Blog of Parag

Spitzer Space Telescope

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. This was the last telescope of NASA's Great Observatories program. It is the fourth member of this family, which consists of Hubble Space Telescope for visible light, Chandra X-ray Telescope and Compton Gamma-ray observatory. The picture on the left is taken by the Spitzer sometime in November of one of my favorite objects, M81. The three images at the bottom are taken at three different frequencies ranging from 3.6 to 24 microns. The big image is a composite of all three and the inset is taken in visible light.

Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically-cooled science instruments, Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its highly sensitive instruments give us a unique view of the Universe and allow us to peer into regions of space which are hidden from optical telescopes. Many areas of space are filled with vast, dense clouds of gas and dust which block our view. Infrared light, however can penetrate these clouds, allowing us to peer into regions of star formation, the centers of galaxies, and into newly forming planetary systems.

Because infrared is primarily heat radiation, the telescope must be cooled to near absolute zero (-459 degrees Fahrenheit or -273 degrees Celsius) so that it can observe infrared signals from space without interference from the telescope's own heat. Also, the telescope must be protected from the heat of the Sun and the infrared radiation put out by the Earth. To do this, Spitzer carries a solar shield and will be launched into an Earth-trailing solar orbit. This unique orbit places Spitzer far enough away from the Earth to allow the telescope to cool rapidy without having to carry large amounts of cryogen. It carries 360 litres of liquid Helium which wil last through 5 years of operation.

Venice

I was looking at some old pictures and remembered how beautiful Venice was.

Can't believe this...

Would someone please shoot this moron?

Saddam is Islam's hero: Imam

Strom Thurmond's black love child

Wow! Is this for real??
CNN.com - Strom Thurmond's family confirms paternity claim - Dec. 16, 2003

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, now 78 and a retired school teacher in Los Angeles, publicly revealed her relationship to the former segregationist after a lifetime of silence.

According to reports, her attorney, Frank Wheaton, said Williams came forward at the urging of her children and had no plans to ask the Thurmond estate for any money.
....
According to the Washington Post report, Washington-Williams' mother, Carrie Butler, worked as a maid at the Thurmond family home in Edgefield, South Carolina. At the time the girl was born in 1925, Butler was 16 and Thurmond was 22, unmarried and living in his parents' home.

Butler's sister took the girl to live in Pennsylvania when she was six months old, and she did not meet Thurmond until returning to South Carolina in 1941, when she was 16, the Post reported.

Her mother, who was ill and died a short time later, had insisted on introducing her to Thurmond, who acknowledged her as his daughter, the newspaper reported.

Google Bombs

All you need is a creative mind to find an undesirable application for every good invention. Google Bomb is an excellent example. Google's incredible algorithm finds webpages with your exact search keyword, and also finds webpages that donot have the keyword but are linked to pages that have the keyword. If one creates a webpage multiple links to a certain website using the keyword as the link, that website can be at the top of the search results of Google. Easy way to manipulate Google results.

Blogger Jivha created this google bomb to term Times of India as Dishrag of India. Click here to see the reults of Google search for Dishrag of India.

Another blogger Ankh is thinking about creating a google bomb to term Praful Bidwai as the Resident Idiot. I just contributed to his efforts by making this link. I have had enough of this idiot too. He recently expressed his opinions in a BBC interview that the call centers are bad for India. He termed the job growth experienced in this sector as "irrational exuberance" and something that has no future. Of course, he blamed it on the current government for lpromoting this as a short-cut remedy for India's long-standing problems of poverty and illiteracy. It is ridiculous to reject any kind of jobs when unemployment runs as high as it does in India.

Maybe, the Resident Idiot is just a moron who knows only to criticize the current government no matter what they do.

Winter blood donation

Donated blood this morning. Feeling my usual high: the false sense of achievement that one gets from donating blood. Feels good that I did something useful, maybe it will save someone's life. But, without really doing anything other than lying down for 10 minutes, getting poked and thanked by nurses with a cup of apple juice and a cookie.

I am AB+. The universal recipient. How much more selfish can I be? Thankfully, there aren't too many of us. Only 3% of the population is AB+.

India in solid position Won!!!

