Pierce vs Aamir vs Surya: Ghajini / Memento

Here's the collage I created with the the heroes of Memento and Ghajini.

V. P. Singh R.I.P

Mr. V. P. Singh, 10th Prime Minister of India died Nov 27th, the day after the Mumbai Attacks. He died of Blood Cancer and renal failure.

From NYT:

V. P. Singh, a former prime minister of India who was considered the father of coalition politics there and who stirred controversy by championing the rights of the country’s poorest citizens, died on Thursday in New Delhi. He was 77.

Having broken with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the wake of a scandal, he united the entire spectrum of parties against the Congress Party of Mr. Gandhi under one umbrella and forged the National Front, with additional support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and left-wing parties. The National Front came to power after defeating the Congress Party in the 1989 general elections.

On Dec. 2, 1989, Mr. Singh became the 10th prime minister of India. He gained wide notoriety by moving to carry out the long-forgotten Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal Commission recommendations to reserve a fixed number of all the jobs in the public sector for the historically disadvantaged members of the lower and backward classes.

TATA to sponsor Ferrari!

From BBC:

Tata, the Indian company which produces the world's cheapest car, will sponsor Ferrari from next season.

"For the first time an Indian brand will appear on a Ferrari," Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo said. "It's a historic event.

From Reuters:

Tata and Ferrari's parent company Fiat have a joint venture in the Indian state of Maharashtra to produce cars.

From The Telegraph, Calcutta:

In Mumbai, the Tatas put out a terse statement late in the evening. “Building on our existing long-term relationship of over three years, Tata Consultancy Services has entered into a historic agreement with Ferrari for an enhanced technology and marketing partnership. As part of the deal, the Tata logo will be displayed on Ferrari F1 car for the 2009 Formula One season. We will announce more details shortly,” the Tata spokesperson said.

Typing Speed Test

57 words

Typingtest

Amitabh Bachchan Golfing

Nice pic of Mr.AB golfing with his buddy Madhavan.

Google not good at Building Communities?

That's what Stan Schroeder over at Mashable concludes in this blog post. What do you think?

A snippet:

Is there a lesson that can be learned from these mistakes? Perhaps it’s still too early to tell, but if you add Orkut - Google’s social network which is arguably doing well, but also hasn’t done anything revolutionary lately - to the mix, it becomes fairly obvious that Google is not good at building communities. One more reason to bet on Facebook one day being bigger than Google, if you’re the betting type.

Heidi Klum as Kali

Barack The President of USA Obama

Just heard from NBC that its projecting Barack Obama to be the 44th President of USA.!!! A large majority of the country is going to go to bed very happy, including me :)
Lotta black people crying..on TV.

Best US Presidents in History Ranked by a Historian

Alvin Felzenberg ranks US Presidents by 6 different categories. Check out the table.

Top 15 Political Web Sites by Total Unique Visitors

This chart is from an article in WSJ.

Obama's "Defining Moment" Ad

Pretty neat end of the campaign ad presenting what he is going to do if he is elected president.

Obama's Shoes

Blog/News Aggregators

If you need to keep track of what's the latest buzz about in different blog worlds these are the must view sites every day (multiple times, if you need to know everything like me :)).

• Politics: http://www.memeorandum.com/
• Celebrities: http://www.wesmirch.com/
• Technology: http://www.techmeme.com/
• Baseball: http://www.ballbug.com/

All of them are owned by the same group/person (Gabe Rivera) and most likely have a very similar algorithm.

American Consulate in Hyderabad, India

Atlast the US consulate is opened in Hyderabad. There are so many Andhrites coming to USA this decade and its very inconvenient to go to Chennai or someother place to get the Visas and stuff. So, good on the Bush presidency.

From The Hindu:

The new American Consulate General was opened here on Friday by the U.S. Ambassador David C. Mulford. It will begin processing 100 visa applications a day by the middle of December and scale it up to 300 by January next.

The official website for the consulate is here.

An Extremely Abridged History of the George W. Bush Presidency

I found an excellent article that Carlos Lozada has put together on Washpost. Its a collection of various excrepts about President Bush from interviews and books by Washington insiders, one of which I think is noteworthy. Here is what Richard A. Clarke wrote about what Bush was worried about the day after 9/11, in his book called "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror".

September 12, 2001
Later, on the evening of the 12th, I left the Video Conferencing Center and there, wandering alone around the Situation Room, was the President. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. "Look," he told us, "I know you have a lot to do and all . . . but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way. . ."

I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. "But, Mr. President, al Qaeda did this."

"I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred. . . "

"Absolutely, we will look . . . again." I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive. "But, you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen."

"Look into Iraq, Saddam," the President said testily and left us. --

Nehru with Jackie Kennedy

Found this pic from a BBC 'In Pictures' series. They've found some old pics by photo journalist kulwant roy. This was taken in 1962. I haven't seen nehru without his trademark 'topi'. 

Praja Rajyam

That's the name of the long awaited political party launched by Mr. Chiranjeevi today.

Related links:

1. Mahalo
2. Idlebrain
3. India Today
   

An image of the flag



A video of the party flag hoisting

Women's Singles in Olympics '08

Guess which country got all 3 medals in tennis Women's Singles at this Olympics?

Russia.

