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The notion that "anybody can make it in the US if they work hard" is a fairy tale.

Seriously. Be born rich. That's the way to go.

The notion that the notion is a fairytale is a fairytale. People love to blindly spread memes like this because they enjoy feeling sorry for themselves, but it simply isn't true:

Rags To Riches Billionaires: "Almost two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination"

That doesn't mean everyone can end up a billionaire, but it's simply false that this notion that 'anyone can make it' is a fairytale; it's borne out on practically a daily basis. If you open your eyes and look, you'll find true-life rags-to-riches story under every second stone you turn --- especially in the USA, but also these days frequently in places like China. But yeah, not everyone is born hard-working, I guess, so keep sitting and feeling sorry for yourself and you'll definitely ensure that nothing ever changes for you.

Rags to Riches CEOs

7 greatest celebrity rags to riches stories

Rags to Riches

Entrepreneur takes women from rags to riches

Rags to Riches billionaires

Asian American Rags to Riches Sagas

Case Study: From Rags to Riches (Brenda French)

Cordia Harrington: From Rags to Riches Success Story

Local cosmetics magnate reveals rags-to-riches life story

China: A rags-to-riches story to dream about (Yan Huiyan)

China’s paper magnate is a rags-to-riches story, literally

Rags to riches: Bill MacAloney: from orphan to successful business owner to CBA

From rags to riches: Filipino weavers trade up

Etc. etc. blah blah ... I could go on pasting these stories in here all day. Nothing worse than listening to whiny losers feeling sorry for themselves that they weren't born rich.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/late-for-flight-techie-makes-hoax-bomb-call-to-airline/533270/

Yes, Surely such mistakes could never happen. To be fair, there were pirates on board the vessel (they had hijacked it), but also the original crew, and it was a trawler, not a "pirate mother ship".

It may not be a placebo effect.

Eating chocolate or drinking water can relieve aches and pains, a new study has shown.

A team of researchers says the distraction of eating or drinking for pleasure acts as a natural painkiller. Although the findings come from studies on animals, the scientists believe the same effect takes place in people.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience by authors Peggy Mason, PhD, professor of neurobiology, and Hayley Foo, PhD, research associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago, is the first to demonstrate that this powerful painkilling effect occurs while the animals are ingesting food or liquid even in the absence of appetite.

Not "Had", actually.

From the Health Services website linked to from the article:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/preparedness/pandemicflu/swineflu.aspx

"Do not seek medical care if you are not ill or have mild symptoms for which you would not ordinarily seek medical care. If you have more severe symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, body aches or are feeling more seriously ill, call your health care provider to discuss your symptoms and if you need to be evaluated."

But that's not really the reason the numbers are different.

To compare them from CDC stats:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm

An estimated one third of the world's population (or 500 million persons) were infected and had clinically apparent illnesses during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. The disease was exceptionally severe. Case-fatality rates were >2.5%, compared to 0.1% in other influenza pandemics. Total deaths were estimated at 50 million (5-7) and were arguably as high as 100 million.

Compared to the recent stats cited in the news:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-tops-h1n1-mortality-rate/509543/

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as on August 21, there have been 1,799 deaths in total 182,000 laboratory confirmed cases across the world, which makes 0.9 per cent the mortality rate across the world.

But the stats are not all that clear taken as a whole.
From the same article:

With 584 deaths, Brazil tops the list of countries reporting fatalities due to the H1N1 virus. The mortality rate in Brazil is 0.29 per cent. However, if one takes into consideration the 5,206 laboratory confirmed cases, the mortality rate is 10 per cent -- much higher than India's.

I realize IBM is already too big to fail, but do we want to let them add to it

Fuck IBM. They cannot be 'too big to fail' if they continue to ship jobs to india.

Sun being bought by IBM would stifle the marketplace and would exert far too much control.

IBM can't compete in the HPC, or high end computing markets. And yes, Linux SUCKS on a pSeries compared to Solaris 10 on a 9000. Dell, and their pitiful 4 socket max 4u (r905), AMD configuration isn't even in the conversation.

