Desi Tamasha

Things are sounding weirder by the minute in the flap between H-P and Tom Perkins. First, they say that this one director was leaking details to the public. Not such a major crime, but strange in any case.

Then, we get this ridiculous euphemism - "pretexting". PRETEXT-ing? Anyone with the slightest commonsense can see how close the WORD is to PRETEND-ing! Larry Sonsini said it's legal!

Come ON! Tom Perkins sits here in the middle of Silicon Valley, funding the most sophisticated technology and Larry Sonsini is giving legal advice to these companies. What's wrong with them?
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Rip-roaring hilarious!
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Testing some Slashdot tricks...
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An interesting article in the New York Times on China's style of diplomacy. If you believe everything written in the article, it seems like it would take one more generation for China to play the role of a civilized, principled nation, rather than just a local bully. The current generation of Chinese leadership isn't going to cut it.

The article is worth a read and there are some very interesting passages, like this one:

“Their national style is different from the style of other people, including India and Pakistan,” as Akram puts it. “We are an oral people; the Chinese are not. They make their position clear, and they stand by it.”

And then, when it no longer suits their purposes, they change their position. Several years ago, China joined India in principled repudiation of the chlorofluorocarbon reductions mandated by the Montreal Protocol. But when the international community offered to pay for the technology needed to reduce emissions, China decided that global regulation of pollution did not, in fact, constitute a violation of national sovereignty, leaving the Indians all alone in their principled opposition.

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I brought home a can of Thums-up last night and had it for lunch today. Verdict: Thumbs down. For one, it's sweeter than the Thums-up we get in India. Secondly, it's just better in a bottle.