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LIFE

HYDERABAD

THE HINDU

Burj Khalifa best attraction

Roti Bank launched in Aurangabad

China publisher withdraws Tagore translation

The worlds highest observation deck, Burj Khalifa At The Top, has
been voted the Best Attraction in the world for 2015 in an
international poll conducted by ticketing firm Attractionix.

A unique roti bank has been launched in Aurangabad. People can

deposit rotis and the poor, aged, sick or the unemployed can
withdraw a basic fare of freshly-cooked rotis and a side dish.

A publisher in China on Monday withdrew a Chinese translation of

Rabindranath Tagores Stray Birds, after facing flak from critics who
termed the racy translation as blasphemy and cultural terrorism.

STAR TREK
Neil Nitin Mukesh to release single

aking forward the legacy of his grandfather singer

Mukesh, actor Neil Nitin Mukesh will be venturing
into music and says he plans to release a single
next year. The Johnny Gaddar star
has recorded nine songs, which he
plans to use in his films. Yes I have
plans. Hopefully by mid of next
year Ill release my single. I have
recorded almost nine songs
already. Music is definitely the next
card that Ill open up, Neil said. We
will use the songs in a couple of
my films as well. First, Ill
release my single, which
I am working on, he
added.
The 33-year-old actor
was last seen in Prem
Ratan Dhan Payo.
PTI

Rocky S. styles Rajinikanth

Fashion designer
Rocky S. is
styling megastar
Rajinikanth for
his upcoming
film Robot 2, and
his excitement
knows no
bounds.
On set styling
the one and only
#legend
#superstar #thalaivar #rajnikanth #robot2
#movieworld, tweeted Rocky S., who has previously
designed for Salman Khan, John Abraham, Bipasha
Basu, Katrina Kaif, Shilpa Shetty, Hrithik Roshan and
several other celebrities.
In the image, Rajinikanth sports a chic beard and hair
style. He is seen wearing a checked shirt and a jacket.
Director S. Shankar collaborated with Rajinikanth,
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and A.R. Rahman for Enthiran
in 2010. IANS

Dhonis biopic to release on Sept. 2

irector Neeraj
Pandeys upcoming
film MS Dhoni: The
Untold Story, starring
Sushant Singh Rajput as
Indias World Cupwinning captain Dhoni,
will hit the screens on
September 2. Sushant
took to Twitter to
announce the release
date of the film.
#dhoniTheUntoldStory
will release on 2nd September 2016. Cant wait.
#neerajpandey @foxstarhindi, posted the actor, who
underwent rigorous training as well as a makeover to
essay Dhoni.
Produced by Fox Star Studios and Inspired
Entertainment, it also features Kiara Advani as Dhonis
wife Sakshi. IANS

Oscar-winning
cinematographer
Wexler dies at 93

DESTINATION KASHMIR

Gulmarg to host national

ice skating championship
Contest aims to identify skiers for Winter Olympics 2018

Wexler worked with some of

the biggest names in movie
history. PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES: Haskell Wexler,
one of Hollywoods most famous and honoured cinematographers and one whose innovative approach helped
him win Oscars for Whos
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and
the Woody Guthrie biopic
Bound for Glory, died on Sunday. He was 93.
Mr. Wexler died peacefully
in his sleep, sad his son, Oscar-nominated sound man
Jeff Wexler. A liberal activist,
Mr. Wexler photographed
some of the most socially relevant and influential films of
the 1960s and 1970s, including
the Jane Fonda-Jon Voight anti-war classic Coming Home,
the Sidney Poitier-Rod Steiger racial drama In the Heat of
the Night and the Oscar-winning adaptation of Ken Keseys One Flew Over the
Cuckoos Nest.
He was a wonderful father.
I owe most of who I am to his
wisdom and guidance, said
his son, nominated for Oscars
himself for Independence
Day and The Last Samurai.
AP

Tourists enjoy the fresh snow in Gulmarg near Srinagar. PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD
PEERZADA ASHIQ
SRINAGAR: With an eye on Winter Olympics 2018, the Government on Monday announced the opening up of
Kashmirs winter destination
Gulmarg for the 12th National
Ice Skating Championship.
At least 17 States will participate in the event that will be
held in January next year.
Around 150 athletes will take
part.
The championship will include Short Track Speed Skat-

ing, Dancing and Figure

Skating.
We aim at skiers from J-K
making it to the world skiing
championship to be held in
South Korea in 2018 with such
events, said Tourism Director Mehmood Shah.
Located 45 km north of Srinagar, Gulmarg will host the
Championship from December 30 for five days.
States like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
have registered with the Na-

tional Ice Skating Association

for the event.
Ice Skating Association
General Secretary R.K. Gupta
said the national-level event
in Kashmir will help in ascertaining and bringing talent
to the forefront.
Gulmarg is known for its
deep and dry curry powder
snow. According to experts,
the snow quality here is
unique due to the high altitude and southern exposure
of the continent at around 35
degrees latitude.

