22 Mar 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Did April Fools’ Day come early for The Pirate Bay? The controversial BitTorrent site posted an odd announcement last night stating that it had decided to “build something extraordinary” with its server infrastructure.
“We’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air,” wrote “MrSpock” on the Pirate Bay blog. “This way our machines will have to be shot down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. We’re just starting, so we haven’t figured everything out yet. But we can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore.”
The so-called Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) prompted discussion at Hacker News and TorrentFreak, where some commenters debated the technical challenges to aerial hosting, and others were deeply skeptical. The Pirate Bay said it was experimenting with using GPS to control servers using Raspberry Pi, a credit-card sized Linux computer.
BitTorrent news site TorrentFreak, which covers the Pirate Bay on a regular basis, appears to be taking the announcement seriously. “Although the line between reality and fantasy can be rather thin at The Pirate Bay, we were assured that the plan to launch a drone is real,” wrote Ernesto, who said the first drone would be launched over international waters.
The Pirate Bay has relocated its servers on numerous occasions seeking a haven from authorities and entertainment companies. At one point it considered buying the “micronation” of SeaLand or another data haven.
21 Mar 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
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Scott
Adams – cartoonist and creator of “Dilbert” – read an interview with
him in Prism
Magazine
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Yasser
Arafat – Palestinian leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Graduated
as a civil engineer from the University of Cairo.
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Neil
Alden Armstrong – became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20,
1969, at 10:56 p.m. EDT. He and “Buzz” Aldren spent about two and one-half
hours walking on the moon, while pilot Michael Collins waited above in the
Apollo 11 command module. Armstrong received his B.S. in aeronautical
engineering from Purdue University and an M.S. in aerospace engineering
from the University of Southern California.
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Rowan
Atkinson – A British comedian, best known for his starring roles in
the television series “Blackadde”r and “Mr. Bean,” and several films
including Four Weddings And A Funeral. Atkinson attended first Manchester
then Oxford University on an engineering degree.
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Leonid
Brezhnev – leader of the former Soviet Union, metallurgical engineer.
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Alexander Calder – a native of Pennsylvania, received his degree in
mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New
Jersey, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris, where he studied art and
began to create his now-famous mobiles. Many of his large sculptures are
on permanent outdoor display at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where the first major retrospective of his work was held in 1950.
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Frank
Capra
– film director – “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”,
“It’s a Wonderful Life” – college degree in chemical engineering.
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Jimmy
Carter – 39th President of the United States. Attended Georgia
Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and received
a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. In the Navy he
became a submariner, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and
rising to the rank of lieutenant. Chosen by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the
nuclear submarine program, he was assigned to Schenectady, N.Y., where he
took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear
physics and served as senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the
Seawolf.
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Roger
Corman -film
director, industrial engineering degree from Stanford University. He
started direct involvement in films in 1953 as a producer and
screenwriter, making his debut as director in 1955. Between then and his
official retirement in 1971 he directed dozens of films, often as many as
six or seven per year, typically shot extremely quickly on leftover sets
from other, larger productions.
 His probably
unbeatable record for a professional 35mm feature film was two days and a
night to shoot the original version of “The Little Shop of Horrors”.
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Leonardo Da Vinci – Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the
High Renaissance, celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer,
and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote
of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the
field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a
century after his death, and his scientific studies – particularly in the
fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics – anticipated many of the
developments of modern science.
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Thomas
Edison – Edison patented 1,093 inventions in his lifetime, earning him
the nickname  “The
Wizard of Menlo Park.” The most famous of his inventions was an
incandescent light bulb. Besides the light bulb, Edison developed the
phonograph and the kinetoscope, a small box for viewing moving films. He
also improved upon the original design of the stock ticker, the telegraph,
and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Edison was quoted as saying,
“Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
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Lillian Gilbreth – is considered a pioneer in the field of
time-and-motion studies, showing companies how to increase efficiency and
production through budgeting of time, energy, and money. Dr. Gilbreth
received her Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University and was a professor
at Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering, Newark School of Engineering
and the University of Wisconsin. She is “Member No. 1″ of the Society of
Women Engineers. She and her husband used their industrial engineering
skills to run their household, and those efforts are the subject of the
book and family film “Cheaper by the Dozen.”
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Herbie
Hancock – jazz musician and Mechanical engineer.
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 Alfred
Hitchcock – British-born American director and producer of many
brilliantly contrived films, most of them psychological thrillers
including “Psycho”, “The Birds”, “Rear Window”, and “North by Northwest.”
He was born in London and trained there as an engineer at Saint Ignatius
College. Although Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for his direction,
he received the Irving Thalberg Award of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences in 1967 and the American Film Institute’s Life
Achievement Award in 1979. During the final year of his life, he was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, even though he had long been a naturalized
citizen of the United States.
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Herbert Hoover – having graduated from Stanford University in
California, Hoover was a 26 -year-old mining engineer in Tientsin, China,
when the city was attacked by 5,000 Chinese troops and 25,000 members of
the martial arts group known as the Boxers. (The Boxer Rebellion was a
violent 1900 uprising against foreign business interests in China.) Hoover
took charge of setting up barricades to protect Tientsin until its rescue
after 28 days of bombardment. Thirty years later, Herbert Hoover became
the 31st President of the United States; he and his wife continued to
speak Chinese when they wanted privacy in the White House.
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Lee
Iacocca – former chairman and CEO of Chrysler Corp. Iacocca graduated
from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., in 1945 and received a master’s
degree in engineering from Princeton University in 1946. Best known for
his helmsmanship at Chrysler Motors, Iacocca started out as a sales
manager at the Ford Motor Co. in 1946 and by 1970 was president of the
company. Joining Chrysler in 1978, Iacocca helped drag the troubled
company from the brink of extinction by helping secure $1.5 billion in
government loans. Iacocca’s legendary status in the automobile industry is
reinforced by his role in the introduction of that American icon: the Ford
Mustang. He was also one of the first CEOs to proselytise
 his company’s
products on national television with the K car campaign.
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Hedy
Lamarr – a famous 1940s actress not formally trained as an engineer,
Lamarr is credited with several sophisticated inventions, among them a
unique anti-jamming device for use against Nazi radar. Years after her
patent had expired, Sylvania adapted the design for a device that today
speeds satellite communications around the world. She is also credited
with the line: “Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand
still and look stupid.”
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Arthur
Nielsen – developer of Nielsen rating system.
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Tom
Scholtz – leader of the rock band Boston. Master’s degree from MIT in
mechanical engineering.
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John
Sununu – former White House Chief of Staff for President George Bush,
former governor of New Hampshire, current CNN commentator on “Crossfire.”
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Boris
Yeltsin – former president of Russia.
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Montel
Williams – a highly decorated former Naval engineer and Naval
Intelligence Officer, he is now an author of inspirational books and host
of a popular syndicated television talk show. |
A
Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC) – Polymath, inventor of the screw pump
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
- Ma Jun – 3rd century China, invented the South Pointing Chariot, mechanical puppet theaters, chain pumps, improved silk looms, etc.
- Felice Matteucci (1808–1887) – Early developer of internal combustion engine
- Henry Maudslay (1771–1831) – Considered a founding father of machine tool technology, helped perfect the hydraulic press
- Elijah McCoy (1843–1929) – African Canadian inventor, contributions include automatic lubricator for steam engines
- Andrew Meikle (1719–1811) – Contributions include threshing machine and windmill sails
- Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889–1944) – Developed tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- Samuel Morey (1762–1843) – Steamship & internal combustion engine pioneer
- James Morgan – Applied Materials CEO
- William Murdoch (1754–1839) – Associate of Watt, improved steam engine (sun and planet gearing), also developed gas lighting
- Gordon Murray – Formula One, Brabham BT46B, McLaren F1
- Matthew Murray (1765–1826) – Steam engine designer, built one of the first commercially viable steam locomotives (Salamanca)
N
O
P
Q
R
S
- Ralph Sarich (born December 10, 1938) – Invented Orbital engine
in 1972 and developed the orbital combustion process engine, which is
based on a re-designed two stroke engine using direct gasoline injection
- Thomas Savery (c. 1650 – 1715) – Early steam engine patent holder, author of “A Miner’s Friend; or An Engine to Raise Water by Fire”
- Per Georg Scheutz (1785–1873) Pioneer in computer technology (Scheutzian calculation engine)
- Carl Wilhelm Siemens (1823–1883) – Inventor of the regenerative furnace
- Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972) – Aviation engineer, inventor of the single-rotor helicopter, founder of Sikorsky Aircraft Company
- Isaac Singer (1811–1875) – Credited with improvements in lockstitch sewing machine, founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company
- John Smeaton (1724–1792) – Principally a civil engineer, but made numerous improvements to Newcomen’s steam engine
- Edward Somerset (c. 1601-1667) – Numerous mechanical innovations are described in his book “Century of Inventions” published 1663
- Sir William Stanier – Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
- George Stephenson (1781–1848) – Known as the “Father of Railways”, founder of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
- Robert Stephenson (1803–1859) – Railway engineer, son of George Stephenson
- Robert Stirling (1790–1878) – Inventor of the Stirling Engine
- Su Song (1020–1101) China – First to use an escapement mechanism (see Yi Xing below) and chain drive to operate his astronomical clock tower
- Dr. Victor Szebehely- Aerospace Engineering & Celestial Mechanics
T
V
W
Y
Z
25 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
“And I have found
evolutionary and historical precedent for my sleep cycles. Just the
other day I spoke with Roger Ekirch, a Virginia Tech historian who has
focused on sleep in Western cultures and has written At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past.
He told me that in the preindustrial era, before the proliferation of
modern lighting, people routinely used to wake from their ‘first sleep’
sometime after midnight to talk with others, smoke a pipe, rob the
nearby orchard or bring in the cows. After about an hour, he said,
people returned to bed for their ‘second sleep’ until dawn. ‘It makes
perfect sense if you accept the premise that segmented sleep was the
dominant form of slumber before the Industrial Revolution,’ Ekirch
said. ‘It makes perfect sense that a biological pattern since time
immemorial would not relinquish its hold easily, that it would not fade
rapidly into the mists of history. The process instead would be
prolonged and erratic. Consolidated sleep is an artificial invention of
modern life.’”
- Laura Hambleton, “An Insomniac Learns to Make the Most of Getting the Least Sleep,” The Washington Post, February 14, 2011
“But
what’s interesting is that in some of the research that’s come out,
particularly Roger Ekirch’s book, his history of the night, he talks
about before the invention of electric light, people slept in segmented
sleep. They would sleep for a few hours, they’d be up for several
hours, and then they’d be – fall back asleep again. So in many respects
that sleep pattern is fairly natural.”
-
Patricia Morrisroe, NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” May 4, 2010
“But
is insomnia a modern problem? Are we sleeping less than we used to?
Did people in prehistoric and ancient times really crash with the
sunset and sleep til the cocks crowed? Is the prescribed eight hours a
construct to suit industrial times? In his 2005 ground-breaking book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past,
American historian Roger Ekirch documented how humans slept through
the ages — but not necessarily through the night. ‘He said that people
slept in segmented sleep,’’ says [Patricia] Morrisroe. ‘They’d fall
asleep for a couple of hours. They’d get up. They might talk. They
might have sex with their bedfellows as there were often multiple
people in beds because they often had communal beds. They’d pray. They
would analyze their dreams. Maybe some would go out and steal
livestock. Then they would go back to sleep. So this concept of
segmented sleep may be very natural to us.’’’
-
Antonia Zerbislas, Toronto Star, May 1, 2010
“Ekirch
relates, in perhaps his most fascinating revelation, pre-industrial
man slept a segmented sleep. He has found more than 500 references,
from Homer onwards, to a ‘first sleep’ that lasted until maybe
midnight, and was followed by ‘second sleep’. In between the two,
people routinely got up, peed, smoked, read, chatted, had friends
round, or simply reflected on the events of the previous day – and on
their dreams. (Plenty also had sex, by all accounts far more
satisfactorily than at the end of a hard day’s labouring. Couples who
copulated ‘after the first sleep, wrote a 16th-century French doctor,
‘have more enjoyment, and do it better’.) Experiments by Dr Thomas
Wehr at America’s National Institute of Mental Health appear to bear
out the theory that this two-part slumber is man’s natural sleeping
pattern: a group of young male volunteers deprived of light at night
for weeks at a time rapidly fell into the segmented sleep routine
described in so many of Ekirch’s documentary sources. It could even be,
Wehr has theorised, that many of today’s common sleeping disorders are
essentially the result of our older, primal habits “breaking through
into today’s artificial world.’”
-
Jon Henley, “The Dark Ages,” The Guardian (London), October 24, 2009
“But
is it possible that such expectations are too much – that there never
was such thing as a great night’s sleep? In pre-industrial Europe, for
example, sleeping for eight consecutive hours wasn’t normal, American
historian Roger Ekirch says. While in Britain to research his 2005
book, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, he discovered what
he calls ‘segmented sleep.’ ‘The consolidated, seamless sleep we enjoy
today was not the norm in the 19th century,’ he says on the phone from
Virginia Tech, where he teaches. ‘There is no idyllic past in terms of
sleep.’ Instead, people slept for two to three hours, surrounded by
braying animals, people emitting terrible smells, and other
environmental disturbances. They awoke at midnight for one or two
hours, and then settled back down for a second ‘dawn’ slumber. In the
interval, people stoked the fire, made love, prepared the next day’s
meal, stole apples from the neighbours, prayed, meditated or reflected
upon their dreams. ‘Basically, they did anything and everything
imaginable,’ Prof. Ekirch says with a chuckle. His findings resonate
with those of scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health in
Washington D.C., who have conducted clinical research into segmented
sleep and found that, without the interference of artificial light,
many people naturally slept in two phases.‘Insomniacs may simply be
experiencing this pre-industrial, once-dominant pattern of sleep,’
Prof. Ekirch says.”
-
The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Nov. 15, 2008
“But
to alter and really shake up our expectations – as one might renew a
flattened eiderdown – we need the historian A Roger Ekirch to come to
our aid. He explains (in At Day’s Close: A History of Nighttime)
that before the industrial revolution, it was the norm for people to
sleep in two parts (a sort of sleep sandwich). In the middle – the
filling – all manner of things went on. ‘Families rose to urinate,
smoke tobacco, and even visit close neighbours. Many others made love,
prayed, and, most important, historically, reflected on their dreams, a
significant source of solace and self-awareness.’ It is an upbeat
idea: the night as opportunity. But it is easier to imagine than to
achieve.”
-
Kate Kellaway, “Is Anxiety about
Sleep Keeping Us All Awake?,” The Observer (London), April 27, 2008
“.
. . fascinating historical and scientific research that challenges the
consensus view of sleep as a continuous, consolidated 8-hour block of
time. When University of Virginia [Virginia Tech] historian A. Roger
Ekirch began researching sleep in pre-industrial societies he was
surprised by hundreds of references to something called “first sleep”
and a second or “morning sleep.” It seems as though before the advent
of mass artificial lighting – with its attendant suite of late-night
consumption opportunities – much of the Western world slept in two
sections: once in the early evening, and once more in the early
morning. In between our ancestors woke for several hours to a curious
state of consciousness that had no name, other that the generic “watch”
or “watching.” Ekirch’s historical evidence aligns with scientific
findings from the respected National Institutes of Health
chronobiologist Thomas Wehr. For one month Wehr had a group of
volunteers spend the full duration of a 14-hour winter’s night in bed.
Every one of the volunteers lapsed into a segmented sleep pattern.
Although it took a succession of long winter nights to provoke this
kind of sleep, when Wehr published his findings he speculated that
segmented sleep may be the default physiological pattern for humans in
general – certainly it matched similar patterns observed in modern
forager cultures.”
-
Jeff Warren, Huffington Post, April 25, 2008
“Research
by Professor Ekirch revealed that in pre-industrial times, before
electricity and gaslights, people typically slept in two bouts of four
hours. There would be a gap of wakefulness in-between lasting about
two hours. A similar result was found by sleep researchers in the
nineties at the National Institute of Mental Health, when people were
exposed to light that mimicked natural variations of day and night. So
it may be comforting to know that your experience may not necessarily
be abnormal, but possibly a remnant of normal mammalian evolution.
Indeed some animals like chimpanzees and giraffes are reported to share
the same sleep patterns.”
- Neel Halder, M.D., Royal College of Psychiatry, Manchester Evening News, March 3, 2008
“In
ancient times, according to two recent histories of sleep, people
probably slept no better than we insomniacs – they woke frequently to
tend their animals or children, all snorting and snoring in the same
sleeping space. Night was often a ghastly time. In some societies,
sleep was broken into two four-hour shifts, with singing or other
activities in-between. So people who wake up in the middle of the night
and can’t fall back to sleep easily may be reverting to ancient
patterns. ‘It’s the seamless sleep we aspire to that’s the anomaly, the
creation of the modern world,’ Roger Ekirch, author of At Day’s Close, told The New York Times recently.”
-
Adele Horin, “Unravel the Sleeve
of Care for a Decent Night’s Sleep,” Sydney Morning Herald, February
23, 2008
“In a provocative article last year in Applied Neurology,
Dr. Walter Brown reviews historical descriptions of pre-industrial
sleep and suggests that sleeping in two nightly shifts separated by an
hour or two of quiet wakefulness is completely normal. I encourage you
to read it. He proposes that the advent of inexpensive artificial
light allowed us to stay awake long after sundown and has led us to be
so chronically sleep deprived that we usually sleep for 7 uninterrupted
hours nightly. This uninterrupted sleep pattern has now become the
new norm. When our natural pattern of sleeping in two shifts reasserts
itself, we find it abnormal and distressing. We are sure something is
wrong, and a whole industry has sprung up to reinforce our anxiety and
help us sleep the way we think we should. Our expectations about our
bodies go a long way toward shaping what symptoms we find distressing
and what we ignore. Many patients are quite alarmed about entirely
normal symptoms and refuse to be reassured. But patients alone are not
to be blamed. Many forces have pushed modern medicine to pathologize
normal symptoms. After all, pharmaceutical companies sell
prescriptions, not reassurance.”
-
Albert Fuchs, M.D., Beverly Hills, California, Dec. 13, 2007, www.albertfuchs.com
“More
surprising still, Ekirch reports that for many centuries, and perhaps
back to Homer, Western society slept in two shifts. People went to
sleep, got up in the middle of the night for an hour or so, and then
went to sleep again. Thus night — divided into a ‘first sleep’ and
‘second sleep’ — also included a curious intermission. ‘There was an
extraordinary level of activity,’ Ekirch told me. People got up and
tended to their animals or did housekeeping. Others had sex or just lay
in bed thinking, smoking a pipe, or gossiping with bedfellows. Benjamin
Franklin took ‘cold-air baths,’ reading naked in a chair. Our
conception of sleep as an unbroken block is so innate that it can seem
inconceivable that people only two centuries ago should have
experienced it so differently. Yet in an experiment at the National
Institutes of Health a decade ago, men kept on a schedule of 10 hours
of light and 14 hours of darkness — mimicking the duration of day and
night during winter — fell into the same, segmented pattern. They began
sleeping in two distinct, roughly four-hour stretches, with one to
three hours of somnolence — just calmly lying there — in between.
Some sleep disorders, namely waking up in the middle of the night and
not being able to fall asleep again, ‘may simply be this traditional
pattern, this normal pattern, reasserting itself,’ Ekirch told me.
‘It’s the seamless sleep that we aspire to that’s the anomaly, the
creation of the modern world.’”
-
Jon Mooallem, “The Sleep-Industrial Complex, New York Times Magazine, November 18, 2007
“There
seems little doubt that our sleep patterns have changed over the
centuries, partly in response to technology. Research by Virginia Tech
history professor A. Roger Ekirch suggests most western Europeans
before the industrial revolution enjoyed ‘segmented sleep’ – they woke
midway through the night to reflect on their dreams, smoke tobacco and
even visit neighbours.”
-
Peter Barber, “Snooze Function,” Financial Times (London), May 25, 2007
“Segmented
or fragmented sleep appears in early times to have been the rule
rather than exception, writes the American writer Walter Brown in a
fascinating article in Scientific American Mind (January
2007). He cites the research of the historian Roger Ekirch, who in
early literature discovered that before the invention of gaslight and
electricity, most people in the evening and at night slept in two
episodes. They called the episodes “first sleep” and “second sleep”. In
effect, most people after sunset went to sleep for four hours and then
woke up. They stayed awake a few hours and then went to sleep for four
hours until sunrise. What did they do in the dark night hours?
Everything, according to the literature. Household tasks that could be
done by candlelight. Talk. Sometimes they even went to visit others.
The hours were also often used for prayer, contemplation and reflection
on the dreams of the first sleep. . . . Many people [today] awake in
the middle of the night and then lie and worry about their loss of
sleep. They try desperately to get back to sleep and even swallow
sleeping pills to sleep through the night. Maybe they should do what
their ancestors did: early to bed, awaken to do something useful or
pleasant, and after a few hours go back to bed for the second sleep.”
- Elsevier (Amsterdam), March 14, 2007
“A
recent discovery and a reexamination of some classic sleep literature
suggest that for some people the perfect eight hours of sleep remains
elusive for a very simple reason: our need for such uninterrupted
slumber may be nothing but a fairy tale. The source of this new assault
on conventional thinking comes not from a drug company lab or a
university research program but from a historian.”
-
Walter A. Brown, “Ancient Sleep
in Modern Time,” Scientific American Mind, December 2006/January 2007
“Recently
I had reason to think about varieties of sleep and dreams –
historians’ dreams of the past, writers’ dreams of their subject,
dreamers in the past. The occasion was a conference that included sleep
researchers in neuroscience; and the inspiration was a marvelous essay
on the history of sleep by the early modern historian A. Roger Ekirch.
It’s not a subject that comes naturally. Ekirch points out historians’
generic preference for vigorous actors: ‘our entire history is only the
history of waking men’. . . . Ekirch explicates this historical ‘bias’
in favour of active, animated
protagonists and against dull sleepers: ‘Whereas our waking hours are
animated, volatile, and highly differentiated, sleep appears, by
contrast, passive, monotonous, and uneventful’”.
-
Christine Stansell, History Workshop Journal, Autumn 2006
“The
study fits what may be an ancient human pattern, according to findings
of historian A. Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech, author of At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past.
“The dominant pattern in the Western world until the Industrial
Revolution was not seamless sleep, but segmented sleep,” he says.
Diaries and literary references going back to Homer referred to ‘first
sleep’ and ‘second sleep,’ each about four hours. In between, in the
dark of night, people would talk, use the chamber pot, slap at fleas
and lice, be on the alert for predators and have sex, he says. Most
people’s real lives no longer allow for that human pattern of natural
sleep.”
-
Susan Brink, “After You Close Your Eyes,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2006
“Before
the invention of the electric light and the normalization of clock
time, humans slept quite differently. In a review of Roger Ekirch’s At Day’s Close: A History of Nighttime,
David Wooton notes how the sleep of our ancestors was divided each
night into two separate periods. After the “first” sleep people woke,
read, talked, prayed, made love and so on. Wooton observes that
‘everyone knew the difference between first and second sleep, and
no-one expected to sleep right through.’ By contrast, our own sleep,
mediated by artificial rhythms and technological stimulation, all too
often requires medicinal or narcotic supplements to get us through the
night.”
-
Simon Cooper, Arena Magazine (Victoria, Australia), June-July, 2006
“Everyone
who reads and writes about Ekirch’s book seems very taken by his
re-discovery of the fact that our notion of one continuous, seamless
nighttime sleep (leaving our people in our pictures and our teddy bears
free to play in peace) is just a modern trend and an artificial,
unnatural imposition against the wills of our bodies and minds.”
-
I. Warden, “Warden’s World,” Canberra Times, June 30, 2006
“The
discoveries of Ekirch and [Thomas] Wehr raise the possibility that
segmented sleep is ‘normal’ and, as such, these revelations hold
significant implications for both understanding sleep and the treatment
of insomnia.”
-
Walter A. Brown, “Acknowledging
Preindustrial Patterns of Sleep May Revolutionize Approach to Sleep
Dysfunction,” Applied Neurology, May 2006.
“One of the many revelations in A. Roger Ekirch’s historical investigation of night-time, At Day’s Close,
is the demonstration that until the modern age, segmented sleep was
more common than the straight eight-hour stretch. Premoderns used to go
to bed at nightfall for their “first sleep,” then rise again around or
after midnight for a tenebral intermezzo of reading, talking, sex, or,
if they were unlucky, household chores, before retiring again for
another few hours of slumber.”
- Harry Eyres, Financial Times, May 13, 2006
“So here’s a question: Is the proverbial good night’s sleep really the Holy Grail of human well-being? In his 2005 book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past,
historian A.Roger Ekirch said no. He argued that the transition from
old-fashioned “segmented sleep” to today’s continuous sleep pattern
hasn’t helped mankind. ‘There is every reason to believe that segmented
sleep, such as many wild animals exhibit, had long been the natural
pattern of our slumber before the modern age, with a provenance as old
as humankind,’ Ekirch wrote. Up until the invention of artificial
lighting, he noted, men and women went to bed earlier and woke up in
the middle of the night to smoke a pipe, make love, or analyze their
dreams. Now we sleep when we want to and fitfully, at best.”
- Alex Beam, “Perchance to Sleep,” Boston Globe, April 10, 2006
“A recent article by A. Roger Ekirch, a professor of history and author of At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past,
caught my eye. In it he challenges the concepts of the patterns of
sleep which we now accept as normal. . . . We now find ourselves
battling against nature to get what we see as our rightful share of
sleep. Forced into an unnatural sleep pattern, many people seek refuge
in the sedative effects of alcohol and hypnotics to restore this
artificial pattern may in fact just be a more natural form of segmented
sleep, just as nature intended. . . . So perhaps it’s time to
re-educate ourselves and our patients about what is ‘normal’ when it
comes to slumber.”
-
Muiris Houston, M.D., Medicine Weekly (Dublin), March 15, 2006
“Sleep
patterns around the world have undergone a revolution over the past
two centuries as the spread of artificial lighting profoundly changed
the shape of human lives, first in cities and now even in many remote
villages. Throughout most of history sundown brought an end to the
activities in most homes, with people crawling into bed soon afterwards.
A. Roger Ekirch—author of a magisterial history of nighttime, At Day’s Close
(Norton)— argues that the very nature of a night’s rest has changed
since the Industrial Revolution. Sleep for our ancestors was often
divided into two shifts of roughly four hours, with a period of
wakefulness lasting an hour or longer in between. A study conducted by
the U.S. government’s National Institute of Mental Health appears to
confirm Ekirch’s thesis.”
-
Jay Walljasper, Ode Magazine, November 2005
“Ekirch’s research on nighttime led to the surprising discovery, laid out in his recent book, At Day’s Close: Night In Times Past,
about humanity’s frequent nightly pastime, sleep. Ekirch learned
that, before artificial light, humans had a “first sleep” of two to
three hours, followed by a one- to two-hour long period of wakefulness
and then several more hours of sleep. He found references to this
pattern of segmented or broken sleep in numerous references, even the
Aeneid and Homer’s Odyssey. ‘So it was for hundreds, probably thousands
of years,’ he said. ‘Beginning in the late 17th century, segmented
slumber gradually grew less common’ with the increasing popularity of
artificial illumination and a goal of eight hours of uninterrupted
sleep. This ‘altered circadian rhythms as old as humanity itself.’”
-
A.J. Hostetler, “Is the Nighttime
Losing its Identity,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 28, 2005
“But
surely sleep itself, when it did come, was just like our sleep, wasn’t
it? In one of the most fascinating sections of a fascinating book,
Ekirch demonstrates how differently our forebears slept their eight
hours a night. After “breeches-off” time, the “customary term for nine
o’ clock in parts of Germany,” the sleepers fell into their ‘first
sleep,’ which usually lasted till midnight or so. Then they roused to
urinate, have sex, mull over their dreams and share intimate
conversation with their spouses. The educated might use the time to
read and study by candlelight, while farmers might check on their
livestock and women might get up to ‘rock the cradle, also to card and
comb wool, to patch and to wash, to rub flax and reel yarn and peel
rushes.’ Others, industrious after a different fashion, found it a good
time to slip out and poach game, steal firewood, rob orchards and
perhaps practice magic. Most people, though, probably talked a while,
performed a task or two, and then slipped into their ‘second sleep’
till cock-crow. This two-part pattern of sleep is, Ekirch says, still
typical in the part of the world where artificial light has not
arrived.”
-
Andrew Hudgins, “Laughter in the Dark,” Raleigh News & Observer, July 31, 2005
“A
wonderful section, for example, describes the practice of segmented
sleep: before the industrial age, people often slept for a few hours
after dinner, then woke after midnight to engage in restful
contemplation and prayer, conversation or sex, and then resumed
sleeping until daybreak. ‘Regenerate man finds no time so fit to raise
his soul to Heaven, as when he awakes at mid-night,’ wrote the author
of ‘Mid-Night Thoughts” in 1682.’”
-
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New York Times, July 24, 2005
“The
discussion of sleep patterns is especially interesting. ‘There is
every reason to believe that segmented sleep, such as many wild animals
exhibit, had long been the natural pattern of our slumber before the
modern age, with a provenance as old as humankind,’ Ekirch writes.
People went to bed early and awoke around midnight. Some got up for
awhile; most probably lay in bed thinking, dozing, or talking with
their bedmate, before falling asleep for another four hours or so. This
interval of wakefulness may have boosted birth rates among the laboring
classes, Ekirch says.”
