http://projectsmileindia.wordpress.com/

http://projectsmileindia.wordpress.com/

Quote of the Day

“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”

~ Jalal ad-Din Rumi (Persian Poet and Mystic, 1207-1273)

 

Oil spill threatens turtle nesting site

Oil spilt from a coal carrying ship from Indonesia, anchored at Gopalpur Port in Ganjam district of Orissa, is washed ashore at the Rushikulya Olive Ridley turtle rookery. The hatchlings are expected to emerge in a fortnight in the same beach.

Spillage of oil from a ship at the Gopalpur port in Orissa has threatened the nesting site of Olive Ridleys near the Rushikulya rookery.

The authorities of the Gopalpur Ports Limited (GPL), Forest Department, and environmental activists are making efforts to reduce the impact of the spill on the coast.

Executive Director of the Gopalpur Ports Limited (GPL), P.K. Panigrahi said the spill occurred on Monday evening.

A barge lost control due to rough weather and hit the Indonesian ship MV Malavika anchored near the port. A storage chamber on its side cracked and oil started to spill out. The engineers immediately made efforts to transfer the oil from the damaged unit to restrict spillage. But by that time around 7,000 litres had poured into the sea. The engineers say this oil may be the ship’s furnace oil or waste oil of its engine.

The spilt oil has started to reach the coast near the rookery blackening the sand. But it is yet to reach the stretch where the Olive Ridleys had nested. The Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), A.K. Jena said the nests are not yet affected.

The Olive Ridley eggs are to hatch in another fortnight.

The toxic effect of the spill may lead to increased mortality of the turtle hatchlings this year, environmental activist Rabindra Sahu said.

Quote of the Day

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”

~ Mary Anne Radmacher

‘Evil twin of global warming’ threatens world’s oceans

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  Fishermen venturing into the sea near Kannur. Ocean acidification is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans.

  Scientists have warned that ocean acidification, which is dubbed the ‘evil twin of global warming’, caused by a rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), threatens the world’s oceans.

  “Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years,” researchers said in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE). “This emphasises the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions,” they added. Ocean acidification, which the researchers call the ‘evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans. It is happening independently of, but in combination with, global warming.

  “Evidence gathered by scientists around the world over the last few years suggests that ocean acidification could represent an equal -or perhaps even greater threat -to the biology of our planet than global warming,” said co-author Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland. More than 30 percent of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation and other human activities goes straight into the oceans, turning them gradually more acidic.

  “The resulting acidification will impact many forms of sea life, especially organisms whose shells or skeletons are made from calcium carbonate, like corals and shellfish. It may interfere with the reproduction of plankton species which are a vital part of the food web on which fish and all other sea life depend,” said Professor Hoegh-Guldberg.

  The scientists say there is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history, like the “Great Dying” of 251 million years ago and another wipeout 55 million years ago, were accompanied by ocean acidification, which may have delivered the deathblow to many species that were unable to cope with it.

  According to lead author, Dr. Carles Pelejero, from ICREA and the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain, “These past periods can serve as great lessons of what we can expect in the future, if we continue to push the acidity the ocean even further.” “Given the impacts we see in the fossil record, there is no question about the need to immediately reduce the rate at which we are emitting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he added.

  
   

Twisting a tomato gene can increase yield by 60%

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  Scientists have discovered a gene that promotes ‘hybrid vigour’ in tomatoes

  Tomatoes can be made sweeter by tweaking a gene that can also increase its yield by 60 per cent, a new study has found.

  Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York identified the gene that promotes ‘hybrid vigour’ while hunting for genes that boost heterosis, the phenomenon by which cross-breeding two varieties of plants produces more vigorous hybrid offspring with higher yields, the Telegraph reported.

  Expressing hope that the technique should work for all flowering fruit plants, Dr Zach Lippman, the lead author said: “This discovery has potential to have a significant impact on both the billion-dollar tomato industry, as well as agricultural practices designed to get the most yield from other flowering crops”.

  For their study, Dr. Lippman and his team cross bred more than 5,000 plants with slightly different genetic make-up. They observed that when a gene called SFT, which produces a protein called florigen, mutated, the yield increased by 60 per cent.

