Want to see a dastardly, airhead Cricketer?

If you think that it is Danish Kaneria or the tainted Pakistani trio I am talking about, you’re wrong.

The Cricketer with dastardly selection policy and airheaded views on cricket and its players is none other than Kris Srikanth, the chief selector for the Indian Cricket Board.

You just have to watch today’s Times Now interview with Kris Srikanth.  A bad taste in the mouth is the least of the sensations you could ever have.  Just a few minutes back, on my after dinner smoke, someone said that Srikanth should be taken out and have his mouth washed with soap, if not with something stronger, or messier, for saying what he did.

He admits

• that seniors have been given too much time - but is not willing to take responsibility to give them the boot.
• that the rotation policy has proved to be wrong, but does not know what else to suggest.
• that the youngsters have not proved themselves, in Australia, and hence defends the policy of persisting with old donkeys.
• that seniors who have been performing poorly overseas, in England and Australia, are being given chance to come good in sub-continent-like conditions during Asia cup.
• that at least 1 (or 2) players have admitted that they are unfit now, right in the middle of Australia series, and are being rested in Asia Cup.  Presumably for them to get fit in time for IPL!
• that the board is not willing to give the same chance to new blood. I mean is it current policy that young bloods have to be blooded overseas?  If so, why not an conduct Ranji trophies overseas?

And of all his dastardisation is his disgusting utterance that it is easy for people sitting out, at home, to criticize the players.

If that is so in your Airheaded thinking, Srikanth, what about the selectors?  Aren’t the selectors sitting in their Air-conditioned boxes or homes, snaffling expensive (soft) drinks, snacks and cocktail dinners afterwards, in fact, sitting out in judgement?

In your dastardly thinking Srikanth, then the selectors should just go with the same team again and again, as they should not judge the players, since the selectors are not in the ground and playing?

Would you believe, another cartoon with even more dastardly and airheaded view has joined the argument in Times Now - the intellect called Boria Mazumdar - every time on TV, he sounds like he is still a baby endeavouring to get out of his crib.

What a pathetic dribble!

/yuck/

(image courtesy Emile Mercier)

My Wise half wonders, ‘If ever a CBI/ED/ITD probe is ordered on the funding and the activities of BCCI, would there would be much or nothing, to answer for?’

To which my Naughty half natters, ‘It is time to change the name.  What their activities have proved, even in cricketing field, is that neither do they ‘control’ cricket, nor what they practice is ‘cricket’!

update: This post has been rewritten under advice and guidance, on Thursday, with gentrified language in-lieu of the salty sailor-speak of the original.  The changes are basically with the adjectives - intellect instead of idiot, dastardly instead of b*stardly, airhead instead of a**hole, etc.  

When I read back, I realise that it carries the same punch but encased in gloves instead of the bare fist meeting boneheads.

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Olympic Mantra 2: Stalking your ex is fair game

If you are one of those who think that stalking is wrong, immoral and a threatening act, get ready to change your mind;  the International Olympic Committee seems to believe that it is alright to stalk your ex-partner (or anyone else).  Since this is the year of the Olympics, who are we, poor mortals, to challenge the spite of the mighty?

Let us put this in perspective. 

Suppose you and your partner had a volatile parting several years back.  And suppose as part of that divorce your ex-partner resorted to a scorched earth policy literally, and flatly refused to pay your fair share, took everything, refused to negotiate, finally threw you a cent on the dollar as take-it or leave-it and ran away.

Right into the arms of an even richer partner and have been merrily making your life miserable ever since.  Miserable not only in an emotional sense, which is beyond this blog, but deliberately interfering in your life.  Say for example, your partner is in the habit of selling you eggs from the self-owned farm through an intermediary, even though the partner knows that you prefer not to deal with them at all.

Suppose yesterday you come to know that your ex and the new partner have been spying on you all along;  monitoring your movements, noting down whom you meet with, your travel plans and career path. 

Throughout whenever you approached the Police commissioner and the Mayor, you’re told that the ‘rich-partner’ has absolutely nothing to do with you and your suspicions are unjustified.

How would you feel?  Me, I just want to climb the roof and start shouting at the top of my voice.  And I am doing it, right now, in this blog.

Now if you just substitute

• ‘victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy’ instead of ‘you’,
• ‘Union Carbide’ instead of your ‘ex-partner’,
• ‘Dow Chemicals’ instead of ‘richer-new-partner’,
• ‘LOCOG’ instead of ‘Police commissioner’, and
• ‘International Olympic Committee’ instead of the ‘Mayor’;

You will get a rough idea of how unjust the organisers and managers of the Olympics and the city of London have been.  If you want to know what ‘eggs’ Dow has been selling to India by deceit, read Olympic Mantra: Laundered money is Legal money.

Now to add insult to injury comes the Wikileaks disclosure, that Dow Chemicals paid Stratfor to collate data on the intentions and future actions of  activists for Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

To be fair, as far as the leaks have come to light, the actions of Stratfor has shown nothing illegal.  In the matter of Bhopal activists, and with the information available right now, it has been an excellent case of data mining of information available in public domain.

Just like the data mining I do to connect, relate, and pose different events to present a logical argument in this blog.  (Note: A little self-promotion never hurts)

But what is offensive is Dow engaging and paying Stratfor to do it.  If Dow Chemicals feels it is all in the clear, why keep tabs on their adversaries?  But if they are doing so, doesn’t it mean their guilty conscience is scaring them?

And if they are guilty, should they be allowed to sponsor the Olympics?

Catch my point?

Putting it the other way, is the Olympic committee and LOCOG saying that stalking your ex is perfectly alright?



My Naughty half natters, ‘If that is an accurate portrait, should not the flag be a Union Jack instead of Star and Stripes?’

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Microfinance or Me-throw-you-in-furnace?

Microfinance caught the imagination of the world and even a Nobel price;  but is it really a game changer and life saver as it is made out?

Microfinance was originally conceived as a non-profit, society’s-own, self-sustaining, self-correcting mechanism to deliver much needed and often denied monetary loan to the helpless and most downtrodden of the society, mostly the self-employed.

The man who originally conceived it in 1970s, Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh even won a Nobel prize for his ‘Grameen Bank’ in 2006.  An Indian effort was started in 1997.  Everything went well for about 10 years.

In 2005, the Indian organisation, SKS reinvented itself from a non-profit setup into a for-profit, regular money-lending, finance institution.  It went public in 2010.

For several years now there have been regular reports of farmer suicides in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in India.  Reports which have been equally regularly repudiated by the respective state governments.

However, the AP government was forced to enact some laws restricting recovery operations of lenders after it was revealed that farmers in debt are forced to commit suicide when pressed or threatened by the debt collectors.

Now it seems even an internal investigation by microfinance institutions themselves reveal links between their tough, merciless collection policies and farmer suicides [http://ibnlive.in.com/news/probe-links-sks-microfinance-to-suicides/233399-3.html].

Just reading the report makes me feel sick.  But then when the microfinance sector as a whole has grown into a behemoth with no regulation as to who can own, run, or without any oversight, these situations are bound to develop.  By some reports, the microfinance industry worldwide is as big as $50 billion dollars of outstanding loans with almost equal amount of deposits.

Can you imagine such a huge industry operating under the garb of good Samaritans, without any sort of oversight?  If ‘when the cat is away, the mice will play,’ what will happen when there is no cat at all?  And I am sure that some fat political pig would also have its dirty snout in it somewhere!
:-/


My Naughty half natters, ‘Wasn’t the Nobel winner Yunus accused of diverting funds?  Perhaps I should junk writing blogs and start loan sharking!’
:-D

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Can anyone invite me to Pinterest?

update:  Pinterest have been kind enough to invite me to join today -Tuesday (28 Feb 2012).  Thanks to everyone who expressed their desire to help me out.  Really great to have such a concerned response.

update 2:  Pinterest is now open to all.

I hope by now you’ve heard of Pinterest - a pin board style social networking site.  Instead of a words based social networking where making fun of each other is the order of the business, this photo sharing social networking site aims for users to share with photos with each other.

Now you might ask what are you going to do with an image?  Remember the old adage - a picture is worth a thousand words?  This site takes it to a new level.  Users finding an interesting photo or an image, either on the web or their own production, ‘pin’ or share it with other users.  That is how the site works.
So what you may ask. 

In December 2011, Pinterest entered the top 10 social networks, according to Hitwise data, with 11 million total visits per week. 

In January 2012, Pinterest drove more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+.

In January 2012, comScore reported Pinterest had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.

With such credentials, it is any wonder I want to get in on Pinterest?  The only problem is that Pinterest is still in open beta and membership is by invitation only.  As of now, I don’t know of anyone who has a Pinterest account.

Hence, this post and a request.  If you have a Pinterest account or if you know of anyone, can you manage an invite for me?  If you can, please send the invite to - email address deleted after update above.



Look at that!  Isn’t it great that people are using Pinterest to promote their products?  Even big companies are on Pinterest.  And small businesses too, apart from bloggers. 

My Puzzled half prattles, ‘how do I promote a multifaceted blog like mine in Pinterest?  Perhaps I should snap photos and write more about my cockatiels and kitchen garden plants.’
:-S

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Julia Gillard trumps Manmohan Jinx and Rudd

Try as he might to blackmail the Australian Labor Party with the threat of losing the next general elections, Kevin Rudd  fell flat in his ambush to dislodge Julia Gillard as PM.

He could get less than half the votes polled for Gillard at 31 to 71.  Some would say the humiliation serves him right.  He might feel wronged in being ousted by Gillard in an inner-party coup in 2010, but that does not give him any right to come out and openly claim that without him, the Labor party would lose the next general election.

However it might have sounded to his supporters, to me, sitting 9000 kilometres away, it sounded too self-sounding and pompous.  More so like he doesn’t think much of his party colleagues and fellow MPs.  That they are all power hungry hangers-on, who take a free ride on his coat tails.

That apart it seems Gillard has managed to shake off the Manmohan Singh jinx which follows every leader our PM comes in contact with.
>;-E


(image courtesy halloweenclipart.com)

My Mischievous half murmurs, ‘However, the Maldives President Nasheed was not so lucky; he was ousted.  And I guess the President and people of Mali are not feeling too good right now, with the Tuareg rebellion.’

Related posts:
Manmohan Jinx makes him idea US envoy
Manmohan Jinx makes me a Mandrill Baboon
Julia Gillard trumps Manmohan Jinx
Manmohan Jinx spikes Sarko
Manmohan Jinx grills Julia Gillard
Mohamed Morsi ousted by Manmohan Jinx
Did Julia Gillard fall for Gandhi

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No to Indian Rice; but death drugs are all right

This is one for the books.  Have you ever wondered how to innocent reports, originating at two different countries or places, have a habit of coming together to ring a bell?  Today is such a day.
One hand we learn that the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has procured by deceit 485 grams of sodium-thiopental, which is enough to kill 166 Americans who have been awarded death sentence, from India. 

Now I am not willing to get into an argument whether death sentence is moral or not.  My personal view is that as long as death sentence is in the books, and as long as it has been awarded and confirmed by the Judiciary of a country, it should be carried out at the earliest.  I don’t care whether it is by hanging them with a rope as is the practice back home or by injecting drugs like sodium thiopental or electric chair like in the US, or decapitation by sword as practised in Arab world.

What this post is about is that an arm of US Government (as far as a foreign entity is concerned, a State Government is part and parcel of US executive) does not mind procuring a drug to executed convicted Americans, from India, even resorting to falsehood and outright lies to do so.

OTOH, we have the self same US Government berating the Iraqis for buying Rice from India to feed its millions of citizens.  It seems 12 legislators from Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and Virginia, have written a letter to the Iraqi Trade Representative asking him to buy long-grain rice from the US instead of the basmati from India.

Now I am not willing to get into an argument whether the long-grain rice from the USA is superior in content to Indian basmati or whether the basmati does boast a better aroma and flavour than the US long-grain variety.

What this post is about is that representatives of the US Government do not mind blatantly saying that if we (the US) give you aid, support and succour, then we expect you to be beholden to us and trade exclusively with us.  Even if such exclusive trade doesn’t make economic sense as better quality, lower priced alternatives may be available.

Matter of fact there is an ongoing dispute on whether the long-grain rice grown in Texas and Kansas can be called Texmati and Kasmati respectively or whether it infringes the traditional basmati identification.  The dispute is complex.  Complex because of the way the Intellectual Property laws have been framed and not because of any justifiable reason.  Come on!  Who has ever heard of anything called ‘mati’ relating to rice or wheat in America?  Isn’t using of ‘mati’ suffix, which is not a native English one, itself is an immoral, dishonest act?


(image courtesy RiceSelect)

My Wicked half whispers, ‘Isn’t it funny?  Indian drugs to kill Americans is all right, but Indian rice to feed Iraqis is not good!’

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Wisdom of the Pharaohs flows down the Ganges

At last, the Govt. of India has woken up to the dangers of foreign money being slipped into the country in the garb of aid to NGOs and other social service organisations. 

The money thus funded being used to disrupt Government policies and projects in the garb of protesting against environmental, economic or social disintegration and degradation.  Of late, the protests have taken a drastic turn, by moving away from the justifiable concerns of NIMBY attitude and instead donning the ‘my-way-or-highway’ principle. 

Mind you, these foreign funded NGOs have assumed such hard, unforgiving, uncompromising and unreasonable attitudes, especially in matters which have an impact on economic and industrial development of the fast-growing economies.

Most of these NGOs are funded by the developed, mature economies of the West, especially the good old USA, and the Scandinavian countries, along with Germany and such others.  These are precisely the nations and economies which would be hurt by economic and industrial development in the BRIC, IBSA and other developing world.  As these economies power up, the World’s carbon footprint would increase, which ultimately would force the NGO funding economies to give in to the just demands of the developing countries, by

• either reducing their own emissions, which means that their citizens would have to be told to sacrifice some creature comforts,
• or by giving in to equality and justice by accepting that every human world over is entitled to equal amounts of carbon emission, per capita, which means that every Indian, Chinese, Latino or African would be equal to an American or a Scandinavian.

Which is what those funding the NGOs in the name of aid or grant must be worried about.  There is no way that an average Indian or Chinese would waste resources as the Americans and Scandinavians do.  I cannot foresee any eventuality where we would take a car to walk two blocks.
:-)
Thus at last a path breaking, shot-across-the-bows and surprising move by the Govt. of India to revoke the licence to operate and ban the activities of 3 NGOs involved in the anti-Nuclear protests in Koodankulam.  Surprising because, I, personally did not expect such a strong move from this Administration, as they have been so wishy-washy for the last 6 months [http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2929241.ece].

Now the forces and sentiments which plan, support, fund and aid these forces, no doubt, would howl, and point fingers  at the administration.  Even neutral, well meaning observers and admirers like Thomas L. Freidman might frown at this just as he did, maybe rightly, at the action against  US funded NGOs in Egypt [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/opinion/friedman-fayzas-last-dance.html?]

But what is surprising is that the principal national opposition party, the BJP, is not supporting the government action and seems to be acting a little dibbly-dobbly on the matter.  Perhaps they have been caught on the wrong foot?  After repeatedly beating the PM with the stick of being an American lackey, it must have been galling for them to see the supposed lackey kick his master’s back.



My Wicked half whispers, ‘Now, if only they would shut down all foreign funding, including those of the madrasas which allegedly promote religious isolation, India would be a better place.’

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Avast Antivirus 7 has been released

Avast Antivirus version 7 free edition has been released by Alwil Software.  Avast Antivirus is one of the best free Antivirus available today for PC, Mac and even mobiles.  Yes, Avast free edition is also available for mobile phones, but only those that run Android.
;-)

Apart from Avast Antivirus, the following software have new versions or updates.  Their current version numbers and download links (along with other software of interest) are listed at Latest Versions page.

1. Avast Antivirus - 7.0
2. CCleaner - 3.16
3. Winapp2 - 1.0.120223
4. Skype - 5.8
5. doPDF - 7.2.377

In the 'latest versions' page, the coloured cells indicate software versions updated within the last 10 days or so (with Light Turquoise indicating the latest and Light Yellow indicating a bit earlier).

All Software are (C) and/or (R) of respective owners. Please also read the Licence page.  Those conditions apply in full.

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A Shinkansen cannot stop at every suburb

Whoever has heard of a Shinkansen which stops at every station in a metro line?  If it does, it cannot be a Shinikansen, is it not?  A Shinkansen or a ‘Bullet Train’ is supposed to offer a high-speed rail connectivity between cities, not serve as a transit system within a city.  A Shinkansen is a ‘inter-city’ rail connection and not a ‘inner-city’ rail network.

If we do not understand the purpose and service orientation of a high speed inter-city rail connection, we should never try and operate one.  But back home in India, we are least bothered about such clarity of purpose.  Every city wants a fast non-stop rail connectivity, but wants every fast non-stop trains between other cities which pass through, to stop at their station

It does not matter what the train is, or which part of the country it serves.  If a fast, non-stop train runs through my city, it has to stop to pick me up, at my city.  I don’t want to travel 50 or 100 km to the origin city to jump on the fast, non-stop train.  The train has to stop at/for my convenience.
Thus:

• In the West, people grouse that Chandigarh-Amritsar Duronto Express will not stop at Ludhiana.  (Distances: Chandigarh to Amritsar ~230 km;  Chandigarh to Ludhiana ~ 95 km)
• In the North, Indian Railways agrees that the Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express will stop at Tundla, in addition to existing Aligarh & Etawah stations.  (Distances: Tundla to Aligarh ~96 km; Tundla to Etawah ~100 km; Lucknow to New Delhi ~475 km)
• In the South, they agree that Trivandrum-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express will also stop at Quilon and Alleppey, in addition to Cochin (Ernakulam) station.  (Distances: Quilon to Trivandrum ~65km; Alleppey to Cochin ~60 km;  Trivandrum to Nizamuddin ~2,800 km)
• In the East, people agitate demanding Guwahati-Delhi/Chennai Express trains also stop at Sarupathar, in addition to Furkating and/or Dimapur stations.  (Distances: Sarupathar to Furkating ~34 km; Sarupathar to Dimapur ~36 km; Guwahati to Delhi ~1957 km; Guwahati to Chennai ~2745 km)

The reason that people subject the Indian Railways to these type of headaches is because it is damn inconvenient to travel 50 or 100 km by road in India, to be in time to catch a train, plane or attend a meeting.  Thus they repeatedly question, ‘Why can’t the train stop here for 2 minutes?’

Under such circumstances, keeping in view that construction of a

• 4-lane highway capable of smooth, fast road traffic would be cheaper - 
• estimated at Rs. 10 Crores (100 mn) per km [http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/nhai-plancom-differcost4-lane-highways/404095/] ;
• than a railway line to inter-connect these cities - 
• estimated at Rs. 21 Crores [210 mn] per km* [http://praja.in/en/book/export/html/571])

one would think that the GoI would plan on building Highways.

Mind you, the rail option would also require additional investment in rolling stock and more running expenses by way of fuel and manpower.  In case of road option, all those - cars, buses, fuel, manpower - are on the heads of the users, and not public (govt) investment.

*Note:  The Praja CRS Plan referred for rail construction cost estimates Rs. 150 mn @ 2007 prices; allowing for inflation of 7% as per Business-Standard article referred for road construction, I arrived at ~210 mn in 2011.

And that the GoI would aim to keep existing and planned highways as Highways -

• where people commute between cities or towns, as a fast clip and
• not allow those highways to turn into another arterial road, congested with pedestrian and leisure traffic.

But what do I know!  The Ministry of Highway bureaucrats endowed with foresight and wisdom have proposed that the Highways Ministry permit Residential projects  along existing/proposed Highways.
8-0

I can just hear Dastardly and Muttley snickering around somewhere.



My Thoughtful half thinks aloud, ‘BTW what would be the total time lost if a Train travelling at an average speed of 100 km/hr is made to stop at a station in between for 2 minutes?  For eg., the case of Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, made to stop at Tundla!’

Hell, looks like it will need a lot of research and information, like weight of train, its weight when fully loaded, the capacity of its engines, acceleration and braking capacity and what not.  Not for today!

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Leopard’s day out is on Saturdays

For the last couple of months, every Monday morning I pick up the newspaper expecting to see the news of a Leopard attack somewhere in India over the weekend.

I am not joking.  Starting with Spot the Leopard and Shaken or Stirred last year, there seem to be a spot of bother (no pun intended) with the Indian Leopards almost every weekend.

• In July 2011 alone, there were 3 other attacks in various parts of the country.
• Christmas weekend had the famous leopard attack in North India caught was on camera [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8225516/Leopard-attacks-villagers-in-India.html].
• New Year brought the 3 hour rampage in Guwahati which killed one man and scalped another.
• End of January, 3 people inside their house were attacked by a Leopard in West Bengal.
• In February two men were attacked in separate incidents on a single day, in Uttar Pradesh
• In Garhwal district this weekend (yes, the Garhwal of Jim Corbett fame) a leopard carried away a 4 year old

So are the leopards being let out of some wild cages over the weekend?  Or have the leopards made a collective decision that they’ll let down their hair (and also that of humans), come weekends?



LOL

The reason more likely is the human activity, noise and disturbances naturally start to wind down as the weekend approaches.  This reduction in noise, lights and movement, which probably scared and kept away the leopards during the week, encourages them to explore the areas seemingly ‘vacated’ by the humans.

However, the areas have not been ‘vacated’ by the humans.  They’ve simply reduced their cacophony and stay put, lying low.  When a leopard stumbles into such a ‘low lying’, the howling starts, panic sets in and one or the other or both get hurt.

My Naughty half natters, ‘ So, what is the solution?  Party!  Party during the weekend guys, and don’t let the leopards have the weekends out.’
:-P

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On greeting people with a Hello

Over the last week, my mind has been occupied with how people greet, meet or like (and unlike) each other.  It doesn’t matter what is the relationship between the concerned people is.  They can be mother and son,  two friends, or colleagues, even class mates, ship mates, a senior officer to a junior, a man and woman, uncle and nephew or a master to servant or just two people who live nearby - neighbours.  It doesn’t matter who the two persons in question are.

What matters is how one of the people mentioned above wishes, likes to greet the other.  There are people -

• whom you cannot wait till the morning to meet;  you just go out in the night to keep looking at or talking to,
• for whom you wait for the morn with eager,
• whom you wish to see, sight or hear as early as possible,
• whom you wouldn’t mind coming across in the day,
• whom you would try to avoid in the morning, day or evening, and
• whom you wish never, ever appear in your life ever.

For a large number of people, I’ve slipped from the first 2 places.  For almost everyone I’m in the middle 2 phases.  After the colourful life I’ve had, count exactly 2 who’d treat me in the 5th category. 

And exactly one who doesn’t want to see me - the man would either run away in terror or try to kill me on sight.

I’ve been so fortunate because whenever a problem occurs, especially when they are of personal - meaning person to person related - I always put myself in both the positions, that is, think from both sides of argument or differences, and try to arrive at a solution. 

With that attitude in life, I’ve -

• exactly 1 in the first category,
• dozens in the next two,
• scores who are in the 4th,
• exactly 2 (not the terror/killer guy, but a neighbour man and wife) who I try to avoid like plague, and
• none in the last.

Events over the last few days have made be think about these relationships.  This is the first time I’ve tried to categorize the perceived relationship or friendliness like this.  Because someone made a comment yesterday ‘when you see someone, you should feel eager to talk to them’ and not feel like ‘OMG! I’ve no other way out, but to talk to them.’

In all my years, I haven’t heard a truer word spoken.  While I don’t want to be loved and hailed by everyone, I would positively abhor the day when people try to avoid me like plague.

As said above, I always try to put myself through the other side.  If people do try to avoid me, what does it say about my goodness?  I mean, how ‘mean’, cheap, selfish, uncouth, uncaring, flimsy, rotten, evil should one be, if people would prefer not to meet them any day, for ever?

But if that is the criteria I’ve to adopt, I see another 4 or 5 who’d qualify.
LOL

I think I’d take rather take Pete!

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This blog became more sensible - available on Podcast too!

After upping a dimension with QR codes monkeyshine nutworks has become more sensible.  Till now I’ve been able to assault only your visual sense.  But from today I’m ready to hammer your hearing too.

By using the excellent Text-To-Speech engine and free conversion service offered by Odiogo, this blog is available as Podcast.  I’ve been hunting for quite sometime for a way, preferably free, to do it.  Today I found out about the excellent media shifting service available by Odiogo.  The name too is cute, isn’t it?  A play on Audio-Go, I think.

You can subscribe to Podcasts on iTunes, Zune, Juice or any other Podcast client and listen to my harangue.
:-P

You can even download the blog as MP3 files to your PC and bore yourselves to sleep listening to me.

There is a small catch.  Since the RSS feeds were set in short format till now in blogger setting, all earlier posts will be limited to the first paragraph.  From this point on hopefully, the full post will be available on Podcast.

You can subscribe through the button on the 2nd side panel or at the Odiogo podcasts page for monkeyshine nutworks here [http://podcasts.odiogo.com/monkeyshine-nutworks/podcasts-html.php].

If you have a blog of your own and want to create podcasts, just sign up for free at Odiogo.  They even provide a widget to embed the subscribe button in Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and other engines.



My Mischievous half murmurs, ‘Do you realise that it is only here you get all these crazy information on harnessing technology?  For free at that?  So once in a while, who don’t you just click on a few Google Ads and let me earn some money?’
:-)

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VLC Media Player 2.0.0 ‘Twoflower’ has a display problem

VLC Media Player 2.0.0 “Twoflower” has been released for Windows (and other OS).  Since VideoLAN claim to have fixed hundreds of bugs, rewritten the code and added additional codecs, I tried it out.

Unfortunately, VLC Media Player seems to be going the Mozilla Firefox way.  After Firefox 3.6.x, every alternate version of Firefox (stable) release seems to be junk.  Thus Firefox 10.0.0. had so many issues, people actually reverted back to 9.

And VLC Media Player seems to have caught a similar bug.  Videos simply did not display with VLC Media Player 2.0.0. ‘Twoflower’, though the Audio part is fine.  All audio files too played without a hitch.  I tried every trick I knew, including uninstalling and reinstalling the K-Lite Codec Pack (8.4.0) and (horror or horrors), deleting the VLC ‘preferences and cache’.

Nothing worked.  For me, on Windows XP SP3, it is back to VLC Media Player 1.1.11 for now.

The display problem has been sorted out with a workaround - read the how-to here.

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AVIRA AntiVir has a new version

The following software have new versions / updates.

Their current version numbers and download links (along with other software of interest) are listed at:
http://www.madmadrasi.net/p/latest-versions.html

1. Avira AntiVir Personal free - 12.0.0.898
2. Private Firewall free - 7.0.26.04
3. Kaspersky TDSS Killer - 2.7.13.0.
4. Mozilla Firefox - 10.0.1 10.0.2
5. Google Chrome stable - 17.0.963.56
6. Java Runtime Environment - 1.7.0.3
7. Flash Player (IE) - 11.1.102.62
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Olympic mantra: Laundered Money is Legal Money

From what I’ve read and understood about Money Laundering and Transnational Financial Fraud, it is a criminal act and the money thus generated continues to be tainted money, even if it resurfaces in the garb of legitimate revenues.  This re-appearance of the tainted money or assets is the 3rd phase of Money Laundering operation, called ‘integration’.

One of a favourite modus operandi in Money Laundering, I am given to believe, is the use of ‘shell companies’, where the ownership is hidden, to shield the guilty from the reach of the law.  Even worse, the ownership is swapped around in the blink of an eye, to confuse and confound the law enforcement and the victims from ever getting hold of the guilty.

Whenever the law is finally able to confront the suspicious corporate entity, the ownership has changed hands and authorities come away with a ‘shrug and a shake’.

If you don’t believe me, just see what the International Olympic Committee has done.  They very well know that Dow Chemicals bought the erstwhile Union Carbide, which is criminally culpable for the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy - the Union Carbide India Ltd., has been convicted in a  court of law - yet chose to jump in bed with Dow Chemicals for sponsoring the Olympics.

Spirit of Olympics?  Eff it!

The smell of money, easy money, trumps over the stench of death any day.

But this is all old story, which has been in public domain for many years.  So why do I bring it up now?
It is because the International Olympic Committee has written to India that Dow Chemicals is some sort of  a Saint [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17054672].

Because Dow bought Union Carbide only in 2001 (1999?), the present company is not responsible or culpable for Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984, and is ‘innocent’ - probably pretty pure as snow.

I don’t know whether Lord Coe, London 2012 committee (LOCOG) and IOC have been snorting snow or something else up their collective nose (if not elsewhere).  There is a small problem of Dow Chemicals paying out for asbestos related liabilities in the US, which were due to Union Carbide’s activities in 1970’s.

Which proves that DOW accepts that it is the principal for UCC, as far as US is concerned, but doesn’t want to admit it to India, which means it is acting as a shell company.  You know, I’m him, but not him.

There is also another trifling matter reported 4 days back alleging that Dow Chemicals continued to trade products of Union Carbide banned in India (since 1992), thorough a 'web of intermediaries', after it bought Union Carbide.  In case you haven’t caught it yet, ‘web of intermediaries’ is a tongue in cheek term for ‘shell companies’.

Even worse is their defence, if it can be called one, in the last para of page 1 (of the report).

quote - “None of the alleged business transactions cited as violating the 1992 court order involved products or technologies that are covered by the court order which only applied to UCC properties in India. It did not apply to UCC products or technologies acquired overseas and brought into India by other separate companies” - unquote.
8-0

Can you believe it?  There are some products banned in India, which are (were) produced or manufactured by Union Carbide.  Dow Chemicals says they continued to sell those same products in India, produced or manufactured by (erstwhile) Union Carbide outside India, through other ‘separate’ companies, even though they were banned.  So it is perfectly legal.

• By this logic, if Juarez Cartel produces marijuana, which is banned in the US, in its farms in Mexico, and that marijuana is brought into the US by other separate companies, Juarez Cartel isn’t guilty?
• Or this.  Mexico  transits 90% of the Colombian cocaine into the US.  Since it is the Mexican cartels (which are separate and distinct from the Colombian Cartels) that transport the cocaine into the US, Cali Cartel was innocent?  What they did was perfectly legal?

So, Cali Cartel earlier and Juarez Cartel now, can sponsor the Olympics?  Okay!  Maybe they are not in the same league as Dow Chemicals, so how about the Pan-American Games?
>:->

Effing Lord Coe, Please answer me this. 

• If Dow Chemicals is responsible for Union Carbide’s 1970’s screw-up in the US, how is Dow Chemicals not responsible for Union Carbide’s 1984 screw-up in India? 
• If producing cannabis in Mexico or cocaine in Columbia and transporting through another separate entity into the US is illegal, how can Dow Chemicals trade through separate ‘intermediaries’ banned products into India and call it legal?

It appears Lord Coe and IOC ought to take a look at the Olympic Ring.  It doesn’t have a White ring or a Brown ring, nor is one ring bigger than the others. 

I take it to mean that every Olympian (and by extension, every human being) -

• ought to be treated and taken equally; and
• not to be rated as per his race, nationality or her skin colour; or
• how much money he or she (or his company) has;

Lord Coe - If you can’t do that and see the justice in this case, you can stuff your peerage into a place where you can’t peer into; and tell your fellow culprits not to lecture us on who is a Saint and who is a Satan.


(Image is web snap shot of Dow parody site dowethics.com)

My Satanic half stutters, ‘Perhaps the Indian Government ought to order the Tatas and the Mittals to shut down their auto and steel plants in Britain for the next 6 months. And bad mouth the Eurofighter in every Capital where every Minister visits!’

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Law makers: Watched ‘snuff film’ not porn

Of all the explanations we have heard, this must be the most bizarre defence ever.  3 Ministers (not just ordinary law makers like a member of Parliament or Legislature) who hold positions of power, authority, responsibility and trust were caught watching porn in the Karnataka Legislature.

They resigned (or were asked, impelled, forced) and were issued with a show cause notice.  Their response?  The most absolute indefensible of the defences ever possible.

They didn’t (officially defend) saying they were misguided, though they tried it earlier. 

They didn’t say another man was the culprit, though they tried it too. 

They didn’t offer mitigating circumstances, though it would be hard to understand what mitigating circumstances can force them to watch porn.
 
They didn’t even say they didn’t know what they were doing, though it would be difficult to believe that a man (or a woman for that matter) wouldn’t understand porn when they see it. 

They didn’t go lame (pun intended) claiming they were just finger tapping, a la the Larry Craig  foot tapping scandal.

