Jim Rittenhouse's semidaily journal of news, commentary and reports
Rampaging red squirrels in France Kashmiri militants, meet bear. Bear, eat militants. Dead bison stink really bad: South Dakota meat producer abandons meat storage locker full of 44 tons of kosher bison, and the power gets cut for nonpayment.
Interesting article on how India’s endemic corruption problems are holding the country back, with this comment from the Prime Minister: “The pervasive corruption in our country tarnishes our image [and it] discourages investors who expect fair treatment and transparent dealings with public authorities.” Read it all.
I am frequently dismayed by various Truthers out there who insist on a Grand Conspiracy theory of the universe; stories about how the moon landing was faked, the world is flat, that 9/11 was an inside job and how Obama is some kind of Manchurian candidate smuggled into the country as a very small baby [...]
The governments of Mali and Algeria are teaming up to smush a local Al Qaeda spinoff in the western Sahara. Of course, Algeria has been sponsoring Polisario in the Western Sahara for decades, but *that’s* the terrorists that they like. The endless ethnic nationalist guerilla war against the central Burmese government goes on, as noted [...]
Found here. Enjoy!
Bollywood twist number: Aao Twist Karein (Youtube) – beyond description. I liked the dancing rock band and the eyebrows wiggling, of course.
I despair at the idea of people doing this sort of madness; sex-selective abortions and fetal selection by immigrant families in America because – well, their culture prizes boys over girls. Part of cultural selection norms many hundreds of years old that prize boys over girls as breadwinners in older age for you, and so [...]
Silliness in boundaries, where fusses first created before 1750 have made the boundaries between India and Bangladesh a serious mess of someone-else’s problem. Of course, this all should have been settled out long ago…
From the New York Times…one more place for fear: The origins of India’s Jews remain uncertain, but according to some accounts they may have come as emissaries from the court of King Solomon. They established communities and lived peacefully with Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and, later, Muslims. The absence of anti-Semitism throughout this history has been [...]
Kosher meat production in the US has been hit – 65% drop in supply of beef. Part is due to a fire, most is due to a big processor in Iowa’s problems with raids on the plant by the Feds for employing tons of illegal immigrants, etc. The skyrocketing IT presence in Bangalore, India is [...]
Indian ‘untouchables’ in mass conversion to Buddhism to escape the caste system. Semi-Hindu / Semi-Muslim groups in India and how they’re coping with inter-religious problems. Orange Order in Northern Ireland decides that they’re going to make their group more ‘friendly’, setting up ‘Orangefest’ to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne and a cartoon superhero named [...]
At various times, I get into research projects; some simmer on for decades in various forms, and some break off and pick up speed because I happen to run into something that really fuels the fire, so to speak. My library here is largely one that I use for reference. I have a huge amount [...]
As some of you will note, Mr. Trivia and Mr. Map Enthusiast here likes to squirrel and roll around in all sorts of odd bits about odd bits of territory. Here’s a few recent adds: The Frisian Islands, all of which seem to have hung on to their own gumbly dialects – such as Texel, [...]
Efforts in India to be energy efficient and the roadblocks they encounter; like having a reliable energy infrastructure to start with… More details on similar problems in China.
An odd note from a Pakistani journalist of Baluchistani background, suggesting that Pakistan is too much of an artificial construct and should be broken up into component states. Heck, at that rate, you could say that for India as well….