1829 –  London’s reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.

1901 – Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi was born in Rome.

1918 - Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough on the Hindenburg Line during World War I.

1943 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta.

1954 – New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays made a running catch with his back to home plate on a 450-foot blast by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the World Series. It is widely considered to be the greatest catch ever made.

1963 - The second session of the Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.

1978 - Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment a little more than one month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

1982 - Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (The case remains unsolved.)

1988 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America’s return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.

 1989 - Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was convicted of battery for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer who had pulled her over.

2000 - Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.

2005 - John Roberts was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

2005 - New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from 85 days of federal detention after agreeing to testify in a criminal probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity. 

2006 - Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned after being confronted with sexually explicit computer messages he’d sent to former House pages.

2008 - The Dow Jones industrial average fell a record 777.68 points after the House defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue plan for the nation’s financial system.

This logo is published in 12th August 2009 indicates the annual Perseid Meteor Shower 2009.

This logo is published in july 23rd this year indicates the 40th anniversary of Comic-Con.

In 2008 Google published some 18 logos. The following are my favorites among them.

Google displayed this logo on 30th April 2008 for promoting iGoogle iGoogle themes. This logo represents the art of Jeff Koons, an international artist whose art is now available as iGoogle theme.

Published on June 6th, 2008 to celebrate the birthday of a Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez.

My favorites in 2007 are the following.

Published in October 31st, 2007 to wish a Happy Halloween 2007 .

There are so many other interesting logos also. You can get them from http://www.google-logos.com, an unofficial google logos site.

Picture taken when microsoft was started (the one who is highlighted is Bill Gates)

Larry Page(L) and Sergey Brin(R), founders of Google.

Picture taken when INFY was started. This picture was found in the album of the clerk who took this picture…
The picture was with that clerk only because it was his birthday and he just told everyone to stand together at one place to take a pic.
He borrow a camera from his friend and as he can not tell any of his boss to take pic, so he took pic by himself… even it was his birthday.

Dream transforms into thoughts

And thoughts result in action

                                                -A P J Abdul Kalam

 Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (15 october 1931) is one of India’s most distinguished scientists. He became the President of India in 2002. He dreamt of a developed India. And he really wants to make it a reality. The document on Technology Vision 2020 is a blueprint to make India a developed country. He detailed his vision on this, while delivering the inaugural address at the 23rd India International Trade Fair in New Delhi on Friday. There he talked about India’s technical strengths and which all areas require attention in order to make India a developed country. In his words,

“Transforming the nation into a developed country, five areas in combination have been identified based on India’s core competence, natural resources and talented manpower for integrated action to double the growth rate of GDP and realize the Vision of Developed India. These are: Agriculture and food processing — with a target of doubling the present production of food and agricultural products by 2020. Agro food processing industry would lead to the prosperity of rural people, food security and speed up the economic growth; Infrastructure with reliable and quality electric power including solar farming for all parts of the country, providing urban amenities in rural areas and interlinking of rivers; Education and Healthcare: To provide social security and eradication of illiteracy and health for all; Information and Communication Technology: This is one of our core competencies and wealth generator. ICT can be used for tele-education, tele-medicine and e-governance to promote education in remote areas, healthcare and also transparency in the administration; and Critical technologies and strategic industries witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defense technology.”

Through his vision 2020 Kalam gave importance to 5 main areas. If I were the planning commission chairwoman, I would definitely try to follow such a great man like him.

1^st I will concentrate on agriculture and food processing. Agriculture is one of the main methods of making money in India. Almost all the people in India are farmers. But nowadays agriculture is not getting much importance. All are behind industrialization. Paddy fields are destroyed for building huge factories. This trend should be stopped. We should try to double the production of food and agriculture products to make India a great power.Then we should try to utilize the infrastructure facilities provided. And we should try to educate people. Educated people will lead country to prosperity. India is a country with people having lot of intellectual capabilities. We should try to exploit this to make India a supreme power.

If we all try to do these together definitely India will become a supreme power by 2020.

She graduated in Arts from her native place. She secured a master’s degree in political science from Punjab University and secured a degree in law from Delhi University. She was also awarded with a Ph. D in social sciences by the Department of Social sciences, The Indian Institute of Technology New Delhi.

She is honored with many awards. In the year 1979, she got President’s Gallantry award. Women of the year Award in 1980, Asia Region Award for Drug Prevention and Control in 1991, Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1994, Mahila Shiromani Award in 1995, Father Machismo Humanitarian Award in 1995, Lion of the Year in 1995, Joseph Beuys Award in 1997, Pride of India in 1999 and Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice in 2005.

She started her career as a lecturer in Political science in 1970. She got selected in the Indian Police Service in 1972. In police she served in many posts like Traffic Commissioner of New Delhi, Deputy Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram, Advisor to the Lieutanent Governor of Chandigarh, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau and also on a United Nationsdeputation. Afetr offering a wonderful service to the nation she retired from the service.

But Kiran Bedi’s life became busier after retirement. “Life has really opened up on all fronts. Earlier, it was professional and personal commitments, now it is just personal. I make my own choices.” says Kiran Bedi. The choices include reaching out to all kinds of social and creative groups. “Earlier, I used to serve to earn, now I earn — from radio, television, and newspaper columns — to serve my NGOs.”

