The fifth and final phase of the elections to the 15 th Lok Sabha ended on Wednesday, with 62 per cent of the 71.4 crore voters turning out — the highest in the five phases.
The fifth phase saw elections to 86 constituencies across nine states and two union territories, including 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.
The highest polling was recorded in West Bengal, while the lowest was in Barmulla constituency in Jammu and Kashmir. Unlike earlier phases, polling in West Bengal went off peacefully.
The prominent candidates in Wednesday’s round included Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the DMK’s T.R. Baalu, Dayanidhi Maran and M.K. Azhagiri, the Congress' Mohammad Azharuddin, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maneka and Varun Gandhi, the MDMK's Vaiko and the Samajwadi Party's Jayaprada.
In all, 8,070 candidates contested for the 543 seats in the elections and votes would be counted on May 16 in 1,080 centres all over India, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla said, adding, “Results could be expected by Saturday evening.”
Wednesday’s polling was peaceful in all the states, barring a few incidents of violence in West Bangal, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
But Chawla said altogether 37 people were killed in the staggered polls, including 23 in poll-related violence. Fourteen people lost their lives because of accidents and health problems.
In Tamil Nadu, where all the 39 constituencies went for the polls, the day was peaceful, with a 61 per cent turnout. Uttar Pradesh recorded a 52 per cent turnout in 14 constituencies.
While Punjab had a 62 per cent turnout amid a few clashes between rival political groups, Uttarakhand was peaceful with a 50 to 55 per cent turnout.
Polling was disrupted at a polling station in Sopore in Baramulla parliamentary constituency, 55 km from Srinagar, after locals pelted stones at the booth, set ablaze a vehicle and staged dharna on the Sopore-Kupwara Road.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Swine flu caused by human error?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is investigating a claim by a researcher who said the swine flu virus may have been created as a result of human error.
Swine flu — officially called influenza A H1N1 — has infected 5,728 people and killed 61 in 33 countries.
Australian researcher Adrian Gibbs, 75, claimed the strain may have accidentally evolved in the eggs scientists use to grow viruses and make vaccines.
“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” he told Bloomberg TV. “But there are lots of others.”
Gibbs was part of the research team that developed the anti-flu drug Tamiflu.
He said it could be a mistake that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans.
Gibbs, who reached this conclusion by analysing the virus’ genetic blueprint, has sent his study to the WHO for review.
By identifying the source, scientists can better understand the virus’ potential for causing outbreaks and also have better safeguards for bio-security in laboratories.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta dismissed the report, saying there is no evidence to support Gibbs’s conclusion.
India is so far free of swine flu. Over 4.55 lakh passengers travelling from affected countries to India have been screened. Tests for the virus on 46 of them came back negative.
Swine flu — officially called influenza A H1N1 — has infected 5,728 people and killed 61 in 33 countries.
Australian researcher Adrian Gibbs, 75, claimed the strain may have accidentally evolved in the eggs scientists use to grow viruses and make vaccines.
“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” he told Bloomberg TV. “But there are lots of others.”
Gibbs was part of the research team that developed the anti-flu drug Tamiflu.
He said it could be a mistake that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans.
Gibbs, who reached this conclusion by analysing the virus’ genetic blueprint, has sent his study to the WHO for review.
By identifying the source, scientists can better understand the virus’ potential for causing outbreaks and also have better safeguards for bio-security in laboratories.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta dismissed the report, saying there is no evidence to support Gibbs’s conclusion.
India is so far free of swine flu. Over 4.55 lakh passengers travelling from affected countries to India have been screened. Tests for the virus on 46 of them came back negative.
Pollsters 2004 bitten, 2009 shy?
Even as the exit polls for the Lok Sabha elections trickled in Wednesday evening predicting a hung parliament, one has to keep in mind that they had all gone woefully wrong in the 2004 electoral battle predicting exactly the opposite of the outcome.
As many as five leading TV channels had then predicted in the previous elections that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would bag 230 to 278 seats and gave the Congress and its allies 171 to 205 seats.
The results, which led to the formation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, shocked the pollsters, the winners and the losers alike.
The UPA walked away with 275 seats and the NDA finished at 185. The Congress became the single largest party with 145 seats while the BJP got 138 seats.
The exit polls 2009 appear more realistic with the pollsters predicting a close fight between the two main alliances with the Third Front partners, including the Left parties, likely to play kingmakers
As many as five leading TV channels had then predicted in the previous elections that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would bag 230 to 278 seats and gave the Congress and its allies 171 to 205 seats.
The results, which led to the formation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, shocked the pollsters, the winners and the losers alike.
The UPA walked away with 275 seats and the NDA finished at 185. The Congress became the single largest party with 145 seats while the BJP got 138 seats.
The exit polls 2009 appear more realistic with the pollsters predicting a close fight between the two main alliances with the Third Front partners, including the Left parties, likely to play kingmakers
Electronic-waste recycling: The cup runneth over
Leave it to Oregon. The state where recycling is practically an article of religion is having headaches with its new electronic recycling law: Way too many old TVs, computers and monitors have flooded in since the law took effect in January.
Mind you, it's a problem the state doesn't mind having. The more the better, state officials say. But the biggest manufacturers group participating in the program, the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co., or MRM, wants to call a bit of a time-out.
Warning that e-waste will substantially exceed its state-mandated target if the stuff keeps coming in at the current rate, MRM said it will limit collections to designated network collection sites and won't reimburse for e-waste collected at special events organized by neighborhoods, church groups or county cleanup events. In addition, the company is asking collectors to limit their promotions for e-waste recycling to signs designed by the Department of Environmental Quality.
Oregon has one of the most user-friendly e-waste programs in the country. Individuals can bring in up to seven items free of charge, while schools and businesses can bring in any number. Every county, and every city with more than 10,000 people, has a convenient collection site.
Mind you, it's a problem the state doesn't mind having. The more the better, state officials say. But the biggest manufacturers group participating in the program, the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co., or MRM, wants to call a bit of a time-out.
Warning that e-waste will substantially exceed its state-mandated target if the stuff keeps coming in at the current rate, MRM said it will limit collections to designated network collection sites and won't reimburse for e-waste collected at special events organized by neighborhoods, church groups or county cleanup events. In addition, the company is asking collectors to limit their promotions for e-waste recycling to signs designed by the Department of Environmental Quality.
Oregon has one of the most user-friendly e-waste programs in the country. Individuals can bring in up to seven items free of charge, while schools and businesses can bring in any number. Every county, and every city with more than 10,000 people, has a convenient collection site.
Venus figurine sheds light on origins of art by early humans
A 40,000-year-old figurine of a voluptuous woman carved from mammoth ivory and excavated from a cave in southwestern Germany is the oldest known example of three-dimensional or figurative representation of humans and sheds new light on the origins of art, researchers reported today.
The intricately carved headless figure is at least 5,000 years older than previous examples and dates from shortly after modern humans arrived in Europe. But it already exhibits many of the characteristics of fertility figurines carved millenniums later.
The figurine "radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art," its discoverer, archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tubingen in Germany, wrote in the journal Nature.
Experts are excited about the find because of what it tells us about early humans -- and about ourselves.
"The origin and evolution of figurative art, portable art, appear on most lists of what constitutes modern human behavior," said archaeologist Daniel Adler of the University of Connecticut, who was not involved in the research.
"Anytime you can push the clock back on some of these behaviors, we get a better understanding of why these were important and were developed, where they were developed . . . and the roles they played in the social glue that holds groups together," he said.
"For European archaeologists, it marks the appearance of behaviors they find familiar -- modern human behavior," said archaeologist John J. Shea of Stony Brook University in New York, who was also not involved. "It suggests the same values and ways of seeing the world existed among the earliest humans that migrated to Europe" as among humans today.
The figurine was excavated at Hohle Fels, a large cave in the Swabian Jura region of Germany about 14 miles southwest of Ulm. The cave shows evidence of a long period of prehistoric occupation and is probably best known for three ivory carvings previously discovered by Conard -- a horse's or bear's head, a water bird that may be in flight and a half-human, half-lion figurine, all dating from about 30,000 to 31,000 years ago.
The new figurine was found in September in six pieces in a lower layer of the cave floor about nine feet below the current floor. Nearby were flint-knapping debris, worked bone and ivory and remains of horses, reindeer, cave bears, mammoths and ibexes. Radiocarbon data indicate that the layer originated 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.
The Venus figure, about 2.4 inches tall, was carved from a mammoth tusk.
It has broad shoulders, prominent breasts and intricately detailed buttocks and genitalia, all grossly exaggerated.
Those features "are clearly more exaggerated than on others that come later," Adler said, "but many of the basic features that are seen later are already there. . . . It's a prototype for what you see later" from the Gravettian culture, which occupied France from 28,000 to 22,000 years ago. "The stylistic attributes are being carried on for many, many generations."
The figurine has carefully carved hands resting on the upper part of the stomach -- although the left arm and shoulder are missing. One hand has five fingers, the other four.
The legs are short, pointed and asymmetrical, with the left noticeably shorter than the right, typical of later Venus figurines. Also typical, the figure has no head. Instead, it has a carefully carved ring above the left shoulder. The polished surface of the ring suggests that the figurine was worn as an ornament around the neck.
The intricate detailing achieved with primitive stone tools indicates "the amount of energy these guys were willing to invest in these little objects -- tens if not hundreds of hours," Shea said. That suggests the objects were very important to them. Many researchers believe that they were fertility totems, but their ultimate meaning may remain a mystery.
The intricately carved headless figure is at least 5,000 years older than previous examples and dates from shortly after modern humans arrived in Europe. But it already exhibits many of the characteristics of fertility figurines carved millenniums later.
The figurine "radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art," its discoverer, archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tubingen in Germany, wrote in the journal Nature.
Experts are excited about the find because of what it tells us about early humans -- and about ourselves.
"The origin and evolution of figurative art, portable art, appear on most lists of what constitutes modern human behavior," said archaeologist Daniel Adler of the University of Connecticut, who was not involved in the research.
"Anytime you can push the clock back on some of these behaviors, we get a better understanding of why these were important and were developed, where they were developed . . . and the roles they played in the social glue that holds groups together," he said.
"For European archaeologists, it marks the appearance of behaviors they find familiar -- modern human behavior," said archaeologist John J. Shea of Stony Brook University in New York, who was also not involved. "It suggests the same values and ways of seeing the world existed among the earliest humans that migrated to Europe" as among humans today.
The figurine was excavated at Hohle Fels, a large cave in the Swabian Jura region of Germany about 14 miles southwest of Ulm. The cave shows evidence of a long period of prehistoric occupation and is probably best known for three ivory carvings previously discovered by Conard -- a horse's or bear's head, a water bird that may be in flight and a half-human, half-lion figurine, all dating from about 30,000 to 31,000 years ago.
The new figurine was found in September in six pieces in a lower layer of the cave floor about nine feet below the current floor. Nearby were flint-knapping debris, worked bone and ivory and remains of horses, reindeer, cave bears, mammoths and ibexes. Radiocarbon data indicate that the layer originated 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.
The Venus figure, about 2.4 inches tall, was carved from a mammoth tusk.
It has broad shoulders, prominent breasts and intricately detailed buttocks and genitalia, all grossly exaggerated.
Those features "are clearly more exaggerated than on others that come later," Adler said, "but many of the basic features that are seen later are already there. . . . It's a prototype for what you see later" from the Gravettian culture, which occupied France from 28,000 to 22,000 years ago. "The stylistic attributes are being carried on for many, many generations."
The figurine has carefully carved hands resting on the upper part of the stomach -- although the left arm and shoulder are missing. One hand has five fingers, the other four.
The legs are short, pointed and asymmetrical, with the left noticeably shorter than the right, typical of later Venus figurines. Also typical, the figure has no head. Instead, it has a carefully carved ring above the left shoulder. The polished surface of the ring suggests that the figurine was worn as an ornament around the neck.
The intricate detailing achieved with primitive stone tools indicates "the amount of energy these guys were willing to invest in these little objects -- tens if not hundreds of hours," Shea said. That suggests the objects were very important to them. Many researchers believe that they were fertility totems, but their ultimate meaning may remain a mystery.
Gov. proposes selling L.A. Coliseum, other properties to raise cash
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to sell the Los Angeles Coliseum, San Quentin State Prison, the Orange County Fairgrounds and other state property to raise cash amid the state's growing fiscal crisis, according to a copy of a proposal reviewed by The Times.
Sale of the properties, to be included in the governor's revised budget plan on Thursday, would raise between $600 million and $1 billion, although it would not provide relief to state coffers for two to five years, according to the proposal.
Other items on the list for potential disposal include Cal Expo, site of the state fair in Sacramento; the Del Mar Fairground; the Cow Palace in Daly City; and the Ventura County Fairgrounds.
It's not clear whether lawmakers would be willing to part with the real state the governor has identified. Proposals to sell San Quentin and the Coliseum have not advanced in the Legislature in recent weeks.
Sale of the properties, to be included in the governor's revised budget plan on Thursday, would raise between $600 million and $1 billion, although it would not provide relief to state coffers for two to five years, according to the proposal.
Other items on the list for potential disposal include Cal Expo, site of the state fair in Sacramento; the Del Mar Fairground; the Cow Palace in Daly City; and the Ventura County Fairgrounds.
It's not clear whether lawmakers would be willing to part with the real state the governor has identified. Proposals to sell San Quentin and the Coliseum have not advanced in the Legislature in recent weeks.
Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson
When capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse last fall, Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s Socialist finance minister and a longtime free market skeptic, did more than crow.
As investors the world over sold in a panic, she bucked the tide, authorizing Norway’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund to ramp up its stock buying program by $60 billion — or about 23 percent of Norway ’s economic output.
“The timing was not that bad,” Ms. Halvorsen said, smiling with satisfaction over the broad worldwide market rally that began in early March.
The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway.
With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state.
And in the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway’s economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.
By comparison, the United States is expected to chalk up a fiscal deficit this year equal to 12.9 percent of its gross domestic product and push its total debt to $11 trillion, or 65 percent of the size of its economy.
Norway is a relatively small country with a largely homogeneous population of 4.6 million and the advantages of being a major oil exporter. It counted $68 billion in oil revenue last year as prices soared to record levels. Even though prices have sharply declined, the government is not particularly worried. That is because Norway avoided the usual trap that plagues many energy-rich countries.
Instead of spending its riches lavishly, it passed legislation ensuring that oil revenue went straight into its sovereign wealth fund, state money that is used to make investments around the world. Now its sovereign wealth fund is close to being the largest in the world, despite losing 23 percent last year because of investments that declined.
Norway’s relative frugality stands in stark contrast to Britain, which spent most of its North Sea oil revenue — and more — during the boom years. Government spending rose to 47 percent of G.D.P., from 42 percent in 2003. By comparison, public spending in Norway fell to 40 percent from 48 percent of G.D.P.
“The U.S. and the U.K. have no sense of guilt,” said Anders Aslund, an expert on Scandinavia at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “But in Norway, there is instead a sense of virtue. If you are given a lot, you have a responsibility.”
Eirik Wekre, an economist who writes thrillers in his spare time, describes Norwegians’ feelings about debt this way: “We cannot spend this money now; it would be stealing from future generations.”
Mr. Wekre, who paid for his house and car with cash, attributes this broad consensus to as the country’s iconoclasm. “The strongest man is he who stands alone in the world,” he said, quoting Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Still, even Ibsen might concede that it is easier to stand alone when your nation has benefited from oil reserves that make it the third-largest exporter in the world. The money flowing from that black gold since the early 1970s has prompted even the flintiest of Norwegians to relax and enjoy their good fortune. The country’s G.D.P. per person is $52,000, behind only Luxembourg among industrial democracies.
As in much of the rest of the world home prices have soared here, tripling this decade. But there has been no real estate crash in Norway because there were few mortgage lending excesses. After a 15 percent correction, prices are again on the rise.
Unlike Dublin or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where work has stopped on half-built skyscrapers and stilled cranes dot the skylines, Oslo retains a feeling of modesty reminiscent of a fishing village rather than a Western capital, with the recently opened $800 million Opera House one of the few signs of opulence.
Norwegian banks, said Arne J. Isachsen, an economist at the Norwegian School of Management, remain largely healthy and prudent in their lending. Banks represent just 2 percent of the economy and tight public oversight over their lending practices have kept Norwegian banks from taking on the risk that brought down their Icelandic counterparts. But they certainly have not closed their doors to borrowers. Mr. Isachsen, like many in Norway, has a second home and an open credit line from his bank, which he recently used to buy a new boat.
Some here worry that while a cabin in the woods and a boat may not approach the excesses seen in New York or London, oil wealth and the state largesse have corrupted Norway’s once-sturdy work ethic.
“This is an oil-for-leisure program,” said Knut Anton Mork, an economist at Handelsbanken in Oslo. A recent study, he pointed out, found that Norwegians work the fewest hours of the citizens of any industrial democracy.
“We have become complacent,” Mr. Mork added. “More and more vacation houses are being built. We have more holidays than most countries and extremely generous benefits and sick leave policies. Some day the dream will end.”
But that day is far off. For now, the air is clear, work is plentiful and the government’s helping hand is omnipresent — even for those on the margins.
Just around the corner from Norway’s central bank, for instance, Paul Bruum takes a needle full of amphetamines and jabs it into his muscular arm. His scabs and sores betray many years as a heroin addict. He says that the $1,500 he gets from the government each month is enough to keep him well-fed and supplied with drugs.
Mr. Bruum, 32, says he has never had a job, and he admits he is no position to find one. “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “The Norwegian government has provided for me the best they can.”
To Ms. Halvorsen, the finance minister, even the underside of the Norwegian dream looks pretty good compared to the economic nightmares elsewhere.
