The Bay Watch Dog!!

This is bound to give Pamela Anderson and her likes a few goose bumps. Imagine being replaced by Dogs ?? Well that is precisely what a Dog has been doing rather successfully at the famed Chennai Marina Beach. Responding to the name of Julie , she plays the role of the beach guard to the hilt.

Here is the clincher, she joined the force voluntarily when she started pulling out people who go further into the waters.

Here is what CNN IBN had to say about this Dog....

No one can miss the rather unlikely member of the Anna Square police station in Chennai, Julie — unlikely because Julie is a dog. She is the newest member of the Anna Square police station and joined just about a month ago.

However, Julie is not a police watchdog, but has voluntary taken up the duty of patrolling the shores of the Marina beach.

Inspector S Sekar says, "A small child was playing very close to the water just a couple of days ago. Julie barked at her and pulled her to the shore to safety. That's when people got to know her."

Policemen say over 1,600 people have drowned in the stretch of beach near Anna Square police station in the last year. Among them were 231 children.

Julie keeps an eye on the crowd and pulls back people who stray too close to the water.

She has become a favourite among the policemen and the regular beach-goers — and that might have something to do with the fact that nobody has drowned in the area ever since she's taken up her duty about a month ago.

The police are now thinking of using Julie's services for other purposes as well.

S Sekar says, "We are planning to train her and other dogs like her to catch people dealing with narcotic substances on the beach."

And Julie seems to be enjoying her new role as Chennai's special cop.

Climate Change to affect the Mumbai coast line

According to studies made recently the enrtire Mumbai coastline features like Chowpatty, Chatrapathi Shivaji Airport, Gateway of India etc will be under water within the next 100 years or so. This is according to a study made by Sudhir Chella Rajan, from the Humanities Department of IIT Chennai.

Here is the article in more detail

The Gateway of India will be wiped off the Mumbai skyline. Bhelpuri at Chowpatty will become the stuff of grandmother's tales.

No flights will take off from Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. No couple will canoodle at the Marine Drive promenade and even heirs to the bungalow of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will not be able to resist being evicted from their home.

Ninety-two years from now, all these landmarks of Mumbai will be underwater. That's the apocalypse scenario drawn up in a report titled 'Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions' that has been commissioned by Greenpeace, a non-government organization.

Prepared by climate expert and professor from the humanities department of IIT Chennai, Sudhir Chella Rajan, the report says that a potential increase in temperatures by 4 to 5 degrees due to greenhouse emissions at the current rate would mean a corresponding rise in sea levels of up to five metres by 2100.

This, in turn, would imply that approximately 50 million Indians would be rendered homeless and become 'climate migrants'.

"The low elevation coastal zone (LECZ), which comprises the coastal region that is less than 10 metres above average sea level, is obviously at direct risk. Even prime commercial properties like the Backbay complex and the Bandra-Kurla complex fall into this category. This means that it's not just the average Koli who will be affected but even Mannat (superstar SRK's Bandra Bandstand bungalow) would be on the wrong side of the coastline once the sea level rises," said Greenpeace activist Shweta Ganesh Kumar.

Greenpeace envisages that human migration 92 years hence would be equivalent to 10 times the movement seen during Partition. "This means that even the limited space in your Virar-Churchgate local will be affected," she added.

However, Rakesh Kumar from the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) felt the figures in the Greenpeace study seemed exaggerated.

"This can create a scare in the minds of the people. According to estimates of the intergovernmental panel of climate change (IPCC), the rise in sea levels by 2011 is estimated at one metre. There will be submersion, but only in the low-lying areas. At most, the foundations of buildings near the shore may be weakened due to saline formation," said Kumar.

Greenpeace activists, however, are on a mission to raise awareness about the impending doom. Around 40 Greenpeace activists or 'Blue Busters' sporting symbolic blue raincoats hit the city streets on Sunday.

Blue cautionary signs, saying 'Climate Change Zone Ahead' with illustrations of drowning individuals bearing a distinct resemblance to traditional traffic signs, were put up along the Bandra Kurla Complex and other areas.

Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner Brikesh Singh said, "We want to alert Mumbaikars to the blue future they have in store if steps are not taken to fight global warming. If we don't act now, our city of dreams will be caught up in a never-ending nightmare, and we are the last generation that can prevent this from happening." The 'Blue Alert' signs were part of a Greenpeace campaign launched in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Panaji and Puri.

