World news…
Iran gives life term to man who built porn site
(When there is a law against building porn sites, it has to be enforced without fear or favour, else people will have no fear of the laws of the land)
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Believe it a lot!
Woman kills cheating hubby with coffee cup in Japan…
A 61-year-old Japanese house-wife battered her septuagenarian husband to death with a coffee cup after discovering he was cheating on her. 70-year-old Yasuo Hirose was repeatedly battered on the face and head with the mug at their home southwest of Tokyo.
(Cheating by a spouse is something the other spouse cannot stand. In many countries men kill their wives merely suspicion of having illicit relationships).
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Man fined Pounds sterling 300 after swallowing human toe in whisky cocktail.
Dawson: A man has been fined more than Pounds sterling 300 after swallowing a human toe at a Canadian bar. The Sourtoe Cocktail is a tradition in Dawson City, where a shot of whisky is served with a human toe in the bottom of the glass. The toe must touch the punter's lip as they drink, but they are not supposed to swallow it If you accidentally down the human body part, you face a fine, as happened to the customer.
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Man chops hair off for charity..
Thirty five-year-old Gareth Robinson had his first haircut in 20 years after growing his locks from the age of 16. He decided to chop his five feet long dreadlocks to raise Pounds sterling 500 for cancer research after his mother Lin had been diagnosed with the disease.
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Israeli soldiers disciplined for dancing on patrol…
A group of Israeli soldiers has danced up a storm of criticism after they were filmed boogying, Gangnam Style, alongside Palestinians while on patrol in the West Bank
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21-year-old parrot in Florida helps foil burglary attempt.
Washington: A 21-year-old parakeet has become a local hero after he alerted his owner and helped foil a burglary attempt in their neighbourhood in Florida. The parakeet 'Emerald' raised an alarm when he started squawking louder than normal in his cage. "I heard this bird making this serious squawking," the owner Suzette B said. She quickly realized something was wrong and when she peeked out her back window to check, she saw a stranger breaking into her next-door neighbor's house.
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Every obnoxious act is a cry for help.
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From the world of science…
Mini human brains grown in lab:
Scientists have used stem cells to grow miniature human brains in a lab, an advance that can provide new insights into neurological disorders.
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Alcohol increases breast cancer risk…
Researchers have for the first time, linked increased breast cancer risk to drinking before first pregnancy. If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13%.
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Stretching helps improve blood circulation.
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How significant is the radiation exposure from a CT scan?
A new study has shown that the greatest risk of cancer comes not from the Fukushima nuclear plant or eating too much fish, but from doctors. The new study has revealed that a single CT scan may be twice as carcinogenic as the risk of radiation released from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs.
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A normal person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks. At the same time sleeping long hours in a day might not be the healthiest option.
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Idli-sambhar most nutritious breakfast: study.
Chennai: Three idlis, a bowl of sambhar and a tumbler of filter coffee – Chennai's traditional breakfast is not just a gastronomical delight for many but also the most nutritious morning meal among those found in India's metros. 'India Breakfast Habits Study', a survey conducted in four metros, found that Chennai has the best breakfast 'nutrient profile'.
Man to wife: "The best way to make your paycheck go further? Fold it into a paper airplane."
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An ironical truism…
"Times moves in one direction, memory in another" – William Gibson
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News for our times.
Ratan Tata's plain speaking in anguish…
His three important messages…
(1) There are leaders (Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram) who I have respected all through my life for their public life. But something has happened that has diffused this leadership. We don't have leadership that we have been talking about, that is leading from the front.
(2) We should have one view.. the team has been pulling in different directions; allies are pulling in different directions, many States are pulling in different directions, many heads of the portfolios in the government are pulling in different directions. We are not any longer looking ourselves as one India" he said on pressure groups within the government.
(3) I think in Gujarat Modi has provided his leadership and he has moved Gujarat into a position of prominence. I am not in a position to gaze what he would do in a country.
Everyone can have their own opinions and Ratan Tata has been our most respected and respectable industrialist cum CEO in a long, long time.
One would say that his point No.2 is the most determining factor that has plunged our economy in general and the rupee in a mess. Whatever their legion of critics might say, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Chidambram are the best in the country; while Singh is one of our foremost and peerless economists, Chidambaram, though a lawyer by profession, has been the Finance portfolio with distinction. One criticism against Singh is he rarely speaks, but then there are the well-known adages, from speaking comes repentance or regret, and from listening, wisdom; deeds should speak louder than words; it's better to keep silent and thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubts. When it's a coalition government and there are intra-party (within the main partner, Congress) or –coalition partners and inter-parties' wrangle over every issue or decision, and often the cabinet ministers – belonging to Congress or to coalition partners stick to their guns firmly or when one of the coalition partners threaten to pull out over a key economic issue jeopardizing the very survival of the government, the PM is in a hopelessly helpless state and the issue is jettisoned or heavily watered down. The PM may be a good economist but is a political lightweight; because he lacks charisma (as Sonia has) that alone fetches votes at the husting and enable congressmen to get elected and hold ministerial portfolios his writ doesn't seem to run among his own ministers from the Congress Party, let alone among the coalition partners.
What the country desperately needs is a charismatic leader with some authoritarian streak (as Indira Gandhi had) because we are otherwise an undisciplined and unruly and manageable nation of people. Such a leader can never rise in India what with the country getting more fractured and fragmented on caste and/or linguistic lines.
Modi (and Jayalalitha) has strong leadership and business-like qualities with lots of common sense to pull the country from its economic and administrative mess, but let's admit, the BJP has no ghost of a chance of getting a clear majority mandate from the people. And if he has to depend on other parties for forming a coalition government, he will turn out be equally a lame duck.
So? We as a country are destined to muddle through…
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