The death toll from flooding and landslides in El Salvador following the days of downpour has reached 124. President Mauricio Funes described the disaster as ‘a tragedy’ and said that the damages it caused are ‘incalculable’. He’s declared a national emergency.

According to the officials the capital San Salvador and central San Vicente are the worst affected regions. San Vicente is in fact nearly disconnected due to landslides and collapsed bridges. Some of the other hardest hit regions include La Libertad, La Paz and Cuscatlan.

Up till now there have been reports of over 60 people missing and more than 7,000 are in shelters.

Rescue workers recovered bodies from the wreckage of homes in the town of San Vicente.  “We rescued a man this morning who had fractures, and a little girl” a local told a news agency. He with his son crossed through the floodwater and saved them both. The girl is now with her parents.

“My son and I crossed through the floodwater and brought them here, and now she is with her parents.”

Rain triggered massive rock slides from the Chichontepec volcano also devastated a lot of homes in Verapaz and San Vicente province.

There is no electricity supply and clean water in the large parts of El Salvador. The death toll continues to rise since hurricane Ida, which has now strengthened to category II storm, was hovering over the Gulf of Mexico.

Stoplights are red, yellow, and green, because traffic officials, early on copied the code system railroad engineers devised for track systems
controlling the trains.

The goal of the railroad engineers in crafting this code was to prevent often fatal train collisions, by giving the trains advance warning. Therefore they did not take their task lightly in selecting the symbolic colors for the signals.

Red, the color of blood, proved a logical choice for the stop signal, as for thousands of years, this color forbade danger. The color alone,
railroad engineers reasoned, should give people cause to pause, to abide by the signal, and to stop or suffer the consequences of death and destruction.

Engineers used the trial and error method in selecting the other colors. The first trial in the 1830s, that of choosing green for the caution signal, and clear for the go signal, failed miserably. Clear as a choice for the go signal, varied slightly from the light cast from typical street lamps, or from the glare of the sunlight, and, thus could quite easily be mistaken for the go signal…after the fact.

This failure prompted the railroad engineers to alter their color selections to red for stop, green for go, and yellow for caution. Traffic engineers, either lacking in ingenuity or a work ethic, scurried off with this system of color coding, and instituted the very first electric stoplight in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. The first signal did not include the color yellow for caution, but that was later added within a few years. Railroad
engineers, not traffic engineers, should be credited for the lives saved in the interim, by their system of coding warning signals red, yellow, and green.

For more such cool stuff, keep posted on Navtej Kohli Blog

Canadian scientists have made a significant progress in understanding how excessive alcohol consumption causes damage to the pancreas.

The research conducted by experts from the University of Toronto and University Health Network involved experiments on mice.

Lead researcher Herbert Gaisano says that several studies have shown previously that rodents fed on alcohol-rich diet, and then exposed to a
drug called carbachol, develop an inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), which resembles the pancreatitis seen in individuals who consume an excessive amount of alcohol.

He also says that it has been suggested previously that the rodents develop pancreatitis because the alcohol and carbachol exposure cause cells in the pancreas to release vesicles containing degradative proteins known as enzymes at inappropriate places.

In the latest study, he adds, a protein called VAMP8 was found to have an important role in coordinating the inappropriate release of enzyme-containing vesicles in mice exposed to alcohol and carbachol.

According to Gaisano, mice lacking VAMP8 showed reduced pancreatitis after exposure to alcohol and carbachol, during the study.

Scientists claim to have discovered a triple system of ’super-Earths’ around a distant star.

Super-Earths have a mass between two and ten times the Earth’s mass that is less massive than that of Uranus and Neptune.

European astronomers discovered the system of super-Earths around a star named HD 40307 that lies 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. They also discovered 45 further potential planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses and an orbit shorter than 50
days.

The scientists made the super-Earth and candidate planet discoveries using the HARPS instrument at the ESO.

“Clearly these planets are only the tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Mayor commented.

“The analysis of all the stars studied with HARPS shows that about one third of all solar-like stars have either super-Earth or Neptune-like planets with orbital periods shorter than 50 days.”

Researcher Stephane Udry added: “It is most probable that there are many other planets present: not only super-Earth and Neptune-like planets with
longer periods, but also Earth-like planets that we cannot detect yet.

“Add to it the Jupiter-like planets already known, and you may well arrive at the conclusion that planets are ubiquitous.”

Do you know?

50,000 of the cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells, all while you have been reading this sentence!

In one hour, your heart works hard enough to produce the equivalent energy to raise almost 1 ton of weight 1 yard
off the ground.

In 1 square inch of skin there lies 4 yards of nerve fibers, 1300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million
cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels.

The structural plan of a whale’s, a dog’s, a bird’s and a man’s ‘arm’ are exactly the same.

There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being.

In a year, a person`s heart beats 40,000,000 times.

Most people blink about 25 times a minute.

Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.

Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

You use an average of 43 muscles for a frown. You use an average of 17 muscles for a smile.

Every two thousand frowns creates one wrinkle.

The average human produces a quart of saliva a day or 10,000 gallons in a lifetime.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

The average human will pump 48 million gallons of blood in their lifetime.

The average human body contains enough
Sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, Carbon to make 900
pencils, Potassium to fire a toy cannon, Fat to make 7 bars of soap,
Phosphorus to make 2,200 matchheads, and enough Water to fill a
ten-gallon tank.

A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.

If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the micro-organisms on your body.

Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life. :

When you eat meat and drink milk in the
same meal, your body does not absorb any of the milk’s calcium. It is
best to have 2 hours between the milk and meat intake.

The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself.

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

One human brain generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all of the world’s telephones put together.

We have a a whole pharmacy within us. We can create any drug inside us.

Our bodies are recreating themselves
constantly – we ,make a skeleton every 3 months, new skin every month.
We are capable of reversing the Aging Process!!

According to certain reports RIM is planning to launch a phone named Thunder. This device would be an answer to iPhone.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. plans to launch a touch-screen version of the wireless e-mail device in the third quarter as an answer to Apple Inc’s iPhone.

The device, known as the Thunder, is to be sold exclusively through Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone PLC abroad, the Journal reported on its Web site, citing people familiar with the matter.

RIM declined to comment on the report, stating that it does not comment on rumors and speculation. Earlier this week, rumored
details of a touch-screen BlackBerry surfaced on the Internet.

In February, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the company may bring out a touch-screen device if customers want it.

This week, Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM announced its BlackBerry Bold, a sleek smartphone with a keyboard aimed at its core base of business
users.

Introducing a touch-screen BlackBerry would put RIM in more direct competition with Apple’s popular iPhone.

In the past, Balsillie has dismissed concerns that the iPhone could pose a serious competitive threat.

A touch-screen BlackBerry would also build on RIM’s continuing push into the broader retail market as it seeks to diversify its client base
beyond the executives, lawyers and other professionals who have been its mainstay.

The facts about ‘Shroud of Turin’ on Navtej Kohli Blog:

It comes at a most inconvenient time. The Federal Reserve is sharply cutting US interest rates – the opposite of the usual response to rising inflation – to prevent the housing bust and credit crisis from causing a deep, prolonged recession. That’s making the global response to inflation more complicated.

Consumer prices in the US, Europe and other rich countries are projected to rise 2.6 per cent this year, the highest inflation rate since 1995, the International Monetary Fund says.

In the US, consumer prices in February were 4 per cent above year-ago levels. The 15 countries that share the euro currently see inflation of 3.5 per cent, a decade high and well above the European Central Bank’s preferred range. Even Japan, long plagued by flat or falling prices, is seeing modest inflation.

Rising prices for food, energy and other raw materials account for much of the pick-up in inflation rates. High food and energy costs hit developing countries – where consumers spend a larger share of income on those necessities – particularly hard. In recent weeks, protests over rising costs have shook countries from Vietnam, where prices are up 19.4 per cent from last year, to Egypt.

On Wednesday, the World Bank estimated global food prices had risen 83 per cent over the past three years, threatening recent strides in poverty
reduction. The IMF forecast consumer prices in emerging and developing countries will rise 7.4 per cent this year, the most inflation since 2001 though still well below the double-digit levels of the recent past.

Some of the factors driving inflation vary from country to country: union-negotiated wage hikes in Germany, pork shortages in China, an
electricity squeeze in South Africa, pay rises for civil servants in India.

But the fact that inflation is rising almost everywhere suggests some of its causes are global.

As crops are sold for alternative energy production, food prices have soared: the price of rice, the staple for billions of Asians, is up 147
per cent over the past year. Increasing demand for natural resources among developing economies such as India and China has pushed up prices for raw materials world-wide.

Oil supply constraints have sent crude oil futures surging above $US112 a barrel Wednesday, a new record, resulting in rising fuel and transportation prices.

An increasingly global economy may also be a culprit. Globalisation got some credit for low inflation in recent years: the economic rise of
China, India and the former Soviet Union helped expand the global workforce and increase manufacturing capacity, holding down the prices of many goods.

But the economic boom in emerging markets also means their currencies and prices are steadily rising, boosting the prices rich countries pay for imports from those poorer countries.

“Overall,the effects of globalisation have ceased – probably in the long term – to be spontaneously disinflationary,” Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, said last month.

“It’s hard to reverse inflation expectations once they’ve risen,” says Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief IMF economist.

For now, rising food and energy prices are inflation’s prime drivers. Core inflation, a measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices, is not rising as quickly as overall inflation.

But commodity price gains are beginning to work their way through the global economy. Even if commodity prices stay where they are, global inflation could continue rising for months to come as companies react to previous price rises.

One day, a young and pretty princess was playing with her golden ball. But the ball rolled over and drowned into a pool. He could not see the ball because the pool was quite deep and also she was not able to swim. She was so sad. Then suddenly a frog showed up and jumped in front of her. The frog asked, “Hi, pretty girl, why are you crying? What happens? Can I give help?” Then the princess sadly answered, “My golden ball has drowned into this pool, but I cannot take it back. Can you take it for me? If you can get my ball back, I promise to give whatever you desire because I am a princess, my
father is an emperor.”

The frog was excited because of knowing that she was a princess. Then the frog quickly said, “OK. My wish is very simple. I just want to stay in your palace and you have to treat me well. Do you agree with the deal?” She thought for a moment. She then nodded her head and told the frog, “OK. I agree.” They finally made that agreement. The frog jumped and dived into the pool to find the ball and the princess was waiting for it. After several minutes, the frog emerged on the surface with the ball in its hand. The princess was so cheerful and thanked to the frog.

She then suddenly remembered what she had promised to the frog before. She should bring the frog home. Actually, she did not want the frog stayed in her palace. So she planned to run away immediately. She ran as fast as she can so the frog could not chase her. She thought that she had successfully cheated the frog. But how surprised she was when she saw the frog in front of the gate of the palace. She did not know how the frog could be there so fast. The frog said, “Do not forget your promise!” There was no choice for her except let it stayed in her palace.

The frog was so happy with the new life because it could eat delicious meal and could sleep in a soft and comfortable bed. The frog felt like a prince. But the princess disliked it so much. Her heart was full with hatred to remove the frog from her life. She scolded it many times. When the frog was eating, she angrily dropped the food on the floor. She growled and told the frog, “You did not deserve to eat the food and stayed in this place. Your place is in the pool.” She was so fierce. She did not care about the agreement she promised. She wanted to break it. No days without her anger to the
frog. Until one day, she was at the peak of her anger and hatred. She grabbed the frog and slammed it with full power to the floor.

And suddenly the frog magically turned into thick smoke and a very handsome and gallant prince stood in the middle of the smoke. The princess was
both shocked and happy because he was so handsome. She was fascinated. She was in love at the first sight. The prince told her, “I am sorry because I lie to you. I am a prince of another kingdom. A cruel witch used her magic and turned me into a frog. But the magic has been lost because you threw me into the floor. Thanks a lot. Now I have to go back to my palace. Goodbye and take care.” But the princess said,
“Don’t. Please do not go. I want you to stay here. I feel that I am in love with you now.” Then the prince laughed and said, “No, rincess. When I was a frog, I have known your real behavior. You are so fierce, your heart is full of hatred and anger, you have bad temperament and do
not keep your promise. I do not like it so much. Goodbye.” Then the prince walked out of her palace.

Message for readers:

According to Joe Girard, A person recognizes approximately 250 people. They can be his relatives, family, friends and other people. When you are angry with someone and hate them, you have hated other 250 people. Why? Because, if you hate and angry with one person, he will tell to other 250 people he knows. Think about this dangerous effect by just hating and being angry with one person. What if you do this to 10 persons? It means that you will spread your hatred and anger to about 2500 persons. They will know your bad behavior. They will talk from mouth to mouth and it surely creates snow-ball effect that will be bigger and bigger when it rolls. Otherwise, when a person knows that you are so kind, helpful and have positive yet good behavior, you have spread your good behavior to other 250 persons.

When you are angry, you indirectly create hostility to the person you are angry with. Nelson Mandela said that the hostility is like poison being drunk by someone and hope the death of his enemy because of the poison. Hatred and anger will endanger you and other people if you do not stop them. Do you know that when you smile, you just move about 13 muscles of your face, but when you are angry and frown, you have to move more than 110 muscles of
your face.

Here is helpful tip that can stop or control youranger. When you get yourself in a situation that you cannot stop your anger or if you are about to deliver your anger to someone, immediately tell yourself, “If I am angry, I will make more 250 people angry with me.” or “I will create more hostility with 250 people he knows. I will have bad image that can harm me back.”

You can also smile with people you meet. It will make you happier. You will make more friendship with people around you. What a beautiful world if anger and hatred do not exist.

Imagine receiving an announcement touting the birth of a baby 20 inches long and weighing 180 pounds. After reading this puzzling message, you would immediately think the baby’s weight was a misprint. Astronomers looking at galaxies in the universe’s distant past received a similar
perplexing announcement when they found nine young, compact galaxies, each weighing in at 200 billion times the mass of the Sun. The galaxies, each only 5,000 light-years across, are a fraction of the size of today’s grownup galaxies but contain approximately the same number of stars. Each galaxy could fit inside the central hub of our Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to study the galaxies as they existed 11 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 billion years old.