Had I been in Voyager 1!!!

A hadith we should take to heart but we won't

2012-01-19T00:36:00.000+06:00

I subscribed to http://wayoflife-islam.com for daily hadith and got this one today:

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) once sent somebody to collect zakat from a certain region. When the man returned he handed some of the zakat over and kept some for himself saying that he had received it as a gift from the people. Allah’s Apostle then ascended his pulpit and addressed everybody. In it he said: “I employ some men from among you for some job which Allah has placed in my charge, and then one of you comes to me and says, ‘This (amount) is for you and this is a gift given to me.’ Why doesn't he stay at the house of his father or the house of his mother and see whether he is given gifts. By Allah whoever takes anything unlawfully will bring it on the Day of Resurrection by carrying it over his neck.” [Bukhari]

Giving or taking bribes is at the root of corruption. Islam clearly states that both the giver and the receiver of a bribe end up in Jahannum (Hell). But how is one to recognize that he or she is involved in this practice? In this hadith, Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) describes a simple test that each person can perform to check themselves, when receiving favours while serving in a particular position. They should ask themselves whether what they receive is something they would be ‘gifted’ had they been sitting at home, i.e. not serving in that position. If the “gift” you receive is because of your office, so that you can use your position to do the gift-giver a favour, then this is a misuse of authority.

(Source: http://wayoflife-islam.com, 18 January 2012 CE | 23 Safar 1433 AH)

If at least 10% of our government officials learn anything from the hadith and practice in real life, our country will start to see dramatic changes. But the question is, would anyone do it?

My first domain

2011-12-31T15:05:00.001+06:00

Finally, I got my domain: russoue.com. At the time of this writing a web server is running there with a pretty bland welcome page: http://www.russoue.com. I am using a AWS EC2 Micro Instance, which is free for one year, as the server. I am thinking to have my own mail server there. I can't do anything heavy with the micro instance I guess. I am still thinking how I can use the server with its limited resources.

My Kindle Fire review

2011-11-19T07:23:00.001+06:00

Here is my review of the Kindle Fire: http://tinyurl.com/7nyydkv

C/C++ going stronger than what people think

2011-11-10T02:38:00.002+06:00

TIOBE published their programming language index for November, 2011 today and as per the usual trend Java, C and C++ are the top three programming languages. I am surprised to see that even after becoming old compared to many of the widely used programming languages, C and C++ are still holding their spots. I am particularly happy to see those three languages at the top because those are also my top three favorite languages. I would be happy to see Python and Ruby doing better. Here is the graph on long term trends on top ten programming languages from that site:

Link: http://www.tiobe.com/content/paperinfo/tpci/images/tpci_trends.png

Development model using Git branching

2011-11-09T02:18:00.001+06:00

I just read the awesome post on a Git branching model for software development. Thanks Naseem bhai for sharing the link with me. Git is my most favorite SCM tool. I think I am going to use the model for all personal projects. The author of the blog made his points by providing very clear examples. It is surely worthwhile to read it.

Quick and easy way to split lots of strings in Java

2011-10-20T04:56:00.001+06:00

Recently, I had to split strings in a method which would be called potentially couple of billion times. The strings were delimited by only one character e.g. '#'. To be as efficient as possible, I just used String.indexOf(delimiter) and then String.substring(i, j) to get the splits. For this case, I think this certainly is the most efficient solution because the String.substring() method does not allocate new memory, it just returns a new String object which has some meta information to get the string from the original string's buffer (this is a nice optimization but it has its own pitfall). I was happy with it but the code looked messy with all those String.indexOf() calls and lots of index maintenance. Upon getting a review from a colleague I looked for ways to make it look better and easier to maintain. I found couple of alternatives to do the this:

1. StringTokenizer
2. Scanner
3. String.split

StringTokenizer had to be discarded immediately as it is getting old and is only there for backward compatibility. The Javadoc itself says, "StringTokenizer is a legacy class that is retained for compatibility reasons although its use is discouraged in new code." The Scanner is a great utility but seems to be bit heavy for that method. I had to keep in mind that the method would be called potentially billions of times in a row and it has to be as quick as possible. This left me with only the last option. String.split works in a simple way. It returns an array of strings. So, I could just use something like this:

String splits [] = str.split("#");

for (String split : splits) {

// Do something ...

}

However, as noted here, there is a performance issue with this. Each String.split() call compiles a regular expression pattern and then uses the pattern to split the string. The pattern compilation is indeed very expensive and can slow the method down significantly. So, essentially what the String.split() method does is this:

public String[] split(String regex) {
     return Pattern.compile(regex).split(this);
}

By looking at the implementation, it becomes immediately obvious what one can do if lots of strings need to be split by the same regular expression. One can just have a pre-compiled pattern and call its split method repeatedly:

Patter pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
...
for (String str : strings) {
    String splits [] = pattern.split(str);
    // Do something with the splits ...
}

The only thing unknown to me is whether the returned strings allocate new memory or the Pattern.split() method just behaves as String.substring(). But from running the code with more than 2.5 billion strings, I did not see any performance difference between the old and the new approach. It might mean that copies of strings are actually not made.

Netflix does not support Linux!

2011-10-11T11:40:00.000+06:00

After getting annoyed by Netflix because of its recent dramas, I got pissed off today to see it does not support Linux. Its a shame for a new tech company like Netflix to not support a popular Linux distro like Ubuntu. May be the number of users is small compared to other OS users, but in this world of open source and open standards supporting Ubuntu is just a gesture of goodwill. I would say that the disliking that started to grow in me after the price hike just got bigger after discovering this.

A tortured choice in famine: Which child lives?

2011-08-12T02:23:00.001+06:00

I read the story here. I think this is the most horrific story I have ever read. I can't imagine that a parent is forced to make a choice to abandon his/her child to die but this is what is happening in this world right now. Can't we do something about it? Surely we can. There are many organizations working in that area trying to help the famine affected people. We can donate some money to them, no matter how small the amount is. This page contains a list of charity organizations working on the problem. One can also donate to UNICEF. Islamic Relief is also taking donations. I am sure there are more organizations trying to help those people. All we need to do is to make up our mind to donate at least a small amount. I think the problem can be easily fixed if only a fraction of us donate some money. This is our chance to have a big impact on someone's life by making a very little effort.

My Review of Roku 2 XS Streaming Player

2011-08-03T01:55:00.001+06:00

Originally submitted at Roku

Adds an enhanced remote for playing games, plus extra connectivity options.

Roku rocks!

By Rusho from Bellevue, WA on 8/2/2011

Pros: Easy to use, High quality picture, Great value, Reliability, Compact, Built in Wi-Fi

Cons: Want more video choices, Set up bugs

Best Uses: Living room

Describe Yourself: Power User, Netflix fan, Technophile

I bought Roku one week ago and I am absolutely enjoying it. The picture quality is superb. However, I faced few minor problems though, most of them during installation. While I was setting up my Wi-Fi connection, it hanged in the third step (connecing to Internet) and I needed to restart it. After I restarted it, it failed to connect to my Wi-Fi at first and said that the password is wrong. I found the password to be correct and tried once more without changing any thing and it worked fine. Since then I am facing no problem with connectivity. The only problem I am having persistently is with the Picasa application. It cannot show any photo though it can show the albums with their covers showing correctly.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase.

(legalese)

Eclipse Color Themes Plugin

2011-07-26T00:12:00.000+06:00

I was annoyed when I installed a color theme which I did not like. But there was no way to go back to the default theme because the theme made itself the default one! However, I came across the Eclipse Color Themes site. It has a good collection of decent themes. However, to try one you need to download the theme and then import and apply it. This is a painful process unless you install their cool color theme plugin. It is very easy to use and come pre-populated with the themes found in the site. You can import more and switch between the themes very easily. It is really worth giving a try.

Finance minister justifies his purchase decision with a sound logic!

2011-07-20T02:07:00.001+06:00

The finance minister of Bangladesh announced that he is going to buy some buses with the aid money got from India last year. It should sound like a good news to me. However, I am not sure if it is anything to be happy about. Here is why:

He wants to buy the buses from India and what he says about the decision is, "We could have bought them from other places, but since we're getting the credit from India, we should bring them from India". Is this a logic we want to hear from a finance minister? In today's world, purchase decisions are made not to express gratitude. We should get the best buses the money can buy. If those buses happen to be produced by India then it is fine. There can be one more reason to buy it from India even if they are not the best ones, that is if it is a condition specified in the loan agreement. For no other reason we can choose India as a source for the buses, let alone gratitude. I wonder how this guy qualifies to be our finance minister. The other day I was reading a news about him blabbering that we are going to compete with world economic powers like India and China soon. The commentators on the Prothom Alo page did not like that. I did not take it seriously then. But now I think this guy truly is an incompetent finance minister. Had Bangladesh been a developed democratic country, this guy would have lost his position for these reason. But all we can do is to pray to Allah to save us from incompetent ministers like him.

Navigation between Vim tabs

2011-06-30T02:03:00.001+06:00

I like working with tabs in Vim. It is a quite handy feature. But the navigation between tabs is not easy. It requires to be in command mode and type commands. It is certainly not a quick way and specially if you are jumping between tabs frequently you will soon get tired typing the commands. So I mapped the F7 and F8 keys to go to previous and next tabs respectively. Basically one can map any two keys of his choice to do that. Here is what I added in my vimrc file:

map <F7> :tabp<Enter>
map <F8> :tabn<Enter>
imap <F7> <Esc>:tabp<Enter>
imap <F8> <Esc>:tabn<Enter>

I used both map and imap commands because one works in Ubuntu Linux but not when I use iTerm in Mac OS X and vice versa.

Type 2 diabetes can be reversed at early stage!

2011-06-24T22:34:00.001+06:00

I am very excited to know that type 2 diabetes can be reversed at early stage and that too with an inexpensive method: controlled diet! A recent research revealed that. Great works researchers! I hope they will find a cure for old patients too. I hate diabetes because, as the article say, it is a life sentence. I would very much like to see this change. If controlled diet is the cure then it is the best solution that can ever be found. Not only will it cure millions of diabetic people but also it will reduce our habit of overeating and wasting food. The poor and starved people will be directly or indirectly benefited by that. The world would be a better place.

Walmart vs. Amazon

2011-06-23T03:24:00.002+06:00

Via: Online MBA

Problem with বাংলা font in Firefox 4

2011-04-11T23:34:00.001+06:00

I was excited when Firefox 4 was released. I have used three of their released candidates and found lots of bugs. However, they did a great job of fixing all the bugs before the release. But one thing disappointed me a lot: improper display of বাংলা script. I frequently visit sites like প্রথম আলো, সচলায়তন etc. and write বাংলা in Gmail and Facebook. বাংলা script appeared in distorted form everywhere. The problem was partially solved when I downloaded the SolaimanLipi font from here. বাংলা in প্রথম আলো immediately began to be displayed correctly. However, problems with the rest of the sites were unresolved. Then I solved the problem by changing the default font to SolaimanLipi by going to Options -> Content -> Fonts & Colors -> Advanced. I selected "Bengali" in the "Fonts for" drop-down box. I selected SolaimanLipi for both Serif and Sans-serif. I hope this might solve problems faced by others too.

A quiz

2011-02-13T04:27:00.002+06:00

Quiz: which processor overheats and shuts down the whole machine when a processor intensive program runs?

Ans: AMD (what else can it be?)

Previously, I could not play videos long enough because my AMD laptop would shut itself down because of overheating. Yesterday, I found that I cannot even do format conversion of videos. Both the task has one thing in common: intensive computation by CPU and that is what a process is supposed to do and be good at. But I learnt now that an AMD processor is no good at these tasks. It generates so much heat that I felt an egg can be boiled easily. I bought a lapinator one month ago but it is not helping at all. I guess I have to buy a portable A/C to be permanently attached to the processor and then only I can do something other than word processing with this machine. I am waiting for the day when I would be able to replace this laptop.

