Nepal votes to abolish monarchy

I want to share a news article from bbc.
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The Himalayan nation of Nepal has become the world's newest republic, ending 240 years of monarchy.

A constituent assembly meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, overwhelmingly voted to abolish royal rule.

The Maoists, who emerged as the largest party in last month's elections, were committed to ousting King Gyanendra and creating a republic.

They entered politics in 2006, after signing a peace agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency.

The approved proposal states that Nepal is "an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular and an inclusive democratic republic nation".

Only four members of the 601-seat assembly opposed the change.

Royal privileges "will automatically come to an end", the declaration says.

It also states that the king's main palace must be vacated within a fortnight, to be transformed into a museum.

Several thousand people began celebrating in the streets of Kathmandu ahead of the move.

"This is the people's victory," former Maoist rebel Kamal Dahal, 22, told Reuters news agency.

"With today's declaration of a republic we have achieved what we fought for."

But ahead of the vote, suspected royalists threw three small bombs in the capital - one on Tuesday and two on Wednesday - injuring at least three people.

Republic Nepal

NEPAL IS REPUBLIC NEPAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to all of you.

Nepal ready to abolish monarchy

Nepal is going to be declared as a republic tomorrow. The two and half century old monarchy has few hours in Nepal. This is a result of April revolt (I was one of the active participant of it) in 2006. In the eve of historic day, Charles Haviland writes for BBC News.
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By Charles Haviland BBC News, kathmandu

Maoists are in the majority in the new assembly

A newly-elected assembly is set to meet in Nepal with the tasks of abolishing the monarchy and preparing a new national constitution.

Nepal is due to become a republic on Wednesday. As the assembly was being sworn in on Tuesday a bomb explosion in the capital injured two people.

The assembly is huge and the ceremony saw 575 men and women being sworn in, many in traditional clothing.

The ceremony was performed by an older member of the newly-elected body.

Huge change

Many used their mother tongues for the occasion in this ethnically mixed country.

Just 26 more members have yet to be nominated by the biggest parties.

Nepal stands on the brink of huge change.

King Gyanendra has given no sign he will step down willingly

The assembly has been given the initial task of rubber-stamping the abolition of the monarchy.

Reports said King Gyanendra and Queen Komal were seen driving out of the royal palace on Tueasday afternoon, but it was not clear where they were going or for how long they would be gone.

Senior politicians have urged the monarch to leave the palace peacefully, but some have said force might be used if that does not happen.

Exactly how a republic will be voted in is still not clear.

For the second day running, bombs were placed in the capital on Tuesday.

Two were left in a city centre park, but police said only one exploded, slightly injuring two people.

As before, pamphlets were found in the name of a little-known hardline Hindu group.

Some militant pro-Hindu and pro-royal factions are campaigning violently against Nepal's shedding of its royal - and its officially Hindu - status.

Memorial day --who are in your memory?

Today is memorial day in the United States of America and is a federal holiday. It commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country e.g. civil war, world war I, world war II.

memorial day in wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

I salute to them and I have respect for them who fought for democracy and independence of people of America.

At the same time I remember Nepalese people who scarified their lives for the people and country. They are martyrs killed by Rana regime, killed in the latest April revolution and Madesh aandolan (I am proud of being an active participant of this movement). One of their dream is very close to true now. That is republic Nepal. This is a critical time in the history of Nepal. The first meeting of 601 members constituent assembly is going to be held 28th of May. According to interim constitution this meeting must declare Nepal as Republic and King Gyanendra have to leave Naranhiti palace. So I am waiting that moment with big eyes!!

Skying Gas Price

Todays gas price in Oregon is $3.91 for regular and $4.30 for premium per gallon. It was $3.21 and $3.40 on the same day last year. Price is still going up. One car gives 30 miles per gallon. That means if it uses regular gas then cost per mile is $0.13.

The graph shows the price is continuously increasing after the U.S invasion on Iraq. There is spike of price at the time of war. e.g at the time of Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Iran-Iraq war in 1981.

