I bought my first book ever

... with my own money that is. "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Neil Gaiman is one of my favourites from Vertigo comics, especially the 'Sandman' series. Terry Pratchett is quite possibly one of the funniest authors I've read - his 'Discworld' series totally rocks.
I'd read "Good Omens" before, but some books you must own, know what I'm saying?
I've got this whole list of books I will buy (probably half-a-million dollars worth ;-P) when I get rich. Don't snigger, this is right up there on my list of priorities along with the black Murcielago, the matt black Augusta Brutale Serie Oro, world peace and long life for all.

The silly buggers are at it again

Yet another terrorist attack. Looks like someone, somewhere is worried that Manmohan Singh's attempts at resolving our problems with Pakistan might just be working. (Read about it here, here and here).

You see, Manmohan Singh, in his own quiet way has turned out to be considerably more effective than the previous BJP government. Oh, the BJP were tough, no doubt, and we all wanted someone in power who wouldn't let anyone mess with India. But we've seen where that goes when taken too far - Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and countless others are testimony to that fact. And of course, the BJP was unavoidably tied to that shame of the respectable Hindu, the RSS.

Manmohan is smart, subtle and clean. He is the only good thing about the miserable Congress party and their idiotic coalition government. Without him, it is nothing more than a bunch of sycophants, without one single backbone among the lot of them. As for the good lady of Amethi - well, let’s not go there.

Manmohan Singh seems to be utilizing his considerable background in economics in several far reaching ways - ways the BJP never considered. One must admit though, that deploying the army along the Indo-Pak border for eight months as the BJP did, takes balls, especially in the face of criticism by the least responsible nation in the world, the US of A. The friendly President Musharraf did get a bit of a shock then. It was worth it for that alone. But that didn't pay attention to the crux of the issue, one that most of us tend to miss - Pakistan is incidental, a mere fly. Remove the American and Chinese support and it will crumble in months. It has long been used to keep India distracted from the important things in life - economic development, economic development and of course, economic development - first by the US and now by China.

The US of course had its reasons in the good old days - India was pretty friendly with the USSR, and they wanted a lapdog to keep us occupied. With China, it's harder to tell. It is an open secret that a significant fraction of Pakistani nuclear tech is of Chinese origin. So is their entire cruise missile tech. After the Pakistanis withdrew from Kargil in 1997 after attempting to invade India, all the handguns and such left behind were of Chinese manufacture. What the Chinese hope to achieve, beyond keeping India distracted (if anything) is beyond me. Because disbursing nuclear tech and cruise missile tech to an unpredictable, fundamentalist and terrorist neighbour just to keep the other, democratic, non-aggressive, but economically competitive neighbour distracted doesn't make sense. Of course, they could just be repeating America's mistakes, but somehow I think they are much too smart for that.

But Manmohan is trying for a more long term approach. He is focussing on building relations with the Pakistani people rather than the Pakistani government - a radical approach. He is also refusing to lose focus on economic improvement, by keeping focused on improving our energy sources and gain access to new ones before the US or China grab those as well. But ultimately, he understands subtlety, and cause and effect. I have a feeling that anyone who messes with India with him around will regret it.

What's with the rain?

The incessant torrential downpour that's been going on here for the past week or so is playing merry hell with Banglore's already strained infrastucture. For me it means an excuse to stay back in the office and play some Unreal or AOE, but it isn't a joke for all those people who've been flooded out of their houses. I've been in this city eighteen years now, and I can't remeber it being like this for so many days.

Heck, to keep my feet dry on the way home today, I was forced to first climb onto the compound walls and then onto the roofs of houses to avoid a flooded road (okay, I wasn't, the water was just a foot deep at the deepest point, but I was just looking for an excuse to monkey around :-P).

The weather is going haywire these days. Back in Kodagu (or Coorg if you prefer) which is where I'm from, the last four years have been dry. Almost a drought, with people running around frantiacally trying to arrange for sprinklers for the coffee crops and managing the household on a half-dozen bottles of water (this really happened at my maternal grandad's place - 6-10 litres of water a day!).
Now this year, its rained so much that the coffee has started rotting off the crops. Crazy.

The most threatened democracy in the world

This simply hadn't struck me until my dad pointed it out - India is the most threatened democracy in the world, especially now that even Bangladesh has turned to hardcore Islam with the new government being right wing and having supposedly set up terrorist training camps.