Dissatisfied with AMD laptop

2010-12-23T04:40:00.001+06:00

My laptop has an Intel Core Duo and my wife's one has an AMDTK55 1.8 GHz with 512K cache. My wife's laptop frequently overheats and shuts down unexpectedly. It has more memory than mine (2.25 GB vs 2 GB) yet it runs slower. I can easily run multiple heavy weight applications in parallel in the Intel laptop whereas the AMD one almost crawls to a halt in a similar situation. This is my first AMD purchase. The only person I know who had an AMD is a friend who had it back when we were in school. He was not happy with his machine and neither are we with ours now. I wanted to see what others are saying and found here that indeed AMD is not a match with Intel. The only advantage it provides is the low price. But I think the price difference is more than offset by its poor performance. So I would advise everyone to research thoroughly before picking one of the brands. As this article says, we don't have to be fan of any brand because we don't get anything from them in return. We have to pick the best one for our need, regardless of the moniker it has on it.

A potential game changer medicine

2010-11-18T02:21:00.001+06:00

This is really an exciting news for people having problems with cholesterol. And that group now includes me :-).

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Next-big-thing-Big-apf-1591521974.html?x=0

Homosexual Saudi Prince get life sentence for murder

2010-10-21T11:19:00.001+06:00

Here is the news. I am not surprised at all.

How two horses plotted history

2010-09-17T05:22:00.001+06:00

I first read this in an email but found it really interesting to share with people. It is a fascinating story of how we came up with moder railroad gauge. The story has something more interesting. Click here to read the interesting piece of history.

Equinox GTK theme with Faenza icons

2010-08-24T12:49:00.001+06:00

Recently, I came across this blog: http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/08/equinox-gtk-theme-faenza-icon-theme.html and installed the Equinox GTK theme with Faenza icon theme. It changed the look of my Gnome desktop completely and it looks awesome now. Anyone looking for a cool new theme for his Gnome can have a try.

Halal status of lamb steak at Outback Steakhouse in the U.S.

2010-08-14T00:56:00.001+06:00

Recently, I learned from Zabihah.com's San Jose, CA page that the lamb steak served in Outback Steakhouse all over the U.S. is halal. I was long looking for a source of halal steaks and was excited to learn this. I decided to investigate more and inquired Outback Steakhouse of the halal status of their lamb steak. I got a long reply from one of their reps. I am listing the key points from the email below:

1. Outback Steakhouse lamb meat is imported from New Zealand which has received certification of Halal Accreditation from The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand.

2. The grills for preparing steaks at Outback Steakhouse are used for all kinds of meats i.e. beef, chicken, pork, lamb. So, special request has to be made to prepare the lamb steak in a separate sauté pan. This special preparation will take more time than normal.

3. The lamb has to be served without Cabernet sauce.

4. The steamed vegetables has to be prepared without the "seasoned butter" which contains a bit of bacon in the seasoning.

These special requests has to be made to the Manager on duty while placing the order.

Is Wind Power Green?

2010-07-20T03:45:00.001+06:00

http://news.discovery.com/tech/is-wind-power-green.html

I did not know wind power is so abundant and that it can solve the renewable energy issue so easily. Though densely populated countries like Bangladesh might not be able to utilize it, countries having enough land to have them installed should go ahead and start exporting if they have redundant power. It would be a nice way to get rid of dependency on fossil fuel and will eventually bring more peace to the world :-).

Good Bye Modhupur Forest

2010-07-03T04:09:00.002+06:00

I came across this nice write-up on Modhupur Sal forest of Bangladesh. It is indeed a sad story. Is there any real patriot politician who will step forward and save this precious asset of Bangladesh? We all know the answer.

প্রথম আলো - রোহিঙ্গা অনুপ্রবেশ ঠেকানো যাচ্ছে না

2010-06-30T06:01:00.000+06:00

প্রথম আলো - রোহিঙ্গা অনুপ্রবেশ ঠেকানো যাচ্ছে না

এই সমস্যার সমাধান কি?

Referees should be accountable

2010-06-21T22:35:00.001+06:00

This report on Yahoo! sports sums up the frustration on the way refereeing is being done in this world cup. I think it is time to stop pampering the referees and introduce video replay to the world's most popular sport.

My Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop

2010-05-02T11:27:00.003+06:00

Canonical has done a great job on Ubuntu 10.04. I love the theme and the start up time is really as short as they have touted. Here is my Ubuntu desktop with the default wallpaper:

How to see the developer info of Bijoy

2010-04-23T06:09:00.000+06:00

Vrapper

2010-04-02T00:57:00.002+06:00

Back in 2003 I had to write code in Linux for the first time in my life. For some reason I could not get the GUI running so I had to find an editor which works in text user interface. Immediately, I found the two most famous editors for Unix: Emacs and Vi. Vi seemed to be hard to grasp at that time. I did not get the idea of having two modes: the command mode and the insert mode. So I quickly decided to use Emacs which was much easier to learn. However, last summer I decided to give Vim a try. After using it for couple of days I started to like it and eventually it became my most favorite editor for coding. I was so habituated to using Vim that while working in Eclipse I subconsciously tried to use the Vim commands. Recently, I thought that given the huge number of Vim fans in the software developer community, there must be one or two projects on combining the power of Eclipse and Vim together and yes, I was right. I found several projects working on the idea:

I tried VimPlugin. You need to have gVim installed in your system to make it work. It provides a fully working Vim editor in Eclipse. However, it misses the powerful auto-completion feature and other features on the context menu of Eclipse's default editor and so I was not satisfied with it. I did not try Eclim because the main focus of that project is to run Eclipse inside Vim instead of the other way around. Then I installed Vrapper plugin and found it to be the one I was looking for. As the name suggests, it wraps the default editor to provide Vim-like functionality. The feature list it provides is still a subset of that of Vim and they are working on providing more features. However, the plugin has the basic features for which people love Vim and I think I like it too. Features like search with regular expression and search and replace are marked for future versions. But I can live without them for the time being. Those who like both Eclipse and Vim can certainly give it a try.

South Talpatti lost for good

2010-03-25T10:29:00.001+06:00

The disputed South Talpatti is no more :-). We could never take possession of it. Thanks to nature for taking caring of it. However, the news is not funny at all. It reminded me of the bleak future of Bangladesh in the face of global warming. It is predicted that 18 percent of our coastal area will be submerged and 20 million people will be displaced. Are our political parties aware of these issues? Or are they still busy figuring out who declared the independence?

RanksTel caught for illegal VoIP

2010-03-19T21:21:00.001+06:00

RanksTel is found guilty of doing illegal VoIP business. I thought it was already a profitable organization with its land phone business. What led them to this illegal venture? Is it the greed they could not avoid? It is good to see that BTRC is active again catching the illegal VoIP operations. Big names are also coming up. I thought their activity has ended as soon as the elected government came to power. I am eager to see what proof BNP, the opposition party, provides to support their claim of Mr. Sajib Wazed Joy being involved in this business. It will be interesting to see what government does if BNP can provide some concrete evidences.

Getting openRDF Sesame 2.3.1 installation with Tomcat 6 to work

2010-03-02T07:50:00.002+06:00

After deploying the war files: openrdf-sesame.war and openrdf-workbench.war by Tomcat's web-admin interface, I encountered the following problem while trying to access http://localhost:8080/openrdf-sesame/:

java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.util.PropertyPermission info.aduna.platform.appdata.basedir read)

I found a discussion about it here. Eventually I solved the problem in the following way:

1. Create and assign the home directory "/home/tomcat6" to tomcat6 user.
2. Create the directory "/home/tomcat6/.aduna".
3. Add the property "-Dinfo.aduna.platform.appdata.basedir=/home/tomcat6/.aduna/" in JAVA_OPTS in the /etc/default/tomcat6 file.
4. Restart Tomcat.

But this did not solve the problem. Then I had to turn off the security entirely which I am sure is not the recommended way. Here is what I did:

1. Set TOMCAT6_SECURITY=no in /etc/default/tomcat6 file.
2. Restart Tomcat.

Problem solved! But in an inelegant way. Does anyone have a better solution?

N.B.: lucene-2.9.2 must be in the classpath in order to get BigOWLIM-3.2.6 working properly.

Floor mat problem sparked 2000 Toyota recall in U.K.

2010-02-24T02:04:00.001+06:00

Toyota identified the floor mat problem back in 2000 and recalled vehicles in U.K. But it hid it from the U.S. authorities. This kind of things were least expected from Toyota for a long time but things have changed I guess.

NEPAL IN SEARCH OF LOST IDENTITY

2010-01-22T05:49:00.002+06:00

BY: PREM RAJ

INTRODUCTION

South Asia is injured and bleeding due to the chicaneries of India using her intelligence agencies as the tools of governance within and without the frontiers of her country to make its dream of expansionism realize by grabbing the land, sucking the resources and placing its own stooges in the parliaments of neighbouring countries. Whether it's Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Srilanka, Myanmar, Tibet or Nepal, the water resources are being ceased by India while making barrages and dams all along to turn the neighbour's land barren and this aqua bombing has since long been pounding but it is an apathy on the part of suffering countries who are keeping silent on this criminal quagmire thus making it more mournful and lugubrious. All the intelligence agencies of India, especially the "RAW" are following the philosophy of "Chankya"alias Kautilya (literal meaning 'crooked'). 'Chankya' advocates deceit, guile, hypocrisy, machination, killing and gore are nearly 2500 years old lessons adopted by 'RAW' truly following her God Father (Chankya). With a friend like you (India) who needs a foe. Indian doctrine to display friendly gesture towards any country means becoming parasite and thus making it weaker by sucking its resources. 'Chankya' teaches that to whom you want to kill, first make him a thick friend and cut his main artery when offers you his neck and then let every one know of this truth but no one would believe rather they all would become sympathetic that you have lost the senses when confessing the guilt. The inbuilt geographical weakness of Nepal has been blessed with the cactus called land locked country fully being cashed by India through her 'RAW' the RASCAL. Name anything and there one finds the impure hands of 'RAW' scratching Nepal's proud & rich civilization having its roots since time immemorial. Whether it's a parliament or drafting of constitution, eviction of monarchy or driving out Maoists from the government, according of citizenship to an unauthorized Indians or the matter of electricity, the massacre of king's family or grabbing the precious land of Nepal, every where there hangs a logo of India enameled with intrigue set by the 'RAW'. What a comic tragedy, if one asks a common citizen that who is the Prime Minister of Nepal, he would simply reply that 'Swine Sood' is the Premier of Nepal.

GREATER NEPAL

"GREATER NEPAL" is a concept or a dream yet to be realized. The existing Nepal is not the real picture of Nepal depicting its bonafide land as that had been shrinked due to the mischief of India getting in to intrigue with some of the Nepalese leaders at the helm of an affair at that point of time when the Britishers were leaving this subcontinent. India kept folding the precious land and the leaders of Nepal kept grabbing the benefits or the bones thrown by India. This selling of their motherland is still continuing by the politicians to be purchased by India on a much lesser rate than the prostitute who sells her chastity. The book written by "Jasoosi ko Jaalo" by Saroj Adhikari" a well renowned journalist has mentioned until the time of publishing of the book, it has been revealed there are an estimated 70,000 people working in 'RAW' including 30,000 permanent secret agents, part timers and agents. Likewise, it is assumed that there are about 15,000 'RAW' agents deployed in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, Bhutan, China & Nepal. The activities of 'RAW' in all its neighbouring countries clearly expose its intention. Another famous writer Wang Khangwe Jo, a Professor of Beijing Institute of Asian Pacific Studies, has said, "Bharat wants to make Nepal a second Sikkim or Bhutan". Further he said, that the leaders of Nepal who are always complaining of foreign intervention in the country, when they get to the power, they are the ones dancing to the tunes of the foreigners in order to remain in power.

These politicians do not mind even the drifting of border pillars today when India trying to encroach the land of Nepal because making objection means loosing the seat or position in the parliament due to the prevailing hegemonic influence of India on Nepal. Where as the UNNF (United Nepal National Front) and other nationalist organizations in Nepal are demanding for the lawful return of Nepal's extended territories beyond present boundaries that were ceded by the British East India Company after the Saugauli treaty. At the public meeting organized in Ratnapark, the president of UNNF, Mr. Phanindra Nepal a flag bearer of the concept of 'Greater Nepal' demanded that the idea of 'Greater Nepal' must be included in the new constitution that is to be drafted by the Constituent Assembly in Nepal. "In the year 1960, The UN Security Council had passed a resolution against Colonization, in such a scenario India can no longer occupy Nepal's legitimate territories", Mr. Phanindra Nepal said. As per the International Laws, in the absence of the British East India Company with which the Nepal Government had signed the treaty in 1816, that automatically becomes null and void and the ceded lands must be handed over to Nepal as in no way India has any right to illegally possess the same. In addition, the clause 8 of the 1950 treaty of Peace and Friendship with India clearly advocates that "with this treaty in force, the past treaties signed by Nepal become obsolete" which mean that the territories lost by Nepal under the Saugauli treaty automatically should fall back to Nepal. But who will bell the cat as India is alien to the decent and friendly language. Will this be done by the parliamentarians to include the stance in the new constitution which looks to be impossible or by the UN Security Council to implement the resolution but who will agitate the point when annoying Bharat Mata who is sitting like a serpent in Nepal in the shape of 'RAW' and the only course left for the Nationalist Groups is to launch a public awareness to create momentum in the movement against India for the rightful cause of taking the land back from the mouth of this 'Alligator' called India.

