Infotainment

I dont know the truth of this letter, but I found it funny enough to post it.....
Take it in a lighter vein, no offence meant.

Government of India
Ministry of Human Resources Development
Department of Culture
Films Division

No. B1452/234/2003 Dt. 23.6.07

To:
Shri. B. R. Chopra,
Film Director,
Mumbai

Ref: Film story submitted by you, regarding financing of films by Government of India, Your letter dt. 2.12.90


The undersigned is directed to refer the above letter and state that the Government has examined your proposal for financing a film called ''Mahabharat'. The Very High Level Committee constituted for this purpose has been in consultation with the Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women and Labour Commission, inaddition to various Ministries and State Governments and have formed definitive opinions about the script. Their observations are as below:

1. In the script submitted by you it is shown that there were two sets of cousins, namely, the Kauravas, numbering one hundred, and the Pandavas, numbering five. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has pointed out that these numbers are high, well above the norm prescribed for families by them. It is brought to your kind attention that when the Government is spending huge amounts for promoting family planning, this will send wrong signals to the public. Therefore, it is recommended that there may be only three Kauravas and one Pandava.

2. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has raised an issue whether it is suitable to depict kings and emperors in this democratic age. Therefore, it is suggested that the Kauravas may be depicted as Honourable Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and the Pandava may be depicted as Honourable Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). The ending of the film shows the victory of the said Pandavas over the said Kauravas. The ending may be suitably modified so that neither of the Honourable Members of Parliament are shown as being inferior to the other.

3. The Ministry of Science and Technology has observed that the manner of birth of Kauravas is suggestive of human cloning, a technology banned in India. This may be changed to normal birth.

4. The National Commission for Women has objected that the father of Pandavas, one Sri Pandu, is depicted as bigamous, and also there is only one wife for the Pandavas in common. Thereore suitable changes may be made in the said script so that the said Sri Pandu is not depicted as bigamous. However, with the reduction in number of Pandavas as suggested above, the issue of polyandry can be addressed without further trouble.

5. The Commission for the Physically Challenged has observed that the portrayal of the visually impaired character 'Dhritharastra' is derogatory. Therefore the said character may not be shown as visually impaired.

6. The Department of Women and Child Development have highlighted that the public disrobing of one female character called 'Draupadi' is objectionable and derogatory to women in general. Further the Home Ministry anticipates that depiction of such scenes may create law and order problem and at the same time invite strong protests from the different women forums. Such scenes may also invite penal action under SITA (Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act), therefore they may be avoided and deleted from the film.

7. It is felt that showing the Pandava and the Kauravas as gamblers will be anti-social and counter productive as it might encourage gambling. Therefore, the said Pandavas and Kauravas may be shown to have engaged in horse racing. (Hon. Supreme Court has held horse racing not to be gambling)

8. The Pandavas are shown as working in the King Virat's employment without receiving any salary. According to the Human Rights Commission, this amounts to bonded labour and may attract provisions of The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. This may be corrected at once.

9. In the ensuing war, one character by name Sri Abhimanyu has been shown as fighting. The National Labour Commission has observed that, war being a hazardous industry, and the said character being 16 years old, this depiction will be construed as a case of child labour. Also there is no record of his being paid any compensation. This may also be deemed to be violatory of the provisions of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Such references in the film may be removed.

10. The character 'Sri Krishna' has been depicted as wearing a peacock feather. The peacock is our National Bird and wearing dresses made from peacock feather is an offence under the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. This may not be depicted

11. Smt Maneka Gandhi has raised very serious objection for using any elephants or horses in war scenes, since there is every scope for mistreatment and injury to the said animals. The provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890 and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Act, 1960 would be applicable in the instant case. Suitable changes may be made in the script to address the objections raised.

12. In pursuance of the Memorandum of Ministry of Finance regarding austerity measures, it is informed that in the battle field sequences, only ten soldiers may be allowed for each side. Also, all the characters may be shown to have obtained a valid licence under the Arms Act, 1959 as well as the Indian Arms Act, 1878. You are therefore requested to modify the script along the lines indicated above and resubmit it to the undersigned at the earliest.

Sd/- Under Secretary

Here is a list of the ten longest bridges in the world with pictures and descriptions. Those beautiful photos are showing to us that there are no borders and everything is reachable.

10. Seven Mile Bridge

The Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the many bridges on US 1 in the Keys, where the road is called the Overseas Highway.

9. San Mateo-Hayward Bridge

The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (commonly called San Mateo Bridge) is a bridge crossing California’s San Francisco Bay in the United States, linking the San Francisco Peninsula with the East Bay. More specifically, the bridge’s western end is in Foster City, the most recent urban addition to the eastern edge of San Mateo. The eastern end of the bridge is in Hayward. The bridge is owned by the state of California, and is maintained by Caltrans, the state highway agency.

8. Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge (French: Pont de la Confédération) is a bridge spanning the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick, Canada. It was commonly referred to as the “Fixed Link” by residents of Prince Edward Island prior to its official naming. Construction took place from the fall of 1993 to the spring of 1997, costing $1.3 billion. The 12.9-kilometre (8 mi) long bridge opened on 31 May 1997.

7. Rio-Niteroi Bridge

The Rio-Niteroi Bridge is a reinforced concrete structure that connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi in Brazil.
Construction began symbolically on August 23, 1968, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in their first and thus far only visit to Brazil. Actual work begun in January, 1969, and it opened on March 4, 1974.
Its official name is “President Costa e Silva Bridge”, in honor of the Brazilian president who ordered its construction. “Rio-Niteroi” started as a descriptive nickname that soon became better known than the official name. Today, hardly anyone refers to it by its official name.

6. Penang Bridge

The Penang Bridge (Jambatan Pulau Pinang in Malay) E 36 is a dual-carriageway toll bridge that connects Gelugor on the island of Penang and Seberang Prai on the mainland of Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula. The bridge is also linked to the North-South Expressway in Prai and Jelutong Expressway in Penang. It was officially opened to traffic on September 14, 1985. The total length of the bridge is 13.5 km (8.4 miles), making it among the longest bridges in the world, the longest bridge in the country as well as a national landmark. PLUS Expressway Berhad is the concession holder which manages it.

5. Vasco da Gama Bridge


The Vasco da Gama Bridge (Portuguese: Ponte Vasco da Gama, pron. IPA: [’põt(?) ‘va?ku d? ‘g?m?]) is a cable-stayed bridge flanked by viaducts and roads that spans the Tagus River near Lisbon, capital of Portugal. It is the longest bridge in Europe (including viaducts), with a total length of 17.2 km (10.7 mi), including 0.829 km (0.5 mi) for the main bridge, 11.5 km (7.1 mi) in viaducts, and 4.8 km (3.0 mi) in dedicated access roads. Its purpose is to alleviate the congestion on Lisbon’s other bridge (25 de Abril Bridge), and to join previously unconnected motorways radiating from Lisbon.

4. Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the Bay Bridge) is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland; spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state’s Eastern and Western Shore regions. At 4.3 miles (7 km) in length, the original span was the world’s longest continuous over-water steel structure when it opened in 1952. The bridge is officially named the William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge after William Preston Lane, Jr. who, as governor of Maryland, implemented its construction.

3. King Fahd Causeway
The King Fahd Causeway is multiple dike - bridge combination connecting Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and the island nation of Bahrain.


A construction agreement signed on July 8, 1981 led to construction beginning the next year. The cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1982 by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa of Bahrain; construction continued until 1986, when the combination of several bridges and dams were completed. The causeway officially opened for use on November 25, 1986.

2. Donghai Bridge


Donghai Bridge (literally “East Sea Grand Bridge”) is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world and the longest bridge in Asia. It was completed on December 10, 2005. It has a total length of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 miles) and connects Shanghai and the offshore Yangshan deep-water port in China. Most of the bridge is a low-level viaduct. There are also cable-stayed sections to allow for the passage of large ships, largest with span of 420 m.

1. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges that are the longest bridges in the world by total length.[2] These parallel bridges cross Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana. The longer of the two bridges is 23.87 miles (38.42 km) long. The bridges are supported by over 9,000 concrete pilings. The two bridges feature bascule spans over the navigation channel 8 miles (13 km) south of the north shore. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana.

Ever wondered what company logos mean and whats the significance behind them? Wonder no more!

1. AMAZON.COM

You might think the arrow does nothing here. But it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer's face. Wow, that is quite deep.

2. EIGHTY-20

Eighty-20 is a small consulting company which does sophisticated financial modeling, as well as some solid database work. All their work is highly quantitative and relies on some serious computational power, and the logo is meant to convey it.

People first guess that 20% of the squares are darkened, but that turns out to be false after counting them. The trick is to view the dark squares as 1's and the light squares as 0's. Then the top line reads 1010000 and the bottom line reads 0010100, which represent 80 and 20 in binary.

Kinda like the surreal green screen of The Matrix, they want us to read stuff in binary

3. FEDERAL EXPRESS

Am not sure how many of you have noticed a hidden symbol in the Federal Express logo.
Yeah, I am talking about the 'arrow' that you can see between the E and the x in this logo. The arrow was introduced to underscore speed and precision, which are part of the positioning of the company.

4. IBM

Paul Rand (who designed the iconic IBM logo in 1972) designed this 'eye bee M' logo in 1981. I like that they are quite relaxed about the logo, unlike certain other companies who do not like the logo to be tampered with in any way even for internal promotions

5. SUN MICROSYSTEMS



The SUN Microsystems logo is a wonderful example of symmetry and order. It was a brilliant observation that the letters u and n while arranged adjacent to each other look a lot like the letter S in a perpendicular direction. Spectacular.

The above are two magazines from the Readers Digest stable. Again, the attempt to communicate what it is about quite figuratively through the logo catches my attention.

This was a logo created for a puzzle game called Cluenatic. This game involves unravelling four clues. The logo has the letters C, L, U and E arranged as a maze. and from a distance, the logo looks like a key.

This logo is too good. For the name Eight, they have used a font in which each letter is a minor adaptation of the number 8.

Check out the Software Engineers LIFE ...............

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

DISCUSSING IT WITH MOM

GOT THE OFFER LETTER

FIRST DAY @ WORK

WORK ASSIGNED

INTRODUCTION CALL WITH THE CLIENT

ERROR IN CODE, OH GOD WHY ME?

FIXED IT, COOL ; )

ISSUE SIMULATED AGAIN, WEIRD @#!@#!@#!@#!@#@!#

FIXES APPLIED AND WORKING ;)

THINK I NEED TO MARRY SOON

HOOOO , HR GIRL HAS ACCEPTED TO MARRY ME ;) ;) ;) ;)

WOW!!!! MY LIFE IS GOING TO BE SETTLED

MARRIAGE DAY

After Marriage
@
#
%
<

The Software Engineer is Missing ;)

HAHAHAHAHAHA

20 Things Common to All Engineering Colleges:

1) The lecturers don’t teach. The students don’t study. The only guy who benefits is the one who owns the 'dhaba' next to the college.
2) Rules are made to be broken.
3) Promises are made to be broken.
4) Deadlines are made to be extended...ALWAYS!
5) Guys always think the chics in the college next lane are more beautiful.
6) The geeks are the most pampered lot during the internal exams.
7) The lab assistants are the most respected people(during the lab exams i.e.)
8) The watchmen are the people most bribed.
9) The HOD is the person most respected (heights of sycophancy here).
10) The principal is the person most abused and insulted(behind the back i.e.)
11) Dropping subjects is 'cool'. (arre yaar… drop the idea of dropping subjects plz).
12) There is always a lecturer in the college who can’t speak proper 'English'.
13) Night-out is the second most important tool to ace the exams.
14) The most important tool… the bhramastra… is the 'chit' in which the words can be understood only by the person who wrote them(in most of the cases i.e.)
15) The freshers are the most sought after… be it in the canteen, the 'free' periods or for completing the records, assignments.
16) The second-years are the ones with the 'I am the don-of-the-college' feeling.
17) The third years are the ones with the 'so-many-backlogs' feeling and the poor souls get down to studying after bossing around in the college for so long. But the fun still continues.
18) The fourth years have no connection with the college whatsoever...with no interest in ragging, pulling each others’ legs, the b’day parties, the b’day bumps et al which they enjoyed so much till now. All they want is a good placement and a '1st-class' tag attached to their memo.
19) The first three years are spent in cursing the college, the people there, the system et al.
20) But towards the end of the fourth year ,people tend to feel nostalgic about the pure unadulterated fun they have had for 4 years. Now the very system they disliked, the very canteen they cursed, the time that they spent there, the b’day bumps they suffered… all these seem like heaven to them.

