Monday, December 31, 2007

Lady in white

Benazir Bhutto was not the saint that she is made out to be in the innumerable eulogies. She and her ex-con husband squirreled away a billion odd dollars by granting licenses to import gold, setting up a regulatory body to enhance customs duties(and happily embezzling part of the funds to offshore a/cs),setting up sugar mills,granting exclusive rights to aircraft manufacturers, illegal commissions from overseas tractor companies... the list goes on.She has even been accused of complicity in the killing of her brother Murtaza Bhutto in 1996 by uniformed police officers whilst she was Prime Minister.

A exclusive video footage of the last few moments of Benazir.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Animal sacrifices

Its the three day 'festival of sacrifice' for the Moslems. But did you know just how inhuman is the killing of animals that these people practice at all times and specially during this time?

The pictures on this site are graphic and not for the faint hearted ones. The sordid killing of these poor defenceless animals makes one weep. Can people stoop so low and be so cruel?!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

MJ in bandages

Is it any wonder that Michael Jackson is called Whacko Jacko!? These days he makes weird public appearances like this with bandages stuck on his face! The biggest pop star of the '80s supposedly has vitiligo, a disorder whereby pigment disappears from the skin, leaving large white blotches which make exposure to direct sunlight dangerous. The poor sod is probably covering up his patches with the band aids.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Quaddafi and his female entourage

Libya's eccentric leader, Muammar(Muhammad??)Quaddafi(Gaddafi,Kaddafi??)on his visit to Paris,is staying in a tent there, bedouin style, with women-only bodyguards! Apparently,he suffers from claustrophobia.

Besides signing nuclear contracts,he wants 200 attractive french females there!

"I want to go to Renault plant to see the laborer section and to meet 200 attractive French women."
Very interesting :))

Some Quaddafi trivia :

  • Plans to act as screenwriter for a $40 million epic about the Italian invasion of Libya.


  • Sees the solution of Israel and Palestine conflict based on a unified state called Isratine.

  • Wednesday, December 12, 2007

    Paris and Champagne






    Champagne in a can! And Paris modelling in the buff for it! With a gold painted body coat...

    Check the controversial pic here

    Friday, December 7, 2007

    A Google Wedding


    Decadence is cool when Google does it. One of the google guys, Larry Page is getting married tomorrow in style on a tiny island called Necker Island,in the Caribbean, owned by Virgin's Chairman, Richard Branson. According to Forbes, Branson is renting the place out for $15,000 per day for up to seven guests, or $31,000 per day for 26 people.

    More on The Wedding here

    Hospital beds turned five times a day!

    Britain's National Health Services is an ailing albatross. Now, its come up with a novel idea to ensure that its Moslem patients come to its doors faithfully. It turns its patients’ beds,so they face towards the city of Mecca, five times a day! Not only this, but the lengthy procedure also includes providing fresh bathing water to wash before and after prayers and a taxpayer-funded training programme for several hundred hospital staff so as to ensure that all are familiar with the workings of the Muslim faith! Isnt that just swell?!

    Even Saudi Arabia may not have come about with such a logic-defying scheme!!

    Monday, December 3, 2007

    Santa's stop only for 34 microseconds!

    Christmas is approaching and St.Nicholas(Santa Claus) must be busy shopping for presents. The Swedes, given to detail even where fables are concerned, have made an amusing calculation about Santa's journey of gift-giving!Ho!Ho!Ho!Interesting!



    Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Santa Claus's route around the planet includes stops at 2.5 billion homes, assuming that children of all religions receive a present from the jolly man in the red suit, Anders Larsson of the engineering consultancy Sweco told Agence France-Presse.

    "He has 34 microseconds at each stop" to slide down the chimney, drop off the presents, nibble on his cookies and milk and hop back on his sleigh, Larsson said.

    Santa's reindeer must travel at a speed of 5800 kilometres per second to make the trip on time.

