How-to save on gas mileage

I have my doubts about Acetone being good in the long run.

Is Musharraf going to declare an Emergency in Pakistan?

Pakistan, in recent times, has been under the eye of a storm and President Musharraf is trying very hard to play his game of chinese checkers balancing the increasing militants in his home turf and appeasing the Bush Government on his government's anti-terrorism stand. He was to attend a 'peace jirga' with tribal and other leaders in Afganistan today but didnt. The possible reason could be an imminent declaration of emergency by him in Pakistan.
The Guardian says that the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is not ruling out imposing a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats" to Pakistan and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.
Very likely, I would say considering elections are slated to take place soon and there are rumors regarding the return of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif.

Hollywood comes knocking at Bollywood's doors

Hollywood is testing the waters of Indian Bollywood industry. Sony Pictures have now entered into the chaotic fray of Indian cinema to churn out made in India potboilers. To be a success, Indian films have to run the gamut of emotions. These will have to have the typical potpourri of song and dances, fight scenes, good vs bad guys,tear-jerker dramas, atleast one 'item' song and dance (where the heroine or some other female actor dances lewdly to the tune of raunchy music with guys salivating over her suggestive movements)and lastly a climactic scene where the good wins over the bad and the goons are all routed out or the cops come and arrest the criminals with a flourish. Ofcourse, the trend is a-changing these days with some slick crime thrillers or movies depicting the corrupt political establishment with some surprise endings. But a majority of bollywood movies are of the spicy mix genres with a little bit of everything thrown in to please the varied crowds.

According to IHT,Walt Disney also has partnered with an Indian studio, Yash Raj Films, to make animated movies for Indians.And Warner Brothers is developing two Bollywood projects, including one song-and-dance smorgasbord. The studio plans three to six movies a year in the coming years, all with Indian talent.

"We're not coming to change anything," Fox said.That is Hollywood's Indian mantra.

It remains to be seen how well the Indian audience will lap up movies made by Hollywood productions who have wisely decided to just join in and flow with the tide and not upset the bollywood applecart with their hollywood formulas.

Fake Steve Jobs cover blown!

The cat is out of the bag! Readers may want to read my previous article Fake Steve Jobs where I pointed out to a blog by an anonymous blogger calling himself the fake Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. Now, his cover has been blown-admittedly by his own admission-and he is identfied as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine!

Mr. Lyons said writing as Fake Steve became addictive. He developed a unique lexicon and catalog of insults for the characters. Bill Gates is Beastmaster, and Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, is Squirrel Boy.

The real Mr.Steve Jobs did not seem interested when told the identity of his online fake double.

Novel Publishing Strategy

Ah!The question that was haunting me has finally been solved. I have read quite a few books co-authored by Robert Ludlum-who has been gone for a long time now- and Ian Fleming (also dead since long) and some living authors like James Patterson. I have always been keen on knowing the pattern of the business model behind this kind of publishing where one author is almost a brand name but the other one is an obsure author. The fine print in the books always mention that the 'estate' of the author (in cases where the main writer is no more) handled the publishing with the living co-author.

According to the New York Times,it is the posthumous publishing franchise model.Kind of like an author-double. But if the books are good (from my readings they undoubtedly are)its a nice way of keeping the reader base happy with the author and the co-authors on an eternally profitable publishing mode.

Twelve Ludlum books have been released since his death, with a 13th due out in September. The business is deployed now as a kind of film studio, presenting books completed by others or new ones written using his name.

Latest Indian Land Scam

A fleet of 50 luxury cars with VIP number plates,10 fancy bikes-also with fancy number plates, seven Kilograms of gold, 5500 plots (yes, you read right- 5500 sites)illegally acquired and sold at exorbitant prices and 1.7 million in cash at his residence. Who is the lucky owner of this cache of wealth? Its one Ashok Malhotra, a non-entity as far as ordinary Indians are concerned and now absconding from the law after a probe has been made into a massive land scam. Astounding as it may sound,he was running only a small tea stall in the Delhi Assembly but with the help of the Delhi Development Authority corrupt officials managed to get all those sites, which were meant to be distributed among displaced slum dwellers,allotted to himself under fictitious names and sell it later at astronomical sums.Some guy,this!

