The Indian Panorama

Month: October 2022

  • Shooting included in 2026 CWG but wrestling and archery miss out

    Shooting included in 2026 CWG but wrestling and archery miss out

    Melbourne (TIP)- Shooting will return to the Commonwealth Games roster in the 2026 edition in Victoria, Australia, while wrestling has been dropped in a bitter-sweet turn of events for India. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the Commonwealth Games Australia on Wednesday unveiled the full sport programme for the Victoria 2026 CWG, featuring 20 sports and 26 disciplines, including nine fully integrated para sports. The return of shooting, which was controversially dropped from the Birmingham CWG earlier this year, is a welcome development for India. Shooting has been India’s strongest sport in the Commonwealth Games with 135 medals (63 gold, 44 silver and 28 bronze) till now. Wrestling is in third spot with 114 (49 gold, 39 silver and 26 bronze) medals. In the 2018 Gold Coast edition, Indian shooters won 16 medals — 25 per cent of the country’s total medals of 66 — with 7 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze.

    The addition of para-shooting in the 2026 Games will also add to India’s medal tally.

    But the absence of wrestling which yielded the most number of medals — 12 (6 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze) at the Birmingham Games is a big loss. The sport has been dropped after featuring in four successive Games since 2010.

    Archery, on the other hand, has featured only twice in the CWG — in 1982 and 2010 — and India stands second in the all-time medal tally for the sport. The dropping of wrestling is, however, not on unexpected lines. Wrestling is not a sport that is very popular in Australia and the host nation usually picks sports where home athletes are expected to do well. Shooting is a popular sport in Australia which finished second behind India in the 2018 CWG with nine medals (3 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze) from the sport.

    However, the 2026 edition will not have full bore shooting events and will be competed in pistol, rifle and shotgun disciplines. This development will, however, have no impact on the medal prospects of the Indian shooters as they are not traditionally strong at full bore events. “The shooting programme will include air pistol, air rifle, shooting para sport and shotgun trap. However, full bore are not included,” according to an Australian shooting official. “It is better for shooting to be on the programme in a reduced way than not at all.” The shooting programme in the 2018 Gold Coast CWG had disciplines on full bore, pistol, rifle and shotgun.

    In April, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had written to the CGF to include shooting, wrestling and archery in the 2026 CWG, describing their dropping from the initial list of sports as “shocking”.

    Golf, 3×3 Basketball, 3×3 Wheelchair Basketball, Coastal Rowing, Shooting, Shooting Para Sport, BMX Racing, Mountain Bike Cross Country, Track Cycling and Para Cycling Track have been added to roster, while Coastal Rowing, Golf, and BMX will make a Commonwealth Games debut. “Victoria 2026 is also proposing to add in Para disciplines in Golf, Coastal Rowing and the Road Race and will work with the Commonwealth Games Federation and relevant international sporting federations to determine if this is possible,” a CGF media release read. It is estimated the Games will contribute more than USD 3 billion to Victoria’s economy, creating more than 600 fulltime equivalent jobs before the Games, 3,900 jobs during the Games and a further 3,000 jobs beyond the Closing Ceremony.

    CGF President Louise Martin said, The Games are set to be competitive and action-packed, featuring an extensive, fully integrated Para Sport Program, the debuts of Coastal Rowing, Golf and BMX, the return of Shooting and the scintillating 3×3 Basketball.

    The Programme is rooted in the CGF’s 2026-30 Strategic Roadmap, which provides hosts with greater flexibility to propose new sports, especially ones with specific local relevance that will enhance cultural showcasing and increase community engagement.

    The 2026 CWG will be staged from March 17-29 in the Australian state of Victoria across multiple cities and regional hubs including Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland. The Opening Ceremony will take place at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

  • Four Indian-Americans in Forbes 400 rich list

    Four Indian-Americans in Forbes 400 rich list

    Vinod Khosla, Romesh Wadhwani and Rakesh Gangwal made it to the Forbes 2022 list. Indian-Americans Vinod Khosla, Romesh Wadhwani and Rakesh Gangwal made it to the Forbes 2022 list of 400 wealthiest Americans with Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry leading the pack with a net worth of $8.2 billion. Overall, Tesla’s Elon Musk earned the top spot for the first time, unseating former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who had held the top spot for four consecutive years. As a group, the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth $4 trillion, $500 billion less than last year, Forbes noted. Chaudhry, 63, who founded the cybersecurity firm Zscaler in 2008, is ranked 79. He and his family members own 42 per cent of the Nasdaq-listed firm which went public in March 2018. Before Zscaler, Chaudhry had founded four other tech companies that were all acquired — SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust, and AirDefense. In 1996, Chaudhry and his wife quit their jobs and used their life savings to launch SecureIT, their first startup. Chaudhry had moved to the US in 1980 to attend graduate school. He now lives in Reno, Nevada.

    With a net worth of $5.2 billion, Vinod Khosla (67) was ranked 181. His firm, Khosla Ventures, invests in experimental technologies such as biomedicine and robotics. Khosla had co-founded the computer hardware firm Sun Microsystems in 1982 with Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy, and Scott McNealy. Romesh T. Wadhwani (67), founder and chairman of Symphony Technology Group, was ranked 196 with a net worth of $5.1 billion. He stepped down as CEO of SymphonyAI at the start of 2022 in a move to ready the firm for a potential public offering. He is also the chairman of ConcertAI, an AI company focused on healthcare and life sciences that was valued at $1.9 billion by venture capital investors in March 2022.

