Faithfulness in Little Thongs... THONGS?

Good, eh?

I found it in today's Times of India, and wanted to share it with you.

But I could not get the image from the newspaper, so I was searching, and I found the same image here at a Blog- "Ever Had One Of Those Days", and this same picture was posted in the blog on November 1, 2006.

Forget the grammar, forget the meaning (it is true, in a way)- but what are they doing at the Afghan Church, Mumbai? More than three years after, they haven't done anything to it? No one noticed?

(That blog page has just ten posts over a period of about three years- but one of them is this photo and the other is about "Mumbai Under Siege". Richa Sharma who lost her life at Taj shot dead by the terrorists was a friend of the blog author Paige Turner. Richa had asked her to come to Cafe Leopold just an hour before the terrorists attacked. This post is about how Paige felt as she watched Taj from her home about 200 metres away from it.

It just shows that nothing you do in your blog goes wasted- sometime or other someone will find it, and may be, things will turn out for the better.)

The craziest of RUN-OUTS

Guys
Found this on cricinfo today. Man it must have been really funny...read on

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/388460.html
1922
Cricket's craziest confusion
Cricket history is littered with daft run-outs, but none quite as bizarre as the one at The Oval 87 years ago
Martin Williamson
January 31, 2009
There have been batsmen through the ages who have earned reputations for being poor runners, although Denis Compton and Inzamam-ul-Haq must rate as two of the worst. However, what happened at The Oval in late June 1922 would have left even those two bemused.
A fortnight before the Varsity match, Oxford University batted first against a weakened Surrey and had reached 221 for 8 when Tom Raikes joined RC Robertson-Glasgow in the middle late in the day. Raikes, 19, was in his first year after leaving Winchester; Robertson-Glasgow, a year older, in the third of his four seasons in the Oxford XI.
The pair had added four when Robertson-Glasgow drove the ball to long-on, fielding in front of the Pavilion, and set off for an easy single. Despite having taken the first one rather slowly, the pair decided to come back for a second. Raikes, running back to the danger end, was less convinced but after hesitating, set off. "Then," Robertson-Glasgow later recalled, "strange things happened".

The two of them crossed mid-pitch, at which point Robertson-Glasgow (according to the Times) or Raikes (according to Robertson-Glasgow) had a change of mind and direction and the pair ran side by side towards the Pavilion End.
After a few yards Raikes realised that this was a recipe for trouble and turned round to try to get back to the safety of the Vauxhall End. At the same moment, Robertson-Glasgow did exactly the same, so both were again heading in the same direction. "I followed him," Robertson-Glasgow wrote, "but, thinking the crease was overcrowded, I set out for the other end."
To the amusement of what the Times described as a "now thoroughly interested house", the hapless pair turned almost simultaneously for a third time and resumed their side-by-side pursuit for safety. "The Old Carthusian beat the Old Wykehamist by a short head," noted the newspaper dryly.
The situation was allowed to reach a near-comic state by the dreadful fielding of the Surrey side, who were "driven temporarily insane by the goings-on". The initial return from long-on was poor and was then fumbled by mid-on. As he picked up the ball he was confronted with loud shouts from both bowler and wicketkeeper to throw the ball to their end. Confused, he dropped the ball for a second time before returning it to the bowler, who took the bails off, only to see both Robertson-Glasgow and Raikes standing in their ground, albeit exhausted. He duly threw the ball to wicketkeeper Herbert Strudwick, who whipped off the bails.
"The whole thing was much more ludicrous than anything rehearsed and played on the same ground in bygone days by the late Dan Leno," the Times said.
The farce was not quite over. While there was no question that someone had been run out, nobody seemed sure who, as both Robertson-Glasgow and Raikes were safe at the Pavilion End.

The umpires were as clueless as anyone. "They stood impotent with laughter and doubt." One story says that the batsmen agreed to toss a coin to decide who would go, Robertson-Glasgow recounted that it was Raikes who pre-empted any decision by striding off.
Bill Hitch, the old Surrey pro, grinned and stage whispered to Robertson-Glasgow: "You know who was really out, don't you!" But the reality was that nobody had a clue.
"It was a cricket record on a point of hopeless confusion and indecision," the Times concluded. "The two batsmen seemed able only to agree on the one thing and that was to do the wrong thing."
Is there an incident from the past you would like to know more about? Email rewind@cricinfo.com with your comments and suggestions.

Chinese Courtship: Hire a Girlfriend

 "Liu says the ideal candidate should have 'a kind heart, high level of personal integrity, and good communication skills'.

He has worked out an agreement, too, which includes 'project' content, daily schedules, payment method and safety precautions. 'Both parties should act according to the provisions of the agreement,' he says."

Wonder what Liu is looking for?

China.cn reports that people in China are finding it difficult to find partners, so they are hiring friends to take home for the Spring Festival.