Let's take a look at all our neighbours; to the north we have China (which has been supplying arms, cruise missile tech and nuclear tech to Pakistan and sees India as an economic competitor and possibly as a threat because we're democratic) and Nepal (now in the throes of a Maoist rebellion). To the east is Myanmar which is run by a military junta and Bangladesh which is turning to hardcore Islam. To the south we have Sri Lanka, run by the terrorist LTTE (responsible for assassinating the Indian Prime Minister in 1990). To the west we have Pakistan - hardcore Islamic, run by a military dictatorship, home to a dozen terrorist outfits, safe house for the Taliban, nuclear power with cruise missile tech, China's protégé and counter to India in the subcontinent and of course, last but not least, "America's strategic ally in the war against terrorism".

Do the jehadis want Bush in power?

Looking back at the last five years, I'm beginning to suspect that the jehadis want Bush to stay in power.

He's doing their job for them all by his lonesome, isn't he? They just need to keep a majority of the American population scared of the terrorists so that he has a free hand to do whatever he wants.

He has killed the American economy. Jobs are going elsewhere, prices rising, people are dissatisfied. If I'm not mistaken, China owns 60% of Americas debt. From the world's strongest, most independent economy ten years ago, the US is now utterly dependent on their closest rival, China.

He has effectively turned a respectable fraction of the world's nations against him, what with his hypocrisy and double standards. Nobody wonders whether America harbours imperialist designs. The question is quite simply "Who's the next target?". No wonder the terrorists are sitting tight. They've understood that in this age, wars aren't fought with guns but with economics. Gun and bombs are incidental, tools to create fear, which in turn is just another way of directing economies.

Someone I know pointed out that historically, when an empire possesses military might disproportionate to its economic might, then war is sure to follow. Looks like he was right.

Lazy ol' me

Yes, yes, I have been lax with my posting. It has been umm... five weeks
of training plus four of actual work now since I last posted.

Let me quickly cover my reading since my last post. I did finish "Neuromancer", but did not
read "Flow my tears". In the order in which I read them:

• William Gibson
  

• Sprawl Trilogy Book 1 - Neuromancer
• Sprawl Trilogy Book 2 - Count Zero


• Ashok Banker
  
• Ramayana Book 1 - The Prince of Ayodhya
• Ramayana Book 2 - Siege of Mithila
• Ramayana Book 3 - Demons of Chitrakut
• Ramayana Book 4 - Armies of Hanuman
• Robert Heinlein


• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress




• Terry Pratchett
  
• Johnny Maxwell Trilogy Book 1 - Only You Can Save Mankind
• Johnny Maxwell Trilogy Book 2 - Johnny and the Dead
• Johnny Maxwell Trilogy Book 3 - Johnny and the Bomb
• Discworld Series - The Wee Free Men
• Discworld Series - A Hat Full of Sky


• Larry Niven
  
• Ringworld Book 1 - Ringworld
• Ringworld Book 2 - The Ringworld Engineers
• Ringworld Book 3 - The Ringworld Throne


• Robert Jordan
  
• Prologue and Chapter 1 of Wheel of Time Book 11 - Knife of Dreams

Currently reading - William Gibson, "Neuromancer"

This cult classic was the source of the term 'cyberspace' as also many of the ideas behind the Matrix.
A friend of mine who dropped by today was discussing the game "Deus Ex" (based on the Unreal 1 engine, released around 2000) and the genre described by him as 'cyberpunk'. Which reminded me that I have this book, so now I'm reading it. Expect a review in a day or so.

Next Read: Philip K. Dick, "Flow my tears, the policeman said". By the same dude on whose books and short stories the movies "Minority Report" and cult classic "Bladerunner" ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?") were based. I read this three or four years ago and don't remember it too clearly any more. Just that it was whacked out!

Take your Jung Typology Test here

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

and check up the details of the result here

Its pretty interesting because I turn out to be an INTP, but online my behaviour more closely resembles that of an ENTP - at least in the sense that I love to argue.

Fresher's Day

Well, the new batch of freshers at work are getting together for an ice-breaking session tomorrow at the office. We are a very diverse bunch - 11 Indians, 14 non-Indians. Here's the breakup:

• Among the Indians, there are only two "localites" including myself(thats slang for long-term resident of Bangalore and probaly implies that you're culturally a Kannadiga).
  
