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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The space shuttle Endeavour lighted the evening skies over Florida on Friday, rising beneath a brilliant moon as it raced toward the International Space Station.
The shuttle thundered off the launching pad at 7:55 p.m., hurtling through a high, thin bank of clouds that rippled and dispersed with its passing.
Its 15-day mission is devoted to construction on the $100 billion orbiting outpost. But while previous missions have often focused on adding modules or solar panels to the station, much of the equipment for this trip will transform the inside so that crew size can be doubled to six.
Michael T. Suffredini, the NASA station program manager, told reporters in a recent briefing that “when the crew leaves, the station won’t look any different on the outside, but it’ll be dramatically different on the inside.”
Shuttle missions are often delayed by technical problems or weather, but the preparations for this launching were smooth and relatively free of glitches.
Equipment headed to the station includes new sleeping quarters, a second toilet, a new exercise machine and equipment for generating oxygen. The 32,000-pound payload also includes a system to recycle water on the station, including urine, to produce purified water for drinking. The $250 million system is designed to recycle 93 percent of the water used on the station.
Sandra H. Magnus, who will begin a stay of several months on the station, said that while many people expressed revulsion at the recycling system, she laughed about the “yuck factor” because the purification would exceed that of most municipal water systems. “I don’t anticipate any problems with the purity of the water once we get this up and running correctly,” she said.
Donald R. Pettit, another of the Endeavour’s astronauts, lived on the station for five and a half months in 2002 and 2003. Dr. Pettit said equipment like the water recycling system was critical to long-term space exploration, since getting new water to an outpost on the Moon or Mars would be expensive and arduous. “I really think this is a key steppingstone for human beings to leave planet Earth,” he said.
The commander of this mission is Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, who is on his second shuttle mission. The pilot, Col. Eric A. Boe of the Air Force, will be on his first mission.
While some of the astronauts work to transfer cargo from shuttle to station, three members of the crew will engage in four spacewalks. Much of the work will be devoted to lubricating a balky rotary joint that helps keep the station’s solar arrays pointed at the sun. Two of the 10-foot-diameter joints turn the arrays.
Last year, mission managers noticed that the joint on the right side was vibrating and required greater-than-expected power to turn it. During this mission, the spacewalkers — Capt. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper of the Navy, Capt. Steve Bowen of the Navy and Lt. Col. Shane Kimbrough of the Army — will clean metal shavings from the joint and lubricate it thoroughly. They will lubricate the left-hand joint as well as a protective measure.
These are among the final missions of the space shuttles, whose program is scheduled to be wound down by 2010 to make way for a next-generation space program known as Constellation. The spaceships being developed for Constellation are designed to reach the station, but also to return astronauts to the Moon, explore near-Earth asteroids and even go to Mars.
Those craft, however, are not expected to begin flying before 2015. In the meantime, the United States will depend on Russia for passage to and from the station on Soyuz craft.
...
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Chandrayaan lowered into final orbit
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sambala
Alien Worlds Seen For First Time
Scientists have spotted planets circling other stars with their own eyes for the first time.
The discovery has been hailed as a step on the road to finding other worlds that can support life - and perhaps even alien life itself.
Astronomers have pinpointed so-called exoplanets, or worlds orbiting suns other than our own, before.
But they have always had to rely on deductions made after measuring changes in gravity or light that give the exoplanets` locations away.
Now, the National Research Council`s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada, has spotted three objects near a star 128 light years away, according to the journal Science.
Another team, led by Paul Kalas, of the University of California, found another exoplanet near one of the brightest stars in the sky, Fomalhaut.
Although the star is only 25 light years away, that is still the best part of 150,000,000,000,000 miles.
It is thought the planets are gas giants, like Jupiter in our own solar system, and so very unlikely to support any kind of life.
But they raise the possibility we may be able to find others that are more like our own.
Astronomer Bruce Macintosh, of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, led one of the two teams of photographers.
He said it was only a matter of time before "we get a dot that is blue and Earth-like".
"It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he added.
Nasa`s space sciences chief Ed Weiler said the pictures fulfilled the last of the major goals that Nasa had for the Hubble telescope before it launched in 1990.
"This is an 18½-year dream come true," he said.
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Many indians loosing the jobs during this economic crisis....
Pfizer replacing US workers with indians....
PMO tells airlines to keepoff sackings....
Small mills sack 10000 in 3 months.......
Japanese telecom firm NTT DoCoMo Inc today announced a Rs949 crore open offer to the shareholders of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd for up to 20% equity at Rs24.70 per share.
