Category Archives: Science and Technology

Downward Dog, Not Doggie…

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Sisters are doing it for themselves, y'all.JPG In latex, India’s women should trust (thanks, Jeet). So much for treating one’s husband as if they were a deity, hmmm? Via TimesNow.TV:

Women’s welfare minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has asked women to trust condoms more than their husbands.
Chowdhury commented on Monday (July 16) that Indian men can’t be trusted in their sexual behaviour. According to Chowdhury, men also play a pivotal role in fuelling the country’s HIV epidemic – so women, she said, should protect themselves by keeping condoms as straying husbands might bring the virus home.

I’m sure that will go over VERY well.”Honey, I don’t trust you and these business trip-ships you are always having. Please be covering up, thank you, come again”. (Oh, like you could have resisted that last bit…it’s Rahul’s influence, I tell you.)

“Half our problems stem from hypocrisy. We women are too shy to ask our husbands to use a condom. At one time it was considered immoral to even use the word. People still feel reluctant to say it. And this shyness costs women dearly,” she said.

Whenever I read the word “shyness”, I think…

Shyness is nice, and Shyness can stop you From doing all the things in life You’d like to So, if there’s something you’d like to try If there’s something you’d like to try ASK ME – I WON’T SAY “NO” – HOW COULD I ?

Ah, that was lovely. If women in India take Renuka’s advice, here’s hoping that last sentence is what they are met with, in response.

“Men can’t be trusted and everyone knows this,” she said adding “with due apologies and exemptions to the current company – most husbands can’t be trusted at different levels. They stay away from home for work purposes for long periods, often falling prey to temptation and then making their wives also victims. The onus lies on women to stop the deadly disease (AIDS).”

The onus lies on WOMEN? What, like we don’t already have enough to do? Chey! OUR TO-DO LISTS NEVER END!

…a move to introduce sex education at the school level has been net with stiff resistance from many politicians, with several state governments opposing it saying it will go against Indian culture – and this has also been a big headache for Chowdhury.

Wait, what kind of resistance was sex ed met with? 😉

Renuka Chowdhury’s refreshing candour is perhaps more indicative of the emerging Indian woman – and stands at odds with some of the more conservative, regressive views that have been voiced by some of our mass leaders who seem to be out of touch with reality…

Out of touch with reality, indeed. Read on, for what inspired the title, picture and my general silliness…

Madhya Pradesh School Education Minister Narottam Mishra even suggested “Instead of imparting sex education to school students, they will be taught yoga.”

Fantastic. Then everyone will be flexible, in great shape AND in the mood to knock Batas. Perrrfect. Continue reading →

Would Apu let him get away with it?

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Super cute high jinks, brought to you by DJ Drrrty Poonjabi, the BBC and the letter S. 🙂

A seagull has turned shoplifter by wandering into a shop and helping itself to crisps. The bird walks into the RS McColl newsagents in Aberdeen when the door is open and makes off with cheese Doritos…
Shop assistant Sriaram Nagarajan said: “Everyone is amazed by the seagull. For some reason he only takes that one particular kind of crisps.”
The bird first swooped in Aberdeen’s Castlegate earlier this month and made off with the 55p crisps, and is now a regular.

Look, he even shares!

Once outside, the crisps are ripped open and the seagull is joined by other birds.

Clever birdie…

Mr Nagarajan said: “He’s got it down to a fine art. He waits until there are no customers around and I’m standing behind the till, then he raids the place.
“At first I didn’t believe a seagull was capable of stealing crisps. But I saw it with my own eyes and I was surprised. He’s very good at it.
“He’s becoming a bit of a celebrity. Seagulls are usually not that popular but Sam is a star because he’s so funny.”

Happy Friday, Mutineers. Join us next week, when Sam is kidnapped by Britney, and trained to retrieve funyuns and altoids, y’all (for Sean Preston, of course). Continue reading →

Chew on this

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Ummmm.