    With a net worth of $3.7 billion, airline veteran Rakesh Gangwal (69) made his fortune from InterGlobe Aviation, the parent outfit of budget airline IndiGo, India’s largest by market share. He started his airline career with United Airlines in 1984 and went on to run US Airways Group as its chief executive and chairman. Gangwal had cofounded IndiGo with Rahul Bhatia in 2006 with one aircraft. The Miami resident, who is ranked 261 on the list, owns close to 37 per cent of the company

                    Source: IANS

  • UN agency warns of recession linked to ‘imprudent’ monetary policy

    UN agency warns of recession linked to ‘imprudent’ monetary policy

    A United Nations agency warned on Monday of the risk of a monetary policy-induced global recession that would have especially serious consequences for developing countries and called for a new strategy. “Excessive monetary tightening could usher in a period of stagnation and economic instability” for some countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a statement released alongside its annual report. “Any belief that they (central banks) will be able to bring down prices by relying on higher interest rates without generating a recession is, the report suggests, an imprudent gamble,” it said. The report said that higher interest rates, including hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, would have a more severe impact on emerging economies, which already have high levels of private and public debt. The report, entitled “Development prospects in a fractured world”, also warned of a potential debt crisis in the developing world. “The current course of action is hurting vulnerable people everywhere, especially in developing countries. We must change course,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan told a press conference in Geneva.

    Asked about solutions, she suggested there were other ways to bring inflation down, mentioning windfall taxes on corporations, better regulations to control commodity speculation and efforts to resolve supply-side bottlenecks.

    “If you want to use only one instrument to bring inflation down…the only possibility is to bring the world to a slowdown that will end up in a recession,” she said. Overall, UNCTAD revised down its 2022 global growth projection to 2.5% from the earlier 2.6% estimated in its March assessment. It expects growth of 2.2% in 2023. The International Monetary Fund also warned last month that some countries may slip into recession next year and revised its growth forecast downwards.

                    Source: Reuters

  • Recession avoidable with right fiscal policies: IMF

    Global recession can be avoided if governments’ fiscal policies were consistent with monetary policy tightening, but likely there would be countries falling into recession next year, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva said. In the context of monetary policy tightening, fiscal policy cannot stay idle because the cost of living crisis is hitting parts of society dramatically, Georgieva said. She said fiscal policies that indiscriminately support everybody by suppressing energy prices and providing subsidies are working against monetary policies’ purposes. “So you have monetary policy putting a foot on the brakes and fiscal policy putting a foot on the accelerator,” she said, after taking part in a conference on food security in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

    Governments across the globe have stepped in to support their populations amid high food inflation and shortages by following the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, sending shockwaves through financial markets and the economy.

    Earlier, a United Nations agency warned of the serious consequences of a monetary policy-induced global recession for developing countries. It called for a new strategy, including corporate windfall taxes, supply-side efforts and regulation on commodity speculation.

  • Elon Musk may go ahead with original price of $54.20 a share for Twitter

    Elon Musk is proposing to buy Twitter Inc. for the original offer price of $54.20 a share, potentially avoiding a courtroom fight over one of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history. Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Twitter climbed as much as 18% on the news, and is now halted. Representatives for Musk and for San Francisco-based Twitter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Musk’s proposal to match the original deal terms means Twitter is facing a future under the leadership of a mercurial billionaire who has spent months publicly criticizing its management and questioning its value. It also means that his claims — about how many of Twitter’s users are bots, for instance — are not likely to be scrutinized in a courtroom. Musk had been trying for months to back out of his contract to acquire Twitter, signed in April. Musk began showing signs of buyer’s remorse shortly after the deal was announced, alleging that Twitter had misled him about the size of its user base and the prevalence of automated accounts known as bots.

  • Karwa Chauth

    Karwa Chauth

    Karwa Chauth is considered to be a very special day in the life of a married woman. It is a one day festival in which married women observe fast from sunrise to moonrise with much fervor and gaiety. The day falls on the fourth day of Kartik month in Hindu calendar, about nine days before Diwali in the month of either October or November. On this day, the married women specially pray to Goddess Gauri (Parvati) seeking the well-being, prosperity and safety of their husband.

    Origin

    Karva is another word for ‘pot’ (a small earthen pot of water) and chauth means ‘fourth’ in Hindi (a reference to the fact that the festival falls on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, or krishna paksh, of the month of Kartik).

    The festival originated and came to be celebrated only in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The hypothesis is that military campaigns were often conducted by Hindus who were defending India against Mughal invaders, they would often leave their wives and children to go off to war. Their wives would often pray and celebrate a day of socialising, with other women, by preparing special meals, and dressing up in their finest regalia, and having what would today be deemed as a romantic evening with their husband before he went off to war. Women whose husbands had already gone off to war, join the fast to pray for the safety of their husbands at this time as they ventured away from home to defend India. The festival coincides with the wheat-sowing time (i.e., the beginning of the Rabi crop cycle). Big earthen pots in which wheat is stored are sometimes called Karvas, so the fast may have begun as a prayer for a good harvest in this predominantly wheat-eating region.

    There is another story about the origin of this festival. Earlier, girls sometimes barely teenagers used to get married, go and live with their in-laws in very remote villages. Everyone would be a stranger there for the new bride. In case she had any problems with her husband or in-laws, she would have no one to talk to or seek support from. Her own parents and relatives would be quite far and unreachable. Telephones, buses and trains were not heard of in those days. People had to walk almost a whole day to go from one place to other. Once the girl left her parent’s home for in-laws, she might not be back before long. Thus the custom started that, at the time of marriage, when bride would reach her in-laws, she would befriend another woman there who would be her friend (kangan-saheli) or sister (dharam-behn) for life. It would be similar to god-friends or god-sisters. Their friendship would be sanctified through a small Hindu ceremony right during the marriage. The bride’s friend would usually be of the same age (or slightly older), married into the same village (so that she would not go away) and not directly related to her in-laws (so there was no conflict of interest later).

    Emotionally and psychologically, it would be very healthy and comforting for the bride to have her own ‘relative’ near her.Once the bride and this woman had become god-friends or god-sisters, they would recognize their relation as such. They would treat each other like real sisters. During any issues later in life, involving even the husband or in-laws, these women would be able to confidently talk or seek help from each other. Moreover, the bride’s parents would treat her friend just like their own daughter. Thus Karva Chauth started as a festival to celebrate this special bond of friendship between the brides and their god-friends. A few days before Karva Chauth, married women would buy new karvas (spherical clay pots) — 7″-9″ in diameter and 2-3 litres capacity-and paint them on the outside with beautiful designs. Inside they would put bangles and ribbons, home-made candy and sweets, make-up items, and small clothes. The women would then visit each other on the day of Karva Chauth and exchange these karvas.

