Double Helix turns 50
Fifty years ago, on 28 February 1953, Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge, UK, and announced something for which he would later share a Nobel Prize. "We have found the secret of life," his collaborator and subsequent fellow Nobel laureate James Watson later quoted him as saying. The pair really had figured out something very close to that. Working out the famous double helix structure of DNA was an achievement which led to countless advances and solved a mystery which had troubled scientists for decades. [ -BBC] [Celebrating 50 years of DNA]

Addendum
Today's NYT has a section celebrating the anniversary. Lots of good reads there.

Sneaking into Los Alamos
Noah Shachtman in his article at Wired.com describes how he snuck into the Las Almos National Laboratory, NM.

There are no armed guards to knock out. No sensors to deactivate. No surveillance cameras to cripple. To sneak into Los Alamos National Laboratory, the world's most important nuclear research facility, all you do is step over a few strands of rusted, calf-high barbed wire.

I should know. On Saturday morning, I slipped into and out of a top-secret area of the lab while guards sat, unaware, less than a hundred yards away. ....

Some people are not convinced and they wrote to Politech, but to me its seems like a knee jerk reaction when someone says something bad or makes fun of the place where you live.

What are the Homeland Security guys upto if its as easy to as to just walk in? just wondering...

The Shia Connection
B. Raman explores the Shia connection in an informative piece

Three terrorists struck again in Karachi in Pakistan on February 22, when they opened fire on some Shias watching a World Cup match outside an Imambargah, a Shia place of worship. Nine people were killed, eight of them Shias, all Kashmiris belonging to Gilgit in the Northern Areas. Subsequently, there were violent disturbances in Gilgit when the bodies of five of them were taken there for burial. To understand the background to this, one has to go into the history of the Northern Areas and the Sunni-Shia divide.

Of the Kashmiri territory occupied by Pakistan in 1947-1948, the Sunni majority areas (4,144 square miles) were constituted by it into a separate administrative unit which Pakistan calls 'Azad Kashmir' ('Free Kashmir') and India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PoK. The Shia majority areas of Gilgit and Baltistan (29,814 square miles), which were known before 1947 as the Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir and which had been given on lease by the pre-1947 ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to the British, were incorporated into Pakistan and are directly ruled from Islamabad.

....To keep the Shias under control, the military-intelligence establishment encouraged the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to open their branches in Gilgit. This led to the import of sectarian clashes, which frequently take place in Pakistani Punjab and Karachi, into the NA too. To counter the SSP and the LEJ, the Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan, the Shia organisation, and its militant wing the Sipah Mohammad too opened their branches in NA to help the local Shias.

While the SSP and TEJ came into existence in the 1980s, their militant wings came into existence in the 1990s. The SSP was financially assisted by the intelligence agencies of the USA, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the 1980s to counter Teheran's activities in the region. Iran retaliated by assisting the TEJ and the Sipah Mohammad.

Being better trained and armed than the TEJ and Sipah Mohammad and enjoying the official patronage of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment, the SSP and LEJ went on a rampage not only against the Shias of the NA, but also against those living in Punjab and Karachi, killing hundreds of Shias since the late 1980s.

Embarrassed by this, the intelligence agencies of the US and Saudi Arabia cut off contacts with them, but Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Iraqi intelligence continued to support them -- each for its own reason. The ISI needed them for keeping the Shias of the NA under control. The Iraqis helped them because they not only targeted the Shias of Pakistan, but also Iranians living/working in Pakistan, including some Iranian military officers undergoing training in Pakistan.

I never knew there was Shia-Sunni angle to the PoK politics.

Hope is a good thing
Vaxgen, a California based pharmaceutical company, has released the findings of its three year long study on the first Aids vaccine to be tested on humans. The study involved more than 5000 volunteers. Initial results show the vaccine only reduced the rate of HIV infection by 3.8%. Black and Asian people who were given the vaccine, however, had a 67% lower rate of infection than those who received a placebo shot. But these subgroups were small, which means the results have to be treated with caution. To be granted a licence, scientists needed to show that any Aids vaccine was effective in at least a third of patients.

IE has a nice edit on the story today calling for more optimism on the findings.

Moblogging
...There are millions of blogs on the web and they are often interlinked, creating an eco-system of ever-changing ideas on the net. The latest trend is moblogging - updating your blog with a mobile phone. Programs like FoneBlog, Manywhere Moblogger and Wapblog allow bloggers to post details about their lives from anywhere, not just from a computer.

...."In two year's time every phone user will have a website and be using blogs as their version of the world," he said. ... more

Is Google too powerful?
Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool. It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for. It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038. This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is. It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes. And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at. Yet it so dominates the search engine market that no website can afford to ignore it, and it indexes so much of the web that few users think of using another. The way it ranks pages is a commercial secret, outside any external supervision or control. If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index. more

Coercion, Carrots, Covert action, Containment
Check out this explosive article by Rajeev Srinivasan.

Good Bush, Bad Bush


[snapped @ Melrose Ave, LA, via - the reverse cowgirl]

Lil' Ones
Two protest pictures that I liked the most out of all those I've seen so far.


[G Armytage, Amsterdam]


[Serena Tremlett, Douaire, Guernsey]

I doubt how much these kids really know about the issues involved,but just turning up at the rallies is commendable.

Mitnick hacked
One of the world's best-known computer hackers has suffered the indignity of having his own website hacked. For the second time in as many weeks, online vandals have broken into the site of Kevin Mitnick's new security consulting company,Defensive Thinking. The latest breach was by a hacker in Texas, who said he wanted to be hired as Mitnick's security officer. [- BBC]

Time for India to go truly Fedaral?
An article in today's IE tries to explain what policies should be adopted by the Hindi region for sustainable development.

Time and again, it has been pointed out that, poorly performing states namely Bihar, MP, UP, Rajasthan, and now the newly created Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal in India are a burden on the other prosperous states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu etc. Classifying linguistically, its the non-Hindi region that is doing well and the Hindi region thats not. A look at Indian political history tells us that its the Hindi region that has had the majority of the influence. Though I have not heard or read of any official demand issued by any of the non-Hindi states explicitly asking for a complete federal structure, I have come across a lot of people from these states who support the fedaral model.

I believe that if India goes fedaral then India runs the risk of a complete balkanisation with every state doing things their way. The reason for this is the fact that the states in India are divided on linguistic basis. You go from one state to another, you encounter a totally different language. Language being the medium through which people interact also influences cultures of those places and hence, you also encounter a totally differnt culture. In such a scenario, what is that thing, that bond, that will keep India together? On the other hand I also believe that if the burden on the non-hindi region is not taken away fast there would be outright demands of breaking away. So what should be done? Should India go federal, try and give it a shot? or Should the Hindi region get their asses to work and come at par with the non-Hindi region? Is India stuck between a rock and hard place?

Annan's New Toy
Russia's foreign minister has given Secretary-General Kofi Annan a small, carved wooden bear walking a tightrope between war and peace - symbolizing the U.N. Security Council's current dilemma.

The five veto-wielding council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - are divided over disarming Iraq. The United States and Britain are moving toward a military solution while France, Russia and China want continued weapons inspectors and intensified efforts to settle the crisis peacefully.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov presented the gift Wednesday. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard brought it to Thursday's daily briefing.

The bear, symbolizing the secretary-general, carries five balls - each with the name of a permanent veto-wielding member - as it walks the tightrope between two trees called "war'' and "peace.''

"The bear is moving toward the tree called peace, but if you take out one ball, the bear would fall,'' Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.

Eckhard pulled out a ball for reporters, and the bear, about 5 inches tall, toppled from the tightrope.

"I think it speaks for itself,'' Lavrov said. [- Guardian]

Who says russians dont have a sense of humour??

Guru Currency



check out more at kaikstocracy and BBC

I aint no ram bhakt [devotee] but hey,as long as anything Indian comes in vogue I am cool with it... totally...!!!

Photonic Ramblings
I have a junior, whom I shall refer to as Photon, he has a habit of penning down his incoherent thoughts and that too in hindi. The transcripts read as if a schizoid has written it but mind you this guy is a straight A student. Here are a couple of samples.

Samay To Ek Abhilasha Hai
Samay ka hamari dincharya mein bahut adhik mahatva hai. Jiske pas samay hai uske pas duniya ke kunji hai kyon ki uske pas khana khane ke liye bahut samay hota hai. Wah apne kutte se bhi bahut pyar se khel sakta hai. Jab wah theek se kuch karyaa karta hai to use ananta anand ki prapti hoti hai jiske karan use apni zindagi mein har din deepavali ka anubhav hota hai. Atah humein samay ka palan karna chahiye.

Translation:
Time is just an aspiration
Time is very important in our daily routine. One who has time has all the wealth in the world because he has a lot of time to spare to have his meals. He can lovingly play with his dog. When he does any chore properly he gets utmost satisfaction because of which he feels like Deepavali* everyday. Hence, we should all be punctual.

*: Deepavali or Diwali is the festival of lights celebrated by Hindus. It generally falls in the month of Oct or Nov. read more


Charitra ke Phehlu
Vyakti ke charitra par vaani ka bahut adhik prabhav rehta hai. Wah vyakti jo bena ruke teen saal tak bol sakta hai aur wah bhi jise tarju taul ke wah bahut lambi aangooliyon waale jadugar ke tone karne ke kshmata rakhta hai.

Dilli shahar mein mare ghaghro ko ghumiya. Chidiya ke pair ulte the jisase jasoos ko uske dayan hone ka shak ho gaya. Yeh janane par usne ek chapati par diya salayi se chipka kar us par teen paise rakh kar khila diya. Yeh karne se chidiya ka vajan ghatne laga or duniya mein khusi chaa gayi. Es vidhi ko puratan kali vigyan mein patli vidhi kahte hain. Es vidhi keval lambi aangooliyon wala jadugar hi prayog kar sakta hai. Itihaas bhi gavaha hai ki jab jab patli vidhi ka prayog kara gaya hai motape ka nam or nishan mit gaya hai. Atah hum sab ko apne charitra par mahatva dena chahiye aur use apne kshetra mein rakhna chaiye.

Translataion:
Facets of Character
A person's character is influenced a lot by language. One who can talk nonstop for three years and one who balances using a weighing balance and has the ability to cast a spell on magicians with long fingers.

In the city of Delhi my ghagra* flutters. Sparrow had antipodal feet so the sleuth wondered if she was a witch. When he came to know of this he took a took three pennies, pasted it on a chapati** using a matchstick and fed it to her. Because of which the sparrow started losing weight and happiness spread all over the world. This ritual according to ancient black science is known as slimming ritual. History bears witness that whenever slimming ritual was practised obesity has been wiped out. Hence we all should give importance to our characters and keep it within our limits.

*: ghagra is a traditional pleated skirt worn by women in state of Rajasthan in India.
more pics

**chapti is the traditional indian bread.
recipe

Online Suicide
How twisted is it gonna get? First it was kidney auctions, then online amputations and now sucide...!!! Come on people everything is not meant to be put online...!!

This is an old link but interesting read.

Vyom.org and TriNetre
People check out the latest offering to the blog world, my friend Deepak's blog. I also found one more blog today, maintained by veteran bloggie Srijith, a quintessential geek and former NTU student.

Maxim Apology



The popular men's magazine Maxim has apologised for using Gandhi as a punching bag for "Kick Ass Workout" caricature. read more