Wednesday, December 20, 2006

History of Religion

Update:(12/22/06 9:37CST)
After re-reading my post, I realized there is nothing like promotion/expansion in Hinduism. I've read that you cannot convert to a Hindu. You are either born a Hindu or not.
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Herez an embedded flash animation taken from mapsofwar about the history of religion. An interesting 90 sec watch. Looking at the map and my own knowledge, I felt Islam and Christianity were well organized and advertized? to gain the popularity across the world, in the recent past. Hinduism does not have missionaries as aggressive as christianity to promote its religion. Not that I am FOR organized religion.

I feel it (organized religion) should not be treated any differently than a political party with an agenda. Religious institutions should not be tax exempt. I believe they would not become such huge institutions atleast in USA if its not for the tax exempt status.

Anyways, its interesting to see that hinduism is the oldest of all religions (atleast from this animation)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Andhra gets green signal to set up IIT

This is wonderful news!
From TOI this:
The central government has sanctioned an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy announced in the state assembly on Tuesday.

Making a statement in the house, he said the union human resource development (HRD) ministry had given a green signal for the premier institute that would come up at Isnapur near Sanga Reddy in Medak district.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Cricket: Sreesanth Swinging His Bat?!

Sreesanth responding to Andrew Nel's (SA) taunting in the previous ball with a SIX and a small dance, with Dhoom title song playing in the background. Fun stuff :)

India Won on SA soil!

India has won a test match on SA soil for the first time ever?

From rediff: India finally registered a Test victory on South African soil on Monday.

I was not following cricket these days. Just lost interest in it, dont know when. This past year I was just watching the scores after the matches were complete. I did not follow this test either. I know the series is going on and India lost the OD series bigtime. But, I felt they were going to do well in test, maybe 'cos I remember some other away tour (WI?) where we lost OD series and won the test series. Anyways, its always good to see our home country win. Doesnt it?

Also, I just did a little math to see who was mainly responsible for the win. So, i summed up the batting and bowling figures of our guys for both innings. Following is our batting line up sorted by runs scored and which is followed by bowling team by wickets taken.

Just by looking at raw data, we can conclude that Laxman and Ganguly!! were the best batsmen, and kumble and sreesanth were best bowlers in this test. Incidentally kumble and sreesanth were the worst performers with the bat. Zaheer took as many wickets as kumble and also scored 46 runs in the test.

So, I would give my 'men of the match' awards to : Sreesanth, Laxman and Zaheer.


R M B 4s 6s
VVS Laxman 101 357 221 17 0
SC Ganguly 76 241 139 8 1
SR Tendulkar 58 156 111 10 0
Z Khan 46 139 103 3 2
Extras 45



VRV Singh 40 38 23 8 0
V Sehwag 37 85 55 6 0
R Dravid 33 167 92 5 0
MS Dhoni 23 58 45 3 0
W Jaffer 13 59 49 3 0
A Kumble 7 36 26 1 0
S Sreesanth 6 17 9 0 1


Bowling O M R W Econ
S Sreesanth 35 11 99 8 3.18 (6nb, 2w)
A Kumble 22 5 56 5 1.85
Z Khan 32.5 8 111 5 3.33
VRV Singh 21.1 4 75 1 3.12 (8nb, 1w)
SC Ganguly 1 0 11 0 11 (2nb)

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Who should you vote for in 2008?

Did an interesting survey of which 08 presidential candidate's views match with mine @ selectsmart.com. The survey has a set of 17 very important questions for american electorate. Most of the questions have 3 choices and each question has the priority you place for that particular issue. I am not sure how accurately it gives the results, but if it does, it MUST be taken by every american before he/she decides to vote for a president in 2008.

Below is the list of the people whose ideas/views match with mine. Dennis Kucinich is THE guy for me. And Barack Obama is third on my list. I can say, I am impressed. All the republicans are way down below.


