Some of the Intersting Facts

1. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

(How'd they figure this out, and why?)

2. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Still can't get over that pig thing)

(Don't try this at home...maybe at work?)

3. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)

(And pigs get 30-minute orgasms? Doesn't seem fair)

4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(Hmmmmmmmmm........)

5. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

(If you're ambidextrous do you split the difference?)

6. The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

(From drinking little bottles of...?)

(Did taxpayers pay for this research??)

7. Polar bears are left handed.

(Who knew....? Who cares? How'd they find out, did they ask them?)


8. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What can be so tasty on the bottom of the pond?)

9. The flea can jump 350 times its body length.

It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes...can you imagine?? And why pigs?)

10. A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.

(Creepy)

11. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

(Honey, I'm home. What the....)

(Well, at least pigs get a break there...)


13. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(In my next life I still want to be a pig ... quality over quantity)


15. Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Oh, Geez) (That's almost as bad as catfish)

14. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.

(I know some people like that.)

15. Starfish don't have brains.

(I know some people like that too.)

Interesting Facts II

1. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

2. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

3. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

4. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

5. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

6. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

7. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.

8. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

9. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.

10. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

11. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.

12. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

13. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

17. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

18. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. (rumor)

19. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

20. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

21. Pearls melt in vinegar.

22. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

23. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

24. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

25. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. (Or does it?)
26. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

27. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word 'criminal.' The second was William Jefferson Clinton.

28. Turtles can breathe through their butts.

29. Butterflies taste with their feet.

30. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.

31. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

32. On average people fear spiders more than they do death.

33. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

34. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

35. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

36. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

37. It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. (or can you?)

38. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

39. A snail can sleep for three years.

40. No word in the English language rhymes with 'MONTH.'

41. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

42. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!!

43. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

44. All polar bears are left handed.

45. In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,

including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

46. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

47. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

48. 'Go', is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

49. If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

50. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

51. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

52. Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow.

tying a sari

A friend of mine, Siddartha Banerjee has created his 2nd iPhone app (MeterDown being the first), called the Sari App. So, that's one more to the 400,000+ apps on the iPhone platform, you say? Yes, its a lot more than that.

Apps like these go a long way in strengthening the lure of the iOS platform both for end-users and developers. While there are several jokes about 'There's an App for that' (which Apple has trade marked by the way!) the sheer breadth and width of apps – from the useful to the bizarre – available on the iOS platform makes it difficult for competition to match. From Snow Reports to Children's stories to Bird Watching, there is an app for that.

The Sari App fits in well with most of the successful utility apps – it is global in terms of appeal, has repeat value and can be a 'must-hav-app' for many. Personally speaking,  the fact that such apps go through the Apple approval system and free of malware is a hug plus too.

Another interesting aspect of the app is that its been created by a true Apple evangelist. The developer was my colleague – working as copywriter in an ad agency many years ago. His passion for all things Apple didn't just stop at buying and recommending Apple products – but training (self-taught, I believe) to become an iPhone Developer. That's amazing. Speaks volumes about the passion brand Apple evokes, not just among geeks.

The Apple-iOS-Developer-Consumer chain is made stronger with the success of such apps.

happy family is having two daughters

The key to a happy family is having two daughters, according to a new study. Researchers concluded that two girls are unlikely to fight, will play nicely together, rarely annoy their parents and tend not to wind each other up. Scientists also claimed that they also make little noise, seldom ignore each other and are more likely to confide in their mother or father.

Researchers questioned thousands of mothers and fathers of under-16s to come up with the recipe for a harmonious family life.

Those with two girls were most likely to say their children were easy to reason with, helped around the house and generally got on well with each other.
After two girls, the second most appealing combination of children was one girl and one boy, with 86% of parents saying their little boy and little girl were genuine friends.
The third most favourable combination was two boys, with parents saying their sons pay each other lots of attention and are close friends — but are less likely to confide in their mum or dad as they grow up.

Liquor prices move up on heavy duty

Beer and hard liquor will cost 10-20% more in Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka.
    The alcoholic beverage industry is reworking its costs, following the steep excise duty increase in the last state budget. In a first, the price of popular beers such as Kingfisher Premium will cross Rs 100 per bottle, while standard whiskey brands like Signature will hit a new high at over Rs 600 a bottle, costlier by almost Rs 30-50.
    "Liquor of all 17 categories will cost more, as the revised retail price hikes were unveiled, effective April 1,'' excise minister M P Renukacharya told reporters here on Monday.
  

 He said the government has decided to revise duty to increase revenue from excise duties, as announced by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in his recent budget speech. "The proposal will fetch an additional revenue of Rs 560 crore," Renukacharya added.
    He said the increase in price varies 10-20% and the department officials are working out the extent of enhancement on each category of liquor. He said he would continue to fight the illicit liquor mafia and hooch dens across the state, despite the fact that such centres crop up suddenly and close immediately. "I am aware that this is a risky battle, but I am determined to fight the hooch menace, come what may. I have also told officials not to be afraid of anything. I will lead the raid from the front,'' Renukacharya said, recalling the attack by the hooch mafia in Belgaum earlier this year.

4 Year Old “Threatened with Arrest”???

Picture the bucolic scene: 4 year Sienna Marengo and her sister India, 10, picking daffodils in Whitecliffe Park, Dorset. Picture too Councillor Peter Adams, driving past and seeing the girls at play. Picture him phoning the police. Picture the police, taking the call and sending an officer over. Picture that officer talking to the parents of the girls for fully 20 minutes and warning them that they could be arrested and face charges of criminal damage.
















It seems unlikely doesn't it? And yet that is what happened on this late-winter's day.
As ever, there are two sides to the story. To the girls' parents, this was a frightening, intimidating and heavy-handed encounter with officialdom, prying into the joyful playtime of their children. To the councillor, the picture was somewhat different:


"We are very proud of our parks and can't have people ripping up public property. I am a reasonable person and would not have called the police if they were just picking two or three flowers, but this was totally disgraceful."

It is certainly clear that the boundaries we might accept in terms of children's behaviour vary wildly from person to person – but it is noticeable that the parents haven't denied that the charge that their kids were taking more than 2 or 3 flowers. Either way, reports that the girl is too upset to return to the council-owned park in case her family "would be taken away by the police" shouldn't fill anyone with gladness.

“Driver” Fails Theory Test for 90th time

A 26 year old woman from London has created an unenviable record by sitting – and failing – her driving theory test for the 90th time. At £31 per attempt, that stacks up to a cool £2790 just pointlessly sitting exams!


The Driving Standards Agency has released the details of the case (although not the unfortunate woman's identity) following a Freedom of Information request. The same request also revealed that a man in the Midlands is currently waiting to take his practical test for a 37th time, having failed test 36 at the back end of 2010.

If that sounds pretty stunning, it's worth pointing out that he still has some way to go to beat the record number of fails. That record is still the proud possession of Git Kaur Randhawa of Middlesex who took 48 attempts before finally being declared roadworthy in 1987. Presumably accompanied by a 21 gun salute and RAF fly-past.

You do kind of wonder what the problem is. The theory test is a series of 50 multiple choice questions of which you must answer 43 correctly to pass. Multiple choice! And there are a limited number of questions and you can take test tests online from various places (including at the DVLA itself). After 90 attempts and who knows how many thousand practices you'd think that your recall of the questions would be near photographic, but apparently not.

To be fair, we've all known otherwise bright people who couldn't get to grips with exams – either due to the pressure or the very specific nature of the task of remember certain things. Even so, spare a thought for this poor woman as she embarks on lonely attempt 91 in the near future. Mystery woman: we wish  you well!

700 year old china mummy found

These incredible pictures show a 700-year-old mummy, which was discovered by chance - by road workers - in excellent condition in eastern China.


The woman, discovered two metres below the surface in a wooden tomb, was wearing a Ming Dynasty dress and is thought to have been at a high-ranking level


The corpse of the high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty - the ruling power in China between 1368 and 1644 - was stumbled across by a team who were looking to expand a street.


And the mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.


Immersed: The mummy was found by road workers, and had been preserved in a brown liquid


Discovered two metres below the road surface, the woman's features - from her head to her shoes - have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated.


When the discovery was made by the road workers, late last month, Chinese archaeologists, from the nearby Museum of Taizhou, were called into excavate the area, the state agency Xinhua News reported.


They were surprised by the remarkably good condition of the woman's skin, hair, eyelashes and face. It was as though she had only recently died.

bollywood star kids / star kids enter Bollywood

Trishala Dutt

Sanjay Dutt's daughter is all grown up and set to enter Bollywood. Trishala is all of 21 and has made up her mind to take up acting despite her father's disapproval. She joined Atlantic Theater Acting School to pursue her passion for acting and seeks to make it big in Bollywood only on the basis of her talent and hard work and not her father's fame.

