Dhaka’s hopeless traffic jams stop everything but the clock!
Dhaka is a City of many different transport modes. On a typical day in Dhaka you might be lucky enough to see many types of animals pulling custom made trailors! While there is still many Rickshaws you might be surprised to see many vehicles that only suit Roads in the so-called First or Western World. The Traffic jams would consist of the above transport modes plus your Indian Tata Trucks(Although on many roads Trucks don't operate during day time),Double Deckers,Buses and many MPV type vehicles (also known as liteace in Bangladesh).
If you find your self unfortunate enough to be stuck in one of these jams on a hot and sunny day, make sure you purchase a bottle of Mirinda or some other American tasting soft drink from the street seller who is most likely to be carrying a bucket full of Western influence in a bottle!
By the way, the street sellers in Bangladesh are also know as "Feriwala" in Bengali, although if it's a young kid, you'd normaly call him/her "Pich-chi" as in "Kid".
A soft drink can or bottle isn't very expensive these day's due to rapid Globalization!
And yes, average jams in Dhaka will waste atleast 2 hours, so if your in a rush walk all the way, if you can find any footpaths for pedestrians that is!
But as far as I know, the World Bank thinks that Bangladesh will be a better and organized nation by 2020, so keep your fingers crossed!
"Friend"...wow...this word itself is so soothing to both the ears and the heart. :) I personally believe that if you are lucky you make somebody your friend, but if you are the luckiest, someone befriends you coz your friend is someone who knows everything about you, and still likes you. Now that's not easy, isnt it?? Its really difficult to know the physical,cultural,characterial limitations of somebody and still accept them and love them for what they are...I am the luckiest to have friends like you who accepted me for what I was and help me become what I am capable of becoming.
Herez something interesting for all of you :
Friendship Recipe 1 Cup of Friendly Words 2 Heaping Cups of Understanding 4 Heaping Tsp. of Time and Patience A Pinch of Warm Personality A Dash of Humor
Measure Words Carefully. Add Heaping Cup Of Understanding. Use Generous Amounts Of Time And Patience. Cook On The Front Burner But Keep Temperature Low: Do Not Boil. Add Generous Dash Of Humor And A Pinch Of Warm Personality. Season To Taste With Spice Of Life. Serve In Individual Molds.
'The only way to have a friend is to be one' - Adham Rahman
According to a newspaper of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, companies installing subsea cables for telecommunications companies and pipelines for the oil industry have now a new tool, the Ut-1 Ultra Trencher which is the world's biggest subsea robot. This beauty weighs 60 tons (in the air) and has a length of 7.8 meters, a width of 7.8 meters and a height of 5.6 meters. In fact, it has the dimensions of a small house but is more expensive, carrying a price tag of about £10 millions. It can move at a speed of 2 to 3 knots under the sea. And it can trench pipelines with a 1-meter diameter in deep waters of up to 1,500 meters. But read more...
Here is what the UT-1 Ultra Trencher looks like. This huge subsea robot has been built by, Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) a Newcastle upon Tyne company which develops specialized remote controlled submersible robots (ROVs).
The first UT-1 Ultra Trencher has been delivered to CTC Marine Projects, a subsea contractor, based in North East of England, UK, and a subsidiary of DeepOcean, a norwegian company focused on subsea services. This submarine robot will be permanently installed on one of their new vessels, the Volantis (PDF format, 6 pages, 764 KB).
Here is a short excerpt from the Henderson article. "Weighing 50 tonnes and the size of small house, it is designed to bury largediameter oil and gas pipelines laid on the ocean floor. It does this by 'flying' down up to a mile deep below the surface using powerful propellers. It then lands over the pipeline and deploys a pair of 'jet swords' either side of the pipe which inject high pressure water to 'fluidise' the surface. Burying the pipelines protects them from fishing, shipwrecks and natural currents. This enables oil and gas to be safely transported from the offshore fields to land to provide secure energy supplies."
