A good article here mentions about the top 10 reasons why the Euro will fail.  You can supplement these theories to other economies too and see why the fundamental argument for a common currency is a non-starter.

1. One interest rate cannot be suitable for everyone

Quite simply if there is a single currency there must also be a single interest rate set by the European Central Bank.  For the single currency to work, this single rate must be suitable for all member states.  It is difficult to see how a single rate could possibly be suitable for all of the economies in all foreseeable situations.  Take for example Germany and Ireland in 2001.  The German economy is on the brink of recession while the Irish economy is booming.  The Germans would ideally like a low rate while the Irish needed a higher rate.  The compromise rate is not suitable for either Ireland or Germany.  This shows that in the long term the result is painful for both countries as both countries have an unsuitable interest rate. One size cannot fit all!

Read the full article here

Above picture courtesy: Bized

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He laid the foundation of India’s huge atomic energy establishment almost singlehandedly, nurturing and expanding it with his dynamic vision. Thanks in no small measure to Homi J. Bhabha’s dream, India’s atomic energy programme has acquired global stature today, capable of designing and testing nuclear weapons and aspiring to meet its growing demands for nuclear energy.

Born to Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha and Meherbai on Oct 30, 1909, in Bombay (now Mumbai), the young Bhabha led a sheltered and emotionally secure childhood. The very first glimmerings of a keen and inquisitive mind became apparent when a specialist told his very worried parents why he slept little — a hyperactive brain that kept him awake at nights.

Excellent family ties with the Tatas and their association with national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and also with the British imbued the sensitive boy with a sense of nationalism and perspective.

In 1924, Homi Bhabha passed the Senior Cambridge exam at the age of 15. But by then he had grasped the complexities of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as well as the intricacies of classical painting.

His arrival in Cambridge, a fount of nuclear physics, three years later in 1927, permitted his native genius to bloom for the next 12 years, where he obtained his PhD in physics with specialisation in cosmic rays, in 1934. He was just 25 then.

Bhabha met many of the greatest physicists of the time, namely Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi, who played key roles in the Anglo-American atomic weapon programmes.

In March 1944, even before the world acquired a nodding acquaintance with the mighty potential of nuclear energy, Bhabha, then a professor, wrote to Sir Dorab J. Tata, who headed the Tata Trust, proposing an institute for nuclear physics in India.

“When nuclear energy has been successfully applied to power production in, say, a couple of decades from now,” Bhabha wrote with remarkable prescience, “India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.”

Thus the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) came into being on Dec 19, 1945, just four months after Hiroshima and three years before Indian independence.

Bhabha served as its first director, which placed him at the commanding heights of the country’s nuclear future, until his premature death in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps on Jan 24, 1966.

Bhabha was very particular about maintaining excellence. Addressing the then National Institute of Sciences, Bhabha said: “This is a field in which a large number of mediocre or second rate workers cannot make up for a few outstanding ones, and the few outstanding ones always take at least 10-15 years to grow.”

As the new nation’s prime minister, Nehru entrusted Bhabha with complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programmes. Both of them shared a close rapport. In April 1948 at Bhabha’s bidding, Nehru agreed to legislate the Atomic Energy Act in the Constituent Assembly, creating the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).

On Jan 3, 1954, the IAEC decided to set up a new facility, the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET). In August the same year, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) came into being with Bhabha as its secretary. Till date, it remains answerable only to the prime minister. Prime minister Indira Gandhi renamed AEET the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Full article here

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Along with the Oceansat-2, 6 nano satellites (4 CUBESATS and 2 RUBIN) were also launched.

CUBESATs : The four CUBESATs are educational satellites from European universities, each weighing around one kg. and developed to perform technology demonstration in space. The satellites are launched inside a Single Picosatellite Launcher (SPL) also weighing one kg., which is a dedicated European launch adaptor to deploy a CubeSat.

CUBESAT-1: UWE-2, from the Universität Würzburg, Germany
UWE-2 is a pico satellite, with the mission objective of demonstration of a newly developed Attitude Determination and Control system (ADCS) and the technology demonstration of a GPS on a Cubesat.

CUBESAT-2: BeeSat, from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
BeeSat is a pico satellite project of the Technical University of Berlin with the main objective of on-orbit verification of newly developed micro reaction wheels for pico satellite applications and will demonstrate the use of coin sized micro reaction wheels for attitude control of pico satellites in orbit as one of the key elements

CUBESAT-3: ITU-pSAT1, from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
The primary mission of the satellite is to examine the performance of an on-board passive stability system consisting of a magnet which will align the satellite to the magnetic field of the Earth with an error of about 15 degrees according to simulations, and to verify this figure. A secondary objective is to download photographs taken using a camera with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels

CUBESAT-4: SwissCube, from Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, Switzerland
The SwissCube mission objective is to house a science payload and take optical measurements and characterize the airglow intensity over selected latitudes and longitudes thereby demonstrating that the airglow emissions are strong enough to be measured by an off-the-shelf detector and validating the concept for the development of a low-cost Earth sensor.

RUBIN-9
RUBIN-9 consists of two Spacecrafts Rubin-9.1 and Rubin-9.2 weighing 8kg each and will primarily be used for the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for Maritime applications. These are non-separable payloads that will be mounted at an angle of 45deg to the PSLV EB deck.

Rubin-9.1 is developed by Luxspace and has a mission objective of providing an insight into the issue of message collisions that limit detection in areas of dense shipping.

