I mean, you seriously thought we would re-design a website using Devanagari font? Seriously? Macaca please. Well I guess I feel kind of bad calling out the people that actually liked it but… And does a Pokemon-like monkey scream “mutinous” to you? Well, ok. The monkey was pretty fierce so I can see its appeal. Chaitan was responsible for the monkey and most of the rest of this design. Don’t feel bad if you fell victim to our little prank. Even one of SM’s founders (Manish of Ultrabrown) believed it was the real deal and politely began offering advice on little fixes. Also, Avani is female not male, and she is great and definitely has more skillz than a “color-blind infant!” In addition to the comments we received on the blog, many Twitter users also provided us with their opinions.
Hey everyone, at long last it is time! We are FINALLY ready to unveil the much anticipated updates to our little site. The effort has lasted for months behind the scenes, led by talented designer Avani P and our amazing website administrator Chaitan Bandela.
In designing a new website the first thing we wanted to do was to simplify the existing look. Over the years the front page of our site has become over-crowded with buttons and multiple tabs, and the text has become smaller. This new website is cleaner and promises to load faster, saving you precious seconds as you visit obsessively throughout the day. The font is nice and large so you don’t strain your eyes. Additionally, the banners at the top, while charming, had kind of lost their novelty. We have replaced the banners with new “branding” per Avani’s advice. Since we talk about monkeys so often at SM, we thought, “why not make a Macaca-like icon the new official logo/mascot,” so that we can use it to promote SM as a distinct brand. We are also in search of a social media consultant who will help us to better incorporate Twitter and Facebook with our site (no ghost Twitterers though). Stay tuned for that.
We fully expect our readers to find bugs as they navigate the new site over the next few days and weeks. Chaitan will work as hard as he can to fix these bugs as we become aware of them. In the comments section below you can detail any such “brokes” you find. Please keep your comments focused on technical issues as opposed to artistic issues if you would please. Change is always difficult but research shows that given time the new look will soon feel as comforting as the old. We did run mock-ups of this new design by focus groups composed of long time SM readers whose opinion we trust before finalizing the new look. We also tried to mimic the best elements of other popular blogs and bring the site up to Web 2.0 standards. Thanks again to all of our readers for sticking with us as we approach our fifth year! And most of all thanks to Avani and Chaitan for their Herculean efforts!
A heart-breaking story out of Santa Clara, in Northern California. Devan Kalathat took his own life– but only after shooting his wife, his two children, and three other relatives (including an 11-month old baby girl) who had just arrived from India.
A father is suspected of killing his two children and three other relatives before taking his own life in an upscale neighborhood of Silicon Valley where the family had recently moved.
Authorities were still searching Tuesday for a motive in Sunday night’s slayings, though they have said financial issues did not appear to be a factor. [Yahoo]
Everyone died except Kalathat’s wife, who remained in critical condition Tuesday with multiple gunshot wounds in her upper body. She managed to stumble outside and collapse on a concrete pathway, where she was found in a pool of blood by neighbors. Along with the bodies of five others, including his two children and niece, police found Kalathat inside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two handguns were laying nearby. [SJMercuryNews]
Researchers at West Point recently stumbled on the 51-page manual while they were visiting a jihadi chat room, called Ecles. It’s a Web site that allows members to have interactive discussions, post videos and download manuals. Ecles is the second most popular jihadi chat room on the Web, and al-Qaida often posts things there. Because of that, it is a place counterterrorism analysts track regularly.
So when the West Point analysts discovered a step-by-step primer called “The Art of Recruiting Mujahedeen,” it got their attention. On one level, the manual might be an early indication that al-Qaida is trying to identify new sleeper terrorists. On the other hand, the book is so basic it seems to suggest al-Qaida is getting desperate for new members. [Link]
What is it in the manual that suggests desperation to some? Well, if I were to slap a different, more pleasant cover on the book and then re-name it to, let’s say… “The Art of Seducing Desi Boys” I think I could make big money by marketing it to some SM readers. Behold the advice, straight from the manual [with my suggested modifications]:
Here’s how the manual, as translated by the CIA, suggests a recruiter build a rapport with a recruit:
“This stage lasts approximately three weeks [unless it overlaps with March Madness in which case it may take longer],” it says. “You must do something important at this stage [such as letting him go past first base]. You must identify his interests and relations with people [especially with his overprotective mother] and how he spends the whole 24 hours, meaning you study him secretly to be reassured about your choice [and make sure he does not talk about finance, medicine, or Battlestar Galactica too much…well definitely not finance or medicine].”
