9. News - Entertainment - "The Hobbit " (by Saswat Mishra AKA Raja)

Teaser Poster

The Hobbit is an upcoming two-part film adaptation of the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, is directing the film and also serves as producer and co-writer.
 

The two parts are currently in production, and are being filmed back to back in New Zealand, with principal photography beginning on March 21, 2011.

Current cast

Several actors from Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy will reprise their roles, including Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, and Christopher Lee. Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, and Orlando Bloom, though currently unsigned, are expected to return as well.


The film will star Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins the protagonist of the film.

Director Sir Peter Jackson

The story follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins who ultimately meets the Gollum in the wild during a quest, where he gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring, the simple gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-Earth.


“News and Features” hopes this film to be a multiple award-winning series like the “The Lord of the Rings film trilogy” which had received both critical and commercial success throughout the planet.

8. Feature - Science - "Mission Impossible - Nyiragongo Crater"

It is a matter of immense pleasure that a team of scientists and explorers stepped onto the shore of the lava lake boiling in the depths of Nyiragongo Crater, in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The molten matter of the volcano has been captured in camera from a minimum distance of 1 meter by the courageous photographer Olivier Grunewald.

Obviously the act has been performed with proper safety and scientific equipments. The camera was also prepared to protect 1300 degree Celsius heat. Nobody is encouraged here to repeat the same without any precaution to make a history, it was purely a professional arrangement under strict abidance of scientific and safety rules by highly experienced scientists, who had also undergone a four months training for the purpose. During the expedition the members of this team were in contact through radio uninterruptedly to chase the movement of the gas and lava.

The goal of this expedition was to enhance volcanologists’ knowledge so that mankind can be saved from disaster from the flame of volcano in the future by perfect prediction in this context.

Mount Nyiragongo is a stratovolcano (or sometimes termed as composite volcano) in the Virunga Mountains associated with the Great Rift Valley. Stratas means layers. So, the said volcano is a tall, conical volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Normally the lava that flows from stratovolcanoes typically cools and hardens before spreading far due to high viscosity. However extensive felsic lava can flow up to 15 kilometers before solidified because of its thixotropic and shear thinning properties. Felsic is a geological term which refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks enriched in the lighter elements such as oxygen, sodium, potassium, silicon and aluminum.

Lava is a type of molten or melted rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. This molten rock is formed in the interior of Earth. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 degree Celsius to 1,200 degree Celsius equal to 1300 degree Fahrenheit to2200 degree Fahrenheit and up to 100,000 times as viscous as water.

Nyiragongo's lava lake has at times been the most voluminous known lava lake in recent history with an estimated 282 million cubic feet of lava. It is located inside Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 20 km north of the town of Goma. Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to Rwanda. The main crater is about two km wide and usually contains a lava lake.

Volcanism at Nyiragongo is caused by the rifting of the Earth's crust where two parts of the African Plate are breaking apart. The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.

The Nyiragongo mission is a great event which will be marked as a milestone in the history of geology. "News and Features” takes the pride to congratulate the whole team including Olivier Grunewald, Jacques Barthelemy, Dario Tedesco, Pierre-Yves Burgi, Franck Pothé and Marc Caillet for this historic success.

7. Features - Animals - Gorilla : the loving apes

 Gorillas are very much helpful to human being in various ways. First of all they are herbivorous, and so can be a subject of entertainment in a zoo without much fear. Unless not provoked by any external factors they are not wild towards anybody including human beings.

For the children spectators Gorillas' cage is the most entertaining point of attraction in a zoo or circus as it behaves in some funny ways which makes the children happy.

The role of Gorillas in silver screen is also quiet recognizing. Several Hollywood directors have taken this animal in their films and earned popularity out of the funny activities and performances provided by it.

 

Gorilla is a mammal from the phylum Chordate. In Greece there is a tribe of women with hair all over their body. They are called "gorillai" in Greek. It is believed that from this word the name Gorilla has been derived. These animals behave like human beings. Unlike Homo sapiens they are use to emotions like love, joy, hate, fear, jealousy etc. DNA of Gorilla is very much identical to Human beings. Normally it is an herbivorous one and takes fruits, leaves, etc. in food. Although it lives in the ground it can climb trees easily. A Gorilla sleeps for around 13 hours a day. They communicate through facial expressions, different sounds, activities and odors. They are well accustomed with spoken language and can be trained to understand sign language.

Being the most talented creation of God, it becomes our responsibility to take care of this loving animal.

Tricks to take superb photos

Capturing life's memorable moments is a great fun. It provides immense pleasure. Technoly has developed to its apex these days. I recall our childhood when badly color photography was there. Now in the age of motion picture it is a joke. In this nexus, it is worthwhile to discuss about some tricks of still photography so that we can capture our sweet moments better.

There are two formats in taking a picture, Landscape and Portrait. As the term itself says abide the rule of taking a photo of a human being in the portrait view by holding the camera vertically and when it is time for a naturally scene, hold the camera horizontally, which is the normal holding process and snap.

