How Modi won the internet during Silicon Valley visit……..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday answered questions from the audience at a Townhall at the Facebook headquarters and took a tour of the Google headquarters with CEO Sundar Pichai. The Prime Minister spoke about the role of social media in governance, and the effect it has had on his personal life.

Here are the top 10 quotes:

1 Social media was like a guide and an easy textbook to know about things for me. It helped mould my thought process. It helped me build world consciousness.


2 I used Chinese social media to wish the PM there. It went viral. I wished the Israel PM in Hebrew and he replied in Hindi!


3 We need both highways and i-ways (information ways) in India.


4 People today live in places where infrastructure is present unlike the past when water was the reason. Soon we might live in places where there is good digital infrastructure.


5 For our government to achieve economic progress, we have to utilise the potential of the 50 percent population — the women in India.


6 My mother is illiterate. My father is no more. My mom understands things through media. My mother took lot of pains to help me grow.


7 I come from a poor family and my family played an important role in my life. No one could have imagined that the world’s largest democracy could have accepted an ordinary tea seller.
8 I thought technology helps us save time, but in fact it is the opposite: people are spending maximum time using technology.


9 I want to encourage hack-a-thons in Indian cities too.


10 India’s unique strengths: 3D. Demographic dividend, democracy and demand. I have added another D: deregulation.

 

Source….www.thehindu.com

Natarajan

பேஸ்புக் சுவற்றில் வந்தே மாதரம் எழுதிய மோடி……

 

சான் ஜோஸ் : பேஸ்புக் தலைமையகம் சென்ற பிரதமர் மோடி, தனது நிகழ்ச்சியை முடித்து திரும்பும் போது பேஸ்புக் தலைமையக சுவற்றில், அகிம்சையே சிறந்த தர்மம். சத்யமேவ ஜெயதே. வந்தே மாதரம் என்று தனது கை பட எழுதினார்.

source….www.dinamalar.com

Natarajan

Top executives of tech giants pledge support for Digital India initiative…

Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Qualcomm and Adobe executives express desire to deepen their participation in the Digital India initiative

PM Narendra Modi claps (2nd from right) with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (centre), Cisco executive chairman John T. Chambers (2nd from left), Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E. Jacobs (right) as Google CEO Sundar Pichai (left) walks to his seat after his speech in San Jose on Saturday. Photo: PTI

PM Narendra Modi claps (2nd from right) with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (centre), Cisco executive chairman John T. Chambers (2nd from left), Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E. Jacobs (right) as Google CEO Sundar Pichai (left) walks to his seat after his speech in San Jose on Saturday. Photo: PTI

Top executives of global information technology giants Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Adobe Systems Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. on Saturday said they are keen to join hands with India and deepen their participation in the Digital India initiative that aims to ensure that government services are available to citizens over the Internet.

The chief executives of the top technology firms were speaking at a Digital India forum in San Jose, California during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.

“India has more than 300 million Internet users and smartphone users. People are educating themselves and their loved ones how to use technology,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive, Google. “India is coming online at an unprecedented pace.”

“I can feel the change in the air,” he said. “I am excited about technology, and India will play a big part in its future.”

He also said India has become the fastest growing start-up nation.

Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm, told the forum that his semiconductor company is keen to promote the Digital India vision. “To promote ICT (information communication technology) in India, we will be setting up a $150 million fund to fuel innovation and foster promising Indian start-ups who are contributing to the mobile and ‘Internet of Everything’ ecosystem.”

“In line with the Make in India initiative,” he added, “the company will set up design centres in India to design products from India for the world.”

Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella said the company is looking to bring low-cost Internet in India. “We want to help people make things and make things happen. It is time to collectively combine efforts to empower the people,” he said.

The company worked with researchers to bring low-cost Internet infrastructure to rural Andhra Pradesh using television’s white spaces, he said. “We are now looking to replicate the same pilot project in Varanasi.”

“We are in talks with state governments to expand it in 5,000 villages,” he added.

Modi, in his address, thanked the companies for their initiatives.

“We will see the perfect picture of US-India partnership emerge in the digital economy,” he said adding it is a new era of empowerment where global firms are creating infrastructure and services to support the government with the Digital India initiative.

“Technology is empowering people,” Modi said. “We are attacking poverty with network and smartphones.”

“In the digital age, we have the opportunity to transform the lives of people. About 170 e-governance applications are there to make government services available in better and faster way,” he added.

