Climate Change Will Impact Northeast India

Guwahati, Mar 24 : Changes in weather due to climate change will have its impact on the NE region. This was observed by Deputy Director General, Meteorology (DDGM) of the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) H Pathak here today. He was addressing a World Meteorology Organisation (WMO) Day observation at the RMC today.

According to a press release, Pathak delivered two lectures on the occasion – on nurturing nature for our future and meteorological services for NE region and ongoing prospect for weather and climate system and laid stress on formulating plans to prevent occurrence of flood, flash flood and landslides, etc., in the NE region by the States concerned.

He also called for steps to chalk out action plans for water resources management, including irrigation for agricultural activities, hydroelectric power generation, etc., for the region’s States.

The early rainfall warning system (ERWS) can be developed for flood/flashflood management and sustainable hydroelectric power generation in the catchments, he said. Further, he said, the NEC can also play the role of a nodal platform for weather climate research activities in the NE region.

The RMC observed the WMO Day today with an interactive programme on this year’s theme– ‘Climate for you’ and an exhibition.

The exhibition was organized on the topics of weather observation, weather analysis, meteorological telecommunication, polar orbiting satellite receiving system, digital weather prediction system, digital current weather system for aviation, etc, said the press release.

Mizoram-Hmar People's Convention-Democrats Talks Run Into deadlock

Aizawl, Mar 24 : The ongoing peace negotiations between Mizoram government and the Manipur-based Hmar People's Convention-Democrats (HPC-D) militants have run into deadlock as the former cannot agree with inclusion of ''foreigners'' in the second rounds slated for May.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla informed the Mizoram Assembly House today that the peace process had run into a deadlock as the underground group insisted on sending ''foreigners'' as its representatives, which was ''not acceptable'' to the Mizoram government.

''We will inform the state government's stand on this to the Union government soon,'' he said.
The Chief Minister said this in his wind-up speech on the Governor’s speech which said that peace was maintained in Mizoram.

The House took up the address for discussion before passing a motion of thanks on the second day of the budget session. The motion was passed after a hot discussion.

Sources in the state home department also stated that the HPC-D delegates seemed to have misunderstood the point agreed in the last dialogue held that the militant group could appoint other people to participate in the coming negotiations.

However, the state government could not agree to include foreigners in the HPC-D delegation as proposed by the militant group, the sources said, adding the Hmar outfit wanted a US citizen to participate in the next round of talks.

Mizoram Land Revenue Dept Scam To Be Investigated

Aizawl, Mar 23 : Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla today said that he would initiate investigations into the reported massive malpractices committed by officials of the state land revenue and settlement department.

Intervening during question hour in the state legislature, Lal Thanhawla said that he would order the investigations by the state anti corruption bureau (ACB) or the central bureau of investigations (CBI) into the alleged malpractices including corruption by the department officials, especially the surveyors.

"It was known that many land revenue and settlement department officials, especially the surveyors have been indulging in fraudulent claims of compensation when the government acquired lands for public purposes" he said.

In reply to a query from B. Lalthlengliana of the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), state land revenue and settlement minister J H Rothuama said that the government did not have any intention to give part of the land belonging to C. Lalnunnema registered under Periodic Patta no.304 of 1976.

In a supplementary question, Lalthlengliana, however, alleged that there were some officials who had tried to take away part of the land of Lalnunnema.

Sarkar Urges Centre To Intervene For Repatriation Of Brus

Agartala, Mar 23 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar criticised the Mizoram government for dragging its feet to repatriate the 35000 Reang/Bru refugees sheltered in six camps in North Tripura district and urged the Centre to intervene for early repatriation of the displaced persons.

"The refugees are living in the camps in deplorable situation. They should be taken back at the earliest.

The Mizoram government is dragging its feet to repatriate them, so the Centre should intervene properly to solve the 14-year old refugee problem", Sarkar told reporters last night.

