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Thursday,
May 16, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Justice Garg bows out Stepping out of Maruti Grading module |
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Nuclear flashpoint syndrome
Crucial phase in Chirac’s career
Baba Muktanand, the sage of Ganeshpuri
Hill people find secret of long life Two drinks a day good for diabetics
Parents can ‘touch’ unborn child
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Justice Garg bows out It is gratifying that Justice A.S. Garg has bowed before public criticism and resigned in a dignified manner citing “personal reasons” from the chairmanship of the one-man enquiry commission set up by the Punjab Government to probe the alleged misdoings of the previous SAD-BJP government headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal. His appointment became controversial in the wake of the April 29 report in The Tribune which highlighted Justice Garg’s far-from-flattering disclosures from his past record. It was alleged that a member of the judicial services of Haryana had written to the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying that Justice Garg had pressured him to get an outstanding loan in the name of his son (Justice Garg’s) waived by the Haryana government. It was also alleged that Justice Garg’s son had set up an industrial unit by securing a loan from the Haryana Financial Corporation. Several other allegations like the land acquisition matter at Hisar, etc, if true, would have made it difficult for him to carry on with the job entrusted to him by the Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh. We do not wish to go into the merit or demerit of the allegations. It is for the honourable retired judge to come clean and set the record straight. However, it must be stated that the task of probing corruption deeds of others would have been tough and embarrassing if, like Caesar’s wife, he himself is a suspect in the public eye. Why this crucial point was overlooked by the Chief Minister is difficult to understand. He ought to have been more discreet and careful while inducting persons in positions of power and importance. At stake is the people’s faith in the system and transparency in public life. It is the responsibility of the state government to see that the honour, prestige and dignity of the politico-bureaucratic structure is not jeopardised. Be that as it may, Justice Garg has saved Capt Amarinder Singh from possible embarrassment. What is more important is that by quitting quietly he has saved his own honour and kept up the dignity of the system. This will help keep the people’s hopes alive in fairplay. Justice has to be both transparent and fair in public perception. For the Punjab Government, it is certainly a loss of face. But more damage would have been done had Justice Garg continued with the assignment unmindful of Press and public criticism and the charges levelled against him. The state government, however, has to look beyond and see the series of recent developments in a new perspective while allowing the law to take its course. The Chief Minister needs to ensure that his moves do not smack of political witch-hunting. Otherwise, the present delicate and massive exercise of fighting corrupt practices may become counter-productive. |
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Stepping out of Maruti Disinvestment of public sector enterprises is the only part of the “second-generation” reforms the BJP government is pursuing with interest. The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment took a landmark decision on Tuesday to hand over management control of Maruti Udyog Ltd to the other partner, Suzuki Motor Corporation, after much dithering. The last obstacle to the change was removed recently after Heavy Industry Minister Manohar Joshi was handed over Speakership of the Lok Sabha. The obvious question that many will debate is: has Suzuki got it cheap? The Government of India will get Rs 1,000 crore for passing on Maruti management control to the Japanese partner. A Rs 400 crore rights issue will be floated. Each MUL share of Rs 100 will be sold at Rs 3,280 to Suzuki Motor, whose stake will rise to 54.20 per cent while the Centre’s will come down to 45.54 per cent. After the rights issue, a public issue will follow in which the Centre’s remaining share will be offered to Indian and global investors. Critics of the deal are sure to point out that Suzuki has cheaply got a profit-making auto company, valued at Rs 4,850 crore by three independent valuators, in which it has invested so far Rs 100 crore only. Begun in the early seventies, the Maruti project is often dubbed Sanjay Gandhi’s baby whereas in reality it was Dr V. Krishnamurthy who made it possible. He brought in Suzuki Motor with 26 per cent equity stake with the option to raise it to 40 per cent. In 1992 Mr Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister allowed Suzuki to up its stake to 50 per cent at a premium of Rs 169 only. Seen in this context, the price charged for the MUL management control is not unreasonable. That Suzuki is a beneficiary is true, no doubt. But it is a reward for building up a company which had been ailing before Suzuki’s arrival. The new technology and Japanese work culture scripted the Maruti success story. That the two partners have not always been on agreeable terms, especially on the issue of appointment of top executives and updating technology, is known already. Besides, competition is hotting up with the entry of new players in the Indian car market. The Government of India neither had funds for MUL’s growth and to meet new challenges nor would it let the Japanese firm run it the way the latter wanted. So, one of the partners had to vacate the driver’s seat. By stepping aside, the Centre has followed the advice of advocates of privatisation. There is hardly ever a consensus on the right price for a PSU’s disinvestment. A professional management and a proper work culture alone can ensure a company’s survival. If Maruti has to survive competition, it must stay fighting fit. It is better to have a successful company in private or even foreign hands than to have a loser under government officials. |
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Grading module The decision of the CBSE to switch over to a new grading system based on absolute marks up to Class VIII from this year will not only bring the evaluation method in line with the practice followed internationally but also make life a lot easier for students. The numerical system prevalent so far puts tremendous pressure on examiners and examinees alike. A lot of subjectivity is introduced. The teachers’ dilemma lies in distinguishing between an answer that deserves, say, 71 marks and another that is worthy of 73 marks. This may not pose too many difficulties as long as the questions are objective type. But in the study of languages, etc, it can be a very tedious job. In fact, the excessive dependence on objective type yes/no questions has killed creativity and originality of students. But there was no option before the teachers because there would be a pitched battle for every single mark and the matter would even be dragged to courts. The resort to nine grades will solve that problem to a considerable extent. What is praiseworthy is that besides the marks obtained in an examination, the new grading system will also reflect the performance of students in sports and extra-curricular activities. The board has done well to make arrangements so that the numerical value of the grades is mentioned in the certificate. The full benefits of the system will come the students’ way only after 2005 when all classes would be covered under it. Another long-delayed decision the CBSE has finally taken is that those in Classes I and II will not be required to carry any schoolbags while their counterparts in Classes III to V will now carry bags with a reduced load of books. One only hopes that all school education boards will implement the decision in letter and spirit. The tendency to overburden the young minds with too much of reading material has played havoc with their future, leading as it does to an early burnout. The CBSE has combined these forward-looking decisions with radical changes in the curricula. Under this approach 10 per cent of obsolete portion in selected subjects would be replaced by new one every two years. New courses are to be introduced as per requirement. While topics like genetic engineering, human cloning and medical technology have been introduced, disciplines like entrepreneurship, defence studies and disaster management are in the pipeline. This is the only way the board can come out of a time warp of its own creation. |
Nuclear flashpoint syndrome Saturday, May 11, was the fourth anniversary of the Shakti series of nuclear tests at Pokhran that made this country the sixth member of the most rigidly exclusive club of nations with nuclear weapons. Strangely, this fact went almost completely unnoticed even by the relatively small but loudly articulate strategic community, leave alone the people in general. Instead, all concerned were focused on the flurry caused by the Bush administration’s decision to send the Assistant Secretary of State, Ms Christina Rocca, to India and Pakistan in an urgent bid to prevent the outbreak of a war between the two neighbours. The irony that this visit, aimed primarily at “restraining” India in relation to Pakistan’s unending cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, coincides with the first ever joint exercises on Indian soil by the armies of India and the USA seems to have been lost on the Americans. While a definitive analysis of the Rocca mission — she is on her third visit to the subcontinent in less than three months — will be possible only after she has concluded her talks in New Delhi and Islamabad, three points can be made without any fear of contradiction. First, that the key American official dealing with South Asia is being rushed to the region after elaborate Track-II exercises in both countries had revealed that military pressure on Pakistan through India’s massive mobilisation in January hadn’t produced the desired result of ending cross-border terrorism. No wonder then that Indian patience is wearing thin, and New Delhi was not ruling out any option. Pakistan, not wanting to be caught unawares as