An angry letter - worth reading

>>>An angry letter from a young lady made JRD Tata change his rule
>>>
>>>Sudha was livid when a job advertisement posted by a Tata company
>>>at the institution where she was completing her post graduation
>>>stated that "Lady candidates need not apply". She dashed off a
>>>post card to JRD Tata, protesting against the discrimination.
>>>Following this, Sudha was called for an interview and she became
>>>the first female engineer to work on the shop floor at Telco (now
>>>Tata Motors). It was the beginning of an association that would
>>>change her life in more ways than one."
>>>There are two photographs that hang on my office wall. Everyday
>>>when I entered my office I look at them before starting my day.
>>>They are pictures of two old people. One is of a gentleman in a
>>>blue suit and the other is a black and white image of a man with
>>>dreamy eyes and a white board. People have often asked me if the
>>>people in the photographs are related to me. Some have even asked
>>>me, "Is this black and white photo that of a Sufi saint or a
>>>religious Guru?"
>>>I smile and reply "No, nor are they related to me. These people
>>>made an impact on my life. I am grateful to them." "Who are they?"
>>>"The man in the blue suit is Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and the black
>>>and white photo is of Jamsetji Tata." "But why do you have them in
>>>your office?"" You can call it gratitude."Then, invariably, I have
>>>to tell the person the following story. It was a long time ago. I
>>>was young and bright, bold and
>>>idealistic. I was in the final year of my Master's course in
>>>Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in
>>>Bangalore, then known as the Tata Institute. Life was full of fun
>>>and joy. I did not know what helplessness or injustice meant.
>>>It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and
>>>gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in
>>>my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel.
>>>Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of
>>>Science.
>>>I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in
>>>computer science. I had been offered scholarships from
>>>Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in
>>>India. One day, while on the way to my hostel from our
>>>lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board.
>>>It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous
>>>automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors).
>>>It stated that the company required young, bright engineers,
>>>hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc. At the
>>>bottom was a small line: "Lady candidates need not apply."
>>>I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was
>>>up against gender discrimination.
>>>Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a
>>>challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than
>>>most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life
>>>academic excellence is not enough to be successful. After reading
>>>the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the
>>>topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the
>>>company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write,
>>>but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco.
>>>I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the
>>>head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers
>>>(actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then). I
>>>took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this
>>>day I remember clearly what I wrote.
>>>"The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people
>>>who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as
>>>iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have
>>>cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were
>>>responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of
>>>Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a
>>>company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender." I
>>>posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I
>>>received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview
>>>at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken
>>>aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the
>>>opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous
>>>Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who
>>>wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the
>>>reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to
>>>make the trip.
>>>It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with
>>>the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at
>>>home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my
>>>life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office
>>>for the interview.
>>>There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this
>>>was serious business. "This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard
>>>somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for
>>>sure that I would not get the job. The realisation abolished all
>>>fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was
>>>being conducted.
>>>Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was
>>>biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a
>>>technical interview."
>>>They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed
>>>about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I
>>>answered all of them.
>>>Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do
>>>you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is
>>>that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is
>>>not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to
>>>academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that,
>>>but people like you should work in research laboratories."
>>>I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a
>>>limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses
>>>and their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start
>>>somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your
>>>factories."
>>>Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful.
>>>So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I
>>>thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from
>>>Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.
>>>It was only after joining Telco that I realised who JRD was: the
>>>uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not
>>>get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to
>>>show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew
>>>as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the
>>>Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the
>>>first time I saw "appro JRD".
>>>Appro means "our" in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by
>>>which people at Bombay House called him. I was feeling very
>>>nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely,
>>>"Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young
>>>woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first
>>>woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked at me. I was
>>>praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or
>>>the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he
>>>remarked. "It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in
>>>our country. By the way, what is your name?" "When I joined Telco
>>>I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I am Sudha Murthy." He
>>>smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for
>>>me, I almost ran out of the room.
>>>After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group
>>>chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we
>>>had in common. I was in awe of him.
>>>One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after
>>>office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did
>>>not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that
>>>postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It
>>>must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me. "Young
>>>lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I said,
>>>"Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD
>>>said, "It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll
>>>wait with you till your husband comes."
>>>I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting
>>>alongside made me extremely uncomfortable. I was nervous. Out of
>>>the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant
>>>and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any
>>>air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look at this
>>>person. He is a
>>>chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting
>>>for the sake of an ordinary employee."
>>>Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young
>>>lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again."
>>>In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to
>>>go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the
>>>steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I
>>>saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say
>>>goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused. Gently, he
>>>said, "So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?" (That was the way he
>>>always addressed me.) "Sir, I am leaving Telco." "Where are you
>>>going?" he asked. "Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company
>>>called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune."
>>>"Oh! And what will you do when you are successful." "Sir, I don't
>>>know whether we will be successful." "Never start with
>>>diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with confidence. When
>>>you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us
>>>so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best." Then JRD
>>>continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed
>>>like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many
>>>years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying
>>>the chair JRD once did.
>>>I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later,
>>>he wrote to me, "It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad
>>>part is that he's not alive to see you today."
>>>I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely
>>>busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl
>>>seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters
>>>everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that.
>>>He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither
>>>influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company.
>>>He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset
>>>forever. Close to 50 per cent of the students in
>>>today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the
>>>shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I
>>>think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from
>>>life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the
>>>company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it
>>>wholeheartedly. My love and respect for the House of Tata remains
>>>undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I
>>>saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his
>>>kindness and the care he took of his employees.
>>>Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same
>>>vastness and magnificence.
>>>
>>>(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the
>>>Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development
>>>initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayan Murthy is her husband.)
>>>
>>>Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special
>>>Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to
>>>commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29,
>>>2004

Gospel of Judas

Following are excerpts from an early Christian manuscript known as the Gospel of Judas, as translated by a team led by Rodolphe Kasser and provided by the National Geographic Society:
The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover.
When Jesus appeared on earth, he performed miracles and great wonders for the salvation of humanity. And since some [walked] in the way of righteousness while others walked in their transgressions, the 12 disciples were called.
He began to speak with them about the mysteries beyond the world and what would take place at the end....
Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. For someone else will replace you, in order that the 12 [disciples] may again come to completion with their god."

Paheli Not in Oscar Nominations

Best foreign language film of the year
“Don’t Tell”
A Cattleya/Rai Cinema Production
Italy

“Joyeux Noël”
A Nord-Ouest Production
France

“Paradise Now”
An Augustus Film Production
Palestine

“Sophie Scholl - The Final Days”
A Goldkind Filmproduktion and Broth Film Production
Germany

“Tsotsi”
A Moviworld Production
South Africa

Where is Paheli?? Its like a Paheli.I can't see it.

India as it is

Bite In The Blog Bark

It was just another blog. In June this year, a Mumbai-based youth magazine, JAM, carried a piece demolishing the tall claims made by a Delhi-based B-School, IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning and Management). The magazine's editor, Rashmi Bansal, wrote a one-liner on her personal blog asking people to read the story. And then, all hell broke loose. There was mayhem in cyberspace. For those numerous surfers, it turned out to be a typical David vs Goliath story.

An unknown Bansal fighting a B-School owned by powerful promoters who have dabbled in Bollywood and media.

Bansal was slapped a 'legal' notice over e-mail by IIPM (summons are issued by courts or authorities created by statute, which IIPM certainly isn't) demanding Rs 25 crore for the presumed loss of goodwill. Nasty messages were posted on Bansal's personal blog, threatening her with dire consequences in case she pursued with her campaign. The JAM article had stated that an IIPM degree was not recognised, the placements it was claiming for its students in firms like HLL and McKinsey hadn't happened and IIPM was fudging data about rankings it had received in various B-School surveys (including ones conducted by Outlook).

At least one IIM graduate, Gaurav Sabnis, a 25-year-old IBM India employee and an active blogger, lost his job because he posted his reactions and a link to the JAM's piece on his web page. An outraged IIPM sent a Rs 125-crore legal notice to Sabnis. But more than that, the institute forced IBM to take action against Sabnis by threatening to burn some 150 new IBM laptops in front of its office if the company did not force Sabnis to remove the contentious information from his blog.