• A couple more are hostelites from engineering colleges, so they've been here for the four years of their courses.
• Five are from Pune
• Two are from Bombay

I didn't get much of a chance to chat up the non-Indian freshers - we spent an hour or so together attending a couple of real long sessions covering Lotus Notes and stuff. I'm not even sure if all of them attended. Guess I'll get to know 'em better tomorrow. I'm not too sure but here's the approximate breakup

• Two or three guys and one chica from the US
• Two (maybe three?) guys from Canada
• Two from China

I'm not sure how that makes 14, but I'll figure it out tomorrow :)

Just curious about yoga...

Just curious - how many of you think yoga is unchristian? I mean, technically it is categorized as heresy, being a central stream of philosophy in Hinduism, so...

Doc Ern's post here brought this to mind.

Start work today

Aaargh! Work! Wonder what its gonna be like. I'm going to find out the hard way in a few hours. better get some shut eye.

Here's a pic of my crazy mutt Elsa, who's half Labrador, half Alsatian and mostly hyperactive. Never mentioned her earlier - I'll try to get a better pic of hers. She turned a year old on 23rd June 2005. Not sure what my dad did with all the others he took...

About the Ayodhya attack

Two days ago, the Ram mandir on the disputed site of the Babri masjid was attacked by six terrorists. They didn't succeed. One poor old lady died.
Its a good sign that they tried this. After all these months, the assholes are getting panicky. They're worried that India and Pakistan may actually find peace. That the average Pakistani may discover that the average Indian does not have horns - despite all the propaganda their government has put out to the contrary over the last fifty years. That a Hindu like me could wait for Id as eagerly as any Muslim (heck - everyone knows that Muslim biryani is the best biryani, and my friend's mom makes totally awesome snacks; I always find an excuse to drop in when they are breaking fast).
Well, screw you, assholes. If you think thats gonna make me attack my neighbour you're mistaken. It isn't going work. Not in a million years. We were all part of Bharat long before we were Hindu or Muslim or Christian or whatever. Long before India and Pakistan. Under Ashoka. Under Akbar. Under the East India company, even. And thats how it will remain.

Refer:
Outlook on the Ayodhya attack
The Hindu (ironically, this is India's most sober and secular newspaper and also probably the oldest english daily)

About the London bombing

The right attitude is everything. Never let the trouble mongers get on your nerves. That's their objective - stir up anger. We're all members of diverse societies - and a terrorist's objective is to divide us along communal lines. Have us fight each other, doing his job for him. We should never let that happen. Never. See what cjm has to say - this dude has it right. Read his post here:

We are not afraid

Damn, but I missed that holiday

Well, I start work tomorrow and I was just regretting the fact that I didn't make it for a holiday anywhere at all! And all because I was going through some old snaps.

This here pics are from my trip to Goa with the herd a couple of years ago (that would be August 2002) just after the second semester exams...

Thats Ram footboarding on the way to Londa A view of the train

At Londa station
Benny and Ashit having a friendly discussion en-route from Londa to Goa
In the Western Ghats on the way to Goa
Abhi, Suhas, Ashit, Ram, myself, Greedy and BennyAshit in perspective, Western GhatsAbhi, myself, Ram and Suhas, Western Ghats
Inside the taxi when we reached Panjim after seven hours (instead of two), thanks to a traffic jam caused by...
..this truck.
The beach at last!
When the bike broke down...

At a hill next to Anjuna(is that how its spelt?) beach. Thats it there, by the coconut trees.Myself, same place
Outside our guesthouse, before heading of for the Independence day party

My first Speed-breaker!

I think I forgot to mention this little bit of info. Shortly after my offer from ThoughtWorks was confirmed I suggested to my dad that he loan me about 60K to buy a bike. I said I would pay him back in installments over the course of next one year.
I had it all planned. I mean the bike (the Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTSi) was now in its 3rd avatar and absolutely irresistable. And with a fuel efficiency of 45Kmpl - for all you metrically challended people thats roughly 106 miles per US Gallon - it would make expenses bearable (fuel costs Rs.50.60 for 93 octane in Bangalore!). It was perfect!




