Why Indians want to settle on Mars

"I want to meet aliens. I strongly feel that we are not alone in this universe. If possible, I would like to live on both Earth and Mars from time to time," says Amulya Nidhi Rastogi, an engineering student from the suburb of Gurgaon near the Indian capital, Delhi.
 Mr Rastogi, 21, is one of 1,058 applicants shortlisted from some two million hopefuls globally for a one-way trip to Mars by Dutch non-profit organisation Mars One in 2024. It hopes to build a community of settlers on the planet. They have cleared two rounds of a rigorous four-stage clearance process, at the end of which 24 people will be sent to the planet. India has the largest number of applicants - 62 - after the US who have made it to the shortlist for the trip to the Red Planet.

 

Ukraine Situation Further Confused After Appearance by John Travolta

A surprise appearance by the actor John Travolta today in Kiev’s Independence Square has further confused the situation in Ukraine, witnesses on the ground report. According to several accounts, Mr. Travolta flew to Ukraine in his self-piloted private jet in the hopes of raising morale in the embattled country, but only served to perplex Ukrainians with a brief but indecipherable speech. In his remarks, Mr. Travolta referred to Ukraine as “Cranium” and Crimea as “IKEA” before hopping back into his cockpit and flying away. The speech rattled the nerves of the Ukrainians who heard it, according to reports. In the words of one witness: “We are no longer sure what country we are living in.”
By Andy Borowitz 

This frog likes to live dangerously

A crocodile's snout is the unlikely resting place for this frog photographed in a pool in Jakarta, Indonesia by Fahmi Bhs.
Picture: Fahmi Bhs/Solent News

 

Is this the ultimate selfie?

It may not have broken records like Ellen DeGeneres's Oscar 'selfie' but this incredible image shows a live air missile being fired by a pilot.

 

Passive smoking 'damages children's arteries'

Passive smoking causes lasting damage to children's arteries, prematurely ageing their blood vessels by more than three years, say researchers. The damage - thickening of blood vessel walls - increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in later life, they say in the European Heart Journal. In their study of more than 2,000 children aged three to 18, the harm occurred if both parents smoked.
 Experts say there is no "safe" level of exposure to second-hand smoke.

 

Where Do Newly Hatched Baby Sea Turtles Go?

The first few hours of a loggerhead sea turtle’s life are pretty exciting. After hatching in their beach nests, the baby turtles crawl clumsily into the Atlantic Ocean and swim out to sea.
But, what happens after these golf-ball-sized swimmers paddle off into the sunset?
To investigate, Kate Mansfield and her colleagues wanted to tag the creatures with some kind of instrument and then use satellites to track them where researchers can’t. 

 

See? NO Cavities!

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When Catherine the Great Invaded the Crimea and Put the Rest of the World on Edge

In a matter of weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone from showcasing his nation’s culture and athletics at the Winter Olympics in Sochi to sending troops into Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The Games captured the world’s imagination but European and North American leaders have condemned the invasion of the Crimea, comparing Putin’s actions to Soviet or Czarist style military aggression. Nearly 250 years ago, Empress Catherine II “the Great” played a similar hand when she attempted to impress the West while ruthlessly enforcing her authority over Russia and the surrounding region. continue

 

Sevastopol-itics?

Jeff Danziger thinks Vladimir Putin has further plans, while Patrick Chappatte doubts the West has a counter-move. via

 

Squirrel

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Pet budgie survived vacuum cleaner ordeal

An eight-year old budgerigar (parakeet) survived a horrifying ordeal in a vacuum cleaner in Milton, Boston. Birdie, the pet of Marie Margarone, had crawled into the Shop-Vac wet/dry vacuum cleaner moments before Ms Margarone turned it on. After turning it on, she quickly realized that her feathered friend had been whipped up into a “violent” frenzy inside the canister, breaking its wing and causing damage to its tiny body. A spokesman from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center said Margarone knew something was wrong when she saw feathers blow out of the vacuum’s exhaust. Vets said Birdie “was bloodied, barely conscious, and unable to move” when she arrived at the animal hospital’s Emergency and Critical Care Unit, where two board-certified avian and exotic veterinarians, Dr Brendan Noonan and Dr Elisabeth Simone-Freilicher, worked diligently to bring the bird back from the brink of beyond. Over the course of an hour-long operation, doctors had to remove 25 percent of the bird’s wing, but they managed to get Birdie back on her bird feet and back to her owner the next day.

