Adoptions

Veteran journalist and editor R Jagannathan has just come out with a book, Dharmic Nation: Freeing Bharat, Remaking India , a compilation of 17 chapters largely aimed at helping Hindus “rediscover the essential dharmic heritage of Bharat and close ranks to defend them”. One chapter, ‘Why Hinduism Must Become a Missionary Religion’, is especially pertinent given the challenges the Sanatana Dharma is facing in the land of its birth. While stating that the “universe is always expanding or contracting somewhere” and “life is about birthing more cells in the body than killing them”, Jagannathan makes a convincing argument that Hinduism needs to regain its missionary nature if it wants to survive the challenges confronting it. “Religions are essentially ideas with physical, emotional and psychic dimensions. If they do not seek to expand, they will shrivel, even if this trend is not clearly visible in one’s own lifetime. But when it comes to a tipping point, religions may die all of a … [Read more...] about Hinduism Must Become Missionary Again, If India wants to Win Silent Demographic Warfare

YOU SANG-CHUL The author is the head of the China Institute of the JoongAng Ilbo and CEO of China Lab. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and China and between Korea and Vietnam. I still have vivid memories of Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc visiting Seoul in December. About a month upon returning, Phuc suddenly resigned. He supposedly stepped down for his ethical responsibility for two vice prime ministers who were involved in a corruption scandal, as both of them are close to him. Others are attributing his resignation to an ongoing power struggle. The Vietnamese Communist Party adopts a group leadership system led by four heavyweights: the general secretary, the president, the prime minister and the speaker of the National Assembly. The secretary general controls the party and the military while overseeing the state affairs. The president is in charge of diplomacy and national defense whereas the prime minister manages the … [Read more...] about [Meanwhile] Sinicization of Vietnam?

Three executives from Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Google announce their partnership during Samsung's Unpacked event on Feb.1 in San Francisco. [LEE HEE-KWON] Samsung Electronics will work with two major U.S. tech companies to develop digital headsets as Apple moves ahead quickly and is promising its own metaverse headset project. On Feb. 1, Roh Tae-moon, head of mobile communication business at the electronics maker, mentioned a "partnership" with Alphabet's Google and Qualcomm for “extended reality” products — known as XR — which covers both augmented reality and virtual reality headsets. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, and Google Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer joined him in making the announcement. “It is intended to establish a sound ecosystem for extended reality as Qualcomm, a leader in chipsets, Samsung Electronics with its expertise in product hardware and Google, one of the best operating system operator, join hands,” Roh said. Roh Tae-moon, head … [Read more...] about Samsung, Qualcomm, Google vs. Apple in XR headsets

Money had come in from raffles and sales of gift baskets; a few pets had found new homes. All in all, the adoption charity event at a Pet Oasis store on Staten Island had been a success. But then the charity’s leader made an odd request: He insisted that the store owner give him the proceeds in a check made out to his name, Anthony Devolder. The owner refused and made the check payable to the charity, Friends of Pets United. Days later, when he looked at his bank records, he noticed that the check had been altered: The charity’s name had been blotted out. “When it cashed, it was crossed out, and it had Anthony Devolder written on it,” the owner, Daniel Avissato, said. Anthony Devolder is now better known as Representative George Santos, a Republican from New York whose election to Congress in November was upended by revelations of falsehoods in his background and irregularities in his personal and campaign finances. Federal and local prosecutors are investigating … [Read more...] about George Santos Raised Money for Dogs. It’s Unclear Where It All Went.

William H. Rehnquist, who died Saturday at the age of 80 almost a year after learning he had thyroid cancer, helped lead a conservative revolution on the Supreme Court during 19 notably successful years as chief justice of the United States. Including 14 years as an associate justice, Chief Justice Rehnquist's tenure on the court was not only one of the longest in the institution's history but also one of the most consequential. With a steady hand, a focus and commitment that never wavered, and the muscular use of the power of judicial review, he managed to translate many of his long-held views into binding national precedent. Chief among those was an enhanced role for the states within the federal system, which the court accomplished under his leadership by overturning dozens of federal laws that sought to project federal authority into what the Supreme Court majority viewed as the domain of the states. In the zero-sum game of the tri-partite separation of powers, the Supreme … [Read more...] about William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Is Dead at 80

See the article in its original context from November 12, 1972 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. “The Best and the Brightest;” Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam's latest, most important and impressive book, sets out to discover why America got involved in the worst and messiest war in our history. “What was it about the men, their attitudes, the country, its institutions and above all the era which had allowed this tragedy to take place?” They were, after all, “the best and … [Read more...] about How we got into the messiest war in our history

Leave it to a smart woman to know what is best for children. One smart woman, a mother who also happens to be the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, started the year with the answer for education: freedom. Late last month, Governor Reynolds signed legislation that gives Iowa parents the freedom to choose the school that best fits their children's needs. Through Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), parents will be able to take the state tax dollars that are allocated for their children's education to choose the schooling that best fits their needs. Students will not be trapped in the government-run schools in their zip code but will have options. Why have we allowed the government to dictate where our children go to school based on our zip code? Instead of sending our money to the state to control our children's education, the power is now in the hands of the parents. Iowa parents now have that opportunity, as ESAs allow parents to use their tax dollars to pay for education that best … [Read more...] about Give Parents the Power of the Purse

Homo Sapiens or Homo Prospectus? We as a species are misclassified. This is what Martin Seligman, a father of positive psychology, claims. We call ourselves Homo Sapiens , however, what makes us unique is the fact that we contemplate the future. Every human has embedded a future-oriented mindset. Unfortunately, this great quality has its dark side. Catastrophizing, worst-case scenarios and analysis paralysis due to information overload might stalk a Homo Prospectus . Since the future is easier explored and embraced by action-oriented optimists, leaders want to understand either how to become one or how to help employees improve their forward-thinking. What is future orientation? Future orientation is defined as the degree to which a person thinks about the future and anticipates upcoming consequences. As you can imagine, there are pessimistic and optimistic versions of it. Optimism is considered a special form of hope that describes general positive expectations. The opposites … [Read more...] about How To Develop a Future-oriented Mindset

The recent attack on two North Carolina substations that cut power to thousands of people has raised concerns about security standards for the country’s electric grid and its numerous power stations, which have faced greater threats in recent years . Outside of weather, suspected and confirmed physical attacks on electric grid infrastructure have been the largest cause of electrical disturbance events since 2014 when, in response to an attack in California the year before, private companies that run power stations were required to increase security standards, according to an NBC News analysis of public Department of Energy reports. Nearly 600 electric emergency incidents and disturbances were caused by suspected and confirmed physical attacks and vandalism on the electric grid in those nine years, the reports show. There have been 106 attack or vandalism incidents from January through August 2022, which is the latest the Energy Department data tracks. Among the years … [Read more...] about North Carolina substation attack raises security concerns for U.S. electric grid

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android . Late one summer evening in 2018, an American citizen named Joseph Mahmoud Dibee was sitting in José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba — trying, unsuccessfully, to sleep — when he was approached by three men. Dibee, a civil engineer, was in Havana on a layover. After a long business trip in Ecuador, he was heading home to Russia, where he lived with his wife and stepson. The men demanded his passport, then led him out of the terminal and into a waiting sedan. Dibee asked where they were going, but got no response. Sandwiched between his captors, he was driven miles through the night before finally arriving at what appeared to be a jail. For the next three days, Dibee would claim in a subsequent court filing, he was imprisoned without explanation and, in effect, tortured. His small concrete cell was open to the elements; during the day, the cage baked. As … [Read more...] about The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground