Manners & Etiquette

Introducing Manners & Etiquette

We all need manners and etiquette, definitely. We need them because without them, we’d all do exactly as we like, and because if we all do exactly as we like, then everything would pretty soon fall apart. In other words, manners & etiquette aren’t really a list of what you should do in good company. Rather, they are a list of things you shouldn’t do in good company--a big stack of don’ts. Now don’t get me wrong. I would never, ever recommend that you blow off using good manners, because if you don’t use them, the only statement you’re actually making is that you’re a rude, gross, dirty, probably stupid and inconsiderate little slob who doesn’t understand anything about anything--and that is not a cool thing to be. No, manners are really important; much more than you might think, in fact, because manners are what separate us from animals, and they are also what turn other people on or off to us. If you’re a disgusting bitch-slob, for example, how many people are going to invite you to their parties, or how many guys are going to invite you to dinner, or how many business professionals are going to want you at their board meetings? None, that’s right. You’ll turn them all off, and eventually you’ll be stuck with other disgusting bitch-slobs in some basement somewhere, broke and friendless.

The basement thing is an exaggerated version of what can happen, obviously. But my point is important: the fabric of public society lies in the manners of the individuals that make up that society. To hold this fabric together, you have to have those manners. If you don’t have them, then public society will kick you out. And ultimately, that means you’ll lose out on the good things the society offers, like better education, better jobs, access to the richest and best guys, best professional contacts, etc. And this is no joke!

So, the lists of manners & etiquette are long and often really complex. But in most cases they’re also common sense because, after all, you grew up with these manners all around you. Think of the times your parents told you not to talk with your mouth full, for example. Or think of the time you were in the mall and farted next to the cashier. Or think of how James Bond behaves when he’s wearing his tux. Manners are everywhere, and you’re always exposed to them, so you’ve already got half the battle won. In most cases, all you have to do is fine tune some of the things you do. Below, then, is a list of fine tunings, stuff you mostly already know, but which it is probably a good idea to review before prom night--just in case.

The most obvious are table manners, so we’ll start with these. Afterward, we’ll just give you a few pointers on basic manners when in public.

Table Manners

At the dinner table. What you should not do. And, where everything goes so that you know what’s yours and don’t take someone else’s fork, or bread or glass.
The master list of do-nots at table:
Don’t burp at table (or at any other point during the evening).
Don’t slurp your soup or other liquids.
Don’t take a drink without first using your napkin.
Don’t hold the glass to your mouth and take long, long drinks.
Don’t blow your nose at table.
Don’t chew with your mouth open.
Don’t pick your teeth at table.
Don’t slouch at table.
Don’t let your elbows touch the table.
Don’t bring your face toward the plate when you eat.
Don’t fart at table.
Don’t scratch at table, especially not your feet or rump.
Don’t lift the corner of your soup plate to get the last drops.
Don’t lick the plate or the utensils.
Don’t take someone else’s plate or utensils or food.
Don’t reach over to grab the things you want, ask instead.
Don’t sit and start eating until everyone is pretty much seated.
Don’t play with your utensils or plates.
Don’t bang your soup spoon in the soup plate, or against your teeth.
Don’t pick at your food.
Don’t make little castles with your mashed potatoes, or count your peas, etc.
Don’t cut up your entire steak or other meat and then start eating.
Don’t throw food.
Don’t feed your date from your fork (or his).
Don’t gobble your food as if you were in a race.
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Don’t put junk on the table, like purse, false teeth, etc.

Where everything goes:
a) Your plates goes in the middle.
b) The knives and spoons go on your right.
c) The forks and napkin go on your left.
d) Liquids, including water, juice, etc., go on your right.
e) Solids like bread go on your left.
So when you sit, take a look at all this stuff in front of you and make sure you know what’s yours.
How to eat:
1. As soon as you sit, put the napkin in your lap. Not tucked under your chin or on your head or under your arm, but in your lap.

2. If you’re going to take a piece of bread and butter it--which is what 99% of us do as soon as we sit--then do it like this: put the piece of bread in your bread plate (on your left). Take a blob of butter from the main dish (or open up one of those little covered ones) and put this in your plate. Then rip off a piece of bread from the slice or bun and butter that. Do not butter the entire bread.

3. You’ll probably find a couple forks and knives sitting next to your plate. Which do you use for what, or which do you use first? Do it this way: start on the outside and work your way in. When the first dish of whatever arrives, use the fork furthest away from the plate, and the knife furthest away from the plate. When the next dish arrives, use the next fork and knife in the line, and so on. If your eating area gets a little disorganized, then follow this rule for your fork: the smaller fork is for salad. The larger fork is for your main dish. If both are the same size, then don’t worry about it.

4. So how do you hold a fork and knife, anyway? Fork goes in your left hand, knife goes in your right hand. The fork’s tines (business end) should be facing down. Don’t hold your fork or your knife in your fist. Place your index finger on top of either of them and push downward with that. Spear your food with your fork, then cut the piece you want to eat, then put your knife down in the plate. Switch your fork from your left hand to your right hand, its tines still pointing downward, and eat. You won’t be in Europe for prom. But if you were, then don’t switch your fork from your left to your right. They don’t do that over there.

5. If you’re going to put your fork or other utensils down while you eat, make sure you always put them inside the plate. Never let them touch the table again after you’ve started using them. This includes your bread knife and everything else. When you put your fork and knife down inside the plate, make sure one is on each side, never both on the same side, not until you’re done.

