Gold prices reached all time high

With the surge in stock market in last few months, we are also witnessing greater number of people trading in commodities. Gold prices have reached the magical figure of Rs.18000 (Per 10 gm) for the first time. It is approximately 1141 dollars for ounce of gold. There was a time when gold, oil and market were running parallel. But the trend has changed now there has been no relation whatsoever between the 3 any longer. So what is behind this big rally in gold prices? Last year, gold prices were hovering at $ 800-plus per ounce. Those who had invested in gold at that time have made a clean profit of $ 350 per ounce of the precious metal. Lots of money, indeed, if you had bought few ounces of gold. But the million dollar question is how long will this boom continue and where is gold price headed?

Most of the experts in market think that the gold price boom is artificially made, to a large extent, by clever bullion traders and speculators at several commodity exchanges across world led by the US Comex, who are selling gold contracts these days frantically to make lots of money. One argument from the spectators for the surge in gold prices is that the US dollar value has been plunging thanks to the collapse of several banks in America and the great ‘economic depression’ that have hit the world’s wealthiest and powerful nation. But US being the largest gold holder, the value of the yellow metal going up has increased the valuation of US reserves. Another argument for the big rise in gold price is the fact that central banks across the world are buying gold reserves heavily in an attempt to get rid of US assets held in dollars.

Is it a correct strategy for the central banks? Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surprised the bullion world early this month by buying 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund. So the Next question in the market is “Gold prices will go upto $2000 or it wil crash again to $800″.No matter where it goes right now the marriage season getting badly affected in terms of buying of gold jewellery.

This article is contributed by Sapan Kadakia who is currently studying in MICA.

How to check whether the site is down or up ?

One of my friends always used to say that internet is nothing but just a solution to real life problems. Recently Alex Payne, a 24 years old computer engineer has developed an elegant solution to a problem encountered by most of the internet users. The service known as downforeveryoneorjustme.com allows visitors to type in a Web address and see whether a site is generally inaccessible or whether the problem is with their own Internet connection. These days many companies and people depend on the internet to continue their day today activities.

“I had seen that question posed so often. Technology companies have branded the Internet as a place that is always on and where information is always available. People are disappointed and looking for answers when it turns out not to be true.” Alex Payne

I must say, Alex has developed a wonderful tool for internet users. Kudos to him. You can visit this website by clicking here.

Twitter has become a new tool for terrorists

According to the latest report by US army, twitter can be used as an useful tool for terrorists. The report presented by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion and posted to the Federation of American Scientists Web site carefully examines the possible ways terrorists could use the latest mobile and web technologies such as the GPS(Global Positioning System), digital maps, and Twitter mashups to plan and execute terrorist attacks. Report said Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences.

The report has pointed out three scenarios pointed out by cnet for using Twitter as a terrorist tool:

Scenario 1: Terrorist operative “A” uses Twitter with a cell phone camera/video function to send back messages, and to receive messages, from the rest of his [group] Other members of his [group] receive near real time updates (similar to the movement updates that were sent by activists at the RNC) on how, where, and the number of troops that are moving in order to conduct an ambush.

Scenario 2: Terrorist operative “A” has a mobile phone for Tweet messaging and for taking images. Operative “A” also has a separate mobile phone that is actually an explosive device and/or a suicide vest for remote detonation. Terrorist operative “B” has the detonator and a mobile to view “A’s” Tweets and images. This may allow “B” to select the precise moment of remote detonation based on near real time movement and imagery that is being sent by “A.”

Scenario 3: Cyber Terrorist operative “A” finds U.S. [soldier] Smith’s Twitter account. Operative “A” joins Smith’s Tweets and begins to elicit information from Smith. This information is then used for identity theft, hacking, and/or physical [attacks]. This scenario has already been discussed for other social networking sites, such as My Space and/or Face Book.

But we can’t blame twitter for this misuse, even terrorists are using blogs to spread their word and plan their next attacks. Only thing that I think twitter should do to track all its visitors and store their IPs so that can be used in future to find the exact location of the terrorist.

See how Twitter works

Last month, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest growing site on internet for February 2009. Twitter had a growth of 1382%, whereas Zimbio which is on second place had a growth of 240%, followed by Facebook with a growth of 228%. It is actually one of the first micro-blogging sites on internet. It enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them.

Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and feedalizr. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS is not free as it involves some charge from the phone service provider. Now a days, it has become the “SMS of Internet”, as it provides the functionality (via its application programming interfaces) for other desktop and web-based applications to send and receive short text messages.

See this video which explains Twitter in simple English ::

How to make free calls Mobile To Mobile?

Today I found a method through which I can make free calls anywhere in the world. Now I need not to pay huge phone bills. Do you want to know how to make free mobile calls? Of course the answer should be yes. For making free call we will use a cell phone with internet connection (it may be GPRS connection, 3G or wifi connection). I am confident that this will drastically reduce your mobile phone bills. Just you need to have skype installed on your cell phone. If you don’t have skype installed then just type skype.com/m in your mobile browser and download and install this application.

I have tested this trick on my E63 and got amazed to experience the voice and call quality. It was really awesome.The only condition is that both persons should have skype installed to experience completely free phone calls. These Nokia cell phones are compatabile with Skype ::

 

• Nokia 5530
• Nokia 5320
• Nokia 5800
• Nokia 6210
• Nokia 6220
• Nokia E51
• Nokia E63
• Nokia E66
• Nokia E71
• Nokia E72
• Nokia E90
• Nokia N78
• Nokia N79
• Nokia N81
• Nokia N81 8GB
• Nokia N82
• Nokia N85
• Nokia N95
• Nokia N95 8GB
• Nokia N96
• Nokia N97
• Nokia N97 mini
• Nokia X6

 

 

 

You can also use iPhone, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG or any mobile with wireless or gprs internet facility. GPRS is not free and hence calling your Skype contacts can be somewhat costly so I will recommend wireless internet connection. Now a days, getting wireless connection is not a big deal. Anyways, try this method for making free phone call and in case of any doubt please revert back to me, I will try to help you.

