A Queens School Copes With Crowding That’s a Sign of Success

Lining up for lunch with their plastic foam trays, students at Francis Lewis High School pile on their choices — hamburgers here, chicken nuggets there, some steamed vegetables over there.
A few grab a couple of waffles. After all, it is not even 9 a.m.
At Francis Lewis in Fresh Meadows, Queens, which has nearly twice as many students as the 2,400 it was designed for, administrators have been forced to look for every possible nook of space and cranny of time to cram in more bodies. The first lunch period starts at 8:57 a.m.; the last one ends at 2:46 p.m. Some students begin classes as early as 7 a.m., while others do not finish until 12 hours later.
The flag team practices in the hallway. Hundreds of students are assigned to physical education in room “Outs” — the schedule abbreviation for outside. When it snows or the temperature drops below 34 degrees, they run in the corridors. A few science classes are held in one tiny square room with no ventilation.
Yet Francis Lewis is one of the most popular high schools in the city — nearly 13,000 students applied last year. It is just one of a number of New York City public school buildings teeming with students despite an overall drop in enrollment in the past few years.
Not far from Francis Lewis, two schools with lesser reputations, Jamaica and John Bowne High Schools, are below capacity. But education officials, wary of alienating middle-class parents, have been reluctant to shift students to even out the load.
This year’s enrollment numbers are not yet official, but last year, 41 high schools were more than 20 percent above capacity, up from 31 high schools two years earlier, according to the Department of Education. Nine of them, including Francis Lewis, were at least 50 percent overflowing last year.
“We’re big because we’re good and people want to send their kids here,” said Francis Lewis’s principal, Musa Ali Shama. “But how much longer can we keep getting bigger and stay great? There comes a point where too much is too much.”
This year, as it has for much of the past decade, enrollment grew by 200 students, to roughly 4,600, expanding the school day to 14 periods, more than any other school in the city.
Lunch is served for seven periods, with up to 600 students sitting on the benches at any time. The cafeteria workers put out a few breakfast choices during the first lunch shift, like croissants and bagels, and occasionally bacon and eggs, which disappear fast. Still, on most days, nearly two-thirds of the early eaters opt for the lunch fare.
But the most popular cafeteria food spans the full six hours — French fries. On a recent visit, they were universally spotted on trays holding salads, chicken, pizza and waffles.
“If you’re really hungry, you can eat anything at any time,” said Jasmine Cepeda, 15, who is one of the roughly 380 students who eat in the first lunch period, about three hours after she wakes up at home in East New York. “Sometimes you just eat it because it’s there and because you know by eighth period you’ll be starving.”
The early eaters have spent part of the first three weeks of school perfecting their grazing habits. Some have only coffee before they leave home. Several hang out at Arby’s after their 3 p.m. class gets out, snacking on barbecue sandwiches or more fries.
But Jasmine and her friends extol the benefits of Lewis, as students call the school — their electives have included forensics, psychology, bioethics and aerobics. The school’s graduation rate, 81 percent, far exceeds the citywide rate, 56 percent.
“It’s pretty much the best,” said Nilda Jiminez, who takes the bus from her home in Astoria. “But it does get annoying to have to figure out all these ways to deal with the crowds.”
Nilda knows, for example, how to tuck her arms close to her body to avoid running into people in the hallways. And last year she could not participate in any after-school clubs because she did not finish classes until 5 p.m. Because clubs rely on classroom space, most meet during the 10th through 12th periods, when fewer students are in class.
“They want the big high school experience, like the one they see on TV, with a prom and basketball games and clubs,” Mr. Shama said. “Unfortunately, not all of the students are able to get that right now.”
And having fewer students — 4,000, say — would help, he said.
Unlike high schools in Manhattan, which are open to anyone in the city, Francis Lewis and other high schools in Queens have geographic enrollment zones. This year, administrators have sent aides to investigate the home addresses of about 100 students. In about half the cases, the aides did not find evidence of the students living there, and the school is demanding that those students be placed elsewhere.
“Our school is very, very overcrowded,” Phyllis Basani, the pupil accounting secretary, told a frustrated woman who tried to register her daughter for 10th grade last week. “Really, you don’t have room for just one more student?” said the woman, Raisa Achildiyeva, as her daughter, Nina, 15, stood by.
Still, roughly half of the students are from outside the zone, having qualified through specialized Francis Lewis programs like law and science or through the No Child Left Behind law, which lets students zoned for failing schools enroll in better ones.
Education officials say they are creating more schools that could eventually absorb some of the demand. Elizabeth Sciabarra, the director of the Department of Education’s office of enrollment, said that Francis Lewis had done a "pretty terrific job" of dealing with the overcrowding but that she could not say how many more students it could handle.
"You have people who deliberately choose that school and live in the neighborhood because of that," she said, adding that the city had never capped enrollment at a high school. "Once you start to put a cap on, then where do you send those kids? I don’t see how we would be able to do that in a way that would be fair."
Despite the crowds and the schedule that have some students arriving and others leaving in the dark at certain times of the year, the school seems to function with a predictable chaos one might find on a crowded subway platform. And the cramped quarters sometimes have an upside.
“I’ve become friends with people just because I bumped into them in the hallway,” said Ashley Schwartz, a senior. “I have a lot of friends.”

