Fall Colors at UMD

Enjoy the explosion of fall colors on the University of Maryland's South Campus. Click on the pictures to get enlarged versions.

O' Boy!

This entry makes me chuckle very wide!

I was reading some news online and I came across this article that says that "Indians make best husbands for Russians". Who said so? - you might ask. Looking at the headline, I thought some random Indian guy who fell in love with Maria Sharapova while watching her on TV made this stuff up. But apparently not! The newspaper says that this contention that "of all foreigners, Indans make the best husbands for Russians" is that of "Russia's leading feminist intellectual," Maria Arbatova. I'm not quite sure if Maria Arbatova is a "leading feminist intellectual" in Russia, and I'm not quite sure if she is 100% right about her statement. Being the best or worst husband is more a matter of compatibility, understanding, and love for each other. Sharing an emotional relationship is one thing - and making it stand the test of time and distance is another. Some people have a change of mind without any apparent reason - and boom! things fall apart. The point is - it is a matter of trust too!

OK, enough serious stuff. Here's something funny... a quote from Maria Arbatova:

"They (Indians) are as open, lazy and dreamy as we. Russia and India have a lot in common in the economic sphere. We were destroyed by socialism and India by colonialism."

I really want to share this article with my Russian friends - of course, the ladies too ;) - and see what they say!

India's own GPS: IRNSS

As an established space power, India has been planning to develop it's own satellite-helped positioning and navigation system to help cater the domestic audience. The American version of satellite navigation system called Global Positioning System or GPS is a constellation of 24 satellites that circle the earth and provide accurate position details - like the latitude-longitude coordinates, speed, direction, and even elevation (height), etc. If you want to learn more about GPS, google it.

Russia has it's own "GPS", called GLONASS - a cluster of 21 satellites. EU is developing it's own version of GPS, called Galileo. Now, India is going ahead with developing it's own version! Awesome! The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed great expertise in developing and launching powerful remote sensing satellites. ISRO also has an established expertise in launching polar satellite launching vehicles - even offering to carry payloads for other countries for a much cheaper price than other space powers like France, etc. (Yep, you can call it "space outsourcing!")

The Indian navigation system will be known as "Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System" or INRSS for short. Now, I'm not quite sure how they should "acrnomize" it for pronunciation purposes... "In Ress"?, "Iners"?. Whatever they call it, it is a great step forward for the Indian space program.

This report in Space News, quotes ISRO spokesman S. Krishnamurthy saying, "...these satellites will be built by ISRO’s Satellite Centre in Bangalore and launched aboard indigenously built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles. The first launch is scheduled for 2008 and the entire constellation is expected to be in place by 2011."

One of the reasons for going ahead with IRNSS is to have a full control on a navigation system. Another major reason is the precision of the position data available in India through GPS and GLONASS. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense to have a navigation system that is fully under India's own control, especially considering the data could be used for military, defense, and even civil aviation. Speaking of civil aviation, India has completed a pilot project for civil aviation called GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation). More information on this available here

Besides, folks in India will have their own navigation system for civilian use! Heard of geo-caching yet? Check it out if you are interested. It's fun!

Way to go India!

Deepavali (Diwali) - The Festival of Lights

Happy Deepavali

Image licensed under the Creative Commons. From Wikipedia.

Русский Базар

This past weekend, I attended the annual Russian Bazaar (Russian Market) here in D.C. Man, O'man! It was an awesome experience! There was great food, music, dance, books, and arts. The food was just crazy-delicious! I ate some good old Pilmeni, Kartoshki (potatoes), and Ruski Salad. Let me tell you, it was one of the best meals I ever ate! Plus, there was live performance of old-style Russian music. It just can't get better than that!

And of course, there were many Matrioshkas on sale. Plus, there were a lot of artsy stuff on display - like the decorated Easter eggs, hand-made aprons (check out the pictures), etc. Books - there was everything from Pushkin to C++, to Starwars! I got a story book by Pushkin - and by guessing my level of Russian vocabulary now, it should be a good challenge for me to get through the book.

The event took place in a Russian Orthodox Church in DC. I have never been to an Orthodox Church before and I was pleasantly surprised by the great interiors of the Church! The priest flashed a longhorn sign at me soon as he saw me :-) I was wearing a longhorns sweatshirt!. He then started explaining us the iconography on the walls and the roof, and he even took us to the behind the walls and gave us a grand tour!

Overall, a Saturday very, very well spent!