the internet revolution in afghanistan

Apparently, Kabul has wide wireless internet coverage, one of the few cities in the world to have that. BBC has done a very interesting programme of the presence and effect of the internet in Afghanistan, which I just watched. What particularly stood out for me is how so many people speak English. I guess nine years of American presence has done that!

Here is the online synopsis of BBC's report.

delhi's beauty and the CWG beast

Nice article ('Sorry, you are not welcome here').

Oh oh..

The spill's getting toxic, ya'll.

Is anyone more incompetent than BP appears to be right now?

badmaash audience, badmaash media

The movie Badmaash Company has been partly shot in Bangkok. But nobody thought to contrast between reel and real, between this:

...and this:

...and this and this.

This is happening now in Bangkok. People are actually dying while audiences here go and laugh at stupid sex and lady-boy jokes that Bangkok cannot seem to escape from in India.

The media completely sucks.

ETA: Life's photofeature and Seven Days in Thailand.

familiar with the term 'irreparable damage'?

This is a great write-up, and gives terrible news on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. The tragedy was bad enough, but the handling (or, actually, lack of) of it is such a mess. As if all the dodging of responsibility and the shifting of blame is not enough, the shrugging and 'We don't know how serious this is' is so scary, and infuriating. What the fuck. You're the experts. It's not like you don't know. It's just that you've been gagged by BP and are unwilling to reveal the truth.

This is how it happened and how bad it currently is.

The US military is joining the action because they fear an environmental disaster. Oh, really?

The satellite images show the scale of this leak, although experts are of the opinion that maybe it's worse than previously thought.

Enough. Here's what concerns me. Apparently, only around 25% of marine wildlife survived the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. This might be as bad as that in terms of amount of oil spilled. Or worse.

There are nearly 16,000 species of plants and animals in the Gulf of Mexico, according to marine biologist Thomas Shirley of Texas A&M University, "not counting microbes."

Some Wiki reading-up.

It is late in the day to be finding out that staunching the three leaks on the ocean floor with robot-controlled submarines is like doing open-heart surgery at 5,000 feet in the dark. Nor is this the time to be doing things never yet tried before at this depth, like building and lowering 74-tonne steel funnels to hoover up the gushing oil. These technologies should have been tried and tested before BP got the licence to drill there.

No shit.

furball alert

This is so cute, apart from being great news.

As everyone knows, and no one is doing anything about, India's tiger population has dwindled to 1,411. Every website I see has a link to 'Why should we save the tiger?'

Er, hello..?? If that needs explaining, then it's no wonder the tigers are dying out.

But, still, for what it's worth...

Why should we save the tiger?

1. Because it's our national animal?

2. Because it has a highly developed sense of romance?

3. Because the ickle cubs are awww soo cutteee?

4. Or, maybe it's because we have no fucking right to do this to them:

I say it's option 4, huh?

In the ensuing panic, a lot of things aren't being carefully considered. Is banning tiger tourism a good move?

And the vital, terrifying question: can they be saved?

Some last-ditch, though very essential, rescue work is being done by:

WWF - India

GoI - Project Tiger

Aircel & NDTV

If possible, try to support reserves like this.

Here's something that will break your heart even more.

But, just 1,411?...Mygod, how? How can they survive?

I don't know what to say, so I will resort to the help of someone much wiser (notice the absence of Hobbes here):

woe is me...

I'm a bit relieved, ya'll. (hello...is anybody out there..?)

I just submitted my application to this totally awesome grad programme. I'm not really likely to get in (er, my career path is, at first glance, a little ... unfocused?). But miracles can happen, right?

Right??

That's $50 down the drain, ya'll.

Sighhh...

Ok, this is here just to cheer me up.

speaking of Fb...

Fb co-founder Chris Hughes was at the India Today Conclave this year. When I saw him there, I thought, Wow, Hughes and Zuckerberg are so cool. These young Harvard nerds going ahead to rule the internet world? How awesome is that!

Um, today, I came across this. I read some more, and found this. Zuckerberg is crap. And he knows it ("I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually...").

Ughhh...

Five minutes to calm myself down and a more rational search later, I read this. Wow, wow and wow (regarding this last link, I could argue, based on the right to free speech, that Fb isn't being a jerk. But if Holocaust denial is outlawed in several countries, it isn't so black-and-white).

And, finally, the somewhat funny 'discovery' (as if I didn't know!)? My organisation does this.

what privacy settings?

I'd deleted my Facebook account again yesterday, it's maybe the 433th time I'm doing it. I always do it for privacy issues. Not related to Fb, but more to my basic distrust of social networking sites, where more information than you'd care to give out actually gets given out, always. So my ex-boyfriend will frikkin' know every time I blink, even if I privatise my settings to the max.

Likely imaginary conversation:

Random friend: "Yo, so what's up?"

Ex-boyfriend: "Heh, N went rafting. I saw the photos on fb."

And the pictures weren't even put up by me. I was Just. Tagged.

And you know the funny thing? You can't delete your Fb account; you have to deactivate it. Which means Fb still has all the information that you, and your friends, have put up on your account. Whether you like it or not.

So, when I read this today, I felt good about having deactivated my account. But, hey, they still have all my pictures, all my information, my detailed friends list, the conversations I've had with them, everything.

Ok, at some point you have to let go and trust people. Like you trust your bank. But your relationship with the bank is not happening in front of 200 friends (yeah, that's all I have), and their friends, the friends' friends' friends...ad infinitum.

So why don't you delete people from your list, dumbass?

Because then I'll have to explain why. Maybe not to them, but to a common friend. I'll just delete myself, thank you. Oh, deactivate, sorry. Heck, I've to even explain to Fb when I want out.

So, yeah...it's too much for me.

But there's so much of me out there already...without my consent.

ETA: Muahahaha. How to delete your Fb account. The way Fb has "hidden" the delete option under truckloads of legalspeake in their ToS reminds me of a slimy creature slinking away after having stolen my sandwich...

For some reason...

'I won't stop till I drop'

This is such an awesome story.

Just...wow

Greek tragedy

The post title's lame, but the news isn't.

I feel bad for the cop; it isn't really his fault, but look at how he's made to scramble.

Greece is in some major shit. I would have been shocked, except it's become the norm, to be in so much shit. I'm just sad now. This ancient country being smashed by ugly modern day necessities. Ok, so that counts for almost everyone. But, still. It's Greece... Athens...unfortunately the underdog in the council of heavyweights that the Euro countries are.
I guess the "good" news is holidaying in Greece will be cheaper now. Somehow, that makes me feel worse.

How did this happen?

Is India going to be affected? Or not?

hello, again

I'm posting after such a long time! A lot of things have happened in the interim, but obviously. Right now, though, my focus is on getting admitted into any one of five awesome programmes in five awesome universities. Wish me luck!

I just finished The Handmaid's Tale. I'd wanted to read it for a long time, and, well, I finally did. I liked it. It wasn't very convincing (a. it's impossible to imagine such a low population; b. it's impossible to imagine a near-complete lack of open dissent; c. it's impossible to imagine things changing so drastically so quickly - I mean Offred is only 33 and she has lived a normal (pre-dystopian) adult life. is it even possible to cow down and adjust so quickly?; d. it's impossible to imagine it happening in the US. Maybe in an out-of-the-spotlight country somewhere in a forgotten area of the world, maybe even a small country in Europe, but not in the US).

But, still, it was good. It was quite effective in showing what could happen, if it were allowed to, if all of society was asleep at the wheel. And, after all, that's what Margaret Atwood intended to do, take the present set of beliefs to their logical conclusions.

And, guess what. It's strengthened my belief that we're all headed toward a totalitarian system in the not-very-far future. I mean, think about it: an exploding population. And severely limited resources. How will we manage? Unless rules are put in place, regarding who gets how much of what and when. A control. And then it's a slippery slope into a completely controlled and impeccably structured social and political system. Democracy, schmemocracy. Unless we colonise other planets, of course. And use their resources. Otherwise, I can't see how all of us, and our countless children, can be happy and well-fed on this planet in the future. While remaining free.

I relayed this theory to my father. And he said, "Don't be ridiculous. Humans will find a way." But this is a way. Just not the most welcome one. It would be touted as 'practical'. During times of severe rationing, throughout history, what has always happened?

Yeah...

Egad! Tis easier to just focus on my university application. To ward off the pessimism.