Posts from — April 2003

Groom Shot in Head During Wedding

An Indian groom is in a coma in hospital after he was accidentally shot in the head by a friend who was celebrating the wedding by firing into the air, police said on Tuesday. [link via Yahoo]

Just goes to show that stupidity is the most abundantly available element in the universe!

I’m back! After a brief and a somewhat forced hiatus of 5 days, I’m back!

Spent the last five days in Pune. What started off as an intensely hectic trip to Pune, ended as a very relaxed and rejeuvenating sojourn. I’m glad I stayed back in Pune after my official work got over in the first two days.

Here are the answers and scores to the Supersam’s Challenge

1. Why was Wg. Cdr. (retd.) S P Pendharkar in the news recently?
Ans: His daughter Dr. Vijeta Pendharkar is supposed to be marry Rahul Dravid.

2. In children’s fiction, which character was created by Geppetto?
Ans: Geppetto created the most famous puppet of them all… Pinocchio.

3. Which is the first Indian courier company to have its own aviation facility?
Ans: Blue Dart

4. Which modern day country in the Middle East is the site of the world’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerian civilization?
Ans: Iraq (Rohini says both Iraq and Iran. Logically speaking, I agree with her)

5. In cricket, a score of 111 is often referred to as ‘Nelson’. Why so?
Ans: Lord Nelson had one eye, one arm and one leg. That’s why. No points for only “one eye” answers. ;-)

6. Which song by the Rolling Stones was used as the theme song for the launch of Windows 95?
Ans: Start Me Up.

7. If you are a misocapnist, then what would you be allergic to?
Ans: Tobacco Smoke.

8. Which promotional character has Pepsi planned to revive in India during this summer?
Ans: Fido Dido, the promotional character for Pepsico’s drink, 7UP.

9. In the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, an Indian game was demonstrated for the first time. Which game was it?
Ans: Kabaddi.

10. Complete this line, taken from a 20th Century Classic. “You can shoot all the blue jays you want if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin __ ____ _ ___________.“
Ans: To Kill a Mockingbird.

And now the scores!

Rohini - 7
Sarika - 8

So, that’s it folks! The winner of this Supersam’s Challenge is Sarika!! Congratulations! :-)

YES, all four wars

Some poor idiot named (??) Robert Price apparently posted comments to one of Varsha Bhosle’s articles. And in doing so, all but invited Varsha to slam his feet into his own mouth.

This Robert Price person tried to indicate how Pakistan has “won” all the four wars that it has fought against India and how Pakistan’s brilliant military strategies (ahem!) have had India begging to the world asking its help to rein in Pakistan.

Varsha Bhosle delivers a point-by-point rebuttal buttressed with references that no one can refute. And thus, she blasts Robert Price’s argument into nothingness. I am tempted to quote some of Varsha’s best (and sweet-sounding to my Indian ears) arguments, but I’ll just quote the final remarks that she makes. I urge you to go and read the full article.

I’m sooo tired of gloating now. Maybe another day I’ll tell you what the Indian Army was up against in Kargil… NO! I don’t mean Paki “valour”; I refer to terrain and climate. But this article’s been long. But, that’s the nature of Indian Defence: We may take long, but we make a comprehensive kill in one stroke — like the kukri to the NLI throat.
NLI refers to Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry which was wiped out completely during their foolhardy adventure atop the mountain peaks in Kargil and Drass.

Woohooo!!… Way to go Varsha!!

Final human genome sequence released

This time it is the real thing, scientists promise - the complete sequence of human DNA, as perfectly rendered as it ever will be.

…

“What we’ve got now is what we’ll have for all eternity,” says Francis Collins, director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute and the head of the consortium of 16 international institutions that collaborated to sequence the code. [link via Slashdot]

But as they’ve already observed, humans have significantly lesser number of genes than was earlier thought.

While past estimates varied up to 140,000, two international scientific teams have now shown the true number is between 27,000 and 40,000.

…

“The small number of genes is significant [because it means] we’re not hard-wired,” says Craig Venter, head of one team at the private company Celera.

“People think genes are an absolute cause of traits. But the notion that the genome is the blueprint for humanity is a very bad metaphor,” he says. If you think we’re hard-wired and deterministic, there should indeed be a lot more genes.”