Hmmn….after days of high drama, it finally took a liquor baron to bring back home the personal artifacts of Gandhi – a man who was against liquor and its consumption. Anyways the irony apart, millions of Indians were elated today as business tycoon Vijay Mallya put in a bid of $1.8 million through his representative Tony Bedi and won the five precious heritage items of Gandhi memorabilia.

Gandhi’s steel-rimmed spectacles, a pair of sandals, a Zenith pocket watch, an eating bowl and a plate went under the hammer, as scheduled, by Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York Thursday despite an outcry by Indians and mounting Indian government pressure not to go ahead with the auction. Many Indians felt that Gandhi was against materialism of any kind and an attempt to place a price on his items would be against the Gandhian spirit.

Responding to the outcry , James Otis, the Gandhi scholar and collector who put the items up for auction also had offered to donate them to India, in exchange for a promise of increased health care and aid for the poor — a deal that the Indian government rejected.

It will take a while however for the Gandhi memorabilia to come back home. The US justice department has asked the auction house to hold the lot for two weeks pending a resolution between the new owner and the US and Indian governments.

But for most Indians, the final decision of who eventually keeps the belongings doesn’t mean anything, as long as these humble, yet priceless belongings of Gandhi head back home.

Via : Indo Asian News Service

Brenda Edwards, one of DCM's top collectors

When most banks are desperate for another bailout and countless homeowners are unable to make their mortgage payments, it is amazing that the dead are paying their bills!

Specially trained agents at DCM Services (the industry leader in deceased account recovery) call up the departed’s next of kin and kindly ask if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or mobile payment. If calling up the survivors of the dead is already emotionally taxing, their job is made more difficult because the people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But surprisingly they take responsibility for it anyway and pay, even if it is in small installments.

Debt collection from the dead is expanding. Improved database technology is making it easier to discover when estates are opened in the courts, giving collectors an opportunity to file timely claims. But if there is no formal estate and nothing to file against, the DCM agents use their specially acquired “empathic active listening,” skills to implement the human touch. Some relatives pay because they are loyal to the credit card or bank in question. Most of all, people feel they are honoring the wishes of their loved ones.

Of course, in many cases, people who pay a dead relative’s debts are simply unaware they may have no legal obligation and collection agents don’t go head over heels in revealing this to them upfront either ! No wonder that in spite of being a relatively new sector of debt collection services, recovery from the dead has become one of the healthiest parts of the industry.

Via: International Herald Tribune

Nobody wants to mince words or lace them  with sugar-coated diplomacy when it comes to the future of international cricket in Pakistan. In a hurriedly convened news conference in London, Chief Executive of The International Cricket Council (ICC) Haroon Logat said “I think it’s difficult to see international cricket being played in Pakistan in the foreseeable future,” The choice before the Pakistani cricketers is simple. “Its better that Pakistan chooses to play cricket in neutral venues rather than not play at all.”

ICC President David Morgan and Haroon Logat, under sustained questioning from reporters, indicated the 2011 World Cup, set to be staged in the Indian subcontinent may now be held in only three countries – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In an interesting revelation, Logat also mentioned that that the Sri Lankan cricket board had been specifically warned about the risks of playing in Pakistan, but had overruled the advice after its own risks assessment.

But ICC voraciously vowed to keep the game alive despite a terror attack that wounded six Srilankan players in Lahore (Pakistan). Morgan declared “The world is a dangerous place but cricket must go on. It will go on. It’s a great game and a great solace to so many people,” Morgan was also quick to set the record straight and dismissed irrational fears that the subcontinent has now become a more dangerous place to stage international cricket matches. He said “It (the attack) has completely changed the landscape, but it’s changed the landscape full stop – not just in the Indian subcontinent.”

Via: Indo-Asian News Service

There’s been a lot of debate about IPL versus international cricket lately. More and more of international cricket’s best players are weighing up the tough decision of representing their country as against accepting huge payments for IPL matches,

But former Test spinner Shane Warne is very clear about where he stands. He says cricket authorities should support the Indian Premier League (IPL), so that “every player in the world” is free to play in it.
“Playing for your country has to be number one. But, if common sense prevailed, the IPL would run for four weeks in April, with a week either side when there was no international cricket. Every player in the world would be available,” Warne told the Observer in an interview published last Sunday.
 
But according to him, the greatest lure of IPL is not the money (really?). Warne, who captains the reigning IPL champions Rajasthan Royals, praised the IPL matches for their lack of what he called the “other rubbish” – such as fitness tests, jump tests, dissecting players on computers and team meetings.
 
“The IPL is just pure, intense. You don’t need all the other stuff. When I finished (with Test cricket)….the enjoyment (wasn’t there). I was whining about a lot of little things….If you could just turn up the night before and play, then I’d still probably be playing”

I am sure that many other players would like to play the same tune of Shane Warne when he says, “To me, cricket is a simple game. Keep it simple and just go out and play.” Is ICC listening?
Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Apple Inc is a very wealthy company — it sold 55 million iPods, 13 million iPhones and nearly 10 million Macs last year. Apple also is one of the most admired brands, both generally and among young people. In fact, Apple has done some good things. It has a good record on product power management. More recently it has improved on electronics recycling after being prodded by groups like As You Sow. The dean of climate change himself, Al Gore is one of Apple’s most prominent board members and fans.

So this fact really beats us. Of the big four IT companies — Apple, Dell, HP, IBM — Apple has disclosed the least information and is the only one that has not made a major commitment to carbon footprint reduction. A recent report by RiskMetrics and CERES focusing on corporate governance and climate change policies scored IBM at 79, Dell 77 and Apple 27. Unlike most companies, Apple does not disclose charitable contributions.

Apple’s iTunes store is the top music retailer in the U.S. Imagine the opportunity to use a tiny piece of that valuable real estate to educate consumers by offering free videos on how to reduce carbom foot-print. How about donating or earmarking 5 percent of its profits to mitigate the environmental impact of its products? Apple, you are one of the most popular and closely watched companies. And you have Al Gore on the board. Either you are doing very little or hurting yourself by not responding adequately about what you are doing on the green front. Whatever it is, buck up!

Via : As You Sow Foundation

It seems that buying an energy efficient light bulb, switching to compact flourescent lightbulbs and using canvas shopping bags instead of plastic are not enough to save the planet. We need ambitious geo-engineering ideas in order to fight global climate change, such as those being shown on Ways to Save the Planet on Discovery Channel. 

One episode showcases astronomer Dr.Roger Angel  (University of Arizona) who thinks he can diffract the power of the sun by placing trillions of lenses in space and creating a 100,000-square-mile sunshade. He intends to use electromagnetic propulsion to get the lenses into space, something like a a huge cannon with a barrel of 0.6 miles across.

The gun would pack 100 times the power of conventional weapons and need an exclusion zone of several miles before being fired. This project will cost an estimated $350 trillion (£244trn) and may take 20 to 30 years for it to be ready to launch, but Dr Angel is confident of getting the project off the ground.

If Dr Angel’s sun shield is successful he says the mirrors will last 50 years before needing to be replaced.

Even though the sums involved sound huge, in the greater scheme of things it seems like a price worth paying. But we hope that this will be a last resort. Rogers too hopes that humankind will be wise enough to deal with the now widely accepted cause of global warming and cut CO2 emissions, so his sunshade will never be needed.

Via : Telegraph UK

Versatile actor Mel Gibson shows time and again that he’s “finger-licking” good at surprising his fans. The double Oscar winner has had trouble finding acting work since he made a series of anti-Semitic remarks during an arrest for drink driving in 2006. Just when we were getting tired of feeling sorry for him, he surprised us with a very interesting appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show last Monday night.

The show showed a spoof trailer for a film telling the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders. The 53-year-old actor grew a moustache and goatee for the gag.

