Iraqi reporter shoes Bush

While the shoe throwing incident today was indication enough of how bad the show has really gone for the Americans out in Iraq and Afghanistan there was one thing that one cannot deny ~ The fact reamins that had Saddam been in power the poor reporter wouldve been hung at sundown for doing the same thing.

Quote of the week

"... The founding team should have that killer startup bug everythig else is secondary. And it never takes 20,30 or 100 people to make a product .. Just 3/4 good ones. ..."

Couldnt agree with these guys more. 3-4 guys is the perfect teamsize. Good enough to gel easily, good enough to hit ideas on each other, good enough to keep updated easily, and most importantly best size to take out to dinner every week :)

Best of luck Druvaa.

Jay Walking Rudy Giuliani

I just read this article about the comedy show at the republican presidential debates starring New York's ex-mayor and now a Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.

This is typical Jay Walking material. It always stuns me to find out the sheer lack of basic common knowledge in Americans. For nearly a decade now they have been facing the ire of extremists and fundamentalists from the middle east who have openly proclaimed war on their nation on the singular premise that the "infidels", aka the Americans, have infiltrated and occupied their holy land, ie the middle east beginning from the Kuwaiti occupation of American troops.

Now this has been shouted off the rooftops by these terrorists. A simple withdrawal of troops from the middle east would nip the menace right at the bud. If this is done these terrorist organizations will cease to have any reason for existence and if nothing else their sources of funding and ability to recruit new blood will definitely drop to minuscule levels.

The fact the Rudy Giuliani had no clue about this, even though he has been riding the high wave with the 9/11 attacks, and the fact that the crowd cheered at his dumb explanations is even more comical. How about some common sense courses for the American curriculum. Try being a good global citizen before attempting to be a global superpower.

Technorati Tags: Rudy Guiliani, Terrorism, America, Jay Walking

Google MCap

From $85 to $505 in 732 days....
Now that is impressive if not downright scary. Take a look at the company that we are talking about. With this it has a market cap of around 155 billion ahead of companies like IBM, Intel and the likes and even closing in on Berkshire Hathaway. Wow!!!

This is definitely a tale meant for the records but well considering the true products that google offers it is a bit suprising to see its value at such a high. While its revenues are around a few billion its profits mostly rely on advertisements, which can definitely not be treated as a core revenue stream for a multi-billion dollar company (or atleast the conventional ones)

All the startups out there seem to be wanting to be the next Google. But what would be more interesting is when and if someone out there manages to outperform Google either at Wall Street or in the Valley.

Manipulations of the Media

The recent uproar of Muslims throughout the world against Pope Benedict's remarks had me thinking that the new Pope is quite orthodox and even more confrontational than what I assumed him to be from previous literature. I, like many of the people around the world, fell in for what the media flashed out all over the place.

As it turns out the quotes of Pope Benedict though absolutely spoken by him were in fact within a context of reference to a passage from some medieval text. He simply quoted the text and was having a dialogue based on the same. There was no malice or ill intention from the Pope at all.

The media has been well known to "make news" out of basically anything, however demeaning and unprofessional it may be. Most of the headlines in the papers have similar sources. They simply take the few words from an entire article that would turn out to be eye-catching or a double meaning and print it out in bold as the topic of the article.

For decades now the church has been a non confrontational leader in the new world. At many a occasion the church has even apologised for mistakes of the past. There is no reason to believe that the church holds such views at all. Unfortunately the reaction to such concocted media statements from the Muslim community has been far from encouraging. If it were the reactions from a few uneducated people I would'nt have been surprised however we have national leaders who are reacting with such childlike tantrums that I fear that dialogue is not something in their minds at all. At least world leaders and the educated masses should have confirmed the sources of such an article and found out the entire text of the speech given by Pope Benedict before reacting in any way. Especially considering that other people of the community do not overreact.

It is truly shameful that Middle East leaders have not come out to calm the extremists. And ofcourse regardless of what their intentions are I am sure that Pope Benedict will come out with a an apology of any sort or form that the Muslim community demands so that the world is a more peaceful place for all of us.

For those who care to read the speech. This is the link here

Technorati Tags: Vatican Pope Benedict speech Muslims

America's immigrants

The top new item for this week has been the news of the US senate getting into their huddle to decide on legislation relating to guest workers and a contentious issue of illegal immigration that is plaguing the United States, more so than any other country. The western coast is already considered Mexican heartland and many would be surprised to know that most of the bus terminals out there have announcement in Spanish and English to cater to the obvious clients.

Let me put in my 2 American cents on this issue (and yes they are my cents which I bought back from states). Firstly the issue of guest workers aka H1B workers or specialised workers etc. This is a major problem biting the Americans in the ass. Any immigrant knows that the white man aka people who call themselves native Americans are not to congenial with having immigrants flowing into the country. These Fresh Off Board (FOB's) are a pain for them. Taking over their white collar jobs and steadily moving up the ladder with hard work and the determination to carve out their share of the American pie. Now that said they are faced with the problem of a declining economy which without the presence of these skilled workers will keep declining and the blue chip companies will keep moving out of the US and finding better pastures in places such as India and China ie the places where the same workers originate from. An with ever increasing problems of American students not wanting to pursue higher education there basically is no option but to keep inviting this alien workforce to come and pick up the creamy jobs. Well tough luck here.

