i knew not...: 2008

Friday, December 26, 2008

Chandrayaan-I finds Iron Minirals on Moon

The moon mineralogy mapper (M3), a scientific instrument of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) onboard India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, found iron-bearing minerals on the lunar surface, the US space agency said on Thursday.

"The mapper spectrometer has beamed images of the Orientale Basin region of the moon, indicating abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene. Using different wavelengths of light, the instrument has also revealed for the first time changes in rock and mineral composition," M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters said in a statement hosted on NASA Website.

Data from the 7-kg mapper provides space scientists first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.

The Orientale Basin is located on the moon's western limb. M3 captured the data last week when Chandrayaan was orbiting the moon at an altitude of 100 km.

"The imaging spectrometer provides us with compositional information across the moon that we have never had access to before. Our ability to identify and map the composition of the surface in geologic context provides a new level of detail needed to explore and understand the earth's nearest celestial neighbour," affirmed Pieters, who teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island.

The mapper was selected as a mission of opportunity through the NASA discovery programme. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built the instrument at Pasadena in California.

"M3 will also help in characterising and mapping lunar minerals for knowing the moon's early geological evolution. Its compositional maps will improve our understanding of the early evolution of a differentiated planetary body and provide a high-resolution assessment of lunar resources," Chandrayaan project director M. Annadurai averred.

M3 is one of the 10 instruments onboard the unmanned Chandrayaan, conducting experiments while the spacecraft orbits over the moon next two years.

Five instruments were indigenously built by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), while the remaining six payloads are of foreign origin, including three from the European Space Agency, two from NASA and one from Bulgaria.

Chandrayaan was launched on October 22 onboard the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11) from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota spaceport, about 80 km north of Chennai.

After traversing 3,84,000 km through the deep space for 18 days, the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit on November 8 and its moon impact probe was lowered on the moon's surface on November 14.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Excerpts from Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher

He will have to learn,
I know, that all men are not just,
all men are not true.
But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero;
that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader...
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,

Steer him away from envy,
if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter.

Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick...
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books...
But also give him quiet time to ponder
the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun,
and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat...
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong... Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd
when everyone is getting on the band wagon...

Teach him to listen to all men...
but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth,
and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad...
Teach him there is no shame in tears,
Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness...
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders
but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob
and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him,
because only the test of fire makes fine steel.
Let him have the courage to be impatient...
let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself,
because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order, but see what you can do... He is such a fine fellow, my son!

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Civil Nuclear Deal

There is a lot of hue and cry in the political circles over the civil nuclear deal between India and the US. A lot of opposition seems to be not because of merits and demerits of such deal but because of political compulsions of various players in the politics. Despite of being affected by the political compulsions, each player is singing the national interest song. But it is interesting to see if anyone wants to support the deal,like SP, begins to consult scientists as everyone knows that scientists and other exports are in favor of deal.
Biggest opposition came from allies of the UPA government, the left front. Over last few years the left front run West Bengal has been going through various changes. It, for the sake of industrialization didn’t even cared the farmers of Nandigram and singoor, their demonstrations were crushed by hook and crook and several concerns like maoist hand and communal characters of movements were talked. They even rejected sentiments of likeminded thinkers from civil society, in the course of implementing their plans, those always looked capitalistic. In fact if anyone thinks it is deviation from left’s way of doing something, one is wrong as history is full of left governments of various countries, who suppressed every civilian movement which were against their views. In this regard they always act as feudal lords and always give contradictory reasons. Left is against the deal and it is very clear that their opposition is led by the fact that they are against US and don’t want a deal with the US. Left’s thinking over nuclear issues has always been guided by foreign players (Read China). Remember when India did five nuclear tests in 1998; left opposed this and when the issue of Iran gaining nuclear capabilities came, they stood in favor of Iran. Now have you known any other group in the world which is against gaining nuclear capabilities by its own country and supports other countries? There was contradiction just because of in Iran’s case US was camping against Iran. Imagine what stand they will take if China stands against Iran. Left has failed to come out with clear cut practical reasons, why it is against the deal. Recently left came with its ugly hidden face when it said SP shouldn’t support the deal as Muslims are against the deal. Suppose what would happen if someone comes with idea of India attacking Nepal as it recently dismissed last Hindu Ruler on the earth. What the hell these leftists are thinking? I thought they are above religious and communal ideas. But they are not and not only they are not above, they are communal too. Now they feel the state of India which a secular democracy by the virtue of its heritage and the constitution, should start taking decisions thinking of religious thinking. No community, be it majority or minority, should have a communal say in matters of state and this must be preserved. Moe over it is wrong interpretation of Muslim sentiments.
Recently BSP leader and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ms Mayawati came with same view. She is a new champion of Muslim interests. She kept mum until SP came into light. As soon as prospects of SP entering into the deal to save UPA government became clear, she started to sing Muslim tune. No one is saying that there is no opportunistic dimension in SP coming close to UPA to save deal but has BSP, who campaigned in favor of BJP during 2202 Gujrat elections soon after Muslim homicide there. In fact Mayawati has an eye over possible SP-Congress pact in UP in coming Loksabha election. Despite of loosing grounds in UP, congress is still a player and despite of loosing government SP is a key player, a possible alliance between SP, Congress and RLD may diminish the hopes of Mayawati gaining political power in next Union government. Ridiculously some Muslim leaders bought the ant-Muslim theory and rushed to thank her, though these leaders have just religious value and never gained popular political support from Muslim population of UP.
Opposition’s stand on the deal is also ridiculous. Has BJP been in power, she would have been doing all the efforts to do this deal. In fact several BJP leaders are said to be in support of deal. Former NSA and PA to PM, Brajesh MIshra has openly supported the deal. The support of Mr. Mishra is often interpreted as support of farmer PM Mr. Vajpayee, as his proximity to farmer PM and his dependence on several issues on Mr. Mishra is well known. Perhaps it was answer of Dr. Singh’s appeal to farmer PM in loksabha. BJP’s opposition to the deal is often seen as opposition because of being opposition. My humble question is cant we grow to the extent of thinking national interest in place of political interests. It is quite evident if elections comes, supporting the deal may push BJP’s image in brighter light as despite of being in opposition it went for national interest.
Lastly is really the deal may affect the elections? Well! I don’t think deal or no deal will affect elections. Major issues will involve the rise in prices and other national issues. Has it been favorable conditions on economical and political front, congress would have gone to elections over this very issue. The deal will start affecting our economy after good long period of time and till that time no one will remember these long and stiff discussions. No one will remember who were against the deal or favored the deal. No one will remember once the deal was the question of life and death of a government.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

