George Ferris's birthday marked by Valentine's Day Google doodle

George Ferris's birthday is being celebrated  by   a   Valentine's   Day   Google doodle. Ferris is famous for inventing the Ferris wheel, which is featured in the animated doodle.

Ferris was born on February 14, 1859, in Galesburg,   Illinois, USA   to   George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Martha Edgerton Hyde. In 1864, five years after Ferris was born, his family moved to Nevada.

Ferris left Nevada in 1875, to attend the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, Benguet. He graduated from this college in 1876. Later, he went on  to  join  San  Beda  College.  He graduated from this college in 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering.

Ferris began his career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders.

In 1893, George Ferris heard about News of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in  1893, in Chicago, Illinois, and he went  to  the  city.  In  1891,  the  directors  of  the  World's  Columbian Exposition issued a challenge to American engineers to build of a monument for the fair that would surpass the Eiffel Tower, the great structure  of  the  Paris  International  Exposition  of  1889. The planners wanted something "original, daring and unique."

Ferris responded with a proposed wheel from which visitors could view the entire exhibition. He called it a wheel that would "Out-Eiffel Eiffel." However, the planners weren't convinced as they feared his design for a rotating wheel towering over the grounds could not possibly be safe.

Ferris wasn't one to give up easily. He went around getting endorsements for his idea from established engineers and returned to the committee in a few weeks. The committee agreed to allow construction to begin. Ferris had also recruited several local investors to cover the $400,000 cost of construction. Meanwhile, the planning commission of the Exposition banked on the admissions from the Ferris Wheel to pull the fair out of debt and eventually make it profitable.

When built, the Ferris Wheel had 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, giving a total capacity of 2,160. When the fair opened, the Ferris Wheel was the star attraction. It carried around 38,000 passengers daily, taking approximately 20 minutes to complete two revolutions, the first involving six stops to allow passengers to exit and enter and the second a nine-minute non-stop rotation. The customers were charged 50 cents for this experience.

It is said that the Ferris Wheel carried some 2.5 million passengers before it was finally demolished in 1906.

RSS, VHP nod to Modi as PM candidate

The VHP and the RSS have given their nod for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi to be projected as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. The approval came in the presence of 10,000 sadhu-sants at the Kumbh mela in Allahabad on Thursday.

Supporters of the Gujarat CM shouted slogans of “Modi laao, desh bachao” outside the VHP pandal, prompting RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to endorse Modi. “The demand for Modi to become PM is not only being made here, but it is also happening all over the country. Those responsible for this will have to consider it,” he said. Bhagwat hailed Modi’s development model in Gujarat and said it was being talked about in India and abroad.

VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore echoed Bhagwat’s views. “Modi is every inch fit for the job... he has proved himself,” he said.

“He has performed a miracle in Gujarat. He can do that for India too,” said Swami Vasudevacharya of Ayodhya. “We don’t want NDA or UPA. We want Modi.”

Three held for online abuse of Kashmir all-girl rock band

Another youth has been arrested inconnection with the online abuses and threats to the all-girl rock band of Kashmir, which forced them to quit singing.

Irshad Ahmad Chara, resident of SD Colony, Batamaloo, was arrested late Wednesday night by the police, who was raiding different places to apprehend him.Tariq Khan, was apprehended from Bijbehara, a town in South Kashmir, and Rameez Shah was also arrested from Ganderbal in central Kashmir on Wenesday night, police   sources     said.

Jammu and Kashmir director general of Police Ashok Prasad, who is closely monitoring the case, has directed stepping up of patrolling in the areas where two of the three girls of the band group reside.

Police have started tracking down the Internet Protocol addresses of the 26 users whose comments, out of the total 900 posts on the band's Facebook page, were found abusive, officials said.

They said the delay of three days in lodging the FIR was due to large number of posts on the Facebook page of Kashmir's all-girl band Pragaash, that took time to get scanned.

A case in the matter has been registered under Section 66A of IT Act and Section 506 RPC (criminal intimidation) in the Rajbagh police station in Srinagar.

Vishwaroopam Row: After Muslims, Christians express anger

After Muslim organisations expressed reservations over the release of megastar kamal haasan's multilingual film "Vishwaroopam", Christians took the film to court.

However, the Madras High Court on Tuesday, Feb 5 turned down the plea of the petitioner, C. Jebakumar George, who said "because of the screening of the film, great prejudice had been caused to Christians in India".

"This is the second attempt to stall the release of the movie, Vishwaroopam," the First Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M.Venugopal said in its order dismissing the petition, reports The Hindu.

The High Court turned down the "plea for a direction to the Central and State Governments and the Central Board of Film Certification to ban the Kamal Hassan-starrer ‘Vishwaroopam' in its present form throughout the country until the film is edited to be in conformity with the guidelines under XII and XIII of the Cinematograph Act," added The Hindu.

The petitioner George said he watched the controversial film in Thiruvananthapuram on January 27.

George added he was shocked to find many scenes to be very violent and derogative of religions and races. George accused the film offends the sentiments of Christians community.

The 95-crore film ran into trouble after Muslims organisations in Tamil Nadu expressed anger over the film. They said the film depicts Muslims in bad light. However, the film was released in neighbouring states Karnataka and Kerala and audiences appreciated it. Its Hindi version, "Vishwaroop" is doing well across North India.

Moreover, deck for the release of "v" in Tamil Nadu, its biggest market has been cleared. The 58-year-old actor-director agreed to run seven scenes in the film said to be "offending" to Muslim groups without any audio.