Reminder: Blog has moved!

09Aug06

I still get a lot (for me) hits here, so a second note:

This Blog is now hosted at its own domain platosbeard.org. If you are using an RSS/Atom reader to view this blog, please update your feed URLs either by visiting the new site and subscribing from the links there, or by using these URLs:

As before, you can subscribe to subsections of the blog based on tags/categories.


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Blog Moved!

22Jun06

Hello all (anyone? ;-) ),

This Blog is now hosted at its own domain platosbeard.org. If you are using an RSS/Atom reader to view this blog, please update your feed URLs either by visiting the new site and subscribing from the links there, or by using these URLs:

As before, you can subscribe to subsections of the blog based on tags/categories.


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BJP fights kindergarten imperialism!

14Jun06

[via RawStory] 

Guardian | Indian state bans Baa Baa Black Sheep
Maseeh Rahman in Delhi
Wednesday June 14, 2006

Tens of thousands of children at Indian schools have been told they can no longer sing popular English nursery rhymes such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

In an attempt to rid schools of what is perceived as malign western influence, the school education minister in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Narottam Mishra, has commissioned a new set of rhymes written by Indians to "infuse a sense of patriotism" among five-year-olds.

[...]

This is not the first time that the Hindu nationalist BJP has stirred a controversy by tinkering with the school curriculum. In neighbouring Gujarat state, school textbooks were rewritten to categorise religious minorities including Muslims, Christians and Parsis as "foreigners" and to extol aspects of Nazism and fascism. A social studies textbook in Gujarat said: "Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time, establishing a strong administrative set-up."


Filed under: East vs West, Humour, India, News, Silliness   |  Leave a Comment

Why We Fight

14Jun06

[via J on LBO]

You can watch the trailer and movie bits from "Why We Fight" at the following links:


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Mallory inches closer to summit

14Jun06

Thorough sentimentalist that I am, I have always believed that Mallory (and Irvine) made it to the top before Tenzing Norgay and Hillary. Mallory's body was recently discovered a few hundred feet from the summit, reigniting the old debate. The news bit below is gratifying not only because it gives further credibility to the idea (of Mallory summitting) but also brings up an issue (read the entire article to see what I mean) that is a pet peeve of mine: that when we "solve" problems with modern technology, we almost always lose something ie., there is a very rosy-glow notion of technological progress that is at best naive. The connection: Graham Hoyland, who tried Mallory's "simpler" clothing on the Everest, found them in many ways preferable to the modern polythene stuff.  

BBC NEWS | Replica clothes pass Everest test
By Janine Ainley

The results of a unique experiment on Mount Everest confirm that the clothing of the 1924 climbers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine would not have prevented them from reaching the summit, as many had believed.

The findings are a step closer to proving the men could have reached the top, 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary.

[...]


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Rove escapes?

13Jun06

NPR : Rove Won't Be Charged in CIA Leak Case
by Linda Wertheimer and Don Gonyea

Morning Edition, June 13, 2006 · Prosecutors have apparently decided not to charge senior White House adviser Karl Rove with any crimes in the CIA leak investigation. Rove's lawyer says his client was advised of the decision Monday.


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Slate: Pulp Covers for Classics

12Jun06

[via BoingBoing]
Pulp Covers for Classic Books

Slate's take on the covers that never were, for the classics.


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No Apple for India

10Jun06

BW: India: Why Apple Walked Away
[...] Apple Computer Inc. has shelved plans to build a sprawling technical support center in Bangalore, even as IBM (IBM ) and other tech powers are ramping up. Just three months back, Apple appeared to be on the same trajectory, and there was talk of the company hiring 3,000 workers by 2007 to handle support for Macintosh computers and other Apple gear. Many in India even speculated that Jobs might travel there this year to publicize Apple's commitment to the country.

It wasn't meant to be. In late May, Apple dismissed most of the 30 new hires at its subsidiary in Bangalore. (A handful working in sales and marketing will stay on.) Spokesman Steve Dowling would say only that Apple had "reevaluated our plans" and decided to provide support from other countries. Another source familiar with the situation, though, says the decision was cost-driven. "India isn't as inexpensive as it used to be," the source says. "The turnover is high, and the competition for good people is strong." Apple feels it "can do [such work] more efficiently elsewhere."

The shutdown highlights concerns about the sustainability of India's fast-track economy. True, India grew 9.3% last quarter and is still home to the world's largest and fastest-growing offshore outsourcing sector, which last year generated some $17.3 billion in revenues and employed nearly 700,000 people, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Yet India's benchmark Sensitive index, or Sensex, has dropped by 20% in the past month as global investors have fled emerging-market stocks. And the outsourcing sector is now plagued by concerns about rising wages. Entry-level pay at tech and outsourcing companies climbed by as much as 13% annually from 2000 to 2004, while salaries for midlevel managers jumped 30% a year during the same period, to a median of $31,131, according to McKinsey and Nasscom, India's software industry association.

[...] 


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Polling Report: Evolution

09Jun06

So, here's what the public thinks about the origins of life and evolution:

Polling Report: Science and Nature

"Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings? Human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life and God guided this process. Human beings have evolved over millions of years from other forms of life, but God had no part in this process. OR, God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it." Options rotated
           

.
    Evolved,
God Guided		 Evolved,
God Had
No Part		 Exactly
As Bible
Describes		 Other (vol.) Unsure
    % % % % %
  9/8-11/05 31 12 53 1 3

The report lists multiple surveys with many versions of this and related question, and in almost all cases, the majority (or plurality) have the anti-evolutionary view of things. Perhaps I should not be surprised by that?


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Chris Floyd on Zarq’s timely demise

09Jun06

This is good stuff. Go read the whole thing! 

Chris Floyd – Hubub in Hibhib: The Timely Death of al-Zarqawi
[...]

Zarqawi, the notorious shape-shifter who, according to grainy video evidence, was able to regenerate lost limbs, speak in completely different accents, alter the contours of his bone structure and also suffered an unfortunate binge-and-purge weight problem which caused him to change sizes with almost every appearance, was head of an organization that quite fortuitously dubbed itself "Al Qaeda in Iraq" just around the time that the Bush Administration began changing its pretext for the conquest from "eliminating Iraq's [non-existent] weapons of mass destruction" to "fighting terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

The name change of the Zarqawi gang from its cumbersome original – "The Monotheism and Holy War Group" – to the more media-sexy "Qaeda" brand was thus a PR godsend for the Bush Administration, which was then able to associate the widespread native uprising against the Coalition occupation with the cave-dwelling dastards of the bin Laden organization. This proved an invaluable tool for the Pentagon's massive "psy-op" campaign against the American people, which was successful in sufficiently obscuring reality and defusing rising public concerns about what many experts have termed "the full-blown FUBAR" in Iraq until after the 2004 elections.

[...]


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