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Completely correct, but this would do even less to solve the problem in China. China has had a problem with a lack of unique full names for quite some time. According to this, there's 100,000 people named Wang Tao. I imagine that at least a few of them are in similar fields. There's a pretty simple explanation. Basically, the 100 most common surnames are used by 85% of the population. There's only between 3000-4000 surnames currently being used at all. Compare that to the United States, which has well over 100,000 surnames in common use.

True- thank you for the informative links. To complete the picture in the US, here's the US Census data about surnames from the 2000 census.

Completely correct, but this would do even less to solve the problem in China. China has had a problem with a lack of unique full names for quite some time. According to this, there's 100,000 people named Wang Tao. I imagine that at least a few of them are in similar fields. There's a pretty simple explanation. Basically, the 100 most common surnames are used by 85% of the population. There's only between 3000-4000 surnames currently being used at all. Compare that to the United States, which has well over 100,000 surnames in common use.

The notice references the National Common Language Law. Note that when the Government of China says "Chinese language", they mean Standard Mandarin. The big problem, as seen by Beijing, is not English. It's Cantonese. National policy is to migrate southern China to Mandarin, at least for written material. Policy is already to require that publications, signs, official TV, etc. be migrated to Mandarin.

The Beijing government has been trying to mandate Mandarin since 1909, and still hasn't been able to make it stick.

Evolution is mutation plus culling.

Absolutely wrong. No culling is required for evolution. Evolution is not 'survival of the fittest', despite what most people seem to think. For example: evolution is possible by individuals choosing to move into different environments that better suit them.
Here's another example Humans manipulating bird genetics by winter feeding

As mentioned by other /.ters india has been working on nuclear reactors using thorium fuel for quite some time.

"India is estimated to have a reserve of 2.25 lakh tonnes of Thorium, with an electricity generation potential of 1,55,000 gig watt-years, against just 61,000 tonnes of uranium, with an electricity generation potential of up to 42,000 gig watt-years only. The use of thorium for power generation had been a dream of the country's nuclear scientists as it would help make the nuclear programme all the more autonomous." ~ http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/05/stories/2007010511500100.htm

Among other things, nuclear scientists in India also believe that nuclear power will be the "primary source of power for the future":

"Right now we are talking of nuclear power as an electricity source, and it will be an important electricity source for a long time to come. Very soon we will reach a situation where the energy source, such as oil and gas, will be in short supply. As our energy use grows, we will have to tap all our energy resources such as hydro, coal, oil and gas. It looks to me that there will be a stress on all these sources.

Our nuclear energy sources, particularly from thorium, are vast. Our technology focus at the moment is how to generate electricity from thorium. What about a point of time when the general energy sources are stretched? The question then is from where will we get the energy for transportation? From where will we get the energy for industrial processes? Just as we get crude oil, and refine it into energy products such as petrol, diesel, kerosene, naphtha, etc., I think the day is not far off when we will have to look at nuclear energy as the primary energy source.

So the question is, using nuclear energy can you produce hydrogen? Or can you facilitate pyro-chemical or pyro-metallurgical processes. In all these, the important thing is the temperature at which the energy is available. In the PHWRs, you get energy at 300C, and in the FBR at 500C. But for other applications - energy conversion applications - you require energy at 1000C. This is a technology development challenge and this is something we have begun doing (Compact High Temperature Reactor) so that in the years to come, we can look at nuclear energy as a primary energy source.

So, the first thrust area is to increase the share of nuclear power in the electricity generated. The second is to expand the source of nuclear power as the primary energy source. The third is what we can do in the area of agriculture. Thanks to the Green Revolution, we are better placed in agricultural output. Even so, oilseeds and pulses are areas that require more attention. That is where the strong point of BARC is - the mutant seeds developed in BARC. It is more focussed on oilseeds and pulses." ~ http://www.thehindu.com/fline/fl2104/stories/20040227003810000.htm

Your comment appears to say that haloes were widely used in pre-Christian religious depictions. That is not established in your quoted source. [...]

Just because you looked in the wrong place doesn't mean they don't exist.

I looked at the source you mentioned first, it didn't support your statement, I asked for expansion. Nor did I say they didn't exist, nor even that I'd looked in the right places. I've been trawling around lots of sites looking for pre-Christian images of haloes as everyone says they were widely used by everybody in depictions all over before CE. Yours is the first hint of actually imagery.

The pictures from Taq-e Bostan (eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taq-e_Bostan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra, http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/1/10/ArdashirII_.jpg) are either Ardashir I or II. I again can't find a better image but if you notice each of the old-king, new-king and priest wear crowns/helms with what appears to be a fabric band (ribbon) extending down, on the right 2 images this comes down in drapes from the central crown on the left images it appears to hang from the ray-like crown (reminiscent of Aztec headdresses, http://images.travelpod.com/users/mebiner/2.1230803220.elaborate-aztec-headdress.jpg). In the other images Ardashir's crown appears to have an ostrich feather or similar. It seems a leap to suppose that only one of the crowns depicted is an artistic device.

The fabric pieces can be seen best in images like http://flickr.com/photos/37514330@N00/3202629664 [or http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/16084455.jpg%5D which unfortunately doesn't include the priest (Izad Mithra, or in the Taq-e Bostan page it's said to be Izad Bahram; Izad being the Zoroastrian form of Yazata which means "worshipful" and some render as "god").

It's the best I've seen however, a good find, dating from 300BCE around Persia. I'd want to see other instances of "haloes" in the Persian culture of the time to be convinced on this, as like I said I think it's just a picture of a headpiece.

And you suck at reading too, if you didn't even follow the link [http://home.comcast.net/~taoistresource/art_halo.html] in the "quoted source" you complain about.

You did say "according to this page" and not "according to links on this page". Obviously being an illiterate makes it hard for me to check your post to be sure, perhaps you could do that?

Buddhist art and writings don't appear to exist from before about 100-200AD the canon of Buddhist lore being passed down orally since 400BCE. Whilst that link shows images it doesn't date the images, so establishing a date from them is impossible. They appear mainly to be Thangka which date from a Nepalese influence in 600AD.

The greek image of apollo is one I know, it's about 200AD IIRC (certainly post-Christian). The others look like standard depictions of Helios, being the sun after all, they're more than likely CE. The naive image at the bottom is similar in showing gods of the Sun, Dawn and Morning Star, that they should be shining is not necessarily a depiction of deity/holiness but a simple reflection of their purpose - but they'd be relevant if dated early.

Hindu art is full of haloes, eg http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl2503/stories/20080215250306500.htm the end of that page shows a Jaina shrine from 900AD. "Hindu art" by T. Richard Blurton states that imagery of Vishnu appeared in the "early centuries AD

You are talking about USSR.
This is USA.
Know the difference.
USA is a 250+ years old Democracy with separate pillars of governance.
This means the Government cannot seize anything and everything with power of eminent domain.
And you don't smile and nod. You can show the middle finger to the government, sue it and win.
That is what a democracy is.

Are you saying that this is a luxury car in India??

Man, we are really screwed if your people are that easily wow'ed.

know here in AR our freeways have two states: ones that have potholes you can bury a dog in, and ones with potholes you can bury a cow in.
What about potholes you can grow Banana plants in ?

And yet everyone who lives there has adequate healthcare and the same standard of living without massive national debt.

Code words for everyone has mediocre healthcare and a mediocre standard of living along with massive national debt (and India)!

As opposed to the US where the wealthy get excellent healthcare, the people who don't need health care have access to mediocre healthcare, and the poor and those who actually require healthcare have access to zero healthcare.

I'll take an even mediocre over a skewed "excellent" only for the top 1%

And yet everyone who lives there has adequate healthcare and the same standard of living without massive national debt.

Code words for everyone has mediocre healthcare and a mediocre standard of living along with massive national debt (and India)!

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111550580100.htm would be a better source for the story.

Found these... thought they might be of interest.

ISRO Press Release
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Nov14_2008.htm

Pictures fro Chandrayaan Moon Impact Probe
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

The Hindu Article (with diagrams of ISRO Chandrayaan probe)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111550580100.htm

I'd be curious to know how what percentage of their staff are PR guys (probably way less than NASA), rather than engineers etc...

India will drop its flag on the moon to establish its presence, Nair said in an interview. This will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and Japan to have its flag on the moon.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_will_plant_flag_on_the_moon_ISRO_chief/articleshow/3620255.cms

With today's (on 8th Nov) successful manoeuvre, India becomes the fifth country to send a spacecraft to Moon. The other countries, which have sent spacecraft to Moon, are the United States, former Soviet Union, Japan and China. Besides, the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries, has also sent a spacecraft to moon.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/nic/0061/release11.htm

From what I have been reading, it looks to me like the situation may be even worse in the UK and Australia than in the USA. Although I don't know if the UK and Australia have anything like the USA work visa scam.

These are all recent articles:

Barclays to cut 1,800 U.K. IT staffers in offshoring move
> "London-based Barclays PLC today disclosed plans to offshore 1,800 of the 2,800 IT jobs at its U.K. operations to locations in Singapore, Hungary and India over the next three years."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=outsourcing&articleId=9110183&taxonomyId=60

Oz bank to offshore 400 IT jobs to India
> "National Australia Bank is expected to send another 400 information technology jobs to India by the end of the year."
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=41867

Aviva sells offshoring operations to WNS for 115 mln pounds
> "LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Aviva Plc. said it has sold its offshoring operations to India-based outsourcing services provider WNS Holdings Ltd. for 115 million pounds in cash."
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=41867

More bank jobs move to India
> "THE National Australia Bank could more than halve its local technology workforce over the next five years, as it sends jobs offshore as part of its massive technology transformation program, codenamed Neos."
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24020156-15306,00.html

Make the most of IT
> "US versus UK"
> "Bank of America or Citigroup have done a significant amount of offshoring. But three insurance companies, including Aviva in the UK, have offshored 15 per cent each or more of their work."
> "In the US, no company has offshored over 7 per cent of their work. Headcount-wise, US companies may have a lead, but in terms of the quantum of work, the UK companies have demonstrated far greater amount of offshoring."
http://sify.com/finance/it-bpo/fullstory.php?id=14715010

Seems that the UK and Australia also get the same BS hype:

Offshoring to India creates jobs in U.K.
> "Outsourcing work by British companies to India does not cause job losses but boosts employment, according to a research by economists at the University of Nottingham."
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/11/stories/2008071156181700.htm

For all those who argue about money being wasted on satellite launches by India:
1. ISRO earned $0.6 million when PSLV-C9 put eight foreign nano satellites in orbit. http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042960551000.htm
2. It's a profitable business - for every $1 spent on the space programme the return has been $2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7374714.stm Considering these launches as purely commercial ventures, they are profitable and self sustaining. Who wouldn't want to invest in a business with 200% returns? I know I would

I remember reading about it somewhere else, but just to cite a source...

from here http://www.physorg.com/news121022065.html

or here http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/02/stories/2008020260031800.htm

I know you can't believe everything you read, but there's a ton of places that describe the cables as passing through the Suez just as ships do. I agree with you though that some cables undoubtedly must pass over land to be distributed. I'm sure if we wait long enough we'll find someone on /. that actually laid the cable. Until then, I'll just have to disagree with you.

So what? I'll bet he's happier than these guys in India. Just because it's nuclear doesn't mean it's magic, or somehow worse than other accidents that go on daily. The problem is that you're an idiot and don't realize that radiation is terribly useful, and for the amount of destruction it causes or has caused, it does much more good. Ever gotten an X-ray? Had cancer or known someone with cancer? Hell, had certain digestive tests? All of those procedures need radiation, and I'd bet that many orders of magnitude more lives have been saved or seriously improved by them than have ever been wrecked by the boogeyman of radiation.

Well you are obviously clueless, but if you had ever *bothered* to check the news, anywhere other than slashdot, you would have seen it happening in lots of places.