माओवादीहरु, जवाफ देऊ

This article was published on mysansar.com few days ago. I think its still relevent to the viewers of this blog. It is re-published here with authors permission.
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-उत्तम बाबु श्रेष्ठ-

माओवादीको हेडक़्वाटर प्रचण्ड निवास नयाँवजार र चितवनको शक्तिखोर अवस्थित माओवादी तेस्रो डिभिजन कार्यालय विचको दुरी कति छ ? शक्तिखोर क्याम्पमा घटेको घटनाको प्रतिक्रिया आउन प्रचण्डलाई दुई दिन लाग्यो तर हिजोका दिनमा त्यहि वटालियनले कृष्णभिरमा आक्रमण गर्दथ्यो तर त्यो दुरी भन्दा दशौं गुणा दुरीमा वसेका प्रचण्डहरुको वक्तव्य दुई घण्टामै आउँदथ्यो । के माओवादीहरु सुस्त भएका हुन त ? पक्कै होइनन् रामहरि श्रेष्ठको हत्याको घटनाका प्रकृति र त्यसपछि व्यक्त प्रतिक्रियाहरु हेर्दा लाग्छ माओवादी उक्त घटनाको ढाकछोपमा लागेका हुन् । माओवादी सिद्वान्तका गुरु माओ भन्नु हुन्थ्यो । “हजारौं मृत्युहरु स्वभाविक हुन्छ तर एउटा मृत्यु दुखद हुन्छ ।” त्यसैले होला जनयुद्वताका करीब १३००० मानिसहरुको मृत्यलाई स्वभाविक र परिवर्तनका लागि, ठुला ठुला क्रान्तिका आवश्यक वलिदान वा कोटा भनेर त्यसको पृष्टी गर्ने खोज्ने माओवादी यतिखेर माओवादी शिविरमा हत्या गरिएका रामहरी श्रेष्ठको दुखद मृत्युको चर्चादेखि भाग्दैछ ।

ऐतिहासिक संविधान सभाको पहिलो वैठक वस्न लागेको पूर्बसन्ध्यामा भएको उनको हत्या यर्सथ पनि दुखद छ कि यसले मुलुकका राष्ट्रीय ऐजेण्डाहरुलाई ओझेलमा पार्न थालेको आभाष भएको छ । हामी चाहन्थ्यौं, यतिखेर राजनैतिक दलहरु संविधान सभाका पहिलो वैठकको कार्यसुची निर्माण गर्नमा व्यस्त हुन् । वुद्विजीवीहरु देशलाई सहज किसिमको निकास दिने उपायहरु निकाल्न छलफल गरुन्, मार्गदर्शनहरु सिदान्तहरु निकालुन् । पत्रकार र लेखकहरु परिवर्तनका सुन्दर लेखहरु लेखुन् अनि नेपाली जनताहरु उज्वल भविष्यका कामना सहित घरघरमा नयाँ नेपालको लागि वहस गरुन र आफ्ना भुमिकाहरु खोज्न व्यस्त हुन् । तर विडम्वना, यतिखेर माओवादी इतरका अन्य राजनैतिक दलहरु माओवादी शिवीरमा घटेको यो दुखद घटनाको विरोध बक्तब्य निकाल्न व्यस्त छन् । पत्रकारहरु माओवादीका उदण्ड क्रियाकलापको समाचार वनाउन व्यस्त छन् । मानिसहरु हत्याको विरोधमा सडकमा उत्रन बाध्य छन् । घर घरमा संविधान सभाको वहसको सट्टा माओवादीद्वारा मारिएका रामहरि श्रेष्ठको चर्चा गरिरहेका छन् । घटनाको विरोध बढ्दै जाँदा उपत्यका वन्दको समेत आव्हान भइसकेको छ । आखिर नयाँ नेपाल वनाउँछु भन्ने नेपालको सबैभन्दा ठुलो पार्टी आफ्नो जनसेनाको क्याम्पमा घटेको यो घटनालाई सकेसम्म चाँडो निकास दिएर राष्ट्रिय एजेंडातिर देशलाई डोहर्‍याउन सकिरहेको वा चाहिरहेको छैन किन ?

