Terror Attack on SriLankan Cricket Team

Another horror story coming in from Pakistan. While some comments on telly were somber, at least 1 gentleman from establishment was blaming India stating something on the lines of "they are showing us what you can do in Mumbai we can do in here" (more here). I'd say an interesting though inadvertent admission they did something in Mumbai.
Even some comments from Pakistan on this attack from civil society blaming India. When will they get their head out of sand? If India were to attack, they'd have attacked the army or the government. What benefit will India get in harming Sri Lankan cricketers?
Its this state of denial that is Pakistan's biggest stumbling block in fighting terror. Until Pakistanis realize the enemy is within they wont be able to counter it. And they may realize it too late!
One of the telly channels had an interesting idea. They observed that were the Pakistani agencies complicit in the attack? Given that all assailants escaped and they showed visuals of Policemen handling weapons recovered from crime scene without gloves on. It was my own first thought on watching the news early in the day on CNN as it broke. Policeman picking up a pistol with naked hands and feeling it around. And my thought was now the only fingerprints would be of police investigators that they will get.
Its intriguing. What if the telly channel claim was true and the aim was to take the team hostage? i can imagine the grenade going under the bus, over it as 2 coincidences. The Pakistani team not traveling with them another co-incidence. Why so few policemen accompanying the team?
could it be that the aim was to kidnap the team and ask for Kasab's release in exchange? India would have been in a bind jeopardizing its relations with Sri Lanka if they refused and get a lot of bad publicity worldwide. If they acquiesced, a lot of case against Kasab and Pakistan would have been weakened. ISI should surely have loved that outcome!
While I confess its mostly conspiracy theory though not entirely straining credulity, its pretty much in a way what many in Pakistan seem to postulate what it comes to terror attacks in external countries blamed on Pakistani groups.What is really sad is that given the history of Pakistani establishment duplicity(especially the armed forces), this conspiracy theory might not be so far off the mark.

New Game In Town

fool: ameer hone ka brilliant idea aaya hai,
ultimate adventure trips agency
proprietor: UnFortune's fool
Totally risky tour to Pakistan
sympathetic ear: totally flop idea
who will come?
fool: well people hang upside down on free fall trains for kicks
sympathetic ear: yes but then they are responsible for their own deaths
fool: and that when they know that statically its safer than going to shop for dahi at nukkad shop on a scooter.
here there is real danger

sympathetic ear: yahan pe outside agencies se torture and death ke chances zyada hai, woh bhi disrespectfully
fool: haan to hum kaun unki salamati ki responsibility lenge
sympathetic ear: heh heh
fool: tabhi to ultimate adventure

sympathetic ear: what service will you provide"
fool: book tickets, make reservations (not responsible for hotel being closed/demolished in the interim- part of adventure
fool: and maybe even book a cab/truck to go to whereever

sympathetic ear: visa?
fool: File for visa, woh to apna headache thode hi hai, if pak wants tourists they give visa

sympathetic ear: extended tour to afghanistan too
sympathetic ear: if they pay a nominal amount

fool: I heard <> are crazy maybe send them
sympathetic ear: heh heh
fool: i am telling u its the genesis of a genuine new travel genre

So folks if you are looking for the ultimate adventure tour of your life, I have an offer you can't refuse.

It doent happen in Indyiah!

The mystery of Ireland's worst driver screams BBC. I wonder how many times this happen in India? Maybe not, since when have police simply noted a driver's address to send the parking fine? Here we usually pay it upfront, discount if you don't demand a receipt : )

The most unlikely movie

Its been a slow day as you can make out. So here I stumble onto this short brilliant piece. Have fun reading :)

The Virgin Taste

Something to cheer up a dreary day. The raw emotions of a flier on a Mumbai London Virgin flight when the man met the food. The sort of criticism that feels like being hit on the head with a slice of lemon wrapped in a gold brick. Apparently Sir Branson phoned up the guy and offered him to be the food taster/selector for Virgin for a month!
Hand it to these British for their sense of humour.

