2007-01-09T05:02:41-06:00

There was some odor todayin New York and New Jersey. What caused it? And more importantly what made it go away? Schools and office buildings were evacuated. A subway station was shut, and commuter trains were rerouted. Government security officials were put on alert. Fire trucks raced through the streets, while Coast Guard vessels patrolled New York Harbor, communicating with tugboats and container ships. Twelve people with complaints of minor illnesses or injuries were taken to hospitals. Read more

2007-01-09T04:33:11-06:00

Energy rich countries are throwing their weight around the world now. Russia is putting the backside of Belarus (and that of Germany, Poland and other Eastern Europe) to fire; Venezuela is nationalizing the telecom, utilities and stripping the autonomy of the central bank of Venezuela! Read more

2007-01-09T04:10:06-06:00

This is a very familiar rant from the Indian companies - that the demand for the talented people in IT is so high that (1) they cannot retain them and (2) the cost of delivery is going high. So what do they do? They go and start hiring folks from non-engineering side and freshers by truck loads! Is that smart? The productivity in the Indian IT sector is abyssmal by International standards! So, first, before they start blaming the rising salaries for the higher cost and begin to lower their hiring standards.. the managements ought to RAISE their OWN standards! They have to increase productivity so the overall costs of the operations despite the rise in salaries remains low! Read more

2007-01-09T04:04:57-06:00

Pakistan has a crisis! The energy shortage is almost to the tune of 50% deficiency.. if the Government figures are to be believed now. A few years back, I remember, Pakistan had a surplus.. Read more

2007-01-08T22:54:52-06:00

Hizbul-Mujahideen is one of the worst terrorist organization in the world. Syed Salahuddin is their chief. Everyone who knows them knows how close they are to Al Qaeda and Pakistan's ISI. But these idiots keep trying to confuse the world. Be that as it may, the Indian soldiers keep gunning their people off the streets. However, what really gets me wild is when these idiots and the Pakistanis start comparing their value-less butchers with a giant of a freedom fighter like Bhagat Singh! Here is what this idiot says in his interview: Bhagat Singh is a national hero in India who bombed the Indian parliament in 1930 and killed British police officers. If a militant like Bhagat Singh is a freedom fighter for them then we also have the right to follow the same path to achieve our goals. The Indian government is no different from the British Raj of 1930. The Indian government cannot destroy our movement by branding us with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The Taliban and Al Qaeda emerged in the 1990s, while we started our struggle more than a century ago. Read more

2007-01-08T13:51:02-06:00

If you are an economics and finance buff.. here is a neat list of economics and finance related books put together by the faculty of Carnegie Mellon. Some Examples Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff - Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life William Easterly - The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics Lawrence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns - The Coming Generational Storm I have read the last one to some extent and I think that is a great work that can teach one a lot for the future... Read more

2007-01-08T10:45:42-06:00

Man, I wonder how do people buy technology stocks anymore.. the lines have blurred beyond recognition! Now, Nokia is coming out with "stuff" (Nokia N93i and the N76) that is hardly just cell phones. They are "computers" ... in fact it calls them multi-media computers. N93iThe N93i is a follow-up to the sleek Nokia N93, and features a similar twisting design. The new handset features a camcorder that is designed to offer "DVD-like quality video capture" and direct video uploads from the phone to blogs or online video posting sites. The camcorder can capture MPEG-4 VGA video at 30 frames per second. It also includes a 3.2-megapixel still camera. The N93i includes a miniSD card slot; the Nokia N93i sales pack (price has not yet been revealed) will include a 1GB card that will hold up to 45 minutes of video or 1250 photos. Here's what it looks like: Read more

2007-01-08T00:04:31-06:00

A tourist, Major Pritam Singh alias Peter came to India from Sweden and found that notwithstanding the beauty in India, the traffic was terrible and it was very dangerous to survive in India! So, he took to managing the traffic in Jalandhar. He has no official mandate but he is there in his full attire and earnestness to manage what is by all accounts an unruly traffic!! Here is a video that amply illustrates that for the uninitiated! Disturbed by the traffic chaos in the city, Sweden-based Mr Pritam Singh took over the duties of a traffic policeman to discipline motorists and passersby near the busy BMC Chowk on Thursday. Dressed in a black shirt, trousers, with florescent green jacket, Mr Pritam Singh, alias Peter, stood on duty with the traffic cops on the road leading to Kamal Palace from the chowk. Annoyed at vehicles were coming from the wrong side for a short cut to reach the BMC Chowk, despite the said road being declared a one-way route, he stood guiding drivers to the earmarked traffic rules. Read more

2007-01-07T23:53:01-06:00

As the second Islamic bomb is being readied in Iran, Israel gets ready to eliminate it forever. It is planning a nuclear strike on the nuclear enrichment plants of Iran according to Sunday Times. Israel had planned such a strike on Pakistan as well but the timid hearted Indian leaders couldn't muster the courage to help them and we are paying for that mistake even today!! Of course, the Israel denies it.. but that may be just a media pose. Read more

2007-01-07T13:53:40-06:00

Ok, here is another post on cricket that I just read. India again lost another match to South Africa - this time by 5 wickets - and lost the series! One of the many disappointments (of the many) has been the form of one of the openers and one of the most destructive batsmen in the history of Indian cricket - Virender Sehwag. He is a clean and smart hitter of the ball. Here is a very good analysis of his batting technique and his batting form: Sehwag is a player who often irritates and stuns students of batting. His technique is the very opposite of what the manual teaches. Every batsman has an initial movement which helps him shape up to face the ball. There are two methods to do this -- a front foot player, like Tendulkar, puts his front foot across and waits to judge the length of the ball. On judging it, he moves either of his feet and transfers his weight to the dominant foot. A back foot player, like Laxman, obviously, puts his back foot back and across. The rest follow analogously. Importantly, both these initial movements are across the stumps and towards the line of the off stump. Viru has a baffling technique -- he moves his back foot down the leg side. It is counter intuitive -- since it takes him away from the line of the ball on most occasions, forcing him to play away from his body.For the past few years, he has been doing this, much to the purists' dismay. In doing so, he proved an important point -- that cricket remains a simple game and all that one needed to do was to hit the ball with the bat. His immaculate hand-eye coordination ensured he did hit the ball. Moving away helped him generate such enormous bat speeds that he became one of the most destructive batsmen in the modern era. He countered movement, bounce and Melbourne with his right leg outside the leg stump.Now, the same player gets out. Repeatedly. In the same fashion. The purists get to say -- I told you so.The point is -- Sehwag's room and his bat speed, which are his biggest assets, become a liability when his hand-eye coordination fails him. A player with a classical technique, like Rahul Dravid, when playing a defensive stroke, plays the ball with soft hands and close to body. So, even when Dravid is not 'in', he manages to run the ball down instead of jabbing at it. When Sehwag tries to play a defensive stroke, his own footwork and technique simply generate that high bat speed -- because of which he jabs at the ball. Which results in dollies for the slipsThere is no easy solution to this. One cannot ask Sehwag to change his technique now. He is 28. Not 18. Waiting for him to recapture his form is a wish -- not a plan. I say drop him. Find the next eye. Read more

Follow Us!


TAKE THE
Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "meek" mean in the Beatitudes?

Select your answer to see how you score.


Browse Our Archives