Human development: India at a dismal 119

The robust economic growth notwithstanding, India has garnered a lowly 119th rank in the United Nation's Human Development Index due to poor social infrastructure, mainly in areas of education and healthcare.

In the 'Human Development Report 2010' by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that covered 169 countries and territories, India's position is way below China (89th spot) and Sri Lanka (91).

 

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said that country's goal was to improve overall human development and not merely ensure economic growth.

 

"The ultimate growth is human development, not only economic growth," Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said.

 

He, however, added that economic growth and rise in income levels were necessary for carrying out human development initiatives like providing access to education and health, gender equality, poverty eradication and so on.

more at rediff 

Facebook eyes mobile domination too!

More than 200 million people are now using Facebook across various mobile platforms, with the company claiming that this is bigger than the iPhone or Android user base.

World's Smallest Frog Packs Poison Punch

The record-holder for the smallest frog in the world apparently makes up for its miniature size by packing a wallop of poison, research reveals.

With a body that's only 10 millimeters long, the Mount Iberia frog (Eleutherodactylus iberia) from Cuba currently holds the Guinness World Record for smallest frog.

Investigating these dwarf frogs is painstaking work, said researcher Miguel Vences, an evolutionary biologist at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.

"You have to crawl on your knees and move leaf by leaf," Vences told LiveScience. "And when you discover one of these frogs, they usually jump away immediately so that you have to start all over again."

When Vences found his first specimen, he smelled a bitter odor and suspected it might be coated in toxic alkaloids. (Morphine and caffeine are alkaloids.)

"At the time I just mentioned this as a crazy and rampant speculation - I was sure it would prove to be wrong, and was even more surprised when my chemistry colleagues sent me the first results, stating they indeed had found alkaloids in the skins," Vences said.
more at livescience

Japan looks to ancient village wisdom to save biodiversity

Four decades ago the oriental white stork became extinct in Japan, the victim of rapid industrialisation and modern farm practices and heavy pesticide use that destroyed its habitat.

Today, the graceful migratory bird soars again over restored wetlands around the small town of Toyooka in western Japan, now a showcase for an ambitious conservation effort called the Satoyama Initiative.

As Japan hosts a UN conference on biodiversity this week, the high-tech nation is pushing the initiative to promote some of its ancient village wisdom as a way to heal battered environments worldwide.

The initiative draws lessons from before Japan became studded with megacities and crisscrossed by bullet train lines, when most people lived in villages near rice paddies, bamboo groves and forests.
more at independent

World Series Wisdom From Felipe Alou

With all the media available today, baseball wise men can seem a dime a dozen, so it’s a privilege when someone with genuine wisdom appears for 45 minutes of pre-game chatter as Felipe Alou did Saturday night.
Alou, now 75, managed the Giants from 2003-2006 after leading the Montreal Expos for 10 years, including the 1994 team that included Larry Walker, Cliff Floyd and Marquis Grissom and was the best in baseball heading into the strike. He was one of the game’s first Latin stars and managers, and he paved the way for a generation of Dominican talent.

Alou, who played for the Giants from 1958-1963, said it would be special for this current group to bring San Francisco its first World Championship. Alou was a part of the 1962 team that lost to the Yankees 1-0 in Game 7.

“When we went to Spring training this year, there was not a lot of people who were talking about us in the World Series, much less winning the World Series,” he said. “There was a time during this season when we didn’t look very good.”
more at wsj

Sri Sri Ravishankar enlightens with his thoughts on Diwali

Here are the significant thoughts of Sri Sri Ravishankar on Diwali from his discourse on the topic. According to him, Diwali is Celebration of the light of wisdom.

~The rows of lights are lit on Diwali to remind you that every aspect of life needs your attention and the light of knowledge.

~Lights are lit on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate a profound truth about life. Light dispels darkness and when the darkness within you is dispelled through the light of wisdom, the good wins over the evil in you.

~Bursting crackers is like a psychological exercise created by ancient people to release bottled-up emotions. When you see an explosion outside, you feel similar sensations within you as well. Along with the explosion, there is so much light. So when you let go of the suppressed emotions, you become hollow and empty and the light of knowledge dawns.

~Diwali celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance.

~Any celebration has to be spiritual as a celebration without spirituality has no depth. Celebration is the nature of the spirit and every excuse to celebrate is good.

~In celebration, you should not only have a party; you must remind yourself of the wisdom. For the one who is not in knowledge, Diwali comes only once a year, but for the wise, Diwali is every moment and every day. Be wise and celebrate Diwali every moment and everyday of your life.

Light the lamp of wisdom in you, acquire knowledge. Awaken all the facets of your being.

HAPPY DIWALI!!
via mynews

'Balloon head' dolphin discovered

A new type of dolphin with a short, spoon-shaped nose and high, bulbous forehead has been identified from a fossil found in the North Sea.

The Platalearostrum hoekmani was named after Albert Hoekman, the Dutch fisherman who in 2008 trawled up a bone from the creature's skull.

Up to six metres in length, the dolphin lived two to three million years ago.

The so-called rostrum bone and a model of the dolphin are on display at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam.

As museum researchers Klaas Post and Erwin Kompanje write in the museum's journal Deinsea, the North Sea has been a rich source of fossils in recent decades as bottom-trawling has become more prevalent.

The practice has yielded tens of thousands of pieces of the fossil record - many of which defy classification.
more at bbc