Spades – King David

Clubs – Alexander the Great,

Hearts – Charlemagne

Diamonds – Julius Caesar.

• Horse Statue in a Park…

If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

• What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. – All invented by women.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• All polar bears are left handed.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.
• Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
• The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
• The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
• Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
• Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
• If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the matchbox.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales

The Jabulani is the official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The ball, created by Adidas, was developed at Loughborough University in the UK, and was unveiled in Cape Town, South Africa on December 4, 2009. Jabulani means “rejoice” or “bring joy and happiness” in Zulu. A gold colour version Jo’bulani  is for the World Cup final and an orange colour version Jabulani Powerorange is for snow game.

The ball was also used as the match ball of 2009 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and a special version of the ball, the Jabulani Angola, was the match ball of the 2010 African Cup of Nations. This ball was also used in the 2009-10 Bundesliga, the 2010 Clausura Tournament of Argentina as well as the 2010 MLS season in the USA and Canada in the league’s colors of blue and green.

Design

The ball is constructed using a new design, consisting of eight (down from 14 in the last World Cup) thermally bonded, three-dimensional panels. These are spherically molded from ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU). The surface of the ball is textured with grooves, a technology developed by Adidas called Grip′n′Groove that are intended to improve the ball’s aerodynamics. The design has received considerable academic input, being developed in partnership with researchers from Loughborough University, United Kingdom.

Coloring

The ball has four triangular design elements on a white background. Eleven different colours are used, representing the eleven players in a football team, the eleven official languages of South Africa, and the eleven South African communities.The Jabulani Angola, used at the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola, was coloured to represent the yellow, red, and black of the host nation’s flag. For the final game, a special match ball will be used with gold panels.

Manufacturing

The balls are made in China, using natural Kerala latex bladders from India, thermoplastic polyurethane-elastomer from Taiwan, ethylene vinyl acetate, isotropic polyester/cotton fabric, glue, and ink from China. The retail price is US$110

World Cup Final ball

A gold version of the Jabulani ball, the Jo’bulani, was announced as the ball for the World Cup Final. The name of the ball inspired by the city of Johannesburg, which is often affectionately nicknamed Jo’burg and will be the site of the 2010 Final. The color also refers to the city of Johannesburg: Johannesburg is also nicknamed “eGoli” (/egɔli/) in Zulu (from the English word “Gold” and “Rhawutini” (/xaʊtini/) in Xhosa or “Gauteng /xaʊˈtɛŋ/” in other official languages—from the Afrikaans word “goud” which means “gold”.The only teams able to use this special version will be the two teams in the final.

