30.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The very moment one utters the term ‘Perfection’, you immediately recall Aamir Khan. When one utters the term ‘brawn’, you recall Salman Khan. The very way, when anyone utters the term ‘kiss’, the only name that pops in every human mind is that of Emraan Hashmi.
He is the man who redefined the term ‘kissing’ in his own sweet way, so much so that he was ‘conferred’ the term of ‘Serial Kisser’, something that Bollywood had never seen or witnessed before! Even though he debuted in Bollywood with the film Footpath, he shot into all-time fame with Murder. He is someone who is known for not just crystal clear nature but also crystal clear image, both on screen and off it. After having delivered an array of hits at the Box-office, this man has set afire the silver screen with his splendid performance in the season’s latest hit Tum Mile.
Emraan Hashmi will be live with all of you in Bollywood Hungama’s Celebrity Chat on December 3 at 1600 hrs IST
30.11.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Somali pirates have captured a tanker carrying oil to the US, officials say.
The Greek-owned Maran Centaurus was about 1,300km (800 miles) off Somalia when it was hijacked on Sunday, said the EU Naval task force (Navfor).
The ship was full of oil and is believed to be one of the largest yet seized by Somali pirates. There are 28 crew members on board.
Pirate attacks have been common off the Somali coast and international navies have been deployed to counter them.
A spokesman for the Greek coastguard told Reuters news agency that about nine armed pirates attacked the ship close to the Seychelles.
As it was fully laden, it was moving quite slowly – between 11 and 15 knots (20-27km/h) – when attacked, a Navfor spokesman told the BBC.
Reuters reports the Greek defence ministry as saying that a Greek navy frigate which had been involved with the Navfor operation was now shadowing the vessel.
Navfor said the ship, which has a dead weight of some 300,000 tonnes, had been sailing to New Orleans in the US from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia but was now heading towards Somalia.
Its crew is made up of 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and one Romanian.
Maran Tankers Management, which operates the vessel, told Reuters the crew were “well”.
Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank Rashid Abdi says the fact that pirates are now operating so far out to sea shows that the intervention of the world’s navies has made little difference to the problem of piracy.
“This incident clearly shows the pirates are becoming more bolder,” he says.
“So I don’t think the solution is in building the naval deployment there, or increasing the naval deployment. The problem is actually in dealing with the governance crisis which feeds the problem of piracy.”
‘Mother ships’
War-torn Somalia has had no functioning government since 1991, allowing pirates to operate along the lawless coast almost with impunity.
In recent months, the pirates have started operating further from the Somali coast.
They are believed to use “mother-ships” to reach the high seas, before using small skiffs to carry out their attacks.
Pirates are currently holding 11 vessels and 264 crew members in Somalia, the Navfor spokesman said.
In November 2008, the Sirius Star, carrying two million barrels of oil – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – became the largest ship ever seized by pirates. It has a deadweight of 318,000 tonnes.
The vessel was released in January after a ransom of $3m (then £1.95m) was paid.
Navfor is one of several international naval forces patrolling the oceans off the country to try to prevent the captures of ships using the vital sea routes. Nato and the US also lead task forces.
Earlier this month, the US began using unmanned drones to scour the Indian Ocean for suspect vessels.
30.11.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of ex-US President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is engaged to marry her long-term boyfriend.
She is marrying Marc Mezvinsky, a banker at Goldman Sachs, with whom she became friends as a teenager.
A spokesman for former President Clinton confirmed that the couple got engaged over last week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
Ms Clinton, 29, is attending Columbia University’s School of Public Health.
The engagement was announced in an e-mail to friends.
Mr Mezvinsky’s parents are Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Ed Mezvinsky, both of whom served in Congress.
They are described as old friends of the Clintons.
Ed Mezvinsky served a prison term for bank and wire fraud after he pleaded guilty to charges in 2002. He was released last year.
30.11.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research.
Tests show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years.
According to the independent EU Energy Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost.
The institute says the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes.
At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 – without a subsidy.
Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have created manufacturing volume that’s bringing down costs. Solar panel prices dropped 30% last year alone due to an increase in output and a drop in orders because of the recession.
But Heinz Ossenbrink, who works at the institute, said China had underpinned its solar industry with a big solar domestic programme which would keep prices falling. There are large-scale solar plans in the US and India too.
Panels had been expected to last for 20 years and price calculations were based on this (with a free energy source, purchase and installation represent almost the entire price of solar power).