Nokia launches N900 in India

Nokia , the world leader in mobile phone industry, has finally launched the much-awaited ‘N900′ in Indian market. Earlier it was launched at Nokia World on September 2, 2009 and was released on November 11, 2009 in the United States and 9 European countries. This smart phone is based on the Maemo platform, it runs Maemo 5 Linux as its default operating system. It is the first Nokia device based upon the TI OMAP3 microprocessor with the ARM Cortex-A8 core. Unlike the Internet Tablets preceding it, the Nokia N900 is the first Maemo device to include phone functionality (quad-band GSM and 3G UMTS). It functions as a 5 mega pixel camera, a portable media player, and a mobile Internet device with email and full web browsing. The phone will cost Rs. 30,639 in India.

Moreover, Nokia N900 also has Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support, full screen browsing with Maemo browser, TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable, Built-in FM transmitter, High-quality wireless stereo sound, Maemo media player, Data transfers over Wi-Fi 54Mbps, Bluetooth, 3.5G and WLAN connectivity. It has built-in 32 GB internal storage in which you can store up to 7,000 songs or 40 hours of DVD-quality video. The memory is expandable to up to 48 GB with an external microSD card slot.

Technical Details of Nokia N900 ::

Display

3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display
800 × 480 pixel resolution

Language support

British English, American English, Canadian French, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Swedish, Russian

Connectivity

3.5mm AV connector
TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable
Micro-USB connector, High-Speed USB 2.0
Bluetooth v2.1 including support for stereo headsets
Integrated FM transmitter
Integrated GPS with A-GPS

Battery

BL-5J 1320mAh

Processor and 3D accelerator

TI OMAP 3430: ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support

Memory

Up to 1GB of application memory (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory)

Size and weight

Volume:

Approx 113cc

Dimensions:

110.9 × 59.8 × 18 (19.55 at thickest part) mm

Weight:

Approx 181g

Mass memory

32 GB internal storage
Store up to 7000 MP3 songs or 40 hours of high-quality video
Up to 16 GB of additional storage with an external microSD card

Keys and input method

Full QWERTY tactile keyboard
Full QWERTY onscreen keyboard

Colour

Black

Operating frequency

Quad-band GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
WCDMA 900/1700/2100 MHz
Data network



GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 107/64.2 kbps (DL/UL) EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL) WCDMA 900/1700/2100. Maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (DL/UL) HSPA 900/1700/2100. Maximum speed PS 10/2 Mbps (DL/UL) WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g

Call features

Integrated hands-free stereo speakers
Call waiting, call hold, call divert
Call timer
Logging of dialed, received and missed calls
Speed dialing via contact widget
Virbrating alert (internal)
Side volume keys
Mute/unmute
Contacts with images
Conference calling with up to 3 participants
Internet calling
Email & Messaging
Supported protocols: Mail for Exchange, IMAP, POP3, SMTP
Support for email attachments
Support for rich HTML
SMS and Instant Messages as conversations
Support for Nokia Messaging service
Instant messaging and presence enhanced contacts
Multiple number, email and Instant Messaging details per contact, contacts with images
Support for assigning images to contacts
Web browsing
Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology
Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support
Full screen browsing
GPS
Integrated GPS, Assisted-GPS, and Cell-based receivers
Pre-loaded Ovi Maps application
Automatic geotagging
Camera
5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)
Image formats: JPEG
CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens
3 × digital zoom
Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key
Dual LED flash
Full-screen viewfinder
Photo editor on device
TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
Landscape (horizontal) orientation
Capture modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape, action
Video
Wide aspect ratio 16:9 (WVGA)
Video recording file format: .mp4; codec: MPEG-4
Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25fps
Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263
Music and audio playback
Maemo media player
Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
Built-in FM transmitter
Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR
Personalisation
Background pictures
Widgets on your desktops
Intelligent contact shortcuts
Shortcuts to your favourite websites
Shortcuts to applications
Themes

Operating system
Maemo 5 software on Linux
Applications
Maemo Browser
Phone
Conversations
Contacts
Camera
Photos
Media player
Email
Calendar
Ovi Maps
Clock
Notes
Calculator
PDF reader
File manager
RSS reader
Sketch
Games
Widgets
Application manager for downloads
Gaming
Bounce
Chess
Mahjong

What´s in the box

Nokia N900
Nokia Battery (BL-5J)
Nokia High Efficiency Charger (AC-10)
Nokia Stereo Headset (WH-205)
Video out cable (CA-75U)
Nokia charger adaptor (CA-146C)
Cleaning cloth

Kites Cast, Trailer and Movie Snaps

In 2009, Hrithik Roshan didn’t appear in any film as a main actor. Kites will be his major film after Jodhaa Akbar which was released in Feb, 2008. Kites has been directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Rakesh Roshan. Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut and Kabir Bedi are playing the mail roles in the movie. It is a very high budget movie. Its world rights are valued at $30 million. The film is scheduled to be released on May 21, 2010. It will be released in a 120 minute Hindi version in India and a 90 minute English version which is edited by Hollywood director Brett Ratner. Rajesh Roshan is the music director while Nasir Faraaz and Asif Ali Beg have written its songs.

