Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen (born July 20, 1980), is a Brazilian supermodel who has been acclaimed as the highest-paid model in the world. Since her introduction onto the fashion scene in the 1990s she has appeared in countless billboards and magazine covers, as well as numerous TV and print ads. Bündchen is currently the face of more than 20 brands from different countries such as United States, Russia, Brazil, Italy, France, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, South Korea, Germany and Switzerland. According to Forbes, she made $33 million in 2006, adding to her estimated $150 million fortune. She is currently listed in Guinness World Records as the "world's richest supermodel" .

ELSINKI — The luxury unit of Nokia has started selling a phone designed jointly with Ferrari for about 18,000 euros ($25,400) at its stores in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore, it said on Thursday. The Vertu unit produced the Ascent Ferrari 1947 phone to celebrate Ferrari's 60th anniversary. "We worked very closely to develop this limited edition of 60 phones. Detailing on the phone is inspired by detailing on a number of Ferrari cars," said Vertu spokeswoman Elizabeth Maragh. Luxury goods segments are benefiting from fast economic growth in countries such as China, India and Russia, while Middle East markets have strengthened as a boom in commodity prices has increased incomes. Nokia and other cellphone manufacturers are increasingly teaming up with designers. Earlier this week Italian designer Giorgio Armani joined forces with Samsung Electronics to design a television and a mobile phone. Designers Dolce & Gabbana have teamed up with Motorola for a gold-col...

Yes, they are dressed in black. Yes, they carried a sword and a dagger. However, unlike the reporter and cop in this video , those are who educated in the ways of the ninja know a ninja cannot be caught on tape. Two women disguised as ninjas and armed with a sword are being hunted by police after they held up a petrol station . Police said the two women tied up the cashier before escaping with cash, lottery tickets and cigarettes. Reports said one was carrying a samurai sword, while the other had a dagger. They were dressed all in black, apart from white gloves - but the way they moved around the shop indicated the ninja training only went as far as the costumes.

1010 bikini clad women posed on Sydney's Bondi Beach in an attempt to claim a world record for the biggest swimsuit photo shoot . Bondi lifeguards turned their ocean-front headquarters into a dressing room to allow each women to change into her bikini. The skimpy swim wear made its debut in 1946. Hoping it would be worn by beautiful "bombshells", the designers named it after Bikini Atoll, an atomic bomb test site in the Marshall Islands. The stunt was organized by women's magazine Cosmopolitan and a Razor company . Click on the images to get better picture.

DO some revision on the hottest guys in rugby union ahead of the World Cup. 1. Spunk ... Augustin Picot of Argentina 2. Hunk ... Brian Carney of Ireland 3. Hero ... Johnny Wilkinson of England 4. Tattooed ... Lote Tuqiri of Australia 5. Young ... Daniel Carter of New Zealand 6. Captain ... George Gregan of Australia 7. Tall ... Marco Bortolami of Italy, right

Apple has warned that anyone attempting to unlock their iPhone to use with an unauthorised mobile network could find their phones irreparably damaged . The company said that modified mobiles would become "permanently inoperable" once Apple updates were installed. It follows a flurry of hacks claiming to unlock the phone, which is tied into the US AT&T network and O2 in the UK. Apple has denied that it is "doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked".

Lavishing praise on the Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Indian team for winning the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup, batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar said Indian cricket was now in safe hands. Tendulkar, along with ageing stalwarts Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid , had opted out of the Twenty20 event while Dhoni was named captain of a young side that went all the way to win the title beating archrivals Pakistan. Tendulkar hailed the win as a complete team effort and singled out Dhoni for special praise. "It was a brilliant team effort and along with the players, the entire nation is celebrating. Dhoni led the team to a fabulous victory and I can say that Indian cricket is in safe hands," he said. India's 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev said with this win, Dhoni and his teammates had become part of Indian crick et lore. "I can guess that they are now so overwhelmed in joy that it will take time before the feeling sinks in. When they come back, they will realise ...

