0.20 centibeats =~ 0.50 times the velocity of an unladen swallow =~0.20 centons =~2.00 shakes of a lamb's tail =~ 3.21 hertz =~0.14 microfortnights =~0.66 times the velocity of an unladen swallow =~1.21 gigawatts =~ 5.48 hertz =~2.00 shakes of a lamb's tail =~6.57 hertz =~0.11 microfortnights =~11.90 parsecs =~0.02 femtogalactic years =~44.04 jiffies =~0.05 nanocenturies =~1.50e-15 epochs =~0.06 nanocenturies =~1.21 gigawatts =~0.40e+43 Planck =~warp 9.22 =~0.36 microweeks = early morning exuberance!

I don't think it is any more necessary to have the name of the paper as "The Hindu"- it can be "The Chindu". Just read this piece of absolutely stunning opinion from N.Ram- the moral torch bearer of world 's proletariat's Indian wing.

He argues his case of economic development being a measure of human rights, in the land that increasingly uses the same logic for its continued human rights violations. I am given to understand from his logic that if there are enough bread and butter, then that in itself is a great human right bestowed upon the people of the land, which sadly would only apply to those lands ruled(!!) by communists.

People’s welfare and quality of life are indices to measure human rights too, he said in a lecture at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

Isn't the welfare and quality of life now being measured in terms of that "oh-so-evil" capitalist's indice of per capita income? From when did the unit of measurement of "welfare" changed to PCI? Why is the Socialist being impressed by the rich farmers there in China, while in India, the same rich farmer would have been thrashed as being feudalistic and blood sucking lot?

He observed that the railway line may have had some negative impact on the region’s environment and wildlife, but that some accounts on this aspect were exaggerated.

Isn't that amazing piece of batting that Ram is doing for his across the boundary mentors?- While the environmental impact is just a "may have had", some accounts "were" exaggerated. He seems to know that the accounts are exaggerated, even without being sure if there is any environmental impact- but his ability to even give some doubt on the environmental impact is a great show of strength to stand up to his masters- Kudos for that N.Ram- you do a yo-men service to the world's proletariat standing up to the wicked capitalist in the communist's Disney land.

I guess with the same measuring index, N Ram would also acknowledge that Gujarat would be India's model state for Human Rights Compliance and West Bengal and Kerala are worser abusers- Gujarat's PCI is Rs. 26979 whereas the bastion of Communist exemplary states of Kerala and West Bengal, it is Rs. 24053 and Rs. 20896 respectively[As per GOI Statistics]. Keralites and Bengalis live in a state of relative Human Rights denial as compared to Gujarat- Isn't it Ram?

Its high time you wrote about the Human Rights abuses to these two communist ruled states Ram!

Sure, I was expecting an editorial from The Hindu on the Taslima Nasreen episode for long- it had been brewing for sometime in the Commy State, that The Hindu chose to ignore, till it can find some illogical logic to justify or rather gloss over the state of affairs there- Here comes an editorial true to the colours of Hindu- The RED- written all over it.

Let us go through the points raised by Hindu.

For all but the most fanatical, Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen’s announcement that she would remove from her book Dwikhandita the portions critical of Islam that were regarded as objectionable should bring to a close the controversy that sparked violent protests in Kolkata and earlier in Hyderabad. [ The Hindu, Dt. 12/05/2007]

There is no word on how appeasing to a mob demanding extradition would be a "Pragmatic Concession" as it claims in the next sentence. I fail to see any point in removing those lines-In the first place, I hadn't read the book- so, I really can't say if there are any offending remarks about Islam in that or not. The Hindu goes out of the way to say, that removal was a concession for fundamentalists, who "seem" to be beyond reason- look at the choice of words- Hindu says, the fundamentalists "seem" to be beyond reason- it is not simply beyond reason- if you were suitably powered and inclined, it might be beyond reason- but Hindu doesn't know if it is beyond reason.

