The following video will explain what I trying to explain.

Stanford’s StickBot in 2006

Stanford’s StickyBot in 2007

Lyn Verinsky is know as Gecko Woman since she was the first one to try Gecko Glove

For More eager reader (a lengthy video)

Professor Robert Full at TED Talk

For more of this better search in yahoo/bing/google!

All this problem will vanish once the new symbol is officially included in Unicode Character set. Then “Rupee Symbol” can be used everywhere: computers, mobile phones, internet etc. It will take 3-4months to include the symbol in the character set by Unicode Consortium. Until then this is good solution.

Usage

1. Download and Install the font

2. In office word use “insert symbol” option. Select “Indian Rupee” font and use the symbol.

3. Alternatively you can insert the symbol by holding alt key and typing 8360 in your numeric key pad.

Check more details at Raju’s Space

http://rajudasonline.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=793103837

Their Official Blog is http://blog.foradian.com/. The blog claims that “We have made the first font with support for Indian currency symbol.”

You can find wallpaper, updated foradian font version and how to use the symbol in different office versions.

Usage

1) Download the font (version 3.0)

2) Install the font

3) Open office and select rupee foradian font
Type the Rupees Symbol in Microsoft Word through the grave acent symbol (`)
(the key just above “tab” button in your keyboard. Below Esc button).

4) If you keyboard does not have the specified key then press “Alt” and type “0096″ (zero-zero-nine-six) on your keyboard.

More details about usage can be found here

http://blog.foradian.com/

Jithin Jayanath

The list is as follows

• What is a corporation?
• Birth
• A Legal Person
• Case History
  • Harm to workers – layoffs
  • Harm to workers – union busting
  • Harm to workers – factory fires
  • Harm to workers – sweatshops
  • Harm to animals – Habitat destruction
  • Harm to animals – factory farming
  • Harm to animals – experimentation
  • Harm to animals – rBGB / rBST / Posilac
  • Harm to biosphere – clearcuts
  • Harm to biosphere – CO2 emissions
  • Harm to biosphere – Nuclear waste
  • Harm to biosphere – Corporate paradigm
• Personality Diagnosis
  • Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
  • Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
  • Reckless disregard for the safety of others
  • Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
  • Incapacity to experience guilt
  • Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours
• The pathology of commerce
• Monstrous Obligations
• Mindset
• Boundary Issues
• Basic Training
• Perception Management
• A Private Celebration
• Advancing the front
• Unsettling Accounts
• Expansion Plan
• Hostile Takeover
• Democracy LTD
• Psycho Therapies
• Prognosis

Surprising facts

1. Birthday song is copyrighted and movie makers have to pay more than $10000 if there a scene where actors sing “Happy birthday”.
2. Rain water can be privatized. By 2025 2/3 of world will not have access to fresh drinking water.
3. First thought when 9/11 attack happened was “How much was Gold up?”
4. In 1991 the price of oil increased from 13$ to 40$ when US bombed Iraq which gives rise to a thought that with devastation there is opportunity.
5. Price attached to pollute Earth (air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution)
6. Research on how nagging’s Kids help improve sales
7. and more….

Movie Review

The movie was pretty much one side mainly targeting and portraying the negative influence that Corporation has on humans, nature and economy. This movie is a result of 7 years of research and hence the information provided gives a good insight to different aspects of how corporations act and react to circumstances.  On a final note this documentary shows the “Other side of the coin” which is generally hidden from public. Always it is good to know the other side of the coin but one should not form a biased opinion just by knowing the other side.

