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| Thursday, August 13, 2009 |
| Myanmar's 90 kyat note |
How astrology ruined Myanmar's economy
(kyat is the official currency of Myanmar)
In 1987, General Ne Win was told by his astrologer and numerologist that his lucky number was 9 and that he would live to be 90 if he "surrounded himself" with such auspicious digits.
So, the general invalidated all 50 and 100 kyat notes,and issued 45kyat and 90kyat notes. All the money that was saved in 50 and 100 notes by the people were rendered waste, and it led to the economic collapse of Myanmar (Burma).
Myanmar became the least developed nation of the world in 1987.
Sources: 1,2Labels: astrology, awareness, superstition |
posted by bharath @ 2:05 PM   |
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| Sunday, July 5, 2009 |
| Right to food |
Why cant the government provide food to everyone?
Like right to free speech, right to information why cant the government ensure right to food?
Do we really need to goto the moon or build cruise missiles while the majority of our population suffers from malnutrition and hunger?
As per tamil literature, there are three basic necessities for man,
1.Food, 2.Clothes,3,Shelter.
Clothes and shelter comes next to food.
First of all, consider this, why is a government existing?, because people cant manage all their needs,people appoint a government.That government gets its pay in the form of tax and takes care of the necessities of the people.
Food is the #1 necessity for majority of Indian population.
Our society is not an equal one in terms of wealth.But, everyone contributes to it.
Slum dwellers and daily wagers also contribute to the society.
There are several problems in implementation of the "right to food".
But, we have to find ways to implement it.
It seems our current government is moving towards implementing this.
From a Hindu article,
In a nation where mammoth wealth and intense destitution have co-existed for millennia, a law that would bind governments to guarantee that no man, woman or child sleeps hungry could be momentous.
They are forced to cut back on their food intakes, sometimes reduced to eating one meal a day; or to beg for food; or to eat tubers, grasses and mango kernels that fill their stomachs but provide no nutrition; or sometimes just to drink the starch water left over after cooking rice, which their neighbours give them in tight-fisted charity. They suffer to see their children painfully sleep on empty stomachs, and often succumb to ordinary illnesses which better nourished people would easily survive.
Half the children born in this land continue to be malnourished, and two out of three women are anaemic, because even within families, women eat the least and only after all others have been fed.
the Chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi, seized the initiative by writing her first letter to the Prime Minister since the installation of this government, proposing a bill that much more comprehensively guarantees adequate food to people who live with hunger. Many people who are chronically denied food have been specifically detailed in the draft she recommended: such as single women, disabled and aged people, street children, bonded workers, people in casual, low paid employment including agricultural labour and rag-picking, the urban homeless, and others.
The President of the Republic of Brazil, when his country launched a similar food guarantee, called "Hunger Zero". He had pledged,
"We will make it possible for people in our country to eat three square meals a day, every day, with no need for handouts from anyone. Brazil cannot go on living with so much inequity. We must overcome hunger, extreme poverty and social exclusion. Our war is not to kill anyone. It is to save lives".
A bonded worker, a child searching in rubbish heaps, and a disabled or aged man who stretches out his limbs for alms, possibly may have a full stomach, but without the dignity that every single human being is entitled to.
Some possible ways to implement "right to food" are mentioned here.Labels: awareness, india, indians, people |
| posted by bharath @ 9:30 AM |
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| Saturday, July 4, 2009 |
| First ever Earth-rise photo |
The first ever photo of "Earthrise" was taken by the Apollo 8 crew in December 1968, showing Earth for the first time as it appears from deep space.
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, entering lunar orbit .. In a historic live broadcast that night, the crew took turns reading from the Book of Genesis, closing with a holiday wish from Commander Borman: "We close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you -- all of you on the good Earth."
Image from NASA
"The Earth is man’s cradle, but one cannot live in the cradle forever"
-Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
I found this image on one wallpaper website, good for desktop background.
 Labels: earth, moon, space |
| posted by bharath @ 1:48 PM |
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| Monday, June 15, 2009 |
| The Tantra Challenge |
India TV, one of India’s major Hindi channels, invited Sanal Edamaruku for a discussion on “Tantrik power versus Science”. Pandit Surinder Sharma, who claims to be the tantrik of top politicians and is well known from his TV shows, represented the other side. During the discussion, the tantrik showed a small human shape of wheat flour dough, laid a thread around it like a noose and tightened it. He claimed that he was able to kill any person he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. Sanal challenged him to try and kill him. Hilarity ensues as the tanrik tries to kill Mr.Sanal by using magic.All magic words recited,he's still alive.Then the tantrik backed out saying that he has a better magic spell and it will work only during night.So,another tv show was shot during night.As expected, the tantrik fails this time too. View full article. Finally,one of the wide spread superstitions in India has been debunked.
Youtube link for video of the program: (click on the images to view the video)
* tantrik means magician of some sort
Labels: atheism, awareness, india, indians |
| posted by bharath @ 2:45 PM |
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| Saturday, June 6, 2009 |
| Google's logo today |
I happened to see this google logo and posted it at reddit, with the title,
"Google India's logo today".
Someone on the site immediately posted back,
Enjoy it while you can, because once that piece falls...
"Google India's logo tomorrow"
Funny indeed.Labels: funny, google, india |
| posted by bharath @ 5:02 AM |
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| Thursday, June 4, 2009 |
| India's telecom infrastructure - a report |
India's development in the wireless,wired phone network and internet,broadband penetration.
These graphs are excerpts from the 2008 report of TRAI.
As the above graph shows, wired telephone connections are falling.
And, wireless connections are rocketing.
Interesting to note that Airtel has larger base than BSNL.
In GSM operations, #1 Airtel, #2 Vodafone, #3 BSNL...
In CDMA operations, #1 Reliance, #2 Tata Indicom, #3 BSNL.
 The internet subscribers stand at 110lakhs. Broadband subscribers stand at 38.7 lakhs. Of all the leading ISPs, #1 BSNL, #2 MTNL ,#3 Airtel... Labels: india, indians |
| posted by bharath @ 3:56 PM |
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