Taking the high moral ground, and defending his right to free speech, Sabnis chucked up his job. He claimed there was no pressure from IBM, but he resigned to spare the company a public-relations embarrassment. "The first thing that is dear to me is my freedom of speech. The second thing dear to me is IBM's well-being. IBM has been a good employer," he says. Critics contend that he quit because he got a fellowship which timed well with the blogger's campaign against IIPM.

Overnight, the blog battle became a global event. Apparently, luminaries like Noam Chomsky, Sri Sri Ravishankar, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer praised IIPM. Surprisingly, these reactions vanished within days of being posted on the web. Critics feel the quotes may have been "manufactured".

To counter IIPM's apparently below-the-belt jabs, desi bloggers launched their own version of a Google-powered investigation on the institute and its founders.A US-based blogger discovered a statement by Malayendra Kishor Chaudhuri, director, IIPM, to the Election Commission—he fought the '04 parliamentary elections from Balasore in Orissa—stating he had a masters in science from the Berlin School of Economics in '62 and a PhD from the institute in '63. Another blogger in Germany noticed the institute was founded only in '71, eight years after Chaudhuri claimed to have been there.

The issue became so hot that IIPM became the most searched term on Technorati.com (a search engine for blogs) for almost a week, even beating Apple's new range of video iPods launched at the same time.It is estimated that nearly 500 bloggers wrote on the IIPM issue, and are still tracking it.This is the second time in the last two years that bloggers have found themselves at the wrong end of the stick.In '04, Mumbai-based journalist Pradyuman Maheshwari, who wrote the gossipy blog Mediaah.com, had to shut shop as the Times of India threatened to file a defamation suit against it.

The sequence of events threw up expected questions. Should blogs, which are internet-based personal logs of events, be covered under the IT Act? Can bloggers defend their actions saying they are protected as per the fundamental rights under the Constitution? More important, does l'affaire IIPM prove there's a need to clarify the rights and responsibilities of a blogger? Should blogs be treated as any other information source like web portals or newspapers?

The Indian blogging community (or blogosphere, as it likes to call itself) is essentially a bitchy, self-indulgent and an almost incestuous network comprising journalists, wannabe-writers and a massive army of geeks who give vent to their creative ambitions on the internet. Given that the average blogger-age is 25 years, it's clear bloggers love to indulge in hearty name-calling and taking college-style potshots at others. This is probably why some of them get into trouble.

Going by the popularity of several Indian blogs, and the increasing proclivity among internet users to frequent them for information on niche issues like films, literature, and sports, it seems the time has come to lay down the ground rules for both bloggers and their targets. A Mumbai-based lawyer, Amod Paranjape, (in yet another blog) says in this particular IIPM case, both Bansal and Sabnis are on the right side of the law. "Unless and until a corporation or a company can specify whether the said articles by JAM or Sabnis resulted in tangible business losses and provide evidence for the same, it has no grounds to proceed for defamation. Once a defamation suit is filed, the claims made in the said article will be checked for veracity by the court," he says.

Award-winning blogger Amit Varma, whose independent coverage of the tsunami was considered a pioneering effort in India, says blogs are governed by the rules that apply for other media. But he agrees, "it is difficult to enforce these laws on the huge number of bloggers." Other bloggers, including Varma, feel there is a lot of self-regulation within the blogosphere. "The minute someone writes a factually incorrect story, over 50 other bloggers will corner him and his credibility will go for a toss, so does the traffic to his page," explains Varma.

"The incident shows blogs are a potent weapon that could help improve accountability.Such investigations and campaigns are more effective as the transaction cost of spreading and sharing information is minimal compared to other media," says Bansal.In the future, blogs may also be used as a powerful tool for pushing political ideas as it happened during the last US elections. For example, bloggers first linked to Swiftvets.com's anti-John Kerry video and then kept the accusations alive until Kerry busted their claims using mainstream media.In another instance, bloggers questioned CBS News' credibility over the memos purportedly alleging preferential treatment towards President Bush during the Vietnam war launching a flurry of discussions across the country.Dan Rather, the blogger, had to soon apologise for the story.