SOME FUNNY DEFINITIONS

1.CONFERENCES: The confusions of one man multiplied by the number present.
2.COMPROMISE: The art of dividinga cake in sucha way that every body believes.
3.DICTIONARY: The only place where divorce comes before marriage.
4.CLASSIC: A book which people praise but do not react.
5.OFFICE: A place where you can relax after your strenous home life.
6.YAWN: The onlytime some married men ever got to open their mouth.
7.Etc.: The sign which shows that you know more than you actually do.
8.ATOM BOMB: An invention to end all invention.
9.MISER: A person who lives poor to die rich.
10.FATHER: A banker provided by the nature.
11.POLITICIAN: Some who shakes your hand before election & your confidence after.
12.BOSS: Some one who is early when you are late & late when you are early.
13.DOCTOR: A person who kills your ills by pills.
14. EXPERIENCE: The name people give to their mistakes.
15. OPPORTUNISTS: A person who starts taking bath if accidently fall in to the river.

Separate Suicide Blasts Kill 16 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two suicide bombings struck troubled areas of western Pakistan on Saturday, including Peshawar, the provincial capital and the first major city to be attacked in months.
The bombings, which killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 90, appeared to be a calculated attempt by militants to strike back at the Pakistani military, which has been conducting a campaign against them since this spring in northern and western Pakistan.
The operations had achieved some success. Civilian casualties in August reached their lowest level in a year, according to figures from the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, and Pakistan’s major cities, Lahore and Islamabad, which used to suffer near-weekly bombings, had been quiet for months.
But the attack in Peshawar, which killed 10 people, underscored the ability that militants still have of striking inside Pakistan’s major cities.
The blast hit a commercial area less than a mile from the United States Consulate, near a bank owned by the Pakistani military that had been hit before, said Liaqat Khan, the city’s police chief.
The suicide bomber drove into the area in a vehicle packed with about 200 pounds of explosives, gouging a three foot-crater into a main road, the authorities said.
It came just hours after another bomber hit a police station in Bannu, a remote tribal area in northwestern Pakistan, killing five police officers and one prisoner, according to Malik Naveed, the inspector general of police for North-West Frontier Province.
Mr. Naveed said that the attacks appeared to be the work of the Taliban, but Mr. Khan warned that the authorities had not yet determined the perpetrators. The police detained three suspects taking video at the scene in Peshawar.
“It is premature to blame any group,” Mr. Khan said. “We want to keep our minds open.”
Pakistani television showed images of high-rise buildings without windows and smashed storefronts. Emergency workers collected the wounded, some with blood-soaked clothing.
“This is a reaction to the operation we launched,” said Iftikhar Hussein, the information minister for North-West Frontier Province, in an interview on Pakistan’s Express 24/7 television network. “We are on the front lines so we are facing this problem. This is the responsibility of the whole world.”
Pakistan moved thousands of troops away from its eastern border with its longtime foe, India, to launch offensives against Taliban militants in the west of the country this spring, something that the United States had long pressed Pakistan to do.
The military was also helped by an American airstrike in August that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban and the main perpetrator of attacks inside Pakistan.
“Last year at this time I saw a very demoralized governor, and a provincial government ready to relocate,” out of Peshawar, said Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, head of the Frontier Corps, the force that patrols the province. “Suddenly now people have started seeing some hope and some victory written on the wall.”
Western officials believe that Mr. Mehsud and his Taliban movement was responsible for about 80 percent of the attacks inside Pakistan, and his killing in August was a major relief for the country.
A Western diplomat said in an interview this month that Mr. Mehsud’s allies have since turned on one another in a struggle for power, further weakening the movement.
The Taliban said it had chosen Mr. Mehsud’s close ally, a young man named Hakimullah Mehsud, as his successor, but the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of protocol, said that Mr. Mehsud was killed in a succession battle, and that the man the Taliban has put forward is an imposter. “They sure turned on each other with a vengeance,” the diplomat said. “We are sort of surprised how it seems to have disintegrated.”
Pakistani intelligence officials have also maintained that Hakimullah Mehsud is dead.
Peshawar is the capital of North-West Frontier Province, where the insurgency is strongest, and it has continued to suffer violent attacks even as the biggest cities in the rest of the country have fallen quiet. At least 15 police officers were killed in a strike on a training center in the Swat Valley earlier this month, and last week at least 35 people were killed in a Shiite village in the Kohat area in the northwest.