For more information, you'll find the complete specifications of the UT-1 Ultra Trencher in this PDF datasheet (2 pages, 917 KB), from which the above illustration has been extracted.
Here is a short excerpt. "The UT-1 Ultra Trencher�is the world's most powerful jetting trencher, offering unparalleled flexibility in severe weather deployment and operation. With more than 2 megawatts of total power, the trencher delivers 1.5 megawatts of actual jetting energy to the cutting surface."
The history of the MiG-29 (Russian: МиГ-29), like that of the larger Sukhoi Su-27, started in 1969 when the Soviet Union learned of the U.S. Air Force’s 'FX' program, which resulted in the F-111 Aardvark, and later the F-14 Tomcat. The MiG-21 was agile by the standards of its day, but had deficiencies in range, armament, and growth potential. The MiG-23, developed to match the F-4 Phantom II, was fast and had more space for fuel and equipment, but lacked in maneuverability and dogfighting ability. In response, the Soviet General Staff issued a requirement for a Perspektivnyy Frontovoy Istrebitel (PFI, roughly "Advanced Frontline Fighter", literally "Perspective Frontline Fighter"). Specifications were extremely ambitious, calling for long range, good short-field performance (including the ability to use austere runways), excellent agility, Mach 2+ speed, and heavy armament. The aerodynamic design for the new aircraft was largely carried out by TsAGI, the Russian aerodynamics institute, in collaboration with the Sukhoi design bureau.
However, in 1971 the Soviets determined that the PFI aircraft would be too expensive to procure in the quantities needed, and divided the requirement into the TPFI (Tyazhyolyy Perspektivnyy Frontovoy Istrebitel, "Heavy Advanced Tactical Fighter") and the LPFI (Lyogkiy Perspektivnyy Frontovoy Istrebitel, "Lightweight Advanced Tactical Fighter") programs, the latter paralleling the contemporary USAF decision that led to the "Lightweight Fighter" program and the F-16 Fighting Falcon and YF-17 Cobra. Despite program delays caused by the loss of two prototypes in engine-related accidents, the MiG-29B production version entered service in August 1983 at the Kubinka air base In the West, the new fighter was given the NATO reporting name "Fulcrum-A" because the pre-production MiG-29A, which should have logically received this designation, remained unknown in the West at that time. Refined versions of the MiG-29 with improved avionics were fielded by the Soviet Union, but Mikoyan's multi-role variants, including a carrier-based version designated MiG-29K, were never produced in large numbers. In the post-Soviet era, MiG-29 development was frustrated by the Mikoyan bureau's apparent lack of political clout compared to rival Sukhoi. Some more advanced versions are still being pursued for export, and updates of existing Russian aircraft are likely. New versions of the plane called MiG-29SMT and MiG-29M1/M2 are being developed. Furthermore, development of a carrier version, the MiG-29K, has been resumed for the Indian Navy's INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier (formerly the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov).
The MiG-29 was first publicly seen in the West during a visit to Finland in July 1986. Two were displayed at the Farnborough Air Show in Britain in September 1988. The following year, the aircraft conducted flying displays at the 1989 Paris Air Show where it was involved in a non-fatal crash during the first weekend of the show. MiG-29s of the German Luftwaffe participated in a joint DACT exercise with the US 510th Fighter Squadron who used F-16 fighters. As a result of the exercise, the F-16 pilots described the MiG's greatest strengths as "its thrust (the plane has two engines to the F-16's one), the Archer heat-seeking air-to-air missile system and the HMS". The success of the MiG-29 during DACT was partly due to its ability to use its helmet-mounted sight (HMS) to achieve high off-boresight targeting solutions for the Archer missile. In 1997, the United States purchased 21 Moldovan aircraft for evaluation and analysis. In late 1997, the MiGs were delivered to the National Air Intelligence Center (NAIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Because it was developed from the same basic parameters laid out by TsAGI for the original PFI, the MiG-29 is aerodynamically broadly similar to the Sukhoi Su-27, but with some notable differences. It is built largely out of aluminium with some composite materials. It has a mid-mounted swept wing with blended leading-edge root extensions (LERXs) swept at around 40°. There are swept tailplanes and two vertical fins, mounted on booms outboard of the engines. Automatic slats are mounted on the leading edges of the wings; they are four-segment on early models and five-segment on some later variants. On the trailing edge, there are maneuvering flaps and wingtip ailerons.
