Me myself and my fingers

2009-10-02T16:56:00.001-04:00

Rapists and pedophiles - what punishment is reasonable?

From the side that says
'no death penalty under any circumstances' and
'people should be imprisoned only if their crimes are egregious' and
'prisoners can always be retrained and should be integrated into society'
TO
'death penalty whenever possible - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth is the way it should be' and
'three strikes and you're in jail for 30 years' and
'jail is where you should stay for your entire sentence - and a little
more if possible',
every one has an opinion on this.

But in the case of pedophiles (proven beyond a shadow of a doubt) and rapists (again, proven beyond a shadow of doubt) I think the norm should be universal capital punishment.

But what you have outlined as the punishment below seems reasonable - as long as the scientists claiming that it works are willing to face capital punishment when it doesn't work.

Sai

P.S. I am also willing to consider the hanging of the criminals by their ... until they die. It seems to be reasonable to expect the criminal to feel at least a femto-amount of the pain that the victims have felt.

P.P.S Please note 'beyond the shadow of a doubt' is not a legal definition. But then 'beyond a reasonable doubt' is not well defined either. What is reasonable to one could be unreasonable to another.

2009-06-03T20:43:00.003-04:00

FAA - are they working for the safety of the public or for the airlines?

One more story brings fears of safety to the fore. Airline safety is being compromised as detailed in this story. I am afraid that people will stop having confidence in the airlines and the organization that is supposed to be looking out for them. It looks like the fox has been set to guard the chicken coop! Whither whistle blowing safety?

2009-04-06T11:55:00.001-04:00

Gurus and Shishyas

For the past two odd years, I have started to get into self-inquiry. So far, no guru. I have been reading around, listening to lectures and feel that many, nay most, of the doubts that you have expressed about Gurus misleading seekers is genuine. However, the intelligent and inquiring seeker should be able to discern the difference between the real Guru and a Furu (fake Guru).

The problem is when you have Furus that are close to being Gurus - one that comes to mind is Osho - erstwhile Bhagwan (or Acharya) Rajneesh. There are numerous others in India - and still more in the West in the guise of Xtianity spreaders (Southern US has boat loads of these people who feed off the poor).

BUT - there are real Gurus out there. One of the things that I have learnt from the teachings of Adi Shankaracharya (the original - not the current one from Kanchi) and his Bhashya on Gita (Bhashya can be loosely translated as an interpretation or, more correctly, an explanation) is that there ARE gurus and there are realy seekers - and (here is the tough to swallow part) when the time is right, The correct Guru will 'appear' before the seeker and put the seeker on his/her way toward the 'Truth'.

I have difficulty with this. My question is - who guided Adi Shankaracharya himself? And are the only Gnanis the ones that had Gurus? What about Ramakrishna Paramahansa? What about Ramana Maharishi? I am sure there are many other Gnanis in our midst and at least some of them must have found the 'Truth' on their own?! So why not me? Why not EVERYONE else?

Having said this, I believe that J Krishnamurti (however murky his teachings) used to say it right (I am paraphrasing) 'you should not follow me - find out for yourself by inquiring within'.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

2009-04-04T20:14:00.002-04:00

A tale of an ungreedy guy!

You have all read about the greed of the past few years that caused the current market bust. Now you need to read about Andrew Beal who has been saying 'No' for the past 4 years - and only now is agreeing to say 'Yes'. This is an article in Forbes magazine and should be required reading for all the high-and-mighty Wall Street types.

Here is the article - good luck in your future endeavours.

2009-03-24T14:41:00.002-04:00

I have been reading about the 'unprecedented grab of power being proposed by the Treasury Secretary' wherein he would like to have the authority to control the behaviour of companies like AIG. And Republican House head, John Boehner is vehemently opposed to it.

I believe that the following framework should be used to establish the future of financial enterprise in the US.

Just like the Department of Homeland Security, we need to have all organizations like the SEC, the CFTC, Office of Thrift Supervision, and various states' oversight of insurance companies - all need to be collapsed into the Federal Reserve. This will eliminate the need for multiple bodies doing their own specialised bit of oversight, while the big picture is alarming.

Secondly, the banks that are currently partially nationalised should be fully nationalised (stop baying for my neck), the toxic assets placed into a RTC look-alike, each bank split into smaller banks until none of them are 'too big to fail', and then sold to the public.

Any future mergers between any financial institutions need to be overseen by the Federal Reserve in order to ensure that the merger does not create a bank that is 'too big to fail'.

All advertising by these financial companies need to be regulated - much as the SEC regulates advertising by mutual fund companies, or by broker-dealers. This will ensure that shady practices of the mortgage brokers of yester-year will remain there - in the yester-year.

Thoughts?

2008-06-09T07:06:00.001-04:00

What I wrote to the Clinton campaign about rolling back the gas tax.

Dear Senator Ms Clinton,

I know that you will never get to read this. Still, I will chime in because I feel I must.

So far, I have been a faithful supporter of almost all of your pronouncements. But the recent noises you have been making (chiming in with *horrors* Sen. McCain) regarding repealing the gas tax for the duration of the summer is, at best, meaningless and at worst, a disaster. Please note that all this will do is a) help people drive a little more during the summer and b) help the US pollute the earth a little more.

As a candidate from a party that claims to be more environmentally conscious than the Republicans, I believe this is the last thing you should be saying. I would suggest backing off from the suggestion altogether.

I would like to look at it from my point of view. My wife drives around 40 miles one way to her work place. Given that her SUV (yes - I admit that this is not the right vehicle to be driving - but it is the only posture and the only vehicular entrance/exit that keeps my wife's lower back from collapsing) gives about 15 MPG, I just calculated that she drives 80 miles per day - for about 5.33 gallons per day. The proposed savings will help us save about $1.00 per day. From my perspective, this isn't sufficient to help us build our dream house or send my kids to college or even buy some extra eggs for breakfast.

Let me go a little further and telll you what I believe you should be doing. Instead of lowering or temporarily eliminating these taxes, you should be proposing an annual hike in this tax of about 5 cents per gallon per year. Why am I suggesting this? The case boils down to what is good for America (and the world in general). Foreign oil will last about 50 more years or so and with the soaring demand from China and India (Africa has not even started its development - imagine what would happen if that entire continent were to be in the state that Chindia is?) this could be projected to end even sooner.

Drilling into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (a perennial right-wing favourite location for drilling and promoting independence from foreign oil) would, at best, produce oil in sufficient quantities by 2020 and account for, at most, 5% of our consumption. Does it make any sense? Not in my opinion!

If we were to institute an annually accelerating (or even an annually constant but increasing) tax on oil, it would help modify the behaviour of consumers inn a few ways - auto companies would be forced to produce more efficient vehicles, because their guzzlers would simply stop selling. Oil companies would be facing reduced profits because of reduced demand for their goods. Alternative energy sources would see their day in the sun as they become more and more viable. As demand for oil stabilises or even starts dropping, our dependence on foreign oil would start reducing. And finally, the government would have a source of funds to reduce the deficit, help with the Social Security deficit and encourage the development of alternative sources of energy - HOPEFULLY FUNDING SOURCES BETTER THAN ETHANOL.

I cannot claim complete credit for these thoughts. I have been thinking about them for a long time now (on my own) - but some comments from Chris Farrell of www.Marketplace.org and Robert Reich a couple of days ago crystallised these thoughts and prompted me to write this up.

I am sorry for having taken up so much of your campaign's time. But I believe these steps will help in accelerating our independence from foreign source of oil.

Sincerely,

2008-06-09T06:59:00.002-04:00

This headline from the New York Times, had me wondering if tere could be any bright spots at all, caused by the crisis in gasoline prices.

Yes indeed - there are bright spots. People are driving less and using less gasoline. The gas prices are forcing them to stop eating meat and start eating healthy foods (from the article) 'replacing meat at supper with soups and green beans and broccoli'

Now THAT is good news indeed!

I am also quite sure that smoking will come down, in order to feed the gasoline monster!

Bring on the higher prices! There is hope yet for the American people that they will curtail their wasteful habits.

2008-05-14T15:24:00.002-04:00

A thought just occurred to me.

Sometime in September 2007, a lot of peaceful Buddhist monks were protesting the oppressive rule of the Burmese military junta. A lot of them got massacred. Some time later Hurricane Nargis laid waste to a large swathe of land and populace in Burma.

