Crop loss due to pest attack pegged at Rs 1.40 lakh cr

Tag: Agrochemical
The Agrochemicals Policy Group, an apex body of 200 crop protection companies, has said agricultural produce loss in 2007 due to pests was estimated at Rs 1.40 lakh crore and that prudent pesticide use could cut losses, besides enhancing productivity.UN’s concern Last week, the World Bank said food prices had doubled over the last three years and it could push 100 million people in the low-income countries further into poverty. The World Bank President, Mr Robert Zoellick, appealed to Governments to provide the UN World Food Programme $500 million as emergency assistance. The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki -Moon, too, said food crisis was looming large around the world and reached emergency proportions, while calling for short-term emergency measures in many regions and long-term efforts to increase production. Mr S. Kumarasamy, Chairman, Agrochemical Policy Group, said crop loss in India was because only a fourth of the total cropped area of 180 million hectares was treated with crop protection chemicals.5-fold return He said there was an urgent need to step-up farm output and farmers could be assured of a five-fold return on the money spent on pesticides. The agrochemical industry was keen on joining hands with the agriculture department to promote safe and judicious use of pesticides. The level of pesticide use in India was 480 gm per hectare, while it was 17,000 gm in Taiwan, 17,000 gm in Japan, and 4,500 gm in the US. In Europe, it was close to 3,000 gm a hectare. Correspondingly, crop yields in India were the lowest.Overdose a bane However, even at the present level of usage, pesticides helped enhance productivity of export-oriented crops such as tea, grapes and pomegranate, besides vegetables. Reacting to concerns over pesticide use in general, he said one should liken it to a doctor’s prescription, and over-dose was a bane.Right practices However, Dr K.S.R.K. Murthy, President, Plant Protection Association of India, Hyderabad, said pesticide use can be advocated only when right agricultural practices were followed. Taiwan, Japan and other countries followed such practices.Need-based Pesticide use was need-based and application should be only when the economic threshold level was exceeded. Strict adherence to recommended dosage, besides employing the right application method and equipment were a must, else it was better to refrain from using pesticides.

The Birthday Cake as a Milepost

SAMUEL, my 10-year-old, told me recently that one of his earliest memories was the birthday cake I made when he was 3. It was a snowman cake, for his snow-theme party. Three single layers cut into proportionate circles and frosted in stiff, white fondant icing; black gumdrop eyes and mouth; a striped scarf made by twisting together red and black shoestring licorice and a traditional carrot nose. It was quite a cake — especially for me, an advanced-beginner baker at best. So when Samuel told me he remembered it, I was proud — for the three seconds before he explained, "I remember it was scary."Well, at least he remembers it. Clearly, so do I. And I’ve found that most of the women I know, whether infrequent bakers or those who bake at the drop of a hat, mix-users or only-from-scratch types, remember the cakes they’ve baked, vividly. You know the way clothing can function in memory, outfitting important events? Well, I think cakes we’ve baked make for equally rich, if not richer, recollection. Tastes, decorations, adventures or ordeals come flooding back, coalescing around the cakes’ reasons for being — the people they were baked for and their landmark celebrations. Especially children.Not that we don’t bake cakes for adults, too. And isn’t it a lovely thing to see your father beaming like a child as his lighted cake is borne to him? But it’s a different experience setting out not merely to please but to delight a child with a cake that only you can make, one that can find you rolling up your sleeves and becoming a cake wrangler, determined to make that firehouse, caterpillar or Pokémon concoction. Why? Or, as I’ve asked myself when half the cake sticks to the pan, What could I have been thinking?There is an irresistible charm to these flight-of-fancy cakes, and fueling children’s imaginative rides in the early years is part of a parent’s job. But I think the real reason we bake far-fetched cakes is because we hear in our children’s birthday-cake requests, whether spoken or not, this: "You can do it. You’re Mom."So we bake and risk the burning, the falling and the crumbling, trying to meet our kids’ cake expectations. I’ve seen a mother struggling over caterpillar cake segments baked in bundt pans. And another fretting terribly as the gel lettering melted off the cake, making it look like one of Dalí’s surreal desert clocks.Then there’s the weird tale my friend Stina told me about a cake that is apparently a contemporary rite of passage for mothers of pre-tween girls. It’s a Barbie cake, more specifically, a Barbie-upright-in-her-bouffant-skirt cake. Using a trademarked pan, you bake the skirt, frost it (prom-pink is good) and then decorate it with edible beading, sequins or tulle. Then you’ve got to get the damsel in the dress, lowering her into the waist of the skirt-cake. But Barbie is liable to slide down past her waist, to where the cake hits her just below the bust — Maternity Barbie! Or, she might slide further, descending into the crumbling pastel volcano that is your cake, until finally, horribly, Barbie is entombed.At least now, thanks to the blogosphere, mothers have a place to commiserate and virtually share their cake triumphs and disasters. One of my favorite online sightings is a photo of a pirate treasure chest cake, spilling over with jewels, taken seconds before the birthday boy pilfered it, sending it, plundered, to the floor. The baker couldn’t bear to post the “after” shot, but she did have one of herself, cringing.I see how this royal cake-baking treatment might be perceived as another symptom of our superindulgent, competitive parenting. It shows how the ante has been upped for birthday cakes — just as for toys, camps, tutors, clothes and college. But cake baking as event or proving ground is nothing new. It’s been going on in this country since the second half of the 19th century, at least, when superior baking powders became more widely available. Cake baking reached its lofty heights with the popularization of the cake mix after World War II. Cake mixes were, and continue to be, a godsend for anyone who doesn’t want to sift flour, measure cocoa and fold in egg whites. And boxed-cake memories for birthday boys and girls are, in the end, just as sweet. Just ask my friend Alice.Alice’s mother wasn’t much of a cook, let alone a baker. She had given up her career as a chemist in the 1950s to have a family. So for Alice’s birthday, she would take her on a ceremonious trip to the supermarket where Alice would get to pick the Duncan Hines mix of her choice. Back home, they’d prepare it together. The best part was when Alice’s mother would pour some of the batter into a doll-sized pan.Those cake-baking times are at the heart of why Alice is the passionate, expert and generous baker she is today and why she bakes with Annie, her 12-year-old, every chance she gets.Ideas of mothering are an essential part of birthday cake ingredients. (More dads are baking cakes these days, but for now, birthday-cake culture still mostly revolves around mothers.) My own mother made a lot of spice cakes when I was growing up, simple rectangles with brown cinnamon frosting and raisins spelling “Happy Birthday” and our names. These were the first kind of cakes I baked for my own children. Then I set the bar higher. Maybe it was leaving New York City, moving to the suburbs and searching for the Martha within. But when my boys started toddling, their cakes also reached developmental milestones. Henry’s Pokémon cake was one of these.As with Sam’s snowman cake, here, too, I thought I’d achieved something nifty. Henry, my oldest, turning 6, was a Pokémon fanatic having a July swim party. So I came up with a swimming pool cake surrounded by Pokémon characters. I scavenged for the hard-to-find miniature critters, even soliciting other mothers for some of their kids’ stash. I made chlorine-water-colored Jell-O and a cookie diving board, then frosted and arranged the scene. Henry was appreciative. But he let me know at the time — and has ever since — that I’d put the "earth" Pokémon in the pool and the "water" Pokémon on dry land.Nowadays, my boys don’t ask a lot from me in the birthday cake department. Pretty much anything chocolate and frosted will do. Which is a little bittersweet for me, but just a little. Because the cakes I have baked live on, preserved in family lore, and in the lingering, ever-delicious memories of my children, round-faced, candlelit and filled with wishing.

Have festivals gone middle-aged?