Secondly, these days we have the technology of auto flash, auto focus, auto everything. It is very easy to understand that obeying to a mathematical calculation about how much light should come, if the camera feels that it is not abundant light then automatically the flash turns on. But the tip here is, always don't depend upon this. Because once a picture is taken (in a night shot specially) with an on flashlight it looks like you are in front of headlights of a vehicle. It may be okay. But try the second one. Flash off the camera and take the shot. But this is when you are doing something for special photography. This idea may proof wrong when you are taking a picture for the school entrance examination.

Then the third one is use of close up. When you need that the subject or person should be recognized, I mean when someone watches the image and can say yes, this is Rajesh, if your need is that, use the close up. However trick is that even if you need a close up view, don't take the picture from a very close distance of the subject but maintain some distance, go for Zoom and click. This way I believe you can get better result.

Light is a big deciding factor in photography. It is also a tuff job to know about it. But for simple photography I would like to suggest you to go for natural light. When God has provided us plenty of light sources free of cost which also suits so much to photography why not we use it. But certain things to be remembered here. If you have not much urgency don't shoot in the 'top-sun'. (You can mark a black shadow is coming under the eyes of the subject which will spoil your image) I mean when the sun is over the head. Morning and evening sunlight is the best source of light for photography.

People know much about photography and hence they can laugh at these tips. But this is for the beginners. Professionals can get less out of it, but one thing is very certain that none of these above tips are wrong.

(These tricks I have personally experienced during my career as an assistant Cinematographer. I am from Bollywood, the film industry of India. Check out my status there in http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1936475/ . Sometimes the tips may not be true for you for different reasons, but these are the basic tricks normally people abide to get good images.)

Significance of Shivaratri festival

Loknath Baba of Balangir

Abhisek ( the sacred bathing of the God) is a basic ritual of Shivratri. Pouring fresh water, Water of  the  river Ganga, milk, curd, honey, sugar, Ghee onto the Linga is worth during this worship. At least if someone chants the Panchakshyari Mantra  that is Namah Shivaya with the Pranab Ohm before that will also tremendously satisfies Lord Shiva. 

Shivratri is the festival of massive celebration with worship, chanting hymns, singing devotional songs and dancing among the devotees of Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati. In 2011 this auspicious occasion will fall on 2nd of March.

To know the significance of 'ratri' or night in this occasion let us talk about the famous story provided in Hindu epics. In the dynasty of Ikshyaku there was a famous king named Chadrabhanu who used to perform this sacred worship along with his wife. Once, famous sage Astabakra requested him to tell about the performance of Shivratri. The king was a genius who could recall his past birth. He tells the lore that in his earlier birth he was a birdpreyer in the name of Suswar. Once on the 14th day of the waning moon in the month of ‘Phalguna’ when gone for firewood he lost his way in the forest and could not manage to notice the way to his home. As darkness deepen, terrified with the growling of wild animals he climbed to the nearest tree. Being afraid of falling off the tree he vigiled for the whole night and plucked and dropped leaves from that tree one after one. The result was outstanding. To his great good luck there was a natural Shivlinga beneath the tree where actually he had dropped the leaves and the tree was a Bael (Bilva) tree which is the most favorite of Lord Shiva. 

In this way unknowingly he performed all the rules of Shivaratri and hence blessed with 'Shiblok', the abode of Lord Shiva. That could be termed as the inception of Shivratri. (this story is the rare story found in webs till date, although present not originally as per the epics, One can refer to the hardcopy of the sources books given in the end of this article to get the proof)

Loknath Baba near P.R. High School, Balangir

Including the famous temples like Lingaraj in Bhubaneshwar, Harishankar in Balangir, Gupteshwar in Koraput and Kapilas in Dhenkanal in Orissa, this grand pious occasion is celebrated at all the Shiv temples.

Sources - Shree Ram Charit Manas and Shiv Puran.

Water crisis in Balangir, Orissa

 "The fertile soil of Balangir which has yielded much in the earlier years, may turn into deserts in a few years" researchers says.

Big lines of containers near the tube well are a common sight in Balangir during the summer. Scorching sun beams excels the suffering. The Government is trying to meet the scarcity of proper water and taking steps from time to time, but is not enough, for which Balangir Citizens' Committee has also raised voice in the former days.

Rapid Industrialization in the district may be one of the causes. How? An expert body under the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme,has found on analysis that the water of the rivers like Brahmani, Mahanadi, Rishikulya and Nagavali does not confirm to the desired standards for human consumption. The reason behind this is the presence of polluting industries located on their banks. Point to be noted that domestic water to Balangir is supplied from river Mahanadi, Sonepur.

The survey also reveals that the fluoride content in groundwater in 22 blocks was beyond the permissible limit of 1.5 milligram per litre. However, Bolangir district in Western Orissa is the worst hit by this problem with seven of its blocks been found affected by high concentration of fluoride,

Coming to Balangir Municipality jurisdiction, the pond water is getting polluted due to lack of maintenance. Also there are many small ponds awaiting renovation.

In the other hand, in an alarming message, noted herbalist researcher R.Mishra informs of a new species of flowers in KBK districts, which is normally found in the deserts. Means the symptom has started - May be within some years this fertile land of Balangir turn into rough sandy deserts.

Summarizing all these, it is high time now to deal the problem with seriousness, lest the problem will move beyond control and statistics of death toll (due to sunstroke) will go on rising during the hot sunny days in the midst of 45 degree Celsius temperature which is the common digit in Balangir during summer.