this country was at the time of the Kargil war, has, therefore, started raising the scare of “limited Indian military assault” across the Line of Control (LoC). Indeed, the Director-General of the ISI, Lieut-Gen Ehsan-ul-Haq said this in so many words at a meeting of the Corps Commanders recently. It is in this context that the Bush administration has asked Ms Rocca to pack her bags. Her boss, the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, has telephoned his Indian counterpart, Mr Jaswant Singh, and the Pakistani President, General Musharraf. And this brings me to the second point that the USA is looking at the subcontinent almost entirely from its own, narrow point of view, disregarding India’s supreme interests, notwithstanding its reassuring rhetoric. The Musharraf government is exploiting this state of affairs to the hilt. While promising America all help, it has also been telling Washington that, given the Indian threat, it cannot spare more troops to join the forces of the USA and its allies that are still looking for Osama bin Laden and other top terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal lands. The third and the critically important point is that the USA has singularly failed to deliver on its promise to lean on General Musharraf sufficiently hard to make him live up to his promises made in his famous January 12 speech. His failure to do so is palpable, and he is making things worse by publicly declaring that he has “nothing more to give India”. This has made nonsense of the familiar and frequent American plea for giving the General “more time”. The only ploy Washington is left with is to promise that it would persuade Islamabad to “do something” about the list of India’s 20 Most Wanted on which Pakistan has been sitting merrily for nearly five months. This sideshow means nothing when, according to the figures given by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, there has been a major spurt in both infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan into Kashmir and the incidence of militant violence and consequent casualties there since March. It now depends on South Block’s diplomatic skill to convert the Rocca visit to this country’s advantage by putting on the USA the onus to ensure that Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism is first “capped, then reduced and finally ended”. Unless Washington accepts this responsibility, it has no moral right to tell India what it should or should not do to safeguard its security. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, a very interesting, indeed intriguing, event has taken place that needs to be studied with care. Within 24 hours of the announcement of the Rocca visit, an obviously inspired report, citing a soon-to-be-published document prepared by an important national security aide of the then US President, Mr Bill Clinton, Mr Bruce Riedel, created a sensation. For, he is reportedly claiming that during the Kargil war the Pakistan Army had “mobilised” its nuclear missiles, apparently without Mr Sharif’s knowledge. Rest assured the publication of this news-item — based on intelligence reports that Mr Clinton shared with Mr Sharif during their famous meeting in Washington on July 4, 1999, in rather small doses — at this juncture is no mere coincidence. It is part of a carefully calibrated exercise aimed at spreading panic in this country and thus ensuring that it abides by whatever advice Ms Rocca is going to convey. That the Pakistani Army Chief of 1999, who allegedly acted behind the Prime Minister’s back, is now the Chief of Army Staff and the country’s President as well as Chief Executive — in short, all in all - is clearly the unstated message of Mr Riedel. Evidently, the expectation from the sneak preview of the unpublished paper is that this would spread alarm in India, especially among those who are gullible enough to swallow everything emanating from America and the professional peaceniks for whom any argument against nuclear deterrence, however, baseless, is good enough. If Mr Riedel has indeed written the paper and caused it to be leaked, why is he so coy about revealing what America’s own reaction was to the mobilisation of Pakistani nuclear arsenal? Especially, if Washington was convinced that this had indeed happened without the knowledge of the head of the Pakistan government? Moreover, if it is suggested that what happened in the summer of 1999 can happen again this summer, the question is whether thousands of American and allied troops based in Pakistan and practically controlling its air space should merrily take this in their stide. Can’t the nuclear missiles ostensibly meant for India be fired also on the Americans? After all, some conventional missiles have already been fired at the US Special Forces looking for Al-Qaeda leaders in the remote and rugged tribal areas of Pakistan. No one should take nuclear threats lightly. It is regrettable, though perhaps unavoidable in the present state of India-Pakistan relations that nuclear risk reduction measures are not in place. But this having been said, let me hasten to add that the ruling General and the USA in particular have made it their business to propagate the self-serving doctrine of South Asia being the most dangerous nuclear flashpoint in the world. An obvious, if also racist, implication of this syndrome is that while the five “accepted” nuclear weapon powers — the USA, Russia, Britain, France and China — have handled the nuclear weapons responsibly, only Indians and Pakistanis would be mad enough to use them against each other. In other words, Indian and Pakistani leaders would be worse than a drunken Richard Nixon in the White House, a megalomaniac Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Chongnanhai or a totally senile Brezhnev in the Kremlin. In any cae, India is committed to No First Use of nuclear weapons against anyone. Pakistan is not. Consequently, the legitimacy being accorded to the notion that any conflict between India and Pakistan would immediately escalate to a nuclear exchange is, in effect, an incitement to Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail of India. A clear-cut message should go out from Delhi that this is not acceptable. Whatever its faults, the military leadership of Pakistan is sensible enough and responsible enough to know that any use of nuclear weapons against India would do terrible damage no doubt but it would also ensure total annihilation of Pakistan. As for the danger of Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the jehadis, America and Israel precede India on their list of targets. |
Crucial phase in Chirac’s career It is said the French vote with their hearts in the first round and with their brains in the final round. This seemed to have come true in the case of the 69-year-old President Jacques Chirac. His success in the second and final round of the presidential elections on May 5 reinforces the goodwill he enjoys among the people, despite his shortcomings during his earlier tenure in Elysee Palace. The 82 per cent vote that he got gives the Gaullist leader the biggest victory margin in 44 years. This was made possible mainly because of the consolidation of votes of both his Right-wing supporters and the Left parties on the one hand and to keep at bay the xenophobic, extreme Right-wing National Front leader, Mr Jean Marie Le Pen on the other. After four decades in active politics, President Chirac has now entered a crucial phase in his career. He seems to be aware of his responsibilities towards the Fifth Republic and the challenges ahead. But his political record does not inspire much confidence. That’s why questions are raised whether he would be able to take measures to heal the social, cultural and economic fissures in French society. In fact, Mr Chirac now faces the toughest test in his career. His most immediate task is to forge a broad Centre-Right consensus to win the legislative elections slated for June 9 and 16, to give him the majority in the National Assembly — a majority that has eluded him ever since the Left wrested victory in the last parliamentary elections in 1997. In a move aimed at winning over disaffected voters before the June elections, Mr Chirac told the first meeting of his new Cabinet on May 10 that he wanted “a government with a mission” that would take “firm and immediate action” to address the French voters’ concerns, apprehensions and expectations. Mr Chirac knows full well that if he does not get majority in the elections to the National Assembly, it would be difficult for him to implement his manifesto and pursue things to their logical conclusion. That’s why, he has tightened his belts in right earnest, in preparation to the crucial elections. The President has given just 10 days’ time to his new government to draft plans for minimising crime, reorganising the justice system and reducing taxes. It is believed that the appointment of the 53-year-old Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who has first-hand experience of the private sector, as the interim Prime Minister, is a step in the right direction. In any case, it will be interesting to watch the next three weeks in the run-up to the National Assembly elections as these would decide the course of events in the Fifth Republic for the next five years. Britons used in germ
warfare tests A UK government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain’s biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979. Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told, according to an Observer News Service despatch. The 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert
experiments. It says military personnel were briefed to tell any “inquisitive inquirer” that the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution. The tests, carried out by government scientists at Porton Down, were designed to help the Ministry of Defence assess Britain’s vulnerability if the Russians were to have released clouds of deadly germs over the country. In most cases, the trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives which scientists believed would mimic germ warfare and which the MoD claimed were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country who have children with birth defects are demanding a public enquiry. One chapter of the report, “The Fluorescent Particle Trials”, reveals how between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the south-west along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc cadmium sulphide on the population. The chemical drifted miles inland, its fluorescence allowing the spread to be monitored. In another trial using zinc cadmium sulphide, a generator was towed along a road near
