Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has issued a fresh ultimatum on Singur.

Monday, January 29, 2007 (Singur): It was her first public appearance since she was released from hospital after her 25-day hunger strike last month.

The Trinamool leader warned that if the Tatas and the West Bengal government did not do a rethink on the Tata Motors factory at Singur within the next 10 days, she would not be responsible for the trouble that was inevitable.

IMO: Poor people should not have their land stolen from them. Soon the country may become as corrupt as the UK at this rate, and even in a relatively wealthy country like the UK, corruption still leads to needless unemployment and other injustice.

Tata wins Corus with £6.7bn bid

“Its an amazing result . . . I don’t know how they can justify paying that price,” said one banker who was at the auction.

A source close to Tata said: “Tata was able to pay such a high price given Tata Steel’s recent bumper results, reported on Tuesday, which showed a 28 per cent rise in net profit on the previous year. So that put a spring in their step and the outlook for steel is for another bumper year, which will drive up the valuation multiples..”

Some would say that the high bid may mean early redundancies in Wales, but basically by the standards of international steel firms, Tata has a fairly good reputation still, even after Singur which was simply one incident out of many and even there you could say they were trying to help. Certainly I have mainly known of good at Pimpri/Cinchwad, as far as the workers are concerned but there are many new issues in the modern world, such as greenhouse gases.

IMO: I am almost inclined to blame the greed of the city of London if there have to be early redundancies at Corus.

Raj Thackeray seeks a chance on Feb 2 ‘with clean slate’

Large crowds with “new voters”, women in more numbers than he’s ever seen at political rallies and the mood for change.

From crumbling healthcare facilities to Mumbai’s only zoo, he came down strongly on the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine for having denied the common Mumbaiite access to world-class facilities, despite 10 years in power. “Mumbai has an identity and tradition of its own, and that needs to be rejuvenated."

Seeking scientific town planning, he said the worst pockets in terms of civic neglect could be turned around “in six months”, pointing to the experience of Nashik — he was involved with the Shiv Sena’s efforts to redevelop the area around the Godavari— and the fact that there’s no planning committee for a city with global aspirations.

According the poll in the 227 seat BMC, the Shiv Sena-BJP could get 95-120 seats, down from nearly 140 they won last time. The Congress could get 65-85 seats, while, the NCP is projected to get 15-25 seats. The gainer is Raj Thackeray's new party, the MNS, which could get 10-20 seats and other parties will get the remaining seats.

Almost 70 per cent of those polled say Bal Thackeray is still a force to reckon with in Mumbai. Thackeray said “Now the President [Kalam] cannot see what is happening. His long hair has come before his eyes. He cannot see what is happening before him." This is the first time in the history of the country that such harsh and humiliating words have been used for a President, and that too in public domain, but Thackeray did not stop at that. Though, he has never been subtle about his dislike for UPA chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on previous occasions the language was always constrained. However, this time it was a no-holds-barred salvo on Sonia. “This country is being ruled by foreigners. The Congress leaders and workers are all impotent,” Thackeray said.

"The city will burn if it is taken away from Maharashtra," Thackeray said. "Let them even try to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and we will give them a fitting reply. One hundred and five martyrs, mostly mill workers, had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Maharashtra with Mumbai and we will not let it go to waste."

IMO: They are doing politics in a big way in Mumbai at the moment. Even TV political ads are very dear at local cost levels. I can only hope things will improve.

UK Government tries to destroy Justice and Morality yet again ?

The Telegraph, now I understand owned, by the (Roman Catholic) Barclay twins says: "Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said the legislation, which outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, had created a "new kind of morality" and represented a "lack of freedom for religious conviction". ... the Government are saying 'no, we won't allow you to - you have no space, you [the Catholic Church, and presumably Islam and part of the Anglican church as well] have no place in the public life of this country. ..That seems to me to be just one step and there would be further ones."

Hmm, well as a child in Australia I was not allowed to listen (by a broad minded Australian family) to "ignorant British filth" like "Round the Horne". As one does, I heard it anyway, understood it, and thought it was total crap. I was always over-awed by the sort of rubbish UK radio listeners had to tolerate, and that was even before they were allowed, after a battle, commercial radio. I think at the time we had about 1500 commercial stations nationwide, all of which I listened to with permission. In the UK so much of the TV and radio is fascist rascist filth, such as the Shetty stuff on Big Brother. A shame for a station like Ch 4 supposedly intended to increase racial tolerance to broadcast such muck, obviously for ratings. Reverse psychology ? Like having members of the Royal Family wear Nazi arm bands ? What a vile country the UK is ! But the media over here has always been full of homos.

Specifically on the Catholics, I guess their Popes have usually had their gugusses etc and the whole religion is pretty cash-oriented, but often enough their heart is in the right place as in the present case. Before this silly Act I did not even know a single pair of male homos (out of thousands) who actually wanted 'gay marriage', and yes, I did ask. For women it is seriously different but marriage is another matter; plenty of women bring up children together without being or wanting to be gay. But in fact for men the whole idea is more like a cheap laugh and it sounds more like a license for pedophilia rather than anything else.

IMO: Congratulations (for once) to Tony B. Liar and to Ruth Kelly for being against this madcap idea. And the implications for further restrictions on personal liberty are a real worry.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Iran's current nuclear fiasco

Iran's efforts to produce highly enriched uranium, the material used to make nuclear bombs, are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology.

The London "Observer" says in some detail that Iran's nuclear program is so far an extremely expensive failure. supposedly, Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved.

Knowlegeable sources say: 'Iran has put all this money into this huge hole in the ground at Natanz; it has put a huge amount of money in these P-1 centrifuges, the model rejected by Urenco. It is like the Model T Ford compared to a Prius. That is not to say they will not master the technology eventually, but they are trying to master very challenging technology without access to everything that they require.' Of course I do not know all this as fact, but the "Observer" claims it.

An Iranian nuclear agency official has denied claims made by a top lawmaker that the Islamic Republic had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges at an uranium enrichment plant, Iran's state-run news agency reported late Saturday.

The Islamic Republic said on Tuesday it was barring entry to 38 IAEA inspectors, who were nationals of Western countries which sponsored the UN sanctions or backed them. The IAEA has urged Iran to review that step.

IMO: Iran should not try to build nuclear bombs. Australia was genuinely threatened by the usual nut cases around 1948 and could have built a state of the art bomb then, in six months. A few years later I nearly took a job at the reactor so I know. But other measures were used and no bomb was ever required. I would agree that in stategic respects, Iran's situation is different but even if Iran wants more defense, there are better ways to spend the money. For that matter, any fool with money can build a so-called dirty bomb right now and clear many of the Jews from Israel but Iran is just talking bland political rhetoric. Plague threats are a lot cheaper anyway, for example. Soon the latter may even become selective in terms of nationality.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Bush's reading material

I noted in the "Deccan Herald" that on August 2005 it was said that President George Bush apparently read "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky during his five-week summer sojourn on his Texas ranch.

Kurlansky is best known as the author of "Nonviolence", an idea which he largely agrees with and claims that Governments have always used the excuse of nationhood for inflicting violence. He also traces religious history. Islam, for example, he states allegedly turned the notion of Jihad from a concept denoting personal struggle for self-betterment into one justifying violence.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Bush impeachment overdue ?

Poppy Bush is the name the President's family friends have allegedly called George W. Bush since his youth.

According to conspiracy theorist Wayne Madsen, The "ghosts of victims past" haunt Poppy Bush, Salvador Allende, Eduardo Frei Montalva, and Orlando Letelier. Dubya has succeeded in blocking access to documents that prove his father's culpability in murder.

Washington observers are still puzzled by George H. W. Bush's bizarre comments about the John F. Kennedy assassination and Warren Report during his eulogy of President Gerald Ford at the Washington National Cathedral. Bush, who has made it clear that he does not care for the information posted about him and his family on the Internet, has good reason to be worried about the availability of information on the web.

Poppy Bush has a fuzzy memory about where he was on Nov. 22, 1963 but his name, address, and phone number were found in the address book of Lee Harvey Oswald's close friend, photocopy here Friday, January 26, 2007

Madsen claims a memo, referred to on his site is actionable evidence against Cheney, Libby, Rice, and Hadley. Libby's defense team has already implicated Karl Rove. The written memos being produced by both sides in the Libby trial are the "Watergate tapes," the smoking guns to justify immediate articles of impeachment against Bush and Cheney.

IMO: Maybe they can really impeach Bush now, but if the matter is anything like the apparent way the seemingly dishonest behaviour of Tony B. Liar is being dealt with, any involvement which George Bush may have with crime syndicates will be covered up like John Major's misdeeds and Margaret Thatcher's misdeeds have been covered up.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Fraudster's front men are employed by commercial scientific publishers

According to "Nature", Eric Dezenhall has made a name for himself helping companies and celebrities protect their reputations, working for example with Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief now serving a 24-year jail term for fraud.

