Jubaan Pay Jhooth , Dil Me US Ka VIsa - Yeh Hia My India

Gartner Hype Cycle 2007

2008-08-14T19:41:00.001-07:00

Gartner Hype Cycle 2007
Originally uploaded by marketingfacts

Pratibha Patil - Wrong Candidate for Wrong Reasons

2007-06-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

Pratibha Pati who? - is UPA's candidate for post of president, handpicked by one person, Sonia Gandhi. The day when her nomination was announced i wasn't aware of the fact that someone with her caliber! exists which can be better than or even par with outgoing President Abdul Kalam. She was chosen ahead of, four senior-most members of current cabinet holding important portfolios, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde. And now we all know why she was chosen, which itself suggests who affairs are conducted in India's political circles.To me, "She is a wrong candidate for wrong reasons". This also reminds me how we chose HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujaral for the job of Prime Minister.

The post of president is ceremonial in India, and in past president have been hand picked by congress party who served Gandhi family, starting from Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Shankar Dayal Sharma. Prtibha Patil falls in the same category. This also gives insights on congress party's mindset and their approach in doing their business.

The post has got more relevance since Venkat Raman, KR Narayanan and Abdul Kalam has chaired it. Everybody agrees across the country from seniors to children, from north to south from east to west and across the globe, that there is no better candidate then Abdul Kalam. But Sonia Gandhi with a goddess like stature in Congress Party think otherwise. If the president were elected by direct vote of the Indian people, against people like Narayan Murthy, Medha Pathkar, Amitabh Bachhan, Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathn Anand or others, I bet that any of the people I have named would get more votes than Pratibha Patil. So question is how did the Congress decision-makers reject all of them and settle on her and Communists supported this? I'm confused as others to see any rational behind this decision.

Looking at previous candidates, foremost qualification is loyalty. If that’s the case then many people have left the Congress over the years; the Bharatiya Janata Party would be a shadow of itself if all ex-Congressmen left it. And if you are a Congressman, you do not have to leave the party to be disloyal. Since the present Congress is Congress (Indira), any flirtation with Congress (Organization) forty years ago would have disqualified Pratibha Patil. The loyalty required is not loyalty to the party, but to the dynasty of the party. And from Communists point of view it is the lack of achievement as they have demonstrated in Bengal, but if this is a qualification then I’m afraid to say that almost every politician would qualify for this and it would be impossible to choose a candidate.

So in a nutshell, Pratibha Patil will be a hopeless, colourless president, which suits her personality. This is not something we should worry about, as most previous presidents were no different. Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Shankar Dayal Sharma had the same qualifications as Pratibha Patil. Their stint as a president were so forgettable that Pratibha Patil cannot do worse. She has a great job; expectations are so low that she can only surprise us. The day she will sworn in, will go in history books as a blunder by congress and left and will be proven come 2009 elections.

President Kalam pitches for reusable long range BrahMos II

2007-06-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

President A P J Abdul Kalam today pitched for Long Range BrahMos -II missile system and reusable class of cruise missiles.

While addressing the army on induction of Brahmos Missile, he said "Time has come for BrahMos Aerospace to work on Mark-II version of BRAHMOS hypersonic cruise missile delivering pay loads and returning to the base after the mission, leading to re-usable class of cruise missiles within the next decade".

The President also asked the BrahMos joint venture firm between India and Russia to aggressively market "world class" product which will have a market shelf life of not more than five years.

"What is market shelf life? Naturally, there will be competitors who would be developing contemporary products which will be detrimental to the market leadership.

"No smart developer can afford to lose the competitive edge which he has generated and hence increasing the orders and continuously improving the products have to be aggressively pursued," he said.

Maintaining that the BrahMos programme was not a "soft" programme, the President said it had been a "hard" programme where a modest 250 million US Dollars were invested equally by India and Russia.

"Today we have an order book worth two US billion dollars and serious business interest exists for order of an equal amount," Kalam said.

The President recalled that when India launched SLV-3 and later flight tested AGNI and carried out a nuclear test "we were the fifth or sixth country to develop and test these systems.

"I have all the time been asking, when we can be the first in the world? I am happy that BrahMos has given us that opportunity to be the first in the world," he said.

BrahMos word was derived from the two great rivers -- Brahmaputra and Moskv

More on this can be read here

Borneo - Leopard is new species discovered

2007-03-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

Researchers have found new species of leopard on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Genetic and skin tests on the creature, now dubbed the Bornean clouded leopard, or Neofelis diardi, suggest it is unique.

The leopard is almost as different from clouded leopards found on the Asian mainland as lions are from tigers, the global nature protection body WWF reports.

"For over 100 years we have been looking at this animal and never realised that it was unique," says Stuart Chapman, coordinator of a WWF program that aims to preserve the vast rainforests in a region known as the Heart of Borneo.

The announcement follows a December report from WWF saying dozens of new animal, fish, plant and tree species had recently been found on Borneo, one of the world's last frontiers for biodiversity but under threat from deforestation.

Clouded leopards were first described scientifically in 1821 by UK naturalist Edward Griffith and were given the official name Neofelis nebulosa.

Until now, the mainland and island animals were believed to be a single species.

But DNA tests at the US National Cancer Institute, WWF says, found some 40 genetic differences, indicating that they had diverged about 1.4 million years ago.

By comparison, the WWF says, there are 56 genetic differences between lions and the common leopard.

The US researchers' conclusions, it adds, are backed up by results of studies of skin colour and fur patterns by biologists working for National Museums Scotland.

There are believed to be between 5000 and 11,000 island clouded leopards in Borneo and between 3000 and 7000 in Sumatra.

Each animal has small cloud markings, a double stripe down its back, with its greyer fur darker than the mainland species, the WWF says.

The mainland leopard, which is found from Nepal to southern China and throughout Southeast Asia, has large clouds on the skin with fewer spots inside, only a partial dorsal stripe and tawny-coloured fur.

The Borneo leopard, says WWF, is the main predator on the island. It feeds on monkeys, small deer, birds and lizards, and has the longest canine teeth relative to size of any cat.

It is spread across most forested areas, from coastal areas to interior mountain ranges. But it prefers dense lowland and hillside rainforest where its natural prey is largely found.

Its last great forest home is the Heart of Borneo, a wild mountainous region of 220,000 square kilometres, in the centre of the island, which governments last month pledged to protect.

Salute to Martyrs on Repbulic Day

2007-01-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

I would like to salute and pay my respect to all martyrs who struggled and sacrificed their lives for years to see a free India. Today in 60th year of independence we are celebrating 58th Republic day.

Celebrate Republic Day and think about people who didn’t get the chance to see this day. If we cant do about what happened in the past, then we can definitely help in defining the glorious and shining future ahead all of us, by helping the nation building progress. I quote from a famous quotation to remind us.

Past makes the present and present makes the future

On this note I would like to stop writing by paying homage to Mother India.

Brides on Horses - Breaking the tradition

2007-01-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

India's economy is growing by 7-9%. The highly skilled and well educated young generation is contributing in a big manner to its success. Education is allowing young men and women to think in more rational way and not just follow the some old traditions blindly, passed on to them by their parents and elders. An example this was demonstrated in pink city of India, when twin sisters
Lata and Laxmi of broke the tradition to ride on horseback on Sunday on the eve of their weddings. When asked about why did they do this, Lata Said, “We were happy to ride on the horses. Our parents have brought us up as their sons,”.

Well that's a fair comment. To me it just shows that women are becoming bold, self confident and ready to take next step to move from the kludges of centuries where women was suppressed. Who can say now that women are not on par with Men in India, I can't. Hats off to you girls, we need more women like you to move forward.

On a lighter note - i feel sorry for grooms, the whole lime light is taken away from them. Its a man's view. :-)

Pakistans View - How secure is Indian nuclear program?

2007-01-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

[Via Pakistan Defence]: India already enjoys the dubious distinction of running the most unsafe nuclear program, now it can hold the crown for running the most insecure one too. The Indian nuclear program has become a serious threat to world security. By large, the security threats posed to its nuclear reactors stem from within. It is a ticking time bomb waiting to be tripped by the numerous insurgencies and separatist movements plaguing India, or by natural disasters. Well over half of India is virtually controlled by insurgent groups, like the Naxalites, where the government’s control is minimal to non-existent. Other security threats emanate from the Indians choosing to construct their nuclear facilities on coastlines prone to natural disasters like the monstrous tsunami of 2004.

India is afflicted with countless insurgencies. Over 53 per cent of its geographical territory is under the control of insurgents and separatists. A debilitating insurgency in the Indian-Controlled-Kashmir is still carried strong by groups like All-Parties Hurriyat Conference. The Sikh Khalistani movement seeks to create an independent Sikh State out of India's breadbasket state of Punjab. Northeastern India is bled by at least 50 separatist movements, out of which, the most prominent and oldest one is Naga militant group/National Socialist Council of Nagalim. However the most serious threat to Indian national security is posed by the leftist Naxalite separatists. Prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described this Maoist insurgency as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country".

Once dismissed as little more than an irritant, the Maoist movement is gaining ground in India. The Naxalites are fighting the Indian government in states like Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Over 45 per cent or two-fifth of Indian territory is now under Naxalite influence which extends to 15 States, affecting 509 police stations. Currently, as few as 25 battalions of military and central paramilitary forces are fighting the armed Naxalites who have a presence in 220 districts and are in absolute control of over 160 districts, and spreading wide and far. They have over 55,000 well-trained, well-armed and highly motivated cadres, hi-tech weapons in plenty and a well-honed fighting strategy. Indian intelligence agencies believe that Maoists of India and Nepal have also begun joint operations. Sri Lanka's LTTE and French Maoists are providing full support to the Indian and Nepalese Maoists. In return, the Indian Maoists provide shelter and training camps to Nepal's Maoists.

Apparently, the separatist/Maoist sympathizers have successfully penetrated all sort of government organization, including Indian military and its state-owned Ordinance Factories. As recent as, October, 2006, Indian army recovered a massive cache of state manufactured arms and ammunition in the eastern city of Kolkata. Three people, including a soldier, were arrested in connection with the seizure of arms. The hoard included anti-personnel mines and ammunition. According to an October 3, 06, BBC report, “An army spokesman said the cache of arms was meant for Maoist rebels and other terrorist groups active in and around eastern West Bengal state.” The report added, the Army spokesman Wing Commander RK Das said “the arms were meant for supply to Maoist and other terrorist groups active in the region, and that this was one of the largest recoveries of arms in recent times.” Das further added, "The anti-personnel mines are very powerful and a single mine can kill many". In 2005 too, the police in southern Andhra Pradesh seized a huge cache of arms, including 800 rocket shells, which they said were meant for Maoist rebels.

A day after the British police said they foiled a major plot to attack transatlantic airliners, and exactly a month after Mumbai, India's commercial hub, was hit by a series of bomb blasts, the U.S. embassy in India warned American citizens of possible attacks in or around New Delhi and Mumbai. The U.S. embassy spokesman warned, "Likely targets include major airports, key central Indian government offices, and major gathering places such as hotels and markets." Judging from the September 8, 2006, horrible bomb blast in Malegaon (Maharashtra), which claimed at least 37 victims, it would be safe to assume that the warnings issued by the U.S. embassy were based on credible information. Even though the public warnings issued by the Americans did not include direct threats to the Indian nuclear facilities, still the Indian government deployed 38 elite commandos at its Kalpakkam fast breeder reactor in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. At the same time, the Press Trust of India reported additional commando deployments at other nuclear facilities. It reported, “The armed forces were given the responsibility of securing [nuclear] facilities and NSG commandoes were deployed at many nuclear plants.”

Few details are available regarding the security standards in place for the Indian nuclear program, but they are believed to be primitive and outdated at best. Depending on the sensitivity of materials, it is generally believed that different levels of security are in place, including fencing and sentries. Physical barriers are installed at nuclear facilities in an effort to deny access to the sensitive areas, and access control is maintained over personnel by visually verifying paper laminated identity cards.

Security experts believe a well conceived attack on Indian nuclear assets by any number of highly-motivated insurgents and/or their sympathizers can potentially materialize in any of the following scenarios:

Scenario # 1: The insurgents steal an intact nuclear weapon from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and detonate it in the middle of Mumbai.

Though highly improbable, of all the separatist threats facing India, perhaps the gravest is the possibility of militants obtaining a fully assembled nuclear weapon and detonating it in a metropolitan. Insurgents could potentially acquire nuclear weapons through one of two plausible ways. They could steal an intact nuclear weapon from existing arsenals, or they could buy a stolen weapon. If an Indian separatist group exploded just one nuclear weapon in a major metropolis, hundreds of thousands of Indians could die and millions will be seriously injured.

Scenario # 2: The insurgents fashion a crude nuclear weapon by stealing fissile material from the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant (KARP) and explode it in Chennai.

In November/December 2004, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported that India possesses 300-470 kilograms of plutonium, enough to produce up to 120 nuclear weapons, and a reasonable amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU). According to the report by David Albright and Kimberly Kramer titled ‘Stockpiles still growing’, “India may now be producing HEU in significant quantities at a gas centrifuge plant it has been working on for many years.”

Since only a relatively small amount of HEU or plutonium is needed to build a bomb, separatists could potentially steal enough material to build one or more nuclear weapons. A crude nuclear weapon would need 40-50 kilograms of HEU. However, a more sophisticated design would use approximately 12 kilograms of HEU or 4 kilograms of plutonium. The theft of HEU from uranium enrichment plants like the ones at Trombay and Mysore would be especially worrisome, because it is relatively straightforward to make a bomb using this material. The insurgents could acquire enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon and the expertise to construct a workable bomb.

Scenario # 3: The insurgent sympathizers smuggle highly radioactive material out of the Nuclear Fuel Complex to detonate a radiological dispersion device or ‘dirty bomb’ in Hyderabad.

In an example of a security blunder that could have resulted in the theft of fissile material, in August 2006, security was tightened in and around the Narora nuclear power plant after three men working there were arrested for giving fake addresses at the time of their appointments. Unbelievably, the men were given access to the facilities without first conducting thorough background checks.

The problem is that India does not only have 22 declared -- including under construction -- nuclear reactors, but it also has about 60 -- less secure -- agencies connected with nuclear activities. India is well-known for lax security and overworked systems; security experts believe smuggling of radioactive materials to be highly probable.

If the Maoists can recruit Indian military and ordinance factory personnel to smuggle out state owned military weaponry, then one can safely assume Maoists could one day get their hands on radioactive material to be used in dirty bombs, or in worst case, they could potentially steal nuclear weapons too.

Scenario # 4: Naxalites sabotage KARP facilities to cause large release of radiation in Chennai.

Security experts think the nature of specific threats to Indian nuclear facilities may include an attack with explosive laden trucks. These trucks could be driven through the security parameters to be exploded next to the nuclear reactors or next to the turbines spun by highly radioactive steam. In past, such tactics had been employed with marginal success by the Iraqi insurgents who breached the Green Zone (Baghdad) security wall by exploding a truck next to the wall. A second truck drove through the hole in the wall and exploded inside the Green Zone by the second suicide bomber. India is no stranger to suicide bombings. In the first recorded instance of suicide bombing in South Asia, the Indian Ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber.

Insurgents may even employ other innovative tactics like mounting an aerial attack using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or an aircraft in a suicide mission. Naxalites are believed to be armed with short and long-range rockets. An attack on the nuclear facilities with rockets is also a realistic possibility to cause panic to facilitate breaching of security parameters.

The consequences of such attacks could include release of radioactive matter such as contaminated heavywater, pressurized radioactive steam, uranium dust clouds, iodine or cesium, and the associated fires and explosions could cause catastrophic structural failures. In fact, the Indian nuclear program has a history of structural failures. For example, in 1994, owing to faulty design, the concrete containment dome of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) collapsed.

Scenario # 5: The most realistic scenario. In the aftermath of a massive tsunami, insurgents effortlessly get their hands on unguarded nuclear weapons stored at the unsecured military bases, and fissile materials from the KARP, BARC and/or Tarapur Atomic Power Stations and disperse these weapons and fissile materials all over India. They also sell the loot and stage multiple nuclear attacks.

The December 26, 2004 tsunami devastated the coastal stretches of Tamil Nadu. The unimaginable force of the tsunami literally uprooted or flattened every security boundary that was supposed to protect the peripheries of the 500-MW prototype fast breeder reactor coming up at Kalpakkam. The security personnel at the facilities were either killed or fled, virtually leaving the nuclear reactor insecure and unguarded for days to come.

In March 2006, the under construction 1,000 MW Koodankulam nuclear power plants were rocked by earthquake tremors. The tremors were strong enough to create severe panic and fear among the local population about the safety and security of the nuclear power project. According to a statement released by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy and the South Asian Community Center for Education and Research, "The quake, very close to the Koodankulam reactor site, raises urgent and important questions about the safety of the plants and the security and well being of the people in Kanyakumari and other southern districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala". The statement further addressed the slacked attitude of Indian authorities towards the safety and security of its nuclear plants: "The local people's concerns about the impacts of these plants on their safety, health, livelihoods and well-being have all been simply dismissed so far." Arguably, their fears are not unfounded. It’s not if, but when someone will take advantage of a natural disaster by stealing the fissile materials and/or nuclear weapons from the Indian facilities?

Unfortunately, that’s not where Indian nightmare scenarios will end. In its mad pursuit to become a mini-nuclear power, India is going to ridiculous lengths to amass nuclear technologies in an amateurish hope to enhance its ability to generate additional fissile materials for its nuclear stockpiles. In an example of ultimate irresponsible and reckless behavior, Indians have tried to negotiate with Russians to build nuclear reactors even in the open seas. On November 19, 2003, the Indian news daily, The Hindu, reported a conversation between the Indian national security adviser Brajesh Mishra and the Russian atomic energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev on a Russian offer to India of floating nuclear plants in international waters off the Indian shores, because then, the ownership of the plants can remain with the supplier. How India and Russia planed to protect the floating nuclear power plants in open seas against hurricanes, accidental collisions, terrorist attacks, aerial or underwater attacks, or sabotage is anybody’s guess.

As a member of the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and under UN Resolution 1540, India is required to establish the highest standards of security for its fissile materials. Sadly, so far, the security standards at Indian nuclear facilities are believed to be rudimentary and primitive at best.

The Indian nuclear program is fast becoming a serious threat to world security. Rising radioactive plumes from the sabotaged Indian facilities or nuclear explosions will certainly poison the food and water supplies in the Subcontinent. Depending on the time of the year, the radioactive dust from India can be carried by the prevailing upper atmosphere winds all the way around the world to Western Europe, or even to the United States!

Realistic threat to the world security from the insecure Indian nukes is marginalized by the world leaders, like U.S. President Bush, who remain obsessed with assumed-threats like the one from Iran. President Bush’s tendency to be distracted by self-conceived threats has already resulted into a North Korean nuclear test, while the threats from India remain ticking.

Courtesy: The Defence Journal
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?157356
http://owlstree.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-s...ar-program.html
http://www.pakistanthinktank.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PakistaniAwam/message/3159

Now this what people in Pakistan think about India. What a wishful thinking. I can just laugh on this analysis. More on this wishful thinking here.

Sydney under fire

2007-01-21T21:15:00.000-08:00

Sydney , the business capital of Australia is under fire threat. Firefighters have warned the northern Sydney suburb of Berowra is likely to come under threat from a bushfire at Mt Kuring-gai, but say they are confident they can protect the homes in its path.

The fire, which started yesterday, has crossed the F3 freeway and are burning in the area to the east of the Pacific Highway.

Rail lines north of Sydney, the freeway, and the highway have now been closed to traffic. Emergency Services Minister Tony Kelly warned homeowners to prepare for an ember attack.

About 250 firefighters and waterbombing helicopters are battling the blaze and crews are working to extinguish a spot fire which has sprung up south of the main blaze.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers said homes in Berowra would come under direct threat if the fire jumped the Pacific Highway.

Bush fires are quite regular in Australia during summer season, but the ongoing drought means that fire can spread rapidly. Its a real worry for sydneysiders.
More on this here.

Maoist Arms Production Factory Busted in MP

2007-01-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, the police acting on specific intelligence had identified the maoist's arm production factory which was operating in Bhopal's Satnami Nagar area and recovered a huge consignment of arms including hand grenades, rocket launchers, pistols, revolvers and one carbine.

Rs 12 lakh in cash and six boxes of Naxalite literature were also recovered. Most of the literature was in Telegu, Hindi and Bengali.

"We received information on Wednesday that an illegal arms factory was running in Bhopal and was supplying arms to Maoists," ADGP (Intelligence) S K Raut said.

"We raided three places and recovered a huge consignment of arms accessories or parts of sophisticated arms which were being manufactured here. The consignment is so large that we have not been able to draw a list of it yet.

After preliminary investigations we know that the arms were being sent to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka." The police, however, explained that final assembling of the arms were taking place elsewhere.

Police said that for over two years, a group of men and a woman hailing from a southern state were allegedly manufacturing the ammunition in a three roomed shed in Satnami Nagar. The cops also apprehended six suspected Maoists and three other persons on Thursday.

Maoists is a movement which is driven, influenced, financed by Communists of India politically known as CPI and CPI-M. Maoists are active from Nepal, N-E India, Central India, South-East Coast of India, it is known as New Red Corridor of India.
This is a new way of increasing their political wings and become a power broker and eventually capture the power. Currently, Communist are supporting the Congress led government. It can only happen in India, a party responsible for blood shed, destruction of public property, responsible for running the government from indirect support. What a joke, tabheee to hiaa MERA BHARAT MAHAAN.

How Bin Laden's & Taliban's Command & Control Work (Analysis)

2007-01-13T04:08:00.000-08:00

Despite spending many millions of dollars, US intelligence, five years after the ouster of the Bin Laden & Taliban from Kabul, remains in the dark over the command structure of the Taliban.

The Taliban have a tight high command from where - and this is the mystery - precise orders, such as targets, are relayed to the fighters in the field. Cracking this code is key to putting a brake on the insurgency that gathers strength by the day.

When the Taliban's spring offensive began in June, the US-led coalition's intelligence identified the people in the Taliban's command council and their usual modus operandi and location in the guerrilla war.

All coalition tactics were based on this information, such as search operations, troop postings, logistics and arms allocations. The primary aim was to net Taliban leader Mullah Omar and close aides, such as Maualana Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Gul Mohammed Jangvi.

Months later, these men have not even come close to being captured. That leaves the questions unanswered: How (and from where) do they manage to relay their instructions into the battlefield? Asia Times Online has learned that this year alone, international intelligence operations in Afghanistan have spent millions of dollars trying to find out, even as fighting in the past month has been the heaviest ever.

Significantly, the Taliban are now drawing increasing support from the Afghan population. These additional numbers have allowed them for the first time to conduct their own large-scale search operations against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops in the south.

As a result, NATO this week requested additional troops, with no success. The alliance, which took command of military operations in southern Afghanistan on July 31, had wanted 2,000 extra soldiers to reinforce the 19,000-strong International Security Assistance Force.

Throwing more troops into a conventional battle (artillery and air strikes especially) might not be the best way to go as long as there remains a basic lack of understanding of where the enemy's command center is and how the mujahideen receive orders. What is known is that among the rank and file of the mujahideen there is a strong system of communication, with instructions flowing freely and quickly.

And despite claims by coalition forces to the contrary, the Taliban are not obsessed with taking control of provinces or districts. They abandoned that tactic at the end of July, and a lull in fighting followed.

Since then, the new policy has been that the local population join in the fight against NATO, especially hunting down its convoys.

What is worth noting is that what is happening in Afghanistan has happened before, against the British many years ago and against the Soviets more recently. This latest battle against a foreign invader is being fought as a classic Afghan war, although the sequence of events is somewhat different.

In the past, resistance leaders migrated to neighboring states early in the campaign. This time it is happening much later. Previously, command councils were formed at the end, and the mass mutiny started earlier. This time it is the other way around.

Of one thing the Taliban are convinced, blindly some might say: Afghan tradition dictates that foreign forces will be resisted to the last. Further, the Taliban believe that by the end of the spring offensive, Mullah Omar will again declare himself head of the Islamic Emirate of Taliban for a final battle against the foreigners.

Gandhi's Pole Dance Video Offends Indian Goverment - Youtube in trouble

2007-01-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Youtube (Google's company), the popular video sharing site might be banned in India. A Hawaii-based Non-Resident Indian, Gautham Prasad has acted in this offensive video of Mahatma Gandhi doing a Pole dance and other ungandhi like antics. The video is also stirring a lot of rage in Delhi's political circles. The Government might ban this site as it has done in past for sites like Yahoogroups and Blogger.

Gandhi has been having a sort of resurgence of late, in a country increasingly having a population of yuppies who are being seduced by Technology and "Western Culture". It is all quite ironic, as Gandhi if he were alive today, would have only smiled and moved on to other more pressing matters like corruption, poverty, education and human rights in India. It is an interesting sign of the times when a silly video posted on an American website can offend the world 's biggest democracy. It's a small world after all. The offending video is can be watched below.

Create a simple hit counter using PHP and MySQL

2007-01-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

In this article I describe how to use PHP and MySQL to produce a simple counter that can be placed on a web page. PHP and MySQL work very well together, and this article shows, hopefully, how easy they are to use to produce a useful little utility.

In order for the counter to work, the web server you upload the files to needs to support PHP and MySQL. Most good hosting solutions do.

You can download the various scripts used to produce the counter from the following web address:http://www.computernostalgia.net/counter/counter.zip. The scripts are also listed below.

The counter needs a database called 'counter', a table in that database called 'countertable', and a field in the table called 'count'. If you want to use a different database, table, or field name, make sure you change the appropriate references to these names in the scripts.

Files

The zip file (counter.zip) contains the following files:

* create_database.php
* create_table.php
* reset_counter.php
* counter.php

Note that for display considerations, in the following listings, opening and closing angle brackets for tag names ('<..>') are replaced by opening and closing square brackets ('[..]').

create_database.php

This script creates a MySQL database called 'counter'. Upload this script to your web server and run it first to create the database.

[html][head][title]Create MySQL Database[/title][/head]
[body]
[?php

//This script creates a database on the MySQL server.
//The name of the database is counter.

//Connect to MySQL server
$link = mysql_connect("localhost");

//If you need to supply a username and password, then use the following line
//of code instead of the one above, substituting the correct username and password.
//$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");

//If the connection cannot be made, display an error message
if (! $link)
die("Cannot connect to MySQL");

//Create a database called counter
mysql_create_db("counter")or die("Error: ".mysql_error());

//Close the connection to the MySQL server
mysql_close($link);
?]
[/body]
[/html]

create_table.php

This script creates a table (countertable) in the counter database. The table has one field, called 'count', which can store an eight digit number. This allows a counter value up to 99,999,999. Upload this and run it once the database has been created.

[html][head][title]Create Table in Database[/title][/head]
[body]
[?php

//This script creates a table (countertable) in the database (counter).

//Assign the name of the database (counter) to the variable $db.
$db="counter";

//Connect to MySQL server.
$link = mysql_connect("localhost");

//If you need to supply a username and password, then use the following line
//of code instead of the one above, substituting the correct username and password.
//$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");

//If the connection cannot be made, display an error message.
if (! $link)
die("Cannot connect to MySQL");

//Select the database. If the database cannot be selected, display an error message.
mysql_select_db($db , $link)
or die("Select DB Error: ".mysql_error());

//Create a table called countertable in the database.
//The table contains one field: count, which should allow up to 99,999,999 hits
mysql_query("CREATE TABLE countertable( count INT(8))")or die("Create table Error: ".mysql_error());

//Close connection to MySQL server.
mysql_close($link);

?]
[/body]
[/html]

reset_counter.php

This script sets/resets the counter to zero. Upload this and run it to initialise the counter to zero. You can run it at any time to reset the counter to zero.

[html][head][title]Reset Counter[/title][/head]
[body]

[?php

//Point your browser at this page to set/reset the counter to zero.

$db="counter";

$link = mysql_connect("localhost");

//If you need to supply a username and password, then use the following line
//of code instead of the one above, substituting the correct username and password.
//$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");

if (! $link) die("Cannot connect to MySQL");
mysql_select_db($db , $link) or die("Cannot open $db: ".mysql_error());

// Set the counter to zero
mysql_query("INSERT INTO countertable (count) VALUES ('0')");

//close link to MySQL server
mysql_close($link);
?]

[/body]
[/html]

counter.php

This is the actual counter. The code in this file should be pasted into the web page that will contain the counter (or it can be run on its own). This web page, which will typically be part of a web site, must have a .php file extension, otherwise the PHP code will be ignored by the web server.

[html][head][title]Increment Counter[/title][/head]
[body]

[comment]
Include everything below this comment (down to the closing body tag) in the page
on which you want to put the counter.
[/comment]

[?php

//Set database to counter
$db="counter";

//connect to server and database
$link = mysql_connect("localhost");

//If you need to supply a username and password, then use the following line
//of code instead of the one above, substituting the correct username and password.
//$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");

if (! $link) die("Cannot connect to MySQL");
mysql_select_db($db , $link) or die("Cannot open $db: ".mysql_error());

//Increment counter
mysql_query("UPDATE countertable SET count=count+1");

//extract count from database table
$counter = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM countertable");

//Display counter. If you want to change the appearance of the counter, edit
//the following table and font settings.
print "[table border=1 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 width=80]";
while ($get_count = mysql_fetch_row($counter)){
print "[tr]";
foreach ($get_count as $field)
print "[td align=right][font face=arial size=2]$field[/font][/td]";
print "[/tr]";
print "[/table]";
}

//close link to MySQL server
mysql_close($link);
?]

[/body]
[/html]

That's it!

About the Author: John Dixon is a web developer and technical author. He enjoys developing database-driven websites using PHP, Perl, and MySQL. John is also interested in anything to do with computer history. Visit http://www.computernostalgia.net/listDocumentsOutline.htm to see the current list of computer history articles on his site. More on this here.

Z.A.Bhutto approached UK over Kohinoor diamond

2007-01-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

[Via Dawn] Former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called on Britain 30 years ago to correct historic wrongs by returning a precious diamond which left the subcontinent during the colonial times, newly declassified documents showed on Friday.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto wrote to his then counterpart, James Callaghan, in August 1976 about the Kohinoor diamond, which was once the largest known diamond in the world and was set in a royal crown on being presented to Queen Victoria in 1852. The historic dispute over its ownership again flared up in 2002, when the crown sat on top of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, as her body lay in state in London. But it remains in the Tower of London as part of the British crown jewels collection.

The 108-carat gem has also been claimed by countries including India, Iran and Afghanistan.

In his letter, Mr Bhutto told Mr Callaghan that “little is left in our land from what was bequeathed to us by the centuries of pre-colonial history” and decried the disappearance of “the unique treasures which are the flesh and blood of Pakistan’s heritage”.

The diamond's return to Pakistan “would be a convincing demonstration of the spirit that moved Britain voluntarily to shed its imperial encumbrances and lead the process of decolonisation,” Mr Bhutto added.

“Indeed, it would be symbolic of a new international equity strikingly different from the grasping, usurping temper of a former age.” When Mr Callaghan replied to him in September, he did not agree to hand the gem over, though.

The diamond had been transferred to Britain under a peace treaty signed to end the second Sikh war in 1849, he said. “In the light of the confused past history of the Kohinoor diamond, the clear British title to it and the multiplicity of claims which would undoubtedly be made to it if its future were ever thought to be in doubt, I could not advise her majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered to any other country,” Mr Callaghan said.

But a scribbled note in the margin of a briefing paper on the stone’s history betrays his concern that the issue could damage Anglo-Pakistani relations if not handled carefully.

After an official wrote that the crown in which it is set was worn by the queen mother at the coronation of her husband George VI, father of the current Queen Elizabeth II, Mr Callaghan added: “I thought it was very awkward!”

Now this is news to me.... that it belonged to Pakistan!, which never existed before 1947. What the .... he was thinking when he approached.

More here.

Brett Lee & Asha Bhosle song goes no.4 on Indian charts

2007-01-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

It has taken Brett Lee seven years and 143 gruelling one-day internationals to attain his current ranking, sixth, among the world's bowlers. But to reach No.4 in India's music charts, Lee required just 30 minutes.

In that half hour, between matches at the Champions Trophy last year, Lee penned the lyrics to You're The One For Me, a duet performed with Indian Bollywood icon Asha Bhosle.

The combined drawing power of Asha and Lee ensured the single surged to No.4 inside the first week, and all but sealed plans for Lee to complete a studio album for release in India within the next year.

"We had talked about it for a while, but in the end it happened really quickly," said Lee, who plays guitar and sings in English and Hindi in the song.

"We had a break in between games last year, so I wrote the lyrics in half an hour and we headed up to a studio in Mohali to record it. Then we hired a room in our hotel in Mumbai to shoot the video. I have been shooting commercials since I was 20, so it all came pretty naturally."

Those close to the Australian team are hardly surprised at Lee's latest endeavour. The fast bowler seldom travels without his guitar, and can often be found jamming with teammates and opposing players after games.

Earlier this year, Lee and South Africa's A.B. de Villiers entertained guests at a Johannesburg hotel after the third test. Lee also played with England skipper Andrew Flintoff in a hotel bar in Nagpur last year.

The fact Lee chose India to launch his music career is similarly unsurprising. Though he has never played a Test in India, Lee has established himself as a highly marketable figure in the world's second-most populous country.

"I have about a dozen offers on the table for roles in Bollywood movies, which I would love to do, but it is difficult because you need 50 or so days to shoot them," he said.

"But I definitely plan to record an album in the break after the World Cup. I'm hoping to write songs that appeal to Indians."

Lee would not be the first cricketer to delve into music and film. Aubrey Smith, who captained England in 1889, left the game to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, which eventually led to roles alongside the likes of Clark Gable and Laurence Olivier.

In Bollywood terms, Asha is considered the equivalent to those names. According to Wikipedia, the 73-year-old has recorded more than 12,000 songs in 14 languages, and been involved in more than 900 films. Asha and her sister Lata Mangeshkar were immortalised in 1997 by British indie outfit, Cornershop, in the song Brimful of Asha.

"She is the Aretha Franklin of India," Lee said.

"It was amazing to work with her and is just as amazing to hear - we have now gone to No.4. I don't quite know what that means, in terms of how many people have listened to it, but India has 1.2 billion people, so I'm guessing it's quite a few."

For those more interested in Lee's bowling, there appears to be further good news. Having rectified a glitch in his run-up early in the Ashes series, Lee is confident of further surge up the rankings ahead of the World Cup.

"I had a couple of chats with Troy Cooley and my brother, Shane," he said. "I could really feel the difference in the last couple of games."

The video for song is available on YouTube. Watch here.

India's Defence Budget To Touch US$ 35 Billion by 2025

2007-01-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

Defence Minister A K Antony said today that India's budget for defence acquisitions at current levels may touch a whopping 35 billion dollars in the next two decades,

Noting that defence cooperation has assumed importance in devising a strategy for foreign policy, he said about 2.5 per cent of the GDP was devoted to maintain the military might.

The budget estimates for the current fiscal is more than 18 billion dollars (about Rs 87,000 crores) placing India among the top ten countries according to the defence expenditure incurred, he said while addressing the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas here.

During 2006-07 about nine billion dollar expenditure is likely to be incurred on stores, making the defence forces heavily dependent on imports to meet their requirements.

More here.

Channel V Gabbar Add

2006-12-29T17:28:00.001-08:00

Year End Review: Indian Army in 2006

2006-12-29T16:46:00.000-08:00

For the Indian Army, the year 2006 proved to be a year of challenges and achievements. The Indian Army continued to guard the nation from external and internal threats.

Though a ceasefire is holding along the LoC in J & K, troops continued to guard it against infiltration and ex filtration by anti national elements. In the hinterland, in J & K and the North East, it continued to seek and apprehend/neutralise terrorists. In J&K alone, close to 600 militants were killed and over 400 apprehended while over 200 surrendered.

In the process large quantities of arms, ammunition and other war like stores and equipment were recovered. Various militant groups have either been neutralized or considerably weakened. The common man continues to look up to the Army as an important organ of the nation to provide safety, security and succour.

Modernisation

Trials for identifying 155 mm/52 Calibre towed guns are in process and the selection process will commence once these are completed. Electronic surveillance devices such as unmanned ground sensors, Battle Field Surveillance Radars, Infra Red Sensors, Hand held thermal imagers etc. have been introduced to assist in counter terrorism operations. The Army is also working towards Network Centric Warfare concept for a digitized battlefield of the future. The Army is adequately prepared to operate in the prevailing NBC environment in the region and these capabilities are regularly reviewed keeping in view the changing threat scenario, as required.

Contributions In UN Peacekeeping

Besides the ongoing contribution in various Peace Keeping Missions under the UN banner, the Indian Army dispatched a contingent for the first time to Golan Heights. They joined the UN Disengagement Observation Force (UNDOF) with troops from Canada, Japan, Australia, Poland and Slovakia, UNDOF is deployed in an Area of Separation between Israeli and Syrian Forces

4 SIKH, deployed in Lebanon was awarded the Force Commanderâ€™s Unit citation for the stupendous manner in which this battalion performed its tasks. It may be recalled that this battalion was located between two warring faction in the region. In a rare honour, UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan also visited this battalion.

Sino Indian Border Personnel Meetings

Besides Chushul, Nathula and Bumla for the first time ever, a Sino Indian border personnel meeting was held in Area Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh on 18 Nov 2006. Peace and tranquillity prevails on the Sino â€“ Indian frontier.

Joint Exercise

Indian Army continued to hold joint exercises with foreign armies. Some of these were with Uzbekistan Special Force in Jan 2006, United States for Counter terrorism in Oct 2006 and with US Marine, also in Oct 2006.

Rescues and Relief â€“ Floods

In early Aug 2006, Army rescued over 1600 persons in the flood affected areas of Marathwada, Chattisgarh and Ladakh. Later in the same month, it was deployed for rescue and relief of over 4000 person in Barmer District of Rajastan.

Welfare

Assured decent last rites scheme was introduced this year wherein all assistance is made available to ensure dignity in death of all ex servicemen. A number of educational institutes continue to do yeoman service for the wards of serving and retired Army personnel. Army Wives Welfare Organisation has focused on the welfare of widows of service personnel and children with different abilities.

Suicides

A number of steps have been initiated to address the incidents of suicides in the Army. Though the per capita figures of suicides in the Army are considerably lower as compared to civil society and also many other armies, it is to be expected that these will be controlled even further by various steps which have been initiated.

Adventure Activities

The Indian Army conducted a large number of adventure activities in 2006, the major ones being:-

(a) K2K Para Motor Expedition from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in January 2006.

(b) Armyâ€™s Day-Night Hot Air Ballooning Expedition Jaipur to Delhi in February 2006.

(c) Mountaineering Expedition to Mount Cho Oyu in May 2006.

(d) Indo-Kazakhstan Joint Mountaineering Expedition to Mount Nun Peak, Zanskar in Jammu & Kashmir in September 2006.

(e) Joint India - Myanmar Army Car Rally in December 2006.

Visits of Security Forces Commanders

A number of delegation of security forces from various nations visited Army HQs. Some the Security Force Commanders who visited are as under:-

(a) Maj Gen Mohamed Zahir, Chief of Staff, National Security Service, Maldives in February 2006.

(b) Gen Tsutomu Mori, Chief of Staff, Japan Ground Self Defence Force in March 2006.

(c) Lt Gen ISA Chisuzi, Zambian Army Chief Commences in May 2006.

(d) Maj Gen Said Nazzer Slumeiman Al Salmi, Commander of Oman Army visit to India in June 2006.

(e) Gen Peter J Schoomaker, Chief of Staff, US Army in September 2006.

(f) Staff Maj Gen Ali M Subaih Al-Kaabi, Commander, Land Forces, UAE in November 2006.

(h) Gen Francisco Roberto De Albuquerque, Commander, Brazilian Army in December 2006.

Martyrs

The entire nation joined the Army in honouring various martyrs who have laid down lives in counter terrorism operations. The valiant sacrifice of Col GS Sarna during the concluding days of 2006 was widely acknowledged as one more supreme sacrifice on the altar of national security.

More on this here.

What Indian users are upto - Google’s Orkut down for 14+ hours

2006-12-29T03:45:00.000-08:00

Google’s Orkut social network has been down for the last fourteen hours. It’s unlikely this is an upgrade given the amount of time the site has been offline. May be Google is preparing for New Years surprise or is just isn’t Google’s day.
Indians are ranked no.3 in user list after Brazilian and US users. I don't know what these Indian users are up to today :-). More insights here and here

Ashes: How Englands bowling plan leaked at MCG

2006-12-28T04:58:00.000-08:00

The MCC has denied a security breach was to blame for England's bowling tactics finding their way into the hands of the media.
According to a statement released by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) today, there was "no evidence of any breach of security in the player dressing room area in the Ponsford Stand".

The statement follows an investigation conducted by the Melbourne Cricket Club, Cricket Australia, the International Cricket Council and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

A single A4 page outlining the team's bowling tactics was apparently discovered in the MCC Pavilion by a member of the public yesterday and handed to ABC Radio, which broadcast the contents.

There has been speculation the document was taken from the England dressing room, or that a copy left behind in the MCC administration office, which was used by England's analyst Mark Garaway to made printouts, found its way to the media.

Theleaked plan document in pdf can be found here & here.

47-million-year-old, first leaf-mimicking insect fossil discovered

2006-12-28T04:38:00.000-08:00

A 47-million-year-old ‘leaf insect’ has been discovered for the first time. To add to the achievement and the scientists’ surprises, the prehistoric leaf-imitating insect strikingly resembles the mimickers of today!

The first leaf-insect fossil — Eophyllium messelensis -– clearly reveals that leaf imitation is an ancient and successful evolutionary strategy and has been conserved over fairly a long period of time.

The remains of the 2.4-inch-long insect, unearthed by scientists led by Sonja Wedmann of the Institute of Paleontology in Bonn, Germany, at a well-known fossil site called Messel, in Hessen, Germany, had physical characteristics similar to the oblong leaves of trees living there at that period! The trees, the insect resembles, are Myrtle trees, legumes, such as alfalfa, and Laurel trees.

Interestingly, the fossilized insect also shared features with modern insect relatives in all size, shape, and even the designs used for camouflage, as for example, the fossil had foliage-like extensions from its abdomen.

To hide from overhead predators, a leaf insect can stay still for long periods of time during the day. To strengthen the leafy appearance, it tucked its head into its body. And at night, to protect themselves from the nocturnal insects, they rock back and forth to mimic a leaf fluttering in the wind.

More on this here.

Harry Enfield - Women know your limits

2006-12-26T23:23:00.001-08:00

Blind guy listens to echos to navigate

2006-12-26T21:41:00.001-08:00

Vajpayee - Hey Bush! Humko Kar Do Khush!!

2006-12-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

What will bush do... now?

Japan needs 3-5 years for nukes

2006-12-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

Japan has conducted a secret study showing it will need three to five years if it decides to develop nuclear weapons, a newspaper said Monday. The report contradicts government statements since North Korea's October nuclear test that Japan can quickly develop nuclear weapons but chooses not to take the long-taboo step.

The conservative Sankei Shimbun said the government commissioned a report by experts completed in September on the possibility of creating indigenous nuclear warheads.

The study found that Japan needed three to five years, investment of 200 to 300 billion yen (1.7 to 2.5 billion dollars) and hundreds of engineers just for the prototype of a small-scale nuclear warhead.

"Even if Japan says hypothetically it can defend itself with nuclear arms, it could not deter the North Korean nuclear threat immediately and independently," the newspaper wrote, summarizing the report.

Even though Japan has plants for uranium enrichment and the technology for reprocessing, technological constraints would prevent converting the facilities to develop nuclear weapons, it said.

"Japan would have to address technological issues that are not yet familiar to the nation to create small nuclear warheads," the daily wrote.

Officials denied the reported study.

"The government is absolutely unaware of it," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman.

Japan, the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear bombs, bans the production, possession or presence of atomic weapons on its soil.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said his government will not change its stance, but two of his top aides have repeatedly called for Japan at least to debate going nuclear.

One of them, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, said last month that Japan could already produce nuclear weapons if it chose to, due to its high level of technology and civilian nuclear industry.

Japan, which is almost entirely dependent on foreign oil and gas, relies on nuclear production for one-third of its energy requirements.

More on this here.

Benazir Bhutto to return and contest in Pakistan

2006-12-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian has said that those who think that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will stay out of the country during 2007 elections are day dreaming and living in a fool's paradise.

In a statement issued Sunday, PPP-P spokesperson said that "Mohtarma is needed by the Nation to fight poverty, inflation and unemployment and resolve the problems of the people.
PPP-P spokesperson was commenting on the statement of a Federal Minister predicting that the Mohtarma Bhutto will stay out and the PPP-P will participate in election 2007 as pro Musharraf Party.

The spokesperson rejected the analysis as "out of touch with ground realities on PPP-P planning".

He said that the PPP-P will contest elections seeking the restoration of democracy to end the military operation in Baluchistan, bring peace and development to the tribal areas and solve the electricity, water, lack of roads, health facilities and education opportunities of the people under the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto no matter what the regime says or does.

If people of Pakistan wish to elect her, no one can stop Mohtarma Bhutto from becoming the Prime Minister for the third time as well �, added by PPP-P spokesperson.
He said that elections would be a farce if the people of Pakistan were denied their democratic right to choose their representatives without which the problems of the people could not be solved.

He noted that poverty had increased and the citizens of the country were worse off. Even fertiliser was not available in time, water was in shortage, power shut downs were adversely affecting the economy of the country and the youth were not getting jobs.

More on this here and here.