However, bloggers will continue to face opposition from powerful interest groups, which will always try and target their claims to veracity.As the IIPM episode itself shows, the targeted entity blamed jealous parties for the campaign against it."We are stunned as to how people from IIMs, who are the most pampered people of India, suffer from so much inferiority complex from IIPM that, given the first opportunity to pen something (be it the so-called IIM-L professor Amit Kapoor, or ex-IIM students like Rashmi or Gaurav and all the other IIM students on the net and other media), they stoop down so low as to write relentless lies about us and spread baseless rumours about IIPM," said a widely-circulated IIPM statement.

Still, bloggers aren't worried about such things. In fact, they are confident that the IIPM's founder may soon hear from the Election Commission.

What is Podcasting?

Think of a podcast as a radio show. Each show consists of a series of individual episodes that you can listen to how you want — on your PC, using your MP3 player, or with just a web browser. If you've never listened to podcasts, you're in for a treat. Sports, comedy, movies, food, politics, music, books, speeches, walking tours, whatever — you name the topic and you'll find podcasts about it. Not only do you have incredible choice, you can listen whenever and wherever you want.

You can listen to these episodes one at a time (say using your web browser) or you can 'subscribe' to the entire podcast series using software on your PC. When you subscribe to a podcast, all new shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer as they are published. And if you have an MP3 player, the next time you sync your device, your podcasts will be downloaded for listening on the go.

When you enter the world of podcasting, you're stepping into a realm where anyone and everyone can have a voice and broadcast their opinions and imagination to the world. Have fun exploring, and perhaps you too may feel the urge to become a podcaster. If you do, it's easy. We've created a tutorial to tell you how. Yahoo! Podcasts has everything you need to get started enjoying podcasts, including any software you might need. If you're currently setup for listening to podcasts, Yahoo! Podcasts works with the software you already have. So what are you waiting for!

A podcast would be like a radio show on the web. Better still, you didn't need too much.So I started Googling for a good free podcast host, it took a while but yesterday it all paid off. I found an almost perfect host! It's called podomatic. It's really great, it even goes so far as to let you record the cast on the site itself, no need to upload a file (though you could do that too). With that I have no been able to easily set up my own podcast

General Interesting Facts

· No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.

· The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
· Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God.
· A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
· Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
· Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning
· The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.
· All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
· Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
· The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.
· The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.
· Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.
· Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."
· Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine.
· The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds.
· The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds.
· Pinocchio was made of pine.
· Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.
· A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.
· A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
· Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.
· The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
· Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.
· New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.
· There was once a town in West Virginia called "6."
· The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.
· Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox.
· Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
· The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll.
· Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.
· There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.
· The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.
· "Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.
· On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.
· Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.
· 2,500 lefties die each year using products designed for rightists.
· Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.
· On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.
· Blue and white are the most common school colors.
· Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.
· In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.
· A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.
· America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla.
· Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.
· Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.
· The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.
· The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.
· The doorbell was invented in 1831.
· The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.
· Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.
· There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.
· Napoleon was terrified of cats.
· The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.
· The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
· The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.
· The oldest known vegetable is the pea.
· Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
· The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
· The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.
· France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.
· The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback."
· The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.
· George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.
· Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.
· The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.
· Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.
· The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.
· The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.
· The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.
· Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939.
· Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated.
· The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used.
· Toilet paper was invented in 1857.
· Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States.
· Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church.
· If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.
· Kermit the Frog is left-handed.
· Nondairy creamer is flammable.
· The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.
· If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.
· The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
· It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0.
· The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.
· The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
· Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.
· When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
· Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.
· When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio.
· The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.
· The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.
· The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h.
· At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.
· The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours.
· The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse.
· You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals.
· Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names.
· In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung.
· By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing.
· The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.
· More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%).
· Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl.
· A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours.
· Whales die if their echo system fails.
· Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually.
· Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps.
· It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar.
· Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night.
· Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle.
· In deep space most lubricants will disappear.
· America once issued a 5-cent bill.
· The average person can live 11 days without water.
· In 1221 Genghis Khan killed 1,748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour.
· There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.
· In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000.
· More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.
· It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States.
· King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats.
· Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers.
· Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand.
· The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956.
· More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States.
· The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.
· The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres.
· There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.
· During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax.
· The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
· Coca-Cola was originally green.
· Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury.
· The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters
· Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
· The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.
· City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.
· State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
· Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%.
· Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7.
· Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%.
· Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%.
· Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400.
· Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
· Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
· The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage."
· The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
· Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
· First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer."
· A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
· The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
· Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar.
· If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
· Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
· The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
· The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
· The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
· The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service.
· Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg
· The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles
· Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem
· Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated
· Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there
· The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep
· Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836.
· It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush!
· In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose
· It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process.
· The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of b lood pumped per heartbeat. <>
· Dry cereal for breakfast was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the turn of the century
· During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks, one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back
· Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832,left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years.
· Diet Coke was only invented in 1982.
· Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud.
· There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.
· The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.
· Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.
· At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
· Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food
· One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.
· In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters.
· There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
· If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.
· Less than 3% of Nestlé's sales are for chocolate.
· The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change
· More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products
· It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk
· The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph
· Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death.
· The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth
· The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X
· Nova Scotia is Latin for 'New Scotland.'
· The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol. It's from England.
· The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.
· Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word 'gadzooks'.
· Only 2 blue moons (the saying 'only once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one calendar month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are January 1999 and March 1999
· There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet
· "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed
· Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when al original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters
· In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'

