Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ

The next debate

Yesterday we had another debate in California, this time including Arnold. Continuing with the circus theme, this debate was total entertainment, so much that the moderator had to say this, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not Comedy Central”. Really, that is the standard the debate had. Here are some “samples”:http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/24/recall.debate/
bq. When she [Ariana Huffington] criticized GOP support for corporate tax loopholes, Schwarzenegger responded that he could “drive my Hummer” through the loopholes she used to pay negligible personal income tax during the last two years.
bq. She retorted, “I was writing and researching a book, and I wasn’t making $20 million violent movies.”
bq. At another point, when Schwarzenegger interrupted her, Huffington objected. “This is the way you treat women. We know that. But not now.”
bq. Allowed to rebut what Statham ruled was a personal attack, Schwarzenegger said, “I would just like to say that I just realized that I have a perfect part for you in ‘Terminator 4.'” He also suggested that she might need “more decaf.”
Meanwhile many other candidates got together for a show called “Who wants to be Governor”:http://www.nbc4.tv/politics/2507804/detail.html, which was a debating game to be aired on the Game Show channel.

To an audio tape free world

If you have lot of audio tapes and want to convert them to digital format, here is a solution that I am trying now.
First I got “Microsoft Plus Digital Media Edition”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000085AHH/jksobservat-20. This comes with an “analog recorder”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/plus/dme/Music.asp#analog (The software costs $19.95 now, but if you “keep looking”:https://varnam.org/archives/000205.html there may be a deal in which you get it for free)
I connected my walkman to the sound card of the desktop and the software did its part. The audio track was filtered for pops and hisses. The end product was clear digital audio, in WMA format. There is no way you can dump in any other format.
The process is very slow. You have to play the casette first, then it takes about that much time to write the digital file after applying all the filters. But it is worth it. Soon my house will be audio tape free.

California Update

Republican Darrel Issa, who spent his personal wealth to start the California Recall Circus has now asked people to “vote no on the recall”:http://www.nirajweb.net/mt/niraj/archives/001916.html, if there are two Republicans in the race.
This show cannot get anymore ridiculous. Yesterday on Jay Leno, 90 candidates were present. It was on Jay Leno that Arnold announced his candidacy. So to be fair to all others, Jay invited everyone. According to election rules, he cannot show one candidate in close up. If so he has to show all 90. But there was a loop hole in this. If he insulted a person, he could show them for that amount of time, without having to show everyone else.
So Jay went around, insulting almost everyone at their face. The porn actress Cary was also present. Jay said that she was the only punched ballot in the crowd, and gave him the finger.
So please do not call our elections as a circus anymore, it has outgrown that word.

Friend or Foe

Time Magaine asks “Is Pakistan a Friend or Foe?”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=317634. Hello, which planet have you been for the past one decade ? Here is an interesting piece from that article
bq. Musharraf assured Bush that there were no militant training camps in Pakistani territory. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reminded Musharraf of that guarantee when the two met in the northern city of Rawalpindi before Musharraf’s last meeting with Bush in June. Armitage then produced a dossier of satellite photos showing camps of that nature. “Musharraf acted outraged and upset,” a State Department official tells TIME, but it wasn’t clear to the Americans whether he was angry that the camps were functioning or that the U.S. had uncovered them.
But then whatever happens in Kashmir never really worried Americans. The issue that concerns them is the nuclear proliferation that the Pakistanis are doing.
bq. American intelligence officials believe Pakistani scientists have shared�with North Korea and Iran�the technology they developed on their way to becoming a nuclear power. That is a possibility Washington cannot ignore when North Korea is explicitly threatening to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists unless the U.S. gives in to Pyongyang’s demands for security guarantees, diplomatic ties and economic aid
And finally here is one Presidential Candidate, who has said what others have failed to say explicitly. “Gen. Wesley Clark”:http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3477256 said “Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and to a lesser extent, Egypt, those are the central fronts in the war on terror,”

Saudi Arabia and Nukes

Gerald Posner who wrote “Why America Slept”:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EI17Aa01.html was on MSNBC last night with Keith Olberman. The issue was the news that Saudis were going to “acquire nukes”:http://www.nirajweb.net/mt/niraj/archives/001902.html. Posner thinks that this was leaked as a warning to the Americans, to tell them, if they screw the relations and get too investigative, then Saudis will acquire them using petro dollars.
One country that will be happy to sell it would be Pakistan.
bq. Concerns about Saudi plans to buy nuclear weapons were raised after Prince Sultan toured Pakistan’s secret nuclear facilities in May 1999. The prince toured the Kahuta uranium enrichment plant and an adjacent factory where the Ghauri missile is assembled with Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and was briefed by A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb.
And this is a facility which even Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was not allowed to visit. Also Saudi Arabia had funded Pakistan’s “nuclear and missle program”:http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/20021121111140587
bq. Quoting reports, DIA’s senior China analyst Thomas Woodrow said in a research paper that “Saudi Arabia has been involved in funding Pakistan’s missile and nuclear program purchases from China, which has resulted in Pakistan becoming a nuclear weapon-producing and proliferating state”. According to the paper, there was also a probability that Riyadh was “buying nuclear-capability from China through a proxy state with Pakistan serving as the cut-out.”
So if Saudi Arabia wants to go nuclear, it will plain easy for them. Scary thought.

Isabel

Switching on the TV today morning, I felt happy I am living in Sunny California. “Hurricane Isabel”:http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0903/18isabelkill.html?urac=n&urvf=10639013164410.5427537297438526 has hit the Carolina coast. But I am sure the hurricane will have to fight it out to enter the land. The coast from Florida to New York is filled with camera crews from all the media and there is no way a hurricane can break that human wall.
Some reporters, in their enthusiasm to report or maybe not finding space on the land, have started reporting from knee deep water. So people in inland states beware, soon you may find a reporter swinging past your roof as the intensity of Isabel increase.

Whom to blame ?

While people like Kuldeep Nayyar are blaming India for inviting for inviting Ariel Sharon to India, here is an article from Gulf News by Abdullah Al Madani who says that “Arabs have no one but themselves to blame for this”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=317437
bq. Here also the Arabs have no one but themselves to blame. Given their failure in achieving any technological or industrial progress, they have no right to dictate to successful countries how to manage their foreign relations or to wonder why these countries shift to their historical arch enemy.

The next debate

There is going to be another debate among the candidates for the Governor in California on Sept 24th. This is the only one which Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to participate. This time it is an open book exam. The questions for the debate have “been released”:http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/insider/archives/000604.html. The candidates have been given one week to memorize the answers and enact as if they are speaking after considerable thought.
Hey, anything to provide entertainment.

The 3rd Buddha

You might remember the picture of the two Buddhas of Bamiyan which was destroyed by the Taliban. It seems there is a “third reclining Buddha”:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-9-2003_pg4_14.
bq. After five weeks of excavations in the famed valley of the Buddhas in central Afghanistan, the team of archaeologists say they have found evidence which could cast light on the whereabouts of the �reclining Buddha� mentioned by ancient travellers to the region.
bq. According to French-Afghan archaeologist Zemaryali Tarzi, his team has confirmed �100 percent� the existence of a monastery at the foot of immense sandstone cliffs which until March 2001 sheltered two enormous ancient Buddhas which were destroyed by the Taliban to a chorus of international outrage.