Some traditional journals, which depend on subscription charges, say that open-access journals and public databases of scientific papers such as the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) PubMed Central, threaten their livelihoods.

I have to agree and good riddance to such publishers.

There is a lot you can read from the Nature article, and even the conservative American Chemical Society says "When any government or funding agency houses and disseminates for public consumption only the work it itself funds, that constitutes a form of selection and self-promotion of that entity's interests."

Boing- boing say "The report has to be read to be believed" and give "a sample that gives a good picture of the type and degree of spin proposed"

IMO: Even major scientific commercial journals are tending nowadays often to get the disgarded leavings for the papers they publish. This is because many of the smaller journals run for profit are not widely enough circulated to give serious work the attention that it deserves, and they are also too expensive for smaller libraries and certainly impossible to even read by many unaffiliated private individuals.

This company has plans to convert old airplane fuselages into hanging monorails.

# The actual Tram car is constructed from de-commissioned Boeing 727's, 737's, and 757's that are stripped of their wings, engines, and tails.
# The fuselages become compartments equipped with solar cells and battery storage.
# These compartments are attached to a rail system by permanent magnet regenerative motorized wheels.
# Power is provided through solar electricity, wind power, regenerative breaking and fuel cells.
# The system of single rails is hung from suspension cables, made level with support cables.

IMO: I have no idea whether this will work but some such ideas may be useful to use old or un-ecological components constructively and ecologically. Often equivalent ideas can be important after local disputes or wars.I have seen old cultural centres, for example, never to be built or completed after a change in Government, for example in the Philipines - not that they would convert to a monorail of course, but the feeling is that waste of unwanted large items everywhere should cease.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Tony B. Liar also appears to have contravened EU law.

As well as the fact, that, as I pointed out in earlier blogs, Tony B. Liar seems to have broken the UK Prevention of Corruption laws and publically admitted it in the media though nobody bothers to notice it, it seems from a careful reading of Private Eye p31, issue 1176 that both he and Goldsmith have broken and are in public contempt of EU anticorruption laws. This view also seems as if it may be held by Serious Fraud Office Director Robert Wardle.

IMO: Private Eye have written a fine article. I have no argument with the view that Saudi Arabia has great problems of many kinds and am sorry about this. However compounding fraud in the UK by Blair and Goldsmith may not be - and probably is not - the best way to help either the UK or the Saudis.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Tony B. Liar to quit soon for lying - some hope

Tony B. Liar is likely to stand down early if charges are brought in the cash-for-honours affair against any of his key aides, including Ruth Turner, arrested on Friday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Ministers said they were certain Mr Blair would not seek to stay until his planned departure date of June or July if any of his immediate entourage were charged. One senior Labour minister allegedly said: "He knows he would need to do the right thing for the party."

Cancer scientists' gene research offers new treatment hope

22 January: Scientists are developing a new weapon in the war on cancer by targeting the human genes that allow tumours to grow unchecked in the body.

Two separate teams of researchers have found a way of switching off critical genes within a tumour cell that would otherwise stimulate the spread of the cancer. Although the research is still at an early stage, scientists are describing the approach as potentially one of the most important developments since the former US president Richard Nixon declared his "war in cancer" in 1971.

One team at the University of Oxford has shown in a laboratory study that it is possible to use large molecules of RNA to switch off a gene responsible for an enzyme called dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is essential for the rapid proliferation of tumour cells.

Another team, based in the German city of Tübingen has used smaller molecules of RNA in an animal study to switch off a separate gene known to be involved in the rapid growth of brain tumours.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Journalist killed by gunman in Istanbul

A prominent newspaper editor and leading figure in one of Turkey’s most painful historical debates - the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman empire - was shot dead on Friday.

Mr Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent and had played a leading role in breaking a taboo in Turkey where debate on the fate of the Armenians had for years been an untouchable subject. He was widely credited with trying to bring Turks and Armenians together but had been given a suspended prison sentence in 2005 for allegedly insulting the Turkish state.

Another person who supported Turkey's entry into the EU - something which now seems absurd in the near or medium term to most sensible observers - was Tony B. Liar whose motto as I remember it was "corrution, corruption and even more corruption". Tony B. Liar may have to sing small for awhile as corruption charges are still under consideration by the UK Police and his leading assistant Ruth Turner, Blair's director of government relations, was arrested the other day on suspicion of being involved in the sale of honours - illegal under British law - and perverting the course of justice.

IMO: Certainly the perversion of justice in the UK is very common and Private Eye is currently running a seres of articles on the Saudi Arabian contracts in that connexion.

Concern grows over China's satellite-killing missile test

Reuters Friday: Beijing insisted Friday it was opposed to an arms race in space after Japan and Britain joined a chorus of concern over a satellite-killing missile test by China -- the first known experiment of its type in more than 20 years.

The United States says China used a ground-based ballistic missile to shoot apart an aging weather satellite on January 11, scattering debris that could damage other satellites and raising risks of escalating military rivalry in outer space.

IMO: I have already expressed sorrow in this blog over the thousands of years of repression and mistreatment of the Chinese people, both by their own authorities and by other countries like the UK and Japan. This does not however excuse the current actions though one could discountenance them as being caused by naivety and innocence. This certainly does not seem to be a total excuse and the continuing oppression of minorities in China by the present right wing dictatorship is not good for China. China has many internal problems, the great and increasing shortage of cheap water in North China possibly being one of the worst which is widely known outside China and like it or not, even though the USA may be on the way down, massive retaliation to the current overall bad Chinese practices must be forthcoming, perhaps from the US or Japan, but inexorably in the long term by way of environmental effects..

New concept car should reduce global emissions

This one is almost be almost like a parasite that leeches on to mass-transit systems. A stackable, shareable, electric, two-passenger car. Imagine a shopping cart - a vehicle that can stack - you can take the first vehicle out of a stack and off you go These stacks would be placed throughout the city. A good place would be outside a subway station or a bus line or an airport, places where there's a convergence of transportation lines and people.

These are self-contained wheel units that have electric motors inside. The wheel can turn a full 360 degrees so you can have omni-directional wheel movements. You can rotate the car while you're moving, any direction can be front or back and you can do things like crabbing or translate sideways. The wheel robots, complete with their own suspension, remove the need for a drive shaft and even the engine block, freeing up designers to make new use of the space in the car.

From a heating and cooling point of view, you might want your car to be darker or lighter depending on weather. On the interior, you can customise your dashboard for each person. If I'm an elderly person, I probably want a very large speedometer so I can see it; if I'm a race-car driver, maybe all I want is a tachometer. Of course there are many safety features also.

IMO: There are now a lot of these concept electric cars. What is perhaps needed is one which keeps emissions low and sells well or is distributed free for use by ordinary people, by the Government. In the medium term this should save money nationally.

Intelligence on Dawood's foreign trail

Friday, January 19, 2007 Indian Intelligence officials said on Thursday that Dawood Ibrahim may have recently visited Red Sea triangle countries — Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Recent inputs also point to the fact that the “specially designated global terrorist” had also travelled to the UAE and other Gulf countries on a newly-acquired passport.

Dawood’s recent moves are a cause of worry for security officials who are trying to keep tabs on him, especially after “restrictions” imposed on him by Islamabad. Sources say the purpose of Dawood’s recent foreign trips was not known.

Information about Dawood has become “necessary” as his role in funding the 7/11 train blasts is being probed afresh. A top source said, “It is being specifically probed if Dawood had bankrolled the blasts.”

Around 2003, Dawood reportedly had provided funds to Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT), after entering into a financial agreement with Osama bin Laden.

The ATS and the IB have been trying to establish the “al-Qaeda imprint” on 7/11. Some of the absconding accused in the blasts case were believed to be in touch with senior al-Qaeda figures.

Present moves by Indian officials are also aimed at getting a clearer picture of Dawood’s business interests in relatively “insignificant” countries. Estimated at over $1 billion, Dawood’s business spans Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UK, France and Germany.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Shilpa Shetty racial row - interesting.

Some say an Indian film actress was racially abused on UK TV. Both Tony B. Liar and Gordon Brown claim UK people are not like that.

It appears that in order to publicise some cheap UK Television channel Shetty, 31, had been called a "dog" and other insulting names since the program started two weeks ago.

The matter appeared widely in the Australian Press. As someone born in Australia I can of course recall Sir Robert Armstrong's twisting of the truth with regard to Australian matters also, never mind India and its illustrious civilisation being marred by foreign occupiers like the British. Even now the term 'economical with the truth' applies widely to the uncultured Brits.