Stressing on the role of social media in empowering citizens, Modi said, “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram have become the new neighbourhoods. Social media has turned everybody into a reporter.”

Briefing reporters later, foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said Modi had invited Apple to set up a manufacturing base in India.

The Prime Minister (in his meeting with Cook) said he would like Apple to start manufacturing in India. He mentioned the huge opportunities India offered,” Swarup told reporters. Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, which is the largest manufacturer of Apple products, has already decided to set up a manufacturing base in India, Swarup said. “Cook responded positively. I think India does fits into his long term plans. He particularly was interested in the whole app development economy, which he said could be a very, very important factor for entrepreneurship where individual app developers can just become part of the app universe,” Swarup said.

There was also some discussion on how Apple Pay could be a part of India’s financial inclusion Jan Dhan Yojana and other such initiatives, he added.

Indian ambassador to the US, Arun Singh, told reporters that during the Modi-Cook meeting “there was a sense that a lot of design innovation is happening in India.”

“As Apple expands its presence in India, including a manufacturing presence there could be enhanced opportunity for app development related to the apple platforms,” he said.

During the meeting, Cook is said to have recalled how Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs came to India as a young man seeking inspiration.

Source…. Moulishree Srivastava  &Elizabeth Roche ….www.livemint.com

Natarajan

Modi gets his message across in Silicon Valley…”Make in India” and “Digital India “

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Cisco’s John T. Chambers, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Qualcomm’s Paul E. Jacobs and Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai during the Digital India dinner function in San Jose. Photo: PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Cisco’s John T. Chambers, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Qualcomm’s Paul E. Jacobs and Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai during the Digital India dinner function in San Jose. Photo: PTI

Midway through his second visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already addressed three of the four major constituencies he planned to reach out to—at the bilateral, multilateral and Indian diaspora levels.

The fourth—the US leadership—is next in line, say analysts.

At the multilateral level, Modi addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly where he spelt out the need for “climate justice” and chaired a meeting of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan—four nations that have demanded a place for themselves as permanent members of a revamped UN Security Council.

Before leaving the US, Modi is also set to address a conference on UN peacekeeping—a global duty that is substantially underpinned by Indian contributions.

On the bilateral economic front, Modi has held meetings with key US business leaders, seeking and enlisting their support for his “Make in India” and “Digital India” campaigns.

That a number of chief executive officers (CEOs) in Silicon Valley are Americans of Indian origin helped Modi link up with the diaspora—the third key constituency that he has reached out to on all his trips abroad. Modi was set to address an audience of 20,000 people of Indian origin in California on Sunday.

The fourth constituency is the US establishment, and Modi will be meeting US President Barack Obama overnight Monday before heading home.

Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh noted that Modi’s six-day US trip had a multilateral component focused on key foreign policy issues such as the revamp of the UN Security Council, while the bilateral agenda with the US was tied to domestic economic issues.

“On the whole, the tenor of the visit has been positive,” Mansingh, also a former Indian ambassador to the US, said on Sunday.

 

Economy—the key focus area

Arriving in New York late on Wednesday after a brief halt in Ireland, Modi’s first engagements on Thursday were back-to-back meetings with the US business community aimed at burnishing the image of Asia’s third largest economy as an investor-friendly destination. Last week, the Asian Development Bank cut India’s growth projection to 7.4% for 2015-16 from 7.8% predicted earlier. And there has been criticism, albeit muted, that the Modi government, elected to office last May on a pro-jobs and pro-development platform, has been slow in putting in place measures that would spur the economy.

Among those who met the prime minister were Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp.; Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard who also chairs the US-India Business Council; Marilyn A. Hewson, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Citigroup chairman Michael O’Neill; Boeing International president Marc Allen, and Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn. These meetings came on a day the Indian government formally announced that foreign companies without a permanent establishment in India will be exempt from the minimum alternative tax, levied on profit-making entities that do not pay corporate income tax because of exemptions and incentives.

“The idea (behind the intensive engagement with the business community) is that while we have expanded in a significant way our political security and defence cooperation, we need to make enhanced effort in terms of expanding the economic engagement between the two countries,” India’s ambassador to the US, Arun Singh, told reporters last week.

“When President Obama had visited in January, the two leaders had declared a goal of taking our trade relationship to a level of $500 billion from the present level of $120 billion. So, it would be important to see what kind of new opportunities we can create in the economic sector and that is why an important part of Prime Minister’s engagement during his visit to the United States is certainly focusing on the economic sector,” Singh said.