A Burst of Technology, Helping the Blind to See

Blindness first began creeping up on Barbara Campbell when she was a teenager, and by her late 30s, her eye disease had stolen what was left of her sight.
Barbara Campbell is part of a worldwide experiment testing whether electrodes implanted in the eye can restore sight.
Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times
Barbara Campbell outside of Achilles Track Club before going with a group of volunteers and blind people to their weekly walking routine around the reservoir in Central Park.
Reliant on a talking computer for reading and a cane for navigating New York City, where she lives and works, Ms. Campbell, now 56, would have been thrilled to see something. Anything.
Now, as part of a striking experiment, she can. So far, she can detect burners on her stove when making a grilled cheese, her mirror frame, and whether her computer monitor is on.
She is beginning an intensive three-year research project involving electrodes surgically implanted in her eye, a camera on the bridge of her nose and a video processor strapped to her waist.
Some of the 37 other participants further along in the project can differentiate plates from cups, sort white socks from dark, distinguish doors and windows, identify large letters of the alphabet, and see where people are, albeit not details about them.
Linda Morfoot, 65, of Long Beach, Calif., blind for 12 years, says she can now toss a ball into a basketball hoop, follow her nine grandchildren as they run around her living room and “see where the preacher is” in church.
“For someone who’s been totally blind, this is really remarkable,” said Andrew P. Mariani, a program director at the National Eye Institute. “They’re able to get some sort of vision.”
Scientists involved in the project, the artificial retina, say they have plans to develop the technology to allow people to read, write and recognize faces.
The project, involving patients in the United States, Mexico and Europe, is part of a burst of recent research aimed at one of science’s most-sought-after holy grails: making the blind see.
That goal long seemed out of reach because the visual system of the eye and the brain is so complex. But advances in technology, genetics, brain science and biology are making several approaches, both new and long-studied, more viable. Some, including the artificial retina, are already producing results.
“For a long time, scientists and clinicians were very conservative, but you have to at some point get out of the laboratory and focus on getting clinical trials in actual humans,” said Timothy J. Schoen, director of science and preclinical development for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Now “there’s a real push,” he said, because “we’ve got a lot of blind people walking around, and we’ve got to try to help them.”
More than 3.3 million Americans 40 and over, or about one in 28, are blind or have vision so poor that even with glasses, medicine or surgery, everyday tasks are difficult, according to the National Eye Institute, a federal agency. That number is expected to double in the next 30 years. Worldwide, about 160 million people are similarly affected.
“With an aging population, it’s obviously going to be an increasing problem,” said Michael D. Oberdorfer, who runs the visual neuroscience program for the National Eye Institute, which finances several sight-restoration projects, including the artificial retina. Wide-ranging research is important, he said, because different methods could help different causes of blindness.
The approaches include gene therapy, which has produced improved vision in people who are blind from one rare congenital disease. Stem cell research is considered promising, although far from producing results, and other studies involve a light-responding protein and retinal transplants.
Others are implanting electrodes in monkeys’ brains to see if directly stimulating visual areas might allow even people with no eye function to see.
And recently, Sharron Kay Thornton, 60, from Smithdale, Miss., blinded by a skin condition, regained sight in one eye after doctors at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine extracted a tooth (her eyetooth, actually), shaved it down and used it as a base for a plastic lens replacing her cornea.
It was the first time the procedure, modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, was performed in this country. The surgeon, Dr. Victor L. Perez, said it could help people with severely scarred corneas from chemical or combat injuries.
Other techniques focus on delaying blindness, including one involving a capsule implanted in the eye to release proteins that slow the decay of light-responding cells. And with BrainPort, a camera worn by a blind person captures images and transmits signals to electrodes slipped onto the tongue, causing tingling sensations that a person can learn to decipher as the location and movement of objects.
Ms. Campbell’s artificial retina works similarly, except it produces the sensation of sight, not tingling on the tongue. Developed by Dr. Mark S. Humayun, a retinal surgeon at the University of Southern California, it drew on cochlear implants for the deaf and is partly financed by a cochlear implant maker.
It is so far being used in people with retinitis pigmentosa, in which photoreceptor cells, which take in light, deteriorate.
Gerald J. Chader, chief scientific officer at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Retinal Institute, where Dr. Humayun works, said it should also work for age-related macular degeneration, the major cause of vision loss in older people.
With the artificial retina, a sheet of electrodes is implanted in the eye. The person wears glasses with a tiny camera, which captures images that the belt-pack video processor translates into patterns of light and dark, like the “pixelized image we see on a stadium scoreboard,” said Jessy D. Dorn, a research scientist at Second Sight Medical Products, which produces the device, collaborating with the Department of Energy. (Other research teams are developing similar devices.)
The video processor directs each electrode to transmit signals representing an object’s contours, brightness and contrast, which pulse along optic neurons into the brain.
Currently, “it’s a very crude image,” Dr. Dorn said, because the implant has only 60 electrodes; many people see flashes or patches of light.
Brian Mech, Second Sight’s vice president for business development, said the company was seeking federal approval to market the 60-electrode version, which would cost up to $100,000 and might be covered by insurance. Also planned are 200- and 1,000-electrode versions; the higher number might provide enough resolution for reading. (Dr. Mech said a maximum electrode number would eventually be reached because if they are packed too densely, retinal tissue could be burned.)
“Every subject has received some sort of visual input,” he said. “There are people who aren’t extremely impressed with the results, and other people who are.” Second Sight is studying what affects results, including whether practice or disease characteristics influence the brain’s ability to relearn how to process visual signals.
People choose when to use the device by turning their camera on. Dean Lloyd, 68, a Palo Alto, Calif., lawyer, was “pretty disappointed” when he started in 2007, but since his implant was adjusted so more electrodes responded, is “a lot more excited about it,” he said. He uses it constantly, seeing “borders and boundaries” and flashes from highly reflective objects, like glass, water or eyes.
With Ms. Morfoot’s earlier 16-electrode version, which registers objects as horizontal lines, she climbed the Eiffel Tower and “could see all the lights of the city,” she said. “I can see my hand when I’m writing. At Little League games, I can see where the catcher, batter and umpire are.”
Kathy Blake, 58, of Fountain Valley, Calif., said she mainly wanted to help advance research. But she uses it to sort laundry, notice cars and people, and on the Fourth of July, to “see all the fireworks,” she said.
Ms. Campbell, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for New York’s Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped, has long been cheerfully self-sufficient, traveling widely from her fourth-floor walk-up, going to the theater, babysitting for her niece in North Carolina.
But little things rankle, like not knowing if clothes are stained and needing help shopping for greeting cards. Everything is a “gray haze — like being in a cloud,” she said. The device will not make her “see like I used to see,” she said. “But it’s going to be more than what I have. It’s not just for me — it’s for so many other people that will follow me.”
Ms. Campbell’s “realistic view of her vision” and willingness to practice are a plus, said Aries Arditi, senior fellow in vision science at Lighthouse International, a nonprofit agency overseeing her weekly training, which includes practice moving her head so the camera captures images and interpreting light as objects.
“In 20 years, people will think it’s primitive, like the difference between a Model T and a Ferrari,” said Dr. Lucian Del Priore, an ophthalmology surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, who implanted Ms. Campbell’s electrodes. “But the fact is, the Model T came first.”
Ms. Campbell would especially like to see colors, but, for now, any color would be random flashes, Dr. Arditi said.
But she saw circular lights at a restaurant, part of a light installation at an art exhibition. “There’s a lot to learn,” she said. Still, “I’m, like, really seeing this.”

