Africa - An Ariel View

VIKRAM SAMVAT 2065

The official Indian calender celebrates its new year on 7th April 2008. Let me tell u something about this indian calender which is also the official calender of the Government of India , and only a few of us in this generation bothered to know about it .
The Vikram era or Vikram Samvat originated in 57 B.C. and the date marked the victory of The King Vikramaditya over the Sakas who had invaded Ujjain. To convert the year in Gregorian (Western) calender add 57 or 58 to the current year. The Western Calender is based on the Sun , in which a year is the time taken by the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun .This precisely measures 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds.
The official Indian Calender or the Vikram Samvat is based on both the sun and the moon ; while it uses a solar year- but divides it into 12 lunar months .

शुभ नव सम्वत्सर
2065

The Hips Contest- USA

Another First For India From The Rotunda Team

Devil's Swimming Pool

In Zambia, Africa, you will find the magnificent Victoria Falls, at a height of 128m. The location is known as the 'Devil's Swimming Pool'. During the months of September-December, people can swim as close as possible to the edge of the falls without falling over. These falls are becoming well known amongst the 'Radical Tourist' Industry, when more and more people search for the ultimate experience .Would you dare?

Rusty Genes

After their baby was born, the panicked father went to see the Obstetrician. 'Doctor,' the man said, 'I don't mind telling you, but I'm a little upset because my daughter has red hair.

She can't possibly be mine.' 'Nonsense,' the doctor said. 'Even though you and your wife both have black hair, one of your ancestors may have contributed red hair to the gene pool.'

'It isn't possible,' the man insisted. 'This can't be, our families on both sides had jet-black hair for generations.'

'Well,' said the doctor, 'let me ask you this. How often do you have sex?' The man seemed a bit ashamed.

'I've been working very hard for the past year. We only made love once or twice every few months.'

'Well, there you have it!' The doctor said confidently. 'It's rust.'

Uk creates the First Hybrid Embryos

Scientists at Newcastle University have created part-human, part-animal hybrid embryos for the first time in the UK, the BBC revealed today. The embryos survived for up to three days and are part of medical research into a range of illnesses. It comes a month before MPs are to debate the future of such research. The Catholic Church describes it as "monstrous". But medical bodies and patient groups say such research is vital for our understanding of disease. They argue that the work could pave the way for new treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. These hybrid embryos were created by injecting DNA derived from human skin cells into eggs taken from cows ovaries which have had virtually all their genetic material removed. The Newcastle team say they are using cow ovaries because human eggs from donors are a precious resource and in short supply. The hybrid embryos are purely for research and would never be allowed to develop beyond 14 days when they are still smaller than a pinhead. Scientists want to extract stem cells, the body's master cells, from the embryos, in order to increase understanding of a whole range of diseases from diabetes to stroke and ultimately to produce treatments.
Professor John Burn from Newcastle University says the research is entirely ethical. "This is licensed work which has been carefully evaluated. This is a process in a dish, and we are dealing with a clump of cells which would never go on to develop. It's a laboratory process and these embryos would never be implanted into anyone. "We now have preliminary data which looks promising but this is very much work in progress and the next step is to get the embryos to survive to around six days when we can hopefully derive stem cells from them." The research in Newcastle was approved by the UK's fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. It acted ahead of the passing of new legislation which will specifically allow the creation of hybrid embryos so as not to hold back research.
Critics from the Roman Catholic Church say the creation of hybrids is immoral. "It is difficult to imagine a single piece of legislation which more comprehensively attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life than this particular bill," Cardinal Keith O'Brien, archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh declared last week. Dr David King, of Human Genetics Alert, said: "For anyone who understands basic biology, it is no surprise that these embryos died at such an early stage. "Cloning is inefficient precisely because it is so unnatural, and by mixing species it becomes even more unnatural and unlikely to succeed. "The public has been grossly misled by the hype that this is vital medical research. "Even if stem cells were ever to be produced, like cloned animals, they would have so many errors of their metabolism that they would produce completely misleading data."
Not for the first time developments in science have outpaced the debate from legislators. For supporters of embryo research the creation of hybrid embryos is a small but significant move forward. For opponents it is a step too far.