All About Nepal: May 2011

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Photographs in White House when Laden was killed!!!

Sometime after midnight last night I Tweeted this: "Can't wait to see White House photographer Pete Souza's behind-the-scenes photos of the past few days' events." Souza has delivered. For the past several years, the White House chief photographer has been chronicling every moment of the Obama Administration. He has unprecedented access to the President and his staff and gets himself into meetings and rooms you'd think he wouldn't ever be allowed. Case in point: Souza was in the Situation Room with President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other senior officials while the mission in Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden was taking place yesterday. The photo above is truly remarkable — check out the no-BS look on the President's face and Secretary Clinton's expression of near shock at what she's watching. Absolutely awesome. We can only guess that they're watching the mission unfold via a camera mounted on one of the Navy SEAL's helmets. Check out more cool photos from yesterday's events in the White House after the jump.

By the way, one more thing about Souza's photos. He posts a selection of them every day on theWhite House Flickr feed, and perhaps even cooler, every single photo that he and his staff takes are protected pieces of the National Archives. Which means that he's not allowed to delete any photos and the entire collection will be made available to the public following the completion of Obama's presidency. That's pretty amazing.

Cannes Film Festival had begun in cannes of france from May 11 2011!!!

The much-awaited Cannes Film Festival is all set to begin today with the screening of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (France's first lady, wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy)! The Festival de Cannes will be held from May 11th to May 22nd. The mouth watering line-up of movies that will be screened also includes Michael Hazanavicius' French film, The Artist, which is creating much buzz for being a silent movie, set in Hollywood during the transition from silent films to sound. Another highly-anticipated film is The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Also making the list is the much-awaited next instalment of the Pirates' franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.

The other big names showcasing their wares will be Gus Van Sant with Restless, Pedro Almodovar with La Piel que Habito (The Skin I Live In); Lars Von Trier with Melancholia, the Dardenne brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc with Le Gamin au Velo; Japanese horror guru Takashi Miike with Ichemel (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) and Italian comic/ communist guru Nani Moretti, with Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope), and upcoming hotshot Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be the Place.

Amidst all this fun and fanfare, India will also mark its presence at the festival with three Indian beauties Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Freida Pinto and Sonam Kapoor, walking the red carpet as brand ambassadors of a cosmetics company. Aishwarya says, "Being at Cannes for L'Oreal Paris has been an absolute pleasure and to experience this for the tenth consecutive year is overwhelming. It is one of the most glamourous red carpets on the world platform, celebrating cinema, showbiz, beauty, diversity and excellence. Several countries have always had more than one spokeswoman at Cannes and I'm glad India is finally getting the same recognition. I am happy that with Sonam and Freida, both beautiful women, have being invited to the festival this year, India will have a stronger presence, which is a clear sign of the growing importance of the country."

Also bolstering India's presence at Cannes will be the screening of a special documentary 'Bollywood - The Greatest Love Story Ever Told', made under the collaboration of UTV and Shekhar Kapur, on a special invitation of Cannes Festival director Thierry Fremaux. This 81-minute film will be screened as a part of the official selection for the 'out of competition' section.

For more information about the festival please visit the official website and the link .

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Facebook owner and youngest Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg bought home in Palo Alto

Mark Zuckerberg is, at age 26, on the young side for a first-time home buyer these days. But the Facebook cofounder and chief executive isn’t exactly stretching financially to make his first purchase. Valued at $13.5 billion, and with a persona made famous by the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, Zuckerberg recently plunked down a relatively paltry $7 million for his first home.

The restored historic Palo Alto, Calif. Abode encompasses 5,617 square feet on a 17,100 square-foot plot. It includes five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a banquet-size dining room, a music alcove and glassed-in porch. The backyard has a saltwater pool, a spa, an outdoor gazebo with a wood-burning fireplace and a carport. The lot, located on Edgewood Drive in the Crescent Park neighborhood, is shielded from nosy neighbors and gawkers by a wall and citrus trees. Crescent Park itself is a high-end neighborhood where median single-family homes went for an average of $1.9 million in February, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

The young billionaire’s new pad hails from an earlier structure erected by William A. Newell, a physician and politician who helped establish and govern the area in the late 19th century. It was razed and rebuilt by another physician in 1903. Since then, it changed hands roughly seven times, going through several remodelings, before being acquired by the social media entrepreneur.

The property was listed through Sherry Bucolo of Alain Pinel Realtors. Both Bucolo and Facebook declined to comment on the sale, but public records indicate the deal closed in mid-March. As with most real estate transactions involving rich and famous homebuyers, the sale was conducted through a third party LLC.

The young billionaire has long been a fan of renting and of relatively modest digs. His last two places were rentals in the College Terrace neighborhood of Palo Alto, both of which were close to Facebook’s offices and significantly smaller than the new home.

Zuckerberg, who ranks 52nd on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires, paid $1 million more than the previously listed asking price of $5.85 million. The $7 million paid is about what the home is valued in the expensive 94301 zip code, according to Zillow.com.

That might seem like a hefty price tag to many middle Americans, but it’s pee wee league among billionaires. Yuri Milner, a venture capital billionaire and Facebook investor, shelled out $100 million for an 11 acre, 25,000 square foot estate in the area earlier this year. In April, news broke that Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest billionaire, had snatched up a London penthouse for $221 million, the most ever paid for an apartment anywhere.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Gisele Bundchen is world's top earning model while Heidi klum is second

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has been named the world's top earning model by Forbes for the seventh straight year.

Bundchen has been topping the list since 2004. Her income this year was $45 million, an increase by a whopping $20 million.

Contactmusic.com reports that proof of Bundchen's star-status enhancing brands is easy to find, as after she became the face of hair care brand Pantene in March 2010, the company's sales went up by 40 percent in Latin America.

Gisele Bundchen

In second place was German model Heidi Klum, who earned $20 million through her recent partnership with Amazon.com and launching her own clothing line with sportswear brand New Balance.

Heidi Klum

The third place went to British model Kate Moss, who made $13.5 million from deals, including her own bag collection with brand Longchamp, and a campaign for Christian Dior.

Kate moss

The Forbes 2011 list for the world's top-earning models:

Gisele Bundchen - $45 million, Heidi Klum - $20 million, Kate Moss - $13.5 million, Adriana Lima - $8 million, Alessandra Ambrosio - $5 million, Daria Werbowy - $4.5 million, Lara Stone - $4.5 million, Carolyn Murphy - $4.3 million, Natalia Vodianova - $4 million and Candice Swanepol - $2 million

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif to Work Together in Yash Raj Movie " Ek Tha Tiger'' !!!

Yash Raj Films is pleased to announce its next project. Directed by Kabir Khan and Produced by Aditya Chopra, the romantic-thriller Ek Tha Tiger, stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles. Ex romantic pair who broke their love relation due to certain circumstances are together again and it is interesting to see their on screen as well as off-screen chemistry.

Salman Khan and Katrina kaif together in Ek Tha Tiger

Yash Chopra, speaking about the project, said it was a very happy moment for him. "Everyone knows my association with Salim saab, having worked together on Deewaar, Trishul and Kaala Patthar. It is a very happy moment for me and YRF to have his son Salman with us for the first time. Over the years, Salman has become a very matured and talented actor and both he and the beautiful Katrina have a tremendous connect with their audiences. Combined with Kabir's edgy directorial skills, we can all look forward to a thrilling film. I really loved the script which is based on a story written by Adi and I am sure that the whole team will do an excellent job on this project."

Salman with Katrina

Salman Khan was also honoured to be working with YRF for the first time. He said, "In the past Adi and I have met a few times on various projects but somehow, when Kabir and he came to me with this particular story, we all just knew that this was the one. It is a very ambitious project and will be a challenge for all of us, but that's exactly what makes it such a big draw. Above all this, I'm honoured to be working with Yashji, who has worked so closely with my Dad in the past."

