A small comparison of catastrophies - in India and the States

Inches of rain in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina - 18
Inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th) - 37.1

Population of New Orleans - 484,674
Population of Mumbai - 12,622,500

Deaths in New Orleans within 48 hours of Katrina - 100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48 hours of rain - 37

Number of people to be evacuated in New Orleans - entire city... wohh
Number of people evacuated in Mumbai - 10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in New Orleans - countless
Cases of shooting and violence in Mumbai - NONE

Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans - 48 hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach Mumbai - 12 hours

Status 48 hours later - New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
Status 48 hours later - Mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA - world's most developed nation
India - third world country

I saw this in the Sunday Bangalore Vijay times, but can't find it on their page. The sky fell: A meter of rain fell in Bombay in one day, and shit held together. The military rolled in immediately. Order was maintained... in what is one of the most corrupt and impoverished countries on planet earth, in a city with the world's largest slums that contain the most concentrated abject poverty anywhere.

But we couldn't handle a similar task. Who's developed again?

The comparison is imperfect: Bombay/Mumbai is above sea level. But had the military not rolled in, the story would have almost certainly been the same as in New Orleans. Leave it to... the government of India...???... to take care of its people.

Me confused.

Comparison of catastrophies - Katrina V Mumbai Flooding

"Somebody asked George H.W. Bush Monday about the criticism of his son's handling of Hurricane Katrina, and the former president said that the critics ought to tell it to his wife -- and that they ought to don a flak jacket before trying. But this morning, it's Barbara Bush herself who might want to think about some protective clothing, at least metaphorically speaking.

The former first lady toured the Astrodome Monday, and along the way she opined that many of the refugees from New Orleans were so poor to begin with that they ought to be pretty happy with their temporary digs in Houston. "What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in comments first aired on the public radio program "Marketplace" and reprinted by Editor & Publisher. "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

In the midst of that last line, you can hear the former first lady chuckling."

There just aren't words, really, to say how tactless that was.

Yes there are: C U N T

Barbara Bush on those lucky refugees

For that is the purpose of Watergate in today's culture. It isn't about Nixon and the cover-up anymore. It's about Woodward and Bernstein. Watergate has become a modern Horatio Alger story, a real-life fairy tale, an inspiring ode for mediacentric college types - about the two young men who found exciting and challenging jobs, who slew the dragon, who became rich and famous by doing good and who were played by Redford and Hoffman in the movie version.

Woodward was nervous once, like you.

Eeek!

Life Lessons From Watergate - New York Times

Last summer, the "flash mob" fad hit Moscow but died a quick death at the truncheon-wielding hands of Moscow's humor-challenged militsia. Never were we more grateful that Russia has a notoriously brutal police force, which was finally put to good and arbitrary use.

Flash Retards - eXile - Issue #214

Bottom line: We urgently need a national commission to look at all the little changes we have made in response to 9/11 - from visa policies to research funding, to the way we've sealed off our federal buildings, to legal rulings around prisoners of war - and ask this question: While no single change is decisive, could it all add up in a way so that 20 years from now we will discover that some of America's cultural and legal essence - our DNA as a nation - has become badly deformed or mutated?

This would be a tragedy for us and for the world. Because, as I've argued, where birds don't fly, people don't mix, ideas don't get sparked, friendships don't get forged, stereotypes don't get broken, and freedom doesn't ring.

Thats it! I'm reading every Friedman column from now on.

America's DNA - Tom Freidman

] Husain Haqqani, a thoughtful Pakistani scholar now
] teaching at Boston University, remarked to me: "When
] people like myself say American values must be emulated
] and America is a bastion of freedom, we get Guantánamo
] Bay thrown in our faces. When we talk about the America
] of Jefferson and Hamilton, people back home say to us:
] 'That is not the America we are dealing with. We are
] dealing with the America of imprisonment without trial.'"

Friedman is fucking pissed about Gitmo.

Just Shut It Down - New York Times

] MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian law enforcement officials
] allegedly helped terrorists to carry out last September's
] school massacre in Beslan, Russia, that left 344 people
] dead, according to the head of a special parliamentary
] commission.

Stop the genocide in Chechnya. Instead: KILL THE FUCKING MILITSIA.

Law enforcement helped Beslan gang - Jan 28, 2005

] ROAD signs, barriers and even traffic lights could
] disappear from Britain%u2019s streets if an experiment on
] one of London%u2019s most famous thoroughfares is adopted
] around the country.
]
] Exhibition Road, home of the Science, Natural History and
] Victoria & Albert museums, is to be the showcase for a
] street design in which cars and pedestrians will be
] encouraged to mingle.

Removing signs/lines makes UK streets safer?

] After telling the crowd he supported America’s war on
] terrorism, he said, “I hope you kill every man, woman
] and child in Iraq, down to the lizards ... And may George
] W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in
] Iraq.â€? He then sang a garbled version of “The
] Star-Spangled Banner.�
]
] The Roanoke Times reported that the crowd turned
] “downright nasty.â€? One observer said “If he had
] been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would
] have shot him.�

Ali G character causes near riot at rodeo

I'd seen some of these satellite photos before but there are a number of very impressive ones in this collection that I hadn't seen. Particularly the 5th one.

Tsunami - Receding waters, Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka