Myanmar's Monks - Buddha's Warriors

It is India's neighbor but what do we know of it? In our obsession with Pakistan and our fluctuating mild interest in other neighbors, Burma might as well be on Mars.

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Cricket: India are Twenty20 World Champions

India ran out winners by 5 runs in the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup, in a game which belied the adage that "youth knows no fear".ICC World Twenty20 final, Johannesburg:India 157-5 (20 overs) bt Pakistan 152 (19.3 overs) by five runs

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Bangladesh's Cartoon Controversy: The Prophet and His Honor

The outrage pouring out of Bangladesh over a joke about the name of the Prophet Muhammad is hence not entirely surprisingly. It’s disturbing yes, but not surprising. Such tactics are a “familiar pattern in Muslim countries ruled by authoritarian governments”.The "Muhammad Cat" joke is really funny, btw.

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"Don't Tase Me, Bro!"

Children's Health - Hope Springs Eternal

magine facing a situation where your darling child has been born and very soon was been diagnosed with an exceedingly rare illness (only sixty patients in the world are known to have it).Very touching story - please read and contribute if you can

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The Demise of the Dollar?

Were the US Dollar to lose its status as the 'world's reserve currency', it would be the largest financial shift since the end of World War II

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Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts

I think this is my favorite poem of all time, but I know I'm prone to hyperbole at times.

Musee des Beaux Arts

W. H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Confessions Of Webaholics: Internet Addiction Exposed

Did you just notice the time? Has it been five hours (or more!) since you've been watching movie clip after movie clip on YouTube?

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Religious Freedom: Can the US be our Policeman?

I have always wondered what business it is of the US Congress to track in such a formal way the state of religious freedom around the globe when there is a lot going on that needs investigation that could be traced back to the US itself.

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Love, Grief, Pain, and a Kitten

To some, love comes easily. It is as easy as making an eye contact and forming bonds of eternal attachment and for others love takes time.

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OJ's Controversial Book Sees The Light Of Day

So, after massive public outrage, we were shocked when the Goldmans, having acquired the book, flip flopped and now decided to publish it. They had been vehemently opposed to publication of the book last year when Simpson sold it

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Condoleezza Rice Co-Owns Home With Female Filmmaker, Says New Book

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.

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Pakistani Special Services Officer Turns Suicide Bomber

If this is indeed the case, then the sole guarantee against Pakistan turning Taliban and using the nuclear weapons and missiles, the Pakistani Army, has worms inside. I would be afraid, very afraid.

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Anniversary of the V2 Missile

September 8, 1944 was the first time a German V2 missile hit London. The first ballistic missile launch in anger.Did you know more people (20,000) were killed in the making of the rockets than at the receiving end (7,000)? These were the slaves, workers etc. etc. who built the pens, the factory, the launch site, etc.

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The Ramayana, the Sethusamudram and Indian Archaeology

No secular Government has the prerogative to pontificate on religion unless the public good is adversely impacted.

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Freedom Of Speech On The Internet

news and views travel faster and the globe is better connected. So much so that the world-wide web is a world in itself, a virtual world that at times mirrors the aspects the real world such as a liberal democracy tainted by intolerance and crime.

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Is Shah Rukh Khan Suffering From A Mid-Life Crisis?

Where was the sturdy, aging with grace Shah Rukh that I had known for over two decades? This new Shah Rukh Khan all of a sudden seemed like a swan that had reverted back to being an ugly duckling in his middling years. Could Shah Rukh be suffering from mid life crisis?

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Things That Bang - Steve Jobs - The iPhone Maverick

It doesn't take much to make the fanboys weep, and even less to make them yell. Jobs squeezes both ways

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MI5 Chief Faces Immigration Delays at Heathrow

The MI5 chief Jonathan Evans was held up for an hour by Heathrow Immigration. For those who do not know, MI5 is the nodal domestic intelligence/anti-terrorism agency. See here for a detailed overview. The main chap is reduced to queuing up at Heathrow's notorious immigration hall to get in.

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International War Games Get Underway in The Bay of Bengal

The Indian communist parties are going to protest against the international naval war games to be held in the Bay of Bengal. But the communists are great at doing these kinds of demonstrations and they are right now planning to do a walk about the Indian countryside to protest against these war games.

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Vijay Mallya Bids For Spyker-Ferrari Formula 1 Team

Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol Director of Formula One for Spyker have teamed up to make a 80 million euro (54 million pounds) bid for the cash-strapped team.

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