Copenhagen

The name Copenhagen means originally "trading harbour" and the city of Copenhagen is in many ways the harbour for Denmark - and even the rest of Scandinavia.
The Little Mermaid at Langelinie is probably the best known tourist attraction in Copenhagen. Many visitors are surprised how small she is.
Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia and a cruise in the Baltic Sea very often starts in Copenhagen before the ship leaves for Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Tallinn and other of the cities in Baltic Sea.
For a European capital Copenhagen is not especially large. The urban area of Copenhagen is inhabited by 1,7 million people and the city itself only has 1,1 million habitants. But since the country of Denmark has a population of only 5½ million it is without doubt the main city of Denmark.
Copenhagen is also far the most visited place by tourists and professional visitors coming to Denmark.
During the whole summer cruise ships come to visit the harbour of Copenhagen and many ships start their voyage here.
Tourist AttractionsAlthough Copenhagen as a city is more then 800 years it has been damaged by a number of fires and wars during history so few really old houses are left and not even the medieval centre is kept free of modern urban commercial influence and modern traffic. Anyhow Copenhagen has a charming centre with many small streets and interesting historic buildings and places to visit. The smallest - but also the most famous - tourist attraction in Copenhagen is The Little Mermaid. It is not a long trip to see her, and in good weather it is a nice walk along the Northern waterfront from the centre to see her.
Although amusement parks are growing up everywhere in the World, the Tivoli of Copenhagen is still something special placed in the centre of the city and keeping some of the old mix of culture, charm and amusement you rarely find in modern parks.
Amalienborg Castle
The royal castle, Amalienborg, is now residence of Queen Margrethe 2 and the royal house. The castle is worth a visit since it is a beautiful example of Rococo architecture. Just on the other site of the harbour the new Opera House, donated to Copenhagen by a fund established by the biggest Danish company Mærsk.
Another castle worth visiting is Rosenborg Castle which is a chance to see a royal castle inside. Rosenborg is no longer used as a residence for the royal family but it contains many interesting rooms, furnitures and - not least - the royal jewels which are still used by the queen on special occasions.
Nyhavn. On the right a row of restaurants. In front one of the boats showing tourists the harbour of Copenhagen.
The old charming harbour Nyhavn in the centre is popular to visit especially in the summer when thousands are sitting in the sun near the old ships enjoying a drink or an ice-cream.
EventsEvery year in February and August the Copenhagen Fashion Week takes place. Professionals from Northern Europe come to Copenhagen to see the latest textile creations. The biggest fashion fair is CIFF placed in The Bella Center outside Copenhagen, but also in the city centre there are several other fairs and lots of events. Lately more has been done also to make the Fashion Week interesting for non-professionals by organizing the Copenhagen Fashion Weekend which covers events open for the public.
Copenhagen Jazz Festival is another regular event in Copenhagen. For more then 30 years this famous music festival has been taking place in summer days in Copenhagen. Not far from Copenhagen - in Roskilde - the great Roskilde Festival is held every year in June.
In 2009 Copenhagen will host several larger events. First of all Copenhagen will catch the Worlds attention when the UN Climate Conference is taking place. Here the World leaders will try to reach an agreement to stop the global warming.
Earlier in the summer 2009 Copenhagen will host the World Outgames - the largest event the city has ever hosted. These games are a sort of Olympic games for homosexuals. 8000 participants are expected to compete in 38 different sports and more than half a million people will be involved.
Airplane and trainsMany visitors fly to Copenhagen and arrives in Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup which is conveniently placed East of the city with train and metro connection directly to the centre. Since the airport is placed close to Sweden there is direct train connection to the Swedish town Malmö too.
Copenhagen has a Metro but it is still not fully developed. At the moment it covers only two lines M1 and M2 but from the airport and places in the Centre it is very useful. If you need to go to other parts of the Copenhagen you can use the bus system, but often it is an advantage to use the S-train. This electric train works in many ways like a metro but mostly runs on the ground. You can reach places even outside the centre by the S train

What Have You Been Taught About Global Warming?

In today’s Times there is an article about how those opposed to teaching evolution are linking it to objections to teaching global warming as well. What and how have you been taught about global warming by your teachers? At home? How do you think schools, teachers and textbooks should address this topic? Why?
In “Darwin Foes Add Warming to Targets,” Leslie Kaufman reports:
Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.[...]
For mainstream scientists, there is no credible challenge to evolutionary theory. They oppose the teaching of alternative views like intelligent design, the proposition that life is so complex that it must be the design of an intelligent being. And there is wide agreement among scientists that global warming is occurring and that human activities are probably driving it. Yet many conservative evangelical Christians assert that both are examples of scientists’ overstepping their bounds.[...]
But interest in making climate change a standard part of school curriculum is growing. Under President Obama, for example, the Climate Education Interagency Working Group, which represents more than a dozen federal agencies, is making a strong push toward “climate literacy” for teachers and students.
Students: Tell us how your teachers have addressed the issue of global warming. Does it conflict with what you have learned elsewhere? Do you think you have had enough “climate literacy” to make up your mind on this controversial issue? What do you think textbooks should include on the topic of climate change? Why?