Varun Dhawan

Varun is director David Dhawan's son and is being launched by none other than Karan Johar in his film 'Student of the Year'. It is a debut that most newcomers only dream of as even established newcomers seek to experience the Johar magic. He too worked as an assistant director in KJo's 'My Name Is Khan'.

Alia Bhatt

Another dream debutante is Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan's daughter Alia Bhatt who is the female lead in KJo's 'Student of the Year' alongside Varun Dhawan and model Siddharth Malhotra. With her fresh appeal and vivacious energy, the girl is sure to bring a lot of guys on their knees.
Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Alia Bhatt is soon going to get a big break in the Indian cinema. Alia will be seen opposite newbies Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra in Bollywood's Student Of The Year. The movie is being directed by Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan plays the role of a professor in the movie.The cute dimpled Alia is currently present on Twitter and is going to debut in the romantic comedy opposite David Dhawan's son Varun Dhawan.

Tanuj Virvani

This good looking lad is the son of yesteryear actress Rati Agnihotri. 23 year old Tanuj is multi-talented as he has written, directed, scripted, edited and acted in three of his short films. Another assistant director, he worked with David Dhawan and Ken Ghosh.
Unlike his mother, the young Tanuj wants to make a career in direction. Though his mother Rati always wanted her children to focus more on studies and take a call about their career only when the right time came. And it seems it's the time.

When Rati was asked about the decision, she told that she always knew that Tanuj was interested in acting. It's only recently that he told her that he wants to act. However, she didn't want to speak on his behalf. She also told, ut's his decision, let him speak about it.
When Tauj was asked about it, he told, acting, as a profession, has always been there at the back of his mind. He got offer for a film long ago but he didn't take that seriously on that time. But now he is open to acting. He also informed the reporter that he has already done an acting course from Kishore Namit Kapoor's academy and he is being prepared for acting

Tiger Shroff

Jackie and Ayesha Shroff's son will reportedly make his debut in 2012 with a remake of his dad's blockbuster movie, 'Hero'. Tiger's parents are so anxious about their son's Bollywood debut that they have got a manager to make sure he does not falter in his steps to stardom.
The handsome 19-year-old son of Jackie Shroff has started to make his presence felt. The new star-in-the-making Tiger Shroff is seen in a hot baywatch look on the cover of Men's Health magazine.



After seeing his well-toned, athletic body on the cover page, who could believe Tiger was once 'exceptionally' thin. As per reports, the boy is now "obsessed with strength" and loves to work on his body. Oh boy! your hard work is showing.

It's also learnt that he will be launched in Bollywood by Subhash Ghai, the showman who is responsible for making his father's career. But Tiger, whose real name is Jai, says, "I have no plans for movies at this point of time. My parents and I agree that I'm still too young. As of now, I'm more of an athlete than an actor. However, I will follow in my father's footsteps only when the time is right."

Zoa Morani

Zoa Morani is the daughter of producer Karim Morani of 'Raja Hindustani' fame. She was discovered by non other than SRK who is launching her alongside three other newcomers in Roshan Abbas directed 'Always Kabhi Kabhi'. Zoa too was an assistant director in Rajkumar Santoshi's 'Halla Bol' and Farah Khan's 'Om Shanti Om'.
She will debut in Roshan Abbas' maiden directorial venture Always Kabhi Kabhi later this year.

Zoa won't have a big bash this year. She said, "I just want to chill with my family and go out for dinner with them."


Morani, an Ismaili by birth, added, "I will definitely pray at the Jamatkhana (community centre)."

What makes this birthday extra special is that her boyfriend Shamik Raja will be in town. "He surprised me by flying down from London. He had told me he wasn't going to be able to make it," she gushes.

She met her guy, an Indo-Canadian, two years ago on her father's birthday. According to a source, Shamik manages a hedge fund and has a house next to Shah Rukh Khan's in Dubai.

On screen, the newbie would love to romance Hrithik Roshan. "He is so hot," she said.

