Animesh Patcha's random tidbits from around the web.

Animesh Patcha for President

2008-10-09T21:25:00.001-04:00

Wild Turkey Fast Facts

2007-11-19T15:37:00.000-05:00

• The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was first domesticated by Native Americans. Spanish explorers took the birds to Europe in the 16th century, and the birds' tame descendents were brought back to the Americas with later settlers.

• Male turkeys, called toms or gobblers, weigh 16 to 24 pounds (7 to 11 kilograms). Hens are about half that size.

• Turkeys can run some 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) an hour and fly in bursts at 55 miles (89 kilometers) an hour.

• Turkeys roost in trees at night.

• Turkeys forage for many different foods, so a single suitable area can support a large flock without becoming depleted.

• Male turkeys (and a few females) grow beards that are about 9 inches (23 centimeters) long. Their tails, which they fan to attract females, are more than a foot (30 centimeters) long.

Proof that 2 does not exist :)

2007-11-03T01:04:00.001-04:00

2 is the only even prime.

But the total number of primes is infinite.

Therefore the probability that a given prime number is even is 1 over infinity, or zero.

Hence it's impossible for a prime number to be even — and 2 does not exist.

The Three Filters Test

2007-10-02T13:03:00.000-04:00

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It"s called the Three Filters Test."

"Three Filters?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the Three Filters Test.

The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it"s true or not. Now let"s try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it"s true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem.

Interesting facts about India

2007-09-19T19:02:00.000-04:00

India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
Chess was invented in India.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were developed in India in 100 B.C.
The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
India is the largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest Country in the world, and one of the most ancient civilizations.
The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.
India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.
The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.
The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
The Art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word 'NAVGATIH'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.
Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484 days.
The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also orignated in India. Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).
Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world (Source : Gemological Institute of America).
The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Sushruta is regarded as the Father of Surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgeries.
Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient Indian medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
India exports software to 90 countries.
The four religions born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively.
Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.
There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.
Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D respectively
The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.
The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.
Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharamsala in northern India.
Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.

Sholay - Veeru's Water Tower Scene - Mausi Ji!

2007-09-14T20:52:00.001-04:00

Sholay Mausi Scene--very funny

2007-09-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

My Academic Family Tree

2007-05-01T12:57:00.000-04:00

Return of the Taliban

2006-10-22T10:41:00.000-04:00


Documentaire

Television Commercials (1950s-1960s)

2006-10-07T12:25:00.000-04:00

A collection of vintage ads: Country Corn Flakes, Alka-Seltzer, Dristan, American - certified lead-free gasoline, two ads of Lustre-creme shampoo, National Association of Broadcasters, Goodyear, two Coca-Cola ads, two ads of Colt 45 Malt Liquor, Volkswagen, a black and white and a coloured version of fashion ad, Bactine medicated skin cream, Alka-Seltzer, Bactine medicated skin cream, Alka-Seltzer, Noxzema medicated instant shave, Marlboro, The 1967 American Motors, Heinz Pickles, Shearson Hammill, Oil Heat. This video is in public domain and available to download at Internet Archive.

Levitating stones of Shivapur.

2006-10-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

Astounding mysteries of India's ancient times can be found in the town of Shivapur. There are two enigmatic stones resting opposite the local shrine. One of them weighs 55 kilograms, the other one is 41 kilograms. If eleven men touch the bigger stone, and nine men touch the smaller stone, if they all chant the magic phrase, which is carved on one of the walls of the shrine, the two stones will raise two meters up in the air and will hang there for two seconds, as if there is no gravitation at all. A lot of European and Asian scientists and researchers have studied the phenomenon of levitating stones of Shivapur.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

2006-10-07T08:24:00.000-04:00

Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

The Grooved Spheres
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

The Dropa Stones
In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave.

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool. An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575! It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

The Coso Artifact
While mineral hunting in the mountains of California near Olancha during the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell found a rock, among many others, that they thought was a geode - a good addition for their gem shop. Upon cutting it open, however, Mikesell found an object inside that seemed to be made of white porcelain. In the center was a shaft of shiny metal. Experts estimated that it should have taken about 500,000 years for this fossil-encrusted nodule to form, yet the object inside was obviously of sophisticated human manufacture. Further investigation revealed that the porcelain was surround by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray revealed a tiny spring at one end. Some who have examined the evidence say it looks very much like a modern-day spark plug. How did it get inside a 500,000-year-old rock?

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

What are we to make of these finds? There are several possibilities:

* Intelligent humans date back much, much further than we realize.
* Other intelligent beings and civilizations existed on earth far beyond our recorded history.
* Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate.

In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt any curious and open-minded scientist to reexamine and rethink the true history of life on earth.

AP sepoys fought British first

2006-10-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

Visakhapatnam, Oct. 1: The first War for Independence occurred not at Meerut in 1857, but in Visakhapatnam way back in 1780. In those days, it was known as Vizagpatam. The sepoys of the East India Company army stationed here rose in rebellion protesting against the oppressive attitude of the English officers.

Noted Historian Dr Kolluru Suryanarayana said that there were actually three sepoy mutinies prior to the famous revolt of 1857. “The first occurred in Vizagpatam on October 3, 1780, the second at Vellore in Tamil Nadu in 1806 and the third at Gorakhpur in 1824,” he said. Shaik Mohammed, subedar of the brigadiers, was the chief mutineer and hero of the first sepoy mutiny in Vizagpatam. “Unfortunately people know only about Mangal Pandey,” said Dr Suryanarayana, who heads the history department of Andhra University.

It was oppression and maltreatment which triggered the revolt. Native sepoys enlisted for local duty were sent all over the State for revenue collection. But they were given no extra pay and were treated like dirt by Englishmen. This caused much discontent. What triggered the revolt was the order given to the sepoys to embark a frigate to Madras to meet the impending threat from Hyder Ali of Mysore.
This order exasperated the native sepoys in general. Muslim soldiers in particular were angry at being asked to take up arms against a fellow Muslim.

But the East India Company officials were hell bent on implementing the order since war with Hyder Ali in the Carnatic had weakened them and they needed to reinforce the army urgently. The then Governor of Madras, John Whitehall, addressed a letter on September 14, 1780, to the then chief of Vizagapatam and Masulipatam settlements, James Henry Casamajor, asking him to keep sepoy grenadiers ready for embarkation.

The sepoys of Masulipatam obeyed the order without a murmur, but at Vizagapatam the English were in for a shock. The Sartine frigate had arrived and the sepoys had given no indication of the impending revolt. They were armed and even conducted a parade on October 3. However, just before 3 pm they all refused to go on board the Sartine. When the officers insisted that their order should be obeyed, the sepoys took up their guns and fired at them indiscriminately. Lt Crisps, Kingsford Venner, a cadet, and Robert Rutherford, the paymaster, died on the spot. Seeing the fury of the rebels the British panicked and ran helter skelter.

A few like Lt. Brown, Ellis and Collins swum the backwaters to reach the Sartine. Others hid themselves in different parts of the town. It did not end there. The rebels were determined to join the forces of Hyder Ali and liberate the district from the East India Company. They took several officers into custody and freed a French spy who had been imprisoned.

Shaik Mohammed assumed control of the rebels. He questioned Casamajor and learnt details of the company’s property. The mutineers then went on a looting spree and took away cash amounting to Rs 21,999. The revolt had left the English in shambles in the area. They were without men or money and did not even get the support of local zamindars.

On the morning of October 4, the mutineers marched out of the town with Casamajor and the other captured men to join the forces of Hyder Ali. But a local zamindar Gajapathi Narain Deo intervened and the officers were freed. This proved to be a costly error. Casamajor returned quickly to the frigate and ordered Captain Ensign Butler to gather loyal sepoys and go after the rebels.

He also instructed neigbouring zamindars not to support the rebels. Zamindars obeyed this and did not allow the rebels to pass through their territories. The mutineers were then ambushed and mercilessly slaughtered by Butler’s men in the gorge of Gudderallywanka on the night of October 8. A few, including Mohammed, escaped, but were caught and executed a few months later. Though the revolt was a short-lived one, it was certainly the first major shock to the British.

“The revolt of the grenadiers was in all respects an event that might have led to dangerous consequences,” wrote Casamajor in his testimony. “It annihilated our power and influence in a great measure”. Though the incident is not as well known as the 1857 revolt, it was referred to in the ‘History of the Madras Army’ by W.J. Wilson and in several letters between John White Hall-Casamajor-Brown. It was also reported in Hickey’s “Bengal Gazette”, India’s first newspaper, couple of days later.

Mohammed Faisuddin, founder president of the Shahide Watan Ashfaqullah Khan Memorial Trust, said it was unfortunate that no ceremony is held to mark the anniversary of the revolt. “Tamil Nadu government had celebrated the centenary of the Sepoy Revolt at Vellore, but the AP government has done no such thing,” he said.

“These are the incidents of national importance. The State should construct a memorial monument and commemorate the incident every year”. There are no remnants of this mutiny in the area except for the grave of Kingsford Venner in the Old Town cemetery.

ek chidiya (doordarshan)

2006-10-01T12:16:00.000-04:00


old serial

Pakistan Surrendring to India in 1971

2006-09-30T22:38:00.000-04:00


The Pakistan army in East Pakistan surrenders to India in 1971 resulting in the liberation of Bangladesh.

The Lost Temples of India

2006-09-30T22:32:00.000-04:00


The Lost Temples of India

jana gana mana......National Song of India

2006-09-30T22:29:00.000-04:00


National Song of India

I am India

2006-09-30T22:26:00.000-04:00


This film is a journey through emerging India," the fastest growing free market democracy in the world". It celebrates the relentless spirit of the people of India, who through their karma give it a place amongst the leading economic nations of the world. Conceived and produced by Bharatbala Productions (BBP) for India Band Equity Foundation (IBEF).

Virginia Tech Football

2006-08-29T13:21:00.000-04:00

Must see in town: The mountains around Blacksburg, which is located on a plateau in southwest Virginia between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains. Nearby are such recreational areas as the Blue Ridge Parkway, Appalachian Trail, Clayton Lake and the New River.

Stadium: Lane Stadium/Worsham Field

Size: 66,233

How named: Alumnus Edward H. Lane headed a foundation that raised $3 million for the original construction. Fans Wes and Janet Worsham helped raise $18.6 million for expansion in 1992.

History: The team’s longest winning streak at Lane is 16 games, between 1999 and 2001.

Stadium record: 161-64-6

Greatest moment: Nov. 26, 1999. Quarterback Michael Vick produced 366 yards of offense as the Hokies beat Boston College 38-14 to finish 11-0 and advance to the Sugar Bowl to play Florida State for the national championship.

Unique feature: In 2002, Virginia Tech became the first college team to have a state-of-the-art Green Tech ITM grass field. The grass and drainage system can handle up to 16 inches of rain an hour.

Best tradition at school: Hokies, the Tech nickname. What’s a Hokie? It’s a product of the imagination of student O.M. Stull, who won a contest by writing the best cheer. Stull liked the sound of the word “Hokie” in his cheer. A “Hokiebird” has become the Virginia Tech mascot.

Legend you might see at the game: Vick, the Falcons quarterback, when he has an open weekend.

Most famous player: Bruce Smith, an All-American for the Hokies, went on to become the all-time sacks leader in the NFL. He was known as “Mr. Sacks.”

Most famous coach: Frank Beamer, the current coach of the Hokies, has taken the team to 13 consecutive bowls and has been named ACC coach of the year for both of the seasons Tech has been a member of the conference. Beamer is 146-79-2 in 19 seasons. No other Tech coach has won more than 64 games.

Most famous fan: Carroll Dale, Virginia Tech’s first All-American and the first Hokies player to have his jersey retired. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Best reason to dislike Virginia Tech: They fire a cannon, called “Skipper,” after every Virginia Tech score. That can get old if you are on the losing side.

Interview Questions (From freshersworld.com)

2006-03-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

C- Questions
• What does static variable mean?
• What is a pointer?
• What is a structure?
• What are the differences between structures and arrays?
• In header files whether functions are declared or defined?
• What are the differences between malloc() and calloc()?
• What are macros? what are its advantages and disadvantages?
• Difference between pass by reference and pass by value?
• What is static identifier?
• Where are the auto variables stored?
• Where does global, static, local, register variables, free memory and C Program instructions get stored?
• Difference between arrays and linked list?
• What are enumerations?
• Describe about storage allocation and scope of global, extern, static, local and register variables?
• What are register variables? What are the advantage of using register variables?
• What is the use of typedef?
• Can we specify variable field width in a scanf() format string? If possible how?
• Out of fgets() and gets() which function is safe to use and why?
• Difference between strdup and strcpy?
• What is recursion?
• Differentiate between a for loop and a while loop? What are it uses?
• What are the different storage classes in C?
• Write down the equivalent pointer expression for referring the same element a[i][j][k][l]?
• What is difference between Structure and Unions?
• What the advantages of using Unions?
• What are the advantages of using pointers in a program?
• What is the difference between Strings and Arrays?
• In a header file whether functions are declared or defined?
• What is a far pointer? where we use it?
• How will you declare an array of three function pointers where each function receives two ints and returns a float?
• what is a NULL Pointer? Whether it is same as an uninitialized pointer?
• What is a NULL Macro? What is the difference between a NULL Pointer and a NULL Macro?
• What does the error 'Null Pointer Assignment' mean and what causes this error?
• What is near, far and huge pointers? How many bytes are occupied by them?
• How would you obtain segment and offset addresses from a far address of a memory location?
• Are the expressions arr and &arr same for an array of integers?
• Does mentioning the array name gives the base address in all the contexts?
• Explain one method to process an entire string as one unit?
• What is the similarity between a Structure, Union and enumeration?
• Can a Structure contain a Pointer to itself?
• How can we check whether the contents of two structure variables are same or not?
• How are Structure passing and returning implemented by the complier?
• How can we read/write Structures from/to data files?
• What is the difference between an enumeration and a set of pre-processor # defines?
• what do the 'c' and 'v' in argc and argv stand for?
• Are the variables argc and argv are local to main?
• What is the maximum combined length of command line arguments including the space between adjacent arguments?
• If we want that any wildcard characters in the command line arguments should be appropriately expanded, are we required to make any special provision? If yes, which?
• Does there exist any way to make the command line arguments available to other functions without passing them as arguments to the function?
• What are bit fields? What is the use of bit fields in a Structure declaration?
• To which numbering system can the binary number 1101100100111100 be easily converted to?
• Which bit wise operator is suitable for checking whether a particular bit is on or off?
• Which bit wise operator is suitable for turning off a particular bit in a number?
• Which bit wise operator is suitable for putting on a particular bit in a number?
• Which bit wise operator is suitable for checking whether a particular bit is on or off?
• which one is equivalent to multiplying by 2:Left shifting a number by 1 or Left shifting an unsigned int or char by 1?
• Write a program to compare two strings without using the strcmp() function.
• Write a program to concatenate two strings.
• Write a program to interchange 2 variables without using the third one.
• Write programs for String Reversal & Palindrome check
• Write a program to find the Factorial of a number
• Write a program to generate the Fibinocci Series
• Write a program which employs Recursion
• Write a program which uses Command Line Arguments
• Write a program which uses functions like strcmp(), strcpy()? etc
• What are the advantages of using typedef in a program?
• How would you dynamically allocate a one-dimensional and two-dimensional array of integers?
• How can you increase the size of a dynamically allocated array?
• How can you increase the size of a statically allocated array?
• When reallocating memory if any other pointers point into the same piece of memory do you have to readjust these other pointers or do they get readjusted automatically?
• Which function should be used to free the memory allocated by calloc()?
• How much maximum can you allocate in a single call to malloc()?
• Can you dynamically allocate arrays in expanded memory?
• What is object file? How can you access object file?
• Which header file should you include if you are to develop a function which can accept variable number of arguments?
• Can you write a function similar to printf()?
• How can a called function determine the number of arguments that have been passed to it?
• Can there be at least some solution to determine the number of arguments passed to a variable argument list function?
• How do you declare the following:
• An array of three pointers to chars
• An array of three char pointers
• A pointer to array of three chars
• A pointer to function which receives an int pointer and returns a float pointer
• A pointer to a function which receives nothing and returns nothing
• What do the functions atoi(), itoa() and gcvt() do?
• Does there exist any other function which can be used to convert an integer or a float to a string?
• How would you use qsort() function to sort an array of structures?
• How would you use qsort() function to sort the name stored in an array of pointers to string?
• How would you use bsearch() function to search a name stored in array of pointers to string?
• How would you use the functions sin(), pow(), sqrt()?
• How would you use the functions memcpy(), memset(), memmove()?
• How would you use the functions fseek(), freed(), fwrite() and ftell()?
• How would you obtain the current time and difference between two times?
• How would you use the functions randomize() and random()?
• How would you implement a substr() function that extracts a sub string from a given string?
• What is the difference between the functions rand(), random(), srand() and randomize()?
• What is the difference between the functions memmove() and memcpy()?
• How do you print a string on the printer?
• Can you use the function fprintf() to display the output on the screen?

C++- Questions

What is a class?
What is an object?
What is the difference between an object and a class?
What is the difference between class and structure?
What is public, protected, private?
What are virtual functions?
What is friend function?
What is a scope resolution operator?
What do you mean by inheritance?
What is abstraction?
What is polymorphism? Explain with an example.
What is encapsulation?
What do you mean by binding of data and functions?
What is function overloading and operator overloading?
What is virtual class and friend class?
What do you mean by inline function?
What do you mean by public, private, protected and friendly?
When is an object created and what is its lifetime?
What do you mean by multiple inheritance and multilevel inheritance? Differentiate between them.
Difference between realloc() and free?
What is a template?
What are the main differences between procedure oriented languages and object oriented languages?
What is R T T I ?
What are generic functions and generic classes?
What is namespace?
What is the difference between pass by reference and pass by value?
Why do we use virtual functions?
What do you mean by pure virtual functions?
What are virtual classes?
Does c++ support multilevel and multiple inheritance?
What are the advantages of inheritance?
When is a memory allocated to a class?
What is the difference between declaration and definition?
What is virtual constructors/destructors?
In c++ there is only virtual destructors, no constructors. Why?
What is late bound function call and early bound function call? Differentiate.
How is exception handling carried out in c++?
When will a constructor executed?
What is Dynamic Polymorphism?
Write a macro for swapping integers.

DATA STRUCTURE QUESTIONS

What is a data structure?
What does abstract data type means?
Evaluate the following prefix expression " ++ 26 + - 1324" (Similar types can be asked)
Convert the following infix expression to post fix notation ((a+2)*(b+4)) -1 (Similar types can be asked)
How is it possible to insert different type of elements in stack?
Stack can be described as a pointer. Explain.
Write a Binary Search program
Write programs for Bubble Sort, Quick sort
Explain about the types of linked lists
How would you sort a linked list?
Write the programs for Linked List (Insertion and Deletion) operations
What data structure would you mostly likely see in a non recursive implementation of a recursive algorithm?
What do you mean by Base case, Recursive case, Binding Time, Run-Time Stack and Tail Recursion?
Explain quick sort and merge sort algorithms and derive the time-constraint relation for these.
Explain binary searching, Fibinocci search.
What is the maximum total number of nodes in a tree that has N levels? Note that the root is level (zero)
How many different binary trees and binary search trees can be made from three nodes that contain the key values 1, 2 & 3?
A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the longest time to execute?
A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the shortest time to execute?
When will you sort an array of pointers to list elements, rather than sorting the elements themselves?
The element being searched for is not found in an array of 100 elements. What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine that the element is not there, if the elements are completely unordered?
What is the average number of comparisons needed in a sequential search to determine the position of an element in an array of 100 elements, if the elements are ordered from largest to smallest?
Which sort show the best average behavior?
What is the average number of comparisons in a sequential search?
Which data structure is needed to convert infix notations to post fix notations?
What do you mean by:
Syntax Error
Logical Error
Runtime Error
How can you correct these errors?
In which data structure, elements can be added or removed at either end, but not in the middle?
How will inorder, preorder and postorder traversals print the elements of a tree?
Parenthesis are never needed in prefix or postfix expressions. Why?
Which one is faster? A binary search of an orderd set of elements in an array or a sequential search of the elements.

