LOL: Mars Explorers' Tweets Are Out Of This World

Howdy @MarsCuriosity ? Keep in touch. I'll be around.
— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014

Indian PM Narendra Modi Reaches Out to Taiwan

New Delhi and Taipei ... while both also watch Beijing.  Here's an interview with Taiwan's ambassador to India.

A Matter of Perspective

Landmarks from different angles!

Quirky Asia Files: Getting From Point A To Point B

It all just makes me want to stay home, ha!

Nerd News: Indian University Bars American Academic

Blurb:

An American academic, who argues for gender equality in Islam, was prevented from addressing students at a university in India after an intervention by police, according to the organizer of the event.  

Chennai police asked the University of Madras in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu to cancel the talk by Amina Wadud on feminist reforms in Islam and refused to provide security for the event, said P. K. Abdul Rahiman, assistant professor at the department for Islamic Studies at the university. 

*Sigh*

India's Last Telegram

It's the end of an era:

India's telegram service began in 1850, when the first telegram was sent from the eastern city of Kolkata to Diamond Harbor, a southern suburb nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city center. 

Over the next few decades, telegraph offices proliferated, wiring the vast subcontinent with a network that became known for its speed and dependability. 

At its peak in the mid-1980s, more than 45,000 telegraph offices dotted the country, with tens of thousands of telegraph workers and delivery men dispatching more than 600,000 telegrams a day. From birth and death announcements, to college admissions, job appointments and court summons, the telegram was the main way tens of millions of Indians -- in the remotest parts of the country and in its teeming cities -- received important news.

High Noon in the Himalayas: the China-India Faceoff

Not good.

Quirky Asia Files: Meet King Bazza

Meet a most unusual monarch.

Land Grabs: Maps and Territorial Disputes

Bring it on!  Well, at least it's better than Apple Maps.

Free Advice: Hey, Beijing, Bullying Is Not a Foreign Policy

In terms of looking at China's foreign policy, consider these also the quotes of the day:

“Chinese assertion has backfired,” says Andrew Carr, an expert on Asia-Pacific security at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“They don’t see the connection between upping the tempo on the maritime operations and the fact that so many countries in the region are moving towards the very counter-containment strategies Beijing doesn’t want,” says Michael Green, former Asia director at the National Security Council ...

Seriously, what do you say about a course of action that makes Japanese rearmament look great even to Japan's neighbors?

Q: "Are You Indian?" A: "American!"

Joe Biden's mouth strikes again, but I just LOVE the reply.  

You know, a similar sort of thing happened to me once during a rising argument with other people about China and Taiwan.  They finally got flustered and demanded repeatedly to know, "Do you consider yourself Chinese or Taiwanese?  Chinese or Taiwanese?"  I just smiled sweetly and said, "I'm an American."  That totally took the wind out of their sails ... and had the bonus of being true.

Reminder: The Long History of Muslim Anti-Western Protests

Surprise!  They didn't begin with George W. Bush, and they certainly won't end with Barack Obama.  On another day, maybe we'll talk about Napoleon's 1798 campaign in Egypt, a campaign that might count as the beginning of the modern period in the Middle East, along with Western impact thereon.

UPDATE: Thanks for the link, Dignified Rant!

Tempers Flaring in the August Asian Heat

Professor Drezner has some advice: "Could everyone in Asia chill out just a wee bit?"  That's always good advice, but unfortunately nobody's going to take it.

India and the World's Biggest Blackout

The number of people left without electricity is larger than the entire population of the US. 

Life Imitates The Onion: China, India, and Missiles

LOL!  Size does matter?

Awesome: Most Delicious Business Card Ever?

YUM!  Do you think it's a better business card than this or this, though?

Salman Rushdie and the Jaipur Literary Festival

This and this.  Threats of violence prevailed.  Alas.  The essential nature of a robust defense of freedom of speech, conscience, association?  You're doing it wrong.  Pretty soon all of us are going to be subject to the whims and tantrums of the most easily offended.

Celebrating India's Republic Day

An Indian friend of mine sent me this cool video of a little celebration on a Finnair flight to mark the day.  That particular flight's destination?  Delhi, natch.

India's Progress Against Polio

Once India led the world in polio cases (5000 cases recorded since 2000).  Now here is the happy news that with India's immunization efforts, since January 13 of 2011 no new cases were recorded.  Pakistan now takes the dubious title of world's most polio-prone nation.

History Lesson: 100 Years in 10 Minutes

This is an interesting compilation, though I do take issue with the fact that the selection is often desultory and that it focuses too much on the negative and does not include enough mention of humanitarian, scientific, medical, artistic, and other forms of achievements.  (No, mentioning the founding of Greenpeace does not count.)   It's so pessimistic, complete with the depressingly doom-tastic soundtrack.  I also found it a little odd that the founding of Israel in 1948 was not included, even though this moment in history is hugely important both to supporters and opponents.  Well, still, whoever made this took the time and effort to do this, so props to them.  Maybe I should make my own video.