forsv: potpourri of thoughts

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

Museums Set to Sell Art, and Some Experts Cringe

By CAROL VOGEL
Published: October 26, 2005 in The New Work Times

Undaunted by the tempest over the New York Public Library's sale of a prized painting, arts institutions across the country are cleaning out their closets for auctions starting next week, stirring fresh unease among art historians and curators.

Artworks going on the block include paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and Chagall, and rare photographs by masters like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. In December, the public library is moving ahead with the sale of two portraits of George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart, and 16 other paintings.

Continue reading ...

Headlines from year 2029

source: yahoo message board ticker AAPL

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia formally known as California.

White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crop and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally--scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon).

Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 100 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

85-year, $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.

Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.

Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75%.

Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.

Merely Following a Megatrend

Merely Following a Megatrend

By ZUBIN JELVEH
Published: October 15, 2005 New York Times

Is your job at risk? If it's the type of work that can be done over a wire, then probably yes, says Nandan M. Nilekani, the chief executive of Infosys Technologies.

Infosys is India's second-largest outsourcer. After achieving success in software engineering and back-office service, it has now begun to compete with companies like I.B.M. for more lucrative consulting work. This week, Infosys reported that its second-quarter earnings rose 36 percent. It raised its earnings forecast for the full year on stronger demand and a weaker rupee.

In a recent interview, Mr. Nilekani, a chief executive who makes $60,000 a year at a company worth nearly $20 billion, spoke about Infosys's success and the danger that it and other companies like it pose to American competitors.

Q. Are you worried about the outcry over outsourcing in America?
A. What's happening is pretty fundamental. If you go back to the 1830's, India and China were 50 percent of the world's G.D.P., and then they missed the entire revolution of industry. So if you take a long view of this game, it's just part of the process.

Q. Is there anything you realistically fear from Western policy makers?
A. No. I think politicians have to win elections. But underlying secular trends like technology and demographics - you can't stop these things, they're all megatrends. They're going to happen whether you like it or not. In fact, the guys who are going to win are the ones who say, "It's going to happen anyway; let's figure out how we can take advantage of it."

Q. Why did you branch out from just doing back-office work and add consulting to the mix of services you offer?
A. Our customers want us to be good at sitting down with them, understanding their business challenges, helping them devise a solution and then implementing it. They expect us to go up the chain in terms of relationships and business value. We're not trying to be strategy consultants. We're not sitting there and saying, "Buy this company."

Q. So now you'll be competing with the likes of I.B.M. and Accenture. Do you think you'll change the cost structure of the consulting business?
A. This is a battle of business models. We believe that at the end of the day we have a disruptive business model that is a threat to the existing business model and older companies will have to reconfigure themselves to look more like us if they're going to be globally competitive.

Q. What would that mean, to look more like you?
A. In any software project, we do 30 percent of the work in the U.S. and 70 percent in India. Our competitors do 100 percent of the work in a particular location. We have sort of become masters of delivering high value and high quality at lower cost, and on top of that we're trying to add consulting. Their challenge is to retain their relationships and business knowledge while reconfiguring their internal operations to become as efficient as us.

Q. Do you think you will be able to accelerate your consulting services as fast as companies like I.B.M. ramp up their operations in places like India to lower their costs?
A. I think the challenge is fundamentally different. For us it's about hiring and growth and building a brand; for them it's about restructuring the work force and I think, frankly, I wouldn't want to do that job because it's very painful, whereas this is exciting.

Q. What do you say to people who think that globalization will inevitably harm the United States work force?
A. Every time Wal-Mart replaces a person at a checkout counter with an automatic machine they're eliminating thousands of jobs. This is one more facet of that, except it's more emotional because instead of a checkout counter machine replacing Steve Smith, some kid in Bangalore is replacing Steve Smith. You can point to that kid and say, "He took my job."

Q. Does it feel odd to find yourself lecturing Americans on the joys of capitalism?
A. You guys told us for so many years to cut out this socialist rubbish and go to free markets. We came to free markets and now you're telling us, "Stop, don't come."

The Blogger and IIPM

(via Atanu Dey's blog)

Here are the facts, very briefly. A magazine called JAM, did a story on a management institute called IIPM. The story said that IIPM makes tall claims. Many Indian newspapers carry full page IIPM ads. A blogger, Gaurav Sabnis, blogged about that and basically called IIPM claims fraudulent. IIPM served a legal notice threatening to sue Gaurav for a huge sum of money. They also contacted IBM, from whom they buy laptops for their students, to convey to them that they may stop that business relationship. Why? Gaurav works for IBM. So Gaurav resigned from IBM. The word got around and everyone and his brother is now blogging about the story—a rich corporation threatened a blogger and somehow managed to coerce him into quitting his job.