6. Placing your utensils and finishing up. If you want to take a break in the middle of your meal, or if you have to get up for something, then place your fork and knife inside your plate in the form of an X. The fork goes on the left, the knife goes on the right, and both their pointy ends should be pointing away from you. If you’re finished eating and you want the waiter to take the dirty dish away, or you’re getting up for good, then place your fork and knife side by side, again with the pointy ends facing away from you. These should be placed in the eleven o’clock position, that is, pointing up at eleven o’clock like the hands of a clock.

General Manners
Don’t be rude, ever.
Don’t whisper, because whispering is rude.
Don’t whisper and giggle at the same time because that is one of the worst things you can do--someone might take it personally and be hurt by it.
Don’t poke others with your finger, or nudge them with your elbow, when you want to get their attention.
Don’t pat them or slap them (lightly, of course), either.
Don’t talk or laugh loud enough to attract attention.
Don’t walk slouching or aggressively, and don’t swing your arms all over the place as you walk.
Don’t make out with your date in public.
Don’t make sexual gestures (like ass patting) with your date in public.
Don’t swear, or spit, or burp, or fart, or sneeze, or do other gross body things in public.
Don’t chew gum (or tobacco!).
Don’t hold private conversation with your friends if there’s someone there who’s not part of your usual group and wouldn’t know what you’re talking about.
Don’t, just don’t do anything that might offend others, or hurt them, or be disrespectful.

Sure there's lots more. There's so much, in fact, that Emily Post wrote a book on manners which is hundreds of pages long, and after Emily Post, others wrote equally long books on manners. So do you need all that stuff? No, not really. It's not that important anymore, for example, if the guy takes off his hat when he greets you (guys don't wear hats to prom or to dinner these days). And it certainly would look strange today if you curtsied when presented to a person older than you (what, you don't know what curtsying is?). Anyhow, the actual basics of general manners is, and has always been this one single rule: don't be offensive to anybody at any time. To follow this rule, all you have to do is be a little aware of the people around you, and be considerate in your behavior so that you don't hurt or offend them--that includes laughing so loud that they are distracted from what they are doing and look over at you, or whispering and giggling so that they suspect you might be talking about them, or blowing snot onto the floor so that people jump back in surprise and disgust--I think you get the general idea. And if you do, then that's all there really is to good manners.

Source: http://promdress.net/final/index.html

Silly Point

Encounter Specialist Daya Nayak - Mumbai

Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak, the Mumbai Police's best-known 'encounter' specialist, is the reported inspiration for N Chandra's Kagaar and Ram Gopal Varma's Ab Tak Chhapan.
Mangalore-born Nayak began life cleaning tables at 9 at Mumbai restaurants before joining the city police force.

After killing 83 gangsters in 'encounters,' Nayak found himself accused last week of being in cahoots with the same underworld he has pledged to annihilate.
Nayak responded to the charges in a frank chat with Contributing Correspondent Vijay Singh at his office in Andheri, northwest Mumbai.


Tell us about the journey from your village to being a police officer.
In 1979 I came to Mumbai from my village in Karnataka. I had studied till the 7th standard in a Kannada school. Our family's financial condition was very bad. So my mother told me to go to Mumbai to earn some money to help the family.
I came here and started working in a hotel. I was on good terms with the hotel owner. They treated me like a family member and insisted that I join school.
I completed my graduation while still working in the hotel. I studied and slept on the hotel's porch. I worked for eight years in the hotel till my graduation.
After graduation I started working with a plumber as a supervisor. He used to give me Rs 3,000 per month. I continued staying at the hotel till I got a police job.

What assignment brought you the spotlight?
After completing one year of police training, I was posted to the Juhu police station in 1996. I was assigned to monitor the Juhu jurisdiction on the night of December 31. I was informed by one of my informers that two members of the Chhota Rajan gang were going to be there.
I went there to arrest them, but they fired on us. In retaliation I shot them dead.
I was new [in the department] so I became worried after the encounter. I had fired at them because they fired on me. I was worried because they were big gangsters. But the police department appreciated my work, and that gave me more confidence. After that, I was shifted to the special squad working against gangsters.

How many 'encounters' have you been involved in so far? Any big names among them?
I have done 83 encounters. I have arrested more than 300 criminals. I have solved many big cases.
I eliminated many top criminals of Mumbai -- Vinod Matkar, Rafik Dabawala, Taufiq Kaliya. In an encounter at Dadar's busy flower market during peak hours I was injured and hospitalised for 17 days. I gunned down three terrorists. They had thrown a bomb at me but luckily I only suffered minor injuries.

There is always a controversy after an 'encounter.' Does this affect you?
This is part of pressurising us. The ISI and big gangsters are after us. Because we have a good network they can't do anything to us. So they adopt other ways to harass us. They make false allegations against us.
Many people are trying hard to make us work under political pressure, but it doesn't matter. I know what I am doing is right. That is enough for me.

You opened a school in your hometown. Who supported you in this endeavour? There was a controversy about that too.
I studied in a primary school built by my grandfather. After completing Class VII, children had to travel 15 to 20 km to study. I was emotionally attached to the school. Some people decided to make that school till SSC so we approached the Karnataka government, they provided us land.
My village friends and I worked hard to make that school till SSC. I had a police job and a good name in Mumbai so my village friends put me in front while approaching people to build the school.
It is not a private school, it is a government school which has just been developed by us. People who helped build the school are either my friends or others who have directly helped the school.
I have good terms with many film personalities because of my loyalty towards my work. Amitabh Bachchan was present at the school's inauguration. I handed the school over to the Karnataka government after the inauguration.
I handed over a file in which I mentioned details of who donated money for the school and how the money was spent to the Maharashtra government.
Some media people said Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel financed the school. They wanted to have me suspended. I faced an inquiry. I was transferred from here for two months, but nothing came out of that inquiry.

