Sikhs in New Jersey

"To wear a turban in America — even in a state that has absorbed as
many waves of immigration as New Jersey has — is to subject yourself
to judgment by strangers, not all of whom have warm and fuzzy feelings
about diversity.

"You get these looks all the time, especially after Sept. 11," said
Rajinder Singh, 57, who holds two doctorates, works as a chemist for a
pharmaceutical company, has never cut his hair, following the
requirement of his faith, and wears a turban. "You could see people —
their lips inside their car — that this person is swearing at me."

Muslims have absorbed much discrimination in the United States in
recent years, but also caught in the crossfire have been Sikhs,
members of a religious minority from India whose men happen to wear a
similar head covering, and who have endured similar suspicions since
the terrorist attacks and the subsequent wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan," says a touching article in the New York Times about
Sikhs in the Tristate area.

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/15colnj.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Akshay Rajagopal wins the National Geographic Bee

The Indo Asian News Service (IANS) reports that, "An 11-year-old
Indian American boy won the 2008 National Geographic Bee contest,
taking home a $25,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership."

This annual contest organized by the National Geographic Society,
finds nearly 5 million students participating each year. According to
the IANS, "Akshay Rajagopal, a grade six student from Lincoln,
Nebraska, emerged winner at the contest held in Washington, DC,
Wednesday for students from fifth through eighth grades, aged 10 to
14. The final question to which Rajagopal provided the correct answer
in a jiffy was: The urban area of Cochabamba has been in the news in
recent years due to protests over the privatisation of the municipal
water supply and regional autonomy issues. Cochabamba is the third
largest conurbation in what country? Answer: Bolivia. Rajagopal, who
attends Lux Middle School in Lincoln, answered all questions correctly
in Tuesday's preliminary rounds and the final and championship rounds
where the top 10 contestants pitted their geographical knowledge
against one another."

Among the top 10 in this competition, which was moderated for the 20th
year by the 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek, were two other Indian
American students -- Nikhil Desai of California and Milan Sandhu of
New Hampshire.

For Indian Americans, its law, medicine, science and now politics too

Indian Americans are becoming more and more involved in politics. Some
of the key players in both the Obama and Clinton campaigns are those
of Indian origin. Not to mention Bobby Jindal whose name is floating
as the potential VP candidate for McCain and the many other Indian
Americans who hold political offices.

"One in every 26 Indians in the United States is a millionaire,
comprising 10% of the millionaires in the country as defined by net
worth, according to a Merrill Lynch study. Sanjay Puri, Chairman of
United States India Political Action Committee, encourages members of
the baby boom immigrant generation to use their expertise and
resources to engage in the political process even if they aren't
running for office or working on a campaign," according to an article
in Medill Reports.

According to Medill, Indian Americans growing interest in politics
reflects their maturity and standing among ethnic groups in America.
Another excerpt from this article --

"I think that puts the burden on them to give back...Being in politics
or being active in the political process is another way of helping
others achieve the American dream," Puri said, adding that he
encourages his peers to donate to campaigns.
Puri founded USINPAC to impact policy on issues of concern to the
Indian American community in the United States.
Indians are also considered to be among the most educated minority
groups. Almost two-thirds of all Indians in the U.S. have a
professional degree, five times the national average. Indians have
made significant contributions in the Silicon Valley hi-tech industry
and in the medical field.
"Indian Americans know a lot about education; they know a lot about
healthcare," Puri said. There are 40 million people without
healthcare well we need to get some of that expertise pulled in to do
some of those things."
Indians have also gradually been moving to the forefronts of politics
-- no longer behind the scenes.
In 2008, Indians like Bobby Jindal have achieved prominence in the
political arena. Jindal served in Congress and is now Governor of
Louisiana.
"I think it's the second generation that says, 'my country, my
politics, my role.' They start stepping up and I think that's what's
happening with the Indian American community," said Puri.

Read the full article at--
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=88915

Ethically Produced Bamboo Fabric!

Hear this, so now we have fabric that is ""ethically produced" and "is
not only resistant to the sun's damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation
but also has anti-bacterial properties."