 

Croat MIG airplanes stuck in Ukraine

Twelve Croatian combat airplanes sent for a repairing in Ukraine are not likely to get back soon.
 The political situation in the country has forced all the non-civil aircraft to stay on ground. Delay of the repairs to the MIG type aircrafts in Odessa means Croatia does not know when the airplanes will return. 

Mission Accomplished

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World Wildlife Day

Today, the world celebrates the first ever World Wildlife Day.

 

Not The Only One

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After Entering Crimea, Where Will Russia Stop?

With Russian forces now effectively in control on the Crimean peninsula, there's an ominous question on the minds of people around the world: Will President Vladimir Putin go further — sending his troops into other parts of Ukraine? If he does, tensions that wouldn't seem able to go much higher invariably would ratchet up, and Russian actions that so far haven't led to any shots being fired might lead to war between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
 British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday said that what's happening in Ukraine is already the "biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st century."

 

The official tourism slogan of Russia

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Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Oscars 2014

The first winner of the evening was Jared Leto, who won Best Supporting Actor (as was widely expected) for Dallas Buyers Club and gave a really long speech in which he mentioned Ukraine, his band, and a whole lot of other things. But Lupita Nyong'o, who has been making her way around Hollywood being unerringly delightful for this entire awards season — and, it must be said, looking like a million dollars everywhere she goes — gave an absolutely lovely speech accepting the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years A Slave. Cate Blanchett's acceptance for Best Actress in Blue Jasmine spared some time to chastise Hollywood at large for treating movies about women as niche pictures, while Matthew McConaughey, in accepting for Dallas Buyers Club, seemed to put his emphasis on his admiration of (1) God and (2) himself. As for other Best Picture nominees, Gravity took nothing in the acting categories, and its screenplay wasn't nominated, but it won a boatload of recognition for its sound, score and visuals, awards for its editing and cinematography, and one very big one: Best Director, for Alfonso Cuaron – apparently the first Latino director to win. In addition to Best Picture, 12 Years won an Adapted Screenplay award for John Ridley. The Best Original Screenplay went to Spike Jonze's Her, which didn't get the nomination for Joaquin Phoenix that many would have liked to see. The biggest disappointments may have been in the American Hustle camp, which went into the evening with ten nominations and walked out with no awards.
It was a long night.

 

Oscar Cartoons

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Benjamin Bouncer

Cute Overload, introduce to you, the real Peter Rabbit.

 

Brown Pelican

Photography by Neil Ratnavira, San Diego, CA, USA

 

Do You Really Know What a Black Hole Is?

Hidden Hole

 Photograph by Stéphane Guisard, European Southern Observatory Viewed through an amateur telescope, the Milky Way’s dusty center sweeps diagonally across the sky, draping stellar nurseries. Behind the veil lurks the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

 

Chess champion Garry Kasparov granted Croatian citizenship

Former world chess champion turned human rights activist Garry Kasparov has been granted Croatian citizenship after finding it increasingly difficult to live in Russia as a pro-democracy campaigner. Kasparov, 50, has spent many summer holidays at a house he owns in the southern Croatian town of Makarska and he speaks the language. He is also a member of the chess club in the eastern town of Vukovar, which he has played for in the past. A Croatian chess player close to Kasparov has revealed he applied for Croatian citizenship earlier in February "because of problems he experiences in Russia due to opposing the policy of Vladimir Putin".

 

A face at the window

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