Slashdot Mirror

A story that is still relavent whenever biometrics is brought up:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1301216,00 180008.htm

A story that is still relavent whenever biometrics is brought up:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1301216,00 180008.htm

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1447371,001 301780001.htm

"Why are there no Indian Muslims in Al-Qaeda? There are no easy answers. But there are two probable reasons. One is the assurance of a level-playing field for all citizens in India because of the success of the democratic system. The other is the absence of American influence on Indian policy all through the Cold War years and, to a large extent, even now.

To start with the second, it has been observed that a majority of the terrorists come from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and some of the North African countries. What is common about these countries is the lack of a genuine democracy, despite the adherence to form, and longstanding virtual patron-client links with the US. What is more, these two factors are interconnected.

A basic reason why the military or feudal autocrats control these countries is that the US propped them up to serve its economic and diplomatic interests. It was either the presence of oil or their utility as frontline states against the Soviet Union that guided the Americans.

As is known, Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire, was an American ally when his band of fundamentalists fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. It is the cynical use of these countries by Washington that built up a reservoir of resentment among large sections of their people against the US.

This anger may have become all the more intense because there were no democratic outlets -- no Parliament, Opposition parties, a free press and a free judiciary -- to let off steam.

The difference between India and these countries is obvious. India's 'noisy democracy', as an American newspaper recently put it, ensures that all segments of public opinion -- anti-US, pro-US, neutral -- are routinely aired.

Besides, during the Cold War, India was regarded by the US and the West as being in the anti-American camp despite its claims to be non-aligned. This perception gave India a certain dignified status in the eyes of its own people since the Western world was still seen as being engaged in a colonial enterprise.

The pro-American countries seemingly lacked this sense of self-esteem, as was evident from the title of one of America's favourite dictator Ayub Khan's book, "Friends, Not Masters". The Pakistan president's grouse was that the US tended to behave like a viceroy. The result was that while the governments of these countries were pro-American, most of their people were not.

But even more than India's neutrality in foreign affairs (which was resented by the US as the revelations of the recent Nixon-Kissinger transcripts show), what has saved the Indian Muslims from falling into Al-Qaeda's trap is its vibrant, multicultural democracy. Its value is now understood by the world even more than before because of the terrorist threat.

During the 60th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in Moscow, President George W Bush introduced his wife Laura to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the words that he was the leader of the "most fascinating democracy in the world" and pointed out that Al-Qaeda hadn't been able to recruit a single Indian Muslim.

A recent Washington Post editorial noted that India's "large and tolerant" Muslim population "may serve as an ally against Islamic militancy". The old habit of looking for a docile 'ally' is again evident. However, the point that can be made is that the tolerance and upward mobility of Indian Muslims can serve as an example to the rest of the world. And the example underlines how a successful democracy can draw the poison from terrorist propaganda.

One of the reasons why the Al-Qaeda has gained ground among impressionable youth in the West Asia and elsewhere is that it portrays Muslims as an oppressed community. But this is far from being the truth in India, where the Muslims have done exceptionally well in several fields.

For instance, Bolly

The point is Wilson has repeatedly lied about his activities and had Rove not set the wheels in motion there's no reason to think that information would have come out, and the government would be making decisions based on bad data.

The link you cite just sets up a strawman and beats it down. It doesn't address the issues of his lying about the memo, his mischaracterization of his report to the CIA, his lies to the Post, and his lies about who got him the job. That Plame didn't have hiring authority doesn't matter - he said in his book she had nothing to do with him getting the gig, when clearly she did. You can't trust Joe Wilson, and people need to read what he says through that lens. If Rove (or whoever else was the real first) leak hadn't acted, the Government would be making policy based on false information. I can't see how that can be anything but catastrophic.

I wonder if you'll support the same punishment for John Kerry as you do for Karl Rove, at least for the sake of being consistent and nonpartisan. (sorry for the obscure link - I couldn't find free access on the AP site and the Washington Post redacted the NCO's name making the article confusing to read)

Sun is Stupid TABLOID newspaper which after all printed false photos of prisoner abuse and God Knows what...Only stupid people will beleive it.

Check here
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1410178,000 8.htm

Check here .

SUN IS A Stupid *TABLOID* NEWSPAPER WHICH Printed False Photos OF IRAQ prisoner abuse...read by stupid people with half ounce brains,

This story is all over in Indian press.
http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/jun/23bpo.htm
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1408799,001 300460000.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/115 0344.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/115 0670.cms
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=4 9334

Bill stated earlier this week that he never should have given stock options. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1346073,000 30001.htm Apparently he's upset that the employees made some money that could have gone to him. Jeez, you'd think he would realize that he already has enough money.

Carly Fiorina is the potential chief of the World Bank. So while engineers breathe a sigh of relief, the world at large cowers in fear at the next turn?

I've also recently encountered more pop-ups in Mozilla and at first attributed it to the Macromedia Flash plugin. The following page from Hindustan Times (often linked from news.google.com) puts up a pop-up ad that is quite effective -- centered and blocks most of the content such that you have to move it or click it or close it (no chance to have it pop-under). See it/slashdot it here:

Gurinder Chadha believes Austen was a Punjabi in her previous birth!

I don't know if the article was referring to this, but scientists have previously found that using TMS to stimulate certain brain areas can invoke a sensation of instant happiness.

A doctor even discovered that stimulating certain nerves in a woman's lower spinal cord can cause her to instantly orgasm. It's currently being looked into as a treatment for women with sexual disorders.

A leaked list containing the names of some 240,000 people who allegedly spied for Poland's former communist regime has overtaken sex as the hottest search item on the Internet in Poland, press reports has said. "This thing is huge. We have recorded around 100,000 Internet searches a day for the list, which is 10 times the number looking for sex," Piotr Tchorzewski, who works at Poland's biggest Internet portal Onet, told Rzeczpospolita daily. The list, which contains in alphabetical order the names of alleged agents and collaborators of the communist-ero secret service, mixed together with the names of those who were allegedly spied on, has also been put up for auction on the Internet, but its bid price late yesterday -- 2.99 zlotys (around 75 euro cents) -- was hardly breaking records. On Onet's web portal, it tops the list of search items, and visitors are referred to 650,000 links for the controversial collection of names that has pushed the attorney general to launch legal proceedings and Prime Minister Marek Belka to express concern for the safety of active intelligence agents whose names "might" be on the list. The list, dubbed the Wildstein List after Bronislaw Wildstein, the journalist who secretly copied it around two weeks ago at the national archives, can change from one Internet consultation to the next, as hackers have been adding or taking off names, press reports said. From The Hindustan Times

Here's another way not to "eat your own dog food." According to this story Sanyo employees have been requested to buy Sanyo products, presumably whether they need them or not, to limit the huge quarterly loss the company is expecting.

Actually, I'm not too sure they are talking about HDTV CRTs. The "traditional tube TVs" (their words) they are talking about might be analog NTSC/PAL CRTs. The article doesn't make this clear. Note that "they" are from India, which seems to have very little HDTV content available. The article goes on to say:

Flat-panel sets and digital programming go hand in hand. The screens on flat-panel sets can better accommodate the high-resolution picture offered by HDTV, so combining the level of detail that comes with a digital signal with the large, thin screens of flat panels means an enhanced viewing experience.

An article from the Hindustan Times ("HDTV: Bigger, better but at a price") says that HDTV "could touch the lives of high-end consumers in India by 2007."

Buyers of HDTVs in India might be seeing the enhanced artifacts of 720x480 video that are less visible on a non-HDTV CRT. I wish the freakin' article had more details.

I've never had a pop up window appear while using Firefox, but just now, I got one at this site, check it out, perhaps they are using this latest exploit?

Japanese researchers 'tap' mushrooms for rubber

Quote from the article : "But why does the foreign policy establishment want Bush -- a man regarded by most educated Indians with a mixture of hostility and a derision that borders on contempt -- back in the White House?"

Outside of the U.S., Bush and Cheney are the most disliked U.S. president and vice-president in history. A Canadian government leader called Bush an "idiot".

Bush and Cheney are also the most arrested U.S. president and vice-president in history. George W. Bush was arrested once for the crime of DUI and Dick Cheney twice:

George W. Bush DUI, 1st record of arrest

George W. Bush DUI, 2nd record of arrest

George W. Bush was arrested 2 other times in his life, also.