    Rituals

    Women begin preparing for Karva Chauth a few days in advance, by buying cosmetics (shringar), traditional adornments or jewelry, and puja items, such as the Karva lamps, matthi, henna and the decorated puja thali (plate).Local bazaars take on a festive look as shopkeepers put their Karva Chauth related products on display.On the day of the fast, women from Punjab awake to eat and drink just before sunrise. In Uttar Pradesh, celebrants eat soot feni with milk in sugar on the eve of the festival. It is said that this helps them go without water the next day. In Punjab, sargi is an important part of this pre-dawn meal and always includes fenia. It is traditional for the sargi to be sent or given to the woman by her mother-in-law. If the mother-in-law lives with the woman, the pre-dawn meal is prepared by the mother-in-law. The fast begins with dawn. Fasting women do not eat during the day. In traditional observances of the fast, the fasting woman does no housework. Women apply henna and other cosmetics to themselves and each other. The day passes in meeting friends and relatives. In some regions, it is customary to give and exchange painted clay pots filled with put bangles, ribbons, home-made candy, cosmetics and small cloth items (e.g., handkerchiefs). Since Karva Chauth follows soon after the Kharif crop harvest in the rural areas, it is a good time for community festivities and gift exchanges. Parents often send gifts to their married daughters and their children.

    In the evening, a community women-only ceremony is held. Participants dress in fine clothing and wear jewellery and henna, and (in some regions) dress in the complete finery of their wedding dresses.  The dresses (saris or shalwars) are frequently red, gold or orange, which are considered auspicious colors. In Uttar Pradesh, women wear saris or lehangas. The fasters sit in a circle with their puja thalis. Depending on region and community, a version of the story of Karva Chauth is narrated, with regular pauses. The storyteller is usually an older woman or a priest, if one is present. In the pauses, the Karva Chauth puja song is sung collectively the singers perform the feris (passing their thalis around in the circle).

    The fera ceremony concluded, the women await the rising of the moon. Once the moon is visible, depending on the region and community, it is customary for a fasting woman, with her husband nearby, to view its reflection in a vessel filled with water, through a sieve, or through the cloth of a dupatta. Water is offered (arka) to the moon (som or chandra, the lunar deity) to secure its blessings. She then turns to her husband and views his face indirectly in the same manner. In some regions, the woman says a brief prayer asking for her husband’s life. It is believed that at this stage, spiritually strengthened by her fast, the woman can successfully confront and defeat death (personified by Yama). In Rajasthan the women say “Like the gold necklace and the pearl bracelet, just like the moon may my suhaag always shine brightly.” The husband now takes the water from the thali and gives his wife her first sip and feeds her with the first morsel of the day (usually something sweet). The fast is now broken, and the woman has a complete meal.

  • Rameshwaram: The Bridge on the Indian Ocean

    Rameshwaram: The Bridge on the Indian Ocean

    Rameshwaram is located on a beautiful island in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is separated by a small Pamban channel from Sri Lanka. According to Hindu mythology, this is the place where Lord Rama created a bridge across the sea to Sri Lanka. Rameshwaram has the first sea bridge connecting the town of  Mandapam with Pamban Island, and Rameswaram. Abdandoned town of Dhanushkodi is also located on Pamban Island which was a bustling town until  it got destroyed in 1964 by cyclone. Renowned for its magnificent prakaras with massive sculptured pillars on either side, The Ramanathaswamy Temple houses the longest corridor in the world. Agniteertham is famous for its sacred waters and Pilgrims perform poojas in honour of their ancestors at this seashore. The five-faced Hanuman Temple holds the floating stone which was used to build the bridge between India and Sri Lanka.

    Places To Visit- Rameshwaram Temple

    A perfect blend of mind-boggling architecture and spiritual significance, Rameshwaram Temple, also known as Ramanathaswamy Temple of Tamil Nadu is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It also boasts of being one of the 12 Jyotirlinga temples of India. Not just spiritually, Rameshwaram Temple is appealing architecturally also. With the longest corridor of the world and immaculate carvings on pillars, it is definitely a treat for your eyes.

    The lingam in the Rameshwaram Temple was installed by Lord Rama but, the construction was led by several rulers over the centuries. Inside the temple, there are two lingams- Ramalingam and Shivalingam. The latter is still worshipped first to preserve the words of Lord Rama. Besides daily Abhishkams and poojas performed with great zeal, there are absorbing festivals worth witnessing.

    Dhanushkodi Temple and Beach

    Dhanushkodi was until a few years ago a wonderful temple on the southern tip of India. However, due to a natural calamity, the cyclone, it got completely washed away.

    It holds the advantage of being on an island and is exquisitely covered by waters on all the four sides of it. It is sandwiched between the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. When viewed from a birds eye,The seas are in the shape of bow and arrow. The arrow head is considered to be a sacred place for worship by the Hindus and people from far and wide come there to offer sacred prayers to the deity. Lord Rama has his pious foot marks in this temple and the whole story of Ramayana revolves around this temple island. It is a wonderful pilgrim place for the followers of Lord Rama. The place is an approximate of 18 kms from Rameshwaram and one can easily travel by road.

    Jatayu Tirtham

    Jatayu tirtham is the holy temple constructed in the memory of Jatayu, who was the most loyal eagle of Rama and who helped lord Rama at various instances in getting herbs from the mountains.

    It is said that this eagle lost its life in order to save the life of lord Rama and hence its sacrifice is always appreciated and it is worshiped as a deity even today. It was buried in the soil when it died and Jatayu temple has been created at the place of its burial. The whole of its pit was filled with vibhuti, which is the holy ash that is obtained after the yagnas. It is believed that it was buried in the soil whenafter death and Jatayu temple has been created at the place of its burial. The whole of its pit was filled with vibhuti, which is the holy ash that is obtained after the yagnas.

    Agnitheertham

    One of the 64 sacred baths in Rameshwaram, the Agnitheertham is one of the most important theertham and receives a large number of tourists each day. Located on the beach side of Sri Ramanathaswamy temple, Agnitheertham is the only theertham sited outside the temple complex.

