Bone robbing thrives in India; feeds Western medical schools

Did you know that India is the number one supplier of top quality human bones to the world's medical institutions and colleges?

However there is a dark side to it. One that involves robbing the bones from graves, pullling off corpses from burning pyres the moment the relatives of the deceased disperse, keeping the skeletons hanging in the rives for the fish and bacteria to lick clean the flesh, boiling the bones in a vat of caustic soda to remove remaining bits of flesh, drying the bones in the sun and washing them with hydrochloric acid to give the bones a white shine and exporting them illegally to Western medical institutions that pay anywhere between $1500-$5000 for a skeleton. Read the full story here

Kid in a tunnel

A simple video to answer a straightforward question. How does it feel to go through a tunnel for the first time. ASk this kid.....errrr, observe this kid

Energy needs will push Human Evolution

Space has never ceased to thrill me and I even authored a book titled "Man conquers the Riddle of Space" when I was in class X. I devour any article on space with equal zest and enthusiasm as I had when I wrote the book. I have been a fan of websites like the Cosmos Magazine, the Space for long.

One article recently caught my eye in the Cosmos Magazine. Titled 'Star Makers', the article gives a vivid and enthralling explanation of the 3 stages that intelligent civilizations go through. Based on the Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev theories the article states that advanced civilisations can be grouped according to three Types: I, II and III, signifying mastery of, respectively, planetary, stellar and galactic forms of energy usage.

Human civilisation has only recently begun to master planetary energies: fossil fuels, passive solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear fission, and may one day soon crack nuclear fusion. But how long will it take to reach Type II and III status?

Read for yourself here

The pole was not in the map...

I saw something funny today. I was walking on my way to work. There was a Buddhist monk ( an European convert) who was looking at the map in his hand and walking towards me from the opposite direction. He didn't realise that he was walking into a pole. He had a pair of sun glasses. I saw a sec late to warn him.

He went "DISHUM......!!!! " *$%@#()!@^#. He bumped against the pole, the sun glasses fell off.

He picked up the specs quickly and looked around to see who else had witnessed the tragedy and I was staring at him. He gave a weird a smile and said "Good morning.....The pole was not in the map...you see !!!"

Ha ha ha ha....Both laughed.....

Stock Market Domino Effect

'Woebegone Wednesday' would aptly summarize the mood across equity markets around the globe yesterday when a selling spree in the Shanghai Stock market triggered off the worst known global domino effect after the Asian Financial crisis in 1998. Within a single day, the bell weather stock indices of the developed world like S&P, the tech heavy NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial sensex had all taken a hit and fallen to record lows in the last 2-3 years. European and Asian bourses were next as they fell on cue too.

Two key reasons highlighted on how the world has come to be so connected figured in my head as I read 3-4 versions of the story across different dailies.

1. American equity traders have invested heavily in emerging Asian equity markets like Shanghai, Mumbai, Istanbul, Singapore, etc over the past 5 years.
2. The yen carry trade is resulting in copious amounts of 'free-yen' flowing out of Japan to be invested in riskier assets and these are getting into the Asian equity markets.

When the world's developed nations have their money standing in the Asian markets, it comes as no wonder then that a jolt or a hiccup here would have its reverberations felt in the mature markets of the developed world. Talk of Globalization and you get an idea of the darker side of it.

Spidey Game - Double Wires

Some of the games out there on World Wide Web are truly good and allow you to pass some time when you get really bored and you are not in the right frame of mind to do any mind bending work. One such game I found was Double Wires. An exciting game based on Spiderman capabilities. You need to swing from one cliff to another using two elastic sticky wires that you can throw at the cliffs and get hooked on. Hope the game gets you hooked on too.

Kimchee - Dangerously Healthy Food :-)

In Korea do as the Koreans do. Well, being a vegetarian, the best I could do to emulate the Korean lifestyle was to try out their dish, Kimchee. Kimchee, also spelled gimchi or kimchi is a traditional Korean dish of fermented vegetables seasoned with chili peppers and salt.

So famous has this dish become over the years that

• English has borrowed the word 'KimChi' from this dish. The phrase "in deep kimchi" is sometimes used to describe a person in a perilous situation.
  
• It is served as a mandatory dish in Korean Airlines and Asiana airways, the two official international airways of the Republic of Korea.