Dick Cheney DUI, record of 1st arrest

Dick Cheney DUI, record of 2nd arrest

Many Americans have a hard time accepting that their government has become, in some ways, corrupt.

The U.S. has a difficult time getting good people to run for president:

For example, engaging in inappropriate sex is one of the characteristics of ACOAs, Adult Children of Alcoholics. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton was not an alcoholic, but his parents were violent alcoholics. The book, The Dysfunctional President: Inside the Mind of Bill Clinton, discusses the fact that Bill Clinton's misuse of sexuality is typical of the children of alcoholism-influenced families. The behavior of such children is so typical that every U.S. city has ACOA support groups.

Clinton has a strong interest in government and government policy. He at least has the knowledge to make informed decisions.

Bush, however, is a recovered alcoholic, and acts exactly the way recovered alcoholics usually act: The psychological effects of alcoholism provide a framework for understanding the Bush administration.. See points 1 through 13. Bush has never shown a strong interest in government and government policy.

--
Bush: Spending money the U.S. doesn't have to try to make his administration look good.

Look at his acchievents milestones and also a site dedicated to him here

Even though the position is only decorational, it is good to know that a country recognizes its intellectual wealth and respects it.

Incidentally his official website runs Apache/2.0.42 (Unix) PHP/4.2.3. A couple of brief excerpts from his bio here:

After a fairly secure childhood, during which he is said to have read as much as he could, he studied at the Madras Institute of Technology, where he specialised in Aero Engineering.

He has worked in leading defence and space organisations in research and managerial capacities. He contributed in a major way to the development of the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) III, which put the Rohini Satellite into orbit. He has also been chairperson to Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).

A vegetarian, his interests include playing the veena and writing poetry. He has written two books, Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India and India 2020: Vision for the New Millennium.

Till now, Abdul Kalam has been best known for his key role in the nuclear tests at Pokharan in the Rajasthan desert on May 11 and 13, 1997. With most parties choosing him as their presidential candidate, he has become the 11th Indian to join a very select group.

• Doctor
• Nurse

and another

India is emerging as the health-care destination of choice for an increasing number of surgery candidates, with more than 60,000 foreign patients from 34 countries treated in its top-flight Apollo Hospitals chain in the past decade. A delegation of Indian doctors was recently invited to London to brief British Prime Minister Tony Blair's medical advisers on flying surgery patients from the United Kingdom to Mumbai and or New Delhi for operative and post-operative care, allowing them to recuperate, and flying them back to the UK far cheaper than treating them at home. Routine cardiac surgery at the best hospitals in India costs about US$35,000, with a success rate of 98.5 percent, compared with about $150,000 in the United States. For more complicated problems that cost far more than that, cost differentials are anywhere from 200 percent to 500 percent to off the chart. And India is not alone; breast implants in Thailand from top-flight cosmetic surgeons cost as little as 50,000 baht ($1,260) compared with a median price of about $5,000 in the United States.

Considering conditions in India are far better than in the USA (crime, violence, poverty, terrorism).

Fundamental concerns in India include the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife... Population below poverty line: 25%

If those 5000 jobs are worth 11 billion dollars annually , then perhaps we should be trying to emigrate to India. I'd take those wages for a couple years.

However, I know that my compnay has been laying people off over the past couple years, declining to hire locally, and now employs ~200 people in Bangalore, as well as a bunch in the Phillipines. And we're not a huge company...

5000 my ass.

Apparently, the VA location beat out Mexico to land the factory. No joke.

1 Lakh = 100,000. India graduates 250,000 new doctors per year. We have a total of six million medical practitioners in the United States--and that includes everything from Dental Hygenists to Neurosurgeons. How many people think India isn't going to figure this one out?

The unfortunate truth is, there is very little that cannot be automated or outsourced. Perhaps you could migrate to a career in Funeral Science or tax law, although I'm sure someone will manage to figure out how to offshore those too.

I'd recommend taking your 401k and buying a self-sufficient farm in the middle of Montana. I wish I was kidding.

The forefront of fusion research will be ITER. Unfortunately, this project is in peril because the participants have so far been unable to agree upon a location.

Canada withdrew from the project after its location was rejected by the other participants. Now France is threatening to split from the project.

