“We may block the mobile phone SMS service if negative use of SMS does not stop”, said Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik in a press conference today. He said that SMS communication is being used by terrorist in planning and execution of terrorist activities.
If this happens, then SMS communication over all the networks will be banned throughout Pakistan – a big blow for customers and the companies as well.
I believe, before banning SMS service as whole in the country, there is a better way to stop the use of SMS service for terrorist activities; for example, we can follow Iran in this situation where a typical cell owner has to go through security checks by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to receive clearance for using the SMS service – otherwise, no one can send/receive SMS.
Let’s hope for best
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Apple announce triumphant financial quarter results
It now came Apple's turn for announcing their financial results for the first quarter of 2009. The company acquired a revenue of 8.16 billion US dollars and a net quarterly profit of 1.21 billion US dollars.
It seems that the world economical downturn has been merciful to the guys over at Cupertino as it's obviously has been the most successful non-holiday quarter in Apple's history.
The current results compare quite favorably to the revenue of 7.51 billion US dollars (8.6% increase) and net quarterly profit of 1.05 billion US dollars (15.2% increase) achieved in the same period last year. .
According to Apple the nice results are mainly due to the strong sales of the iPhone and Apple TV. The iPhone 3G units sold this quarter were 3.79 million, which is exactly 123% more than the sales for the same period last year. The company also managed to move 2.22 million Macs (3 percent decline YoY) and 11.01 million iPods (3 percent growth).
The introduction of the Apple's AppStore is also playing a decisive role in the company's success. The app distribution network has helped almost a billion apps reach their new owners in less than a year existence. By the way, just as a trivia, Apple have a huge AppStore counter all over their website right now, counting up to the one billionth download, which should be due these days.
Update 24 April: The AppStore downloads have already hit the billion mark.
With the company's financial health so good we can't help but wait for the rumored iPhone 2009 announcement in June.
Meet the Belleperre Nero Gold – another luxury mobile phone
The company Belleperre offers luxury mobile phones designed in Italy and handmade in Holland. The path started by names like Vertu and Mobiado is getting wider and wider and now there is enough room for other smaller companies like this which hope to catch the attention of rich people who choose their gadgets by the price. The higher, the better!
A new member of the Belleperre family was recently presented - the Nero Gold. Like the other handsets of the Belleperre collection the Nero Gold is handmade of high quality materials only and it can be customized to meet all criteria of its future owners.
The Belleperre mobile phones measure 100 x 44 15.5 mm and weigh no more than 120 g. They are made of aluminum, steel or titanium and can be plated with silver or gold. The handsets' bodies are covered in leather (genuine alligator, shark, lizard and buffalo leather in more than 100 colors) and the screen is protected from scratches by a sapphire crystal.
The newbie, the Nero Gold, shares the distinguishing features of its bros - not a single piece of plastic can be found in its black brushed steel body. Its surface has a special scratch resistant coating and the buttons are made of high polished solid silver or gold. Another remarkable feature is the shiny black crocodile leather.
There is no word on availability and we don't even dare asking about the price of the new Belleperre Nero Gold luxury phone. And how about you, do you?
http://www.bellperre.com/index2.html
President Obama urged to halt munitions exports to Israel
The new delivery to Israel of a massive consignment of US munitions, revealed by Amnesty International today, throws into question whether President Obama will act to prevent the US fuelling further Israeli attacks against civilians that may amount to war crimes, as were perpetrated in Gaza.
According to new information received by Amnesty International, the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship which had been chartered and controlled by US Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo of reportedly over 300 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 40 km north of Gaza by road. The German ship left the USA for Israel on 20 December, one week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza, carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.
“Legally and morally, this US arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration given the extent of the evidence showing how military equipment and munitions of this kind were recently used by the Israeli forces for war crimes,” said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s arms control campaign manager. "Arms supplies in these circumstances are contrary to provisions in US law."
Asked about the Wehr Elbe, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire US munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod [Israel] on 22 March”. The spokesperson said that the shipment was destined for a US pre-positioned ammunition stockpile in Israel. Under a US-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary. Another US official told Amnesty International that they are reviewing Israel's use of US weapons during the Gaza conflict to see if Israel complied with U.S. law, but no conclusion has yet been reached.
“There is a great risk that the new munitions may be used by the Israeli military to commit further violations of international law, like the ones committed during the war in Gaza,” said Brian Wood. “We are urging all governments to impose an immediate and comprehensive suspension of arms to Israel, and to all Palestinian armed groups until there is no longer a substantial risk of serious human rights violations.”
The US was by far the largest supplier of weapons to Israel between 2004 and 2008. The US government is also due to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel, despite the blatant misuse of weaponry and munitions in Gaza and Lebanon by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to one US official, President Obama has no plans to cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel under a new 10-year contract agreed in 2007 by the Bush administration. This new contract is a 25 per cent increase compared to the last contract agreed by the previous US administration.
Amnesty International has reported in detail on suspected war crimes committed by the IDF and by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. On 15 January, Amnesty International called on all governments to immediately suspend arms transfers to all parties to the Gaza conflict to prevent further violations being committed using munitions and other military equipment.
Background:
The Wehr Elbe sailed from the US state of North Carolina on 20 December after collecting its large cargo of US munitions, initially bound for the port of Navipe-Astakos port on the west coast of Greece. Its transponder signal disappeared on 12 January when the vessel was sailing near Astakos and when the ship was unable to dock due to a protest by the Greek Stop the War Coalition. The vessel was then tracked as it passed through the port of Augusta, on the Italian island of Sicily, and then near Gibraltar in mid-February, before reappearing on 23 March en route from Ashdod to the Black Sea port of Odessa where it docked on 26 March in berth 7. Amnesty International is now aware that the vessel docked in Ashdod on 22 March and reportedly offloaded over 300 containers.
Amnesty International first drew attention to this arms ship's voyage on 15 January. The ship's charter, authorized by the Bush administration a week before the IDF launched their attack on Gaza, was to carry 989 shipping containers of “containerized ammunition and other containerized ammunition supplies” from Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal, North Carolina to Ashdod, as listed in the contract. US Military Sealift Command charters for a further two US munitions shipments from Navipe-Astakos (Greece) to Ashdod, which explicitly included white phosphorus munitions, were announced on 31 December during the Gaza conflict and then cancelled on 9 January, but a US military spokesperson subsequently confirmed that the Pentagon was still seeking a way to also deliver those munitions.
Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”. Section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act authorizes the supply of US military equipment and training only for lawful purposes of internal security, "legitimate self-defense," or participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations or other operations consistent with the UN Charter. However, under the US Export Administration Act, security assistance may be provided if the President certifies that “extraordinary circumstances” exist, so Section 502B is circumvented. The Leahy Law prohibits the USA from providing most forms of security assistance to any military or police unit when there is "credible evidence" that members of the unit are committing gross human rights violations.
According to new information received by Amnesty International, the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship which had been chartered and controlled by US Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo of reportedly over 300 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 40 km north of Gaza by road. The German ship left the USA for Israel on 20 December, one week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza, carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.
“Legally and morally, this US arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration given the extent of the evidence showing how military equipment and munitions of this kind were recently used by the Israeli forces for war crimes,” said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s arms control campaign manager. "Arms supplies in these circumstances are contrary to provisions in US law."
Asked about the Wehr Elbe, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire US munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod [Israel] on 22 March”. The spokesperson said that the shipment was destined for a US pre-positioned ammunition stockpile in Israel. Under a US-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary. Another US official told Amnesty International that they are reviewing Israel's use of US weapons during the Gaza conflict to see if Israel complied with U.S. law, but no conclusion has yet been reached.
“There is a great risk that the new munitions may be used by the Israeli military to commit further violations of international law, like the ones committed during the war in Gaza,” said Brian Wood. “We are urging all governments to impose an immediate and comprehensive suspension of arms to Israel, and to all Palestinian armed groups until there is no longer a substantial risk of serious human rights violations.”
The US was by far the largest supplier of weapons to Israel between 2004 and 2008. The US government is also due to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel, despite the blatant misuse of weaponry and munitions in Gaza and Lebanon by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to one US official, President Obama has no plans to cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel under a new 10-year contract agreed in 2007 by the Bush administration. This new contract is a 25 per cent increase compared to the last contract agreed by the previous US administration.
Amnesty International has reported in detail on suspected war crimes committed by the IDF and by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. On 15 January, Amnesty International called on all governments to immediately suspend arms transfers to all parties to the Gaza conflict to prevent further violations being committed using munitions and other military equipment.
Background:
The Wehr Elbe sailed from the US state of North Carolina on 20 December after collecting its large cargo of US munitions, initially bound for the port of Navipe-Astakos port on the west coast of Greece. Its transponder signal disappeared on 12 January when the vessel was sailing near Astakos and when the ship was unable to dock due to a protest by the Greek Stop the War Coalition. The vessel was then tracked as it passed through the port of Augusta, on the Italian island of Sicily, and then near Gibraltar in mid-February, before reappearing on 23 March en route from Ashdod to the Black Sea port of Odessa where it docked on 26 March in berth 7. Amnesty International is now aware that the vessel docked in Ashdod on 22 March and reportedly offloaded over 300 containers.
Amnesty International first drew attention to this arms ship's voyage on 15 January. The ship's charter, authorized by the Bush administration a week before the IDF launched their attack on Gaza, was to carry 989 shipping containers of “containerized ammunition and other containerized ammunition supplies” from Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal, North Carolina to Ashdod, as listed in the contract. US Military Sealift Command charters for a further two US munitions shipments from Navipe-Astakos (Greece) to Ashdod, which explicitly included white phosphorus munitions, were announced on 31 December during the Gaza conflict and then cancelled on 9 January, but a US military spokesperson subsequently confirmed that the Pentagon was still seeking a way to also deliver those munitions.
Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act stipulates that "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights”. Section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act authorizes the supply of US military equipment and training only for lawful purposes of internal security, "legitimate self-defense," or participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations or other operations consistent with the UN Charter. However, under the US Export Administration Act, security assistance may be provided if the President certifies that “extraordinary circumstances” exist, so Section 502B is circumvented. The Leahy Law prohibits the USA from providing most forms of security assistance to any military or police unit when there is "credible evidence" that members of the unit are committing gross human rights violations.