Films are being made on your life, you are reportedly writing a film script and apparently financing a film.
Film finance, no! I don't have so much money to finance films. This is a rumour.
Many people from the film industry know me. If they make films on police life, I give them some guidance. Sometimes I also tell them how the underworld and police work because what they show is not right.
There are ups and down in my life. It's like a film story. Many people approached me to make a film on my life. I tell them the facts, but leave it to them -- to what extent they will show my life on screen.
I hear Kagaar contains the maximum facts about my life. I just want that a good image of the police be shown on screen.
Ketan Tirodkar, a former Mumbai journalist, has filed a petition against you, alleging that you are influenced by the underworld.

Ketan Tirodkar used to work with Chhota Shakeel and is now making allegations about me?
The facts will be revealed in court on November 3.
I never got involved with the wrong people or in any unlawful activity, that is why such people have adopted this way to target me.
I assure you I will never be involved in any wrong activity because I have seen a day when I had nothing. I don't want to do anything wrong because I know god will punish me.

Will we see you in politics in the future?
Many people say I am going to join politics, it is incorrect.
I am very satisfied with my job. I will retire from this department. Emotionally I am very attached to it.

What about family life?
We don't have a personal life. We lead such risky lives that there is no place for family life.

Source: http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://im.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/23daya.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/27inter.htm&h=229&w=141&sz=10&tbnid=U7rdg68qtOCU8M:&tbnh=108&tbnw=66&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dencounter%2Bspecialist%2Bdaya%2Bnayak&hl=en&usg=__jKOwz7h-RF0DnUH0J0fcJeamNjs=&ei=wND8S725G4O1rAfPmfHuAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=6&ct=image&ved=0CCIQ9QEwBQ

Neil Armstrong: Obama's New Space Plan 'Poorly Advised'

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, blasted NASA's new plans for future space exploration Wednesday, adding that President Barack Obama was poorly advised when he canceled the space agency's previous course for U.S. human spaceflight earlier this year.

Armstrong, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in July 1969, criticized what he billed as an air of secrecy that preceded Obama's February announcement which cancelled NASA's Constellation program aiming for the moon. That plan, he told a Senate subcommittee, was a surprise to many among NASA, academia and the military.

"A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program," Armstrong, 79, said in a statement to a Senate subcommittee reviewing NASA's new space plan. "I believe the President was poorly advised."

The United States is risking losing its role as a leader in space exploration with its new plan, Armstrong said, adding that he was concerned with the looming gap in American human spaceflight.

"Other nations will surely step in where we have faltered," Armstrong said.

NASA's future at stake
In February, President Obama announced his intent to cancel NASA's Constellation program in charge of building the new Orion spaceships and their Ares rockets. Those new spacecraft were envisioned to replace NASA's retiring space shuttles and return astronauts to the moon by 2020 under a space vision laid out in 2004 by former President George W. Bush.

A White House-appointed panel found that the Constellation program suffered from severe underfunding and was not sustainable to push U.S. human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit in the near future.

White House science adviser John Holdren said President Obama's space plan decision "was not hasty."

"The president heard from a lot of people in this process," Holdren told the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation Wednesday, adding that the list included himself, NASA chief Charles Bolden and lawmakers, among others.

"He got to the best and most balanced program for NASA, including its human spaceflight dimension, that the country can afford."
The Constellation program's cancellation has sparked much criticism from lawmakers concerned over a gap in U.S. spaceflight capability and expertise.

"Our 40-year legacy of leadership in space is on the line," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who represents the home state of NASA's Mission Control. "And we need to have a credible plan to take the next step forward."

NASA's new space plan is aimed at developing new technologies, spacecraft and rockets that would allow the United States to launch astronauts on the first crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025.

A manned mission to Mars would follow in the 2030s, President Obama said during an April 15 speech at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Obama has proposed a $19 billion budget for NASA in 2011 and added another $6 billion over five years onto that in his April speech.

To that end, NASA will retire its three aging shuttles after three more missions (the shuttle Atlantis' final flight is set for Friday) and rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to send astronauts to the International Space Station — which would be extended to at least 2020 under the new plan — until commercial U.S. spacecraft became available.

The design for a new heavy-lift rocket, vital for launching huge payloads on missions to Mars or an asteroid, would be selected by 2015, Obama said.

While Obama scrapped the Constellation program as part of his 2011 budget request for NASA, he revived the Orion crew capsule to launch unmanned missions and serve as an emergency escape ship for the space station.

Armstrong on Constellation
Armstrong said that while the Constellation program had the benefit of flexibility, it was also going to be costly. At the time of its proposed cancellation, NASA had already spent more than $9 billion on the program.

But the new goal of an asteroid mission and Mars is a stark departure, Armstrong said.
"These are vastly different plans and choosing the proper path is vital to America's continued space leadership," Armstrong said in his statement.

Armstrong and fellow Apollo astronauts Jim Lovell (Apollo 13 commander) and Eugene Cernan, who commanded Apollo 17 and was the last man to walk on the moon, have publicly denounced NASA's new space exploration plan. They called it "devastating" in a statement sent to the media last month.

Cernan also spoke before the Senate subcommittee.

"We (Armstrong, Lovell and myself) have come to the unanimous conclusion that this budget proposal presents no challenges, has no focus, and in fact is a blueprint for a mission to 'nowhere,'" Cernan said in a statement.

