‘The Artist’ and ‘Hugo’ stole the Oscars

                         While ‘The Artist’ and ‘Hugo’ stole the show with 5 awards each, the Oscars ignored a lot of good work. Here is our list of films that deserved a nomination.


The Academy has always rigidly awarded a certain type. A type that confirms to the jury’s checklist. Moving-tick, social message-tick, racially democratic-tick etc. But every year (including this one), there are some cinematic gems that offer something more and beyond, even if it doesn’t score with the ticks. So, here we attempt to draw up a list of such films that deserve a mention, regardless of whom the Academy decides to crown.


Kill List
17 Girls
Sleeping Beauty
Sunny (Korean)
Drive
Miss Bala (Mexican)
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Documentary)
We need to talk about Kevin
Phone call to the bar (Japanese)
Wake Wood

These films are ignored in academy award..

Two deadly avalanches in Kashmir

Army confirms 17 jawans dead in two deadly avalanches in Kashmir

Mon 27 Feb, 2012


Just days after the deadly avalanche in Gurez and Sonamarg that killed 17 people including nine Army personnel last week, dramatic footage have surfaced of the moments just before the avalanche in Gurez.

Missing moon rocks?

The US space agency NASA recently announced that half of the moon rocks brought back to Earth from two Apollo space missions have gone missing. They were given as gifts to the nations of the world.
                             Moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 was also distributed to the same nations and US states.
There were 370 pieces gathered from the two missions. Two hundred and seventy were given to nations of the world and 100 to the 50 US states.
But 184 of these are lost, stolen or unaccounted for - 160 around the world and 24 in the US.
The rocks were distributed to countries ranging from Afghanistan to Trinidad and Tobago.
"Gaddafi's government was given two moon rocks - they're missing. Romania is missing its Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock," says Joseph Gutheinz Jr, the Texas-based lawyer and former NASA agent, who has become known as the "moon rock hunter".
His obsession began in 1998 when - still at NASA - he set up an undercover sting operation called Operation Lunar Eclipse.
He placed an advert entitled "Moon Rocks Wanted" in USA Today, to entice con-artists selling bogus moon rocks to approach him.
The rock - which weighed 1.142 grams - was offered to Gutheinz for $5m (£3.1m).

An anonymous private collector bought 0.2 grams of lunar dust for $442,500 (£280,800).

With potential prices in this range, it is no surprise there is a lucrative black market in moon rocks, both real and fake."Moon rocks could be seen as artworks - relating in particular to the Chinese tradition of the Philosopher Stones as naturally occurring artworks reflecting the universe in microcosmic form"

DNA ROBOT

SCIENTISTS have created a robot made from DNA that can be instructed to find diseased cells in the body and deliver a payload to kill or reprogram them, according to a study from Harvard University.

The robot was made by folding DNA strands into a shape roughly like a clamshell. The researchers programmed the nano-sized device to open in the presence of leukaemia and lymphoma cells in a laboratory dish, where they delivered immune system antibodies that caused the cells to self-destruct, according to a report in the journal Science.
The next step will be to test the system in animals, tweaking the robot so it can circulate longer to locate all cancer cells. The technology isn't ready for commercial use, said Shawn Douglas, an author of the study.

The idea is based on the behavior of the body's immune cells, which recognize viruses or other invaders and attack them.
The DNA nano-robots, with similar capabilities, may potentially lead to the development of new types of targeted cancer treatments that kill only abnormal cells.The robots don't reproduce. They have to be built in a process that has gained traction since the idea of DNA nanotechnology was first suggested in 1982.

DNA is a material, shaped in the form of a revolving ladder, that carries the genetic information in our cells. The double-sided strands have so-called sticky ends that allow them to be joined with other DNA. Scientists, led by Nadrian Seeman, now head of the department of chemistry at New York University, have used those sticky ends to form DNA into lattices that can be shaped.

Countries With HIV

 

1.South Africa/Swaziland

South Africa tops the list of most people infected with HIV/AIDS, with 5.3 million. But the highest percentage of people in any one country with HIV/AIDS is Swaziland, with 26.1 percent.