The open offer price represents a premium of 3.73% over TTML’s Wednesday’s closing of Rs17.99.
The scrip of TTML had surged as much as 18% on the bourses in early trade. At 12.24 hrs shares of TTML were trading at Rs20.70, up 15.06% on the BSE.
The open offer would be made by DoCoMo along with Tata Sons and is scheduled to begin on 8 January and close on 27 January, 2009, TTML said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The offer is for acquiring 38,42,41,919 shares or up to 20%.
On Wednesday Japan’s biggest mobile-phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc acquired a 26% stake for $2.7 billion (Rs13,070 crore) in Tata Teleservices Ltd.
The purchase of shares by DoCoMo is subject to obtaining the required approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and the Reserve Bank of India, the filing added.
PTI...
Earnings growth not as bad as in 2001 but worst is yet to come-Ashwin Ramarathinam
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Ashwin Ramarathinam:
How bad is the current earnings downturn compared with previous ones? The last time the world economy went into recession and India’s growth slowed substantially was in 2001. Before that, a combination of the impact of the Asian crisis and a credit crunch at home sent growth plummeting in the late 1990s. But so far this year, corporate profit growth has been well above the level in those downturns.
In order to check whether the current profit downturn is already worse than during the earlier periods, we compared the results of all listed firms in the Capitaline database (leaving out the oil companies because their losses skew the picture) in the September quarter with the results of all listed firms seven years ago, in the September 2001 quarter, during the depths of the previous downturn that followed the bursting of the dotcom bubble.
The results are eye-opening. All listed firms (ex-oil) posted an average net profit growth of 8.09% in the September quarter compared with the year-ago period. But seven years ago, in the September 2001 quarter, net profits of all listed firms fell by 22.03% from a year earlier. Incidentally, the rate of profit growth for the sample in the March 2001 quarter was -11.73%, in the June 2001 quarter 3.31%, and in the December 2001 quarter -9.91%. Even if we assume that the economy in 2008 is very different from the economy in 2001, the difference between growth in the last quarter and the contraction in the September 2001 quarter is too large. What that means is that downward earnings revisions still have a long way to go.
Broking firm Motilal Oswal recently revised its earnings estimates downwards with the Sensex companies now estimated to grow earnings per share (EPS) by 8.6% in FY09 and 16.9% in FY10. If the contribution from Reliance Industries Ltd’ new businesses is left out, EPS growth for FY10 is estimated at just 6%. The brokerage expects the Sensex companies to post EPS growth rate of a mere 3.4%, compared with 16.9% in the first half. That fits in with the sudden and sharp deterioration of the economic climate since September.
But earnings revisions are a moving target. For instance, Motilal Oswal’s target for the total EPS of the Sensex companies for FY10 fell from Rs1,309 in June to Rs1,259 in September and now to Rs1,061.
Similarly, profit growth estimates for the Sensex companies for FY10 at Citigroup Inc. have been revised downwards from 17.09% in September to 11.8% currently. With FY09 Sensex EPS growth estimated at 12.9%, Citigroup expects next year to be worse than the current one. That fits in with macro estimates, the latest one being Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s projection that gross domestic product (GDP) growth would slow from 6.7% in FY09 to 5.8% in FY10. Incidentally, 5.8% was also the GDP growth rate in FY02, which means the September 2001 quarter earnings contraction may not be far off the mark as a guide to current growth.
Nandan Chakraborty, head of research at Enam Securities, expects earnings to bottom out by the middle of next year.
The Mint analysis also throws up other interesting comparisons. Sales growth, for instance, at 27.54% for all firms (ex-oil) in the September 2008 quarter was much higher than in the September 2001 quarter, when sales contracted by 0.37% year-on-year. Since last quarter’s sales growth is largely the result of very high inflation, that should come down dramatically in the next few months.
Growth in “other income” is much lower now than in 2001, perhaps reflecting the impact the current downturn has had on the financial sector.
Growth in interest charges (67.7%) in the September 2008 quarter has also been much higher than the 2% growth recorded in the September 2001 quarter. The growth in depreciation, too, has been much more currently than in 2001, perhaps the result of a lot of capital expenditure by firms.
Indeed, the growth in depreciation charges is more or less the same as in the September 1998 quarter, which seems to indicate that industry will soon face the same excess capacity situation that existed after the capex boom of the late 1990s. Net profits for all listed firms (ex-oil) contracted by 17.1% in the September 1998 quarter.
To cut a long story short, the message from comparing the September quarter numbers with those of previous downturns is that the worst is yet to come.
...
