Atheistic Sanity

Hope vs. ?

2009-05-17T16:38:00.013-05:00

President Obama a very good commencement address at Notre Dame.

Competing mortarboards: One student with the "O" from the Obama presidential campaign, next to a fellow student displaying an anti-abortion symbol.

Photo: John Gress/Reuters

I'm in

2009-05-10T17:45:00.003-05:00

After refusing to join the tweet bandwagon for a while now, i'm finally in.

Let's see how it goes.

P.S.: I suck at keeping promises. Sorry!

One of the Most Underrated Movies....Ever.

2009-03-14T03:00:00.000-05:00

Unbreakable!

President Obama's Weekly Address - 3/6/09

2009-03-08T14:55:00.002-05:00

Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel

2009-03-02T01:25:00.000-06:00

This has to be some experience for these two rookies from India. Winning a game show and heading to MLB to train with the bucs would have been a wildest dream for them one year ago but it is reality now.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates, who have emphasized a need to find talent via every available outlet, have gone where no team has gone before.

On Monday, the Pirates signed two young Indian pitchers, 20-year-old right-hander Dinesh Patel and 19-year-old southpaw Rinku Singh, as non-drafted free agents. Both will participate in the team's Minor League Spring Training next year.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 28th, 2009

2009-03-01T20:53:00.004-06:00

Source

Reality Suspended, Until It Prevailed.

2009-02-22T13:15:00.001-06:00

Last night i was lazy browsing through some videos on youtube related to the 2008 U.S. general election. Going through videos of peoples reaction to the moment when Obama was announced the winner is a real nostalgic pleasure. I came across one video that really puts the perspective into how the other side functions. Why do i feek that all the republicans live in a domain that is very skewered and far from reality? This video just proves it or at least makes a strong case for it.

The video i'm talking about is Washington Post's Dana Milbank reporting on the mood in McCain headquarters on the night of Novemebr 4. Watch it yourself and let me know how you feel.

Source

The Clock is Ticking

2009-02-21T16:15:00.003-06:00

I turned 26 this past Wednesday. I'm growing old too soon :(.

I used to love birthdays during my school days, lots of candy to eat and a good dose of special dishes from mom. I miss those days. I miss being a school going kid (Who doesn't?).

Nowadays it comes down to just cutting a cake in the office. Well something is better than having nothing right! The perils of staying away from your loved ones. I should thank my colleagues though at the office for getting a very delicious cake this year too.

Four more years till the dreaded 30s!

A Tech Savvy Administration

2009-02-17T02:00:00.002-06:00

There is no doubt that the Obama campaign is going to be known for years to come as the campaign that used the internet to its maximum and really revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are run. Even the transition had a great new age media feel to it with an extended online presence in every imaginable way possible.

Now it looks like they are taking this to an entire new level with the way the White House functions in this new media age. From the second Obama was sworn in, the new administration's team took over the Whitehouse.org and completely changed it from its previous incarnation. Change came to Whitehouse.org. For the first time an administration has a blog on its website. Obama also became the first President to start delivering his weekly address as an You Tube video.

Over the recent few weeks with the passage of the economic stimulus become a hotly debated issue across the country with so much money riding on it, the new administration came under a bit of fire with the way they overreached across the aisle for bipartisanship in the Senate and the Congress. And with majority of the GOP members in both houses voting against the bill, the criticism has turned into a bit of skepticism about the ability of the Obama team to handle Washington politics.

Finally it looks like they have decided to take back the initiative on this issue. The White Hosue has released a fascinating sideshow today that projects the efforts put in by the President and his team in extending an open invitation for the GOP to come aboard the ship on the stimulus bill. Brilliant stagecraft on the part of the administration. Fascinating pictures.

The Importance of Charles Darwin

2009-02-15T14:05:00.000-06:00

Last week (February 12, 2008) was the bi-centenary of Charles Darwin's birth. This month is also the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species. Yet even after these many years there are still people who refuse to leave their blind faith aside and accept the beauty of the theory of evolution.

Why? Well attribute it to the standards of education specifically science education in many countries at school level. If schools continue to let their curriculum hijacked by religious fundamentalists and psuedo-scientists, education standards are going to suffer. Well, I'll leave this for another day.

Today is the day to celebrate the genius of Darwin. Who best to throw some light on the importance of Darwin? Prof. Richard Dawkins, one of the leading intellectuals in the world in the field of Evolutionary Biology. I'm cross posting some links, National Geographic's (UK) videos on this topic, i came across at Richarddawkins.net. So head over to Nat Geo and get yourself some gyan (knowledge).

Thank goodness for Darwin!

Saturday Read

2009-01-31T14:25:00.003-06:00

I was browsing cricinfo this afternoon and came across this post on their Tour Diaries blog by Sriram Veera.

On December 12, 1992, a 35-year old Ajith Perera got the letter he had spent years waiting for. The man who became the first Sri Lankan to qualify as the professional umpire after a final exam at Lord's in 1985 was about to stand in his first Test, between Sri Lanka v New Zealand, when it happened. He read the appointment letter a few times and left the board office to get back home to share the proud moment with his parents.

He didn’t get home for the next two years. It was a stormy day and Perera was sitting in his car with the letter when nature intervened. A big wayside tree crashed against the car, killing the driver and instantly rendering Perera a paraplegic for life.

More over here.

It is a well known but sadly often ignored fact that developing countries like India, Sri Lanka etc. have little amenities for the physically disabled at majority of public, private and government places. It is only now that some of the private properties have been incorporating easy access options for the disabled on their properties. I believe their should be an initiative from the central and state governments to make it mandatory for properties to provide easy access and other options that would make it easier for the physically disabled to go about their lives as rest of us.

Hope.

2008-11-03T21:20:00.000-06:00

Please....please go out and Vote!!!!!

Sarah and Hillary

2008-09-14T14:10:00.001-05:00

A classic SNL!!!

Who is Barack?

2008-08-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

Hear it yourself. Narrated by David Strathairn.

Barack!

2008-08-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

Breathtaking, Fantastic, and Out of this World!

2008-08-09T03:50:00.000-05:00

Olympics 2008

George Carlin

2008-06-23T19:18:00.001-05:00

Will be missed.

:(

Ain't this amazing!

2008-05-26T21:22:00.002-05:00

NASA today released an amazing picture of the decent of Phoenix lander in the Martian atmosphere by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Dr. Phil Plait has put in words what any astronomy enthusiast feels today which actually every human should feel....

Phoenix has landed on the Red Planet!!

2008-05-25T21:04:00.005-05:00

And here are the brand new images.....

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Man this is just cool....these images are being updated real time to the Univ of Arizona site and we can see it along with the scientists.

I had to post this....

