Textile revivalist Jaya Jaitly talks about her gamchha project

Deepti Naval talks to Chitra Swaminathan about why the play ‘Ek Mulaqat’ is close to her heart.

The preceptor constantly attempted for the development of the downtrodden.

Set in sylvan surroundings, the Yelagiri Thayar temple will soon get new additions, writes T.R. Sudha

Resembling the famous ‘golden’ gurdwara, this landmark edifice is dedicated to Goddess Durga.

It is a treasure of information as told by Mahaperiyava

N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya talks about his masterpieces in the language

Dr. S. Ramaratnam explains the relevance of the language

Jayakumar Gopinath talks about Pulluvanpattu, the ritualistic art form of Kerala that sings songs for the snake gods, and how his community is trying to preserve it

The three-day festival organised by Nataraj Music and Dance Academy in Visakhapatnam will feature performances by noted artistes from across India

The activist reiterates that he won’t be changing his stance on Maratha reservation, warns that leaders opposing him will not get any votes from the community in upcoming Assembly election

Three persons reported missing as rising waters affect 16.25 lakh people across 29 districts

At least seven districts of Arunachal Pradesh cut off due to landslides; eight persons, including two children, killed in rain-induced landslides and floods in Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura

PIL petition cites gender discrimination in teenage dating

Vasant More had unsuccessfully contested the Pune seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election on a VBA ticket after quitting the MNS

Amit Shah said that Madhya Pradesh contributes 12% of the nation’s forest cover and termed the State as the ‘lungs of Bharat’

Government functions should be simple and solemn, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a two-day conference of District Commissioners

Police have arrested one person and seized the motorcycle used to commit the crime while claiming that two other absconding persons would be caught ‘very soon’

SAD leader Balwinder Bhundur said the eight leaders had actively colluded with the party’s enemies to create divisions in the party and weaken it

A students’ body has asked the panel to justify the ‘missing candidates’ who should have been called for the police service interview according to the prescribed number per post

CM Bhupendra Patel spoke with collectors of Navsari and Valsad districts, directing them to shift residents of low-lying areas to safer places

Meghalaya’s Tourism Minister justifies a ban by the local village council as a move against promoting a tourist spot as a religious site

The Indian shakes off the humbling loss in the semifinals, goes through the rigmarole of making the weight before dominating Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz for the 57kg bronze

The aim is to ensure that the benefits of science and research directly reach the farmers, says the Agriculture Minister

The accused, identified as Mustakeen (20), was arrested on August 12 and has been remanded to judicial custody

After the incidents on August 9 and 11, a war of words broke out between the party leaders

The treatment is for heart-related ailments

CM Mann said the State Government has handed over appointment letters to 44,667 youth in various departments since it came to power

Complaint filed by contractor in charge of installation and maintenance said around 3,800 bamboo lights and 36 ‘gobo projector’ lights went missing in May

Students’ organisations and Opposition parties said citizenship to a Bangladesh-born man was a violation of the Assam Accord of 1971

The initiative in Kamrup district has also been beneficial for women fish farmers, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said

A sub-inspector of the traffic police in Haflong said an assistant sub-inspector chose the wrong option in the electronic device while issuing the challan

Some locals found her lying semi-conscious by the roadside on her way back home from tuition classes

Several organisations representing indigenous communities have asked migrant Muslims, referred to as Miya, to leave eastern Assam following a gang-rape case

Special Judge Vishal Gogne fixed the matter for the next week after noting that no further clarification was required from the ED on the matter

Tension began after the evicted people reoccupied the cleared spaces around Thursday noon and confronted the officials; security stepped up

The Cabinet has approved additional assistance of up to ₹3,900 per hectare to farmers under the Rani Durgavati Shri Anna Protsahan Yojana, over the minimum purchase price

IPS officer Partha Sarathi Mahanta has directed the 19-minute documentary film on the Hargila Army comprising women of Dadara Pasaria village

2008 USAIN (United States Agricultural Information Network) Conference

Tradition in Transition: Information Fueling the Future of Agbiosciences

April 27 – 30, 2008 Wooster, OH

University of Florida is an institutional member of USAIN, an organization whose primary purposes are to promote discussion of agricultural issues and trends, to develop and influence national agricultural information policy, to make recommendations to the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and to increase collaborations between member partners (http://www.usain.org/). USAIN does an excellent job communicating legislative changes to its members, and then working with members to get involved with state and national government.

