But my proof of God does not exist is that the CTW exists. If there existed a god he would not allow the existence of such a flawed philosophy as CTW hence God does not exist.
or not.. what the article has found is not just that organisms evolve but also some of them evolve to forms which are not going to evolve any more (think cockroaches) as they dont have the proteins which make them more suited to handle mutations in a favourable manner while other organisms do have these proteins and are better suited for further evolving. Now there may be organisms which evolve to superbly suit their niche in the ecosystem but in the process lose the capacity to further evolve. Such organisms(think dinosaurs) would rule over the more adaptable ones (think mammals) until some sudden event which requires rapid evolution comes along. In such a changed environment the old rulers could be wiped out if they couldnt eveolve fast enough and the losers may evolve to be the new rulers - The king is dead, long live the king. (Or in evolutionary terms - The dinosaurs are dead, long live the Primates). What is fun is that the scientists have found proteins involved in negative feedback of mutations and positive feedback of mutations. This means certain species could have only positive feedback control proteins which means any mutation they have go absolutely nuts as the mutations cause more mutations and so on. It would mean species which create new sub species at the drop of a hat. I am thinking tropical fish. If such control chains could be brought to humans it would speed up human evolution and differentiation which has pretty much stopped as our environment is too friendly nowadays (e.g. we dont leave the weakest to be eaten by the predator we build wheelchair ramps for them so no way are we going to evolve away from spinal bifidia). So if we want to evolve further either we go back to being animals and abandon the weak or speed up evolution by artificial means by destabilizing our DNA. This would mean knocking out some of the negative feedback control chains and adding extra positive feedback control chains. Yes these would create more kids to be born with birth defects but our society already takes good care of the handicapped but it would also lead to the birth of kids with unique abilities. So now we know how the X-Men can be created - knock out the control proteins.
At least thats something the Korean's cant pay with their mobile phones. Of course if they could they could live for free- Charge everything to the mobile bill including the mobile bill which includes the things you charged last month. Infinite recursion!!! Of course there is a real world example for this behaviour- the US dollar . The US pays for everything using paper dollars which are worth only the paper they are printed on - anytime anyone wanted something real in return say gold all dollars would instantly be worthless so noone demands payment and just pass on the dollars while the national debt keeps growing just like the mobile bill would but noone is bothered as the debt is being serviced just like the mobile bill is paid every month.
I keep waiting for the Slashdot trolls to come out with their standard response to India stories - "Why are they doing when they cant feed themselves" Incidentally when I worked in Europe I never saw a beggar (guess the dole works). Not so in Toronto and Austin. Austin beggars are passive except on Guadalupe where they can give the pushiest Indian beggar good competition. But the funniest beggar I saw was the one sitting outside the McDonalds in downtown Toronto with a 'Change please' sign. Whenever he had enough change he would go in and get a burger and come back outside (rinse,lather,repeat). So yeah there are people who cant afford to eat in the US and Canada too - thats what happens in capitalist countries and India is capitalist too.
Well they have the cheap geothermal power and the free cooling for the datacenters. The only hitch was how out of the way iceland is. But it does have an abandoned NATO airfield so now that the top execs can jet in and out in an hour or so at supersonic speeds goodbye Silicon Valley Hello Reykjavik. Solves all the turnover problem too as in "You want to leave Google and join Microsoft. Fine as soon as you get security clearance from the Icelandic government you can leave (never that is)" With Iceland being bankrupt they would sell their souls and change their national anthem to "Do no evil" if Google comes calling.
If people in India become rich how will all the NGOs and Church groups who raise money based on sad looking photographs survive? The typical business model is for every 10 dollars raised spend a dollar on some unproductive charity in India and pocket the other 9 dollars and lead a lifestyle even most Americans cant dream of. The whole third world charity industry probably employs more people in the US than heavy manufacturing. If India becomes non-poor all these average Joe Six packs would be worrying about their next meal and not their health insurance.
Barclays came into the game a lot later. JP Morgan had been dangling a bridge loan under Lehman's nose for the last 2 weeks and pulled out at the end. Also Merrill Lynch wasnt so pure either. They were there at the talks to convince Bank of America or Barclays to buy Lehman so Lehman doesnt default on them. At the last moment when Barclays walked away from a bad deal all hopes were on BofA but Merrill instead of helping Lehman chose that moment to pitch themselves to BofA . Of course BofA had the capacity to buy only one failing Investment Banker a day so Lehman was screwed. Its all about whether Merrill paid more to lobying firms who give vacations to Paulson or Lehman. it seems Lehman tried to be cheap and didnt bribe Paulson enough.