According to the IANS --
"As "sustainable" become the new global buzzword among ethical
dressers, it is boom time for eco-friendly bamboo-based fabrics.` And
now giving such fabric the extra edge are Indian American chemists
Subhash Appidi and Ajoy Sarkar of Colorado State University.

They have discovered a way of making bamboo fabric - the current
leading option in the "ethically produced" clothing market - that is
not only resistant to the sun's damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation
but also has anti-bacterial properties.

Raw bamboo fabric lets damaging UV radiation pass through and reach
the skin. And while many tout bamboo's inherent anti-bacterial
properties, Appidi found that untreated bamboo fabric did not live up
to anti-microbial expectations.

"All cellulose fibres allow more moisture to leak in and provide more
food for bacteria to eat. That's why bacteria grow more on natural
fibres rather than synthetic fibres," said Appidi.

Bacteria can lead to unpleasant odours and unsanitary clothing, noted
the chemist, who has ambitions of creating bacteria-free bamboo
garments for use in hospitals.

The duo, who presented their new and improved fabric at a meeting of
the American Chemical Society Sunday, said they increased the
UV-protecting abilities of fabric by colouring pieces of
commercially-available bamboo cloth in a dye laced with UV absorbing
chemicals."

Read the full article at--
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/indian-american-scientists-design-bamboo-based-fabrics_10035208.html

A 15 year Old Uber-Desi

When you read about this young boy, make one wonder, what did I do
when I was fifteen years old? Another answer that is better left
unsaid!

From IANS--
"Anshul Samar is not your average Indian-American teenager. Even as
his peers spend time playing, 14-year-old Samar is out looking to
raise half a million dollars to fund his Silicon Valley start-up.
Samar is the CEO of Alchemist Empire Inc., and invented a trading card
game, 'Elementeo', that aims to teach chemistry to students in a fun
way.

The eighth-grader kick-started his company with $500 from the
California Association of the Gifted, using the money to develop a
prototype of Elementeo.

Samar, an Art of Living fan, presented the prototype at The Indus
Entrepreneurs (TiE) conference in the US in mid 2007, creating quite a
sensation as he made his pitch for funding.

Now he is all set to present his inventive card game at the national
meeting of the American Chemical Society - another pitch to get the
financial backing he needs to mass produce Elementeo."

Read the full article at--
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/indian-american-teen-ceo-seeks-500000-for-start-up_10036020.html

Leela comes to Sesame Street

A new caharacter n Sesame street is an Indian American, Leela. Indian
Americans are appearing in ever facet of life it seems.

An excerpt from an article in India West magazine --
"The newest neighbor on Sesame Street just happens to be Indian
American, because the role was originally dreamed up with no
particular ethnicity in mind.

"It was incidental," actress Nitya Vidyasagar told India-West by phone
last week from New York City, where she is currently taping the 39th
season of the award-winning PBS children's show. "The casting notices
said nothing of ethnicity."

But the New York-based stage actress made such a strong impression on
the show's producers that they found themselves willing to create her
role from scratch.

Vidyasagar plays Leela, a young Indian American woman who runs the
local laundromat. Unlike many of the other actors on the show, who use
their own first names as their character's names, she felt more
comfortable with the name Leela. "My name is hard for some people to
say," she explained."

Read the full article at --
http://www.indiawest.com/view.php?subaction=showfull&id=1206034606&archive=&start_from=&ucat=7

Giving Home

From the New York Times --

"An important man from the World Bank recently arrived in this
isolated village, where monkeys prowl rutted roads, rain pours through
the school roof and the native son who achieved the most did so by
going away.

On a visit to his home last month, Dilip Ratha walked through fields
toward his father's farmland near Sindhekela.
Lessons about global poverty were waiting, but so were his sisters'
chapattis. Migrant and migration scholar, Dilip Ratha was home.

No one has done more than Mr. Ratha to make migration and its
potential rewards a top-of-the-agenda concern in the world's
development ministries. And no place has done more to shape his views
than this forgotten hamlet, where he studied under the lone
streetlight and began a poor boy's improbable journey to the front
ranks of an elite field.