Apparently it is all to do with parental pressure:

"For China's 'lonely hearts club', Spring Festival can be a nightmare," says Xing Yun, who is graduating in history. Xing is among those single men who have to face inquisitive relatives, overtly concerned with their love or marital life.

"With increasing social pressures and busy work schedules, more and more people are finding it difficult to find a life partner. That's why some people devise ways (such as hiring a 'girlfriend') to ease the worries of their parents," says Yang Liang, who teaches sociology in Zhejiang University.

No surprise, but it is women between ages twenty-five and forty that are looking for the right person to take home to their parents.

Chetanya Kunte vs NDTV - Rights and responsibilities

This post is a clarification to my comments made in the earlier post by Mr.Zzz...

I did not read Kunte's story. So I cannot comment on whether it was defamatory or not. But if it is considered as defamatory then NDTV has every right to sue him. And Chentanya has every right to defend his views. But unfortunately this issue did not see light in a court of law.

The english speaking community is a key market for NDTV. Bloggers certainly form a chunk of it. When a blog gains popularity and reach 'n' no. of people and referred all around that certainly affects the business prospects of a English Channel, which is NDTV in this case. So if Kunte's post was considered defamatory by NDTV then they certainly have the right to sue. Image is everything in brand and brand means a lot in media.

Opinions like "Media's coverage of the Mumbai terror compromised rescue efforts and that may have resulted in some deaths" is different from saying "Media reporting was the reason for 3 deaths". First is an opinion and the later is an accusation. When an accusation cannot be backed up with facts on the ground then it is defamatory as it could be considered as an attempt to malign or discredit some one.

We as bloggers have the right to air our views but should be responsible in doing that. Our views reach many quarters and within a day can spread around the world depending on the topic and the view. Blogging is becoming more and more an alternate media and is getting powerful. Just think about this whole incident and how much of support for Kunte and the negative implication for NDTV in all this. So don't say it is just mere lung power and we can type like the way we talk in a corner tea shop. Stakes are high; so should be our responsibility.

I am not condemning NDTV because they have the right to sue what they consider as defamation. But by now they must have realised that they have unleased the genie (a bad one for them) from the bottle. This is the price they are paying for not being magnanimous.

It would have been better if a court of law ruled on this. Unfortunately this issue did not see the light at a court of law but instead got sorted out outside of it and Kunte apologised. It is not known whether Mr.Kunte apologised on his own or made to issue one. But surely this has hurt NDTV the most than Kunte's original post. Most of the blogging community are now aware of this story and are geed up against NDTV.

We Indians rarely appreciate our responsibilities though we use our lung power to the fullest for rights. Let's be responsible in the way we use our rights, be it NDTV or we bloggers.

I don't want to participate in the comments section as I have nothing more to say on this and this is my view. If extreme emotions make anyone label me as something then I can understand their need to give vent.

A Hurrah to Tom Paine.

Yesterday was Tom Paine Day. He fought for free speech.

I found this at Wired 3.05

"Thomas Paine was one of the first journalists to use media as a weapon against the entrenched power structure. He should be resurrected as the moral father of the Internet."

"If the old media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) have abandoned their father, the new media (computers, cable, and the internet) can and should adopt him," writes Jon Katz, who believes Internet is the place where Tom Paine's values prosper and are validated millions of times a day.

"The Net offers what Paine and his revolutionary colleagues hoped for- a vast, diverse, passionate, global means of transmitting ideas and opening minds. That was part of the political transformation he envisioned when he wrote, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." Throngh media, he believed, "we see with other eyes; we hear with other ears; and think with other thoughts, than those we formerly used," writes Katz.

Bloggers are the present day pamphleteers: most of us are irresponsible, spew nonsense, and have no credibility; but that is the point of free speech- the right to speak and be heard.

Today, here in India, NDTV's action has brought to prominence the threat to free speech. We can't do much about that. 

But let's at least remember Tom Paine today.

Holy Cow! Or Shall We Say Holy NDTV (Or Something More Appropriate,,,)?

Hi guys, lay off Symmo, okay? He is totally sober and witty and so-right. And McCullum, don't get mad at me for saying Symmo is so-right. You are, what? Real Cow!

Read this apology: 

"I, Chyetanya Kunte, hereby tender an unconditional apology to Ms. Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor, English News, NDTV Limited and to NDTV Limited, for the defamatory statements I made regarding Ms. Barkha Dutt and NDTV Limited, in my post titled 'Shoddy Journalism,' dated November 27th 2008, on my weblog at www.ckunte.com."

It seems NDTV has got an unconditional apology from a blogger for making defamatory remarks. How's that?

Next time you see The Big Fight of something,  would it be a good idea to sue NDTV for anything anyone said- if you think it is unsubstantiated, may be you think it right to accuse them of lack of ethics, responsibility and professionalism in that they went ahead and aired it without verifying it all. But don't even think about that. NDTV is Hundred Per Cent Patriotic. 