But Dr Ossenbrink says the institute’s laboratory has been subjecting the cells to the sort of accelerated ageing through extremes of heat, cold and humidity that has long been a benchmark for the car industry.
Long lifetime
It has shown that more than 90% of the panels on the market 10 years ago are capable of still performing well after 30 years of life, albeit with a slight drop in performance.
Dr Ossenbrink says 40-year panels will be on the market soon.
A key goal for solar is what is known as grid parity. That is the point when it is as cheap for someone to generate power on their homes as it is to buy it from the grid.
It varies from country to country depending on electricity prices, but the institute estimates that Italy – which has a combination of sunny weather and relatively high electricity prices – should reach grid parity next year. Half of Europe should be enjoying grid parity by 2020, it estimates.
Cloudy northern countries like the UK could wait further, possibly up to 2030. But the day would come when solar panels on homes would be cost-competitive without a subsidy, even in Britain.
Dr Ossenbrink says: “Basically everything (in the industry) is bound to grow still further. Growing further means less cost. Less cost means grid parity.”
“We have been surprised in the past five years at the drop in prices. It’s due to good incentive programmes first in Germany then Spain and Italy. That created a kind of a boom that was helping industry to reduce costs and get into profitability. And when an industry is in profit it drives on its own.”
Owning solar
Professor Wim Sinke, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who leads the solar umbrella group the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform, says the industry has even greater ambitions.
“The target of the sector as a whole is to reach grid parity in almost all of Europe over the next 10 years. So by 2020 we should have grid parity in most of Europe,” he told BBC News.
Key sticking points for domestic solar, he said, would be the lack of flexibility in electricity grids to take in surplus generated energy and difficulties with finance.
Dr Ossenbrink said: “What I would like to see is the finance sector saying solar power is a product like financing a house – except they can predict the value of the solar panel much more safely than they can predict the value of the house in a volatile market.
“Electricity will never be given away free. Banks should offer mortgages on people’s solar panels like they do on homes – the bank should own the panel, then it would transfer to the householder when the loan has been paid off. It would be perfect for life assurances.”
It will take much longer for solar to match fossil fuel power at the point of generation, the institute says, as wholesale electricity prices are much lower than retail prices.
30.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The journey was one from being the famed Bollywood diva to being a faithfully wedded wife of businessman Raj Kundra. After the wedding took place in truly Manglorean style at the Khandala bungalow of Shilpa’s friend Kiran Bawa, the doors were left open for a grand reception in Mumbai’s swanky hotel for the bigwigs of Bollywood and the corporate world A truly high fashion, yet festive event, Chandni Dev at Bollywood Hungama shows you what Shilpa had hidden away especially for this one.
“Here comes the bride” echoed the air in the plush interiors of Grand Hyatt hotel in Mumbai that was destined to be the venue for the reception of the Kundra couple. Shilpa walked in hand in hand with Raj looking every bit the beauty she truly is. Tarun Tahiliani, must be one proud designer at that moment. The friend that he is, he designed an exceptional outfit in gold on the brief given by Shilpa herself.
At the mehndi ki rasam, the sangeet and the wedding itself, Shilpa wore nothing but traditional attires, keeping in with sentiments of the events, but she was clear that she wanted to go in for something more western yet nothing too out of line for the main reception. Tarun designed a complete fusion outfit for Shilpa, in a beautiful colour of champagne gold, that went on too accentuate her skin tone beautifully. It wasn’t exactly a saree and neither was it really a gown, but it was rather a combination of both.
A two piece outfit, the top was a swarovsky encrusted bodysuit with a duchess style flowing sari gown that showed of Shilpa’s perfectly toned body and curves to perfection. Having worn heavy kundan jewellery throughout the earlier ceremonies, Shilpa went for a welcome change and complimented her dress with a diamonds and rubies neckpiece and earrings. Keeping with the Punjabi traditions, Shilpa sported the traditional red chuda in her hands.
Just like all of Shilpa’s outfits and trousseau has been designed by Tarun Tahiliani, Raj’s sherwani’s for the events were done by Nikhil and Shantanu. For the reception as well, Raj looked like a perfect partner in a black Sherwani designed by the duo. Even sister Shamita looked pretty in a blue sari designed by Manish Malhotra in his typical bling style.
A star studded evening brought an end to a big fat Manglorean-Punjabi wedding. It may have been an end to all the rituals involved but for the couple, it’s only a beginning. Like they say in a truly Bollywood style “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”.