The oldest U.S. overseas outpost has repelled enemies and welcomed refugees since 1898, when U.S. Marines fighting the Spanish-American War established camp at the natural harbor on Cuba's southeast coast.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday it could take weeks to prepare the Navy base to hold the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, and described it as the "least worst place" for the prison.
He didn't elaborate, but base spokesman Chief Petty Officer Richard Evans noted that Guantanamo already has detention facilities for about 100 people, dating from the mid-1990s, when it housed thousands of Cuban and Haitian refugees. U.S. forces currently hold 45 detainees.
Besides its impressive security, the base would offer advantages should it ever host the type of military tribunal President Bush signed into order on Nov. 13, although Rumsfeld says there are no plans for it to do so at the moment.
The base is close enough to the United States � two-hour flights leave regularly for Guantanamo from Jacksonville, Fla. to ferry legal teams in and out quickly, and yet its offshore status makes any verdict virtually immune from appeal. A landmark 1950 Supreme Court decision established, in unusually direct language, that nonresident enemy aliens have "no access to our courts in wartime."
Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have said they prefer military tribunals because they better protect U.S. secrets, and because they believe enemy aliens are not entitled to constitutional guarantees.
"The Bush administration appears to intentionally be following a pattern of making sure there is no judicial review," said Scott Silliman, a former Air Force lawyer and Duke University law professor who recently expressed his concerns about the tribunals in testimony to the Senate.
Most of the time, life for the 2,700 people on the 45-square-mile base is bucolic. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a senior Naval officer described the base in a memo as "a community with overtones of suburbia."
Not much has changed: Three quarters of the residents are civilians family to the sailors and Marines posted there, and maintenance staff imported from Jamaica and the Philippines.
This Christmas, residents whose affectionate term for the base is "Gitmo" organized a boat parade and a tour of some of the homes on base. They enjoy a view from John Paul Jones Hill that takes in the bay and the surrounding mountains.
Kids attend the airy W.T. Sampson school, run recycling drives and take tae kwan do. There's yoga and fishing expeditions for the adults.
The latest issue of the Guantanamo Bay Gazette frets about a couple of "invasions" of the decidedly unarmed kind: "Weight Control During the Holidays" is one headline; "Screwworm: a Threat to You and your Pets" is another.
Such determination to create a home away from the American hearth masks the fortress that would keep the detainees secure.
The base does not have any entrances from the main island, frustrating any attacks or attempts to help prisoners escape and hampering protesters and journalists.
It is secure, in part, because of obstacles Cuban leader Fidel Castro ordered placed to stop his people from seeking refuge there among them a ring of cactus plants. The Cuban military controls an area of about 20 miles on the Cuban side around the base, and prohibits all access.
U.S. forces stand ready to assume high alert, and have done so during two revolutions on the tumultuous island, in 1906 and 1959, as well as during the missile crisis in 1962, and after Castro's order to cut off the base's water in 1964.
The "water crisis" led to the building of a desalination plant, and now the base is fully self-sufficient. Recently declassified Pentagon documents suggest that the base has stored nuclear weapons probably submarine-seeking depth bombs since the 1962 crisis.
President Theodore Roosevelt leased the land from Cuba in 1903, and his nephew Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the base expanded in 1939. FDR anticipated the need for submarine patrols should the United States enter the European war, which it did two years later.
Since then, it has served as a refueling and maintenance port for U.S ships, and has provided support to U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
In the mid-1990s it assumed a new role: safe harbor for the thousands of Cubans and Haitians seeking refuge on U.S. soil. Since then "migrant surge ops" have become one of the base's declared missions.
Brief History Updated :
The Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp is a prison operated by Joint Task Force Guantánamo of the United States government since 1987 in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The detainment areas consists of three camps in the base: Camp Delta (which includes Camp Echo), Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray (which has been closed). The facility is often referred to as the Guantánamo, or Gitmo. The detainees currently held as of June 2008 have been classified by the United States as "enemy combatants". After the administration of President George W. Bush asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on June 29, 2006 that they were entitled to the minimal protections listed under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on July 7, 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that prisoners would in the future be entitled to protection under Common Article 3.
On January 21, 2009 the White House announced that President Barack Obama had signed an order to suspend the proceedings of the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and that the detention facility would be shut down within the year. On January 29, 2009 a military judge at Guantanamo rejected the White House request in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, creating an unexpected challenge for the administration as it reviews how America puts Guantanamo detainees on trial.
How India’s affirmative action law is joining Christians and Muslims!
MEDIPALLY, India Every Sunday, women and children gather to pray in a tiny, white-washed church on the edge of this southern Indian village, sitting cross-legged on blue plastic sheets as they sing Christian hymns.
The men don't dare to come. "If they are seen in the church, the officials will be informed," says Vatipally Aharon, Medipally's Baptist pastor.
Almost all the Christians here and the overwhelming majority across India hail from the so-called Dalit community, the former "untouchables" relegated to the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. Under India's constitution, Dalits are entitled to affirmative-action benefits, including 15 percent of all federal government jobs and university admissions. That provides the country's most downtrodden with a way to escape their traditional occupations such as emptying village latrines, burying cow carcasses and tanning animal hides.
But there is a catch: Any Dalit caught abandoning Hinduism for Christianity or Islam loses these privileges, and can be fired from jobs gained under the quota. The rules are enforced by vigilant local officials who keep a close eye on villagers' comings and goings.
The plight of India's secret converts, ignored for decades, is now at the forefront of national politics. Partly driving the change is Indian Christians' new partnership with Islam, a religion frequently at odds with Christianity elsewhere in the world.
India's Supreme Court is currently reviewing several challenges filed by Christian and Muslim Dalits that could result in an overturning of the affirmative-action exclusion. A separate bill to remove the restriction is pending in Parliament. Government members, influenced by India's 150-million-strong Muslim community, have indicated their cautious support.
For decades, backers of the existing legislation have argued that since Christianity and Islam have no caste, Dalits who abandon Hinduism find equality amid their new co-religionists and therefore no longer need special protection.
But the movement to end official discrimination against these converts is gaining momentum in the world's largest democracy. This year, a special government-appointed commission, headed by Ranganath Mishra, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, concluded that Dalits retain their stigma in India's society even after converting and recommended scrapping the ban.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination earlier this year also formally rebuked India for denying affirmative-action benefits to Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam, and recommended that the prohibition be removed.
"The government of India seems quite sympathetic" to such demands, says Sardar Buta Singh, a minister-level official who heads India's agency overseeing Dalit affairs, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. "All the parties have started thinking about this problem, and it can be solved."
India's Dalits have tried over the centuries to escape their low status, which Hindu scriptures teach is a punishment for sins in a previous life, by embracing caste-less religions. In centuries past, most converts turned to Islam, a religion professed by many Indian rulers before the British seized the subcontinent in the 19th century.
But with India's expanding economy offering unprecedented opportunities for social and economic advancement, a great many Dalits are now turning to Christianity, attracted by benefits like education and health care that are sometimes offered by Western-funded congregations. This allows them to seek opportunities beyond the government sector, in the booming information-technology and services industries that put a premium on the Westernized outlook and English-language skills.
Much to the dismay of Hindu nationalist groups, the number of India's secret Christians has climbed in recent years to an estimated 25 million people, about the size of the officially registered Christian population.
That is despite the obvious risks: Affirmative-action benefits often mean the difference between grinding poverty and a glimmer of hope for a better life.
A lanky 30-year-old with a trimmed mustache, Venkatesh Gunti was born into a Dalit household in Medipally, a cluster of pastel-colored homes set in the rolling green hills of Andhra Pradesh state. Since his teenage years, Mr. Gunti frequently prayed in the village's Zion church, established by South African missionaries. Three years ago, he found a prized job that would have allowed him to escape the misery of rural life as a handyman at a government college in the town of Bhongir.
The job was reserved for a Dalit, and Mr. Gunti had to produce a "scheduled caste" certificate something he believed would be a mere formality.
But when Mr. Gunti applied for it at the local government revenue-collection office, the clerk, Mr. Gunti recalls, refused to issue the document. According to reports filed by the village secretary, Mr. Gunti was a regular church-goer and therefore no longer qualified for "scheduled caste" status. He didn't get the job and had to stay in the village, eking out a living as a manual laborer.
To gain back the affirmative-action benefits, Mr. Gunti says he had to pretend that he had reverted to Hinduism, participating in a Hindu religious festival when he knew the village secretary was watching. Last year, the subterfuge finally worked, and Mr. Gunti was reclassified as a member of the "scheduled caste." He says he won't partake in any more Hindu rituals, but will also steer clear of the church. Mr. Gunti has yet to find a new job.
Questioned about the case, Raghu Rama Rao, Medipally's village secretary, explains that he has no choice. "This is the law if we'll come to know they go to church, we'll have to make an inquiry and submit a report," Mr. Rao says in his home, its outer wall sporting a poster for a Hindu nationalist organization. Mr. Rao adds that he is already showing kindness by reporting only the active church-goers, and leaving alone those believed to be Christian Dalits who don't openly flaunt their faith.
Such thorough enforcement means secret lives have to be lived throughout India's society. "If they ever find out I'm a Christian, I will lose my position, no question about it," says a Dalit school teacher who behaves as a Hindu when he teaches in a state school near Medipally but decorates his Hyderabad apartment with pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
"The government is forcing us to lie," echoes Prasadarao Yadavalli, a 48-year-old official in Andhra Pradesh's state bureaucracy who rose to his post thanks to Dalit quotas while hiding his Christian faith. Mr. Yadavalli says he has decided to finally come out this year, as he could no longer maintain this double life: "Whatever the consequences, God will take care of us."
Even one of the Dalit converts who petitioned India's Supreme Court is keeping his true beliefs secret from neighbors.
Mukesh Kumar, a zoologist whose Ph.D. thesis explored the salivary apparatus of Indian bugs, complained in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in 2005 that he was denied a university job reserved for Dalits because he converted to Islam. His wife Reena added in the same affidavit that she also wants to embrace Islam but is afraid to do so because she would lose her current job of village administrator, an elected position gained under the Dalit quota.
But when visited by a reporter in his village of Neyazoopura, in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, an agitated Dr. Kumar who helps his wife run the village administration initially denied any link with the Muslim religion. His office is decorated with posters of Hindu holy men. Only after hastily chasing away curious villagers and shutting the doors would Dr. Kumar, 37, confirm his signature on the affidavit. "It's a constitutional right to change a religion at any time if you want it," he says.