2008-05-20T19:12:00.005-05:00

Been a while since i posted anything here (...i know the same old story), but this made me to finally post something.

Came across this on BBC....

A television crew has captured some remarkable footage of a flying fish off the coast of Japan.
The creature spends 45 seconds in flight: some believe it could be one of the longest recorded flights by this acrobatic species.
The fish was able to stay aloft by occasionally beating the surface of the water with its tail fin.

Freaking awesome.....Life surely does find its own way!

Source: BBCNEWS

Pwned

2008-04-17T21:41:00.004-05:00

Someone got the taste of reality here.

Source

Postcard from Space (10): Opportunity looks up

2008-03-25T21:35:00.003-05:00

Opportunity turned its rover eyes skyward to observe clouds drifting overhead that look like cirrus clouds on Earth -- featherlike formations composed mostly of ice crystals.

By looking at the clouds, Opportunity learns about seasonal and daily weather patterns on Mars. Scientists want to understand how water vapor is transported around the planet. For example, on the extremely cold red planet, surface ice warmed by sunlight can briefly turn to vapor that rises into the atmosphere and then quickly cools to form ice crystals again, either in clouds or back on the ground. Scientists also estimate wind speed and direction based on the movement of the clouds. It definitely gives you the sense of what it might feel like to sit back and watch clouds on Mars.

Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU/Texas A&M/Navigation camera

The Last Lecture

2008-01-20T22:50:00.000-06:00

Dr. Randy Pausch

1st Rock from the Sun

2008-01-15T22:25:00.000-06:00

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

12 Days into the new year...

2008-01-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

...and nothing much has changed around. I'm finding it hard these days to put my thoughts into words. Thoughts haven't ceased me but my thirst for writing has ceased a bit these days. I promised myself last year, that i would blog more often and try to put my thoughts and views into words. A year has passed since then and 45 posts later I'm starting off again with the same promise. A promise to put into words my thoughts and views of things and events around me.

The past year has been quite a year for me with me starting off the year as a fresh graduate with lots of hopes and aspirations. It ended with me being more wiser having passed through the first ten months of my first job. I found myself battling it hard to adjust to the demands of the job and at the same time keeping pace with learning new things as i grow into my role at work. Still a lot has to be achieved before i find myself more comfortable with the current role I'm in. 2008 would answer (i hope!) a lot of questions in this regard. Keeping fingers crossed on this!

Hopefully I'll keep my promise this time around and will keep posting more of my thoughts and views. Peace out.

Woah....

2007-12-11T23:02:00.000-06:00

...it just struck me that my blog has been up and running (on and off) for 3 years now!

Damn....need to get back to some serious blogging sometime soon.

The Origins of Life - Made Easy

2007-12-02T02:28:00.000-06:00

TurpisHaereticum @ youtube

If i could vote.....

2007-10-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

and

Source: Comedy Central

Apple's iPhone or tPhone

2007-10-15T18:38:00.000-05:00

Source: GreenpeaceVideo @ youtube

We smear.....you watch.

2007-10-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

This is "news" for you....

Source: Nedheads @ youtube

More of this Right-wing smear can be found here, as highlighted by thinkprogress.org.

And a blast from the past video over here gives you a clear idea of the way Fox covers news.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2007

2007-10-12T20:21:00.001-05:00

And here you go.....

"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change" - nobleprize.org

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.

....a great day for the cause of protecting the planet's life from man made climate change a.k.a global warming. I really hope that Gore continues this great mission of his to enlighten the world about the dangers of global warming and protecting the planet before it is too late.

Cheers!

How does the moon look like from 800 kms?

2007-10-10T20:21:00.000-05:00

Source: JAXA

I have signed up.....Will you?

2007-10-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

First HD Image taken of Earth from close to the Moon

2007-10-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Source: JAXA.JP

The March

2007-09-30T12:25:00.000-05:00

I came across this here.

You know your rule is in deep trouble when even the Buddhist monks come out against you!

Out with the junta.

Saturday Night rant

2007-09-29T23:01:00.000-05:00

Another weekend....another lazy Saturday....the season premier of SNL is on right now and I'm feeling lazy as an ass.

It has been a long time since i posted something blog worthy. My blogging of late has been very erratic and flimsy to say the least. Ever since i graduated and joined my job i hadn't had the time to sit down and ponder much about the things going on around me and in the world. Of course, like all people in the U.S. I'm pretty pissed off about this clausterofuck of a war in Iraq. The douche sitting in the White House still thinks that we are winning and blah blah.... Some people never learn!

What else?

People in Myanmar seemed to be pretty psyched up to get rid of the military rule over there these days ha....and let us hope that would happen sooner than later for them. And hope the International community does something substantial about this rather than making retarded speeches or wagging the sanctions stick with all mighty farce. Good luck for the Burmese!

Peace out!

Stephen Colbert Gets Simpsonized!

2007-09-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

Source: thetvaddict @ youtube.com

Postcard from Space (8): At the rim of glory

2007-09-11T20:16:00.000-05:00

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater during the rover's 1,291st Martian day, or sol, (Sept. 11, 2007). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Remembering the Victims of 9/11

2007-09-11T20:07:00.001-05:00

Peace.

Update on the flyover collapse at Hyderabad

2007-09-10T23:22:00.000-05:00

It has now emerged that the earlier figures of 30 dead were misplaced and at least 4 people are confirmed to have died due to the collapse. Though this comes as a huge relief to everyone, it is nevertheless sad that 4 innocent people have to lose their lives because of incompetency on the part of the private and public agencies involved in the project.

I hope the government lets the officials to conduct a thorough investigation and sees to that justice is served to the victims of this tragedy.

Another Tragedy

2007-09-09T13:07:00.000-05:00

This is just heartbreaking for me and surely for all the Hyderabadis out there. This accident happened this evening in Hyderabad.

According to media reports:

Over 30 people were feared killed and 20 injured after an under-construction flyover collapsed in Hyderabad's busy Panajagutta area on late Sunday evening. The flyover has been under construction for the past one year and it was to be inaugurated this December. 15-20 cars were trapped under the debris while rescue workers were trying to save the people stuck underneath. The other half of the flyover is barely standing at its place and may fall anytime soon, unless demolished.

I just don't know what to say. There are lot of things that people and the government of India have to ponder about. We just cannot allow this to happen all the time and we need to avoid accidents like this in the future.

Constitution

2007-09-02T14:52:00.000-05:00

This one's from the last month.

Source: Bill Day, Comics, Yahoo

Bush hears voices....... :D

2007-08-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

Source: MyEverythingdotcom @ youtube

Three Blasts rock Hyderabad, India...at least 32 Dead!