A reporter for a local tv channel in Delhi, India, accused a school teacher Ms. Uma Khurana, of coercing her students into a prostitution racket. With her name, workplace, home address etc. being supplied, a local mob beat her up. Later it turned out that the reporter just wanted to settle an old grudge and the allegations were false. Tell it to the mob now, which nearly killed the poor lady.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200711011822.htm

A tv crew from a Microsoft NBC, tried to lure a DA in USA, into meeting with a person pretending to be a minor child, in a chatroom. When the DA did not fall for the trap, they decided to stalk him by surrounding his house with tv crews, forcing the DA into committing suicide. His widow is now suing Microsoft NBC.

A husband in China, whose wife had initiated an affair with a student, instead of settling the matter with the parties directly involved, or going for marriage counselling or divorce, decided to go the vigilante route. He published the real details of the student online with his story and called upon others to deliver "justice". Impassioned people teamed up to uncover the student's address and telephone number, both of which were then posted online. Soon, people eager to denounce him showed up at his university and at his parents' house, forcing him to drop out of school and barricade himself with his family in their home.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-6-22/43052.html

Is it fear mongering? Or is it just you being apathetic and burying your head in the sand like an ostrich, despite the various items like these in the news? Decide for yourself.

Simple economics will dictate the fate of GMOs. Sure they aren't needed to feed Western populations, but you have to remember that there are something like 700 million people who are starving.

All of whom could be fed if it wasn't for conflict or politics. All of those staving in Zimbabwe are starving because the president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe forced many white African off of their farms. Food grown in Zimbabwe used to be a big foreign currency earner, after being able to feed the population. But when Mugabe forced farmer off their farms he gave the farms to his cronies who didn't know how to farm. Elsewhere, 150,000 farmers in India have committed suicide because they can't afford to compeat with EU and US agribusinesses. These businesses can grow then export to India food cheaper than Indian farmers can grow food because they receive billions of taxpayer dollars. Cutting the massive farm subsides these businesses are handed will do more to help Indian farmers than giving them GE seed they would have to pay for year after year. The reason the WTO talks failed was because when Brazil, India, and other nations demanded the EU, Japan, and the US to stop giving farmers in those nations hugh subsidies, the EU and Japan refused to. The US offered to lower subsides some but not much. Some Indian farmers are calling for farm produce to be left out of any WTO deal. In a letter to the Prime Minister farmers wrote: "Till date, the government has been unable to force the United States and the European Union to scale down their farm subsidies. It has also failed to make these trading blocs reduce their import tariffs and stop dumping subsidised agriculture commodities into India markets. Instead of a bad deal that fails to protect the interests of the farmers, it would be better to keep agriculture out of WTO negotiations,"

> Besides, there are no "Hindu Fanatics".

Really? The chappies who trashed Valentines Day couples must have been figments of the Indian media's collective imagination. Oh wait, don't tell me-- it was also part of the vast Communist-Christian-Muslim conspiracy against Hinduism. Ditto the nice people who chop off Muslims' heads en masse in riots. Oh wait, they are provoked. They have no choice but to ignore the rule of law and become animals.

With attitudes like that, you dream of becoming a world intellectual leader ("vishwaguru")? Fat chance.

Btw, all of your lessons in Hindu history pale into insignificance because you forget one thing: there is no one Hindu society. Hindu society is fractured into caste and subcaste. Take a look at what's happening in Rajasthan. First set your own house in order. Get rid of ignorance and superstition. Go to the villages and non-major cities and drive away the evils of caste. Then people might take you a little more seriously.

There's a lot of good in Vedic Hinduism, except that no one in the country really follows it. They're too entranced by a monkey god and a chap who drove his wife away on the word of a washerman*. And of course there are snakes and rats to worship.

* That's Hinduism's so-called "ideal person", Rama.

Can someone point out a few cases where the news was somewhere along the lines of "American Extradited For Breaking [fill in foreign country] Law At Home" or does this business only work one way?

Google is your friend. Fron just a quick skim through the first few matches searching against "US extradites" we find the following:

2006

2004

2001

2000

Got information from a reporter who was on site during the launch. Apparently ISRO charged the Italians $29000 per kg. And the reason for the high price is the high accuracy of the PSLV and the low inclination from the equator required. The latter is aided by the closeness of Sriharikota to the Equator.