Guess how many Russian women are in the top 11 ATP rankings now?

6!!

Amrit Singh

Who is Amrit Singh?

From wiki:

Amrit Singh is a staff attorney at the ACLU. She is the youngest daughter of Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India. ...Singh is married to Barton Beebe, an Associate Professor of Law of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

She is a co author in a book named "Administration of Torture".

Some other links discussing her.

1. The Moderate Voice
2. Her Book
3. A 2004 post from Sepia Mutiny

Her Husband Barton Beebe:

Why India is not winning Olympic Medals

A few articles contemplating and trying to answer that question:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/25/india.olympicgames2008
• http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/08/why-does-india.html
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080813202631AAFWAsJ
• http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12432.pdf
• http://www.gadling.com/2008/08/18/behind-the-olympics-where-are-all-of-indias-medals/

Indian Boxers @ Beijing

From Yahoo:

Indian hopes of a first Olympic boxing medal were high on Saturday, with three fighters reaching the quarterfinals.

The trio, coincidentally all called Kumar, a common name in India, will secure at least bronze if they win their next bouts.

Paris Hilton's response to McCain's Ad

First, the McCain ad insinuating Obama is nothing more than Paris Hilton or Britney Spears:



Then, Paris Hilton responds with this awesome video. She calls him Old guy, White haired guy..WOW. Plain Fun :).

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Eschaton's polling

Eschaton

Poll Patterns

Barring some weird event, we'll basically see John McCain hover at around 43% until the election and Obama moving between 44 and 49.

Raj Bhavsar: Indian American in Olympics

From USA Today:

Gymnast Raj Bhavsar can wake up today and know he is no longer an Olympic alternate.

Finally.

Bhavsar, an alternate on the 2004 Olympic team, was also an alternate on the 2008 team until Monday. He said he was with his coach Kevin Mazeika when he got the call that he would be Paul Hamm's replacement at the Beijing Games.

"The first thing that comes to mind is that dreams can come true," said Bhavsar, 27.

Read more about that and watch a video profile @ Sepia Mutiny.

Also, on the -ve side, Guess who topped the list of 'World's Worst Olympians' by Foreign Policy. Go ahead, give it a shot.

Tirumala Temple Satellite Picture

View Larger Map

THE MYTH OF A TOSS-UP ELECTION, Crystal Ball, U.Va.

THE MYTH OF A TOSS-UP ELECTION, Crystal Ball, U.Va.

Barack Obama is not a national hero like Dwight Eisenhower, and George Bush is no Harry Truman. But if history is any guide, and absent a dramatic change in election fundamentals or an utter collapse of the Obama candidacy, John McCain is likely to suffer the same fate as Adlai Stevenson.

Abramowitz is a professor of political science at Emory University. Mann is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. Sabato is a professor of politics at the University of Virginia and director of its Center for Politics.

Top 10 Records broken by 'The Dark Knight'

From 'The Numbers':

1. The film opened in 4,366 theaters, which is the widest opening ever breaking At World's End's previous record.
2. 3,040 theaters held midnight showings where the film earned $18.49 million, breaking Revenge of the Sith's record.
3. In total on Friday the film made $67.17 million, setting the opening day in history topping Spider-man 3, as well as...
4. Biggest single day, and...
5. Biggest Friday.
6. Tying the record for fastest to $100 million at just two days.
7. On Sunday it made $43.60 million, which was the biggest Sunday ever (also beating Spider-man 3) and...
8. The biggest third day of release.
9. Over the weekend it made $158.41 which is the new record for biggest weekend.
10. While its per theater average of $36,283 was the largest per theater average for any wide release topping Spider-man 3. (However, it lost out to Miley Cyrus for best per theater average for a number one film.)

Top 10 Highest Grossing Bollywood Movies in 2008

Top 10 Highest Grossing Bollywood Movies in 2007

It's time for some Campaigning

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

India's contribution to UN Peacekeeping Forces

India right now is the 3rd largest contributor for the UN peacekeeping operations behind Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Acorn's Nitin Pai and Sushant K Singh argue in Indian Express, that India should reconsider being such a high contributor.

Anit Mukherjee of Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC argues against it in the same paper.

And Nitin's response to Anit.

Thought provoking and Interesting reads for the weekend.

So You Think You Can Dance - Bollywood Edition

From Nirali:

Katee and Joshua performed the first ever Bollywood number on "So You Think You Can Dance" to "Dhoom Taana" from "Om Shanti Om" last night and KILLED it. I absolutely loved this number and the choreographer, Nakul Dev Mahajan, did an amazing job teaching these two the specifics of proper bhangra and classical dance technique.

MSM VS Wesley Clark

What Wes Clark Said on Face the Nation:

Bob Schieffer: I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be President.

MSM's reaction to that:



Just plain WOW!!

12 deaths per day

Thanks to Mumbai's local trains. Read abt that here.

Chronotopic Anamorphosis

Pretty cool video. Watch till the end. You won't regret it.


Chronotopic Anamorphosis from Marginalia Project on Vimeo.

Obama Mania

Shift Happens

Wonderful slideshow! Don't miss.

| View | Upload your own

Will Manmohan Singh Resign?

yossarin at Offstumped seems to think so:

Offstumped predicts Manmohan Singh will resign before the week ends.