They went on a completely flabbergasting track.  They claimed they were watching a ‘snuff film’ and not porn.  They claimed that they were watching a clip of a woman being tortured and beheaded by Taliban.
 


There is also a boo-boo in the Times Now telecast (as it stands as of this post) - the anchor refers to a reporter at Bangalore, while the caption says the reporter is at Chennai.
Porn or Snuff?
This city or that?
India or Afghanistan?
Shucks!
8-O

On the other hand, the law enforcement authorities say any complaint by the public to take criminal action  against the porn watchers is not maintainable - because it doesn’t have the sanction of the Speaker of the house! 
Goodness me! 

Whatever happened to the recent Supreme Court verdict (just a couple of weeks back) - a judgement by the apex Judicial body of India - that sanction in criminal cases against public officials, including politicians, should be assumed to be automatically sanctioned, if it is neither granted nor denied within 4 months?

Shouldn’t the Police affidavit be that they are waiting for speaker’s sanction?
Isn’t this a contempt of the (Supreme) court?
Will the Supreme Court please have a look at this?

It is a different issue that I am not personally enamoured, basically against, such private suits on issues which are currently under process - it is simply jumping the gun; or even suits on issues which are intangible.

I think it should be made clear (by who else, but the Supreme Court), that issues which are of intangible nature - like actions deemed offensive against an individual, group, belief, sensitivities, religion or faith should not be encouraged at lower courts.  The only exception is the ‘Offences against Scheduled Castes and Tribes’ on which this sort of action should be allowed.

Oh!  Let me leave you at that. 

When All Is Well, at Aai Pee Ell (IPL) -
- with Sahara and BCCI/IPL governing committee making up,
which someone remarked as
‘give-me-my-pound-of-flesh,
I-will-give-you-cash’,
while out on my after dinner smoke, -
Let all be well!

Blame the Taliban for all things undone!

My Wicked half whispers, ‘Is this why the principal national opposition party, the BJP, terms itself as “a party with a difference”?’

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Is Internet a medium or is it a media?

It was hilarious and thought provoking to see the telecom Minister Kapil Sibal trying to browbeat Social Network forums with threats of censorship and then trying to nimbly dance away, once the uproar started.  He even managed a sarcastic comment or two.

The point was when Kapil Sibal’s colleague, the Law Minister Salman Kurshid dared the Election Commission of India to hang him if it wants to, he (Kapil Sibal) says it is his (Salman Kurshid’s) opinion and he is entitled to it (presumably under the freedom of speech).  But he is unwilling to extend that courtesy to bloggers, FB users or Tweeters. 

On top, Kapil Sibal has attempted club the internet ‘medium’ with the TV and printed ‘media’ and asks if they (the TV and Print) can obey laws, why cannot Social networks?  Note the wily way in which Kapil Sibal has tried to interlink, morph and assimilate a *medium* with *media*. 

The problem is the media which he refers to are commercial organisations, out to make profit.  And in today’s connected world, it has become essential for people, the general public to peruse at least one of the media to keep themselves current and aware.  If they don’t they run the risk of falling behind in their career, society or economic activity.  That is why people actually pay money to these media to enjoy their products or services and tend to believe what is written, reported are basically true.  Even the media boast about it -

• ‘we were the 1st with the news’; 
• ‘your channel was the one who broke the scandal;’
• ‘we are the ones who did the sting operation’,; etc. 

A social networking ‘forum’ is simply that.  It is a sort of hobby or obsession by individuals, who ‘spend’ money and (mostly) do not earn profit.  A FB page or a blog site is a place for hang out with, and along with Twitter, a medium to hang out their opinions.

If someone doesn’t belong to a FB/Orkut page or doesn’t have a blog, Twitter or FB account, he or she isn’t going to be left behind.  It is not going to hurt him or her financially, economically or  educationally, if she is not able to post the funny video of her dog hunting its tail or Tweet that someone stole his slippers at the temple this morning.

Thus there are two different issues and principles at stake here.  To confuse a *medium* with *media* is patently wrong and grossly unfair.

Perhaps Kapil Sibal has tried to pull this trick because another Kat  with similar act is now sitting in the constitutional position of Press watchdog and barking similarly. 

One more question to ask is if social forums (and blogging etc.) are to be treated as ‘media’, will the bloggers and FB/Twitters users get treated the same as journalists and reporters?

Can I also claim to belong to ‘Press’ with its privileges?

What an hogwash!
:-P

To explore the case in question itself, there is a subtle difference between what the plaintiffs want, and what the web tech companies can and actually do.  I hope the courts do not lose sight of this extremely important nuance. 

The plaintiff, at least from where I am sitting, are asking for pre-content-filtering, a form of censorship, against what they deem offensive content.  Basically they want the web-techs to pre-screen content, before allowing them to be posted on the internet - something like the Film Censor.

Even an 8th standard student who plays Farmville or Angry Birds knows that such a thing is impossible.  If anyone doesn’t understand this, or ask why it isn’t possible, they either need their head examined or should be sent back to the 1960s.

Other hand there are people who just because they’ve the freedom of the internet and the web in their hands, do undertake mischievous activity.  Deliberately posting insulting images or provocative statements or outright hate posts on society, religion, race or sexuality is just not right.  Thus there are take down notices, which need not be an act of any government or law enforcement agencies.  The web techs do remove content when they are reported as offensive or violating their policies on these issues, even by private citizens.

Google stated somewhere that it has so far removed 5 million pages (? or is it content ?) in 2011, which is quite a job.  If you want to learn more about what the Government (including state or local level government, politician or law enforcement agencies) wants and what Google has done, read its Transparency Report (http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/). 

Isn’t it obvious that anything can be claimed as offensive content?

Even this post can be claimed to insult Kapil Sibal or Justice Katju, if that is the line one wants to pursue, while I am just putting up a logical point of view on their position and policies.



My Puzzled half purrs, ‘Is that Mr. ‘Neo’ Anderson or just Matrix Code?’

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Falling AXE Angels give me a headache

Back in October 2011, I read about a TV ad for body deodorant being banned in South Africa, because it offended the ‘religious sensitivity’ of Christians - essentially one Christian who chose to complain. 

I didn’t give it much thought, as we in India are used to seeing such censorship all too frequently - for hurting religious sentiments or inciting hatred (enmity?) among groups of people. 

Isn’t one such complaint causing waste of money and time of the judiciary right now?  The case against web-tech companies for their inability to filter ‘offensive’ content?

There is a subtle difference between what the plaintiffs want, and what the web tech companies can and actually do.  And that is a subject for another post, another time.

BTP, it didn’t bother me much (the report of banned ad that is, not the censorship bid) till I saw the TV ad for AXE Provoke body spray, when it was introduced back home.  It was a small matter to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that this AXE Provoke ad, ‘Even Angels will Fall’, must have been the one in question.

Only AXE is called Lynx in South Africa and the Provoke has been named as ‘Excite’.

End of December, I decided to try out the AXE Provoke and got me one.  It has a somewhat chocolaty smell, which wasn’t to my taste (should I say, didn’t agree with my nose?), but wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t use it.  So throughout January and till 05th Feb (a Sunday), I continued to use it.  Normally a 150 ml standard can of body spray lasts between 45 to 60 days for me.

Right from the New Year’s eve, I started having headaches.  On 1st of January, I attributed it to the 2nd bottle of beer at the New Year’s bash.  But when it continued, even during the Pongal weekend, I became afraid.

The headaches used to start around 3 o’clock in the morning and  continue till about noon or so, after which it completely disappeared.  It became difficult to read newspapers, computer screens or walk, drive in the sun - the feeble winter sun at that.  In the 3rd week of January, I steeled myself and decided to consult my doctor.

His observations were encouraging to a certain extent, but not totally so.  Since I didn’t have any giddiness or didn’t swoon or blackout, and the pain seemed to jump from one side to another on random days, the good doctor thought that chances of a Brain cancer or tumour are less.  He suggested that we give it a week or two before jumping into a scan machine.  He thought that it was most likely a case of migraine, though puzzled that an attack could last for weeks or that be restricted to ante-meridian hours.

On 6th February, my local super market fellow slipped me a new deodorant from Park Avenue, given to him as sample to try out.  So for 4 days, I shucked the AXE Provoke and went with the new spray.

Viola!  The headache disappeared.  Even then I didn’t make the connection, but was only happy that I was free of it.  I never realised that my headaches were caused by an allergy to body spray.  On Friday, I was ambushed with a vengeance, on whiffing Provoke again.  It wasn’t until Monday the 13th, I made the connection and chucked the AXE Provoke for good.

For last 3 days, it has been pretty wonderful and a great relief from that awful headache. 
:-D

BTW, the AXE Provoke is marketed as ‘AXE Provoke’ in South East Asia.  And Unilever makes no bones about it - because the can carries the info in the languages of SEA, of which Thai (recognisable with the wriggly earthworm pattern of writing) is most prominent.  But what is different is that (in the Philippines, at least) it is not the Angels who fall but the ‘Goddesses’ - both the halo and the wings of the Indian (and S.African) ad are not there, and instead the ‘goddesses’ are encased in a shimmering luminescence.   See for yourself.

My Naughty half natters, ‘So did any Angels fell for me?  I guess if any Angles did fall for my Provoke, they all did so on my head.’
LOL

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Thinking Ahead in your own backyard (or street)

An interesting exchange took place today evening, just about a couple of hours back, almost in front of my apartment complex, with a neighbour-friend.  Which was a lesson to me and possibly to others too.

Before we go into that, as usual, a little bit of background.  Evening chats with neighbours, friends and in tea-shops is becoming difficult in this fair city of Chennai.  It is not due to any government restrictions, but because of the sheer onslaught of the mosquitoes.  And the stench of the uncollected garbage from which the mosquitoes emerge once the sun goes down.

I have been visiting other areas in the city, predominantly around my own dwelling to actually see whether the mosquitoes are really as much a menace as in my area.  They are.

BTP, my apartment complex lies in a side street south of a main thoroughfare.  Over the years my street on which I used to play cricket on weekdays after about 10 in the morning, has become so traffic heavy, my grandma now needs my help to cross to go to the temple nearby.  I wish I’d instead bought an apartment at the next southern street, on which kids still play cricket throughout the day.
:-(

The thoroughfare to the north, on which I learned to bicycle, is now very busy with a supermarket, an eatery, an entertainment centre and what not, with a health care utility to boot.  All these are almost the same distance on the thoroughfare, as my apartment complex is from the *main* road.  Several hundred feet down there is an alleyway, quite broad, which can take even a mini-truck in an emergency, which leads straight from my street to the commercial and public utility on the thoroughfare.  The pertinent point is that taking the alleyway shortens the distance by about 200 meters.

Today evening, a group of my neighbour-friends were chatting, as stated, when in a matter of about half an hour, 2 couples walked by, another on a bike and a lady on a scooter and 2 more families on cars, all came by asking for directions of the public utility/eatery/supermarket.

I directed the walkers towards the alleyway, while directing all the motorists to take the long way around.  When any one of my friends tried to direct the motorists towards the alleyway, I intervened to say that there is garbage dumped on the other end (where it meets the thoroughfare) and it would be better for them to reverse and take the way around.

At which one of my friends questioned me.  The conversation went like this.
My Friend (MF): ‘Hey, maddie, I know you’re a logical guy.  Now I cannot understand your logic behind making the walkers take the alleyway, through stinking garbage (which is true), when they’ve to suffer for a couple of minutes of stink.  But making the motorists who will pass by (the stink) in a couple of seconds and in case of cars, not even feel it!’

Me: ‘Guys.  I didn’t want the walkers to put in the extra effort.  Though they’ll have to hold the nose, it is shorter and more efficient for them to reach where they want to go!’

MF: ‘So what about the motorists, who will have an even easier time?’

Me: ‘I don’t want to teach the motorists the shortcut and a non-congested route to reach their intent.  Because if they learn that it is shorter, easier and faster to reach the utility/supermarket/eatery through our street, then they would keep doing it - which means even more *unnecessary* traffic on our street.  Even worse, they’d boast to their friends and colleagues, which would bring in even more traffic!’

MF: (stunned)  But what about the walkers?  If they come by bike next time, would they not follow the same route?

Me: ‘Once they’ve suffered the stink, which is actually unbearable for a minute of so, they wouldn’t ever dare to recommend it to others.  Fact is I doubt whether they would even walk through it again, themselves, even to save a couple of hundred meters of effort!’

MF: ‘Salute!  You really do think through a situation.  Really!  Now I know why, when under pressure, I instinctively ask for your advice, though may not adopt it,  and completely understand why my (and neighbourhood) kids turn to you to umpire or referee, in their games or in their (kids) disputes and accept your decision!’

That I think is the best ever compliment I’ve had.
O:-)

My Naughty half natters, ‘Its also the reason why I sleep an innocent's sleep every night, in spite the mosquitoes. LOL.’

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Is Iran behind the terror attacks?

There has been a slew of attacks against Israeli diplomats in Delhi, and in Tbilisi and today some grenades thrown by an ‘alleged’ Iranian in Bangkok.  Israel and Indian media has gone to town whether we, that is India, should be backing Iran or that country should be isolated in cooperation with other Western countries.

I’ve really a doubt whether we really have problem of Shia terrorism in India, without any independent proof.
People reading this blog know very well that I’m, personally, not in love with Ahmadinejad, but to think that Iran would sponsor a terrorist attack in India, the one major neutral country, except for ‘everything-West-says-is-wrong’ China, is beyond belief.

OTOH, Israel is known for false flag attacks, like what happened in Dubai  last year - if I remember right, even Australia and UK had to demarche the Israelis.

Now, let us not get too far.  India’s relation with Israel is too long standing, precious and strong to repudiate, accept and digest even with *that* false flag attacks by Israel.

The present attack could be from a non-state-sponsored organisation, but again to parrot K.C. Singh’s views, it is highly improbable to conclude that Iranian state is behind the attacks.

What India should do is pursue the investigation and find out who exactly is responsible - irrespective of whoever else (Georgia, Thailand) is attacked.

Let us be very clear.  Anyone, whether it was Iran or Pakistan or any other state or non-state actors, at this time or anytime past or in future, who sponsor terrorism in India, or attacks against India and Indians, in India or elsewhere, either directly or by proxy, should be dealt with - on *terminal* terms.

But without any proof, on speculation by media, I am not willing to judge anyone - Iran or Israel.
My Innocent half inquires, ‘Why are we, India, not willing to hang even proven terrorists?  How do I, a common citizen, expect that the Indian state will act against the next active terrorist, if we don’t even have the guts to put to death, proven terrorists?’

How many more Indian citizens have to cry before we start to eliminate terrorists?

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Valentine’s Day Google Doodle cocks a snook at persecution

Is seems that writing about Google Doodle requires a dedicated blog on its own.  Today to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Google has gone with a fantastic Doodle.

On the Google home page we are presented with an image of a boy holding a valentine in front of the Google logo.  Clicking on the ‘play’ button shows us an animated story of the boy searching for (Googling) gifts for the (cold hearted) girl he wants to impress.

He Googles and tries to gift her with a rose, candy, sweater, a balloon dog, teddy bear, a diving mask, cake, top hat, TV, a heart balloon, and even a paper airplane.  The girls keeps on skipping.

Finally the boy brings his own skipping rope and starts to play at which the girl finally takes notice and joins him.  The additional attraction is Tony Bennett crooning the Hank William’s classic blues ballad ‘Cold, Cold, Heart’! [YouTube link] [http://youtu.be/s9DupFk8GUI].

But that’s not it.  Google we would think is out to thumb its nose at every form of censorship or persecution - whether

• it is Indian courts and Government bullying to take down ‘objectionable content’, or
• parties which object to Valentine’s Day but boast of members who watch porn in legislature, or
• prudish anti-abortion and anti-LGBT people in the US, or
• the ‘intelligent design’ idiocy in the US, or
• persecutors in the name of religious blasphemy or prejudice in the countries between.

For just have a look at the finish.  The sequence ends with a collage -

The Frog Prince at top row centre is alright.  The last one, chocolate chip cookie with milk carton is beyond me.  Rest all, to my mind at least, is ‘interesting’.

• An astronaut and an alien?  what does it say for ‘intelligent design’?
• A cat and a dog? isn’t that something for Armageddon?
• A white boy and a black girl?  how about that for race relations?
• Isn’t that 2 men united in marriage?  Oh WoW!

Shalom Google!  And a Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

PS:  The Doodle is not available in Google Pakistan or other Arab countries, though it is available at Google Malaysia.

PS2:  Strange the Doodle is not available in any other SAARC country page - Nepal, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh.  Coming from East, it is available upto Thailand, then India and thereafter jumps to Lebanon and Turkey.  It is not even found on Google Israel. !?!

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Culling is the cure for the Congress ‘Foot-in-the-Mouth’ disease

Remember the summer of 2010?  The ruling UPA coalition was sitting pretty with nary a worry in the wind.  Though there was a perception of coalition compulsions, the general belief and expectation was the second Manmohan Singh Administration or UPA-2 was hitting all the right notes.[http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265491]

It was the general mood on the ground and also reflected in many opinion polls and editorial.

It is a different matter that people with foresight (which essentially means me) had misgivings even then.  The world is full of people who are blessed with hindsight and do not have time for those who can think ahead.  No regrets, That’s the way it has been, and it will be.
:-P

Looking back people tend to think that the UPA’s misfortune started the next year, in 2011, the so called year of scams with the 2G Spectrum allocation scam, the Radia Tapes, the Commonwealth Games loot, Akash Housing Scam, the Antrix-Devas fiasco, the Anna Hazare drama, the Army Chief’s date of birth controversy, to list some of them.

Actually, trouble started brewing when people in responsible positions started to suffer from the ‘foot-in-the-mouth’ disease.  To my mind it started with the present Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s gaffe by almost assuring the agitators that a Telengana state would be carved out very soon.

It was exacerbated by the repeated uttering of the PM, the Finance Minister, the Food Minister, the RBI Governor and the Planning Commission Chairman, that the food prices will come down soon and inflation would be controlled.

Almost every problem of the current UPA administration can be laid at the foot (no pun intended) of the loud mouths of the people in power and who ought to know better.  After all who can forget Kapil Sibal’s forceful, bullying tone denying that there was any loss to the exchequer in the 2G Spectrum scandal.

The other famous affront was the Rs. 32/- a day makes an Indian Rich affidavit by the Planning Commission’s M.S. Ahluwalia, who has been cawing that food inflation would come down in next 3 months - for the last 3 years.

If at all the others decided to give us a respite, there is always Digvijaya Singh - trying to list out his ‘achievements’ here would be like attempting to write down 1001 nights in one post.
:-D

The latest to join is Salman Kurshid with his ‘let the Election Commission hang me’ bravado.  Perhaps it should be termed as false bravado, as Salman Kurshid knows fully well that we don’t hang even terrorists, let alone powerful politicians for defying constitutional authorities.

You know, Kapil Sibal might threaten bloggers and web giants with censorship, running roughshod over our freedom of speech, but he sure comes out to defend when it is one of his own who blatantly chooses to violate constitutional authority.  Kapil Sibal terms it as ‘he (Kurshid) has its own reasons (views) and I (Sibal) cannot comment on it’.

All this can be laid at the feet of one man (again no pun) - the Prime Minister - who refrained and has been refraining from taking action against erring bags of hot air.  They say culling is the best cure and sure fire way to stop the Foot and Mouth disease in cattle.  Seeing the cattle like behaviour of the people who should know better, it is high time that Manmohan Singh cracks the whip at least, if not attempt a cull as a warning against future outbreaks.
>;-)

Today morning while fetching milk, a yuppie waiting for his cab pickup to go to work, remarked, ‘Every company warns the people not to gossip or talk, especially to press and here is a government which wants to think the nation as a Inc., the PM as CEO and the budget as a P&L A/C, but still doesn’t deem it prudent to warn everyone to keep the mouth shut.  Frankly it is both amazing and frustrating.’  Which indicates that the public is starting to lose its patience with such shenanigans.

To me at least, the tide appears to have turned for the present ruling combine, but they just don’t have enough time before next general elections to weather another ‘2011’.  And the next ‘2011’ might well be the creation of air heads shooting their mouths off.

My Praying half purrs, ‘You know there is only one who looks cute with the foot in his mouth - and even he sucks only the big toe’.



kararavindena padaravindam
mukharavinde viniveshayantam
vatasya patrasya pute shayanam
balam mukundam manasa smarami

I pray to Bala-Mukunda,
the One who lies on a Banyan leaf,
placing his lotus like foot in his lotus like mouth,
with his lotus like hand.

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Boeing in the Sky

This Sunday evening turned out to be a real slow, no show.  Nothing much interesting on the TV, especially after the excitement of India winning against Australia in the Cricket ODI at Adelaide. Thus I ended up at Flightaware and was whiling away the time, when I chanced on this.

Two days back, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Boeing’s airfield - the Boeing Field International, flew on for more than 19 hours testing the new General Electric GEnx-1B engines.  There is nothing new in that as that this particular 787 Dreamliner has already flown for ~30 hours in flight tests with same engines.

What was special was that this time, the 787 Dreamliner flew in a pattern which wrote a giant 787 and the Boeing Logo across the airspace of mid-Western United States.

Cute, isn't it?  Here is a snapshot of the flight track record from Flightaware: (link here [http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE236/history/20120209/2100Z/KBFI/KBFI])



image updated:  13 Feb

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New Albert Einsteins are made here

The morning paper brought with it a flyer; one of those flyers slipped into the newspaper for a few hundred Rupees by the local newsagent.  I think it is one of the brilliant marketing technique ever invented. 
For a few hundred (thousand?) Rupees, one gets the opportunity to advertise his product or service in his (local) service area, which is his target audience.  Don’t get me wrong.  Chennai has its own neighbourhood weekly newspaper/magazines, in fact, dozens of them, talking about events and happenings in and around a particular neighbourhood (or even suburbs). 

Inserting a flyer for a few hundred Rupees in the Saturday or Sunday daily is almost the same as advertising in those neighbourhood weeklies, which are free (Oops!  should it be termed as ‘without cost’?) and delivered to every home in the area.

But the flyers have an advantage.  A quick check on the rates charged by neighbourhood weeklies reveal it is approximately Rs. 250 to 400 in Classifieds, Rs. 400 to 800 in inner pages, Rs. 600 to 1000 in front or back pages and ear panels from Rs. 1500 for Black and White 4 x 3 cm standard ads.  For colour it is anywhere between 25% to 50% extra, as per the weekly.  These weeklies claim a distribution of around 30,000 to 40,000 per week.  A Quarter page colour ad in these weeklies would cost around Rs, 8,000 to Rs. 10,000.

In comparison, 5000 copies of Quarter page single colour, two sided flyer can be printed for less than Rs. 2000 and for another Rs. 1000 can be inserted into the newspapers and reach the homes.  Thus the flyer business is thriving and every home in Chennai is inundated with half a dozen every weekend.  I love flyers, if they are printed only on one side - clipped together, the blank sides serve as excellent scrap pads.  Truth be told, my mom loves them too - her monthly provision list is jotted down invariably on such flyers.
:-D

Thus it was this flyer extolling the virtues of a ‘coaching’ centre for students from class 8th to class 12th landed in my hands today.  Thankfully it offered to coach students only in Mathematics and Sciences and not in English.  I am not sure any parent would willingly send his/her ward to be coached in English there - based what is and how it is written on the flyer.



I am not quite sure whether ‘focus fundamentals’, ‘reinforce learning’, ‘exam facing’, and ‘making to solve’ are new concepts in teaching or just the marketing buzz words in vogue this year.

But I am positive that ‘Teaching Faculty’ and ‘Monthly Once meetings’ are superfluous.
:-P

Another thing I am quite sure about is that the parents would choose this (or any other) coaching centre for their ‘wards’ career, not for ‘your child career’.  I mean I’ve heard of second career, part-time job and moonlighting, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a ‘child career’.
:-s

Whatever, I’d think twice before sending my ward to a coaching centre which promises ‘daily oral practice’
/ROFLMAO/

Anyway these are errors of grammar, which are quite common in India.  As we all know, Indian English has its own idiosyncrasies (cousin-sister, et. al.) and way of speech (You are going home no;  meaning ‘Are you going home?’) etc., which sound alien to others.  Matter of fact, I’ve cousins who would berate me for this post, as they would find nothing wrong with the flyer.

Not that I am innocent of assaults on the English language.  Some times when I read back my (some of my) posts, I find it difficult to believe that I actually wrote them - with such glaring grammatical bloopers.
BTP, even if we can understand the above grammatical errors, it is galling to see the way ‘Academy’ is spelled in there.  At first I thought that it was gimmick to call attention and make the people actually read the flyer.  For it was that ‘Acadmy’ without an ‘e’ which piqued my interest to read on through.

My next thought was that the coaching centre *is* named in actual as ‘Acadmy’ without an ‘e’, for branding purposes.  A quick call to a friend nearby to the centre revealed it is not so.

Next the email id drew my attention which shows the correct spelling ‘Ex…….academy@gmail.com’ as does the nice emblem on top right, which also displays ‘academy’ with an ‘e’.

So it is neither a marketing gimmick, nor a branding idea, but a stupid, careless, failure to check the spelling.  Seen in that light, the grammatical errors have to be accorded their own weight and we no other course but to conclude and hope that whoever their ‘teaching faculties’ are, they are better in Sciences and Mathematics than they are in English.

As for churning out Einsteins, well, do I dare say anything?



My Abashed half admonishes, ‘After running them down so much, let me say something nice.  The emblem is cute, especially the part which shows a DNA strand, a plant and a molecule.  Not so bad in its display of a spanner, a stethoscope and a monitor - which displays the famous ‘E=mc2’, which is where Einstein came into the picture.’

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General Singh, One record to rule them all

update:  Just as predicted the Opposition  is blaming the present ruling party and rumours abound ‘suggesting’  that the Chief resign. (13 Feb 2011)

I am only a student of Military Studies with a Masters Degree and have not and never will have the opportunity to serve the country as part of the Armed Forces.  I am just a poor blogger trying to apply what I’ve been taught and learned to the present and try and foresee future courses of action, which will be the best for the common good.

Thus I can pat my back on my prescient post  on the plight and outcome of the Date of Birth controversy of the present Chief of Indian Army, General V.K. Singh.  In the same vein is how the General can turn this ‘setback’ into a ‘victorious legacy’.

Now there are multitudes, even on TV, ‘Military Analysts’ and former Generals and what not, blathering that now, when the Supreme Court has dismissed the petition of the Army Chief, he has a limited course of action.  The pathetic suggestions range from outright questioning on the application of mind my the Supreme Court on the submitted documents (by a former General) to suggesting that he resign as the Army Chief (by a military analyst) on Times Now TV today evening.

As a student of Military studies, my question is, ‘Does a fighting man who commands people in battle facing a setback, run away, or submit to the enemy commander that his attack wasn’t as per manual, or resign his commission, just because his tactics has been found faulty?’

‘Or does the *leader* learn from his mistakes and makes sure that he doesn’t do it again or his subordinates aren’t subject to such a situation again?’

‘Isn’t it a duty of a leader of men, especially Army commanders, to make sure that such mistakes never happen again?’

If that is so, let us just take a look at what led to this fiasco.  The controversy is the sole result, make no mistake, sole result of the Army not reconciling the discrepancy in records w.r.t. the date of birth of the Army Chief, over the last 5 decades.  The civilian GoI, either past or present aren’t at fault for proceeding with the facts in front of it.

Which leads us to the crux of the problem.  The Indian Army (and its sister forces of the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force and the Indian Coast Guard by extension) are plagued with the problem of Un-Unified Records.

That should be what General V.K. Singh should address to set right now, it should be his legacy.  He is still the undisputed leader of the Indian Army till May 2012.  As Army Chief, General V.K. Singh has enormous resources at his command and I think he should on Monday, if not immediately, accept what destiny has set out for him.

He should constitute a task force to suggest and adopt procedures to overhaul the records of the Army (and other Armed Forces by extension) so that such a lacunae is never faced by his successors, ever.

I admit the time is short - about 90 110 days.  But as stated above, he has vast resources and the country already has a ‘pilot’ project underway by way of UIDAI/Aadhar cards database, by way of example.  With that as a starting point, how difficult would it be for the task force to suggest procedures in place to regularise the records and ensure ‘Enough-No-Data-Discrepancy’ (ENDDIS Plan), say in 60 days?

In the present circumstances, even the GoI would not be able disregard such an ENDDIS Plan.

Will you do that General Singh?  Remember that successful commanders and Generals aren’t there by turning tail, but by turning setbacks into opportunities (to victory) - more important, ensure that his juniors never have to face the same situation or setback again.



Instead if you do adopt an ENDDIS plan General, (instead of going into a shell or God forbid, resign in pique), you would earn the eternal gratitude of the Nation and my Salute!

Jai Hind!

My Begging half pleads, ‘Please do this General, as it will ensure your name in the History of Indian Army!’

My Greedy half grunts, ‘And if you do do it, after reading this post by chance, please mention it in the passing, as I would personally be grateful for all the attention and traffic.’
:-D

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On the rocks or not - Cannot make up the mind

If anyone else - a politician, a businessman, a student, a medical practitioner, an accountant, a software engineer, other scientists or even a hausfrau - keeps changing their mind so often, they would be be laughed out of a job at the best or booked into a mental asylum at the worst.

In the heartland of India, Uttar Pradesh (fortunately not my home state), even senior bureaucrats can be labelled as lunatic  and thrown into an asylum for threatening to expose alleged corruption.

Not very far lie the majestic Himalayas, the largest and the highest mountain range in the world.  In fact, Himalayan foothills form the northern border of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India and the home of the Central-Gangetic Plain, the food-bowl of India.

One of the scares which keep cropping up every few years is that the Himalayan Ice is melting too rapidly and probably completely melt off disappear by 2035.

About two years back, in January 2010, the UN’s IPCC backtracked and stated that the Himalayan Glaciers are not melting at a fast rate as previously claimed by it, in a Nobel winning research paper to boot.
:-P

Just about two months back, in December 2011, the same IPCC headed by the same Dr. Pachauri, turned around to claim that the  same Himalayan Glaciers are melting fast.
8-O

Yesterday, a new research paper was released which shows there has been no loss  of Himalayan Ice over the last 7 years [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/08/glaciers-mountains].
%-)

The new observation is from the pair of NASA’s GRACE satellites which fly around Earth about 16 times a day, measuring minute gravitational changes and thus mapping the distribution and flow of mass over earth’s surface.

What the measurements show is that the total amount of ice on the Himalayas is the same;  Ice melting off from the borders of the glaciers are being compensated by new ice formation on the top.

So what does that mean?  That the IPCC is lying and exaggerating or at best relying on half truths and fanciful thinking, to feather their own nests?  Climate sceptics well say that and try to use this latest finding to try and reinforce their argument that there is no Nett loss of Ice cover and hence the whole global warming theory is a bogey.  After all, Glaciers do melt;  And if their melting down below is being compensated with fresh ice on top, what is the big deal?

But does that mean this whole climate change theory is nonsense?  No not at all.  It only proves that mother nature and planet earth are still trying to protect us and working their utmost to prevent a runaway global warming.  To put it the other way, we still have not managed to disrupt the system so badly that it cannot be set right.

Because, you see, if there is excessive run off from the glaciers, no matter it is replenished at the top, the excessive flow will erode the top soil from the mountains, hills and even the plains - as it did in Pakistan Flood  last year.

Incidentally, Pakistan is a part of the geographic feature called the Indo-Gangetic Plains which are *the* (southern)drainage area of the Himalayan Glaciers.

And the same GRACE satellites have corroborated other satellite telemetry (from 1990) that sea levels  have been rising  at an average of 3mm per year or 1 inch in a decade [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-262].  The point to note here is that rise in sea level may or may not be due to melt off/run off from glaciers and the polar regions.

It might only be because the same amount of water in the World’s oceans is expanding.  Expanding because it is getting warmer.  Which brings us back to the original point - that there is global warming, which is man made and unless we act now, we might end up with a runaway climate change.

Even if you are not worried about skiing in the Alps, you should worry whether the ice will last - at least in there …


(image courtesy studio2f.com)

My Nasty half natters, ‘Say, maddie, now that the Queen strips people of knighthood, will the Nobel committee move to disgrace dubious research?’

update:  3 days after this post (on 13th Feb.), the UN Environment Programme reported fears of Increase in Global Warming due to soil erosion - seems soil holds 3 times the carbon presently held in atmosphere.  News via Scientific American here (The link disappeared in Oct 2012).
;-)

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