denden ship sUnk in mangalOre

The M V Denden ship belonging to a African country called Eritrea sunk just 300 meters away from the coast of Mangalore killing two sailors and resulted in one person still missing. Out of 24 people in the ship, 21 swam to safety. The ship was carrying Furnace Slag to Dubai from Mangalore.

The ship had sailed off from New Mangalore Port on the eve of 21st June 2007 had stalled due to an engine trouble at 2 nautical miles. It is reported that the captain Abraham N Kwaw initially rejected any kind of help offered by the Police and cost guard people and has said that it was a minor problem and sail with some repairs in the engine room.

Soon after at 11.30 pm on Friday night the captain Kwaw had sent an SOS stating that he wanted immediate help. On this request the Additional Superintendent of Police B.S. Lokesh Kumar and the Coast Guard had responded quickly but at that time the weather had played truant and the police and the Coast Guard found the going tough as the waves in the sea had grown out of size and none of the navy coast guard or the local fishermen could do anything but to watch and hoping that the weather gave some respite which was not to be.

On Saturday morning the ship was already tilting as so much water had entered its hold and engine room and people witnessing the tragedy unfolding before their very own eyes could feel that the ship was doomed. At this point of time the district administration took decisions to save the crew immediately as the ship was showing signs of capsizing.

The efforts to press a Coast Guard and Navy Helicopters from Kochi and Panaji failed, as the weather was too rough and twice the helicopter tried to take off from Kochi but the weather here had gone from bad to worse making air lifting of the marooned crew impossible. The Coast Guard Ship Annie Besant also tried to approach the ship in distress from the Western side but due to the ship being very close to the shore the Coast Guard thought it's dangerous to attempt any rescue. The weather worsened further and that was also the end of all rescue operations.

At 2 PM 12 crew members of the ship launched themselves into two rubber dinghies from the ship but due to rough seas the dinghies were torn into pieces and two of the crew members died due to drowning. Their bodies have been recovered by the local fishermen.
At 2.45 pm the Ship finally started to capsize on its side shocking thousands of people gathered just 300 meters away on the shore. Just before the Ship disappeared into the sea six of its crew members abandoned the ship and swam to safety and were taken to hospital in waiting ambulances. Eight crew members who were still trapped under the ship emerged one by one and all except one swam to safety. The fate of the last sailor is yet to be established.

It’s proved here that Modern technology, manpower and facilities were helpless in front of fury of Nature. Thousands of people stood there on the beach just 300 meters away from the ship without able to do anything but many of them praying. Many of them had not even had their food but were just praying for the safety of those sailors. Men were cursing the government and other departments for not able to rescue these sailors and many Women were crying. But at the same time some other people were too busy in picking up the things to take home which have come sailing from the ship.

Local fishermen got the praise from all people gathered there for rescuing many sailors and it’s said that without their help there would have been more deaths. It was heartening to see the Local fishermen along with the fishermen from Ullal, rescuing the sailors without any protection for their own Life..

Google tops new list of world's most valuable brands

Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) has knocked Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) from its perch as the world's top-ranked brand, according to findings released on Monday.

The rankings, compiled by market research firm Millward Brown, also put Google ahead of well-established brands like General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - news), No. 2; Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO - news), No. 4; Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT - news), No. 7; and IBM (NYSE:IBM - news), No. 9.

Some key factors seen this year in building brand recognition ranged from corporate responsibility to serving customers in emerging markets like Brazil and India, according to the study.

The top-ranked brand from a non-U.S.-based company was China Mobile (0941.HK), which dropped a spot but still came in at No. 5.

The rankings were based on publicly available financial data along with primary research, including interviews with a million consumers worldwide, Millward Brown said.

For Google, which ranked No. 7 a year ago, the jump to the top underscores how quickly the Web search leader has become an everyday name. The company uses relatively little advertising, instead relying on word-of-mouth promotion.

By contrast, Microsoft's slide down to third place from first comes even as the software company has been rolling out its new Windows Vista operating system with a massive global marketing blitz.

