The OWD wishes its readers a loud Deepavali. Deepavali (or Diwali) is an Indian festival of noise. Deafening detonations fill the air, even though the old-fashioned are content to just light lamps around their houses. The new trend nowadays is to include motorists in the festivities by throwing crackers at moving vehicles.
The Space Race was a manifestation of the Cold War through the 1960's. Now, with India launching Chandrayaan 1, it has entered version 2, with the competitor being the other half of the world's population - the Chinese.
Version 2 is not about state ideologies, but about the Man in the Moon. Following the launch of Chang'e 1 in 2007, the Chinese declared that the lunar visage was distinctly Mongoloid. ISRO's scientists refuse to countenance this claim, countering that they suspect the face to be Dravidian-looking.
The OWD is quite bamboozled by this space spat. One could easily arrive at a modus vivendi, agreeing on an Assamese Man in the Moon, and get down to finding thorium.
Buoyed by the response to his pet project - the ban on smoking in public places, India's health minister Anbumani Ramadoss is preparing to take on a greater challenge. Singling out carbon dioxide as the most dangerous, but avoidable GHG, he plans to attack a root cause - breathing. "Everyone has the right to an excessive CO2-free atmosphere", he breathed.
Dr Ramadoss also clarified that he is not banning breathing altogether - people can breathe within the confines of their homes, for instance.