About Specific Gery Parrots

Alex has a yahoo group with 1400 hits. Sadly it passed at the age of 31.
About Alex. http://www.sciencenewsblog.com/blog/926071

Another parrot named Einstein is, a younger bird, aged 13 as of Jun 15th 2010. It is not birthday for them it is called hatchday. Einstein has a website, blog and a facebook profile

• http://www.einsteinparrot.com
• http://einsteinparrot.blogspot.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Einstein-the-Talking-Texan-Parrot/305606304589

Alex, Griffin, & Einstein

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Fpad20Zbk

Einstein at TED Talk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAp6X0zZfx0

I strongly feel Velupillai Prabhakaran might have used the worst scenario in the best possible way to bring a resolution between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. With Rajapakshe Government in Srilanka and Congress in India nothing progressive could have happened for LTTE in near future and with his declining army and resources the sensible act “Live today Fight tomorrow” would have been the only option. If he is known to have escaped then some might mistake him for a betrayer or a coward. To put a stop to these claims his son Charles has stepped up and given his life for the Tamils. Probably Charles might have tried surrendered(to buy time) but the always clueless Srilankan army killed him.

Without Prabhakaran it is hard to see LTTE rise again. Virtually LTTE is dead with V.Prabhakaran’s death and hence any good leader would have foreseen this scenario and planned accrodingly. It was not like Srilankan army outthought LTTE. To whatever we have seen in the news channels Srilankan army have always been clueless and hence the probability of Prabharan scripting an escape act is on cards.

Vellupillai Prabhakaran like many would have liked to see what progress can happen if he is (assumed) dead. Many felt if he dead the road to Tamils future will be open.

Many Singhalese who felt that Prabhakaran was the cause for Tamil’s misery would learn the truth now.

Currently, similar to Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan with Rajapakse of Srilanka I don’t seen any progress. Both hide many things (Mumbai attack investigation vs Prabhakaran Death claims) which are very obvious for many .

A way forward is possible only with new Government in Srilanka. The current term for Rajapakse ends by  November 19, 2011.  Another two years will be a long wait for V.Prabhakaran. Are we going to see another assasination? or A non-voilent effort? an effort to get LTTE removed from FTO list and join hands with American’s to seek a resolution!!!

Quotes

Dismissing as “engineered rumours” Sri Lankan government’s assertion that Vellupillai Prabhakaran had been killed in the fighting in the north, the Tamil Tigers have claimed that the LTTE supremo is alive.

http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/17662

http://www.nakkheeran.in/users/frmNews.aspx?N=8767

By Anita Pratap

Precisely because he is many things to many people, LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran’s death has been greeted with joy by the Sinhalese, grief by his Tamil supporters, and relief by many who hope his death will bring peace to Sri Lanka.
But is he really dead? I was sceptical of the first report, which said he was killed while fleeing the war zone in an ambulance. No way. Prabhakaran would not do something so idiotic. Remember, the Sri Lankan army told us that Prabhakaran and his cadres were surrounded in a tiny patch of land, less than 1 sq.km. The area was so small and so well surrounded that anyone coming out on a bicycle would be spotted and stopped. So logically, what chance would an ambulance have of sprinting past unnoticed? If he had to flee from such a tiny war zone, he would have scurried out through an underground tunnel.

And then came the picture of Prabhakaran’s corpse. The first question: if he was killed in an ambulance, how come his body was discovered in a lagoon? The picture looked fake. Top of the head was blown off, but the face was clear and the eyes wide open. Prabhakaran’s most distinguishing feature are his eyes, which seemed artificially wide, as if someone was trying to prove it was indeed him by grabbing attention to his eyes. It reminded me of the front-page picture of the terrorist killed in a shootout in Ansal Plaza in New Delhi a few years ago. I had said then that I found it hard to believe that the terrorist had died that way with the gun in his hand. I have seen innumerable civilians, soldiers and guerrillas lying dead in battlefields. They don’t look like this. Forensically, I did not see how it was possible that a guy involved in a massive shootout could die so perfectly posed. Subsequent investigations reinforced these doubts.