2.India/Botswana

India has the second-highest population with HIV/AIDS, numbering 5.1 million people, with the second highest-percentage of infection in Botswana, at 23.9 percent.
 

3.Nigeria/Lesotho

Third place in population is Nigeria with 3.6 million people; in percentage, it is the African country of Lesotho, with 23.2 percent. Placements of four through 10 will show the population ranking first, then percentage rank.
 

4.Zimbabwe/South Africa
 

Zimbabwe at 1.8 million people, South Africa at 18.1 percent.
 

5.Tanzania/Namibia
 

Tanzania at 1.6 million people, Namibia at 15.3 percent.
 

6.Ethiopia/Zimbabwe
 

Ethiopia at 1.5 million people, Zimbabwe at 15.3 percent (only slightly behind Namibia).
 

7.Mozambique/Zambia
 

Mozambique at 1.3 million people, Zambia at 15.2 percent.
 

8.Kenya/Mozambique
 

Kenya at 1.2 million, Mozambique at 12.5 percent.
 

9.Democratic Republic of the Congo/Malawi
 

Democratic Republic of the Congo at 1.1 million people, Malawi at 11.9 percent.
 

10.United States/Central African Republic
 

United States at 950,000 people, Central African Republic at 6.3 percent.

"Mafia Gang"

                 The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates its rackets – usually a town or village or a neighbourhood (borgata) of a larger city. Its members call themselves "men of honor", although the public often refers to them as "mafiosi".

 

Arrivals..

On June 11^th 1900, Giuseppe Morello was arrested along with Colagero Meggiore. They were accused of selling counterfeit money and held on $5000 bail. The arrests had grown out of a Secret Service investigation that began when $5 bills were being passed in Brooklyn and North Beach. Morello and Meggiore were believed to be the suppliers of the money, which was described as ‘being printed on very poor paper with crude workmanship’. However, Morello later walked free from court.

First Mafia War

The First Mafia War was the first high-profile conflict between Mafia clans in post-war Italy (the Sicilian Mafia has a long history of violent rivalries)

Second Mafia War

                   In the early 1970s, Luciano Leggio, boss of the Corleon clan and member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission, forged a coalition of mafia clans known as the Corleonesi, with himself as its leader. He initiated a campaign to dominate Cosa Nostra and its narcotics trade. Because Leggio was imprisoned in 1974, he acted through his deputy, Salvatore Riina, to whom he would eventually hand over control. The Corleonesi bribed cash-strapped Palermo clans into the fold, subverted members of other clans and secretly recruited new members.In 1977, the Corleonesi had Gaetano Badalamenti expelled from the Commission on trumped-up charges of hiding drug revenues.In April 1981, the Corleonesi murdered another rival member of the Commission, Stefano Bontade, and the Second Mafia War began in earnest.Hundreds of enemy mafiosi and their relatives were murdered,sometimes by traitors in their own clans. By manipulating the Mafia's rules and eliminating rivals, the Corleonesi came to completely dominate the Commission. Riina used his power over the Commission to replace the bosses of certain clans with hand-picked regents.In the end, the Corleonesi faction won and Riina effectively became the "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian Mafia.

The First Killing at the Stables

Pasquarella (or Mosoni) Spinelli lived at 239 E109th Street, the nespapers nicknamed her ’ The Hetty Green of Harlem’ due to her supposed wealth. She owned a large stable located at 334 E108th Street, and had interests in several other businesses, including leasing tenements in Harlem and the management of a picture theatre in 2^nd Avenue. The stable was described in the press as ‘a rambling one storey structure, built partially of sheet iron, packing boxes, discarded odds and ends of house wreckage — doors for instance with hinges still on them yet. It is a rabbit warren which shelters two or three junk shops, a wheelwrights, a blacksmiths, a boarding stable and a hay and grain store’. The building later to become known as the ‘Murder Stables’, due to the large number of killings in it’s vicinity.Mr.Meyer Suchowljanski was one of most famous Gangster.

