The next Photoshop can unblur your photos. WOW

Speed of light 'broken' at CERN, scientists claim

It was Albert Einstein, no less, who proposed more than 100 years ago that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

But in end of September 2011 it emerged that the man who laid the foundations for the laws of nature may have been wrong.

The science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light

If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the Standard Model of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.

Einstein’s theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.

The results have so astounded researchers that American and Japanese scientists have been asked to verify the results before they are confirmed as a discovery.

Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the researchers, said: “We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing.”

Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of physics.

John Ellis, a theoretical physicist, said Einstein’s theory underlies “pretty much everything in modern physics”.

Original Post by: Nick Collins, Science Correspondent
9:00PM BST 22 Sep 2011
On:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8783011/Speed-of-light-broken-at-CERN-scientists-claim.html

Just geeks: Resending sysmail emails

Just geeks: Resending sysmail emails

Dasara Dolls at Sandhya Jayaram's house - year 2011

This one is again an album against Dasara Dolls, the arrangement is at my Chikkamma (Aunt)'s house. Smt. Sandhya Jayaram, with the complete help of her family, had arranged a number of dolls, her younger son Adarsh had prepared models of Castle, Race track, etc. which were kept in the arrangement, such home made arts are also considered to be a part of the Bombe Habba.

Dasara Dolls at Sandhya Jayaram's House - 2011

Dasara at Ajji Mane - Year 2011

Following the posts related to Dasara Dolls, this is the second Set of Dolls that were arranged at my maternal grand mother (B. R. Vanajakshi)'s House.

Ajji Mane - Dasara Dolls 2011

Dasara at home - Year 2011

Following my post on Dasara Dolls - http://pranavasagar.blogspot.com/2011/10/bombe-habba-golu-kolu-dasara-dolls.html,  Here is the first album the Dasara Bombe habba at my home.

Dasara at home - Year 2011

 Thanks to My Ammaa (Mother) B. R. Gayathri Devi and Tangi/BhaginI (younger Sister) Samhitha  N For their time from work and studies, to get the dolls arranged and well designed artificial steps. 

Navaratri Anugraha Sandesha | Sringeri Sharada Peetham

Navaratri Anugraha Sandesha | Sringeri Sharada Peetham

Following is the Anugraha Sandesha delivered by Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji in Kannada on the occassion of Navaratri in 2011.

Navaratri 2011 - Anugraha Sandesha from Sringeri Sharada Peetham on Vimeo.

Bombe Habba, Golu, Kolu, Dasara Dolls Festival

The Dasara Dolls Festival is a 10 Days long festival that generally falls between end of September to start of November, depending on the Lunar calendar. The Festival is commonly called as Bombe Habba, Golu or Kolu

The Festival is celebrated in the first nine days of the Sharad Rutu (Ritu – meaning season) that falls in the Ashvija maasa’s (maasa is a month) first Forth night. People in South India, especially Karnataka, some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Celebrate Dasara by worshipping the Goddess Durga as KaLi Durga, Lakshmi Durga and Saraswathi Durga; respectively between the days 1-3, 4-6, 7-9. The nights between 1st and the 10th Days are Celebrated as Navaratri (Nine Nights) which is considered as sacred nights when the Goddess won over a number of Asuras/Raakshasas (Daemons).

The 10th Day is Celebrated as Vijaya Dashami (10th Day against Complete Victory of the Goddesses over the Daemons). There are many stories against Vijaya Dashami, as Rama’s Victory over Ravana, etc. Finally it is the Victory of goodness over bad that is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami.

Coming to the Dolls of Dasara, this is a traditionally carried out festival. The main Dolls are a natural Family Pair of Humans, generally considered as Husband and Wife, called as Pattada Gombe, or Pattath bommaikal; referring to the main dolls of the festival. These are dolls that are generally handed over to the daughters of a family during her marriage to start her own family and also carry on the tradition. The Pattada Gombe are made of wood. they are either dressed well using colour papers, or even Silk materials, the Dolls are dressed according to the Classical/traditional costumes of the family (We could see some dressed in Suits as Shorts as well referring to cross culture.) but the one dressed in Indian costumes with heavy works on them as well as the Folding and designs catches the eyes to check the patience of the person who dressed it as well how their tradition is preserved even with the dolls.

Dasara Dolls at B. R. Gayathri Devi's House - 2011

Going ahead, the Pattada gombe is surrounded with a number of dolls, some are statues of gods while other are decorative dolls, you could even see Dolls that tell stories like the Pancha-tantra, Thirsty crow, etc., one can also find the dolls that reflect our tradition like the marriage group, the Band set, Mysore – Dasara depiction, Temples, Places of India (even world), Family tree doll (Dolls that come within one another to a long series.), Praying a serpent, processions of Gods, Sports sets, Indian leaders, a village, Shashtyaabdhi purthi (Celebration of Completion of 60th year). Dolls depict epical stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna Leela, Tiruvelaiyaadal (the playing of gods as humans), etc.
The dolls come as sets or single dolls, they are mostly made by hand, for bulk manufacturing, moulding is used, they could be made of Clay, mud, wood, porcelain, Plastic, beads, or any material that could be turned as even a part of a doll.

Most of the Houses the dolls are kept in steps, some of them arrange it as sets, some arrange them as stories, and some arrange as they want to. In any such arrangement, you could see at least one Kalasa (a container with water, leaves and a fruit – generally a coconut on it), the Pattada Gombe and at least one form of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva, Forms of the Godess Maha Shakti (Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, etc.).

I had been to houses where the arrangement was on small steps but on wider area, around 13+ steps starting from the edge of their roof till the floor where the Volume of the house was less, perpendicular arrangements, etc. but visiting them at least once in a year could tell you about the talents and patience of the people who do such arrangements.

Dolls are not the end. I remember in my child hood, I used to carry a lot of eatables (snacks) from my neighbours during Dasara, between (1991-2000), but saw a drastic change since then, people either stopped or reduced keeping Dolls in most of the paces and the zeal was lost, this not only reduced the flow of small delicious eatables but also drought down healthy neighborliness. Thanks to the TV and Print Media, their initiatives brought in the fervour back in 2008. I get the snacks back on evenings by going to neighbours and relatives’ places to see their art against Dasara Dolls.

I have seen the Dasara Dolls since my 1st year (though I might not be knowing/understanding what it was then), my mother has been keeping it for 24th year now. I have been buying dolls for her since I started working (in fact some part of my Salary is saved for that as well as budget is also important.)
I would be placing albums against the Dasara dolls' pics that I took this year at around 8 places (due to busy office schedules, I could not travel to many homes and increase my collection). Along with that there would be pics of Sri Sharadaamba at Sri Ganesha Mandiram, T. R. Nagar, Bangalore – 28, that were taken during Navaratri with the Goddess in different Alankaara(s). Also some of the pics I took at Maa Durga Pooja celebrations by Bihar brothers and sisters near Puttenahalli, Bangalore.

Technorati Tags: Bombe habba,Golu,Kolu,Dasara,Dasara Dolls,Festival,India,Navarathri,Navaratri,Dusera,Dussera,Durga

The Hindu : News / National : Villager asks PM: show me how to run a day on Rs. 26

The Hindu : News / National : Villager asks PM: show me how to run a day on Rs. 26

A villager from Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir has sent demand drafts of Rs.26 — the Planning Commission's poverty line cut-off for rural areas — to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Commission's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and asked them to show how to run a day with that amount.

Darvinder Singh of Bhagote village, about 130 km north of Jammu, said on Saturday that the Commission's classification of the poor was an “insult to crores of the poor of the country.”

LETTER
He had also sent a letter with the DDs, according to a release, which he emailed to media houses across the State.

‘HOW WILL YOU FARE?'
In his letter, Mr. Darvinder Singh asked the three leaders to run a day on Rs.26 and let the other poor people of the country know how they fare on this meagre amount.
He said that despite soaring inflation, the Commission was making “illogical, unjustifiable and unrealistic claims.”

