Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid...

Any Data You Give Google Can And Will Be Used Against You:

"Matthew Tannin may have shut down his account, but Google keeps backups, and the company provided government prosecutors with 'a CD-ROM disk... of Mr. Tannin's emails from November 20, 2006 through August 12, 2007,' according to the New York Times. The prosecutors are trying to prove fraud in the collapse of two hedge funds, managed in part by Tannin, and have been helped along by his personal emails, one of which reads 'a wave of fear set over me that the fund couldn't be run the way that I was ‘hoping'... And that it was going to subject investors to ‘blow up risk'.'"

Of course, we have nothing to hide- so it is okay.

But don't think you have any privacy on the web.

Maoist LitCrit

Nepal Maoists disapprove of Nobel for German author

"Nepal's former Maoist guerrillas have denounced the award of the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature to German author Herta Mueller by the Swedish Academy Thursday, saying it reflected the institution's growing bias towards the communists."

We are waiting for their response to the Peace Prize awarded to Obama.

The Hypocritic Society

Watcher wants to push this into this blog:

I'd like to discuss in this blog, the recent arrest and humiliation of women whose profession is acting in films- (please check this blog: Tamil Film industry shocked with BHUVANESWARI Confession? )

The intention of the report was to inform the general public; if not so, either market or defame the people it mentioned, though the motive is irrelevant to the purpose of the industry it represented.

I feel we need to arrive at a consensus about the legality of transfer of money between consenting adults in appreciation of the rendering of carnal services. If this is a commercialactivity, which it plainly is, I feel the rules and regulations of The Industrial disputes Act, 1947 would be more appropriate than Criminal Procedure Code, 1898. In any relationship there obviously exists a motive. Why not money when the relationship guarantees mutual pleasure and fosters the spirit of adventure?

Reports of this type do nothing better than gratify our perverse pleasures. Please check this sequence of dance in Maanaada Mayilaada, a well-appreciated dance show watched with family in our living rooms.

The fact that people enjoy watching this stuff with their friends and family, and newspapers push up their circulation with titillating stories indicates an unspoken consensus in this matter. If still we harbour ill-will towards the workers of the oldest profession of all, it speaks ill of our society at large.

Here's the YouTube video for your viewing pleasure:

Messing with the Moon

The dark side of the moon crash:

"There is something disturbing about NASA slamming two spacecraft into the surface of the moon today. The results of the experiment will be interesting, there's no doubt about that: I'll be watching. But it's the methodology. It does not, I feel, show we humans up in the best cosmic light."

- Mark Vernon

I am reminded of the post I made some time back- "Please Don't Litter the Moon!"

"I feel a bit dazed that we have crashed a 29 Kg object painted garishly on all its sides (no disrespect to our national flag, but let's be objective, that is how it will look to a Martian) so that the Moon itself feels the impact of our presence, and we can claim a portion of the moon when they cut it up some time in the future.


Where is our imagination? Or, is this imagination?


This is like reading about some idiot with a gun, who while coasting along the South Seas, saw an inhabited island and shot and killed the defenceless natives for fun. I think he intended to stake a claim on the island on behalf of the Crown or something..."

It feels good to find that there is a dignified, yet powerful way to express something that I so messily and, I accept, hysterically shouted about.

---

Desist, Earthlings!

via Nigeness.









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Once or twice a century...

This is something that happens once or twice a century, okay, five times? Six times?

What do you say?

"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
1/3 of the prize
United Kingdom
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Cambridge, United Kingdom
b. 1952 (in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India) via Nobelprize.org

Two Quotes

"Revenge is a valuable passion, and the only sure pillar on which justice rests."

- A.E. Housman

"He is someone who is totally self-conscious and not remotely self-aware"

-Simon Hoggart

Three of the best

1. China- siege mentality:

"China’s situation now is very difficult, there is domestic trouble and foreign invaders. Tibetan independence, Xinjiang independence, Taiwan independence, in the east Japan persists with their evil intentions [...], in the north Russia is anti-China and has always been eyeing us covetously, India is massing troops to the south, Vietnam, Indonesia, and other third world countries in Southeast Asia are constantly stirring up conflict…then there’s the financial collapse and natural disasters. Actually, in these times, if you’re living well, what is there to complain about? I don’t get it, don’t understand, I’m bitterly disappointed."

- ChinaGeeks » “A Little Reflection on Patriotism”


2. Investors note: The power of compound-interest.

Two 500 dollar bonds, sold by the city of Leipzig in 1926, could spell bad news for the municipality's finances. The bonds' owner says they are now worth about 200,000 euros. If her bid for payment succeeds, it could set a precedent that costs Leipzig more than half a billion euros.

The eastern German city of Leipzig could face claims running into hundreds of millions of euros from an international bond issue that it launched in 1926 and never repaid.

A woman who recently discovered two bonds that had been held by her family for generations has demanded that the eastern German city repay them.

They each have a nominal value of $500. Because the bonds were due to be repaid in gold, and unpaid interest has accrued since 1945, the two bonds amount to a liability of $202,000 or €187,400, Andre Sayatz, the lawyer for the bondholder, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

- Historical Debts: Pre-War Bonds May Cripple Leipzig Budget - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International


3. Hair-raising stuff:

Each patient had normal brain activity in the moments before they were removed from life support with critical illnesses such as multi-organ failure, metastatic cancer or cardiac arrest. Each subsequently experienced a sudden electrical 'alertness' or spike in brain waves in the moments before they died. The spikes came in the same moments just before each patient's death. They rose to comparable levels and were consistent in duration.

- End Of Life Spikes In Brain Waves: Physiological Markers For The Often Reported Near Death


Good day.