Fuel Price Hike: What is everyone thinking?

Communist Parties: Who cares if the oil companies are crying and the Government is subsidizing itself to death. Once again we won the war for the people by reducing the price hike from Rs.10 to Rs.5.

P.Chidambaram: I could have bridged the price gap by levying a new tax to the surcharge collected from fuel sales

Murali Deora: What do you think we are selling? Desalinated water?

Common Man: Once again they fueled speculations of increasing the price by 10 when they were actually going to increase only by 5 so that we will feel ‘less burdened’ at the end.

George Bush: It is not due to war. It is because of the increased spending capacity of the Indian middle class who are driving more for work and leisure.

Jayalalitha: It is because of the poor management under the DMK regime

Indian Media: We have on stage two of the most eminent scientists and economists to discuss what could be the reason for the increase in fuel prices and what this means to the Indian people, blah, blah, blah….

OPEC: (Laughing out too much to even think anything coherent)

Middle Class

What I find distressing of the Middle class I was a apart of three years ago is how much ever I changed the middle class did not change one Iota. They continue to squabble of petty things, mamiar says the same things to the maatu ponni after 20 years and the maatu ponnu gets angry the same way. The same fears of having a successful(= to money to spend) and married ( however bad the bride or groom to whom the son or daughter is being married to) and hence “happy” children drives them. And the need to put those fears constantly onto the children in the name of “I have seen much more of life than you and I am parent so I have right to say so” but in actuality to be at peace with one’s self. The suffocation this breeds is so much so that the urge to completely disappear breeds strong but then I am part and slave of the same system however angry depressed or sarcastic I might be.

Ancestors had leg-up to trees … I cant think of a funnier title either

I just found this insanely funny..:D

The ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys may have taken to the trees because of their small body size.

Scientists have long wondered why early primates inhabited forest canopies, given that climbing appears to consume more energy than walking.

US researchers studied primates climbing and walking on treadmills.

They say there was no difference in energy consumption for small primates, giving clues to how their ancestors entered the trees 65 million years ago.

Dr Jandy Hanna of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, said the data suggested that the earliest primates were able to exploit a new environment without added cost if they remained small.

War and Peace

I must say even though I am from the subcontinent– my political awareness is minimum and I have no idea what the situation is with the Burmese Junta. But even so is this ever a viable solution??–

So what other options exist? Retired General William Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations says the US should first pressure China to use its influence over the junta to get them to open up and then supply support to the Thai and Indonesian militaries to carry out relief missions. “We can pay for it — we can provide repair parts to the Indonesians so they can get their Air Force up. We can lend the them two C-130s and let them paint the Indonesian flag on them,” Nash says. “We have to get the stuff to people who can deliver it and who the Burmese government will accept, even if takes an extra day or two and even if it’s not as efficient as the good old US military.” Egeland advocates that the UN Security Council take punitive steps short of war, such as freezing the regime’s assets and issuing warrants for the arrest of individual junta members if they were to leave the country. Similar measures succeeded in getting the government of Ivory Coast to let in foreign relief teams in 2002, Egelend says.

And if that fails? “It’s important for the rulers to know the world has other options,” Egeland says. “If there were, say, the threat of a cholera epidemic that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives and the government was incapable of preventing it, then maybe yes — you would intervene unilaterally.” But by then, it could be too late. The cold truth is that states rarely undertake military action unless their national interests are at stake; and the world has yet to reach a consensus about when, and under what circumstances, coercive interventions in the name of averting humanitarian disasters are permissible. As the response to the 2004 tsunami proved, the world’s capacity for mercy is limitless. But we still haven’t figured out when to give war a chance.

What I fail to understand is what is “responsible journalism”? How can someone advocate war and threats and such arrogance rather than think of a viable solution? How can one invade a country with whose people you have no idea of — whose culture and way of life you do not protect– kill more innocent soldiers in the wake of a disaster that too– and think you are being humanitarian in saving the other half who are in more dire need of aid? On top of that you talk of utter rubbish in destabilizing the south asian region by supplying military assistance to certain nations thus raising the ire of the others while being pseudo intellectual in the other part of the world?? And on the tip you express an opinion about the good old US military that has a great track record on its own.

