SCHOLARS CLUB

With summer holidays and kids at home, here are a few of my favourite ways to recycle.  You can try them with the kids. It will keep them busy.  Don’t throw away empty cereal boxes.  Cut off one side at an angle and get your kids to help decorate the box as creatively as they can to make a great magazine holder. Get creative with newspaper to create wrapping paper for gifts.  You can attach dried and pressed flowers and leaves, strips of cloth, bows etc to trim newspapers and create your own unique wrapping paper Cut and keep embroidery, motifs etc from your favourite saris, shawls or even kids’ outfits.  They can be reused to give a new look to a new plain garment. Look up tailors/boutiques in your area who specialize in creating new from old Use old lightbulbs as indoor planters for money plants.  Don’t forget to cut off the top portion and remove the wires inside.  Fill water and add a fresh long stem of money plant. You can twist ...

More than 300 top jobs in the country's premier intelligence agencies have no takers. And these voids, caused by a dearth of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, are likely to remain until 2017, according to Union home minister P. Chidambaram. "We have troops; we don't have officers to command them. I (have asked) chief ministers ( to release IPS officers from states but) no IPS officer is forthcoming," Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha two days ago. Records show about 100 posts are vacant in the CBI.  Another 150-odd top posts are vacant in the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing. Then there is the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which has three dozen top-level vacancies. The CRPF admits it is short of four deputy inspector generals (DIGs) in Chhattisgarh where the force lost 75 men in April. The Border Security Force, the Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, too, are short of 50 top officers. Trouble start...

Australian model Miranda Kerr has offered men ten tips on how they can have romantic harmony with their partners and continue doing so. Kerr, 27, told men's lifestyle website AskMen.com that usually it is the little things that count, and that no matter what, they should at all times be themselves and pay attention to their partner's needs. he also said that staying healthy, showing affection and a willingness to pamper are also attractive qualities in the eyes of the fairer sex. "In my experience, it is the random small gestures that I find the most romantic," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as telling the website. "It could be something as simple as making me a cup of tea or being given a foot massage while we are watching a movie at home after a long day at work. "If more men made an effort to do these little things for their partner throughout their everyday life they would be guaranteed to have a more romantic relationship," she added. Kerr...

Price ranging from a modest Rs 50 to a whopping Rs 50,000, tickets for this year's Commonwealth Games went on sale today with sports enthusiasts having the option of booking them online or through call centres.  The ticketing website -- www.tickets.cwgdelhi2010.org and a call center facility 1800-200-1294 to book the tickets -- were launched at a function here by Delhi Lt Governor Tejender Khanna, Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and city Mayor Prithiviraj Sahni. Ticket prices for the sporting events range from Rs 50 to Rs 1,000 while prices for the Opening and Closing Ceremony range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 and Rs 750 to Rs 50,000 respectively. Four events will have free entry for fans -- the Marathon, the Walk, Cycling Road Race and Cycling Time Trial. Almost 40 per cent of the competition venue tickets have been put at Rs 200 or below, the Organising Committee said. "Tickets is one of the four revenue streams for the Organising Committee, the ot...

BEAWARE OF SPAMS: FRAUDS ARE SENDINGS MAILS TO CHEAT US,  Attention : Lucky Winner, We happily announce to you the Uk-lottery draw of the Lottery International programs held in the UK on saturday 29TH May 2010. Your e-mail address was attached to these lucky winning numbers below . 6,11,15,32,38,42 Bonus Ball 24 . Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of £1,524,177 Pound Sterlings. The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order. All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 1000 corporate bodies that are listed online. To file for your claim, please contact our claims officer Mr. James Keegan Via Email Or Phone with details of your winnings (Winning Numbers with your personal informations). Full Name: Residencial Address: Date And Place Of Birth: Age: Sex: Nationality: Marital Status: Occupati...

While calls for a boycott of the ongoing IIFA awards, billed as Bollywood’s Oscars, are gathering momentum in India, the protests are nothing more than a faint murmur in the Sri Lankan capital where the three-day event opened on Thursday. Colombo is playing host to the annual awards which are held in a different city each year -- a sign of Bollywood's efforts to broaden its global appeal.  But it is not a popular choice with some Tamil groups in India. Civil rights groups have said the Lankan government should be investigated for potential war crimes at the end of their three-decade war against Tamil Tiger separatists a year ago. Tamil groups in India have been protesting against the choice of venue for the IIFA Weekend, urging Bollywood stars to boycott the awards. The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce has threatened to boycott the films of any Bollywood star who attends the awards. Many of Bollywood’s biggest names including IIFA brand ambassado...

