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Some Interesting facts about Jagannath Rath Yatra Odisha

•  As practiced in a few other orthodox Hindu temples, none other than Hindus will be allowed to enter the gates of the Jagannath temple in Puri to view the deities and offer worship. However, the entry is open to anyone irrespective of caste and religion during the Jagannath Rath Yatra. During this festival time, all people can worship the Lord and receive his blessings.
•  The Rath yatra sees the procession of three independent chariots for the three deities of Jagannath, Balarama and Shubadra. Hence this event is also called the festival of chariots. The names of these three chariots are Nandighosha, Taladhwaja and Devadalana.
•  Nandigosha is the chariot of Jagannath that is set on 18 wheels. Taladwaja, the chariot of Balarama runs on 16 wheels and 14 wheels roll the chariot Padmadhwaja in which Shubadra parades.
•  The most astonishing facts about the Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra is that all the three chariots are constructed anew year after year prior to the festival. The construction makes use of newer materials as the years go by. However, the structure, model, design and measurements of the chariot remain the same. In front of each chariot, four wooden horses are fixed.
•  The chariot tops replicate the structure of the temple towers built in the North Indian style. Hundreds of pilgrims and devotees pull the massive sized chariots with sturdy ropes. This creates an awe inspiring sight for the onlookers. For making the canopies of the chariots, about 1200 meters of cloth is used. A team of 15 skilled tailors make the canopies.
•  As per the traditional belief, the king of Puri sweeps the floor with a broom stick before the chariots move forward thus providing a royal procession to the Lord with his accomplices.
•  When the festival begins, Lord Jagannath seems to refuse moving out. Despite the efforts of the crowds, the chariot cannot be moved even an inch forward. After a few hours of mammoth efforts, finally the chariot moves forward to trigger the procession’s onward march.
•  There is an interesting story behind the chariot festival. It is said Lord Jagannath catches high fever year on year prior to the Rath yatra. Hence he is given rest for a period of one week before the chariot festival. The temple doors remain shut for the public and none is allowed to disturb the resting Lord during this period. The chariot procession comes as a change for the Lord to visit his maternal aunt’s house after he recovers from his fever.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.in

SCIENCE-FICTION COME TO LIFE:MICROSOFT HOLOLENS

Microsoft has just revealed its next great innovation: Windows Holographic. It's an augmented reality experience that employs a headset, much like all the VR goggles that are currently rising in popularity, but Microsoft's solution adds holograms to the world around you. The HoloLens headset is described as "the most advanced holographic computer the world has ever seen." It's a self-contained computer, including a CPU, a GPU, and a dedicated holographic processor. The dark visor up front contains a see-through display, there's spatial sound so you can "hear" hologram

s behind you, and HoloLens also integrates a set of motion and environmental sensors. 

NO WIRES OR PC REQUIRED, IT'S A SELF-CONTAINED HOLOGRAM GENERATOR 
Though still early in its development, HoloLens will be made available "in the Windows 10 timeframe" which could mean anything from 12 months to five years  and, according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, it will be priced "for both enterprise and consumers to use it." Microsoft has already shown HoloLens to at least one games publisher, with Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick describing the experience as "extraordinary."

Barack Obama's visit to India 2015

During his three-day visit starting January 25, US President Barack Obama will have a tight schedule in India. 

Here are 10 important things you should definitely know about Obama's visit to India:-

1. Obama will be the first US President to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade in India. 

2. During his visit to attend the Republic Day celebrations in India, Obama will be accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama and a team of senior officials in his administration.

3. According to the sources

, the following are coming to Delhi from the US:

Six aircrafts, carrying security staff

President's cavalcade, with 30 cars. One of them might be the Cadillac One, among the world's most high tech cars. 

Marine One helicopters

Air Force One, Obama's plane  (equipped to protect Obama even from nuclear attack)

4. During the Day 1 of his three-day visit, the American president and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likely to hold comprehensive talks on the entire gamut of bilateral ties and discuss ways to enhance cooperation in key components, including civil nuclear and defence pacts.

The visit is also expected to boost the seven- year-old civil nuclear deal, facilitating the establishment of US-designed nuclear power plants in India.

5. On second day of the visit, Obama will attend the Republic Day parade and later, along with Modi, will reportedly take part in Indo-US CEO roundtable.

6. On the final day of the visit, Obama is expected to address a town hall.

7. Before his departure from India, Obama and his wife also have a plan to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra.

8. Ahead of Obama's visit, there is already a flurry of terror threats coming everyday from different parts of the country. 