Tag: Pig Suede There’s a problem here, what the Americans call a category error. I was going to write a piece about what music festivals this year are, uh, cool. But the thing is, if I think they’re cool, then almost by definition they are not.I’m 47 years old. The trouble with rock festivals these days is people like me, middle-aged adolescents with guts that stretch from the botulo-burger tent to the mobile lavatories. And, of course, our partners - our babes, our chicks - who dig festivals for the vibe, but would rather stay in a nice B&B than slum it in a noisome tent. Middle-aged, middle-class couples with hampers and the kids in tow, anxious to see some band we’ve all heard on that latest building-society ad. But also that section of our younger population, with gelled hair and 52 cans of lager, who will, during the set by Kaiser Chiefs, hurl cartons of piss towards the stage.Those two groups never used to go to rock festivals. The kidults would have felt it outré or beneath them, and in any case hated the music; the younger brethren (who hated the music too) would have waited around near the festival gates to kick in the heads of the unwashed, druggy hippies in their tie-dye and tassels. Now, though, everyone is on drugs, everyone likes rock music - or, at least, is unable to avoid its relentless, bland, monotonous fugue.Last year, Charles Moore, the tweed-jacketed Tory former editor of The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph attended his first rock festival, that one put on by the young princes to honour their dead mum. Charles Moore at a rock festival: this isn’t merely the crossing of the Rubicon, it’s the paving-over of the Rubicon and turning it into a nice piazza. That good old leftie word “alternative” has long since become its antonym.Back in 1970, the first Glastonbury festival kicked off with a band called Stackridge - English psychedelia infused with a rather wearing wackiness. If, back in that era, you listened to John Peel in the small hours of the morning, or tuned into late-night television, you might just catch a brief burst of Stackridge, maybe three minutes across the whole of a year. Quintessence were on the bill, too, and you wouldn’t hear their idiosyncratic blend of jazz-raga-prog fusion broadcast ever, anywhere. Liking rock music took a certain amount of vigorous effort and dedication and tended to incur the suspicion of both one’s elders and a majority of peers.It is truly remarkable how rock has moved from this covert, minority pursuit into its present state of utter ubiquity. In 1970, a rock festival would be your only chance of hearing the likes of Quintessence, unless you bought their record on spec or via the recommendation of a review in the NME.Today, even Charles Moore probably has the latest Bloc Party release, while the prime minister pretends to like Arctic Monkeys. Rock music has become a sort of tyranny; once, if you liked it, you were considered a weirdo. Now you’re considered a weirdo if you don’t.As rock has become the incessant backdrop to our daily lives, so the music festivals no longer stress the “music” part, but try to sell you an “experience” instead.Check out the websites for some of the summer festivals and you will be surprised to find no mention of the bands playing, unless you click on a different link. The Sunrise festival, near Yeovil, for example, bills itself proudly as a celebration of “ancient wisdom, contemporary innovation, creativity and community”, and announces that it has had bestowed upon it the “Shelter Award for Social Responsibility”.I had already decided, on reading this, that I would rather boil my own penis than go anywhere near Sunrise this year - even before I discovered, via a link, that the Orb were topping the bill. Or there’s the most middle-class of all middle-class festivals, Latitude, in Britain’s most middle-class and middle-aged seaside town, Southwold, with its legions of poet sand writers and bloody jugglers and well-behaved family fun - and, sort of coincidentally, Sigur Ros and Franz Ferdinand.The average age of the main performers at most of the summer’s big festivals seems to be pushing 60. A year or so back, Michael Eavis, the boss of Glastonbury, bemoaned the fact that the festivals seemed to have been taken over by the older generation - perhaps remembering that youthful first Glasto he organised, with Stackridge and Quintessence and the then unheralded Marc Bolan topping the bill.While he was musing on this unwelcome development, his daughter, Emily, picked up the phone and booked Neil Diamond as the headline act for this year’s bash. Well, that should sort it out. The kids will come flocking. Diamond was irredeemably naff even in 1970, with his lumpen, middle-of-the-road shout-along hits Sweet Caroline and the inexplicable Cracklin’ Rosie (what does he mean, exactly, by “cracklin’” - that she’s like a roast pig?)Maybe Eavis remembered something else from that first sweet and innocent Glastonbury Fayre - that he lost £1,500 on the ticket sales, no small sum in those days. So, this year, come on down those cutting-edge musicians Neil Diamond, Jay-Z and the ever-youthful, laugh-a-minute, rock’n’rollin’ Leonard Cohen.To be fair, most of the other festivals have done similarly. The headline act at this year’s Isle of Wight festival is the Police; the equivalent booking for this famous festival, back in 1968, would have been Joe Loss and His Orchestra, or maybe Ray Conniff. Actually, I would rather listen to Joe Loss than the Police. Truth be told, I’d rather listen to the police than the Police.I suppose popular music, having lost its youthful exclusivity and aura of rebellious-ness, is no longer quite so compelling for young people. Fair enough.There are still one or two festivals around this year with bills that you could consider adventurous - for example, the Hop Farm festival, in Paddock Wood, near Tonbridge, Kent, where they want to get back to the early spirit of rock gatherings and have booked as headline act the 62-year-old Neil Young.That’s why I’m going, in my tasselled suede jacket and cuban heels and 33-year-old Tonight’s the Night tour T-shirt. But then, as I said, I’m 47; what do you expect?