Percent Rank Item
(100%) 1: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) Information
(97%) 2: Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Information
(97%) 3: Sen. Barack Obama (D) Information
(95%) 4: Sen. Russ Feingold (D) Information
(92%) 5: Sen. John Kerry (D) Information
(84%) 6: Ex-VP Al Gore (D) Information
(83%) 7: Ex-Sen. John Edwards (D) Information
(78%) 8: Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) Information
(78%) 9: Retired Gen. Wesley Clark (D) Information
(78%) 10: Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) Information
(78%) 11: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) Information
(76%) 12: Sen. Joseph Biden (D) Information
(67%) 13: Gov. Mitt Romney (R) Information
(61%) 14: Sen. Evan Bayh (D) Information
(60%) 15: Gov. George Pataki (R) Information
(53%) 16: Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) Information
(50%) 17: Ex-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R) Information
(39%) 18: Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) Information
(38%) 19: Sen. George Allen (R) Information
(35%) 20: Sec. Condoleezza Rice (R) Information
(30%) 21: Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) Information
(29%) 22: Sen. John McCain (R) Information
(27%) 23: Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) Information
(16%) 24: Sen. Sam Brownback (R) Information

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The Dollar Auction Continues

An interesting read about the arms sale of usa to the third world countries.

From the Indian Economy Blog, by Atanu Dey:
It should come as no surprise that the US is selling arms to Pakistan.

“2,769 Radio Frequency TOW 2A missiles, 415 RF bunker buster missiles, fly-to-buy missiles in both these categories, 121 TOW launchers for wire-guided and wireless missiles, E-2C HAWKEYE 2000 Airborne Early Warning Systems, simulators and support equipment. Their total worth could be up to $1.04 Billion.”

According Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, “The latest geo-strategic rationale for many US (arms) sales is the so-called war on terror…. US officials claim that the recent sale to Pakistan of F-16 jets with air-to-air missiles will help in the fight against Al Qaeda. In reality, they are for fighting India and they create a market for selling similar US fighters to India.”

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Net Worth of People in US Government

The following is a list of the Richest People in the US government (executive, legislative). For more info visit opensecrets

Rank

Name

Minimum Net Worth

Maximum Net Worth

1

Herb Kohl (D-Wis)

$219,098,029

$234,549,004

2

Henry M. Paulson

$190,727,085

$392,934,024

3

Jane Harman (D-Calif)

$168,651,649

$289,045,000

4

John Kerry (D-Mass)

$165,741,511

$235,262,100

5

Darrell Issa (R-Calif)

$135,862,098

$677,230,000

6

Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)

$78,150,023

$101,579,003

7

Samuel W. Bodman III

$66,698,060

$117,179,012

8

Donald H. Rumsfeld

$62,090,106

$199,687,011

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Sad story of A heroic Father's Last days!

I have come across James Kim's family's missing story couple of days ago in a blog. I was following it on and off. I heard the other day in the news that his wife and kids were found in a car. And they were searching for James now. I learned he was looking for help and should be close by. I thought its great news and he should be found pretty soon. But yesterday they found his body. It was truly sad. SFGate has the story.

This is the image of terrain where the Kim's family went through this ordeal.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

List of Scandalized Bush administration Officials

From TPMMuckRaker:
A number of readers have sent in tips to help the folks at Powerline, who recently admitted to having trouble remembering administration officials (beyond Scooter Libby) who had been accused of corruption or resigned in the face of scandal.

Friday, December 1, 2006

World Aids Day

Today is world aids day. A good news related to AIDS and India.
From John Cole:
The cost of treating children infected with H.I.V. and AIDS is poised to plummet next year, under a deal announced today between two Indian drugmakers and former President Bill Clinton’s foundation.

Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories agreed to make 19 different anti-retroviral drugs designed for children available at an average price of 16 cents a day, or $60 a year, which is about 45 percent lower than the lowest current price, the Clinton Foundation said in a statement.

IPL Players - Where are they from?