The basic ingredient is usually a variety of Chinese cabbage called napa cabbage and/or white radish, seasoned with chili pepper, garlic, scallion, ginger, salt, and sugar. Though there are hundreds of variations, most types of kimchi tend to have a strong, spicy, tangy flavour and odour.

Kimchi was profiled by Health Magazine as one of the world's five "healthiest foods" for being rich in vitamins,

• aiding in digestion, and
• even possibly preventing cancer.

The health properties of kimchi are due to a variety of factors.

• Most types of kimchi contain common ingredients like onions, garlic and peppers all of which have well-known health benefits.
• The main vegetable being made into kimchi also contributes to the overall nutritional value. Kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium and iron and
• also beneficial bacterial cultures of Lactobacilli which results in a higher lactic acid content in the final product than in yoghurt.

So remember, when in Korea, don't miss on giving your health a much needed boost by savouring Kimchee. Three cheers to to Kimchee !!!
For more info read: WikiPedia, KimcheeDepot

Musicovery : interactive webRadio

Do you feel tired? Energetic? Attained Nirvana? Or feeling just plain wicked !!! Well there is music to suit all moods.

Go to Musicovery and click on the touch pad according to your current mood. Let the music heighten your senses !!!

You can listen to music based on your mood or dance. You can even select the Genres from where you want the music to flow from.

Stories that Statistics tell

What do statistics tell us? One might say "Nothing", unless someone breathes life into them and gets them to tell a story. Well, that's exactly what a professor, Hans Rosling from Monterey, California has done.

Wanted Sexy Tutors in HongKong !!

 

Angela Yiu and Stella Cheng spent weeks meeting with fashion stylists and photographers before deciding on the miniskirts and high heels to wear in their promotion campaign. They're not models peddling perfume or sports cars. They're English tutors who earn good money helping secondary school students pass Hong Kong's grueling exams to get into college.

 

 

 

Sex appeal has become a hot selling point, just as important as teaching ability and knowledge, in Hong Kong's hypercompetitive world of “cram schools”.

Singing Horses

 

Ever heard singing horses? No !! Well now you can. Not only can you hear them sing but make them sing to your will. Follow the link.

 

http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf

Chronology of Satellite Launches by India

Following is the chronology of Indian satellite launches:
Launch Dates Vehicle Result

1. August 10, 1979 SLV-3 E1 Unsuccessful

2. July 18, 1980 SLV-3 E2 Successful

3. May 31, 1981 SLV-3 D1 Successful

4. April 17, 1983 SLV-3 D2 Successful

5. Mar 24, 1987 ASLV-D1 Unsuccessful

6. July 13, 1988 ASLV-D2 Unsuccessful

7. May 20, 1992 ASLV-D3 Successful

8. Sept 20, 1993 PSLV-D1 Unsuccessful

9. May 4, 1994 ASLV-D4 Successful

10. October 15, 1994 PSLV-D2 Successful

11. March 21, 1996 PSLV-D3 Successful

12. September 29, 1997 PSLV-C1 Successful

13. May 26, 1999 PSLV-C2 Successful

14. April 18, 2001 GSLV-D1 Successful

15. October 22, 2001 PSLV-C3 Successful

16. September 12, 2002 PSLV-C4 Successful

17. May 8, 2003 GSLV-D2 Successful

18. Oct 17, 2003 PSLV-C5 Successful

19. Sept 20, 2004 GSLV-FO1 Successful

20. May 5, 2005 PSLV-06 Successful

21. July 10, 2006 GSLV-FO2 Unsuccessful

22. January 10, 2007 PSLV-07 Successful

How do 200 calories look like?

Just returned from a brief holiday and had gained 2-3 pounds. My cousin was on a weight reducing program and the talk back home was at most times on calories, food, weight, metabolism, etc. Some of the interesting facts that came out of her program are listed below

• It takes 7500 calories of food to increase your weight by 1 kilogram
• Weight reduction programs do not cause a smooth decrease in weight. Weight reduction happens in cascade mode with sudden dips followed by plateaus and dips again.
• The thyroid gland is the organ that regulates body metabolism and hence the weight of the body.

Here's an interesting link I stumbled upon. It shows food stuffs and amounts of each that carry 200 calories.