Science
News This Week:
1) Hubble
shows farthest lensing galaxy yields clues to early universe:
The
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have unexpectedly discovered
the most distant galaxy that acts as a cosmic magnifying glass. Seen here as it
looked 9.6 billion years ago, this monster elliptical galaxy breaks the
previous record holder by 200 million years.These "lensing" galaxies
are so massive that their gravity bends, magnifies, and distorts light from
objects behind them, a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Finding one in
such a small area of the sky is so rare that you would normally have to survey
a region hundreds of times larger to find just one.The object behind the cosmic
lens is a tiny spiral galaxy undergoing a rapid burst of star formation. Its
light has taken 10.7 billion years to arrive here and seeing this chance
alignment at such a great distance from Earth is a rare find. Locating more of
these distant lensing galaxies will offer insight into how young galaxies in
the early universe build themselves up into the massive dark-matter-dominated
galaxies of today. Dark matter cannot be seen, but it accounts for the bulk of
the universe's matter.
"When
you look more than 9 billion years ago in the early universe, you don't expect
to find this type of galaxy lensing at all," explained lead researcher
Kim-Vy Tran of Texas A&M University in College Station. "It's very
difficult to see an alignment between two galaxies in the early universe. Imagine
holding a magnifying glass close to you and then moving it much farther away.
When you look through a magnifying glass held at arm's length, the chances that
you will see an enlarged object are high. But if you move the magnifying glass
across the room, your chances of seeing the magnifying glass nearly perfectly
aligned with another object beyond it diminishes."Team members Kenneth
Wong and Sherry Suyu of Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy &
Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taipei, Taiwan, used the gravitational lensing from the
chance alignment to measure the giant galaxy's total mass, including the amount
of dark matter, by gauging the intensity of its lensing effects on the
background galaxy's light. The giant foreground galaxy weighs 180 billion times
more than our Sun and is a massive galaxy for its time. It is also one of the
brightest members of a distant cluster of galaxies, called IRC 0218.
"There
are hundreds of lens galaxies that we know about, but almost all of them are
relatively nearby, in cosmic terms," said Wong, first author on the team's
science paper. "To find a lens as far away as this one is a very special
discovery because we can learn about the dark-matter content of galaxies in the
distant past. By comparing our analysis of this lens galaxy to the more nearby
lenses, we can start to understand how that dark-matter content has evolved
over time."The team suspects the lensing galaxy continued to grow over the
past 9 billion years, gaining stars and dark matter by cannibalizing
neighboring galaxies. Tran explained that recent studies suggest these massive
galaxies gain more dark matter than stars as they continue to grow. Astronomers
had assumed dark matter and normal matter build up equally in a galaxy over
time, but now know the ratio of dark matter to normal matter changes with time.
The newly discovered distant lensing galaxy will eventually become much more
massive than the Milky Way and will have more dark matter, too.Tran and her
team were studying star formation in two distant galaxy clusters, including IRC
0218, when they stumbled upon the gravitational lens. While analyzing
spectrographic data from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, Tran spotted a
strong detection of hot hydrogen gas that appeared to arise from a giant
elliptical galaxy. The detection was surprising because hot hydrogen gas is a
clear signature of star birth. Previous observations showed that the giant
elliptical, residing in the galaxy cluster IRC 0218, was an old, sedate galaxy
that had stopped making stars a long time ago. Another puzzling discovery was
that the young stars were at a much farther distance than the elliptical
galaxy. Tran was very surprised, worried, and thought her team made a major
mistake with their observations.
The
astronomer soon realized she hadn't made a mistake when she looked at the
Hubble images taken in blue wavelengths, which revealed the glow of fledgling
stars. The images, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide
Field Camera 3, revealed a blue, eyebrow-shaped object next to a smeared blue
dot around the massive elliptical. Tran recognized the unusual features as the
distorted, magnified images of a more distant galaxy behind the elliptical
galaxy, the signature of a gravitational lens.To confirm her gravitational-lens
hypothesis, Tran's team analyzed Hubble archival data from two observing
programs, the 3D-HST Survey, a near-infrared spectroscopic survey taken with
the Wide Field Camera 3, and the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep
Extragalactic Legacy Survey, a large Hubble deep-sky program. The data turned
up another fingerprint of hot gas connected to the more distant galaxy.The
distant galaxy is too small and far away for Hubble to determine its structure.
So, team members analyzed the distribution of light in the object to infer its
spiral shape. In addition, spiral galaxies are more plentiful during those
early times. The Hubble images also revealed at least one bright compact region
near the center. The team suspects the bright region is due to a flurry of star
formation and is most likely composed of hot hydrogen gas heated by massive
young stars. As Tran continues her star-formation study in galaxy clusters, she
will be hunting for more signatures of gravitational lensing.
2) Key to
aging immune system: Discovery of DNA replication problem:
There's a
good reason people over 60 are not donor candidates for bone marrow
transplantation. The immune system ages and weakens with time, making the
elderly prone to life-threatening infection and other maladies, and a UC San
Francisco research team now has discovered a reason why."We have found the
cellular mechanism responsible for the inability of blood-forming cells to
maintain blood production over time in an old organism, and have identified
molecular defects that could be restored for rejuvenation therapies," said
Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD, a professor of medicine and a member of the Eli and
Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF.
Passegué, an expert on the stem cells that give rise to the blood and immune
system, led a team that published the new findings online July 30, 2014 in the
journal Nature.
Blood and
immune cells are short-lived, and unlike most tissues, must be constantly
replenished. The cells that must keep producing them throughout a lifetime are
called "hematopoietic stem cells." Through cycles of cell division
these stem cells preserve their own numbers and generate the daughter cells
that give rise to replacement blood and immune cells. But the hematopoietic
stem cells falter with age, because they lose the ability to replicate their
DNA accurately and efficiently during cell division, Passegué's lab team
determined.
Especially
vulnerable to the breakdown, the researchers discovered in their new study of
old mice, are transplanted, aging, blood-forming stem cells, which lack the
ability to make B cells of the immune system. These B cells make antibodies to
help us fight all sorts of microbial infections, including bacteria that cause
pneumonia, a leading killer of the elderly.
In old
blood-forming stem cells, the researchers found a scarcity of specific protein
components needed to form a molecular machine called the mini-chromosome
maintenance helicase, which unwinds double-stranded DNA so that the cell's
genetic material can be duplicated and allocated to daughter cells later in
cell division. In their study the stem cells were stressed by the loss of
activity of this machine and as a result were at heightened risk for DNA damage
and death when forced to divide.
The
researchers discovered that even after the stress associated with DNA
replication, surviving, non-dividing, resting, old stem cells retained
molecular tags on DNA-wrapping histone proteins, a feature often associated
with DNA damage. However, the researchers determined that these old survivors
could repair induced DNA damage as efficiently as young stem cells.
"Old
stem cells are not just sitting there with damaged DNA ready to develop cancer,
as it has long been postulated" Passegué said.But not all was well in the
old, surviving stem cells. The molecular tags accumulated on genes needed to
make the cellular factories known as ribosomes. The ribosomes make all the
cell's proteins. Passegué will further explore the consequences of reduced
protein production as part of her ongoing research."Everybody talks about
healthier aging," Passegué added. "The decline of stem-cell function
is a big part of age-related problems. Achieving longer lives relies in part on
achieving a better understanding of why stem cells are not able to maintain
optimal functioning."Passegué hopes that it might be possible to prevent
declining stem-cell populations by developing a drug to prevent the loss of the
helicase components needed to faithfully unwind and replicate DNA, thereby
avoiding immune-system failure.Among the additional study authors are graduate
student Johanna Flach and postdoctoral fellow Sietske Bakker, PhD, who
performed the experiments in Passegué's lab at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center
of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. International
collaborators included Juan Méndez, PhD, of the Spanish National Cancer
Research Center, in Madrid, and Ciaran Morrison, PhD, of the National
University of Ireland, in Galway.
3) Giving
emotions to virtual characters:
Researchers
at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) were able to
simulate human facial expressions in virtual characters and use them in order
to create better environments within a virtual communication.So far, the
so-called virtual agents also mimic human behavior through programmed commands
or scripts, but this results in a very "robotic" reaction, which is
not interesting for the user, said Marco Antonio Ramos Corchado, engineer at
the Department of Computational Science at UAEM.
The main
objective of the research is to generate expressions and emotions based on real
people, taking as reference the 43 muscles involved in facial behavior
depending on the psychological environment.To achieve this in human models,
tactile sensors were placed that release tiny electrical pulses to provoke
different gestures with which a 3D camera captures the personality traits.With
the data collected, multiple virtual characters were included in project called
"serious game" which, unlike video games consoles or computers, does
not seek to entertain, but to run different educational, scientific or civil
strategies, detailed the UAEM engineer.Human behavior is strongly influenced by
emotions, intentions, attitudes and moods that vary depending on the social
context. Once these factors are captured by the 3D camera, they are translated
into numerical data and then entered into the kinesic model designed by the
UAEM, to sort and generate the animation of the expressions and gestures of the
virtual characters in situations of happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger
and disgust.In order to achieve better results, the UAEM teamed with CINVESTAV
GDL and the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) where students served as models to
obtain the physical and psychological characteristics, which the application
requires for a psychological profile and temperament. From the numerical
measurement of emotions and sensations different facial expressions are
generated.
The aim
of the project is to foster attitudes of self-improvement, use dynamics of
context to enhance the learning process, promote collaborative environments and
communication to solve problems and riddles.In this case the "serious
game" created by the UAEM, Cinvestav Unit Guadalajara and the University
of Guadalajara, is intended to predict the behavior of people in different risk
situations such as natural disasters. For this project an earthquake will be
simulated in Guadalajara, Mexico explained Ramos Corchado.
4) Magnets
for fusion energy: A revolutionary manufacturing method developed:
The
National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), of the National Institutes of
Natural Sciences (NINS) in Japan, has achieved an electrical current of 100,000
amperes, which is by far the highest in the world, by using the new idea of
assembling the state-of-the-art yttrium-based high-temperature superconducting
tapes to fabricate a large-scale magnet conductor. NIFS is undertaking the
development of a high-temperature superconducting coil that is appropriate for
the fusion reactor magnet. Using the state-of-the-art yttrium-based
high-temperature superconducting tapes which have been developed and produced
in Japan through the new thinking that simply stacks the tapes, NIFS
manufactured a conductor of exceptional mechanical strength. For the conductor
joints, which are important for the production of the large-scale coils, NIFS
developed low-resistance joint technology through collaborative research with
Tohoku University.As a result of the prototype conductor test, at the absolute
temperature of 20 degrees Kelvin (minus 253 degrees Celsius) the electrical
current exceeds 100,000 amperes. The overall current density exceeds 40 A/mm2
including the jackets, and this value is of practical use for manufacturing
large-scale fusion reactor magnets. This result is of global importance. We use
54 yttrium-based high-temperature superconducting tapes. Each tape is 10 mm in
width and 0.2 mm in thickness.The electrical current flows only through one
area. Together with the substrate used for this type of tape that is
exceptional in strength and flexibility, by surrounding this area by a copper
jacket and a stainless steel jacket an extremely strong conductor is produced.
The current is induced by magnetic induction.
The
revolutionary method by which the helical fusion reactor's massive magnet is
manufactured by sequentially connecting the short high-temperature
superconductors has received much attention. Further, the large current-capacity
high-temperature superconductor with simple stacking of yttrium-based tapes and
the so-called "joint winding method" have also impacted the
development of high-temperature superconducting magnets used in medical
instruments and power-electric devices. Ripple effects are anticipated in the
future.
5) Newly
discovered virus exists in half of the world’s population:
A virus
that lives in the human gut has just been discovered, and to the surprise of
scientists, it can be found in about half the world’s population, according to
a new study.While it’s not yet clear exactly what the virus does, scientists
are eager to find out whether it promotes health or influences susceptibility
to certain conditions, said Robert Edwards, a bioinformatics professor at San
Diego State University and one of the researchers who worked on the study. The
researchers first uncovered hints of the virus after analyzing DNA from fecal
samples of 12 people. They found a cluster of viral DNA that all the samples
had in common, Edwards said.Next, the researchers searched a large database of
genetic sequences in samples taken from people living on several different
continents, looking for the virus’s DNA sequence, and found the virus in 75
percent of samples of human feces. However, some of these samples were from the
same person, Edwards said, so after taking this into account, the researchers
estimated that the virus is present in about half of all people.But how could
such a common virus go unnoticed for so long? One of the reasons may be that
previously, most researchers compared DNA from current samples only to DNA
sequences already known to exist, Edwards said. But in the new study, the
researchers first compared the DNA in their samples to one another, looking for
common sequences.
“[We] did
some different kinds of comparisons, and it jumped right out at us as being
something important because it was abundant,” told Edwards Live Science.The new
virus, which the researchers have named crAssphage, is a type of virus known as
a bacteriophage, meaning it infects bacteria. It’s likely that crAssphage
infects a very common type of gut bacteria called Bacteroidetes, according to
the study.Although the researchers have shown that the virus DNA exists in
nature, they have not yet been able to get the virus to replicate in the lab,
or get a picture of it.“We know it’s there, but we can’t capture it quite yet,”
Edwards said.The researchers think the virus could be involved in controlling
the number of Bacteroidetes bacteria in the gut, Edwards said.
The new
finding “adds another piece to the puzzle” in helping researchers understand
how microbes in the intestine affect human health, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an
infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh and a
representative of the Infectious Disease Society of America who was not
involved in the study. Much more research will be needed to see how this virus
interacts with bacteria in the gut and how it could potentially affect health,
he said. “There’s definitely a lot of avenues of research that the discovery of
this [bacterio]phage will open up,” Adalja said.Adalja noted that just because
the virus is common doesn’t mean it’s benign. “The fact that it’s there in so
many people means that whatever it’s doing is not causing something rare,”
Adalja said. “But there are enough common conditions that affect humans, that
there may be a role there,” Adalja said, citing obesity and cancer as examples
of such conditions.
Movie
Release This Week:
An action-packed,
epic space adventure, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel
Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds
himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious
orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the
entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an
uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon,
Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the
revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of
the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his
ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy's fate in the balance.
What If
is the story of medical school dropout Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe), who's been
repeatedly burned by bad relationships. So while everyone around him, including
his roommate Allan (Adam Driver) seems to be finding the perfect partner
(Mackenzie Davis), Wallace decides to put his love life on hold. It is then
that he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) an animator who lives with her longtime
boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall). Wallace and Chantry form an instant connection,
striking up a close friendship. Still, there is no denying the chemistry
between them, leading the pair to wonder, what if the love of your life is
actually your best friend? The ensemble romantic comedy costars Megan Park and
Oona Chaplin.
A
dispossessed, violent man's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the
social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other
ties, Ballard descends to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into
crime and degradation.
This
inspiring film, based on a true story, finds a couple, John (David Duchovny)
and Brenda (Hope Davis) trying to put their life together after the tragic
death of their young daughter, Maria (Olivia Steele-Falconer). As they deal
with their numbing grief, they discover a way to honor their daughter’s wish
for health and well-being for all children. With the help of their community,
led by good friend Bruce (Timothy Hutton), they establish a children’s hospital
called the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital… a state of the art health facility
that brings the whole family into the healing process. Instead of being torn
apart by their tragedy, John and Brenda celebrate their very special daughter
and help thousands of children and their families.
Lee, a
world-weary American woman arrives in an Italian city. Her tangles with hotel
staff, incessant smoking, and disregard of the persistently ringing telephone
hint at her volatility brewing beneath the surface. Between fitful naps, she
wanders the streets, snapping pictures of refugees as if her camera were both
weapon and olive branch. Struggling to confront her demons, Lee resolves to
help a beautiful young woman in need, and this passionate new purpose begins to
dissolve Lee’s anguish.
Popular
Hindi Movie Released in Last Week:
6) Kick:
Kick is a 2014 Hindi
action thriller film, directed and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under the
Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment banner. The film features Salman Khan in the
lead role, alongside Jacqueline Fernandez, Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin
Siddiqui. The film is a remake of the Telugu film of the same name, with a
screenplay adapted by Nadiadwala and Chetan Bhagat, Upon release, the film
received mixed to positive reviews and became the highest opening day grossing
film of 2014.
Kick is the official
remake of a 2009 Telugu blockbuster also called Kick, but debutant director
Sajid Nadiadwala bungs in Hollywood-inspired action, snatches of Dhoom 3 and
even a smattering of Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Salman Khan plays Devi Lal Singh, an
adrenalin junkie who has quit 32 jobs in search of a kick (incidentally, every
character in this film says Kick at least a dozen times, just in case you
forgot which film you were watching). He falls in love with a psychiatrist
named Shaina, played by Jacqueline Fernandez. With great affection, he calls
her Dr Psycho. Meanwhile she gets to say lines like: “Social psychology ke
hisab se aadmi ki pehchaan uske kaam se hoti hai.”
Jacqueline is like a
pretty wax doll and even the film doesn’t take Shaina seriously. Anyway, Shaina
can’t put up with Devi’s hunger for excitement, so they break up. And he
somehow evolves into Devil, a Robin Hood-type masked robber who steals from the
rich to give to the poor. Enter super cop Himanshu Tyagi, played by Randeep
Hooda, who becomes both Shaina’s fiancée and Devil’s nemesis. Cops in Hindi
movies are usually bumbling idiots but Himanshu is a whole new level of
incompetent.
Political
News This Week:
1) Pune
landslide toll rises to 35, hopes of finding survivors fade:
Rescue
workers waged a grim battle with a hostile weather and difficult terrain,
looking for signs of life under the monstrous heap of mud and stones on
Thursday at the landslide-hit Malin village, where 35 bodies have been pulled
out till now amid fading hopes of more survivors.Personnel of National Disaster
Response Force, which is leading the rescue efforts, have pulled out nine
survivors from the rubble.
2) Natwar
Singh's claims are marketing tactics: Manmohan Singh:
Amid a
row over Natwar Singh’s comments about Sonia Gandhi in his book, former Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said it was a bid to market his product and
dismissed his contention that PMO files were sent to the Congress president for
approval.
He also
used the occasion to attack his former media adviser Sanjaya Baru, saying he
too had tried to market his book by making certain claims. “This is their way
of trying to market their product,” the former PM said.He was responding when
asked to react to certain comments made by his former colleague Natwar Singh
about Sonia Gandhi with regard to her refusal to take up prime ministership in
2004 and other issues.
Asked
whether he thought Baru also indulged in the same marketing tactic by making
certain claims in his book The Accidental Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh said,
“Yes.”Queried whether he thought it was fair for insiders to reveal certain
details, the former PM shot back, “What revelations?”While saying that he had
not seen Natwar Singh’s autobiographical book One Life is Not Enough, he said,
“Private conversation should not be made public for capital gains.”Natwar
Singh, like Baru, has also claimed that PMO files were sent to Gandhi for
approval. When Manmohan Singh’s attention was drawn to this, he said, “I had
contradicted it then, I repeat that this is not true.”
Former
Union minister Natwar Singh has set the cat amongst the pigeons by attacking
both the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi
on the issue of why she did not accept the prime ministership of the country in
2004.
While it
was widely believed that Sonia sacrificed the chair, Natwar Singh, a former
close confidante of the Gandhis, writes in his upcoming autobiography that she
gave up the PM’s chair because her son Rahul was against the idea and he felt
that if she became the prime minister she too would be killed like his father
(Rajiv Gandhi) and his grandmother (Indira Gandhi) -- both former prime
ministers.In the same breath, Natwar attacks Rahul that he is a coward who
wanted to cling onto mummy and did not want her killed, so she must not be
prime minister.
3) China
finally admits to 2013 incursion in Ladakh:
For the
first time, the Chinese military on Thursday acknowledged last year’s incursion
at the DepsangValley in Ladakh region and said such incidents occurred due to
different perception about the Line of Actual Control.
“Last
year there was some incident in the border region. All the issues have been
properly solved though negotiations,” Colonel Geng Yansheng, spokesperson for
the ministry of national defence said.However, he did not specifically mention
the Depsang Valley by name where the People’s Liberation Army troops pitched
tents to assert their control over the area in April last year.
“The
boundary line has not been demarcated and both sides has different
interpretation on the Line of Actual Control,” he said while answering a
question posed at a press briefing here in which select foreign media was
permitted for the first time in the history of Chinese military.The incident at
Depsang valley, which took place ahead of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to
India in May last year, had created military and diplomatic tensions but was
resolved after hectic round of negotiations following which Chinese troops
withdrew.This is the first time Chinese military referred to the Depsang
incident and so far there has been no explanation why Chinese troops resorted
to it days ahead of Li’s visit, which was his first visit abroad after taking
over as Premier.
Several
such incidents including an intrusion by Chinese herdsmen this month at Ladakh
region have taken place but resolved amicably. Geng affirmed that such
incidents have taken place due to different perceptions at the LAC.“China India
border issue is left over from history. The boundary line between the countries
has not been demarcated. Both sides have different interpretations of the LAC,”
he said. “The two governments had reached important consensus on resolving the
disputes in the border areas,” he said and referred to the Border Defence
Cooperation Agreement, which was signed last year to address aggressive
patrolling of the disputed border by both sides.
4) Lt
General Dalbir Singh Suhag takes over as new Army chief:
Lt Gen
Dalbir Singh Suhag, whose appointment as Army chief had kicked up a row, on
Thursday took over as the next head of the 1.3 million strong force succeeding
Gen Bikram Singh who is retiring.Lt Gen Suhag was designated as army chief in
May by the outgoing UPA government ignoring protests from his predecessor Gen
VK Singh and the BJP.
8
interesting facts about India's new Army Chief
59-year-old
Lt Gen Suhag, a Gurkha officer who had participated in the 1987 Indian Peace
Keeping Force operation in Sri Lanka, was made the Vice Chief of Army Staff in
December last year.He will have a tenure of 30 months as the 26th Chief of Army
Staff. Earlier, he had taken over as the Eastern Army Commander on June 16,
2012.He was at the centre of a controversy triggered by discipline and
vigilance ban imposed on him by the then army chief Gen VK Singh in connection
with an intelligence operation in Assam earlier.
The ban
on Lt Gen Suhag, the then 2 Corps Commander, was lifted soon after Gen Bikram
Singh took over in May, 2012.BJP had questioned the 'hurry' in making the
appointment and insisted that the matter be left to the next
government.However, soon after the NDA government took over, Defence Minister
Arun Jaitley said the new dispensation will continue with the appointment made
during UPA rule.Lt Gen Suhag was a Company Commander in Operation Pawan in Sri
Lanka in 1987 and commanded 53 Infantry Brigade engaged in counter insurgency
operations in the Kashmir Valley from July, 2003 to March, 2005.
An
alumnus of Sainik School, Chittorgarh, he joined National Defence Academy in
1970 and was commissioned into 4/5 GR (FF) in June 1974.The General Officer has
attended various career courses in India and abroad which include LDMC at CDM,
Secunderabad in 1997-98, NDC Course at New Delhi in 2006, Executive Course in
USA in 2005 and Senior Mission Leaders Course (UN) in Kenya in 2007.He holds
the distinction of commanding 8 Mountain Division in Kargil from October 2007
to December 2008.Traditionally, the appointment is made two months ahead of the
retirement of the incumbent army chief but the UPA government deviated from
this practice when Bikram Singh was appointed in 2012.
5) MP:
Youth killed over social networking post; curfew clamped:
Curfew
was imposed early Thursday in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh after communal tension
spread in the town over a post on a social networking site that allegedly hurt
the feelings of a particular community and also led to the killing of a person,
a police official said.Trouble began on Wednesday evening when an objectionable
post was uploaded on the social networking site that flared up communal tension
in the town, Khandwa's Superintendent of Police Manoj Sharma said.
Enraged
over the post, a group of unidentified persons allegedly stabbed to death a
30-year-old youth following which tension gripped the town, leading to clashes
between two groups.
Police
fired 10 rounds of teargas shells in Mohghat police station area and opened
fire in the air thrice in Kotwali area to control the violent mob, the SP
said.Two persons, including a police constable, were injured in the violence,
police said.
Later in
the evening, police imposed prohibitory orders under section 144 in the town to
control the situation and imposed indefinite curfew at around 4 am on Thursday,
he said.Division Commissioner Sanjay Dube and Inspector General Vipin
Maheshwari reached the town from Indore on Wednesday evening to monitor the
situation.A case of murder was registered against unidentified persons in
Mohghat police station, the SP said adding that additional force has been
called for deployment in the sensitive area. The situation is under control at
present, he added.
Sports News
This Week:
After
Day action of the 20th Commonwealth
Games, India are placed sixth in the overall standings, with a total haul of 45
medals with 12 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze.
Vijender
Singh enters semis, assured of a medal
Pinki
assures India a medal in boxing
Indian
boxers Pinki Jangra, L. Sarita Devi, Devendro Singh, Mandeep Jangra and
Vijender Singh have confirmed more medals, at least five bronze as they made
their way into the semis in respective categories.
Yogeshwar
Dutt of India does it again as he beats J Balfour of Canada in the gold medal
match of Men’s Free Style 65 kg category event.
Completely
overpowered by the London Olympics bronze medalist, the Canadian was nowhere
near to Yogeshwar Dutt as he took the match by technical superiority. He won
10-0 in the first period and wrapped it up in 2 minutes.
Wrestler
Babita Kumari brings the first gold of the day as she wins against B. Laverdure
of Canada Women’s Free Style 55 kg category event. Completely dominated the
entire match, she took the first period 3-0
and extended her lead to 7-2 in the secondperiod. she finished the match
9-2 to take the first gold medal of the night
Gymnast
Dipa Karmakar won the bronze medal for women’s vault event
2014 Commonwealth
Games Glasgow Day 7 Highlights: Wrestlers Lalita, Bajrang, Sakshi, Satyawart
Settle for Silver Medals
Indian
wrestlers bagged three gold and one bronze on Day 6 of CWG 2014
Book of
This Week:
V for
Vendetta By Alan Moore:
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V for
Vendetta is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David
Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare), set in a dystopian near-future
United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to the late 1990s. The book is published
by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. The story depicts a future history of the
United Kingdom in the 1990s preceded by a nuclear war in the 1980s, which has
left much of the world destroyed, though most of the damage to the country is
indirect, via floods and crop failures. In this future, a fascist party called
Norsefire has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps and now rules
the country as a police state. V, an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy
Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and intentionally theatrical campaign
to murder his former captors, bring down the government, and convince the
people to rule themselves, while inspiring a young woman, Evey Hammond, to be
his protégé.
V for
Vendetta is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David
Lloyd. The book is set in an imagined dystopian United Kingdom which has just
come out of a nuclear war and is being ruled by a fascist party that has
eliminated all its rivals and established a police state. The main protagonist,
called simply 'V', is an anarchist revolutionary who targets this government in
an attempt to bring it down.
The book
begins with the members of the state secret police trying to rape a young
sixteen year old Evey Hammond. 'V', who sports a Guy Fawkes mask saves her. 'V'
has been trying to overthrow the government and he begins by getting rid of a
pedophile priest and mentally deranging the propaganda broadcasting
personality. A little into the story, we soon realize that 'V' was once a
victim of a cruel chemical experiment performed by the government. Everyone
other than 'V' perished in those experiments and he was bestowed with
exceptional reflexes and a high threshold for pain. 'V' routinely sabotages and
murders people who had been involved in the chemical experiments. V sets in
motion a chain of events that will ensure that the people get what they want
and the government is overthrown. Will V manage to take revenge on everyone who
was involved with the experiments?
Warner
Bros. released a film adaptation of the same title in 2005.
Alan Moore
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Alan
Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English writer primarily known for his work
in comic books including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell.Frequently
described as the best graphic novel writer in history, he has been called
"one of the most important British writers of the last fifty years".
He has occasionally used such pseudonyms as Curt Vile, Jill de Ray, and
Translucia Baboon. Marvel Comics' 2013 reprints of Moore's original Miracleman
stories credit him as The Original Writer.
Moore
started writing for British underground and alternative fanzines in the late
1970s before achieving success publishing comic strips in such magazines as
2000 AD and Warrior. He was subsequently picked up by the American DC Comics,
and as "the first comics writer living in Britain to do prominent work in
America",he worked on major characters such as Batman (Batman: The Killing
Joke) and Superman ("Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"),
substantially developed the character Swamp Thing, and penned original titles
such as Watchmen. During that decade, Moore helped to bring about greater
social respectability for comics in the United States and United Kingdom. He
prefers the term "comic" to "graphic novel. In the late 1980s
and early 1990s he left the comic industry mainstream and went independent for
a while, working on experimental work such as the epic From Hell, the
pornographic Lost Girls, and the prose novel Voice of the Fire. He subsequently
returned to the mainstream later in the 1990s, working for Image Comics, before
developing America's Best Comics, an imprint through which he published works
such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the occult-based Promethea.
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