FYI - ATM PIN Reversal

In these times where you can be waylaid by unsavory characters, it pays to exercise some presence of mind.

I received this from a classmate, where she claimed that if one were forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, one can notify the police by entering one’s PIN in reverse.

So if your PIN is 1234, you should enter the digits 4321.

The ATM recognizes that the PIN you typed in is the reverse of the original.

The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.

I don't know how much time the police will take to reach you, but it sure looks like a step in the right direction.

This information was recently broadcast on TV, and stated that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

A Reunion after 70 years

Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler’s Lebensborn (Front of Life, in German) program, created in 1935, was in the news this weekend. The program, likened to a stud farm, had the Nazis nurture thousands of children with apparently Aryan qualities, in order to breed a perfect master race for a future Nazi empire.
While millions of Jews were slaughtered, close to 8,000 children each in Germany and Norway were given to families of SS (Schutzstaffel) members to be raised for this Nazi racial experiment. Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, and some other countries in Eastern Europe were also a part of this shameful program. Mothers and fathers had to prove their Aryan qualities, absence of mental or any genetic illnesses, in order for their children to be adopted by the elite SS members. Unwed pregnant women were targeted primarily; conservative times forced many to give-up their children for adoption.
These children, most of who were ripped away from their parents, found themselves ostracized and reviled after the War. Once called Nordic-supermen, they were considered offspring of tainted parents from nights in bordellos, and condemned to suffer in silence.
After decades of ignominy, 60 of these so-called “war-children,” most of them in their sixties, gathered publicly in Wernigerode, East Germany, on November 4, 2006. They have courageously stepped forward to trace their roots, dispel myths, demand that the truth be unaltered, and break one of the last taboos about the Adolf Hitler era.
It waits to be seen whether they will be welcomed with open arms, or pelted with stones.

In a Lighter Vein

If you see your favorite comedian’s face peeping out from your preferred news channel, don’t be surprised.
Chances are, the news channel in question has roped in the “funny” face to tickle your funny bone, with politics as its base.
Indian television has seen a spate of political-based satirical shows. I guess the trend started in the footsteps of “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central’s award-winning satirical news television program.
So now we have quite a few shows that present a tongue-in-cheek look at our political scenario, and the games that Indian politicos play. Think NDTV India's Gustaakhi Maaf, NDTV 24x7's Double Take, Aaj Tak's JBC (Javed Broadcasting Corporation) with Jaaved Jaffrey, Zee News' Khabar Tadka – Chunaav Ki Bhatti Se with comedian Jaspal Bhatti, Star News' Poll Khol with Shekhar Suman, and the newest entrant on the bandwagon – IBN's The Week That Wasn’t with Cyrus Broacha.
These quirky spoofs can be called the equivalent of editorial or pocket cartoons in newspapers, akin to’You Said It’, by Laxman.
Guaranteed to make you and me, the audience smile, I bet the politicians aren’t smiling though.