Kites Movie Synopsis ::

In the harsh terrain of the Mexican desert, a mortally wounded man is left to die in the heat of the desert sun. This is Jai. Once a street smart, carefree young guy. Now, a wanted man. As death looms, the only thing that keeps him alive is the quest to find the love of his life, Natasha. A woman betrothed to another man. Jai and Natasha will fall in love despite language and cultural barriers, and embark on an action-packed adventure of love, dance and danger across Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Mexico- an adventure that could kill them both, or bring them together forever.

Kites Movie Songs ::

1 Zindagi Do Pal Ki (KK)

2 Dil Kyun Yeh Mera (KK)

3 Tum Bhi Ho Wahi (Vishal Dadlani, Suraj Jagan)

4 Kites In The Sky (Hrithik Roshan, Suzanne D’Mello)

5 Fire (Rajesh Roshan, Vishal Dadlani, Anirudh Bhola, Anushka Manchanda)

Realistic optimism is key for success in economic recession

Yesterday I read a wonderful article by Azim Premji, president Wipro Inc. in BusinessWorld magazine. There he shared one story which I am going to discuss with you. This year 2009 is going to be very tough year for business community so the thoughts and ideas of Azim Premji will be definitely helpful for the whole business world. He says, the year ahead will be tough, to say the least. It is important not to get too optimistic or pessimistic.

There is one story of a ship that was lost in the high seas. On board the ship, along with the other passengers, were an optimist and a pessimist. The pessimist was the first to get up every morning and say, “Today, we will sink.” The optimist would get up a few hours later and say, “Today, we will reach the shores.” This went on for a few weeks. Neither the ship sank, nor did they reach the shores. Finally, the passengers got tired of the pessimist who disturbed their sleep with bad news. So, they threw him overboard. Then the optimist continued with his good news. Since the ship did not reach the shores, they were disappointed every evening. So, they threw the optimist overboard as well.

You know there are two lessons here. First, it is better to be realistic than optimistic or pessimistic. Second, in this story, the optimist was the second to be thrown out. So it is better to be optimistic than pessimistic. But the moral of the story is that realistic optimism will be the key theme for successful organizations in the year 2009.

Story source :: BusinessWorld

What is economic recession?

These days everybody is talking about some recession. However most of them don’t know much about it. Just they know that the world economy is suffering from recession. Today I will discuss what exactly is economic recession. If you refer any economics book, there you will see that the word ‘recession’ means reduction of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for at least two quarters. Let’s see the official meaning of recession from the United States-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It defines economic recession as

“a significant decline in the economic activity spread across the country, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

There is one more term called depression which is more severe than a recession. Depression is the extreme case of recession, a depression is normally characterized by abnormal increases in unemployment, restriction of credit, price deflation or hyperinflation, shrinking output and investment, numerous bankruptcies, reduced amounts of trade and commerce, as well as highly volatile relative currency value fluctuations, mostly devaluations. The most well-known depression is the Great Depression of 1929 that affected most of the economies in the world for around ten years. The depression began during the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

But let’s forget the depression, focus on recession, better say the latest recession which has created troubles in our lives. The most important reasons for economic recession of 2008-2009 are high oil prices, high food prices, and a substantial credit crisis leading to the bankruptcy of large and well established investment banks like lehman brothers as well as commercial banks in many nations around the world. These fluctuations in world economy has caused increased unemployment, high inflation etc. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has predicted that at least 20 million jobs will have been lost by the end of 2009 due to the crisis – mostly in “construction, real estate, financial services and the auto sector” – bringing world unemployment above 200 million.

So I think you will be interested to know what has caused this major economic upheaval in the world? What is main reason behind falling share markets across the globe and bankruptcy of major banks? Who is responsible for this? Let’s see.

Boom in US real estates

A few years back there was big boom in US real estate industry. The reason behind this boom was low interest rates on housing loans and many other easy credit solutions. Actually it became quite easy for US people to take home loans. As a result of this, more and more people took home loans and thus the demands for property increased which ultimately increased the home prices. Also, there was enough money to lend to potential borrowers, so the loan agencies relaxed the loan conditions to increase their market base. And they did the terrible mistake as they completely ignored the customer’s repaying capacity while giving the home loans.

Real estate boom and overbuilding of houses finally led to a surplus inventory of homes, causing home prices to decline beginning from the summer of 2006. Once housing prices started depreciating in many parts of the U.S., refinancing became more difficult. Home owners, who were expecting to get a refinance on the basis of increased home prices, found themselves unable to re-finance and began to default on loans as their loans reset to higher interest rates and payment amounts. In the US, an estimated 8.8 million homeowners – nearly 10.8% of total homeowners – had zero or negative equity as of March 2008, meaning their homes are worth less than their mortgage.

Sales volume (units) of new homes dropped by 26.4% in 2007 as compare to 2006. Further, a record nearly 4 million unsold existing homes were for sale including nearly 2.9 million that were vacant. This excess supply of home inventory placed significant downward pressure on prices. As prices declined, more homeowners were at risk of default and foreclosure.

Arrival of Financial investment banks in real estate boom

During the booming period, these sub-prime loans became lucrative part of their investment portfolio for lenders as they were expected to yield a very high return in view of the increasing home prices. Also the interest rate charged on sub-prime loans was about 2% higher than the interest on prime loans due to the involvement of higher risk. Inspite of the risk involved lenders were confident that they would get a handsome return on their investment as a sub-prime borrower will continue to pay his loans installment, the lender would get higher interest on the loans. If a sub-prime borrower could not pay his loan and defaulted, the lender would have the option to sell his home to get his money back. So there was very less risk in this sector as in both the situations the Sub-prime lenders were in profit. The sub-prime loan market thus became a fast growing business in US.

Most of the big investment banks heavily bought these loans (known as Mortgage Backed Securities, MBS) to diversify their investment portfolios. Due heavy buying of Mortgage Backed Securities of sub-prime loans by major American and European Banks, the problem, which was once confined to US propagated into other countries.