JAVA QUESTIONS

What is the difference between an Abstract class and Interface?
What is user defined exception?
What do you know about the garbage collector?
What is the difference between java and c++?
In an htm form I have a button which makes us to open another page in 15 seconds. How will you do that?
What is the difference between process and threads?
What is update method called?
Have you ever used HashTable and Directory?
What are statements in Java?
What is a JAR file?
What is JNI?
What is the base class for all swing components?
What is JFC?
What is the difference between AWT and Swing?
Considering notepad/IE or any other thing as process, What will happen if you start notepad or IE 3 times ? Where three processes are started or three threads are started?
How does thread synchronization occur in a monitor?
Is there any tag in htm to upload and download files?
Why do you canvas?
How can you know about drivers and database information ?
What is serialization?
Can you load the server object dynamically? If so what are the 3 major steps involved in it?
What is the layout for toolbar?
What is the difference between Grid and Gridbaglayout?
How will you add panel to a frame?
Where are the card layouts used?
What is the corresponding layout for card in swing?
What is light weight component?
Can you run the product development on all operating systems?
What are the benefits if Swing over AWT?
How can two threads be made to communicate with each other?
What are the files generated after using IDL to java compiler?
What is the protocol used by server and client?
What is the functionability stubs and skeletons?
What is the mapping mechanism used by java to identify IDL language?
What is serializable interface?
What is the use of interface?
Why is java not fully objective oriented?
Why does java not support multiple inheritance?
What is the root class for all java classes?
What is polymorphism?
Suppose if we have a variable 'I' in run method, if I can create one or more thread each thread will occupy a separate copy or same variable will be shared?
What are virtual functions?
Write down how will you create a Binary tree?
What are the traverses in binary tree?
Write a program for recursive traverse?
What are session variable in servlets?
What is client server computing?
What is constructor and virtual function? Can we call a virtual function in a constructor?
Why do we use oops concepts? What is its advantage?
What is middleware? What is the functionality of web server?
Why is java not 100% pure oops?
When will you use an interface and abstract class?
What is the exact difference in between Unicast and Multicast object? Where will it be used?
What is the main functionality of the remote reference layer?
How do you download stubs from Remote place?
I want to store more than 10 objects in a remote server? Which methodology will follow?
What is the main functionality of Prepared Statement?
What is meant by Static query and Dynamic query?
What are Normalization Rules? Define Normalization?
What is meant by Servelet? What are the parameters of service method?
What is meant by Session? Explain something about HTTP Session Class?
In a container there are 5 components. I want to display all the component names, how will you do that?
Why there are some null interface in JAVA? What does it mean? Give some null interface in JAVA?
Tell some latest versions in JAVA related areas?
What is meant by class loader? How many types are there? When will we use them?
What is meant by flickering?
What is meant by distributed application? Why are we using that in our application?
What is the functionality of the stub?
Explain about version control?
Explain 2-tier and 3-tier architecture?
What is the role of Web Server?
How can we do validation of the fields in a project?
What is meant by cookies? Explain the main features?
Why java is considered as platform independent?
What are the advantages of java over C++?
How java can be connected to a database?
What is thread?
What is difference between Process and Thread?
Does java support multiple inheritance? if not, what is the solution?
What are abstract classes?
What is an interface?
What is the difference abstract class and interface?
What are adapter classes?
what is meant wrapper classes?
What are JVM.JRE, J2EE, JNI?
What are swing components?
What do you mean by light weight and heavy weight components?
What is meant by function overloading and function overriding?
Does java support function overloading, pointers, structures, unions or linked lists?
What do you mean by multithreading?
What are byte codes?
What are streams?
What is user defined exception?
In an htm page form I have one button which makes us to open a new page in 15 seconds. How will you do that?

Advanced JAVA questions

What is RMI?
Explain about RMI Architecture?
What are Servelets?
What is the use of servlets?
Explain RMI Architecture?
How will you pass values from htm page to the servlet?
How do you load an image in a Servelet?
What is purpose of applet programming?
How will you communicate between two applets?
What IS the difference between Servelets and Applets?
How do you communicate in between Applets and Servlets?
What is the difference between applet and application?
What is the difference between CGI and Servlet?
In the servlets, we are having a web page that is invoking servlets ,username and password? which is checks in database? Suppose the second page also if we want to verify the same information whether it will connect to the database or it will be used previous information?
What are the difference between RMI and Servelets?
How will you call an Applet using Java Script Function?
How can you push data from an Applet to a Servlet?
What are 4 drivers available in JDBC? At what situation are four of the drivers used?
If you are truncated using JDBC , how can you that how much data is truncated?
How will you perform truncation using JDBC?
What is the latest version of JDBC? What are the new features added in that?
What is the difference between RMI registry and OS Agent?
To a server method, the client wants to send a value 20, with this value exceeds to 20 a message should be sent to the client . What will you do for achieving this?
How do you invoke a Servelet? What is the difference between doPost method and doGet method?
What is difference between the HTTP Servelet and Generic Servelet? Explain about their methods and parameters?
Can we use threads in Servelets?
Write a program on RMI and JDBC using Stored Procedure?
How do you swing an applet?
How will you pass parameters in RMI? Why do you serialize?
In RMI ,server object is first loaded into memory and then the stub reference is sent to the client. true or false?
Suppose server object not loaded into the memory and the client request for it. What will happen?
What is the web server used for running the servelets?
What is Servlet API used for connecting database?
What is bean? Where can it be used?
What is the difference between java class and bean?
Can we sent objects using Sockets?
What is the RMI and Socket?
What is CORBA?
Can you modify an object in corba?
What is RMI and what are the services in RMI?
What are the difference between RMI and CORBA?
How will you initialize an Applet?
What is the order of method invocation in an Applet?
What is ODBC and JDBC? How do you connect the Database?
What do you mean by Socket Programming?
What is difference between Generic Servlet and HTTP Servelet?
What you mean by COM and DCOM?
what is e-commerce?

Operating System Questions

What are the basic functions of an operating system?
Explain briefly about, processor, assembler, compiler, loader, linker and the functions executed by them.
What are the difference phases of software development? Explain briefly?
Differentiate between RAM and ROM?
What is DRAM? In which form does it store data?
What is cache memory?
What is hard disk and what is its purpose?
Differentiate between Complier and Interpreter?
What are the different tasks of Lexical analysis?
What are the different functions of Syntax phase, Sheduler?
What are the main difference between Micro-Controller and Micro- Processor?
Describe different job scheduling in operating systems.
What is a Real-Time System ?
What is the difference between Hard and Soft real-time systems ?
What is a mission critical system ?
What is the important aspect of a real-time system ?
If two processes which shares same system memory and system clock in a distributed system, What is it called?
What is the state of the processor, when a process is waiting for some event to occur?
What do you mean by deadlock?
Explain the difference between microkernel and macro kernel.
Give an example of microkernel.
When would you choose bottom up methodology?
When would you choose top down methodology?
Write a small dc shell script to find number of FF in the design.
Why paging is used ?
Which is the best page replacement algorithm and Why? How much time is spent usually in each phases and why?
Difference between Primary storage and secondary storage?
What is multi tasking, multi programming, multi threading?
Difference between multi threading and multi tasking?
What is software life cycle?
Demand paging, page faults, replacement algorithms, thrashing, etc.
Explain about paged segmentation and segment paging
While running DOS on a PC, which command would be used to duplicate the entire diskette?

MICROPROCESSOR QUESTIONS

Which type of architecture 8085 has?
How many memory locations can be addressed by a microprocessor with 14 address lines?
8085 is how many bit microprocessor?
Why is data bus bi-directional?
What is the function of accumulator?
What is flag, bus?
What are tri-state devices and why they are essential in a bus oriented system?
Why are program counter and stack pointer 16-bit registers?
What does it mean by embedded system?
What are the different addressing modes in 8085?
What is the difference between MOV and MVI?
What are the functions of RIM, SIM, IN?
What is the immediate addressing mode?
What are the different flags in 8085?
What happens during DMA transfer?
What do you mean by wait state? What is its need?
What is PSW?
What is ALE? Explain the functions of ALE in 8085.
What is a program counter? What is its use?
What is an interrupt?
Which line will be activated when an output device require attention from CPU?

ELECTRONICS QUESTIONS

What is meant by D-FF?
What is the basic difference between Latches and Flip flops?
What is a multiplexer?
How can you convert an SR Flip-flop to a JK Flip-flop?
How can you convert an JK Flip-flop to a D Flip-flop?
What is Race-around problem? How can you rectify it?
Which semiconductor device is used as a voltage regulator and why?
What do you mean by an ideal voltage source?
What do you mean by zener breakdown and avalanche breakdown?
What are the different types of filters?
What is the need of filtering ideal response of filters and actual response of filters?
What is sampling theorem?
What is impulse response?
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of FIR filters compared to IIR counterparts.
What is CMRR? Explain briefly.
What do you mean by half-duplex and full-duplex communication? Explain briefly.
Which range of signals are used for terrestrial transmission?
What is the need for modulation?
Which type of modulation is used in TV transmission?
Why we use vestigial side band (VSB-C3F) transmission for picture?
When transmitting digital signals is it necessary to transmit some harmonics in addition to fundamental frequency?
For asynchronous transmission, is it necessary to supply some synchronizing pulses additionally or to supply or to supply start and stop bit?
BPFSK is more efficient than BFSK in presence of noise. Why?
What is meant by pre-emphasis and de-emphasis?
What do you mean by 3 dB cutoff frequency? Why is it 3 dB, not 1 dB?
What do you mean by ASCII, EBCDIC?

Waves from the past

2005-02-23T20:17:00.000-05:00

R. RAMACHANDRAN

The tsunami disaster triggers renewed interest in the study of historic earthquakes and ocean disturbances in the Indian Ocean region.

THOUGH the Indian subcontinent is in a seismically active region, tsunamis along the coastline of India have been rare, but not unprecedented. The oldest record of a sea-related disaster on the Indian coast that is interpreted as a tsunami is in 326 B.C. According to a 1974 account by Lietzin, and quoted by the scientists T.S. Murty of Ottawa, Canada, and Arun Bapat of Pune, a large magnitude earthquake in the Indus delta/Kutch region set off massive sea waves in the Arabian Sea, which destroyed the legendary Alexander the Great's Macedonian fleet on its journey back to Greece after Indian conquest.

AFP

A wave engulfs the restaurant and surrounding gardens of the Chedi resort in Phuket.

It is believed by some - but not generally accepted oqing to lack of evidence - that tsunamis may have occurred in 1524 near Dabhol in Maharashtra, in April 1762 in the Bay of Bengal as a result of an earthquake at the Araken Coast off Myanmar, in June 1819 after an earthquake in the Rann of Kutch, and in October 1847 following a quake in the Great Nicobar Island.

The more scientifically authentic, earliest record of a tsunami in the region is the one caused by the Car Nicobar earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale on December 31, 1881. There have been subsequent tsunami events that have affected the Indian shores - in 1883 following the tsunami off the Indonesian coast due to the Krakatoa volcano explosions; in June 1941 on the eastern coast of India as a result of a major earthquake of a magnitude of more than 8.0 in the Andaman Sea; and in November 1945, following an earthquake off Baluchistan in Pakistan, which affected the western coast of India.

The Andaman Sea is a particularly seismically active zone. Though there have been several earthquakes in this area, with magnitudes of up to 8.5, tsunamis have been rare. Not all submarine earthquakes generate tsunamis. There has to be significant vertical displacement of the body of water above the quake region for that to happen. So the nature of the fault and the tectonic movement causing the quake are important factors to consider.

According to Murty, who has studied tsunamis in the Bay of Bengal, earthquakes with magnitudes of less than about 7.2, will not generate significant tsunamis unless the earthquake occurs in a shallow and confined, small body of water. However, local earthquakes of magnitude above 7.2 have been very few - only three after the 1881 earthquake.

The earthquakes of August 1936 and May 1955 had magnitudes 7.3 and 7.25 respectively. They did not generate tsunamis. This is because tsunamis are usually associated with `dip-slip' type of faults, where there is thrusting between the plates and vertical displacement of water. In the case of thrusting earthquakes in the ocean, particularly in what are known as subduction zones that cause major tsunamis, the ocean floor predominantly moves in a vertical direction.

In `strike-slip' type earthquakes, on the other hand, the movement is mainly in the horizontal direction. It so happens that earthquakes in the Andaman Sea are mainly associated with strike-slip type of faulting. This is the reason why earthquakes less than a magnitude of 8.0 in the Andaman fault region do not lead to tsunamis in the Bay of Bengal, while similar magnitude earthquakes in the Pacific do. Also, quakes of larger magnitude are more in the seismically more active Pacific Rim, of which the Sumatra region is actually a part.

The December 1881 tsunami in the Bay of Bengal has been studied in detail by Roger Bilham of the United States and Modesto Ortiz of Mexico. Analysing the data from eight tide gauges surrounding the Bay of Bengal at that time, they conclude that the tsunami generated had a maximum wave height - what is known as the tsunami `run-up' - of 0.8m - 1.0m. Their analysis of the amplitude and waveform of the tsunami indicates that the 7.9 magnitude quake was due to a 2.7m slip of a 150 km long rupture in the subduction front on the Indian/Andaman plate boundary off Car Nicobar, which resulted in a 10-60 cm uplift of the island.

The tsunami induced by the massive Krakatoa volcanic explosions in Indonesia in August 1883, which is the biggest in known history before the present one, and which killed nearly 36,000 people, also had an impact on the east coast of India. A recent numerical simulation of the tsunami by a research group comprising two scientists from Korea, one from Japan, and one from Russia suggests that the waves should have affected the Andaman and Nicobar islands, the eastern coasts of Sri Lanka and India and parts of the western Indian coast as well, somewhat similar to what has happened in the current tsunami.

The results of their simulation appears to match fairly well with the original tide gauge data of the wave heights at various points, which they have been able to retrieve from archival sources. The analysis shows that wave heights reached were of the order of 0.5 m and the tsunami waves arrived about 4 hours after the event. The source of the waves was about 2,440 km from the Indian coast. Unofficial accounts have placed the wave height at Chennai to be about 1.5 m.

The next major earthquake that resulted in a tsunami in the Bay of Bengal was of magnitude 8.1 earthquake in the Andaman Sea (12.9°N, 92.5°E) in June 1941 and the tsunami did hit the east coast of India, damaging masonry structures and property in places like Chennai. The quake ruptured the region near the Andaman island. The number of dead in this event is not known. While some believe that there may not have been any dead as the magnitude has probably been overestimated, C.P. Rajendran, a scientist at the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), Thiruvananthapuram, an expert in the seismology of the Andamans, believes that the value may actually be an underestimate. According to him, the rupture length of over 800 km suggests a magnitude higher than what has been calculated on the basis of seismic waves.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands were under Japanese occupation at that time, so data from there was not available. However, according to Rajendran, for some reason, reliable tide gauge data of the east coast for events of that period are also apparently not available with the Survey of India. In fact, no records of the 1941 tsunami seem to have survived, although unofficial accounts put the toll as 3,000 dead. On the basis of non-scientific and journalistic sources, Murty and Bapat suggest that the height of the tsunami wave was of the order of 0.75-1.25 m.

On the western side of India, though anecdotal evidence suggests that tsunamis may have occurred following earthquakes in the Kutch region in 1524 and 1819, the first authentic evidence of a tsunami is of one caused by an earthquake of magnitude 8.25 off the Makran coast in Baluchistan in Pakistan (24.5°N and 63.0°E) in November 1945. This is supposed to have caused tsunami waves as high as 11.0 to 11.5 m in the Kutch region on the west coast of India and the waves are supposed to have reached Mumbai as well. A total of 4,000 people are supposed have died as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami. This information is again based on non-scientific sources and anecdotal accounts, as tide gauge data during the 1940s seem to be particularly lacking, perhaps owing to the Second World War. In the context of the present earthquake of 9.0 magnitude off the northwestern Sumatra coast and the spread of the tsunami caused by it throughout the Indian Ocean, it is of interest to know the consequences of the large earthquakes of 1833 and 1861 off the Sumatra coast. In size and location, the 1833 quake was quite similar to the present one. Its magnitude is estimated to be 8.7-8.8, even though the rupture area was much smaller (about 300 km) as compared to the present one of over 1,200 km. In fact, a recent estimate of the uplift of the Island, based on growth-ring record of coral-atolls, seems to suggest that the magnitude may have been as high as 9.2. The location, however, was in the central region of the western Sumatra coast. The 1861 earthquake was of a lower magnitude and is estimated to be 8.3-8.5 magnitude but again originating from the central region of the coast.

Tsunamis from both these Sumatran earthquakes occurred before the introduction of harbour tide gauges in most parts of the world. However, their sizes seem to suggest that the tsunamis would probably have affected the entire Indian Ocean basin. The 1861 tsunami was perhaps not strong enough to cause damage on shores across the ocean. Geoscience Australia has, however, been carrying out tsunami modelling studies on the 1833 earthquake from the point of view of estimating the threat of tsunamis from earthquakes in this region. North-west off Indonesia, the Australian Plate subducts beneath the Sunda Plate (which forms part of the larger Eurasian Plate in the Pacific). This subduction zone is called the Sunda Arc or the Sunda Trench.

REUTERS

A satellite image of the Little Andaman Island taken on January 2. It shows the destruction caused along the coast and also far from the shore.

The Sunda Arc comprises two distinct zones. The eastern part is where relatively old (over 100 million years) oceanic lithosphere subducts offshore Java. Very few classical subduction zone earthquakes - such as the present one - occur in this region. On the other hand, further to the north-west on the Sunda Arc, young (40 million years) oceanic lithosphere subducts offshore Sumatra. The subduction of such young oceanic lithosphere can cause the most massive thrust earthquakes that generate huge tsunamis. However, this subduction zone is not as active as the ones in the Pacific Rim, which cause frequent tsunamis. Also, the thrust earthquakes that do occur as a result of this subduction and the propagation characteristics of the tsunamis that they do generate have been such as to cause local effects but not affect coasts thousands of kilometres away in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.

The modelling of the 1833 quake by Geoscience Australia has thrown up interesting results. The modelling is for open-ocean or deep water propagation only and does not estimate the effects of the shoreline topography and the consequent run-up. Though the bulk of the propagation is away from the Indian coast and into the central Indian Ocean basin towards the African coast, the simulation shows that the tsunami should have been strong enough to reach the Indian eastern and southwestern shores .

Clive Collins, Project Director at Geoscience Australia, has been seeking information on the Internet about possible tsunami related events of November 1833 from any possible source. So far, however, the organisation has not received any pertinent data from any source that could confirm the results of their model. The 2004 tsunami data from the affected Asian countries would, however, be of immense use in validating the model, Collins says. Indeed, a mega thrusting of this kind, resulting in a 9.0 magnitude quake and a vertical displacement of the fault plane by as much as 15 m, may not recur for hundreds of years.

The probability of a killer tsunami on the Indian coast may continue to be negligible but the current mega disaster has thrown new light on threat perceptions in the region from distant tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. This should trigger a renewed interest in the study of historic earthquakes and ocean disturbances in the region, so as to generate an appropriate database. There should also be study as to whether, buried in the past records, there was ever a hint of an impending disaster of such magnitude

India: A Brief History

2005-02-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

Archaeological excavations have brought to light the remains of a highly developed urban civilisation in ancient India, that stretched across approximately 1520 kilometres, extending from the area on the upper Sutlaj in contemporary Punjab to Lothal in Gujarat. Historians are of the view that this civilisation flourished in the third millennium before the birth of Christ.

It is known by the name of the two of its great cities - Harappa and Mohenjodaro situated on the left and the right bank respectively of the river Ravi in Punjab. The two cities were built on a similar plan - houses constructed with standard burnt bricks arranged in squares, along roads intersecting at right angles.