2007-08-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

This is really tragic. Once again the ugly head of terrorism rears its ugly head in India and this time (unfortunately once again) in my own home town Hyderabad. Three blasts occurred at three different spots around the city just less than 3 hours ago. All these three spots are known as the hangout places for the common people and especially during the weekend these places would be flowing with huge crowds.

My heart goes out to the victims and the families of those who have suffered due to this tragic incident.

:'(

For latest on this......go over to here.

Update: The number of people dead as a result of this horrific act has risen to 43 now.

Bush vs Zombies!

2007-08-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

...he...he....haa the age of internet. Wonderful!

August 6, 1945 : Hiroshima, Japan

2007-08-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Never Again.

Not a dose of Nationalism....

2007-07-28T16:10:00.000-05:00

Source: BharatBala Productions @ Google videos

....far from it. Loved this video when it came out a year ago. Kinda showcases the side of India that is awakening up to tremendous economic growth and prosperity.

I agree that we still have a long way to go....really long way....before becoming a developed nation. But we are slowly but surely taking the right leaps.

Good tour ahead?

2007-07-13T00:36:00.000-05:00

Source: Bipin Patel @ cricinfo.com

Well, he got off with a good knock against Sussex in the tour opener.

Update: Damn....just when things were looking good...he gets out for a third ball duck against the England A! Come on dude.....u need to grab every chance that comes your way.

On a different note, he might get to play county cricket for Lancashire after the tests! Good for him.

1-18-08 anyone?

2007-07-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

Cool way to create a buzz about your upcoming movie.......create an awesome trailer and show it before a summer blockbuster.

You could also go over to here for a high def. trailer......

Also check out, http://www.1-18-08.com/

http://ethanhaaswasright.com/

and http://ethanhaaswaswrong.blogspot.com/

Go figure out!

Best Indian XI?

2007-07-09T23:20:00.000-05:00

With the India's tour of England in progress, Tony Greig came up with his all time best Indian XI on his audio blog at cricinfo.com. I actually thought it wasn't a bad team to bet on. I wouldn't necessarily call it the all time best but it is pretty close to being that.

Check it out.

Live Earth......update 4.....

2007-07-07T19:52:00.000-05:00

Fans enjoy Live Earth at Giants Stadium. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

[Source:Nytimes.com]

The Live Earth concert at New Jersey is rockin'!

What a fantastic line up and each one of them is an excellent act. Bon Jovi is currently on and just listening to their performance itself made my day today..........

Live Earth.....update 3....

2007-07-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

The London and New York legs are in full swing. Wow....this is a treat for music lovers and above all for those who care about the planet - its present and future.

Keane was on earlier at Wembley. James Blunt just wrapped up his act at Wembley. I'm swaping between these two concerts right now. Wow...what a grt weekend it is turning out to be...

Keith Urban and Alicia Keys are doing a duet right now at the Gaints Stadium.

Rock on!

Live Earth.....update 2...

2007-07-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

Wow....the concerts are in full swing right now. Australian and Japanese legs have ended and China is wrapping up its part.

Woke up this morning to catch Black Eyed Peas playing at the new Wembley Stadium. They were followed by Duran Duran, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Bloc Party and so on....and more to come. Meanwhile in Germany we have Enrique Igleasias wrapping up. Awesome!

South Africa is stepping up and rocking with some local flavor right now.

New York and Brazil are to follow this evening. So hang on guys and rock on!

More importantly pledge something that is gonna make a difference in your life and a hell of lot difference in the world around you.

Peace out.

Live Earth.........update 1.......

2007-07-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

Wow.....this Live Earth concert is really really good!

Listened to Toni Colleti & The Finish perform to just building crowd in Sydney. She sounded good....hmm has a singing talent along with great acting skills.... good for her. Missy Higgins just completed her set of songs.....she really has a good husky kinda Australian voice....loved her....may be have to start listening to her more often! Right now...John Butler Trio is playing and these guys too have their own unique style.....excellent! Man....need to start listening to some Aussie stuff....

Simultaneously, the concert in Japan too is going on with some local and international fare.....so come on guys get on to the website.....listen.....watch....and above all pledge......make a difference!

I need to hit the bed right now.....i hope to catch up with the later part of the concert 'morrow morning......so nite then.

Live Earth....

2007-07-07T01:24:00.000-05:00

Go to this site right now.....and be part of something good.....something important....something satisfying!

Damn....should have put this thing up earlier.

July 4th Ramblings

2007-07-04T14:13:00.000-05:00

First of all, Happy Independence Day America! Rock on!

Now to more serious matters. People are quite angry (at least most of them are) that Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence by waiving his jail term. I wasn't surprised at all by Bush's decision. Hell, i was expecting a full pardon and actually Bush suggested that yesterday. Bush after all is expected to look out for his loyal subordinate after he took all the hits and remained silent throughout the whole investigation. What else could you expect from a president who puts loyalty above all things while choosing people to work for him or for the government?

What people should be really angry about is the way Patrick Fitzgerald carried out the investigation - the whole "Who leaked CIA source?" thing. After all, Libby was just found guilty of obstructing justice by not revealing information about who was behind this whole leak. So to put it simply, he let the higher officials in the Bush administration (read Cheney & Co.) go scot-free without any charges being leveled against them. Hope the Dems will find courage to look into the details of this (wishful thinking!?)

Moving on.......the investigation into the failed U.K terror plots is throwing up interesting and scary results. All or most of the suspects who were either arrested or detained in this regard turned out to be highly educated Muslim medics!? And they are also are from diverse backgrounds.....from countries like Iraq ( :wink: - so much for war on terror in Iraq ha), Jordan and India (whaaaaat!?). These people are most probably thought to have met after coming to U.K. and might have plotted these attacks 'cause of shared ideology and seeing what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine. Obviously, most of the Islamic world sees things differently when it comes to war on terror in places like Iraq and Lebanon these days. And with things spiraling downhill in places like Afghanistan and Palestine, it is a lot of difficulty for the West to win hearts and minds of the people in the Islamic world. And worst of all, more plots or attacks like these would lead to extensive racial profiling of all immigrants in the West......and the prospect of that is really scary to all the peaceful immigrant majority living in the West.....including myself.

We need to realize that our current strategy of fighting radical Islam is going no where in making us safe. We need to seriously think about starting a dialogue with the moderate majority of the Islamic world which is largely peaceful and open to dialogue with the West. Using military force would only worsen and deepen lot of misunderstandings that exist between the west and the middle-east. But at present i don't see any such steps being taken or considered from both sides.

P.S.: Between, thank you once again Keith Olbermann for speaking for the majority of us here in the U.S.

Wow!