Why should he resign?

According to BJP:

The two leaders considered to be the best economists of the country should abdicate their posts immediately as they have miserably failed to check the spiralling prices of the essential commodities

And from the Left:

On Friday, the leftists issued their strongest warning yet to the government, saying they would join hands with their arch rivals, the opposition Hindu nationalists, to bring it down if Singh went ahead with deal.

Is Tim Russert for Iraq War in 2003?

Yes, Per Chris Matthews. And why should we have gone to war? According to Tim Russert, 'cos Iraq might have a nuclear weapon.

In remembering Tim Russert, Chris blurts out about a conversation he had with Tim before the War. According to Chris, Tim said we should go to War with Iraq because they might have a nuclear weapon. Tim was basically sold with what was coming out of the Administration's mouth. And I am sure it showed in what kind of people he invited on his show, which is mostly pro-war.

Gas Prices VS Crude Oil over the last 6 years

Made this chart @ gasbuddy.com for the prices in Atlanta, GA. Check it out:

Make your own graph here

All of YAHOO!'s Services

There is a page that yahoo maintains which lists all of its services. You can check that out here.

Why Hillary Lost to Barack

A little late to post abt this, but its stuck in my drafts for a pretty long time. So, here it is.

In regards to the Democratic primary, I think Obama won rather than Clinton losing. His awesome fund raising machine and his speeches helped and the high negatives of Hillary didn't help her cause either.

That said, here'z what some of the opinionators feel why Hillary lost:

• Mark Penn: Hillary's chief Strategiest
• The Problem Wasn’t the Message — It Was the Money
• Michael Cohen:
• Hillary Clinton's Iraq War Vote.
• Rob Call: executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com,
• She Failed to Share Her Heart's Stories
• M.J. Rosenberg: TPM Blogger
  
• Her Iraq Vote
• Joel Achenbach: staff writer for The Washington Post
• Her attempt to seize all those delegates from Michigan and Florida had to alienate anyone sitting on the fence.
• Atrios: Popular blogger
• Iraq war vote
• Mathew Yglesias:
• The war
• Rick Klein
• Faulty Strategy, Infighting
• Bob Kerrey: a former Democratic senator from Nebraska
• You can't beat Obama
• Bill O'Reilly: Host of the #1 political talk show on Cable.
  
• Authenticity and the War in Iraq
  

Obama's VP: Pundit's choice

Here are few of the pundit's/bloggers choice for Obama's VP:

• Neil Sinhababu: John Edwards
• Matt Stoller: Wes Clark
• Paul Rosenberg: John Edwards
  

How is Tax revenue spent in India?

Amit Varma at India Uncut, keeps track of that here. Following are a few ways they are spent:

• On a bigger statue for Mayawati
• On foreign holidays for our esteemed judges
• On 62 sandstone elephants in Lucknow

Obama's Desi Connection

An AP article shows us the connection. Here's a snippet:

They remember a good student with a sharp mind and unshakable integrity, a young man who already had a passion for the underprivileged. Some described the young Obama’s personality as confident to the point of arrogance, a criticism that would emerge decades later, during the campaign.

Obama had an international circle of friends — “a real eclectic sort of group,” says Vinai Thummalapally, who himself came from Hyderabad, India.

Found this article in a link from a comment posted in a Sepia Mutiny post.

How big is Africa?

A wonderful image showing how big Africa really is..
Simply astonishing. :)

I love Katie Couric

At least she had the guts to say what was happening. Charlie Gibson has such a stupid view of what journalism is .. he'z there to just ask the questions and write down what's told. like a stenographer.

List of Celebrities Personal Blogs

• Aamir Khan
• Rosie O Donnell
• Amitabh Bachchan
• Pamela Anderson
• Alec Baldwin
• Meredith Vieira
• Salman Khan
• Moby
• Mary Kate and Ashlee Olson
• Bill Maher
• David Beckham
• Mark Cuban
• No Doubt
• John Mayer
• William Shatner
• Donald Trump
• Tom Green
• Mariska Hargitay
• Anna Kournikova
• Kanye West
• Kathy Griffin
• John Cusack
• Al Roker
• Brian Williams
• Anderson Cooper
• Deepak Chopra
• Michael Moore

Scott McClellan's awakening

Yesterday Scott (former White House press secretary) was all over the news because of his explosive accusations at his former boss and colleagues in his new book coming out this weekend. Everyone's asking why now? Why didn't he do that when he was part of the administration. Which is the basic question anyone asks an author writing critically about his past employers. He did that too..

Jake Tapper from Political Punch dug up some past quotes by Scottie when he was the press secretary about a book written by Richard Clarke criticizing the administration. Here's the snippet:

McClellan also took issue with the book by former Bush White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," on March 22, 2004:

McCLELLAN: Well, why, all of a sudden, if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner? This is one-and-a-half years after he left the administration. And now, all of a sudden, he's raising these grave concerns that he claims he had. And I think you have to look at some of the facts. One, he is bringing this up in the heat of a presidential campaign. He has written a book and he certainly wants to go out there and promote that book. Certainly let's look at the politics of it. His best buddy is Rand Beers, who is the principal foreign policy advisor to Senator Kerry's campaign. The Kerry campaign went out and immediately put these comments up on their website that Mr. Clarke made. ...