Everything you ever want to know about this affair and more is at Desipundit’s IIPM Blog Wars Redux.

Google 2084

A mail from Vijay Kranti. Dean - IIT Madras

Dear Friends,

Here is a personal experience, as well as a moment of national pride, which I want to share with you. Hope you find it worth the time you put in reading it :

"In the middle of 1965 India-Pakistan war, US govt - then a close friend of Pakistan - threatened India with stopping food-aid (remember "PL-480"?). For a food deficient India this threat was serious and humiliating. So much so that in the middle of war, Prime Minister (Late) Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Ram Leela Grounds in Delhi and appealed to each Indian to observe one-meal-fast every week to answer the American threat. As a school boy, I joined those millions who responded to Shastri ji's call. I continued the fast even when the war was over and India became self sufficient in food. Hurt deep by the national humiliation suffered at the hands of the US govt, I had vowed to stop my weekly fast only when India starts giving aid to USA.

"It took just 40 years. Last week THE day arrived. When Indian ambassador in Washington DC handed over a cheque of US$ 50 million to the US govt, two plane loads of food, medical aid and other relief materials were waiting to fly to the USA. Time to break the fast? With no bad feeling about the USA, and good wishes for the Katrina victims, this humble Indian feels proud of the distance India has covered in 40 years. Let's celebrate a New India!"

- Vijay Kranti. Dean - IIT Madras

Bush

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

Marie La Coste: Somebody's Darling

MARIE LA COSTE
1845 - 1935

After the death of Marie's unnamed fiancée, a captain in the Confederate Army, apparently in 1862, the young French teacher became nurse and visitor at local hospitals for wounded Confederate soldiers. Her poem, which is sung at historical events today, is a distinctive memorial to those soldiers.

SOMEBODY’S DARLING

Into a ward of the white washed walls,
Where the dead and dying lay,
Wounded by bayonets, shells and balls,
Somebody’s darling was borne one day.

Somebody’s darling so young and brave
Wearing yet on his pale sweet face,
Soon to be hid by the dust of the grave,
The lingering light of his boyhood’s grace.

Matted and damp are the curls of gold
Kissing the snow of that fair young brow;
Pale are the lips of delicate mold -
Somebody’s darling is dying now.

Back from the beautiful blue-veined brow
Brushed all the wandering waves of gold;
Cross his hands on his bosom now;
Somebody’s darling is still and cold.

Kiss him once for somebody’s sake,
Murmur a prayer soft and low;
One bright curl from it’s fair mates take;
They were somebody’s pride you know.

Somebody’s hand has rested there;
Was it a mother’s soft and white?
And have the lips of a sister fair
Been baptized in the waves of light?

God knows best! He was somebody’s love,
Somebody’s heart enshrined him there.
Somebody wafted his name above,
Night and morn on the wings of prayer.

Somebody wept when he marched away,
Looking so handsome brave and grand;
Somebody’s kiss on his forehead lay;
Somebody clung to his parting hand.

Somebody’s watching and waiting for him,
Yearning to hold him again to her heart;
And there he lies with his blue eyes dim,
And the smiling child-like lips apart.

Tenderly bury the fair young dead,
Pausing to drop on his grave a tear;
Carve on the wooden slab at his head,
“Somebody’s darling slumbers here.”

Written by Marie La Coste
and subsequently published by
J .C. Schreiner & Son of Augusta, Georgia in 1864

(click here for Gujarati translation by Jhaverchand Meghani)

Psychopaths could be best financial traders?

LONDON (Reuters) - "Wanted: psychopaths to make a killing in the markets."
Such an advert will not be appearing in the world's newspapers any time soon, but it may have a ring of truth after research revealed the best wheeler-dealers could well be "functional psychopaths."

A team of U.S. scientists has found the emotionally impaired are more willing to gamble for high stakes and that people with brain damage may make good financial decisions, the Times newspaper reported Monday.

In a study of investors' behavior 41 people with normal IQs were asked to play a simple investment game. Fifteen of the group had suffered lesions on the areas of the brain that affect emotions.

The result was those with brain damage outperformed those without.

Continue reading.

Well, if you can't even trust a hitman..

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman called in the police after a hitman she paid to kill her lover's wife failed to carry out the job.
The 32-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said Friday.

