Wen MySpace announced in July that it was adopting OpenID, supporters of the universal sign-on system hurrahed.
The number of “OpenID-enabled users” passed half a billion with the MySpace addition, says Bill Washburn, executive director of the OpenID Foundation. “It’s clear the momentum is only just starting to pick up.”
OpenID is the most visible and highly evolved manifestation of the “user-centric ID movement”—a system of near-universally accepted online personal identity management capabilities controlled by users, residing in a single secure place (either on the user’s machine or in the Internet cloud), and employed with a single click across the Web. Once it’s widely accepted, OpenID will let Internet users move from one Web site to another, signing on with a single, transportable login.
There’s one problem: MySpace, and most of the tech giants supporting OpenID, will only provide OpenID capabilities; none of them will accept it. In other words, you can use the protocol to create a single, transportable login to take your MySpace persona elsewhere on the Web, but you can’t use another provider’s OpenID account to log in to your MySpace account.
“It’s a one-way street,” says Bob Blakley, a VP and identity management research director at the Burton Group research firm. “It means they’re happy to create a risk for others by creating OpenIDs but not willing to accept risks other people create by issuing OpenIDs.”
The few companies that are making broader use of OpenID are doing so very cautiously. Microsoft’s Health Vault, for instance, accepts OpenIDs from two providers, based on their level of assurance and trustworthiness. Other companies are accepting OpenIDs from some providers, without publicizing their criteria.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Top Internet security trends of 2008
1. New Malware Variants or Families of Threats: Attackers have shifted away from mass distribution of a small number of threats to micro distribution of large families of threats. These new strains of malware consist of millions of distinct threats that mutate as they spread rapidly. The Trojan.Farfli, which was first discovered in July 2007 is one such family of threats that has exhibited these characteristics.
2. Fake and Misleading Applications: Fake security and utility programs, also known as "scareware" promise to secure or clean up a user's computer. These programs are installed along with a Trojan horse program, produce false or misleading results, and hold the affected PC hostage until the user pays to remedy the pretend threats.
3. Web-based Attacks: Trusted Web sites are the focus of a large portion of malicious activity. In 2008, Symantec has observed that the Web is now the primary conduit for attack activity.
4. Underground Economy: The Underground Economy has matured into an efficient, global marketplace in which stolen goods and fraud-related services worth billions of dollars are regularly bought and sold. From July 2007 to June 2008, Symantec researchers found the value of total advertised goods on underground economy servers observed was more than $276 million.
5. Data Breaches: The continued high volume of data breaches underscored the importance of data loss prevention technologies and strategies. With mergers, acquisitions and layoffs more common in today's economic climate, data loss prevention becomes increasingly important in protecting the sensitive information, including intellectual property, of a company.
6. Spam: "Two years from now, spam will be solved," said Bill Gates in 2004. In 2008, we were seeing spam levels at 76 percent until the McColo incident in November 2008, at which time spam levels dropped 65 percent. While antispam filters have become more sophisticated in the last year, and spam threats have emerged and dissipated, it is clear that spammers are not giving up the spam fight.
7. Phishing: Phishing continued to be active in 2008. Attackers are using current events such as the 2008 US presidential election to make their "bait" more convincing and employing more efficient attacking techniques and automations. Phishing tookits also continue to contribute to the problem.
8. Browser or Plug-in Vulnerabilities: Site-specific vulnerabilities are often used in association with browser plug-in vulnerabilities, which are useful for conducting sophisticated Web-based attacks.
2. Fake and Misleading Applications: Fake security and utility programs, also known as "scareware" promise to secure or clean up a user's computer. These programs are installed along with a Trojan horse program, produce false or misleading results, and hold the affected PC hostage until the user pays to remedy the pretend threats.
3. Web-based Attacks: Trusted Web sites are the focus of a large portion of malicious activity. In 2008, Symantec has observed that the Web is now the primary conduit for attack activity.
4. Underground Economy: The Underground Economy has matured into an efficient, global marketplace in which stolen goods and fraud-related services worth billions of dollars are regularly bought and sold. From July 2007 to June 2008, Symantec researchers found the value of total advertised goods on underground economy servers observed was more than $276 million.
5. Data Breaches: The continued high volume of data breaches underscored the importance of data loss prevention technologies and strategies. With mergers, acquisitions and layoffs more common in today's economic climate, data loss prevention becomes increasingly important in protecting the sensitive information, including intellectual property, of a company.
6. Spam: "Two years from now, spam will be solved," said Bill Gates in 2004. In 2008, we were seeing spam levels at 76 percent until the McColo incident in November 2008, at which time spam levels dropped 65 percent. While antispam filters have become more sophisticated in the last year, and spam threats have emerged and dissipated, it is clear that spammers are not giving up the spam fight.
7. Phishing: Phishing continued to be active in 2008. Attackers are using current events such as the 2008 US presidential election to make their "bait" more convincing and employing more efficient attacking techniques and automations. Phishing tookits also continue to contribute to the problem.
8. Browser or Plug-in Vulnerabilities: Site-specific vulnerabilities are often used in association with browser plug-in vulnerabilities, which are useful for conducting sophisticated Web-based attacks.
Top 10 spyware/malware threats
Sunbelt Software, provider of Windows security and management software has announced the top ten most prevalent spyware and malware threats for the month of November.
The report, compiled from monthly scans performed by Sunbelt's antispyware tool, CounterSpy, and its new anti-malware solution, VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.
The results represent the number of times a particular spyware or malware infection was detected during CounterSpy and VIPRE scans that report back to Sunbelt's community of opt-in users.
The top ten most prevalent spyware threats for the month of November are:
1. Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec 4.27 percent
2. Trojan-Downloader.braviax 2.89 percent
3. Virtumonde 1.88 percent
4. Explorer32.Hijacker 1.62 percent
5. Trojan.FakeAlert 1.42 percent
6. Rootkit.TDss.Gen 1.25 percent
7. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen 1.15 percent
8. Antivirus 2009 1.08 percent
9. INF.Autorun (v) 1.07 percent
10. Trojan-Downloader.Generic 1.04 percent
Microsoft asked to lay off over 9000 employees
Amidst speculation that software giant Microsoft is planning to trim its workforce to survive in a bad time, brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback suggested that such layoff exercises "would be a healthy move for the company."
According to a report in the Microsoft blog, Reback has suggested that layoffs at Microsoft would be "well-received" by Wall Street. A 10 per cent cut in Microsoft's work force would offset a $3 billion decline in the company's revenue, by saving about $1.2 billion a year in costs.
According to a report in the Microsoft blog, Reback has suggested that layoffs at Microsoft would be "well-received" by Wall Street. A 10 per cent cut in Microsoft's work force would offset a $3 billion decline in the company's revenue, by saving about $1.2 billion a year in costs.
That would amount to about 10 cents of earnings per share, Reback has reportedly suggested. If this statistics is any indication, the software giant with around 91000 employees in the payroll, may give the pink slip to over 9000 employees very soon.
However, Microsoft declined to make any comment on the issue. "It's totally a speculation, we we don't want to make any comment on that," said a Microsoft spokesperson in India.
"Moreover, the said blog has nothing to do with Microsoft and who hosts it is unknown. Since anybody can post comment on such a blog, it will not be right to comment on the issue," she added.
Economic Slowdown?
This has become a fancy word for the companies to use it for their selfish reasons.
Last week in a meeting, my company said that this quarter they have managed to book 150% more projects and last quarter they have had revenues of 30% more than projected numbers.
Today we get an email from the VP of HR saying that because of the economy slowdown, merit increases and promotions will not be given and a decision regarding this will be taken after March 2009 depending on the situation at that time.
2-3 hours after this, the PM sends another mail saying that we are having a lot of work which has to be delivered by first week of December so everyone will have to work at least 50 to 60 hours a week but in the time tracking system, enter only 40 hours.
At least on paper, Company has done well last quarter. This quarter, they have a good pipeline.
Still there will be no hikes or promotions. But we all have to work overtime which will not be tracked anywhere.
The company knows very well that the market situation is bad and the employees will think 10 times before quitting and as far as possible the employees will stick to their existing jobs. Company is exploiting this situation to their benefit now.
Its the same companies who were blaming the employees when the market was good that they don’t stick to one job and they keep changing jobs.
During bad times, when these companies treat their employees like this, the employees will return the favor to the companies when the situation is in their favor.
Is this a recruitment Fraud?
Dear Candidate,
Ref: Selection and initial response of your Resume online.
It is our good pleasure to inform you that your Resume has been selected for our new plants in Noida, Delhi and Bangalore. The Company selected 16 candidates list for Admin/Production Department as well as Company offered you to join as an Executive post in respective department. You are selected according to your resume in which Project you have worked on according to that you have been selected in Company. The Company is dealing in IT and Electronics manufacturing business in India .
You are selected according to your resume in which Project you have worked on according to that you have been selected in Company
Your interview will held on 08th of JAN. 2009 in Noida.
You will be pleased to know that Company has advise you in the selection panel that your Application can be progress to final stage You will come to Company corporate office in Noida. Your call latter with AIR Ticket will be send to you by Company HRD. You have to come with photo-copies of all required documents. First you have to deposit the (Cash) as an initial amount in favor of (Sony Technologies LTD.) for Rs 4250/- through any ICICI Bank Branch from your Home City to our HRD. Department’s head , Account NO- 02550151879 - Name of Mr.
Pankaj Kumar. This is refundable interview security. Your offer latter with air tickets will be send to your Home Address by courier after receiving the confirmation of interview security deposited in ICICI Bank. The TA / DA will be paid to all candidates by Company at the time of interview.. The Company offered salary for these post Rs.
25,000/- to Rs.65,000/- (HRA + D.A + Conveyance and other Company benefits. The designation and Job Location will be fix by Company HRD, At time of final process.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS BY THE COMPANY HRD.
•Photo-copies of Qualification Documents (Must) •Photo-copies of Experience Certificates (If any) •Photo-copies of Address Proof (Must) •Two Passport Size Photo-graph (Must)
The Job profile, salary offer, and date -time of interview will be mention in your call latter. Your call latter will dispatch very shortly after receiving your confirmation of cash deposited in ICICI Bank. The last date of interview security deposit in bank 29/12/2008 – Monday. We wish you the best of luck for the subsequent and remaining stage. You have to give the information after deposited the security money in bank to Company Direct Recuritment Email ID of wipro@dr.com (in favour of Wipro TECHNOLOGIES calling email ID).Your latter will be dispatched same time after recd. the Security Money deposited information by email.
Thanks
Mr. Rahul Gupta (Executive – HR)WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
IT Industry!
If only the IT chaps in this forum slogged out during the weekends on some fresh ideas stirring innovation in the IT sector instead of spending time in the bars and pubs, this situation wouldn’t have arose.
Our IT guys in India just made a quick buck when the ball was rolling by doing whatever they can, even if it meant copy+paste the programmes that were outsourced by some lazy souls from the west and now when the crisis arose, they are panicking.
Bally Technologies: Offer Letter withdrawing experience
This was my experience with Bally Technologies. Its a company having around 300 employees in bangalore and develop casino based games and systems.
I had one test and one round of interview and was offered a OK level package to me.
After 3 days they withdrew the offer telling that they are not OK with the joining time and some nonsense. They dont even bothered to compensate me or say sorry to me. I also heard that lay off is happening there and thats why they are withdrawing offers.
And they do it with absolute irresponsibility. One Manger will give go for an offer letter and the HR boss will ask to withdraw it. Guys who have their offer letter, be prepared for an offer letter withdrawal mail . Its better to stick on to your current company. You might get a rejection 1 day prior to joining the new company. I am not telling that Bally is bad company or work exp there is bad, but be cautious if you have Bally’s offer letter(It doesn’t even have the value of tissue paper).
Software to analyse employees’ e-mails on the anvil
University of California, Irvine (UCI) researchers are developing software to deal with cybercrime, one of the biggest causes of damage to a business.
The software will allow companies to flag up employees who are potential saboteurs, industrial spies or data thieves. It might also flag up whistle-blowers.
The move follows recent findings that at least one-third of cybercrimes affecting businesses are committed by insiders.
Now, 3D snowflakes on your desktop computer
A team of mathematicians from UC (University of California) Davis and the University of Wisconsin-Madison
(UWM) has developed a 3D computer model of snowflakes.
(UWM) has developed a 3D computer model of snowflakes.
Snowflakes grow from water vapor around some kind of nucleus, such as a bit of dust. The surface of the growing crystal is a complex, semi-liquid layer where water molecules from the surrounding vapor can attach or detach.
The model, built by Gravner and David Griffeath of UWM, takes these factors, as well as temperature, atmospheric pressure and water vapor density, into account for developing the virtual snowflakes.
Wireless worms may spread in the same manner as flu
Software worms may spread between Bluetooth-enabled mobiles in the same manner as flu viruses in humans, say researchers.
Christopher Rhodes, an expert on infectious diseases at Imperial College London, joined Maziar Nekovee, a researcher at BT's research lab in Suffolk, UK, to create a mathematical model to discern how a wireless computer worm could spread between portable devices.
The researchers involved a crowd of people carrying Bluetooth-enabled smartphones in their study. The participants had to move in a straight line, and at a fixed speed.
Now, a computer program that lets you "feel" the weather on the map
Climate researchers have developed a weather map interface that lets the user physically feel weather features.
Developed by Haptics researcher Cagatay Basdogan of Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, the new system involves a computer system that lets climate researchers "feel" wind speeds and other weather features on their maps using a joystick that simulates touching objects
According to a report in New Scientist, climate data is normally displayed as layers of symbols on 2D or 3D maps of terrain. For example, arrows of different lengths represent wind direction and strength, and colors indicate changes in air pressure.
Backup software: Necessary but not easy
Hamburg - 
That was the finding of a recent study by the Hamburg-based Computer Bild magazine. It tested six pure backup programs, as well as four security suites and two CD/DVD burning programs that offer data backup functionality.
Only one of the pure data backup programs earned a grade of "good." Of the remaining programs three earned "sufficient" and eight "unacceptable."
New ‘security patch’ software tackles major internet security breach
Computer giants like Microsoft, Sun, and Cisco are distributing new software to tackle a major security glitch in the internet addressing system.
The flaw was such that it could enable conmen to redirected internet users to fake webpages, even if they typed the correct address into a browser, and thereby trick them into disclosing their credit card details or other personal data.
Security expert Dan Kaminsky, who accidentally discovered the error in the Domain Name System (DNS) about six months ago, said that the case was unprecedented.
"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking," the BBC quoted him as saying.
StarOffice 9 available as free download - for Macs and PC
Kirchheim-Heimstetten, Germany - Sun Microsystems intends offering a beta version of its StarOffice 9 office suite as a free download. The company said the download would be available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Solaris operating systems.
StarOffice 9 will have about 1,500 new functions that weren't available with Version 8. New import filters should make it easier to transfer documents to and from MS Office 2007. The Sun Weblog Publisher allows blog entries to be published from StarOffice 9. The final commercial version is scheduled for release in October.
The computer helper: Vista startup and shutdown woes
Washington - 
Microsoft's latest operating system sometimes has users scratching their heads in confusion when, for example, Vista takes five minutes to boot up or wants you to re-learn a procedure for something as simple as shutting down your operating system or putting it to sleep.
Call it the price of progress. Whatever the reason, with a little know-how you can overcome any startup/shutdown blues and get back to concentrating on productivity.
Now, computer software that can tell age just by looking at your face
Women who’re not comfortable revealing their age should stay miles away from University of Illinois-developed computer software that reveals a person’s age just like humans do—by looking at his or her face.
The software, developed at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, could analyse an image of your face to verify your identity or run a commercial according to your interest.
"Age measurement is very difficult. If you use the face to estimate age we can really get the apparent age, or how old a person looks," Discovery News quoted Thomas Huang, the lead developer, as saying.
Palm Gets $100 Million Boost
Palm's attempt to become a significant player in the smartphone market again received a boost Monday as private equity firm Elevation Partners agreed to make a $100 million equity investment in the company. 
This investment is in addition to the $325 million the equity firm invested in Palm in October 2007 for strategic recapitalization, and it comes a few weeks before the smartphone and PDA maker is set to unveil its Nova operating system at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Once the U.S. leader in the smartphone market, Palm has stumbled over the last few years and is being outsold by rivals Apple and Research In Motion. While the Centro has been a hit and sold more than 2 million units, the company has posted six consecutive quarterly losses.
But Palm is optimistic that Nova handsets will help the company become profitable again. While few details have emerged, executives said the new OS will focus on the mobile Internet and aim at the "fat middle" of the smartphone market between the iPhone 3G and BlackBerrys. Nova handsets are expected to hit the market in the first half of 2009, Palm executives said.
In its favor, Palm still has a dedicated user base that has fond attachments to their Treo smartphones. Additionally, the company has shaken up its management to prepare for the Nova lineup.
But the company is facing many hurdles to become a player again. As the price of high-end smartphones like the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Storm dips, the "fat middle" may not be as fat as Palm needs to be successful.
Palm's greatest challenge may be getting U.S. carriers to support another operating system. The Palm Treo Pro was released earlier this year without a carrier subsidy, and despite positive reviews, it failed to sell well. Getting multiple carriers to support a new operating system could be tricky, especially as some carriers are looking to standardize on as few platforms as possible.
Dell Contracted For XML Networking Server
Dell has been hired to build a customized networking server by a software firm specializing in XML and SOA for large-scale customers.
Ireland-based Vordel said that it has contracted out Dell's Industrial Solutions Group to preload its VX software in appliances assembled in Dell's manufacturing facilities. Vordel specializes in XML applications that enterprises can use to govern their Web service usage and monitor service performance.
At the heart of the network server will be VX software, which is an option for both the Vordel XML Gateway and Vordel XML Firewall software. VX consists of Vordel's XML acceleration and parallelization software as well as VXA, on a hardened pre-integrated Dell server line. In addition to XML acceleration, the VX platform also features Web-based and command-line administration, cryptographic acceleration, and a RAID disk array.
