Wafa Sultan on Honor of Women in Islam

Last updated on: February 7, 2009 at 7:16 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is an interesting clip of Wafa Sultan talking about the Honor of Women in Islam (will need free registration). As you can see, she is pretty strong in challenging the authorities that be. Some excerpts: "If Islam really treated women with honor, we would see the positive consequences of that honor over the course of the past 14 centuries. Islam did not treat women with honor. On the contrary, it has distorted the concept of honor. "My brother Rashid, I can call this pen a knife for 14 centuries, but it will never become a knife. It will remain a pen. Islam has turned these concepts upside-down, and has forced its followers to see things as their opposites - to view killing and beheading as an act of tolerance, to view taking a woman captive as an act of compassion, to view the plundering of spoils of war as their right, and to view masturbation against a little girl's thighs as marriage. Read more

3 Innovative Undergrad and Graduate Life Sciences Courses in India

Last updated on: February 7, 2009 at 6:57 pm By Desh Kapoor

Economy is really bad right now globally. However, even in this economy students can do certain courses that can help them get into useful and paying careers down the road. Here are a few courses that I found would be very useful to students in India who are looking for alternative career paths. 1. Post Graduation in Clinical Research and Clinical Data Management: Clinical Research Education and Management Academy (CREMA) offers three post graduate courses: Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Research (PGDCR), Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Data Management (PGDCDM), Post Graduate Diploma in Pharmacovigilance (PGDPhV). In an economy which is contracting but diseases are not, more and more pharma companies from US and Europe will outsource the Clinical Research and testing to countries like India. So, such a course will prepare the students for a good and paying career by the time they graduate. Contact: 1800 209 3731 or email to [email protected] Eligibility: Graduate or postgraduate in Life Sceiences/ Microbiology/ Biotechnology/ Pharmacy/ Medicine/ Nursing/ Physiotherapy/ Dentistry/ Homeopathy/ Ayurvedic and Veterinary Science. 2. B.Tech. Bioinformatics: This is another interesting program that will equip the students with knowledge and career of the future. The program helps teach the students Computational methods to study, organise, analyse and interpret biological information at molecular, genetic and genomics levels. Genetic research and work specially with respect to its interface with IT and computation is going to be hot going forward. This course from VIT University, Vellore, India helps prepare the kids for that. Btw, the last date for issue and submission of application forms is February 28, 2009. The University has some very interesting programmes other than this one in the broad area of Biotechnology: Read more

God and the Misleading Semantics

Last updated on: February 7, 2009 at 2:42 am By Desh Kapoor

Cultures and religions over the centuries have eulogized and looked for a God. What or Who that entity is has never been known but adjectives and characteristics have been assigned nevertheless. Some of these are bunched together and assigned based on one's beliefs as opposed to being assigned based on logic or the results of a reasonable exploration. In most spiritual and religious traditions, few characteristics have been as important as these: Immanence, Transcendence, and Omnipresence. Configuration of God has been, on the other hand, been described by - Monotheism, Monism and Polytheism. Let us first understand each of these terms and see how and why they may explain a God - that most agree rightaway as a going in position is "Infinite". Immanence (I):This word comes from the Latin expression in manere which means "to remain within". This word is used to define God as being part of the world in the sense of Primordial element of existence. Transcendence (T):is often used to suggest God to transcend the physical existence and in some sense independent of it. Omnipresence (O): is the property of God to be present everywhere. Monism: Is the understanding that all is only One, which is God Monotheism: is the understanding that out of all, only One is really God. Let us see when Monism is possible and when Monotheism is possible. T but not I => Superior Entity (above the creation) and WITH a form (since it is "separate" and "different from creation, and has a boundary.. and so a form per force). O but not I => is not possible. For Omni means everywhere... including the creation. Is the Omnipresent entity is not "within" the creation, then it loses the "omni status". T + I = O => is a very logical configuration for Monism Monotheistic Entity cannot have Immanence nor be Omnipresent. It is only Transcendent. Read more

No More.. Singapore: Indian Travel Agents

Last updated on: February 6, 2009 at 11:46 pm By Desh Kapoor

Times are pretty bad, but can you really ask your customers to pay for the selling cost - the cost for selling YOUR product to them? Now, that is stupid in normal times.. but in these times a lot of companies may be trying that route. Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Air france have decided to not pay the travel agents their commissions and have instead asked them to charge those to the customers. Well, I am not sure about you.. but in normal times, one may consider this to be ok, but in these times, the customer - leisure customer and even some business travellers - would ask the airlines company to take a hike! In tough depressionary (not just recessionary) times, this is like a duel between - Airlines' Profit margin vs Customers' Pocket Margins (their survival money itself!)!! I mean why in the world would I pay for YOUR companies sales channel? The better and more intelligent way would have been to improve the sales channel online to a level plus buoyed by phones that the customers don't leave. Read more

Noor by Amitabh Bachchan

Last updated on: February 6, 2009 at 5:10 am By Desh Kapoor

This is a poem that I have heard after a long time from popular movies that captures the essence of devotion.. or spiritual love. I invite you to listen to it carefully and enjoy it as much as I did. Read more

Women over 40 are enjoying Sex and Extra-marital Affairs

Last updated on: February 5, 2009 at 12:36 am By Desh Kapoor

In the premenopausal stage, when the estrogen - the female sex hormone is decreasing, then she feels a lot of changes. One of the things puberty brings is also an increase in oxytocin - the hormone that makes them more "we" centered.. as nurturers. Estrogen and Oxytocin are nurturing hormones - making the women attentive to others' needs and forget themselves. As the 40s approach the production of these hormones decrease and the women like to be "themselves" - the "me" in them starts coming up.[2] US government statistics show that after age 50, 65% of divorces are initiated by women, contrary to the conventional wisdom that maybe men leave their menopausal wives. In another survey in UK of 2000 women by Health Plus magazine, while 77% felt that sex life was best in their 40s and 82% felt that sex was as important to them in that age as it ever had been. In US, the women in their 40s wanted to have sex more often than the younger women.[1] Read more

Japan's Collapse: Has it been hit by King-Kong?

Last updated on: February 4, 2009 at 3:44 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is a special post from DK Matai and the ATCA on Global Economy - which is part of his larger Socratic Dialog. You can go to the main site mi2g. Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments and we will try and bring more in this socratic dialog here at Drishtikone. The numbers coming out of Japan are no longer about degradation, but historically unprecedented destruction. If the government pointers are correct, they are no longer suggesting a recession or even a depression of the style of the 1930s but something like a massive "Reset button" with very different and far-reaching consequences. This downward spiral is much faster, much more synchronised and achieving impact equivalent to one year's worth in the 1930s on a monthly basis, month-in month-out. It is as if the whole country has been visited by an army of King-Kongs, who are busy destroying the industrial output. Japan's industrial production fell almost 10% in December compared with November, worse than the METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) forecast. METI has re-done its forecasts for January to a 9% drop, and February down another 5%. That knocks almost 30% output since September, putting it back, at the level of the early 1980s. It took 25 years to reach levels that have been unwound in five months. For carmakers, production may fall by around 50% from last year in 2009. There has never been data this bad for any major economy: even during The Great Depression of the 1930s. If METI's January and February industrial production data is correct, the proportions are apocalyptic. Masaaki Shirakawa, Bank of Japan Governor, recently warned, “The outlook for the Japanese economy has deteriorated dramatically and there is a high probability that it will continue to do so.” Read more

Heart Disease and why Indians should prepare against it!

Last updated on: February 4, 2009 at 7:01 am By Desh Kapoor

Heart Disease is the #1 killer in the world and Indians are really at risk since we as an ethnic group are the most susceptible to this disease. Here is why: 3.4 times more than Americans – 6 times more than Chinese – 20 times more than Japanese – Occurs at lower cholesterol • Get the disease at much younger age – 5-10 years earlier than other communities • Disease follows more severe and malignant course – 3 times higher rate of second heart attack and two times higher mortality than whites. It is a silent killer and not much can be done when one is hit with a heart attack Read more

Main US supplies route bridge blown up in Pakistan

Last updated on: February 4, 2009 at 5:40 am By Desh Kapoor

Western forces in Afghanistan depend on supplies coming through Pakistan. Over the last few months, there have been many attacks on the supplies transportation such that a lot of supplies would be lost or disrupted putting the US forces to hardship in Afghanistan (specially in the winters). Read more

Interaction and Comments on Drishtikone

Last updated on: February 4, 2009 at 4:47 am By Desh Kapoor

Today, I wanted to discuss one thing that has baffled me and some of the readers and I am trying to evaluate what this blog - Drishtikone - really does for the readers. I (and others) feel that Drishtikone, despite its good quality posts (despite my humility :)) does not get enough comments, as much as some other desi and even generic blogs get. Why is that? It is not that people are not reading the posts at all.. some at least do read.. but it seems people (i) either don't have an opinion on the subjects I write.. or (ii) worse, cannot understand what I have written.. or (iii) maybe just don't care to exchange their thoughts. I am, honestly at a loss to completely grasp the true reason for this. For me, there are very few blogs I visit amongst the desi crowd because very few even chose topics which have some interesting treatment and mostly the blogs end up becoming rants as opposed to serious discussions. I am sure I also post a lot of things that are frivolous at time and sometimes I do write emotionally as well, but I and others (Ezequiel, Jeshi etc) try and write things that are interesting, and hopefully serious and intelligent in nature. Read more

What does Paul say is hidden in Christ according to Colossians?