Clean Energy by 2010; Will Marketing save the World?

I just read this awesome blog post on clean energy and Al Gore's ominous target of achieving all energy from green sources in 10 years. Sure i dont think scientists alone can achieve such a goal alone. Besides with the majority of the world struggling for their very survival investing what little income they get on greener sources of energy mught seem impractical.

But in raising funds from the rich and affluent classes by invoking a guilty sense of responsibility towards the health of the planet, marketing and entreprneurship can probably play a great role. Transferring some of the economic imbalance towards saving the planet sounds a great idea to me. if the Richies can be coerced to part with their dough, then maybe they could make the world a better place for the rest of it's population, or at least prevent it from being a much worse place in a few years.
Have a look at it here.

5:59 PM | Labels: , | 1 Comments  

Nimal Siripala Silva; We are not ready to accept any ceasefire that would supply 'oxygen' to the LTTE

Quite right too. I mean you can't expect to be in a war and suddenly expect the other side to give you a break just as they start kicking your ass. And the Tigers have been recieving quite a yammering over the past few weeks (if intelligence reports are anything to go by). But i think even the somewhat sceptical have to believe that the government have taken a few positive steps in the war with the capturing of the naval base in Veditthaldivu and the major base 10 clicks or so north of it.

But statements like Mr. Silva's could end up antagonizing the tigers and make them malignant enough to damn the international community to hell and deploy what resources they have to do what destruction they can next week in Colombo. Sure, they will be risking quite a lot. The SAARC is a set of countries that the Tigers would not want to piss off. but if the are desperate enough or pissed of enough, who knows what they could do.


Historically, the LTTE have been adept at using ceasefires to regather their strength and retaliate strongly. The Sri Lankan government has been sucker punched before, so it seems madly irrational to accept a ceasefire when you are trouncing your opponents. There doesnt seem to be any indication of them doing so at least yet, with the Air Force confirming the killing of 22 LTTE 'black tigers' today as the result of an air strike at Udayankattikulam. but military top brass has reasserted the commonly held belief that this insurgency can never be completely wiped off although they can be largely conquored, at least for the foreseeable future and that is, if they manage to finally win the war.

Meanwhile, more and more Sri Lankans are getting bogged down with the increasing costs of basic commodities and as the economy slips further into gloom there is an increasing sense of being a citizen of an autocratic rule rather than a democracy. The last thing we want is for us to have a permanent ruling family headed by a president with enough siblings and offspring to rule the country for a long time to come.

4:08 PM | Labels: , , , , , | 0 Comments  

LTTE declares ceasefire for the duration of the SAARC summit

Now wait a minute, why are they getting all excited? The governmrnt is whoring the whole country to the summit as it is, i mean, whats in it for them?

The general opinion seems to be that they are scared shitless of offending any of the nations coming down for a visit here. So while the governement tightens up security and makes up roads and gives the visiting countries the feather cushion of luxury and prays and hopes to god the LTTE does not do anything silly and make ma-hinder look bad, heres the LTTE playing right into our hands and saying ' Aww c'mon, do you really think we'd harm our fellow SAARC nations? we're not THAT bad, look here, we're going to declare a ceasefire just to reassure you'

hmmm.. will somebody please enlighten me?

10:25 AM | Labels: | 3 Comments  

Barack Obama is an urban terrorist with a secret agenda that is aligned with al-Qaeda!!









Or so says the New Yorker who claims that these rumors and smear campaigns inspired it to produce this controversial cover page which is meant to ridicule such attacks on the democratic candidate.




The page shows Obama in traditional Muslim dress and his wife as a terrorist while an American flag burns in the background in a room with portrait of Osama Bin-Laden.



Needless to say, it was not well received by the Obama campaign...



From CBS news;





”...political author Jeffrey Feldman said in an interview with CBC News.






"The idea [is] that somehow Barack Obama is an urban terrorist with a secret agenda that is aligned with al-Qaeda and the second he gets in the White House, he's going to launch some covert plan in order to bring down the United States," Feldman said.






"It's such a ridiculous claim, but no matter how many times people fight back against it — including on the Obama website [where] they have an entire section dedicated to just fighting these smears…it still seems to be gaining ground. There's almost an exhaustion, a frustration that this type of smear campaign is working to spread these ideas."




Hmmm, so the New Yorker is just helping out Obama? Or was it helping to fire up and give more credibility to these 'Smear Campaign'?






The idea of Obama as a secret al-Quaeda opeartive, to me, is bit hard to imagine. lol but then again, who imagined the twin towers would go down right? This is porbably just the sort of thing that's just too ridiculous to believe and for that very reason, might create a significant subconcious impact and succeed in taking away those crucial independent and non-hardliners away from him. McCain in the meanwhile, has quite righteously disapproved of the cover. I wonder of he thinks it's good or bad for his campaign?

12:21 PM | Labels: , , , | 0 Comments  

IPL Shocker! Unknown player tests positive for D.O.P.E!

Skimpily clad cheerleaders offending ‘traditional’ Indian values, Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth and making the poor chap cry (and getting banned for 11 matches in the process) and now in the latest controversy surrounding India’s IPL, it has been revealed that one player has tested positive for a banned substance. (The reason for the delay in carrying out the tests of course was based on advice of doctors who said that new players might not be aware of the specifics and that they needed to be informed prior to conducting them.)




Anyway, the identity of the player in question has not yet been revealed. Indeed, officials are in the process of matching the sample with the player identity and will then compare his list of pre-declared drugs (if any) to see if he is in the clear. If not there will be another sample sent in for testing and if that tests positive, kerrthump! Down on the chopping block.


Prime suspect  of course is recently notorious Mohammed Asif who had a bit of a mash up with drugs in Dubai and was detained for a while as a consequence. Asif has claimed that since he had cleared two doping tests during the IPL, it proved he had not consumed the drug. Also under suspicion is the Rawalpindi Express Akhtar who is alleged to have been carrying around syringes along with him during the time of the league (diabetes, I bet). Another high profile former offender is the ultimate winning captain Shane Warne. All this however, Is speculation for now and we will not know for sure who the offender is until (and if) the tests are taken to the next level and the players identity is eventually revealed.





The substance also, remains unknown for now. We’ve seen the sex(-y cheerleaders), violence(at least some bitch slapping), rock’n’roll(or as close as Shah Rukh can get) and now it appears that the Drugs are in the ball game as well.. Rock on!

11:38 AM | Labels: , | 0 Comments  

Ajantha Mendis Promoted?? I don't see the sense in that...

Excuse me, but are'nt soldiers supposed to be promoted and 'recognized for their achievements' based on how they do their actual jobs? i.e. being a soldier?? here's the official statement;

"GUNNER Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis (S/158405) of Sri Lanka Artillery
who created history in the Asia Cup Tournament, bringing laurels not only to the
Sri Lanka Army but also to the entire Nation was promoted to the rank of
Sergeant last evening (7) on the instructions of Commander of the Army
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka in recognition of his achievements." states
the official website
of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.


Now dont get me wrong, i love cricket as much as the next Sri Lankan and watched the Asia Cup final and saw how Mendis almost sigle handedly won the match for us but the last time i checked there was no militarism involved in his actions at all! unless of course he shot the Indian players' balls with rubber bullets before the game started.

The Sri Lanka Army, dont they need to get their helmets on straight? how would this boost troop morale on the battlefield? 'here we are drinking dirty water and starving. Not knowing when we're going to take a bullet for our country, and they promote some chap who's never seen the jungles of Vanni cos he played cricket and bowled some Indians out?'

Sports and War, i dont think should be mixed up. Mendis is a great cricketer. But the Army is still the Army. This is a typical Sri Lankan decision agian. lol.

10:49 AM | Labels: , , | 23 Comments  

Agent Orange; wreaking havoc through the annals of time.




From 1961 to 1970 the US military heavily sprayed the South of Vietnam with a powerful herbicide and a defoliant known by the codename Agent Orange. It is estimated that up to 80000 cubic meters of the stuff were sprayed over the shrub, crop and jungle areas of South Vietnam to destroy what cover that the Vietnamese rebels had. The spraying was harsh and unchecked, hell, it’s the US military doing it, the world always bends over backwards to avoid calling them wrong.


The results are here to be seen up to this day. The victims of the toxins (dioxins produced by the degradation of AO) released by this substance live up to this day and their offspring show various signs of genetic deformation even two generations later. According to the Vietnamese Government there are still up to 4.8 million Vietnamese people thought to be victims of Agent Orange. One wonders at the total number of victims. But of course no exact body counts of the total Vietnamese casualties are available from the war because Uncle Sam didn’t really care as to how many died as long as they could ‘shoot some Vietcong’. However, there are precise numbers available of US casualties during the war.



These people and their descendants mostly live mainly in a mountainous area bordering Cambodia and suffer in sub-standard conditions and various genetic diseases. The full scale of the Vietnamese impact of Agent Orange is not widely available to be read in English due to most of the research having been conducted by Vietnamese scientists, but to get an idea of what I am talking about have a look at these moving images on flickr.



And does the US care? Not a chance in hell. They have already gone on to inflict atrocities of a horrendous nature on several other peoples in this world, and are still at it. And this happened, after all, even after the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which shows their utter lack of remorse. Their latest excuse? Fighting terror. Well, fighting terror is one thing, but terror does beget terror and the world would probably be a much better place to live in if countries like the US (UK, Germany etc.) stopped their own brand of terrorism. A brand of terrorism disguised as the defense of the human race only by the sheer power of propaganda.


For more information and material on related topics read Noam Chomsky.



click here for more information on Vietnam's Agent Orange victims.

2:47 PM | Labels: , | 0 Comments  

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