"This is the perfect relationship between two leading players in their respective fields of expertise," Vordel CEO Vic Morris said in a statement. "We will leverage Dell's supply chain expertise and manufacturing infrastructure to enable the fast delivery of fully configured rack-mountable Vordel XML Gateways and XML Firewalls to support the growing demand for SOA appliances."
Vordel said it's hoping to use the preinstalled approach to build on its customer base, which includes Allianz, Badenia, British American Tobacco, Ericsson, European Union, Fortis, Mazda, Telefonica, Telecom Italia Mobile, and various government agencies.
The partnership also is beneficial to Dell, which is hoping to sell more pre-integrated software servers to augment its current enterprise-focused lineup.
"This announcement today with Vordel is another example of Dell's innovative approach of working with companies to enable them to achieve greater supply chain efficiencies, enhanced global support, and ultimately, offer significant value to their customer base," said Katherine Bennett, a director in Dell's EMEA Industrial Solutions Group.
Dell opened the European branch of its Industrial Solutions Group in June. The group has been targeting a range of potential customers in industries including medical equipment, network devices, industrial automation, safety, and security. The European gaming and digital cinema sectors, in particular, offer significant opportunities for Dell ISG, the company said over the summer.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Infosys offers 18,000 jobs to fresh engineers
he Infosys Technologies Ltd is on a hiring spree. For the ensuing fiscal year (FY 2008-09), it has made a whopping 18,000 job offers in about 1,000 colleges the country to take its total headcount to over 100,000, a top company official said here Thursday.
'We have offered jobs to about 18,000 graduating engineers in campus interviews conducted in 1,000 engineering colleges across India during the first two quarters of this fiscal. The offer is by far the largest ever by an IT firm in the sub-continent,' Infosys board member T V Mohandas Pai told reporters here.
'To meet our growing demand for quality human capital, we plan to hire about 9,000 freshers in the third quarter (Oct-Dec) and 4,500 in the fourth quarter (Jan-March) of this fiscal (FY 2008),' he added.
Beware of the Obama virus
Obama fever may have swept the world following the Democratic presidential candidate's historic election victory on Tuesday. But now millions of computer users are under threat from an Obama virus, network security companies say.
Authors of the virus are hoping to benefit from the huge interest in US president-elect Barack Obama, with an avalanche of spam messages purporting to offer news of his victory, the security firms said on Friday.
The message offers the viewer a supposed link to a video of Obama's acceptance speech. What it really does is direct users to a website that downloads a spy programme, which steals sensitive information from users' computers.
This information can then be used to access online accounts, steal identities and falsify credit card transactions. The virus also incorporates the victim's computer into a botnet - a network of computers programmed to perpetuate spam campaigns.
"The hackers are taking advantage of Obama-mania," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for SophosLabs. "So many people have been excited or interested in (the election), that they might be susceptible to it. We hope people are beginning to learn not to click on these things
Ants renounce sexuality to maintain social harmony
Highly specialised worker ants represent the pinnacle of social organisation in the insect world.
As in any society, however, ant colonies are filled with internal strife and conflict. So what binds them together? More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin had an idea and now he has been proven right.
Evolutionary biologists at McGill University have discovered molecular signals that can maintain social harmony in ants by desexualising them.
Ehab Abouheif, of McGill's department of biology and post-doctoral researcher Abderrahman Khila, have discovered how evolution has tinkered with the genes of colonising insects like ants to decide who gets to reproduce.
"We've discovered a really elegant developmental mechanism, which we call 'reproductive constraint', that challenges the classic paradigm that behaviour, such as policing, is the only way to enforce harmony and squash selfish behaviour in ant societies," said Abouheif.
Reproductive constraint comes into play in these ant societies when evolutionary forces begin to work in a group context rather than on individuals, the researchers said, according to a McGill release.
The process can be seen in the differences between advanced ant species and their more primitive cousins.
Ants - organised in colonies around one or many queens surrounded by their specialised female workers - are classic examples of what are called eusocial organisms.
"More primitive, or ancestral, ants tend to have smaller colony sizes and have much higher levels of conflict over reproduction than the more advanced species," Abouheif explained. "That's because the workers have a much higher reproductive capacity and there is conflict with the queen to produce offspring."
To their surprise, Khila and Abouheif discovered that "evolution has tinkered with the molecular signals that are used by the egg to determine what's going to be the head and what's going to be the tail, to stop the worker ants from producing viable offspring," Abouheif explained.
The existence of sterile castes of ants tormented Charles Darwin as he was formulating his Theory of Natural Selection, and he described them as the "one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to my theory."
World's first eco-computer made in Ireland
The world's first biodegradable computer, the iameco, has been manufactured in Dublin from bio-degradable wood panels made from waste products in the lumber and pulp industry.
During a visit to the company by Ireland's Minister for Science and Innovation, Jimmy Devins, the inventors of iameco, MicroPro Computers Ltd, said they could implant the seeds of native-tree species into the wood panels.
Scientist says he has found oldest spider web
The tiny tangled threads of the world's oldest spider web have been found encased in a prehistoric piece of amber, a British scientist said Monday.
Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier said the 140-million-year-old webbing provides evidence that arachnids had been ensnaring their prey in silky nets since the dinosaur age. He also said the strands were linked to each other in the roughly circular pattern familiar to gardeners the world over.
"You can match the details of the spider's web with the spider's web in my garden," Brasier said.
The web was found in a small piece of amber picked up by an amateur fossil-hunter scouring the beaches on England's south coast about two years ago, Brasier said. A microscope revealed the existence of tiny threads about 1 millimeter (1/20th of an inch) long amid bits of burnt sap and fossilized vegetable matter.
While not as dramatic as a fully preserved net of spider silk, the minuscule strands show that spiders had been spinning circle-shaped webs well into prehistory, according to Simon Braddy, a University of Bristol paleobiologist uninvolved with the find.
"It's not a striking, perfect web," Braddy said. "(But) this seems to confirm that spiders were building orb webs back in the early Cretaceous" — the geological term for the period of time between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago when dinosaurs and small mammals shared the earth.
Spider experts believe that webs were developed even earlier, but the delicate gossamer threads rarely leave any trace. Amber, or fossilized tree resin, can occasionally conserve bits of web — an earlier find in Lebanon was dated to 130 million years ago, according to Brasier.
Chandrayaan finds iron-bearing minerals on moon
The moon mineralogy mapper (M3), a scientific instrument of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) onboard India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, found iron-bearing minerals on the lunar surface, the US space agency said on Thursday.
"The mapper spectrometer has beamed images of the Orientale Basin region of the moon, indicating abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene. Using different wavelengths of light, the instrument has also revealed for the first time changes in rock and mineral composition," M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters said in a statement hosted on NASA website.
Data from the 7-kg mapper provides space scientists first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.
The Orientale Basin is located on the moon's western limb. M3 captured the data last week when Chandrayaan was orbiting the moon at an altitude of 100 km.
Embryonic stem cells from rats to speed up disease research
Researchers have derived embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats, a breakthrough that will enable scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a range of human diseases.
"This is a major development in stem cell research because we know that rats are much more closely related to humans than mice in many aspects of biology," said Qi-Long Ying.
"The research direction of many labs around the world will change because of the availability of rat ES cells," added Ying, assistant professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC) and the study's principal investigator. The finding brings scientists much closer to creating "knockout" rats - animals that are genetically modified to lack one or more genes - for biomedical research. By observing what happens to animals when specific genes are removed, researchers can identify the function of the gene and whether it is linked to a specific disease. "Without ES cells it is impossible to perform precise genetic modifications for the creation of the disease model we want," he said. "The availability of rat ES cells will greatly facilitate the creation of rat models for the study of different human diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, addiction and autoimmune diseases."
Israel Vows to Expand Gaza Airstrikes as Death Toll Passes 200
Israeli warplanes sent more than 100 tons of bombs crashing down on key security installations in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday, killing more than 200 Palestinians at the launch of an open-ended campaign mean to stop rocket and mortar attacks that have traumatized southern Israel.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Pros and Cons of Breaking a Job Bond
A guy was asked in his interview with TCS whether having a bond of Rs. 50000 helps in retaining employees, his answer was straight forward “jisko jaana hain woh to jayega hi, having a bond or not doesn’t matter”. The guy was rejected in the interview; perhaps he did a good to himself by not joining a company which forces employees to stay using threat means like bond. But the case for having a employee bond cannot be ruled out completely, if there are employers who believe in exploiting employees there are disloyal employees too. It is fair for companies, which invest a lot in training to have a moral bond. But in no case it should be used as a means to torture employees, if you have a bond with your employer but you are not getting any work (on bench) or you are not happy with your work, it makes sense to leave. If you cant work/live happily with your present employer, your productivity would be low any way, making your employer unhappy.