Those Magnificant Men in their magnificant Flying machines

Hudson Miracle is a happy ending to a trying situation. An ordinary flight 'might' be a piece of cake for a well trained pilot with computers doing a lot of work, its the out of ordinary that requires exceptional skills and training. I am reminded of earlier stories I read that illustrates how its also a matter of mind and skill.
One story I am reminded off was where one of the wheels on a plane got blown off (cant remember whether it was while take off or during the flight). Now a plane is a massive beast. So apparently landing with a wheel blown is somehow more dangerous than a wheel blown during a car ride. And the airport in question had a concrete wall some way off the runaway. Now with a wheel blown it would have been probably that the plane would skid and apparently there was significant danger of it skidding towards that wall.
And this is where the skill and prowess comes in. The solution itself was elegant - simple, but not easy. The pilot(s) came down at high speed purposely hitting the runway with the other wheel and whizzing off. 3 attempts and the wheel on the other side blew too lending that necessary symmetry to the plane essential to avoid the slammer of a wall. The plane then landed safely staying on the runway. Wouldnt have been easy on the passengers especially the dive and surge but hey then landed all right!
Another case I recollect was a case of a plane going down under overflying Asia. Somewhere near Indonesia or some place in Pacific a volcano coughed spewing ash all over. Now a lot of ash is carbon. So this plane going high up met the ash and ended up all sooty. So much ash that the engines got choked!
Attempts to revive the engines consternating the passengers. Unburnt carbon can burn and engines seemed on fire. No good. So what do the pilots do? Sit back and simply pray? No Sir we will think of something almost wickedly cool. So these bright folks actually came up with an idea.
The plane was taken to a much lower altitude. Now planes can glide a lot and I am not sure if the engines were totally knocked off or as the fire spewing remark indicate, they had some juice though not enough. So now at low altitude the air gets thicker, a lot thicker (which is why these jets fly so high, thick air means a lot of resistance). So this air now starts acting like a giant blower (the kind that sometimes comes with vacuum cleaners) and it cleaned off the ash that was filled in the engine and there you have the engines back online. Whew! But hey it ain't the end of story. After all an ash bath wont just dirty your engines, it'll mess up your windshields as well. So the wind screen is caked and so we have no visual. Almost no. Apparently a corner had some visibility. So the brave co-pilot stands on the seat and looks out relaying instructions while the captain lands the plane! Wheeewh!
Then there is this case of a jetliner pilot in Canada who was a hobby glider too and one fine day found this engines gone kaput while in the middle of a flight. The cool dude actually glides the plane for almost 250 kilometers to a nearby disused airfield. The locals enjoying their usual cycle races on the paved tarmac had the scare of their lives but the plane landed safely as a glider.
The best story - my recollections are sketchy but it was I think a FedEx plane flying transatlantic. This case apparently got the pilot a medal for bravery and none deserved it better. Now FedEx had a policy that any employee can travel in their planes - these were old days, and a bloke did travel. This bloke was depressed, suicidally depressed and harboring some notions of deep injury done by FedEx. So the plane is over Atlantic coming to US and in between the cockpit door opens (those were easy old days remember) and this traveling bloke comes in with an axe (those were easy old days remember) and hits the caption and the co-pilot. The captain takes a hit and gets paralyzed on side. The co-pilot is also severely injured. So imagine you are those pilots, critically injured, being stricken and are also flying. Not the easiest of time to be thinking one.
So the captain sees the attacker behind the co-pilot getting ready for a fresh heave. Thinking quickly he turns the plane nose up. The co-pilot falls behind and he along with the attacker slide to the rear of the plane. Amazingly maybe because of survival instinct or because he and captain were on same wavelength the co-pilot realizes this is lucky and holds on to the attacker (who maybe did get injured himself in this slide, i do not know) so that he is unable to strike further and both stay in rear grappled.
Meanwhile the caption radios US which arrange for immediate touchdown as soon as the plane arrive and the captain, semi paralyzed flies the plane alone and manages to reach US and land. Amazing story.