Flurry of bets on life in Mars
Vijay Dutt
London,

Bookmakers in London were biting their nails with nervousness as Beagle 2 approached the touch down on Mars. On Tuesday Ladbrokes cut the odds on the mission discovering life there after a flurry of bets.

Ladbrokes received many large bets following successful separation of the lander from its mother ship, Mars Express, on Friday. Others too reportedly similar increase in number of bets.

Proof of life on Mars would leave the bookmaker liable for a huge payouts on wagers placed with them. Warren Lush, a Ladbrokes spokesman was quoted saying that odds on finding evidence of life on Mars were being reduced from 33-1 to 25-1 after facing a potential payout of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He conceded that the odds did not represent the true odds on finding life on the planet but the price was shortened because of the liabilities of hundreds of thousands of pounds. " We first took money for Mars life on Mars back in 1969 and would be looking at a black hole in our accounts if Beagle 2 discovers something," the spokesman told the Times.

Colin Pillinger, professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University and Beagle's lead scientist has not placed any bet. He feels it would be like insider trading.

Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Moore writing in the Mirror said we would know after a few hours if there is some form of life on Mars, 34,500,000 miles away from us. There are craters, old riverbeds, canyons, valleys and volcanoes, the Olympus Mars being three times higher than the Everest.

The scientists are agog with the expectation that signals from Beagle 2 could confirm life forms even if it was very lowly.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_507223,0005 .htm

Here and here.

You /. mods should try news.google.com and save our souls from the NY Times registration database. The same goes for you submitters. It takes a couple of seconds and would save /. readers some time.

There is still a case existing: EU commissioner (competition) Mario Monti against Microsoft. Perhaps it would be better to focus on this case.

There is an article on EU Business: Microsoft faces 'final chance' in EU anti-trust probe from August. And Newsfactor thinks Don ' t bet on it.

The response of Microsoft is already very strong. They want to take the case to the US, where the justice system is probably more corrupt (home advantage). See Hindustan Times's Reuters article for more information on this issue. They present the same accusation in an more polite manner: "Microsoft Corp has been trying to drum up support among US lawmakers as part of its effort to fend off antitrust sanctions being considered by European regulators, congressional sources say.

With the European Commission weighing a fine and behavioral changes that could go beyond its US antitrust settlement, Microsoft lobbyists have taken their case to key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sources said.

While Microsft is under investigation because of its abuse of power, Microsoft propaganda requests stronger IPR law, criminal prosecution . They claim the proposed EURO DMCA++ (IP Enforcement directive) was not strong enough. Examine the horribleEU directive proposal paper by AEL Wiki (page of Association Electronic Libre, Belgium).

I prefer to get my IT news from the Hindustan Times. Seriously though, it has a little more/different information that may be worth checking out.

The bad thing is that it is not 100%.

... because ... why? You want 100% of americans to appear clueless?

The US government readily admits that they've found no connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda - as do others.

For all those who have been whining about the state of India's finances and poverty levels, let me add that the PM in his Independence Day speech (think State of the Union) is also building highways, creating jobs in rural areas, not to mention modernizing our ports and major airports.

May I also add that India's external finances are in great shape ( a $6.5tn deficit comes to mind, cough cough ) and we are at present reorganizing our expensive debt.

We are sitting on so much cash, (and soon, low interest debt) that for the first time, India has become a lender nation.

Inflation is static at just under 2%, the Indian rupee has been holding its ground against all international currencies. Duties are being lowered, tariffs and trade barriers are being slashed, capital and bond markets are flourishing -- why the hell can't we have a moon mission?

Agreed, poverty and health problems cannot be disregarded, but to say this money would be better spent anywhere else is just stupidity -- India has long prided herself on her space programme -- we have great comm satellites and have been launching them since the early '70s, and a moon probe is a logical next step.

Finally, the moon probe is just one proposal among many, and slashdot readers, or at least those posting derogatory comments, need to keep a sense of proportion.

Great, now I am gonna read this tutorial, learn Tivoli and apply for a job with Lego. If you don't know what I am talking about, check this story on eWeek.