The woman contacted a private detective through a Web site last November and paid him 1 million yen in cash to murder her love rival, the paper said.

The 40-year-old detective accepted the money and suggested he could carry out the job by chasing the victim on a motorcycle and spraying her with a biological agent in a tunnel.

Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target safe and well, the paper said.

speaks volume

It's one year old article from National Geographic. It speaks volume...

Comparison New Orleans vs. Mumbai (Bombay)

New Orleans vs. Mumbai (Bombay)

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1

population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans...48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and its business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..

oopss...did i get the last fact wrong???

eyesoflaura.org

Laura is a security guard at a large, unnamed facility, and she has some time on her hands. She writes about palindromes, time travel, and her dog Helen. She offers pithy observations on the various people she sees every day, like "The Sexy Lady" and "The Inspector." She records herself walking on tile floors, drinking glasses of water, and reciting the alphabet in a breathy voice. With plenty of pictures and a controllable webcam, she seems to be exploring ideas of surveillance and identity. But just who is Laura? In her first entry, she says that she's waiting for something to happen in her life. Does it? We don't know the answer -- or even if her world is real -- but we're strangely drawn to the view through Laura's eyes.

Britain's true National Dish - Chicken Tikka Masala

Believe it or not, UK has around 8,000 curry houses which employ 70,000 people - more than steel, coal and shipbuilding put together.

Do you know how much British spend on Indian food? Almost 2.5 million pound!!!!!!!!!!!.

Anyway, Chicken Tikka Masala is the most ordered Indian dish in UK. That's why, it has been hailed the British's true National Dish :-)

The popularity of Indian dish led to choose Vindaloo as the unofficial anthem of England's 1998 football World Cup.

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India ranks 4th on global rich list

(by CHIRDEEP BAGGA & SHANKAR RAGHURAMAN, TIMES NEWS NETWORK)

As the G-8 meet in Gleneagles, there’s a question increasingly doing the rounds: what is the relevance of the group? It was supposed to be a group of the world’s largest and most powerful economies. The plain truth is, it no longer is.

Look at it whichever way you will, the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada and Russia are simply not the biggest economies. Nor can anyone today suggest that China can be left out of any list of the most powerful economies.

If economies are ranked by sheer size, China would be second only to the US and India would come in at No. 4, one place behind Japan and ahead of Germany. How? That’s because the sizes of economies are no longer measured by converting their GDP into US dollars at the prevailing exchange rates. Instead, we have what is called the purchasing power parity (PPP) rate that is used by institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to compare GDPs of different countries. What the PPP method does is to recognise that exchange rates do not properly represent what different currencies can buy in their own home economies and hence distort the picture when we are comparing sizes across countries.

Exchange rates are determined essentially only by goods that are traded across borders.

They would not, therefore, take into account the fact that, say, a haircut in New Delhi or Mumbai may cost just Rs 50 while the same haircut in New York may cost around $20.

Now if India’s GDP were converted into dollars using the normal exchange rate, our barber’s contribution to GDP would be just over a dollar for each hair cut he provides while the New York barber would be weighing into the US economy at $20 per cut.

Using the PPP method, now globally acknowledged to be the most appropriate for such comparisons, China, India and Brazil would all be bigger than Russia and Canada, which are G-8 members. In fact, the Chinese economy alone is almost as big as those of Germany, UK, France and Italy put together. India has an economy that would comfortably outsize those of Russia and Canada put together.

You could argue, of course, that size alone is misleading and per capita GDP is a better indicator. If this were to be used as the criterion, it is true that China, India or Brazil would be nowhere in the picture, being ranked 95th, 120th and 67th respectively in terms of per capita income. However, you would then have to explain why Luxembourg and Norway, the countries with the highest per capita incomes, are not a part of the list. Ireland-ranked 4th just behind the US-Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, may also legitimately ask what other European countries ranked below them (that includes everyone in the group) are doing in the G-8.

To return to the size issue, if ten-year average growth rates estimated by the IMF for 1997-2006 are extrapolated over the next few years, India would catch up with Japan in just three years and overtake it in four years, while China would become the world’s biggest economy by 2014, overtaking the US.

Why can't US do if Brazil can?

40% of the automotive sold fuel in brazil is ethanol, and brazil should be totally energy independent in five years. If they can do it, why not the US?

Thus Spake Mathematica...

This might be the only time in your life you get to hear this because the finance industry survives soley on large-scale ignorance, so listen very closely. There is NO housing bubble in the US. NEVER invest in actively managed funds. Financial lamers do better than financial jocks (and almost everyone else). .

