Indo US Nuclear Deal – Much more to it than mere power generation Wednesday, Aug 29 2007

This article has been moved to the location below

Indo US Nuclear Deal – Much more to it than mere power generation

19 Responses »

 

World War III – Potential Flash Points Monday, Jul 23 2007

One of my favorite quotes about wars is

“A war does not decide who is right, it only decides who is left”

No sane person wants to see another world war, but at the same time it is ludicrous to say that there won’t be any wars in the future, unless and until the whole world starts following Buddhism!

The Scenario

The news we see everyday, the news we read everyday, the news we hear everyday is filled with how one country is pitted against the other, how one group wants to finish the other, ethnic violence, religious violence, racism, ideological violence, political violence and what not…

And enter Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s home grown breed of terrorists, kahani mein twist, a twist in the story…. Now its not just the political leadership of countries that can start a war, even terrorist groups can initiate one! The threat is not about sophisticated nuclear arsenals and delivery systems of US or Russia, but its more about dirty nukes in the hands of terrorists!

US and allies have waged a war on terror, Pakistan’s Musharraff is playing the game of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, China is uneasy over Taiwan, Israel is watching Iran, Russia is irritated over UK, AlQaeda wants to wipe out the civilized world..

What are the possible flashpoints to trigger a third world war? Well, I am not a pessimist, but the triggers do very much exist in the world today. So as a member of a responsible(?) species with a duty towards its own species and more towards the planet, we have to identify all these triggers and not just TRY to put them off, but have to LITERALLY PUT THEM OFF..

The List

So here is the list, in the reverse order from the lowest to the highest probability of occurrence..

5. Musharraff overthrown by fundamental elements in Pakistan, a preemptive strike on Pakistani military facilities by India, An entry by China to assist Pakistan, US enters to support India, North Korea enters to support China, Japan enters to support India…..

4. US missile defense installations in Czech and Poland cause Russia to deploy ICBM missiles in its European borders, a misunderstood testing by the US systems in Poland or Czech is all that it takes to trigger a global escalation..

3. Taiwan declares Independence, China forcefully tries to annexe Taiwan, US strikes China, Russia enters the war, Japan enters the war, North Korea, South Korea….

2. Realizing the fear of acquisition of a nuclear weapon by Iran, Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran retaliates and the US enters into the equation…

1. A dirty nuke exploded by a terrorist group in any of the major western cities! Say US, and US reacts, and reacts strongly, on the root, the root as usual leads to Pakistan, enter China, India forced into the war, and then Russia, parallel ignition by Iran on the Israel….

The Solution

First of all, for heavens sake all countries should get rid of all their nuclear weapons. If not humans, at least other species should be allowed to survive on this planet after a world war.. All nuclear weapons should be disposed immediately and the process should be started in the order mentioned – USA, Russia, France, China, UK, India, Pakistan, Israel..

This ensures that even if there is a war, innocent people wont die, at least not in the number of millions. Let the wars not target any civilian locations. Nuclear fuel is meant to generate electrical power inside the nuclear reactors and let us stick to that use…

Fundamentalism should be wiped out of this planet, rather than trying to wipe out the terrorists.. All young kids all over the planet should be given proper civilized education and should be protected from being brainwashed by the fundamentalists..

It is a known fact that USA used fundamentalist terrorist elements against USSR during the cold war.. Pakistan is using them against India… This should not be allowed to continue any more…

Any regime supporting terrorist or fundamentalist elements should be thrown out and democratic institutions should be installed all over the globe. Every country’s fate should be decided by its own people and not by dictatorial regimes..

Having said all this, does it sound practical enough? Will US and other countries give up their nuclear arsenal? Can we prevent terrorist organizations from misguiding and recruiting youth?

Hope is a very beautiful and promising word, isn’t it?

Let us hope that the hope for a better future ultimately prevails..

Let us hope that the future generations on this planet will refer to the above mentioned list of flash points as, possible world war or nuclear flash points that once existed in this world, like the way how we today refer to the Cuban missile crisis as a possible nuclear flash point that once existed during the days of the cold war…

Leave a Response »

 

Made in China: Cheap, yet expensive! Wednesday, Jul 18 2007

This article has been moved to http://hitxp.com/world/18072007.htm

Leave a Response »

 

Vedic Chants enter the US Senate Sunday, Jul 15 2007

For the first time in history on July 13 2007, the United States Senate began its day with the universal Vedic prayer, read from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad of the Hindu Vedas..