However, the same editorial has these words-

Similar protests followed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s disputing the existence of an ancient bridge between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk Straits as described in the Ramayana......

Note, here too the twisting of facts- the groups were not protesting doubts on the existence of the Bridge- they were protesting MK's venous doubts on the existence of Ram and his famous remarks about Rama being a "Drunkard". Such fun comes reading the editorials of The Hindu.

There is no word yet on Biman Bose's statement that Taslima should leave Bengal if her words would disturb peace or to the statements that there are many other books of Taslima that are offending[I am unable to get the link where I read this piece of news].

Such is the state of The Hindu!

But The Hindu does get one thing right-

The increasing use of Section 295A in the recent period has underlined the dangers of competitive intolerance curtailing the space available for freedom of expression. The section is clearly not in consonance with democratic and constitutional values and it is time it was removed from the statute book.

It might also help us ask how we ended up with this competitive intolerance- when we started appeasing one group over other- this is not restricted to religion alone- right from language, region, caste- the list goes on....

May be Democracy is all about factions and group interests!

How many ever times I remind myself not to get worked up with Journalistic standards, I somehow get to read stuff that simply blows me over with its, logic, reason, in-depth analysis and expert opinion.

Take for example, the recent news item from Associated Press, which announced that AT&T is scaling back St.Louis's Wi-Fi Plan. The story starts off with the news, then goes on to analyze the problem- the reasons why AT&T is unable to fully enable Wi-Fi in St.Louis.

The gem of the news item was when the article declared the reasons for the scaling down.

........initially planned to mount the transmitters on city streetlights, but some of those don't have power during the day. Utility poles didn't always provide the straight line of sight necessary to beam the Internet to a computer. Other unsuccessful options were mounting the transmitters on stoplights and buildings and even attaching a battery.

Mounting transmitters on streetlights seems to be a good idea, till you discover some of them don't have power in the day- thats understandable- afterall, who would leave the power on for street lights during the day- what intrigued me, is the word "Some"- let that aside- there are much greater things to note.

Read the next gem of a reason- Utility poles didn't always provide the straight line of sight necessary to beam the Internet to a computer- what?- You mean really- You need a straight line of sight to beam what? You mean Internet? The famous series of tubes thing?

I couldn't control the laughter when I read it. There are dumb people, dumber people, dumbest even. But this sort of reporting assumes, everyone is dumb. I wonder who would be sitting behind the desk and writing such stories. But sure, these sort of stories more than enlightening us on the news and happenings around us, does definitely crack us up for a while!!

It is now Ass-o-ciated press- it seems!

Been to Hampi- one of my "must go" destination for a long time. I didn't want to go there without my own camera- preferably a SLR. Now that I have that with me, planned for a quick trip- one of the must visit spot there was the "Stepped Well"- Well, will come to that later.

Started off from Mangalore on Friday- a KSRTC bus was all could get- When we enquired for direct buses to Hampi, I was surprised when people asked me "where is Hampi?"-While I didn't expect people to readily give me an answer if there are buses to Hampi, I atleast expected that, they would know the place. Sad that people in Karnataka themselves don't know much about Hampi.

All set for the trip, we reached the bus-stand and was really thrilled to find a decent bus. Our thrill didn't last long- the road is awesome. You virtually visit the heaven's every now and then, when the bus tries tackling the numerous speed breakers- there are a series of speed breakers, wherever a gully or a small road meets the Highway- the speed breakers are in the highway. Some speed breakers should be definitely called back breakers. I don't understand the logic of having speed breakers in the highway, when a smaller road meets it!- So much for Logic!

The trip was so much eventful, that when we reached Hubli at around 4:30 AM, we were simply amazed to find an entrepreneurial guy, trying to sell the Duck-like-sound making doll at such an hour- you would have seen those toys that make sound when hit or shaken. He was selling that in such a devilish hour- Couldn't understand the logic!

But, once we reached Hampi. all these pains were replaced by pure bliss! Let the pictures speak the rest of the story!

From Hampi Visit