Hindustan Times:
A dispute between estranged industrialist brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani over the price of gas one’s company would buy from the other’s has taken a new twist the government distancing itself from the issue.
The Government of India told the Bombay High Court in an affidavit filed on Friday that it will not influence the price that Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) would charge Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) for gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin.
The government said gas from the basin to be sold to any agency other than the government or its nominees will be treated at market rates.
Both companies declined comment as the matter is before courts. However, sources indicated that RNRL is preparing to file a counter-affidavit by November 25.
The affidavit said RIL approached the Centre to seek approval for a price formula but it was “rejected by the government for not having been based on an arm’s length transaction.”
RNRL wants the sale of natural gas at a preferential rate of $2.34 per unit of gas (MMBTU), against the government approved rate of $4.20 per unit.
...
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India’s richest are not the only ones who have lost billions in net worth amid the global meltdown. The country’s central bank has seen its foreign exchange reserves shrink more than $63 billion — enough to fund 600 Moon missions — in less than six months as exports slumped, trade deficit widened on a surge in the oil import bill and foreign investors pulled out of the stock market.
Lately, the reserves are falling at an alarming pace, squeezing much of the room for manoeuvre that India had in the face of the ongoing financial turmoil. The fall was a staggering $31 billion in October, or almost half of the decline since May 23, when reserves touched a record $316 billion.
The fast depletion has serious implications, as it could bring more pressure on the rupee, which has already depreciated about 20 per cent this year and made everything from imported machinery to foreign travel and education more expensive. A weaker rupee could also reverse the recent slide in inflation.
“If this trend continues for more than three months, there could be a problem,” said a top monetary policy official, who didn’t want to be named because the issue is market sensitive.
The government, however, is hopeful that the situation would change once its policy responses begin to play out and stability returns to global financial markets. “We are trying to minimise the drawdown on reserves,” said Suresh Tendulkar, who heads the prime minister’s economic advisory council. He said the Centre is trying to induce NRI deposits and tap sovereign wealth funds, especially from the Gulf. Efforts are underway to revive exports growth, he said.
...
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Reliance Industries` Mukesh Ambani has overtaken NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal as the richest Indian in the world, with a net worth of USD 20.8 billion, Forbes said in its annual rich list for the country.
Mittal, who has moved to second position with a net worth of USD 20.8 billion, is followed by Mukesh`s younger brother Anil Ambani, whose wealth stood at USD 12.5 billion.
Telecom czar Sunil Mittal and realtor KP Singh are ranked fourth and fifth with net worth of USD 7.9 billion and USD 7.8 billion, respectively.
The magazine said that the combined net worth of India`s 40 richest has declined by 60 per cent due to weak stock markets amid depreciating rupee against the greenback.
Their total wealth is now USD 139 billion, down from USD 351 billion just a year ago, according to Forbes India Rich List.
"These are painful times for India`s tycoons. The country`s once soaring stock market fell 48 per cent the past year, the rupee depreciated 24 per cent against the dollar, and GDP growth is expected to slow by at least a percentage point, in part owing to double-digit inflation," Forbes Asia said in a statement.
While all 40 tycoons listed last year were billionaires, only 27 have 10-figure net worths now. A net worth of 760 million dollar was needed to make to the list this year, 840 million dollar less than last year.
1. Mukesh Ambani: $ 20.8 billion (as on October 31)
3. Anil Ambani: Rs 54,318 crore ( as on October 31, 2008)
5. Sunil Mittal: Rs 83,946 crore ( as on October 31, 2008)
7. Ratan Tata: Rs. 69,132 crore (as on October 31, 2008)
...
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The global downturn will pressurise the Indian economy more next year and the government has to speed up reforms and boost investment to sustain high growth rates, a report said on Friday.
The report jointly prepared by World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry also said India could see a sharp outflow of capital, and a fall in share and asset prices due to the global financial crisis.
The report was released ahead of the annual India Economic Summit starting 16 November in New Delhi, where top government officials are expected to interact with heads of global firms.
“India’s dependence on capital flows to finance its current account deficit is a macroeconomic risk and the global crisis could generate a sharp increase in capital outflows and a reduction in the availability of finance,” it said.
“Clearly, the global economic picture will be harsher next year and there will be greater pressures on Indian economy.”
The global credit crisis has rattled Indian markets as foreign investors sold shares worth more than $12.5 billion so far this year while the rupee fell by more than 20%.
“It (global crisis) could also weaken the balance sheets of the financial institutions, cause a further fall in share and asset prices, and challenge the macroeconomic situation due to shrinking global growth,” WEF said.