Data Source | Images : Internet

• The word millionaire was first used by Benjamin Disraeli in his 1826 novel Vivian Grey.
• If you stack one million US$1 bills, it would be 110m (361 ft) high and weight exactly 1 ton.
• A million dollars’ worth of $100 bills weighs only 10 kg (22 lb).
• One million dollars’ worth of once-cent coins (100 million coins) weigh 246 tons.
• TIP is the acronym for “To Insure Promptness.”
• The term “Blue Chip” comes from the color of the poker chip with the highest value, blue.
• Nessie, the Loch Ness monster is protected by the 1912 Protection of Animals Acts of Scotland. With good reason – Nessie is worth $40 million annually to Scottish tourism.
• Of the more than $50 billion worth of diet products sold every year, almost $20 billion are spent on imitation fats and sugar substitutes.
• Annual global spending on education is $80 billion.
• US and European expenditure on pet food is $17 billion per year.
• The global expenditure on health care and nutrition is $13 billion.
• Money notes are not made from paper, it is made mostly from a special blend of cotton and linen.
• In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period. The wood notes came in $1, $5 and $10 values.
• The world’s largest coins, in size and standard value, were copper plates used in Alaska around 1850. They were about a meter (3 ft) long, half-a-meter (about 2 ft) wide, weighed 40 kg (90 lb), and were worth $2,500.
• The first credit card was issued by American Express in 1951.
• About 30% of consumers use their credit card as their main means of buying Christmas goodies, 70% do not save to buy Christmas gifts and 86% of consumers do their Christmas shopping during December.
• Excessive use of credit is cited as a major cause of non-business b@nkruptcy, second only to unemployment.
• Statistics show that people with high, medium and low income groups spend about the same amount on Christmas gifts.
• In the 1400s, global income rose only 0,1% per year; today it often tops 5%.
• The average age of Forbes’s 400 wealthiest individuals is 63.
• In 1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs Hetty Green Wilks, who left an estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four pieces of soap.
• In 2001 the richest woman was Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of L’Oreal’s founder. She has a net worth of $14 billion (depending on how the stock market did today).
• In 2000, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is the second wealthiest woman, with $5,2 billion.
• Queen Elizabeth II is one of the 10th wealthiest women in the world.
• The $ sign was designed in 1788 by Oliver Pollock.
• The term “smart money” refers to g@mblers who have inside information or have arranged a fix, the g@mbling term for insuring the outcome of an event by illegal methods.
• Small-time gamblers who place small bet in order to prolong the excitement of a game are called “dead fish” by game operators because the longer the playing time, the greater the chances of losing.
• In gambling language, for a gambling house a “sure-thing” is a wager that a player has little chance of winning; “easy money” is their profit from an inexperienced bettor, an unlucky player is called a “stiff.”
• Australians are the heaviest gamblers in the world; an estimated 82% of Australians bet. That is twice as much per capita as Europeans or Americans. Yet, Australia, with less than 1% of the world population, has 20% of the world’s poker machines.
• There are more than 7 million millionaires in the world.
• 80% of millionaires drive second-hand cars.
• In 1900, the price of gold was less than $40 per ounce. It reached $600 in 1930, now struggling to reach $400 per ounce.
• If Los Angeles County was a country, it would be the 19th largest economy in the world.
• If California was a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world.
• Tobacco is a $200 billion industry, producing six trillion cig@rettes a year – about 1,000 cig@rettes for each person on earth.
• In 1965, CEOs earned on average 44 times more than factory workers. In 1998, CEOs earned on average 326 times more than factory workers and in 1999, they earned 419 times more than factory workers.
• The income gap between the richest fifth of the world’s people and the poorest measured by average national income per head increased from 30 to one in 1960, to 74 to one in 1998.
• A third of the world’s people live on less than $2 a day, with 1,2 billion people living on less than $1 a day.
• In the 17th century, wool fabrics accounted for about two-thirds of England’s foreign trade. Today, the leading wool producers are Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and China.
• The NASDAQ stock exchange was totally disabled in on day in December 1987 when a squirrel burrowed through a telephone line.
• In 1990, the word “recession” appeared in 1,583 articles in The Wall Street Journal.
• Global sales of pre-recorded music total more than $40 billion.
• Tourism is the world’s biggest industry, affecting 240 million jobs.
• In 1865, Frederik Idestam founded a wood-pulp mill in southern Finland, naming it Nokia. It rapidly gained worldwide recognition, attracting a large number of workforce and the town Nokia was born. In 1898, the Finnish Rubber Works company opened in Nokia, taking on the town name in the 1920s. After WWII, the rubber company took a majority shareholding in the Finnish Cable Work. In 1967, the companies consolidated to become the Nokia Group. The recession of the 1990s led the group to focus on the mobile phone market.

Data Source | Image

• In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
• About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
• A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
• Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
• Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
• Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
• Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
• The Ancient Egyptians worshiped a sky goddess called Nut.
• The world’s windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.
• In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
• American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
• The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 liters of water in its trunk.
• The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name ‘Methuselah’ . It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
• The Antarctic Notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
• The USA uses 29% of the world’s petrol and 33% of the world’s electricity.
• The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
• Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
• Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
• Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
• The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
• There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
• The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
• Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

image credit

1. The Sun is the Solar System

We live on the planet, so we think it’s an equal member of the Solar System. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that the mass of the Sun accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the Solar System. And most of that final 0.2% comes from Jupiter. So the mass of the Earth is a fraction of a fraction of the mass of the Solar System. Really, we barely exist.

2. And the Sun is mostly hydrogen and helium

If you could take apart the Sun and pile up its different elements, you’d find that 74% of its mass comes from hydrogen. with 24% helium. The remaining 2% is includes trace amounts of iron, nickel, oxygen, and all the other elements we have in the Solar System. In other words, the Solar System is mostly made of hydrogen.

3. The Sun is pretty bright.

We know of some amazingly large and bright stars, like Eta Carina and Betelgeuse. But they’re incredibly far away. Our own Sun is a relatively bright star. If you could take the 50 closest stars within 17 light-years of the Earth, the Sun would be the 4th brightest star in absolute terms. Not bad at all.

4. The Sun is huge, but tiny

With a diameter of 109 times the size the Earth, the Sun makes a really big sphere. You could fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun. Or you could flatten out 11,990 Earths to cover the surface of the Sun. That’s big, but there are some much bigger stars out there. For example, the biggest star that we know of would almost reach Saturn if it were placed inside the Solar System.

5. The Sun is middle aged

Astronomers think that the Sun (and the planets) formed from the solar nebula about 4.59 billion years ago. The Sun is in the main sequence stage right now, slowly using up its hydrogen fuel. But at some point, in about 5 billion years from now, the Sun will enter the red giant phase, where it swells up to consume the inner planets – including Earth (probably). It will slough off its outer layers, and then shrink back down to a relatively tiny white dwarf.

6. The Sun has layers

The Sun looks like a burning ball of fire, but it actually has an internal structure. The visible surface we can see is called the photosphere, and heats up to a temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. Beneath that is the convective zone, where heat moves slowly from the inner Sun to the surface, and cooled material falls back down in columns. This region starts at 70% of the radius of the Sun. Beneath the convection zone is the radiative zone. In this zone, heat can only travel through radiation. The core of the Sun extends from the center of the Sun to a distance of 0.2 solar radii. This is where temperatures reach 13.6 million degrees Kelvin, and molecules of hydrogen are fused into helium.

7. The Sun is heating up, and will kill all life on Earth

It feels like the Sun has been around forever, unchanging, but that’s not true. The Sun is actually slowly heating up. It’s becoming 10% more luminous every billion years. In fact, within just a billion years, the heat from the Sun will be so intense that liquid water won’t exist on the surface of the Earth. Life on Earth as we know it will be gone forever. Bacteria might still live on underground, but the surface of the planet will be scorched and uninhabited. It’ll take another 7 billion years for the Sun to reach its red giant phase before it actually expands to the point that it engulfs the Earth and destroys the entire planet.

8. Different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds

Unlike the planets, the Sun is great big sphere of hydrogen gas. Because of this, different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds. You can see how fast the surface is rotating by tracking the movement of sunspots across the surface. Regions at the equator take 25 days to complete one rotation, while features at the poles can take 36 days. And the inside of the Sun seems to take about 27 days.

9. The outer atmosphere is hotter than the surface

The surface of the Sun reaches temperatures of 6,000 Kelvin. But this is actually much less than the Sun’s atmosphere. Above the surface of the Sun is a region of the atmosphere called the chromosphere, where temperatures can reach 100,000 K. But that’s nothing. There’s an even more distant region called the corona, which extends to a volume even larger than the Sun itself. Temperatures in the corona can reach 1 million K.

10. There are spacecraft observing the Sun right now.

The most famous spacecraft sent to observe the Sun is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, built by NASA and ESA, and launched in December, 1995. SOHO has been continuously observing the Sun since then, and sent back countless images. A more recent mission is NASA’s STEREO spacecraft. This was actually two spacecraft, launched in October 2006. These twin spacecraft were designed to watch the same activity on the Sun from two different vantage points, to give a 3-D perspective of the Sun’s activity, and allow astronomers to better predict space weather.

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• The Statue of Liberty’s index finger is eight feet long.
• Rain has never been recorded in some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.
• A 75 year old person will have slept about 23 years.
• A Boeing 747′s wing span is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight.(the Wright brother’s invented the airplane)
• There are as many chickens on earth as there are humans.
• One type of hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
• The word “set ” has the most number of definitions in the English language;192
• Slugs have four noses.
• Sharks can live up to 100 years .
• Mosquitos are more attracted to the color blue than any other color.
• Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.
• About 75 acres of pizza are eaten in in the U.S. Everyday.
• The largest recorded snowflake was 15in wide and 8in thick. It fell in Montana in 1887.
• The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that the sound it makes is actually a tiny sonic boom.
• Former president Bill Clinton only sent 2 emails in his entire 8 year presidency .
• Koalas and humans are the only animals that have finger prints.
• There are 200,000,000 insects for every one human.
• It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery had in it to begin with.
• The world’s largest Montessori school is in India, with 26,312 students in 2002 .
• Octopus have three hearts.
• If you ate too many carrots, you’d turn orange.
• The average person spends two weeks waiting for a traffic light to change.
• 1 in 2,000,000,000 people will live to be 116 or old.
• The body has 2-3 million sweat glands.
• Sperm whales have the biggest brains; 20 lbs.
• Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother’s womb. The survivor is born.
• Most cats are left pawed.
• 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• A Blue whale’s tongue weighs more than an elephant.
• You use 14 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Keep Smiling!.
• Bamboo can grow up to 3 ft in 24 hours.
• An eyeball weighs about 1 ounce.
• Bone is five times stronger than steel.

Data Source: Internet, email

Thousands were severely injured and handicapped. NGOs estimate that the death toll rose sharply to 10,000 within 72 hours and according to reports now the number stands at over 25,000. However, yet to extradite the main accused, American Warren Anderson, who was chief executive officer of the Union Carbide Corp (UCC), now owned by Dow Chemical Company. On the 25 th anniversary of the tragedy, we remember the victims of the horrific disaster.

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The Ghost of Bhopal

by P N V Nair

Almost 26 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, we have not heard the truth as yet. As eminent journalist B G Verghese wrote, “Confusion, incompetence, cover-up and procedural delays all played their part in dealing with the greatest industrial disaster the world has ever seen. We have got so used to the stench that we live with it not realising how foul it smells.” The trivial Bhopal verdict is a grim reminder of this truth. As he said Bhopal was no accident. If at all, with prior warnings, it was an accident waiting to happen. And to add insult to the thousands who were killed and half a million who were maimed to suffer life-long, a judicial magistrate in Bhopal has recently pronounced a maximum sentence of two years in jail for 7 Indian employees of the Union Carbide India Limited’s pesticide plant, including the former chairman and the non-executive director of the UCIL. Another employee was also convicted but he had died before the judgement was passed.

The then UCC chairman, Warren Anderson, who rushed to India on hearing the tragedy, was however arrested, bailed out and officially assisted to flee the country. Anderson, we are told, was given a boon of “safe passage” and diplomatic niceties demand that we respect the commitment. But what we fail to understand is how the rest of the American executives who were working at the ill-fated plant at that time had escaped arrest and only the Indian executives were found guilty and convicted.

There is a hue and cry against the judgement that seems to be too mild. In 1996, the Supreme Court had diluted the case and revised the offence from Section 304-II of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) with a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail to Section 304 A (causing death by rash and negligent act – accident by negligence) with a maximum punishment of two years in jail. “Hang the Chief Justice” is the cry now, without realising that sentiments, sympathies and emotions will not stand in a court of law. We should not mix emotions with law. At the same time, it is amazing that the state government, the Central government, the Supreme Court, the CBI and all other investigating agencies have played a shameful role and betrayed the people of Bhopal. And after 26 years of indecision, inaction and total negligence, a Group of Ministers (GoM), newly set up to deal with the case, wants extradition of Anderson, who is now 90 years old and has gone deaf and cynic. Does it serve any purpose to get him extradited from the US and restart the trial, as announced by Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily? The honourable minister will be living in a fool’s paradise if he thinks that Barack Obama will oblige him and hand over Anderson.