Sadly however most of you won't have the mathematical knowledge to differentiate the advice backed by several Nobel laureates and world-renowned academics from the "advice" of any of the thousands of horny little evangelists spruking their financial "theories" for profit or fame.

Thoughts to ponder

OUR CONSTITUTION

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.

TEN COMMANDMENTS

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse? You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery", and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians! It creates a hostile work environment!

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington, and they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.

And last but not least .

George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart .

"Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama bin Laden too, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and haul her Butt off to jail."

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first,she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied.

Mother brought daughter closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. Mother then asked daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, Mother asked daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity -- BOILING WATER -- but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however, after they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" Mother asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?

Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

Suicide hotline only open from 9 to 5

Canadian suicide hotline stops its 24 hour service and adopts a 9-to-5 format. Apparently, people only feel like killing themselves at work.

tasneem khalil: standing for my father - reza kibria

Tasneem Khalil, a friend and journalist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Endorses and advocates Libertarian Socialism and Free/Open Software & Publication. Subjects of interest primarily include Culture, Humanity, Alternative Media, Propaganda and Politics.

Shah AMS Kibria, a Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh and former Finance Minister of the country, was brutally assassinated in a grenade attack on January 27th 2005 in his constituency, the town of Habiganj in Sylhet. Reza Kibria, an internationally acclaimed economist, is a core member of the 'Blue for Peace' movement that is now demanding an end to such political killings in Bangladesh. For more info http://www.sams-kibria.org

[this interview with reza kibria — son of former bangladesh finance minister sams kibria, assassinated in january — was to appear in the debut issue of a weekly newsmagazine. unfortunately, for unstated reasons, all the copies of the magazine (except a few preview copies) were sieged hours before the debut newsstand hit (at this stage, it is not convenient for me to spell out more detail account of the episode).

as i believe this interview contains valuable information and opinion that needs public attention and analysis, i am resorting to an internet distribution. i am inviting concerned readers to freely redistribute this piece (and releasing this under a creative commons license).
— tasneem khalil]

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China's Technology Strategy

San Jose Mercury News compares China and the US

They graduate four times as many engineers as we do.

They lavish generous tax breaks on tech firms.

They support local manufacturers.

They don't respect intellectual property.

They, of course, refers to China. And the gripes from Silicon Valley business leaders capture in stark and accurate terms the key underpinnings of the growing tech rivalry between the United States and China.

None of these things happened by accident. They happened because China has something that the United States lacks and badly needs: a national technology policy.

The country long ago made a strategic decision that technology was paramount to its development and put in place a systematic policy to create a world-class technology sector. It sometimes runs roughshod over trade agreements or international law, which is wrong. But on the whole, the policy is simply smart.

And it's just plain dumb for the United States to think it can compete in the tech race against China and other nations without a technology policy of its own.

In China, the importance of tech is articulated at the highest levels of government. ``Science and technology are the decisive factors in the competition of comprehensive national strength,'' Premier Wen Jiabao said just last month.

When will we wake up in India?

lessons from history

Imagine a Bill Moyers and Kenneth Tomlinson showdown at high noon

Sunday the National Conference on Media Reform featured the first public speech by Bill Moyers since he left PBS. "I always knew Nixon would be back, again and again. I just didn’t know that this time he would ask to be Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

Corporate Statement of the Week

Huh Corp: We Do Stuff.

Big Bird Race

The Big Bird Race supports the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). A global environment treaty, it aims to conserve and manage avian, marine and terrestrial migratory species, as well as their habitats throughout the range of their migration.

The world's toughest endurance race:
- One of the world's longest migrations - 6,000 miles across open water
- Major hurdles to overcome - Taking flight, Bass Straight (first expanse of water), Great Australian Bight (Great White Sharks), the Roaring Forties (hypothermia and storms) the vast expanse of the Southern Ocean (losing their way), before making it to the coastal waters of South Africa and its rich fishing territory.
- The birds have 'trainers' (world leaders in seabird research)
- The birds are from three different 'stables' (islands - Pedra Branca, Albatross Island and Mewstone)
- Each bird has an 'owner' (high-profile supporters of the project)
- Each bird has been mounted up with a 'jockey' (electronic satellite tracking device)
- Spectators will be able to follow the action from the Ladbrokes.com 'Grandstand' and bet on the race, with all profits going to future seabird conservation projects

The Course:
Start: Three islands off the coast of Tasmania
Course: The Southern Ocean between Australia and South Africa.
Finish: Durban (line of longitude passing through Durban) or 05.00 GMT Thursday 4th August 2005, whichever is first.

Zakaria shouts out to his homeboys

(via sepia mutiny)

I haven’t seen Fareed Zakaria do explicit shout-outs that often, unlike Gurinder Chadha:

India is still a poor third-world country, but if you read [Thomas Friedman’s] book you would assume it is on the verge of becoming a global superstar. (Though as an Indian-American, I read Friedman and whisper the old Jewish saying, ”From your lips to God’s ears.”)

- Manish

sayings

There were twenty-five students in Mrs. Jane's class.

Jane, a Southern California elementary school teacher, presented each child with the first half of a proverb and asked them to finish the sentences. It's hard to believe these were actually done by average first graders. Their insights may surprise you. While reading these keep in mind that these are 6-year-olds, because the last one is classic!

Strike while the ............................. bug is close.
It's always darkest before ................ Daylight Saving Time.
Never underestimate the power of ........ termites.
You can lead a horse to water but ......... how?
Don't bite the hand that ................... looks dirty.
No news .................................... impossible.
A miss is as good as a ........................ Mr.
You can't teach an old dog new ........... math.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll ...... stink in the morning.
Love all, trust ................................ me.
The pen is mightier than the ............... pigs.
An idle mind is ...................... the best way to relax.
Where there's smoke there's ................. pollution.
Happy the bride who......................... gets all the presents.
A penny saved is ............................. not much.
Two's company, three's ...................... the Musketeers.
Don't put off till tomorrow what ............ you put on to go to bed.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ........you have to blow your nose.
There are none so blind as .................... Stevie Wonder.
Children should be seen and not ............ spanked.
If at first you don't succeed ............... get new batteries.
You get out of something only what you .. see on the box.
When the blind lead the blind ................ get out of the way.

And the WINNER!

Better late than ............................... pregnant!

Elephants do impressions

They say that elephants never forget. Now the creatures have shown that, when it comes to the fine art of vocal mimicry, they're not averse to learning new tricks either.

Researchers have recorded two African elephants (Loxodonta africana) that are adept mimics. One does a decent impression of an Asian elephant, and another is, remarkably, a dead ringer for a passing truck. The skilful impressions are far from the traditional grunts of an average African elephant.

The discovery adds elephants to a notably short roll call of animal mimics, which includes little more than humans, sea mammals, bats and birds. "The surprising thing is how few mammals show an ability to modulate their sounds," says Peter Tyack of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who led the study.

Copycat time

The two elephants in question are Mlaika, an adolescent female living in a semi-captive group in Kenya, and Calimero, an adult male who lived for 18 years with two Asian elephants at a Swiss zoo. Calimero, perhaps unsurprisingly, mimics the typical chirp noises of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). "But Mlaika seemed to be making noises like a truck, of all things," Tyack recalls.

Click here to hear a recording of Mlaika's truck-like calls.

Continue reading...

It's how to change the mood if someone is mean.

Can you never think of the right thing to say? Trouble relating in social circumstances? Maybe Taxi1010 can help. This guide to verbal self-defense is extensive, detailed, and quite clearly the work of a troubled mind. Start here, or search by insult on the "sunporch", key/codeword in the "kitchen", bridge in the "wine cellar", or response in the "nursery." Examine one of the many, many stargates(use this handy map, organized by stage of psychological development)... read one of the many, many essays... wherever you go it is an explosion of advice, comebacks, hypothetical situations, and who knows how many MSPaint masterpieces. Spend a minute, spend a day, spend your life trying to figure this site out.

Anita Jain: Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist?

Read the MOST POPULAR article from NewYorkmetro.com

(posted here with Author's permission)

Recently, i was cc’d on an e-mail addressed to my father. It read, “We liked the girl’s profile. The boy is in good state job in Mississippi and cannot come to New York. The girl must relocate to Mississippi.” The message was signed by Mr. Ramesh Gupta, “the boy’s father.”

That wasn’t as bad as the time I logged on to my computer at home in Fort Greene and got a message that asked, forgoing any preamble, what the date, time, and location of my birth were. Presumably sent to determine how astrologically harmonious a match with a Hindu suitor I’d be, the e-mail was dismayingly abrupt. But I did take heart in the fact that it was addressed only to me.

I’ve been fielding such messages—or, rather, my father has—more and more these days, having crossed the unmarriageable threshold for an Indian woman, 30, two years ago. My parents, in a very earnest bid to secure my eternal happiness, have been trying to marry me off to, well, just about anyone lately. In my childhood home near Sacramento, my father is up at night on arranged-marriage Websites. And the result—strange e-mails from boys’ fathers and stranger dates with those boys themselves—has become so much a part of my dating life that I’ve lost sight of how bizarre it once seemed.