Have you seen all those Jawan shows with film stars and all? That is how Patriotic they are and you have to appreciate that they uphold democratic values like equality, freedom of speech etc (you think they admire men in uniforms for their uniforms? Don't even think of it, no sir, censorship and dictatorship would never cross their mind, what do you think they are- Mushy?)

Read about it all with plenty of links at Desipundit

Ways to Enjoy Better Sex: Marry a Dumb Girl, the Less Educated She Is, the Better It Gets.

Wonder why girls act dumb and boys act as if they know all?

Here is why.

I found this in Pravda: 

"Eighty-six percent of men acknowledged that they enjoy sex most if their partner is intellectually inferior to them. Women said that they were more likely to reach orgasm if they had sex with a man who was intellectually superior to them."

(May be that is why we have all those  husband-housekeeper jokes. Apparently the woman with minimum education who is good at washing dishes and sweeping floors takes and gives more joy than the well educated and well-heeled wife.).

And there is more statistics, such as:

• The average female orgasm, lasts for 1.7 seconds, for the man it is 12.4 seconds. In a lifetime, an average woman enjoys 1 hour and 24 seconds of orgasm, and the man 9 hours and 18 seconds.
  
• It is better for a woman to wear socks in bed, her chances of orgasm improve by 30 per cent if she does that. It seems warm feet matters most when it comes to sex.
  
• A sperm is capable of covering 1.5 metres at a speed of 45 kilometres per hour (that is above my driving speed, which cautious as I am, I control at 40. My sperm has more go than me, it seems).
  
• And then if you are a man and you are looking for a girl, the dumber she is, the better it gets. 62 per cent of women with higher education have difficulties in reaching orgasm, where mere 38 percent of the secondary school educated girls reported difficulties. In Canada and Germany, an astonishing 70 per cent of women who never studied at high schools reported total satisfaction.
  

(May be you have trouble believing all this, but my suspicions were confirmed when I read this in The New Indian Express, "Paris Hilton: Gordon Ramsay is Prime Minister of Britain": "The hotel heiress failed to answer correctly when asked to name the British Prime Minister. Instead she said, "I had lunch at his restaurant yesterday- Gordon Ramsay."

I googled Gordon Ramsay and found he owns hotels.

There is much more of such dubious smut here at  Pravda.

Nirvana of the Free-Market Philosopher : Charles Handy's White Stone.

In "The Hungry Spirit ," Charles Handy says that he keeps a small white stone on his desk.

He writes,

"It refers to a mysterious verse in The Book of Revelations in the Bible, a verse which goes like this: "To the one who prevails, the Spirit says, I will give a white stone... on which is written a name, which shall be known only to the one who receives it."

Handy provides us with a message of hope that gives us confidence to overcome- 'prevail'- these hard times of job insecurity and mounting losses. Handy believes that in withholding security, the free market unshackles the human spirit from its dependence on external props. With its insistence on continuous learning and rewarding excellence, the free market challenges us to explore our character and overcomes its limitations through learning and initiative.

"Because," Handy says, "we find ourselves through what we do and through the long struggle of living with and for others."I do, therefore I am," is more real than "I think, therefore I am."

In indicating that the success of our life is measured not by what we leave behind, but on what we take away with us, by what we have earned, not on what we were given- Charles Handy's White Stone symbolism holds a positive message: "it suggests that we have to take the initiative."

"Life is a search for the white stone. It will be different one for each of us. Of curse, it depends on what is meant by 'prevail'. It means, I suspect, passing life's little tests, until you are free to be yourself, which is when you can get your white stone,"

writes Charles Handy.

Challenging times such as these are the most rewarding: unless challenged, we won't surpass ourselves: "We can make of our lives a masterpiece if we so wish," declares Handy.

In the same book, Handy writes about Luke, a Caribbean youth who had shaken off apathy and despair.

""What happened?," I asked.

"Well, when things were at their worst, I rang my dad and told him how I felt. All he said was, "Think about this; when you get to heaven you will meet the man you might have been," then he put the phone down. That was all I needed. I went away, thought about it, and applied to college"".

That might-have-been-man is you. If you can, then why not?

Unless we try, we won't find out..

Charles Handy: The moment will arrive when you are comfortable with who you are, and what you are- bald or old or fat or poor, successful or struggling- when you don't feel the need to apologize for anything or to deny anything. To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength. Derek Walcott, the Nobel prize-winning poet from the Caribbean, sums up what it feels like when you reach that goal: The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sir here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine. give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

Ohama Does Not Like "War On Terror"

Change has come at last, or has it?

Obama has done something unprecedented. He has given the first official interview as U.S. President to Al-Arabiya, the Arabic language channel.

Obama said this:

“Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect,” he told the Saudi-owned station. “I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.”

And he also said this:

"We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith's name. I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down. But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship."

My hunch is that Obama is not to be trusted on his words. He is too good to be true. I feel he will do whatever is necessary, he will be pragmatic.