Who gave Anderson a safe passage? There is a blame game going on with the opposition parties trying to drag in the name of Rajiv Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister then, and the Congress party vehemently denying the charge. Bofors, IPKF and now Bhopal, the poor man will be turning in his samadhi! Rajiv was just one month in office when the Bhopal tragedy struck and chances are that some senior leaders, like Home Minister P V Narasimha Rao, as suggested by the then foreign secretary Rasgotra, must have taken an independent decision on granting safe passage to Anderson. But the responsibility is surely his. However, it is unfair to point accusing fingers at the late leaders when they cannot defend the charges. The issue was also immaterial because Anderson would not have visited Bhopal if safe passage was not extended to him. It was a sensible arrangement as there was no other option. We could not cut off all ties with UCC if we wanted to get any compensation.

The country still does not know the exact number of people who were killed. This writer, who was Editor of Mumbai-based The Daily and was closely following the tragedy at that time, knows for sure that the final toll officially announced was 3,000 plus. Wikipedia, in a report confirms this figure. It says, “ Around midnight on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, there was a leak of methyl isocynate (MIC) gas and other toxins from the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) plant at Bhopal. The immediate official toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.” Now the latest report is stunning that says nearly 15,000- 20,000 people were killed and must be compensated. The question is where the money has gone. Did the money reach the victims’ families?

In July 1989, the Supreme Court had asked UCC to pay a compensation of $470 million. One of the conditions was quashing of all criminal cases. At the time of settlement, it was estimated that there were 3,000 deaths and 30, 000 injured. The claims now stand at five times the 1989 estimate. The welfare commissioner had claimed that over Rs 1,400 crore had already been disbursed among the victims and their kin, but a large number of sufferers did not receive adequate compensation. This is because of the inflated number of claimants. However, the trust that handles the relief measures has now a balance of $ 500 million (Rs 2,355 crore), including interest.

Instead of finding some scapegoats or fixing responsibility on someone for all the lapses, we must concentrate on relief and rehabilitation of the affected people. They need succour and waited 26 years for the authorities to act. The GoM appointed by the Prime Minister has announced a package of Rs 1,500 crore towards hike in compensation for the victims – families of the deceased would be provided Rs10 lakh instead of the Rs Rs 1-3 lakh provided earlier. Those with permanent disability will receive Rs 5 lakh as against the Rs 50,000-Rs 2 lakh they got earlier, while those with lesser injuries will get Rs 1 lakh each. Patients of cancer and renal failure will get Rs 2 lakh. This is a fair deal when compared to the Indian law that offers just Rs 25,000 as compensation for the victims of similar industrial disasters. The question, however, is why they had to wait for so many years when the money was there.

While a sum of Rs 300 crore has been set apart for the clean-up job, Rs 227 crore has been earmarked for upgradation of seven hospitals, including the Bhopal Memorial Trust Hospital which was set up in the aftermath of the tragedy. Even 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UCIL plant continue to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region and affecting thousands of residents of the town who consume it. There is also some doubt as to whether the chemicals still stored at the site pose any continuing health hazard. The delay for the clean-up is a criminal negligence on the part of the state government. After all, the poisonous gas affects the health of its people. By the way, what were the environmentalists doing all these years. Sunita Narain, environment and social activist, thunders that American Dow Chemicals that bought UCIL in 2001 must be made to pay for the clean-up. A case is pending before the Jabalpur bench of the MP High Court against the company. Can we wait for the judgement?

While closing the Bhopal chapter, maybe in the near future, the government and the political parties should learn enough lessons and enact perfect laws to ensure that there are no more Bhopal-like tragedies.

Tailpiece: Overheard a conversation. Right or wrong, Rajiv Gandhi’s government had given safe passage to Anderson. What would have happened if it were Dr Manmohan Singh? He would have escorted Anderson to the US!