Continue reading ...
Anita Jain is currently Technology and telecommunications reporter for Crain's New York Business

another one for all my Indian friends

Software Ke Phool

Guru Dutt is reborn and sets up a Software firm. He makes a film, called 'Software ke phool'. Sahir Sahab likewise revises his old song for the new venture.

It goes like:

yeh document, yeh meetings, yeh features ki duniya,
yeh insaan ke dushman, cursors ki duniya
yeh deadlines ke bhooke, management ki duniya;
yeh Product agar ban bhi jaaye to kya hai?

yahaan ek khilona hai programmer ki hasti
yeh basti hai murda bug-fixers ki basti
yahaan par to raises hai, inflation se sasti
yeh Review agar ho bhi jaaye to kya hai?

har ek keyboard ghayal, har ek login pyaasi
excel mein uljhan, winword mein udaasi,
yeh office hai ya aalame microsoft ki
yeh Release agar ho bhi jaaye to kya hai?

jalaa do ise, phoonk daalo yeh monitor mere saamne se
hataa daalo yeh modem tumhaara hai tumhi sambhaalo
yeh computer yeh Product agar chal bhi jaaye to kya hai?

Protect Yourself from Tom DeLay With a Living Will

There are many lessons to learn from the unprecedented intervention by Congress (as led by Rep. Tom DeLay) into the tragic situation of Terri Schiavo.

The first is that the current Congress will intervene in the most private of family matters if it sees political advantage in doing so.

As a result, the only way to ensure that your own views are respected in similar settings is to have an advanced healthcare directive or living will. Working Assets does not provide legal advice. However, many have found helpful the information on these subjects provided by The American Bar Association. and the Living Will Registry

The second lesson is that there is no limit to the sheer audacity and hypocrisy of Rep. DeLay and his followers in this unprecedented intervention, only days after voting to slash billions of dollars from the health program which provides for millions of Americans and which itself saves thousands of lives.

We urge you to demand that your representative save lives by restoring cuts to the critical Medicaid program.

Click here to take action!

**Please forward this to your friends and help spread the word about this important campaign!

Thank you for working to build a better world,

Jennifer Willis
Director
ActForChange.com

Fairfax county school text books

Petition open to Fairfax County Residents Fairfax County is in the process of selecting social studies textbooks for 5th, 9th, and 10th grades. These textbooks cover world history and culture. India and Hinduism are part of the curriculum in 5th, 9th, and 10th grades.

As you all know that the textbooks give a very negative picture of India and Hinduism. In the textbooks, Hinduism starts with caste system and end with sautee. In between somewhere buried is child marriage. The treatment of Hinduism and India emphasizes clichés, and the textbooks focus on material that is not important or illuminating. The treatment of Hinduism is oversimplified and often lacks context. Hinduism is examined from a cultural and anthropological perspective, often emphasizing the exotic, while other religions are examined from the perspective of followers. The books do not adequately present the fundamental belief systems of the religion or explore the core values of the culture.

This is an effort to get the School Board change the textbooks and adopt only those textbooks which give a balanced portrayal. The final selection of the textbooks will be made on March 31st. Please sign the petition to make your voice heard.

Go to the URL (http://www.indiapetitions.com/) and clicked on our subject "Corrections facts about Hinduism and India in Fairfax county, VA school text books" (http://www.indiapetitions.com/pms/showpetition.php?p_am=141&)

India wins landmark patent battle

India has won a 10-year-long battle at the European Patent Office (EPO) against a patent granted on an anti-fungal product, derived from neem.

EPO initially granted the patent to the US Department of Agriculture and multinational WR Grace in 1995.

But the Indian government successfully argued that the medicinal neem tree is part of traditional Indian knowledge.

The winning challenge comes after years of campaigning and legal efforts against so-called "bio-piracy".

Continue reading ...

Internet satire takes on mighty drug industry

Taking a page from the Internet bloggers' playbook, public policy advocates at Consumers Union this week are releasing an animated satire of the drug industry -- "The Drugs I Need" -- to get Americans' attention about the need for safer, more effective and affordable prescription drugs.

The satirical song is being released through the Internet and radio stations as the United States Senate holds hearings on the safety of prescription drugs.

