Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ

The Flip Flopper

One of President Bush’s characterization of his opponent Senator John Kerry is as a flip flopper. The Republicans have been repeating it like a mantra in all occasions. So in a world of sound bytes, all that matters is words like “fuzzy math”, or “flip flopper”. Richard Cohen has an article in the Washington Post asking who is the real flip flopper ?

Bush also declared himself a determined unilateralist, kissing off treaties and understandings and even spurning NATO’s help in Afghanistan. Now, though, the unilateralist of old is sending Colin Powell around the world, seeking alms and arms for Iraq. Flip-flop.
Bush would not negotiate with North Korea. He did. Flip-flop.
Bush told the United Nations to butt out of Iraq. Now he wants it in. Flip-flop. [Washington Post]

Moral of the story: If you are a flip flopper, start calling your opponent a flip flopper.

The terrorist factory chugs along

Pakistan, the terrorist factory is real busy. Now they need to supply terrorists to both Afghanistan and India.

The prisoner, who gave his name as Muhammad Sohail, is a 17-year-old from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, held by the Afghan authorities in Kabul. In an interview in late July, in front of several prison guards, he said Pakistan was allowing militant groups to train and organize insurgents to fight in Afghanistan.

It is an open secret in Pakistan that groups supporting separatism in Kashmir have not stopped their activities, despite official declarations, and have continued to train men and infiltrate them into Indian Kashmir. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said during a visit to the region last month that Pakistan had not dismantled all the camps used to train militants for Kashmir. And while he praised Pakistan for its efforts against Al Qaeda, he urged the country to do more to stop Taliban militants carrying out attacks from Pakistan.[New York Times]

But then attacking Americans stationed in Afghanistan is not the same as attacking Indian troops

Afghan troops backed by U.S. warplanes killed as many as 70 guerrillas in a day-long battle near the Pakistani border, military officials said Tuesday… Pilots reported seeing 40 to 50 bodies on the battlefield near the mountainous Pakistani border, Peat said, and several wrecked vehicles were spotted. Nawab put the rebel toll as high as 70, saying the guerrillas had dragged away many dead and wounded as they retreated into Pakistan. Afghan forces recovered only 10 bodies, he said. [Washington Post]

But will this make Pakistan a terrorist nation ? No, as long as an occasional High Value Target is captured or some information is provided, they will remain the most valuable ally in the war on terror.

Kerry Leading

Newsweek has a new poll in which John Kerry is leading ahead of George Bush by 7 points.

Coming out of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Sen. John Kerry now holds a seven-point lead over President George W. Bush (49 percent to 42 percent) in a three-way race with independent Ralph Nader (3 percent), according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll The poll was taken over two nights, both before and after Kerry’s acceptance speech. Respondents who were queried after Kerry’s Thursday night speech gave the Democrat a ten-point lead over Bush. Three weeks ago, Kerry

The iPod Killer ?

After finding that Apple had a huge marketshare in portable music players, Sony, who revolutionized the portable music market 25 years back decided to step in. So they introduced the Sony Network Walkman which got many things right. The Sony device is smaller and has a much better battery life. But they decided to screw up in the most important area, the format of the songs. They decided not to support any of the popular music formats, including MP3.

One major downside of the new Walkman is that it can’t play MP3 files, or any of the other standard formats. It can play back only a proprietary Sony format called ATRAC3, or a variation called ATRAC3plus. This means that, when you transfer your MP3 files to the new Walkman, Sony’s PC software must laboriously convert them first into ATRAC3 files. Sony claims it designed the player this way because ATRAC3 produces superior sound, and because it has features that extend battery life.

For my test, I used a very modest collection of 431 standard MP3 files. SonicStage 2 refused to transfer 15 of the files, posting a nonsensical error message. After that, it took an agonizingly long two hours and 13 minutes to transfer the remaining 416 tracks to the Walkman. By contrast, Apple’s iTunes software transferred all 431 songs to an iPod in about four minutes.

[via WSJ]
Will this kill the iPod ? I don’t think so.

Pictures from Adichanallur

There are “some pictures”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/25/stories/2004072500421100.htm from “Adichanallur”:https://varnam.org/archives/000431.html, near Tirunelveli where 2800 years old human skeletons were found in urns.
bq. The series of motifs show a tall, majestic looking woman; a swathe of standing paddy next to her; a crane; a deer; a crocodile and a lizard too. These motifs resemble prehistoric cave paintings found in Erode and Dharmapuri districts of Tamil Nadu. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chennai Circle, made the discovery this month in one of the six trenches it dug at Adichanallur. The woman who is standing holds what looks like an oval-shaped anklet in her right hand. The deer has long, straight horns and an upturned tail. The crane is perched on some vegetation. The crocodile looks as if it is crouching. It is virtually a pictorial ode. A small, thin rope was obviously used to bring about a serrated effect on the deer’s horns, the sheaf of paddy, etc.
bq. The ASI has also discovered two urns, fully intact, with beautiful decorations on them. One has a garland-like impression running below its rim, created by a thumb impression. Another urn has two necklace-like ornamentation, cutting each other. A flat, thin knob protrudes from one of these decorations. A third broken pot has a leaf-like design running all round its middle.
bq. The “engineering marvel” at the Adichanallur burial site is its three-tier system. The earliest generation buried the dead in urns at a depth of about 10 feet. The next two generations buried them in urns in two tiers above. Urns were inserted by cutting a rocky hillock. Agriculture land was not used. Mr. Thirumoorthy said: “The three-tier system of burial shows their intention, with foresight, to accommodate future burials. Adichanallur shows the importance given to the dead in the early Tamil society in the mode of burial practice, and that society’s socio, economic and religious beliefs.” [“The Hindu”:http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/25/stories/2004072500421100.htm]

Donald Trump did not build Taj Mahal

Indian Archaeologists have found the names of 670 labourers who built the Taj Mahal.
bq. The names, written mostly in Arabic and Persian, are etched on the sandstone used in the wall and other peripheral structures on the northern side of the Taj Mahal, the Asian Age newspaper reported. Some names were also written in Hindi, the report said, quoting D. Dayalan, a senior official at the Archaeological Survey of India. Dayalan and his staff also found tridents, stars, geometrical patterns and flowers carved into some of the sandstone, implying the masons and labourers were drawn from diverse religions. “Since many of them were illiterates, they denoted symbols as a mark of their identity,” Dayalan said. [“CNews”:http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2004/07/06/527091-ap.html]

900-year-old Jain idols unearthed

bq. VADODARA: Jains in Khambhat taluka of Anand were overjoyed when around 65 idols temple were unearthed at a construction site in the town. Inscriptions on them suggested that they were over 900 years old. While, the first statue was unearthed on Sunday, many more structures, including idols of Jain deity Ambica Devi, were unearthed on Monday at the site where a mamlatdar office is being built. Senior community members believed excavation might uncover a Jain temple belonging to Tirthtankar Nemnath Swami.
bq. Officials have taken the idols in custody and are awaiting a team of archaeologists. “The structures include that of temple ‘Parikar’ and ‘Gaadi’. The year inscribed on the plaques range from 1001 to 1130 of the Hindu calendar. This puts the structures at over 900 years old. Also, the idol of Ambica Devi is usually found in temples of Nemnath Swa-mi. “Many Jain traders had settled when Khambhat was a major trading hub. Most of the temples were developed in that period. Hence, even rarest of idols like those of sapphire and nilam are found here.” Senior community members have urged the government to hand over the place to the community.” It is a great matter of faith for us. [“Times of India”:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=769571]

On Kashmir

bq. Pakistan on Monday suggested the establishment of a mechanism to involve the people of Jammu and Kashmir “at some stage” in the dialogue process to resolve the vexed issue, and said a solution that “satisfies Islamabad will satisfy Kashmiris” too. [“Rediff”:http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/28talks.htm]
But before anyone could say react, JKLF responded
bq. Flaying this statement, senior JKLF leader Shabir Chaudhury said in a statement that “what satisfies Islamabad, does not satisfy even their own people in Sindh, Balochistan or Frontier, how can it satisfy Kashmiris who are neither constitutionally or legally a part of Pakistan.” Strongly protesting Khan’s remark, Choudhury said Pakistan was a party to the Kashmir issue and as a party it could only speak about its own interest. [“India Express”:http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/regional/jammu_kashmir/20040704-0.html]