Precision strikes

I am referring to the attempt of the US Airforce to get it right. Since the advent of the first live edition of the gulf war, the airforce has been touting their precision bombs. Bombs that can figure out the real ugly ones and spare the good and bad ones. But time and again, they have been forced to correct this, and frequently admit to bombs landing where it should not. Sometimes, in the neighbour's yard, across the street, the next block, ahem.. maybe even the next township.

And then there is the US intelligence, that is supposed to have, as per this report, figured out the three people who set off a roadside bomb, had entered the nearby building. But after knowing all that i know about their capability to gather intelligence, i am prompted to ask the question, when ? Because they have many times bombed neighbourhoods in Baghdad and also caves and villages in Afghanistan, based on intelligence that their suspect is located in the area of bombing, only to find out, that it was eons ago.


An Iraqi man weeps Tuesday next to the bodies of victims of a U.S. airstrike in Baiji, Iraq.

The bombing below was been triggered by insrugents (note the term), and over a 100 civilian lives and few soldiers lost their lives. There were no such bombings before the invasion, was there ? How come, the forces that came into rid the place of terrorists, suddenly attract so many bombings ? These are some of the laws of socio-politics and geo-politics that good friend Bush and his team didnt quite care about, when they went after Saddam. They got him alright. But they could have gotten him long back, if they wanted to, specially those days when they were the ones actively supporting him. It like the joke in the US, during the days of the WMD presentation in the UN, 'we know he has weapons of mass destruction, because we supplied it to him'.
Anyway, my point here is that, to make this stop, the US forces have to withdraw. That is the first step.

Relatives outside a hospital grieve over a victim of a suicide bomb attack in Karbala, Iraq, on Thursday. - AP Photo


U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq
At least 134 killed in attacks across Iraq

Tags: usa, iraq, wmd, bombing, terrorist

Whaling in the high seas

Kudos to these guys. It looks like an exciting picture, but can be very dangerous.

But, on a different note, it is also a clash of cultures. Certain communities have been doing this for ages, and wonder what is so wrong in consuming a whale. The point is the technology used now vs then, and the amount of whaling done now vs then. If the Japenese fishing were to adopt their century old method of catching a whale, i dont think there would be much of a concern. So also, i am sure in the good old age, not everyone got to buy it off a grocery store shelf. They had to go and fish for it, and given the choice battling with the king of the ocean, the people would have chosen other tamer options like chicken and cow.

High-seas battle looms for Japan whalers, activists

Tags: japan, whale, greenpeace, norway, whaling

Revelation 1:101

This wasn't obvious !! It required a poll ?

No. No. I am not trying to be too cynical. I had taken it for granted. Nothing to do with the background i come from. But to expect a politician to be nothing but just and honest.

Even the much quoted man who said 'for the people, by the people and off the people', freed the slaves not because he particularly thought that it was bad. The emancipation proclamation was tied to economic compulsions of the day. The history is frought with such misconceptions.

I guess you cannot 'fool all the people, all the time', but you sure can 'fool a vast majority of people, most of the time'. Time here being defined as a period between one election campaign to the next.

Poll: Half believe Congress is dirty

Tags: politics, howard+zinn, history, corruption, usa

And the point is ?

What is the point of such talk and rhetoric ? Does it help weaken the resolve of the terrorist ? Does it help appease the pain of the victim ?
This is the same kind of talk that comes out of Bush and many of his colleagues. The point is making such statements dont help resolve the situation. Many of these require more restraint and caution to be exercised. But then a politician is a politician and what less can you expect ?

Terrorism is wrong. Many of know it, accept it and condemn it. But i like to you all to pause for a moment and think about who the terrorist really is ? Us or them ? That doesnt mean all means justify the end, or for that matter i justify this means to their end.

I must tho' grant it to the Indian Govt, that they dont always jump the gun and attempt to launch a military campaign to eradicate the terrorist camps they claim exists across our borders. So i guess these words are then just what they are, words.

No force on earth can weaken India's resolve

Tags: india, terrorism, pakistan, banglore

Cool utility for Win XP

Ever since i installed MS office 2003, one of my favourite, the Office Shortcut bar, disappeared. I had stalled installing this version of MSOffice, until it became a nuisance to live without. A typical problem with the corporate world, where there is more talk about change, and less action about it. We all could have saved a lot of money, if we could have done without MSOffice in the first place, switched to OpenOffice or StarOffice. Both of which are more or less compatible with MSO. The problem is with the 'less compatible' part. Since the world is now using the defacto standard office product, its tough to be a rebel.

So as soon as i figured that i had to live without the office shortcut bar. Actually i wonder which moron in MSFT had this suggestion. If there was something useful in mso, it was this utility. It was my constant companion, in my effort to keep my programs organized. Anyway, i tried to use the toolbar offered by windows XP and that didnt work for me. Because it was no different from a windows folder, and the problem was no special setting or config was possible. I gave up and used my favourite download.com, to look for a replacement. After a few searches, hits and misses i landed on freelaunchbar.com, the freeware equivalent of truelaunchbar.com.