May be that is the kind of man the world needs now.

Read more about this at FT.com 

You Can Make a Difference- Paulo Coelho's Blog

I know many of you are great admirers of Paulo Coelho. Here is a chance for you to interact with him.

Please visit  Paulo Coelho’s Blog, where he writes,

"This week Im participating in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Contrary to the common perception, people there don’t conspire against the world but actually try to find and exchange new ideas.

So, to improve the state of the world, what would you suggest?

I’m going to check your answers and eventually share them with the people Ill meet there."

Let him know what you have to say. You can make the difference.

The Spirit Of the Entrepreneur

Want to know about Brother K Manian Pillai Salim Pasha?

Indian Express:

 

"A week later, a young Muslim trader called Salim Pasha reaches Nanchancode near Mysore — with his wife Mehrunnisa and a baby. He resumes life, selling Kerala pudding. The business flourished — he ran a mess, then bought a petrol pump, textile shop and headed a couple of wholesale agencies.

 Pasha became a local hero. In 1983, ahead of assembly polls, he got a party ticket for candidacy. Just as he was to file his nomination, a Kerala police team nabbed him. He was jailed (for six years), and all his assets in Karnataka were attached."

Manian Pillai took to stealing at the age of 18, went to prison (you've read all about that and what happened), then again went to prison (this time from Tamil Nadu, where he was a furniture merchant plus DMK worker), and coming out as a reformed man (studied a two year course and became a Pentecostal  brother), he co-authored his 584 page life story which was a best-seller in Malayalam, and is now a small-time actor earning an average of two hundred rupees per day.

Today, Pillai dreams of a career as a small-scale entrepreneur. "I will start a small hotel, or buy an auto rickshaw," he dreams. Should not be impossible, given his past performance. I wish him success.

The story of his atonement is at Indian Express

A Public Spirited Gentleman Lights Candles At the Subway Near Masjid Moth

There is a man in Delhi, who spends money out of his pocket to light candles in a newly renovated subway at Masjid Moth, Delhi, three times in the evening, lighting them every hour!

His name is Arjun Dev Gandhi, a retired officer from CRRI.

 "“On May 4, when I was going through the subway , it was pitch dark. I thought how unsafe it was. So I decided to light candles till electricity connections were installed by the PWD,” says Gandhi."

The power to the subway has been disconnected more than three times in the last six months.

He may be a good man, but in general most of us are not.

"If at all I am not able to visit the subway one day and there is any problem, people come to me," he says, as if lighting those candles is his duty. Seems nobody else would do it, even if they find the necessity for it.

And then, initially he used to light thick candles which would burn for two to three hours, but they got stolen! So he lights thin candles, which means he has to come and light another in a hour.

And the beauty of it is, the administration is concerned. It is only because of the reshuffling of officials in the PWD that this project is getting delayed. They are trying to provide an electricity connection soon.

There is a car bazaar and a liquor shop coming up close by the subway, so interesting things could happen there.

(I found this heart-warming story by Rakesh Malik in Times of India, but I don't seem to be able to find it, so instead of that, 

please read the full text of an article by Sucheta Das Mohapatra in Hindustan Times at SPEAK INDIA.)

Poise

Quite by accident I found this dialogue from the  Peter Sellers film, "The Party"

C. S. Divot: Who do you think you are?

Hrundi V. Bakshi: In India, we don't think who we are. We know who we are.

Ha ha!

A Happy Yogi

Can you wax lyrical about the Underwear? I found a level-headed, cheerful person in Shravasti Dhammika- here at this blog:dhamma musings:

"One of the disadvantages of getting drunk, the Buddha said, is that a man may expose his kopina (D.III,183). I think it's also one of the disadvantages of being David Beckham and signing a contract with Calvin Kline."

Slumdog Millionaire at the IIMs?

Slumdog Millionaire could get into IIMs in the near future. Its latest admirer is our ex-finance minister P.Chidambaram. He seems to have lost his head over it.

 Express India

reports that speaking at a launch of International Financial Corporation-Venture East-Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (an NGO)-sponsored fund to promote grassroots entrepreneurship in India,  Chidamabaram cited the movie portraying the rags to riches story of a boy from Mumbai slum as an example to show that young boys and girls from slums are not lagging behind corporate India.

He exhorted his audience, "Please watch the movie after its release". It seems that after seeing the film, his eyes have been opened- "A slum like Dharavi in Mumbai is humming with business ideas and innovations", is what he told his audience.

What next?

"I took the ancient notion that a woman’s virginity is priceless and used it as a vehicle for capitalism."

I am sure you've heard about Natalie Dylan, who is auctioning her virginity and has received a bid for $3.6 million. In a blog at Daily Beast , she says she is doing it not for money, but in the interests of science. 

"When I put my virginity up for auction in September, it was in part a sociological experiment—I wanted to study the public's response," she writes. Natalie Dylan is qualified to do the experiment- she has Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies, and plans to get a Masters Degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy.