Coincidence?

Some time in March/April 2008, the Chinese detained and punished some Buddhist monks (from Tibet) and bad mouthed the most peaceful man of them all, the Dalai Lama, claiming that he was the primary reason for the unrest in Tibet. 3-4 days ago, a devastating earthquake has laid waste to a large swathe of land and populace in China.

Coincidence?

I think not.

I believe that if you oppress peace-loving people, then that will come back to haunt you. And if 'you' are a powerful nation, then it will haunt the whole 'you' (nation).

Think about it.

2008-03-10T21:06:00.004-04:00

What a story! What a party!! Why is it that the Democratic party has to produce such samples as President Bill Clinton, Governor Jim McGreevy and now, Governor Eliot Spitzer?

Do these people think they are God's gift to mankind? Don't they have any ethics?

My thoughts on this are as follows:

1) Spitzer has wounded some powerful people on Wall Street.
2) Wall Street is traditionally a Republican sympathiser.
3) Some of the wounded have very powerful people in important positions in Washington.
4) The Department of Justice has been shown to be a stool pigeon of the White House.
5) Spitzer has probably been known to have such relationships in the past.
6) The FBI must have kept some documentation on Spitzer's activities - at the behest of the earlier Attorney General, who could 'recall nothing'.
7) All of this put together makes for a perfect sting operation that could be set up.
8) The sting was indeed set up with the intention of nabbing Spitzer.

The rest, as they, is history.

Spitzer is finished.

2008-01-18T14:10:00.001-05:00

What is vedanta?

A question that I have been hungering after for a long time. I have landed on an interesting group Advaitin
and an interesting site Introduction to Vedanta that appear to have some answers.

Is anyone else interested in such stuff?

2007-08-31T16:14:00.001-04:00

Bank of India home page was hacked - and serving malware/viruses for almost 7 hours

I just read that on a Ryan Naraine blog that the Bank of India web site was compromised and the web page was serving up malware and viruses for nearly 7 hours.

Anyone that is reading this blog and has an account with Bank of India should be suspicious and (ideally) take their money somewhere else :-) Or at least ensure that their home PCs are disinfected.

Additional information for people that might be interested in what this attack means:

According to the article (F-Prot and McAfee were among the forms that raised the alarm) contacted Bank of India and worked with them to clean up the problem. But instead of shutting down the web site and protecting their customers, the web site kept running for over 7 hours. Either they are totally incompetent, or the traditional Indian banks' bureaucracy needed an act of God to shut down the web site.

Although you could think of this as something not alarming (after all, it is only an unpatched, unprotected computer that was affected by this web hijacking), you would be wrong.

The principle that has just been demonstrated here is that common web sites that people assume to be safe, can be hijacked. Knowing that most people in India have virus ridden PCs at home, including illegal versions of windows that are not subscribed to Microsoft's automatic patching, anti-virus software that has not been updated in years (probably since the pirated version was installed during the purchase of the PC), I won't be surprised to hear that this in-your-face attack results in more zombies populating the Indian home PC market.

Although RBN (Russian Business Network) which is thought of as being behind this attack, may have no interest in Indian Rupees, what is scary for the rest os the world is that such hijacks could result in other, more familiar, websites getting hacked.

Another thing that I would be scared of, if I had money at BoI, is the extent to which BoI's systems have been hacked. After all, if the main web page was hijacked, it means their server was compromised. And a compromised bank server means there must have been - probably still has one - a hole in their security system. And no one knows how long that hole has existed. Which means no one knows how safe their accounts are with BoI.

What are the things you can do? In no particular order:

1) Switch from Windows to Ubuntu - I have done it with my kids' computers and there is little you cannot do with Ubuntu, that you can do with Windoze. Remember, Ubuntu is Linux - and is free.

2) If you are still inclined to stick with Windoze (I am - becuse of work requirements - need investigation to see if I can switch - plus wireless cards are still rather fragile with Ubuntu - mine isn't supported), make sure that it is legal.

3) If it is not legal, go and spend the money to buy a legal version of Windoze. Install it.

4) Buy anti-virus software and a subscription. You can also install something like AVG (which is free for individuals) that also has auto updates. Preferably have 2 anti-virus softwares installed

5) Install a router at home, including a hardware firewall that usually comes with the router. Remember to turn on the router firewall. That is your first line of defense.

6) Install a firewall on each of your home computers - Zone Alarm is free. So is Comodo firewall. But you need just one. Choose whichever you feel is friendlier - most people will prefer Zone Alarm. Being a geek, I prefer Comodo personal firewall.

7) Install something like WinPatrol which will monitor your registry and other sensitive areas of your PC and tell you if any unusual activity is detected. A similar program that could be used is SpyBot. I use both (being a little paranoid). Bith are free programs, but require registration - use a fake e-mail address to register, but make sure you can monitor the fake email address.

8) Install Adaware from Lavasoft. It will specifically check for malware that may be installed on your PC. Set it up to run at startup (and if you have Scotty from Winpatrol or SpyBot installed, you will get a warning that something is trynig to install itself to run at startup - click OK). I don't remember other anti-malware products. Maybe someone else may come up with additional ideas.

9) Use Firefox to browse the web, instead of InternetExploder. I only use Firefox.

10) Use any e-mail client other than Outlook or Outlook Express. There are commercial products available. Thunderbird (from the Firefox family) is a nice product. I don't use any e-mail client - I only use web mail - either Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

9) Develop a healthy sense of paranoia when using the Net. Click on links that people send you only if you trust them. Similarly, forward links to people that you *know* are safe.

Of all the tips, I think it is easiest to use 1 instead of 2 thru 9. But I have done both.

2007-08-31T11:05:00.000-04:00

Breast feeding and the Bush administration - how they cave in to commercial interests

A damning article in the Washington Post about how the Bush administration has caved in to commercial interests. How could they? This shows that the Bush administration cares two hoots about the mothers, or for that matter, the citizens of the United States. All they care about is ensuring funding for the next election - from corporations, which are the entities that can give them the most money. Shame!

2007-08-09T12:28:00.000-04:00

Pakistan and the US - how much longer?

I am obviously an interested party in this development. Pervez Musharraf has apparently decided that he will not impose anemergency according to The Economist, Reuters, the BBC and CNN.

Really? Just because he gave them his word? Or because some aide said 'there was never such a plan! We don't know how such a rumor got started'! How many assurances has MUshy given to the US in the past? And how many of those assurance have been proven to be lies?

Let us go back to before the time he staged his coup. He was guilty of conducting a de facto war with India (Kargil) while not informing his superior - then PM Nawaz Sharief. It was the US that found out about it, told the PM as well as appealed to India's then PM A B Vajpayee to not escalate this into an outright war.

Then we had 9/11. Of course, Pakistan did not have anything to directly connect then with the incident. But entire support structure for the incident - the Taliban, their arming, their training etc - was done courtesy of Mushy and his pet department - the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) - Pakistan's equivalent of the CIA. And guess who was responsible for the Kargil war in the first place? The ISI of course!

After being co-opted by the US into its 'war on terror' (you are either with us or against us), Mushy found it very convenient to keep the status quo for as long as he could. He delivered 'kills' whenever there was news that the US was tiring of Pakistan's two-facedness.

Which leads me to a more interesting query. Where is Osama bin Laden? It is my guess that he is safely ensconced in a part of Pakistan (not Afghanistan) in a location unknown to Mushy (so he can technically be telling the truth), while always being knowable. He is the insurance card for Musharraf. If OBL and Ayman al Zawahiri are captured, the US will lose interest in Pakistan and the current funding that Pakistan receives from the US (numbers from armscontrol.org and worldpolicy.org) is comparable to the 1.8 billion that the US gives annually to Israel and Egypt for having signed a peace treaty. What? Over a billion annually to FIGHT? What does tha make the Pakistani soldiers? I'll give you a hint - mercenaries. Except that, in this case, their master is taking in the loot while they are dying in the field. But I digress.

The whole point is, if OBL and AAZ are found, Mushy suddenly stops being able to take cookies! And everyone else in his support structure suffers too.

