Isolated...no news here :(

The big thing that everyone here is tlking about is Hurrucane Rita...hitting Florida and Texas...the hole place has been evacuated , people are saying that its going to be a bigger one than Katrina... but this time they're prepared- so there's going to be a lot less damage.

Katrina itself could have been a lot less damaging if only it had been properly managed, I think...it makes me proud of the way the Indian government handled events like the Tsunami- for which there was practically no warning...whereas hurricanes have a whole tracking and warning system ...which warn people several days in advance. The floods in Mumbai were also better handled I think than New Orleans ere...it seems that (surprise ,surprise), we're better equipped to deal with a crisis... or is that because we seem to have so many of them... a flood or a famine somewhere ...now its floods in AP.

I feel awfully cut off from the rest of the world here ...US newspapers report almost exclsively on regional and national i=news... there's almost nothing on International happenings... Europe at the most ...We'd probably hear about India only if there was some really catastrophic event.

The newspapers here aren't great either( Aditya- make note)... the falling standards of journalism seems to be universal... there are more tabloids screaming out about Brtiney Spears baby than any thing else at all the stalls. The supposedly good newspapers are either far left or far right...there's no such thing as unbiased news. Missing "The Hindu" here, for all its flaws it was a good morning read.