Head Glorifier

“To become a servant of God is a great position. People are always trying to get some government post or some position in a reputed business firm because the service rendered in such positions earns great profits. Although we are very anxious to get good positions in the government service, we do not stop to think of getting a position in God's service. God is the government of all governments.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Elevation to Krishna Consciousness, Ch 6)

In countries where the private sector of the economy is either tightly controlled or virtually nonexistent, the jobs coveted are those in government. A government worker is meant to be a servant of the people, acting at the pleasure of the executive, or the leader of the community. Because of who they serve and the importance of their position, these servants are glorified and held aloft for others to adore, worship, honor or influence. In the business community, the best workers are those who serve the interests of the proprietor fully, influencing the overall profit margin of the establishment positively. If such attention is given to servants of worldly institutions, why would it be absent when service is given to the proprietor of all energies, the Supreme Lord? Indeed, the position of “head glorifier”, or greatest servant of the Supreme Lord, is the best because it does the most good for the most number of people. Not surprisingly, such sincere workers are handsomely rewarded with the fruit of existence: unending devotion to the feet of the Supreme Lord.

Why does this fruit take precedence over all others? The mango tree is valuable once it grows nice mangoes that can be picked and eaten when ripe. The government, especially in its modern incarnation, where it plays a significant role in dictating outcomes to events, gets its teeth from the inflow of tax dollars, which are then distributed according to the schemes conjured up by the politicians. The business makes a dent when it offers a good or service that can be enjoyed by the common man. It is seen that the more a company can appeal to the common person, he who is not overly wealthy but still has appreciation for a good product or service, the more their profits will increase. The wealthiest businesses are not those who build products for the elite class; rather, ridiculously high profits come from satisfying middle class men, of which there are many more.

The Supreme Lord, who is described as Krishna among many other names in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, holds the title to every piece of property. Though we can’t see the deeds, they exist nonetheless. Long before our present birth, the creation existed and its population roamed the earth. Similarly, long after we exit our present body, the same creation and population of creatures will be there. In this sense we only hold temporary leases on our possessions, for the original creator, the Almighty, directed His energies to have this temporary world manifest.

Why do we call this world temporary? Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His originalShyamasundara form, who has the bodily complexion of a dark raincloud and is exquisitely beautiful, has two distinct energies. To Krishna there is no distinction, for what need does He have for self-realization, study of scripture, or discrimination with respect to energies? Krishna can take a tennis racket and use it as a pencil or take a blade of grass and use it as a weapon. He is not limited in His attributes or in His exercise of objects of matter.

The delineated energies are meant to be understood by the conditioned living entity, he who takes birth without being asked and then subsequently tries to outrun oncoming death. In either case, material nature wins, as no one can stop birth or death except God Himself. The world is deemed temporary because its manifestation is not permanent. We see evidence of this in our own lives. Our childhood body is now dead and gone. We don’t mourn for this loss quite as much because our identity within our adopted life form continues until the time of death. Nevertheless, there is nothing we can do to get our childhood form back. No amount of scientific research, mental speculation, or meditational yoga can put our tiny soul back into the exact same form that we used to crawl around our parents’ living room floor.

We are just as helpless once death approaches, for nothing can be done to revive the exited form; hence the reason for so much sadness. Despite the temporary nature of the current manifestation of material elements, there is still a proprietor, someone who is directing the energies. Shri Krishna is that person, or if you prefer, “God”. Even the atheists acknowledge a higher power, though they don’t understand His personal aspect or the fact that He is not partial in His dealings. We can call the atheists stupid, but then all of us were “stupid” youngsters at some point. This doesn’t mean that hope is eternally lost for any soul. Rather, as more time goes by, and if the likelihood for having a fortunate meeting with a sincere soul devoted to the Supreme Lord increases, the covering of nescience can gradually dissipate, revealing full and complete knowledge.

Along the way, the serving propensity found within the soul, its true dharma, continues to shine. Even if God’s existence is completely denied, if the very mention of the word “God” sends shivers down one’s spine and puts a lasting frown on one’s face, the dharma of the soul is still revealed to some extent. Just as during the nighttime the effects of the sun’s influence are still present on earth, even during the darkest period of consciousness, where the natural intelligence of the soul is seemingly fully covered up, the individual’s propensity to serve remains. Dharma is an ever existing quality, an essential characteristic that cannot be divorced from an object. If it could, the object would lose its meaning. For instance, if fire were to lose its burning and heat properties, we could no longer call it fire. If you presented a pizza-lover with a fresh pizza pie, piping hot, they might eagerly anticipate the first few bites. But if while eating they notice that cheese, sauce and the crust are missing, their disappointment would result in remarks like, “This is not pizza. I don’t know what you call it, but it’s not pizza.”

If the soul did not exhibit a propensity to serve, it could not be called a soul. The Vedas describe Krishna has having a form that is fully knowledgeable, eternal and blissful, sach-chid-ananda. These properties are bequeathed to the spirit souls, who descend from Krishna. Therefore it is impossible for the soul’s inherent characteristics to ever vanish. Without full knowledge of God and His personal form, the service mentality carries the conditioned soul in so many directions. To earn money and enjoy the senses, service is taken up to a corporate entity. The proprietor of the business takes the risk of investing startup capital or going into debt for the express purpose of turning a profit. The businessman is not interested in securing jobs for a community or making sure that everyone can have a decent standard of living. Their primary concern is profit, and as long as steady profits are coming in, the business is doing its job.

Since the presence of workers can increase the scope and breadth of the offered service or product, and thus also the level of profit, business owners make the investment in human capital. The aim is to pay the workers as little as possible, for the more expenditure there is, the less profit there will be. But the workers are not robots that can be commanded on a whim. Rather, they expect to be compensated for their work. In this respect, the employee’s greatest protection against exploitation is their own self-interest and also the presence of many other businesses. One business may not pay workers much, but if they are threatened by other companies potentially stealing their employees, they will be forced to pay higher salaries. Hence through competition the resulting condition of a strong labor force that earns “decent” wages is created.

Since the business world revolves around profit, the employee who best contributes towards increasing productivity and the profit margin of the establishment gets rewarded with a higher position and increased salary. In this sense we see that the more service is offered to the proprietor, the more glorified the worker becomes. The principle applies to government service as well. It’s strange to think that the President of the United States is actually the head servant of the country, but by definition this is his role. Wherever he goes, “Hail to the Chief” introduces him, and onlookers hang on every word of his speeches. He flies on Air Force One and never has to pay for anything, but still he is engaged in meeting the interests of the citizens at large.

The people serving the head of the government become very important as well. The White House spokesperson essentially has to lie for a liar every day. With politics comes the requirement that promises be broken and dishonest things be spoken every now and then. The press doesn’t meet with the President face-to-face every day. Instead, a press secretary for the President meets with the media daily and answers their questions. The media won’t approach just any ordinary person on the street for information about the administration. They want to talk to someone who is tied to the President, who is faithfully engaged in his service. Because of his link to someone important, the servant of the White House becomes important as well.

When service in worldly affairs brings fame and adoration, why would not the same result follow service taken up for God? If we sincerely desire to be God’s best servant, the position will bring us the greatest reward. This is true not only because of God’s qualities, but also because of the inherent properties of the soul. As our dharma is to be a servant, nothing is better than serving the person we are meant to serve. When service is taken up for any person except God, the soul’s brilliant features are not seen. Similar to how the sun is covered by the clouds in the sky, when encased in a temporary form desperately seeking after paltry rewards the soul’s true brilliance gets masked.

On the other hand, the liberated soul is fully appreciated. We know this from the many historical examples of people who took up service to God and then subsequently became famous. What’s even more interesting is that the most wonderful servants are often more worshiped than the Supreme Lord Himself is. ShriHanuman immediately comes to mind in this respect. He is considered the greatest servant of Lord Rama, the Supreme Lord’s avatara of a warrior prince who roamed this earth many thousands of years ago. Hanuman was technically a government minister, an emissary of the king of the Vanaras residing in the Kishkindha forest. During His first meeting with Hanuman, Shri Rama even noted that no king could ever get their business done without having a person like Hanuman working for him.

“O sinless one, certainly, how can any king accomplish his objectives if he doesn't have such a messenger working for him?” (Lord Rama speaking to Lakshmana about Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kand, 3.34)

Did Rama then steal Hanuman’s services away from the king of the monkeys in Kishkindha? Here is the secret: serving God actually fulfills the interests of everyone else. By taking up the mission to find Rama’s missing wife Sita Devi, Hanuman simultaneously did good to the leader of his community, Sugriva. Though outwardly he was first and foremost Sugriva’s minister, Hanuman is forever known as Ramadutta, or a messenger of Rama. Hanuman is unmotivated in his intentions and uninterrupted in his service. Even though he eventually found Sita and played a vital role in the demise of her captor Ravana, Hanuman never stopped loving Rama. How could he abandon his dharma? Without devotion to Rama, Hanuman is not who he is. Since he can never abandon thinking about Sita, Rama and His younger brother Lakshmana, Hanuman can never cease to be glorious.

What does it mean to be a servant of God? Do we have to take on some brave task to get that position? While there are nine different processes of devotional service [hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, becoming friends with Him, surrendering everything to Him], the ideal position of God’s servant is that of “head glorifier”. The best way to serve is to glorify, to increase the stature of the superior person. As Krishna is beyond description and is Bhagavan because of His stupendous feature set, there is really nothing to be gained on the Lord’s part through glorification. But since when did the position of the object of love ever stop a person from offering their love? Despite His standing, the Supreme Lord continues to be glorified by His most wonderful servants. In this area He is actually powerless, as there is nothing Sita and Rama can do to stop Hanuman from singing their glories every single day.

The head glorifier performs their duties by regularly chanting the holy names of the Lord, especially those found in the sacred maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. This gift in the form of a mantra bestowed upon the dedicated servant allows for service to be conducted at any time of the day and at any place. The reward for this great work is full-blown bhava, or transcendental ecstasy. Relishing this taste is the real boon of existence, to be completely uninhibited in our loving dealings. In every other area of life, our emotions and the flow of service are interrupted or checked to some degree. For the head glorifier, there is no such thing as too much kirtana, or describing of the transcendental features of the most loveable object.

Though the position of “head glorifier” seems to imply that only one person can occupy the post, it is not so. In the spiritual land, the restrictions imposed by the laws of math and science are not present. One can actually mean two, and two can mean one. There can be millions of head glorifiers, who each have their own personal relationship with their most relishable form of the Supreme Lord. In GolokaVrindavana, where Krishna Himself always resides playing His flute, the gopis serve as the head glorifiers. There are many gopis, but Shrimati Radharani is considered the topmost. The other servants sing of even her glories, thus showing that service in transcendental love brings endless opportunities for growth and expansion. Noting these properties, who would not want to covet this most wonderful position? Even if someone just sincerely thinks of taking the necessary training to one day accept the “head glorifier” post, they will succeed in life’s mission.

In Closing:

High position in government or business we covet,

Fame, attention and notoriety we get.

Reason for pursuit of post easy to understand,

Stature of proprietor increases with helping hand.

To increase profit, at office workers congregate,

Best employees the owner will highly compensate.

In spiritual life, servant is given best treatment,

To the Lord’s wishes they are always deferent.

Devotees like Hanuman are so exalted,

That greater than God they are sometimes treated.

Thus best position is to be head glorifier,

Just chant holy names, what could be easier?

Role as God’s servant provides many opportunities,

For endless offerings of love by both experts and newbies.

NASA's Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars

Where the Sun Sets Twice: NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Science Daily  — The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life," Kepler Principal Investigator William Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said. "Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now."

Unlike Star Wars' Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

A research team led by Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, to search for transiting planets. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

Scientists detected the new planet in the Kepler-16 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from our vantage point on Earth. When the smaller star partially blocks the larger star, a primary eclipse occurs, and a secondary eclipse occurs when the smaller star is occulted, or completely blocked, by the larger star.

Astronomers further observed that the brightness of the system dipped even when the stars were not eclipsing one another, hinting at a third body. The additional dimming in brightness events, called the tertiary and quaternary eclipses, reappeared at irregular intervals of time, indicating the stars were in different positions in their orbit each time the third body passed. This showed the third body was circling, not just one, but both stars, in a wide circumbinary orbit.

The gravitational tug on the stars, measured by changes in their eclipse times, was a good indicator of the mass of the third body. Only a very slight gravitational pull was detected, one that only could be caused by a small mass. The findings are described in a new study published Sept. 16 in the journalScience.

"Most of what we know about the sizes of stars comes from such eclipsing binary systems, and most of what we know about the size of planets comes from transits," said Doyle, who also is the lead author and a Kepler participating scientist. "Kepler-16 combines the best of both worlds, with stellar eclipses and planetary transits in one system."

This discovery confirms that Kepler-16b is an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas. The parent stars are smaller than our sun. One is 69 percent the mass of the sun and the other only 20 percent. Kepler-16b orbits around both stars every 229 days, similar to Venus' 225-day orbit, but lies outside the system's habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface, because the stars are cooler than our sun.

"Working in film, we often are tasked with creating something never before seen," said visual effects supervisor John Knoll of Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., in San Francisco. "However, more often than not, scientific discoveries prove to be more spectacular than anything we dare imagine. There is no doubt these discoveries influence and inspire storytellers. Their very existence serves as cause to dream bigger and open our minds to new possibilities beyond what we think we 'know.'"

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Facial Expressions Develop Before Birth, Researchers Show

33 week fetus touching face, with the umbilical cord visible. (Credit: Image courtesy of Lancaster University)

Science Daily  — Babies in the womb develop a range of facial movements in such a way that it is possible to identify facial expressions such as laughter and crying. For the first time, a group of researchers was able to show that recognisable facial expressions develop before birth and that, as the pregnancy progresses from 24 to 36 weeks gestation, fetal facial movements become more complex.

The group examined video-taped fetal facial movements obtained by 4D ultrasound machines in the later stages of pregnancy.

The group of researchers include Dr Nadja Reissland, a psychologist and Professor James Mason Director of Research in Medicine and Health of Durham University, Professor Brian Francis, Professor of social statistics at Lancaster University and Dr Karen Lincoln, consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, where the fetal scans are collected.

They recorded the same fetuses after they had been found to be healthy at their 20 week scan, several times between 24 and 36 weeks of gestation. They found that the movements of the fetal face become more complex over time.

Fetuses at the first stage of observation (24 weeks) were able to move one muscle in their face at a time. They would for example stretch their lips or open their mouth. By 35 weeks gestational age, fetuses combined a number of facial muscle movements, combining for example lip stretch, lowering of the eyebrows and deepening the nasolabial furrow, thereby turning isolated movements into recognisable and increasingly complex expressions.

