Things You Would Love To Know About... Death

'Why are you weeping? Did you imagine that I was immortal?'

Louis XIV (1638-1715), Well known French king, as his servants cried for him.

Death has been a fantasy to me. The fact of just vanishing forever fascinates me. Death, the gruesome fear of everybody's life has been a mystery, the life after that is unknown and the journey seems to be stale. Here are some compiled hard core facts about death which you would love to know. Get closer to the weird realities of death.

Have you ever imagined, how wreaths became a death ceremonial practice? The tradition of funeral wreaths originated from the belief that the wreath would encircle the spirit of the dead and keep it at bay.

The oldest, continually used cemetery in the world, is the Mount of Olives in Israel.

Although Americans may have, the greatest technology and fastest science to trap all kind of diseases, a research states that, no American has died of old age since 1951.

Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.

Can you imagine thousand of mummies being fuel to a locomotive? Well! History states that during a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.

English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

In new York City, the number of people committing suicide is more than the one murdered.

A few months before James Byron Dean, famous American film actor, got killed in a car accident, he made a driver's safety TV ad in which he said, "Drive safely; the life you save may be mine".

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is the first person to have his ashes put aboard a rocket and buried in space.

The most expensive funeral till date is that of Alexander the Great. Research states that it would have cost about $600,000,000 in today's money. One of the reasons was the building of a road from Babylon to Alexandria, big enough to move a jewel studded hearse the size of a small building which was pulled by 64 horses.

The word 'mausoleum' comes from the memorial tomb of Mausolus, ruler of Caria, who died in 353 B.C. When he died his wife had him cremated, mixed his ashes with water, and drank the mixture in a single gulp.

When King Pedro of Portugal was crowned, in 1355, he dug up his mistress to have her properly honored as queen. Loyal subjects bowed before the decorated corpse and had to kiss her hand.

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, his pal Henry Ford trapped his last breath in a bottle. It is in Henry Ford's museum today.

More men than women commit suicide over heart broken love affairs.

Elephants have been known to die of broken hearts if a mate dies. They refuse to eat and will lay down, shedding tears until they starve to death. Research states hat they even refuse all human help.

Murderers, on average, are 7.5 years younger than their victims.

In ancient Japan, it was believed that somewhere on the tail of a cat there was a single hair that would restore life to a dying person. Therefore, relatives would sometimes bring a cat to the dying person, letting them pluck a hair to try their luck.

Can you believe it Napoleon was so powerful that he could kill over a thousand people with a cough. Well! In 1799 he was deciding whether to release 1,200 Turkish prisoners of war when he coughed and said, "Ma sacre toux!" (my darned cough) which sounded to officers like "Massacrez tous!" (Kill them all!). So they did.

Google's built in Chuck Norris Joke

Go to Google, type "find chuck norris" and hit "I'm feeling lucky". It's awesome, trust me.

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Word is out: Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft bid

San Francisco: Yahoo Inc.'s board plans to reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion (€30.73 billion) bid to buy the Internet pioneer, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Saturday.

Board members concluded the unsolicited offer massively undervalues the company, a person familiar with the situation told the newspaper.

The $31 per share bid was made public on Feb. 1. Board members so far would only say they were studying the offer.

Yahoo's board intends to send a letter to Microsoft on Monday explaining its decision, persons close to the company said.

Microsoft and Yahoo representatives did not immediately return calls for comment.

The slumping Internet company's rejection of the offer might mean Yahoo is getting ready for a long battle, analysts said.

Board members believe Microsoft is attempting to take advantage of a recent slump in share price to take over. But they are not ready to consider any offer below $40 per share, according to a person knowledgeable about the discussions.

Yahoo appears to be counting on Microsoft's reluctance to engage in a hostile takeover.

Ignoring the wishes of management and the board and creating resentment among the Web giant's engineers could also make it harder to push the deal past authorities, as Yahoo officials could try to convince regulators that the deal is anticompetitive.

But analysts are uncertain whether Microsoft would be up to paying the higher price per share, which would raise its bid by about $12 billion (€8.27 billion).

‘Dasavatharam’: Will Kamal rewrite the success story?

Will Kamal Hasaan in ‘Dasavatharam’ weave the same magic as Rajnikant in ‘Sivaji The Boss’.

‘Dasavatharam’ team spares no effort to make the movie hit the right note. With ‘Dasavataram’ Kamal would create a world record of enacting 10 characters in a movie.

In ‘Dasavatharam’, Kamaal betters the late Sivaji Ganesan, who played nine roles in ‘Navaratri’. The Bollywood legend Sanjeev Kumar to re-enacted the nine roles played by Sivaji Ganesan in the Bollywood flick ‘Naya Din Nayee Raat’ with Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan in the female lead.

The ten avatars (roles) that Kamal plays include: President Bush, Balaraman, a brahmin, a tall Afghan, a Lankan Tamil, an old lady, a doctor, a police officer, a Japanese and a Daler Mehndi look-alike.

‘Dasavatharam’ would be premiered world-wide on April 10, just before Tamil New Year, with a whopping 1000 prints. The music would be released in March by none other than Hollywood action star Jackie Chan.

As part of the massive efforts to make the movie a mega success a huge amount of money has been spent on production. An astounding Rs 3 crore was spent on just the first three minutes of the film.

The director of the film K.S. Ravikumar is famous for his keen eye for detail and for mounting spectacular sets. This is his fourth film with Kamal Haasan. The duo’s earlier films rocked the box-office and this one is expected to be no exception either.

It took more than two years of meticulous planning by Ravikumar before he started the shoot, which is now nearing completion. The crew shot on locations across the world including India, Malaysia and the U.S. Dasavataram could also provide a big national perch for the much sought-after South star, Asin.

Asin says the film would be a milestone in her career and can’t wait for the movie to release. An excited Asin tells that it was indeed an honour for her to work with the legendary Kamal Hasaan.

Asin plays double role in the movie while Mallika Sherawat, Bollywood’s sex-siren, plays a meaningful (?) role as does Jayapradha, yesteryears’ heroine and Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament. Napolean and Jayaram too play significant characters in the movie.

Kamal’s daughter Sruthi, a trained singer, has lent her voice for her father’s pet project by singing for a dance number by Mallika Sherawat. Produced by ‘Oscar’ Ravichandran, the film has Bollywood’s Himesh Reshammiya debuting as music director in Tamil.

A scene in which all the ten characters of Kamal come together was recently shot. Rumor has it that director P. Vasu is playing the role of a villain in the film. Dialogues for the film are jointly written by Sujatha and Crazy Mohan. Cinematography is by Ravi Varman while Ashmith Kunder is the editor. Vairamuthu has penned all the songs and Thyagarajan is the stunt master.

Kamaal, considered to be one of the best actors, holds the film very close to his heart. Seven of his movies have been sent as India's official entry to the Oscars. Kamaal also won the prestigious National Award for best acting twice and ‘Filmfare’ awards for a record 18 times.

In ‘Dasavatharam’ will he be able to match the high standards? Well, let’s wait and watch.

Source: Filmysouth

500 TCS employees asked to leave

India's leading software services firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) said on Tuesday that about 500 of its employees were asked to look for another job after their performance was rated poorly.

"Those who cannot meet the performance requirements of our company were asked to look for another job commensurate with their abilities," TCS spokesman Pradipta Bagchi said here.

In the quarter ending on December 31, TCS appointed 4,037 employees, taking its total headcount to 108,229, up from 83,500 a year ago.

The export-driven software services companies have been winning large outsourcing contracts from western clients, but recession fears in the US and a rising rupee against the dollar has considerably affected their profit margins in the recent past.