Daniel Craig minus Gulshan Grover!

I am becoming a sort of politician now. Gulshan Grover will not be playing the baddie in the forthcoming Bond movie. This report is from the same source that reported the other way round. More

Gulshan Grover Vs. Daniel Craig

Gulshan Grover will be the baddie in the next James Bond Movie "Casino Royale.' He has already done that with ease in Bollywood movies. Wait and watch what he does vs. Bond! More

Hope this becomes a reality!

According to this report, salaried class might be spared from filing an income tax returns from next year. More

Are you thinking too much? Me not!

If you are, then read this!

Is your soap antibacterial?

It seems antibacterial soaps are not more effective than regular soaps in preventing bacterial infections. More

Useless drug?

I still remember when I was about 15 years old and had jaundice and doctor asked me to continue Liv-52 for about a month or so. This report says that it is a 'useless liver drug." More

Naming Ceremony!

With Wilma around, I suddenly wanted to know who names these hurricanes and how. I did some research and found the following:

It seems the names are given for not confusing one over the other when there are more than one storm at a particular time. Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center and now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The lists featured only women's names until 1979, when men's and women's names were alternated. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2004 list will be used again in 2010.

Each year, the first tropical storm of the season is given a name that starts with A, the second storm is given a name that starts with a B, and so on.

There are different name lists for Atlantic and eastern Pacific tropical storms. Storms are named as soon as the winds are 39 mph or more.

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.


Courtesy: Enchanted Learning

Bye Bye Rita, Hi Wilma!

Okay.. now it is the turn of Wilma. This hurricane is moving towards Mexico and is presently being classified as category 4. The US National Hurricane Center fears that it might even regain category 5 intensity. Wilma is expected to make landfall late Saturday. It might even make a sharp turn towards Florida. Any way, let's hope that like Rita, Wilma too cools down a bit by the time it makes the landfall and weaken in its intensity.......

Why Blame Bollywood?

2005 has been a wonderful year for Bollywood thus far vis-a-vis 2003 and 2004, when the industry suffered a big loss. Hindi movies were always criticized the way they were taken - dancing around the trees, one cabaret number, some fights, and a happy ending. Stories ranged from triangle love stories, brothers separated and uniting, villain killing the hero's father when he was a child and later taking revenge, rich man in love with a poor girl and vice versa, and some unusually patriotic heroes. Although, such films are still made, Bollywood has come a long way, but still hasn't been able to come out of this image totally. Now, what made me write this article is that this year I have seen some really good movies churned up. Parineeta, Iqbal, Sarkar, Black, Viruddh just to name a few. But I was surprised to see that Bunti aur Bubli is the greatest hit of this year thus far. I have seen the movie and felt it to be utterly nonsense. So, now I wonder whether Bollywood has to be blamed for the quality of films it make? Obviously, films are made keeping in mind the public demand, and of course, they need to make some money too. But if this is the public response to good films, God only knows if there will be any motivation to make films of the genre that I mentioned earlier. First, let's change, then ask for more. Agreed, we go out for a movie for so-called entertainment, but let's give the due share to the good ones too, which are entertaining too!

Asterix Goes Political

Asterix illustrator Albert Uderzo introduced the character in 1959 More than eight million copies of the new Asterix book have gone on sale in 27 countries - and the comic series is getting political for the first time.
Asterix and the Falling Sky is the 33rd book and the first for four years.
Illustrator Albert Uderzo introduces aliens from a planet called Tadsylwine, an anagram of Walt Disney, with a leader called Hubs, an anagram of Bush.

"What the Americans are going through today with Bush got me into it," Mr Uderzo told France-Soir newspaper.

"I had fun caricaturing certain things which have come from America.

"Even I am a bit surprised, because [writer Rene] Goscinny and I never got Asterix involved in politics. But here there is a slight political side to it."

There has been fevered anticipation for the new book, which has been translated into 13 languages.

In the good-natured send-up, the creatures from Tadsylwine - dim Superman clones - visit Asterix's famous ancient village in search of its strength-giving magic potion.

They are joined by another group of invaders called Nagmas, an anagram of Mangas, the Japanese cartoons that have become increasingly popular in France.

Source: BBC

Daniel Craig is the new Bond!

* 37-year-old.
* Born in Chester and raised in Liverpool, Craig spent much of his youth soaking up the atmosphere at Liverpool's Left-wing Everyman Theatre.
* Married at 23.
* Has a daughter, now 12, who lives with his ex-wife in Chiswick, west London.
* Succeeding Pierce Brosnan to become the sixth Bond will inevitably give him an even higher public profile.
* The first fair-haired actor to play 007 and, at 6ft, he will be the shortest.
* His first excursion as the super-spy will come in the 21st Bond film, an adaptation of Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first 007 book.

Welcome Pests from Pak!

After militants, it is the turn of locusts to infiltrate India from Pakistan.
Delhi has lodged a complaint against Pakistan with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), charging Islamabad with negligence in tackling the menace of the voracious insects, which have spread to some parts of western India.
India’s agriculture authorities told FAO in Rome that Pakistan “took no timely step to eradicate the locusts at infancy”, Daily Times quoted a senior Pakistani government official as saying.

“The presence of locusts has been reported in some parts of India, especially in areas bordering Pakistan,” India informed FAO in a letter. Locusts’ presence has also been reported in some small pockets of Bahawalpur district, but according to the official, “it poses no serious threat to the standing crops in Pakistan”.

