I’ve got no idea where this picture came from, but I’m guessing it’s from somewhere in India. It’s got to be one of the greatest graduation photos of all time! And by the way, the cameraman MUST have been in on this to snap the photo at just the right time…

I’ve ridden trains across Europe and been on subways in London, New York, Athens, and many other places. But I’ve never, never seen anything like the trains in Mumbai, India. You couldn’t pay me to get on one of those death traps - not like it’s even possible to physically get on one.

The first thing you notice is that the doors don’t close. There is a rational reason for this apparant lack of safety feature. People are hanging out of them!
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Surprise! Here is an excellent article from Al Jazeera! I know… hard to believe.

Most of the high-paying jobs in India’s $50bn information technology industry go to India’s privileged elite.

But, with the help of her husband, one woman has managed to earn her university degree as well as a job at on of India’s top IT companies. Rajesh Sundaram traveled to Visakhapatnam to meet her.

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Now days, when I think of India I think of a hot dry climate, a billion people, call centers and engineers. But this is a country with a long, rich history that predates most Western civilizations.

Here is an interesting video which demonstrates many of the inventions from ancient India including things such as the number 0, cotton, art, and more. In fact, about 37 minutes into the video, they discuss the manufacture of Wootz - or Damascus - steel, used for making the finest swords ever created.
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Ok. This just pisses me off. Can someone explain to me why Citibank is going to spend the money to develop and implement fingerprint reading ATMs for the poorest people in India, but not for the richest people in the US?

I mean, I wouldn’t have to lug along another ATM card if they’d just put a fingerprint scanner on their ATMs. Instead I could just swipe a finger, enter my PIN and be gone. Just think - if someone stole my wallet I wouldn’t have to worry about not having any cash as long as I could get to an ATM.
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According to the August 7, 2006 edition of Business Week a new law in India makes it the first country to ban images of smoking in TV and film.

In the US, the 20% of adult smokers will be outraged by this infringement on freedom. But in India (one of the poorest nations on the planet), where half of the men and 21% of women smoke, they’ve got an epidemic and they need to do something about it.

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