Reflecting on 2011

Reflecting on 2011 / The year that  2011 was...

 Phew it is that of the year already ,the time all the news channels ,websites and newspapers / magazines put up articles saying "best of year" blah blah blah. Time sure flies fast.The year seemed to have just started,but we are at the threshold of another "new year". This year (2011) is memorable in many ways.There were a lot of things happening!!!! through out the world as well as in India.The most prominent feature of the year  was the unabated rise in price of petrol.This post is essentially about 2011 seen through my sewed eyes :-D.2011 as with each new year , began with a lot of promises / new year resolutions , but it unfolded as follows:-

January , 2011
==>The Arab world literally boiled over and  many countries  in Arab world namely  Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Bahrain faced social unrest. Some governments like the ones in Egypt and Libya even got overthrown in the ensuing protests over the course of the year.Tahrir Square became popular of all over the world.Sounds similar to Tienanmen square in china.Guess all town squares starting with letter "T" are political hotspots.
==>At that point of time before GOVT restored the Tamil New Year Day to the traditional date of April later in the year , Tamils  celebrated Tamil New year on Pongal day ,atleast officially :-).

February , 2011
The country was reeling under the shame of Common Wealth games expose when on  February 2, 2011, Union minister Raja  was arrested and put behind bars.This really opened the flood gates and made way for many other politicians and company CEOS to be arrested under 2G scam.

March , 2011
The year began with a devastating earthquake and ensuing Tsunami which steam rolled many cities on Japan's east coast.The worst affected was Fukushima.The nuclear reactors in the town / city Dai ichi and Dai Ni were breached by the monstrous waves.This event shook the entire world.The insights it brought are:-
==>Japan makes most of the paint pigments for automotive industry and any major event in one part of the world affects the world economy in a big way.
==>Most of coastal cities around the world including Chennai are sitting on a ticking time bomb(ref:-Tsunami) which are just waiting for the right time to go kaboom!!!
==>The inherent danger and threat that nuclear reactors pose to all the countries of the world.Not only are they costly but they are very vulnerable to natural calamities.

April , 2011

==>In a daring pre dawn raid on May 2, 2011Osama Bin Laden was killed. The commandos conducted operations fearlessly on foreign soil.This showed  that America is still a "super power".

==>Tamilnadu opted for change of power on 13 April 2011 in the sate elections.

==>India won the ICC,ODI world cup after 28 years.India won by 6 wickets (with 10 balls remaining) against srilanka

==>It was more than a year I switched to Linux
==>Kalmadi was put behind bars for involvement in CWG scam.

May , 2011
==>More shame was waiting for for the infamous UPA alliance when Kanimozhi was arrested in connection with involvement in 2G scam.She became the third Member Of Parliament of the current government after Raja and kalmadi.
==>On 16 May 2011 Jayalalitha was sworn in chief minister for a third term.
==>Mamata Banerjee in Bengal assumed power on 20 May 2011 after she successfully stopped the Left juggernaut after remaining unbeaten for 34 year.
==>Taliban & co exacted revenge by attacking Mehran base in Pakistan. The audacious attack is nicknamed Mehran attack.

The terrorist were very well trained and were equally well equipped with the latest gear. The amount of ammo that they carried with them was insane and they were using night vision goggles with other ultrasonic radio communication gear.Source:-Link

Terrorists and night vision goggles ? Even Indian army is still not equipped adequately for warfare at night
==>LHC reports creation of quark-gluon plasma.Densest Matter Created in Big-Bang Machine.There has been rising fears that very Large particle accelerators like Hadron Collider could be creating Black Holes within them and that these had the ability to destroy the world.Read more - here

June ,2011
==>Festivities arrived rather early at Ramlila ,Delhi this year. Ramdev showed how the Indian government is ill equipped to handle any kind challenge / emergency .On 27 February 2011 Baba Ramdev held a large rally of over 1 lakh people at the Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi to protest against corruption.Then he started a mass movement called  Bhrashtachar Mitao Satyagrah 4 June 2011 at Ramlila Maidan and this led to "RamLilaBagh" event.The entire episode showed how immature our democracy was.Read more about the incident here:- Ramlila_Maidan_protests 
==>Anna Hazare's anti corruption movement gathers steam.He and other civil society members decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee scheduled on 6 June 2011 in protest against the forcible eviction of Swami Ramdev and his followers by the Delhi Police from Ramlila Maidan on 5 June 2011

July , 2011
India began their disastrous away cricket series against England with a solid drubbing at Lords(Mecca of cricket).In the England v India at Lord's, Jul 21-25, 2011 Pataudi Trophy, 1st Test England won by 196 runs.Many people wondered as to how India which won the world cup couple of months ago could even have receive such a severe drubbing in the Test and ODI series.

August , 2011
==>There was mini rebirth of this blog ;-)I started blogging regularly again.
==>Facebook Overtakes Orkut in India – Another Setback for Google
==>Hazare ended his fast on 28 August 2011,after  starting it on 16 August 2011 after the Indian Government had passed the resolution for the Lokpal Bill unanimously,
==>Thailand faced the worst  Floods in 70 Years 

September , 2011
September 8, 2011 was the 10th anniversary of the twin tower attacks

October , 2011
==>Libya's tyrannical dictator for more than a decade breathed his last on 20 October 2011
==>New Gundam series “Mobile Suit Gundam AGE”  begins airing on October 9, 2011

November , 2011
==> I joined "indiblogger" on 22nd Nov 2011 


December , 2011
==>On 16th I  got my first Indiblogger rank

==>kim Jong II ,the North Korean dictator breathes his last
==>US pulls out of Iraq .The last of the soldiers too have left the country

Japan summer heat wave blamed for 66 deaths,wonder how many will die if Japanese were in India

During Summers in India the mercury regularly shoots past 44 degrees Celsius and remains in forties for nearly 2 to 3 months.I was browsing through article in yahoo which was referring to deaths in Japan due to supposedly extreme heat of of 35 degrees Celsius

A blistering summer heat wave in Japan has sent 15,000 people to hospital with heat stroke and caused at least 66 deaths in the past two months, the government said Tuesday.

Japan has baked since the rainy season ended in early July, with the mercury hitting 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) or higher at more than 90 percent of nationwide observation points Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

In the week to Sunday alone, 9,436 people across the island-nation were taken to hospitals and 57 of them were confirmed killed by heat stroke, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

The previous most deadly known heatwave came in 2008, the first year data was kept, when 47 people were killed in July and August, said the agency. Last year, 16 people were killed by heat in those two months.

I am wondering as to how many Japanese will die if they were in INDIA.

"Departures"

Chanced upon watching a Japanese film by name "Departures"(Okuribito).
Was a moving story.Film featured airtight screenplay,story.
After watching the film i started searching for reviews of the movie and was amazed to find that the film has won the Oscar Foreign Language Film category in 2009.

Things i like about the movie:-

==>Good acting
==>Some nice scenes showing feeding Geese and Salmon swimming up river
==>Stone Letter.
According to the film:-

:: Stone Letter ::
In the ancient times,
before humans invented writing.
They searched for the stone that,
resembled their feelings
and gave it to another person.
The person who received the stone,
read the other person’s feelings by the weight and texture of the stone.
For example: Smooth texture symbolizes peaceful mind,rough texture symbolizes a concerns for other.

==>Embalming scenes

For detailed reviews visit IMDB-Departures

Jdrama Satorare

Was watching a Japanese drama by name "Satorare" which deals with a fictitious health condition that afflicts 1 in a core people.People who are afflicted by this it seems can communicate their thoughts unknowing to others around him or her in a limited range.The people who are born this way are monitored by Government agencies.These people supposedly are geniuses.
Overall an interesting theme.The soap was thought provoking ,funny as well as interesting

To know more about this drama go here:-http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Satorare

Who says blonds are dumb

Just realised that they are wonderful human beings

Japanese police have issued an arrest warrant for Hayden Panettiere over her campaign to save dolphins from being slaughtered.

"I learned that they have an arrest warrant out for me in Japan," the 'Heroes' star told E! News. According to UsMagazine.com, the warrant is for obstruction of commerce

The young actress and a group of activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd tried to rescue a pod of dolphins in Japan on Oct. 30, in protest of the annual hunting of the animals by local fisherman.

However, they were unsuccessful. After paddling out to sea on surfboards, the group was blocked by a boat and couldn't reach the doomed creatures.

"It was really frightening. But in the end, all we really worried about was the dolphins," Panettiere said about the incident.

When asked what the warrant could mean for her, she quipped, "Potentially jail, but i doubt it."

Panettiere laid bare her emotions following the Oct. 30 incident, with the actress shedding tears as she told reporters about what she has seen in the water.

"This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult," she said.

On her reasons for supporting the cause, she said in a statement after the protest, "The dolphins and whales in our ocean are a part of a larger eco-system that prevents the killing off of other marine life. By destroying these animals and not allowing our future generations to enjoy their beauty, we are causing our own selves damage. I always felt the need to speak on behalf of these helpless creatures who can not defend themselves."

Gundam Mania?

Lately I have been watching Gundam series on the web. I am a die hard gundam fan and i love both series. They are
==>Gundam X and
==>Victory Gundam

On completion of Victory Gundam i would have completed 5 Gundam series
==>Gundam Original
==>Gundam Zeta
==>Gundam ZZ
==>Gundam X
==>Gundam Victory

Looking forward to see the Gundam Seed series and gundam short films.
The official Gundam site has some cool specs about the mechs in the series

SUZUKA

Finished seeing suzuka on youtube.It is an anime about high school romance,love triangle . It is about love in between a track and field athlete(suzuka) and her classmate . Well this companion is the male lead (yomato) is loved by the team manager(skurai). All heal breaks lose as the three of them face tough situations ,they cannot avoid.I give it 6/10 marks.
To know more check out this link:-Suzuka_(manga)

List of episodes:-List_of_Suzuka_episodes

Link to first episode on youtube:- watch

Expect a lot of situations where you feel as to why suzuka has such a bad attitude.