Indian cricket team is in a good position at the end of 4th day's play. Ajit Agarkar took his 6 wickets (his first 5 in an innings) in Australia's second innings to end it with a total of 196. Thanks to fine batting by Dravid and Laxman in the first innings even after Sachin and Ganguly getting out on 1 and 0, that Austratlia didn't end up with a very big lead from first innings. Indian openers held ground with 37 for 0 at the end of the day. On the last day they need only 193 to win with all 10 wickets in hand. There is no way they can't make this target unless it rains and washes out the day's play. If they end up losing here, I'll stop following Indian cricket. It is a promise!

Impressive bowling by Agarkar. 16-2-41-6. He usually bowls well but, not consistently. In one-day matches, he bowls one or two maiden overs in the first spell, but then, his second spell is usually horrible and ends up with stats like 10-2-60-*. His performance has been improving over time. He is 26 years old, not very young. But, still has a few good years ahead of him.

Updated on Dec 16th: India did manage to win the match. Horray! Rahul Dravid delivered another solid performance in the second innings and received a much deserved 'Man of the Match' award. As per my promise, I'll not stop following Indian cricket.

What a surprise? hardly!

Pentagon: Halliburton May Have Overcharged in Iraq

Did anyone really not know that this was going on?

A Pentagon audit of Halliburton, the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, found the company may have overbilled the U.S. government by more than $120 million on Iraq contracts.

Multifunctional protein VI

Adenovirus is a small DNA virus that replicates its genome and assembles new virus particles inside the nucleus of the host cell. One of the viral capsid proteins, protein VI, has near its C terminus both nuclear localization signal (NLS) and nuclear export signal (NES).

The major adenovirus capsid protein (hexon) is produced in the cytosol and so must be imported into the nucleus for virus particle assembly. Protein VI binds to it, and carries hexon molecules into the nucleus, using its NLS to hitch a ride on the host nuclear importers, and then return empty-handed to the cytosol via its NES-exporter interaction.

When capsid proteins are sufficiently concentrated in the nucleus to allow for efficient virus assembly, both nuclear transport signals in protein VI are degraded by proteolysis, trapping the protein in the nucleus and uncovering its third function as a structural component of the capsid itself. Pretty nifty for a small protein with about 225 residues.

The complete article can be found at EMBO Journal, 22, 6245 (2003).

Spam is bad for you

Yahoo! News - Virginia Arrests Man for Spam Email Under New Law

I hope they continue to enforce this law with much vigor. Spam is probably the biggest annoyance of the internet. It accounts for almost 50% of all email sent.

This is as disturbing as the fact that 50% of world's internet traffic goes through Virginia, because of AOL and MCI. This is the reason why MCI is allowed to survive as a company even after all the lying and cheating carried out by its officers. If MCI is shut down, it will take down a big chunk of internet with it. So, sad!!!

Revelation

Even after making hundreds of trips on these routes, I never had a clue about relative locations of the places shown in this map. Actually, I had never seen a detailed map of this region with roads before. I feel ashamed that I am infinitely better acquainted with the geography of US than India.

Huskers go to San Antonio

Nebraska will play Michigan State on Dec. 22nd, 9PM at the Alamo Bowl. This will be their 35th consecutive bowl appearance. The Longest such streak in NCAA DivI-A Football.

Smoker found responsible for his actions

Finally, a decision in a tobacco lawsuit that makes some sense!

RJR, Brown & Williamson Win Florida Smoker Suit

The jury in the Circuit Court of the 13th Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County, Fla., agreed with Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation that there was ample evidence that Hall had long been aware of the potential health risks of smoking, and that he, nevertheless, chose to smoke. The tobacco companies also showed that Hall could not conclusively show that smoking caused his lung cancer or COPD.

Kal ho naa ho: again...

Finally, I watched it last night. I decided to ignore minor things like: after ordering a double espresso at Starbucks, Naina walks out with a huge 20oz cup. But, still a lot of things bothered me making this just another ordinary movie not meeting the hyped-up pre-release expectations.