2007-07-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Source: Saquaro cacti are silhouetted by a full moon rising over South Mountain Saturday, June 30, 2007, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

The Main Stream Media is at it again

2007-07-01T02:07:00.000-05:00

There is something seriously wrong with the way the MSM here reports international events especially if it has something to do with terrorism.

As i was going through the paces of another lazy Saturday afternoon, the news breaks of the terror attack on Glasgow airport.....thank goodness that a major tragedy has been averted there and in London too. But what i saw for the rest of day on tv in regard with the terror attacks was quite disturbing to say the least. There wasn't any substance in the reports aired on all the networks throughout the day, all i could see was scary and big loud headlines followed by the same replay of the burning jeep footage over and over again. On all the networks there were clueless reporters and even more clueless "terrorism experts" blabbering about everything but the main issue that was happening. Fox was up to its usual best......scaring the shit out of anyone who watched it. Its only message.....be scared....be very scared. And oh, it also managed to sneak in "expert-panel" of radio hosts who stressed how important it is to build a fence along our southern border so as to prevent the "terrorists" from sneaking in. Are they really that dumb to not realize that we have to build close to 2000 miles of fence for that!? Isn't it much easier to monitor the border with the latest technology and above all with the cooperation from the Mexicans!?

While the whole MSM here was going overboard with its Glasgow coverage, the BBC radio (which i listen to regularly) was back to its usual programming. I surely believe that most of the international TV coverage too would have been running their usual programming by then. I really feel that, at times like this, PBS should start a exclusive news channel with focus on national and international news.

And the most troubling thing is that no one mentioned why our involvement in Iraq is a major cause for this increased terror attacks and threat. This occupation isn't making us more safer than we are now. And no body in the MSM is mentioning that as much as it has to be stated.

On a more different note, watched Unbreakable again today.......a classic!

Well, that rests the matter then....

2007-06-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Obama came out with a statement today on the recent controversy arising from the memo that his campaign team put out that took a cheap shot at Hillary Clinton's financial ties with the Indian-American community.

He had this to say:

"It was a dumb mistake on our campaign's part and I made it clear to my staff in no uncertain terms that it was a mistake," Obama told the AP in a brief interview in which he referred to the memo as "unnecessarily caustic."

and added...

"It is not reflective of the long-standing relationship I have had with the Indian-American community,"

Well accepting a mistake upfront is always nice to see from a presidential hopeful.....good on his part to realize that before it snowballed into a major controversy.

And on the issue of jobs going overseas, he had this to say....

"The issue of outsourcing is a genuine and important issue but to refer to one particular country was, I think, an error and I let all of us know that we've got to be more careful about how we communicate,"

and added....

"While it's not possible to stop globalization in its tracks, what we can do is make sure we have a government that's looking out for our workers," Obama said. "We can do more to create a government that's creating quality jobs here in America, and we can do more to create a government that's helping workers who lose their jobs."

A reasonable stance Mr. Obama, i agree with you on that.

I'm not a conservative......phew.....

2007-06-18T00:25:00.000-05:00

.....I'm relieved.

How did this dawn upon me, you might ask. Well, last night (Sunday) i had the (mis)fortune of watching The 1/2 Hour News Hour the supposed conservative version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And it was more like......FOX saying the joke is on us....and we errrr....aren't aware of that!

Well, actually this show is more like a conservative version of SNL's Weekend Update. This actually would have been a great show if it was any where near half good as the Weekend Update. But, as it usually happens with "conservative" comedy (read Dennis Miller), the show falls flat. I really tried and was very patient to see if the show was any good....but i couldn't continue after the first 15 mins into the show.

Anyways, why does Fox need a comedy show on its news channel when it's normal programming is good enough to laugh at!? So it is really true, conservatives cannot be funny. It isn't in their genes.

Obama's macaca moment!?

2007-06-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like Obama might have had his own macaca-moment last week, which could potentially cause a lot of trouble for his presidential campaign. Sepia Mutiny has got a good post on this....do check it out.

This isn't really a wise move from the Obama campaign. I mean look at the title of the alleged memo: “HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB)’S PERSONAL FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL TIES TO INDIA.” ! Are you kidin' me! This is kinda stuff that you would generally expect from the most conservative republicans.....not from a democratic senator trying to become the first African-American president! For goodness sake, you guys are trying to break the racial stereotyping associated with African-Americans in U.S. politics. You guys are trying to break the racial barriers...and resorting to this kinda cheap shots at your opponent using racial stereotyping to do that isn't presidential at all.

Hope Obama comes clean on this....else goodbye vice-presidency for 2008 and even worse goodbye 2016.

Memo Source: NY Times

The Blue Abode and our evolution

2007-06-02T20:13:00.000-05:00

Well, as i told you in one of my earlier posts this week that I'm catching up on lot of stuff these days....especially on RD's website.....i came across this beautiful poetic rendition by the late astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan....go ahead and indulge in it!

And oh...here is another wonderful narration of how the overall evolutionary process took place over billions of years.....

Can't get this out of my head.....

2007-06-02T15:39:00.000-05:00

Well, i first heard this song on the American Idol a few weeks ago when Bon Jovi was on the show. I didn't pay much attention to it back then....well actually i should say...it didn't held my attention......may be 'cause i was listening to it for the first time.....hmm...anyways.....can't get this song out of my head.......ever since i heard it again yesterday morning! Damn you.....you....cool song....

And oh by the way also check out "Home" by Daughtry...pretty cool alternative genre there.......

Another weekend....haven't done much today.....woke up late and just lazying around. Catching up with lot of stuff online that i missed checking out in the last four months. Especially, the Dawkins site has pretty cool collection of articles and videos.....do check them out!

Ok guys....not much to the cursor today. Have a great weekend! Peace out...

Damn those new year resolutions.....

2007-05-28T19:00:00.000-05:00

I hate listing out resolutions at the start of every year. The main reason being hardly no one ever sticks to them....like with those i made at the start of this year. I promised myself and also to those of you (very few) who read this blog of mine that I'm going to post as often as possible.....damn i haven't lived up to that up till this post! I'm really sorry for that. I was so tied up with sticking to my new work schedule up till now that i wasn't able to allot any time to surfing the net.....let alone blogging! But now, I'm happy to say that, I've kinda settled down quite well into the routine that from now on i could allot some time to blogging! So expect a lot more from me....from now on.....at least. ;)

So what else people...how are things going on with you? Things haven't changed at all over here in the US for the families of the brave American service men and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. The death toll has been unrelenting in its ascent.....and as the sun sets down on an another painful memorial day here....things are certainly looking bleak. My heart goes to the families of these brave soldiers.

And also, there aren't any words to describe the kinda of devastation, suffering and collateral damage suffered and still being endured by the millions of Iraqis and Afghans........and there is no end in sight. Hope all these people will find peace in the coming months and years.