He is rumored to have a lot of political connections (goes without saying that anyone in India having that much of ill-gotten wealth has to have immense political, administrative and judicial clout)including the Chief Minister of Delhi. No surprise here!

Do your math. If an ordinary man selling small eats and tea can have so many billions,then the riches of the Indian politicians-who are known for their corrupt practices- must be of stratospheric proportions.

Blog Policing

One of my readers commented yesterday that,soon,I might have a price put on my head. This was a comment on my post about the Origins of the New Testament. Many bloggers do tread on people's sentiments but cliched as it may sound,progress of thought can happen only if uncomfortable truths are dug out and society slowly adjusts itself to new ways of thinking.This cannot happen overnight given the policy of appeasement and politically correct statements that we are oblighed to make many a time. But the change will happen slowly and I am happy contributing to it in my own small way.

To a large extent, this is possible in countries where individual liberty is respected and not in totalitarian states or countries which repress individual freedom with an iron hand. Recently, Malaysia passed a law under which a blogger could end up being prosecuted as a terrorist if he or she posts articles insulting their Supreme Leader or Islam; with the suspect being detained indefinitely, without being charged or put on trial. Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, running one of Malaysia's most popular political websites, Malaysia Today, turned himself in to police last week, to answer allegations that he had mocked Islam and threatened racial harmony.

If they had such draconian laws in the U.S curbing the freedom of the written word,the cops would be never-endingly busy questioning every other blogger and would not have enough time on their hands to do their policing.Tsk!

Origins of the New Testament

The New Testament is supposedly not historical at all.
According to this very educative article,which debunks the entire theological theories which have been propounded for more than 14 centuries,the Emperor Constantine (Custennyn or Custennin)who lived in the fourth century A.D. authorised the compilation of the New Testament.

As per records, the first ecclesiastical gathering in history was summoned by Constantine and is today known as the Council of Nicaea.The intellectual climate prevailing at the time was woefully puerile.It was that infantile body of men who were responsible for the commencement of a new religion and the theological creation of Jesus Christ.It was at that assembly, and with so many cults represented, that a total of 318 "bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes and exorcists" gathered to debate and decide upon a unified belief system that encompassed only one god.

When the heated debates which went on for nearly one and a half years did not agree upon one god (among the 53 chosen), Constantine ultimately decided upon a new god for them. To involve British factions (since he was of British origin), he ruled that the name of the great Druid god, Hesus, be joined with the Eastern Saviour-god, Krishna (Krishna is Sanskrit for Christ), and thus Hesus Krishna would be the official name of the new Roman god.And because there was no letter "J" in alphabets until around the ninth century, the name subsequently evolved into "Jesus Christ".
Constantine then instructed his deputy to organise the compilation of a uniform collection of new writings developed from primary aspects of the religious texts submitted at the council which collectively came to be known as the Gospels.These compilations went on to become the New Testament.

Constantine died in 337 and his outgrowth of many now-called pagan beliefs into a new religious system brought many converts. Later Church writers made him "the great champion of Christianity" which he gave "legal status as the religion of the Roman Empire"

The Church itself admits that it does not know who wrote its Gospels and Epistles, confessing that all 27 New Testament writings began life anonymously.To sum it up,Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian Book of Revelation was originally called The Mysteries of Osiris and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.

Gorbachev journeys from Ex-President to Model

Mikhail Gorbachev,former Soviet leader, is the new spokesmodel,besides others like Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, for Louis Vuitton, the French luxury bag maker.He is featured in this shot in a car sitting next to a Vuitton bag passing by the Berlin Wall. Looks kind of stiff to me and doesnt seem to fit into the role. But high profile buyers may just love that snooty look and buy up... who knows!

Torturous Libyan ordeal

Held in incarceration for eight long years and having undergone untold suffering and torture,freed Palestinian doctor (who alongwith five Bulgarian nurses was on death row -on trumped-up charges that they infected hundreds of children with HIV- and finally released from prison after reported payments of huge sums of money as ransom which is rumoured to have come from a previously secret player in these negotiations, the government of Qatar)recounts his moving tale of horror spanning those horrific years.