Sarkar said the meeting of the council of ministers held here yesterday decided to provide Rs one lakh each to the next of kins of the people who were charred to death.

Sarkar said the party of the Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla assured the refugees before the last assembly elections of Mizoram that they would be taken back and properly rehabilitated if the party came to power.

"Now Lalthanhawla's party is at the helm of affairs and should take them back with honour and ascertain the future of the children and youths who were languishing in the camps and facing a bleak future", Sarkar said.

The Chief Minister said a judicial probe was ordered to find out the cause of the fire that devastated the camp on Saturday last.

Reang refugees migrated to Tripura from neighbouring Mizoram following ethnic clashes with Mizos since 1997.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Is A Killer

D-day is here for Mozilla Firefox 4, almost 8 months after its first beta release. The launch comes eight days after Microsoft IE 9's official launch. Firefox 4 was originally scheduled to launch in November 2010. Damon Sicore, Mozilla's senior director of platform engineering, said in a message on a company forum, “Today's triage session concluded with all systems go for a Firefox 4 launch on March 22.”

Users running Firefox 3.5 or 3.6 can download the latest version by selecting "Check for updates" from the Help menu. While users running Firefox 4 RC, need not download anything as Mozilla deems that build identical to the final.

Firefox 4 for Windows, Mac and Linux is available in more than 70 languages. And yes, Firefox 4 supports Windows XP too, unlike IE 9 which supports Windows Vista and Windows 7. So, here's looking into all that is new in Firefox 4.

Tabs location

Tabs are given top visual priority for intuitive browsing.
An easier way to manage your add-ons and discover new options for personalising your browsing.

 

Speed

Firefox 4 contains huge performance enhancements, including new JagerMonkey JavaScript engine. From faster start up times and graphics rendering to improved page load speed, Mozilla claims that users will notice the difference instantly.

 

HD Video

As pioneers of HTML5 video standards, Firefox also supports the WebM format so you can watch open HD quality video.
Changes to the C++ representation of JavaScript values allow Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code more efficiently, resulting in cleaner graphics and a better browsing experience.

 

Multi-touch support

Firefox now integrates multi-touch support for Windows 7, enabling users to interact with their browser in a new way.

 

3D on the Web

WebGL brings 3D graphics to Firefox, opening the door for developers to create vivid games and new kinds of visualizations and experiences for the Web.
Firefox also starts up faster thanks to XPCOM module improvements that help in better extensions framework.

New fonts

Firefox 4's OpenType font feature gives designers and developers more control over a variety of font features -- like kerning or ligatures -- to create websites. There's also support for new CSS3 features like Transitions and Transformations.

Upgrading Forms

Firefox integrated Form features like list attributes and HTML5 validation provide the tools to make annoying form implementation development a thing of the past. A new HTML5 parser and full support for web video, audio, drag & drop, and file handling means Firefox 4 is ready to run the Web apps.

Full Hardware Acceleration

Users can experience fast graphics acceleration with Direct2D and Direct3D on Windows, XRender on Linux and OpenGL on Mac, now enabled by default, on all supported hardware.

SVG as images

SVG files can now be used as images and backgrounds in Firefox, meaning that developers and designers can have performance-conscious websites with lighter, resolution-independent image files.

Compartments

Firefox can now better manage JavaScript objects with Compartments, offering improved cache utilisation and garbage collection mechanisms for better security, memory management and overall performance.

Crash protection

Firefox provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows, Linux, and now Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If one of these commonly-used plugins crashes or freezes, it won’t affect the rest of Firefox. Instead, user can simply reload the page to restart the plugin and try again.

HSTS

Sites can now keep attackers from intercepting sensitive data while accessing the site by telling Firefox to automatically establish secure connections to their servers (https).

Emmy Rossum Shows Her Apples (NSFW)

Emmy Rossumis back in Shameless and showing off her killer tits again.

She is sexy as hell and it seems like pretty much every episode she takes off her clothes and shows off her killer body.