- The singing grandmas and singing Rohit's family was simply annoying.
- The whole Gia episode was completely unnecessary. Why do some characters in Hindi movies (Jaya Bachhan in this one) need to be better than God? Isn't it sufficient for them to be just good or simply 'not bad'?
- Aman seemed quite healthy for someone with a weak heart that needs a heart transplant. He was jumping around and dancing around, which was definitely not helping his heart condition. He probably would have had a better chance of getting that transplant in India. There is such a big line of patients needing a transplant and not enough donors in the US.
- Meeting between Naina and Dr. Priya at the shopping center was just a pathetic attempt to extend the movie for another 15-20 minutes. It didn't add any complexity to the plot, just made it boring when I was expecting it to end.
- In the end, what kind of life do Naina and Rohit expect to lead with the big cloud of Aman hanging over all the time. His love, his sacrifice, etc. It is a marriage perfectly ripe for divorce.

First Post

Checking out if my MT installation works...

Another win for the special

Another win for the special interest groups. More power to the timber industry lobbyists.

Bush, joined by two members of his Cabinet, touted the legislation as a crucial step to protect forests, homes and human lives that have been endangered by "uncontrollable growth left by years of neglect" on U.S. lands.

Helloooo! uncontrollable growth left by years of neglect: that is the definition of a forest. After all the thinning and controlling, might as well start calling all the forests, gardens. It is interesting to see the lobbyist dynamics that control the lawmaking. Plundering these pristine forests means huge profits for the timber industry and resultant lower prices for timber because of increase in supply means more profits to homebuilding industry. So, everyone is happy. Who cares about the environment and protecting wilderness??? On the other hand, the steel industry lobby is not going to win the battle over surcharges on steel imports. Current trade restrictions are good for the steel industry making imported steel expensive. That has brought the wrath of steel-using industries that are lobbying for removal of these tariffs to allow cheap steel imports. So, after couple of years of smooching with the steel industry people, the administration will announce to remove these tariffs to make bed with the steel-users and to comply with WTO ruling to make the steel exporters happy.

Interestingly, President Bush visited Pittsburgh, a steel industry town, this week and raised almost a million dollars in campaign money by attending a $2000 per plate dinner before making an announcement on this tariff decision.

12-04-2003UPDATE: Bush Decides to Lift All Steel Tariffs

Cannibal on trial in Germany

I would not have believed this story if I heard it on FOX News, but, it appeared on a reliable source like BBC NEWS website.

This German man is charged with murder, because there are no specific laws against cannibalism in Germany. He claims that his victim agreed to be slaughtered and then eaten. So, the defense attorneys are going to argue that there is no murder because the victim wanted and agreed to be killed. It is so weird that the victim wanted to eat himself in the process.

Mr Meiwes told investigators he took Mr Brandes back to his home in Rotenburg, where Mr Brandes agreed to have his penis cut off, which Mr Meiwes then flambeed and served up to eat together.

First woman to swim English channel dies in NJ

In 1926, Gertrude Ederle swam the choppy, treacherous stretch under the most adverse conditions, battling rip tides, cross currents, driving rain and mountainous seas, as well as a constant threat of floating debris, poisonous jellyfish and sharks. She left Cape Griz-Nez, France, at 7:05 a.m. and stumbled ashore at Kingsdown, England, 14 hours and 30 minutes later, better timing than the four men who had completed this feat before her. Because of the stormy weather, she had swum 35 miles in crossing the 21-mile-wide channel. Yet her time for the crossing stood for 24 years before it was broken in 1950 by Florence Chadwick, who negotiated 23 miles in 13 hours and 20 minutes. This picture shows Gertrude ready to start her swim. Interestingly, this is probably one of the first instances of a woman wearing a two-piece swimming suit in public. I remember Arati Pradhan from Thane swimming the channel sometime in the 80's. She was one of the youngest women ever to do that. Upon returning home, there were some big ceremonies hosted by the city and the state governments.

he he he!

I realise that this is very juvenile, but, can't resist posting it. Found these perfect acronyms on the internet somewhere...

Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software is Only for Fools and Teenagers

Will Install Needless Data On Whole System

Kal ho naa ho

I haven't seen this movie yet. Was planning to, but, reading this review on Rediff was enough to change my mind. It is an interesting dissection of the movie by someone who lives in New York. Worth reading...