This section touches on such things as being nice to the recruit. It suggests the recruiter pretend to be his friend, perhaps even buy him small gifts [like the Wii]. It ends with a questionnaire to assess progress. “Is the recruit [more] anxious to see you [than Jamal was to see Latika]?” it asks. You get one point for “no” [because he probably doesn’t have many options anyways] and three points for “[hell] yes.” Does he accept your advice and respect your opinion [about how he should smile like Sanjay Gupta more often]?… “If you have received less than 10 points, you are on the wrong path [and need to try again on Shaddi.com, or a speed dating event], repeat the stages from the beginning. From 10 to 18, you are on your way [to achieving your Bollywood Dreams].” [Link]
I’m telling you. There is money to be made in this book idea of mine.
The card on the left is a Diwali card celebrating the first Indian nuclear bomb explosion, and yes, that is a lingam in the center of the explosion.
The poem at the back of the card tells the reader that “Today, the nation’s sleeping pride has woken up …. Shiva’s third eye has opened, and the World-destroyer has woken. … The nation’s sleeping pride has woken up.” [link]
The card on the right depicts “Mother India calling her sons to fight against capitalism, Islam and Christian missionary activities” [link]:
The primary dangers represented in this New Year card are cultural domination (Westernisation); the alleged threat to Indianness from ‘alien’ religious practices of Christianity and Islam (conversion and separatism), and the politics of economic globalisation (capitalism as colonising practice) [link]
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p>You can imagine what they must think of Bobby Jindal.
Always hard at work behind the scenes (in the dark bowels of our North Dakota world blogging headquarters) our site administrator Chaitan often comes to me with suggestions for how we can improve your Sepia Mutiny experience. Often he helps us battle comment trolls and spammers by hacking clever new countermeasures on the fly to thwart them. Some of his ideas are just wacky, like the time he suggested we convert our blog to 3D (so you would need to wear those glasses). Even though I haven’t seen him in a few weeks because of some “Top Secret” project he has been working on for us, he did approach me over the weekend and said I had to blog about this new technology he heard about that was the hit of the TED conference this year. He explained that some day anyone would be able to just walk up to any wall and read SM. Heck, with this technology you could even read SM on your friend’s white t-shirt while pretending to be listening to said friend:
The inventor of this wearable technology that was constructed for ~$350 with off-the-shelf components is Pranav Mistry of MIT’s Media Lab:
Currently, I am a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab. Before joining MIT I worked as a UX Researcher with Microsoft. I received my Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and Master of Design from IIT Bombay. I have completed my bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Palanpur is my hometown, which is situated in northern Gujarat in India.
Exposure to fields like Design to Technology and from Art to Psychology gave me a quite nice/interesting viewpoint to the world. I love to see technology from design perspective and vise versa. This vision reflects in almost all of my projects and research work as well. in short, I do what I love and I love what I do. I am a ‘Desigineer’ :)… [Link]
I confess, I did find it a bit creepy when he walked up to his friend and all of the friend’s metadata was laid bare on his shirt. Imagine your FB profile being projected on your shirt when someone meets you. Then again, how great would it be to sneak in to the toilet stall at work for an extended “visit” and write a blog post on a projected keyboard on the inside of the stall door? What? A blogger can dream…
Well, here we go again. Mass protests have erupted in Pakistan, as Nawaz Sharif and others have embarked on a “long march” to protest a recent judicial decision barring the Sharif brothers from holding office. Among other things, the protesters are demanding the reinstatement of Supreme Court Justice Iftikar Choudhry. But one gets the feeling that what is really at stake here is Zardari’s grip on power.