Jubilant Indian cricket team celebrates with the World Twenty20 trophy after defeating Pakistan in the final at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg on Monday. Indian players shared their ‘Chak de’ moment with Shah Rukh Khan , who had flown in just to watch the match. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young Team India snatched the inaugural Twenty20 world title after defeating archrivals Pakistan by five runs in a rousing final on Monday. The Indians, restricted to 157/5 after electing to take first strike in good batting conditions, fought back to bowl out valiant Pakistan for 152 before a sell-out crowd of 32,000 at the Wanderers. Man of the Match: Irfan Pathan Man of the Series : Shahid Afridi

Tokyo: Moderate Yasuo Fukuda easily won the election as President of Japan's ruling party on Sunday, assuring his selection as the new Prime Minister in a parliamentary vote later this week. Mr Fukuda won 330 votes to former foreign minister Taro Aso's 197 votes, the party announced, giving Mr Fukuda 63 per cent of the ballots. Mr Fukuda, 71, the son of a prime minister from the 1970s, has vowed to keep his country in the fight against terrorism, improve relations with Asia and address inequalities. Mr Fukuda vowed after the vote to rebuild the popularity of the LDP, which has plunged under a year of scandals and policy mis steps by outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been hospitalised since announcing on September 12 that he would resign. "You have chosen me even though I do not have much experience. I am prepared to do my utmost to live up to my responsibilities," a determined-looking, an unsmiling Mr Fukuda said.

Prashant Tamang , a constable in the West Bengal police was crowned Indian Idol after vanquishing his rival Amit Paul in a grand finale. Tamang, 24, from Darjeeling, is a former member in the police band in Kolkata. The finale was an all North east affair as Tamang took on 24-year-old Amit Paul , who hails from Shillong. The results were announced at a gala in New Delhi with the final witnessing a seven crore people sending in their votes. As Bollywood actor John Abraham announced Tamang the winner, the constable thanked his mother in a voice choked with emotion. "I thank my mother, public and the Bengal police for granting me the permission for participating in the show," he said. The contest saw the entire Northeast coming together irrespective for their ethnic differences in support of the two singers. Meghalaya which has a history of violence between the tribals and settlers, especially Bengalis, rallied behind Paul, who is a Bengali.

NBC Universal said that it would soon permit consumers to download many of NBC's popular programs free to personal computers and other devices for one week immediately after their broadcasts. The service comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal said it was pulling its programs out of the highly successful iTunes service of Apple Inc. That partnership fell apart because of a dispute over Apple's iTunes pricing policies and what NBC executives said were concerns about lack of piracy protection. NBC's move comes as companies throughout the television business search for new economic models in the face of enormous changes in the business. Networks continue to lose audience share, and viewers - especially many of the highly prized viewers under 30 years old - are increasingly demanding control of their program choices, insisting on being able to watch shows when, where and how they want. At the same time viewers are finding more and more ways, like TiVo machine...

LAS VEGAS -- O.J. Simpson was freed from a Las Vegas jail Wednesday after a judge granted him $125,000 bail on charges he took part in an armed robbery of his own sports memorabilia. Simpson, who was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in 1995 in a sensational double-murder trial that left his reputation in tatters, did not enter a plea to charges of armed robbery, assault and kidnapping during a brief hearing before a Las Vegas judge. A scrum of media and a crowd of supporters as well as protesters were on hand in Las Vegas to catch a glimpse of yesteryear's national hero, who was acquitted of killing his ex wife Nicole and her friend in a verdict that sparked out rage. "Set the ‘Juice' loose!" yelled one supporter outside the Clark County Detention Center, referring to the football legend's sporting nickname, while another woman shouted "Justice for Nicole!"

Yuvraj Singh Video of 6 Sixers in over & Fastest Fifty in Twenty20 Durban: Indian batting star Yuvraj Singh has always exuded the kind of confidence that champions possess and it was only a matter of time that he carved out a niche for himself in world cricket. But few would have imagined that his name would go down in the annals as the first man to hit six sixes in Twenty20 cricket. The likes of Shahid Afridi and Justin Kemp were bigger names when it came to the kind of bludgeoning one would relate to such a possibility. Yuvraj, 25, has never been a slogger but still whacks the ball real hard. "I any day prefer to play in the 'V', Yuvraj had said before the start of the Twenty20 World Championship, referring to the direction from the batsman's bat that coaching manuals teach you to hit in at the beginning of the innings. And though he sent the ball in all directions in that Stuart Broad over, they were all authentic shots. Yuvraj was known for his sixes...