IMO: In the vernacular, one might well say the Brits are - metaphorically speaking - just ignorant "pikeys" who survive by living off the intellectual wealth, culture and underlying civilisation of great countries like India. But surely the whole matter is hardly more memorable than the recent Danish cartoon problems.

A second opinion suggests that Shetty, as an Indian, should have been prepared before coming about the very negative things about Britain, which has been a floating gin palace living off poor foreigners for centuries. As well as the cash she would get from the program and the ensuing publicity. The other women there just look like drunks and drug-addicts anyway. (IMO: Hardly fair perhaps, I would have just said 'cheap slags'.)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

At least 11 now dead in land protests in India's West Bengal

At least 11 now dead in land protests in India's West Bengal

Amnesty International is concerned at reports that state officials may be responsible for, or complicit in, human rights abuses including torture and the death or injury of protestors following the use of excessive and unnecessary force.

The proposed Tata car plant at Singur had triggered protests from various quarters, especially from Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.

Scholars and personalities like Sumit Sarkar, Arundhati Roy, Justice Rajinder Sacharm Praful Bidwai and Yogendra Yadav had last week issued a statement expressing concern over the violence and called for a halt in forcible acquisition of land in the state.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has sought to allay their fears by sending letters to them explaining his government's stand on industrialisation.

IMO: If industrialisation of that sort removes valuable useful agricultural land from proper use, and causes the land to be used instead for car manufacture to increase global warming,it is a world issue not just a local one as the world will suffer and it ill behooves the locals not to realise this and act accordingly. It is certainly true that both USA and UK have acted shortsightedly in the past over these matters, but by now they are trying to better themselves. India should be in the van of progress, and think realistically. China is now suffering from its overindustrialisation with enormous medical problems which will not compensate and it is - it is hoped - even beginning to realise this ! Put India first not last !

This is now an Amnesty International matter and the bad behaviour in West Bengal must be stopped before it is too late.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

'Violent Offender Orders'

These VOOs proposed in the UK sound a bit bizarre. The UK "Times" says they may be used against people who not have committed an offence.

Now a VOO order could ban potential trouble-makers from certain areas or mixing with certain people, alert police when they move house and possibly force them to live in a named hostel, give details of vehicles they own and impose a curfew on them. The orders will last for at least two years, with no upper limit. Any breach could lead to up to five years in jail. Ministers believe police will apply for 300 to 450 VOOs each year.

The idea of the VOO as proposed seems to me to be a serious, and I would say fascist, restriction of freedom and potentially of no value to anyone other than useless jobsworths living off the public purse.

Sure we have to do something about the worthless scum who try to ruin this country, but curtailment of freedom of speech is a way towards increasing this. Signs for application of a VOO may include “possession of paraphernalia related to violent offending (eg, balaclava, baseball bat), or extremist material !

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the civil rights campaign group, said: “Haven’t we seen enough already with Asbos and control orders? This sounds like another incredibly broad power, with more legislation — another quick fix undermining natural justice and not making us any safer.”

IMO: Something wrong with the Brits if they buy VOOs, at least in this form. Tony B. Liar also says Britain must keep its role as a war-fighting power. Certainly war would or could make money for the UK, but possibly at other people's expense and the sums would not appear favorable to the Treasury. But to me, the problem is the perception in the West (and I include Islam as Western) is that war is a good idea to solve issues. There is a dispute between India and Pakistan but they are fellow Indians, who do not want to fight each other in a war fostered by Westerners and their UK Islamist cronies, some of whom infiltrate back into Pakistan. Bush is probably right that bin Laden's supporters dwell in Pakistan, but this is due to Western and Islamist infiltration which should be cleaned out of Pakistan at any cost to the US and UK. Islamism is not an answer but syncretism is, and even many Pakistanis still want to return to decent human values, after decades of oppression.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. It seems that a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood.is supplied however.

IMO: I hardly like to comment in case I am attacked by an insane Christian. Seriously.

added 20 Jan: Hmm, that news report appears to contain elements of a canard perhaps by Democrats, see subsequent comments.

The Pirate Bay plans to buy Sealand

For £65 million. They also are looking at Ladonia, situated at the edge of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Last year the Pirate Bay was closed down after raids by the Swedish police, and although it returned to a new Swedish server after a short stay in the Netherlands, the Motion Picture Ass. of America, the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau and the US government have all lobbied for The Pirate Bay's closure.

