Thursday, 14 February 2013

Apollo 16 astronaut left family picture on Moon 40 years ago...WOW !

Security Forces sans firearms while civilians shoot each other !

This is what we want our Security Forces to do.....tie their hands and ask them to perform their role....

and this is the control we have on civilians carrying fire-arms ! PITY !!

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Did Iran Photoshop Its New Stealth Fighter Jet to Look Like It Was Flying When It Totally Wasn’t ?

Wow.....this is a must read. Seems Iran floated the picture with the Qaher 313 superimposed on the mountain to "prove" that the fighter jet could fly. Check out the picture of the mountain without the jet and with the jet (Photoshopped !)

Are you Man enough for a ...Ring ?

Part Two of the Man Rings which seem to becoming a fashion statement...hmmm ?

This is one of the most unique rings ever produced. Crafted from aerospace grade titanium, it is a comfortable and smart looking ring. Hidden inside is an assortment of useful tools. It has a working bottle opener, a straight blade perfect for cutting packing tape or fishing line, a serrated blade for tougher things like nylon strapping or those tough to open electronics heat sealed packages, a saw for cutting plastic and wood, and it has a comb! Although the comb is tiny, it actually does a surprisingly good job on the 'stache or head! You would be amazed at just how handy this ring is.

The ring is custom made, one at a time, in exactly your ring size. We make them in quarter size increments for an exact fit, normally within a thousandth of an inch. The width remains at 9mm. The Brushed finish seems to work best, so I left off those options. The inside of the ring gets a polished finish for comfort. Although the ring can be engraved, the internal lines will affect the letters a bit. I recommend the Roman font if you will be engraving inside. There are brass rivets that hold the plates together, and they add a touch of class.

This utility ring is not to be confused with a mass produced stamped out toy. It is a finely engineered and crafted piece of functional art that takes many hours to make, and one that anyone would be proud to wear. It takes extreme precision and extreme equipment to make this work.

Don't forget to list your ring size in the Comments section when ordering. We can make to quarter sizes. We at BooneRings appreciate your business.

Tools in your...Ring ?

Ever planned to cater for escaping from captivity ? You know, those scenes where the handsome hero has to think of ingenious and spy-like ideas to escape....

Well here is a unique such product for you...

The Titanium Escape Ring adds another tool to the operator's E&E options for escaping captivity. It's a simple but elegant-looking ring made of titanium, cut from solid barstock and polished to a mirror finish. But unlike all other rings, this one contains a saw and handcuff shim pick combination tool which is completely hidden from view when worn. Located on a finger, its always in the exact area needed to quickly access and deploy, even when handcuffed. The shim can be used to open single-locked handcuffs, while the saw can cut zip-ties, disposable handcuffs, duct tape, rope, and other non-metallic materials. This stainless steel tool is 2" x 1/8" x 1/64", and its unusual flexibility allows it to curve around and be seated in the ring's interior. The Micro Escape Tool is a replacement tool for this item. Available in five ring sizes: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (you may need to order one size larger than your normal ring size). Made in USA.

China helps Tanzania & Zambia - Foothold in Africa

I am simply amazed at the foresight and vision of the Chinese Govt in gaining clout in all minerally endowed regions of the world ! During my assignment in the UN Mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea, I used to catch Ethiopian Airlines from Delhi. Guess where the flight originated from ? Yes, you guessed it right...Beijing !

During the flight we had numbers of suitcase-businessmen...ready to sell you anything from watches, torches or whatever ! During my stint in that region I saw the EU supported projects diminish and the Red Star sponsored projects appear everywhere ! In fact when I asked for incense-sticks in Asamra (Eritrean capital), I was surprised to see Chinese agarbattis !

Anyways, this is a great book on the amazing China has had on helping African Nations feel obliged to the Chinese ever-increasing financial clout !

Africa's Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives ...

By Jamie Monson

Monday, 4 February 2013

A fragmented nation by Meghnad Desai

A fragmented nation - Indian Express Op Ed by Lord Meghnad Desai

When a woman is groped, molested, harassed, raped or killed, it takes forever to file a FIR, to have the suspect arrested, tried in between long bail periods and then convicted. Ashis Nandy made a provocative observation about the prevalence of corruption in our society. He contrasted the ease with which upper castes escape punishment but SC/STs get noticed. He was being ironic. He did this in a public place and no one controverted him at the Jaipur Literary Festival.
Yet the alacrity with which an FIR was filed, Sanjoy Roy, one of the JLF organisers, was detained and Ashis called back to Jaipur tells you something about the way in which politics has divided and fragmented the citizenry of India. The most minor incidence of an imagined insult by any group leads to FIR and worse. Real crimes go unnoticed. It is a legacy of Mandal. Identities based on jati have proliferated and become vote banks. Minorities outside the Mandal net have been encouraged by this phenomenon to sharpen their own identities and seek redress for real or imagined insults.

Police know the clout of vote banks because their masters tell them to tread carefully when such identities galvanise themselves. Recall the Mumbai demo and the ensuing troubles last August in Azad Maidan. They were about the Kokrajhar riots where Bodos and Muslims fought each other for complex reasons. But at Azad Maidan, police women were assaulted by rioters, but as they are a solid vote bank, nothing was done. A police woman expressing her anger by writing a poem had to apologise. Violence against police women went unpunished. Freedom of expression was suppressed.

Kamal Hassan’s new film Vishwaroopam was cleared by the censors but banned in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh merely on the threat of disruption from Muslim groups, many of whom would not have seen the film. The Chennai High Court approved of the film but then changed its mind. Kamal Hassan will have to recensor his film to please his detractors. Is this to happen in each State? Are we telling artists that the mob dictates what is allowed?

The Constitution of India is based on the idea of citizens’ rights and the sanctity of the Rule of Law. Any citizen has the right of free expression and free speech. People can disagree and argue but they should not be permitted to intimidate their fellow citizens. Governments have to deliver law and order. Instead, what we have is abject surrender by governments to mob rule, be it some Rama Sena beating up young women who want to frequent pubs in Bangalore, a Christian Church in Mangalore, or Jats demanding backward status and ripping up rail tracks plus many others.

This rot began with a faulty definition of secularism. It should have meant indifference to all religions on part of the state. This was how Nehru interpreted and practised it. But beginning with Indira Gandhi, secularism came to mean seeking the Muslim vote bank exclusively for Congress and maligning all other parties especially Jan Sangh (as it then was) as communal. Muslims sadly did not gain much from this favour as the Sachar Report showed. They were trapped into backwardness but had to admire the leaders going to Iftar parties. Their backwardness was necessary for their secular political masters to keep them dependent on favours in return for votes.

A second problem was the development model followed by Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Socialism meant jobs for the highly educated, upper caste people. Formal legislation protected the rights of a tiny minority in the organised sector. The masses in the informal sector stayed poorly paid, if lucky to get employed. The penny dropped that if you wanted good jobs, the route was not education but politics. Capture power and earn patronage. So once the Congress hegemony was smashed in 1989, Mandalisation gave plenty of OBCs along with SC/STs the right to babu jobs. This right could only be maintained by having strong casteist parties (secular of course!) and maintain some hold on power.

What hope is there that any party will stand up to this corrosive tendency?