She states in that blog, "Deflowering is historically oppressive", and,"... idealized virginity is just a tool to keep women in their place. But then I realized something else: if virginity is considered that valuable, what’s to stop me from benefiting from that?"

"For me, valuing virginity as sacred is simply not a concept I could embrace. But valuing virginity monetarily—now that’s a concept I could definitely get behind"

Yes, all that is right, but is this just a part of a sociological experiment, or is she beddable? If she is not, then I expect that man who bid $3.6 million to sue her for breach of promise.

Is this what Slumdog Millionaire is about?

The story revolves around Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”  But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. Indian elation at the Golden Globe Awards and possible success at the Academy awards ceremony scheduled next month are misplaced. Danny Boyle’s Indian co-director, Loveleen Tandan, may be considered bold, but the duo has exposed the real ugliness of India. The extremist Hindu mobs lynching ghetto Muslims, the underworld kidnapping the children orphaned as a result of their organized pogroms, incapacitating the Muslim boys, teaching them Hindu Bhajans and turning them into beggars while selling the Muslim girls to brothels depicts the sordid and gory side of India, which its regular Bollywood producers hide under the sheen and glamour of “shining India”.

Pakistan Observer  casts an envious eye on our jubilation, calls this film- "Slumdog Millionaire- India's shame!", and berates us with numbers and names.

Is this film about hope, or love, or luck, or did Boyle have a hidden agenda in making this film, with a script that is so amenable to the propaganda of such secular activists? 

Is our joy soon to turn sour?

"It will take more than movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” to expose India’s shame and bigotry", writes the Pakistan Observer, and I kind of hear a compassionate groan of despair from the brazen and freethinking brothers across our border (it sounds rusty and squeaky, may be my hearing is gone...)

Interesting days ahead, anyway.

Impoverished, Hazardous, Industrially Processed Food

(Still reading that book, "EAT YOUR HEART OUT ' by Felicity Lawrence)

I find that many of us take breakfast cereals, pregnant women, children and sometimes ill people are advised to take it, as far as I know. But they do no good to you, they are expensive ways to get ill, actually.

Felicity Lawrence says that breakfast cereals are agricultural surplus that are turned into profitable export; they are a triumph of marketing, packaging and US economic and foreign policies.

Whether it is corn or oats or whatever, the process is the same. (HERE  is some information about how they are processed; and how they are not good for you). The cornflakes you take have the nutritious germ and essential fats and oils removed at the outset. Otherwise the product goes rancid. Low-shelf life is not good for business. 

Then there are starches. Raw starch gets broken down during the industrial processing: this means that they get absorbed into the body more quickly. This results in high Glycemic Index. Some of the breakfast cereals can even be worse than sugar itself.

("When carbohydrate in foods is quickly broken down and absorbed, blood sugar levels soar. The problem is, so does the insulin level. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas in response to rises in blood sugar, helps muscle cells to soak up and store blood sugar. In moderation, insulin is a good-guy. But insulin can become dangerous if its levels spike repeatedly, increasing risks of diabetes, heart disease and possibly even cancer. "- this is from Peak Performance  . This page discusses what is glycemic index and how they should be used to choose what you eat. Diabetics must know this detail, I feel.

This site has useful tables of "Factors affecting the Glycemic Index" and  "Examples of GI Values of Foods within Food Groups")

Flavourings, sugar, salt and vitamins are added in the manufacturing process, because they have been removed in the first place. The health benefits of breakfast cereals depend more on fortifications than on micro nutrients from raw ingredients, because, as we saw, they are destroyed in the first place.

These fortifications include Vitamin B, C, D, iron, calcium and water. A form of fibre from plants, Inulin too is added, especially because it retains water and mimics the mouth feel of fats, and also because it lowers the Glycemic Index. Omega-3 fatty acids too are added, but because they leave a fishy taste, they are masked with additives.

Acrylamide:

Foods with lot of carbohydrates that are cooked at very high temperatures produce Acrylamide, a carcinogen. According to WHO, the permissible limit of Acrylamide in water is one microgram per litre. But Crisps and Fries which are industrially produced at very high temperatures, have five hundred times as much as the permitted level. Breakfast cereals, industrial bread, potato products and chips are all high in Acrylamide. 

"The main offending food groups are below, listed roughly in descending order of acrylamide content:

• Potato Chips (Crisps)
  
• French Fries
  
• Crackers, Toast, Bread Crisps, Cookies
  
• Boxed Breakfast Cereal
  
• Corn Chips (Crisps)
  
• Bakery Products
  
• Coffee
  
• Cocoa
  
• Bread",
  

according to Grinning Planet  (It discusses Acrylamide in great detail, and tells you how you can reduce its intake- "boxed cereals really are junk food. Most have very high levels of sugar and they're cooked to a crisp. Now we find out they have acrylamide too. Try hot cereals instead!"