iLogic Sound Hat Keeps The Tunes Thumping Through The Chill

Tag: Polyester Hat
Do I realize that the cold seasons have passed and that the heat of summer is just around the corner? Do I ever, and frankly I can’t wait! It’s understood that some of you out there are fall and winter lovers. That’s cool, I’m just not down with it. The cold seasons have that unforgiving side effect of shivering which is enough to warrant disdain from this chilly blogger.Now that the steamy seasons of summer are quickly approaching, it’s time to start planning for the chill that will start moving in around September. One of the reasons I despise winter so much is the way that winter apparel is always in the way of me fulfilling my gadget duties. Wearing clunky gloves means I can’t text message properly. Wearing a hat to cover my ears means I can’t listen to my iPod without looking awkward or feeling uncomfortable. The iLogic Sound Hat allows for an ear warming and music listening synergy.The iLogic Sound Hat allows you to plug your iPod or other portable media device directly into integrated speakers inside of the hat’s surface with a standard 3.5mm headphone port connected to a 98cm wire which is easily tucked away into the hat’s inner lining. The beanie itself has a fleecy feel on its interior, despite the hat’s composition of 100% polyester.If you’re interested in grabbing the iLogic Sound Hat a few seasons early in preparation for the inevitable winter of 2008-2009, you can snatch up your own Sound Hat from I Want One Of Those for £14.99, which is about $27. A fair price for keeping your ears cozy and frostbite-free.

Nutritious and Delicious Ways to Procrastinate

Tag: Coated Peanuts With exams approaching and stress mounting, what better way to ease your nerves than a little snack break? After all, just about every teacher I've had has emphasized the importance of "brain food." Instead of making the trip to a vending machine, why not take a few minutes to create something of your own? It will be healthier and more satisfying than anything found in a package, not to mention, easy to share with your equally stressed friends. These snacks may give you that much needed study break, so you are all the more prepared to hit the books and ace all your finals. Here are a few suggestions, all of which even the least kitchen-adept can accomplish without burning down the dorm. Trail Mix Collect any ingredients you see fit, for example, granola, dried fruits (bananas, apricots, raisins, craisins, apples, etc.), nuts (peanuts, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, etc.), and a little something sweet (M&Ms, chocolate chips, yogurt/chocolate raisins, etc.). Combine any of the endless mixtures and enjoy Coated Peanuts. Garlic Cheese Toast Turn the oven knob to "broil," which may take a few minutes, so be patient. Toast a few pieces of bread in a toaster. Either sprinkle with garlic powder, or, if you have one, take a clove of garlic and rub the toast. Liberally apply shredded mozzarella cheese. Place under the broiler (on the top rack of the oven) until the cheese melts, which should not take very long. Remove from the oven, and enjoy! Optional: add freshly sliced tomatoes to the toast before sprinkling with cheese, or use tomato sauce to dip. Nachos Mash an avocado or two in a bowl, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add a drizzle of limejuice and a few spoonfuls of pico de gallo (really delicious and mild salsa made of tomato chunks, onion, a few chiles and lime juice). Set aside. Spoon a can of refried beans into a bowl, heat in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until warm. On a plate, place several handfuls of tortilla chips evenly on the surface; sprinkle with shredded cheese (cheddar, jack or "Mexican mix" all work quite well) and refried beans. Put in the microwave-or under the broiler if you're being adventurous-until the cheese is melted. Pile on pico de gallo, your homemade guacamole, some salt and pepper, and you're good to go. Some other delicious additions: sour cream, cilantro, and ground beef or chicken (cooked with a little bit of taco seasoning). Quesadillas Using pretty much the same ingredients as the nachos, make something more substantial: Heat up a skillet on the stove; add a tortilla. Sprinkle cheese and any other fillings (refried beans, meat, pico de gallo are all good), add a touch of taco seasoning (if you have it; it's not the end of the world if you don't) and place a second tortilla on top. After a minute or two, carefully flip the quesadilla. Cook for another minute or two. To see if the cheese is melted, carefully peak under the top tortilla. If it is, your snack is done. Top with pico de gallo, guacamole, or sour cream, or just eat it plain. Pizza Bagels Toast bagels. Spread with a spoonful of tomato sauce, and sprinkle with cheese. Top with pepperoni, sliced tomato, basil, sausage, or whatever else sounds good. Place in the over under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Get adventurous: instead of tomato, try pesto sauce for a salty, herby variation. Puppy Chow In a saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp of butter. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and a half cup of peanut butter, and allow to melt. Feel free to eyeball the measurements; they don't need to be exact. Put 6 cups of cereal (Chex Mix is the classic) into a large bowl; cover with the melted chocolate-peanut butter concoction. Stir until all pieces of cereal are sufficiently covered. Place in a plastic bag with some powdered sugar and shake until coated. So, if you want to have the best study party on campus, try one of the above recipes. None of them takes more than twenty minutes, so even the most studious of Hoyas can make an attempt. None of them involves any complicated kitchen appliances or a lot of measuring. Nearly all of the ingredients can be found on campus, either at Vittles or Leo's. Good luck on finals, and happy snacking!

Study finds no chemical threat

Tag: Printing Glaze A health assessment of a chemical used by a township sand and gravel operation has found the chemical poses no public health risk, although water monitoring is being recommended.But the resident who petitioned the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to conduct the study disagrees with the conclusion and says it justifies new mining regulations. Victor "Bud" Allen is concerned that the chemical, polyacrylamide, degrades into Printing Glaze, a possible carcinogen that can leach into groundwater and soil.According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there is no acceptable way to detect acrylamide in drinking water."The biggest problem I have is that they say we are going to be protected by monitoring," Allen said. "It can't be done."Allen requested a public health assessment be completed in October 2006 because he was concerned about the health risks of polyacrylamide. Belvidere Sand & Gravel uses the chemical to remove fine sand particles from water used to process its sand and gravel.The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services also participated in the study.The public can hear the results and decide for themselves at a 6:30 p.m. public meeting Tuesday at the county administration building on Route 519.Health department spokeswoman Linda Nasta declined to answer questions on the report, saying they will be answered at the public meeting. Comments are being accepted until April 26.The report concluded polyacrylamide is not toxic. The study of Belvidere Sand & Gravel's mining operation looked at all potential exposures routes: soil, air, surface water and groundwater. It found residents are not exposed to the chemical through soil or air.