    In the Sanskrit language, the word agni means fire; while the word theertham means holy water. Agnitheertham has been mentioned several times in the ancient texts and mythological legends as a pilgrimage of significant importance among the Hindus. The devotees visiting the theertham offer their prayers to the deity and atone their sins by taking a dip in the holy waters.

    Lakshmana Tirtham

    Lakshmana Tirtham had been constructed in the loving memory of Lord Lakshman, brother of Lord Rama. In order to offer sacred prayers to lord Lakshmana, this temple has been constructed in Rameshwaram itself which indicates that Lord Lakshman had been given a valuable place in the dynasty of Lord Rama. Several wonderful sculptures of Lord Lakshmana have been carved out from marble and the temple has the statues of lord Rama and Goddess Sita too which signifies the spirit of unitedness that exisited between them.

    Villoondi Tirtham

    Villoondi Tirtham is a beach which is also considered a sacred natural water body and a favourite amongst tourists. It also has a spring inside the sea which makes the attraction a unique one and is often associated with the Legend of Ramayana. It is believed that Lord Rama shot an arrow to create this spring to help his people with drinking water.

                    Source: Holidify.com

  • EU mandates USB Type-C as common charger for mobile phones, tablets by 2024

    EU mandates USB Type-C as common charger for mobile phones, tablets by 2024

    Common charger for mobile devices will soon be a reality as the European parliament on Tuesday passed a new law requiring USB Type-C to be the single charger for all mobile phones and tablets from 2024, a press release by the EU Parliament read.

    The new law, adopted by plenary on Tuesday with 602 votes in favour, 13 against and 8 abstentions, is part of a broader EU effort to reduce e-waste and to empower consumers to make more sustainable choices. This move will be benefitting the environment and the consumers. USB Type-C port will be the new standard for portable devices, offering high-quality charging and data transfers.

    By the end of 2024, all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port. From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to laptops.

    Buyers will be able to choose whether to purchase a new device with or without a charging device. Following Parliament’s approval, EU consumers will soon be able to use a single charging solution for their electronic devices, the press release added.

    Under the new rules, consumers will no longer need a different charger every time they purchase a new device, as they will be able to use one single charger for a whole range of small and medium-sized portable electronic devices.

    Regardless of their manufacturer, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable, operating with a power delivery of up to 100 Watts, will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port.             Source: ANI

  • Ingenuity helicopter spots mysterious foreign object on Mars

    Engineers flying the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars have spotted a foreign object on the surface in the footage beamed back by the helicopter. The object was seen in the helicopter’s navigation camera footage during its 33rd hop on the alien world.

    The Jet propulsion Laboratory, which flies the quadcopter on Mars, said that the foreign object debris was not visible in Navcam footage from the previous flight. The helicopter has been revving up its wings as it continues to aid Perseverance in the search for ancient microbial life on Mars. “The FOD is seen in Flight 33 Navcam imagery from the earliest frames to approximately halfway through the video when it fell from the leg and drifted back to the Mars surface,” JPL said in a blog update.

    While the telemetry data indicate that the machine is not damaged, post-flight search and transfer have come out to be nominal. “The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are working to discern the source of the debris,” JPL added in its update about the quadcopter. The 33rd flight for the helicopter on Mars saw it climb to an altitude of 10 meters above the surface, covering a distance of 111.238 meters. The helicopter revved at a speed of 4.75 meters per second and remained airborne for 55.61 seconds. The aim of the flight was to reposition the helicopter.

    The small, autonomous aircraft has been on Mars for over a year now, during which it has not only demonstrated its ability to fly in the Red Planet’s thin air, but also act as a guide for the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity was deployed to the surface on April 4, 2021, and on April 19, it became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

  • New drug NMT5 may turn covid virus against itself, fight variants

    Scientists in the US have developed a new drug that can turn SARS-CoV-2 against itself, and prevent the deadly virus from infecting humans. The researchers from The Scripps Research Institute believe that the drug, called NMT5, is likely to be effective against the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.

    The drug, described in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, coats SARS-CoV-2 with chemicals that can temporarily alter the human ACE2 receptor — the molecule the virus normally latches onto to infect cells.  When the virus is near, its path into human cells via the ACE2 receptor is blocked. In the absence of the virus, however, ACE2 can function as usual, the researchers said.

    “What’s so neat about this drug is that we’re actually turning the virus against itself,” said study senior author Stuart Lipton, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute.

    The team tested a library of compounds and pinpointed NMT5 as having two key properties: It could recognise and attach to a pore on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, and chemically modify human ACE2 using a fragment of nitroglycerin as the warhead.

    The researchers realised this could turn the virus into a delivery vehicle for its own demise.

    They characterised and tested NMT5 in isolated cells as well as animals. The study showed how NMT5 attaches tightly to SARS-CoV-2 viral particles as the viruses move through the body. The researchers then revealed the details of how the drug adds a chemical, similar to nitroglycerin, to certain molecules if it gets close enough. When the virus gets near ACE2 to infect a cell, it translates into NMT5 adding a “nitro group” to the receptor. When ACE2 is modified in this way, its structure temporarily shifts — for about 12 hours — so that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can no longer bind to it to cause infection.

    “What’s really beautiful is that this only knocks down availability of ACE2 locally when the virus is coming at it. It doesn’t knock down all the function of ACE2 elsewhere in the body, allowing for normal function of this protein,” said Lipton.                 Source: PTI

  • Researchers find immunotherapies for chemotherapy-resistant breast tumor

    The researchers have identified immune cell types that could be targeted to create particular immunotherapies for chemotherapy-resistant breast tumours. Researchers from King’s College London and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, with support from Breast Cancer Now, have performed a deep dive into the different immune markers within tumour tissues and blood samples of early breast cancer patients whose cancer failed to respond to chemotherapy given to them prior to surgery.

    The research, published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, gives insight into the function of immune cells in patients with chemotherapy-resistant breast cancers. While chemotherapy may not kill cancer cells in these high-risk patients, immunotherapy, a type of treatment that helps the immune system to attack cancer cells, may provide a benefit.

