update on Thursday.

It also said the El Nino weather pattern, whose wind shear ripped apart and reduced the amount of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean in 2006, has disappeared. Typically, El Nino causes rampant flooding in Peru and Ecuador while causing searing drought in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines among other countries.

La Nina usually has the opposite effect, and U.S. government forecasters have warned it may cause a higher than normal number of hurricanes. For Instance, with El Nino running at full bore last year, only nine named storms formed in the Atlantic. That was much lower than the record 28 storms in 2005 that included monster storms like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma which ravaged the US Gulf Coast and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

The prediction center said warm sea surface temperatures that accompanied the last El Nino fell rapidly last December and January. “These trends in surface and subsurface ocean temperatures indicate that the warm (El Nino) episode has ended and that conditions are becoming favorable for La Nina to develop,” it said. Some of the computer forecast models “indicate a rapid transition to La Nina conditions during March-May 2007,” the center added.

The more famous El Nino is an anomaly that results in an abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific, wreaking havoc in weather patterns from Latin America to Asia. Literally, it means “little boy” in Spanish and was called El Nino by Latin American anchovy fisherman in the 19th century who first noticed it usually peaked during the Christmas season.

The last La Nina occurred from 1998 to 2001, leading to drought across much of the western United States.

Source: Reuters
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

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Plate Tectonics---part2

Types of plate boundaries
Three types of plate boundaries exist, characterized by the way the plates move relative to each other. They are associated with different types of surface phenomena. The different types of plate boundaries are:
1. Transform boundaries: occur where plates slide or, perhaps more accurately, grind past each other along transform faults. The relative motion of the two plates is either sinistral (left side toward the observer) or dextral (right side toward the observer).
2. Divergent boundaries: occur where two plates slide apart from each other (examples of which can be seen at mid-ocean ridges and active zones of rifting (such as with the East Africa rift)).
3. Convergent boundaries (or active margins):occur where two plates slide towards each other commonly forming either a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) or a continental collision (if the two plates contain continental crust). Deep marine trenches are typically associated with subduction zones. Because of friction and heating of the subducting slab, volcanism is almost always closely linked. Examples of this are the Andes mountain range in South America and the Japanese island arc.




Major plates
The main plates are
• African Plate, covering Africa - Continental plate
• Antarctic Plate, covering Antarctica - Continental plate
• Australian Plate, covering Australia (fused with Indian Plate between 50 and 55 million years ago) - Continental plate
• Eurasian Plate covering Asia and Europe - Continental plate
• North American Plate covering North America and north-east Siberia - Continental plate
• South American Plate covering South America - Continental plate
• Pacific Plate, covering the Pacific Ocean - Oceanic plate
Notable minor plates include the Indian Plate, the Arabian Plate, the Caribbean Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate, the Nazca Plate, the Philippine Plate and the Scotia Plate.
The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up of continents over time, including occasional formation of a supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents. The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have formed about 1000 million years ago and to have embodied most or all of Earth's continents, and broken up into eight continents around 600 million years ago. The eight continents later re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea; Pangea eventually broke up into Laurasia (which became North America and Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became the remaining continents).




*Note:For more information just visit to wikipedia as i have collected only few important matters from there.


Source: Wikipedia
Collected By:Saurav Chakraborty

Plate Tectonics---part1

Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων, tektōn "builder" or "mason") is a theory of geology that has been developed to explain the observed evidence for large scale motions of the Earth's crust. The theory encompassed and superseded the older theory of continental drift from the first half of the 20th century and the concept of seafloor spreading developed during the 1960s. The outermost part of the Earth's interior is made up of two layers: above is the lithosphere, comprising the crust and the rigid uppermost part of the mantle. Below the lithosphere lies the asthenosphere. Although solid, the asthenosphere has relatively low viscosity and shear strength and can flow like a liquid on geological time scales. The deeper mantle below the asthenosphere is more rigid again. This is, however, due not to cooler temperatures but to high pressure. The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates—in the case of Earth, there are seven major and many minor plates (see list below). The lithospheric plates ride on the asthenosphere. These plates move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The lateral movement of the plates is typically at speeds of 0.66 to 8.50 centimeters per year.

Synopsis on development
Plate tectonic theory arose out of the hypothesis of continental drift. The concept of seafloor spreading was first articulated in the early 1960s by Robert S. Dietz, but Harry Hess is usually given credit. Following the recognition of magnetic anomalies defined by symmetric, parallel stripes of similar magnetization on the seafloor on either side of a mid-ocean ridge, plate tectonics quickly became broadly accepted. Simultaneous advances in early seismic imaging techniques in and around Wadati-Benioff zones collectively with numerous other geologic observations soon solidified plate tectonics as a theory with extraordinary explanatory and predictive power. Study of the deep ocean floor was critical to development of the theory; the field of deep sea marine geology accelerated in the 1960s. Correspondingly, plate tectonic theory was developed during the late 1960s and has since been essentially universally accepted by scientists throughout all geoscientific disciplines. The theory has revolutionized the Earth sciences because of its unifying and explanatory power for diverse geological phenomena.

Key Prnciple
The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. The division of the outer parts of the Earth's interior into lithosphere and asthenosphere is based on their mechanical differences and in the ways that heat is transferred. The lithosphere is cooler and more rigid, whilst the asthenosphere is hotter and mechanically weaker. Also, the lithosphere loses heat by conduction whereas asthenosphere transfers heat by convection and has a nearly adiabatic temperature gradient. This division should not be confused with the chemical subdivision of the Earth into (from innermost to outermost) core, mantle, and crust. The lithosphere contains both crust and some mantle. A given piece of mantle may be part of the lithosphere or the asthenosphere at different times, depending on its temperature, pressure and shear strength. The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, which ride on the fluid-like (visco-elastic solid) asthenosphere. Plate motions range from a few millimeters per year (about as fast as our fingernails grow) to about 15 centimeters per year (about as fast as our hair grows). The plates are around 100 km (60 miles) thick and consist of lithospheric mantle overlain by either of two types of crustal material: oceanic crust (in older texts called sima from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon and aluminium). The two types of crust differ in thickness, with continental crust considerably thicker than oceanic (50 km vs 5 km). One plate meets another along a plate boundary, and plate boundaries are commonly associated with geological events such as earthquakes and the creation of topographic features like mountains, volcanoes and oceanic trenches. The majority of the world's active volcanoes occur along plate boundaries, with the Pacific Plate's Ring of Fire being most active and famous. These boundaries are discussed in further detail below. Tectonic plates can include continental crust or oceanic crust, and typically, a single plate carries both. For example, the African Plate includes the continent and parts of the floor of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The distinction between continental crust and oceanic crust is based on the density of constituent materials; oceanic crust is denser than continental crust owing to their different proportions of various elements, particularly, silicon. Oceanic crust is denser because it has less silicon and more heavier elements ("mafic") than continental crust ("felsic"). As a result, oceanic crust generally lies below sea level (for example most of the Pacific Plate), while the continental crust projects above sea level.

check part 2 for more information.....

Source: Wikipedia
Collected by: Saurav Chakraborty

Idea on NSE list

The National Stock Exchange said on Thursday that it would start futures and options trading in the shares of Idea Cellular Ltd. From March 9.The Shares of Idea will also list on March 9.

The company listed with a 14.7 per cent premium at Rs86.05 over its issue price on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).The Company will invest $2 billion in the next two years to fund its expansion plans.

On other side, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has disallowed certain discriminatory tariffs implemented by Idea Cellular Ltd. (ICL) IN Delhi. These tariffs involved higher differential cal charges in respect of calls terminated in BSNL/MTNL networks viz-a-viz private GSM networks. The TRAI has asked Idea to discontinue the discriminatory tariff by applying the same lower call charges in respect of calls terminated in BSNL/MTNL networks.

Source: Reuters & Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

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TATA for Hybrid engines, fuel cells

TATA Motors said on Tuesday 06.March.2007, that it was talking with makers of hybrid engines and fuel cells such as Ballard Power Systems about the possibility of using their technology in future car models.

Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata said India’s third largest maker of passenger cars needed a partner because it did not have the resources to develop ecologically friendly technology by itself. “A company like ours is unable to put large budgets into those types of developments,” he said at the Geneva auto show, adding that TATA could eventually license the technology to use in its cars.

Among the companies Tata was speaking to were Canadian battery-maker Ballard and car makers in Japan and Europe, he said. The Indian maker was also talking with Italy’s Fiat.


Source: Reuters
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

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Car makers look for faster way to turn green

The Global auto industry is experiencing a green revolution, convinced that lower emissions and hybrid engines could turn eco-minded drivers into a long- term customers. At Geneva Motor Show, where hundreds of cars—big and fast, small and slow ---are on display, the concept of going green is taking root in ways that automakers hope will ensure less pollution but more purchases. German carmakers, sometimes criticized for their larger, more gas—consuming vehicles, took the opportunity to highlight their involvement developing hybrid engines and show off emission-control technology.

DaimlerChrysler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit put its BLUETEC Technology on prime view, detailing how a 170-horsepower engine can be powered with just 5.5 liters of diesel fuel per 100 kilometers, in part because of energy management techniques.

BMW AG and DaimlerChrysler have linked up to work on new engine technology by developing hybrid engine components. Thomas Weber, an executive board member with DaimlerChrysler, said the Mercedes-Benz unit is set to launch its first hybrid car in 2009. “We’ll launch a hybrid model for our Dodge brand in 2008, and the first Mercedes-Benz brand hybrid will come in 2009,” he told. But didn’t specify which models it would be.

BMW also pointed to its involvement with the General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler in working on new advanced hybrid engines and its own work on hydrogen power, which is nevertheless still a long way from being made available to buyers.

“BMW has been leading the way regarding efficient diesel engines for many years,” BMW Chief Executive said on Monday. Diesel engines produce less CO2 emissions, but contribute more nitrates, which are harmful to the environment. Hybrid engines, which derive their power from an electric motor as well as a gas-power transmission, produce less CO2 and less nitrates. As it moves to combat global warming, the European Union has set a goal of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer per vehicle by 2012, down from around 163 grams per kilometer on average now. Porsche AG CEO Wendelin Wiedeking said that while he realized the automotive industry had a responsibility to reduce CO2 emissions, that would not lead to diesel engines in Porsche models. The company has teamed up with Volkswagen AG to develop hybrid engines and plans to launch a hybrid-version of the Cayenne model by the end of this decade with the aim of reducing fuel consumption by some 30 percent to around 9 liters per 100 Kilometers. General Motors Corp., meanwhile, unveiled a new 2.9 liter V-6 turbo diesel engine that boasts new injection and combustion technology aimed at reducing emissions without hampering performance.

The 250-horsepower engine will be mainly sold in Europe and is scheduled to be in the new Cadillac CTS starting in 2009. “We expect the V-6 diesel to be highly competitive in the European luxury segment,” said Jim Taylor, Cadillac General Manager. “ With its excellent low-end torque and its high power output, it is a great fit with Cadillac’s performance-oriented brand character.”

The compact dual overhead cam, four- valve V-6 engine belongs to a new GM family of diesel engines, featuring a closed-loop combustion control system designed to meet future emissions standards. GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the drive for better, cleaner fuels and power is getting faster. “We’re going to move to ethanol. We’re going to see more hybrids,” he said. “Eventually, we’re going to see fuel cells.” Fuel cell vehicles run on the power produced when oxygen in the air combines with hydrogen that’s stored in the fuel tank---producing only harmless water vapor.

BMW is keen on fuel cells, too, citing hydrogen as the best sustainable solution for such power, as are DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. and MAN AG, which lasts year along with energy companies Shell Hydrogen BV and Total France, announced a joint project to advance the use of Hydrogen as fuel for trucks in Europe. But Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., viewed as a pioneer because of its Prius hybrid that blends gas-power with electricity, has a hold of the star when it comes to hybrids. It showed off its Hybrid X, a four-door, concept car powered by the Hybrid Synergy Drive that is low to the ground and evocative of something in a Japanese manga comic.

Source: AP
Collected By: Saurav Chakraborty

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Shell to share GAIL pipeline

Public sector gas utility GAIL(India) Limited and Indian arm of Anglo-Dutch Conglomerate Shell India have agreed to sharing of GAIL’s pipeline interconnectivity with Hazira terminal for gas supplies in the country. The two companies have initialed a broad framework of agreement for co-operation. This will help evacuation of regassified liquefied natural gas (R-LNG) from Shell’s Hazira terminal for supplies to GAIL’s customers.

As per the broad framework of the agreement, the two companies will now work out the modalities for transmission of R-LNG through GAIL’s pipeline, access of Shell’s regassification facility to GAIL, and long-term arrangements with regard to gas supply and distribution, according to a company release.

The framework emphasises the need for both companies to examine the complementary nature of their facilities and build cooperation around them for mutual benefit. The agreement has the potential to provide gas to GAIL for utilizing its transmission capacity while at the same time assisting Shell to evacuate its R-LNG.

GAIL owns and operates a network of around 6,000 km of natural gas high pressure trunk pipelines with a capacity to carry around 140 million metric standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas across the country. Currently, it transmits about 84 MMSCMD of gas through the cross-country pipeline network.

Meanwhile, the pipeline tie in at Hazira has also been completed and gas-in into the pipeline is expected to commence shortly.


Source: HT Business
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Asian smog will warm the Arctic

Smog and Air pollution from Asian cities have intensified storms over the Pacific Ocean, which will result in increased warming of the Arctic, scientists have warned. They reported that the number of storm clouds in the region has increased by up to a half over the last 20 years as rapidly industrialized cities in countries such as India and China burn more coal as they grow.