Health Canada discusses the same and provides useful links)

Those who eat 40 micrograms of acrylamide per day are twice as likely to get cancer of ovary or womb: you get that in half pack of biscuits, a portion of chips or a single pack of crisps.

Breakfast cereals are high on sugar, salt and saturated fats- you need sugar for taste and crispiness, and salt to balance the sugar or else the food tastes too sweet. They are just sugary junk with vitamin pills. In a congressional hearing, Senator Robert Chaote testified that breakfast cereals fatten, but do little to prevent malnutrition. He informed the congress, that rats fed on a diet of ground-up cereal boxes with sugar, milk and raisins were healthier than rats fed on cereals alone!

(If you have read so far, I am sure you will be aware that this post is short on numbers and names. I have put in whatever I found in Felicity Lawrence's book, with some additional links I found. I know this is not rigorous, the food industry today might have improved the standards. I am posting this only to share my shock at the short-value of the food we eat; if someone does a rigorous study of this, I will be too happy)

An edited extract from "Eat Your Heart Out: Why The Food Business Is Bad For The Planet And Your Health" as published by The Guardian can be found here 

The adverse effects of industrialisation of food are discussed by Felicity Lawrence in individual chapters titled- Cereals, Meat and Vegetables, Milk, Pigs, Sugar, Fish and Tomatoes, Fats, Soya. To do justice to her work, you have to get it and read it. 

But I want to close this post with this quote from Felicity Lawrence: 

"How then should we shop and eat? My efforts, not always successful, are still focused where they were focused four years ago- organically, more locally, more seasonally, more directly from producers and independent retailers, more fair trade, less meat and animal produce, more wholegrain, pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables, few highly processed foods, nothing with ingredients on a label you cannot recognise, nothing that claims to be a new or techno food nothing highly packaged. Follow these principles and by an large you will find you are buying less from production that damages the environment of threatens ecosystems and you are less likely to be eating the fruits of exploited labour."

50,000 youths apply for 5,000 army vacancy in J-K

Hey guys
Read this -> Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir witnessed an overwhelming response against an army recruitment drive in which over 50,000 youths have applied against a vacancy of 5,000.
"Over 50,000 youths have applied for the recruitment rally in Samba district. We will recruit only 5,000 out of them," Deputy Director General (DDG) recruitments, Punjab-J&K, Brig K D Malhotra said as he threw open the recruitment rally in Samba on Thursday.
In this regard, we have distributed 10,000 tokens to the aspiring candidates, he said, adding we will take all the youths found eligible to fill up the quota of 5,000.
"Special priority would be given to candidates from militancy prone areas of Jammu region," Brig Malhotra said.
A similar rally will be held in Baramulla district of the state next month, he said.
The present rally is being conducted from January 22 to January 31.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/50-000-youths-apply-for-5-000-army-vacancy-in-jk/414039/

Is the current economic situation the reason for such overwhelming response? Hey siva, remember the chapter "How israel fell" in the book "The Religion War". Has anyone read it?

The Pauperisation of Senegal.

(Still reading the book, "Eat your Heart Out", by Felicity Lawrence. Among other things, she writes that globalisation with a skewed free market, where the rich countries subsidise their agricultural industry, exploits the poverty of the poorer countries. She cites the case of Senegal. Much of this post is indebted to her insights.

I am putting up this post, mainly in view of the comment made by Nasaki:

"The government is bent to safeguard the 50000 odd workers of satyam, who might loose work at satyam because of the fraud in accounts committed willingly by their management.

Here in the textile industry the workers are to loose their jobs because of the government's failure to stop the cotton exports and its failure to alter the dollar rate in time to compete China.

Now our PM and co. discuss on its grave about treatments and medicines."

We could go the same way as Senegal if we are not alert to the dangerous side-effects of free market economy and globalisation. Totalitarian countries like China and corporate-controlled States like USA make their own rules, and less privileged nations like India could end up as the losers in this game if we are not careful).

The point that Felicity Lawrence makes is that poorer countries are forced to open up their agricultural market as the price of participating in the global market. Once this is done, the heavily subsidised agri-industries of the rich countries move in and drive local agriculture and the wider economy down to ground.

Senegal, which was once a colony of France, was where millions of  West African people were shipped to the Caribbean islands and the Americas as slaves. 

During the period when Senegal was ruled by the French, it had exported groundnuts for oil. After obtaining freedom in 1960, Senegal prospered to some extent- its government subsidised seeds and fertilisers, maintained the prices, improved health and education and Senegal was a democratic nation.

The 1970s were marked by severe drought. Falling agricultural and commodity prices, coupled with the oil shock of 1973 led to the economic downturn and debt.

The 70s were a period of global recession, and there was no flow of credit. Senegal could not pay back its external debt.

Senegal seeks loan from IMF and World Bank: Senegal gets money, but it has to subject itself to the conditions of the 1981 Berg report:- development must be based on free trade, using the private sector, but not that of the 'inefficient' state interventions.