The houses varied in size but were all based on the same plan - a small courtyard surrounded by rooms with entrances in side alleys, often multistoried with no windows opening out to the street. The houses had bathrooms and the drains flowing out were connected to covered sewers with soak-pits. This unique sewage system is amongst the most impressive achievements of the Indus people and sets them apart from all other ancient civilisations.

By about 1500 B.C. an important change began to occur in the northern half of the Indian sub-continent. The Harappa culture in the Indus Valley had declined by about 1750 B.C, and the stage was being set for a second and more continuous urbanisation in the Ganges Valley.

The earliest literary source that sheds light on India's past is the Rig Veda. It is difficult to date this work with any accuracy on the basis of tradition and ambiguous astronomical information contained in the hymns. It is most likely that Rig Veda was composed between 1,500 B.C. and 1,000 B.C.

The people who composed these evocative hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly referred to themselves as Aryas usually anglicised as Aryan meaning 'superior'.

The 6th Century B.C. was a period of great ferment in India. The kingdom of Magadh -one of the 16 great janapadas - polities - had established paramountcy over other kingdoms of the Ganges Valley. This was the time when Buddhism and Jainism emerged as popular protestant movements to pose a serious challenge to Brahmanic orthodoxy. The fluid political situation, made it possible for Chandragupta Maurya (reign - 322 - 298 B.C.) to oust the oppressive ruler of Magadh and found his own dynasty.

The most famous of the Mauryas is Ashoka the Great (reign - 273 - 232 B.C.). He extended the boundaries of his empire considerably - stretching from Kashmir and Peshawar in the North and Northwest to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East - but his fame rests not so much on military conquests as on his celebrated renunciation of war. After witnessing the carnage at the battle field of Kalinga (269 B.C.) in Orissa, Ashoka resolved to dedicate himself to Dhamma - or righteousness.

Ashoka died around 232 B.C. and the empire began to disintegrate under weak successors. Pushyamitra Shunga, a Brahmin general usurped the throne after slaying the last Maurya king and presided over a loosely federal polity. In subsequent centuries India suffered a series of invasions, and in the absence of a strong central authority, often fell under the spell of foreign rulers - Indo Bactrians, the Sakas and others.

For the next four hundred years, India remained politically disunited and weak. It was repeatedly raided and plundered by foreigners. Stability was restored by the Guptas. Exploits of Samudra Gupta (reign - 335 - 380 A.D.) - an illustrious ruler of this line - are recorded on a stone inscription at Allahabad.

It was Chandra Gupta II (reign - 380 - 412 A.D.) - Samudra Gupta's successor - who finally defeated the Sakas and re-established a strong central authority. His reign registered the high watermark in Indian culture. His accomplishments in war and peace were glorious enough for him to claim the title Vikramaditya - the resplendent, great and good king of legends. Fa-hien, a Chinese traveller who was in India from 399 - 414 A.D. has left an interesting account of contemporary India. This age of peace and prosperity witnessed an unprecedented flowering of art, literature and the sciences.

Kalidas, the famous Sanskrit poet and dramatist, author of Abhijnana Shankuntalam, Kumarsambhavam and Meghadutam is believed to have adorned the Gupta court. Mathematicians like Aryabhatta and astronomers like Varahmihir lived during this period. The dazzling wall paintings of Ajanta too are traced back to this era. This period also saw the beginning of Hindu temple architecture.

The twilight of the Gupta Empire saw the setting in of decay. Powerful feudal governors in the provinces declared their independence. Trade and commerce suffered and social evils crept in. There was only a brief afterglow in the time of Harshavardhan (reign - 604 - 647 A.D.) - of Kannauj - who is famous for his philanthrophy and patronage of Buddhism. Himself an accomplished writer, he encouraged eminent dramatists like Bana. A Chinese traveller Huen-tsang visited India from (629 - 645 A.D.) during the rule of Harshavardhan. His account gives us an opportunity to note the changes that had taken place in the lives of the Indian people since the days of the Guptas.

In the Deccan, the Cholas ruled over what today are the districts of Thanjavur and Tiruchirapally. In the 2nd Century B.C. a Chola prince conquered Sri Lanka. The Pandyas reigned around present day Tirunelvelli and Madurai. A Pandyan king sent an ambassador to the court of the Roman emperor Augustus in first Century B.C. The territory under the Cheras was what constitutes the present day central and northern Kerala.

Pallavas of Kanchi rose to prominence in the 4th Century A.D. and ruled unchallenged for about four hundred years. The Nayanar and Alvar saint poets belong to this period. The gemlike shore temples at Mahabalipuram date to this period.

The Cholas overthrew the Pallavas in the 9th Century and regained political primacy in south India. The exquisitely crafted Chola bronzes - the resplendent Natraja - the Dancing Shiva - have introduced the world to the glory of the Cholas. The tide of political fortunes turned once again in the 13th Century to make the Pandyas dominant. Their kingdom became a great centre of international trade. Art, literature and culture flourished under generous patronage. The 15th Century saw the decline of the Pandyas.

Foreign invasions had little impact on the life in southern India and this region remained unaffected by political upheavals that convulsed the north.

iNDIA 400,000 BC to 2003

Prehistoric Period: ca. 400,000 BC - 3000 BC
400,000 - 200,000 BC: Interglacial period : Soan Valley and in south India, chiefly around Madras
200,000 - 8,000 BC: Late ICE Age, which lasted till 8000 BC
8,000 BC - 4,000 BC: the end of the Ice Age, began an intermediate stage called as Mesolithic Age [Late Stone Age] which lasted up to 4000 B.C.
4,000 BC - 3,000 BC: Neolithic Age [New Stone Age] which lasted from 4000 B.C. to 3000 B.C was the last phase of the Stone Age

Indus / Saraswathi Valley Civilisation: ca. 3000-1200 BC

ca. 3000-2600: Indus Valley civilization: Harappan civilization

2600-2500: Harappan Civilization at its height
2000-1900: Harappan Civilization collapses
c. 1300: Aryans migrate into the Indus Valley
c. 1000: Aryans migrate into Ganges Valley

ca. 1200-500 BC: Vedic Era

ca. 1200-900: Rig-Veda
ca. 900-500: Later Vedas and early Upanishads

ca. 550-100 BC: Rivals to Hinduism

ca 550: Birth of Mahavira
ca. 563-483: Siddhartha Gautama - Buddhism Chronology

ca. 322-185 BC: Mauryan Empire

321-297 BC: Chandragupta Maurya
ca. 273-237: Asoka
ca. 185-100: The Laws of Manu

ca. AD 320-540: Gupta Era

ca. 320-335: Chandragupta I
ca. 335-376: Samudragupta
ca. 376-415: Chandragupta II
ca. 454-500: Hun Invasions
ca. 540: End of Gupta Dynasty

ca. AD 500-1001: Era of Political instability

ca. 540: Rise of Chalukyas at Vatapi
ca. 606-646: Harsha of Kanauj
ca. 700-800: Buddhism spreads to Tibet and Nepal
711: Arabs invade Sind
ca. 750: Rise of imperial Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas
760: Palas in Bengal
ca. 846: Rise of Cholas and defeat of Pallavis
ca. 970: Revival of Chalukyas and defeat of Rashtrakutas

1000-1750: Period of Muslim dominance

1001: Raids by Mahmud of Ghanzi
1206-1290: Slave Dynasty and Beginning of Delhi Sultanate
1290-1320: Khalji Sultanate
1320-1413: Tughlug Sultanate
1414-1451: Sayyid Sultanate
1451-1526: Lodi Sultanate
1498: Vasco da Gama arrives in India
1483-1757: The Mughal Empire
- 1526-1530: Reign of Babur
- 1556-1605: Reign of Akbar
- 1600: British East India Company is chartered
- 1605-1627: Reign of Jahangir
- 1628-1658: Reign of Shah Jahan
- 1658-1707: Reign of Aurangzeb
- 1744-1748: War between French and British

Hindu Philosophy

2005-02-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

Characteristics
Hindu philosophy began in the period of the Upanishads (900–500 B.C.), but systematic philosophical elaboration did not appear until several centuries later. Philosophical tenets were presented in the form of aphorisms or sutras, intended to serve as an aid to memory and a basis for oral elaboration. Their extreme conciseness presupposes an oral or written commentary, and the traditions developed through successive layers of commentarial tradition. Although all six schools of classical Hindu philosophy accepted the authority of the Veda, they had widely differing philosophical positions; they developed in competition not only with one another, but also with the so-called heterodox schools, which rejected the authority of the Veda: Buddhism, Jainism, the Ajivikas or skeptics, and the materialist Carvaka school.	2

Schools of Hindu Philosophy
Nyaya, traditionally founded by Akshapada Gautama (6th cent. B.C.), is a school of logic and epistemology that defined the rules of debate and canons of proof. Its views were accepted with modification by most of the other schools. The atomist school, Vaisheshika, founded by Kanada (3d cent. B.C.), analyzed reality into six categories: substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity, and inherence. The universe is made up of nine kinds of substance: earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul (or self), and mind.	3
The Samkhya school, founded by Kapila (6th cent. B.C.), admits two basic metaphysical principles, purusha (soul) and prakriti (materiality). Prakriti consists of three gunas or qualities: sattva (light or goodness), rajas (activity or passion), and tamas (darkness or inertia). When these constituents are in equilibrium, prakriti is static. However, disturbance of the equilibrium initiates a process of evolution that ultimately produces both the material world and individual faculties of action, thought, and sense. The purusha appears to be bound to prakriti and its modifications and may become free only through the realization that it is distinct from prakriti. Early versions of Samkhya, now lost, may have been theistic, but the classical system does not include God. The yoga school expounded by Patanjali (2d cent. B.C.) accepts Samkhya metaphysics to explain the validity of yogic processes described in the Yoga Sutras and also accepts the concept of an Ishvara, God or supreme soul. Yoga is defined as “cessation of the modifications of consciousness” and is achieved by an eight-stage discipline of self-control and meditation.	4
The Purva Mimamsa school, founded by Jaimini (2d cent. B.C.), set forth sophisticated principles for interpreting the Veda, which was regarded as entirely composed of injunctions to ritual action. Its epistemology and theory of meaning were constructed to show that the words of the Veda had eternal and intrinsic validity. The different schools of Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta are all based on the Upanishads and the Brahma-Sutras of Badarayana (c.200 B.C.–A.D. 200), but differ in their concepts of God, world, soul, and the relation between them.

Facts about India :)

2005-01-06T10:23:00.000-05:00

Population: 1,045,845,226 (July 2002 est.)
The population clock in the Union Health Ministry, Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi, now ticks at the rate of 31 persons per minute. The clock shows that about 44,640 babies are born in India everyday. Hence the population of India increases by 16.29 million every year, which is equivalent to the total population of Australia or Japan.

The present population of India is around 1.4 Billion (1400 Million). The billionth baby is a girl. Her name is ASTHA (which means Faith). Her mother's name is Anjana Arora, and her father's name is Ashok Kumar Arora. She was born in Delhi at Saftharjung Hospital at 5.50 a.m. on Thursday, May 11, 2000.

India with about 2.4% of the land area in the world contains about 16% of the population of the world.

The density of the population in India has climbed up from 261 per square kilometer in 1981 to 267 per square kilometer in 1991. This is ten times greater than the density in the United States (26 per square kilometer) and 2.5 times greater than the density in China (109 per square kilometer).

The birth rate in India (31 per thousand people) is greater than that of China (20 per thousand people). If this trend continues, India will beat up China by 2025 A.D., making India the most populous nation in the world. In 2025 A.D, India will have 1591 million people and China 1554 million people.

Only five countries in the world - China, USA, Brazil, Indonesia, and United USSR have more population than Uttar Pradesh (145 million), which is one of the 28 states in India.

The total population of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu was 55.6 million as of 1991. About 4,478,000 people die every year in Tamil Nadu, or to put it another way, 1,227 people die every day. Every year the total Population of Australia, is added to the population of India. One out of every seven people in the world lives in India.

More people live in India than all the people living in North America, South America, and Australia put together. The death rate in India is 8.39 million per year. This means that 23,000 people everyday, 958 people every hour, or 16 people every minute

Age structure:
0-14 years: 32.7% (male 175,858,386; female 165,724,901)
15-64 years: 62.6% (male 338,957,463; female 316,063,497)
65 years and over: 4.7% (male 24,975,465; female 24,265,514) (2002 est.)

Population growth rate:
1.51% (2002 est.)
Birth rate:
23.79 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate:
8.62 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate:
-0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.03 male(s)/female
total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
61.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 63.23 years
female: 63.93 years (2002 est.)
male: 62.55 years
Total fertility rate:
2.98 children born/woman (2002 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.7% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
3.7 million (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
310,000 (1999 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian
Ethnic groups:
Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
Religions:
Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5% (2000)
Languages:
English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 52%
male: 65.5%
female: 37.7% (1995 est.)

Alcohol: Some Trivia

2005-01-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

This week's trivia is about uisce beatha which literally means "the water of life" - alcohol.

The name whisky is a transformation of the word usquebaugh, itself a transformation of the Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha spelled uisce beatha in Irish Gaelic, literally meaning the "water of life".

Whisky has been produced in Scotland for hundreds of years. It is generally agreed that Dalriadan Scots monks brought distillation with them when they came to Caledonia to convert the Picts to Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Friar John Cor recorded the first known batch of scotch whisky June 1st 1495.

The origins of vodka (and of its name) cannot be traced definitively, but it is believed to have originated in either Poland or Russia. Surprisingly, until recent times there were no serious historical research on vodka as a product. Nearly all research on vodka was in fact research of drinking and selling vodka, rather than of manufacturing vodka. Paradoxically, the weakening of the Soviet Union somewhat changed this situation (but the conclusive word is yet to be said). The second half of the 1970s witnessed two massive attacks on the priority and rights of the Soviet Union to market liquors named "vodka". The first assault was a long the lines that the Russian Revolution "discontinued" Russia's trademark for vodka, which was naturally" transferred to emigrated manufacturers of vodka, Smirnoff in particular, because of prohibition by Soviets, so that officially the Soviet Union started manufacturing vodka in 1923.

This was refuted fairly easily. The second assault, by Poland, was more serious, and the Soviet Union undertook the historical research to substantiate Russia's priority, which was completed by 1979, and in 1982 the international arbitrage considered it convincing enough to grant the USSR the priority in vodka as Russian original alcoholic beverage and recognized the Soviet trademark motto "Only vodka from Russia is genuine Russian vodka".

Varanasi: Some more history

2004-12-14T20:02:00.000-05:00

The holy city of Varanasi is one of those cities of India, which are as popular outside as they are within India. However, this city is actually an old crumbling community of the era of temples, palaces, kings, queens, courts, courtiers, dancers, musicians and courtesans. It is one of the oldest towns of India. As a centre of education also it dates back to more than 2000 years. Gautam Buddha gave his first sermon at a place called Sarnath, a few kilometres away from Varanasi. Religious scholars not only from India but also all over the world congregated here. Today the Benaras Hindu University that prides on being Asia’s biggest Universitry is furthering the tradition of education.

The original name of Varanasi is Kashi. The origin goes to a Sanskrit word ‘kas’ meaning light. The city being the seat of religious and spiritual learning was perhaps thought of as an elucidation of life and thereby the name. Mythology also holds that this was the original piece of land created by the creator of the Universe, Lord Shiva after which the rest of the Universe came into being. The name Varanasi also has its origin from the rivers Varun and Asi between which Varanasi exists. The onslaught of various cultures on the city converted its name to Benaras. Now it has officially been re-christened Varanasi.

Varanasi the holy city is famous for its spiritualism and cosmic impressions. It is a city where life and death both are held in equal veneration. People from all over the country come here in the belief that if death comes to them in this city then the doorway to the heavens awaits them. It is the ultimate achievement of ‘moksha’. ‘Moksha’ or ‘Nirvana’ as it is also popularly known means freedom from the perpetual cycle of birth and death and again rebirth. Another element of mystique in this city is the holy river Ganga. The Ganga the most important river of the Indian Subcontinent is held much in reverence since it is believed that all human sins are washed off by a dip in its sanctified waters. The water may have greyed with pollution but not the belief of the people who travel sometimes thousands of miles to come to the holy city and to the holy river.

The river perhaps is the lifeline of this city. It is difficult to envisage a Varanasi without the Ganga. The narrow alleys, which pass off for streets, covered with the dirt, grime, and betel nut stains lead to the ‘ghats’ or the banks of the river. These ‘ghats’ are the hub of the religious ceremonies of the Hindus. From the cremation of dead and associated rites to celebration of birth and its various rituals, all are adhered to on these ‘ghats’. The city is in fact situated along the bank of this river and one can view the skyline of Varanasi with its old but dilapidated palatial homes and slums to the modern day buildings. The view of sunrise over the river Ganga is perhaps the most soothing and beautiful aspect of the whole trip to Varanasi. It warrants a boat ride on the river to purely savour this experience. At the times of worship or ‘puja’ as it is locally called, the air is resonant with the chanting of mantras and hymns. The whiff of incense and flowers, the fire and the smoke all make you realise what a small speck you are in the whole scheme of things.

However, river Ganga is only one-sided view of the religious charisma of Varanasi. The city is also known for its beautiful and old temples. In fact Varanasi is dotted with temples. You will find one around every turn. The religious activities in these temples reach a feverish peak during the festivals. No doubt the devout Hindus consider Varanasi more as a pilgrimage place than a tourist destination.

Any visit to this place is not complete if you do not buy the world famous Benarsi Saris. A sari is the traditional dress of Indian women and her wedding trousseau must contain a Benarsi sari. These saris are made using fine silk threads, which are then intricately woven together to produce a magnificent piece of art. The age-old brocade work on the saris using delicate golden threads is finding footing in the modern day fashion industry on dresses apart from the sari, too.

During the reign of Mughal rulers danced and music flourished in this city. Some of the famous Indian musicians and dancers can trace back the history of their art to Varanasi. Even today the streets of Varanasi are home to musicians and instrument makers who specialise in their fields. The city is often host to glittering classical dance and music festivals.

A city that mirrors India in itself can be an ideal tourist destination. If you are just a wee bit careful about yourself and your possessions you can make the trip fairly enjoyable and comfortable. Don’t trust strangers and make all arrangements of travel beforehand. Dress appropriately and modestly. Respect the traditional and cultural values of others and gain respect for yourself.

FROM ANOTHER SOURCE
Varanasi also called KASHI, city in southeastern Uttar Pradesh is located on the left bank of the Ganges River and is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its early history is that of the first Aryan settlement in the middle Ganges valley. By the 2nd millennium BC, Varanasi was a seat of Aryan religion and philosophy and was also a commercial and industrial centre famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. Varanasi was the capital of the kingdom of Kashi during the time of Buddha (6th century BC), who gave his first sermon at nearby Sarnath. The city remained a centre of religious, educational, and artistic activities as attested by the celebrated Chinese traveler Hsüan-tsang, who visited it in c. AD 635 and said that the city extended for about 5 km along the western bank of the Ganges.

Varanasi subsequently declined during the three centuries of Muslim occupation, beginning in 1194. Many of the city's Hindu temples were destroyed during the period of Muslim rule, and learned scholars fled to other parts of the country. The Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century brought some relief to the city's religious and cultural activities. There was another setback during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the late 17th century, but later the Marathas came to rescue the city. Varanasi became an independent kingdom in the 18th century, and under subsequent British rule it remained a commercial and religious centre. In 1910 the British made Varanasi a new Indian state, with Ramnagar as headquarters but with no jurisdiction over the city of Varanasi.

In 1949, after Indian independence, the Varanasi state became part of the state of Uttar Pradesh. Varanasi has the finest river frontage in India, with miles of ghats, or steps, for religious bathing; an array of shrines, temples, and palaces rises tier on tier from the water's edge. The Dashaswamegh ghat with its peace and tranquility attracts all and sundry. The inner streets of the city are narrow, winding, and impassable for motor traffic. The sacred city is bounded by a road known as Panchakosi which every devout Hindu hopes to walk to visit the city once in a lifetime. More than 1,000,000 pilgrims visit the city each year.Among the city's numerous temples, the most venerated are those of Vishvanatha, dedicated to God Shiva, Sankatmochana, dedicated to the God Hanuman.