who gets your votes go when you don’t cast?

On June 1st, fourteenth Loksabha completes its four years and now we enter in election years. At a time when several political parties are gearing up for new alliances and several politicians are changing loyalties to get through the hurdles of General Elections scheduled next year, think what we are doing. Here we stands for every one who is citizen of India.
Main motive behind this blog is to create awareness about our voting rights, to generate a simple thought that voting is not only our right but to use it, to use it properly is our duty.
Have you ever thought how important your vote is even if you did not choose to cast it? Just look at a possible statistics of a certain constituency
Number of candidates: 5 or 8 or 11 or anything
Percentage of Voting: 45%
Candidate A : 32%
Candidate B : 26%
Candidate C : 19%
And so on
You will say what is new in it. It’s usual and candidate A will win as A has secured more votes. Yes its usual thing and it is the picture of almost every constituency. Now lets have another look on statistics
Percentage of votes secured by A is 32 but it is 32% of only those who went to vote. That means 32% of 45% of total voters. That is equal to 14.4%. Let’s have a look on votes of top three candidates again
Candidate A : 32% of 45% : 14.4%
Candidate B : 26% of 45% : 11.7%
Candidate C : 19% of 45% : 08.5%
Now this is real picture Candidate with 14% votes won election by some what good margin by defeating those who got 11.7% and 8.5% and so on. Now you may blame Indian voting system which gives chance for such faults. But is it not known to you? Don’t you know from the first day that these are rules of the game and you knew that a candidate F is or may be a good candidate but you never choose to let him get your support in form of votes. May be remaining 85.6% people knew that A is someone who is not to be trusted but most of them choose to stay away saying politics is dirty.
Yes politics is dirty. And it is dirty because we choose it to be dirty.
It’s dirty because we don’t have heart to take responsibility.
It’s dirty because we could not perform simplest task given to us and that to only for our well being.
Do you know where your votes go when you don’t cast? Let me tell you
With not casting votes you passively (Actually actively) support people, ideologies and works you don’t like.
Its coming soon, the voting day is not far, one more chance to perform simplest task assigned to us is just one year ahead. Are you prepared to perform your duty? Are you prepared to do something for what you have been blaming others for years?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

महात्मा गाँधी

खान भाईयों के साथ उ० प० सीमा प्रांत मे

अफगानिस्तान सीमा पर

इतिहास के किस बिन्दु पर इतनी महान आत्माएं एक साथ एक मंच पर दिखतीं हैं

अकेला मसीहा नफ़रत के खिलाफ मोर्चा लिए हुए, बंगाल में एकला चलो रे!

सेवा !

इंदिरा के साथ

बा और बापू १९३८

रहनुमा की रहनुमाई, भविष्य के हाथों में कमान

स्निग्ध मुस्कराहट

लार्ड माउन्टबेटन और एड्विना के साथ

नेहरू और गाँधी

कस्तुरबा गाँधी और महात्मा गाँधी (बा और बापू )

युवा मोहनदास करमचन्द्र गाँधी