Toilet paper use flags inequities - Indians consume toilet paper
worth $7.7 million each year, according to an assessment made by
the World Watch Institute, which has concluded that toilet paper
use reveals the inequities in access to sanitation
globally. ..... [snip] .... When these figures are juxtaposed with
the numbers of people who do not have access to proper toilets, the
inequities in terms of services and basic amenities are evident,
according to World Watch. The U. S. and Canada enjoy 100 per cent
access to sanitary toilets. In India 67 per cent of the people do
not have access to them. Africa is even more pathetic.
Americas' "earliest recorded gunshot victim" - A 500-year-old human
body sports a wound believed to have been caused by a Spanish
firearm, in the first documented gunshot victim in the New World,
found in an Inca cemetery near Lima, Peru.
Hugh McGuire is the founder of LibriVox.org. LibriVox is a volunteer
project to make great books available to everyone as free audiobooks.
A few weeks back, I listened to an interview of Hugh McGuire (the
interviewer was Jon Udell) and it is quite interesting to see how a
part time project grows into a major project involving so many people.
Hugh mentioned that most of the work for LibriVox is done using forums.
I am downloading books from libriVox and listening them on the weekend
on my ipod.
I was reading the Top Five Scale-Out Pitfalls to Avoid article. I
knew about 4 of the 5 techniques that they mentioned, however, this
one was new to me
Avoid Mixing Hot and Cold Data
Similar to #3 is mixing hot (frequently-changed) and cold (more
static) data, especially when it comes to write activity. Since
database writes are more difficult and expensive to scale, it is
advisable to keep this type of data away from data that does not
change that often. Again, separating the data onto different
databases and/or servers can significantly enhance your
application's performance.
I am at the Delhi airport and the secne here is chaotic. I am
travelling by Spicejet airways and it looks like the whole world is
planning to fly in the same aeroplane. The queue managmnet for
Spicejet is t3h suck - I don't think I will travel with Spicejet again
unless I am in a major financial crunch. A good thing about the
airport though is that there are enough electrical points - if you are
willing to sit on the floor. The seats next to electric plug points
are occupied by fat, sleeping middle aged women .
Before leaving for this Delhi trip I had setup a very nifty mail setup
on my laptop which allows me to read my mail even offline. It
involves dovecot and offlineimap.
Delhi weather is really crappy right now - too damn hot. The people
here are as ill-behaved as ever. I hardly see anyone standing in the
queue or waiting politely for their turn to come.
That is all the update that I have from the Delhi airport.
I have lived in Bangalore for the past two years. Before Bangalore, I
was in Delhi for ten years. I was born in Bihar, and I lived there
for around sixteen years. When someone asks me, "Which place do you
belong to?", I usually answer "Bihar". But it is hard for me to
consider Bihar a home now. I have not been there for around ten years
now. I think I will call Bangalore my home hence forth. I think it
is one city which has rewarded me the most. It is one city that has
not discriminated against me for being a Bihari (all North Indians are
treated equally badly here ).
.