Obviously, my dad disagreed. Shortly after, I was saddled with a Maruti 800. No, not a bike. A car. The world's cheapest car, to be precise (supposedly...). Whats worse, it doesn't come in black. And it gives a wallet crippling 15Kmpl(55 mpg). Well, that's life. Atleast I don't have to pay for it- though I do have to pay for the fuel which is bad 'nuff.

Guess I'll have to start planning and saving for a 400cc second hand bike now...

Back after a sabbatical

A quick update - I've been absconding for six months, dealing with my final semester of engineering.

In the meanwhile, I also participated in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2005 Software Design Invitational. My team made it to the top three nationally before getting booted out.

I've currently got a job offer from ThoughtWorks, so I will be joining then on July 8th.

I will probably also post a few articles on .NET basics which I picked up over the last six months. Sort-of "by the n00bie for the n00bies" thingy.

Daily Treatise: Another day, another loss

Daily Treatise: Another day, another loss
I've spent a fair amount of time and energy commenting on Paul G.'s latest post on America and terrorism (and so has he, I think). Feel free to check it out. I don't think I'll be doing any more writing till after my exams. Thats till 01-02-2005. So quit thanking God for small mercies and enjoy the respite while you can. 'Cause I'll be back (*Drumroll*).

Benny Hinn and other things (or Hinduism 101)

So, today we have something different. A little religion, a lot of philosophy and a few thoughts that would probably be quite scandalous to the vast majority of followers of faith based religions. Why am I writing this? Because Benny Hinn who is a famous American evangelist preached here today amidst loud protests from the Hindutva brigade – much to my embarrassment I might add.

Let me say right at the beginning that if you wish to read on, you must keep an open mind. Nothing I have to say here in any way contradicts any religious teachings. But it does require something else, something very rarely associated with any religion. Reason. So read what I have to say and then think about it. I don’t insist I’m right. I’m just inviting you to look at life from a new perspective. If you feel that anything I say offends your religious sensibilities then feel free to say so. I will either reply, explaining my position, or I will change my statements and say that I did so and also say why I did so. Because that is the core of my belief. Reason. The heart of Hinduism.

There, bet you hadn’t figured that out by now. Bet you thought I was Muslim maybe, or possibly Buddhist. After all, what does reason have to do all those idols and the hundreds of gods and all those rituals?

I’m quite sure that all that stuff must be quite mystifying to people of other faiths who are rarely exposed to that sort of thing. No, I’m not going to try to demystify it. That’s impossible. It is mystifying even to me and I’ve been a Hindu all my life. I’m afraid that’s just not Hinduism. You see, that’s the biggest misconception people (including Hindus) have about Hinduism – that it’s a religion. Hinduism isn’t a religion, it’s a way of life. All the chanting and the gods – that’s all peripheral stuff. It’s optional (bet you didn’t know that either!).

In fact Hinduism encompasses a very wide range of beliefs – from denying the existence of a God (yes, Hinduism accepts Atheism as a valid belief) to Faith – as possible paths to “The Truth”, if I may call it that. Hinduism is nothing if not secular. The core of Hindu philosophy is that man has only one tool to help him understand his place in the universe (after all, that is the purpose of all religions) - reason. And while it may not always be adequate, it is all he has.

The defining concept of Hinduism was “Dharma” and “Karma” which could be translated as “Duty and Fate” or possibly, “Cause and Effect” (English is a very unsubtle and crude language and simply cannot capture the essence of even simple words in other languages). Hinduism eschewed the simplistic black and white definition of “Good” and “Evil”. Hinduism says that there are actions, and that these actions have consequences. It is one’s duty when initiating any action to attempt to understand all possible consequences of that action, and if those consequences are acceptable. This simple belief is very difficult to apply in practice and requires a great deal of thought. Far more so than any canned “Rules to live by”. If you think about it carefully you will find that ultimately this leads to many of the same rules. But now one has greater insight into their necessity. They are no longer "God's rules" or "The Priest's rules". They're your rules. And the reason you follow them is not because you're scared of going to hell (Hinduism has no such concept) but because you know that by sticking to them you're on the road to happiness and helping others along the same path too.

The reason behind this is that Hinduism respects the individual’s intelligence. It considers him to be capable of reaching the conclusions needed to help him live productively in a society and to find happiness for himself and help those around him along that path. It doesn’t believe in ramming them down his throat with a firm “There! That is what you must believe! You’re too dumb to understand why it must be so. If you have any problem with that then understand that it is God’s word and you can take it up with Him directly.” Hinduism firmly believes that sticks and carrots are for donkeys, not men.

So Hinduism accepts Faith because some Hindus reasoned that through Faith they might find the divine. Others denied the existence of a God, reasoning that there was no proof and so embraced Atheism. That too was accepted as a possible solution. Others explicitly defined their Faith as being monotheistic (yes, we have the One God concept too) or as having a holy trinity (Surprise, surprise) or polytheistic. Yet other possibilities were proposed and accepted. You must understand that when one starts from Reason and then moves to Faith, one has a firm grasp of why he (or she) did so. One is more open to new ideas and perceptions. One is more conducive to change. One is more likely to find happiness (a great many people confuse pleasure with happiness. Hinduism does make that critical distinction. But that’s a whole different story). On the other hand when one starts from Faith because they were told that Faith is the only way and all else is blasphemy, they are like people who’ve lost a leg. They must make their spiritual journey using crutches – the words and beliefs of somebody else.

This happened over 4000 years ago, when the majority of modern religions didn’t even exist. The concepts proposed – that we cannot be sure of the truth and must each decide what we think is appropriate and follow that path, and that all those paths could be correct or none of them at all – was so advanced, that even now, no religion in the world has even considered it. Even the simple step of accepting that “Good” and “Evil” are simply a matter of human perception and not absolute concepts is beyond modern religions. Think about it. The Inquisition most certainly didn’t. Neither do all those people in the “Hindutva” brigade in India who flog Hinduism as a means of getting votes and generally shame all Hindus with their own, selective version of what Hinduism is. I must admit, they make me ashamed to even nominally belong to the same “religion” (it isn’t, but for the lack of a better word…) as them.

More on this topic later. It’s already quite late and Advanced Computer Architecture looms ahead.

Note:

The last three entries were from another blog - my first one - which was on a tecnical site. While visiting it for entirely different reasons, the blogging capability of that site caught my eye and I just tried it out. But, I figure a pure blogging site is more appropriate so I'm shifting the three entries I have here and continuing with my writing through blogger.com

My apologies

My apologies for the tone of my last entry but that smug attitude irritates me no end. So I will leave that there unedited and perhaps some good will come of it.
I just spent 15 minutes typing out another entry and then hit some shortcut by mistake and lost all of it. Aargh. Anyways, its 01:30am and I'm just trying to delay returning to my studies for just a bit longer so I'm not really complaining.
Incidentally, I'm still trying to figure out theSpokes resident community and have been reading a few blogs (my first) and its interesting. As a consequence I'm tempted to inflict a little more of my writing on you, the unsespecting reader (victim?).
Oh, and I just can't seem to get some of these editing controls to work. Like the colours and the fonts. Maybe its Firefox. Probably not though, cause its all just regular HTML (Bold, italic, and work). Ah well, problem for another day. I'm not in the mood for figuring out stuff right now.
So, the least I could do is try to entertain you (sort of ) and heck I need some entertainment myself. But at 2 am my sense of humour is quite feeble (and my friends would claim that the time has nothing to do with it), so I'll just mention that teacher of mine who said "OS/2 was an operating system developed for use on machines used for International Business". (The text book said something to the effect that OS/2 was developed by IBM). There. My feeble joke for the day. Oh, and speaking of text books, we get something called the EEE (Easter Economy Edition) where a text costing $20 is reprinted locally (and legally) and sold at around 250 bucks ($5). So there.
Ok, I'm losing it (I just typed "loosing" first - this is getting bad). I'd better start studying.
PS: I have friends studying in the US who take text books back as gifts.

Peace plan rebuttal

This is some old stuff I found on a blog, but heck I just cant resist replying to this:

Edit:Popularly, but falsely called (thanks to lostinKatmandu, refer comments).
The Robin Williams Plan for Peace
original post 12.10.2003 | 8:00 pm

Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan ..... what we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.

Robin Williams' plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!)
I'll try:
I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan:

1. The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their
affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Noriega,
Milosovich and the rest of those 'good ole boys.' We will never "interfere"
again.
Yes please. About time. And don't forget Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Pakistan, As for Hitler and Mussolini, if it wasn't for Japan's strategically stupid Pearl Harbour attack the rigteous US of A was planning to sit out the war.

2. We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with
Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We will station troops at our borders. No one sneaking through holes in the fence.
Finally, they get the message!

3. All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave.
We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be
gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France should welcome them.
Yeah, we "Asians" sure as hell wouldn't mind our people coming back.
I'd just love to see NASA function without "pure" Americans. Pity Albert Einstien isn't alive or you could have given him 90 days notice too!

4. All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days
unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be
allowed in. NO ONE! If you don't like it there, change it yourself and >don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need
any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.
Uh huh. While you're doing that, why don't you stop selling arms and advanced tech to these same nations. Bet you didn't know Pakistan got 6 pc3 Orion recon planes to "patrol the Afghanistan border". See, the problem is the PC3 is a maritime recon aircraft. Afghanistan is roughly a thousand km away from any sea. So, go figure. Oh, and in case you didn't notice all you people out there, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist has been peddling A-bomb recipies all over the place(includeing N Korea). America's "top startegic ally in the fight against terrorism" has been distributing nuclear bomb tech. So get your facts straight before talking. As for cabbies and cashiers, I'd say the biggest immigrant role is supplying brain power. So why don't you say "We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers or intelligent people."
5. No "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.
That should apply to everyone, what? or you must have some real dumb students....

6. The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise.
This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will
require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou
will have to cope for a while. The Sierra Club, etc., Will have to deal
with it.
Go right ahead. Best of luck. Talking doesn't make it so. Anyways, lower demand means cheaper oil for the rest of us. We're paying 50 bucks a litre around here. For all you non-metric system whiners thats around $5 a gallon.

7. Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for
their oil. If they don't like it, we go some place else. They can go
somewhere else to sell their production.
(About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)
Absolutely. About a week of $2.001 a gallon would also be enough.

8. If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will
not "interfere," They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain,
cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if
anything.
Thanks. Saves us those long term loans disguised as aid. In any case whatever goes to any army of any country is GIVEN to them by the American government. Like the Taliban. Like the Al-Queda (yeah, they were funded by the CIA when they were startups during the Afghan campaign of the 1980s)
9. We will ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island some place. We
don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building
would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.
I think the rest of the world wants a UN, American opinion notwithstanding. Send it over if you don't want it. The only reason we'd want the UN to be there is to keep an eye on the American nukes. Because, the most trigger happy nation in the world (and the only one to use nukes - Hiroshima, Nagasaki - and radioactive material in a war - I'm talking about those depleted Uranium shells used in the Gulf war which have given thousands of people cancer, bet you smug folks didn't know that) is sitting on 30,000 nukes. And by past behaviour is ready to use them if it doesn't get its own way, much like a wilful child. Heck its an open secret that after Hiroshima Japan was ready to surrender, but no, they wanted to test a fusion bomb so they dropped it on a city full of people (Nagasaki) for chrissakes.
10. All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. Now, ain't that a winner of a plan?
Won't work.

"The Statue of Liberty will no longer say 'Give me your poor, your tired,
your huddled masses longing to be free.' She's got a baseball bat and she's
yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" -
I thought you'd want to send The Statue of Liberty back to France too...

For in this sleep before an exam, what dreams may come...

You know, the best time (for me atleast) to indulge in creative thinking and/or any kind of experimentation is right before an exam. My mind is so totally geared towards avoiding anything even vaguely resembling studying that I find myself coming up with some pretty damn impressive ideas - even if I do say so myself - because I'm so focused. But thats only some of the time. At other times, I try new stuff. Like blogging.
So here I am, one day before my Internet Programming paper (more importantly, five days before my Compiler Design paper which I haven't prepared for and which scares the crap outta me) experimenting with my first blog.
Now, I'm ostensibly blogging my Imagine cup activities. But since we haven't started work thanks to the exams, there isn't too much to say. Heck, even our topic isn't finalised yet. We're still tossing ideas around. Thats all we have time for. That and blogging ;-). Anyway, I guess I'd better gird my loins (gruesome imagery there) and get back to Perl and Java. And if I'm feeling strong, Lexical Analysis, Syntax Analysis and the rest of Alfred V. Aho's terrors for innocents.