Now what about the US? It is my personal belief that the US government knows the exact whereabouts of OBL and AAZ. Heck, I can put my personal beliefs on this blog - it is mine and I can do pretty much what I want with it. What is the rationale for Bush not bombing him to oblivion? A few possibilities come to mind. Before 2004, he wanted to get reelected. Now he wants to (in his disconnected universe) try and ensure that the Republican party stays in power and at least some of his policies are continued. This is admittedly a weak argument for a conspiracy theory. But consider the contrary side. If OBL and/or AAZ were to be captured, the Republican party current leader - Giuliani - will no longer be able to say 'vote for us if you want to feel safe - vote Democratic if you want to be attacked by terrorists'. This is what got Bushy reelected.

Enough of the digressions. So how are we to believe that Mushy is not going to declare an emergency? No idea. And, if you want to listen to me, you should really not believe anything that a snake says either.

2007-08-07T08:59:00.000-04:00

Nardelli gets a second chance - to kill a company

I just read the article at Business Week detailing the appointment of Nardelli as the new CEO of Chrysler under Cerberus. Cerberus, for those that didn't know, is the private equity firm that recently took Chrysler off the hands of Daimler Chrysler, for next to nothing.

What can I say about Robert Nardelli! His colorful exit from HomeDepot, a firm where I have some minimal stock interest (note: in my case minimal means, quite literally, < 100 shares), along with a package of USD 210 million caused many a HD employee and fan a great deal of heartburn. His inability to connect with the employees, as well as the shareholders make him a poster child for the reasons why he should not have been made a CEO. At the very least a good CEO needs to be liked by his employees - or at least admired. Nardelli failed miserably on all those fronts.

Ad now, the poor employees of Chrysler get him. No matter what, Nardelli is going to deliver financial results to his new bosses at Cerberus. And, no matter what, he will receive a fat financial package. Nardelli knows that this is the only chance he will get to redeem himself. Maybe he has taken charm lessons from someone. Maybe he will be better off, now that he has no anonymous shareholders to please.

As you might have guessed by now, I am no fan of Nardelli. Nor am I a fan of six-sigma in areas where it is NOT APPLICABLE. Nor am I a fan of Welchian 'grading employees on a curve', guaranteeing that at least one person from a group will be fired evey year. GE may have done well during Welch's reign. However, his lack of focus on products - which is what drives companies forward - has left GE trailing in the post-Welch years.

Aggressive cost-cutting, massive lay offs, pruning of suppliers and putting them through the wringer - all will produce short-term benefits, which Cerberus will love. If they do enough to put lipstick on the Chrysler pig, and take it public, they may even fool the public into believing this story. Ultimately, unless Chrysler is able to produce cars that rival Toyota (they shouldn't really look at GM or Ford as competitors) in quality, they will not be able to build the reputation that Toyota has. And until they build that reputation - which will take anything from 5-10 years - they cannot afford a stumble.

It will have to be a slow rise. I don't think Cerberus or Nardelli have the stomach for it. Be prepared for the demise of Chrysler

2005-06-21T09:53:00.000-04:00

Ever wondered where Sam Pitroda, the erstwhile Telecom Czar of India is these days? I happened upon this article in BusinessWeek referring to his new company C-SAM. And he is now plugging for using the cellular phone for payments in lieu of credit cards. Very interesting - now that most of the communication problems have been solved, maybe this will be the 'killer-app' that will make his product ubquitous?

2005-06-20T11:18:00.000-04:00

Baseline Magazine (my absolute favourite of all the free magazines). A rather scary story regarding data security and what kinds of things can happen when your identity is stolen. Choice Point is the company under the gun here - or maybe the metaphor should be microscope - and their peculiar responses regarding where their responsibilities end and what travails people need to undergo to recover from such incidents.

The scary thing here is how omingled all of our data is, how dependent Choice Point is on upstream data providers to submit good data - and how we (the people) are simply pawns that are almost powerless to correct such data. The time taken to correct some of the errors are staggering - 4-5 years seems to be run of the mill.

Test post to blog via e-mail

2005-06-10T15:47:00.000-04:00

Test post to blog via e-mail itnterface.

2005-06-10T15:16:00.000-04:00

An Indian high schooler won the spelling bee for the fifth time in 7 years. What drives them? What drives their parents? An interesting article by Tunku Varadarajan in the Wall Street Journal details this. Article pasted below.

June 10, 2005

De Gustibus

Hot Spell: Why Do Indians Excel in Bees?

By TUNKU VARADARAJAN

When an Indian-American 13-year-old won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week -- the fifth time in seven years in which a child from that ethnic group has won this stirringly absurd contest -- my first reaction, naturally, was to ask why such a striking pattern of success has emerged. (Indians are 0.66% of the U.S. population.)

My second reaction was to suggest to my wife (just as gobsmacked as I by this year's bee, in which winner, runner-up and third place all had their origins in the Indian subcontinent) that Indians must have vast space in their brains for memorizing spellings, since very little of their cerebral room is taken up by social subtleties or a sense of humor.

My third reaction, since we'd just seen a charming documentary called "Mad Hot Ballroom" -- in which a team of Dominican schoolkids from the Bronx had vanquished all comers in a citywide ballroom-dancing competition -- was to say that, just as the Dominican children in the movie had clearly "got rhythm," the Indian kids at the bee had just as clearly "got spelling."

Of course, any suggestion that any ethnic group has "got" anything -- other than a mother tongue and a native cuisine -- is open in this country to vociferous attack. So I shall look for other explanations for why young Anurag Kashyap, this year's winner, was -- yawn -- yet another Indian kid who can spell "appoggiatura" on television before a national audience without breaking into a sweat.

* * *

As scientists will confirm, there are reasons why empirically observable patterns occur: In the case of the little Indian-American spelling champs, an arguable one is that this ethnic group has pushier parents than any other tribe, all very eager -- no, make that desperate -- for their kids to succeed at school, or at anything that looks remotely like school.

This attitude draws on a particular Indian cultural trait, bequeathed to broader Indian society by the Brahminical upper stratum: Success at letters is the sweetest sort of success, the achievement nonpareil.

For millennia, India was a land where the poorest scholar was held in higher esteem than the richest businessman. This approach to life proved disastrous for modern India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister and a Brahmin to his manicured fingertips, had such contempt for business (and for profits) that his economic policies condemned his people to two generations of stagnation.

But Nehru would have approved of spelling bees. Indian pedagogy relies heavily on rote memorization -- the result of a fusion of Victorian teaching methods imposed by the British and ancient Hindu practice, in which the guru (or teacher) imparted his learning to pupils via an oral tradition. (The Victorians, for their part, regarded correct spelling almost as a moral virtue, and certainly as a caste "signifier," to use a clumsy anthropological term.)

So the act of sitting down for months with dictionary on lap, chanting aloud the spellings of abstruse words and then committing them to memory probably taps into an atavistic stream coursing through the veins of Indian bee-children. A friend tells the story of how, in his childhood, he'd had an Indian boy home for a sleep-over. He awoke in the middle of the night to find his guest poring over the host family's Random House dictionary. "I own an Oxford dictionary," the boy had said, by way of bizarre, nocturnal explanation. "This American dictionary is so different!"

If all that sounds too much like saying that there's a "geek gene" at work here, let us consider another explanation for the Indian spellers.

There are certain cultures -- particularly Asian ones -- that produce child prodigies. Relentless parents, goading their children to success at the youngest possible age, are but one explanation. These are all cultures in which, traditionally, children have begun work early, in which childhood as we know it in the West is an alien idea. Indian kids are potty-trained by two. In America, that would be regarded as precocious. Pressure is brought to bear much later on purely American children than on those kids whose parents persist in old-world child-rearing ways long after they immigrate to America.

And here, perhaps, is the last piece in the Indian-American spelling-bee jigsaw. Educationally, Indian-Americans are the cream of the crop of a fifth of humanity, thanks to U.S. immigration laws, which, for decades, let in only doctors and engineers and mathematicians. So these children are the kids of parents who themselves competed -- probably at a ferocious level -- to get into the best Indian schools, and then to get here.

So there you have it, neatly explained. Master Kashyap -- singular fellow! -- is a product of a complex set of processes. Only a part of his success, I'm pleased to report, is attributable to matters deoxyribonucleic.

2005-06-09T12:09:00.000-04:00

India is wimping out!! I can't believe my eyes that India is agreeing to forgo the UN veto in order to become a permanent member of the security council!!

I thought India had more spine?! Are we really THAT desperate to assert ourselves in the world's eyes? Are we that desperate to get a symbolic role? Shame on India! This really sucks. A disappointed Indian©

2005-06-08T12:17:00.000-04:00

Wanna use Google to search just one TLD or country? Take alook at this article from Goodle's blog and suddenly there is a method to the madness!

I tried out this search for (naturally) looking for things in India. And it works amazingly well. e.g., I was looking for some information regarding Rakumari Amrit Kaur. I searched for "rajkumari amrit kaur religion" - and the results on the first page from a standard Google search returned . When I searched the following string "rajkumari amrit kaur site:in" forcing the .in specific search, I got something quite different - and valuable too!

Try it - and you'll love it!

2005-06-07T20:31:00.000-04:00

A most fascinating article about the hounding of Coke in India by an activist There are many references to web sites in this article in the Wall Street Journal.

It talks about one Amit Srivastava who operates a one man we site India Resource. This man along with the support of other like minded activists are waging a single-minded war against the might of Coca Cola (KO)

The full text of the article is reproduce below - until I am asked to remove it.

June 7, 2005

Leader (U.S.)

Virtual Battle
How a Global Web of Activists
Gives Coke Problems in India

Mr. Srivastava Uses Internet
To Fuse Protest Groups;
Court Order on Pesticides

Company Sees 'Brandjacking'

By STEVE STECKLOW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Amit Srivastava doesn't own a car or a house. He runs a nonprofit, activist organization in California that has only one full-time employee -- himself. But he has been helping shake up one of the world's biggest corporations, Coca-Cola Co., thousands of miles away in India.

Speaking on a tour of U.S. college campuses in April, he accused Coke of egregious offenses in India: stealing water, poisoning land and selling drinks laced with dangerous pesticides. "It is destroying lives, it is destroying livelihoods and it is destroying communities all across India," the pony-tailed, 39-year-old college dropout told dozens of students at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. "That is the story of Coca-Cola in India."

Coca-Cola, which considers India a crucial element in its plans for global growth, wasn't invited to Smith to tell its version of the story. But the Atlanta-based soft-drinks giant is well aware of Mr. Srivastava's activities. Coke acknowledges he is a central figure in a burgeoning global campaign by nonprofits -- commonly known abroad as nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs -- that has cost it millions of dollars in lost sales and legal fees in India, and growing damage to its reputation elsewhere.

Mr. Srivastava and the NGOs have flagged some serious issues, such as Coke's onetime practice of giving away waste material to local farmers that some studies later showed contained toxic materials. But amid the heated rhetoric, there have been some dubious claims as well. Mr. Srivastava, for example, has compared Coke's environmental practices to the industrial accident at Bhopal, which killed thousands.

Amid the NGOs' campaign, Coca-Cola has been forced to fight legal and legislative battles all across India -- including challenging a court order in the northern state of Rajasthan that would require soft-drink makers to list pesticide residues on their labels. The order was prompted by laboratory tests of soft drinks by a New Delhi-based NGO. The company says the levels are safe.

In the southern state of Kerala, local officials shut down a $16 million Coke bottling plant in March 2004 over still-unproven claims by local residents and Indian activists that it drained and polluted local water supplies. The company has been trying ever since to regain the plant's license, fighting a case that has gone all the way to India's Supreme Court. But even if Coke prevails, the company hasn't yet said whether it will reopen the plant.

Now Mr. Srivastava is rallying college students in the U.S. and Europe to take up the NGOs' cause. Under pressure from student protesters, at least a half-dozen colleges have decided not to renew contracts with Coke or boycott it, and other campuses are considering similar actions. Schools that have banned Coca-Cola products include Bard College in New York, Carleton College in Minnesota, Oberlin College in Ohio and two colleges in Ireland.

Even though he lives in Northern California, Mr. Srivastava has emerged as a key figure in Coke's travails in India. Activists inside and outside the country say he plays an important role in coordinating the activities of far-flung protesters on the subcontinent, and that he has become the point-man for communicating their cause to the outside world. That a one-man NGO armed with just a laptop computer, a Web site and a telephone calling card can, with his allies, influence a huge multinational corporation illustrates the role social activists can play in a world that's going increasingly online.

"The moral high ground seems to be anyone with a Web site," complains David Cox, Coke's Hong Kong-based communications director for Asia, who has spent months in India trying to combat the NGOs' allegations with little apparent success.

Mr. Srivastava and numerous NGOs both inside and outside India accuse Coke, among other "crimes," of sucking local Indian communities dry through excessive pumping. But the water allegations remain unproven. Kerala's highest court rejected such claims in April, noting that wells there continued to dry up last summer, months after the local Coke plant stopped operating. And a scientific study previously requested by the court found that while the plant had "aggravated the water scarcity situation," the "most significant factor" was a lack of rainfall. The NGOs respond that Coke shouldn't be locating bottling plants in drought-stricken areas.

From Coke's point of view, Mr. Srivastava and other activists "are making false environmental allegations against us to further an antiglobalization agenda," says Mr. Cox.

The dispute in India does raise questions about Coke's waste-disposal practices there. Coke officials acknowledge, for example, that they violated their own global safety standards by failing to conduct any toxicity tests on a dump site used by its biggest plant in India until after a Wall Street Journal reporter visited it in March.

Meanwhile, near the holy city of Varanasi in northeastern India, a local water official blames a Coke plant -- which has been the scene of many protests by NGOs and local residents -- for polluting groundwater by releasing wastewater into surrounding land. A Coke official confirms there had been a drainage problem with treated wastewater several years ago but says the company built a long pipeline to correct it.

Mr. Srivastava, whose father is a management professor in India, was born in the U.S. and grew up in India. He dropped out of Southern Illinois University after becoming more interested in activism than formal education.

In 2002, while working at Corp Watch, a nonprofit corporate watchdog based in Oakland, Calif., he commissioned an article for one of the group's Web sites about a protest outside a Coke bottling plant in a poor tribal area in Kerala. Local residents accused Coke of extracting so much water that their wells dried up or yielded brackish, undrinkable water. Coke, which says it uses about four liters of water to produce a one-liter bottle of soft-drink, blames the problems on area drought conditions.

The article, which appeared on a Web site called Corp Watch India that Mr. Srivastava oversaw, proved popular. The NGO followed up with a "fax action" in which Web-site visitors were urged to send a fax to Coke via the Internet, demanding that it close the Kerala plant. More than 1,400 people responded, according to Corp Watch, although it says many faxes didn't arrive because of technical problems.

Global Resistance

In 2003, Corp Watch ran into financial problems. Mr. Srivastava lost his job but quickly launched his own NGO, called Global Resistance. He was allowed to take Corp Watch India with him, wrapping it into a new site called the India Resource Center.

The new site initially focused on various issues in India, including outsourcing and globalization. But the controversy over Coca-Cola soon began to dominate as Mr. Srivastava learned of growing protests in different parts of India and saw a need to try to bring them global attention. "It took on a life of its own," he says.

Today, the Web site, www.indiaresource.org, serves as a global platform for local activists and protesters throughout India and draws about 20,000 visitors a month, according to tracking numbers on the Web site. In contrast, a Coke Web site designed to counter NGO allegations, www.cokefacts.org, draws just 800 visitors a month, Coke officials say. Mr. Srivastava also has resumed the "fax action," relaying more than 9,000 faxes to Coke's headquarters to date, he says. In addition to frequent campus speeches, he says he's also advising potential investors who hope to launch a London-based hedge fund that would bet against the share price of Coke, among other companies, according to two other people involved in the planning. A portion of any profits would be donated to activist groups, these people said.

Activists throughout India credit Mr. Srivastava with helping to link them together. Protesters in the southern state of Kerala said that when they tried to email other activists in Varanasi, in the north, they found they couldn't communicate because they spoke different languages. Both turned to Mr. Srivastava, who became an intermediary to coordinate their efforts. Now they can help each other plan their protests for maximum impact.

"He has such enormous resources," says R. Ajayan, a Kerala activist. "We don't have a Web site or a communications system. Whenever we have a protest, we have no way to publicize it -- he's doing all this."

When he isn't traveling around the U.S. or India, Mr. Srivastava operates his NGO from a house he shares with friends in El Cerrito, Calif. He says he draws no salary but covers his expenses mainly through modest fund raising.

Global Resistance, which had a budget last year of $60,000, is supported by several private foundations interested in globalization and water issues, including the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, N.Y. The Unitarian Church social-action fund has given him $45,000 to date, according to its grant administrator. Global Resistance maintains its tax-free status through Community Networking Resources Inc., an Albuquerque, N.M., nonprofit that handles its finances. Mr. Srivastava is the only full-time employee; there's a part-time Web-site editor in New Delhi. "We've been able to survive, barely," the activist says. "I have good friends who keep me going."

Controversy overseas isn't new to Coca-Cola, whose revenue last year totaled $22 billion. In 1999, quality-control problems in Europe sparked a widespread consumer scare and prompted governments to pull Coke products from shelves. The company also has been dogged in recent years by claims by U.S. activists and local union officials that it was complicit in the murder and harassment of union leaders and workers in Colombia. The company denies the claims.

In the wake of the European problems, Coke has tried to respond to critics more quickly and forcefully. Lately, it sends teams of executives to college campuses to rebut charges. But the company isn't always invited. In April, the Union Theological Seminary in New York banned the sale of Coke products on campus because of "considerable evidence" of human-rights violations and environmental damage abroad. A seminary spokeswoman says company officials weren't "invited to present their side." The decision to ban Coke was made by the seminary's president on the recommendation of the school's institutional and community affairs committee.

The president of the seminary, which has only about 300 students, later did extend an invitation to the company. Coke sent six representatives, including four from Atlanta. Mr. Srivastava says his travel schedule didn't permit him to attend. The spokeswoman says the school will re-evaluate its ban in the fall.

For years, Coke was India's leading soft drink. In 1977, the company left after a new government ordered it to dilute its stake in its Indian unit and turn over Coke's secret formula. The company returned in 1993 when the government began trying to attract foreign investment. Coke quickly gained a lead in the market by buying up popular local brands, including Thums Up soda. Its products are now produced in 76 bottling plants and officials say India is one of its fastest growing markets.

But the continuing allegations by NGOs -- over excessive water use, pesticides, pollution and waste disposal -- have taken their toll. During a conference call with analysts in April, Mary Minnick, who had been president of Coke's Asia division and now heads global marketing, innovation and strategy, called India a "work in progress" and noted the company still was feeling "the residual effects of the unfounded pesticide scare in 2003."

That scare occurred after the Center for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based NGO, issued a report on lab tests of a dozen local Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. soft drinks. The tests showed they contained pesticide and insecticide levels of between 11 times and 70 times the maximum set by the European Union for drinking water. Coke's product sales plummeted by as much as 40%.

Coke and Pepsi, which together hold about a 95% market share of soft-drink sales in India, disputed the lab results and say their products are safe. But an Indian parliamentary committee last year backed up CSE's findings and a government-appointed committee is now trying to develop the world's first pesticide standards for soft drinks. Coke and PepsiCo oppose the move, arguing, among other things, that lab tests aren't reliable enough to detect minute traces of pesticides in complex drinks like soda.

Coke's Mr. Cox accuses Sunita Narain, CSE's director, of "brandjacking," using Coke's brand name to draw attention to her campaign against pesticides. Ms. Narain says CSE's study of pesticide residues in soft drinks was a natural follow-up to a previous study it did on bottled water. "It's the arrogance of Coke that makes it believe that we were targeting it," she says.

'Things Grow Better'

To further publicize the pesticide issue, some NGOs last year began spreading stories online and to the news media of Indian farmers who had begun spraying Coke on their crops as a pesticide. "Things grow better with Coke," read a headline in Britain's Guardian newspaper. But Mr. Srivastava admits the whole thing was a publicity stunt by local activists and farmers, and it's unclear how many farmers participated. "We played it up as well, obviously," he says.

The controversy in India has been marked by other outlandish or misleading claims. At a recent appearance at the University of Michigan, which has been debating whether to renew its contract with Coke, Mr. Srivastava compared the possible long-term health effects of some of Coke's environmental practices in India to the devastating 1984 gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. "Twenty years from now we can have another Bhopal," he said. Coke officials dismiss the analogy as absurd.

A Boston-based nonprofit called Corporate Accountability International posted on its Web site a "Coca-Cola fact sheet." It suggested that as a result of Coke's extraction of water in Kerala, "Water riots and water-related murders are now an everyday occurrence as water becomes scarcer."

But there are no reports of daily water-related murders and riots in Kerala. Asked to back up the claim, Patty Linn, the group's campaign director, said after checking that she couldn't. The group later removed the statement from the "fact sheet."

Coke also has been selective with its information. On the Web site of Coke's India unit, under a section called "Facts on Kerala," there's a document that disputes allegations that plant officials there distributed dangerous waste material to local farmers to use as fertilizer.

The company acknowledges that until 2003 it had given away sludge -- a byproduct of water- and sugar-treatment processes, and bottle- and equipment-cleaning operations -- but maintains it was safe. "Numerous reports since the commissioning of the plant, and as recently as December 2003, have confirmed that the levels of heavy metal traces are within the [Kerala state] Pollution Control Board norms for classification as non-hazardous," Coke's Web site states.

But the document doesn't mention two other government studies of the Kerala waste material, including one by India's highest environmental regulatory authority. The study found that the material contained high enough levels of cadmium, a highly toxic metal, to deem it hazardous.

Harry J. Ott, Atlanta-based director of Coke's global water resources center, says the company didn't mention the other studies because he and other officials questioned the validity of one of them and didn't know the basis of the other. But, he added, "I guess we could show there were tests by other agencies that indicated that there were higher than acceptable levels."

At Coke's largest bottling plant in India, a sprawling, modern factory at Dasna, near New Delhi, sludge is stored in a large concrete tub out back. More than 440 pounds are produced a day and treated with micro-organisms at the plant, according to plant officials.

A plant official said the sludge was disposed of about 8 miles away and that it would be difficult to get there. But the site actually is about half a mile away, within sight of the plant, and on a small empty tract owned by a local landowner.

The owner, Shekhawat Ali, said he willingly uses the material for landfill and accepts it free. He said Coke has been dumping it twice a month for two years and that he hopes someday to build a factory on the site.

Noting that India has no authorized dump sites for nonhazardous industrial waste, Mukul Kumar, Coca-Cola's environmental manager for India, said, "This is one of the designated options that helps him and the government and us." The company also said in a prepared statement that the site complies with its "biosolids disposal standards and practices which provide absolutely safe procedures."

But those standards require Coke to conduct annual soil testing at its waste sites to ensure that the waste isn't hazardous or polluting the area. Asked for copies of those tests, Coke officials produced eight -- all of which were done days after the Journal reporter visited the site in March.

"I will tell you right now that they were not following the company standards to the limit like they were supposed to," says Mr. Ott, the Coke water-resources official who acknowledged that tests should have been performed much earlier. Kari Bjorhus, a Coke spokeswoman, added that "the good news" was that the tests showed the soil samples weren't hazardous.

Mr. Srivastava and other activists vow to continue their anti-Coke campaign until the company shuts down three controversial plants in India and pays compensation to local communities that suffered pollution or loss of water, among other demands. Mr. Srivastava refuses to even sit down with Coke officials, despite repeated invitations from Mr. Ott. "There's no space for dialogue right now," the activist says.

---- Rasul Bailay in New Delhi and Chad Terhune in Atlanta contributed to this article.

Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com

2005-05-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

Research topics chosen by scientists can be obvious - at least that is the topic in today's Wall Street Journal. I found most of it to be hilarious.

Most of the article is shown below:

Want job satisfaction? A "careful choice of career is the key," researchers concluded in a paper this spring in the Journal of Economic Psychology. Choosing a career based on a well-lubricated encounter at a bar, it turns out, may not be the most promising route to career satisfaction. People who choose their jobs carefully are more likely to be satisfied with them than those who take a flying leap into the great unknown.

In April, scientists reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research that college students tend to drink much more alcohol than they think. Or, may I suggest, than they like to think. Or than they admit to their parents. Or remember.