-
Fritz Lanham, “Nighttime as Fright Time,” Houston Chronicle, June 26, 2005
“Perhaps
the strangest revelation of Ekirch’s book is the fact that our
forebears, far from enjoying a dark night’s sleep uninterrupted by
neighbours’ security lights or car alarms, found themselves prey, not
only to shouts of ‘murder’ in the streets and fears of thieves or the
more spectral intruders of their imaginations, but also to waking
regularly at midnight – their rest being separated into ‘first sleep”
and “second sleep’. It was a habitual but natural division of the night
which only modern lighting would change (by keeping us awake until
late), and it is just one of the many facts in this engrossing book
that illuminate the darker recesses of the past.”
-
Philip Hoare, Sunday Telegraph (London), June 19, 2005
“We
no longer sleep as nature intended us to – in two major intervals of
sleep bridged by up to an hour or more of wakefulness, asserts Ekirch.
In the older age more attuned to inner clocks, not only was sleep
segmented but that fragmentation of sleep made us more responsive to
the our subconscious, he aver; people apparently awoke after midnight
and, instead of tossing and turning, they regularly got up to talk,
study, pray and do chores. The historian has dug up literary and
epistolary references to the so-called first sleep or primo somno and
the second sleep, which is sometimes referred to as ‘morning sleep’.
Worse, he warns that by substituting this episodic sleep with a
shorter, seamless slumber, we have committed a crime against nature. “By
turning night into day,” he writes, “modern technology has helped to
obstruct our oldest path to the human psyche.”
-
Lola Chantal, “Is ‘Wakeful’ Sleep More Soulful?” Economic Times (Mumbai), May 30, 2005
“Strikingly,
[Ekirch] addresses at length the once commonly accepted notion of
“first sleep,” an initial and distinct period of deep and restful
sleep that was fully expected to be followed by an interval of
wakefulness before the remainder of the night’s sleep, referred to as
“second sleep” or “morning sleep.” This pattern of sleep was widely
recognized, as is demonstrated by Ekirch’s compendious list of medical,
literary, and popular sources referencing the term in English, French,
and Italian from before the 13th century through the 19th century.
This was considered a normal and unproblematic sleep pattern. There is
no particular mention in print of waking in the middle of the night as
undesirable or pathologic. Quite the contrary, Ekirch located scores of
references in journals and diaries to the peacefulness and meditative
appeal of this waking period.”
-
Oskar G. Jenni and Bonnie B.
O’Connor, “Children’s Sleep: An Interplay between Culture and Biology,”
Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics,
January 2005
“Studies
of Western Europeans by historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University in Blacksburg show that “segmented
sleep” was a common practice of rural and urban people 200-55 years
ago.”
-
Tim Batchelder, “The Cultural
Biology of Sleep,” Townshend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July
2002
“But
there is magic, too, in the unlit night, a loosening of the temporal
and physical boundaries that bind us by day. Ekirch uncovered multiple
references to ‘first sleep’ and ‘second sleep’ in historical records;
he theorizes that once we slept in two roughly equal interludes, split
by a period of quiet wakefulness in which dreams were contemplated and
prayers offered. This creative window closed gradually during the 19th
century, as gas lamps became common and human sleep patterns
consolidated.”
- Kate Terwilliger, Denver Post, April 6, 2001
“One
of Ekirch’s discoveries surprised him: in the pre-electric centuries,
people slept differently. We assume it is normal to slumber more or
less continuously through the night. We think of wakefulness as a
disorder–insomnia. And common sense suggests that, without electric
lights, our preindustrial ancestors must have slept from sunset to
sunrise. But Ekirch has found that was not so. Preindustrial people’s
sleep was segmented. They might lie an hour or more before falling
asleep. About four hours later, they would awaken. For another hour or
so, they would lie meditating on their dreams or praying. They would
talk with bedmates. They might even visit neighbors, similarly awake.
They might pilfer or poach. Then they would sleep another four hours or
so. People, as a matter of course, routinely referred to their first
sleep and their second sleep.”
-
Joyce and Richard Wolkomir, Smithsonian, January 2001
“Our
ancestors, living before electric lighting, probably didn’t get that
sleep all at once. Waking with the sun and retiring for the day when
darkness fell, they had plenty of time in bed, and historian A. Roger
Ekirch of Virginia Tech has found that they slept in two segments.
References as far back as Virgil and Homer called it ‘first sleep’ and
‘second sleep.’ In between was an hour or two of quiet wakefulness that
our ancestors sometimes called ‘the watch.’ It was a time to ponder
dreams and plot wars.”
-
Susan Brink, “Sleepless Society,” U.S. New and World Report, October 8, 2000.
“In
other times, what is more, people may have slept differently. Roger
Ekirch, a history professor at Virginia Polytechnic in the US, is
currently finishing a book about nocturnal British life between 1500
and 1850. He has discovered ‘hundreds’ of references, he says, in
people’s diaries and letters and court statements, to sleeping routines
that now sound quite alien. ‘Most households,’ he says, ‘experienced a
pattern of broken sleep.’ People went to bed at nine or 10. They
awakened after midnight, after what they called their ‘first sleep’
stayed conscious for an hour, and then had their ‘morning sleep’. The
interlude was a haven for reflection, remembering dreams, having sex,
or even night-time thievery. The poorest, Ekirch says, were the
greatest beneficiaries, fleetingly freed from the constraints and
labours that ruled their daytime existence. By the 17th century, as
artificial light became more common, the rich were already switching to
the more concentrated – and economically efficient – mode of
recuperation that we follow today. The industrial revolution pushed back
the dusk for everyone except pockets of country-dwellers.”
-
Andy Beckett, Guardian, August 10, 1999
25 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai: Inventor of e-mail honored by Smithsonian
By Emi Kolawole, Published: February 18
Clarification: A number of readers have accurately pointed out that electronic messaging predates V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai’s work in 1978. However, Ayyadurai holds the copyright to the computer program called“email,” establishing him as the creator of the “computer program for [an] electronic mail system” with that name, according to the U.S. Copyright Office.
The Smithsonian has acquired the tapes, documentation, copyrights, and over 50,000 lines of code that chronicle the invention of e-mail. The lines of code that produced the first “bcc,” “cc,” “to” and “from” fields were the brainchild of then-14-year0old inventor V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai.
On Thursday, his name, his 1978 invention documentation and the associated copyright were entered in the Smithsonian permanent collection. The documentation will be archived in the National Museum of American History and put into an online exhibit. The documents will be scanned as soon as this week to be featured on a site under the Smithsonian.org domain. The date for the site launch has not yet been determined.
Ayyadurai’s path to the Smithsonian started with a series of articles he wrote about the U.S. Postal Service’s decline and his concern that the USPS was failing to innovate. His take: The Postal Service, carrying on the spirit of innovation which led to its creation, should have embraced e-mail years ago.
After a profile in Time magazine and a call from the Postal Service Inspector General asking for his ideas, Ayyadurai’s alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called to insist that it would be improper for the university to take the documentation of his work, and that it belonged in the Smithsonian. Conversations began, eventually leading to the Smithsonian’s latest addition and the celebration Thursday.
“My mom just passed away. So, it was unfortunate she wasn’t there,” said Ayyadurai during an interview at the Washington Post Thursday afternoon. “She represented for me a woman who came from very, very meager backgrounds — struggled to come here and then become a mathematician herself at a time when women weren’t supposed to get an education and work at a university as a systems analyst.”
“I think,without my mom,” he continued, “I would not have, as a young person, been introduced to that environment and had the opportunity to work there.”
Ayyadurai recounted how a family friend who had heard of MIT recommended that he apply. Reluctant, Ayyadurai filled out his application in pencil, with the family friend standing over his shoulder to make sure he finished.
“I didn’t even know about MIT until two weeks before I applied,” said Ayyadurai.
When he arrived he entered an environment still shadowed by racism. It was the beginning of the Reagan Administration, and the campus, like the rest of the nation, was still struggling to integrate. And there was another problem: “The people there didn’t seem very happy,” said Ayyadurai.
“I came in having developed this e-mail system, and when I went to my classes I was very bored. … I, essentially, got involved in a lot of radical politics,” he continued.
Coming from India, which, at the time, had a rigid caste system, he identified with the black and poor white students on campus.
“I was very intrigued by how do you change the system,” said Ayyadurai, who balanced his time between the studying technology and studying politics. Changing that system, he continued, was more complex than developing an e-mail system.
A recommendation for the young inventor
When it comes to today’s young people, particularly the 14-year-old eager to become an inventor, Ayyadurai recommends recommends embarking on independent studies, and taking a break from school before heading to college.
“I, in fact, believe people should work before they even go to school,” said Ayyadurai, a faculty lecturer at MIT in the Biological Engineering Division. “Many people don’t even know why they’re going to college.”
But he’s not against going to college entirely, rather he is a fan of a combination of experiential learning and rote discipline. After all, Ayyadurai is at the front lines when it comes to preparing America’s youth for careers in science and technology.
He developed a class on traditional medicine and systems technology and another on systems visualization at MIT. The latter gives students who would otherwise not engage in the arts an opportunity to illustrate a complex concept. The course went from 6 to 32 and now 50 students, becoming one of the most popular classes on campus.
Based on his experience with the class, Ayyadurai recommends teaching the systems first and then bringing in the more complex, detailed math and science.
“The problems of today’s world are not just learning how to build a computer better or writing a software program. A lot of that stuff is being outsourced,” said Ayyadurai. “The big problems are large-scale systems.” Think education, transportation and even relationships, he said.
“If we can teach students that the world is very complex and to understand that complexity you need to have a systems approach,” he continued, “I think that systems approach is what students want to learn.”
The intellectual property debate
“I fundamentally do not believe in the patenting of software,” said Ayyadurai. “It would be like Shakespeare patenting the tragic love story.”
He admits that in his work as a venture capitalist he has had to go against his own belief. But, rather than patents, Ayyadurai prefers copyright, which allows others to innovate using the technology.
By pursuing a copyright on his e-mail work, Ayyadurai opened it up for use, but with credit. Had he pursued a patent, it could have significantly stunted the technology’s growth even as it had the potential to make him incredibly wealthy.
America, freedom and innovation
“We fail to recognize how much freedom we actually have here relative to these other countries,” said Ayyadurai when asked what the United States gets wrong when it comes to moving its innovation economy forward.
“That awareness,” he continued, “is what needs to be developed for people.”
India and China, two countries making significant strides in technology and innovation still lag behind the U.S., according to Ayyadurai, who says it’s due to a lack of fundamental freedoms in those nations.
“We should not really have any types of jobs issues here,” continued Ayyadurai, saying that the “basis of American democracy” is innovation.
“Innovation actually demands freedom, and freedom demands innovation,” said Ayyadurai. “I don’t think there’s more money we need to throw at it.”
Ayyadurai also has some recommendations for the presidential candidates when it comes to policy proposals that will accelerate rather than slow innovation growth.
“Small businesses, I believe, are the place where innovation really takes place,” said Ayyadurai.
With venture capital moving away from mid- and small-tier businesses, those companies are in need of government assistance. “There’s this whole strata of small businesses that needs tax credits, I think.”
Are we overcommunicating?
“I think people are overcommunicating in the sense they have missed out on what is communication,” said Ayyadurai. “A lot of time when people are texting, it’s not the content — you don’t need to text — but people are doing it just to connect with another human being, so a lot of the information is almost irrelevant.”
“I think we’re in this phase now in humanity where we have all these communication vehicles but we still are, as humans, trying to figure out how do we connect,” he continued, “because that ritual mode of communication is removed from us.”
25 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
A blog posting
recently made the rounds regarding a fatal design flaw in the Tesla
Roadster. The blogger claims that some Roadsters have become “bricks”,
with non-functioning batteries requiring a $40,000 fix. The blog is dead
wrong about most of the technical facts it claims to be reporting.
Don’t blame the blogger, however: he’s only participating in a trend of
misinformation about electric vehicles that is starting to impact the
reputation of the fledgling industry.
Here’s the primary fact that the blogger in question doesn’t
understand: the Tesla battery pack is not a battery. It’s a collection
of more than 6,800 individual batteries. Each of those cells is
independently managed. So there’s only two ways for the entire battery
pack to fail. The first is if all 6,800 cells individually fail (highly
unlikely except in the case of something catastrophic like a fire). The
second failure mechanism is if the battery management system tells the
pack to shut down because it has detected a dangerous situation, such as
an extremely low depth of discharge. If that’s the case, all that needs
to be done is to tow the vehicle to a charger, recharge the batteries
and then reboot the battery management system. This is the most likely
explanation for the five “bricks” that the blogger claims to have heard
about. They probably aren’t actually bricks, but cars in need of
servicing.
Another error on the part of the blogger is the claim that if the
cars discharge fully, the battery packs will be damaged. This is
blatantly false. The battery management system of the Tesla Roadster
keeps the battery from being discharged to a damagingly low state of
charge under normal driving conditions. It’s true that a full discharge
to zero percent state of charge can potentially be damaging to a
battery. However the battery management system of the Roadster won’t
allow the car to reach that low level of charge.
There is a fundamental problem when any rechargeable battery is
discharged and then left to sit for months. Any boat owner understands
that that’s why you plug in a trickle charger when the craft is put into
storage. The same should be done for any electric vehicle. However, to
imply that the Tesla Roadster has a fundamental design flaw because of
the nature of electrochemistry is like saying that Chrysler has a
fundamental design flaw because its engines will be damaged if you drain
all the oil out and then drive cross-country.
The blogger in question is, unfortunately, not a single voice in the
wilderness. He’s part of a widespread trend throughout some parts of the
blogosphere and some parts of traditional media to politicize and
demonize the electric vehicle. This trend has in turn damaged the
general reputation of the automakers taking risks in building and
selling these vehicles. This isn’t the only problem that electric
vehicles have today (overpricing and bad choreography have done their damage too). But there’s an antidote for this type of misinformation: confronting it with facts.
09 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
How it work :
The
master oscillator, a voltage reference and comparator collected on DA2.
External elements DD1 and DD2 repeated internal structure of the TL494,
in the part that works is unstable at low frequencies (false positive
D-flip-flop).
Further, using the low-pass filter suppresses the
upper harmonics of the PWM. LPF consists of two parts. First-DA1.1, with
a smooth lowpass characteristic curves. Second-DA1.2 notch filter with a
frequency of 150 Hz suppression. The analysis shows that the PWM
contains only odd harmonics of the first and, because such a filter is
enough to form a “beautiful” sine (oscillogram 2). And, as the level of
the first harmonic is almost linearly dependent on porosity, we obtain a
well-managed with precision sine constant component equal to 2.5 V.
Further, in addition we get the inverse sine (Pin 14 DA1.4).
In
DA3, DA5, VT1, VT2 assembled the first channel of the VLF class D. The
second channel, respectively, collected on DA4, DA7, VT3, VT4. At the
output of the first and second channels are formed antiphase sine wave
VLF (oscillogram 3).
The output of the transformer, a diode bridge fed on the feedback output voltage. Thus the output voltage stabilisator.
Specifications :
Input voltage 12 … 14V
output voltage 50 Hz 220 + /-2V
Max power 50W
Efficiency … 90%.
09 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Parts list:
R1,R2,R31,R32 = 470k
R3,R10,R12,R18,R30,R36,R37,R38 = 100k
R4,R16 = Poti 50k
R5,R19 = 68k
R6 = 22 k
R7,R11,R13,R29 = 10k
R8,R22 = 2,2 k
R9,R15,R27,R28,R39 = 1M
R14 = 47k
R17 = 3,3M
R20 = 0,001 (see construction plan)
R21,R45 … R64 = 100 Ohm
R23,R40,R41 = 1k
R24 = 150 Ohm
R33 = 0,1 Ohm / 17 Watt for 3000 Watt output max.
R34,R42 = 150 k
R35 = 470 Ohm
R43 = 4,7k / 0,5 Watt
R25,R26 = 10 Ohm
R44,R45,R46,R47 = 22 Ohm
C1 = 47nF (no ceramic capacitor – frequency stability!)
C2 = obsolete
C3,C25 = 4,7uF
C4,C9,C11,C24,C26 = 0,1uF
C5 = 10000 uF
C6,C7,C10,C14,C23 = 220uF
C8,C12,C20,C22 = 100uF/16Volt
C13 = 220uF/35 V (max. 25 Volt through charge pump)
C15,C16 = 47uF
C17,C18 = 10nF
C19,C21 = 1nF
D1,D2,D3,D5,D6,D9,D14,D15,D16,D18,D20 = 1N 4148
D4 = ZPD 12
D7 = ZPD 5,6
D17,D19 = ZPD 10
D8,D10,D11,D12,D13 = 1N 4001
IC1,IC9,IC10 = TL081
IC2 = CA3130E
IC12,IC13 = LM741
IC3,IC4,IC5,IC6 = 1 x 4093
IC7,IC8 = 1 x 4013
IC11 = 7812
T1,T4 = BCY59 or BC547 (T1 affects the pulse width regulator and thus voltage regulation!)
T2,T3,T11 = BCY79 or BC556
T5,T8,T10 = BS 250 (IRF9Z24N)
T6,T7,T9,T12 = 2 N 7000 (IRFZ24N)
T13… T28 = 16 x IRF 3205
LED1 red, overload protection
LED2 yellow, load detection
Tr1 = 3000 VA
Tr2 = small transformer 1 VA, 230V/6V
F1 = 250 A (100 Amperes for 1000 Watts output)
F2 = 75 degree celsius switch off
Relay1 = 12 V coil, 2 contacts
1 heat sink 200mm x 100 mm
PCB Layout:
Component Placement:
Technical Data:
- Supply voltage: 12 Volt
- Battery size: depending upon load, otherwise no restriction
- Output voltage: 230 Volts rms (square wave voltage with duty cycle Tp=25% “modified sine”)
- Good for resistive, inductive and “pseudocapacitive” load (e.g. computers)
- Efficiency: under full load approx. 95%
- Quiescent current of control electronics: approx.. 0.05 A … 0.1 A
- Total: 0.5A to 2,5 A, depending upon quality and max. induction of the used transformer
- Pulse width regulation for the stabilization of rms of the output voltage
- Current limiter in case of short-circuit an thermal protection
- Option: load detection
This 3000W inverter is suitable for:
- Electric drills, fret saws, circular saws, electric chain saws, grinders
- Vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, irons, dryers, mixers, sewing machines, electric razors, etc.
- Lamps, energy-savings lamps
- Electronic devices, e.g. music amplifiers, battery chargers
- Computers and accessories, UPS
- Televisions and radios
- Ham radio transmitters, high voltage generators, among other things
06 Feb 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
| Cryogenic air separation processes are routinely used in medium to large scale plants to produce nitrogen, oxygen, and argon as gases and/ or liquid products.
Cryogenic air separation is the preferred technology for producing very high purity oxygen and nitrogen. It is the most cost effective technology for high production rate plants. All plants producing liquefied industrial gas products utilize cryogenic technology.
The complexity of the cryogenic air separation process, the physical sizes of equipment, and the energy required to operate the process all vary with the number of gaseous and liquid products, required product purities, and required delivery pressures.
Nitrogen-only production plants are less complex and require less power to operate than an oxygen-only plant making the same amount of product. Co-production of both products, when both are needed, increases capital and energy efficiency. Making these products in liquid form requires additional equipment and more than doubles the amount of power required per unit of delivered product.
Argon production is economical only as a co-product with oxygen. Making it at high purity adds to the physical size and complexity of the plant.
|
| |
|
Air – The Raw Material for Making Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon:
|
| |
Dry air is relatively uniform in composition, with primary constituents as shown below. Ambient air, may have up to about 5% (by volume) water content and may contain a number of other gases (usually in trace amounts) that are removed at one or more points in the air separation and product purification system.
| Primary Components of Dry Air |
| Gas |
% by Volume |
% by Weight |
Parts per Million (V) |
Chemical Symbol |
| Nitrogen |
78.08 |
75.47
|
780805 |
N2 |
| Oxygen |
20.95 |
23.20 |
209450 |
O2 |
| Argon |
0.93 |
1.28 |
9340 |
Ar |
| Carbon Dioxide |
0.039 |
0.0606 |
390 |
CO2 |
|
| |
|
General Process Description – Cryogenic Air Separation:
|
| |
| There are numerous variations in air separation cycles used to make industrial gas products. Design variations arise from differences in user requirements. Process cycles are somewhat different depending upon how many products are desired (either nitrogen or oxygen; both oxygen and nitrogen; or nitrogen, oxygen and argon); the required product purities; the gaseous product delivery pressures desired; and whether one or more products will be produced and stored in liquid form.
All cryogenic air separation processes consist of a similar series of steps. Variations in selected process configuration and pressure levels reflect the desired product mix (or mixes) and the priorities/ evaluation criteria of the user. Some process cycles minimize capital cost, some minimize energy usage, some maximize product recovery, and some allow maximum operating flexibility.
The cryogenic air separation flow diagram shown below illustrates (in a generic fashion) many of the important steps in producing nitrogen, oxygen and argon as both gas and liquid products. It does not represent any particular plant.
|
 |
| |
|
Steps in Cryogenic Air Separation:
|
| |
|
The first process step in any air separation plant is filtering, compressing, and cooling the incoming air.
In most cases the air is compressed to somewhere between 5 and 8 bar, depending upon the intended product mix and desired product pressures. The compressed air is cooled, and much of the water vapor in the incoming air is condensed and removed, as the air passes through a series of interstage coolers plus an aftercooler following the final stage of compression.
Because the final temperature of the compressed air is limited by the temperature of the available cooling medium, which in almost all cases is limited by the wet or dry bulb temperature of the air, the temperature of the compressed air is sometimes well above optimum for maximizing the efficiency of downstream unit operations.
Consequently, the compressed air is often cooled to a somewhat lower temperature in a mechanical refrigeration system. In addition to lowering and stabilizing the inlet temperature to downstream compression and heat exchange systems, which enhances the efficiency and stability of the overall air separation process, reducing the compressed air temperature allows removal of additional water vapor by condensation, reducing the water-removal load in molecular sieve pre-purification equipment. with a mechanical refrigeration system or, In some cases, cooling may be accomplished with a direct contact aftercooler system (DCAC) instead of mechanical refrigeration. DCAC systems utilize cool, dry waste gas to chill a a circulating cooling water stream in a “chill tower”, and then use the chilled water stream to cool the compressed air in a second tower.
The next major step is removal of impurities, in particular, but not limited to, residual water vapor plus carbon dioxide.
These components of air must be removed to meet product quality specifications. In addition, they must be removed prior the air entering the distillation portion of the plant; because very low temperatures would cause the water and carbon dioxide to freeze and deposit on the surfaces within the process equipment.
There are two basic approaches to removing the water vapor and carbon dioxide - “molecular sieve units” and “reversing exchangers”.
- Most new air separation plants employ a “molecular sieve” “pre-purification unit” (PPU) to remove carbon dioxide and water from the incoming air by adsorbing these molecules onto the surface of “molecular sieve” materials at near-ambient temperature. The pre-purification units can also be designed to remove other contaminants, such as hydrocarbons, which may be found in an industrial environment. The adsorbent materials are typically contained in two identical vessels. One vessel is used to purify the air while the other is being regenerated. The two beds switch service at frequent intervals. Molecular sieve pre-purification is the natural choice when a high ratio of nitrogen recovery is desired.
-
The other approach is to use “reversing” heat exchangers to remove water and CO2. Reversing exchangers can be more cost effective for smaller production rate nitrogen or oxygen plants. In plants utilizing reversing heat exchangers, the cool-down of the compressed air feed is done in two sets of brazed aluminum heat exchangers.
In the “warm end” heat exchangers, the incoming air is cooled to a low enough temperature that the water vapor and carbon dioxide freeze out onto the walls of the heat exchanger air passages. At frequent intervals, a set of valves reverse the duty of the the air and waste gas passages. After a passage in the heat exchanger is switched from incoming air cooling to waste gas warming service, the very dry, partially-warmed waste gas evaporates the water and sublimes the carbon dioxide ices that were deposited during the last air cooling period. These gases return to the atmosphere, and after they have been fully removed, the passage is return to incoming air cooling service.
When reversing heat exchangers are used, cold absorption units are installed to remove any hydrocarbons which make their way into the distillation system. (When a molecular sieve “front end” is used, hydrocarbons are removed along with water vapor and carbon dioxide in the PPU.)
The next step is additional heat transfer against product and waste gas streams to bring the air feed to cryogenic temperature (approximately -300 degrees Fahrenheit or -185 degrees Celsius).
This cooling is done in brazed aluminum heat exchangers which allow the exchange of heat between the incoming air feed and cold product and waste gas streams exiting the separation process. The exiting gas streams are warmed to close-to-ambient air temperature. Recovering refrigeration from the gaseous product streams and waste stream minimizes the amount of refrigeration that must be produced by the plant.
The very cold temperatures needed for cryogenic distillation are created by a refrigeration process that includes expansion of one or more elevated pressure process streams.
The next step in the air separation / product purification process is distillation, which separates the air into desired products.
To make oxygen as a product, the distillation system uses two distillation columns in series, which are commonly called the “high” and “low” pressure columns. Nitrogen plants may have only one column, although many have two. Nitrogen leaves the top of each distillation column; oxygen leaves from the bottom. Impure oxygen produced in the initial (higher pressure) column is further purified in the second, lower pressure column.
Argon has a boiling point similar to that of oxygen and will preferentially stay with the oxygen product. If high purity oxygen is required, argon must be removed from the distillation system.
Argon removal takes place at a point in the low pressure column where the concentration of argon is its highest level. The argon which is removed is usually processed in an additional “side-draw” crude argon distillation column that is integrated with the low pressure column. Crude argon may be vented, further processed on site, or collected as liquid and shipped to a remote “argon refinery”. The choice depends upon the quantity of argon available and economic analysis of the various alternatives.
Pure argon is typically produced from crude argon by a multi-step process. The traditional approach is removal of the two to three percent oxygen present in the crude argon in a “de-oxo” unit. These small units chemically combine the oxygen with hydrogen in a catalyst-containing vessel. The resultant water is easily removed (after cooling) in a molecular sieve drier. The oxygen-free argon stream is further processed in a “pure argon” distillation column to remove residual nitrogen and unreacted hydrogen.
Advances in packed-column distillation technology have created a second argon production option, totally cryogenic argon recovery that uses a very tall (but small diameter) distillation column to make the difficult argon/ oxygen separation. The amount of argon that can be produced by a plant is limited by the amount of oxygen processed in the distillation system; plus a number of other variables that affect the recovery percentage. These include the amount of oxygen produced as liquid and the steadiness of plant operating conditions. Due to the naturally-occurring ratio of gases in air, argon production cannot exceed 4.4% of the oxygen feed rate (by volume) or 5.5% by weight.
The cold gaseous products and waste streams that emerge from the air separation columns are routed back through the front end heat exchangers. As they are warmed to near-ambient temperature, they chill the incoming air. As noted previously, the heat exchange between feed and product streams minimizes the net refrigeration load on the plant and, therefore, energy consumption.
Refrigeration is produced at cryogenic temperature levels to compensate for heat leak into the cold equipment and for imperfect heat exchange between incoming and outgoing gaseous streams.
Air separation plants use a refrigeration cycle that is similar, in principle, to that used in home and automobile air conditioning systems. One or more elevated pressure streams (which may be nitrogen, waste gas, feed gas, or product gas, depending upon the type of plant) are reduced in pressure, which chills the stream. To maximize chilling and plant energy efficiency, the pressure reduction (or expansion) takes place inside an expander (a form of turbine). Removing energy from the gas stream reduces its temperature more than would be the case with simple expansion across a valve. The energy produced by the expander is put to use to drive a process compressor, an electrical generator, or other energy-consuming device such as an oil pump or air blower.
Gaseous products typically exit the cold box (the insulated vessel containing the distillation columns and other equipment operating at very low temperatures) at relatively low pressures, often just over one atmosphere (absolute). In general, the lower the delivery pressure, the higher the efficiency of the separation and purification process.
When products will be used at relatively low gauge pressure (up to several atmospheres) plants can be designed and operated to produce product at the required pressure. In many cases, however, it is more cost effective to produce the product at low pressure and compress the product gas to the required delivery pressure(s).
If gaseous oxygen is required at moderate pressure, a process option is to use a “LOX boil” or “pumped LOX” cycle. These process cycles vaporize liquid oxygen at just above delivery pressure, against incoming air which has been boosted in pressure to allow it to partially condense against the vaporizing liquid oxygen. These cycles have appeal because they effectively substitute additional stages of air compression and a cryogenic pump for an oxygen compressor; which can result in a more compact and less expensive plant.
“Pumped LOX” systems are most applicable when there is fairly constant product demand. The heat for vaporizing and warming the vaporized LOX is drawn from the air feed, which is partially condensed and sent to the distillation system, Rapid changes in oxygen demand will negatively affect plant performance, as each sudden change will tend to “bounce” the distillation columns.