'Unauthorised' copies of music and videos have been with us since the first reel to reel tape recorder and even wire recorders - that is for over 50 years. Doubtless next they will want to make us pay a licence fee to use our eyes to see, or threaten to blind us all. We did have a limited 'air privatisation' experiment in the UK during the Thatcher years, taxing anyone with breathing difficulties. This was mentioned in the popularLondon magaizne "Time Out", admittedly partly lightheartedly but with a genuine sense of grievance.

IMO: I wonder why all these people want Pirate Bay closed. Some would say they are trying to buy time to cover up their own mismanagement and fraud against artists.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Pledge to halve MRSA cases 'is not achievable'

The internal memo from the Department of Health, sent to ministers by Liz Woodeson, director of health protection, on 20 October 2006, said that the target to halve infections with MRSA by April next year is unlikely to be met, it said. Even if the deadline is extended it may never be reached and plans should be made now for dealing with the publicity fall-out, ministers were told.

IMO: The partial privatisation of the UK NHS through the back door, introduced by Tony B. Liar, may well be one of the causes. Filthy wards, nurse prostitution and all the rest of it seem like the death of the nation. When you complain they try to make your own life hard, not of course to rectify their own faults. Obviously there is still a lot of good in UK medical services, and it will be much much worse with the Tories if the Brits are fools enough to vote for them

Railways find a way to beat chain pullers atop trains

A usual occurrence on Virar-Churchgate fast locals during peak hours in the morning is that people sitting atop the train pull the metal strip to halt the train at their desired stops. Normally, fast trains don’t halt at certain stations. To avoid peak hour rush, many travellers resort to perching themselves atop trains. To get off at their desired location, they pull the chain thereby disrupting the train schedule.

The WR has designed an electronic gadget — Alarm Chain Pull system — to be placed atop every coach. With this gadget people sitting on top will not be able to pull the chain However, in case of an emergency passengers travelling inside the train can pull the chain.

IMO: A pity people have to travel on top, and now they are being treated as second class citizens too.

Singur protest: Chief minister 'like Hitler'

Kolkata, Jan 2 (ANI): The Trinamool Congress resumed its protest against the state government's move to give land to Tata Motors for a small car plant here on Tuesday.

Activists of Trinamool Congress also enacted the killing of a woman activist, which had added fuel to the protest. The woman Tapasi had died mysteriously and the issue had taken an ugly turn with large-scale violence in Singur, 40 kms north of capital Kolkata, forcing the state government to order a probe.

Trinamool's firebrand chief Mamata Banerjee had gone on an indefinite hunger strike to register her protest. The protestors accused the government of double-crossing their leader. 'The chief minister here behaves like Hitler while Mamata has always fought for the poor, the farmers. She is a messiah of the poor while the government here is joining hands with the capitalists to grab fertile multi-crop farmland."

I cannot tell Ratan Tata - 'Sorry I cannot give you land at Singur',' an impassioned Bhattacharya said.

IMO: Can't see why not. If these horrible little cars spread even more pollution and cause more global warming it will be even worse, very much worse. The entire world will want to see the permanent end of Tata motors, never mind just poor Indian workers. And Tata has done much good in the past, why can't it pull up its socks.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Current Indian rocketry

An Indian rocket successfully orbited a cache of four satellites Wednesday in the first space launch of the year. This was from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh The four-stage rocket and its payloads arrived in orbit about 16 minutes after launch, and deployment of the satellites was completed about four minutes later. Also released from the rocket's upper stage was the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, a 1,200-pound (544-kilogram) cone-like craft that is India's first recoverable satellite. Indian space officials hope a successful mission for the capsule will lead to the development of a recoverable platform for scientific experiments in microgravity.

The rocket also put the first Indonesian built satellite into space, Indonesian officials said. India also launched a remote sensing satellite of new and advanced specifications and an Argentinian satellite in the same launch. Later this year India will launch an Italian astrophyics laboratory.

IMO: If only India would build some quiet pollution free cars, presumably electric or multifuel, and I am sure it could, instead of just letting international capitalist criminals grab the land of hard working Indian peasants. India has always been a country for the rest of the world to look up to and respect and we want that respect to be on the increase.

Monday, January 08, 2007

New York probes 'gas-like odour'

Morning commuters in Manhattan reported a strong gas-like smell. New York residents contacted the BBC, describing the smell as a mix of natural gas and burnt rubber, or saying it was a strong methane odour.