Armstrong said he supported the idea of new players in the spaceflight arena, but was skeptical of commercial companies would be able to meet NASA's needs in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

"I support the encouragement of the newcomers toward their goal of lower cost access to space," Armstrong said. "But having cut my teeth in rockets more than 50 years ago, I am not confident."

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100512/sc_space/neilarmstrongobamasnewspaceplanpoorlyadvised

Why Snakebites Are About to Get a Lot More Deadly

As venomous snakes go, the coral snake is a clumsy biter. Unlike pit vipers such as rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, which have gruesomely efficient fangs that articulate forward during a strike and inject venom like hypodermic needles, the brightly colored coral snake has small, rear-facing fangs that guide venom into a wound. This process doesn't always work well--experts estimate that 25 percent of coral snake envenomations are dry bites--which is perhaps why the coral is so unaggressive. The snake is found throughout Florida, as well as in parts of Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, but there are generally only about 100 or so bites each year.

What the coral lacks in belligerence, it makes up for in neurotoxicity. Unlike bites from pit vipers, which cause immense pain and swelling at the wound site, coral snake victims usually report little pain after being bitten. But the effects begin to show within hours, with symptoms such as tingling sensations in the extremities, dysarthria (slurred speech) and ptosis (droopy eyelids). Then a victim's lungs shut down. "The venom acts as a neuromuscular blockade to the lungs," University of Florida professor of medicine Craig Kitchens says. "Without antivenom, you need artificial respiration or you die."

Unfortunately, after Oct. 31 of this year, there may be no commercially available antivenom (antivenin) left. That's the expiration date on existing vials of Micrurus fulvius, the only antivenom approved by the Food and Drug Administration for coral snake bites. Produced by Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, the antivenom was approved for sale in 1967, in a time of less stringent regulation.

Wyeth kept up production of coral snake antivenom for almost 40 years. But given the rarity of coral snake bites, it was hardly a profit center, and the company shut down the factory that made the antivenom in 2003. Wyeth worked with the FDA to produce a five-year supply of the medicine to provide a stopgap while other options were pursued. After that period, the FDA extended the expiration date on existing stock from 2008 to 2009, and then again from 2009 to 2010. But as of press time, no new manufacturer has stepped forward.

Antivenom shortages are a surprisingly common occurrence. The entire state of Arizona ran out of antivenom for scorpion stings after Marilyn Bloom, an envenomation specialist at Arizona State University, retired in 1999. Bloom had been single-handedly making all the scorpion antivenom for state hospitals. Recently, Merck & Co, the only FDA-licensed producer of black widow antivenom, has cut back distribution because of a production shortage of the drug. In a 2007 report, the World Health Organization listed worldwide envenomations as a "neglected public health issue."

New scorpion and black widow antivenoms are currently in the pipeline, thanks to efforts by several poison-control associations to speed foreign drugs into the market through FDA research programs. There is also a coral snake antivenom produced by Mexican drug manufacturer Instituto Bioclon that researchers believe could be even more effective and safe than the outgoing Wyeth product. But that drug, Coralmyn, is not currently licensed for sale by the FDA. The tests required for licensing would cost millions of dollars, and for such a rare treatment (there are 15 times as many scorpion stings per year as coral snake bites), it could take decades for Bioclon to make its money back.

Envenomation experts express exasperation and disbelief at the situation. "It's ridiculous that we're losing a technology that we already have," says Joe Pittman, a snakebite treatment specialist at the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa. "It's even more ludicrous that we have a product that's available, and we have to jump through so many hoops to get it approved." In July 2009, an FDA advisory board determined that Coralmyn qualified for an accelerated approval process, but there is still no one with the estimated $3 million to $5 million to pay for the required studies.

"Nobody in this situation is being a bad actor," says Eric Lavonas of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. "We just don't have a system set up to deal with it." With no adequate replacement for coral snake antivenom, hospitals are likely to appeal to local zoos, many of which maintain small stocks for their staff. But zoos are under no obligation to provide the medicine.

If and when shortages do occur, many hospitals will have no other option but to intubate coral snake bite victims on ventilators for weeks until the effects of the toxin wear off--potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per bite. "It's probably going to end up costing us far more not to deal with this than to deal with it," Lavonas says, "both in human suffering, and in dollars and cents."

Source:http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/snakebites-about-to-get-more-deadly?src=syn&dom=yah_buzz&mag=pop&ha=1&kw=ist

World's Strangest Buildings

Between all the bubbly novelties that went up in pre-Olympics Beijing, and Dubai’s feverish invention over the past decade, nothing should surprise us. Except that some buildings still do. And these eccentric edifices, breathtaking in their strangeness, are worth a detour—if only to ginger up your worldview a bit.

Selfridges Department Store
Birmingham, England

The Birmingham branch of Selfridges is a billowy mattress of a building, clad in 15,000 shimmery aluminum discs like that famous Paco Rabanne dress. It was designed by Future Systems—the name tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the firm—to be a landmark and a catalyst for the revitalization of a largely moribund city center. “An ersatz urban cliff, a giant sea anemone, a friendly, blob-like alien, the mother of all magic mushrooms,” wrote Guardian architecture critic Jonathan Glancey. “This is the department store as unalloyed architectural entertainment.”
Step Inside: The interior, with floaty white escalators crisscrossing in an open atrium, looks like a scene from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

The Bar Code Building
St. Petersburg, Russia

Near the banks of the Neva River, this trade complex by Vitruvius & Sons transforms the world’s most ubiquitous symbol of commerce—the bar code—into a powerful architectural motif. It can be read as an update of American-style roadside classics like the giant Dixie Cup water tower of Lexington, KY, or Detroit’s giant Uniroyal Tire. The rust-red steel building brightens an otherwise bleak urban setting.
Strange Trend: There’s also a Barcode House by the Dutch architecture firm MVRDV on the outskirts of Munich, but it’s much more subtle.