If the emphasis of Thursday’s meetings was on investments and manufacturing, it was Digital India at the weekend, when Modi travelled to California. Digital India is the Prime Minister’s flagship programme seeking to promote the use of technology to deliver governance and services. Those who met Modi included John Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco Systems; Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm who announced a $150 million investment in Indian start-ups; Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe; and Venk Shukla, president and trustee of Silicon Valley at The Indus Entrepreneurs, a group representing tech entrepreneurs.

“Today, more than 15% start-ups in Silicon Valley are attributed to Indian-origin tech entrepreneurs. Therefore, this is an additional dimension to the potential for cooperation between India and the United States,” ambassador Singh told reporters, underlining the potential role of the diaspora in the digital India initiative.

Ahead of the meeting with the leading lights of the Silicon Valley, Modi received Tim Cook, CEO of technology giant Apple, and invited the company to start manufacturing in India under the Make in India initiative that aims to boost India as a global manufacturing hub. Modi also visited Tesla Motors Inc., which designs and manufactures premium electric vehicles on Saturday, a visit that underlined the India’s growing emphasis on renewable energy, including plans to generate 100,000 megawatts solar power by 2022.

“The Prime Minister heard them and their concerns. How he deals with the problems once he is back home is to be seen,” Mansingh said.

At the UN

At the multilateral level, Modi has had two major engagements. On Friday he addressed the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the world community adopting the Sustainable Development Goals that aim to reduce global poverty. The second was early Saturday when he chaired a meeting of the Group of Four (G4) countries—Brazil, Germany, India and Japan—that seek to become permanent members of the UN Security Council.

In his address to the UN General Assembly, Modi spoke of how many of the initiatives launched by the Indian government—financial inclusion, education and skill development and pension schemes for the vulnerable—mirrored the Sustainable Development Goals. With an eye on the Paris climate change conference scheduled later this year in Paris, Modi urged developed nations to transfer technology, innovation and finances to developing countries in order to tackle the challenge of climate change.

Highlighting India’s plans to produce 175 gigawatts of electricity by 2022 through renewable energy sources, energy efficiency measures, improving public transportation, cleaning up cities and rivers, and the waste-to-wealth project, Modi said: “The objective of our collective efforts is common but differentiated responsibilities.” The principle institutionalizes the idea that rich nations must bear historical responsibility for global warming and therefore must take the global lead in efforts to reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change.

“Climate justice” was appropriate to taking the concerns of the poor in sustainable development, Modi said.

Modi also used the UN platform to stress the need to reform the Security Council, seven decades after the body was constituted at the end of the Second World War. “We must reform the UN and the Security Council. This is essential so that the institutions have greater credibility and legitimacy. With a broad-based representation, we will be more effective in achieving our goals,” Modi said.

To drive the message home, Modi invited Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a summit level conference of the G4 countries pushing for the reform of the UN Security Council. The four countries support each other’s candidature for permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council and, in a joint statement, sought such reform “within a fixed time frame”.

This is the first summit of the four countries in a decade and comes against the backdrop of the previous 69th UN General Assembly deciding earlier this month to begin negotiations based on a broadly agreed text on reforming the Security Council. “With this summit, I think the prime minister has underlined this as a key foreign policy objective,” Mansingh said.

Modi’s last few engagements on Monday include a meeting with President Obama in New York and a separate meeting of countries that send troops for UN peacekeeping missions.

Elizabeth Roche….www. livemint.com

Natarajan

This Artist Decided To Bring A Van Gogh Painting To Life In A Very Literal Way…

Flying into Minneapolis, you might be surprised to find yourself face-to-face with a Van Gogh painting — one that stretches out over more than a square acre of land. The unique thing about this version of the painting is that it is etched directly into the ground.

This is the latest project by landscape artist Stan Herd, who uses fields as canvases to create large-scale interpretations of art. He recreates famous pieces (like the Van Gogh painting seen here) and even works on some originals. They’re unique because they can only be seen in full from the air.

This piece is composed of different plants, tracks, and soil patterns. Herd used grass of different lengths to create various tones and values.

This is the painting that Herd recreated with living plants.

This is the painting that Herd recreated with living plants.

It’s Vincent Van Gogh’s 1889 piece called Olive Trees.

First, the painting was measured and the land was parceled out.

First, the painting was measured and the land was parceled out.

The grid you see on the print helped Herd and his team create a scale model.

After that, the real work began.

