Final Transit

Another second away!

To make up for changes in Earth’s rotation, scientists are adding a ‘leap second’ to atomic clocks worldwide, thus delaying the start of year 2006 by a second. The atomic clocks showing coordinated universal time, which coincides with winter time in London will read 23:59:60 before moving to 00:00:00.

Leap seconds are added to compensate for slowing down of earth’s rotational speed. First leap second was added in the year 1972.

For us in India, this correction would mean longer New Years’ day. I enjoy Sundays anyway.

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December 26 2005: An earthquake occurs off Sumatra islands measuring 9 on the Richter scale and lasting for about 10 minutes, a magnitude and duration so high that it made mother Earth wobble on its axis. The effect: over 2.75 lakh (275 thousand) people – from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia consumed by mighty sea waves.

World Wide Help website appeals as follows.

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​​​​Last year, on the 26th December, an earthquake, and then a tsunami, killed, wounded, or impoverished hundreds of thousands of people in South Asia.

These disasters took their immediate toll, and, each time, the world tried to help. But as calamity piled upon calamity, there has been a certain amount of fatigue. Perhaps people’s stock of goodwill has run low. Perhaps seeing too much suffering hardens us.

During the course of the year, other disasters took their toll too. Most devastating of them: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the South-East coast of the USA; and another enormous earthquake near Pakistan’s border with India.

But, the fact is, the suffering from those disasters has not ceased. Parts of South Asia have still not recovered from December 26th, 2004. In the USA, normalcy hasn’t returned to New Orleans. In Pakistan, thousands are still homeless, and may not survive the harsh Himalayan winter.

They need your help.

Last December and this January, the online community came together as never before to help in the aid efforts in South-East Asia. The lessons learned there were put to use, and improved upon, when the other tragic events of the year unfolded.

Can we harness that goodwill, that togetherness, that willingness to help once more?

The WorldWideHelp group would like you to join us in Remembrance Week. Here’s what we suggest you do.

Use your blogs, your home pages, your wikis, your newsletters. Link to your favourite charities and NGOs, write a paragraph about them and the work they are doing, and ask your readers to make a donation.

Tsunami Help Wiki gives lot of information

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I’ve decided to get lucky… (nah, not that way! ) by ‘buying’ the lucky bamboo – the feng shui thing. I saw it at one of my friends place and clicked this photograph. I heard it brings luck. Not willing to hassle with office watchdogs, I had to content myself with keeping ‘soft copy’ of the bamboo plant in my computer instead of having a real one on my desk. So, I’ve been sporting it as my desktop wallpaper in office computer for three months now.

Although I don’t claim to have got lucky, I admit nothing has gone wrong either.

Therefore I decided to go full throttle and act superstitious by attempting to purchase the plant – arrival of the New Year would be a good pretext to escape the suspicion that I’ve got superstitious. Smart boy (I like to keep saying that).

Bad luck though. The seller at the store said that I can’t buy a lucky bamboo for myself. Someone else needs to gift it to me. Hmm… what a brilliant strategy, I thought, to double the sales – probably I’ll have to find another jackass and we’ll have to buy lucky bamboos for each other.

Too much work. I’d rather stick with the ‘soft copy’. Does anyone want it? I’m willing to email it ‘directly’ to you ! Think about it - hard luck comes often, but did you ever have soft luck?

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“डार्विनच्या उत्क्रांतिवादाच्या सिद्धांताने पृथ्वीवरील जीवसृष्टीच्या निर्मितिचे गूढ उकलणे अशक्य आहे”, असा दावा करत अमेरिकेतील शालेय अभ्यासक्रमात ‘इंटेलिजंट डिझाईन’ सिद्धांताचा समावेश करण्याचा प्रयत्न तेथील परंपरावाद्यांनी केला होता. या सिद्धांताप्रमाणे पृथ्वीवरील जीवसृष्टी ही विज्ञानावर आधारलेल्य डार्विनच्या उत्क्रांतिवादाच्या सिद्धांताप्रमाणे झाली नसून ती एखाद्या अद्भुत शक्तिने घडवली आहे. ख्रिस्ती धर्मात ईश्वराने सहा दिवसात पृथ्वीची निर्मिति केली असे सांगीतले आहे.

अमेरिकेचा एक चेहरा आधुनिक असला तरी गेल्या काही दिवसांमध्ये तिथेही परंपरावाद्यांची संख्या मोठ्या प्रमाणात वाढत आहे. स्वतः राष्ट्रपती जॉर्ज बुश यांचे यासंबंधीचे आचरणही विवेकीपणाला सोडचिठ्ठी देणारे आहे. त्यामुळे स्थानिक सत्तधार्यांकडून यासंदर्भात काही होईल, अशी मुळी अपेक्षाच नव्हती….
- लोकसता, शनिवार २४ डि., मुंबई.

न्यायलयाने मात्र सविचार निर्णय देत शालेय अभ्यासक्रमात ढवळाढवळ करणार्या ख्रिस्ती धर्मवाद्यांच्या या प्रयत्नाला धुडकावून लावले.

आपल्या देशात काही असंच् सुरू आहे - फक्त विषय विज्ञान नसून इतिहास आहे.

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I don’t understand the reason why I’m suddenly fascinated with everything Russian. Series of events, one after the other in a short span lead to this situation. I think KGB is up to something.

It all started when I first read the works of Ayn Rand, a Russian girl who escaped from the strong fisted arrival of the communists and found solace in capitalist USA. Her works in objectivism and individualism are scathing attacks on communist thinking. The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) are masterpieces. What I liked more was her lighter work – We the Living (1936) which was a fiction close to her own story. It described the destruction of Russian society just before and post Red revolution.

Next I saw this video tape made by my friend on his (official) visit to Russia. Apparently India and Russia are (still) cooperating on a number of new technology research and development. Of course, since the Soviets collapsed, they can no longer afford to maintain their arsenals of weapons, so I guess they are sugar coating them and selling them off to (poor) countries like India (who are more than willing to buy. Yuck! What a sloppy defense policy we have, more about it later.).

Third, I came across this friend who ate Red, spoke Red and shit Red. He tried to brainwash me and convert me into a Communist. Unfortunately he was ill prepared. I was already a Socialist, and so it was me who ended up in brainwashing him later. Hah!

Fourth, I went to a book sale, and they were selling the (I should say this in bold) whole set of works of Leo Tolstoy (end bold) for dirt cheap price of Rs. 100. My eyes sparkled, and I also picked up Maxim Gorky. (No it wasn’t a combined offer). The books were too heavy, but I am still burning the midnight oil to finish them.

Fifth and this is the biggest reason to blame for – Russians themselves! I know my interest in girls is seasonal and viola! its Russia time now. I don’t remember what I watched – it could be American porn or maybe something on movie or TV. Russians are so rosy rosy, and their names sound so sexy.

Yeah this should go separately - for a long time I thought that Russian language contains only V, K, N, R, Y, Z. I like Indian names with those sounds, so do I like Russian names too – people, places, whatever. Their accent turns me on. There was this guy, who was in college for exchange, I didn’t know if he was a male or a female, because he was very girlish. He spoke funny but really I felt like kissing him. (Nah I’m just exaggerating, come on, don’t judge me. I am very comfortable with my sexuality)

Honestly, but I still wonder – what makes people live in freezing and inhospitable places like Siberia. Phew!

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