  Scientists believe that right levels of florigen — the protein that instructs plants when to stop making leaves and start making flowers, which in turn produce fruit — helps increase yield.

  “It’s the Goldilocks concept. What we find is that to maximise yield, you can’t have too much or too little florigen. A mutation in one copy of the gene results in the exact dose of florigen required to cause heterosis,” said Dr. Lippman.

  In addition to superior yield, the hybrids displayed another, perhaps equally important quality, taste. Tomato plants only produce a finite amount of sugar, which they distribute equally among their fruits.

  So higher yields usually result in each fruit having less sugar. Remarkably, the florigen gene also boosted the sugar and sweetness of individual fruits.

  

Lines to make you smile :)

1.. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn’t.

2.. I don’t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

3.. Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them.

4..I used to have a handle on life, but it broke..

5.. Don’t take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.

6.. You’re just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

7.. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

8.. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.

9.. I’m not a complete idiot — Some parts are just missing.

10.. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.

11.. God must love stupid people; He made so many.

12.. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

13.. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

14.. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

15..  Being ‘over the hill’ is much better than being under it!

16.. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.

17.. Procrastinate Now!

18.. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

19.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

20 .. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!

21 ..They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.

22. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.

23.. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.

24.. The trouble with life is there’s no background music…

25.. I smile because I don’t know what is going on.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

Life is too short and friends are too few.

Lights to go off for ‘Earth Hour’ tomorrow 27 March 2010 – 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm IST

Delhi Chief Mnister Sheila Dikshit and Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan at the launch of the campaign for Earth Hour 2010, in Delhi on on 27 March 2010, 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm IST.

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It’s time to plan for a candle light dinner on Saturday as Delhi will join other world cities in observing the ‘Earth Hour’ by turning off the lights for an hour on  27 March 2010 from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm IST.

With almost 50 million supporters across the globe and a network in over 100 countries, the annual ‘Earth Hour’ initiative, organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature, has emerged as one of the largest global campaigns to combat climate change.

Pledging its support to the initiative, the city government has already started a campaign asking people to observe the event by switching off all the lights and electrical appliances for an hour on Saturday.

“I appeal to all the residents to observe the Earth Hour tomorrow. We have already launched a campaign to make the event a great success,” Delhi Environment Secretary Dharmendra told.

He said the government had already asked shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, educational institutions and major markets to observe the event which is celebrated across major cities of the world on the last Saturday of March annually to pledge support for protecting the environment.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, herself a strong votary of eco-friendly measures, will participate in an event at the lawns of the India Gate and switch off the lights there at 8.30 pm IST.

“I can assure you that all the households can have romantic candle light dinners sitting at their homes on March 27,” Ms. Dikshit had said at a function organised by WWF here.

City Discoms BSES and NDPL have also pledged their support to the ‘Earth Hour’ initiative and appealed to their consumers to observe the event.

“On NDPL’s part we have undertaken a campaign for consumer sensitisation which includes putting up of posters, hoardings, banners at all customer touch points,” said an NDPL official.

Several hotels and malls have also announced their support to the initiative and plans to organise special events.

An official of the InterContinental Hotels Group said the hotel will encourage in-house guests to switch off lights in their rooms and join the ‘guestogether’ parties being hosted by them between 8.30 and 9.30 pm.

Hotel ‘Crowne Plaza Today’ in Gurgaon will turn off all the non-essential lights to mark the ‘Earth Hour’ and organise a candlelight dinner for their guests.

The WWF India said the event will also be celebrated in Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangaluru, Chennai and Kolkata, apart from several other cities where people will be urged to turn off the lights in their homes and offices for a hour.

It said Delhi and Mumbai will be leading the country in making the campaign a success in India. Both the cities had observed the event last year and saved a total of 1,000 MW of power.

Started in Sydney in Australia in 2007, the ‘Earth Hour’ had become a global event in 2008 with participation of 35 countries. India joined the Earth Hour campaign last year.

Delhi alone had saved 700 MW of power by supporting the campaign.

In 2009, millions of people took part in the third ‘Earth Hour’. Over 4,000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off lights to pledge their support for saving the planet.