Jyoti's been upto....

Here are a few stained-glass stuff Jyoti's been making.

 
 
 

Blue sky and white clouds !

Love the combination of blue skies interspersed with pure white clouds. Took these pics on a flight recently....

 
 

What Number Human Being Were You on Planet Earth?

Saw this on BBC World website...This is great ! "The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth below to find out." I did and here is where I stand.. When you were born, you were the: 3,558,463,479th person alive on Earth and 77,612,789,529th person to have lived since history began !! Check out where you stand... CLICK HERE

Our DRDO US-brothers are screwing up the USAF too !

The Sad Odyssey of the F-22: America’s Big Broken $24 Billion Toy !! The F-22 has been okayed to fly again, after being grounded, cleared, grounded, then cleared once more—all within a year. And yet, the Air Force hasn't fixed the plane's life threatening flaw. It doesn't seem like it cares. The F-22 Raptor program was birthed two decades ago, designed, according to its proud Air Force backers, as a decisive stealth, electronics-jamming, nimblest-of-nimble finger in the eye of the Soviet Union. It would guarantee Communist-free skies, being able to out-maneuver and outgun anything Moscow could scramble. It was plagued from the start. A year after the USAF and Pentagon high-fived over the super billion dollar plan, the first and only F-22 crashed and exploded due to a computer guidance glitch. The program remained "essentially unaffected," the NYT reported back in 1992, and it continued—with nail-biting Pentagon urging: Today, though, at least six other aircraft — the Russian MIG-29, SU-27 and SU-35, the French Mirage 2000 and Rafael and the European Consortium's Eurofighter — threaten to surpass the aging F-15, our current top-of-the-line air-to-air fighter. These words came from Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters in a 1999 NYT op-ed. Note that none of those countries posed (or pose) a threat to the US. France is in NATO. And since then? It's not just the oxygen supply problems of recent months. After formally entering service in 2005, the plane has proven to be a mechanical pain in the ass, all while making us exactly 0% safer against enemies that don't exist. It flies exercises, rather than fighting. In May, Wired's David Axe summed up the plane's material woes: Last year, rust problems briefly grounded most of the F-22 force. A whole squadron of Raptors had to turn back from a planned flight from Virginia to Japan in 2007 when their navigational systems went haywire as the planes crossed the International Date Line. In 2006, an F-22 pilot was stuck in his plane on the ground for five hours because the canopy wouldn't open. READ MORE HERE

A shocker for our Fauji status !

Read this on Maj Navdeep Singh's blog.....Gosh are we so BLIND ! 1. Readers would remember this earlier post on UCO Bank. The said bank has again issued an advertisement for Security Officers seeking defence officers with 5 years’ commissioned service or Inspectors (equivalent to Subedar) from the CAPFs. Even Sub Inspectors with 8 years’ service have been made eligible. For the same posts, most of the other banks follow a QR of 5 years’ Group A service in the rank of Assistant Commandant / ASP or above for the same post. The advertisement has appeared on Page 10 of the latest issue of Employment News (01-07 Oct 2011). 2. An advertisement for the appointment of Canteen Manager at Yol Cantonment @ Rs 7000 per month has prompted the owner of a security firm to write a strongly worded letter to local military authorities. The provocation – our very own people have sought retired officers of the rank of Col / Lt Col / Maj for the job carrying a remuneration of Rs 7000. The security firm proprietor, a retired army officer, has pointed out that even security guards are paid more than this and steps like these would lead to degradation and exploitation of our own. He is right ! 3. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has sought officers of the rank of Major (GP 6600) for appointment as Security Officers / Tech (GP 5400) in the latest issue of Employment News on Page 14. The QR for the same post on the civil side is that a civil officer holding a post equivalent to a Lieut (GP 5400) can apply and so can a civil employee with 5 years of service in a post equivalent to a Subedar (GP 4600) or with 8 years of service in a post equal to a Naib Subedar (GP 4200). Hence in the ultimate analysis, a Major is being offered an appointment tenable by his civil equivalent of a Naib Subedar. I have stated it before in my earlier post referred above, I’ll repeat it again – corrective action is not possible till the time the Services HQ postulate a dedicated cell to keep an eye on such issues. Read it here on Maj Navdeep Singh's blog

Are we hearing what Musharraf's chanting openly ??

Homeopathy for ex-Faujis !

2011 FORMULA 1 AIRTEL GRAND PRIX OF INDIA

Was truly proud to see F1 GP here in India. These images give the glam sport a nice 'desi' touch ! Sergio Perez (MEX) Sauber and Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) Sauber as the Sauber team perform a car puja !

Excessive Texting: Top 10 Dangers You Might Not Know

What you might not know are the potential dangers associated with being glued to your phone 24/7 (and we're not just talking accidentally sending "I'm busty" instead of "I'm busy" to your crush... though that counts, too). Below are the top 10 biggest texting dangers you should be aware of before entering into your next 24-hour texting spree.