Smuggling

Mafiosi provide protection and invest capital in smuggling gangs.In 1950s and 1960s were difficult times for mafiosi, but in the 1970s their rackets grew considerably more lucrative, particularly smuggling. Smuggling operations require large investments (goods, boats, crews, etc.) but few people would trust their money to criminal gangs. It is mafiosi who raise the necessary money from investors and ensure all parties act in good faith. They also ensure that the smugglers operate in safety.

Murder

Murders are almost always carried out by members. It is very rare for the Mafia to recruit an outsider for a single job, and such people are liable to be eliminated soon afterwards because they become expendable liabilities.

Sixth Generation Fighter

                            The technologies are emerging, but what’s needed is a program to pull them together.

Within the next few years,we will begin work on the sixth generation [fighter] capabilities necessary for future air dominance.The Air Force may have to move a little faster to develop that next generation fighter.
The possibilities for a sixth generation fighter seem almost the stuff of science fiction.

It would likely be far stealthier than even the fifth generation aircraft. It may be able to change its shape in flight, “morphing” to optimize for either speed or persistence, and its engines will likely be retunable in-flight for efficient supersonic cruise or subsonic loitering.
 
                 The sixth generation fighter will likely have directed energy weapons—high-powered microwaves and lasers for defense against incoming missiles or as offensive weapons themselves. Munitions would likely be of the “dial an effect” type, able to cause anything from impairment to destruction of an air or ground target.
Embedded sensors and microelectronics will also make possible sensor arrays in “locations that previously weren’t available because of either heat or the curvature of the surface,” providing more powerful and comprehensive views of the battlefield, Meyer noted. Although the aircraft probably won’t be autonomous, he said, it will be able to “learn” and advise the pilot as to what actions to take—specifically, whether a target should be incapacitated temporarily, damaged, or destroyed.


Fighter Generations

The definition of fighter generations has long been subject to debate. However, most agree that the generations break down along these broad lines:


Generation 1: Jet propulsion (F-80, German Me 262).

Generation 2: Swept wings; range-only radar; infrared missiles (F-86, MiG-15).

Generation 3: Supersonic speed; pulse radar; able to shoot at targets beyond visual range (“Century Series” fighters such as F-105; F-4; MiG-17; MiG-21).

Generation 4: Pulse-doppler radar; high maneuverability; look-down, shoot-down missiles (F-15, F-16, Mirage 2000, MiG-29).

Generation 4+: High agility; sensor fusion; reduced signatures (Eurofighter Typhoon, Su-30, advanced versions of F-16 and F/A-18, Rafale).

Generation 4++: Active electronically scanned arrays; continued reduced signatures or some “active” (waveform canceling) stealth; some supercruise (Su-35, F-15SE).

Generation 5: All-aspect stealth with internal weapons, extreme agility, full-sensor fusion, integrated avionics, some or full supercruise (F-22, F-35).

Potential Generation 6: extreme stealth; efficient in all flight regimes (subsonic to multi-Mach); possible “morphing” capability; smart skins; highly networked; extremely sensitive sensors; optionally manned; directed energy weapons.

Technology Readiness Levels

Pentagon leaders now seek to reduce weapon risks and costs by deferring production until technologies are mature. Pentagon technology readiness levels—TRLs—are defined as follows:

TRL 1: Basic principles observed and reported. Earliest transition from basic scientific research to applied research and development. Paper studies of a technology’s basic properties.

TRL 2: Invention begins; practical applications developed. No proof or detailed analysis yet.

TRL 3: Active R&D begins. Analytical and lab studies to validate predictions. Components not yet integrated.

TRL 4: Basic elements are shown to work together in a “breadboard,” or lab setting.

TRL 5: Fidelity of demonstrations rises. Basic pieces are integrated in a somewhat realistic way. Can be tested in a simulated environment.

TRL 6: Representative model or prototype. A major step up in readiness for use. Possible field tests.

TRL 7: Prototype of system in operational environment is demonstrated—test bed aircraft, for example.

TRL 8: Final form of the technology is proved to work. Usually the end of system development. Weapon is tested in its final form.

TRL 9: Field use of the technology in its final form, under realistic conditions.