BBC Pics of the year..

Have a look at the BBC website Photographer of the year 2006.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5348588.stm

Posting one of the finalists for you..


Amazing entries...

Image Credits: BBC UK

Hippie Jesus swings to music..

"What good is having someone who can walk on water if you don't follow in his footsteps?"
- Author Unknown

Religious authorities are seeing red over the television ad being aired for promotion of Plug TV. They say it is blasphemous! See it for yourself..



The video shows a long haired and pot bellied Jesus swinging to the music in a bar and drinking whiskey. He turns the bouncers into dwarfs when they disallow him an entry and two converts two fat women into blond babes with devil horns before being reprimanded by the GOD himself!

Window shopping in Amsterdam..

"We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution."
- Victor Hugo

Red light Districts of Amsterdam
The Dutch city of Amsterdam has decided to close one-third of its brothels. Red Light District that everyone knows about is the one where women, of all nationalities, parade their wares in red-fringed window parlours, many ready to offer more than a school boy peep-show in a private cabin. Amsterdam prides itself on its liberalism and has legalized prostitution. Today prostitutes in Holland are taxpayers and have access to medical facilities and better working conditions.


Time's up?
However the city has had enough of it and plans to turn the brothels into shopping and housing complexes. The city authorities insist that they don't want to get rid of prostitution as it is a part of the history of the place, its just that there was too much of sex trade in the city center.

"What we do want is to get rid of the underlying criminality", the city mayor said.

Image Credits : http://www.amsterdam.info/pictures/red-light-district/

Mystery Spending

"Spending is quick, earning is slow."
- Russian proverb

According to a new survey by Visa, Americans are spending an average of $45 a week on something they can't remember! Among those who report "mystery spending," men under age 35 are the worst at monitoring where it all goes, losing track of more than $3,000 a year on average.

The nationwide telephonic survey of 2036 adults reveals that almost half (48%) of respondents suffer from mystery spending. The survey also reveals that young men mystery spend on nights while young women do so while shopping.

News Credit: Visa USA
Image Credit: http://www.freefoto.com/

Pigeon Menace..

"Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue."
— Dilbert

Every dog has its day but looks like the pigeons in Venice have a hard time ahead. The mayor of the city is contemplating a ban on throwing of rice on newly weds. Soiling of the squares is not the only problem with the pigeons chipping away at the marble statues and buildings. Repairing the damages caused costs each Venetian taxpayer 275 euros a year.

"Throwing rice at the bride and groom brings hordes of pigeons who then wait around until the next ceremony. The situation has become unbearable," said the city mayor Marco Agostini.

Next step in line is a ban of the sale of grain to feed the pigeons!

News credit: Reuters

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/diaa/

Walkers crisps got crispier!

Walkers crisps got even more crispier! The company is the first to put carbon footprint figures on its products.

Carbon Footprints
Carbon footprints - which measure the amount of carbon (other GHG emissions) produced to directly or indirectly support any activity in equivalent tons of CO2 have become a bench mark. For eg. when you buy an Walkers crisp, carbon has been burnt during its production,packaging, transportation etc. Therefore the overall Carbon Footprint of a crisp is calculated by summing up all the carbon expanded during its lifetime.


In recent times carbon footprints have wielded great significance with its effect on increasing world temperatures and resulting climate change. 72% of the totally emitted GHG (Green House Gases) is CO2. Carbon footprints therefore measure the contribution of a product towards Global Warming. Countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, India and Germany have the largest CO2 emission levels with US also leading in the per capital CO2 emissions.

Walkers Carbon Footprint
Carbon trust on the behalf of Walkers have calculated the carbon footprint of a standard packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps. They have taken into account various stages in the life cycle of a Walkers Crisp starting from sowing of potato and sunflower seeds to disposing of the packet. The final carbon footprint calculation is 75g.



The stages involved in calculation :

1. Raw Materials : Potato, Sunflower and seasoning.
2. Manufacture : Producing crisps from potato.
3. Packaging.
4. Distribution.
5. Disposal of the packets.

Certainly a commendable step towards the future of this planet!

Image credits: Walkers

Big brother is watching you...

According to a news item published in the BBC, citizen surveillance is on the rise. USA and Britain are the countries using state of the art gadgets to keep common people under their watch. The goal is to create a system that will match the facial image of the person with their gait, height, weight and other elements to identify a person instantly. With newer technology, radio waves can be used to find out if anyone is on the other side of the wall and may be their heart and breathing rates as well.

"As you walk through a crowd, we'll be able to track you. These are all things that don't need the cooperation of the individual." said Professor Challapa from Maryland University.

Changed times

Since 9/11 terror attacks are on the rise throughout the globe and countries like US and UK are always on the hit list. Round the clock surveillance gives rise to privacy issues even though it might lead to reduced crime rates. The terror suspects come from various strata of the society often mingling with the unsuspecting crowd making peer to peer surveillance nearly impossible. This system will provide means of non-contact surveillance.

However the public doesn't seem to mind! Opinion polls, both in the US and Britain, say that about 75% of us want more, not less, surveillance.

Most polluted places..

Here's a list of world's top 10 polluted places according to a new study published.

1. Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Potentially 275,000 affected
2. Linfen, China; Potentially 3m affected
3. Tianying, China; Potentially 140,000 affected
4. Sukinda, India; Potentially 2.6m affected
5. Vapi, India; Potentially 71,000 affected
6. La Oroya, Peru; Potentially 35,000 affected
7. Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Potentially 300,000 affected
8. Norilsk, Russia; Potentially 134,000 affected
9. Chernobyl, Ukraine; Potentially 5.5m affected
10. Kabwe, Zambia; Potentially 255,000 affected

It is interesting to note that developing countries like India, Russia and China figure most prominently in the list assembled by the Blacksmith Institute, a US-based independent environmental group. Click here for the entire story.

Got an answer?

"We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." - Lloyd Alexander (American author)


These are some of the interesting unanswered questions - from daily life and experience. Have you got a clue?

• Why is it so much easier to drink a whole pint of beer or orange squash, say, in one go than it is to down a pint of water?
• Why are pears pear-shaped and not spherical like apples?
• What causes cells to stick together in the human body rather than simply falling apart?
• In a worst-case scenario, if one had to eat parts of oneself, which non-organs would be the most nutritious? Nails? Hair? Earwax?
• Do elephants sneeze?
• Do fish get thirsty?
• How many human faces will I, an average person, see in my lifetime?
• Why do humans feel compelled to dance to music and are we the only species that does so?
• How do toothpaste makers get the stripes in toothpaste? And why do they persist until the tube is used up?

Find such questions and many more here..

A kiss...

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. "
-Ingrid Bergman

However a new study at the State University of New York indicates that a kiss can make or break a couple's relationship. The study indicates that women placed more emotional importance on a kiss. Man on the other hand tend to see kissing as a means to an end – SEX.




"The complicated exchange of information that occurs during a kiss may inform evolved, unconscious mechanisms about instances of possible genetic incompatibility," say researchers.

The study was conducted on 1041 college students and consisted of three questionaries measuring kissing preferences, attitudes, styles, and behaviors. The study also indicates that women value kisses throughout a relationship however men place less importance on kissing as a relationship progresses.