From in Somerset, south-west England where it spewed the chemical for an hour. While the UK Government has insisted the chemical is safe, cadmium is recognised as a cause of lung cancer and during World War-II was considered by the Allies as a chemical weapon. In another chapter, “Large Area Coverage Trials”, the MoD describes how between 1961 and 1968 more than a million people along the south coast of England, from Torquay to the New Forest, were exposed to bacteria, including e.coli and bacillus globigii, which mimics anthrax. These releases came from a military ship, the Icewhale, anchored off the Dorset coast, which sprayed the micro-organisms in a five to 10-mile radius. The report also reveals details of the DICE trials in south Dorset between 1971 and 1975. These involved spraying into the air massive quantities of serratia marcescens bacteria, together with an anthrax simulant and phenol. Sue Ellison, spokeswoman for Porton Down, said: “Independent reports by eminent scientists have shown there was no danger to public health from these releases which were carried out to protect the public. “The results from these trial... will save lives, should the country or our forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons.” Asked whether such tests are still being carried out, she said: “It is not our policy to discuss ongoing research.” |
Baba Muktanand, the sage of Ganeshpuri Baba Muktanand, once prophesied that the full impact of the meditation revolution initiated by him will be discernible after 200 years, with the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. For a man who had become a legend in his own lifetime, this is no tall claim. Nearly two decades have gone by since he took mahasamadhi, but his name continues to pop out in newsprint and at social gatherings, with steadied frequency. Baba’s main endeavour was to put an end to man’s misery. While leaving on his second world tour, he addressed his devotees at the Bombay airport on February 26, 1974 thus: “The story of man today consists of breaking, burning and killing. There is no greater calamity than hatred among fellow beings, among religions, among sects. How can this hatred be climinated? Not by fighting, not by arson, not by more and more political parties. There is only one way out — look within yourself.” Baba was always at pains to make it clear that the reason why man is caught in this evil is because he has forgotten his real nature and the real nature of this world. As man doesn’t know himself, he views others with the same ignorance with which he views himself. Once he comes to know himself, love will start flowing amongst all human beings, because man is essentially pure, and beautiful, and divine, he would emphasise. “It is (however) absolutely true that man’s greatness can be realised only through meditation,” he used to remind frequently. Baba had a very high grade of pragmatic sense. Simply asking people to look within, is not going to help them, he knew well. This injunction is well-enshrined in the scriptures, and was inscribed way back in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, but it hardly ever took off. In today’s fast paced, commercialised society, to expect people to follow the yama, niyama etc of Patanjali, is a much more challenging task than landing on the moon. How then was man going to look inside himself without doing the preliminary spade work? Baba knew the way out but he was bound by the unwritten code that forbade making siddha yoga exoteric. Come what may, Baba, like Prometheus was set upon redressing the woes of mankind. However, unlike Prometheus, he was a siddha (perfect being) and so he coped with the situation with magnificent savoir faire, befitting a siddha. He entered into meditation fully determined to obtain permission from his guru Bhagwan Nityanand who had entered mahasamadhi eight years back in 1961. At the end of three days of meditation, he finally succeeded in securing the green signal. Thereafter, he brought out his Magnum Opus, Chitshaktivilas in 1970, which Harper and Row later published under the title Guru. This book is both a landmark and a pathfinder as it reveals in the most candid fashion, the complete route map to siddhahood. Reading Chitshaktivilas is like experiencing religion at the very source. People who were ripe at the time of this great event were the first beneficiaries as they received shaktipath just by thumbing through the pages of the book. Oh, those were the days, ever pregnant with the air of expectancy! People got infected by Baba’s shakti, looking at his photograph, entering his ashram, cleaning his bathroom, or answering his phone call. Baba was a veritable dynamo and everything around him literally vibrated with his energy. Shaktipath is a mysterious process — because it defies any scientific explanation, to date — in which a siddha guru, just by his glance, touch, or