I don’t recommend breaking a bond but in extreme cases if you wish to, understand the pros and cons well. There are several pros and cons, which are related to breaking bond:
Cons:
1) The employer may chase you to court, I have heard Satyam doing so, Infy has quite good policies in this regard, and they may not trouble you much. Indian law does not permit Bonded Labor; the case can be fought on the basis of money spent on training by employer. Companies, which have big training batches, can go to court, they may lose the case, but it can cost your time and energy. Be careful, as some employers have started viewing breaking bond as a serious offense. It does put a question mark on your resume.
2) You may require experience letter and relieving letter, which you may not get if you break a bond. You can require experience certificate when applying for VISA, MBA or admission to any foreign university. If you go for a job it may not be required, but if a company asks for reference from your old company, whom will look for? If you broke the bond, you cannot have good relations with them.
3) Third reason is more of ethical issues/professional behavior, you get back what you give, if you chose to break the bond today, tomorrow when you start your own company, your first employee may do the same (you have already set an example for him). And it is better to have good relations with everyone, you never know what help you may need in future.
Pros:
1) You can break free from something you never wanted to do, you don’t have to work just because you have a bond, all this can act as positive boost. Very similar to what happens after divorce.
2) Your new company may be prove to be your dream company.
3) Be careful and preserve your offer letter and pay slips, it can come handy when you are asked to prove your experience, imagine during an interview you are asked why the gap is there in your resume.
Gracesoft Grace Software Inc
The company is really good even it is a small organization. I worked there for 2 years and had a very good experience. Managers who are in US are really really good. There are many chances to learn a lot and show our hidden talents.
Mistakes on a resume joke
These are from actual resumes:
“Personal: I’m married with 9 children. I don’t require prescription drugs.
“I am extremely loyal to my present firm, so please don’t let them know of my immediate availability.”
“Qualifications: I am a man filled with passion and integrity, and I can act on short notice. I’m a class act and do not come cheap.”
“I intentionally omitted my salary history. I’ve made money and lost money. I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. I prefer being rich.”
“Note: Please don’t misconstrue my 14 jobs as ‘job-hopping’. I have never quit a job.”
“Number of dependents: 40.”
“Marital Status: Often. Children: Various.”
RESUME BLOOPERS
“Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.”
REASONS FOR LEAVING THE LAST JOB:
“Responsibility makes me nervous.”
“They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 every morning. Couldn’t work under those conditions.”
REASONS FOR LEAVING MY LAST JOB:
“Was met with a string of broken promises and lies, as well as cockroaches.”
“I was working for my mom until she decided to move.”
“The company made me a scapegoat - just like my three previous employers.”
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:
“While I am open to the initial nature of an assignment, I am decidedly disposed that it be so oriented as to at least partially incorporate the experience enjoyed heretofore and that it be configured so as to ultimately lead to the application of more rarefied facets of financial management as the major sphere of responsibility.”
“I was proud to win the Gregg Typting Award.”
SPECIAL REQUESTS & JOB OBJECTIVES:
“Please call me after 5:30 because I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.”
“My goal is to be a meteorologist. But since I have no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage.”
“I procrastinate - especially when the task is unpleasant.”
PHYSICAL DISABILITIES:
“Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep.”
PERSONAL INTERESTS:
“Donating blood. 14 gallons so far.”
SMALL TYPOS THAT CAN CHANGE THE MEANING:
“Education: College, August 1880-May 1984.”
“Work Experience: Dealing with customers’ conflicts that arouse.”
“Develop and recommend an annual operating expense fudget.”
“I’m a rabid typist.”
“Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain operation.”
Archive for the ‘Time Waste’ Category
Out-of-Office
Out-Of-Office” E-Mail Auto-Reply:
1: I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position.Be prepared for my mood.
2: I’m not really out of the office.I’m just ignoring you.
3: You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office.If I was in,chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
4: Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that,I may be promoted to management.
5: I will be unable to delete all the unread,worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 4/18.Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
6: Thank you for your email.Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
7: The email server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message.Please restart your computer and try sending again.’(The beauty of this is that when you return,you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).
8: Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queueing system.You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
9: Please reply to this e-mail so I will know that you got this message.I am on holiday. Your e-mail has been deleted.
10: Hi. I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me.Please wait by your PC for my response.
11: Hi! I’m busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don’t bother to leave me any messages.
12: I’ve run away to join a different circus.
AND, FINALLY, THIS ONE TAKES THE CAKE :
13: I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Loretta’ instead of ‘Steve’Follow These Facts Starting Today! Only for tech people
Always we should be in a position, like not beg. Before some one comes throw the papers on the face and leave the company. Learn technologies in a diversified way. Don’t be honest to the company regarding your next plans. never take ED loans etc and higher education schemes as they track it. Don’t keep in mind that your company is best and for ever you are going to work there. My suggestion is keep moving … Don’t share much of your knowledge with seniors and interacting HR people. A HR is always a HR end of the day. its not his fault. Dog is always a dog end of the way. HR people are more into coordination with management. Also they are acting a balance wheel for the engine. Next important thing is look for good opportunities. Please every body makes a point asking the time to join the company. and advise them to do all verification and then come back before you join there. these things no body follows. See when u want leave they tell 100 things. the same HR tell the other person who is joining the company to join immediately with out a proper time. Present scenario is , All the data bases are integrated as I i closely work with them. Please keep your documents clear. And please make sure u get every thing updated. Also never allow these HR buggers to ask you. 99% can b avoided only by taking time before joining. And also very clearly ask them I can not join the company until you verify and come back with inputs if u has any. If its a concern then u can tell and discuss. One thing is there…never leave hope. in this world millions of companies are there. So don’t worry. But I suggest at this point not joining Indian MNCS. this is my personal input however you may join. These companies are acting too smart on their own means proving Indians. Also some people believe in bucketing but reality is don’t you don’t have to catch some body’s ass like managers. Do what is required and leave. now a days every thing is established in to and with roots ..so no body can change so ..Don’t be in dream world. Jump companies, ..Take it easy. keep moving . see one company may loose , but other side always some body benefited company. so keep moving . when ever u get any doubt or talks immediately don’t wait till they come to you ..and say ur BG is not good or some thing else or project is closed etc or company is closed and leave… Bee smart in your own way. never keep much relation in deep. if you keep only you will the looser as they dont see affection etc . they work on numbers and if the numbers change to 000000…They will ask you to leave. also start other field like teaching etc. These feedbacks are not just written . I have gone through the most Top phase and tough phase…But i will never give up. Example: if some X says ..I have to leave ..I always make sure I will have XYZ to call me …Makes sense ….keep loaded your pockets before u decide any thing. Thank you . Have a wonderful feature ..Recession is made only by the companies to reduce the strength. All their works are done ..complete automation is done ..so they dont require us now. Keep in mind always they use us like tissue papers
What Indian Law says about Termination
Termination of Employment
Existing regulations require companies to obtain government permission to close an operation or lay off workers in firms with 100 or more employees (service-industry companies, such as IT firms, are exempt). The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 requires employers wishing to close an establishment to apply for permission at least 60 days before the intended closing date. If the government does not convey its decision within 60 days of the application, approval is deemed granted. A company can appeal against a rejection to the Industrial Tribunal.
Workers in an establishment that is closed illegally (that is, without approval) remain entitled to full pay and benefits. Dismissal for misconduct is allowed without notice under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1959. The Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 entitles workers to a gratuity of up to Rs350,000 after five years of continuous service.
It is usually difficult for large companies to dismiss staff. Retrenchments and layoffs require full explanation to and prior approval from the state government. (Retrenchment under an agreement specifying a termination date requires no prior notice.) The last-in, first-out principle is usually followed.
Compelled by mounting competition to cut wage costs or consider moving out of high-wage locations such as Mumbai (Bombay), several companies have resorted to voluntary retirement schemes (VRSs) or redeployment. Beneficiaries under an approved VRS of a private-sector company are exempt from tax on monetary benefits of up to Rs500,000Global Edge Placement Paper
GLOBAL EDGE Sample Question Paper Part - 6
4) Major Difference b/w Switches & Routers is
Choice(s) :
(a)No Difference between them
(b)Switches work in Data Link Layer & Routers in Network Layer of OSI model
(c)Switches divides the bandwidth across the various Devices connected whereas Routers Preserve Bandwidth.