P N V Nair is a senior journalist having worked as Editor of Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, The Daily, Mumbai, Free Press, Indore, and Lokmat Times, Nagpur. He also worked in senior positions in Indian Express, Free Press Journal, Mid-Day and Indian Post, all in Mumbai. Presently, he is working as Editor with Saffron Media.

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Previous warnings and MIC-related accidents had occurred

• In 1976, the two trade unions reacted because of pollution within the plant.
• In 1981, a worker was splashed with phosgene. In panic he ripped off his mask, thus inhaling a large amount of phosgene gas; he died 72 hours later.
• In January 1982, there was a phosgene leak, when 24 workers were exposed and had to be admitted to hospital. None of the workers had been ordered to wear protective masks.
• In February 1982, an MIC leak affected 18 workers.
• In August 1982, a chemical engineer came into contact with liquid MIC, resulting in burns over 30 percent of his body.
• In October 1982, there was a leak of MIC, methylcarbaryl chloride, chloroform and hydrochloric acid. In attempting to stop the leak, the MIC supervisor suffered intensive chemical burns and two other workers were severely exposed to the gases.
• During 1983 and 1984, leaks of the following substances regularly took place in the MIC plant: MIC, chlorine, mono methylene, phosphate, and carbon tetrachloride, sometimes in combination.
• Reports issued months before the incident by scientists within the Union Carbide corporation warned of the possibility of an accident almost identical to that which occurred in Bhopal. The reports were ignored and never reached senior staff.
• Union Carbide was warned by American experts who visited the plant after 1981 of the potential of a “runaway reaction” in the MIC storage tank; local Indian authorities warned the company of problems on several occasions from 1979 onwards. Again, these warnings were not heeded.

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In pics: Bhopal gas tragedy

The 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the world's worst industrial accident.Thousands of people have died from the effects of toxic gases which leaked from a chemical factory near the central Indian city of Bhopal at 1984 and various genetic diseases among newly born till date.

10 Photos

[Credits:  P N V Nair]

In the Current Global Economic Crisis one must be wondering where did all the money go?

The loans handed over by banks all over the world gone. They must have been used in buying goods and services (homes, vacations etc) and since they have been spent , the money must have passed from one hand to other and must be there in the market in some form or the other (may be in US or CHINA or BRAZIL OR INDIA )? so the question is in which form is the money lying and where it is lying so that it is not being used up and there is crisis ?

Following beautiful story tries to answer the question.

Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.

1) There were 3 citizens living on this island country.  A owned the land. B and C each owned 1 dollar.
2) B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.

* The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.

3) Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.

*A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
* B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.
* Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.

4) A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regretted having sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C. As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.

* B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.

(5) B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.

* As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.
* C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.

(6) Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.

(7) One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C’s mind. “Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more.”

(8) A also thought the same way.

(9) Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.

* So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
* C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his Heart is palpitating.
* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.

(10) So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country ? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper. B’s net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.

(11) B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.

* A owns the 2 coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B is bankrupt, his net asset is 0 dollar. ( he lost everything )
* C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar
* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars.

There is however a redistribution of wealth.

A is the winner, B is the loser, C is lucky that he is spared.

Conclusion

• When a bubble is building up, the debt of individuals to one another in a country is also building up.
• This story of the island is a closed system whereby there is no other country and hence no foreign debt. The worth of the asset can only be calculated using the island’s own currency. Hence, there is no net loss.
• An over-damped system is assumed when the bubble burst, meaning the land’s value did not go down to below 1 dollar.
• When the bubble burst, the fellow with cash is the winner. The fellows having the land or extending loan to others are the losers. The asset could shrink or in worst case, they go bankrupt.
• If there is another citizen D either holding a dollar or another piece of land but refrains from taking part in the game,  he will neither win nor lose. But he will see the value of his money or land go up and down like a see saw.
• When the bubble was in the growing phase, everybody made money.
• If you are smart and know that you are living in a growing bubble, it is worthwhile to borrow money (like A ) and take part in the game. But you must know when you should change everything back to cash.
• As in the case of land, the above phenomenon applies to stocks as well.
• The actual worth of land or stocks depend largely on psychology.

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The major reasons for this are accumulation of junk in the system or a highly stuffed hard drive or running of too many unnecessary services and programs. Here we shared a few essential tips that can help speed up Windows 7 performance on laptops or computers.

Visual and Sound Related

1. Using minimal Visual Effects

Disabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance performance. To disable visual effects, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the left side pane.
3. In the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
4. In the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual Effects tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting ‘Adjust for best performance‘ will disable all options.
5. After disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.

Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the performance will surely get a boost.

2. Using minimal Sound Effects

For disabling sound effects, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type mmsys.cpl and press Enter
2. In the Sound window (refer figure) that appears click on Sounds tab
3. Set the Sounds scheme to ‘No Sounds‘
4. You could set only the essential sounds if needed in the Program Events, by selecting the specific event and then choosing the sound from the Sounds drop-down menu below.
5. You can as well disable the “Play Windows Startup sound” option.
6. After the settings are done, click Apply and OK.

Software and Services related

1. Run a trusted Anti-Virus program

Ensure that you have a good anti-virus software loaded on your laptop/computer. This will ensure that no malware or spyware gets planted in your system. Without such protection software, there are chances of third party malware and virus being installed or stored on your system, causing harmful effects and also eating up precious space.

2. Install only essential software

Ensure that you install only that software which you need. If you install any trial software and find out that you don’t really need it, uninstall and delete it immediately. Else, they might hog precious disk space, RAM and processor cycles. If you’ve installed a software, which you are unable to get rid of, and which is hampering the normal functioning of your laptop, then you might have to format your hard drive. Be aware that formatting your hard drive might wipe out all your data. Therefore it is best you take a back-up before going ahead with formatting.

3. Disable or make unneeded services Manual

Some processes and services, which might not really be necessary, are by default made to start automatically once the system starts up. They will consume RAM as well as the processor’s attention, slowing down other important tasks. It is best to disable them. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type services.msc and press Enter
2. Go to Services & Applications > Services. You’ll see the Services window (refer figure).
3. Right-click on a service that you wish to set to manual or disable. If the service is already started, Stop it first.
4. Once the service is stopped, again right-click on it and select Properties.
5. In the Startup type, you can either set the service to Manual, if you would be using it later, or Disable it, if not needed.
6. Once done, you can close the window

4. Disabling Unwanted Start-up programs to speed up System Start-up

Some programs are set to start during system start-up. These might slow down the start-up process. Programs that are not really needed during start-up can be disabled. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In the System Configuration window (refer figure), go to Startup.
3. Uncheck the box next to those processes that are not important for start-up. This will disable them.
4. Once you’ve disabled the processes, click Apply and OK.

Hard Drive related

1. Clean up the hard drive

Remove unwanted files, like temp files, downloaded program files, recycle bin, etc. You could use Disk Cleanup option to do this, as follows:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. The system will first calculate how much space can be freed up this way. In the Disk Cleanup window (refer figure) that appears, select the files in that need to be deleted under the Files to delete list.
3. For deleting ‘System Restore‘ and ‘Shadow copy‘ files, click “Clean up system files” and then on “More Options” tab
4. Finally click OK. You’ll be prompted again before the deletion. Click Yes.

2. Enable Write caching on device

This is an option which allows the OS to flush changed data to the hard disk when the system is idle, so that performance is not affected when in use. For enabling this, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Device Manager in the left hand pane.
3. In the next window that appears, expand Disk drives.
4. The drop-down list will show the hard drive. Right-click on it and select Properties.
5. Click the Policies tab in the Device Properties window (refer figure).
6. Check the box next to “Enable write caching on the device“
7. You can as well check the box next to “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device” and then click OK.

Note: However, there is one disadvantage in enabling these options – if there is a power outage or a system crash, data might be lost or corrupted. If you have a secondary power supply, like a UPS, you could go ahead with checking these options.