NEPAL'S CONSTITUTION

The preparation of constitution of Nepal is still in dole drum. It is a daunting task to complete the constitution by May 28th, 2010, as it has yet to be clothed in the first draft which is long awaited. All the major parties almost get in to the rifts whenever it sets forth its direction. If the parties are sincere to give constitution to the nation then they have to change their working style while paying no heed to the Indian dictation. The tragedy is there are some who always look towards the Indian ambassador 'Rakesh Sood' to score the point rather than keeping in mind the interest of the country. They always have an idea that their blessings begin and end in Delhi. This is the vital reason of the constitution not getting in to shape. There are many challenges the constitution is facing like confrontational position amongst the political parties and the prevalent situation deprived of peace process in the country. These both forms are the outcome of Indian doctrine so to create unrest and unhealthy atmosphere for the constitution to breathe in Nepal. This must be remembered that any nation without constitution is no nation and there is always the constitution which brings people at par with the world at large and thus describe their character, justice and moral philosophies of life. There is lot to be done in context of the constitution within six months but every time obstructions being created by those who are dancing like puppets in the hands of an unseen forces primarily keeping the strings obviously lead by the "RAW" are the real culprits whiling away the precious time of this poor nation. It is rumoured that draft of Constitution of Nepal by the Constituent Assembly is a humbug as the same has already been prepared by India, if so the parliamentarians will always remain answerable to the people of Nepal who had bestowed trust on them to draft a 'New Constitution of Nepal' and not the one imported from Delhi having written on its face, 'The Constitution of Nepal, (Made in India)'.

INDIA STRETCHING LEGS IN NEPAL & TARGETING TERAI

How doleful it is that India through its illegitimate son 'RAW the Rascal' is bent upon mounting on to the back bone of Nepal called Terai region which is the precious economic belt of the country. It is continuously changing the demographic complexion of 'Terai". 'RAW' is mostly pushing the criminals and the offenders across the independent border existing between Nepal and India. These criminals are ruthlessly on behest of this very monstrous 'RAW' are involved in the heinous offences like raping women, killing innocent civilians and looting villages adjacent to the border areas, thus forcing people to flee. Since its independence in 1947, India has been settling the outlawed in the jungles and various parts of Terai especially in the border areas that have been stealing the precious wood from the jungles of Terai and then moving it to India. Now this sizeable force of Indian origin works as eyes and ears of the 'RAW' against Nepal and China to safeguard the interest of India. They are fully armed and can explode violence in Terai region as and when asked by the 'RAW'. Not only this hundreds and thousands of Indians have contracted forcible marriages with the Nepalese women, hence during the period of last Interim Government, the Indians managed to get the Citizenship Act passed, by virtue of which all those Indians related to Nepalese by marriage and their offspring, were given Nepalese Citizenship. The aim is to have Indian population ascendancy to outnumber the real Nepalese origin people to make them elect as MPs in the parliament, thus in turn to safeguard Indian interests.

But interestingly a dangerous kind of contraband item is in use called FICN (Fake Indian Currency Notes) floating mostly by the Indian agents of the' RAW' infiltrating in to Nepal. The Indian fake currency is being sent across the border for the purpose of collapsing the economy of Nepal. Not only had this in all the major sectors Indian hegemony is exposed seriously thus causing alarm in the society as well.

'RAW' has sent its agents in Nepal, in the guise of journalists who are mainly working in the Himalayan Times and also in Kantipur whereas the editorial staff belongs to India, for the purpose of propagation and justifying the India's hegemonic designs. Most of the Indian agents have got married in Nepal which provides them the natural cover for conducting subversive acts.

All the outfits and the criminals are being provided weapons in Terai by agents of the 'RAW". The main aim is to cut Terai morally, physically and isolate it from rest of Nepal. And after doing so capture it like Sikkim & Bangladesh while making hue and cry in the world that this adventurism has been done only to save the people of Terai from the aggression of Nepal's Army. Man Mohan Singh must not fall prey to 'RAW's" scheme of intelligence because these buffoons lack intelligence and so untrustworthy they are that always tries to stab their benefactors like got killed Mrs. Indira Gandhi and same way the 'RAW' wrote the fate of her son (Rajiv Gandhi) to bring him to a point where the suicide bomber was there to embrace him for death. The 'RAW' did all this massacre of Nehru family because it could not digest the popularity of this elite family who had devoted their lives in the politics of their country and more so had spent billions of rupees on up-bringing of this illegitimate spoilt son of India. But what a price they had to pay for the kind gestures displayed by the family of Nehru and the reward paid by the 'RAW' to drive them one by one to an altar to get slaughtered. So if the 'RAW' is pampering Mr. Man Mohan Singh to chop off Terai from rest of Nepal and annex it with India to mount on the back bone of Nepal may turn out to be a nightmare like Hitler who tried to go on to Ukraine to satisfy its lust for wealth. The people of Nepal will never allow this misadventure of India committing a folly on behest of 'RAW the Rascal'. India has to shed away the hypocritical style of hegemonic designs like her going in to Sri Lanka with the motive of capturing it but failed miserably, moving in to Bangladesh with the aim of making it her colony but her aim went in vain, spending billions of rupees on subversive activities of 'RAW' to disturb peace of Pakistan but since long hitting her head with a strong wall, India is leaving no stone unturned to create fuss in Tibet to stand against China and not allowing Nepal to construct 16 miles shingle road adjoining Nepal with China to form hurdles to restrict trade & commerce between the two countries.

After giving illegally the right of Citizenship to almost 80,000 Indians, having well settled on the grabbed Land of Nepal fully loaded with weapons and making Hindi as an official language would force Nepalese to hibernate in the refugee camps that too in their own country exactly on the lines of Bhutanese, hence before 'RAW' tries to inject this menace, the nation has to strike against thugs of the 'RAW" mostly working under the umbrella of 'Rubbish Swine'.

UNBECOMING OF AN AMBASSADOR

In Nepal, Rakesh Sood is popularly known as 'Rubbish Swine' who mostly displays the conduct 'Unbecoming of an Ambassador' and is mostly remembered as a miscreant, a rake and a rogue. There are so many spy net works working under-cover of diplomatic mission in Nepal but still no action has been taken against the 'RAW'. 'RAW' was responsible for the Royal massacre through its agent named 'Devyani Rana' and it was done so to destabilize the country. The same tradition is being followed by the Unbecoming of an Ambassador the one and the only 'Rubbish Swine' who in all the sectors of Nepal have planted agents of the 'RAW' to disturb peace in the country. Is there any country in the world where rules the unelected members who sit in a parliament except in Nepal and wear the caps of a Foreign Minister to the Premier, solely by the 'Rubbish Swine' having blessings of the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh. Rubbish Swine is a 'Vulture of Fortune' who draws the luck lines on the palm of politicians for the ultimate gains of India. The impression outside the world is given as if Nepal is not a sovereign state but is one of the states of India. India through 'RAW' was the one which provided weapons to the Maoists to make the country crawl on its knees and after making her weak brought Maoists in to power, the group called as the terrorist that too none other than the India herself. And when the Maoists looked towards China to break the iron curtain of Land Locked Country and Mr. Parchanda had all the plans to visit China for the second time but was forced by Delhi through 'Rubbish Swine' to step down and that too once for all. At that point of time the extra ordinary jumping of 'Rubbish Swine' like a monkey was a worthwhile show to witness his maestro gutsy gestures of withering one elected government and shoe polishing the members on the other who had lost miserably in the elections but yet being garlanded as victorious to rule the country. Unbecoming of an Ambassador displays hateful debonair and is in a habit of summoning the parliamentarians to Indian embassy as to mark their presence in the school of faithfulness like the kindergarten students are counted in the class. But here these buffoons of parliamentarians of Nepal are baptized by the 'RAW' to do all those acts where India stands like pylon and Nepal as Pygmalion. Rakesh Sood will always be remembered like the character of a 'SHYLOCK' as in Shakespeare's drama.

Rakesh Sood is a real 'Rubbish Swine' an active agent of the 'RAW' & an Unbecoming of an Ambassador, the character of a Shylock in the history of Nepal and the one who turned Indian embassy in Nepal, in to a den of spies.

CONCLUSION

India has all along been intoxicated to drive South Asian states to concur with an idea of designing hegemony which has never hesitated to culture economic strangulation, political blackmailing and even carrying out naked aggression against the neighbouring countries. But Nepal has suffered a lot due to the treacherous tentacles spread by the 'RAW' which almost sits on the wealth of the country. Nepal's traditional pride of having to be ruled by the king was abolished due to the massacre in the palace hatched by the 'RAW" to kneel down the country for its ulterior motive. India, compelling Deputy President of Nepal to announce 'Hindi' as an official language which had met the major opposition from the public sector. Awarding citizenship of Nepal to those who were hardened criminals and were mainly settled by the 'RAW' in the border areas. Most of the land comprising of thousands of hectors area was grabbed by India. And the most hateful personality, an unbecoming of an ambassador, the persona non gratis, and the only 'RUBBISH SWINE" enjoys facilities like the ruler of Nepal.

There are so many pitfalls made by India, which have compelled Nepal to search for her lost identity and yet voicing 'Nepal as my friend'.

"I DESTROY MY ENEMIES WHEN I MAKE THEM MY FRIENDS"

Abraham Lincoln

Source: http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/01/15/nepal-in-search-of-lost-identity/

What is for the ICDDR,B ?

2010-01-21T01:04:00.001+06:00

Mahmood Ali

In Bangladesh there are plenty of organizations which are receiving
foreign funds under the pretext of helping the poor of Bangladesh. The
International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh
(ICDDR,B), is such a big one. It is essential to examine their works
and demystify their role. Mahmood Ali attempts an exposure of the
specific case with documentary arguments. He insists that the ICDDR,B
spends money, collected in the name of poor, for purposes which have
little to do with the diarrheal problem of the people of Bangladesh.
We encourage our readers to write more on similar cases.

Deaths due to diarrhea are reported frequently in the newspapers of
Bangladesh. An editorial on this problem published in a leading daily
at the beginning of the new millennium is worth noting. It stated,
"Although we have stepped into a new century as well as a new
millennium, the scourge of diarrhea is continuing to stalk us. This
underlines the grim fact that even now all parts of the country are
yet to be in a position where safe drinking water is easily accessible
to the people. Moreover, severe financial constraints still hold back
development in many pockets of the community making a sad mockery of
health, hygiene and sanitation in this 21st century" (1).

On February 11, 2001 the same newspaper had printed a news item on the
utilization of foreign aid in Bangladesh. The title of the news item
is self-explanatory. "Where does all foreign aid go? Seventy-five
percent of donor's money looted by local, foreign elite". According to
this report, foreign aid has created long-term dependency and
criminalized the politics and economy of the country. In the light of
these developments it is important to take a critical look at those
institutions which are receiving foreign funds under the pretext of
helping the poor of Bangladesh.

While the Government of Bangladesh may not have adequate funding, the
International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh
(ICDDR,B), using the name of the poor of Bangladesh, collects millions
and millions of dollars from several countries and organizations. But
the ICDDR,B spends money for purposes, which have little to do with
the diarrheal problem of the people of Bangladesh. The situation is
analogous to the owner of a crippled person lying in a small box with
wheels underneath. The owner uses the crippled person to collect
money. But how much does it really go to the welfare of the crippled
person? The owner's livelihood would disappear in the absence of the
crippled person. The ICDDR,B is like the owner of the crippled person.
Tragically Bangladesh is being treated like the crippled person in the
box!

