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| | Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 3:28 pm: | 
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proCricket:
the new americanized version of the game is set to launch on jul 2, taking advantage of the long weekend here in the states. here is a link to their official press release. what surprises me is the fact that the ICC is actually disowning the league. i think the new rules should be quite exciting, and certainly worth a try. basically, it essentially is removing the middle 25-30 overs of a one-day innings and leaving only the start and end fireworks. but unlike in baseball, where there is truly a competition between pitcher and batter (since batter gets three strikes, but has to run every time he hits the ball) - cricket is just too much batting firepower. ofcourse, its entertaining, but not enough competition between bat and ball. its only competition between batting of one team and the other. even those are not on the field at the same time.
also, in my opinion, cricket is one sport which certainly has lagged behind the times, and is still stuck in some time warp half a century ago. it is the only team sport that comes to mind that does not allow a substitution. yeah, they allow a substitution of fielders - but a fielder cannot score. i truly think its about time the ICC wakes up and allows sbstitutions in the team during the game. a proposed idea is the twelve man team with the best 11 taking the field (something like baseball). i think it would certainly benefit teams like india, who are always one bowler short ....
but one area where cricket seems to be ahead of most sports is the use of technology - cricket has allowed the use of cameras for making decisions a lot more than most sports. even the "spotshot" that ESPN uses in tennis matches (only the viewers on TV see it - it is not used in making decisions on court) has been adapted from the hawkeye technology that first started with cricket. football (american football) is notorious for bad decisions, and only the NFL allows tv replays. MLB should certainly start using cameras to determine outs at bases. esp. in today's sports where so much is at stake, there is certainly nothing wrong in making sure the decsion is right, esp when the technology is available.
and going back to the original topic, i certainly dont see proCricket hurting the sport - if at all, it might infuse some fresh and new ideas and hence better entertainment into the sport .....
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| | Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 3:33 pm: |
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TIGER
Apple CEO steve jobs showed a preview of the new release of the mac OS named "TIGER" a couple of days ... the video and audio conferencing apps as well as the spotlight file searching engine seemed quite cool .... check out the video of his presentation. Tiger certainly seems to have a head start over Microsoft's LONGHORN which only comes out in 2006.
yet, the prices continue to remain too steep for the average consumer to take his minds off the lower price PC, and spend a lot (i mean a lot) more on a macintosh.
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| | Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 10:57 pm: |
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marazI saMgaIt naaTkacaa punaja-nma
puNyaatIla Baart naaT\yasaMXaÜQana maMidracyaa rama saazoÊ rivaMd` Kro AaNaI rajaIva praMjapo yaaMnaI
baalagaMQava- va dInaanaaqa maMgaoXakraMnaI gaajavalaolaI saMgaIt naaTkM puNyaat prt AaNalaI Aahot. maagacyaa
rivavaarI kT\yaar kaLjaat GausalaI yaa naaTkcaa 51vaa p`yaÜga Jaalaa. saMgaIt naaTkaba_lacaI AavaD prt jaaga`ut krNyaasaazI gaaNyaaMcaI AvaQaI
kmaI krNyaat Aalaa. jarI kahI laÜkaMnaa ho AavaDlao nasalao tir saMgaIt naaTkacaI vaaZtI laÜkip`yata ³ha
maaJaa davaa naahIÊ tr kovaL jao vaacalao Aaho %yaavaÉna ilaihtÜ Aaho´ pahta Asao krNyaat kahIca hrkt
naahI Asao mhNaavao laagaola .
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| | Friday, July 02, 2004 - 4:04 am: |
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once in a blue moon
july 2, 2004 is a full moon day - in the hindu calendar, its more famous as gauÉ pÝiNa-maa .... but so what ... it comes every year, and goes ... whats the big deal about it? the big deal is not this full moon night, but the one that will come on july 31, 2004. it is the second full moon night this month and is therefore known as a blue moon. this is the definition of a blue moon (quoted from the infoplease site):
quote:a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days). July 2004 will have two full moons: the first on July 2, the second on July 31that second full moon is called the blue moon
this certainly is not a common occurence - that explains the term "once in a blue moon". the next time a calendar month is going to have two full moon nights will be in june 2007.
there is one more definition, this one is a little more complicated (again quoting from infoplease):
quote:the blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons ....