Jadega: Ganguly should be the captain of the team for the World Cup 2007

2006-12-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ajay Jadeja former captain of India said, Sourav Ganguly should be the captain of the team for the World Cup 2007, to be held in West Indies. In Jadeja’s opinion, Ganguly is the man who fits better as a captain.

In the past also, Ganguly has lead the team and showed good performance as the captain of the side. He has a potential to handle the squad, and has a positive attitude on the field. He is a commanding skipper overall.

Jadeja said, “Ganguly should captain the World Cup side. I have always maintained that if Ganguly is in the team, he should be the captain. He has always been a great captain”. However, in the same breath he added it was too early to decide on Rahul Dravid’s captaincy.He should be given a little time.

Ganguly was selected for the Test Series against South Africa, when the Indian team was defamed after the defeat in the ODI series by 4-0. Ganguly was earlier ignored by the selection committee as he was out of form throughout the year.

Ganguly proved the faith of the selectors, as he dominated the first test match in Johannesburg. His solid half century not only rescued India from the pits, but also managed to bag a win on the South African soil for the first time.

Jadeja said:

Ganguly’s return to the Test cricket is a great comeback to the side. In the first Test, he played creditably. Not many people thought that he was capable of such a comeback, but Ganguly applied himself well.

Jadeja, who was banned from the game for five years on allegations of match fixing in 2000, cautioned media not to get emotional about the win or defeat of the side. He said,

If we win one match, you become exuberant, and say what a great victory. Again if we lose a match, you start saying negative things. As skipper Ganguly did play a big role in giving shape to the team that did well in the early part of the decade.

Considering the present scenario, Dravid is not a good captain for the side. He is not commanding on the field and is unable to handle the team. A captain has to be very effective for the side, which Ganguly is. Ganguly’s captaincy is known all over the world. He can handle the team very well, especially, in big tournaments. Jadeja is right on his path of opinion that Ganguly should lead the team in World Cup 2007. He can definitely brighter the chances to win the World Cup as a captain and holds that potential in himself. I’m not questioning the potential of Dravid, however, he’s not a ‘war hero’. As Kapil Dev too pointed out this a couple of weeks back, he’s not aggressive and lacks the ability to gel together players and make the team deliver the best according to the situation on the ground.

Good analysis from Jadega. More on this here.

Pentagon Plan: Hit Anywhere on Earth, in an Hour

2006-12-25T16:40:00.000-08:00

If Pentagon strategists get their way, there will be no place on the planet to hide from such an assault. The plan is part of a program — in slow development since the 1990s, and now quickly coalescing in military circles — called Prompt Global Strike. It will begin with modified Tridents. But eventually, Prompt Global Strike could encompass new generations of aircraft and armaments five times faster than anything in the current American arsenal. One candidate: the X-51 hypersonic cruise missile, which is designed to hit Mach 5 — roughly 3600 mph. The goal, according to the U.S. Strategic Command's deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, is "to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes."

Launched from a B-52, the proposed X-51 hypersonic cruise missile could travel 600 miles in 10 minutes to strike elusive, fleeting targets. (Illustration by Render Room)

The question is whether such an attack can be deployed without triggering World War III: Those tungsten-armed Tridents look, and fly, exactly like the deadliest weapons in the American nuclear arsenal.

The military is convinced that in the coming years it will need to act with this kind of speed against threats — terrorist leaders, smuggled nuclear or chemical arms — that emerge and disappear in a flash. There may be only hours, or minutes, to respond. "We know how to strike precisely. We know how to strike at long distances," says Kehler, whose office is in charge of the Defense Department's Global Strike mission. "What's different now is this sense of time."

The leading candidates to deliver Prompt Global Strike's swift knockout punch are the sub-launched Trident II missile and the X-51, a cruise missile launched from a B-52 and boosted to supersonic speed by a rocket. A scramjet takes it hypersonic.
Every strategist remembers Aug. 20, 1998, when the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group, stationed in the Arabian Sea, launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at an Al Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan, hoping to take out Osama Bin Laden. With a top speed of 550 mph, the Tomahawks made the 1100-mile trip in 2 hours. By then, Bin Laden was gone — missed by less than an hour, according to Richard A. Clarke, former head of U.S. counterterrorism.

The American military already has weapons that can destroy just about anything in a matter of minutes: nuclear missiles. That terrifying capability was designed to contain Soviet adversaries. But as the Cold War recedes into memory, U.S. strategists worry that our nuclear threat is no longer credible — that we are too muscle-bound for our own good. Are we really prepared to wipe out Tehran in retribution for a single terrorist attack? Kill millions of Chinese for invading Taiwan? The answer is no.

Paradoxically, the weaker our enemies have grown, the less ominous our arsenal has become. Military theorists call it self-deterrence. "In today's environment, we've got zeros and ones. You can decide to engage with nuclear weapons — or not," says Capt. Terry J. Benedict, who runs the Navy's conventional Trident program from a nondescript office a few miles from the Pentagon. "The nation's leadership needs an intermediate step-to take the action required, without crossing to the one."

More on this here.

Mordenising Army - Receive 300 T-90S Main Battle Tanks

2006-12-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

India has ordered 300 modernized T-90 main battle tanks from Russia, an Indian television channel said Monday.

Under the terms of to the $950-million contract, the T-90S tanks, which are equipped with advanced fire-control systems, will be delivered to India over the next two years, an Indian military official said.

The contract is part of a deal on the delivery and licensed production of T-90 tanks, signed by Russia and India in 2001.
India bought 310 T-90S in 2001 for $800 million. Russia began deliveries of the first order of 124 tanks in 2002 and completed them this year. The remaining 186 have been assembled at the Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory in India.

The Indian Army was the first export customer for the T-90S, which has been in Russian Army service since the mid-1990s. The T-90S tanks have been deployed with six armoured regiments in northern and central India.

The associated license agreement provides for the assembly of up to 1,000 T-90S tanks in India with production scheduled to begin in 2007.

According to various sources, the current order is driven by the fact that the Indian Army urgently needs modern main battle tanks (MBTs) due to serious delays in the production of the domestic Arjun MBT.

In addition, the upgrade of the Army's Soviet and domestically built 1,500 T-72M1 MBT's, which constitute the backbone of the county's armoured regiments, has been lagging behind schedule.

Arms exports remain highly important for the Russian economy. President Vladimir Putin said in March that Russia.

More on this here.

B-52 Test Flight Uses Synthetic Fuel in all Eight Engines

2006-12-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

A B-52 Stratofortress took off Dec. 15 on a flight-test mission using a blend of synthetic fuel and JP-8 in all eight engines. This is the first time a B-52 has flown using a synfuel blend as the only fuel on board. In September, the Air Force successfully flew a B-52 with two-engines using the synfuel-blend while the others used standard fuel.

"The B-52 test flights at Edwards Air Force Base are the initial steps in the Air Force process to test and certify a synthetic blend of fuel for its aviation fleet," said Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne. "We are confident that the success of this flight will bring us one step closer to allowing a domestic source of synthetic fuel to accomplish the Air Force mission in the future."

The first B-52 flight using Fischer-Tropsch fuel occurred Sept. 19 at Edwards.

Today's flight further demonstrates the Air Force's commitment to using alternate fuels and is the next step in the testing and certification process before the fuel can go into widespread use, officials said.

According to William Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics, the
Air Force has reinvigorated its energy strategy which is underpinned by supply-side availability and semand-side conservation.

"The Air Force is moving forward in its commitment to certify alternative sources of fuel for both its aircraft and ground vehicles fleet," said Mr. Anderson.

Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, Air Force Flight Test commander, is flying the aircraft to assess how well the aircraft performs using the synthetic blend of fuel.

The next test phase for the B-52 will be cold-weather testing to determine how well the synfuel-blend performs in extreme weather conditions.

More on this here.

Top 25 Brands of India

2006-12-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

The 25 brands in the Brand Finance league table are ranked on brand value: the value of the asset at a point in time assessed using the relief royalty method.

A prerequisite of the top Indian brands was that they were listed in the top 500 on the Bombay Stock Exchange - which is why brands like Hutch, Sahara India Pariwar and Kingfisher Airlines were not included. The top 500 by market capitalisation were shortlisted to 50, of which the top 25 made the final ranking.

In some cases, the lack of information on the Indian businesses of certain major international brands (Coca-Cola, Pepsi and so on) meant they had to be left out. Holding companies that own a portfolio of branded businesses (Hindustan Lever, for instance) were excluded, since it isn't possible to identify revenue streams for individual brands from publicly available sources.

Not surprisingly, Indian Oil Corporation emerges as the most valuable brand with a trademark value of $5.6 billion.

This value accounts for 40 per cent of IOC's market value, representing the amount by which the brand is likely to enhance the company's future cash flows. But despite its high value IOC is at risk of losing the brand revenues it currently enjoys to more powerful brands like Bharat Petroleum in the future.

More on this here.

Morning showers predicted - Boxing day match at MCG

2006-12-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

Melbourne's Meteorology Department is predicting early showers on First Day of Boxing Day (Dec 26, 2006) Test Match. It's been raining and hailing here since last night. Some part of outer Melbourne had a decent snow fall in Australian summer.

Boxing day Test match is important for Shane Keith Warne as this is home ground. He will get a chance to add his tally to 700 wickets if the game is played tomorrow. To this date he has 699 scalps.

Read the forecast here.

Gandhi Family From 60s to 90's in... Photo Gallery

2006-12-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Rajiv and Sonia at India Gate, New Delhi.

Indira, Rajiv, Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka, Varun at first Death Anniversary of Sanjay Gandhi

Rajiv and Sonia

Rajiv and Sonia at Amethi

Indira, Sanjay, Sonia at 1,Akbar Rd, New-Delhi

Antigravity Laptop Protection System

2006-12-24T05:28:00.001-08:00

Great Concept and Video

From Mumbai bars to Bharatpur streets - Bar Girl, Act II

2006-12-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

When Maharashtra's deputy chief minister R.R. Patil, the self-styled chief of Mumbai's moral police, shut down dance bars in the city a little over a year ago, it spread panic far away—among the Bedia community of Rajasthan. Several girls who earned their daily bread at the dance bars in India's commercial capital hailed from this community. The girls being suddenly rendered jobless was a big blow to their families back home. For them, the remittances from Mumbai formed their main source of income.

The dance bars have opened since then. But many of the girls who returned home are no longer keen to go back.

They want to stay on in the villages, despite pressure from their families. Their logic: it's better to be on home turf rather than be trapped in the city. Recalls Sangita, who did the bar grind for three years: "It was not an easy life, dancing for six hours on someone's bidding."
She does not even know the address of the bar she worked in or the flat in which she lived.

Sangita doesn't look more than thirteen, perhaps fourteen, but has the air of a star as she flashes her dazzling smile. Bharatpur and thereabouts is home for her and 35 other girls like her. And the pretty Bedia girl says she has had enough of the tinsel town despite making good money. She feels working the streets of Bharatpur, just a kilometre away from the famed Keoladeo bird sanctuary, is the lesser devil.

Young girls like Sangita want to start life afresh. "Any job will do," she says. But till such time as an alternative comes her way, she has to solicit business on the highway that runs through Bharatpur. Those older than her and who have children to support do not wish to carry the stamp of being a sex worker despite their families being dependent on them bringing in the money any which way. They also want a better future for their children.

The Bedias are a scheduled tribe spread over Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Living in far-flung areas, a small minority of these tribesmen, with little resources at their disposal, trade their girls for money. "Brothers and fathers don't work for a living. It is the daughters who are the breadwinners and treated like sons. Fed on a rich diet, preparations to make them beautiful start early and then begins the familiar tale of exploitation in the name of earning one's livelihood," says Ravindar, who is studying law and works with a non-government organisation. He hopes to enlighten his community members, particularly the women, on their rights. There are other attempts too to wean away girls from the profession and bring some changes to the largely discredited community. Like the one by social activist Krishna Kanta Mukherjee, who started the Gram Niyojan Kendra. Mukherjee is trying to convince the Bedias to take up other professions as an alternative livelihood. But the going has not been easy. "It is difficult trying to effect a change in the way in which a community thinks," says Mukherjee.

More on this here.

Santa's Doggie Helpers

2006-12-23T03:13:00.001-08:00


These canine Googlers couldn't be more excited about Santa's Toy Hunt and Tracker in Google Earth.

Australia world's best holiday destination

2006-12-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

[Via Theage]: Australia is still the world's favourite holiday destination, in the judgment of seasoned international travellers in all age groups.

For the second year running, travellers from around the globe who took part in this year's Lonely Planet "Travellers' Pulse" survey have voted Australia as their number one getaway.

More than 33,000 people from 170 countries took part in the survey, answering questions about travel behaviour and motivations.

They were also asked to rate their favourite country, with 10 per cent of those surveyed preferring Australia above all others.

Australia was most popular among British and American travellers, and was even rated the best country by Aussies themselves. More on this here.

Top 10 Hot Growth Tech Companies

2006-12-22T00:24:00.000-08:00

BusinessWeek writes :

In our ranking of the technology industry's hot growth companies this year, you can see a broad picture of the tech economy in 2006. Apple and Google soared on the strength of two seemingly unstoppable trends, the iPod and online advertising, respectively. In addition, memory chips were hot, but it was the companies that supply chipmakers, not the chipmakers themselves, that saw healthy growth :

This is a list of top 10 hot growth tech companies :

Amkor Technology
Apple (AAPL),
AT&T (T)
Google (GOOG)
Gilead Sciences
Cognizant Tech Solutions
Amphenol
Oracle (ORCL)
NII Holdings
Lam Research

More on this here.

Math prodigy - What is the cube root of 673,373,097,125

2006-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

Math prodigy George Bidder was born to a Devonshire stonemason in 1806. In a public appearance at age 11, he answered each of these questions in less than a minute:

What is the cube root of 673,373,097,125? "Answer, 8,765."

If a mouse can draw one ounce and a half, how many mice can draw 50,000 tons? "Answer, 1,194,666,666, and one ounce over."
If a coach travels from Exeter to Plymouth, 44 miles, every day in a year, how often does a wheel turn round that is 2 feet 9 inches? "Answer, 30,835,200."

If a fan of a windmill goes round 15 times in a minute, how many times will it go round in 7 years, 4 months, 1 week, 2 hours, 3 minutes — 365 days 6 hours to the year, and 28 days to the month? "Answer, 57,897,245."
If the ministers have taken of the income tax 12 millions of money in 1-pound notes, how many miles would they cover a road 30 feet wide, each note being 8 inches by 4 and a half? "He directly answered, 18 miles, 1,653 yards, and one foot."
Suppose the earth to consist of 971 million of inhabitants, and suppose they die in 33 years and four months, how many have returned to dust since the time of Adam, computing it to be 5,850 years? "Answer, 170,410,500,000." Multiply it again by 99. "Answer, 16,870,639,500,000."

(Reported in Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, 1820)

More on this here.

Top 100 Education Blogs

2006-12-20T18:04:00.000-08:00

Via Online Education Database: Education blogs are becoming a means for educators, students, and education administrators to interact more effectively than ever before. Technorati currently tracks 63.1 million blogs. Over 5,000 of them are about education. It is likely that there are hundreds, if not thousands, more education-related blogs on the Web. Here is a list of our staff's 100 favorites.

Please note that this is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the great education blogs out there. Chances are you may have favorites that are not included here. Also note that this list is not ranked but rather is ordered alphabetically within each topic.

More on this here