Indian History
A plot of land meant for Palestinian Embassy here has also been gifted to the PLA, he said. India has earlier also been giving assistance to Palestinian people and Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed himself carried vehicles and medicines there last year. [India gives Rs 65 crore aid to Palestine link via What? come again…]
If the honorable minister is able to carry vehicles all by himself, we should send him for the next Olympics for weight lifting.
In South Korea
Just a few years ago, Michigan State University scientist Jose Cibelli was considered the leading expert on cloning human embryos to treat and study disease. Now, there’s no debate that the cloning king is Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University.
On Thursday, Hwang announced yet again that he had successfully cloned human embryos, this time extracting stem cells from embryos created using the DNA of sick and injured patients. It was the second time in a little more than a year that Hwang had successfully cloned. He remains the only acknowledged scientist to have done so.[S. Korea Takes Lead in Stem Cell Research]
In United Kingdom
Scientists hailed on Friday the announcement that British researchers have succeeded in creating the country’s first — and the world’s second — cloned embryo, a breakthrough that keeps Britain at the forefront of the fast-moving, potentially revolutionary field. [Scientists Hail Creation of Cloned Embryo]
In United States
“I am a strong supporter of stem cell research, but I’ve made very clear to Congress that the use of federal taxpayer money to promote science that destroys life in order to save life, I am against this,” said Bush, speaking in the Oval Office during a brief joint appearance with the Danish prime minister, Anders Rasmussen, by his side. Therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.“[Bush threatens stem cell veto]
But here in California, voters passed Proposition 71, which allows the state to fund stem cell research and the headquaters for the new agency will be San Francisco. Thank God, I don’t live in Kansas.
Netscape has released version 8.0 of their Firefox based browser. The UI looks slick and it has nice features like warning while visiting spyware sites and passcard to manage all your passwords. Since it is based on Firefox 1.0.3, you get tabbed browsing and fast rendering with the Gecko engine.
But while taking it on a spin today, there were two things that put me off
So I am sticking to Firefox, which does not have these two issues
The San Jose Mercury News is the main newspaper of Silicon Valley and according to a news today, its subscription has been falling. Circulation has been falling for other newspapers as well. The reasons cited are competition from Internet and Cable TV. But what is not mentioned is that most of these newspapers are pathetic in quality. You can flip through an issue of Mercury News and find that there is nothing important to read, especially for people who are interested in knowing events happening outside Santa Clara County. The pages are filled with advertisements with some news thrown in as fillers. One of the major reasons why most people buy the newspaper is due to the discount Pizza and grocery coupons they insert in the weekend editions.
You may not get indepth coverage of world issues in Mercury News, but they do have some columns which appeal to people living here. My favourites are Mr. Roadshow and Action Line. The Mercury News staff also has two excellent blogs, Silicon Beat and Good Morning Silicon Valley for people whose lives revolve around technology.
One day they will realize that they are not making money off the print edition and need to charge people for the online edition, like how the New York Times realized
It is hard not to notice two contrasting stories that have run side by side during the past week. One is the story about the violent protests in the Muslim world triggered by a report in Newsweek (which the magazine has now retracted) that U.S. interrogators at Guantánamo Bay desecrated a Koran by throwing it into a toilet. In Afghanistan alone, at least 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in anti-American rioting that has been linked to that report. I certainly hope that Newsweek story is incorrect, because it would be outrageous if U.S. interrogators behaved that way.
That said, though, in the same newspapers one can read the latest reports from Iraq, where Baathist and jihadist suicide bombers have killed 400 Iraqi Muslims in the past month – most of them Shiite and Kurdish civilians shopping in markets, walking in funerals, going to mosques or volunteering to join the police.
Yet these mass murders – this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims – have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia. [Outrage and Silence]
True, also when Hindu Gods are desecrated in Saudi Arabia, it is just a law and order problem. But selective outrage is a global problem.
After going through ups and downs, finally the women of Kuwait get the right to vote.
But in spite of the law’s shortcomings, the decision goes a long way toward solidifying the gains that Kuwaiti women have already made. The law essentially enshrines in the Constitution what is already a de facto characteristic of Kuwaiti society: Despite having been denied the right to vote, Kuwaiti women have led their female counterparts in other countries in the Gulf in terms of gender equality. Unlike other women in the region, Kuwaiti women are free to drive, dress as they choose and travel without any restrictions. Women outnumber men in universities and they compose a third of the emirate’s workforce. They also play an active role in the political arena through local and international rights groups and civil society organizations – groups that have played a key role in demanding that the state extend women their rights. The female force can be felt in every sector, from banking to medicine to art and the oil industry. The new law only confirms what was already known: Kuwaiti women are an important part of the fabric of their society.[Empowered women will drive Kuwait into the 21st century]
NPR has an interview with one of the activists.