Bush continues to live in his own world....not listening to any piece of good advice from the remaining few sane people in Washington.......the Democrats (as usual) have betrayed the American people by letting Bush have his way on the war funding bill....no real hope is visible or forthcoming from the 'o8 presidential hopefuls........not a quite rosy picture aye.

But again......there is tomorrow.

24

2007-02-18T17:00:00.000-06:00

eeks...I'm growing old.... :0...too soon !

Well the past one year has been a year of growing up for me. Learnt a bit about life and the things around me. Since the past one year, I've become quite optimistic about things around me and also us in general. Graduated with a decent academic record. And as i look forward to the year ahead, with my first job offer in hand, have to say that things are certainly looking up for me...

I still can't believe how fast the year went by.....i still remember my last birthday quite vividly....too many expletives in that post.... quite a different story back then. Certainly this birthday has been a more satisfying one and a happy milestone for me.....and i look forward to many such of these in the future years.

Take care everyone! Where ever you are, try to remember that we all share common ancestry and a beautiful tiny planet in this huge and largely unknown universe.

Steps in the snow....

2007-02-17T09:45:00.000-06:00

A photo from last week when we experienced a winter blizzard here in the U.S.

And, i took this picture....... :)

Well, my search has ended!

2007-02-14T01:09:00.000-06:00

I've never been so excited in recent times as I'm today. I was extended a job offer and i verbally accepted it. I just have to work out on the rest of the details in the coming week or so.

I'm really looking forward to the new experience of one's (real) first job.

:D

What the hell?

2007-02-07T23:10:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to post on this subject for some weeks now but somehow couldn't get it going on the keys....well finally here it is.

What the hell is wrong with the razzies this year!? Shyamalan's Lady in the Water got nominated for 4 razzies!? This is ridiculous....not that I'm offended by this or anything like that....but to nominate a good movie like the LITW for one of the worst movies of 2006 is indeed wrong and disgraceful!

Moving on...it looks like Laxman's dream of playing in a World Cup is gonna remain just that....a dream. Have to feel sorry for this talented bloke....talent ends up on the loosing side when you don't have much of influence or backing from the powerful guys at the top. It would be better for him if he concentrates on the test matches from now onwards. At least, he can bow out as a respectable test player in that way.

Since I'm a bit free these days, I've been looking at lot of other ways to keep myself busy...apart from doing some academic work now and then. I'm back to watching and listening to lot of talks, discussions, docus. etc. both on T.V. and on the net. Of course, the subjects as always being about Wildlife, Astronomy, Atheism, Science etc. Came across this small audio clip on the rise of Atheism in America....it is a PBS news clip. Hope you guys would like it.

Another text book launch!

2007-01-11T00:10:00.000-06:00

(Source: ISRO)

ISRO had a perfect launch y'sday of its main work horse PSLV. This launch is a major milestone for ISRO 'cause this is the first time that they've launched four satellites in one go and are also testing out their re-entry capabilities with a Space Recovery Capsule (SRE) among them. Now one has to just patiently wait till Jan 22nd to see how far the re-entry maneuvers are going to succeed .

All in all, a great day for ISRO!

2007 aye....

2007-01-05T13:05:00.000-06:00

So, we are well into the first week of the new year.....and this is my first post after a while. Damn it! I should have blogged more often in the past two months. I somehow wasn't feeling to write anything after my graduation....there wasn't enough motivation actually. May be it is because of the long hours that i put in for my research and thesis write up or may be due to my search for jobs.....i somehow wasn't there.

And oh.....I'm still on the look out for a job! Damn the long holiday season....I've heard from some companies in the weeks leading to Christmas and I'm hoping to hear from them soon in this month. Keeping my fingers crossed on that front.....still!

So, '06 went by just like that....and we are looking at another full year. The last year wasn't any special, in general. But again, it depends upon who you ask . The world continued to be plagued with wars, unrest, disease, terror, extreme weather......the usual stuff. India & China continued to grow......and towards their individual quests for world power status......still quite a distance left to be covered on that front though. And the Bush administration is getting itself much deeper into the quagmire in Iraq by the end of the year with the execution of Saddam becoming a PR disaster.....phew! Anyways, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it kinda started to get brighter with the dems taking control of the congress and the senate today....have to keep an eye on this for the next two years.....

Personally, 2006 has been good for me.....kinda. I completed my research and graduated with reasonably good GPA.....a big thing for me in my life. But, I'm still looking for a job. Hmmm.....but the graduation thing wins out....so not a bad year.

Well I'm done for this post, the first one of this year. Hopefully, I'll keep posting quite often as i did last year.

And oh....Happy new year!!!

7 Mya of (Human) Evolution.......

2006-12-06T18:51:00.000-06:00

.....and look where we have reached!

Source: Picked up from livescience.com

Shut the fuck up!

2006-11-27T04:45:00.000-06:00

Yes, this is to all those douche bags in the parliament who are asking for the head of the Indian cricket team's coach Greg Chappell. I don't freaking understand why the parliament has to discuss in length about India's recent performance on field when they have a fu&king job of dealing with the huge problems of the country.

After all it is just a freaking game!

I just cannot believe that they are making a big issue out of this!? For goodness sakes, there are shitty problems out there that the country has been facing for a long time now.....and u guys are elected for that exact freaking reason....to try to solve these problems. Please leave the matters of sports and other mundane stuff to those who are in charge of the stuff.

And oh.....a word of advice for the Indian news media....please cover news, that is your job. But please for the sake of the people don't create unnecessary controversies for the sake of ratings and popularity.

And Mr. Chappell, please reconsider the team composition. May be give Laxman another chance!

Two videos you should not miss

2006-11-13T22:03:00.000-06:00

First, I came across this documentary about how the mainstream media functions more as a propaganda machine for the U.S. government rather than as an objective news source for the American People. I found the documentary to be a reminder of what i have forgotten about how most of the mainstream media works in the U.S. Please go over to youtube.com, through the links provided below, and watch this brilliant documentary.

Links : Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 .

Second, this video is of Mr. Richard Dawkins reading excerpts from his new book The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA. The question and answering part of the video is what you need to focus. It is quite interesting and really brings up interesting facts about how some of the "universities" are coming up in America that claim to be authentic universities imparting good education but in reality have a totally different purpose or mission.

Link : RCF

Hope you guys like these videos and will wake up to the reality of biased media.

Dems. are back in action!

2006-11-08T15:06:00.000-06:00

Wow....had a wonderful time the whole of y'sday watching the dems. pick-up seats both in the house and the senate. They have taken over the house with a sweep and are one seat away from taking the senate....GO DEMS GO.

Democrats have taken back America and gave it back to truly with whom it belongs.....the people.