Senegal corrects its protectionist policies, opens itself to imports. The government stops its subsidy of food  and support to farmers. But during the same period, this was not the case with the rich countries. They were pampered with subsidy and support.

Cheap subsidised goods from US and EU flood into Senegal. Local producers could not compete with the transnational corporates, local agriculture becomes unremunerative and its survival undermined. Soon, Senegal becomes dependent on imports for its food needs. Massive job losses in the agricultural and industrial sectors drive its population to fishing. More than seventy percent of the Senegalese are rural- they live by farming and fishing. when they could not farm, they moved into fishing. By the year 2000, food production per capita has fallen so low, it meets only half its food needs. (The impact of these policies is discussed by dembe moussa dembele here, at "Debt and Destruction in Senegal") 

The Example of Tomato: Until 1994, tomato had been protected with tariffs and quotas to discourage imports. After liberalisation, EU exported its triple concentrate tomato paste at prices well below that of local produce. About Eighty percent of this had been subsidised, even much later the support given to EU farmers in processors was Forty-three percent! In 1997, Senegal produced just a quarter o;f what it had produced before. In just four years, Senegal had slipped from self sufficiency to dependency!

The Example of Poultry: After liberalisation, in the five years prior to 2003, seven-eighths of the chicken farms went out of business.

Ruined farmers take to fishing. Fishery is earmarked for export, to bring in the necessary foreign currency and drive growth. Now fishery stock is under threat. EU, China and Japan buy licenses for its trawlers to fish in the Senegalese waters. The government earns short term revenue, but due to unconscionable fishing practices, fishery stocks become unsustainable.

The industrial fisheries drive the poor and indigent local fishermen out of work.

People have no job, and fishermen get no fish. So fishermen take people elsewhere, now the smuggling of people is how they earn their livelihood. 

A massive demographic shift is underway, from Africa to Europe and westward, and it poses its threats: see Which World by Allen L. Hammond

The poor illegal immigrants from Africa land up in Spanish Canary Islands; and then they move to Italy, where they work in the heavily subsidised farms, where they provide cheap labour for EU to produce its cost-effective crops (including tomato), which had originally driven them out of their home!

So, these unfortunate Africans, who had been once been forcibly taken to the western world as slaves, now voluntarily migrate to work in slave-like conditions.

This is the irony of globalisation and free-market economy, where the powerful countries make the laws. 

• This is not the end of story. Felicity Lawrence writes about how this agri-industry of the developed world which impoverishes third world nations, provides its own people with impoverished food, high on salt, sugar and fats, carcinogenic, inducing obesity, and gifting them with what are called lifestyle diseases.Like I found at Kartikey Sehgal's delightful post at The Young India:
  

A Discussion of Violence and Pacifism in The Witness- II

I did finish the film (The Witness), it is brilliant. The ending was not the one I thought it would be.

The director, John Weir, is a thinking man.

If you read my previous post, you would remember that Harrison Ford is a policeman, who has found sanctuary in the pacifist Amish community. An Amish child is witness to a murder; his grandfather tells him never to kill any man, but the child does not seem convinced.

This is not a propaganda film, so the narrative follows the conventions of cinema to a large extent. Ford and the mother of the boy fall in love; there is corrupt police, who come after Ford into the community; there is a fight at the climax and there is the ending. Nothing wrong in that.

But Weir is not afraid of asking questions, and choosing answers. Under what conditions should you kill? Under what conditions is it right to be a pacifist? Can pacifist and militant morality both live together?

In this film, the questions are answered not by speech, but by what the characters do.

Harrison Ford hurts and kills, because it is his nature. And the Amish restrain from returning violence with violence, because it is not in their nature.

But they are not irreconcilable. When faced with a ring of unarmed Amish, the man with the gun gives it up, as if he recognises the limits of violence. And when Harrison Ford goes away, the grandfather of the boy tells him, "Be careful among the English". It is as if, though pacifist, the Amish had recognised Ford as one among them.

I liked the film, because I imagine I understand what it is about. If there are enough witnesses, violence will not have its way. This is a simplistic conclusion, but it feels that way. We don't have to resist violence through violent means, but if we are aware and willing to be present where violence is, if we don't run away but confront it face to face with calm, then violence could end.

This is more hope and promise than conclusion and proof.

Afterthought:

I think it would be right to say that Weir wants this conclusion to be drawn: do not run away from violence, bear witness to it- you need not resist it, for if there is enough witness, evil would lose its bluster.

Samuel, the child, is directed by Ford to run to the neighbour's farm. More than halfway down, Samuel hears gunshots and returns home. Then, when his mother and grandfather are taken away by the man with the gun, he rings the bell, summoning all men of the community to come. They drop their implements and come, they do not talk or intervene in any way when the man has the gun at Ford, threatening to shoot him down. But it is Ford who asks the question, "How many can you kill?", telling him, "Enough is enough". The man comes to his senses.

