There’s finally some good news about the desi diet to balance out all the heart disease. A compound in the haldi (turmeric) used in desi cooking may help prevent Alzheimer’s (via Boing Boing):

The new UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice, inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and also breaks up existing plaques. The research team also determined curcumin is more effective in inhibiting formation of the protein fragments than many other drugs being tested as Alzheimer’s treatments.

The rate of Alzheimer’s in India is 4x lower than in the U.S.

Here’s a copy of the full research paper.

One of the things that the 9/11 report brought home is that in major disasters, there are always early warnings from experts in the field.

The vaunted British-style bureaucracy in India responded with its usual alacrity to the incoming tsunami warnings:

[T]he top brass of the Indian Air Force knew their Nicobar Air base had been submerged a full hour before the waves struck the mainland coast…

The Indian Meteorological Department knew of the earthquake within minutes. Its first fax went out two and half hours later, and was sent to the home of the previous government’s science and technology minister, rather than his successor… “[I]t was a Sunday. Time was taken by the officer to get ready and get into the car…”

“There have been four tsunamis in India in the last 100 years, and it is well-known that an earthquake of such a large magnitude generates a tsunami. There was no system in place.”… “A country that hopes to run the call centers of the world could not call its own people.”

It took time to get into the car? IIT kids broadcast large porn videos in under 30 minutes, and they couldn’t pick up the phone?

Welcome to the old new century.

Have you deconstructed the title to this one yet? The New York Times reports on the role blogs are playing in disseminating news and information about the Tsunami in South and South East Asia:

For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.

The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media criticism. But the technology proved a ready medium for instant news of the tsunami disaster and for collaboration over ways to help.

I know that this post is a bit self-serving in that it occurs as a blog entry which is pointing out the value of blogs, but nonetheless I think it shows neophytes or the jaded non-believers that blogs can be relevant and worthy of a visit even if non-political in nature.

Bloggers at the scene are more deeply affected by events than the journalists who roam from one disaster to another, said Xeni Jardin, one of the four co-editors of the site BoingBoing.net, which pointed visitors to many of the disaster blogs.

“They are helping us understand the impact of this event in a way that other media just can’t,” with an intimate voice and an unvarnished perspective, with the richness of local context, Ms. Jardin said.

That makes blogs compelling – and now essential – reading, said Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University and a blogger. Once he heard about the disaster, “Right after BBC, I went to blogs,” he said.

The following quote in the article demonstrates the dedication of (or metal defect within) bloggers:

Dr. Vaidhyanathan said he was leaving for a long-planned trip to India today and, if possible, hoped to visit relatives in Madras. “As long as there is electricity and Internet access, I’ll blog,” he said.

I personally think that is a much cooler motto than that of the post office.

This story in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger is disturbing on several levels. The first is the personal story:

After several years, Vinod Taneja was to be reunited with his wife Monday night at Jackson International Airport after years of being apart.

Taneja, 56, had come alone to the United States from the couple’s home in northern India to make a life for them.

He opened Highway 80 Mini Mart in south Jackson a few months ago and was the store’s only employee.

But about two hours before his wife’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:30 p.m., Taneja was shot and killed at his store at 5049 U.S. 80 West.

“He wanted to make a home here,” said Hitesh Desai of the India Association of Mississippi. “The fact that his wife came here under these circumstances is demoralizing.

As if the cruel fate of that in itself isn’t sad enough, the circumstances of his death take a bizarre twist:

No one has been arrested, and a motive has not been established in Taneja’s death, said Jackson police spokesman Robert Graham.

A man wearing a “Scream” mask and dark clothes came in the store and shot Taneja, Graham said.

The mask and a piece of clothing were found in trash near the store, police said.

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