Kinda like this quote.....

2006-10-25T00:12:00.000-05:00

Came across this quote this morning (woke up really early today, 7 o'clock) on orkut,

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

This indeed is relevant to many things happening in the world today. Especially, over here in the States, where a large section of the public are still under the belief that the Iraq war has got something to with the 9/11 attacks. Relevant also now because of the upcoming general elections for the control of the Congress, people need to effectively use their franchise to bring some sense and direction to the country.

I've never heard this quote before and kinda got stuck at the back of the mind all day. I finally googled for it just a couple of minutes back and found out that it was from the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, known as the father of Western philosophy.

People need his kind of philosophy more than ever now.

Sunday blabber

2006-10-22T17:17:00.000-05:00

Another Sunday, another lazy day for me. As usual went to bed pretty late......well went to bed at around 4:30 this morning........so woke up pretty late as usual. Need to change my schedule, getting really out of hand these days.......damn my thesis for that........the numerous sleepless nights i spent working on my thesis kinda became a habit for me right now. It messed up my whole daily routine. And damn the ICC Champions trophy going on in India right now.....all the matches start around 4 in the morning here........so just can't avoid hitting bed early in the morning.

What else? I have an exam the next Saturday, didn't prepare much for that. So not much to say about that!

And oh.....i have been messing a lot around with the layout of the blog ever since i changed over to the blogger beta. If you have been closely following my blog, you would have noticed a lot of changes to the layout of the blog.....from fonts to colors.....especially changed a lot of my settings of the column on the right. Do let me know what do you think of all the changes.

That is all there to this blabber.......take care of yourselves.

These people aren't delusional........

2006-10-20T01:40:00.000-05:00

......they are just plain crazy.

Today, the chairman of the U.S's Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Peter Pace defended the leadership of his boss, Mr. Rumsfled, saying that it was inspired by the higher power.

According to a news article on Yahoo today, he was quoted as saying......

"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country,"

No one would be alarmed normally if it was a quote attributed to some other Secretary of Defense, but these words are indeed quite significant because of the way the whole administration talked about the war on terror from the beginning. From day one onwards they used words in the biblical sense or terms, like it is a battle between the " good" and the "evil", it is a battle for civilization etc. The President himself is known to be a devout born again Christian and is known to use & take the name of God in his speeches most of the times. He was once alleged to have said this,

''God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq"

To just think that someone at such high and important positions as the President & the Secretary of Defense can talk about the important policy decisions they take are inspired by God or told by God himself is just unforgivable. And we have and are seeing today in the present world how the consequences of such religious fanaticism will unfold into catastrophic disasters like the 9/11 and Iraq war.

I see no difference between the two sides in this war on terror right now. The line is dangerously blurring between them.And when i say both sides, it is interesting to note that all the decisions are being made by a few number of people at the higher echelons of power and in total control, with their own public being either kept in the dark or made to rally behind their cause by the effective use of fear psychosis. Both sides are driven by the belief that what they are doing is right and approved by a higher being.

This reminds me of what Mr. Dawkins said in his BBC documentary the Root of all Evil, something similar to this, in the context of the conflict between the religions, ....

".....the war on terror is not between Evil and Good,as Mr. Bush puts it........it is the battle between two Evils...and who ever wins we loose..."

The sooner the people on the both sides realize this, the better it is for the peace in the world and ultimately for the survival of humanity on this planet.

Yay....this is sure a treasure trove for everyone.....

2006-10-19T04:00:00.000-05:00

I just came across this at bbcnews.com and am i excited or what........

The complete works of one of history's greatest scientists, Charles Darwin, are being published online.
The project run by Cambridge University has digitised some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications - all of it searchable.
Surfers with MP3 players can even access downloadable audio files.
The resource is aimed at serious scholars, but can be used by anyone with an interest in Darwin and his theory on the evolution of life.
"The idea is to make these important works as accessible as possible; some people can only get at Darwin that way," said Dr John van Wyhe, the project's director.

So head over to BBCnews.com and read the article first and the head over to this website and bookmark it. It is really a honor for any one on this planet to just go through the work of a genius who came up with arguably the single most idea/theory/fact of all time. I myself am looking forward to go through his works one at a time soon. A big thank you to the University of Cambridge and also to the people involved with this .

And on another note, the new website of Mr. Richard Dawkins is proving to be a wonderful place to share and discuss ideas with people who think rationally and are for a better society and world. Please take time to go through this website too. You won't rue about the time spent there.

Postcard from Space (7)

2006-10-17T00:05:00.000-05:00

Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cornell, JPL, NASA

Explanation: If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? The Opportunity Rover has captured just that.The distant red horizon is so flat and featureless that it appears similar to the horizon toward a calm blue ocean on Earth. Clouds on Mars can be composed of either carbon dioxide ice or water ice, and can move quickly, like clouds move on Earth.

What a wonderful shot! A priceless picture made possible by the ever expanding limits of science.

Well, this has been expected

2006-10-16T00:55:00.000-05:00

According to news just breaking in on cricinfo.com,

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have both been recalled to Pakistan and will miss the Champions Trophy after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs following an internal Pakistan Cricket Board drugs test. The news comes on the back of an autumn of turbulence for Pakistan cricket, taking in the Oval fiasco, the captaincy saga and the replacement of the head of the board and severely dents Pakistan's chances in the tournament, due to begin tomorrow with a match against Sri Lanka.

This was long due in cricket and had to happen one-day or the other. For too long have the international cricketers escaped the dope tests that have become mandatory in almost all the international sporting events. But with ICC trying hard to make cricket a global game, this wasn't too far away from becoming a regular feature in international cricket. In fact, ICC has done a trail run kinda sorts at the last World Cup in SA by testing players randomly and for the first time they made it official at this time's Champions Trophy.

And the funny thing is that, obviously not so for the millions of Pakistani supporters, the first victims of this whole process were top players from Pakistan! What a nightmare is this year turning to them after such a wonderful start to the season! And the wreck continues......i don't how they are gonna pull themselves out of this rut.

And i won't be surprised if some other players from the participating countries too fall victim of this, 'cause this has been a grey area for cricket for a long time now and many players in the past have escaped the dope test scrutiny.

This whole thing might be a bit painful for cricket lovers around the world, but I'm certain that this will help cricket in the long term.

655,000+ and counting..........

2006-10-11T15:30:00.000-05:00

According to an article in the Washington Post today,

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

I just don't know what to say.

If you look at the figure it might look outright erroneous or highly exaggerated but if you look at the report and the way the survey was conducted a sad and devastating truth emerges. Please go through the entire article over here and also watch a clip from CNN that shows an interview with the President of the company that was involved in the survey.

Some of the facts u need to keep in mind: First,

The survey was done by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. The findings are being published online today by the British medical journal the Lancet.

Sample involved....

The survey was conducted between May 20 and July 10 by eight Iraqi physicians organized through Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. They visited 1,849 randomly selected households that had an average of seven members each. One person in each household was asked about deaths in the 14 months before the invasion and in the period after.
The interviewers asked for death certificates 87 percent of the time; when they did, more than 90 percent of households produced certificates.

Cost of the survey...

The survey cost about $50,000 and was paid for by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies.

I don't know how Mr. Bush and members of his administration sleep every night. How can anyone with basic moral values can sleep over something like this? Unless of course you live in a completely different world of your own facts and information. What pains me is that we are allowing this to happen knowing the extent of loss of life.

If these are not crimes........then i suppose every massacre or slaughter is moral in its own right.

Nataraja's problem.....

2006-10-11T00:40:00.000-05:00

I really didn't know what to make of it when i came across this video, except for the fact that it is incredibly creative on the part of the team behind this and of course funny!

I'm mad.....

2006-10-10T13:41:00.000-05:00

I'm really mad today. Two things really pissed me off today

One, being a veggie i try to get hold of veggie food whenever i go out to eat. Burger King is (was) one of the few joints tht offer veggie burgers and i really like it. Today as usual i went through the drive thru and ordered a BK Veggie expecting it to cost $ 2.21 as usual and to my shock they have increased it to $3.99 in a single week. That's fu&kin' crazy! How can u increase the price of an item by $1.78??????? Damn..........tht is it, I'm never gonna go for a BK Veggie again. It sucks!

Two, the dick head at FOX news Mr. Freak-O'Reilly is stepping up his usual BS and spin on events. Y'sday, i came across a clip on Iraq from his show wherein he ridiculously claimed that Iran is stepping up violence in Iraq so as to influence the November Polls. wtf!? Why the hell in the world would they want to influence the elections? Does it really matter for them if the democrats are in control? And he repeated this claim again last night and added that North Korea's nuclear test was also part of the plan to influence the coming elections! No wonder his ratings are spiraling down....

Mood: Extremely pissed off.

Breaking News: North Korea goes Nuclear

2006-10-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

According to BBCnews,

North Korea says it has carried out its first ever test of a nuclear weapon, the state news agency has reported.
It said the underground test, done in defiance of international warnings, was a success and had not resulted in any leak of radiation.
A South Korean official said an explosion had been detected in the north-east of North Korea, measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale.

Hmmmm....this is interesting then. So we are in for some wonderful days ahead of us. Have to see what the response of Mr. "Monkey" Bush is goign to be....

"Freak" show!

2006-10-08T20:15:00.000-05:00

Something should be done pretty soon about the way "fashion" shows operate. They cannot let the models become like this .........it's sick and crazy! These models set a very bad example to the teenagers.....and that is dangerous. These kinda shows or models who take part in them in lot of ways promote the serious problem of 'eating disorder' seen among young people.

A Spanish fashion show recently rejected models who were skinny and i think this should set a precedent for the other shows to follow. Anorexia shouldn't be promoted as something that is cool.

Photo: A model presents a creation for French fashion house Guy Laroche as part of their Spring/Summer 2007 ready-to-wear fashion collection in Paris October 7, 2006. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE)

A first....

2006-10-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well another lazy Sunday and I've logged into my PC this afternoon and came across this ( if the link doesn't work then chk the oct 8's Views section article abt Younis Khan) over at my blog's site meter. This brings up a few things....

Either people in the media back home do read blogs quite often or they just seem to have a good blogsearch engine.

It was really cool of Mumbai Mirror to give importance and place for the views of bloggers on their digital edition.We appreciate this as bloggers. I don't know whether they do this on their print edition....hope somebody in Mumbai clears this for me.

This is a first of sorts for my blog and I'm thrilled................. :)

And, finally something should be done abt the way Pakistani Cricket operates.

And on a different note, my job search is still going on and it kinda is a boring thing to do. Phew!
Hopefully this week might be the lucky week for me. Keeping my fingers crossed!

P.S.: Btw.......for those who haven't figured out what the initial link is all about, my blog is the fourth article featured on that page.

A wreck called Pakistani cricket

2006-10-07T03:30:00.000-05:00

Pakistan's cricket is in more than one way has always been, and still is, a direct reflection of the country's own chaotic history. Turbulent, chaotic, directionless, and a catastrophic disaster waiting to happen most of the times......... but nevertheless with glimpses of promise here and there.

The latest chaos just before an important cricketing event like the Champions trophy brings forward the deep rooted problems of the whole cricket setup of Pakistan. Player indiscipline and the big star egos have been long dogging its system. Moreover, regular takeovers from the consecutive governments have added to its ever increasing miseries. At one time i remember the cricket team having at least 6 or 7 players who were past captains and that too in a span of less than three or four years between them. But in spite of all this, I have always been amazed at the raw talent that the Pakistani cricket always produced, and that in a way made me to respect and admire their team despite of the fact that they being our arch sporting rivals.

As i sit down to write this post, another news breaks on cricinfo.com saying that Younis Khan was reinstated as the captain and their newly appointed assistant coach was sacked following the resignation of their board president! All this in a span of two days after the resignation of the newly appointed stand in captain....Younis Khan. Phew......

Maybe it's quite difficult to understand the complex politics of their board for an outsider like me. But, it is quite clear that the message they send to the rest of the world has always been that of utter chaos and disorder.

I hope that they will somehow find their strength and purpose as a team and deliver the results that their cricket fanatic countrymen would be expecting from them.

So true.......

2006-10-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

Someone on one of my orkut communities led me to this link. It's an article written by Richard Dawkins in the British newspaper The Guardian about the U.S. & U.K's invasion of Iraq and why it is totally a misconceived operation. Man wasn't he right on back then......

Osama bin Laden, in his wildest dreams, could hardly have hoped for this. A mere 18 months after he boosted the US to a peak of worldwide sympathy unprecedented since Pearl Harbor, that international goodwill has been squandered to near zero. Bin Laden must be beside himself with glee. And the infidels are now walking right into the Iraq trap.
There was always a risk for Bin Laden that worldwide sympathy for the US might thwart his long-term aim of holy war against the Great Satan. He needn't have worried. With the Bush junta at the helm, a camel could have foreseen the outcome. And the beauty is that it doesn't matter what happens in the war.
Imagine how it looks from Bin Laden's warped point of view...
If the American victory is swift, Bush will have done our work for us, removing the hated Saddam and opening the way for a decent Islamist government. Even better, in 2004 Bush may actually win an election. Who can guess what that swaggering, strutting little pouter-pigeon will then get up to, and what resentments he will arouse, when he finally has something to swagger about? We shall have so many martyrs volunteering, we shall run out of targets. And a slow and bloody American victory would be better still.
The claim that this war is about weapons of mass destruction is either dishonest or betrays a lack of foresight verging on negligence. .....................