Professor Brian Francis from the Department of Maths and Statistics at Lancaster University said: "This is a new and fascinating insight into the remarkable process of fetal development. This research has for the first time demonstrated that in healthy fetuses there is a developmental progression from simple to complex facial movements, preparing the fetus for life post birth."

Although the fetus cannot make any sounds, the development of facial expressions means that at birth, the baby has already developed the facial movements to accompany crying and laughing.

Dr Nadja Reissland from Durham University said: "We have found so much more than we expected. We knew that the baby blinks before birth and that some research has identified scowling before birth. However in this study for the first time we have developed a method of coding and analysis which allows us to objectively trace the increasing complexity of movements over time which results in recognisable facial expressions."

The researchers argue that these patterns of the motor movements are developed before the baby feels the emotion, just as the baby practises breathing movements in the uterus even before it has drawn a breath.

The discovery could help potentially identify health problems in utero, since there is a link between fetal behavioural patterns and the development of the fetal brain. Looking at differences between normal and abnormal fetal facial developments may indicate problems with brain development.

The researchers now plan to look at whether fetal facial movement might help differentiate between fetuses of mothers who smoke during pregnancy and non-smokers. They will also examine the development of facial expressions relating to anger, smiling and sadness.

Carbon Cycle Reaches Earth's Lower Mantle: Evidence of Carbon Cycle Found in 'Superdeep' Diamonds From Brazil

Like an insect in amber, mineral inclusions trapped in diamonds can reveal much about the Earth's deep interior. The study by Walter et al. in Science reveals mineral inclusions that originated in oceanic crust subducted into the lower mantle. (Credit: Image © Science/AAAS)

Science Daily  — The carbon cycle, upon which most living things depend, reaches much deeper into Earth than generally supposed -- all the way to the lower mantle, researchers report.

This study shows the extent of Earth's carbon cycle on the scale of the entire planet, connecting the chemical and biological processes that occur on the surface and in the oceans to the far depths of Earth's interior," said Nick Wigginton, associate editor at Science.

The findings, which are based on the chemistry of an unusual set of Brazilian diamonds, will be published online by the journal Science, at theScience Express Web site, on 15 September. Science is published by AAAS, the non-profit, international science society.

"Results of this kind offer a broader perspective of planet Earth as an integrated, dynamic system," he said.

The carbon cycle generally refers to the movement of carbon through the atmosphere, oceans, and the crust. Previous observations suggested that the carbon cycle may even extend to the upper mantle, which extends roughly 400 kilometers into Earth. In this region, plates of ocean crust -- bearing a carbon-rich sediment layer -- sink beneath other tectonic plates and mix with the molten rock of the mantle.

Seismological and geochemical studies have suggested that oceanic crust can sink all the way to the lower mantle, more than 660 kilometers down. But actual rock samples with this history have been hard to come by.

Michael Walter of the University of Bristol and colleagues in Brazil and the United States analyzed a set of "superdeep" diamonds from the Juina kimberlite field in Brazil. Most diamonds excavated at Earth's surface originated at depths of less than 200 kilometers. Some parts of the world, however, have produced rare, superdeep diamonds, containing tiny inclusions of other material whose chemistry indicates that the diamonds formed at far greater depths.

The Juina-5 diamonds studied by Walter and colleagues contain inclusions whose bulk compositions span the range of minerals expected to form when basalt melts and crystallizes under the extreme high pressures and temperatures of the lower mantle.

Thus, these inclusions probably originated when diamond-forming fluids incorporated basaltic components from oceanic lithosphere that had descended into the lower mantle, the researchers have concluded.

If this hypothesis is correct, then the carbon from which the diamonds formed may have been deposited originally within ocean crust at the seafloor. A relative abundance of light carbon isotopes in the Juina-5 diamonds supports this idea, since this lighter form of carbon is found at the surface but not generally in the mantle, the authors say.

The diamond inclusions also include separate phases that appear to have "unmixed" from the homogenous pool of material. This unmixing likely happened as the diamonds traveled upward hundreds of kilometers into the upper mantle, the researchers say.

After the diamonds formed in the lower mantle, they may have been launched back near the surface by a rising mantle plume, Walter and colleagues propose.

This research was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the National Science Foundation.

Download: eType1.com/f.php?FThoii

NASA Mars Research Helps Find Buried Water On Earth

Radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars may soon be used to find water buried deep beneath Earth's deserts. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Science Daily  — A NASA-led team has used radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars to create high-resolution maps of freshwater aquifers buried deep beneath an Earth desert, in the first use of airborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping.

An international team led by research scientist Essam Heggy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., recently traveled to northern Kuwait to map the depth and extent of aquifers in arid environments using an airborne sounding radar prototype. The 40-megahertz, low-frequency sounding radar was provided by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena; and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France. Heggy's team was joined by personnel from the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), Kuwait City.

The research may help scientists better locate and map Earth's desert aquifers, understand current and past hydrological conditions in Earth's deserts and assess how climate change is impacting them. Deserts cover roughly 20 percent of Earth's land surface, including highly populated regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, west and central Asia and the southwestern United States.

For two weeks, the team flew a helicopter equipped with the radar on 12 low-altitude passes (1,000 feet, or 305 meters) over two well-known freshwater aquifers, probing the desert subsurface down to the water table at depths ranging from 66 to 213 feet (20 to 65 meters). The researchers successfully demonstrated that the radar could locate subsurface aquifers, probe variations in the depth of the water table, and identify locations where water flowed into and out of the aquifers.

"This demonstration is a critical first step that will hopefully lead to large-scale mapping of aquifers, not only improving our ability to quantify groundwater processes, but also helping water managers drill more accurately," said Muhammad Al-Rashed, director of KISR's Division of Water Resources.

The radar is sensitive to changes in electrical characteristics of subsurface rock, sediments and water- saturated soils. Water-saturated zones are highly reflective and mirror the low-frequency radar signal. The returned radar echoes explored the thick mixture of gravel, sand and silt that covers most of Kuwait's northern desert and lies above its water table.

The team created high-resolution cross sections of the subsurface, showing variations in the fresh groundwater table in the two aquifers studied. The radar results were validated with ground measurements performed by KISR.

"This research will help scientists better understand Earth's fossil aquifer systems, the approximate number, occurrence and distribution of which remain largely unknown," said Heggy. "Much of the evidence for climate change in Earth's deserts lies beneath the surface and is reflected in its groundwater. By mapping desert aquifers with this technology, we can detect layers deposited by ancient geological processes and trace back paleoclimatic conditions that existed thousands of years ago, when many of today's deserts were wet."

Heggy said most recent observations, scientific interest and data analyses of global warming have concentrated on Earth's polar regions and forests, which provide direct measurable evidence of large-scale environmental changes. Arid and semi-arid environments, which represent a substantial portion of Earth's surface, have remained poorly studied. Yet water scarcity and salt content, changes in rainfall, flash floods, high rates of aquifer exploitation and growth of desert regions are all signs that suggest climate change and human activities are also affecting these arid and semi-arid zones.

The radar sounding prototype shares similar characteristics with two instruments flying on Mars-orbiting spacecraft: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS), on the European Space Agency's Mars Express, and Shallow Radar (SHARAD), on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. MARSIS, jointly developed by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, probes the Martian subsurface sediments and polar ice caps to a maximum depth of about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers). SHARAD, also built by the Italian Space Agency, looks for liquid or frozen water in the first few hundred feet of Mars' crust and probes Mars' polar caps. Both instruments have found evidence of ice in the Martian subsurface, but have not yet detected liquid water. The Kuwait results may lead to revised interpretations of data from these two instruments.

The research follows earlier work by JPL scientists to probe the subsurface of the Sahara desert using higher-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar instruments flown onboard three space shuttle missions in 1981, 1984 and 1994. That work located shallow drainage networks and large dry basins, suggesting the Sahara has had extensive surface water activity in its recent geological past. Kuwait's well-mapped shallow aquifers and flat surface provided the team with an ideal test location. Extreme dryness, such as that present in this region of Kuwait, is necessary to allow the radar's waves to penetrate deep into the surface and reflect on water-saturated layers beneath. Kuwait's flat topography and low radio noise also reduced clutter and improved the radar signal's return.

"Results of this study pave the way for potential airborne mapping of aquifers in hyper-arid regions such as the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula, and can be applied to design concepts for a possible future satellite mission to map Earth's desert aquifers," said Craig Dobson, program officer for Geodetic Imaging and Airborne Instrument Technology Transition programs at NASA Headquarters, Washington. The work is a pathfinder for the Orbiting Arid Subsurface and Ice Sheet Sounder (OASIS), a NASA spacecraft mission concept designed to map shallow aquifers in Earth's most arid desert regions and measure ice sheet volume, thickness, basal topography and discharge rates.

The study was co-funded by the California Institute of Technology's Keck Institute for Space Studies and KISR. The Kuwaiti Police Air Force provided technical support for the flight tests.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Paranormal Activity – நீங்கள் தூங்கும்போது...?

யதார்த்த சினிமா என்றால் என்ன...? ஒரு பத்து வருடங்களுக்கு முந்தய கோலிவுட் மொழியில் சொன்னால் “லா லா... லா லா...” என்று பேக்ரவுண்ட் மியூசிக் போட்டு காதலுங்குறது தோட்டத்துல காய்க்கிற பலா இல்ல... வானத்துல இருக்குற நிலான்னு மொக்கைத்தனமா டயலாக் பேசும் படங்கள். இப்போதைய கோலிவுட் மொழியில் சொன்னால் அழுக்கு சட்டை, தாடியுடன் முரட்டுத்தனமான ஹீரோ, வெட்டிப்பய ஹீரோவை வெரட்டி வெரட்டி காதலிக்கிற ஹீரோயின். ஆனால் உண்மையிலேயே யதார்த்த சினிமா என்றால் என்னவென்று பதார்த்தமாக நம் முன்பு படைத்திருக்கிறார் ஒரு மேலை நாட்டு இயக்குனர்.