The MiG-29 has hydraulic controls and a SAU-451 three-axis autopilot but, unlike the Su-27, does not have a fly-by-wire control system. Nonetheless, it is very agile, with excellent instantaneous and sustained turn performance, high alpha capability, and a general resistance to spins. The airframe is stressed for 9-g (88 m/s²) maneuvers. The controls have "soft" limiters to prevent the pilot from exceeding the g and alpha limits, but these can be disabled manually. The MiG-29 has two widely spaced Klimov RD-33 turbofan engines, each rated at 50.0 kN (11,240 lb) dry and 81.3 kN (18,277 lb) in afterburner. The space between the engines generates lift, thereby reducing effective wing loading, to improve maneuverability. The engines are fed through wedge-type intakes fitted under the LERXs, which have variable ramps to allow high-Mach speeds. As an adaptation to rough-field operations, they can be closed completely for takeoff, landing and low-speed flying, thereby preventing ingestion of ground debris. The internal fuel capacity of the original MiG-29B is only 4,365 liters distributed between six fuel tanks, four in the fuselage and one in each wing. As a result, the aircraft has a very limited range in line with the original Soviet requirements for a point-defense fighter. For longer flights, this can be supplemented by a 1,500 liter drop tank carried on the centerline and, on later production batches, by two underwing drop tanks, each capable of 1,150 liters. The pilot is seated on a Zvezda K-36DM zero-zero ejection seat which has had impressive performance in emergency escapes.
The baseline MiG-29B has a Phazotron RLPK-29 (Radiolokatsyonnui Pritselnui Kompleks) radar attack system which includes the coherent pulse-Doppler N019 (Sapfir 29; NATO reporting name 'Slot Back') look-down/shoot-down coherent pulse-Doppler radar and a Ts100.02-02 digital computer. he latest upgraded aircraft offer the N-010 Zhuk-M, which has a planar array antenna rather than a dish, improving range, and a much superior processing ability, with multiple target engagement capability and compatibility with the Vympel R-77 (or RVV-AE) (NATO reporting name AA-12 'Adder') air-to-air missile. A useful feature the MiG-29 shares with the Su-27 is the S-31E2 KOLS, a combined laser rangefinder and IRST in an 'eyeball' mount forward of the cockpit canopy. This can be slaved to the radar or used independently, and provides exceptional gun-laying accuracy. Armament for the MiG-29 includes a single GSh-30-1 30 mm cannon in the port wing root. Three pylons are provided under each wing (four in some variants), for a total of six (or eight). The inboard pylons can carry either a 1,150 liter (300 US gallon) fuel tank, one R-27 (AA-10 'Alamo') medium-range air-to-air missile, or unguided bombs or rockets. Some Soviet aircraft could carry a single nuclear bomb on the port inboard station. The outer pylons usually carry R-73 (AA-11 'Archer') dogfight missiles, although some users still retain the older R-60 (AA-8 'Aphid'). A single 1,500 liter tank can be fitted to the centerline, between the engines, for ferry flights, but this position is not used for combat stores. The original MiG-29B can carry general-purpose bombs and unguided rocket pods, but not precision-guided munitions. Upgraded models have provision for laser-guided and electro-optical bombs, as well as air-to-surface missiles.
