Its all the woman's fault for getting raped

Typically, I wouldnt have reacted to this piece of drivel but this bit caught my eye.

Burka-clad women in the public gallery yelled abuse at the judge — and one screamed that the victim was a prostitute.

Well, I cannot say much more than to say that women's greatest enemies seem to be their own ilk rather than the men. Very sad. Also see what I wrote earlier about women supporting female genital mutilation.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Some photo's from Auschwitz

Sad and horrifying photographs. Read and weep.

Technorati Tags: Genocide,Germany

What It's Like to Be a First-Time CIO

This article spoke to me, the author is one of the rare people who are honest in a C level suite and that's seriously rare. And yes, what he did simply makes sense but is not known commonly, seriously suggest reading the whole lot.

Editor's Note: Jason Scott joined Innovation Ads, a full-service online advertising agency, as its first-ever CIO on September 7, 2007. Scott, 31, had never held the CIO role before. Most recently, he ran IT for Corporate Express Imaging, a $450 million division of office products supplier Corporate Express. Scott started out as an administrative assistant in the IT department at Corporate Express Imaging when he was 20 and still in college. Over 10 years, he climbed the corporate ladder at Corporate Express only to realize that he'd have to leave the company if wanted to become a CIO.

Six Tips for Surviving Your First Ever CIO Job
1. Expect the unexpected.
2. Identify your go-to people. Seek out one or two members of the IT staff whom you can ask for advice and approach with questions about the company as you get up to speed.
3. Don't rely on your go-tos too much.
4. Trust your instincts, judgment and experience.
5. Read up on your new company, industry and any and all unfamiliar technologies your company is using.
6. Solve some small, visible problems within your first few weeks on the job to help build some momentum.
--M. Levinson


All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Burials more carbon intensive than cremations

Now here's a counter-intuitive result but which makes perfect sense once I have thought about it. Burials are more carbon intensive once you factor in all the costs related to maintaining a grave! I quote:

The study found it was better for people to be cremated, compared with the long-term impact of burials, even though four times as much carbon dioxide was produced during the initial cremation process. "On the day that a cremation or burial takes place, the volume of carbon dioxide produced is higher for cremation than for burial," Centennial Park chief executive Bryan Elliott said.
"The report found that each cremation at Centennial Park generates approximately 160kg of carbon dioxide equivalent. "Each burial at Centennial Park generates approximately 39kg of Co2. "However, when the long-term environmental footprint is considered, burials at Centennial Park have a 10 per cent greater impact than cremations. "This is because we must look after the gravesite for a number of years by watering and mowing the surrounding lawn area and maintaining the concrete beam on which the headstone is placed. "Burial is a more labour and resource intensive process, consumes more fuels and produces larger quantities of waste than cremation."

Although you could quibble about what all you can include in the cost, but it does make sense. We can keep graves for 75 years here in the UK (I think), now think of the costs and that is not even including the indirect foregone opportunity costs (of using the land for something else such as a hospital or a business...)

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

AL Queda opens new front in terrorism

first it was normal terrorism

then it was chemical terrorism

then biological terrorism

now its aurical terrorism

who is their patron saint? Saint Cacophonix


3/17/08Hussein al-Ahmadalarabiya.net, Retired Kuwaiti pop star joins al-Qaeda, 15 Mar 08, "The retired singer will soon appear in his new military outfit in Afghanistan, in a video expected soon on a website known to be affiliated with al-Qaeda extremists, according to the paper." There's a related video montage: "From superstar to Quran reciting"



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Its all in the branding

I learnt this the hard way. Just producing the content is not enough, you have to find a place to publish the content and then make sure the presentation of the content is fine. Otherwise you are simply chopped liver. But here's an interesting joke on this issue

JUST A MOM?

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk 's office,
was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation.

She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

'What I mean is, ' explained the recorder,
'do you have a job or are you just a ...?'

'Of course I have a job,' snapped the woman.

'I'm a Mom.'

'We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation,

'housewife' covers it,'
Said the recorder emphatically.


I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself

in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall.
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised,
efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like,
'Official Interrogator' or 'Town Registrar.'

'What is your occupation?' she probed.

What made me say it? I do not know.
The words simply popped out.
'I'm a Research Associate in the field of
Child Development and Human Relations.'

The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in m midair and
looked up as though she had not heard right.

I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words.
Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written,
in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

'Might I ask,' said the clerk with new interest,
'just what you do in your field?'

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice,
I heard myself reply,
'I have a continuing program of research,
(what mother doesn't)
In the laboratory and in the field,
(normally I would have said indoors and out).
I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family)
and already have four credits (all daughters).
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities,
(any mother care to disagree?)
and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it).
But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers

and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.'

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she
completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career,
I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model,
(a 6 month old baby) in the child development program,
testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy!
And I had gone on the official records as someone more

distinguished and indispensable to mankind than 'just another Mom.'

Motherhood!

What a glorious career!
Especially when there's a title on the door.


Does this make grandmothers
'Senior Research associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations'
And great grandmothers
'Executive Senior Research Associates?'
I think so!!!
I also think it makes Aunts '

Associate Research Assistants.'



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Robert Fisk: The cult of the suicide bomber

Quite an interesting article here. Where Robert Fisk talks about the cult of the suicide bombers in Lebanon. If I understood him correctly, there is a vast surge of young Muslim men who are ready to go about blowing themselves up, mainly targeting other muslims (some non-muslims, Americans and Brits are also caught up but that seems to be incidental...). And also, if I understood his reasoning, it is because USA/UK attacked Iraq and Afghanistan.

That might very well be the case. But here's something for you to chew upon. If the Americans and British withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, will this genie go back into the lamp? Nope. So what now? What exactly can be done to address this problem? I look forward to Fisk's next book for the answer :)

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Charting circulation declines at U.S. dailies

Now this is further corroboration on what I have been bellowing about, that the new media is changing the old media. I quote the figures:

PAPER -- Daily (M-F) Sept. '07 - Copies, Gained/Lost Since Sept. 03-- % Change

USA Today -- 2,293,137 -- 46,141 -- 2.1%
The Wall Street Journal -- 2,011,882 -- (-79,180) -- (-3.8%)
The New York Times -- 1,037,828 -- (-80,737) -- (-7.2%)
Los Angeles Times*   -- 794,705 -- (-201,133) -- (-20.2%)
New York Daily News -- 681,415 -- (-47,709) -- (-6.5%)

New York Post -- 667,119 -- 14,693 -- 2.3%
The Washington Post -- 635,087 -- (-97,785) -- (-13.3%)
Chicago Tribune -- 559,404 -- (-54,105) -- (-8.8%)
Houston Chronicle* -- 502,631 -- (-50,387) -- (-9.1%)
Newsday -- 387,503 -- NA

The Arizona Republic*, Phoenix -- 385,214 -- (-47,070) -- (-10.9%)
The Dallas Morning News -- 373,586 -- NA
San Francisco Chronicle -- 365,234 -- (-147,406) -- (-28.8%)
The Boston Globe -- 360,695 -- (-89,843) -- (-19.9%)
The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J. -- 353,003 -- (-55,669) -- (-13.6%)

The Philadelphia Inquirer -- 338,049 -- (-38,444) -- (-10.2%)
Star Tribune*, Minneapolis -- 341,645 -- (-38,709) -- (-10.2%)
The Plain Dealer*, Cleveland -- 332,894 -- (-32,394) -- (-8.9%)
Detroit Free Press -- 320,125 -- (-32,589) -- (-9.2%)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 318,350 -- (-64,071) -- (-16.8%)

Notice one thing? only the tabloids are showing positive increase in circulation, all the high brow newspapers are down.

Technorati Tags: Media,Journalism

Swedish dads steer clear of paternity leave

This is quite curious, why on earth would you steer clear of paternity leave? I would have leapt at the very idea of spending months on end with my little babies when they were born. But not so in the case of the Swedes. I quote:

Swedish fathers enjoy one of the most generous paternity leave policies in the world but few dads take advantage of the opportunity, with mothers in gender-equal Sweden still leading the charge in childcare.

Fathers take on average only 20 percent of the 16 months of paid parental leave offered in Sweden to either mums or dads, according to Statistics Swede—a skimpy average that has sparked a broad debate over how to encourage more fathers to take the paid time off and reduce inequalities in the home.

"You have to ask yourself what it is that pushes most women to stay at home, and one of the reasons is that the person who earns the most is often the one who is going to stay at work," Sweden's Gender Equality Minister Nyamko Sabuni told AFP.
Women are over-represented in low-income jobs, such as teachers or nurses, and on average earn 84 percent of the average male salary, according to Statistics Sweden.

There you go, you got the answer, economics again, people want to get more money and whoever earns less (in this case women) gets to stay at home while daddy (who presumably earns more) gets to go to work.

Technorati Tags: Discrimination,Women,Women's Rights,Worker Rights,Sweden

Access to Credit should be recognised as human right

This post made me think. Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus of microcredit fame has said that access to credit should be recognised as a human right. Now, there are two aspects to this argument

1. That the state has a right or a duty to provide credit to its citizens which is something that I do not agree with. This habit of looking to the Government for everything and handouts is wrong. This is at par with the argument that there is a fundamental human right to employment. No, there is no human right to employment. Nobody owes you anything for employment, that is your own responsibility. That is not to say that people who are clearly unable to work should not be helped (such as physically disabled...) but generally, there is no right to work. Similarly, there is no right to credit or even access to credit. But the flip side is true and more on that at the bottom

2. That credit is the only thing which is stopping people from leading economically productive lives which is again debatable. Just having the credit available does not mean that people will take the credit and suddenly become entrepreneurs. That is not necessary, to be economically active, you can rely on somebody else having credit, or loaning out credit or relying on your own energy and being self sufficient.

But overall, it does make sense not because of the call for the right but because what I know that poor people are poor because of governments and not despite them. Governments actively connive in removing access to credit to their citizens. That is actually true. Let us look at the ways it is done. First by giving subsidies and deficit financing, they soak up funds in the market which can be given as credit to needy people.

Second by having inefficient means (such as corruption, bureaucracy, etc. ) even well meaning ways of passing on credit are bad (such as rural work schemes or forcing state owned banks to make loans cheaply such as in Iran). Third is by not having good land and other asset registries (like patent systems) or good land based infrastructure (such as rural markets, good deep secondary patent and land markets, good legal systems where land and asset rights can be protected, exchange and markets where these can be traded..... (see for example, work done by Hernando de Soto)

But, food for thought indeed! Giving people credit is a laudable aim and Governments can do worse than do that. Specially for countries like Iran, Bangladesh and India, the dead hand of the state has to be removed or at least made efficient in asset discovery and credit generation.

But then, remember that you CAN go too far. For example, see this. Well, you have a very simple way of getting credit, just send a text message and in 15 minutes, about $500 will land in your account. And when credit is that easy, it creates problems on the other side. I quote, "Swedish authorities, who are so concerned about the out-of-control debt build-up among some young and low-income Swedes that they in January banned interest payments superior to the cost of the initial loan.The main danger of the new lending system is that it gives people "the possibility to get money very, very quickly, which is stimulating impulsive actions without thinking," Also lets not forget the sub prime crisis where funds were lent to people who were clearly unable to repay the loans

So yes, credit should be available but not too easily.

Technorati Tags: India,Iran,Bangladesh,Financial Markets,Financial Products