    Another report suggested however that Santa's sleigh, weighed down with presents and travelling at supersonic speed, would encounter such massive air resistance that the entire contraption would burst into flames and be vaporised within 4,26 thousandths of a second.


    Wednesday, November 28, 2007

    Lack of freedom of expression and basic human rights

    Human Rights violations in Islamic countries is not a new thing. However, the United Arab Emirates(especially Dubai, one of the seven Emirates which make up the UAE) projects itself as a forward thinking country. Regardless, through my personal experiences of having lived in that place, I can safely say that all the gloss is commercial and farcical. One of the most common,taken-for-granted practices is the confiscation of one's passport by the 'sponsor'(your employer). Even people working in prestigious institutions in high posts are not spared this indignation. Equal opportunity (for the sexes) employers is a rarity, if ever there is. There are a myriad other ways in which foreigners are subject to subtle violations of their basic human rights.

    This article by Human Rights Information is very enlightening about some of the issues there but it is by no means exhaustive.

    The country would well do to remember that a place is not all about tall buildings,all year long indoor ski resorts,imported Louvre museum branches, underwater restaurants and other such exotic stuff. A disgruntled populace is not the foundation that it should be building its commercial hub on.

    Monday, November 26, 2007

    Payday Loans

    These days most people live paycheck to paycheck. But sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, we may need a short infusion of cash to tide over a certain adhoc requirement when our current paycheck gets exhausted and the fresh one is yet to roll in.

    A payday loan comes in handy during such emergencies and is a small, short term one that is intended to offset our temporary expenses. Loan amounts are in the range of $100 and $1500 for a period that can range from 4 to 30 days.

    Cash advance 1500 is one such service which provides us with payday loans. Its transactions are all online.

    Benefits of this service are plenty:

  • Easy to process unlike personal loans.

  • Time taken for approval is fast.

  • No credit checks are done. However certain minimum criteria like employment status, threshold monthly income and an active checking or savings account are looked into.

  • Loans are unsecured. So, there is no question of giving up of assets as collateral.

  • Completion of application in the privacy of your own home.

  • Avoid sticky situations like bouncing of checks due to low balance, borrowing from family and friends or selling hard funded equity.

  • Secure and anonymous.

  • Option of “rolling over” a loan,which means that the loan can be extended to the next payday.

  • Access to several other websites that cater to payday loans for specific groups and their needs.


  • The website also educates you on the steps to be taken in choosing an online payday lender.

    Saturday, November 24, 2007

    Dirty Hotel Secrets

    Hotels are not the best places to live in. But one generally is under the impression that the big star hotels might put in a lot of care into the cleanliness aspect of their rooms. So, its quite shocking to see this undercover video which shows the scant regard shown by hotel cleaners in the upkeep of hotel glasses. I am very sure that sheets and towels also go through the same pedestrian treatment.


    Wednesday, November 21, 2007

    Is India under threat from the Chinese?

    The Chinese are long since the aggressors where India is concerned. For some time now, China has been eyeing the North-East border state of Arunachal Pradesh and not even issuing visas to Indian tourists from that state of India to its country as it considers the residents of Arunachal Pradesh to be Chinese! India, it seems, is still to wake up from the all too real threat! Even after 146 incursions in 2006! Isnt that strange!

    Ugliest man!

    He doesnt look ugly to me. But the poor rich man has lost faith in his looks garnering a wife for him! And to date, he has had 5000 marriage proposals turned down! That must be a downer for him! But he hasnt given up hope yet!

    He seems to have gone grey and lost most of his hair in his quest.
    Maybe if he stopped trying so hard, he may find success!

    More


    Sunday, November 18, 2007

    Chinese recycling!

    Do we ever stop and wonder how China makes goods so cheaply? It cant be cheap labor alone.

    As per this report used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent.People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns.

    Leave it to the Chinese to recycle stuff!

    Friday, November 16, 2007

    Taser death

    Cops in the North American continent routinely taser people for subduing them momentarily. Though tasers, usually, are not lethal, they can cause derivative deaths due to certain frailities in the humans involved. After all, 50000 volts of electricity being zapped on one's person is not a small jolt.