Just exactly why would you object to an union of India, Pakistan,Bangladesh and Nepal as long as everyone has equal rights and politics are based on real issues like development . I personally wouldnt care if in such an union the elected Prime Minister was from Lahore or Rawalpindi. Your virulent explosion at the end shows who has been brainwashed by his government. BTW feudalism can be agricultural or industrial. Lookup a God in Mote's Eye for a good description of Industrial Feudalism. So just because Sharif had factories doesnt mean he is not a feudal lord.
Look as long as we have an unstable Pakistan and a Bangladesh with uncontrolled population growth on our borders we would have to face an influx of terrorists and illegal immigrants respectively and you cannot nation build under those conditions. Sure we would have to subsidize the Pakistani and Bangladeshi economies for a few years but its been done before. The EU is built on the German economy subsidizing the rest of the EU but it still works better than having to waste huge amounts on defense. Maybe we can also take Nepal into the Union if the Hindu fundamentalists are scared about too many muslims being part of India
Well no. To use that kind of brute force the US would have to be not just the strongest but also stronger than all the rest of the world combined and not just in total but in every small local theater of the world. For example the US would have to have a larger Army than the Russians have in the Caucuses, A larger Army , Navy and Air Force than the Chinese in the Taiwan Straits, A larger navy than the Indians in the Indian Ocean, a larger Air force than the French in West Africa, a larger Navy than the Australians in Oceania and so on ALL AT THE SAME TIME(Note I mentioned a number of US allies too as the Might is Right line will make everyone an enemy). This for a nation which is already crying uncle to North Korea as the entire Army is tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan and there's nothing to spare for North Korea without exposing either Taiwan or Central America and has already given up on dominating Africa or Central Asia. So absolute might may be right but in today's world nobody has that kind of might. Simply population will not allow it. A country of 300 million simply cannot rule a world of 6 billion merely by might if it loses its moral right to rule (which it won by saving the world from Fascism during WW2)as the difference in technology levels are no longer that big. So if America wants to continue being the global cop it has to act like a cop(Like it did in Afghanistan) and not like a thug (Like it did in Iraq)
Look your Analysis fails. Here's why. You took the percentages from an old census while the numbers are current. The Muslim population of India is growing much faster than that of Pakistan so the 12.5 million difference has been wiped out. Why is the Muslim population of India growing faster? Because in India the Muslims happen to be poor and backward and poor people have more children while in Pakistan Muslims represent the entire gamut of society from poor to rich so they have an average growth rate. As to why the Muslims of India are backward has to do with historical reasons specifically the Partition. When the Partition happened rich and well connected Muslim families with disposable liquid resources could afford to leave for Pakistan (same for Hindus on the Pakistani side) but poor, uneducated , slum dwelling Muslims could not afford to leave so in general the Muslim population left behind was a backward population and 50 years of self isolation into Ghettos/Mohallas has prevented them from catching up with Indian society in general. Its not like there are no poor Hindus in India but there are also rich Hindus but very few rich Muslims (Azim Premji one of the richest men in the world is the exception which proves the rule). The only rich Muslims left behind were the staunchly secular ones who thought the entire idea of creating a nation based on religion was an abomination and had fought tooth and nail against the idea of Pakistan. However after partition there was so much anger against Muslims in India that even these Muslims left mostly for Britain or Australia (Being ex citizens of the British empire for a certain transitional period they were welcomed in Britain especially if they had some white blood mixed in but even otherwise if they had connections amongst British officials Funnily enough the British born children of these Secularist Muslims are staunchly pro Pakistan Go figure) . Also the poor backward Hindus leftover in Pakistan were forced to convert or wiped out so there is not a corresponding backward Hindu population in Pakistan.
