Research spending

Check this out...
http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2006/Feb06/r021706a

...can you beleive that kind of spending on research....forget a university, how many Indian corporates get to spend so mcuh? - this figure is close to 20 times the entire Indian market research industry!

Please Help

First please help this guy - he says he's doomed. Well, if you don't flush what else... incidentally this is a screen shot from 'Once upon a time in China' (an amazing movie if you are a K-Fu fan)and this fella is fighting Jet Li. Now he's really flushed!
Second, help out the Nautiyal cousins please...they have 'nothing concrete to talk about' right now. But before helping them, can someone please tell me why is this news worth publishing? Ok, so these dudes had a fight with their boss and left in a huff. So what? The best part is their threat at the end - apparently they will still submit their work for awards even if they've left the agency. Keep it up you Nautiyals!
Third, can someone help me? This is kinda Zen-ish "What is the state of an error report 'not-responding' " A complete Koan.

Arboraranya

Well, for those unfamiliar with this word (which is just coined) - it's a compound between Arbor and Aranya. Quite a fusion, eh? Aranya in Sanskrit loosely means forest. The word is always associated with contemplation and images that come to mind - thanks to Amar Chirta Katha - are deer frolicking about, bearded (white beards, we must hasten to add) 'sadhus' perusing palm leaves etc. - you get the picture.
Well, what a surprise when i landed in Ann Arbor and found quite a correspondence (save for white beards - just replace that with bermuda shorts!).
This place is an Aranya! Don't believe me? Check the snaps out....(click for larger image)
Incidentally, the town is named Ann Arbor after 'Ann' - the wife of one of the founders of the city and 'Arbor' - for the abundant oak woods that were there in the 1800s.

Maha Sivaratri

What could be more auspicious than beholding the very form of Siva on Sivaratri?

The sight of a Saint

Ah! The sight of a Saint! The mere glance of whose washes away millions of sins!

What's in the name

So, what is Taittiriya?
Three key aspects:
1) The Knowledge-Follower
The word has its roots in the Sanskrit 'Tittiri'. In order to honour his teacher's dictum, the ancient Indian sage Yajnavalkya 'gave up' all the knowledge he had gained from the Guru. In order to ensure that the knowledge is not lost to the world, the other students of the Guru assumed the form of Tittiri birds to absorb this knowledge. Tittiri symbolises the presevation and propagation of knowledge to overcome ignorance and falsehood.

2) The Shakha
In other words, the traditional Vedic school of thought. The Taittiriya Shakha has one of the largest number of followers in the traditional Vedic system . I belong to this school through a birth-lineage that goes back thousands of years tracing its roots right upto the sage to whom the truths were revealed.

3) The Upanisad
The ancient wisdom book of India. The Taittiriya Upanisad is said to be the Upanisad most commented on by Sri Samkaracharya - India's (the World's?) foremost philosopher-saint. The Taittirya Upanisad is part of the Taittiriya Shakha.