(d)Routers have more intelligence than switches in routing a packet & able to adjust to the environmental changes Dynamically
5) Difference between a Hub & a Repeater
(a) Hub is used in Network Layer & Repeater at Physical Layer
(b) Hub & Repeater both are same
(c) Hub is a Repeater
(d) Hub divides Bandwith among various Machines whereas Repeater doesnot
Answers :
1) (c) Supports Muliple Protocols of two / more Different Networks
2) (b) 53
3) (b) BIOS ROM
4) (d)Routers have more intelligence than switches in routing a packet & able to adjust to the environmental changes Dynamically
5) (d) Hub divides Bandwith among various Machines whereas Repeater doesnot
1) The different stages of compilation are
a. preprocessor, compiler, assembler, loader, linker
b. preprocessor, compiler, assembler, linker, loader (ans)
c. preprocessor, assembler, compiler, linker, loader
d. preprocessor, compiler, linker, assembler, loader
2) Round Robin algorithm is used in
a. memory management
b. cpu scheduling (ans)
c. deadlock detection
d. none of the above
3) Multiprogamming is used
a. to maximize cpu utilization (ans)
b. to increase process execution time
c. to save memory
d. none of the above
4) Drawback in paging is
a. internal fragmentation (ans)
b. external fragmentation
c. both (a) and (b)
d. none of the above
5) Belady’s Anomaly occurs in which page replacement algorithm?
a. fifo (ans)
b. lru
c. lfu
d. none
1) a relocatable code is
a) portable code
b) code generated for virtual address
c) ready to run anywhere in memory
d) both b & c (ans)
2) Memory management unit(MMU)
a) is software
b) hardware
c) both a & b (ans)
d) none
3) C is a
a) low level language
b) high level language
c) middle level language (ans)
d) portable language
4) symbol table used for
a)preprocessing
b)generating machine code
c)resolving external references
d)both b & c (ans)
e) none
5)dispatcher is used in
a)memory management
b)deadlock
c)scheduling (ans)
d)none
6) use of virtual memory
a) to support executables larger than memory size (ans)
b) to increase speed of execution
c) both
d) none
Computer Concepts
1 spooling is the acronym for
(a) simultaneous processors operation online
(b) simultaneous peripheral operation online
(c) simultaneous peripheral operation over line
(d) simultaneous processor online operation
Ans : (b)
2 Telnet is
(a) Application layer protocol
(b) Network Layer protocol
(c) used by Link Layer for sending frames
(d) None of the above
Ans : (a)
3 socket in network programming is
(a) an electrical device
(b) IPC
(c) synchronization tool
(d) Network layer protocol
Ans : (b)
4 DMA stands for
(a) Direct Memory Access
(b) Directional Momentary Acess
(c) Directional Major device Access
(d) Direct Minor device Access
Ans : (a)
5 Linux
(a) has hierarchical file system
(b) has FAT
(c) treats peripheral devices as files
(d) both (a) & (c)
Ans : (d)
1. in case memory maped i/o which one is not true
a. there a is seperate address space for i/o operation
b. special instruction are used for i/o data transfer
c. memory address may overlap
d. none of the above.
Ans : a
Never Work For Satyam
SATYAM FIRING PEOPLE IS 500% TRUE
Please find my real case:
they follow a very stragic way to fire people when ever they want to fire the employees. The most risky company in INDIA. Every month atleast 100 to 500 people are thrown out with a single day notice. Imagine If you dont have a project or doller dipping states ..SATYAM have to close if the dollar becomes 32 however they are try to expand the bussiness in other areas as well very fast to catch up the tasks. They will ask the bank staements of complete tenure starting the day u join the company lets take last five years or 7 years to pull some body out of company if not required for the project saying your BG is RED and please justify. also they check every thing the day u started the employment to some how to catch a person. Satyam fired 560 this month from hyderabad giving BG RED . real genuine experience people also were fired saying BG RED and people are literally suffereing. My sincere suggestion is better find a secured company rather depending purely clients and revenue rather. start serching jobs rather , or you will also be one like me who lost job even after having 5 years of real time. The most unsecure company. before the dollar falls …please get out of the places like satyam…..
i can say ..you people will learn a lesson for playing with employees
And they will be fireing more 1500 people, in the month october, november, i Herebly Request with the not work for satyam, and plaease never apply for that company.
Wipro Fresher Policies
If someone joins Wipro, they keep 1 yr in the probation. During the probation period, employee can’t take any leave. If any leave taken then it will be deducted from 2nd year leave. They don’t mention such thing in offer letter. So, 1st year employees work for 13 months comparison to 12 months of other company. Even working hour is around 10 hrs which is against labour law.
After completion of 1 yrs, also not permanent, they may say at any time to go, then why they have kept probabation period. They said many employees to go as in their place they are going to keep WASE student who does the work of employees with mere Rs. 5000-6000 just for the sake of advance degree. WASE people are totally freshers and not aware about any technology.
Sun Microsystems to cut 6,000 jobs
Sun Microsystems Inc plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs as the company tries to cope with plunging sales of server computers to financ
ial firms, market-share losses to bigger competitors, and a spiraling stock price.
ial firms, market-share losses to bigger competitors, and a spiraling stock price.
The reduction, which will eliminate as much as 18 per cent of the staff, will shave $700 million to $800 million from annual expenses, Sun said in an e-mailed statement. The moves will cost as much as $600 million in the next 12 months.
The Santa Clara, California-based company is cutting back in response to “global economic realities,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz said. Sun, the fourth-largest server maker, last month posted its second loss in three quarters and said its financial-services customers were curbing orders until they have more liquidity.
“We see the level of concern spreading around the world,” Schwartz said in a telephone interview. “Customers are saying, `I am in pain, and I need budget relief.”’
He sees that as a chance to spread adoption of Sun’s MySQL open-source database applications and Java programming language, which are free. Sun sells servers and service contracts with the software. To take advantage of the opportunity, Sun said it will reorganise its software business. Rich Green, executive vice president for software, will leave.
Sun, down 77 per cent this year before today, rose 4 cents to $4.12 at 4 pm on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A high-flier in the dot-com era — Sun traded at $257.25 in September 2000 — the stock has been under $5 for two weeks.
Valley hurting
Sun is the third company in Santa Clara, at the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, to cut jobs this week as technology companies cope with the worst sales slump since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Applied Materials Inc, the largest maker of chip-production machinery, announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs, and mobile-phone chip builder National Semiconductor Corp said it will shed about 5 per cent of its staff.
The Sun job cuts will take place worldwide, with most of the US positions eliminated in the third fiscal quarter, spokeswoman Kristi Rawlinson
said. The company had about 33,000 employees at the end of September.
Schwartz has spent two years overhauling Sun, which posted five years of losses under former CEO Scott McNealy. The company continues to lose market share in servers, the computers that run corporate networks and account for almost half of revenue. Last quarter Sun had a $1.45 billion expense to write down the value of acquisitions.
No leadership change
“There might be a little disappointment today, not in the numbers, but in that you didn’t get a change in leadership announced along with those job cuts,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon.
Five analysts recommend selling Sun shares, four suggest buying them, and 12, including Bracelin, have “hold” ratings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Southeastern Asset Management, based in Memphis, Tennessee, increased its stake to 21 percent of Sun’s outstanding stock last month and said it intended to be more active in corporate governance and management. Relational Investors LLC, run by activist investor Ralph Whitworth, disclosed that it held 5.88 million Sun shares as of June 30.
KKR investment
In January 2007, an investment fund owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co bought $700 million of Sun’s convertible notes. James H Greene Jr, a KKR general partner, has been on Sun’s board since January of this year.
“Sun’s actions announced today, while very difficult for employees, bring the company’s cost structure more in line with its revenue,” Greene
said in a statement released by Sun. “Based on Sun’s enhanced product portfolio, including a broad open-source offering, we have encouraged them to pursue a more focused strategy that builds upon these strengths.”
Worldwide technology spending in 2009 will grow less than predicted, research firm IDC said this week, and computer-related companies are trimming forecasts. Intel Corp slashed $1 billion from its fourth-quarter sales goal two days ago.
Spending industrywide will rise 2.6 per cent next year, down from an estimate of 5.9 per cent, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said. Growth in the US will probably slow to 0.9 per cent, less than a quarter the pace IDC forecast in August.
Dire situation
Sales at Sun fell 11 per cent to $1.76 billion in the period ended Sept 28. Server revenue declined 15 per cent, and dropped in every region except for emerging markets.
Sun trails International Business Machines Corp, Hewlett- Packard Co and Dell Inc in servers. In the calendar second quarter, Sun’s share of the $13.8 billion market dropped to 11.8 per cent from 13.4 per cent a year earlier, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm Gartner Inc Sun’s revenue fell in the period, while IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard all gained.
The company is struggling to sell its highest-priced servers and many of its recent orders have been for low-end systems, according to Dan Olds, a Gabriel Consulting Group analyst in Beaverton, Oregon.
Louis Miscioscia, a Boston-based analyst at Cowen & Co, said results have been disappointing for seven straight quarters. He compared Sun to a comatose patient.
“You’re hooked up to the machine, everything’s going to keep working because your body is still there, but are you ever going to see that comeback?” he said. “You might be around for 40 more years before you die. That’s the situation.”
Ford lays off 30 executives in Philippines
The Philippine branch of Ford Motor Co has laid off 30 executives in a cost-cutting measure in the face of the global financial turmoil, a company official was cited as saying Monday.
Ford Philippines group president Rick Baker was quoted in the Manila Standard newspaper as saying the lay-offs, which include three vice-presidents, were equivalent to 15 percent of the company’s corporate workforce in the Philippines.
The move affects both Ford Philippines and its affiliate Mazda Philippines, the newspaper said.
Ford and Mazda will save five to seven million pesos (102,400 to 143,560 dollars) a year through the retrenchment, said Baker.