- as one who supports both, native SUN kicks the shit out of IBM all day long.

Sometimes to have a free-ish market we have to think about unpleasant topics like anti-trust.

If this is what it takes to keep Sun from being submergered by IBM, so be it. Sign me up.

"After the USSR went down, the NSA downsized"

No they didn't, security efforts were redeployed in industrial espionage, with the help of our own GCHQ

Blogger and Orkut folded easily when Bombay wingnuts want to jail people for badmouthing a political icon. They even set up a speed-through ID-this-Orkut-user process.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Mumbai-Police-tie-up-with-Orkut-to-nail-offenders/25427/

Dubai doesn't have a long history of using its secret agencies to overthrow democratically elected governments and replace them with dictators more favorable to its interests, so I strongly doubt they're going to have problems with "terrorists" like Western nations have had.

Which is why, say, Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia hasn't had any terrorist attacks. There have been no attacks on foreign workers, nor on resident families.

I doubt we'll ever know the true motivations of the scumbags who committed mass murder in India recently

You can accuse the perperators of many things, but a lack of clarity in their message isn't one of them:

LeT head Hafiz Saeed said at a rally in Karachi in 2000: "There canâ(TM)t be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them â" cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."

That "they" (and I mean the greater "non-state" nexus using Islam as an excuse) hate _India_ and want to "liberate" previously Muslim-ruled states isn't conjecture anymore; it was amply clear, and indeed, was the stated goal of the so-called Deccan Mujahideen, who purportedly carried out the attacks. That Muslim mohallas across South Asia have become drastically radicalized is also not a matter of conjecture anymore; there are Islamicist "sleeper cells" even in otherwise idyllic, Muslim-majority Maldives. One of the most peaceful places in the world, the mostly uninhabited Lakshadweep archipalego which until recently had a mere 100 police constables, now needs augmented anti-terrorism monitoring stations. It's all very scary for all peace-loving, broad-minded citizens; I think the sheer fact is that governments across the region, both in Muslim-majority nations and otherwise, simply don't know what to do with it all. All our armies are trained to fight each other, not this.

I'll also say this:- I'm very very cynical about all this, but I do think we're past a certain tipping-point now, and the world in general, is on course for a collision of sorts. I don't see _any way_ in which things are tapering down at all; if anything, in this hyper-connected world where local crime-beat news makes international headlines, things tend to have a bigger impact than before. All news is global, all causes inter-linked; governments and societies simply don't know how to deal with all this.

see the recent article about how cartography can get you terrorism charges in India

Heightened times, people _are_ scared especially in the western border regions, but they were fully cleared by the Ministry of Defence beforehand. The local police has already given them a clean chit, although the state's Anti-Terrorism Squad is proceeding cautiously.

I'm actually more bothered about the Public interest litigation in Bombay High Court against Google maps. Citizens not connected with the executive have decided for themselves that Google maps needs to be censored. That is a worrying development; while the state can and will always try to increase regulation, in a democratic society, informed citizenry can and will fight back. It'll be a scary day when citizenry themselves start falling for the crap.

Here is an interesting take from a Bombayite.

India is on a slippery slope to authoritarianism...there is a call for a strong state from many influential sections. They want a 'world-standard anti-terrorism plan'. But everyone forgets a world standard anti terrorism plan is putting band aid on a wound and not asking how the wound happened.

Many of us does not remember the last time we had an emergency - decalared by Indira Gandhi and what it meant for civil liberties or even the idea of a democracy.

Making it hard to get a Cell Phone is another band aid. Its not going to work.

Me curious on rural India reacting to the massacre in Bombay...will national security overwhelm other genuine and pressing concerns?

Ravindranath Tagore remarked - "whatever you think of India is true, and its opposite". So lets wait and watch.

I wouldn't be too concerned with your business-confidential data leaking into the private sector via some unscrupulous NSA employee (who have a higher bar to employment I would hope, than say a TSA employee).