Eileen Campbell, global chief executive of Millward Brown, said the rankings showed "a blend of good business leadership, responsible financial management and powerful marketing ... can be leveraged to create and grow corporate wealth."

Some of the other big movers on the list included Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news). which rose 13 spots to No. 16 and Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX - news), which rose 13 spots to No. 35. Those losing ground in the brand rankings included Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:HD - news) and Dell Inc. (Nasdaq:DELL - news)

Millward Brown is a unit of WPP Group (WPP.L) and the findings were published in cooperation with the Financial Times.

CHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF CIGARETTE SMOKE

Nicotine
Nicotine is a powerful insecticide and poisonous for the nervous systems. Furthermore, there is enough (50 mg) in four cigarettes to kill a man in just a few minutes if it were injected directly into the bloodstream. Indeed, fatalities have occurred with children after they had swallowed cigarettes or cigarette butts.
When diluted in smoke, nicotine reaches the brain in just seven seconds, it stimulates the brain cells and then blocks the nervous impulse. This is where addiction to tobacco arises. Nicotine also causes accelerated heart rate, but at the same time it leads to contracting and hardening of the arteries: the heart pumps more but receives less blood. The result is twice as many coronary attacks. Nicotine thus also increases the consumption of lipids (which is why it has a weight-loss effect) and induces temporary hyperglycaemia (hence the appetite suppressing effect).

Carbon monoxide (CO)
This is the asphyxiating gas produced by cars, which makes up 1.5% of exhaust fumes. But smokers inhaling cigarette smoke breathe in 3.2% carbon monoxide - and directly from the source.
Oxygen is mostly transported in blood by haemoglobin. When we smoke, however, the carbon monoxide attaches itself to the haemoglobin 203 times more quickly than oxygen does, thereby displacing the oxygen; this in turn asphyxiates the organism. This causes the following cardiovascular complaints: narrowing of the arteries, blood clots, arteritis, gangrene, heart attack, etc. . . . but also a loss of reflexes and visual and mental problems. It takes between six and 24 hours for the carbon monoxide to leave the blood system.

Irritants
These substances paralyse and then destroy the cilia of the bronchial tubes, responsible for filtering and cleaning the lungs. They slow down respiratory output and irritate the mucus membranes, causing coughs, infections and chronic bronchitis.

Tars
As the cilia are blocked (see paragraph above), the tars in the cigarette smoke are deposited and collect on the walls of the respiratory tract and the lungs, and cause them to turn black. So, just because a smoker is not coughing, it doesn't mean that he or she is healthy! And this fact merely serves to pour water on one of the most common and poorest excuses given by smokers. The carcinogenic action of the tars is well known: they are responsible for 95% of lung cancers. It takes two days at least after cessation of smoking for the cilia to start functioning properly again, albeit only gradually. By smoking one packet of cigarettes every day, a smoker is pouring a cupful of these tars into his or her lungs every year (225 grams on average)!

Chemistry of Tobacco Smoke
No less than 4000 irritating, suffocating, dissolving, inflammable, toxic, poisonous, carcinogenic gases and substances and even radioactive compounds (nickel, polonium, plutonium, etc.) have been identified in tobacco smoke. Some of these are listed hereafter: Benzopyrene, dibenzopyrene, benzene, isoprene, toluene (hydorcarbons) ; naphthylamines; nickel, polonium, plutonium, arsenic, cadmium (metallic constituents) ; carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide,
hydrogen sulphide (gases); methyl alcohol, éthanol, glycerol or glycerine, glycol (alcohols and esters); acetaldehyde, acrolein, acetone (aldehydes and ketones); cyanhydric or prussic acid, carboxyl derivatives (acids); chrysene, pyrrolidine, nicoteine, nicotinine, nicoteline, nornicotine, nitrosamines (alkaloids or bases)cresol (phenols) etc.

"Thank God, It was not me"
the Farmer said, "It was
the sheep"

Electric Fence and Sheep Hungry Python
Dinesh Vora