Lafter is the best medicine…
Woman to husband: "My sister is a vegetarian, your dad won't eat potatoes, my mom says gravy causes migraines. Let's order a Thanksgiving pizza".
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Man to wife: "My least favourite Thanksgiving leftovers?? Relatives, who don't leave until Monday!!"
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Woman to husband: "It would be nice to spend the holidays with loved ones, but after the first day, they're not loved ones anymore!"
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Very few Indian journalists are worth reading, the rest – including the worthies like Sardesai, B. Dutt, etc - are all superficial and pen ponderous pieces without saying much and make huge sums. One would say that among the biggest beneficiaries of our economics liberalization is the mediamen eg the News channel chief, a one-time psephologist is now worth over Rs.500 crores!
Swaminathan Iyer, economics editor of the TOI, is a very rare exception and has a refreshing take not just on economic issues but other serious problems plaguing the country – he is brilliant and always hit the nail on the head without beating about the bush.
His piece, "Without quick justice, politics will stay crimilized" on Sunday Times makes for compulsive reading… Some excerpts…
…"The moribund justice system gives a huge incentive for criminals to contgest and win elections. Judicial processes are so dismally slow that hardly any resourceful person gets convicted quickly, and many die of old age before exhausting appeals. So, nobody knows for sure who is a criminal and who is an innocent victim of false accusations… The right way forward is surely for the SC to device procedures that ensure quick, time-bound justice. Judges are fond of saying that justice delayed is justice denied, yet they have failed dismally to end this injustice… When nobody is convicted beyond appeals for decades, those with muscle and money quickly overwhelm those who are honororable and law-abiding. There is an old saying that if law-breakers are not in jail, they will be in the legislatures. That is the case today… It is also that endless judicial delays have created huge inducements for criminals to enter politics, and to success over law-abiding rivals. Many judges have condemned criminalized politics, amidst much public cheering, but need to acknowledge their own culpability in this mess… We cannot truly reform politics until we reform the justice system. A land without justice in a reasonable period will necessarily be a land in which law-breakers will beat law-abiders. This will be true not only in politics but in business, the professions, and everything else. .. A major reason for the popularity of Maoists in some areas is they provide instant justice, through what they call people's courts… Of all the scandals that beset India, none rivals the scandalous lack of common justice."
(All discerning and right-thinking Indians will whole-heartedly agree. In a civilized society, most citizens are law-abiding more because of the laws of the land acting as a deterrent. Unbridled corruption, malpractices, criminal activities and lawlessness thrive, as they are in India, because most people with or even without political, financial, physical clout, have no fear of the law.)
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Her minister told an 80-year-old woman that, at her age, she should be giving some thought to what he called 'the hereafter'.
She said to him, "I think about it many times a day."
"Oh really?" said the minister. "That is very wise."
"It's not a matter of wisdom," she replied. "It's when I open a drawer or a closet, I ask myself, 'What am I here after?'"
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Eatery server to couple: "The Italian Feast comes with 4 kinds of pasta, 6 kinds of bread and a phone call tomorrow reminding you to get some exercise."
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From the world of science…
Are there any advances in a cure for heart disease?
Scientists may have found a way to reverse aging of the heart and other organs. They have identified a protein in mice called GDF-11. As the mice age, GDF-11 decreases, and he heart becomes less efficient. Upon introducing GDF-11 into the blood of aging mice, the aging heart was rejuvenated. Human trials are forthcoming.
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Air pollution kills over two million people a year
A study estimates that around 2.1 million deaths are caused by pollution each year – many of them in Asia.
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A cup of spinach is packed with vitamin K, calcium, iron, magnesium and manganese.
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High energy food could lead to bowel cancer…
Scottish scientists have linked consumption of high-energy snacks and drinks to bowel cancer
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Weird world…
Oh Lord! US church gets $93,000 water bill..
Girard: A spate of five-figure water bills in an Ohio city is being blamed on new software, but a pastor jokes his church's $93,000 bill was from using too much holy water.
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US lawmakers propose national park on moon…
Two US lawmakers are pushing a plan to establish a national park that would quite literally be out of this world – on the moon.
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Brazilian man dies after cow crashes through roof..
A man from Brazil was killed after a cow fell on him through the roof of his house. The one-tonne cow was grazing on a hill behind the man's house, in the town of Caratinga, when it stepped on the house's asbestos roof, which broke under its weight. The man died the day after, of internal bleeding.
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Thought for the day…
"All institutions are prone to corruption and to the voices of their members" – Morris West
(Me: Greed and avarice are vilest of human emotions..)
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