Look the Muslims of Northern India had held power before the British took over. So a section of the Muslim Elite thought when they throw out the British they can go back to being kings. Then they realized in a democracy if people started voting on religious lines the Hindus would always be a majority. These people (the Muslim League) were not willing to base their politics on something besides religion nor were they willing to be in permanent opposition (like the South African Whites party nowadays) so they came up with the brilliant idea of a separate nation for Muslims. It would be like if at the end of Apartheid the whites had demanded a separate white state in South Africa. The people of the two releigions had been living together for centuries and it was simply not possible to just separate them. Some so called Muslim majority areas which went to Pakistan were 51% Muslim, 49% Hindus and after partition the 49% had to just get up and leave. And large Muslim majority areas were there at the heart of India which India simply could not give to Pakistan or India would be reduced to a patchwork like Africa. So partition was imperfect,incomplete and stupid , Pakistan a country based on religion is a stupid idea for the 20th century (BTW that goes for Israel too.) But the partition and the corresponding riots/ethnic cleansing which happened crested a lot of enemity between people of the two religions ( I had an Uncle who stayed on in East Pakistan. He was Hindu but he had been a senior police officer under the British and simply didnt believe anyone could touch him but yup he was killed by Muslims during the riots. The rest of the family left with only the clothes on their backs leaving behind lands and factories) Riots happened on both sides but they were a lot worse on the Pakistani side. This was because Pakistan had declared itself a Muslim only state while India had declared itself Secular and still had large Muslim populations in its heartlands so it couldnt carry out the kind of ethnic cleansing Pakistan did. The result at time of Partition the areas that were Pakistan had a 24% Hindu population . Now its less than 4%. India on the other hand started out with a 18% Muslim population which is now 21%. Just in case if you are wondering whether I hate Muslims I dont My wife is Muslim. What I do hate are the Muslim League and its philosophy which caused the partition and am virulently opposed to any philosophy which says people of different religions cannot stay together. The sad thing is Pakistan having being founded by selfih elites who didnt give a damn how many people suffered just as long as they can grab political power has become a totally unstable and dangerous state. Even though the GDP per capita of Pakistan is higher than India it is skewed horribly. There is a class of feudal lords the Bhuttos, the Sharifs etc who own almost all the land not owned by the Army and win all the elections as if the people dont vote for them they will throw the tenants off their land. Most of the rest of the population are no better than serfs like in Imperial Russia over whom the Feudal politicians hold the power of life and death. The only way out of poverty is to join the Army which has had the unfortunate effect of making the Army the strongest institution in the country. The Army on its part can only maintain its prestige and its budget as long as there are conflicts so they have no interest in peace with India or Afghanistan. The feudal politicians have made a deal with the Army that as long as they keep giving half the budget to the Army they can steal the rest and the people can go to hell. No wonder the desperate people are willing to listen to anything (including Islamic fundamentalism) which promises them a way out of their misery. All in all a very bad situation even without China giving them Nukes to try and hamper India's progress. The only solution I see is for India to reabsorb Pakistan and Bangladesh (Given the much faster population growth that has happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh this would result in a cou
Look the Indian conventional army is much bigger and better equipped than the Pakistani one so India would never use a nuclear first strike against Pakistan. The Chinese military is stronger than India's but most of it is focussed against Japan and Taiwan. The forces facing against India in Tibet (India has a border with Tibet not China) are again inferior to the Indian forces on the eastern front. So India is in no danger of being overrun. The Nukes ensure that China or Pakistan wont be tempted to do a first strike themselves. Now you might say how about USA? Again USA might have a bigger military but the assets they can bring to the Indian Ocean are again inferior to what India has off its coast. Basically it takes a much smaller force to defend than to attack. So the nukes are basically there so that no country can do what USA did to India in 1971 i.e. Sent the USS Kitty Hawk into the Bay of Bengal with a message withdraw from Bangladesh or we nuke Calcutta. Nuclear blackmail doesnt work if the other side has nukes too. For the rest India has no interest in fighting a nuclear war and nor does it want to be a global cop like the Western nations so it doesnt need a first strike policy.
Since when do US Citizens matter in US nuclear policy? The entire US nuclear program was built by Germans, Britishers, Italians and what not. This is about business . The US has nuclear companies who cant sell in the US market so they need new markets and the Indian market is a big market. Also its kind of sweet justice as the entire NSG was setup to prevent India from having cheap nuclear power(India already had bombs when the NSG was setup. It was efficient power reactors which the embargo was all about). Well I guess the opinion in the west about the suitability of the Brown man to have advanced tech has changed.
The only thing preventing India from whooping Pakistani ass is the Chinese and American support the Pakistanis have. If the Americans really wanted Pakistan to be taken out all they would have to do is pressurise the Chinese to back off and stop gifting F 16s to Pakistan and India can take care of the rest.
Most of the nuclear fuel comes from Canada and Australia and its not like the US is using it anyway. The US hasnt built a new nuke plant in 30 years. The deal helps the American Nuclear industry to keep alive its skills by constructing plants in India till the mood in the US changes to building nuke plants again (its a matter of time the oil is running out you know). Also India has loads of Thorium but to change Thorium to U233 you need U235 to begin with and advanced reprocessing technologies which only yhe US and the French have. If India can develop the thorium cycle with American help than India wont be dependent on imported Uranium anymore and can generate all the required power from Thorium hence reducing the competition for Uranium which is running out and will be finished in 50 years (actually commercially viable Uranium will be finished before the oil is finished so the thorium cycle is the only hope)
Or dont you know the Pakistanis were given their nukes by the Chinese. The country is a feudal military dictatorship. Simply not the kind of society to be able to develop Nukes on their own. They are good enough to take Chinese nukes and rebrand them though.