“WITHDRAW AFFIDAVIT”
He urged the Prime Minister to “withdraw the affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court to save further embarrassment to the poor.”

PROVISIONAL PLACEMENT
The Planning Commission recently told the court that the poverty line for urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs. 965 per capita per month (Rs. 32 a day) and Rs. 781 per capita per month (Rs. 26 a day).

HDR Photography - My First attempt on - Lepakshi monolitic Nagalinga

HDR is not a greatest art to master until you know what it is.

There are a number of sites that could help you learn HDR. In simple steps, you just get an HDR generated by an image taken with more than one exposure, Darker, medium tone, and lighter. You could use a stitching tool to Stitch them together into a single photo, or use Adobe Photoshop to generate HDR or Use Windows Live Photo Gallery to Fuse the Photo, or use very high-end software for creating HDR. I used wiki to understand it.

You could find minute differences with how each software works and gets you the pics. but you would have to choose the best one to put up on your album.

I was inspired by the below picture of the Lepakshi Sculpture:

This was a HDR, you could see the best lighting against all the locations. I took my Bike to a ride to Sri Virabhadra Temple, Lepakshi (Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border) from Bangalore. It was a decent ride with my cousin Balaji. We shared the ride in order to ensure that we do not get tired.

Reaching there I first found the below sign board that let me take many photos at the temple without paying for my own photography.

I, first used the stitch method to get the below images converted to Stitched HDR:

 

This gave me the image Stitched Image: 

Monolitic Nagalinga - Stitched Image 

The Main Images were next Fused with the below Images:

The Fused Image was generated using Windows Live Photo Gallery Editor Console:

Monolitic Nagalinga Fused

Finally I used Adobe Photoshop to generate the HDR with all the Original images that included the below one as well.

HDR Result is:

Lepakshi monolitic Nagalinga HDR

Ah.. Please note, the Light on the serpent head is not from any additional effects. That was the natural light source for the Mother Earth, it was the SUN who helped me a lot in getting these photos, and posts on the blog.

I remember, this is my second post that I have typed for long time. My vocabulary is not too good. I rarely post as well. but hope this is something that could help out people in their photographic skills as well.

Further if you are in India, or you'll be in India. Please visit Lepakshi, this Structure is said to be built by one great Sculptor, who had nothing to do while his beloved mother was preparing food from him. He thought Idle mind is Devil's workshop, so the Sculptor carved this marvelous stone serpent with Siva-linga in the middle. His mother was astonished at the ability of her son and exclaimed against this. Alas! the was a crack created in the Snake's body. We could even today recognize that there was a crack on the body of the Snake on this statue if carefully observed (they have been patched up by cement like material).

This was a story I heard from my beloved Grand Mother. There is an inscription (mostly in Telugu if I had observed that properly) along one of the sides of the Prakaram of the temple, this was not exactly read by me, possibly that would have mentioned the actual story. 

Find Lepakshi on Google Maps here.

Indian e - Post Office

ePostOffice

Electronic Post Office!!


The government could have kept it as Virtual Post Office instead of Electronic Post Office







I had not thought about this concept earlier, but was amazed when I Saw ePostOffice for the first Time.
Indian Post Office has already come up with such a website. Philatelists - you have a great time purchasing stamps from here, the office is virtual, you have information desk, IMO desk, Philately desk, you could place orders from online using Debit and Credit Cards as well.

Check in https://www.epostoffice.gov.in/

It also has easy registration.
This is a good start for ePostOffice, still a long way to go.
The site has some UI corrections to be done, hope they ll be fixed soon.

I have purchased the Stamps from here, they were sent in speed post in decent time. The PO charges for the Speed post from you during the payment itself. So it is better you place a bulk order. Further the associated Gateway Bank also charges against the transactions, but this is not a large amount, you could get that by not having an ice-cream or a coffee.

Philately Section

Office View

Office Navigation