rantlust

Posted by papi on March 02nd 2010 in Blogs, Disasters, Earth
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An inspiring account of the Chilean earthquake - from one of our own - right from the trenches.

“On February 27 I waked up suddenly, at 3:34 am, Santiago de Chile time, shaken by the most violent earthquake that I had never experienced before. During 90 seconds I was convinced that I was living my last minutes on this world; I was terrified, not because of dying, in some way I was surrendered to death, but because I thought that it would be very painful. I live in an eleventh floor apartment, and I thought that the violence of the movement would break the building: I felt like being swallowed by the unlimited power of nature; I was minute, weak, insignificant in front of such almighty energy.”

Read the full account here:
http://www.yogzilla.com/2010/03/02/the-force-of-nature/

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Posted by riyer on December 08th 2008 in Developing Nations, Disasters, Government, India, USA
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The Bush administration is about to acknowledge that the $10bln it has spent in aid to Pakistan since 9/11 has been “wasted”. This aid was specifically meant to help the US fight terrorism on the Afghanistan border. The report will further state that Pakistan has used all of that money to “build up its army against India” instead of fighting the Taliban and the terrorists on the Afghan border. Of all the mismanaged projects that is the hallmark of the Bush presidency, this has perhaps the gravest impact in terms of global security. Ridiculous as this may sound, it can be argued that the Bush administration has indirectly (if inadvertently) funded the Mumbai attacks.

After all, a part of the Pakistan Military strategy to build its war machine against India is to fund organizations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) - that is critical for Pakistan to keep the insurgency in Pakistan occupied Kashmir - PoK, going. President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent editorial not withstanding, it is well documented that the LeT is actively supported by the Pakistan military and most notably the ISI. It is well known that the LeT actively recruits in the PoK. The chief of the LeT, Hafiz Saeed, in a speech in Karachi, said “There can’t be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them — cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.” So - funding for the Pakistani military has indirectly supported the LeT operations which has funded the Mumbai attacks.

Most responsible parents will tell you that they supervise what their kids spend their $20 allowance on. How come the Bush administration doesn’t bother to watch over $10bln in aid money. Let us hope the Obama administration does a better job managing our tax dollars and global security.

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Posted by john on April 04th 2007 in Commercials, Disasters, Entertainment, India, Sports
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A funny but rather true view of what ails Indian cricket today. Enjoy!

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Posted by crewcut on August 03rd 2006 in Developing Nations, Disasters, India, Rants, Roads
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Till last weekend, I have never seen any place in India with roads that are consistently good everywhere. At best, you will find a few highway stretches on the Golden Quadrilateral that are of international quality. [Great NYT article on the Golden Quadrilateral.]

Over a 3-day sojourn in Goa, I was amazed by the consistent quality of the road surface everywhere I went. There were small things that together made a big difference. A smooth and even pothole-free surface, clear white lines down the middle and on both sides, and lastly small but very clear and standardised signboards at every junction.

Such a simple formula seemed to transform narrow 2-lane roads into a driver’s paradise. Bangalore roads are a nightmare at best. Most roads, even though they are 4-lanes wide, have pockmarked surfaces and unnerving undulations. The lines drawn down the middle look like they were done by Pablo Picasso.

I gave up looking at Bangalore signboards after I saw one that had three arrows pointing to K R Circle, K H Circle, and K G Road. In addition to the information being useless, the signs at each junction are of different sizes, colours, and formats making the process of finding a road sign among the sea of billboards, ads, and shop signs impossible when you have 5 seconds remaining to catch the green signal.

This is all of course if the roads exist after being dug up by various telephone companies running fibre optic cables, works department building sewers, water authorities installing pipes, electric companies laying cables, and locals tapping new water connections. Normally all this activity happens after a new road has been laid.

I travelled around quite a bit and didn’t see a single instance of road damage anywhere in Goa.

The government always blames the poor condition of Kerala’s roads on the monsoon. The monsoon rains in Goa are of no less intensity but the roads look straight out of America. So much for excuses.

When will our other states learn from Goa?

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Posted by crewcut on May 18th 2006 in Business, Disasters, Finance, India
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Yesterday, the Indian stock exchanges lost Rs 2.25 lakh crore in value (Rs 2.25 trillion), the biggest drop in the 150-year history of the Indian stock exchanges. The country’s premier index, the Sensex, lost 826 points (6.7%) to close at 11,391. Nifty, the more broadbased index, also lost 6.7% to close at 3,388.

The markets have been driven up by FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) doubling the Sensex in the past 1 year from 6,438 to a high of 12,671 two weeks ago. FIIs have pumped in Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion) last year and about half of that in the first few months of this year.

The reasons being given for the crash are the sale of Rs 7,300 crore (Rs 73 billion) shares by FIIs in the past 1 week, an expected increase in interest rates by the US Feds, a crash in the international commodity prices, and the straw which broke its back seems to be a government circular which was interpreted that FIIs should be taxed. P Chidambaram, the country’s Finance Minister, issued an evening press release denying the latter.

A decade ago powerful individuals could sway the market and everyone would scream that small investors have lost their retirement savings but this time most investors have suffered only paper losses and are still in the black. The real big losers, paper losses again, are the business tycoons. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani lost Rs 11,600 crores (Rs 116 billion) in personal wealth yesterday.

Notes
Sensex is the index of the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) analogous to to NYSE
Nifty is the index of the NSE (National Stock Exchange) analogous to NASDAQ
Dalal Street is where the BSE is located and is analogous to Wall Street
1 Lakh - 100,000
1 Crore = 100 lakhs (10 million)
US$ 1 = Indian Rs 45.50

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Posted by anupcs on April 18th 2006 in Disasters, History, Nature
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Today marks the centennial of the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck at 5:12 am along the San Andreas Fault and its tremors were felt as far away as Oregon and Nevada. The city of Santa Rosa was destroyed, the newly built campus of Stanford University was decimated, and San Francisco itself was damaged severely. Most people died in the fire that ravaged the city immediately afterwards than the actual quake. The fire was apparently started by an overturned stove inside a Chinese laundry. The firefighters couldn’t put it out because the underground water pipes had burst and there was no water coming out of the hydrants.
(Read more…)

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Posted by maria on April 14th 2006 in Disasters, Disease, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Rants
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Now that is the best idea ever! How can you possibly go wrong with that? Convenient, inexpensive, and you can do it in four easy steps.

I am particularly fond of the IKEA-like illustrated instructions with the guy just zapping his eyeball with the laser.

In fact, I think this should be a new trend: Do-it-yourself brain surgeries, heart transplants, quadruple bypasses are just around the corner (or in your basement).

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Posted by riyer on March 29th 2006 in Disasters, Journalism, Politics, USA, Women
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A human side of Iraq from Baghdad at this blog. She reveals quite a sense of humor with her ‘Oscar Awards’ blog on March 6, 2006

It is chilling to read that the MoD is advising residents not to take orders from the army or police during nightly patrols.

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