Tej Pratap Yadav, Lalu Yadav's Debutant Son, Repeats Oath After Flub

Patna:  Tej Pratap Yadav, the politically inexperienced older son of Lalu Yadav, was third in line to be sworn in today as a minister in Bihar's Nitish Kumar government.

He was asked by Governor Ramnath Kovind to repeat his oath after a flub; he had said "Upekshit (neglected)" instead of "Apekshit (expectations)". Even in his second attempt, he fumbled on another word.

Tej Pratap, who turns 28 tomorrow, has settled for a junior role compared to his younger brother Tejaswi, who is set to take charge as Deputy Chief Minister at 26.

Though both sons of Lalu Yadav are debutants and won their first election this time, Tejaswi is widely seen as his father's political heir since he campaigned with him for last year's national election.

Lalu's oldest Misa contested the Lok Sabha election but lost. She was present at the swearing in ceremony along with two more sisters.

Misa, Tej Pratap and Tejaswi are the only ones among Lalu's nine children to join politics.

Story First Published: November 20, 2015 14:31 IST

Maruti Suzuki Vitara Compact SUV Spy Shots Reveal Look of the Car

Maruti Suzuki has to up its game if it’s going to contend with the likes of cars that are pouring out of the Hyundai stable and the Vitara Compact SUV. As we’ve said earlier the car will be rolled out by April, 2016.

The company confirmed that the Vitara compact SUV will be showcased at the 2016 Delhi Auto Expo and a launch of the product will follow suit. The compact SUV is a priority product for Maruti Suzuki and they can’t wait to bring it here. The car, in fact, has already made it to India and here are a few pictures of it.

The India-bound Maruti Suzuki Vitara will look similar to the iV-4 concept which made its debut at the 2014 Paris Motor Show. It shares the same platform as the XA Alpha concept which was showcased at the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo.

The Vitara compact SUV that will go up against the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Renault Duster and even the upcoming Honda BR-V (which will be seen at the Auto Expo too). But it looks like price will play an important role and the company is looking to price it under the 10 lakh mark.

If the car is priced under the 10 lakh mark, the Vitara will prove to be a serious threat to the others and knowing how Maruti Suzuki prices its cars, the competition is about to heat up in this segment. As far as the engine options for the Maruti Suzuki Vitara are concerned, the company will plan on bringing the 1.4-litre VVT petrol and a 1.3-litre multijet diesel, however considering that the 1.6-litre diesel has already made its way to India, Maruti Suzuki might just up the ante by loading it in the Vitara.

Image Source: Fiat Moto Club

Virat Kohli Hails Wriddhiman Saha's Work Ethics

Bangalore: Virat Kohli's has expressed his confidence in wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha's abilities in both his keeping and batting.

When asked whether Wriddhiman had lived upto his expectations, the skipper replied: "Well, I really like Wriddhi's attitude as he is a very hard working cricketer. He is willing to do anything that the team requires. He is a brilliant wicketkeeper and very good with the bat as well. He has got a very good first-class record as he has got lot of runs in pressure situations."

The glowing praise from his skipper would do a world of good for the 31-year-old, who exactly has not done well with the bat.

"He (Wriddhiman) is still finding his feet in Test cricket and he is already confident of his keeping. He can become more confident of his batting and it will come with the amount of runs he scores and the kind of impact he makes. And be that sort of perfect No 6 or 7 for us. He is someone who can handle pressure situations really well. In the first innings of the Sydney Test, he hung in there for long time, played the fast bowlers really well."

Kohli went to the extent of saying that Wriddhiman can handle any sort of attack in any conditions.
"He is someone who can handle any conditions and any sort of attack. He has that sort of belief that more confidence has with the bat, he will develop into an important sort of member for this team."

Story first published on: Wednesday, 18 November 2015 16:28 IST

Sheena Bora Murder: Peter Mukerjea Arrested For Allegedly Destroying Evidence, Lying, Say CBI Sources

Mumbai:  Media tycoon Peter Mukerjea, who was arrested on Thursday in connection with the Sheena Bora murder, has been charged with destroying evidence and lying to protect his wife Indrani Mukerjea, sources have told NDTV.

The sections listed against Peter Mukerjea are "causing disappearance of evidence of offence and giving false information to screen offender," sources say.