    In the video shown below,Canadian mounties taser an agitated international passenger who arrived at Vancouver airport who died minutes after that.Hm,this is defenitely overkill.


    Monday, November 12, 2007

    'Islamic' Products

    The flavour of the month is to bring about products which are Islamic-friendly.While Sharia-compliant stocks and bonds are being touted by the Indian stock houses and the UK Treasury respectively, Malaysia's carmaker Proton has gone a step ahead and is teaming up with Iran and Turkey to jointly develop an 'Islamic car',with Moslem-only features like a compass to determine the direction of Mecca for prayers and a Koran and headscarf keeping compartment!

    Meanwhile, the disconnect in the Islamic world continues merrily with Saudi Prince Walid Bin Talal placing his order for a luxury Airbus 380 personalised to his requirements.

    Saturday, November 10, 2007

    iPhone makes its debut in the UK

    Apple has finally unveiled its wondrous iPhone in Britain where according to the Guardian, Apple 'worshippers' stood in line in the chilling cold for more than a day to get the gadget which comes with a price tag of £269, and a compulsory 18-month contract with the service provider!
    In September, Apple slashed its price here, from $599 to $399 for the uber-hyped 8-gigabyte iPhone prompting a woman in NY to sue Apple for $1m over issues of her profit!

    Friday, November 9, 2007

    How to handle loud cellphone talkers

    A number of times I have experienced this annoying habit in people not only making a racket and a nuisance of themselves talking on cellphones without and with bluetooth handsfree devices tucked away in their ears. I found this appropriate video for sharing my angst. Watch the fun unfold here.
    These day cellphone jammers are being used by private individuals (though it is illegal)who effectively jam out the signals of loud talkers around them. Cellphone etiquette has still not quite caught on if people are desparate enough to use private jammers!

    Tuesday, November 6, 2007

    Marine Dumping

    What does dumping several hundred tons of industrially-produced synthetic urea in the sea or ocean do? The as-yet untested geoengineering experiment is supposed to promote phytoplankton,which is CO2 absorbent,sequester carbon in the ocean depths. This is apparently,in a bid,to reduce global warming and consequent climatic changes. However, its effects on marine life and other plant life residing on the ocean bed has not been studied up until now. International scientific bodies, including the International Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)have warned that toxic tides and lifeless oceans might instead result from such activities.

    The government of Philippines has recently approved an Australian company's plan to absorb excess CO2 by dumping massive amounts of urea in the Sulu Sea which is situated to the south-west of the Philippines.The global south is slowly becoming a dumping ground for such risky technologies by the for-profit organisations. Such a trend disguised as a humanitarian one could do more damage than good and is turning the fight of global warming into a commerical enterprise.

    Fatwa creating chaos!

    LOL.The fatwa rulings seem to be creating one hell of a confusion for moslems. According to this article, Cairo's Al-Azhar university fatwa department issues about 1000 edicts a day! What with contradictory and infinitely confusing fatwas and a countless number of them,it would be impossible to compile them all and make a "Fatwas for Dummies" book! Heh!Heh!

    Sunday, November 4, 2007

    Online Casino Review Website

    When we gamble online, we need resources to help us select and review and sort out through the maze of online gambling sites that are there. We can be guided by intelligent feedbacks to make our decisions as to which sites are good to gamble in and which casinos have our desired games because it is our money that we are playing with and we need to play responsibly and securely.

    Pro360.com is an online casino review website that gives absolutely detailed reviews of the many casinos that are there in the cyberworld and has a rating system based on customer and editor feedbacks which are collected from actual players who have experienced the casino's experience. They have reviews on all aspects of casino gaming like trust score, game experience, bonuses offered and payout percentage offered by the listed casinos. Also given are reviews which are game-based on games like black jack, slots, video, poker, roulette, craps, bingo, backgammon and more.

