Feast for Thought

This is just to record some very telling write-ups in the media - of the contrasts between the two happenings, the respective countries' responses, the sell-outs, the double standards - all pointers to must-learn hard lessons vis-a-vis the Civil Liability for Nuclear Claims Bill - 2010. P Sainath's Games Big Corporations Play Arjun Makhijani's Civil Liability for Nuclear Claims Bill, 2010: is life cheap in India? Rare, sensitive write-ups from the Western hemisphere - Keeble McFarlane's Twenty-five years later, the poor people of Bhopal are still sick and angry Lydia Polgreen's Gulf response fuels India's fury over Bhopal Struck by this thought. It may be possible for the Indian Government to hire US-based lawyers to draft the Nuclear Liability bill, for the theoretical scenario where the two countries' roles are reversed - that is, Indian corporations causing nuclear accidents on US soil. Then it would be a simple matter to derive the 'perf...

As a student at Bangalore in the early nineties, one experienced the change in temperature within the IISc campus, guaranteed to be 2 degrees cooler than the rest of the garden city. (Sigh!) ... that was another century! Apologies - I know Delhi is always in the news, and I'm adding more bytes. Just sharing a note on the summer temperature levels. If it is 43 degrees in and around Lutyen's Delhi, Palam (yes, the airport locality) is invariably at 45+. I have never heard any of the weather anchor persons mention this fact. (Perhaps I too have noted it because I happen to reside in a sprawling sub-city Dwarka located quite 'near' the very happening airport). Here are indicative figures (all in degree Celsius, figures courtesy the daily newspaper, available at IMD ) since the onset of summer - 23 April 2010- 39 (City), 39 (Safdarjung), 40 (Palam) 29 April 2010 - 41, 41, 43 7 May 2010 - 35, 35, 36 18 June 2010 - 42, 42, 43 19 June 2010 - 43, 43, 45 20 June 2010 - 45, 45, 4...

Read only if you are a Sudoku addict! When her newspaper started offering a sudoku puzzle a day, it took her a few months to get addicted, and addicted she was for years. Then there was a period when the familiar newspaper was not available at a certain job location, and she was forced into a state of Sudoku Anonymous. Thankfully that was temporary, and now she simply can't do without her daily grid-ful. Some complacency set in and she deigned to attempt puzzles with difficulty rating less than 4 stars (in a scale of 1 to 5). Wednesday's puzzle left her flummoxed, and a sparsely filled grid persisted with her all way through Dreamland. Giving herself time before the morning paper (with the solution) arrived, and nearly at the cost of the family's hunger, she continued to tax the grey cells even as early birds burped loudly at the windowsill. With extreme hesitation she placed a possible digit in row 4 column 1, and the rest of the grid fell neatly in place, (confirmed an h...

Whether or not you are personally concerned about gm foods you will hopefuly raise an eyebrow at least - Try as I could, I found no explanation for the date. The son helpfully said - "No Mom, there is no 'double leap' year"... No wonder the Hon Minister's "explanations failed to convince protesters"! Here's a link to the news item - Decision on Bt Brinjal after Feb. 30, says Jairam Ramesh Perhaps the Hon Minister meant Feb 2030? By then, there will be enough devices around to delete public memory in a jiffy, very conveniently! PS: Most likely, end of this month was the 'good' date intended? Update on 9 Feb 2010 - The Readers' Editor of the newspaper finally responded to a mail message - "Thank you for your email. The mistake has been corrected in the net edition."

A picture to tickle grey cells.... Hint: Picture was taken at National Science Centre , New Delhi

Last June this blog mentioned " The Story of Stuff ". The same presenter has come out with another video on The Story of Cap & Trade ahead of the Climate meet at Copenhagen. Host Annie Leonard introduces the "energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you." While on the subject - listen and pass on this message too (message from a 12 year old , delivered at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which is now more relevant than ever).

Surendra's eloquence leaves me rather lump-throated. Methinks the entire nation has to find the right answers and respond to that kid satisfactorily. See the cartoon here