His answer to why he waited?..

“The White House would prefer that I not talk openly about my experiences,”

Why Bush Invaded Iraq

From the mouth of the former White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan:

In Iraq, McClellan added, Bush saw "his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness," something McClellan said Bush has said he believes is only available to wartime presidents.

The president's real motivation for the war, he said, was to transform the Middle East to ensure an enduring peace in the region. But the White House effort to sell the war as necessary due to the stated threat posed by Saddam Hussein was needed because "Bush and his advisers knew that the American people would almost certainly not support a war launched primarily for the ambitions purpose of transforming the Middle East," McClellan wrote.
:
:
"I know the president pretty well. I believe that, if he had been given a crystal ball in which he could have foreseen the costs of war — more than 4,000 American troops killed, 30,000 injured and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis dead — he would never have made the decision to invade, despite what he might say or feel he has to say publicly today," McClellan wrote.

Bobby Jindal as McCain's Veep?

I've heard this before, but it just felt like wishful thinking by some desi's. But, looks like he IS a potential Vice Presidential candidate. Very Interesting.

From IHT by Adam Nagourney:

Of all the names being mentioned as McCain's potential running mate, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, the 36-year-old first-term governor of Louisiana, is not only the youngest and least experienced, but also the only one who is not white. Yet in a year in which Democratic voters have raised few objections to such traditional "obstacles," Jindal may be especially attractive as Republicans seek a way to offset the "post-racial" and youthful appeal of Senator Barack Obama.

Related: from Sepia Mutiny

IPL's Top 10 Players So far

Rediff compiled the following list:

McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

A Nice compilation of the "Maverick's" Flip Flops..in just this presidential campaign!!

Food Fight

From You Tube's More Info :

An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict.

For a breakdown of the actual battles portrayed in the film, visit:
http://www.touristpictures.com/foodfi...

For the official cheat sheet (breakdown of the foodstuffs), visit:
http://www.touristpictures.com/foodfi...

Now, to answer some FAQs...
- The food in this film was consumed either by myself or my dog after shooting. None of the cast went to waste.
- The software used was photoshop and after effects.
- The film took me 3 months to do.
- Although it seems like stop motion, most of it was stop motion created within After effects, using keyframe animation. I am basically moving the food around within the the program, frame by frame, which is the same as traditional stop motion, only it's digital.

Thomas Friedman Sums Up the Iraq War:

Wow. I read Thomas Friedman being bashed from top to bottom on the liberal blogs, even though he is considered a 'liberal'. Man, this video makes it crystal clear. Just plain Wow. Didn't think this guy was such a Dumb Ass. He studied in Middle East for pete's sake. He is combining the whole Muslim world into one single entity...Just plain unbelievable.

Current day USA in 3 simple sentences

I thought about what America was and what it has become and was trying to figure out a way to express it. The following passage by G.K.Chesterton's from Heretics sums it up.

It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers, but pretends that they are great powers, in order to rekindle the ashes of its ancient emotion and vanity. After that, the next step is to become a small power itself.

source: glenn greenwald

McCain's "Spiritual Guide" Wants America to Destroy Islam

John McCain's Spiritual Guide in all his glory to destroy Islam

The Rise of the Rest

A very smart article dissecting and blending the history, present and future of the world's various countries their rise, fall and a lot more...by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek. The article consists a lot of little factoids I've never heard or read.

A few choice snippets:

A young Chinese diplomat told me in 2006, "When you tell us that we support a dictatorship in Sudan to have access to its oil, what I want to say is, 'And how is that different from your support of a medieval monarchy in Saudi Arabia?' We see the hypocrisy, we just don't say anything—yet."
:
:
U.S. carmakers now employ more people in Ontario, Canada, than Michigan because in Canada their health care costs are lower. Twenty years ago, the United States had the lowest corporate taxes in the world. Today they are the second-highest. It's not that ours went up. Those of others went down.
:
:
So far, America has been able to have it both ways. It is the global rule-maker but doesn't always play by the rules. And forget about standards created by others. Only three countries in the world don't use the metric system—Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. For America to continue to lead the world, we will have to first join it.

Read the whole thing. Don't miss.

It's the Economy Stupid

The following is how a Reuters article, written by Paul Eckert today, began:

In 1992, Bill Clinton used the phrase "it's the economy, stupid" to win the White House amid a recession. Sixteen years later, his wife Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination by promising relief from more hard times.

Here's how it should have begun:

In 1992, Bill Clinton used the phrase "it's the economy, stupid" to win the White House amid a recession (Thanks to Bush I). Sixteen years later, his wife Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination by promising relief from more hard times. (Thanks to Bush II)

Daily Show's John Oliver Rips FOX News

Must watch videos for any one who think FOX is not all that bad. And every one else :). It showcases how the main hosts flipped their positions from clinton admin to bush admin. Check them out.

Bush Screwed up American Middle Class

There is a new pew poll that came out yesterday. Here are a few ways Mr Bush screwed Middle Class Americans:

• Fewer Americans now than at any time in the past half century believe they're moving forward in life.
• For decades, middle-income Americans had been making absolute progress while enduring relative decline. But since 1999, they have not made economic gains.
• For the past two decades middle-income Americans have been spending more and borrowing more. Housing has been the key driver of both trends.
• Most middle class adults agree with the old saw that the Republican Party favors the rich while the Democratic Party favors the middle class and the poor.