This allows for little to no use of on-board propellant in the satellite - increasing its orbital life-span significantly.

Third, there was another satellite launched with this payload - 185 kg.

Taking the launch cost as $15K per kg for this satellite (it may not have required such a precise orbit), and keeping in mind that the full capacity of the PSLV is 1 tonne, I'd say this launch is quite price competitive.

Ref:
(for the 1 ton capacity)
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp? NEWSID=%7B293BBF69-290B-459A-B16A-A53FFFF5CA05%7D& CATEGORYNAME=NATIONAL
(for the $29K figure)
http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/24/stories/2007042404 981200.htm

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/24/stories/2007042414 931500.htm While the international rates for launching a satellite ranged between $10,000 and $15,000 a kg, Antrix Corporation Limited (The marketing agency of the Department of Space, India) charged more because Agile had to be put into a specific orbit of about 550 km at a low inclination of 2.5 degrees to the equator, Mr. Sridhara Murthi said. This was a difficult orbit and inclination to achieve, and hence the premium rates.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/26/stories/2007012609 111800.htm

A quote: "Detailed discussions in this context would open new vistas of cooperation by using the funds available under the agreement."

new *vistas* of cooperation ??

interesting.

Free Land
Free TV
Free GOLD!!!!

The only complaint is rice is cheap not free - can you imagine paying nearly $0.50 for 10 Kilograms (22 lbs)? Govt. these days....
....just kidding- TN is pretty good when it comes to most things comparitively. Glad that they went through with this - whatever their reasons may be (empty coffers must likely), the path they have taken is a brave one. There may be some FUD initially, but typically these govt. officials do nothing more than what they are told to do on the PC (i.e. press ALT-P, type, click on OK etc... - of course in TN, everything must be in Tamil as well). So there wont be any complaints like "This new Nvidia card is not working on my PC" OR "how can I get this to recognize my new USB external hard drive"...
Congrats SUSE - you got yourself 30,000+ new users who wont complain much. Having said that, everything will get blamed on the "new SW" - including printer jams, network failures - anything.

Free Land
Free TV
Free GOLD!!!!

The only complaint is rice is cheap not free - can you imagine paying nearly $0.50 for 10 Kilograms (22 lbs)? Govt. these days....
....just kidding- TN is pretty good when it comes to most things comparitively. Glad that they went through with this - whatever their reasons may be (empty coffers must likely), the path they have taken is a brave one. There may be some FUD initially, but typically these govt. officials do nothing more than what they are told to do on the PC (i.e. press ALT-P, type, click on OK etc... - of course in TN, everything must be in Tamil as well). So there wont be any complaints like "This new Nvidia card is not working on my PC" OR "how can I get this to recognize my new USB external hard drive"...
Congrats SUSE - you got yourself 30,000+ new users who wont complain much. Having said that, everything will get blamed on the "new SW" - including printer jams, network failures - anything.

The Information and Technology Minister - Dayanidhi Maran belongs to the same political party as the one in Tamil Nadu and he is seen hobnobbing with Billy on launching MS products in India

Homosexuals have the right to get married - just not to each other because its nonsensical.

Pot kettle black.

They can't make babies

Not yet. http://www.hindu.com/seta/2005/11/17/stories/20051 11700061500.htm

and their sex acts are filthy

Subjective. Some people think all sex acts are filthy. I think homophobic bigots are filthy.

and contrary to nature

Animals have gay sex, so it's not contrary to nature. I once witnessed a butterfly threesome. Anyway, clothes and the internet are also contrary to nature. Stop being unnatural, it's filthy.

and basic [sic] of anatomy

Right, that's why just about the only way to directly stimulate the prostate is rectally. God hates fags so much that he gave them more intense orgasms.

It's not a superstition that you can't eat a hot dog with your nose.

I think we've finally found some common ground.

Homosexuals dont really want to be married as much as they hate not being able to.

You don't speak for homosexuals, so stop trying to.

They are desperate to pretend their peccadillos are "normal"

Since when is subjective abnormality punishable by unequal treatment?

and want to force it on society via the courts.

They're merely seeking equal treatment under the law, something the courts claim to provide.