Unless you hold the phone out directly in front of your face when you text, we all bend our heads down while we stare at the screen. This is especially true when secretly texting under a desk in class. If you do it for more than a few hours a day, this inevitably leads to a sore neck -- or as we like to call it, 'text neck.' Luckily, there's an easy fix: stretching. Click here for some easy stretching tips and a few notes on the best texting posture.

Similar to how a computer monitor makes your eyes dry, staring (and squinting) at the screen of your phone for too long also causes uncomfortable, dry eyes. One way to minimize eye strain is to increase the font size on your device. You can also keep re-wetting eye drops handy for relief. READ MORE here

Why Nokia’s Windows Phones Are Better Than Good Enough

Nokia just announced two gosh darn attractive Windows Phone handsets. The first "true" Windows Phones, the company says—and makes a pretty convincing case that they are. But rather than making everyone hot and bothered, Lumia seems to be leaving people cold. Here's why that's wrong. There's not much disagreement that the Lumia 800's got looks; the collective shrug seems to be rooted deep in the spec sheet. So let's walk that down. First off, Fearless Leader Joe Brown, who's got boots on the ground in London today, reports that the Lumia 800 is fast. Joe currently uses the Samsung Focus—the best Windows Phone out there right now—and used the iPhone 4 for a stretch, too. He knows fast from fast. So if you were looking for first-hand assurances, there you go. His full, favorable hands-on impressions are here. Still not sold? Okay, let's take it strictly by the numbers: 1.4GHz single core Snapdragon processor (yawn); 512MB RAM (double yawn); only 16GB of storage (bleargh); not a "Super" AMOLED screen (uhh... yeah that probably sucks!). To listen to some of the noise out there, each and every of these supposed half-asseries should be enough to sink a modern day cellular telephone before it even launches. But here, for these phones and on this platform, they don't matter very much at all. Let's talk RAM. (It's always the RAM.) Look, folks, a lot of RAM is nice, but it's an unnecessary luxury on phones, especially Windows Phones. The iPhone 4S gets by just fine with its own 512MB of RAM, and while Android's top-tier handsets mostly come with 1GB, that's not really analogous to Windows Phone. The latter doesn't support full-on background multitasking, for one. Mango lets apps run in the background, but in a suspended state, with APIs running for doing things like playing music and transferring files. When you switch back to the app, it "rehydrates" itself, but apps aren't truly running parallel in the OS, like they do on Android. WP also limits the amount of memory that an active app can use, so even if a handset were loaded with bonus RAM, it wouldn't matter. And with Microsoft's battle against fragmentation being what it is, it's doubtful that any manufacturer would get the green light to prove different. Read more @ http://gizmodo.com/5853494/why-nokias-windows-phones-are-better-than-good-enough?tag=nokia

IAF MiG-29 Crash Site Located, Pilot's Status Unknown

Let's all pray that the brave pilot is found at the earliest. To his family, our wishes are with you. Regards - Inder

MiG-29 Pilot Missing For A Week

IAF Statement: A massive search operation has been launched by the IAF to search for the missing Mig-29 aircraft and its pilot Sqn Ldr DS Tomar that crashed on the night of 18 Oct 11 in the mountainous area of Lahaul Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. Till date 132 sorties have been flown towards search and rescue (SAR) operations. Considering the remote, high altitude treacherous snow clad mountainous region at elevations extending from 15000 ft to 20000 ft above mean sea level and the fact that no radio call was received from the pilot of the missing aircraft has made the search effort very demanding. All available data including that from other aircraft flying in the area, inputs from the formation leader, data on his aircraft as well as reports from civil police received through villagers in the area were collated to ascertain the probable crash site. Read more at http://livefist.blogspot.com/2011/10/full-update-on-search-for-iaf-mig-29.html

Move to induct ex-Armymen in IPS slammed

Excerpt From Tribune Chandigarh, October 24 Even as the government has given a go-ahead to the proposal to induct short-service commission (SSC) Army officers and ex-paramilitary officers into the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the notification in this regard is expected shortly, the move has apparently not gone down well with the IPS cadre. Based on the recommendations of the Kamal Kumar Committee, the government had agreed for a ‘limited competitive examination’ through the Union Public Service Commission to induct the aforementioned officers to overcome the serious shortage of IPS officers. The first batch of such officers is expected to be inducted next year and this would be in addition to the regular entry through the Civil Services examinations (CSE). However, the report of the committee, headed by retired IPS officer Kamal Kumar, states that strong reservations were voiced against the induction of Army officers. “It was pointed out that the Army itself was suffering from an acute shortage of officers, which was much greater than that in the IPS, and it would not be prudent in the overall national interest to poach Army’s resources,” the report says. ****HERE COMES THE MOST LUDICROUS ARGUMENT !! **************** “The argument against the discharged SSC officers was that apart from the difficulties in imparting meaningful training to them in conceptual and practical skills of crime investigation and aspects of policing at their late age, it had also to be kept in mind that those who were not found good enough by the Army for further retention, may hardly be found useful for the IPS,” the report added. READ MORE AT http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111025/nation.htm#9

Diwali @ Panagarh - 26 Oct 2011

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mehtas Farewell Dinner Pics - 24 Sep 2011