India's 1950 constitution indeed guarantees the freedom of faith, in addition to outlawing discrimination against the Dalits. But, in defining who is entitled to affirmative-action protection afforded to the Dalits, a 1950 presidential order excluded any "person who professes a religion different from Hinduism."
The rule was amended in 1956 to include Dalit Sikhs and in 1990 to embrace Dalit Buddhists, on the grounds that these two religions can be considered offshoots of Hinduism.
Indian Christian groups have tried for decades to win a similar exception for Christianity, which is believed to have arrived in India when St. Thomas disembarked in Kerala in the first century A.D. A bill to do so was approved by the national government in 1996, but never made it to a Parliament vote because of a coalition crisis that prompted new elections; these were won by the Hindu nationalist Bharata Janatiya Party.
The party is a staunch opponent of conversions from Hinduism, now practiced by 80.5 percent of the general population. "People convert to Christianity here mostly because of aggressive proselytizing by missionaries, who induce very gullible people. This must be stopped," says Ram Madhav, a spokesman and national executive member of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, or RSS, a powerful organization that promotes Hindu nationalist ideology and is affiliated with the BJP.
The years of BJP rule were marked by violence against Muslim and Christian minorities. Facing a common enemy, India's Christian and Muslim organizations joined forces in protecting the country's secularist tradition. Christian groups organized relief for Muslim refugees from religious pogroms in the state of Gujarat in 2002, and Christian churches were sheltered in some Muslim areas. Though the BJP has denied that some of its leaders helped orchestrate religious violence, the U.S. has since canceled the visa of Gujarat's chief minister, a BJP member, because of his role in the 2002 bloodshed.
"The Christians and the Muslims are a minority in India, they are both oppressed, and so there is a natural alliance between us," says Mahmood Madani, a Parliament member and secretary-general of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, the country's leading Islamic body.
Viewing the Dalits as the main source of potential converts, some Christian and Muslim organizations started working together in recent years among these outcaste communities. While discrimination against Dalits is illegal, it is in practice widespread, particularly in rural parts of India, where people from higher castes won't touch a Dalit or share with them food or water.
Here in Andhra Pradesh, Muslim and Christian leaders now regularly break this barrier of untouchability as they organize festive meals in Dalit villages, eating from the same giant plate of rice and vegetable curry.
"This is a real physical demonstration against caste discrimination," says Joseph D'souza, the president of the All-India Christian Council, who has organized many of these gatherings.
Though no open proselytizing is conducted at these events, shared meals frequently end up producing new converts. "The condition of Dalits is like that of dogs in India," says P.K. Ahmad Sabir, Andhra Pradesh state leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Mr. D'souza's partner in the Dalit outreach effort. "Our religions Christianity and Islam teach that everyone is an equal. Hindus don't believe in this, which gives a good chance to Christianity and Islam."
In 2004, the votes of India's religious minorities helped oust the BJP government, bringing into office a center-left coalition led by the traditionally secularist Indian National Congress. This time around, the Muslims joined the earlier Christian campaign to end the discrimination against Dalit converts, and the issue returned to the government agenda.
"The Christian community has realized it is small compared to the Muslims, and that if they stand alone, they have a much smaller chance for success," says Tahir Mahmood, one of India's most prominent constitutional experts. "Together, they're a force to be reckoned with, and so they've become friends in adversity."
Instead of merely adding a waiver for Christianity to the 1950 presidential order, campaigners today demand that any reference to religion be deleted from it altogether.
Mr. Singh, the head of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, which has been asked by the Supreme Court for its opinion on the matter, says he agrees with the proposal, as long as the overall Dalit quota is enlarged so the often better-educated Christian Dalits don't displace their Hindu brethren. Doing so would require a parliamentary vote to amend several pieces of existing legislation.
Campaigners are pressing the government to act without delay. "This is not just a Christian problem," says Jose Daniel, president of the National Coordination Committee for Scheduled Caste Christians and one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court challenge against the anticonvert rules. "It's a denial of rights to all the Dalits in India."
The men don't dare to come. "If they are seen in the church, the officials will be informed," says Vatipally Aharon, Medipally's Baptist pastor.
Almost all the Christians here and the overwhelming majority across India hail from the so-called Dalit community, the former "untouchables" relegated to the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. Under India's constitution, Dalits are entitled to affirmative-action benefits, including 15 percent of all federal government jobs and university admissions. That provides the country's most downtrodden with a way to escape their traditional occupations such as emptying village latrines, burying cow carcasses and tanning animal hides.
But there is a catch: Any Dalit caught abandoning Hinduism for Christianity or Islam loses these privileges, and can be fired from jobs gained under the quota. The rules are enforced by vigilant local officials who keep a close eye on villagers' comings and goings.
The plight of India's secret converts, ignored for decades, is now at the forefront of national politics. Partly driving the change is Indian Christians' new partnership with Islam, a religion frequently at odds with Christianity elsewhere in the world.
India's Supreme Court is currently reviewing several challenges filed by Christian and Muslim Dalits that could result in an overturning of the affirmative-action exclusion. A separate bill to remove the restriction is pending in Parliament. Government members, influenced by India's 150-million-strong Muslim community, have indicated their cautious support.
For decades, backers of the existing legislation have argued that since Christianity and Islam have no caste, Dalits who abandon Hinduism find equality amid their new co-religionists and therefore no longer need special protection.
But the movement to end official discrimination against these converts is gaining momentum in the world's largest democracy. This year, a special government-appointed commission, headed by Ranganath Mishra, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, concluded that Dalits retain their stigma in India's society even after converting and recommended scrapping the ban.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination earlier this year also formally rebuked India for denying affirmative-action benefits to Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam, and recommended that the prohibition be removed.
"The government of India seems quite sympathetic" to such demands, says Sardar Buta Singh, a minister-level official who heads India's agency overseeing Dalit affairs, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. "All the parties have started thinking about this problem, and it can be solved."
India's Dalits have tried over the centuries to escape their low status, which Hindu scriptures teach is a punishment for sins in a previous life, by embracing caste-less religions. In centuries past, most converts turned to Islam, a religion professed by many Indian rulers before the British seized the subcontinent in the 19th century.
But with India's expanding economy offering unprecedented opportunities for social and economic advancement, a great many Dalits are now turning to Christianity, attracted by benefits like education and health care that are sometimes offered by Western-funded congregations. This allows them to seek opportunities beyond the government sector, in the booming information-technology and services industries that put a premium on the Westernized outlook and English-language skills.
Much to the dismay of Hindu nationalist groups, the number of India's secret Christians has climbed in recent years to an estimated 25 million people, about the size of the officially registered Christian population.
That is despite the obvious risks: Affirmative-action benefits often mean the difference between grinding poverty and a glimmer of hope for a better life.
A lanky 30-year-old with a trimmed mustache, Venkatesh Gunti was born into a Dalit household in Medipally, a cluster of pastel-colored homes set in the rolling green hills of Andhra Pradesh state. Since his teenage years, Mr. Gunti frequently prayed in the village's Zion church, established by South African missionaries. Three years ago, he found a prized job that would have allowed him to escape the misery of rural life as a handyman at a government college in the town of Bhongir.
The job was reserved for a Dalit, and Mr. Gunti had to produce a "scheduled caste" certificate something he believed would be a mere formality.
But when Mr. Gunti applied for it at the local government revenue-collection office, the clerk, Mr. Gunti recalls, refused to issue the document. According to reports filed by the village secretary, Mr. Gunti was a regular church-goer and therefore no longer qualified for "scheduled caste" status. He didn't get the job and had to stay in the village, eking out a living as a manual laborer.
To gain back the affirmative-action benefits, Mr. Gunti says he had to pretend that he had reverted to Hinduism, participating in a Hindu religious festival when he knew the village secretary was watching. Last year, the subterfuge finally worked, and Mr. Gunti was reclassified as a member of the "scheduled caste." He says he won't partake in any more Hindu rituals, but will also steer clear of the church. Mr. Gunti has yet to find a new job.
Questioned about the case, Raghu Rama Rao, Medipally's village secretary, explains that he has no choice. "This is the law if we'll come to know they go to church, we'll have to make an inquiry and submit a report," Mr. Rao says in his home, its outer wall sporting a poster for a Hindu nationalist organization. Mr. Rao adds that he is already showing kindness by reporting only the active church-goers, and leaving alone those believed to be Christian Dalits who don't openly flaunt their faith.
Such thorough enforcement means secret lives have to be lived throughout India's society. "If they ever find out I'm a Christian, I will lose my position, no question about it," says a Dalit school teacher who behaves as a Hindu when he teaches in a state school near Medipally but decorates his Hyderabad apartment with pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
"The government is forcing us to lie," echoes Prasadarao Yadavalli, a 48-year-old official in Andhra Pradesh's state bureaucracy who rose to his post thanks to Dalit quotas while hiding his Christian faith. Mr. Yadavalli says he has decided to finally come out this year, as he could no longer maintain this double life: "Whatever the consequences, God will take care of us."
Even one of the Dalit converts who petitioned India's Supreme Court is keeping his true beliefs secret from neighbors.
Mukesh Kumar, a zoologist whose Ph.D. thesis explored the salivary apparatus of Indian bugs, complained in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in 2005 that he was denied a university job reserved for Dalits because he converted to Islam. His wife Reena added in the same affidavit that she also wants to embrace Islam but is afraid to do so because she would lose her current job of village administrator, an elected position gained under the Dalit quota.
But when visited by a reporter in his village of Neyazoopura, in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, an agitated Dr. Kumar who helps his wife run the village administration initially denied any link with the Muslim religion. His office is decorated with posters of Hindu holy men. Only after hastily chasing away curious villagers and shutting the doors would Dr. Kumar, 37, confirm his signature on the affidavit. "It's a constitutional right to change a religion at any time if you want it," he says.
India's 1950 constitution indeed guarantees the freedom of faith, in addition to outlawing discrimination against the Dalits. But, in defining who is entitled to affirmative-action protection afforded to the Dalits, a 1950 presidential order excluded any "person who professes a religion different from Hinduism."