The Durga Temple is famous for the swarms of monkeys that inhabit the large trees near it. The Great Mosque of Aurangzeb is another prominent religious building. Two of the more important modern temples are those of Tulasi Manas and the Vishvanatha on the campus of the Banaras Hindu University. The city has hundreds of other temples. At Sarnath, a few miles north of Varanasi, there are ruins of ancient Buddhist monasteries and temples as well as temples built by the Maha Bodhi Society and by the Chinese, Burmese, and Tibetan Buddhists.

Varanasi has been a city of Hindu learning through the ages. There are innumerable schools and countless Brahman pandits, responsible for the continuation of traditional learning. There are also three universities, including the large and important Banaras Hindu University (1915), and more than a dozen colleges and high schools. The city is also a centre of arts and crafts and of music and dance. Varanasi is famous for its production of silks and brocades with gold and silver threadwork, as well as for wooden toys, bangles made of glass, ivory work, and brass ware.

ANOTHER ARTICLE
The Historical Background of Art In Varanasi

The golden era of the history of Indian paintings, begins with the paintings executed on the walls. The walls of the caves were the prime support, which early man first chose to express his feelings on which he transformed his art through Indian red and charcoal. These precious paintings were found on the stone blocks and on the walls of the different caves at Mirzapur, Bhopal, Manikpur, Singhanpur, Hoshangabad, Raigarh region, Panchmarhi, Raisen, Gwalior etc.

The tradition of wall paintings in India had attained its excellence in the caves of Ajanta, Bagh and Badami, during the period between 200 BC to 700 CE. All these paintings were very naturally and artistically created under the classical principles of an ideal art.

Varanasi being a cultural capital of India, nourishes her art, through which one can have a glimpse of the whole Indian culture. Every hook and corner of the city bears the wall paintings of Banaras. A unique co-ordination of the features of the local folk art, Rajasthani, Mughal and company art, present in these paintings are the special characteristics of these paintings.

Though the story of the cultural rise in Varanasi begins with the development of the human civilisation but before the excavations of Sarnath and Rajghat, we find no evident description of any form of art in varanasi. Art historians have not named it as 'Banaras' style as yet. Where as on the basis of the excavations of Sarnath and Rajghat, there are the solid evidences for the existing centre of the ancient art at Varanasi.

The lion capital of the Ashokan pillar from Sarnath, the stupa, the toys, the accessories and the terracotta sculptures from Rajghat are the early sources of the rich art of Varanasi. By ascertaining some painted toys from Rajghat, the existing tradition of art in Varanasi in the past can be concluded. Before 18th century we find no remainings of paintings from Varanasi. The main reason behind it was that due to Mughal's supremacy over India, the cultural progress of this city was minimum than other Mughal capitals. Though there should be the evidences for the wall paintings in Varanasi, but due to Mughal fanaticism, many architectures owing examples of wall paintings had been ruined.

On account of Lalji Mussawars residing in Varanasi in the advanced years of 18th century and his relation with a local artist Gwal Sikkhi, the art of Varanasi got influenced with Mughal features as well as Varanasi's traditional fun and festive mood. Further it met changes, influenced with company and Bengal style, respectively.

Though during the period of Maharajas of Banaras, there had not been any chronological order of the paintings over here, yet from the period of Maharaja Udit Narayan (1795-1835) we were having many dated examples of paintings. Possibly he himself got painted the walls of Kali Mandir, a private temple inside the Ramnagar Fort . We have the dated painting series of Ramacharitmanas and a dated painting portrait of Chetsingh of 1809 AD. Both have collected in Bharat Kala Bhawan, Varanasi. These paintings have characteristics of company style.

In 1835 CE, Shri Ishawari Narayan Singh, the then Maharaja of Banaras was the main patron of art and learning. The art connoisseur Rai krishna Das has written in his book 'Bhartiya Kala',-" Maharaja of Banaras patronised the local artists as Jahangir did in the Mughal period . By the time of Sri Ishwari Narayan Singh, the company style had been spread all over the country after British's arrival in India. Company style comprises the features of realistic art which became the common ground for the painting of traditional Indian peoples' heart.

In 1824 CE an English traveller Pope Bishop Heber came to visit Banaras. Through his travelogue it is evident that company painting had become a status symbol in the contemporary society. An European lady traveller had specially appreciated the paintings of Varanasi.

The Company paintings of Banaras were produced by the local artists as well as by the foreign artists. Among these paintings there were some Landscapes of the Ghats made by Thomas Danials and his nephew William Danials. To sketch these landscapes they travelled by boat in the river Ganges, from Kolkata to Kanpur. Many of these drawings are in collection in Bharat Kala Bhawan, Varanasi.

The few of the paintings are in collection of Late Sri Vibhuti Narayan Singh, the then Maharaja of Banaras, like the Ramayan series, executed on the walls of the Ramnagar Fort. Besides, there are the wall paintings with features of Rajasthani, Mughal and Company style. A few of them are on the walls of Bhonsala Mandir at Bhonsala Ghat and on Sheetal ka Akhadra subjecting God Vishnu, Shankar and Ganesh.

In the beginning of the 20th century the artists of Varanasi were a few one who were the followers of the Bengal school. The subjects they adopted for their expression were drawn from the literary sources from myths, legends and history. Shanti Ranjan Bose, a brilliant student of Nandlal Bose, artist of Bengal school and Ranada Ukil, who founded Ukil School over here, were the main artists who nourished the stream of art at Varanasi.

In 1920 Late Sri Rai Krishna Das founded a museam 'Bharat Kala Bhawan' in the Banaras Hindu University campus. An ancestral artist Ustad Sharda Prasad and a Neplease artist Sri Karnman Singh prodused many paintings in traditional indian style at Bharat Kala Bhawan.

The beginning of a Fine Arts School by the University at Birla Sanskrit Mahavidyalay in 1949, gave many artists a platform to work for the sake of art, to express their art forms through and to train many new aspirants. K.S. Kulkarni the first Dean of the Faculty of Visual arts, J.M. Ahivasi, Prof. B. S. Katt, and A. P. Gajjar, were the early artists of Varanasi. Sri Dilip Das Gupta and Sri K.S. Jena are a few of the most senior presant artists of Varanasi.

Apart from these, the tradition of creating litreture in the feild of art at Varanasi has been very significant. In the beginning of the nineteenth centuary, the art historian Dr. Vasudev Shran Agrawal wrote a book ' Bhartiya Kala' which is the base of studing Indian art history. He analysed and gave a new aesthetic sense by combining Indian art with Vedic culture and middle east's art history. Following the tradition, Sri Moti Chand, a bosom friend of Sri Vasudev Sharan Agrawal, studied Indian art and gave a new examination and a new concorance to Indian art history. Dr. Rai Anand Krishna Das is also having deep insight in this subject. His disciple Dr. Banu Agrawal flourished Indian Art History by writing many books, 'Bhartiya Kala Ke Mool Srota' and 'Malwa Painting in Valmiki Ramayan' etc. Another Scholar Mr. Anjan Chakraverti has also written a few books on Indian Miniature Painting

The Vishvanath Temple
For at least a thousand years, Vishvanath has been the preeminent Shiva Linga in Varanasi. Vishvanath is also called Vishveshvar. Both names mean "the lord of all".
Despite its fame, today's Vishvanath Temple has none of the magnificence, architectural splendor or antiquity of India's great classical temples in Orissa or South India. It was built as recently as the late eighteenth century under the patronage of Queen Ahalyabai Holkar of Indore. The history of the previous temples that housed the linga of Vishvanath is, in a nutshell, the history of Varanasi over the past thousand years: a tale of repeated destruction and desecration. Today atop the ruins of old Vishvanath Temple, sit two different mosques, one built in the thirteenth century by Razia and one in the seventeenth century by Aurangzeb.
The present Vishvanath Temple is crowded into the interior of this tightly woven city and its architectural features are hidden from proper perspective behind the compound wall. As one approaches Vishvanath, there are flower merchants whose baskets are heaped with garlands of marigolds and jasmine.
Entering through the doorway from Vishvanath lane with their offerings of pushp (flowers), naivedya (sweets) and Gangajal (Ganges water), pilgrims come into a large rectangular courtyard in the center of which stands the temple itself. The Linga of Vishvanath is set into the floor of the temple in a square solid-silver recessed altar. The seat of the linga is also silver and the shaft of the Linga is smooth black stone.
Shiva is worshipped at five principal aratis during the day, from early in the morning until late at night. In the evening shringara arati, the linga is elaborately decked with flowers. At any time of day, however, worshippers will come, chanting "Har Har Bum Bum!" "Har Har Mahadev!" "Jaya Jaya Vishvanath Shambho!" "Om namah Shivaya!" They drench the linga with water, cover it with flowers and bilva leaves and bend down to touch it with their hands.
Although the interior of this important temple is neither very large nor very elaborate, the atmosphere of worship and devotion is powerfully impressive. The sights and sounds and smells of the temple, the shouting and chanting and clanging of bells, even the jostling of the crowds, all contribute to the aura of sanctity.
Not only does Hindu worship make use of the senses in directing them toward the divine, but the Hindu sensibility appreciates the intensity of devotion brought to place by the crowds of worshippers. As one of the priests of Vishvanath temple explained, "Countless people have come here with worshipfull hearts and have centered their devotion here at Vishvanath for hundreds of years. By virtue of that history, this place is special. There is a saying, 'Pilgrims make the tirtha.' So this linga is significant partly because so many people have centered their devotion here for so long."

The Kedareshwar Temple

Kedar

The original Kedar is high in the Himalayas in the area called Uttara Khanda (North Country). There at an altitude of some 12000 feet sits Kedarnath.

The Himalayan Kedara is one of the India's twelve Lingas of Light (Dwadash Joytirlinga)

Kashi's Kedar is the anchoring temple of the southern sector of the city, called Kedar Khanda. It is one of the most popular and venerable temples of southern Kashi. Kedar is a river Temple, sitting at the top of an impressive ghat high above the water's edge. From the river, the temple is distinguished by its vertical red and yellow stripes.

Kedar is the religious focal point of the southern part of the city. There is a quite and deep piety almost palpable here and it is uninterrupted by the noisy throngs of pilgrims who hurry from Dashashvamedha Ghat to Vishvanath and its surrounding Temples. The pilgrims from outside don't generally go there. They don't know about it and the guides don't take them there as the pujaris in the temple don't give any payment for bringing pilgrims.

Kedar primarily remains a temple for the devoted residents of that area.

Sankata Devi

Matrika

Vikat Matrika

Durga Temple

One of the city's busiest temples is that of the Goddess Durga, which sits on the large rectangular tank called Durga Kund in the Southern sector of the city. The Puranas locate Durga Ji (as she is called here) at her present site, and she has kept this place for many centuries. She is said to protect Varanasi from the south, as one of the fierce goddess guardians (Chandikas) of the sacred zone. Durga temple is full of monkeys who make their home in the Shikhar (Top) and porticoes of the temple, peeping and snarling at visitors.

According to some who serve this temple, the image of Durga was never established by human hands, but is a self-manifest image. It appeared here of its own accord.

Annapoorna Bhavani

The darshana of Annapoorna always accompanies the darshana of Shiva Vishvanath. Annapoorna is Kashi's queen. She is known in the Kashi Khanda as Bhavani, the female shakti of Bhava, "Being," one of the names of Shiva. Today, she is often called Annapoorna Bhavani.

The name Annapoorna means "She of Plenteous Food." She is called the "Mother of the Three Worlds," and she promises to those who come to her what only a mother can give, naturally and freely : food.

The present compound of Annapoorna is located near Vishvanath on the opposite side of the lane. Standing in the court of the compound is the temple itself, a small sanctum with a large pillared porch. The image of Annapoorna within the sanctum is a new one, established and consecrated in January 1977 in a series of pratishtha rites conducted by the Shankaracharya of Shringeri

Kaala Bhairava

Kaal Bhairava, the "Black Terror," is widely known as the Kotwal, the "police chief," of Kashi, and the section of the city in which his temple stands is known as Kotwalpuri.

Bhairav is considered a fearsome manifestation of Shiva. He wears a garland of skulls and carries a club of peacock feathers.

Kaala Bhairava, whose name, Kaala means both Death and Fate, in addition to meaning Black. He is the black one who has also assumed the duties of the God of Death in Kashi. Even Death, it is said, is afraid of Kaala Bhairava.

Kaala Bhairava's temple today is one of the most intresting in all Banaras. Entering from the street , through a door guarded by Bhairava's mount, the dog, one finds a fine courtyard, in the center of which is the main shrine of Bhairava. Only the silver face of kaala bhairava, garlanded with flowers, is visible through the doorway of inner sanctum. The rest of Bhairava's image-said to be pot-bellied, seated upon a dog, holding a trident-is hidden behind a cloth drapery.

For many centuries, this temple was a spiritual center in Kashi for the most severe of Shiva ascetics, the "Kapalicas" or "Skull-Bearers," and their later descendants, the Gorakhnathis. Today, however, the temple is no longer the exclusive domain of such extremist yogis and is, rather patronized by ordinary householders for his protective blessings.

Although this temple is popular and beloved among those who live under its influence in the surrounding Kotwalpuri section of the city, it is not a mandatory stop for pilgrims today. Generally people have darshana of Vishvanaatha and Annapoorna, and then they leave.

Laat Bhairava

Laat Bhairava, known to the Puranas as Kapali Bhairava, is of particular intrest. This image of Bhairava is a pillar, encased in copper and s,eared with vermilion. Thus it has the name Laat, the staff of Bhairav.

This pillar once stood in a Hindu temple complex, but in the time of Aurangzeb the temple was destroyed and the site became a muslim tomb site. The pillar, however, was wisely left intact. Muslims continued to permit some access to the pillar and received part of the offerings in return.

The pillar was once much taller than today. A French traveller tavernier saw the Laat Bhairava in 1665, during the reign of Aurangzeb, and described it as being thirty two to thirty five feet high.

In 1809, it was toppled during a spate of Hindu-Muslim rioting. The Laat was pulled down and its broken pieces hauled away. Only a stub remained, and it is that remainder, now capped in metal and covered on special accasions with a cloth sleeve, that is honoured today. One hundred and ninty years after this violent communal disturbance, the Laat Bhairava area is still vulnerable to communal conflict, and a police guard is permanently stationed there to patrol the area of Bhairava's Laat.

Sankat Mochan

Sankat Mochan temple, dedicated to the god Hanuman. The name Sankat Mochan means "Liberator from Troubles". The temple is at a walking distance from Durga temple.

Money Power and Modern Art

2004-12-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

PART 1: Ruthless empire builders
By Henry C K Liu

A major event of high culture unfolded in a series of elegant receptions during the third week of November in New York, a city of seriously moneyed art collectors, scathing critics and a discriminating public. Three years in design and construction, the Museum of Modern Art reopened on its 75th anniversary with a new US$850 million building on the same site as the old museum in midtown Manhattan. Loved by all who have been fortunate enough to have their lives enriched by it, this cultural flower in one of the world's greatest cities, affectionately referred to as The Modern, has been cultivated in the supercharged greenhouse of modernist milieu, aiming to define fundamental issues of meaning and truth through the vehicle of esthetic preference at the forefront of modern civilization.

The Museum of Modern Art is the beloved legacy of an extraordinary woman of impeccable pedigree, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, born in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 26, 1874, to elitist senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich (1841-1915), the most powerful politician in a nation rising fast as a world power at the turn of the 20th century. Miss Aldrich was educated at home by a Quaker governess whose pacifist philosophy placed value on inner spirituality, attentive listening, compassion, non-violence, equality (particularly for women), non-evangelistic worship, silent devotion, inner-directedness and respect for consensus.

Such values, central to the ideal American character, had been coming into increasing conflict with evolving socio-economic reality and a new political climate as the young girl blossomed into womanhood. At 17, as proper for young women of her privileged class, she went to Miss Abbott's School to study English, French, German, art history, the classics, gymnastics and dancing. After graduating, she traveled to Europe in 1894 to view first-hand the art she had studied at school. At age 26, she became the wife of John D Rockefeller Jr, son of the founder of Standard Oil, the nation's wealthiest man. After a courtship that lasted more than five years, the couple, who first met in 1894 when the groom-to-be was a student at Brown University, were finally married at a super-lavish wedding on Warwick Neck, Rhode Island, on October 9, 1901. The vibrant bride was given away by her powerful father, Senator Aldrich, to the reserved heir of the nation's greatest fortune. It was a union of wealth and power. But while John D Rockefeller (1839-1937) created and accumulated wealth through the brutal imposition of efficiency on a chaotic oil-refining industry, it was Nelson Aldrich who brought about the private control of currency that made such wealth accumulation structurally systemic.

Elected to the Senate as a Republican from Rhode Island in 1881, Aldrich joined and eventually chaired the Senate Finance Committee, which set tariff rates, the principal means of raising federal revenue in the era before income tax. He was a strong proponent of protective tariffs for the benefit of young industries in the northeast, and helped force the populist Silver Republicans out of the party, and was the power behind the passage of the Gold Standard Act of 1900.

In the era of state-chartered banking, banks were free-standing individual entities that practiced predatory competition on each other in an unregulated free market, with no sense of solidarity or common interest as an industry nor shared responsibility to the community at large. Faced with recurring systemic credit crunches associated with the gold standard in an expanding economy, banks routinely engaged in internecine competition to corner cash, deny new credit to financially weak customers to expose them to predatory takeover raids by preferred customers, suspend cash payments abruptly with no warning, and hoard money regularly for profit. The sound-money regime and its associated credit crunches periodically failed the expanding economy, resulting in sudden layoffs of hundreds of thousands as credit-starved firms fell into insolvency, bringing trade a standstill.

In the summer of 1907, the US economy crashed, with a large number of big businesses and major Wall Street brokerages going bankrupt. By October, the venerated Knickerbocker Trust in New York City and the blue-chip Westinghouse Electric Co had both failed, touching off what came to be known as the Banking Panic of 1907, the latest and most severe of four nationwide banking panics that had occurred in three decades. The stock market plummeted and panic-stricken depositors made massive runs on the nation's banks.

Once more J P Morgan (1837-1913) acted to restore financial order. This was not his first exercise to save finance capitalism from free market forces, each time making his control of the financial markets more complete. He summoned leading bankers and financial titans to his palatial home on 36th Street and Madison Avenue in New York, where they set up a rescue operation in his ornate library. Over the course of the next three weeks, Morgan and his team bypassed legal constraints to channel money from the stronger institutions they owned to the weaker ones they had just acquired through predatory fire sales to keep the system afloat, halting the panic with the cooperation and gratitude of the government. Morgan strong-armed banks to agree to settle accounts among themselves with clearinghouse certificates rather than cash and thus increased the money supply without involving the government, and ended up owning a much larger share of the financial sector paid for with paper. In the finger-pointing following the crisis, reformers in both political parties agreed that the US banking system was fundamentally flawed and needed structural reform.

Conservative business leaders, however, held that it was president Theodore Roosevelt's progressive agenda that had upset the natural order of an otherwise self-balancing market and that if government would only stop meddling in commerce, all would return to normal. Typical of US politics, reform in form gained acceptance only by yielding to conservatism in essence. An emerging consensus affirmed that bank reform was indeed necessary to provide badly needed currency elasticity, which had been a major issue in the panic. But reform was not directed toward providing credit constructively to where the economy needed it most, but toward achieving general soundness in the banking system at the expense of fair competition to develop the full potential of the economy. Under the leadership of Aldrich, Congress responded by passing a hastily prepared stopgap legislation, the Aldrich-Veerland Currency Act of 1908, to provide short-term aid to distressed banks to ease the ongoing credit crunch to save big business. The legislation allowed national banks to issue notes on a wider range of securities than previously, with the effect of putting more money into circulation to prevent further corporate bankruptcies.