Count your eggs as you eat

More than a thousand eggs are boiled with spices in a pot during a crazy egg eating game at Qingyuan in the
Guangdong province of China on Sunday. Almost a thousand tourists participated in the game. A tourist had five
hot eggs eaten in a minute, according to local media. PHOTO: REUTERS

Taiwans Louvre opens after 15-year wait

The museum Chiayi is an extension of Taipeis famous National Palace Museum
TAIPEI: Some of Chinas most

valuable historic artefacts

went on display in Taiwan on
Monday at a new branch of
one of the worlds top museums, as the island pushes its
credentials as a cultural
destination.
The 9,000 square metre
venue in the southern city of
Chiayi is an extension of Taipeis famous National Palace
Museum one of the most
popular museums in the
world, drawing more than
five million visitors each year.
The new attraction opens
as Taiwan attempts to diversify its stagnating economy,
with tourism a key area for
growth, and officials hope the
museum will lure more visitors to the rural south.
The opening comes after a
catalogue of delays due to
flooding, and disagreements
with the venues original architect it has taken 15 years
to complete.
We hope to attract up to 1.5
million visitors in the first
year, said Feng Ming-chu, director of both the Taipei and
Chiayi museums. The new
venue will target domestic
visitors from the south as well
as foreign tourists, with the
museum to be included in
travel packages, said Feng.

A traditional drumming performance on the opening day in

front of the extension of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi
in Taiwan. PHOTO: AFP

The flagship Taipei museum

boasts more than 655,000 Chinese artefacts spanning 7,000
years from the prehistoric Neolithic period to the end of the
Qing Dynasty in 1911.
They were removed from
the Beijing Palace Museum in
the 1930s by Chinas Nationalist government to prevent

LONDON: The Taj Mahal and

the Statue of Liberty have
welcomed the 126-year-old
Eiffel Tower on Twitter, as
the worlds most visited
monument joined the micro-blogging site last week.
Parisian since 1889, now I
am sparkling on Twitter!
said one of the first tweets,
in both English and French,
on the official account of the
Eiffel Tower.
Welcome
@LaTourEiffel, tweeted
the Taj Mahal, one of the
worlds wonders, built in
1632 by the Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan to house the
tomb of his wife, Mumtaz
Mahal.Thanks
a
lot
@TajMahal, Eiffel Tower
tweeted back.
The 1,063-foot-tall tower
nicknamed La Grande
Dame by its creator Gustave
Eiffel attracts more than
seven million visitors from
across the globe each year.
It already has around 1.7
million fans on its Facebook
account but until last week
had kept away from Twitter.
Its arrival under the
username @LaTourEiffel
was quickly hailed by direct
tweets from the official
accounts of other worldrenowned monuments.
Welcome to Twitter, my
sister, said a tweet by the
Statue of Liberty, which was
designed by a French
sculptor and built by Eiffel
before being shipped off to
the U.S. as a gift from the
people of France in the late
19th century.

SHANE HICKEY

hinese actress Zhang Ziyi who gained

international fame for her role in Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon has had a baby girl. Zhang posted
a photo of two hands holding a babys hand in her social
media account on Monday. The caption read:
December 27th, 2015, you, me, her ... With the birth of
this little life, we have our own family. Everything went
safely and smoothly. Infinite gratitude!
Zhangs manager confirmed in
a text message that the 36year-old actor had given
birth. Its Zhangs first child
and the third for Chinese
rock singer and composer
Wang Feng who has two
daughters from previous
relationships. Reports said
she gave birth in the
United States. Zhang
accepted a marriage
proposal delivered by
drone from Wang in
February. AP

Taj Mahal welcomes

Eiffel Tower on Twitter

them falling into the hands of

invading Japanese troops.
The collection was then
transported to Taiwan by the
Nationalists after they were
defeated by Chinese communist forces and fled the mainland in 1949.
Ms. Feng was optimistic the
new branch would attract vis-

itors, despite the less wellknown location.

She compared it with
Frances Louvre museum
opening an outpost in the former coal-mining town of
Lens. Stellar exhibits from the
Taipei museum will be moved
to Chiayi for the inaugural
months including the jadeite cabbage sculpture, created in the 19th century by an
unknown artist.
The cabbage head with a locust and cricket camouflaged
in its leaves has become a favourite with visitors and is
seen as an auspicious symbol
of fertility. There will also be
South Asian costume, Islamic
jades and blue-and-white porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
Permanent exhibitions include Buddhist artefacts,
Asian textiles and tea culture
displays. Designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao, the
museums two stretched,
curved buildings include
huge walls of glass and are
emblazoned with dragons
and clouds. Hopefully the
museum will become a critical factor in Chiayi, to enable
the agriculture-based county
to transform into a place focused on culture, said Chang
Hua-kuan, chief of Chiayi
county government. AFP

