An Award

Was surprised and honored to know that I have recieved an award from Renu; a blogger with loads of wisdom that she lovingly shares on her blog. I love the way she handles each subject & the comments that follows.

Liebster means beloved in German and this award is for spreading love among bloggers.


I am supposed to spread this love among other bloggers...


Rules for accepting the Liebster Blog award:


Link back to the person who gave you the award.

Pick 5 people deserving of the award and notify them on their blogs.

Post the award on your blog and spread the love.

Here are a few of my nominees.. and I am breaking the rules :)


Jon : a young idealist; this world needs a lot more of his kind.
Mad Madrasi: a no nonsense blogger

SM :  loads of unbiased opinion / information - a blogopedia

Manju: full of wisdom she blogs with love...

Seventh Chords; Swarna; mittaipink; Raji ; Kamini with a wish that they would blog more often.

Maddy; Anil; Doc;  with a wish that they never stop writing....

Let me stop even when I know there are many more blogs that I want to nominate..

The Italians in Kerala.

Over the years, Kerala has been host to various citizens from around the world. Some came to Kerala as refugees (Jews) while some as tradesmen/invaders/missionaries (Dutch, Portugese, Syrians and the list goes on). Almost all the Jews have left Kerala for good and the others have more or less disappeared as semi-Indians or have left the place. But it comes as a surprise to those in Kerala to still find die hard citizens from Italy!

Two Indian fishermen were shot to death by Italians for reasons only they know. The only plausible reason could be that they were drunk or were using them as targets for their practice shots. As for their claim that they mistook them for pirates, if they are indeed sailors or were guarding a ship, they should by now know the area where pirates roam freely. What if the Indian Navy had responded in kind since it was an unprovoked attack on Indian citizens? There were 9 fishermen in this boat and while 7 of them were resting, only two were fishing. And also a fisherman with a fishing rod has never been a threat to anyone and if people wielding guns and binoculars cannot properly identify threats then the only solution is to put such criminals behind bars.

And when the state is in the process of doing so, comes an Italian citizen hiding behind his Indian citizenship assuring Italy that he will do all his best to bring the innocent boys back to Italy. He even has the audacity to tell the Italians that he has already spoken to the Christian ministers. The only sane course of action would be to strip such idiots off their Indian citizenship and pack them off to Italy. But since they have the “laborious” task of tending their sheep, let them stand in queue for a visa and be denied a visa.

Right now everyone including the Chief Minister to the said Cardinal is denying this news. But the following is directly from the source. Fides news agency was formed to provide current news and images not only for publication in missionary magazines, but also for other press in all countries.

The Friar tells Fides what the atmosphere in Cochin is like: "People are pretty angry, but it is also stirred up by the media and politicians. The problem in public opinion is that this murder was seen as a national outrage. In any case it seems that the public outcry is decreasing. The fishermen killed were Catholics and the Catholic community feels touched. But this story has nothing to do with religion, one must not stimulate nationalism or religious sentiments. The only thing we hope is that the Church can bring a word of peace. I think that, after questioning, the case can be clarified and the Italian soldiers can be freed. It is only a matter of justice.

Now, how did this friar come to the conclusion that these Italian soldiers can be freed?


And today I read that the FIR filed by the police is in such a way that will aid the killers. Yes, they may go scot free while the poor family will have to struggle without the sole bread winner.

Mockery of justice is becoming all to common these days.

Source:
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=31053&lan=eng

http://marunadanmalayalee.com/Italianship%20-67357.html

Jurassic Park?

It is with delight that I read the news that Russian scientists have grown a plant belonging to the ice age (30,000 years ago) by using the tissue from a fruit found buried in a squirrel’s burrow.

Source: nydailynews.com

"The squirrels dug the frozen ground to build their burrows, which are about the size of a soccer ball, putting in hay first and then animal fur for a perfect storage chamber," said Stanislav Gubin, one of the authors of the study, who spent years rummaging through the area for squirrel burrows. "It's a natural cryobank."

Now that this is possible, one can rest assured that no species of plant life will go extinct, if at least a part of it is preserved.

But what scared me were the following lines:

"If we are lucky, we can find some frozen squirrel tissue," Gubin told the AP. "And this path could lead us all the way to mammoth."


Japanese scientists are already searching in the same area for mammoth remains, but Gubin voiced hope that the Russians will be the first to find some frozen animal tissue that could be used for regeneration.

Sure, a mammoth may not be as scary as a dinosaur; but why should the scientists stop with a mammoth?

Scale diagram comparing the largest known dinosaurs in five major clades and a human

In the March 2005 issue of Science, the paleontologist Mary Higby Schweitzer and her team announced the discovery of flexible material resembling actual soft tissue inside a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. After recovery, the tissue was rehydrated by the science team.[43]


When the fossilized bone was treated over several weeks to remove mineral content from the fossilized bone-marrow cavity (a process called demineralization), Schweitzer found evidence of intact structures such as blood vessels, bone matrix, and connective tissue (bone fibers). Scrutiny under the microscope further revealed that the putative dinosaur soft tissue had retained fine structures (microstructures) even at the cellular level. The exact nature and composition of this material, and the implications of Schweitzer's discovery, are not yet clear; study and interpretation of the material is ongoing.[43]

I guess one need not wait for a nuclear holocaust to end the current civilization; the dinosaurs may carry out this task more efficiently!

Source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/russian-scientists-revive-ice-age-plant-article-1.1025943
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur

The greatest love of all

This morning while coming to work I listened (courtesy: Kuwait FM) to Whitney Houston sing “The Greatest love of all”. Her powerful voice rang out and I heard her sing...

The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

But then with sadness, I remembered that this truth did not help her.

We know that the life of a celebrity is not an easy one, but many singers we know have survived the madness of limelight.

Or is it because she could not let another help her?

Had she learned to depend only on her own self and thus lost the healing touch of others?

May she rest in peace while her songs continue to heal others.

"Greatest Love Of All"

I believe the children are our future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be



Everybody's searching for a hero

People need someone to look up to

I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs
A lonely place to be

So I learned to depend on me



[Chorus:]

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows

If I fail, if I succeed

At least I'll live as I believe

No matter what they take from me

They can't take away my dignity

Because the greatest love of all

Is happening to me

I found the greatest love of all

Inside of me

The greatest love of all

Is easy to achieve

Learning to love yourself

It is the greatest love of all



I believe the children are our future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be



[Chorus]



And if, by chance, that special place

That you've been dreaming of

Leads you to a lonely place

Find your strength in love






Source:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/whitneyhouston/greatestloveofall.html
http://www.nme.com/news/whitney-houston/62042