Happiness

The wasted lives

Is it just me or have you too noticed a sudden increase in the number of beggars? The cake was when I was eating in "BreadTalk" at Hiranandani Mumbai. Someone pokes me in the arm and there is a beggar! Bang in the middle of the resturant. The Iranian family next to me guiltily gave the juice that the little kid of 5 years had ordered to him. The restuarant waiters took almost 3-4 minutes to come in and remove him.
Its the same at work. Go out to the Chai Tapari behind to what is a private road and there are atleast 10 off kids begging. Then there are the hijras sometime in addition and then those folks dressed up as monkeys also touching you for money. Go out the other side for the lunch from a side entrance to this place 20 ft away and there are at least 5 more beggars.
Every traffic stop has at least 6-7 kids begging and my usual path is not really the heavily used city roads. I think for every hour spent on city roads there are at least 20 beggars who accost me. Which means that each foreigner will easily encounter at least 10 times as many. and those with families probably also 10 times as many. Its almost become like mosquito in a swamp. If I go from Aundh to MG road - a distance of around 9 kilometers I'll easily encounter close to 200 beggers! It is simply impossible to move around in city without having someone or the other grabbing a limb asking for money every few minute.
Now I keep hearing from these NGOs how kids are obtained on rent to beg. Many very young ones are also surgically operated and mutilated since it gets more money. The very young ones are heavily drugged so that they don't cry- ever notice how that infant tagged to the kids begging is nearly always sleeping? I suspect most of us know that beggers are also mafia controlled. Then why do we keep giving so much money to them in the process making it a lucrative trade and hence ensuring that kids stay out of school, drugged and/or mutilated?
I think its time that the local governments got serious to this menace. Haul up all these kids put them all in a shelter. Put their parents behind bars for renting them out and the mafias in jail under charge of human trafficking and child abuse.

Satyam Saga: Case of missing money

Something just doesn't square up in the Satyam saga. Raju's letter to SEBI mentioned figures to the rough tune of declared profits like 5400 crore and of this 5100cr is inflated. So that means actual profits are like 300 cr over a turnover of like 8000 cr. How is that possible and especially over a period of years?
My early days in IT while I was pretty much the end of food chain even then I had to explain a lot if my small team was below the margin threshold. and here is a firm that apparently has a 3% margin over all and its Project managers not realizing that their current project is like at 3% and their previous projects were at like 3% and their friend;s projects are like at 3% and yet they aren't being flogged by senior managers? And senior managers can't be flogging everybody?
And such state of affairs would have leaked out. So how can what is said by Raju be true that that's the extent of over reported earnings and only he and his brother knew. I would expect 2/3rd of the firm to know when there is orders of magnitude kind of differences. and if 2/3 of 50000+ know, all the world gets to know it very quickly. So things don't seem to tally up there.
Then there is the question of why did Raju confess it, why in such dire times? And why did PwC not uncover the fraud. How come only Raju knew? What about the financial analysts of the projects generating the invoices for clients? the finance guy collecting bills etc? Did PwC not check with banks? Was someone in banks giving Satyam false statements?
My initial thought was that maybe Satyam ran out of money for payroll so he confess to get a ligther sentence. But then there is the PwC angle. How come PwC didn't uncover anything? If a bank employee was giving false certificates what abt the other bank top brass who might be reading of a top client's disclosures and finding discrepancies?
Today's Business standard though gave another very plausible answer. Apparently after the Maytas fiasco Raju got Meryl Lynch to come and suggest some M&A activity. Meryl Lynch within 1 week of due diligence noticed huge issues with accounts and walked out. M L would have been obligated to report it to stock exchange so Raju came clean.
Which begs the question if PwC is not lying and they actually saw credible receipts than how did ML discover this? If that's not true then PwC is exposed? Maybe the truth is somewhere in between. The auditors where hand is glove with the embezzlers. But still that leaves the issue why did most of Satyam not realize the extent of fraud? Remember is not like 1 cr inflated to 3 cr, its more like 1 cr inflated to 30 cr which is very tough to carry out.
My hunch is that the real over reporting is not as bad as is made out in Raju's letter. They were earning more than 3%. But somewhere a lot of that money has been siphoned off. Apparently overstating profit while being a crime is a lot less serious crime than actual embezzlement of funds. And it might be done in connivance with auditors certainly in a group lot larger than 2.
Already there are reports in TV of how there are huge real estate investments done by promoters and some very credible people had already leveled charges of politicians awarding huge contracts and land allotments to the Rajus and these charges were levelled earlier.
It seems to be that some very serious crimes have been committed here and many shareholders and employees have been destroyed. This deserves serious examination