-- Sig
TODAY'S REJECTED STORY:
This story on Reuters says that Linux is gaining ground in India and according to RedHat, about 10 percent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004. Besides the plain switch of desktop operating systems to Linux, analysts say the bigger worry for Microsoft is the growing use of Linux among India's pool of an estimated 400,000 software developers, many of whom churn out code for giants such as General Motors and American Express. CNET , ZDNet and Hindustan Times are running related stories on the rapid growth of Linux in Asia.

You'd probably even eat French Fries if they weren't from France.

Oh, wait... they're not

Court Upholds Secret Detentions

US court upholds draconian law allowing secret arrests

Executions possible at Guantanamo

Big Brother - Make That Uncle Sam

Ashcroft seeks broader powers

Now shut the fuck up about your imaginary "rights". May you live in interesting times, american bastards.

TIA has nothing to do with protecting U.S. citizens from terrorism. It is instead part of a hidden political agenda.

Every year, the U.S. government gives between $3.5 billion and $5.5 billion to Jews in Israel. This money is used to kill Arabs. (The Jews call it defense.) The terrorism toward the U.S. was caused by Arabs who feel they have no other way to protest the brutality of moving them from their homeland, and continuing to kill them, to make a new country called Israel. They are sacrificing their lives to try to make a statement. I don't think violence is justified, but the U.S. government thinks violence is justified, the Jews think violence is justified, and it would be illogical to think that violence is okay for politically powerful groups in the U.S., but not for the people they want to kill.

The people who have brought you TIA have also put the U.S. government back into the huge debt it was in during the Reagan-Bush years. The people who want corruption cause the U.S. government to borrow money so that they can spend it (tax cut) to make themselves look good and on high-profit weapons.

Here are a few links that discuss other kinds of corruption:

War Profiteers card deck.

"Speaking to Pentagon reporters in a video teleconference from Iraq, General Conway said, 'What the regime was intending to do in terms of its use of the weapons, we thought we understood.' He added, 'We were simply wrong.'" [last paragraphs]

Secretary of State General Powell believes he may have been lied to about weapons in Iraq: Powell's doubts over CIA intelligence on Iraq prompted him to set up secret review.

"Could be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time."

More about war profiteers and conflict of interest: Lawmaker Questions Scope Of Iraq-Related Contracts.

Questionable accounting practices -- The U.S. government becomes another Enron scam:

Questionable accounting practices in the U.S. government: "The U.S. government is broke." George Bush gave U.S. citizens a tax cut, but it was fraud. The tax cut will be paid by money the U.S. government will borrow.

Questionable accounting practices at Halliburton, Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney's company.

Should U.S. President George W. Bush be impeached?

In a CNN article, John Dean asks, "Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?"

An Associated Press article reports that a retired Department of State analyst says the Bush administration was "not entirely honest".

International reaction is extremely negative. The Hindustan Times mentions that "a former CIA analyst with 25 years' experience" ... "accused the Bush administration of lying to Congress".

TIA has nothing to do with protecting U.S. citizens from terrorism. It is instead part of a hidden political agenda.

Every year, the U.S. government gives between $3.5 billion and $5.5 billion to Jews in Israel. This money is used to kill Arabs. (The Jews call it defense.) The terrorism toward the U.S. was caused by Arabs who feel they have no other way to protest the brutality of moving them from their homeland, and continuing to kill them, to make a new country called Israel. They are sacrificing their lives to try to make a statement. I don't think violence is justified, but the U.S. government thinks violence is justified, the Jews think violence is justified, and it would be illogical to think that violence is okay for politically powerful groups in the U.S., but not for the people they want to kill.

The people who have brought you TIA have also put the U.S. government back into the huge debt it was in during the Reagan-Bush years. The people who want corruption cause the U.S. government to borrow money so that they can spend it (tax cut) to make themselves look good and on high-profit weapons.

Here are a few links that discuss other kinds of corruption:

War Profiteers card deck.

"Speaking to Pentagon reporters in a video teleconference from Iraq, General Conway said, 'What the regime was intending to do in terms of its use of the weapons, we thought we understood.' He added, 'We were simply wrong.'" [last paragraphs]

Secretary of State General Powell believes he may have been lied to about weapons in Iraq: Powell's doubts over CIA intelligence on Iraq prompted him to set up secret review.

"Could be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time."

More about war profiteers and conflict of interest: Lawmaker Questions Scope Of Iraq-Related Contracts.

