And are you a celebrity? Or for that matter even an average person somewhat considerate of unwarranted exposure of your body.
Conspiracy theorist – Alex Jones on his website prisonplanet.com has this to say:
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
The report is related to a yahoo news article …

We talked about MetroPCS’ Ranjit Chad tech talk commercial in an earlier post, remarking that there was perhaps some stereotyping of desis going on in this ad. [UD]
Well, the perhaps part has been laid to rest. For some ad execs, Indian-Americans particularly the newer immigrants with their accents and garish (at least from an American perspective) choice of attire, make an easy target to garner a quick chuckle or two at their expense. MetroPCS now has an entire series of these commercials, including a couple aired during the recently concluded …

I don’t really #follow celeb tweeple, well maybe a few but you get the idea, and this is perhaps out of boredom from being stuck home on a stormy Friday evening. I was reading this particular quote in this story about Shiv Sena v/s Bollywood stars (yaaaaawn) and came across this particular quote. [IBN]
“We will be back to Mumbai. I hope the Bandar Sena won’t stop us. Shiv Sena has become a joke to the nation. They’re instilling hatred. I guess they didn’t learn any lesson from the election debacle. …

Is there such a thing as the “Slumdog Millionaire” effect? [THR]
Hollywood Reporter … ummmm…. reports on the revival of two new Indian-American themed comedies, “Nevermind Nirvana” on Fox and “Outsourced” on NBC.
The two comedies — “Nirvana” at Fox and “Outsourced” at NBC — have something else in common: They both are ensemble shows about Indians and Indian Americans.
A third project, a U.S. version of popular British comedy “The Kumars at No. 42,” about an immigrant Indian family, also is poised for revival. Eight years after NBC took a stab at …

Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine and VBS.TV, ventures into an area which recently earned the moniker of the “world’s most dangerous area” – the Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan. Pulling some strings, he manages to find a political agent/guide and sets off to visit the world’s largest illegal arms market. Would it be disingenuous to question if there’s a relation between the world’s largest illegal arms market being the world’s most dangerous area? [VBS.TV via CNN]
The market is believed to have its humble origins in the Afghan-Soviet war for …

As per this report  in rediff.com, a recent memo dated January 8 from Donald Neufled ,Assistant Director Operations of USCIS specifies that the petitioner for the Visa should be present at the place of work. What one attorney terms as “overzealous interpretation” of the rule by immigration officials at Newark airport resulted in several Indian H1-B holders being deported.
Fifty to 80 percent of Indian H-1B visa holders come for a consulting company. Their companies will send them to client sites. The new rule stipulates that the petitioner of the visa should …

MetroPCS’ latest commercial: Tech & Talk with Ranjit and Chad, takes desi stereotyping to new heights (or depths) with a couple of desi dudes in dorky clothes, thick Borat-like mustaches and accents to boot. The ending is kind of funny though with Chad dancing to techno music.

On January 12th 2010, Haiti was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. The casualties are expected to be in the thousands with more people injured and millions left homeless. [Y!]
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – A major earthquake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help.
A five-story U.N. building was also brought down by Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to …