    To investigate the immune environment that surrounds these chemotherapy-resistant tumours, researchers employed multiple and novel complementary technologies looking at proteins and genes on both pre-treatment and post-treatment breast cancer tissue. They also measured how 1,330 cancer and immune-related genes within cancer tissues were affected by chemotherapy.

    They found that chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells had very few immune cells around them, but chemotherapy did induce changes in several immune cell types. Specifically, they found increases in the number of “innate” (first responder) cells such as neutrophils and natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells help the body to fight infection and cancer. But the analysis found the increased NK cells in patients with chemotherapy-resistant disease lacked cytotoxic activity – the ‘killing instinct’. Researchers also found that immune-related genes associated with NK cells were those associated with cell inhibition or exhaustion, which meant NK cells were unable to fight cancer cells.

           Source: ANI

  • Face masks to try for healthy and glowing skin

    Face masks to try for healthy and glowing skin

    Banana lemon and honey mask

    ‘The fibrous fruit not only helps with blood pressure and digestion, but also works wonders for your skin. This banana and honey fruit pack helps exfoliate the skin and gets rid of the clogged pores and dry, dead skin, leaving your skin with a subtle glow.

    How to make: Take a couple of mashed bananas and add a tablespoon of honey and lemon juice. Apply this evenly on the face and neck area. Let it dry for about 15 minutes and wash it off with lukewarm water for best results.

    Green tea mask

    Green tea is extremely rich in antioxidants and does magic to your body, both internally and externally. It works great for oily skin, cures acne issues and its anti-inflammatory properties help fight premature ageing.

    How to make: Take two tablespoons of green tea and grind it into a fine powder. Now, add some whipped yogurt and a few drops of an essential oil (optional). Massage the prepared pack thoroughly over your skin. Wash it off with warm water after five minutes.

    Papaya and honey face pack

    A fruit abundantly rich in antioxidants, papaya is known to treat dark spots and pigmentation with its high vitamin A and vitamin C content. When mixed with the natural humectant honey, it makes a great mask to help treat pigmentation, fine lines, sunburn, and a lot more.

    How to make: Mash some semi-raw papaya cubes and add a tablespoon of honey and milk to it. Give all the ingredients a good mix and once it converts into a smooth paste, apply the mask over your face and neck. Let it settle for 15-20 minutes before rinsing it off.

                    Source: Idiva

  • Morning drinks for good skin, great hair and weight loss

    Morning drinks for good skin, great hair and weight loss

    Regular exercise and proper food not only helps you to build immunity but also keeps your weight in check. To aid the process, all you need to add to your daily routine is a morning drink that will improve your health overall just like a miracle. Result? Good skin. Great hair. And of course, weight loss.

    APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

    Add one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to a lukewarm glass of water and drink it first thing in the morning. Ensure that you do not consume anything in the next 30 minutes of drinking this miracle potion that aids in weight loss, helps to reduce cholesterol and lowers blood sugar levels.

    AMLA JUICE

    Concentrated amla juice is available in almost every drugstore. Add two tablespoons of the juice to a glass of water and drink it on an empty stomach. Do not eat or drink anything till the next thirty minutes. Amla juice is a perfect drink to boost immunity and also helps in weight loss apart from improving skin and hair.

    HONEY LEMON WATER

    An age-old remedy, honey lemon water is a preferred drink for weight loss. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice and honey each to a glass of lukewarm water and drink it first thing in the morning.

    AMLA ALOE VERA JUICE

    The concentrated form of amla and aloe vera juice is also available in drugstores as well as online. Mix 30ml of juice in a glass of water and drink it on an empty stomach in the morning. This mixture contains essential vitamins and improves metabolism and digestion, thereby aiding weight loss. It acts as a natural detox and promotes clear skin.

    GINGER WATER

    Add half a teaspoon of ginger zest to a pot of boiling water. After a few minutes, pour the mixture into a glass and allow it to cool for a while. Drink it once it is lukewarm. Ginger water boosts immunity and hydrates the body apart from helping in weight loss and balancing blood sugar levels.

    GREEN TEA AND MINT TEA

    Boil a cup of water with a few mint leaves. After five minutes, add green tea to the pot. Boil it for five minutes and then, strain it into a cup and drink it in the morning. This is an effective drink for weight loss.

    LEMON HONEY & CINNAMON WATER

    Mix half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder with some lemon juice and honey. Put the mixture in a glass and add warm water to it. Drink it on an empty stomach. This concoction kills your hunger pangs, thereby aiding in weight loss.

    LEMON WATER WITH CHIA SEEDS

    Add the juice of half a lemon to a glass of lukewarm water. Mix Chia seeds in this drink and consume it in the morning. It will not only detoxify your body but will also help you in losing weight.

    GREEN TEA

    If you want to cut a long story short, ditch your regular cup of coffee or chai, and begin your day with green tea. It contains antioxidants and is also great for your skin. Weight loss? Yes, it helps.

                    Source: India Today

  • Doodhi Ka Halwa

    Doodhi Ka Halwa

    Ingredients

    Lauki (bottle gourd) 300 gms

    Milk 500 ml

    Sugar 20 gms

    Khoya 5 gms

    Kishmish 2 gms

    Cashewnuts 2 gms

    Saffron 5 strands

    Desi ghee 5 gms

    Cardamom powder 1 gm

    Method

    –              Remove the outer skin of bottle gourd (lauki) and grate it.

    –              Squeeze to remove excess water.

    –              Heat 3 grams of desi ghee in a handi.

    –              Add the grated lauki and saute for few minutes till it starts to get translucent.

    –              Now add milk and stir, till the milk boils and starts reducing.

    –              Keep stirring as the lauki has to be mashed in the milk and the milk gets completely reduced, this might take 20-30 minutes.

    –              Now add sugar and stir till the sugar dissolves completely.

    –              Soak the saffron in luke warm water for 10 minutes and add to the halwa.

    –              Heat the remaining desi ghee in a small pan and once it is heated, pour over the halwa , mix moderately so that the desi ghee flavor gets infused.

    –              You can either fry the raisins and cashew nuts or soak them in luke warm water, once done add to the halwa.

    –              Finish with cardamom powder.

    –              Serve hot.

  • Lifting weights once a week linked to reduced risk of premature death: Study

    Lifting weights once a week linked to reduced risk of premature death: Study

    It is well known that aerobic exercises, such as running and cycling, can help you live longer, but less has been known about the effect of lifting weights on longevity. Now, results from a new study suggest that adding weightlifting to your exercise regime, even in later life, is a sensible thing to do if you want to avoid an early death.

    The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to find out if lifting weights was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause, either on its own or alongside moderate to vigorous exercise.

    Moderate-intensity exercise was described as “activity where you worked up a light sweat or increased your breathing and heart rate to moderately high levels”, and vigorous activity as “activity strenuous enough to work up a sweat or increase your breathing and heart rate to very high levels”. The researchers led by a team from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, analysed data on just under one lakh men and women from ten cancer centres in the US. The participants had an average age of 71 and an average body-mass index of 27.8 (overweight). They followed the group for just shy of a decade, monitoring deaths from any cause, including heart disease.

    Around a quarter of people (23 per cent) reported lifting weights, with 16 per cent doing so regularly – between one and six times a week. And around a third (32 per cent) either met or did more than the recommended amount of aerobic exercise.

    Weightlifting and aerobic exercise were independently linked with a lower risk of premature death from any cause, except cancer. For adults who reported no aerobic activity, any weightlifting was associated with a nine per cent to 22 per cent lower risk of early death, depending on how often they lifted weights. For those who did not lift weights but did any level of aerobic exercise, this was 24 per cent to 34 per cent.

    However, the lowest risk was seen in those who did both weightlifting and aerobic exercise. For example, lifting weights once or twice a week and doing at least the recommended amount of aerobic exercise had a 41 per cent to 47 per cent lower risk of premature death. The study also found that women benefited more from weightlifting than men.

    Possible explanations for these findings are that weightlifting may have similar beneficial effects to aerobic exercise. For example, reducing heart disease risk factors by improving blood pressure and blood lipid (cholesterol and triglycerides) profile.

    Other recent research that combined studies on muscle strengthening and health outcomes found similar results, but also found a reduced risk of cancer, overall. Perhaps this new study did not find effects for cancer as they were targeting a population already at higher cancer risk, given the participants were part of a cancer screening programme. The best effects were again seen from combining aerobic and strengthening activity. Measuring exercise by asking participants to recall how much they exercised over the past year, for example, is a good option for large observational studies of this type, but it can mean over or under-reporting may influence the findings. A study that used digital devices such as smart watches to measure actual activity would provide more accurate results.

                    Source: PTI

  • Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne involved in fight with pap

    Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne involved in fight with pap

    Actors Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne were reportedly involved in an altercation with a photographer in Argentina recently. The altercation, which soon became physical as the actors got involved, resulted in the paparazzo pressing charges after he ended up with a broken arm. Two friends of the actors, who reports say aren’t bodyguards, have been detained by the police. Cara and Margot worked together on the 2016 film Suicide Squad, in which Margot played her iconic role of Harley Quinn, while Cara played the antagonist Enchantress. The two have since remained friends and often meet for luncheons. As per a report, they were recently dining in Buenos Aires, Argentina when a paparazzo reportedly invaded their personal space.

    According to a TMZ report, the two were ‘thrust into a dangerous situation’ as they were leaving the restaurant and the photographer Pedro Alberto Orquera rushed to click them. The report states that eyewitnesses called the photographer ‘intrusive’ and ‘aggressive’ as he tried to click them while Margot was entering the car. This led to the Uber driver speeding away and the actor had to jump out on the pavement.

  • Phone Bhoot: Katrina Kaif plays a ghost; it’s an encounter you can’t afford to miss

    Phone Bhoot: Katrina Kaif plays a ghost; it’s an encounter you can’t afford to miss

    Katrina Kaif is all set to experiment with her characters and has now decided to play the role of a ghost in Phone Bhoot. The actress has been roped in by Excel Entertainment to feature in their horror-comedy that also stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. The movie’s first look featuring the trio – Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter has piqued curiosity among the audience for its unusual casting. A source close to the film confirmed about the actress saying, “Phone Bhoot is undoubtedly a film that has been the talk of the town for a long time. While the audience does know some elements of the story as well as about the film, the big question that left everyone wondering was about the details of the ghost in the film. While we have seen Katrina essaying many glamorous characters in her intriguing filmography, this time she will be seen playing the character of a ghost for the first time in the film. As the film is slated to release this Diwali season, it would be exciting to see Katrina playing such a different role on the big screen. Katrina coming as a ghost with her distinctive charm would be a treat to watch in the film. Phone Bhoot will also mark Kartina’s first film after her marriage.” Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Ishaan Khatter recently attended Koffee With Karan 7 with Karan Johar asa the host. While audience got a glimpse of their off screen camaraderie, they seem to be quite excited to see them together on the big screen as well. Directed by Gurmmeet Singh and written by Ravi Shankaran and Jasvinder Singh Bath, Phone Bhoot is produced by Excel Entertainment, headed by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar. The film will be a post-Diwali release and is all set to be released on November 4.

                    Source: Bollywoodhungama

  • Alia Bhatt wins Time100 award in Singapore

    Alia Bhatt wins Time100 award in Singapore

    Alia Bhatt was awarded the Time100 award in Singapore on October 2. She was looking stunning in a dusty shimmery cape gown as she accepted the award. The soon to-be-mom delivered an impressive acceptance speech. Alia said, “I am immensely proud to be here tonight as the representative of my country — a country that has built both me and my career. India is a country that, at its core, values diversity above anything else.”

    She added, “And lastly when it comes to making an impact, I hope that I can continue to do so in whatever way possible, but for now, tonight, this award has genuinely made an impact on me…Me and my little one, who has relentlessly kicked me through this speech.” Alia also thanked her family members. “Thank you all for patiently listening to me. Also thank you to my team, for constantly being there for me, my family; my mom (Soni Razdan) for bringing me on to this planet; my father (Mahesh Bhatt); my sister Shaheen Bhatt, who has helped put my talks into words; my husband Ranbir Kapoor. I need to give them separate awards for putting up with me on a daily basis.”

