Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

Abhi lives in Los Angeles and works to put things into space.

Science Fridays?

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I was thinking of starting up “Science Fridays” here on SM.  Let’s face it, there are a lot of science geeks and engineers that read SM on a daily basis who aren’t being catered to.  I think our long term growth strategy should include reaching out to this key demographic.  Why Friday?  Two reasons.  First, the two most prestigious peer-reviewed journals Science and Nature are reported on in the media on Fridays (though they usually come out on Thursday).  More importantly however I usually have more time to blog on Fridays (the rest of the week I am busy doing science-geek things).   This being SM I will of course look for the desi connection in science stories.  So without further pomp here we go.  This week’s theme will be Cryptozoology.  The first story I bring you is a tip from SM reader Marvin Thomas who writes to us about something that washed up on a beach in Tamil Nadu recently because it was supposedly dislodged by the Tsunami from months ago.  First watch the following clip [via Giantology]:

If you remember, Vinod blogged about ancient ruins that were uncovered as a result of the Tsunami.  This creature was supposedly buried close by.  But according to the “reporter” Rupa Sridharam in this “news clip” the bones of this creature just washed up/was unburied now.  Luckily SM has a paleontologist on staff to definitively tell you that this is a hoax.  Even if you can’t see the fake special effects it’s obvious that whoever filmed this doesn’t know the first thing about science.  First off they sent in archeologists to do a paleontologist’s job.  I HATE it when people mess stuff like this up.  Remember Top Gun?  Kelly McGillis’s character was described as a “civilian astrophysics instructor.”  Why the hell would someone that specialized in stars and globular structures be sent in to teach test pilots?  That’s just stupid.

Currently Snopes.com has this case (hoax or not) categorized as “undetermined.”

It’s probably safe to say that the clip itself is not a genuine news report, as no other news outlets have reported on this amazing find. We don’t yet know the source of the video — it could be something taken from a television or film drama, a viral promo for some type of upcoming entertainment offering (such as a video game), or just something created for the sake of perpetrating an amusing hoax.

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The most fundamental of human rights

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Often times when we post about immigrant rights on SM I see a conflict develop between those that believe that even certain basic rights should only be granted to, or expected by citizens, and those who believe this policy is too harsh.  As one commenter pointed out, the U.S. Constitution does not consider immigration status when dealing with certain freedoms.  The reason I bring this up is that governments around the world have been using the “citizenship loophole” to deny large populations of people the right to have rights.  The Christian Science Monitor explains by citing the example of Geneva Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Borders have made all the difference in the life of 25-year-old Noor Islam. He was born in Bangladesh, but an invisible line has virtually confined him to Geneva Camp, a squalid enclave in the capital, Dhaka.
Shifting borders dictated this fate. In 1971, when East Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh, Islam’s family and some 300,000 other Urdu-speakers found themselves without a nationality in the new Bengali state.

“In Geneva Camp, we don’t have much access to education and jobs,” Islam says, adding that citizenship would dramatically transform their lives.

The so-called Stranded Pakistanis are one of the largest and oldest communities of stateless people, a group estimated to number 11 million across the globe. Their predicament deserves more attention, say experts, since national identity is the most fundamental of human rights – indeed, the very right to have rights.

“They are the ultimate forgotten people,” says James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York. The problem persists, he says, in part because nation-states still enjoy broad discretion under international law to grant or deny citizenship as they see fit.

It’s really easy to exploit citizenship status actually.  Even our own President uses it to a degree.  If you change a person’s status from citizen to something else, say an “enemy combatant,” they no longer have the right to have rights.  They become a stateless person.  Governments all around the world are getting in on the action to make their “problems” go away (and have been for decades).

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The prosecution’s case falls apart

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In June I posted about Operation Meth Merchant in Georgia that netted nearly 50 people, most of them Indian convenience store owners, on suspicion of selling components that make methamphetamines, knowing what they’d be used for. 

But first, a quick lesson in meth production: The key ingredient in the process is ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, which also happen to be the key ingredients in cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed, Tylenol Cold capsules and Max Brand Pseudo 60s.

Those are legal products, legally bought and sold in stores all over the country. Selling them becomes a federal crime only if the seller knows that they’re going to be used in meth production. To minimize that problem, stores at the time had been urged by law enforcement to limit the amount of ephedrine-based medicines sold to each individual. [Link]

In August, Ennis reported on some of the prosecution’s mix-ups.  Now, Rediff reports how elements of the case have begun to dramatically unravel for the prosecution, and asks the question, “why did it take so long?”:

US District Attorney David E Nahmias requested the courts last fortnight to dismiss charges that Siddharth Patel had sold over the counter components used in the manufacture of the drug methamphetamine.