Bioscleave House
East Hampton, N.Y.

Husband and wife artists Arakawa and Madeline Gins designed this intentionally unsettling house in 2008. With its bumpy, hilly floors and a wildly asymmetrical plan—even the electrical outlets are at weird angles—it’s supposed to stimulate the immune systems of its occupants by keeping them from ever becoming comfortable. This relentless “tentativeness,” the artists believe, is the key to immortality.
Embrace the Strange: This house can be yours. It’s currently offered by Sotheby’s Realty for $4 million.

Ontario College of Art and Design
Toronto

This crossword puzzle checked box appears, at a distance, to be hovering Close Encounters–style above an otherwise mundane Toronto neighborhood. As you approach, its improbability only increases. British architect Will Alsop planted this collection of galleries and studio spaces on brightly colored columns so insouciantly angled and skinny that they barely look like they can support themselves.
Nearby Oddity: There goes the neighborhood: Daniel Libeskind’s bizarre 2007 crystalline addition to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum is just a mile away.

Ramot Polin Apartments
Jerusalem, Israel

Polish-born architect Zvi Hecker’s experiment in multi-unit residential construction is not as well known as the Habitat housing Moshe Safdie designed for Expo 67 in Montreal, but at 720 units is much larger. It was also an exercise in using prefabricated components, at least in the first two of its five phases. With its crazy pentagonal design, the Ramot Polin Apartments resemble a housing project for honeybees.
Behind the Scenes: This highly unorthodox complex was commissioned by the Israeli ministry of housing specifically for highly orthodox Jewish families.

Columbus Lighthouse
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Under construction for some 40 years, and inaugurated in time for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s initial landing in the New World (which was not on Hispaniola, but in the Bahamas), this monstrously spooky concrete monument, half a mile long and 688 feet tall, reputedly cost the impoverished nation some $70 million to build. The lighthouse contains what are purported to be the explorer’s bones.
Weird Wiring: When the lighthouse projects a cross-shaped beam into the night sky, it’s so bright that not only can it be seen in Puerto Rico, but it drains electrical power from surrounding neighborhoods. It’s not turned on very often.

Oriental Pearl TV Tower
Shanghai, China

Nothing else on earth quite looks like the Oriental Pearl. It was once the tallest structure on the Pudong side of Shanghai’s Huangpu River until it was overshadowed by the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2007. Designed by Jiang Huan Cheng of the Shanghai Modern Architectural Design Co. and completed in 1995, it stands 1,535 feet tall and is easily the world’s greatest assemblage of habitable disco balls (11!), housing several sightseeing observatories, a revolving restaurant, and a “space hotel.”
Tall Tale: Both Shanghai towers have recently been dwarfed by the 2,001-foot-tall Guangzhou TV and Sightseeing Tower.

Spittelau District Heating Plant
Vienna, Austria

Highly eccentric painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, fond of bright colors, crooked lines, and overall visual cacophony, designed this garbage-burning heating plant on the Donau Canal to look like Vienna’s answer to the Magic Kingdom. With its crazy quilt façade, decorative columns topped with gold balls, and a pollution-scrubbing smokestack, it suggests a mirage rather than a working piece of urban infrastructure.
Odd Couple: There are two of these oddities. The Maishima Incineration Plant in Osaka, Japan, is an exact replica.

Elbe Philharmonic
Hamburg, Germany

What’s really freakish here is the contrast between the new building—a liquidy-looking glass thingamajig—and the old building it uses for its podium: a stolid, workaday 1960s waterfront warehouse. This odd couple, united by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and scheduled for completion in 2012, will be a new cultural complex for Hamburg’s harbor, featuring a public plaza on the old warehouse roof, a hotel, some apartments, and a wildly biomorphic philharmonic hall.
Odd Trend: This new building atop old building thing is a bona fide trend. See: New York’s Hearst Tower by Foster + Partners.

The Atomium
Brussels, Belgium

A 1958 World’s Fair leftover, the Atomium is far more eccentric than the 1964 Unisphere in New York or the 1962 Space Needle in Seattle. Conceived by an engineer, André Waterkeyn, it is a gigantic replica of an iron crystal molecule and was intended to symbolize “the peaceful use of atomic energy for scientific purposes.” Five of its nine spheres are accessible to visitors, as is its maze of interconnecting tubes.
Quirky Quote: According to the Atomium website: “The completely steel-clad Atomium is a kind of UFO in the cultural history of Humanity, a mirror turned simultaneously towards the past and the future, comparing our Utopias of yesterday with our dreams for tomorrow.”

Source:http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-34210752

Heart-to-heart with the Mexican Spice

Scores of males are busy salivating over the immensely drool worthy Barbara Mori. And her soaring popularity does inspire envy in collective female hearts. The 'Kites' new find, a Mexican model, telly actress and cine star, is hoping to win over Indian audiences too with the high flying Roshan flick

Of mixed ancestry, Mori gets her Japanese surname from her paternal grandfather. Her modelling stint at an early age in Mexico, paved the way for television and Mori went on to bag acclaim and awards for her histrionics in 'Azul Tequila' and 'Rubi'.

Besides, Mori also has a commendable filmography which includes the much lauded 'My Brother's Wife'. Undoubtedly, 'Kites' offers her the global spotlight, as the flick had already bagged centrestage at Cannes in 1999, unveiling its 'first look', with Mori walking the coveted red carpet.

In a free wheeling chat Mori sheds light on the Roshan production, director Anurag Basu, personal issues and more. Presenting some succinct excerpts...

On 'Kites'
"It's a very special film in every which way. 'Kites' is my first action film. It's my first big budget film, apart from being my first Bollywood movie and my first English film. I have never done anything like this before."

On co actor Hrithik Roshan
"The best part about Hrithik is that apart from being a good actor, he is a very fine human being. He was always around for me. And he's such a perfectionist on the sets that he was taking care of every single detail. I hadn't watched any Bollywood movies before I signed 'Kites'. Then I saw 'Jodhaa Akbar' and I was like, is he going to be like this in 'Kites' too? After that I saw 'Koi ..Mil Gaya' and 'Lakshya' and realised what a fabulous actor he is."

On Natasha
"My character is that of a girl who has a large family. She has brothers and a mother who is sick for most of the time. She needs a lot of money to support her family and she thinks that the best way to do it is to find and marry a rich man. She does find Tony, who is a very rich man in Las Vegas, but she also finds that she does not love him. She loves someone else! Now she has to choose between love and money! What happens then is what 'Kites' is all about. If you do want to fall in love, go and see 'Kites'.

On kissing onscreen
"After I decided to do 'Kites', I did see a few Bollywood movies. And I found that whenever there is a kissing scene, the camera goes off... to another scene! I found that quite funny. In Mexican films we have so much kissing and no one makes a big deal out of it. When I had to do a kissing scene for 'Kites' I asked Hrithik if it was such a big matter in India. And he told me that, no, things are changing in the country now..."

On Bollywood dancing
"I was very scared about the dancing aspect in Bollywood. In Mexico, we don't have much of dancing in our films. They are more realistic. When I first met Rakesh Roshan and director Anurag Basu in Los Angeles, I asked them if I would be required to dance in 'Kites', because I know how important dancing is to Hindi films. But they assured me that it would be taken care of. I was not at all comfortable doing all the Indian dance moves."

On director Anurag Basu
"He's such a free spirit! He has such a good soul. And really, he could also be quite a mess (laughs). Sometimes, he'd come to the sets quite unprepared as to which scene he wanted to film and how he would go about doing it. But, he always knew what he wanted and knew how to guide us so that we could deliver what he had in mind. He gave us lot of room to improvise."

On Cannes spotlight
" In 1999, I walked the red carpet at Cannes with Rakesh Roshan on one hand and Hrithik on the other when the 'first look' of 'Kites' was unveiled at the Cannes International Film Festival. It was a great moment! It felt fabulous and at the same time, it was a very emotional moment for me."

On battling cancer
"I was 29, when I got cancer. Luckily, my breast cancer was detected at a very early stage and so it could be cured. I didn't have to go in for chemotherapy or other such treatment."

"I feel that God gave me cancer for a reason. I had everything going for me. A good career, a son, money, a nice happy family, and yet I was complaining! About the traffic, about small issues! So God said, 'Let me give you this cancer so that you will be thankful for what I have given you'. It was a reminder. The disease taught me that you must enjoy what you have in your life today, because you don't know what tomorrow might have in store for you."

On modelling
"I was working in a restaurant when a model coordinator spotted me and asked me to do an ad commercial. I thought, let me go ahead and give it a shot. I did it and fell in love with the camera. In Mexico, modelling was also very tough because there were so many other beautiful girls who were models too."

On television
"I have done my share of soap operas on television. But actually, I don't like watching television. I'd rather read a good book."

On flying kites
"I'm not flying any kites in the film. But yes, in real life I've flown kites with my twelve year old son. But if there was ever a kite flying competition between Hrithik and me, I think… I would win (laughs). That way, Hrithik is good in everything, but I really feel that if we do compete in kite flying, I would surely win."

On future flicks
"There have been some offers and I am considering one of them. Of course, I will always look to the Roshans for advice because they are like family. If all plans fall in place, I should be back in India in next January to start shooting for the film."

Source:http://in.movies.yahoo.com/specials/Heart-to-heart-Mexican-Spice/Bollywood/slideshow-964.html#id=1

Sri Lanka stay alive by knocking out India

Gros Islet: Sri Lanka took a huge stride towards the ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals with a five-wicket last ball win over India that knocked their Asian rivals out of the tournament on Tuesday.
Chamara Kapugedera's six off the final ball saw Sri Lanka to a dramatic win after man-of-the-match Angelo Mathews and captain Kumar Sangakkara both made 46 to revive the innings after a top-order collapse.
If Australia beat hosts the West Indies in the day's second and final Group F match, also here at Beausejour, Sri Lanka will go through to the last four. And even if the Aussies are defeated, they would have to lose by 24 runs for the West Indies to get in ahead of 2009 beaten finalists Sri Lanka.
India - who lost all their Super Eights matches - had to win by at least 20 runs to keep their own slim semi-final hopes alive. Having made 163 for five, that meant restricting Sri Lanka to 143 or under.
But their hopes of doing just that ended when Kapugedera struck a Vinay Kumar full toss for six off the penultimate ball of the 19th over. Kapugedera repeated the dose next ball and Sri Lanka needed 13 to win off the last over.