  • Ranveer Singh calls Deepika Padukone ‘my queen’ amid separation rumors

    Ranveer Singh calls Deepika Padukone ‘my queen’ amid separation rumors

    Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone continue to go strong on the relationship front. Amid rumours of their separation, Ranveer has praised Deepika after she was signed by an international jewellery brand as its brand ambassador. After Cartier welcomed Deepika Padukone as its ‘newest ambassador’ along with a stunning black and white picture of her sporting a diamond necklace from the brand, Ranveer reacted to the post. He tweeted, “My Queen. Doing us proud!” along with a tricolor, hands joined in prayer and heart emoji. Recently, Ranveer had stepped out in a pink look from head to toe. He shared pictures of his look in a pink tee and pants paired with pink jacket and shoes on Instagram. Deepika had called his look ‘edible’ in the comments section. He also called Deepika ‘Queen on Instagram, while reacting to her look at the recent The Business of Fashion event in Paris.

    Deepika was among many celebrity guests at the The Business of Fashion event in Paris. She is the first Indian to feature on the Bof 500 cover. At the event, she joined the likes of Kylie Jenner, Natasha Poonawalla, Charli XCX, Ellie Goulding, Jaden Smith, Jared Leto, Paloma Elsesser and Karlie Kloss.  Ranveer and Deepika had made quite a few joint public appearances last month. They attended Mukesh Ambani’s Ganpati visarjan and attended the Ganpati darshan at Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s residence. Deepika had also joined Ranveer on stage to present him a trophy at the Filmfare Awards held last month. She gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug as she arrived on stage. She handed him the Filmfare best actor award for his performance in the film 83. Deepika had co-produced the film, and had played the role of Kapil Dev’s wife Romi Bhatia in it.        Source: HT

  • Nobel Laureates

    Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, Barry Sharpless win 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

    Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Barry Sharpless won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. While Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry click chemistry in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Carolyn Bertozzi took it to a new dimension and started utilising it in living organisms. “This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” said Johan Aqvist, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. The Chemistry Nobel is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as per the will of Alfred Nobel. So far, the committee has chosen 113 laureates in the field, of which seven have been women. Meanwhile, 25 chemistry prizes have been shared by two laureates.

    Frederick Sanger is the only person to have won the Chemistry prize twice, in 1958 and in 1980. The Nobel Committee in 2021 awarded the top award jointly to Benjamin List and David MacMillan for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction: organocatalysis. The tool has had a great impact on pharmaceutical research and has made chemistry greener. The Chemistry announcement comes a day after the Academy announced the Physics Nobel, which has been given to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for their experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science. The three laureates conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated.

    3 scientists share Nobel Prize in Physics

    Three scientists jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday, October 4,  for proving that tiny particles could retain a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon once doubted but now being explored for potential real-world applications such as encrypting information. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for experiments proving the “totally crazy” field of quantum entanglements to be all too real. They demonstrated that unseen particles, such as photons, can be linked, or “entangled,” with each other even when they are separated by large distances. It all goes back to a feature of the universe that even baffled Albert Einstein and connects matter and light in a tangled, chaotic way.

    Bits of information or matter that used to be next to each other even though they are now separated have a connection or relationship—something that can conceivably help encrypt information or even teleport. A Chinese satellite now demonstrates this and potentially lightning fast quantum computers, still at the small and not quite useful stage, also rely on this entanglement. Others are even hoping to use it in superconducting material.

    Svante Pääbo awarded Nobel Prize in medicine

    The Nobel Prizes 2022 for medicine or physiology was awarded to Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo. Svante Pääbo was given the award “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” the Nobel Prize committee. Considered the most prestigious prize in the scientific world, it is awarded by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($900,357).

    Through his pioneering research, Svante Pääbo accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova. Importantly, Pääbo also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago. This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections.

    In 1990, Pääbo was recruited to the University of Munich, where, as a newly appointed Professor, he continued his work on archaic DNA. He decided to analyze DNA from Neanderthal mitochondria – organelles in cells that contain their own DNA. The mitochondrial genome is small and contains only a fraction of the genetic information in the cell, but it is present in thousands of copies, increasing the chance of success.

    Svante Pääbo (born 20 April 1955) is a Swedish geneticist specialising in the field of evolutionary genetics and a Nobel prize laureate. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. He was appointed director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany in 1997. He is also a professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.

    French author Annie Ernaux wins Nobel Prize in Literature

    French author Annie Ernaux has won the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” Annie Ernaux was born in 1940 and grew up in the small town of Yvetot in Normandy. “Annie Ernaux’s debut was Les armoires vides (1974; Cleaned Out, 1990), and already in this work she started her investigation of her Norman background, but it was her fourth book, La place (1983; A Man’s Place, 1992), that delivered her literary breakthrough,” The Swedish Academy said in a statement.

    “In her writing, Ernaux consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class. Her path to authorship was long and arduous,” the statement further read. Ernaux’s famous works include A Woman’s Story, A Man’s Place, Simple Passion, Cleaned Out and L’occupation.

  • Facebook Parent Meta Launches AI Software Tools  to Ease Switching Between Nvidia, AMD Chips

    Facebook Parent Meta Launches AI Software Tools  to Ease Switching Between Nvidia, AMD Chips

    Facebook parent Meta said on Monday it has launched a new set of free software tools for artificial intelligence applications that could make it easier for developers to switch back and forth between different underlying chips. Meta’s new open-source AI platform is based on an open-source machine learning framework called PyTorch, and can help code run up to 12 times faster on Nvidia’s flagship A100 chip or up to four times faster on AMD’s MI250 chip, it said.

    But just as important as the speed boost is the flexibility the software can provide, Meta said in a blog post. The software has become a key battleground for chipmakers seeking to build up an ecosystem of developers to use their chips. Nvidia’s CUDA platform has been the most popular so far for artificial intelligence work.

    However, once developers tailor their code for Nvidia chips, it is difficult to run it on graphics processing units, or GPUs, from Nvidia competitors like AMD. Meta said the software is designed to easily swap between chips without being locked in.

