Leonardo DiCaprio
to star in war drama
Washington:
Hollywood hunk Leonardo DiCaprio is all set to produce
and star in an action thriller. According to Eonline,the
movie will revolve around the lives of ruthless mercenaries
hired by governments and corporations to fight wars.
Tara
Reid pulls a 'Nipplegate'
London:
Hollywood actress Tara Reid became the latest celebrity
to join the 'Nipplegate' bandwagon after her left breast
popped out of her dress as she arrived for hip hop artist
P Diddy's birthday bash, in New York. The "American Pie'
actress whipped off her fur wrap as she arrived, which in
turn lowered her dress and exposed her breast and she did
not even realize it until an attendant warned her. The actress,
however, seemed unperturbed as she told the press photographers,
who were snapping away like crazy, to abstain from publishing
them anywhere. "She giggled and wagged a finger at the snappers,
saying I'd better not see those photos anywhere," the Sun
quoted an onlooker as saying.
Scientists
decode how Spiderman does it (Go
To Top)
London:
If you have been wondering how the comic book hero Spiderman
manages to scale buildings with such ease, a new study by
scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research
in Stuttgart, might just give you a hint as it has suggested
new equations that could enable experts to design artificial
surfaces that stick to walls better than anything found
in nature. The scientists wrote the report after they studied
animals such as insects and lizards and the range of tools
they use to achieve surface-scaling superpowers. Earlier
studies had found that they use intermolecular attractions,
known as van der Waals forces, to climb walls. The scientists
reworked the equations to take account of the range of shapes
used by different animals, including hairs, flat pads, rods
and suction cups, reports Nature.
According
to the study, which has been published in the journal "Royal
Society A1," researchers found that a completely even surface,
flat contacts perform best because they maximise the amount
of surface contact. However only grasshoppers have relatively
flat pads. The researchers recommend that engineers seeking
to design artificial coatings should investigate doughnut-type
shapes. To increase the stickiness, you need to split the
contact elements into tinier and tinier shapes, and their
model showed that toroidal contacts are the most efficient
contacts on the smallest scales. Researchers are now saying
that the findings could help explain how the tiny hair tips,
or setae, of lizards detach from surfaces, and how the animals
keep dirt from sticking to their feet. They also believe
that the study will help engineers design specialized adhesive
materials for spaces both inside and outside. Choosing contacts
with the right dimension and shape for different situations
could aid robots climbing rocks on distant planets or give
us sticky-backed pictures that can be easily moved around
a room.
Not
a Taj Mahal, but a temple for wife (Go
To Top)
Coimbatore:
If Shahjahan made Taj Mahal for his beloved wife Mumtaj
Mahal, a man near Coimbatore has constructed a temple at
the place where he had buried his dead wife a few years
back. He takes his dead wife as a Goddess and offers prayers
at the temple every day. Surprisingly, his neighbours are
too encouraged to offer prayers to get the Goddess' blessings.
Nanjappa Gouder (70), the husband who hails from a small
village near Coimabtore, said, "Generally after the death,
the dead bodies are taken for cremation, but I thought that
I will make a temple instead to remember her." Nanjappa
has installed a statue of his wife inside the temple and
offers his prayers twice everyday. Seeing his dedication,
locals and tourists have also started worshipping the statue.
"After visiting the temple by the grace of Amma, we are
living peacefully with much happiness. And now we have got
a new job, a new house and my children are in a better condition,"
said Rajamani, a devotee. Jayanthi, another devotee, said:
"Generally, we come here and worship Amma, now I think all
problems wil be solved soon."
