rantlust

Posted by tafkap on August 31st 2005 in Politics, USA
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I have wondered for some time why it is that the Brits are so unwaveringly behind Bush and company. I had never heard about this before, but perhaps this article by Tony Benn sheds some light on the issue. The relevant quote which is in regards to a possible US attack on Iran.

That may be the position now, and I fear that if a US attack does take place, the prime minister will give it his full support. And one of his reasons for doing so will be the same as in Iraq: namely the fear that, if he alienates Bush, Britain’s so-called independent deterrent might be taken away. For, as I also learned when I was energy secretary, Britain is entirely dependent on the US for the supply of our Trident warheads and associated technology. They cannot even be targeted unless the US switches on its global satellite system.

Maybe I’ve been very uninformed up to this point, but I haven’t heard about this in the past. Very surprising that one of the nuclear powers is just a paper tiger.

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Posted by john on August 31st 2005 in India, Politics
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The wily old nut has formed a new party back home in Kerala, India and the name is a sheer stroke of genius: The Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran.

Or as MasterCard India would say:

Splitting up an old (many splintered) political party … 10 lakh rupees
Buying off MLAs to support your corruption more … 1 crore rupees
Renaming your new party The D.I.C.K … priceless

Read Story

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Posted by anupcs on August 31st 2005 in Internet, Technology
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A few years ago, Scott McNealy told a group of analysts and reporters: “You have zero privacy anyways, get over it” which sparked a still raging debate about one’s privacy on the Internet. The statement was made in 1999 and in the intervening years, identity theft has burgeoned and we all have got our fair share of phishing emails and the Nigerian bank scam (aka 4-1-9) letters. This week, I was intrigued by this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since I was far away from computers for most of April, I missed the press hoopla about the site mentioned in the above article - Zaba Search - which aggregates all the public information about individuals and gives it away for free. A search for myself does reveal not only my current address but also some of the previous ones that I have lived in. That’s all it gives though; for more information you have to pay them a fee. I am not sure what information is given if you go for the paid search. The information in the free search is already available in sites such as Yahoo’s People Search.
(Read more…)

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Posted by papi on August 30th 2005 in Health & Fitness, Science, Society
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The medical journal Lancet recently published an article (registration needed, use bugmenot) damning the ’science’ of homeopathy as having no more than a placebo effect. Reading this in the media was rather distressing to me, having been an early recipient of the purported benefits of Homeopathy.
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Posted by tafkap on August 30th 2005 in Finance, Nature, USA
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I heard on the radio that the estimated claims for Katrina would be in the 9-27 billion dollar range. Lets see what the final figures turn out to be. The claims for all the hurricanes put together last season were in the 27 billion dollar range. The claims for 9/11 were in the 30 billion dollar range. Considering the widespread devastation of the storm, this comparison is somewhat eye opening. I guess that’s why the mantra when it comes to shopping for real estate is ‘Location, location, location’.

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Posted by riyer on August 29th 2005 in Health & Fitness, Outdoors
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Sometime ago I wrote a piece titled ‘Woes of an amateur bike rider‘. More than a month and several hundred miles under my tight spandex have passed since I wrote that piece - I am happy to report that I haven’t fallen a single time - I think I have mastered those bloody cleats, so the soccer moms in their damned high priced SUV can take their gas guzzling behemoths elsewhere for their idle weekend entertainment. (Read more…)

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Posted by jcaldera on August 29th 2005 in History, Politics
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“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security,
unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs,
you would not hear of that party again in our political history.
There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can
do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an
occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number
is negligible and they are stupid.”

–President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952

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Posted by anupcs on August 25th 2005 in Movies
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“…Enjoy it before it melts“. This is not a quotable quote from Voltaire or Spinoza or even Forrest Gump. These corny yet simple words are uttered by Debraj Sahai, an eccentric, unconventional teacher, to his deaf, blind and mute student Michelle McNally. Michelle is an “Anglo Indian” (anyone of mixed descent in India is called thus, not necessarily first generation) and her father is not very happy with the way this new burden has been thrust on them. The mother is more patient and pleads with the father to allow a teacher that she had heard of, to train Michelle in the ways of the world. This is where Debraj comes into the picture and starts on a long and difficult journey to train the girl into adulthood. The roles get reversed later in their lives when it is the turn of Michelle to take care of an ailing (Alzheimer’s) Mr. Sahai. All this takes place in beautiful Shimla in northern India.
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