The animated song, created by Texas bluegrass band the Austin Lounge Lizards, is a humorous take on drug companies' billion-dollar marketing budgets, the sometimes serious side effects associated with blockbuster drugs, and the high costs that Americans pay. Among the lyrics:

You've got a headache, I've got some strange disease
Don't worry about it, this pill will set your mind at ease
It's called Progenitorivox, it's made by SquabbMerlCo.
It's a life-enhancing miracle, but there are some things you should know...

It may cause agitation, palpitations, excessive salivation,
Constipation, male lactation, rust-colored urination
Hallucinations, bad vibrations, mild electric shock sensations.
But it's worth it for the drugs I need.

"Sometimes humor is the best way to focus attention on a serious problem," said said Rob Schneider, director of Consumers Union's www.PrescriptionforChange.org campaign. "The Internet is now the place where Americans can go to directly take action on issues that affect their lives. We know consumers can take on the powerful pharmaceutical industry and change the marketplace if they join together."

Click to listen:
Windows Computers:
Most Windows computers have Windows Media Player software to view the video. If that doesn't work, try one of the other players.
Select your Internet Speed to Watch the Video:
Windows Media Player: Modem or High-Speed Internet
QuickTime Player: Modem or High-Speed Internet
RealPlayer: Modem or High-Speed Internet

Apple Computers:Most Apple computers have Quicktime software to view the video. If that doesn't work, try the other player.
Select your Internet Speed to Watch the Video:
QuickTime Player: Modem or High-Speed Internet
RealPlayer: Modem or High-Speed Internet

Otherwise - by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed on two strong legs.
It might have been otherwise.
I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love.
At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks.
It might have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day.
But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.

From Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon. She has written 25 books

India special: The next knowledge superpower

Was there ever a doubt!

- India special: The next knowledge superpower
In just a few years, more than 100 IT and science-based firms have located R&D labs in India. Big changes are making the country a centre of innovation.

- India special: Space programme presses ahead
While detractors say India cannot afford a space programme, Indira Gandhi believed it was vital for India's development - the Moon is on the agenda.

- India special: The silicon subcontinent
Some of the biggest names in IT are heading towards Bangalore once more, but now it's the brightest minds they seek - not cheap labour

- India special: Millions get mobiles
The country is becoming connected as never before, and the consequences could be dramatic

- India special: Making science pay
R A Mashelkar is running a one-man campaign to create an enterprise culture in India: to bring science and industry together to benefit the country.

- India special: Vaccines for pennies
An Indian husband and wife team risked everything to build a facility producing the hepatitis B vaccine for just 28 cents per shot

- India special: Radio telescope offers dishes to savour
Why astronomers are flocking to India's wine country.

- India special: Closing the door on generic drugs
Recent changes in India's unusual patent laws mean the country's recently booming drugs industry is risking everything to stay afloat.

- India special: The returning scientist
Physicist Shobo Bhattacharya spent decades in leading US labs before returning to India to direct the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

- India special: The IT pioneer
In 1981, Nandan Nilekani was one of seven engineers who scraped together $250 to start a software company in India - annual sales now exceed $1 billion

- India special: Welcome to the global village
The internet has arrived in Pinjavakkam - a village with only 500 residents, intermittent electricity and five telephone lines.

- The mystery of disappearing gravity
Gravity is a force unlike the other fundamental forces of the universe - and it might be leaking into other dimensions. Bruce Schechter follows its trail.

- India special: Bold plans for the nuclear future
India's energy needs are set to soar over the coming decades and the nuclear option is embraced as the key to meeting the demand.

- India special: Sight for sore eyes
An Indian charity hospital is pioneering an innovative stem-cell-based cure for blindness - its success rate is impressive.

Monkeys pay per view

In a study titled "Monkeys Pay Per View," neuroscientists at Duke University discovered that rhesus monkeys will give up a portion of hard-earned perks for a peek at pictures of the dominant leaders and nubile females in their troop. But they won't pony up to look at faces of subordinate simians.

"People are willing to pay money to look at pictures of high-ranking human primates. When you fork out $3" for a celebrity magazine, [said one researcher], "you're doing exactly what the monkeys are doing."

Epica 2004 Awards

It contains 109 commercials from 18 countries, including the popular 'Gandhi' spot for Telecom Italia.

Einstein, the brainy bird

Einstein proves why she's a bird brain. Watch her winning moment.

Don't go job hunting in Germany

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

Continue reading ...

wackiest warnings!

