Sunday, May 17, 2009

Hope vs. ?

President Obama a very good commencement address at Notre Dame.


Competing mortarboards: One student with the "O" from the Obama presidential campaign, next to a fellow student displaying an anti-abortion symbol.

Photo: John Gress/Reuters

Sunday, May 10, 2009

I'm in

After refusing to join the tweet bandwagon for a while now, i'm finally in.

Let's see how it goes.

P.S.: I suck at keeping promises. Sorry!

Monday, March 02, 2009

Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel

This has to be some experience for these two rookies from India. Winning a game show and heading to MLB to train with the bucs would have been a wildest dream for them one year ago but it is reality now.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates, who have emphasized a need to find talent via every available outlet, have gone where no team has gone before.

On Monday, the Pirates signed two young Indian pitchers, 20-year-old right-hander Dinesh Patel and 19-year-old southpaw Rinku Singh, as non-drafted free agents. Both will participate in the team's Minor League Spring Training next year.
More

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Reality Suspended, Until It Prevailed.

Last night i was lazy browsing through some videos on youtube related to the 2008 U.S. general election. Going through videos of peoples reaction to the moment when Obama was announced the winner is a real nostalgic pleasure. I came across one video that really puts the perspective into how the other side functions. Why do i feek that all the republicans live in a domain that is very skewered and far from reality? This video just proves it or at least makes a strong case for it.

The video i'm talking about is Washington Post's Dana Milbank reporting on the mood in McCain headquarters on the night of Novemebr 4. Watch it yourself and let me know how you feel.



Source

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Clock is Ticking

I turned 26 this past Wednesday. I'm growing old too soon :(.

I used to love birthdays during my school days, lots of candy to eat and a good dose of special dishes from mom. I miss those days. I miss being a school going kid (Who doesn't?).

Nowadays it comes down to just cutting a cake in the office. Well something is better than having nothing right! The perils of staying away from your loved ones. I should thank my colleagues though at the office for getting a very delicious cake this year too.

Four more years till the dreaded 30s!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Tech Savvy Administration

There is no doubt that the Obama campaign is going to be known for years to come as the campaign that used the internet to its maximum and really revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are run. Even the transition had a great new age media feel to it with an extended online presence in every imaginable way possible.

Now it looks like they are taking this to an entire new level with the way the White House functions in this new media age. From the second Obama was sworn in, the new administration's team took over the Whitehouse.org and completely changed it from its previous incarnation. Change came to Whitehouse.org. For the first time an administration has a blog on its website. Obama also became the first President to start delivering his weekly address as an You Tube video.

Over the recent few weeks with the passage of the economic stimulus become a hotly debated issue across the country with so much money riding on it, the new administration came under a bit of fire with the way they overreached across the aisle for bipartisanship in the Senate and the Congress. And with majority of the GOP members in both houses voting against the bill, the criticism has turned into a bit of skepticism about the ability of the Obama team to handle Washington politics.

Finally it looks like they have decided to take back the initiative on this issue. The White Hosue has released a fascinating sideshow today that projects the efforts put in by the President and his team in extending an open invitation for the GOP to come aboard the ship on the stimulus bill. Brilliant stagecraft on the part of the administration. Fascinating pictures.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Importance of Charles Darwin

Last week (February 12, 2008) was the bi-centenary of Charles Darwin's birth. This month is also the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species. Yet even after these many years there are still people who refuse to leave their blind faith aside and accept the beauty of the theory of evolution.

Why? Well attribute it to the standards of education specifically science education in many countries at school level. If schools continue to let their curriculum hijacked by religious fundamentalists and psuedo-scientists, education standards are going to suffer. Well, I'll leave this for another day.

Today is the day to celebrate the genius of Darwin. Who best to throw some light on the importance of Darwin? Prof. Richard Dawkins, one of the leading intellectuals in the world in the field of Evolutionary Biology. I'm cross posting some links, National Geographic's (UK) videos on this topic, i came across at Richarddawkins.net. So head over to Nat Geo and get yourself some gyan (knowledge).


Thank goodness for Darwin!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Saturday Read

I was browsing cricinfo this afternoon and came across this post on their Tour Diaries blog by Sriram Veera.
On December 12, 1992, a 35-year old Ajith Perera got the letter he had spent years waiting for. The man who became the first Sri Lankan to qualify as the professional umpire after a final exam at Lord's in 1985 was about to stand in his first Test, between Sri Lanka v New Zealand, when it happened. He read the appointment letter a few times and left the board office to get back home to share the proud moment with his parents.

He didn’t get home for the next two years. It was a stormy day and Perera was sitting in his car with the letter when nature intervened. A big wayside tree crashed against the car, killing the driver and instantly rendering Perera a paraplegic for life.
More over here.

It is a well known but sadly often ignored fact that developing countries like India, Sri Lanka etc. have little amenities for the physically disabled at majority of public, private and government places. It is only now that some of the private properties have been incorporating easy access options for the disabled on their properties. I believe their should be an initiative from the central and state governments to make it mandatory for properties to provide easy access and other options that would make it easier for the physically disabled to go about their lives as rest of us.