Passengers safe with help of pilot

January 17, 2009 at 9:39 am (Uncategorized)
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All 155 passengers and crew aboard a US Airways Airbus A320 had a miraculous escape after the plane ditched into a frigid Hudson river off westside Manhattan within seconds of take-off, apparently after it ran into a flock of geese.

Federal investigators were examining the plane to pinpoint the cause of failure of the engines within seconds of its taking off from La Guardia airport in New York.

“We’ve had a miracle on the Hudson,” New York governor David Paterson told in a news conference and called the pilot a hero for landing the plane in the fast-flowing river.

“The pilot somehow, without any engines, was able to land this plane” and there were no serious injuries, he said.

Officials said bird hit, caught on radar, looks to be the most plausible cause but they would finally announce it after investigations are complete.

Passengers said the pilots had declared an emergency and had taken one round to ensure that they were following safety instructions before asking them to “prepare for impact.”

Reports said the pilot originally wanted to take the plane back to the airport but decided to crashland on water apparently after he realised it might not be possible.

Within minutes, ferries that normally take tourists round the Manhattan Island, and water taxis reached the scene and started rescuing passengers.

Later, other rescue workers, including firemen and police, joined them. The water was freezing and temperature minus 7 degrees C when the accident occurred and those who had jumped into water were taken to hospitals for check-up.

Fortunately, the plane did not sink and remained afloat.

Announcing that all the passengers, including a baby, were safe, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, for doing a “masterful job” of landing the plane on the river and then making sure that all had been rescued before getting out of it.

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Santorini Panorama

January 15, 2009 at 4:10 am (DIscovery)

This panorama shows the vista from which NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spent five weeks in November and December 2008 while the sun was nearly directly in between Mars and Earth.

Opportunity is approaching the fifth anniversary of its landing on Mars, continuing a surface mission that was initially scheduled to last three months. The rover landed on Jan. 24, 2004.

Opportunity has driven 1.14 miles since it exited Victoria Crater on Sol 1634 (Aug. 28, 2008). It skirted the west rim of Victoria and, at the point from which this panorama was taken, had reached a position about six-tenths of a mile southwest of the crater’s southern rim.

Opportunity is on a 7-mile trek toward Endeavour crater, a crater more than 20 times the size of Victoria Crater, which it studied for about two years. On the way toward Endeavour the rover is pausing to examine selected loose rocks on the surface. At the location from which this panorama was taken, the rover used the spectrometers on its robotic arm to examine a cobble informally called “Santorini,” a dark rock about 3 inches long, which the inspection indicates is probably a meteorite. The rock is too close to the rover to be visible in this panorama.

Opportunity began driving again on Sol 1748 (Dec. 23, 2008).

This is an approximate true-color composite panorama generated from images taken through the Pancam’s 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters. This “natural color” view is the rover team’s best estimate of what the scene would look like if we were there and able to see it with our own eyes.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University 302136main_image_1260_946-710

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Trees That Actually Do Walk

January 15, 2009 at 4:06 am (Uncategorized)
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That is a photo taken by Listener Emily. It is tree that walks veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly. It is called a “Socratea Exorrhiza” aka “Walking Palm”.

And this is from Listener Daniel who’s also seen one:

“Basically, the trunk of the tree stops/starts above the soil. Then at the base of the trunk, there are lots of shoots that come out and go into the soil. The tree “walks” by growing more or better shoots towards the better soil and letting those in bad soil die away. So the trunk sort of floats over the soil on this moving base of shoots. They said that it could move perhaps ten feet over the course of its lifetime like this.”

Emily and Daniel thank you for being so smart and on top of things.

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Remote control toy helicopter ‘used to fly drugs into prison’

January 15, 2009 at 4:05 am (Uncategorized)
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A toy helicopter is believed to have been used in an attempt to smuggle drugs into a prison.

Guards at Elmley Prison in Sheerness, Kent, spotted the remote control miniature aircraft flying over the walls of the jail and heading for the accommodation blocks one night after it was picked up by CCTV cameras.

It had a small load beneath the fuselage, thought to contain drugs.

The toy or its cargo was not found.
However, staff could not find any trace of either the helicopter or the package which it appeared to be carrying underneath it when they searched the Category C jail.

‘Using a mini-helicopter to get contraband into jails is unprecedented. When officers spotted it they nearly fell off their chairs’, a prison source told the Sun.

‘It could have been drugs or a mobile phone in the package. It is possible it was a dummy run.’

The Prison Service confirmed the incident took place.

A spokesman said: ‘A remote control helicopter was flown into the grounds of HMP Elmley on December 23.