Peter Mukerjea's wife Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in August, days after the remains of Sheena Bora - her daughter - were found in a forest 80 km from Mumbai.

Sheena was strangled in 2012 allegedly by Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyam Rai.

Sources say Peter Mukerjea was arrested after Indrani Mukerjea's conflicting statements led the CBI to believe that he was aware of the plot to kill his step-daughter.

The Mumbai police had earlier learnt that Peter Mukerjea had received an email from Sheena's hotmail account after her disappearance. Indrani Mukerjea had allegedly used this account to send emails to Peter Mukerjea and Rahul Mukerjea, his son from a previous marriage and Sheena's fiance. She also sent mails to Vidhie Mukerjea, another daughter, and Sheena's brother Mekhail Bora.

All the family members were told that Sheena Bora had moved to US with a boyfriend.

Rahul Mukerjea was also questioned by the CBI on Thursday and left this morning.

Sources say he told the police that after Sheena's disappearance, he visited four police stations in Mumbai to lodge a missing complaint but the police didn't act after being told by Indrani that Sheena had moved to the US and Rahul was stalking her.

Rahul, sources say, has told the CBI that he had approached his father about Sheena's disappearance and questioned Indrani's claims that she had gone abroad.

Rahul had told Peter Mukerjea that Sheena Bora's passport was with him, sources say.

Sources say driver Shyam Rai has recorded a confessional statement before the CBI and is likely to turn approver in the case.

Story First Published: November 20, 2015 11:55 IST

'RoboBees' with Laser Eyes Could Locate Disaster Victims

by Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor

Mechanical eyes that shoot laser beams could one day help robot bees fly without crashing into obstacles, researchers say.

These laser eyes could also one day help people control smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearable technology and other mobile devices using only gestures, the researchers added.

Currently, researchers are developing biologically inspired, bee-size flying robots dubbed RoboBees. These devices might one day find use in everything from pollinating crops to locating disaster victims.

Previous research found that robot bees are capable of flying while tethered and moving while submerged in water. However, these machines lack depth perception. This is a major problem, because it means these robots would have a tough time avoiding flying into walls or landing on flowers. 

To tackle this challenge, researchers now want to outfit robot bees with a laser-based version of radar. This technologies, known as lidar — short for light detection and ranging — emits invisible laser pulses instead of the radio waves used in radar. Sensors measure how long it takes reflected light to travel, which makes it possible to calculate the distance, size and shape of objects. And unlike most lasers, these beams are safe for use around eyes.

"Our technology is very similar to what exists in a Microsoft Kinect that comes with the Xbox for sensing your movements for a game," Karthik Dantu, a computer scientist at the University at Buffalo in New York, told Live Science. "These are extremely safe technologies, similar to ones already used in daily life today."

Lidar is currently helping driverless car prototypes navigate their surroundings. The lidar systems on these vehicles are typically about the size of camping lanterns.

"Essentially, it's the same technology that automakers are using to ensure that driverless cars don't crash into things," Dantu said in a statement. "Only, we need to shrink that technology so it works on robot bees that are no bigger than a penny."

Computer-vision expert Sanjeev Koppal and sensor expert Huikai Xie, both at the University of Florida, will develop the tiny sensor that measures reflected light. Meanwhile, Dantu will create novel perception and navigation algorithms to help RoboBees analyze and map their environments.

"Lidar is basically exploiting the 'echo' of a light pulse," Koppal told Live Science. "You can imagine that the echo of a light pulse that leaves a sensor, bounces off an object and returns is really fast. Detecting this quickly, but without complex circuitry and inside a small form factor, is one of the main challenges."

The micro-lidar device will weigh about two-thousandths of an ounce (56 milligrams), Koppal said. The researchers hope to have working micro-lidar sensors and algorithms in three years, Dantu said. Scientists at Harvard University will incorporate the technology into the RoboBees.

The researchers suggested that micro lidar will not be limited to robot insects in the future. Other applications could involve helping people interact with mobile devices using "natural user interfaces" similar to Microsoft's Kinect, which can detect gestures that people make.

"With micro lidar, you can imagine doing natural user interfaces for wearable technologies like smart clothing and smartwatches," Koppal said.