    Pro360 immensely helps those - who like gambling online - in selecting the casino which offers them the best benefit and services. Pro360 also provides a quick list of the top 80 casinos everyday on their website which can be very useful in making the choice for the time-challenged ones.The site is also extremely simple to navigate and all we have to do is select the game you are interested in and a list of casinos/online game providers will be shown to you. For each entry you will find a detailed review, the casino certificate, the available bonus, the editor and player rating.

    Saturday, November 3, 2007

    Musharraf declares Martial Law

    So, it had to happen - it was just a matter of time before Pervez Mussharraf proved that he is desparate to cling on to every conceivable means to remain in power. The Supreme Court ruling on the constitutional validity of his last month's clearly contrived elections was due to come up and probably go against his favor.
    Benazir Bhutto too left the country in a hurry and has come back again after hearing the news of the clamping down of emergency!
    Musharraf defends his action of declaring emergency rule by saying that he could not allow the country to commit suicide with the spreading of lawlessness.Sure,Pakistan has been lawless from its inception 60 years back and more so in the recent past. No surprises there! The country and its various leaders have been duplicitous and Musharraf is cut from the same cloth. What a pitiable state of affairs!



    Friday, November 2, 2007

    Medical and Pharma facts

    Some facts to ponder over :

    Antidepressants boost diabetes risk by 200%-300%.

    Medical advertisers and doctors tell us that an aspirin a day will keep heart attack away. Science proves otherwise. Aspirin is only an anti-coagulant and keeps the blood from clotting. It does not prevent heart attacks.

    Calcium intake causes kidney stones:
    Kidney stones are caused by a mix of genetic and external factors like fluid intake, diet and so on. They are not caused by ingesting calcium.

    Drinking eight glasses of water keeps us from dehydrating:
    Its a misconception that the average person has to have 8 glasses of water to be not dehydrated. To remain healthy, we just need to replenish the amount of fluid we lose through perspiration, excretion and other bodily fluid losses.

    Drug Companies are charging exorbitant rates for our medicines as they have to spend this amount on their R&D:
    Drug companies offset the cost of their R&D by pricing their drugs exorbitantly and give us false figures of what they are spending on their research in actuality. The actual cash outlay for each new drug approximately just one-fifth of the figures touted by PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America). The Pharma lobby is one of the most powerful lobbies here in the US.

    Wednesday, October 31, 2007

    Aussie hunger!

    The blond guy eating his ear boogers is Kevin Rudd,leader of the opposition party and tipped to be the next Prime Minister of Australia!



    Tuesday, October 30, 2007

    Saintly Revelations

    Roman Catholic Papacy's fetish with bestowing sainthood and trying to prove unsupported miracles might just be coming unstuck with people growing more aware of the real doings of the so-called 'saints'. More muck is being raked out of Mother Theresa, aka Agnes Bojaxhiu's can of charity missions whose fast tracking to sainthood is encountering some hiccups.

    According to Michael Parenti

    What usually went unreported were the vast sums she received from wealthy contributors, including a million dollars from convicted savings & loan swindler Charles Keating, on whose behalf she sent a personal plea for clemency to the presiding judge. She was asked by the prosecutor in that case to return Keating’s gift because it was money he had stolen. She never did. She also accepted substantial sums given by the brutal Duvalier dictatorship that regularly stole from the Haitian public treasury.

    When tending to her own ailments, however, Teresa checked into some of the costliest hospitals and recovery care units in the world for state-of-the-art treatment.

    Teresa journeyed the globe to wage campaigns against divorce, abortion, and birth control. At her Nobel award ceremony, she announced that “the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.” And she once suggested that AIDS might be a just retribution for improper sexual conduct.

    Teresa emitted a continual flow of promotional misinformation about herself. She claimed that her mission in Calcutta fed over a thousand people daily. On other occasions she jumped the number to 4000, 7000, and 9000. Actually her soup kitchens fed not more than 150 people (six days a week), and this included her retinue of nuns, novices, and brothers. She claimed that her school in the Calcutta slum contained five thousand children when it actually enrolled less than one hundred.

