My write-ups are usually about places I visit during my various trips. For a change, during this visit, I did not visit any place. There were many reasons - a) lack of company b) lack of public transport (I don't fancy driving alone to unknown places, losing way, not knowing what to do and c) bad weather on some weekends.
Anyway, having got rid of that, let me now talk about other things which I came across during this visit in June-July 2003.
This seems to be a popular activity among the teenagers (and others) here these days. There are programs freely downloadable, which allow to both share your songs, as also listen to songs which others have shared on the Internet. This is post-Napster.
Napster was the company which created a sensation by doing this (using a different technology). But Napster was taken to court by the recording industry. As is evident, things haven't quietened down.
Recent judiciary decisions, imposing fines on a few people indicted of sharing music, have bolstered recording industry. There was a full page ad in USA Today by the recording industry, justifying their decision to take the culprits to court.
A very interesting ruling by US Supreme Court justifies Universities for giving racial preferences in admissions.
Those who believe that the most developed nation the world has no racial differences in admissions had better think twice. Apparently, there are lots of Universities who give preferences to candidates with specific racial backgrounds (euphemism for blacks, hispanics), and the Court has justified this.
Unlike India, where there exists transparent quotas and admissions are caste-based, this is a different variation.
A sensational event unprecedented in the history of publishing. Around 6 millions copies of this book (costing around $30) were sold over the weekend of June 21, 2003.
The good news is, unlike the fourth Harry Potter novel, which was patchy and seemed to be dragging, this book is better written and worth the read!
The battle of the ERP companies. First it was Peoplesoft which announced that it was acquiring J D Edwards. Then there was a jolt - Oracle CEO Larry Ellison declaring that it was making a bid for Peoplesoft.
What made matters worse was Larry Ellison stated that they will not have new releases of PeopleSoft and make the customers migrate to Oracle.
The battle is ugly and still on - with the matters going to SEC, which will decide. In the meanwhile, PeopleSoft has regular full page ads stating their position and reassuring their customers that their interest will not be compromised and there will be no merger.
A very interesting news item in USA Today, talked about how movies are being editted in such a way that they do not get R rating (which restricts those less than 17 years old) and at the same time they do not get G (for all audience).
If you are wondering, why not G - the reason is this. It seems many teenagers don't see G movies considering it's beneath their dignity. Amazing, you would think.
So, the recent release Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle apparently had some scenes, which would have resulted in it getting R. These were trimmed so as to have the movie get PG13 rating.
Also, movies are spiced with violence, or sex, or language, to promote it from G to PG13!
You can't imagine that selling high fat food can be a problem. Not if it is in US.
It seems, most of the young children are obese. Why? Because they eat junk food, which have high fat content.
So who is responsible? Not those who eat. Not their parents. But the vendors, who stock and sell them.
Believe it or not, the news item talks about a situation, akin to Cigarette manufacturers'. The leading US food giant Kraft, apparently is planning to tone down it's fat content, and reduce the quantity of certain packets.
Boy, and I thought the 2% Fat milk, Reduced Fat food, Diet Coke, were an overkill.
This is one situation, which I don't envisage in India!
This is a recent Supreme Court ruling overturning an earlier ruling. The main argument is on rights of privacy. So what happens inside the house, is not something for the Government to interfere.
This is a big news to gays, though it seems this does not mean that gay marriages are legalized. They can apparently now have legal children.
Several organizations are already giving benefits to same sex mates.
There seems to be talk of Constitutional change to explicitly ban gay marriages.
I wonder if our previous generation ever envisaged this scenario. This seems to be attacking the very foundation of biological evolution - the male and the female of the species joining to create the next generation.
There was much fan fare during the release of the biography of Hillary Clinton, Living History.
Why the fuss? People were very interested in reading about what she felt about Clinton's sexual escapades. Apparently, she was upset, not because he did it, but because he didn't tell her about it!
This is something definitely not for India. Segway is a machine, like a motorized skate which can move you around on streets. This has become a rage in US. Recently, US President, tried to take a ride on it, fell down, and then tried again.
You cannot be in US without coming across NBA. The best of seven finals was very eventful. Though Spurs were the favourites, to their credits Nets stretched them to 6 matches.
If you're wondering what Nets and Spurs are all about, they are two basketball clubs in US - Nets from New Jersey and Spurs from San Antonio. NBA is National Basketball Association.
NBA matches are more popular with higher viewership than corresponding international matches/tournaments!
Players are worth millions and move from club to club, like in football and other games.
This is the in thing in televisions here. Most of the popular TV channels have one reality show or the other going. A few samples ones are For Love or Money, Paradise Hotel, Fame, American Junior, Road Rules, Surf Girls, Real World in Paris...
American Junior is nothing but a variant of Zee TV's Anthakshari, where young children are asked to sing and rated. Here, however, technology has advanced and you've toll free numbers for viewers to rate them. At least a decent show to watch.
Most of the others involve teenagers or young adults of both sexes who are subject to various real-life situations. In Paradise Hotel, they have to choose a partner of the opposite sex to share the room for the night, in Road Rules, they stay together in a RV and do various tasks, in For Love or Money, six ladies have to choose between a man or money, and so on.
What's common across these is sexuality - in all cases, you've relationships formed, often physical. You've them together in Jacuzzi or swimming pool, you've them stripping, dancing, and doing all sorts of things.
How many of them are real? Fancy talking and doing various personal and intimate things before the camera - you bet they take and retake the shots to get them right!
The programs thrown off from US have made appearances in India - Who Dares Wins, Survivor, Fear Factor...
I guess this just reflects the culture prevailing here - of a loose society with no morals. You can take a liking for some one, spend time with him/her, lose interest at any point of time and move over. People are like clothes, you try them out, wear some of them for a while, throw them off, when they're of no interest to you, or if you find something more interesting.