The story is by Aditya Chopra and the Screenplay and Dialogues have been written by Kabir Khan and Neelesh Misra. Aseem Mishra, who has worked with Kabir on New York, will be the DOP. The music will be scored by Pritam.

The film starts shooting early July and is slated for a mid-2012 release. Will this pair can bring the same magic as they did before in few movie. To know the result one should watch till 2012 untill the movie will be released.

Remain happy forever!!! Gene for the Happiness have been identified

If you wants to remain happy forver in your life now it seems it is possible. According to the TG daily,Scientists have for the first time discovered a 'happiness gene', which works by regulating the transport of serotonin in the brain.

It forms the first direct link between a specific genetic condition and a person’s happiness, as measured by their satisfaction with life.

Behavioural economist Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) examined genetic data from more than 2,500 participants in the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, examining which functional variant of the 5-HTT gene they possessed.

This gene helps control serotonin transporters in neuron cell walls, and has a variation, or allele, which can be either long or short. The long version is more efficient, resulting in more serotonin transporters in the cell membrane.

The team asked subjects how satisfied they were with theirlife as a whole. There were five possible answers: very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied or none of the above.

The results showed that nearly 70 percent of those with the efficient (long-long) version of the gene were either very satisfied or satisfied with their life – compared to just 19 per cent for those with the less efficient short-short form.

Conversely, 26 per cent of those with the short-short allele were dissatisfied, compared with only 20 per cent of those with the long-long variant.

Even possessing one long allele increased the likelihood of being very satisfied with life by 8.5 per cent, the team found.

"It has long been suspected that this gene plays a role in mental health but this is the first study to show that it is instrumental in shaping our individual happiness levels," says De Neve.

“The results of our study suggest a strong link between happiness and this functional variation in the 5-HTT gene."

He points out that other genes - as well as one's life experiences - also influence a person's happiness levels. But, he says, "This finding helps to explain why we each have a unique baseline level of happiness and why some people tend to be naturally happier than others."

Facebook & Google in talks to buy Skype!! Lets see who will won the bid!!!

In a rat race to the finish, both Facebook and Google are reportedly thinking about purchasing Skype after the company delayed its initial public offering.

According to Reuters, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has already kicked off an internal discussion about buying Skype, or possibly forming a potential joint venture. Similarly, Google is apparently engaged in talks about a joint venture with Skype.

Skype is currently valued at $3 billion to $4 billion with its IPO expected to raise about $1 billion.

Recently, the value of the service has been somewhat undercut by rival offerings from both Google and Apple who both offer video conferencing services.

Discussions with both Facebook and Google are still in early stages, and it’s unclear which option Skype favors.

The IPO is slated to take place in the second half of 2011, but the company is staying open to the possibility of working with other companies apart from Google and Facebook.

Both Skype and Google declined to comment, while Facebook was not immediately available for comment.

"When a company is not going public and it has been on file for a long time, one way or another something is going to happen," an unnamed source told Reuters.

Champions League final of 2011 will be Manchester United vs Barcelona

The Biggest football club championship of Europe Champions League final will be between Spanish Club Barcelona and English Club Manchester United.This two team will confront each other in the final of the Champions League for the second time in three years.

logo of UEFA Champions league

While the Spanish champions got the better of their arch-rivals Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate in the semifinals, the Red Devils swept aside German opposition Schalke in the last four by a score of 6-1 over the two legs.

Barcelona Vs Man. United

Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson met each other in the finale of Europe’s premier club competition in 2008-09 at the Olimpico in Rome. At the time Barca ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, with Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi etching their names on the scoresheet.

This time the final is at Wembley in London on May 28. Barcelona won its first European Cup in 1991-1992 at the old Wembley stadium and will be hoping to conquer Europe for the fourth time in their history.