The Pacific’s storm system plays an important role in the circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere, transporting heat and moisture to the northern latitudes. Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, said. This weather system had been affected by aerosols----tiny particles of pollution such as soot produced when burning coal.

“Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia have caused severe air pollution over many countries, including China and India. Long- term satellite measurements have revealed a dramatic increase in aerosols concentrations over Asia,” wrote Dr Zhang on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The increasing aerosol trend has been explained by sulphur dioxide and soot emissions, with an increase in sulphur dioxide emissions of 35 per cent per decade over the same region.”

Damian Wilson, an atmospheric scientist at the UK’s meteorological office said the Pacific storms formed in the central part of the ocean and headed west, hitting Canada and the northern US. “It’s caused by the temperature difference between the northerly latitudes and the more southerly, tropical latitudes----the storms mix the heat around.”

The weather system is active all year long, reaching its peak every winter in December and a minimum around July. Aerosols can affect weather by influencing the formation and duration of clouds, but to what extent this happens is not well understood.

“Aerosols affect the size of water droplets,” said Dr Wilson. “The more pollution particles there are in the air, the smaller the water droplets are less likely to run into each other and coalesce into drops of rain, meaning clouds stay in the air longer. To work out how pollution was changing the Pacific Weather System Dr Zhang led a team of researchers in analyzing the information recorded on clouds over the Pacific from 1984 to 2005. They found that the clouds which make up many of Pacific Storms, called deep convective clouds seemed to arise in connection with pollution emission from Asia.

His data showed that these clouds, from 1994 to 2005, increased by 20 to 50 per cent compared with the previous 10 year period. The recent assessment of Global Warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that some of the largest warming occurs over the polar regions.

This is partly due to the reduction in ice cover (which means that less sunlight is reflected away) but also because of the increasing presence of aerosols from pollution in the region. “Warming in the polar regions has catastrophic climate consequences, such as polar ice caps shrinking and sea level rising,” wrote Dr Zhang.

“The change in the Pacific storm track and its associated climate impacts require further studies from a large scientific community, including investigation with global climate models.”


Source: The Guardian
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

How about trains to China, Bulgaria?

Someday you may be able to take a train from India to China in the east, and to Bulgaria in the west. And along the way, take in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand in the first case, or Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in the second.

On 08.March.2007, the cabinet will decide on whether to sign the Inter-Governmental Agreement that envisages a continuous 80,900-km rail link----The Trans Asian Railway---through three corridors. Although the principal idea is to encourage trade between South-east Asia, Central Asia and Europe, tourism too is likely to benefit.

India will be part of the Southern Corridor that’s starts in Kunming in China and covers 11,460 km before terminating in kapikule in Bulgaria. The other two corridors link the Russian Federation to the Korean Peninsula( the Northern Corridor) and the Chinese border through Lao to Malaysia( the Indochina and Asian Sub-region Corridor).The rail link will enter India at Tamu bordering Myanmar, pass through Bangladesh at Mahisasan and again enter India at Gede. It will exit India through Attari.

The agreement was adopted at the 62nd session of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) IN 2006. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were among the 10 countries which watched 18 others sign the agreement. The agreement has to be signed before next year.

The Trans Asian Railway was conceived in the 1960s to provide a 14,000-km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul, with possible onward connections to Europe and Africa. But the idea never went beyond the drawing board. The concept was revived and expanded to over 80,000 km in the early 1990s, with the UNESCAP playing the key role.


Source: Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

You've got mail, at 13,600ft

The mail always gets here on time, come rain or snow. And before you start thinking it’s the most efficient mailman in the world, it’s actually the world’s highest cyber café---functioning at 13,600 feet above sea level at the Sherathang Trade Mart near Nathula.

The community information centre cum cyber café appears in the Limca Book of World Records as the highest permanent cyber café. The place is currently under more than 10 feet of snow—enough to almost completely cover up the cyber café—and it gets a good spell of rain every now and then. But that hasn’t stopped the mail from coming, which is good, considering that the cyber café is an important means of staying connected to the rest of civilization.

It caters to tourists, army personnel, porters and GREF personnel all year round. “In the winters too, when border trade closes, we keep the café open for the army, GREF and employees of the market’s administrative block. Local children are newest customers and it keeps them occupied during the winter break. You could even call it a hang out place,” says Rinzing Wongyal Sherpa, who runs the café.

Funded by the Centre, the cyber café is run by the Information and Technology Department of the Sikkim government.

Sherpa who lives a little far off Yakla, says the trip to the cyber café everyday is a bit of a bother, especially in the freezing cold. “ I have to walk for nearly an hour. The road is treacherous with small avalanches every now and then,” he says. But he wouldn’t dream of closing for the winter, even if he just gets two or three customers most days. Sharp at 10.30 a.m., he open his little café and closes early at 1.30p.m. “The café doubles up as a photo studio and photo-copier centre,” he says.