Mathews put them in sight by smashing the first ball of the 20th over, from left-arm quick Ashish Nehra for six. But he was run out off the fifth ball going for a tight single by bowler Nehra's direct hit, having faced 37 balls with three sixes and two fours. However, with three needed off the last ball, Kapugedera carved Nehra over cover for six to finish on 37 not out.
"I had to give a good performance with the bat," Mathews said. "I'm glad I did it at the right time." Sri Lanka were rocked by the early loss of star batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya for a combined total of just four.

"You never want to lose guys early, especially Mahela, who is in top form," Sangakkara said. "But (Tillakaratne) Dilshan got the momentum back for us and we talk about how capable our younger players are and they have shown how they can handle the pressure. Mathews and Kapugedera are going to be around for a long time.

Jayawardene's previous scores this tournament were 81, 101, 98 not out and nine. But he was out third ball for four when he nicked a good length delivery from Nehra and was caught at slip by Yusuf Pathan. Veteran left-hander Jayasuriya was out for a duck when he pulled Vinay Kumar straight to Dinesh Karthik at deep midwicket.

Dilshan, player of the tournament at last year's World Twenty20 in England, made 33 at better than a run-a-ball before he swung Pathan to Yuvraj Singh at deep backward square.

But Sangakkara hit back with a 33-ball innings featuring three sixes and two fours before he was bowled middle stump missing a cut shot against Kumar. Sangakkara's exit left Sri Lanka 105 for four in the 15th over.

Kapugedara was given a reprieve on seven when, looking to guide Nehra through third man he edged behind but a diving Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's captain and wicketkeeper, couldn't hold the one-handed chance.

Suresh Raina top scored with 63 for India on the ground where he made a century against South Africa earlier in the tournament. India were well-placed for a big score at 90 for one at the halfway stage but Sri Lanka, led by unorthodox quick Lasith Malinga (two for 25), restricted them to just 73 runs from the second 10 overs.

"I think the execution of plans from their bowlers was very good, even with set batsmen we couldn't score freely," Dhoni said. "Overall, batting is our strength and we should have done better. We didn't perform to our potential. The last four to five overs they bowled really restricted us. We need to improve in quite a few areas."

Source: http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.yahoonews.com/sri-lanka-stay-alive-knocking-out-india-20100512/

Dictionary entry uncorrected for a century

Australian physicist spots dictionary error

An Australian physicist has uncovered an error in dictionary definitions that has likely stood uncorrected for a century.

University of Queensland academic Stephen Hughes found that entries for the word 'siphon' incorrectly said atmospheric pressure is the force that allows the device to move liquids from one place to another.

"It is gravity that moves the fluid in a siphon, with the water in the longer downward arm pulling the water up the shorter arm," he said.

"An extensive check of online and offline dictionaries did not reveal a single dictionary that correctly referred to gravity being the operative force in a siphon," he added.

Hughes, whose fields of study include astronomy, meteors, planets and the moon, said he first found the error in the Oxford English Dictionary last year.

He said a spokeswoman for the Oxford English Dictionary had told him he was the first person to question the definition of siphon, which dated from 1911 and had been written by editors who were not scientists.

But she said that his views would be taken into account as they updated the entire reference book which, according to the dictionary's website, is now up to the letter R.

"I thought, 'oh good, just in time', because S is next," Hughes said.

A siphon is a tube -- often u- or v-shaped -- that is used to move liquids from one container to another. It is commonly used to drain fish tanks or petrol tanks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100511/ts_afp/scienceaustralialanguageoffbeat_20100511102011

Samantha Cameron: Britain's own Bruni

A successful business woman, the cover girl of fashion glossy Harper's Bazaar, she sports a dolphin tattoo on her ankle. Now Samantha Cameron, nicknamed Sam by the tabloids, is close to becoming UK's new first lady.

With British voters delivering a hung verdict last week, chances are that Samantha's husband, David Cameron may become UK's next Prime Minister.

Married to Cameron for 12 years, Samantha is the creative director of Smythson, a firm that produces luxury fashion products including notebooks for the Queen.

"Samantha has a strong sense of style," says Peter Buoy, a British expat who lives in a rented apartment in Defence Colony. During the elections, Samantha was deployed in the campaign as David Cameron's "secret weapon".

Being young (not yet 40) and camera-friendly, tabloids lapped her up. When the news broke that Samantha is due to deliver a baby in September, the Sun wrote, "Wham Bam! Sam Cam to be a Mam!" As the First Lady, Sam may be more restrained but is sure to be in the news for her style quotient.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/slideshow/samantha-cameron-britain-s-own-bruni.html?curPhoto=5

Rumour is: MJ is alive!

A website has claimed that Michael Jackson is alive and masquerading as a burns victim, astonishing users all over the world.

Internet rumours on YouTube and Facebook also claim the King of Pop is appearing on TV talk shows as Dave Dave, 33, a man who suffered severe facial disfigurement after his father set him on fire.

Dave was born David Rothenberg, in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of six, his father set him on fire over a twisted revenge concerning the child's custody.

The little boy suffered 90 percent injuries, and was scarred badly, but survived.

His mother, Marie wrote a book on his ordeal, which was then made into a movie. A trip to Jackson's Neverland ranch was organized for the boy, where the pop star took the boy under his wing.

Dave, now a law student living in Utah, changed his surname to break all ties with his father.
"He befriended me. He took me into his life, which is very rare for Michael to do.

"But he opened up his arms to me and accepted me as a very good friend of his. And throughout the years, he never let me go," The Sun quoted the boy as saying.

