வளர்ந்தாலும் உணவை
வாயில் ஊட்டிவிடும்
அம்மாவையும்
வரும்வரை வாசலிலேயே
தூங்காமல் காத்திருக்கும்
அப்பாவையும்
வாஞ்சøயாய்த் தலைகோதி
முத்தமிட்டு நெட்டி முறிக்கும்
பாட்டியையும்
டி.வி. ரிமோட்டுக்கு தினமும்
சண்டையிடும் அருமைத்
தம்பியையும்
ஊர்வம்பு பேசியபடியே
வீட்டைக் கூட்டிப் பெருக்கும்
கண்ணம்மாவையும்
“உன் கையாலே போணி பண்ணு’ என
உரிமையுடன் கேட்கும்
பூக்காரம்மாவையும்
மனம் தேடித் தவிக்கிறது…
அமெரிக்க தேசத்தின்
அந்நிய முகங்களிடையே….
– ஜி. ராஜி, சென்னை in Mangaiyar Malar
natarajan
The Mars rover Opportunity caught this image of its own silhouette.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took this image of its own shadow, looking eastward shortly before sunset on the 3,609th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity’s work on Mars (March 20, 2014).
The rover’s shadow falls across a slope called the McClure-Beverlin Escarpment on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where Opportunity is investigating rock layers for evidence about ancient environments. The scene includes a glimpse into the distance across the 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater.
Brightest Mars in 6 years! April 2014 is the best time to see Mars.
source:::: earth sky news site
natarajan
APPLE is to release its newest iPhone in September, with higher resolution and bigger screens, a report says, its latest salvo in the smartphone wars where it has lost global market share to rivals such as Samsung.
The new handset, expected to be called the iPhone 6, is to come in two versions with a 4.7- or 5.5-inch screen, both bigger than the current four-inch panel, the respectedNikkei business daily said on Friday, without citing sources.
US-based Apple is ordering its higher-resolution liquid crystal display screens from Japanese electronics giant Sharp, Japan Display and South Korea’s LG Display, it added.
Apple released the iPhone 5 in September 2012 and newer versions in the series last year.
A Japan-based spokesman for the California tech giant could not be immediately reached for comment on the Nikkei report, which was widely picked up by a string of technology news websites.
The Nikkei story comes after Taiwan’s Commercial Times said this month that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had started producing chips for the next iPhone.
That news fed rumours that Apple is reducing its reliance for parts on South Korean giant Samsung, its main competitor in the mobile phone market and a bitter rival with which it is contesting several copyright court battles globally.
Samsung in February unveiled its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone armed with a fingerprint scanner and a built-in heart rate sensor, as it tries to cement its leadership of the multimillion-dollar market.
However, the South Korean giant voiced annoyance after domestic telecoms operators released its latest smartphone ahead of schedule in order to dodge sales restrictions imposed by regulators. The world’s biggest mobile phone maker had planned a worldwide debut of the Galaxy S5 on April 11.
Samsung made about 30 per cent of all smartphones sold globally last year, nearly twice the share of Apple.
source::: news.com.au
natarajan
The Cassini spacecraft captured this image on June 16, 2011. These are two of Saturn’s moons – the largest moon Titan and second-largest moon Rhea.
Saturn’s largest and second largest moons, Titan and Rhea, appear to be stacked on top of each other in this true-color scene from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
Titan’s north polar hood can be seen. It’s 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers) across. The hood appears as a detached layer at the top of the moon on the top right.
This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Rhea (949 miles or 1528 kilometers across). North on Rhea is up and rotated 35 degrees to the right.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural-color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 16, 2011, at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Rhea and 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) from Titan. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel on Rhea and 9 miles (15 kilometers) on Titan.
SOURCE:::: earth sky news site
natarajan
Desk jobs are slowly killing us. Perhaps even worse than dying early, our office-potato lives are making us moresusceptible to joint pain, fatigue, and illness. To fight off these modern diseases, Iuse a treadmill desk, which keeps me in motion all day long. Unfortunately, treadmill desks are pretty pricey, going for around $1,400 on Amazon.
Now, a new study has quantified the impacts of treadmill desks on workplace productivity and the results convincingly show why it’s worth it to a company’s bottom dollar to buy walking stations for the entire office.
The researchers conducted a year-long controlled experiment with employees in a financial firm. On average they found that supervisor ratings of employee productivity increased 10% (on a 1-10 scale) and energy expenditure per day shot up 70 calories. This generally confirms other evidence on walking desks, including one that found that doctors are 10% more accurate at diagnosing patients while on a walking workstation (actually, their diagnosis rate went from 88% to near perfect, 99%, while walking).
