Cricket in Swing !

Apparently cricket has seen a major revival in England, after Freddie Flintoff's and Michael Vaughn's theatrics !

I found one statement in that article funny...

Interest in the game, which for much of the past decade has been as unfashionable as [former prime minister] John Major, is starting to eclipse even that of football

City of Joy takes down Rikshwala

The Communist government in West Bengal, has decided to do away with hand-pulled rickshaws.

Interestingly enough, the reasons given for the changes were...

The Chief Minister said he was keen to go through with this because it was a blot on the image of Kolkata.

‘‘For most westerners, Kolkata is synonymous with hand-pulled rickshaws, beggars etc. We will have to change the image,’’ he said.

Of course, no concrete plan has been put forward to explain what will happen to the people who depend on this for their livelihood. Some random mumblings of "maybe replace with cycle rikshaws"....which brings forth another argument : if pulling rikshaws is inhumane, then pedalling is not ?

Indian Economy Blog.

Here is a blog that tracks the Indian Economy. This was created today and I got this link from Amit Varma's India Uncut page.

Neighbour in Need ?

These are the people whom we're supporting against the Maoists ?

Interestingly enough, China gave persmission to use its aerospace, while the Nepalese refused. This in spite of the fact that we gave military aid to Nepal a few months ago, when it seemed like the Maoists were about to take over. And the new king hasn't even reaffirmed Nepal's long-standing support to India's quest for a permanent seat on the UN security council !

Another case in point was the abduction and murder of a BSF officer by the Bangladesh border forces, the BDR ! That fact that both of these small nations owe their existence/origin to India doesn't seem to faze them ! Instead of maintaining good neighbourly relations with "big brother" India, they seem to want to irk us more and more...and successive governments on our side, on the other hand, do not seem to be bothered with responding to such behaviour either ! If these state of affairs continue, I feel that matters will only degenerate from here on, as every tom, dick and harry will feel that he can get away with pulling all sorts of nonsense againts India/Indians !

Who's your daddy ?

An article in Reuters, about how one in every 25 "fathers" could be unknowingly raising another man's child !

According to the article, on one hand, if the fake dad gains the knowledge that the child is not his, then it could lead to family violence and breakups, whereas if he does not know, then leaving paternal discrepancy hidden could mean having the wrong genetic information, which could have health consequences.

Aamir Khan/Mangal Pandey ?

Aamir Khan is blogging as Mangal Pandey ? Interesting to say the least....

Outsourcing Companies ?

Why are Indian companies being referred to as "outsourcing companies" ? I mean, is Infosys, just an outsourcing company to the rest of the world ? Seems like the world media is taking sides (against Indian entreprenuers and companies) by using such negative language to describe them.

New age space travel : Space Elevator !

After reading an article in IEEE Spectrum this month, I was impressed by the amount of effort that has gone into this radical new idea, called the Space Elevator. Apparently the idea is VERY feasible in 10-15 years ! Nowadays, it costs about $20,000 to hoist a kilogram of material into space...the idea of the space elevator, if implemented, would apparently reduce it to less than $200 per kilogram, and in the long run to around $10 per kilogram ! That is cheaper than the amount spent in transporting materials over the Pacific !

In the Spectrum article, the authors talk about various problems that will arise if the construction/operation and maintenance were to proceed..the most interesting of all potential "problems" discussed by the authors, was terrorism ! Of course, since the authors suggested the base station on earth to be located on the Galapagos Island in the Pacific, which is hundreds of kilometres from any shipping/aviation routes (and for many other scientific reasons), they state that it will be much easier to arm and defend against a terrorist attack ! Interesting to see that even cutting edge science needs to be aware of such issues.

The new Baghdad.

The Mayor of Baghdad was ousted by an armed Shiite group. Considering the enourmous amount of money time and wasted human lives that have been spent to "liberate" Iraq, is this what the new "democracy" is going to be like ? Now, we should wait and see as to how the Americans respond to this. The question to ask of course is that if they went through all this effort to replace a malevolent dictator with oppression and religious fanaticism ! I mean, most educated people around the world guessed that this would be the eventual outcome. How long can a foreign presence remain in that country to "maintain law and order", without it degenrating into occupation ? And now that radical elements have decided to come out into the open and perform coups, what will be the next step ? A bloody civil war ?

Fat vs Thin

Article on Fat people vs Thin people was sent to me by a friend...

Can you hear me NOW ?

An article by Thomas L Friedman, about the wireless technology situation in the US. Apparently, Ghana has a cellphone service that is better than what is available in the US ! And it is a known fact that the Japanese lead the way in this area.

To quote Friedman's article...
I began thinking about this after watching the Japanese use cellphones and laptops to get on the Internet from speeding bullet trains and subways deep underground. But the last straw was when I couldn't get cellphone service while visiting I.B.M.'s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y.

Whenever I come down to India for a vacation, I am pleasantly surprised to the see the popularity of cellphones, and also to see some of the latest, cutting-edge devices and handsets being used there...some that are not even available in the US !

Music, movies, TV shows and books that changed the world.

A poll was conducted among music and movie stars, to find the music, movies, TV shows and books that changed the world.

Hotels and Patels !

An undercover sting operation in Georgia, to ferret out grocery store owners who sell the ingredients to make methamphetamine, is falling to pieces. The reason being is that most of the people "trapped" by these sting operations are of Indian origin, and apparently their lack of knowledge of American slangs, led them to being trapped.

For example,
when the undercover operatives told store clerks that he needed the cold medicine, matches and camping fuel to "finish up a cook," some of them said they figured he must have meant something about barbecue.

Another couple of interesting lines from that article...
Forty-four of the defendants are Indian immigrants - 32, mostly unrelated, are named Patel - and many spoke little more than the kind of transactional English mocked in sitcoms.

and
This corner of the state is still largely white; Indians began moving here about 10 years ago, buying hotels and then convenience stores, and some whites still say, mistakenly, that "Patel" means "hotel" in Hindi.

Hmmm...well, of course injustice has been done...but I also believe that a lot more Indian jokes and in particular Gujarati and Patel jokes will do the rounds now. As if the mocking "Apu" accent wasn't bad enough !

Invictus.

"Invictus", by William Ernest Henley, a British poet who lived between 1849-9013. A poem which achieved notoriety a few years ago, because Tim McVeigh (executed for the federal building boming in Oklahoma in 1995), left a handwritten note with the above poem, on the morning of his execution day. He had no other last words...

In itself, a good poem...as follows...

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit fom pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For the unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

Op-Ed in New York Times.

An article about op-ed, in the op-ed section of the New York Times...for all of us wannabe "journalists" maybe this could be a forum to start.

Also, here is an older, related article by the same author (who else, but the editor of the Op-Ed page for the New York Times - the ultimate authority who decides what goes in and what doesn't).

What happens to the astrologers ?

Here is an article about Pluto's status - i.e. whether it should be deemed a planet or not !

Now what are all the atrologers going to do ? Since the definitions of planets either include more than the nine that we know about (I mean lumps of ice/rock) or just the first eight (no Pluto!).

Interesting conundrum...so, one planet stops shaping our lives and our future ?

Phenomenal Growth !

Interesting article about blogs !

A new blog every second ! And the number of blogs double every five months ! wow ! I wonder, with so much information being pumped onto the net every second, how long before the current backbone of the net starts wheezing ? Did anyone forsee such growth rates ? Any networking people out there wanna try your hand at a reply ? :)

On the other hand, take a look at Blogger's Depression...a hilarious take on the blogging phenomenon.