Creat Your Own Presidential Candidate

In today's age of buffet menus and make your own Pizza how about "Design your own Perfect Presidential Candidate". This is true. WikiCandidate08 offers just that.

According to the website "What if you could create your perfect candidate from scratch -- their biography, their stance on the issues, even what the say and do on the campaign trail? By simply creating WikiCandidate's campaign site, you get to bring the perfect candidate into existence".

Go check out the website and try building your perfect presidential candidate.

Environmental Costs of Food we Eat

Increased globalization has increased the choices of food that we eat. We as consumers have a variety of food products at our disposal all year round. And we consume it with little attention to where the food came from or what the cost of that food is on the environment. An article published in The New York Times details the hidden costs of the food that we eat and how added food choices come at a cost to the environment. The article also details how some governments are thinking of having shippers and shoppers pay for the environmental costs.

Read more at Environmental Costs of Food We Eat

US Debt Collected from India

If you have a credit card, auto loan or other debt that is outstanding, and the next time a collection agency calls they might as well be sitting thousands of miles away in India. Thats right, Indian debt collectors collected about $51 billion in oustanding debt last year which America's have run on their credit cards, auto loans etc. All this by just a phone call from India.

Read more at US Debt Collected from India

BSP demands Rs 80,000 Crores for UP

Bhujan Samaj Party MP's disrupted the proceedings in Parliament today demanding a Rs 80,000 Crore package for Uttar Pradesh and the development of two backward regions. The BSP has raised the pitch on the issue in recent days with UP Chief Minister Mayawati threatening to withdraw support to the Centre if it failed to provide the package and bring down prices of essential commodities.
If only the BSP party chief and UP chief minister Mayawati had her priorities set right and not spent Rs 500 crores on an Ambedkar Park with 62 Sandstone Elephants we would not have seen this day.
But who is to tell the all powerful Mayawati that spending Rs 500 crores on the park is not a good idea. This goes right to Milton Friedman's point about how people spend Other Peoples Money.

Rahul as yuvraj sparks uproar in RS

This is how our honorable members of Parliament in India spend the taxpayers money. Is a frivolous issue of somebody calling Rahul Gandhi "Yuvraj" worthy of discussion in the Parliament and worth all the tax payers money?
Alas, in Indian politics there is no such thing as frivolous when it involves spending taxpayers money.

Read more at Rahul Gandhi called Yuvraj

Truth Upside Down

This ad is brilliant and very very creative.......

Crop Worth Rs 55,600 Crore Wasted

If the recent report in The Time of India is anything to go by, then India wastes about Rs55,600 Crore worth of argicultural produce every year. This is not just one area of agriculture we are talking about. It inlcudes staples, pulses, fruits, vegetables, livestock and fisheries.
Makes you wonder how much of the current food crisis and higher inflation can be avoided by just better managing the current agricultural produce.

Read more at Crop Worth Crorer's Wasted

When did Nepal Become Tibet?

Why does Stephen Hadley confuse Tibet with Nepal? Is it so hard to distinguish between Tibet and Nepal.
And George Stephanopoulos does not even seem to correct him....

3PM Campaign Ad

This is just too funny

Will the Protests against the Olympic Torch Bring any Change to Tibet?

In a recent commentary for NPR, Ted Koppel points out that "the global efforts to draw attention to China's human rights record as the Olympic torch continues its rounds is working. But, he says, as far as bringing real change in Tibet is concerned, the protests surrounding the torch are doing little."

Listen to the commentary Dreams of Free Tibet Will Go Unrealized

Read my other posts on Tibet and Beijing Olympic Boycott

Climate Change - A Global Scientific and Economic Challange

In a recent column published in Live Mint , Niranjan Rajadhyaksha points out that climate change is not just a scientific challenge, it is a economic challenge as well. He articulates that understanding the impact of global climate change on the economy and developing sound economic policies to mitigate this impact should be part of the discussion. In short economics and science should work together to find a solution that is feasible and sustainable.

Read more at Economics and Climate Change

Read my other posts on Climate Change

The World Food Crisis

Todays editorial in The New York Times looks at the Food Crisis that is gripping the world. Increase in corn prices due to diversion of corn to produce ethanol and other biofuels in the United States has ticked off a global domino. In addition, the growing middle class in India and China is further exasterbating the situation with increased demand for grains and meat.
Multiple studies recently have shown that ethanol has no net impact in reducing green house gases to prevent Global Warming. Thus, it is becoming increasing clear that the developed worlds experiment with ethanol should immediately stop as it is creating unintended consequences.

Read the editorial at The World Food Crisis

Read my other posts on Global Warming

Statement of the Day

The Times of India reports that 2906 people were fined in Bangalore in a three hour stretch on Saturday night for drunken driving. Its mind boggling that so many people were caught in one swoop. But this statement just makes your day. I did not know that getting caught driving drunk would qualify you for a VIP status.

"Son of a top income tax official and son of a principal from a girls' school were among many VIPs caught driving under the influence of alcohol."

Read more at VIP Drunk Drivers
Read my other Statemen t of the Day posts.

Unaccustomed Earth

The New York Times has a review of a new book by Jhumpa Lahiri. The book titled Unaccustomed Earth looks like an interesting read based on the review at-least. It highlights some of the same issues that we as immigrants face in an alien land. And if The Namesake,her previous book, is anything to go by this will definitely be a good read.

Environmental Costs of a Phone Book

According to the Yellow Pages Association, about 615 million phone books were distributed in the United States last year. Thats about 2 phone books for every person in the United States. Here are some facts and figures about these phone books
1. If stacked one on top of the other, the length of all these phone books would be 19000 miles. That is enough distance to move around the earth four times.
2. The weight of all these books is about 660,000 tons. Imagine all that paper and the impact of that on the environment
3. The print directory is a $14 Billion industry.

But there is a way you can stop these phone books and contribute your two cents to the fight against global warming. Visit Stop Phone Books

Read more at Glut of Phone Books

Tale of 62 Sandstone Elephants and Drought Hit Farmers

According to CNN-IBN, Mayawati the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is building a Ambedkar park and memorial at a total cost of Rs 5 Billion. The park would have 62 sandstone elephants that would make the taxpayers wallet lighter by Rs 38 crore. While the same Mayawati gave a paltry sum of Rs 250 for farmers of drought hit regions of Uttar Pradesh.

Ethanol - Is it Really a Clean Source of Energy?

This weeks Time Magazine had a cover story on how ethanol is not the clean fuel it is made out to be. The article details how ethanol is destroying the environment, increasing global warming and increasing the price of food. The unintended consequences of using ethanol as a fuel far outweigh the benefits of it been a renewable energy source.

Read the complete article at The Clean Energy Scam

As you are reading this article here are some facts to chew on.
1. 365 days one person could be fed on the corn needed to fill an ethanol fueled SUV
2. $100 Billion is the estimated size of the 2010 biofuel market
3. 750,000 acres of Brazilian rain forest lost in the last six months of 2007 (equal to the size of the entire state of Rhode Island)

Also read my previous posts about Ethanol and Global Warming