Intelligent Design

A school in Pennsylvania decided that the biology books of the ninth graders were getting much too boring with the Darwian theory of evolution. To liven up things a bit they decided to teach the theory of intelligent design as well.
Only now, 11 parents have used the most basic right of Americans - they have sued the Dover Area School District to stop the teaching of intelligent design, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state (for a change maybe, this is not a useless case).

A bit abt the intelligent design theory...basically the term "intelligent design" was first used in 1897 by Oxford scholar F.C.S. Schiller, who wrote in an essay that "it will not be possible to rule out the supposition that the process of evolution may be guided by an intelligent design."
What it basically means is that whatever we marvel abt our body...capability to pick things...ability to process info could not have been achieved over time.

Proponents of the intelligent design theory say life is way too complex to have emerged on its own and needed a push by a higher, intelligent being a.k.a God.

This is from the nicely titled report God versus science debate continues in court that appeared in Reuters :-
"...The trial over teaching man's origins in U.S. schools pits Christian conservatives against teachers and scientists in what is seen as the biggest test of the issue since the late 1980s. It also echoes the famous Scopes Monkey trial of 1925, when lawyers squared off in a Tennessee courthouse over the teaching of Darwin's work."

"...The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that creationism -- the belief that Earth and its beings were created by God and not by natural selection -- could not be taught in public schools since it violated the separation of church and state. "

"...More than 30 U.S. states are considering measures to teach alternatives to evolution. The Harrisburg case is the first to challenge such initiatives in court and is widely expected to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, regardless of the outcome. President George W. Bush has said schools should teach both evolution and intelligent design."

I know one person who would be happy to back Mr. President...our good old Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi... :)
But seriously what is more interesting is the ruling of the SC of the USA clearly emphasising the separation of religion from state policy.
Once upon a time it was tried by our own SC and it was cutely overturned by the Parliament...the sooner we take our own secularism beyond paper (read constitution) the sooner our policies will focus on the core issue of eliminating poverty. It is vital that the state doesn't use religion as a tool to push its own agenda or as a shield to explain its own shortcomings.

World's 10 most expensive cars

Forbes has come out with a list of the 10 most expensive street legal cars in 2005 and the figures are mindboggling...

Saleen S7 Twin Turbo — $670,384 (Europe)

Pagani Zonda C12S 7.3 Convertible — $598,025 (Global)

Koenigsegg CCR — $562,659 (Global)

Koenigsegg CC8S — $522,120 (Global)

Porsche Carrera GT — $484,151 (Europe)

Maybach 62 — $457,991 (Europe)

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren — $456,526 (Europe)

Maybach 57 — $389,226 (Europe)

Rolls-Royce Phantom — $328,750 (Global)

Spyker C8 Double 12 S — $325,560 (Global)

Some pics of cars from this list:

Zonda

Saleen S7

Porsche Carrera GT

Mercedes-Benz SLR

Koenigsegg CCR

Saleen at about Rs 3 Crore is also the fastest road car in the world....capable of clocking over 250 Mph or abt 410 Kmph....coooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllll !!
Ofcourse we wont go into the fuel efficiency of any of these cars :) :)!
No Ferraris, no Lamborghinis, no Aston Martins or Jaguars...no Japanese manufacturer...infact the list is dominated by the Germans and... the Swedes (!!!@#$)

The article itself can be read at World's Most Expensive Cars 2005

This post is also a proof of how little work I have today!! :)

Hurricane Names

Hurricanes have been on my mind...I guess thats due to the fact that I am now days relying on Google for all my news updates and world news tend to focus more on the hurricanes in the US than say, Indian PM's visit to the US.

A friend asked me if I knew how these names were picked...Katrina first and now Rita...and I wasnt able to answer too satisfactorily...
I guess the people in US are more aware of it than here...the process is a bit funny actually...any depression resulting in wind speeds of over 39 miles/ hr (Categorized as a tropical Storm) gets a name.

Early naming conventions were individualistic in nature. Hurricanes have been named after saints, girlfriends, years, and even first ladies (one was named "Bess" after President Harry Truman's wife, I picked this from the net...:)).
Digressing a little (I read this on the net), according to one report the first use of a proper name for a tropical storm was by an Australian forecaster in the early part of this century, who reputedly named his storms after politicians that he didn't like. Maybe we can loan some names to the storms...:)...and knowing our politicians...they might even forward their names...
Then a more stable naming convention was needed as multiple agencies were following the progress of a storm...so female names were used but after protests...from 1979 both male and female names were used alternatively.
An international committee at a meeting of the World Meteorological Organization came up with six separate name lists for hurricanes. Each list is reused every six years, except for the names that are retired( names of storms that cause a lot of damage are retired, Katrina for example will never be used again!!)
The letters "Q", "U", "X", "Y" and "Z" are not used for naming purposes ( dont knwo why, probably there are not too many names starting with these letters...).

This is the atlantic basin list for 2005:

Arlene	Bret	Cindy
Dennis	Emily	Franklin
Gert	Harvey	Irene
Jose	Katrina	Lee
Maria	Nate	Ophelia
Philippe	Rita	Stan
Tammy	Vince	Wilma

There is another similar list for the Pacific basin...
There, thats the long and short of the naming convention for hurricanes...I hope Rita doesnt turn out to be as bad as the experts are saying...

The future of Storage Media

Not much work today...atleast as of now...so i was going through Engadget and came across this article that explains the 2 warring factions on the next super capacity disk...

I was having the same discussion with a friend a few months back...when the first peace talks between Sony and Toshiba started...

There are lots of issues ofcourse...how it will compare with the next generation streaming media, flash memory chips where Samsung recently announced a 32GB chip...backward compatibility issues,pricing...etc. But nevertheless one of these will very likely be the future standard...

here is the link to the article:
Blu-Ray vs HDDVD

Anthem's Importance....

Was going through a news site, and this little bit of news caught my eye...and made me chuckle...:)

"...61 percent of U.S. adults don't know the first eight lines of America's national anthem."

To change all this a National Anthem Project is on to celebrate the 191^st anniversary of the song. Under this schools across the nation will be getting together to perform the anthem on television.

"...Olivia Beaver, a Westergard Elementary School fifth-grader, advises that segment of the population to listen closer when they hear the song on television, or she'll work with them until they learn it."

"They would then understand what it means," said Olivia, 10. "It's a song that helps us remember the people who served our country."

I am glad that we used to sing the anthem in school...everyday...infact I used to look forward to it( I could sing then...:)) as it marked the end of the drowsy ritual...(I mean the school assembly)

New Firefox and Vista

Firefox, the browser that every Microsoft basher loves to use (though personally I still prefer the IE), has been updated and on Friday released a test version with improved security, navigation, and privacy features was released. Firefox 1.5 is expected to follow shortly.

7 different versions of the next OS from the microsoft stable:

Starter Edition: (like XP Starter Edition) aimed for anyone dumb enough to take it.

Home Basic Edition: (like Windows XP Home) a well defined system minus the things that a basic user (read net surfer, music listener, etc) will be happy to use.

Home Premium Edition: (like Windows XP Pro ^- ) Basic plus addons for gaming, Media Center capabilities ,HDTV, DVD etc will be thrown in. This might be the most popular verison in the end.

Windows Vista Professional Edition: (like Windows XP Pro ⁺ ) Aimed purely at the business environment, minus the frills in HPE but with addons for business use.
Microsoft is also planning both a Small Business Edition and an Enterprise Edition, which build upon pro by adding (seemingly minor) features aimed at appealing to each market. SBE, for instance, includes a networked backup solution, while EE will include things like Virtual PC integration, and the ability to encrypt an entire volume of information (go figure *sighs*).

Last but not least, there's Ultimate Edition: supposedly personalized on per user basis with the best of each edition plus personalized servicess (exclusive access to music, movies, services and preferred customer care). This version is aimed at high-end PC users and technology influencers, gamers, digital media enthusiasts, and students.

All these editions are just going to create confusion in the market and make it more difficult for MS to manage the products. Besides a key deciding factor would still be the pricing of the product. The wait continues...

Anonymous blog

"So whats the point of keeping your blog anonymous?" she asks...

"Its not anonymous really...I mean I haven't hidden any info...Its easier this way, besides who would want to read the boring rant that often turns out here..."

This is how a number of such discussions/conversations on the subject go....I was just remembering it so decided to write it down...

I'm not sure if I haven't told my friends because they hear most of my rantings anyway or if because not everyone truly understands the purpose of this...

Besides I dont visit too many blogs...apart from Neha's and Apurv's blog I probably stumble upon some random blog once in a while...and then maybe never return there again...

And I didn't start blogging with an audience in mind...it was just a way of archiving some thoughts that I might look back at someday...neither did I think I will continue doing so even a week after starting...
So maybe it wont be anonymous some day...or maybe it will become even more anonymous (hide it even from people who know abt it)...:)...or it might just die as suddenly as it started.....but until such time, I am happy to carry on this inconsequential drivel...

Katrina

Katrina such a nice name but what devastation!....a trail of death and misery lies in its wake.

The stories I have been reading from New Orleans are shocking...The city slipped under water and into turmoil as residents faced flooded neighborhoods, looters, and god knows what not.

Mounting racial tensions and allegations of slow response from the federal government have been reported in every article I have read.
Whats been most disappointing is the fact that this is happening in the US, the most developed nation in the world. Reading about racial tensions there leaves little cause for optimism on us rising over our own petty religious issues. It almost seems as if human species is incapable of living in harmony.

I hope and pray that the city and its dwellers make a speedy recovery!