To seek a long-range solution to the complex issue of recurring financial crises, Congress created a National Monetary Commission (1808-12) under the Aldrich-Veerland Currency Act, with Aldrich as chairman, to study the matter in depth. A report recommending the Aldrich Plan was issued by the commission four years later in 1912 and not acted upon until 1913 at the beginning of the Democratic administration of president Woodrow Wilson (1913-21). In 1913, Congress passed the landmark Owen-Glass Act, which created the Federal Reserve System to act as lender of last resort to distressed private banks. Aldrich's work on the Aldrich-Vreeland Currency Act of 1908 and his chairmanship of the National Monetary Commission paved the way for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Wilson, being nearly illiterate on the technicalities of banking reform, was strongly influenced by William Jennings Bryan's populist outlook. Bryan, a chronically unsuccessful Democratic contender for presidency, became Wilson's secretary of state. Wilson said a year before he was elected, "The greatest monopoly in this country is the money supply," adding a couple of months later that he would not accept "any plan which concentrates control in the hands of the banks". Under Wilson, Representative Arsene P Pujo of Louisiana, chairman of the House Banking Committee, led the Pujo Commission in 1912 in a wide-ranging congressional hearing on the nation's financial problems. Pujo brought in J P Morgan to testify and eventually came to the conclusion that a "money trust" existed in the nation's financial sector, just as "corporate trusts" existed in oil, mining and the industrial sectors. In the view of the Pujo Commission, the central-banking solution outlined in the Aldrich Plan as recommended by the Monetary Commission did not solve the "money trust" problem.

The Fed is born
In 1913, the Democrat-controlled Congress adopted a regional, rather than fully centralized, approach to banking reform. Carter Glass of Virginia headed matters in the House and Robert L Owen of Oklahoma did so in the Senate. The final legislation created 12 Federal Reserve Banks that would act as central banks for all nationally chartered banks and other state-chartered institutions that voluntarily elected to be members. The idea of regionalism was to have a banking system responsive to the different monetary needs of various regions in the vast nation. The 12 Reserve Banks would not be federal bodies but private institutions owned by the member banks of the system. The compromise was a response to rising regional conflict rather than conflict between private or public control of the nation's money. A Federal Reserve Board was formed to oversee the system and establish policy. Members of the board would be appointed by the US president, providing a considerable measure of federal direction over the private system. Thus, like the Supreme Court, the "politically independent" Federal Reserve Board membership is politically appointed, albeit for fixed terms rather than life.

A new form of currency was created: the Federal Reserve Note, which has remained legal tender to this day, as a way to solve the problem of monetary inelasticity, to provide a national currency that would expand and contract as needed by the economy. The notes were to be backed by reserves of gold of at least 40% of the face amount of the notes issued. Government funds were to be deposited in the Reserve Banks, which ended the old sub-treasury system. The dollar did not become a fiat currency until 1971.

On December 23, 1913, Wilson laid to rest decades of monetary debate when he signed the Federal Reserve Act into law. Wilson's signature catapulted the Federal Reserve System into an monetary adventure that would evolve from a passive institution designed to prevent banking panics into what came to be known as a central bank, with an independent mandate from the body politic as an active promoter of monetary stability, a multi-faceted player and rescuer in the ever-more-reckless financial-services industry and supremely powerful financial arbitrager over the economy of the nation and the world, an institution owned not by the people and controlled not by democratically elected officials, but by political appointees acceptable to private bankers.

The National Monetary Commission had identified two related flaws in the nation's banking system: 1) Venerability to recurring bank panics and 2) An inelastic currency that was unresponsive to changes in demand in a dynamic economy. To combat these two problems, the commission made an urgent plea for timely sovereign lending to distressed banks (referred to as "rediscounting" in the Federal Reserve Act). The greatest power bestowed on the new Federal Reserve system was the setting of the discount rate - the rate of interest charged by the Reserve Banks when lending to member institutions collateralized by government securities. Raising the discount rate generally increases the cost of borrowing and slows the economy, while dropping it stimulates economic activity, since banks set their loan rates above the discount rate, and not by market forces.

Federal Funds include funds deposited by commercial banks at the Federal Reserve Banks, including funds in excess of bank reserve requirements. But Fed Funds can be created at will by the Federal Reserve now that the dollar is a fiat currency not backed by gold. Commercial banks may lend federal funds to one another on an overnight basis at the Fed Funds rate, which is the most sensitive indicator of the direction of interest rates since it is set daily by the market in response to the Fed's open-market operation: the buying or selling of government securities to meet Fed Funds rate targets. Thus the real function of sovereign debt is to provide an instrument through the buying and selling of which the Fed can inject or withdraw money from the money supply without appearing to create or destroy money while actually doing so.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was an important reform measure related to the operation of the banking system, but it failed to address the "money trust" problem of private control of money, a public monetary instrument. The control of the nation's money and credit that had gradually been taken away from the people over decades since the founding of the United States became institutionalized through the creation of the Federal Reserve System and stayed firmly and legally in the hands of a small circle of supremely powerful elite, depriving the nation of the financial democracy on which political democracy ultimately depends. Democracy requires the fair sharing of political power, which cannot be accomplished without fair sharing of financial power.

During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09), Aldrich opposed many of Roosevelt's progressive antitrust reforms against what Roosevelt called the "malefactor of great wealth", particularly against government regulation over private railroads built with massive government subsidy. Although the Aldrich-Rockefeller union combined power and wealth, the reputations of Nelson Aldrich and John D Rockefeller Sr were less than stellar. In a series of articles for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1906, muckraking journalist David Graham Phillips portrayed Aldrich as a corrupt political boss who contributed to the "Treason of the Senate". Similarly, writer Ida Tarbell (History of the Standard Oil) exposed the senior Rockefeller as a ruthless robber baron. President Roosevelt included Rockefeller among the "malefactors of great wealth".

Remembering Rockefeller
When Ida Tarbell traveled to Cleveland to observe John D Rockefeller Sr, the man she had been writing about for two years, she chose not to confront him face to face. She studied Rockefeller's every move at a distance, gathering ammunition for a scathing character piece. For his part, Rockefeller never got back at the feisty reporter. "Let the world wag" was his favorite motto, and long silence his response to Tarbell's attacks.

Tarbell wrote that Rockefeller had the powerful imagination to see what might be done with the oil business if it could be centered in his hands, the intelligence to analyze the problem into its elements, and to find the key to control. He had the essential element to all great achievement, a steadfastness to a purpose once conceived that nothing can crush. The reporter characterized Rockefeller as "good". There was no more faithful Baptist in Cleveland than he. Every enterprise of that church he had supported liberally from his youth. He gave to its poor. He visited its sick. He wept for its suffering. Moreover, he gave unostentatiously to many outside charities he deemed worthy. He was simple and frugal in his habits. He never went to the theater, never drank wine. He was a devoted husband, and he gave much time to the training of his children, seeking to develop in them his own habits of economy and clarity. Yet he was willing to strain every nerve to obtain for himself special and unethical, if not outright illegal, privileges from the railroads that were bound to ruin every man in the oil business not sharing his vision of order. Religious emotion and sentiments of charity, propriety and self-denial seem to have taken the place in him of notions of justice and regard for the rights of others.

"It may be that Mr Rockefeller is one of those double natures that puzzle the psychologist. A man whose soul is built like a ship in air-tight compartments to use the familiar figure - one devoted to business, one to religion and charity, one to simple living and one to nobody knows what. But between these compartments there are no doors," wrote Tarbell.

Rockefeller finally responded late in life

This sweetness that she tries to bring in, referring to these good qualities, and this praise that she brings in as to ability and perseverance and whatever traits which she concedes bring success, is simply covering up her wrath and her jealousy which were all the time present, but which she did not show all the time and which she thought she could bring out all the better by weaving this in as silken thread. She makes a pretense of fairness, of the judicial attitude, and beneath that pretense she slips into her 'history' all sorts of evil and prejudicial stuff, calling it 'the record of the court', where it is only a statement by a party at interest, and she hides the other side. She is very adroit and cunning; but even she has defeated herself. She has over-reached herself, and anyone who reads her book with care can see that she is dishonest, prejudiced and untruthful. Poor woman! How she has degraded herself and failed of accomplishing her object to injure, to smirch, to overthrow the Standard Oil Company, to satisfy the petty spite against it because forsooth her father and brother could not compete in the oil business.

I do not remember just how many [refineries] there were [in Cleveland] - say 25 or 30, more or less. Some of them were very little ... More than 75, and probably more than 80% - certainly a great number - of the refiners at Cleveland were already crushed by the competition which had been steadily increasing up to this time ... They didn't collapse. They had collapsed before. That's the reason they were so glad to combine their interest if they so wished it ... [They were] mighty glad to get somebody to come and find a way out. We were taking all the risks, putting up our good money. They were putting in their old junk ... When it was found how much of stock or money would be given in exchange for their plants we found no difficulty in proceeding rapidly with the negotiations, and nearly all came in ... though it is true that a few of the refiners decided to remain out, and these were among the smallest and least able to compete with us. With these our relations continued, entirely pleasantly, until at length, one by one, of their own volition, they were pleased to embrace the opportunity to join their interests with ours, the result of which in every case was most satisfactory to them.

From Rockefeller's perspective, what he said to them was: "We here [in Cleveland] are at a disadvantage. Something should be done for our mutual protection. We think this is a good scheme. Think it over. We would be glad to consider it with you if you are so inclined." Rockefeller acknowledged no compulsion, no pressure, no "crushing". "How could our company succeed if its members had been forced to join it and were working under the dash?" he asked rhetorically.

Tarbell reported a different observation.

There were at the time some 26 refineries in [Cleveland], some of them very large plants. All of them were feeling more or less the discouraging effects of the last three or four years of railroad discriminations in favor of the Standard Oil Company. To the owners [of the 26 refineries] Mr Rockefeller went one by one, and explained the South Improvement Company. 'You see,' he told them, 'this scheme is bound to work. It means absolute control by us of the oil business. There is no chance for any one outside. But we are going to give everybody a chance to come in. You are to turn over your refinery to my appraisers, and I will give you Standard Oil Company stock or cash, as you prefer, for the value we put upon it. I advise you to take the stock. It will be for your good.' ... It was useless to resist, he told the hesitating: they would certainly be crushed if they did not accept his offer, and he pointed out in detail, and with gentleness, how beneficent the scheme really was - preventing the Creek refiners from destroying Cleveland, keeping up the price of refined oil, destroying competition, and eliminating speculation.

All over the country the refineries in the same condition as Tack's firm sold or leased. Those who felt the hard times and had any hope of weathering them resisted at first. With many of them the resistance was due simply to their love for their business and their unwillingness to share its control with outsiders. The thing which a man has begun, cared for, led to a healthy life, from which he has begun to gather fruit, which he knows he can make greater and richer, he loves as he does his life. It is one of the fruits of his life. He is jealous of it - wishes the honor of it, will not divide it with another. He can suffer heavily by his own mistakes, learn from them, correct them. He can fight opposition, bear all - so long as the work is his. There were refiners in 1875 who loved their business in this way. Why one should love an oil refinery the outsider may not see; but to the man who had begun with one still and had seen it grow by his own energy and intelligence to 10, who now sold 500 barrels a day where he once sold five, the refinery was the dearest spot on earth save his home. He walked with pride among its evil-smelling places, watched the processes with eagerness, experimented with joy and recounted triumphantly every improvement. To ask such a man to give up his refinery was to ask him to give up the thing which, after his family, meant most in life to him.

As Tarbell saw it.

All over the country the refineries [in distressed conditions] were sold or leased. Those who felt the hard times and had any hope of weathering them resisted at first. With many of them the resistance was due simply to their love for their business and their unwillingness to share its control with outsiders. The thing which a man has begun, cared for, led to a healthy life, from which he has begun to gather fruit, which he knows he can make greater and richer, he loves as he does his life. It is one of the fruits of his life. He is jealous of it - wishes the honor of it, will not divide it with another. He can suffer heavily by his own mistakes, learn from them, correct them. He can fight opposition, bear all - so long as the work is his.

That was the American spirit, what the constitution refers to a the right to the pursuit of happiness. There were refiners in 1875 who loved their business in this way. Why one should love an oil refinery the outsider may not see; but to the man who had begun with one still and had seen it grow by his own energy and intelligence to ten, who now sold 500 barrels a day where he once sold five, the refinery was the dearest spot on Earth save his home. He walked with pride among its evil-smelling places, watched the processes with eagerness, experimented with joy and recounted triumphantly every improvement. To ask such a man to give up his refinery was to ask him to give up the thing which, after his family, meant most in life to him ... this feeling was a weak sentiment. To place love of independent work above love of profits was as incomprehensible to him as a refusal to accept a rebate because it was wrong!

Rockefeller agreed.

What a Godsend it was to the many little inefficient and unsuccessful refiners of Oil Creek that a buyer was found for them when for years they had been losing money! How wrong for the "historian" to call it a crime that these men were delivered from their sinking ships. It was a great mercy and without precedent, as has been hitherto stated. Almost any other historian, it would seem, would blush today to read injustice as it is written in these very pages, where [Tarbell] is made to speak of the crime, which should have been characterized only as an unprecedented magnanimous deliverance such as had not hitherto been known in the annals of business! In all times past the weak man in the competition dropped out and was lost sight of.

These men for years were importuned to join hands with those who were stronger and ready to pull them out from their embarrassments and fit them in to be useful in the administration of the Standard Oil Company so far as they had integrity, intelligence, enterprise and industry to warrant the expectation that they could be stones in the foundation of the great structure, the likes of which the world had never seen. [As for the producers], they were like a lot of foolish children, and would not be controlled, and would not observe the law referring to supply and demand. And this was all there was in the problem. How many times we told them - over and over again! - that if they would restrict production they would be the gainers. But how impossible it was for them to grasp that fact, and how impossible it was for them to summon sufficient integrity to carry out the agreements they made, in order to keep it. They knew it, but they wanted what certain of the refiners wanted; that is, to keep their bread and butter and eat it, too. This was found impossible. These people didn't believe in themselves; they didn't believe in the Standard Oil Company, they didn't believe in anybody, away down, and there was a screw loose in a great many of them, and so the sane ones had a hard problem.

A century later, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) adopts Rockefeller's advice and resorts to production cuts to keep oil prices up.

It is therefore truly amazing that Abby Aldrich, born to a super-powerful father and married to a super-rich husband, both of whom personified the rise of a moneyed aristocracy in the new democratic nation, brought up in a family culture that firmly believed in the right of the strong to eliminate the weak, should turn out to be the liberal, progressive woman that she was.

According to biographer Bernice Kert, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller was "a buoyant, impulsive, warm-hearted, lovable woman with [a] relaxed, worldly attitude [that] differed markedly from the rigid Baptist views of the Rockefellers". Yet she handled her in-laws with aplomb, and her reserved husband, John D Jr, adored her. It was Abby who humanized shy, religious John Jr, persuading him to renounce ruthless business in favor of benevolent philanthropy. While keeping her conservative husband happy, she pursued her own interests as a pioneering champion of modern art and folk art. With friends Lillie Bliss and Mary Sullivan, she helped found the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. She encouraged a new appreciation of American folk art through her gifts to Colonial Williamsburg, the 18th-century Virginia town restored with exacting authenticity. She also played a key role in the creation of Rockefeller Center in New York City, a superb urban design project built to create jobs during the Great Depression.

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller used her empathy, willingness to experiment, and defiant optimism to leaven her husband's conservative thinking. She expanded his vision of what the Rockefeller fortune could do, shaping the family into a progressive force in philanthropy, the arts, education, the social and physical sciences and politics. She supported such progressive social reforms as the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), National Women's Trade Union League, and American Birth Control League and was at the center of a remarkable network of women including the Mexican communist artist Frida Kahlo, wife of communist painter Diego Rivera and lover of Leon Trotsky; birth-control activist Margaret Sanger; and landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, niece of Edith Wharton and wife of Yale historian Max Farrand (The Fathers of the Constitution). She raised her six children - Babs, John III, Nelson, Laurence, Winthrop and David - with a commitment to social justice and public service to a variety of socially beneficial ends normally alien to super-rich heirs. She exerted strong positive influence on her five sons. A playful and attentive parent, she encouraged them to have an interest in the larger world and instilled in them her open-mindedness. "I want to make an appeal to your sense of fair play ... to begin your lives by giving the other fellow a fair chance and a square deal," she wrote in a 1923 letter to John III, Nelson and Laurence about persistent racism, an issue most white Americans chose to deny or ignore at the time. "It is to the everlasting disgrace of the United States that horrible lynchings and brutal race riots frequently occur in our midst. The social ostracism of the Jews ... causes cruel injustice ... I long to have our family stand firmly for what is best and highest in life ... If you older boys will do it the younger will follow."

A New York Times editorial published on the occasion of her death on April 5, 1948, at age 73 described her as "the spirit that held [the Rockefellers] together" but whose role in the handling of the family wealth was "a fortunate thing for society, for this country, and for the world". The influence of her liberal viewpoints on her husband and children is well documented.

Such personalities as Nelson Aldrich, John D Rockefeller and J P Morgan, all born within a span four years between 1837 and 1841, were products of a capitalistic age they helped to create. They were radicals who altered the nature of US society, overthrowing the agrarian democracy that underpinned the political mandate of the new nation founded three-quarters of a century earlier. With a view of themselves as moral, disciplined visionaries of strong Protestant ethics, they were meticulously upright in their personal affairs while engaging in wholesale duplicity in large-scale business and financial manipulation. They were ruthless empire builders in that they did not merely play the game to win, but they bent the rules of the game to ensure their less-than-fair winnings. And they were not apologetic about it.

Rockefeller wrote:

The Standard Oil Co has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of upbuilders we ever had in this country - or in any country. All of which has inured to the benefit of the towns and cities the country over; not only in our country but the world over. And that is a very pleasant reflection now as I look back. I knew it at the time, though I realize it more keenly now. We had vision, saw the vast possibilities of the oil industry, stood at the center of it, and brought our knowledge and imagination and business experience to bear in a dozen, 20, 30 directions. There was no branch of the business in which we did not make money ... Here was a force that reorganized business, and everything else followed it-all business, even the government itself, which legislated against it.

Tarbell rejected that view.

[John Rockefeller's] importance lies not so much in the fact that he is the richest individual in the world, with the control of the property that it entails; it lies in the fact that his wealth, and the power springing from it, appeal to the most universal and powerful passion in this country - the passion for money. John D Rockefeller, measured by our national ambition, is the most successful man in the world - the man who has got the most of what men most want ... Mr Rockefeller is a hypocrite. This man has for 40 years lent all the power of his great ability to perpetuating and elaborating a system of illegal and unjust discrimination by common carriers. He has done more than any other person to fasten on this country the most serious interference with free individual development which it suffers, an interference which, today, the whole country is struggling vainly to strike off, which it is doubtful will be cured, so deep-seated and so subtle is it, except by revolutionary methods. It does not pay. Our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for the kind of influence he exercises.

Tarbell, missing the point that it was the system that made the man, went on to attack the wrong target: "I never had an animus against Standard Oil's size and wealth, never objected to their corporate form. I was willing that they should combine and grow as big and rich as they could, but only by legitimate means. But they had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me."

Tarbell was excusing the system and blamed it on the man, a common error made by American liberals. The same attitude perseveres on their reaction to the Enron, WorldCom, Citibank, AIG scandals in recent years, that it was the few apples rather than the barrel that were rotten.

Rockefeller, of course, disagreed: "It was the law of nature, the survival of the fittest, that [the small refiners] could not last against such a competitor. Undoubtedly ... some of them were very bitter. But there was no band of greedy men plundering them. An able, intelligent, far-seeing organization simply outstripped men in the casual, haphazard way of doing business. That was inevitable."

Yet the purpose of civilization is to improve on the laws of nature. The fault was in the system, not the persons who excelled in the barbaric game. These robber barons had a common vision of the need to create a centrally controlled order out of decentralized democratic chaos. Above all, they recognized clearly that in a society where wealth was denominated in money, the way to achieve great wealth was to control the nature of money. What they did was to stage what amounted to an autocratic coup d'etat on the United States' monetary regime. On this most antisocial coup d'etat Tarbell said nothing.

Varanasi

2004-11-10T19:40:00.000-05:00

Varanasi

Varanasi (formerly Benares or Banaras), city, northern India, in Uttar Pradesh State, on the northern bank of the Ganges River. It lies in a fertile region in which sugarcane and grains are produced. The city is also an important commercial center. Silk brocade, gold and silver thread, filigree work, and brass articles are manufactured.

The city has few buildings built before the late 16th century, but its site was occupied in ancient times by the kingdom of Kashi; to devout Hindus the city has always existed. It is to them the holiest of cities; Hindu pilgrims come to Varanasi from all parts of the world. Records of such pilgrimages date from the 7th century. Large throngs gather along the banks of the sacred Ganges River, where terraced landings, or ghats, lead down to the water. Hindus believe that immersion in the Ganges water cleanses them of sins and that death on its banks leads to salvation. The level portions of the ghats are used for funeral pyres.

From Ramnagar, across the river, the city of Varanasi gives an impression of splendor that is dissipated on closer view. The narrow streets wind circuitously between painted and carved buildings, many of them with overhanging galleries. Among the more than 1500 temples, the best known are the mosque of Aurangzeb; the observatory of Raja Jai Singh and the Durga Temple, both built in the 17th century; and the holiest of all temples, the Bisheshwar, or Golden Temple. Varanasi is also a center of learning, especially for the study of Sanskrit, centered at Banaras College (1791) and maintained by the government. Banaras Hindu University (1916) was the first denominational university in India under private control; it is now nonsectarian. Varanasaya-Sanskrit University was founded in 1958. Population (2001) 1,100,748.

An Electoral College primer

2004-10-29T13:55:00.000-04:00

How it works
Each state in the United States is apportioned a number of Electoral College electors equal to its senators and representatives in Congress, with an additional three electors for the District of Columbia (Washington, the national capital). So, for example, the state of Louisiana, which has six representatives (based on population) and two senators (every state, regardless of size, has two senators) would have eight electors. Thus there are a total of 538 electors in the system. To win the presidency a candidate is required to win a simple majority of 270 electors.

Electors are chosen within the states by the political parties. The two major parties, the Republicans and Democrats, choose electors at statewide conventions, or they are appointed by party leadership within the state. Each state party organization submits a slate of electors to the chief election official of the state - in the example of Louisiana, they would submit a slate of eight potential electors. Most smaller parties simply appoint electors. Being chosen by one's party as an elector is seen as an honor and a reward for distinguished service to the party.

When US voters enter the voting booth, they will not actually be voting for the president directly. Rather they will vote for the electors pledged to their candidate of choice. Although this is a subtle difference, it is an important one. On most ballots, voters will simply choose a box labeled "Electors for Democratic Party" or "Electors for Republican Party", but in some cases the names of the electors are placed on the ballots as well. In all cases, however, the affiliation of the electors is clearly indicated.

When the votes are counted in each state, the candidate with the plurality of votes (not necessarily a majority) wins all of the electors from the state. Thus, in this winner-take-all system, if the popular vote in Louisiana went 55% for Bush, 42% for Kerry, and 3% for Ralph Nader, Bush would win all eight Electoral votes for the state. Nebraska and Maine are the only two exceptions to this rule; there, state law dictates that the winner of the popular vote for the entire state will automatically receive two of the state's electors, while the rest are determined according to the vote of individual congressional districts. Thus it mirrors the process for choosing senators and representatives for Congress, and the Electoral vote in those states can be divided between the candidates. In all cases, after the popular votes are counted and the electors assigned to the winner, the popular vote no longer matters. The voters have in effect delegated authority to the electors to cast a vote for one candidate or the other.

It is possible, as has happened three times in the past (most recently in 2000), for a candidate to win the election despite losing the popular vote. The easiest way to imagine this would be if the losing candidate were to win by very high popular margins in a few high-population states, but lose in close races in many lower-population states. In this scenario, the winner would be the candidate who won the most electors, rather than the winner of the popular vote.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the electors gather in their respective state capitals to cast their votes. This is when the president of the United States is officially chosen.

The finer points
If neither of the major-party candidates receives 270 votes (if a third-party candidate were to garner some states, for example), the election is decided by the House of Representatives. Each of the 50 states casts one vote only, and a simple majority chooses the president. This has happened twice, in 1801 with Thomas Jefferson and 1825 with John Quincy Adams.

Although the electors are "pledged" to a particular candidate, there is nothing in the US constitution mandating that they actually vote for that candidate. Thus it is possible for electors to defect, though this is not very common, as these "faithless" electors would be ostracized by their parties. In the last election there was one "faithless" elector, a District of Columbia delegate who refused to cast her ballot for the Al Gore/Joseph Lieberman ticket as a protest against the non-state status of DC. It also happened in the 1988 and 1976 elections, when one elector from the Democratic and Republican parties respectively altered their votes. In all three cases the defection had no impact on the final results; defections would have to happen on a wide scale to change the results, and many states have adopted laws preventing defection by electors.

This system is also somewhat dynamic, as the relative power of states changes according to their populations. Every 10 years a census is taken in the United States, and the results are used to redraw congressional districts. Though the total number of representatives is constant at 435, the distribution throughout the states changes. This in turn affects the Electoral votes for each state. Over the past half-century there have been some general population trends that have affected the political scene. Rust-belt states (industrial states from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan) have lost population, with each of these states losing two Electoral votes over the past 20 years. New York has lost five. These traditionally Democrat-leaning states have weakened the Democratic Party somewhat, as states in the south and southwest, which tend to vote Republican, have gained population and Electoral votes. Texas has gained five votes. At the same time, California, a strong Democratic state, has gained eight votes over the past 20 years.

History of the system
The Electoral College system was originally designed as a compromise to guard against the "political passions" of the electorate and the personal agendas of their representatives. In the late 18th century when the system was being designed, its architects worried that the people of the new nation might be subject to whimsical voting and popular currents, as in those days in the expansive United States communication was poor and travel difficult and time-consuming, and so it was difficult for candidates to mount a nationwide campaign. The other alternative was to allow Congress to choose the president, but this was not an acceptable choice because it was seen as a blurring of the lines between the executive and legislative branches of government, and it was felt that individual representatives might let their personal agendas interfere with the job of representing their constituents.

Thus the Electoral College was born. In the earliest days of the College, the electors cast their votes for individual candidates rather than a party slate consisting of a president and vice president. The winner of the most electors was chosen as president, while the runner-up was vice president. Occasionally this led to a situation when bitter rivals were elected to serve together. Through the years, as parties have become more organized and well defined, and as communication and transportation have improved, the Electoral College has become somewhat ceremonial, though its provisions can sometimes cause huge controversies, as was the case in the 2000 election.

The system has persisted unchanged since the 12th Amendment was passed in 1804 except for a minor modification by the 23rd Amendment in 1961, which stipulated that the District of Columbia would have three electors.

The critics
This system has drawn a great deal of criticism due to the possibility that the president might be elected without winning the popular vote. Although this had happened in 1876 and 1888, it was considered an almost academic possibility until the 2000 election, when George W Bush was elected despite having lost the popular vote by more that half a million votes. Calls for a new system intensified, with Democrats leading the charge. The critics argue that those who vote for the loser in every state are disfranchised.

Other critics of the system point to the fact that smaller states (in terms of population) have disproportionate representation. Since each state is guaranteed at least three Electoral votes, voters in sparsely populated states, such as Wyoming, technically have more say as to who becomes president. For example, in 1988 the combined voting-age populations of the seven least populous states was just over 3 million, but they had 21 Electoral votes. Florida, with a population three times as large, also had 21 Electoral votes. Critics also argue that in the event of the race being decided by the House of Representatives (in the case where no candidate achieves a simple majority), the smaller states have disproportionate power due to the one-state-one-vote rule.

Critics also argue that the current system discourages third parties by making it extremely difficult for them to have a showing in the Electoral College results. Although third-party candidates have won Electoral votes in the past, the most recent high-profile third-party candidates, Ralph Nader and H Ross Perot, failed to win a single Electoral vote despite substantial popular-vote counts, especially in the case of the latter.

The defenders
Proponents of the system counter these arguments by saying that the criticisms of the Electoral College system could be generalized to become indictments of the whole federal system of the United States. They also argue that if the president were decided by a pure popular majority, the election would be more vulnerable to fraud, as each state would have an incentive to run up the vote in favor of a particular candidate. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the officials charged with counting the ballots often are members of one party or another. In the current system, however, any potential fraud is compartmentalized, as the votes from one state do not affect other states. In addition, the current system, it is argued, makes a recount easier, as it is only necessary to recount the votes in the disputed state(s).

Supporters also argue that the system protects the rights of rural voters and residents of small states by guaranteeing that candidates expend time and political capital in an effort to win their Electoral votes. Without the system the candidates would probably focus all of their time and energy on major urban centers. The current system ensures that candidates visit and cater to the wants and needs of all citizens. The phenomenon of swing states is an example of this state-to-state campaigning.

Ironically, proponents of the system also use the third-party argument, suggesting that the current system prevents the formation of splinter parties that have disrupted politics in other democracies. They argue that the Electoral College system protects the integrity of the two-party system. They also argue that any move to congressional-district-based apportionment would encourage gerrymandering (the drawing of election districts to favor one party or population).

Alternatives?
Over the years there have been hundreds of proposed constitutional amendments to change the system, but none of them has passed. After the 2000 election, debate intensified and there were renewed calls for an overhaul of the system.

The most likely reform would be to assign electors based on the winners in each congressional district, as is the practice in Nebraska and Maine. Any move in this direction, though, would probably have to be at the state level, as all previous constitutional amendments have failed.

Nine Types Of Marriages in India

2004-07-18T01:22:00.001-04:00

In ancient India , nine kinds of marriages were known to exist. While some types were more common, others were practiced only by a particular class.

Swayamvara: This was marriage by self choice. The practice of Swayamvara was most prevalent among the Kshatriya families, in ancient India. When a princess became eligible for marriage, all the princes and kings of friendly countries were invited to the ceremony. When the princess appeared, carrying the jayamala (garland of flowers), they were introduced to her, one by one. The princess could choose any one of them as her husband. Sometimes, the bride placed a condition. A difficult task had to be performed to win her hand. Thus, Arjun had to pierce the eye of a fish fixed to a rotating wheel, with an arrow. But he was required to take the aim by looking at its reflection in a vessel filled with water.

Gandharva: When two persons married for love, it was called Gandharva marriage. Dushyanta, a brave king of the Kuru clan, married Shakuntala, daughter of sage Kanva, in this manner. He met Shakuntala in Kanva's ashram (hermitage) and fell in love with her. As Kanva was away and the king could not stay away from his Capital for long, the couple decided to marry by mutual consent.

Brahma: The bride was gifted to the groom in marriage. Pandu, the brave prince of the Kuru clan, once helped the king of Madra to fight an enemy. Impressed by Pandu's bravery, the king gifted his daughter, Madri, in marriage. Madri later gave birth to Nakul and Sahadev, two of the famous Pandava brothers.

Prajapatya: When a person married for the performance of sacred religious duties, it was called Prajapatya marriage. The wife's presence is necessary when a Hindu householder performs any religious duty. When Ram planned to perform the Ashvamedh sacrifice, he was asked by the priests to marry a second time as he had abandoned his wife, Sita. However, Ram still loved his wife and refused to marry a second time. He made a golden image of Sita and fulfilled the religious duties.

Daiva: A person who performed fire sacrifice gave away his daughter in marriage to the sacrificing priest. Sukanya, a princess, was married to sage Chyavan, in this way. Chyavan is credited with the invention of Chyavanprash , the tonic for eternal youth.

Arsha: Sometimes, a bride was obtained in exchange for a cow or a bull.

Rakshasa: Abduction of a bride. Bhishma, the prince of Kuru clan, abducted princesses Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, for his brother Vichitravirya. Amba refused to accept Vichitravirya as her husband but Ambika and Ambalika were married to him.

Asura: This was the mercenary marriage.

Paishacha: Seizing a bride by force while she was asleep.

India's Space Program

2004-06-24T01:50:00.001-04:00

India began its space program with the establishment of The Space Commission and Department of Space in 1972. Since then India has made steady progress in the development of launch vehicles and satellites. The first Indian satellite was Aryabhata, which was launched by a Soviet rocket on 19th April 1975. With the successful launch of the SLV-3 on 18th July 1980 when a 35kg satellite called Rohini was placed in LEO, India became only the seventh nation in the world to achieve space orbit capability.

Space technology in India is primarily geared towards improving telecommunications, meteorological forecasting, providing advanced natural disaster warning, distance education and remote sensing for agriculture, soil, mineral and water resources management.

India's first operational Earth Observation satellite IRS-1A, a 850 kg satellite was launched into a 900 Km polar orbit on 17th March 1988 by a Soviet rocket. In 1997, India used its own rocket PSLV to place IRS-1D into polar orbit. With the development of PSLV, India has the capability to place upto 1,200 kg satellites into polar orbit.

India's first operational telecommunications satellite was INSAT-1A, which was launched by a NASA Delta rocket on 10th April 1982. Since then, India relies on European Space Agency's Ariane rockets to launch its INSAT series satellites into geostationary orbit. With the development of GSLV, India is expected to be able to put INSAT series satellites into GEO by itself.

India launched its first sub-orbital sounding rocket on Nov. 21, 1963.

SLV. The first experimental launch of a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket took place on August 10, 1979.

Eleven months later, on July 18, 1980, India launched its first satellite, Rohini-1, to orbit on an SLV from the Sriharikota Island launch site.

Since then, India has invested a great deal of development work in more powerful rockets.

ASLV. The first developmental launch of a larger Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) rocket took place on March 24, 1987. Although an ASLV could lift a 300-lb. satellite to an orbit 250 miles above Earth, it was unsuccessful in its first try. The second developmental launch of an ASLV in July 1988 also failed. Later, the third and fourth attempts were successful.

PSLV. The even larger Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) debuted in September 1993, but failed to attain orbit. Its individual elements were successful. PSLV could lift a one-ton satellite to a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.

GSLV. The first attempt to launch a still larger Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket on March 28, 2001, failed on the pad when four strap-on boosters failed to reach the required thrust.

A GSLV was launched on April 18, 2001, from the Sriharikota Island launch site in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. It successfully placed a 1.5-ton experimental satellite called GSAT-1 into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above Earth.

A GSLV has three rocket stages, is 161 feet tall, and could boost a 2.5-ton satellite, such as large communications and weather satellites, to high stationary orbits. India also plans to use GSLV rockets to send probes away from Earth to explore the planets. Missions to Mercury, Venus and Mars are under consideration.

With a Russian engine. For the first GSLV flight in 2001, India purchased a Russian RD56M upper stage rocket engine and mounted it as the upper stage of the GSLV. The RD56M had been developed by Russia for its Proton-M rocket. A Russian RD56M upper stage also was to be used on the second GSLV flight in Summer 2002.

After that, five RD56Ms would remain for India's use as the South Asia nation had purchased seven RD56Ms from the Russians.

Without a Russian engine. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is developing its own cryogenic upper stage and plans to equip a GSLV with it for a launch of a 4,400-lb. satellite in 2003.

An even more powerful engine could be available for flight testing in 2004 or 2005. A powerful upgraded version III of the GSLV could be ready to fly in 2007.

Commercial launches. India hopes to tap into the commercial launcher market. The first commercial GSLV launch is set for 2002-03, to be followed by two launches per year through 2006-07.

Languages of India

2004-06-19T02:16:00.000-04:00

There are around 18 languages recognized by the Indian Constitution. These languages are

Assamese
Bengali
Gujarati
Hindi
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Nepali
Oriya
Punjabi
Sanskrit
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu
Hindi is the official and main link language of India. Its homeland is mainly in the north of India, but it is spoken and widely understood in all urban centers of India. It is written in the Devanagri script, which is phonetic and, unlike English, is pronounced as it is written. Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It has been influenced and enriched by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Portugese and English. It is a very expressive language. In poetry and songs, it can convey emotions using simple and gentle words. It can also be used for exact and rational reasoning.

The Saraswati River: India's miracle river

2004-06-10T23:59:00.000-04:00

The legend of the mighty Saraswati river has lived on in India since time immemorial. Ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, recorded thousands of years ago, are full of tantalising hymns about it being the life-stream of the people.
In a new radio programme, Madhur Jaffrey recounts the legend of the Saraswati river - and explores startling new evidence that it may not have been a myth after all.

Vast and awesome, the Saraswati's holy waters are supposed to have flowed from the Himalayas into the sea, nourishing the land along the way. But as the centuries passed and no one could find it, myth, belief and religion came together and the Saraswati passed into the realm of folklore.

Now most people in India think of it as a mythical river. Some even believe that it is an invisible river or that it still flows underground. Another commonly held perception is that the Saraswati once flowed through the north Indian city of Allahabad, meeting there with two other rivers, the Ganges and the Jamuna.

The confluence of these three rivers - one of which is not visible to the eye - is considered one of India's holiest spots.

For most of the country, the name Saraswati is better known for its divine namesake - the goddess Saraswati, Hindu goddess of Learning. Worshipped particularly by students and school children, her festival falls in February, and the city of Calcutta is famous for celebrating her in style.

Makeshift shrines are erected in every street and after the festival is over, thousands of the images are taken to the banks of the river Hooghly and pitched into the water where they are forever carried away by the river.

The goddess' connection to water is part of the enigma that surrounds the river. But that mystery could be set to be dispelled forever, as startling scientific evidence has come to light.

Through satellite photography, scientists have mapped the course of an enormous river that once flowed through the north western region of India. The images show that it was 8 km wide in places and that it dried up 4,000 years ago.

Dr JR Sharma who heads the Remote Sensing Services Centre in Jodhpur which is mapping the images, believes a major earthquake may have played a part in the demise of the Saraswati. There was, he says, a big tectonic activity that stopped the water supply to the river.

Sharma and his team believe they have found the Saraswati and are excited about what this discovery could mean for India. The idea is to tap its potential as a water source. They are working with India¿s leading water experts who are using the satellite images as clues.

Deep in the western Rajasthan desert, not far from the security-conscious border with Pakistan, an extraordinary programme is underway. Giant drilling rigs probe deep into the dry, arid earth pulling out undisturbed layers of soil and sediment for scientists to study and test.

Water engineers are exploring the region's ancient riverbeds for what they call groundwater - underground reservoirs that contain perfectly drinkable water. If they are successful, their discovery could transform the lives of thousands of locals who currently experience harsh water shortages.

Mr KS Sriwastawa of the Rajasthan State Groundwater Board believes one of these ancient buried channels may be the Saraswati.

He knows the stories refer to the ancient river flowing through this area and says excitedly that carbon dating has revealed that the water they are finding is 4000 years old. That would date it to the time of the Saraswati.

The modern search for the Saraswati was first sparked by an English engineer called CF Oldham in 1893 when he was riding his horse along the dry bed of a seasonal Rajasthani river called the Ghaggar.

As he rode on, he was struck by a sudden thought. The Ghaggar when it flowed, was a small, puny river and there was no reason for its bed to be up to 3km wide in places unless it occupied the former course of a much larger river - the Saraswati.

The discovery of a vast prehistoric civilisation that lived along the banks of a major river, has added impetus to the growing modern belief that the Saraswati has been found.

Over 1000 archaeological sites have been found on the course of this river and they date from 3000 BC. One of these sites is the prehistoric town of Kalibangan in northern Rajasthan.

The town has proved a treasure trove of information about the Bronze Age people who actually lived on the banks of the Saraswati. Archaeologists have discovered that there were priests, farmers, merchants and very advanced artists and craftsmen living there.

Highly sophisticated seals on which there is evidence of writing have also been found, indicating that these people were literate, but unfortunately the seals have never been deciphered.

They may well hold the clue to the mystery of what happened to the Saraswati and whether it has really been found again

Brief History of Andhra Pradesh

2004-06-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

The Andhras are originally an Aryan race, believed to have migrated to the south of the Vindhyas where they mingled with the non-Aryans. The earliest accounts of Andhra Pradesh date back to the time of Ashoka the Great Mauriyan king ( 3rd century B.C.) during whose reign it became an important Buddhist center. Even today there still are good evidences of the early Buddhist influence in Amaravathi and Nagarjunakonda, one of the greatest archaeological sites in the India.

The Satavahana dynasty ( 2nd century BC 2nd century A.D), also known as the Andhras, took control of much of central and southern India. They had their capital at Amravati on the Krishna. They enjoyed extensive international trade with both eastern Asia and Europe. The Satavahanas too were great patrons of Buddhism. Subsequently, the Pallavas from Tamil Nadu, the Chalukyas from Karnataka, and the Cholas all held sway. In the 13th century, the Kakatiyas, with their capital at Warrangal, dominated Andhra Desa. They were under the constant threat from Muslim incursions, while later on, after the fall of their city at Hampi, the Hindu Vijayanagars transferred operations to Chandragiri near Tirupati.

In 1323, the Tughlak Sultan of Delhi captured the Kakatiya ruler and ended the dynasty. The Tuglaks never cared to annex the Kakatiyan dominions and four local kingdoms arose out of the old Kakatiyan empire. One of these kingdoms was Vijayanagar. The Vijayanagar empire stood as a bulwark against Muslim expansionism for more than 200 years. Vijayanagar had to contend with Muslim sultanates in the north time and again. Sometimes Vijayanagar joined on sultan against another. These tactics finally led to a grand alliance of the sultanates of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda and Bihar against Vijayanagar. On 23rd January, 1565 the Deccan sultans humbled the mighty Vijayanagar army at the battle of Talikota.

The next significant development was in the mid 16th century, with the advent of the Muslim Qutb Shahi dynasty. The Qutb Shahis of Golconda laid the foundations of the modern city of Hyderabad. In 1687, the son of the Moghal emperor Aurangzeb routed the Qutub Shahis and seized Golconda. He appointed Asaf Jah the governor of Deccan. As the Mughal Empire tottered under Aurangzeb's successors, the Asaf Jahis made themselves independent rulers under the title of Nizam. Five years after Aurangzeb died in 1707, the Viceroy of Hyderabad declared independence and established the Asaf Jahi dynasty of Nizams. In return for allying with the British against Tipu Sultan of Mysore, the Nizam was allowed to retain a certain degree of autonomy even after the British had come to dominate all India. The Nizams became involved in the Anglo-French wars in the Deccan and had finally to enter into a subsidiary alliance with the British in 1800.

Andhra Pradesh is the first state in India that has been formed on a purely linguistic basis. When India became independent, the Andhras, that is, the Telugu-speaking people (although Urdu is widely spoken in Hyderabad) were distributed in about 21 districts, 9 of them in the Nizam's Dominions and 12 in the Madras Presidency. On the basis of an agitation, on Oct. 1, 1953, 11 districts of the Madras State were put together to form a new Andhra State with Kurnool as capital. On Nov. 1, 1956 in accordance with the recommendations of the State Reorganization Commission, the Andhra State was enlarged by the addition of nine districts formerly in the Nizam's Dominion. Hyderabad, the former capital of the Nizam, was made the capital of the enlarged Andhra State.

AP thus consists of three distinct regions

coastal region, comprising of nine districts, generally called Andhra,

the interior region, consisting of four districts collectively known as Rayalaseema and

Telengana region, consisting of the capital Hyderabad and nine adjoining districts.

From 1969 to 1972 AP was rocked by riots, first in Telengana, then in Andhra on the question of bifurcation of the state. The central Government refused to consider the question of bifurcation. A six-point formula was put forward by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi as a compromise. The formula was generally accepted and peace was restored in the state. The six-point formula has been incorporated into the Constitution as the Thirty-second Amendment in 1973.

Some Historical Events from in the Post Historical Era:

1947, Jaipur Session - A committee was set up with Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramaiah (JVP) by the All India Congress Committee to look into the demand for a separate Andhra State.

The JVP Committee approves reorganisation of states on linguistic basis but suggests delay in implementation.

August 15, 1950 - Government of India's non-chalance results in peoples' restlessness. Goparaju Sitarama Sastry commences fast unto death.

September 25, 1950 - Goparaju Sitarama Sastry calls off his fast after assurances from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru about formation of a separate Andhra state.

October 19, 1952 - Andhra stalwart Potti Sreeramulu begins fast unto death when no initiative towards their demands is undertaken.

December 15, 1952 - Sreeramulu takes his last breath, making a supreme sacrifice for the cause of the Andhras.

Bowed down by pressures and angry threats, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru makes a surprise announcement in the Lok Sabha that steps are being taken to form a separate state of Andhra Pradesh.

January 1953 - The Government of India appoints Justice K.N.Wanchoo to look into the matter.

March 1953 - Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announces the ushering in of the first linguistic state in the country on October 1, 1953.

October 1, 1953 - Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam takes charge as Chief Minister of Andhra state with Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy as the deputy.

December 1953 - Government of India appoints the States Reorganisation Commission headed by Justice Fazal Ali to decide on the demand for the formation of linguistic states in other parts of the country

2003 National Geographic Bee.

2004-06-07T03:36:00.000-04:00

Here are the answers to some of the questions asked of nearly 5 million students who took part in the preliminary round of the 2003 National Geographic Bee.
United States Geography

• The Mississippi River separates Tennessee from which state—Arkansas or Oklahoma? Arkansas Which state is north of the Ohio River—Virginia or Indiana? Indiana

• Which state, known as the Centennial State, joined the Union in 1876—Colorado or Vermont? Colorado

• Which river forms most of the border between Georgia and South Carolina—the Potomac River or the Savannah River? Savannah River

• Which city lies near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers—Memphis or St. Louis? St. Louis

• Which agricultural state is the geographical center of North America—New Jersey or North Dakota? North Dakota

• Farmers in which state use water from the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation—Nebraska or Maine? Nebraska

• Which city is located at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers—Minneapolis or Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh

• Which city is Oregon's largest city—Portland or Helena? Portland

• The Sea Island chain, including Hilton Head and Cumberland Island, runs along the coast of which state—Michigan or South Carolina? South Carolina

U.S. Cities

• Which city is located on the Cumberland River and is known for its many country music recording centers—Nashville or Little Rock? Nashville

• Which city is known for its extensive freeway system and is located in the most populous county in the United States—Dallas or Los Angeles? Los Angeles

• Which city was founded as a fort between Lake Erie and Lake Huron and developed into one of the country's leading manufacturing centers—Detroit or Milwaukee? Detroit

• Which city is located on a river delta—New Orleans or Austin? New Orleans

• Which city was named after the founder of a famous stagecoach line that once crisscrossed the West—Fargo or Boston? Fargo

• Which city is the westernmost point on the Erie Canal—Cincinnati or Buffalo? Buffalo

• Which major city is located in North Carolina and was near the site of the first important gold discovery in the United States—Columbia or Charlotte? Charlotte

• The world's largest naval base is located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in which city—Norfolk or Washington, D.C.? Norfolk

• Which city is located on the western tip of Lake Superior and is an important port for shipping grain and iron ore—Des Moines or Duluth? Duluth

• Which city was badly damaged during an earthquake in 1964 and is now the most populous city in Alaska—Anchorage or Barrow? Anchorage

Odd Item Out

• Which state is not a major producer of wheat—Connecticut, North Dakota, or Montana? Connecticut

• Which of the following states is not crossed by the Colorado River—Arizona, Colorado, or New Mexico? New Mexico

• Which state does not border Tennessee—North Carolina, Mississippi, or West Virginia? West Virginia

• Which of the following is not a Great Plains state—Ohio, Oklahoma, or Kansas? Ohio

• Which state's capital is not named after a President of the United States—Mississippi, Nebraska, or South Dakota? South Dakota

• Which state does not include part of Yellowstone National Park—Idaho, Oregon, or Wyoming? Oregon

• Which state does not have a continental climate—Iowa, Minnesota, or Mississippi? Mississippi

• Which state does not border Saskatchewan—Montana, North Dakota, or Wisconsin? Wisconsin

• Which state is not part of New England—Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, or Connecticut? Pennsylvania

• Which state does not have a panhandle—Colorado, Florida, or Oklahoma? Colorado

Continents

• The archipelago Islas Malvinas , also called the Falkland Islands, lies off the southeastern edge of which continent? South America

• Name the continent on which the Olympic Games originated. Europe

• Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd all explored which continent? Antarctica

• Brisbane and Adelaide are ports on which continent? Australia

• Öland , Corsica, and Malta are islands that are part of which continent? Europe

• Which continent includes the Atlas Mountains and the Kalahari Desert? Africa

• Borneo, one of the largest islands in the world, is considered part of which continent? Asia

• Which continent contains the largest number of landlocked countries? Africa

• The Ural Mountains form the western boundary for which continent? Asia

• The country with the longest coastline is located on which continent? North America

World Geography

• One of the world's largest potash deposits is located in Saskatchewan in which country? Canada

• Yekaterinburg lies on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains in which country? Russia

• The Tyrrhenian Sea separates the island of Sardinia [sar-DIH-nee-uh] from the mainland of which country? Italy

• Which country located southeast of Australia is one of the world's leading producers of wool? New Zealand

• Oil pipelines cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the port at Salina Cruz in which country? Mexico

• The confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile Rivers lies near Khartoum in which African country? Sudan

• What Asian country traditionally organized its citizens into a strict caste system related to Hinduism? India

• The Gobi Desert is the main physical feature in the southern half of a country known also as the homeland of Genghis Khan. Name this country. Mongolia

• Since 1960, thousands of people have migrated across the Straits of Florida to the United States from which country? Cuba

• Large reserves of phosphates are found in which North African country that borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea? Morocco

The Geography of Culturally Important Places and Issues

• What is the primary religion of Mali, a landlocked country located in West Africa? Islam

• The Festival of San Fermin at Pamplona is an important festival in which European country? Spain

• Impressionist painting was developed by painters such as Monet and Renoir in which European country? France

• What religion originated in India and spread across Asia via trade routes such as the Silk Road? Buddhism

• What country is famous for its harmonious gardens that provide sanctuary for people living in large cities like Kyoto? Japan

• The oracle of Zeus at Dodona is located in which European country? Greece

• The Manchu are an ethnic group of what Asian country? China

• The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri is on the west bank of which African river? Nile

• Maharashtra borders the Arabian Sea and is one of the most urbanized states of which Asian country? India

• Name the politically divided island in northwestern Europe that has a Protestant majority in the north and a Catholic majority in the south. Ireland

Physical Geography

• The Great Circle, at zero degrees latitude, is known by what name? Equator

• What is the term for the sudden vibrations caused by the movement of rock along a fault? earthquake

• Name the belt of volcanic and seismic activity that borders most of the Pacific Rim. Ring of Fire

• What is the name of the solid fossil fuel found in sedimentary rock? coal

• In the Northern Hemisphere, what season begins when the noonday sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn? winter

• What resource is trapped between layers of rock in an aquifer? water

• Earthquakes can sometimes create unusually large waves that cause destruction when they reach land. What Japanese term is used for this kind of wave? tsunami

• In Florida and the West Indies, a small low-lying island usually made up of coral or sand is known by what term? key

• What is the term for the flat area that stretches beyond the banks of a river? floodplain

• What is the term for a hot spring through which jets of heated water and steam erupt? geyser

Lord of the Rings Inspired by an Ancient Epic

2004-06-07T03:31:00.000-04:00

Brian Handwerk

Generations of readers have cherished Middle-earth, the fantasy universe sprung from the mind of storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien. His magical world has been brought to life in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the third of which, The Return of the King, swept every category it was nominated for at the Academy Awards ceremony last night. The movie most notably won Oscars for Best Picture and Directing, among 9 others.
While the author's imagination was vast, Tolkien's world and its cast of characters do have roots in real-world history and geography, from the world wars that dominated Tolkien's lifetime to the ancient language and legends of Finland.

Anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled to a remote corner of Finland to uncover Tolkien influences that stretch back into the misty past of northern Europe.

Ancient Saga

Davis, a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, journeyed to what was once Finland's Viena Karelia region, along the Russian border, to study Finnish. By the 19th century this area was a last refuge for a unique dialect of the Finnish language.

Nearly all Finns at that time were speaking Finnish, Swedish, or even Russian, the region's established written languages. But a dialect still existed in this isolated region as it always had—in oral form, passed down through the ages from one generation to the next in songs and verses, or runes.

A collection of these runes, comparable to India's Ramayana, or the Greek Odyssey, is known in Finland as the Kalevala, and those who sing its lyrical verses from memory are known as rune singers. These elders long carried in their minds the entire record of the Finnish language.

"In an oral tradition, the total richness of the language is no more than the vocabulary of the best storyteller," Davis explains. "In other words, at any one point in time the boundaries of the language are being stretched according to the memory of the best storyteller."

In what was the Viena Karelia region, the oral tradition of the Finnish language is still alive, but now contained in the memory of just a single storyteller. His name is Jussi Houvinen, and he is Finland's last great rune singer. This elderly man is a living link to myths and languages that have passed mouth-to-ear over the ages in an unbroken chain.

"It's an amazing thing to be in the presence of a man singing even a snippet of the poem," says Davis of his meeting with Houvinen, "because it's so powerful that even if you don't speak Finnish it's profoundly moving just to listen to it, just the cadence of the sounds.

"Being in his presence, and knowing how few people can today recite the poem, you felt you were in the presence of history that was about to be snuffed out." When Houvinen dies the ancient succession of rune singers will end. No one from a younger generation has been able to learn the vast breadth of the saga.

However, the Kalevala itself will not die with Jussi, due to the efforts of a country doctor named Elias Lönnrot.

In the early 19th century, Lönnrot became enamored of the Finnish songs and runes he found in Viena Karelia. He devoted himself to traveling the district, listening to the rune singers and committing the oral poetry to the written word. This was the genesis not only of the modern Finnish language but of the Finnish nation as an entity, creating what Davis calls "this wonderful idea of a … bardic poem inspiring a modern nation."

Inspiration for Middle-Earth

The Kalevala inspired not only Finnish nationalism but also a young English scholar and writer named J.R.R. Tolkien, in whose mind was already taking shape a magical universe that was about to be transformed by Finnish language and legend.

In a letter to W.H. Auden, on June 7, 1955, he remembered his excitement upon discovering a Finnish grammar in Exeter College Library. "It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me; and I gave up the attempt to invent an 'unrecorded' Germanic language, and my 'own language'—or series of invented languages—became heavily Finnicized [sic] in phonetic pattern and structure."

The Finnish language that so delighted the young student became the inspiration for the lyrical tongue of Middle-earth's elves. Tolkien taught himself the ancient and newly codified Finnish to develop his elfin language, and so that he could read the Kalevala in its original Finnish. This achievement opened the door to many further influences from Finnish mythology. Parallels abound between the Kalevala and Tolkien's own saga, in terms of both the characters themselves and the idea of the hero's journey.

The Kalevala features "all the themes of pre-Christian traditions, shape-shifting, mythical demons, magical plants, animals becoming human beings," says Davis, while the story itself "is fundamentally a story of a sacred object which has power, and the pursuit of the mythic heroes who seek that power, to seek a way of understanding what that power means." Davis describes the Kalevala as "a journey of the soul and a journey of the spirit—and that's obviously what drew Tolkien to it."

Tolkien readers have long seen Tolkien's bucolic vision of rural England represented in Middle-earth's Shire, and recognized English farmers in characters such as the hobbit Sam. But those who explore the Kalevala may discover much of the land of the elves, and their language, in the vast snowy spruce forests of Finnish legend.

Nuclear proliferation: A Brief History

2004-06-07T03:00:00.000-04:00

Nuclear proliferation was born with the first set of nuclear weapons. Its a half century long saga of strategic maneuvering, clashes of ideologies, espionage, love, hate, deceit, back stabbing and personal greed.

History bears witness to the fact that there is nothing extraordinary, new or unique about Pakistan proliferating nuclear know-how, if at all. The United States started the tradition by gifting it to the UK and France. The rogue
(socialist) elements in the UK and US exported the same technology to the Soviet Union, who in turn gave it away to countries like China and India.
China in kind, passed it to Pakistan who is said to have kept the tradition alive by trying to pass it on to the Iran, Libya and N. Korea. India and Israel did their part by bringing South Africa and Brazil onboard.

For their share of proliferation the French passed the nuclear technology to Israel. Despite De Gaulle's opposition and direct orders to shut the technology pipeline built by Shimon Peres, his atomic energy minister Jacques Soustelle kept the transfer going on. Was Soustelle punished for going rogue and breaking the laws against the proliferation? Not that the world knows of.

If anything, it is the United States, which unintentionally, or otherwise, initiated the nuclear proliferation. The US was the first to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle, the rest merely followed in its footprints.

The US proliferation started even before the first nuclear device was ever detonated. It began when the US started to train the foreign scientists from Britain, Canada and France in the art of “Atomic Bomb” making during the Manhattan project. The fear of expansion of communism right after the WWII was so intense, that the US started to pass the nuclear technology willy-nilly to its friends under the garb of a program called “Atoms for Peace”. To this day the world has not been able to recover from this massive US proliferation.

At times the US looked the other way when its friends were building the nuclear network, and even pretended like nothing happened when its spy satellites detected an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the Indian Ocean on September 22, 1979. The episode was swept under the rug because there was a strong possibility that it was one of the American allies who conducted the test, namely Israel.

The recent transfer of simulation software to France enabled it to check the health of its nuclear weapons without detonating one is an example of American proliferation. A pledge to cooperate with India in the dual use nuclear and space technology is only the latest example the American proliferation.

Though the United States merits the dubious distinction of being the original proliferator, it was soon joined by a host of other wannabes. Following is a brief history of international proliferation, the actors involved and the end results.

Soviet Union/Russia: Despite the fact that great Soviet minds such as Yakov Zel'dovich and Yuli Khariton were already tinkering with the nuclear technology even before the WWII started, the Russians were still far from crossing the threshold. It took no less than complete design and data of American nuclear weapon supplied by the “Atom Spies” like Klaus Fuchs and Rosenbergs to detonate its first nuclear device four years after the United States.

Outcome of proliferation: The Soviets detonated their first nuclear device on August 29, 1949.

Britain: The British program directly benefited from the American “Manhattan Project” when its first rank scientists like Geoffrey I. Taylor and William G.
Penney were sent to Los Alamos under the cover of 1943 Quebec Agreement. These American trained British scientists provided the nucleus for British post-war atomic weapons development efforts.

Thanks to the Quebec Agreement, Canada supplied plutonium was incorporated into the core of first British nuclear device, code-named Hurricane.

Outcome of proliferation: Britain detonated its first device on September 15, 1952.

France: Just like the British scientist, the French scientists like Dr.
Bertrand Goldschmitt also worked with the Anglo-Canadian team on the Manhattan Project. After the war, he continued the weapons work in France and gave it its nuclear weapon.

Outcome of proliferation: The first French nuclear test, code-named Gerboise Bleue, was conducted on February 13, 1960 at Reggane in Algeria.

China: China was never a direct beneficiary of American proliferation, but it made tremendous gains from the blatant Soviet proliferation. In 1951 Peking signed a secret agreement with Moscow through which China received massive Soviet nuclear assistance in exchange uranium ores.

In 1957, China and USSR signed an agreement on new technology for national defense, which included additional Soviet nuclear assistance. The Soviets also provided China with a major gaseous diffusion facility for production of enriched uranium.

Outcome of proliferation: China's first nuclear test was conducted at Lop Nor on October 16, 1964.

India: India is a prime example of American initiated nuclear proliferation under the cover of “Atoms for Peace” program. During the 1950s and then in 1960s the United States and Canada helped India to lay the foundation for its nuclear weapons technology.

In 1956, Canada built 40 megawatt Canadian-Indian Reactor in India. The United States supplied the heavy water for it. This reactor will later become the source of plutonium for India's first nuclear device.

In 1963, India ordered two 210-megawatt boiling-water reactors for the Tarapur Atomic Power Station from General Electric.

India received its first heavy water production plant from Germany in 1962 and then built additional seven heavy water plants with help of France and Switzerland.

The United States continued to display a total disregard for all of non-proliferation conventions. In 1964, its assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs John McNaughton proposed to initiate a program to train and equip Indian forces to use nuclear weapons, and create a stockpile to disperse to India in times of crisis.

In 70s, the Soviet Union assumed the role of India's main supplier of heavy water, and covert and overt nuclear proliferation. During the 80s, India clandestinely acquired and developed centrifuge technology from the USSR and built uranium enrichment plants at Trombay and Mysore.

During the same decade, a German exporter and a former Nazi, Alfred Hempel shipped tons of heavy water via Dubai to India. This clandestine supply enabled the Indians to use its reactors like Dhruva to create plutonium for its atomic weapons program. The suppliers of heavy water included China, Norway and Soviet Union.

In January 1996, in a barefaced show of defiance of a “Nuclear Suppliers Group ” ban, Moscow and New Delhi, reached an agreement to build two Russian light-water nuclear reactors at Kudankalam in Tamil Nadu.

Outcome of proliferation: India conducted its first so-called “peaceful nuclear explosion,” on May 18 1974.

Israel: France laid the foundation of Israeli nuclear program on October 3, 1957, when it signed an agreement to build a 24 MWt reactor (although the cooling systems and waste facilities were designed to handle three times that power), and a chemical reprocessing plant in Israel. A secret nuclear complex was constructed outside the IAEA inspection regime, at Dimona, in the Negev desert under the leadership of Col. Manes Pratt of the IDF Ordinance Corps.
France not only built a nuclear and reprocessing plant for Israel, it also supplied the heavy water and delivered Uranium for the Israeli plant. The plant went critical in 1964.

Since 1958, the United States had been well aware of the Israel nuclear program, but it did nothing to stop it. Walworth Barbour, US ambassador to Israel from 1961-73, allegedly said at one point that “The President did not send me there to give him problems. He does not want to be told any bad news.”
After the 1967 war, Barbour even put a stop to military attachés' intelligence collection efforts around Dimona. When in 1966, the US embassy staff sent a warning message to Washington upon learning that Israel was beginning to put nuclear warheads on its missiles, the message disappeared in thin air and was never acted upon.

Outcome of proliferation: Israel is speculated to be in possession of between 100 to 200 nuclear weapons, and in 1979 is suspected to have conducted a nuclear explosion over the southern Indian Ocean in collaboration with South Africa.

South Africa: Israel introduced South Africa to the exclusive nuclear weapons club. Israel provided South Africa with technical assistance on its weapons program, in exchange for S. Africa's 300 tons of uranium. “Oppenheimer of Israel” Ernst David Bergmann and several other Israeli nuclear scientists visited South Africa in 1967.

In 1974, Moshe Dayan is reported to have made a secret visit to South Africa and discussed nuclear weapon cooperation, including the possibility of nuclear tests.

Between 1977 and 1978 Israel received 50 tons of natural uranium from South Africa and in return supplied 30 grams of tritium, in 12 separate shipments.
Israel is also believed to have provided the bomb design.

Outcome of proliferation: Till July 1990, South Africa was in possession of six nuclear devices as well as the partially completed seventh device.

Argentina: Argentina's nuclear program was supported by a number of countries.
Canada and West Germany supplied the power reactors, while China and Switzerland supplied a heavy water plant. The Soviet Union supplied other nuclear equipment. In the absence of international safeguards, hot cells were operated from 1969-1972.

Outcome of proliferation: Argentina came stones throw away from building a nuclear device, as a number of sites and facilities were developed for uranium mining, milling, and conversion, and for fuel fabrication. A missile development program was also pursued for some years.

Brazil: The US proliferation to Brazil goes way back to the 1940s when it signed an agreement to transfer the nuclear technology in exchange for cooperative mining of uranium and monazite. In 1965, the US provided Brazil with medium-grade enriched uranium for its first nuclear reactor.

In 1975, Brazil signed a technology transfer agreement with Germany (not covered under the IAEA safeguards) for a complete nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment and reprocessing plants. The agreement called for West Germany to transfer eight nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment facility, plutonium reprocessing plant, and Becker “jet nozzle” enrichment technology.

Outcome of proliferation: Brazilian nuclear weapons program code-named “Solimões” was exposed by the members of CPI (Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito). In its report it was revealed that the IEAV (Instituto de Estudos
Avançados) had designed two atomic bomb devices, one with a yield of twenty to thirty kilotons and a second with a yield of twelve kilotons. In September 1990, a nuclear test shaft was closed at Cachimbo, in Pará State.

Iraq: Iraqi nuclear weapons program's root are also traced back to the American “Atoms for Peace” program and to the Soviet supplied research reactor
- the 2 megawatt IRT-5000, which was later upgraded to 5 MW in 1978.

In 1976, Iraq and France concluded an agreement for MTR reactors. MTR reactor was a derivative of the French Osiris reactor which was a pool-type reactor fuelled by 93% enriched weapon grade uranium.

In 1979, Iraq sent engineers to visit India's nuclear establishments and scientists.

During the same year, Iraq contracted with the Italian company SNIA-Techint for pilot plutonium separation and handling facility, and a uranium refining and fuel-manufacturing plant (not covered by IAEA safeguards).

Iraq also obtained large amounts of uranium - 100 tons of natural uranium from Portugal, and additional large shipments from Brazil and Nigeria.

During 1998 and 2001, an Indian company, NEC Engineers shipped several consignments of rocket fuel ingredients to Iraq via Dubai.

Outcome of proliferation: On behest of the IAEA, a group of nuclear weapon designers from the United States, Britain, France, and Russia met in April
1992 to assess the progress of Iraq's nuclear program prior to the Persian Gulf War. The group suggested Iraq's nuclear weapons program plan was established in 1988. Iraq's objective was to produce its first nuclear by 1991.

Those who view Pakistan's amateurish attempts at nuclear proliferation as unique or as a new phenomenon either harbor malice in their hearts or are selectively oblivious of history of nuclear proliferation. Their attempt is as spiteful as it is deliberate.

If the world community is really interested in finding the real nuclear proliferators, then it has to look no further than looking at the two superpowers. The Americans initiated the nuclear proliferation, while the Soviet Union setup the one stop nuclear superstore.

A parting word on pardons too. In the name of extraordinary services, the history is full of famous personalities going scot-free for their clear disregard of laws. For example, despite Oppenheimer's open association with the Communists, he was allowed to run the nuclear program till 1953.
Eventually, he was quietly sidelined for his Communist associations, but only after he gave the US its nuclear bombs. Shouldn't the hush hush sidelining of a diehard Communist spy and a true “father of the Atomic Bomb” be called a “mother of all Pardons”?

How about Casper Weinberger receiving the pardon and a “Medal of Freedom” for the breakup of the communist block despite his utter disregard for the US laws, and his clear role in the Iran-Contra deals?

Lets not even talk about President Clinton pardoning the drug runners and other criminals, because it's beyond any logic and reason.

Last but not the least, how about President Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon for making a mockery of the US constitution and laws?

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is any way so discriminatory that it was rightly called as “disarming the unarmed”. Those moralizing to Pakistan are well advised to do some honest soul searching.

Pakistan is only a window to the Nuclear Proliferating World, but certainly not the door to it.

Will We Run Out of Energy?

2004-06-07T02:50:00.000-04:00

Mark Brandly

With gas prices exceeding $2 per gallon, an alarmed American public is prone to believe scary predictions about a future without gas. And so into this hyper-charge environment will step a number of commentators who claim to marshall all the data to show that we must dramatically change our lives.

For example: "Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century unless we can find a way to live without fossil fuels." Alarmist David Goodstein begins and ends his new book, Out of Gas, with this warning.

According to Goodstein's worst case scenario, an oil crisis in the near future may lead to "Runaway inflation and worldwide depression [leaving] many billions of people with no alternative but to burn coal in vast quantities for warmth, cooking, and primitive industry. The change in the greenhouse effect that results eventually tips Earth's climate into a new state hostile to life.[1] End of story" (p. 37).

Dire warnings about oil shortages have been around almost since oil wells were first drilled. In the late 1800s, the oil fields in the eastern U.S. were in decline raising doubts about the possibility of providing for U.S. energy needs. The U.S. Geological Survey was founded at this time in part because of fears of oil shortages.[2] Then the discovery, in 1897, of a single oil well in northeastern Oklahoma, the famous Nellie Johnstone #1, started the Oklahoma oil boom and temporarily ended any threat of an oil shortage. Even though past forecasts of oil crises have continually been proven wrong, there's no shortage of additional predictions of this sort.

The Hubbert Model

Goodstein's book is the latest work to use the Hubbert model to predict an oil crisis. Marion King Hubbert, a geophysicist and a geologist for the USGS, is known for predicting, in 1956, that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970 and decline thereafter. This peak has come to be known as Hubbert's peak and is used to allegedly demonstrate that the current demand for oil will lead to a crisis and that that crisis is nearly upon us.

Goodstein applies Hubbert's argument to world oil production and concludes that world oil production will begin a continuous decline in the near future. The world is nearing Hubbert's peak and Goodstein expects the "crisis to occur when the peak is reached, rather than when the last drop [of oil] is pumped" (p. 30). And market forces will not prevent this crisis.

While Goodstein can't predict for certain, he notes that "we can all too easily envision a dying civilization, the landscape littered with the rusting hulks of useless SUVs," which could lead to "Oil War III" (p. 31). And as "we learned in 1973, the effects of an oil shortage can be immediate and drastic, while it may take years, perhaps decades, to replace the vast infrastructure that supports the manufacture, distribution, and consumption of the products of the . . . oil we Americans alone gobble up each day" (p. 18). In short, the crisis will be so severe that energy suppliers might not be able to make the adjustments needed to save civilization.

Goodstein has a solution, though. Science and the "laws of nature" cannot be changed. We can, however, change the "laws of people." Goodstein prescribes energy conservation and weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels. We also need higher gasoline prices and we must use hybrid cars, insulate our homes better, redesign our cities, improve public transportation, and move towards other energy sources such as nuclear power and solar power.[3]

Reliance on Empirical Findings

The problems with Goodstein's conclusions, and this applies to Hubbert's followers in general, begin with his reliance on empirical findings to generate the Hubbert curves. He projects decreases in the rate of growth of oil production into the future and then estimates the date of Hubbert's peak and the resulting decline in available oil. However, empirical findings do not always support this thesis.

Many countries' oil production curves are not shaped like Hubbert's bell curve. For example, some oil production curves have multiple peaks. This does not discourage Goodstein. The exact timing of Hubbert's peak is not the essential issue. The important lesson is that "the crisis will come . . . when the rate at which oil can be pumped out of the ground starts to diminish" (p. 37).

However, oil production curves that do not conform to Hubbert's model create insurmountable problems for Hubbert's followers. Since oil production curves have multiple peaks, the problem then becomes one of determining which peak is the final peak. A Hubbertarian needs to know the timing of the final peak in order to determine the start of the crisis.

One cannot predict that the crisis is near unless one knows that the oil production decline is a permanent one. Oil production declines will tend to lead to increased incentives to find more oil reserves preventing the decline from becoming a crisis. In order to predict a crisis, Hubbertarians need to be secure in their assumption that the decline is permanent and empirically this assumption is suspect.

The alarmists have repeatedly underestimated future production capabilities. Even recent predictions about future oil reserves have been revised upward due to the discovery of the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan and the Azadegan field in Iran. Any upturn in production anywhere seems to take the Hubbertarians by surprise. Simply put, Goodstein and his kind continually underestimate future oil projections (and much oil remains undiscovered.)

Goodstein also limits his analysis to conventional oil reserves. While he notes that there are unconventional sources for oil, he dismisses the possibility of finding economical methods to recover this oil. The world contains more unconventional oil, as far as we know, than conventional oil.

Venezuela's Orinoco heavy oil belt is estimated to have over 1 trillion barrels of reserves and the reserves in Canada's Athabasca Tar Sands are estimated to be as high as 1.8 trillion barrels. In addition, there are large deposits of oil shale in the United States and several other countries. While most of these reserves are not financially viable at this time, we know these reserves are in place. Higher energy prices or advanced technologies might make it feasible to use this unconventional oil.

Empirical refutation does not deter the Hubbertarians, however. One Hubbert acolyte, Colin J. Campbell, anticipating a negative response to his changing data sets, defends himself: "critics relish pointing out how the assessment has evolved over time, taking it as evidence that depletion studies are meaningless. A good response would be to quote the famous economist, Maynard Keynes, who on being accused of inconsistency replied. "When I have new information, I change my conclusions. What do you do? Sir."[4] I suppose that it's encouraging to find a Hubbertarian quoting any economist given their lack of understanding of the fundamentals of economics.

Geological Considerations and Market Forces

An even more critical failure of the Hubbertarians, including Goodstein, is their assumption that geological considerations in oil producing regions are the deciding factors in determining available oil reserves. For Goodstein, a decrease in reserves indicates a lack of potential exploration opportunities.

He overlooks the role that investment plays in oil exploration. While Goodstein recognizes the argument that market forces will respond to a potential oil shortage, he dismisses this possibility out of hand. While geology is a factor affecting oil reserves, investment in exploration, driven by the demand for energy, determines reserve levels.

If the demand for oil begins to exceed available oil production, oil prices will rise. This price increase indicates that there is a need for more oil, or energy substitutes, and provides an incentive for oil producers to find more oil reserves. A potential oil shortage will lead to an increase in existing oil reserves in three ways.

First, higher oil prices will lead to more exploration and the discovery of new oil fields.

Second, higher prices provide an incentive to improve production and exploration technology. Better exploration technology will make it easier to find more oil and improved production technology will increase the reserves in existing oil fields.

Third, rising oil prices increase oil reserves even without any additional exploration or changes in technology. Reserves are the estimated amounts of discovered economically viable oil production. At higher prices it's profitable to recover more of the oil available in previously discovered fields. We therefore have more oil reserves simply by having higher oil prices.

Higher oil prices may also make unconventional oil reserves economically viable. Again, it's estimated that there is more unconventional oil available than there is conventional oil. Any potential oil shortage will tend to spur oil producers to find a way to use these unconventional oil sources. Goodstein correctly notes that given current technology, unconventional oil cannot be profitable because we currently use as much or more energy to recover this oil than we gain from the oil itself. New technologies will be required in order to make it worthwhile to use tar sands and heavy oils as a fuel source. Higher oil prices, however, provide the incentive to develop such technologies.

Regarding the possibility of finding non-hydrocarbon substitutes for oil, Goodstein concedes that we will need to use energy substitutes, he prefers solar and nuclear power, but apparently rejects the possibility that free markets will solve this problem. According to Goodstein, energy markets failed us in the past and we can't rely on them in the future.

Government Intervention

This leads to another one of Goodstein's oversights, namely his failure to attribute energy problems to government intervention. He fails to note how intervention instigated and prolonged the energy problems of the 1970s. To recap, in response to the U.S. government's support for Israel in the 1973 war, OPEC restricted its oil production. Oil prices roughly quadrupled within 90 days. The U.S. government responded with price controls on oil and gasoline.

The controls on gasoline were short lived, given that the effect of the controls, long lines of buyers waiting to purchase gasoline, were obvious and were a political liability. However, the oil price controls lasted until 1980 and were followed by a heavy windfall profits tax on oil production. In addition, the oil severance tax rates and gasoline taxes increased during this time as states took advantage of the energy situation to swell their budgets. Also, environmental regulations became more stringent making oil exploration increasingly more difficult.

All of these U.S. policies harmed U.S. oil production and strengthened OPEC's market power. Attributing the energy crisis to market failure shows that Goodstein fails to see the role that private markets play in providing for our energy needs.

Goodstein also disregards how intervention is currently interfering with the discovery and production of oil. Taxes and regulations reduce projected net oil prices and investors react by cutting exploration funding. Also, the U.S. government restricts exploration in areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf.

Intervention in foreign countries has also had a negative effect on oil exploration. For instance, OPEC's production restrictions in 1973 led to decreased exploration in OPEC countries. These countries saw little need in further exploration for oil that they wouldn't be able to sell for years. The nationalization of these foreign oil sources has also led to less competition and less exploration.

While Saudi Arabia has maintained a surplus capacity for oil, other OPEC members have little or no surplus capacity. This makes sense. Saudi Arabia has more reserves than any other country. Its surplus capacity gives it market power. It has some say in setting oil prices, both up and down. Even if other countries were to develop some surplus capacity, they still would not have much market power. It's simply not in their interest to have this surplus capacity. The economic interplay between these countries in the last three decades has led to less oil exploration than otherwise might have occurred.

Also, exploration in Iraq and Iran fell sharply after 1980 due to the Iraq/Iran war. The two Gulf wars and a decade of severe trade sanctions also prevented Iraq from developing its oil fields over the last 14 years.

The former Soviet Union provides another example of how political decisions have affected exploration decisions. While there have been recent discoveries in the FSU, political instability in this region has made oil exploration a risky proposition.

The point is that government intervention, here and abroad, tends to negatively affect oil exploration and production. Removing these political restrictions would tend to increase our available oil reserves. The Hubbertarians tend to overlook this possibility.

Conclusion

Let me first note a positive in Goodstein's work. He spends much of his book providing us with a brief history of energy and discussions about energy issues such as thermodynamics and electromagnetism. These sections are both interesting and entertaining. However, this does not make up for his lack of economic understanding.

Goodstein depends on empirical findings while ignoring the data that contradicts his argument. He ignores the fact that energy alarmists have always underestimated future oil supplies and he dismisses the possibility of developing vast quantities of unconventional sources of oil.

Oil production declines will create incentives to find more conventional oil, to use unconventional oil, and to develop new energy alternatives. Government intervention makes our energy situation more precarious. Goodstein fails to understand any of these issues.

Though the book has received favorable press[5] for alerting us to alleged energy problems that confront us, its main value is that it compiles the economic fallacies regarding a potential energy crisis into a single slim volume.

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Mark Brandly (brandlym@ferris.edu) teaches economics at Ferris State University and is an adjunct scholar of the the Mises Institute and Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Comment on the blog.

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[1] While this review focuses on economic issues and ignores the environmental warnings in Goodstein's argument, it's important to note that Goodstein ignores the sharp differences of opinions on the issue of global warming and the greenhouse effect. Even the EPA admits that scientists are not in agreement on this issue.

[2] The USGS, in its early years, continually underestimated available U.S. oil. In 1920, the USGS chief geologist estimated total oil remaining in the U.S. at 6.7 billion barrels with a margin of error of 25%. In 1972, by comparison, U.S. reserves were estimated at 36 billions barrels.

[3] In his discussion on solar power, Goodstein notes that one proposed solution for global warming is to place a giant parasol, 1200 miles in diameter, in orbit around the earth in order to block a portion of the suns rays. It's to Goodstein's credit that he opposes this plan (p. 102). The parasol idea reminds me of Bastiat's Candlestick Makers' Petition, where the candlestick makers propose blocking out some of the suns rays in order to benefit the candlestick industry, the difference being that the concept of a giant parasol in space is a serious proposal.

[4] Campbell also derides his detractors as the flat-earth society: "Some members of the flat-earth fraternity have made a career from pointing out how earlier estimates needed revision and correction. They will not be disappointed with this assessment that differs yet again from earlier ones. Whereas a scientist would describe this evolution as progress based on a growing knowledge of Nature, the flat-earth fraternity will claim it as evidence that a resource-based approach to forecasting production is fundamentally flawed."

[5] See this Newsweek article, for example.