After that, the real work began.

This piece of landscaping art is located near an airport in Minneapolis, and it’s visible to passengers as they enter the city. Herd has been working on these landscaping projects, which he calls “earthworks,” since 1981.

The project was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art (which is home to the original painting) in an effort to get people excited about visiting the city.

Each element of the painting had to be carefully planned out to ensure that the proportions were right.

Each element of the painting had to be carefully planned out to ensure that the proportions were right.

Creating an earthwork like this is no simple feat, and it requires a lot of physical labor.

Creating an earthwork like this is no simple feat, and it requires a lot of physical labor.

And this isn’t even the largest earthwork that Herd has created.

And this isn't even the largest earthwork that Herd has created.

And this isn't even the largest earthwork that Herd has created.

In the early 1980s, he made one that covered 160 acres of land in Kansas.

With patience and hard work, the image started coming together.

 

With patience and hard work, the image started coming together.

With patience and hard work, the image started coming together.

Vimeo / Minneapolis Institute of Art

The fruit of Herd's labor is absolutely stunning.

Vimeo / Minneapolis Institute of Art

(via Colossal)

The Van Gogh earthwork will be on display near the airport throughout the autumn season. Herd plans to mow down the creation when winter arrives, but even his method of destruction is symbolic. He will remove the earthwork in a concentric circle pattern that mimics Van Gogh’s painting method.

You can see more of Herd’s earthworks on his website, and learn more about the original Van Gogh painting from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. If you happen to fly into Minneapolis this fall, snap a picture of the field and share it with the tags #BDayMia and #vangrow.\

Source….www.viralnova.com

Natarajan

 

 

Banana Peels ….Not only edible but also Nutricious….

That’s right, you can eat banana peels. And not only are they edible, they’re also good for you.

If you live in the US, you’re probably used to tossing banana peels in the trash. But people in other countries, including India, have been taking advantage of their nutritional benefits for decades.

While a banana’s flesh is soft and sweet, the skin is thick, fibrous, and slightly bitter. To eat the peel, you can either blend it into smoothies or fry, bake, or boil them for at least 10 minutes. Heat breaks down the skin’s fibre and loosens up that tough texture, making the peel easier to chew and digest.

Banana after

Also, the riper you allow the banana to get, the thinner and sweeter the peel becomes. That’s because of a natural plant hormone called ethylene that fruits release as they ripen.

Ethylene interacts with the sugars and fibre in the banana skin, changing complex sugars into simple sugars and breaking down pectin, a form of fibre in bananas that keeps them stiff. That’s why the older your banana is, the flimsier it feels. At the same time, other hormones break down the green pigments in the peel, turning them yellow and eventually brown.

Nutritional benefits

The sweet flesh of a medium-sized banana contains significant percentages of your daily recommended intake of various nutrients, such as:

  • 12% of your daily fibre, which helps with digestion and may help lower your risk of diabetes
  • 17% of your vitamin C, which is important for your immune system as well as growth and development
  • 20% of your vitamin B-6, which aids the body’s ability to convert food into energy
  • 12% of your potassium, which helps in development of cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body
  • 8% of your magnesium, which is important for the body’s energy productions and regulating glucose and blood pressure levels

If you then eat the skin along with the flesh you get an even bigger boost in these same nutrients:

“[The skin] contains high amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, as well as magnesium and potassium. It also contains some fibre and protein,” San Diego-based nutritionist Laura Flores toldLiveScience.

Banana

Eating the peel is not only good for your body but also better for the environment.

In 2013, bananas were America’s most-popular fresh fruit. The average American ate 11.4 pounds of bananas over the course of that year.

Since a medium-sized banana weighs about 0.3 pounds, that equates to about 38 bananas per person, or roughly 12 billion for the whole US. And since most of us toss the peel, that also means a lot of organic waste. Most of this waste goes to landfills, but some of it is used asfertiliser, in water purification, and in composting.

Other uses for the incredible banana peel

If you can’t stomach the thought of eating a banana peel, then consider some of the many other ways you can re-use this valuable product of nature. Here are a few of the 16 ways that health and wellness website Natural Living Ideas suggests:

  • Add a few slices of banana peel to a bucket of water and let the mixture sit for a couple of days. Use this to water your planets. The added nutrients from the banana will keep your plants growing strong.
  • You can make banana vinegar from the peels that can then be added to salads and vegetables. See the recipe instructions here.
  • Place your meat atop a ripe banana peel in your roasting pan to keep the meat moist and tender as it cooks.