The ICDDR,B's background leading to its foundation:
The ICDDR,B is the continuation of the Cholera Research Laboratory
(CRL), originally established in 1960 as a result of the military
alliance between Pakistan and USA under the umbrella of the South
Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO, 2). After the independence of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Founding Prime Minister and
later President of Bangladesh, did not grant any long-term charter as
he wanted CRL to be under national control responsive to the Ministry
of Health (3). He was assassinated in August 1975. The idea of
converting CRL to an international organization was launched in April
1976, only a few months after his assassination (4). Dr. David Sack,
the ICDDR,Bï¿½s present director, came to Bangladesh soon after the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Since then he has been
associated with the "activities" of this research Centre. In 1978 the
ICDDR,B obtained a 25-year charter from the Government of Bangladesh
to operate as a research centre to work on diarrheal diseases "with
special relevance to developing countries" (Ordinance No LI of 1978
Government of Bangladesh; 6th Dec 1978). The charter was renewed
further for 25 years in 1998 and was extended up to 2029.

The ICCDR,B - a club of like-minded friends from USA and Sweden :
A "club" comprising a few scientists from USA and their friends from
Sweden basically controls the ICDDR, B. Most of the directors of the
Centre including the present one have come from this "club". Under
severe criticisms in the 1980ï¿½s, the Centre once had an Ethiopian as
the director. But he was just window dressing. He was hand picked as
he had been long associated with this "club". The ICDDR,B operates
through very careful manipulations indeed! The American scientists
inside the ICDDR,B do not represent the mainstream of bright and
talented scientists of USA who are making scientific breakthroughs.
Instead, the American scientists, currently associated with the
ICDDR,B including its director Dr. David Sack, have hardly made any
significant scientific contributions. Their purpose of staying in
Bangladesh may be for something else !

In the late 1970ï¿½s Dr. David Sack, the ICDDR,Bï¿½s present director, was
a junior member of the club controlling the ICDDR,B. He joined in
hands with a group of Swedish scientists. Dr. Jan Holmgren, with an
experience of only 6 years after the doctoral degree, was made a
member of the Board of Trustee of the ICDDR,B. Because of his
membership on the Board of Trustee of the ICDDR,B, Dr. Holmgren found
his way into the Board of SAREC, an organ of the Swedish government's
foreign aid agency. These assignments gave Dr. Holmgren a complete
insight and control over development, financing and marketing of the
products which he, wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm and Dr. David Sack had
been trying to develop at the ICDDR,B. They planned how to get rich
quick and found that one of the ways would be to develop vaccines for
soldiers and tourists from rich countries, who may require protection
for a short period of time whatever may be the cost. They would set up
companies to market products and eventually become millionaires. The
easiest way to obtain funds for the development of such products would
be to use the name of the diarrhoea suffering poor people of
Bangladesh. Money would be collected from various international donors
such as the World Health Organization (WHO), The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and foreign aid agencies of various
governments such as USA, UK, Japan, Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.

Plenty of information has surfaced in the 1990ï¿½s. A profit making
business venture in Sweden called SBL-Vaccin AB has evolved out of the
ICDDR,B's active collaboration with the Swedish scientists. The
Swedish government owned SBL-Vaccin AB until 1997 when it was
purchased by a private Swedish company Active Biotech. SBL-Vaccin AB
has changed hands, its owner since 2003 being Chiron Corporation of
USA. SBL-Vaccin AB with Dr. Holmgren as a member of its scientific
council has targeted soldiers and tourists from rich countries, who
may require protection for a short period of time whatever may be the
cost. The company has made several of its key players such as Drs.
Holmgren, Svennerholm and their associates multi-millionaires. But the
money for the development of all these products were collected from
various international donors using the name of the diarrhoea suffering
"poor people" of Bangladesh. As documents reveal, the ICDDR,B's
director Dr. David Sack has been working for SBL-Vaccin AB (5).

The ICDDR,Bï¿½s activities in brief:

The ICDDR,B's ongoing research on "Peru-15": a project to develop a cholera
vaccine for the US Army:

The ICDDR,B is currently testing on Bangladeshis a Vibrio cholerae
strain entitled Peru-15, which has been developed by scientists of the
U.S. Army using techniques of genetic engineering (6). AVANT
Immunotherapeutics Inc., a vaccine company from Massachusetts (USA),
has been awarded the license to market Peru-15 for commercial purposes
such as the development of a cholera vaccine entitled CholeraGrade TM
(7). The company has undergone an agreement with the International
Vaccine Institute (IVI) of South Korea and the ICDDR,B to conduct a
field trial in Bangladesh.

AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. maintains very close contact with the
U.S. Department of Defence as it has been working on several U.S.
defence department's projects aimed to provide better health care to
the U.S. Army personnel. To develop CholeraGradeTM as a traveller's
vaccine to be used predominantly by soldiers, has been one of the
goals of AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. This has been mentioned by the
company President Dr. Una Ryan, in her report to the U.S. House of
Representative's Biological Warfare Programs on October 23, 2001 (8).
Thus the ICDDR,B's research on Peru-15 demonstrates the use of
Bangladeshis as experimental guinea pigs for a product to be used by
the soldiers of the US Army. Has this information been disclosed by
the ICDDR,B to the people of Bangladesh? One wonders.

A research carried out covertly on Bangladeshis on behalf of a foreign
military constitutes violation of the national sovereignty of
Bangladesh. Bangladeshis have a right to demand full accountability
and transparency from the ICDDR,B regarding the ongoing vaccine
project Peru-15. Thus a detailed information on the parties involved
in this vaccine such as AVANT Immunotherapeitics Inc and its relation
to the U.S. Department of Defence, the role of the American directed
IVI of South Korea, objectives of the trial and rights of the vaccine
participants in the trial and future marketing of the vaccine.
Incidentally, Dr. John Clemens, Director of the IVI had previously
worked as an epidemiologist at the ICDDR,B and is a close associate of
the ICDDR,B's director Dr. David Sack. Both were deeply involved in
the unethical research related to the Swedish cholera vaccines
performed on the Bangladeshis. This would be discussed in detail in
section 3.

The ICDDR,B's collaboration with the Israel Defence Force
Collaborative activities among a group of scientists employed by the
Government of Sweden, the Swedish company SBL-Vaccin AB, members of
the Israel Defence Force and a number of the scientists from the
ICDDR,B have been going on for several years with a view to develop a
vaccine against diarrhoea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
(ETEC) which Israel requires for its soldiers. This has been
documented in two scientific publications from USA and UK (9, 10). Dr.
Ann-Mari Svennerholm, a female scientist from Sweden's state-run
Gothenburg University, had been working for several years with the
Israel Defence Force. They had been testing the same ETEC-vaccine,
which Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm and her colleagues at the ICDDR,B had
been developing. Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm and her principal
Bangladeshi co-worker Dr. Firdausi Qadri had also tested the same lot
of the highly expensive ETEC vaccine (supplied by Sweden's SBL-Vaccin
AB) on the Bangladeshi citizens using them as human guinea pigs. These
activities unequivocally establish the close scientific collaboration
that is prevailing between the ICDDR,B and Israel via Sweden. The
Swedish scientists Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm, her husband Dr. Jan
Holmgren and a number of their subordinate employees from the
University of Gothenburg have been working at the ICDDR,B since 1979.
Their principal contact persons during all these years at the ICDDR,B
had been its present director Dr. David Sack, Dr. Firdausi Qadri, a
Bangladeshi citizen and Dr. John Albert, an Australian expatriate of
Indian origin who worked for ten years (1989-1999). The Swedish
scientists Drs. Holmgren and Svennerholm are deeply associated with
SBL-Vaccin AB. In the share holder's meeting on April 14, 2000,
SBL-Vaccin AB's President Mr. S. Andreasson disclosed that the company
had been trying the ETEC-vaccine on a large number of Israeli soldiers
(11). The ICDDR,B's director Dr. David Sack also works for this
company (5). How much activities are these Swedish scientists and
their ICDDR,B associates carrying out inside Bangladesh on behalf of
Israel is any body's guess.

The ICDDR,B collaborates with Sweden's Karolinska Institute, whose
vice-chancellor was also the chairman of SBL-Vaccin AB supplying
vaccines to the Israel Defence Force (9). Also, Karolinska Institute
has been maliciously engaged in slandering the Muslims (12). Israel
has extensive programmes in biological warfare and has reported to
have developed "ethnic" bullets selectively killing the Arabs (13). In
the 1980's the ICDDR,B violated the foreign policy of the Government
of Bangladesh and collaborated with the apartheid regime of South
Africa, which in turn had an extensive collaboration with Israel in
areas of biological warfare (14).

One wonders whether the ICDDR,B and the scientists of the Government
of Sweden working at the ICDDR,B have revealed their Israeli
connection to the Government of Bangladesh and have obtained official
permission from the Government of Bangladesh to carry out such
collaborative research ventures.

Developing vaccines for rich tourists and soldiers violating the human
rights of the poor
In 1985 the ICDDR,B had tried oral cholera vaccines on 90000 women and
children of Matlab, Bangladesh (15). The Government of Bangladesh had
permitted this trial, as it needed a cholera vaccine providing long
term immunity to the people of Bangladesh who suffer from cholera
(16). Two Swedish governmental scientists from Gothenburg University
(Dr. Jan Holmgren and his wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm) and two
expatriate scientists at the ICDDR,B (Drs. David Sack and John
Clemens) were primarily associated with the trial. The Swedish
Department of Defence had been intimately associated with the
diarrhoeal research of the Swedish scientists at the ICDDR,B by
providing money, materials and manpower (17, 18 ). The trial had
violated the Declaration of Helsinki concerning ethics in biomedical
research involving human subjects on a number of counts (19). Firstly,
no protocol to record side effects was maintained, even though the
trial participants had suffered and complained. Secondly, no proper
informed consent was taken from the trial participants. Thirdly, in
many cases coercive tactics were applied. Fourthly, pregnant women
were immunised and no pregnancy test was carried out. The vaccine,
administered by the neutralisation of gastric acid, had produced side
effects and even a death had been reported in the Bangladeshi press
(20). Finally, the vaccine consisting of a large number of killed
cholera cells and the B subunit of cholera toxin (BS-WC) cost several
dollars. It was extremely expensive and beyond the reach of the
Bangladeshis.

The protective efficacy of the oral cholera vaccine (WC-BS) was short
lived, only observed during the initial period of lean cholera
incidences and rapidly declined afterwards (21). It was practically
ineffective in children, the targeted population in heavily endemic
areas like Bangladesh. After monitoring for one year, it was found
that more children (3-6 years) in the WC-BS group got cholera than
those in other groups including the placebo (21).

The real objective of the trial was to develop a vaccine for soldiers
and tourists from rich countries who may require short-term protection
at any cost. Since 1990, the Government of Sweden had been making huge
profit by marketing this vaccine to soldiers and rich tourists through
its vaccine producing laboratory SBL-Vaccin AB. It is sold under the
trade names of "Dukoral" and "SBL cholera vaccine" at an enormous cost
of Swedish crowns 450 (app. USD 65-75, depending on the exchange
rate). The vaccine had been sold to the US Army for its soldiers in
its war against Iraq (22). Ironically the vaccine was tested in
Bangladesh for use by the poor! To market the vaccine, SBL-Vaccin AB
had stated in an information sheet in 1996 that the vaccine could be
used upon pregnant women, thus supporting the original unethical
intention of using Bangladeshi pregnant women for medical research. If
pregnant women were excluded from the trial, as written by Drs.
Holmgren, Svennerholm and their ICDDR,B associates in 1986 (15), then
how can it be stated in 1996 that the vaccine is safe for pregnant
women! In addition, the trial did not have any provisions for
recording side effects (23). The reality of the matter is that the
whole vaccine research was an exercise in fraud !

Exploitation of Bangladeshi women as experimental guinea pigs
Although cholera can affect both men and women, the trial had
predominantly selected females as vaccine recipients (15). All male
individuals above 15 years of age were excluded. No scientific
explanation of this sex bias has been provided by the Swedish
scientists and their ICDDR,B associates. However, Dr. Holmgren on a
programme on the Swedish National Radio justified the exclusive use of
the Bangladeshi women by stating that men were not available as they
work outside their homes (24). The Bangladeshi women are mostly
Muslims. They work at home and are easily accessible. So they can be
used to test vaccines. This is an excuse to exploit women when it is
convenient to do so because of their social and religious status. It
is worthwhile to point out that in the 1970's the Indian scientists
had carried out a cholera vaccine trial on a large number of
participants involving 101,030 volunteers of neighbouring West Bengal
(25). The Indian study did not display any sex bias as almost equal
number of men and women had participated. If the Indian scientists can
carry out an effective vaccine trial without exerting any sex bias,
why had the Swedish scientists and their American associates of the
ICDDR,B failed to do so? The answer lies in the racist attitude of the
Swedish scientists and their American associates of the ICDDR,B
towards the coloured women of Bangladesh. It has to be emphasised that
the poor women of Bangladesh are not born for testing highly expensive
western drugs and vaccines! Their dignity as human beings should be
recognised and respected as defined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

The trial and the protest
Protests against the trial had been launched in the press and on the
radio both in Sweden and in Bangladesh in the 1980's (20, 23, 24,
26-41). In January 1987, hundreds of leading academicians, politicians
and social activists of Bangladesh (including Mr. Mohammed Nasim, Home
Minister, The Government of Bangladesh, 1999-2000) had sent a protest
letter to the Swedish Prime Minister Mr. Ingvar Carlsson concerning
the use of Bangladeshis as experimental animals by Dr. Holmgren,
Ann-Mari Svennerholm and their ICDDR,B associates (Postal registration
no: 56179, Stockholm, Sweden; January 7, 1987).

Dr. Holmgren's accumulation of massive wealth through the cholera vaccine trial
Drs. Jan Holmgren and his wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm claim to be the
inventor of this vaccine Dukoral (42). Dr. Holmgren has illegally
obtained a patent on cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) of the vaccine
Dukoral, in a number of countries including Sweden and USA (The US
Patent # 5268276 dated Dec 7, 1993). He had concealed in his patent
application information on the financial support from WHO that he had
received for his work on CTB (43) . Besides he had applied as a
private person concealing his place of employment. He draws large sum
of money as royalty from the sale of the vaccine Dukoral that includes
CTB. On 29 June 1998 Dr. Holmgren had obtained for his CTB a cash of
Swedish crowns 25.6 million (appx. 3-4 million US dollars) and
agreement on a large number of future shares from the owner of the
Swedish company SBL Vaccin AB (44). But the vaccine Dukoral was
possible only because of the trial that was performed on 90,000 women
and children of Bangladesh. WHO and a number of governments such as
USA, Japan, Canada and Bangladesh had funded this vaccine trial. But
the Swedish vaccine producers (SBL-Vaccin and Active Biotech) had
denied this fact and instead had stated falsely that SBL "has financed
development and clinical testing without external assistance" (44).
Thus, the marketing of the vaccine Dukoral is illegal as it involves
cheating the financial donors such as WHO and several governments
(USA, Canada, Japan and Bangladesh) and 90 000 trial participants of
Bangladesh. Dr. Holmgren has been working as an "expert" in WHO's
programmes on diarrhoea and vaccines for several years. Dr. David Sack
of the ICDDR,B works for the Swedish company SBL Vaccin AB (5). Thus a
racketeering is going on in which the Swedish governmental and private
organisations (SBL-Vaccin AB), two Swedish governmental scientists
(Dr. Holmgren and wife Ann-Mari Svennerholm) and their ICDDR,B
associates (Drs. David Sack and John Clemens) had violated the human
rights of the poor people of Bangladesh. They had used them as
substitutes for laboratory animals to test highly expensive biological
materials with a view to make profits. Dr. Holmgren, Dr. Ann-Mari
Svennerholm and SBL-Vaccin AB must return all the ill-gotten money
they have made not only to the donors (WHO and several governments),
but also to 90 000 poor women and children of Bangladesh.

The ICDDR,B hijacks funds from donors to develop vaccines for soldiers
and rich tourists
The ICDDR,B had "hijacked" millions and millions of dollars from
donors such as WHO, the governments of Japan, Canada and USA (15) for
the development of a cholera vaccine for soldiers and rich tourists.
The tax payers of these countries had given money to the ICDDR,B so
that the poor people of Bangladesh do not suffer from the scourge of
diarrhoea. But the ICDDR,B had utilised that fund to satisfy the greed
of a few interested persons, who want to make money by exploiting the
poor under the slogan of "combating diarrhoea".

The ICDDR,B's Collaboration with the apartheid regime of South Africa
The ICDDR,B had carried out collaborative research on Vibrio cholerae
in the 1980's with the minority white apartheid regime of South
Africa, grossly violating the foreign policy of the government of
Bangladesh (14). Numerous articles protesting this collaborative
research had appeared in the Bangladeshi newspapers and magazines in
the 1980s (27-33, 35, 36). In 1998 the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of the Republic of South Africa has confirmed that the
apartheid regime of South Africa had used Vibrio cholerae as an agent
of biological warfare against the majority black population of the
country (45). In January 1999 the BBC-World TV had shown a dramatic
film called "The Plague Wars" where these facts have been documented.
Why was a foreign expert in areas of bacteriological warfare (Dr.
P.C.B. Turnbull) from a well known biological weapons research centre
of the West invited by the ICDDR,B to come to Bangladesh? The ICDDR,B
had not given any satisfactory explanations on this matter (46). Is
the ICDDR,B carrying out bacteriological warfare or testing agents of
bacteriological warfare upon the people of Bangladesh?

The ICDDR,B spreads communal hatred between the Hindus and the Muslims
The American scientists (John Clemens and Roger I. Glass) of the
ICDDR, B had been engaged in spreading communal hatred by reporting
that the Hindus get more cholera and gastric diseases than the Muslims
(47, 48). How rigorous were these studies performed to make a
generalisation about the Hindus? Are these American scientists
professionally competent to assess great religions like Islam and
Hinduism? This is scientifically erroneous as cholera can kill all
people irrespective of their religions. This disease was highly
prevalent in Europe and America in the nineteenth century killing
thousands of the Christians.

Publication of useless and repetitious materials to "please" uncritical donors
Often repetitious and useless "research" papers lacking both novelty
and practical values are published in certain western journals where
the ICDDR,B has influence. Such useless publications only help to
promote scientific careers of the core members of the ICDDR,B who may
brag about their long list of publications as signs of
accomplishments. Also, uncritical donors can be impressed by such long
list of publications. Many publications are nothing but
"rediscoveries" like old wine in a new bottle. Ironically, as reported
in Bangladesh's largest circulating daily the Ittefaq, most
Bangladeshis do not know the difference between "diarrhoea and
cholera" (49).

Behind the claims for the development of "the oral rehydration therapy"
The ICDDR, B boasts itself of having developed "the oral rehydration
therapy". But it was just a "rediscovery" made in 1968 (50). The
original publication of "the oral rehydration therapy" was made by a
Bengali scientist Dr. Chatterjee of India fifteen years ago in 1953
(51). In a similar way, cholera toxin, which causes cholera, was
discovered by a Bengali scientist Dr. S. N. De of Kolkata (52). The
western scientists are very good in "muscling aside" scientists from
the developing countries by all means and do not hesitate to rob their
ideas and inventions.

Sheltering antique smugglers
The ICDDR,B and its predecessor CRL offer shelter to antique smugglers
who do not hesitate to plunder vast amount of the cultural heritage of
Bangladesh. The case of the American scientist David Nalin who had
smuggled objects from the Bangladeshi museums is well known and had
been reported in the Bangladeshi press such as the Bichitra in 1980.

The ICDDR,B: a threat to regional security
Finally, a word of caution has to be put forward. Many people of
Bangladesh have their relatives in neighbouring India and vice versa.
These people are naturally concerned about the health and welfare of
their close-ones on the other side of the border. Infectious diseases
can easily spread across the border. Therefore, the activities of a
foreign-dominated centre such as the ICDDR,B dealing with highly
pathogenic micro-organisms need to be monitored with great caution so
that Bangladesh can avoid diplomatic problems with her immediate
neighbour.

Under-developing Bangladeshi institutions
It is tragic that while the ICDDR,B squanders away millions and
millions of dollars, the Bangladeshi research centres have little fund
to function adequately. The pathetic plight of the Bangladeshi
scientific community was described by a person no other than the
eminent scientist Dr. Wajed Miah, the husband of the former Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina in the Bangladeshi press in 1998. Recently, a
professor from Rajshahi University has appealed for help over the
Internet for the University's research activities from the
University's old students and teachers living abroad.

On the most effective means to combat diarrhoea
In 1988 the Bangladeshi members of the Standing Committee of the
ICDDR,B, after realising the dismal performance of the Swedish oral
vaccine, had expressed strong reservations. According to an article
published in Bangladesh, internationally reputed scientists such as
Professors Nurul Islam, Kamaluddin Ahmed and Major General M.R.
Chowdhury had questioned whether cholera can be effectively controlled
by vaccination (53). They commented, "Instead of vaccination, emphasis
should be placed on health and sanitary measures along with the supply
of pure drinking water. In this way cholera was eradicated from
Sanghai, The Peoples Republic of China. People believe that by taking
vaccine cholera is being eradicated. But the reality is different".

In this respect the opinion of a pioneering American cholera scientist
Professor R.A. Finkelstein on the Swedish oral vaccine is worth
citing. "As these dead oral cholera vaccines are expensive, difficult
to administer, insufficiently protective, and potentially
non-reproducible (they were constructed arbitrarily and there are no
bioassays that reliably predict efficacy), the reader should not come
away with the impression that they offer a solution to the cholera
problem in the Americas or elsewhere......oral rehydration therapy is
effective and relatively cheap. Intelligent epidemiological control
measures can help, but the best solution resides in providing safe
drinking water and sewage disposal. This can be an expensive
investment, but it is one that will also reduce the burden of other
diarrheal diseases, which, in some heavily afflicted areas, kill half
the children before they reach the age of five" (54).

All what has been described above are scientifically documented and
valid. About twenty five years ago National Professor Nurul Islam had
written a letter in the British medical journal Lancet expressing his
critical viewpoints behind the establishment of such a centre (55).
Time has proven the correctness of Professor Nurul Islam, the founder
of the IPGMR (now known as Bangabandhu Medical University). Do the
people of Bangladesh need a centre like the ICDDR,B working for the
interest of rich nations while collecting money using the name of the
poor?

References:

The Independent, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 3 January 2000
W. E. van Heyningen and J. R. Seal, Cholera: The American Scientific
Experience 1947-1980 Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 1983, p
104.
ibid. p292
ibid p294
The Internet press release, Active Biotech/SBL Vaccin AB, Sweden, 29
March , 2000.
Kenner JR, Coster TS, Taylor DN, Trofa AF, Barrera-Oro M, Hyman T,
Adams JM, Beattie DT, Killeen KP, Spriggs DR, et al. 1995. Peru-15, an
improved live attenuated oral vaccine candidate for Vibrio cholerae
O1. J Infect Dis. 172:1126-9.
Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. USA, Business Wire, 20 January 2004.
The U.S. Congress, Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs
and International Affairs, Hearing on Biological Warfare Defense
Vaccine Research & Developmental Programs, 23 October 2001.
Cohen D, Orr N, Haim M, Ashkenazi S, Robin G, Green MS, Ephros M, Sela
T, Slepon R, Ashkenazi I, Taylor DN, Svennerholm AM, Eldad A, Shemer
J. 2000. Safety and immunogenicity of two different lots of the oral,
killed enterotoxigenic escherichia coli-cholera toxin B subunit
vaccine in Israeli young adults. Infection and Immunity, 68:4492-7.
Qadri F, Wenneras C, Ahmed F, Asaduzzaman M, Saha D, Albert MJ, Sack
RB, Svennerholm A. 2000. Safety and immunogenicity of an oral,
inactivated enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli plus cholera toxin B
subunit vaccine in Bangladeshi adults and children.
Vaccine. 18:2704-12.
The Internet press release, Active Biotech/SBL Vaccin AB, Sweden,: 14
April , 2000; p7.
Lindkvist, P. 1999. Risk factors for infection with Helicobacter
pylori. PhD Thesis,
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mahnaimi, U and Colvin M, The Sunday Times (London, UK), 15 November 1998.
Turnbull PC, Lee JV, Miliotis MD, Still CS, Isaacson M, Ahmad QS.
1985. In vitro and in vivo cholera toxin production by classical and
El Tor isolates of Vibrio cholerae. Journal of Clinical Microbiology,
21:884-90.
Clemens JD, Sack DA, Harris JR, Chakraborty J, Khan MR, Stanton BF,
Kay BA, Khan MU, Yunus M, Atkinson W, et al. 1986. Field trial of oral
cholera vaccines in Bangladesh. Lancet. 19;2(8499):124-7.
Holmgren J and Svennerholm AM. 1985. Vaccine development for control
of cholera and related toxin induced diarrhoeal diseases. In Micribial
toxins and diarrhoeal diseases. London: Pitman (Ciba Foundation
Symposium) 112:242-70.
SAREC Report on Developmental Research in Sweden, (Editor: Cecilia
Molander) R2: 1981, Stockholm, Sweden
Svennerholm AM., Holmgren J, Sack DA, Bardhan PK. Intestinal antibody
response in humans after immunisation with cholera B subunit. Lancet
1982 i: 305-8.
WHO: Biomedical research: a revised code of ethics. WHO Cronicle 1976;
30:360-2.
One death many questions. The Weekly Ekota (Dhaka) 3 May 1985
Clemens JD, Harris JR, Sack DA, Chakraborty J, Ahmed F, Stanton BF,
Khan MU, Kay BA, Huda N, Khan MR, et al. 1988. Field trial of oral
cholera vaccines in Bangladesh: results of one year of follow-up.
Journal of Infectious Diseases. 158:60-9.
Finkelstein RA. 1995. Why do we not yet have a suitable vaccine
against cholera? Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.
371B:1633-40.
Radio Ellen: The Swedish State Radio Programme, 25 April 1987.
Radio Ellen: The Swedish State Radio Programme, 1 November 1986.
Pal SC, Deb BC, Sen Gupta PG, De SP, Sircar BK, Sen D, Sikdar SN.
1980. A controlled field trial of an aluminum phosphate-adsorbed
cholera vaccine in Calcutta. Bulletin of the World Health
Organization. 58(5):741-5.
The Ittefaq, Dhaka, Bangladesh; April 4, 1985
The Sangbad, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
The Azad, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
The Janata, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
The Sangram, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
The Khabar, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
The Banglar Bani, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 13 September 1986
Nasser M. ICDDR,B: Healing or Killing? The Dhaka Courier 11 July, 1986
Ali M: Bangladeshis as human guinea pigs: The Swedish connection. The
Dhaka Courier May 25, 1987;
The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.
1986. The Hygeia 2:5-12.
Behind the mysterious activities of the ICDDR,B. The Weekly Sandwip,
Dhaka, 4 & 11 August 1986.
Eklund A. De fosokstester nytt Svenskt vaccin. Kvï¿½lls Posten (Malmo,
Sweden) 21 Dec 1986.
Hasan M. Vaccinforsok in Bangladesh. Upsala Nya Tidning 23 April 1987.
Bergman H. Vaccinprovning i Bangladesh: utan respekt for etiken.
Gï¿½teborgs Posten, Gothenburg, Sweden, 8 May 1987
Bergman H: Kvinnor blev forsoksdjur. Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden
, 16 February 1988
Eklï¿½f G. 1987. Fattiga som fï¿½rsï¿½kskaniner. Internationalen No 21, p7.
Information on Dukoral, SBL-Vaccin AB, Sweden, 1996
Sanchez J, Holmgren J. 1989. Recombinant system for over expression of
cholera toxin B subunit in Vibrio cholerae as a basis for vaccine
development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A.
86(2):481-5.
The Internet press release, Active Biotech/SBL Vaccin AB, June 28, 1998.
The International Herald Tribune June 14, 1998
Eeckels R. Brief account of the major allegations in the press against
the ICDDR,B.The Dhaka Courier. 29 August 1986, p9-11.
Clemens J, Albert MJ, Rao M, Huda S, Qadri F, Van Loon FP, Pradhan B,
Naficy A, Banik A. 1996. Sociodemographic, hygienic and nutritional
correlates of Helicobacter pylori infection of young Bangladeshi
children. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal. 15:1113-8.
Glass RI, Becker S, Huq MI, Stoll BJ, Khan MU, Merson MH, Lee JV,
Black RE. 1982. Endemic cholera in rural Bangladesh, 1966-1980.
American Journal of Epidemiology. 116:959-70.
The Ittefaq, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 13 September 1987.
Nalin DR, Cash RA, Islam R, Molla M, Phillips RA. 1968. Oral
maintenance therapy for cholera in adults. Lancet. 17;2(7564):370-3.
Chatterjee HN. 1953. Control of vomiting in cholera and oral
replacement of fluid. Lancet. 265(6795):1063.
De SN. 1959. Enterotoxicity of bacteria-free culture-filtrate of
Vibrio cholerae. Nature 183(4674):1533-4.
The Sangbad, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 23 April ,1988.
Finkelstein RA. 1992. Combating epidemic cholera. Science 257(5072):862.
Islam N, Mehtab H, Muttalib MA, Chowdhury Z. 1978. Cholera Research in
Bangladesh. The Lancet. p1208. ________________________________

Poor Indians

2010-01-13T23:57:00.001+06:00

Here is an interesting piece of an article I got from another email. It may seem to good to be true these days but once it was the reality.

Danish Cruelty

2010-01-13T23:39:00.001+06:00

I recently got an email about a strange practice of Danish people. It has a lot of images which pretty much speak for themselves. It also has some text serving as captions to some images. Here are they:

Denmark is a big shame.

The sea is stained in red and it’s not because of the climate effects of nature.

It's because of the cruelty that the human beings (civilized human) kill hundreds of the famous and intelligent Calderon dolphins.

This happens every year in Faroe island in Denmark . In this slaughter the main participants are young teens. WHY?
To show that they are adults and mature.

In this big celebration, nothing is missing for the fun. Everyone is participating in one way or the other, killing or looking at the cruelty “supporting like a spectator”.

Is it necessary to mention that the dolphin Calderon, like all the other species of dolphins, it’s near extinction and they get near men to play and interact. In a way of PURE friendship.

They don’t die instantly; they are cut 1, 2 or 3 times with thick hocks. And at that time the dolphins produce a grim extremely compatible with the cry of a new born child.

Take care of the world, it is your home!

My Little Bunny

2009-12-21T11:05:00.001+07:00

Problem with libssl-dev while installing Virtuoso Universal Server open source edition in Ubuntu 8.04

2009-11-30T08:41:00.001+07:00

While installing Virtuoso Universal Server's open source edition in Ubuntu 8.04 I faced the following problem when I ran the configure utility:

checking validity of the OpenSSL headers in /usr... configure: error: bad. Check config.log for details

The solution is to install libssl-dev which can be done as root as the following:

apt-get install libssl-dev

Then I ran make and make install without any problem.

Web Calendar and Desktop Notifier?

2009-11-26T03:04:00.001+07:00

I am looking for a good web calendar and a desktop notifier for it. I know there are couple of excellent web calendars out there like Google Calendar, Windows Live Calendar etc. But none of them has a good desktop notifier. In fact, I could not find any notifier for them. The motivation for not having a desktop notifier for Google Calendar is obvious. Google wants to move everything to the cloud and a desktop notifier for its calendar will be counter-intuitive to that. But I was expecting something from Microsoft as it proposes such a paradigm in its Software + Services strategy site. Though Outlook and Windows Live Mail both can access the calendar, there is not standalone notifier which will run at start up and show and notify upcoming events. Probably there are one or more desktop gadgets out there which I could not find. Can anyone help me in this regard?

Transparency International published Corruption Perceptions Index 2009

2009-11-18T03:14:00.001+07:00

Congratulations to Bangladesh for improving its rank! From last year's position 147, it moved to 139 this year. This is a result of its improvement in CPI score. This year it rose to 2.4 from last year's 2.1. I hope this improvement is real i.e. not not result of a mistake at any stage of the ranking process. You can find the full list here: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table

Ryfah's 1st Month Birthday

2009-11-13T02:38:00.000+07:00

Is it true?

2009-10-28T06:36:00.001+07:00

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=111469

RAW infiltrated by Bangladeshi spy?

2009-10-22T06:01:00.002+07:00

Ryfah

2009-10-17T00:43:00.002+07:00

By the grace of Allah, my daughter Ryfah Mahdiya Husain was born on the 3rd October, 2009 at 3:05 p.m. at Plano Presbyterian Hospital. She is the cutest and most beautiful human being I have ever seen. I pray to Allah that she becomes a very good Muslim.

What really happened to Hitler?

2009-09-29T05:49:00.001+07:00

I found this interesting link while browsing the net which provides lots of information indicating that Hitler did not commit suicide and the body found in the bunker was of a body-double of him. The article is informative and really raises doubts about the death.

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama With Sheikh Hasina at the Metropolitan Museum in New York

2009-09-29T05:16:00.001+07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/3950177986/in/set-72157622444106644/

US town bans Libyan leader's tent

2009-09-24T01:16:00.001+07:00

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8270450.stm

I felt good reading the news. These tyrants should know that they should limit their whims only in their own countries and there are civilized countries in the world where laws must be abided by.

My Windows 7 Desktop

2009-09-13T13:39:00.000+07:00

A funny character: Biman's M.D. Zakiul Islam

2009-09-13T07:15:00.001+07:00

http://www.prothom-alo.net/V1/index.news.details.php?nid=MjYwNDI=

I don't understand how these people are repeatedly selected for such important government posts. They humiliate the nation by their disgraceful acts.

Chinese ethnic unrest continues

2009-09-05T03:14:00.001+07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8238768.stm

The news says that five more people died and did not talk about their ethnicity. I fear the allegation about stabbing against the Uighur Muslims are not correct or a partial information of what's happening at best. Someone really has to look into what's going on there. I urge the world leaders to take a look at the matter before it becomes another Bosnia.

Snorkel rice

2009-08-20T01:17:00.001+07:00

Japanese scientists have developed a new kind of rice plant which grows snorkel like structure very rapidly when submerged. These snorkels help the plant survive. In a flood-prone country like Bangladesh, this plant can be a very good news to the people. I hope the agricultural arm of Bangladesh government take a look at it and introduce it to the local farmers soon if it is suitable for us. The following video shows the plant in action:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8210482.stm

Stack Overflow

2009-08-13T22:07:00.001+07:00

It is a name of a website. I just found this excellent site for programmers few days ago. The purpose is same as many other sites having forums to discuss programming questions. But this one is not based on forums, rather on question/answer style discussions. To differentiate between the languages/tools/areas tags are used. Answers as well as questions can be voted up or down. But not anyone has the right to vote. The right comes with reputation which can be earned by being active. Badges can be earned based on many criteria. Overall, I liked the innovations the site brings. And which matters most is people are active and make the site useful. The site is run by Fog Creek Software.

A fantastic article on Google's vision with Chrome OS

2009-08-11T04:50:00.000+07:00

G. Pascal Zachary wrote a great article on why Google wants to have an operating system of its own now. It has an interesting analysis of how Microsoft dominates the OS world too. The risks of building a new operating system is too high. Many efforts were made in the past to unseat Microsoft but each of them failed. Like me everyone is looking at Google to find out what it does. It also is not immune to failure when it comes to operating system. Undoubtedly Microsoft is too much successful in this arena and not only Google has to produce something technologically superb but also cloud computing has to become as successful as people are predicting it to be.

Apple censors a dictionary!

2009-08-06T04:03:00.001+07:00

For last couple of days I have been reading a lot about Apple's whimsical censorship policy for approving new apps for iPhone. But this one seems to be most hilarious: Apple censored a dictionary application for having vulgar words. What is more interesting is that it has previously allowed dictionary applications which have those words. I think someone in Apple really needs to look into what is going on with this approval process.

The prospects of Microsoft Word in the wiki-based world

2009-08-04T03:05:00.001+07:00

Here is an interesting article by Jeremy Reimer where he shares his thought about how Microsoft Word has reached its end of life. I loved the article particularly because of the history of electronic document editing. It shows a clear picture of how our habit and usage of document composition changed over time. It also points out modern wiki based documents as the tool to use instead of Microsoft Word. Overall, it is an interesting read.

TurnItIn: making profit by acting as "Plagiarism Police"

2009-08-03T02:59:00.002+07:00

Have we ever thought that this innocent looking tool is making huge profit by pretending to be the benevolent Plagiarism Police? They themselves are violating the very law which they ostensibly try to protect: the Copyright Law! Apparantly few have thought about it and decided to take stern action. It will be interesting to see where this goes eventually. At the least it revealed the true intent of the company: making money, a boat-load of them!

Asian Highway useless for Bangladesh in present form

2009-07-22T22:54:00.001+07:00

I just read a shocking article on Asian Highway. Dr. Abul Hashem explains how the current proposal of Asian Highway is not useful to us. You don't have to be an expert on this to understand his point. According to the current proposal, AH-1 and AH-2 will have their both endpoints in Bangladesh-India border. It will go through several land ports in Bangladesh-India border but not anywhere near our two seaports. They will not connect us with Myanmar. The picture should be clear to any sane person now. It is essentially the transit corridor India is demanding from us for a long time. I am surprised to see that the current popular government is going to sign in to this project. They better have solid reason to do this otherwise people will call them sycophant of the Indians. I am sure the cunning Indians are running the show here. All concious citizens of our country should wake up and resist this will all our might. Otherwise they will slap Tipaimukh Dam on our face and take this transit corridor in disguise.

An article comparing Smartphone platforms

2009-07-21T23:22:00.001+07:00

Smartphone development is of much interest among the developer community now. There are lots of platforms to choose from: iPhone, Google Android, Blackberry, Nokia Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, Java ME etc. While the iPhone seems to be the obvious choice, there are a lot of things to consider which may lead someone to choose some other platform. Here is an excellent article comparing pros and cons of those platforms from a developer point of view. Before jumping in a platform one should go through the article to know all the things one needs to consider beforing making a choice. iPhone may not be the obvious choice any more. Developers are already venting their frustrations on iPhone app development (link 1, link 2). Articles like this will help them make the right choice.

Software export fetches $33m

2009-07-17T21:55:00.002+07:00

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jul/17/busi.html#8

Criticism of Ashraful in The Daily Star

2009-07-17T20:31:00.000+07:00

Here is something that is in Bangladeshi people's mind for a long time: http://www.thedailystar.net/lifestyle/2009/07/02/page04.htm. Please scroll down the page to find the news on Ashraful.

China tries to block Uighur film

2009-07-16T02:17:00.001+07:00

Here is the appalling news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8152385.stm. A Chinese consular officer insisted the festival director not to show a documentary about an exiled Uighur leader. Thanks to the festival director for taking the right decision.

The world should know what the Chinese are doing with Uighurs. I am very worried about them as I suspect they are being murdered by both the Han people and the government. I don't believe the official statistics of casualty. Chinese government has quelled people's movements in brutal ways in the past (e.g. the well-known Tiananmen square protest). I think this time it is no exception too.

Fixing flashing envelop problem in Nokia E71x

2009-07-15T02:41:00.001+07:00

I found that many people who bought a Nokia E71x phone are having a persistent flashing envelop indicator even though there is no new message or voice mail. If the SIM is not a new one (i.e. used in any other phone previously) I have a solution. I copied all the old messages from the SIM to the phone and then deleted all messages from SIM. The envelop went away. I think this is a bug in the set as SIM messages are not new/unread messages but it is good that there is at least one solution!

Phillips regrets missing 'easy' century!!!

2009-07-14T21:04:00.001+07:00

Here is the irritating article: http://www.cricinfo.com/wivbdesh2009/content/story/413836.html?CMP=OTC-RSS. I found it irritating because I have not seen even any great players talking like this against any team. Firstly, it was not easy at all. If it were so easy why did not he do it? Isn't it a contradiction? Secondly, this discourteous comment shows that this new player does not have the right attitude towards this gentleman's game. I hope this rookie player will grow up and think before making any comment. Neither he nor his team can be proud of their skill and current achievements, so this kind of comment just make people look foolish.

Mount Annapurna IV Conquered by Bangladeshis

2009-07-09T20:28:00.002+07:00

A group of brave Bangladeshis achieved the tremendous feat of climbing Mt. Annapurna IV. This is a 24682 ft high Himalayan peak. This is the first ever Himalayan peak climbed by any Bangladeshi. My heartiest congratulations to them! I am proud of them and my prayer and wishes are with them for their ultimate goal to climb the Mount Everest and hoist our national flag there. Here are two links for the news:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=93071
http://www.eprothomalo.com/index.php?opt=view&page=24&date=2009-06-21

OS by Google?

2009-07-08T22:24:00.001+07:00

At last what many predicted is going to happen. Google is starting to take shot at Microsoft's heart. They are going to offer a new operating system for netbooks. But the report defies my own prediction that they would build an OS based on Android. Google Chrome Operating System, as they call it, is going to be a completely new project. And what is most interesting for customers is that it would be either free or of minimal cost. I look forward to see what Google produces. I think once again it will deliver a fantastic product.

ClearCase

2009-06-14T07:17:00.001+06:00

Recently I have been trying to use IBM's ClearCase source repository. I have used CVS for one and a half years and SVN for couple of months. Since I started to use CVS I became a big fan of source repositories as they made the life much easier for not only the devolpers who are working in a team but also who are working alone. The easy concepts of local working copy, branches, tags greatly facilitate managing codes. Their command line tools and GUI tools are all quite intuitive. But I am disappointed with ClearCase. It seems overtly complex to me. I don't understand how they came up with the complex ideas for a simple problem. However, I am trying hard to understand it and hopefully I will start to like it too.

Ice sheet melt threat reassessed

2009-05-15T05:41:00.001+06:00

Researchers reassessed the sea level rise that can happen if WAIS melts. Previously the projection was 5-6 meters. The revised estimation is 3.3 meters which is still high enough to put low-lying countries like Bangladesh in a lot of troubles. We need to work faster to find a solution to this problem. The pace of green house emission reduction is no where near satisfactory. Actually, the emission is not reducing at all. We all should act as a responsible world citizen and adopt green behaviour in every aspect of our life.

PM okays draft MoU on N-plant with Russia

2009-05-04T23:17:00.001+06:00

I am delighted to learn that prime minister okayed a draft MoU on setting up nuclear plant with Russia. It seems to be a great step to solve the perennial energy problem of Bangladesh. If this deal goes through, it will put an end to the agony people of Bangladesh are going through for decades. Though land was allocated for the project back in 1961, no government took any action to materialize the project. But we should be cautious and aware of the details of the deal if it is finalized in future. Previously, deals with large finances went horribly wrong because of corrupt people of our country. They sold country's interest for their petty personal gain. I hope this time everything is right with this new promising government.

Spiraling population challenges Bangladesh

2009-05-04T10:09:00.001+06:00

Mahfuz R. Chowdhury wrote an excellent article about the uncontrolled population growth of Bangladesh. The concerns expressed by the article are very similar to my ones. I wrote about this population growth problem couple of times here in my blog. I expressed concern about it to Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of Bangladesh's current prime minister, here but got no response from him. I wonder when our leaders will start to address this issue.

Programmer Cartoons

2009-05-04T09:46:00.001+06:00

A friend of mine sent me this link. It has some really hilarious cartoons. Enjoy!

Seal level not rising?

2009-04-10T02:08:00.001+06:00

This is the first time I have read any news/article talking about sea level not rising here. It basically says that the sea level is unchanged for past 50 years.

News of arms found in Madrasa now in BBC

2009-03-28T23:27:00.001+06:00

As an UK link is found, BBC published a news about it today here.

Change default shell in Linux

2009-03-26T22:34:00.001+06:00

There is a simple command to do it: chsh [options] [login]. As an option you have to provide -s /path/to/new/shell. The /etc/shells file contains the list of currently available shells in the system.

Setup passphraseless ssh for Hadoop in Fedora 10

2009-02-16T23:12:00.001+06:00

To run Hadoop it is necessary (at least that is what I know) to be able to ssh to the localhost without a passphrase. The Hadoop quick start guide has simple instructions on how to do that. The first time I installed and ran Hadoop was for a class project and I worked in a pc having Ubuntu 8.04. I could follow all the instructions of that guide without any problem. But this time when I wanted to run it on my laptop having Fedora 10, the passphraseless ssh was not working. I searched the internet for a solution and I found an excellent one here, thanks to Daniel Owen for the article. The trick is in the permissions. The authorized_keys file must have the permission 644. Anything other than that does not work. The known_host file created by ssh client also has the same permission.

Installing TrueType fonts in Fedora 10

2009-02-10T03:21:00.001+06:00

I wanted to install four Bangla fonts to read some Bangladeshi newspapers. I searched the net for instructions on how to do it and found quite a few relevant results. But all of them used some commands which I could not find in my system even with full pathnames. They simply do not exist in my Fedora box. Then I just tried the following:

1. Opened a shell and changed to super user:
# su
Password: myrootpassword
2.. Created a new directory "banglafonts" in /usr/share/fonts:
# mkdir /usr/share/fonts/banglafonts
3. Changed directory to that one:
# cd /usr/share/fonts/banglafonts
4. Copied the ttf fonts to that directory
# cp /path/to/directory/having/downloaded/fonts/*.ttf .
5. Created fonts.dir:
# mkfontdir
6. Rebuilt the fonts cache
# fc-cache
7. Exited the shell
# exit
8. Restarted Firefox.

There may be some GUI tools to ease the process but my system do not have them and I also do not want to install something which will be rarely used. The simple steps described above are easy enough, even for a newbie, to install ttf fonts in a Fedora box.

Adding mp3 Support to Fedora 10

2009-02-04T00:28:00.001+06:00

As mp3 support is not built-in in any Linux distributions, I was looking for some way to add it to my newly installed Fedora 10. I found some working instructions here: http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/25/add-mp3-support-in-fedora-10. There is one typo in the second command, it should be "rpmfusion-nonfree" instead of "rmpfusion-nonfree".

How to Determine Main Memory Size in Solaris

2009-01-29T23:10:00.001+06:00

I was looking for a way to check the memory size of a Solaris machine I am working on. I found a blog post having three commands here: http://sysdigg.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-check-memory-size-in-solaris.html. I tried all three but only the following one worked for me:

# /usr/platform/sun4u/sbin/prtdiag | grep Memory
Memory size: 4096 Megabytes

Here is the machine information:

# uname -a
SunOS *** 5.10 Generic_127111-11 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-880

Bitter Experience With Kuwait Airways

2009-01-21T07:07:00.001+06:00

Kuwait Airways is the national air carrier of Kuwait. I had the opportunity to avail its service when I went to Bangladesh on the 16th December. Previously I was very impressed with Emirates, another airlines of the middle east. I was so happy with Emirates that I rated it higher than the world renowned British Airways. Emirates seemed to be a perfect airlines to me. It did not miss its schedule, the crews in the flights were very cordial and sincere in their duty. Moreover I cannot forget the dinner ticket and one international call ticket provided by Emirates when I reached Dubai International Airport. The buffet at the gorgeous restaurant was unforgettable.

I thought Kuwait Airways will be as good as Emirates as it too is an airlines of a wealthy middle eastern country. But it gave me quite a contrasting experience. Almost half of the crews were Kuwaiti and their behavior was horrible. It seemed like they do not like their job at all and by serving us they are doing a favor. The rest of the crews of foreign origin were professional. I remember that one Kuwaiti air hostess was constantly frowning indicating her disgust with the job. In my journey from JFK to ZIA I had a 7 hour stop over in Kuwait Airport. The airport is ugly, it looked like a tent made of concrete to me. May be the design is a result of living in tents for hundreds of years. It had rooms for smoking. It is the only airport I have seen so far with this facility, none of the western airports I have visited, which are much much better than Kuwait Airport, had this (at least I did not find it). The fountains were dirty and filled with cigarette filters. The prayer rooms do not have any place for ablution. Kuwait Airways did not give me any hotel. It only gave me a meal ticket when I asked about it. The restaurant looked very cheap and small. The food was moderate. The quantity and number of items were fixed.

On my way back the experience was even worse. The flight from ZIA to Kuwait Airport was delayed by three hours because the plane could not arrive in time. This time I had a 17 hour stop-over at Kuwait Airport. Kuwait Airways was supposed to provide hotel but to my astonishment they refused to provide me hotel! There were many people who did not get hotel and were infuriated by this. We all protested and in response they agreed to provide hotel but only to U.S., U.K. and Canadian passport holders! People like me was guilty of having a Bangladeshi Passport! This time too they provided the dinner ticket only when asked to provide it. They did not provide the breakfast ticket though they clearly knew we are going to stay there for 17 hours and it will include breakfast time. Families with kids and old people stayed in the sofas of restaurants at first. But they were chased away but the restaurant stuffs.

I urge everyone to take lesson from this. Specially the Bangladeshis should be aware that Kuwait Airways discriminate against them. This is their return of our sending troops after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. On my return to JFK, I found that few Kuwait Airways crews are held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers for further security screening. Looks like Americans know better how to deal with Kuwaitis.

Bangladesh Population Reaches 16.13 Crore (161.3 Million)

2008-11-27T23:28:00.001+06:00

This is an email I got in bdresearchers group:

Bangladesh population reaches 16.13 crore ( 160. Million ) : UNFPA report

...population with the present growth rate will reach 25.41 crore ( 250. 4 million ) in 2050

The population of Bangladesh has reached 16.13 crore marking a 1.7 per cent growth in the last one year, according to the latest global population report released by the United Nations Population Fund in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The Bangladesh population with the present growth rate will reach 25.41 crore in 2050, says the report, released simultaneously in other countries of the world. The country's population in 2007 was 14.71 crore.

The total fertility rate has, however, decreased to 2.81 in 2008 compared to 2.98 in 2007, says the report.

It said the per capita gross national income dropped to $1,230 in 2008 from $2090 in 2007. The GNI of Bangladesh lies far below than other countries of the subcontinent like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka where the per capita income is $4,000, $2,410 and $3,730 respectively. The Bangladesh's GNI is slightly better than Nepal where it is $1,010.

Unveiling the report on the State of World Population 2008 at the National Press Club, UNFPA acting representative Pornchai Suchitta said this yearο's report was focused on culture, gender and human rights.

This year is the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the report calls for culturally sensitive approaches to development, promote human rights in general and women rights in particular, he said.

Gender inequality remains widespread and deep-rooted in many cultures and the report calls for action to increase cultural knowledge, Pornchai added. Men are primary decision makers about child bearing, contraceptive use while women themselves have no power to decide issues of their reproductive health, the UNFPA official said.

He said the denial of womenο's right to take decision on reproductive life along with malnutrition, early marriage and violence are the reasons of incredibly high population growth, maternal mortality and child mortality and key impediments to achieve the millennium development goals.

It is a striking fact that women and girls are three fifths of the worldο's one billion poorest people, women are two thirds of 960 million adults who cannot read and girls are 70 per cent of the 130 million children who are out of school, he said portraying the global situation.

The UNFPA executive, quoting the report, said cultural constraints rather than poverty held women back from using family planning and programmes could succeed even if there had been little economic development.

In Bangladesh, some laws are not women friendly and therefore they do not enjoy equal rights to marriage, divorce, guardianship and inheritance although the constitution provides equal rights to men and women in public life, he observed.

Despite Bangladeshο's commitment to the Beijing platform for action to enact and periodically review domestic legislation to punish and redress violence against women in the home, workplace, community and society, very little is progressed in amending discriminatory laws and some of the provision of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, he said.

In all stages of life, women suffer from malnutrition more than men and lack access to healthcare, the UNFPA executive said. The UNFPA is committed to contribute towards achieving the goals of international conference on population and development and the millennium development goals.

Other demographic, social and economic indicators of the report show that the energy consumption per capita is very much low in Bangladesh, which is 158 units compared to 491, 490, 338 and 477 units respectively in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Additional director general of health services Hosne Ara Tahmin and UNFPA's programme officers Noor Mohammad and Mozaharul Islam Khan were also present.

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/13/front.html

Bangladesh vs New Zealand ODI on the 9th OCT 2008: Bangladesh Batting Highlights

2008-10-10T23:39:00.001+06:00

After New Zealand made 201 for 9 in 50 overs, Bangladesh emphatically won the match by 7 wickets. Here is the highlights of the magnificent batting by Bangladesh:

M.S.A.'s Iftar covered in U.T.D. Mercury

2008-09-25T00:38:00.001+06:00

U.T.D. Mercury published a cover story about Muslim Student Association's Iftar activities here.

Economic Incentive for Preserving Rainforests

2008-09-09T02:50:00.001+06:00

Guyana's president Bharrat Jagdeo has put forward an excellent proposal to preserve world's rainforests in 2006. BBC has published to proposal here.

Interesting idea to fight global warming

2008-09-08T03:23:00.001+06:00

Scientist John Latham has proposed an interesting idea to counter the climate change here. He proposed to increase low-lying clouds above the oceans. These clouds play an instrumental role to reflect radiation back to the space. To create these clouds artificially, 1500 ships are needed. These ships will be powered by wind which is good to know. However, each of these ships will cost £1m to £2m.

World View of Global Warming

2008-08-20T00:39:00.001+06:00

World View of Global Warming summarizes effects of global warming to some areas in the globe including Bangladesh here. It says that the predicted one meter sea level rise at the end of the century will inundate more than 15 percent of Bangladesh.

Arctic Ice Chunk Breaks Away

2008-07-30T23:36:00.001+06:00

About 20 square kilometers of ice has broken away from the Ward Hunt shelf of Canada. The ice chunk used to reflect energy from Sun to space. The split is likely to increase earth's warming rate.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7532435.stm

Allah's Name on Meat

2008-07-23T02:14:00.001+06:00

A man in a restaurant in Nigeria found the following meat when he went there to dine:

The meat has names of Allah and the prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7520149.stm

Windows Live Writer

2008-06-27T22:43:00.001+06:00

Zippy Zed introduced this nice tool here and I decided to try it immediately. I was looking for something like this for a long time. I have blogs in Blogger and Wordpress and I wanted to have a tool by which I can post to both of them simultaneously. I tried at least one such tool before but was disappointed. I could not even connect to my Wordpress blog. But Windows Live Writer makes it so easy! Using the tool is very easy. It needs only one click to publish. To publish to more than one blog, you have to switch current blog but the text in the editing area does not get lost. Then you have to click the publish button again. The only downside I found so far is the installation process. It took longer than I expected. But considering installation a one time process, I would certainly recommend it to anyone who want to edit blog posts offline and/or want to post to multiple blogs. This is a good job done by Microsoft.

North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer

2008-06-27T22:19:00.001+06:00

Robert Roy Britt has reported in Live Science that north pole could be ice-free this summer. It seems that we are going to see changes caused by global warming much sooner than expected. Only twenty years ago people used to disbelieve the idea of global warming. But it has become a reality much quicker than what believers used to think. Global warming will erode world shore lines much faster than now in coming decades. The most severe victim of this phenomenon will be countries like Bangladesh. In fact, though sounds unbelievable when heard first time, Bangladesh will be drowned in less than a century if no immediate effective action against global warming is taken. As I told in a previous post, the people of Bangladesh are not responsible for that. Why should they bear the brunt of something they did not cause? I think world leaders should immediately pay their attention to this disaster mankind will be facing. They should not limit their actions to promises only, they should deliver on them. Lets not make any more delay.

NASA warming scientist: 'This is the last chance'

2008-06-24T10:38:00.000+06:00

A prominent NASA scientist is still hopeful about the possibility of avoiding the worst of global warming. But he calls for action immediately to which very few people are lending ears. Here is the news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_sc/sci_warming_scientist

Bangladesh: Ground Zero of Global Warming

2008-06-24T04:37:00.001+06:00

Bangladesh is a country under severe threat from global warming. Scientists and climate experts are expressing their concerns for Bangladesh for quite a long time now. While visiting the country, the U.N.Secretary General. Kofi Annan has warned the world about it. But nobody seems to care. I think very few Bangladeshis are aware of the fact that most of Bangladesh are set to disappear from the world map within a century. Though they are no one to blame for the cause, they are the innocent victims of some of the things people doing to lead luxurious life in other parts of the world. Renowned British journalist Johann Hari wrote an excellent article on the issue. In the article, Dr Atiq Rahman, a climate scientist, rightfully called Bangladesh the Ground Zero of Global Warming. He said, "My best understanding of the evidence is that this will probably happen towards the end of the lifetime of babies born today." So, the issue is not of far future. The new generation being born today will face this daunting problem. It is our duty to start thinking about it right now. I can not accept that my beloved country will cease to physically exist one day. We have to start looking for the solution. And it is also the moral duty of the nations who are responsible for this to prevent this from happening by any possible means.

A just step which was long due

2008-06-18T02:35:00.001+06:00

Government has sued Niko for Tk 746cr over Tengratilla loss. In U.S. dollars, this is $108,786,005.024 in today's exchange rate. This was due a long time ago. But corrupt politicians did not let it happen as they had their stakes involved with Niko. Because of a conflict of their interest a minister of previous government was fired. Then we came to know that Niko has given him a luxurious SUV. This is just tip of the iceberg. Who knows whether we will ever know the amount of total kickback. My congratulations to the government for taking this bold step.

Pledge a Firefox 3 download

2008-06-12T23:22:00.002+06:00

Pledge a Firefox 3 download here. It is going to be released on June 17, 2008. Mozilla Foundation is trying to set a Guinness record of maximum download in a day. I surely will do two downloads: one for Windows Vista and the other for Fedora 9.

A good article by Motiur Rahman

2008-06-12T03:46:00.001+06:00

http://www.prothom-alo.com/index.news.details.php?nid=MTY2NTU=

It is in Bangla.

My Fedora 9 Desktop

2008-06-09T21:02:00.002+06:00

5 to 7 elections needed for change???

2008-06-06T03:41:00.001+06:00

Khandaker Delwar Hossain said today that five to seven general elections are needed to have change in party politics in Bangladesh. In my opinion, either he is mad or he thinks the people of Bangladesh are utter fools. I don't know which one is true but we should be aware of this kind of politicians who are hell bent against any change in the way politics was done in Bangladesh. Given a chance again, they will again form alliance with Razakars and loot the country as before.

In a democracy people get the government they deserve

2008-06-05T03:13:00.001+06:00

Today I searched the net with this "democracy people get what they deserve". These are some of the links I got:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080514193701AAT1Qnh
http://onyxstone.blogspot.com/2007/06/democracy-we-get-what-we-deserve.html
http://www.perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=171995&forum_id=6&page=2
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070403035533AAc38xU

Looks like not everyone agreed on the topic. However, looking at Bangladesh, I think it is true. It is us who elect the corrupt politicians, traitors and god fathers. Then it is also us who blame them for all the wrong. Isn't it us who voted for them? Our democracy is only limited in election. In the first parliamentary session after an election, the opposition boycotts the parliament and makes it defunct until next election. Then they become busy burning cars and buses in the roads. This is how we practice democracy. We also have hard time to have the only element of democracy we have: election. The ruling party does everything to rig the election but when they are in the opposition, they cry for a fair election. I think all these are to blame on us, the people. No matter what these crooked politicians do, we vote them again. That is why it is true that "In a democracy people get the government they deserve".

Bangladeshi Inventor Has Demonstrated Fuel Free Magnetic Power!

2008-06-04T21:19:00.001+06:00

The story can be found here. Giasuddin Kachi invented a generator which needs external energy to start but then on produces energy indefinitely without any need of further external energy. This is too good a story to be true. Some expressed doubts that this machine violates fundamental principles of electricity and energy preservation. Nonetheless, if the generator works who cares! In that case, it will be one of the greatest invention of mankind. All the Bangladeshis will be very very proud of Giasuddin Kachi.

Programming Languages: Current Popular Languages and Future Potential Ones

2008-05-30T03:00:00.001+06:00

I found a good article about programming languages. It shows statistics about current popular languages and trends. It discusses in depth why languages like C/C++, Java and C# are popular and widely used. It also discusses potentials of some new languages while criticizes some. The article is worth reading for one who is interested in programming languages.

Bangladesh: A rush to the election, then what?

2008-05-21T20:53:00.001+06:00

Here is a good article by GM Solaiman discussing some very important points which people of Bangladesh should mull over. Now that the election is nearing, people are forgetting some things which will return us to the old days of politics. All of the hard work since last year will go in vain if these are not taken care of.