A recent research at the University of Vienna says that the most successful marriages are those where the man is four to six years older than the woman . After going through a database of more than 10,000 men and women, the study concluded that this age difference is ideal for the couple as it carries a reproductive advantage. For men, the average number of children increased with a decrease in the age of their partners. Similarly, for women too, the average number of children rose as their partners grew older than them. Conventionally, many cultures have supported such marriages. If we leave out the reproductive advantage, what can be the social, emotional and psychological repercussion of such relationships? A number of young beauties have fallen for older men and in some cases, men old enough to be their fathers. Experts agree that since girls mature faster than boys, they find themselves mentally compatible with a life partner who is older. "An older man is wiser, well s...

In court documents, she's known as "Jane Doe." Innocuous enough, but the woman behind that pseudonym pushes one of the nation's hottest political buttons: guns and school safety. What Ms. Doe wants to do is take her Glock 9-mm pistol to the high school in Medford, Ore., where she teaches. She's licensed to carry a concealed weapon and she has what many supporters say is a legitimate reason for being armed: a restraining order against her ex-husband based on threats he's allegedly made against her and her children.

The study of laughter is known as gelotology . Certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain human functions. But according to recent research, the production of laughter is involved with various regions of the brain. For instance, if you were sitting with a friend and he cracks a joke, the left side of the cortex (the layer of cells that covers the entire surface of the forebrain) would analyse the words and structure of the joke, while the brain's large frontal lobe, which is involved in social emotional responses, would become very active. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere of the cortex would carry out the intellectual analysis required to understand the joke. Ultimately the stimulation of the motor sections would evoke a physical response to the joke. Research also shows that human beings love to laugh, and the average adult laughs 17 times a day. But did you also know that humans are one of the only species that laughs? Laughter is actually a complex response that...

Have you heard the proverb, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' ? If you have, then isn't it time you got your self a hobby? How about fish? Forget dogs, fish could be your best friends. Get yourself an aquarium - a small fish bowl or a rectangular fish tank. Now you need some fish and a few odds and ends. Interested? Then here is what you have to do. Buy a stand for your aquarium or ensure that it is on a secure, level surface, preferably where there is diffused sunlight. Remember that if you put your aquarium in the direct sunlight, you will get algae forming in the tank and your water will become overheated. Buy a clear plastic or glass top for the tank as this will keep the dirt out and help maintain an even water temperature. Now you can start to do up your aquarium. Buy some sand or gravel and soak it overnight before laying it out on the bottom of the tank. Plants are important as they not only add to the visual appeal but also absorb the carbon dioxid...

O.J. Simpson's arrest may be the start of a new legal odyssey for the fallen American football star , one that could reopen the possibility of prison time more than a decade after his acquittal on murder charges. The police arrested Simpson on Sunday, saying he was part of an armed group that burst into a Las Vegas hotel room and snatched memorabilia that documented his storied career. Simpson said it was merely a confrontation with no guns. He said autographed sports collectibles, his Hall of Fame certificate, a photograph with former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and video from his first wedding were all his, and that they were stolen from him and were about to be fenced by unethical collectors. the police said they were not sure who owned the memorabilia. But they say the manner in which the goods were taken was under investigation. "Whether or not the property belonged to Simpson or not is still in debate," Lt Clint Nichols said on Sunday. "Having said that,...

1. Eliminate programs that run at start-up 2. Speed up shutdown times 3. Disable services that run at start-up Eliminate programs that run at start-up Stopping programs from running at start-up is especially daunting because there is no single place you can go to halt them all. Some run because they're in the Startup folder, others because they're part of logon scripts, others because of Registry settings, and so on. But with a little bit of perseverance, you should be able to keep them from running. * Start by cleaning out your Startup folder. Find it in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, where username is your Windows logon name. Delete the shortcuts of any programs you don't want to run on start-up. As with any shortcuts, when you delete them, you're deleting only the shortcut, not the program itself. (You can also clear out the start-up items by going to Start > Programs > Startup, then right-clicking items you want to remove.)...