The charges are quite nominal, considering the hardships owing to the topography, remoteness and weather. Internet surfing charges are Rs20 a hour, eight copies of passport size photographs cost Rs60 and photocopying charges as Rs5.

The connection does go at times, but nothing a few days of work can’t fix. Electricity is also a problem Sherpa manages with a generator and solar power.

Source: Hindustan Times
Collected By: Saurav Chakraborty

The Bio Diversity Code: An Animated Short Film

Check out this new small animated movie which is made by linking little bit of DaVinci Code, but the difference is that here instead of human beings, animals are playing the lead role and teaching us how we are causing destruction to our environment by deforestation and etc.Specially the way they have presented the food web in front of us is just amazing.

I think instead of too much talk you must visit the following sites to get more information about this:
For watching flash animated movie:

http://assets.panda.org/custom/flash/daversitycode/

else you can also watch at:

http://www.daversitycode.com
http://www.daversitycode.com/earthscope/

Experts debunk glacial retreat theory

Believe it or not! There are only about a dozen scientists working on 9,575 glaciers in India under the aegis of the Geological Survey of India(GSI).Is the available data enough to conclude that the Himalayan glaciers are retreating alarmingly?

The opinion appears to be divided, while some experts believe that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking due to Global warming, there are others who have questioned that theory. V.K.Raina leading glaciologist and former deputy director general of the GSI, is among a group of experts who have debunked the theory of a glacial melt in the Himalayas.He said that research on Indian glaciers is negligible and that only remote sensing data forms the basis of the observations by the alarmists, not on the spot research, which is often critical.

According to him out of 9,575 glaciers in India, research has been conducted only on around 25 to 30. And, even the study of 200-year data shows that nothing abnormal has taken place in any of these glaciers. But few individuals are sensationalizing the issue of a glacial retreat. Dr. P.N.Razdan, in charge of the GSI’s northern region, agrees. “Glaciers are receding, but not alarmingly, even a glacier in Antarctica that we have been monitoring has receded only seven metres in the last 10 years,” he said.

However Raina does not believe that the Gangotri glacier is melting alarmingly. He maintains that the glaciers are undergoing natural changes, witnessed periodically. Recent studies in the Gangotri and Zanskar areas (Drung-Drung glaciers, Kagriz glaciers) have also shown no evidence of a major retreat, he said, and added that claims of global warming causing a glacial melt in the Himalayas are based on wrong assumptions. There are others who echoed similar views.

Dr. R.K.Ganjoo, director, Regional Centre for Field Operations and Research on Himalayan Glaciology-who is also supervising a study of glaciers in the Ladakh and Siachen areas- said nothing abnormal has been found in any glaciers that have been monitored by him. Another leading geologist, M.N. Koul of Jammu University, is also inclined to agree due to his own experiences as he studied and researched glaciers in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Dr R.K.Pachouri, chairman, Inter-Governmental panel of Climatic change, however, said the panel’s recently released fourth assessment report shows increased glacial retreat. This, he said, was due to the fact that the carbon dioxide radioactive forcing has increased by 20 per cent, particularly after 1995, and added that eleven of the last twelve years were among the warmest twelve years recorded so far.


Source: Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

What triggers ice ages??

In a recent article in Climatic Change, D.G. Martinson and W.C. Pitman III discuss a new hypothesis explaining how the climate could change abruptly between ice ages and inter-glacial (warm) periods. They argue that the changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun in isolation is not sufficient to explain the estimated high rate of change, and that there must be an amplifying feedback process kicking in. The necessity for a feedback is not new, as the Swedish Nobel Prize winner (Chemistry), Svante Arrhenius, suggested already in 1896 that CO2 could act as an amplification mechanism. In addition, there is the albedo feedback, where the amount of solar radiation that is reflected back into space, scales with the area of the ice- and snow-cover. And are clouds as well as other aspects playing a role.

Martinson & Pitman III's hypothesis states that the fresh water input works in concert with the Milankovitch cycle and the albedo feedback. They conclude that 'major' terminations can only follow from glacial build-up of sufficient magnitude to isolate the Arctic, inhibiting the inflow of fresh water to the point that salinity buildup in the surface layer from slow but continuous growth of sea-ice, causes overturn of the Arctic (through the effect on the atmospheric circulation and the ocean currents). The vertical overturning brings warmer water up from below, setting conditions that are more favourable for ice metling. Salinity plays a role too, but the hypothesis does not mention variations in the greenhouse gases (GHGs). A few questions: Did Martinson and Pitman III forget this last point? Or did the GHGs only represent a minor contribution? And, could not changes in GHGs explain much of the variability? On the other hand, it sounds plausible that changes in salinity and fresh water input may affect the sea-ice formation and the deep convection. However, so far, the hypothesis proposed by Martinson and Pitman III is merely a speculation, and we are waiting to see if the hypothesis can be tested through numerical model experiments (which would require higher resolution sea-ice and ocean models than used in todays global climate models). It would be interesting to carry out experiments to assess the significance of the fresh water only, GHGs, and the combined effect.