The conference was hosted by Ohio State University and held at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, closely situated next to a beautiful arboretum and rose garden.

Here are a few of the most important highlights from the conference:

1. The AgNIC Born Digital Steering Committee, of which UF is a participant, met for the first time to begin phase I of the born digital initiative. Here at UF it used to be we would receive a copy of IFAS Extension resources, which we would catalog and make available in our print collection. Many Extension resources (documents, websites, etc) are now published only in digital format and while this format increases access to the current resources, many of these older resources are at risk of being permanently lost due to a lack of consistent preservation processes. This is a problem not just at UF, but at almost every land-grant throughout the nation. The goal of this steering committee is to identify digitization standards (selection, metadata, format, etc.) and to develop an infrastructure to assist the land-grants in developing their own processes at the local level. The other institutions participating are Univ. of Arizona, Ohio State, Colorado State, Texas A&M, Cornell, Univ. of Minnesota, Purdue, and potentially Michigan State and Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2. Mary Ochs (Cornell) Peter Ballantyne and Barbara Hutchinson (IAALD) spoke about Agbioscience information for the worldwide community. There is a strong need to "make research information easy to access for current and future generations" through common international standards, open applications, user friendly information & data, andlocal and global action . A large amount of agricultural information is created within the U.S., and we should do more to share that information with the international community. The result of this discussion was the creation of an International Agricultural Information Interest Group which will focus on the first steps of bringing in librarians from other countries to future USAIN conferences, as well as providing more Ag information on the USAIN website. Here is Peter Young - the Director of the National Ag Library - speaking about global collaborations: http://iaald.blip.tv/file/864317/

3. Peter gave the NAL update, mentioning the new Blueprint for Success: The National Agricultural Library 2008-2012. Many of you may have seen in the Washington Post the article, A Precious Resource at Risk, about the drastic budget cuts facing NAL in the upcoming year. I believe it was at the last USAIN that I learned that the NAL has had a flat budget for the last twenty years. Somehow I didn't write down the percentage they will have to cut, but I believe it was either 40% or 60% - both staggering cuts. This will prevent the NAL from preserving their special collections, from buying print materials, from participating in Interlibrary Loan, and more. For more information, see the USAIN website for Lobbying Congress for Support.

Many of the invited speakers spoke on biofuels, bioenergy/bioproducts, and sustainable farming, including David Kline, an Amish farmer and author/editor of Farming Magazine. Without going into too much detail, here are a few of the interesting things I learned from all the speakers:

1. In the 1850’s ethanols were used for lighting, but in the 1860s-1906 an ethanol tax was enacted (making kerosene more competitive). The first ethanol fueled auto was the Ford Quadricycle (1896). The first flex-fuel car: Model-T (1908)!
2. In 2008 there were 11 billion gallons of ethanol produced from corn. Unfortunately there are a number of issues related to: water quality, soil erosion, water supply, biodiversity, loss of grasslands, increase in feed costs. Also, corn is displacing other crops -- leading to food riots.
3. The cellulosic biofuels (corn, switchgrass, MSW, forest residues, etc.) industry will grow rapidly in coming years. And will bring some very specific questions, such as how will supply chains develop (big issue), what are the implications for the food/feed/fiber markets, how will environmental issues be addressed, can we coproduce fuels and foods, and how can farmers and local communities benefit?
4. Lastly, has been shown to increase smog and cancerous benzene emissions. Also, all current biofuels increase carbon dioxide emission relative to gasoline.

There was quite a bit more information available from all the speakers. If you are interested in reading the speaker presentations, they are available for download: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/usain/downloads.html