Through Their Eyes: Awesome Photos Show How Animals See the World

by Elizabeth Palermo, Associate Editor

The winning photo in the first annual Royal Society Publishing Photography competition features the same tiny critters you might find in your own backyard. Entitled "Tadpoles Overhead," the winning image encourages viewers to take a look at the world from a frog baby's point of view. Other noteworthy images from the 350-year-old scientific society's inaugural competition evoke similar sentiments. From a baby gorilla's playful hug to a monkey's resourceful tactics, here are the award-winning moments that this year's winners captured on film.

Tadpoles overhead

Overall winner
Category winner: Ecology and Environmental Science

Tadpoles of many anuran species come in high numbers, but not many make it to adulthood. Here a group of common toad (Bufo bufo) tadpoles is seen from below. (Credit: Bert Willaert, Belgium.)

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Ancestry. Dominance. Endangered.

Runner up: Ecology and Environmental Science

This photo shows the strength and power of gorillas, one of our closest living relatives, yet also shows their vulnerability due to the pressures put on their world by humans. Taken in Rwanda, I observed the gorillas walking to the eucalyptus trees outside of the Volcanoes National Park and watched them strip the bark with their teeth. Within a few minutes, the silverback of the group sat down to eat bark and faced out towards the farmland — almost as if he was contemplating the human society that lives next to the gorillas' habitat. (Credit: Martha M. Robbins, Germany.)

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Caribbean brain coral

Special commendation: Proceedings B Publisher’s choice

The deep and abundant mysteries of reef building corals — their systematics, genetics, and phenotypic plasticity (variability in form possible within a single genetic individual) are only just now yielding their secrets to modern science. This image of what appears to be a single colony of the giant Caribbean brain coral Colpophyllia natans hints at the virtuoso abilities of corals to assume a wide range of different forms and appearances. This photo raises many important questions regarding this species of coral. Are the four distinct zones in this photograph really genetically identical? What spurred the colony to grow in this strange and beautiful manner?  (Credit: Evan D'Alessandro, USA.)

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Going with the flow: schooling to avoid a predator 

Category winner: Behaviour

A school of tropical clupeid fish exhibit synchronized behaviour to keep a healthy distance from a teenage black-tip reef shark. Sharks would cruise placidly for hours without so much as looking at the smaller fish, until, all of a sudden, they would strike and gobble up a mouthful of clupeids. The picture was taken on a shallow reef flat on Kuramathi Island in the Rasdhoo Atoll, Republic of Maldives. (Credit: Claudia Pogoreutz, Germany.)

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Smashing 

Runner up: Behaviour

An adult wild bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus) uses a stone tool to crack a very resistant palm nut in Fazenda Boa Vista (Piauì, Brazil). These monkeys habitually crack open very resistant palm nuts on hard surfaces using stones as percussive tools. This behaviour is considered one of the most complex forms of tool use by nonhuman species seen in nature. The alpha male, weighing 4.2 kg, picked up a big stone (3.5 kg) and lifted that above his head to crack a piassava nut. Capuchins’ actions are very fast so it is hard to capture the decisive moment. In a matter of milliseconds I shot and took the photo that I wanted: the representation of capuchin monkeys' strength and beauty. (Credit: Luca Antonio Marino, Italy.)

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Sand has scales

Runner up: Evolutionary Biology

Bitis peringueyi is an endemic adder from the Nabib desert. It's an ambush predator, highly equipped for the job. Many snakes are disguise masters but few completely burrow their entire body beneath the surface and fewer have their eyes located on the top of their head. Actually, if I hadn't blown off the sand to better show its scaly pattern, this adder would have been completely invisible. (Credit: Fabio Pupin, Italy.)

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Fish louse

Special commendation

Lice lineages began to split and diversify during the late Cretaceous era, when dinosaurs, birds and early mammals probably were on the resilient parasites' menus. Argulus is a species of fish lice that has been shown to be a well-adapted parasite, exhibiting unique hunting and breeding strategies that enable it to live in the harsh and variable climates of Europe, East Asia and Siberia, wreaking havoc on the profitability of any freshwater fishery it inhabits and infests. (Credit: Steve Gschmeissner, UK.)

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A baboon gets lost in his thoughts

Special commendation

This image was taken at Cape Point Reserve, South Africa. I was taking photos of a group of baboons trying to capture some interesting action shots. The baboons were not very active as the sun was up and most of them were just resting. I noted this baboon sitting and facing the sun with his eyes closed, once I got close enough, without distracting him, he put one hand under his face, posing as though he was lost in his thoughts. (Credit: Davide Gaglio, South Africa.)

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Fern with a drysuit

Category winner: Evolutionary Biology

Plants have evolved elaborate surface structures to modify the wettability of their leaves. The leaves of the water fern Salvinia molesta are covered with whisk-like hairs. The leaf surface and all but the very tip of the whisks is extremely water-repellent, keeping the leaf perfectly dry even when it is submerged for several weeks. The hydrophilic tips of the whisks 'pin' droplets in place. This further helps to prevent the water from entering the space in the between the whisks. In recent years, plant surfaces have repeatedly inspired the design of biomimetic ("nature-mimicking") applications for human use, most famously the self-cleaning paints based on the Lotus leaf. The photograph was taken in Bonn Botanic Garden (Germany). (Credit: Ulrike Bauer, UK.)

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Runs at Dawn

Special commendation: Biology Letters publisher’s choice

In the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, after every winter rains Canarian Houbarabustard (Chlamydotis undulata) males begin their impressive courtship displays. From dawn onwards these males display at their favourite places and from there scamper around showing their plumage in all its glory. (Credit: Jose Juan Hernandez Martinez, Spain.)

Ancient Board Game Found in Looted China Tomb

Pieces from a mysterious board game that hasn't been played for 1,500 years were discovered in a heavily looted 2,300-year-old tomb near Qingzhou City in China.

There, archaeologists found a 14-face die made of animal tooth, 21 rectangular game pieces with numbers painted on them and a broken tile which was once part of a game board. The tile when reconstructed was "decorated with two eyes, which are surrounded by cloud-and-thunder patterns," wrote the archaeologists in a report published recently in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

The skeleton of possibly one of the grave robbers was also discovered in a shaft made within the tomb by looters.

Dead game?
Twelve faces of the die are numbered 1 through 6 in a form of ancient Chinese writing known as "seal script." Each number appears twice on the die while two faces were left blank, the researchers noted.
The artifacts seem to be part of a game called "bo," sometimes referred to as "liubo" the archaeologists said. Researchers who have studied the game of bo are uncertain exactly how it was played. People stopped playing it around 1,500 years ago and the rules may have changed during the time that it was played.
However, a poem written about 2,200 years ago by a man named Song Yu gives an idea as to what the game was like:
"Then, with bamboo dice and ivory pieces, the game of Liu Bo is begun; sides are taken; they advance together; keenly they threaten each other. Pieces are kinged, and the scoring doubled. Shouts of 'five white!' arise" (translation by David Hawkes).
Massive tomb
The tomb itself has two large ramps that lead to a staircase descending into the burial chamber. Five pits holding grave goods for the deceased are located beside the tomb. In ancient times, the tomb — which is about 330 feet (100 meters) long — was covered with a burial mound (now destroyed).

At the time the tomb was built, China was divided into several states that often fought against each other. Archaeologists believe that this tomb was built to bury aristocrats from the state of Qi.
"Despite the huge scale of the tomb, it has been thoroughly robbed," the archaeologists wrote. "The coffin chamber was almost completely dug out and robbed, suffering severe damage in the process."
Archaeologists found 26 shafts dug into the tomb by looters. One of the shafts "yielded a curled-up human skeleton, which might be the remains of one of the tomb robbers," wrote the archaeologists, who said they don't know when this person died, why he or she was buried in the looting shaft, or the person's age or sex.
Winner takes all
During the third century B.C., a state called Qin, ruled by a man named Qin Shi Huangdi, gradually conquered the other states, including the state of Qi.
Qi itself survived until 221 B.C., when Qin Shi Huangdi conquered it, unifying all of China and becoming the country's first emperor. Qin Shi Huangdi then began construction of his own tomb, which was guarded by a terracotta army.
The tomb near Qingzhou city was excavated in 2004 by archaeologists from the Qingzhou Municipal Museum and Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The finds were first reported in Chinese in 2014 in the journal Wenwu. Recently, the Wenwu article was translated into English and published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.