6 Manly qualities that women love in men
May 19th
It’s not just about being tall, dark and handsome. There are certain ‘manly’ qualities about guys that can make any woman go weak in her knees. And while you may think it’s all about the looks, guess what? There’s more. It’s a potent mix of both, physical attributes and of course, that all important emotional touch. Here, we tell you about six points you need to heed.
Well groomed
Yes, we said tall but the reality is that height is really not as important a factor as how you present yourself. Just like guys like a women who is well turned out, women too dig guys who ensure that they are perfectly groomed a la Leonardo DiCaprio. The basic funda women believe in is that if you are careful enough to take care of yourself, they can trust you to take care of them. So, remember guys, sloppy dressing, uncombed hair, dirty nails, smelly socks, stained shirts or jeans and the likes are an absolute no-no when you are trying to make that all important impression on someone from the opposite sex.
A sense of style
Women would rather have you splurging on them than on obscenely priced designer wear. So, even if it’s a typical roadside purchase that you swear by, make sure you adopt a certain classy and stylised look and maintain it. Women don’t really expect you to be a picture copy of a Pierce Brosnan or a David Beckham, but trying to imitate their style will surely up your popularity quotient. Keep yourself updated on the latest trends. Also, just as you have your reservations against the ‘nun-type’ dressers, women too hesitate when it comes to the boring office type dresser.
Laugh it out
One of the most important trait that woman dig is a sense of humour. Women have more than enough problems to deal with and don’t really need the company of another equally depressed soul. Yes, you have your bad days, but it does go a long way if you have a good sense of humour, and clean humour at that. Beware, taking a dig at others and constantly putting others down do not really spell fun for women. And we can’t tell you enough how much women love people who can laugh at themselves and their own mistakes.
Show them you care
Women need to be constantly reassured that they are loved and cared for. Acts like holding their hand while walking down the road, watching the sunset, an occasional hug and peck on the cheeks and making sure that they cross the road safely mean that you are proud to be seen with them and care for them. Remember, not displaying your affection openly is a sign that you are ashamed of who you are with. However, beware of being crass while displaying you affections.
A sexy smile/wink
There’s a reason why women absolutely adore Richard Gere or Hugh Jackman and it has a lot to do with the way that they smile or that glint in their eyes. Believe us when we tell you that if you look at them and smile like that, it does make them feel very special, like they are one in a million.
Be calm
Woman are known to be harrowed and frenzied. Yes, they do tend to get hyper very easily and that is the precise reason why you need to be the calming factor in their lives. It really doesn’t help if you too get stressed out or fly off the handle at any and every incident. Your sex appeal lies as much in your looks as it does in your attitude – women dig guys with a cool and peaceful attitude, the one who is able to calm them down and reassure them that all is well.
BCCI pads up may block Shah Rukh Khan ban
May 19th
Recently, he played a vital role in helping BCCI negotiate with Sahara India Parivar when the latter threatened to pull out as Team India’s sponsor and as owners of IPL’s Team Pune. Khan’s involvement in settling the dispute amicably was acknowledged by both the BCCI and Sahara owner Subrata Roy.
In such a scenario, it is unclear if the MCA’s decision to ban Khan from Wankhede despite BCCI’s apparent discomfort is practicable. The BCCI’s discomfort was clear on Friday when its vice-president Rajeev Shukla, who is also the IPL governing council chairman and a friend of Khan, said: “The MCA is well within its rights to ban Shah Rukh, but BCCI will take the final decision on the matter.”
A senior BCCI official who is bound to play a role when BCCI takes a final call on the MCA ban said that Khan’s role in IPL has to be “considered when a decision like that is taken. If he has committed a mistake in abusing individuals, he may be ready to sit across the table and sort things out. But you can’t just ban him because he came to the stadium in an inebriated state.”
Then, there is also the matter of the commercial impact. If the conflict grows further, Khan’s personal sponsors may threaten to pull out of IPL. Also, importantly, the 300-odd seats in Wankhede that are allotted to the visiting team during every match may remain empty every time Kolkata tours Mumbai.
The political ramifications of the ban are also significant. The West Bengal government, which has spoken in the actor’s support after the Wednesday night fracas, may further throw its weight behind the state’s brand ambassador and make the Wankhede ban a political whirlpool.
Miss this, and the next one’s in 2117
May 19th
KOLKATA: If you have a pair of sun goggles, get them dusted for a celestial event on June 6. Venus will crawl across the disc of the sun that day and it can be seen in Kolkata from sunrise till around 10am.