“We are implementing this realignment to have a much leaner and efficient workforce,” Baker was quoted as saying. Executives of Ford Philippines will now also share responsibilities with the Mazda affiliate, the report said. Officials of Ford Philippines could not be contacted for comment.
Satyam Computers chief Ramalinga Raju resigns
Early on Tuesday, there were unconfirmed reports that Satyam Computers founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju had resigned from the board.
The reports also suggested that Mr Raju had put in his papers and that he was awaiting the company board’s decision on the issue. When contacted, a Satyam spokesperson said: “We are still awaiting news from the management. We will let you know once there is an announcement to make.”
Incidentally, a Satyam board meeting is scheduled for December 29. According to analysts, Mr Raju’s resignation wouldn’t make much of a difference to investors. “He is not to be blamed alone…the responsibility lies with the entire board. It was a unanimous decision and this board is in no place to decide on the issue,” said Prabhudas Leeladhar analyst Apurva Shah.
The resignation of the chairman, who is also the promoter of the company, could raise issues of succession, which is far greater than him quitting, Mr Shah added.
Shares of Satyam were down 8.5% to Rs 148.60 on the BSE in intra day trading. The company’s shares have seen severe beating ever since the company board pushed through a decision to buy out two subsidiaries belonging to the promoters’ family. The Satyam board had to later reverse this decision following strong opposition from investors and shareholdersSatyam barred from doing business with World Bank
The World Bank has barred India’s Satyam Computer from doing business with it for eight years on the charges of data theft, a Bank official said on Tuesday.
“The information is true… quotes about the World Bank on Fox News channel are correct,” the Bank’s spokesperson in India said when asked about the US media reports on the debarment.
The development comes at a time when the company is facing a probe back home over an abortive acquisition deal involving two firms promoted by Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju’s family.
The World Bank debarment — the harshest sanction the world’s largest anti-poverty agency has imposed on any company since 2004 — was meted out for “improper benefits to bank staff” and “lack of documentation on invoices,” said a Fox News report, quoting Robert Van Pulley, the top World Bank information security official.
Satyam had announced a USD 1.6 billion deal to acquire two firms — Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties — promoted by Raju’s family and withdrew it within hours after shareholders’ dissent.
This was followed by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India and the government saying that it would look into the matter. Months after “stonewalling and denying” reports that Satyam has been barred from doing any business with the bank
for eight years, a top World Bank official has admitted that Satyam — one of its technology vendors — was barred in February and the ban has already started in September, the Fox News report said.
The report added that Van Pulley made the comments about Satyam debarment in a meeting and two telephone conversations with officials of the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a 30-year-old whistle-blowing organisation based in
Washington.
In a conversation with GAP, Van Pulley also admitted that the Satyam case had been turned over to the US justice department in 2006 as well as to the US treasury dept, the
report added.
“It is not known if a case against Satyam or World Bank officials is being pursued by either government agency,” it said, adding that Van Pulley is also in charge of the bank’s
procurement department, where he oversaw the Satyam contract.
“From 2003 through 2008… the World Bank paid Satyam hundreds of millions of dollars to write and maintain all the software used by the bank throughout its global information network, including its back-office operations. That involved overseeing data that ranges from accounting and personnel records to trust funds administered for many of the world’s richest nations.
“But at the same time, Satyam was straying badly across the bank’s ethical warning lines. In 2005, the bank’s chief information officer, Mohamed Muhsin, was ousted after being accused of improperly buying preferential stock options from Satyam, even as he awarded the firm major contracts.
A top-secret investigation led to Muhsin being banned permanently from the bank in January 2007. But for reasons that remain unclear, Satyam was allowed to remain in control of the bank’s information network until early October 2008,” the report added.
Fox News further quoted securities lawyers as saying that “the debarment by the World Bank, one of Satyam’s largest and most important customers, should have been announced by the company to its shareholders immediately and also filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Quoting sources, the report said that one of the worst breaches apparently occurred last April in the network of the bank’s super-sensitive treasury unit, which manages 70 billion dollars in assets for 25 clients including the central banks of some countries.
“…bank investigators had discovered that spy software had been covertly installed on workstations inside the bank’s Washington headquarters allegedly by one or more contractors from Satyam,” Fox News said.
According to the report, Zoellick reportedly told his deputies, “I want them off the premises now”. But at the urging of the bank’s then-chief information officer, Satyam employees remained at the bank through early October while it engaged in a “knowledge transfer” with two new contractors, it noted.
The report pointed out that in discussions with GAP’s officials Thursday, Van Pulley denied that Satyam was behind any of the bank’s security breaches.
“I am not in a position to tell you,” adding that “we’re confident” it wasn’t Satyam, the report said quoting Van Pulley.
Michael Jackson Dying?
s the King of Pop, Michael Jackson dying from a rare lung disease called Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency? According to the author of Michael Jackson's biography, the answer is in the affirmative. Ian Halperin tells Touch Magazine that Jackson has had the disease for four years and desperately needs a lung transplant.
Ian Halperin tells In Touch Magazine of the disease: "He's had it for years, but it's gotten worse."
"He needs a lung transplant but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has
emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping. It's the bleeding that is the most problematic part."
"It could kill him."
Halperin also revealed that 50-year-old Jackson "can barely speak" and his vision is suffering: "The vision in his left eye is 95 percent gone."
Michael was involved in several molestation accusations over the years but was never convicted on any charges.
Sex chip' being developed by scientists
The chip works by sending tiny shocks from implanted electrodes in the brain.
The technology has been used in the United States to treat Parkinson's disease.
But in recent months scientists have been focusing on the area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex - this is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.
A research survey conducted by Morten Kringelbach, senior fellow at Oxford University's department of psychiatry, found the orbitofrontal cortex could be a "new stimulation target" to help people suffering from anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from such activities. His findings are reported in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience journal.
Neurosurgery professor Tipu Aziz, said: "There is evidence that this chip will work. A few years ago a scientist implanted such a device into the brain of a woman with a low sex drive and turned her into a very sexually active woman. She didn't like the sudden change, so the wiring in her head was removed."
He added however that the current technology, which requires surgery to connect a wire from a heart pacemaker into the brain, can cause bleeding and is "intrusive and crude".
He continued: "When the technology is improved, we can use deep brain stimulation in many new areas. It will be more subtle, with more control over the power so you may be able to turn the chip on and off when needed.
"In 10 years' time the range of therapies available will be amazing – we don't know half the possibilities yet."
An electronic machine, named the Orgasmatron, taken from the 1973 Woody Allen film Sleeper, is already under development by a North Carolina doctor, who is modifying a spinal cord stimulator to produce pleasure in women.
Man Leaves Child In Freezing Car While He Visits Teen Girl
A 22-year-old Montana man has been arrested after his 4-year-old daughter was left in a car for hours in below-zero temperatures.Jeramey Sheeler, of Vaughn, Mont., faces a charge of criminal endangerment. Great Falls Police Lt. Jack Allen says Sheeler left his sleeping daughter in a Jeep parked on the street early Saturday while he went inside a house to visit a 13-year-old girl.When the 4-year-old woke up, she got out of the vehicle and starting going house-to-house, knocking on doors at 2 a.m. Someone let her in and then called police. The temperature outside at the time was about 14 degrees below zero, according to the Great Falls Police Department. Police found Sheeler at the house next door. The girl who lived there told police that she and Sheeler were in bed together, but nothing sexual happened. Police believe Sheeler left his daughter in the unheated car for about two hours.Police officers said they also found a pipe with marijuana residue on the center console of Sheeler's Jeep. Sheeler is charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia as a result.Officers say the 4-year-old girl is OK and was released to her mother. Sheeler was ordered not to have contact with his daughter, if he makes the $30,000 bond.
comments 4 Pope Benedict XVI Wants to Save Humanity From Homosexuality
Pope Benedict XVI has likened saving humanity from the ravages of gays and transsexuals to saving the rain forests from the ravages of man. “(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed,” the pontiff said to the Vatican inner council known as the Curia. He believes that the rain forests deserve protection.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful, while not calling being homosexual sinful. However, the Church believes that homosexuality is “a deviation, an irregularity, a wound.”
This is actually a far cry from the ancient teachings of the Catholic Church. The Church use to put homosexuals to death if they so much as even looked passionately at someone of the same sex. In one town in Germany, the Catholic Church pursued, castrated, and then stoned to death two gay men back before the Reformation. Being homosexual was not only sinful, it was condemned. Among the victims of the Inquisition were homosexuals. They were tortured and executed along side any witches, Jews, Muslims, and heretics that the Church couldn’t “convert.” Typically, conversion involved dying horribly during torture or buying one’s way out.
This is, of course, a rather simplified account of the Inquisition. Of course, Pope Benedict use to be head of the remnants of the Inquisition.
It should be noted that the Catholic Church’s view of environmentalism was not always so broad either. Until recently, the Catholic Church all but encouraged the rampant decimation of the Earth’s natural resources.