Two Photos from The Earth Observatory

What is this? An IC Chip?

And what about this? An oil slick?

Check out Boston.com  for twenty three great pictures from The Earth Observatory.

A Discussion of Violence and Pacifism in The Witness

I was watching the Harrison Ford film, "The Witness", and there is an interesting discussion about whether violence can ever be justified, even in a righteous cause.

As you might remember, Samuel is the boy who has witnessed the murder. Harrison Ford is the policeman who stays with the boy and his mother in an Amish community.

The boy is toying with a handgun. His mother takes it away, and then we see the grandfather discussing guns with Samuel.

This is how the dialogue goes:

"Many times the wars have come, and people have said to us: You must fight. You must kill. It is the only way to preserve the good." But, Samuel, there is never only one way, remember that.

"Would you kill another man?"

Samuel replies, "I would only kill a bad man."

"Only the bad man, I see. And you know these bad men by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?"

Samuel replies, "I can see what they do. I have seen it."

"And having seen, you become one of them. Don't you understand? What you take into your hands, you take into your heart.

""Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord."

""And touch not the unclean thing".

"This gun of the hand is for the taking of the human life. We believe it is wrong to take life. That is only for God."

Given that this talk comes in an action film, I am surprised at the depth of the narrative. This is not just another story about a murder, its witness, and a policeman falling in love with the mother of the child. There is that too, but the film goes beyond that.

I have not completed the film, I had to go to office, so I switched off the DVD halfway. I think either the boy or his mother will take the gun and kill someone, or else, this particular conversation would have no point.

For me, the words, "And having seen, you become one of them. Don't you understand? What you take into your hands, you take into your heart," are particularly telling. We can't help what we see. And though we can choose our reaction, we cannot escape the consequences of our action. 

Moral corruption is corrosive. I think the solution lies in our judgment, it is the labelling of good and bad that gives room for evil to be. Yet, how can we react to the murderer without condemning him as bad and evil?

I don't think there is any answer to this.

There is a Christian view on this by Jim Meisner, Jr.,  where he sets the problem, "All of us living outside cloistered communities like the Amish or the monastic life, are walking in the world, where nearly every step takes us further away from the Father. Because all of us, no matter how close we think we walk and talk with God, are of the world we inhabit, perhaps the greatest effect of Christians living in a world of unbelievers is we learn to lie to ourselves. We rationalize our ethics in situations that conflict with our faith, we justify our biases and we isolate ourselves from our Christian community by surrounding ourselves with the fruits of consumerism."

And the solution he provides is this: "Jesus reminds us that while we may still be in the world, through him, we have peace: "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). By remaining in the world, each of us has the opportunity to do our best to improvise in our Christian Ethics and fight evil, like John Book, and to fulfill one of Christ’s greatest challenges to us, his followers, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15)."

This dialogue is discussed in the book, "Witness Directed by Peter Weir" By Rachel Palgan.

Good, Prize-Winning Poetry

What is good, prize-winning poetry? Some of you might write poetry, and might be curious to know how a poem is judged worthy of a prize. 

It is possible that we want to know how to write good poetry,  but that art is learned mostly through reading and practice. And when we know the values by which good, prize-winning poetry is judged, it helps. We come to know how poetry is evaluated.

Here is a poem, and notes by one of the judges who awarded the prize.

THE POEM:

The TS Eliot prize  for poetry has been  awarded to Jen Hadfield, a 30-year-old new poet in the published world.

This poem, taken from her book "Nigh-No-Place", is her response to working in a fish factory.

Ten-minute break haiku

Just the blades prattling

on cartilage - cut here, here -

a good, fat fillet.

My friend the Cuckoo

Wrasse, hauled from his dark holler,

wilting on ice. Alas.

Breading haddock, I

bury in the coarse, bright dunes

the pale, wet children.

I finger the curious, quilted sphincter, being

like this, inside, too.

Gut-worms, christ! Still I

pluck them from the membranes,

one by one.

THE COMMENTS:

In Guardian,   Jen Hadfield, one of the judges, makes the following notes about the poem: 

Ten Minute Haiku: Bishop might have liked this. Lowell too. Courage, again, in the ridiculing of haiku convention in the fourth poem's broken word. 4th haiku maybe Hadfield at her best - a hungry animalistic curiosity & more. There is an understanding of the world here - and the conviction to give voice to that understanding. The same star as Alice Oswald, Clare, Rumi.

Overall:

(1) sheer joy of poetry

(2) raw, fresh; nothing overcooked

(3) wit; wry and emphasized by the delight of the beauty

(4) she knows when to stop.

(5) courage

(6) 21st century in her language, syntax, diction, without any loss of historical reference

(7) deep understanding of words and musicality

This would be one hell of a winner.

This is what good writing and good reading is about- something that inspires appreciation, and a good guide to take us through the poem into its core.