Kavadi Festival

Even girls as young as 9 years old become a “KAVADI” Devotees [sic] prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting. On the day of the festival in India, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the vel kavadi, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. (KSVRAKOV)

maryt

Gandhi’s Birthday – October 2

Happy Birthday

Mahatma!

Via Wikipedia:

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (mo HAHN dis GAHN di) (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (ma HAT ma GAHN di) and as Bapu “Father“).

In India, he is officially accorded the honour of Father of the Nation and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the “International Day of Non-Violence.“

____________________________________________

The picture above is a studio picture of Gandhi. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, British India. He died January 30, 1948 at age 78 in New Delhi, India.

There is a film Gandhi made in 1982. Starring Ben Kingsley and directed by Richard Attenborough.

maryt

The Rats Are Winning

MUMBAI, India, July 19 — Behram Harda was a dancer in the Bollywood films of the 1970s, gracing the screen with his twist and his cha-cha.

Then he became a rodent assassin.

Behrem Harda keeps track of how many rats he’s killed in a colorful log book. He believes he’s losing the fight.

Mr. Harda is the last of the great Mumbai rat catchers. His is a dying breed in a city whose dreams of being rat-free recede year by year.

Read the rest of the NYTimes article.

In New York City there’s a struggle with rats everyday. But most people don’t see them. There are anywhere from 1 to 12 rats per person. Here are some quotes about numbers:

“No one knows how many rats live in the city. Some citizens have lamented that there have to be at least eight or nine rats per person. A more common conclusion is one rat per human. City health officials say these are all guesses. “We don’t do rat tail counts,”a Health Department spokeswoman said.”

“There is currently an ongoing ‘Rat Summit’ in NYC to discuss our 12:1 ratio of rats to human in NYC.

“Some estimates tell us that there are as many as six rats for every one New Yorker. If that is accurate (and nobody really knows), that means there are close to 44 million rats in New York City.”

Photos: Christie Johnston for The International Herald Tribune
______________________________________________________________

The truth is nobody knows how many rats there are in New York City. But am I right in assuming they are under control? Would love to hear about it in the comments.

maryt

from Wired News:

With 43 million births a year, India is poised to be the largest supplier of umbilical cord blood in the world.

LifeCell, based there, hopes to open a cord-blood bank in December. The bank would serve anyone in the world with access to FedEx.

LifeCell, in collaboration with CRYO-CELL International USA, facilitates the cryogenic preservation of stem cells at its unique facility in Chennai.

LifeCell says it wants to be careful to follow ethical guidelines regarding the use of stem cells and doesn’t pay for donations of unbilical cords. It says it tries to follow the guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Could this be the answer to embryonic stem cells? Maybe. maryt