The Eiffel Tower illuminated

during the climate change
conference earlier this
month. Photo: AFP

New Yorks Empire State

Building also welcomed the
tall Paris tower to the world
of microblogging.
The Louvre, the worlds
most visited museum in
France, did likewise, in a
tweet accompanied by a
photo of the tower on the
distant horizon taken from
the museums rooftop.
The administrators of the
Eiffel Tower said they had
decided to open the Twitter
account to provide news
about the Tower, historical
facts as well as practical
information. PTI

Utilising evaporating
water to generate power

Zhang Ziyi welcomes baby girl

CM
YK

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2015

Gift of Wonder to usher in

new year at Times Square

Electricians install Waterford Crystal triangles on the Times

Square New Years Eve Ball atop the roof of One Times Square
in the Manhattan borough of New York. PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK: The Waterford crys-

tal ball in Times Square is being worked on in preparation

for its glittering entrance into
2016 later this week.
Workers are installing 288
new sparkling Waterford
crystal triangles.
They are being added to
more than 2,100 other crystal
triangles to create whats being described as a Gift of
Wonder design.

The ball is being worked on

atop One Times Square at
42nd Street and Broadway.
The custom-designed crystals created by Waterford artisans are built to withstand
high winds, precipitation and
temperature
fluctuations.
The ball, a New Years Eve
icon, must be sturdy because
it will rest 470 feet (143 meters) above Times Square.
AP

small device on the shelf

of Professor Ozgur Sahins office in Columbia University could open up the possibility of another form of
renewable energy, one that is
much cheaper than solar and
wind.
Prof. Sahin has used the
simple gadget to prove that
evaporating water can be
used to generate power,
which could eventually lead
to energy being generated
from still reservoirs. At the
centre of the research by Prof.
Sahin and his team in New
York are spores of common
soil bacteria; these spores expand, much like a muscle,
when there is moisture in the
atmosphere, and contract in
drier conditions.
In 2009, Prof. Sahin started
to investigate whether there
was a practical application to
this expansion and contraction. By putting thin layers of
the spores on plastic tapes
and controlling the amount of
moisture in the air, they expand and contract very quickly, creating movement on the
tapes. By putting a large number of tapes together, they
produce an energy force
which can be captured.
Rubber coated with spores
In the case of the device
which now sits on his office
shelf, Prof. Sahin coated a rubber sheet with spores. By putting a glass of water beside it,
the rubber sheet changes its
curvature with the moisture
in the air, and pushes and
pulls on a seesaw mechanism.
This motion was then converted into electricity using
an attached coil and magnet.
To the naked eye, there is
nothing happening to the water. But molecules are leaving
the surface in the constant
process of evaporation. With
open bodies of water, such as
reservoirs or lakes, these are
eventually replenished with
rain.
A device can sit at the interface where water is evaporating. It can pick moisture
from the water surface and
give it to the dry air and take
some energy, he says.
With that proof that the
system could work, Prof. Sahin and his team then developed other devices using the
same principles. An evaporation engine sat on the surface
of the water and as moisture
entered the device, the spores
on plastic tapes curve and
open shutters, allowing moisture to escape from the unit.
When the shutters close

New device can use

energy made by
bacteria when it
expands and
contracts
again, the moisture fills the
device and the system starts
again. Another device is the
moisture mill where spores
on tapes were placed around a
wheel . As the spores start to
flex like a muscle, the device
starts moving.
Useful in reservoirs
One of the possible uses for
the technique is on reservoirs
where there is a substantial
amount of evaporation, particularly in droughtaffected
areas. In Los Angeles , millions of black plastic shade
balls were placed on the surface of a reservoir to reduce
water loss. Prof. Sahin says
long sheets of plastic painted
with the spores could be
stretched across parts of the
water and generate power
while at the same time reducing the amount of water
which is lost through
evaporation.
What we are envisioning
is flexible spore-based materials that float on the surfaces
of reservoirs that stretch from
one end of the reservoir to the
other, then there is a generator on one end that produces
electricity as it expands and
contracts over the surface, he
says.
The set-up costs of the
evaporation method would be
cheaper compared with other
renewable energy sources
such as wind and solar, he
said. With more funding to
expand the research into bigger areas, possibly by using
swimming pools, he said that
the system could be useable
on a large scale in between 10
and 15 years.
More funding needed
We have shown that all of
the parts work together in the
lab. There could be problems
if you go from lab to the real
environment but for that you
just need to test it and identify
it and you cannot do that until
there is more research funding on this, Prof. Sahin said.
At present, there are just
three people working on the
project, he said, a number
which needs to increase tenfold to develop it further.
In theory, the volumes of
energy which can be produced are similar to solar
power, he says. Guardian Newspapers Limited,
2015
HY-HY