Muammar Gaddafi(he of the different spellings!)President of Libya,did not expect a Presidential pardon would await the nurses and the doctor the instant they landed in Bulgaria. His government has asked Interpol to bring back the six to serve their sentences in Libya.Ha!
The doctor's agonising ordeal by Gaddafi's thugs is detailed in this article of German News magazine, Der Spiegel

Canada pooh-poohs Russian Arctic Claims

Okay! Now we are seeing some muscle flexing. Canadian Foreign Minister says "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'." Exactly! Please dont sit quiet letting the Kremlin do as they please.

Canada's Conservative government is vowing to assert sovereignty over its Arctic lands and waterways. Last month Ottawa said it would build up to eight patrol ships designed to operate in the frozen region, which is believed to hold huge untapped oil and gas reserves.

Zimbabwe hurtling down towards total economic collapse

Phew! Its a wonder that people are still living in Zimbabwe. Official inflation rate is 4500% and there is 80% unemployment. The stores are empty and people just cannot afford even the minimum healthcare.There is a tsunami of refugees entering South Africa from here. The latest news from the economically beleaguered country is the minting of the new 200,000 Zim dollar which can buy only one kilogram of sugar!
Meanwhile, President Mugabe is still sitting unperturbed with his highfalutin claims that other countries (who are only trying to help) are intefering in his country's affairs.

Global Warnings

The warming of the earth's crust and atmosphere is fast changing the climate,topography and the biota of the world. I have listed a few of the horror stories we may have to face in future.This list is by no means exhaustive.

Arctic ice is fast melting.Dwindling ice floes have also resulted in reducing the polar bear population.

The snow on Africa's highest peak,Mount Kilimanjaro,could entirely disappear by 2020.The same is the case with the Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana whose glaciers are fast disappearing.

The warming up of the earth's crust is speeding up the gigantic ocean waves which could wreak havoc by eroding shorelines.

As to what climate change can really mean,we need look no further than Australia which is fast running out of water. Southern and eastern Australia have lost about 20% of its rainfall and there is a great decline in the flow of the rivers there in the past couple of years.The coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef are also believed to be threatened.

Increasingly hot summers will proportionately increase the death rate toll.

We will be seeing more of hurricanes and floods.

Wildlife is fast disappearing. Many species will be extinct by the end of this century.

Rise in sea levels could spell disaster for some places. Maldives in the Indian Ocean will be uninhabitable in the next 100 years.

There is so much at stake and no escape from the consequences of the global warming.It is certainly too late to stop all climate changes. But certainly by reducing our carbon footprint, we may be able to reduce the impact of oncoming calamities.

Child Jockey suit dismissed

A Class action suit against Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum fails because of lack of jurisdiction.Hmm...why am I not surprised?

The lawsuit was filed by the parents of child jockeys alleging that Sheikh Mo, his brother Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid and other unnamed defendants kidnapped and enslaved children in the past three decades for use as camel jockeys, in some cases as young as two, to be used on the camel racing circuit.The Dubai ruler had earlier sought US President George W Bush’s help in having the complaint dismissed, arguing it could affect ties between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Child camel jockeys are often sexually and physically abused; most are physically and mentally stunted, as they are deliberately starved to prevent weight gain.Most of them are forced to wear metal helmets in the scorching heat of the desert so they bleed through their noses and lose weight that way.They are tied up on the neck of the camel and beaten and the high piched screams of the child in the camel’s ear makes it run faster. Barbaric.

Though Qatar and the UAE had agreed in early 2005 to abandon child jockeys,NGO's are still concerned that not all former child jockeys are accounted for, and that some are still being used in illicit night-time races.

Anti-slavery website has some interesting pictures of these child camel jockeys.

Russia to plant its flag in the North Pole Seabelt

This is an update to my previous article on how Russia is claiming a huge swathe of the polar region as part of its territorial extension as they are asserting that the underwater geological feature called the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Siberian continental shelf.Click on the image to see it in better resolution.

