Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security !!!!???!!!
I am not sure how I found this article now, but nevertheless this is an interesting piece of article from NY Times . It almost seems that in US, every thing gets only in the name of National Security! I Am not sure who coined the very phrase of “Nation Security” but I do remember vividly that George Bush carried along this phrase of “National Security” as a Olympic torch after the 9/11 attacks and pretty much got away with anything and everything.
I remember one guy saying in one of the interviews that Bush should remember that he is a President and not a king!
It is interesting to see how the legacy of Bush is carrying on and still reigns as the trump card of policy decisions!!
we can only hope for better times with Obama, now that he has gained some stature within the White House and Congress after Bin Laden’s Death!
Forecasting Economy..hmm..er..what the heck is that?
The big economic news a few weeks ago was that Dubai was in big economic soup and that it has a debt of over $80 Billion or roughly 3 times the debt declared by AIG in US in 2008. And then I see some really top notch economist, from peppy news papers like the WSJ, Reuters, Business Week and more.. spelling out predictions and forecasting how this mega news is going to affect the stock market and how Dubai will have to deal with this mess, and then on to if Dubai is good place to invest or not and what not about Dubai economic futures!! ..
When I read such prediction and economic forecast, I get amused, irritated and then finally annoyed.. that why can’t these folks just stop this gibberish!!?
I distinctly remember reading, a couple of years ago, in this same news journals and website their lavish praises and admiration for Dubai’s Free Economy and how they have built almost a dream country with flushing richness and hi-tech sophistication that it almost serves as an example to the wealthy and developed nations. The economist gave a “two thumbs up” to the economic policies and free economy that Dubai has adopted, and served as pioneer and role model for the neighboring Arab countries. Dubai’s Palm Islands , The to-be tallest tower in the world Burj Towers and Dubai’s underwater restaurant were highly buzzed all over the internet and news media and cited as the next-generation architectures. Apparently, all these were not too long ago, but barely few years ago in 2007!
And then the great economic depression of 2008 came by, I came across a few magazines which although pointed to some scrapes off the golden plate, were still bullish about Dubai.
One clear night the government releases an official report of Dubai’s dept and dismal financial figures in stark contrast to the flushing economy so hyped by the media. All of a sudden, the same financial news behemoths start on elaborate column on how the whole economy was mis-handled, was all castles built up in the air with no strong base and so on. Go on to “predict” n “forecast” Dubai’s economy in the future and how it will affect the world economy!
A basic control system, such as air conditioner (AC) in our homes, are called “reactive” systems as they react to inputs – blows hot air or cold air after comparing the current room temperature to the preset desired room temperature. Advanced control systems employed in Air traffic and Flight route determination are more of “predictive” systems as they have to be very accurate in predicting the wind patterns “well in advance” to be able to determine the air borne flight routes. Just imagine if the flight route predicting systems became reactive and gave warnings like “OMG – you are in the middle of tornado. Please do not take this route” – “Yea Right! I know that already – i am stuck in the middle of the storm – Thank You.”
The economic forecasts are more like it.. becoming more n more use less and irrelevant! I wonder how and from where do these journalist and analyst get their source data from. From the reactive response pattern it doesn’t seem like they do have some inside information nor their analysis are based on sound, substantiative justifications.
In the days of Royal Kingdoms rules, the king throws out a bag gold coins to his royal poet and order him to concoct a beautiful, lavish song in praise of his “own” royal highness – spill over traditions apparently still being continued?
I sincerely wish these Yale and Harvard grads and peppy economic analysts stick to their basics – Evaluate, Report and maybe even go as far as Analyzing – but stay away from Forecasts!
strategy
I like Strategies…
I am open to hearing strategies for facing the bull by its horns!
-mayavi
Singh is King! Singh is King! Jai Ho!
It was a clinical sweep by the congress party to retain power for the next 5years. Great times are ahead for India and we have one of the very eligible person Dr.Manmohan Singh up there to place India in the right direction. This election was very important in many ways and I am happy that it reflected the very foundations of India. The congress had a very simple and clear agenda throughout the campaign. which paid huge dividends in the end with clear majority of 206 seats all over India. Manmohan Singh’s and Sonia Gandhi’s agenda were crystal clear – Build a truely Secular Nation and a nation for every Indian, specially the poor. In my opinion, these two ideologies form the core foundations of India – Incredible India – that it is. I have no doubt that these are the only two idealogies that can heal the world – make world a much peaceful and prosperous place to live in.
This was in stark contrast to the BJP party which, in the first place came into existence only because of the hindutva fanatism, did not have any clear agenda and was riding on the age old hindutva ideology – and best of all – pledged to rebuild the temple in Ayodhya – which I think was the last straw that saw BJP nowhere in charts. Varun Gandhi’s hate speach consumated at best as nails of its own coffin.
In the great dance of Indian democracy where every Bama, Vijaya and every Babloo, Shabloo aspired for the thrown – the great Indian Janta gave a toss to these unscruplous and voted, I think, the most genuine, uncorrupted, and patriotic Singh for the thrown. “Makkal theerpe Mahesan Theerpu!”
Congress, made it a specific point to loop in as many youngsters as possible and guess what – about 20% of the MPs elected for Lok Sabha are less that 40yrs !! and the youngest is just 26yrs – 1year more the eligibility criteria of 25yrs!!
All throughtout the election Manmohan Singh never made any personal attack on anybody – inspite of Advani berating him as weakest of all PM. Manmohan was crystal clear in his message to the people.
Manmohan Singh becomes the only prime minister, other than legendry Nehru, to be re-elected for the second time as Prime Minister.
Creative .. cool…India Tv Ads
After living for 6 years in US and seeing their mundane TV ads, I was in pleasant surprise and happy to get back to my very own India tv ads. I have always enjoyed creative, cool ads from anywhere.. and I have also felt that the Indian tv ads very much more creative than the western ads but I just realized the enormous gap only in the past 2yrs that I have been India now..
Just checkout out some of my fav ads.
Fevicol Ad:
Minto Fresh:
I’ll try to add more.. but meanwhile you can see some of these ad in below links as well.
http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/06/14/which-is-the-most-creative-televsion-advertisement-in-india-till-date/
http://trak.in/tags/business/2007/09/28/top-best-creative-indian-tv-ads/
a nice simple widget – ShareThis
I started using this nice little widget for my doktorsaab.com website recently and I have totally impressed with the cool little widget. The best part is that is a very simple widget does not add too much page weight or increases page latency or anything of that sort. It is simple two lines of java code that I need to embed on the pages where and waala.. I get this nice little “share this” icon.
The widget essentially has links to bookmark the page in any of of 20 odd social bookmarking sites like Digg, delicious, stumble upon, and so on. It pretty cool!!
You don’t have to know the url for each of the bookmarking sites, you don’t have to know how each of these social bookmarking sites bookmark the pages and all those nitty gritty details. Just add this widget and you are done.
The widget also has feature to post directly to your Facebook or myspace pages as well. And another coolest part is the widget also has a separate tab for sending emails!! simple app..but highly used and highly useful.
Just try it and see…
Shoes Thrown at President Bush
Iraqi_scribe_throws_shoes_at_Bush
For all the tall claims of the Bush administration, or rather dictatorship, on “spreading democracy” in Iraq and freedom of speech – here you go – you have achieved your objective – an Iraqi journalist has earned the right to vent his anguish, frustration and hatred – And throw slippers at you to show his utter scorn for the ruthless acts of the USA in Iraq.
and as expected I could not see this news clipping in any of the US based news sites such as AP, NYT or etc..
P.S – The act of throwing shoes is considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture
How To Beat The Bad Indian Politicians – The Democratic Way
After the horrific Mumbai Terror Attacks that killed about 200 innocent people and took the shape of the serious hostage crisis that involved the intervention of Indian elite commando force, I have been getting many forward emails and one such email caught my attention, although I have got the same email forward earlier as well. The email goes like this..
“Did you know that there is a system in our Constitution, as per the 1969 Act, in Section “49-O” that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey to the presiding election officer that he doesn’t want to vote anyone!
Yes such a feature is available, but obviously our seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called “49-O”.
Why should you go and say “I VOTE FOR NOBODY”… because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received “49-O” votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way of our whole political system… it is seemingly surprising why the Election Commission has not revealed such a feature to the public….
Please spread this news to as many as you know… Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India… show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting… so don’t miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on…
Please forward this mail to as many as possible, so that we, the people of India , can really use this power to save our nation”. Use your voting right for a better INDIA”
and someone actually did some research on this and passed on the official references to this rule as well.
The official documentation from the Election Commission can be found here
A wikipedia link can also be found on just a simple Google search — wikipedia-page
Official documentation of this provision by the constitution of India can also be found here and here
For a long time this email did not get my attention, but after the dastardly Mumbai terrorist attacks the hatred and frustration with the dumb old politicians seems to be maxed out on me that such emails giving even the bleakest of hope to overthrow the old, lame a** politicians seem lucrative, even though many would argue that taking such a stance isn’t ethically and democratically correct. Some might argue that we are not being good citizens by not voting and exercising our “right to vote”, which in turn being un-democratic!
On a different take on this issue.. I think following the “49-0″ law of going to the polling booth and “voting” as “I vote for none” is not per se wasting one right to vote and In My Humble Opinion (IMHO) is neither being a bad citizen nor relinquishing the “right to vote”. I believe, it is an excellent way to bring the politicians to their knees – the democratic way!
The important point to note here is that one must use this provision judiciously, by saying “I vote for nobody” I am not per se running away from my responsibility to the nation but in fact being a better citizen than being forced to elect or select a “least un-worthy” candidate from a bunch of totally un-worthy and scrupulous and worser electoral candidates! The last time I voted I seriously thought – “why am I voting for this person” and the answer was “because this guy, X, is less harmful and less dangerous to the society than Y” – which in In My Humble Opinon (IMHO) is a ridiculous state of affairs.
I am sure that there are other arguments to this as well, — why can’t one of the educated and knowledgeable candidate stand in the election so that this scenario doesn’t’ happen at all. While I agree that these arguments are valid and some of these lines can be discussed and debated – I certainly feel the “49-0″ is an excellent provision in the constitution of India, which puts the onus on the govt itself to remove these unworthy candidates, and empowers the people to chuck the politicians – the democratic way.
While I talk so vehemently in support of the “49-0″ rule – http://voteindia.in/news.php carries the article that – although there is a provision in the constitution to cast “Protest votes” or “I vote none” votes, there is no clause that says there will be a re-count and removal of the electoral candidates.
Nevertheless, as long as we have a suitable mechanism to bring to light the results of the neutral votes to the public, it’s a really good idea and in fact necessary provision to bring in good governance
I hope every citizen of India is aware of this provision and uses this powerful tool judiciously.
JAI HIND ..!! VANDE MATARAM..!!!
Surreal Picture of the Mumbai Terror Attacks – Part 2
More of these pics – http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html
Surreal Pictures of Mumbai Terror Attacks – Part 1
Looks a lot like a bollywood action flick..but this is the face of real action and real drama that unfolded in the mumbai terror attacks on 26th november 2008. A HUGE SALUTE FOR THE BRAVE COMMANDOS and THE POLICE FORCE WHO FAUGHT IN THE FRONT LINE… JAI HIND…
