Jews, Hindus in Bay Area discover common ground

aug 31st, 2007

a tactical alliance with jews is a great idea. but unfortunately, hindus will get all excited and rush into hindu-jew-bhai-bhai just as j nehru et al rushed into hindi-uknowhu-bhai-bhai.

a little circumspection would be most welcome. jews are not hindus' forever ally, but a group that some similar concerns to deal with right now. right now it's mutually beneficial to have common cause with them, but there are circumstances in which their goals diverge, and then hindus should not just back them blindly. issue-based, sensible, support: the essence of enlightened self-interest.

one thing hindus can learn from jews: contribute lots of money to hindu causes, especially things that have a good chance of becoming exemplary victories (such as the CAPEEM lawsuit). and then go to court all the time. jews have turned this into a fine art with jewish lawyers offering pro bono support to the b'nai b'rith and the jewish anti-defamation league.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: venkat

 

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_6668656

Jews, Hindus in Bay Area discover common ground
By Niraj Sheth, MEDIANEWS STAFF
Article Last Updated: 08/20/2007 09:20:03 AM PDT

When Rabbi Charles Familant agreed to marry a Los Gatos couple in June, he found out he would be sharing the job with a Hindu priest. And he'd be barefoot.
That's because the bride, from a Hindu family, and the groom, from a Jewish one, had chosen a ceremony blending elements from both of their cultures. Following Hindu custom, the couple circled a sacred fire, her Indian sari tied to his Jewish prayer shawl, as the rabbi and the pundit intoned their blessings, one in Hebrew and the other in Sanskrit.

... deleted

angkor wat, a megalopolis

aug 31st, 2007

it was a huge metropolis, apparently. today the hinterland looks like a series of villages.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0702525104v1

by the way, vijayanagar was a giant metropolis too, covering a total area of some 500 sq. km.! that's more than most cities in india today.

c k raju reins in the giving of credit to george joseph on calculus-from-india story

aug 31st, 2007

as i said before, the calculus information is not new, and has been known to scholars and even lay people for some time. trust the christists to grab credit for that too!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: C. K. Raju <c_k_raju>
Date: 27 Aug 2007 01:47:26 -0700
Subject:
To:


Subject: HT correction of 25 Aug 07 to sensational calculus story


Text attached. Can also be accessed at

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImage.aspx?article=25_08_2007_002_007&mode=undefined
(requires free registration)


------=_NextPart_000_180_489e_6f89


Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 25 Aug 2007, p 2 carried the following
correction:

"The claim made by two British researchers that they were the ones who
unearthed the fact that Kerala mathematicians invented the calculus long
before Sir Isaac Newton (Hindustan Times, August 14, 2007) was incorrect.
The Kerala infinite series have been known to British scholars since 1832.
Recent work on transmission of the calculus was  first done by C.K. Raju,
Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science,  Philosophy
and Culture and is published in his  book, Cultural Foundations of
Mathematics: the Nature of Mathematical Proof and the Transmission of the
Calculus from India to Europe in the 16th century. One of the British
researchers, Dennis Almeida, was even warned in 2004 by Exeter University
against plagiarising Raju's work. The error is regretted"


------=_NextPart_000_180_489e_6f89--

nytimes: As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

aug 31st, 2007

the wages of breakneck growth: they are destroying their land.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish
Date: Aug 27, 2007 3:12 AM
Subject: As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes
To:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?oref=login

 

August 26, 2007
As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes
By JOSEPH KAHN and JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING, Aug. 25 — No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.

 

But just as the speed and scale of China's rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.

... deleted

kanchan gupta: Mr Advani, go for amendment / nuclear deal

aug 31st, 2007

kanchan clarifies the bjp's take on the nuclear deal. it is broadly in line with the following:

-- no knee-jerk anti-americanism
-- the deal must be equally beneficial to both parties

very sensible position. of course, when advani said this, the ELM (but natch!) went all out to pervert what he was saying.

if this is the real bjp perspective, it is quite reasonable and sensible, giving the lie to both a) the 'let's sell our mothers to the yanks' and b) the 'let's do everything for the fatherland china' camps, which roughly coincide with the kaangress and the communists.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kanchan Gupta
Date: Aug 31, 2007 3:15

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=kanchan%2Fkanchan113%2Etxt&writer=kanchan

 

The Pioneer / Main Article / Edit Page / August 31, 2007-08-31

 

Mr Advani, go for amendment

 

Kanchan Gupta

 

Even as the Prime Minister continues to conduct negotiations, this time with comrades shaken by the possibility of China's long march to superpower status being halted by an incipient India-US strategic entente, on the 123 Agreement behind a veil of conspiratorial secrecy, the BJP's helmsman has sought to remove misperceptions about his party's approach to the civil nuclear cooperation deal. For the past several months, the distinction between the position adopted by the Left and the BJP's criticism of the deal has been increasingly perceived as becoming blurred, and hence indistinguishable. Beginning with the ill-advised move to forge a common front with the Left to force a 'Sense of the House Resolution' on the UPA Government, which was engineered by a disgraced courtier of 10 Janpath to spite his patron-turned-foe, the BJP has been seen to be echoing the Communists' strident anti-Americanism, thus suffering erosion in its brand equity, especially among urban voters.

In all fairness, it needs to be stated that this perception is deeply flawed, not least because even the most casual scrutiny of what the BJP's key speakers, Mr Arun Shourie and Mr Yashwant Sinha (we need not be distracted by loudmouths and gadflies eager to comment on each and every issue in the hope of making it to prime time news) during parliamentary debates on the nuclear deal will show that nothing has been said which stems from visceral hatred of America. The BJP's criticism has been based on technicalities of the deal which the party believes are not in India's national interest. The party has also been harsh on the Prime Minister for not being upfront and slyly, ever so subtly, misleading Parliament, and thus the nation. It is difficult to berate the BJP for fulfilling its responsibility both as a 'nationalist' party and as the main Opposition in Parliament.

On the other hand, the Left has never made an effort to hide the fact that it is driven by anti-Americanism in its criticism of the India-US nuclear cooperation agreement.

... deleted

infinity foundation invites applications from scholars and institutions

aug 31, 2007

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: indictraditions@yahoogroups.com < indictraditions@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 31 Aug 2007 13:05:19 -0000
Subject: [indictraditions] Digest Number 1189
To: indictraditions@yahoogroups.com

Promoting better representation of Indic Traditions

Messages In This Digest (1 Message)

1.

Announcements: Positions for scholars, and RFP for Institutions From: rajivmalhotra2001

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Message

1.

Announcements: Positions for scholars, and RFP for Institutions

Posted by: "rajivmalhotra2001" Rajiv.Malhotra@worldnet.att.net   rajivmalhotra2001

Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:09 am (PST)

Infinity Foundation has two announcements for positions. The first is
for individual applicants and the second is for institutional
collaborations:

Individual Openings: Research Assistant/Fellow Positions

Infinity Foundation seeks scholars to help research, review, prepare
manuscripts, and coordinate in various phases of publishing. The
scope of the subject matter of interest is broad, and covers the
study of Indic civilization/culture across the humanities and social
sciences. For example, topics of interest include but are not limited
to: history of Indian contributions to science/technology, economic
history of India, India's precolonial educational institutions, the
impact of Islamic intrusions and European colonialism on India, post-
independence India, history of jati/caste, Indian religions and
epistemologies, representations and misrepresentations of Indian
civilization, and impact of Indic visions upon the world. Of special
importance are areas with entrenched conclusions and ideologies that
could be challenged with more objective and innovative approaches.

The research would be output in a variety of formats, including
books, edited volumes, articles for scholarly journals as well as
popular magazines, press and weblogs. A given researcher may be
assigned a narrower area of focus depending on the individual's
interests and specialty. The individual should be courageous and
prepared to research and/or present data that may contradict well-
established academic paradigms and opinions in specific disciplines.

There are two kinds of positions available:
A. Full-time: The individual would be mostly based in New
Jersey, although an adjunct academic appointment in an academic
institution is possible. Candidates must have an advanced degree in
the humanities/ social sciences. Salary would be in the range of
$50,000 - $60,000 per annum. The term would be one to two years.
B. Part-time: We would also entertain applicants who wish to
pursue such work on a part-time basis while remaining employed
elsewhere.
Please send your resume, availability dates, areas of subject matter
interest and expertise, and any other relevant information to:
InfinityFoundation@gmail.com

**********************************************************************

RFP from Institutions

Scope of the project

Infinity Foundation seeks proposals from academic institutions and
not for profit organizations for cooperative research on Indic
civilization/culture across the humanities and social sciences.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to: history of Indian
contributions to science/technology, economic history of India,
India's precolonial educational institutions, the impact of Islamic
intrusions and European colonialism on India, post-independence
India, history of jati/caste, Indian religions and epistemologies,
representations and misrepresentations of Indian civilization, and
impact of Indic visions upon the world. The Foundation is especially
interested in proposals employing objective and innovative approaches
that seek alternatives to entrenched conclusions and ideologies.

Expectation and deliverables.

The research would be output in a variety of formats, including
books, edited volumes, articles for scholarly journals as well as
popular magazines, press and weblogs. Foundation seeks researchers to
utilize objective data and communicate them to the academic and
intellectual community even if such observations may contradict well-
established academic paradigms and opinions in specific disciplines.

Funding

Funds will be available to hire researchers/fellows to carry out
research and publications, either independently, or at the
Foundation's discretion as part of a team effort. A total of $200,000
may be made available to support this RFP over three years. Funds
will be released annually, with satisfactory progress and based on
milestones approved.

Submission

Proposals (maximum 5 pages) should be submitted by investigators
qualified to lead such projects, along with a duly signed cover
letter from institutional authority by September 30, 2007 to the
Foundation by email: InfinityFoundation@gmail.com Proposals should
clearly outline plans to approach and complete the projects of
interest, milestones and deliverables, budget justification, and
plans for collaboration with the Foundation.

Prospective investigators are encouraged to contact the Foundation
for discussing research resources available at the Foundation
library. Infinity Foundation's researchers will be expected to be
closely involved in the research and project development with the
Principal Investigator (PI). Research personnel may be eligible for
joint appointments with the Foundation.

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the golden bird

aug 30th, 2007

speaking about india's golden ages, somebody (mckinsey?) talked about the 'golden bird'.

this, i suppose, is a literal translation of the urdu phrase 'sone ki chidiya'.

but i am not aware of such a phrase to describe india in any other indian language, certainly not in malayalam, my forte. or sanskrit, or tamil, or any others.

can someone correct me if they know that this phrase 'golden bird' exists in some other regional language?

my belief is that it was coined by mohammedan invaders who were looking upon india as the goose that laid the golden egg, in a manner of speaking. i don't think it is an indigenous phrase.

p chidambaram plagiarizes from karl marx. both are dead wrong, too, about india's wealth

aug 30th, 2007

i guess it's the harvard business school education: must have fried his brains. p chidambaram would have been much better off if he'd studied at stanford or wharton. :-)

as it is, he's become a poor man's karl marx.

but both of them are wrong. Angus Maddison's World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, an official European Union publication, shows that during practically the entire period 0-1700 CE India was the world's richest nation.

stands to reason. all these barbarians from alexander the macedonian to the mohammedans to the christists came to india only because it was a rich country. i have noticed that the mohammedans and the christists never invaded, say, burkina fasso. why? burkina fasso has nothing to steal.

also, the reports of travelers, everyone from marco polo to alberuni to xiuen zang to fa hien to paes to the early brits talk about how they were stunned by the wealth of india. i remember passages about vijayanagar by the overwhelmed persian and portuguese envoys who couldn't believe how rich the empire was, for instance.

chidambaram wont believe any indians, but he should believe angus maddison, who's a white guy.

why chidambaram says this sort of crap -- he's not stupid -- is not clear. may have something to do with genuflecting in front of his white boss-lady. if you remember, manmohan singh also said something really dumb when he was given an honorary degree by some british university: something along the lines that brit colonialism had done india a lot of good. yeah, in his dreams!

here's chidambaram, as reported by rediff: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/27fm.htm

==== quote =====

India was a country where rivers of milk and honey used to flow, is a great historical myth, believes Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

"The poverty has always been there in India and whoever propounded the myth about India being a rich country is wrong," he said.

The old teaching that India was a country of milk and honey about five centuries ago was factually incorrect, Chidamabaram said. "Poverty was there and is still there in India, though prosperous pockets existed here and there," he said.

The finance minister said the books that propounded the glorious past of India were liable to be burnt.

==== end quote ====

now compare this to karl marx, as reported by col anil athale at the following url: http://samachar.com/showurl.php?rurl=http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14514872

Karl Marx took a dim view of India and its heritage.

Writing in the New York Tribune dated June 25, 1853
(quoted in Lewis S Feuer edited Marx and Engels Basic
Writings, Anchor Books, NY 1959, pp. 474-481) he
claimed that the 'Golden Age' of India was all myth
and India was always a poor starving country. He
further went on to admire and appreciate the British
for destroying the Indian village industry and economy
so that India could 'modernise'.

===== end quote =======

almost verbatim, eh? all that hanging around with karat and yechuri may have caused chidambaram to absorb karl marx's bullshit by a process of osmosis from the communists.

reminds me of the old indian practice of visha-kanyaka, a poison maiden whom a king would gift to a rival, and whose body was toxic to the touch.

the communists are poison, no doubt about it. kalakutam, as disgorged by the serpent kaliya.

oh joy, we'll have virgin ironpants herself to deal with

aug 30th, 2007

that's the name rushdie gave benazir in perhaps his most penetrating book, the one about pakistan, 'shame'.

so now we may have to deal with her; and in many ways, old musharraf is better. he is at least a dependable villain. the woman is unpredictable, shrill, prone to tantrums, and, when she feels like it, quite charming. the kuldip nayar-manmohan singh types will practically swoon over her uttering some silly urdu couplet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/world/asia/30pakistan.html?th&emc=th

yes, time to send muthuvel karunanidhi to pakistan as ambassador -- which would solve two problems at one stroke. a) the blighted 'dravidian' business will lose a little steam; b) the urdu couplets will have no effect.

actually it might be even better to send j jayalalithaaa as ambassador to pakistan. the virgin ironpants will have a hissy fit.

chinese government money flowing into democratic campaigns again?

aug 30th, 2007

possible that this hsu is a front man for the chinese communist party.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/politics/30bundler.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

interesting that the holier-than-thou obama had his snout in this chinese trough, considering his macaca moment against indians. but as we all know, they are all hypocrites, both democrats and republicans.

Deliberate neglect of security driving terror -- Ajit Doval

Great article from the Spindian Express.

Spindian because they claim that terrorism is growing in India because of "error".

Doval, however, is quite categorical that this is not the case.

It [effective anti-terrorism] is not happening because a basic requirement is missing: a political culture that can subordinate electoral and other political considerations to the nation’s supreme sovereign interests. This requires the political will and ability to carry the whole country together. If the nation fails to do so, it may face many Hyderabads, and worse.

Emphasis added.

Translated into English: Manmohan has muzzled and tied the hands of law enforcement agencies.
Ostensibly so that he can sleep at night -- he gets restless when the "ugly cops" interrogate the "innocent" mothers of "hapless, misguided" terrorists, remember?

Sumit Ganguly Favours N-Deal

I thought this article by Dr Sumit Ganguly might be worth reading. He seems to be strongly in favour of the N-Deal. Meanwhile, The Economist is again reiterating its strong opposition to the deal.

I admit, I'm leaning towards the deal myself. I don't think it's some ideal or fantastic bargain, but it's enough to get us through the door, and without extracting an extremely heavy price.

Terror-Free Investing

Here's an interesting idea:

New Investment Fund Touts Terror-Free Investments

This is interesting. Investment funds which market themselves with a Terror-Free brand label.

This would provide a greater economic incentive for countries to avoid sponsorship of terrorism. The ordinary people can't stop the US from providing military aid to Pak, but the use of free-market instruments could allow for a financial cost to be imposed on Pak for its terrorism activities.

India's comparatively cleaner image and conduct should earn it some significant advantages. Why should cheaters prosper? Why should honest countries be put at a disadvantage? A terror-free investment brand would be just as beneficial as a pollution-free "green" brand label.

There are NRIs and others who are prominent in the international investment scene. Why can't they be enlisted to promote terror-free investment? Sure, we all know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter, but with the spotlight on Islamist terror in the wake of 9/11, there's a much wider consensus than in differentiating those with Islamist ties from those of the free world.

The prospectus published by such a terror-free investment fund could go into detailed analysis of economic ties to terror. Nations would have to be much more wary of getting into the terror game, as it could have broader free-market repercussions on them that backroom-diplomacy might not be able to avert. There would then be a way to impact that wider cloud of "moderate" Muslims who claim not to directly engage in terror, even as they serve as the wider ecosystem within which the terror festers.

Brahmins Demand Reservations

Here it comes! You knew it was coming! Now here it is!

The Brahmin Quota!

The Pioneer

Brahmin bandh in Jaipur for quota

Lokpal Sethi | Jaipur

The Sarva Brahmin Mahasabha has given a call for Jaipur bandh on Wednesday in protest against the lathi-charge on chetavani rally, organised by the Mahasabha in the State capital on August 19. The rally was held to demand reservation for Brahmins.

Several other Brahmin organisations, including Akhil Bhartiya Brahmin Mahasabha and Rajasthan Brahmin Mahasabha have supported the bandh call. Rajput Karani Sena patron Lokender Singh Kalvi has appealed to the leaders of the upper caste organisations to support the bandh, which is aimed at pressing for reservation of these classes.

Talking to The Pioneer, Mahasabha president Suresh Mishra demanded that the Government should remove all those who ordered lathi-charge on peaceful rallyists.

Hey, if every other kind of Dalit can get a quota, then why not Brahmin Dalits too?

rajiv malhotra: was the US senate attack on hinduism an isolated instance?

aug 29th, 2007

heck, no! they attack hinduism because they are shitting in their pants about mohammedanism, which they dare not attack. they know they can get away with attacking hinduism because hindus are not going to send suicide bombers to flatten these ugly fundamentalist christists.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rajiv malhotra

http://www.usinpac.com/articles1.asp

Was the US Senate Attack on Hinduism an isolated Instance?

Article by: Rajiv Malhotra, USINPAC Leadership Committee Member

The US Senate has a long tradition of opening with Bible prayers, occasionally extending a symbolic courtesy to prayers of other faiths. For the first time in its history a Hindu priest was invited to conduct the opening prayer. Indian-Americans, having contributed immensely to America, naturally felt proud to be afforded equal respect alongside other American religions. But the Hindu prayer was attacked as an "abomination" by hate-filled heckling that resulted from an organized mobilization by civic groups such as the American Family Association attempting, to demonize Hinduism as heathen, immoral and dangerously un-American. The President of the Family Research Council mobilized Americans to block the Hindu priest, saying, "There is no historic connection between America and the polytheistic creed of Hinduism." David Barton, one of the scholars informing the attackers, declared that Hinduism was "not a religion that has produced great things in the world," citing social conditions in India as proof of its primitiveness.

The denigration of Hinduism influences the way Americans relate to Indians. Andrew Rotter, an American historian, in his book on the US foreign policy's tilt against India and towards Pakistan during the Nehru era, cites declassified documents revealing US presidents' and diplomats' suspicions of Hinduism. They regarded "Hindu India" as lacking morality and integrity, and its "grotesque images" reminded them of previous pagan faiths conquered by Christians, such as Native Americans. American ideas about India are intertwined with stereotypes about Hinduism.

There are domestic implications concerning the diaspora as well. The great American meritocracy has enabled us to succeed as individuals, and many Indians see American Jews as a role model. But it took the Jews over half a century of organized lobbying and litigation by organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, to establish their religious identity in public life. The lesson Jews had learnt in the European Holocaust was that their individual success could easily be used against them if their civilizational identity was defamed. Indians also faced hate crimes in New Jersey when the Dotbusters targeted Hindus. Recent rants by Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs generate xenophobia against Indians for "stealing" jobs from "real" ( i.e. white Judeo-Christian) Americans. As Indian-Americans stand out for their individual success, while US economic standards deteriorate, we may one day regret having neglected the projection of a positive civilizational image. Unlike many other ethnic and religious groups, we have not adequately engaged US universities, schools, media and think-tanks deeper than the pop culture layer of cuisine, Bollywood and fashions. On the contrary, many Indian writers have fed the "caste, cows, curry" images of India.

Hindu-Americans need to be educated on the history of American public religion and the "American way" of claiming one's religious identity across the spectrum of liberals and conservatives. In fact, even liberal Americans have always been a very Christian people. Hilary Clinton's devout Christianity has shaped her liberalism. She told New York Times that her Methodist faith has been "a huge part of who I am, and how I have seen the world and what I believe in, and what I have tried to do in my life." She carries a Bible on her campaign travels and confidently quotes from St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley, the father of Methodism. Another liberal, Barak Obama, proudly projects his Christianity and delivers many of his key campaign speeches before church congregations. It comes as a surprise to many secular Indians that the very liberal President Jimmy Carter describes himself as a Bible evangelist, and asserts that his Christian faith provided the moral compass to guide his presidency.

Liberalism in America is about egalitarian economic and race policies, and is not a rejection or even a departure from the nation's majority religion, i.e. Christianity. The equivalent scenario would be for India's CPM leaders (the liberal/left equivalent of Obama, Clinton and Carter) to quote Hindu sacred texts and deliver campaign speeches in major Hindu temples. While American labor unions have always been very deeply rooted in Christianity, India's labor unions are encouraged to discard the Hindu identity. Unlike in Europe, American public life has never abandoned its deep rooted Christian foundations. America's separation of state and church affects only formal institutions, and does not imply de-Christianizing the leadership or the national ethos.

Indian intellectuals have misunderstood America's Christian psyche because the Indian notion of secularism in India is very different to that of the American. Indian secularism requires distancing from the majority religion, i.e. Hinduism, by one or more of the following ways: by espousing a "generic spirituality" without any specific religious identity, by condemning any Hindu identity as a mark of communalism with BJP links, or by explicitly blaming Hinduism for all sorts of human rights problems. The equivalent situation would be to blame the Bible for all the US abuses in Guantanamo and in its domestic society, and to de-Christianize America into a sort of generic spirituality. While Hinduism, like all other world religions, does have social problems, it also has internally generated reformations, as well as immense resources to deal with the human condition.

Unraveling this requires understanding Hinduphobia's nexus in the American academy and seminaries. This is the subject of a well-researched eye-opening new book, titled, Invading the Sacred: An analysis of Hinduism Studies in America . (See: www.invadingthesacred.com   for details.) The book exposes influential scholars who have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as "a dishonest book"; declared Ganesha's trunk a "limp phallus"; classified the Hindu Devi as the "mother with a penis" and Shiva as "a notorious womanizer" who incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a pedophile who sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the "ha" in sacred mantras as a woman's sound during orgasm. To understand the hatred spewed at us by the Senate hecklers one needs to understand the systemic creation and distribution of such one-sided "data" by an army of "scholars" whose mission is to bolster the image of Hinduism as a danger to the American way of life.

 

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see christist padre wriggling and jumping through hoops re the blessed MT

aug 29th, 2007

to account for the fact that the old bat M Teresa was really nothing more than a money-making businesswoman for the vatican, and that she didn't even believe the tosh she was spreading all around about jesus and his pa.

what a hypocrite the leathery old saint was! we knew this already, as she gave practically no medical care to the dying that she dragged into her charnel houses for publicity purposes, whereas she always ended up at top-flight hospitals in the west. also, the many millions that people donated to her were not spent on the poor, they simply vanished into the vatican's kitty. but this is further proof that she didn't even believe the crap she was peddling, and was just taking advantage of the riches that came her way, from the likes of the abominable baby doc duvalier of haiti and charles keating, a major felon and conman in the us. smart businesswoman indeed.

and how appropriate that she would be considered a 'saint'. as i wondered years ago in my column 'the saint business', if she were a 'saint' (along with that lunatic and thug 'saint' francis xavier), then what would a 'sinner' look like? the mind boggles. :-)

actually, those that the hoary old MNC known as the vatican considers 'sinners' are usually good people who just haven't bought into their bullshit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/opinion/29martin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

iraq being like vietnam

aug 29th, 2007

greenway is generally a bit of a smug pontificator -- and another atlanticist -- but he does have a point here. the americans have lost iraq, but it is not in the interests of anybody else other than china (which has its very cozy sino-mohammedan axis in place) that the americans should leave iraq.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/28/opinion/edgreenway.php

several stories on agriculture

aug 28th, 2007

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Food_Agriculture/Strategy_Analysis/Harvesting_Latin_Americas_agribusiness_opportunity

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Food_Agriculture/Strategy_Analysis/A_value_culture_for_agriculture

and this is a premium article, which i dont have access to:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Food_Agriculture/Strategy_Analysis/India 's_sleeping_giant_Food_abstract

our immediate priority sector should be agriculture, damn the nuclear deal which, most charitably, is intended to increase the availability of electricity for industry -- although in reality it is meant to fatten the coffers of manmohan et al.

expect to pay more for food

aug 28th, 2007

one of the unintended consequences of bio-fuels: rising food prices.

india has no alternative but to focus on agricultural productivity. the old green revolution has run its course, and the water tables are alarmingly depleted; and the expected investment in production from the new, more efficient retail chains is being stalled as retailers rethink in the wake of mayavati's edict shutting down the big retail shops.

looks bad, all told.

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9707029&fsrc=nwl

chinese website chronicles brit thuggery in india

aug 27, 2007

no doubt they will use this material to justify their thuggery in tibet, and their incipient thuggery in africa, where they are already causing native manufacturing to fail by flooding the market with chinese imports.

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?gid=2&tid=553936&extra=page%3D1&page=6

a signal moment: atlanticists take it on the chin!

aug 29th, 2007

this is a huge turnaround almost on the lines of that june day in 1975 and the ignominious, headlong withdrawal from saigon -- after decades of atlanticists pontificating to others about how wonderful their financial instruments and investment banks are, and pushing things like GAAP and Sarbanes-Oxley down everybody's throats, the worms are turning and now demanding that the yanks abide by others' edicts! what a comedown for the yanks and their poodles, the limeys!

this is another symbol of america's waning importance. foreigners own more and more of america, and they will demand their pound of flesh. such are the wages of profligacy, compounded with the hubris of adventurism in foreign lands, including all those billions they have given to musharraf.

basically, america is going bankrupt after years of living beyond its means.

this is yet another reason to not hitch india's star to america's diminishing fortunes. india has to treat america as an equal, rather than act as a supplicant minor feudal chief kowtowing to the emperor. we need chanakya's clear-eyed vision of comparative advantage now more than ever.

having said this, i emphasize that i am pro-america, but pro an america that is only first among equals, not one prone to the hyperpower hysteria -- as i have pointed out before, hubris before nemesis -- that has afflicted americans for some years. but they are still far better, even with their moralizing, than the chinese, the arabs, or the vatican in the race for being top dog. in any case, the rapid rise of russia is showing that every dog has his day -- unthinkable just a few years ago as the soviet union fell apart. the atlanticists are terrified of putin and his petro-euros.

the economist is fond of implying that india is about to fall apart like the soviet union. is the US liable to fall apart? will california go its own way ditching those idiot states of the east coast? similarly, when, not if, will china disintegrate?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/28/business/reg.php

wipro to open development center in atlanta

aug 29th, 2007

i guess that's one way of stopping the bleating about jobs being outsourced to india.

now they'll bleat about foreigners buying up good old american companies.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/28/ap4059658.html

Economist - Singing for supper

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9657077
The Atlanticist's favorite pass-time in India - gutter inspection - on proud display again.
There are only 3,000 widows living in ashrams out of a population of how much? Overall it shows that the family as an institution is much much stronger among Hindus than among the "nasty, brutish and short" Anglicans.
BTW - what do English women on a good government provided benefits do? They spend it on drugs and abortions. No kidding - the culture of estate housing in Britain is full of state funded drug addicted prostitutes. At least our community funded widows are only singing Bhajans

Confront Saudi Arabia

Great article. Why should the bloody Saudis be allowed to construct madarssas & mosques all over the world, when they won't allow any other religion on their soil? Till they actually reform, perhaps non-Islamic Nations can get together and ban Islam from their territories?

Jindal's campaign counters attack on his faith

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/aug/27aziz.htm
LOL - I don't know what to make of this one. A born Christist (the Democrat fellow) attacks another opportunist Christist - Bobby Jindal - yes that is right the one American apart from Barrack Husein O that the entire Indian media loves.

BTW ever wonder why all the "Indian" Americans in the conservative ranks have all had to convert? There is another guy, Romesh Ponnuru who also "accepted" Jesus. I guess its hard to get ahead when you are a devil-worshiping Pagan. More luck to them I say - please hang each others dirty linen in public - it only exposes more of your type

Like Mandir, Like Nuclear

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/212871.html
What is it about Advani that makes him such a sucker for shooting himself (and the national aspiration) in the balls?

First it was the Shri Ram Mandir, then Jinnah's secular speech Pakistan suck-up - and now this free pass to Doctor M Singh. I am beginning to think even Advani is crypto Mohammedan-Communist. Even the Commies are more consistent than this guy, and because of that they are easy to pin down as betrayers. Folks like Advani though - what can I say? The guy reminds me of the John Kerry sailing jibe "Anyway the wind blows" - what a flip flopper!

After UPA came to power in 2004,

India has lost maximum lives to terror, except Iraq

Bin Laden's shadow in Hyderabad

Bin Laden's shadow in Hyderabad
Of course - that Bin Laden has a shadow that extends to Hyderabad is no surprise. However, I thought B Raman wrote in his memoirs that the 'radicalisation' of the Indian Ummah is a post Babri phenomenon. No? Or perhaps this blast is Taslima inspired no doubt.
Other such Dhimmi nonsense must be exposed and refuted. By the way - no candle light vigils by the usual suspects? Did not see much of breast-beating from those whose world is shattered by "police killing" of one Sohrabuddin Sheikh in Gujarat.

Of course not. The killers are Mohammedan here - hence it is part of their 'human rights' to kill others. No one except Mohammedans have 'human rights' in India. no change that - every else has the human right to die.

Kapil Dev - BCCI acts like a cop

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/BCCI_acts_like_a_cop/articleshow/2312202.cms
Yeah - I know folks on this blog think cricket is over-rated.

However, the new India Cricket League is an idea which I hope works. The problem is not that Cricket has 'swallowed' other sports - the same can be said about NFL in America. The problem is that of hugely overpaid players who hugely under-perform. Hence people feel that it is undeserved wealth. The problem also is the geographic spread from where players emerge - look at the Indian team today. Most of the players are from the metro cities; a few from tier II towns and almost none from villages. This when an overwhelming number of people (hence potential players) reside in rural India.

The root of all this - the "John Company" monopoly model of the BCCI. Monopolies reduce qualities and exaggerate prices; they are harmful to the consumer, society and indeed even to the monpolisers in the long run. Breaking the BCCI monopoly will benefit all - most of all the players and the game.

And yes - when that happens it will be harder to include the "non-performing Nehru's" in the national team (though I personally disagree with that title for Sachin)

May the souls of the slaughtered innocent Hindus of Hyderabad rest in peace...

May their deaths not go in vain. May the evil of Islam be destroyed from the face of the earth. May a future Govt. of India take the fight to Pakistan & Bangladesh and settle it once and for all.

Bangladesh's Huji behind Hyderabad blasts

Mesh Networking for Multicore Chips

The problem of congestion in cross-communication as microchips become increasingly multi-core has been addressed by a new type of mesh-networking architecture that allows for scalability. Tilera's new multicore design heralds the future of microprocessing.

Mother Teresa Wasn't a Believer

So the truth comes out. She wasn't a believer after all.

One has to wonder if Palpatine -- I mean, Benedict -- is even a believer himself.

Race to Mine Helium-3 from Moon?

Everybody wants to get Helium-3 from the Moon. But will it actually generate energy?

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19296/

Catholic "secular" forum in action

Competitive intolerance raises its head -- again.

Notice how no one is calling for "calm". One Dias fellow also said:

Christians are made soft targets since they are a more tolerant lot, commanded by their religion to demonstrate peacefully. However, the community is becoming increasingly aggressive and in no mood to take such insults lying down. Would the Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other religions tolerate such an affront to their faith?" asked Dias.

LOL!

Calm is not required (or expected) -- its not Hindu sentiments that have been toyed with. That would have been fine.

Its also interesting to see that when a Hindu does something "intolerant" (e.g. asks for naked pictures of Goddesses to be removed or for some malicious painter to be arrested or for a pro-terroristic film like Fanaa to be banned), Hindus ostracize that person publicly.

However, when a Muslim or Christian does something intolerant, no one from "within the fold" protests -- speaks volumes for their in-built intolerance.

Nuke deal: India fooled by the US, says China; Karats merry in mating dance

aug 20th, 2007

yes, it's a mating dance.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kalyan97

After all, Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and comrades make weekly trips to Beijing for instructions. Here are some. Hegelian dialectic is turned on its head by using matrimonial imageries of honeymoon and marriage. Marriage? What marriage? Mating dance.

 

k

 

China's happy that India-US deal's in trouble
18 Aug 2007, 0112 hrs IST ,Saibal Dasgupta, TNN
 

BEIJING: If the Left is all but pulling the rug from under Manmohan Singh's government, comrades in Beijing are gloating over the fact that cosying up to Washington has New Delhi all tangled up in red, blue and white. It's uncharacteristic of Chinese Communist Party dailies to comment expansively on internal matters of the nations Beijing is trying to mend fences with. But China, wary from the start that the nuclear bonhomie between India and the US will challenge its security dominance, have obviously seen the troubles in New Delhi worthy of comment. Judging by two articles published on Friday in the People's Daily and its sister publication, Global Times, Beijing seems to want Washington to reconsider its nuclear deal with New Delhi. The Chinese-language Glo-bal Times, seen by diplomats and foreign policy experts as Beijing's window to the world, said the Indian government has to choose between its own survival and that of the deal. It devoted the entire front page to the deal with a large article headlined: "US warns India not to carry out nuclear tests anymore; India on the boil, Prime Minister faces stepdown". It said the deal has caused a political turmoil in India leading to a situation where Singh might be forced to step down from office. It discussed in detail the objection to the 123 deal voiced by Indian opposition parties as well as Left leaders, some of whom still regard the Chinese brand of Marxism as the most suitable political ideology. Singh's photograph dominates the front page of Global Times, which is published thrice a week. The Chinese foreign ministry and the official media had earlier voiced their objection to the deal on the ground that India was not a signatory to the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty. But now, the tone of criticism is strident. It's the first time the state media has attempted to evaluate the political situation in India to judge the sustainability of the N-deal and the longevity of the UPA government. Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily said the US has disregarded international opinion to use India as a "tool for its global strategic pattern" by supporting New Delhi's nuclear ambitions. Global Times said the US has been driven to seek an ally in India because of China's rapid development. It said Indians, who were earlier excited about the deal, now feel they have been fooled by the US into signing an unclear and unreliable pact.

http://tinyurl.com/34s4lq

West underestimates the 'evil of Islam':Dr. Wafa Sultan

Article

funny take on the role of the Indian Left

posting in full from the Deccan Chronicle Aug 20 2007...


Left has a problem for every solution
By Suhel Seth

There has been excessive criticism about the Left parties with relevance to the Indo-US nuclear deal: the Prime Minister has been courageous, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been pragmatic and Prakash Karat has been stern. I have often heard industrialists crib about the Left, on how the Left is coming in the way of real progress. Ram Jethmalani, at a dinner in Mumbai last week, told me how he had written a letter to the Prime Minister expressing support on the nuclear deal and he too felt that the Left was barking up the wrong tree.

Much has been written on the nuclear deal. Frankly, I just don’t give a damn. While everyone is concerned about relations with the United States and the nuclear issue, my anger stems from the fact that even today, the Delhi-Gurgaon connector is a mess. T.R. Baalu, the minister, must be thrown out. This shameful act of delays and more delays cannot be tolerated, but more of that later, since, as I said, everyone is targeting the Left.

I believe India has a great need for the Left and their way of thinking.

We need the lunatic fringe amongst us, or else, what will the news channels cover? We need to see footage of some real old men determining the future of a really young country from their own impoverished ivory (or perhaps paper, in their case) castles, and telling us what we need to do.

The Left is the rightful naysayer that every country needs. I was born and raised in Bengal, and thus I know the DNA of the Left very well. They are classic bullies when they need to be. Essentially, they are cowards, and finally, Dr Manmohan Singh has understood that.