She has got two choices. “One is http://www.saferindia.com/ where people can register their complaints. People generally complain that police doesn’t take their case. Here I send their complaint to the DGP of the concerned state and the copy goes to the complainant. There is a follow-up desk to keep track of action being taken.”  There is one more site http://www.indiapolice.in/ where a policeman can write his complaints to Bedi.

“I cover his identity and send the copy to the DGPs of the all states so that they realize what an ordinary constable thinks about the system. Like recently, a constable wrote to me how their ration money is being eaten away by the seniors.”

As we all know there are many problems in the top level. She also agrees with this. “If the top level knows how to lead and deliver there is no problem. Remember one Gandhi and his team of dedicated workers had given the freedom movement a decisive direction.”

Once she said, “Only A leader can replace Leaders. RajSabha is nice club for the Old boys.”  Through this she is making a comment on the Indian Politics. Actually what she said is very correct. Everybody knows this fact. But nobody has the courage to say this. We need these type of strong leaders for our country. We all know that she is very patriotic too.

The main quality which attracted towards her is her straight forward nature. She is very courageous and will stand against any nonsenses. See the following video which shows her courage to boycott the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi.

Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses- Wikipedia. The term factory farming was 1st used in an American journal of economics in 1890. It is also known as industrial agriculture. This has got both positive as well as negative effects. These effects get extended to both human beings and animals. I think a majority of our society is unaware (or not bothered) of the animal life in the farms. Most of us think that these animals are provided with a happy life there. But actually this is not the case. Almost all the farms which keep animals for food are not having enough space for the animals. The poor animals are forced to lead a miserable life there.

This is actually started in 1920 after the vitamins A and D are discovered. When the animals are provided with food containing these vitamins, they don’t require any natural factors like sun light or exercise etc. This will save time and money. If the animals are not provided with this type of artificial food, the growth rate will be too low and the profit gained in turn will be less. So with an eye to make a maximum profit, the animals are fed with food containing vitamins and hormones.

The other main issue in factory farming is the diseases. In order to prevent this and to increase the profitability, antibiotics are also given to the animals. This is only one side of the coin. When we are eating these animals and these vitamins, hormones, antibiotics etc are getting absorbed to our body. This is not good for our health. So these things affect both us and animals.

Almost 99% of the factory farms are overcrowded and the animals lead a miserable life there. There may be less sun light or no light at all. They are living in a dark cage waiting for their day. They are not getting enough food or water. We don’t consider these as animals at all; they are treated as profit making tools in our business. Here I just mentioned only a small portion of the cruelties against animals. The situation is actually worse than we expect.

So we should think, being the younger generation what we can do in order to stop these cruelties. I think we all should take a vegetarian diet and try to educate others about the cruelties that are faced by the animals. And to all my amrita friends, we are very fortunate to have done something good for the animals by eating vegetarian mess in the hostels.

Today is worlds father’s day. World started celebrating this to compliment mother’s daycelebrations. It is celebrated in the 3rd sunday of jun in most places. But in some places they celebrate it on some other days.

I love my father very much and I wish him a very very happy father’s day.

Miss world 1949

miss world

Google logo

Today is Igor Stravinsky’s birthday, and it has inspired Google to create an effete, sub-Chagall image to surround their lettering. Still, given how many people are going to see this today, it’s a big event for 20th-century music and its reception. Today isn’t even a major anniversary, in the sense of being one of the big round numbers that classical music festivals love to celebrate, so praise be to Google for having the imagination to mark the occasion.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, Igor’ Fjodorovič Stravinskij) (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, considered by many to be one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

Stravinsky’s compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets): L’Oiseau de feu (“The Firebird”) (1910), Petrushka (1911/1947), and Le Sacre du printemps (“The Rite of Spring”) (1913). The Rite, whose premiere provoked a riot, transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure, and was largely responsible for Stravinsky’s enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of musical design.

After this first Russian phase Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism in the 1920s. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue, symphony), frequently concealed a vein of intense emotion beneath a surface appearance of detachment or austerity, and often paid tribute to the music of earlier masters, for example J. S. Bach and Tchaikovsky.

In the 1950s he adopted serial procedures, using the new techniques over his last twenty years. Stravinsky’s compositions of this period share traits with all of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells, and clarity of form, of instrumentation, and of utterance.

He also published a number of books throughout his career, almost always with the aid of a collaborator, sometimes uncredited. In his 1936 autobiography, Chronicles of My Life, written with the help of Walter Nouvel, Stravinsky included his infamous statement that “music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all.” With Alexis Roland-Manuel and Pierre Souvtchinsky he wrote his 1939–40 Harvard University Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, which were delivered in French and later collected under the title Poétique musicale in 1942 (translated in 1947 as Poetics of Music). Several interviews in which the composer spoke to Robert Craft were published as Conversations with Igor Stravinsky. They collaborated on five further volumes over the following decade.

T20 world cup trophy

I am a gr8 fan of cricket. I got disappointed very much by the performance of India in the T20 world cup this year. I expected a final between India and South Africa. Anyways its Sri Lanka and Pakisthan’s turn to prove their power.  Ok friends I ve put a poll in this to predict the winner of T20 this year. You all please cast your valuable votes in this poll. 

Who will be the man of june 21st?

All the best for both the teams (and a small special wish to Sri Lanka from my side)!!!!!