"Rogue" agents are not the problem. Sanctioned industrial espionage is the problem.

In theory they only do it against foreign corporations, but as multinationals become the norm, that line is becoming increasingly less meaningful. The ultimate result of such policies is likely to be spying against the competitors of the currently favored multinationals.

Here's one article about how Echelon was used for industrial espionage - there are plenty more about the NSA and other agencies that are not Echelon-specific either.

Plenty of other news sources offer their material in English. Places like Al Jazeera, Shanghai Daily, and Indian Express are just a few examples. Being English speaking is a blessing, as it is pretty much a defacto second language for the rest of the world. If your argument was that americans only spoke spanish, and couldn't find any other news sources, I'd believe that.

Civilization survived thousands of years without cellphones, and can do so again.

Civilization may or may not survive in your corner of the world, but prosperity in most parts of the world is directly dependent on ready access to mobiles. Which is why I'm mystified by most of the responses here; why does everyone dream up cyberpunk situations when arguing for mobiles? Isn't simply wanting timely information enough of a reason?

I had posted this yesterday as well for a story.
A more detailed look by Indian express here.
Looks like the newspaperguys took due dilligence a bit too far...
from the article
  "The email account of the Indian Ambassador to China contained details of a visit by Rajya Sabha member Arjun Sengupta to Beijing earlier this month for an ILO conference. There was also a transcript of a meeting this evening which a senior Indian official had with the Chinese Foreign Minister. Similarly, accounts of NDA and DRDO officials reveal phone numbers, commercial documents, official correspondence and personal mails."
This is probably very illegal, even if the information has been posted for all to see actually using this info to access someone else's account should be a no-no.

Seriously, hearing that the New York Times would actually allow their reporters to investigate this story makes me really sad. Is the Times turning into NBC Dateline?

We have Pakistan (our ally) collaborating with the Taliban, there are Over 20 million displaced homeless due to floods in India, and let's not mention the hypocrisy of the government at home.

If The New York Times feels that this is a worthy exercise for their investigative reporters.... what has the world come to. Rupert Murdoch owns the WSJ, and I think that everyone knows that Murdoch can't keep his fingers out of the editorial pages of any newspaper he runs. There is hope, however. There are still investigative journalists worth reading out there, here's one: Seymour Hersh

Health Care in India is cheap only for foreigners who's currency translates to more in Rupees. Government funded health care is still in a horrifying state.

The best of the hospitals are surely in the run for the best in the world, but better health care to the poor has always been a myth.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/29315.html

There is no such plan.

India's Minister of Communications & Information Technology recently launched the Re.1 OneIndia scheme where all telephone calls originating and ending in India (local and long distance, mobile and landline) will cost only Re 1. (2 Cents) During the press conference he was asked if a similar scheme is possible for net connectivity and he said the vision is to:

1. Start web hosting with MTNL and BSNL (The govt owned telecom companies) so that most Indian pages are hosted within India.
2. Once most Indian internet traffic terminates within India, reduce cost of internet connectivity in a big way, possibly even make it free.

When asked how long it will take to implement this, he said he still has 2 years to make something happen which is to mean the 2 years left in his term as the minister till the next general election.

There is no formal plan as of now and the story as posted on Slashdot is vastly exaggerated. Even the long goal in his comments was to offer free Broadband connection to subscribers with a land-line connection from BSNL or MTNL. Essentially, a free upgrade in competition against other providers.

There is no plan to provide internet connectivity to every person in India. I do hope, however, that someday it is possible to provide free internet access to every village for the vast benefits it could and would bring.

Is the percentage of people on broadband a even valid benchmark of technological ability of a nation?

Not the only benchmark possible, but broadband penetration is definitely one of the many ways in which you should consider technological potential of an entire populace.

Here's why:

Maybe a large amount of people don't have broadband because they don't want it?

You've set yourself an impossible trap here, haven't you. If a large amount of people don't want broadband, then ipso facto, they aren't technologically advanced, are they.