Here are the winnners of the M-LAW competition for wackiest warning label of the year:

1st prize
Do not use for personal hygiene – on a toilet brush

2nd prize
This product moves when used – from a child’s scooter

Previous winners have included:
* Remove child before folding – on a baby’s buggy
* Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally - on a digital thermometer
* Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating - on an electric hand blender
* Harmful if swallowed – on a three-pronged brass fishing lure.
* Do not use this product as a toy, pillow, or flotation device - on a bag of air used as a packing material
* Do not use as a ladder – on a 30cm tall CD rack
* Never iron clothes while they are being worn - on a household iron
* Do not use the Silence Feature in emergency situations. It will not extinguish a fire - on a smoke detector
* Do not eat toner - on a laser printer cartridge
* And on a pair of cyclist’s shin guards – Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover.

The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

1 Defrauding investors is sooooooo 2002. These days it's all about hosing your customers.
2 Now that's pain relief.
3 What's the problem? We love a guy who stands behind his product.
4 Do as I say, not as I...hey, get a load of those!
5 For more nostalgia, you can always check out your legal bills from the DOJ antitrust lawsuit.
6 The family that colludes together, stays together.
7-9 If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
10 In fairness, though, they did turn away the $300 with Dennis Kucinich.

Continue reading...

Ribbon of the week

India’s growing younger

Aging population and India. According to a story in BusinessWeek, while the rest of the world frets about the economic effects of an aging population, one country that will grow increasingly younger is India. India’s census bureau has pointed out that “40% of the populace is below the age of 18, and by 2015, 55% will be under 20”. The magazine adds that the trend would help fulfill the promise of making India a service and manufacturing power over the next two decades. But, the situation is not gung-ho all along. “The bad news is that India could easily squander its demographic edge. Despite the success of a few world-class schools such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, India’s education system is in a dismal state overall,” it argues. This is part of the cover story of BusinessWeek on Global Aging.

for all my Indian friends

Absolutely wonderful...

Ye degree bhi lelo ye naukri bhi lelo
Bhale cheen lo mujse US ka visa
Magar muzko lauta do college ki canteen
Vo kam chaay ka pani vo theekha samosaa
college ke canteen main hum sab the raja

vo kadi dhoop mein aapne ghar se niklna
vo project ke khatir shahar bhar bhatakna
vo lecture mein doston ki proxy lagaana
vo sir ko chidana, aeroplane udaana
vo submission ki raato ko jagna, jagaana
vo orals ki kahani vo lab-on ka kissa..

vo dusronke assignment ko apnaa bananaa
vo seminar ke din pairo ka chhtpatana
vo workshop mein din raaat pasina bahanaa
vo exam ke din ka baichain maahaul

par vo maa ka vishwas teacher ka bharosaa
college ki vo lambisi raatein
vo dosto se thele pe pyaari si baatein
vo gathering ke dinka ladna jhagadnaa

vo ladkiyon ka yuhin hamesha akadnaa
bhulaye nahi bhul saktahai koi
Jivan ka ek atoot hissa..
vo college ki yadein, vo college ke din...
Koi to lauta de mere college ke din...

Green Diary

When you are exasperated by interruptions, try to remember that their very frequency may indicate the valuableness of your life. Only the people who are full of help and strength are burdened by other people's needs. The interruptions which we chafe at are the credentials of our indispensability. The greatest condemnation that anybody could incur - and it is a danger to guard against - is to be so independent, so unhelpful, that nobody ever interrupts us and we are left comfortably alone.

THE PROMISE (a true story)

'How long will you be poring over that newspaper? Will you come here right away and make your darling daughter eat her food?' I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter Sindu looked frightened. Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the 'cooling effects' of Curd Rice!

I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl. "Sindu, darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear. And, if you don't, your Mom will shout at me' I could sense my wife's scowl behind my back. Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands. 'OK, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this. But, you should...' Sindu hesitated, 'Dad, if I eat this entire Curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'

'Oh sure, darling'.

'Promise?'

'Promise'. I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.

'Ask Mom also to give a similar promise', my daughter insisted. My wife slapped her hand on Sindu's, muttering 'Promise', without any emotion.

Now I became a bit anxious. 'Sindumma, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. OK?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'. Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity.

I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her.

'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand!

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'a girl child having her head shaved off?

Impossible!'.

'Never in our family!' my mother rasped. 'She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!'

'Sindumma, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything else', Sindu said with finality.

'Please, Sindu, why don't you try to understand our feelings?' I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'. Sindu was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for. Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?' It was time for me to call the shots. 'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honor her own. Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big & beautiful On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved.

I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Sinduja, please wait for me!'

What struck me was the hairless head of that boy.

'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought.

'Sir, your daughter Sinduja is