Iraq: Six Months At A Time

Instant Runoff Voting

This is how Voting should be done!
From Hendrik Hertzberg a primer:

Instant runoff voting, as you (being a reader of this blog) probably know, eliminates the “spoiler” effect in the one-winner elections standard in the United States; guarantees that the winner has at least grudging support, of a majority; and guarantees that a candidate whom most voters really, truly don’t want can’t get elected. The way it works is this: (a) You list your choices in order of preference. (b) If someone gets an outright majority of first choices, that’s it. (c) Otherwise, there’s an “instant runoff”—the biggest loser gets dropped from the counting and his or her voters’ second choices get counted along with everybody else’s first choices. (d) Repeat (c) till someone has a majority, though this is almost never necessary. I.R.V. is used in Australia and Ireland, where voters like it fine, and in several American cities—including Burlington, Vermont.

Ban and Un-Ban

India lifts a Ban:

A critically acclaimed Pakistani film on Islam has been released across cinemas in India.

It is the first Pakistani film to get a wide commercial release in India in over four decades.

Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) focuses on the lives of Muslims after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Officially, India and Pakistan have banned each other's films since going to war in 1965.

Afghanistan enforces a ban:

The Afghan government has told private television stations in the country to stop broadcasting Indian soap operas.
:
There are six Indian soap operas running in Afghanistan, providing vital revenue for TV stations, but they have been criticised for being un-Islamic.

A television show broadcast recently which showed Afghan men and women dancing together at a movie awards ceremony caused uproar in parliament

Drink Tandoori Chicken

Would you like to drink an entree which is also an exotic Indian Delicacy? eww!!

(From Amit)

What's Wrong with John McCain

• Phil Gramm (McCain’s economic guru)

• Where have I seen that before? Ah:

  His chief economic adviser is former Senator Phil Gramm, a fervent advocate of financial deregulation. In fact, I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Mr. Gramm to make this crisis possible.

• Regulating Wall Street
• Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), who also endorsed McCain, “said he’d give McCain an ‘incomplete’ for saying that it’s ‘not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly whether they’re big banks or small borrowers.’”
• McCain supports the Federal Reserve's decision to extend a $30 billion line of credit to facilitate the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase. Asked if the Federal Reserve had acted improperly in doing so, McCain reportedly asserted, "It's a close call, but I don't think so."

Islam overtakes Catholicism in number of adherents

From IHT:

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, saying the data referred to 2006.

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants, Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population, or about two billion people. The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated to be around 1.3 billion.

Update: This is my 200th post!! hurray!! :)

Great American Hypocrites

Glenn Greenwald's new book is titled 'Great American Hypocrites'. He wrote a post today detailing how similar John McCain's foreign policy is to George Bush's. At the end of the post he blurted out this paragraph, which I think maybe a summarizing his new book. Here it is:

We must stop supporting autocracies, as we pursue hegemonic policies that make us increasingly dependent upon Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan. Democracy is the linchpin of peace, yet our enemies are Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian hardliners supported by large portions of those countries' populations. We should continue to interfere in Middle East countries (thus ensuring increased anti-Americanism) and simultaneously spread democracy (thus ensuring the election of anti-American political leaders). We must rein in government spending while pursuing hegemonic policies that we can't remotely afford to pay for, etc. etc.

Metro Atlanta 2nd in growth nationwide

From AJC:

Metro Atlanta continues to grow with no end in sight, ranking No. 2 in the nation for total population growth of metropolitan areas in the past year.
:
In the past seven years, however, the Atlanta region added a little more than a million people — more than any other region in the country. The metro area's population is now 5,278,904.
:
Census projections show Georgia could gain about 4 million people by the year 2030.

Image Src CNN

Clinton using Republican tactics on Obama?

Few bloggers seem to suggest that. Here are a couple:

Atrios:

Remember back in junior high, when you had that friend that the bullies picked on all the time? And you defended that friend, who really never did all that much for you, which led to you getting your ass kicked a few times yourself? And then you got to high school and your friend joined up with the bullies? It's kind of like that.

...just make it stop.

David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo:

Top Clinton donors write letter chastising House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her statements about superdelegates.

On stoking the Wright controversy:

Josh Marshall at TPM:

As you know, earlier today Hillary Clinton tried to stoke the Jeremiah Wright controversy by telling an editorial board meeting in Pittsburgh that Jeremiah Wright "would not have been my pastor" and then going on to note that she had denounced Don Imus in contrast to Obama's allegedly more tolerant attitude toward hate speech.

Even the conservative Byron York @ The Corner seem to be in shock with the meeting of Hillary Clinton and Richard Mellon Scaife.

she is seen talking to none other than Richard Mellon Scaife, the owner of the paper and the man who once said that the death of Vincent Foster was the "Rosetta stone" of the Bill Clinton administration.

And these are all from just today's posts.

Shoban Babu passes away

Andhra's beloved actor of the yesteryear is no more!

From TOI:

Veteran Telugu actor Shobhan Babu died here on Thursday morning after a cardiac arrest. He was 71 and is survived by three daughters and a son. He has acted in over 100 films.

Born in Andhra Pradesh, Shobhan Babu began his acting career in the 1960s. After retiring from films in the late 1990s, he had settled down in Chennai with his family.

From Wiki a little background:

Sobhan Babu (January 14, 1937 – March 20, 2008), popularly known as Shoban Babu, was a Tollywood film actor.

Born as Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao to a middle-class family, Sobhan went on to become a romantic icon and was the top Tollywood hero for two decades. He made his film debut with Daivabalam directed by Vasanthkumar Reddy, but his first film to hit the screens was Bhakta Sabari.

Obama Speech: 'A More Perfect Union'

A very good speech/argument by Obama trying to put doubts about his denunciation of Rev.Wright and other race issues.

You Tube - Hi Def

Now, you no longer have to watch the youtube videos in their grainy quality. They are re-encoding their videos to higher quality.

From Google Operating System:

YouTube has formally announced that it started to re-encode its videos in higher quality. "You may have noticed that we're now giving you the option of watching some YouTube videos in higher quality. We're making these streams available on certain videos, based upon the source file uploaded to us, and over time you'll find a greater percentage of the library is available to view in higher quality."

Two weeks ago, we learned about a trick that triggers the higher quality videos, if they're available: append &fmt=18 or &fmt=6 to a YouTube URL. Now you can choose the higher quality as a default option by going to your YouTube account settings and changing the video playback quality to "I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it's available."

Recession is Here or may be Depression

From Boston Globe:

The United States has already slipped into a deep recession that could be the most serious since World War II, said Martin Feldstein, president of the Cambridge group that is considered the official word on economic cycles.

"The situation is bad, it's getting worse, and the risks are that the situation could be very bad," Feldstein said in a speech yesterday at a financial industry conference in Boca Raton, Fla.

Alan Greenspan writes in the Financial Times via Huff Post:

The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war. It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities.

And from the The Agonist:

This Depression could last somewhat over a year, or be much more prolonged if the Fed keeps too many firms on life support. The Japanese did that in the 1990s during their bout with deflation, and it took at least ten years before the economy started to grow again.

Sadly, the only debate left for the United States, and the global economy for that matter, is how long and how deep this Depression will be.

GWB's Son in Law

From The Swamp

Jenna Bush and Henry Hager will wed.

Hager is a former staff member of Karl Rove's office in the White House. He is in his final year at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. His father, John H. Hager, served as assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration and became chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. He also is a former lieutenant governor of Virginia.

This Social World

There are 10's of Social Networking sites in the WWW. Ever wondered which parts of the world use which Social Networks? I did. And here's the answer. In an Image, how convenient :)

Réseaux sociaux : des audiences différentes selon les continents
LEMONDE.FR | 14.01.08

©

Credit: Digital Inspiration

Blogger Play

This is Cool. Blogger Play displays a slideshow of the images recently uploaded to Blogger. There's one for Flickr too. But, the blogger thing I am sure will be more interesting. You can visit the blog where the pic is uploaded by clicking the picture in the slide show.

Found out there is movie with Ajay Devgan and Kajol, that will be coming out in April 2008, while checking out the Blogger Play from this site.


(h/t: Matt Cutts)

Jodhaa Akbar - Movie - Review - NYT

The Grey Lady has a review of Jodhaa Akbar.

A choice quote:

The battles, though, are really a windup to the love story that propels the film. Forging a political alliance, Akbar marries Jodhaa, a Rajput princess (a Hindu), and then sets out to win her heart. These royals are played by Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, two rather astonishing specimens of human beauty. Neither is a great actor, but both know what's required of a star and seem to the palace born.

Click Here for the entire review

Lockheed wins $1bn Indian order

From BBC:

The US defence firm Lockheed Martin has won an order worth about $1bn (£512m) from India for six Super Hercules C-130J military transport aircraft.

News of the deal, agreed in January, emerged during South Asia's biggest defence fair in New Delhi.

That's 4000 frigging crores!! Why the hell does India spend so much money on weapons? I know, I know its not much compared to the giant USA. Why does any country need to spend so much money on Weapons? It all feels such a waste. Can't we just get along?? :)

And Lockheed Martin, their revenue is $38 Bil. Looks somewhat low..don't ya think?

Unrelated:
Sorry for the long gap in posting. I was out sick from flu.

GM offers buyouts to all UAW members - Feb. 12, 2008

Holy Cow!!!

GM offers buyouts to all UAW members - Feb. 12, 2008

The current veteran UAW member at GM today has an average base wage of $28.12 an hour, but the cost of benefits, including pension and future retiree health care costs, nearly triples the cost to GM to $78.21, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

By comparison, new hires will be paid between $14 and $16.23 an hour. And even as they start to accumulate raises tied to seniority, the far less lucrative benefit package will limit GM's cost for those employees to $25.65 an hour.

Sanjay Dutt ties the Knot

From rediff:

The long wait is finally over. Sanjay Dutt has finally married his long time girlfriend Manyata (Dilnawaz Shaikh) on February 7.

This is Dutt's third marriage after his divorce proceedings against former model Rhea Pillai was formally completed last month. Manyata, a small time actress is mostly known for an item number in Prakash Jha's Gangajal.