Obviously, construction technologies are advancing extremely quickly. couple that with multi-billionnaires / deep-pocketed companies trying to outdo each other in the quest for the next standout design and you have a near-future filled with mile-high skyscrapers and buildings that no longer look like buildings.

Below are 9 strange and unique structures which have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval. some have already been partially constructed.

Welcome to the future landscape.

1. Aqua, USA (website)

From a distance this skyscraper, to be completed in 2009 in chicago, will seem quite traditional. It’ll only be when you get close and look up that you can appreciate the ripple/jelly effect created by variously sized balconies from top to bottom.

2. Chicago Spire, USA (website)

The phenomenal chicago spire, when completed in 2010, will be the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of any kind in the western world. Seemingly modelled on the image of a giant drill poking through the ground, the 609m structure will dominate the chicago skyline.

3. CCTV Headquarters, China (website)

At a modest 234m the CCTV building isn’t going to stand out from a distance. However the design and shape is a crowdstopper to say the least and will be another incredible addition to beijing’s skyline in time for the 2008 olympics. The shape, described as a ‘z criss-cross’ results in a very high, seemingly unsupported corner at the front. Let’s hope there’s a glass floor up there.

4. Regatta Hotel, Jakarta (website)

Taking on a nautical theme, the developers say the 10 smaller towers represent sailing boats whilst the larger building is ‘The Lighthouse’. It’s the lighthouse that steals the show for me, possibly the most incredible looking structure i’ve seen for a long time. If it ends up looking anything close to these pictures i’ll be impressed.

5. Residence Antilia, India (architects’ website)

Construction has begun on Residence Antilia despite opposition from those who see it as an ‘excessive’ design in a city where more than 65% of the population live in slums. Politics aside and after you recover from the initial shock of seeing a skyscraper that resembles like a cd rack, the building actually looks like it may succeed as a stunning, unique, green piece of architecture.

6. Russia Tower, Russia (architects’ website)

Topped with an observation deck over the city of Moscow, Russia tower will become the tallest building in Europe when completed in 2012 and twice the height of the Eiffel tower. Construction has already started on this angular beast which was designed by foster & partners, also responsible for the gherkin and spaceport america, currently in development.

7. Penang Global City Centre, Malaysia (website)

Following months of speculation and sturdy opposition, this humungous project is in the final stages of approval and apparently construction will start very soon. Even so, due to the size of the plan it will take at least 15 years to complete. Resembling a sci-fi city, the area will be crowned by 2 x 200m towers and completely transform the small island of Penang.

8. Gazprom Headquarters, Russia (architects’ website)

This gigantic, 300m tall glass flame of a building will house the Gazprom headquarters in St. Petersburg, dwarfing all structures in its vicinity. It will apparently change colour up to 10 times per day depending on the position of the sun. The building has already been nicknamed ‘corn on the cob’ by unhappy locals.

9. Burj Dubai, Dubai (website)

This is the big one. When completed next year it will be the tallest man-made structure in the world and the tallest building by a long shot with a predicted height of 818m. Note: Currently the tallest building on earth, excluding an antenna, is Taipei 101 in Taiwan which stands at 509m. The photo below is the building’s current state: the skyscrapers below the Burj Dubai used to look tall.