That is the same feeling I had when I saw the picture of Prabhakaran’s corpse. Far from setting my doubts to rest, the picture convinced me that something was fishy. The initial version was that soldiers had “shelled” the ambulance, which caught fire and was destroyed. If you pummel an ambulance with artillery shells or rocket propelled grenades, it will explode. So, if Prabhakaran were inside, his body would have been blown to bits. At the very least, charred. And when his dog tags and identity cards surfaced, the whole thing seemed even more of a set-up. Besides, Karuna’s and Daya Master’s identification of Prabhakaran’s body has as much credibility as a confession extracted in police custody. I am not saying that I know for sure Prabhakaran is alive. What I am saying is that this version of his death does not ring true.

If he knew there was no way out, he would not only have killed himself but have made sure his body was not found. There are two reasons for this. One, he is a keen student of military history and knows if his body were found, it would be desecrated by the victorious Sinhalese soldiers. All triumphant soldiers have done this through history. I can vividly recall the dead Afghan leader Najibullah hanging from a Kabul lamp-post, cigarette stuffed in his nose, body bloated and beaten black and blue by the victorious Taliban. I have seen videos of dead female LTTE soldiers being stripped naked and paraded by gleeful Sinhalese soldiers.

Prabhakaran is an extraordinarily proud man, one who believes he is fighting to restore the honour and glory of the Tamils. He will not allow himself to be desecrated. So not only will he swallow his cyanide, have his bodyguard shoot him to make his death doubly sure, but he will ensure that his body is blasted to bits, so that no corpse ever surfaces.

That brings me to the second reason why he would ensure his body was never found. Remember, one of his favourite heroes is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Even today, there are people who believe that Bose is still alive. The mystery and the mystique remain. If Prabhakaran’s body is never found, no one can be sure whether he is really dead or alive and the conspiracy theories will spin forever. Purpose served, especially if he is dead. I don’t think he was killed, more likely he took his own life. If I were to pick a day that he decided to commit suicide with his top cadres, it would be May 16.

In my last article published in THE WEEK (Crouching Tiger, May 3) on what I expected Prabhakaran’s next move to be, I had written, “He will be watching the Indian elections closely to see which dispensation takes charge in New Delhi. He will be watching to see if there is a popular upsurge of support in Tamil Nadu for the plight of Tamils across the Palk Strait. …He will be watching President Barack Obama who rightly analysed that conflicts stem from our perception of the other.”

On May 13, Obama urged the Tigers to “lay down their arms” and the government to stop the “indiscriminate shelling that has taken hundreds of innocent lives”. Tiger spokespersons said they were willing to accede to Obama’s request, but the Sri Lankan government refused to slacken or halt the final onslaught. On May 16, the Indian election results came out and the Congress made a resounding comeback. Staunch LTTE supporters like Vaiko were routed. Prabhakaran has been waging this battle alone for the last three years and he knows what it has cost him-his cadres, the Tamil civilians and the diaspora. It has been truly horrific. Surviving another five years with a hostile Congress establishment at the helm in India and an impotent international community is very hard.

In the past, after he was routed, Prabhakaran started all over again from scratch. That is why I had said I could envision him continuing the war. But with Congress’s victory, and adamancy of the Sri Lankan state to disregard even the American president, I can see why he saw the futility of continuing his struggle, deciding then to fight unto death.
In his introduction to an absolute must-read 1964 book, The World of Yesterday by Austrian author Stefan Zweig, Harry Zohn talks about the three times that Zweig had to start his life all over, caught up as he was between the two world wars. Writes Zohn: “Too exhausted to start a fourth, Zweig took his life in Brazil soon after completing his autobiography, at a time when the prospects for the realisation of all that he had ever striven for looked particularly bleak.” Zweig and Prabhakaran are complete opposites. But this, I think, sums up Prabhakaran’s mood on May 16. What lends some credence to my theory is that several members of the Tamil diaspora said they began getting calls from their LTTE contacts in Vanni, tearfully bidding farewell. That most of the top rung of the LTTE’s military wing are dead, points to mass suicide.