This scene is made even better because she has another hot girl in the scene in her underwear.

With any luck next week she will have a little hot girl on girl action with this other chick and things can really get kicked up.

Alyssa Miller Topless (NSFW)

Model Alyssa Miller got topless for her newest shoot and her tits are amazing.

She rolls around, shows off her body and her nipples seem to be standing at full attention.

I love Alyssa because she is so willing to get naked that it rocks.

A lot of models are uptight, but she does those shoots where she is naked in body paint or topless and it makes you just love her.

I’m sure this isn’t the last we will see of her topless, naked or otherwise hot.

Click here for sex videos and live cams.

World-Class Indian Boarding Gives 16-Year-Old Student Unique Opportunities

This month, we're covering women making change -- big and small -- around the world. Today, in partnership with She's The First, we're featuring a letter from a young Indian woman, Jancy Paul Vincent. Below, she shares her story, goals and role models.

My name is Jancy. I am 16. My mom is a single parent and I have two older brothers. I was born in a small village in the Hassan district of the Karnataka state, in India.

When I was three and a half, I joined Shanti Bhavan, a non-secular residential school for socially and economically disadvantaged children. Shanti Bhavan is a unique institution, where we are given not only a quality education, but taught globally shared values, such as humility, generosity, and acceptance. Joining Shanti Bhavan was perhaps the most significant, life-changing event in my life.

I have stayed at Shanti Bhavan for almost 13 years now, and it is like my second home. Here, I have the biggest family ever; we are all bound by our love for one another. There is something about Shanti Bhavan that is special -- almost divine -- and difficult to express in words.
Shanti Bhavan is a part of me. Sometimes, I wonder how I am going to handle it when I wake up one morning and realize I have graduated.

After all, it is here that I have learned everything from the alphabets in the English language to the literature of Shakespeare. It is here that I received my first toothbrush, my first warm bed, and my first shampoo. It is where I tasted pancakes for the first time.

All of the students at school are taken care of by our housemothers. Our teaching staff is comprised of Indian teachers, as well as volunteers from various parts of the world and all walks of life, who greatly enrich our education and broaden our perspectives.
We are taught from a very early age not to discriminate against one another. We respect all religions and are free to practice our own. We have the freedom to voice our own opinions. And, furthermore, we are asked to have opinions on world issues.

For these reasons and more, I feel that Shanti Bhavan has impacted my life in a genuinely positive way. If it weren't for this institution, I wouldn't have been given an opportunity to become who I am today: strong, brave, and courageous enough to make the right decisions. When I wonder what I would have been like had I not come to Shanti Bhavan, I become emotional. It is difficult to predict -- perhaps my family would still be living in a convent, or perhaps I would be working alongside my mother, who cares for handicapped children to sustain a living. Or perhaps I would be attending school -- a government-run school, where there would be a poor quality of education.

I am almost a senior now, and grateful to everyone at Shanti Bhavan who continues to inspire me each day to move forward. I am studying Accounting, Economics, and Commerce and preparing to take the ISC exam next year, considered among the most challenging in India.
To me, education is the key to the many doors I want to open. I want to be the first girl in my family to go to college. I want to get my Master's degree. I want to combine the fields of business and fashion someday. I want to find success to improve the status of my family. I want to continue the Shanti Bhavan dream. From my school song, I will always take with me:
"This is a precious moment; we've only just begun. There's a long, long way to go, before our day is done. We cannot see tomorrow; yesterday is but a dream. Today's really what matters."

Jancy Paul Vincent is an 11th grader at the Shanti Bhavan Residential School in India, a partner of She's the First, the organization that has sponsored her education this year. Shanti Bhavan is best known as being the only world-class boarding school of its kind in India to take in children of the "Untouchable" caste. To sponsor all or part of a girl's education at Shanti Bhavan, or to learn more about Jancy's accomplishments, visit shesthefirst.org.

Via HuffingtonPost.com