Thats kind of a bullshit argument. Most countries active in offshoring like Ireland, Russia or India dont produce even a fraction of the PhDs that are produced in the US. The twist in the story is that most of the PhDs being produced are foreign students because Americans are not willing to go through the slave labor that is Grad school unless they really really love their jsubject. Now most of these PhDs cant stay in the US due to visa restrictions so they go back and start companies which supply the demand for offshoring. The foreign countries have hardly done anything for their own citizens. Their citizens have clawed their way up by making personal sacrifices which someone brought up in America simply wouldnt do.
e.g. Typical timetable of an Indian student trying to get into IIT. 4 AM Wake up and do school homework 6 AM Start getting ready for school/Breakfast. 700 Am Catch a bus to school. 800 AM-200 PM Continuous classes with only a 20 minute lunch break at 11.30. 200 PM Stay Back at school and work on the assignments/HW from the extra IIT specific coaching classes while eating a sandwich. 400 PM Catch another bus to get to your IIT coaching classes. 430-730 PM Continuous IIT specific coaching classes. 730 Catch another bus to get home (Try to sleep standing up in the bus as much as possible) 900 PM Reach home, wash up and have dinner in front of the TV(only TV time in the whole day) 1030 PM Review your IIT specific course work and try to start on school HW or the other set of IIT specific correspondence course you are taking(Most kids prepping for the IIT entrance take both full time coaching and correspondence coaching). 1200 Go to Sleep. This is Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday is pretty much the same except that mornings are at the IIT specific coaching centre taking practice exams starting at 9 (so you get to sleep till 7 Ah the luxury) and Evenings are for catching up on as much School HW as possible(To leave the weekdays free for IIT specific HW) and also for doing the Correspondence course Assignments. This goes on continuous for 2 years Class XI and Class XII (nowadays some kids are starting at Class IX with the extra coaching). The routine is broken up by School exams when you have to decide whether to skip your IIT specific coaching classes or take a dent in your school marks by still attending the coaching class the evening before the school exam. Fun huh?
And despite this 80% of the kids prepping like this dont get into the IITs or even the second string colleges like DCE, DIT, Roorkee or REC. The leftovers go to private colleges where parents have to mortgage their future to pay the tuition and after they pass out they don't really have a lot of jobs in Indian IT. The only jobs are either as H1B slave labor or in outsourcing companies. But of course after what they go through in school being on call or Grad school looks pretty much like a walk in the park. So yeah if present day Americans dont want to go the way of the Native Americans better unioinize fast coz on a level playing field they really have no chance.
Baen is OK for military SF fans who are more interested in war adventures or fantasies with the setting being space or the future but not so great for core sci-fi fans. Of course there are a few gems hidden in there - Keith Laumer's books being a great read (and not just the Bolo and Retief novels). Stay away from Ringo or even Taylor (when collaborating with Ringo) unless you are a white teenager with a very racist viewpoint of the world. (I am not saying that Ringo or Williamson are racist just that they write for a racist audience. They are probably liberals who laugh their hearts out at making their living from Redneck fans)
Well about wanting to live in US its very simple. America rules the world and decisions taken by the American president affects the lives of people in India, China, Africa and the Middle East. Unfortunately only Americans get to vote to decide who will be the American president. So if you want to meaningful politically your best bet is to become an American citizen, vote to prevent idiots like Bush getting elected and hopefully American policies will be such that the world will not hate American policy (note the world does not hate America just American foreign policy). Similar thing works out in the economic and technical fields. America has the lead (for how long more is a question for a different thread) so if you want to influence where the field moves your best chance to do it is from inside America. Frankly the problem in America is not that professionals are paid too low its that tradespeople are paid too highly. It just doesnt make sense for a plumber in America to be paid more than a neurosurgeon in India. If salaries for tradespeople could be brought lower 60K salaries would be pretty good to live on for professionals.
If assimilation is the issue I would tend to think students who have spent years on American campuses would be ideal candidates for becoming new Americans. Nowhere else but on American campuses do you get to see all the variety there is to American cultural life e.g a New Yorker DOES NOT have the same culture as a Texan but on campus the foreign students get exposed to both so they probably know more about America than an American with no college experience.
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But didn't you get the memo(also called the Koran) - God isnt Christian. Time to rethink your philosophy :)
But my proof of God does not exist is that the CTW exists. If there existed a god he would not allow the existence of such a flawed philosophy as CTW hence God does not exist.
So you are saying
"I think I am right therefore I am right"
What a load of hogwash. I think you are ready to be the next carpentor who starts a famous cult.
or not.. what the article has found is not just that organisms evolve but also some of them evolve to forms which are not going to evolve any more (think cockroaches) as they dont have the proteins which make them more suited to handle mutations in a favourable manner while other organisms do have these proteins and are better suited for further evolving. Now there may be organisms which evolve to superbly suit their niche in the ecosystem but in the process lose the capacity to further evolve. Such organisms(think dinosaurs) would rule over the more adaptable ones (think mammals) until some sudden event which requires rapid evolution comes along. In such a changed environment the old rulers could be wiped out if they couldnt eveolve fast enough and the losers may evolve to be the new rulers - The king is dead, long live the king. (Or in evolutionary terms - The dinosaurs are dead, long live the Primates). What is fun is that the scientists have found proteins involved in negative feedback of mutations and positive feedback of mutations. This means certain species could have only positive feedback control proteins which means any mutation they have go absolutely nuts as the mutations cause more mutations and so on. It would mean species which create new sub species at the drop of a hat. I am thinking tropical fish. If such control chains could be brought to humans it would speed up human evolution and differentiation which has pretty much stopped as our environment is too friendly nowadays (e.g. we dont leave the weakest to be eaten by the predator we build wheelchair ramps for them so no way are we going to evolve away from spinal bifidia). So if we want to evolve further either we go back to being animals and abandon the weak or speed up evolution by artificial means by destabilizing our DNA. This would mean knocking out some of the negative feedback control chains and adding extra positive feedback control chains. Yes these would create more kids to be born with birth defects but our society already takes good care of the handicapped but it would also lead to the birth of kids with unique abilities. So now we know how the X-Men can be created - knock out the control proteins.
At least thats something the Korean's cant pay with their mobile phones. Of course if they could they could live for free- Charge everything to the mobile bill including the mobile bill which includes the things you charged last month. Infinite recursion!!! Of course there is a real world example for this behaviour- the US dollar . The US pays for everything using paper dollars which are worth only the paper they are printed on - anytime anyone wanted something real in return say gold all dollars would instantly be worthless so noone demands payment and just pass on the dollars while the national debt keeps growing just like the mobile bill would but noone is bothered as the debt is being serviced just like the mobile bill is paid every month.
I keep waiting for the Slashdot trolls to come out with their standard response to India stories - "Why are they doing when they cant feed themselves" Incidentally when I worked in Europe I never saw a beggar (guess the dole works). Not so in Toronto and Austin. Austin beggars are passive except on Guadalupe where they can give the pushiest Indian beggar good competition. But the funniest beggar I saw was the one sitting outside the McDonalds in downtown Toronto with a 'Change please' sign. Whenever he had enough change he would go in and get a burger and come back outside (rinse,lather,repeat). So yeah there are people who cant afford to eat in the US and Canada too - thats what happens in capitalist countries and India is capitalist too.
Well they have the cheap geothermal power and the free cooling for the datacenters. The only hitch was how out of the way iceland is. But it does have an abandoned NATO airfield so now that the top execs can jet in and out in an hour or so at supersonic speeds goodbye Silicon Valley Hello Reykjavik. Solves all the turnover problem too as in "You want to leave Google and join Microsoft. Fine as soon as you get security clearance from the Icelandic government you can leave (never that is)" With Iceland being bankrupt they would sell their souls and change their national anthem to "Do no evil" if Google comes calling.
If people in India become rich how will all the NGOs and Church groups who raise money based on sad looking photographs survive? The typical business model is for every 10 dollars raised spend a dollar on some unproductive charity in India and pocket the other 9 dollars and lead a lifestyle even most Americans cant dream of. The whole third world charity industry probably employs more people in the US than heavy manufacturing. If India becomes non-poor all these average Joe Six packs would be worrying about their next meal and not their health insurance.
Barclays came into the game a lot later. JP Morgan had been dangling a bridge loan under Lehman's nose for the last 2 weeks and pulled out at the end. Also Merrill Lynch wasnt so pure either. They were there at the talks to convince Bank of America or Barclays to buy Lehman so Lehman doesnt default on them. At the last moment when Barclays walked away from a bad deal all hopes were on BofA but Merrill instead of helping Lehman chose that moment to pitch themselves to BofA . Of course BofA had the capacity to buy only one failing Investment Banker a day so Lehman was screwed. Its all about whether Merrill paid more to lobying firms who give vacations to Paulson or Lehman. it seems Lehman tried to be cheap and didnt bribe Paulson enough.