The event has generated tremendous interest across the world since the next transit will occur only in 2117.
As with a solar eclipse, do not look at the sun with naked eyes. “Since Venus will only cover 1/32 of the sun’s disc, looking the event with the naked eye is a strict no-no. You should use scientifically tested aluminized Mylar filter (sometimes called as solar goggles) or No.14 welder’s glass,” said MP Birla Planetarium director (research & academic) Debiprosad Duari.
Using exposed X-ray plates or smoked glass is very dangerous, he warns. “The best method is to project the sun’s image through a telescope or a pinhole camera on a screen or a plane white surface,” he says.
Venus’ transit is an extremely significant event because it was central to the evolution of the first concrete concept of the solar system and ushered in the modern era of astronomical observations for calculating some parameters of the solar system.
Kolkata will miss out the first half of the event as it will happen before sunrise.
“The event is quite rare. Once a transit occurs, it will happen again after a span of eight years. But thereafter a transit will not be seen for 105.5 years. Again after a pair of transits, the next one will happen after a gap of 121.5 years,” explained Duari.
On June 6, the transit will last for about 5 hours 40 minutes. The last part of it will be visible in India. For Kolkata, the transit will start around 3.40am.
The greatest transit – when the black dot of Venus can be seen at the innermost point of the disc of the sun – will occur at 7.02am. The transit will end at around 10.20am. The small disc of Venus will touch the Sun’s disc internally at 10.04am and will be completely out at 10.21am. On June 6, the sun will rise around 4.51am in Kolkata. Though the transit should be seen then onwards, realistically it can only be viewed properly around half hour later.First predicted by Johannes Kepler, the transit of Venus gave proof of Galileo Galilei’s sun-centered model of the solar system.
The entire event of the transit of Venus will be visible from eastern Australia, New Zealand, New Guniea, the Philippines, northern Asia, eastern China, Korea, Japan, the islands of the western Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada. In the far north, the entire transit can also be seen, since the sun will not set. From eastern Canada, United States, the Central America, Caribbean and northwest south America where only the first part of the transit will be visible, before the sun sets down.
However, not all inferior conjunction results in a visible transit. This is because the orbital plane of Venus is inclined at an angle of 3.4 degree to the Earth-Sun orbital plane and Sun, Venus and Earth may not be in a straight line.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Miss-this-and-the-next-ones-in-2117/articleshow/13285044.cms
Satyam aims to be among top 3
May 19th
Three years after taking over reigns of the then scam hit Satyam Computers, management of the now Mahindra Satyam sees the company snapping out of the past, and is on path to becoming among the top three players, at least in few chosen verticals.
But marching to the goal post may not be easy for the company, given the signs of strain IT Services sector is facing in the US and Europe, cite top officials. “I do believe we are now fully recovered, but then now we have no alibi and cannot take the excuse of 2009 anymore. Given by any standards these are good results,” said Vineet Nayyar, chairman, Mahindra Satyam.
The IT Services firm posted a net profit of Rs 534.21 crore and a total income of Rs 1665.84 crore for the fourth quarter of FY12. This is against the Rs 308.43 crore of net profit and Rs 1718. 08 crore of total income, in the third quarter of this year. However, in the Q4 of last financial year it had reported losses of Rs 326 crore.
For the complete financial year, the scam hit company saw a net profit of Rs 1306.06 crore compared with a net loss of 147.23 crore in the previous financial year. The turnover was at Rs 6395.56 crore for FY12 as against Rs 5145.06 crore for FY11.
“With the US showing signs of strain and a large number of controversies in Europe may have an impact on the business. So instead of traditional software we are now getting into operations too,” Nayyar said.
Source : http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/satyam-aims-be-among-top-3-071
Falling rupee opening up new opportunities for IT companies
May 18th
BANGALORE|CHENNAI: As Indian software services firms wait out the lull in demand, the depreciating rupee – the Indian currency has fallen by nearly 8% against the dollar since April – is opening up new opportunities while throwing up some challenges.
Besides the translational gains fluffing up revenues and profits, Indian IT firms could also earn some brownie points with their clients by passing on some of the foreign exchange gains as savings to its US clients. IT firms could also plough back some of the extra income into sales and marketing efforts while riding out the lacklustre demand.
