Mumbai Terror Attacks

My heart goes out to the victims and especially the injured in the Mumbai terror attacks. As I write this I am listening to breaking news stating that all hostages have been freed. However, more than 90-100 people have been killed by terrorists in this nightmare.

For more information on the happenings please visit these sites:

MUMBAI HELP

NDTV

NDTV Live Feed

TIMES OF INDIA

CNN-IBN LIVE

CNN International Video

Twitter Feeds

CNN Article

Indian Moon Craft Heats Up

The Indian space craft orbiting the moon (Chandrayaan I) heated up because of the moon and the sun lining up with the space craft.
For once I thought this was something which happened due to some malfunction, But it was just good old radiation heating. What a disappointing headline! It is not like it was a race car on a circuit that heated up due to excessive performance measures.

CNNreports: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/11/26/india.moon.probe/index.html

Presidential Inauguration Tickets and Gubmint

The government seems to be taking early action when it comes to the Presidential Inauguration Tickets craze going on out there.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, the senator overseeing Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony said Monday she's writing to Internet sites like eBay asking them not to sell scalped inauguration tickets. The senator also said she's crafting a bill that would make a federal crime of selling tickets to the historic event Jan. 20. Link to source

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY THE GOVT.
The public should also be aware that no website or other ticket outlet actually has inaugural swearing-in tickets to sell, regardless of what they may claim. Tickets will not be distributed to Congressional offices until the week before the inauguration and will require in-person pick-up.[Source]

Taxpayer dollars are used to run the Inauguration event, and consequently, any arguments bringing up "capitalism" just fall flat. Oh wait, did I hear whining about bailouts? Two wrongs don't make one right. Unscrupulous elements should just not be allowed to get in the way and speculate on items which people should be getting from their representatives in a straightforward manner. Of course, there might be (allegations of) favoritism coming into play, (e.g. people making donations to the party of the local rep might get better chances) but at least the chance to see this event will go to people who were more interested in this man's rise from the beginning.

The official press release http://inaugural.senate.gov/

CNN coverage on this issue.

Driving in India

Well not everybody drives like this, but this is one crazy sport!




Originally spotted on:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-strangest-sports

Removing annoying ads

This post has been written for as a response to a Chowhound reader's request.

"can you all please fix this? It blocks the entire right column"

Solution from the user end can be achieved in this manner:

1. Download & install Firefox 3.0 browser (easy steps given once you click the green download button):
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

2. Launch Firefox and install Adblock plus extension by going to Tools> Addons or by going to the link(s) below:

Original installation instructions and Adblock Plus download location:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Instructions with snapshots for Installing Adblock Plus:
http://blog.soliddocuments.com/2007/12/using-adblock-plus-in-firefox.html

3. Learn to configure Adblock plus to show ads on some pages and block it on others if you want to see google ads and other banner ads on some pages.



I just realized today (after so many years of my existence) that advertisements are by their very nature, tools to lower productivity. Think about it, if you are reading a magazine article, the ad page serves to distract you. A TV or radio commercial comes in the way of what you were watching or listening.

A 'contextual ad' from google or yahoo, serves to take your attention away from the web page (although on many occasions they also help you reach your goal, so that is a marked improvement). In this context sponsored links that show up when you search for something on google, are definitely a step ahead, because they are not distractors, but they are the end goals of the activity (i.e. search).

McCain Congratulates Obama While Saving $$$

I just watched Senator John McCain concede the Presidential election 2008 to Senator President-elect Barack Obama. It was a very classy speech and he was very gracious in concession. Insiders report that McCain had actually practised this speech several times in the past few months, leading to the flawless delivery.

Said McCain: I congratulate Senator President-elect Beerack (see video below), oops Barack Obama on winning the presidency of the USA.

Reliable sources confirmed that McCain knew the final projected outcome immediately after Pennsylvania and Ohio went Obama's way. However, we belive he waited till it was past 9pm in Arizona to call Obama to concede in order for his night time minutes to kick in. This is a clear indication of the strong conservative credentials of McCain and his party (and a smaller indication to the state of finances of the McCain campaign).

After finishing the call with McCain, Obama mentioned to this campaign advisors that he was going for a walk on Lake Michigan to collect this thoughts for the victory speech.

We also have breaking news that President (current) George Bush wants Barack Obama to visit him at the White House and celebrate the awesome win in true ivy league frat celebration style. He also wants Obama to take over immediately because the credit crisis is becoming too hard for him to handle, hehe.

We close with the news that people in Hawaii and Alaska are pretty pissed that their votes have been added to the 2012 polls because of the delay in transporting the ballots by boat to mainland USA. That's all for tonight folks,

(Disclaimer: The above is mostly satire, don't sue me, the credit crisis and market crash has bankrupted me. Also ,any of future earnings above $250,000 are going to be taxed heavily)