As the home prices started declining in the US, sub-prime borrowers found themselves in a big dilemma. Their house prices were decreasing and the loan interest on these houses was increasing. Now they could not manage a second mortgage on their home so it became very difficult for them to pay the higher interest rate. Most of them became defaulter on their home loans and vacated the house.

Since the home prices were falling rapidly. The lending companies, when they went into the market to sell the house to recover the loan amount, found that the loan amount exceeded the total cost of the house. This caused major losses to Citigroup ($55.1 billion) and Merrill Lynch ($52.2 billion).

So this is how the current economic recession started.

Who is hiring in this economic recession?

Last week, Indian Government announced that around 500,000 Indians have lost their jobs and almost 25,000 have returned home after losing their jobs in US companies. Now job-seekers are in search of companies which are still hiring in this period of economic recession. Don’t you think it is silly question. Layoff announcements are piling up and unemployment numbers are reaching the sky but I am talking about companies which are still hiring. According to rediff, the leading Indian portal, India Inc’s hiring plans saw a marginal increase in January 2009, with the PSUs, telecom, banking, education and hospitality sectors showing a marked improvement. Other industries including legal, government and defence continued to see an increase in jobs.

Believe me, more than 60 per cent of companies in India are still hiring, and nine out of every ten companies are still giving promotions. Also, India is expected to see a salary rise of 8.2 per cent in 2009, the highest in the Asia Pacific region.

There are about 260 PSUs all over India. BSNL is going to hire 3945 Junior Telecom Officers. LIC has plans to hire 45,000 people this year. Most of the public sector banks like SBI, Syndicate, Indian Overseas Bank, NABARD etc. are hiring. Only SBI is going to hire to around 25,000 people in 2009. BPCL, which is one of India’s largest PSUs is planning to add more than 1000 engineers in next 2 or 3 years. No doubt, Indian PSUs are becoming the last refuge of job-seekers. PSU banking, insurance, petroleum, energy and construction companies are trying to expand their talent base as now large number of IIT, NIT and IIM graduates are applying for PSU jobs.

Mukesh Ambani is third richest CEO

Despite 62 % drop in RIL share prices, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is still the third-richest chief executive in the world. His stake in the petrochemical firm is around $16.8 billion. Recently Forbes magazine has published the list of top 10 wealthiest CEOs. Steel tycoon and chairman of Mittal steel, Lakshmi Mittal, Anil Ambani and Sunil Mittal were the other Indians in the list. Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett is the wealthiest chief executive for the second year in a row, with stake worth $35.9 billion in investment management firm Berkshire Hathaway. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is having second rank second ($19.7 billion).

Lakshmi Mittal, who also heads ArcelorMittal has slipped two places in the list this year to No 4. Last year he was at number 2 position. Anil Ambani who is at number 6, has stakes in his various firms is worth around $9 billion. The Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Mittal has $6.9-billion stake in AirTel as he was on 9th position. However since last year, Airtel’s shares have dipped 30 %.

The complete list is ::

Warren Buffett

Larry Ellison

Mukesh Ambani

Lakshmi Mittal

Bernard Arnault

Anil Ambani

Abdul Aziz Al Ghurai

Steven Ballmer

Sunil Mittal

Tadashi Yanai

Indian top 10 business houses lost $139 billion

Today I got a phone call from my friend and he told me that he lost 300,000 Rupees in share market in last one month. I said to him don’t worry, see top 10 Indian business tycoons, they have lost 139 billion US dollars. All these losses whether for small investors like my friend and giants like Mukesh, Anil, K. P Singh etc is due to recent economic crisis or better say economic depression. According to Economic Times, this amount is equivalent to around 16% of India’s gross domestic product(GDP) and more than the combined GDP of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Actually, India’s top billionaires have lost more than 60% of their wealth since January 2008.

Now India’s top 10 business houses are now worth $84 billion (Rs 4.1 lakh crore) compared with $223 billion (over Rs 10 lakh crore) in January 2008.

So who all are biggest losers?

Anil Ambani’s total wealth is now worth $12.9 billion against $45.1 billion in January this year.
Mukesh lost 54% of his money.
Unitech’s Ramesh Chandra lost 85%.
DLF’s chief K. P Singh has now only $ 9 billion against $35 in January 2008.
Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal lost 31% money.
If you have already invested in share market, mutual funds etc and lost a good amount of money then these figures will give you some relief and you will start thinking that you are the only loser.

13 years old Indian girl addresses UN climate Change summit

This is a great achievement for Yugranta Srivastav, a 13 years old girl from Lucknow. Last week, she addressed the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York. Almost all the top leaders including UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon appreciated the speech of this little girl. In her speech she discussed the importance of the energy and potential which lies in children and youth. She also showed her concern about global warming, scarcity of food and drinking water and an outbreak of accentuated epidemics. She compared her age group to flowing river which can be allowed to make their own way in the direction in which they march.

After delivering the speech, she addressed one press conference and said “It was a very great experience for me because now actually I feel I’m one in a million who gets an opportunity to speak. I also met several heads of state and I was sitting next to Al Gore,”
Last year when she was in 6th standard, she joined “Tarumitra” (Friends of Trees) due to her inclination towards environment and nature. Tarumitra is an organization which tries to stop the felling of trees and forests, builds roadside gardens and cleans up garbage dumps, among other environment friendly activities.
We should take inspiration from Yugranta and try to protect our planet from global warming, deforestation, poverty, genocide etc.

What is the secret of Bermuda Triangle?

The Bermuda Triangle has always been a strange and mysterious place in modern World History. This is located in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is roughly the shape of a triangle. Many people claim that Bermuda Triangle sucks planes and boats into its dark and murky waters. But no one knows exactly what happened to those lost planes and boats in the region. News papers, TV channels and internet websites have attributed these disappearances to the paranormal or activity by extraterrestrial beings. That’s why it is also known as the Devil’s Triangle. Hundreds of ships and planes have been reported missing in the area and more than 1,000 lives have been lost.

Some people think that the Bermuda Triangle is in a place where there is high magnetic force so when planes or whatever goes over it, they get sucked down and all of the computers, magnetic compass and other machines stop working. Some say paranormal or human error or even large amounts of methane in the water that cause ships to sink. See the video of group of aircraft that were the first of thousands to go missing inside the mysterious Bermuda Triangle in 1945, in the BBC show.

 

Incidents in Bermuda Triangle ::

1843: USS Grampus, schooner, last seen March 15, presumed sunk in a gale off Charleston, South Carolina.

1872: December 5, Mary Celeste, a 282-ton brigantine, sailed from Staten Island, New York City, bound for Genoa, Italy, on 7 November, and was found abandoned some 400 miles (640 km) east of the Azores; her last log entry on November 24 gave her position as 100 miles (160 km) west of the Azores.

1918: USS Cyclops, collier, left Barbados on March 4, lost with 309 crew and passengers en route to Baltimore, Maryland.

1921: January 31, Carroll A. Deering, five-masted schooner, Captain W.B. Wormell, 11 crew, found aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1925: April 21, Raifuku Maru, a Japanese cargo ship which sank with the loss of all 38 crew, supposedly went down in the Triangle after sending out an SOS signal which allegedly read “Danger like dagger now. Come quick!”, but in reality the ship was seen to sink in a gale off Nova Scotia and the SOS message did not contain the word “dagger”.

1925: December, SS Cotopaxi, tramp steamer, Captain Meyers, went missing with crew of 32 after leaving Charleston, South Carolina for Havana, Cuba, reported caught in tropical storm.

1942: February 18, FS Surcouf, a Free French Naval Forces submarine en route for Tahiti via the Panama Canal, sank about 80 miles (130 km) north of Cristóbal, Colón, after a night-time collision with the American cargo ship Thompson Lykes.

1945: December 5, Flight 19 (5 TBF Avengers) lost with 14 airmen, and later the same day PBM Mariner BuNo 59225 lost with 13 airmen while searching for Flight 19.

1948: January 30, Avro Tudor G-AHNP Star Tiger lost with 6 crew and 25 passengers, en route from Santa Maria Airport in the Azores to Kindley Field, Bermuda.

1948: December 28, Douglas DC-3 NC16002 lost with 3 crew and 29 passengers, en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami.

1949: January 17, Avro Tudor G-AGRE Star Ariel lost with 7 crew and 13 passengers, en route from Kindley Field, Bermuda, to Kingston Airport, Jamaica.

1963: February 3, SS Marine Sulphur Queen T-2 tanker carrying molten sulphur, lost with 39 crew near Dry Tortugas in the Straits of Florida, west of Miami.

1967: December 22, Witchcraft, cabin cruiser, 2 onboard, disappears one mile (1.6 km) off Miami; had called Coast Guard requesting a tow, but on their arrival 19 minutes later no trace found; possibly pushed north by Gulf Stream; search involved 1,200 square miles (3,100 km2).

9/11 fake Aeroplanes Proof

The September 11, 2001 attacks also known as 9/11 were a series of well planned, suicide attacks by al-Qaeda terrorists upon the United States. The aim of that attack was to destroy the US economy by attacking its one of the main centers for trade and commerce, the world trade center. On that morning, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners the they crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. It caused death of more than 6000 innocent people. Just after the attacks, all the TV and news channels were flooded with video clipping showing how this incident took place. Just this morning I saw one video series which showed how these videos were fake. Just I am sharing the first part with you.

Land Trading on Moon

If you are not aware of land trading on moon then don’t surprise. Yes, you can own a piece of land on real moon and even gift it to your beloved ones for the prices as cheap as $18.75 to $37.50 per acre, depending on location. A company called Lunar Embassy, which describes itself as “the founders and leaders of the extraterrestrial real estate market,” The Lunar Embassy was established in 1980 when Nevada resident Dennis Hope found a loophole in the UN’s International Space Treaty.

The loophole allowed Mr. Dennis to claim ownership to the Moon (along with the rest of the solar system, except Earth). Article VI of the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty, which was ratified and is currently in effect states:

“States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty. The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty."

“Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."

Hope takes advantage of this perceived loophole in the treaty. The Moon cannot be claimed by nations, but the treaty says nothing about individuals and corporations.Hopes registered a claim to the surface of Earth’s moon and the eight other planets and their satellites with the U.S. government. He also sent notice of this claim the Russian government and the United Nations. Although his notices were never answered.

The 1979 Moon Treaty forbade ownership of the moon — including by any individual — but out of 185 member nations of United Nation only six members ever ratified this Treaty. Countries like USA, Russia, China etc which are on the verge of getting to moon on commercial basis, did not ratify the Treaty and the reason may be because they will be restricted on the exploitation of land of moon.

John Pike, a space policy analyst at the Federation of American Scientists says, “The bottom line is, he (Hopes) can’t own property on the moon unless he’s got a government to back him up. No one is claiming sovereignty rights on the moon. And if any government did, I’d be very skeptical that any other government would recognize that claim.”

Till now there is no comments from government on Hopes’ venture. Whatever the comments and interpretation have come are from analysts and people who specialize in matters related to universe, celestial bodies and even law and policies. May be because the money involved in the trade is not big enough right now, governments and authorities are showing a very little concern towards this trading. Otherwise, even if the government can’t oppose Hope’s venture as owner of the celestial body, it can probably entertain a fraud case or a public interest litigation against the company.

