Comments on: A Passage to India

By: hair removal info

hair removal info — Sun, 28 May 2006 03:39:27 +0000

nice one and great point there i agree with it…even i feel like making a blog like the one you have now. keep it up bud

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:46:03 +0000

Spammers are becoming smarter It won’t be long before we see postings that are more meaningful replies to a posting. If you have some artificial intelligent system that has some rudimentary understanding of the English language then that would prabably be the only money making application.

By: damtp_dweller

damtp_dweller — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 03:31:37 +0000

How can I get an RSS feed on this blog? I am new to this and really like the content being discussed here

If you look on the main page, there’s a link further down the page called “RSS feed.” You can use this link in your favourite RSS reader (or in Safari if you’re a Mac person). Seems simple enough

By: Random Thoughts | Cosmic Variance

Random Thoughts | Cosmic Variance — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 05:01:46 +0000

[...] It’s taking awhile to recover from the big trip to India, and I still don’t feel up to writing my usual witty, thoughtful, full of insights, humerous, type of post. Ok, let’s just say I’m having trouble putting a coherent string of words of any type together. So here’s a list of random thoughts, crossing through my brain this evening. [...]

By: Arun

Arun — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:29:03 +0000

Hopefully, JoAnne’s environment looked exceptionally colorful – March 15 is Holi. Though, celebrations are more prevalent in the north.

http://www.ndtv.com/topstories/showtopstory.asp?slug=Holi+celebrated+across+India+with+fervour&id=18963&category=National

http://arunsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/03/happy-holi.html

By: Amara

Amara — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:04:59 +0000

It was unlike any other lunar eclipse I have seen; the moon was not a dull red color but instead looked relatively bright but with a film of gray over the surface. A very subtle effect, I would say! I watched only from my balcony in my small town near Rome, there was nothing grand in my environment except the Rome city lights (in fact I doubt most of the asleep people knew an eclipse was in progress…) so hope JoAnne can tell us what her India environment looked like during this event.

By: Amara

Amara — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:58:35 +0000

This is what JoAnne is watching tonight.

There is a beautiful Full Moon tonight, that goes into eclipse (first contact is at 21:21 UT, about 30 min from now, it will lie completely inside the Earth’s shadow for one hour starting at 23:18 UT, that is, ~2 hours from now.)

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/image1/LE2006Mar14-Fig1.GIF

From the web site, that describes this special penumbral lunar eclipse http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2006.html

“The first lunar eclipse of 2006 is a deep penumbral event best visible from Europe and Africa. First and last penumbral contacts occur at 21:22 UT and 02:14 UT (Mar 15), respectively. The Moon’s path through Earth’s penumbra as well as a map showing worldwide visibility of the event is shown in Figure 1. Observers throughout most of North America will find the eclipse already in progress as the Moon rises on the evening of March 14. However, no eclipse will be visible from westernmost North America (Yukon, British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California) since the event ends there before moonrise. This particular event is unusual since it is a total penumbral eclipse. The whole Moon will lie completely within the penumbral shadow from 23:18 UT to 00:18 UT (Mar 15). According to Belgian eclipse expert Jean Meeus [1997] this is one of only five such events during the 21st century. Greatest eclipse occurs at 23:48 UT with a penumbral magnitude of 1.0565. At that instant, the Moon will stand midway in the penumbral shadow. The Moon’s northern limb will lie 1.6 arc-minutes from the shadow’s outer edge while the southern limb be 1.6 arc-minutes from the edge of the umbra.”

“Penumbral eclipses are difficult to observe, especially during the early and late stages. Nevertheless, a subtle yet distinct shading should be visible across the southern half of the Moon, especially during the two hour period centered on greatest eclipse.”

By: Balagopal

Balagopal — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:17:01 +0000

Happy B’day to JoAnne,
Welcome to India. Happened to see this site as I was looking for the timeing for Lunar Eclipse.
Nice to see your interest in India.
Don really worry about food an all as all the places mentioned by you wud offer gud food and water(but better mineral water).
Regarding places again don forget to visit Kerala: God’s own Country.Am sure you wud enjoy the sea and the backwaters.Jus overnight from Bangalore.

By: Demian

Demian — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:20:45 +0000

Hi JoAnne,

Welcome to India. Since I am currently a post-doc in RRI, nearby institute from IISc, I may bump into you. I hope you are enjoying being in India.

Sean,

We all missed you, and disappointed in Puri.

By: A. S. Nathan

A. S. Nathan — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 05:12:25 +0000

The other great place in my opinion (if you have the time) are the temples in Tanjore and Madurai. These are fantastic 1000+ year old temples of carved granite rising to quite a height. I am a sculpture buff so I found it breathtaking, much more than the Taj. And considering its age, it was some accomplishment. These are smaller towns so you must be able to rough it out a bit. I am told that good hotels have been built recently so that may help. The other one of course are the erotic temples of Khajuraho in central India. They are a bit away from where you will be, so time may be your crunch. I found that eating outside was OK as long as you kept to decent bistros and ordered hot (temp) foods and drinks. Have fun.