shashi tharoor

wow, shashi tharoor reading habit:

The recent furore about the IPL scam gotten me interested in knowing about shashi tharoor. I stopped getting to know the news long time ago for no apparent reason :). So I didn't bother to enquire about him when i first saw him in some newspaper. But recently i got to see his interview called "Conversations with History" that was given at the Unviersity of California. I was amazed at the pace with which he thinks and talks. 

In the interview, he told that 
He finished his schooling in a Boarding School in Mumbai, college at St.Stevens, Masters from ....university(I don't remember), later his Ph.D at the age of 22 from Tufts University. I was like wow! this man is really something. He also told that in one of his schooling years, he resolved to read 365 books a year and he kept that promise. How wonderful!! 

This man thinks twice as fast as we think. And he speaks twice as fast as he thinks. It was a real pleasure just watching him speak. That's it. 

I am getting a very big doubt lately. There must have been a connection between the number of books people read and the speed with which they think. I deduce this from one of my other role models - Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan. Whenever he is asked a question, he takes a minute to respond and the first things that comes out of his mouth is "there are three perspectives or three sides". This means that he processes the question and the answer to it from multiple perspectives in that SINGLE minute. Can you believe it? 

I think all this happens because they have jogged their minds enough to process huge amounts of information in much less time with pinpoint accuracy by means of thinking while reading. In other words, reading bootstraps thinking. 

The issue is not over with that. They also process the answer in their mind in that one minute. So they manipulate the language also with pinpoint accuracy to convey their ideas. Isn't this wonderful? How many of us can really be confident enough to state what we have in our minds in such a little time. That's almost impossible.

Therefore, we have to master the language to understand other's ideas as well as to epxress ours. If we neglect language we can be sure that we have lost half the abiltiy to think. Becuase it is only through language that we think. Language boosts our thinking process. We develop our language only when we READ. We need to read a lot.

Man with double PhD begging on streets

With a double PhD, this man was begging in the streets

Jaipur: Dinesh Dwivedi, age 50, a retired school teacher, spent large parts of his day begging in the streets of Jaipur.

He has a pension of Rs. 35,000 a month, and owns a small haveli in the walled city of Jaipur and shops in this crowded market place.

But Mr Dwivedi, a double PhD in Sanskrit, was beaten often by his son, a 25-year-old with an alleged drug habit.

"I begged him again and again, with folded hands, to spare me...but he would hit me with a stone...or a stick."

Mr Dwivedi has three children. His elder daughter is married but his younger son and daughter live with him. His son, Saurabh, is unmarried and is a school dropout.

"I was not born addicted to smack," he says, sitting on the steps at his father's house. "I was tricked into addiction by people who want to grab the property that my father and I own."

But neighbours say Saurabh beats both his father and his younger sister mercilessly. He also sells anything he can lay his hands on in the house to pay for his drug habits.

Local government officials heard of Mr Dwivedi's plight through media reports today and showed up this afternoon at his house in Bhrampuri in Jaipur's old city to help. They went out looking for him with his son, and found him begging only two lanes away from his house. Mr Dwivedi, who could barely crawl on the road, was then moved to a state-run home for senior citizens. 

For the past five years, however, in a busy neighbourhood, neighbours and people who lived inside Mr Dwivedi's house on rent, walked past him as he asked strangers for a few coins without intervening.


What punishment should we give to such an idiotic son?

Direct cash transfer scheme

The Direct Cash Transfer, a new system under which the beneficiaries receive cash directly in their bank accounts.

What is direct cash transfer of subsidies?

#The Direct Cash Transfer, a new system under which the beneficiaries receive cash directly in their bank accounts, is expected to enable delivery of the government's subsidies and welfare measures to the intended targets without pilferage.

#To make things simpler, instead of fuel, fertiliser and food subsidiesgiven to BPL families, the scheme will involve direct cash transfer to their bank account, that is Rs 32,000 per year.

#To avail the direct cash transfer of subsidies one must be registered under the Aadhar scheme.

#The DCT architecture, being anchored by the planning commission, involves departments of financial services, unique identity authority (Aadhaar), information technology, expenditure, posts, rural development, social justice and empowerment, tribal affairs, minority affairs, higher education, school education, health and family welfare, women and child development, labour and employment, petroleum and natural gas, fertilizers, and food and public distribution.

What is the amount of subsidy a household is offered?

#BPL families will get Rs 32,000 per year.

#The government has fixed the poverty line at Rs 66.10 per day for urban areas and Rs 35.10 for rural regions.

How will the cash be transferred?

#The government plans to conduct the transfer through the bank account that is link with the Aadhaar Unique Identification (UID) scheme.

# The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), which is implementing the Aadhar scheme, has already enumerated around 200 million people from 2006 to now and has a target of reaching 600 million people within the next 18 months.

#Consumers will have to buy goods (food, kerosene, etc) at market price. The subsidy component in rupees will later be deposited in their bank accounts.  To implement the project, banks will pitch in as part of their financial inclusion drive to help people open bank accounts.

When will the scheme be implemented?

#The government has already announced that transfer of subsidy directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries in 51 districts will start from January 2013 with a target to cover the entire nation by April 2014. To ensure this, the planning commission has decided that all new schemes will now be enabled by Aadhaar number.

#Initially, the government will implement the scheme for cash transfer to the beneficiaries' accounts in 51 districts from January 1, 2013. The scheme will be worked in 18 states from April and in the rest of the country later in 2013, Manmohan Singh said.

#The subsidies and schemes are worth Rs 3.23 lakh crore ($65 billion) and the DCT is scheduled for launch on January 1.

#The scheme will cover 18 states and union territories by April 2013 and it will be extended to 16 more states and union territories by April 2014, according to the prime minister's office.

# The government can immediately roll out the cash transfer scheme for certain welfare schemes such as scholarships and pensions and unemployment allowance, as pilot projects had been executed in certain parts of the country, including in East Delhi.

What are the Benefits of direct cash transfer scheme?

#The scheme is expected to cut down waste and corruption in distribution of subsidised items, the prime minister said, chairing the first meeting of the National Committee on Direct Transfers.

#The ultimate aim of this move is "a completely electronic cash transfer system for the entire population", an official in the PMO said.

#The scheme is aimed to cut down wastage, duplication and leakages and enhance efficiency in the delivery of welfare schemes, as also to improve targetting, reduce corruption, eliminate wastage, control expenditure and facilitate reforms.

How will the direct cash transfer scheme benefit the economy?

# By putting money into the hands of the poor the government is empowering the poor who can buy things in the market. This sudden rise in the poor people's purchasing power will help boost the market and the economy.

Most polluted city in world

India's silicone valley Bengaluru has been rated among top polluted megacities in the world, claims a new study, using data collected by NASA's high-tech satellites.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University tracked pollution trends for 189 megacities, including Mumbai, New York City and Tokyo, by analysing eight years' worth of data from three of NASA's high-tech aerosol monitoring satellites.

Northeast China, India, the Middle East, and Central Africa are currently leading in pollution increase, including Bengaluru, with a 34 per cent average increase in aerosol concentration between 2002 and 2010, website Tel Aviv University's American Friends (AFTAU) reported.

Europe and Northeast and Central North America are seeing the largest decreases in aerosol concentrations overall, the website said.

Among the cleanest cities were Houston, with a 31 per cent decrease over the time period; Curitiba, Brazil, with a 26 per cent decrease; and Stockholm, Sweden, with a 23 per cent decrease.

Researchers led by Pinhas Alpert of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences tracked pollution trends for 189 megacities’ Metropolitan hotspots where the population exceeds 2 million.

Their method, published in the American Journal of Climate Change, is the first to provide standardised global testing of pollution levels.

Researchers found that the thickest layers of global smog caused by traffic, industry, and natural minerals, among other factors, found over the world's megacities.

Some American cities were on the list of increased pollution levels, including Portland with a 53 per cent average increase and Seattle with a 32 per cent average increase, but Alpert believes these numbers reflect the multiple wildfires that have been happening in the region in the second half of the period examined.

In the future, he hopes to develop a method for separating such natural causes of pollution from man-made pollutants for more accurate data.

However, getting an accurate measurement of pollution is no easy task. On-the-ground monitoring stations do not always provide the most accurate picture monitoring stations depend heavily on local positioning and some cities put stations in urban centers, while others build on the edge of a city.

I'm disappointed with that, I was confident that this award would be going to my birth city hyderabad for sure :P

Get rupee symbol to your keyboard

No shift or tab can help you to type the NEW INDIAN RUPEE SYMBOL. But, this software released by foradian technologies can make you type the Indian rupee symbol.  According to the sources, Indian rupee symbol will make its debut on the keyboard in coming 3-4 months.But, for the enthusiasts who cannot wait for 4 months, here is the way to type the rupee symbol.

Here is the step-by-step process to type the new symbol!


# Go to blog.foradian     

# Download new Indian rupee font on to your computer.

# Go to control panel>fonts. Copy paste the downloaded file.

#Open note pad. 

# Go to view>font> select rupee-Indian font

#To get the rupee symbol, just press the button which is ABOVE the ‘TAB’ key.

Those who cant see the grave accent key - Try "alt+0096" - Type 0096 while holding down "alt" key on your keyboard.

…That’s it, the symbol is now on your screen!

Hampi musical pillars

THE MUSICAL PILLARS OF HAMPI .... AT VITHALA TEMPLE .... HAMPI [ NEAR HOSPET ,KARNATAKA-INDIA]

Previously it is mentioned th

atthe temple has 56 odd musical pillars, but now there are only nine musical pillars which are functional and produce melodious, feet-tapping tunes.

The musical pillars of Vithala temple in Hampi produce melodious and feet-tapping tunes. The solid stone columns in these pillars produce audible sound, when struck with a finger. Systematic investigations on the acoustic characteristics of the musical pillars of mahamandapam (great stage) of the Vitthala Temple have been carried out. The 11 most popular pillars that produce sounds of specific musical instruments are considered for the investigations.

Surprisingly, these pillars are rock solid, not hollow as they would look . A huge rock was used to make the main pillar and the sub pillars were around the main pillar. So basically the sub pillars are carved out in different length and width to make the differences in sound.

The sound produced from these 11 most popular musical pillars was recorded systematically and different nondestructive testing techniques such as low frequency ultrasonic testing, impact echo testing, and in situ metallography were employed on the musical columns of these pillars. The peak frequencies in the amplitude spectrum of the sound produced from various columns in these pillars are correlated with the dimensional measurements and ultrasonic velocity determined using impact echo technique.

The peak frequencies obtained experimentally have been found to have excellent correlation with the calculated flexural frequencies based on the dimensional measurements and ultrasonic velocities of the columns.

This shows the skill of the Stone Mason who could discern the sound probability while cutting the stone to desired sizes and shapes to give different sounds !

worlds highest Intelligence of 99.9%

THE 9-YEAR-OLD INDIAN TAKES AMERICA BY SURPRISE!

Let's congratulate Tanishq for making India proud with his super intelligence. He took entire America by surprise when he was tested for extraordinary intelligence and scored 99.9 percentile.

At 7, he gave lectures to students who were twice of his age.

Today, he is only 9 and already completed one third of the credits needed for a college degree at the American River College in Sacramento, California.

Tanishq is born to mother Dr Taji and father Bijou Abraham, speaks his mother tongue Malayalam at home and wants to become a scientist.
We wish you a bright future ahead, Tanishq, and we hope India produces more kids like Tanishq! :)