3. Perform Disk Defragmentation

When there is no sufficient space to store in a hard drive, the OS splits the file into parts and stores it in different areas on the hard drive. Defragmenting allows all these parts to be stored in contiguous memory locations. For defragmenting disk do the following:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
2. In the window (refer figure) that appears, click on the drive that you want to defragment and then click Analyze disk.
3. This will estimate the time required for the process. When done click on Defragment disk.
4. Once done you can either View Report or click Close.

These pretty much sum up the small things that you can do, to make a big difference to your Windows 7’s performance. If you have some personal tips you’ve done yourself to improve the performances, we’d like to hear from you.

Author: Trinity Nick  (Trinity is a blogger from the UK. She reviews products for sites.)

Logo Image courtesy: http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/files/2009/10/windows7.jpg

Women’s brains designed to concentrate multiple task at a time.
Women can Watch a TV and Talk over phone and cook the new recipe.

Men – Single Process

Men’s brain designed to concentrate only one work at a time. Men can not watch a TV and talking in phone same time. He stops the TV while Talking. He can either watch TV or talk over phone or cook.

Language

Women can easily learn many languages. Her brain set up. But can not find the solutions to problems Men can not easily learn languages; he can easily solve the problems.
3 year old gal has three times higher vocabulary than 3 year old boy.

Analytical Skills

Men’s brain has lot of space for handling the analytical process. So easily he can analyze and find the solution for a process.
He can design (blue print) a map of a building easily.

If a complex map is viewed by women, she can not understand it. She can not understand the details of the map easily.
For her it is dump of lines in a paper.

Car Driving

While driving a car, men’s analytical spaces are used in his brain. He can drive a car fastly. If he sees an object at long distance, immediately his brain classifies the object (bus or van or car) direction and speed of the object and driving accordingly. Where as women take a long time to recognize the object direction/ speed. His single process mind stops the audio in the car (if any), then concentrating only on the driving.
You can often watch, while men driving the car fastly, the women sit next to him will shout, “GO SLOW” , “CARE FULL”, “AAHHH”, “OHH GOD..”..etc..

Lies

Many times, when men lie to women face to face, they got caught easily.
Her super natural brain observes the facial expression 70%, and the body language 20% and the words comes from mouth 10%. So he is easily caught while lieing.

Men’s brain does not have this. Women easily lie to men face to face.

So guys, While lieing to your girls, use phone, or letter or close all the lights or cover your/her face with blanket.
Don’t lie face to face.

Problems

End of day, if men have lot of problems, his brain clearly classifies the problems and put into individual rooms of brain, the problems in individual room of brain and finding the solution one by one. You can see many guys looking on the sky’s for a long times. If you disturb him, he gets irritated.

End of Day, if women have lot of problems, her brain can not classify the problems. She wants some one to hear that. After telling everything to a person she goes happily to bed. She does not worry bat the problem solved or not.

Wants

Men want status, success, solutions, big process… etc Women want relationship, friends, family…etc…

Unhappy

if women unhappy with their relations, she can not concentrate on work.
If men unhappy with their work, he can not concentrate on the relations.

Map

Men can easily locate the place in a complex map. His analytical brain does this. While watching a cricket match in a stadium with full of crowd, men can leave his seat to T shop and keeps everything in his mind and comes back to his seat with out problems. He uses his analytical skills space of brain.

Women can’t do this. They often lost their way to their seat.

Life

Life is very easy to Men. One good job, one alcohol bottle is enough for him.
Women want everything in life.

Speech

Women use indirect languages in speech.
Geetha asked Vijay, “Vijay do you like to have a cup of coffee?”
This means, Geetha really want a cup of coffee.
In the morning…….”Darling, do you think, will it be good to have an Omelet for breakfast”
Men use direct language. “Geetha, I want to have a cup of coffee, Pls stop the car when you see a coffee shop”.
In the morning….”Darling, Can you please prepare an omelet for breakfast”.

Handling Emotions

Women talk a lot without thinking, if they are in emotion.
Men act a lot with out thinking. That’s why many of prisoners are men all over the world.