The Catholic Church is returning to its hardline views on various issues in large part because of they feel that the modern world is threatening to them. Again. The Inquisition was a response to attempts to reform the Catholic Church by priests within its ranks. Instead of hearing out the reformers, the Church split. This lead to numerous religious wars as first England, then Germany and other nations broke from the Church to chart their own courses. Ultimately, these wars lead to the creation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which protected churches from government intrusion, and government from religious intrusion, and allowed all peoples to pray to which ever deity they chose.
The Catholic Church today is under fire from the Left by changing views in the developed world such as in Europe, the US, and Canada, and from the Right by hard line Evangelicals who are siphoning off believers. Many Latin Americans are drifting towards the Protestant religions because of their views on contraception and birth control, and many in Europe and North America are drifting away from the Church due to more modern views on religion. They are having a hard time recruiting new priests from the Western world due to the restrictions on priests.
However, rather than modernizing, the Catholic Church has decided to dig in their heels and try very, very hard to avoid dying out entirely despite the fact that they are slowly dying out.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful, while not calling being homosexual sinful. However, the Church believes that homosexuality is “a deviation, an irregularity, a wound.”
This is actually a far cry from the ancient teachings of the Catholic Church. The Church use to put homosexuals to death if they so much as even looked passionately at someone of the same sex. In one town in Germany, the Catholic Church pursued, castrated, and then stoned to death two gay men back before the Reformation. Being homosexual was not only sinful, it was condemned. Among the victims of the Inquisition were homosexuals. They were tortured and executed along side any witches, Jews, Muslims, and heretics that the Church couldn’t “convert.” Typically, conversion involved dying horribly during torture or buying one’s way out.
This is, of course, a rather simplified account of the Inquisition. Of course, Pope Benedict use to be head of the remnants of the Inquisition.
It should be noted that the Catholic Church’s view of environmentalism was not always so broad either. Until recently, the Catholic Church all but encouraged the rampant decimation of the Earth’s natural resources.
The Catholic Church is returning to its hardline views on various issues in large part because of they feel that the modern world is threatening to them. Again. The Inquisition was a response to attempts to reform the Catholic Church by priests within its ranks. Instead of hearing out the reformers, the Church split. This lead to numerous religious wars as first England, then Germany and other nations broke from the Church to chart their own courses. Ultimately, these wars lead to the creation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which protected churches from government intrusion, and government from religious intrusion, and allowed all peoples to pray to which ever deity they chose.
The Catholic Church today is under fire from the Left by changing views in the developed world such as in Europe, the US, and Canada, and from the Right by hard line Evangelicals who are siphoning off believers. Many Latin Americans are drifting towards the Protestant religions because of their views on contraception and birth control, and many in Europe and North America are drifting away from the Church due to more modern views on religion. They are having a hard time recruiting new priests from the Western world due to the restrictions on priests.
However, rather than modernizing, the Catholic Church has decided to dig in their heels and try very, very hard to avoid dying out entirely despite the fact that they are slowly dying out.
Open Lesbian Gang Raped in California
Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks," he said. "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."
A woman who’s only “crime” is being lesbian was brutally gang raped in San Francisco, California. She was raped off an on for forty-five minutes on 13 December. The attack began when four men jumped her after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow sticker, clubbed her with a blunt object, disrobed her, and began to rape her. When a passerby almost stumbled upon them raping her in the street, they bundled her into her car and took her to an abandoned building where the sexual attack continued until the men finally left her naked, and badly injured. Through out the entire attack, the men barraged her with homophobic epithets.
Obama pays tribute to U.S. troops
President-elect Barack Obama used a holiday radio address released Wednesday to remember the nation's troops serving overseas and average citizens at home who are struggling amid a troubled economy.
"Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty," Obama said in a recording scheduled for broadcast Saturday. "This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger."
"In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table," he said. "In distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child's face as they open a gift back home."
The president-elect has been getting daily face time with troops stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where he has gone every morning of his vacation so far for a workout inside a fitness center on the base.
He spent about three minutes shaking hands and greeting about 60 people gathered in a parking lot outside the fitness center on Wednesday, Christmas Eve.
"Hey, man, how's it going?" he asked one person, before wishing everyone, "Mele Kalikimaka," which is the Hawaiian translation for Merry Christmas.
Then, according to a media pool report of the exchange, Obama turned to some children and asked, "You guys got your Christmas lists all together?"
In the radio address, Obama said there is a need for collective sacrifice during this time of economic duress.
"That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship," he said. "Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans."
Obama said that is the spirit that will guide his administration.
"If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction," he said. "That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day."
The president-elect harkened back to an American moment more than 200 years ago when and his army faced steep odds to free themselves from the grip of an empire.
"It was Christmas Day – December 25th, 1776 – that they fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River," he said. "Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season – the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible."
"Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty," Obama said in a recording scheduled for broadcast Saturday. "This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger."
Obama, who is vacationing on his native island of Oahu, also talks about the missed memories of those away from home.
"In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table," he said. "In distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child's face as they open a gift back home."
The president-elect has been getting daily face time with troops stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where he has gone every morning of his vacation so far for a workout inside a fitness center on the base.
He spent about three minutes shaking hands and greeting about 60 people gathered in a parking lot outside the fitness center on Wednesday, Christmas Eve.
"Hey, man, how's it going?" he asked one person, before wishing everyone, "Mele Kalikimaka," which is the Hawaiian translation for Merry Christmas.
Then, according to a media pool report of the exchange, Obama turned to some children and asked, "You guys got your Christmas lists all together?"
In the radio address, Obama said there is a need for collective sacrifice during this time of economic duress.
"That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship," he said. "Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans."
Obama said that is the spirit that will guide his administration.
"If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction," he said. "That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day."
The president-elect harkened back to an American moment more than 200 years ago when and his army faced steep odds to free themselves from the grip of an empire.
"It was Christmas Day – December 25th, 1776 – that they fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River," he said. "Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season – the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible."
Atheist Sign Joins Nativity Scene at Wash. Capitol
The atheists' sign was installed Monday by Washington members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group based in Madison, Wis.
With a nod to the winter solstice - the year's shortest day, occurring in lat
December - the placard reads, in part, "There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
The foundation's co-president, Dan Barker, said it was important for atheists to offer their viewpoint alongside the overtly religious Nativity scene and -style holiday tree.
"Our members want equal time," Barker said. "Not to muscle, not to coerce, but just to have a place at the table."
The three displays, all privately sponsored, were granted permits from state groundskeepers to be placed in the Capitol's grand marble hallways.
The 25-foot noble spruce, officially called the "Capitol Holiday Kids Tree," is sponsored by the Association of Washington Business and tied to a charity drive for needy families. It's been a Capitol fixture for nearly 20 years.
Although nominally secular, the tree is clearly recognizable as a sign of Christmas: It's strung with lights, topped by a large golden star and usually surrounded by faux wrapped presents.
In 2006, a Jewish group sponsored a Capitol menorah, the candelabrum that marks Hanukkah. That prompted local real estate agent Ron Wesselius to propose a Capitol nativity scene depicting the birth of Christ.
The request was turned down, with state lawyers saying they didn't have enough time to wade through issues of government religious endorsement. Wesselius sued; his Nativity scene was installed in 2007 and again this year. No menorah is on display in 2008.
On Monday, the Nativity scene and atheist sign were installed alongside each other in a hallway between the state Senate and House chambers, separated by a large bust of the state's namesake, George Washington.
Asked whether he was bothered by the atheist display next to his Nativity scene, Wesselius said, "I think the Nativity scene will speak for itself."
But he added, "I appreciate freedom of speech and freedom of access. That's why they're in there, and hey - you know, that's great."
For now, the atheist sign is a stand-in. The metal plaque meant for display was delayed by a shipping error, Barker said.
Satyam to invest $1.6 bn in Maytas firms
Maytas Infra -- a listed company which is engaged in infrastructure construction and asset development and employs over 3,000 people. For the second quarter ended September 30, 2008, the company registered a net profit of Rs 17 crore on a turnover of Rs 354 crore.
Satyam will acquire 100 per cent stake of Maytas Properties for $1.3 billion (around Rs 6,240 crore) and $0.3 billion (Rs 1,440 crore) for the 51 per cent stake in Maytas Infra.
Satyam Computer Services, India's fourth-largest IT services provider, today said its board has approved the purchase of 51 per cent in Maytas Infra and buy out of Maytas Properties. The outflow for the deals would total around Rs 7,680 crore.B Teja Raju, the elder son of Ramalinga Raju, is the vice chairman of Currently, Satyam has $1.15 billion (around Rs 5,500 crore) in cash and equivalents. It proposes to acquire 31 per cent in Maytas Infra from the promoters at a price of Rs 475 a share and make an open offer for additional 20 per cent since the company is listed on the domestic stock exchange. The open offer price has been approved at Rs 525 a share and is subject to change in line with Sebi guidance.
Ramalinga Raju, chairman and founder, Satyam, said: "This would de-risk the core business by bootstrapping a new business vertical in infrastructure. This market segment can mitigate the risk attributes to developed markets and traditional verticals that are likely to get impacted by the recessionary economy."
