Images of The Week !!!!

Plane sailingThe sun-powered Solar Impulse is pictured flying over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as it carries out a trip across the US. (

 

Fire drillPyrotechnics explode during a disaster drill at Los Angeles’ LAX airport. More than 100 people were involved in a test of the airport’s emergency responses.

source::::bbc.com

Natarajan

Abraham Lincoln”s Letter To His Son”s Teacher !!!

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true.
But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero;
that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader…
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,

Steer him away from envy,

if you can, teach him the secret of quiet laughter.

Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick…
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books…
But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,
bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat…
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong…
Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon…
Teach him to listen to all men…
but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth,
and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad…
Teach him there is no shame in tears,

Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness…
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders

but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he’s right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage to be impatient…
let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself,
because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order,
but see what you can do…
He is such a fine little fellow,
my son!

 source::::input from a friend of mine…

Natarajan

Turtle Power !!!!….Strange But True !!!!!

The South American alligator spent 15 minutes trying to break the turtle's shell but failed

A turtle survived a 15 minute fight with an alligator that failed to break its protective shell.

An alligator bites down with a force of up to 2,900 pounds of pressure but despite its strength, this reptile was still unable to crack the turtle’s shell.

Amazing photographs captured the tussle in the wild as the six foot South American alligator attempted to prise the shell open.

The images were taken by American wildlife photographer Patrick Castleberry, 51, who said he was astounded to find the turtle still alive after the alligator had abandoned it.

Mr Castleberry, who was studying herons in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia, said: ‘It was definitely turtle one, alligator nil.
source:::::mailonline UK

Natarajan

Natural Camouflage Leaves This American Owl barely Visible at the Entrance to its Nest!!!

owl

These incredible pictures of an eastern screech owl were taken by photographer Graham McGeorge, 42, in Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia. Usually solitary, screech owls nest in a tree cavity, either natural or excavated by a woodpecker. They have either rusty or dark grey intricately patterned plumage with streaking on the underparts, helping them to blend in perfectly in their woodland homes..

source::::mail online UK

Natarajan

Little Kids Teach Us !!!….Learn a Lot From them !!!!!

> 1. A four-year-old child, whose next door
> neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his
> wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old
> Gentleman’s’ yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
> When his mother asked him what he had
> said to the neighbor, the little boy just said,
> ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’
>
> *********************************************
> 2. Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were
> discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture
> had a different hair color than the other members. One of her
> students suggested that he was adopted.
> A little girl said, ‘I know all about
> adoption, I was adopted..’
>
> ‘What does it mean to be adopted?’, asked
> another child.
>
> ‘It means’, said the girl, ‘that you grew
> in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!’
>
> ************************ *********************
> 3. On my way home one day, I stopped to
> watch a Little League baseball game that was being played in a
> park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-
> base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was
> ‘We’re behind 14 to nothing,’ he answered
> With a smile.
>
> ‘Really,’ I said. ‘I have to say you
> don’t look very discouraged.’
>
> ‘Discouraged?’, the boy asked with a
> Puzzled look on his face.
>
> ‘Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t
> been up to bat yet.’
>
> *********************** **********************
> 4. Whenever I’m disappointed with my spot
> in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.
>
> Jamie was trying out for a part in the
> school play. His mother told me that he’d set his heart on being
> in it, though she feared he would not be chosen..
>
> On the day the parts were awarded, I went
> with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her,
> eyes shining with pride and excitement.. ‘Guess what, Mom,’ he
> shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to
> me….’I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.’
>
> *********************************************
> 5. An eye witness account from New York
> City, on a cold day in December,
> some years ago: A little boy,
> about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the
> roadway, barefooted, peering through the window,
> and shivering with cold.
>
> A lady approached the young boy and said,
> ‘My child , but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!’
>
> ‘I was asking God to give me a pair of
> shoes,’ was the boy’s reply.
>
> The lady took him by the hand, went into
> the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks
> for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water
> and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.
>
> She took the little fellow to the back
> part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed
> his little feet, and dried them with the towel.
>
> By this time, the clerk had returned with
> the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet,
> she purchased him a pair of shoes..
>
> She tied up the remaining pairs of socks
> and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said,
> ‘No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’
>
> As she turned to go, the astonished kid
> caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face,
> with tears in his eyes, asked her:
> ‘Are you God’s wife?’
>
source:::::input from my friend..
Natarajan

Just For Laugh !!!!……Moral of The Story !!!!!!

And the Moral Is…

A teacher told her young class to ask their parents for a family story with a moral at the end of it, and to return the next day to tell their stories.

In the classroom the next day, Joe gave his example first, “My dad is a farmer and we have chickens. One day we were taking lots of eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the truck when we hit a big bump in the road; the basket fell off the seat and all the eggs broke. The moral of the story is not to put all your eggs in one basket..”

“Very good,” said the teacher.

Next, Mary said, “We are farmers too. We had twenty eggs waiting to hatch, but when they did we only got ten chicks. The moral of this story is not to count your chickens before they’re hatched..”

“Very good!” said the teacher again, very pleased with the response so far.

Next it was Barney’s turn to tell his story: “My dad told me this story about my Aunt Karen…. Aunt Karen was a flight engineer in the war and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whisky, a machine gun and a machete.”

“Go on,” said the teacher, intrigued.

“Aunt Karen drank the whisky on the way down to prepare herself; then she landed right in the middle of a hundred enemy soldiers.

She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more with the machete till the blade broke. And then she killed the last ten with her bare hands.”

“Good heavens,” said the horrified teacher, “What did your father say was the moral of that frightening story?”

“Stay away from Aunt Karen when she’s drunk.”!!!!!!!!!

source::::babamailnet
Natarajan

Warren Buffett Pays Bill Gates $1,800 !!!

There’s something almost silly in the fact that Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, earns a salary of $100,000 at Berkshire—and then cuts a check for $50,000 to reimburse Berkshire for “minor items such as postage or phone calls that are personal.”

But no number is sillier than the $1,800 that board member Bill Gates was paid for his service to Berkshire last year.

The average board fees for companies in the S&P500 was around $241,000 in 2011, according to executive compensation experts at Equilar. So the fees paid by Berkshire are low no matter who’s cashing the check. But with Gates, $1,800 is especially small.

Forbes earlier this month estimated the Microsoft co-founder was worth $67 billion. That means his fees from Berkshire amount to 0.000003% of his net worth.

To put that in context, the average American family’s net worth is about $80,000. So $1,800 for Bill Gates is the equivalent of two-tenths of a cent for the average family.

Gates, of course, has other reasons to sit on the Berkshire board. The charity Gates runs with his wife, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is getting billions of dollars in Berkshire shares from Buffett. And Gates and Buffett are longtime friends.

But Gates certainly isn’t doing it for the money. He’s a man who may have more than $1,800 under his couch cushions!!!!!!!!

source::::wall street journal

Natarajan

Laugh With Kids….No Kidding !!!!!

TEACHER: How old were you on your last birthday?
STUDENT: Seven.
TEACHER: How old will you be on your next birthday?
STUDENT: Nine.
TEACHER: That’s impossible.
STUDENT: No, it isn’t, Teacher. I’m eight today.

2.
TEACHER: George, go to the map and find North America.
GEORGE: Here it is!
TEACHER: Correct. Now, class, who discovered America?
CLASS: George!

3.
TEACHER: Willy, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.
WILLY: Me!

4.
TEACHER: Tommy, why do you always get so dirty?
TOMMY: Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground then you are.

5.
TEACHER: Why are you late?
WEBSTER: Because of the sign.
TEACHER: What sign?
WEBSTER: The one that says, “School Ahead, Go Slow.”

6.
SILVIA: Dad, can you write in the dark?
FATHER: I think so. What do you want me to write?
SYLVIA: Your name on this report card.

7.
TEACHER: In this box, I have a 10-foot snake.
SAMMY: You can’t fool me, Teacher…snakes don’t have feet.

8.
TEACHER: How can you prevent diseases caused by biting insects?
JOSE: Don’t bite any.

9.
TEACHER: Ellen, give me a sentence starting with “I”.
ELLEN: I is…
TEACHER: No, Ellen. Always say, “I am.”
ELLEN: All right… “I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.”

10.
MOTHER: Why on earth did you swallow the money I gave you?
JUNIOR: You said it was my lunch money.

11.
TEACHER: If I had seven oranges in one hand and eight oranges in the other,what would I have?
CLASS COMEDIAN: Big hands!

source::::stumble upon .com net

Natarajan

Boeing 747…The “Jumbo Jet” Plane Which Redefined Airtravel….A Flash back!!!

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

The first 747 rolled out of the Everett assembly building in Washington State on September 30, 1968. A special hangar was built for its construction. By volume, it remains the biggest building ever made.

The plane was set to re-define air travel, with its ability to carry more people than previous aircraft, and played a major part in making long-haul journeys more affordable….

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

Pan Am was the first airline to receive a 747, and Pat Nixon, the First Lady of the United States, christened the aircraft Clipper Vector. The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am’s scheduled flight from New York to London.

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

It also shared some historic highs. The 747 was often used to transport space shuttles, and here it is seen in 1978 giving the Enterprise a piggyback.

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

In 1984 a youthful Richard Branson launched his airline with a 747 flight from Gatwick to Newark.

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

The aircraft has been redesigned several times. Variants were launched in 1979 (747-100B), 1982 (747SP), 1983 (747-300), 1989 (747-400), 2006 (747 LCF), and 2011 (747-8, pictured).

Boeing 747: a history in pictures

The Boeing 747, launched more than 40 years ago, is one of the most influential and admired passenger aircraft ever to be built.

However the original “jumbo jet”, which has flown many millions of people in its decades of service, may finally be falling from favour. British Airways will take delivery of its first Airbus A380 “superjumbo” in July, and this week announced plans to buy 18 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Both aircraft are quieter and more fuel efficient than the 747, which BA is now looking to phase out over the next few years.

source::::The Telegraph UK…

Natarajan