now sleeps the crimson petal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g6x7Cb0fF8

Spring -free ebooks

Spring-java/j2ee framework
Spring quick start tutorial

Unit Testing in java Using JUnit

Tutorial on using JUnit in Eclipse by software engineering group of north carolina state university.

An extremely brief tutorial on JUnit with ant

Download free chapter from Expert One-on-One: J2EE Design and Development (Rod Johnson)

Download 'Chapter 4 - Design Techniques and Coding Standards for J2EE Projects'

Help Sidr affected people

1. Type 'save' in your cell and send it to 5455
. your 1 single sms will give 15 tk to the cyclone
affected people. it's a joint project of "save the
children" and somewhereinblog.

2. You can also write “help” and send to “1010” from any mobile in Bangladesh.
It’s a joint initiative taken by all the mobile operator in Bangladesh and fully reliable.For each sms taka 10 will be deducted from your account and the total money will be donated for the SIDR affected people.

3. Directly to the Chief Adviser's Relief and Welfare Fund:
Current Account No.33004093 with Sonali Bank, Prime Minister's Office
Branch, Tejgaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh

4. Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
A/C No. 01-1336274-01
Standard Chartered Bank
Dhaka Bangladesh
SWIFT Code: SCBLBDDX

Here is a list of organizations we can send our contributions to:

UNICEF
Save the Children – US

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

World Vision Web

World Vision Web
BY PHONE 1-888-562-4453 (888-56-CHILD) and donating with the “giving
code” of Bangladesh Cyclone Relief.

CARE Responds to Bangladesh Cyclone - Donate Now

Islamic Relief

Catholic Relief Services

Food for the Hungry

How to donate to "Chief Advisor's Relief and Welfare"
# Method 1
Check/money order/bank draft
Payable to : "Bangladesh Consulate General in New
York"
Memo: For Chief Advisor's Relief and Welfare Fund
Address to send:
211 East 43rd Street, Suite 502
NY 10017

*You will get an acknowledgment receipt from
Bangladesh Consulate General

# Method 2

Money Transfer via Sonali Exchange Co. Inc
Check payable to "Sonali Exchange Co. Inc. USA"
Memo: For chief advisor's relief and welfare fund
Address to send:
211 East 43rd St,
Suite # 1503
NY 10017
Tel: 212-808-0790/212-808-4085

1,100 reported killed in Bangladesh cyclone

Death toll may cross 1,000; all communications, utility services snapped; thousands missing; houses, crops, trees destroyed; lakhs homeless


Bangladesh dated with a nightmare as cyclone Sidr ripped through the southwestern coast late Thursday, killing over 700 people and demolishing houses, crops, vegetables and trees alike along its trail of devastation over an area of thousands of square kilometers.

Packing winds over 220km an hour, the fierce tropical storm roared across the shoreline after it hit landfall at the Khulna-Barisal coast at 7:30pm Thursday, cutting off all communications and utility services across the country.


One of the fiercest cyclones in the history of the land, the Sidr rode on wailing winds, driving rains and tidal surges to wreak havoc for over 14 hours before moving to Asam and Tripura through the Sylhet border, turning into a well-marked low yesterday.

Despite having carried out a commendable evacuation effort, the government last night found itself reeling from shock as the number of deaths and extent of damage continued to increase with every passing hour.

In a rather awkward manner, the food and disaster management ministry told the press in the afternoon that about 233 people were killed but left out death tolls in two most-affected districts--- Borguna and Jhalakathi. However, the same briefing stated that Red Crescent found 118 dead so far in Barguna alone.

But within hours at 12 midnight, an official at the food and disaster management ministry's control room raised the death figure to 700, with maximum 177 killed in Patuakhali. However, quoting unofficial sources, Our Correspondent in Patuakhali, reported death of 490 people.

But finds of newsmen and different private sources till filing of this report early morning today revealed that the death toll is destined to climb up to 1,000 as rescuers and volunteers could not yet reach most of the worst-hit areas.

Meanwhile, no information on causalities could be gathered from numerous remote islands (chars), residents of which mostly turned a deaf ear to government's evacuation alert.

“Tidal waves swept away many people from Dublar Char in Bagerhat”, Red Crescent worker Abul Kashem Dulal told our correspondent in Barisal. Of them, bodies of 17 people could be recovered.

The government could provide shelter for around 15 lakh people in 2168 shelter houses, leaving around 33 lakh people in the coastal areas in vulnerable situation.

Casualties apart, the Patuakhali district also suffered most in the farm sector. “The crop loss should be no less than Tk 497 crore in the seven upazilas,” he said, quoting a rough estimate of a deputy director of agriculture extension department in Patuakhali.

The Patuakhali town went under knee-deep waters as tidal surges 6-7 feet higher than normal ones sped through the locality. At least seven other southern districtsBarguna, Jhalakathi, Pirojpur, Bhola, Madaripur, Barisal and Bagerhat suffered nearly the same fate of Patuakhali.

However, the actual extent of destruction in Bagerhat could not be known till filing of this report as a very few could reach areas like Sharankhola near the worst-hit Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest.

“Hundreds of trees lying on the roads and fields give a picture of massive damage,” said Raphael Palma, communications manager of World Vision Bangladesh, a non-government organisation.

Palma, who yesterday visited Mongla, said the locals are saying they lived through the cyclone of 1988 but it was no match to this cyclone. “The roaring wind was not as devastating as this one.”

The casualties could be much higher if not the local administration warned people about the imminent disaster, he observed.

As per the government count, 44 people died in Bagerhat. But unofficial sources put the number at 133, of which 90 were killed in Sharankhola upazila alone.

The volunteers and rescuers painted an even grimmer picture of the shocking event, which also left thousands injured. Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed too rushed to some southern districts in an effort to buck up the spirit of cyclone-victims.

But it will take weeks to assess the actual death toll, financial loss and days to reach relief to people who are forced to live overnight under the open sky, rescuers and volunteers said, almost in identical words.

People in lakhs are staying under the open sky with hardly any foods in their possession, thousand remained missing, embankments broke down in many areas, scores of livestock killed, and unknown number of persons was swept away by tidal surges.

However, the devastation could have been much higher if the cyclone, originally predicted to be heading for the shores of Orissa near Paradip, made landfall during the high tide hours at around 3:00am on Friday.

“Had the high tide and cyclone taken place at the same time the damage would have tripled,” said an expert.

According to the midnight update of the government, 177 were killed in Patuakhali, 134 in Pirojpur, 133 in Bagerhat, 78 in Barisal, 35 in Barguna, 32 in Jhlakathi, 25 in Gopalganj, 20 in Bhola, 15 in Shariatpur,12 in Khulna, 10 in Faridpur, four each in Chandpur and Dhaka, three in Sathkhira, one each in Laxmipur, Chittagong, and Jessore.

However, the government briefing in the afternoon stated 19 people were killed in Madaripur, two in Narayanganj, and one each in Noakhali and Chandpur.

full news

Free Rice: Web game provides rice for hunger

WFP food aid being distributed in Somalia - 26/09/2007
The WFP says hunger is the world's number one emergency
An internet word game has generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has said.

The game, FreeRice, tests the vocabulary of participants. For each click on a correct answer, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice.

Companies advertising on the website provide the money to the WFP to buy and distribute the rice.

FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1bn grains of rice.

That is enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day, the WFP said on Friday.

Read the whole news here
and another here

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