Questionable accounting practices -- The U.S. government becomes another Enron scam:

Questionable accounting practices in the U.S. government: "The U.S. government is broke." George Bush gave U.S. citizens a tax cut, but it was fraud. The tax cut will be paid by money the U.S. government will borrow.

Questionable accounting practices at Halliburton, Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney's company.

Should U.S. President George W. Bush be impeached?

In a CNN article, John Dean asks, "Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?"

An Associated Press article reports that a retired Department of State analyst says the Bush administration was "not entirely honest".

International reaction is extremely negative. The Hindustan Times mentions that "a former CIA analyst with 25 years' experience" ... "accused the Bush administration of lying to Congress".

Man Drinks Dog

Japanese politician warns China of Tokyo's nuclear option

A conservative Japanese political leader has warned Beijing that Japan can arm itself with nuclear weapons overnight if China goes ahead with an excessive military build-up, press reports said on Sunday.

The warning from opposition Liberal Party chief Ichiro Ozawa is likely to provoke sharp reaction from China and the rest of Asia, sensitive to any signs of Japan's military revival.

In a lecture in the provincial city of Fukuoka on Saturday, Ozawa said he had referred to the nuclear option during a recent meeting with an official from the intelligence division of the Chinese Community Party, the reports said.

"China is undergoing an expansion of its military power in a bid to join the ranks of the superpowers," said Ozawa, a renowned advocate of a strong armed forces. "It is trying to become a military power following in the steps of the United States."

Ozawa, 59, a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said he had told the unidentified Chinese visitor: "If you get too inflated, Japanese people will get hysterical."

"It would be easy for us to produce nuclear warheads. We can produce thousands of nuclear warheads overnight. We may have enough plutonium at nuclear power plants for 3,000 or 4,000 rounds."

He added: "I told that person that if we rise to the occasion, we will never be beaten even in terms of military power."

Ozawa, however, emphasised that what he really wanted was a fully democratic China and a society in which "China and Japan can co- exist".

He said the introduction of democracy to China was essential to world peace.

"Any break down of order in China will be no match for that in Afghanistan or Yugoslavia. It will lead to significant global turmoil," he said.

"His position, in which he has tried to hold China in check by bringing up the possibility of nuclear armament, is likely to cause ripples at home and abroad," the conservative daily Sankei Shimbun said.

The influential daily Asahi Shimbun said it anticipated a "backlash from the Chinese government and others".

First of all, thank you for questioning me. It always helps to do some more digging into what one really believes is true. I have been forced to find out why I say what I have said. Thank you.

Where did you get this "fact" from?

See this article about the modern history of Jews in Palestine. Some relevant quotes from the article:

"Owing to its own political compulsions, the British promised a Jewish homeland to the Jews in Palestine by the Balfour Declaration of November 1917"

"By end of 1947, the British had decided to withdraw from Palestine by May 1948. The state of Palestine was formally partitioned and Israel was formed in May 1948"

There are a ton of good books on the subject, one of which can be found here. In this one, it is clear that not all "facts" are genuine as may be the case with my comment on the international decree to form Israel. Relevant quote from the page is "The editors are keen to pursue the idea that historical 'facts' have been manipulated by elites through media such as history books."

Oh, right. I forgot the special unspoken assumption where Western culture is always right and appropriate in it's projection of force and decisions regarding other, non-Western, cultures. Sorry. My bad.

Your sarcasm is not relevant or intelligent and does nothing to help me see your point of view, which is the point of this conversation, correct?

The point is that the propaganda machine generated by the intelligentsia and the mass media in the U.S. is pervasive, hard-to-see, and incredibly effective.

Yes, but it is not universally available. As you mentioned, Bejing and Hong Kong are not the same. Furthermore, most propaganda machines can be described this way whether it's from the US, Japan or Cambodia.

In fact, it's almost never questioned

You are questioning it now. I always question everything someone else tells me regardless of the evidence supporting it. As for being (mis)taught history in school, every country teaches their kids that their country is the best and rarely if never did anything wrong. I challenge you to find a country where this is not the case.

The times of india.

Indian Express

NDTV news.

Sify news

Rediff News

Hindustan Times

Internet News

Cnet.com