On the morning of November 27, I woke up with a sense of dull apathy. I lazily switched on the TV where reports were coming in of firing that happened at Mumbai's CST terminus on the night of November 26.
As the series of news events began gathering momentum, it dawned on me that Mumbai was under the grip of a terrorist attack. "Not again" - my mind screamed.
As fervent newscasters went about their business trying to find out who were behind the attacks, I knew at the back of my mind the inevitable name that would come forth - "Islamic Terrorist". As I braced myself to be plunged in grief to hear this, it suddenly flashed across the screen that they were from Pakistan. Call it morbid, but somehow I was relieved that it was some other country and not someone from India who had perpetrated the attack.
This is exactly the way every Muslim of this great country feels on hearing of a bomb blast or a terrorist attack. There is an unannounced air of relief whenever perpetrators of violent attacks turn out to be from non-Islamic backgrounds like the Virginia Tech university massacre in April 2007 in which a South Korean killed 32 students.
I rack my brain trying to find a reason as to why these people do the brazen things they do. The mind numbing emotions that all Muslims share are hard to pen down. A deep sense of shame and gloom prevails amongst us.
Why, why do they have to attack in the name of religion? Do they feel people will be terrified and will accept Islam? Is this the way to let people know about Islam at the point of massacring innocent humans? Who will understand the high ideals this religion propounds, the solution for all of human problems that it offers, if the followers resort to such inhuman methods?
Do these people know that we hang our heads in shame with regularity when we are with non-Muslims? Do they even have an idea of the way we try to hide and skirt these topics when it is being discussed?
By Farooq Ali Rizwan in an E-Mail to NDTV
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Coke/Pepsi
For those of u who LOVE Coke/Pepsi. Just when you thought you knew everything.
1) To clean a toilet:-
· Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl.
· Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.
· The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
· No scrubbing, no sweat - guaranteed.
2) To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:
· Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of aluminum foils dipped in Coca-Cola.
· Much economical than the stuff from Smart Shop.
3) To clean corrosion from car battery terminals;
· Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
4) To loosen a rusted bolt;
· Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
5) To remove grease from clothes;
· Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle.
6) The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Fight Climate Change
- Replacing one regular incandescent light bulb with a CFL will save 70 kgs of CO2 a year.
- Walk, cycle, car-pool or take public transport more often. You'll save one kg of CO2 for every 3.5 km you don’t drive!
- You can save 1080 kgs of CO2 every year by recycling just half of your household waste.
- Keeping your tyres inflated properly can improve mileage by more than 3%. Every litre of petrol saved keeps 3 kgs of CO2 out of the atmosphere!
- You can save 540 kgs of CO2 if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
- Simply turning off your TV, DVD player, stereo and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of kgs of CO2 a year.
Climate change is real
Climate change is a reality. Today, our world is hotter than it has been in two thousand years. By the end of the century, if current trends continue, the global temperature will likely climb higher than at any time in the past two million years. While the end of the 20th century may not necessarily be the warmest time in Earth's history, what is unique is that the warmth is global and cannot be explained by the natural mechanisms that explain previous warm periods. There is a broad scientific consensus that humanity is in large part responsible for this change, and that choices we make today will decide the climate of the future.
How we are changing the climate
For more than a century, people have relied on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas for their energy needs. Burning these fossil fuels releases the global warming gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Other, even more potent, greenhouse gasses are also playing a role, as is massive deforestation.
What we know
While there are still uncertainties, particularly related to the timing, extent and regional variations of climate change, there is mainstream scientific agreement on the key facts:
How we are changing the climate
For more than a century, people have relied on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas for their energy needs. Burning these fossil fuels releases the global warming gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Other, even more potent, greenhouse gasses are also playing a role, as is massive deforestation.
What we know
While there are still uncertainties, particularly related to the timing, extent and regional variations of climate change, there is mainstream scientific agreement on the key facts:
- Certain gasses, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere create a "greenhouse effect", trapping heat and keeping the Earth warm enough to sustain life as we know it.
- Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, etc.) releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Although not the most potent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is the most significant in terms of human effects because of the large quantities emitted.
- Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are now the highest in 150,000 years.
- The 1990's was most likely the warmest decade in history, and 1998 the warmest year.
- A certain amount of additional warming - about 1.3º Celsius (2.3º Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels - is probably inevitable because of emissions so far. Limiting warming to under 2° Celsius (3.6°F) is considered vital to preventing the worst effects of climate change.
- If our greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control, the speed of climate change over the next hundred years will be faster than anything known since before the dawn of civilization.
- There is a very real possibility that climate feedback mechanisms will result in a sudden and irreversible climate shift. No one knows how much global warming it would take to trigger such a "doomsday scenario".
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The world's environment in danger
Species are dying out at a speed 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than in the major geological periods of extinction.
We now know that failing widespread measures, the impact of human activity on the global environment threatens the survival of the biosphere and future generations:
Global climatic warming largely results, according to the vast majority of scientists,from “greenhouse gas” emissions caused by human activity and modern modes of consumption, primarily those which are bound up with urbanization (thermal power plants, industrial pollution, motor traffic, etc.). The thawing of the Earth’s glaciers would lead to a veritable ecological disaster. Global warming also seems to be accompanied by greater variability and considerable regional or local disturbances. These could be the cause of radical climatic changes in some regions of the world and of a growing number of increasingly serious “natural” disasters whose precursory signs are already to be observed. It is nevertheless clear that, where control of greenhouse gas emissions is concerned, the progress made since the Rio Conference in 1992 has had a limited impact, as shown by the problems of getting the Kyoto Protocol ratified.
Water is not evenly distributed: it is abundant, it is “running”, but not everywhere and for everyone. Almost a quarter of humanity – 1.4 billion people – does not have access to clean and drinking water and over half the world’s population lacks proper sanitation. To meet the challenges will require above all policies on the judicious use of water resources so as to put an end to the excessive consumption of water in agriculture, which at present uses up worldwide close to two thirds of all the water taken from rivers, lakes, streams and underground. But behaviour patterns must also change.
The depletion of the ozone layer, protector of life on Earth, has never been so great. But there are encouraging signs: if the provisions of international protocols are complied with, the ozone layer could be completely reconstituted by 2050.
Desertification is spreading and today directly affects 250 million people and is threateningclose to one billion human beings living on arid lands in approximately 110 countries. This figure could double by 2050 if desert areas continue to expand at the present rate.
All natural environments are directly affected. While forests still cover aquarter of the planet’s land, the net loss of forest cover in the world is estimated at some 11.3 million hectares per year, even if an ever-increasing number of countries are endeavouring to manage forests more effectively and take greater account of environmental factors in this domain. The oceans are also affected: continental fishery resources, one of the main sources of food and protein for millions of people, are threatened by environmental damage and need immediate protective measures. In addition, changes in ocean currents worldwide, accelerated by human activities, are directly endangering the present dynamics of the Earth’s climate and ecosystems.
Chemical pollution and invisible pollution are on the increase. Over the past 50 years, new modes of consumption and production, primarily in agriculture-based industry, have developed and thousands of new chemical products have appeared. These chemicals are present in countless consumer and maintenance products throughout the world, in cardboard and plastic packaging, in the waters of all the oceans and in the air, and in houses, schools and work-places. They pass through the food chain and cross the barriers of the species. Some pesticides and dangerous chemicals that have been prohibited or strictly controlled in some countries can be exported to poor countries, where they give rise to frequent cases of poisoning.
Biodiversity is also likely to diminish considerably in the coming decades. Many of the species described to date are now being depleted or even dying out at a speed 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than in the major geological periods of extinction.
Courtesy: UNESCO
We now know that failing widespread measures, the impact of human activity on the global environment threatens the survival of the biosphere and future generations:
Global climatic warming largely results, according to the vast majority of scientists,from “greenhouse gas” emissions caused by human activity and modern modes of consumption, primarily those which are bound up with urbanization (thermal power plants, industrial pollution, motor traffic, etc.). The thawing of the Earth’s glaciers would lead to a veritable ecological disaster. Global warming also seems to be accompanied by greater variability and considerable regional or local disturbances. These could be the cause of radical climatic changes in some regions of the world and of a growing number of increasingly serious “natural” disasters whose precursory signs are already to be observed. It is nevertheless clear that, where control of greenhouse gas emissions is concerned, the progress made since the Rio Conference in 1992 has had a limited impact, as shown by the problems of getting the Kyoto Protocol ratified.
Water is not evenly distributed: it is abundant, it is “running”, but not everywhere and for everyone. Almost a quarter of humanity – 1.4 billion people – does not have access to clean and drinking water and over half the world’s population lacks proper sanitation. To meet the challenges will require above all policies on the judicious use of water resources so as to put an end to the excessive consumption of water in agriculture, which at present uses up worldwide close to two thirds of all the water taken from rivers, lakes, streams and underground. But behaviour patterns must also change.
The depletion of the ozone layer, protector of life on Earth, has never been so great. But there are encouraging signs: if the provisions of international protocols are complied with, the ozone layer could be completely reconstituted by 2050.
Desertification is spreading and today directly affects 250 million people and is threateningclose to one billion human beings living on arid lands in approximately 110 countries. This figure could double by 2050 if desert areas continue to expand at the present rate.
All natural environments are directly affected. While forests still cover aquarter of the planet’s land, the net loss of forest cover in the world is estimated at some 11.3 million hectares per year, even if an ever-increasing number of countries are endeavouring to manage forests more effectively and take greater account of environmental factors in this domain. The oceans are also affected: continental fishery resources, one of the main sources of food and protein for millions of people, are threatened by environmental damage and need immediate protective measures. In addition, changes in ocean currents worldwide, accelerated by human activities, are directly endangering the present dynamics of the Earth’s climate and ecosystems.
Chemical pollution and invisible pollution are on the increase. Over the past 50 years, new modes of consumption and production, primarily in agriculture-based industry, have developed and thousands of new chemical products have appeared. These chemicals are present in countless consumer and maintenance products throughout the world, in cardboard and plastic packaging, in the waters of all the oceans and in the air, and in houses, schools and work-places. They pass through the food chain and cross the barriers of the species. Some pesticides and dangerous chemicals that have been prohibited or strictly controlled in some countries can be exported to poor countries, where they give rise to frequent cases of poisoning.
Biodiversity is also likely to diminish considerably in the coming decades. Many of the species described to date are now being depleted or even dying out at a speed 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than in the major geological periods of extinction.
Courtesy: UNESCO
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Global Warming
What is Global Warming?
The Earth as an ecosystem is changing, attributable in great part to the effects of globalization and man. More carbon dioxide is now in the atmosphere than has been in the past 650,000 years. This carbon stays in the atmosphere, acts like a warm blanket, and holds in the heat — hence the name ‘global warming.’
The reason we exist on this planet is because the earth naturally traps just enough heat in the atmosphere to keep the temperature within a very narrow range - this creates the conditions that give us breathable air, clean water, and the weather we depend on to survive. Human beings have begun to tip that balance. We've overloaded the atmosphere with heat-trapping gasses from our cars and factories and power plants. If we don't start fixing the problem now, we’re in for devastating changes to our environment. We will experience extreme temperatures, rises in sea levels, and storms of unimaginable destructive fury. Recently, alarming events that are consistent with scientific predictions about the effects of climate change have become more and more commonplace.
Environmental Destruction
The massive ice sheets in the Arctic are melting at alarming rates. This is causing the oceans to rise. That’s how big these ice sheets are! Most of the world’s population lives on or near the coasts. Rising ocean levels, an estimated six feet over the next 100 years or sooner, will cause massive devastation and economic catastrophe to population centers worldwide.
The United States, with only four percent of the world’s population, is responsible for 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. A rapid transition to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources will combat global warming, protect human health, create new jobs, protect habitat and wildlife, and ensure a secure, affordable energy future.
Health Risks
Malaria. Dengue Fever. Encephalitis. These names are not usually heard in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices in the United States. But if we don’t act to curb global warming, they will be. As temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents spread, infecting people in their wake. Doctors at the Harvard Medical School have linked recent U.S. outbreaks of dengue fever, malaria, hantavirus and other diseases directly to climate change.
Catastrophic Weather
Super powerful hurricanes, fueled by warmer ocean temperatures are the “smoking gun” of global warming. Since 1970, the number of category 4 and 5 events has jumped sharply. Human activities are adding an alarming amount of pollution to the earth’s atmosphere causing catastrophic shifts in weather patterns. These shifts are causing severe heat, floods and worse.
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/
Saturday, December 6, 2008
What happened in Mumbai?
Applying operational art in Fourth Generation war is so difficult it is hard to point to many successful examples of it. The recent assaults in Bombay are among the few and also among the best, bordering on brilliant. We may regret brilliance on the part of our opponents, but that should not prevent us from acknowledging it.
The operational logic is evident:
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The United States wants Pakistan to focus on fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban.
- To be able to do so, Pakistan must shift its focus away from the Indian threat, which requires a détente with India. A piece by Jane Perlez of the New York Times which ran in the November 28 Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that
- Friends of al Qaeda and the Taliban need to block this shift in focus by Pakistan. To do so, they must ramp up the hostility between India and Pakistan. How could they do that?
- With a special operation in India’s most important city. Remember, a special operation must have operational significance to qualify as "special ops." If its meaning is only tactical, it’s just a bunch of yahoos running around making noise.
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The special operation was tactically well planned and carried out. To work operationally, India must blame it on Pakistan. Early indications suggest that may happen.
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If India does blame Pakistan and Pakistan feels the Indian threat is increasing, the American strategy of convincing Pakistan to focus on the Taliban and al Qaeda will have been defeated. That is operational art at its best.
Reconciliation between India and Pakistan has emerged as a basic tenet in the approaches to foreign policy of President-elect Barack Obama, and the new leader of Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus. The point is to persuade Pakistan to focus less of its military effort on India, and more on the militants in its lawless tribal regions….
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