Whoever the World Cup trophy ends up with, it will be travelling in style. Luxury handbag and luggage maker, Louis Vuitton, has designed and crafted the trophy case for the cup.  The leather case was unveiled on Tuesday along with the replica World Cup which is given to winners. The original cup itself remains the permanent property of FIFA, world soccer's governing body. British supermodel Naomi Campbell installed the trophy in the luxury case, handing it with gloves as tradition requires only winners of the cup may touch it. "I think what this cup symbolises to all children all over the world is hopes and dreams of their passion that can come true and the blood, sweat and tears is going to go into this, to kick in balls to get this cup is going to be amazing, " Campbell told reporters at the unveiling. The World Cup trophy was previously transported in an aluminium trunk but FIFA went to Louis Vuitton, owned by LVMH, and asked for packaging for the World C...

RITES conducts survey for monorail in Patna (Lead): Railway approved the possibility of Monorail in Patna , Impressed by the monorail systems he has seen in places like the Sentosa amusement park in Singapore, government is set to replicate the transport system in his home city Patna as well - and has already got the initial survey conducted by the railways. On the minister’s directions, the consultancy arm of the Indian Railways, RITES, has conducted the survey to study the possibility of what is likely to be t he first monorail service in the country.  A.K. Chandra, chief public relations officer of East Central Railway, said the monorail would be part of a larger railway project in Patna and would help ease traffic congestion in Patna.  It will start on the basis of PPP mode. there will bw five zones of monorail rail traffic. After Survey  it has been established that Monorail can easily run in Patna. 1. Gandhi maidan to Didarganj  2. Gandhi...

Twitter obsessed? Well, now you can buy a T-shirt to tell the world about your Twitter habits. Designs on offer by Mumbai-based website Inkfruit include, 'Beware! I tweet whatever I see!'; 'I tweet after five beers'; 'Twitter is for morons'; 'I will become a twitter trending topic one day' and 'Hold on, I need to tweet this .' The company, which is based in Goregaon, came up with the five designs after holding a Twitter-themed one-month contest in April among its one million-odd online community, 20,000 of whom are graphic designers. Thousands submitted their designs and the five that scored the highest number of thumbs up rankings from viewers were made into T-shirts. The unisex round-neck T-shirts are now on sale at www.inkfruit.com, at Rs 349 each. Partner Kashyap Dalal says: "Twitter is in the news so often and we were getting lots of Twitter-themed submissions. Last year, we had selected two Twitter designs for the site and in A...

New Delhi. You next year's World Cup matches in the Indian continent are planning to see, then matches them to get ready to loose your pocket over which team will participate. Between April 2011 and February 19 let it India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for the next World Cup tickets, do not make the mistake of waiting until next year because all the cricket matches in the group stage of Mahakumbha tickets are available for sale . The match will get tickets for ten bucks but that's another matter that this you have to travel to Sri Lanka. World Cup organizing committee has set the price of tickets accordingly to match the group stage of the lowest ticket price is Rs 20,000 and above ten bucks. Ahanbantota between Sri Lanka and in Canada on February 20 of the match by ten bucks, but also can be enjoyed in India, one of the lowest ticket price is 30 bucks, but the team is not involved in the match. Mohali's PCA Stadium due on March 11 between West Indies and Ireland to match t...

A decorated Tata Nano stands before being rolled out during the inauguration of the Nano plant in Sanand, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, June 2, 2010. Tata Motors inaugurated the factory Wednesday to produce its super-cheap compact Nano car, nearly two years after violent farmer protests forced the company to relocate. The new factory in India's business-friendly Gujarat state promises to unleash production of the pint-sized car, which Tata plans to export to Europe, and eventually the U.S. ==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off?

==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off?  Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia  Fog obscures the summit of Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu, a 13,455-foot (4,101-meter) peak in northwestern East Malaysia. Formerly known as St. Peter's Mount, Kinabalu is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago.   Indonesia Mountains  A towering trail of steam and smoke issues from Mount Semeru in the distance while gaping Mount Bromo (middle left) quietly simmers in East Java, Indonesia. The Indonesian government estimates that during the last 400 years, 129 of the country's volcanoes have become active.   Mont Blanc The snow-mantled rock face of the colossal Mont Blanc Massif, located between France and Italy, dwarfs a pale twilight moonrise in the background. At 15,771 feet (4,807 meters), Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps and a frequent point of contention between the two countries. Each alternately claims it as its own...