Rumours began circulating in the blogosphere on May 16 that Prabhakaran and 300 of his top cadres had committed mass suicide. In fact, Sri Lanka’s army web site posted an item at 17:51 on May 17 from the battlefront: “Self-ignited LTTE explosions [were] heard and witnessed in close vicinity. Likelihood of Tigers committing suicide en masse or burning of LTTE assets on their own has not been ruled out.” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced victory and end of war. On May 17 afternoon, the LTTE issued a statement: “This battle has reached its bitter end. We remain with one last choice-to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns.” The statement blamed the silence of the international community, the impunity with which the Sri Lankan government ignored urgent appeals, used words like “desperate” and “saddened”, referred to “bitter end” twice. And added: “Against all odds, we have held back the advancing Sinhalese forces, without help or support…. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out any longer.” It reads like a suicide note.

For an even more absurd reason, I am inclined to believe that he could have committed suicide on May 17. Prabhakaran was very superstitious and once confessed to me that the number 8 is very unlucky for him-even though he was born on November 26. So he never undertook major offensives on 8th, 17th and 26th of a month. I reported that. And the Sri Lankan army took it easy on those days. But Charles Anthony, his son, couldn’t care less about superstition. Many of the operations he commanded were on 26th, precisely to surprise the army. On April 26, 2006, an LTTE suicide bomber tried in vain to assassinate Sri Lankan army commander Sarath Fonseka. From this superstitious perspective, it is perhaps not a coincidence that the likely date of Prabhakaran’s suicide is May 17. When Prabhakaran told me about his superstition regarding numbers, I read Cheiro. According to Cheiro, people born with the birth number 8 are destined for great successes and great failures! If he has indeed committed suicide, this prediction certainly rings true for him!

On May 18 at 3 a.m. Vanni time, the LTTE political chief B. Nadesan and its peace secretariat director Puleedevan telephoned their European contacts requesting them to ask the ICRC to evacuate about 1,000 of their wounded cadres and LTTE’s civil officials. But a few hours later, the Sri Lankan defence ministry claimed they had found the dead bodies of Nadesan, Puleedevan and Anthony. The LTTE accused the Sri Lankan government of “treachery”. Their version is that their international contacts told them that arrangements had been made with the Sri Lankan military to discuss “an orderly end to the war”. So as instructed, Nadesan and Puleedevan, unarmed and carrying white flags, contacted the 58 division of the Sri Lankan troops operating nearby. But they were shot and killed. If this is true, under international conventions, this would be a war crime. The number of dead bodies shown on Sri Lankan web sites indicates that this war ended with a bloody massacre.

Sri Lankan army released pictures of Anthony’s corpse on May 18. Up until then, they had been releasing old pictures of a bulky Anthony in battle fatigues. But now two photos were released-one in which he is alive and the other his corpse. The strange thing is in both pictures he is wearing the same blue shirt. The explanation then could be that he, with Nadesan and Puleedevan, had gone dressed in civilian clothes with white flags to the 58 division. Pictures were taken, where he looks clean-shaven, relaxed and neat. And then something went wrong and a massacre followed some time later (the dead Anthony’s face has stubble). All Tiger fighters wear combat fatigues, so if he was fighting, Anthony should have been wearing battle dress. But the army’s version is that Anthony and others arrived dressed in civilian clothes on what was a suicide mission. But then that doesn’t explain the picture of Anthony alive.

Intriguingly, it took another whole day before the government released the picture of Prabhakaran’s body. If Prabhakaran did indeed blow himself up along with his top cadres, then there can be no body to parade. In which case, the government came up with a Prabhakaran “double”. How weird is that? But the answer could be simple-the army was under pressure to show a dead body as proof. If the Sri Lankan military has evidence that Prabhakaran did indeed blast himself, then they can be certain he will not surface to dispute their claim. On May 20, Sri Lanka’s defence ministry web site carried a bizarre announcement: “We are not going to comment on how he died.”

