for_sv's blog

Infoserve, a blog that's followed news related to genetically modified foods since March. The coverage is balanced and lets you draw your own conclusions and is worth keeping an eye on.

Introducing the Nokia Image Frame SU-4. Blending the advanced technology with a traditional object, it lets you show digital images on your bookshelf, on your desk, or your nightstand. It's technology that's innovative yet intuitive to use.
Also check: The Nokia Image Frame gives you an advanced technological alternative that lets other people in on the action, too. Receive digital images via MMS and display them in a stylish frame. Its clean design blends in well at home or in the office - your pictures are what will stand out.

The nightingale. Living legend. Melody queen. There is no dearth of epithets when it comes to Lata Mangeshkar. Her name is synonymous with melody. Born September 28, 1929 in Indore, Lata Mangeshkar has been active in all walks of Indian popular and light classical music having sung film songs, ghazals, bhajans and pop. She is the supreme voice of popular Indian music, an Indian Institution. Until the 1991 edition, when her entry disappeared, the Guinness Book of Records listed her as the most recorded artist in the world with not less than 30,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. Today the number might have reached 50,000!!! Not for nothing did Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose famous vow was to wage a 1,000-year battle with India, once say, "Give us Lata Mangeshkar and you can keep Kashmir."

Democracy has reshaped politics, economics, and culture around the world. This provocative book asks, can you have too much of a good thing? To the popular mind -- and most politicians -- more democracy means more freedom. Not so, argues Fareed Zakaria in The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. In fact, the American form of democracy -- considered the model for the rest of the world -- is among the least "democratic" in use today. Members of the Supreme Court, for instance, are appointed, not elected; and the Bill of Rights enumerates a set of privileges to which citizens are entitled no matter what the majority says. In other words -- and as our Founders understood -- it is by restricting our democracy that we enhance our freedom. Zakaria is right, and why shouldn't he be? He is only repeating what Montesquieu, Madison, and Toqueville knew: Democracy unaccompanied by the social restraints of institutionalized liberalism (in the proper sense of that word) can lead to the tyranny of the majority, to populist demagogy, and to the relatively quick, and ugly, collapse of democracy itself. "Zakaria, one of the most brilliant young writers, has produced a fascinating and thought-provoking book on the impact of Western constitutional principles on the global order. "—Henry Kissinger

Over 35? Still looking for Mr. Right? Feeling left on the shelf?

Perhaps it is time to repackage your assets, take a hard look at your personal brand and start telemarketing yourself.

Transforming India's financial capital, Bombay (Mumbai) into a world class city, requires investments worth $10bn, a new report says.

A computer program designed to talk like a human is preparing for its biggest test in its bid to be truly "intelligent".

Washington - Citing the growing cost of running the Federal government and the need to cut costs in order to reduce the budget deficit, President Bush announced today that he was laying off all 535 members of Congress and transferring lawmaking operations to a legislative support center in Bangalore, India.

"Hey, outsourcing is the way to go these days," said Bush at an impromptu news conference where he announced the decision, adding, "Americans want to see less government waste. Since every one of those ex-Congressmen had a salary of $150,000, this move will cut our costs by over $80 million per year, and that's not even counting what we'll save on health insurance and retirement plans." Sources indicate that the Indian replacements will be paid approximately $250 per month.

The outcry from the newly laid-off Senators and Representatives was swift. Ex-California Senator Diane Feinstein said, "This is absolutely outrageous. How can a bunch of replacements over in India run Congress? What do they know about filibusters and committee hearings?" As she was being escorted out of the Hart Senate Office Building by U.S. Capitol Police officers, Feinstein complained that the newly-terminated lawmakers were only given ten minutes to clean out their desks and leave the building.

"I think it's a great idea," said Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking from a secure undisclosed location. "The American people were fed up with that expensive do-nothing Congress which didn't always give the President everything he asked for. Our new Indian replacements will be much cooperative to the President, which is what we all want." Asked whether the outsourcing may be unconstitutional, Cheney noted, "That's up to the Supreme Court to decide, but as you know, they usually see things our way."

The new members of Congress seem thrilled with the attention they are receiving. Speaking from the offices of All-India Legislative Support Centre Ltd. in Bangalore, new Mississippi Senator Ramchandra Shekar Gupta told reporters, "The Indian people are very hard working and vee vill do our best as U.S. Congressmen and Congresswomen. And vee are going to have some fun too. Just think: vee'll have $2 trillion of the American taxpayers' money to spend!"

Firm bans e-mail to boost production. John Caudwell, CEO of mobile retailer Phones 4U, announced on Thursday that he'll be banning all his staff from using e-mail across the business.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the .COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was 'somecompany.com,' and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising." Read on and more on

In two days of discussions, the scientists aim to turn into a reality an ambition that has been around for at least a century: the creation of a space elevator that would deliver satellites, spacecraft and even people thousands of kilometres into space along a vertical track.

This worked for me, and I think it may work for you.

Recently I read an article that stated: "The best way to achieve inner peace is to finish things you have started." So today I finished two large bags of potato chips, the last half of a lemon cream pie, a nearly full bottle of Jose Cuervo, a small box of Godiva Chocolates, and I slapped the snot out of someone I have never liked.

I feel better than I have for a long time. Please pass this along to a friend who is in need of some inner peace

No more New York cheddar cheese, no more California Basmati rice, and no more Pilsner beer from your favorite microbrew. Why? Because cheddar can only be made in a certain area of Great Britian, Basmati rice can only be grown in India, and Pilsner beer can only be brewed in the Czech Republic. Now who decided that?

For Information and Current Position

Forecast Storm Track Plot

Hurricane Watch

42 ways to get out of the (Microsoft) Office and make the most of your PC, from underappreciated system enhancers and business tools to graphics and audio editors.

Amusing ad from FedEx.

Cheese fervor in a time of germ anxiety.

Sunday 31st August 2003 was the first day of 11-day Ganesh Utsav.

VAKRA TUNDA MAHAAKAYAA SURYA KOTISHA SAMAPRABHA
NIRVIGHNAM KURU ME DEVA SARVAKAARYESHU SARVADAA

(Oh, Lord, with a twisted trunk and a huge mighty body, who lustre is equivalent to that of a crores of Suns, I pray to thee, O lord, always remove all obstacles from the good actions I perform.)

Ganpati Bappa Moriya Pudhchya Varshi Lavkarya (Marathi for Oh Ganpati My Lord, return soon next year)

Coughing Might Save Heart Attack Victims

Few I would vouch for as being good:

- JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association
- American Heart Association
- CHEST The Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal
- JAPI Journal of The Association of Physicians of India
- JIMA Journal of Indian Medical Association
- Indian Heart Journal

It's no longer a question of staying healthy. It's a question of finding a sickness you like. -- Jackie Mason
and of course
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. - Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

An increasing number of medical students are picking their specialty based on the lifestyle it permits, including more time to spend with family, rather than such traditional factors as pay and prestige, according to a study published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The phenomena surrounding computers are diverse and yield a surprisingly rich base for launching metaphors at individual and group activities. The epigrams that follow attempt to capture some of the dimensions of this traffic in imagery that sharpens, focuses, clarifies, enlarges and beclouds our view of this most remarkable of all mans' artifacts, the computer.

- One man's constant is another man's variable.
- Functions delay binding: data structures induce binding. Moral: Structure data late in the programming process.
- Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.
- Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description for time.
- Optimization hinders evolution.
- A good system can't have a weak command language.
- Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
- Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
- Like punning, programming is a play on words.
- In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.

Complete list

It is a standing joke among cardiologists that death rates fall during their conferences because fewer of them are out there attempting to cure moribund patients by doing dangerous surgery. The treatment can be worse than the disease.

This week in Vienna, doctors are busy discussing the latest drugs and treatment strategies for heart disease. Will they save more lives? That is debatable.