Miscellaneous

Image © CO Creative.  Source: https://www.statueofunitypackage.in/sou-facts The Statue of Unity, inaugurated on 31 August 2018 by Prime Minister Modi, is the world's tallest statue. It is also the biggest waste of Indian taxpayers' money in the recent past.  To quote British Conservative MP Peter Bone from The Daily Express : To take £1.1billion in aid from us and then at the same time spend £330million on a statue is a total nonsense and it is the sort of thing that drives people mad. What it proves is that we should not be giving money to India. It is up to them how they spend their money but if they can afford this statue, then it is clearly a country we should not need to be giving aid to.

Charlie Kirk — photo by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). On 27 August 2025, a 23-year-old trans woman named Robin Westman walked into Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., and opened fire. Westman killed two young children and wounded 17 others before committing suicide. In the wake of this incident, senior Justice Department officials were reportedly considering proposals to limit transgender individuals' ability to possess firearms, though discussions were still preliminary. On 10 September—two weeks after the mass shooting—Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing political activist, was speaking at Utah Valley University. An audience member asked Kirk, "Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?" This question was apparently asked in light of reports that the Justice Department was weighing restrictions on transgender people's Second Amendment rights after the Westman shooting...

Most of the Indus River, which gave India its name, now flows through Pakistan. According to Hinduism, Manu ( मनु ) was the first man. The terms मनुष्य and मानव literally mean "descendants of Manu."

Consider Genesis 4:25 English Standard Version: And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” Adam knew his wife - Is there any man who does not know his wife? called his name Seth - What is this supposed to mean? New International Version: Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him. Okay, that makes a lot more sense.

On 6 November 2024, while returning home from my evening walk, I noticed a tempting chocolate-glazed doughnut on a shelf in a bakery. When I asked about the price, I found it was prohibitively high. Hopefully, people will avoid buying it for the sake of their wallets, if not for their waistlines.

An article from The Indian Express: India’s fall in fertility rate may be a boon in disguise. Here’s why This has to be the funniest headline I've seen in a while. We are the world's most populous country, and the fall in our fertility rate is a boon in disguise? It's a boon, period.