The main purpose of the Rubin-9.2 spacecraft is to test and qualify nano technologies from Angstrom company Sweden and to continue space based maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver experiments (started with Rubin-7 and Rubin-8 missions). Rubin-9.2 is similar to the Rubin-8 launched on PSLV-C9 in April 2008.

More information on the launch here

All information & pictures source: ISRO

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Wrestler Sushil Kumar gave India one more reason to won cheer when he won the bronze medal in the freestyle 66kg category at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

Sushil defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan 3-1 in the repechage match of the men’s freestyle wrestling 66kg to win India’s India’s first wrestling medal since the 1952 Helsinki Games.  He is only the second Indian wrestler after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav to win an Olympic medal. Jadhav had won a bronze medal in the 1952 Games.

In the earlier rounds of repechage Sushil overcame the challenge of USA’s Doug Schwab and Belarrussian Albert Batyrov in the first two repechage rounds. Sushil had lost to Ukrainian Andriy Stadnik in his quarter-final bout.

This is also the first time since 1952 that India has two Olympic medals. Earlier, Abhinav Bindra won first-ever Olympics gold medal for the country in the 10meter air rifle event.

Update – Vijender Kumar assured of bronze in 75kg boxing

Vijender Kumar assured India of yet another medal when he entered the semi-finals of the middleweight (75kg) category on Wednesday. Vijender defeated Ecuador’s Carlos Gongora 9-4 at the Workers’ Gymnasium.

In the Olympic boxing event even the losing semifinalists get a bronze medal. Earlier, Jitender Kumar lost his 51kg quarter-final bout and missed the Olympic medal by a whisker. Jitender lost to European champion Georgy Balakshin of Russia in the last eight stage 15-11.

Above picture and news courtesy: IBNlive

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Juno

Its the story of a 16 year old girl who has a night of passion with her classmate and gets pregnant. The premise is fine, but what i couldnt understand was how her father and stepmom react to that situation. They are like ho-hum and just get on with life. I agree the movie was a comedy, but then it looked too artificial. And the cliches were all there. That guys are not sensitive and run away from taking responsibility and stuff. Both, the guy who impregnates the girl and the hubby of Jennifer Garner just back off at the right moments. It seems like only the women in the movie are compassionate and stuff. Pure bullshit. And the girl talks a bit too mature words for her age. Its like those telugu movies where the kiddos talk pure crap with the grown ups.

My rating *** (3/5)

Street Kings

My rating ** (2/5)

Woodstock Villa

Cyrus Broacha said on Ibnlive that Sanjay Gupta is being given an award, because he managed to make 3 movies this year inspite of the writer’s strike in Hollywood. I thought that was the best explanation for the excuse of a movie that Gupta makes. Hansal Mehta is the director of the movie. Once he had made a pretty good movie called Chhal. God knows what happened later on, he got associated with Sanjay Gupta and gang. Sikandar Kher looks like an ape. Someone give him a bath and cut his hair. Arbaaz Khan is well…what should i say. As for the actress (am not even interested in knowing her name), she is good looking and seems like has no qualms showing off some flesh. Well, am not complaining

My rating (0/5)

Sarkar Raj

I’ve always believed that Ram Gopal Varma makes the worst movies when he works with top actors. Some of his best work has been with obscure and unknown actors. Sarkar Raj points to the fact that he is too much in awe of Amitabh Bachchan and that he is too afraid to get into his bad books. The characters are too good with no flaws. Another reason to believe that neither the Bachchans nor RGV wanted to rile the Thackerays. Its as if the main characters are too good and incorruptible. Technically the movie is slick. But the Govinda Govinda chant in the background is enough to give you a headache. Wish RGV stuck to some background music. Aishwarya sucks big time. Abhishek as i always believed is ‘butt ugly’ and survives in the industry only because of his father. Amitabh is top notch. He simply chews up the scenes. Its a surprise to see how none of the father’s and mother’s talents rubbed on to the Small B.

My rating *** (3/5)

In Bruges

Pretty good movie about 2 hired killers who are sent to an ancient city in Belgium (Bruges) and asked to wait there for some time before they are given the details of the next person to bump off. As the two killers wander through the streets of Bruges, the guilt pangs start to build up and both start regretting the lives they had. When the information for the person to be killed arrives, its noticed that the target is none other than one of the killers. As the story races to the end, it goes in for an explosive climax. Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes make it a compelling watch.

My ratings **** (4/5)

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The acquisition will enable marketing and distribution of a range of pharmaceuticals including generics, biosimilars, biologics and other products in Germany and other European countries, the Indian drugmaker said.

Full article here.

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Man….no matter how much i hate the English team, i cant wait to see Jose attend a post match press conference and give out his trademark gyaan. So what, if he turns out in English colours. I just want to see/hear the man speak in his heavily Portuguese accented English and rip apart everyone involved in the game except himself and his team.

The ex-Chelsea manager was last night said to be 100 per cent up for making a spectacular return to the UK to take on the biggest job in world sport. He flew in by private jet under a cloak of secrecy to meet FA chief Brian Barwick and thrash out a £6million-a-year deal to see him become the nation’s football saviour.

Full article here.

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England is a crap team (both cricket and football). Except the sucky English press, who are more adept in writing about the royal family’s affairs, no one else in the world believes that the English team is worth even winning against the minnows.

Thank God, we will be spared the stupid theatrics of the English press when the Euro-2008 happens next year.

For the first time ever a British newspaper wrote the truth. The below mentioned lines were taken from The Sun newspaper

USELESS, pathetic, insipid, spineless, desperate, rubbish and all those other words we are not allowed to print in the nation’s favourite newspaper. England are the joke of European football.

Above picture source: TheSun

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