Secondly is the problem of illegal immigration. By the very definition of illegal one would imagine that this is a non-issue. But remember the previous line wherein I said that the number of native American student pursuing higher education doesn't seem all that high, according to studies done by the US government. Now that said these same students in schools and colleges combined with the kids of the very same illegal immigrants have been protesting about the rights of these illegal immigrants, I repeat illegal immigrants. Wow only in America. If they were protesting about the human rights of these people or the way that they are being shipped in by the big farmers to do their crappy below minimum-wage work they I would've understood. But what rights does an illegal alien have, or should have? This just proves that countries regardless of their economic stature have the same class of politicians who will do just about anything to get or increase their vote bank.

I remember reading that the number of African Americans in the US represented the largest section of people in America, and the number of Mexicans/Spanish in the country was soon catching up. I am pretty sure that already the Hispanics represent the largest society with the States over the African Americans and the white/native Americans. Well whatever be the case seems like the native Americans better learn to be good to all these alien workers. From what I see the low end jobs are being lapped up by the Hispanics who need a better life and the higher end jobs are being offered up to the Indians and Chinese. So what's left is yours unless you mess with your Indian or Chinese boss and get fired or try to act rude with your Hispanic junior and get sued for racist behaviour.

Wow.. only in America right.

Bush and Musharaff - An unholy nexus

Desi Fun(da) ... and more.

While Bush finished off with his first ever visit to India there were protests all over the place. Well in Pakistan things went a bit further and a few bombs went off in keeping with the legacy of Pakistani terrorism. Well everyone who knows me knows my opinions on this matter. There is no demarcation or enimity between the Pakistani leadership and terrorists being trained in PoK. This has been shown to be true on numerous occasions, more recently during the Kargil conflict, the attack on the Indian Parliament and so on on so forth, where the assailants had Pakistani army identification cards on them.

What was more suprising was that the next day ie today (March 5th 2006) the newpapers across the globe report that Bush and Musharaff have signed a terror-pact for better cooperation between these two allies on the "terrorism" agenda that they have to fly the flags of freedom in the so called evil states in the world. But while this great agreement was being signed the opposition party leaders in Pakistan were kept under house arrest, many more party workers arrested for god know what reason.

America has always been stupid with its choice of allies while fighting its foes and this is just another shining example waiting to blow up in their face. They want to ally with a country that was born out of a rebel's idea of self-greatness while dividing the great Indian subcontinent on the basis of religion. Further this country has gone on to see less than a decade of true governance via democratic processes during its nearly 6 decade long independence.

Now if thats not an unholy nexus I dont know what is. Nice choice Bushie.

Holy "Lance Armstrong"!

Desi Fun(da)
Well its Lance Armstrong time of the year again. This guy is simply awesome. A true sportsman who is just the perfect role model for us youngsters. If you dont know about him already I would like to notify you that it is the year 2005 A.D. and you have been comatose atleast since 1998. So just to update you the Tour de France is still the world's most gruelling sports event not just in cycling but in any sport, in my opinion. And after Miguel Indurien who I used to adore Lance Armstrong has gone over and succeeded him ably having won the title 7 times in a row. A guy who was diagnosed with testicular cancer a long while ago has fought against the odds and gone ahead and shown the world what a sportsman is supposed to be like. I dont wanna say too much just what he said after winning the race.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
Again this is the first time that the winner was allowed to speak after winning the Tour de France. A deserving honor for the retiring champion. Kudos, Thanks and God Speed Lance Armstrong!

Pope John Paul II

It has been 4 days since the passing away of Pope John Paul. During the past few years we have come to see the slow, if i may use the word, disintegration of his bad health. Things just weren't getting any better and I guess the world noticed Parkinson's is not just any other ailment but its a slow killer. A man who has been a pillar for the church his entire lifetime was reduced to being taken around in his wheelchair and helped by his aides for everything that he needed to do. Things just could not get any worse. And come Saturday the 2nd we all heard about the passing of the Holy Father who uttered the words "amen" (so may it be done) as he breathed his last. What a perfect word for one of the most admired and respected international figures in the world. As the church gets into the rituals of finding his successor and getting the wheels in motion for all that follows we should really pray for the soul of our Holy Father who has guided the church through probably one of the most turbulent patches in history, that of societal change. Though the church had kept the prediction, of our Virgin Mother that the church would get into turmoil during the last past of the century, it actually did happen with the fiasco of paedophilic American priests.
Though his passing away has left many a tear in our eyes we should be happy that he had a peaceful death though with much hardships before. And for such a holy person what better than to have been given the strength to reconcile with God for whatever he may have in his heart during the season of Lent and celebrate the coming of our Lord at Easter right before his last days. This truely shows the hand of God on one of his best representatives in modern times.
May his sould rest in peace. Amen.