Asato Ma Sathgamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyothirgamaya
Mruthyorma Amruthangamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Heem..

which means

Lead Us from Unreal to the real
Lead us from Darkness to Light
Lead us from Death to Immortality
Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all…

There was no invocation of any specific God or religion here.. It were wonderful lines of a prayer which any religious person of any religion could use.. And see what the fundamental Chrisitians did from the visitor’s gallery! Just see how they scream.. Does the existence of God (in one particular name) has to be proved by screaming like this? Does any Hindu go to a church and disrupt a Chrisitian’s prayers? That is the last thing any Hindu would do..

Hindu Vedas have no problem with any religions.. They say “Ekam Sath, Vipro Bahuda Vadanthi.. which means “God is one, learned scholars call him in different names”

So Hinduism in its root has no issues with other religions or faith.. because God is one and the same, no matter whether you call him Allah, Christ, Brahma or with any other name…

Wish those people had understood this before doing such silly things and bringing disgrace to one of the most tolerant countries on the planet like USA..

Read the news report here..

Below is a video where one can see how the sanskrit vedic hymns are chanted in the Hindu temples.. This specific chant in the Video is about Mother Goddess and is called Durga Sooktam.. Very few people know that unlike other religions, in Hinduism the most powerful God is a female .. not a male.. she is the mother of the trinity of creation, maintenance and destruction !

11 Responses »

 

Minorities in Politics – India and America Tuesday, Jun 19 2007

While reading comments on another article of mine, I realized this fact – There is more political freedom and more political opportunities for people from minority religions in India than in USA.

How many politicians can you name from USA who are non Christians?? Not really!!! OK, how many non Christians have become governors of states or President of USA? Note that this world’s strongest(?) democracy -USA has been an independent country for over two centuries!!
Let us come back to India, the world’s largest democracy that has been an independent nation for just over a half century! Let us see how many prominent non hindu politicians can we name from India.

Our present President is a Muslim!
Our present Prime minister is a Sikh!
Our present Leader of Opposition is a Hindu!
Our present Defense minister and earlier defense ministers were/are Christians!!
Our Previous Prime Minister was a Hindu!
We have already had 3 Muslim presidents!
There have been so many non-Hindu governors, ministers and chief ministers in India.

Why is there no such minority political leadership in US? Which do you think is a great democracy now? India or USA? Or is it because Hindus in general are more tolerant towards other religions, while other religions are not? Remember that India is a country which broke itself into three pieces 60 years ago when the religious minorities in India demanded separate nation (Pakistan and Bangladesh were the two new Muslim countries created out of India)!! And still India did not become a Hindu country, it continues to be a secular country, thanks to the secular Hindus and today more Muslims live in India than in Pakistan or in Bangladesh!!

Once again, I am a proud Indian!!

10 Responses »

 

American Drug Mafia Monday, Jun 18 2007

American Drug Mafia?!

Well, yes. This mafia is run by the multi billion dollar drug industry in America!

Every time a person visits a doctor in America with a psychological problem – stress, depression or related condition, the doctor does not take enough time to understand the root cause. Root cause analysis takes time and time costs money. What the person actually needs might be elimination of the cause of the psychological disturbance. For instance, the depression might be due to loss of a pet, loss of a job, or say stress at work, etc. There are also persons who are MISLEAD by the ads from these drug companies and INSIST on their doctors to prescribe certain drugs!!

What the person really needs in the above case is Yoga, exercises, a trip into the woods, a vacation, etc. Instead the doctors reduce the entire problem to a simplistic chemical imbalance in the body!! They tell the person that he/she is depressed due to a lack of chemical called serotonin in the body and hence recommends an anti depressant which basically adds serotonin into your body and booooooom.. your good moods are back like a magic wand!!!

Well, being somebody who knows how complicated human body is and the way a true medicinal system like ayurveda works, I can only laugh at the knowledge of those doctors and pity those patients who are being converted into drug addicts. one in every six americans is on anti depressants!!! For a population of 300 million in USA, 150 million prescriptions have been given for anti depressants.

Pharmaceutical drug industry is worth 250$ billion worldwide of which 1/3 is from USA itself!! In other words every third human in the world who takes these drugs is from USA while only one out of every 20 humans in this world is from USA!! On the contrary, one out of every 6 humans in the world is from India, but only one out of every 250 humans who takes these drugs is from India! (India accounts for only 1% of global pharmaceutical drug sales)

Let me tell you, these drug companies are minting money by manufacturing drugs which only hide the effect and do nothing about the cause. Our body is not just a chemical factory where you see a problem and attribute it to an increase or decrease in some chemical and then remove/add it accordingly and lo, the problem is gone. Definitely life forms are not that simple. We are much more than chemical combinations.

It is true that giving serotonin might remove depression in some people for some time. But then is that the right way to treat depression? Why did the body reduce its serotonin level? Did it go mad? A healthy body does everything in response to internal and external conditions. In this case, the body sees that there is a cause to be depressed and probably reduced serotonin level is used to indicate the same to the emotional part of the brain. So what should be the solution? To analyze the cause which caused the reduction would be the right answer. Not artificially increasing serotonin and hiding the cause from the brain.

Artificial intake of serotonin would be like drinking coffee to use caffeine in it to avoid sleep. Adenosine tells the brain that we are sleepy. Caffeine blocks this adenosine and prevents sleep. But does this mean that the body doesnt need sleep???

I have always disliked this stupid approach of western medicinal systems. It simply hides the effects than treating the cause. Which is why I consider ancient Indian systems like Ayurveda and Yoga as the true medicinal systems. They NEVER hide the effects. You will never find a pain killer in Ayurveda. Instead they strengthen your body to overcome the odds and illness. It may take time, but it definitely helps and strengthens your body and mind. Western medicines make you lifetime dependent on drugs. These drug companies never attempt to treat the cause. Why would they want to remove all your illness and bring down the sales of their drugs??

Note that there have been researches where doctors have given mere simpe water to patients saying that its medicine, and the patients have got cured. What worked in this case was the trust! The patients trusted what doctors gave, and their body responded accordingly!

In a recent study by FDA, Anti Depressants were found to actually increase depression, homicidal thoughts, withdrawal symptoms in many people who take it. Only 1 out of 10 was found to be really responsive in a positive manner to anti depressants. It has been found that many recent maniac killers and homicides in US were on anti depressants for a long time. It is so foolish to think that you artificially add a chemical to your body, and it goes on well on its purpose of removing depression without having any kind of side effects on other functions of the body. Our body is not a set of independent chemical reactions where you alter one and nothing else gets affected. One doesn’t need a medical post graduation to understand this, common sense will do.

Its amazing to see the thriving sales of anti depressants in America. An entire country is being converted into drug dependents! Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, Remeron… so many of them! They are even prescribed to children!! A child gets depressed due to getting a low grade in school, or for losing a competition or for any other reason, and lo, the doctor prescribes an anti depressant!! Note that of the all mentioned anti depressants, ONLY prozac has been approved by FDA for use in children!

If you have a fracture, well, there are pain killers. Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Diclofenac and what not… They dont treat your bone fracture or muscle cramp or back pain. They just prevent those pain signals from reaching your brain!

Do you think nature is so foolish to have those pain signals generated when there is a bone fracture for instance? These signals are generated with a purpose. They tell the brain cells what is wrong and where. Brain in turn being the controller of the body activates required organs and cells which now participate in the repair process. It also ensures that your concentration gets to the affected part and you take appropriate action like covering the part from further damage, etc. In case of a fracture or cramp for instance it ensures that you dont move the affected part till the damage control is done. This prevents more damage to that part.

Pain killers simply hijack the entire natural process. If you go to an ayurvedic doctor, he will never give you a pain killer. Instead he will prescribe medication that assists your body in healing the fracture/cramp even faster. That is what I call real medical science.

Sportsmen for instance when injured, go on pain killers and continue to play!! Nothing is more dangerous than that. You already have an injured part which is more vulnerable even to minor blows and you continue to play as if nothing has happened!! Which is why many of them end up with life long problems and n number of surgeries.

Greedy drug companies and stupid doctors offer people 2 minute solutions that are foolish and dangerous and in no way can be called as real treatment, as an alternative for a natural process which is longer but definitely more concrete, reliable and a real treatment of the problem.

Remember that the best doctor for your body is the body itself. It exactly knows what to do and how to do. To fasten the process all it needs is mere assistance and that is what a true medicinal system should provide. Giving false signals to the body is like cheating the doctor in your body, and you end up paying adequately for it.

Another instance is that of Anti Histamines. Histamines are the neuro transmitters in our body which carry information about sites of infection to the brain. Some people are allergic to some substances and even this causes an increase in the amount of histamines in your body. And your doctor ends up giving you a dose of anti histamines in the form of tablets or an IV. What do anti histamines do? Well, they simply bring down the level of histamine in your body and you end up thinking that allergy is gone!!!

Can there be any more foolish treatment than this. Anti Histamines should be given only if you reach a level where you could probably get a stroke, which is a worst case scenario. If your body is allergic to some substance and produces histamines, then there should be a reason to it. The actual treatment would be to identify that substance and avoid contact with it or intake (if it is a food item) in the future. Not asking your body to shut up by taking anti-histamines.

My sincere advice to all those americans who go to general physicians to find a solution to their mental conditions is, please go to a good psychiatrist instead. If for instance you are feeling lazy or less energetic, the psychiatrist will give you tips on how to be more active. where as the general physician will reduce it to a lack of some chemical in your body and convert you into a drug addict forever!

Thank God once again. Another reason to feel proud to be in India. Till today I haven’t heard about a single person taking anti depressants in India. In India, one can count on his/her fingers the number of times one gets depressed in his/her lifetime, and if at all depressed, we have family and friends to rely on, yoga and meditation, there is lot of fun and hope around, spiritual capital of the world….

I love India!

8 Responses »

 

Women, India and America Sunday, Jun 17 2007

The so called world’s most advanced democracy, the United Stated of America even after two centuries as an independent country is yet to have a woman for its top post, the President of USA.

India, the world’s largest democracy after just over half a century of Independence has nominated Pratibha Patil, a woman, for its highest constitutional post ‘The President of India’

For those who are not aware, the politically equivalent post in India for the ‘President of USA’ is not the ‘President of India’ but is the ’Prime Minister of India’. The Prime minister of India makes the actual political decisions and is more powerful than the President of India in the political decision making sense. India within 20 years of getting Independence had Indira Gandhi as its first woman Prime Minister! She was the Prime Minister of India for more than 15 Years!!

Let us go one level below – from the national level to the state level. Note that America has twice as many as states than India! More numbers mean more opportunities for woman. Not really, what matters first is the social mindset.

Let us see how many woman governors have been there in the American states. The first woman governor was selected for an American state after about one and a half centuries of American independence. In 1925 Nellie Taylo Ross became the first american woman governor for the state, Wyoming. Well, she won a special election to replace her deceased husband! The first woman who became the governor of a state in USA on her own might was Ella Grasso who became the governor of Connecticut in 1975, after almost two centuries of American Independence!

Sarojini Naidu became the first woman governor of an Indian state in 1947, right as soon as India got its Independence! She became the Governor of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh as soon as India became Independent! No waiting time for a woman to become a governor in India!

The equivalent post in India for a Governor’s post in USA is the ‘Chief Minister of a State’. Sucheta Kripalani became the first woman chief minister of India in 1963 when she became the chief minister of the India state of Uttar Pradesh. Note that India had its first woman Chief Minister within 15 years of its Independence, America took one and a half centuries for a woman governor! More importantly, Uttar Pradesh is the largest and most populous state of India!

India already has had over 13 woman chief ministers!! Just two years back there were five woman Chief Ministers in India at the same time!!

Girls in India who want to reach great political heights are more lucky than their couterparts in America :-)

11 Responses »

 

For a developed world Wednesday, Apr 25 2007

In one of my earlier blogs, I had mentioned that India alone needs one and a half times the energy currently consumed by entire world, if India were to be a nation as developed as USA.

The living standards of a developed nation like USA is completely dependent on the availability of energy for all the necessities and luxuries that a developed society offers.

Now how on earth can we get such a huge amount of energy ? Already we are running out of resources like petroleum, nuclear options are dangerous and also very soon we will run out of nuclear fuels, nuclear materials are controlled by a few countries of the world, if we dont create fast breeder reactors using thorium then we have little nuclear fuel left, what about pollution? nuclear wastes?

For the whole world to live like a developed nation the amount of energy required is about 8 times the energy that the world produces currently. But how?

Only feasible non polluting long term solution seems to be our true energy provider, SUN

To harness energy from Sun, we need to install solar panels, but how on earth? 

Problem #1 is Land for solar panels: Dedicated land for solar panels is not feasible. There might be cloudy days. Land will be wasted and not available for other purpose.

Problem #2 is Storage: Suppose we distribute solar panels across the globe. On top of all buildings, vehicles and what not. We cant touch the forests though. Now how do we collect the power generated from all these places and store ? It will become a infrastructure problem. Again not really feasible. Say suppose we want to store power enough for the entire world for next 6 months.

Problem #3 Weather: All days are not sunny days. There are cloudy days, there are rainy days, and there are days which are not either and still not sunny.

Problem #4, Night: Only half of earth will be working at a time. Part of earth on the night side cannot harness solar energy.

More than anything else, when the entire world becomes a developed society, power requirements will be so dynamic and high that most of the stored power will be consumed almost immediately, and we cannot afford more storage space too as world population increases. Also we dont want to risk lives by having massive power storage grids.

Then the solution ? I always love to look at outer space There lies the solution

Millions of solar panels and power storage units floating in outer space. . Solar energy is captured from the sun to generate power and the power is transmitted to local storage units spread all over the earth on demand in the form of direct contact lightning strikes to ground based storage units for immediate consumption. Of course normal clouds on earth which cause lightening are at a quite lower altitude on earth compared to sending electricity from space, so we need to have intermediary receivers at different levels. Probably we may have a local backup of few days for the entire planet in case the space infrastructure fails.

Fault tolerance is required for these space based solar panels. There will be constant wear and tear. Meteorites might break down the panels and grids. Asteroids might hit. Comets might interfere. So we need to have propulsion based computer guided systems in all these free floating power generators in space which move around in a flexible manner in response to projectile threats in the space.

There should be on site robots which constantly repair all those worn and torn panels and grids. All the storage will be in space and energy as required is pumped down to earth. No wastage of space as long as we rely on outer space. In fact in the future we can move out all the manufacturing industries and factories to outer space. Use locally available resources as much as possible in outer space like solar energy, hydrogen, mineral ores from asteroids, etc and have the entire setup run by robots.

Well we might have the contemporary science fiction movies then which would have a plot where aliens try to steal power from our grids ! or say they install their own robots in our space based power generation units to take over the entire system !

Also since power is available in space, our future interplanetary, interstellar or intergalactic missions which take off from earth need not carry the complete power payload from earth itself, instead they can carry the bear minimum energy required for a take off to get out of earth’s gravity and then recharge themselves later with enough power at these space based power grids OR we can have all take offs for space travel from the space stations built somewhere near these power grids!

We can even have these solar panels and power grids at all the planets in our solar system and on prominent asteroids for consumptions by human/robotic missions which arrive to these places.

These were my thoughts that started with a requirement for a reliable energy resource for a developed world and later increased to scope to include space based factories, industries, space travel…….

Always use the word ‘impossible’ with great caution

3 Responses »

 

Biggest blunder of modern political history Sunday, Mar 25 2007

This article has been moved to http://www.hitxp.com/in/25032007.htm

Leave a Response »

 

American Intelligence!! Thursday, Mar 15 2007

I rolled all over the floor watching this video at my workplace today. My God! See how intelligent americans are.. bihar looks like a better bet for me now..

Just an example of what you are going to watch in this super funny video

An american is asked to name a country that starts with ‘U’, and the answer is Yugoslavia !!!

Enjoy the fun, have a good day watching the other side of the coin or moon or whatever it is…

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/clever-americans-p1.php

Leave a Response »