Russia, China and India contain the most areas where toxic pollution and human habitation collide with devastating effects Sumqayit in Azerbaijan gained the dubious distinction this week of being added to Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites . Yet another heir to the toxic legacy of Soviet industry, the city of 275,000 souls bears heavy metal, oil and chemical contamination from its days as a center of chemical production. As a result, local Azeris suffer cancer rates 22 to 51 percent higher than their countrymen and their children suffer from a host of genetic defects ranging from mental retardation to bone diseases. "As much as 120,000 tons of harmful emissions were released on an annual basis, including mercury ," says Richard Fuller, founder of Blacksmith, an environmental health organization based in New York City. "There are huge untreated dumps of industrial sludge." Fuller says the list includes "places that are...

The Karnataka government's ban on the sale of cell phones to children below the age of 16 may have invited censure from various corners, especially children, who are accusing the government of acting as a "moral brigade", but it has triggered off a debate on how the latest gadgets and electronic equipment pose a threat to a generation that cannot do without them. The Centre has formed a committee to evolve guidelines for bringing out legislation that will put restrictions on the usage of mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. The draft guidelines prepared by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) under the Department of Telecommunications, Union ministry of communications and information technology, has proposed that cellphone use amongst children below 16 should be "discouraged", and only those cellphones should be bought which have appropriate specific absorption ratings (SAR). The committee has also taken up the issue of radiation emissions from ...

Twenty20 is the flavour of the season and it received an official stamp of approval once and for all with the Board of Control for Cricket in India launching the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League here on Thursday. The Indian league will be part of the Champions Twenty20 League which will feature India, Australia, England and South Africa and will be played in October 2008. The IPL, to be held in April 2008, has been modelled on successful American leagues Major League Soccer and National Basketball Association wherein the eight teams will be like franchises. The teams will have corporate backing and will also get a share of centralized revenue. The venture not only has the full support of the International Cricket Council, it already has roped in three big names in contemporary international cricket. Australian legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming have agreed to be a part of Indian Premier League. What is staggering about ...

Bangladesh knock West Iindies out he West Indies were knocked out of the Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday by Bangladesh, who roared to victory by six wickets in their group match. Bangladesh won the toss and restricted the West Indies to 164 for eight before captain Mohammad Ashraful's sparkling 61 off 27 balls ensured they reached the target with two overs to spare. Ashraful's delightful innings included seven fours and three sixes as he tore into the West Indies bowling after neither opener Tamim Iqbal (10) nor Mohammad Nazimuddin (1), made any impression. Ashraful shared a third-wicket partnership of 109 off 64 balls with Aftab Ahmed, who batted through the innings to finish with 62 not out off 49 balls, including eight fours and a six. The West Indies were once again sluggish in the field and ill-disciplined in their bowling, having been trounced by eight wickets in the tournament's opening match against South Africa on Tuesday at the same venue. Dwayne Smith's bruta...

India's software czar Azim Premji now has a new nomenclature - the world's richest Muslim entrepreneur - as he holds more wealth than any other Muslim outside the Persian Gulf royalty, the Wall Street Journal reported in a front-page profile. The newspaper said Mr Premji, chairman of India's third-largest IT exporter Wipro, defies all the conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons - he does not hail from the Persian Gulf, did not make his money in petroleum, and does not wear his faith on his sleeve. "Azim Premji has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable-oil firm, Wipro Ltd, into a technology and outsourcing giant. By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Premji a fortune of some $17 billion," the report said. Mr Premji is ahead of Russia's metal and real estate baron Suleman Kerimov ($14 billion), Kuwait's Nasser Kharafi ($11 billion), Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Amoudi ($8 ...

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested and thrown out of the country hours after returning home from exile on Monday morning. Forcibly flown to Saudi Arabia. Mr Sharif, who heads Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) arrived here in the morning and was immediately arrested. He was offered some food and then airlifted to Chaklala Air Base from where he was flown to Saudi Arabia in a special plane. Mr Sharif has been in exile for 7 years and recently decided to make a comeback in Pakistani politics - an activity he allegedly promised to give up for 10 years in the year 2000. Mr Sharif said he only pledged to stay away from Pakistan for 5 years and not 10 years. Mr Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the then Army Chief (now President) General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999 and sent into exile after being sentenced to life in prison on hijacking a plane and corruption charges. The Saudi royal family stood guarantor to the agreement that allowed Mr Sharif to leave Pakista...