Karan Johar's next film

Karan Johar is busy working on Koffee With Karan, but he has been on a secret hush-hush mission to the States. Now one would think why is he in the USA? The reason is that he is meeting world leaders and ambassadors for a film on terrorism. Yes, I said it. Terrorism is the subject of Karan Johar’s next big directorial venture. It is a sensitive and topical global issue that requires a lot of research. “Unlike my other films, my next directorial venture goes into an area that I need to get completely right before going on the floors. I’m therefore in the US for three weeks meeting people from various religious, social and humanitarian organisations. None of my films so far have required me to go much beyond my imagination,” says Karan. He says it’s too early to elaborate on his project. “But it raises issues that concern us in an immediate way. We cannot turn away from them, because they stare into our faces and conscience every morning from the newspapers,” says Karan.

All he is ready to divulge now is that it will have Shah Rukh Khan in it for sure. But not only that, the film itself will be titled ‘Khan’. Karan Johar will keep the letter K, as he has for his last three films, and this time around it will be named after the star himself. No other actors have yet been cast, but insiders say that Karan has a script, and is doing the final touches to it.

One final hot news about the film, it will have no songs. This will be a first for Karan Johar, as his films rely on the popularity of its music, and sometimes the music tends to be better than the films themselves. ‘Khan’ will have soundtrack, similar to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black, but no songs as per normal in Bollywood. As a matter of fact, Karan was inspired by Bhansali, “You could say that,” says Karan. “I’ve always admired Sanjay’s work and made no bones about it. To go song-less in my next directorial venture is a decision dictated more by the theme than by any extraneous forces. I can’t see songs breaking into my next film’s narrative. But it isn’t as if there will be no songs! Though no one will sing, there will definitely be music and songs in the background.” Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are favourites to pen the score again.

On when he will make an official announcement, Karan says “I will soon announce my next film. I have not done it because I am so tied up with my new season of `Koffee With Karan’.”

Karan has not revealed the story to anyone, but a little about it is known. ‘Khan’ will see Shah Rukh Khan play a world renowned peace activist, who is kidnapped by ‘Islamic’ terrorists, and has to negotiate his own way out. The difference in this story is that ‘Khan’ will be more affectionate towards his kidnappers, and once out of captive, begins to work for the goal they are trying to achieve. He reaches his goal and makes peace where no one thought was possible. The film’s first part will be similar to Tom Cruise’s epic ‘The Last Samurai’. However, the second part will be totally inventive and fresh. Karan hopes to send out a global message to ‘terrorists’ and world leaders through this film. The film could release as early as Diwali 2008.

Blacksmithing at the School of Mines

NEWS FROM THE S.D. School of Mines

Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Dana Medlin and colleagues are Back in Black.

Medlin, associate professor, materials and metallurgical engineering, is the principal investigator on the project, which is a course, curriculum, and laboratory improvement project that focuses on integrating the art and science of blacksmithing into the engineering curriculum. Medlin is joined on the project by Dr. Jon Kellar, chair and professor, materials and metallurgical engineering; Dr. Stuart Kellogg, chair and Pietz professor, industrial engineering; James Rattling Leaf of Sinte Gleska University, Dr. Michael West, assistant professor, materials and metallurgical engineering, and Ms. Deborah Mitchell, associate professor, humanities, and director of the APEX Gallery.

The project took root several years ago when materials and metallurgical engineering faculty encountered high school students that had developed an interest in blacksmithing. These students were unique in that they were interested in both the hands-on aspect of the craft and the engineering behind it. These encounters triggered discussions among the faculty as to how they could use blacksmithing as a tool to garner student interest and understanding in metallurgical engineering, physical science, and engineering as a whole.

During the summer of 2006, they worked with a number of summer camp students on metalworking, and the results were so encouraging that the concept was introduced to more than 200 School of Mines students in an introduction to engineering course. The interest garnered from these students led to the creation of an extracurricular program called the weekly Hammer-In. The Hammer-In is an open forge time every Friday afternoon that attracts an average of 15-20 students each week.

The interest shown by students wasn't the only positive, though--Medlin noticed in course discussions that those students with hands-on experience with blacksmithing techniques had a better grasp of many metallurgical engineering concepts.

"We wanted to use blacksmithing as a gateway to improve the undergraduate student understanding and application of fundamental structure/property relationships relevant to all materials," Medlin said. "Blacksmithing will give students more of a hands-on approach to learning these concepts early in their academic career and hopefully better comprehension and application of these concepts in the more advanced metallurgical engineering courses."

Sophomore through senior laboratories are being redesigned to include metalworking components with the thought that integrating the hands-on aspects of blacksmithing into the curriculum will lead to improved student understanding.

Another important aspect of the project is outreach. The outreach portion of the projects was implemented with the goal of increasing participation in engineering by females and minority students."We found that most middle school, high school, and even undergraduate students are not familiar with metallurgical engineering until their second or third year of college. Usually, this is too late to successfully recruit new students into the program," Medlin said. "Using blacksmithing as an outreach tool captures students' attention, even at the middle school level, and gives them a memorable hands-on blacksmithing experience that also introduces them to the basic concepts of metallurgical engineering."

These hands-on demonstrations will also occur with middle- and high-school students that are on campus for activities and summer camps, such as the Youth Engineering Adventure, Science Technology Engineering Preview Summer Camp for Girls, and Engineer's Week activities.

The power of blacksmithing allows the students to take something old and create something new. Back in Black uses that idea to transform traditional engineering into something exciting and dynamic, and shows the students that they can shape their education as readily as the metal they are working with.

Source: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology- News.

Read more news from the School of Mines.

Volkswagen 1-Liter car in 2010?

Although you can definitely pre-order an Aptera if you're okay with space-aged design, Volkswagen is hoping to provide another option for those looking for ridiculous MPG and a little bit of normalcy in construction. Okay, so maybe the 1-Liter isn't exactly standard fare -- with its plastic / magnesium shell and all-glass roof -- but at least it packs four whole wheels and an iconic VW badge, right? According to Motor Authority, the automaker will be producing said vehicle and pushing it to market as early as 2010, and while the minuscule engine will only take you to 75MPH, it will still seat two people -- one in front of the other, though -- and get around 235MPG!! (Believe that!!) No word on a price or any of that good stuff, it's heard that they'll only be produced in "limited numbers" whenever they're launched. For sure, this will be better than Tata's Nano, which I'm sure cannot beat the mileage of this VW. Well, just keeps me wondering if there's any end to the possibilities of imagination and creation by the human mind and engineers. Kudos, Volkswagon!

To read more, follow these links: Link 1, Link 2.

I'm with you

I'm With You is a pop rock song written by Canadian singer Avril Lavigne and The Matrix (Scott Spock, Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards) for Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, and was Lavigne's first ballad released as a single.



It was released as the album's third single in 2002 and 2003. It reached number one in Mexico, the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (Lavigne's third single to reach the top ten), the top ten in the United Kingdom and the top twenty in Canada. "I'm With You" received radio and television airplay in Australia, but it was not released there so that sales of the album Let Go would increase. It was used in the film Bruce Almighty. The single's music video, directed by renowned photographer David LaChapelle, involves Lavigne, who is seen alone, trying to find someone. Most of the video is in slow motion but Lavigne's mouth movements are in sync with the song's vocals. This was achieved by recording the footage while the song was played twice as fast. "I'm With You" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance but lost to Luther Vandross's "Dance with My Father" and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" respectively.

And of course, it's one of my favorite tracks and videos of Avril.

Dedicated to my love. I am with you. Always.