Understanding Venus Express - 1

Venus Express launched late last year is ESA's first mission to Venus. Shifting the balance ever so slightly back in Venus' favour, Venus Express will spend 500 days in Venusian orbit carrying out a range of experiments and observations.
The rocket used in the launch of the $260m mission is a 'Soyuz-Fregat'. To escape Earth's gravity, the space needs to be ejected at greater than a certain (escape) velocity. The Soyuz-Fregat rocket achieved 'inter-planetary trajectory' in three phases.
The Soyuz-Fregat rocket consists of three (main) Soyuz stages and (an additional) Fregat stage at the top onto which Venus Express is attached to.
PHASE 1: In the first nine minutes after launch, Soyuz stages take the spacecraft 190 km in a vertical ascent, with the three Soyuz stages separating one after another.
PHASE 2: First burn of Fregat engine injects Venus Express into circular parking orbit around Earth.
PHASE 3: After completing almost a circle of Earth's atmosphere, the Fregat will burn again to fire Venus Express into a hyperbolic trajectory headed towards Venus, after which Fregat separates itself.

Kukunoor and Jobs

Two speeches given by Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple and Pixar) and Nagesh Kukunoor (non-comercial filmmaker) at top educational institutions - Stanford and IIT - look similar. Both are refreshingly individualistic accounts of 'finding what you love'.

Barely Cognizant

Mr.Lakshmi Narayanan, President and CEO of Cognizant, a Technology/ Business Software & Services company based in Teaneck (NJ), has called 'reservation in the private sector' a 'retrograde step' in an interview to Rediff.
Mr.Narayanan, much like very many 'Corporate giants', concentrate solely on maximising personal profits under the guise of 'creating challenges for the best minds' and 'innovation'. In reality, Mr.Narayanan's claims that 'Cognizant has come to India beacuse 'the best minds are in India' defies the basic maxim of a company like Cognizant - Profit Margins. He lets his veiled motives slip out in another interview when he talks about 'having to pay an American Ivy League Almuni much more than their Indian counterparts'.
By far, the most bemusing and poorly conceived argument he makes in the first interview is that 'reservation (in private companies) does not reward meritocracy'. Here his subliminal bias cannot be supressed under some noble notion anymore. Mr.Narayanan, also claims that 'reservation in the private sector has never been attempted anywhere'. Ofcourse, based in New Jersey, he would be oblivious to Affirmative Action and benefits to India if a similar strategy was adopted.

Australian Open 2006

The Junior boys seeding at the Australian Open has been made to seem like a sham with 13 out of 16 seeds losing in the first three rounds.
The Junior doubles top-seeded pairing of Neduncheriyan and Singh lost out in the second round in a tight three set encounter. Is the competiton greater with juniors closely packed and falsely seeded? The Indian doubles pairing seemed clearly out of their depths in the tournament and their singles performance further supports their lack of mental and physical toughness - all of which I hope are proven wrong in the year to come.

Tamil Nadu elections '06

The appeasement of electorate prior to elections has started. This must rank as a desperate measure of applying a layer of 'fake gold' over some rusted metal. Of the various schemes that are being intiated, in view of impending elections, the 'one light scheme' - whereby free electricity is provided to hutment dwellers living within 250sqkm - is typical of goverment action that administers a bandaid where brain surgery is required. Instead of addressing the bigger issue of 'housing allocation and slum clearance', the goverment concentrates on providing light, nevertheless keeping the beneficiaries in economic darkness.

Deputy Mayor of Chennai, Mr.Thiagarajan, may be absconding but he seems to have his finger very much on the pulse of the Chennai Corporation. His absence withstanding, this may have to be one of the bravest, dedicated attempts at fulfilling job responsibilities. Mr. Thiagarajan has threatened the Corporation Commisioner, M.P.Vijayakumar, with legal action for producing false reports. Has Mr.Thiagarajan, not in 'active duty' for more than three months now, explained his leave of absence? And does he have the authority to issue such legal warnings and direct proceedings from afar?

Update :
Mr. Thiagarajan could be disqualified if he does not attend the Council meetings on Wednesday and Thursday (2nd and 3rd Feb '06), The Hindu reports.