दाल भात में मूसलचंद

This must be an old photograph (early 08 maybe).

Jet changing and Kingfisher claiming credit, I can understand.

But Go ??

भैय्या यह दाल भात में मूसलचंद कौन है ?

Discovery Article on Meat Eating killing Gulf of Mexico

The Discovery Channel website has an article explaining how America's consumption of meat could eventually turn the Gulf of Mexico into a "dead" sea. Here's a clip from the post:

Gidon Eshel of Bard College at Simon's Rock in Massachusetts and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago calculate that if Americans kicked their meat habit, it would prevent seven million tons of nitrogen from spilling into the gulf -- a reduction of nearly 90 percent.

"When we did the calculations, it was astonishing," Eshel said. "The main reason is we're feeding so much corn to livestock. It takes 4.5 times more cropland to do that than if you feed people a plant diet, and corn is so nitrogen-intensive."

There are many great reasons to go Veg (or to reducing meat in one's diet)--one being the positive effects on the environment.

You can read the complete article here.

People following THE Religion of Peace torch 1147 cars in Paris

It is well recognised that when the Islamic population reaches a tipping point, the dynamics of how they interact with the non Muslims changes substantially.

France now has ~ 12% Muslim population. Many of them came from Algeria (since Algeria was a French colony).

So consider the lawless ness and hooliganism resorted to, to celebrate New Year.

The "terrorism" word is derived from terror.

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines terror thus:

Main Entry: ter·ror

Pronunciation: \ˈter-ər, ˈte-rər\

Function: noun

1: a state of intense fear

2a: one that inspires fear : scourge
b: a frightening aspect terrors of invasion>
c: a cause of anxiety : worry
d: an appalling person or thing ; especially : brat

3: reign of terror

4: violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands terror>>

The French government too, like the Indian one, has been taking kid gloved approach to the issue.

They (like successive Indian governments) believe that if you bend enough, Jehadis will be happy. Same factors are working there. Liberals with no clue about political Islam and socialists look at such incidents as those of "misguided youth" with "grievances". So it is OK if you are "misguided youth" to burn public property and indulge in arson.

We know how this works. Imagined wrongs from past will be dug up, One Babri Demolition will be sung millions of times, thousands of Hindu temples broken will be airbrushed from history and public memory.

Amen.

Hindi on the Net

I was talking with a friend about disproportionately low number of Hindi entries on Wikipedia.

Here today, on 2nd Jan 2009, I am sticking my neck out and making a prophecy.

I see may be a 100 times jump in Hindi blogs / Hindi Wikipedia entries etc. - essentially usage of Hindi on Net - over next 12 / 18 months.

Google with the transliteration tool on Blogger has kind of changed the game by making it almost intuitive to write in Hindi.

The other game changer is BSNL net in small semi urban places.

The reason Google is pushing local Indian languages on Net is simple - the advertising is what makes Google. If your readers / ads / content is only in English, there is an upper limit (in Indian contex), so as to speak, on the number of people who will advertise on Google.

So, they want more Indian language readers using Internet. Indian language readers (I find the word vernacular very derogatory) will not come to the computer screen unless there is relevant content.

Relevant content - specially UGC (User Generated Content) requires local language input. Traditional ways of inputting Hindi (for that matter Tamil, Kannada, Bangla) were tough to say the least. Either you needed specific keyboards or another program that required you to click by mouse on the Hindi letters. Hugely inconvenient - hence didn't take off.

It is a matter of time - in fact I wonder why they haven't done it yet - that Google Mail will allow transliteration (and hence Hindi usage).

That should give a fillip to Hindi usage.

Also I see Hindi blogs / stuff catch mainstream (I refer to Hindi newspapers / media) media attention. That should make the vast masses feel more Ok using Net. They can relate to it as something relevant to them.

There is one missing link yet - but I sense even that will fall in place quickly - since Google has much of technology already. That missing link is searching Hindi. This is not as simple as it sounds.

Inputting Hindi is one thing. To search Hindi content, Google's algorithm has to make sense of syntax of Hindi and the grammar of Hindi. Try doing that for 16 Indian languages and you know what I mean.

The more spoken languages should be taken up first. I assume Hindi, Bangla (consider Bangladesh market as well) and Telugu and Tamil should be in first lot.

Interesting on Kashmir

I got this as a forward.


Enjoy !!

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named.

When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath.'

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren't there then.'

The Indian representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.'

And they say Kashmir belongs to them………………………………………..