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India now third on World HIV/AIDS list With 2.5 million cases

Lakshmi — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:32:35 +0000

India has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, about 2.7 million fewer cases than previously estimated. This is finally some respite from the position so far.

The prevalence of HIV in the general population is now .36% against .9% as earlier believed. This makes India the third worst affected country with the deadly disease after South Africa (5.5 million) and Nigeria (2.9 million). Till now, India was placed in second place with an estimated 5.2 million cases.

The latest figures, endorsed by experts from UNAIDS, CDC, WHO, ICMR, the Union health ministry and NGOs like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation “as closest to the truth”, were reached after tabulating data from the National Family Health Survey-III and the records available with Naco’s 1,122 sentinel surveillance sites.

NFHS-III, conducted by 18 research institutes, for the first time collected 1.5 lakh random blood samples from 29 states, which after being tested, gave an insight into India’s actual burden of HIV.

The earlier estimate of 5.2 million HIV infected among the age group 15-49 and UNAIDS’s estimate of 5.7 million infected in all age groups was based on anti-natal women who visited the 750 surveillance sentinel sites.

Launching the Rs 11,585 crore National AIDS Control Programme III, under which Naco hopes to halt and reverse the tide of HIV epidemic in India by 2011, health minister A Ramadoss said,

“When we believed India had 5.2 million estimated HIV cases, we were accused of under-estimating our figures. But now, far more reliable data, based on an expanded surveillance system and a revised methodology, has shown that India’s actual HIV burden among the adult population is between 2 million to 3.1 million.”

He, warned that there was no room for complacency as India was still home to over 30 lakh people living with HIV. “Accurate and larger data will help us understand the epidemic better. In terms of human life affected, the numbers are still large and worrying. Over 104 districts still have HIV prevalence above 1% while 14 of these districts have HIV prevalence above 3%.

“That’s why under NACP III, we plan to control spread of HIV by increasing the number of intervention strategies from 1,029 to 2,100 by 2012,”

Ramadoss added.

Source - Times Of India
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Juiced Eyeballs - Made in Japan

Lakshmi — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:32:35 +0000

WE have had/ heard of citrus fruit juices of so many kinds, after all we do live in HOT conditions for most time of the year, but the Japanese in their own style of “shocking” the world, have now started EYEBALL juice... It is for human consumption.....

The ‘eyeball’ is the famous Eyeball Father, Medama Oyaji, the famous manga, anime, and movie series Ge Ge Ge Kitaro. The Eyeball juice is sold as novelty and the flavor is actually Japanese citrus yuzu (sort of a sour mandarin/grapefruit).

According to Wikipedia, The yuzu (Citrus ichangensis x C. reticulata, formerly C. junos Siebold ex. Tanaka; Japanese (yuzu); (yuja) in Korean; from Chinese you zi) is a citrus fruit originating in East Asia. It is believed to be a hybrid of sour mandarin and Ichang papeda. The fruit looks a bit like a very small grapefruit with an uneven skin, and can be either yellow or green depending on the degree of ripeness. Yuzu typically range between 5.5 and 7.5 cm in diameter, but can be as large as a grapefruit (up to 10 cm or larger).” The fruit originated in China (where it is cultivated on a small scale), and also grows wild in central China and Tibet. It was introduced to Japan and Korea during the Tang Dynasty and it is in these nations that it is cultivated most widely.

It is unusual among citrus fruits in being relatively frost-hardy, due to its cold-hardy C. ichangensis ancestry, and can be grown in regions with winters as low as -5°C where more sensitive citrus would not thrive. In Japan, an ornamental version of yuzu called hana yuzu (花ゆず, 花柚子, hana yuzu?) “flower yuzu” is also grown for its flowers rather than its fruit.

The eyeball obsession of japanese seems to be quite obvious, with robots shaped in eyeballs coming out and even webcams that are shaped like eyeballs.

Source (for story and images)
http://news.3yen.com/2007-06-29/juiced-japanese-eyeball-in-a-can

Helmets in Chennai

Lakshmi — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:39:16 +0000

From June 1st and helmets have been made compulsory to wear for not just the person riding the two-wheeler in Chennai, but also the pillion riders. Will helmets spoil the overall look one is going for? This is the question the style conscious are asking.
Here’s how few in the city have let their helmets do the answering for that question. “I bought a bright plain red helmet and got a custom made Ferrari sticker done on it, and now it’s a huge hit on campus” says 20 year old Dharma.

Personalizing a helmet can help motivate the rider and accompaniment to wear the head gear. And this need not mean spending too much time or money. Customizing a helmet can cost anywhere from 5 rupees and takes a little over a minute, to a few hours costing a couple of hundreds. For those who want to go that extra mile there are a myriad other options for personalizing their helmets - Painting, pin striping and even custom designing the look on the helmet to name a few.

“I brought in a design I downloaded from the internet and got it done on my helmet in just about an hour’s time” says Hemanth, an engineering graduate.

Talking about how these stickers are made, Mr. Vimal from S.R.K.M.S in Wellington Plaza says, Scanning the design the customer brings in, or using the software in our shop, we custom-make designs according to their time, money and needs.

Just a little personal touch can take helmets from being just a compulsory safety gear to making a fashion statement or even reflecting one’s personality. “I custom designed my helmet with ethnic patterns I created and now I don’t want to take it off even when am not riding” says a beaming Sharanya and adds on, “in a way it reflects who I am”.

Luring people into internet money making

Lakshmi — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:18:10 +0000

“Make 1000000$ in one month” thats what read the tag line, mushrooming websites that are scandalous and fraudulent going unregulated on the internet has become a troubling phenomenon. Websites that promise you money for clicking on their ads and delivering you the amount via your paypal and credit card accounts have just grown from a dozen to a few hundreds now. What is appalling is these come out even in google search engines results. Where innocent sometimes desperate people are fleeced off there time and internet account while after you have reached the MINIMUM payout you just realise that you were cheated and you never are going see the money. There are other programmes that ask you to pay up for membership and then suddenly the website disappears. What needs to be done is a thorough study before registering oneself and then investing time in renowned projects such as that of google adsense, adwords etc, the middle class indian for that matter any1’s mind might push you to look for further money making ways just to make sure your son gets that bike, or you get yourself something. But before starting Just make sure you are not wasting your time and end up burning a hole in your pocket with the internet bill!

Look for out for lists of scams and other fraudulant internet schemes in coming days

Here is a list of scam sites
1. 2daily.com
2. 2daily-Profit.com
3. 5daily.com
4. 5dailysurf.com

A
5. Autoca—-s.com
6. autosurf-for-jesus.com
7. Autosurfclub.com
8. autosurftruck.com

B
9. Banktraffic.com

C
10. cashvisitors.com
11. Cash2Click.com
12. Cashautosurf.com
13. Cashcrazyhitz.com
14. Ca—-daily.com
15. Ca—-s.com
16. Ca—-s4U.com
17. Cashndaily.com
18. Cashdaily2u.com
19. Cashrotage.com
20. Comegold.com