Robot Chicken

I don't know about you but India ODI's are losing their watchability - we're pulverizing Sri Lanka. Last matchViru and Yuvi and this time Dhoni and Gauti (great to see both the Delhi boys do well though - Go Daredevils)  Almost as badly as they're pulverizing their Tamilian citizens in the north.

Though their most famous Tamilian set another record today. We're treating their bowlers like their government treats their domestic press. I don't know about you, but cricket diplomacy as practiced by India is a bit strange - terminating the contracts of the Pakistani players even if they didn't do drugs. It will be sad to see Akmal and Tanvir go from Warne's team (they do have a loophole for those two and Misbah - but why Shilpa Shetty ugh!). Anyway, I spent a lot of time watching Robot Chicken of late and I'm pretty bugged that no network shows Adult Swim in India. Dang!

Human Rights experts

Over dinner last night I was told that China is hosting a summit on Human Rights next month and had invited some very senior journalists to take part to talk about how 'Human Rights' in the east is different from the western view of the topic. Now, even though I find the main argument dubious, the invites to the summit were sent out way before the recent crisis in Tibet. It sems that one of the invitees has pulled out citing illness, though he told me that it is the 'prudent' thing to do and the Chinese are very touchy of criticism. The NHRC Chief who was supposed to go has found another summit in London to attend and is sending a lowly B-grade officer - though the NHRC is 'officially' attending. But guess who the keynote speaker at the 'Human Rights' summit will be - N.Ram of The People's Daily of Chennai. I wonder what he will say? Even though given that Xinhua will give the summit wall-to-wall coverage, I'm sure we will read about it.
Talking of China, I would like to see what happens on Thursday in Delhi when the Torch is carried through the streets. I've got a funny feeling with all the bandobast (which is why a parallel relay will be run), there won't be too many protests but given that there are so many journalists who have gotten stoned at the cemetary at St Johns in the Wilderness at McLeodganj and have slight pro-Tibet sympathies I'm wondering if a member of the Fourth Estate will do something silly. I'm not going because there will be far too many cops and it'll be too hot.
In other news, NewsX has made onto Tata-Sky. Damn, now I will have to watch it soon. And Financial Chronicle has (supposedly) launched in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore (though no-one has seen it) but no website is still in sight for either news organisation. I though media companies have a web strategy in place nowadays before they have a physical product ready - internet age and all, so launching with no website in plain sight (first page of Google) is a problem methinks! And UTV's new biz channel is launching on the 25th (supposedly).