Giant Cat

This massive moggy weighs a staggering 15kg (2st 5lb) and has a 24inch waistline. He is so cat-astrophically overweight his owners have to ROLL him across the floor at home in Qingdao, China. They say their nine-year-old pet became obese because he chose to eat meat rather than fish from takeaways. This cat eats 2kg food every day.

But amazingly, this chubby chap is some way off beating the record for the world’s flabbiest feline. That honour belonged to an Australian puss called Himmy, who tipped the scales at 22kg (3st 6lb).

Bird Flu in India

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After flurry many countries, finaly the Bird Flu has arrived to India. In space of less than a year, the lethal strain of bird flu known as H5N1 has swept out of its strongholds in eastern Asia and spread swiftly to Russia, Europe, Africa, and West Asia. On Saturday, laboratory tests confirmed that the virus had arrived in India with an outbreak that killed 100’s of chicken in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. For more than two years, the virus has ravaged poultry and caused human illness (and death) in many South-East Asian countries. Between April and June 2005, large numbers of wild water birds at Qinghai Lake in western China perished after being infected by the virus. By July-August, outbreaks involving the virus were reported from Mongolia, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. The virus reached Turkey, Croatia, Romania, and Greece by October. Ukraine reported outbreaks in November 2005.

The virus was infecting chicken and humans in northern Iraq by January this year. Earlier this month, Nigeria became the first African nation to report the virus, with an outbreak at a large commercial poultry farm. This month, many European countries, Egypt, and Iran found wild birds infected with H5N1. Migratory birds have often been blamed for spreading the virus. This perception has grown as the H5N1 viral strains involved in recent outbreaks, including in Nigeria, have been found to be very similar to the one found at the Qinghai Lake. At least some species of migratory waterfowl are now thought to be carrying the H5N1 in its highly pathogenic form and introducing it to new areas along their route, says the World Health Organization in its fact sheet on avian influenza.

Some months back I haveWritten that Bird Flu will attack India? Now it attacked India.

In India, the source of the infection that led to the outbreak in Nandurbar district is not clear. Bird migrations into the country were over by around November. If migratory birds had brought the virus, one would have expected outbreaks well before this. Moreover, such outbreaks ought to have occurred at places further north that the birds would have reached earlier. The wild birds would now be preparing to return to their spring breeding grounds. The Bombay Natural History Society's (BNHS) members and staff have been monitoring some 26 wetlands across the country on a fortnightly basis and had not reported any suspicious illness among wild birds. But now that H5N1 has arrived in India, the danger is that the virus could rapidly spread to poultry flocks across the country and beyond. Bird flu viruses can be readily transported from farm to farm by the movement of live birds, people, and contaminated vehicles, equipment, feed and cages, according to the WHO fact sheet on avian influenza. Highly pathogenic viruses such as the H5N1 can survive for long periods in the environment, especially when temperatures are low, it adds.

Although the Central and State Governments acted as soon as the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory at Bhopal confirmed the H5N1 infection in poultry in Nandurbar district, the outbreak is reported to have started a couple of weeks ago. If so, it is possible that the virus has already been carried out of the region in the course of the commercial trade in poultry. The massive cull and quarantine that has been ordered may not then suffice to stop the spread of the virus. The Indian helath Minister Anbumani has said samples of bird flu virus in humans, sent for re-confirmation to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Reference Laboratory in Hong Kong. The government said, all action are taken, there is no need to panic, If any have symptoms like fever or cold, immediately go to doctors. The neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal… have banned for importing Birds and Chicken. All vehicle coming form Maharashtra have been check and then only allowed to other states.

Monorail to save Chennai traffic?

Monorail in front of Tamil Nadu Secretariate (graphics)

Now a day traffic jam is a big problem for Chennai people. The central government has also introduced the Flying Train in 1998 to control the traffic, but no use; many people like to travel on their own vehicles like motorbikes, cars. For the last one year the motorbike population is very high in Chennai, in one house there are 2 to 3 bikes, even in my house we have 2 bikes. And the pollution is also very high, and in traffic jams, we can’t open our car glass, because the smokes which release for the vehicles, gives us pungent smell and it is also not good for our health. The government was also thinking for a permanent solution for this problem, and it also should be environment friendly. So the Tamil Nadu chief Minister Jayalalithaa recently announced to introduce the Monorail system to control the Chennai traffic.

Formally the opposition has also shown their objection for this Monorail. First we can know some thing about monorail. Monorail is approximately work like balcony train, like trains we can’t change its track, in a track only one train can go and come. Many countries’s like Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Europe, Russia and the United States are using this Monorail system. In Los Vegas the monorail is traveling 6km, in Sydney it passing 3.6km, in Japan this Monorail is running 100km. Each and every day hundreds of thousands of passengers are carried on monorails. The monorails are very safe to travel, zero accidents translates to no system down time, less liability suits and most importantly, No Injuries and Death have registered so fare, it will not foot step from the track like trains. Most monorails are electrically powered, monorails are non-polluting. Most run on rubber tires and are very quiet. Monorails are the most aesthetically pleasing of all elevated rail systems. Their sleek design blends in with modern urban environments. Quick construction time results in less disruption to the surrounding environments, whether business or residential.

In Chennai the government has planned to operate monorail for 490km, they will be construction the path for the monorail at least 100km. first the government decided to introduce Metro rail. The Chennai is situated near sea, so we can’t dig a way for Metro rails, like which was already introduced in Delhi & Kolkatta said the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, so the government plan to introduce Monorail. We can install the Monorail in short days and the money spending is also low. For Balcony rail it will take Rs.80 to 100 crore to constructing a bridge for 1km, for Metro rail it will take at least 150 crore to construct the way. But the money for spending to Monorail is just 50crore and it will take small space for constructing the way. In starting they have planed to take 14,000 people from one place to another place, gradually they will increase to 50,000 people. Not only in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are also examinations to install Monorail in future.

If we also have many good plans like this, but the opposite party are showing objection flag for this monorail. They said this monorail is new for India, we don’t know how to construct a path for monorail. We are not manufacturing it and want to import it from Foreign countries and also we don’t know how to maintenance. Suppose it gets any repair, we don’t know who to adjust it and should call mechanic form foreign country. The party is asking the state government like this: the project of Monorail is not slightly introduction for our county, how can we accept this plan. In many countries the Monorail is working as a feeder Service only and can take only 8,000 people. The opposite is asking that the constructing rail path and operating is all Central Governments work, why the Sate government is entering its head. I think that the opposite is also a main leg for central government, if the state government done this monorail project and get vote in coming April assembly election, that why they are opposing it. So totally the Monorail project has comes to the Politician hand, we don’t know when this problem will solve and when we are going to escape for the Heavy traffic.

Small Information’s

February milestones

Some important discoveries and happenings of this month:

What with all the crises about oil have you ever wondered when the first commercial leaded gasoline went on sale? It was on February 1, 1923.

February 2, 1935, saw the testing of the polygraph for the first time. On February 4, 1936, radium was produced synthetically for the first time. Dmitry Mendeleev, famous for his work on classifying elements, was born on February 8, 1834. He formulated the Periodic table, which we still use today to classify elements.

Other scientists born this month include Thomas Edison, who invented the gramophone and the light bulb and more(February 11, 1847); Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809).
Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930, discovered the planet to which a probe was launched recently — a planet that's an ice dwarf — farthest planet of our Solar system. Yes, Pluto! A day later but in 2002, thermal emission imaging was used to map the planet Mars.

While still on the subject of space, note that John Glenn piloted the first US manned orbital mission on February 20, 1962. A flight closer home was completed on February 22, 1995, when Steve Fossett finished the first trans-Pacific hot-air balloon trip. Another flight first in February: on February 16, 1946, the first commercially designed helicopter was tested. Wearing nylon, by any chance? Nylon yarn was commercially used for the first time on February 24, 1938, and it was discovered on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers of DuPont.

Where would we be without computers? The world's first electronic digital computer began operation on the 13th of this month in 1946. It was called ENIAC.

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Take the skywalk

The all-glass, balcony-like Skywalk will extend over the edge of the Grand Canyon, 1,200 metres above the Colorado River. The Skywalk will be an attraction unlike any other in the world said Sheri Yellowhawk, CEO of the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation. The company is building the bridge in the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the south rim of the canyon. The Skywalk is open to the public as part of a new resort on the reservation. The resort, known as Grand Canyon West, is to include a re-created Indian village and a restaurant perched on the edge of the canyon. Tourism is the reservation's biggest source of income. Grand Canyon West will be on the western edge of Grand Canyon National Park, about 200 kilometres from Las Vegas.

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Finding Nemo

Scientists believe they have found the world's smallest fish. The little fish grows to less than one third of an inch long! It may be small, but it has a big name: Paedocypris progenetica. This is one of the strangest fish that scientists seen in there whole career. It's tiny, and it has these bizarre grasping fins. The mini fish has a see through body. Its head doesn't have a protective skeleton. It was discovered in threatened swampland on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Researchers say that the tea-coloured water is at least 100 times more acidic than rainwater. Fish experts Maurice Kottelat from Switzerland and Tan Heok Hui from Singapore made the discovery. Kottelat said he first saw the fish in 1996, but he thought it was a member of an already existing species.

Jeevans WORLD Magazine