    “The unified GPU back-end support gives deep learning developers more hardware vendor choices with minimal migration costs,” Meta said in its blog post. Meta’s software is made for AI work called inference, which is when machine learning algorithms that previously have been trained on huge amounts of data are called on to make quick judgments, such as deciding whether a photograph is of a cat or a dog. “This is a software effort that is multi-platform. And it’s a testament to the importance of software, particularly for deploying neural networks in machine learning for inference,” said David Kanter, a founder of MLCommons, an independent group that measures AI speed.

  • No fuel, India’s Mars Orbiter craft quietly bids adieu

    India’s Mars Orbiter craft has run out of propellant and its battery has drained beyond the safe limit, fuelling speculation that the country’s maiden interplanetary mission ‘Mangalyaan’ may have finally completed its long innings.

    The Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013, and the MOM spacecraft was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.

    “Right now, there is no fuel left. The satellite battery has drained,” sources in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. “The link has been lost”.

    There was, however, no official word from the country’s national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru.

    With fuel on board, ISRO had been performing orbital manoeuvres on MOM spacecraft to take it to a new orbit to avoid an impending eclipse in the past. “But recently, there were back-to-back eclipses including one that lasted seven-and-a-half hours,” officials said on condition of anonymity, noting that all the propellant on board the ageing satellite had been consumed. “As the satellite battery is designed to handle eclipse duration of only about one hour and 40 minutes, a longer eclipse would drain the battery beyond the safe limit,” another official said.

    ISRO officials noted that the Mars orbiter craft functioned for almost eight years, well beyond its designed mission life of six months. “It has done its job and yielded significant scientific results,” they said.

    Meanwhile, plans on a follow-on ‘Mangalyaan’ mission to the red planet, however, are yet to be firmed up.      Source: PTI

  • Big Tech firms to empower disabled users with sound recognition

    Big Tech firms to empower disabled users with sound recognition

    The University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC) has announced a new Speech Accessibility Project with big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta. The aim of the project is to improve voice recognition for users with disabilities and different speech patterns including users with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and other diseases that affect speech.

    “Speech interfaces should be available to everybody, and that includes people with disabilities,” said Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, a UIUC professor. The Speech Accessibility Project will gather speech samples from people with a variety of speech patterns to include communities of people with disabilities like Parkinson’s.  To contribute voice samples and help create a private unidentified dataset, the UIUC will hire paid volunteers. At first, the group will focus on American English. The initiative has received support commitments from Team Gleason (ALS) and the Davis Phinney Foundation (Parkinson’s). “Part of that commitment includes ensuring people with Parkinson’s have access to the tools, technologies, and resources needed to live their best lives,” said Polly Dawkins, the Davis Phinney Foundation’s Executive Director. “Parkinson’s affects motor symptoms, making typing difficult, so speech recognition is a critical tool for communication and expression,” she added.

  • Kim Kardashian pays $1.26 mn fine for illegally promoting crypto on Instagram

    Kim Kardashian pays $1.26 mn fine for illegally promoting crypto on Instagram

    Reality TV star Kim Kardashian paid $1.26 million fine after she was charged with unlawfully promoting an illegal crypto investment scheme on Instagram, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said. Kardashian has also agreed to not promote any crypto asset securities for three years. She promoted on social media a crypto asset offered and sold by EthereumMax without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion.

    The SEC said that she agreed to settle the charges, pay $1.26 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest, and cooperate with the Commission’s ongoing investigation. “This case is a reminder that, when celebrities or influencers endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, it doesn’t mean that those investment products are right for all investors,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “We encourage investors to consider an investment’s potential risks and opportunities in light of their own financial goals,” Gensler said in a statement. In a series of posts to her Instagram story, Kardashian asked her followers, “Are you guys into crypto??? This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the ethereum max token!” Her followers were then encouraged to head to the EthereumMax website and “join the E-Max community”.

    The SEC found that Kardashian failed to disclose that she was paid $250,000 to publish a post on her Instagram account about EMAX tokens, the crypto asset security being offered by EthereumMax. Kardashian’s post contained a link to the EthereumMax website, which provided instructions for potential investors to purchase EMAX tokens.

    “The federal securities laws are clear that any celebrity or other individual who promotes a crypto asset security must disclose the nature, source, and amount of compensation they received in exchange for the promotion,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Investors are entitled to know whether the publicity of a security is unbiased, and Kardashian failed to disclose this information,” Grewal said.           Source: IANS

  • Naomi Watts was told her career would end at 40 after ‘becoming unf-able’

    Naomi Watts was told her career would end at 40 after ‘becoming unf-able’

    Hollywood star Naomi Watts just earned strong reviews for leading the English remake of ‘Goodnight Mommy’, was told her career in acting would end at 40. This month, she’s headlining Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix thriller, ‘The Watcher’. She’ll also be reuniting with the mega-producer to play Babe Paley in the Capote-centric second season of ‘Feud’, reports Variety.

    All of this is to say that Watts’ acting career is thriving, which is not what she was told by an unnamed Hollywood figure after her US breakthrough in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’. Watts was 33 at the time, which many in Hollywood viewed as old.

    “I was told, ‘You better get a lot done because it’s all over at 40 when you become unf***able.” And I’m like, ‘What? What does that mean exactly?’” Watts recently told Entertainment Weekly. “Then you think about it, and you go, ‘Oh, right. When you are no longer reproductive, when those organs are no longer functioning, you are not sexy, so, therefore, you are not hirable.’ That just made me so mad.” Talking about what Hollywood can do better to make room for women after a certain age, Watts replied: “It’s such an awkward conversation because, from day one, we begin our aging process. It’s something we just all have to get comfortable with and women are asked to do it more than men.”

    “We don’t talk about a man aging… We don’t talk about his gray hair. In fact, if we do, it’s like, ‘Oh, he gets more handsome, more desirable, more powerful.’ And why is he powerful? Because he’s accumulated experiences.””Well, it should be the same for women. We’ve got important and powerful experiences as well at this age that we should feel proud of.”

    Charlize Theron recently made headlines for sharing a “belittling” experience from earlier in her career when an unnamed male director made repeated attempts to make her look more “f***able” in their film.