Whether you’re gnawing on a raw peel or using it in your cooking, always make sure to wash it thoroughly.

Source…JESSICA ORWIG  …….www.businessinsider.com.au

natarajan

Now, fly from Delhi to San Francisco non-stop on Air India….

Air India is planning to launch a direct flight between New Delhi and San Francisco in December. The thrice-a-week flight, which will cover the distance in 16 hours, will be the first direct flight between India and the US west coast.

The Air India route would become the first direct flight between San Francisco and India. — AFP pic

On the San Francisco route, Air India will use its three Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

 

Sources said the airline had already secured slots at the San Francisco airport and was planning for a December launch. “It will be a Delhi-San Francisco flight and we are working on hub-and-spoke connections,” said a senior airline executive.

Earlier, the airline was considering a Bengaluru-Delhi-San Francisco flight, deploying a Boeing 777 aircraft on the entire route.

Currently, Air India operates daily non-stop flights to Chicago and New York (from New Delhi) and Newark (from Mumbai). The Mumbai-Newark flight, which takes 16 hours, is the longest flight from India as of now.

Now, fly from Delhi to San Francisco non-stop on Air India

On the New Delhi-San Francisco route, Air India will compete with major airlines from Europe, the Gulf countries and East Asia. As of early 2014, about 600 passengers travelled daily between Delhi and San Francisco (one-way); all opted for flights that went via another location, according to Delhi International Airport Ltd data.

Air India has three Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with 238 seats (eight first class; 35 business class and 195 economy class). Currently, these flights are sparingly used on routes to Saudi Arabia. These are among the 68 Boeing planes it ordered in 2005 for long-haul routes. In 2013, Air India sold five planes in this category to Etihad for $68 million. It had said retaining the fuel-guzzling aircraft would have aggravated losses.

Initially, the airline plans to offer a three-class service to San Francisco. The Air India management is also considering reconfiguring its Boeing 777-200LRs through the next few months, doing away with the first class and increasing the economy class seats. In the past, the airline has found it difficult to sell eight first-class seats on the route and occupancy in the premium segment has been poor.

With domestic jet fuel prices down 41 per cent year-on-year, Air India is likely to keep its operating costs down. And, rising passenger demand is likely to boost yields.

Bengaluru and Delhi are the top source markets for San Francisco flights. Air India’s marketing efforts will be weak if passengers from Bengaluru have to change aircraft in Delhi. Also, rival airlines offer daily connections to San Francisco,” said Devesh Agarwal, editor of Bangalore Aviation, an aviation blog.

In the past, other Indian airlines, too, have explored connectivity with the US west coast. Air India operated flights to Los Angeles through Frankfurt, while Jet Airways briefly flew to San Francisco via Shanghai. Though Kingfisher Airlines considered starting a Bengaluru-San Francisco flight, the plan didn’t take off.
LONGEST FLIGHT ROUTES

  • Dubai – Panama City: 13,821 km; 17 hrs 35 mins (Emirates)
  • Dallas – Sydney: 13,802km; 16 hrs 50 mins (Qantas)
  • Atlanta – Johannesburg: 13,573 km; 16 hrs 40 mins ( Delta)

Note : Emirates proposes to launch a Panama City flight in February 2016; Route planning is automated and routes chosen by airlines vary daily, based on en route wind conditions and the temperature and weather

Source…..www.Aneesh Phadnis ….in  www.business-standard.com and http://www.malaymailonline.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day…Nile at Night

The Nile river and Red Sea at night photographed from the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, recently past the halfway mark of his one-year mission to the International Space Station, photographed the Nile River during a nighttime flyover on Sept. 22, 2015. Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) wrote, “Day 179. The #Nile at night is a beautiful sight for these sore eyes. Good night from@space_station! #YearInSpace.”

Image Credit: NASA

Source……www.nasa.gov

Super Blood Moon eclipse on night of September 27-28…

View larger. |  Deep colors in the umbral shadow are revealed in a long exposure 15 minutes before the total phase of the April 14-15, 2014 eclipse begins.  Photo by Fred Espenak.

There is a total eclipse of the moon on the night of September 27-28, 2015. It happens to be the closest supermoon of 2015. It’s the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon, or full moon nearest the September equinox. It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s first full moon of spring. This September full moon is also called a Blood Moon, because it presents the fourth and final eclipse of a lunar tetrad: four straight total eclipses of the moon, spaced at six lunar months (full moons) apart. Phew!