While the Islamic State (ISIS) has threatened the Mumbai Airport by scribbling notes with threat messages twice, Indian Army has imposed high alert in Jammu and Kashmir with the news of militant insurgency in the state. 

9. After input from Intelligence agencies that bombs could be hidden anywhere, Special Cell and Crime Branch officers have been asked to be vigilant about the flower pots around Rajpath and India Gate, 24/7.

10. To beef up the security systems, high level of planning has been done that will cover both on-ground and air security for Obama.

The American team has put together the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) of the US. 

While India is putting together the Delhi Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Intelligence Bureau and Air traffic controllers to strengthen the security plan. 

India blocks 32 websites, including Vimeo and Github

The Indian government has blocked access to 32 websites based on the advice of an anti-terrorism team. The blocked URLs (uniform resource locator, an address to any website on the Internet) include files, videos and source code-sharing websites such as dailymotion.com, github.com, vimeo.com and archive.org. In an order, tweeted by Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Bengaluru-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society on Wednesday, the department of telecom said the 32 URLs had been blocked under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and under Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. “The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti Terrorism Squad, and were carrying anti-India content from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria),” Arvind Gupta, head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology cell, said in a message on Twitter. His tweet came in response to a backlash to the move from Internet users. “The sites that have removed objectionable content and/or cooperated with the ongoing investigations, are being unblocked,” he added. If Internet service providers (ISPs) don’t comply with the demand, they are liable to being penalized, the order said. The rules give the central government powers to block access to information if it is in the interest of the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above.” Intermediaries failing to comply with the rules are punishable with fines and prison terms of up to seven years, it notes. “Pastebin is still blocked in India. We are getting many reports about this. The Indian government has blocked us...,” said one of the source code sharing websites, Pastebin.com, in a tweet. This is not the first time the government has cracked down on websites. A recent report by Freedom House, an independent watchdog, said the information ministry received a total of 130 court orders to block Web content between February 2009 and December 2013. In February 2014, the then minister of communication and information technology told Parliament that 62 URLs were blocked in 2013 under Section 69A for hosting objectionable information with the potential to disturb public order. As many as 82 URLs were blocked on 18 September 2013 in addition to 26 blocked a week earlier after violence escalated between Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. A total of 362 URLs were blocked in response to communal violence in the northeast, the report said. “The problem isn’t just about the specific sites that are blocked; the prob(lem) always about the bad law...,” tweeted Prakash. “The 69A rules don’t allow for transparency, accountability, time-limits on blocks, etc.

View of an Indian student towards America

Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.

During two years in the US, Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.

Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.

The most surprising things about America:

- Nobody talks about grades here.

- Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone's performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.

- The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a "personal shopper" to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you're shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity/chore than it is a pleasurable activity

- This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn't do correctly or didn't understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren't able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.

- The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn't have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied/did assignments till everyone in the group "got it". I think the reason for this is that the classes are/material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other.

- Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.

- Rich people are thin/well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don't eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive/healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.

- Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you're thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you're well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you're thin, you're statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care/love.

- Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films

- Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven't been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance.

- Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren't given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I'm pretty sure you can extend upon this if you'd like.

- It's expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm

- Emphasis on physical fitness/being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it

- Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it's so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs.

Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin' etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don't understand why they can't drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days/week *52 weeks/year)!

- Split families, not having married parents, etc., is not seen differently than the contrary.

- Support towards the LGBT community — it's fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it's not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren't comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.

- Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes.

And, here are some more things he found surprising about America, excerpted from his post last summer on Quora :

The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.

For example, at a typical store:

- 1 can of coke : $1.00 - 12 cans of coke : $3.00 - 1 Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00 - 12 Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00

The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don't have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a "Buyer's Remorse" category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).

The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores.

Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that's just how it is.

The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways

Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:

- Bag of grapes : $6.00 - Box of strawberries : $5.00 - 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00 - McChicken : $1.00 - [McDouble] : $1.00

Unlimited soda refills:

The first time (and one of the last times...) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not.

Slightly digressing, I've noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)... The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have.

Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I've noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.

US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini.

Over-commercialization of festivals: I'm not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren't extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.

An almost-classless society: I've noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I've seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.

Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You'll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren't really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.

Chaturvedi ended his post with a link to a video of "America F--- Yeah" from the movie "Team America."

Now we have a screen on the side of the mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge has a screen on the side! The new smartphone has a small display that runs along the right edge of the body and can show items independent of the main display. For example, this strip can display time and date, stock quotes, messages and notifications etc. Samsung has even designed a game customized for this small display panel.