Specifications:
Crew: One Length: 17.37 m (57 ft) Wingspan: 11.4 m (37 ft 3 in) Height: 4.73 m (15 ft 6 in) Wing area: 38 m² (409 ft²)
Empty weight: 11,000 kg (24,250 lb) Loaded weight: 16,800 kg (37,000 lb) Max takeoff weight: 21,000 kg (46,300 lb)
Performance: Maximum speed: Mach 2.3 - 2,445 km/h (1,518 mph) Range: 700 km combat, 2,900 km ferry (430 mi / 1,800 mi) Service ceiling: 18,013 m / 59 060 ft (59,100 ft) Rate of climb: 330 m/s (65,000 ft/min) Wing loading: 442 kg/m² (90.5 lb/ft²) Thrust/weight: 1.13
Armament: 1x 30 mm GSh-30-1 cannon with 150 rounds Up to 3,500 kg (7,720 lb) of weapons including 6 air-to-air missiles — a mix of semi-active radar homing (SARH) and AA-8 'Aphid', AA-10 'Alamo', AA-11 'Archer', AA-12 'Adder', FAB 500-M62, FAB-1000, TN-100, ECM Pods, S-24, AS-12, AS-14.
Black smoke belches out of a grinding old engine as it hauls Russia's latest Soyuz space capsule across a Kazakh wasteland, while armed guards keep watch. This mixture of high and low technology is probably the future of space exploration, as resources get scarcer and more small governments and independent operators get into the space game. More images of Soyuz in the wasteland, and its launch to the International Space Station, below:
A Russian police officer guards the Russian Soyuz TMA-12 space ship that will carry a new crew to the international space station as the rocket is transported to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, April 6, 2008. The rocket is scheduled to blast off on Tuesday, April 8. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russian police officers guard the Russian Soyuz TMA-12 space ship that will carry a new crew to the international space station as the rocket is transported to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, April 6, 2008. The mission is expected to ferry two Russian cosmonauts and a South Korean graduate student to the International Space Station. The rocket is scheduled to blast off on Tuesday, April 8. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
They had risked all to hold on to this moment in history. The scarred negatives, hidden from the military, wrapped in old cloth, buried underground, also bore the wounds of war. These photographers were the only soldiers who preserved tangible memories, a contested memory that politicians fight over, in their battle for supremacy. These faded images, war weary, bloodied in battle, provide the only record of what was witnessed. Nearly four decades later, they speak.
The Bangladesh war of independence in 1971 was one of the bloodiest conflicts in living memory. In an attempt to crush forces seeking independence for what was then East Pakistan, the West Pakistani military regime unleashed a systematic campaign of violence that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Bangalis. Many of the photographs from the unique collection of the Drik archives will be shown in the UK for the first time.
In 266 days Bangali, hill people and Adivasi resistance fighters and their allies defeated the military forces of Pakistan. The result was the birth of a new nation - Bangladesh - and the dismemberment of Pakistan. It was only after the 16th of December 1971 when Pakistani troops surrendered in East Pakistan, that Bangladeshis began to realise the scale of the atrocities committed during the previous nine months.
1971 was a year of national and international crisis in South Asia. The history of Bangladesh is implicitly tied to the partition of India in 1947 and therefore the tragic events of 1971 are linked to Britain’s colonial past. For Bangladesh, ravaged by the war and subsequent political turmoil, it has been a difficult task to reconstruct its own history. It is only during the last few years that this important Bangladeshi photographic history has begun to emerge.
Now decades after the war, Autograph ABP in collaboration with Drik presents a historical photographic overview of Bangladesh 1971 at Rivington Place.
Project Description A major documentary photographic exhibition of primarily Bangladeshi photographers that focuses on the independence struggle in 1971. The exhibition is produced in partnership with Shahidul Alam, Director of Drik, a media activist and journalist from Bangladesh. This will be the first comprehensive review in the UK of one of the most important conflicts in modern history. It is recognised that over a million people died in 266 days during the struggle for an independent Bangladesh.
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Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is an image of the variable star V838 Monocerotis which lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy. The photo was taken way back in March 2004.
Trucks(Although on many roads Trucks don't operate during day time),Double Deckers,Buses and many MPV type vehicles (also known as liteace in Bangladesh).
