T h e . L a t e s t . a n d . t h e . G r e a t e s t

Sunday, Nov 5, 2006: From the pages of The Washington Post

"The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage."

Tuesday, Oct 24, 2006: Looking for one paragraph on why the GOP should lose next month? Andrew Sullivan sums it up

"If the Republicans lose this election, it will be for a simple reason. They have forgotten what conservatism means. You cannot spend and borrow more than any Democratic Congress since FDR and remain a credible conservative. You cannot elevate executive power permanently above individual liberty and remain a credible conservative. You cannot wage a war without the care, resources, and troops needed to win and remain a credible conservative. You cannot wage a religiously-based culture war and remain a limited government conservative. It's not that complicated really."

Sunday, October 6, 2002

"... the defining oddity of this war debate is its unseriousness. The arguments made by proponents of the war resolution are familiar and weak. Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia (who opened the debate) says Saddam Hussein might use nuclear weapons against American troops. In the next breath, he says Saddam had biological and chemical weapons last time but never used them. Several senators make a fuss about the meager presence of al-Qaida in Iraq. Several ask whether anyone doubts that terrorists would use Saddam's nukes against us if they got them. Nobody explains why Saddam would hand them over. The arguments on the other side are even more lame. Opponents want to wait for the United Nations to act, but they offer no reason to think it will do so. They warn of American isolation but never grapple with whether avoiding isolation is worth letting Saddam get nukes..."

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Well folks! There are fresh mornings, not-so-fresh mornings, and sometimes rather dull ones. I am lucky enough to have one of those reverberating ones - pulse pounding, heart-thumping, adrenaline-rushing ones! With a cold shower, black jean, white shirt and a splash of cologne, it feels even better.

I don't have too many visitors to my page yet except for those few loved ones, and referrals (now that's exciting…). For those returning to my page, I thought it would be useful to 'publicize' the changes I made since last - apart from setting those milestones of maybe 25^th update, and golden jubilee changes, et al.

Yo! A note to those who stumble on to my page for whatever reasons (the reasons I would like to believe are rather kept confidential ;-) than treading unknown foray…). I wish to know who visits my pages, and may jump with joy knowing their vital-statistix!

I created the "Vaditoon" for visitors to readily imagine my specs, and for the feeling to be mutual, leave your footprint... fingerprint... bitemark... some distinct sign that you visited the alternate universe. Whatever may be your comment, leave a message in my guest-book.

Bush on Rush on his radio-show today when asked about China...
"One great opportunity for China, Rush, is to encourage China to develop a society in which there are savers. In other words, a society in which there's a pension plan. Let me rephrase that: a society in which there's consumer because now there's a society of too many savers."

photos
Indeed a long break from any webexercise during which not much as happened, except if one counts the Tsunami and Katrina anniversaries, over 300,000 dead in Darfur and a million displaced with bleak survival possibilities, North Korea fizzling out a nuclear bomb, Lebanon literally bombed to oblivion, Blair on the verge of retiring as Prime Minister, our President not surprisingly as dumb as ever and stubborning out with senility, Iraq predictably dissolving into chaos and stopping just short of the next state of the union speech when Vehe-chavez-uala will be clubbed into the axis of evil. And yes, by some estimates, over 655,000 Iraqis are dead since the US invasion - just over 30% dying at the hands of the US military. So YES, YES not much as happened, because all of this is only a comma!

"Iraq's Oil: The Spoils of War" - The Independent/UK (Nov 22, 05)
"Very quietly the U.K. Independent reported yesterday that Iraq's oil industry will be handed over to some American and British companies, based on a plan drawn up by our State Department before the invasion. Is this what President Bush meant when he mumbled "the Iraqi oil will be for the Iraqi people"? Is there a literate adult left who does not realize this was an industry oil grab, discussed in early 2001 in the precious documents Mr. Cheney went to the Supreme Court to keep concealed?" -Excerpt from White House Talk on Nov 23, 05

The Politically Incorrect is still going strong on this site, even though appearing not to be seen in the DC area for a long time to come. Says something about the First Amendment ain't it? Looks like we could have a large serving of Al Jazeera for a while. Never mind.

I added about ten articles, some space stories - all true {:-), spruced up the mythology arcs, and housekept the snapshot gallery. Tell me that isn't enough.

The website has had a major face-lift. A great deal of substance finds its way into the articles & opinions section. Keep checking this page. It's coming along pretty good.

Saturday was some day! Never have I been so hyper-active. Never has this website seen the kind of additions and updates, as it has been, today.

I added a new section "Politically Incorrect" in support of Bill Maher's show, that was axed by Washington DC TV stations. Many of you may not know the context based on which I created this page. Take a moment to visit the page.

It's been a merciless week and I have no rights complaining. The week of September 11^th will live in my memory for the rest of my life. I cannot imagine the grief and nightmares suffered by those who have lost their friends and kin. Needed to get away from the radio and television...

Spending a considerable time in front of my computer, I still can't get away from the news. Yahoo! Geocities is one of those rare gems that's been offering millions an opportunity to showcase their personal thoughts, feelings and lives... available at the click of a mouse... Is this a complaint? I do not know... But I could not think of an era, when information - useful or otherwise - is so easily available. It could be quite a period of time - possibly years or couple of decades - before people learn not to be overwhelmed by this deluge of easy-access-information. Perhaps those with evil design use today's technology more smartly than anyone else. I may be totally wrong, but that's my strong notion.

I mentioned Yahoo!... Included in my website now, is a live-news feed compiled by Yahoo! The portal is an assembly of news from India & the rest of the world and, Sports & Entertainment. If you accidentally land on the news page and are absolutely not interested in reading the news, there's still a game of tic-tac-toe to waste your time on.

Ummm... I am just very excited, not because some work was done on my website, but rather due to a new page I want to showcase. You, now you HAVE to visit this site Murali's art corner on the wild web [link defunct]. Here is a pal of mine, who just sketches the hell out of any white piece of paper. The shades, the strokes, the intensity are unmistakable and composed of equal parts of genius and ... more genius. Also are a number of zingy, zeitgeist, whoopy sites linked to the... guess what... links section. Visit them. You'll enjoy it. When you enjoy it, don't forget to drop a word or two of your comments. Always welcome!

Know Richard Tomlinson??? The guy (spelt the spy) who MI6 loved to call "the rat" after he sold his 'dangerous liaisons' behind the iron curtain to the press. Well, the excerpts from his book 'My life as a spy' are in the articles page. Just a little treason doesn't hurt, eh?. Coming soon would be Hanssen, I guess.

Whoever said life never gets any busier! You sure know I look forward to feeding them their own pre-frontal lobe. Eww! One of the unfortunate effects of having a slice of Hannibal Lecter in one's life is that vocabulary and cuisine start to include such terms as chianti, fava beans and I-wont-spell-it-offal.

Well, this update isn't turning any gruesome. It's still a PG-13 site (with no respect to the morons at MPAA). I have updated the articles and the astronomy pages with some readable articles that is actually worth your time. The death of Subhash Chandra Bose, affectionately called Netaji by most Indians, is of mystery. While the Mahatma preached non-violence, Netaji would not mind a dose of violence to boot the British colonialism out of the Indian sub-continent. Eventually he died under mysterious circumstances, and his body was never recovered. I came across this news article about him recently, and it was worth my time including it in my archives.

The latest additions to the astronomy page are here. It's been after months that an update has made it's way to the web, but what the hell...

Check out the latest additions to the astronomy page. Several other articles of interest are in the works and should find it's way to the WWW - on this page - soon. How soon? Hey! Don't complain!

I like the creativity and the spooky feel of "The X-Files". So when I watched it squander and scamper for story lines in the episode "The Closure" - dealing with Samantha Mulder's abduction, I kinda puked. Puked my thoughts out on the World Wide Web |:~) I note that things are nowhere near to improving, and I am disgusted when Sculder & Mully keep giggling when victims are chopped around them. Instance: Episode "First Person Shooter". When Mulder exclaims at the end of the episode "That's entertainment", it left me wondering, who he was trying to convince. "Carter & co!: Time for you guys to take some lessons from Joss Whedon"

Happy Millenium Wishes to all who survived the Y2K catastrophe. To the rest - "Happy de-bugging"

Vadi's alternate universe revamped ! ! ! I have registered www.e-masala.net after an exhaustive search for e-universes & cosmos and a ton of other domain names. None were available, worse... most of these registered URLs don't even have a single page posted to it's credit. Hoarders!

The mythology, journal and article sections are buzzing with new stuff. Once I have the new domain activated, I am fairly certain that atleast the coming months will see a rush of new blood in the various sections. Come to think of it, each section barring the genealogy page have new pieces posted to them every now & then. Not too bad for someone with a full-time job and part-time studies going on at the same time!

Thumbnailing is a fairly simple task! Like peeling an onion or tying your shoe lace - BUT both when done the incorrect way looks crappy. If you want to bestow the crappy title to my work, you gotta visit the snapshot gallery. Once again, these are pictures shot by my pal, Bala during his trip to Maine last year - OH! MY GOD! - absolutely stunning piece of work.

Other than thumbnailing, it's JOURNAL time! Thanks to my roomies, Arun & Devesh, I was looking up the various arguments over the Narmada Project controversy. For those of you, who equate Narmada Project to a new money losing NASA venture, a little inside info. It's NOT! The Indian goverment had chosen to industrialize the valley region of Narmada (according to several studies, an immensely resourceful region that could not just provide employment benefits to the entire region, but to a large extent supply the much needed electricity to the valley) - the decision to build a dam to harness electricity was made almost a couple of decades ago. But it dealt with the god-awful task of rationalizing with the environmentalists and more important with the locals who had to not only be relocated but be assured that all was going to be okay with them. This spawned the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan - meaning organization to save the Narmada) headed by Ms.Medha Patkar. For those of you, who jump to the conclusion that such organizations are well funded and the leaders to be powerful wealthy activists, it is not true in this case. This is one of those 'very Indian' method of protests - 'fast-unto-death' and its ilk - and the lady (fairly old) commands tremendous respect from every quarters. I don't want to go on and on, and make this whole thing cliched and cloyed. I stop here.

Just about four weeks for Year 2000, eh? It would be interesting to see, if despite a promising bug proof millenium, tables are spun around. I am definitely not one of those predicting the apocalypse, but in a strange sense (perhaps a little evil :-) I much welcome the alternate possibility. After all I call my site the alternate universe, and here is the chance ;-)

This aside, I have two new articles... actually reviews, by the movie critic, Roger Ebert's page. One is about his narration of watching a couple of Indian movies, and another is a review of the 1993 movie, Ruby in Paradise, directed by Victor Nunez and starring Ashley Judd. About this movie... I've never, NEVER been compelled to watch a movie over and over again, as this one. I don't think I can say exactly why I admire this movie, but the Ebert review captured this movie's soul in a way, as much as the director would have desired to. A must-see film.

After a quarter year passing by since August, I thought I've lost my web site altogether and to summon the energy and enthusiasm to revive it would be a loser task. Guess not! The snapshot gallery is adorned with Bala's photographs shot during his trip to Vermont, New York and Niagara The fall pictures taken at Vermont are breath-taking and if you feel like appreciating the effort, the man would be His Highness, Balamurli Thekkedath [link defunct] who was responsible.

Also I cleaned up some of the broken links that used to take the visitor to Spree.com - the free website where I created my first home page [link defunct]. I hope to keep up the energy level. Will get a journal update soon on the 'Thursday Syndrome'.

The last update to this page was on April 22. In a while this has been the longest break when no new updates made the board. Doesn't mean I did not have anything to fiddle with. In sometime, I have made the most extensive updates in just almost every section of the page.

Added two new interesting pieces to the articles page, and the astronomy page now has a more extensive link page that is sure to please even the uninterested. After starting the short stories section in the Mythology page, the Trojan War finds its way in there.

I am also working on scrapping the existing version of the links page, and introducing a better link to the oddities that we rarely come across but care to take a second look at. Yet to scan pictures from my Hong Kong trip but of late, I am having tremendous difficulty with making Adobe Photoshop do it's job.

Sunday, March 28, 1999
Not that I am already in Hong Kong, but amidst the jet-lag delirium struck and here I am up to an e-mail to my room-mate, Prasanna. Placing it in the online journal, I make this as the 8th update to the page. Btw, get a chance, kill Milosevic.

Thursday, March 25, 1999
When I come back from Hong Kong I'll have more to tell... For now my thoughts before the trip Online Journal: On my way to Hong Kong.

Thursday, March 11, 1999
A day at work... A week at work... A fortnight at work... Online Journal : Update 6. And a $1 million check.

Thursday, Feb 18, 1999
Tinkering with the front page background is just a façade for a new look, I would say. Getting to update each of the pages gives that edge of zeal I so well have been keeping up (Pat, pat to my own 'unreachable' back!). The journal with each piece of briefing has grown in length, and I may have to break it down into monthly blocks to not make it into one long drab jumble, jungle of alphabets. Not just a sneak preview, a full length reading of the On-line Journal could be the recipe for the day J.

Tuesday, Feb 9, 1999
Quantify the word "substantial". The On-line Journal, Articles , Mythology and Astronomy section all have new cud to chew. I took substantial assistance from Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" and The CNN Interactive web-site's "Space" section to add interesting material. As always, I check my "substantially" inactive guest-book for comments. I have additionally revamped the look of my friends section, and am moving all my web content from Spree.com to the current Geocities address. It's a pain, but considering it's due for some months now, I am glad it's happening.

Friday, Jan 29, 1999
Personally I consider Mohandas K. Gandhi to be the greatest person of this century. India, as multi-cultural as it is, I don't think anyone else could have delicately & firmly guided the nation through the freedom struggle and the blood ridden post-Independence era as well as he did. He had his detractors, but no one can deny the fact that the greatness of India is always seen thro' Gandhi's eyes of non-violence and compassion. This year being the end of the millenium, here is a pick of an article on the Mahatma that appeared on the Indian Express news magazine. A must read...

Wednesday, Jan 13, 1999
Ummm... I am not at all sentimental (cynical would be more defining), but the poem I read from Seema Ingleshwar's page gave me a moment of pause. The poem wasn't written by Seema, and I've seen it once being circulated by email as well. But what the heck... It's good to read. Back in the days... !

Tuesday, Jan 12, 1999
Tintin & Herge : The legend and the creator. 'Thundering typhoons' and 'Billions of blistering blue barnacles' were the heartiest cuss words I relished using. Not so much to insult anyone, but it remained the funniest way to express ridicule yet. And no one was offended too! Tintin, other than Asterix remain my all-time fave list of books (calling them cartoons may be a grave injustice). Read on! And some more!

Wednesday, Jan 6, 1999
The world is a very beautiful place... and to have a good camera to capture breath-taking moments perhaps engraves those moments in memory & otherwise. Check out these pictures my buddy Bala shot during his vacation. It is merely indexed now and no thumbnails are available but once you start clicking on the pics, I assure you'll enjoy them. IMMENSELY.

Monday, Jan 4, 1999
A Very New Year to all!. Let my mind free-lance on a cold night and ended up with this piece about a 'lost' freshman year.

Sunday, Dec 13, 1998
It remains to be seen, how well my heart can race against the pounding of my job, travel and web page. Pretty well until now, I guess so. I just stole some time during my travel to write this piece which I thought apt to stash-in both my On-line Journal as well as the Articles page. Try the taste of it.

Monday, Nov 30, 1998
Now that Thanksgiving jollydays are over, it's time for the grind. I could not have started the morning in a better fashion than to receive some word (lotsa words) from my friends. Bala wrote too. To understand my network of friends, I guess this mail makes a perfect piece. It also helps update my joural within a week.

Thursday, Nov 26, 1998
Yee-hah! That's a good sign. I began an online journal to keep tab on what's happening and what's not. I hope to maintain brisk days ahead, so as to preclude any reasons to narrate a woeful day.

Tuesday, Oct 20, 1998
After much dilly-dally, I expanded my Astronomy page with some recent articles on such matters as "cosmic creation" and "the dark age and re-birth of light". The astronomy links page is in a better state now with my fave-links listed. Space is undoubtedly the most spectacular (the occasional "Titanic" is an exception) things to amaze, confound, terrify and incite a hundred other odd emotions in most, without an exception. Learning about plausible theories of creation, expansion, and dimesion of space is a pleasure by itself.

Sunday, Oct 18, 1998
Registered with my Under-grad school - Coimbatore Institute of Technologys' webring. For those CITians visiting my page, it may be of interest to register themselves in the Alumni and visit fellow students URLs. I did, and I was glad, I did.

Friday, Sep 25, 1998
My "first release" of the genealogy page. It merely lists the names of all in the family tree and... branches... Much work is yet to be done on this page, completion of which would personally be of great satisfaction and sense of achievement.

Also, I felt the need to mention certain other sites that caught my eye. I have listed them in my personal links page. Those little bits and pieces make these sites, a joy to visit.