Indian policymakers expect a moderation in economic growth to less than 8% in the year to March 2009, compared with 9% recorded in 2007/08 fiscal year.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cautioned that the global financial crisis could be more severe and prolonged, and the government would take all necessary steps - monetary and fiscal - to protect growth.
-Reuters....
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The Indian rupee was unable on Friday to mount a recovery from its sharpest one-day fall in more than 12 years as it was weighed down by expectations of rate cuts and the stock market losing some of its early momentum.
A sharp fall in annual inflation to 8.98% in early November, its lowest since early May and well below market forecasts, has raised expectations of further cuts in interest rates, which could weaken support for the rupee.
At 10:36am, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs49.45/46 per dollar, more than a quarter of a percent down from Wednesday’s close of Rs49.30/32 per dollar, when it fell 2.4%, its biggest daily fall since February 1996.
The currency market was shut on Thursday for a holiday.
Stocks rose as much as 3% in early trade but had turned negative within the first hour despite strong gains elsewhere in Asia.
Foreign fund selling of shares has also been a key factor in the rupee’s weakness this year. They have so far sold a net $12.7 billion worth of shares after buying a record $17.4 billion last year.
The rupee hit a record low of Rs50.29 per dollar in late October. After gaining more than 12% against the dollar in 2007, it has fallen more than 20% this year.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forwards were quoting at Rs49.81/49.96 per dollar, weaker than the onshore rate. ...
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Berkshire’s Class A shares fell as much as 7% to $96,050, before recovering along with the broader stock market - Reuters
Shares of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc fell below $100,000 on Thursday for the first time since October 2006, after the company revealed large unrealized losses on derivative contracts tied to the stock market’s performance.
Berkshire’s Class A shares fell as much as 7% to $96,050, before recovering along with the broader stock market. Though major stock indexes ended more than 6 percent higher, Berkshire stock closed down $533, or 0.5%, at $102,800.
On Friday, Berkshire reported a 77% decline in third-quarter profit, with much of the drop attributable to falling insurance premiums and to paper losses on contracts tied to the performance of stock market indexes.
Berkshire estimated that shareholder equity fell about $9 billion in October, reflecting exposure to the derivative contracts and to other investments. It ended September with $76 billion of stock and $29.6 billion of fixed-income holdings.
Buffett has said the derivative contracts expire between 2019 and 2027, and that he expects them to be profitable. In the interim, Berkshire is able to invest the upfront premiums it received by entering into the contracts.
Omaha-based Berkshire owns some 76 companies, and is best known for its insurance holdings such as auto insurer Geico Corp and reinsurer General Re Corp.
Berkshire shares have fallen 32.2% from their record high of $151,650 set last 11 December.
...
Leaders of the G-20 countries should endeavour to tap investment opportunity of around $1 trillion in emerging markets like India and China to revive
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Leaders of the G-20 countries should endeavour to tap investment opportunity of around $1 trillion in emerging markets like India and China to revive the global economy, said S P Hinduja, chairman of the London-based Hinduja Group on Friday.
“Countries like India, China and other emerging markets represent a more than $1-trillion opportunity. Vast untapped reserves of consumer demand, job creation and infrastructure investment...are opportunities waiting to be tapped,” he said in a statement on the eve of the G20 Summit in Washington.
Noting that there is an urgent need to restore growth and stimulate employment, he said, “OECD economies (should) focus on job creation, especially within the private sector through fiscal stimulus and specific incentives.”
The billionaire businessman also made a case for “improving regulations of markets, including a review of the role of non-executive directors, auditors, hedge funds and the rating agencies”.
Pointing out that development on nuclear power will take time, he said, the Indian government at the moment should focus on developing small power projects in rural and semi-urban areas.
“By starting short-gestation projects in rural and semi-urban areas, we would also be providing much needed employment and gradually lift the rural masses up to middle class-level,” he added.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, along with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will be attending the G-20 Summit called by US President George W. Bush to discuss the problems facing the global economy.
Press Trust of INDIA ( PTI )
...
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Alien Worlds Seen For First Time
Scientists have spotted planets circling other stars with their own eyes for the first time.
The discovery has been hailed as a step on the road to finding other worlds that can support life - and perhaps even alien life itself.
Astronomers have pinpointed so-called exoplanets, or worlds orbiting suns other than our own, before.
But they have always had to rely on deductions made after measuring changes in gravity or light that give the exoplanets` locations away.
Now, the National Research Council`s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada, has spotted three objects near a star 128 light years away, according to the journal Science.
Another team, led by Paul Kalas, of the University of California, found another exoplanet near one of the brightest stars in the sky, Fomalhaut.
Although the star is only 25 light years away, that is still the best part of 150,000,000,000,000 miles.
It is thought the planets are gas giants, like Jupiter in our own solar system, and so very unlikely to support any kind of life.
But they raise the possibility we may be able to find others that are more like our own.
Astronomer Bruce Macintosh, of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, led one of the two teams of photographers.
He said it was only a matter of time before "we get a dot that is blue and Earth-like".
"It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he added.
Nasa`s space sciences chief Ed Weiler said the pictures fulfilled the last of the major goals that Nasa had for the Hubble telescope before it launched in 1990.
"This is an 18½-year dream come true," he said.
...
In reply to:
Chandrayaan lowered into final orbit
Posted by : latikav
Chandrayaan-II to be launched by 2012: ISRO
Chennai, Nov 13: ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday said India`s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-II, will be launched by 2012.
"Chandrayaan-II will be launched by 2012. We will have a lander that will drop a small robot on the moon, which will pick samples, analyse data and send the data back. Already the project has been formulated for Chandrayaan-II," he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.
He dismissed as speculation reports that the government had not sanctioned ISRO`s proposal for a manned mission.
Justifying the relevance of manned moon mission, Nair said, "We cannot be lagging behind in terms of our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space."
Talking about Chandrayaan-I, the country`s first unmanned moon mission, he said the Moon Impact Probe would land on the lunar surface tomorrow evening. However, "we cannot specify the time as of now," he said.
On the success of the moon mission, Nair said already 95 per cent of the mission had been completed and just five per cent of the work had to be over. The total success of the mission would be known only after the remaining work was completed, he said.
He said Chandrayaan-I would get extensive study map of the moon by which an idea of the minerals of the moon would be available. Mineral mapping and surface feature mapping would be of prime importance, he said.
He also said the ISRO was going ahead with the study of sending a spacecraft to Mars.
On the `Solar mission` Aditya, he said a satellite was intended to study solar emissions. The design work had been completed and it would be launched within two years, he said.
Zee...
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Company Current Change (%) Volume
JAIPRAK AS 73.50 -4.67 7,111,265
RCOM 219.75 1.88 5,628,443
TATA STEEL 173.25 -6.40 4,386,132
RIL 1,148.55 -1.17 4,058,967
ICICI BANK 395.95 -0.49 3,497,615
DLF 240.90 -1.51 2,728,570
REL 516.60 -4.46 2,220,850
HINDALCO 56.60 0.09 2,214,848
NTPC 149.25 -0.80 1,686,838
SBI 1,170.10 -0.46 1,377,316
L&T 791.50 -4.36 1,358,961
...
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Now my doubt is if bone marrow transplant done for leukemia can cure AIDS then what has the AIDS virus got to do with AIDS? Now bone marroe transplant becomes an empirical treatment something which ayurved practises.
Until recently allergies were viewed as antigen reactions, now they say if one wants to get rid of lactose intolerance he will have to drink lots of milk...Allopaths keep changing their stance once in every 5 years..it may not be their fault.. its the controlled conditions in clinical trials thats the cause... when they transfer their technology from invitro to invivo all lateral discoveries begin happening for them.. in ayurved there is nothing like INVITRO.. its always INVIVO.
ha ha ha...
One day the two will meet... lets see how and who brings about the unision.. the way they are being surprised by their own treatment regimens one day they will tune to the essence of ayurved.. until then of course they take gloat with pride in halfbaked treatment plans. LOL...
In reply to:
Cure for AIDS breaking News!
Posted by : radhika_nandlal
Folks,
You all must have read about how a guy in Berlin received a bone marrow transplant and got cured of his AIDS... lol.. branded as a crazy fluke happening by the western world... wonder what ayurved will have to say about bone marrow transplants curing AIDS... of course they dont use the physiology concepts of allopathy...we will have to understand the ramifcations of this cure.. But seems like ALLOPATHS have been dumbstruck by this cure... its making news everywhere... how come docs are so inconspicuous on MMB?
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Folks,
You all must have read about how a guy in Berlin received a bone marrow transplant and got cured of his AIDS... lol.. branded as a crazy fluke happening by the western world... wonder what ayurved will have to say about bone marrow transplants curing AIDS... of course they dont use the physiology concepts of allopathy...we will have to understand the ramifcations of this cure.. But seems like ALLOPATHS have been dumbstruck by this cure... its making news everywhere... how come docs are so inconspicuous on MMB?...
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