Addendum– and to think that this guy– has a sub continent type of name and is a “world” editor from time and a Stanford graduate of course adds even more , for the lack of a better word, ” credibility”…

‘Electing’ to stay fit

It is safe to assume that Sharad Pawar being the Chairman of BCCI and a MP at the same time will inaugurate the facility by being the first person to run on the treadmill. And of course, the obnoxiously omnipresent Shahrukh Khan might even host an inaugural show where he will perform numbers from his films.

Middle class morality

About 50 years ago cultural/moral policeman in a culturally conservative country called USA curbed the comic book culture for its evil influence.

“Everybody read comic books. They were the most popular form of entertainment in America,” he said.

The fact that such entertainment was primarily aimed at children and teens raised the ire of authorities, including social scientists, newspaper columnists and political leaders. These works, they believed, were causing crime and degeneracy. They had to be stopped.

Towns hosted bonfires to rid themselves of comics; congressional hearings about the issue helped burnish the image of Tennessee’s Estes Kefauver, who had led hearings against organized crime”

50 years later I see a mob culture has developed in India that is no diffeferent in either its moral policing tactics ( read all the hallaboo about Jodha Akbar for example ) and is the same in countries like Iran or Afghanistan. What I fail to understand is how come idiots all over India still love to say — This is India not Amrika — We have culture and moral values — Insane losers

How filarial became assistant to Mambalam Mani (Gurkha by night)

I used to be scared shit of street dogs till about the second year of college- when one night at about 1 am I got so mad at the barking street dogs i just went out and chased the dogs down the street waving madly wearing a lunghi and banyan…. there was watch man who said- “Saar seriya erukengalaa.. saaar”…. anyway I found the dogs were now scareder of me.. easy enough

I think the strategy will work with these stupid communist politicians as well .. in fact what the heck all politicians

Sighhh.. I miss Madras ..

Soli(ci)tude

The problem with going to a restaurant alone is not the long, queasy stares by hand-holding and whispering couples but with the waiter/hostess who seats you as you enter the restaurant and who, inspite of knowing very well that you always come alone, still asks, “Are you by yourself today, Sir?”

The power of Macro economics in a medial terrain

Now we know what is Americas new plan to dominate the world First Macdonald’s and Subway find their way into the indian food market and become “premium” food outlets to make the Indian middle class which is now 350 million ( revealed by great leader of America an astute politician and well renowned economist – George W bush) fatter,lazier and dependent on crappy American food. Then both Condi and Bush go on record saying :

“There are 350-million middle class people in India. They are more than the population of America. When you get wealth, you start demanding better nutrition, more food. They want to eat well so our food prices are rising,” George Bush said

Theirs is a very tactical ploy to make the Indian middle class to start spending 40 rupees on a 1 dollar burger when an idli costs only rs.4 (though in America it costs 2 dollars). But they did not consider in their great tactical plan that we have protectors of our own– the leaders of macro economics– the great institution of communism within the boundaries of capitalism– the leftist parties who saw thru this evil plot and at once decided to make a public statement… a public statement that would make intelligent leaders of the west headed by George W Bush that they arent aware but in reality they have an astute plan of their own..

“We must certainly send out a message to the United States of America that we are going to look after the welfare of our own people,” says Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member Brinda Karat.

And the astute brain of Jairam Ramesh has figured out what half the redneck population of America has not in ten years to show the intelligence our great political leaders have aquired over the years

Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh and Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh says, “George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics. I think this just proves how comprehensively wrong he is.”

Yes siree he has it all figured out.

Meanwhile of course Saravana Bhavan owner has bowed to the magnificent nutritious diet that is Mcdonald’s. All I can say is ” I am loving it”

Sex lies and huh?

Very interesting behavorial patterns

Pinniped behaviour

The brazenness of the seal’s behaviour left those who saw it in no doubt as to what was happening.

De Bruyn and a colleague were on Trypot beach at Marion Island to study elephant seals when they noticed a young, adult male Antarctic fur seal, in good condition, attempting to copulate with an adult king penguin of unknown sex.

The 100kg seal first subdued the 15kg penguin by lying on it.

The penguin flapped its flippers and attempted to stand and escape – but to no avail.

The seal then alternated between resting on the penguin, and thrusting its pelvis, trying to insert itself, unsuccessfully.

After 45 minutes the seal gave up, swam into the water and then completely ignored the bird it had just assaulted, the scientists report.

Why a fur seal would indulge in such extreme sexual behaviour is unclear

read on to know about homosexual penguin behavior. And people always tell me that it is only humanity that is screwed up. But then again all that is presented is a human interpertation — its not like a penguin wrote this did it?