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This blog is being discontinued with immediate effect. Please update your bookmarks to http://www.vibhanshu.com/blog.

cc: Chief Minister of Jharkhand

Weekend Adventure

I rode the Ice dragon. Enuf said :D !!!

OPIM Party

Seattle Post goes offline

WOW !!! The Seattle Post just printed its last edition today. This shows the mess the newpapers are in right now. This is what their site says:

The print P-I was irreverent and unpredictable, a long-shot survivor from the start. It persisted through 11 moves, and more than 17 owners. It didn't miss an edition when its building burned to the ground along with its press in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. It outlived some 20 scrappy competitors before the turn of the 20th century, an era described by Clarence Bagley, one of its 19th century owners, as a time when newspapers "lived hard and died easy."

But it couldn't endure the firestorm of the Internet. And in the end, it wouldn't outlast its long headlock with The Seattle Times.

Definitely print media is going out of business, but I guess traditional press is on the way out too. Is it a good thing? I am not so sure. Though I am all gung-ho for citizen journalizm, I want to trust the news I read. I want credibility, I want hard facts behind the opinions I read. Citizen journalism/blogging is still to a very great extend, mere views without substantial backing. And the views on the net are very polarized!!

I would trust New York Times more than any blogger, even though it might be John Battalle or the like. What happens to the credibility of news in this new era? Does digg define whats news now?  Are there alternatives that promote subjective journalism or is journalism as we know it doomed in the years to come?

What happens to coffee with the morning newspaper ?

The new colonizers

While America is preoccupied with the war in Iraq (cost: half a trillion dollars and counting), and while think-tank economists continue to spit out papers debating whether vital resources are running out at all, China's leadership isn't taking any chances. In just a few years, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has become the most aggressive investor-nation in Africa. This commercial invasion is without question the most important development in the sub-Sahara since the end of the Cold War -- an epic, almost primal propulsion that is redrawing the global economic map. One former U.S. assistant secretary of state has called it a "tsunami." Some are even calling the region "ChinAfrica."  more

Our moronic leaders

I am simply amazed at the comment made by Oscar Fernandes over the death of L.K. Chaudhary. How can a cabinet minister make such an irresponsible statement. I think he is either too dumb which he might be or he is simply trying to preserve his vote bank. 

And then there was this fiasco by Mamta Banarjee.  On one hand Chidambram goes around giving talks all over the world inviting people to invest in India and on the other hand our beloved politicians. To top it all the Prime minister refused to take a firm stand on any matter. Amazing !! 

Sometimes I think the country would be better managed in the hand of thugs. Should I be concerned about the state of affairs or laugh at it? 

What appalls me most is the stark indifference of the people of India to the political/economic climate in the country. People care more about Shilpa Shetty in Big Boss that bomb blasts in Bombay!!!

Old Memories

An old pic that I chanced upon while going through gazillions of Photographs I have. CSE Batch of 2003 :) It brought pleasant memories from the only department trip we ever went to. People were literally dragged out of their beds to join this picnic :D