लहानमा गोलिकाण्ड भयो, पत्रकार विरेन्द्र शाह मारिए नोवेल एकेडेमीका डाक्टरहरु वाइसिएलका कार्यकर्ताहरुद्वारा पिटिए । माओवादी पार्टीले र्सार्वजनिक रुपमा माफी माग्यो, हत्यारालाई कानुनको हवाला गर्ने प्रतिवद्वता र्सार्वजनिक गरयो तर दोषीहरुलाई कारवाही भएको सुनिनमा आएन । त्यसैकारण उक्त घटनाको श्रृंखला बढ्दै गरेर आज जनसेनाको शिवीरमा र्सवसाधारण नेपालीको पिटेर हत्या गरिएको छ । यस्तो लाग्छ, माओवादी पार्टी यस्ता घटनाहरु ऐजेरु जस्तै झ्यागिंदै छन् । घटना पश्चात उनका आफन्तहरु माओवादीले र्सार्वजनिक रुपमा माफी माग्नु पर्ने, अधिकार सम्मन्न आयोग गठन हुनु पर्ने र हत्यारालाई कारवाही गर्नु पर्ने आदि माग गरिरहेका छन् र त्यसको लागि आन्दोलित भइरहेका छन् । आन्दोलन बढ्दै जाँदा फेरी माफि मागिएला त्यसले तपाईहरुका माफिका खातामा नयाँ रेकर्ड थपिएला तर त्यसले जनतालाई के फरक पार्छ ? जवसम्म यस्ता घटना सम्पूर्ण रुपमा रोकिदैनन् । अनि त्यस्ता घटना घटाउने तपाईहरुले भन्नु भएका आफ्नै पार्टी भित्रका अपराधी तत्वहरुलाई कानुनको हवाला गर्नको सट्टा घटनालाई ढाकछोप गर्न तिर लागिन्छ ।

मलाई लाग्छ, अरुले भनेजस्तै धेरै र्सवसाधारण नेपाली मानिसहरुमा माओवादी अध्यक्ष प्रचण्डको जेल लगाएर सिल्लिक कोरेको सेक्सी कपालमा मात्रै आर्कषित भएका होइनन् । उनको नेतृत्वको टिमले नयाँ नेपालको लागि कोरेको स्पष्ट खाका, गणतन्त्रको लागि उनीहरुले गरेको ठुलो त्याग र वलिदानी र उनीहरुको अहिलेसम्मको तुलनात्मक साधारण जीवनशैली, उनीहरुले देखाएको उज्वल भविष्यप्रतिको आशा आदी नै उनीहरु प्रतिको आर्कषणको कारणहरु हुन् । लामो समयदेखि असल नेता छान्दा छान्दा दिक्क भएका धेरै नेपालीलाई लागेको छ, यीनले चाहि केहि गर्छन है । व्यक्तिगत रुपमा भन्दा पनि प्रचण्डको गरिव देश नेपालले संसारलाई नयाँ विचार किन दिन सक्दैन भन्ने अभिव्यक्तिप्रति म नतमस्तक छु तर सँगैसँगै उहाँ प्रति सहानुभुती पनि छ । देश र राष्ट्रको लागि नयाँ सोच र दृष्टीकोण वनाउनु पर्ने, विकाश निर्माणका ठुला ठुला योजनाहरु वनाउनु पर्ने । नयाँ विचारको निर्माण गर्नु पर्ने अझ भनौं निकट भविष्यमा गणतान्त्रिक नेपालको सफल नेतृत्व दिनु पर्ने एउटा व्यक्तित्व यतिखेर फलाना कार्यकर्ताले विरोधीलाई चुट्यो माफि माग हाजीर होउ । जनसेनाले शिवीर भित्र मान्छे मार्यो माफी माग्दै वक्तव्य निकाल । पत्रकारहरुले त्यस घटनाको वारेमा प्रश्न सोध्छन् त्यसको मिलाउदै जवाफ देउ । आदी इत्यादी जस्ता सानातिना कार्यक्रममा नै व्यस्त छन् । कस्तो विडम्वना जुन मान्छे सिँगो विश्वलाई नयाँ विचार दिने कुरा गरिरहेको छ उसलाई तपसिलका प्राविधीक कुराहरुमा अल्भिन परिरहेको छ । तर यस्तो स्थीती आउनमा दोषी को ? जवसम्म माओवादीले पार्टी भित्रका रहेका उनीहरुकै शव्दमा ‘अवसरवादी’, ‘लालची’, ‘ भ्रष्ट’ ‘कुहिएका आलु’हरुलाई त्यहाँवाट फाल्दैन वा तह लगाउँदैन तवसम्म यस्तो विडम्वना पूर्ण स्थीतीबाट मुक्त हुन सकिदैन । मलाई लाग्छ, प्रचण्डले भने जस्तै अव उनीहरूले आफ्नो टाउकोमा आगो झोस्ने दिन आएको छ ।