Try it. Its not so difficult to install, but a tad bit complicated to get started and active. But once you are up and running, it remains quite, doesnt do much, other than what it supposed to do. Its tough to find such programs these days. Usually they want to remind about looking for updates, getting info for registering, checking to see if there are new skins, allowing you to share this info with your friends and sometimes even checking to see if the President is home. Well, thankfully, this is just a plain and simple and cool, menu toolbar, that you can use to organise your favourite programs.

Well, have fun, and take this for a spin.

Tags: windows, software, >utilities, tools, downloads

Its about time

Its about time, that someone had a heart to heart conversation with this man, and told what reality is. It appears that he is still in his long lost world, well, when did he ever show signs of anything that made sense. A good example was the smug look on his face, when is aide told him about the 9/11 bombing, and then recently his 'You are doing a good job, Brownie' to the now fired FEMA director for his the job he did in New Orleans.

You know, in some other way, he is finally doing the american people a favour. But continuing to blabber, he is setting himself and his party for a big fiasco in Nov 2006. I only wish half of america, who have been kind of sleeping for the last 6 years, would wake up. Even the democrats are suddenly figuring out, this is their moment to stick it in. And finally find a voice of disent.

Bush defends NSA spying program

Tags: bush, usa, terrorism, spying, iraq, wmd, patriots+act

BCCI vs ICC

I think its about time, that the BCCI takes control of the cricket world. What i mean is, that India funds the coffers of ICC. The game with the highest ratings and money are the ones that feature Team India. Given this, i dont see why BCCI should not dictate terms to the ICC, or make sure that things and rules and regulations that are favourable to it are passed thru at the ICC.

This is how the world of sport works. Money controls everything. It just so happens that for the last decade or more, money for cricket comes from India. Because this is a sport that has losts its charm in countries other than the sub-continent. And a lot of this credit must go to Jagmohan Dalmiya. It is a different fact, that he later wanted to run the BCCI like his next door pawn shop.

The spectators, the citizen of India, and the sub-continent are the ones who now support and fund this game. The sponsors have come in big droves because of this huge following. It is unfortunate, that other sports in India have had to take a back bench. I see a point in the current stand that BCCI is taking. I am not sure how good this is for team India, who can make any match, even if it is Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, turn into an exciting game with their lacklustre performance and overconfident approach.

Anger over India's threat to Test schedule

Tags: cricket, bcci, icc, india, one+day, test+match

The Entrepreneur & the Politician

I have been watching the frustration of Narayana Murthy, since he started working the Govt of Karnataka. I use the term frustration, because, it is not an easy job to run things in the Govt, especially if you think you can run it like a business. Because the Govt is not a business, alto' many politicians do treat it like one.

I have issues with people, who are ready to quit, because things are difficult, and then spend time pointing fingers. The quagmire of politics is difficult, it requires a special breed of people to enter. Tough skin being an important pre-requiste. I have great respect for Narayan Murthy, and he has achieved thing which few men, atleast in India, have achieved. He is not unique, but he is special.

But these things said and done, i believe he can handle this issue, which much better finesse. I really wish he would take up this challenge and enter the world of politics. I would vote for him, and he will be surprised, by the number of votes he would get. Does he have it in him ?

Narayana Murthy at the receiving end

Tags: india, politics, infosys, govt, democracy,
corruption

Galileo launched

The ESA took a step forward to break the monopoly of the GPS technology currently held by the US. The bigger motivation for this project, was to enable the use of newer and more precise GPS technology in more commercial applications. Since this project is controlled and managed by more than one country, the chances of the ESA shutting down the access to this technology is remote. Although for the record, the ESA has said that they would never shut it down.



My post wouldnt be over if i didnt highlight and ask a few questions, for which i dont have the answer, nor am i expecting one. But kind of stating the obivious possibilities. I wont rant much today, but ask only one pertinent question, 'what is stopping countries from using this technology for military applications ?'.

First Galileo satellite on orbit to demonstrate key technologies
Galileo navigational satellite launched

Tags: ESA, space, GPS, USA, galileo, soyuz, Russia, Europe, satellite

Hustle & Bustle

It would seem nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact, the time is around 11pm in the night. This the ground crew, in their back office, working on tickets, changes, excess baggage, seat adjustments fiascos, and last minute crisis etc. Pretty active in the middle of the night, these people do a commendable job of being courteous and polite. This rush goes on till around 2am in the morning, when the flight takes off. I am sure they earn a well deserved rest, only to give up their normal sleep time the next day around.

Tags: airlines, tickets, agent, lufthansa, india, crew, airport