Raves at Opportune Moments

Sources at NASA indicate that the return of Atlantis to Earth is delayed due to reasons other than the weather as reported widely in the Media.

Sunita watching Sivaji

In an exclusive interview to Whines Now TV, the NASA chief Triple H confirmed that the Shuttle can land anytime, but has been delayed due to personal reasons. Whines Now will replay this interiew at least 200 times over the next 2 days, so you can catch it on the air anytime.

He said "We had already cleared the location and time for landing. However, we had an unique request from Sunita. She indicated that she would like to watch "Sivaji - The boss" movie aboard the Atlantis. We have since contacted Mr.Shankar, who has sent us a DVD of the movie."

Sivaji - The Boss

He continued, "We have stopped vital communication with the Space Shuttle and started relaying the movie now. Most of us here at NASA are also watching it on our Big Screens. Its better than Spiderman 3 or Fab Four, the movies we have been watching the last 3 days here. We are so impressed that we have now asked for a copy of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom too"

When our reporters contacted Sunita, she was so engrossed in the movie and her voice came through in bits and spurts. Initially, we attributed this to our usual quality of sound, but were able to get her to speak to us clearly during the intermission. And this is what she had to say...

"It was great watching the Superstar after having to watch millions of nameless stars over the last 6 months. It is a scientific wonder that our movie stars are able to float in air with the same ease we have been doing in space. I also wish to thank all Indians who have sent me good wishes through this TV channel, though they didn't know me from garam masala 3 months back. Hey, the intermission is over and I've to get back to watching Sivaji. Catchya."

That was an exclusive report of the Atlantis return to Earth. You can catch pictures of 'Sunita watching Sivaji' in Action City at 8pm. This is DontheCat in NASA reporting for Whines Now.

I'm at Pondy for the weekend.

More about this tomorrow when I'm back in the comforts of Broadband, cos right now I'm on GPRS. BSNL is good but then its still 64 kbps only.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here's a sobering statistic.

There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.

That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington

Thru email from Shibu

Things have been quite hectic the whole of last week. I've been building the Madras Christian College web portal for the last two months and things have been happening. The current site has several limitations and a Portal is being constructed to reflect the attitude and information realtd to the 170 year old top-of-the-line institution.

The amount of data that could go into the site is mind-boggling. So a webteam of students was formed to collate data on the Halls, Student and Cultural Activities. Quite a task considering that the data goes back 170 years, but the team is ever enthu and already have amassed some terrific data. Kanaks and I were there last week to shoot some photographs of the campus, which we affectionately call "The Woods". Kanaks is an amazing photographer and some great snaps are with me now which will be put up on the site.

The Alma Mater has planned to make public the new portal next week to co-ordinate with the College Day Celebrations on Feb 23rd. His Excellency Dr.Abdul Kalam, Hon'ble President of India will be the Chief Guest and will deliver the Convocation Address.

I'm leaving to Tambaram tomorrow morning to stay in the Woods this weekend so that the site can be finalised. I guess I'd be able to work faster amid the beatiful trees, the deer and the natural fauna and flora of MCC campus. Of course, the site would be dynamic and so change would be constant. I'll update the website URL after its officially launched.

Also took off some time to build a couple of blogs for some friends. Nandini has already started blogging in spite of her recent job shift and the resultant "runnin around" situation. I met Nandy through Nagi and find her to be one of the coolest I've met in recent times. She is also a very warm and friendly person and I dig her friendship. Keep the Party Alive, Nandy. :wave:

Of the others, Deeps who is a final PG student at MCC is yet to start bloggin cos her CA exams are going on. Deeps, get crackin soon . Mukund seems to have booked his URL and webspace, but is yet to forward me the details.

I was also the Chief Guest and Speaker at the Rotary Metro Weekly meeting last Saturday at The Park. The topic : Blogging - the Mysteries Unravelled . Quite an enthu bunch of very inquisitive company heads and businessmen were around and I guess I got carried away a bit . At the end of my presentation, there were hordes of questions and now a spirited bunch of new bloggers are waiting to hit the desi blogsphere. I've assured them of all help after Feb 23rd. (Thanks Kribs and Jo for the inputs and data :wave: )