How the Ayodhya issue got solved ..

CWG, some snaps ..

most of these are exisitng stadia which have been renovated.  Sydney Olympics in 2000 - $ 1 billion Athens 2004  - $ 6 billion Beijing 2008  - $ 44 billion ( the greatest spectacle on planet earth until now..) London 2012 - $ 18 billion ( estimates..) New Delhi  Common Wealth Games 2010 $ 14 billion, but nobody accountable, everyone is spending .. Sebastian Coe , the 800 m Olympic goldmedallist is the chairman of the 2012 London Olympics,  A corrupt, thick skinned, former Indian Airforce pilot, politician Suresh Kalmadi is the Chairman of CWG OC. E sridharan or Metro fame or Kheny of NICE Bangalore fame would have done the games at half the cost.  The cost of refurbishing the exisiting Jawaharlal Nehru athletics stadium in Delhi cost Rs 1000 crores. The SC has said that till the games are over, the OC members will be public citizens and after the games are over, they will be private citizens and will have to take care of their own backs. Thousands of crores must already have flown to Swiss banks on hearing that news.. Where is our country headed to !!

Newsweek - The earth doesn't care what you do !! ..

A very damning article, by Physics Nobel laurete Robert Laughlin, which rubbishes all talk of reducing carbon emissions, ozone depletion, temperature rise and all green talk. It expresses concern over bio-diversity loss ie. man-made or human induced extinction of flora and fauna species from planet earth, possible due to over population !

Laughlin says, "Climate change over geologic time is something the earth has done without asking anyone's permission !" According to him, glacial episodes, the slow, steady cooling followed by steady warming up, occurs at regular intervals of 100,000 years and will happen whatever man does to accentuate or prevent it from happening.

An interesting article, sure read from Newsweek ..  http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/george-will-earth-doesn-t-care-what-is-done-to-it.html

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Child atop leaf of Victoria amazonica ..

Seven-and-a-half-month old Tanisha Overbeeke smiles while resting on top of a leaf of the Victoria Amazonica at the Rotterdam Blijdorp Zoo September 1, 2010. Children could be photographed on top of the leaf, under the condition that they do not weigh more than 15 kg (33 lbs). The Victoria Amazonica blossoms over two nights producing flowers that are white on the first night, which then turn pinkish-red by the second night. Its leaf could have a diameter of up to two-and-a-half meters. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

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Kumarakom backwaters..

photo courtesy Ravin Kurian ..

One of ONV's evergreen numbers..

Manikyaveenayumayi - from Kattupookkal sung by K J Yesudas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-fTWqOBOgw&p=826D0CC80FFD0C0C&playnext=1&index=8

The same song sung by superstar Mohanlal ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fytvXtJj6sY&feature=related

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ONV gets Jnanapeedham ..

One ONV has been waiting for a long time and deserved much more than anyone in Malayalam literary world..

http://george-easaw.blogspot.com/2010/05/evening-with-onv-kurup-for-iss.html

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Ethics and Technology .

ETHICS AND TECHNOLOGY :(ehow.com)

Every advancement in information technology is accompanied by at least one ethical quandary. From Facebook to email updates, computer users are unaware of the fine balance between ethics and profit struck by providers. Software developers, businesses and individuals must think about the rights and wrongs of using information technology every day. The fundamental issues underlying the world of information technology are the end user's expectation of privacy and the provider's ethical duty to use applications or email responsibly.

 

Data Mining

Data mining covers a wide range of activities that turn numbers, words and other data into distinguishable patterns. In the hands of a responsible agency or business, data mining can determine a probable next step for a terrorist cell or determine buying patterns within demographic groups. This practice has been assailed in the post 9/11 world as part of a widespread pattern of invasions of privacy carried out by America's intelligence experts. The practices of the Total Information Awareness Progress in particular were thought to pry into the day-to-day lives of innocent people by IT ethics experts and civil libertarians.

 

Social Networking

The social networking craze may allow people around the world to speak with each other but it has also brought up several IT ethics issues. Facebook initiated a program called Beacon in 2007 to turn each user's personal information into an advertisement, allowing a greater amount of connectivity between the website's members. Facebook's developers failed to create an opt-in system that gave willing users the chance to participate of their own accord. Beacon came under fire for pulling information from Facebook profiles and breaking down privacy boundaries common in the real world. Another ethical issue for social networking websites is the amount of security they should use when registering members. Several abductions in recent years have been connected to MySpace, bringing up concerns that social networking sites aren't doing enough to protect young users.

 

E-Mail Spam

Spam is defined broadly as emails with commercial or profane messages that are sent blindly to hundreds and thousands of users. Aside from the content of spam email, the major ethical issues for service providers and individuals alike involve identifying spammers. Email programs through AOL and Yahoo! may identify some spammers who are brazen enough to send out millions of emails but their spam programs rely largely on user feedback. While some users will identify legitimate spammers carrying viruses and pornographic messages, there is the potential for users to identify legitimate companies as spammers.