Now Dave, who appeared on the Larry King show to talk about his memories of Jackson on the day of the star's memorial service last year, is rumoured to be the pop star himself.

The website called michaeljacksonhoaxforum.com, is owned by a 28-year-old and her friend, Mo, who call themselves Michael Jackson Death Hoax Investigators.

"At first we started investigating Michael's death as it was a gut feeling we both had.

"The media told us two different stories. TMZ.com reported he died six minutes before the doctor pronounced him dead, and CNN kept telling us he was in a coma. What really happened still remains a mystery," said the website owner.

Lawyer Brian Oxman, who acts as Dave's spokesman, rubbished the rumours saying that Jackson would be the last man wanting to study law.

"He was so remarkable that people find it difficult to believe he is no longer with us. They long for him to remain a part of our lives.

"Dave Dave is an extraordinary young man. Michael Jackson took care of Dave for many years and asked nothing in return," he added.

Jackson died aged 50 in June last year.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100511/906/ten-mj-burns-victim-lookalike-sparks-rum.html

War of drama queens scorches the small screen

SHILPA Shetty and Rakhi Sawant, Bollywood's biggest drama queens who have mastered the art of hogging the limelight for no reason, have found a platform for catfight on reality TV. On the new Star Plus show, Zara Nach Ke Dikha, Shilpa and Rakhi have bared their claws right from the start, setting the stage for plenty of scripted fights to come.


Shilpa, who is a judge on the dance show, has been giving a cold shoulder to Rakhi, a contestant. In the latest episode, aired on Saturday, which was a Mother's Day special, Shilpa's reaction after Rakhi performance clearly showed that she doesn't want to encourage any staged drama on the part of Rakhi.

True to form, Rakhi tried to cash in on the reunion drama. She started to apologise to Abhishek's mother, who was also present on the show. Shilpa looked on impatiently, waiting for the drama to get over. The catfight between the two started in the early rounds when Shilpa, after a dance by Rakhi, said her performance was far from the quality one would expect from an item bomb. Never the one to take things lying down, Rakhi promptly retorted that she was the Amitabh Bachchan of television. Rakhi's dig was obvious.



"It was an average performance," Shilpa said after Rakhi performed to the beats of the mehbooba mehbooba number from film Sholay, along with her ex-boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi. For the record, the episode marked Rakhi's reunion with Abhishek after she had very publicly broken ties with him.

The catfight has shifted focus from what the show is meant to be - a battle of sexes between male celebrities (known in the contest as Mastkalandar) and their female counterparts (Massakali). Shilpa is clearly in the mood to cut a strict picture as a judge on the show. This is in sync with her of-late bid to project herself as a woman of substance.

Despite having made it big, Shilpa has never really been a top star. It didn't end there. The item girl went on to declared: "Even Sachin Tendulkar is out on zero at times." Shilpa was clearly stumped, but her co-judge Arshad Warsi came to her rescue. "When Sachin scores a zero, he is credited zero runs on the scoreboard too. You should keep that in mind," he told Rakhi.

Onlookers feel Shilpa's strict image on Zara Nachke Dikha is because she wants to stop Rakhi from hogging the limelight. A source in the production unit of the show said: "Shilpa is generally friendly with the contestants. She is seen interacting with most of them. But with Rakhi, she maintains a distance. Nobody has ever seen the two getting frendly." The battle of the bombshells has just begun!

Source: http://in.movies.yahoo.com/specials/War-of-drama-queens-scorches-small-screen/tv/slideshow-963.html#id=6

Inside Sandra Bullock's New $2.25 Million Mansion

When Sandra Bullock revealed in last month's jaw-dropping cover story in People that she'd adopted a baby boy from New Orleans, she spoke about raising him there, saying: "It's his city." Just a few weeks later, the actor and single mom followed through on that promise. Bullock recently moved herself and baby Louis into a historic Victorian mansion in the city's Garden District.

The mansion, known as the Koch-Mays house, was built in the 1860s. It boasts 6,615 square feet, five bedrooms, four and a half baths, ornate chandeliers, and a lagoon-like pool in the backyard. Bullock bought the house for $2.25 million last June with her now-estranged husband, Jesse James. (She filed for divorce from James in April.)

Dramatic photos of the mansion, which were posted on a real estate site after her June 2009 purchase of the home, show rooms bedecked with opulent antique furniture, Victorian wallpaper, and huge, gold Gothic mirrors. But Bullock has most likely filled the home with her own décor by now: Moving vans were spotted late last month moving furniture, including a leather sofa, into the mansion.

Source:http://shine.yahoo.com/event/haven/inside-sandra-bullocks-new-2-25-million-mansion-1429869/

Poised Pairing: Abhi Ash Team Up Again!

They're a rocking twosome. Even as the curiosity over 'Raavan' peaks some more, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will reportedly share acting honours in Rajkumar Santoshi's forthcoming flick.
Tentatively titled, 'Ladies And Gentleman' is slated to roll after Santoshi sorts out dates for his present project starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn.
Says a close source, "Santoshi has been very keen to work with Aishwarya ever since they worked together and bonded well in 'Khakee'. He narrated the script of 'Ladies And Gentleman' to Ash and Abhishek recently, and they loved it! Both of them have given him the go ahead for the film."
Incidentally, Santoshi's venture is to be produced by a leading ice cream brand. How koooooolllll is that?

Source:http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/87484/Poised-Pairing-Abhi-Ash-Team-Up-Again.html

Mallika Sherawat in her new film --- HISSSSS!!!