They always bark, but can never bite, because the leash is elsewhere — in some godforsaken province in China. And like most things that emerge from Bengal, the Left has a problem for every solution, which is why we need them.

We are a country which specialises in tabling why things cannot be done. Ask an Indian to do something and he will tell you why it cannot be done. This is the mantra of our bureaucracy as well. A bureaucrat is essentially a Leftist in the manner he thinks, and more importantly, the way he works. Which is why a bureaucrat never really works, he makes others work. He is there to stall, not solve, and that to my mind is an endearing quality for which we should thank, and not castigate, the Left.

The Left has every right to be angry. The States they run are run-down but the rest of the country is progressing very well without them. This irks them, because their primary belief of equality says that every Indian must be equally poor and not equally rich.

The Left parties hate progress because progress means money, and since they believe in being and behaving poor, riches find no place in their lives. Which is why they will wear linen shirts only when they are not on television. The Left cannot also tolerate any form of globalisation or economic integration. For them, globalisation is Cuba talking to India, and not India talking to the United States, which is why they are opposed to everything that emanates from the US.

They hate George Bush, but then they’ve hated everything that’s American. They hate David Mulford too (the US ambassador to India), but in this regard they are in a majority.

You have to empathise with the Left: they all come from simple backgrounds. The Left is also very honest. And this is for real. You will never see them involved in any scandal relating to money. Their party presidents will never be caught on camera accepting Rs 1 lakh and silly amounts like that.

The Left truly has greater integrity than any other political party, and that is perhaps another reason why we need them so desperately in India.

All said and done, living with the Left is a bit like living with your mother-in-law. You do it in order to maintain peace and harmony, but then it is a powder-keg waiting to explode, and who better to experience this than the sedate Dr Manmohan Singh? There was a time, during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s regime, when I said that the women in his alliance would give him sleepless nights: today the gender has been replaced by an ideology, and I pity Dr Singh’s plight.

Sleeping with the Left is a bit like sleeping with an elephant. Dangerous to say the least, because you never know when it might roll over.

why all those AIDS predictions were clearly bogus re india: sex survey

aug 20th, 2007

the AIDS fuss and predictions were merely a way for the christist NGOs to get more money for their nefarious conversion activities.

if anybody finds the foreign policy article with this detail, do post it here.

according to this chart, indians are about the most careful in their sexual habits, and lose their virginity quite late.

true, i guess those long-distance truckers do spread the disease around quite a bit, but this chart is indeed eye-opening. compare india with south africa, thailand, the US and other places which are hot spots: behaviorally speaking, the % of indians at risk is quite low.

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9675837&fsrc=nwl

and look at all those horny mohammedans in malaysia, indonesia and turkey fornicating away: the turks are champs at it, and nobody is excommunicating anybody, what? i am sure pakistan would also come way up there on the scale, after all they have people like that famous, fire-breathingly 'pure' mullah known as 'sandwich', who was found in flagrante delicto rather snugly ensconced between a male and a female prostitute: sort of coming and going at the same time.

one would expect the scandinavians to be pretty much out there, and they are. the aussies are carrying on, but i thought the new zealanders were a little prudish.

but what about france? far more modest than the image portrayed by their films? and those horny little limeys, carrying on, prudishly saying something like, 'i say, old chap, shall we have another crumpet, and a cucumber sandwich, and perhaps one of those, um... quickies, as the yanks put it?' (yes, i imagine the limey guys are humping each other, after all, this is what they all do in public school).

japan's abe goes to india on the 21st

aug 20th, 2007

of course, nobody in the ELM is bothered about this.

this man, or at least his country, represents india's best alliance in asia.

of course, the indian papers are full of 'sanju baba's release', i imagine. btw, why are they *so* concerned about sanju baba? that must be because he's half-mohammedan.

meanwhile, back at the ranch, the highly choreographed mating dance between the kaangress and the communists continues. abe would recognize this ritual as akin to the stylized routines of noh and kabuki from his home country. 'will karat, or won't karat?' -- such drama!

however, it is easy to predict with absolute certainty what will happen: nothing. after all the sound and fury, the communists will let the nuke deal pass in its current form and they will hang on to second-hand power for dear life.

the communists are enjoying their windfall -- power without responsibility. in fact, they have more than made up for the 'himalayan blunder' when jyoti basu turned down the PM-ship some years ago. now they have a PM who is shilling for the yanks, and who is beholden to them for his very survival, and so they will posture mightily. but the communists know that if they bring down the kaangress (the UPA is basically the kaangress and the seven dwarves) the next general election is not necessarily going to bring the kaangress back to power even with the communists' support. therefore, the communists will huff and puff mightily, but they will never blow the edifice down. there will be some last-minute 'compromise' and both sides will claim victory. the communists are posturing for the sake of those states where they are competing with the kaangress, eg. kerala, andhra pradesh.

the good thing that has come out of all this is that the two 'saints' of india (according to their own propaganda which is dutifully churned out by the ELM) are manmohan singh and the entire communist leadership. it is wonderful to see the two trading barbs, and in the process finding the chinks in teflon-man manmohan's armor. the karats and yechuris are also coming being portrayed by the kaangress for what they are: stooges of the chinese. so both of them are losing points in the eyes of the public. fratricide amongst your enemy is always good, and that is what chanakya advised as the 3rd stratagem: bhedam. even better if they create the bhedam with no help from you (as the bjp continues to muddle around like headless chickens, unable to get traction on any issue).

Salim Mansur tells it like it is

Here is the Guha Antidote

It is the unfairness of it all - that Salim Mansur does not have a forum as big as the likes of the Newsweek and NYT liberal-Atlanticist editors.
Every Indian living in the western world must distribute these two columns to at least 50 people. That is the way to defeat the terrible India-Pak hyphenation in mid-August

India here http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mansur_Salim/2007/08/11/4409589.html

vs.

Pakistan here
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mansur_Salim/2007/08/18/4427090.php

Dr. Mansur has a regular columns in the Toronto Sun - and no he does not practice AlTaqiyah. Nor does he sob over Mohammedan 'problems' in the way Guha-the-idiot-Cricket -scorer does http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mansur_Salim/

what a fart this guha is!

aug 20th, 2007

in addition to his 'history of cricket', here he is belly-aching about the problems (alleged) of mohammedans in india. yet, he is the one who had to be afraid of his life as a hindu in lahore, which we must remember was a hindu-sikh majority city at partition! not too many mohammedans are afraid to explicitly shout about their identities in india -- see the millions wearing caps and beards and burkas in india.

and the problems of mohammedans crying 'discrimination' is the defining problem in india now? not the chance to regain super-power-dom? not the opportunity to end poverty in india now? not the concern about the dhritarashtra-alinganam that uncle sam wants to get us into? not the problem of environmental degradation and the dying rivers of india? how goddamn myopic can you be?

besides, does guha ever spend a moment of his worthless life wondering about how his precious mohammedans are treating hindus in their countries, not only pakistan (rape, forced conversion), but bangladesh (abduction, forced conversion, beating to death), malaysia (destruction of hindu temples en masse, forced conversion)?

the guy deserves my jibe as 'bowel-movement historian' both for imagining that cricket is anything more than a bowel movement; and for having his nose so deeply embedded in brown-nosing that he cannot see that there is, yes, virginia, a whole universe out there.

moron!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/opinion/15guha.html?th&emc=th

interestingly, there was a counterpoint to this in the nyt (of course, india-pakistan-equal-equal from the atlanticist paper), where the pakistani guy did not waste any time worrying about india, but confined himself to worrying about the future of pakistan itself. whereas here this magnanimous idiot, who is typical of the JNU-educated, is far more concerned about the future of pakistan and of mohammedans than about the future of india! and these are the court historians -- sorry, 'eminent historians' who are considered authorities!

Indian Science Fiction Short Story Contest

An Indian Science Fiction Short Story Contest has been announced, with September 30, 2007 as the deadline for submissions. Entries must be less than 6000 words. Yes, there's a prize as well.
The deadline isn't far off, but I figure that with all the hot air we commentators put out, 6000 words should be a piece of cake. ;)

India-Japan: 'No Reason For China To Be Upset'

More power to Indo-Japanese strategic alliance. Its always good to have the Samurai Sword by your side when facing China.


Here is a brief interview given by the Japanese ambassador to India, Mr. Yasukuni Enoki. Contrast this guy to the obnoxious Chinese ambassador to India, who keeps claiming Arunachal Pradesh...

Here is a related nice article. The 'Sake' Is Warming

Two Attacks, Only One Apology

Congressman Bill Sali is unhappy that a Hindu priest offered a prayer in the House of Representatives, and also that Congressman Keith Ellison is a Muslim. He apologized for any offense towards Muslims, of course.

Go, George

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/210918.html
has a definition of political conduct and courtesy that is so low that his colleagues’ shame about his statement should be far greater than his opponents’ outrage about it.
Really? How come I did not see such a caustic editorial when the favorite YSR went after Chandrababu's mother?
Fernandes’s apologists — can there be any? — would say he was talking about China. They and he should be told we don’t care about what the Chinese allegedly do. India is not China.
There aren't any apologists because there is no need to be apologetic. As for India not being China - thanks to the ELM love for kissing Chinese arse - the day will not be far away when most of India will be China - in Chinese occupation that is.

And yes - George is allowed to say whatever he pleases - precisely because India is not China - at least not just yet

more on dravidian fascism: "It's turn of upper caste to suffer", TN Govt tells SC

Article

George Fernandes lashes out

The ever interesting ex-Defence Minister George Fernandes lashes out at Shikhandi Singh.
In his hallmark style, George pulls no punches -- noting that had the National Premier in China committed such an act of treason, he would have had to pay for it with his life!

"What has emerged is that the prime minister of the country has betrayed the nation by continuous bluffing, something unbecoming of the head of the government," Fernandes, who was part of the NDA government, said in a statement.

"If it were China, they would have settled it with one bullet in his head," the maverick veteran politician said in the statement sent to Reuters on Friday.

This, along with Shourie's article is a welcome return to form from an otherwise lackadaisical NDA. Speaking of the NDA, they have been rather ineffective as opposition; the UPA has committed so many blunders, that tearing them apart on a daily basis should have been very very easy.

A word dropped, a word inserted

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/210846._.html
Arun Shourie may not be a nuclear 'expert' - but as always you cannot argue against the facts he arrays. We must mount a campaign against the following 'givens' in the Indian media

- this deal is all about Nuclear energy - it is not - it is about non-proliferation
- this deal will make India a major power - it will not - it will make India energy and defense dependent.
- this deal is M Singh's finest foreign policy hour - it is not - it is actually George W's finest (and only?) foreign policy hour
- the NDA is arguing against it only because they are not the ones to conclude the deal - they are not - they are arguing against it because it is bad (NDA meeds to commit to rescind it if restored to power; put your money where your mouth is fellows)
- America wants to be our friend - it does not - it wants us to be Robin to the US Batman i.e. junior and dependent partner.

India's ELM and the deal

Watching the ELM (no - not the 'Dravidian homeland across the sea' - it means the presswallahs) on the nuclear deal sure is amusing. Look at these two stories in the Indian Express with some quotations
First that Oracle - Pratap Mehta cautions
Instead of focusing on the text, it is more useful to think about the conditions under which it will work to our advantage. The agreement’s soundness depends on your estimate of these conditions obtaining

And now the Op-Ed advises us
Critics who haven’t or won’t read the nuclear agreement. It’s actually sensitive to India’s needs - both the left and the right are being utterly dishonest in their refusal to see the answers to the questions they raise are written in stone in the 123 agreement.

Apart from the fact that both doses of advise are false (read Brahma on what the TEXT actually says i.e effectively no right to testing- and what CONDITIONS WILL ACTUALLY OBTAIN long term i.e. defense dependence); there are some common features in those that defend the deal

1- Start by telling people how it is all technical in nature (Tavleen Singh's ploy) - so the public thinks we must defer to experts
2- Advise people that only experts can correctly interpret text - and so politicians (of the Left and the BJP) should not politicize the issue
3- Once the experts have passed judgment (on both sides it must be admitted - but most experts oppose the deal)- announce that it is so complex that even experts disagree
4- Then deride the experts by calling them 'experts' who can arrive at no conclusion and refuse to think out of the technical box- proceed to tell public that the non-experts have it
5- As all non-experts are corrupt politicians - except the non-PM who is not a politician and not at all corrupt - announce that only his judgment and not that of other crooked politicians is valid. (Indian Express Op-Ed ploy deployed many times)
6- Tell people it is not the text but the 'conditions' that count - (the Pratap Mehta ploy)
7 - When 'experts' point out that 'conditions' may not be favorable - point out that India's interests are protected in the text - if only people read it.
8 - As text is complex - restart the loop at Step 1


When all else fails - play the energy independence (read - no more power cuts for you if deal happens, dear reader) card over the 'expert and their strategic reasons' card - (which no one understands anyway, dear reader)

Of course - the nation is going down the toilet - but who cares!

Game on Ramayana

Sony Entertainment and Virgin Comics are going to develop a MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) on the theme of Ramayana. I hope it is good.

 

http://www.gameguru.in/pc/2007/10/ramayan-mmo-game-being-developed-by-virgin-comics-and-sony-online-entertainment/

Call God ‘Allah’ to ease relations : Dutch bishop

LOL...Fell out of my chair! Now how do we make this fellow call God as 'Shiva' or 'Vishnu' or 'Ganesha' or 'Indra'...

Happy Independence Day

On the occasion of Independence Day, I am reminded of the following track by Pink Floyd - A Great Day for Freedom.

 

Some sections of the lyrics below -

 

On the day the wall came down
They threw the locks onto the ground
And with glasses high we raised a cry for freedom had arrived

 

....

 

Now life devalues day by day
....

And theres a change that, even with regret, cannot be undone

 

c k raju: Royal Society President in the Dock

aug 14th, 2007

this is the man who has done the most to pursue the trail of the indian discovery of infinite series in kerala, which later magically appeared as part of the work of newton and liebniz. (dead white males automatically qualify as the originators of all the invention in the world).

he was following the trail through the jesuits of cochin and then the vatican library, but was brought to a dead stop as the vatican refused to cooperate. he conjectures that the material was sought after by the christists so they could navigate the open ocean with the sine tables and trigonometric calculation of location.

the recent press release by george joseph is not all that new; it has been in his own book, 'the crest of the peacock' for some time. but it's good some noise is being made about this now.

http://www.physorg.com/news106238636.html

http://www.ind ianscience.org/essays/31-%20E--Infinitesimal%20Calculus.PDF


http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Projects/ Pearce/Chapters/Ch9_4.html

anyway, sad tale of his work being stolen by another white guy. i don't know much more about this, just got this mail from raju; but i'd believe him rather than some white brit.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: C. K. Raju

Please see the attached press release. [see below -- ED]

Also attached is a supporting mail from the Secretary of the Society for
Scientific Values, giving his contact details. [not included -- ED]

For any further queries, please contact the undersigned at 093xxxxxxx [removed personal information -- ED]

C. K.  Raju



================================
C. K. Raju, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor & Director (Academic) xxxxxxx
&
Editorial Fellow, Centre for Studies in Civilizations
-------------------------------------

-------------------------------------
Find all the time in the world at
http://www.11PicsOfTime.com

and an infinity of infinitesimals at
http://IndianCalculus.info
===================

Press Release 
 

Royal Society President in dock 
 

Three experts appointed by the Delhi-based Society for Scientific Values (SSV) have found valid the complaint of Dr. C. K. Raju against Sir Michael Atiyah,  President of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, and former President of the Royal Society, London.  Atiyah, a winner of two prestigious awards—the Fields Medal and the Abel prize—was  accused by Raju of copying his work without acknowledgment. Raju, a well-known scientist, played a key role in building India's first supercomputer, Param.