"When I think about the effects of migration, I think about
Sindhekela," he said.

Working from his office in Washington five years ago, Mr. Ratha
produced the first global tally of remittances, the money that
migrants send home, and stunned experts from himself on down with the
discovery of their size. Gathered from a trickle of hard-earned cash,
the sums now exceed $300 billion a year.

In subsequent work, Mr. Ratha, 45, has pushed to reduce money-transfer
fees and increase the productivity of the money that is sent. Allies
say his work has prompted projects in governments and beyond that
could benefit millions of people. Skeptics argue that if migration
brought development, Mexico would be Switzerland."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/03/17/world/asia/17remit.html&tntemail0=y

Reverse Brain Drain With a Difference

A very interesting feature by Scott Carney, on NPR talks about second
generation Indians who are moving back to India.

An excerpt --
"For second-generation Indian Americans, returning to their parents'
home country can be a cultural odyssey. As the Indian economy booms,
however, there are other reasons for American-born Indians to return
to their roots. The country that many of their parents fled for lack
of opportunity now needs their skills.

In 2006, the Indian government created a new immigration card for what
it calls OCI or "Overseas Citizens of India." With it,
second-generation Indians can have visa-free entry for life. Since
2006, the government has issued more than 200,000 OCI cards."

Read and listen to the full feature at --
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87884391

A Diabetes Education Campaign in Queens, NY

South Asians are at high risk for heart disease and diabetes, though
culturally, it is preferred not to make a big deal of this. It is
certainly good to see someone doing something about this and bringing
the issues out into the open...

An excerpt from the New York Times --

"But Type 2 diabetes strikes a sixth of the more than 200,000 New
Yorkers whose families are from the Indian subcontinent. That gives
them the highest rate of the disease among the city's major ethnic
groups.

In this population, "people expect that everybody has it," said Dr.
Jyotsna Changrani, the director of the South Asian Health Initiative
at New York University. "All of your friends have it, all of your
family has it," she said.

Researchers have concluded that less body fat is needed to trigger the
disease for South Asians. "The people of South Asian descent that we
see are often not obese," said Dr. Daniel Lorber, chief of
endocrinology at the New York Hospital Center of Queens. "You'll
frequently see men with just a little bit of a potbelly, right at
ideal weight based on Caucasian standards."

Mindful of this vulnerability, the New York State Health Foundation, a
private group, has donated $255,000 to Beth Israel Medical Center to
help bring to the South Asian communities of Queens a diabetes
education campaign like those found in Harlem and the Bronx.

The campaign will not lack an audience in Jackson Heights, where it is
rare to enter a store without meeting someone who suffers from the
ailment generally referred to, even in Hindi or Urdu conversations, as
"sugar" or "sugar-hogi."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/03/02/nyregion/thecity/02diab.html&tntemail0=y

Bobby Jindal proves to be a doer...

A very nice article about Bobby Jindal and what he has accomplished
within a short period of time in the New York Times.

An excerpt --
"Six weeks into the term of Gov. Bobby Jindal, an extensive package of
ethics bills was approved here this week, signaling a shift in the
political culture of a state proud of its brazen style. Mr. Jindal,
the earnest son of Indian immigrants, quickly declared open season on
the cozy fusion of interests and social habits that have prevailed
among lobbyists, state legislators and state agencies here for
decades. Mostly, he got what he wanted."

More excerpts --
"I've talked to C.E.O.'s in New York, even the president of the United
States," Mr. Jindal said in an interview, and when "you ask them for
more investment, more help on the coast and other areas, their first
reaction always is: 'Well, who do you need to know? Who do I have to
hire? Is this money going to end up in somebody's pocket?' "
That had to change, the governor said, and he was using his "narrow
window" — his honeymoon at the Capitol — to do it.
The volume of grumbling suggested real change was afoot.
"This is huge," said D. W. Hunt, a veteran lobbyist at the Capitol.
"This is a sea change. This will seriously, dramatically change
things. The meta-theme is the transparency."
Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a
good-government watchdog group, described the new bills as "a major
change in the culture."
"It's a world of difference, particularly on the disclosure side, and
the same thing with conflict-of-interest," he said."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/28/us/28jindal.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