माओवादीका चर्चित युवा नेता नेत्रविक्रम चन्द विप्लव भन्छन् हामी सिध्यियौं भने आफ्नै कारणबाट सिध्यिन्छौं अरुको कारणवाट होइन । आफु भित्रको खराव तत्वले सिगो पार्टी लाई वदनाम गरेर सिध्याउने प्रयत्न भईरहँदा किन तपाईहरु त्यसको विरुद ढाकछोपमा तल्लिन हुनु हुन्छ । कुहिएको आलुहरु माओवादी भित्र प्रसस्त छन् भन्ने थाहा पाँउदा पाउदै त्यसलाई फाल्नुको साटो लुकाएर राख्नाले पुरै माओवादीलाई कुहाउदैन र ? स्पष्ट छ, अहिलेको स्थीतीमा करीव एक तिहाई नेपालीहरुले भोट दिएको पार्टी माओवादी कुहिनु भनेको ती तमाम नेपालीहरुको सपना पनि कुहिनु हो । त्यसकारण माओवादीले त्यो आफु भित्र रहेका उनीहरुकै शव्दका अपराधी, अवसरवादी तत्वहरुलाई पर्दाफास गर्नेपर्छ । रामहरी श्रेष्टको हत्या हुनु र त्यसपछिका घटनालाई अवसरको रुपमा लिएर घटना घटाउने तलदेखि माथिसम्मका तत्वहरुलाई कानुनका अगाडि उभ्याउनु भविष्यमा यस्ता विडम्वना पूर्ण स्थिती आउनुबाट रोक्नु हो ।

अन्त्यमा, समाजभित्र राम्रा, नराम्रा विकृत सुसंस्कृत सबै तत्वहरु हुन्छन् । तर नयाँ नेपाल वनाउँछु भन्ने, नयाँ संस्कार निर्माण गर्छु भन्ने पार्टीलाई आफुभित्र विकृतीका किराहरु स्याउ स्याउ पालेर सुसंस्कृत नयाँ नेपाल बनाउन सभंव छ भन्न सुहाँउछ र कमरेड ?
ubshrestha@yahoo.com

Paper or Plastic books?

I generally feel pretty good about my green street cred. I try to buy organic food, and I neatly sidestepped the paper-or-plastic dilemma in the checkout line by buying a couple of cloth bags and patting myself on the back. In terms of environmental friendliness, electronic books stack up well against paper books.

Then, I bought an electronic book (e-book) reader. I love the gadget—it's the size of a slim paperback and holds more than 200 books, magazines, and newspapers. I can even read blogs on it. When I showed off my e-reader around the office, I kept saying, "Just think how many trees I'll save!" I felt very eco-hip and started smirking at the poor saps reading the dead-tree edition of the Washington Post on the subway.

That worked fine until a bright co-worker pointed out that my fancy new piece of plastic might one day lie atop a pile of electronic junk in an Asian recycling facility, the kind where children pick through toxic components by hand.

And so the question remained—which is better, paper or plastic?

more on

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/may/tech/ee_ebooks.html

Save $10 using google checkout

You can save $10 when you buy something from buy.com and have google account. If you dono have google account(gmail email ID) sign up for this and get $10 discount. They give discount for each email ID one time. I know some friends creating fake gmail account just for this purpose and saving more money. But according to my friends when they(buy.com) found this, they won't allow you for the discount. They can check the shipping address and billing address.

Any way at least you can save $10. Try it out. Yesterday I purchased a new xD picture memory card for my camera and saved $10.

www.buy.com

Some Photos around Corvallis

Gilbert Hall: Chemistry Building at OSU

The Valley Library

Nice Flower, you give name...

Time of Spring

Over 50 posts!!!

This is not actually an exciting news. Now Science and Society has 50 posts and this is 51th. I started blogging as a hobby and it has not been changed. There are other reasons behind too. It was started from July 2007 and its almost 11 months. As an average I posted 4.27 per month. Median is 4 and maximum posts is 6 in two months-Sep and Aug 2007. Below is the chart showing the number of posts in different months.

Awesome dance in Spring Festival#Corvallis

The International Students of Oregon State University (ISOSU) organized an annual international spring festival in Memorial Union (MU) quad at OSU today. There were many booths from different countries. Free food and free musical shows attracted the audiences like me. Food was very good. Different varieties of tastes were available there.