thought, initiates a process of change in any body who comes in his contact, leading finally to perfection. Baba reminded seekers that the hallmark of a genuine guru was the sanction and shakti of the siddha lineage to initiate this divine process in man. In ancient days, a disciple had to serve his guru for 12 years to prepare himself for this great event. But Baba was so much touched by the plight people everywhere were in, that he doled out this rare gift to all and sundry. Few can ever match Baba’s formidable task of helping out mankind as he did during the last decade of his life. He crisscrossed the globe thrice, reaching out to people in their habitats, wiping their misery and pain with the touch of his hand or the peacock wand. He short-circuited all the known pathways and straightway led people — sometimes 3000 strong — to the sanctum sanctorum within, because “these mired souls needed nothing short of instant deliverance. Henceforth the awakened shakti in you will look after both, your material and spiritual growth, if you follow her diktats. Eventually she will enable you to trigger the same divine process in your fellow souls”, he further blessed. |
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Hill people find secret of long life When the weather is good, Kishi Bendiyev rides his horse around his home village. There is nothing remarkable in that, except that
Bendiyev, according to his passport, is 126 years old. His recipe for long life is simple. “To this day I have not drunk one gram of liquor,” he said as he sipped tea surrounded by his middle-aged grandchildren. “I used to smoke but I gave that up when I was 70.” For reasons which scientists are still trying to fathom out, people living in the lush Talysh mountain range on Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran live unusually long. Records at the pensions office in
Lerik, the region’s main town, show that there are 21 people over 100 years of age out of a population of 65,000, nearly four times more than the average number for western countries. And many live well beyond their century. Shiralev
Muslimov, the most celebrated of Lerik’s old-timers, died in 1973 at the reputed age of 168, though he never made to the record books because of problems confirming his
age. Bendiyev is still going strong. “Up to now I have not once been in hospital and not taken one tablet, although if I get a headache then maybe I will take an aspirin,” he said. “These days I sit at home, I look at the horses and exercise them ... I have always lived well and now I am very happy with my life.” According to locally-held records, Gyzyl Quliyeva from the village of Dzhangemiran near
Lerik, was born in 1870. She bakes bread most days and has just planted a crop of onions in her vegetable patch. She is a little deaf, and has to walk with a stick but she is still sharp enough to complain to visitors that her state pension of about seven dollars is not enough to live off. Asked to describe her routine, she said: “Everyday, I get up, work a bit in the garden, sit and breathe the fresh air. But Quliyeva added, “I feel weak now, I do not think I will live for much
longer.” Chingiz Gassunov of Azerbaijan’s Academy of Sciences, has been studying the region’s very old for decades, most recently making field trips in his own beaten-up Lada saloon after government funding dried up. Poor record-keeping makes it difficult to verify some peoples’ claims about their age, but he said his research proves the Talysh people have a genuine claim to be among the world’s longest-lived. Genetics is one possible explanation: most villagers are from a distinct ethnic group and speak their own language, which is close to Farsi. But over time, incomers start to live longer
too. Gassunov’s own theory is that there is no one secret to their longevity, just a combination of factors all tied in to their simple, untroubled way of life which has changed very little for centuries. They take traditional herbal remedies when they get ill, farmers do not use artificial chemicals so the environment is pristine and the old feel needed because, as community elders, they are sought out to settle disputes. They also live at home with their extended family, who see it as a matter of pride that their elderly relatives are cared for. And their diet — the staples are
bozbash, a thick lamb stew with herbs and katykh, a sort of yoghurt made from sheep’s milk — plays a part. Blood samples from local people show almost zero cholesterol levels, said
Gassunov. “Just recently people in the West have started getting into organic food, but think about it: these people in Lerik have been eating that sort of food all their lives,” he said. However, all of that may be changing as the realities of modern life start to intrude into village life. Young people are leaving to get work in towns, and two television masts have been erected on the hills above
Lerik. Farkhat Ismailov, an official at the Lerik pensions office, doubts that many more local people will reach Shiralev Muslimov’s age. “For him, his whole world was the four walls of his house, his family, his livestock,” said
Ismailov. “He had nothing to worry about. Today, people have a lot more problems.”