The portions of the cryogenic air separation process that operate at very low temperatures, i.e., the distillation columns, heat exchangers and cold interconnecting piping, must be well insulated. These items are located inside sealed (and nitrogen purged) “cold boxes”, which are relatively tall structures that may be either rectangular or round in cross section. Cold boxes are “packed” with rock wool or perlite to provide insulation and minimize convection currents. Depending on plant type and capacity, cold boxes may measure 2 to 4 meters on a side and have a height of 15 to 60 meters. They may be totally shop fabricated for rapid field erection, or the distillation columns, heat exchangers, and their interconnecting manifolds may shop fabricated for field assembly and erection. This is done when a shop fabricated box would be too large or heavy to ship to the site.
LIN assist plants are a special kind of cryogenic plant that can cost-effectively produce gaseous nitrogen at relatively low production rates. They differ from “normal” cryogenic plants in that they do not have their own mechanical refrigeration system. They effectively “import” the refrigeration required for on-site nitrogen production from a remote high-volume, high efficiency merchant liquid plant. They accomplish this by continuously injecting a small amount of liquid nitrogen into the distillation process, where the “imported” LIN provides reflux for distillation, then vaporizes and mixes with the locally-produced gaseous nitrogen, becoming part of the final product stream. Use of LIN-assist instead of a mechanical refrigeration system simplifies the plant design, makes the system somewhat more compact, reduces capital cost and can, under the right conditions, provide better overall economics than either an all-bulk-liquid supply or a new cryogenic nitrogen plant with a standard internal refrigeration cycle.
|
| When a large percentage of plant production must be produced as liquid product(s), a supplemental refrigeration unit must be added to (or integrated into) a basic air separation plant.
These units are called liquefiers and most use nitrogen as the primary working fluid. The required liquefier capacity is determined by considering the anticipated average daily demand for bulk liquid products and the need to produce some additional liquid to back up on-site gas customers served out of the same air separation plant. Liquefier capacity may range from a small fraction of the air separation plant capacity up to the plant’s maximum production capacity for oxygen plus nitrogen and argon.
The basic process cycle used in liquefiers has been unchanged for decades. The basic difference between newer and older liquefiers is that the maximum operating pressure rating of cryogenic heat exchangers has increased as cryogenic heat exchanger manufacturing technology has improved. A typical new liquefier can be more energy efficient than one built thirty years ago if it employs higher peak cycle pressures and higher efficiency expanders.
A classic “stand alone” liquefier takes in near-ambient-temperature-and-pressure nitrogen, compresses it, cools it, then expands the high pressure stream to produce refrigeration. In some liquefier systems a second refrigeration system using an environmentally-friendly form of refrigerant provides some of the higher temperature duty.
A stand-alone liquefier cycle produces only liquid nitrogen. If it is desired to produce liquid oxygen, and both the ASU and liquefier will be new units, a portion of the liquid nitrogen production will typically be sent to the ASU to provide the refrigeration which is needed to allow withdraw the desired amount of liquid oxygen from the cold box.
If the liquefier is being added to an existing ASU, the ASU may not have been designed to allow high rates of liquid oxygen withdrawal. In that case, one solution is to add extra heat exchanger circuit to liquefy gaseous oxygen while vaporizing liquid nitrogen.
In highly integrated air separation and liquefaction plants, most if not all of the refrigeration for both air separation and product liquefaction is produced in the liquefier section. Refrigeration is transferred to the air separation section of the plant through heat exchangers and injection of liquid nitrogen as distillation column reflux. Highly integrated merchant liquid production plants are less expensive to build and more thermodynamically efficient. They can be very flexible in the sense of allowing production of varying mixes of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. On the other hand, they have a potential disadvantage – the liquefier cannot be shut down independently of the air separation unit
When a totally new air separation plant is designed, an important question to address is whether the ASU and NLU (Nitrogen Liquefier Unit) will typically operate in tandem, or whether independent operation may be desirable. Bulk liquid only plants are good candidates for close integration with the air separation process cycle. “Piggyback” plants with substantial pipelined gas demand may want the ability to operate independently of the liquefier.
Being able to operate the ASU without also operating the liquefier can be advantageous:
- When liquid inventories are at high levels but a pipeline-supplied gaseous oxygen customer continues to require a large amount of product, or
-
when total liquid demand is consistently less than the full plant capacity. In this case, plants with independent liquefiers may be operated in what is commonly called a “campaign” mode – where periods of full capacity operation of the liquefier are alternated with periods when the liquefier is idled.
Campaign operations take advantage of the facts that liquefiers are most energy efficient when operating near full capacity and that shutdown and startup of an independent liquefier system can be done relatively easily and with little adverse impact on air separation plant operation. When the efficiency savings available with campaign operation are coupled with production run timing that takes advantage of lower-cost power periods (nights, weekends, etc.), significant operating cost savings can be achieved versus constant operation at reduced liquid production rates.
|
22 Jan 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
First Fast-Charging Station for E-Cars Goes Live as Part of “Electric Highway”
By Larry Greenemeier |
December 29, 2011
2011
has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric
vehicles—literally. The Washington State Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) earlier this week chose a shopping center in Bellingham as the first location to break ground on the state’s segment of the West Coast Electric Highway, part of a 444-kilometer stretch of road along Interstate 5 between Washington’s borders with Oregon and Canada.
Bellingham will host the Electric Highway’s first direct-current (DC) electric vehicle fast-charging station,
designed by AeroVironment Inc. to provide a 30-minute recharge for
all-electric vehicles. (AeroVironment has deployed fast-charging
stations in other locations nationwide, including Hawaii, as have competitors such as ECOtality Inc.)
The Bellingham charging station will also include a pedestal with a
220-volt alternate-current (AC) outlet that can recharge one plug-in
vehicle at a time at an intermediate rate of about two to eight hours,
depending on the size of the battery. (Currently, some U.S. homes have
220-volt AC outlets installed to power air conditioners and clothes
dryers. Most outlets supply 120-volt AC, which can charge e-cars at the
slowest “trickle” rate.)
AeroVironment’s Electric Highway work with the WSDOT is part of the
larger West Coast Green Highway, a three-state initiative to promote the
use of cleaner fuels along nearly 2,173 kilometers of I-5 from British
Columbia to Baja, California in Mexico. The U.S. Department of Energy is
also adding fast-charging stations along I-5 through its EV Project, a nationwide initiative managed by ECOtality.
In terms of the Electric Highway, the WSDOT awarded AeroVironment a $1 million contract in July to outfit I-5 and U.S. Highway 2 with a network of at least nine fast-charging stations by November 30. The completion date slipped to next year as AeroVironment works out lease agreements for the charging locations.
AeroVironment plans to install six stations every 64 to 97 kilometers
along I-5 in shopping malls, fueling stations and restaurants with easy
access to the highway. Three more stations will be built along U.S. Highway 2 to the north and potentially two more along Interstate 90, near Seattle.
2012 will be a pivotal year for electric vehicles such as the Nissan
Leaf and plug-in electric hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. General Motors
had high hopes for the Volt in its first full year on the market, but
the company expects to miss its sales target of 10,000 cars in 2011,
coming up short by more than 3,800, according to Bloomberg.
Sales were stronger toward the end of the year. The company is
expanding its annual production to 60,000 vehicles starting next month,
even as the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates lithium-ion battery-pack fires
following tests designed to measure the vehicle’s ability to protect
occupants from injury in a side collision. Neither Nissan nor Tesla
Motors—both of which sell all-electric vehicles powered entirely by
lithium-ion batteries—have reported any fires in either the LEAF or
Roadster, respectively.
Another important issue that remains unresolved heading into the new year—standards for electric-vehicle fast charging.
In the U.S. the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) has approved the
J1772 standard that governs slow- to moderate-speed electric car
charging, and most electric car manufacturers have committed to using
J1772 moving forward. Fast-charging standards, however, remain
fragmented. Japanese carmakers Nissan and Mitsubishi have chosen a
fast-charging standard known as CHAdeMO and developed by a consortium of
Japanese companies even as the SAE sets to work on its own standard,
which won’t be ready for the road for at least another year.
CHAdeMO may have some shortcomings
(it uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with
coming smart grid technologies), but it’s the only game in town right
now and is catching on worldwide. As a result AeroVironment’s stations
along West Coast Electric Highway are CHAdeMO compliant.
07 Jan 2012
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
By Larry Greenemeier |
December 29, 2011
| 6
Share 
Email
2011
has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric
vehicles—literally. The Washington State Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) earlier this week chose a shopping center in Bellingham as the first location to break ground on the state’s segment of the West Coast Electric Highway, part of a 444-kilometer stretch of road along Interstate 5 between Washington’s borders with Oregon and Canada.
Bellingham will host the Electric Highway’s first direct-current (DC) electric vehicle fast-charging station,
designed by AeroVironment Inc. to provide a 30-minute recharge for
all-electric vehicles. (AeroVironment has deployed fast-charging
stations in other locations nationwide, including Hawaii, as have competitors such as ECOtality Inc.)
The Bellingham charging station will also include a pedestal with a
220-volt alternate-current (AC) outlet that can recharge one plug-in
vehicle at a time at an intermediate rate of about two to eight hours,
depending on the size of the battery. (Currently, some U.S. homes have
220-volt AC outlets installed to power air conditioners and clothes
dryers. Most outlets supply 120-volt AC, which can charge e-cars at the
slowest “trickle” rate.)
AeroVironment’s Electric Highway work with the WSDOT is part of the
larger West Coast Green Highway, a three-state initiative to promote the
use of cleaner fuels along nearly 2,173 kilometers of I-5 from British
Columbia to Baja, California in Mexico. The U.S. Department of Energy is
also adding fast-charging stations along I-5 through its EV Project, a nationwide initiative managed by ECOtality.
In terms of the Electric Highway, the WSDOT awarded AeroVironment a $1 million contract in July to outfit I-5 and U.S. Highway 2 with a network of at least nine fast-charging stations by November 30. The completion date slipped to next year as AeroVironment works out lease agreements for the charging locations.
AeroVironment plans to install six stations every 64 to 97 kilometers
along I-5 in shopping malls, fueling stations and restaurants with easy
access to the highway. Three more stations will be built along U.S. Highway 2 to the north and potentially two more along Interstate 90, near Seattle.
2012 will be a pivotal year for electric vehicles such as the Nissan
Leaf and plug-in electric hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. General Motors
had high hopes for the Volt in its first full year on the market, but
the company expects to miss its sales target of 10,000 cars in 2011,
coming up short by more than 3,800, according to Bloomberg.
Sales were stronger toward the end of the year. The company is
expanding its annual production to 60,000 vehicles starting next month,
even as the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates lithium-ion battery-pack fires
following tests designed to measure the vehicle’s ability to protect
occupants from injury in a side collision. Neither Nissan nor Tesla
Motors—both of which sell all-electric vehicles powered entirely by
lithium-ion batteries—have reported any fires in either the LEAF or
Roadster, respectively.
Another important issue that remains unresolved heading into the new year—standards for electric-vehicle fast charging.
In the U.S. the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) has approved the
J1772 standard that governs slow- to moderate-speed electric car
charging, and most electric car manufacturers have committed to using
J1772 moving forward. Fast-charging standards, however, remain
fragmented. Japanese carmakers Nissan and Mitsubishi have chosen a
fast-charging standard known as CHAdeMO and developed by a consortium of
Japanese companies even as the SAE sets to work on its own standard,
which won’t be ready for the road for at least another year.
CHAdeMO may have some shortcomings
(it uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with
coming smart grid technologies), but it’s the only game in town right
now and is catching on worldwide. As a result AeroVironment’s stations
along West Coast Electric Highway are CHAdeMO compliant.
26 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Unlocking fuel trapped in ice
By Kirsten Korosec | October 25, 2011, 10:04 AM PDT
Locked
within ice-like cages that are buried in the sediments below thick
Arctic permafrost and beneath the ocean floor, is an immense source of
energy that scientists have studied for more than two decades.
Methane hydrates — gas molecules trapped within a lattice of ice
— could contain more energy than all other known fossil fuels
combined. That is, if folks figure out how to produce volumes of
methane from hydrate beyond a few small-scale field experiments.
Until then, the testing will continue. ConocoPhillips, the Energy Department and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. are conducting the latest round of field experiments, which will focus on a production method that could create an innovative way of storing carbon dioxide.
During the initial field trial set to begin in January 2012, carbon
dioxide will be injected into the methane hydrate-bearing sandstone
formations, which can be located more than 1,500 feet beneath the ocean
floor. Carbon dioxide molecules will be swapped for methane molecules,
and aims to achieve two goals: release the methane gas and permanently
store the carbon dioxide in the formation. This field experiment will be
an extension of earlier successful tests of the technology conducted by
ConocoPhillips and its partners in a laboratory setting, the DOE said.
The tests will use the “Iġnik Sikumi” (Iñupiaq for
“fire in the ice”) gas hydrate field trial well that was installed in
Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay region by ConocoPhillips and the Office of Fossil
Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory earlier this year.
The team will spend another month evaluating an alternative method of
methane production called depressurization, which was successfully
demonstrated during a one-week test in a different location by Japan and
Canada back in 2008.
Photo: Wikicommons; DOE
26 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
The Little-Known Secrets about Bleached Flour
By Dr. Joseph Mercola on 05/15/2009
Nearly everyone knows that white flour is not healthy for
you, but most people don’t know that when white flour is bleached, it
can actually be FAR worse for you.
It’s generally understood that refining food destroys nutrients. With
the most nutritious part of the grain removed, white flour essentially
becomes a form of sugar. Consider what gets lost in the refining
process:
*Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids
- *Virtually all of the vitamin
- *Fifty percent of the calcium
- *Seventy percent of the phosphorus
- *Eighty percent of the iron
- *Ninety eight percent of the magnesium
- *Fifty to 80 percent of the B vitamins
And many more nutrients are destroyed — simply too many to list.
The Journey of the Wheat Berry
Have you ever wondered how white flour is made?
The website Healthy Eating Politics has an interesting article about the process.
Most commercial wheat production is, unfortunately, a “study in
pesticide application,” beginning with the seeds being treated with
fungicide. Once they become wheat, they are sprayed with hormones and
pesticides. Even the bins in which the harvested wheat is stored have
been coated with insecticides. If bugs appear on the wheat in storage,
they fumigate the grain.
A whole grain of wheat, sometimes called a wheat berry, is composed of three layers:
- *The bran
- *The germ
- *The endosperm
The bran is the layer where you’ll find most of the fiber, and it’s
the hard outer shell of the kernel. The germ is the nutrient-rich embryo
that will sprout into a new wheat plant. The endosperm is the largest
part of the grain (83 percent), making up most of the kernel, and it’s
mostly starch.
White flour is made from the endosperm only, whereas whole-wheat flour combines all three parts of the wheat berry.
Old time mills ground flour slowly, but today’s mills are designed
for mass-production, using high-temperature, high-speed steel rollers.
The resulting white flour is nearly all starch, and even much of today’s
commercially processed whole wheat flour has lost a fair amount of
nutritional value due to these aggressive processing methods.
White flour contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the
original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers having destroyed what
little nutrients remain. But then it is hit with another chemical
insult–a chlorine gas bath (chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an “aging” agent.
Flour used to be aged with time, improving the gluten and thus
improving the baking quality. Now, it is treated with chlorine to
instantly produce similar qualities in the flour (with a disturbing lack
of concern about adding another dose of chemicals to your food).
According to Jim Bair, Vice President of the North American Millers Association:
“Today, the US milling industry produces about 140 million pounds of
flour each day, so there is no way to store the flour to allow it to age
naturally. Plus, there is a shelf life issue.”
It has not been determined how many mills are bleaching flour with
chorine oxide, but we do know the use of chlorides for bleaching flour
is considered an industry standard.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines chlorine gas as
a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful
irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal. Other agents also used
include oxides of nitrogen, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with
various chemical salts.
The chlorine gas undergoes an oxidizing chemical reaction with some
of the proteins in the flour, producing alloxan as an unintended
byproduct. Bair and other milling industry leaders claim that bleaching
and oxidizing agents don’t leave behind harmful residues in flour,
although they can cite no studies or published data to confirm this.
Why Bleaching Makes White Flour Even Worse
It has been shown that alloxan is a byproduct of the flour bleaching process, the process they use to make flour look so “clean” and — well, white. No, they are technically not adding alloxan
to the flour — although you will read this bit of misinformation on
the Internet. But, they are doing chemical treatments to the grain that
result in the formation of alloxan in the flour.
With so little food value already in a piece of white bread, now
there is potentially a chemical poison lurking in there as well.
So what is so bad about alloxan?
Alloxan, or C4 H2O4N2, is a product of the decomposition of uric
acid. It is a poison that is used to produce diabetes in healthy
experimental animals (primarily rats and mice), so that researchers can
then study diabetes “treatments” in the lab. Alloxan causes diabetes
because it spins up enormous amounts of free radicals in pancreatic beta
cells, thus destroying them.
Beta cells are the primary cell type in areas of your pancreas called
islets of Langerhans, and they produce insulin; so if those are
destroyed, you get diabetes.
There is no other commercial application for alloxan — it is used
exclusively in the medical research industry because it is so highly
toxic.
Given the raging epidemic of diabetes and other chronic diseases in
this country, can you afford to be complacent about a toxin such as this
in your bread, even if it is present in small amounts?
Just How Much is Too Much?
Similar to disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in water, alloxan is formed
when the chlorine reacts with certain proteins remaining in the white
flour after the bran and germ have been removed. Protein makes up
between 5 percent and 15 percent of white flour, depending on whether
it’s cake flour, or high-gluten flour, such as what’s used for pizza
crust or bagels.
So, this would suggest that perhaps 5 to 15 grams of protein per 100 grams of flour could be contaminated.
However, according to Professor Joe Schwarcz, Director of the McGill
University Office of Science and Society, alloxan is the byproduct of
xantophyll oxidation only. Xantophylls are yellow compounds in wheat that react with oxygen, causing flour to turn white.
According to Mr. Schwarcz:
“One of the possible minor side products of xantophyll oxidation is
alloxan. It may therefore be found in small amounts in flour. There is
no available research that shows trace amounts are a problem or that
alloxan builds up in the body. The amounts, if present at all, must be
small because xantophylls themselves only occur to the extent of 1 microgram per gram of flour.”
Alloxan has not been studied in terms of human exposure, particularly
long-term. There is just so much we don’t know, and you know what
assumptions will get you.
Alloxan in Rats vs Alloxan in Humans
Scientists have long known that alloxan produces selective
destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas, causing hyperglycemia and
ketoacidosis in laboratory animals. Alloxan is structurally similar to
glucose, which might explain why the pancreatic beta cells selectively
take it up.
According to Dr. Hari Sharma’s Freedom from Disease, alloxan causes
free radical damage to DNA in the beta cells of the pancreas, causing
them to malfunction and die. When they fail to function normally, they
no longer produce enough insulin.
Even though the toxic effect of alloxan is common scientific
knowledge in the research community, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) still allows companies to use chemical processes in which the end
result is toxic food. Until they unequivocally prove something is toxic
by way of human deaths, severe side effects, or when the public screams
loudly enough, the FDA is not likely to protect you.
Until then, it is you who must protect yourself.
If you have diabetes, or cancer, have a compromised immune system, or
if you are in some other high-risk category as tens of millions of
North Americans are, you need to know what foods contain hazardous
ingredients so you can avoid them. But in the case of alloxan, there is no way to know, either by reading the ingredient list or by any other means, that it might be in your food!
History of Bleaching Flour — Pillsbury and the FDA
An interesting sideline to this whole flour story lies in the origins of the FDA.
Bleaching and oxidizing agents weren’t developed to produce quick
aging of wheat flour (within 48 hours) until the early 1900s. Prior to
that, it required several months for oxygen to condition flour
naturally.
When bleaching was introduced, it was vehemently opposed.
The first major consumer advocate was Harvey W. Wiley, MD, who
eventually became known as the “Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act”
of 1906. Mr. Wiley was head of the Bureau of Chemistry, which was the
precursor to the FDA. Wiley crusaded against benzoic acid, sulfites,
saccharin, and bleached flour, among other food additives and adulterants.
Dr. Wiley felt so strongly about preventing the bleaching of flour
that he took it all the way to the Supreme Court. They ruled that flour
could not be bleached or “adulterated” in any way. However, it was never
enforced.
Wiley believed that foods posed a greater risk to the public than
adulterated or misbranded drugs. He constantly butted heads with
Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and President Roosevelt over food
regulation.
Soon, Wiley’s personal administrative authority was undercut when
Wilson created the Board of Food and Drug Inspection in 1907 and the
Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts in 1908, one of which was
reportedly headed by someone who had been working at Pillsbury,
although I have not been able to verify this addendum.
Finally, in 1912, Dr. Wiley quit as director out of frustration,
although he continued as a vocal consumer advocate for many years.
The government replaced Dr. Wiley with Dr. Elmer Nelson. Dr. Nelson was the polar opposite to Wiley , and was quoted as saying:
“It is wholly unscientific to state that a well-fed body is more able
to resist disease than a poorly fed body. My overall opinion is that
there hasn’t been enough experimentation to prove that dietary
deficiencies make one susceptible to disease.”
Therein lies the foundation of the FDA. Since Dr. Wiley resigned, the
FDA has continued to shift its focus on drugs, since Wiley was never
able to convince the government of the dangers from chemicals in our
foods. He was truly a pioneer and a century ahead of his time!
Food For Thought
The important point to take away is, beware of any processed food
because chemicals are always used. And we simply don’t know what the
long-term effects will be of ingesting chemicals, on top of chemicals,
on top of more chemicals.
Strive to stick to whole unprocessed foods that are as close to their
natural state as possible. If you’re going to eat grains, make sure
they are at the least unbleached, whole, and organic, and eat them in
the proportion that is best for your nutritional type.
23 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
NEW YORK – One of the richest men in the world took a stroll
among the people of the protest group called Occupy Wall Street who were
encamped like Bedouins in the Lower Broadway park named after him. Not a
soul knew or guessed that John Zuccotti, 74, was that fellow meandering
anonymously along like everyone else.
A
young woman in her late twenties with long, wavy brown hair and the
fresh innocence of a Brown University graduate stood on the sidewalk
before a congregation of hundreds of people and as a “facilitator”
helped conduct a three-hour “General Assembly” in a style dubbed
“consensus democracy.”
A hand-lettered sign on a corrugated box flap proclaimed:
“There are no leaders here. Don’t ask for them. Get used to it!”
Reporters
sought in vain for authorized representatives to answer their
questions, and many groused about not finding any. Without leaders, they
grumped, who is there to question? Who presents the group’s talking
points and expresses cogent demands?
From
the handmade signs bobbing daily in a sea of humanity, interviews with
dozens of protesters and the ongoing public exchanges among the
thousands at Occupy Wall Street emerge the questions that are beginning
to resonate across America:
» Is
it fair for a tiny splinter of the population, allegedly just 1
percent, to own and control half or more of a nation’s wealth?
» Should
corporations be granted the privileges of “personhood,” via a Supreme
Court decision on campaign finance, when corporations don’t have a
conscience?
» Why have the world’s millionaires increased by almost nine percent since 2009?
» Why are bailed-out banks allowed to hoard their cash?
» Why can’t America eliminate the corrupting and destructive links between politicians and corporations?
The
thirst for answers appears to be gaining momentum. An Associated
Press-GfK poll released Friday says 37 percent of Americans back the
people gathered here. And 58 percent of Americans say they are furious
about America’s politicians.
A slender 27-year-old man, who calls himself Kwame, sat on a granite
slab beside a pale, plump, goat-bearded college professor and they mused
about the characteristics of the crowd.
For
one thing, roughly 99 percent of everyone within sight, no matter how
they are garbed, carries a smartphone. Except for a bronze statue of a
businessman hunched over his briefcase, neckties are scarce. Almost as
scarce are people of color.
Kwame,
who’s black, is working on his Ph.D. in music at Stanford University.
The question was raised, “Why is there just one percent black people
among the 99 percenters in the park?”
“Education,”
he said. “The higher their education level, the more likely anyone is
to be here. Blacks in New York are a shrinking minority and their
schools are not up to high standards. But as this goes on, there’ll be
more.”
There are
just about as many males as females. Many people claim to hold one or
more jobs and about two out of 10 say they can’t find one. People who
haven’t showered in far too long rub elbows with well-scrubbed travelers
from abroad. There are blue-dyed mohawks, a few hippie-ish longhairs,
tattoos of all colors, labor union workers, anarchists, musicians,
hundreds of blue tarpaulins, pillars of pizza boxes, plastic bottles of
water that cost more per quart than gasoline, and wave after wave of
curious tourists and “media” who invariably ask the question:
“Why are you all here and what do you want?”
The answer is both super-simple and ultra-complicated:
“Money.”
The
primary issue for almost every soul in the park — whatever their age,
spiritual faith, political leanings, skin shade, gender, ethnicity,
hierarchical rank, IQ level or social class — is an inquiry into what
money actually is, how money truly functions, what money is worth, how
money affects the way we are governed, how money is stolen and by whom,
how money affects the law, how to get money and how to spend it.
What
so fascinates people about the month-old iCreature called Occupy Wall
Street is that the Occupiers have brilliantly directed the searchlight
of world attention on the global subject of money. Almost everybody
cares about money. As Mark Twain put it, “Some men worship rank, some
worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God, & over these
ideals they dispute & cannot unite — but they all worship money.”
n Zuccotti Park, the lefties, the righties, the middlies and the
politically perplexed have quite amazingly gathered to consider in a
unique 21st-century style the true role of money. In a wild and almost
weird collision of coincidences, Occupy has become the hottest ticket in
town.
The word “occupy” is now attached
to more than 1,000 cities (including Wilmington), states, nations and
locations globally. Plans are afoot for a massive, Internet-coordinated
“international” occupation of Central Park on the easy-to-remember date
of Friday, 11/11/11. A permit is required for large gatherings in the
city-owned park.
•°°
The
privately owned Zuccotti Park is named for a lively and thoughtful man
whose life story epitomizes the wildest American dreams of avarice.
Before becoming one of the world’s wealthiest real estate developers,
Zuccotti checked hats at a super-swanky 54th Street speakeasy with
zebra-striped decor called El Morocco, where his father, Angelo, was the
suave maitre d’.
Zuccotti
graduated from Princeton, earned his law degree at Yale and became one
of the 500 richest men in the world according to Forbes Magazine. He
served on both the National Republican Congressional Committee and with
Vice President Joe Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign. Zuccotti has paid
incognito visits to the park and friends say he was worried about the
disorder and mess, but he nonetheless smiled while strolling through the
plaza that carries his family name.
Then
there is an Estonia-born writer and documentary filmmaker named Kalle
Lasn, 69, the founder and editor of a popular Canadian magazine called
Adbusters, which probes and satirizes the ideas and consequences of
consumerism, an economic philosophy that Adbusters readers regard as
pernicious and fundamentally evil.
This
story began one day in a Vancouver supermarket. Lasn became infuriated
when he had to pay a quarter to rent a shopping cart. He jammed the coin
in the slot. It was his first act of vandalism against consumerism,
which he sees as an infernal machine that sucks coins from consumers’
pockets and seldom returns fair value. Adbusters soon became one of
Canada’s favorite magazines.
In July 2011, Lasn published an editorial in Adbusters (www.adbusters.org) that called on 20,000 people to “set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”
With
what aim in mind? To investigate and eventually sever unscrupulous
links between politics and money and to force the government “to choose
publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the
corporations.”
A
few dozen “activists” in New York City took note. On Sept. 17, a
Saturday, they showed up at the little–known, granite-paved Zuccotti
Park, about as big as a football field minus the end zones. It is two
blocks up Broadway from Trinity Church, at the top of Wall Street. It
is three blocks from the New York Stock Exchange and four blocks from
Federal Hall, the first capitol of the United States of America, where
George Washington was sworn in as the first president in 1789. Two
blocks to the west, the steel skeleton and glass skin of One World Trade
Center is built up to its 86th floor and will rise eventually to an
altitude of 1,776 feet above the ground on the spot where the North
Tower of the World Trade Center once stood.
Day
by day, that first encampment of vinyl tarps, overstuffed backpacks,
sleeping bags, umbrellas, guitars, drums, a seedy old sofa and
unspeakable mattresses began to grow like the gray matter in a brain
does, neuron by neuron, from person to person, from smartphone to
smartphone, from mind to mind, in a way that the iPeople have come to
call “going viral.”
By
last Monday, Oct. 17, the first month’s anniversary of Occupy Wall
Street’s un-immaculate birth, the “Occupus” had sprouted tentacles in
hundreds of cities around the globe and the number increased each day.
Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, San
Francisco and Los Angeles were “occupied” within a week or so. Within a
fortnight, the estimated numbers in marching crowds and occupied places
was greater on the West Coast than in the East, where Occupy began. Then
London, Rome and Barcelona joined in, and so on round the globe.
In the first few weeks, Occupy was paid scant attention by the media,
which is not surprising because New York City is awash in political
protests and this one seemed to many editors no more significant than
most. Then, on Oct. 6, Paul Krugman, the 2008 winner of the Nobel
Memorial Prize for economics and the “Liberal” op-ed columnist for the
New York Times, wrote:
“What can we say
about the [Occupy Wall Street] protests? First things first: The
protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force,
economically and politically, is completely right.”
It
was the equivalent of a rave theater review. Occupy Wall Street
suddenly gained momentum. A squad of uniformed police was positioned
just outside the park, unthreatened and content on overtime pay. “We’re
minding the trust fund babies,” is how one policeman put it.