... It has to do with the Christian ecclesiastical calendar. Some years have an extra full moonthirteen instead of twelve. Since the identity of the moons was important in the ecclesiastical calendar (the Paschal Moon, for example, used to be crucial for determining the date of Easter), a year with a thirteenth moon skewed the calendar, since there were names for only twelve moons. By identifying the extra, thirteenth moon as a blue moon, the ecclesiastical calendar was able to stay on track.
This is referred to in the HIndu calendar as an AiQak maihnaa - actually i am guessing that the phrase AiQak maihnaa refers to this. i will try to confirm this info. but nevertheless, this is quite rare too. it will occur in august 2005, and then only in may 2008.
yet, this does not seem to be the origin of the "blue moon" phrase. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first reference to a blue moon comes from a proverb recorded in 1528:
If they say the moon is blue, We must believe that it is true.
i am not sure about that but check this out: the month of feb has 28 days, while the moon cycle is 29.5 - all other calendar months have a longer duration. so it is quite likely for both jan and march to have two full moons (double blue moon in a year!) and february get totally left out - and have no full moon at all .... that is going to occur next only in 2018, and then in 2037 - truly a once in a blue moon
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| | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 2:05 pm: |
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latte land
just got back from a weekend in seattle, WA. loved the place ... the evergreen pacific northwest with its coniferous vegetation is totally different from the deciduous trees on the east coast. also had a chance to visit Mt. Rainier National Park - spectacular place ... as close to Switzerland as it gets here in the US - the high snow covered mountains, the alpine meadows, the melting glaciers, ..... Mt.Rainier itself is an active volcano, towering to 14,410 ft. - airplanes flying to seattle get an up, close and personal view - the planes fly at an altitude of approx. 16000 ft. in that region close to seattle (i know this info from an Alaska Airlines pilot who was sitting next to me on the flight). I will put those photos some other time ...
there is a spot on the University of Washington campus (Rainier Vista) - where you can actually see Mt. Rainier on a clear day (even though the peak is about 90 miles away). i have seen pictures like this one, but was not as fortunate to see it in person. i am guessing it happens no more than 3-4 times a year that the sky is so clear. so i didnt see the fountain and the mountain toghether, but got a chance to catch em separately.
here are a couple of pictures that i clicked at Mt. Raininer:
1. Reflection Lake
2. Mt.Rainier and Myrtle Falls
And ofcourse, it being July 4 weekend, there were fireworks, and they were pretty good. could not manage too many pictures of the fireworks, but here is one of the fireworks shots
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| | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 2:46 pm: |
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ek hÜta kavh-r ...
vaINaa gavaaNakraMcyaa ek hÜta kavh-r yaa pustkatUna george washington carver caI kqaa XaokDÜ marazI maaNasaaMnaa maaiht JaalaI. %yaaca kavh-r cyaa smaRtIt 1951 saalaI Aajacyaa idvaXaI
george washington carver national monument caI sqaapnaa imaja,UrI rajyaat jaÜpilana yaoqao JaalaI. eka african-american maaNasaacyaa smaRtIt sqaapna kolao jaaNaaro ho Amaoirkotlao pihlaoca raYT/Iya smaark. tumacyaa pOkI kÜNaI
ho smaark baiGatlao Asalyaasa ja$r %yaba_la saaMgaa
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| | Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 3:01 pm: |
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a memorable day:
today is the 35th anniversary of the first landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Edwun 'Buzz' Aldrin, who, along with Michael Collins formed the crew of Apollo 11. The mission was launched on July 16, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Neil Armstrong's words echoed through the world after he landed on the moon:
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
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| | Monday, September 20, 2004 - 4:51 pm: |
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namaskar maMDLIÊ Aaja bayaa-ca idvasaaMnaI [qao post krNyaacaa yaÜga Aalaa. kamaat ja,ra vyast hÜtÜ ...