 

Intellectual Property and Information Technology

The merger of intellectual property rights and information technology has been rough going since the 1990s. The advent of Napster, Limewire and other peer-to-peer downloading networks brought the issue of infringing on artistic property to the fore. NBC's exclusive rights to the 2008 Olympic Games were challenged by bloggers and online pirates who placed footage on YouTube. The ethical issue that arises when dealing with intellectual property in the virtual world is the length to which content producers should pursue permission to reprint images and articles. While lifting entire articles for a term paper is clearly unacceptable, there are questions from ethicists about the practicality of seeking out unknown artists and writers for something as minor as a blog.

 

Filtering Online Content

Comcast has come under fire in the past two years for blocking downloads from Bit Torrent. The Internet service provider (ISP) has claimed that "throttling down" downloads via Bit Torrent is a reasonable element of maintaining high-speed service. Religious groups, adult websites and others have banned together in an unusual alliance to fight Comcast's effort to filter content. The major ethical debate raged between ISP, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and end users is whether Internet service should be content-neutral.

Mallakhamb ..

A man performs Mallakhamb (gymnast's pole) during a practice session at a playground in Mumbai September 13, 2010. Mallakhamb is a combination of traditional Indian gymnastics and martial arts and it can be traced back to the 12th century. For centuries, the sport has been dormant but is now regaining popularity in the country. This old sport helps one to be more agile, improves mind and body coordination as well as overall fitness. The group will perform during the opening and closing ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

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Imp tips .. ( in Malayalam..)

Alzheimer's Disease, creating awareness..

http://www.yentha.com/news/view/4/1478

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Brazil and ethanol ..

It was good news to read the advances made by Brazil in producing and using ethanol. http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/22/stories/2010092254621300.htm 

By 2019 Brazil will produce 64 billion litres and will be in a position to export is real good news for the tech savy and energy hungry world. From this year Brazil has an energy plant running on ethanol. It is one of the most efficient producers of ethanol in the world. 

India and Brazil are also ready to sign an agreement on producing ethanol efficiently .

The future does not look as bleak now that biofuels have caught the fancy of the BRICS countries ( the countries which are going to matter in the coming centuries..)

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Rs 70,000 crores blown in thin air to bring national shame ..?

The govt will have to investigate how many thousand of crores of rupees has flown out of India and Delhi during the past two years from the govt, officials, organising committee members bank accounts  into swiss bank accounts ..

The less than mediocre preparedness for the Games and the irresponsible and often, evasive, belligerent  replies to questions from media personnel, all point at the total unprofessional attitude of these individuals, who claim to be great sports administrators..

Starting from Suresh Kalmadi and Bhanot, all the OC members and the CPWD engineers need to be taken to task. Exemplary punishment needs to be meted out to these people for bringing shame to the country for their shoddy approach and for causing such a big loss to the exchequer.

The Sydney Olympics cost $ 1 billion in 2000, now this shoddy Common Wealth Games is going to cost $ 8 billion and more..( not sure whether it will happen at all ..) !!!

Who will compensate the common man for this huge loss ??

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Next phase of colonialism in Africa . - India and China ..

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Making-A-Positive-Difference/articleshow/6601541.cms

The discussion here is not whether colonialism / exploitation is right or wrong, but whether it can be humane or not... 

Is India taking the route of the western countries who went out for colonialism 600 years back ??

Modern colonialism is based on knowledge and soft power while colonialism of the past was on military might and materialistic in nature..

Is not spiritual colonialism better than materialistic colonialism ?

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Blood donation at TJC ..

Record 176 units of blood were donated on 21 Sept to Rotary Blood Bank Foundation.

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Beijing's traffic jams.. Birth pangs of growth ..!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Now-monster-traffic-jams-hit-Beijing/articleshow/6591496.cms

I am sure China will surly come up with innovative ideas to come out of this problem which is a small pain in the neck for development.

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Buffalo soldier ..

Buffalo soldier of the 10 th cavalry regiment of the US army is visiting India in Nov 2010. He is skipping the city of Bangalore ..

Does he know that the largest $ 1 billion IT contract in India by Airtel was bagged not by an Indian firm but IBM. IBM also maintains Airtel's Africa operations .. India is helping IBM rema...in competitive in world markets otherwise it would have got wiped off years back ..

Have fun ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pzOx-Zzh2k

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Why I hate Yahoo, Microsoft and back Google ..

The story is quite old.. some 12 - 13 years back, when hotmail was not owned by Microsoft and Sabeer Bhatia was firing the shots..

That time, Netscape Navigator was still the top web browser and Microsoft had not stolen part of software released by Mosaic as open source s/w. Internet explorer was still in the womb.. The first web based email service was Hotmail. After creating some 100 accounts for my colleagues in Goa Engg college during 1996-7 , my friend Rayudu told me that Yahoo was also a good one worth trying..

I gave it a try and also its  many value added services like free webpages, photostoring services....

Sad to say over the years, yahoo has dumped its loyal customers ( on the free services model) by the road side. I have in the process lost a lot of my files, photos which were stored on yahoo services. That is why I too have dumped yahoo ..