The total lunar eclipse is visible from the most of North America and all of South America after sunsetSeptember 27. From eastern South America and Greenland, the greatest eclipse happens around midnight September 27-28. In Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the total eclipse takes place in the wee hours of the morning, after midnight and before sunrise September 28. A partial lunar eclipse can be seen after sunset September 27 from western Alaska, or before sunrise September 28 in far-western Asia. Photo top of post shows a partial phase of the April 14-15, 2014 total lunar eclipse byFred Espenak. Follow the links below to learn more about the 2015 Harvest Moon and the September 27-28 total lunar eclipse.

When is the September 2015 moon exactly full?

Who will see the September 27-28 total lunar eclipse?

Who will see the partial lunar eclipse?

Eclipse times in Universal Time.

Eclipse times for North American time zones.

Lunar eclipse computer courtesy of the US Naval Observatory

Eclipse calculator courtesy of TimeandDate

How is the Harvest Moon different from other full moons ?

Animation of the September 28, 2015, total lunar eclipse, whereby the moon passes through the southern half of the  Earth's shadow from west to east. The horizontal yellow line depicts the ecliptic - Earth's orbital plane projected onto the dome of sky. The inner bull's-eye shadow depicts the umbra (dark shadow) and the shadow encircling the umbra  represents the penumbra (faint shadow).

Animation of the September 28, 2015, total lunar eclipse. Moon passes through southern half of the Earth’s shadow from west to east. Horizontal yellow line depicts the ecliptic – Earth’s orbital plane projected onto the dome of sky. The inner bull’s-eye shadow depicts the umbra (dark shadow). The penumbra (faint shadow) encircles the umbra.

Day and night sides of planet Earth at the instant of the September 2015 full moon (2015 September 28 at 2:51 Universal Time). You have to be on the nighttime side of Earth to see the moon at the instant that it turns full, at which time it'll be totally eclipsed by the Earth's dark shadow.

Day and night sides of planet Earth at the instant of the September 2015 full moon (2015 September 28 at 2:51 Universal Time). You have to be on the night side of Earth to see the moon at the instant that it turns full, at which time it’ll be totally eclipsed by the Earth’s dark shadow.

Who will see the September 27-28 total lunar eclipse? The September 2015 full moon passes directly through Earth’s dark (umbral) shadow. The total part of this eclipse lasts for 72 minutes. A partial umbral eclipse precedes totality by some 64 minutes, and follows totality by about the same period of time, so the moon takes about 3 and 1/3 hours to completely sweep through the Earth’s dark shadow.

North America, South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, Europe, Africa and the Middle East are in a good position worldwide to watch the total eclipse of the moon. If you live in the Americas, the total eclipse happens after sunset September 27. In the world’s eastern hemisphere, the total eclipse happens after midnight and before sunrise September 28.

A very light penumbral eclipse comes before and after the dark (umbral) stage of the lunar eclipse. But this sort of eclipse is so faint that many people won’t even notice it. The penumbral eclipse would be more fun to watch from the moon, where it would be seen as a partial eclipse of the sun.

Who will see the partial lunar eclipse on September 27? A partial lunar eclipse may be visible in the haze of evening dusk on September 27 from the extreme northwestern portion of North America (western Alaska). A partial lunar eclipse might also be observed in the haze of morning dawn (September 28) from far-western Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, eastern Iran).

Source….  in www.esrthsky.org

Natarajan

Watch Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Message For PM Modi, Before His Visit To Silicon Valley…

Sundar Pichai is a name known to most Indians these days. Ever since he took a prestigious position in Google, Indians have been proud of him for inspiring so many ambitious children to dream big.

As per a report by Reuters, on September 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the Silicon Valley. He will also pay a visit to the Google campus and Facebook headquarters and discuss the pressing issues that can lead to further technological development in India.

As a result, Sundar Pichai in his present capabilities as CEO of Google has extended a warm welcome to Mr. Modi. In this video shared by Google India, we see him inviting the prime minister. He also expressed that the team is very excited to meet him.

He strongly feels that PM’s visit will energize people in the Silicon Valley as well as people in India. He highlights Google’s upcoming plans and illustrates how they will help India.

Even we are looking forward to Mr. Modi’s visit to Google and we hope that it leads to many productive results!

 

Source….Shubhi  Dixit  in http://www.storypick.com and http://www.youtube.com

Natarajan