Shooting of Hononkal, courtesy Babuada. (Samantak Dutta) who send me the tube.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
MY NEW FILM
Saturday, September 5, 2009
How to malign Lenin
Hitler & Lenin fought it out on a chess board
London: Adolf Hitler playing chess with Vladimir Lenin! It may appear to be an odd move but an etching showing the two leaders across the board some 100 years ago in the house of a Jewish family in Vienna has surfaced.The image is said to have been created by Hitler’s art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm, in Vienna in 1909, and is signed on the reverse by the two dictators, the Daily Telegraph reported.
In fact, when the etching was made, Hitler was 20 and Lenin was twice his age and the house was where politicos went to discuss things in that city. The image is titled, ‘A Chess Game: Lenin with Hitler — Vienna 1909’.
Hitler was then a jobbing artist while Lenin was in exile, and the house where they played chess belonged to a prominent Jewish family which fled in the runup to the World War II, giving the etching and board to their housekeeper.
Now, their housekeeper’s g r e a t - g r e a t grandson is selling the image and the chess set at auction. Both items have a presale estimate of £40,000 and they are to be sold at Mullock’s auction house in Shropshire on October 1.
Richard Westwood-Brookes, of Mullock’s auction house which is selling the items, said: “This sounds too good to be true, but the vendor’s father spent a lifetime proving it. He compiled a 300 page document and spent a great deal of money engaging experts to examine the etching. “The signatures in pencil on the reverse are said to have an 80% chance of being genuine, and there is proof that Emma Lowenstramm did exist.
“The circumstantial evidence is very good on top of the paper having been tested. Hitler was a painter in 1909 and his Jewish teacher Emma Lowenstramm was the person who made the etching.
“Lenin at the time was moving around Europe in exile. His movements are hazy and it is known that he did play chess and later he certainly wore wigs as a disguise. Its also known that Lenin was a German agent and the house was where people went to exchange political views.
“The chess set is clearly the same chess set as that in the etching. It is a box chess set that folds out and the pieces are identifiable, particularly the kings and bishops.” PTI
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
How Green Was My Valley!
Russia now 'top heroin consumer'
 |   |
Russia says it has become the world's biggest consumer of heroin.
The head of Russia's anti-narcotics service, Victor Ivanov, said that seizures of Afghan heroin were up 70%.
Speaking ahead of a meeting in Vienna of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, he called on the UN to do more to fight the problem.
Mr Ivanov, a former KGB officer and senior Kremlin official, said the flood of the drug from Afghanistan posed a threat to Russia's national security.
He painted a grim picture, says the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow. He said the drug was partly to blame for rising crime and a fall in Russia's population.
 Afghanistan is thought to be the source of 93% of the world's heroin |
"In recent years Russia has not just become massively hooked on Afghan opiates, it has also become the world's absolute leader in the opiate trade and the number one heroin consumer," he said in a report made available to reporters.
"Drug trafficking has become a key negative factor for demography and a blow to our nation's gene pool... [and] a challenge to Russia's civilisation."
The Russian health ministry says Russia has up to 2.5 million drug addicts out of a population of some 140 million, most of them aged between 18 and 39.
Mr Ivanov did not give details about which country Russia was thought to have displaced as the main heroin consumer.
The CND's World Drugs Report for 2008 reported that China was estimated to have about 2.3 million users of opiates, though how many of those used heroin was unclear.
War factor
Mr Ivanov said that in the first two months of this year, Russia had seized 400kg (880lb) of heroin - a 70% increase on the same period last year.
He said it was time for the international community to take action against Afghan narcotics by spraying poppies and offering farmers incentives to grow other crops.
Afghanistan is estimated to produce 93% of the world's heroin.
While not directly blaming the US-led coalition in Afghanistan for the worsening problem, Mr Ivanov said that Afghan farmers had used the tense military and political situation to plant opium poppies.
He also said patrolling the 7,000-km (4,375-mile) border with Kazakhstan, through which drugs arrive, was an impossible job.Sunday, February 15, 2009
Missing chill signals danger: Study
Research Says This Could Be The Beginning Of A Drastic Change In City's Weather Pattern
Prithvijit Mitra | TNN
Kolkata: The missing winter chill this year and the unusually mild monsoon last year could be ominous signs for the city, warn experts. These could be the indications of the beginning of a dramatic change in Kolkata's weather pattern, predicts a research based on the findings of NASA. The study reveals that the carbon content in the mid-tropospheric level above Kolkata is unusually high. It is getting worse and the damage is permanent. Drastic changes in the weather pattern are the most likely fallouts of this change that has set alarm bells ringing among scientists. From 372 ppm in 2002, the carbon content in the layer has gone up by 4% till 2008. "It was already high in 2002, which is the base year for the data. It has been steadily rising ever since, making the layer warmer. The warmer and thicker it gets, the heavier will be its impact on the local climate. It is still too early to predict the extent of the impact, but the bad news is that the damage is permanent. Even if all foul emission is stopped now, it will take hundreds of years for the carbon content to reduce," said Gautam Sen, who is doing the study. The dominant part of the carbon in the layer is believed to be carbon dioxide. It is also suspected to have some black carbon, which is worse. The layer also has particulate matter that might have percolated from the lower atmospheric layers. "We are still not very sure about the nature of the carbon content. But if it has got particulate matter, the impact on weather will be even greater. They could lead to radiation and make the weather warmer. Once they have infiltrated the mid-tropospheric layer, particles tend to get trapped there and keep floating for hundreds of years," explained Sen. A hotter mid-tropospheric layer could have far-reaching consequences, said experts. It could alter the temperature-pressure balance in the region, which is important for maintaining the regular climatic cycle. "There is no doubt that we are witnessing a climate change in the region and the change is irreversible," said S S Bala, regional in-charge of the Central Pollution Control Board. "Rising water levels and increased salinity is playing havoc with the ecology of the Sunderbans," said environmental researcher Subir Ghosh. Weather experts, however, also pointed out that rising carbon levels is a global phenomenon.
LIKELY IMPACT OF RISING CARBON CONTENT
Disturbed temperature pressure balance. Heat generated at the midtropospheric layer could radiate back to the lower layers making them warm Higher temperature might raise pressure and lead to high rainfall It could also melt ice faster in higher altitude and raise the water level of rivers and the seas. This has started happening in the region
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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