Climate Change & its possible Impact on India

India, the seventh largest country in the world and the second largest in Asia, has a total geographical area of 329 Mha, of which only 305 Mha is the reporting area (the area as per the land records of villages and towns). The mainland stretches from 8o4' N to 37o6' N and 68o7' E to 97o 25' E. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and a coastline of 7,516 km.
In developing countries like India, climate change could represent an additional stress on ecological and socioeconomic systems that are already facing tremendous pressures due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and economic development. With its huge and growing population, a 7500-km long densely populated and low-lying coastline, and an economy that is closely tied to its natural resource base, India is considerably vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The various studies conducted in the country have shown that the surface air temperatures in India are going up at the rate of 0.4oC per hundred years, particularly during the post-monsoon and winter season. Using models, they predict that mean winter temperatures will increase by as much as 3.2oC in the 2050s and 4.5oC by 2080s, due to Greenhouse gases. Summer temperatures will increase by 2.2oC in the 2050s and 3.2oC in the 2080s.
Extreme temperatures and heat spells have already become common over Northern India, often causing loss of human life. In 1998 alone, 650 deaths occurred in Orissa due to heat waves.
Climate change has had an effect on the monsoons too. India is heavily dependent on the monsoon to meet its agricultural and water needs, and also for protecting and propagating its rich biodiversity. Subtle changes have already been noted in the monsoon rain patterns by scientists at IIT, Delhi. They also warn that India will experience a decline in summer rainfall by the 2050s, summer rainfall accounts for almost 70% of the total annual rainfall over India and is crucial to Indian agriculture.Relatively small climatic changes can cause large water resource problems, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions such as northwest India. This will have an impact on agriculture, drinking water and on generation of hydro-electric power.
Apart from monsoon rains, India uses perennial rivers, which originate and depend on glacial melt-water in the Hindukush and Himalayan ranges. Since the melting season coincides with the summer monsoon season, any intensification of the monsoon is likely to contribute to flood disasters in the Himalayan catchment. Rising temperatures will also contribute to the raising of snowline, reducing the capacity of this natural reservoir, and increasing the risk of flash floods during the wet season.
Increased temperatures will impact agricultural production. Higher temperatures reduce the total duration of a crop cycle by inducing early flowering, thus shortening the `grain fill’ period. The shorter the crop cycle, the lower the yield per unit area.
A trend of sea level rise of 1 cm per decade has been recorded along the Indian coast. Sea level rise due to thermal expansion of sea water in the Indian Ocean is expected to be about 25-040 cm by 2050. This could inundate low lying areas, down coastal marshes and wetlands, erode beaches, exacerbate flooding and increase the salinity of rivers, bays and aquifers.
Deltas will be threatened by flooding, erosion and salt intrusion. Loss of coastal mangroves will have an impact on fisheries. The major delta area of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers, which have large populations reliant on riverine resources will be affected by changes in water regimes, salt water intrusions and land loss.
Increase in temperatures will result in shifts of lower altitude tropical and subtropical forests to higher altitude temperate forest regions, resulting in the extinction of some temperate vegetation types. Decrease in rainfall and the resultant soil moisture stress could result in drier teak dominated forests replacing sal trees in central India. Increased dry spells could also place dry and moist deciduous forests at increased risk from forest fires.
Medical Science suggests that the rise in temperature and change in humidity will adversely affect human health in India. Heat stress could result in heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heal stroke, and damage physiological functions, metabolic processes and immune systems. Increased temperatures can increase the range of vector borne diseases such as malaria, particularly in regions where minimum temperatures currently limited pathogen and vector development.

Scientists misread data on global warming controversy

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you," then, with apologies to Kipling, you might not be a climate scientist.
Well-publicized troubles have mounted for those forecasting global warming. First, there was last year's release of hacked e-mails from the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia, showing some climate scientists really dislike their critics (investigations are still ongoing). Then there was the recent discovery of a botched prediction that all Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 in one of the Nobel-Prize-winning 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. Instead, the glaciers are only shrinking about as much as glaciers everywhere, twice as fast as they did 40 years ago, suggest results from NASA's GRACE gravity-measuring orbiter.
The recent controversies "have really shaken the confidence of the public in the conduct of science," according to atmospheric scientist Ralph Cicerone, head of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Cicerone was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting last month on a panel calling for more communication and release of data to rebuild lost trust for scientists. IPCC chiefs have made similar calls in the handling of their reports.
Scientists see reason for worry in polls like one released in December by Fox News that found 23% of respondents saw global warming as "not a problem," up from 12% in 2005. Also at the AAAS meeting, Yale, American University and George Mason University released a survey of 978 people challenging the notion that people 18 to 35 were any more engaged than their elders on climate change. Statistically, 44% in that age range — matching the national average — found global warming as either "not too important" or "not at all important," even though they grew up in an era when climate scientists had found it very likely that temperatures had increased over the last century due to fossil fuel

Global Warming has no impact on Himalayas claims Wadia Director

AK Dubey has said that the conditions of Himalayas are controlled by the winter snowfall rather than external factors like much hyped Global Warming. He told that for a concrete result, at least 30 years of continuous research with steady outcome is needed to confirm the actual impact.
"According to a data for over 140 years available with a British weather observatory situated in Mukteswar (2311m) in Almora has actually revealed that temperature in that region witnessed a dip of .4 degrees," he said.
Since 1991, the institute is monitoring the Himalayas extensively with focusing the glacial studies and last twenty year data has never witnessed a continual retreat. Sometimes, the recession rates have gone up but on an average the rate is very much safer, he added.
Whatever predictions about Himalayas are being made are based on short-term studies conducted on glaciers, which have no comparison with Himalayan Glaciers, he told. "Our glaciers are giant high altitude glaciers above 4000m altitude with a permanent temperature below 20 degrees Celsius. And has no comparison with the Alps Glaciers or Alaskan Glacier which are at sea level," he said.
Dr. DP Dobhal, eminent glaciologist added that however there is a change in climate in terms of shrinking of winter period but still a lot is dependent upon the snowfall occurs. Currently the rate of recession is in between 16-20 meters a year for glacial retreat in Himalayas, whereas 30 percent of the glaciers are more than 10km in length, he said.

ppts in mech manta event

Engineering is not just a part but it is path to be followed…So present ur ideas to lay the new paths..The papers should reflect ur HARDWORK in the form of experimentation, or extensive study or review of already existing; stimulating topics. Priority should be given to original and practical ideas, presentations and depth of knowledge.
Topics:
THERMAL
DESIGN
PRODUCTION
GREEN SOLUTIONS
General Rules of the Format:
The paper should either in form of Word Document or PDF
The word limit of the abstract is 200 words and that of the full paper is 6000 words.
The line spacing should be 1.5.
The paper should necessarily have an abstract and its first title should necessarily be Introduction as shown above.
The last two titles of the paper should necessarily be Conclusion and References.
The other recommended titles are Literature, Hypothesis, Approach, Experiments if any, Model Development if any, Analysis, Results and Remarks. Deviations from these titles are allowed.
Title fonts: Times New Roman, 14 font size, Bold and underlined, left alignment.
Sub Title fonts: Times New Roman, 12 font size, Bold and Italic, left alignment.
Body of the paper: Times New Roman, 12, no effects, left alignment of text
Kindly provide your names, email addresses and contact numbers in the paper that you submit.
Submitting the papers in any internationally recognized format is also allowed.
The coordinators reserve the right of rejecting any paper following deviation of the paper from the given format.
GENERAL
Your work should be original and in the specified format.
The competition is open to all students (UG & PG (Masters)) .
TEAM FORMATION
Team can have maximum of 2 participants.
No participants can be part of more than one team.
It is not necessary that the participants forming a team should be from the same college.
There is no restriction on the numbers of team from the same college.
EVENT FORMAT
The event will be held in two phases:
PHASE 1
Submission of abstract and full paper.
Based on the papers’ evaluation, the best papers will be selected for PHASE 2.
PHASE 2
The paper submitted will have to be presented during the event.
Two hard copies and one soft copy of the same are to be submitted before presentation.
The teams will get 10 minutes to present their paper.
It may be followed by a question and answer session for about 2mins
Violation of any rule can result in rejection of paper.
Judging Parameters :The papers will be judged on the following parameters :
Originality
Simplicity
Objectives
Review of Literature
Methodology
Findings and Analysis
Conclusions
Implication/Application/Limitations
The decision of the judges shall be final and binding.
Prizes:
1st-Rs 2000/- {for each stream}
2nd –Rs 1000/-
Last date for submission of paper: 25th February 2010.
Date of intimation for the selected papers: 27th February 2010
Contact Details
Name
Email id
Phone number
Y.N. Saikrishna
nishanth.yalam@gmail.com
9490251438
sreelakshmi
srilakshmi.damaraju@gmail.com
984834879

Events In Mech Mantra

In real life applications, u should be able to move ur bot through a kind of terrain dat test ur skills. So this event is one such a place where u kan move your bot through all kinds of terrains indulging extreme smooth surfaces to rock hard ones…….
Exercise your minds to run through the clues and hints to pave your way to the ultimate destination.