Just exactly why would you object to an union of India, Pakistan,Bangladesh and Nepal as long as everyone has equal rights and politics are based on real issues like development . I personally wouldnt care if in such an union the elected Prime Minister was from Lahore or Rawalpindi. Your virulent explosion at the end shows who has been brainwashed by his government. BTW feudalism can be agricultural or industrial. Lookup a God in Mote's Eye for a good description of Industrial Feudalism. So just because Sharif had factories doesnt mean he is not a feudal lord.
Look as long as we have an unstable Pakistan and a Bangladesh with uncontrolled population growth on our borders we would have to face an influx of terrorists and illegal immigrants respectively and you cannot nation build under those conditions. Sure we would have to subsidize the Pakistani and Bangladeshi economies for a few years but its been done before. The EU is built on the German economy subsidizing the rest of the EU but it still works better than having to waste huge amounts on defense. Maybe we can also take Nepal into the Union if the Hindu fundamentalists are scared about too many muslims being part of India
Well no. To use that kind of brute force the US would have to be not just the strongest but also stronger than all the rest of the world combined and not just in total but in every small local theater of the world. For example the US would have to have a larger Army than the Russians have in the Caucuses, A larger Army , Navy and Air Force than the Chinese in the Taiwan Straits, A larger navy than the Indians in the Indian Ocean, a larger Air force than the French in West Africa, a larger Navy than the Australians in Oceania and so on ALL AT THE SAME TIME(Note I mentioned a number of US allies too as the Might is Right line will make everyone an enemy). This for a nation which is already crying uncle to North Korea as the entire Army is tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan and there's nothing to spare for North Korea without exposing either Taiwan or Central America and has already given up on dominating Africa or Central Asia. So absolute might may be right but in today's world nobody has that kind of might. Simply population will not allow it. A country of 300 million simply cannot rule a world of 6 billion merely by might if it loses its moral right to rule (which it won by saving the world from Fascism during WW2)as the difference in technology levels are no longer that big. So if America wants to continue being the global cop it has to act like a cop(Like it did in Afghanistan) and not like a thug (Like it did in Iraq)
Look your Analysis fails. Here's why. You took the percentages from an old census while the numbers are current. The Muslim population of India is growing much faster than that of Pakistan so the 12.5 million difference has been wiped out. Why is the Muslim population of India growing faster? Because in India the Muslims happen to be poor and backward and poor people have more children while in Pakistan Muslims represent the entire gamut of society from poor to rich so they have an average growth rate. As to why the Muslims of India are backward has to do with historical reasons specifically the Partition. When the Partition happened rich and well connected Muslim families with disposable liquid resources could afford to leave for Pakistan (same for Hindus on the Pakistani side) but poor, uneducated , slum dwelling Muslims could not afford to leave so in general the Muslim population left behind was a backward population and 50 years of self isolation into Ghettos/Mohallas has prevented them from catching up with Indian society in general. Its not like there are no poor Hindus in India but there are also rich Hindus but very few rich Muslims (Azim Premji one of the richest men in the world is the exception which proves the rule). The only rich Muslims left behind were the staunchly secular ones who thought the entire idea of creating a nation based on religion was an abomination and had fought tooth and nail against the idea of Pakistan. However after partition there was so much anger against Muslims in India that even these Muslims left mostly for Britain or Australia (Being ex citizens of the British empire for a certain transitional period they were welcomed in Britain especially if they had some white blood mixed in but even otherwise if they had connections amongst British officials Funnily enough the British born children of these Secularist Muslims are staunchly pro Pakistan Go figure) . Also the poor backward Hindus leftover in Pakistan were forced to convert or wiped out so there is not a corresponding backward Hindu population in Pakistan.
