Oh, will they ever learn?!

More fingerprint woes. This man, Sanchez is being wrongly identified as a Leo Rosario, not once, not twice but thrice in the past! That the two differ physically - 12 years in age and 6 inches in height - means little to the people in the law and order business who insist that a fingerprint match is the holy grail.

Fingerprints in all the wrong places

This article in today's Washington Post caught my eye given that I have worked in biometrics - specifically, gait. We have been told time and again that fingerprints are unique signatures that we carry with us. And one would think, after so many years of research, that the science and statistics of fingerprint extraction has matured enough to be used as unquestionable evidence. Apparently, not the case. Consider this: "Fingerprinting, unlike DNA evidence, currently lacks any valid statistical foundation." Another DARPA project in the making, perhaps?

And over at the New York Times, a self-flagellation has begun over the paper's conduct in the run-up and during the Iraq war. The editors have decided, in the spirit of clearing the air, to revaluate their reporting and journalism. Put simply, it is an exercise in finding out why they failed to do the job the press is supposed to do.

Hah, we don't like you.

As Dr. Singh's administration continues to establish itself, there have been a few hiccups. Lobbying for ministries from coalition partners, changing economic policies, creating and adding ministries and the list goes on. And its just the first week in office! Foreign minister Natwar Singh and National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit, keeping in line with the vintage Congress position, are adopting an anti-US line.

But Amnesty's report pigeon-holes US and Indian policies in an unflattering, scathing attack. Apart from the "detention in legal limbo", "police brutality", "sexual abuse", "allegations of (prisoner) torture", the US came under severe criticism for its wanton use of the death penalty. Since 1976 (when the Supreme Court lifted the moratorium), 885 people (including 65 in 2003) have been put to death. India was heavily criticized for the Gujarat riots, communal tension, unchecked abuse of power by security forces, the anti-terrorism POTA act.

Perhaps one favorable change in the new Indian government policy is putting the brakes on an unabashed pro-Israeli stance.

Douche bag - I just like saying that!

Rick Lyman, in today's New York Times on Kerry's gender gap: "Yes, Democrats can win (some) white male voters" .. That doesn't sound good for the Dems! Speaking of Kerry, check this out: johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhimanyway.com

Heads Up! If you're driving in DC, you've been had! Speed cameras are everywhere - like the cicadas. The speed limit in most places in the district is 30mph (I mean, really...). Even a 35 in such cases will get you a ticket.... sheesh... Apparently, the city has raked in millions since the system went into place but I wonder where all that money is going. The pothole-infested roads in N.E. DC or on I-295 is like preparing to drive on the moon - with all its craters. Not to sound hackneyed, but how about the cops do some real cop-work like oh, I-don't-know, getting the trigger-happy people or curbing auto thefts. And oh, some hotspots: along Rhode Island ave (many places), B-W pkwy, N.Y. ave (Bladensburg road -BW pkwy), I-295 S.E, 16th and R N.W, Mass. ave (west of Dupont), 9th and D.

Gooogle

First, on a personal note - They got engaged! Congrats, Sowmya and Mahesh!

Google's yet-to-be-widely-released email service, gmail has got everyone talking. People seem to have a love-hate with no middle ground -relationship with it. On the one hand, gmail is passing out disk space like candies - 1 GB compared to Yahoo's 4MB (or thereabouts), Hotmail's measly 1 or 2 MB, Yahoo premium's 100MB - and establishing a clear, convincing lead over is competitors. It supposedly has cool sorting, searching (duh!), better spam filtering and a lot many more features. Of course, most of the subscribers won't use all those useful features. That's besides the point. All the surrounding hype has sparked off websites like gmailswap where the havenots are trying to win an account from the haves. (Here are some samples - "In exchange for gmail...": "a lovely and talented soprano (i've heard her!) will sing for you" , "9000 ladybugs" , "borrow car for a week", "a smile and heartfelt thanks", "a slide rule (with instructions)" ...). On the other hand, there is the anti-gmail lobby. Their complaints range from "I don't want google reading my emails" to "protect privacy" to "don't ad-spam me" etc. One such anti-gmail website is gmail-is-too-creepy. (catchy name though!).