The rule was amended in 1956 to include Dalit Sikhs and in 1990 to embrace Dalit Buddhists, on the grounds that these two religions can be considered offshoots of Hinduism.
Indian Christian groups have tried for decades to win a similar exception for Christianity, which is believed to have arrived in India when St. Thomas disembarked in Kerala in the first century A.D. A bill to do so was approved by the national government in 1996, but never made it to a Parliament vote because of a coalition crisis that prompted new elections; these were won by the Hindu nationalist Bharata Janatiya Party.
The party is a staunch opponent of conversions from Hinduism, now practiced by 80.5 percent of the general population. "People convert to Christianity here mostly because of aggressive proselytizing by missionaries, who induce very gullible people. This must be stopped," says Ram Madhav, a spokesman and national executive member of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, or RSS, a powerful organization that promotes Hindu nationalist ideology and is affiliated with the BJP.
The years of BJP rule were marked by violence against Muslim and Christian minorities. Facing a common enemy, India's Christian and Muslim organizations joined forces in protecting the country's secularist tradition. Christian groups organized relief for Muslim refugees from religious pogroms in the state of Gujarat in 2002, and Christian churches were sheltered in some Muslim areas. Though the BJP has denied that some of its leaders helped orchestrate religious violence, the U.S. has since canceled the visa of Gujarat's chief minister, a BJP member, because of his role in the 2002 bloodshed.
"The Christians and the Muslims are a minority in India, they are both oppressed, and so there is a natural alliance between us," says Mahmood Madani, a Parliament member and secretary-general of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, the country's leading Islamic body.
Viewing the Dalits as the main source of potential converts, some Christian and Muslim organizations started working together in recent years among these outcaste communities. While discrimination against Dalits is illegal, it is in practice widespread, particularly in rural parts of India, where people from higher castes won't touch a Dalit or share with them food or water.
Here in Andhra Pradesh, Muslim and Christian leaders now regularly break this barrier of untouchability as they organize festive meals in Dalit villages, eating from the same giant plate of rice and vegetable curry.
"This is a real physical demonstration against caste discrimination," says Joseph D'souza, the president of the All-India Christian Council, who has organized many of these gatherings.
Though no open proselytizing is conducted at these events, shared meals frequently end up producing new converts. "The condition of Dalits is like that of dogs in India," says P.K. Ahmad Sabir, Andhra Pradesh state leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Mr. D'souza's partner in the Dalit outreach effort. "Our religions Christianity and Islam teach that everyone is an equal. Hindus don't believe in this, which gives a good chance to Christianity and Islam."
In 2004, the votes of India's religious minorities helped oust the BJP government, bringing into office a center-left coalition led by the traditionally secularist Indian National Congress. This time around, the Muslims joined the earlier Christian campaign to end the discrimination against Dalit converts, and the issue returned to the government agenda.
"The Christian community has realized it is small compared to the Muslims, and that if they stand alone, they have a much smaller chance for success," says Tahir Mahmood, one of India's most prominent constitutional experts. "Together, they're a force to be reckoned with, and so they've become friends in adversity."
Instead of merely adding a waiver for Christianity to the 1950 presidential order, campaigners today demand that any reference to religion be deleted from it altogether.
Mr. Singh, the head of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, which has been asked by the Supreme Court for its opinion on the matter, says he agrees with the proposal, as long as the overall Dalit quota is enlarged so the often better-educated Christian Dalits don't displace their Hindu brethren. Doing so would require a parliamentary vote to amend several pieces of existing legislation.
Campaigners are pressing the government to act without delay. "This is not just a Christian problem," says Jose Daniel, president of the National Coordination Committee for Scheduled Caste Christians and one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court challenge against the anticonvert rules. "It's a denial of rights to all the Dalits in India."
Friday, April 24, 2009
LIFE in Pakistan, 1948
A few years ago a friend gave me a wonderful gift. A copy of the January 4, 1948 issue of LIFE magazine. This is the issue with a rather unflattering portrait of a clearly ailing ‘Jinnah of Pakistan’ on its cover.
For most part the cover story - with pictures by Margaret Bourke-White - is as unflattering as the picture of Mr. Jinnah on the cover. Margaret Bourke-White is an important chronicler of the events of 1947 and beyond in both India and Pakistan. She has strong views on these events, including on the creation of Pakistan and on Mohammad Ali Jinnah. These views, also reflected in the LIFE article, are much discussed and sometimes debated in academic and popular treatise. These are not the subject of this post.
What has always fascinated me much more, and what I want to talk about today, are the pictures and accounts of everyday life in Pakistan at its birth. How severe were the existential challenges of survival the country faced at that time. How much has changed. And how much has not.
This being LIFE, the real story is in the pictures much more than in the text. My favorite picture is the one on the right. The caption reads:
“MODERN PAKISTAN WOMEN are symptomatic of the progress the new nation is struggling to make. Here, led by Zeenat Haroon, young members of the Sind province Women’s National Guard meet to practice the use of the bamboo lathi in self-defense. But most Pakistan women still prefer the old custom, even to the veiled face.”
Personally, I am not a fan of laathi-wielding women; or men. However, the look of confidence on young Zeenat Haroon’s face is priceless; and the gist of the caption remains true today.
Another interesting photograph shows how college co-education was managed. The caption reads:
MOSLEM COLLEGE in Karachi represents an effort to reduce Pakistan illiteracy rate of 97%. Girls in background are seated out of boys’ view to preserve their modesty.
Much of the article is in the context of the politics of the, then, emerging Kashmir conflict. The main thesis is, however, clear:
“Last week as the tragic division between Pakistan and India increased and as the 72-year old Jinnah grew sicker, it became apparent that Pakistan not only might lose its battle for survival but might also lose its leader.”
The author obviously believed that the country would not survive. One should, however, not be too harsh on her for that judgment. The analytical facts and the weight of ‘informed’ opinion were on her side and it was not an uncommon, nor unreasonable, opinion to hold at that time. For example, the analytical fulcrum of the write-up is a half-page section titled “Despite Lack of Money and Skills Nation Fights to Avoid Collapse.”
“When Pakistan suddenly received its freedom last Aug. 15, proud and energetic patriots boasted that they had created a nation with more land than France and more people than Germany. Granting these comparisons, Pakistan still lacks most of the attributes of a modern state.”
The section then goes on to indicate how Pakistan was “fighting a close battle with economic bankruptcy” in six key areas: Labor, Food, Raw Materials, Industry, Transportation and Finances. A few of these are reproduced here:
“Labor: Of the approximately 70 million Pakistanis more than 80% are farmers, a very few are wealthy landlords and the rest are shopkeepers and artisans. Nearly all of Pakistan’s financial and professional men were among the approximately four million Hindus who fled to India. From India, Pakistan got about siz million impoverished Moslem peasants who for the most part left their agricultural implements behind. Pakistan has huge transient camps fll of landless farmers and an almost complete lack of skilled technicians or businessmen.”
“Industry: …At present in all of Pakistan there are only 26,000 workers employed in industry. She has no big iron and steel centers, only 34 railway repair shops, no match factories, no jute mills, no paper mills and only 16 cotton mills against India’s 857…”
“Transportation: In all the 370,000 square miles of Pakistan there are only 7,260 miles of railway and only 9,575 miles of paved roads. There are an estimated 53,000 miles of dirt roads and trails… Pakistan has had difficulty in getting enough coal to keep the railways running and even then has had to pay about three times teh normal price per ton In September alone the country lost more than $10 million on railway operations.”
“Finances: Pakistan’s financial troubles are compounded out of her political, trade and industrial failures. At the time of the division Hindu businessmen took out all the gold bullion, jewels and other liquid assets they could carry with them. With normal trade cut off by the rioting and use of railroads for refugees, Pakistan’s income probably will not exceed 450 million rupees for the current year against almost certain expenditures of 800 million. Officials talk hopefully of foreign investment or loans, but in Pakistan’s present condition the risks are not very attractive.”
Another picture in the cover-story depicts the realities that this analysis is pointing towards. The caption reads:
“ONE CAMEL TOWN” would be a good description of Karachi in terms of world capitals. Although the city has some modern transport, communications are inadequate.”
By way of conclusion, let me just say that I have never believed that being dealt a bad hand at birth is any excuse for all the ways that we have messed up our political and economic affairs since then. Having said that, as I re-read the LIFE issue today, I could not help thinking that the country survived those early years despite all the odds was no mean achievement.
Ms. Margaret Bourke-White was probably not the only one surprised by this fact. Unfortunately, this makes thinking about all the mistakes we have made since then only that much more painful.
Note: Originally posted at ATP on 13 August, 2007.
Why Muslims are Behind ??
Some thoughts: Extracts of speech by Hafez Adv. AB Mohamed: Director Al Baraka Bank, South Africa
Demographics:
o World Jewish Population. 14 million
o Distribution: 7m in America
5m in Asia
2m in Europe
100 thousand in Africa
o World Muslim Population: 1.5 billion
o Distribution: I billion in Asia/Mid-East
&nb sp; 400 m in Africa
&nb sp; 44 m in Europe
&nb sp; 6 m in the Americas
o Every fifth human being is a Muslim.
o For every single Hindu there are two Muslims
o For every Buddhist there are two Muslims
o For every Jew there are 107 Muslims
o Yet the 14 million Jews are more powerful than the entire 1.5 billion Muslims
&nb sp; Why?
Here are some of the reasons.
Movers of Current History
o Albert Einstein & nbsp; Jewish
o Sigmund Freud Jewish
o Karl Marx ; Jewish
o Paul Samuelson Jewish
o Milton Friedman
Medical Milestones
o Vaccinating Needle: Benjamin Ruben Jewish
o Polio Vaccine Jonas Salk Jewish
o Leukemia Drug Gertrude Elion Jewish
o Hepatitis B Baruch Blumberg Jewish
o Syphilis Drug Paul Ehrlich Jewish
o Neuro muscular Elie Metchnikoff Jewish
o Endocrinology Andrew Schally Jewish
o Cognitive therapy. Aaron Beck ; Jewish
o Contraceptive Pill Gregory Pincus Jewish
o Understanding of Human Eye. G. Wald Jewish
o Embryology. Stanley Cohen Jewish
o Kidney Dialysis Willem Kloffcame Jewish
Nobel Prize Winners
o In the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel prizes whilst 1.5 billion Muslims have contributed only 3 Nobel winners
Inventions that changed History
o Micro- Processing Chip. Stanley Mezor Jewish
o Nuclear Chain Reactor Leo Sziland &n bsp; Jewish
o Optical Fibre Cable Peter Schultz Jewish
o Traffic Lights Charles Adler Jewish
o Stainless Steel Benno Strauss &n bsp; Jewish
o Sound Movies Isador Kisee &nbs p; Jewish
o Telephone Microphone Emile Berliner Jewish
o Video Tape Recorder Charles Ginsburg Jewish
Influential Global Business
o Polo ; Ralph Lauren &nb sp; Jewish
o Coca Cola ; &n bsp; ; Jewish
o Levi's Jeans Levi Strauss &n bsp; Jewish
o Starbuck's Howard Schultz Jewish
o Google Sergey Brin ; Jewish
o Dell Computors Michael Dell ; Jewish
o Oracle Larry Ellison &n bsp; Jewish
o DKNY Donna Karan &nbs p; Jewish
o Baskin & Robbins Irv Robbins Jewish
o Dunkin Donuts Bill Rosenberg Jewish
Influential Intellectuals/ Politicians
o Henry Kissinger , US Sec of State &nbs p; Jewish
o Richard Levin, President Yale University Jewish
o Alan Greenspan , US Federal Reserve Jewish
o Joseph Lieberman &nb sp; Jewish
o Madeleine Albright , US Sec of State Jewish
o Casper Weinberger , US Sec of Defense Jewish
o Maxim Litvinov , USSR Foreign Minister Jewish
o David Marshal , Singapore Chief Minister Jewish
o Isaacs Isaacs, Gov-Gen Australia &nb sp; Jewish
o Benjamin Disraeli, British Statesman Jewish
o Yevgeny Primakov, Russian PM & nbsp; Jewish
o Barry Goldwater , US Politician ; Jewish
o Jorge Sampaio, President Portugal Jewish
o Herb Gray, Canadian Dep-PM &nb sp; Jewish
o Pierre Mendes, French PM & nbsp; &nbs p; Jewish
o Michael Howard, British Home Sec. Jewish
o Bruno Kriesky, Austrian Chancellor Jewish
o Robert Rubin , US Sec of Treasury Jewish
Global Media Influentials
o Wolf Blitzer, CNN &nb sp; Jewish
o Barbara Walters ABC News ; Jewish
o Eugene Meyer , Washington Post &nb sp;Jewish
o Henry Grunwald, Time Magazine Jewish
o Katherine Graham , Washington Post Jewish
o Joseph Lelyyeld, New York Times Jewish
o Max Frankel, New York Times &nbs p; Jewish
Global Philanthropists
o George Soros &nb sp; &nb sp; Jewish
o Waltewr Annenberg &nb sp; &nb sp; Jewish
Olympic Gold Medalists
o Mark Spitz 7 Gold Medals &nb sp; Jewish
o Krayzelburg &nbs p; & nbsp; &nb sp; Jewish
o Boris Becker
Why are they powerful?
So why are Muslims powerless? Here's another reason. We have lost the capacity to produce knowledge.
o In the entire Muslim World (57 Muslim Countries) there are only 500 universities.
o In USA alone, 5,758 universities
o In India alone, 8,407 universities
o Not one university in the entire Islamic World features in the Top 500 Ranking Universities of the World
o Literacy in the Christian World 90%
o Literacy in the Muslim World 40%
o 15 Christian majority-countries, literacy rate 100%
o Muslim majority - countries , None
o 98% in Christian countries completed primary
o Only 50% in Muslim countries completed primary.
o 40% in Christian countries attended university
o In Muslim countries a dismal 2% attended.
o Muslim majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims
o The USA has 5000 per million
o The Christian world 1000 technicians per million.
o Entire Arab World only 50 technicians per million.
o Muslim World spends on research/developmen t 0.2% of GDP
o Christian World spends 5 % of GDP
Conclusion.
o The Muslim World lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.
Another way of testing the degree of knowledge is the degree of diffusing knowledge.
o Pakistan 23 daily newspapers per 1000 citizens
o Singapore 360 per 1000 citizens.
o In UK book titles per million is 2000
o In Egypt book titles per million is only 20
Nokia Mobile CodeS
have fun with these !
#pw+1234567890+1# Provider Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
#pw+1234567890+2# Network Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
#pw+1234567890+3# Country Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
*3370# This Nokia code activates Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) - Your Nokia cell phone uses the best sound quality but talk time is reduced my approx. 5%
#3370# Deactivate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR)
*#4720# Activate Half Rate Codec - Your phone uses a lower quality sound but you should gain approx 30% more Talk Time
*#4720# With this Nokia code you can deactivate the Half Rate Codec
*#0000# Displays your phones software version, 1st Line : Software Version, 2nd Line : Software Release Date, 3rd Line : Compression Type
*#9999# Phones software version if *#0000# does not work
#pw+1234567890+1# Provider Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
#pw+1234567890+2# Network Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
#pw+1234567890+3# Country Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
#pw+1234567890+4# SIM Card Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w" and "+" symbols)
*#147# This lets you know who called you last (Only vodofone)
*#1471# Last call (Only vodofone)
*#21# This phone code allows you to check the number that "All Calls" are diverted to
*#2640# Displays phone security code in use
*#30# Lets you see the private number
*#43# Allows you to check the "Call Waiting" status of your cell phone.
*#61# Allows you to check the number that "On No Reply" calls are diverted to
*#62# Allows you to check the number that "Divert If Unreachable (no service)" calls are diverted to
*#67# Allows you to check the number that "On Busy Calls" are diverted to
*#67705646# Phone code that removes operator logo on 3310 & 3330
*#73# Reset phone timers and game scores
*#746025625# Displays the SIM Clock status, if your phone supports this power saving feature "SIM Clock Stop Allowed", it means you will get the best standby time possible
*#7760# Manufactures code
*#7780# Restore factory settings
*#8110# Software version for the nokia 8110
*#92702689# Displays - 1.Serial Number, 2.Date Made, 3.Purchase Date, 4.Date of last repair (0000 for no repairs), 5.Transfer User Data. To exit this mode you need to switch your phone off then on again
*#94870345123456789# Deactivate the PWM-Mem
**21*number# Turn on "All Calls" diverting to the phone number entered
**61*number# Turn on "No Reply" diverting to the phone number entered
**67*number# Turn on "On Busy" diverting to the phone number entered12345 This is the default security code
From Jinnah to Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is a one-timer. He knows that and completely believes in the fact that he is hardly to marry another woman who is destined to be at the climax of the politics and then if that happens somehow, it is also highly unlikelty that she would be brutally assassinated and then it is very unlikely that Zardari would inherit a party on an unverified will and then get a NRO and become president of Pakistan.
Zardari is here for only one time and he wants to do it all during his first and last chance to head the Pakistani state. Had he shown his interest in becoming the head of state before 18th February, no one would have, in his or her right senses voted PPP into the position of power, as it enjoys now in the assemblies.
Zardari is not bigger than his hung father-in-law Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his slain wife Benazir Bhutto. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would have happily agreed to go for the gallows instead of marrying his daughter to Zardari, and that still remains an incomprehensible thing as why Benazir Bhutto selected Asif Zardari as her life partner, though she never included him in the party decision during the eight years of struggle agains the dictator Musharraf. Zardari wasn’t present at the occasion of charter of democracy and he didn’t hold any party office or he never was included in the policy devising session of PPP. How is it possible that Benazir Bhutto would have appointed Zardari as her successor?
That is preposterous and Naheed Khan the lifelong companion of Benazir Bhutto knows that. That is why she and her husband have been sidelined. The current coterie of Asif Ali Zardari are the non-elected, hand-picked people of Zardari, who were unknown during Benazir era. Dr. Asim, Dr. Soomro, Sherry Rehman, Rehman Malik, and host of others are unknown to even veteran PPP workers.
Benazir Bhutto’s sould would be appalled by watching her husband hijacking the party she took care of much. The way Zardari is following the footprints of Musharraf must have made Benazir Bhutto turn in her grave. And Jinnah? Well he is turning in his grave violently for a long time.
Zardari is here for only one time and he wants to do it all during his first and last chance to head the Pakistani state. Had he shown his interest in becoming the head of state before 18th February, no one would have, in his or her right senses voted PPP into the position of power, as it enjoys now in the assemblies.
Zardari is not bigger than his hung father-in-law Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his slain wife Benazir Bhutto. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would have happily agreed to go for the gallows instead of marrying his daughter to Zardari, and that still remains an incomprehensible thing as why Benazir Bhutto selected Asif Zardari as her life partner, though she never included him in the party decision during the eight years of struggle agains the dictator Musharraf. Zardari wasn’t present at the occasion of charter of democracy and he didn’t hold any party office or he never was included in the policy devising session of PPP. How is it possible that Benazir Bhutto would have appointed Zardari as her successor?
That is preposterous and Naheed Khan the lifelong companion of Benazir Bhutto knows that. That is why she and her husband have been sidelined. The current coterie of Asif Ali Zardari are the non-elected, hand-picked people of Zardari, who were unknown during Benazir era. Dr. Asim, Dr. Soomro, Sherry Rehman, Rehman Malik, and host of others are unknown to even veteran PPP workers.
Benazir Bhutto’s sould would be appalled by watching her husband hijacking the party she took care of much. The way Zardari is following the footprints of Musharraf must have made Benazir Bhutto turn in her grave. And Jinnah? Well he is turning in his grave violently for a long time.
MySpace Facing Tough Choices As CEO Departs
MySpace's corporate overlord seems to have grown tired of the site's current template and is looking to snaz-up its profile. With the resignation of CEO Chris DeWolfe and talks of a new role for president and default-best-friend Tom Anderson, NewsCorp is taking new steps to try to maintain MySpace’s position as the top social network in the U.S.
But the site, which Rupert Murdoch purchased for $580 million back in 2005, is facing an uphill battle.
“Not only is MySpace at a crossroads where it’s losing audience, but it’s also at a crossroads because it’s facing the loss of a huge slug of revenue,” said Julia Angwin, Wall Street Journal technology editor and author of the book Stealing MySpace.
One of the company’s biggest revenue drivers is a $900 million deal it signed with Google in 2006 that reeled in $300 million for MySpace, according to analysts. But that deal is set to expire in June 2010.
“The company then has a potential black hole in terms of profitability,” Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company told the New York Times. “At some point News Corp. has to look at the investments and the current management team,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
MySpace had 70.1 million unique visitors in March, down 3.6% from a year ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. Its audience has been diminishing with the rise of Facebook, which is now number one globally and which showed March U.S visitors rise 72 percent from a year ago to 61.2 million, according to comScore.
Both founders contracts were set to expire in October, but the recent appointment of former AOL CEO Jon Miller was a sign that change was coming sooner than expected.
“Newscorp already saw this train — which wasn’t so hard to see — coming,” said Anwgin. “It’s clear now, in retrospect, that his [Jon Miller’s] mandate was to come in and replace these guys.”
Miller stepped in at AOL under similar circumstances, but AOL never really rose back up from the ashes.
Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield suggested in a report last month that management changes were on the horizon, and goes even further to predict layoffs as a next step. There are about 1,600 people currently on staff.
“I would expect a paring down of the overall operation to bring it in line with the revenues,” he told Wired.com. “I think part of the process is reducing headcount a bit."
“Whoever ends up actually being [CEO], the challenge is how to reinvigorate, because you clearly have shifted more towards music and away from core social networking, and I think reinvigorating that service is critical,” he said.
MySpace has also had trouble keeping up with other networks like Facebook on the technology and innovation side, but former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta, who is rumored to replace DeWolfe, might bring a welcome change.
One of the biggest things MySpace has going for it now is their music product, which launched 6 months ago; NewsCorp is a step above Facebook on the entertainment side. But even this launch had its problems, including a confusing separation between MySpace artist pages and the MySpace Music site.
“Everyone thinks of MySpace for music, first and foremost,” said Anwgin. “So that’s also very strange to take your core strength and sort of fragment it into two different places so people don’t necessarily know where to go.”
The fate of Tom Anderson is still up in the air, but his complete removal from the network would likely cause quite a stir in the community as he's every user’s first friend and the site's virtual mascot.
Last March when rumors of his death from a car crash circulated online (which he denied Steve Jobs-style as “greatly exaggerated”) commenters on his page exemplified his importance to the site.
“tom. without you theres no myspace && without myspace theres no US! :D we love you tom.”
“im very gald ur not dead and alive! funny how rumors spread that arent true...u know i had my friends thinking i was dead cuz i wasnt on myspace for like a week lol but Tom without u there is no myspace mann! u r like our god mann! XD”
Perhaps MySpace needs to also make some sort of similar declaration, before everyone starts writing its eulogy.
“These sites never die. They all still exist. I mean Friendster still exists,” said Anwgin. “Die is too dramatic, but they become less relevant, that’s for sure.”
Billionth iPhone App Downloader Scores Freebies; Developer Wins Too
Nine months after Apple began selling apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey of Weston, Connecticut downloaded the billionth application from the iTunes store.
Poetically, it was a free app.
Mulcahey, barely old enough to have qualified for the contest, will win tens of thousands of dollars in Apple hardware and software for his fateful download of Bump, a free app that lets people exchange contact info by holding iPhones and bumping fists.
He's not the only winner. Bump Technology also stands to gain from having its app mentioned in the first paragraph of an Apple announcement.
The company's free app (paid version soon) is simple but potentially useful. Enter your phone number, address, e-mail address, and photo, and you'll be able to beam any or all of that information to another iPhone or iPod Touch user who also has the app installed with a simple fist-bump greeting gesture. Contact information gets swapped over an encrypted internet connection, not Bluetooth or an ad-hoc WiFi connection, but that could change this summer when Apple enables peer-to-peer connections on the devices.
Apple itself makes 30 cents on the dollar from the sale of paid apps — about the same rate it commands from recording artists and record labels. (If developers really are the new rock stars, it makes sense that iTunes pays them what it pays actual rock stars.)
Apple, predictably, is celebrating the latest in its long run of iPhone- and iPod-related successes.
"The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded," stated Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller. "In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry and this is only the beginning."
It's true that the App Store revolutionized the mobile industry. Apple did this by letting developers hawk wares directly to consumers, rather than forcing them to deal with cellphone carriers, who forced them through lengthy approval processes, horded screen space, and generally formed a blockade between mobile developers and users. Now that Apple has broken that deadlock, other smartphone platforms are developing along similar lines.
And it's impressive that iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded a billion apps from the store, since (as we confirmed today with Apple) its download tally does not include updates to previously-downloaded apps.
But the road to the billionth download hasn't been entirely smooth.
In the early days of the App Store, developers seemed generally happy with the process of submitting apps (Pandora chief technology officer Tom Conrad, formerly of Apple, told us before the App Store launched that his team preferred developing for the iPhone to developing for the web).
But a flurry of headlines about youngsters making millions by selling apps ranging from the useful (HopStop, Credit Card Terminal) to the inane (flatulence simulators) has stimulated a gold rush that challenges Apple's ability to keep up with the torrent of apps being submitted. The company has already approved over 35,000 apps for inclusion in the store, and as Schiller said, "this is only the beginning."
Will UK Express Regret and Ask Forgiveness From Pakistan?
The United Kingdom is also an ally in the war against terror with Pakistan and their presence in this region cannot be ignored. They have also been suffering from the terrorism, but they have also appreciated the role played by the Pakistan in this campaign and help for the world. The behavior of the governments of US and UK, allies of Pakistan, is totally insulting with the Pakistanis living and travelling to these countries.
One glaring proof of this attitude is the incident in which 11 Pakistanis and one Briton, were arrested around northwest England on April 8 as part of an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called at the time a “very big terrorist plot”. Now the British security agencies are licking their own spit, as all 11 Pakistanis and the British national have been proved innocent.
Actually it seems that UK considers Pakistanis and (other South Asians) still there colony. They, in their arrogance and pride spare no moment to insult us. They must be brough to the ground and people of South Asia should join hands to cure the Britsh from their superiority com
One glaring proof of this attitude is the incident in which 11 Pakistanis and one Briton, were arrested around northwest England on April 8 as part of an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called at the time a “very big terrorist plot”. Now the British security agencies are licking their own spit, as all 11 Pakistanis and the British national have been proved innocent.
Actually it seems that UK considers Pakistanis and (other South Asians) still there colony. They, in their arrogance and pride spare no moment to insult us. They must be brough to the ground and people of South Asia should join hands to cure the Britsh from their superiority com
ALLAMA IQBAL (Poet of East) and present situation
Asalam Alaikum,
Yesterday was ( 23rd April) 71st Death Anniversary of ALLAMA IQBAL, a person whose thinking is still a land mark to follow for muslims. let see some interesting poety of ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL which fits to present situation.
“Dunya ko hay phir Muarka e Rooh wo Badan Paish
Tehzeeb nay phir apnay darindo ko ubhara
ALLAH ko pamardi-e-Momin pa bharosa
iblees ko europe ki mashino(machine) ka sahara”
As this war in Asia set by USA and its allie Europe is exactly a war between Muslim and Christianity backed by Jews, as declared by Ex-usa president bush “Crusade war” that is known as SILEBI JANG in muslims faught by Sallah uddin Ayubi against christian , still our so called pseudo intellectuals calls it war between usa and afghanistan rulers taliban, but it is not; its a try to make a state to be ruled as per usa standards of Secularism , and to dis arm nuclear weapons of world’s only MUSLIM NEUCLEAR power which is the only obstacle in demolishing Masjid-e-Aqsa (Gumbad-e-Sughra) and convert it into TOMB OF SOLEMON (hackle-e-sulemani), when 1970 Arab - Israel war ended and after sometime Israel capture MOUNTAIN of GOLAN in that war Israel knows that its was PAF who took part on behalf of Egypt and made loss for then, from then they realized that it may be easy to fight against USA backed arabs but hard to defeat fundamental Muslims from Asia specially from Pakistan and Afghanistan and now europe and usa on behalf of Jews are on plan to defame and demoralize muslims throughout the world what a beauty that ALLAMA IQBAL said for them “farhang ki jan panja-e-yahud ma hay”, and now Hindus already joined this nexis of EVIL which consist of ISRAEL-USA-EUROPE-INDIA, our most of intellectuals says that they had nothing to do with Pakistan or they will not harm Pakistan if they want to do so then why they give us aid here also keep in mind what IQBAL said for them”Deen Hath sa dekay gar azad ho millat:: hay aysi tijarat ma Musalma ka khasara”when they give us Aid most of that in form of Loan they want us to make sure that we are on their policies, we have to decide now what we need a Secular Pakistan or a Pakistan which is according to thoughts of IQBAL.
Here I would like to end with poem of IQBAL.
“LA KAR BARAHMANO KO SIASAT KAY PEICH MA
ZANARIO KO DEER-E-GAHAN SA NIKAL DO
WO FAQA KASH KAY MOUT SA DARTA NHI ZARA
ROOH-E-MUHAMMADI(SAW) USKAY BADAN SA NIKAL DO
FIKR-E-ARAB KO DE KAY AFRANGI TAKHAIULAT
ISLAM KO HIJAZ O YAMAN SA NIKAL DO
AFGHANIO KI GHAIRAT-E-DEEN KA HAY YE ILAJ
MULLA KO UNKAY KOH O DAMAN SA NIKAL DO
AHL-E-HARAM SA UNKI RIWAYAT CHIN LO
AAHU KO MURGHZAR-E-KHATN SA NIKAL DO
IQBAL KAY NAFAS SAY HAY LALAY KI AAG TEZ
AISAY GHAZAL SARA KO CHAMAN SA NIKAL DO”
Yesterday was ( 23rd April) 71st Death Anniversary of ALLAMA IQBAL, a person whose thinking is still a land mark to follow for muslims. let see some interesting poety of ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL which fits to present situation.
“Dunya ko hay phir Muarka e Rooh wo Badan Paish
Tehzeeb nay phir apnay darindo ko ubhara
ALLAH ko pamardi-e-Momin pa bharosa
iblees ko europe ki mashino(machine) ka sahara”
As this war in Asia set by USA and its allie Europe is exactly a war between Muslim and Christianity backed by Jews, as declared by Ex-usa president bush “Crusade war” that is known as SILEBI JANG in muslims faught by Sallah uddin Ayubi against christian , still our so called pseudo intellectuals calls it war between usa and afghanistan rulers taliban, but it is not; its a try to make a state to be ruled as per usa standards of Secularism , and to dis arm nuclear weapons of world’s only MUSLIM NEUCLEAR power which is the only obstacle in demolishing Masjid-e-Aqsa (Gumbad-e-Sughra) and convert it into TOMB OF SOLEMON (hackle-e-sulemani), when 1970 Arab - Israel war ended and after sometime Israel capture MOUNTAIN of GOLAN in that war Israel knows that its was PAF who took part on behalf of Egypt and made loss for then, from then they realized that it may be easy to fight against USA backed arabs but hard to defeat fundamental Muslims from Asia specially from Pakistan and Afghanistan and now europe and usa on behalf of Jews are on plan to defame and demoralize muslims throughout the world what a beauty that ALLAMA IQBAL said for them “farhang ki jan panja-e-yahud ma hay”, and now Hindus already joined this nexis of EVIL which consist of ISRAEL-USA-EUROPE-INDIA, our most of intellectuals says that they had nothing to do with Pakistan or they will not harm Pakistan if they want to do so then why they give us aid here also keep in mind what IQBAL said for them”Deen Hath sa dekay gar azad ho millat:: hay aysi tijarat ma Musalma ka khasara”when they give us Aid most of that in form of Loan they want us to make sure that we are on their policies, we have to decide now what we need a Secular Pakistan or a Pakistan which is according to thoughts of IQBAL.
Here I would like to end with poem of IQBAL.
“LA KAR BARAHMANO KO SIASAT KAY PEICH MA
ZANARIO KO DEER-E-GAHAN SA NIKAL DO
WO FAQA KASH KAY MOUT SA DARTA NHI ZARA
ROOH-E-MUHAMMADI(SAW) USKAY BADAN SA NIKAL DO
FIKR-E-ARAB KO DE KAY AFRANGI TAKHAIULAT
ISLAM KO HIJAZ O YAMAN SA NIKAL DO
AFGHANIO KI GHAIRAT-E-DEEN KA HAY YE ILAJ
MULLA KO UNKAY KOH O DAMAN SA NIKAL DO
AHL-E-HARAM SA UNKI RIWAYAT CHIN LO
AAHU KO MURGHZAR-E-KHATN SA NIKAL DO
IQBAL KAY NAFAS SAY HAY LALAY KI AAG TEZ
AISAY GHAZAL SARA KO CHAMAN SA NIKAL DO”
Where is CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary?
When Nawab Akbar Bugti was assassinated on the orders of General (r) Pervez Musharraf, the chief justice of Pakistan was Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. When the case of Shazia Murree was raised, the apex court was headed by the Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. No suo moto action was taken by him, though he was very active in taking actions against Musharraf and his ilk in Punjab. He is on the domicile of Balochistan but what has he done to disseminate the justice among the people of Balochistan?
Why doesn’t he take sou moto action against the murder of three Baloch nationalist leaders? That has literally disturbed whole of that province and now anti-Pakistan slogans are raised there and wall are filled with negative sentiments towards the state, and the settlers are being killed and ousted. Where is CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary?
Balochistan is deprived. Mind It. Balochistan is not what Punjab, Sindh and NWFP are. No development, no justice, no jobs, no health, no education and nothing has been offered in the Balochistan. Operations by the security forces has plucked out the love from the hearts of Baloch people regarding Pakistan and they are very angry and they mean business now. Cruelty is the order of day in the Balochistan. Balochistan is now demanding its right and they are spot on.
Establishment is the culprit here, but the wrath of the Baloch people is oozing on the Punjabi and Kashmiri people in the Balochistan. They are being killed and they are being looted and chased out of Balochistan. Militant organizations have sprung up in Balochistan who are demanding “independence” from Pakistan, and they are urging people to kill a Punjab to “prove” themselves Baloch. We, in Punjab and Sindh and NWFP must come out of this romance that everything is alright and few dissidents are creating fuss for a shorter period of time.
Things are really hard there and 71 like situation is there and ready to go out of the control of everyone. There may be some foreign powers involved giving money, weapons, training and other help to the militants in Balochistan, but that is not the root cause of skirmish in the Balochistan. Their anger is due to the domestic causes and emanates from the years of military operations, deprivation, neglect and high-handedness. Matters are getting worst and if nothing is done on urgent basis to appease the Baloch people then darkest moment is just round the corner, in fact its pace seems to be accelerating. For starters, what about sacking the head of FC in the Balohcistan?
Why doesn’t he take sou moto action against the murder of three Baloch nationalist leaders? That has literally disturbed whole of that province and now anti-Pakistan slogans are raised there and wall are filled with negative sentiments towards the state, and the settlers are being killed and ousted. Where is CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary?
Balochistan is deprived. Mind It. Balochistan is not what Punjab, Sindh and NWFP are. No development, no justice, no jobs, no health, no education and nothing has been offered in the Balochistan. Operations by the security forces has plucked out the love from the hearts of Baloch people regarding Pakistan and they are very angry and they mean business now. Cruelty is the order of day in the Balochistan. Balochistan is now demanding its right and they are spot on.
Establishment is the culprit here, but the wrath of the Baloch people is oozing on the Punjabi and Kashmiri people in the Balochistan. They are being killed and they are being looted and chased out of Balochistan. Militant organizations have sprung up in Balochistan who are demanding “independence” from Pakistan, and they are urging people to kill a Punjab to “prove” themselves Baloch. We, in Punjab and Sindh and NWFP must come out of this romance that everything is alright and few dissidents are creating fuss for a shorter period of time.
Things are really hard there and 71 like situation is there and ready to go out of the control of everyone. There may be some foreign powers involved giving money, weapons, training and other help to the militants in Balochistan, but that is not the root cause of skirmish in the Balochistan. Their anger is due to the domestic causes and emanates from the years of military operations, deprivation, neglect and high-handedness. Matters are getting worst and if nothing is done on urgent basis to appease the Baloch people then darkest moment is just round the corner, in fact its pace seems to be accelerating. For starters, what about sacking the head of FC in the Balohcistan?
Famous Quotes of ALLAMA IQBAL
“Arise, and soar with the sun’s new-born rays,
To breathe new life into dying nights and days.”
“What avails love when life is so ephemeral?
What avaiIs a mortal’s love for the immortal?
Love that is snuffed out by death’s passing blast
Love without the pain, the passion that consumes?
A flickering spark I am, aglow for a fleeting glance
Flow vain for a flickering spark to chase an eternal flame!
Grant me the bliss of eternal life, O Lord,
And mine will be the ecstasy of eternal love.
Give me the pleasure of an everlasting pain
An agony that lacerates my soul for ever.”
“"Since love first made the breast an instrument
Of fierce lamenting, by its flame my heart
Was molten to a mirror, like a rose
I pluck my breast apart, that I may hang
This mirror in your sight
Gaze you therein."”
“I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky,
And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.”
“"I am but as the spark that gleams for a moment,
His burning candle consumed me - the moth;
His wine overwhelmed my goblet,
The master of Rum transmuted my earth to gold
And set my ashes aflame”
“But only a brief moment
is granted to the brave
one breath or two, whose wage is
The long nights of the grave.”
To breathe new life into dying nights and days.”
“What avails love when life is so ephemeral?
What avaiIs a mortal’s love for the immortal?
Love that is snuffed out by death’s passing blast
Love without the pain, the passion that consumes?
A flickering spark I am, aglow for a fleeting glance
Flow vain for a flickering spark to chase an eternal flame!
Grant me the bliss of eternal life, O Lord,
And mine will be the ecstasy of eternal love.
Give me the pleasure of an everlasting pain
An agony that lacerates my soul for ever.”
“"Since love first made the breast an instrument
Of fierce lamenting, by its flame my heart
Was molten to a mirror, like a rose
I pluck my breast apart, that I may hang
This mirror in your sight
Gaze you therein."”
“I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky,
And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.”
“"I am but as the spark that gleams for a moment,
His burning candle consumed me - the moth;
His wine overwhelmed my goblet,
The master of Rum transmuted my earth to gold
And set my ashes aflame”
“But only a brief moment
is granted to the brave
one breath or two, whose wage is
The long nights of the grave.”
Obama to Get Back BlackBerry at Last, Toughened by NSA
The presidential CrackBerry is undergoing final testing before being handed back. The NSA is hammering on the SecurVoice software which has been loaded onto the Obama-phone and is in the last stages of testing just how secure it might be.
The BlackBerry is an 8830, the standard business handset, but the added software encrypts both calls and messages. Cellphone calls are encrypted anyway, but there are some back doors if you know where to find them (and of course, the NSA knows exactly where they are).
The company behind the SecurVoice software is Genesis Key, which is handily based in Washington DC. Be careful not to confuse this with spam-alike secure-voice.com, whose site reads, rather unconvincingly, thus: “The development of the Secure Voice lasts from 2001 and we have now a wide range of devices as well as Landline version of the solution.”
Since winning the election, President Obama has been limping along with two devices — a standard BlackBerry and a secured handset called the Sectera Edge, an unwieldy device that not only offers encrypted communications but is also so ugly that nobody would ever want to steal it. Both machines need to be tethered to each other to work, making every presidential e-mail look something like a game of Wii Boxing.
If the NSA tests come up clean, he could have his customised BlackBerry in his hands soon, which in governmental terms means a couple of months. And of course, secure communications aren’t much good if the person you are talking to is an open and easy target. To this end, Mrs. O should be getting one, too.
The odd fact is that the NSA usually likes everybody else to be locked out but itself. Giving the SecurVoice such a big endorsement will either mean that the encryption is indeed unbreakable (and therefore fit for the president) or that it wants everybody to think that it is unbreakable, therefore giving the NSA back-door access to every single SecurVoice customer. Paranoid conspiracy theory? Hell yes. Accurate speculation? Maybe.
Sorkin to write Facebook story for big screen
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Writer-producer Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The West Wing," is about to get a whole lot of friends on Facebook.
Sorkin, one of Hollywood's highest-profile writers and TV show creators, is in negotiations to write an untitled film project about the founders of the popular social networking site that Scott Rudin will produce for Columbia.
Sorkin broke the news on Facebook when he opened up his own account.
"I understand there are a few other people using Facebook pages under my name -- which I find more flattering than creepy -- but this is me. I don't know how I can prove that, but feel free to test me," he wrote before going on to talk about the movie project.
"I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she's been dead for 33 years.)"
Sorkin also asked the Facebook public for any stories relating to the site.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg while studying at Harvard along with pals Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Membership at first was restricted to Harvard students, then expanded to all Ivy League schools before going on to open up to all universities and high schools in Canada and the U.S. The site now has more than 100 million users worldwide.
He's fielded offers in the billions of dollars, but Zuckerberg has steadfastly remained independent.
Sorkin's most recent screenwriting credit is the Tom Hanks-starring film "Charlie Wilson's War." Rudin has "Revolutionary Road," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and the film adaptation of the Broadway play "Doubt" coming out this fall.
Sorkin, one of Hollywood's highest-profile writers and TV show creators, is in negotiations to write an untitled film project about the founders of the popular social networking site that Scott Rudin will produce for Columbia.
Sorkin broke the news on Facebook when he opened up his own account.
"I understand there are a few other people using Facebook pages under my name -- which I find more flattering than creepy -- but this is me. I don't know how I can prove that, but feel free to test me," he wrote before going on to talk about the movie project.
"I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she's been dead for 33 years.)"
Sorkin also asked the Facebook public for any stories relating to the site.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg while studying at Harvard along with pals Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Membership at first was restricted to Harvard students, then expanded to all Ivy League schools before going on to open up to all universities and high schools in Canada and the U.S. The site now has more than 100 million users worldwide.
He's fielded offers in the billions of dollars, but Zuckerberg has steadfastly remained independent.
Sorkin's most recent screenwriting credit is the Tom Hanks-starring film "Charlie Wilson's War." Rudin has "Revolutionary Road," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and the film adaptation of the Broadway play "Doubt" coming out this fall.
Orkut -- A success story
A guy lost his girlfriend in a train accident.... But the gal's name nowhere appeared in the dead list. This guy
grew up n became IT technical architect in his late 20's, achievemnt in itself!!.
He hired devlopers from the whole globe and plan to make a software where he could search for his gf through the web...
Things went as planned... n he found her, after losing millions of dollars and 3 long years!!
It was time to shut down the search operation, when the CEO of Google
had a word with this guy n took over this application,
This Software made a whopping 1 billion dolar profit in its first year,
which we today know as ORKUT.
The guy's name is ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN. Yes its named after him only. Today
he is paid a hefty sum by Google for the things we do like scrapping. He is expected to b the richest person by 2009.
ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN today has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8
to monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day
& about 85,000 scraps!!!
Some other Cool Facts abt this guy:
* He gets $12 frm Google when every person registers to this website.
* He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.
* He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as friend in the resulting chain.
* He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.
* He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.
* He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.
* He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.
* He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.
* He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.
* He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.
* He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 everytime you view ur friend's friend-list.
HIS OWN HOMEPAGE ::::
http://www.stanford.edu/~orkut/
grew up n became IT technical architect in his late 20's, achievemnt in itself!!.
He hired devlopers from the whole globe and plan to make a software where he could search for his gf through the web...
Things went as planned... n he found her, after losing millions of dollars and 3 long years!!
It was time to shut down the search operation, when the CEO of Google
had a word with this guy n took over this application,
This Software made a whopping 1 billion dolar profit in its first year,
which we today know as ORKUT.
The guy's name is ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN. Yes its named after him only. Today
he is paid a hefty sum by Google for the things we do like scrapping. He is expected to b the richest person by 2009.
ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN today has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8
to monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day
& about 85,000 scraps!!!
Some other Cool Facts abt this guy:
* He gets $12 frm Google when every person registers to this website.
* He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.
* He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as friend in the resulting chain.
* He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.
* He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.
* He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.
* He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.
* He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.
* He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.
* He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.
* He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 everytime you view ur friend's friend-list.
HIS OWN HOMEPAGE ::::
http://www.stanford.edu/~orkut/
Ali Moeen Nawazish Sets A-Levels World Record ; A Genius From Pakistan .
“My dream was to get into Cambridge”, these were the words Ali Moeen Nawazhish had to say. The kid has done the trick. Basically he did everything to get in. Studying 12 hours a day, to fulfill his dream. A-Levels has never been easy for anyone. You had to study hard to clear just 3 Papers and get good grades to get into one of the top leading institutions you ever dream of.
A Pakistani Student belonging to Rawalpindi, couldn’t be more happier. He had only one goal, GET INTO CAMBRIDGE somehow. In the start he decided to just appear in seven A-Level Papers. But as time passed, he kept on giving more. A total number of 22 papers were given. For some of the papers he just studied 3 days before giving the exam. He must have some great brains to get all the stuff in and get good grades. AS he gave the papers, he was determined to get some really good grades.
Ali says, “I had thirst to gain knowledge”. He surprised everyone with the grades as the results came by. Securing 22 A Grades, 1 B Grade and 1 C, wasnt an easy thing, but Ali did it.
So, the time had come to apply for the University Admissions. The application form had barely enough place to fit his qualifications. He got admissions at Cambridge University, Harvard University, Yale and a few more. There was no reason of any University denying his Admission at the first place. He also achieved a top score in the U.S Admissions Test.
As his dream was to get into Cambridge somehow, he applied to the Department Of Computer Sciences and ofcourse got it. Ali is doing his degree in Computer Sciences at the Trinity Hall since four months he joined the University. To make this top all, ALI MOEEN NAWAZISH would be getting another surprise, as he is being given a place in Guinness Book Of Records.
Ali Moeen told that he wants to become a doctor and he would change his field and would study medicine. He also told that he was doing his degree in computer science’s as he loves it.
Ali has done his cambridge education from Rawalpindi, Pakistan from Roots College International. He gave all the 22 papers in just 12 months time. Apart from some science subjects, rest of all the subjects he learned himself without taking any tutions or classes. He studied almost 12 hours a day with the help of energy drinks to keep him awake and energised.
Ali scored Nine A’s in his O’Levels. He became devoted to his studies when he decided that he wants to prove it to himself and others that he can do it. He made studies his hobby apart from playing guitar, cricket and table tennis.
Ali’s parents, both are doctors and what him to be a high achiever. Asked from Ali’s teacher about him, they replied that he is a genius and he has a mind of a photo copier. What he reads is scanned to his brain and stays there. He is surely a GENIUS.
His tutor at the Trinity Hall says that Mr. Ali Moeen Nawazish is a really bright student. He is really charming and were delighted to have him over. He also told that it was really hard to believe for the first time he saw the results.
The innovative video feature of Nikon's D90 digital SLR needs work--but the photo features shine.
Nikon rocked the DSLR world when it announced the D90, the first digital SLR camera to incorporate video recording. That feature needs refinement, but purely as a photographer's tool, the D90 stacks up as a worthy successor to the Nikon D80 on several counts. And it compares favorably to the competition, scoring well in our image-quality tests.
The D90, which costs $1250 (as of 11/15/08) with its AF-S ED 18mm-to-105mm kit lens, packs several upgrades: It inherits the excellent, crisp 3-inch LCD from the prosumer-level Nikon D300, it adds a new CMOS sensor, and it pumps up the resolution to 12.3 megapixels (from 10.2 megapixels on the D80). In addition to video, you'll find other features inspired by point-and-shoots, such as live view, face detection, in-camera retouching, and a calendar feature that allows you to view your shots by date.
The D90 weighs slightly more than its predecessor; it's solid and well built, but not too hefty. The camera feels substantial, but its grip is comfortable, and its design is pretty intuitive, with dedicated function buttons and common scene settings on the top dial. It also sports a dense, though easily navigable, menu system with some user-friendly elements borrowed from the D80, such as My Menu, which allows you to save your most frequently used settings. Non-Nikon users should find the interface visually appealing and easy to use; Nikon veterans will find shooting straightforward right out of the box.
The back of the D90 sports a button that activates the live view function, which includes still and video recording (the latter 720p at 24 fps). Once live view is activated, everything slows down as the mirror flips up, the shutter opens, and software takes over the recording process. While shooting stills, I found live view too clunky and its autofocus too slow, so I opted to use the viewfinder instead.
Before recording video, you must set the autofocus on your subject using live view. While recording, the D90 automatically adjusts for exposure, but not focus. You can manually adjust focus while shooting, but I found this too awkward to do without a tripod. Also, because of the way that CMOS records an image, you may see "rolling" (a shake-like impression) in your footage, which detracts from the overall quality and creative potential of the video feature. Clips longer than 5 minutes may cause the camera sensor to grow discernably warm, too.
Audio quality from the camera's built-in microphone was not great, and unfortunately you cannot use the mic to record notes on your still shots. Judging from my hands-on experience, I'd say that the D90's video function, though a welcome innovation, needs further development. In the meantime, I'm happy to use my point-and-shoot for off-the-cuff videos.
The D90 excelled in the PC World Test Center's evaluation: It came in second only to the Canon 50D in our digital camera tests. I was generally pleased with my field test shots. The D90 was quick to autofocus and usually was on the mark. The auto-flash also performed consistently well. I found that the camera tended to blow out the brightest highlights, however, and I saw some minor halos along very high-contrast edges. When I switched to high-quality JPEG from RAW, it produced a slight but noticeable softening in the images.
The image quality at high ISOs was very good compared with that of other models I've tried recently: Although some noise appeared in darker areas at speeds above 400, it was minimal, looking more like film grain than the usual jarring digital noise with accompanying sludgy colors. My RAW files showed a pretty impressive dynamic range; the JPEGs, a little less so but still quite good. A bit of sharpening and sometimes a contrast boost helped the look of JPEGs significantly. (You can make those settings in-camera.)
With its improved LCD, slightly larger frame of view, dust-cleaning sensor, enhanced 3D 11-point autofocus, an optional GPS attachment, and the ability to make a video here and there, the D90 definitely has an array of interesting features. And simply as a camera, the D90 turns out some of the best results you can buy.
NOTE : the current price of this Gadget is 999 dollars on amazon.com
the link is given below .
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As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.
Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."
Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.
Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.
The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."
In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.
"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."
At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.
He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.
California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.
"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.
Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.
Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."
The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.
For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.
The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.
Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."
Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.
Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.
The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."
In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.
"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."
At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.
He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.
California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.
"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.
Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.
Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."
The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.
For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.
The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.
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