Want to reduce problems with medications, such as harmful side effects or drug combinations that will kill you? The solution is at hand: "Communication between primary-care physicians and patients can reduce" such problems and the chance that patients will be harmed. That is especially true if doctors encourage their patients to -- wait for it -- tell them when they experience a bad side effect, concluded a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in January. When patients reported an adverse effect, they were more likely to be switched to a different drug than if they never mentioned it. For this, let us be grateful.

In what its sponsors called a "landmark study," scientists found that when your fingers are numb and turning that lovely robin's-egg blue, you make more typing effors. Er, errors. "When employees get chilly," the scientists concluded, "they are not working to their full potential." Achoo!

Investigators working on that finger-in-the-chili case at Wendy's may find inspiration in a study published online in March in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Every year some 28,000 kids and adults wind up in hospital emergency rooms because some mishap has cut off a finger; one high-risk group is men over 55. Apart from digits lost in workplace accidents, the most common cause of finger amputation in the men is -- drumroll, please -- power tools. So anyone looking suspiciously at, oh, sinks or toasters for their finger-gobbling potential can more profitably focus on chainsaws.

Taking nothing, especially not their readers' intelligence, for granted, the researchers advise men who use power tools to "avoid exposing their fingers to direct contact" with razor-sharp blades spinning at a few thousand rpm. Wise advice, to be sure, although you've got to think that anyone who didn't know this is in for more serious problems than a lost finger.

Just in case you were wondering whether it's a good idea to suck up carcinogens and respiratory poisons when your airways are already crippled, scientific proof is at hand. A study found that asthma worsens the effects of smoking, putting puffers at greater risk for the kinds of lung problems that smoking causes than people without asthma. If you do not have asthma, your airways are in somewhat better shape to withstand a toxic assault. Bottom line: Doctors should urge asthmatics to quit smoking.

Far be it from me to belittle research on forensic science, since I have written about the importance of questioning such conventional wisdom as the reliability of fingerprint evidence and the credibility of confessions. But surely we can do better than a February study in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review that concluded that it's easier to identify someone close to you than someone more than a football-field-length away. At 450 feet, the scientist concludes, "the human visual system starts to lose small details."

If you had found yourself in the nation's capital earlier this month, you might have heard researchers at an American Heart Association conference proclaim that if you work full time and watch television, play videogames or surf the Internet in your off hours, then you are probably not engaging in as much heart-healthy physical activity as full-timers who spend no time with TV, videogames and the computer.

Full-time workers who spend more of their down time in front of a screen also get significantly less exercise than part-time workers who spend the same number of hours glued to one screen or another, but do other things with the rest of their time. (Memo to self: Working full-time eats up . . . time.) While the finding fails the "tell us something we didn't know" test, at least it does so with statistical significance: It was based on data from 4,500 people.

2005-05-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

TIME magazine's 100 best films of all time was just released. Amazingly, this is not a US centric list. I was surprised (rather pleasantly) to find that three Indian movies have made it to the list.

The ones that have made it to the list are Nayakan and Guru Dutt's classic Pyaasa - both being favourites of mine.

And of course, the Apu Trilogy directed by Satyajit Ray (consisting of Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar

But there are so many more that I have seen and so many more that are worth seeing. Among them, Godfather (I and II), Purple Rose of Cairo, ET (The Extra Terrestrial), Finding Nemo, Dr. Strangelove, the inevitable Citizen Kane, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, Francois Truffaut's Day for Night, the brazen Pulp Fiction, Raging Bull, Schindler's List, Star Wars.

There is much in it for everyone - please go to the list and read it.

2005-05-26T11:29:00.000-04:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's article in WSJ.

On the event of the present government completing one year in power, the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, wrote the following piece in the Wall Street Journal dated 19th May, 2005.

A New India

By MANMOHAN SINGH

NEW DELHI -- If a commitment to remain an open society is one of the pillars of India's nationhood, the other is our commitment to remain an open economy -- one that guarantees freedom of enterprise, respects individual creativity, and mobilizes public investment for social infrastructure. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to suggest that these are the principles to which all countries will increasingly want to adhere.

Just as developed industrial economies enabled "economies in transition" to graduate into open economies, developed democracies should also assist "societies in transition" to become open societies. I believe India's policies toward the world have been shaped by this commitment, and we should be proud to identify with those who defend the values of liberal democracy and secularism across the world.

Over the past decade, the debate in India on the nature of our interaction with our wider Asian neighborhood -- and with major powers -- has also been shaped by sweeping changes in our economic policy. The initiatives India took in the early 1990s toward economic liberalization have not only altered our interaction with the world, but have also shaped global perceptions of India. Indeed, they have shaped more than mere perceptions. They have altered the manner in which other nations, big and small, relate to us. Today, there is a greater willingness internationally to work with India -- and to build relationships of mutual benefit.

The steps that successive Indian governments have taken since 1991 have helped to finally remove what development planners used to refer to as the "external constraint" on growth. Indian industry and Indian professionals have demonstrated their ability to step out with confidence from a highly protected environment into a mercilessly competitive one.

We do have a vast unfinished agenda of social and economic development, and my government's priority will be to implement this. Doing so will further enable us to deal with the challenges of globalization. The global environment has never been more conducive to India's economic development than it is today. The world wants India to do well. However, we recognize that our real challenges are at home. It is for this reason that we place such great emphasis on increasing investment in infrastructure, agriculture, health and education, urban renewal and the knowledge economy. Having ensured that there is today no external constraint on growth, we must now ensure that there remain no internal constraints to development.

* * *

To say that the external constraints on growth have gone, however, is not to suggest that we are making full use of new opportunities. There is much more that we can do to draw on global savings and global markets. As a developing economy, we must tap international resources to fuel our development. We should be more open to global capital flows and better prepared to take advantage of new markets for goods and services. India is wholly committed to multilateralism in trade: But we will seek the reform and democratization of multilateral institutions.

Globalization is both an opportunity and a challenge. A decade ago, who could have imagined that India would be a major software services exporter and that a new process of "brain gain" -- not "brain drain" -- would be created by opportunities in these sectors? We now ask ourselves if we are doing enough to secure this edge. The growth of India's knowledge economy has opened up new markets for science- and technology-based products. In manufacturing, too, there are global opportunities. The end of the multifiber agreement opens up new vistas for trade in textiles.

India would like to make globalization a "win-win" game. How we deal with its challenge -- and how we make use of its opportunities -- will shape our relations with the world, and the perception of our capabilities as a nation. This has already happened in substantial measure. Our relations with major powers, especially the U.S. and more recently China, have increasingly been shaped by economic factors. Who could have imagined that China would emerge as our second largest trade partner? In the case of the U.S., an acceleration of people-to-people contact and the consequent business-to-business interaction has forged closer state-to-state relations. Shared values and growing economic links have enabled a closer strategic engagement.

Similarly, business and commerce also underpin India's strategic partnership with the European Union. It must be our endeavor to ensure that economic and commercial links contribute to a strong and new element in our traditionally friendly relations with Russia. In fact, I believe that our strategic relationship with the Russian Federation can be greatly enriched by a greater focus on bilateral economic relations. Renewed cooperation in the economic field is giving a new profile to India's relations with Japan, with Japanese investment flows set to increase. Concern for energy security has become an important element of Indian diplomacy and is shaping our relations with a range of countries across the globe, in West Asia, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America.

It is notable that the response of other countries to India's national security concerns is being shaped by perceptions of business and economic opportunities. Countries that imposed sanctions on India when we declared ourselves a nuclear weapons power are building bridges with us, to take advantage of the opportunities for mutual economic benefit. None of us can underestimate the role of economic interdependence in international relations. The example of the EU, Asean and Apec, Nafta and other regional groups shows that the most dynamic economies are creating such relationships for mutual benefit, regional security and peace.

Indeed, India seeks to be more closely engaged with such regional groups. Our links with each of these regions is both civilizational and contemporary, with people of Indian origin acting as a cultural bridge between our multicultural societies. Our foreign policy is, of course, shaped by our civilizational values, and by our commitment to peace and freedom. But it is now equally shaped by our commitment to our economic development, within the framework of an open society and an open economy.

Mr. Singh is prime minister of India. He completes a year in office on May 22.

2005-05-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

I just read that Ismail Merchant dead. It is indeed a sad moment for the Merchant Ivory combination that one half has died. They produced some stellar movies, many of which were critically acclaimed, but bombed at the box office.

Incidentally, Ismail Merchant was responsible for rescuing many of Satyajit Ray's movies from almost certain death and putting them back in print. I wonder what will happen to that effort now.

2005-05-25T15:54:00.000-04:00

I read this article about Dr Jayant Patel disappearing from Australia and being the cause of death of some 87 patients (still being investigated) truly shocked me! What is going on?

I have always thought that Indian doctors are among the best in the world! Especially the ones that have practised in the US!! And here we have the case of a doctor, graduating from MP Shah College of Medicine, Gujarat in 1973, coming to the US and getting certified as a surgeon, then getting reprimanded, escaping to Australia, practising there and being the cause of so many more deaths.

Is the craze for money so great that human lives mean nothing? Does the Hippocratic oath stand for nothing?

2005-01-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

India is bowing to technology - and digitising maps of the country. This article in MIT's Technology Review magazine talks about how Microsoft is going to digitise the 'vast array of satellite images, remote sensing data' so that people can refer to these digital maps in a crisis.

This has come about due to the slow response of the Indian government to the tsunami disaster and the inability of the Indian government to forewarn her people before the strike.

About time, I say!

2004-12-08T08:42:00.000-05:00

A look at how teenagers of today are more in cyber-contact with each other and how the cyberized world has made everything so different.

Does this mean that kids of today will not ever need to meet some people and find out what they 'really' are like? Will the concept of what a person 'really' is take on a whole new cyber-meaning?

Much like my chatting days when I used to chat in the then-new chat world of rediff, I had theorised that chatting with people was like using just one dimension of communication.

Was I wrong? Do the new means of communication actually make us more communicative? Are we emoting better? Do we understand each other better? Are cyber-friends more likely to stay friends forever and will cyber-partnerships and cyber-relationships evolve into stronger bonds than *gasp* marriage?

I shudder to think of the consequences of all this. But then, maybe I am just an old fogey. After some calm deep-breathing exercises, I think all of this cyber-whatever will settle down into just one more means of communicating - just like the telephone augmented our ability to stay in touch while never really replacing the warmth of a hand-shake or a kiss.

2004-12-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

Retirement finances - and longevity:

I have always thought that you need to be an actuary to figure out your projected longevity. Turns out I was wrong! Let me explain - but first some background.

FundAlarm is one of my favourite web sites regarding investing in mutual funds in the US. It dishes out dirt about mutual funds that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Roy Weitz does a fantastic job of collating all of this information and puts out a monthly commentary that makes for the most interesting reading I get with regard to mutual funds.

Enough of that. I saw the following post in this month's highlights (it should be available here after December 2004). and decided that it is most definitely worth reproducing here.

When you're planning your retirement finances, one of the toughest tasks is figuring out when you're supposed to die (sometimes euphemistically referred to as your "planning horizon") .....If you plan for a relatively short life during retirement, and you live longer than expected, you could run out of money.....If you plan for a long life, and it doesn't work out that way, you may end up denying yourself experiences that you won't get a second chance to enjoy.....Traditionally, coming up with a life expectancy for retirement planning has been a seat-of-the-pants activity: You considered how long your parents and relatives lived, you consulted some life-expectancy tables, you plugged the resulting life expectancy into the retirement calculator, and you hoped for the best.....Now, several free Web sites offer a more systematic approach to life- expectancy planning.....If you need to come up with a life expectancy number, or you're just morbidly curious, you might want to take a look at them:

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. sponsors the Longevity Game, which the company says uses "the most current information gathered by the life insurance industry, public health organizations, and scientific studies" to help determine your life expectancy. I'm not sure how they do all of this with just 13 questions, but it looks like I'll be working on FundAlarm for a long, long time: The Longevity Game gave me a life expectancy of 94 years. [www.nmfn.com/tn/learnctr-lifeevents-longevity; if you have a pop-up blocker installed, you may have to temporarily disable it]

The Minnesota State Retirement System offers a life expectancy calculator with 29 factors, and perhaps a slight Minnesota/midwestern bias: You gain extra life expectancy for having a graduate or professional degree, but you lose life expectancy for earning more than $60,000 a year. (It looks like the folks in Minnesota want you to get a good education, but they don't want you to get too fancy with it.) Unlike the other calculators, which operate automatically, this one makes you crunch your own (simple) numbers. It gave me a life expectancy of 79 years. [www.msrs.state.mn.us/info/Age_Cal.htmls]

Microsoft's Money Web site asks about 30 questions, and it gave me a life expectancy of 91 years. It also politely noted my "ideal" weight for "maximum longevity" (I need to lose two pounds), and it said that one of the three biggest factors working against longevity is my "personality type." Unfortunately, this is something I already know, and have given up trying to change. [moneycentral.msn.com/investor/calcs/n_expect/main.asp

The calculator at livingto100.com is based on a centenarian study at the Boston University Medical School. This questionnaire asks the most questions, as well as the most detailed questions. It also produced by far the most useful feedback, as well as some interesting recommendations. (For example, did you know that regular flossing can reduce the risk of heart attack?) This site gave me a life expectancy of 81.2 years, and that decimal makes it seem way too accurate. [http://livingto100.com/quiz.cfm]

2004-11-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

Fascinating list of things that scientists (New Scientist magazine) have come up with to do before the inevitable - dying!. Turn yourself into a diamond: tips from science on a good life, and death.

2004-11-29T20:41:00.000-05:00

For the first time I am seeing an article comparing the Indian EVM compared with the Diebold machine used in the recent elections in the US.

It is telling that the Indian EVM is simplicity itself in terms of design - while the Diebold machine is prime fodder for hackers.

My faith in the Indian electoral system just increased one hundred fold!

2004-11-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

Another fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and other delicate inside tales about the failed presidential bid by John F Kerry. What makes this interesting is the length of time covered by the article and the inside analysis. The most important failing of the campaign, early on, was the lack of focus.

Excerpts:

During this period, Kerry himself expressed concern that his campaign message lacked spark. He called Paul Begala, the consultant who had helped steer Bill Clinton to victory and now cohosted the CNN show "Crossfire."

...

So in mid-June, Begala met with campaign manager Cahill at Kerry's campaign headquarters in Washington and said he had changed his mind; he would quit CNN and join Kerry.

The reaction was not what he anticipated. What are you talking about? Cahill asked, according to Begala.

"It seems obvious you don't have a message or strategy-driven campaign," Begala said he replied.

Again, Cahill asked what Begala was talking about. Begala remembers that she looked "like I was going to perform open-heart surgery on her. She said: 'I need to think about this. Give me a couple of days to set that up.' From that day to now, I never heard another word from her. And you know, I was pretty angry. I'm still pretty angry."

Sounds like powerful stuff!

2004-11-18T11:38:00.001-05:00

An excellent first-hand report of the
Technology problems with voting in USA. It astounds me that in this, the country that claims it is the world's harbinger of freedom, that wishes to establish democratic processes all over the world (what hogwash), we could have such sloppy procedures. The descriptions are really fascinating.

e.g.,
At 8:00 p.m., I watched one of two precincts at a polling place stumble through the inefficient shutdown procedure, which had many steps and required intricate handling of small bits of paper. The longer workers struggled at it, the more dubious were the results they calculated. In the meantime, the other precinct at that polling place had kept its lists of who checked-in and who deposited ballots together, and accidentally muddled them up. Poll workers still toiled to sort out the mess, which was done by scribbling notes and erasing other marks—certainly, not a vouchsafe election technique. Erasers have no place in the preparation of election records. All marks should be made in pen.

It would be interesting to see if Indian voting procedures and the rest of the setup has been independently audited by someone other than the Election Commission. I suspect that things would be, at best, only marginally better in places like the metropolises, similarly bad at the villages and significantly worse in places like Bihar - the triumph of goondaism over democracy.

2004-11-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

Appropos this proposal on 'shal's blog regarding taxing the richer farmer:

It might be easier and more palatable for all and sundry to stop the subsidy on the most important stape of the richer farmers - get rid of the diesel subsidy. This will equal the playing field - at least somewhat. The richer farmers with their borewells and tractors will be forced to pay the market rate (plus duty) of the fuel. The more margina; farmers using oxen to plough their land will escape this tax. It won't make their lives easy - but at least they will not be harassed by tax collectors who will suddenly see a new avenue to profit from.

This will have the added benefit of removing the stupid subsidy that has created the weird, new and artificial market for diesel fuelled cars.

Secondly, farmers that use water should be taxed for their use of the supply. I am not sure that anyone in India pays anything for water. This is a commodity that is as necessary as food, and yet is taken for granted.

This may be vastly more difficult to inculcate - but a start could be made. And, again, richer farmers, with their larger lands, will be forced to fork up more.

These would be two simpler ways to tax the richer farmers.

2004-11-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

I am sure most people outside of the US are sick and tired of hearing about the US Presidential election. As part and parcel of the election coverage, we have had this overdose of the RED and BLUE coloured maps of the US showing how much of the popular mandate Bush has received. And what you see are the the huge swath of red with small slivers of blue on the two coasts and some blu on the top part. This is the geographical map of the US. It does little (if any) justice to the actual population representation of the US. If you were to distort the map of the US such that it was proportional to the number of people in the state, you would get something like this population proportional map. It makes for a more factual representation of the current election. Thanks to the TPM posting for showing me the light.

2004-11-10T14:58:00.000-05:00

Interesting article (sort of a kiss and tell) on how John Kerry behaved during the campaign to get elected.

I had always wondered why Mary Beth Cahill had stopped sending e-mails! This probably explains some of the intrigue surrounding what appeared to be a solid campaign.

2004-11-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

MIT's technology Review has an interesting article on Wrist Radio Tags which can be used in hospitals and amusement parks. They are raising the bogeyman of loss of privacy - but "what loss?" is my question!

As someone said recently, 'get over it already'. You have no privacy in the first place. So what are you fighting against? The advent and popularity of the cell phone already tells central phone servers the approximate location of each cell phone carrier. This is available on a nation wide basis - so what loss of privacy is there? Also, if people are willing to click on certain advertisements in order to get better deals, and divulge some of their personal data to get personally tailored deals/messages etc. then where is the problem?

we might get an answer that the unknowing could get fleeced or cheated because of their lack of knowledge on how this data is going to be used. Pshaw! That is precisely the target market that ANY such deals will be attracting in the first place!

2004-11-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

Here's something that I found extremely interesting and inspiring. The defeat of John kerry should NOT spell the end of the Democratic effort to reorganise themselves and prepare for the 2008 elections. This effort should start NOW.

We need to look at the way the media has been influenced, the grass-roots level establishment that helped the Democrats go door-to-door in Ohio (bussing people from places as far away as New York City for weekend trips to swing states), the Internet initiative that has raised unprecedented amounts of money from people - INDIVIDUALS like me - instead of corporations etc.

We should also examine what is the single issue where, had Democrats shown a more neutral view point, they would have prevailed.

One of the things might be that we should ignore people that are radically inclined (like Dean) as well as people that are middle of left - like Kerry. We need someone like *gasp* Clinton to come to our rescue.

If there is a genesis on how Clinton became all that he was, that should be the playbook to be used in selecting the next candidate.

The preparation for the 2008 elections begin NOW - November 3rd, 2004.

Any takers?

2004-11-02T10:58:00.000-05:00

Electronic voting - how legal and how safe? This is the gist of an article on MIT's Technology Review web site. It makes for some fascinating reading - especially if you are interested in elections and ballot boxes, the ways to make them safe and, conversely, ways to commit fraud.

I know that in India we have electronic voting possible. How concerned are the people in India - or at least the people that are AWARE - regarding fraud? How concerned should Indians be that when they vote for Cong-I, the vote is registered correctly in the nanoparticles of magnetised Iron on the hard drive and counted as such?

These are serious questions that are being asked in the US - primarily because the people of the US seem to value their freedom (to express themselves - whether by burning flags or publishing porn - or using a soap box to air their views to all that will hear them) a heckuva lot more than Indians do.

2004-11-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

Stumbled upon this FAQ - US Elections at BBC. This is the most concise explanation I have seen to help introduce non-US people (and there are more than a few of them despite what Americans say) to the vagaries and antiquities of the American Elections.

Enjoy! And may Kerry win!

2004-10-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Probably one of the most interesting pieces of free software available for download is NASA World Wind from NASA.

Yes - this is the same NASA that put man on the moon etc.

Some of the many delights that you can do with this s/w are (as shown at the site):

World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data to experience Earth terrain (or any planet with the data) in visually rich 3D, just as if they were really there. Virtually visit anyplace in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps or along the African Sahara.

And I have tried it - and it is REALLY beautiful!

An additional download site some of the data that would otherwise need to be downloaded from NASA's site when you 'zoom' in too close.

Also - you will need to download the patch that will upgrade you to 1.2c

You can have hours of fun!

2004-10-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

Weird news!! At last Apple computers have their very own virus!

This is the final bit of confirmation that Apple has 'arrived' as far as the regular ole computing universe is concerned.

Maybe it is time to buy AAPL stock?

2004-10-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

FCC's Powell vs Howard Stern - nice controversy for anyone that is interested.
The transcript is revealing.

Background: This comes from a slashdot posting talking about Stern calling in to some Ronn's show where Michael Powell was taking questions.

2004-10-26T11:21:00.000-04:00

Among some of my favourite blogs for this Presidential Campaign in progress in the US (just 7 days to go before election day) are:
1) JustOneMinute
2) Spinsanity - Countering the rhetoric with reason
3) Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
4) Bull Moose
5) www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish
and last but not least - the absolutely most importantest web site to keep facts straight
6) FactCheck.org - Annenberg Political Fact Check

If polls and their analysis are what you crave, take a peek at
7) Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

2004-10-26T10:39:00.000-04:00

I noticed in my snail-mail that this time's MIT Technology Review had a most interesting article about - micro jet engines! Here's what is interesting about this power source

small
battery sized
diesel/gasoline replinishments will keep the jet running
supplying fuel to the device that it is attached to
no cooling issues (heat sinks can remove the heat so that the device is no warmer than today's devices
does not have to be as efficient as the jet engines powering 747's to make a dent in the battery market

Well - what are we waiting for? Why shouldn't we be using these devices on a day to day basis? According to the article, it will take about 5 years to make the product reach the market.

Another reason I am interested in the development of this device is that a friend/acquaintance of mine has worked on something very similar - Dr. Ravi Khanna of MIT.

2004-03-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

Just read an update on the Microsoft/SCO versus Linux tussle in progress. It appears that Microsoft has more than its fingertips dirty here. Read this note at Opensource.org and you will have a rignside view of what is promising to be a battle of mammoth proportions.

SCO has admitted that this e-mail is genuine - but claims that the conclusions draw are wrong. Fair enough. Now let us see what responses they have to *prove* that the context of this e-mail justifies the remarks.

Hopefully, the Department of Justice has its eyes and ears open and will go after Microsoft at the slightest reek of misuse of monopolistic position.

Stay tuned ...

2004-03-04T18:01:00.000-05:00

Ahem. So I have managed to do this.

This should be a blog that should be of interest mostly to Indians, but since I am a US citizen, I also have views on USA - and those will be posted here as well.

I have a web site that I occassionally publish on.
Yes - I am a el cheapo that does not wish to publish on a REAL web server without the trailing 81 - but so what? That is what I am.

I had written, a long time ago, something that I called a Blueprint for India. Obviously this document isa bit dated. It was written at the time the present government was about to be sworn in. As everyone knows, the country is due for elections in the coming two months or so. I will publish the remainder of the blueprint - although there are big holes where I don't have the required expertise to write proposals on.

Ohm Shanthi, shanthi - let the world be at peace.

2004-03-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

My first post to my very own blog. Let's see where this goes.

Me myself and my fingers

Test post to blog via e-mail

De Gustibus

Hot Spell: Why Do Indians Excel in Bees?

* * *

Leader (U.S.)

Virtual BattleHow a Global Web of ActivistsGives Coke Problems in India

Mr. Srivastava Uses InternetTo Fuse Protest Groups;Court Order on PesticidesCompany Sees 'Brandjacking'

A New India

* * *

Virtual Battle
How a Global Web of Activists
Gives Coke Problems in India

Mr. Srivastava Uses Internet
To Fuse Protest Groups;
Court Order on Pesticides

Company Sees 'Brandjacking'