    She herself lived lavishly well, enjoying luxurious accommodations in her travels abroad. It seems to have gone unnoticed that as a world celebrity she spent most of her time away from Calcutta, with protracted stays at opulent residences in Europe and the United States, jetting from Rome to London to New York in private planes.


    Related article:

    Doubting Theresa

    Saturday, October 27, 2007

    The benefits of a Vegetarian Diet

    Vegetarianism has long since promoted good health. One-third of all cancers is related to a diet of meat eating. The risk of having cardio-vascular diseases and/or stopping the progression of coronary artery diseases is greatly reduced with a lean vegetarian diet.
    Vegetarian food has more fiber in it and has very little animal fat. This helps in keeping a person's weight down. The average animal product can clog arteries with fat and make the person sluggish and slow down his immune system. Meat eaters also undergo accelerated cognitive and sexual dysfunction at a younger age and their life span is reduced remarkably.

    Recent reports have indicated that there is a large amount of mercury in sea produce.High levels of mercury can lead to a wide range of physical ills, including kidney and neurological damage, and can cause fatigue, vision problems and tremors. According to the National Wildlife Federation,nearly every aspect of our food web has been contaminated with mercury and its difficult to find an ecosystem that's not contaminated, whether it's ocean or forest or coastal waters or wetlands.The primary sources of mercury in the water system include coal-burning power plants, wastewater treatment plants and waste incinerators.

    The fiber in vegetarian meal cleanses the internal system and makes our digestive and excretary organs work more efficiently in disposing off the waste. People who eat lower on the food chain tend to have fewer instances of constipation and hemorrhoids.

    Billion of animals are slaughtered for human consumption each year.Animals are mostly factory farmed. This means cramming them into tightly spaced cages where they can barely move and fed with a diet tainted with pesticides and antibiotics to fatten them up and keep them off from infection.It is inhuman to help propagate the miseries of these animals which are forced to spend their entire lives in crates and stalls so small that they can't even turn around.Many animals get so fattened up due to the fatty diet that they are fed and the lack of exercise and free movement that their legs cannot support their weight due to their abnormally heavy bodies and are in constant pain and susceptible to infectious diseases and cancer till they are mercifully killed.

    Chicken in hatcheries suffer untold agonies and are made,artificially, to lay more eggs.Each chicken is given less than half a square foot of space. Shortly after hatching, chickens have the ends of their beaks cut off. These mutilations are performed without anesthesia, ostensibly to reduce injuries that result when stressed birds are driven to fighting.Today's "broiler"(meat)chickens have been genetically altered to grow twice as fast than before and being pushed beyond their biological limits, hundreds of millions of chickens die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks of age. Laying more than their share of eggs,the hens' bodies are severely taxed. They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" when their liver cells, which work overtime to produce the fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat. After one year in egg production, the birds are sent off to slaughter and end up usually in soups,or similar low-grade chicken meat products in which their bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises.In many cases, these 'spent hens' are ground up alive in huge grinders to be used as animal feed! Is there no end to human cruelty?

    Lastly,it takes a lot of grain to feed animals raised for slaughter. Also,chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for miles of polluted rivers and streams which greatly threaten water quality.It may seem puerile, but cows belch and burp and an incredible amount of methane is let out every day, and when added to the flatulent excesses of other farm animals, they represent the single largest source of methane in the atmosphere.Belching and farting adds up to a massive 26 per cent of all emissions.A UN report found that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. This is due to the manure the animals produce, and the synthetic fertilisers for farming and growing the animals for slaughter.

    With all these negatives, isnt it time we shifted to a vegetarian diet which is healthy for us and the environment? Check out the video(which is bit long)here to see the inhuman suffering of animals brought in for slaughter.

    Thursday, October 25, 2007

    Oink lighter!

    I had a good laugh seeing this cute piggy on Gizmodo. You push his hat and flames come out of his nostrils for lighting up your ciggy and when he is out of gas, stick the butane filler up his backside! He!He! Crazy gadgets which bring out the funnier side of life. Nevertheless, they wont find any takers from the one billion plus moslems of the world ;))


    Wednesday, October 24, 2007

    Kleptocrat Benazir

    Jemima Khan Goldsmith(ex-wife of Pakistan skipper,Imran Khan)has no love lost with Benazir Bhutto,ex-PM of Pakistan, who has, with a flourish now returned-after her self imposed exile- to take up cudgels from where she left off.
    Jemima has written a nice piece worth reading about Benazir knowing her probably better than others as her ex-husband's rival.


    She preferred instead to kowtow to the mullahs in order to cling to power, forming an expedient alliance with Pakistan's Religious Coalition Party and leaving Pakistan's women as powerless as she found them.

    Make no mistake, Benazir may look the part, but she's as ruthless and conniving as they come--a kleptocrat in a Hermes headscarf.



    Benazir is said to have stashed millions of her ill-gotten wealth in Swiss Banks and offshore accounts. Inquiries have so far found that Zardari, Benazir's equally corrupt husband,went on a shopping spree in the mid-1990s, purchasing among other things a $4 million, 355-acre estate south of London.Officials leading the inquiry in Pakistan say that the $100 million they have identified so far is only a small part of a much larger windfall from corrupt activities. They maintain that an inquiry begun in Islamabad immediately after Bhutto's dismissal in 1996 found evidence that her family and associates generated more than $1.5 billion in illicit profits through kickbacks in virtually every sphere of government activity -- from rice deals, to the sell-off of government land, even rake-offs from government welfare schemes.
    In the largest single payment investigators have discovered, a gold bullion dealer in the Middle East was shown to have deposited at least $10 million into one of Zardari's accounts after the Bhutto government gave him a monopoly on gold imports that sustained Pakistan's jewelry industry. The money was deposited into a Citibank account in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai.

    Among the string of big ticket real estate that she owns are Rockwood, a 355-acre estate south of London, and a $2.5 million country manor in Normandy.

    Benazir, in her third run in Pak politics will be a must-watch on power politics and with an enhanced chaotic alliance with Musharraf, a gloom and doom scenario is all set to unfold.

    Sunday, October 21, 2007

    Born again Jindal

    Indians back home are gloating over the election of (Piyush)Bobby Jindal as Governor of Louisiana. They would do well to note a few self-centred and power backed moves of the man who is only of Indian origin.
    To go up the political ladder, the man chose to convert himself to Roman Catholism from Hinduism which is an unwanted baggage in the ultra conservative Republican right wing party to which he belongs. Not to be outdone, he has also offered testimony before Baptist and Pentecostal congregations since the beginning of the 2007 campaign season. One never knows when one might need the help of people of all denominations!
    Jindal is totally against abortion with no exceptions.He supports an abortion ban without exceptions for the life of the woman, the health of the woman, rape, or incest.
    He is also an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Iraq.
    A true Republican and good to carry the baton that Bush wields!

    What's common between Cheney, Bush and Obama?

    So what have we here?! Dick Cheney's wife herself admits that her husband,Dick Cheney (vice Prez and co-perpetrator of the beleaguered Iraq debacle)and Barack Obama(Democratic candidate in running for the Presidential elections and part non practising moslem)are infact eighth cousins! Wait! There's even more. Obama and President George Bush are 11th cousins! No kidding!
    Check it for yourself at Guardian Unlimited

    Saturday, October 20, 2007

    Can David Copperfield make this disappear?

    I would hate this to turn out to be anything more than an illusory investigation. David Copperfield, the man who made the Statue of Liberty disappear is certainly in trouble with his ranch in Las Vegas raided by the FBI in an on-going case of sexual misconduct with a woman in the Bahamas.

    How news works

    A nice video presentation of how we view only the corporatised version of news.

    Thursday, October 18, 2007

    Israel - Big on Environmental Pollution

    Coastal waters of Israel is supposed to be one of the worst polluted water bodies of the world. Heavy metals and pesticides are discharged into the sea under government licenses and the company responsible for the sewage of the area is the biggest polluter in the eastern Mediterranean.

    Of the heavy metals and pesticides discharged into the sea under government licenses, are 130 tons of pesticides, 5 tons of arsenic, 1,300 tons of ammonia and a ton of cyanide.

    The most recent United Nations report on the Mediterranean ranked the greater Tel Aviv area as one of the 10 most polluting urban centers in the Mediterranean.

    Seems like the country is busy only with its security concerns.

    Monday, October 15, 2007

    Blog Action Day - Environment theme



    Today is Blog Action Day, organised by Blogactionday,a non-profit organisation. The theme of environment chosen for this year is one of the best memes I have come across as the deed is noble in thought and spirit.More than 16000 blogs are participating in this action day.This blog is also one in the lengthy list. My contributory post to this is about the harmful effects of coal burn and carbon sequestration as a viable option in mitigating the harmful effects of coal carbon emissions.

    Coal is a relatively cheap and abundant commodity and is an excellent source of energy. But it comes at a significant cost to the environment. Coal emissions lead to acid rain, smog and toxic mercury content in the atmosphere and groundwater,and global warming. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. More and more countries however are building coal fired power plants and using coal in a variety of other applications.

    The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States is striving to find a way to cut coal emissions. Its plan is to regulate the way carbon is stored in the ground. This is called carbon sequestration. Sequestering is the capture and burying of carbon from coal. It aims to strip carbon before coal is burned, capture it and bury it deep under the ground in geological formations that wont release it into the atmosphere.By storing carbon dioxide underground,atleast 90% of the carbon emissions from the coal fired plants can be contained from being let out into the atmosphere.
    Waste carbon dioxide can be pumped into oil fields to boost production.This clean energy technique will reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

    Clean coal technology, if successfully operated,would reaffirm coal as the king of the energy landscape in the US with the added benefit of the technology being environmentally sound.

    Sunday, October 14, 2007

    Gaza economy collapsing

    War and strife has brought no one anything other than misery. And Palestine history has been one long period of suffering for its citizenry. With Fatah and Hamas at each others' throat, the general populace of Gaza, whose problems are only escalating with Isreal pushing in their might, are a harried lot.

    Israel has completely closed commercial and travel crossings following the Hamas-dominated government's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.This closure of the Rafah crossing has all but stopped the trade supplies from entering Gaza strip.The economic siege has resulted in high prices and very low incomes. And rising unemployment is not helping the cause.With no natural resources and all industries paralyzed by Israel's closures,the population has become increasingly dependant on the UN and other foreign agencies' handouts.

    Friday, October 12, 2007

    The 'other' Iraq

    Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq which is independently administered, is apparently doing well for itself.

    According to their website,
    It's spectacular.
    It's peaceful.
    It's joyful.
    Fewer than two hundred US troops
    are stationed here.
    Arabs, Kurds and westerners all vacation together.

    Wednesday, October 10, 2007

    Tunnel connecting Europe and America?


    Russia has ambitious plans of building a tunnel under the Bering Strait connecting its far east landmass with Alaska. The 64 mile tunnel, not unlike the English Chunnel connecting England and France, could stimulate freight traffic and aid in supply of oil, gas and electricity from Siberia to the US and Canada. The mega project could cost a whopping $65 billion and could take a decade for completion.

    Sounds far-fetched with no news about this from the US side.

    Zimbabwe on its death throes

    Unnerves one to go through these horrendous facts on Zimbabwe. Not a single point in it is positive. Most galling to read is that bit on Mugabe's mansions!


    1. Located 16 km north of Harare, Mugabe’s 25 en suite bedroom mansion is the size of a medium-sized hotel.

    2. Building the mansion has cost in excess of US$ 26 million in a country where most people earn less than the equivalent of eleven dollars a month.

    3. More than 2 000 bags of cement meant for the victims of Operation Murambatsvina were diverted to ongoing building operations at the Mugabe mansion.

    4. This is the third luxury residence that Mugabe has built and the fifth he has owned since he came to power.

    5. In 2003, Mugabe and his wife Grace also took over the magnificent Iron Mask farm in the Mazowe area from elderly white commercial farmers. The owners were given 48 hours to leave the property after a visit by Grace Mugabe, accompanied by police, soldiers and youth militia.



    Monday, October 8, 2007

    Bill Gates and his Nigerian experience

    ROTFL!
    Nigeria(that scam ridden,corrupt country) refused a visa to Bill Gates claiming that he could be a drain on their resources by staying on there indefinetely! The world's second richest man-recently upstaged by Carlos Slim of Mexico-then had to prove his personal networth of billions!He!He!
    Source:Gizmodo

    Sunday, October 7, 2007

    Eccentric Kim Jong Il

    Kim Jong Il, the eccentric North Korean ruler is a closet film buff. He reportedly, kidnapped a film director and his actress wife to help him produce movies!

    Reportedly, it is a crime to import movies from democratic South Korea into communist North Korea. And a routine tactic used by the North Korean police to monitor the illegal viewership of such movies is to cut the electricity to apartment blocks before a raid and then go to each home to check what is on video tapes or DVDs that have become stuck inside players.This rule however, does not apply to Kim who is known to own around 15000 film dvds!

    North Korea is one of the most closed nations of the world and totalitarian in the extreme tightly controlling outside information and tolerating no dissent. Internet and cell phones are banned for use by the ordinary masses and radio and television is state controlled. The ruling elite however, have access to all these banned communication devices!

    Study of Sunsets to help in understanding global warming

    A novel method of studying the effects of global warming with the help of old paintings of celebrated artists is being worked on.


    The team, at the National Observatory of Athens, is using the works of old masters to work out the amount of natural pollution spewed into the skies by eruptions such as Mount Krakatoa in 1883. Reports from the time describe stunning sunsets for several years afterwards, as the retreating light was scattered by reflective particles thrown high into the atmosphere. By studying the colour of sunsets painted before and after such eruptions, the researchers say they can calculate the amount of material in the sky at the time.

    The team found 181 artists who had painted sunsets between 1500 and 1900. The 554 pictures included works by Rubens, Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Hogarth. They used a computer to work out the relative amounts of red and green in each picture, along the horizon. Sunlight scattered by airborne particles appears more red than green, so the reddest sunsets indicate the dirtiest skies. The researchers found most pictures with the highest red/green ratios were painted in the three years following a documented eruption. There were 54 of these "volcanic sunset" pictures.



    Amazing!

    Friday, October 5, 2007

    Blackwater,USA to be reined in

    Blackwater,USA seems to be constantly in the news these days. After landing in a soup with the random civilian shooting incident, their shady activities have been scrutinised with investigative thoroughness. The latest in this circus of events is the welcome bill passed by the House of Representatives to end the immunity of private security companies such as Blackwater in war zones. Having said that, it must be added that the bill has its own shortcomings, including imprecise descriptions about the locations where the law would apply and the impracticality of conducting costly overseas investigations. Nevertheless, its a step in the right direction.

    Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered new security procedures for American diplomatic convoys in Iraq and the proactive involvement of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security as a monitoring agency.



    Thursday, October 4, 2007

    Gullible Britons

    Britishers continue to be conned by the wily Nigerians.Fraudsters in Nigeria rake in £3.5 billion a year from the UK by email scams and letters and phonecalls.


    Nigeria has become synonymous with corruption, where it is a way of life.

    "Here you pay for everything but the view," a Nigerian told a visitor to Abuja, the country's new capital.

    Around the city and other urban centres, policemen run "mobile courts", running purges against offences that are unpredictable - one day "illegal" windscreen wipers, another "illegal" bumpers, the next "illegal" tyres. The only thing to do is to pay the required bribe and gain the greeting: "You are free to go. The court is over."



    With this much of easy money pouring in,those crooks will never stop,for sure.