Look the Muslims of Northern India had held power before the British took over. So a section of the Muslim Elite thought when they throw out the British they can go back to being kings. Then they realized in a democracy if people started voting on religious lines the Hindus would always be a majority. These people (the Muslim League) were not willing to base their politics on something besides religion nor were they willing to be in permanent opposition (like the South African Whites party nowadays) so they came up with the brilliant idea of a separate nation for Muslims. It would be like if at the end of Apartheid the whites had demanded a separate white state in South Africa. The people of the two releigions had been living together for centuries and it was simply not possible to just separate them. Some so called Muslim majority areas which went to Pakistan were 51% Muslim, 49% Hindus and after partition the 49% had to just get up and leave. And large Muslim majority areas were there at the heart of India which India simply could not give to Pakistan or India would be reduced to a patchwork like Africa. So partition was imperfect,incomplete and stupid , Pakistan a country based on religion is a stupid idea for the 20th century (BTW that goes for Israel too.) But the partition and the corresponding riots/ethnic cleansing which happened crested a lot of enemity between people of the two religions ( I had an Uncle who stayed on in East Pakistan. He was Hindu but he had been a senior police officer under the British and simply didnt believe anyone could touch him but yup he was killed by Muslims during the riots. The rest of the family left with only the clothes on their backs leaving behind lands and factories) Riots happened on both sides but they were a lot worse on the Pakistani side. This was because Pakistan had declared itself a Muslim only state while India had declared itself Secular and still had large Muslim populations in its heartlands so it couldnt carry out the kind of ethnic cleansing Pakistan did. The result at time of Partition the areas that were Pakistan had a 24% Hindu population . Now its less than 4%. India on the other hand started out with a 18% Muslim population which is now 21%. Just in case if you are wondering whether I hate Muslims I dont My wife is Muslim. What I do hate are the Muslim League and its philosophy which caused the partition and am virulently opposed to any philosophy which says people of different religions cannot stay together. The sad thing is Pakistan having being founded by selfih elites who didnt give a damn how many people suffered just as long as they can grab political power has become a totally unstable and dangerous state. Even though the GDP per capita of Pakistan is higher than India it is skewed horribly. There is a class of feudal lords the Bhuttos, the Sharifs etc who own almost all the land not owned by the Army and win all the elections as if the people dont vote for them they will throw the tenants off their land. Most of the rest of the population are no better than serfs like in Imperial Russia over whom the Feudal politicians hold the power of life and death. The only way out of poverty is to join the Army which has had the unfortunate effect of making the Army the strongest institution in the country. The Army on its part can only maintain its prestige and its budget as long as there are conflicts so they have no interest in peace with India or Afghanistan. The feudal politicians have made a deal with the Army that as long as they keep giving half the budget to the Army they can steal the rest and the people can go to hell. No wonder the desperate people are willing to listen to anything (including Islamic fundamentalism) which promises them a way out of their misery. All in all a very bad situation even without China giving them Nukes to try and hamper India's progress. The only solution I see is for India to reabsorb Pakistan and Bangladesh (Given the much faster population growth that has happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh this would result in a cou
Look the Indian conventional army is much bigger and better equipped than the Pakistani one so India would never use a nuclear first strike against Pakistan. The Chinese military is stronger than India's but most of it is focussed against Japan and Taiwan. The forces facing against India in Tibet (India has a border with Tibet not China) are again inferior to the Indian forces on the eastern front. So India is in no danger of being overrun. The Nukes ensure that China or Pakistan wont be tempted to do a first strike themselves. Now you might say how about USA? Again USA might have a bigger military but the assets they can bring to the Indian Ocean are again inferior to what India has off its coast. Basically it takes a much smaller force to defend than to attack. So the nukes are basically there so that no country can do what USA did to India in 1971 i.e. Sent the USS Kitty Hawk into the Bay of Bengal with a message withdraw from Bangladesh or we nuke Calcutta. Nuclear blackmail doesnt work if the other side has nukes too. For the rest India has no interest in fighting a nuclear war and nor does it want to be a global cop like the Western nations so it doesnt need a first strike policy.
Since when do US Citizens matter in US nuclear policy? The entire US nuclear program was built by Germans, Britishers, Italians and what not. This is about business . The US has nuclear companies who cant sell in the US market so they need new markets and the Indian market is a big market. Also its kind of sweet justice as the entire NSG was setup to prevent India from having cheap nuclear power(India already had bombs when the NSG was setup. It was efficient power reactors which the embargo was all about). Well I guess the opinion in the west about the suitability of the Brown man to have advanced tech has changed.
The only thing preventing India from whooping Pakistani ass is the Chinese and American support the Pakistanis have. If the Americans really wanted Pakistan to be taken out all they would have to do is pressurise the Chinese to back off and stop gifting F 16s to Pakistan and India can take care of the rest.
Most of the nuclear fuel comes from Canada and Australia and its not like the US is using it anyway. The US hasnt built a new nuke plant in 30 years. The deal helps the American Nuclear industry to keep alive its skills by constructing plants in India till the mood in the US changes to building nuke plants again (its a matter of time the oil is running out you know). Also India has loads of Thorium but to change Thorium to U233 you need U235 to begin with and advanced reprocessing technologies which only yhe US and the French have. If India can develop the thorium cycle with American help than India wont be dependent on imported Uranium anymore and can generate all the required power from Thorium hence reducing the competition for Uranium which is running out and will be finished in 50 years (actually commercially viable Uranium will be finished before the oil is finished so the thorium cycle is the only hope)
Or dont you know the Pakistanis were given their nukes by the Chinese. The country is a feudal military dictatorship. Simply not the kind of society to be able to develop Nukes on their own. They are good enough to take Chinese nukes and rebrand them though.