Nothing like google and gmail .. its youtube, chrome browser and blogspot blog services have caught my fancy and will continue to do so with greater force , once chrome OS hits the market.

I am waiting to see that day when Microsoft and its proprietary software model will be overtaken by Google and its open source community developed, publicly owned software model.

That will be the day when all the peoples of the world, irrespective of their economic status, regional alliances and knolwdge levels will be able to reap the full benefits of software thru the open source and community developed and community owned models.

To that land of freedom, God let my world and its people awake !!

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comonWealth Games 2010 ..

Commonwealth Games 2010 welcome song (unofficial..) .. sung by an
amatuer musician Thomas Easaw. pl. download the mp3 file.

http://www.thomaseasaw.com/WelcometoIndia-ThomasEasaw.mp3

Comments pl ..

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wireless charging ..

Fujitsu develops this path breaking technology which has wide ramifications not only in charging your mobiles and digital cameras , but also your electric vehicles..Electricity flows on the magnetic field between the chanrger and the device being charged.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Cellphones-to-be-charged-wirelessly-soon/articleshow/6566364.cms

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Jobin joins Nitte Meenakshi Inst of Tech., Bangalore..

Nitte Meenakshi Inst of Technology, Yelahanka, Bangalore .., 

http://www.eduhelp.in/college_images/0000/2089/Nitte_Meenakshi_Institute_of_Technology.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9dZLrZMslw

Finally after much vacillation and indecision, jobin has finally joined Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Yelahanka, Bangalore (www.nmit.ac.in) in Electrical and Electronics branch.

Nitte Meenakshi is one of the five autonomous Engineering Institutes in the city of Bangalore under Vishwesharaya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum, the others being BMS, PESIT, MS Ramaiah and .. . It is also the first Engineering College in the country to send a satellite to space ( much earlier than the other premier Institutes like the IITs or IISc).

It is also the only Engineering College in the country to still have a  running Amateur Satellite Tracking station in the country. IIT Kharagpur and SRM Engg College Chennai recently launched satellites, the initial tracking of the satellites till they were put in orbit in space was done at NMIT by the students.

The former Director at NIT, Suratkal, Dr N R Shetty is the Director of NMIT, Bangalore.

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klijsters and Nadal ..

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Internet for peace ..

Since Internet has been nominated for Nobel peace Prize 2010, pl spare a moment to read the manifesto and express your solidarity ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxD7R4QwC8

www.internetforpeace.org

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who wants to lose peace of mind ?

"We have seen several customers surrender their credit cards. Increasingly, debit cards are gaining popularity. While the total business transacted by credit cards fell by 10% across India, the total amount of transaction with debit cards increased from Rs 18,547 crore to Rs 26,417 crore," said a senior manager from HDFC bank. 

Read more: Use of credit cards goes down in India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Use-of-credit-cards-goes-down-in-India/articleshow/6543407.cms#ixzz0zNbldEUb

Debit cards are safe as one tends to spend only within bounds. On the other hand with credit cards, one tends to spend endlessly, buying up things needed and not needed, more on instinct, piling up bills which will anyway need to be paid sooner or later, adding to one's woes..

If the person is salaried with fixed amount coming in every month, this invites lot of headache and disturbs peace of mind..

So why disturb peace of mind, when you can actually have comfort and convenience with a debit card ?

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youtube life in a day film ...

Here is a film made by people of the world, about 100 hrs in all .. edited by the team taking inputs from all around the world.. see individual submissions on varied topics on life in a day ..

youtube.com/lifeinaday

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The magnitude of Pak floods ..

Sindh area, Pakistan ..

India in low energy equilibrium .. ??

It was a very strange statement made by our PM two days back in a press conference that China wants India to be in a low energy equilibrium ..

China wants to be big boss in the Asia-south asia region. For this it wants other states to be in a state of inequilibrium or low energy equilibrium so that it can bully its way through and assert supremacy over other countries.

If India is not ready to toe this line and wants to take on China in its backyard itself, it will have to start asserting itself. China can only wait to see Indian might and potential unfold in the coming days.. The Indian elephant will have to take on the Chinese hare..!

The small pinpricks which China is putting every now and then is to test Indian tenacity and doggedness in its pursuit to develop and be a global player.

Recent global predictions of India overtaking China and Indian growth being more stable and predictable than Chinese which is instant and not firmly footed is sending jitters in Chinese establishment.

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Ethnic day at TJC ..

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A good film .. ignorance of ability is disability ..

ignorance of ability is disability

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=126112914087225

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alumni meet at TJC 28 aug ..

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android or Symbian OS for your smartphone .. ..

Both are open source. Because of Android pressure, Symbian recently became open source..

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10398202-16.html Why Google Android is beating Symbian ..While Google is shipping to lot of handset manufacturers and signing them up at a frenetic pace, Symbian is just sticking to Nokia ..

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=15570&editorial=Google+Android+T-Mobile+G1 Switching from symbian to Android, a user's experience ..

Microsoft is losing out in this race and will slowly die out not being responsive enough .. The smartphone revolution is seeing the re-alignment of global IT forces.. Google is slowly and definitely emerging the final winner ..

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