And well he should — Patel was over a thousand miles away when he supposedly committed the crime, and had photographic evidence to prove it.

In a case that has assumed racial overtones, Nahmias told the court Patel had been identified, erroneously, as the man who sold the components July 23, 2004 in Georgia, USA — when it was conclusively proved that at the time, and on the date, in question, he was in New York…

Earlier, similar charges against Malvika Patel of Cleveland, Tennessee, and her husband Chirag Patel were withdrawn after McCracken Poston appeared as their attorney. Poston is also Siddharth Patel’s attorney in the case…

“Malvika Patel was picking up her young son from day care in Cleveland, Tennessee, at the exact moment this informant claimed she was behind the counter of a store in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,” Poston told rediff India Abroad. “Similarly, Chirag Patel was with his family in India at the time the informant claimed he was at the same store in December 2004.”

Similarly, Siddharth Patel was working at a Subway outlet in Hicksville, New York, at the time the informant placed him in Whitfield County, Georgia, selling the components at Deep Springs Superette, a convenience store in the Varnell community of Whitfield County. [Link]

Uhhh, woops, I guess.  Why did it take so damn long to establish that the person arrested had been misidentified.  In stinks of incompetence and probably something worse. Continue reading →

Ann Arbor doctor is missing (updated)

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Ann Arbor doctor Shankar Palaniappan went to Toledo, Ohio over the weekend to meet with some old friends.  He met up with them at around 9p.m.  The club’s closed-circuit video shows him leaving alone around 1a.m.  He hasn’t been seen since.  ABC 13 of Toledo reports (thanks for the tip Kumar):

Right now police don’t have many clues. They say the disappearance of the 26-year-old looks suspicious. Family and friends say it’s totally out of character for Shankar Palaniappan to ignore phone calls and not show up for work. That’s why today they an issued an emotional plea for help.

What started out as a night of fun at a Toledo hot spot has turned into a family’s desperate search for a young doctor. Shankar Palaniappan came to Toledo Saturday night to meet some old college friends. Police say the young doctor and his friends arrived at Gumbo’s/Sin Nightclub at the docks around 9 p.m. But at the end of the night, friends went in search of Palaniappan and they couldn’t find him. Police are calling the case suspicious.

Palaniappan’s family flew from Indiana to Toledo this morning desperate for any information about their son. Family members say Shankar Palaniappan is a medical intern at St. Joe’s Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. They say he’s always in contact with them and they haven’t heard from him since Saturday night.

This story immediately reminded me of the very similar circumstances that surrounded the disappearance of Arvin Sharma in Washington D.C. back in April.  He too went to a club with his friends and was nowhere to be seen at the end of the night, his body recovered days later.  As far as I know, no suspect was ever arrested for his murder (if it was a murder).  Let’s pray for a more positive ending in this case.  Palaniappan’s parents made an emotional plea on television asking for help from anyone who may know where their son is.

Shankar Palaniappan… “My son is a very hard-working, sincere, dedicated young man,” said Ramanathan Palaniappan. With tears in his eyes, he went on, “I hope he’s okay, and if he’s out there, please give us a call.” It’s every parent’s worst fear, and Shankar’s mother and father are extremely concerned something has happened to their only son.

“We’ve been trying to reach him on his cell phone, and there’s no answer,” said Ramanathan. “He usually checks in with his family, he usually checks in with work, and at 1:04 in the morning, Saturday night, or Sunday morning, no one has heard from him since. We consider that very serious,” said Sgt. Tim Noble with Toledo Police. [Link]

Anyone that has information in this missing person case should call: 419-255-1111.

Update: Sad news. Palaniappan’s body has been found. Continue reading →

Let’s get that damn Wererabbit

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I have been a die-hard Wallace and Gromit fan for years now.  Ever since I saw A Grand Day Out on PBS in the 90s, I’ve been hooked.  In that movie the clumsy inventor Wallace with his faithful and cerebral dog Gromit, go to the Moon to look for cheese (which they have run out of).  There was no movie that I was looking more forward to seeing this year than Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit (well except for one maybe).  I will probably go this weekend to watch it.  For the last month in fact I was desperately searching for a desi angle on the movie so that I could bring this dynamic duo to the attention of SM readers.  Manish emailed me this morning about our old friend Turbanhead’s latest post.  It seems there is a desi character in the new movie.  So who is this South Asian character, and how does he fit into the film?  Turbanhead tells us:

Towards the end, the “Indian” character is the one who improvises a stand that sells pitchforks and torches to an angry mob.

Ha!  Well…I mean someone has to provide weapons to an angry mob…err, right?  May as well make a buck off of it.  Those damn wererabbits need to be hunted down anyways right?  You could say he is an exemplary citizen.

Footnote: Bad news. Let’s hope the desi character didn’t provide the torches for this one. Continue reading →

The inalienable right to blog

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The IIPM issue in India provides me with a great opportunity to educate SM readers and fellow bloggers about the assault of late on a precious (but little known) liberty here in the United States of America.  It is the fundamental, God-given right to blog!  A few weeks back we received what was intended to be a “Cease and Desist Notice” from someone claiming to be the lawyer of a person that we had written about on SM.  This “lawyer” threatened legal action and dire consequences unless we took down the “libelous” statements against their client.  However, in none of our posts had we made any libelous statements about the semi-celebrity in question.  Rather, it was some of the commenters to our site that had written what might be considered rude.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I represent the legal interests of ########. The content on your site contains libelous information that is against the interests of my client ########. The information on your website cannot be verified and contains defamatory, heresay information.

We are firmly requesting that you take down this web site within 24 hours. We are prepared to take legal action against your company and will sue you at the full extent of the law for punitive damages.

This notice was followed by several others (including a “second notice” time stamped two minutes after the first one) that increasingly led us to believe that this lawyer was either a friend of the person we had offended, or the person themselves posing as a lawyer.  Making a few spelling mistakes and citing laws that seem sketchy, sort of erode one’s credibility.  Getting sued over this might have been a welcome experience though.  I have always sort of dreamed of representing myself in front of the Supreme Court, grilled by Scalia, and waking up to that goddess Nina Totenberg re-capping my oral arguments on NPR as I lay in bed the next morning in rapture.  I coulda’ been a contenda’.  Having reviewed the relevant precedents, we think we would have done quite well in court if slapped with a lawsuit.  I am what people would term a Constitutional Originalist. Who am I to doubt what the Framers originally put into the Constitution?  Who am I to question or re-interpret their original intentions?  Let me direct you to Article IV Section 4 of that most sacred of documents:

The United States shall guarantee the rights of every Blogger in this Union, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence and frivolous lawsuits.

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Fault Lines can’t be controlled

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Every Geologist has the same macabre dream.  They want to be as close to the fault as possible when the big one hits.  Any geologist that tells you different is lying so as not to upset your sensibilities.  The first three months of this year I spent nearly every weekend camping in the rugged mountains near the San Andreas Fault while constructing a geological map of the area.  On every drive out the professor would smile devilishly and then say “maybe the Big One will hit this weekend.”

Previously I blogged about the extreme dangers of the world’s most unforgiving battlefield, high in the Siachen Glacier near the Line of Control in Kashmir (Manish followed up with some stats).  As if the hail of artillery rounds, machine-gun fire, and extreme cold weren’t enough, over the weekend the soldiers manning their outposts had to deal with a massive Earthquake almost directly beneath them.  How did those soldiers fair during the Earthquake?  That is a secret held close by both sides for good reason.  What men with guns can’t dislodge, an Earthquake can manage with ease.

ISLAMABAD: The Army General Headquarters has asked the Ministry of Water and Power to restore power to several sensitive military installations, which collapsed in the earthquake, along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a government official told Daily Times.

The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was providing electricity to AJK from the Muzaffarabad Grid Station through a single point electricity provision system, while AJK Electricity Board was responsible for power distribution in the area.

The official said that the Muzaffarabad Grid Station supplied electricity to all sensitive military installations and pickets, but the earthquake has completely destroyed the system. [Link]

and on the Indian side:

Twenty-six security personnel, including 21 Army jawans, were killed and scores of others injured as the massive earthquake damaged bunkers and barracks along the Line of Control (LoC) in Baramulla, Kupwara and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir today.

The Army has lost 21 soldiers due to bunkers caving in and damage to barracks along LoC in Rampur, Uri, Baramulla and Tangdhar sectors, a defence spokesman told PTI. [Link]

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In pursuit of a Flux Capacitor

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I hate paying so much at the pump but I am glad that the current gas shortage has stabbed a dagger into the heart of SUV sales.  It also seems like every other day there is a news story about someone tinkering with their engines, or the battery array in their hybrids, to get more juice for the buck.  Sometimes innovation still does take place in the trenches.  Popular Science tells the story of Somender Singh and his relentless pursuit of perfection:

India is booming. The expanding population has overwhelmed the Bangalore-Mysore road the way a river floods its banks, and the flow of two-way traffic is choked with a living history of human transportation. There are belching herds of diesel trucks, diesel buses and iron-framed diesel tractors. There are wooden-wheeled carts pulled by brightly painted Brahma bulls, and two-stroke-motor rickshaws fueled by kerosene or cooking oil or whatever else is flammable and cheap. There are mopeds and bipeds and bicycles and motorcycles, and every conceivable type of petrol-powered, internally combusting automobile, from doddering Ambassador cabs to gleaming 16-valve Mercedes miracles. But there’s only one car like the one Somender Singh and I are riding in right now.

That’s because Singh invented it. Or rather, reinvented a piece of it: a small detail on the engine that he calls “direct drive.” He claims that his invention makes an engine cleaner, quieter and colder than its internal-combustion cousins around the world–while using up to 20 percent less gas.

“Some people say to me, ‘Singh, why are you wasting your time on such a thing?'” he yells, his singsong Indian English barely piping above the tooting traffic. “But I tell you sir–I tell the world: I have conquered the internal combustion engine!”

To hear Singh tell it, his story has all the makings of a Bollywood movie, a classic heartwarmer about a small-fry Indian grease monkey who challenges the big boys armed only with a dream and a dirty wrench. And there’s no doubt that he has come up with something new, at least in the eyes of the U.S. Patent Office. But has a potbellied philosopher- mechanic from Mysore really discovered the efficiency El Dorado sought by every auto manufacturer, R&D center and thermal engineer from Detroit to Darmstadt?

Geez.  Does every story out of India have the makings of a Bollywood movie?  We could get 6-fingered Hritik Roshan to play Singh and the story can play up the fact that his extra finger allowed mechanical modifications not capable by lesser men.  Still, Singh does lead the life that every engineer secretly dreams of.  He is a fearless tinkerer who doesn’t accept that good ideas are only born in the R&D labs of large companies.  The majority of the article actually focuses on his utter frustration in getting noticed.  Heads of state, large automobile companies…nobody will listen to the man.

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Guest Blogger: Saheli

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I am going to keep this intro short and sweet since her reputation precedes her (I mean the clean version of her reputation of course).  We took Saheli snipe hunting in the woods near our North Dakota HQ last night as a way to haze her in to the family.  We were just going to let her wander around out there for hours as we drove off.  The joke of course is that there is no such thing as a “snipe.”    Or so we thought.  Saheli once again demonstrated her encyclopedic knowledge by telling us the entire history of the snipe on our way into the field.  She even had pictures of seven species of snipe in her purse.  Ennis and I just turned the SMobile back toward HQ after that.  We decided to go the more traditional paddle-spanking route.

May I present to you the newest guest blogger, Saheli…

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Life after Stiffness

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Over the past year, whenever the topic of books comes up, I grab whomever I am speaking to by the collar and hiss just one word: “Stiff.”  You have to read this book.  This is quite ironic since the person who finally gave me the book for my birthday tried unsuccessfully for about 6 months to get me to buy it on my own.  Who the hell would want to read a book about dead bodies?  The full title, “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadaver,” is an entire book of non-fiction that pays homage (through use of a unique and witty brand of dark humor) to the unlikeliest of heroes:  the human cadaver (see previous SM post).  SM tipster Shailaja informs me that the author, Mary Roach, is following up her brilliant book with the most logical sequel possible.  The New York Times reviews SPOOK: Science Tackles the Afterlife:

Mary Roach’s journey into the occult takes her to as many strange places as she can scare up. Having written a humorous book about corpses (“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers”), Ms. Roach has now ventured one step further into the unknown. On this new journey, she is supposedly searching for answers to life’s great questions about the migration of the soul. But readers of “Stiff” know what to expect: the author is looking for quacks.

Those quacks are sitting ducks for Ms. Roach’s fine-tuned sense of the absurd. So Ms. Roach studies ectoplasm, notes that it looks like woven material and learns of a researcher who in 1921 asked of disembodied spirits: “Have you a loom in your world?”

She visits India to look for firsthand evidence that spirits return. (This trip was worth it for the chapter title alone. It is called “You Again: A Visit to the Reincarnation Nation.”) She finds scientists who have identified the weight lost by a dying person and notes that a recent movie title used the metric version of that figure, “21 Grams.” (“Who’s going to go see a movie called ‘Point Seven Five Ounces’?” she asks.) She cites two Dutch physicists, J. L. W. P. Matla and G. J. Zaalberg van Zelst, and notes that one worked with a Ouija board. She hopes that “the question ‘What is my full name and that of my partner?’ was never posed.” And she digs up the fact that Elizabeth Taylor claimed to have had a near-death experience but was sent back to the land of the living by one of her husbands, Mike Todd, then adds: “Whether this was done for her benefit or his is not clear.”

I can’t wait.  Each chapter in Stiff can be read almost as an independent essay.  I assume she will follow this model for Spook as well.

In “The Ordinances of Manu,” a legal text based on Vedic scripture that dates to A.D. 500, she finds that a rogue Brahman may be forced to reincarnate as “the ghost Ulkamukha, an eater of vomit.”

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