“The results suggest that the introduction of treadmill workstations, as hypothesized, has a significantly favorable impact on both physical activity and work performance,” the team concludes. “It seems that companies ought to consider making treadmill workstations available to their sedentary employees.”
With any rudimentary back-of-the napkin calculations, outfitting the entire office with walking stations is a penny saver. As long as the new equipment satisfies this the simpleProductivity Increase + Healthcare Savings > Cost of Treadmill Per Employee equation, it makes perfect sense.
A 10% bumb in satisfaction is huge. If the average employee is worth $50K/year, treadmill desks add an extra $5K worth of productivity. Indeed, if the actual productivity spike is anywhere near what other studies have found, it’s likely worth more than the $1,400 price tag. And, it’s not hard to see why treadmill desks are so beneficial: being tired at work causes a massive drain on resources. Being upright helps curb this — and even a slightly perkier workplace is worth a lot of money.
Then, you have to factor in healthcare. Many workplaces offer hundreds of dollars in savings for employee wellness programs, which can save the business itself in insurance costs, sick days, and worker comp. Sick days alone are worth a few hundred dollars per day per employee.
To be sure, office plans that only incentive gym memberships may be insufficient to optimize their employees health: sitting all day long can offset some of the beneficial effects of occasional exercise, which is probably why desk jobs are associated with cardiovascular disease.
I love my treadmill desk, and I walk around five hours a day (and that’s probably more than most will use it). One unit can easily be split by two or more employees. So, the actual cost of a treadmill desk is a maximum of $700 per employee.
In short, so long as the profitable increase in productivity and healthcare savings is more than $700, it’s worth employers to outfit the entire office with treadmill desks.
source:::: techcrunch.com
natarajan
The farmer
There was a farmer who had many pigs. One day someone went to the farm and asked the farmer: “What do you use to feed your pigs?”
“Well, I give them acorn, corn, and things like that. Why?”
“Because I am from the Animals Protection Association and I think you don’t feed them like you should, they shouldn’t eat wastes.”
Then he fined the farmer.
Some days later, another person arrived and asked the same question. The farmer answered: “Well, I feed them very well. I give them salmon, caviar, shrimp, steak…why?”
“Because I am from the United Nations Organization and I think it’s unfair that you feed your pigs like that when there are people dying with nothing to eat.”
And he fined the farmer.
Finally, another man came in and asked just the same question. The hesitant farmer answered after a few minutes: “Well, I give five dollars to each pig so they can buy whatever they want.”
source::::input from a friend of mine
natarajan
This is absolutely hilarious.
Not far from the truth…
With the recent announcement by airlines of charges for checked luggage, overweight and over sized luggage, etc., this video from the past could be what air travellers will experience in the near future. Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway were not only the best, but ahead of their time!
Happy flying!
source::::: You Tube .com
natarajan
What a ship—the Emma Maersk!
The Emma Maersk
The giant Emma Maersk and several other ships like it have been commissioned by Wal-Mart to bring their goods from China – and fast! Ninety-eight percent of Wal-Mart’s products come from China.
This monster ship travels at the high speed of 31 knots to transport goods across the Pacific in only five days, which is four days quicker than a normal container ship. That’s fast enough to bring perishable goods to the U.S. from China.
The Emma Maersk is only one of three huge $145,000,000 ships presently in service, with another two ships commissioned to be launched …
The Emma Maersk holds an incredible 15,000 cartons and has a 207 foot deck beam. At 1,302 feet in length, the Emma Maersk is longer than a U.S. Aircraft Carrier and has a crew of only 13 as compared to 5,000 on an aircraft carrier.
Emma Maersk Command Bridge
The command bridge is higher than a 10-story building.
Being 207 feet across, the Emma Maersk is strictly trans-pacific as it is too big to fit through the Panama or Suez Canals
The Emma Maersk has eleven cargo crane rigs which operate simultaneously to unload the entire ship in less than two hours—and then it’s back to China.
On its return trip to China, the Emma Maersk and its sister ships carry only empty containers. The U.S. sends nothing back to China on these ships.
That is—nothing but American jobs, which Wal-Mart is exporting to China !!!
source::::johnharding.com
natarajan
YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA WHEN – –
1. You make over $250,000 and you still can’t afford to buy a house.
2. The high school quarterback calls a time-out to answer his cell phone.
3. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
4. You know how to eat an artichoke.
5. You drive to your neighborhood block party.
6. Someone asks you how far away something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.
YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK WHEN – –
1. You say “the city” and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty.
3. You can get into a 4-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can’t find Wisconsin on a map.
4. You think Central Park is “nature.”
5. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual.
6. You’ve worn out a car horn.
7 You think eye contact is an act of aggression.
YOU LIVE IN ALASKA WHEN – –
1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You have more than one recipe for moose.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.
YOU LIVE IN THE DEEP SOUTH WHEN – –
1. You get a movie and bait in the same store.
2. “Ya’ll” is singular and “all ya’ll” is plural.
3. After fifteen years you still hear, “You ain’t from ’round here, are ya?”
4. “He needed killin'” is a valid defense.
5. Everyone has 2 first names.
YOU LIVE IN COLORADO WHEN – –
1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home, and he stops at the Day Care Center.
3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.
4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a ponytail.
YOU LIVE IN THE MIDWEST WHEN – –
1. You’ve never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from “heat” to “A/C” on the same day.
4. You end sentences with a preposition: “Where’s my coat at?”
5. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, “It was different! ”
YOU LIVE IN FLORIDA WHEN – –
1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind — even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. Cars in front of you are often driven by headless people
6. You don’t know how to vote
source::::joke a day.com
natarajan
From: Satya Nadella
To: All Employees
Date: Feb. 4, 2014
Subject: RE: Satya Nadella – Microsoft’s New CEO
Today is a very humbling day for me. It reminds me of my very first day at Microsoft, 22 years ago. Like you, I had a choice about where to come to work. I came here because I believed Microsoft was the best company in the world. I saw then how clearly we empower people to do magical things with our creations and ultimately make the world a better place. I knew there was no better company to join if I wanted to make a difference. This is the very same inspiration that continues to drive me today.
It is an incredible honor for me to lead and serve this great company of ours. Steve and Bill have taken it from an idea to one of the greatest and most universally admired companies in the world. I’ve been fortunate to work closely with both Bill and Steve in my different roles at Microsoft, and as I step in as CEO, I’ve asked Bill to devote additional time to the company, focused on technology and products. I’m also looking forward to working with John Thompson as our new Chairman of the Board.
While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation. This is a critical time for the industry and for Microsoft. Make no mistake, we are headed for greater places — as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world.
As we start a new phase of our journey together, I wanted to share some background on myself and what inspires and motivates me.
Who am I?
I am 46. I’ve been married for 22 years and we have 3 kids. And like anyone else, a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences. Many who know me say I am also defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me.
Why am I here?
I am here for the same reason I think most people join Microsoft — to change the world through technology that empowers people to do amazing things. I know it can sound hyperbolic — and yet it’s true. We have done it, we’re doing it today, and we are the team that will do it again.
I believe over the next decade computing will become even more ubiquitous and intelligence will become ambient. The coevolution of software and new hardware form factors will intermediate and digitize — many of the things we do and experience in business, life and our world. This will be made possible by an ever-growing network of connected devices, incredible computing capacity from the cloud, insights from big data, and intelligence from machine learning.
This is a software-powered world.
It will better connect us to our friends and families and help us see, express, and share our world in ways never before possible. It will enable businesses to engage customers in more meaningful ways.
I am here because we have unparalleled capability to make an impact.
Why are we here?
In our early history, our mission was about the PC on every desk and home, a goal we have mostly achieved in the developed world. Today we’re focused on a broader range of devices. While the deal is not yet complete, we will welcome to our family Nokia devices and services and the new mobile capabilities they bring us.
As we look forward, we must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things.
We are the only ones who can harness the power of software and deliver it through devices and services that truly empower every individual and every organization. We are the only company with history and continued focus in building platforms and ecosystems that create broad opportunity.
Qi Lu captured it well in a recent meeting when he said that Microsoft uniquely empowers people to “do more.” This doesn’t mean that we need to do more things, but that the work we do empowers the world to do more of what they care about — get stuff done, have fun, communicate and accomplish great things. This is the core of who we are, and driving this core value in all that we do — be it the cloud or device experiences — is why we are here.
What do we do next?
To paraphrase a quote from Oscar Wilde — we need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable.
This starts with clarity of purpose and sense of mission that will lead us to imagine the impossible and deliver it. We need to prioritize innovation that is centered on our core value of empowering users and organizations to “do more.” We have picked a set of high-value activities as part of our One Microsoft strategy. And with every service and device launch going forward we need to bring more innovation to bear around these scenarios.
Next, every one of us needs to do our best work, lead and help drive cultural change. We sometimes underestimate what we each can do to make things happen and overestimate what others need to do to move us forward. We must change this.
Finally, I truly believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know that it’s not just work, but something that will improve other people’s lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company.
Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have all the elements required: talent, resources, and perseverance. Microsoft has proven that it has all three in abundance. And as the new CEO, I can’t ask for a better foundation.
Let’s build on this foundation together.
Satya
source::::Microsoft NesCenter…. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04mail2.aspx
natarajan
Take off with Natarajan 