‘As a result of this, a search of the prison grounds and an accommodation block were carried out and nothing was found.’

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Hug at McDonald’s costs woman $100,000

January 15, 2009 at 4:01 am (Uncategorized)

Wisconsinites apparently will stoop low enough to scam old ladies who just go out to get a quick bite to eat at their local McDonald’s. These thieves lucked out with their pick, scoring $100,000 after breaking into the woman’s home.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

A 75-year-old Milwaukee woman visited a McDonald’s at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 30 for lunch. As she was leaving, a stranger approached her to give her a hug. After asking her if they knew each other, the strange woman insisted they had met before and continued to small talk. The victim told the woman that her mother had just died. The suspect then asked her for her address because she said she wanted to send the woman flowers.

More from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

That hug was the beginning of a scam that resulted in the theft of $100,000, cash the victim’s recently deceased mother kept in a closet at home, Milwaukee police said Sunday.

Police are looking for help in finding four people suspected of participating in the scam.

Detectives think the crew was trolling for a target that day at McDonald’s, but the criminals would have no way of knowing the woman they found had that kind of cash at home.

“They just hit the jackpot,” said Milwaukee police Detective Robert St. Onge.

When the woman returned to her home, she saw two people leaving her backyard. She then discovered her mother’s bedroom ransacked and the $100,000 missing. The victim said she kept the money in her home because she didn’t trust the bank.

Lessons to learn: Don’t hug or interact with strangers, particularly at McDonald’s. And don’t leave $100,000 just sitting in a metal box.

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The 10 Most Unnecessarily Horrible and Horribly Unnecessary Cartoon Sidekicks

January 15, 2009 at 3:59 am (Uncategorized)

If last summer’s movie ticket sales have shown anything, it’s that superheroes are popular enough to be enjoyed by more than just children and nerds. We are finally at a point where Hollywood is taking superheroes seriously–but there was a time not long ago when soulless executives thought that the wee children couldn’t handle a pure superhero tale, and made sure to include a goofy sidekick character with every superhero cartoon. These executives could not have been more wrong, and we hope they’re all dead now. A few of these unnecessary characters were reasonably harmless to their series, although none of them were actually funny. Some were terrible, dumbing down the show far past the point execs thought the cartoons had already dumbed down the show (cartoon makers assumed children were gibbering idiots in the ’70s and ’80s, who would shove a toothbrush up our nose and straight into our brain unless told otherwise by our cartoon heroes). And then some of these sidekicks can be used to prove that there is no God, as no loving God would ever have let innocent children suffer through the horror of their mincing antics and rampant imbecility. Here are those 10.

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Verizon Wins Suit Over Internet Addresses

January 2, 2009 at 3:50 am (Uncategorized)
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Verizon Communications Inc. said it has been awarded $33.2 million in a “cybersquatting” case against a San Francisco company that registered Internet domain names purposely similar to the telecommunications giant’s trademarks.

Verizon, however, may not see any money, as the registrar, OnlineNIC, never appeared in federal court for the Northern District of California to defend itself.

The default ruling said the company “unlawfully registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical to or confusingly similar to Verizon trademarks,” according to Verizon. The telecommunications company was awarded $50,000 per name for OnlineNIC’s “bad-faith registrations” that were intended to steer traffic away from Verizon’s sites, it said.

“This case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers,” said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon associate general counsel. “Verizon intends to continue to take all steps necessary to protect our brand and consumers from Internet frauds and abuses.”

The company has won several similar cases.

Complaints about cybersquatting — or setting up a Web site using a trademarked name and then profiting by selling the name to the trademark owner — surged to a record in 2007, according to World Intellectual Property Organization, a watchdog group.

Anyone can register domain names for a nominal fee, but cybersquatters claim popular domain names with the intention of selling them at a profit when the real owners of the names come calling. More recently, Internet entrepreneurs have set up Web sites using famous names — or even versions with typos in them — and setting up per-click ads leading to the entity’s official site.

The practice was barred in the U.S. in 1999. After declining for several years, incidents began to rise in 2004 and have been climbing in recent years.

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SEO Discovery Lunch SEO package just $150

December 30, 2008 at 7:31 am (Uncategorized)

SEO Discovery offering following SEO activities in just $150

Keyword Analysis
Meta Tags Optimization
XML sitemap
ROR Sitemap
Urllist.txt
robots.txt
Verification in Google, Yahoo and MSN
20 One way Links
15 Social Bookmarketing
10 Classified ads

Best Regards
Marketing Manger
SEODiscovery

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What is History of INDIA

December 10, 2008 at 9:14 am (History)
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India has been home to several ancient civilisations and empires, some dating back to more than 2,000 BC. Culture and religions have flourished over the millennia, and foreign influence has ebbed and flowed.