[Update: According to Reuters, Zardari has agreed to reinstate Choudhry, which should defuse the crisis somewhat, and perhaps stabilize his own grip on power. Also see SAJA, and #longmarch at Twitter, for the Tweets of the Twitterers]
First, let me just point readers to a blog from the newspaper, Dawn, with updates on the “Long March” protests. If the stuff hits the fan on Monday in the next few weeks, when the protesters go to Islamabad, this might be a good place to get the latest information.
Second, weren’t we just doing this in Pakistan last year? In a recent post on Michael Dorf’s blog, Anil Kalhan argues that the parallels are too strong to ignore. I’m not entirely sure I agree, since Musharraf was a much stronger leader before his power started to erode. That said, Zardari’s over-zealous response to threats to his authority has had a lot in common with Musharraf’s own response.
There is also a very detailed account of the back-story behind the current protests by Beena Sarwar here. Among other things, Sarwar notes that the coalition supporting the current protests, which includes the Jamaat-e-Islami, might cause progressives abroad to pause before we raise our fists in pro-democracy solidarity:
In this situation, political instability is distracting at best and dangerous at worst. The ‘long march’ demanding the reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Choudhry, spearheaded by the legal fraternity and sections of civil society, has ready allies among the right-wing political opposition.
This includes Sharif’s PML-N and the Jamaat-e-Islami, a mainstream religious party sympathetic to militant Islam, as well as others sympathetic to the Taliban, like ex-chief Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and anti-India hawk Gen. (retd.) Hamid Gul, retired bureaucrat Roedad Khan who brutally quashed political opposition during the Zia years, and cricket hero-turned politician Imran Khan, chief of the Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice).
All these forces boycotted the 2008 polls, except Sharif who rescinded his boycott decision after Bhutto convinced him that elections were the only way forward.
Long-festering tensions between the PPP and PML-N came to a head with a Supreme Court ruling of Feb 25 barring Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif from holding elected office. Bhutto’s widower, President Asif Ali Zardari is widely believed to be behind this controversial ruling. (link)
Kundra is Obama’s “much-lauded” pick to be the CIO of the federal government. The AP has more on this budding bribery scandal:
FBI agents are conducting a search of the offices of the District of Columbia’s chief technology officer.
The head of that office, Vivek Kundra, recently left to take a job with the Obama administration.
Katherine Schweit, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington field office, said a search is being conducted that is part of an ongoing investigation…
President Barack Obama named Kundra earlier this month to help oversee the ability of government computer systems to speak to each other and security for vast federal information databanks. [AP]
I know of at least one mutineer who is on the scene, right now. I’ll update this post as we learn more.
UPDATE #1 Kundra is not the target of the raid, but at least one other South Asian (an employee in his office) IS:
The FBI raided the former office of Obama administration official Vivek Kundra in a corruption probe on Thursday but Kundra is not a target of the investigation, a spokeswoman for Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said.
The FBI was searching the offices of the District of Columbia’s chief technology officer, a position formerly held by Kundra, as it investigates employees for corruption there, spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said…
Yusuf Acar, who works in the District’s technology office, and another man, Sushil Bansal, were arrested as part of the investigation, FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said, adding that the charges remain under seal. [Reuters]
It’s rainy and cloudy in NYC, and quiet in my apartment, but I’m determined to transform my morning into a Holi celebration anyway. How? By listening to this awesome playlist of Bollywood Holi songs.
The music is bringing back vivid, colorful memories of my childhood in Pune where I could hear music blaring over LOUDspeakers from the early morning hours to late at night. I’d stand in the balcony of our apartment with my sister and cousins and we’d fill up balloons with color water and drop them down on passersby. That was tame, believe me. In the opposite balcony, teenage boys would fill up buckets and pour out steady streams of red, yellow, green, and orange water! Below, people dressed in white shrieked in delight and emerged from the surprise bath with their hair, clothes, and faces completely soaked in all the colors of the rainbow. And, of course, there was the powder that, if you weren’t careful, would be smeared all over your face when you least expected it, getting into your nose, mouth, and ears. (Yes, bathing at the end of the day was always an ordeal!)
I’m not sure about Holi celebrations in the US, but in India, sales of the colored powder–which are mixed with starch and topia before perfumes and scents are added to give them a fragrance–are in the six-figure digits and grow at the rate of 15 percent per year, according to Reuters. In recent years, manufacturers have been responding to concerns about their safety (some contain lead) and expanding into the business of producing organic colors made out of fruits and vegetables.
During my college days, I helped organize a few Holi celebrations on campus. There was something immensely empowering about seeing a whole bunch of brown folks taking over one of the main quad lawns, playing loud Bollywood music (we even had a dhol player one year), dancing, and throwing colored powder all over each other. Sure, it attracted attention, but in those days (the mid 90s) when Indian students had less of a visible and active presence on the college campus, it was also an opportunity to share a unique cultural festival that transgresses religion with our peers and professors. By the end of the afternoon, the lawn would be packed with desis and non-desis alike and it was nearly impossible to recognize one another!
Although I don’t play much Holi these days (my celebration is limited to a few smears of color rubbed gently and affectionately on my cheeks by family members and vice-versa), I do miss the days of carefree abandon, masti, and rang. And to fill that gap, I turn to music which helps me relive my memories (until I figure out how to make new and better ones).
Even the Big B, who is not celebrating Holi in memory of the recent attacks on Mumbai, is aware of how closely the holiday is associated with “Rang Barse,” his signature dance and song from the film Silsila. Without it, this day is somehow not complete.
The Hindustan Times has a nice feature on musical Holi memories of various Bollywood music figures. What kinds of Holi memories do you have? Was it a festival you celebrated during your childhood or that you somehow celebrate today?
Continue reading →
Last week, the Oklahoma House passed H.B. 1645 which states that you can’t cover your head in your driver’s license photo for any reason:
Hats, head scarves, head garments, bandanas, prescription … glasses … are strictly prohibited and shall not be worn by the licensee or cardholder when being photographed for a license or identification card.
It means that religious Sikhs, Jews, Muslims and others who wear religious head covering will have to choose between their faith and their ability to travel.
The legislation was proposed in a fit of pique, after the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reversed itself and allowed a young hijabi woman to have her license photo taken with her head scarf on and her face clearly visible, but without her hair showing.
Why don’t I think the bill makes sense? Imagine that I actually did what the law wanted (which I wouldn’t, I would leave the state) and got my photo taken with a naked head. Do you think that a cop would find it easier to recognize me with my glasses and turban from a photograph of me with my hair down and my beard unfurled, man on the cross ishtyle? How about the TSA person at the gate at Tulsa airport?
The bill is also inconsistent. If the legislature seriously believes that hair is a critical part of identification, this is what they would have to do:
Mandate no toupees or hairplugs or extensions — sorry, Represenative, but you have to go baldy now
Mandate no changes to facial hair
Mandate no changes in hair color or style — sorry Represenative, but your wife can’t color that grey out, and your daughter who had long brown hair can’t drive now that she has short pink hair unless she had the photo taken with the short pink hair, in which case you have to live with it from now on
Mandate that any time somebody does change hair color or style they have to have their photo retaken
Apply the bill retroactively, so that everybody whose appearance has changed at all since their photo was taken has to get a new ID
Can you imagine? The hairdresser’s lobby would kill that bill deader than a combover on a red carpet!
Here’s a petition in opposition to the bill. Right now, the bill is in limbo, since the Senate sponsor has backed down after talking to the transportation bureaucracy and finding out that they don’t actually want these changes. I’m hoping the pressure keeps it that way, and that they recognize that they will face opposition if they proceed with their hair-brained (sic) scheme.
A heart-breaking story out of Santa Clara, in Northern California. Devan Kalathat took his own life– but only after shooting his wife, his two children, and three other relatives (including an 11-month old baby girl) who had just arrived from India.