Mira Nair's Kosher Vegetarian

Mira Nair's has cast Irfan Khan and Natalie Portman in lead roles in
her new venture, a romantic comedy titled "Kosher Vegetarian" India
eNews reports. "Irrfan is ready to morph into a 'Gujarati' Romeo. 'But
no accent this time. I'm very clear about that,' laughed the actor,
who has just returned from Santa Monica in California after attending
the Spirit Awards," says India eNews. They also claim that this is
Irfan Khan's second movie with Mira, but according to the IMDB
database, this is her third with Khan, after Namesake and Migration.

According to IMDB Mira Nair has the follwoign movies in the works
1. Amelia (2009) (pre-production)
2. Shantaram (2009) (pre-production) -- with Amitabh Bachan
3. New York, I Love You (2008) (filming)
4. Migration (2007) -- also with Irfan Khan

Read the India eNews story at --
http://www.indiaenews.com/bollywood/20080227/100423.htm

See Mira Nair's IMDB page at --
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619762/

Fertility and Cell Phones!

A study conducted by co-author Ashok Agarwal, PhD, HCLD, the Director of the Clinical Andrology Laboratory and Reproductive Tissue Bank, and the Director of Research at the Reproductive Research Center, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility claims that men are courting infertility by talking for hours every day on the cell phone.

An excerpt from a USA today article--
"Agarwal's team studied 361 men under 40 who were being evaluated for infertility; men whose personal or family history might explain a low count or other sperm abnormalities were excluded.

The scientists divided the patients into four groups, based on how long they said they talked on a cellphone each day. Then they analyzed the men's semen and found a strong association between length of time spent on a cellphone and sperm count and quality. Those who talked more than four hours a day had lower counts and more poor "swimmers" and abnormally formed sperm."

Read the full article at --
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-24-cellphones-fertility_N.htm?csp=34

Increasing Number of Illegal Indian Immigrants

An opinion piece in the LA Times says that number of Indian illegal
immigrants are on teh rise and this will not improve unless there is
immigration reform.

An excerpt--
"The San Jose Mercury News notes that the fastest growing group of
illegal immigrants comes not from a Spanish-speaking country but
rather from India.... The Indian number may be small and out of the
public eye (at least until, say, a particularly heart-wrenching
deportation story, or until tech workers start standing around office
parks hawking consulting services), but these growth trends are likely
to continue as long as there's no immigration reform."

Read the full piece at--
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/02/the-new-illegal.html

The "Giggling Guru's" Peace Palaces

Not one but about 100-200 peace palaces are being planned as centers
of Transcendental Meditation, in Parma, Ohio. "The Maharishi promised
that if just 1 percent of the world practiced TM, as it is known, then
"the Maharishi effect" would take over and there would be increased
coherence in the collective unconsciousness, and peace would prevail,"
reports the New York Times.

An excerpt from the Times article --
"The peace palaces are intended to be gleaming white, two-story
buildings, 10,000- to 12,000-square-feet, and to replace the typical
rented space where TM is now taught at more than 200 locations in the
United States.
Each is designed to be large enough to have dormitories, retail space
to sell TM's health products and clothing, and, most importantly,
space for TM classes that currently cost $2,500. (Instruction in yogic
flying costs an additional $2,000.)
They are being built to follow the Vedic architectural guidelines,
which, among other requirements, mean each building faces east to
greet the energizing morning sun.
The result is something like an Indian temple crossed with a Southern
plantation mansion, a look the organization hopes will become a visual
brand, much like the golden arches signify McDonald's the world over."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/22/us/22peace.html&tntemail0=y

Arun Sarin's Bet on India

The Wall Street Journal reports that, "Thirty years after he left
India for a life in the U.S., Arun Sarin is counting on his native
country to revive his company."

Here is an excerpt --
"As chief executive of Vodafone Group PLC, Mr. Sarin is battling to
conquer India, one of the last big frontiers in the cellphone
industry. Vodafone's $10.9 billion investment in Indian cellphone
company Hutchison Essar Ltd., unveiled one year ago this month, was
the country's largest-ever foreign investment. Now, a raft of telecom
companies are eyeing India, including AT&T Inc., which recently
applied for a license to sell service in the country.

Mr. Sarin's move reflects a new development in the globalization of
India's economy. As Indian-born executives increasingly occupy top
positions in the West, some find themselves heading back into India to
expand their businesses. The hope is that they can bring with them an
insider's perspective, and a possible edge over global competitors."

Read the full article at --
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120364182388784639.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Bobby Jindal an unlikely running mate for McCain

While many speculate about who the Vice-Presidential candidates will
be and who the presidential candidates, Louisiana Governor Bobby
Jindal's name has been mentioned by Rush Limbaugh and other political
commentators. In an excerpt from an interview with Wolf Blitzer on
CNN's Late Edition here is what Jindal had to say --

"BLITZER: Rush Limbaugh, who is no great fan of John McCain's, as you
well know. He is a big fan of yours. He said this on February 8th. "I
am going to give you a name that would make me jump for joy -- Bobby
Jindal. I did an interview with Bobby Jindal. He is the next Ronald
Reagan if he doesn't change."

He was throwing out your name as a potential vice presidential running
mate for John McCain. What do you think about that?

JINDAL: Well, first, I'm obviously extremely flattered. Whenever
anybody puts your name in that kind of context, it's flattering. It
was very nice for Rush to do that.

The reality is, I've got the job I want. I've got an incredible
opportunity in Louisiana. We've got an historic opportunity to change
our state.

The storms caused massive destruction, but we had challenges before
the storms. We had challenges in health care, in our economy, in our
roads. We had challenges throughout our state. We now have a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix our state.

BLITZER: Well, what if McCain asked you?

JINDAL: He's not going to ask me.

BLITZER: How do you know?

JINDAL: Look, he's not going to ask me. But, no, my focus is on
Louisiana. I've been elected. I've told the people of Louisiana, this
is our chance to fix our state, and I mean that. I don't think we'll
get this chance again in our lifetimes. So it is my responsibility to
work with the legislature and the voters.

We're in the middle of an historic ethics session. I promise your
viewers this -- we'll move Louisiana from the bottom five to the top
five when it comes to ethics and good government.

We have a second session coming up in a couple of weeks to cut taxes
on businesses. We have a third regular session coming up in March.
We'll revamp workforce training, revamp our health care systems.

This is my goal. What my contribution in public life and public
service is right now, my focus is making sure that people in Louisiana
can pursue that American dream without leaving the state."

Read the full interview at--
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/17/le.01.html

The marriage of Indian and Jazz music continues to be celebrated

There has always been a strong similarity between Indian music and
jazz music. Especially Carnatic music and jazz. This tradition
continues till date.

An article in the Boston Phoenix talks about Rudresh Mahanthappa's
Indo-jazz connection. An excerpt from tis article
"Mahanthappa, now 36, is one of the more celebrated young musicians of
his generation, a critics'-poll winner and Guggenheim fellow with an
original compositional style rooted in jazz and, yes, Indian music,
rich in rhythmic and melodic complexity, with an aggressive attack on
alto saxophone. His fat tone and fearsome articulation give his
improvisations a Coltrane-like sweep and grandeur. It's a trait he
also shares with one of his teachers from his days at Berklee, George
Garzone. Mahanthappa, who comes to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
with his quartet on February 21 (as a complement to the Gardner's
current Indian-themed "Luxury for Export" exhibit), tells a story
familiar to many first-generation children of immigrants. It's one of
musical and cultural crossover, and typically American."

An article in the Boston Globe says, "He's a self-described egghead, a numbers nut who could have become a mathematician or economist. He's a science-fiction fan who loves William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and is liable to zone out to sci-fi reruns on TV. But when Rudresh Mahanthappa takes the stage, it's with an alto saxophone, not chalk and blackboard, that he burrows into theorems and explores alternate planes, in a musical language so vivid and complex that hard-bitten jazz arbiters have dared to compare him to Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane."