IMHO, the only people who harp about this are the companies trying to get a govt subsidy.

Out here in Asia, it is governments and tech-oriented NGO's that are harping on the issue. Reason: There is a very direct correlation between technological ability and earning potential even in the deepest Africa. I would guess it is the same in the US as well.

Er, conversion to what? Islam? Muslims in India have a well-oiled Caste system already. Read about the Ashraf/Ajlaf divide The Qomiyat of Swat, Pakistan and Bengal and the jajmin/Kamin separation.

Among Muslims, the Ashraf are regarded as those descended from Arab stock and are mandated by Fatwas to be "superior" to those converted from Hinduism, called "Ajlaf". even among the Ajlaf we have the "Arzal" who are treated as untouchable. To quote a scholarly paper Arzals are those:

"with whom no other Muhammadan would associate, and who are forbidden to enter the mosque or to use the public burial ground"

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/12109.html

http://stateless.freehosting.net/Caste%20in%20Indi an%20Muslim%20Society.htm

Read this famous book by Ambedkar (I already spoke about him in a thread earlier), a Buddhist by the way, who exposes the entire Muslim Caste System in South Asia:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00amb edkar/ambedkar_partition/410.html

Also, read:

Aggarwal, Patrap. Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India.
Social Stratification Among Muslims in India by Zarina Bhatty

and "Political theory in the Delhi Sultanate by Mohamed Habib" when the Muslim Castes of Ashraf/Ajlaf/Arzal was established by religious sancation through the Fatwa-i-Jahandari.

Convert to Christianity? Dalit Christians are the among the most persecuted people in India right now. Read about Bama Faustina, a Dalit Christian, who has exposed the atrocities committed on Dalit Christians by the Christian clergy

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/09/16/stories/13160 17m.htm

http://www.womenswriting.com/writerdetails.asp?wri terid=116

In the book "Sangati":
http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/L iteratureEnglish/WorldLiterature/India/~~/dmlldz11 c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTY3MDg4Mg==

Christian churches in India are largely controlled by upper caste Christian Priests and nuns. Low-caste Dalit Christians are discriminated against by the upper-caste Christians. The extent and practice of untouchability within the Indian Christian community have been researched. Chapels for Dalit Christians are often segregated from Christians of a higher caste. Other churches admit Dalit Christians, but keep separate pews for them. Dalit Christians are buried in separate cemeteries. In addition, Dalit boys are not allowed to be altar boys or lectors.In addition, there are various instances of economic discrimination where Dalit Christians are not allowed to own arable land by upper caste Christian clergy. In many Christian communities in India, bonded labor is still practiced. As a consequence of the discrimination, Dalit Christians tend to be very poor and undernourished. Dalit Christians are denied education by the Upper Caste Priests and nuns. Very few Dalit Christians are involved in administrative services, except for the few who reconverted back to Hinduism.

http://indianhope.free.fr/site_eng/article_5.php3

The only realistic religion to convert to would be Buddhism, which is no biggie because Buddhism originated in India only. However, the movement is being taken over by violent extremists and anti-Hindu bigots who have even gone so far as to side with Islamist terrorists in Kashmir who ethnically cleansed millions of Hindu

... and down in Amsterdam, Netherlands (clearly, the most conservative city in Europe), they jail a bunch of travellers coz they were showing off their mobile phones to each other. That, apparently, seemed suspicious enough to warrant an F16 escort back to Schipol, and overnight stay in jail for those poor shmucks.

If you think paranoia is limited to North America, you're badly mistaken.

Even though Govt of India ordered to restore acess to blogspot, The 18 sites that Govt decided to ban is still banned. But for most of those sites & blogs I cant findout reason to block. Still ministry is silent on it. It again the duty of bloggers community to file Right to information Application to know why this ban. The news came on Indian Express Newspaper addresses this issue in some amount. Are Bloggers are happy after removing the threat to their own blogs? If they can block a blog like http://princesskimberley.blogspot.com/ they can block any of the blog site. Is there Govt have a justification for blocking each & every site? why a website talking about dalit nationalism ( i didn't seen any hate content on http://www.dalitstan.org/ ) is blocked in a country that addreses diversities...? so Indian bloggers must move on this way to ask the reasons for the censorship.

...nah, actually I don't welcome this.

The Left-wing Congress-led ruling govt is showing that it finds blogs a threat. Let's take a look at some of the sites which our Leftists have decided they want to ban:

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/8719.html

"Some of the websites that have been blocked are Dalitstan.org, Clickatell.com, Hinduhumanrights.org and Hinduunity.com"

Okay, so since these bans are taking place in the wake of the Mumbai train bombings, am I supposed to believe that the people from Hinduhumanrights.org planted RDX plastic explosives on those trains?

No, this is an opportunity for our Left-wing thought police to slip in some crackdowns on people they don't like -- especially those not sharing their same Left-wing ideology.

The Left-wing Congress coalition won't do a damn thing to stop Pakistan and its jihad machine -- oh, but they will ban the 'nefarious' Hindus who might complain about the Congress Party's biased policies. Subversive phrases like "HinduHumanRights" must not be tolerated. Sounds like slapping a gag on the victims to shut up their annoying cries for help. Better that than actually exerting some effort to get Pakistan off our backs.

I'm an atheist, and I don't believe in any Hindu deity, nor do I pray to any Hindu god, nor do I attend any Hindu places of worship. But that doesn't mean I believe jihadi terrorists armed by Pakistan should be allowed to kill infidels like myself with impunity. I therefore don't see any objectionable material presented on the website HinduHumanrights.org

I don't see that it attacks or vilifies any other religion, including Islam. I don't see how complaining about the murder of Pandits in Kashmir constitutes Hate Speech. I don't see a reason to ban this site as hate-mongering. I do see that the spineless Congress-led govt would rather suppress complaints about their ineffectiveness against Islamic terrorism rather than addressing them.

The Left-wing are frightened of blogs and populist journalism. They'd rather only have a media with a firm brick-and-mortar address which they can control and pressure more easily.

Ham-fisted behavior from our Left-wing tinpot luncheon-leaders.
Which immediately leads me to say, "In Congress-ruled India, Spam blocks you!"

It has long been my view that political correctness is dangerous and usually harms those people and ideas it seeks in a muddled liberal fashion to protect. But, even as someone who holds this view, I was astounded at the insane political correctness we saw in the response of the political class and most of the media to last week's ghastly bombings in Mumbai.

The issue is terrorism. Right? The issue is the terrible, needless deaths of 200 people and the awful tragedy of those who will forever be scarred by the murderous act of a handful of evil men. Right? The issue is the failure of our intelligence agencies and our criminal justice system and the inability of our government to understand that terrorism is undeclared war. Right? The issue is India's security in which both Hindus and Muslims have an equal stake. Right?

Yet, if you watched television coverage of the carnage on Mumbai's trains, read your newspapers or listened to the speeches of our political leaders, you would think that the only issue was to not hurt Muslim feelings. There were no communal riots after the 1993 Mumbai bombings or after the attacks on temples in Ahmedabad, Ayodhya and Varanasi but there was more talk of communal harmony than terrorism. Hardly anybody mentioned the words "jehad" or "jehadi" or that Islamist terrorist organisations openly talk of their "jehad" against Hindu India. Some journalists dared to mention that Pakistan was almost certainly behind the attack but our political leaders only did this after the Pakistani Foreign Minister was insensitive and shameless enough to say that terrorism would continue until there was a solution in Kashmir. Then, there was a sort of reaction from our External Affairs Ministry.