Now
the more mainstream media began to show up. Reporters immediately
noticed that there are no bathroom facilities in the park and personal
hygiene for the campers is rough. The McDonald’s across Broadway allows
restroom privileges for all (most visitors pay for the kindness by
buying at least a cup of coffee first). So do Trinity Church and an
Episcopal public meeting room called Charlotte’s Place that is decorated
with fresh flowers and offers sparkling-clean bathrooms, Wi-Fi and
tables for computers, and a free conference room where Occupy working
groups meet.
Because
social communication is what Occupy is actually all about, the biggest
obstacle the Occupiers overcame was the police ban on voice
amplification. To hold General Assembly meetings for hundreds of people
alongside the noisy bustle of Broadway without megaphonic help would
have been impossible without Mike Check! Mike is a superhero of Occupy,
which may be leaderless but is not without heroes.
Mike
Check! is the non-electronic human voice amplifier. It works very
simply, and is the primary means of vocal communication among the
participants in the evening plenary sessions, when hundreds of people
form a crescent of participants and onlookers on the Broadway side of
the park. For at least two hours each night, they discuss, decide and
take parliamentary decisions with all words sung full cry in a great
collective voice.
It works this way:
A person shouts: “Mike Check!”
Everyone
who can hear the shout yells back, “Mike Check!” and the crowd even
mimics the inflection and accent of the speaker’s voice.
The person shouts: “There’s a reporter from Coney Island …”
The crowd yells at the top of its voices: “There’s a reporter from Coney Island …”
The shouter: “who wants to interview somebody from Coney Island.”
The crowd: “who wants to interview somebody from Coney Island.”
Shouter: “So if …”
Crowd: “So if …”
Shouter: “you’re from Coney Island …”
Crowd: “you’re from Coney Island …”
Shouter: “Get over here.”
Crowd (laughing): “GET OVER HERE!”
Those
who know how to use Mike Check! best cut to the chase and talk in four-
or five-word bites. If a shouter uses overly long words or too-long
phrases, the crowd garbles them, which makes everything take longer.
Long-winded speakers are warned, “We get it … enough!” by a particular
hand signal from anyone in the crowd (circling hands around each other
like a football referee when he wants to keep the game clock moving).
Occupy
etiquette makes clear that no matter what the shouter says, or how
antithetical the words might be to local or personal beliefs, the crowd
is duty bound to echo the words at top volume.
The
Mike Check! system was born of adversity and is a concept that
fascinates group dynamics people. Mike Check! actually forces people to
listen carefully to what others say and perhaps apprehend precisely what
they are saying before interrupting with a response.
Another
hero of Zuccotti Park is the sanitation volunteer. There is a
cleanliness-is-next-to-godliness attitude among most of the Occupiers
(with a few swinish exceptions), necessary because littering is a
misdemeanor and could give authorities reason to kick everyone out on
public-safety grounds. On Oct. 14, Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed about
to evict Occupy from the park to have it steam-washed by
“professionals.” But John Zuccotti’s company, the park’s owners, backed
away from asking for a confrontation that might besmirch the name of the
park and the property.
To keep the park clean, the volunteer sanitation squads patrol
incessantly with brooms and trash pans, and warn people to put down
tarps when they paint protest signs because spilling paint on the
granite can get a person arrested.
There
are numerous hand-drawn signs that proclaim, “DON’T DO DRUGS” and “NO
ALCOHOL.” At a General Assembly, one of the volunteer security detail
men holds up a black plastic sack. He shouts Mike Check! “There are
three bottles …
The crowd echoes: “There are three bottles …”
“… of liquor in the bag.”
“… of liquor in the bag”
“Alcohol will get us all thrown out!”
“Alcohol will get us all thrown out!”
“Don’t bring it!”
“Don’t bring it!”
By
day 34 on Friday, the Occupiers were revving up for yet another weekend
of chaotic protests and teach-ins. The nightly General Assemblies
carried on under their rules of consensual democracy and the “lack of
leadership” was being criticized by Bloomberg, who prefers to deal with
an organization that has a hierarchy and a chain of command.
Nobody
knows yet what Occupy will become. Will it get kicked out of the park?
Will it survive until Thanksgiving? Will it grow into an iCreature that
eats plutocrats for lunch? Will Kalle Lasn come to Manhattan to see what
he hath wrought? Will it end well, or end ugly? Millions worldwide are
tuned in to see.
22 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
“
Longevity Shown for First Time to Be Inherited via a Non-DNA Mechanism
Experiments with worms show that altering an enzyme can not only lengthen their life spans, but that the longevity effect can be carried across several generations
By Sarah Fecht | October 19, 2011 |
Research on nemotode worms is helping to illuminate ways to lengthen their lifetimes. The findings have yet to be replicated in vertebrates, including humans. Image: Wikimedia Commons
In October 2009 Stanford University geneticist Anne Brunet was sitting in her office when graduate student Eric Greer came to her with a slightly heretical question. Brunet’s lab had recently learned that they could lengthen a worm’s lifetime by manipulating levels of an enzyme called SET2. “What if extending a worm’s lifetime using SET2 can affect the life span of its descendants, even if the descendants have normal amounts of the enzyme?” he asked.
The question was unorthodox, Brunet says, “because it touches upon the Lamarckian idea that you can inherit acquired traits, which biologists have believed false for years.” The biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck theorized in 1809 that the traits exhibited by an organism during its lifetime were augmented in its offspring; a giraffe that regularly stretched its neck to eat would father calves whose necks were longer. The idea was largely discredited by Darwin’s theory of evolution, first published in 1859. More recently, scientists have begun to realize that an organism’s behavior and environment may indeed influence the genes it passes to its offspring. The heritability of those acquired traits is not based on DNA, but on alterations in the molecular packaging that surrounds a gene. When Greer approached Brunet in 2009 with his question about worms and SET2, such “epigenetic” inheritance had only been discovered for simple traits such as eye color, flower symmetry and coat color.
Brunet and Greer went ahead with the experiment. The results, published October 19 in Nature, provide the first evidence that some aspects of longevity can be passed from parent to offspring, independent of DNA’s direct influence. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
“I think this is a fundamentally important finding,” says Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington in Seattle, who studies molecular mechanisms of aging. “It demonstrates for the first time that aging can be influenced by epigenetic changes that occurred in prior generations.”
The study used Caenorhabditis elegans worms with very low levels of SET2. The enzyme normally adds methyl molecules onto DNA’s protein packaging material. In doing so, the enzyme opens up the packaging material, allowing the genes to be copied and expressed. Some of those genes appear to be pro-aging genes, Brunet says. Her team knocked out SET2 by removing genes that code for it. This had the effect of significantly lengthening the worms’ life spans, presumably because those pro-aging genes were no longer expressed.
Next, the long-lived, enzyme-lacking worms mated with normal ones. The offspring had the regular genes for making SET2, and even expressed normal amounts of the enzyme, but they lived significantly longer than control worms whose parents both had regular life spans. The life-extending effect carried over into the third generation, but returned to normal by the fourth generation (in the great-grandchildren of the original mutant worms). For the first few generations, having a long-lived ancestor increased life expectancy from 20 days to 25, extending a worm’s longevity by 25 to 30 percent on average.
Brunet and her team have not yet determined the exact mechanism for the lifetime extension, or which molecules are at work. This is one of the study’s imperfections, says David Katz, who researches epigenetic transcriptional memory at Emory University. Regardless, “the effect is clearly epigenetic,” he says, “and it’s probably one of the most complicated traits that has been linked to epigenetic inheritance.”
The knowledge that epigenetics can impact a complex trait like life span has scientists curious to find out what other kinds of traits—such as disease susceptibility, metabolism and developmental patterns—are epigenetically heritable. Because epigenetic effects can be modified by environmental stimuli, Kaeberlein points out, it is possible that some of these traits “could be determined, at least in part, by the environment and lifestyle choices of parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents.”
The study’s results are also exciting because the genes that code for the life-lengthening SET2 enzyme exist in other species, including humans. Brunet says she wants see if the results can be replicated in vertebrates, such as fish and mammals. Those questions will not be answered for many years, because it is unknown whether the SET2 complex has the same function in other species, and because those species have longer generational time frames.
“Worms have very short lives,” Brunet says. “Will the effect apply to mammals that live thousands of times longer? We are excited to find out.”
“
Now this is exciting.
But there could be another reason for the longevity found in certain populations such as the Japanese and Chinese. In these cultures, ancestor worship is common, and importantly, elderly are given much more respect than in other cultures of the world. Being regarded as useful and respected could be a driving factor for the old to live on. In most other cultures world wide, the senior citizens are viewed as a spent force, with little if any possible contributions to society.
Being fawned upon by the younger generation who look to them for guidance and advice could well be a motivating factor to live on. Of course this assumes that a person can give up on life and that outlook itself shortens her lifespan. But this is a reasonable assumption.
Look around you. Most of the people who are surprisingly fit and perky at a great age are, if you study their habits, people who have some driving force behind them.
Iqbal
10 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
September 10th, 2011
Zihong Guo built this
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pump to prototype a possible cooling mechanism for the
TerraPower nuclear reactor. Almost all
nuclear reactors in use today use water as a
coolant, but one thing that makes the TerraPower design special is that it will use a liquid metal as a coolant.
When an atom fissions, big chunks of the nucleus break off as new, smaller-atomic-number atoms, but extra individual neutrons
also fly out of the nucleus. If you put enough easily-fissionable atoms
close enough together and start them off by shooting some neutrons in,
you can get a self-sustaining reaction:
the first generation of atoms are fissioned, emitting enough neutrons
to fission another generation of atoms, and so on. This is what happens
in nuclear reactors.
Nuclear engineers have a choice about neutrons: do they want fast ones or slow ones? When a neutron hits a nucleus, it can either fission it or be absorbed by it. Slow neutrons
are more likely to fission a given nucleus for any given collision, but
they can only fission very high quality fuel– specifically fissile
nuclides like the uranium 235 isotope. Fast neutrons
are less likely to fission a nucleus for any given collision, but they
can split less-fissionable fuel, they produce more extra neutrons per
fission, and they don’t get absorbed by the smaller fission products as
readily. The extra neutrons produced allow the reactor to breed fissile
Plutonium-239 from typically-uninteresting Uranium-238, allowing fast
reactors to get substantially more energy out of the amount of Uranium
we have on Earth than slow (“thermal”) reactors could.
Loading mercury into the system.
We can keep the neutrons at fast speeds by having only relatively
heavy nuclei in a reactor. Water, the traditional coolant, is made up
of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The oxygen atom is more massive than a neutron by 16 times (because oxygen has 16 nucleons),
but the hydrogen has about the same mass as a neutron, and there are
twice as many of them. Neutrons traveling through a water coolant hit
oxygens, which slow them down a little, and hydrogens, which (on
average) slow them down a lot (by conservation of momentum). The use of
water as a coolant is the reason most reactors today are slow (thermal) reactors.
Thermal reactors can be much smaller than fast reactors because the
neutrons are more readily absorbed by the fissile nuclei. (Imagine a
fissile nucleus as a bar magnet and a neutron as a steel ball….if the
steel ball goes very slowly past the magnet, it’s much more likely to be
attracted to the magnet than if it was zinging by at, say, Mach 3!)
But wait! The neat thing is that there’s no rule that water has to be your coolant. Metals are much more massive than neutrons (how much more massive depends on atomic number),
so when neutrons collide with metal atoms, they retain much more of
their kinetic energy, like a ping-pong ball bouncing off of a bowling
ball. Using metals as coolants can let us build fast-neutron reactors
and use our vast “waste” reserves of depleted U238 uranium in the
reactor to be converted to Plutonium-239.
TerraPower has looked at using liquid sodium metal as a coolant. A big problem with sodium is that as an alkali metal with only one valence electron, sodium is very reactive, and the high temperatures involved would make it even more reactive.
In the pump system, any bits that could let in air or impurities
would give the sodium something to react with. This means, essentially,
that any moving parts would be hazards.
The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pump uses conduction to force the
liquid to circulate, so it has no moving parts at all. As a side effect,
this pump has a totally steady flow.
**Many thanks to Nick Touran from TerraPower for helping explain the
physics with the coolant to me, and to Jon McWhirter for conceiving of
the pump concept and for editorial comments.
How it works:
Moving a charged particle in a magnetic field creates a force on that charge in this way:
where 
is the force on the particle,
q is the charge of the particle,
is the particle’s velocity, and
is the magnetic field.
In Zihong’s pump, the big red anode and black cathode wires in the picture carry current through the system. They aren’t directly connected; the two electrodes are separated by a tube full of mercury (the prototype uses mercury, not liquid sodium, because mercury is liquid under standard conditions
while sodium is not). Conventional current flows from the anode through
the mercury, which is electrically conductive, to the cathode.
On top of and beneath this segment of tube are two magnets. This
means that the mercury, while it is carrying a moving charge, is in a
strong magnetic field. Like all moving charges in magnetic fields, it
experiences a force, and that force pushes it down the tube and through
the system. As long as current flows, this force (and thus the flow of
metal coolant) are maintained. See diagram.
The prototype runs on 101 A at 0.3 V.
10 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
പുതിയൊരു കുഞ്ഞ് നമ്മിലേക്ക് വരാനിരിക്കുന്നു എന്ന വാര്ത്ത എത്ര
സന്തോഷത്തോടെയാണ് നാം ആസ്വദിക്കാറുള്ളത്! കുടുംബത്തിലേക്ക് പുതിയൊരാള്
വരുന്നു! ആകാംക്ഷയോടെ ആ കുഞ്ഞിന് നല്ലൊരു പേര് കണ്ടുവെച്ച് നാം
കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നു. ഉമ്മയുടെയും ഉപ്പയുടെയും മനസ്സു നിറയെ ആ
കുഞ്ഞായിരിക്കും.
അത്രയും
ആനന്ദവും ആശ്ചര്യവും നിറഞ്ഞ കൈകളിലേക്ക് വന്നുവീണവരാണ്
നമ്മളോരോരുത്തരും. ഇനി, അതിലേറെ വേദനയും വിഭ്രാന്തിയും ബാക്കിയാക്കി
അവരില് നിന്നെല്ലാം മടങ്ങിപ്പോകേണ്ടവരുമാണ് ഈ നമ്മള്.
ജനിക്കുന്നതിനുമുമ്പ് നമ്മെക്കുറിച്ച ഓര്മ കൂടിക്കൂടി വരും; പക്ഷേ
മരിച്ചുകഴിഞ്ഞാല് നമ്മെക്കുറിച്ച ഓര്മ്മ കുറഞ്ഞുകുറഞ്ഞുവരും.
എല്ലാവരും
ജീവിക്കുന്നവരാണെങ്കിലും ജീവിതത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് ചിന്തിക്കുന്നവര്
കുറച്ചേയുള്ളൂ. ആനന്ദത്തിന്റെ ആഘോഷം മാത്രമാക്കി ജീവിതത്തെ
പുണരുന്നവര്ക്ക് കൊച്ചുകാര്യങ്ങളെപ്പറ്റി ചിന്തിക്കാനേ നേരം കാണൂ.
ഭക്ഷണം, വസ്ത്രം, സൗന്ദര്യം, സൗകര്യം അങ്ങനെ വളരെ കുറച്ചുകാര്യങ്ങളുടെ
പിന്നില് അവര് ചുറ്റിത്തിരിയും. ചെറിയ ചെറിയ കാര്യങ്ങളേക്കാള് വലിയ
കാര്യങ്ങള് നിര്വഹിക്കാനുള്ള സന്ദര്ഭമാണീ ജീവിതമെന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയാന്
സാധിക്കുന്നവര് മഹാഭാഗ്യവാന്മാരാണ്.
സുഖമൊരു
അനുഭവമല്ല. ദു:ഖമാണ് അനുഭവമെന്ന് ദു:ഖിച്ചവര്ക്കൊക്കെ അറിയാം.
രോഗങ്ങളും വേദനകളുമൊന്നുമില്ലെങ്കിലാണ് സത്യത്തില് നമുക്ക് ഭയം
വര്ധിക്കേണ്ടത്. ഈ ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ നിസ്സാരതയെത്രയെന്ന്
തിരിച്ചറിയുമ്പോള് വേദനകളെയും സന്തോഷങ്ങളെയും അതിജീവിക്കാന് നാം
പഠിച്ചുതുടങ്ങും. അലക്കുകല്ലിന്റെ നിയോഗം അടിക്കുക എന്നതല്ല, അടി കൊള്ളുക
എന്നതാണ്. ഒരര്ഥത്തില് നമ്മുടെയും നിയോഗമതാണ്. മരിക്കുന്നതുവരെ
ജീവിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയും ജീവിക്കുമ്പോഴൊക്കെ
പ്രവര്ത്തിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയുമാണ് നമ്മുടെ ദൗത്യം.
അസഹ്യമായ
അനുഭവങ്ങള് വരാനിരിക്കുന്ന ജീവിതമാണ് നമ്മുടേത്. അനിഷ്ടകരമായ
വാര്ത്തകള് കേള്ക്കാനിരിക്കുന്ന കാതും ഹൃദയം തകരുന്ന അലര്ച്ചയോടെ
കരയാനിരിക്കുന്ന കണ്ണുമാണ് നമ്മുടേത്. അത്തരം അനുഭവങ്ങള് വരുത്തരുതേ
എന്ന് പ്രാര്ഥിക്കുന്നതോടൊപ്പം അങ്ങനെ വല്ലതും സംഭവിച്ചാല്
പിടിച്ചുനില്ക്കാനുള്ള കെല്പ്പു തരണേയെന്നും പ്രാര്ഥിക്കുന്നതിലാണ്
തിരുനബി(സ)യുടെ മാതൃക.
യാഥാര്ഥ്യബോധത്തോടെ
ജീവിതാനുഭവങ്ങളെ നേരിടുന്നതിലാണ് നമ്മള് വിജയിക്കേണ്ടത്. കുഞ്ഞ്
മരിച്ചുകിടന്നപ്പോഴും മുഖത്ത് സങ്കടം വിരിയാതെ, ഭര്ത്താവിന് അത്താഴവും
ആനന്ദവും പകര്ന്ന സ്വഹാബി വനിതയെ കേട്ടിട്ടില്ലേ? ധീരമായ ഭക്തിയാണത്.
കണ്ണീരിനെ മുഴുവന് കണ്ണിനു പിന്നില് നിര്ത്തിയ അസാധാരണമായ
സത്യവിശ്വാസമാണത്.
സ്വഹാബികളോടൊപ്പം
യാത്ര ചെയ്യുകയായിരുന്ന തിരുനബി(സ) അവിടെയൊരു ആള്ക്കൂട്ടം കണ്ടു.
എന്താണവിടെയെന്ന് അന്വേഷിച്ചു. `അവിടെ ഒരു ഖബ്ര്
കുഴിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ് റസൂലേ’. ഇത് കേട്ടതോടെ തിരുദൂതര്
വിഭ്രാന്തിയുള്ള മുഖത്തോടെ ആ ഖബ്റിന്നരികിലേക്ക് ഓടി. അവിടെ
മുട്ടുകുത്തിയിരുന്നു. താഴെയുള്ള മണ്ണ് നനയുന്നത്രയും ശക്തമായി കരഞ്ഞു.
എന്നിട്ടിങ്ങനെ പറഞ്ഞു: “എന്റെ കൂട്ടുകാരേ, ഇതുപോലൊരു ദിനത്തെ നേരിടാന്
നിങ്ങള് ഒരുക്കങ്ങള് നടത്തണേ.” (ഇബ്നുമാജ-സുനന് 4195)
ജനങ്ങളില്
ഏറ്റവും ബുദ്ധിശക്തിയുള്ളവന് ആരാണെന്ന ചോദ്യത്തിന് തിരുനബി(സ)യുടെ
മറുമൊഴി ഇങ്ങനെയായിരുന്നു: “മരണത്തെ നിരന്തരം ഓര്ക്കുന്നവര്. അതിനായി
തയ്യാറെടുക്കുന്നവര്. ഇവിടെ മാന്യതയും പരലോകത്ത് മഹത്വവും
നേടിയെടുക്കുന്നവരാണവര്.” (ബൈഹഖി-ശുഅബുല്ഈമാന് 7993, 10550)
മരണത്തെ
ഓര്ത്ത് തയ്യാറെടുക്കുന്നവര്ക്ക് അല്ലാഹു ഹൃദയത്തെ ഉണര്ത്തുകയും
മരണസന്ദര്ഭം എളുപ്പമാക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുമെന്ന് അവിടുന്ന് പറഞ്ഞു. (ദൈലമി:
മുസ്നദുല് ഫിര്ദൗസ്)
`ജീവിച്ച
വര്ഷങ്ങളല്ല, വര്ഷിച്ച ജീവിതമാണ് പ്രധാനം’ എന്ന് ഇംഗ്ലീഷിലൊരു
പഴമൊഴിയുണ്ട്. ആയുസ്സിന്റെ നീളത്തേക്കാള് ആയുസിലെ കര്മങ്ങളിലായിരിക്കണം
നമ്മുടെ ശ്രദ്ധ. നമുക്ക് ഒരു ഏകദേശ ധാരണപോലുമില്ലാത്ത നിമിഷത്തില് ഈ
ജീവിതം അവസാനിക്കും.
ആരോടും
യാത്ര ചോദിക്കാതെ, ആരെയും കാത്തിരിക്കാതെ, എല്ലാവരെയും കരയിച്ച്,
പറയാനുള്ളതും ചെയ്യാന് കരുതിയതുമെല്ലാം ബാക്കിവെച്ച് സുനിശ്ചിതമായ ആ
വലിയ സത്യത്തിലേക്ക് നമ്മള് ഉള്ചേരുകതന്നെ ചെയ്യും. ഒട്ടം
പരിചിതമല്ലാത്ത മറ്റൊരു ലോകത്തെക്ക് യാത്രയാകും. അതോടെ എല്ലാ രസച്ചരടുകളും
പൊട്ടിച്ചിതറും. ഒന്നിച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞവര് രണ്ടായി പിരിയും, വാക്കുകളില്
കണ്ണീരു കലരും. ഓര്മകളൊക്കെയും സങ്കടമാവും. നമ്മെ പുണര്ന്നിരിരുന്ന
കൈകള് നമ്മുടെ നേരെ മണ്ണെറിയും; തീര്ന്നു!
ജനിക്കും
മുമ്പ് നമ്മെക്കുറിച്ച ഓര്മ കൂടിക്കൂടിവരും. മരണത്തോടെ ആ ഓര്മ
കുറഞ്ഞുകുറഞ്ഞുവരും. മരിക്കും വരെ ജീവിക്കുകയും ജീവിക്കുമ്പോഴൊക്കെ
പ്രവര്ത്തിക്കുകയുമാണ് നമ്മുടെ നിയോഗം.
ഓര്ക്കുക: ഞാന് ചെയ്തതിന്റെ
ആകത്തുകയാണ് ഞാന്. നിങ്ങളും അങ്ങനെത്തന്നെ.
–
03 Oct 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
ബുള്ളഷ് റാവുവിന്റെ അമ്മയോട് നാമെന്ത് പറയും?
കഴിഞ്ഞ ചൊവ്വാഴ്ച അത്ര
പ്രാധാന്യത്തോടെയല്ലെങ്കിലും മലയാള പത്രങ്ങളില് വന്ന ഒരു
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റെയില്വേ ക്രോസിനടുത്ത ശ്രീകൃഷ്ണവിലാസം ഭജനമഠത്തിന്റെ നടപ്പന്തലിലെ
മണിക്കയറില് അര്ധരാത്രി ഒരു മുപ്പതുകാരന് പശ്ചിമ ബംഗാളിലെ ജയ്പാല്ഗുഡി
ജില്ലയില് നിന്നുള്ള ബുള്ളഷ് റാവു തൂങ്ങി മരിച്ചു. ഇദ്ദേഹം ഈ സമയത്ത്
എങ്ങനെ ഇവിടെയെത്തി എന്നല്ലേ? വിശദീകരിക്കാം. ചെങ്ങന്നൂരില്
നിര്മാണത്തൊഴിലില് ഏര്പ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ബംഗാളി സംഘത്തില് പെട്ടയാളാണ്
ബുള്ളഷ്. നാട്ടില്നിന്നെത്തിയ രണ്ട് തൊഴിലാളി സുഹൃത്തുക്കളോടൊപ്പം
തീവണ്ടിയില് യാത്ര ചെയ്യുകയായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹം. ഉഴുവയില് വെച്ച് ആള്
തീവണ്ടിയില്നിന്ന് പുറത്തേക്ക് തെറിച്ചുവീണ് തലക്ക് മുറിവുപറ്റി.
അര്ധരാത്രി, തനിച്ച്, രക്തമൊലിക്കുന്ന ശരീരവുമായി ആ യുവാവ് അടുത്തുള്ള
വീട്ടില് സഹായത്തിന് കയറി. അവര് സഹായിച്ചില്ലെന്ന് മാത്രമല്ല, ബുള്ളഷിനെ
പറഞ്ഞുവിട്ടു. ഭാഷയറിയാതെ, വഴി തിരിയാതെ ആ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരന് വീണ്ടും നിരവധി
വീടുകളില് കയറി ദയ യാചിച്ചു നോക്കി. ആരും അര ഗ്ലാസ് പച്ചവെള്ളം പോലും അവന്
നേരെ നീട്ടിയില്ല. അര്ധരാത്രി രക്തമൊലിപ്പിച്ചു നടക്കുന്ന ബുള്ളഷിന് നേരെ
ഒരു പട്ടി കുരച്ച് വന്നപ്പോള് അയാള് അടുത്തുള്ള ഭജനമഠത്തില് കയറി.
അവിടെ തൂങ്ങിക്കിടക്കുന്ന മണിക്കയര് അപ്പോഴാണയാള് കാണുന്നത്. ഈ
മനുഷ്യര്ക്കും പട്ടികള്ക്കുമിടയില് ജീവിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നതില്
അര്ഥമില്ലെന്ന് കണ്ട് ആ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരന് ഭക്തിയുടെ കയറില് തന്റെ ജീവന്
അവസാനിപ്പിച്ചു. രംഗം നടക്കുമ്പോള് മഠത്തിന് ചുറ്റും കണ്ടുനില്ക്കാന്
ആളുകളുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ആരും ‘അരുത്, ഞങ്ങളുണ്ടിവിടെ’ എന്നു പറഞ്ഞതേയില്ല.
കായംകുളത്തുനിന്ന്
ഞായറാഴ്ച ഒരു റിപ്പോര്ട്ടുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ടിന്ഷീറ്റ് ഷെഡില്
താമസിക്കുന്ന ബംഗാളി തൊഴിലാളികള്ക്കുനേരെ പ്രദേശത്തെ ചില മാന്യന്മാര്
മൊബൈല് ഫോണ് മോഷണത്തിന്റെ പേരുപറഞ്ഞ്, നിര്മാണ സാമഗ്രികള് ഉപയോഗിച്ച്
മൃഗീയമായ ആക്രമണം അഴിച്ചുവിട്ടു. 15നും 30 വയസ്സിനുമിടയിലുള്ള 36
തൊഴിലാളികള് ഇതെഴുതുമ്പോഴും ദേഹം മുഴുക്കെ മുറിവേറ്റ് വിവിധ
ആശുപത്രികളില് ചികിത്സയിലാണ്. മൊബൈല് ഫോണല്ല, കരാറുകാര്ക്കിടയിലെ
കുടിപ്പകയാണ് പാവപ്പെട്ട തൊഴിലാളികള് ആക്രമിക്കപ്പെട്ടതിന്റെ യഥാര്ഥ
കാരണം. സ്ഥലത്തെ പ്രധാന മാന്യന്മാരാണ് ആക്രമണത്തിന് പിന്നിലെന്നത്
കൊണ്ടുതന്നെ പൊലീസ് കാര്യമായ നടപടികള് ഒന്നും ഇതുവരെയും എടുത്തിട്ടില്ല.
‘അന്യസംസ്ഥാന
തൊഴിലാളികള്’ എന്നത് നമ്മുടെ ഭാഷയില് അടുത്തിടെ വന്നുചേര്ന്ന ഒരു
പ്രയോഗമാണ്. നമ്മുടെ ചെറുപ്പക്കാര് നല്ലൊരു ശതമാനം വിദേശത്തുപോവുകയും
ഇവിടെയുള്ളവര് ശാരീരികാധ്വാനമുള്ള തൊഴില് ചെയ്യുന്നത് മടിക്കുകയും
ചെയ്തപ്പോഴാണ് അന്യസംസ്ഥാന തൊഴിലാളികള് നമ്മുടെ തൊഴില് കമ്പോളത്തിലെ വലിയ
സാന്നിധ്യമായത്. നമ്മുടെ നിര്മാണമേഖല ഇന്ന് മുന്നോട്ടുപോകുന്നത്
പ്രധാനമായും ഇവരുടെ അധ്വാനശേഷിയുടെ ബലത്തിലാണ്. സാമാന്യം തരക്കേടില്ലാത്ത
കൂലികിട്ടുന്നതുകൊണ്ട് അവരും സന്തോഷത്തോടെ തൊഴില് ചെയ്യുന്നു. അങ്ങനെ,
ഒഡിഷയിലെയും ബംഗാളിലെയും ബിഹാറിലെയും വിദൂര ഗ്രാമങ്ങളിലെ
പട്ടിണിപ്പാവങ്ങള്ക്ക് കേരളം എന്നത് അവര് കണ്ടെത്തിയ ‘ഗള്ഫ്’ ആയി മാറി.