One reaction to the Martison and Pittman paper is: Where is the calculation of energy? Greenhouse gases only contribute a couple of W/m2, vs. the seasonal Milankovich forcing of >40. For this new idea to have merit, it had better have heat fluxes at least on par with the radiative forcing from CO2. Previous modeling studies find that GHG make up roughly 50% of the total LGM to present temperature response (see e.g. Broccoli & Manabe), the other part being albedo etc that respond to the seasonal cycle of irradiance. It is tricky to completely isolate the individual causes because changes in GHG may produce altered cloud and sea ice distribution. But roughly speaking, if you do an LGM run and only reduce sea level, put in the ice sheets, change the vegetation, add some dust (though that one is still rough), then you get about 50% the way you want to go. Change the GHG concentrations and you get close. This is more or less what Manabe and Stouffer showed 15 years ago. The question is do we need anything else, really, and does that 'anything else' pack sufficient punch.

Source: www.realclimate.org
*Note:For more information visit the above website as this article is taken by me from the above website.


Collected By: Saurav Chakraborty

Karamchand---a new series on SET

Finally here is good news for all those peoples who got bored from all those saas-bahu series and reality shows.After long time gap Karamchand, a detective series that use to come on Doordarshan long time back is now back with its new look on Sony Entertainment Television, or we can say with its second part whatever you want to say.So specially its not made so high tech series not so glamorous but specially its worthful to watch it for acting of Pankaj Kapur, direction and the storyline of the series. Dont know how long will this series will be aired but atleast you can change your taste at the moment by solving the mysteries with Karamchand, iwatch it and i really liked it. For what you are waiting come on go and tune to SET..... ON every saturday at 9pm(IST).
For more information:
www.setindia.com





Source: Saurav Chakraborty

Movie Review---Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd.

Again once again a slow flick of this year and nothing in the movie to watch except if you want to timepass then you can go with your partner for this movie and then try to laugh on the silly jokes that has been used.If not able to laugh on your own then surely you will find someone laughing, then laugh on him.However movie is about six different couples with there small problems and issues.The movie made by taking very small issues of couples that they face normally in there life.

However the movie is bit slow,not having strong storyline so made it bit boring too.Contains some humorous dialougues but dont expect like what you get from Priyadarshans movies.Overall movie is just a time pass and also looks like a fairy tale story specially the story of abhay deol who plays a role of super hero and his wife minisha lamba too is a super heroine in this movie.But connecting six couples in same story is seems to be good and thank good atleast they had not make a 4 hour long movie like salaam-e-ishq, so you can come out of theater within 3 hrs so no leg pains atleast.Even they had presented Arjun Rampal as a surprisel package in the movie who plays opposite to Dia Mirza as his lover.

NO big releases this week so it leave no option infront of you except watching this if you want to watch a movie by this week.

Rating: AVERAGE
Reviewed by: Saurav Chakraborty

Climate change may have killed captive Vulture babies

Unusual weather and temperature changes are said to have played a role in the death of the wprld’s first vulture chicks born in captivity at Pinjore near Chandigarh on Janaury 1 and 5.Though the rare Oriental White-backed Vulture parents tried hard, the pair did not survive a month.”The parents fed them properly and the postmortem did not indicate infections told by experts. Experts says, “The climate and temperature fluctuations played a possible role in the deaths.”

The chicks died on January 12th and 30th of this year.Conservationists are increasingly worrying that climate change is confusing wildlife, sometimes fatally.Few weeks ago, 17 rare loons froze to death in New Hamphshire, UK, and conservationists blamed the warm weather for confusing the threatened bird species that normally flies to the ocean for winter.

In Pinjore, where closed circuit television cameras monitor the vultures had noticed that January’s erratic temperature fluctuations seemed to affect the parents brooding habits to keep the chicks warm.

“Vulture nestlings have only one downy feather coat and depend on their parents brooding,” says experts. But some January mornings here were either freezing or warm at 15 degrees Celsius. Sometimes the maximum would touch 30 degrees.”