Talking about the google ads, I was reading an article about Independence air in the Post a couple of days ago. Its the new low-cost airline starting operations from Dulles International Airport after breaking away from United Airlines. Obviously, now it is a rival to United. And the ad that google threw up on the page? You guessed it - fly United!

Here a comma, there a comma

Today more photos from the Iraqi prison abuse scandal appeared in the Washington Post. They published some of the testimonies of the prisoners who have recounted what went on in Abu Ghraib prison during the past year or so. And then there was more fighting in Iraq. Chalabi's house was raided. Chalabi, an Iraqi in exile, living in Georgetown till a few months ago, was America's choice as the successor of Saddam Hussein. But things haven't quite worked out as any of the parties involved planned or wished for! So much happening in Iraq.

So little apparent motion in Karnataka's political situation. Its been a week since the results of the assembly elections were announced. A 'hung' assembly was the voter's 'man-date'! In other words, a 3-way tie. Looks like the political bigwigs will take more time to figure out who gets the Chair. The 12th standard kids (like my brother) are eager to see the next government in place. There's the technical university admission mess to resolve after all! Like what else is new about that?!

Politics aside, today's George Will column is sure to spark a smile. I must confess, I still can't figure out the proper way to use commas!

Indian elections

For a few days now, I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog. I suppose its mostly out of a bloated sense of self-importance! At any rate, the recent Indian elections seemed like a good excuse to web-ify my rants from time to time. So here goes ...

The dance of democracy in India has certainly thrown up more than its fair share of surprises. Firstly, the defeat of the BJP-led coalition shocked and surprised most political pundits. The I-told-you-so'ers like Swaminathan Aiyar in the Times of India were a minority. Whether people had an issue with BJP's policies or not, everybody was sad to see Mr. Vajpayee leave. His holding out the olive branch to Pakistan, in spite of Musharaf's backstabbing etc., will probably be his crowning achievement in the history books to come. Jim Hoagland, in his column in the Washington Post thinks the increasing closeness of Vajpayee administration with the US cost the incumbents dearly. Likening Brajesh Mishra, the national security advisor, to Star Wars' Yoda, Hoagland bemoans the defeat of the NDA government.

Congress, under Sonia Gandhi seems to have gone the Madonna way - by reinventing itself. Rather, it has gone back to its time-tested campaign tactics - the dynasty and food, water, power slogan. In one of her speeches, Ms. Gandhi says it was time "to do something for the poor". How wonderfully vague! What's more, it seems to satisfy the Indian voter! It was certain that Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin would become an issue now that she had a real shot at the top job.

The communist parties (yup, they're still around!) were suddenly thrust into the national limelight. With the support of the Left a necessity for minority Congress to survive in the Parliament, people had to take notice of what the Left parties had to say. And boy, they fired some serious shots at the business community. Demolish the privatization ministry, they said. The issue Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and now the left parties' shenanigans. This one-two punch was too much for the markets and the indices tumbled. Brokers must've been saying, 'gravity sucks!' And then began a day or two of "will she? won't she?" suspense. Will Sonia Gandhi lead the next Indian government? Many of the major newspaper editorials pooh-poohing BJP's criticism's of the foreign issue used big words like inclusiveness, plural ethos etc. in supporting Ms. Gandhi's bid. Some like the Pioneer didn't share those sentiments. Finally, following her "inner voice," she declined the PM post. The die-hard Congress loyalists were aghast. Many others breathed a collective sigh of relief. And a few like Mike Marqusee in the Guardian cannot resist using the "R" word. He thinks Indian Hindus are racists. Hmm.. I wonder black men and women Britain or the United States has elected to serve in the highest offices?! That might be too much to ask for, given that in America's centuries old democratic traditions, the first Catholic President was JFK!

As the dust settles down, Dr. Manmohan Singh, best known for starting the economic reforms in '91, is set to take over as the Prime Minister. Like Mr. Vajpayee, Dr. Singh is well-respected man both in India and abroad. Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister!

On a related note, in the Andhra Pradesh (AP) assembly elections, the cyber savvy Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu was voted out of office. George Manbiot, in his column in the Guardian has an interesting note about it. According to him, Naidu's defeat amounts to Tony Blair's defeat since all those programs that were so doggedly pursued in AP were planned out by the US consultancy agency, McKinsey and financed partly by Blair's government.