Anurag's weblog

The Cathedral and the Bazaar paper by Eric Raymond on two fundamentally different software development styles

The hollowing out of ourselves (and the NetFuture newsletter it appears in)

"Swiss animal rights campaigners are calling on the government to prevent the national dog, the Saint Bernard, from ending up on Chinese dinner plates. "

Saudi Arabia opens a religious slaughterhouse for Hajj (BBC)

"Some two million pilgrims will slaughter cattle, sheep and camels in memory of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ishmael, before God spared the boy's life." Why don't the pilgrims take their lead from God instead of Abraham and spare the lives of these hundreds of thousands of innocent animals? Religious fervor based on the blood of the helpless is evil.

FTC orders Trans Union Corp to stop selling credit reports to junk mailers (washingtonpost)

At last, one positive news for privacy.

Doris Haddock, 90 years old great-grandmother, walks across the US as a protest march (Washington Post)

"I feel very strongly that democracy is being threatened by the illegal money that is being given to our candidates by corporations and unions and wealthy men."

Four white NYC police officers who shot 41 bullets at an unarmed african immigrant acquitted of all charges. (Washington Post)

'A coroner who performed the autopsy on the victim told jurors he believed Diallo was hit by a crippling, spine-splitting shot in the chest "early on," and that most of the other bullets struck him as he was either falling or flat on his back.'

The Scene: A Carpet of Casings and Bullets (NYTimes -- free but registration needed)

An interactive display of the shooting scene. "Amadou Diallo was unarmed, doing nothing wrong and he was minding his own business," Mr. Warner said. "In the mindset they had, that man was doomed from the minute they saw him."

Hundreds of dolphins wash up on French shores. (BBC)

"It's not just the dolphins. Many types of fish are endangered by this indiscriminate method of fishing, which often ends up discarding 80 percent of the fish that are caught."

Troope of african monkeys bring up child orphaned by Ugandan civil wars (BBC)

And many supposedly religious people say animals have no souls....

Indian Council for Historical Research stops publication of book series on Indian freedom movement (The Hindu)

"'Critical' references to the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS were stated to be one reason, according to a source close to the ICHR."

Pope urges Italians to have more kids (BBC)

With so much poverty and hunger in the world, this supposedly religious man calls for more babies.

Sex: The Annabel Chong Story(BBC)

"This shockumentary explores the life of a woman who willingly had sex with 251 men in the course of a 10-hour day." The performance evaluation researcher in me quickly computes an average of less than 3 minutes per man. That is supposed to be interesting? Go figure.

Court authorizes search of Northwest employees' home computers (minneapolis star-tribune)

"How different is this from wiretapping somebody's phone?", asks Marshall Tanick

Official BJP views on the Sangh Parivar violence on the sets of Deepa Mehta's Water (The Hindu).

Some senior party leaders said today, ``If 100 years ago some widows in Varanasi were exploited by the priests in the temples, why should we make a film on it?''

Univ of Mexico Professor claims rape is a "natural" and "biological" phenomenon. (Washington Post)

"Along with courtship, sexual attraction and other behaviors related to production of offspring." he says.

Protestor saves ancient tree (BBC)

Julia Hill who spent two years perched high in the branches of a giant redwood tree wins her battle to save it from loggers.

GIVING IT AWAY

"How Red Hat Software Stumbled Across a New Economic Model and Helped Improve an Industry"

Talk by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy on nuclear tests in the Indian subcontinent

Dr. Hoodboy is a professor of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. This talk was delivered at MIT.

Last modified: Sun Dec 28 14:04:00 PST 2003