Their earlier claims in 2001 had been nixed by the UN before.However,a team of explorers plan to descend 4,300 metres down to the seabed in a miniature submarine to stake Russia’s claim to this Arctic belt-the combined size of Germany, France and Italy-and plant a one-metre Russian flag, made of titanium.
With four other countries(Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark)laying claim to the Arctic shelf, this deep seated drive towards imperialism may only lead to more conflict in a resource constrained world.With this move, Russia is sending a clear signal to world powers that it has shrugged off its post-cold war weakness.

[More here...]

Ouch! Sheikh booted out!

Arab Sheikhs being hubris- filled is nothing new. But I guess the Qatar(pronounced gutter- quite appropriately in this case)Sheikh in question here takes the cake.So,what does the guy do? When the ladies travelling with him are sitting next to unknown men in a British Airways flight, he takes objection and stalls the plane for a couple of hours! The pilot had to intervene but when the Sheikh does not see reason, his entourage is thrown out.
Thumbs up to the pilot who didnt balk at offloading these nutcases and to the other passengers who didnt give up their seats when requested to do so. Maybe the pilot should have taken off and then halfway in the skies,at 35000 ft, “disimbarked” the Sheik and his group.He!he!

Rajnikant,gravity defying Star!

Who is Rajnikanth? India's highest paid actor, that's who he is. His films, which are famous for their garish costumes, punch lines and his trademark utterly mind-boggling tricks are big money grossers. Infact, it is best to suspend your disbelief in the unnatural actions and tricks and simply give in to the entertainment of the scenes.
The hilarious email forward(of unknown author)making the rounds these days goes somewhat like this:

Isaac Newton comes to India on a trip and after seeing Rajnikant movies was convinced that all his logic & laws in physics were just a huge pile of junk...
Why? Because of the following scenes-
1)Brain Drain : Rajnikanth has a Brain Tumor which, according to the doctors can't be cured and his death is imminent. In one of the fights,he is shot in the head. To everybody's surprise, the bullet passes through his ears taking away the tumor along with it and he is cured!
2)Blade Splitter : A goon shoots a bullet at Rajni. What does he do? He simply takes out a blade from his pocket and throws it at the bullet while it is still in mid-air.The bullet splits into two and goes in different directions - avoiding our superhero and the two goons who are standing behind Rajni get killed by the split bullets!
3)Inspired Shooting : Rajnikant gets to know that the villain is on the other side of a very high wall. Unfortunately the wall is so high that our otherwise gravity-defying superhero cant jump over it. But the villain has to be killed because the film is nearing the end.So what does he do? He suddenly pulls two guns from his pocket, throws one gun in the air and when the gun has reached the height of the wall, he shoots the trigger of the first gun in air, with his second gun. The first gun ends up shooting the villian and he falls dead!
4) Bollywood Style : Rajnikanth plays a police officer and is sitting on his motorcycle under a coconut tree. Suddenly he sees a couple of villains escaping in a car.Not one to do things the ordinary way, Rajni holds the clutch, puts his bike in gear, takes his gun and fires upwards. A coconut falls on the starter, Rajni releases his clutch, and away he goes chasing the villains!
5)Magnetic Pull: Rajnikant is sitting in a college campus, waiting for some goons to harass the girls. When he sees them coming on their bicycles, he takes out two huge Iron Yoke magnets from his pocket, twists them wildly in the air which lifts the goons in the air with their cycles and they all twist in perfect harmony.He then puts the magnets back in his pockets,and the goons fall to the ground!
6)And lastly,Rajanikanth is chased by a gangster.Rajnikant has a revolver but no bullets in it. Guess what he does? You can never guess in your remotest imaginations.He waits for the gangster to shoot. As soon as the gangster shoots, Rajanikanth opens the bullet compartment of his revolver and catches the bullet. Then, he closes the bullet compartment and fires his gun.
This was too much for Newton to take and he faints!

