Kerala government has officially decided to embrace Linux.
Redhat to assist Kerala Government.

Red Hat Inc. is to help the communist government of Kerala, in southwestern India, to deploy open-source software in its e-governance and literacy efforts.

The Kerala government will make all efforts to develop free software, and will use free and open-source software in e-governance projects, according to a draft state IT policy released in January.

The Indian federal government, in contrast, has refrained from taking sides in favor of either open-source or proprietary software. Microsoft Corp., for example, is running a program in the country, called Project Shiksha, to train teachers and students in government-run schools in the use of information technology. But some research labs run by the government work on open source projects.

If and when UDF takes over after the term of this government(Malayalees would like to get exploited equally by both sides – equal opportunity) would they kick out linux and have microsoft back in?

Shashi Tharoor, former UN Under Secretary General, is writing a movie script, based on the life of V.K.Krishna Menon. He’s assisted by former diplomat T.P.Srinivasan. Shashi Tharoor writing script …

Shashi Tharoor is writing the script for a Rs 8-crore English film on the life of diplomat and politician V.K. Krishna Menon.

Rajmohan Pillai, the producer of the film, told IANS that the United Nations’s former under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor and former Indian diplomat T. P. Sreenivasan have begun writing the script for the film.

“The script is expected to be ready before September and shooting would begin soon after. We expect to take a year to complete the shooting and the post production work,” said Pillai.

There were rumours that Mr.Tharoor would be made a minister in the central government. But looks like he has decided not to jump into cesspool of Indian politics, at least for now.

Mammootty was one of the speakers and star attraction at DYFI meet held at Chennai.

The actor feels that youth power is like atomic energy, it can be used to generate power. He said the bane of our present Indian society is “communalism, casteism, regionalism”. The youth should find solution to all these. [Mammootty at DYFI meet]

Mr.Mammootty forgot to mention one more ailment in our society – destruction of public property. But then that is something which is DYFI’s speciality.

Fact: 38 new born babies die in Sree Avittam Tirunal hospital in Communist Kerala due to the unhygenic conditions in the hospitala labor room. The state run hospitals are mainly used by the poor, supposedly the Commie vote bank. Here is what the Commie chief minister thinks.

“Achuthanandan after visiting the hospital said there was a conspiracy to malign the hospital’s reputation.Despite concerted efforts to show the hospital in bad light, there have been a steady flow of patients to the hospital. It shows there have been a deliberate campaign against the hospital and something was amiss in the whole controversy about the deaths of children,” Achuthanandan told reporters

People will still come because they have no where else to go. If you see conspiracy in the death of 38 babies, it would be too much to ask why the Commies killed people in Nandigram

I would love Hinduism (or for that matter any other religion) to vanish it thin air. But it shouldn’t be done by force. Members of such religions should develop the natural ability to think rationally and eventually make Hinduism (and other religions) go irrelavant. Hinduism should vanish for its in-built irrationalities than due to such godmen.

For almost five thousand years, various people have tried to make Hinduism disappear. Some tried violence, like the Mughals, some tried through intellectual debate like Buddhists, and others used force, like the British, Portuguese and various missionaries. The religion is still around. But this could be the first time in history that a Joker wished it away.

In the enthusiasm for getting Narendra Modi, The Hindu went on a fabrication journey reporting with bias rather than facts. Finally they eat crow.

It is now clear, as the Gujarat Government’s response published here points out, that the 24-page document is not the Geetha Johri report. The Hindu retracts its front-paged assertion that the Johri report speaks of “collusion of the State government” and of the role of Mr. Amit Shah, Minister of State for Home; and also that it recommends a CBI enquiry. We deeply regret these serious errors in a story that drew on documents we relied upon in good faith. We agree that we should have verified the facts, especially those relating to the provenance of “Facts of the Case,” before publishing the news stories.

There used to be a time when I would have to give a 3 minute discourse about the show when I cold email a particular CEO. I still do but its gotten a lot easier. People recognize the show. In fact, I’ve received requests from most leading PR agencies requesting to do an interview with their client. When you receive calls from PR agents, its a sure shot sign you’ve arrived.

That’s why he is called the King

Some comments on Abi’s new post have turned vicious by now. Abi is trapped on all sides by virtually irrefutable logic and lack of data to support his allegation (just one allegation living on borrowed time by now really). Everyone is pressing him to prove his case or shut the f**k up (nobody expects him to admit that he was wrong). Everyone but Krish, that is. As usual, Krish gets it all wrong. He writes a crisp “great post” to Abi (moral support to his perceived ideological brother without really bothering to read the posts or the comments) and launches into an irrelevant argument against Vivek. Our diplomat seems to be made of sterner stuff though, and diplomatically tells Krish to stuff it. But since when has Krish understood diplomatese? After one more round of such to-and-fro between Krish and Vivek, even Abi is forced to tell Krish to take his medication and go to sleep. Krish meows like a pet cat and wanders off.

Read the whole thing

A myth has been propagated that terrorism comes from poverty and studies have shown that terrorists are better educated than their own country men.

One piece of the Krueger-Maleckova evidence involves 129 members of Hezbollah who died in action, mostly against Israel, from 1982 to 1994. Hezbollah is now designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Biographical information from the Hezbollah newspaper al-Ahd indicates that the fighters who died were, on average, more educated and less impoverished than the Lebanese population of comparable age and regional origin.

A similar finding applies on the other side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Israeli Jewish extremists who attacked Palestinians in the West Bank in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Many of the extremists were Gush Emunim members. A list of 27 of the Israeli terrorists reveals a pattern of high education and high-paying occupations.

Krueger and Maleckova also examine surveys conducted last December with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. These polls tell us about who supports terrorism, as opposed to who are the terrorists. One set of answers reveals a high level of support for the general policy of attacking Israeli targets. This support is stronger among the literate than the illiterate. In another question, a remarkable 80% of respondents thought that the suicide bombing last June that killed 21 youths in a Tel Aviv nightclub was not terrorism. (The respondents recognized overwhelmingly that this act was regarded as terrorism by international opinion.) Moreover, the Palestinians’ adherence to the view that the mass murder of civilians was not terrorism was independent of education and higher among those working than unemployed. Hence, support for terrorism was not reduced by increases in education and income.

So why does this man write that “Unlike in Islam and Christianity where fundamentalism is mainly present among the illiterates, Hindu fundamentalism is an exclusive baggage of educated Hindus”? Because he is an expert in bullshit.

D’Souza & Co. goes totally biblical in a really weird post. Just replace the biblical references with Hindu scriptures and publish it on your blog. This dude will be sure to respond with just about the only word he knows, which is bullshit. Also take a very close look at this video. Then drink a glass cold water and reflect for a moment.

(from barbarindians)

Heh!