Sandeep Pandey wants India and Pakistan to give dual citizenship to citizens of both countries as a solution to all problems. Ever heard of something called partition Sandeep ? Now at this point, Musharraf, who has even rejected the idea of soft borders is wondering, “I have to fight hard against these Indians to be their Enemy No. 1”
Ethnic cleansing continues in Kashmir, and even school children are not spared. Infiltration continues, and innocent civilians are murdered. But Mahesh Bhatt is unhappy that he is not able to get Pakistanis to act in his B-movies
Radio Free Europe has an article on gender violence in South Asia and for the article, the reporter Antoine Blua has picked stories of abuse from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. All of them are real horror stories and a shame on society. But towards the end comes a line out of the blue
Coomaraswamy said she believes South Asian men feel threatened by social and cultural changes, partly spread by globalization and the mass media. And women are bearing the brunt of men’s fears. [South Asia: Recent Killings, Violence Underscore Lack Of Progress In Gender Justice]
This seems to be some Praful Bidwai kind of logic where everything has to be blamed on United States or on Globalization. So were there no Islamic honor killings before the spread of globalization ? Were there no rapes before the arrival of mass media ? If this is true, rapes should not be happening in globalized countries. But if you look at any evening newscast in United States, it starts with a a few crimes and gruesome child abuse. and what is the explanation for that ?
In another news Christian Aid has come out with a report saying that liberalization is causing the death of Andhra farmers and Alex Singleton at the Globalization Institute has a rebuttal
It is totally regrettable when anyone commits suicide, but the Christian Aid report misses the point. Christian Aid ignores all the millions of lives saved from starvation in India because of liberalization. If saving lives were the point of the report, Christian Aid should be firmly backing liberalization. This report is about backing up ideology.
When the sort of policies Christian Aid advocates were followed in the 1960s and 1970s, India’s economy stagnated and living standards fell. Many starved. Now, by following liberalizing policies, India’s economy is experiencing some of the world’s fastest economic growth. Christian Aid is effectively saying that India should grow more slowly. This would not be in the interests of poverty-relief.
Christian Aid seems to blame the suicides on Britain’s Department for International Development for its support of Andhra Pradesh’s privatization policies. Yet the report says the suicides are by farmers, not by workers at newly-privatized companies. Indeed, because India taxpayers are paying for fewer loss-making state industries, the government has had more money to spend on its priorities – including on helping farmers. [Christian Aid’s report on Indian suicides]
I used to live in Los Angeles which has the worst traffic in the world. I have lived in Mumbai India, Sao Paulo Brazil and Vancouver Canada and nothing beats Los Angeles. I used to live near I-10 which used to be standstill on a Sunday morning at 5 am and I used to wonder where all these people were going.
The Los Angeles region had the worst traffic congestion in the nation for the 20th year in a row, according to an annual report released Monday. According to the study, rush-hour drivers in metropolitan Los Angeles — which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties — spent an average of 93 hours more in traffic during 2003 than they would have without traffic jams. For a person who works five days a week and never takes a vacation, that’s like being parked on the freeway for 21 minutes every day.
In fact, the average commute in 2003 took nearly twice as long as it should have, costing the average rush-hour driver $1,598 in extra gas and diminished free time throughout the year, according to the report. Those figures were worse for the Los Angeles area than for any other major urban area covered by the report.Los Angeles Ranks Worst in U.S. Traffic Study
Then I moved to San Francisco Bay Area and things improved. Now instead of living in the most congested area, I live in the second most congested area
The Bay Area is ranked near the top in one category most area residents would rather not be recognized for.According to an annual report on commuting times, drivers in the Bay Area suffer through the second-worst traffic jams in the country. This year’s Urban Mobility Report says on average, Bay Area drivers are delayed about 72 hours a year. The annual report says only Los Angeles-area drivers spend more time sitting in traffic jams. They waste an 93 extra hours a year in trafficStudy says Bay Area traffic delays second longest in nation
Now if I am fed up with all this and decide to move back to my home town of Thrissurr, Kerala, things don’t look good their either
Traffic snarls, blaring horns and bad-tempered drivers may soon become the order of the day in Thrissur town if constructive steps are not taken to address the increasing traffic problems.
A major hurdle in traffic management in Thrissur is the absence of corresponding development of roads to the number of vehicles that roll out every year. But it’s not the only one. Lack of proper planning in the construction of junctions and traffic routeing, narrow roads, inadequate parking facilities, the list is almost endless.
With a total area of 101.42 sq km, Thrissur town has a road network of 526 km. Major roads lead to the Swaraj Round, and herein lies the core of the problem. Traffic on the Round has been restricted to one-way from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but even this could prove inadequate in future, according to the police. Parking is another contentious issue on the Round, which needs to be addressedThrissur faces traffic problems
This is what globalization truly is: Anywhere you go in the world, you get the same set of problems.
Finally it takes a Frenchman to say things bluntly
For my part, I know where I stand. Having had the chance, during my investigations into journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder, to observe close up the nature of the ties between the ISI and a number of Islamist groups, such as the Jaish-e-Muhammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, linked to the “sacred” cause of Kashmir, I don’t have many illusions as to the sincerity of the Islamabad leaders when they present themselves as the best students in the anti-terrorist class.
I just hope that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice doesn’t have any more illusions than I have, and that when she thanks the Pakistanis for “the difficult work they’ve done,” she knows that she’s trifling with us, and she knows what she’s doing. I hope that when, in order to break the “axis of evil,” the Americans ally themselves with one of the regimes that has at its disposal both weapons of mass destruction and the ideology capable of putting them into action, they are fully aware that they’re playing with fire. And that they’re playing the craziest, most paradoxical and — if they’re not careful — most dangerous diplomatic poker game in contemporary history. [Pakistan’s Chips in a Shady Game]
Bernard-Henri Levy is the author of Who Killed Daniel Pearl?