The rupee boost could even help Infosys, which said it is holding off on pay hikes, to give out salary increments to its employees. In fact, its global sales and marketing head Basab Pradhan admitted as much during a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch investor conference last week when he said that a wage hike will be considered if growth surprises or “if a weak rupee provides cushion”.
Every percentage fall in the rupee, analysts estimate, boosts operating margins by at least 30-40 basis points. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage. Of the $100 billion (Rs 5.5 lakh crore) export revenue that IT and BPO firms earned in fiscal 2012, nearly 58% was from the US, according to data available with the National Association of Software and Services Companies.
“We believe that eventually the benefit of rupee depreciation will get passed on to the customer,” Kotak Institutional Equities said in a recent client note. “However, in the interim, vendors can benefit from targeted investments.”
While the rupee depreciation will look beneficial in the short term it is likely to put pressure on pricing in future when clients seek discounts. Som Mittal, president of Nasscom, said that clients will demand pricing discounts when vendors are benefiting from foreign exchange gains.
“Clients, once they taste success with one vendor, can force other vendors to do the same, impacting pricing for everyone,” Kotak’s analysts wrote. CP Gurnani, CEO of Mahindra Satyam, agreed that the falling rupee will allow pricing cuts. Not only that, when the rupee swings back, clients are amenable to increasing price in arrangements called “mirror clauses”.
However, foreign exchange fluctuations will not immediately lead to contract renegotiations, but those contracts that are coming up for renewal or new contracts being discussed will take into account the foreign exchange levels.
“Several factors go into devising a contract, one of which is the exchange rate,” said Siddharth Pai, managing director at the Indian arm of outsourcing consultancy ISG. “Existing contracts won’t see re-negotiation but this will become a point of discussion for new contracts.”
Cognizant CFO Karen McLoughlin says the swings are neutral for the company because it has a very aggressive hedging programme. Cognizant has about $3.7 billion in outstanding hedges of its rupee expenses which will mature each month through 2015 at an average rate of 51.9 against the dollar.
Will Department break Ram Gopal Varmas spate of flops at the box office
May 18th
“Making movies is my job and I try to make better movies each time. This is an expensive action packed movie and I hope it will be a hit”
With his latest cop-mafia thriller that is touted to be the most stylish film from his stable – Department releasing tomorrow, maverick director Ram Gopal Varma is hoping to turn the tide of having delivered duds in recent past.
It’s been a while since Varma hit the bulls eye at the box office and while he has been nonchalant about the fate of his movies, surely he wouldn’t mind a hit. “Making movies is my job and I try to make better movies each time. This is an expensive action packed movie and I am hoping that it will be a hit.”
The movie has already created a buzz not merely because of the star cast beginning from Amitabh Bachchan, Sunjay Dutt, Rana Daggubati and his latest muse Natalia Kaur.
The adoption of ‘rogue’ method of film making where seven small cameras were used to shoot a sequence instead of one single big camera is sure to provide a “different dimension”, he explained at a press meet on Thursday.
His actors, including Amitabh, were taken aback in the beginning at this novel method of cinematography where the small lens would sneak into every space and angle possible but soon got used to it, he says.
A sort of glass ceiling in the film world was also shattered in the process with Varma opting for a lady villain-don.
This role is being played by Telugu actress Madhu Shalini.
The sizzling item number from the model from Brazil, Natalia Kaur, too is much awaited. Having created a space for himself in Bollywood, Rana D., too is quite excited about the movie and his role.
“It’s a dream come true. I played the role of a cop who helps in demolishing the Mumbai underworld ruthlessly and who is very loyal to the police department. Acting along with legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt was also a rare opportunity for me,” he said.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3429863.ece
Testing Private Ship to the Space Station, and Wine, Too
May 18th
In space, how quickly does grape juice turn to wine?
Two California high school students hope to find out soon. Their experiment is one of 11 aboard a rocket scheduled to blast off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to the International Space Station. “We think it’s going to ferment faster,” said Max Holden, a ninth grader at Chaminade College Preparatory in West Hills, Calif.
But there is no guarantee that the seven-inch tube of yeast and grape juice will ever reach its destination.
The launching is a test flight of a spacecraft built by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif. The event is slightly historic: if all goes well, the ship will be the first operated by a private company, rather than the government, to supply the space station.
Erring on the side of caution, officials at NASA and SpaceX have stressed that the purpose of the mission is to shake out glitches. “I think there’s a significant chance the mission does not succeed,” said Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX.
The craft, a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule on top of it, will carry more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, mostly food and clothing — items that NASA regards as no big loss should the launching fail.
