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Archive for August, 2009

US Businesses Challenge Global Warming in Court!

August 28th, 2009 1 comment

We had seen earlier how most Americans don’t believe in Global Warming, and I had gotten some pretty interesting comments including a typical American who put forth arguments claiming that human induced Climate Change isn’t real.

Now in a natural extension of this attitude, a coalition of American businesses are challenging Climate Change scientists in court, trying to show the public that Global Warming is false. This is typical of American corporations who try and skew public opinion by manufacturing “doubt” as to what is true in science in order to further their own goals.

Image Credit: http://www.seppo.net/

American Corporations fuel Climate Change denial

American Corporations fuel Climate Change denial

I for one, welcome this. It is going to be pleasant watching them crushed. What is amusing however, is that the final decision will be taken by a judge – a non scientist, whereas there is already a global consensus of scientists on the issue. Those familiar with their history will recall the Scopes Trial in 1925 when a science teacher was caught “illegally teaching evolution.” This will be only the second time in history where something like this is happening. The Scopes trial was in the United States as well. Coincidence?

It’s not surprising that American corporations are taking this step as the Government has woken up and realized that it can’t remain in denial about Climate Change any longer, and as a result have introduced legislation that will force these corporations to clean themselves up. Well, bring it on! Let’s watch this farce die a public humiliating death, and then we can finally get on with trying to save the planet if it’s not too late already.

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Indian National ID Voluntary – No card at all!

August 26th, 2009 No comments

Here’s some great news. Apparently, the Government will not be issuing any National ID card at all, but rather a stand alone number. Even better, it will not be compulsory. So that rules out stopping people on the road and asking them for their card randomly.

Image Credit: Elliot Moore

Indian National ID NOT compulsory!

Indian National ID NOT compulsory!

This removes the teeth from the whole idea and is a much better system. Something like the SSN in the US. Apparently the ID number is so that other departments can make use of it in any manner they wish. This means that (hopefully), the databases of the various ministries will not be linked together and that the Indian Government won’t be able to keep track of all the details of our lives.

I wonder why this clarification was made. Probably because someone realized that it’s too difficult to implement otherwise! Or maybe there was resistance from the various ministries who saw their own ID systems under threat. Either way, it’s a fantastic development, and one over which we should all heave a collective sigh.

What do you think? Take the Poll!

Is a National Identity Card a threat to Privacy and Freedom of movement?

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Book Review: Wheel of Time Series

August 25th, 2009 3 comments

For just over a month now, I’ve been reading the “Wheel of Time” series like a maniac! Hence the lack of posts recently. Usually I enjoy writing a bit before starting work, but lately I haven’t been able to help reading the books. But all that’s over now. 11 books completed (Knife of Dreams being the last till now), leaving me feeling a bit empty – as I knew I would feel before it got over. So it’s time to restart the blogging and what better than to review this awesome series.

Read more…

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WADA – Threatening Privacy in the name of “safety”

August 3rd, 2009 4 comments

It’s a disturbing trend these days that governments and regulation bodies think that safety concerns can override an individual’s freedom. Whether it is censoring the Internet, surveillance, or the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) new “whereabout” clause, the underlying idea is the same – individual’s rights come secondary to “public safety”. Or so they say.

Image Credit: mushon

WADA's Rules are an invasion of Privacy

WADA's Rules are an invasion of Privacy

Some of the popular catchphrases are “Save the Children” (or “Think of the Children!”), “Fight against terrorism”, or in the case of WADA, the fight against drugs. The whereabout clause states that sportspersons must give their locations for one hour each day three months in advance so that they can be tested any time. To bolster it’s claim, WADA has said that many other sportspersons in the world have agreed to the clause.

This brings up the old question – if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you too? What do I care what anyone else does? Others may be willing to sign over their privacy, but not I. The BCCI has correctly argued that the right to privacy is an integral part of the Constitution of India. Nothing else should matter.

The Indian public is understandably divided over the issue. But it’s heartening to see the number of people who support the BCCI and the cricketers in this. I always thought that Indians didn’t care about privacy matters – and here they are standing up for their cricketers.

A sentiment to rejoice over certainly. Perhaps it’s not too later after all!

What do YOU think?

Should the BCCI agree to the "whereabout" clause and override the privacy of Indian Cricketers?

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Poll: Should Indian Cricketers agree to the invasive WADA clause?

August 3rd, 2009 No comments

Should the BCCI agree to the "whereabout" clause and override the privacy of Indian Cricketers?

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Host your Firefox Ubiquity Commands for free

August 2nd, 2009 No comments

Today I found a neat and easy way to make your Firefox Ubiquity commands publicly available and easily accessible to all. It’s so simple, it’s difficult to believe that I once thought I had to FTP the file to my own servers and insert the rel=”command” text into HTML. Ubiquity Command hosting was never easier. Here’s how you do it.

Go to http://gist.github.com/ and create an account. Then simply create a new code snippet and paste your command into it and save. That’s it! When you visit the command again, the Ubiquity bar on top will drop down automatically without you having to do anything at all. Simple, easy, and I wish it I had known this earlier. Well, let’s hope others find this post without going through much hassle!

You’ll get your own page with all your commands on it. You can see all the commands I’ve created on my gist account here: http://gist.github.com/bhagwad .

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