"The campaign aims at bringing home the reality of climate change to the common man and empowering people to force their MPs to speak out about the issue of climate change," said Singh.

Greenpeace activists will slap token 'eviction-warning' notices on the doors of structures that may be affected. These include the homes of actors Shah Rukh Khan, Rekha and Farhan Akhtar.

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

The whistled version of Colonel Bogey's march. Taken from the movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, remains a classic and memorable piece of music... Alec Guiness his part to perfection and so does Japanese Commandant of the POW Camp ...

12 Days of Christmas

a Damn cute song :p

Kumbhakarna

G.N. MOHAN, driving down from Hyderabad to Bangalore on a rainy evening, spots Kumbhakarna being furiously woken from his slumber to fight the vanara sene. But wait…

Not on the pages of Ramayana, but at a construction site on the Andhra-Karnataka border.

The statue tells a story, of course, but there is another story inside it. This is an auditorium. The head is the stage, the belly is the gallery, and the legs are the entry and exit points.

The statue was conceived by former Anantapur Collector Someshkumar and given shape to by Visakhapatnam-based Architect Venkat three years ago to make people alive to issues like HIV/AIDS, corruption and environmental pollution. “Though the ‘concrete’ Kumbhakarna will continue to sleep, we want people to awaken and shed their indifference to the problems facing the society,” District Tourism Officer Biju George says.

I must admit, I for a moment wondered if the entry and exit were the same :p

Infants charred in hospital

Strange but true. The hand that was supposed to give life, has taken that very life. Hey, am not talking of a doctor, but of extremely safe devices like Incubators and Baby Warming devices.

Here is more on that

2 infants charred in hospital gadgets

Thu, Mar 13 10:31 AM

This is a freak, horrific tragedy of the kind that happens only rarely. On Wednesday, it happened twice, in the space of two hours, in two Indian cities.

Two prematurely born babies were roasted alive after electrical warming gadgets in which they had been kept burst into flames in government hospitals in Delhi and Ahmedabad. In both cases, electrical short circuits were probably to blame.

The machines - an infant warmer in Delhi and an incubator in Ahmedabad - are normally very safe. Several doctors that Hindustan Times spoke to in Delhi could not recall any such case previously.

An incubator is a heated case in which a baby is placed; an infant warmer is like an open plate that is heated from above by an umbrella-like mechanism. The Delhi accident happened at Bhagwan Mahawir Hospital in Pitampura, where an infant warmer burst into flames at around 2.

30 a.m.

The five-day-old baby died before her mother, sleeping in the next ward, could reach her. The woman alleged hospital staff had prevented her from rushing to the burning machine.

"As soon as I heard my baby crying, I ran towards her from my ward. I saw the machine was on fire.

I cried for help, but instead of helping the baby, the nursing staff held me back. If they had let me go, my child would be alive today," the woman, Kamlesh, said.

She and her husband, Prakash Kumar, ragpickers from Shakurpur, have filed a complaint with the Mongolpuri police, accusing the hospital administration of negligence. The police have filed a case, and Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri has asked the hospital for a report on the incident within 36 hours.

The Ahmedabad tragedy happened at 4.15 am.

An incubator containing a three-day-old infant caught fire at the municipal Shardaben Hospital. Three other incubators in the same room also caught fire, but hospital staff removed the babies in them before they were seriously hurt.

The dead baby's mother is in shock. She had had the child after a 10-year wait.

Hospital sources said that the incubator was more than a decade old but was functioning normally. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has ordered an inquiry into the fire, and sent the burnt-out machine for forensic examination.

The Narendra Modi government has announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 for the couple from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, and the corporation has decided to waive all their medical bills. The Delhi hospital too has announced an internal inquiry.

"It was a very unfortunate accident. The machine was new and in good working condition.

We are not sure how the fire started but we suspect a short circuit," said Dr Ashok Kumar Dang, Medical Superintendent. Neonatalogists said infant warming machines are safe and ISO 9001 certified, though accidents can happen anytime, anywhere.

"I've never heard of something like this happening, and the cause of the fire should be investigated," said a senior paediatrian at Safdarjang Hospital, who declined to be named.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/hindustantimes/20080313/r_t_ht_nl_general/tnl-2-infants-charred-in-hospital-gadget-7244580_1.html

O Yelliruve Manava Kaduva Rupasi ye -Ananth Nag

One of my favourite kannada songs :)