A cartoon depicting Sharad Pawar lands a cartoonist in trouble in Congress-ruled Maharashtra.

A cartoon depicting Narendra Modi lands another cartoonist in trouble in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

I suppose that settles the debate over which party is better for free speech and expression.

If you didn’t follow this story: Jeb Corliss successfully base-jumped through the Tianmen cave in China a couple of days ago:

For those of you who aren’t quite sure what paragliding is, here’s a video I shot today:

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I completed all requirements and became a USHPA P2 (Novice) Paragliding Pilot today. It’ll now be even more fun.

Troy Davis was executed in Georgia today in what was a ridiculous turn of events. Read more here.

I had to go back and watch the last scene of Dead Man Walking. Perhaps Nusrat saab‘s voice will soothe you after having followed this story.

A fascinating interview of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by Nick Kristof of The New York Times. There’s also a video to go with it.

Leaving aside the bullshitting on Mahmoud’s part, the interview will still give you some perspective.

This is why we love Aakar Patel. He starts a piece with:

Sonia Gandhi, who has led India’s largest political party since 1998, is in a New York hospital after being operated on for cancer.

and shortly follows it up with:

We do not really know how serious the illness is, which organ is affected or even whether or not it is in fact cancer.

The piece is here but you must not reward such writing with hits.

I don’t find cannibalism strange, I have no problems with incest, but for some reason I find this icky. We are a strange species indeed.

To carry forward the family lineage, many fathers-in-law donate sperms if their son is infertile. In some instances, the brother-in-law has donated his sperm. While most want it to be a discreet donation to avoid emotional family drama, there are many cases where the families discuss the issue openly.

Bal Thackeray had this to say on Narendra Modi’s fast:

“Hindu ramsevaks were killed in Godhra riots (train burning) and that’s why Hindus were inflammed. Do not kill them by giving them dose of the poison of secularism.”

Secularism is poison. Senility or characteristic douchebaggery?

Neither, of course. I kinda like living in Maharashtra.

Feel good video of the day:

A montage of stunning clips taken in the Alps over this summer:

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All I can add is: Get out and into the mountains!* I had a prolific hiking season this year. I completed some long — like, really long — awaited hikes. I’m done for the season so I’m sorting and editing and uploading pictures. Watch this space for more.

Link via Andrew Sullivan.

* There are no mountains to the east of Colorado in the U.S.