Photo Courtesy:Jerry

Ashop Commerce

This article is focussed on my readers who are into ecommerce businesses which may,at some point of time,become ubiquitous as they are easy to maintain and cost effective and can reach a wider worldwide audience.

For those of you wanting to create or upgrade an online virtual store, a complete ecommerce software solution provider like Ashop Commerce with its hosted shopping cart software is a great opportunity to effectively market and sell your products and services on the internet.Ashop commerce is a leading provider of revolutionary online store building software and,at present, they are open to business owners in the US,UK and Australia.

Five great reasons to choose their service:

The service is very competitively priced,user-friendly and web-based.

Designs are customised as per your individual requirements.

Enables you to accept credit cards transactions in real time and has built-in SSL protection for checkout security.

Shopping Cart service is fully Search engine optimised.

Integrated with all major banks, gateways and third party processors including paypal.

You can test demo for free their full feature service for 10 days.

Bourne Sequel is back

The Bourne Ultimatum is scheduled for release on August 3rd here in the U.S and Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne,the amnesia-suffering assassin. Going by the teaser-trailer, it promises to be a good thriller.If I remember rightly, I thought he suffered from amnesia even in the last sequel! Right, I guess I am confused!

Drunk before space launch?

This is interesting. According to a panel studying Astronauts’ health,NASA had allowed drunk astronauts, atleast twice, to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that they were so drunk that they posed a safety risk. The report has still been unsubstantiated and NASA plans to hold a news conference on Friday to discuss the findings. Well,well,skeletons are tumbling out of NASA’s cupboards. First,it was Lisa Novak attacking her ’romantic’rival and now this

Finger Vein Scanning!

Fingerprint scanning may soon be a thing of the past if this new gadget which authenticates and scans finger veins catches on. Hitachi has announced their new biometric cardless credit payment system that reads the patterns of blood vessels in one's fingers which are unique to each individual.If this goes mainstream, we may, in future,shop in convenience and be free from carrying credit cards which are vulnerable to theft.

City Living Rooms

Are these living room couches? Nah! They are city street lounges!
St.Gallen, a town in Switzerland, has laid out these city lounges called "Stadtlounge" among the buildings in their financial district.

Check out more images at Gadling.

Why the Depreciating Dollar is good for the U.S Economy

The dollar is getting dumbed down every day.It is against its 26-year low against the British Pound and lower against other key basket of currencies. So, why is the US administration not doing its best to push up and support the dollar? Strange as it may sound,the government has been compliant in the depreciation of the dollar. This could be because the advantages of the depreciation outweigh the disadvantages,and so the government is unlikely to intervene.According to Bloomberg:

A weaker dollar is helping the economy and may bolster voters' confidence in the Republican party as the U.S. heads into a presidential election year. Rather than causing foreigners to flee U.S. securities, the depreciating currency is making American goods less expensive abroad and helping offset the worst housing recession in 16 years. Exports reached an all- time high of $132 billion in May, the government said this month.

Consider the following factoids:

Exports have gone up and trade imbalances have been reduced.

Operating sales income of most big Corporations have gone up.

Most important of all,the depreciating dollar has helped reduced U.S.trade deficit in the first quarter of this year from 7%to about 5.7% of the economy.

Lavish Hotel Suites

Hotels keep devising ever new ways of snagging a slice of the wealth of the richie richs.They have come up with even more ingenious ways of making their supersuites worthy of shelling out $40000 a night!

The Palms Casino Resort in Los Angeles has been featured as one of the most expensive hotel suites by the magazine,Elite Traveler.Palms offers four single-story Sky villas for $25000,a pair of two-story Sky Villas for $35000 and the playboy-themed Hugh Hefner Suite for $40000. They come featured with a private indoor lap pool,indoor waterfalls,private poker rooms,outdoor cantilevered jacuzzis,personal chef and use of a Maserati Quattroporte!

Online Patent Filing

The Indian Commerce Department, last Friday,launched E-filing of Patents and Trademark applications for ease and convenience of the applicants.
There are only a dozen or so countries which have e-filing facilities at present and India now gets into this elite group consisting of countries like USA, Japan, South Korea, China and the European Patent Office.