Although Chinese authorities have shut down this scheme in China on charges of “profiteering and lunacy.”, Lunar Embassy is in the business of selling Lunar Property for over two and half decade and has served millions of customers around the globe. It has even granted the rights to a couple of associated websites along with the main website to sell lunar land to corporations and individuals.

Whatsoever be the legitimacy of this trade you will for sure make your loved ones happy by gifting a piece of moon. Even our Shah Rukh Khan was gifted several acres by an Australian lady on his birthday.

2 lakh Engineers are unemployed in India

Today our Labour and Employement minister, Mallikarjun Kharge declared in Lok Sabha that nearly 2 lakh (200,000) engineers and 1.32 lakh (132,000) diploma holders were unemployed in 2007. He also said Government is planning to create 15 million jobs by the end of 11th Plan in public and private sectors. This year the number of unemployed engineers and diploma holders is likely to increase heavily due to current economic recession. In 2003, there were 82,000 unemployed engineers in India and in 2005 the number rose to 1.12 lakh (112,000) and due to IT book it fell to 48,000 in 2006. This is really a shocking news for engineers of India. Also, this figure has put a question mark on the quality of education in engineering colleges of India.Let’s discuss one case study of a 16 years old 10th standard student of India.

I’m 16 years old studying in 10th class. My parents are pressuring me to be an Engineer it’s not even funny, lol. I try to reason with them and I really don’t understand why they think engineers are such “god-like” people, lol. I mean, I really love history and arts and can work well with money and finance and I like economics so I’m really interested in careers either in arts or commerce. I tell them all the facts of how I love these subjects, I tell them I love to do it, I’m good at it (I hate physics, chemistry. They don’t interest me), and I’ll be a lot better at something I enjoy. My parents say that getting an engineering degree will make my future secure. What the fuck?

This is common problem in Indian families. Parents put unnecessary pressure on their kids into studying and getting high careers. They want to make their sons or daughters doctor, lawyer, scientist, engineer so that they will earn high salary and have a top job in future. Now a day engineering degree has become the obvious choice of Indian middle class because of ever rising salaries and comfortable work environment for the engineers but in my opinion, parents need to see the interest and dreams of their children instead of forcing them to chase some mad rush of joining IITs, IIMs or NITs to become eligible for big MNC’s. If we allow our children to go for studying in which field they like they can do wonders.

There are some other reasons behind 2 lakh unemployed engineers in India.

Poor Quality of Engineering Education in private colleges and old Government Colleges — According to latest report only 25 % engineering graudates in India are employable, this means they can work in the industry and utilise their engineering knowledge. This is because of poor quality of education in engineering colleges. Government should take some steps to improve the quality of education in Indian colleges. Also the syllabus should be made par to the industry standards.

Entrance tests for Engineering colleges — Most of the students who join private engineering colleges have around 50 to 60% marks in their 12th standard. They also need not to face any entrance test due to plenty of private engineering colleges in Inida. Such students lack basic knowledge of English and Mathematics & Science. What should we expect from these students? Believe me more than 75 % engineers are not fit for industry. But we should not completely blame this 75 % engineers. Most of these students are forced by their parents to pursue career in Engineering.

So what you feel on this issue. Don’t forget to comment.

Kareena Kapoor in City of Lakes

It seems that now whatever our sizzling Bebo does, becomes a news of interest for everyone as she does things unexpectedly. Like today when she was supposed to shoot a romantic song with Amir Khan, for her upcoming film ‘3 idiots’, she is in city of lakes Udaipur. She is accompanied by none other than our chote nawab Saif Ali Khan to celebrate her 29th B’day. According to the sources from Udaipur, our chote nawab has done everything to make her love feel her b’day most special. She has been kept unaware of all these plans as Saif wants to give her big surprise. Well we all know how crazy is Saif for Kareena that she wrote her name on his hand enduring all the pain for her, so we can have a vague idea that what would this party be like.

Well for Saif it is double celebration as today is auspicious festival of EID as well. So Saif has all the reasons to be happy. Kareena is there for more than one reason as there is also shoot of Kingfisher commercial in which she is appearing.

It is being said that due to the postponement of shooting of her upcoming film ‘3 idiots’ , there gonna be a huge loss in monetary terms but nevertheless she left to celebrate her b’day. The decision to let her go and postpone the shooting involved Amir Khan as well who supported her. As last year as well she could not celebrate her b’day because she was shooting for the same film with Amir in ladakh. So for her this b’day celebration Bebo owns Amir a big thank you. ‘3 Idiots’ is based on a novel of author Chetan Bhagat and is being produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra with Aamir Khan and Kareena in the lead roles. The film has only one romantic number featuring super fit Aamir Khan and sizzling hot Bebo, shooting of which got postponed due to her birthday. Boman Irani, Sharman Joshi etc are other characters who will be featured in this song.

What a Photo.....................

How to download and install Windows 7?

Microsoft’s latest version of Windows is available for purchase. You can purchase Windows 7 from Microsoft’s official website. Unlike Vista, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 is much more focused towards its core functionalities. Some popular applications that have been included in earlier releases of Microsoft Windows, like Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are not included in Windows 7. Most of these tools are now bundled with Windows Live Essentials, which is a suite of freeware applications by Microsoft. You can find e-mail, instant messaging, photo-sharing, blog publishing, security services and other Windows Live entities in this package.

I will strong suggest you to upgrade to windows 7 because it is much better than vista and has better functionalites and features as compared to xp. Before installing windows 7, its is better to run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure your PC can run Windows 7, and then review the information below prior to buying or installing Windows 7 on your PC.