Continue to read on the rest of the article, it brilliantly & rightly puts in the flaws in the U.S. electoral system that made Bush the President in the first place.

Classic Homer......err and high too.....

2006-10-01T19:50:00.000-05:00

Source: youtube.com, FOX

What is today's word?

2006-09-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

Y'sday on the "The Colbert Report", Stephen Colbert forgot today's word. But he was able to finally remember the word with a little help from Bill Clinton and you you know what!? he was also able to blame Clinton for that.

:)

Find it out here........

Source: crooksandliars.com/Comedycentral

Postcard from Space (6)

2006-09-27T00:15:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since i did this. So, here it is again.....another postcard from space. This time it is our own planet's pic. from a Saturn orbiting spacecraft Cassini. Earth is the pale blue dot in this image and is shown expanded in the image inset.

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

And here is Jon's take.....

2006-09-26T20:15:00.000-05:00

And y'sday night was Jon's turn to explore the Clinton vs FOX episode along with the ever funny Samantha Bee and as usual........he was funny and spot on.....

Watch it here!

".................Really!?.....Who the fu@k are you?..............."

Hilarious.

Source: crooksandliars.com/Comedycentral

Why can't the rest of the American media be like this?

2006-09-25T21:25:00.000-05:00

As i said Dr. 'drax, here goes our Keitho!

".................Chris Wallace is a monkey posing as a newscaster..................."

AWEsome!

:D

People, please do start watching his show.

Source: crooksandliars.com / MSNBC

Liars, damn liars....

2006-09-25T16:10:00.000-05:00

This afternoon on PBS's The Charlie Rose Show Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was defending her country's involvement in the on going Iraq war by making the usual false arguments about how Saddam posed a threat to the world and all that kinda BS.

That is not what bothered me about this interview, after all what can we expect from them? We can't expect them to come out saying that....Yes, we screwed up the whole thing. We went in for the oil and got stuck in a shit hole of our own making, right!? What bothered me is that they keep thinking that by blatantly lying time and time again, they can alter history. That they can change how people will view this after some years or generations.

For example, take this statement she made during the course of the interview, ".........Every country in the world believed that Saddam had WMDs........"

What!?

No we didn't. Not even the IAEA believed this. If you take the statement of that Agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's March 7, 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council on the progress of the inspection effort in Iraq, he had this to say.....

At this stage, the following can be stated:
One, there is no indication of resumed nuclear activities in those buildings that were identified through the use of satellite imagery as being reconstructed or newly erected since 1998, nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any inspected sites.

Second, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import uranium since 1990.

Three, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for use in centrifuge enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuge out of the aluminum tubes in question.

Fourth, although we are still reviewing issues related to magnets and magnet-production, there is no indication to date that Iraq imported magnets for use in centrifuge enrichment program.

As I stated above, the IAEA will naturally continue further to scrutinize and investigate all of the above issues.

After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq.

We intend to continue our inspection activities, making use of all additional rights granted to us by Resolution 1441 and all additional tools that might be available to us, including reconnaissance platforms and all relevant technologies.

We also hope to continue to receive from states actionable information relevant to our mandate.

I should note that in the past three weeks, possibly as a result of ever-increasing pressure by the international community, Iraq has been forthcoming in its cooperation, particularly with regard to the conduct of private interviews and in making available evidence that could contribute to the resolution of matters of IAEA concern. I do hope that Iraq will continue to expand the scope and accelerate the pace of its cooperation.

The only skepticism he expressed was regarding the uncertainties related with Iraq's past record on cooperation for weapons inspection program. But he also added that the Iraqis have been cooperating well with the agency.

It's high time that the Bush and Blair Administrations should stop lying to the world about their historic screwup in Iraq.

Subtle

2006-09-25T04:10:00.000-05:00

That is what editorial cartoons are all about.

Source: Bill Day, Comics, Yahoo.

A new name

2006-09-25T02:30:00.000-05:00

A new name for my blog.

A new beginning.

Out of the theistic insanity that dogs the world today, the atheistic views have strengthened in me and a sense of inner sanity has started to take hold inside me. Thus, the title.

I hoped one of you might suggest an appropriate title for this blog, not many responses in this direction up till now......so i went ahead with my own. :-)

And also, Mr. Richard Dawkins has set up a charity to promote & contribute to more of atheistic thinking around the world. Here is the web site. It's a treasure-trove for rationale and scientific minds around the world. Do check it out.

Ass Kicking.....Clinton style

2006-09-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

It was a big FUCK YOU to FOX and its neocon. correspondents on it from Bill Clinton. On FOX news Sunday today he was interviewed by Chris Wallace and man did he get some ass kicking from Mr. Clinton or not.

Watch this for the interview.

Blogger beta is really good

2006-09-21T02:12:00.000-05:00

Been a month since i switched over to the blogger beta and I'm really impressed by the new tools it has.

Customized my template today and I'll tell you what, it's amazingly simple to maintain the whole structure of your blog. Try it, i recommend it. But don't forget to save your old template first, in case you mess up the style and structure.

Following up on yesterday's post, Ben Sargent is an amazing political cartoonist. Check this out. Wow....it's been really a while since i followed any political cartoons. But this man has surely re-ignited my curiosity in them.

Wonderful.

Brilliant, spot on and damn funny.

2006-09-20T02:46:00.001-05:00

Man....how did i miss this all these years.

Source: Ben Sargent, Comics, Yahoo.

Fortune sucks....

2006-09-18T00:25:00.000-05:00

Having a lot of 'free' time these days, has made me to do more of the useless stuff that i generally do on the weekends.......everyday.

I have been spending a lot of time these days mostly doing stuff that would do no good, one of these is spending an hour daily on the social community network 'orkut'. Well if any of you are still untouched by this annoyingly addictive place on the Internet.....please stay away. It's really hard to stay away from, especially if you have a lot of time on hand and a high speed Internet connection.

Okay....now back to the theme of this post. One of the reasons i look forward to log in daily on to the orkut is due to a single line- Today's Fortune. Though i have stopped believing in this kinda stuff a long long time back, my curiosity kinda made me to look forward to reading what it had for me everyday. Damn my curiosity. And in a way....it has been telling me quite rosy and positive fortunes.....of course they never turn out to be true for obvious reasons.....most of the times that is.

But you folks know what it showed me today........

You are next in line for promotion in your firm

I'm still applying for jobs and it says I'm the next in line for promotion. Damn.....fortune really sucks.

Phew.....done. Just wanted to post something...... :)