Is CNN website closed?

People follow strange ways to put a title for their writings, books, poems, posts, etc. Some choose a simple name that says something about the content. Some choose a complex name that no one understands. Some will have a title that implies something relevant to the subject. Some titles will mislead us inadvertently. Some choose titles to misguide the readers. Relevant title. Funny ones. Stupid ones. Boring ones. Poetic headings. Some titles will painfully be longer than the content. Provoking ones. Oh! So many possibilities exist!! Of course, these are all very subjective. One could criticize my previous post title too.

Okay, Let's play. Choose a title for this news item:

"The Jang group, Karachi's largest newsgroup, -- which includes more than 20 publications, including the largest Urdu and English circulation newspapers and the local Urdu TV channel GEO -- believes the attack on its office yesterday was a reaction to the publication of a TV interview with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the Daily Jang and The News. The official said the attackers ransacked the reception area and smashed the glass doors of the main entrance and broke open the locked doors of the cash counter and took cash and valuables. Turning to the parking lot of the Daily Jang building, the attackers damaged vehicles as well as personal cars. The attackers also uprooted a relief camp set up along the building by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation to collect relief goods for the tsunami victims, throwing the collected relief goods across the road. Police arrived while the incident was ongoing, and the attackers fled in the presence of police"

Take some moments to think. Have you chosen your title?

Let's see what CNN had chosen: Karachi tsunami relief camp attack (The link given on Let's see... will take you to the news item.)

Do you still wonder about the title of this post?

When I typed www.cnn.com I got the message "The domain name does not exist". I thought for a second if the site was closed and wondered why. Then I noted that I had typed www.cnncom leaving the dot in a hurry. So much for the title..

We fight. We, the humans, then die.

Thailand said,"We want the centre to be near Thailand."

India and Indonesia opposed.

India suggested,"We want to coordinate the system."

Indonesia and Thailand did not agree.

Indonesia,"We want it."

India and Thailand shook heads vigorously.

There has been a clash among nations over Tsunami warning system. Read about it here.

Why don't they consider what is best for all in the region? In case, if it turns out that the exact location of the co-ordination centre does not affect the performance of the warning system as a whole, why do they fight then?

Collective death seems to be an easier option than a united effort. Fear, of death - of getting wiped off in seconds, is not sunk deep inside. It is still overcome by other national considerations. By the way, what is the nationality of Death?

Are these really true?

Justice U.C.Bannerjee Report considered Godhra's train fire incident as "accidental". Justice G.T.Nanavati remarked that it could have been an "act of terror".

Now Justice G.T.Nanavati commission says only few local congress leaders initiated 1984 riots against Sikhs and absolves the Congress party and the Government headed then by Rajiv Gandhi. The report seems to have asked, "How could a Prime Minister be held responsible for each and every action in a police station or a particular district in Delhi? ". In the same breath, it also finds fault with the then Home minister P.V.Narasimha Rao that he did not act decisively.

Is this really justice made to work? Or we were naïve enough to believe the media then?

Hope the media will now find time to write a few critical articles on these issues amidst their tight schedule of running around clicking and flashing gory pictures of wave and fire victims.

M.S. Subbulakshmi - 007

Her voice is exceedingly sweet; She loses herself in bhajan. During prayer one must lose oneself in God. To sing a bhajan is one thing; to sing it by losing oneself in God is quite different.

- Mahatma Gandhi

More on Feed Readers...

You will find the list of feed readers here.
A non-technical article on RSS feeds is available here.

Abilon - A Freeware Feeds Aggregator

There are so many news websites and blogs we are interested in. We visit some sites occasionally and find nothing of our interest. Now major news websites offer RSS feeds so that a reader-software can receive these feeds which contain titles and a brief description of the content. Some websites that give newsfeeds - CNN, BBC, Indian Express, Rediff - (Does The Hindu offer?) - Yahoo groups and Blogger. Many feed readers are available for online reading, for instance you can access these feeds through My Yahoo. There are also few Feed Aggregators that are available for download so that we can install in our computer and customize it. Abilon is one such freeware RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) Feeds Aggregator. I installed it two days back in my computer.

1. Download, Install, Start the application
2. Right click on All feeds
3. Give the details of the feeds and click OK
4. That's it!

You can add the RSS Feed of my blog by giving the URL of the feed in Step.3 as http://shencottah.blogspot.com/atom.xml

You can also move some news item from the feed for your later viewing. Abilon calls it memories.

1.Select the news item
2.Right Click and send to memories
3.Done

It has a built-in blogger tool using which we can directly post to our blogs. If you have more than one blog with a same username, you have to be careful while posting, and do check if it is getting posted to the right blog!

Many other features are also available but disabled in freeware edition, I guess.

Finally, I am not associated with Abilon developers in any way, and am obviously not responsible for any problems you may encounter while using it. This software has not given me problems so far. I have found it quite useful. Few user opinions are available here.

World Year of Physics 2005

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics declared the year 2005 as the World Year of Physics.

Why?

In 1905, Albert Einstein submitted five papers for publication in Annalen der Physik, covering three topics: the photoelectric effect, brownian motion, and the special theory of relativity. Although diverse in subject matter, these contributions are landmarks in their field - and testament to Einstein's genius. To honour their centenary, 2005 has been designated 'World Year of Physics'.

The World Year of Physics 2005 is a United Nations endorsed, international celebration of physics.

Read more about this here

A statement on Sankararaman case

(from Jayalalithaa's statement on Sankararaman case. Underlines are mine - Shencottah)

"...The primary duty and responsibility of the investigation of a crime is cast solely on the Investigating Officer of the Police Department. As Chief Minister of the State and as the Minister in-charge of the Home Portfolio including the Police Department, the facts of such cases are brought to my notice only to a minimum extent and that too only in the context and for the purpose of maintenance of law and order and public order. Beyond this there is nothing more. The details of the investigation were not revealed to me, nor was I interested in knowing about these. It was therefore only in the context of taking precautionary steps for the maintenance of law and order and public order that the names of certain persons were brought to my notice..."

----

Could this be used later as a kind of 'damage-control' if prosecution fails in the court?

Fondness

We have different reasons for our likes and dislikes. Who cares whether those reasons are right or wrong? The fact 'we feel so' is the beginning of so many 'reasons' with which we act. A friend of mine once told me,"The corner grocery shop is the best one."
I said,"Things are expensive there."
"But things are of good quality."
"The same quality stuff costs much lesser in the other shop."
"No.No. Whatever it is, the corner shop is the best."
"...."
My friend added,"We have been buying there for decades. I still remember those days - The days when I go with my father with a small bag in my hand and carry things back with joy. Holding a bag, full of groceries, itself is a joy. A joy of growing older! Going with my father has continued for a long time. The corner grocery shop brings those memories often.."
His father is no more. I know he is not just talking about the grocery shop and its quality. He has now a daughter. I have seen them going to that corner shop together. And I have also seen the cute little girl carrying a small bag with few brinjals and carrots. With a pride on her face, she has a smile for me whenever we meet near the corner shop.

Is it the same story again?

After the assassination and [his] arrest, judgement was pronounced swiftly; [he] was the assassin...

Every piece of evidence which tended to incriminate [him] was announced to the press [by the authorities]. In such a way millions of people were prejudiced against [him] before there was any opportunity for him to be brought to trial...

How is it millions of people have been misled by complete forgeries in the press?

Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished.

Excuse me, I am not talking about Indian media and the Kanchi issue! It's about American press.

That was written by Bertrand Russell (words within braces are mine) in his essay "Sixteen questions on the assassination" in which he argued that some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out and the official version of the assassination of President Kennedy was full of contradictions that it had been rewritten no less than three times.
(You can read the above essay in the book The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, The Final Years:1944-1969)