Traffic to be limited in central Moscow due to May 9 parade rehearsal

Tag: Military Dress
MOSCOW, May 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Traffic will be limited in central Moscow on sty on Saturday due to a rehearsal of the military parade Moscow’s Red Square on the occasion of VE-Day that is traditionally celebrated in Russia on May 9.Traffic police have asked car owners to be careful, use alternative routes and follow road signs and traffic policemen’s instructions.Over 8,000 soldiers and officers from the Moscow military garrison will be involved in the rehearsal, the press service of the Moscow Military District said.The rehearsal will include infantry and motorised units. Young drummers from military schools will be the first to enter the square. They will set the rhyme for servicemen from military academies and other higher educational institutions, and several battalions of paratroopers, mariners and Interior Troops.Army and Navy school cadets and a combined military orchestra will bring up the rear.They will be followed by about 200 pieces of military hardware, including 90 wheeled vehicles. Caterpillar vehicles will be provided with special caterpillars that do not damage the roads.The Army will provide T-90 tanks, BMP-3 personnel carriers, BTR-80 armoured fighting vehicles, self-propelled Iskander missile systems, Smerch multiple launchers, Msta self-propelled systems, and truck-mounted Buk air defence systems.The Strategic Rocket Forces will be represented by four Topol mobile ground-based launch systems.The Airborne Troops will contribute BMD-4 landing vehicles and Sprut self-propelled systems. Fighting vehicles will drive in two columns from the building of the History Museum through the square and onto Vasileyvsky Spusk Street, then turn right and go back to their base.Preparations for the parade started on March 11. The dress rehearsal is scheduled for May 5.The Air Force has one more rehearsal to hold too. The previous rehearsal on April 29 was successful. Air Force Commander Colonel-General Alexander Zelin, who supervised the rehearsal, said he was satisfied with the piloting and expected further rehearsals to be equally successful.“Air Force pilots last took part in the parade on May 9, 1995,” long-range aviation chief of staff, Major-General Anatoly Zhikharev said.“This year’s air force parade will involve all types of planes used by long-range aviation, including Tu-160 and Tu-95MS … They will demonstrate refuelling from an Il-76 tanker plane in midair,” Zhikharev said.In his words, long-range aviation planes will fly over the city escorted by fighter planes. “There will be no aerobatics over Red Square because they are is prohibited,” he said.The world’s largest military transport plane An124 Ruslan will also take part in the parade.“The An-124 Ruslan plane from the 566th Air Transport Regiment will represent transport aviation at the May 9 parade,” Air Force Assistant Commander, Cololenl Alexander Drobyshevsky said.“An-124 is the heaviest strategic military transport plane in the world that can perform complex missions and carry bulky combat hardware for big distances. In the future it will also be involved in a number of space programmes as an aerial launching pad for carrier rockets,” Drobyshevsky said.An-124 Ruslan has a takeoff mass of 405 tonnes. Its range is 4,500 kilometres, maximum speed 865 kilometres per hour, operating ceiling 9,500 metres, payload up to 150 tonnes.Drobyshevsky also said earlier that the Air Force would be represented on the ground, by mechanised units, and in the air.“On the ground, there will be two formations consisting of officers from the Gagarin Air Force Academy and the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy,” Drobyshevsky said.Mechanised units will include four S-300 air defence systems.Besides, over 30 planes and helicopters will fly over Red Square, including Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatics groups.“Due to objective reasons, new pilots have joined the groups. Three left and three new were taken on to replace them. Two more have changed their place in the formation,” the commander of the 316th Air Force Army, Major-General Alexander Belevich said.In his words, the pilots are 70-80 percent prepared for the parade.Air Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsin said a Su-25 attack plane would take part in the parade as well.“Thirty-two aircraft belonging to the Air Force, including a Su-25 attack plane, will fly over Red Square during the parade,” he said.