Thursday, August 16, 2012

New T20 look: Tricolour on the heart for Team India

Mumbai: An Indian cricketer will now not wear his heart on his sleeve. Rather, if he pulls on a Twenty20 India shirt, it will be tricolour that paints a swathe across the left half of his jersey. On Thursday, August 16, Nike, who are the Board of Control for Cricket in India's kit sponsor, unveiled the Indian team's first specialist T20 jersey.

Just as whites are indisputably linked to Test cricket, and blue to the 50-over game, the Indian team now has a shirt specifically for the T20 format. "Once I wear the national jersey, I automatically know that I have to give my best," said Virender Sehwag. "Having the national flag's colours close to the heart is a good idea. After all, someone like me, who plays from the heart, will only feel better for it."

The critical difference, apart from the visual, in this jersey, which is made from the equivalent of eight P. E. T bottles, is that it's 45% lighter than the kit the Indian team has been wearing thus far. "We're going to be playing T20s at home, in South India, and in Sri Lanka, where even when you bat 15-20 minutes and hit a couple of boundaries you break into a sweat. Any help we can get is welcome," said Sehwag.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was welcoming of the new shirt. "It's a very good start. Even when people are swapping between channels on television they see white and know that it's Test cricket," he said. "Now there will be a strong association between this jersey and T20 cricket."

Dhoni also said that he was aware that expectations would reach typically high levels as India begin a packed season and that includes the ICC World T20. "We've had nearly a month and a half off and even when we played in Sri Lanka recently we have enough gaps between matches," said Dhoni. "The time off has given us a chance to be mentally and physically fit. If you look ahead at the packed schedule you will feel there is a lot of cricket ahead. The better thing is to take it a bit more short term and look at what you need to do in the next 15 days."

The biggest applause of the day was reserved for Yuvraj Singh, who will make his comeback to the Indian team in the first T20I against New Zealand at Vishakhapatnam on September 8. "I am feeling a bit nervous. I've been working really hard at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore for the last couple of months," said Yuvraj. "But I haven't played for India in a year. In some ways it will feel like I'm playing for India for the first time."

Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan and Virat Kohli were the others who showed off the new jersey, and Yuvraj showed that he had recovered sufficiently from his illness to get up to his old tricks. "Virat has been in great form in the recent past," quipped Yuvraj. "I hope he can continue that both on and off the field."

While some questions have been asked about Yuvraj returning to international duty before getting some rigorous match practice under the belt, it was obvious that his team-mates were just overjoyed to have him back. "Yuvi is a very important character to have around, not just an important player," said Dhoni. "Without him the dressing-room is a bit boring, even though Virat was trying his best to keep things light and ensure that the newcomers settled in quickly. Now we'll have a healthy competition between Virat and Yuvi, to see who is the best at ragging, and that can only be a good thing."

While some questions have been asked about Yuvraj returning to international duty before getting some rigorous match practice under the belt, it was obvious that his team-mates were just overjoyed to have him back. "Yuvi is a very important character to have around, not just an important player," said Dhoni. "Without him the dressing-room is a bit boring, even though Virat was trying his best to keep things light and ensure that the newcomers settled in quickly. Now we'll have a healthy competition between Virat and Yuvi, to see who is the best at ragging, and that can only be a good thing."

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

'Ek Tha Tiger' Review

Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ranvir Shorey, Girish Karnad, Roshan Seth
Director: Kabir Khan

To be fair, 'Ek Tha Tiger' is a very different beast from recent Salman Khan starrers, particularly his last two releases, 'Ready' and 'Bodyguard'. Now that could be construed either as good news or bad news depending on what you thought of those films. For those like me, who weren't fans of those blockbusters, it's refreshing to note that 'Ek Tha Tiger' isn't an over-indulgent one-man showreel. Hallelujah, this film has a plot. Unfortunately, however, it's a one-line, threadbare plot around which director Kabir Khan constructs the entire movie.

Masand: 'Ek Tha Tiger' is far from unwatchable
In a nicely done opening, with enough slo-mo shots for the fans to whistle at, we're introduced to RAW agent Tiger (Salman Khan), who, in a gritty Jason Bourne-ish action sequence, swiftly dispenses with a turncoat agent, then dodges armed assassins through the cobbled streets and dingy alleyways of a busy town in Iraq. Back home unscathed, Tiger, who we discover is just as comfortable with a ladle as he is with a gun, bribes his boss with homemade daal before begging for a new assignment.