ഒരു കാര്യമുറപ്പ്, നാളെ അവരെല്ലാം തിരിച്ച് വണ്ടി കയറിയാല് കേരളത്തിന്റെ
ഉല്പാദന, നിര്മാണമേഖല സ്തംഭിക്കും.
പക്ഷേ, ആ മനുഷ്യരെ
മനുഷ്യരായി കാണാനുള്ള മാന്യത പുരോഗമന കേരളം കാണിക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ? അര്ധ
മനുഷ്യരോ താഴ്ന്ന മനുഷ്യരോ ആയല്ലേ നാം പലപ്പോഴും അവരെ പരിഗണിക്കുന്നത്?
ആസ്ട്രേലിയയിലെ ഇന്ത്യന് വിദ്യാര്ഥികള്ക്കുനേരെയുള്ള വംശീയ
വിവേചനത്തിനെതിരെ സായാഹ്ന ധര്ണ നടത്തുമ്പോഴും നമ്മുടെ ഉമ്മറത്തെ
ബംഗാളിയോട് മാന്യമായി പെരുമാറാന് മലയാളിക്ക് കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല. ഗര്വിന്റെയും
അഹങ്കാരത്തിന്റെയും വ്യാകരണവും ശരീരഭാഷയുമാണ് നാം അവരോട് കാണിച്ചത്.
ഗള്ഫിലും മറ്റും ഇതേപോലെ ‘അന്യരാജ്യ’ തൊഴിലാളികളായി ജീവിക്കുന്ന മലയാളി
ചെറുപ്പക്കാര് അയക്കുന്ന കറന്സിയുടെ ബലത്തിലാണ് നമ്മളീ അഹന്തകളൊക്കെയും
കാണിക്കുന്നതെന്ന് നാം മറന്നുപോയി.
അന്യസംസ്ഥാന
തൊഴിലാളികളോടുള്ള അയിത്ത മനോഭാവം മാത്രമല്ല, മറ്റൊരാളുടെയും പ്രശ്നത്തില്
ഇടപെടാനുള്ള മലയാളിയുടെ സന്നദ്ധതയില്ലായ്മ കൂടിയാണ് ബുള്ളഷിന്റെ മരണം
വെളിവാക്കുന്നത്. വാഹനാപകടത്തില് പെട്ട് നടുറോഡില് രക്തമൊലിപ്പിച്ച്
പിടയുന്നവനെ കൈപിടിച്ചുയര്ത്തുന്നതിനുപകരം, ആ രംഗം മൊബൈല് കാമറയില്
ഒപ്പിയെടുക്കാന് വെമ്പുന്ന മനസ്സ് മലയാളിയില് വികൃതമായി
വളര്ന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ്. ഞാന്, എന്റെ കാര്യം എന്ന കുടുസ്സു ചിന്തയില്
എന്തേ നമ്മള് മലയാളികള് ഇന്ത്യയിലെ ഏറ്റവും വിദ്യാസമ്പന്നരായ പുരോഗമന
സമൂഹം പെട്ടുപോയി? ഒരിറക്ക് വെള്ളംപോലും കിട്ടാതെ വേദനകൊണ്ട് പുളഞ്ഞ്,
മനോവേദനകൊണ്ട് തകര്ന്ന് ജീവിതമവസാനിപ്പിച്ച ബുള്ളഷിന്റെ ആത്മാവ്
നമ്മളെക്കുറിച്ച് ഇപ്പോള് എന്തു വിചാരിക്കുന്നുണ്ടാവും? കുടിലിലെ
പട്ടിണിമാറ്റാന് ആ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരനെ കണെ്ണത്താ വിദൂരതയിലേക്ക് പറഞ്ഞുവിട്ട
ബുള്ളഷിന്റെ അമ്മ നാളെ ഇങ്ങോട്ടുവന്ന് എന്റെ മകനോട് നിങ്ങളെന്തേ ഇങ്ങനെ
ചെയ്തുവെന്ന് ചോദിച്ചാല്, സത്യം, നമ്മളെന്താണ് മറുപടി പറയുക?
വിദൂരദേശങ്ങളില് തീര്ത്തും അന്യമായ സാഹചര്യങ്ങളില് നമുക്ക്
കഞ്ഞിയെത്തിക്കാന് വേണ്ടി ചോരനീരാക്കി പണിയെടുക്കുന്ന നമ്മുടെ
മക്കളോട്/അനുജന്മാരോട് അന്നാട്ടുകാര് ഈ വിധം പെരുമാറിയാല് അവര്ക്കുനേരെ
വിരല്ചൂണ്ടാന് നമുക്കെങ്ങനെ കഴിയും?
ബുള്ളഷിന്റെ മരണം ഒരു
ചൂണ്ടാണി മാത്രമാണ്. നാം, മലയാളികള് എവിടെ എത്തിനില്ക്കുന്നുവെന്നതിന്റെ
ഓര്മപ്പെടുത്തല്. ഈ അപരാധത്തിന് നാം കൂട്ടമായി മാപ്പുചോദിക്കുക.
മുഖ്യമന്ത്രിതന്നെ മുഴുവന് മലയാളികള്ക്കും വേണ്ടി ആ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരന്റെ
കുടുംബത്തോട് ഖേദപ്രകടനം നടത്തുക. എങ്കില് അതൊരു അനുഭവമായിരിക്കും.
ജനങ്ങള്ക്കിടയില് പുതിയൊരു അവബോധം സൃഷ്ടിക്കാന് അതുപകരിക്കും.
പൊങ്ങച്ചബോധം കുടഞ്ഞു തെറിപ്പിക്കാന്, സ്വന്തത്തെയും കടന്ന് അപരനിലേക്ക്
നീളാനുള്ള ചിന്ത അവനില് കരുപ്പിടിപ്പിക്കാന് അതുപകരിച്ചേക്കും.
ബുള്ളഷ്, നീ ഞങ്ങളോട് പൊറുക്കുക.
–
22 Sep 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Islamic cultural center open in N.Y.
Sep 22, 2011 |
An NYPD officer keeps watch during the Wednesday grand opening of the Park51 Islamic cultural center in New York City. It’s near Ground Zero, and the project has drawn criticism from opponents who say they don’t want a Muslim prayer space near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
28 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Athletic, Muslim, Fashionable – a Tale of the Sports Hijab
Olympic hopeful, 17-year-old Zeinab Hammoud
Female Muslim athletes who observe a strict Islamic dress code sometimes face the question of whether they will be allowed to participate in major competitions — with their heads and most of their bodies covered. Now, one Iranian-Canadian woman is marketing a product to change that. It complies with the requirements of many major sports, and it’s fashionable, safe and comfortable — while still meeting Islamic requirements.
An Olympic hopeful faces a small obstacle
Seventeen-year-old Zeinab Hammoud has a brown belt in Taekwondo, and dreams of one day making it to the Olympics. But unlike her sister, Rana, Zeinab chooses to wear the Islamic headscarf, or hijab.
This became a problem four years ago. The team’s hard work, passion and hopes were dashed when the Taekwondo Federation of Quebec expelled them from a tournament in 2007. The reason: their hijabs were considered unsafe. “I was really disappointed because I trained really hard for that tournament. When I found out we were expelled I lost all my motivation to continue,” Hammoud said.
Civil rights supporters and sports enthusiasts around the world were enraged. Elham Seyed Javad was one of them. “In my opinion every individual, no matter their religion, should have the same rights as anyone else in society,” he stated. “I mean, sports was made to re-unite people.”
Athletic fashion
Javad was an industrial design student at the time, so she decided to take on the problem as one of her school projects. “At the time, in 2008, when I decided to take on this project, the international federation of Taekwondo didn’t allow its athletes to wear anything under the helmet. So my professor didn’t think there was a point of pursuing it. But my point was, the rule is there because nothing has been invented that is appropriate,” she explained.
Javad spent countless hours with the Hammoud sisters’ taekwondo team and with pattern maker Latifa Boukenda, to make the best product possible. “This was a very exciting project for me. I’ve worked in fashion for many years but this was special because it was beyond fashion,” she said. “It had a more human and social aspect to it. helping young women blossom and follow their athletic dreams.”
Ultimately, they hit upon a design that worked, and a fabric that was stretchy, breathable, and dried quickly. Called a “ResportOn,” the garment was an immediate hit.
Even Zeinab’s sister Rana, who chooses not to wear the hijab, was impressed. “I just tried the Resport hijab and the hair was inside so it doesn’t come out and it’s very comfortable so you can play without trying to put your hair inside all the time,” she noted.
Rules reconsidered, changed
Javad’s invention came at an opportune time. A year later, in response to pressure from the taekwondo community, the World Taekwondo Federation changed its rules to allow for head-coverings.
The Montreal Muslim Taekwondo team was able to compete again.
“I was in the stands and got teary-eyed because since the very beginning my goal was to be able to see the girls on the mats again. When it happened it was like someone gave me the world,” Javad stated.
Javad thought she was just helping Zeinab and her teammates. But when an investor approached her about marketing the product, things changed dramatically. In January, her sports hijab became available to athletes all over the world. She has been busy ever since. “My days start at 2am when my phone goes off with an email from an athlete from the other side of the world. I turn it on and read the email, get happy and go back to sleep,” she said.
While there are other sports hijabs on the market, Javad believes hers has some advantages. Those include a built-in t-shirt that keeps it from pulling loose, and an opening at the back that allows easy access for wearers to adjust their hair.
24 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര്
റമദാന് മാസത്തില് പ്രത്യേകമായി ശ്രദ്ധപതിപ്പിക്കേണ്ട ഒരു സകാത്ത് ഇസ്ലാം നിശ്ചയിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. അതാണ് വ്രതസമാപന സകാത്ത് അഥവാ സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര്.
“മുസ്ലിംകളിലെ അടിമകള്, സ്വതന്ത്രര്, പുരുഷന്മാര്, സ്ത്രീകള്, ചെറിയവര്, വലിയവര് (എന്നീ വേര്തിരിവുകളില്ലാതെ) എല്ലാവരുടെ പേരിലും ഓരോ സ്വാഅ് കാരക്കയോ ബാര്ലിയോ ഫിത്വ്ര് സകാത്ത് നല്കല് ബാധ്യതയായി അല്ലാഹുവിന്റെ ദൂതര്(സ) നിര്ബന്ധമായി നിശ്ചയിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. പെരുന്നാള് നമസ്കാരത്തിന് ആളുകള് പുറപ്പെടുന്നതിനു മുമ്പായി അത് നല്കണമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം കല്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.” (ബുഖാരി, മുസ്ലിം)
റമദാന് അവസാനിക്കുന്നതോടെയാണ് ഈ സകാത്ത് നിര്ബന്ധമായിത്തീരുന്നത്. ഈദുല്ഫിത്വ്ര് (ശവ്വാല് ഒന്ന്) നമസ്കാരത്തിന് പുറപ്പെടുന്നതോടെ അതിന്റെ സമയം അവസാനിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നു. ഹ്രസ്വമായ സമയപരിധിക്കുള്ളില് അത് പൂര്ണമായി നിര്വഹിക്കപ്പെടാന് പ്രയാസമാണെങ്കില് വ്രതസമാപനത്തിന് രണ്ടോ മൂന്നോ ദിവസം മുമ്പായി അത് കൊടുക്കുകയും ചെയ്യാം. ഇബ്നു ഉമര്(റ) പറയുന്നു: “അവര് (സ്വഹാബികള്) ഫിത്വ്ര് സകാത്ത് പെരുന്നാളിന്റെ ഒന്നോ രണ്ടോ ദിവസം മുമ്പ് നല്കാറുണ്ടായിരുന്നു.” (ബുഖാരി)
സമ്പത്ത് എന്ന അല്ലാഹുവിന്റെ അനുഗ്രഹം ലഭിച്ചവര്ക്ക് മാത്രം നിര്ബന്ധമാണ് സാധാരണ സകാത്ത്. അതിന് നിശ്ചിത പരിധിയും കൃത്യമായ തോതും കണക്കുമെല്ലാം നിശ്ചയിക്കപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു. എന്നാല് സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് സമ്പത്തിന്റെ മാനദണ്ഡമനുസരിച്ചല്ല നല്കേണ്ടത്. കണക്കനുസരിച്ച് തന്റെ സമ്പത്തിന്റെ സകാത്ത് കൊടുത്തുതീര്ത്തവരും കണക്കനുസരിച്ച് സകാത്ത് കൊടുക്കാന് മാത്രം സമ്പത്തില്ലാത്തവരും സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് കൊടുക്കേണ്ടതുണ്ട്. നിത്യവൃത്തിക്ക് വകയില്ലാത്തവര് മാത്രമേ ഇതിന്റെ നിര്ബന്ധ കല്പനയില് നിന്ന് ഒഴിവാക്കപ്പെടുകയുള്ളൂ.
മനുഷ്യസഹജമായ താല്പര്യം അംഗീകരിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് അല്ലാഹു നിശ്ചയിച്ച ആഘോഷം എന്ന നിലയില് പെരുന്നാളിന്റെ ആഹ്ലാദം പങ്കിടുവാന് നിത്യവൃത്തിക്ക് കഷ്ടപ്പെടുന്നവര്ക്കുപോലും സാധിക്കണമെന്നതാണ് സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് കൊണ്ട് ലക്ഷ്യമാക്കുന്നത്. ജീവിതത്തില് സൂക്ഷ്മത കൈവരിക്കാനും വന്നുപോയ പാളിച്ചകള്ക്ക് പരിഹാരവും പ്രായശ്ചിത്തവുമായിക്കൊണ്ടുമാണ് സത്യവിശ്വാസി വ്രതമനുഷ്ഠിക്കുന്നത്. നോമ്പുകാരന് വീണ്ടും വിമലീകരണത്തിനുള്ള അവസരം കൂടിയാണ് സകാതുല് ഫിത്വ്ര്. “അനാവശ്യമായ വാക്കും പ്രവൃത്തിയും മൂലം നോമ്പുകാരന് വന്നുപോയ പിഴവുകളില് നിന്ന് അവനെ ശുദ്ധീകരിക്കാനും പാവങ്ങള്ക്ക് ആഹാരത്തിനുമായി റസൂല്(സ) സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് നിര്ബന്ധമാക്കിയിരിക്കുന്നു.” (അബൂദാവൂദ്, ഇബ്നുമാജ)
കാരക്കയും ബാര്ലിയും മാത്രമല്ല നാട്ടിലെ പ്രധാന ആഹാര സാധനങ്ങളാണ് ഫിത്വ്ര് സകാത്തായി നല്കേണ്ടത് എന്നാണ് സ്വഹാബിമാരുടെ പ്രവര്ത്തനങ്ങളില് നിന്ന് മനസ്സിലാകുന്നത്. അബൂസഈദില് ഖുദ്രി(റ) പറയുന്നു: “ഒരു സ്വാഅ് ഗോതമ്പ്, അല്ലെങ്കില് ഒരു സ്വാഅ് ബാര്ലി, അല്ലെങ്കില് ഒരു സ്വാഅ് പാല്ക്കട്ടി, അല്ലെങ്കില് ഒരു സ്വാഅ് മുന്തിരി എന്നിങ്ങനെയായിരുന്നു ഞങ്ങള് സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് കൊടുത്തുവന്നിരുന്നത്.” (ബുഖാരി)
സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് അരി കൊടുക്കണമെന്ന് വിശുദ്ധ ഖുര്ആനിലോ ഹദീസിലോ പറഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ലെങ്കിലും നമ്മുടെ നാട്ടില് അരിയാണ് സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് നല്കേണ്ടതെന്ന കാര്യത്തില് മുസ്ലിം സമൂഹത്തില് രണ്ടഭിപ്രായമില്ല. അത് മേല്പറഞ്ഞ ഹദീസുകളുടെ അടിസ്ഥാനത്തിലാണ്.
എങ്കിലും സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര് സമൂഹത്തിനുപകരിക്കുംവിധം സംഘടിതമായി നിര്വഹിക്കാന് എല്ലാ മുസ്ലിംകളും ഇനിയും തയ്യാറായിട്ടില്ലെന്നത് ഖേദകരമാണ്.
സകാത്ത് കൊടുക്കുന്ന വ്യക്തി തനിക്കും തന്റെ കീഴിലുള്ള കുടുംബത്തിനും വേണ്ടി അത് നിര്വഹിക്കണം. ശവ്വാല് ഒന്നിന് കാലത്ത് പിറന്ന കുഞ്ഞുള്പ്പെടെ ഒരാള്ക്ക് ഒരു സ്വാഅ് എന്ന തോതില് ധാന്യം അയാള് സകാത്ത് സമിതിയെ ഏല്പിക്കണം. സ്വാഅ് എന്നത് നബി(സ)യുടെ കാലത്തെ അളവാണ്. മെട്രിക് തൂക്കമനുസരിച്ച് രണ്ടുകിലോഗ്രാമും ഏതാനും ഗ്രാമും ആണത്. ആയതിനാല് ആളൊന്നിന് രണ്ട് കിലോഗ്രാം വീതം അരിയാണ് നല്കേണ്ടത്. ശേഖരിച്ച സകാത്ത് റമദാനിന്റെ അവസാനത്തെ ദിവസങ്ങളില് തന്നെ അര്ഹതപ്പെട്ടവര്ക്ക് എത്തിച്ചുകൊടുക്കുക എന്നത് സകാത്ത് സമിതിയുടെ ബധ്യതയാണ്. ഒരുതരത്തില് സമുദായത്തിന്റെ നിര്ബന്ധിതമായ ഒരു റിലീഫ് കൂടിയാണ് സകാത്തുല് ഫിത്വ്ര്.
17 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Jan Lok Pal is no solution
June 22, 2011 12:00:00 AM
Tackling
corruption requires economic reforms and a popular re-engagement with
electoral politics. We should shun the politics of hunger strikes.
The
idea of a ‘Jan Lok Pal’ is flawed and profoundly misunderstands the
causes and solutions of corruption in India. It seeks to create another
chunk of Government, more processes and rules, to solve a problem that,
in part, exists because of too many chunks of Government, too many
processes and rules.
If the ‘Jan Lok Pal’ presides over the same
system that has corrupted civil servants, politicians, anti-corruption
watchdogs, judges, media, civil society groups and ordinary citizens,
why should we expect that the ombudsman will be incorruptible? Because
the person is handpicked by unelected, unaccountable ‘civil society’
members? Those who propose that Nobel Laureates (of Indian origin, not
even of Indian citizenship) and Ramon Magsaysay Award winners should be
among those who pick the Great Ombudsman of India — who is both
policeman and judge — insult the hundreds of millions of ordinary Indian
voters who regularly exercise their right to franchise. For they are
demanding that the Scandinavian grandees in the Nobel Committee and the
Filipino members of the Magsaysay foundation should have an indirect
role in selecting an all-powerful Indian official.
The argument
that people should be involved in drafting legislation is fine, even if
it misses the point that the Government is not a foreign entity but a
representative of the people. It is entirely another thing to demand
that the legislation drafted by an self-appointed, unaccountable and
unrepresentative set of people be passed at the threat of blackmail. If
we must have representatives of the people involved in law-making, we
are better off if they are the elected ones, however flawed, as opposed
to self-appointed ones, whatever prizes the latter might have won.
The
‘Jan Lok Pal’ will become another logjammed, politicised and ultimately
corrupt institution, for the passionate masses who demand new
institutions have a poor record of protecting the existing institutions.
Where were the holders of candles, wearers of Gandhi topis and
hunger-strikers when the offices of the Chief Election Commissioner, the
Central Vigilance Commissioner and even the President of the Republic
were handed out to persons with dubious credentials? If you didn’t come
out to protest the perversion of these institutions, why are you somehow
more likely to turn up to protest when a dubious person is sought to be
made the ‘Jan Lok Pal’?
But this is us. Given this reality, the
solution for corruption and malgovernance should be one that does not
rely on the notoriously apathetic middle classes to come out on the
streets. The solution is to take away the powers of discretion, the
powers of rent-seeking from the Government and restore it back to the
people. This is the idea of economic freedom. Societies with greater
economic freedom have lower corruption. I have long argued that we are
in this mess because we have been denied Reforms 2.0.
How can we
have Reforms 2.0 if “those politicians” are unwilling to implement them?
The answer is simple: By voting. Economic reforms are not on anyone’s
political agenda because those who are most likely to benefit from them
do not vote, and do not vote strategically. At this point, it is usual
to hear loud protests about how voting does not work, most often by
those who do not vote. This flies in the face of empirical evidence —
when hundreds of millions of people turn up to vote. If it were not
working for them, why would they be voting? They might not be demanding
Reforms 2.0, but something else, and are getting what they want. Instead
of ephemeral displays of outrage — what happened to those post-26/11
candle-light vigils?— it is engagement in the electoral process that is
necessary. There are some innovative ideas — like that of voters
associations — that can be attempted.
There are no better words than those of BR Ambedkar on the place of satyagraha
in India after the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950:
“…we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we
must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha.
When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving
economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification
for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open,
there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These
methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are
abandoned, the better for us.” Ambedkar was speaking in the Constituent
Assembly.
In my view civil disobedience in general and hunger
strikes in particular must be used in the most exceptional circumstances
where constitutional methods are unavailable or denied, and only till
the time constitutional methods remain unavailable or denied.
Some
contend that the system isn’t working, or has been so perverted by the
incumbent Government that it is necessary to resort to public agitation.
This is a dubious argument. Constitutional democracy is an enlightened
way to make policy by reconciling — to the extent possible — the diverse
interests, opinions and levels of political empowerments of a diverse
population. Any other way amounts to coercion in one form or the other.
If
we are to allow that hunger strikes and street protests do better than
constitutional methods, then how would you decide issues where there are
sharp differences? If two Gandhians go on hunger strike asking for
polar opposites, do we settle the issue by seeing who gives up first?
What if competing groups escalate the agitation to violence against each
other? Should we condone civil war?
The working of those
constitutional mechanisms can and must be improved. By us. The
anti-defection law must go. India does not have a comprehensive law
governing political parties. It needs one. Police reforms have been
stalled for decades. There is a substantial reform agenda that must be
pursued. By us.
However, the inability to implement these
reforms is no excuse for resorting to civil disobedience or, as it
happens in other countries, calling in a dictatorship of the
proletariat, the military or the priesthood.
The ‘Jan Lok Pal
Bill’ is not a solution to the problem of corruption. It risks making
matters worse. Hunger strikes are not the right means to promote a
policy agenda in a constitutional democracy like ours. The promoters and
supporters of ‘Jan Lok Pal’ and the public agitation to achieve it are
profoundly misguided. Their popularity stems from having struck a vein
of middle class outrage against the UPA Government’s misdeeds. That does
not mean that the solutions they offer are right.
I oppose ‘Jan Lok Pal’ and the politics of hunger-strikes as much as I oppose corruption and misgovernance.
Jan Lok Pal: unconstitutional, unnecessary
The battle against corruption must be fought by strengthening existing instruments
The debate on how to eradicate corruption, kick-started by Anna
Hazare’s indefinite fast, has now moved into its second phase. This
involves the drafting of a bill that will provide a foolproof mechanism
to bring the corrupt to book. Here is an examination of the structural
flaws inherent in the Jan Lok Pal Bill
The bill, also known as The Anti Corruption, Grievance Redressal and
Whistleblower Protection Act, 2010 (which will be referred to as the Jan
Lok Pal Bill) is about the most overwhelming piece of legislation since
Independence.
Why the big fuss, you may ask. Don’t we have any laws against
corruption in India? Well, of course, we do. Taking of illegal
gratification by public servants was made a criminal offence way back in
1860 by the repository of all that’s evil—the Indian Penal Code, in
Sections 161-165A.
The Prevention of Corruption Act was first enacted in 1947. In fact,
when the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (the parent
statute of the Central Bureau of Investigation) was enacted, it was
primarily to investigate allegations of corruption against central
government employees.
A “new and improved” Prevention of Corruption Act (PoCA) was enacted
in 1987, complete with special courts and tougher punishments, and with
it, the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code stood repealed.
Photo: V Singh
The new Prevention of Corruption Act is not without controversy, and
the Supreme Court usually has to consider who a “public servant” is
every other month. However, the main issue with the PoCA is that while
it targets employees of nationalised banks, lower level policemen and
similar other members of the government food chain, the higher-ups just
never manage to face the heat, and even if they do, it takes years for
cases to see the light of day.
And all we really want is to see the corrupt thieves in jail, or at
least, not in any position of power. Why is it so difficult to just
throw out corrupt unmentionables? For that, we need to go back to the
hallowed Constitution of India. Article 311 is the party pooper, which
requires that a civil servant can only be dismissed by an authority
equal or superior to that which appointed it. That at least is at the
stage of dismissal. Even for prosecution, the PoCA requires previous
sanction, according to Section 19.
Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, follows suit for
offences committed “in the discharge of official duty”. Obviously, the
public perception is that government officials will always refuse to
accord sanction to protect their minions, perhaps rightly so.
Keeping this in mind, the government proposed the Lok Pal Bill, 2010,
as a mechanism for inquiry into allegations of corruption against
public functionaries. As a response, several public-spirited citizens
countered with their own draft Jan Lok Pal Bill. The latter is so much
broader in scope compared to the government’s draft that it is not even
fair to compare the two. The activist’s Jan Lokpal Bill, version 2.1
doesn’t just stop at inquiry. It goes the whole hog.
It says that the Lok Pal shall consist of one chairperson along with
10 members. These persons should not, at the time of appointment, be
holding any “office of profit” or be a member of parliament or the
legislature of any state. It also bars persons who have even been
charged (not convicted!) under the IPC or PoCA or penalised under the
Central Civil Services Conduct rules.
Out of these 10 members, four must have some “legal background”,
bringing in former judges and lawyers. A maximum of two of these members
can come from a civil services background. Looks like a healthy mix. So
far, so good.
Then there is this requirement: “The members and Chairperson should
have unimpeachable integrity and should have demonstrated their resolve
to fight corruption in the past.”
This is jarring for two reasons: one, it looks like the bill is
leaving a lot of scope for canvassing for these posts, and two, isn’t
impartiality a much more important consideration? The objective of the
Lok Pal ought to be to conduct an honest and fair inquiry. Anyone who
has demonstrated their resolve to fight corruption in the past might end
up being a trigger-happy vigilante in judicial robes (and police
uniform—but we’ll get to that later), especially when empowered in such a
manner.
The cream of the crop, including the chairperson of the National
Human Rights Commission (oh, the irony!) are involved in the selection
process. In fact, a previous version (1.9, apparently) proposed former
Magsaysay award winners and Nobel laureates “of Indian origin” to be
members of this selection committee. The good news is that they have
been shoved aside to accommodate “retired army personnel who are five
star generals”. It is unclear if they asked the 92-year-old Marshal of
the Air Force, Arjan Singh, before adding this post to the list,
considering he’s the only living five star general we have.
Any person can propose the name of a deserving candidate to be
appointed to the Lok Pal, and after initial sifting by the selection
committee, the person recommending a candidate has to provide material
to support his nomination. Thereafter, the names will be put up on the
Internet to solicit public feedback, and the committee can also use “any
means” to collect more information about the background and past
achievements of the shortlisted candidates. Lok Pal members are
appointed by the President of India.
So despite all of this, if a member is found being
less-than-unimpeachable, the Supreme Court of India—yes, the highly
overburdened final court of appeal and protector of the Constitution—in a
bench of five judges, no less (normally known as a “constitutional
bench”), will have to conduct the inquiry.
However absurd an allegation, the Act specifically bars the Supreme
Court from dismissing the petition at the threshold stage. The Supreme
Court can order a report of “investigation” by a Special Investigation
Team and can bench the allegedly errant member while such inquiry is
being conducted. If someone makes a false complaint, they can be
punished with fine and imprisonment.
There is, however, no appeal for a member who may have been wrongly
dismissed. Neither is there is any discretion left with either the Prime
Minister or the President of India to withhold the person’s removal.
So, the President can refuse to sign bills passed by both houses of
Parliament, refuse to sign orders of impeachment of Supreme Court
judges, commute a sentence of death which could have been upheld by four
different courts (including two benches of the Supreme Court in appeal
and review), but she must remove a member of the Lok Pal on the
recommendation of the Supreme Court.
Moving on. What does this wonderfully constituted Committee get to do, anyway?
According to the Bill, the Lok Pal shall be responsible for receiving
complaints for offences under the PoCA, or for “misconduct” which
includes “vigilance angle” which in turn includes the very carefully
worded “Gross or willful negligence; recklessness in decision
making; blatant violations of systems and procedures; exercise of
discretion in excess where no ostensible/public interest is evident;
failure to keep the controlling authority/superiors informed in time”.
Presently, complaints for offences under the PoCA go to the
anti-corruption wings of either the CBI or the local police. The police
investigate, and present their findings to a government authority for
sanction. The government authority is supposed to independently apply
their mind and accord sanction if a case has been made out. The case is
then tried before a special court. The procedure for complaints under
the PoCA now is that the Lok Pal will order an inquiry or investigation,
and only when the Lok Pal is satisfied that a case is made out, will it
direct that prosecution be launched. The procedure for obtaining
sanction prior to prosecution is eliminated, once the Lok Pal orders
investigation it is deemed that sanction is accorded.