In places they get allowed to get married they lose interest.

Hah, bullshit. Provide some support for your irrelevant assertion.

Think of it - for 50 years we been told marriage is just a bit of paper

Uhh... we have?

and the left has been eradicating it and the family while having governemnt [sic] in charge of the problems it creates (called "hurt and rescue")

You're off in toon town again. At least cite some evidence to back up your vague nonsense.

Now all of a sudden marriage is important to them - but only for homos.

Gee, maybe because no one has threatened to constitutionally ban heterosexual marriage. Maybe it's possible that liberals aren't defending "traditional" marriage because it faces absolutely no threats whatsoever?

It's another step down in social decay and not a rise up in civil rights.

But wouldn't a step down in... nevermind, I'll just pretend you said what you tried to say. So basically, your idea of "society" is people living the lives that you want them to live. When they try to do something you disapprove of (because, yuck, it's so gross!), you cry foul and plead for government intervention (gay marriage bans), while simultaneously blaming government intervention for the decay of society. Congratulations, I don't think anyone will mistake you for an intellectual in the near future.

A note about the basic science behind this stuff: there is plenty of evidence of bodily responses to familiar stimuli (for example the cognitive psychology literature on 'priming', also electrophysiology, etc.). However, the commonly-used polygraph may not use the measures proven to work. If all it does is test blood pressure and GSR (galvanic skin response), then we may be right to be skeptical (although perhaps research on GSR has improved in recent years - I don't know). However, things like EEG are also non-invasive and easy to test, and research has shown them to be informative about various things. So: even if the commonly-used polygraph is a sham, correct use of science and statistics can be used to devise a better method, and hopefully things will continue to progress in that direction.

Actually a better method has been found here: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/06/11/stories/200606 1100280600.htm

MRI spectroscopy and angiography used in the polygraph testing should, in the long term, significantly improve the accuracy of testing. As it stands right now, with current polygraph testing, it produces false positives 1/3 of the time on average, hence the reason why polygraph testing is inadmissible in court for purposes of determining guilt or innocence.
Taken from the above source: A study by the Functional Brain Imaging Centre at Temple University, Philadelphia, suggests that brain fMRI is a better lie detector than polygraph.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/08/stories/2006100800 021100.htm ("last modified" seems correct)
"I have achieved storage densities of about 2.7 gigabytes per square inch," Mr. Abideen told The Hindu over phone from Kottakkal in Kerala.

And sooner, in September :
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep62006/ cyberspace163748200695.asp (but "last modified" is november 26...)
(But has been linked by some blogs the 19 September)
http://www.stingygaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p= 165
( the photo was on imageshack ... http://img319.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rainbowte chzz4.jpg )

I never think to this technology but the better way to discredit it is this kind of re-publication of an imprecise article.
Concepts stay very exiting even if storage place is in the order of the hundred of MB.

About the dot precision, laser printers (Xer.. ?) do some miracles :
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/inde x.php

Could you believe that ?! :)

It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature of war.

The Hindu has some more data from the Lancet study:

The study, however, shows that 31 per cent of the excess deaths since the invasion were directly caused by U.S.-led coalition forces. [...] Gunfire remains the most common cause of violent death (accounting for 53 per cent) followed by car bombs or other ordinance (18 per cent) and air strikes (12 per cent).

Yes, I have been following the trial.

Obviously if the government stabilizes and establishes order it's a good thing. The whole point of my post is that an appearance of impropriety, like the one today, undermines that. So it's now obvious to everyone what your guesses are worth.

Some people in Baghdad celebrated, others did not, and are undoubtedly busy planning some more of their usual, different kinds of "celebrations," or don't you follow the news.

Using generalizations the way you do, talking about "the people in Baghdad", tells me all I need to know about your level of understanding. Are those the same "people in Baghdad" who helped kill 100 troops last month? The same people who are both Sunni and Shiite, Iranian and Kurd? Not all "people in Baghdad" agree, or haven't you heard.

And it's spelled "Karl" Rove.

Caste is still alive and kicking in India.