Packed off to Dublin to keep an eye on a suspect missile scientist, Tiger falls in love with the old man's housekeeper, Zoya (Katrina Kaif), even as fellow RAW agent Gopi (Ranveer Shorey) advises him not to get distracted from the mission he's assigned to.

The romantic portions in 'Ek Tha Tiger' are warm and fuzzy, the humor thankfully clean and light-hearted, but as a thriller set in the world of espionage, it's ironic that the people least intelligent here are the intelligence officers themselves. The interval point reveals a twist that you'll probably guess a mile away; the only ones caught off-guard are the supposedly smart super-spies.

In his last film 'New York', director Kabir Khan delivered a watered-down mocktail version of a terrorism story. With 'Ek Tha Tiger' he appears to be going for James Bond Lite. The film's screenplay packs more holes than you're likely to find in a fisherman's net, and the clunky dialogue is the sort you'd expect from someone whose only research involved going through back issues of spy-themed comics.

What doesn't disappoint is the action in this film. Whether Salman's sliding down stairs on an upturned table firing at goons in a crowded marketplace, or using his jacket to stop a speeding tram from crashing into a populated street, the more ridiculous the sequence, the more cheers it inspires. A climatic sequence involving our injured hero on a motorbike, an airplane taking off, and lots of explosions, seems straight out of the 'Dhoom' films, but it's so cheerfully silly it's hard not to smile.

The film loses its pace during those pensive scenes in which Tiger must make a choice between head and heart, and in those portions where both protagonists must consider the implications of choosing love over duty. The over-simplistic Indo-Pak peace message is only further evidence of the fact that this film treats a serious subject lightly.

Salman Khan's performance in 'Ek Tha Tiger' is moody at best. He jumps into the action scenes whole-heartedly but seems lost in the film's dramatic portions, looking subdued even, like the birthday boy who's having no fun at his own party. The romance between him at Katrina Kaif is sweet, but almost awkward – this film could have done with a little more passion between its leads. Katrina, faced with a fair bit of action herself, commits herself to the role, but her character has a cardboardish edge.

Despite its obvious flaws, 'Ek Tha Tiger' is far from unwatchable. It's a welcome change from the harebrained films we've seen Salman Khan in lately, and for what it's worth he's playing a character and not himself for a change. The question you have to ask is – Is that enough?

I'm going with two-and-a-half out of five for director Kabir Khan's 'Ek Tha Tiger'. At best, it's a satisfying watch. Just don't go in with high expectations.

Rating: 2.5

Review by Rajeev Masand
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masand-ek-tha-tiger-is-far-from-unwatchable/282601-47-84.html

Mutant butterflies found near Fukushima plant

  • mutant butterflies.jpg
    Butterflies near Fukushima, Iwaki, and Takahagi showed wing size and shape deformations. (Hiyama et al, Nature.com Scientific Reports)


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/15/mutant-butterflies-found-near-fukushima-plant/#ixzz23dXUsuYWOne legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year has already become apparent through a study of butterflies in Japan: Their rate of genetic mutations and deformities has increased with succeeding generations.  
"Nature in the Fukushima area has been damaged," said Joji Otaki, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, who is the senior author of the new study.
The abnormalities, which the researchers traced to the radiation released from the nuclear power plant, include infertility,deformed wings, dented eyes, aberrant spot patterns, malformed antennas and legs, and the inability to fight their way out of their cocoons. The butterflies from the sites with the most radiation in the environment have the most physical abnormalities, the researchers found.

"Insects have been considered to be highly resistant to radiation, but this butterfly was not," said Otaki.

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, cut off power to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to meltdowns that released radionuclides including iodine-131 and cesium-134/137.The researchers combined laboratory and field studies to show the radionuclides caused the deformities and genetic defects. Butterflies netted six months after the release had more than twice as many abnormalities as insects plucked two months following the release, the team found. The rise in mutations means radiation from the accident is still affecting the butterflies' development, even though levels in the environment have declined, the study concluded. [See Photos of Fukushima's Deformed Butterflies]
"One very important implication of this study is that it demonstrates that harmful mutations can be passed from one generation to the next, and that these might actually accumulate and increase over time, leading to larger effects with each generation," said Timothy Mousseau, a professor of biology at the University of South Carolina who studies the impacts of radiation from Fukushima and from the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine.