HOW CAN A STUDENT PASS?????????????

It is nofault of a student because a year has only 365 days.
Days in a Year = 365
SUNDAY = 52 (Sundays are meant for rest........... aren't they)
So days left =313
Summer Vacation + Autumn Break = 60 days (Holidays time & weather too hot to study)
Day left 253 (hours of compulsary sleep required =122 days) [Can nt work without sleep]
Days left =131
Two hours for food daily = 46 days (can not study with an empty stomach!!!!!!)
Days left = 85
Winter Vacation = 14 days (Too cold.........)
Days left = 71
Examination days = 30 days
Days left = 41
Other holidays = 20 days
Days left= 21
Illness days = 20
Days left = 1 (Parents - Teacher meeting)
Days left = 0
So, tell me how can a student pass????????????????

A to Z Parenting

A. Accept your child for what he is,not what you want him to be.
B. Be consistent in your behavior towards the child.
C. Criticize the deed never the door that is the child.
D. Do activities together as a family.
E. Encourage sibling harmony by notcomparing them.
F. Follow through if you make threats.
G. Gift can never be a substitute for your presence.
H. Hitting teaches your child to hit others.
I. Instil values in the child by being role model.
J. Joy of eating together at least one meal helps in bonding.
K. Keep increasing freedom as your child becomes responsible.
L. Love your child completely & unconditionally.
M. Motivate your child with priase instead of criticism.
N. Negotiating with your child is not a sign of weakness.
O. Offer suggestion but let your child make the decision.
P. Participate in events which are important for your child.
Q. Quit labeling children as "naughty boy" or "clumsy girl."
R. Restrict television, videos & computer games.
S. Spend time with your child without diversion.
T. Teach your child that choices have consequences.
U. Use bedtime to discuss what happened during the day.
V. Visualise what gualities you want in your child as an adult.
W. Work out a routine & follow it through.
X. Xcite the child's interest in books by providing materials.
Y. Your child needs limits to make him/her feel secure.
Z. Zestful fun of the child's short coming lower his self- esteem.

IIT faculty protest curbs, to observe fast

KOLKATA: Faculty of all seven Indian Institutes of Technology will observe a token fast on September 24, to protest against restrictions imposed on the IITs.
They “find the revised order from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) dated September 16 completely unacceptable,” said M. Thenmozhi, president of the All-India IIT Faculty Federation here on Monday.
At a meeting, representatives of the faculty of the “existing” IITs, also decided to submit a memorandum to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday, asking for a meeting between the Ministry, the directors of the IITs and the faculty members before October 1, Dr. Thenmozhi added.
She said the Federation would communicate with the faculty at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) about the memorandum and the token fast, and ask them to join the protest.
“The issue is not just about a higher pay-scale,” she said.
The faculty are primarily against the restrictions against premier institutes in an HRD Ministry notification.
These include curbs on recruitment (10 per cent of all faculty have to be hired at the level of “assistant professors on contract”) and promotions (an assistant professor must have at least 4 years of experience at that level before being promoted professor).
“We are demanding a flexible cadre system that we have always had.” The Federation also wants the salary of faculty at the entry level higher than the proposed Rs. 30,000 and is opposed to hiring fresh Ph.Ds only on a contract basis.
The IITs follow a rigorous procedure at the time of hiring and promotion, said Dr. Thenmozhi. When such is the case, why have regulations imposed upon the institutes?
Asked about the recent meeting the directors of the institutes had with Mr. Sibal, where they reportedly said the recommendations were acceptable, she said, “the directors have said that they are happy with the proposals, but we are not happy.”

THINK A LITTLE

1. Value of year: Ask the person who has failed in the exam.
2. Value of month: Ask the mother who gave birth to a baby.
3. Value of Week: Ask the editor of weekly magazine.
4. Value of Day: Ask the person who works for daily wages.
5. Value of minute: Ask the person who missed the train.
6. Value of a Second: Ask the person who escaped an accident.
7. Value of a milli second: Ask the person who missed the gold medal in Olympics.

SUGGESTIONS FOR " SUCCESS"

• Work at something you enjoy & that's worthy of your time & talent.
• Give people more than they expect & do it carefully.
• Become enthusiastic.
• Always think positive & do positive.
• Be forgiving of yourself & others.
• Be generous.
• Possess moral character.
• Be disciplined & attentive.
• Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
• Understand relationship with people you love & respect.
• Be loyal & honest.
• Be a self - starter, self dependent & self confident.
• Be decisive even if it means you'll something be wrong.
• Stop Blaming others.
• Be bold & courageous.
• Welcome happily every hurdle of life.
• Believe in yourself.
• Don't be over confident.
• Never be dishearted by failures as failures are pillars to success.
• Secure the knowledge God is always beside you.
• Be punctual & work hard without worrying about the result

BE GLAD........ JUST FOR BEING THE WONDERFUL PERSON YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!

Vaccine for Swine Flu Is Ahead of Expectations

More than three million doses of swine flu vaccine will be available by the first week of October, a little earlier than had been anticipated, federal health officials announced Friday.
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Times Topics: Swine Flu (AH1N1 Virus)
But nearly all those 3.4 million doses will be of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not recommended for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with asthma, heart disease or several other problems, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned.
Nonetheless, it will still be possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups: health care workers, people caring for infants and healthy young people.
The nasal spray contains a weakened live virus, while injections contain killed and fragmented virus. The spray gives a stronger immune reaction but carries a small risk that the virus will multiply too quickly in people with compromised immunity.
The normal side effects of FluMist include fever, headache, muscle aches, runny nose, vomiting and wheezing. These side effects, of course, mimic the flu, leading to the rumor that flu vaccines cause the illness. But health agencies say the side effects cannot expand into a life-threatening infection.
Swine flu cases are rapidly increasing across the country, the officials said. There is now “widespread” flu activity in 21 states, up from 11 a week ago, and virtually all the samples tested are the new swine flu.
“It’s a very strange thing for us to see that amount of influenza at this time of year,” said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, deputy director of the agency’s flu division.
Officials said they expected some confusion as a result of getting nasal spray out first. But they said they had decided it was better to move vaccine along as fast as possible rather than waiting until more injectable batches were ready, which could be in as little as a week or two later.
“The balance here is finding the sweet spot,” said Dr. Jay C. Butler, chief of the agency’s swine flu vaccine task force. “Do we hold it to build up stocks, or do we get small amounts out?”
Further confusion is expected because many Americans still do not understand the difference between the swine flu vaccine and the seasonal vaccine, of which 54 million doses have already been distributed.
Also, because the pork lobby has loudly objected to the term “swine flu,” all federal health officials are required to refer to it as pandemic H1N1 or 2009 H1N1. But seasonal flu shots also contain an H1N1 component; this means two H1N1 viruses could soon be circulating, each addressed by a different vaccine.
Swine flu vaccine will soon be streaming in batches from five manufacturers by overnight express to 90,000 distribution sites, some as small as a single doctor’s office and some as large as pharmacy warehouses. These sites will have to funnel their orders through state health departments, and from them to the C.D.C., which will coordinate the orders before passing them to the five companies.
Decisions about which groups should get which swine flu vaccine batches first “should be made locally,” Dr. Butler said, noting that an added complication was that no one yet knew how much demand there would be for all the 195 million doses the government had ordered.
“I think it was Yogi Berra who said, ‘It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future,’ ” Dr. Butler said.
While flu cases are rapidly increasing, Dr. Jernigan said, cases serious enough to require hospitalization are now showing only some increase. “But,” he added, “it is not up at the same levels that we would see during seasonal flus.”
For that reason, Dr. Jernigan said, this wave of the swine flu has been acting more like a bad seasonal flu than the 1957 Asian flu, to which it is sometimes compared. That flu was blamed for the deaths of about 70,000 Americans, while a typical flu season is believed to kill about 36,000.

Little Known Facts Snakes

• A snake's heart goes on beating for many hours after one has cut off its head.
• A snake can swallow an egg many times wider than its mouth.
• A snake sheds its skin several times in a year.
• A snake has neither ears, nor eyelids & can not listen.

Tell me a tall tale

"Our shyam," explained Nitin, "tells tall tales!"
Missing Shyam?” Nitin asked Pankaj.
“Or Shyam’s stories?” Rakesh asked.
“What do they mean?” wondered Pankaj. “And why are they talking to me?” They’d ignored him from his first day at school. Only Shyam had befriended him and was now Pankaj’s best friend. “What stories?” he asked.
“Our Shyam,” Nitin explained, kindly. “Tells tall tales!”
“You’re lying!” Pankaj shouted, furious.
“Remember,” Nitin said, “We’ve known Shyam for years!”
“He tells tales about his uncles, their private jets, cousins who know famous film makers…” Rakesh stopped. Pankaj looked stunned and they walked away, satisfied.
Were Shyam’s stories only tall tales Pankaj wondered. And the story of Shyam’s family leaving for the U.S.? Was that a story too?
When Shyam came to school the next day, Pankaj was ready. He knew Nitin and Rakesh were waiting to see what he would do, “What happened yesterday? Did a director want to meet you?” Shyam looked puzzled. “No,” he said, “I wasn’t well and…”
“Some terrible illness that needed famous doctors?”
Caught out
Shyam looked hurt and Pankaj felt mean. “You missed a Math test yesterday!” he said, to make up.
“Math!” Shyam said, “I am good at Math! I am sure I’ll do well in Math even in an American school!”
“When are you going to America?” Pankaj asked, furious that Shyam was telling stories again.
“Next year,” Shyam said.
“And visas?” Admission into a school? A house?”
Shyam looked surprised but said, “My father…will do all that!”
Pankaj continued asking Shyam probing, uncomfortable questions. Shyam grew more and more puzzled, lapsing into silence by the end of the day. He only spoke to Pankaj when it was absolutely necessary.
Pankaj should have been happy but he wasn’t. He missed Shyam and those stories about his family. And the day Shyam was absent, Pankaj was very lonely because no one talked to him, not even Nitin and Rakesh. And sitting alone, Pankaj realised what a fool he had been. He had shown Shyam that all his stories were tall tales. But that had left him alone, with not a single friend.
A week ago, Pankaj had seen only Shyam’s faults. Now, he recalled his laughter and friendship. He remembered how Shyam had befriended him. And finally, Pankaj knew what he had to do.
“Shyam,” Pankaj teased the next day. “Where were you yesterday? I was afraid you’d moved to America!”
The other boys stared in amazement at Pankaj. Shyam looked surprised too but a grin spread across his face, “Not now!” he said, “my uncle will send his private jet and we’ll go in that! And…”

Extra marks for rural service

New Delhi: The government has decided to give an additional 10 per cent marks in post-graduate entrance examinations to MBBS doctors for each year of their rural practice.

Lecturer post re-designated

NEW DELHI: The Human Resource Development Ministry issued on Thursday a notification on the pay structure of the Centrally funded technical institutions. The post of lecturer-cum-post-doctoral fellows will be re-designated as assistant professors.

West Bengal offers land to Wipro and Infosys

The West Bengal government will formally invite information technology majors — Wipro and Infosys — to take immediate possession of 45 acres of land being offered to each of them at Rajarhat on the outskirts of the city and start constructing their facilities there.
On September 7, the government had decided not to proceed with the proposed joint sector IT township in and around Rajarhat in the wake of allegations of illegal land deals by a private partner of the project.
“We are ready to give 45 acres of land to both the IT giants, Wipro and Infosys. We will contact them and ask them to come…The units they set up will create huge job opportunities – an estimated 16,000 jobs – within the next two to three years,” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Thursday.
The State government will contact the two companies on Friday with the offer.
The sites identified for the two IT giants is in the custody of the State’s Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd and has adequate social infrastructure that will suit the interests of the two companies, Mr Bhattacharjee said. “The price of the land being offered to them will be negotiated with the companies,” he added. Both the IT majors have been keen to set up units in the State. “In the case of Wipro, which already has a facility in the city, it is a matter of expansion of their activities. As for Infosys, they have been very eager to come.”
Admitting that it was “unfortunate” that criminal activities “of which we had no idea earlier” were being engaged in for acquiring land for a section of the proposed joint sector IT township within which the two companies had earlier been offered 90 acres of land each, the Chief Minister said his government had decided that “it would not be morally correct” for it to go ahead with the project.

Swine flu spreads to districts

The swine flu virus, which was hitherto confined to a few cities, claimed its second victim in Mahabubnagar district on Thursday as the disease spread fast to new areas. A suspected patient was quarantined in Guntur.
According to information reaching here, Saritha of Peddapur village in Veldanda mandal in Mahabubnagar district, died at a private hospital in Hyderabad in the early hours on Thursday. Saritha who gave birth to a girl child at Kalwakurthy hospital, a few days ago, developed breathing problems and symptoms of swine flu. Doctors at Kalwakurthy referred her to Hyderabad where she died while undergoing treatment.
Another woman Renuka (25), has been admitted to a private hospital in Mahabubnagar, where her condition was said to be critical. Two other persons, Anjaneyulu and Kishore, are undergoing treatment at government headquarters hospital. As reports of more number of people affected kept pouring in, the panicky people are criticising authorities for failing to check spread of the virus.
Guntur Staff Reporter adds: A woman in Krishna Nagar was quarantined on Thursday at her home after her husband, a post graduate student pursuing Nephrology course in Hyderabad, tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus. She seemed to have contracted the virus from her husband who visited Guntur, a few days ago.
Doctors assured her she would be stable within a couple of days. The couple has a four-year-old child. Doctors classified the infection under category D and said that it occurs due to contact with an infected person. Government General Hospital Superintendent D. Phanibhushan said that the staff at the GGH and the Fever Hospital on the Amaravathi Road were on the alert following spread of the disease. The GGH had stock of 300 boxes of Tamiflu medicine and made arrangements for procuring more.

Adjust to the present day by letting go of the past

Some people perennially live in the past. You might be one of them if you find yourself wistfully hankering after the good old days, constantly griping to the tune of, ‘in our times…’, ‘those were the days…’ or ‘way back then…’
You may constantly think about an old job, boss, way of doing things or even your college/childhood days and want it back very badly. Obstinately living in the past, you insist on working/behaving in the same way as before even to the extent of applying old solutions to new problems.
In short, such people live on the fringes of today as the past seems more real to them than the present. Therefore, they hang on to the memories with all their might and simply refuse to let go.Such an obsessive nostalgia is actually imprisoning and it leaves you incapable of handling the slightest change, be it even a shift in your cubicle location! You may reason that the bittersweet memories are quite comforting, but fact is that the fixated yearning can overcome your life leaving you both frustrated and unproductive. You alone stand to suffer as the undue negativity towards the present slowly robs you of all satisfaction and happiness. You also become lax; procrastinate everything and can even end up in depression. Prudence dictates that you should wake up and adjust to the present day by letting go of the past. After all, yesterday is history and no one can return to it or get it back. Especially during a rough patch like today, it makes sense to leave the past behind and get on with the future. To quote Alan Watts, “I have realised that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is!” The past is in fact good; it has moulded you into what you are today. Moreover occasionally going down memory lane can actually raise your spirits when the present is pulling you down. It is only when you reminisce too long and cling on to what has happened that can spoil the present.
So, remember that an all-pervasive nostalgia will only stagnate your life. Being stuck in the past is what is making you feel lost in the present. And you cannot and should not let the past steal your present. This is possible only when you consciously try to put the past behind you. Realise that the past is gone for good and it is pointless trying to get it back; this will just hinder your present even to the extent of affecting your work. Moreover, your longing is in fact a veiled attempt to escape from reality.
Then again, everything in the past always seems perfect because we subconsciously tend to obliterate the difficulties and remember only the good parts. This paints the past in an extraordinarily favourable light, which the present can never match up, no matter how wonderful it may be! Therefore to move forward, try to become free of the enslaving past, as it is the only way to go. Moving on to better things calls for a conscious decision to leave the past where it should be and rejoice in the present.
To change your perspective, start paying attention and become aware of what is happening around you. Do not be afraid of change but accept it as a constant and natural part of life. Be open and let new things enter your life. This will shift your mind out of the rut and enable you to experience new things. Optimistically looking for the positives in today and learning from them will also make you more empowered.
You will still have to control your thoughts from wandering to what or how you did things before and instead concentrate on what you want to do, where you want to go and what you want to accomplish. Even thinking long-term and planning for the future will fill you with motivation, gusto and zeal.
Besides, never ever make the mistake of judging what is happening today by the barometer of yesterday. It may seem difficult, but take heart in the wise words, “As lousy as things are now, tomorrow they will be your good old days!” So cherish the past but do not let it keep you from building new and beautiful memories for tomorrow. After all, the future is, in a sense, only memories that are waiting to happen!

Air India cuts fares

NEW DELHI: Air India has cut fares by 20-46 per cent for travel by some flights on select domestic routes until September 18.

Tough seat-sharing talks likely between Congress, NCP

New Delhi: Tough negotiations are on the cards between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over seat-sharing in the coming Maharashtra Assembly elections as the first round of formal talks between the two parties got under way on Tuesday night in Mumbai.
Sources in the Congress said the party was willing to concede 109 to 115 seats to the NCP, which had contested 122 seats in 2004. The talks signalled a willingness by the two parties to sew up an alliance, but the Congress appeared reluctant in the face of the NCP’s pleas for early sealing of a pact even at the cost of some seats for itself.
The Congress is in the driver’s seat in the State in the wake of its good showing in the last Lok Sabha polls. It won 17 of the 26 seats it contested. In the case of the NCP, it secured only 8 of the 22 seats it fought.
The sources indicated the negotiations may take two three days and the two sides were unlikely to reach an agreement on all the 288 Assembly seats in one go. — PTI

SEBI panel for rotation of partners of audit firm every 5 years

MUMBAI: The Chief Financial Officers of listed companies can be any person with financial or accounting background, a Securities and Exchange Board of India committee has said, setting aside a proposal by the market regulator to appoint only chartered accountants as CFOs.
The SEBI Committee on Disclosures and Accounting Standards (SCODA) has suggested that person who possesses “experience in financial or accounting or any other comparable experience or background which results in the individual financial sophistication” can be appointed as CFO of a listed firm.
SCODA wants that persons with requisite financial qualifications could be appointed as CFOs of the audit committees of the listed companies, said a discussion paper, ‘Proposals relating to amendments to the listing agreement,’ on which the regulator has sought opinion from stakeholders by September 25. Following the Satyam fiasco, the SEBI board held the view that CFOs of listed companies should be chartered accountants and asked SCODA to explore the possibility of prescribing a professional qualification for such functionaries.
The committee (SCODA) also proposed that the partners of the audit firm signing the audited accounts of any listed entity may be rotated every five years and the audit committee will be responsible for ensuring independence of the audit firm and the partners. Internal auditors
Further with regard to role of internal auditors of listed firms, SCODA said that it would not be prudent to get the internal audit function performed by an external auditor.
The reason it gave behind the suggestion was that an in-house commissioning of internal audit would allow the auditor to have a detailed insight into the business of the organisation.
“The Audit Committee is given the responsibility to review the performance of internal auditor (which)... provides adequate checks and balances as far as internal control mechanisms are concerned,” the discussion paper said. — PTI

Meet the dog who thinks he is cat!

In a bizarre case of identity crisis, a dog who shared his home with 40 cats, & has a feline for his best friend, has been offered for adoption. Chippy was tagged as an 'honorary' feline by the Cats Protection League, after he failed to learn how to be a dog. The charity in Stroud, Gloucestershire, revealed that the Jack Russell, estimated to be between 13 & 15 years old, even used the litter tray & rarely barked after spending his life around cats." He came to us as part of a rescue from a multi-cat household in Cirencester," Liz Dart, who is fostering Chippy in Nailsworth,said.

OFFICE WEAR - A GOOD ARTICLE

Someone once said, "If you have more pairs of shoes than feet, it's a complete waste!" In this day and age of power dressing, that someone would be downright wrong. Especially when it comes to the subject of corporate footwear. Here are a few tips that will help you go beyond that work footwear faux pas. For Women:Ladies who prefer skirt or pant suits should opt for closed toe shoes in a contrasting colour.Stiletto heels give a more corporate look to your attire, but you could also experiment with kitten heels and the like.Open toed stiletto heels with ankle straps are a strict no-no. Shoes like these fall under the 'party wear' category.Black is the most preferred colour when it comes to women's shoes, but ladies can also try and match their shoes with the colour of their pants/skirts. You can experiment with crèmes, beiges and browns. For Men:Men should stick to the more traditional colours such as blacks and browns.It is also advised that men generally try to match the colour of their shoes with their belt.Dark coloured socks are generally the norm. Make sure that the elastic has not worn out to prevent them from gathering around your ankles. For both, men as well as women, the material of the shoes should generally be patent leather.BUSINESS CASUALS DRESS CODEWhat Is Business Casuals?It is quite simply a dress code that enables employees to project a professional, business-like image while experiencing the comfort advantages of more casual and relaxed clothing.What Not To WearBecause all casual clothing is not suitable for the office, these guidelines will help you determine what is inappropriate to wear to work.Clothing that reveals too much cleavage, your back, your chest, your feet, your stomach or your underwear is not appropriate for a place of business, even in a business casual setting.Even in a business casual work environment, clothing should be pressed and never wrinkled. Torn, dirty, or frayed clothing is unacceptable.Clothing that works well for the beach, yard work, dance clubs, exercise sessions, and sports contests may not be appropriate for a professional appearance at work. What Works For WorkHere is a general overview of acceptable business casual attire.Slacks that are made of cotton or synthetic material pants, wool pants, flannel pants, and nice looking dress synthetic pants are acceptable.Casual dresses and skirts, and skirts that are split at or below the knee are acceptable. Dress and skirt length should be no shorter than four inches above the knee, or a length at which you can sit comfortably in public.Casual shirts, golf shirts, dress shirts, sweaters, tops, and turtlenecks are acceptable. Most suit jackets or sport jackets are also acceptable attire for the office.Loafers, boots, flats, clogs, conservative athletic shoes, sneakers, dress heels, and leather deck shoes are acceptable. Wearing no stockings is acceptable if the look is appropriate to the outfit.Jewelry, makeup, perfume, and cologne should be in good taste. Avoid visible body piercing only pierced ears are acceptable.Hats are not appropriate in the office. Head covers that are required for religious purposes or to honour cultural tradition are allowed.CREATE AN EXECUTIVE WARDROBEEAre you undecided on how to get the suave, dapper look at your new job? Corporate dressing is not about large purchases but paying attention to details while operating on economical costs. Here are a few ways to get that chic, smart look with a shoe string budget (literally)!When in Rome...As far as possible design a wardrobe on similar lines that are being followed by co-workers and colleagues. If you are new to the organization it would stand you in good stead to follow precedence than set trends...just yet! Dress codes have started relaxing the world over and power dressing is as obsolete as Friday dressing, so do bear the general trend in mind too.Avoid FlamboyancyIt is safer to opt for conservative styles instead of going in for flamboyant versions. Mixing and matching with a basic wardrobe will stand you in good stead.What you really need* At least one business suit (if you can afford a second one, nothing like it). Greys and blues (the darker versions are the safest bets.* Get at least two blazers preferably in light, non-wrinkle fabric that is easy to maintain.* Try and include at least three sets of formal trousers in your corporate wardrobe.* At least one white shirt is a de rigueur for a corporate wardrobe.* Avoid flamboyant ties and those with large prints of cartoon characters.* Solid ties are the best options.* There is no replacing the charm and elegance of a fine pair of brown shoes.

PRODUCTION OF MOST CROPS TO BE NEAR NORMAL

Well, in the field of production most of the crops produced to be normal. The Monsoon in September, has lessened the worries about big in Kharif harvest.

In the latest crop outlook for the current Kharif is that the production of most crops barring paddy & groundnut may be near normal.

Infact,through higher planting & extended monsoon season the output of cotton & some pulses may even exceed the last year’s level to touch new peaks.

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) the deficit in the monsoon rainfall has shrunk to 20% by September 7, from 23% on September 2 & 25% a week earlier.

If this happens, the concern over poor refilling of water reservoirs may also ebb.

So the water stock improves perceptibly, in the next couple of weeks the concern will continue over the availability of water for hydel power production as well as for irrigating the crops in the ensuring rabi season.

The weather watch group of the agriculture ministry indicate that the total area brought under Kharif crop by the end of August was nearly 87 million hectares which is merely 8% less than last year. The major shortfall is in paddy & groundnut.

The shortfall in paddy planting, has been mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh & W.B. Some of the paddy area has gone to pulses & cotton because of poor rains & expectation of better returns.

On the other hand, the ground must dropped in Andhra Pradesh & Gujrat because of lack of rains during the lack of rains during the main sowing period.

So, analysis feel that there is a mixed effect on the crops. 

 

nissan to roll out five new models

Nissan plans to launch the compact car & its sedan version in India.The car will complete with Maruti Suzuki & Hyundai's line of models such as Zen Estilo, A-star, i10 & santro in terms of pricing and power