System requirements for Windows 7

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Windows 7 Price ::

Windows 7 is offered in both Upgrade and Full versions. If you’re running a genuine version of Windows XP or Windows Vista, then only you qualify for an upgrade version of Windows 7

There are three editions of Microsoft’s Windows 7

Windows 7 Ultimate (Full version price $319.99) (Upgrade $219.99)

Windows 7 Professional (Full version price $299.99) (Upgrade $199.99)

Windows 7 Home Premium (Full version price $199.99) (Upgrade $119.99)

If you use your PC strictly at home and for entertainment, Windows 7 Home Premium is a good choice. If you plan to do work on your home PC, Windows 7 Professional is a good alternative. If you want it all, get Windows 7 Ultimate.

TCS to hire 30000 IT professionals

Today, Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software company, declared that the growth in the 4th quarter would continue the momentum of the previous ones and that the IT industry overall would see an improvement in the number of deals in the pipeline. So the company is likely to hire around 30,000 software professionals in the coming fiscal. Mr. Mahalingam also said that the company will also give hikes to all its existing employees in the month of April. TCS is the largest provider of information technology and business process outsourcing services in India. It is a subsidiary of one of India’s largest and oldest conglomerates, the Tata Group.

“The growth is definitely there and we should stick to what we have said earlier, the growth momentum in the last two quarters will continue this quarter also but we have to see whether it will be better than those during the boom days,” TCS chief financial officer and executive director S Mahalingam.

New Teams in Indian Premier League

Two more teams have been added in the Indian Premier League cricket. Sahara Adventure Sports bought the Pune team with a bid of $370 million whereas Rendezvous Sports won the bid for the franchise for Kochi team, at $333.33 million. The minimum bid price, this time was fixed at $225 million per franchise, against $50 million in the first auction. So the IPL will have 10 teams from next season and the number of matches will increase from 60 to 94. The new franchises will select their players in September and October. IPL Chairman Lalit Modi said that the high sums involved in the bidding showed the tournament was recession-proof, and is striving to compete for size with the likes of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States.

“The IPL is recession proof. It’s all about building the eye balls and building the fan base, and we have been able to do that extremely well, our ambition is of course to become number one in the world in terms of sporting league.” Lalit Modi

Most followed User Accounts on twitter

Twitter is world’s most popular social networking and microblogging service. It enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are basically a text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Currently twitter has more than 100 million users worldwide. Many experts describe twitter as the sms of internet. Also it is the fastest growing website on internet. Twitter has a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent. Let’s see the list of most followed twitter accounts.
This is the list of Top Ten Twitter Users (Updated May 09, 2010) ::

Rank        Twitter         Followers        Following                             Updates


1          ashton kutcher (aplusk)                 4,866,141 471 5   ,360

2           Britney Spears (britneyspears)     4,853, 078 419,         427 374

3           Ellen DeGeneres (TheEllenShow)  4,584,089 31,601 1,987

4           Lady Gaga (ladygaga)                   3,923,493 150,885 342

5         Barack Obama (BarackObama)      3,900,088 728,773 689

6        Kim Kardashian (KimKardashian)    3,583,049 102 3,941

7       Oprah Winfrey (Oprah)                   3,502,742 20 116

8      John Mayer (johncmayer)               3,262,030 85 3,188

9     Twitter (twitter)                              3,154,677 222 726

10     taylorswift13 (taylorswift13)           3,154,173 46 711

Lady Gaga Bad Romance is now Most Viewed YouTube Video

A Music video by Lady Gaga where she performs Bad Romance has now become the most viewed video on YouTube. The previous video to hold this title was “Charlie bit my finger- again!“. Bad Romance is the lead single from her second studio album, The Fame Monster. The track was produced by RedOne and was inspired by the paranoia that she had felt while touring through the previous year. Lady Gaga’s original name is is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She is an American recording artist. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City’s Lower East Side. Her debut album, The Fame, was released on August 19, 2008 and rocked all the music charts.

Ten Worst Airplane Accidents in History

In an interview years ago, the novelist Kurt Vonnegut was asked how he’d like to die. And most of us, I suppose, occasionally play out our own deaths in line with some exciting script. “In a plane crash on Mount Kilimanjaro,” was Vonnegut’s answer. And if you think about it, there’s something evocative about that – a jet getting lost in the fog, smacking into the side of that big Tanzanian mountain. Is it the Kilimanjaro part, or the plane crash part? Or both? You’d be hard pressed to find people who think of airplane crashes as anything but the cold hard triumph of gravity over some hulking contraption, but frankly there’s a certain mystique to some of them. Not a morbid, bloody mystique, but something romantic.

Don’t miss the point, as none of this, of course, means a damn thing to the people who are unlucky enough to be killed, or their loved ones. It’s not the violence that makes the difference – the ascending G-forces or the body count. The mystique is a contextual thing – the event as a whole, and as we come to see it in retrospect. Not just plane crashes, but all disasters. If the Titanic sinking hadn’t had a mystique, it wouldn’t have been a blockbuster love story 80 years later. A boat hits an iceberg and 1200 people die – and somehow we make a love story out of the wreckage? The point here is its the event as a whole that causes trauma and leaves those grim painful memories for the lifetime of those who lost their loved ones.
Since overall number of fatalities is the standard measuring stick, one could argue the World Trade Centre attacks deserve top billing, as indeed some on-line aviation sites have ranked them. But here I am just discussing a few air crashes considering only the air casualties not the people on the ground.

1. March 27, 1977. Two Boeing 747s, operated by KLM and Pan Am, collide on a foggy runway at Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands killing 583 people. The KLM jet departed without permission and struck the Pan Am jet as it taxied along the same runway. Confusion over instructions and a blockage of radio transmissions contributed to the crash.