==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off?  Maker Aston Martin calls the Rapid the most beautiful four-door car in the world.'The Rapide is a sports car', says Ulrich Bez, the chief executive of Aston Martin. Normally, he wouldn't feel the need for such emphasis: expensive, hand-crafted British sports cars are Aston's business. But the £140,000 Rapide is something new, the company's first four-door, four-seater car since the Lagonda of the 1970s. Bez doesn't want this car to be misunderstood. It is not a rival for the Bentley Continental Flying Spur or the uber-sedans from Mercedes, BMW and Audi and it differs fundamentally from its most obvious counterpart, the Porsche Panamera. As Aston sees it, the Porsche was designed as a low-line car providing generous space for four adults and the body was shaped accordingly, hence its hump-backed look; the Rapide is an Aston Martin DB9 with more room for people and luggage but no...

unlimited Internet is available for Rs 99 Data Wind Ltd, a provider of wireless web access products and services, has announced the launch of Ubi Surfer, its ultra-portable netbook with Internet connectivity.  The Ubi Surfer offers Data Wind's free-usage model, in which you pay for the device and not the usage. For the average user, there are no monthly fees, airtime tariffs, contracts or recurring fees. The netbook comes bundled with 30 hours per month of free Internet access for the first year, useable across India.  For regular surfers, unlimited Internet is available for Rs 99 a month and each subsequent year of usage costs Rs 999. The Internet is powered by Tata Teleservices' CDMA network. It comes pre-loaded with the Microsoft Windows CE 6.0 operating system and Softmaker Office Suite, which lets users open, edit and save MS Office 2003 Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, retaining all the contents of the original files.  Ubi Surfer weighs 700g. It comes wi...

Microsoft has launched a Windows 7-themed restaurant in Taipei to promote its new operating system, an official with the US firm said, on the eve of Asia's biggest IT trade show. The restaurant previously named "100 Seafood" has been renamed "77 Concept Store" and features seven technology-themed dishes such as "Electronic Beancurd", priced at 77 Taiwan dollars (2.40 US), the official said. Christine Chen, an executive with Microsoft Taiwan, said the restaurant had been picked for its popularity among small and medium-sized businesses. The concept was inspired by a Windows cafe opened in Paris last year following the launch of Windows 7, she added. Technology firms are converging on Taiwan for the Computex Taipei show from June 1-5. ==> If you liked this post, then why not buy me a beer so I can cool off?

How safe do the city's several lakh Internet users think they really are?  What are the signs of a cyber crime, and what is one to do, if one falls victim to it?  These are only some of the questions that the ongoing Mumbai Cyber Safety Week 2010 seeks to answer. The five-day event initiatied by the Mumbai Police on Monday began with the launch of a report examining how safe the city's wireless networks are. Conducted by KPMG, the knowledge partners of this initiative, the report examined 28,000 wireless networks.  "We're making a point to get in touch with Internet users from all walks of life, including BPO workers, students, medical professionals, engineers among others to spread awareness about how the Internet is being misused," said Additional Comissioner of Police Deven Bharti.  "Almost 9,400 wireless networks all across the city are vulnerable, and 48 per cent of home wireless networks have little protection which means they can be compro...

How acupuncture eases pain Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have offered new insights into how acupuncture alleviates pain. The researchers identified the molecule adenosine as a central player in parlaying some of the effects of acupuncture in the body. Building on that knowledge, scientists were able to triple the beneficial effects of acupuncture in mice by adding a medication approved to treat leukemia in people.  The research focuses on adenosine, a natural compound known for its role in regulating sleep, for its effects on the heart, and for its anti-inflammatory properties. But adenosine also acts as a natural painkiller, becoming active in the skin after an injury to inhibit nerve signals and ease pain in a way similar to lidocaine. In the current study, scientists found that the chemical is also very active in deeper tissues affected by acupuncture.  The Rochester researchers looked at the effects of acupuncture on the peripher...

India's economy grew at an annual rate of 8.6% in the three months to March, largely thanks to growth in manufacturing, official data has shown.  That marked an increase on the 6.5% growth seen in the previous quarter.  Analysts say the figures from the Central Statistical Organisation are likely to keep the central bank on its path of gradual rate increases.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised interest rates in April and March as it battles high levels of inflation. The economy for the year ending March 2010 grew by 7.4%, ahead of the RBI's January forecast of 7.2%.  "I expect the current economic momentum to remain," Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after the figures were released. He added that he expected the economy to grow by 8.5% in the financial year to March 2011.

When preparing for the IIT-JEE, Deeksha Sinha (18) didn't face any specific difficulties because she was a girl.  But there were the small concerns. "My parents were always anxious that I'd commute alone from my coaching class late at night," said Sinha, a first-year student at IIT, Bombay.  Sinha's trajectory began with her deciding on engineering "because everyone around me was doing it". Girls, she said, have nothing of the kind of burning determination that boys have about the JEE.  "Even the girls who were preparing with me were not very keen on getting in - it almost felt like they were doing it for the sake of it. The boys were much more intense about it," she said.  As one of the few girls on a male-dominated campus, Sinha has felt bouts of loneliness.  "Occasionally, you do feel left out by the boys or sometimes no one sits next to you in class," she said.