Most notable of India related Global Citizen Campaign

It is most notable that Kerala is again at the fore front of Social Development. Water and Sanitation are crucial to our existence. Anything to improve Sanitation must get the greatest support. The Global Citizen India has a great campaign, if it is what I think it is. It looks like Kerala has made great progress. It is now 99% Open Defecation Free India (ODF India).

Here is what I found on Global India Site:
"
Kerala is now 99% ODF. The remaining 1% is comprised largely of Kerala’s migrant labourer population, because these workers often lack access to adequate facilities. We as global citizens would now like to urge them to push forward and ensure safe and sustainable sanitation facilities to these migrant laborers. The movement to make India ODF must be inclusive and equitable to everyone.
"

Global Citizen has noteworthy causes as seen here:

 

If you are near by get the tickets by earning free tickets to the star studded gala event. 

I still do not see Wealth Inequality. Is there someone addressing this?

Toyota's next Supra car coming in 2018

Toyota had a popular car called Supra and the 1988 model looks like this taken out of a used car site here.
https://www.carsforsale.com/1988-toyota-supra-for-sale-C111466




Toyota's Supra model was quite popular. Supra1988 Specs from the above used car site is shown here.

Toyota produced Supra model info, available from 1979-1998(Toyota Supra Forum here http://www.toyota.com/owners/toyota-forum/supra).

Toyota will be coming out with a new version of Supra in 2018. This is a joint development between Toyota and BMW. Each will see their own named versions of essentially the same car.

The rendering of the image of Supra 2018 shown here came from this site where you can find more details. It will be quite pricey, over $50K.

Supra 2018 features, aluminum and carbon fiber used for chassis; has dimensions-
117 inches long, 72 inches wide and 52 inches tall with
6 Cylinder Hybrid with Toyota's electric  motor and HPs between 335 to 473.

The same car with some modifications may come on sale as BMW Z4

These 3D printed dresses are cool, cool.

Some are atrocious but some are real cool. Enhances feminine features and looks more natural. Probably very light weight and airy.  Some of the creations are are dresses but others are what  may be called, plugins and add-ons. More accessories than dresses.

They are all 3D printed and of course you may choose to fire your personal tailor and be your own.

This is the future of fashion.

Watch the video:

Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 1

Living in Honolulu, Hawaii, it is not easy to think about going to Europe. However, as we go even eastward to India, sometimes, it does not feel too tough to go to Europe. In order to visit Budapest, we had to go via San Francisco, Newark, and Munich.

We took off from Honolulu at 10:55 after our son, daughter-in-law and their dog Oliver dropped us at the airport, a mere 20 minutes from where we live. We reached San Francisco the morning of June 16 at 9:00 AM just in time for a breakfast at airport.

We hung around in the airport as our flight was in the evening at 8:00 PM. It was quite a wait. It so happened that our flight from San Francisco was delayed more than 2 hours and we barely made it to Newark. Newark airport has changed a lot with lots of new construction. We barely caught the shuttle to the departure terminal. We reached Munich somewhat late (around 11:00 AM) on June 17. The arrival/departure gates are such that it takes effort to board the plane as you need to change the terminal using the shuttle. We literally ran like crazy to board the shuttle. The escalators at Munich Airport are really steep and run fast like at other airports/subways in Europe compared to those in USA.

Again we hustled to board the plane from Munich to Budapest where our tour begins. We reached Budapest a little after mid-day and to our chagrin the suitcases did not accompany. We had to do some paper work and the girls at the Lufthansa kiosk attending the lost baggage were very efficient. Good show!

We were met by our tour director, a very friendly and outgoing guy. He seems to have had lots of experience as tour director in Europe as well as North America. He was presently living in Salzburg, Austria. He spoke fluent German and English but I am not sure how well he spoke Hungarian (a tough nut) and Czech. He being originally Czech, I am sure he spoke Czech like any other native.

We were going to stay (for the following three nights) at the Radisson Beke in Budapest and after check-in we attended the tour orientation for a short while with a glass of champagne and had dinner at the hotel. I assume either the food was good or folks were hungry, I could not tell. Being vegetarian it is not my place to make a comment. I did observe though that the waiters appeared to have been preoccupied. I later found that the Europeans were playing football and surely they had the game on their mind.

  Although we were dog tired, decided to take a short walk and followed some of our tour buddies.

The photos we took are in the video hosted on google docs slides.
Partially filled slide pictures were taken with iPhone 6S and the full screen pictures using Microsoft Lumia 950.

It is also on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecouB7XcjIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecouB7XcjIw

Look forward to this important day...

Yes,
October 2 every year. It goes by the name Gandhi Jayanthi in India.

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2009/10/mahatma-gandhi-champion-of-under-dogs.html

It has special significance these days with the war in Syria, the tribulations of the displaced people; the violence of the IS and the generally rotten situation in every country.

October 2 happens to be the United Nation's International day of Non-Violence (AHIMSA). It is actually violence of any sort, just not limited to human beings.

It is also the birthday of the Father of India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The man who considered non-violence supreme.


Please extend your non-violence pledge to the animals as well.

If you are in Honolulu please visit:

Protect yourself from sun, look up this Kickstarter stuff

Exposure to sun is very important but too much of it may be harmful. One has to be very careful and take action to mitigate the effects. Using sun screens is important and it is equally important to know when. Well, how much is too much? Get some monitoring and take some proactive action.

Look up this new device right now in the kickstarter stage.

Read more here:
http://sunclip.se/

Watch the video from YouTube.

Save these helpless creatures..

This is so cruel to kill these wonderful creatures.  They should be let roam on public land. I hope the meat is not the reason for this wholesale killing of 45000 animals.

Please plead in strongest terms. Say NO!

Sign the petition.

https://www.change.org/p/save-wild-horses-from-slaughter

Is this really happening in USA?

I just could not believe this news. I want someone to say this is not true.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/marine-drill-instructor-accused-of-running-a-clothes-dryer-with-a-muslim-recruit-inside/ar-AAiR6So

Three IS suspects arrested in Germany with Syrian Passports

According to this news (https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/germany-arrests-three-suspects-links-paris-attackers) from Agence France Presse (AFP) three suspects with fake Syrian passports were arrested 9/13/2016 in  Germany in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.  They were being monitored by German police for months before they were arrested. They had used the same Turkey,Greece route as the Paris gunmen to arrive in Germany.

It is nice to know they were arrested before they could do damage.

Any country that takes in refugees from the troubled areas (which is almost from everywhere) must have to be super vigilant. It is hard to tell which migrant is a terrorist and of course before a migrant is allowed to enter, thorough checking is necessary. But at times like this refugee crisis these checks may get expedited.

Read complete details here:

https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article158120066/Im-Auftrag-des-IS-in-die-norddeutsche-Provinz.html

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/germany-arrests-three-suspects-links-paris-attackers

Read this before you do Yoga on a flight..

I have done yoga on flights before without much of an incident but this Korean Tourist on a flight to Tokyo from Honolulu did  and the plane had to return to Honolulu so that he may be calmed down. It appears there was an altercation as the gentleman celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife tried to do yoga at the back of the plane during meal time and refused to return to his seat.

It could get very costly as he was fined $44,000 damages.  The charges were violent felony. I am not sure what type of yoga he was trying to do, mine were mere stretches than any serious yoga. Well, some times the airline gives yoga tips before take off.

What a way to celebrate a wedding anniversary!

Read all the details here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/29/korean-tourist-fined-33000-for-violent-mid-air-rampage-when-plan/

This is unbelievable and extreme....

Service Level Agreements (SLA) is an agreement between a supplier and customer that specifies specific service levels. You often hear of 99.99% etc. but the one reported in the following link beats any known level of agreement.

The case in point is the level of service provided by the Japanese National Railways that provided the service twice daily to pick up its only passenger, one Kana Harada in Shirataki in Hokkaido, so that she can attend the school. The regular service which carried more passenger closeds some three years ago and she became the only remaining client. The JNR agreed to extend this service till she finished school, a period of three years.

Japan and Japanese institutions continues to amaze me even after a continuous interaction with its people over forty some years. This news item speaks volumes about the country and its people.

Read more here and read some of the reader reviews.

http://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/japanese-train-stops-at-remote-station-twice-a-day-for-one-passenger-1265347

Growth of Cities --Looking backwards and forwards

Having lived in foreign countries for a very long time, every time I return to a city that I have lived before, simply astonishes me as all of them have grown incredibly and some of them to an extent that I cannot conceive. I have seen this in Bengaluru, India; Nagoya, Japan, and even in cities from which I was away for less than 10 years like Fort Collins in Colorado.

The demographic movement; the economic conditions, the political changes are some of the promoters of this explosive growth. The growth has brought with it changes to the environment and the quality of life.

La Biennale Di Venezia provided the  Urban Age 'Shaping Cities' conference which motivated  me to look and listen more on this interesting topic.

I was looking at some of the videos and listening to the talks by some of the involved people like Rickey Burdett of London School of Economics and Rahul Mehrotra of Harvard University Graduate School of for the people who live in a city like Mumbai. The social inequality is striking and I am not sure how the affluent people sleep!

Some of the images in this post are from the videos and it will be most interesting if you can take some time to watch the videos to feel the real impact of the real issues.

Extreme Urbanism- Mumbai


Read more here:
https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/project/extreme-urbanism-1/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/architecture/pritzker-prize-winner-2016-alejandro-aravena/index.html
http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2016/07/UrbanAge.aspx