a sigh of relief 4 the chennaites........Chennai fuel crisis eases

Shortage of petrol and diesel in the city's outlets seemed to ease a bit towards the evening after started the day on a grim note.

Sources in the oil retail business said while the situation in south Chennai eased a bit, the condition in the northern part continued to pose challenges for the oil marketing companies like the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL).

Fuel retailers also noted that police had to be deployed outside city limits to avoid possible law and order problems.

Supply of petrol and diesel to the city fell drastically on Sunday evening when oil tankers meant for BPCL did not arrive on time, said the state-level coordinator for oil industry in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Chennai Port officials said that the berth for the expected tankers were kept free for the last two days and the shortage of fuel in the city was due to non-arrival of the tankers.

No spokesperson from BPCL could be reached for comments.

The crisis was managed to some extent on Monday and early Tuesday morning with IOC and HPCL outlets taking some of the demand load off BPCL outlets.

When similar shortage was experienced last week in many outlets across the city and its suburbs, the state-level coordinator of oil industry had denied any shortfall in fuel supply.

Large manufacturing and information technology companies in and around Chennai, where a majority of workers and staff commute using public and private transport, remained unaffected today despite many fuel outlets in the city trying to ration the little stock left with them.

Major employers like Cognizant Technology Solutions, Cybernet-SlashSupport, Hyundai Motor India, Ford India and Nokia, who spoke to Business Standard, said the fuel shortage is yet to hit their operations.

However, they were not sure for how long they can hold on. These companies use transport contractors to ferry their workers in and out of their facilities. These companies together employ nearly 44,000 people.

A Gopalrathnam, director, Cybernet-SlashSupport(CSS) that employs around 5,000 people, said: "We are hopeful that things will improve soon; otherwise our business economics will go for a toss. There is a very insignificant percentage drop among the employees who come on their own."

Hyundai Motor India that employs nearly 3,000 people in each of its three shifts at its plant at Sriperumbudur factory said that work has been progressing without any disruption so far.

Pakistan _____waitin 4 a miracle

The way things are going, it would take a miracle for Pakistan to make the final of the Asia Cup. And right now, that miracle seems very, very unlikely. Sri Lanka has looked extremely competent so far, and is already in the final, while India continues its good form and looks on course for a clash with Sri Lanka on the weekend.

In the Pakistan-Sri Lanka clash, it was surprised to see Shoaib Malik opting to chase. While all the other captains try to protect their players from toiling in the hot sun, Malik took the rather inexplicable decision of chasing.

Hopefully, Shoaib Malik will bat first if he wins the toss on Wednesday, especially since his batting has looked stronger while setting a total and fragile while chasing.

Misbah-ul-Haq should be batting in the first four because in nearly every game he comes in when it is too late.

Finally, I would still play Kamran Akmal, his keeping lapses not withstanding, in a one-day team. His keeping might be too erratic for a Test match, but in a one-day game, he fits in well as an allrounder.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young team has put up a couple of impressive performances in the tournament so far. Clearly, they have benefited from the experience gained by their players in the Indian Premier League. It has always been felt that Indian and Pakistani cricket would benefit if the domestic structure had fewer teams. The IPL has only six teams when compared to the 20-plus teams in the Ranji Trophy.

Competitive structure

This creates a more competitive structure, and with the top foreign players involved, the exposure for the next level of players in India has been invaluable. The Indians have looked the best side in the competition so far, and their batting looks invincible on these flat tracks.

Pakistan’s bowling has also been looking really thin, particularly after the controversy surrounding Mohammed Asif and the injury to Umar Gul.

Sohail Tanvir has been toiling manfully, but clearly he lacks support at the other end. In these times, it’s unfortunate that we cannot call on a bowler like Shoaib Akhtar thanks to the inordinately harsh punishment meted out to him.

I am not saying that he has not had his share of disciplinary problems, but that was something any strong assertive captain should have been able to handle.

what is CDMA

Short for Code-Division Multiple Access, a digital cellular technology that uses spread-spectrum techniques. Unlike competing systems, such as GSM, that use TDMA, CDMA does not assign a specific frequency to each user. Instead, every channel uses the full available spectrum. Individual conversations are encoded with a pseudo-random digital sequence. CDMA consistently provides better capacity for voice and data communications than other commercial mobile technologies, allowing more subscribers to connect at any given time, and it is the common platform on which 3G technologies are built.

CDMA is a military technology first used during World War II by English allies to foil German attempts at jamming transmissions. The allies decided to transmit over several frequencies, instead of one, making it difficult for the Germans to pick up the complete signal. Because Qualcomm created communications chips for CDMA technology, it was privy to the classified information. Once the information became public, Qualcomm claimed patents on the technology and became the first to commercialize it.

know whats AIDS and HIV....??????

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. While many viruses can be controlled by the immune system, HIV targets and infects the same immune system cells that are supposed to protect us from illnesses. These are a type of white blood cell called CD4 cells.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection.

HIV causes AIDS by attacking the immune system’s soldiers – the CD4 cells. When the immune system loses too many CD4 cells, you are less able to fight off infection and can develop serious, often deadly, infections. These are called opportunistic infections (OIs) because they take advantage of the body's weakened defenses.

When someone dies of AIDS, it is usually opportunistic infections or other long-term effects of HIV infection that cause death. AIDS refers to the body’s immune-compromised state that can no longer stop OIs from developing and becoming so deadly.


Difference Between HIV and AIDS?

You don't have AIDS as soon as you are infected with HIV. You can be HIV+ for many years with no signs of disease, or only mild-to-moderate symptoms. But without treatment, HIV will eventually wear down the immune system in most people to the point that they develop more serious OIs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines someone as having AIDS if he or she is HIV+ and meets one or both of these conditions:

• Has had at least one of 21 AIDS-defining opportunistic infections
• Has had a CD4 cell count (T-cell count) of 200 cells or less (a normal CD4 count varies by laboratory, but usually is in the 600 to 1,500 range)

COOL pics of Emma Watson

Global warming.....shows its effects

The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists now say.

Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper.

A University of Washington biologist detailed specific problems around the world with remote penguin populations, linking their decline to the overall health of southern oceans.

"Now we're seeing effects (of human caused warming and pollution) in the most faraway places in the world," said conservation biologist P. Dee Boersma, author of the paper published in the July edition of the journal Bioscience. "Many penguins we thought would be safe because they are not that close to people. And that's not true."

Scientists figure there are between 16 to 19 species of penguins. About a dozen are in some form of trouble, Boersma wrote. A few, such as the king penguin found in islands north of Antarctica, are improving in numbers, she said.