• You can go to any online matrimonial sites for Indians (example (no affiliation) and look at ads categorised into castes.
• All leading newspapers ( example (no affliation) run classifieds every week caste wise.
• In major states there are caste based political parties gaining strength year by year. example BSP , PMK

Having said that there are major initiatives to help the suppressed castes to come up in life. Reservations for the most backward castes (classified as scheduled castes) and tribal populations (scheduled tribes) are in vogue for decades in all central and state government employment and higher education institutions.

Many states have gone further and implemented reservations for other categories of backward castes too. There is a raging debate about this issue. There are proposals to extend the reservation concept to the private sector too.

In short, yes, the caste system is still alive as thousands of years of practices are hard to kick in decades. But, there are definite efforts to get rid of the stigma attached to the so called lower castes and help everyone to have a decent life.

Those who live on the pavements are not necessarily of lower caste. They could be migrant farmers from the villages. The caste system operates with all its tragedies in villages, not in big cities.

Yeah, tell me about those crazy scientists. They always waste so much time and money on useless crap that's so far into the future it should be on The Jetsons, instead of right here right now. I mean, all those math nerds studying number theory never produced anything useful, right? And those physicists blabbing on about dark matter should probably be checked into a psych ward...

OK, so I'm sorry if the above sounds trollish and inflammatory. But the thing is, I always thought the whole point of science was to basically poke around outside of the current knowledge base and try and figure stuff out. Issuing an edict about "useless" science doesn't really make sense. Let me illustrate this with a bad analogy:

You are in a record store with a friend. Your friend wants to buy an album that's of some obscure genre that originated in Turkey. You ask why. She says that a friend of hers heard some of this music before, and thought it was really cool. You say this is a bad idea because she doesn't speak Turkish so she won't be able to really appreciate the music.

OK, go ahead and cut the analogy to shreds. But hopefully you understand what I'm trying to get at.

The original interview (which the blog has just copy-pasted, inexplicably introducing errors) is here. There is also another interview (another newspaper, another Indian city) here. Both of them are short and say the usual things, and not much info on GPLv3 itself (naturally, as they are newspaper interviews).

Yep, darn nice place. Not just saying it because I'm from there :)

I know I posted it before, but still makes a good read:

Kerala Enigma
Kerala Model

I remember how quickly things have changed in Kerala over the past few years. It is a good environment for open source to take root. I graduated High School in 1999 (in Oman) and before moving to the US to start college, I spent four months in Kerala - the longest I've ever spent. Back then to get access to the internet, you had to go to Ernakulam, which is about a hour-long car drive from my hometown. When my sister went to India in 2002, there was an Internet Cafe 15 minutes from our house. Broadband too. It only took three years. When I went there in 2004, there were even more internet cafes, and when I went back there again in May there were Internet Cafes all OVER the place - most people are well-versed with the internet and just computers in general. Another thing that you can find in Kerala is computer institutes - all over the place. Billboards advertising training in C/C++/Java/Webdesign etc. etc. Kerala already has a good presence in Open Source (Malayalam Open Source Software, More Malayalam Open Source). A lot of this might be due to the fact that Kerala is the most literate state in India, and also one of the most politically aware. A Malayalee's day starts with a look at the morning newspaper. Also because of the cost-benefits in general, and the fact that Kerala has a penchant for communism, open source will find a good environment to thrive. Monopolies... maybe not so much. Finally, the bulk of the microsoft software is pirated, and with all the validation stuff Microsoft has for their software, it would be easier to make the switch to open source. Then there is also the fact that recently Microsoft conducted a sort of raid in Kerala to look for illegal copies of Microsoft software.

Of course, all this might go down the drain due to the fact that even the most well-intentioned ideas can be disrupted by the notorious hartals (strikes).

Toxic Cockpit Fumes

Toxic Cockpit Fumes

What used to be castes are now communities which tend to restrict marriages to between their own members.

The supposed advantages that the upper caste enjoyed are long gone.

Sociologists have argued that a person born in a highly educated upper-caste family will have a totally different universe of knowledge, social contacts and elite acceptability, and wholly different access to information about the availability of courses, colleges and private tuition, career options and professional advice."