Some pics, also, at Rediff

The Evolution of Tech Companies Logos

From Neatorama:

You’ve seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple’s original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia’s original logo was a fish?Let’s take a look at the origin of tech companies’ logos and how they evolved over time

read more | digg story

Indian Snow Man

Ever seen a snowman created in India. I haven't. Check this out from Rediff:

News

• Kadhalar Dhinam (Premikula Roju) Star Kunal commits Suicide
• Former actor Kunal Singh, who starred opposite Sonali Bendre in the film Dil Hi Dil Mein, committed suicide on Thursday morning in Mumbai.
  
  The actor was found dead early morning at his Vindermayor residence in Oshiwara, Mumbai. The actor took his life by hanging himself from a ceiling fan on Wednesday evening.
  

• Wipro in Atlanta
• Wipro is in the process of opening its first American software development centre in Atlanta and plans to hire 200 professionals here within a year. The work force would be extended to 500 within three years.

Democrats Fired UP!!

From Swampand: (With the help of a Commenter)

Here are the numbers just for the 19 states where both parties had elections yesterday

Obama/Clinton voters: 14,460,149
McCain/Romney/Huckabee voters: 8,367,694

Or, 73% more Democratic voters than Republican voters.

A lot of this is huge Democratic numbers in New York and California.

Press Narratives: Bill Clinton VS George W Bush

From Media Matters:

Bush literally drives the country into a ditch while erecting new standards for secrecy and incompetence (Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Walter Reed Hospital, Hurricane Katrina, staggering national debt, etc.), and the press yawns. But Clinton makes ill-advised and insensitive unscripted comments on the campaign trail, and that's what really gets the Beltway press upset -- enrages them, really, as they scramble to find just the right adjective to describe Clinton's allegedly deceitful, abhorrent behavior.

Read the whole thing here.

Would you like a 3rd Bush Term?

Just elect any republican. You've got a 3rd Bush term.

Interesting News

• First Chinese for World Bank job

• The World Bank has appointed its first chief economist from a developing country to work at the institution.
  

• Pakistan captain in 'love scam'
• Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik has threatened to sue an Indian family for alleging he married their daughter over the telephone five years ago.
  

• J Lo is having Twins!
  

• Salesgenie.com President Apologizes For Offensive SuperBowl Commercials
• Salesgenie.com president Vinod Gupta has apologized for two offensive SuperBowl ads featuring animated pandas that spoke with painfully stereotypical "Chinese" accents and an "animated salesman named Ramesh who speaks witjh an Indian or other South Asian accent."
  

• 5 Airlines You Shouldn't Trust With Your Luggage
  

Cultural Differences

Stumbled upon this blog post by Onemanbandwidth that depicts cultural differences between west and east. The original blog post is by Adino Chang. And the art is by Ms Yang Liu. Yang Liu is chinese and lives in germany. The images are inspired by the differences in German vs Chinese cultures, but I'm sure we can extrapolate it to East vs West (Except for the Tea).

Here are a couple of those pics:

Punctuality:

Queues:

Who should we Vote for: Obama or Clinton?

As some of you might know, this election is already historic: For the first time in history, there is either going to be a black person or a woman competing for the presidency of USA. Even though I don't have the right to vote in USA, as you might have noticed, I am very much interested in American Politics and I tend to like Democrats over Republicans.

With that background aside, herez the deal. Who should we vote for in the Democratic primary? From the looks of it, policy wise Hillary and Barack are no different. Both of them are smart, decent human beings. Either of them would make a much better president compared to the low low bar set by Mr. G.W.Bush. And I think the country is ready for a Democrat to be back at the realm. Wait a minute, I thought the same in 2004. Oh well.

So, on what should we base our choice between Hillary and Barack? I'd say electability. Here comes the rub. I am not able to make a solid case for either of them. Both have their pros and cons in that department. If what CW(conventional wisdom) says comes to fruit, then one of these two will be facing John McCain in the Finals. So, imagine each of them against him. We don't know how Barack is going to be able to withstand the onslaught of the Karl Rove style politics that will be thrown at him by Republicans. On that front, Hillary has an advantage in the sense, she has been smeared last 10 years non-stop. I think its hard to find new material on her.

Consider MSM(main stream media). MSM loves Mc Cain and hates Hillary. I haven't seen a narrative formed against Barack yet. They seem to like him so far. But as Gene Lyons said in this column:

Because the same kind of Oprah-fied, pundit-driven, "American Idol" media crush that's anointing Obama today can turn him into an object of contempt overnight. And if you're not already aware of that, then you haven't been paying attention.

I loved the whole column btw. So do Check it out. Especially the end.

I've seen Obama's fans arguing that he brings independents and vary republicans to his side in the Final fight and Hillary can't. Mc Cain is also considered a fav for indi's. So, I'd say no one knows what's going to happen on independents front.

One another argument against Hillary is that she is going to energize the Republican base, the talk radio hosts and some in MSM (like Chris Matthews). I think it will be balanced by the nomination of McCain. The GOP base and Talk Radio hate McCain as of now. Right now they are saying they would vote for Hillary over McCain. I am sure they'd start saying McCain is way better than Hillary if he gets nominated.

All in all, I'd say its just anybody's guess how the the Finals are going to turn out. But, my guess is Hillary is going to be a better Finalist over Obama.