2. August 12, 1985. A Japan Air Lines 747 crashes near Mt. Fuji after takeoff from Tokyo on a domestic flight killing 520. The rupture of an aft bulkhead, which had undergone faulty repairs following a mishap seven years earlier, caused destruction of part of the airplane’s tail and rendered the jet uncontrollable. A JAL maintenance supervisor later committed suicide, while the president of the airline resigned, accepting full, formal responsibility for the crash and visiting victims’ families to offer a personal apology.

3. November 12, 1996. An Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane from Kazakhstan collides in midair with a Saudia 747 near Delhi; all 349 aboard both planes are killed. The Kazakh crew had disobeyed instructions, and neither airplane was equipped with collision-avoidance technology.

4. March 3, 1974. In one of the most notorious and gruesome crashes ever, a THY (Turkish Airlines) DC-10 crashes near Orly airport killing all 346 passengers and crew. A poorly designed cargo door had burst from its latches, and the subsequent depressurization caused failure of the cabin floor and impairment of cables to the rudders and elevators. Out of control, the plane slammed into the woods northeast of Paris. McDonnell Douglas, maker of the DC-10, which would see even more controversy later, was forced to redesign its cargo door system.

5. June 23, 1985. A bomb planted by a Sikh extremist blows up an Air India 747 enroute between Toronto and Bombay (with stops in Montreal and London). The airplane fell into the sea east of Ireland killing 329. Investigators in Canada cited shortcomings in baggage screening procedures, screening equipment, and employee training. A second bomb, intended to blow up another Air India 747 on the same day, detonated prematurely in a luggage facility in Tokyo before being loaded aboard.

6. August 19, 1980. A Saudia L-1011 bound for Karachi returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following an in-flight fire that broke out just after departure. For reasons never understood, the crew takes its time after a safe touchdown and rolls to the far end of the runway before finally stopping. No evacuation is commenced, and the airplane then sits with its engines running for more than three minutes. Before any doors can be opened by the inadequately-equipped rescue workers at Riyadh, all 301 people on the widebody die as the passenger cabin is consumed by a flash-fire.

7. July 3, 1988. An Airbus A300 operated by Iran Air is shot down over the Straits of Hormuz by the US Navy destroyer Vincennes. The crew of the Vincennes, distracted by an ongoing gunbattle, mistakes the A300 for a hostile military aircraft and destroys it with two surface-to-air missiles. None of the 290 occupants survived.

Things to Check before Buying a used Car

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car. I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object. Car is dream of every boy since his childhood but a few lucky ones get it. Buying a second hand car is a big gamble. Hence one should look for few important things before finalising his deal.

There shouldn’t be any rust on the floor
There shouldn’t be any rust on the doors as well as the boot.
The engine sound should be consistent.
The starter should crank the engine in one shot.
The steering should be firm and flexible with no sound in the steering column while turning the car either ways.
The clutch paddle should not be very hard. A hard clutch means the clutch plates need a replacement.
No major damage history. A little dent here and there hardly makes a difference but a major one can damage chassis of the car which is irreparable.
Always avoid buying a used car from Used Car Showrooms. These guys actually buy them at a very cheap price from the actual owners and the sell them after doing some paint job and refurbishing at a very high price to the customers. Beware of them. This is mostly true for the old Maruti Zen which has a high demand in second hand car market.
Before buying a used car make sure you take a word from a good mechanic and then bargain accordingly. Personally speaking used car is a waste of money because you don’t know the next day what niggle may arise in the car. But still you can minimize that risk by just keeping these points in perspective.

Roger Federer Vs Rafael Nadal :: A treat to watch

When we think of Roger Federer playing on clay we just can’t stop ourselves from thinking about his match with Rafeal Nadal. There had been quite a few arch rivalries like Pete Sampras vs Andre Aggasi, Bjorn Borg vs John Mcenroe but the one between Federer and Nadal has been the utmost interesting one in recent times. When both of meet on a court the quality of tennis they produce is simply outstanding and watching them play is a sheer pleasure for the fans across the world. Whenever you watch both of them playing against each-other you are guaranteed complete entertainment.

I just can’t think of doing anything other than deep sighing on every stroke they play be it forehand, backhand, serve, volley, lob or the clever drop-shot. Hats-off to the players like these that game has attained so much innovation and improvisation over the last decade.

One of the best memories that emerge before my eyes is the finals of French Open from 2005 to 2009 no mentioning that those finals were played between Federer and Nadal. Nadal was the winner in all of those finals. Federer has beaten Nadal only twice out of eleven career meetings on clay. Nadal beat Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final in an epic match that is considered by many as the best match of all time with a score of 6-4 6-4 6-7(5) 6-7(8) 9-7.
Okay lets discuss their game styles. Federer is the ultimate gentleman. He plays with a considerable amount of grace, finesse and touch. In a game that is mostly dominated by power he shows that it is still possible to outsmart opponents with skill and finesse. Federer plays with a combination of power and grace that has probably never before been seen in tennis.


On the other hand Nadal is robust to the extreme. He can intimidate an opponent with the sheer desire to win that he shows out on court. Nadal is all about muscle and guts. He NEVER gives up and plays every point as though his life depended on it. He is mentally maybe the best in the game.
When it comes to sheer natural ability he is light years behind Federer, but he makes up for it with desire and physical presence. His forehand is unorthodox, with the follow through ending up over his left shoulder instead of the right! But then again Nadal never cared as much about appearances as about winning.
Now we are again ready for a performance which will be a combination masculinity and elegance, stamina and graciousness. French Open 2010 is just starting to up the ante and as the tournament will progress we will keep our fingers crossed to see two of most the brilliant artist head to head in the finals again in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros.