Having conquered the world’s markets, China’s countless millions have now embarked on a new mission - to master the English language, the global language of art and commerce.

The New Yorker has an interesting piece on the Chinese’ obsession with English in the latest issue:

China has been in the grip of “English fever,” as the phenomenon is known in Chinese, for more than a decade. A vast national appetite has elevated English to something more than a language: it is not simply a tool but a defining measure of life’s potential. China today is divided by class, opportunity, and power, but one of its few unifying beliefs—something shared by waiters, politicians, intellectuals, tycoons—is the power of English. Every college freshman must meet a minimal level of English comprehension, and it’s the only foreign language tested. English has become an ideology, a force strong enough to remake your résumé, attract a spouse, or catapult you out of a village. Linguists estimate the number of Chinese now studying or speaking English at between two hundred million and three hundred and fifty million, a figure that’s on the order of the population of the United States. English private schools, study gadgets, and high-priced tutors vie for pieces of that market. The largest English school system, New Oriental, is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Having watched the relentless determination of the Chinese Continue Reading…

We’ve heard of Low Carb Diet, South Beach Diet, Low Fat Diet, Atkins Diet, Low Sodium Diet, Vegetarian Diet and a variety of other diets.

Penis Diet, what the heck is that? Sounds like what some desperate pornographers would be peddling in junk e-mail. You know, the kind that arrives uninvited in your inbox with headers like Add four-inches to your…, Surprise Your Girlfriend and the like.

But Penis Diet is not the desperate attempt of an e-mail marketer to fleece you out of your money. 

Penis Diet is actually what two U.S. doctors have come up with for men who are not quite convinced that drugs like Viagra are the best way to achieve an erection.

Penis Diet is also the name of a 75-page book co-authored by the two doctors Damon Z. Cozamanis, D.C. and Marc D. Grobman, D.O., F.A.C.P.

Since we were utterly flummoxed by the Penis Diet, we called one of the authors of the book Dr.Grobman and interviewed him about this new Diet.

According to Dr.Grobman, the Penis Diet Continue Reading…

Mumbai’s cattle cars a.k.a. commuter trains have killed over 20,000 people in the last five years, according to local railway officials in this teeming metropolis.

Worse than the Nazi era cattle cars, Mumbai’s commuter trains carry seven million people everyday with people clinging on to the sides and many sitting precariously atop the train during rush hour because there’s just no space inside the train.

These killer trains take the lives of at least 10 people a day, railway officials say.

And you whine that the New York subway is dirty and dangerous.

Desi Butcher Vikram Pandit, Citigroup CEO, is throwing 9,000 employees on the streets on top of the 4,200 jobs the embattled bank has already cut recently.

As usual, the new round of job cuts are also attributed to expense management.

And did we tell you that Vikram Pandit, like the proverbial pig at the trough, took $26.7 million in stock (1.094 million shares) on January 22, 2008, according to the bank’s regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Citigroup also announced Friday a writedown of $202 million in the value of Continue Reading…

After much grief, we’ve learnt that along with a good Camera and Lens, a decent Tripod is a must. We now use a Bogen Manfrotto 725B tripod with integrated ballhead ($112.90). 

More than adequate for point and shoot cameras, the Bogen Manfrotto 725B can also take the weight of DSLRs like the Nikon D80 and the 18-135mm kit lens.

Rupert Murdoch’s social networking web site MySpace is looking at launching a site focused on India in the near future as part of its aggressive expansion outside the U.S., according to the WSJ (subscription required).

The India launch is to be marked with a rock concert and party on April 17 in Mumbai at the Land’s End Amphitheater and followed by a MySpace Developer Platform workshop on April 21 in Bangalore.

The social networking space is getting crowded.

Besides Facebook and Orkut, there is HT Media’s DesiMartini, Reliance’s BigAdda not to forget new entrant itimes.com from Indiatimes.

We doubt DesiMartini, itimes or Bigadda will amount to anything ultimately. Typical desi copycat mentality of latching on to a successful product/service/business model!

H1-B Visa program, the scourge of American software programmers and other professionals, has reached its cap of 65,000 within seven days of opening the gates for fiscal 2009.

Most likely, the cap was reached on April 1 itself although the official announcement from USCIS came today.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said today that it had received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2009. 

USCIS said it had also received over 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the “advanced degree” exemption.

Before running the random selection process, USCIS will complete initial data entry for all filings received during the filing period ending on April 7, 2008. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the precise day on which it will conduct the random selection process.

USCIS will carry out the computer-generated random selection process for all cap-subject petitions received.  USCIS will select the number of petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 for the general category and 20,000 under the “advanced degree” exemption limit. USCIS will reject, and return filing fees for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, unless found to be a duplicate.   USCIS will handle duplicate filings in accordance with the interim final rule published on March 24, 2008 in the Federal Register.

The agency will conduct the selection process for “advanced degree” exemption petitions first. All “advanced degree” petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.

While Microsoft, Intel, Google and Continue Reading…

No kidding. 

Bollywood DVDs from Eros Entertainment will soon be available at Wal-Mart stores in Canada.

Bollywood movie distributor and producer Eros Entertainment has entered into a tie up with Wal-Mart Canada to peddle its collection of Indian movies.

Initially, Eros’ Bollywood DVDs will be available in 27 Wal-Mart stores and subsequently the entire Canadian Wal-Mart network.

Eros plans to make a large number of titles Continue Reading…

The Supreme Court of India today put Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the dock by ordering a fresh investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the 2002 communal riots that led to the massacre of over a thousand Muslims.

Comprising a total of five members (three senior IPS officers from Gujarat, retired CBI Director RK Raghavan and retired Uttar Pradesh police officer CB Satpathy),  the SIT is expected to complete its probe in three months and submit a report. The three IPS officers from Gujarat are Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia.

Today’s order for a fresh probe into Gujarat Communal riots was a result of a petition made by Human Rights Groups expressing fears of bias in investigations.

The probe would focus on cases related to Gulberg, Ode and Sardarpur massacres, and the Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghovpura killings.

BJP leader and current Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was at the helm of the state government during the massacre too. But like the Roman Emperor Nero, Modi’s government was fiddling while the wholesale massacre of Muslims was happening.

Karan Bhatia has been named a GE Officer, a prestigious position in the diversified multinational corporation.

Worldwide, GE has just 197 GE Officers, who lead large revenue generating businesses or occupy critical functional roles.

The 39-year-old Bhatia was named GE’s new VP and senior counsel, international government relations and policy recently.

Before joining GE, Bhatia was the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative at the Office of the United States Trade Department in Washington D.C.

Previously, Bhatia held several key positions in Washington Continue Reading…

Popular South Indian film actor Raghuvaran died of cardiac arrest in Chennai at the age of 60.

Originally from Palakkad area of Kerala, Raghuvaran acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films in supporting roles like the doctor in Sivaji or as villain like the criminal gang leader in Bheema. 

One of the better actors in the Tamil film industry, Raghuvaran’s last film was the Tamil movie Sila Nerangalil.

Raghuvaran is survived by a son and his ex-wife actress Rohini.

Click here for a filmography of Raghuvaran.

U.S. teenage girls have a high rate of venereal disease a.k.a. sexually transmitted infections (STI).

One in every four teenage girls in U.S. has at least one of the most common venereal diseases, according to a recent study conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Based on the study, the authors conservatively estimate that 3.2 million American teenage girls are infected with VD. The authors say that the total number might actually a bit higher since venereal diseases like Syphilis, HIV and Gonorrhea were not included in the analysis.

The four common venereal diseases included in the study are human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis.

The study was conducted among girls aged 14-19.

Besides the overall venereal diseases or STI prevalence, the Continue Reading…