More than the food, I want to mention two dances. One was belly dance by two beautiful ladies.

One of the two Belly dancers.

Number of audiences drastically increased when the announcers announced that the next performance was Brazilian dance by two gorgeous girls by pointed at them. How was their dance? Just wait for a while. First see the pictures.

She is one of the Brazilian dancers: Most attractive show
of todays program. I wonder if she was wearing full cloth then
the number of audiences wouldn't be so large.

After dancing on the stage, my guess they felt "why to dance only two girls and others watching. Lets encourage audiences to dance with us." Then they went to the audiences and asked to come to dance.

In this photograph, the dancer is trying to convince a small boy to
dance with her. 

Now turn is of Men.

But because of unexpected invitation of the lady dancer to dance 

with her, this guy is kinda scared. May be its cultural shock.

After a while he agreed to watch her steps carefully.

Finally he started to dance. And enjoyed a lot.

Why should be I left alone there, everybody was taking photograph with the ladies. However I couldn't dance with them. Kinda shy.



Now its time for the video. See how they move their body parts. Enjoy it.

Reminding those killed in Iraq War

In this photo you see thousands of little flags. These tiny flags are reminding you the lives lost in Iraq war since 2003. A white flag represents five Iraqis killed and one red flag represents five Americans died. At least 655,000 Iraqis (Durham et. al.) and 4,010 Americans (cnn.com) have died as a result of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The exhibition is going on until 14th May on Valley Library quad, Oregon State University. The flags and information are brought to OSU by the Iraq Body Count Exhibit, which is a non-political organization that informs the public of the exact loss of life that has resulted in the past five years.

All photos by Basant Giri

This exhibition is organized by Iraq Body Count Exhibit. It is a non-political exhibit. The purpose of the Iraq Body Count Exhibit is to raise awareness of the human cost of the Iraq War. More about the organization.

http://iraqbodycountexhibit.org/

Some time with Nobel Laureate "Roderick MacKinnon"

I have no dream to become a Nobel laureate but I wanted to see and talk to such great persons. In 2004, first time, I listened a Nobel laureate giving his remarkable speech in BICC, Kathmandu during 4th National conference on Science and Technology. Today was the second time to see and listen to a Nobel Laureate from very close. It is always a matter of curiosity to me about them. How they speak, response to people, their life style. Are they normal person like us? What is inside their brain that makes such achievements?

Professor Dr. Roderick MacKinnon gave a talk on the topic "The principles of potassium ion channel" in ALS 4001, OSU followed by a informal discussion with students during refreshment.

His talk was about how potassium passes the membranes through potassium channels. According to him these channels are very selective to potassium ions. For example when about one thousand to ten thousand potassium cross the membrane only one sodium ion is able to cross through the channel although the size of sodium is much more smaller than potassium.

He is a professor at The Rockefeller University. Before he moved to this school in 1996, he was a faculty at Harvard Medical School. About his academic degrees: he did his undergraduate study in Biochemistry from Brandeis University, MD in medicine from Tufts University. He won Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003.

Great lesson from him is that if you don't like, not interested in and not enjoying whatever you are doing, don't do it. This is his suggestion to undergraduate students who are going to graduate school soon. He himself is an example of this. He did his undergraduate in biochemistry. His undergraduate research adviser suggested him to go to graduate school but he decided to go to medical school. He didn't enjoyed his time during that 7 years and finally he came back to the lab working with same professor. He was trying to explain why he didn't like medical school and this career in the informal discussion with undergraduate students from department of biochemistry and biophysics at OSU. It was lots of memorizing stuffs and he was not good at memorizing. He couldn't enjoy the period. It was his important and hard decision to leave medical career and going back to graduate school.

He lives with his wife. They don't have child. He is proud of the work he has done and contribution to the science and The Nobel Prize. Answering to a question from a student about his wife's support in his success he said its great support and encouragement.

About the secrete of his success he mentioned interest and hard work are main driving forces. He always see the things in different ways than other people see. He doesn't go by the great things. He likes to work on the small things.

You can read more about him and his findings in following links.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2003/mackinnon-autobio.html

http://www.rockefeller.edu/labheads/mackinnon/mackinn-lab.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderick_MacKinnon

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=interview-with-roderick-m

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eODp6lCI3PA