Oxy Rich !

Breakthrough in fusion reaction research – The EU is expected to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter; also a Latin word meaning "the way") at Cadarache in southern France. The EU would be expected to cover 50% of the construction and operational costs of the reactor, with the other five partners - Japan, China, South Korea, the US and Russia - contributing 10% each. It will be the largest fusion demonstration on Earth and will see the first sustained reactions required to generate useable power

Technologists are hard at work across the world to build robots, some of the newest creations were displayed at the Prototype Robot Exposition. But how about a robot that can act bhai ? We beat the world hands down, we have Sanjay Dutt ! Walking, talking, cavorting and generally doing “dadagiri”. He’s made of “Elegant”-brand steel. i'm not joking, watch the TV commercial, he confesses ! Move over, C3PO, Sanjay is here ! He also asks what i’m made of… i’m skin n bones, O Mighty One, a mere mortal.

And what about drinking oxygen ? More oxygen = More energy = More endurance = Long-distance running champs… Watch our rickety runners pummel the challenge from the rest of the world.

We don’t need a regimen of hormones (they’ve made it illegal, anyway), we have our daily 5 litres of Mankinchand Oxyrich - with no less than 300% extra oxygen! Note “…The oxygen O2 (diatomic) in Oxyrich has been developed by a natural process that doesn't use chemicals or their salts, meaning the oxygen is not bound up as Sodium Chlorite (NaClO2)...”. Energy shots to the brain… i’m reeling…

Cousin collapses from an asthma attack… give her Oxyrich (no desperate runs for oxygen cylinders at odd hours… keep a few bottles of Oxyrich handy at home !). Use a bottle of Oxyrich for the oxy-acetylene cutter. Ah, all those oxygen bars in Japan serving flavoured-oxygen… make them all drink mango and lichi squashes, prepared with Oxyrich, of course! An Oxyrich shower, for that hit straight to the grey cells. The options are endless… The creative agency take note.

Night Song - I

A new singer (screecher ?) had moved into my flat yesterday, unnoticed and uninvited.
It’s not often that i have guests coming to stay at home, and uninvited, never. But here was the singer and his music for free - already in my flat. Must have moved in when i was not around and now i could do precious little to change the situation.

It would have taken him quite an effort to reach my flat. i live a bit up in the sky. Or did he just hitch a free ride in the lift ? A stowaway, maybe ? Snuggling in the inviting comfort of the hay packing, in a crate of ripe and juicy mangoes ? A successful purchase by our fifth-floor resident from his friendly fruit-seller.

And when the lights went out at night, he would have crawled out of his cozy corner, onto the slippery ceramic tiles of the kitchen floor - exploring inquisitively, hungrily. Tentative initially and later, boldly. Attracted by the strip of fluoroscent landing light shining through the bottom of the door, he would have crawled out, right on to the landing. He would probably have tripped over the edge and dropped down the first stair, taken by surprise. A few more tumbles and his primordial brain would have slowly adapted to this new method of locomotion - twenty-three steps followed by a leap, down to the next stair.

Traversing a long flight of stairs, he reached another strip of floor, blazing with light but which appearing flat all around – no more tumbles. Still exploring, he crawled straight into the inviting darkness under my neighbour's, on the fourth floor. An intruder was noiselessly breaching locked doors that night, while the residents lived their beautiful dreams !
He would have crept into a cool corner. Behind a shoe rack ?  
And then, the genetic programming of a million years taking over, he would have started his rasping call. Not the low mating song, but his signature tune - announcing his arrival into the flat and the world at large. His shrill call pierced the silence of the night. Through the haze of deep sleep it was distant and disturbing in the beginning, but steadily became proximal, persistent and irritating. A rude awakening for the little kid and his parents.

They would have come out of bed in their crumpled night-dresses, irritated. Armed with a flashlight and brooms, the entire family would have initiated a “seek and evict” mission, searching all the dark recesses of the flat. Millions of years of medullar evolution and the coordination of three human brains would have quickly located him behind the shoe rack. He would have felt the vibrations come nearer, and stopped his call in alarm. But by then, it would have been too late. He would have cowered in his corner under this sudden spot of bright light, exposed and frightened.

A quick swish of the broom would have sent him sliding, rolling helplessly across the smooth floor and under the door, crashing headlong onto the wall of the landing. He lay there for moments, hurt and dazed. He eventually rolled upright, stretched his wings and legs, brushed his antennae and wiped his eyes - confirming that he had come through yet another encounter, still in one piece !

To be concluded...

Made in India, Best in the World

A U-2 spy plane crashes while returning from a surveillance mission in Afghanistan, killing the the pilot. Remember Gary Powers and his U-2 which was downed in Russia in 1960, at the height of the Cold War ?

The Business section in Rediff.com proclaims - Tata Steel is world's best steel producer. This “news” appears to be a straight take on the information made available at the Tata Steel website. While i am none to deny the venerable Tata Steel its due credit, this "news" appears to be a careful compilation of data, presented to create a marketing and promotional “coup”.

This is a more of a press release by Tata Steel, crafted into headline “news” by some Great Indian Couch Journalist. Of course, i'm looking forward to many more respectable journalists to report the same in our esteemed news media, glorifying yet another desi-turned-“World’s Best” !

A little research (also conducted comfortably seated !) indicates that the World Steel Dynamics (WSD) is a leading steel information service. To quote the WSD website, “The WSD regularly analyzes and publishes reports on - Steel Prices, Steelmakers' Costs, Steel Supply/Demand and Steel Finances. WSD also undertakes customized steel research assignments - Specialized In-depth Studies, Private Consulting Studies and Financial Valuations”. The WSD DOES NOT crown the “World’s Best Steel Producer“! Grow up, Honey, earn the money…!

Truth prevails when there are flag-bearers

Would we (dare to) do a Bugsy ? Hilarious stuff here !

Liked this post-script in the book. ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Hunter S Thompson is the author of Hells’ Angels, The Great Shark Hunt… Generation of Swine and other major statements of our time. Fear and Loathing in LAS VEGAS – A SAVAGE JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN DREAM was written in 1971.

After the mayhem of “Fear and Loathing…”, i have started reading Richard Preston’s non-fiction “Hot Zone”. The unnerving account of the Ebola (and Marburg) virus. “Ebola is a simple virus – as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with a swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects…Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish”. Refer my earlier posts Bugsy and here.
Feels like my gooey brain will be poured from the blender onto a roaring fire…

Richard Preston’s “The Demon in the Freezer” and “Hot Zone” are suggested reading.
On an entirely different flavour, i strongly recommend Waiter Rant.

dip of my hat...

To Dilip for his moving story - No Run Outs Please, We're Indian

Hunter

Oxfam pays $1m duty - British charity Oxfam paid the Sri Lankan government $1m in duty for importing Indian-manufactured vehicles to be used in tsunami reconstruction work.

Niger court frees slave activists - A Niger court has freed on bail two anti-slavery campaigners who had been held for six weeks on charges of fraud. The appeals court in the capital, Niamey, said there were insufficient grounds to continuing holding the men. Note that Niger officially banned slavery quite sometime ago… well…. May 2003, to be precise ! The Niger government apparently says that there is a caste system in the country and members of lower castes have been often mistaken for slaves. A brilliant whitewash, say what ?

Amardeep’s blog on Parineeta and Vidya Balasubramanian’s “very traditional Indian looks”, has an interesting Sidenote : An interesting article on the 'Devdas phenomenon' is at the University of Iowa. And Poonam Arora has written a serious, scholarly article on "Devdas, India's Emasculated Hero: Sadomasochism and Colonialism". Have started reading Poonam Arora’s article, no comments as yet.

Also read Amardeep’s thoughts on 'Glocalization' and hybridity - MTV Desi

Turbocharge your ego - Is your name on the Stardust microchips ?
Just completed “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S Thompson.
A numbing tornado of Tequila, Cadillac “whale”, sweat, hangover, Acid, floral shirts, screaming tape-recorder, mescaline, Las Vegas, .332, TV on “snow” channels, f-words, rum and ice, the Great Red Shark, a Samoan attorney, Budweiser, abuse, Rolling Stone, lizards, coke, reckless driving, felony, casinos… as if my brain was put in a blender and the lid flipped open while the blades whirred…For the uninitiated, i strongly recommend his “Hells Angels”

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's in. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions." - HST 1965. The Edge that i refer in the footer…

Even his death was some wild abandonment - "On February 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado", said a statement issued by Thompson's son, Juan Thompson, to the Aspen Daily News.