He claimed that Pakistan has adequately responded to locust menace before and after the recent monsoon rains. The aerial wing of the plant protection department of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock conducted spraying operations to prevent the possible spread of locusts.

The official said the presence of locusts had been reported only in some pockets of Bahawalpur. This is not a serious threat but if locust swarms spread from Africa, it would be a grave problem, he added.

Pakistan, India and Iran would be required to take joint steps to tackle the problem. But there was no imminent threat from Africa, he said.

According to the official, Pakistani agriculture experts had visited some countries in Africa to get first-hand information about locusts. All parts of the belt in Baluchistan, known as locust breeding grounds, were also inspected.

In 2004, vast swarms of locusts rampaging across Africa’s northern region spread into Chad, triggering fear that the insects could begin ravaging crops in other African countries and parts of Asia.

An FAO official in Rome had warned the swarms were about to cross the Red Sea into the Arabian peninsula and then into Iran, Pakistan and India. But the spreading did not occur that year. The official said there is no serious threat to crops in Pakistan and India. It becomes serious when there is a danger of spreading of swarms from Africa, he added.

He said all safeguards were in place and all steps would be taken to contain any locust attack in any part of the country.

The official said the plant protection department was well prepared to face any locust attack and the agriculture ministry’s aerial wing, with two planes, had been directed to be ready for spray operations, if the situation spins out of control.

Courtesy: TT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG-B!

Born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Amitabh's career was full of ups and downs. His first film Saat Hindustani was a flop and so were some of the films that followed. But 1973 brought on a drastic change to his career with hits like Abhimaan and Zanjeer, and soon became the angry-young man of Hindi movies with hits like Sholay, Amar Akbar Antony, Trishul, Don, and Deewar. In 1983, while shooting for Coolie, he was injured in an on-set accident and was in a critical condition. He recovered thereafter, only to enter politics in 1984, joining the Congress but resigned later saying that he found politics unpleasant. In 1995, he went into business starting ABCL, but that was a failure. He went into debt, but did not file bankruptcy, and is said to have cleared all his debt this year. In June 2000, he became the first living Asian to have a wax statue erected in his honour at Madame Tussaud's. In 2000, he was chosen as the host for KBC which was an enormous hit and critics had to admit that Amitabh still had box office magic. The movies that came after this show were also hits - Baghban, Kabhi khusi kabhi gham, Black, Sarkar, and Viruddh. And now he is doing quite well with KBC-2.

Once again - MANY MANY RETURNS OF THE DAY!

BLACK SATURDAY!

IMAGES: AP

The powerful earthquake that hit Pakistan and parts of India on Saturday at about 9:20 a.m. have left thousands dead and millions homeless. The epicenter of the quake is believed to be Muzaffarabad in PoK. Unofficial sources put the figures at around 40,000 in Pakistan and 800 in India. Some of the villages in Kashmir have been entirely wiped out. This seemed to be the most powerful earthquake in 120 years in this region.

Hard luck Piyush!

For his 14th question, he used his 2 life lines, but could not go further. He quit the show at that time taking with him a whopping 50 lakhs. Nevertheless, Well done Piyush!

Kya Piyush Banega Crorepathy?

Piyush Swain from Hyderabad became the second person to win Rs 50 lakh in KBC-2. He has answered 13 questions correctly last Sunday, when it was time to wind up, becoming a roll-over contestant. Piyush was born on March 23, 1977 at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh). Piyush spent his childhood at Kanpur and Guwahati (Assam). After living in Bhubaneshwar (Orissa) and Bangalore (Karnataka), he did his MBA degree from IIM, Kozhikode (Kerala) during 2002-04. He was in London for sometime in 2004 and moved over to Hyderabad where he is working as associate consultant with Infosys Technologies Limited since 2004.

Will he become a crorepathy? We will have to wait till 9 p.m. today.

ALL THE BEST PIYUSH!

2005 Nobel Peace Prize

Image: Reuters

Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 goes to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

Spheris acquires Healthscribe

Healthscribe was acquired by world’s second-largest MT firm, Spheris on Wednesday. More

Is It This Way?

Bengal Chief Minister Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurating Sourav Ganguly`s cricket academy in Salt Lake on Wednesday.

Dil Jo Bhi Kahey - Review

This movie’s producer, writer and director Romesh Sharma has crafted this film purposefully to launch newcomer Karan Sharma (read his son). Nothing but a routine love story with beautiful locations (shot at Mauritius and Stockholm). Parental opposition because of different social and cultural backgrounds of the two lead characters is the jist of the story. While Romesh has tried his level best to provide the best launching pad for his son with foreign locations, Amitabh Bachan (who might have acted because he is a good friend of Romesh), and English heroine Annabelle, the film fails due to its weak screenplay. The film does not stir any emotions. Karan Sharma has done well in some scenes but looked totally out of place in others. Annabelle has done her role well. Bhumika does impress in her short role. Amitabh and Revathy has acted their natural way.

The film begins well in the first half, but then slides down and then again catches momentum towards the end. Romesh Sharma has devised a dream launch for his son. But when the story and screenplay is lackluster and without any depth, even the beautiful of embellishments cannot save the movie. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is also plain average.

Sabka Dil jo bhi Kahey, par mera dil kahta hai ki yeh film zaroor pitega!