Additionally, the private sector (non-government, privately owned industries) has always been a meritocracy. If you apply for a job, you aren't even asked your caste or religion. So a question of casteism does not arise.

Mmm. And what about representation? Take a look at this.

Bullshit!

What used to be castes are now communities which tend to restrict marriages to between their own members.

The supposed advantages that the upper caste enjoyed are long gone.

Sociologists have argued that a person born in a highly educated upper-caste family will have a totally different universe of knowledge, social contacts and elite acceptability, and wholly different access to information about the availability of courses, colleges and private tuition, career options and professional advice."

Additionally, the private sector (non-government, privately owned industries) has always been a meritocracy. If you apply for a job, you aren't even asked your caste or religion. So a question of casteism does not arise.

Mmm. And what about representation? Take a look at this.

Bullshit!

http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/04/stories/2006070407 171000.htm

Now you know the H1 program is really screwed-up.

With all due respects, I think we're talking about two different things here.

I will, first, agree with you that animated movies often are indeed funnier when we see them in our native tongues, than in their original languages. In Disney's Alladin, for example, there's a scene where the Genie asks Alladin to wish for the Nile. When Alladin wishes for the Nile, the Genie says no (and thus demonstrates his independence). When they dubbed the movie into Telugu, my mother tongue, they changed this line to a very snarky political comment; the Genie, in Telugu, asks Alladin to wish for Telugu Ganga, an (a water) irrigation project subject to much political controversy and ethnic backlash. Hidden gems that aren't quite there in the original; something that I suppose would happen with greater frequency in Spanish, considering that the speed at which you speak the language is closer to that of (American) English, than it is for Telugu.

However, the reason for that to happen isn't because the actors are voice-professionals; rather, it is because they're focussing on a significantly less complex challenge with a narrower audience; the dialogue writers won't, for example, have to cater for a bored Indian kid ;-). You see, an Eddie Murphy or a Cameron Diaz provide more than mere (English) voice for their characters; they are, in fact, giving them expressions and body-language. It is those finer nuances that the article is talking about, and it is these things that voice-only actors can't deliver.

Fancy some irony?

RBI staff threaten to strike work

New Delhi, June. 6 (PTI): Reserve Bank employees, who observed a token sit-in protest today, threatened to strike work if their demands for putting an end to outsourcing of jobs and continuation of revised pension scheme were not met.

Read the rest...

Looks like it's not just US workers who feel threatened ... :)

Paul Otelini is at it again.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/24/stories/2006052403 511700.htm/

You gotta give the Japan people props about their notorious trains, because they're not trains, they're, I don't know, space ships.

How many G does a passenger feel as the "train" accelerates? I mean, some of them look up side down I wonder if the seats are on the roofs?

Also most of them don't actually touch the rails they fly on a magnetic fields or something, right?

Do passengers have to pass a special training to ride on one of those trains?

Has it happened that a Japanese train can't take a corner and just flies off never to be seen anymore?

Anyhow, I bet they are really proud of their trains, and they have to. Good luck with hydrogen bomb ones as well!

I mean hydrogen fuel cell, sorry.

Bah... they are to scared of India to use them elsewhere. Plus... Bush just gave India the nuke "thumbs ups"

Really? When was the last time that happened? Do you have a cite?

Just yesterday 15 Christians including three children and an priest were killed in Nigeria during as retaliation for the cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark.

15 killed in Nigerian cartoon protests

MAIDUGURI (Nigeria): Police and soldiers patrolled the deserted streets of this northern Nigerian town on Sunday, one day after thousands of Nigerian Muslims, protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed, attacked Christians and burned churches, killing at least 15 persons.

On Saturday, rioters burned down 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order. Security forces arrested dozens of people suspected of taking part in the violence.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city centre with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tyre around one man, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze.

``Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters,'' Mr. Ezeoke said.

Witnesses said three children and a Catholic priest were among those killed.

Thousands of people have died in this West African country since 2000 in religious violence fuelled by the adoption of the strict Islamic or Shariah legal code by a dozen States in the north, seen by most Christians as a move to impose religious hegemony on non-Muslims.