India has never had a first strike policy You are Pakistani right?
Thats kind of a bullshit argument. Most countries active in offshoring like Ireland, Russia or India dont produce even a fraction of the PhDs that are produced in the US. The twist in the story is that most of the PhDs being produced are foreign students because Americans are not willing to go through the slave labor that is Grad school unless they really really love their jsubject. Now most of these PhDs cant stay in the US due to visa restrictions so they go back and start companies which supply the demand for offshoring. The foreign countries have hardly done anything for their own citizens. Their citizens have clawed their way up by making personal sacrifices which someone brought up in America simply wouldnt do.
e.g. Typical timetable of an Indian student trying to get into IIT. 4 AM Wake up and do school homework 6 AM Start getting ready for school/Breakfast. 700 Am Catch a bus to school. 800 AM-200 PM Continuous classes with only a 20 minute lunch break at 11.30. 200 PM Stay Back at school and work on the assignments/HW from the extra IIT specific coaching classes while eating a sandwich. 400 PM Catch another bus to get to your IIT coaching classes. 430-730 PM Continuous IIT specific coaching classes. 730 Catch another bus to get home (Try to sleep standing up in the bus as much as possible) 900 PM Reach home, wash up and have dinner in front of the TV(only TV time in the whole day) 1030 PM Review your IIT specific course work and try to start on school HW or the other set of IIT specific correspondence course you are taking(Most kids prepping for the IIT entrance take both full time coaching and correspondence coaching). 1200 Go to Sleep. This is Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday is pretty much the same except that mornings are at the IIT specific coaching centre taking practice exams starting at 9 (so you get to sleep till 7 Ah the luxury) and Evenings are for catching up on as much School HW as possible(To leave the weekdays free for IIT specific HW) and also for doing the Correspondence course Assignments.
This goes on continuous for 2 years Class XI and Class XII (nowadays some kids are starting at Class IX with the extra coaching).
The routine is broken up by School exams when you have to decide whether to skip your IIT specific coaching classes or take a dent in your school marks by still attending the coaching class the evening before the school exam. Fun huh?
And despite this 80% of the kids prepping like this dont get into the IITs or even the second string colleges like DCE, DIT, Roorkee or REC. The leftovers go to private colleges where parents have to mortgage their future to pay the tuition and after they pass out they don't really have a lot of jobs in Indian IT. The only jobs are either as H1B slave labor or in outsourcing companies. But of course after what they go through in school being on call or Grad school looks pretty much like a walk in the park. So yeah if present day Americans dont want to go the way of the Native Americans better unioinize fast coz on a level playing field they really have no chance.
Baen is OK for military SF fans who are more interested in war adventures or fantasies with the setting being space or the future but not so great for core sci-fi fans. Of course there are a few gems hidden in there - Keith Laumer's books being a great read (and not just the Bolo and Retief novels). Stay away from Ringo or even Taylor (when collaborating with Ringo) unless you are a white teenager with a very racist viewpoint of the world. (I am not saying that Ringo or Williamson are racist just that they write for a racist audience. They are probably liberals who laugh their hearts out at making their living from Redneck fans)
Well about wanting to live in US its very simple. America rules the world and decisions taken by the American president affects the lives of people in India, China, Africa and the Middle East. Unfortunately only Americans get to vote to decide who will be the American president. So if you want to meaningful politically your best bet is to become an American citizen, vote to prevent idiots like Bush getting elected and hopefully American policies will be such that the world will not hate American policy (note the world does not hate America just American foreign policy). Similar thing works out in the economic and technical fields. America has the lead (for how long more is a question for a different thread) so if you want to influence where the field moves your best chance to do it is from inside America. Frankly the problem in America is not that professionals are paid too low its that tradespeople are paid too highly. It just doesnt make sense for a plumber in America to be paid more than a neurosurgeon in India. If salaries for tradespeople could be brought lower 60K salaries would be pretty good to live on for professionals.
If assimilation is the issue I would tend to think students who have spent years on American campuses would be ideal candidates for becoming new Americans. Nowhere else but on American campuses do you get to see all the variety there is to American cultural life e.g a New Yorker DOES NOT have the same culture as a Texan but on campus the foreign students get exposed to both so they probably know more about America than an American with no college experience.
"Check! I can keep going all night folks."
Make Sure you get some blue lights to keep you going all night....