In the hilarious video the Colonel seeks revenge against chickens after his true love Josephine is killed by the birds. “I shall not stop until every last one of them is dead. Finger licking dead,” he declares after being handed the ‘original’ KFC recipe by his beloved.

The star is no stranger to facial hair as he surprised his fans in 2005, when he grew a much thicker, fuller beard.

Among other things, Mel also spoke candidly about his come back movies this year – George and Sam and remake of BBC drama Edge Of Darkness. During the interview with Kimmel, Gibson also spoke about his unconventional friendship with singer Britney Spears whom he calls as a “nice girl…….just going through a rough patch”.

Via : Daily Mail UK

If you thought that the poor quality of in-flight food, ridiculous compensations on delayed flights and airports that smell worse than state-run hospitals were pushing your limits and already making air-travel beyond a joke, listen to this.

The head of budget European airline Ryanair Michael O’Leary unleashed a flood of public indignation last Friday, when he suggested that future passengers might be obliged to insert a British pound coin for access to the lavatory to get some in-flight relief. The Airline chief suggested that installing pay toilets would lower ticket costs and make flying, somehow, easier for all.

“Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it,” O’Leary spokesman Stephen McNamara said. At the same time, Stephen finds that this regulation, if implemented would be part of a logical trend.  “Passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes? Not everyone uses the toilet on board one of our flights, but those that do could help to reduce airfares for all passengers.”

What if passengers really have to go, but don’t have the correct change? Will Ryan Air soon start charging for oxygen masks and seat belts too?  What can I say… If Ryan Air manages to implement this and I ever fly Ryan Air (immensely doubt this), I am going to avoid their food and beverage cart like the plague.

Via : Associated Press

Understandably, the H-1B visa program has been one of the most controversial issues in the IT industry. High-tech firms argue that the visas are needed so they can recruit talented graduates from U.S. universities. But opponents say the program is being used to push down wages and enable the offshoring of IT jobs. The way the outsourcing market is evolving during the downturn couldn’t have been more paradoxical. The Indian firms say they see a softening IT services market, but surveys are showing that the need to cut costs may be spurring demand for outsourcing.

The largest users of the program remain the major Indian offshore IT services firms. Infosys Technologies Ltd. remained the top user, receiving approval for 4,559 — the same number it got in fiscal 2007.They’re followed by Wipro Lt, Satyam Computer Services (in spite of the scandal that has put its future at risk??) and Tata Consultancy Services. Microsoft Corp. was the top U.S.-based recipient of H-1B visas in 2008, receiving approval for 1,037 visas. But the trend of increasing figures may not continue next year.

Indian IT firms and their use of H1-B visas will definitely be affected. But this is not entirely due to the $787 billion federal stimulus bill approved earlier this month which imposed restrictions on H-1B use by financial services firms that receive bailout funds. But more and more American companies are also following the example of Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc which plans to move “more complex, higher-paying” jobs to other countries like China which offers greater cost savings over India.

Via : Computer World

Okay we understand that companies making HR/payroll mistakes are not a big deal. But in a move of bad judgment combined with lousy PR, Microsoft Inc. wrote to some of the 1,400 employees it laid off last month, stating that because of an administrative error it had paid them too much severance and now wanted the money returned.

Microsoft Senior Vice President of Human Resources Lisa Brummel said that the overpayments ranged from hundreds of dollars to $5,000 per employee. But last week, she must have realized that obviously they got a lot of bad press, worth more than the dollar amounts they lost. She agreed that this was a “unique population” and said “I don’t think it’s worthy of us asking them to make that payment back to us,”

So the software giant had to do a huge about-turn last week and Brummel had to “personally called 22 of the 25″ people who had received notices (that they would have to pay back the overpayments) and told them that they can keep the money.

An additional 20 employees were underpaid severance, and Microsoft has now paid them what they were owed. Brummel also assured that alert systems had been put in place to try to ensure that the situation would not happen again.

Not one of Microsoft’s best moments. But atleast they paused to act a bit thoughtfully.

Via : Seattle Tech Report