Even though I am not a fan of Aristocracy, I have to say, go Hillary Clinton!! :)

Top News Today

• Microsoft unveils bid for Yahoo at $44.6 bln
• Microsoft Friday unveiled a bid of 44.6 billion dollars for Yahoo in an effort to merge the world's biggest software company with a major Internet player to take on the Google juggernaut.
• Just wow. PM Singh announces $2bn projects
• India PM Manmohan Singh has announced development projects worth over $2bn for the remote north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh during a rare visit. ....
• Mr Singh announced a slew of projects for Arunachal Pradesh including a four-lane highway, India's biggest hydroelectricity project, railroad links and water supply projects, among other things.
  He also said a new airport would be built in the state capital, Itanagar.
  
• India lose embarassingly to AUS in 20-20 game

Consumerist

Consumerist is a very popular blog where consumers grievances are posted in public view for 100s of 1000s of ppl to read. That includes the PR persons of big companies. So, if you thing you were treated bad or duped by any company, or any other issues with any company, write a letter to Consumerist with all the details. If the editors post it on the site, consider your problem solved.

The site also has tips on how to escalate issues, emails of the executives of the companies, tricks and a lot more. So, check it out. If you'd like to read the success stories, they have them tagged at Success-Stories.

Mukasey's radical worldview is now the norm

In the context of yesterday's hearings, Glenn Greenwald depicts our inept political system in its gory details. A must read for anyone interested in American Politics.

read more | digg story

Pakistan may make Bollywood legal

That'd be very good news for the neighbors, and better news for Indian producers! And we just need to hope there won't be an increased muslim pandering in Indian movies.

A quote from the BBC article:

Pakistani cinema goers may soon get to watch their favourite Bollywood films if the government clears a proposal by its MPs to remove a ban on them.

Officially Indian films are banned in Pakistan, a prohibition dating back to the 1965 war between the two countries.
....

Though details are unclear, reports suggest that the import of a dozen Indian films will be allowed against the export of an equal number of Pakistani films to India.

The Indian chromosome: An article in Pakistan's 'The News'

Check out an editorial that's circulating in emails these days. Its written by Dr Farrukh Saleem, an opinion writer in Pakistan's arguably most popular English newspaper.

The article basically lists all the great achievements of modern India and attests all the credit for its democracy and chides Pakistan for not having one.

Here's a choice quote:

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore. India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire).

.....

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians do and we don't: Indians elect their leaders.

Harbhajan cleared of racial abuse

Wow. I didn't expect that! Not sure how much BCCI used its clout, but if it did..hat's off to them.


From BBC:

Harbhajan Singh has been cleared at an appeal hearing of racially abusing Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds
:
:
Harbhajan pleaded guilty and was fined half his match fee and is free to play.

"The racial abuse charges have been dropped," said Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. "It is finished.

"The punishment is only for using obscene language."

The end of Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani is done with in this presidential campain, even with the unabashed campaigning by the Fox 'News' Channel.

Check out this video by Media Matters:



And this a compilation of snapshots of his Victory Predictions as late as this morning.

Bush's Legacy

From ThinkProgress:

A new chart put out by the House Democratic Caucus compares the state of the country when President Bush took office to the state of the country today

Omar Osama

Have you seen Osama bin Laden's son? His name is Omar Osama.
From yahoo:

Time to Kick Wasim Jaffer Out of the Team

I think its about time to kick Jaffer out of the team and bring someone else (anyone). His aggregate in the last 7 innings is the grand total of 73. That, for an opener is dismal to say the least. He has the worst aggregate of a batsman in both the teams combined. Please let him out of his misery and replace him with another person (a bowler, fielder, a keeper, whatever). I am sure he will be way better useful for the team.

Following is his performance in the last 4 tests:

25	08/12/2007	PAK	Chinnaswamy Stadium	1st	17
				2nd	18
26	26/12/2007	AUS	Melbourne Cricket Gr	1st	4
				2nd	15
27	02/01/2008	AUS	Sydney Cricket Grnd	1st	3
				2nd	0
28	16/01/2008	AUS	W.A.C.A. Ground	1st	16

Snow in Atlanta!

It snowed last evening (1/17) in Atlanta. It was beautiful. Just 'cos I didn't have to face the bad stuff that comes with Snow. Like sleet while driving, shoveling the snow out of the driveway, grating the ice off of the vehicle etc. It snowed more than what I anticipated. Almost 4 inches in some parts of GA.

Here is a nice slideshow of Pics taken yesterday collected by AJC:

Bridget McCain

A recent mailer from John McCain, 2008 Presidential candidate, uses his adopted daughter Bridget McCain's pic, when she was a kid, to support his pro-life stance. I am not sure of his thinking behind linking "Protecting the Rights of the Unborn" and adoption. Here'z the mailer.


Bridget McCain is the Bangladeshi girl adopted by McCain, 15 years ago. From UltraBrown:

John and Cindy’s youngest daughter was adopted from an orphanage run by Mother Teresa. Bridget was 10 weeks old when Cindy first met her while doing humanitarian relief work in Bangladesh.

Following are some pics of Bridget with her family.




Pics Courtesy: McCainBlogette, tovarish_udn, ultrabrown, nytimes