qaÜD\yaa ]iXara ka hÜnaaÊ savaa-Mnaa gaNaoXa catuqaI-cyaa XauBaocCa
50 .....and not so strong ...
today is the fiftieth anniversary of the first fortran program - this info comes from the Wikipedia - yet sometimes i wonder how exact can such information be ...
nevertheless, its a historic day for guys who like me who have written fortran code (and continue to do so) ... and for a long time, that was the only language i could program in .... fortran has come a long way since the days of fortran 77 - with the evolution of the fortran 90 and 95 standards. but its days seem to be winding down ... nagware, i heard has stopped making compilers, and others might follow suit. the next stage would be the end of support for existing compilers, and following that would be the end of the world for the language ... in terms of evolving further. there will continue to be thousands of programmers who will continue to use existing libraries and numerical recipes for formula translation ... and hopefully keep the legacy alive ....
as for me, i have no qualms about letting go of it ... personally, i think C++ will kick its ass anyday ....
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| | Friday, April 01, 2005 - 10:53 pm: |
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Its been a long time since I posted anything here, and figured this would be a good one to restart, especially considering it is quite related to one of the earlier posts on this BB.
Its been exactly one year since Google launched its Gmail service. Launching an email service offering 1Gb of disk space on Fool's day had everyone convinced that it was the best April Fool's day stunt in recent history. Hardly anyone bought it ... and Google was running around telling everyone who was willing to listen that it was for real. And the BBC said, that Timing made Google the April Fool!
A year down the road, here is what Google is saying. They are offering another gigabyte of disk space - again, being Fool's day its hard to believe. Visit the gmail website and you will realize that the disk space they are offering is continuously being increased every instant.
Right now, the gmail accounts have reached 1683 MB - certainly higher than the 1GB. Google has set this crazy thing in motion, and every Fool's day will now be one to look forward to as Gmail takes another step in a direction completely unforeseen, and which we wont know for sure if its true until April 2!!
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| | Saturday, June 11, 2005 - 3:54 am: |
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bayaa-ca idvasaat kahI TaklaM navhtM [kDo. mhTlaM prt sau$ k$yaat. tsaM baiGatlaM tr yaa AaiQaca post caI sauÉvaat sauwa AgadI AXaIca Aaho. mhNauna yavaoLolaa tÜca majakUr marazItUna ilaihlaa 
seattle XahrapasaUna f> dID dÜna tasaavar h Mount Rainier ha mahabalaaZ\ya pva-t Aaho. 14Ê410 fuT ]Mca ha iXaKr va Aajaubaajaucaa p`doXa Mt. Rainier National Park maQyao yaotÜ. Seattle hUna ]D\DaNa kolyaavar ivamaana Mt. Rainier par krtanaa saaQaarNa 16000 fuTavaÉna jaatM. hI maaihtI ivamaanaat maaJyaa XaojaarI basalaolyaa Alaskan Airlines cyaa ivamaanacaalakanao idlaI.
Seattle maQyao ivamaanaat iXarlaÜ %yaavaoLI baiGatlaM kI maaJyaa jaagaovar ek va`ud\Qa baa basalyaa Aahot. %yaMnaa
ivacaarlyaavar laxaat Aala kI %yaaMcaI jaagaa dusaáyaa TÜkacyaa iKDkIt Aaho. ]zvaNyaapoxaa maIca mhTlaM
kI AsaudoÊ basalaa Aahat tr basaaÊ maIca dusarI iKDkI GaotÜ. ho baÜlatÜya tÜca vaaTU laagalaM kI ho kaya
krtÜya AapNaÊ yaavaoLI prt AakaXaatUna Mt. Rainier baGaayacaI saMQaI hukNaar. Seattle maQyao iXarlaÜ %yaavaoiLsaud\Qaa to d`uXya baGaayalaa imaLalaM navhtM. (a ivacaart mao %yaa baaMcaI jaagaa
GaotlaI.