AFP
A couple of drinks a day may help prevent diabetes in older women, and it seems any kind of alcohol may work, doctors have reported. Women on a controlled diet who were given specially prepared alcoholic drinks had better control of their insulin — key in treating and preventing diabetes — than women given similar drinks without alcohol. The drinks were made with orange juice and ethanol, a pure kind of alcohol, so it may be that any alcoholic drink will do the trick, the doctors said. But they stressed that this should be tested further. “Consumption of 30 grams a day of alcohol reduced insulin concentration and improved insulin sensitivity in
nondiabetic, postmenopausal women independent of body mass index,’’ The doctors claim.
Reuters |
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Parents can ‘touch’ unborn child
Chubby cheeks. A cute button nose. Tiny fingers and toes. A newborn can turn the sanest adults into cooing, babbling fools. Expectant parents who can’t wait to feel their baby’s touch soon may be able to preview that sensation while the child is still in the womb, thanks to computer software developed by a New Mexico company that adds a touch-like component to 3-D ultrasound technology. The e-Touch software, developed by Novint Technologies Inc., a private Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company, replicates the sensation of touch through a special stylus traced over the ultrasound image of the unborn child. The software also helps enhance the 3-D picture, said Novint founder Tom Anderson.
Reuters Being vegetarian is stars’ goal Vegetarianism and love for animals seem to be latest celebrity mantras with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Anil Kumble vouching for a healthy, meatless life in a online poll done by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In the bandwagon of stars who have chosen to keep at bay meat-related diseases such as heart attacks, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are actormodel John Abreham, singer Byran Adams, industrialist Anil Ambani and actor Jackie Shroff. The poll also features Rubi Bhatia, Diya Mirza and Mahima Chaudhury as favourites. “A veggie diet keeps them trim even when they have passed their prime and this is a major boost for youngsters who wish to tread the same path,” says a PETA official. The tag of being “passionate and compassionate” also helps.
PTI Cancer cells get freeze treatment Freezing cancer cells and then bombarding them with a toxic drug could be a new weapon in the fight against the killer disease, scientists have said. Unlike chemotherapy drugs which kill healthy as well as cancerous cells and produce debilitating side effects such as nausea and hair loss, the new dual method only attacks the diseased cells and could minimise discomfort for patients. Called cryochemotherapy, it involves inserting icy needle-like metallic probes into the tumour, which kill most of the cancerous cells, and the anti-cancer drug bleomycin that finishes the job, scientists said yesterday.
Reuters |
Corruption By the complete destruction of lust, hatred and delusion, devout men are no longer liable to suffering and are assured of final salvation. — Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, 2.7 Yaksha:
What is the most precious of all riches? What is the highest gain and greatest happiness? Yudhishthira: Sacred knowledge is the most precious of all riches. Health is the best of gains and
Contentment is the greatest of happiness. Yaksha: What is greater than Dharma in the world? Which dharma is fruitful at all times? Controlling what does a man not grieve? Which friendship does not break? Yudhishthira: Kindness is greater than Dharma. The eternal religion of the Vedas always abounds in fruits. Controlling the mind a man does not come to grief, and friendship with a holy person does not break. A Dialogue Yaksha: Giving up what endears a man to all? Abandoning what does a man not suffer? By getting rid of what does a man become rich and happy? Yudhishthira: Giving up pride a man is loved by all. Abandoning anger man is not subject to suffering. A man without desire and avarice becomes rich and happy. Yaksha: What deludes people? What breaks a friendship? Yudhishthira: Ignores deludes people; greed separates friends. Yaksha: Which nation degenerates and becomes as if dead? Yudhishthira: A nation without firm central administration degenerates and becomes dead. — The Mahabharata, Aranya Parvan, chapters 267-68 |
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