Title: Paranormal Activity

Tagline: Don’t see it alone

Country: United States

Language: English

Year: 2007

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

Director, Cinematographer, Editor: Oren Peli

Producers: Steven Schneider, Jason Blum

Length: 97 Minutes

ஒரு இளம் தம்பதியர், ஒரு படுக்கையறை இதுதான் கதை என்று சொன்னால் உடனே அங்கே செக்ஸ்தான் கதைக்கருவாக இருக்கும் என்று நினைக்கலாம். ஆனால் அது சில மென்முத்தக்காட்சிகளை தவிர்த்து சிறிதளவேனும் இல்லை.

இளைஞன் ஒருவன் தன் காதலியுடன் ஒன்றாக ஒரு பிளாட்டில் வாழ்கிறான். (திருமணம் செய்துக்கொள்ளாமல் எப்படி ஒரே வீட்டில் வாழலாம் என்று அபத்தமாக கேட்கக்கூடாது). அவனுடைய காதலிக்கு சின்ன வயதில் இருந்தே ஏதோ ஒரு அமானுஷ்ய சக்தி தன்னை பின்தொடர்வதாக ஒரு நம்பிக்கை. அவளை திருப்திப்படுத்தும் நோக்கில் காதலன் ஒரு கேமரா வாங்கி அவர்களது தினசரி இரவை படம் பிடித்து காலையில் அதை போட்டு பார்க்கிறார்கள். முதல் இரவும் (அந்த முதலிரவு அல்ல), இரண்டாவது இரவும் அமைதியாக நகர மூன்றாவது இரவில் கதவு தானாக அசைகிறது. அங்கிருந்து ஆரம்பிக்கும் திகில் ஒவ்வொரு இரவாக முன்னேறி இருபத்தி ஒறாவது இரவில் உச்சக்கட்டம் அடைவதே மீதிக்கதை.

இந்தப்படத்தின் ஸ்பெஷாலிடி, இது வழக்கமான சினிமா போல் அல்லாமல், ஏதோ உண்மையிலேயே ஒரு தம்பதியர் தம் அன்றாட நிகழ்வுகளை படம் பிடித்தாற்போல ஒரு உணர்வை தருகிறது. படத்தின் ஆரம்பத்தில் காட்டப்படும் ஸ்லைடை நீங்கள் நம்பிவிட்டால் படத்தை இன்னும்கூட அதிகம் ரசிக்கலாம்.

ஒன்றரை மணிநேரம் ஓடக்கூடிய இந்தப்படத்தை கடந்த வெள்ளிக்கிழமை பின்னிரவில் தனியாளாக அமர்ந்து பார்த்தேன். கிட்டத்தட்ட ஒரு மணிநேர படம் முடிந்தநிலையில் பேசாமல் ஆப் பண்ணிட்டு அம்மா பக்கத்துல போய் படுத்துடலாமான்னு நினைக்கிற அளவுக்கு படம் திகிலானுபவம் தந்தது. இத்தனைக்கும் படத்தில் பெரிய அளவில் கிராபிக்ஸ், சவுண்ட் எபக்ட்ஸ் எதுவுமில்லை. ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் படுக்கையறையை காட்டும்போதும் என்னடா நடக்கப்போகிறது என்று பல்லைக் கடித்துக்கொண்டு எதிர்பார்க்க வைத்திருக்கிறார்கள்.

2007ம் ஆண்டு இந்தப்படத்தை ஒரு திரைப்பட விழாவில் வெளியிட்டபோது நிறைய ரசிகர்கள் பாதி படத்திலேயே எழுந்து போய்விட்டார்களாம். படம் பிடிக்காமல் அல்ல, பயத்தினால். அதனால்தானோ என்னவோ படத்தை விநியோகம் செய்ய ஆள் கிடைக்காமல், பல தடைகளை கடந்து 2009ம் ஆண்டு படம் வெளியாகியிருக்கிறது. ரிலீஸான புதிதில் மந்தமாக இருந்த வசூல் படத்தில் காட்டப்படும் இரவுகளைப் போல 21 நாட்கள் கழிந்தபின்னர் சூடு பிடித்து குறைந்த முதலீட்டில் எக்கச்சக்க வசூலை வாறிக்கொடுத்திருக்கிறது.