“As a socialist, I have always said that the market can’t regulate itself,” she said. “But even I was surprised how strong the failure was.”
As investors the world over sold in a panic, she bucked the tide, authorizing Norway’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund to ramp up its stock buying program by $60 billion — or about 23 percent of Norway ’s economic output.
“The timing was not that bad,” Ms. Halvorsen said, smiling with satisfaction over the broad worldwide market rally that began in early March.
The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway.
With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state.
And in the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway’s economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.
By comparison, the United States is expected to chalk up a fiscal deficit this year equal to 12.9 percent of its gross domestic product and push its total debt to $11 trillion, or 65 percent of the size of its economy.
Norway is a relatively small country with a largely homogeneous population of 4.6 million and the advantages of being a major oil exporter. It counted $68 billion in oil revenue last year as prices soared to record levels. Even though prices have sharply declined, the government is not particularly worried. That is because Norway avoided the usual trap that plagues many energy-rich countries.
Instead of spending its riches lavishly, it passed legislation ensuring that oil revenue went straight into its sovereign wealth fund, state money that is used to make investments around the world. Now its sovereign wealth fund is close to being the largest in the world, despite losing 23 percent last year because of investments that declined.
Norway’s relative frugality stands in stark contrast to Britain, which spent most of its North Sea oil revenue — and more — during the boom years. Government spending rose to 47 percent of G.D.P., from 42 percent in 2003. By comparison, public spending in Norway fell to 40 percent from 48 percent of G.D.P.
“The U.S. and the U.K. have no sense of guilt,” said Anders Aslund, an expert on Scandinavia at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “But in Norway, there is instead a sense of virtue. If you are given a lot, you have a responsibility.”
Eirik Wekre, an economist who writes thrillers in his spare time, describes Norwegians’ feelings about debt this way: “We cannot spend this money now; it would be stealing from future generations.”
Mr. Wekre, who paid for his house and car with cash, attributes this broad consensus to as the country’s iconoclasm. “The strongest man is he who stands alone in the world,” he said, quoting Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Still, even Ibsen might concede that it is easier to stand alone when your nation has benefited from oil reserves that make it the third-largest exporter in the world. The money flowing from that black gold since the early 1970s has prompted even the flintiest of Norwegians to relax and enjoy their good fortune. The country’s G.D.P. per person is $52,000, behind only Luxembourg among industrial democracies.
As in much of the rest of the world home prices have soared here, tripling this decade. But there has been no real estate crash in Norway because there were few mortgage lending excesses. After a 15 percent correction, prices are again on the rise.
Unlike Dublin or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where work has stopped on half-built skyscrapers and stilled cranes dot the skylines, Oslo retains a feeling of modesty reminiscent of a fishing village rather than a Western capital, with the recently opened $800 million Opera House one of the few signs of opulence.
Norwegian banks, said Arne J. Isachsen, an economist at the Norwegian School of Management, remain largely healthy and prudent in their lending. Banks represent just 2 percent of the economy and tight public oversight over their lending practices have kept Norwegian banks from taking on the risk that brought down their Icelandic counterparts. But they certainly have not closed their doors to borrowers. Mr. Isachsen, like many in Norway, has a second home and an open credit line from his bank, which he recently used to buy a new boat.
Some here worry that while a cabin in the woods and a boat may not approach the excesses seen in New York or London, oil wealth and the state largesse have corrupted Norway’s once-sturdy work ethic.
“This is an oil-for-leisure program,” said Knut Anton Mork, an economist at Handelsbanken in Oslo. A recent study, he pointed out, found that Norwegians work the fewest hours of the citizens of any industrial democracy.
“We have become complacent,” Mr. Mork added. “More and more vacation houses are being built. We have more holidays than most countries and extremely generous benefits and sick leave policies. Some day the dream will end.”
But that day is far off. For now, the air is clear, work is plentiful and the government’s helping hand is omnipresent — even for those on the margins.
Just around the corner from Norway’s central bank, for instance, Paul Bruum takes a needle full of amphetamines and jabs it into his muscular arm. His scabs and sores betray many years as a heroin addict. He says that the $1,500 he gets from the government each month is enough to keep him well-fed and supplied with drugs.
Mr. Bruum, 32, says he has never had a job, and he admits he is no position to find one. “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “The Norwegian government has provided for me the best they can.”
To Ms. Halvorsen, the finance minister, even the underside of the Norwegian dream looks pretty good compared to the economic nightmares elsewhere.
“As a socialist, I have always said that the market can’t regulate itself,” she said. “But even I was surprised how strong the failure was.”
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