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

I t is the dream of brilliant students to go to the United States for pursuing higher studies. But they should not dreamily accept the first offer that comes along. In fact, they should have a checklist on the steps to be taken before reaching the US, so that things run smoothly. There are more than 83,000 Indian students in the US, of which the highest number is from Andhra Pradesh. The first and foremost thing any student aspiring to leave for the US for higher education needs to cross check is whether the institution they are going to study in is genuine or not. The United States Educational Foundation in India, that held an interactive workshop in the city recently, warns that there are thousands of unaccredited colleges in the US. Taking a course from such colleges would be a sheer waste of time and money. So it is better to check thoroughly before taking the leap. It is also imperative that the students check whether the chosen course has accreditation since companie

We all seem to know what’s the most dreaded four letter word. But a dreaded four word phrase? The honour of being the most dreaded phrase in the English language goes to, “We need to talk.” In a country where surveys are dime a dozen on any issues real or imagined, the latest is by the Right Guard Poll about phrases that strike terror in our hearts. The winner even pipped “the boss wants to see you” in the top 10 most feared phrases. What are the other worst things to hear? “You’re fired” - from the boss. “Last orders” - from the bar. There are hundreds such, but here’s the remaining in the official top 10 list, “I’ve had a bit of an accident”; “ Can I borrow your credit card? ”; “There’s a leak (upstairs/in the bathroom etc.)”; “Did you remember my birthday?”; “ I’ve got something to tell you ”; “Now I know it looks bad, but...” Daily Mirror, which ran the survey, offers some phrases that its top writers dreaded. Columnist Clemmie Moodie says, “These words stri

Youtube, the largest broadcasting website, has now launched a special section for Indians, called Youtube India and it has a special “Indian lens” in the content which shows what content is being more viewed by Indians. The most popular videos viewed by Indians would be featured in this website, and this would help in targeting Indian traffic viewing them. A very happy news to all who upload videos and view videos from India, as its going to increase your video popularity as more Indians would be focussed watching videos in Youtube India. Welcome to India - Youtube video shows how much Indians love Youtube: Moreover, an Indian version of YouTube allows you to connect with local users like never before –- take a look at the videos being featured on our home page right now and you’ll see everything from a non-resident Indian (NRI) family trying to tell folks back home how much they missed their hot cup of morning tea to the merry whistlers from Bangalore to traffic mayhem in Hyderabad. S

We have seen how after we stop growing in height all the vital organ systems of the body also stop growing. This means any addition to body mass (weight) thereafter is an extra burden and strain on the vital organ systems. Let us see how our body functions as an energy system. Many conflicting estimates, formulae and theories are put forward regarding our food requirements (mentioned in calories) and energy output (day to day activities and exercise schedules also converted into calories). These are all arbitrary and are not correct in majority of individuals. So, now we talk only of energy intake and energy output. Simply stated this means that the food we take in a day is the energy intake and can be calculated in calories by dividing the food intake into carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Energy output is the sum total of our day to day activities (work, move ment, breathing, digestion of food and any physical exercise that may be added). Without considering any of these details, the

He asked Andrew Symonds He asked Mathew Hayden He even asked Kaif At last he got it from Harbhajan Singh

China formally opened what it says is the world’s longest sea crossing structure on Thursday, a 36 kilometre bridge spanning a bay just south of the eastern business hub of Shanghai. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the driving distance between them by 120 kilometres. It will cut the driving distance between the two key cities, in China’s prosperous Yangtze River delta, by 75 miles and reduce the journey time by one and a half hours. The official opening was shown live on state television on Thursday. The official Xinhua news agency said traffic would start running on the six lane bridge later on Thursday, but trucks will be barred. The bridge is a cablestayed structure built at a cost of $ 1.7 billion. Construction started in November 2003. Some of the financing for the bridge came from private sources, a first for such a large infrastructure project in China. “The bridge has become well-known

The eyeball tattooing procedures were done by Howie (LunaCobra.net), with photos by Lane Jensen (of Tattoo and Piercing Magazine ). The first procedure was done on Pauly Unstoppable using a traditional hand-poked technique. The eye distorted significantly but it was difficult to get ink to hold. Probably about forty strikes in all were done but so far it seems like limited ink held. Because the we had trouble getting the ink under the surface (and were able to “wash” it out of the small needle incisions), we tried the second procedure, on Josh using a 29ga needle and syringe, thinning down the ink very slightly with an antibiotic eyewash. Since the goal was simply to blanket the white of the eye in color, there wasn’t a need for fine detail. The first injection was shallow and appeared to dissipate on the surface, but the second injection was at the perfect level and formed a dark bubble of ink just over the sclera (in the third picture you can see some of the ink running back out of t