The stability of the continental shelf along the Hudson Canyon, where methane hydrate deposits exist, is doubtful. Scientists have been concerned that a slumping of shelf along the Hudson Canyon, due to instability of the methane hydrate deposits there would send destructive tidal waves toward the US coastline. The Hudson Canyon also hosts the world's largest municipal sewage dumpsite along the continental rise off the coast of New Jersey that has been used for offshore dumping since the 1950s, Deep Water Dumpsite 106, named so because it lies about 106 miles off

IMO: A lot has been written now about the instability of the Hudson Canyon and the effect may be yet another result of global warming. There could be a substantial dumping of methane from beneath the continental shelf worldwide. There's also more venting around Santa Barbara, for example.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Report: Israel Plans Nuclear First Strike on Iran

BBS News says: It sounds like something right out of Pat Robertson's perilous predictions playbook, yet the Sunday Times in Britain is reporting that Israel is training for a nuclear bombing mission on Iran. One would not have to look far to find where Israel would be getting "bunker busting" bombing technology,

IMO:Hmm, a lot of alarmist reports around about the response to Iran. Some also say Negroponte preparing for war with Iran - supposedly first mentioned in an article in the Boston Globe Jan 2 but I can't find precisely such unsoothing words therein. But the idea of Israel taking this step sounds, from Israel's viewpoint, a logical step in the short term. Half the Gulf seems to want nukes now, at least in some quarters, and this might put them off - or perhaps the opposite.But why pull the beagle's ears just to make it squeal ? with global warming we'll soon all quite likely be dead anyway.

China: Ghost World

A new UK film which shows the ghosts of poverty, corruption and racism that haunt British migrant workers

The crepuscular underworld of false passports, unearthly working hours and cramped, slum housing in which they were forced to exist is suggested to most people in the UK. But the ghosts of Broomfield's film are not these lives. The ghosts - "gweilo" in the Fujian Chinese spoken by most of the workers - are the everyday demons that beset the cockle pickers when they were alive, and that continue to bedevil hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the UK. The workers shown are troubled not by nocturnal apparitions, but by the daylight world of employment agencies, of landlords and immigration inspectors. Ultimately, it is the spectres of corruption, racism and unchecked capitalism which haunt this deeply felt film.

Broomfield, the promotor of "Ghosts" has also been to China and his comments are published in the Independent this week If you want to know about China, they are worth reading. He says "I still thought of (China) as a socialist economy; in fact, it's more like a capitalist dictatorship". "the whole infrastructure, in terms of roads, airports, train stations, mobile-phone communication, is far better than we have here (in the UK)" "all the subsidies that enabled a peasant economy to exist - like free medicine, free schooling - have gone" So people move to mainly to countries like UK where they can hope to benefit off the welfare state and to take money back to China to build 5 story mansions.

Broomfield says "The government there (in China) is no longer interested in having a peasant economy, the life of scratching a living, having a few goats; those people will have to find a new way of supporting themselves." Or starve, presumably.

India at least has no starvation yet though health services to the poor are anything but good, with 1440 people per lavatory not uncommon and so forth.

IMO: I do hope things will improve but NOT at the expense of the environment, the poor, the sick, the old, and children which is what is actually happening. The environment MUST come first as without an environment, we are all dead, and more trouble must be taken.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Singur -Whose land is it anyway

The Tribune says: We must have at least a whistle-blower institution. It’s a difficult process, but the alternative would be to hand over an important issue of development to the politicians, who will only take it to the streets in order to entertain us all. And, of course, to further their own careers.

In the meantime, at Nandigram which has traditionally been a left bastion, voting time and again for successive Left Front governments in the state, they say "For 30 years, Left Front had taught us to fight capitalists. They took land from them and gave poor people small amounts of land. After 30 years, now they want to snatch our land and gift it to industrialists, why will poor people accept that."

Anger and violence is now giving way to the people's movement in Nandigram. The 15-member committee that has been formed to protect land from being acquired has made it amply clear that under no circumstance will the agitation be scaled down until the government agrees to relocate the proposed SEZs.

So now, of course, there is violence and death.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Jeff Bezos' cheap space flights

Jeff Bezos, who made his money from sponsoring Amazon, will sponsor cheap space flights. There are bouncy castles, a chuck wagon (with allegedly delicious food), fire biscuits, and more ! As for a successful space launch, perhaps that is still to come.

So Bezos has joined the ranks of many others like Burlak/Diana (Germany), Kistler K-1, Buran, VLS (Brazil) and Cosmos 1.

IMO: The bouncy castles and food may be OK but maybe India's space program shows more overall promise, as it already shows a big profit.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

How it is in Singur

According to "The Statesman" (India).

People are being dragged from their houses, beaten up, abused, and those who want to protect them are being persecuted. And somewhere, in the midst of all this chaos, a lone child wails at the top of its voice… Nobody spares a thought for the children of Singur in this political and ideological mess.

In course of acquiring of land forcefully the police arrested nearly more than 60 people comprising women and even children on 2.12.2006. Among them, Jhuma Patra, daughter of Ashok Patra of village Ghaser Veri, Singur, 12-years-old and a student of Class V in Naraharipara Primary School and Soma Dhara daughter of Sanyasi Dhara of same village, a minor were also arrested. The children arrested were kept in police lock-up with other inmates and were released on the next day on furnishing personal bonds under the total violation of the procedure of Juvenile Justice Act.

A district primary school board official said the students in the five affected villages were unable to concentrate on their studies. The situation in Singur has created the psychological pressure on students, harming their studies. It'll soon be just 'corruption, corruption and corruption' and big salaries for the useless jobsworths who can pull strings, like it is now in the UK, as in the Victoria Climbier case.

More than 2,000 students go to 17 primary schools in the villages. Sontu Kolay studies in Class III of Bajemelia Uttar Primary School. His mother, Ms Sabitri Kolay, an active member of the Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee (Agricultural Land Protection), believes her son fared badly in his examinations last month as there was no one to take care of his studies and they are too poor to afford private tutors. Another member, Ms Jharna Langal, of Bajemelia, said that despite being a meritorious student, her daughter, Hoimonti, failed in her half-yearly tests this year. Ms Protima Dey, of Bajemelia, cannot recall the last time her son, Subhadeep, went to school. The Integrated Children Development Scheme (ICDS) too has suffered. Only a few nursery students show up at the ICDS centres in the affected villages. Two girls, aged 11 and 13, have been put behind bars by local police authorities.

According to a Bengali human rights activist, every week there are reports of molestation, rape and murder from the local prison at Chandranagar.

IMO: These stinky small cars shouldn't be built anyway. More constructive and longterm profitable work can be done without brutality and hardship. But when USA and UK behave as badly, corruptly and shortsightedly as they do, who can be surprised that India is climbing onto the bandwagon to Hell on earth for us all? 'Collateral damage' (or overlooked state murders of the elderly as I see it) like the European human summer heat death tolls, are perhaps the worst so far, but we all will suffer.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Second British traveller discovered dead in India

Police in India have begun a murder inquiry after a British holidaymaker was found hanged in jungle close to Mumbai.He was discovered in the forest of Roha, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Mumbai.

The earlier victim, Michael Blakey, was found close to a church in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, which lies at the foot of the Himalayas and is the long-term home of the Dalai Lama.

The UK "Sun" has this take on it: "Stephen Bennett, 40, had knocked on a villager’s door to ask for directions after getting lost while out trekking. But the woman, in her 20s, panicked at the sight of a “strange white man” and ran shouting to neighbours fearing he was about to rape her. A mob of 15 men then attacked him with sticks and knives before stringing his body from a tree."

IMO: Anyone who has seen a lot of Indian films should be aware that there is real risk, particularly from tribals, in many areas. Often people are warned of this but certainly not always. Or it may have been a simple murder due to poverty etc. From the papers it does not sound as if he was a pedo or something. It is not suggested that he was a hot-gospellor either and those are also often disapproved of. I believe they strung up a Nigerian in Mira Road, said to be a spammer or something, somewhat near my own home. On the face of it the two UK cases don't seem related, and these things happen everywhere.

Well, you may say,"bad things happen in India". IMO "bad things happen in USA": here's one typical case: "Sidney Gottlieb dosed many other unsuspecting people with powerful hallucinogenic drugs during the 1950s.. Infiltrating San Francisco and New York, he poisoned prostitutes and their customers just to see what would happen. .. The authorities were aware of Gottlieb’s activities but did nothing to stop him. That may seem strange, until you learn that the man was an authority himself. For 22 years, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb ran the technical services division of the CIA". More here. Some would say "How typical of the USA". You take a real risk when you go to uncivilised backward countries like USA.

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