End of an era: Kolkata bans hand rickshaws

Kolkata’s ubiquitous hand-pulled rickshaws have been part of the city for as long as one can remember. In fact author Dominique Lapierre wove his masterpiece City of Joy around a hand rickshaw-puller. The novel brought to fore the tribulations of the impoverished lot and the life they represent.
One can’t help but wonder how such a mode of transport not only came into existence, but also thrived among Kolkatans for so long. History has it that Chinese traders in Kolkata introduced these rickshaws in the late 19th century, primarily to carry goods. But with time, British rulers made them a cheap mode of transport, eventually turning them into a symbol of the city. While China banned these hand-pulled rickshaws after the communists came to power in 1949, the system continued to exist in Kolkata.Kolkata is one of the only places in the world where such rickshaws are used as everyday means of transport. According to a recent study, the number of hand-rickshaw pullers stands at 18,000 with more than 1,800 joining the profession every year.

In the wake of such statistics, the announcement by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya banning these rickshaws by the year-end has caused quite a stir. “They may be environment-friendly but they are also a symbol of an inhuman practice. Nowhere in the world will you find one human being pulling another human being with his hands,” says Bhattacharya.

Poor conditions
These rickshaw pullers live in unhygienic conditions and often suffer from malnutrition and tuberculosis. They are also susceptible to skin diseases, since they wade through contaminated waters carrying people through the city’s old bylanes. But all that is set to change with the Chief Minister’s diktat. "Westerners try to associate beggars and these rickshaws with Kolkata's tradition, but this is not our tradition," claims the Chief Minister. But while some see the move as solely to revamp India’s global image, others admit that the move had long been in the offing. Until a few years ago, there were about 6,000 licensed owners of hand-pulled rickshaws in the city, but their numbers shrunk to around 1,800 after the authorities stopped issuing new licences.

Alternate jobs
While announcing the decision, the Buddhadeb government has assured the rickshaw pullers that they will be provided with an alternative means of livelihood.Officials in Kolkata said they would look into replacing the hand-pulled rickshaws with motorized three-wheel versions or bicycle rickshaws. While some of the Kolkatans have welcomed the decision, others have objected strongly to the move, on grounds that thousands will be rendered jobless by the decision.

However, the apex body of rickshaw pullers, All Bengal Rickshaw Pullers' Union (ABRPU), has said that they are not totally averse to the idea as long as they have an alternative livelihood. "We hope the government will make suitable arrangements and thousands of people who are involved with this trade are not left in the lurch," said Mohammad Aslam of ABRPU.Whether the ban is part of India’s new makeover campaign, or as the Chief Minister says, is taken on “humanitarian grounds”, if the rickshaw pullers are provided substitute employment, then there will be no reason for anyone to protest. But one thing is for sure; the ‘City of Joy’ will never be the same without these rickshaws.