In two lectures given on 21 and 24 October 2005, Atiyah had suggested a new mathematics for physics, very similar to that proposed earlier by Raju in a 1994 book Time: Towards a Consistent Theory, and developed further in a 2004 article in the journal Foundations of Physics. Like Raju, Atiyah suggested that this might explain quantum mechanics. Raju's son  doing a PhD in physics at Harvard heard one of Atiyah's lectures; noticing the similarity, he promptly mailed Atiyah about Raju's prior work. However, in a subsequent article published prominently in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society in June 2006, with Atiyah's consent, two mathematics professors of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln again gave full credit to Atiyah for this potentially revolutionary change in physics, which could also significantly impact the future technology of quantum computing. After Raju protested the repeated failure to acknowledge his work, a letter in the Notices in April 2007 mentioned Raju's two earlier books and article, and encouraged people to read them.  

Dissatisfied with this belated acknowledgment,  Raju pointed out that because of the delay in acknowledging his work, this idea had now come to be known as "Atiyah's hypothesis", and that there was neither apology nor explanation for the repeated failure to acknowledge his work, nor even any attempt  to correct the improper language of "Atiyah's hypothesis". He  complained to the SSV, and now three experts have found in his favour. 

Based on the finding of the experts, at its 65th Executive Council meeting, held on 21 July,  the Society for Scientific Values decided to write to Atiyah for  his views before taking a final position.

kerala school of mathematics and calculus

aug 14th, 2007

the information about george joseph's research is not new; he has had a couple of editions of his book out already. and it's not as though he personally dug up all this information either. the late manuscriptologist k v sharma shared a good bit of information about the aryabhatiya, and the works by the kerala school of mathematics and astronomy some years ago with me, and if i am not mistaken, they were *mostly* written in sanskrit, not malayalam. ian pierce's website has been my standard reference for this.

anyway, the person who has done the most to follow up the trail is professor c k n raju. i met him a few years ago at a conference, and he mentioned how he had tried to access the vatican archives to follow the trail of how the material got from the jesuits in cochin to the europeans, but had been denied permission (how not-surprising!) to pursue that line of research.

see the next post, which is recent mail from c k n raju about how the royal society in britain is stealing his work! the more things change, the more they remain the same. yet another instance of some white guy stealing an indian's ideas. (yes, i am willing to give ckn raju the benefit of the doubt).

here's a previous post of mine on the topic of indian mathematics on this blog, from july 2005:

jul 5

i was asked to provide references. here's one from ck raju whom i have met
and had some discussions with. the force of circumstantial evidence for the
invention of the infinetismal calculus in kerala is quite overwhelming. the
gregory series should rightly be renamed after madhava, neelakantha, et al
based on the usual principle of first discoverer getting the credit.

this is one of the problems i have about the deification of the DWMs. some
of the deification rightfully belongs to DIMs (dead ind ian males). :-)

i also discussed this issue with the manuscriptologist kv sharma. he has the
authoritative critical edition of the 'aryabhatiya' to his credit, among
many, many other manuscripts in mathematics that show an astonishingly high
level of mathematical knowledge that is not acknowledged by europeans to
this day.

http://www.indianscience.org/essays/31-%20E--Infinitesimal%20Calculus.PDF

ian pearce's website has a lot of info on ind ian mathematics and is worth a
visit. the particular page about this topic is. pearce is a young research
scholar, and when i talked to him, he said he was convinced that ind ian
mathematics has not gotten anywhere near the recognition it deserves.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Projects/Pearce/Chapters/Ch9_4.html

On Terroristan's 60th anniversary...

In its miserable 60 years of existence, Pakistan has heaped untold horrors on our countrymen. In absolute numbers, India has been the biggest victim of terrorism in the world, thanks mainly to the Pakis. Every major & minor incident of Islamic terrorism in the world can be directly linked to Pakistan. Pakistan is a state which is neither at peace with itself nor with the outside world.

Its high time Pakistan's misery is put to an end for our own good. So I pray for the complete destruction of Terroristan on its 60th anniversary.

Indians Predated Newton's Work by 250 Years

Mathematicians in Kerala are found to have preceded Sir Isaac Newton's work in infinite series for calculus by at least 250 years.

Opposition secret hand in nuke deal

Very interesting, if true. Read the full article...

India's Mighty Movers

Here's an article in Businessweek about the movers and shakers pushing India's economy ahead.

Chennai Port Trust plans mega terminal

which is the first of its kind in India.

and more on Port Expansion projects around the country...

Bharat Karnad - loss of National will

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/op-ed/n-deal-relies-on-god,-not-common-sense.aspx
Some 'abstruse' formulations by 'experts' that the likes of Tavleen Singh should try to imbibe. Note the part about India's three stage Thorium nuclear capability being shared - we are the only country that loves to gift away all our competitive advantage.
What soldiers gain on the bleak heights of the Himalayas; the politicos give away on the negotiating table. Likewise with scientific gains. This deal - like Nehruvian Secularism is bad for India, but will end up being the norm.

Fwd: Aviation, fastest growing contributor to global warming

aug 12th, 2007

more scary thoughts on global climate change.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

"Aviation, fastest growing contributor to global warming"

New Delhi, Aug. 7 (PTI): With the aviation sector experiencing a phenomenal growth rate especially in Asia-Pacific region and more importantly in India and China, environmentalists point out that the industry is becoming the fastest growing contributor to global warming. Airline manufactures however refute the charge.

"Last year people took more than two billion journeys on scheduled airlines worldwide, up four per cent over 2005, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation. IATA, the International Air Transport Association, predicts another 500 million passengers will take to the skies by 2010. With jet aircraft emitting 23 kilograms of CO2 per 100 passenger kilometres, that's a lot of carbon dioxide being dumped into the atmosphere," says Eurorail group in a release.

Environmentalists argue that since the airplanes travel at very high altitudes, the impact on global warming is more. "The logic being that since the emission of CO2 in huge amounts and at such high altitude will have a direct impact on the green house effect leading to increase in global warming," says K Srinivas, Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace, an international NGO working against global warming.

Others NGO's also point out that boom in the aviation market is a major concern since global warming is on the increase.

"The average plane releases close to one tonne of carbon dioxide for each passenger it carries from London to New York.

Scientists say that high-altitude emissions are more damaging to the environment. Nitrogen dioxide from airline engines leads to formation of ozone and they are worried about the impact of cirrus clouds formed because of airline travel, which they believe in turn contribute to global warming," says Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment.

http://www.thehindu.com/holnus/001200708070345.htm

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