Mousseau, who was not involved in this study, added, "It is quite concerning to see accumulated effects occurring over relatively short time periods, less than a year, in Fukushima butterflies."


Radiated butterflies
At the time of the disaster in March 2011, pale grass blue butterflies (Zizeeria maha) were overwintering as larvae. Two months later, Otaki and his colleagues collected adult butterflies from 10 locations. They observed changes in the butterflies' eyes, wing shapes and color patterns.

The researchers had been studying the pale grass blue butterfly for more than 10 years. The insects live in the same places as people – gardens and public parks – which make them good environmental indicators, and they are sensitive to environmental changes, said Otaki.
The team also bred the collected butterflies at the university's labs in Okinawa, 1,100 miles (1,750 kilometers) from Fukushima. They noticed more-severe abnormalities in successive generations, such as forked antennas and asymmetrical wings.

Last September the team collected more adults from seven of the 10 sites and found the butterfly population included more than twice as many members with abnormalities as in May: 28.1 percent versus 12.4 percent. The September butterflies were likely fourth- or fifth-generation descendants from the larvae present in May, the authors reported.

Deformities inherited
It is likely that the first generation of butterflies suffered both physical damage from radiation sickness and genetic damage from the massive exposure to radioactive isotopes after the disaster, the researchers reported. This generation passed on their genetic mutations to their offspring, who then acquired their own genetic defects from eating radioactive leaves and from exposure to low levels of radiation remaining in the environment. The cumulative effect caused successive generations to develop more serious physical abnormalities. "Note that every generation was continuously exposed," said Otaki.
Mousseau said, "This study adds to the growing evidence that low-dose radiation can lead to significant increases in mutations and deformities in wild animal populations."
The findings are consistent with previous studies in Japan and at Chernobyl, Mousseau added. "The ecological studies that we have conducted found that the entire butterfly community in Fukushima was depressed in radioactive areas, as were the birds, and that the patterns seen in Fukushima were similar to what has been observed in Chernobyl. If the plants and animals are mutating and dying, this should be cause for significant public concern."

The results were published Aug. 9 in the journal Scientific Reports.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/15/mutant-butterflies-found-near-fukushima-plant/#ixzz23dXCugIJ

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Vietnamese airliner hosts mid-air bikini pageant

London: Air passengers expect a meal and maybe an old movie in flight, but travellers on a Vietnamese plane got the surprise of their lives when bikini-clad women posed for a mid-air beauty pageant.
The women in Hawaiian bikinis marched through the cabin on the inaugural VietJetAir (VJA) flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the coastal holiday destination of Nha Trang, the Daily Mail reported.
The women performed a three minute hip-shaking dance, and male passengers reached for their phones to record the scantily-clad beauties, who were all contestants from a local beauty contest, Miss Ngoi Sao.

Vietnamese airliner hosts mid-air bikini pageant

However, the airline has now been fined by the Vietnam Aviation Authority after a video showing the pageant was posted on YouTube.
A VietjetAir official said it was the first flight to a beach town. "So we came up with the idea of getting a number of girls in bikinis to dance and make passengers happy to improve our customer service."
VietJetAir was the first privately-owned airline to be established in Vietnam. It was granted approval to operate in November 2007. It officially launched in December 2011.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Arnold Schwarzenegger was jailed due to bodybuilding enthusiasm

Los Angeles: Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger says he was once jailed because of his eagerness to pursue a career in bodybuilding.

The 65-year-old recalled his bodybuilding days in a new ESPN Films documentary in which he was seen put in an Austrian army prison at the age of 18, reported Aceshowbiz.

Schwarzenegger got punished when he left the army camp without permission to join the Junior Mr Europe contest in Germany while he was serving a mandated year in the army.

The Austria-born actor was later released because the officials felt "uncomfortable."

His dream as a bodybuilder was also disapproved by his parents, but his superiors in the military later on gave their full support.

The "Terminator" star said he always had a clear vision of what he wanted to do including movies. When he faced an obstacle, he saw it more of a challenge than a hindrance.

"I never saw a 'no' as a 'no.' I always heard 'yes'," he said.

His documentary "Arnold's Blueprint" will premiere on September 26