The world without US - propaganda?

I saw a documentary about the disasters the world would face if WE stopped interfering with world affairs. Its very ironically named "The world without US", emphasizing the fact that we consider ourselves the center of the world.

The movie goes on to show Europe in bad light for not having done anything to stop the carnage in Bosnia and later in Kosovo. Typical of any propaganda movie, it tries to shift the blame on others than to show the facts as they are.

Japan is accused of using the US navy for its defense when it could pay for its own defense. But the movie very cleverly ignores the fact that, it was the US which destroyed the Japanese navy, dropped not one but two atom bombs on the small island before occupying the bases that now serve as American bases. The "documentary" also fails to mention the fact that Japanese are actually paying the Americans for the service of being occupied. The Japanese are not keen on the Americans staying, but thats not the picture painted in the movie.

The movie further goes on to show clippings from communist propaganda movies, which seems a bit out of place. Taiwan is shown in the ruins of a nuclear war due to the lack of American intervention. How much of it is truth? With very clear indications of a typical propaganda material, the documentary tries desperately to rectify the image of America in the eyes of the world.

Automysophobia - does taking a shower help?

Automysophobia is the fear of being dirty or being perceived as dirty. Its a psychological condition in which a person is afraid of being dirty or afraid of being perceived as dirty.

How to overcome Automysophobia?

Ya the obvious way is to convince the mind to become calm and realise that its an irrational fear and be done with it. However, fear is fear as it is irrational.

1. So can taking a shower for example, provide any relief? It may in some cases reduce the feeling of being dirty. Please note that if you are scared of the germs that will come with the water, showering may not be a good option. 9 out of 10, taking a shower does really help overcome the fear.
2. Changing into new clothes can be helpful if the clothes have become soiled or if u atleast feel that they are soiled.
3. Brushing your teeth and rinsing your mouth can provide a feeling of new found cleanliness
4. Cutting nails, shaving etc can also provide benefits.
5. More important than these steps is to remember that none of these steps are overdone. Taking bath 15 times a day will suerly increase the problem rather than reduce it.

If you still feel dirty, inner cleansing methods that purify and calm the mind can also be tried. These methods could be meditation or even sleep.

Find graves online - no its not a cyber graveyard

For those of who you who would like to visit the graves of the famous and notorious, the need to find graves is over. Find a grave provides an easy to use web 2.0 model site for finding and adding graves.

If you wanted Bonnie of the Bonnie and Clyde, you can find the grave details in the site. If fame and notoriety don't int rest you, the site has the details about various war heroes and even ordinary people.

Tracing family history through the site is made easier. Its like integrating the graveyard records from all over the world. Far from being just a database of grave details, the site allows one to leave flowers at the grave without actually having to visit the grave yard.

Blogosphere-stop four

The journey around the blogosphere had landed us at the blog of Carl Futia, who is a consulatant and author of a book on Contrarian Trading.

Try as much as i may, i cant find even a single link leading away from his blog. Even the comments are by profiles that are blocked. So i have reached a dead end of the internet. A oneway street if you will.

Chinese spam - why would they do it to me?

If you see the comments on my last post, you will see that i am being bombarded by chinese spam. What are they trying to do?

1. I dont understand chinese, so suerly they wont get any benefit out of that.
2. They would be better of spamming chinese sites rather than a site with 100% english content.
3. Randomly targetting a site should also have some logic.

So if you are the chinese guy, who is spamming me. stop it. :)

If its japanese spam and not chinese replace chinese with japanese in all the above. Both look the same.

India at world solar challenge

The World Solar Challenge is a biennial event based on a competitive field of solar cars crossing the Australian continent powered by nothing but the sun.

As the fossil fuels are exhausted, the fuel cost is increasing drastically. Thus, the need to use alternative sources of energy is of utmost importance. For a country like India, the need for such initiatives is imperative due to its economic situation. The present rate of growth can be sustained only with innovations in the field of alternative energy.

India is being represented by "Team Solaris" with car number-95 in Challenge class. Its great to know that a team from Delhi College of engineering is in the race with teams from all over the world.

Lets wish team solaris all the best for the panasonic world solar challenge which is to take place in the month of October.

Orkut closed for maintenance

Have you ever caught Orkut when they are doing maintenance? It looks like i did..The error message that i got is shown below.

The site however, was accessible just a minute later. I wonder if it is a result of increased traffic or other maintenance work.