Read the Boston GLobe article at --
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/02/15/for_saxman_its_all_adding_up/

Read the Boston Phoenix article at --
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid56101.aspx

Is Hillary Clinton the Asian American choice?

Interesting piece by Andrew Leonard in Salon.com --

Hillary Clinton: The Asian-American choice

At the big Oprah-headlined rally for Barack Obama in Los Angeles on
Saturday, surprise guest Maria Shriver, California's first lady, cited
-- as one of a string of reasons why the state's Democrats should vote
for the senator from Illinois -- the fact that, like California, he
was "diverse."

In the wake of Super Tuesday, we've learned that such diversity
doesn't necessarily include Latinos, especially those older than 30.
But a self-congratulatory article in the India Express touting the
influence of Indian-Americans in the Democratic primary process
reveals even greater constraints on the appeal of Obama's diversity.
In California, exit poll data suggests that 69 percent of Latinos
voted for Clinton, while only 29 percent voted for Obama. But
Asian-American voters skewed even more sharply pro-Clinton: 75 percent
voted for her, compared to 23 percent for Obama. That's almost as high
as the percentage of the black vote (78 percent) that went for Obama.

Sen. Clinton has strong ties with Indian-Americans, and once joked at
a fundraising event that she was "delighted to be the Senator from
Punjab." Last June, Barack Obama stumbled into a storm of bad
publicity when his campaign released an ill-advised attack on Clinton
citing the Punjab joke and her ties to Indian outsourcing companies.

Despite the claims of the Indian press, the total numbers of
Indian-American voters in the New York and New Jersey primaries were
too small to significantly influence the overal results. (The total
Asian vote was too small for there to be any relevant exit poll data.)
A better case can be made in California. In Santa Clara County, where
there are some 115,000 Indian-American residents, Clinton cleaned up,
winning 54.8 percent to 39.3 percent -- better than her statewide
average. (Whereas just to the north, in San Francisco and Alameda
counties, Obama was the victor.)

But that's just one piece. In California, 8 percent of all Democratic
voters identified themselves as Asian -- a category that encompasses a
vast swath of cultures. Truly, California's diversity is
extraordinary. But it doesn't appear, so far, to translate into a
willingness to vote for a "diverse" candidate for president.

Lighten up...

For years and years stereotypes are used to make ads, movies etc.
mostly with the intent of laughing together rather than laughing at
someone. In the US the swedish, germans, french everyone is
stereotyped, and have been for decades and decades. Accents are made
fun of by everyone. Everyone makes fun of the South Indian accent,
South Indians make fun of the North Indians accent. In the US we make
fun of the Bostonian accent, the southern accent, the list goes on and
on...

I don't understand why the 2 superbowl ads featuring Chinese and
Indians have been drawing a lot of criticism. I personally thought
they were funny, and the the characters came across as smart and
proactive, acting quickly achieving their goals and becoming
successful. If the characters were portrayed as losers then it is
something else. All I can say is people lighten up... You don't like
it don't watch it. Stop making something of nothing, just because...

Read the full article about the "offensive" superbowl ads at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/06/business/media/06adco.html&tntemail0=y

Mac or a PC? Which one do you plan to vote for?

Is it just me, or are there others out there who believe that this is
such an apt comparison of the two democratic contenders. I find this
slick and simple, yet has so much depth. This makes me wonder about
the South Asian angle, yes the South Asian angle I believe is that
South Asians are usually PC people, at least the ones that I know are
and I know a few of them. Personally I am a Mac person, or a
worshipper I might say. In fact that is what I am using to type this
blog item. BUT... that is not to say that is what my political slant
is... Like my 4 year old says, "that my friend, is a big secret!"

Excerpt from the NYT article --
" STYLES make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they
make presidential campaigns, too.

This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have
already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices,
manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design
experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal
style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites
they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally
meet-and-greet online.

On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between
hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way:
Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC."

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/technology/04link.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin