October 31, 2004
NCAA Football 2004 week #9
It was an interesting Saturday. Lots of action. Thankfully, I got to watch a lot of it.
Nebraska beat Missouri 24-3. The famous Blackshirts defense showed up finally. Missouri couldn't score more than one field goal. It was a good game to watch. The west coast offense is slowly taking roots in Lincoln. I'll give them another year or two to get good at it. They had 10th anniversary celebration for the 1994 championship. Got to see a lot of familiar faces: Tom Osborne, Tommy Frasier. Those two years, '94 and '95 when the Huskers won the championship back-to-back, they were just an amazing team. No other team could even think of beating them. Next week, Huskers visit Iowa State in Ames, IA. It should be an easy win for Nebraska.
Texas easily beat Colorado 31-7. Didn't get to watch the game; not even highlights.
Some big highly ranked teams lost and other few almost lost but, recovered in the end. #5 Florida State was beaten by unranked Maryland. Must have been a big shock to Bobby Bowden. North Carolina won against #3 Miami with a last second 40-yard field goal by a freshman kicker. This was the first time ever that they beat a team ranked in top 5. #16 Texas A&M lost to Baylor. I didn't think Baylor could beat any team. This was a big surprise. Purdue lost another game (3rd in a row) after being ranked in top 10 just a couple of weeks ago. This time Northwestern beat them by a field goal.
The biggest averted upset was that of Oklahoma. They barely managed to win against Oklahoma State. 38-35. It would have gone to overtime, but OKState kicker missed a field goal in the last seconds of the game. Michigan State almost beat Michigan too. That game went to 3 overtimes before Michigan won it 45-37. Michigan was behind 27-10 when 6 minutes were left in the game but, came back to finally win it.
Overall, it was an exciting day for College football. Hope to see more this in the coming weeks.
October 29, 2004
India loses the test series against Australia
How pathetic!!! Is there something wrong with the scorecard of Indian second innings? The bottom half of the batting order scored more runs than the top half. Interesting, eh?!
India 2nd innings (target: 543 runs) R M B 4 6 A Chopra b Gillespie 1 16 0 0 V Sehwag c Clarke b Warne 58 94 8 0 *R Dravid b Gillespie 2 6 0 0 SR Tendulkar c Martyn b McGrath 2 14 0 0 VVS Laxman c McGrath b Kasprowicz 2 9 0 0 M Kaif c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 7 8 1 0 +PA Patel c Gilchrist b Gillespie 32 53 6 0 AB Agarkar not out 44 61 8 0 A Kumble b Gillespie 2 17 0 0 M Kartik c Gilchrist b McGrath 22 27 4 0 Z Khan c Martyn b Warne 25 17 2 2 Extras (lb 2, nb 1) 3 Total (all out, 53.3 overs) 200
October 28, 2004
October 25, 2004
The A$$hole Factor
Why do all the conservative stuck-ups have this repressed sexuality? And itt comes out in the ugliest form possible. The latest scandal is the Bill O'Reilly sexual harrasement case. Check out these pages (here and here) from the complaint filed by Andrea MacKris against Bill. Highly entertaining!!!
Flu vaccine shortage
ABC News: Some Prison Inmates Will Get Flu Shots
Why??? There are so many senior citizens around the country that are scrambling to get flu shots and the vaccine is being wasted on prison inmates. A 79 year old woman died of heat-stroke in California after standing in line for flu vaccine for 4 hours. Is this messed up or what?!?!?
NCAA Football 2004 week #8
Took a break in writing the update last weekend as I was busy and didn't get to watch any football. Last weekend, I was in front of the TV again.
Nebraska lost to Kansas State as expected. Thankfully, it wasn't a complete blowout. The next game is against Missouri. Last year, the Huskers lost against them. I don't have my hopes too high. They are definitely going to lose against Oklahoma in coming weeks. I would be very happy if they win all the other games, but, Missouri and Colorado seem to be tough opponents to this weak Husker team.
Texas made it past Texas Tech. Last year, TT scuttled the Longhorns' hope of getting into a BCS bowl. This year Texas is poised to be in the top 6 BCS rankings at the end. Hope they win against Texas A&M at the end of the season. They play Colorado next week. It should be a one-sided game with Texas winning with a huge margin.
There were no big upsets this weekend. Most of the ranked teams won their respective games. Michigan(#13) beat Purdue(#12) by 2 points. #20 Florida lost to Mississippi State. That was a shocker. Florida hasn't been the same since the departure of Steve Spurrier. Not that I liked him very much, but, he was doing a good job at Florida. Now, after getting fired as the headcoach of Redskins, don't know if he'll coach again. Also, Notre Dame (#24) lost to Boston College. Yipee! Another losing season and they will fire Ty Willingham. Hopefully, he will go to a better school. He is totally wasted at ND.
Watched Miami playing NCstate on ESPN. The NCstate kickoff was returned by Devin Hester for 100 yards and scored a touchdown on the first play of the game. That was fun to watch.
USC shutout Washington 38-0. It is time for Rick Neuheisel to get his ass fired.
Iowa beat Penn State 6-4. Pathetic!!! Penn State scored only on two safeties. That is just ridiculous. The final score of the first game in the baseball world series was higher than that.
October 23, 2004
Monahan's roasted bluefish
This recipe was so good that we had to share it.
Serves 2.
1 lb bluefish fillet
1 small onion, minced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tblsp olive oil
3 tblsp capers
1 large tomato, diced
2 tblsp chopped fresh dill
1 tblsp balsamic vinegar
Lightly saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Preheat the oven to 500F. Place the fillet in a lightly oiled baking dish with the skin-side down. Cover it with onion-garlic mixture and tomatoes, then capers and dill. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roast for 15-20 minutes or till the fish becomes opaque.
2003 Rosemount Estates Shiraz is OK. Much better than the 2002 vintage but, not as good as 2000 which was the best year.
October 22, 2004
Single parenthood
V has been away on a business trip since Tuesday. This was my first chance to be a single parent to Ashwini for an extended period of time. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with her, but it made me realise how much work and planning iis involved in taking care of a toddler. At this age (20months), Ashwini doesn't realise the consequences of her actions. She needs to be looked after constantly to keep her away from doing something that will hurt her. With two parents around, one can pay attention to her while the other can be free to do cooking etc. My respect for single parents (especially single moms) went up by another notch. It is so hard to do anything without planning it out first. Even going to the bathroom for a minute or two is difficult.
V is coming home tonight. Both Ashwini and I will be very happy to see her back. Hopefully, she'll bring us something from San Diego.
How often do you kill animals?
Cheney calls camouflaged Kerry's goose hunting 'October disguise'
This election is just getting ridiculuos. Both the sides are jumping on any and every issue they can find to blast the other side. Kerry was quick to blame the current administration for the flu vaccine shortage when they couldn't have done anything about it. Here is a jab by Dick Cheney at Kerry's goose hunting trip.
Kerry has a camouflage jacket but bought a new one for the outing because he was on the campaign trail. Cheney seized on the fact that the jacket was new."Which did make me wonder how regularly he does go goose hunting," the vice president said.
What is he trying to say here? Just because Cheney regularly pumps bullets into hapless innocent animals for fun, he is a better man? Maybe he needs to keep handling his guns regularly as a surrogate for his body part that doesn't get enough blood from his failing heart.
October 18, 2004
Flu vaccine
Everyone knows about the massive shortage of flu vaccine in US, this season. Shutting down a plant owned by Chiron in UK was the main reason for this shortage. This has given rise to some interesting responses from the state and local authorities. In Oregon and California, the health care workers found to administer flu vaccine to someone who does not meet the criteria to be on the approved list, could face fines and/or jail. Pretty soon, senior citizen standing in line to get a flu shot is going to be a common sight across US.
Thankfully, Ashwini already received her flu shot last week. Anyway, she is on the approved list (6-24 mo. old).
Vote and be damned
Maureen Dowd writes in her New York Times op-ed about the anit-Kerry gospel spread by the conservative Catholic bishops around the country. They are following in the footsteps of Dick Cheney and Dennis Hastert to threaten American catholics of eternal damnation if they voted for John Kerry. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver goes as far as saying that catholics who vote for John Kerry will have to confess this sin before they can receive communion. Is this an effort to scare the catholic Kerry supporters away from the voting booths? And I thought only Imams issue fatwas.
I always enjoy Maureen Dowd's column very much. Like her writing style. But, I was surprised to see how mellow she was on Bill Maher show a few weeks ago. Maybe, she forgot to drink her coffee that day. :)
Click on the link below to read Maureen's column.
Vote and Be Damned
October 17, 2004
By MAUREEN DOWD
First Dick Cheney said that supporting John Kerry could
lead to another terrorist attack.
Then Dennis Hastert said Al Qaeda would be more successful
under a Kerry presidency than under President Bush.
Now the Catholic bishops have upped the ante, indicating
that voting for a candidate with Mr. Kerry's policies could
lead to eternal damnation.
Conservative bishops and conservative Republicans are
working hard to spread the gospel that anyone who supports
the Catholic candidate and onetime Boston altar boy who
carries a rosary and a Bible with him on the trail is
aligned with the forces of evil.
In an interview with The Times's David Kirkpatrick,
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said a knowing vote for
a candidate like Mr. Kerry who supports abortion rights or
embryonic stem cell research would be a sin that would have
to be confessed before receiving communion. "If you vote
this way, are you cooperating in evil?" the archbishop
asked. "Now, if you know you are cooperating in evil,
should you go to confession? The answer is yes."
As Mr. Kirkpatrick and Laurie Goodstein wrote, Catholics
make up about a quarter of the electorate, many
concentrated in swing states. These bishops and like-minded
Catholic groups are organizing voter registration and
blanketing churches with voter guides that often ignore
traditional Catholic concerns about the death penalty and
war - the pope opposed the invasion of Iraq - while calling
abortion, gay marriage and the stem cell debate
"nonnegotiable."
"Never before have so many bishops so explicitly warned
Catholics so close to an election that to vote a certain
way was to commit a sin," the Times article said.
Once upon a time, with Al Smith and John Kennedy, the
church was proud to see Catholics run for president. The
church was as unobtrusive in 1960, trying to help J.F.K.,
as it is obtrusive now, trying to hurt J.F.K. II.
The conservative bishops, salivating to overturn Roe v.
Wade, prefer an evangelical antiabortion president to one
of their own who said in Wednesday's debate: "What is an
article of faith for me is not something that I can
legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of
faith. I believe that choice ... is between a woman, God
and her doctor."
Like Mr. Bush, these patriarchal bishops want to turn back
the clock to the 50's. They don't want separation of church
and state - except in Iraq.
Some of the bishops - the shepherds of a church whose
hierarchy bungled the molestation and rape of so many young
boys by tolerating it, covering it up, enabling it,
excusing it and paying hush money - are still debating
whether John Kerry should be allowed to receive communion.
These bishops are embryo-centric; they are not as
concerned with the 1,080 kids killed in a war that the Bush
administration launched with lies, or about the lives that
could be lost thanks to the president's letting the assault
weapons ban lapse, or about all the lives that could be
saved and improved with stem cell research.
Mr. Bush derives his immutability from his faith. "I
believe that God wants everybody to be free," he said in
the last debate, adding that this was "part of my foreign
policy."
In today's Times Magazine, Ron Suskind writes that Mr. Bush
has created a "faith-based presidency" that has riven the
Republican Party.
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan
and a Treasury official for the first President Bush, told
Mr. Suskind that some people now look at Mr. Bush and see
"this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of
weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to
do." He continued: "This is why George W. Bush is so
clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist
enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be
persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark
vision. He understands them, because he's just like them."
The president's certitude - the idea that he can see into
people's souls and that God tells him what is right, then
W. tells us if he feels like it - is disturbing. It equates
disagreeing with him to disagreeing with Him.
The conservative bishops' certitude - the idea that you
can't be a good Catholic if you diverge from certain
church-decreed mandates or if you want to keep your
religion and politics separate - is also disturbing.
America is awash in selective piety, situational moralists
and cherry-picking absolutists.
October 14, 2004
Bollywood is motherless
Nirupa Roy: Bollywood's favourite cine-ma dies in oblivion
Bollywood lost its best on-screen mother. She was so good at doing the 'Mother' roles. She must have played mother to every great Bollywood actor, even the ones that were older than her...
In 1955 at the prime of her career, ... she switched to mother's roles, playing Dev Anand's mom in Subodh Mukherjee's "Munimji" when she was actually seven years younger than him.
Amitabh for '04
This is hilarious! Check out Bill Clinton's message at the end when the credits get over. That is the best part.
Thanks, Mayuresh!
October 12, 2004
Last Presidential Debate
Wednesday night is the last Presidential debate. Get some facts before you hear them twisted out of shape by the timber company man. Paul Krugman wrote this article in the New York Times that points out what W would say about the following points and real facts about them...
- Jobs
- Unemployment
- The deficit
- The tax cuts
- The Kerry tax plan
- Fiscal responsibility
- Spending
- Healthcare
Read the whole article by clicking on the following link.
Checking the Facts, in Advance
October 12, 2004
By PAUL KRUGMAN
It's not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds
increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight
lies or distortions you'll hear, and the truth about each:
Jobs
Mr. Bush will talk about the 1.7 million jobs
created since the summer of 2003, and will say that the
economy is "strong and getting stronger." That's like
boasting about getting a D on your final exam, when you
flunked the midterm and needed at least a C to pass the
course.
Mr. Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to
preside over a decline in payroll employment. That's worse
than it sounds because the economy needs around 1.6 million
new jobs each year just to keep up with population growth.
The past year's job gains, while better news than earlier
job losses, barely met this requirement, and they did
little to close the huge gap between the number of jobs the
country needs and the number actually available.
Unemployment
Mr. Bush will boast about the decline in
the unemployment rate from its June 2003 peak. But the
employed fraction of the population didn't rise at all;
unemployment declined only because some of those without
jobs stopped actively looking for work, and therefore
dropped out of the unemployment statistics. The labor force
participation rate - the fraction of the population either
working or actively looking for work - has fallen sharply
under Mr. Bush; if it had stayed at its January 2001 level,
the official unemployment rate would be 7.4 percent.
The deficit
Mr. Bush will claim that the recession and
9/11 caused record budget deficits. Congressional Budget
Office estimates show that tax cuts caused about two-thirds
of the 2004 deficit.
The tax cuts
Mr. Bush will claim that Senator John Kerry opposed "middle
class" tax cuts. But budget office numbers show that most
of Mr. Bush's tax cuts went to the best-off 10 percent of
families, and more than a third went to the top 1 percent,
whose average income is more than $1 million.
The Kerry tax plan
Mr. Bush will claim, once again,
that Mr. Kerry plans to raise taxes on many small
businesses. In fact, only a tiny percentage would be
affected. Moreover, as Mr. Kerry correctly pointed out last
week, the administration's definition of a small-business
owner is so broad that in 2001 it included Mr. Bush, who
does indeed have a stake in a timber company - a business
he's so little involved with that he apparently forgot
about it.
Fiscal responsibility
Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry proposes $2 trillion in
new spending. That's a partisan number and is much higher
than independent estimates. Meanwhile, as The Washington
Post pointed out after the Republican convention, the
administration's own numbers show that the cost of the
agenda Mr. Bush laid out "is likely to be well in excess of
$3 trillion" and "far eclipses that of the Kerry plan."
Spending
On Friday, Mr. Bush claimed that he had
increased nondefense discretionary spending by only 1
percent per year. The actual number is 8 percent, even
after adjusting for inflation. Mr. Bush seems to have
confused his budget promises - which he keeps on breaking -
with reality.
Health care
Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry wants to take medical
decisions away from individuals. The Kerry plan would
expand Medicaid (which works like Medicare), ensuring that
children, in particular, have health insurance. It would
protect everyone against catastrophic medical expenses, a
particular help to the chronically ill. It would do nothing
to restrict patients' choices.
By singling out Mr. Bush's lies and misrepresentations, am
I saying that Mr. Kerry isn't equally at fault? Yes.
Mr. Kerry sometimes uses verbal shorthand that offers
nitpickers things to complain about. He talks of 1.6
million lost jobs; that's the private-sector loss, partly
offset by increased government employment. But the job
record is indeed awful. He talks of the $200 billion cost
of the Iraq war; actual spending is only $120 billion so
far. But nobody doubts that the war will cost at least
another $80 billion. The point is that Mr. Kerry can, at
most, be accused of using loose language; the thrust of his
statements is correct.
Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally
dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that
failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by
spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr.
Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers.
October 11, 2004
Sin is sick
Yahoo! News - Manila's Cardinal Sin Rushed to Hospital
I know it isn't nice to make fun of someone who is ill. But, am I the only one who saw humor in this headline?
Reminds of a magazine I used to read called 'Amrut'. It used to have these two features:
'Mu-ra-vi (Mudrarakshasacha vinod)', that listed humor created by typos.
'U-san-du (upsampadakachya dulakya)', that listed humor created by negligent subeditors who didn't proofread the copies before publishing.
October 10, 2004
NCAA Football 2004 week #6
Horrible weekend of College Football. Nebraska lost miserably in a blowout against Texas Tech. Till halftime, it looked like it would be a respectable loss, but, then all hell broke loose. It was bad. I couldn't watch it. Nebraska's fabled defense was nowhere to be seen and offense couldn't do anything either. Texas Tech won 70-10. Probably their first ever win against Nebraska.
Texas was shutout by Oklahoma (12-0). It was a totally defense-dominated game. Sooners could score only 2 field goals and 1 touchdown with a missed 2 point conversion(Thanks for the correction, Aditya!). Good that I didn't get to watch such a boring game.
Another top5 team tumbled. Georgia lost to Tennessee. Good news for Auburn as they move up by two spots in the rankings.
Michigan barely made it past Minnesota by a field goal. Ohio State lost another game this season, to Wisconsin. Yay! Purdue is still unbeaten. LSU beat Florida to get back some respect after getting kicked by Georgia last week.
On another note; just caught some NFL highlights during the half-time of Lions/Falcons game. Good-for-nothing over-rated Tampa Bay QB Chris Simms got sacked badly and injured the shoulder of his throwing arm. Now, he can sit through the rest of the season and get free money.
October 09, 2004
ABC Sports
I wonder about the intelligence of program director at ABC Sports. They are showing Michigan State playing Illinois, when they could show Texas vs. Oklahoma game. I know Michigan State is local team here, but can't they make an exception when teams ranked #2 and #5 are playing against each other which could result in a big upset????
October 08, 2004
Vote for Bush: He deserves it!!!
Jonathan Chait of LATimes makes an argument for re-election of Geroge W. Bush. It makes perfect sense just like the Pottery Barn policy of "You break it... you own it".
He's So Bad, He Might Be Perfect
Under an odd logic, Bush deserves another term. Shouldn't he suffer for his blunders?An editor at the paper suggested that I use this week's column to try to make the most honest and persuasive case I could for President Bush's reelection. At first I was skeptical. To say that I consider Bush a "bad" president would be a severe understatement. I think he's bad in a way that redefines my understanding of the word "bad." I used to think U.S. history had many bad presidents. Now, my "bad" category consists entirely of George W. Bush, with every previous president redefined as "good." There's also the fact that, on a personal level, I despise him with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. What I'm saying is, advocating Bush is kind of tricky.
Read the whole article by clicking on the following link...
He's So Bad, He Might Be Perfect
Under an odd logic, Bush deserves another term. Shouldn't he suffer for his blunders?
Jonathan Chait
October 8, 2004
An editor at the paper suggested that I use this week's column to try to make the most honest and persuasive case I could for President Bush's reelection. At first I was skeptical. To say that I consider Bush a "bad" president would be a severe understatement. I think he's bad in a way that redefines my understanding of the word "bad." I used to think U.S. history had many bad presidents. Now, my "bad" category consists entirely of George W. Bush, with every previous president redefined as "good." There's also the fact that, on a personal level, I despise him with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. What I'm saying is, advocating Bush is kind of tricky.
But then I thought, what the heck. Why not try it for the sake of intellectual experimentation? After all, lawyers often defend some pretty repugnant clients, right? In keeping with that, I won't attempt to deny that my client has done some awful things. What I'll argue instead is that his very awfulness is the reason he deserves reelection.
Begin with the premise that a second-term Bush administration is unlikely to make things a whole lot worse. First of all, domestically, GOP moderates and deficit hawks have finally begun to wake up and realize that they have to rein in Bush's reckless fiscal policies. At the same time, if John F. Kerry is elected and tries to raise taxes or rein in spending, he'll probably suffer substantial political damage, as Bill Clinton did in 1994. But, unlike Clinton, he'll not enjoy Democratic majorities in both Houses, which means he stands a good chance of failing. That would be the worst of all worlds: Democrats would suffer the political costs of demanding sacrifice from the public, without the corresponding benefit of making the country better.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker has estimated that there's a 75% chance of a major financial crisis within the next five years if we don't reduce our budget deficit. That may be too high, but assume he's right. Whoever holds office would quickly become extremely unpopular, whether he had tried to deal with the deficit or not. If the choice is Bush doing nothing versus Kerry doing nothing, why not let Bush take the blame for his own mess? Why have a Democrat bail him out?
The foreign policy calculus is pretty similar. We don't have enough troops to fight the war we're in, let alone start another one. So there's no reason to fear Bush botching yet another war. And, as much as I desperately want to be wrong about this, the odds of Iraq evolving into a stable democracy look pretty grim right now. If such a scenario ever had any chance of succeeding, it would have required lots more ground troops to keep the peace and allow reconstruction. Now it's probably too late to do anything but salvage something short of total anarchy. If Kerry is president, conservatives will blame him for the failure in Iraq — if only we still had a leader of Bush's unwavering resolve, they'll claim, we would have won the war. If Bush is president, he'll be held accountable for his own bungling of the invasion.
That leaves the usual trump card — social policy. Plenty of my fellow liberals freak out at the thought of Bush appointing two or more Supreme Court justices. But maybe he deserves that too. Hear me out. Right now, Republicans get the best of both worlds. They get tens of millions of social conservatives marching to the polls to vote for them every two years but, because key points of the social-conservative agenda never gets enacted, they suffer hardly any political consequences for their positions.
Now, suppose Bush does appoint a couple justices. Maybe they will overturn Roe vs. Wade. If Roe falls, presumably states would decide how to deal with the abortion issue, and a reinvigorated pro-choice, center-left majority would be able to protect abortion rights in most places. In fact, the fear of a backlash would probably cause Bush's justices to chicken out and uphold Roe anyway. Then how would Republicans persuade social conservatives to keep supporting them?
Bush's presidency is a great mass of contradictions. There's an enormous gap between his purported values — fiscal discipline, toughness against terrorists, a commitment to social conservatism — and his true record. Sure, it would be emotionally satisfying to see Bush rejected by the voters once again. But maybe, for this president, defeat is too kind a fate.
October 05, 2004
Jaai / Jui / Chameli / Jasmine
October 04, 2004
Outsourced IT Helpdesk
A funny bit on Conan O'Brien about NBC's outsourced IT helpdesk.
Update: This link doesn't lead to the TV clip it originally showed.
Main Hoon Na
It is a freaking ri-god-damned-diculous movie. I didn't watch it (or any movie) for so long and why the hell did I decide to torture myself with it now???
Movie critic for a Marathi newspaper aptly called it: "Main Bindok Hoon Na". Should have seen that review before watching it.
NCAA Football 2004 week #5
Very exciting week in NCAA football. Lots of upsets.
First of all, Nebraska beat Kansas. It was a boring game. At one point I thought that Kansas was going to win (they were leading 5-0) but, Nebraska came through with a win (14-8). Next week they play Texas Tech. It wil be a tough game after their loss to Oklahoma last Saturday.
#5 Texas easily beat Baylor but, they face the biggest challenge of the season, #2 Oklahoma next week. It will be a good game to watch. This year Big12 is not strong as a conferencen overall. Only 3 teams (2, 5, 25) are ranked in top 25. None from the North division. Hopefully, it will change as the season moves along.
Michigan beat Indiana as expected. Pitt lost to Connecticut. Didn't follow the game or saw any highlights on Sportscenter. Aditya, you may want to mention something about it.
There were a lot of upsets. Purdue beat the crap out of Notre Dame. It was sweeeeet. Ohio State lost to Northwestern in overtime. Yippeee!!! Georgia beat LSU and Auburn not just beat but crushed Tennessee. Georgia is ranked #3 now. They play Tennessee next week. That will be an exciting game to watch. Tennessee is all pumped up from their loss, they would love to win against a team that is ranked higher than them.
There are lots of good exciting games slated for the next week as I mentioned above. Looking forward to it.
October 01, 2004
Do you know where that pill came from? Part 2
There were some intersting points raised in comments to my earlier post. Rather than burying my response in a comment, I thought I should make another post about it.
Mahesh pointed out: how come I see no ads from big pharmas like Pfizer and Merck?
Although counterfeit drugs cut into the revenues of Pharmaceutical companies, they cannot control these fakes. The responsibility of keeping fake drugs away from patients falls of FDA's and other govt. agencies' shoulders. Pharma companies are working with Law enforcement (FBI etc) to deal with this issue, but, there is nothing to achieve from advertising about this to the public.
In response to Sujit's comment:
When you are talking about importing drugs from overseas (Canada or elsewhere), you are talking about mail-order and online pharmacies. There is a very small number of people (living in the border states) who can actually travel to Canada to buy their medications. Others will have to depend on mail-order and online pharmacies. They have to deal with the risk of getting counterfeits. If drug re-importation in US becomes legal and local govts. start buying medicines from Canada, I am sure the Pharma companies are not going to just let that happen freely. They are not doing anything about it as long as a small number of people are doing it for their own drug needs. They can control the amount that is shipped to Canada or any other place in the world. If Canadian pharmacies keep selling them to US customers, depriving the Canadian population from it, I am sure they will have to face the music from Canadian govt. and public. So, the re-importation by local govt.s is not going to be simple and smooth. They can think/plan about it all they want.
Deven mentioned counterfeits coming from China and India:
I don't have figures about this from India, but, 2% of China's GDP results from counterfeit goods (US$ 120billion per year) which includes CDs, DVDs, software etc along with prescription drugs. Even if drugs account for only 10% of it, i.e. US$ 12billion per year. It is a huge problem.
By some estimates, more than 50% of Viagra on the market is fake. There is no doubt that it is because of its novelty use. But, even if 2% of other life-saving drugs are fake, that means a lot of lives.