சில மாதங்களுக்கு முன்பு இந்தப்படம் தமிழில் டப் செய்யப்பட்டு சென்னை மோட்சம் திரையரங்கில் வெளியானது. பார்க்கலாமா வேண்டாமா என்று யோசித்து முடிப்பதற்குள் படம் தூக்கப்பட்டுவிட்டது. இந்தப்படத்தின் prequel கடந்த ஆண்டு அக்டோபர் மாதம் வெளிவந்திருக்கிறது. மேலும், அதனுடைய prequel அதாவது paranormal activity 3 அடுத்த மாதம் திரைக்கு வர இருக்கிறது.

இந்தப்படத்தை நான்கைந்து நண்பர்கள் குரூப் சேர்ந்து பார்ப்பதெல்லாம் வேலைக்கு ஆகாது. முடிந்தவரைக்கும் தனியாளாக, தனியறையில் இரவு நேரத்தில் பாருங்கள். அதுதான் ஒரிஜினல் திரில். இல்லை, நான் ரொம்ப தைரியசாலி என்று மார்தட்டுபவர்கள் உங்கள் தங்கை, தம்பி, மனைவி அல்லது கணவருடன் சேர்ந்து பார்த்து அவர்களை பயப்பட வைப்பது தனி சுகம்.

பதிவிறக்க லிங்குகள்:

நேரடி லிங்க்

டோரன்ட் லிங்க்

என்றும் அன்புடன்,

N.R.PRABHAKARAN

Working has changed the way I think. Egypt—thinkEQUAL

3 CAREER FIELDS WITH GROWTH IN THEIR FUTURE

Wondering which career fields, if any, are making money these days? Despite the bad economy, there is money to be made and many people are. These career fields show promise for the future!

Money Crashers highlights…

1. Medical Field

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants

The medical field is ripe with growth potential. As everyone probably knows, nurses are in high demand. The average nurse practitioner makes $85,200 per year, and the demand is expected to increase 23%. Nurse practitioners can perform many of the same functions as doctors such as prescribing medicine and treating illnesses.

Becoming a nurse practitioner requires a master’s degree in nursing and certification. With an aging population, the demand for healthcare is expected to double over the next decade. Physician assistants have climbed up to number 2 in the best jobs in America. They conduct physical exams, prescribe medicine, and treat illnesses. What does a physician assistant make? A physician assistant averages $92,000 per year and job growth is expected to rise a remarkable 39%.

One career that you may not have heard about is a nurse anesthetist. Certified nurse anesthetists (CRNA) are in demand and make more money than many family physicians. According to CNN Money, the average base salary of a CRNA is $189,000, whereas the average salary for a primary care physician is $173,000. So what does it take to become a nursing anesthetist? A CRNA must be a registered nurse and have at least one year of full-time nursing experience. Most CRNA’s obtain a master’s degree in anesthesia and pass a national certification exam.

2. Technology Sector

Software Architects, Systems Engineers, Software Engineers, IT Analysts

How would you like to work in the fast-growing tech sector? Information technology is the #1 field in terms of expected job growth over the next decade, which makes systems engineers among the most highly sought after professionals today. The average salary for a systems engineer is $87,100, and the career field is expected to grow 45% over the next 10 years. To become a systems engineer, you need a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

Software architects have taken the title as the best job in the country with job growth of 34% and an average annual salary of $119,000 per year. These innovative engineering professionals are responsible for helping to analyze and store data.

The engineering field is not the only IT field experiencing growth. Entry-level information technology analysts make $60,000 and above. Experienced IT analysts make over $82,600 per field, and job growth for the next decade is expected to be about 30%.

3. Financial Services

Accountants, Actuaries, Financial Advisers

Are you good with numbers? You could find a rewarding career in the financial services industry. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) make an average of $74,200 and10-year job growth is expected to be 18%. As more companies are doing away with pension plans, employees will need help with retirement planning. Job growth for financial advisers is expected to be 41% over the next decade. The average financial adviser makes $101,000 per year.

Actuaries measure the statistical probability of certain events occurring. The actuarial field has a projected growth rate of 24% and an average salary of $129,000. Actuaries can make as much as $300,000 per year. All of these finance-related fields typically require an undergraduate business degree.

1 KEY FACTOR TO COCA COLA’S SUCCESS

What has made Coca Cola become the great success that it is? This article details one key success factor which has made the company’s sales skyrocket and its notoriety unparalleled.

Investmentu outlines…

Today, let’s talk about a company that has:

• The most widely recognized brand name in the world.
• A 10% share of the entire global market for non-alcoholic beverages.
• A monopoly on the very definition of a multinational corporation.

If you guessed The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), then you’d be right.

Coca-Cola Pours Into Emerging Markets

If you live in America where Coca-Cola ads run everywhere from movie theatres’ opening credits to New York City store fronts, you probably wouldn’t know that it derives over 80% of sales, 75% of income and 95% of operating profits from abroad.

That makes sense though when you figure that its distribution network now covers more than 200 countries and has a 50% share of the global market for carbonated drinks.

Naturally, this opens up a very profitable blue-chip play for investors interested in capitalizing on economic growth overseas, and more specifically in emerging markets.

Because of flat sales in North America and even Europe, Coke has coped in the past through acquisitions of competitors like Nestea, Dasani and Vitaminwater over the last several years. Those purchases probably haven’t hurt, but they haven’t really helped either, since total case sales in North America dropped by 2% so far in 2009.

Yet growth in emerging markets continues rising at a brisk pace. In the second quarter of this year, Coca-Cola enjoyed 33% sales growth in India and 14% sales growth in China. And they remain untapped gushers if you look at both countries through the company’s measuring scale of bottles consumer per capita,

The average American drinks 412 bottles of Coke products a year. In China, that figure drops to 28 bottles and Indians consume only 7.

For example, India has a high birthrate and 1 billion people with an average age of 25… and trending lower. Since young people are particularly susceptible to the lure of carbonated, sugary drinks, that creates a particularly attractive Coke, especially as family incomes in India continue to rise.

Investors should step back a moment and think about those facts and figures … and the opportunities they raise. Because you can bet that Coca-Cola has.

Very rare pictures of Ruwanweli seya pinkama.....,

Scientists successfully expand bone marrow-derived stem cells in culture

Posted by Biomechanism All stem cells—regardless of their source—share the remarkable capability to replenish themselves by undergoing self-renewal. Yet, so far, efforts to grow and expand scarce hematopoietic (or blood-forming) stem cells in culture for therapeutic applications have been met with limited success.

Caption: An image of fully functional hematopoietic stem cells (or blood-forming) that are successfully proliferating amongst other bone marrow-derived cells in a culture dish. Credit: Dr. John Perry, Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research teased apart the molecular mechanisms enabling stem cell renewal in hematopoietic stem cells isolated from mice and successfully applied their insight to expand cultured hematopoietic stem cells a hundredfold.

Their findings, which will be published in the Sept. 15, 2011, edition of Genes & Development, demonstrate that self-renewal requires three complementary events: proliferation, active suppression of differentiation and programmed cell death during proliferation.

“The previous efforts so far to grow and expand scarce hematopoietic stem cells in culture for therapeutic applications have been met with limited success”, says Stowers investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D., who led the study. “Being able to tap into stem cell’s inherent potential for self-renewal could turn limited sources of hematopoietic stem cells such as umbilical cord blood into more widely available resources for hematopoietic stem cells,” he adds while cautioning that their findings have yet to be replicated in human cells.

The transplantation of human hematopoietic stem cells isolated from bone marrow is used in the treatment of anemia, immune deficiencies and other diseases, including cancer. However, since bone marrow transplants require a suitable donor-recipient tissue match, the number of potential donors is limited.

Hematopoietic stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood could be a good alternative source: Readily available and immunologically immature, they allow the donor-recipient match to be less than perfect without the risk of immune rejection of the transplant. Unfortunately, their therapeutic use is limited since umbilical cord blood contains only a small number of stem cells.

Although self-renewal is typically considered a single trait of stem cells, Li and his team wondered whether it could be pulled apart into three distinct requirements: proliferation, maintenance of the undifferentiated state, and the suppression of programmed cell death or apoptosis. “The default state of stem cells is to differentiate into a specialized cell types,” explains postdoctoral researcher and first author John Perry, Ph.D. “Differentiation must be blocked in order for stem cells to undergo self-renewal.”

Proliferation of stem cells in an undifferentiated state, however, calls tumor suppressor genes into action. These genes help prevent cancer by inducing a process of cell death known as apoptosis. “Consequently, self-renewal of adult stem cells must also include a third event, the active suppression of apoptosis,” says Perry.

To test their hypothesis, Perry and his colleagues isolated hematopoietic stem cells from mice and analyzed two key genetic pathways—the Wnt/β-catenin and PI3K/Akt pathways. Wnt proteins had been identified as “self-renewal factors,” while PI3K/Akt activation had been shown to induce proliferation and promote survival by inhibiting apoptosis.

Surprisingly, activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway alone blocked differentiation but eventually resulted in cell death, while activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway alone increased differentiation but facilitated cell survival. Only when both pathways were activated, did the pool of hematopoietic stem cells start expanding. “This demonstrated both pathways had to cooperate to promote self-renewal,” says Perry.

Although altering both pathways drives self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells, it also permanently blocks their ability to mature into fully functional blood cells. To sidestep the differentiation block and generate normal, functioning hematopoietic stem cells usable for therapy, the Stowers scientists used small molecules to reversibly activate both the Wnt/β-catenin and PI3K/Akt pathways in culture.

“We were able to expand the most primitive hematopoietic stem cells, which, when transplanted back into mice gave rise to all blood cell types throughout three, sequential transplantation experiments,” says Li. “If similar results can be achieved using human hematopoietic stem cells from sources such as umbilical cord blood, this work is expected to have substantial clinical impact.”

_______________

Researchers who also contributed to the work include Xi C. He, Ryohichi Sugimura, Justin C. Grindley and Jeffrey S. Haug at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and Sheng Ding in the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco.