BEHIND THE SCENES ON GAY MARRIAGE

The New Republic Online: etc.: "When Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage last month, I suggested that the issue could end up being trickier for Republicans than for Democrats, because the Democratic base tends to be pragmatic when it comes to social issues while the Republican base tends to be maximalist"

A reality check on India Shining

The Hindu Business Line: "IN ONE of the most famous episodes in the Mahabharata, Dharmaraja, the embodiment of truth, is persuaded to announce ashwatthama hatah kunjarah � Ashwatthama is dead, the elephant."

It’s training time for BJP’s Bollywood stars

The Statesman: "Yukta Mookhey, for example, is to be asked to focus on youth, particularly women, while Hema Malini and Poonam Dhillon are to address women voters and their concerns in general.
Manoj Kumar, who joined the party today with Apra Mehta, the saas of the television serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and Mr Balbir Chand, former IPS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, may not need too much training, since he has been associated with the BJP from its Jan Sangh days."

Martha's Big House

Slate - By JoshLevin: "Martha, Martha, Martha: Newsweek puts the freshly convicted Martha Stewart on the cover and opines that the verdict represents "the new standard for judging all fat cats who don't play by the rules." Stewart apparently erred in rejecting a deal last April that would have let her get off with probation and retain a position in her eponymous corporation. There's also a sidebar on the Connecticut prison where she'll likely be sent, a minimum security facility that has a "gymnasium used for Pilates, yoga, dancersize or aerobics." … In an article that also discusses the legal mess facing executives of WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia, U.S. News notes that it could be years before Stewart, who plans to appeal her convictions, faces jail time. Time offers little analysis to go alongside a dated trial procedural. (Read Slate's latest Dispatches From the Martha Stewart Trial.)

"

Shedding light on the Mars rover malfunction

Embedded.com: "'It was recognized just after [the June 2003] launch that there were some serious shortcomings in the code that had been put into the launch load of software,' said JPL data management engineer Roger Klemm. 'The code was reworked, and a complete new memory image was uploaded to the spacecraft and installed on the rover shortly after launch.'

That appeared to fix the problems that had been identified with the initial load. But what no one at JPL could have anticipated was that the new load also made possible a totally implausible sequence of events that would, many months later, silence Spirit. "

Polls Show Electoral Map Favoring Kerry

Political Wire: "In a must-read article, Howard Gold of Barrons asked pollster John Zogby to 'lay out the electoral map as he sees it, based on various polls conducted throughout the country.' The resulting table is very good news for Democrats:
John Kerry 'is ahead in 18 of the so-called Blue states (including the District of Columbia), representing some 226 electoral votes.'
President Bush 'leads in 21 of the Red states, with 176 electoral votes.' He does not lead in any of the states Gore won in 2000.
'A dozen more states, with 136 electoral votes, are considered in play.' They are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. "

Harvard case study on blogging

DaveNet: "A milestone case study from the Shorenstein Center was released on Friday last week. It tells the story of Senator Trent Lott, (R-MS); his talk at Strom Thurmond's birthday party in December 2002, and how the news flowed through professional channels, to the blogosphere, and back, ultimately resulting in Lott's resignation as majority leader of the US Senate. "

Can RSS Relieve Information Overload?

EContentMag.com: "Today's enterprise employees have more information at their fingertips than at any point in history. While this information can certainly help companies, how is an individual or even a large group able to keep up with the volume?

According to the Online Computer Library Center, the number of distinct Web sites grew from 2.8 million in 1998 to more than 9 million by 2002, when they stopped keeping track. When you consider that these sites consist of billions of pages and then factor in millions of Weblogs, workers are faced with an information-glut of mythical proportions. While this information can certainly help companies track competition, understand markets and trends, and gather more information than ever believed possible, how can a large group, much less an individual, be able to keep up with the volume?"

India to be 2nd largest telecom market in 5 years: E&Y study

siliconindia: "Indian telecom operators could see almost three-fold jump in revenues � from $9 billlion in 2002 to $25 billion by 2007, according to a study released by Ernst &Young.

As per the study the Indian telecom network will become the second largest in the world after China in the next five years.

The report, titled �Redefining Indian Telecom,� also said that the teledensity in India would cross 20 per cent in the next five years instead of eight years as projected by the government. "

Parents thought newborn was a boy

Ananova: "The parents told Clarin that they were astonished when they changed the baby's nappy and found out that 'Rodrigo' was, in fact, a girl.

The hospital was contacted and said that an administrative error took place after someone in the nursery thought the baby looked like a boy."

`Gilli` vs `Udaya`!

`Sify.com: "This summer is a shoot-out between two Vijay films - Udaya and Gilli - at the Tamil box-office.
A.M.Ratnam produced Gilli the Rs 15 Crore extravaganza directed by Dharini was scheduled to release on April 9 giving it a clear one month run before election (May 10) and other biggies like Vikram�s Arul, Surya�s Anazhagan, Ajit�s Jana and S.J.Surya�s New. "

Lessons from US recovery

The Hindu Business Line: "The greatest strength of the Americans is their willingness and ability to learn from their mistakes. Whether it is corporate governance, streamlining the supply chain, outsourcing or manpower restructuring, the Americans discuss their problems openly and find structural solutions."

Trading with Pakistan

The Hindu Business Line: "Arun Jaitley, believes that good interaction and trading ties between India and Pakistan can only 'lead to a win-win situation' for both countries. But the perception is a bit different across the border, as indicated by members of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on a tour of India. These industrialists were forthright that granting of the most-favoured nation status to India would not benefit the Pakistani economy. The Chamber president said unequivocally that the Pakistani farm sector 'would not survive' in a post-MFN situation if 'subsidies' officially extended to Indian agriculture were not withdrawn."

Dilemma of technology versus jobs

The Hindu Business Line: "Indian farmers now have access to many advanced technologies such as Bt cotton seeds, harvesters, tractors and sprinklers. But the prices of agricultural produce have been declining and the conditions of farmers deteriorating. Small farmers are making ends meet by working in stone quarries or brick kilns. Advanced technologies are certainly the bedrock on which a prosperous nation is built, but not necessarily does the common man benefit from them. "

Along with India, 72 nations face elections this year

siliconindia: "Elections of various kinds are on the cards in the US, Russia, France, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Austria, Greece and South Africa to name just a few.

Some 13,000 lawmakers are to be elected across the world. As many as 17 countries including Indonesia, Algeria, Austria, Greece and South Korea will conduct elections between April and June, around the same time as India holds a four-phase ballot from April 20 to May 10.

Later in the year will come the high-profile presidential elections in the US, apart from polling in several countries including South Africa, Mongolia, Lebanon, Mauritius, France, Australia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Taiwan and Sudan."

Chinese back India shining claim

siliconindia: "The controversial 'India Shining Campaign' of the Indian Government found a supporter from an unexpected ally - a state Chinese business weekly.

'India now basks in the most 'shining era' in the 56 years since it became independent from Britain,' the state-run 'China Business Weekly' said in its latest issue which focused on India's recent rise as an emerging economic power.

The Indian economy never had it so good in recent history, benefiting from a good monsoon, gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections at eight per cent, foreign exchange reserves at $ 100 billion plus."

LTTE's rebel faction goes public on grievances

HindustanTimes.com: "Even as the Leader of the LTTE�s Political Wing, SP Tamilselvan, declared in Kilinochchi on Thursday that the crisis in his organisation was �temporary� and that it would be resolved �soon�, the rebel faction in the Batticaloa-Amparai district led by Senior Commander Colonel Karuna, went public on its �grievances.�

Tamilnet website quotes Tamilselvan as telling the visiting Head of the Scandinavian-staffed Sri Lanka (Ceasefire) Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Maj.Gen.Trond Furuhovde, that the LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran was engaged in discussions on the matter with the leaders of the Batticaloa-Amparai area such as Special Commander Ramesh and Batticalao district political wing head, Kausalyan.

Colonel Karuna�s daily newspaper �Tamil Alai�, coming out of Kokkadicholai in Batticaloa district, also played down the conflict."

Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious

Wired News: "most-read webloggers aren't necessarily the ones with the most original ideas, say researchers at Hewlett-Packard Labs.

Using newly developed techniques for graphing the flow of information between blogs, the researchers have discovered that authors of popular blog sites regularly borrow topics from lesser-known bloggers -- and they often do so without attribution.

These findings are important to sociologists who are interested in learning how ideas grow from isolated topics into full-blown epidemics that "infect" large populations. Such an understanding is also important to marketers, who hope to be able to pitch products and ideas directly to the most influential people in a given group. "

Get Tamil Mags in US

:: Indian Magazines Online#7#7:
Name of the Magazine Frequency Quarterly Half-Yearly Annual [US$] Issues [US$] Issues [US$] Issues
"Kumudam Weekly 24.00 13 47.00 26 89.00 52
Rani Weekly 21.00 13 41.00 26 80.00 52
Bhagya Weekly 21.00 13 41.00 26 80.00 52
Devi Weekly 21.00 13 41.00 26 80.00 52
Kalkandu Weekly 12.00 13 23.00 26 45.00 52
Kungumam Weekly 25.00 13 48.00 26 94.00 52
Mutharam Weekly 12.00 13 22.00 26 42.00 52
Tughlak Weekly 19.00 13 39.00 26 72.00 52
Ananda Vigadan Weekly 24.00 13 45.00 26 88.00 52
Kalki Weekly 23.00 13 45.00 26 88.00 52
India Today Weekly 25.00 13 49.00 26 95.00 52
Aval Vikatan Fortnightly 13.00 6 26.00 12 50.00 24
Rani Muthu Fortnightly 11.00 6 20.00 12 39.00 24
Kumudum Bhakti Monthly 9.00 3 17.00 6 30.00 12
Kalaimagal Monthly 8.00 3 15.00 6 26.00 12
Kumudam snehidiyae Monthly 9.00 3 17.00 6 30.00 12
Chandamama Monthly 9.00 3 16.00 6 30.00 12
Mangayar Malar Monthly 12.00 3 23.00 6 44.00 12
Aanmigam Monthly 7.00 3 12.00 6 23.00 12
Gokulam Monthly 6.00 3 11.00 6 20.00 12
Kumudham Health Monthly 8.00 3 15.00 6 26.00 12
Language : Tamil "

Bloggers' Plagiarism Scientifically Proven

Blog Epidemic Analyzer: "This is a demonstration website
for our recent research (here and here) on information dynamics in
blogspace. You may type in a partial substring of a URL you would
like to track. For example compare slow, long running memes like HREF="/cgi-bin/blogs/search_new.cgi?s=giantmicrobes">"giantmicrobes"
(i.e. www.giantmicrobes.com) or HREF="/cgi-bin/blogs/search_new.cgi?s=spambayes">"spambayes"
(i.e. spambayes.sourceforge.net) to short punctuated ones like HREF="/cgi-bin/blogs/search_new.cgi?s=cnn.com">"cnn.com"
articles.

Check out this page for some popular memes/URLs from that period.

The data is based on crawls from May 1-21, 2003 and
includes ~37k blogs. The visualizations show which blogs mention the
URL and possible/likely routes of "infection."

Layouts are
being generated offline for the May data and will updated until
complete (so some GIFs may not be available).

(currently
indexed: 20070 URLs)"