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

Tata set to win Jaguar, Land Rover auction: report | News | Reuters

You must be kidding me!!

Tata set to win Jaguar, Land Rover auction: report

Ford Motor Co is poised to name India's Tata Motors as preferred bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.

An announcement could come in the next fortnight, with Tata expected to pay about 1 billion pounds ($2 billion), it added.

Demographics of Andhra Pradesh by Castes in Percentage

I am not sure how much research has gone into this paper by K.C.Suri for Overseas Development Institute in London, written in 2002. I am just presenting the statistics he mentioned in his report.

The following is the Percentage of population of AP by caste sort by decreasing %:

BC	35-40%
SC	16%
Kapu	10-12%
Reddi	8-10%
Kamma	4-5%
Brahman	2-3%
Vysya	2-3%
Velama	1-2%

Per Wiki,

Kapu and its subcastes(Balija, Telaga, Turpu Kapu, Ontari, constitute about 25.18% percent of the population of Andhra Pradesh, making them the single largest community in the state.

But no source was cited for that statistic

And according to another Wiki Article, here are the demographics:

1. FC: Forward castes are castes that are politically, educationally and financially well off and don't qualify for government reservations in educational and government positions. Some of the subcastes are actually backward castes. They make up about 35% of the population.
2. BC: Castes are classified as backward if due to their financial, educational and political depression need government reservations to help uplift their status. They are predominantly involved in small scale farming, artisans, small scale traders. They make up about 50% of the population.
3. SC: They are engaged predominantly in menial and manual labor and make up about 10% of the population.
4. Tribes: They engage in hunting and gathering, the primitive type of agriculture known as shifting or slash-and-burn cultivation. They constitute 5% of the population.

Car Registration

What a pain this moving to new cities is. Other than the actual major stuff like moving, packing, loading, unloading, looking for an apt, there are stuff like updating your new address in 100 different places, getting a new drivers license, car registration, car insurance.

Right now i am doing the second set (which was supposed to be done like within 30 days of moving). Anyways, in Georgia, to get the car tags updated, we need to get the GA drivers license. To get the drivers license, we need to have proof of insurance. So while checking that out, I realized I didn't update my car insurance info after moving to Atlanta!! So, I need to shop for that now.

Anyways, to get the car tags, we also need to get the car emissions tested. And looks like we need to do this every single year. Isn't that a little overkill? Anyways, below is the pic of my Nissan getting emission tested :)

Ron Paul

Ron Paul seems to be a very good choice for republicans and democrats alike. A wonderful video depicting him as God ;). Just kidding, but its a good video showing what he is.
(h/t: glenn g)

Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math - New York Times

A new area for outsourcing. Tutoring. Sound's like this idea is going to be very popular in the coming future.

Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math - New York Times:

"Yet TutorVista, analysts say, is different in a number of ways. Other remote tutoring services generally offer hourly rates of $20 to $30 instead of the $40 to $60 hourly charges typical of on-site tutoring. By contrast, TutorVista takes an all-you-can-eat approach to instruction. Its standard offering is $99 a month for as many 45-minute tutoring sessions as a student arranges.

......

Ramya Tadikonda has tutored Kenneth Tham, among many others, from her home in Chennai, India. To achieve its ambitions, TutorVista must recruit, train and retain thousands of tutors like her.

Ms. Tadikonda, 26, is a college graduate who had previously worked as a software and curriculum developer for a math Web site for students, but left to raise her children. Earlier this year, she joined TutorVista, took the company’s 60-hour training course, followed by tests and practice sessions for two months. She now works about 24 hours a week as a math and English tutor and makes about $200 a month.

Ms. Tadikonda says she enjoys tutoring and the flexible hours. “You can have a career and still spend time with your family,” she said. “I never thought I could do that.”"