But the story gets more curious. The LTTE is silent about Anthony, but has issued a statement that Prabhakaran is alive and safe. But few believe the LTTE, so rumours are now rife that Prabhakaran will give a television interview to prove he is alive. That will be a bombshell if it happens, suggesting he had waged an elaborate war of deception, complete with his own “double”. Any move he makes will be picked up by the Sri Lankan intelligence. But that is if he is alive. A Sinhalese blogger said: “He is alive and well-in hell.”

But all these conspiracy theories can be quelled. The international community can force Sri Lanka to share the DNA tests done on Prabhakaran and Anthony and verify if they match Prabhakaran’s sisters’ who live in Canada and Europe. India and the four co-chairs-the United States, Europe, Japan and Norway-should insist on this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PrleqeCAPw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-URtZfIgKAU

When Dhoni visited Haryana state he had an opportunity to talk with few National Security Gaurds. One of the Comando’s asked Dhoni, “Whether it possible to hit 10 runs in one ball?”. Dhoni was puzzled for a second, then he with a cool head said, “Actor Rajinikant bats with a style. He smacks the ball. The balls splits into two. One half goes over the boundary for a Six and another rolls over the boundary for a four. So ten runs in 1 ball is a definite possiblity”. This was said with humour and fans of Rajini should not take this in the wrong sense.

People in Nothern parts of India believe Rajini as someone who can do impossible things. Dhoni’s comments is a reflection of this image of Rajini.

Chennai IPL Team’s Captain, MS Dhoni, was quoted saying the following about rajini during the IPL 2008 matches ”It would be a good thing. Here, he’s like a god. He’s a good person and a fine individual. He is amazing! If he’s in our team, it would be wonderful.”

I hope he has lot of respect for Rajini. I certainly don’t doubt his intentions.

“Learning Tamil to watch Sivaji, the boss” – M S Dhoni
When the IPL started in Chennai, MS Dhoni said in an interview that he is awestruck to see thepopularity that Superstar commands here and also said that Tamil Nadu sees him as a demi god. Now again in an interview to a local paper, he has said, “I am a big fan of Superstar. I am planning to watch Sivaji soon. To understand the dialogues, i am now learning Tamil. For that i have to watch tamil films continuously.”

He also added that Actor Vijay has invited him to watch his Kuruvi.
(Note that it is only Vijay invited him to watch. But Dhoni himself expressed his wish to watch Sivaji)

On the whole it seems Captain MS Dhoni seems to like our one and only Superstar Rajinikant.

Credits – onlysuperstar.com

Interesting Tag to consider  - “miracle” liquor baron Vijay Mallya

Mahatma Gandhi’s memorabilia went under the hammer at the Antiquorum Auctioneers early on Friday morning (India time) in New York after hours of high drama.

Lot 364, featuring effects of Mahatma Gandhi, had a reserve price between $20,000 and $30,000.

After frenzied bidding, the lot drew a bid of $ 1.8 million, for a total cost of $2.1 million including the buyer’s premium.

Tushar Gandhi’s sigh of relief

Tushar Gandhi was really worried before the bidding but now he says getting Bapu’s items back is miracle.

Mallya has a reputation

The last time a piece of Indian heritage went under the hammer, Mallya paid up Rs 4 crore (Rs 4 million) for the Sword of Tipu Sultan and got it back to India.

The controversy over Tipu Sultan’s legendary sword involving industrialist Vijay Mallya brings into sharp focus the issue of import and export of antiques. Check more details here on “Rules on import/export of antiques & about the show-cause notice to Mallya by the Customs department”.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/may/31antique.htm

Controversies & Drama Behind

The auction went off despite the consignor of the lot, James Otis, saying he had decided not to sell the items in the light of the controversy.

Just a day after making specific demands of the government of India in return for withdrawing the items, Otis said he wanted the auction house to take the lot off the block.

“Amidst the controversy, I decided not to sell the items. I have personally requested the Antiquorum to remove it from auction list,” Otis said.

But the auction went ahead anyway.

But in the end, it appears that the Indian Government had good reason to be satisfied with the final result of the day.