What letters reveal

Spent an interesting day reading some Pakistani newspapers. I usually find the Dawn pretty good and even at times pretty unbiased at least to the extent that they report what Indian media might be saying. However a quick perusal of the letters in the Statesman Pakistan was instructive. Except for one letter that probably came in during Mumbai attack that asked India not to finger point but work to find out culprits every other letter from private citizens apparently was to the effect that it is a RAW/CIA/Mossad/Indian Armed forces operation to foist a war on peace loving Pakistan. Some even said that Marriott blast in Pakistan was bigger and Pakistan didn't blame India for it then why is India blaming Pakistan for Mumbai!!
While it is possible that the newspaper selected only those letters that it found following its own world view a likely scenario is that the propaganda is so strong that majority of Pakistanis actually believe it so. Its surprising how many of the letter writers believed that 9/11 was enacted by US to start a war against Afghanistan and 26/11 was an in house job to inflame a war with Pakistan.
And that is the scary part. One person mentions how Kasab was apparently arrested in Nepal and framed for the Mumbai carnage? And this when TVs were showing footage of him strolling with an assault weapon in CST and people battling them. Really remarkable frame up where you 'arrest' someone (apparently against his will) and give him plenty of assault weapons and leave him loose? And people believe this story is what scares me and should scare all Pakistanis too.
The propaganda is so effective that most people are unable to accept the truth and deal with it. That is as much a problem because it makes even those in Pakistani establishment who might seriously want to confront the terror menace in Pakistan and actually work with India to really uncover the truth hesitate in the face of hostile public opinion since the public seems unable to see the truth. So someone comments that West is with India because of some conspiracy and China - Pakistan's old friend - is not supporting Pakistan enough because of commercial reasons? No one seems to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe all other countries are supporting India because it has a valid case atleast this time?
There is that old saying that - if every one is coming your way, You are in the wrong lane. Alas many of us forget that. So many letters blame US/Israel/India for the creation of Taleban, the troubles in FATA, the Marriott bombings etc. On one hand someone will comment India did Marriott and the same person will also mention how innocents Pakistanis are fighting Taleban which is a menace to Pakistan. Unfortunately they seem unable to connect Taleban to Marriott etc. Which might be a reason why so much of Pakistan is unstable. Years of brainwashing has ensured that an objective assessment of reality is no more possible.
Cleansing such a head in sand view I believe is the tougher task ahead of us.

Lets follow the due process of Law

I am saddened that in their zeal to show their patriotism, some parties and many people have forced lawyers not to take on the cases of Kasab. Infact many bar associations have been guilty of such misplaced enthusiasm. If memory serves me right after the Nithari case too, UP bar association passed a resolution asking lawyers not to defend the accused.
A cardinal principal of rule of law is that accused be given a chance to defend him/herself and when lawyer associations of all try to force its members to go against it, its sad. A lawyer does not merely try to save a client, (s)he is an officer of the court charged with helping a court reach the truth and deliver justice. Let a lawyer serve the man and let the court decide how to punish.
Rule of mob, politicians, emotions will only make us stoop to the level we accuse these terrorists/Taliban of falling.