pNa yaÜgaayaÜga Asaa Jaalaa kI Seattle hUna ivamaanaanao ]D\DaNa kolyaavaar pUNa- vaLsaa GaotlyaamauLo tÜ iXaKr maaJyaabaajaUlaa Aalaa. AaNaI
%yaatuna Xaojaarcaa manauYya Alaskan Airlines caa pilot inaGaalaa²² tÜ to d`uXya dr AazvaD\yaalaa tInada phaNaara - %yaamauLo %yaacyaakDo Barpur p`vaasa vaNa-naM hÜtI² saudOvaanao maaJyaa hatat camera pNa hÜta AaNaI ho d`uYya iTpayalaa imaLalao
kr Balaa saÜ hÜ Balaa mhNatat to Kro Aaho tr
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| | Saturday, June 11, 2005 - 12:28 pm: |
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Here is the original color picture. A lot of the glaciers are clearly visible on the mountainside. Here is some more info (some about the mountain, other related):
Mt. Rainier is actually classified an 'active' volcano, although it has not erupted for more than a 100 years now. It is 'the most heavily glaciated peak in the contiguous United States'. Several thousand(!) climbers go for the summit every year. THe National Park Service maintains detailed statistics about climbers.
On a tangential note, some more information vaguely connected with Mt. Rainier. Rainier Mountaineering Inc., is a company that offers climbing programs and training to climb Mt. Rainier and Mt. McKinley (in Alaska). Ed Viesturs, one of the guides with RMI, successfully scaled Annapurna last month, making him the 12th person to climb all 14 peaks above 8000m. He has scaled Mt. Everest 6 times, including the IMAX expedition in 1996. For this in Mumbai, the movie is playing at the IMAX theater in Wadala (atleast it was playing in January). The movie is spectacular, and by far the best IMAX movie I have seen. I would suggest you dont miss it. Its 100Rs very well spent - it is the closest most of us will ever get to Mt. Everest.
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| | Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 3:48 pm: |
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continuing in the line of some of the earlier posts that i used to have on this BB:
i often check the wikipedia (on most weekdays anways) about significant events, births and deaths of the day. its a source of some really cool information. here is something about today (june 21):
among other things, today is the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere (summer solstice) and the longest night for those in the southern hemisphere.
but an interesting event that took place on this day in 1989 was the decsion of the US Supreme Court in a case known as Texas v/s Johnson. Greg Johnson had burnt the US flag at the Republican National Convention in Dallas (1984), and had subsequently been convicted for desecrating a venerated object in violation of a Texas statute. The US Supreme Court however, overturned it citing "... Johnson's burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, permitting him to invoke the First Amendment", the First Amendment ofcourse referring to the freedom of speech (and expression??) according to the US constitution. the decision did cause a lot of outrage amongst the public, but it has stood the test of time (so far!). there are some laws against misuse though - According to the US flag code,
# "No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform"
# The flag "should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper".
what does all this really mean to all of us here? on the face of it, nothing really. but the question that intrigued me was that i am actually quite ignorant about any laws related to all this in india. i tried briefly to look on the web for laws in the indian constitution that prohibit the desecration of the indian national flag or even burning of the same. suffices to say that i didnt find any (i didnt look too hard though, im sure thereis something on the web!). but would we consider that someone burning the indian flag was actually 'expressing himself'? personally i dont think so ... the national flag is a symbol of the nation, and if you dont like the way it is - find some other nation or get parliament to change the law and get one you want ... but till then , the tricolor it is and no one's got the right to mess around with it.
as i write this, i recall that they sometimes show flag burning in movies (in roja, for example). but i also recall someone telling me that they do not actually use a 'real flag' - its a fake flag (i.e. something is inaccurate about it, such as the ashok chakra is missing, or the colors are inaccurate or something) so that they are not really showing the flag burning. which probably means that there are laws in india prohibiting the smae. any info on the same would be quite welcome!
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| | Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 2:40 pm: |
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gaolao kahI maihnao fÜTÜ kaZayacaI barIca hÝsa laagalaI Aaho. maI kaZlaolao fÜTÜ (a BB var baroca fÜTÜ Taklao hI Aahot. pNa itkDo jaagaa vyaapNyaapoxaa [kDo jaast saÜca hÜla Asaa kahI jaNaaMnaI
sallaa idlaa.
%yaavar ivacaar k$na AsaM zrvalaM Aaho kI fÜTÜ [kDo TakInaÊ rÜja,caa f> ek. baGaU ksaa jamatÜ p`yaÜga.
maaJyaa apartment cyaa maagacyaa baaja,Ulaa maÜzM tLM AahoÊ naava Aaho Lady Ann Lake Ê AaNaI ekMdr (a BaagaacaM naava Aaho Edgewater . %yaamauLo kuzohI laaMba na jaata icakar fÜTÜ kaZayacaI saMQaI imaLto. [kDo Taklaolao barocasao fÜTÜ
(aca Lady Ann Lake BaÜvatI kaZlaolao Aahot. rÜja toca toca tLM baGaUna malaa Aijabaat kMTaLa yaot naahI. pNa ekaca p`karcao
fÜTÜ pahUna kMTaLa Aalaa tr tXaI p`itiËyaa na@kI kLvaa
maOM AÝr maorI tnha ....
caption suggested by deepanjali
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| | Friday, August 12, 2005 - 9:37 am: |
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p`itibaMba
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| | Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 1:57 am: |
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]nhaLa saMpt Aalaa trI (a Jaadalaa ekhI pana fuTlaM naahI
maÜzI AavaR<aI
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| | Monday, August 15, 2005 - 2:14 am: |
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Little River Falls and Canyon
About Little River:
... The Little River has been slicing through sandstone for thousands of years, creating a canyon with depths of 600 feet ....
... Tucked away in the northeast corner of Alabama near the Georgia border, Little River Canyon is an isolated oasis carved into a mountain. During the spring runoff, a handful of daredevil kayakers descend the canyon's steep walls into a cauldron of class V whitewater ...
Source: Gorp
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| | Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 1:07 pm: |
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Asao pahuNao yaotI ...
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| | Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 7:28 pm: |
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Fall Colors: Vogel State Park, GA
Full size
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| | Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 7:54 pm: |
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rÜja, saUyaÜ-dya AaNaI saUyaa-st hÜtÜ. pNa tÜ kahI xaNa ]BaM rahUna pahNyacaa kMTaLa Aijabaat yaot naahI
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| | Friday, August 19, 2005 - 10:39 pm: |
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Twilight on the Tennessee River ... jamlyaasa kahI caaMgalaosao caption saucavaa
full size
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| | Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 6:37 pm: |
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maaJyaa apartment cyaa maagacyaa baaja,Ulaa ho d`uYya Aaho.
qaMDIt
]nhaL\yaat
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
-P.B.Shelley (Ode to the West Wind)
Full sized: blue, green
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| | Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 1:51 pm: |
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thanks all for all your comments ... here is another one clicked a couple of weeks ago
Storm Water drain to remove water from the adjoining street ...
i think my captions suck ... tumhIca captions saucavaa
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| | Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 5:25 pm: |
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nadIcyaa kazI ... ...
full size
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| | Thursday, August 25, 2005 - 12:54 pm: |
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Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
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| | Tuesday, September 06, 2005 - 5:53 pm: |
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Centennial Campus, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC
Full size
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| | Thursday, September 08, 2005 - 5:43 pm: |
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Seagulls
Cape Hatteras Ferry, Outerbanks, NC
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| | Friday, September 09, 2005 - 12:40 pm: |
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Rollerblading into the twilight ...
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| | Monday, September 12, 2005 - 4:22 am: |
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maaJyaa apartment BaÜvatI kaQalaolao kahI photo
full sized version
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| | Friday, September 16, 2005 - 4:00 am: |
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AapNa yaaMnaa paihlat kaÆ
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| चोखंदळ ग्राहक |
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| महाराष्ट्र धर्म वाढवावा |
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| व्यक्तिपासून वल्लीपर्यंत |
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| पांढर्यावरचे काळे |
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| गावातल्या गावात |
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| तंत्रलेल्या मंत्रबनात |
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| आरोह अवरोह |
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| शुभंकरोती कल्याणम् |
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| विखुरलेले मोती |
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| हितगुज गणेशोत्सव २००६ |
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