The only scientific experiments on the mission are those devised by students as part of a program run by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. They will explore the effects of zero gravity, including whether medicines can slow bone loss and whether certain bacteria that eat plastic would thrive and eat greater amounts of plastic in space.
The liftoff, set for 4:55 Saturday morning, is timed to take place at the moment the launching pad lines up with the space station’s orbit. If weather or a technical problem keeps the rocket on the ground, SpaceX will have to wait until 3:44 a.m. Tuesday for the pad and orbit to line up again.
After reaching orbit, the Dragon capsule is to perform a series of test maneuvers. On the third day, it is scheduled to fly 1.5 miles under the space station to demonstrate its navigation and communication systems. If it passes the tests, NASA will give the go-ahead for the final approach on Tuesday, when Donald R. Pettit, a NASA astronaut, will use the space station’s robotic arm to grab the Dragon and pull it to a docking port.
If successful, the Dragon would be the first commercial spacecraft to visit the space station, and SpaceX would collect the remaining payments on a $396 million agreement with NASA to develop the cargo ship. SpaceX would then enter a $1.6 billion contract for a dozen cargo flights to the station.
If the flight fails, SpaceX would have to repeat the demonstration flight until it succeeds.
SpaceX has so far avoided the early failures that typically accompany a new rocket like the Falcon 9. The maiden flight, in June 2010, was almost flawless. The second flight — the first under the NASA agreement — was in December 2010, putting into orbit a Dragon capsule that successfully parachuted back to Earth.
The successes have, however, taken longer than anticipated. SpaceX originally predicted its first visit to the space station would be in 2009. The delays were not a big surprise, Mr. Musk said, given the complexities.
“Certainly, we would have hoped to have been further ahead,” he said, “but I wouldn’t have expected that with great confidence.”
For the students at Chaminade Preparatory looking forward to the winemaking experiment, the launching will be particularly exciting. If the capsule makes it to the space station, one of the astronauts there will mix the grape juice and yeast and let it ferment for five days.
Max Holden and his lab partner, Paige D’Andrea, a 10th grader, will perform the same experiment, and when the space wine is returned to Earth about a month later, they will compare the two.
“When we get it back, we’re going to get one of the priests to bless it,” said Nancy McIntyre, the director of the project for Chaminade, a Catholic school.
To figure out which one is more alcoholic, the students will not taste any of the fermented grape juice, but instead will measure the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the yeast.
Anonymous hacks govt sites for blocking vimeo
May 18th
Hacker group Anonymous, has struck again and this time its much closer home. The group reportedly brought down the Congress website, the Supreme Court website and some other government websites in retaliation for India’s new Internet laws and the blocking of websites like The Pirate Bay and Vimeo.
According to PCWorld , the group posted about the attack on their Twitter feed saying, “Namaste #India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck.”
According to their Twitter feed, the group targeted websites of the Indian Supreme Court, the All India Congress Committee, Copyrightlabs.in, Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Information Technology, and the Jammu & Kashmir Police.
The Congress denied that its website had been hacked. “The site is not hacked at all. It was not opening for sometime because the load on the particular server was too heavy due to huge number of hits after the news of website hacking spread. It went slow at that time due to over-traffic,” Chairman of AICC’c Computer Department Vishwajeet Singh, a former Rajya Sabha MP told PTI.
Yesterday the Rajya Sabha had also debated the issue of Internet censorship with regard to the new IT rules. A number of members opposed the proposed law, which forced Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to say the government would strive to build a consensus on the subject.
According to Medianama, Vimeo, The Pirate Bay, have been blocked because of a John Doe order taken by Copyright Labs, Chennai, from the Madras High Court, for preventing piracy of Tamil Films Dammu and 3.
Some people can still access Vimeo and The Pirate Bay. It seems that the sites were initially blocked by Reliance, followed by Airtel. The users who faced the blocking got a message saying that this was due to a DOT regulation, but later the message said that it was because of a court order.
This is not the first time that the India has faced Internet censorship. Previously when Singham was released,Reliance Communicationshad also used a John Doe order to block all video-streaming sites to curb piracy.
The government has expressed an unhealthy enthusiasm to curb social media and video websites, which they claim are being used to defame members of the government. Advocates of Internet freedom, however say that the defamatory content ruse is a mere excuse to curb any criticism of the government.
Source : http://www.firstpost.com/tech/anonymous-hacks-govt-sites-for-blocking-vimeo-313180.html