Why don't we still act

Yet another attack more vicious than before in Mumbai and we will hear the same platitudes. While the brave policemen are dying why don't we prosecute that clown who goes as our home minister for criminal dereliction of duty?
Its time the President sacks this government for failing to execute its prime duty of protecting the life and liberty of citizens. Heads of IB chief and those responsible for preventing such attacks should roll for such brazen incompetence.
28/11
IB needs a thorough revamp. Its top brasses should all be sacked for incompetence, not just the head. Same goes for RAW for if the attacks emanated from Pakistan, RAW should have been tracking it. The NSA needs to explain what was he doing all this time before being summarily dismissed.
Its easy to blame Pakistan and probably ISI did help these guys. But lets separate Pakistan from its army and more specifically ISI. If ISI indeed this play a part, we must now declare it a terrorist organisation and work to have other countries like USA/UK/France/China also do so. If that happens Pakistan army will be forced to disband ISI since well army only exists because US etc gives Pakistan huge aid and arm which the army corners.
Everytime there are attacks and same old platitudes by those who matter. Its time we see some very tough action. And if Manmohan Singh is not courageous enough to act, let him be dismissed too.
The NSG always airlifts from Delhi? Why cant super important cities like Mumbai/Chennai can't have permanent NSG units? Why did NSG come so late? I remember watching a Discovery/nat Geo program on an earlier plane hijack where the local police (and it was a very well trained Punjab police then) wanted to storm the plane but were asked not too since NSG is the units trained to handle such situations. And it took 3 hours for NSG to come to Amritsar where the plane was parked. Meanwhile the hijackers forced the plane to leave which eventually landed in Afganistan and India release many terrorists in ransom. And the NSA in charge then who took these insane decision one Mr Brijesh Mishra never had to answer for his idiocy and went on being a celebrated think tank for BJP!
Apparently we have not learnt those lessons as yet as we never do because our rulers are kings ruling by divine right and they can never be wrong. At this rate though sooner or later patience will break and people will take justice in their own hands ala the movie Wednessday. The clown going as the home minister and his minders are apparently great scholars. They do well to revise their history of French revolution for if the public patience breaks, that'll what it be and he and his minders the Mary Antoinette.

Race to Bottom

These reality shows it seems are more about race to bottom rather than finding real talent. What happens in most of these is that participants gang up to eliminate the good contestants earlier so that they get rid of potential threats soon. In shows like MTV roadies the participants keep telling the camera how they will vote out people not from their city and those that are strong. So the quality actually deteriorates as the show progresses. Why then do such shows allow participants to vote out other participants?
That is why its such a pleasure to watch shows like "So you think you can dance". There is not team voting, judges select the people getting eliminated. And it shows in the quality of talent where each subsequent shows is a bigger treat to watch since the least talented keeps getting eliminated. Alas in Indian reality shows there seem to be very few such formats except in case of some music shows where too having the audience vote often allows regional plays to override. and the judges too are sometimes of dubious quality.
Recently also came across the 'Last comic standing' which seemed another good talent show. Compare that to the Indian humor shows where the only contestants that actually get a laugh are the Pakistani who by and large do not end up being too crass and so are forced to be somewhat funny. Otherwise its the totally inane Sidhu's laugh at jokes that should force any humor loving guy to look for the nearest exit! We Indians just don't get humor. Look at our own telly. So few real good comedies that have come. Same for movies. Its all becoming a race to the bottom.

Demise of the wallet

How long before wallets exit from our lives? A modern mobile can scan visiting cards, make micro payments, keep notes, store pictures. Cash does have benefits of anonymity but soon there may be services that can make anonymous micro payments?
Then why will we need wallets?

सुट्टे पे ban: collateral damage

सुट्टे पे ban लग् गया
कोने पे बैठा पनवाडी lower middle class से गरीब हो गया

ps: its bad to smoke, for your health and for those nearby.

May You Live in Interesting Times

I have been thinking about the great game being played in Asia (Yeah Yeah I know I have too much time on hand!). The ascendancy of China to a regional and global power status and India's potential to be one. No wonder the US offered India a strategic alignment deal and a civilian nuclear deal. All the protestations to the contrary make no mistake, US and India and strategically aligning and it may not be a bad thing.
If one looks at the power equations of today and next 50 years the real economic powerhouses are the US, the European Union (esp Germany), Japan, China and India which is sort of breaking into the club. Japan is a bit of anomaly since while it is the 2nd biggest economic superpower, it does not have a military to match and that is mostly out of choice. However the Japanese navy is big and the nation is technologically advance enough to become a military power very rapidly. Again the same history probably holds it back from arming itself more so since its rearming might make its neighbors (not just China) very very nervous which is not a good state to be in.
European Union is primarily a trade union and does not seem to be heading in any sort of a military coalition (well there is NATO but that derives its strength from US). There is Russia which has inherited the mantle of erstwhile Soviet Union. Russian economy has picked up steam but its unlikely it will catch up with China or India anytime in foreseeable future unless energy prices do wonders to it. But as a military it is again becoming a potent force. That leaves the US, China, Russia and India as the possible players. US is the most powerful military nation in world history and will stay so for the near future though China will bridge the power difference quite a bit.
So there are 3 possible military alliances. US-Japan-China, US-Japan-India, India-China-Russia. I think it is unlikely if Russia will join US in any coalition unless China threatens Russia which is unlikely though there are some border issues in far east between the two. But the legacy of cold war and the inroads of NATO in what Russia considers its own backyards will probably keep US and Russia apart.
US-Japan-China is again unlikely since the rise of China will threaten US and Japan the most and while making friends with a competitor is sometimes a good idea, I find it a bit hard to believe that China will really be content with being a 2nd grade power to US in Asia. Japan again will make China nervous and of course Taiwan is a great irritant. US will not let Taiwan join China if it can help it and Japan will also hold the same view. Taiwan with US listening posts allows US and Japan to keep tabs on China Navy and that is too much of a strategic advantage to lose. Of course a Taiwanese groundswell to join mainland China will be a different issue and that could complicate the situation. It is in India's interest to also maintain that status quo since if Taiwan merges with China and Chinese navy then becomes a real blue navy then India is also threatened.
Russia-India-China nexus while the brainchild of Russia is not really a starter. Post cold war, US-India relations have really improved and unlike China, India has not real dispute with US. This is manifested in the warming of strategic ties with US post cold war and US pronoucement to help India become a 'great power'.
That leaves US-India-Japan as the most feasible nexus and it has great advantages to India too. US help can transform India, the former's technology and scientific lead enormous over all others. All 3 are democratic countries and have no real reason to hate each other. also the political nature of the 3 ensures that there can be no sudden course changes with will reassure the other alliance partners. Japan can contribute a lot with its own financial and technological prowess to India and India offers a great oppurtunity to Japan to increase its own economic growth rates. So this seems a natural alliance and this probably is why India suddenly seem to be getting such good deals like US military co-operation and by all indications a very favorable nuclear deal.
This also creates great opportunity for India but at the same times drags it into a great strategic game which can also be a potential liability. Hence the title. China feels like it is being encircled by US and India falling into US game plan will hurt the most. But then India has even more legitimate concerns of being encircled by China. China has setup listening posts in Myanmar, is fishing in Bangladesh and Nepal. China's play of Pakistan of course is of immediate concern. China gave nuclear bomb designs to Pakistan, gave it equipment and by some accounts actually gave it tactical nuclear weapons and military hardware post the Parliament attack buildup. That charge is a very very serious charge and if true it basically meant that China was joining Pakistan in a war against India were that to happen.
Therefore it is clear that India can take Chinese words on peaceful friendly neighborhood only with a fistful of salt. It has been Chinese policy to ensure peace while they develop their economy. An excellent policy since it has allowed them to grow their economy without distraction. It was also their policy to encourage Pakistan to not allow India the same luxury. Economic power is a precondition for being a great military power and Pakistan's shenanigans have ensures India wasting a lot of time and resources on maintaining peace without India. It will not surprise me if the recent increase in terrorist attacks in India are not entirely co-incidental since they come at a time when India seems to be busy sewing up agreements internationally and they distract from governance at a critical time.
Still India will not like to get into competition with China. The difference in economies are huge with the Chinese almost 3 times as big and India and that difference will not bridge in any foreseeable future barring natural or political calamities. At the same time India cannot simply play a peaceful neighbor not doing anything to anger china (aligning with US or Japan will anger China) since if India does not take US-Japan help it will be too insignificant militarily to do anything once China does become a superpower in 50 years or so. Indeed interesting times.
Can India then join a US-Japan understanding and keep China-India grouping too? Unlikely but not impossible. The trouble with China is understanding them. Its is not infrequent to see Chinese words and actions being opposites. Will an understanding like, we will not build up against you if You let Indian ocean to us and we let Pacific ocean to you. Indian Navy can escort Chinese ships from straits of Malacca to Africa and Mideast and China can do the same to Indian ships in pacific. Obviously India's very strategic location means that it is India's navy which will be escorting more. Still it does offer China a way of of getting into competition with India. china as of now considers India insignificant and its eyes will mostly be on US and Japan. So its not a terrible deal for China. The trick might be developing that trust between us.

To be continues

The Pen ceased its journey on paper

Passing away of Ahmed Faraz has taken away one of finest masters of Urdu poetry of our times. Pakistan will also mourn the loss who like Faiz also championed the cause of their own political ideology often at odds with the oppressive political order.
There are so few of the great Urdu poets left that one at times despair of the cause. The great subcontinent tradition of social and romance poetry will certainly miss his genius.
So long and thanks for all the gems of Poetry

ProtoLife, LHC and the End of the World Mad Scientist Party

What an interesting week this. First Wired reports that scientists are on the verge of creating a new life form synthetically. There have been earlier attempts but they used some existing cell as the base machinery. This seems to be completely synthetic.
Then the big one. LHC goes live today. Not the big bang that its expected to perform but the first scaled down run to test systems happen today (might have actually happened - slow net here so not in a mood to open too many sites). The world's biggest physics experiment starts today. LHC (thats a machine that 'accelerates' particles to near the speed to light) in CERN (a lab in Switzerland build by European countries. it was one of their scientist who built the "www" you see in internet to easily share documents) turns on today.
LHC will if all goes well in the full trial today, swing a beam of protons in an underground 27 mile long circular tunnel cooled by 2000 superconducting magnets and another in the opposite direction. If that goes well, they will attempt to do it many times eventually reaching very very high speeds and then collide the two protons. What will result is interesting. It will be like a billionth of a second after big bang (theory that says universe was created in a sudden instantaneous explosion creating mass and energy). Then they'll check for many things among which is a particle called colloquially the "God Particle" or Higgs Boson, something that is postulated but not proven. It is what is supposed to give a mass to every other things.
Apart from the sheer engineering there is also a lot of controversy on the experiment, one of which is that the collision may create a microscopic black hole that may eat up the world. Apparently many such microscopic black holes are produced also in upper atmosphere due to collisions with solar radiation and our atmosphere but they "evaporate" since they are so small they can just go through everything without actually bumping into anything (most of an atom is just empty space) so the world in majority opinion is safe. Another view is that the microscopic black holes created by cosmic radiations are created at near speed of light and so have the escape velocity while those created in LHC may be too slow to escape Earth's gravitational pull and may stuck around like bad guests.
Time to call for a End-Of-The-World-Mad-Scientist-Party?

CLASSIC PRESS CUTTINGS

While searching for something came across this page on BBC Radio. Read the CLASSIC PRESS CUTTINGS section. Have a cheery day or night

Synaesthesia - 5th dimension Movie

Synaesthesia - where the senses mix so you might end up hearing a picture or seeing a sound(read the BBC article here)? Remarkable thing if only moviedom could harness it.
Imagine a drug or a method that causes this temporary condition for say a couple of hours while u watch a movie (or play a game). Each of us will then sample the movie the way (s)he wants it. And no lousy audio systems to mess the pleasure.
You hear scene, taste a dish on the screen, feel that car lurching!