Vote by Mail.

I live in the state of Oregon and this state has a peculiar voting system called vote by mail. Basically every eligible household gets a big voter pamphlet containing all the measures that have been authorized to appear in the elections. What are measures you ask ? Measures are initiatives that individuals or organizations sponsor to be made as laws. One of the law in this year's election is the campaign finance measure that will limit the contributions made by companies to the election campaigns. If you have a good idea that you think should be made in to a law you gather signatures from other people and submit it to the secretary of state (similar to the post of Home Secretary in Indian states). The secretary of state then verifies that the signatures are valid and certifies your idea as something that can be put in the ballot for the public to vote on.

This year there are many such number of measures that Oregon public will vote upon. In addition this also the year when Oregonians will vote for a new Governor. The incumbent Ted Kulongosky (I call him Kulothungan) is up against republican Ron Saxton. Ron Saxton might be affected by all that is going around the republican party including sex scandals, graft charges and not to mention Iraq war.

And all these measures and governorship elections are conducted via mail. The voters get the booklet which clearly explains the for and against for each of the measures and the voters then pick their choice and drop it in to the mailbox. If the voter chooses to mail their vote last Friday was the deadline so that the vote can reach the county office by Tuesday. Otherwise they can drop off their vote at designated places by Monday 8:00PM. Apparently this system has been working fine that other states are catching up.

Now do you think such vote by mail is even possible in the Mobocracy practised in India ?

Democrats poised to win ??

The conservative world is falling apart in the United States of America. Just when the Reps. thought they got the Dems when Heinz Kerry opened his mouth with that bad joke about Iraq, their world sunk further with the revelations about Ted Haggard. For the uninitiated Ted is one of the leading lights of the conservative world in USA. He is also a high ranking official in an anti-gay coalition inspite of the fact that he himself was engaged in gay activities.

Almost all the leading lights of the conservative in USA have seen their share of hyprocisy. Ted Haggard joins an illustrious group that includes Rush Limbaugh, Mark Foley, Jack Abramoff etc etc. In all these cases republicans have come across as sheer hypocrites, saying onething in public but in reality being the exact opposite. The most prevalent view here is that Dems will take the House and there is a high probability they'll take the senate also. The Dems will do good if they kept their mouth shut and talk sensibly. It's just 2 days away now.

Kids resources on the web

While the web is a great resource on any subject matter under the Sun and on stuff on the Sun itself, it woefully lacks resources on kids matters. I have a hard time finding out at what age kids should be proficient in some matters like say addition.My daughters are 3.5 yrs old and I think they should be versed with addition by now but my wife feels that addition is suitable only at age 5. They are very good with numbers and can count and write numbers, alphabets and 3 or 4 letter words but they just have a hard time with addition. Granted that every child is unique but a general guideline as to what you can expect from them at what age would be still a very good resource. It is surprising that there is not that many websites that guide you as to what you should expect from your child.

If you do find such good resources please leave those URLs in the comment section. TIA.

Scoop of the day

The deans of Harvard Business school, Stanford and Wharton are locked in a grand battle to recruit Shri. H.D.Kumaraswamy, present chief minister of the Indian state of Karnataka, to head their new department called the Department of Brand Demolition. HDK's this single feat makes these deans and billions of others to fall at his feet. Mr.HDK opined that this single act would liberate the yoke of British imperialism that was hanging over his proud state and left for London to woo British Petroleum, British Telecom, British Rail and British Airways to open their backoffice in Bangalore ooops Bengalooru....

Now that Bangalore is no longer used by that city, I'm seriously thinking of auctioning that name on Ebay. The highest bidding city will earn the right from me to rename themselves as Bangalore.

Google doc doesn't support Opera ?

Opera is one of the most standard compliant (not complaint) browsers. And it's a shame that google cannot support the browser for spreadsheets and such. Why ?
Why do these people establish standards like W3C and not write programs that confirm to it. It's a great mockery.

How should India view China ?

Granted that both the countries fought a war in 1962 in which India dearly paid for, for not using it's superior air power, the question that always ring in my mind is whether India and China are competitors ? Each nation is so different. China is undoubtedly the manufacturing super power and India the knowledge super power. China is trying to encourage knowledge based industry and India is also trying to bring world-class manufacturing capability.

The two countries have a population of over a billion, almost 4 times that of USA. With 300M people if USA can create such a big economy, can India and China not create a humongous economy by themselves ? Heck why should they create it. It already exists. The only real fact is that much of that economy is not measured by any modern statistical means that can be verified.

Leaving the economies aside, the countries are culturally unique and divergent. Except for border area disputes that the two countries are quite successfully negotiating, there appears no military threat per se from China or from India to each other. So why do people keep comparing the growth of China to the growth of India ? It certainly gives an appearance of another attempt by western countries to keep the asian superpowers seperated so they can divide and rule at a much larger scale.

China and India have coexisted peacefully for thousands of year and have contributed to each other's cultural wealth. They have traded Tea for Tao and have had distinguished literary figures in each others courts. They also have a number of internal problems that leave them little time to play games with each other. Yes they are going to compete for the same dollar or yen or pound available for investment but they are no way near cannibalizing each other.

Yes China is communist and India is democratic, at least on paper. That makes no difference whatsoever. Each country has to choose the best method of governance. Chinese governmental actions especially with respect to business will make Lenin and Stalin squirm in their grave. China's communism is practiced with iron hand to maintain so called calmness and stability in the country. How long will it last, Will the Chinese people riot and over throw the communism and have the necessary will power to establish another model of governance is all a big IF and has no bearing on it's relation with neighbors. IMO, China and India are complimentary. Its no secret that China has a lot of puppet politicians in India that only shows Indian politicians decadence rather than Chinese machiavelliness.

As the famous politician said, Hindi-Chini bhai bhai should never become Hindi-Chini bye bye....

Written under duress by a slave,

Women, Commute, Makeup - Now and Then

Today as I was driving down to work from Beaverton to Portland I noticed that the middle lane was quite slow compared to the left and right lanes. As I drove past what seemed to be the delay causing vehicle, I noticed it was a one of those cheap sports car that goes by some name Porsche or something like that. Surprised at this car going slow I looked at the driver a bit more and then it dawned on me. It was a woman driver and she was busy applying makeup to her face oblivious of the fact that the entire lane was being slowed down by her actions. Now this is not the first time I'm seeing women applying makeup while driving but this is the first time I'm blogging about it.

This actually triggered some of my memories going back to 1990. This phenomenon of women applying make up while on the move is not a US phenomenon alone. In 1990 I used to travel from Tiruvallur to Perambur for my Higher Secondary education. Sometimes I used to catch the Jollarpettai express at TRL whose next stop after TRL is Perambur. The moment the train stops at TRL all the women folk in the train would start their daily make up routine.

For those who don't this express, it's the daily commute vehicle for many from Jollarpettai, Katpadi, Arakkanom to Madras. I believe it starts from Jollarpettai at around 4:50AM or so and reaches Chennai Central by around 9:00AM. I could be off a little at the timings but you get the idea. When it reaches TRL at around 8:00AM the folks from Jollarpettai and Katpadi would have finished their morning sleep and get ready for their office. Hence the makeup mayhem in the train. Trust me there were hundreds of people who make this daily commute of 5 hours from Jollarpettai. Similarly the return journey will start at around 5:30 or so and reach Jollarpettai at 10:30PM.

Till this day I wonder how those folks managed to go home after 10:30PM and get up to catch the train again at 4:50AM. Not much time with the family right !!! While makeup while commute is a necessity for these folks, what can I say about the woman in Beaverton. I just wish she was driving in India where an angry lorry driver would have taken her out, hey it's just one nature's selection process in action, one less not-so-desirable gene out of the gene pool. Yeah I know I'm not being nice.....