This wishy-washy, uncertain, irresolute response to a horrific event was inspired, it appears, to protect Muslim sentiments and calm Hindu anger but by doing this what was achieved was the impression that all Muslims are supporters of radical Islam. And, even more dangerously, the impression that all Indian Muslims in their heart support Pakistan against India. What was also achieved was licence for sectarian political leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav to come out in open support of SIMI, which is not just a rabidly jehadi outfit but has direct links to jehadi groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Students's Islamic Movement of India has, according to terrorism experts in the Institute for Conflict Management, been directly involved in terrorist acts like the bombing of the Sankatmochan Temple in Varanasi and the attack on the Shramjeevi Express near Jaunpur. But, according to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, SIMI is a fine organisation with a few bad eggs. How weird is that?

SIMI is a jehadi organisation that has been recruiting misguided young Muslims for its murderous jehad in states across India. Despite being banned by the Supreme Court since September 27, 2001, it manages to function covertly in states across India but particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra. But, Mulayam Singh's support for them comes not from political correctness but from political calculation and it's the former we need to talk about.

Political correctness caused the print media, a couple of decades ago, to come up with a code for reporting communal riots whereby the names of communities involved in an ethnic clash were to be concealed by saying "members of a particular community". Over the years this code has deteriorated into a code that only means Muslim. So, if the Bajrang Dal had burned alive those two policemen in Bhiwandi two weeks ago, we would have identified them happily as murderous thugs. But, because it was a Muslim mob that killed the unfortunate policemen, most newspapers chose either to downplay the killings or identify the killers as "members of a community".

Link to the interview with G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. http://indianexpress.com/story/8316.html

What about the future of 5,000 human workers?
Relocate to Redmond, where they are still sought after only to push the housing prices higher in NW OR Relocate to Infosys which is seeking all kinds of Geeks in India & China.

Wait, you didn't think making satellites was all that we were doing, did you?

The recent threat might be the one of causes and then some one send an an email threat to blow up Parliament.

Well...they had to catch up intel announcement yesterday that they are investing $1billion in india: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?conten t_id=83365

There was a big ruckus in this part of the world as well by the MIT Media Lab. This was a rather novel attempt at outsourcing research; perhaps the Media Lab didn't know that it is usually the outsourcer who pays up, not the outsourcee.

Open markets like Europe... where the average cow earns US$2.50 a day in subsidies?

Or Japan... where the average cow earns US$7.50 a day in subsidies?

Link to article

This article talks about plans to introduce telemedicine through satlellites. This move , if successful could have far-reaching effects in India , especially since even basic healthcare facilities are out of reach for many in rural India. What is also commendable is that organisations using this for social good would not be charged for the service

Then, of course, there are those who vehemently believe you need shock and gore to get aid pouring in.

This Indian Express article supports parent about the rarity of tsunamis in the Indian subcontinent.

Bad 80s synth? Even Stephen Hawking is getting a make-over these days.

Sorry, I'm new to posting on Slashdot, and broke the URL. Just knock off the double "http://" at the start, and it'll work. It's corrected below:-

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?conten t_id=41174

In summary:- "core of a cooling white dwarf star 50 light-years from Earth is composed almost entirely of crystalline carbon", and "has a diameter of 2,500 miles and weighs 5 million trillion trillion pounds, or 10 billion trillion trillion carats"

Who is to die if the crops fail from something that a herbicide or pesticide could prevent ?

Who's already dying from the slow poisoning caused by the contamination of food, soil, and water by pesticides?

Betch it ain't Americans. It'll be the poor bloody Indians or Africans

A worthwhile read on the legacy of the lens used in the film can be found here.


It seems a man named Kirk Wooster from Georgia claims to have the lens. Note the auction is listed as taking place in Woodstock, GA.

Once a premier newspaper, it has reduced to a tabloid and semi porn website now.
That is so true. Semi-porn is exactly what I call it. I stopped going there (and reading the paper) a while ago.
I prefer the Indian Express.

Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty tired of hearing this argument about how Indian's are kicking American butt because you're all so good.

Indian has not innovated anything in hundreds or thousands of years. Indians had to come to the US become innovators. Every piece of technology you're using was invented and developed in the West (in some cases by Indian's living here). From the base process of semicondustors to the routers you use for your Internet connection.

Lets look at publications: even the excellent schools like the Indian Institute of Technology do not have the output of Stanford, MIT Carniegie Mellon and the University of California. So why is this?

Next time you get on your high horse about how great India is think about the cast system. The fact that even today some widows in India still feel that they have to burn themselve to death. Or how about the religious riots? Or the fact that the US only just pulled back India and Pakistan from the brink of nuclear war.

The only reason that Indian software engineers can compete with software engineers in the United States is that the Indian cost of living is a tiny fraction of that in California and Indian software engineers are cheap labor. We're no smarter than you are, nor are you any smarter than we are. There are excellent people in both countries. But Indians are cheap and accessible because of the Internet that has been provided by the West.

And then there is agriculture. Even without the massive farm price supports India's agriculture could not compete with the US which uses massive amounts of automation and has access to capital that India does not. This allows the US to produce a vast qunatity of agricultural products with only a small fraction of its population.

Here is the link [Indian Express] that i was looking for while writing the parent. Excerpt:

According to the EC, places like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Dohad, Panchmahals, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Keda, Anand, Gandhinagar, Patan, Bhavnagar and parts of Rajkot have been the worst-affected by communal violence. The commission will closely watch over the deployment of security forces in these areas.

The Electronic voting machines (EVM) in use are not connected to the central server. They just store the count of votes on some sort memory chip that the Election office has to get to a counting station to get the votes counted.

Besides it will take some skills to fool the EMV, muscle power won't play its traditional role. These device is made my Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. And they say the device is pretty secured.
Its been use for 10 years now but never on this large scale.

Outsourcing's spreading to non-tech jobs as well. Read this

I think in another 50 years that India will be beside the US in terms of being a world superpower. In a hundred it will be the most powerful nation in the world

Not unless they figure out how to think as one nation instead of several chauvinistic states. Oh, and get rid of the pork-bellied ruling class that has held the country back so far.

The BBC article had almost no information, what it says is equivalent to "meteor strikes california"(orissa is the name of a state), no explanation of how big, where exactly etc. Indian newspapers have no information either. Finally found this article on Indian Express.
Also I dont think there would be an official collection of funds. 8 people injured is not even newsworthy for Orissa. Every year atleast a 100 die in floods. An occasional drought or an earthquake or even a heat wave kills more. I'm sorry if I seem uncaring , but that seems the way it is
Apparently somebody actually died and others are in hospital. Also it hit more than one village and the villagers collected a 5.7 kg (approx 12 pounds) rock and have kept it at the local "panchayat" office ( village governence office). So somebody lost a fortune on this, but they have been nice to turn it to the officials.

And turbans are actually not on the list of warning signs. Beards of a certain type are including the Uday short and Osama long styles. Sihks aren't the ones the TSA is after.

(The link doesn't mention that the flight attendant was suspended after the incident, btw)

Sadly, all the world, including Europe and India are targets. You are simply misinformed. Most recently, 53 people were killed by an Islamic Terrorist in Mumbai

I found through Google about Congress and Outsourcing revealed this interesting article on IndianExpress.com

Here is also a Petition site attempting to Abolish the H-1B program entirely: Zazona.com

The CIA factbook is the biggest piece of shit. It's full of blatant mis-facts.

I know for a fact that india's average per capita income isn't anywhere around the $2,500 mark they report. It's closer to $500. Look here for proof.

I swear someone at CIA just makes up this shit when it comes time to turn in a report. "Fuck, I didn't do my job and research this, let me make up an appropriate value and report it."

Is this becoming a trademark CIA thing or what? Well, I think Bush would agree with me right about now.

Interesting story found on GOOGLE NEWS:
(click the link below)

'Cobra 6' roasts a small town, can't face the nightmare

QUESTION OF THE DAY

[QUESTION]
How long do you think will it take for us to have 53 states in the USA ?

[ANSWER]
(a) Less than 1 year
(b) 1-2 years
(c) 2-5 years
(d) No. We will have 50 states and an axis of 3 colonies.

Just kidding, alright. Don't get all flamed up ;-)