Even in the wild, vulture nestlings have a low survival rate, so this captive breeding was hailed as a milestone since India has lost over 97 percent vultures since the nineties. But the loss is not yet a disaster. At the conservation centre, nine vulture pairs are now living in and house hunting for locations to set up nests

Source: Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Hitman2- Silent Assassin

Hitman2 is a game in which you have to play a role of contract killer who have to complete his missions and he is known as agent 47 in the game, its his code name.Here you have to become a hired killer but you still have a sense of loyality and justice.Visit the dark recesses of a world corrupted by crime greed,degradation and dishonour and a past that catches up with you.

In this game specially you will travel through Russia,Sicily,India,Japan,Malaysia and many more that adds excitement while playing the game.Graphics of this game also quite good so no problem in its visual appearance. However while playing game you dont have to trust anybody.Your targets may hide in the most remote areas but their destruction is never prevented it can only be postponed.

Learn your trade-master your tools-overcome your obstacles-outsmart your enemies-eliminate your targets.

So i can say after playing this game that its not an worthless one so if you got chance to play this then you must play and dont miss that oppurtunity. So for what ru waiting?Go and grab one CD of Hitman2! You can visit at its official websites:
www.eidos.com
www.hitman2.com


Rating:Excellent

Reviewed By: Saurav Chakraborty

Of blogs and Groups

With the advent of blogs, people found an outlet for their thoughts.But, with technological advancements, blogs have turned into personalised information exchange centres.So here i tried to bring to you blogs that talk about jobs, work experiences and solutions.

CareerBuilder Blog
(http://careerbuilder.typepad.com/job_blog_jobs/job_seeker_journal/)
The blog boasts numerous posts to help you at work.The categories of discussion range from books, retirement planning, jobs, employment trends to work-place surveys.Also available are links to other portals to help you discuss a work related query.The blog has entered into a contract with an employee to keep tabs on his work-life in its online job-journal.This section features his everyday professional experience, which you could read, reflect upon and perhaps, also learn a thing or two!


The Monster Blog
(http://monster.typepad.com/monsterblog/2006/04/is_your_job_kill.html)
As an offshoot of monster.com, the website's career-advice section deals with issues related to the work zone.The team came up with the idea of forming this blog while deliberating on furthering their avenues to help prospective and current employees.It receives posts from people involved in all walks of professional activities and also from job seekers who share their woes.Interestingly, this site discusses both the terrific and the terrible aspects of a job!
Chetana Jobs Groups
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CHETANA-JOBS/)
a group hosted on Yahoo's server, Chetana Jobs group hosts jobs for freshers, experienced as well as professional aspirants. A public-visibility group, this popular site boasts 23,2061 members! The blog lists openings in various fields, which categorically displayed for various qualification requirements.To date, 40,000 people heve secured jobs, courtesy Chetana. This is just a peek in the closet.To see the wardrobe, log on.


Source: HT PowerJobs
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Bacteria will steady homes in Earthquakes

Soil bacteria could be used to help steady buildings against earthquakes, according to researchers at UC Davis. The microbes can literally convert loose, sandy soil into rock.

When a major earthquake strikes, deep sandy soils can turn to liquid, with disastrous consequences for buildings sitting on them. Currently, civil engineers can inject chemicals into the soil to bind loose grains together. But these epoxy chemicals may have toxic effects on soil and water, said Jason DeJong, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.

The process so far tested only in labs, takes advantage of a natural soil bacterium, Bacillus pasteurii. The microbe causes calcite (calcium carbonate) to be deposited around sand grains, cementing them together. By injecting bacterial cultures, additional nutrients and oxygen, DeJong and his colleagues found that they could turn loose, liquefiable sand into a solid cylinder.


“Starting from a sand pile you turn it back into sandstone,” DeJong said.Similar techniques have been used on a smaller scale, for example, to repair cracks in statues, but not to reinforce soil.

The new method has several advantages, DeJong said. There are no toxicity problems, Compared with chemical methods. The treatment could be done after construction or on an existing buildings, and the structure of the soil is not changed---some of the void spaces between grains are just filled in. DeJong and his collaborators are working on scaling the method up to a practical size, and applying for funds to test the method up to a practical size, and applying for funds to test the method in the earthquake-simulating centrifuge at UC Davis’s Centre for Geotechnical Modeling.

The centrifuge is part of the national Network for earthquake Engineering Simulation, funded by the National Science Foundation. A paper describing the work has been published in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.



Source: The Times Of India
Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty

Pollutants change male frogs into females

Frogs that started life as male tadpoles were changed in an experiment into females by oestrogen like pollutants similar to those found in the environment, according to a new study. The results may shed light on at least one reason that up to a third of frog specie around the world are threatened with extinction, suggests the study, set to appear in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in May.
In a laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden, two species of frogs were exposed to levels of oestrogen similar to those detected in natural bodies of water in Europe, the United States and Canada. The results were startling: whereas the percentage of females in two control groups was under 50 percent- not unusual among frogs-the sex sex ratio in three pairs of groups maturing in water dosed with different levels of oestrogen were significantly skewed.
Even tadpoles exposed to the weakest concentration of the two groups, twice as likely to become females.The population of the two groups receiving the heaviest dose of estrogen became 95 per cent female in one case, and 100 per cent in the other.
Pesticides and other industrial chemicals have the ability to act like oestrogen in the body,” said co- author Cecilia Berg, a researcher in environmental toxicology. “We see dramatic changes by exposing the frogs to a single substances In nature there could belots of other compounds acting together.”


Source: Hindustan Times & AFP
Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty

Scientists in China control's Pigeon's flight

Scientists in China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.Scientists at the ROBOT ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH CENTRE at Shandong University of Science and Technology said the electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down,Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. “It is the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world,” Xinhua quoted the centre’s chief scientist, Su Xuecheng, as saying.
Su and his colleagues, who Xinhua said had similar success with mice in 2005, were improving the devices used in the experiment and hoped that the technology could be put into practical use in future.


Source: Hindustan Times & Reuters
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Sunderbans Warms Up

As the midday sun beats down on the world’s largest tiger reserve,fisherman in a boat slowly manoeuvre their way through the mangrove forests fringing the Bay of Bengal.Twenty years ago,the fishermen said,they would never have been able to venture through the mangrove creek in eastern India to catch fish,too fearful of the tigers that stalked the area.But the mangrove cover is sparse now and the big cats have moved on in search of food.

Wildlife experts say rising sea levels and coastal erosion caused by global warming are steadily shrinking the mangroves of Sunderbans, threatening the survival of the endangered tigers.

“We are very concerned about the erosion level in tiger habitat,and we plan to increase mangrove cover in core areas to protect the tiger,” said Kanti Ganguly, minister for the Sunderbans in West Bengal.

The Sunderbans, once home to 500 tigers in the late 1960s, may only shelter between 250 and 270 tigers now, wildlife officials say, although the Indian Statistical Institute recently suggested the numbers could be significantly lower. The Tigers of the Sunderbans regularly swim between islands in search of food and sometimes stray into villages.It is the world’s largest mangrove reserve and one of the most unique ecosystems in South Asia, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But as sea levels rise, two islands have disappeared and others are vulnerable.The destruction of the mangroves has also adversely affected numbers of estuarine crocodiles, fish and big crabs, said Shakti Ranjan Banerjee, wildlife expert. That could leave the big cats hungry.

“We are worried about the tiger’s prey base and also the fact that the tiger habitat is shrinking due to rising sea levels,” Pradeep Vyas, the special chief conservator of forests, said.”But you cannot fight nature and must accept that the islands could submerge one day,” he said.

As sea levels rise, mangroves have been overexposed to salt water. Many plants have lost their red and green colours and are more like bare twigs, exposing tigers to poachers who hunt them for their skin and bones. Also, tigresses now have fewer places to hide their curbs from adult males,who seek to kill them in order to stem competition in the group, consevationists warn.

There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago, but decades of poaching and depletion of their natural habitat have cut their numbers to 3,700. some experts say the total could be as low as 1,200.



Source: Hindustan Times
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty

Movie Review: Eklavya-The Royal Guard

Eklavya – The Royal Guard, as from the title of the movie its clear that the movie is about a guard which is played by Amitabh Bachhan and the story of the movie keeps on roaming around him and story is that he is the father of princess, played by Saif Ali Khan but it is not known by the King(who don’t have any kingdom now), played by Boman Irani and her wife role is played by Sharmila Tagore. But when the king cames to knw about this fact he kills his wife and also planned to kill the guard with the help of his brother, played by Jackie Shroff and his son played by Jimmy Shegill, in revenge.But in mean time princess came to knw about all this as he arrived to India after his mother’s death and when he came to know abt this then he gives more money to Jackie to kill Booman Irani as he wants to save his real father.
This is the main story which is stretched for around 2 hours and in theater you will feel that when this flick is going to over as the screenplay is very slow and story goes on a speed of snail. And basically there is nothing so new or interesting in the story that can keeps you to stick up in your chairs. However with such big star cast movie fails to attract the peoples to the theater.
You can watch the movie for a good direction work done by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, a good background score and after all the acting of whole starcast. Else there is nothing in this movie for which you can spend your money. Just a time pass movie!
RATING: Average



Rated By: Saurav Chakraborty