The branch of the CBI that deals with investigation and prosecution
of offences alleged to have been committed under the PoCA, will now be
the “Lok Pal Investigation Wing” and be under the direction and control
of the Lok Pal.
To start with, it crosses the line when it comes to the separation of
powers. Each wing of Government—the Legislature, Executive and
Judiciary—keeps checks and balances on the other, and so they must
remain separate, because that’s the only way to ensure that there is no
abuse of power. Here, the Lok Pal, which is a judicial body, for all
practical purposes, will have control of the part of the Executive that
conducts investigations on its behalf. To add to more confusion, the
chairperson, members of Lok Pal and the officers in investigation wing
of Lok Pal are to be deemed to be “police officers” as defined under the
Code of Criminal Procedure, for the purpose of carrying out
investigation.
When a complaint comes before the Lok Pal Committee, they can either
initiate investigation straight away, or conduct a preliminary inquiry.
Interestingly, the Lok Pal can also direct any other person to
make this preliminary inquiry as it deems fit for ascertaining whether
there exists a reasonable ground for conducting the investigation.
An aside here—the whole wording of this bill can get kind of
confusing, because, for example, in criminal law, “Inquiry” is usually
meant for a stage prior to the filing of an FIR, and Investigation
denotes that an FIR has been filed. In this Bill, the Lok Pal can, after
investigation, order that Prosecution be launched, which means an FIR,
after which investigation has to be carried out. Again.
While the complainant is mandated to be kept in the loop regarding
the inquiry into his complaint at all times, the same is not true for
the public servant. In fact, it isn’t very clear when the public servant
is allowed to make his representation, which is slightly disturbing
considering the possibilities at the end of this inquiry/investigation,
which we’ll get to in a bit.
Calling for the say of the public servant at the stage of inquiry is
entirely at the discretion of the Lok Pal. At the stage of
investigation, thankfully, the Lok Pal “shall afford to such public
servant and the complainant an opportunity to offer comments and be
heard”. What is the scope of offering comments, though? Does the public
servant have the right to legal counsel? It is also very disturbing that
there is no provision which prevents the bench of the Lok Pal that
conducts the preliminary inquiry from being the one that conducts the
investigation, which is a necessary safeguard from a “judge, jury,
executioner” situation.
After completion of due investigation, the Lok Pal has several
options, including (besides dismissing the complaint) initiating
prosecution against public servants as well as abetting private parties,
imposing of penalities under the conduct rules, order cancellation or
modification of a licence or lease or permission or contract or
agreement, or even blacklisting the concerned firm or company or
contractor or any other entity involved in that act of corruption.
Pretty harsh punishments, probably what these people who are guilty
of corruption-related offences deserve—but wait—this is all prior to
having been found guilty by a court of law. Since the
inquiry/investigation/what-have-you is in the nature of a civil Inquiry,
the standard of proof is very different than of a prosecution under
criminal law. Take the example of people who are found guilty in
departmental inquiries who often get acquitted by courts in PoCA
offences. In criminal law, the standard of proof is beyond reasonable
doubt. If this standard of proof is not adhered to, and at this stage
which is prior to any independent investigation authority even looking
into the matter (the Lok Pal Investigation Wing not really fitting in
with the concept of “independent”) the ability to blacklist corporations
is absolutely absurd. Another point to ponder—if the Lok Pal decides to
“initiate prosecution”, who is the investigating authority then? Is it
the Lok Pal Investigation Wing again? God forbid!
That’s not all—even at the stage of inquiry (that is before even
concluding their inquiry and referring this case for initiation of
prosecution) the Lok Pal can move for interim measures to restrain him
or his orders from causing further harm. However, even at the stage of
investigation, the Lok Pal can ask for a tabulation and freezing of
immovable and movable assets of the public servant. It is not even
necessary to show that these assets are disproportionate or reasonably
suspected to have been derived from funds which are the subject of
inquiry.
The Lok Pal Bill moves further into uncharted territory with the
possible prosecution of the “bribe giver”. For years, the position of
law as to whether a person could be prosecuted for giving a bribe was
unclear. Under PoCA, a statement made by a person in any proceeding
against a public servant that he offered or agreed to offer any illegal
gratification would not make him liable to face prosecution as an
abettor. The purpose behind this was simple—to encourage reporting of
offences and ensure convictions. It looks like a person who had to give a
bribe may not get this cushion of protection before the Lok Pal.
More absurdity—the act also takes the liberty of amending the
Prevention of Corruption Act. Sections 7 – 15 of the Act which have
minimum punishments of six months to a year and maximum punishments of
5-7 years are now amended to two years minimum imprisonment and a
maximum punishment of life imprisonment. If the accused is an officer of
the rank of joint secretary or above or a minister, a member or
chairperson of the Lok Pal, the minimum imprisonment is ten years. A
fine of five times the “loss caused to the public” will be recovered in
case the beneficiary is a “business entity”, and if the assets of the
company be not enough to recover the amount, it will have to be
recovered from the personal assets of the directors.
Theoretically, this is fine if you have an independent judiciary,
again, the hallmark of a democracy. Already, there are special courts
constituted to handle matters under the PoCA (the Bombay Sessions Court
has four such Courts). The appointment and superintendence of these
judges, who are at the level of district judges, should be by the
governor of the state in consultation with the High Court exercising
jurisdiction in relation to such state, since that’s what the
Constitution of India says.
The Lok Pal Bill pays no heed to such niceties, and instead the
Government (they probably meant “Governor”) has to take advice from the
Lok Pal on the selection procedure of these judges, which one hopes is
not that these judges have shown a zeal for rooting out corruption in
the past.
Never mind, at least there is a provision for appeal. Or is there?
Along with the ignorance of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers, the
other big problem with the Lok Pal Bill and which demonises it
completely is the utter disregard for the right to appeal. It is not
clear, whether a bench of the Lok Pal is to be considered on par with a
magistrate (since it conducts inquiry), a court of sessions, a High
Court (though it is to be treated so for the purpose of the Contempt of
Courts Act), a tribunal or a quasi-judicial body (like the Human Rights
Commission).
Regardless of what it fancies itself to be, by the lack of provision
for appeal, it is unconstitutional. Granted, the Lok Pal itself doesn’t
convict anyone, but that doesn’t mean that there should be no right to
appeal. The right to at least one appeal against an order, which affects
someone adversely, is inherent in the Constitution. There is no
specific clause regarding appeals in the Jan Lok Pal Bill, and that is
unconstitutional, to say the least.
The only mention of an Appeal is in Section 28A regarding disposal of
“Properties deemed to have been obtained through corrupt means” where
appeals against the orders of the Lok Pal shall lie in High Court of
appropriate jurisdiction, which shall decide the matter within two
months of filing of the appeal.”
Gautam Patel, a lawyer, points out, that according to Section 27 (2),
there appears to be a further ousting of the power of the judiciary by
barring any proceedings or decision of the Lok Pal from being
challenged, reviewed, quashed or called in question in any court of
ordinary civil jurisdiction. While in my opinion that doesn’t preclude
the interference of the High Court in its extraordinary writ
jurisdiction, thus allowing for judicial review, the section is
extremely high handed.
The bill is also contradictory and confusing when it comes to
inquiries and investigations against various public officials. The big
ticket is of course the judiciary. Special provisions exist only as
regards judges of a High Court or Supreme Court. All complaints
concerning these persons will be subject to a preliminary screening for
prima facie evidence—interestingly, judges will only be considered for
offences under the PoCA and not for “other” offences and misconduct.
Registration of a case will only be done with the approval of a full
bench of the Lok Pal, a majority of the members being from a legal
background. Even after registration, such cases shall be investigated by
a special team headed by an officer not below the rank of a
superintendent of police. This is all well and good, because this makes
absolutely no difference to the Judge who is protected by the rigorous
impeachment method.
The proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill is a knee-jerk reaction to the present
scenario. No doubt, corruption is draining our exchequer as well as our
sense of morality and faith in the system. Like most knee-jerk
reactions, it is not well thought out, and by taking over the
independence of courts and the investigating authorities, leaving no
scheme of appeal, and the ambiguous treatment of the right to be heard,
the bill is absolutely unconstitutional and should not be implemented at
any cost—fast-unto-death or not. The possible implications of its
enactment far outweigh the obviously good intentions that it was drafted
with.
It is always easy to criticise and walk away without any suggestions.
So let me throw in my ideas. Say you remove the unconstitutional and
absurd bits from the Jan Lok Pal Bill, what do you have? A legislation
that prides itself on transparency in its constitution and functioning
and easy accessibility by the public, all of which can and should be
strengthened in existing mechanisms. The provisions regarding protection
to whistleblowers should extend to all endangered witnesses in general,
and should find place in a separate legislation or appropriate
amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code.
The purpose of the Lok Pal Bill should be a transparent means of
pre-trial evaluation of material against public servants, and providing a
more public alternative to the closed door sanctioning process under
the PoCA and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Like it or not, the process
of sanction is a necessary evil especially when dealing with publicly
elected officials. It cannot be the tool of a witch-hunt, and it must
respect the boundaries of due process and constitutionality.
When you already have courts and police personnel devoted exclusively
to unearthing offences under the PoCA, an act which actually places the
burden of proof on the accused, why not expend resources in trying to
strengthen these?
By bringing in the spirit of the Jan Lok Pal Bill and improving
citizen access to complaint mechanisms, ensuring witness protection,
along with a transparent and public process of according sanction for
prosecution, there will be a great improvement in the effectiveness of
the PoCA, which itself would be a huge deterrent.
A relook at the PoCA and its scope, particularly the inclusion of the
private sector, would also not be out of place. Enacting the Jan Lok
Pal Bill in its present form, the appointment of the officials and the
sure-shot constitutional challenges it will face will be a waste of
time, energies and effort. Let’s get to work with what we have.
Why an ombudsman won’t help India
Henry Louis Mencken—the 19th century American essayist and
satirist—once said “For every problem there is a solution which is
simple, clean and wrong”. The proposed Lokpal (Ombudsman) Bill, in both
the government and non-government versions, is one such solution to the
problem of corruption. India is high on corruption because it is low on
business freedom. This relationship holds true across the world,
including the Nordic nations from whom the concept of Ombudsman has been
borrowed. The solution lies in changing the nature, and not necessarily
the size, of the Indian state.
Photo: Deepankar Raj
The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal’s annual Index of
Economic Freedom ranks countries based on ten benchmarks, including
business freedom, trade freedom and property rights. Business freedom is
“a quantitative measure of the ability to start, operate, and close a
business that represents the overall burden of regulation as well as the
efficiency of government in the regulatory process”. There is a strong
correlation between business freedom and Transparency International’s
corruption perceptions index—a measure of the “degree to which public
sector corruption is perceived to exist”. Seven of the world’s ten least
corrupt countries rank amongst top ten in business freedom: New
Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. The
ten most corrupt countries have an average business freedom rank of 154,
while the ten least corrupt have an average rank of 12. India has a
business freedom rank of 167, below Burkina Faso, Mozambique,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Egypt. The correlation
coefficient—a measure of the strength of linear relationship between two
variables—between business freedom and perceived corruption for the
year 2010 is a high 0.68.
The story gets even more fascinating. The relationship between size
of government and corruption is weaker than and opposite to that of the
relation between business freedom and corruption. If we rank countries
starting with the nation with the lowest ratio of government spending to
GDP, the ten most corrupt countries have an average government size
rank of 52, the ten least corrupt have a rank of 129. The correlation
coefficient between size of government spending and corruption is a
negative 0.32. We have a bit of a paradox here. When government
intervention takes the form of lowering the freedom to start and run
businesses we have more corruption, but when government intervention
takes the form of taxation and redistribution we don’t see an increase
in corruption. Why so?
The public choice school of economics tells us that politicians and
bureaucrats are self-interested agents who are likely to exploit profit
making opportunities. Low business freedom corresponds to extensive
government intervention in the form of licenses, permits and quotas
(LPQ). Profit-maximising politicians use LPQ levers to extract rents
from businesses. Entrepreneurs too are profit-maximising agents, but
they operate under the perennial gale of market forces. These forces
play the tune to which entrepreneurs dance to satisfy consumers. It is
for this reason that Adam Smith held that “it is not from the
benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest.” Thus while
market forces channel the self-interest of private entrepreneurs to
promote social good, making the pie grow larger, the undisciplined
self-interest of politicians extracts a piece of the sweet pie while
hindering its growth. High government taxation and redistribution does
not necessarily create LPQ levers for extraction of rent, and this is
why we do not see a positive relation between size of government and
corruption internationally.
Empirical evidence and economics theory tell us that an ombudsman is
unlikely to solve the problem of corruption in India. In the Nordic
countries all the ombudsman does is fine-tune a well-functioning system.
According to the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsmen Report a total of
6,112 complaint cases were concluded during the period 1 July 2007 to 30
June 2008, of these only one ended with “prosecution and disciplinary
proceeding.” Imagine the number of people such an institution would have
to prosecute in India. A good analogy is that of the anti-trust
commissions in the United States and the European Union who look into
acts of abuse of market power by monopoly firms to promote healthy
competition. The institution is meant to work in a largely free-market
economy. In the same way that a competition commission fine tunes a
market economy an ombudsman too may fine tune a mostly uncorrupt system
but it cannot create one. An ombudsman cannot fix a broken system like
India.
Jakon Svensson writes in a 2005 Journal of Economic Literature
article: “Strikingly, many [of the most corrupt countries] are governed,
or have recently been governed, by socialist governments.” Technically,
India too is socialist. But socialism comes in various flavours; the
command and control philosophy and welfare state philosophy mean very
different things as far corruption goes. Well-designed welfare schemes
in which government plays the role of a financier rather than producer
can go a long way in cutting down on corruption. India needs innovation
in governance; and for lessons on governance, bureaucrats in New Delhi
need not trouble themselves with a flight to Oslo—Patna will do. The
Nitish Kumar government handed out money to parents to buy bicycles for
girl children, rather than use government employees or contractors to
produce and distribute them. This cut out a whole group of parasites.
Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-117), a senator and historian of the
Roman Empire, in the Annals says “The more corrupt the republic, the
more numerous the laws.” There is no genetic or cultural reason to
presume Indians are less ethical than Norwegians. The difference lies in
legal rules that govern economic activity, and that is what needs to
change.
17 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Don’t fall for the miracle cure that is being offered. Corruption must be fought differently and it’s not easy.
1. Is Lok Pal is necessary to fight corruption?
No, not only is it unnecessary, it will make the problem worse.
Corruption in India arises because of too much government, too many
rules, too much complexity and too much ambiguity. Adding one more,
huge, powerful layer to an already complex system will make the system
even more complicated. Complexity creates the incentives for
corruption–both on the part of the bribe giver and the bribe taker.
1A. Is the government’s version of the Lok Pal bill better?
No. We don’t need a Lok Pal at all. Making existing constitutional
institutions—like CAG, CVC, CBI and the Election Commission—more
independent will serve the purpose equally well. If we have been unable
to prevent the politicisation and undermining of these instutitions why
would we be able to prevent the Lok Pal from being politicised and
undermined? If we can prevent Lok Pal from being politicised and
undermined, why can’t we restore the independence and credibility of
CAG, CVC, CBI and the Election Commission?
2. What’s the alternative to Lok Pal then?
The alternative is to proceed with second-generation reforms, or Reforms 2.0.
Contrary to conventional wisdom reforms have reduced corruption, albeit
by moving it to higher up the government. In 1989 an ordinary person
would have to pay a bribe to get a telephone connection. By 2005, there
was no need to pay a bribe at all and anyone could get a phone in
minutes. Yes, 2010 saw the 2G scam in telecoms, but that was because the
UPA government reversed the reform process.
In fact, data show that perceptions of corruption are lower in some sectors of the economy, usually those that have been liberalised.
If you are interested in exploring real alternatives, you can start
by reading Atanu Dey’s slim, easily readable and inexpensive new book, “Transforming India”.
3. Doesn’t Hong Kong have an Ombudsman and doesn’t it enjoy low corruption?
This is a specious argument. There is little evidence to prove that
Hong Kong has low corruption because it has an Ombudsman. On the
contrary, there is empirical evidence from across the world suggesting that countries with high economic freedom are perceived to suffer from less corruption.
Hong Kong is one of the freest economies of the world,
and therefore, incentives for government officials to be corrupt are
relatively low. The Ombudsman is useful to address the residual
corruption in economic sectors and in sectors like law enforcement that
do not have discretionary powers over economic sectors.
4. How can we have economic reforms if the corrupt politicians don’t allow it?
We have not really demanded them at all, actually. If we did, they are
bound to register in the national political agenda. We should persuade
politicians that their political future is linked to implementing
economic reforms.
5. Easy to say, but how can we do this?
By voting. The constituencies that stand to benefit from economic
reforms—the middle class—needs to vote in larger numbers. In the absence
of the middle class vote base, politicians appease the poor by giving
handouts and entitlements, and cater to the super rich by allowing the
crony sector to exploit the half-reformed economy. It’s not easy, and we
have to be innovative. See for instance, Atanu Dey’s interesting idea
to form middle-class vote banks to induce good governance.
Whatever may be the claims made by the people promoting Lok Pal,
there is no miracle solution. They are peddling miracle weight-loss
pills. Sadly, such pills usually don’t work and can cause severe damage
to your health. If you are cautioned not to take those pills, you can’t
ask “which other miracle weight-loss pill do you recommend”? The answer
is in diet and exercise, which is hard work.
6. In the meantime, what’s wrong with Jan Lok Pal?
This question has already been answered above, but it’s usual
to encounter it again at this stage. The problem with Jan Lok Pal is
that it’ll make the problem worse. Does anyone seriously think we can
hire tens of thousands of absolutely honest officials who will
constitute the Lok Pal? Who will keep watch on them? Maybe we need a
Super Lok Pal, and then a Hyper Lok Pal to watch over the Super Lok Pal
and so on…This isn’t sarcasm, this is the logical extension of the Lok
Pal argument.
7. Don’t we have the right to protest peacefully? Why do you say that a fast-until-death lacks legitimacy?
Of course we have the right to protest peacefully. But it’s not about
whether we have the right or not. It’s about are we using that right
wisely. (You have the freedom of speech but that doesn’t mean it’s a
good idea to blast Eminem using a loudspeaker at 2am in a residential
district.)
As Ambedkar said while introducing the Constitution in November 1949,
once the Constitution came into force, we should avoid all
non-constitutional methods like protests and satyagraha, for they are the grammar of anarchy.
If two persons go on fasts until death for two opposing reasons, we
cannot decide the issue by allowing one person to die first.
Fast until death is political blackmail. It is a form of theatre
engaged in to coerce the government into doing something that the
agitators want. Whatever may be the cause, a single person cannot be
allowed to dictate laws to the whole nation.
8. Doesn’t Anna Hazare have the right to fast until death?
Anna Hazare has the right to protest peacefully. However to the extent
that his actions amount to an attempt to commit suicide, they are
illegal. The government can legitimately prevent him from killing
himself whatsoever the reason he might have to attempt suicide.
9. You are an armchair intellectual. Shouldn’t we trust activists more?
Pilots don’t design aircraft. Practicing doctors don’t discover new
drugs and treatments. These jobs are usually done by armchair
intellectuals. So being an armchair intellectual is not a
disqualification.
You shouldn’t trust intellectuals or activists because of what they
are. You should examine their arguments and make your own judgement.
Most of the people supporting Lok Pal have not examined what the
proposal is, have not tried to consider opposing arguments and blindly
accept it as a solution because some famous people said so.
11. Aren’t those who oppose Anna Hazare’s agitation supporting the corrupt politicians?
No. It takes an enormous amount of arrogance to claim that Anna Hazare
and his supporters have the exclusive hold on the right way to fight
corruption.
In the real world, it is foolish to expect 100% clean and non-corrupt
politicians. The real world challenge is to achieve good governance
with imperfect constitutions, imperfect institutions, imperfect leaders
and imperfect citizens. This requires us to realise that individuals
respond to incentives. If we remove incentives for taking or giving
bribes, then corruption will be lowered. We can reduce incentives for
corruption by following through with the reforms that started in 1991
but have stalled since 2004.
It is entirely possible to oppose the UPA government’s politics and
policies, while recognising that it is the legitimately constituted
government of the country. Individuals and parties might suffer from a
legitimacy deficit because of flagrant corruption, but the Government of
India as an institution remains the legitimate authority to make policy
decisions for the whole nation.
12. Why is fasting illegitimate when Mahatma Gandhi used it in our struggle for independence from the British?
There is a huge difference in context between 26th January 1950 when the
Constitution of India came into force and the time before it.
Mahatma Gandhi used civil disobedience against laws imposed on India
by the British government. Indians had no say in how the laws were made
and how they were implemented. Indians could not repeal laws we didn’t
want. Civil disobedience was justified in this context.
Gandhi also used it to coerce Indian nationalist leaders too,
including Ambedkar and the Indian National Congress, into accepting his
views. Whatever might be the wisdom of Gandhi’s intentions, this was
undemocratic and created a culture of ‘high command’ that lives on to
this day. Fasting was not justified in this context. This part of Gandhi
receives little attention in the dominant narrative of Indian history.
With the formation of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950,
things changed profoundly. All Indians have a say in how laws are made
and how they are implemented. We can amend or repeal laws that we do not
like. There is, of course, a method to do this, which must be followed.
These are the constitutional methods that Ambedkar referred to in his
grammar of anarchy speech. When constitutional methods are available,
there is no case for non-constitutional methods like satyagraha or
hunger strikes.
There is thus no equivalence between Gandhi’s satyagraha against the
British ruling us and Mr Hazare’s hunger strikes against we ruling
ourselves.
10 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
London riots
Two nights of
rioting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood erupted following protests
over the shooting death by police of a local man, Mark Duggan. Police
were arresting him when the shooting occurred. Over 170 people were
arrested over the two nights of rioting, and fires gutted several
stores, buildings, and cars. The disorder spread to other neighborhoods
as well, with shops being looted in the chaos. Collected here are
images from the rioting and the aftermath. —
Lane Turner (
26 photos total)
Fire
fighters and riot police survey the area as fire rages through a
building in Tottenham, north London on Aug. 7, 2011. A demonstration
against the death of a local man turned violent and cars and shops were
set ablaze. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP)
A rioter throws a burning wooden plank at police in Tottenham Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
Mounted police officers chase rioters on the streets in Tottenham Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
Riot police officers face off with protesters in Tottenham Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
A masked protester hurls an object toward riot police officers in Tottenham Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
A policeman in riot gear stands guard in Tottenham Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
A
double decker bus burns as riot police try to contain a large group of
people on a main road in Tottenham on August 6, 2011. (Leon
Neal/AFP/Getty Images) #
Police
officers detain a man in Enfield, north London August 7, 2011. Police
said they were called to Enfield, a few miles north of Tottenham, where
youths had smashed two shop windows and damaged a police car. (Stefan
Wermuth/Reuters) #
Fire rages through a building in Tottenham on Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
Riot police officers escort an injured man after arresting him in Tottenham on Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
A protester faces off with riot police officers on the streets in Tottenham on Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
Police officers make their way on the streets in Tottenham on Aug. 7, 2011. (Lewis Whyld/PA/AP) #
Buildings burn on Tottenham High Road in London during protests on August 6, 2011. (Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images) #
Protestors face off against riot police lines on Tottenham High Road on August 6, 2011 in London. (Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images) #
Police officers detain a man in Tottenham on August 7, 2011. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters) #
Police officers in riot gear walk past a burning building in Tottenham on August 7, 2011. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters) #
A
shop and police car burn as riot police try to contain a large group of
people on a main road in Tottenham on August 6, 2011. (Leon
Neal/AFP/Getty Images) #
A
woman walks through the debris with two children as riot police try to
contain a large group of people on a main road in Tottenham on August 6
2011. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) #
A policeman walks past a damaged jewelery shop in Enfield, north London on August 7, 2011. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters) #
A
police officer patrols as firemen continue to dowse buildings set
alight during riots in Tottenham on August 7, 2011. (Luke
MacGregor/Reuters) #
Police cordon off an area on August 7, 2011 during unrest in Enfield. (Karel Prinsloo/AP) #
Animals are taken from a pet store after riots on Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #
Aaron
Biber, 89, assesses the damage to his hairdressing salon after riots on
Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #
Burnt out cars lie in the road after riots on Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #
A man stands next to a burnt out van after riots on Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011 . (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #
Residents watch as a building burns after riots on Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
London riots: in ashes, a firm that survived two world wars
It survived the Depression, two world wars and the deepest recession in a
century.
But House of Reeves, a 144-year-old furniture store in the heart of Croydon,
could do little in the face of 100 or so yobs hell-bent on tearing up this
particular corner of south London.
The shop, a local landmark of such repute that it gave its name to the road on
which it now stands, was razed as youths rampaged through the town’s
streets, smashing doors and windows.
In one of the most searing images of the
London riots, flames tore through the store on Reeves’ Corner on
Monday night, with smoke being seen for miles around. By morning, all that
was left was a charred shell and onlookers were kept well back for fear that
the shattered building could collapse.
It was a crushing blow for a company that was founded in 1867 and has remained
in the Reeves family for five generations. Trevor Reeves, 56, the founder’s
great-great grandson, said: “If we were a computer shop, they would have
just broken in, taken the stock and left. But you can’t very well carry a
three-piece suite through the centre of Croydon can you? It was obvious that
the only thing left for them to do was to set fire to the place.
“It is completely devastating; heartbreaking. The family has been through a
lot; the world wars and the Depression in the 1930s were obviously tough and
the last few years have been particularly difficult, but we have always kept
going.
London riots: Telegraph readers’ photos of the rioting and looted areas of the city
Telegraph readers have been sending us their pictures of the rioting and
looted areas of London. If you have photos related to the recent unrest,
email them to mypic@telegraph.co.uk,
supplying a little info on where and how the pictures were taken, and we’ll
include the best in this picture gallery.
This amazing picture of a car exploding on Mare Street in Hackney was taken
by Telegraph reader Miks Uzans, who writes: “There were around 30
well-equipped rioters. The police didn’t even come close to this; instead
they were blocking the road 200m away.”
08 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Tata Aria 4×2 in Lavasa
The Tata Aria 4×2 extends the range to new segments and redefines several benchmarks with its design and technologies.
The Aria’s stylish design is inlaid with the
DNA of an SUV, manifested in its stance, power, driveability and safety.
The Aria’s styling is a blend of bold
proportions, uncluttered lines and uncompromising aesthetics.
Its 2.2 litre Direct Injection Common Rail
(DICOR) engine, with variable turbine technology and 32-bit ECU delivers 140 PS
power and 320 Nm torque.
The Aria is equipped with disc brakes on all
four wheels resulting in superior braking effectiveness and better control. The
Antilock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Breakforce Distribution (EBD)
aids steerability and control in emergency braking situations and on slippery
surfaces.
The Aria’s stylish design is inlaid with the
DNA of an SUV, manifested in its stance, power, driveability and safety.
The Tata Aria 4×2 is being launched in three
trim levels – the Aria Prestige at the top end, the Aria Pleasure and the Aria
Pure.
The 2-DIN music system and Bluetooth, along with
steering mounted phone and music controls, helps switch between music and
conversation at the touch of a button.
The
twin chrome exhaust tailpipes adds a sporty appearance to the rear,
however, if you look closer, the exhaust pipes can be seen inside the
chrome rings. Bad!
The suspension is designed to achieve an
optimal balance between ride comfort and control and stability, both on normal
roads and in offroading. Its low-roll characteristics and higher soaking
capacity further ensure a sedan-like ride quality and SUV-like offroading
capability.
Wraparound dual barreled headlamps complement
the signature Tata grille. Chrome detailing on the sides accentuates its premium
class.
The Aria’s frame is constructed with advanced
hydroformed members. Hydroforming enhances their rigidity while reducing weight.
All
seats, except the driver’s, can be flat-folded, giving you lots of luggage
space – even space to stuff in a Tata Nano.
Roof utility bins, a glove-box chiller and
conveniently placed cup holders helps keep every thing you want within easy
reach.
There are seven roof utility bins
on the Tata Aria, a feature that no other auto maker could ever think
of. Moreover, there are cup holders for every passenger in the car.
The Tata Aria 4×2 is being launched in three
trim levels – the Aria Prestige at the top end, the Aria Pleasure and the Aria
Pure.
The interiors reflect the same richness and
elegance in design, layout, and visual appeal.
Premium leather upholstery enhances richly
textured trims in single or dual tone themes.
There is no need to look back even to park – a
Reverse Guide System helps you with exactitude. The Driver Information System
continuously indicates essential drive data, the Automatic Climate Control,
through roof-mounted AC vents, keeps the cabin temperature ambient.
08 Aug 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Want to reduce your belly fat? Eat apples, green peas and beans
Tue, Jun 28, 2011 2:22 PM IST
Washington, June 28 (ANI): Are you tired of having belly fat? Now, eat two small apples, one cup of green peas and one-half cup of pinto beans and exercise vigorously for 30 minutes, two to four times a week.
cording to the researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, vegetables, fruit and beans contain more soluble fiber and will help reduce visceral fat, or belly fat, around the midsection.
They found that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber eaten per day, visceral fat was reduced by 3.7 percent over five years. In addition, increased moderate activity resulted in a 7.4 percent decrease in the rate of visceral fat accumulation over the same time period.
“We know that a higher rate of visceral fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and fatty liver disease,” said Kristen Hairston, assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead researcher on the study.
