Category Archives: Science and Technology

Deadly building collapse in Bangladesh

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Tragedy struck earlier this week at a sweatshop in Bangladesh:

Rescuers pulled two more bodies out of the rubble of a nine-story garment factory that collapsed four days ago, taking the toll to 32 on Thursday with more than 100 workers still feared trapped…The factory at Palashbari, 30 km (18 miles) from the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, was built without planning permission, officials and engineers said. Its owners have not been found since the worst tragedy in the country’s accident-prone garment industry struck in the wee hours of Monday. [Reuters/Yahoo!]

The factory produced clothes for export to the U.S, Belgium and Germany. The companies haven’t been named, or stepped forward. Seeing as how their oversight of the factory was lacking, they probably don’t even know yet. Once they do, surely their hell-bound executives will mourn the loss (of revenue, not life).

Reuters/Yahoo!: Hopes for Bangladesh factory survivors fade as death toll hits 32

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Hard Rock Café coming to Bombay

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Twenty years ago when everyone was sporting Hard Rock Café t-shirts, this would have allowed us to be culturally-appropriate posers:

…global cafecum-entertainment giant – the USD 426-million Hard Rock International – has made the move to enter India. Industry sources said Hard Rock International has signed an exclusive arrangement up with two Indian franchisee partners – Jai Singh and Sanjay Mehtani. The first Hard Rock Cafe is expected to come up in Mumbai, in September. [Times of India]

Times of India: Hard Rock to enter India

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Mamma!

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We at Sepia Mutiny are in favor of equal opportunity boobage. A couple of years ago, this oddity went out over the wire (via BridalBeer and Gene Expression):

Mr B Wijeratne, from Walapanee, near Colombo, took to breastfeeding her soon after his wife died three months ago while giving birth to their second child.

His elder daughter, 18-month-old Nisansala Madhushani, was so used to her mother’s milk that she would not take formula milk. Mr Wijeratne told Sinhalese language newspaper Lankadeepa: “My child would reject the powdered milk I tried feeding through a bottle. “Unable to see her cry I offered my breast. That’s when I discovered that I could breastfeed her…”

Dr Kamal Jayasinghe, a spokesman for the hospital, said: “Men with a hyperactive prolactine hormone can produce breast milk.”

Wikipedia explains:

It is not so often understood that [human males] also have mammary glands… Under the appropriate hormonal stimulus… the mammary glands of human males can also produce milk… The volume… will be small relative to the amount that a female can produce.

The most common circumstance under which lactation is induced is when hormonal treatments are given to men suffering from prostate cancer… Male-to-female transsexuals may also produce milk due to the hormones they take to reshape their bodies. Extreme stress has also been known to be a cause of male lactation, as evidenced upon the return of American POWs from the Korean and Vietnam Wars… It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated ‘sucking’ of the nipple over a long period of time (months).

From an engineering standpoint, this is actually fairly cool. Just think of all the unused capabilities your body’s hiding away for when hormonal switches are flipped. It’s a pity none of them are superpowers. Beyond suckling, that is.

There’s a more disturbing story in this vein from India here (not for the squeamish). Now can we get back to posting Aishwarya photos?

Fortune cookies

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The NYT reports that some Chinese intellectuals and officials have kind words for India:

“India is a far more diverse country… a place with the second largest Muslim population in the world, and lots of ethnic minorities, and yet it organizes regular elections without conflict. China is 90 percent Han, so if India can conduct elections, so can China.” [Pang Yongzhing, a professor of international relations at Nankai University in Tianjin]

India, a paragon of manufacturing efficiency?

“To produce goods worth $10,000, for example, we need seven times more resources than Japan, nearly six times more than the United States and, perhaps most embarrassing, nearly three times more than India.” [Pan Yue, China’s environment minister]

Respect for intellectual property? He’s probably never visited a pirate desi Blockbuster store.

“In India there is a lot more room to move around… their capital markets are good, their banking sector is better than in China, and there is entrepreneurialism everywhere in India, along with well-protected intellectual property rights. All of these are things that China lacks.” [Zhang Jun, director of the China Center for Economic Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai]

Some desis have a disturbing attachment to authoritarian government, or perhaps (not so disturbing at all) just plain effectiveness:

There is constant talk these days of turning Mumbai, the southern commercial metropolis formerly known as Bombay, into a new Shanghai, China’s most glitteringly modern city… Such contrasts have left some Indians to remark, sometimes despairingly, about a “democracy price” that slows development… “I’m often approached by friends returning impressed from China, saying how our airports in Bombay and Delhi can’t compare,” said G. P. Deshpande, a longtime China scholar at Jawaharal Nehru University in Delhi. “When I tell them that these things come in a package, that you don’t just get the new airports, and I describe the package, though, they say no thank you.”

Finally, perhaps India too will get its Mideast invasions:

“As far as exporting democracy, it is only a matter of time before India gets the self-confidence to begin doing this.” [Subramanian Swamy, president of India’s Janata Party and former minister of law, commerce and justice]

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I’m a hustler, baby

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I’m a hustler, baby
I just want you to know
It ain’t where I been
But where I’m ’bout to go

–Jay-Z, ‘I Just Wanna Love U’

British author Preethi Nair self-published after her first novel was rejected everywhere (thanks, Punjabi Boy). She invented a PR persona out of whole cloth so publications wouldn’t catch on she was a one-woman band. She landed a three-book publishing deal, and the Beeb is filming one of her novels. Here’s the kicker: her fake PR persona was shortlisted for Publicist of the Year. Not content, Nair then turned her fictional life yet another novel. Meta, shameless, impressive!

Preethi Nair was born in Kerala, South India in 1971 and came to England as a child… she worked as a management consultant but gave it up to… become a writer… Jobless and having been rejected by most publishers, Preethi took the deposit out of the flat she was about to buy and set up her own publishing company… Not having enough money for a PR agency, she… appointed… Pru Menon (her alter ego) to shamelessly hype the book… she signed a three-book deal with HarperCollins. Preethi won the Asian Woman of Achievement award for her endeavours and Pru was shortlisted as Publicist of the Year for the PPC awards.

“100 Shades of White”, her first novel with HarperCollins has been bought by the BBC for a television adaptation and her third novel “Beyond Indigo” will be published in August, along with the reissue of “Gypsy Masala”. [Her own bio, natch]

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ARR: DEL STOPS: 0

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Continental Airlines will add the first nonstop flight from the U.S. to India beginning Nov. 1, contingent on approval from the Indian government (via SAJA). The Newark (NYC)-New Delhi route will cosset passengers in the belly of a 777.

The only other nonstop from this continent is Air Canada’s Toronto-Delhi route. Also, Air India just added an LA-Frankfurt-Delhi flight. Thanks, open skies agreement!

See flight nerds’ discussion here. Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4

Man of La Gaza

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A couple of tech entrepreneurs are on a quixotic quest for peace in the Middle East: they’re holding screenings of the movie Gandhi in Palestine.

… more than two decades after the movie “Gandhi” filled theaters worldwide, the first version dubbed in Arabic was screened here, with the blessing of the Palestinian leadership… The film… has been issued previously with Arabic subtitles, but never before dubbed in the language. The organizers said they received permission from Sony Pictures to show it without charge in Palestinian communities.

Organizers of the “Gandhi Project” plan to show the film throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip… [and] to the large Palestinian refugee communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The project is bankrolled by Jeff Skoll, billionaire co-founder of eBay, and Iranian-American serial entrepreneur Kamran Elahian, founder of Cirrus Logic. They’ve brought in Ben Kingsley to host some of the screenings, but they’re running into some resistance:

Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his starring role as Mohandas K. Gandhi, was in Ramallah as a guest of the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas… “It’s not possible,” interjected Sudki Safat, a friend of Ms. Afanah and an official in the Ministry of Education. “I know Gandhi and his principles. But I also know my enemy very well… Gandhi would fail if he faced the Israelis…”

Several said they were interested in other aspects of Indian resistance to British colonial rule, like economic self-reliance and the boycott of British products… “… I don’t think we have the means to boycott Israeli products.”…

Palestinians argue that they have pursued nonviolent resistance at various times over the years, to no avail… Israel, meanwhile, says the Palestinians as a whole have never made a strategic decision to abandon violence.

Vikram Chatwal’s Dream, a Nightmare

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vikram_dream.jpg
Gawker.com highlights one of SM’s favorites again, Vikram Chatwal. This time, not to highlight his burgeoning film career or his association with the NY/LA Glitterati, but instead his entrepreneurial venture, the boutique Dream Hotel. Well, actually Gawker said they put this item in to highlight the above picture, where they say Chatwal

sure does look serene for a ‘tard whose Dream hotel has been recognized as little more than a dump.

Apparently Dream, which hasn’t been getting the best of reviews, recently got canned by Newsweek magazine. In their piece entitled “It Sure Isn’t Like Motel 6,” the magazine notes:

The Dream Hotel in midtown Manhattan, which opened in October, features three sumptuously decorated bars and, in the bizarre, amply-mirrored lobby, a towering fish tank, a Mongolian statue and a stuffed raven. Its rooms, with 37-inch wall-mounted plasma televisions, are studies in the art of trying to appear chic within a stingy 160 square feet. However, there’s no wireless Internet access, and the desk chairs are poorly positioned for working productively on a laptop. “Eclectic design and fancy marketing don’t cut it anymore for the business traveler who’s educated enough to know when they are getting the right product for the right price,” Chatwal says. But it’s hard to reconcile that with the blue luminescent photos (mostly of naked women) that greet guests as they step outside the elevators on each floor. Here’s an even worse sin: during enterprise’s recent stay, the Dream neglected to place our morning wake-up call, requiring a mad dash to the airport. For a business traveler, there’s no greater nightmare.

Perhaps Daddy’s entrepreneurial genes don’t reach Vikram.

More SM on Chatwal here and more Gawker on Chatwal here. Continue reading →

Dabbas for dummies

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If you, like I, have never actually lived in Bombay, here’s a great primer on why office workers use the O.G. FedEx (via Kunjan):

A restaurant meal costs five to fifteen times more than home-food. To them, the dabbawalla brings the security of a cheap, clean, tasty and often still-warm, home-cooked meal… Bombay alone can sustain a dabbawalla network of this size and complexity because it alone, among Indian cities, has a quick, efficient and far-flung suburban railway service.

Not to mention that many have religion-based dietary restrictions. Density and train availability is also why some businesses only work in Manhattan and like cities; Bombay’s north-south orientation is strikingly familiar. Here’s how the routing system works — each packet is marked with hops, destination and recipient name, and handoffs are made at railway stations:

The outer case of Mohile’s dabba is marked with a black swastika, a red dot, a yellow stroke… Different marks on other dabbas tell the career at which stations en route he must pass them on to other waiting links in the crosscross network. At Victoria Terminus, the hub of commercial Bombay, Mohile’s dabba enters the last phase of its journey. Dabbawalla No. 4 waiting on the platform, picks it out together with other boxes marked with his symbol, the white cross. The black circle on Mohile’s case indicates its exact destination: the BMC Building. By 12.30 he has carried his crate up four flights of stairs and left Mohile’s lunch-box along with some 20 others in a corner of the canteen. Mohile, coming in at 1 p.m. will recognise his dabba from his name on an attached tag.

The dabbawallas’ perseverence puts the U.S. Postal Service to shame, and they charge only 35 rupees a month:

Some months ago, a dabbawalla waiting on his bicycle at a traffic light was hurled off the road by a lorry gone berserk and was smashed to death… The mukadam [dabba boss] got to hear of the accident within minutes and contracted the secretary of the Association… asked him to look after the police formalities, collected the dead man’s dabbas, and being familiar with the symbols, got them to their destination — just 30 minutes late…

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