1858 - India comes under direct rule of the British crown after failed Indian mutiny.

1885 - Indian National Congress founded as forum for emerging nationalist feeling.

1920-22 - Nationalist figurehead Mahatma Gandhi launches anti-British civil disobedience campaign.

1942-43 – Congress launches “Quit India” movement.

1947 - End of British rule and partition of sub-continent into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority state of Pakistan.

1947-48 - Hundreds of thousands die in widespread communal bloodshed after partition.

1948 - Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremist.

1948 - War with Pakistan over disputed territory of Kashmir.

1951-52 - Congress Party wins first general elections under leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru.

1962 - India loses brief border war with China.

1964 - Death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

1965 – Second war with Pakistan over Kashmir.

1966 - Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister.

1971 – Third war with Pakistan over creation of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.

1971 – Twenty-year treaty of friendship signed with Soviet Union.

1974 - India explodes first nuclear device in underground test.

1975 - Indira Gandhi declares state of emergency after being found guilty of electoral malpractice.

1975-1977 – Nearly 1,000 political opponents imprisoned and programme of compulsory birth control introduced.

1977 – Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party loses general elections.

1980 - Indira Gandhi returns to power heading Congress party splinter group, Congress (Indira).

1984 – Troops storm Golden Temple – Sikhs’ most holy shrine – to flush out Sikh militants pressing for self-rule.

1984 - Indira Gandhi assassinated by Sikh bodyguards, following which her son, Rajiv, takes over.

1984 December – Gas leak at Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal. Thousands are killed immediately, many more subsequently die or are left disabled.

1987 – India deploys troops for peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict.

1989 - Falling public support leads to Congress defeat in general election.

1990 - Indian troops withdrawn from Sri Lanka.

1990 – Muslim separatist groups begin campaign of violence in Kashmir.

1991 – Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by suicide bomber sympathetic to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers.

1991 - Economic reform programme begun by Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

1992 - Hindu extremists demolish mosque in Ayodhya, triggering widespread Hindu-Muslim violence.

1996 – Congress suffers worst ever electoral defeat as Hindu nationalist BJP emerges as largest single party.

1998 – BJP forms coalition government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

1998 – India carries out nuclear tests, leading to widespread international condemnation.

1999 February – Vajpayee makes historic bus trip to Pakistan to meet Premier Nawaz Sharif and to sign bilateral Lahore peace declaration.

1999 May – Tension in Kashmir leads to brief war with Pakistan-backed forces in the icy heights around Kargil in Indian-held Kashmir.

1999 October – Cyclone devastates eastern state of Orissa, leaving at least 10,000 dead.

2000 May – India marks the birth of its billionth citizen.

2000 – US President Bill Clinton makes a groundbreaking visit to improve ties.

2001 January - Massive earthquakes hit the western state of Gujarat, leaving at least 30,000 dead.

2001 April – 16 Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers are killed in border clashes.

A high-powered rocket is launched, propelling India into the club of countries able to fire big satellites deep into space.

2001 July – Vajpayee meets Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the first summit between the two neighbours in more than two years. The meeting ends without a breakthrough or even a joint statement because of differences over Kashmir.

2001 July – Vajpayee’s BJP party declines his offer to resign over a number of political scandals and the apparent failure of his talks with Pakistani President Musharraf.

2001 September – US lifts sanctions which it imposed against India and Pakistan after they staged nuclear tests in 1998. The move is seen as a reward for their support for the US-led anti-terror campaign.

2001 October – India fires on Pakistani military posts in the heaviest firing along the dividing line of control in Kashmir for almost a year.

2001 December – Suicide squad attacks parliament in New Delhi, killing several police. The five gunmen die in the assault.

2001 December – India imposes sanctions against Pakistan, to force it to take action against two Kashmir militant groups blamed for the suicide attack on parliament. Pakistan retaliates with similar sanctions, and bans the groups in January.

2001 December - India, Pakistan mass troops on common border amid mounting fears of a looming war.

2002 January - India successfully test-fires a nuclear-capable ballistic missile – the Agni – off its eastern coast.

2002 February - Inter-religious bloodshed breaks out after 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya are killed in a train fire in Godhra, Gujarat. More than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, die in subsequent riots. (Police and officials blamed the fire on a Muslim mob; a 2005 government investigation said it was an accident.)

2002 May – Pakistan test-fires three medium-range surface-to-surface Ghauri missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

War of words between Indian and Pakistani leaders intensifies. Actual war seems imminent.

2002 June - UK, US urge their citizens to leave India and Pakistan, while maintaining diplomatic offensive to avert war.

2002 July - Retired scientist and architect of India’s missile programme APJ Abdul Kalam is elected president.

2003 August – At least 50 people are killed in two simultaneous bomb blasts in Bombay.

Kashmir ceasefire

2003 November – India matches Pakistan’s declaration of a Kashmir ceasefire.

2003 December – India, Pakistan agree to resume direct air links and to allow overflights.

2004: How will history remember Vajpayee?

2004 January – Groundbreaking meeting held between government and moderate Kashmir separatists.

2004 May - Surprise victory for Congress Party in general elections. Manmohan Singh is sworn in as prime minister.

2004 September - India, along with Brazil, Germany and Japan, launches an application for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

2004 November – India begins to withdraw some of its troops from Kashmir.

2004 December – Thousands are killed when tidal waves, caused by a powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian coast, devastate coastal communities in the south and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

2005 7 April - Bus services, the first in 60 years, operate between Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir and Muzaffarabad in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

2006: Letter from Delhi – India’s Sensex bull

2005 July - More than 1,000 people are killed in floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains in Mumbai (Bombay) and Maharashtra region.

2005 8 October - An earthquake, with its epicentre in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, kills more than 1,000 people in Indian-administered Kashmir.

29 October - Bombs kill 62 people in Delhi. A little-known Kashmiri group says it is behind the attacks.

2006 February - India’s largest-ever rural jobs scheme is launched, aimed at lifting around 60 million families out of poverty.

2006 March - US and India sign a nuclear agreement during a visit by US President George W Bush. The US gives India access to civilian nuclear technology while India agrees to greater scrutiny for its nuclear programme.

2007: India budget focuses on farming

7 March – 14 people are killed by bomb blasts in the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.

2006 May – Suspected Islamic militants kill 35 Hindus in the worst attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir for several months.

2006 11 July - More than 180 people are killed in bomb attacks on rush-hour trains in Mumbai. Investigators blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan.

2006 8 September – Explosions outside a mosque in the western town of Malegaon kill at least 31 people.

2006 November – Hu Jintao makes the first visit to India by a Chinese president in a decade.

2006 December - US President George W Bush approves a controversial law allowing India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years.

2007 18 February - 68 passengers, most of them Pakistanis, are killed by bomb blasts and a blaze on a train travelling from New Delhi to the Pakistani city of Lahore.

2007 February - India and Pakistan sign an agreement aimed at reducing the risk of accidental nuclear war.

2007 March - Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh state kill more than 50 policemen in a dawn attack.

2007 April - India’s first commercial space rocket is launched, carrying an Italian satellite.

2007 May - At least nine people are killed in a bomb explosion at the main mosque in Hyderabad. Several others are killed in subsequent rioting.

2007 May - Government announces its strongest economic growth figures for 20 years – 9.4% in the year to March.

2007 July - India says the number of its people with HIV or AIDS is about half of earlier official tallies. Health ministry figures put the total at between 2 million and 3.1 million cases, compared with previous estimates of more than 5 million.

2007 July - Pratibha Patil becomes first woman to be elected president of India.

2008 July - Congress-led governing coalition survives vote of confidence brought after left-wing parties withdraw their support over controversial nuclear cooperation deal with US. After the vote, several left-wing and regional parties form new alliance to oppose government, saying it has been tainted by corruption.

2008 July – Series of explosions kills 49 in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state. The little-known group Indian Mujahideen claims responsibility.

2008 October - Following approval by the US Congress, President George W Bush signs into law a nuclear deal with India, which ends a three-decade ban on US nuclear trade with Delhi.

2008 November – Nearly 200 people are killed and hundreds injured in a series of co-ordinated attacks by gunmen on the main tourist and business area of India’s financial capital Mumbai. India blames militants from Pakistan for the attacks and demands that Islamabad take strong action against those responsible.

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Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 on 3 December

December 3, 2008 at 12:50 pm (History)
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The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a major military conflict between India and Pakistan. The war is closely associated with the Bangladesh Liberation War (sometimes also referred to as the Pakistani Civil War). Although there is some disagreement about the exact dates of the war, hostilities between India and Pakistan commenced officially on the evening of December 3, 1971. The armed conflict on India’s western front during the period between 3 December 1971 and 16 December 1971 is called the “Indo-Pakistani War” by both the Bangladeshi and Indian armies. The war ended in the surrender of the Pakistani military after armed hostilities on two fronts.

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