“Our study found that making a few simple changes can have a big health impact,” he added.
The researchers examined whether lifestyle factors, such as diet and frequency of exercise, were associated with a five-year change in abdominal fat of African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
At the beginning of the study, which involved 1,114 people, the participants were given a physical exam, an extensive questionnaire on lifestyle issues, and a CT scan. Five years later, the exact same process was repeated.
The researchers found that increased soluble fiber intake was associated with a decreased rate of accumulated visceral fat, but not subcutaneous fat.
“There is mounting evidence that eating more soluble fiber and increasing exercise reduces visceral or belly fat, although we still don’t know how it works,” said Hairston.
The results are published in the June 16 online issue of the journal Obesity. (ANI)
12 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison]
Projector phone still sounds like a dream, but we already have four
phones launched with that capability. There is no dearth of innovation
in the thought to pack things into one single mobile phone. Intex,
TechBerry and Spice have launched their respective projector phones.
Intex was the pioneer in this field closely followed by Techberry.
But it was the late entrant Spice which popularized projector phone with its “Yeh boat nahin”
ad of Spice Popkorn. The timing of the phone launch and the ad is icing
on the cake. Spice Popkorn ad pops up in the middle of a world cup
match. And the ad surely stands out in the middle of bunch of
thoughtless ads.
Intex V.Show
![VShowIN8810 a1 thumb Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison]](http://thegadgetfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/VShowIN8810_a1_thumb.jpg "Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison] gadget 2")
Intex V.Show uses tiny Pico which is the latest in the LED technology to project on to a36 inch screen size for 3 hours. 20,000 hours of play time on the projector is possible. After
which it will cease to be a projector and starts to be a phone-only. It
is a touch screen phone with 3.2 inch screen size. It is a dual SIM
phone (GSM+GSM). As per mainstream media this is a 3G enabled phone. As per blogosphere this is a dual SIM
phone. It has a dual camera – one in the front, one in the back and it
has dual memory card slots which can read up to 8 GB each.
TechBerry ST 200
![ST200 elevated thumb Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison]](http://thegadgetfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ST200_elevated_thumb.png "Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison] gadget 2")
ST in the phone name stands for Sachin Tendulkar. I am not kidding.
That’s what the press release said. This phone which was launched
immediately after Intex V.show has some amazing double features. In
addition to the projector of course.
It packs in dual-SIM capability, dual memory card capability and dual
camera of 2 megapixel each. ST200 has a 3.2 inch QVGA full touch
screen. ST200 is a GSM phone with Bluetooth on-board.
Spice PopKorn
![spicem9000 thumb Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison]](http://thegadgetfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/spicem9000_thumb.jpg "Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison] gadget 2")
Spice M-9000 is a dual SIM phone with a in-built projector. It also
comes with a analogous TV which will help you stream free-to-air
channels, you know like the good old Doordarshan. There is a document
viewer, in case you want to project a presentation on the side wall in
the middle of a Christopher Nolan movie. Spice M-9000 aka Popkorn, has a 3.2 megapixel camera, FM with recording, Bluetooth, video player and a 6 cm QVGA screen. All of this comes at a measly price of Rs. 6999.
Intex V.Show Mini
![Intex thumb Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison]](http://thegadgetfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Intex_thumb.jpg "Projector Mobile Phones in India [Comparison] gadget 2")
Intex V.Show Mini has a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, dual SIM capability, 2
megapixel camera and an internal memory of 87 MB. Memory can be jacked
up to 16 GB through a SD card. Bluetooth, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio
are on-board. Pre-loaded apps like Facebook and Opera Mini should take
care of the browsing needs. V.Show Mini has a document reader which
would make it easy to project the presentations in case you office
projector acts kinky. Price : Rs. 6300
For the price, features and marketing, Spice Popkorn
should be the winner all the way. It packs in impressive features at
affordable price. With its TV on-board feature, it has went past all
other projector phones. Even if the TV is for free to air channels like
Doordarshan. Phone replacing TV isn’t very far.
06 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Survey finds ‘News channels biased against Islam’
9:34am Monday 4th July 2011
An independent poll carried out by Consumer PI has found that the
vast majority of British Muslims perceive the three mainstream TV news
channels (BBC, ITV and Sky) to be biased against their
religion when reporting current affairs.
The TV channels’ reporting of terror cases, news pieces on Iraq and
Afghanistan and coverage of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings have been cited
as examples of anti-Muslim bias.
Furthermore, British Muslims believe that other topical issues such as
the Israeli raid on the flotilla, it’s continued occupation of, and
raids into, Palestinian territories, the dropping of
terror cases by the police as well as positive stories about Islam
generally are either not given enough prominence or simply not covered.
The poll also found that British Muslims were offended by some of the
terminology used in news reports.
Terms such as ‘jihadist’ or ‘moderate Muslims’ are often used in the
wrong context or in a generalised manner, indicating there was a severe
lack of understanding of Muslim communities on the part
of news reporters. Many believe this type of reporting does play some
part in fanning the flames of extremism.
Shakir Ahmed, Director of Passion Islam Media said: “The reporting by
the mainstream TV news channels of stories concerning Muslims is at
times unbalanced, ill-informed and sensationalist. I would
expect this type of coverage in the tabloid press, not from respected
news organisations at the BBC, ITV or Sky. However, this is not entirely
surprising since these three news channels employ very
few reporters who follow the Islamic faith and who would truly
understand the Muslim communities and their culture and practices.
Worryingly, the perception by some British Muslims of an unjust Islamophobic
mainstream media may well fuel radicalism.”
05 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Sudan’s south will become an independent country on July 9, but fighting
along the ill-defined border has raised tension ahead of the split.
North and south have yet to resolve issues such as how to manage the oil
industry and divide debt. Here’s a look at the current situation in
Sudan through Reuters photographer Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah’s lens.
KERINDING CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) – For many in Sudan’s war-battered Darfur region, the division of the country on Saturday will not be a cause for celebration.
Southerners see secession as the end of a long march toward freedom, but in Darfur, which borders the South, it means the chance of more fighting between the government and rebels, as well as complications for issues like migration and cross-border animal grazing.
”We don’t know what will happen next. There are dangers at every turn,” Hussein Joma, 42, a community leader in the Kerinding camp near the Chadian border, said as women in bright shawls and men in dust-stained shirts and trousers filled plastic cans from a water pump.
”If there is war with the secession, it could affect the living conditions here, the economy — the country as a whole. War increases prices and divisions between people.”
War broke out in Darfur in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Khartoum, complaining the central government had left them out of the economic and political power structure and was favouring local Arab tribes.
Eight years later, hundreds of thousands of people who fled the fighting still live in vast, dusty camps like Kerinding, many in stick and mud huts reinforced with canvas from food aid delivery bags.
The persistent volatility of the situation is evident. An Ethiopian peacekeeping soldier was shot dead on the road between the nearby town of El Geneina and the airport a day after a rare visit by foreign journalists last week.
Though down from its peak, violence has surged since December, forcing tens of thousands more to flee. Qatar-brokered peace talks have meant little on the ground as Darfur’s main rebel groups pulled out or refused to participate.
The war has claimed 300,000 lives, the United Nations says, and complicated Khartoum’s foreign ties after the International Criminal Court indicted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000, and refuses to recognise the court.
”I don’t think that Doha is going to bring a lasting peace, so the grievances of Darfur are going to persist,” Fouad Hikmat of the International Crisis Group said. “The problems of Darfur are actually the problems of Sudan manifested in Darfur”.
EMBOLDENED REBELS
The war in Darfur — a region of seasonal waterways, jutting cliffs and long stretches of desert dotted with trees — is testament to the diversity and complexity of Sudan’s many, often overlapping conflicts.
The country’s rebels span an array of ethnic and tribal loyalties and territories, but are united in their opposition to a central government they say has concentrated wealth and power in the hands of an exclusive class in the north.
Echoing those complaints, the south fought a long and bloody civil war with the north, ending with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Southerners voted overwhelmingly to secede in a January referendum promised in that pact.
But no deal has so far succeeded in putting an end to the war in Darfur, where rebels say their demands have not been addressed and the government has gradually reasserted control over major towns and other formerly rebel-held areas.
Some analysts say the secession could now harden anti-government fighters’ resolve as they see southerners attain their goal of independence and as Khartoum is economically weakened by the loss of the south’s oil fields.
”In Darfur we may be seeing the reconsolidation of opposition movements which would mirror the reconsolidation of southern opposition groups before the CPA,” Roger Middleton, a researcher at the Chatham House think tank, said.
Other analysts say the newly independent south could be tempted to back a continued insurgency in Darfur, with which they have shared some ideological and political links.
The northern government says it will not allow other regions to separate. In El Geneina, capital of West Darfur state, deputy governor Abou el-Qassim Baraka rejected suggestions the south’s separation could inflame further conflict in Darfur.
”In Darfur, we are tired of war. There is no going back to war, that is the opinion of the entire community,” he said.
LONG-RUNNING CONFLICT
A move by Khartoum to split the region into five states outraged rebels this year who said it was an effort to dilute their influence, echoing the region’s division into three states in the early 1990s that stoked tensions with Khartoum.
Darfur was an independent sultanate for hundreds of years.
But for now analysts say government troops have the upper hand over insurgents, cutting off some of their previous supply routes and pushing them from several central areas.
As the fighting drags on, the camps that started as temporary shelter for people who fled are becoming increasingly more like permanent settlements. Some aid workers say they may soon come to resemble towns.
”I’m old and I’m not well. I need to stay here,” one elderly man at Kerinding said as donkeys wandered down the red dirt path behind him and peacekeepers stood watch over the area.
Joma, the tribal sheikh, said the fear of bandits and local Arab tribes still kept many in Kerinding too afraid to attempt a return home.
”If there was peace, if their villages were secure, people would return, of course,” he said. “But maybe a kilometre outside of here, the troubles start.”
05 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Kerala Govt offers full support to interest-free Islamic banking | TwoCircles.net
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Submitted by admin4 on 4 July 2011 – 5:38pm
Indian Muslim
By TCN News,
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government will extend full support and cooperation to the interest-free banking system so that it may be used for the development of the state, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The state will try to attain the central government’s approval for it. He was inaugurating the national seminar ‘Interest-free Institutional Mechanism for Banking, Finance and Insurance’ held in Thiruvananthapuram today.
The CM said that Islamic banking was not a dangerous suggestion. The government would clarify doubts and go forward. The services of the ‘Al Baraka Financial Services’ (the interest-free institution formed during the tenure of the last LDF government aiming at attracting investments from expatriates) would be utilized as one of the ways to increase investments. The government will go forward with the good moves taken by the last government and the Al Baraka was one such move. Some feel discomfort with the term ‘Islamic banking’, but instead of just a name we should see if it will be useful for the society. Large sums of money of expatriate Malayalis are in banks now. It has been a thought for quite a long time as to how to utilize this money creatively for development, he added.
Interest is a main problem that several projects face in the state, said Industries Minister PK Kunjalikkutty, while delivering the presidential address. The arrival of interest-free investment can help find capital for such projects. Kerala has showed several new models to the country and interest-free investment can be yet another one. The ‘Al Baraka’ is a good venture. A system based on interest does not consider the gain and loss in the venture. But in interest-free system, both gain and loss will be shared. While Europe is successfully utilizing Islamic banking, opinion has come in the higher levels itself that India too should utilize this prospect, he added.
Former Finance Minister Dr TM Thomas Isaac, former member of Planning Board CP John, Additional Chief Secretary T Balakrishnan (IAS), Al Baraka Financial Services chairman
Dr P Muhammedali, Alternative Investments and Credits Limited director T Arifali, chief of Sign Human Resources Centre Munawarali Shihab Thangal, and Rabitha Educational Committee regional coordinator Dr Husain Madavoor also spoke.
The seminar was organised as a joint venture of the Department of Islamic Studies in the University of Kerala, the Thiruvananthapuram Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Centre for Islamic Finance, the Indian Association for Islamic Economics, the Al Barakah Financial Services Limited, the Sequra Investment and Management India Private Ltd, the Ecotech Builders and the Alternative Investments and Credits Ltd.
03 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
| |
Have you ever dreamed of spending a relaxing night at a luxury hotel? Or maybe planning a romantic evening or a honeymoon where you want to impress your beloved? What would you want included? A gorgeous view? A large comfy bed? A Jacuzzi? A personal butler?
Did you know that prices at the best hotel suites have gone up 10% this year? Are you ready to drop about $30,000 for one night? Would you be willing to spend that kind of money on a hotel room? And by the way, none of the nightly room rates includes tax so be prepared to add another 10 – 17% to your bill at checkout.
Here are the 10 most expensive hotel rooms in the world from the last year.
10. The Penthouse Suite, The Martinez Hotel, Cannes
Nightly Rate: $18,000
This is the biggest, most expensive, and the only terraced penthouse suite on the Cote d’Azur. Both of the two suites has a Jacuzzi, plasma screen televisions, DVD library, kitchen, open bar, private butler on call 24/7 (ditto for a limousine), and an option to join both suites into one big apartment. The luxury has no limit here – the design is kept in the Art Deco style, with streamlined furniture, silk curtains and teak parquet floors.
The wraparound terrace is 2,000 square feet with the views of the Lerins Islands as well as the entire Bay of Cannes and can comfortably hold 100 people. One Saudi sheik liked the suite so much he wanted to rent it for five years. The hotel said no. What else can you say? Tres magnifique!
9. Ritz-Carlton Suite, Ritz-Carlton Moscow
Nightly Rate: $18.200
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the Ritz-Carlton Suite will give you the most beautiful views of the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and Christ the Savior Cathedral. The furnishings are in a Classic Russian Imperial style. The 2,500 square-foot suite comes with a spacious living room, dining area, library, office room and boardroom, grand piano, and heated floor.
You will get to enjoy five meals a day and their very own KGB-approved autonomous energy supply system and secure telecommunications array.
8. Royal Suite, Burj Al Arab, Dubai
Nightly Rate: $19.000
The two-story, 8,400-square-foot suite features views over the Arabian sea, marble flooring, a rotating four-poster bed in the master bedroom, dining area, and a private cinema and elevator between the split-level rooms.
The marble bath comes fully stocked with full-sized products from Hermes. Guests are met by a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph (or, for a bit extra, by a helicopter). A personal butler stands 24/7 at the ready to fulfill every wish. The Royal Suite is the last word in luxury with a marble and gold staircase, leopard print tufted carpets and Versace linens.
What you can also enjoy is a submarine ride to an underwater restaurant complete with shark-infested aquarium.
7. Imperial Suite, Park Hyatt, Vendôme, Paris
Nightly Rate: $20.000
This pricey suite is located on the 5th floor and takes 200-sq.-meters. A 60-sq.-meter balcony is overlooking the Rue de la Paix, with an outstanding view of the Vendôme column. The Imperial Suite has high ceilings, a dining room, kitchenette, bar, and a mansard roof. It also includes in-suite spa with whirlpool bath, steam room shower and a built-in massage table. Also included are high-speed Internet access and a computer with flat screen monitor, multi-line telephones, and a separate work area to help you enjoy the work process.
6. The Bridge Suite, The Atlantis, Bahamas
Nightly Rate: $22.000
The Bridge Suite is located on top of a bridge that connects the two Royal Towers buildings, so it overlooks the entire resort and marina. An 800 square foot balcony and 12-foot high ceilings throughout with full length windows allow you to enjoy a 360 view of the water, lagoons and pools in Paradise Island. We can make a guess that most of the price is paid for the location of the suite. Forbes reports the suite has hosted guests including Oprah, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and Bill Gates.
The suite has 10 rooms that are decorated in black, red and gold (including a 22-karat gold chandelier in the dining room). The living room is a 1,250-square-foot room with grand piano and twin entertainment centers. The master bedroom has a sitting area, his-and-hers closets so large that you can park your car there, and hand-painted linens. The kitchen also has its own entrance, so a permanent staff of seven, including a butler and a cook can access the rooms without bothering you.
5. Presidential Suite, Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo
Nightly Rate: $25.000
The suite is located on the 53rd floor above Tokyo with spectacular views that include the Imperial Palace outer gardens and Roppongi Hills.
In the suite’s 3300 sq ft you get pure luxury with a stunning four poster bed in the master bedroom, personal concierge, connected living room/dining room, an oversized marble bathroom with Sony BRAVIA 20 inch flat screen television, and access to indoor pool and fitness studio.
4. Villa La Capula Suite, Westin Excelsior, Rome
Nightly Rate: $29.000
The suite is located on the fifth and sixth floor underneath the cupola of the hotel which was made famous by Fellini’s movies. It covers 6,099 square feet and has an additional 1,808 square feet of balconies and terraces. While it only has two bedrooms, five more can be joined to it. The entire suite was just remodeled in 1998 for a cost of around $7 million. So now you will have all things Roman and excessive – a cupola, a Pompeii-style Jacuzzi pool, frescoes (the painted horizons on the frescoes were designed to match perfectly with the real Roman one), stained glass windows, and almost 2,000 feet of balcony space including a sun deck overlooking the Via Veneto district.
The downstairs also has a private kitchen, and the dining room features an antique Murano glass chandelier, a private wine cabinet with over 150 wines to choose from and a study/library covered in hand-carved wood. And what really makes this suite over the top is a private cinema with Dolby surround sound.
Now that’s living la dolce vita.
3. Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons Hotel, New York
Nightly Rate: $34.000
The $50 million Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons in NY was designed by legendary architect I.M. Pei, Peter Marino and hotel owner Ty Warner.
The nine-room suite has walls inlaid with mother of pearl, gold and platinum-woven fabrics. The suite is located on the 52nd floor of New York’s tallest hotel with floor-to-ceiling bay windows offering a breathtaking 360 degree view of the City. If that is not relaxing enough you can enjoy a waterfall in the Zen Room, play the grand piano in the library or soak in a tub overlooking Central Park. Full spa treatments, a personal trainer and a 24/7 butler are all included, and if you still find a will to leave, you can choose to be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce or Maybach, and you’re always guaranteed a table at the hotel’s renowned L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon restaurant.
2. Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas
Nightly Rate: $40.000
If anyone knows how to vacation in Las Vegas, that will be Hugh Hefner. Even though he is known as a homebody he has spent a few nights away from the mansion at the Sky Villa. The suite itself was built to model the original playboy mansion; it also incorporates elements derived from a vintage Playboy magazine article about the ultimate bachelor pad. The suite cost roughly $10 million to build but the high-rollers can rent it for a small $40,000 a night. Everything screams S-E-X-Y at the Sky Villa. The two-story 9,000 square foot Villa includes a glass elevator, a rotating bed set beneath a mirrored ceiling, and a glass wall Jacuzzi that extends out over the hotel and offers amazing Strip views, around-the-clock butler service, massage and spa rooms, work-out room and poker table, fireplace, three bedrooms, and pop-up plasma TVs.
Sorry, Bunnies not included.
1. Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva
Nightly Rate: $53.000
The Imperial Suite, which is actually an entire top floor of the hotel, is reached via a private elevator and has four bedrooms, six bathrooms with mosaic marble floor, a cocktail lounge and a terrace with a dramatic view through the bulletproof windows over the city, Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc — all of which overlook Lake Geneva. The suite is decorated in a contemporary style, with marble and hardwood floors. The living room has a billiards table, a library and a cocktail lounge with a view of the water fountain, and can accommodate 40 people. The dining room seats 26 people around an oval mahogany table.
The hotel’s staff reassures guests that the security in the Imperial Suite is among the best in the world, ideal for celebrities or traveling heads of state who visit the United Nations headquarters next door at the Palais Wilson.
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03 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Mike Tyson and Wife Renew Wedding Vows in Muslim Ceremony
June 28, 2011 07:31:15 GMT
The former Heavyweight boxing
champion and wife Lakiha Spicer invited hundreds of friends to a joint
birthday party in Las Vegas only to surprise them with a wedding
ceremony.
Two years after tying the knot,
and wife Lakiha Spicer have said their “I Do’s” once again. The former
Heavyweight boxing champion and the mother of his two children renewed
their wedding vows in a traditional Muslim ceremony at the M Resort in
Las Vegas over the weekend, TMZ reported.
The retired boxer, who made a cameo on ““,
and his wife allegedly invited hundreds of friends to a joint birthday
party. After the guests arrived, the two disappeared. They then
re-emerged in wedding outfits behind a massive curtain and proceeded
with the vow renewal ceremony. Mike later took to Twitter to share a
photo of him and Lakiha in the wedding outfits.
TMZ dished on that guests dined on a steak or chicken entree, while ET
claimed that the reception included a candy bar that featured gummy
bears, Sour Patch Kids, cherry rock candy, gumballs, chocolate-dipped
cherries and more. The latter also reported that each guest went home
with a goodie bag of Sugar Factory’s special sweets.
Words are, Mike and Lakiha decided to throw the party because they were
the only ones attending back in 2009.
They got married just two weeks after his 4-year-old daughter, Exodus,
in a treadmill accident.
03 Jul 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Speed Up WordPress –
Ultimate Guide To Make Sites Super Fast
A good website should never compromise on the visitor’s experience. 
A Serious web
publisher invests some time and resources to learn everything possible
about optimizing his website for speed. Who likes to browse through a
sluggish slow loading site? Most of the normal visitors leave the site,
unless the visitor is extremely interested in the content and related
things. More over google started considering the sites speed as a factor
in their search engine ranking logarithm. This guide will help you in reducing your sites server load, making your site faster.
Remember speeding up and optimizing your wordpress site
is not an easy process, it take a bit of time to make the changes
properly and safely. But its worth if you can spend the time. The time
taken will depend on your expertise in wordpress. Before making the
following changes my sites were taking around 11 – 15 seconds to load.
After implementing these changes the site takes less than 5 seconds to
load.
Before starting with any thing, first take a complete back up of your theme files and your wordpress database. Now go to http://tools.pingdom.com
and enter your site url and do a speed test to see how long does it
take for your website to load (You do speed test at last, after
implementing the changes in this guide to know the speed gain you have
obtained). Our aim is to reduce the load time and server load to a much
lesser value.
So lets start the Ultimate Guide To Make Your Site Super Fast
1) Remove Unnecessary PHP Queries and Database Access
Almost
all wordpress themes are made in such a way that there is minimal user
effort in configuring them. These themes comes with some generic php
codes, which can be easily replaced after we install it in our blog.
Removing these avoidable php queries will lessen your server load and
also make your site faster.
For this first open the header.php files located in your current themes folder. You can do this by two ways, either by going to Appearence > Editor from wp dashboard or by accessing the file directly using a FTP client and opening in Notepad or Notepad++.
You’ll some thing like this in the header file.
<title><?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?> <?php bloginfo(‘description’);?></title>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” media=”screen” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘stylesheet_url’); ?>“/>
<link rel=”shorcut icon” type=”image/png” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/favicon.jpg” />
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”RSS Feed” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘rss_url’); ?>” />
The
bolded items in this code is the php code. These five php commands are
executed each time, when your site gets loaded in the browser. Since we
dont want the theme to be portable anymore, we can replace these php
queries by corresponding html code. That’s about 20 Times Faster Speed.
To do this open your site in any browser for eg in chrome and press Ctrl + U or select View Source From the menu. With reference to the above example, you will see the source code of the site as
<title>Computing Unleashed</title>
<link
rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” media=”screen”
href=”http://iqsoft.co.in/wp-content/themes/amalroy/style.css”/>
<link
rel=”shortcut icon”
href=”http://iqsoft.co.in/wordpress/wp-content/themes/amalroy/favicon.png”
type=”image/png” />
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”RSS Feed” href=”iqsoft.co.in/feed/rss/” />
Now you might have got an idea about this. Now just copy these codes and replace it in header.php file and save the file and you are done. You can now check for similar queries in footer.php, sidebar.php etc. and replace them.
2) Remove Inactive Plugins
Most
of us are curious to try out new wordpress plugins.We deactivate them
if we are not happy with the results. There is a tendency for us to
leave those deactivated plugins in the plugin directory. Its better to
remove all those inactive plugins that you dont use. Also check for any
plugins that you have activated but not using, these can eat up
resources simply. So make the plugin directory clean and tidy. If you
feel that you might want to use those deactivated plugin later on, then
make a text document in the plugin directory with the list of plugins
you need later and you can safely delete those plugins which are not
needed now.
3) Using a FREE CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A content delivery network is used by almost all popular websites like google, twitter, mashable etc. A content delivery
network (CDN) is a collection of web servers distributed across
multiple locations to deliver content more efficiently to users. The
user’s proximity to your web server has an impact on response times.
Deploying your content across multiple, geographically dispersed servers will make your pages load faster from the user’s perspective.
Using
a CDN network will improve your sites response time to a great extend.
But normal users find it difficult to afford a CDN service. But there
is a free alternative.
CoralCDN allows us to take full advantage
of a powerful CDN without spending a dime. How to use it? Well,
basically, just append `.nyud.net` to the hostname of any URL, and that
URL will be handled by Coral.
With the Free CDN
this job can be done easily. All you need to do is just install the
plugin and activate it. It will rewrite the JavaScripts, CSS, images
etc. for you. PLus it also has option to exclude or include the files
your specify. It can be JavaScript’s, CSS or specific pages.
4) Keep Your WordPress Version Up To Date
With the release of new versions, wordpress keeps on improving on the whole. On each update wordpress developers
put their effort in making wordpress faster and safer. So its very
necessary that you need to upgrade to the latest wordpress version to
get the performance improvements and new features.
5) Compress the CSS Code
Compressing
your CSS Code will make it’s size small and your browser can render it
faster and that results in faster page load times. Compressing the CSS
can be done in two ways. Either by doing it manually by using the
service CSS Drive. You have to manually copy-paste your css code from the style.css file in their website and you will get the compressed version of it which you can paste back on the style.css file.
But if you make changes to your css code at times, then its better to use the WP CSS
plugin. Wp css plugin will automatically remove the white spaces and
compress your css files. Plus you will also have other options to set
expiry time for the files.
6) Optimize the WordPress Database
Just like the hard disks the wordpress database also gets fragmented. So optimizing the wordpress database too can speed up your site.
- For optimizing the wordpress database of your site, visit the cpanel of your hosting provider.
- Use phpMyAdmin to optimize your database: Log in to phpMyAdmin, select all the tables, and then repair and optimize.
7) Compress & Combine Javascript Files
Like the CSS files the javascripts in your template is also a major reason for speed loss.
Try to reduce the javascripts as much as possible.
Javascript Compression Services
8 ) Reduce Image Sizes
Posts
become lively when images are added. But using high resolution images
on your site will put a high load on the server and this is one of the
reasons why some sites go down when a digg front page is reached.
The images can be compressed to a level without much loss in quality.
You can use the WP Smush.it plugin for wordpress to compress the images. It will compress the images to a good extend and your site will load faster now.
9) Disable Hot Linking
Stealing
our websites bandwidth can be referred to as Hot linking. This happens
when others link your sites images in their articles and this puts load
on your server. This not a big issue if one or two sites directly link
your images, but if multiple sites uses this then it might create a
headache.
We can easily prevent the hotlinking by implementing a small code in the .htaccess file.
#disable hotlinking of images with forbidden or custom image option
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?iqsoft.co.in [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?google.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?feeds2.feedburner.com/iqsoft[NC]
RewriteRule .(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ – [NC,F,L]
Copy-paste the above code in your .htaccess file in the wordpress root directory and then save it. !Important – Replace my sites url and feed with yours.
10) The WordPress Super Cache Plugin
The
super cache plugin is a must have plugin that cache’s the mostly
visited pages on your site and make it available the next visitor
immediately. The plugin generates html files which are served without
ever invoking a single line of PHP.
Download WordPress Super Cache Plugin
But
if you have good experience with plugins and wordpress then I’d
recommend the w3 Total Cache Plugin which tops any of the cache plugin
and is my personal favorite. If you could properly configure the w3
total cache plugin then its the best. It has much better compressions
and caching options than the super cache plugin and definitely save your
websites bandwidth and improve your sites speed. Whats more it has even
got cdn support. This will help you avoid other plugins if you’ve got
a cdn account or an amazon s3 account. This plugin also has separate
caching options for shared hosting and (vps, dedicated hostings). This makes it so special.
Download W3Total Cache Plugin
11) Combining Javascripts and CSS Files with PHP Speedy
As said earlier, minimizing the HTTP requests can speed up the site greatly and the php speedy plugin
will help you further by combining all the javascripts into one single
file and all css files into a single one. Therefore in total the there
will only be two files that are being requested.
The results after using the php speedy plugin.
Download PHP Speedy Plugin For WordPress
12) Preloading the Page Contents
This
is some thing that doesn’t improve the performance much but it enhances
the page load by loading the page progressively. The problem with
putting style sheets near the bottom of the document is that it
prohibits progressive rendering in many browsers, including Internet
Explorer. These browsers block rendering to avoid having to redraw
elements of the page if their styles change. The user is stuck viewing a
blank white page.
So here’s what you have to do. Move the Style Sheets to the header file.
<title>Computing Unleashed</title>
<link
rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” media=”screen”
href=”http://iqsoft.co.in/wordpress/wp-content/themes/amalroy/style.css”/>
Move the css file link near the title in the header.php file.
13) Flushing the buffer
When
users request a page in your site, it can takes around 200 – 500
milliseconds for the backend server to put together the HTML page.
During this time the browser remains idle. The flush() function in php
help you in loading the partially ready html response to the browser and
it can start fetching the components, while the backend server is busy with the rest of the contents.
To inset the flush() function in your wordpress site, Open up the header.php file and find the </head> tag and insert the <?php flush(); ?> function right after it. You may see the eg below.
</head>
<?php flush(); ?>
<body>
14) Using CSS Sprites Technique
It
simply means combining all the images in the site into a single big
image containing all of them and the browser loads the single big image
and display the different images by using background-position.
If
you are using a lot of static images in your site then it is definitely
worth to try the css sprites technique. It not only speed up your site,
but also reduce the http requests. Here you can know about the complete
CSS Sprites and its implementation in here.
15) Add Header Expire To Static Contents
Adding
an expiry time to static images can reduce further HTTP requests when
loading other pages in the site. Adding an expiry time to the images in
the site help in loading the pages faster.
Copy and Paste the Following Code in your .htaccess file.
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/gif A28800
ExpiresByType image/png A28800
ExpiresByType image/jpg A28800
ExpiresByType image/jpeg A28800
16) DB Cache Reloaded Plugin
The
DB cache plugin works differently from the super cache plugin by
optimizing your database alone. It caches WordPress’s MySQL queries to a
file. This results in less space being used for caching and faster
performance from the WordPress blog.
Download DB Cache Reloaded Plugin For WordPress
Apart
from all these criteria, the websites speed also depend upon other
factors such as type of hosting you have chosen, the number of
javascripts and css you use etc. VPS hosting will have more speed
compared to the normal shared hosting that many of the wordpress blogs
use.
I am sure that if you can implement these steps properly it will definitely speed up your wordpress blog by a great amount.
There may be many more ways to speed up your wordpress site. I have shared some of my knowledge here to speed up your site.
27 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
| |
Have you ever dreamed of spending a relaxing night at a luxury hotel? Or maybe planning a romantic evening or a honeymoon where you want to impress your beloved? What would you want included? A gorgeous view? A large comfy bed? A Jacuzzi? A personal butler?
Did you know that prices at the best hotel suites have gone up 10% this year? Are you ready to drop about $30,000 for one night? Would you be willing to spend that kind of money on a hotel room? And by the way, none of the nightly room rates includes tax so be prepared to add another 10 – 17% to your bill at checkout.
Here are the 10 most expensive hotel rooms in the world from the last year.
10. The Penthouse Suite, The Martinez Hotel, Cannes
Nightly Rate: $18,000
This is the biggest, most expensive, and the only terraced penthouse suite on the Cote d’Azur. Both of the two suites has a Jacuzzi, plasma screen televisions, DVD library, kitchen, open bar, private butler on call 24/7 (ditto for a limousine), and an option to join both suites into one big apartment. The luxury has no limit here – the design is kept in the Art Deco style, with streamlined furniture, silk curtains and teak parquet floors.
The wraparound terrace is 2,000 square feet with the views of the Lerins Islands as well as the entire Bay of Cannes and can comfortably hold 100 people. One Saudi sheik liked the suite so much he wanted to rent it for five years. The hotel said no. What else can you say? Tres magnifique!
9. Ritz-Carlton Suite, Ritz-Carlton Moscow
Nightly Rate: $18.200
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the Ritz-Carlton Suite will give you the most beautiful views of the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, and Christ the Savior Cathedral. The furnishings are in a Classic Russian Imperial style. The 2,500 square-foot suite comes with a spacious living room, dining area, library, office room and boardroom, grand piano, and heated floor.
You will get to enjoy five meals a day and their very own KGB-approved autonomous energy supply system and secure telecommunications array.
8. Royal Suite, Burj Al Arab, Dubai
Nightly Rate: $19.000
The two-story, 8,400-square-foot suite features views over the Arabian sea, marble flooring, a rotating four-poster bed in the master bedroom, dining area, and a private cinema and elevator between the split-level rooms.
The marble bath comes fully stocked with full-sized products from Hermes. Guests are met by a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph (or, for a bit extra, by a helicopter). A personal butler stands 24/7 at the ready to fulfill every wish. The Royal Suite is the last word in luxury with a marble and gold staircase, leopard print tufted carpets and Versace linens.
What you can also enjoy is a submarine ride to an underwater restaurant complete with shark-infested aquarium.
7. Imperial Suite, Park Hyatt, Vendôme, Paris
Nightly Rate: $20.000
This pricey suite is located on the 5th floor and takes 200-sq.-meters. A 60-sq.-meter balcony is overlooking the Rue de la Paix, with an outstanding view of the Vendôme column. The Imperial Suite has high ceilings, a dining room, kitchenette, bar, and a mansard roof. It also includes in-suite spa with whirlpool bath, steam room shower and a built-in massage table. Also included are high-speed Internet access and a computer with flat screen monitor, multi-line telephones, and a separate work area to help you enjoy the work process.
6. The Bridge Suite, The Atlantis, Bahamas
Nightly Rate: $22.000
The Bridge Suite is located on top of a bridge that connects the two Royal Towers buildings, so it overlooks the entire resort and marina. An 800 square foot balcony and 12-foot high ceilings throughout with full length windows allow you to enjoy a 360 view of the water, lagoons and pools in Paradise Island. We can make a guess that most of the price is paid for the location of the suite. Forbes reports the suite has hosted guests including Oprah, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and Bill Gates.
The suite has 10 rooms that are decorated in black, red and gold (including a 22-karat gold chandelier in the dining room). The living room is a 1,250-square-foot room with grand piano and twin entertainment centers. The master bedroom has a sitting area, his-and-hers closets so large that you can park your car there, and hand-painted linens. The kitchen also has its own entrance, so a permanent staff of seven, including a butler and a cook can access the rooms without bothering you.
5. Presidential Suite, Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo
Nightly Rate: $25.000
The suite is located on the 53rd floor above Tokyo with spectacular views that include the Imperial Palace outer gardens and Roppongi Hills.
In the suite’s 3300 sq ft you get pure luxury with a stunning four poster bed in the master bedroom, personal concierge, connected living room/dining room, an oversized marble bathroom with Sony BRAVIA 20 inch flat screen television, and access to indoor pool and fitness studio.
4. Villa La Capula Suite, Westin Excelsior, Rome
Nightly Rate: $29.000
The suite is located on the fifth and sixth floor underneath the cupola of the hotel which was made famous by Fellini’s movies. It covers 6,099 square feet and has an additional 1,808 square feet of balconies and terraces. While it only has two bedrooms, five more can be joined to it. The entire suite was just remodeled in 1998 for a cost of around $7 million. So now you will have all things Roman and excessive – a cupola, a Pompeii-style Jacuzzi pool, frescoes (the painted horizons on the frescoes were designed to match perfectly with the real Roman one), stained glass windows, and almost 2,000 feet of balcony space including a sun deck overlooking the Via Veneto district.
The downstairs also has a private kitchen, and the dining room features an antique Murano glass chandelier, a private wine cabinet with over 150 wines to choose from and a study/library covered in hand-carved wood. And what really makes this suite over the top is a private cinema with Dolby surround sound.
Now that’s living la dolce vita.
3. Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons Hotel, New York
Nightly Rate: $34.000
The $50 million Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons in NY was designed by legendary architect I.M. Pei, Peter Marino and hotel owner Ty Warner.
The nine-room suite has walls inlaid with mother of pearl, gold and platinum-woven fabrics. The suite is located on the 52nd floor of New York’s tallest hotel with floor-to-ceiling bay windows offering a breathtaking 360 degree view of the City. If that is not relaxing enough you can enjoy a waterfall in the Zen Room, play the grand piano in the library or soak in a tub overlooking Central Park. Full spa treatments, a personal trainer and a 24/7 butler are all included, and if you still find a will to leave, you can choose to be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce or Maybach, and you’re always guaranteed a table at the hotel’s renowned L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon restaurant.
2. Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas
Nightly Rate: $40.000
If anyone knows how to vacation in Las Vegas, that will be Hugh Hefner. Even though he is known as a homebody he has spent a few nights away from the mansion at the Sky Villa. The suite itself was built to model the original playboy mansion; it also incorporates elements derived from a vintage Playboy magazine article about the ultimate bachelor pad. The suite cost roughly $10 million to build but the high-rollers can rent it for a small $40,000 a night. Everything screams S-E-X-Y at the Sky Villa. The two-story 9,000 square foot Villa includes a glass elevator, a rotating bed set beneath a mirrored ceiling, and a glass wall Jacuzzi that extends out over the hotel and offers amazing Strip views, around-the-clock butler service, massage and spa rooms, work-out room and poker table, fireplace, three bedrooms, and pop-up plasma TVs.
Sorry, Bunnies not included.
1. Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva
Nightly Rate: $53.000
The Imperial Suite, which is actually an entire top floor of the hotel, is reached via a private elevator and has four bedrooms, six bathrooms with mosaic marble floor, a cocktail lounge and a terrace with a dramatic view through the bulletproof windows over the city, Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc — all of which overlook Lake Geneva. The suite is decorated in a contemporary style, with marble and hardwood floors. The living room has a billiards table, a library and a cocktail lounge with a view of the water fountain, and can accommodate 40 people. The dining room seats 26 people around an oval mahogany table.
The hotel’s staff reassures guests that the security in the Imperial Suite is among the best in the world, ideal for celebrities or traveling heads of state who visit the United Nations headquarters next door at the Palais Wilson.
|
23 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Revival of Muslim empire
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
YUSUF KANLI
Is it not a wild idea to assume that the radical Islamist fantasies of the neo-Ottomanists of the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire or the mostly Egyptian Arab forefathers of jihadist Islam or the restoration of the Caliphate movement might have a minute chance of coming true?
If we are to take out the fundamental difference between the neo-Ottomanist ideology, which was centered on the creation of a united “Caliphate State” something like today’s European Union, with the caliphate remaining in Istanbul – and the Egypt-centered Arab jihadist or the restoration of the Caliphate movement, that was obsessed with Arabs taking back caliphate to the holy Mecca, there was a common cause: To achieve the united state of the nation of Islam, or the “ummah.”
Creation of the modern, democratic and secular Turkish republic and the March 3, 1924 abrogation of caliphate was a setback to both the neo-Ottomanist and pan-Arabic caliphate movements or aspirations of a united caliphate state of the ummah. [This is a complex discussion as according to many researchers caliphate is not indeed abrogated; its functions were ended while the institution and its powers were transferred to the Turkish Parliament.] The obsession of reviving the state of Islam – like the state that existed during the lifetime of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad and the succeeding first four caliphs – never ever died out and indeed has been one of the fundamental pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, which this way or the other, under many names, exists all through the Arab geography today. Interestingly enough, though with some slight, yet very meaningful differences, the movement exists in non-Arab Muslim societies, including Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.
Of course, no one can claim that al-Qaeda and the Nationalist View Movement in Turkey, or the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are one and the same, though both come from the same tradition of political Islam. No one can claim either that both Hamas and the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun of Egypt are one and the same. There are national and cultural divides between all these parties, which irrespective whether they officially declare it or not, aspire for the creation of the united caliphate state of the ummah, where shariah or the rule of Quran would strictly prevail.
Could the “Arab Spring” – as is so far said – succeed in creating democratic nation states in the Arab geography and beyond in the lands populated by Muslim people? Or, is there a possibility of the states of Middle East and North Africa turning into Sunni alterations of the Iranian theocracy? Or, as Newsweek asked in its June 20 edition, would the Greater Middle Eastern neighborhood eventually turn to Turkey and help the governance of political Islam there revive the Muslim Ottoman Empire? Though this last scenario was branded as “nightmarish” by the Newsweek and though very few Turks would object utopia of a Turkey-based revival of the caliphate state, it would not be at all easy either for the Turks to forget the “Arabs stabbed Turks in the back” rhetoric or for the Arabs not to remember what was it like for them to live under Ottoman rule. Definitely, there would not be a need for a new “Lawrence of Arabia” for the peoples of this geography to remember the recent history and the strong animosities coated with modern-day political interests.
Political Islam throughout this geography may wish to see their ultimate goal of creation of Muslim empire realized but if that target was so easy to attain it would have been achieved long ago, perhaps when there was still an Ottoman Empire. Like the Greek Megalo Idea, having utopias might help maintain integrity, but putting them into action might bring about farfetched disastrous consequences.
23 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Dispute over hijab in women’s soccer in Canada, as Muslim youth referee barred
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Sarah Benkirane has been barred from refereeing while wearing her hijab. (File Photo)
By JAMES M. DORSEY
AL ARABIYA
A dispute between FIFA and Iranian and Jordanian women soccer
players over the right to wear religious Muslim headdresses during
matches is expanding as it spreads across the Atlantic.
A Canadian soccer referee, Sarah Benkirane, was barred this week by
Quebec’s Lac St. Louis Regional Soccer Association because she wears a
hijab, a religious headdress that covers a woman’s hair, neck and ears
in accordance with conservative Muslim dress code.
The 15-year-old referee had been refereeing games on Montreal’s West
Island and Vaudreuil for the past two years but was informed by
association officials this week that she had been barred because of
world soccer body FIFA rules prohibiting religious garments on the
pitch.
“I always felt like I was
equal growing up in Canada, so I don’t understand why they’re going to
take this right away from me,” Ms. Benkirane, who has worn a hijab since
she was 12, told Canadian broadcaster CBC.
“It’s just a sign of my modesty and how I choose to express myself. I
thought we were free to practice religion in this country if you’re not
hurting anyone else, and I’m not hurting anyone else,” Ms. Benkirane
said.
The banning of Ms. Benkirane comes after Iran earlier this month lost
its chance of reaching the 2012 Olympics when its qualifying match
against Jordan was cancelled because the Islamic republic’s women soccer
team appeared on the pitch wearing a hijab rather than a cap that had
originally had been agreed with the Iranian Football Federation (IFF).
The agreed cap covers a women’s hair but not the neck and ears.
Religious women players have charged that the cap violates Islamic dress
code.
Three Jordanian women players were also banned for wearing the hijab.
Iran charged that FIFA’s decision to disqualify its women’s team constituted an attack on all female Muslim players.
Prince Ali Bin Talal, a half-brother of Jordanian King Abdullah and FIFA
vice president has said he is seeking to resolve the dispute between
Iran and the soccer body. Prince Ali was elected to his FIFA post on a
platform that emphasized women’s rights.
Mr. Benkiran said she has filed a complaint with the Quebec association.
Ms. Benkirane insists that rules have to be adapted as society changes.
The Quebec federation has advised Ms. Benkirane to address her
complaint directly to FIFA.
The Lac St. Louis Regional Soccer Association asserted it was acting in
accordance with rules set out by the Quebec Soccer Federation. For its
part, the Quebec federation said in a statement that it was upholding
FIFA’s rule 4, which prohibits religious statements in team uniforms.
“The situation is clear,” the statement read. “Wearing a hijab is not
allowed on Quebec’s soccer fields just as necklaces, earrings, rings are
prohibited, and we will follow the rule until FIFA says otherwise.”
The federation’s communications director, Michel Dugas, said the group
could not make an exception for Ms. Benkirane because that would create
an untenable situation in which a referee wearing a hijab would have to
tell players that they can’t do the same.
The right to wear a hijab has long been a controversial issue in Canada
with some segments of Canadian soccer supporting women who wear the
hijab.
In February 2007, five Canadian teams walked out of a soccer tournament
in Quebec, because a Muslim girl was ejected for wearing a hijab.
Muslim women have been allowed to wear the hijab in other parts of Canada, including Ontario and British Colombia.
(James M. Dorsey, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, is a senior
researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East
Institute and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer. He can be reached via email at: questfze@gmail.com)
23 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
Top 10 sexiest science stories of 2010
Whoever said science could never possibly be sexy didn’t have a chance to read this. According to Discovery News, below is the list of the top 10 sexiest stories of 2010.…
Thursday 9 December 2010 10:17 AM IST
Whoever said science could never possibly be sexy didn’t have a chance to read this.
According to Discovery News, below is the list of the top 10 sexiest stories of 2010:
1. The naked dwarf: Known as the “Portrait of Dwarf Morgante,” the subject was a court jester, part of the Medici court in the Florentine Renaissance.
he paintings were grouped into a two-sided canvas, providing onlookers with a front- and rear-view.
Originally painted by Agnolo di Cosimo, better known as Bronzino, around 1553 with a full frontal view, the portrait was altered during the 18th century to hide the subject’s private parts.
2. Why booze makes everyone look attractive: A study found that a few drinks can affect the way you look at a person. Alcohol can inhibit our ability to detect asymmetry in faces. Symmetry is an important aspect of what makes a face attractive.
The study further suggests that men were less prone to losing their symmetry-detecting ability when intoxicated than women.
3. Women like to cozy up after sex: A study published this year in The Journal of Sex Research found that women usually want intimacy after a roll in the hay.
A cozy chat, a caress and other bonding behaviours are what women prefer after sex.
Men, on the other hand, typically want a drink, a smoke-anything that will increase the chances of a second encounter.
But in long-term relationships, both genders think it’s equally important to say, “I love you,” after sex.
4. Note to all single men out there: Wear more red – According to a study published this year in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, women are more attracted to men wearing red and find them more sexually desirable.
Red appears to signal rank in virtually all cultures. The researchers point out that China, Japan and sub-Saharan Africa populations have all tied red to prosperity and elevated status.
5. All a woman needs to attract a man is her natural scent: a study published in the journal Psychological Science found that men who caught the scent of an ovulating woman from a T-shirt had higher testosterone levels than men who smelled either fresh T-shirts or those from non-ovulating women.
6. While humans may not necessarily be enticed by the smell of perfume, big cats are a different story: Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society found that jaguars, pumas and other wildlife were attracted to the smell of Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men.
When around the scent, these cats would repeatedly sniff the source of the smell, lingering around its origin. One pair of jaguars even shows some very rarely seen mating behaviour, so the smell seems to turn these animals on.
7. Frogs sing during sex: Frogs apparently like to hear something smooth when they’re in their groove, according to research published in the journal Animal Behaviour.
In fact, some female frogs are known to sing during sex. The rhythmic click calls of the females are so attractive to males that they move rhythmically back and forth whenever they hear these calls during mating.
The song seems to turn the males on, according to the research.
8. Meet Roxxxy, the robotic companion who will-whether you’re entranced or repulsed by “her”-haunt your dreams.
This sex robot was initially designed to be a health aid, intended to provide extra care to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.
The robot didn’t catch on, so the inventors repurposed their design. Instead of a health care worker’s uniform, the robot wears lingerie.
Rather than providing drug information or exercise instructions, the robot’s voice function is used to create a sexy personality: ranging from shy [Frigid Farrah] to adventurous [S and M Susan].
9. Why men cheat: The answer is there’s no one answer, according to Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University.
Fisher divides the brain into three systems: the sex drive, the desire for romantic love and attachment.
Because these systems don’t necessarily need to work together, “the brain is, alas, built to enable us to love more than one person at a time,” Fisher explained.
However, because we all have a different biological map, according to Fisher, some are more susceptible to cheating behaviour than others.
10. Long before human ancestors began pairing up, fish were having sex: Fossils of extinct fish from the genus Materpiscis found in the Gogo Formation of Western Australia suggest that sexual intercourse began as early as 410 million years ago.
Researchers made this connection after discovering a 380-million-year-old female specimen that still retained a single embryo connected by an umbilical cord.
The discovery of this kind of advanced reproductive technique among prehistoric fish fossils has important implications for our understanding of animal evolution. (ANI)
23 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
NEW HOPE FOR A HEALTHY HEART
A miracle pill that repairs tissue damage of a heart attack and a cheek swab that assesses the impact of statins on your body are just two developments likely to improve the prognosis for those at risk of heart disease…
Wednesday 22 June 2011 1:40 PM IST
IMAGINE popping a pill that could repair the damage suffered by your heart after an attack. Or even halt a heart attack in its early stages. You may have to wait a decade for this development, but rest assured that it’s on its way.
British scientists have found a means of repairing cells damaged during a heart attack in mice, leading to expectations that a pill capable to perform this repair in humans would be available in ten years. This breakthrough discovery has created hope for millions of people at high risk of heart attack. Experts predict this would take the form of a preventative drug for people at high risk and may even be effective for people in the early stages of a heart attack.
“The pill to mend a damaged heart sounds like science fiction but might a possibility in a decade,” says Dr Neeraj Bhalla, chairman and HoD, cardiology, BL Kapur Memorial Hospital.
“In the past, several attempts were made but they never worked out. Now, scientists are working on a pill which will directly stimulate the stem cells in the heart and convert them into health muscle cells, which will aid in repairing the damaged heart,” he adds.
Currently, any damage caused during a heart attack is permanent. Though more people survive attacks than in the past due to more effective medication, the damage to the heart is irreversible.
GRIM SCENARIO
NEWS about this pill is welcome in India, especially as the outlook for heart disease among urban Indians bleak. Indians accounted for 60 per cent of the world’s heart disease load 2010, and this figure is slated to rise. Findings of a seven- year study conducted among 1,100 young adults in New Delhi confirm this.
The study, published in the Journal the American College of Cardiology , found that all the risk parameters for cardiac disease including — hypertension, obesity and diabetes rose in this group over the time of study. Such a remarkable rise suggests that young adults in India could have high rates of heart disease and stroke. No wonder, the need to expedite preventive measures of heart risks is being felt like never before.
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MAGIC HEART PILL
COMBINATION of low- dose aspirin, statins and two blood pressure- lowering medicines, the polypill has been promoted as an effective means of reducing the risk heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems across the world. It was first proposed the British Medical Journal eight years ago and has now moved out of labs to the chemists’ stores.
Short- term trials of polypill have shown that it’s as effective as its individual components – aspirin, statin, beta blocker and ACE inhibitor. The one- a- day pill is touted to cut the risk factors for heart diseases.
However, outcome studies are still awaited, which will show how successful is polypill in preventing heart diseases,” says Dr Bhalla.
The good news is that it’s now available in India too, courtesy Cipla and Cadilla. Dr Reddy’s has joined the fray as it’s likely to launch its ‘ Red heart pill’ soon.
Its research wing began work on the ‘ Red heart pill’ ( as it is has been called) in 2005. An international trial of Dr Reddy’s four- inone combination pill has found it can cut the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50 per cent with everyday use. It was also concluded that those with a higher risk of heart disease will be able to get greater benefits from the pill, to the tune of 80 per cent.
But experts say that the pill may not be suitable for everyone so every patient should be assessed and treated on an individual basis. More research is needed to clear the doubts that still exist about it.
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DNA TEST FOR STATINS
ANOTHER development creating a stir among experts is a DNA analysis that can foretell the side effects of statins before you start using them. Statins, as we know, are the most prescribed drugs in the world for reducing cholesterol levels and cutting the chances of a heart attack. On the flip side, they come with certain side effects such as muscle pain and weakness.
About 20 per cent of those who take the drugs often complain of these and the FDA recently issued a warning against a specific statin, Zocor,
DRUGS FOR DAMAGED HEART
ALTHOUGH prevention is being touted as the first step in improving cardiac health, studies are also being directed on finding ways of reducing the damage done to the heart during an attack. A new anti- clotting drug, Ticagrelor, could cut one in five deaths following a heart attack. This finding by the University of Sheffield comes in the wake of cardiologists’ claims that in the last one year, many deaths of patients following a heart attack were largely avoidable.
Anti- clotting drugs have been available for ages but this new one, Ticagrelor, comes with a fillip and is 20 per cent more effective than the older one, Clopidogrel.
What’s more, Ticagrelor works as well on those above 75 years as on younger patients.
However, there are concerns about the cost of the newly licensed drug. It is almost ten times the cost of Clopidogrel. It could also have some serious side effects like shortness of breathing, bleeding and skin allergies.
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BIO-ABSORBABLE STENTS
WHILE the wait for Ticagrelor continues in India, those with cardiac problems can rejoice over bio- absorbable stents that have found their way into the country. Recommended for dilating blocked arteries, metallic stents have been in use for a long period. Arterial blockage has various causes. At times age, chronic diseases, or congenital factors make artery walls weak, causing them to recoil and narrow.
In such cases stents help with dilatation. “ Metallic stents are known to cause infections, recurrence of blockages in the same area or clot formations in the long run,” says Dr Viveka Kumar, senior consultant, interventional cardiology and electrophysiologist, Max Healthcare. In extreme cases a tumour may also develop due to long term presence of the device.
Though medicated stents developed a decade ago have fewer side- effects, they are still not absolutely safe. “Those on stents – whether medicated or non- medicated are supposed to be on blood thinners for the rest of their lives. This makes it difficult for them to undergo surgeries or any medical procedure involving heavy bleeding later in their lives,” says Dr Kumar.
Now, stents made of bioabsorbable materials are being used. Although they are in trail phase currently, large scale commercial usage is likely to begin in a year. “ Unlike the metallic stents, these new stents don’t stay within the artery forever.
Rather, they provide support to the dilated artery walls for a few months and then gradually dissolve in a year,” says Dr Atul Mathur, director, interventional cardiology, Fortis Escorts Hospital.
This naturally chucks the need for blood thinners and also the risks of side effects.
23 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
By Clint Thomas | Yahoo! India News – Tue, Jun 21, 2011
By
early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of
wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that
thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest
green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom. Brick
walls turn mossgreen. Pepper vines snake up electric poles. Wild
creepers burst through latente banks and spill across the flooded roads.
Boats ply in the bazaars…thus Arundhati Roy begins her Booker Prize
winner – The God of Small Things. Although the novel – which is set in
Ayemenem village adjoining Kumarakom – does not render the unspeakable
beauty of Kumarakom, aren’t the aforementioned words enough to lure you
to the most beautiful place in Kerala (arguably)? And If I say Kumarakom is the capital of the God’s own country, will you disagree?
Well,
honestly, this is my fourth trip to Kumarakom, with an intention of
doing a photoblog on Yahoo! Strangely, it had been raining all these
four times, maybe, to make me realize that the beauty and majesty of
Kumarakom are at its best during monsoon.
And
this time, I’m in a houseboat, the perfect place for chilling out -and
much more 
. Houseboats are big barges with five-star amenities –air
conditioned bedrooms with contemporary bathrooms, modular kitchens that
prepare the choicest Kerala-style food, home theatre and whatever else
you want. Some of them have as many as five bedrooms, some have
conference halls and some are even double-storied.
Every
here and there you see a fisherman, hounding for Karimeen (pearl spot).
The boat captain excitedly explained to us four different methods to
catch a pearl spot fish and how clinically they do it. Interesting!
At
the prow of the houseboat sits Sreehari, 15, after whose name the boat
is named. He doesn’t just share his name with the boat, but he owns it!
The young guy too has his share of knowledge to impart – about Tiger
Prawns, another taste of the Kumarakom. He flashes his torch into the
water, toward the stone wall of the canal’s side and I see two small
bulbs flashing between two stones. And he says those are the eyes of a
Tiger Prawn. Wow!
Before
I clicked this photo, it never occurred to me that lightning is the
best source of light for night photography. Yes, this photo was clicked
at 11:40 pm, there was lightening and the photo came out like this.
It
may be the company of boatmen, the palatable Karimeen (pearl spot) fry,
mouth-watering tiger prawns curry, a bottle of chilled beer from the
boatmen’s icebox, a romantic night with your other half, or the cruise
across the Vembanad Lake, Kumarakom guarantees you something to cherish
for a lifetime.
22 Jun 2011
by azadpalestine
in Uncategorized
A herbal delight!
Herbs & spices from your kitchen can perk up your sex life…
IT NOT just spices up your curries, but also punches up your sex life.
Researchers
have found that fenugreek or methi can increase the sex drive by a
quarter, according to a report in the Daily Mail. When libido levels of
60 healthy men aged between 25 and 52 who took an extract of the herb
were checked, it was found that their scores were much higher than those
who took dummy pills.
The
tests were carried out by the Centre for Integrative Clinical and
Molecular Medicine in Brisbane, Australia. Fenugreek seeds contain
compounds called saponins which are said to stimulate the production of
male sex hormones including testosterone.
The local grocery store
or even your household kitchen can prove to be the best apothecary for
shooting up the sexual drive, as supplying the right food to the brain
can turn you on. For example, the ubiquitous spices like black pepper, chilly pepper, cumin, fennel, flax seeds, and turmeric powder can work wonders for distraught couples. These and other herbs can stimulate the libido, perking up people’s sex lives.
Experts have since long suggested the use of Chinese herbs such as Ginseng
— a sexual stimulant — and native African Kola nuts — known to be great
energy boosters — among others. These herbal aphrodisiacs are most
sought after, as they are cheap, effective and have minimal side
effects.
Studies have also shown that a diet which includes soy
can raise the temperature in the bedroom as soy is beneficial to the
prostate — a very important male sex organ. A food rich in granola, oatmeal, cashews, walnuts, garlic and onion,
can lead to improved blood circulation, also boosting the male sex
drive. Even a diet rich in iron and zinc can prove helpful for those
having a tough night life.
Many experts say that an unhealthy supply of Vitamin E
can affect the sexual function as well. A diet rich in dopamine can
lead to greater results. Dopamine is a feel good chemical released by
the brain. It motivates people to pursue pleasure and have sex.
- Also,
fish, legumes, cottage cheese, red meat, milk, beetroots and peas if
included in the diet, can increase the sexual stamina.
Ayurvedic experts have their own dose of suggestions. Tribulus, Sarsaparilla, Siberian Ginseng, Saw Palmetto are herbal plants which have a proven record of increasing the sex drive, according to them.
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