An Indian firm has launched a paan-flavoured condom designed to evoke the pungent taste of the betel nut and tobacco concoction chewed and then spat out by millions of South Asians, newspapers reported on Tuesday. [Link]

Yeah, so like, is this so women will chew it and spit it out? So…many…jokes…cannot…type. I mean seriously, do we really want a condom to taste like something that you typically chew for an hour and grind down to a pulp? What if one acts instinctively when the aroma begins to entoxicate (although paan makes me want to vomit)? Well, at least nobody gonna mess with the prostitues who will be the test market for this product:

The company ran taste tests with sex workers, including prototypes with chocolate, banana and strawberry flavours, but the paan flavour came out tops…

The condoms will at first be made available only to prostitutes, but will we launched to the general public in a few months, the newspaper said. [Link]

I know some of you guys are thinking what I’m thinking but I am going to just come out and say it. Think I can bid for these on Ebay? During the limited release trial period the prostitutes would make a whole lot more money selling these to paan-flavored condom collectors like me, than they would using these with their clients. We’d both be winners. They’d get to skip work for a long time and I’d have something really cool for show-and-tell the next time I have a party.

Dirty Mouths Come Clean.

Continue reading →

Cheek Swabbing Can Be Fun… Bay Area Mega Drive

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Ultrabrown posted some picts from last weekend’s cheek swab fest in NYC. Vinay Chakravarty and his wife showed up and, as Manish points out, it’s almost weird how much revelry the event managed to create…

Additional events are happening all over the country to help Vinay, Sameer and countless others in the future.

In particular, this weekend, Bay Area volunteers are hosting their MEGA DRIVE spanning over a dozen sites.

So here’s a little game to liven things up & help get the word out — snap a pict or 2 of you and your friends getting your cheeks swabbed and/or holding up your donor cards, send ’em to ME (vinod@vinod.com), and, in the spirit of the Desi Dad project, we’ll post some of our fav mug shots on SM and Ultrabrown alongside these folks –

Continue reading →

…TiE Seattle Does Not, Unfortunately.

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I was getting ready to post a friendly, pushy reminder about a fantastic event which is taking place tomorrow, in DC at Tony and Joe’s (read: Sequoia ;)– but when I went to Vinay’s excellent website, something else caught my attention.

Something wrong.

All of us have at some point or another, met self righteous folk, very often rich entrepreneurs, who act like they’re God’s gift to the rest of us. Here’s where they become even more obnoxious if you can imagine what that might look like. TiE Seattle approached me last year to do a story on them for a prominent CA Indian paper which I promptly did. I didn’t play any games with them, didn’t dangle them for weeks. They asked, said their story had not been told before, I promptly, gladly did a story on them. Period.

Why not.JPG

Afterward, at every single TiE event I went to, their president (who shares his name with a Bollywood superstar) would drop as I’d be right in the middle of dinner, and demand right away, “So when are you doing another story on us?” At first I thought he was making small talk, then I thought he was just some overeager zealot but then I heard from many people that his malaise was something else. He just suffered from a bad case of pushy Swagger, EGO and a of lack of good manners. So I did what every journalist does. Ignored his prattle and stopped going to TiE Seattle…
I approached TiE asking them if they’d be kind enough to circulate an email to their member base telling them about Vinay and the bone marrow drive for him in Seattle. Just an email. I didn’t ask them for money or anything else. Just an email. 15 days out and what do I get? Zilch. Not even the courtesy of a, “Right now we’re too busy counting our dollars and won’t be able to email our members. Thank you for asking.”
Is it too much to ask to help a dying man? [SeattlePI]

Can I buy a round of WTFs, straight up? I’ve been called some…interesting things on SM these past few days, but maybe one of the trolls should have hurled “naive” my way. How could anyone say no to this cause? I can understand why the blogger, Priyanka Joshi, whom I quoted above, said this:

Corp-Social Responsibility? Hahaha![SeattlePI]

Would it have been THAT difficult to forward Priyanka’s email to their members? Maybe there are good souls in the Seattle chapter who would’ve wanted to help Vinay. It’s a shame that certain people are too…I don’t know what to put here…to help another human being.

Disclaimer for those who need it:

I am not denigrating TiE, its chapters or even its Seattle members. I’m just echoing another bloggers shock and disappointment in whomever decided that a wee email wasn’t important enough to pass on…okay?

I mean, it’s not like I sent the following words heavenwards…

So, in spirit of human dignity, as I pray for Vinay tonight, I’m also saying a prayer for TiE Seattle. “May TiE’s swagger and a lack of concern for other people be replaced by genuine compassion for the rich and the middle class alike.” Amen. [SeattlePI]

…but that’s only because I didn’t think of them, first. Amen. Continue reading →

In NYC This Weekend? GO. If Not, Read on…

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helpVinay_NYC-3.jpg

Click to enlarge.

Many of you have offered your good wishes for Vinay’s health– some of you have even taken the next step and become part of the database. Others– especially when they read these posts I keep beating you about the head (and hopefully heart) with– are reminded of their intention to get registered; they think, oh, I’ll make it to the next drive and do it then.

A very special opportunity to get swabbed is available to desis in what I still think of as the brownest city of them all– even if it’s a big apple and not a mango. This Sunday, in NYC, from 4-8 pm, show up at Pianos and not only will you increase the possibility of saving someone’s life, you may get to meet the man who has inspired this incredible campaign to paint the national database sepia. Vinay might be there. 🙂 Please wish him a happy second wedding anniversary (July 3) for me, if you go.

If you can’t attend or you are not in the NYC area, please harass your loved ones. Get every South Asian person you know to consider becoming a committed donor; a list of the drives which are happening all over the country is here. While my constant posting about Vinay may insinuate otherwise, this is about all of us, not one of us. It’s scary to consider how close this can hit to home; I’ve lost two family members in three years to this disease. I may not know Vinay, but I don’t have to, to believe in what he and his team are going to do.

::

Which diseases can be treated by marrow transplant?
Over 70 diseases including the leukemia’s, aplastic anemia, severe combined immune deficiency, sickle cell anemia and radiation poisoning are treated by marrow transplant.

::

What exactly is a marrow / stem cell transplant?
Simply, it is the replacement of diseased blood stem cells from a health donor infused into a patient’s vein just like a blood transfusion. Within four to six weeks the transplanted marrow / stem cells begin to produce normal blood cells in the patient.

::

Who can become a marrow / stem cell donor?
You must be between 18 and 60 years old, have no history of hepatitis, heart disease, cancer or AIDS, and sign a consent form allowing the Registry to include your HLA tissue type in its confidential files for future matching. See NMDP link below for more details: Donor information (NMDP) and Donor Eligibility Guidelines.

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How do I know if I am a match?
If you are found to be a possible match with a patient, the center in which you tested and/or the NMDP will contact you immediately and give you the option of proceeding to the next level/s of testing to insure final HLA compatibility with the patient.

::

Who pays for these tests?
Not you – the patient or his/her medical insurance does.

Continue reading →

Kumar Wants You to REGISTER

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Meanwhile, that Sunkrish Bala is a slice of adorable, isn’t he? I wouldn’t kick him…off the couch…where we would be demurely seated on opposite sides. And not touching. With vada on the coffee table as our witness. And our parents there, too. Ah, I digress.

But while I’m digressing, you should know that “Notes from the Underbelly“, which SB starred on, was one of my favorite shows of the past season. 🙂 Go on with your bad self, Sunkrish, whose name leaves me puzzled. And let me just say that I heart you more, for trying to help Vinay and others like him. “I’m registered…are you?” should become our new pickup line at the clubs, because I would’ve hurled my digits at THAT, for sure.

I was proud to see several of you get swabbed at the last Subcontinental Drift event. Drives are still happening all over the country.

There is still time– one of you could be the one. Continue reading →

Rupees Are Worth A Lot These Days

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rupee.jpgI’ve been watching with a mixture of excitement and unease this past year as the Rupee has edged up on the Dollar; earlier this spring, the Rupee/Dollar ratio reached close to 40:1 (right now it’s dropped back to about 41:1). Now, I understand this could have all sorts of implications for the Indian economy, some good (it’s a sign of a strong economy) and some bad (it could discourage foreign investment) — but I’d better leave it to the economists in the house to sort out “what it all means.”

What I’m interested in today is an entirely different kind of Rupee inflation, specifically the repurposing of Indian Rupee coins in eastern India. BBC reports that 1 Rupee, 2 Rupee, and 5 Rupee coins are being melted down and turned into razors, at which point they are smuggled into Bangladesh:

Police in Calcutta say that the recent arrest of a grocer highlights the extent of the problem. They seized what they said was a huge coin-melting unit which he was operating in a run-down shack.

The grocer confessed to melting down tens of thousands of Indian coins into razor blades which were then smuggled into Bangladesh, police said.

“Our one rupee coin is in fact worth 35 rupees, because we make five to seven blades out of them,” the grocer allegedly told the police. “Bangladeshi smugglers take delivery of the blades at regular intervals.”(link)

The problem is worst in West Bengal and Assam, which border Bangladesh. The BBC article describes some of the details of the problem — touts who buy coins operate with impunity right in front of the Reserve Bank where new coins are issued. And the coin depletion problem persists, even though the Mint has now reduced the metal content of the coins. (You can see a nice group of diagrams describing the constitution of the coins at the RBI website. 1 Rupee coins are made from stainless steel, while 2 and 5 Rupee coins are made of a copper-nickel alloy.)

Normally the metal in coins is worth less than the cost of melting them down and turning them into something else; it has to be that way, for the system to work. But apparently that’s no longer the case in eastern India. Indeed, unless the market in razor blades made from Rupee coins becomes saturated, causing the price of razors to drop, I can’t see how or why the current black market in coins should lose steam. Continue reading →

Kingfisher Airlines — coming soon to the U.S.

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I always find it a little suspect when people try to do novelty airlines, maybe because I’m one of those paranoid people who, even after years of flying and hundreds of flights, still routinely thinks “We’re all going to die!” at least two or three times on any given flight. Thus, I will never fly the now-grounded “Hooters Air,” even if it does come back. (Guys, keep your eyes on the… cockpit? please?)

Kingfisher Airlines might end up as a better bet, but as might be proper in an airline that emerged out of a beer company, if I do ever fly with them I’ll still probably feel compelled to smell the pilot’s breath before I take my seat. Apparently, Kingfisher Airlines, one of India’s newer domestic carriers, has signed a deal with Airbus to buy several jumbo and superjumbo planes, with an eye to entering the international market. The move is part of a general boom in international travel to India (which has been up by about 40% this year alone).

The New York Times article about the event spends as much time talking about the lifestyle of Kingfisher’s flamboyant CEO Vijay Mallya, as it does considering the economic viability of the venture (they do note that Kingfisher Airlines has yet to turn a profit as a domestic carrier in India):

Mr. Mallya personally is the sort of unfettered corporate czar that many American boardrooms have not seen in at least half a century. He surrounds himself with a close group of longtime advisers, wears copious diamonds, holds business meetings at his house until 5 in the morning, winks at female journalists and flaunts the “good times” corporate motif in most aspects of his life.

At home, a Mercedes, a Ferrari and a Bentley are parked in his driveway. His ornate living room is filled with silver gilded furniture and art objects like a marble statue of a nymph-like woman, as well as a Picasso sketch. His CD collection includes dance, lounge and party music.

A group of largely silent young women clad in white deliver drinks, answer phones and clean up ashtrays. (link)

Kya baat hai. Vijay Mallya seems to be a mix of new-school Indian self-confidence and ambition (this is a huge endeavour), and a kind of old-school, “ladies’ man” absurdity that seems to have come out of some 70s Bollywood movie. Even the attractive female flight attendants are a big part of the company’s marketing campaign, which seems like an obvious Vijay Mallya touch (see this article).

In general, I have to say that Kingfisher’s “keep the good times rolling” marketing campaign simply isn’t appealing to me. From an airline I really want the boring things — professionalism, competence, and yeah, safety — not so much “party time.”

But is he perhaps appealing to a real demographic, one that’s a bit less stodgy and paranoid than me? Are people really going to fly Kingfisher “Good Times” Airlines to go to and from the Desh? Continue reading →

Touchdown

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Sunita Williams has returned safely to Earth after setting the record for the longest time in space by a woman.

Praying for a safe Earth entry

“Welcome back,” Mission Control told Atlantis. “Congratulations on a great mission.” Controllers praised the crew for providing a “stepping stone to the rest of NASA’s exploration plan…”

Astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams returned to Earth on Atlantis after spending more than six months at the space station. She set an endurance record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days. During her stay, she also set the record for most time spacewalking by a woman. [Link]

More cute pictures after the fold.

Continue reading →