Analysts, however, are not elated with the news. Many analysts tracking Satyam are trying to understand the logic of the acquisition, and are wondering "if the shareholder money is being put to good use in a downturn".
Giant snowman rises again in Alaska _ mysteriously
A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year _ despite the city's cease-and-desist order.
Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard in an east . Snowzilla reappeared before dawn Tuesday.
Powers is not taking credit. When questioned Tuesday afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened, again.
For the last three years, Snowzilla _ to the delight of some and the chagrin of others _ has been a very large feature in Powers' yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.
This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.
'Have you seen him?' Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. 'He's handsome.'
Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children _ he is the father of seven _ collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.
Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.
City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.
City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.
The mayor's office on Tuesday issued a statement defending its move against Snowzilla.
'This property owner has repeatedly ignored city attempts to find ways to accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood,' said the statement from Mayor Mark Begich's office. 'This is a neighborhood of small homes on small lots connected by small streets. It can't support the volume of traffic and revelers that are interested in Snowzilla.'
The mayor's office says Powers appears to run a large junk and salvage operation from his home. He has violated land use codes for 13 years, the city said. He owes the city more than $100,000 in fines and other assessments.
Powers said it is the city that has been difficult, not him.
'I have tried to jump through every goofy hoop they have sent to me. I have never been confrontational and it goes on and on and on and it is so goofy,' he said. 'Some of it is unfounded, some is just outrageous.'
The city said it did not expect to take any further action until after Christmas.
Military center tracking Santa's sleigh ride
The military personnel charged with being the eyes in the sky are certainly acting like he does _ and they've been joined on the Internet by millions of believers.
Even doubters have reason to pause when they hear the North American Aerospace Defense Command _ or NORAD, which monitors air and space threats against the U.S. and Canada _ is in charge of the annual Christmas mission to keep children informed of Santa's worldwide journey to their homes.
'They challenge it, but only to a point,' said Senior Master Sgt. Sharon Ryder-Platts, 49, who for five years has been a Santa tracker, taking calls from those wanting to know the location of jolly old St. Nick.
According to NORAD, Santa began his latest flight early Wednesday at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. NORAD points out that only Santa knows his route.
Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.
NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.
Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.
Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.
'Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'' said Van Keuren, 59.
Shoup, described by his daughter as 'just a nut about Christmas,' didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming 'Ho, ho, ho!' and pretended to be Santa Claus.
Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to 'locate' Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.
'If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa,' Maj. Stacia Reddish said.
The task that began with no computers and only a 60-by-80-foot glass map of North America now includes two big screens on a wall showing the world and information on each country Santa Claus visits. It took off with the Web site's 1997 launch, Reddish said.
Now, curious youngsters can follow Santa's path online with a Google two-dimensional map or in 3D using Google Earth, where he can be seen flying through different landscapes in his sleigh.
NORAD officials are hesitant to list all the potential sites Santa will visit with certainty.
'Historically, Santa has loved the Great Wall of China. He loves the (Space) Needle in Seattle. He of course loves the Eiffel Tower,' Reddish said. 'But his path is completely unpredictable, so we won't know.'
Ryder-Platts, 49, who has a 17-year-old son, said taking calls from children helps her keep her Christmas spirit.
'For someone like myself, my son is older, you know it just keeps you in touch with the spirit of Santa Claus,' she said. 'I miss out on that at home so this keeps me close to Santa. I believe! It keeps me in touch with other believers.'
Battle of Sexes
Rebelz are a bunch of software nerds, who, bugged with their daily rituals and monotony decided to break away. Break from the normal and step into the world of the abstract and the aesthetic… the world of musings with music, lights n smiles…. the world where dreams come to life on stage.
We are here to capture the minds & hearts of Chennai’s GenY with our tricks on stage and also to rediscover & ignite our passions away from our professions.
Our endeavor is quality entertainment and as a step towards that we have initiated the “Rebelz” Theatre group. Rebelz was formed to entertain people, to make folks forget their worries and spend time with us. What better way to do this other than Theatre?
We aim to put up English plays, which we can relate to and, unlike bland American adaptations, tell stories with a desi n spicy touch. We are a four productions old entertainment company creating at least three plays for public performances per year.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Indian girl killed in Sydney mid-air crash
Chandrika Gaur, an 18-year-old Indian trainee pilot in Australia, and her flight instructor were killed when their Cessna collided mid-air with another light plane over suburban Sydney.
Gaur, the daughter of Indian doctors, and her instructor Joanne Ethell, in her early 20s, were killed when their plane collided mid-air with a Liberty XL2. It was flown by Ken Andrews, 89, a World War II Spitfire pilot.
Gaur was unusually chirpy that fateful morning. Over a cup of coffee, she was joking about getting married and having children, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
"She'd been depressed recently because she hasn't been doing much flying," said the owner of a Bankstown Airport cafe, Eddy Omeissah, who had befriended the trainee pilot. "Now look how fate treats her."
Omeissah said Gaur was a charming young woman. "I made her a coffee this morning and joked around about getting married and having kids. . . She was 18, very pure, nice girl, very well mannered, from a privileged background," Omeissah added.
"Both of her parents were doctors in India. She was very quiet, subdued. But she had such a pretty face she'd get away with being quiet, you know."
"She didn't [say] she was going to fly or not [today] … There's a lack of aeroplanes there for the number of students, so they never knew when they were going to fly or not."
Investigators were at the crash site looking for clues to what caused the accident.
Pravasi Samman for Sunita Williams
ndian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams will be conferred with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conclave to be held in Chennai between January 7 and January 9, 2009. The award is considered equivalent to the Padma Bhushan given by Government of India and is given to outstanding NRIs/PIOs or nationals of other origin for their stellar contribution to the society in their chosen field.
However, Sunita could not visit New Delhi to receive the award, which was presented to her at the Consulate General of India in Houston on behalf of the Government of India.
The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has now geared up to tackle issues such as racial discrimination, ill treatment and abuse of expatriate Indian workers, human rights violations and provision of minimum wages, especially to those working in the Gulf region. The Ministry had made sure that the Gulf nations use fair labor practices and international labor laws to prevent exploitation, he said.
‘Indian Americans involved in Illinois scandal’
Several eminent Indian Americans are linked to the corruption scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama, a front page investigative report by the Chicago Tribune said.
Blagojevich was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Tuesday for allegedly negotiating with several politicians to nominate them for the Senate seat for monetary and material favour. He was let off on a $4,500 cash bond but the scandal has hogged headlines in the US.
Obama, who represented Illinois in the US Senate before being elected President, resigned after the elections. Under US laws, the state governor has the authority to nominate his replacement for the rest of the term.
Google’s 'unsung hero' set to join social networking group
Dipchand Nishar, an Indian American engineer who helped Google start its mobile business, is joining the social networking group LinkedIn to help it develop new products and strategies.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur and the University of Illinois, Nishar was instrumental in developing Google's backend infrastructure and was also overseeing the Asia Pacific market.
“The kinds of things LinkedIn is doing are truly shaping the way professionals work,” said 40-year-old Nishar, whose colleagues at Google have often described him as an “unsung hero” of the company.
He said he wanted to leave Google because he wanted to move on from the role of building “impactful products” to an “impactful company”. He will be vice president of products at LinkedIn.
“We wanted to find someone who knows how to build a large organisation, but also has an entrepreneurial background,” said Kay Luo, a spokesperson for the company, adding: “Deep fills that role.”
Prior to Google, Nishar worked for Siebel System, which he joined after he sold Pataki Networks, a web-based software integration services company, which he had founded. He was also associated with the Boston Consulting Group.
“We are grateful for Deep's contributions over the last five and a half years, and wish him well in his new job,” said Jane Penner, a spokeswoman at Google.
Backed by companies like Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, which recently raised over $75 million in fresh funding, is adding some 500,000 new members to its social networking site every week.
It has some 30 million users who use it to connect with friends, classmates, business associates and colleagues.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thinking about sex can make people sneeze
A bout of sneezing can give a lot more away than the fact that you’ve got a cold, says a researcher, who claims that going “atishoo” can also be triggered by sexy thoughts.
Dr Mahmood Bhutta, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, launched the study after seeing a patient who suffered "uncontrollable" sneezing fits every time he had a sexual thought.
Although his reaction was disbelief, Bhutta, a registrar at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, said that he decided to probe further on the Internet.
He scoured chatrooms looking for examples of conversations about sneezing and sex by typing both keywords into Google – and he had a surprising number of hits.
Seventeen people of both sexes reported sneezing immediately they thought about sex, and three had the same experience after an orgasm, reports the Daily Express.
The study has been published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Bhutta says: “I was surprised by how many people reported the same reflex in Internet chatrooms. I think this reflex demonstrates evolutionary relics in the wiring of a part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system.
“This is the part beyond our control, which controls things like our heart rate and the amount of light let in by our pupils. Sometimes the signals in this system get crossed.
“I think this may be why some people sneeze when they think about sex.”
Bhutta believes the bizarre response to sexy thoughts may run in families.
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