Read more at: http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Story.aspx?id=ENTEN20110172483&keyword=&subcatg=&cp

Ahana Deol

After Esha Deol, its Ahana's turn to live her Bollywood dream. Hema Malini's second daughter will star in an Aparna Sen directed film which is a modern day take on Romeo and Juliet. Though elder sis Esha faile to impress with her acting skills, we hope Ahana proves her worth in the film industry.

water purification / world war water

"Water, water, everywhere," is the motto by which Ayyappa Mahadevappa Masagi lives. When it's believed that the next world war will be fought over water, at a micro level in Bangalore, people working for the water utility are roughed up by consumers who haven't seen a drop of water trickle from their taps in days. Says Masagi, "Who said there's a water crisis? We have plenty of water, even in Bangalore. It's just that we haven't been looking at the available, easy solutions."

Masagi isn't trained scientifically. He's just an ordinary man who uses native intelligence to solve water woes. This 54-year old `Water Gandhi' from rural Karnataka uses over 100 tried-and-tested techniques to end water poverty. His success stories now run into many books and states across India.

WATERMAN'S WAYS - He injects life even into dried and dead borewells and ensures that not a single rain droplet escapes your house unused, not even the grey water from your bathrooms and kitchens. A farmer's son, Masagi trusts in non-irrigation agricultural practices and in industrial development co-existing with ecology.

Today, he has found easy water solutions for at least 200 apartments and over a thousand independent houses in Bangalore. The impressive list includes 41 industries and 17 ongoing projects.

Masagi asserts that he can harvest a whopping 3 crore litres of water along every km of Metro track per year, with a one-time investment of just Rs 20 lakh. "I can do it right now, if they can trust me," he says.

His solutions for houses promise a minimum 1.2 lakh litre annual rain harvest for a house on a 30x40 sqft site with just a 1sqm roof. This entails a one-time investment of Rs 10,000 with no maintenance. His own house in Sahakarnagar, North Bangalore, is a prime example. The three-storeyed building with five houses on a small 23 x 33 sqft site has survived on just a 68-ft borewell for the past 26 years and without any complaints.

Thus started his success with the `recharge shaft' method of water harvesting where he builds a sub-soil charging system in and around the borewell area that's connected to a rainwater harvesting unit and filtered grey water stock. The borewell depths are restricted to only 100-150 feet.

His client, Kennametal on Tumkur Road, once spent Rs 1.5 lakh every month buying water from 10km away. Today, it records an impressive Rs 25 lakh annual savings only from water conservation, thanks to the system set up in 2005 on Masagi's principle. Over the years, their water consumption has also reduced by 15%.

"Awareness to conserve water among people is increasing, but this awareness translating into action on the ground is very slow. April-June is the right season to start. The next season, you can reap a good rain harvest," assures this water warrior. His next target is to work on successful water conservation solutions for hotels.

THE DRY START

Masagi hails from drought-hit Nagaral village of Gadag district in Karnataka. He started thinking seriously about water when just a child of 6 years. "My mother woke me up every day at 3am to fetch water from a `devil pit' in a village that was 2 km away. During summer, it used to get very dry and only children like me could help bring water from it. From there, I started thinking seriously about water," he says.

Initially, his obsession for water was also ridiculed by his own near-and- dear ones, including his wife. Acute poverty kept him off serious science studies. His first success with water experimentation was recharging his two dry borewells on his 6-acre village farm during the drought in 2003.

Today, he has a team of 18 water warriors and 100 indirect labourers. In 2009, he bagged the National Award for application of science and technology in rural development (2009). He is now heading to South Africa to help an industry there with water conservation.

SOME SUCCESS STORIES

* Akshaya Patra mega kitchen in Rayapur now saves Rs 2.5 lakh per annum on water and harvests its 1.3 crore litre requirement from an average 1,000 mm rainfall annually

* An old-age home in Basavananagar had its hard water changed to soft and sweet within a month and low-yielding borewells rejuvenated

youngsters are now dying globally

In a complete reversal of a 50-year trend, more youngsters are now dying globally than toddlers.

In a first-of-its-kind study — published in the British medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday — it quantifies the patterns of death in children over five years old from 50 countries during the second half of the 20th century. It has been found that death rates in young people (15-24 years) are now higher than children (1-4 years) across most high and low-income countries. Death rates in young men (15-24 years) are two to three times higher than boys (1-4 years).

The majority of deaths in young people are due to injury, limiting improvements in mortality in this age-group over the past 50 years to just half that of children.

Russell Viner from UCL Institute of Child Health, London, and his colleagues said, "A strong international focus on reducing mortality in children below five years has not been matched by a similar response in older groups even though more than two-fifths of the world's population is in the 5-24 year age group."

The findings showed that in the 1950s, mortality in the 1-4 age-group greatly exceeded in all the regions studied. Death rates in children, aged 1-9, declined by 80-93% due to a drop in mortality from infectious diseases in 2004.

Decrease in death in young people, aged 15-24 years, was only about half of that in children. This is largely because of increase in injury-related deaths, particularly, of young men. By the start of the 21st century, injuries were responsible for 70-75% of all deaths in young men aged 10-24 years.


The research also showed that violence and suicide have become key causes of death in young people, responsible for a quarter to a third of deaths in young men aged 10-24 years.

The authors pointed out, "The high injury burden in young people means that they are particularly affected by the persistent low global investment in non-communicable diseases and injury relative to global disease burden."


They concluded, "Future global health targets should include the causes of death in people aged 10-24 years."

accidentally found currency for staff

It could be a scene straight out of an old Bollywood thriller. A cupboard in a hospital, supposedly empty and not opened for almost a decade, yielded Rs 13.89 lakh on Saturday.

The cupboard, at Western Railway's (WR) Jagjivan Ram Hospital at Mumbai Central, was lying unused on the ground floor near the medical officers' room along with several others. It was unopened for what officials guess to be around eight years. A WR officer said the currency was accidentally found as staffers tried to open the cupboard on Saturday so that it could be used for some purpose. "Staffers tried to open the cupboard on Saturday but the keys were nowhere in sight so a locksmith was called," said a source.

Confirming the incident, WR's chief PRO Sharat Chandrayan said the cash was found stashed in plastic bags and the money has now been deposited in WR's coffers. He said the money was mostly in lower denominations and there were many coins too. "Besides being stashed in polythene bags they were also strewn around," he said.

"The office staff who found the money called the senior administrative doctors who then sealed the room," said an officer. Surprisingly, police were called to investigate the case only on Monday morning.

The source of the money is not known. "It seems to be a case of misappropriation of railway money. An enquiry has been initiated by the RPF and senior railway officials," he said.

"Around Rs 13 lakh in cash was found in a cupboard at the Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Mumbai Central. The cash belongs to the Railways itself so no criminal case will be registered. The Railway administration will look into the matter and conduct an independent inquiry," said senior inspector of Nagpada police station, Sanjay Kadam.

the new bachelor / bachelors escape

There was jubilation in the house of the Jenas in Andhia village in Bhadrak's Bond block on Saturday when Gadadhar returned after 21 long years. The brothers were overjoyed to have him back.

For the past two decades, the family was frantically searching for him but in vain. Gadadhar had left his native village in August 1989 to pursue engineering in Burla.

Gadadhar had changed a lot in these years. But thankfully, his eldest brother recognised him. The family reunion was indeed touching.

"Since Gadadhar was studious and excelled in academics, we wanted him to pursue higher studies. We hoped he would take care of us financially. But he disappeared from Burla. Today we are very happy to have him back. But we feel dismayed that he has not married," said Bidyadhar, the eldest brother.

It seems pressure of marriage forced Gadadhar to do the vanishing act. While he was pursuing his studies, his parents would keep asking him to settle down. "When pressure of marriage started building up, I thought I would disappear. I wanted to remain a bachelor. Now, I am employed as a service engineer with a private company in Surat, Gujarat. But sometime back, I started missing my family. It became unbearable after sometime. And so I came home," said the missing brother, now in his middle ages.

Gadadhar informed that since his parents and an elder brother had passed away, he would like to settle down in the village and take up family responsibility. "I would like to teach my brothers' children and involve myself in charitable work," said Gadadhar.


Childhood friends of Gadadhar were also thrilled. "Gadadhar would be shy but friendly. We missed him on occasions like Raja festival. Now we will not let him disappear again," said Pramod Jena, a childhood friend.

engineering with an interest in robotics and artificial intelligence

 robots are the helping hands everyone has always wished for. Deriving its origin from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labour;Though the first thing that comes to mind vis-a-vis a robot is an imitation of a human from Star Wars, the Terminator or Star Trek it's not always a man versus machine game. Robots we encounter in our daily lives are those that perform tasks that are too dangerous, boring or onerous, thus being the helping hands.
With over a million types of robots, their presence is seen in almost every industry especially the auto, medical, manufacturing and space industry. Robots are used in industries for speeding up the manufacturing process. They are also used in the fields of nuclear science, sea exploration, servicing of transmission signals and bio-medical equipment design.
Created as a result of the perfect blend of the human imagination and technological developments, robots can be described better as mechanical devices that are capable of performing a variety of complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance. It is an artificial agent guided by computer or electric programming and is able to do tasks on its own.
A combination of intelligence, energy, movement and senses, robots require these characteristics to fulfil their purpose. The branch of study that develops these robots is robotic engineering. It deals with design and application of robots and the use of computer for their manipulation and processing.
Professor Patricia H. Reiff, director, Rice Space Institute and a professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, while highlighting new career trends says, "Robotics is very critical these days and one of the most upcoming career options. The expansion in space research these days will also boost robotics and its development."
To follow this career and develop an interest in robotics, an engineering background is a must. Mechatronics is the area of knowledge and practice interfacing mechanical and electronics engineering. Robotics is a subset of mechatronics, which involves automated machinery and components that move. Robotics being an inter-disciplinary course prefers students who have completed their graduation in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, instrumentation engineering or computer engineering with an interest in robotics and artificial intelligence.
Though the specialisation is offered at an undergraduate level in a few private engineering colleges across the country, it is not the preferred choice. The popularity and growing demand for robotics is at the Master's level.
A course in robotics trains and educates a student in the field of artificial intelligence, computer-aided manufacturing, computer integrated manufacturing system, computational geometry, robot motion planning, digital electronics and micro processing. The different facets of building a robot include working on developing the hardware, software, intelligence control and adaptive control of this machine.
Robotics is not all about designing the robots. Its maintenance, developing new applications and conducting research are equally important. Specialising in design and control in robotics is close to mechanical engineering. For hardware design of robots, a B.Tech. in electrical or electronics and communication engineering forms a good base.

Computer engineers can look at hardware design in robotics and the controls part requires aspects of electrical engineering. This field also requires the application of computer-integrated manufacturing, mechanical engineering, electrical and software engineering and biological mechanics.
In India, work on robotics began in educational institutions and research centres such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science. Now this field is the preferred choice of many budding engineers and contests are held among students across the country to encourage talent.
Robotics engineering can be studied at the IITs in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. A few other institutes that offer this specialisation are the National Institute of Technology, University of Hyderabad, Jadavpur University and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science.
A specialisation in robotics is a popular choice for students going abroad to study. This field offers job opportunities and a robotics engineer can apply his mastery in diverse fields like modern warfare, surgery, nano-technology and space-exploration. Many funding programmes and scholarships are available for research and PhD. students. Developing a robot comes with the goal of finding a solution to the problem. Along with the technical know-how, interest in research is essential. This field has no boundaries and will continue to grow until the machines take over!

women's trade union, SEWA

The prestigious Harvard University will honour Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), for her "life and work" that has had a "significant impact on society" .

Bhatt (77), whose trade union has helped over a million women in India gain access to opportunities for themselves and their families, will be awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal by Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

She would be presented the medal , awarded annually to individuals who have substantially and positively influenced society, on Radcliffe Day on May 27. Some of the illustrious past winners include Toni Morrison in 2007, Margaret Atwood in 2003, Billie Jean King in 2002 and Alice Walker in 1992.

"The Radcliffe Institute is proud to honour her this year, in which gender in the developing world is one of its dominant themes," the Institute said.


Recipient of several prestigious awards, Ela Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972. Conceived as a women's trade union, SEWA has grown into an NGO that offers micro-lending , health and life insurance and child care — all overseen by more than a hundred women-run cooperatives.

In January 2010, SEWA membership had reached 1.2 million.

Bhatt has been recognised for her long battle for social justice. In November last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honoured Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence.

Radcliffe Day is the Institute's annual celebration of women, as well as the alumnae and fellows of Radcliffe College and the Radcliffe Institute.

It is traditionally held on the day after Harvard's commencement.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University is a scholarly community where individuals pursue advanced work across a wide range of academic disciplines, professions and creative arts. Within this broad purpose , the institute sustains a continuing commitment to the study of women, gender and the society.

the bloom box / bloom box technology

In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.


The Bloom Energy and its Bloom Box is one of many start ups who have jumped into the alternative energy market using fuel cells. The technology has plenty of potential but right now it is very expensive and these start ups like Bloom Energy are not making money.

Bloom lost $85 million in 2008, according to venture capitalists that have seen its business plan, roughly on par with other fuel-cell companies building energy boxes much like Bloom's.
Google told Fortune that it has a 400 kilowatt installation from Bloom at its headquarters in Mountain View, California. But the real test, analysts say, is whether Google feels confident enough to use Bloom boxes to power its vast server farms upon which its business depends

In late February of this year, K.R. Sridhar, a native of India who moved to the United States and eventually became the CEO of Bloom Energy, announced a new piece of technology marketed as the Bloom Box. The Bloom Box is Bloom Energy's claim to fame, and it is the most recent hot news item within a technology that has had a checkered past: fuel cells. Formerly, companies that have posted exciting advances in fuel cell technology have received interest from venture capital companies followed by a boom and then bust cycle as the potential profit from the technology has proven to be significantly less than expected. Ballard Power Systems is one such example. In the 1990's, Ballard received international attention when it revealed its work on fuel cell technology and hinted that a hyper-efficient automobile would soon emerge. As the reality of fuel cell technology manifested itself as a much slower process, however, interest in Ballard's activities declined.


What is Bloom?

The Bloom Box is a stationary fuel cell designed to generate power at any scale desired depending on the number of ceramic plates utilized in the device. Yahoo has purchased a number of the boxes and claims to have saved around $150,000 in power costs since they were installed. According to Sridhar, the fuel cell is not ideally suited to mobile applications such as automobiles, but it does work extremely well for stationary power generation. Sridhar originally was pursuing a technology that would generate oxygen for NASA Mars missions, but when the missions were scrapped, Sridhar reverse-engineered his product to intake oxygen from the atmosphere and generate electricity. The CEO believes his product is unique because it uses a specially-engineered ink on ceramic plates (arranged in a fashion similar to the title picture) to generate power. He thinks that he will be able to manufacture a home-sized Bloom Box for around $2,000-$3,000, and that when he is able to do this, his company will reap extremely large profits. A Bloom Box of approximately the size of a bread loaf is purported to be able to satisfy the energy needs of an average household, and to do so at a level of efficiency that would enable consumers to regain their investment in the device relatively quickly.


A lot of industry experts are skeptical about Sridhar's Bloom Box, however. Many have examined the designs and concluded that there is nothing new or particularly revolutionary to the Bloom Box technology, and they have also evaluated and largely disregarded his belief that he could manufacture the boxes cheaply enough that average citizens would be able to save a good deal of money from the boxes. Sridhar's claims are not all hot air, however. The blooming executive has managed to make fuel cell technology extremely portable, which can be beneficial for remote field operations that require an immediate and simple source of power (and one that does not pollute the landscape). The jury is out about whether or not Sridhar has stumbled upon a revolutionary new form of clean energy in his Bloom Box, but the company's success will depend upon how quickly and effectively they are able to market their product in the recent wash of press coverage they have received.

The Bloom Energy Server (commonly referred to as the Bloom Box) is a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) made by Bloom Energy, of Sunnyvale, California, that uses liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons (such as gasoline, diesel or propane produced from fossil or bio sources) to generate electricity on the site where it will be used; Bloom Energy representatives assert that it is at least as efficient as a traditional large-scale coal power station.According to the company, a single cell (one 100 × 100 mm metal alloy plate between two ceramic layers) generates 25 watts.

In October 2001, K.R Sridhar C.E.O had a meeting with John Doerr from the large venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.Sridhar was asking for more than $100 million to start the company. Bloom Energy has received $400 million of start-up funding from venture capitalists, including Kleiner Perkins and Vinod Khosla.The company, originally called Ion America, was renamed to Bloom Energy in 2006.Sridhar credited his nine-year-old son for the name, saying that his son believed jobs, lives, environment and children would bloom. One of the celebrities appearing at the product launch was Michael R. Bloomberg, who appeared by video link.Bloomberg's business news network covered the event, but was attributed every statement to "Bloom Energy".

The CEO gave a media interviewfor the first time in 2010, eight years after founding the company, because of pressure from his customers.A few days later he allowed a journalist (Lesley Stahl of the CBS News program 60 Minutes) to see the factory for the first time.On February 24, 2010, the company held its first press conference.

Installation of bloom box

The current cost of each hand-made 100 kW Bloom Energy Server is $700,000–800,000. In the next stage, which will likely be mass production of home-sized units, Sridhar hopes to more than halve the cost of each home sized Bloom server to under $3000. Bloom estimates the size of a home sized server as 1 kilowatt, although cNet News reports critical estimates recommend 5 kW capacity for a residence.
The capital costs according to NewsWeek magazine is $7–8 per watt.
According to the New York Times (Green Blog), in early 2011 "... Bloom Energy ... unveiled a service to allow customers to buy the electricity generated by its fuel cells without incurring the capital costs of purchasing the six-figure devices.... Under the Bloom Electrons service, customers sign 10-year contracts to purchase the electricity generated by Bloom Energy Servers while the company retains ownership of the fuel cells and responsibility for their maintenance.... 'We're able to tell customers, 'You don't have to put any money up front, you pay only for the electrons you use and it's good for your pocketbook and good for planet,' ' [CEO K.R. Sridhar] said.

Usage bloom box

On 24 February 2010, Sridhar told Todd Woody of The New York Times that his devices are making electricity for 8–10 cents/kWh using natural gas, which is cheaper than today's electricity prices in some parts of the United States, such as California. Twenty percent of the Bloom Energy Server cost savings depend upon avoiding transfer losses that result from energy grid use.
Bloom Energy is developing Power Purchase Agreements to sell the electricity produced by the boxes, rather than sell the boxes themselves, in order to address customers' fears about box maintenance, reliability and servicing costs.
Fifteen percent of the power at eBay is created with Bloom technology; after tax incentives that paid half the cost eBay expects "a three-year payback period" for the remaining half, based on California's $0.14/kWh cost of commercial electricity.

Efficiency bloom box

A Gerson Lehrman Group analyst wrote that GE dismantled its fuel cell group five years ago and Siemens have almost dismantled theirs. United Technologies is the only large conglomerate that has fuel cell technology that could compete with Bloom Energy. Toshiba only has technology to provide energy for a small device, not a neighborhood.

Katie Fehrenbacher of Business Week reports that Sprint Nextel owns 15 patents on hydrogen fuel cells and is using 250 fuel cells to provide backup power for its operations. Sprint has been using fuel cell power since 2005. Last year Sprint's fuel cell program received a grant of over $7 million from the United States Department of Energy. The Sprint program has partnered with ReliOn and Altergy for fuel cell manufacture, and with Air Products as a hydrogen supplier. Business Week reported that a German fuel cell firm called P21, which is based in Munich, has been working on similar projects to supply backup power for cellular operations. United Technologies makes fuel cells costing $4,500 per kilowatt.

In October 2009 the Department of Energy awarded nearly $25 million in grants for research and development of solar fuels, which Michael Kannelos notes in Wired may be similar technology to the solar cells in Sridhar's description of the Bloom Energy Server. Department of Energy grant recipients included a variety of startup companies and universities.

According to an article in NewScientist, there is a claim stating the Bloom Box is "electrolyte-supported" and based on that, there are at least two well-established companies, Topsoe Fuel Cell and Ceres Power, already rolling out products with more advanced non-electrolyte-supported cells. Ceres having a four-year program to install 37,500 units in the homes of customers of the UK's British Gas.
Ballard Power's comparably scaled products are based on proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Ballard's 150 kW units are intended for mobile applications such as municipal buses, while their larger 1 MW stationary systems are configured from banks of 11 kW building blocks.
Another competitor that already has product in-market in Europe and Australia is Ceramic Fuel Cells , with an efficiency of 60% for the power-only units; these fuel cells are based on proven technology spun off from Australia's CSIRO.

voice-based browsing

Browsing the internet will become much easier for the visually challenged and those who find the computer keyboard or typing difficult. Such users, or anybody wishing to do so, will simply have to speak to the computer, which will browse the internet and get back to them with answers in the same language.

The voice-based browsing will enable communication in English, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has undertaken a project in this regard, which will be ready in two years' time. The project has been funded by the Union government's department of information technology,

Under the project, a software for an automatic speech recognition system will be developed, which will enable a computer to recognize what has been said to it by the user.

"For instance, if a user wants to browse the website of the government of India, he/she can speak it in front of the computer. The software will convert the speech to text and go for processing and the required information will be retrieved. The software will then convert the text on the website to speech and the computer will speak it out for the user," C-DAC executive director Hemant Darbari told TOI on Friday.

Two technologies — speech-to-text and text-to-speech — have been used in this software to make the internet accessible to the users, especially the disadvantaged.

"The software is also aimed at helping those in rural areas who are unable to type or do not understand the keyboard. There are cases where keyboards in regional languages are not available, especially in remote areas. So, this technology will be useful there," said Ajai Kumar, group co-ordinator, applied artificial intelligence group, C-DAC.