What does a blog title look like?

Bike and Car

2011-08-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

Exactly my thoughts.

"You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it, you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer, and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on. It's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness."

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

10 Most Popular Pakistanis in India

2011-03-22T10:29:00.001-07:00

I am presenting a list of 10 Pakistanis who are most well known in India. They are admired, loved, idolized (and sometimes pilloried) by millions across the country.

Is your list any different?

1. Imran Khan
Surely the most inspirational cricketer to have come out of Pakistan, Imran had stunning good looks to boot. His leadership skills were pivotal in Pakistan lifting the World Cup in 1992.

He wasn't as successful in his political career where he was dubbed a 'Spoiler politician'. He still remains an inspirational figure well respected in India.

2. Wasim Akram
Akram was one of the best fast bowlers in the world and one of the finest exponents of reverse swing bowling. His two sublime deliveries to dismiss Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 1992 WC final are etched forever in the minds of crickets lovers.

Although his career was later tainted with match fixing scandal he remains popular in India appearing in dance shows and commercials or even denying a marriage with Sushmita.

3. Ghulam Ali
Who can forget his heart rending song Chupke Chupke Raat Din in the 1982 movie Nikaah or for that matter his ghazal Hungama Hai Kyon Barpaa.

Armed with a baritone voice and subtle vibrations he used to convey a whole range of emotions in his ghazals. Along with Mehdi Hassan he contributed immensly to the revival of Ghazal in the 70's.

4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Nustat Fateh Ali Khan is probably the most well known Pakistani musician outside of Pakistan. He was primarily a Qawwali singer who has performed in over 40 countries.

He collaborated extensively with western musicians producing exquisite music. His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy in 1997 for best traditional folk album.

5. Shahid Afridi
Boom Boom Afridi is certainly a maverick. He started out as a leg spinner but made his mark for his explosive batting and now considers himself a better bowler! In his first international innings, he smacked 11 sixes to score a century in 37 deliveries.

He is the only player to score 6000 ODI runs with an average of under 25. When captaining, he likes to helps his team by chewing the ball or scuffing the pitch.

6. Atif Aslam
Atif Aslam is to the youth what Ghulam Ali was to the oldies. A soulful melancholy runs through his songs be it Pehli Nazar Mein, Kuch Is Tarah, Aadat, Woh Lamhe, Tera Hone Laga Hoon or Tu Jaane Na.

He is expected to make his acting debut this year. Lets hope he dazzles us again, this time with his histrionics.

7. Shoaib Malik
Shoaib Malik is perhaps known (in India) because of his marriage to Sania Mirza than for any other cricketing reason. He has currently been dropped from the team and perhaps will never get in again given Pakistan's seemingly unending talent pool.

His marriage/divorce with Ayesha Siddiqui left a bad taste in mouth. His subsequent marriage with Sania was given a cold shoulder by most celebs (other than Raja Murad of course). Shoaib's current pastime include cheering his wife along the ATP tour, feeding her with drinks during practice and getting banned from playing in Indian grounds.

8. Veena Malik
Veena Malik was not so much successful as an actress but much better recognized as a comedienne on a popular TV show Hum Sub Umeed Say Hain. In fact I saw her first time on this show parodying Shoaib and Sania. She was later charging enstranged cricketer boyfriend Mohammad Asif with match fixing charges.

However Veena Malik came into her own while appearing on reality show Bigg Boss 4. She was berated in Pakistan for her immoral un-Islamic behavior on the show. But she fought admirably well, took on a Maulvi and silenced him (You Tube clip). Hats off to this gutsy lady!

9. Asma Jahangir
I would be taking a bit of liberty saying she is Pakistan's Arundhati Roy. The fact is she gives them hell and we loves it. She is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

I think she is a very brave woman; a beacon in the dark age of Pakistan. Hope this beacon shines forever.

10. Pervez Hoodbhoy
It would be fair to call him one of Pakistan's greatest intellectual. Armed with a PhD in Nuclear Physics from MIT, he is also a prominent social activist.

He has written on a plethora of issues like feminism, education, environment, philosophy and nuclear disarmament. In 2001, he refused to accept the Sitara-e-Imtiaz award from President Musharraf. Also read his article on a month long lecture tour in India here.

Images: Courtesy Wikipedia

Sachin... Sachin...

2010-12-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

Sachin Tendulkar got his 50th century today. I don't know what more can I write about this man, that has not been written in last 21 years. The God, Maestro, Little Master, Tendlya you can call him whatever you want but he is the best-est.

In every sport, there are champions who master the game and go on to rule it but none has had the sheer longevity of Sachin. 21 years and counting - highest number of Tests, runs, centuries whatever there is! He even has a bowling average of 50+ in Test - an avid fan might quip. Every run he scores today is a record. He's even got a double in ODIs. I don't have enough space on this page for listing out all his records.

This picture courtesy my dear friend Neeraj who was in South Africa watching the match. Lucky dude!

I can just say I am fortunate enough to have watched him play.

Respect.

Laxman - the 5th day Man!

2010-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

Today was special. Special because you saw someone who is Very-Very Special swear - in front of the nation. He had a bloody good reason to swear mind you! He is a very kind and gentle person but today he let his heart rip out. The lucky guy was Ojhi who appeared to be dancing down the pitch collectin' the dimes - to borrow the expression from Hindi.

So already frustrated by the antics of his other illustrious team mates, Lax gave him a mouthful. And he wasn't exactly saying 'Ah baby those are such great shoes', I can assure you that. Finally ably assisted by the beanpole Sharma, Lax on half-a-leg was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Laxman has quite been like his counterpart in Ramayana, always under the shadow of Ram. People are busy fighting over Lord Ram but I guess its time for a Laxman Janmbhoomi now.

Hats off to you Laxman - there will be Tendulkars, Dravids and Sehwags but there is no 5-th day man like you!

Boring Sunday Afternoon

2010-08-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

Its a boring Sunday afternoon and I am wondering why does one name their company Jhandu? Or why Sehwag's official website's cover has him playing football? Or when will Lalit Modi stand up and say "Give me 15 days and I will move CWG to South Africa".

And to cap it, guess what Amit Mishra has to say on his Twitter page:

HELLO FRINDS HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY I ENJOYED TODAY PATANG BAZI AFTER 5 YRS I HOPES ALL GUYS ENJOYED TODAY

Unbelievable man!

Diego Forlan is in India!

2010-07-31T23:34:00.002-07:00

I am writing this post just to express my ~~pleasure~~ absolute delight at the news that my favorite player at the recently concluded World Cup - Diego Forlan is in India :D

He is in Kolkata to participate in a Football reality show. He said that he "had no idea about Indian Football" but "knew that cricket is very popular here". He also said that he "was loving India" and is "overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm here".

He believed his best goal at the WC was the one against Germany in the 3rd place playoff. He also defended his teammate Suarez's action of saving a certain goal with his hand.

Forlan is the Golden Ball Winner at the WC 2010 and is being approached by the top European Clubs to play for them. While in Kolkata he will join two Brasilians - Romario and Branco for the last episode of "The Match" - a football reality show. He might participate in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan on Sunday. He is also scheduled to visit Mother Teresa's home.

English-Hindi Dictionary (Free)

2010-07-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Need to learn how to say Hello in Hindi? Or for that matter FISH ? Or better still if you are an advanced Hindi learner or even a native speaker and need to find how to say exchange in Hindi. Well don't scratch your head, go no further than Shabdkosh.com.

Created by an IIT grad Mr. Maneesh Soni in 2003 this website serves as an online English-Hindi as well as Hindi-English dictionary. It started out with a database of 15,000 words it has now expanded the base with the help of contributing users. Starting from Hindi it now contributes words from many other Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

It now features a User -Forum and sections like "Quote of the Day" and "Word of the Day". You can type in Romanised Hindi and even listen to the correct pronunciation of Hindi words. If you don't have an internet connection and intend to use it offline you can download the dictionary here. If you feel like it, you can contribute to the site.

It is a wonderful site, certainly one of the best available today for English-Hindi translations. I have been using it for more than three years and I joined as a member today. I hope to make some serious contributions to the website in near future. Right now, I just want to spread the word.

If you happen to register with the website, just drop by and say hello to me!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

2010-07-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

Definition from Wikipedia:
When asked at the end of a series of other riddles, whose answers are clever, obscure, and tricky, this answer's obviousness and straight-forwardness becomes part of the humor.

Besides the humour, there is a philosophical touch to this question, as one could argue "Did the chicken really cross the road?" Does the road exist for it? I am sure a chicken would not subconsciously be aware of crossing a 'road'. A man-made contrivance like road makes sense for a human rather than a chicken. It could also raise pertinent questions on the consciousness of an animal. Are chickens self-aware of the actions they perform -like crossing the road? More of that later because I want to write about something else today.

The art behind one-liners
What makes this question and the subsequent answer funny? Edward De Bono in his popular book Lateral Thinking writes:

"...there is often an alternative way of arranging available information. This means that there can be a switch over to another arrangement. Usually this switch over is sudden. If the switch over is temporary it gives rise to humour....the reaction to an insight solution is often laughter even when there is nothing funny about the solution itself.

A policeman was seen walking along the main street pulling a piece of string. Do you know why he was pulling the piece of string?.... Have you ever tried pushing a piece of string?

In this situation an expectation is generated by the way the information is put together. Then suddenly this expectation is thwarted but at once one sees that unexpected development is another way of putting things together."

In other words, it is the unexpected response to a build up that makes one find it humorous. Comedians often use this art on stage, where they weave a story around a joke and the end is something unexpected, a different or innovative solution to the original problem. Something that makes the audience think "Oh, I didn't think he would do/say that!". The realisation of the 'Oh-factor' is what makes the joke funny.

How mind works?
The best way of comprehending this is to understand the way our mind processes information.

Sample this:
"Borrow money from a pessimist
.

.

.

.

.

.

they don't expect it back!"

As you read through the sentence above and finish the first part, the brain identifies a problem it needs to find a solution to. "Why should one borrow money from a pessimist? Why only money? What could/should one possibly borrow from a pessimist? How does a pessimist come into picture here?". The mind races for possible solutions to a jumble of questions like these.

And then, the answer is revealed. Its a twist at the tail! There is a low probability that an average human would guess that answer. Unless of course if you have read it before or you are a genius. As Information Theory goes, the amount of information present in an event is inversely proportional to the probability of its occurrence. For example, if sun rose from the west tomorrow morning, it would make all the newspapers. It is the low probability of the answer that flummoxes the reader with a lot of information. The mind recognises it as a stroke of brilliance, but since it concerns with a trivial matter, the spark is temporary and leads to humour.

Individual perspective to the question - funny!
I will leave you now with some funny answers to one of the most (along with Lightbulb joke) humorous riddles of all time - Why did the chicken cross the road?

Aristotle:
To actualize its potential.

The Dead Sea Scrolls:
And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the Chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

Albert Einstein:
Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Freud:
The fact that you thought that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

Bill Gates:
To purchase Chicken 2.01a, which will both cross roads and calculate the energy it used. There are bugs, yes, but if you uninstall Traffic 2.0 and Farmer 1.2 it will run. If it freezes at WhiteLine 2.0, we have a patch ...

Grandpa:
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

Immanuel Kant:
The chicken, being an autonomous being, chose to cross the road of his own free will.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

Jack Nicholson:
'Cause it ***** wanted to. That's the ****** reason.

Saddam:
I don't care. Catch it. I need its eggs to make my omelet.

You can read more funny answers here.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Belly Button - key to sports success

2010-07-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Close your eyes. Imagine a sprinter. What do you see?

African origin, dark coloured, long legs and robust, vigorous muscles.

Ok. Another one. Imagine a swimmer. What do you see?

Essentially Caucasian, well streamlined physique.

Ever wondered why some athletes dominate on track while others in the swimming pool? Apparently, scientists have unravelled this mystery. It's the belly button stupid!

According to the study, the factor that influences the perfomance is the location of belly button, body's centre of gravity. Among West African-origin runners, the center of gravity is 3 cm higher than whites. This gives them a 'hidden height' advantage on the track.

"Locomotion is essentially a continual process of falling forward, and mass that falls from a higher altitude, falls faster" according to Prof. Andre Bejan who led the study at Duke University.

However, in the pool whites have the advantage because of 'longer torsos'. "The swimmer who makes the bigger wave is the faster swimmer, and a longer torso makes a bigger wave. Europeans have a three-percent longer torso than West Africans, which gives them a 1.5 percent speed advantage in the pool" he said.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Indian Football

2010-07-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

With the soccer season upon us I recently wrote about the 2010 World Cup on my Hindi blog. After having finished the piece, I experienced a moment of sadness and frustration on our country's soccer prowess (or the lack of it). With the second largest pool of people in the world can't we produce a decent team that does well at least at Asian level (considering most of the top ranking countries are from Europe, Latin America and Africa). All we hear about is India drubbing hapless Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, if not getting a whack from them.

India was fourth placed at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. It was the runners-up at Asian Nations cup in 1964.So what went wrong? Is it that others progressed while we just sat on our bums?

For the 2010 qualifications, India lost in the first round to Lebanon. India's current FIFA ranking is 133 (as of May 1010); its lowest ever ranking was 165 (March 2007) and highest was 94 (Feb 96). Nobody can say for sure what's wrong with the Indian football but the apex body that runs football in this country has to take majority of the blame.

Glory of Indian Football
I am not the one to cry over split milk and don't want to bore you with stories of babudom and bureaucracy crippling Indian Football. Instead, lets look at some of the finer moments of Indian Football.

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club or simply Mohun Bagan AC is one the oldest Football clubs in Asia. It has been chosen among the top 11 clubs, alongside Bayern Munich, River Plate and Manchester United, by FIFA to form an Elite Task Force for club football. Some interesting facts on MB (source Wikipedia):

MB was the first Indian team to defeat a European team (East Yorkshire Regiment at 1911 IFA Shield).
When Maradona visited Kolkata in 1998, the only club he visited was Mohun Bagan.
Pele, one of the legends of the game played against MB for his club New York Cosmos in 1977. The match was drawn 2-2 with Pele scoring in a penalty kick.
Bayern Munich played a friendly against MB in May 2008 during their Asia tour.
MB played against and defeated Manchester City 1-0.
MB are the third club (after Barcelona and Manchester United) in world to have launched a co-branded credit card in their name (ICICI Bank Mohun Bagan Credit Card).
MB have a postage stamp issued after them to celebrate their 1911 victory (only club to have this honour).

You can read about Mohun Bagan's exploits in detail here.

Royalty free image source: 123rf.com

PAC-MAN redux

2010-05-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

I wrote about PAC-MAN about two years ago and since then its popularity has increased multifold if anything. Last week Google launched a 30 anniversary PAC-MAN doodle. Google has a tradition of putting up special logos (doodles) on its webpage for various occasions.

Google blog says PAC-MAN is a natural fit for the Google homepage as they are both "deceptively" straightforward, hiding their complexity under the hood. Now, Google has made the game permanently available here. Wow my search engine can play games too! :)

So go ahead and play. I just did!

The Enigma of Pakistan Cricket

2010-05-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

Pakistan Cricket is not stranger to controversies - from Woolmer's mysterious death to the terrorist attack on Lankan team bus, from ball tampering to drug tests, from Afridi's ball eating adventure to the fiasco on Australian tour - its a never ending story for the talented yet ill-disciplined team.

Now former Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam has called the national players 'mentally retarded'. An inquiry comittee was set up by PCB to investigate the reasons behind the disastrous tour of Australia where they failed to win even a single match. Intikhab was the coach of the Pakistan team on that tour. While Younis and Yousuf were banned for life, others like Shoaib Malik and Naved-Ul-Hasan were banned for a year. These bans, according to Wasim Akram had made a laughing stock of Pakistan (as if it wasn't already).

Intikhab was quoted as saying,"I felt that they are mentally retarded people....There is a mental problem with our players. They don't know how to wear their clothes and how to talk in a civilized manner."

He revealed that six to seven players had taken an oath on the Quran that they will remain united against their captain Younis Khan.

Shoaib Malik, meanwhile has been practicing at the Gymkhana ground,Hyderabad with his Indian wife since he is not being allowed to do so at Pakistan. While not fetching tennis balls for his Indian tennis player wife, he along with Rana Naved have also been busy belting gully-cricket bowlers at Bangladesh.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Go(ld) Australia

2010-05-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

Australia is a beautiful place. The Great Barrier Reef, the Uluru Rock formations, the Gold Coast never fail to lure tourists from all over the world (only if it was not so far!). Visiting Australia has become a financially lucrative option now with the news filtering out about the gold riches in Victoria.

GeoScience Victoria, a government agency that maps the geology of the region has reported "gold deposits still waiting to be discovered". An estimated 500 tonnes of gold, worth 20 billion USD lies in the north part of the state. During the Victorian Gold Rush of 1850-60,the population of the state experienced a seven fold increase. Victoria became the world leader in gold output. This event reshaped the society and politics of Victoria and led to emergence of Melbourne as one of the greatest cities of the world.

This event has also raised concerns about the environmental impact of increased mining activity. However all said and done, Australia is sitting on the precipice of another Gold Rush. Travelling to Australia was never more rewarding!

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Made in Bangladesh

2010-05-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

With the onset of summer, I realised that I needed a new baseball cap after having left the last one on a bus. So three weeks ago I walked into the Reebok showroom at Jubilee Hills. Now this showroom was quite swanky and glitzy. In fact it happened to be the world's biggest retail outlet, spread over 15,000 square feet.

As usual, a sales guy followed me around the entire 15,000 sq ft of pricey real estate. I zeroed upon a nice and dainty sky-blue cap. After relieving myself of 800 bucks I walked out smugly.

Period.

Yesterday I was fiddling away with the cap, biding my time. I turned it under and found a black strap underneath. It had something written on it. I looked at closely, unconsciously hoping to find the washing instructions. Here is what I found:

Made in Bangladesh.

China is common these days, but Bangladesh? Would I have bought it if I saw it at the showroom? Would you?

Talent hiring

2010-05-02T04:17:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Eric Lippert and his blog. If you don't know about him already, you could go to his About me page. Although he usually writes about stuff that I barely know about (VBScript, JScript, C# among others), I have a deep interest in his writings. Even his non-technical write-ups make up for interesting reading.

He recently wrote about attracting talent into an organisation. I am going to discuss about it a bit here in next few paragraphs. Essentially he wrote about things that make a job posting unattractive/attractive to a prospective job-seeker.

Things that make a job posting un-attractive:

1. Technology vomit/alphabet soup
EIGRP, SOA, HSRP, OMG, BBQ, WTF....Vinay Khosla from Fashion would cringe "Spare me the horror!". I can't recall the number of times where I have been annoyed at the spit of these alphabets!

2. Over-emphasis on specific existing knowledge Vs. ability to learn new
"Imagination is more important than intelligence", said Einstein and with good reason. Ability to grasp things quickly and effectively is more important than cramming it up. Intellect minus experience catches up with experience minus intellect pretty fast.

3. Full of jargon / too few specifics
"A worldwide leader, A premier IT service provider, Fortune 500 company seeks ...." oh gimme a break. I would like to see, clearly, what are we talking about here and not in cryptographs please.

4. Asking for things that ought to be assumed
I recently came across an advertisement by a 'leading provider of IT services' for a Developer/ Lead. It stated that "the candidate must be able to do coding". How's that!

5. No indication of work environment
Do they have fresh beans or stale powder? As a rule most of the job postings don't give any insight about the work culture of a company.

Things that make a job posting attractive

1. Challenging work
Work is challenging, requires innovation. A ex-colleague mentioned that the most challenging work he did during the whole day was to "sort out which bus he had to take back home". Needless to say how much he abhorred office. Also, being involved in design process is a huge encouragement.

2. Work life balance
Many of us, including me, wouldn't like to spend their weekends at office - not for any dole of $s. I have already turned down job offers that required me to work in shifts. The job should allow opportunities to pursue their own interests. If you are real good, stretching after office hours won't be necessary (unless you're cleaning up someone else's mess)

3. Chance to work with industry leaders
When you work with the best in business, some of it rubs off onto you. Working with leaders is a big incentive. I, for one, would forgo couple percentage of hike for a prospect of working with a leader in the technology.

Having said that, the above factors are not really important in Indian job market. Indian IT industry is relatively raw and inexperienced. There is a huge amount of young engineers being churned out every year. There is no dearth of software developers around. However, I believe that over a period of time, as the current crop matures into 10-15+ years things are bound to change. Till then, IT companies can get away with their shitty ads :)

Kashmir

2010-04-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

Nations fight. Over land, water, oil, women, drugs,crime,women and sometimes ego. India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir. Like kids squabbling over a lollipop. Only this time the kids have missiles and nuclear weapons. They make a lot of hullabaloo. Whenever they meet, they manage to fight; embarrass themselves and others.

One day the Great Himalaya raised its hands and said, "Enough! I gave you this beautiful land of milk and honey,but you fight on it. You shall repent it". Lo and behold! He opened his mouth and swallowed Kashmir.

News was conveyed to the kids who were still locking horns at the UN. Not sure how to react, they ignored it at first. It was only when other nations maintained that K was no more, they retreated and vowed to fight for pride. The carpet had been pulled beneath their feet. What could not be achieved by years of talking, mediation and killings - was actualized in a whiff.

This piece was provoked by a recent news article that a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal, which was claimed by both India and Bangladesh for years was engulfed by sea.

Image Credits : Wikipedia

Just Wondering...

2010-04-02T01:35:00.000-07:00

In the past they used to say - "Don't judge a book by its cover". In the current age of E-books, will they say - "Don't judge a book by its CRC"?

Good or Bad?

2010-03-13T08:56:00.001-08:00

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

I think the scientific community is a confused lot. Every now and then they publish some research which is contradictory to past publications. Prime examples:

Is alcohol good or bad?
Is coffee/tea good or bad?
Is chocolate good or bad?
Is egg/chicken good or bad?
Is milk good or bad?
Is chicken good or bad?
Is sex good or bad?
Are birth control pills good or bad?

And many more like chillies, cannabis, extra-fat, maggi and what not! I understand that there is a continuing research and much more needs to be discovered. Our collective knowledge keeps evolving and gets updated every now and then. However the opinions of scientific community are considered seriously by the general public and often put into practice.

See the following :

Women who take birth control pills live longer
Vs
Birth control pills cause breast cancer in women

Drinking alcohol helps women stay slim
Vs
Alcohol damages brain

They are just a couple of examples. I hope the scientific community is much more decisive when publishing their research. The "cans and mights" should give way to "wills and should" ;)

A Frog and the Princess

2010-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

"Before you find your handsome prince, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs." - Dutch Proverb

We all have heard the story about the frog who upon being kissed by the princess magically transforms into a handsome prince. I bet many other frogs rode out of their holes that day to fancy their chances.

However they were not so lucky, some had to contend with spending the night on the princess's pillow while others had to endure being smashed against the wall.

I am not sure if the frogs were all males, just imagine the princess's disgust when she discovered that her frog-to-be-charming-prince evolved into a princess! Not sure if she had a prior information on gender-identification of a frog. The frog-princess could even consider suing the Princess for gender-based discrimination. Gay right activists could raise a furore over this - take to the streets, march in parades and who knows what.

Meanwhile, biologists at the University of California had a mind of their own. They have managed to turn male frogs into female just with the sprinkle of some holy water. The holy water here contains 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) of Atrazin (a widely used Herbicide). The converted-females have since then mated with other males and produced eggs despite being born a male.

The princess now needs to think twice before kissing a frog =)

Image Credits: Wikipedia

End of Internet?

2010-03-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

Just found this while reading items on Google Reader. Funny!

Click on image to enlarge.

Please Rob Me!

2010-02-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the later for everyone else." - David Brin

We are born in a free world, a free nation and open society. With the advent of internet, information can be shared across the globe almost instantaneously. We love to chat, email, tweet, blog, scrap and share our 'status updates' on social networking websites. While doing so, we also reveal our personal choices and interests.

"Off to Mauritius for a week" - seems like an innocuous update on twitter out there for every Tom, Dick and Harry to quip at. But would you really hang a sign on your door saying that?

Ok! Before you think I am being a dork I am out of here. But give it a thought!

Still not convinced? Have a look here.

Artiodactyls

2009-11-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

Artiodactyls fall under the Class Mammalia and Order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates). This order is characterized by either two or mostly four hoofed toes on each foot. They contain around 200 living species. Some of the most common animals that we come across daily fall under this Order. Examples : deer, cattle, goats, sheep, camels, giraffes, hippopotamus and pigs.

In Artiodactyls (artios - even + daktuloes - toe) the plane of symmetry of each foot passes between the third and fourth digits. Essentially their body weight is borne by the third and fourth digits. First digit is usually lost and second and fifth are minor. This is in contrast to Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) where the plane of symmetry runs down the third toe; notable examples include zebra, horses, asses and rhinoceroses.

Artiodactyls are diverse - found in almost all continents except Antarctica and Australia. They contain the fastest moving animals like deers to the slow movers like hippos. They majorly live in open habitats but some of them dwell in forest too. Cool ones like hippos hang out in 'aqua'!

Sources:
Wikipedia
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology website

Alan Turing - a side note

2009-09-12T02:58:00.000-07:00

"We had gay burglers the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture."
Robin Williams.

Ah... these comedians could plummet to any depth. But then what's life without humour -a pile of bread sopped in water, a bowl of cabbage, an insipid tale of mundane running around matters. Humour is the salt of life! But then lets save it for some other day. After a long time I have got some time to reflect and write and so must I.

Alan Turing - the man Winston Churchill dubbed as the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in WWII died in an not-so-honourable way - eating a cyanide laced apple. There's a Hindi saying, "Chirag tale andhera" (below the lamp lies the darkness) - very apt here.

Read on.

Turing - the ' shining-lamp' phase
I first read about Turing during my graduation days. He had an Indian connection - his father was a member of Indian Civil Service. His maternal grandfather was the Chief Engineer of Madras Railways. In fact he was 'conceived' at Chhatrapur, Orissa. He was the hero of WWII- the master code breaker of German Enigma machines. Father of AI, he created the concept of Turing Test to distinguish between humans and robots. In 1999, he was name by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Important People of 20th century.

Turing - the 'darkness-below-the-lamp' phase
So far so good for being a war hero, a celebrated personality (however eccentric), a poineer of computer science, cryptanalyst, mathematician, logician, chemist - we are still finding out. Add another adjective to it - and it all goes in vain - "GAY".

In 1952 Alan Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency. As an alternate to imprisonment, he was injected with female oestrogen hormones and chemically castrated - a known side effect of which was the development of breasts. His security clearance was removed and he wasn't permitted to continue his research with UK government. For two years he loomed between death and despair and finally killed himself by eating the proverbial apple. So much so for his service of the nation (and possibly of humanity). No wonder they forgot to mention this in text books :-)

Honour restored or too late?
Times have changed now - and how! This year after a petition signing campaign to urge the British government to apologize to Alan Turing posthumously, the government has finally relented. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown released a statement two days ago. It described the treatment of Alan Turing as "utterly unfair" and "appalling". It also noted that British government was "deeply sorry" and that Turing "deserved much better".

Ahem.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Hyderabad blogs

2009-05-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

I wanted to some serious blog reading today. So I opened Google Blog Search and punched in Hyderabad (that’s where I live right now!). Instead of blogs what I came up with..?

Ads – about free air tickets from Hyderabad to else where on this planet, about a 160 sq. yard Independent house in Gautam nagar Upparpalli, about free medical transcription training, about Wipro and GM walk-in, about openings at Prof. G.M. Reddy Research and SAP consultants at Wipro..

Jee… doesn’t Hyderabad host any bloggers.. there sure must be lots of them but doesn’t the city of Hyderabad interest them? Finally the face saver was Hyderabad Photo Blog .

It declares itself a blog about the “Life in Hyderabad – not the stuff you’d see in Tourism Corporation’s brochures and websites. “. Its a tongue n cheek description of how life stutters in Hyderabad – in its filthy-dying streets, in its crammed markets, overloaded roads and unbuilt flyovers, in the banner spammed skyline and the dust n pollution. It captures the street life and many more things that might miss the inattentive eye. Nice blog man.. m linking to you :)

The HITEC city

2009-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad is overly proud of the swanky HITEC city – (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy) aka Cyberabad. This place houses offices to some of the software powerhouses like MS, ORACLE, GOOGLE – Indian Giants like TCS, Wipro,Infosys and Satyam besides numerous other BPOs, KPOs ,LPOs and God knows what

Every other person here worth his/her own salt (except perhaps the auto-cab drivers , street vendors and the naked child beggars who cajole you for money once you stop at a red signal) has a ID card here. Having an ID card gives you special rights – it will get your work done at a bank, you don’t have to wait at queues for long(unless you are really dumb!), you have access to places. People look down on you if you don’t possess one.

A friend remarked once, “The HITEC city has been sold ( to IT companies) in the name of the Cyber Tower.”

Chandrababu Naidu the IT-savvy former CM of AP salted the HITEC mines to the firangs. The Cyber Tower stands tall in the bosom of HITEC city – its a crowded place at the intersection of busy roads. The traffic is slow as usual – at peak hours lines upto 2-3 kms are not uncommon! This problem is compounded by the utter lack of traffic sense among people. Cutting lanes , jumping signals and tripping is very common (more about HYD traffic later in other post).

Traffic blues

2009-05-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

I had promised to write about the notorious Hyderabad traffic so folks here I am, right on my money :)

The worst thing about Hyderabad traffic is that there are no rules. People assume, as they are entitled to in a democra(z)cy, the highest authority on themselves. In this process they forget the hapless traffic constable ,who has been shouting his guts off in the crazy heat or the hapless commuters (the god fearing type) who just happen to be in the wrong place (they always do, don’t they?). The end result is a mob frenzy with a free for all kind of traffic.

They jump signals at the smallest excuse, break queues,cut lanes, and indulge in all kind of nuisance you possibly can imagine. You would consider it to be your lucky day if you can cross the road without getting hurt – those sadists :(

Someone posted the following video on YouTube showing a glimpse of the Hyderabad traffic:

You can really see for yourselves how crazy the people are! Sometimes I feel people get what they deserve and Hyderabadis have nobody but themselves to blame for the chaos they allow themselves to be in. A sad commentary indeed for a place that prouds itself on being the Cyber capital :(

Hyderabadi Biryani

2009-05-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

I had great hopes on Hyderabad and its cuisines most notably the Biryani. Wherever in India you may happen to reside, you can never be too far away from the Biryani. Be it an upmarket mall in NCR, or the Khomcha dishing out street food in Rampur – Biryani always sells like Hotdogs.

I had tasted Biryani numerous times at many non-descript restaurants/food stalls. So while moving to Hyderabad one of the foremost thoughts in my mind had been to feast myself to the quintessential “Hyderabadi” Biryani. The one that symbolizes Hyderabad in many ways as in this song from the movie “The Angrez”.

And with such great hopes in my heart and hunger in my belly that I set out for Hyderabad House – a place that prides itself on being the harbinger of Hyderabadi food. After a while arrived my Veg-Biryani dressed on a tray with hot steam piping out. This really got my juices flowing – quite literally! Without wasting any more seconds I broke into it.

First few morsels were taken quite liberally but then it started sinking in – it wasn’t too great. In fact it came down to swallowing the stuff and a couple of minutes later even that looked distant. Thanks to the buttermilk I could gulp some more. Too bad – there were no vegetables to save the day.

Not to blame the restaurant, the rice was of good quality and there were lots of spices in it. With every morsel I took I said to myself,”Oh, they put caradamom in it and there’s elaichi too and tejpatta and God forbid what not!”. But in the end it was plain colored rice – that’s what it was.

As I glanced away I saw a man biting into something that looked like a non-veg Biryani. And man was he really enjoying it ! You can tell when someone is really enjoying his meal, you know what I mean. He might have been very hungry or something but he looked lost into it – just like me but for entirely different reasons altogether. Two men looked out of the window one looked at the sky and other at the mud – is something how it`goes like.

May be my being a vegetarian took the kick out of it but whatever if can’t enjoy it there must be something wrong. The feeling was as if you had come to watch a movie by virtue of it having received great reviews but you felt it was entirely crap.

As I walked out, the restaurant owner looked up to me smiling like a Cheshire cat. Unfortunately I had no kind words for the Biryani but I smiled back in recognition anyway in case his faith in humanity might be hurt.

Don't go Gilly!

2009-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Arguably the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the history of the game – Adam Gilchrist announced his retirement from all forms of cricket during the final test match in the ongoing test series between Australia & India. He had been under a bit of pressure from media under recent times with a barrage of dropped catches and missed stumpings. But his decision stunned us all. Just a couple of days back he said he wanted to play for one more year. What really happened is a mystery – Gilchrist has not spoken on it. He intends to do so after the finish of the ongoing match.

Victim of his own standards?

He has been a victim of his own high standards. And as former Australian player Ian Healy said, “You’re only judged on your mistakes. He could have a perfect game and catch everything that comes his way, and everyone says, ‘You’re expected to do that’. He’s got to somehow take some speccy catches so that people notice him in a positive sense – so it’s a hard thing to do.“

Instinctive & non-traditional player

There have been and will be batsman who plunder runs and bowlers who take wickets but what makes Adam Gilchrist different from many others who play cricket is the fact that he changed the way game is played. He has redefined the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman with his swashbuckling style and candor. Players like Gilchrist, Jayasuriya, Crowe, Viv Richards, Slater (and Sehwag if I may add) have defied tradition to set new benchmarks. People like him have made the game of cricket more richer (and popular) than ever.

Gilchrist has always been a instinctive player as opposite to being a thoughtful one like maybe Healy. But it is his audacity with the bat and clean work behind the stumps that made him so popular. He was a walker and famously walked in the semifinals of the WC 2003 against SriLanka even after being given not out.

As a tribute to this fantastic cricketer and a very fine human being below is an excerpt from his book WALKING TO VICTORY where he describes his emotions on that particular day:

“I was going well on 22 off 19 balls, seeing it like a football, when he (Aravinda D’Silva) came in for the second ball of his first over. He pitched it up and I went for an aggressive sweep, trying to hit it behind square leg. I got a thick, loud bottom edge. It bounced off my pad and I had no idea where it went.

“Catch it! Catch it!” I heard. I stood and turned to see that [Kumar] Sangakkara had it. I knew I was done. It was so obvious.

Then, to see the umpire shaking his head, meaning, “Not out”, gave me the strangest feeling. I don’t recall what my exact thoughts were, but somewhere in the back of my mind, all that history from the Ashes series was swirling around. Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain and other batsmen, both in my team and against us, who had stood their ground in those “close” catching incidents were definitely a factor in what happened in the following seconds. I had spent all summer wondering if it was possible to take ownership of these incidents and still be successful. I had wondered what I would do. I was about to find out.

The voice in my head was emphatic.

Go.

Walk.

And I did.

It was a really weird sensation to go against the grain of what 99 per cent of cricketers do these days, and what we’ve been doing for our whole careers. I was annoyed because I felt like I was batting well and had the chance to lay the foundation for a big team score – and it was me taking that away from myself.”

Go on Gilly, may you have a great life ahead with your family. We’ll miss you!

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Pizza and LHC!

2008-09-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

“There is not the slightest indication that energy will ever be obtainable from the atom” - Albert Einstein.

The Large Hadron Collider might have disappointed many nay-sayers around the world. It did not spurn the Doomsday by spinning off 'micro black-holes' that engulf the world but looks like it certainly can cook up a pizza pretty fast.

The 'forward thinking' editors at Sciam made an estimate on how long it will take a LHC to de-frost a pizza. As per the calculations, it would take about 3 * 10 ^(-8) seconds to defrost a pizza. This is about the same time taken by light to travel 1 meter.

Pretty fast, huh?

Image credits : Wikipedia.

Americans and privacy

2008-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else." - David Brin (American science-fiction writer)

It is amazing and indeed a paradox of our times that America is one of those nations with an absolute madness for celebrities (with scant regard for their privacy) and an equally tight-fisted resoluteness about government turning a Big Brother and hence violating their personal lives!

Here is an article about the History of Privacy in America and its timeline. An interesting read!

Change wins it for Obama!

2008-06-07T23:23:00.000-07:00

As expected, Hillary Clinton finally ended her bid for a democratic nomination and endorsed Obama.

"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," she said to a crowd of teary-eyed supporters in a emotional speech.

While Obama lay a little low letting her opponent bask in the glory. In a press statement he later said, " Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Sen. Clinton's support".

This marked a highly tipsy-turvy year - last year Clinton was seen as a clear front-runner and a sure-shot to win the top seat but she lies in a dump now - defeated by a black Afro-American! Also ended there-in a bitterly contested campaign battle.

CNN does a analysis on why Clinton's bid failed here. It reveals how her supposed strengths - a great campaigner hubby Bill, her so-public face, the massive and well-oiled Clinton-machinery all could not face up to the challenge for a 'change'.

In the race between 'Change' and 'Experience' - Change won again!

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

The perfect swing?

2008-02-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” - Winston Churchill

I must admit myself as a golf illiterate, having been routinely bamboozled by the birdies, putts,flops, bogeys, eagles, albatross and vultures ( what is it about the birds?). All I know about the sport is that you have got to put the ball into the hole with the help of a stick in the minimum number of attempts. I am also aware that a certain Tiger Woods has been running around with the dough for quite some time now.

United States scores over rest of the world with nearly half of the world's total 32,000 golf courses. But according to this article, golfing has seen a decline over the past several years in the US. The number of people who play the sport has declined from 30 million to 26 million since 2000. The golf boosters (number of people who play 25 times or more a year) declined from 6.9 million in 2005 to 4.6 million in 2000.

This is a part of the broader decline in the outdoor sports like tennis,swimming and hiking among others. The reasons vary from the ravaging hurricanes to family commitments to popular electronic games to the long duration of the game and related etiquette rules (like not using their cell phones on course).

So the game about which Wodehouse famously wrote, "Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious." in danger of losing its charm?

How safe is my data?

2008-02-23T03:22:00.000-08:00

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” - John Allen Paulos

Imagine having your laptop stolen! It was insured alright ensuring you suffer no financial losses, but how about the data? No worries there.. my machine is password protected you might say or I use disk encryption softwares. Really? Read on... : )

According to researchers at Princeton University, data stored on your machine can be recovered - yes, even if you locked it - with the help of something as innocuous as a dusting spray!

How does it happen?
DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access memory) is a type of memory that is used to store data while your machine is running. It is a kind of "leaky bucket" (a capacitor) which has to be filled in periodically (charged) otherwise it runs out of water. It was believed that DRAM loses its data as the power is switched off. But actually it fades out over a period of seconds to minutes, depending on the chip manufacturer.

The researchers found out that cooling the DRAM chips with a spray of "canned air" would make the chips retain their contents for as long as 10 minutes! Use of liquid nitrogen would prolong this to hours. The chips could then be removed from the laptop and their data read from.

How they did it!

But I have Disk Encryption Software on my machine?
Very well! The disk encryption softwares store their master decryption keys in DRAM. This is something like handing out the keys of the locker to the thief! The attacker can easily extract the keys from your DRAM and access your data. In this process, the researchers were able to beat the commercially available disk encryption software Bitlocker that comes with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 OS.

Security Risk
According to a report by Symantec, average laptop contains data worth approximately $972,000. Sometime back, GE reported the theft of an employee's laptop containing Social Security Numbers (SSN) of 50,000 employees. Ernst & Young, Fidelity investments, The Boeing Co., Ameriprise Financial are just some of those who suffered due to loss of a laptop containing sensitive data.

It is time the security experts do a rethink!

Cobama or Billary ?

2008-02-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

“I will feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already there”
- Maureen Reagen (daughter of R. Reagen)

Its election time in the United States again. This time its a race between Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama to the top seat. Funnily enough the Republicans are counted out even before the voting takes place. Looks like the Democratic party's nomination for the Presidential seat is a sure shot. Just to re-emphasize the impression the "dumb guy" has made on the Americans.

Remembering 2000...
The elections in U.S. are generally hard fought and closely contested. The Presidential elections of 2000 contested (primarily) between Bush and Gore were certainly one of the closest in recent history with the State of Florida being the center stage. With 85 % of votes being counted in Florida, Bush had been leading over Gore by over 100,000 votes - leading the media to declare Bush as the next President. But with votes coming in from the remaining 3 heavily Democratic counties the lead dwindled to 2000 votes. The media retracted its predictions and Al Gore, who had conceded the elections to Bush, promptly took it back!

After first recount the lead came down to 500 votes - leading to cries of hand recounts and foul play. Finally the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in, ending the recounts and finally Bush's lead was declared to be 537 votes (out of 5.8 million cast). It was later found that 175,010 votes were never counted in Florida. Interestingly enough, under the recount rules originally requested by Bush, Gore would have won and vica-versa! (Source : Wikipedia)

2008 - Time for change?
The 2008 US Presidential elections are unique in many ways. This is the first election since 1958 when neither an incumbent President nor Vice-President is running for their party's nomination. This is the first time when You Tube viewers quizzed the candidates by submitting videos of their questions. First time the Americans abroad could vote online. If Hillary gets it right, she would the first woman in American history to be the President. The same goes true for Honolulu born Obama who would be the first African-American to go to the highest seat.

The Hillary Vs Obama debate is being played out on all fields - sample these You Tube videos.

So far the election has been dominated by themes of race,gender and faith with Bill Clinton saying, ""is understandable, because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time."
Voting woes
But as far as technology goes, its back to the future this time. The voices against electronic voting machine's vulnerability to fraud received another boost when a computer science professor at Princeton published images of unattended e-voting machines on his web page.

On the "Super Tuesday" voters reported more than 1100 separate incidents of problems with E-Voting machines. This, however may seem trivial considering that almost 50 million used the machines this Tuesday. In addition there were problems of machines not booting or failing in several states. The state of California has made a decision not to use e-voting after serious flaws were found in the machines.

The Indian connection
"I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily." Whatever it might turn out to be, these are anxious moments for the Americans and exciting for the rest of us :)

That's Unsporty Mate!

2008-02-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

The recent India - Australia test series was very well contested. Except for the first match at MCG which was a one-sided affair and the last couple of days at Adelaide it was a fantastic series - certainly one of the most hotly contested series in the recent past, after the Ashes 2005 may be.

Sadly however, the series will be remembered more for the off field controversies than the contest on the field. Bad umpiring decisions, protests, racial comments, sledging, unsportsmanlike behavior on the field was all on display. The result - an umpire sent packing back to his home, a match referee being castigated in public, a captain accusing the other team of unfair play and finally two teams filing cases against each other's players.

A pack of wild dogs?
Is this cricket? Or is this War? Certainly the latter as is promoted by the broadcaster itself. Its a "cricketing war" between two nations. One a reigning champion that prides itself on playing "aggressive" cricket and other - a challenger that managed to get under the skins of the victors - or at least matching them in their cricketing skills.

Everything that goes up must come down and so it was for the Aussies. They have played fantastic cricket over the years and deserve to be World Champions. But when paid back in their own coin they break - the invincibles mind you - just like any other team! A tree laden with fruits always comes down but the Aussies have turned egoistic bumblers today - lashing out at every body who comes in their way and all this in the name of "aggressive cricket".

That it all started with Harbhajan's congratulatory recognition to a fine delivery by Brett Lee in the form of a pat on the backside is hardly surprising. The mental makeup of the Australian team is revealed by the statement made by Mr. Andrew Symonds during the hearing. In reply to being asked what was his objection to the "pat on the back", he said, "Did I have an objection to it – my objection was that a test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player, is my objection.”

And as Hon. Justice John Hansen noted, "If that is his view I hope it is not one shared by all international cricketers. It would be a sad day for cricket if it is."

The Big Bullies?
The Australians have been hypocrites, for them everything is so - selective honesty, selective goodwill,selective judgment, selective sledging and then - out they come like whingers. Ok let me start, first Recall the gentlemanly "agreement" between the two sides regarding the catching - and what was Ponting doing claiming off an obviously grounded catch?

Secondly over the years Australians have claimed that their "sporty" attitude ensures that what ever happens on the field stays on the field. (Really?) And who went to the referee complaining like school kids. Couldn't it have been settled between two captains? And as Tony Greig said on , "If you want to nail Harbhajan....sit him down (with the captains) and nail him". Who brought the lawyers into it?

Thirdly, let's see the transcript of the stump microphone during the Sydney Test:

Hayden approaches Harbhajan.
Hayden: "That's the last time."
Harbhajan (apologetically): "No listen he started it."
Hayden (putting his hands up): "Doesn't matter mate, it's racial vilification mate. It's a shit word and you know it."

So you go on abusing someone, expletives after expletives and when the person snaps - you report him! Very well done - that's what "mental disintegration" is! So far so good - but once in a while you find somebody who refuses to be cowed like a Ranatunga or a Harbhajan who don't hold back anything - you go back whinging to the referee. That's very un-sporty mate!

Indian side
Indians are no holy cows themselves. Indian crowds behaved badly when Australians last toured. Symonds did well in the 4-2 series win for kangaroos and was subjected to racial taunts throughout the series culminating in Mumbai - where there were massive rallies in the crowd waving offensive banners and shouting "Symonds is a monkey" and "Aussies suck" with middle finger in full display et al.

These incidents were the root cause for what has happened now. Its time we put our house in order. Sections of crowd displaying such behaviour should be identified and banned from watching any future matches. Be it Mumbai or Sydney crowd trouble has to be handled in a proper manner.

Cricket is the biggest
There is no place for personal banters or racial taunts in cricket or any sport. A little bit of friendly banter is good and keeps the spectators hooked but once in a while it gets ugly and things go out of hand.

One of the reasons behind this fiasco was the ineffective conduct of the two umpires in the middle. Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson did not earn too much respect from the two sides by virtue of their decisions in order to command over them. They are the ones out in the middle and can judge much better than anybody else sitting in the commentary box or the drawing room. In effect, under such cases umpires need to step up and see that the matters do not go out of hand.

The game of cricket is the biggest of all individual egos and so it must stay.

Is chocolate bad ?

2008-01-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
- Charles M. Schulz

Millions of people, all around the world (including myself) rely on their daily dose of chocolate bar to elevate their moods. It is even reported that melting chocolate is better than a passionate kiss. Part of the pleasure comes from the fact that the melting point of chocolate is slightly lower than human body temperature resulting in the "melting" taste.

Chocolate is considered to be a health food with its high contents of flavonoids considered to be good for heart. Cocoa is known to be an anti-oxidant. Studies have also indicated that small but regular quantities of dark chocolate could lower possibility of heart attack.

But it could all change according to a new study which says that eating chocolates could lead to weaker bones and a greater chance of suffering fracture. According to the study, women who ate chocolate daily had an overall bone density 3.1 per cent lower than those who consumed it less than once a week.

It comes after the British medical journal The Lancet said chocolate could no more be considered a health food as the chocolate manufacturers remove flavonoids because of their bitter taste. As a result, chocolate might end up being just another source for fats and sugars :(

Image Credits : Wikipedia.

NDTV gets a boost

2008-01-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

India's success in the IT-Software and outsourcing world has been well documented. Be it the fancy BPO,KPO or LPO India had always had the better of it when it came to the 'O'. All this while Indians have always maintained that they were destined to be the next Superpower.

However in a recognition of India's growing entertainment market in particular and the nation in general, Global media and entertainment firm NBC Universal acquired a 26% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) Networks for $150 million. What it means is that NBC has bought stake in the entertainment arm (NDTV Imagine),Lifestyle Channel (NDTV Good Times), Convergence, NGen and NDTV Labs. What's more significant is that they have not bought any part of the 3 news channels. What it also means is that NBC has now got a firm foothold in India as it may now join NDTV to launch its channels in the country.

NDTV Networks had last year raised $120 million through private equity placement that reportedly included Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Velocity Interactive Group (earlier called ComVentures) for a nearly 24% stake.

This is the third deal of a major US media conglomerate taking a stake in a TV network in India recently.Viacom has a 50 - 50 JV with Network18 in Viacom 18 and Disney has picked up a 14.85% stake in UTV. CNBC, which is controlled by NBC, has an equity joint venture with Television Eighteen, which runs the CNBC-TV18 business news channel in India.

Bharat Ratna

2008-01-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Jagjivan Ram, Jyotiba Phule, Mohammed Rafi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, M Karunanidhi, Chaudhari Charan Singh, Jyoti Basu and finally the man who started it all - Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The race for this year's Bharat Ratna started when L.K. Advani proposed the name of Vajpayee for the nation's highest civilian honour. Since then its been a barrage of sorts with every political party worth its salt, proposing its own candidate for the award to be announced on Jan 26 - The Republic day.

This kind of drama can only be expected in a messy "democrazy" like ours! When will these power mongers get rid of their oneupmanship and understand that the highest civilian honour of this country cannot be bestowed on the basis of political affiliations. We've got enough of this! Let us hope good sense prevails soon.

Cannabis cure cancer..

2007-11-19T02:33:00.000-08:00

I wrote earlier about cannabis doing a lot of harm to lungs. However according to a report at BBC new study reports that they could stop breast cancer in human body.

Cannabidiol or CBD, a compound extracted from cannabis block the activity of genes responsible for aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumor site. The report also suggests that it could act as an alternative to non-toxic chemotherapy.

However the authors of the report were quick to stress that they didn't suggest "people smoke cannabis" : )

Lust , Caution

2007-11-14T23:40:00.000-08:00

"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads."
- George Bernard Shaw

A Chinese movie goer is suing the Regional Censor Board in frustration with the censored version of the steamy WWII drama "Lust , Caution" by Academy award winning director Ang Lee. Set in World War-II era Shanghai, "Lust, Caution," starring mainland actress Tang Wei and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, is about a sexually-charged relationship between an undercover female student activist and a Japanese-allied intelligence chief.

Dong Yanbin, a Ph.D student at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, had filed a suit against the nation's film censor, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), for infringing upon his "consumer rights," the Beijing Times said. Watch a trailer of the movie below.

The movie opened in China on Nov. 1 minus on-screen sex scenes and has since grossed 90 million yuan (11.25 million dollars) on Chinese mainland. Some filmgoers in the southern province of Guangdong have opted to cross the border into Hong Kong to watch the full, uncut version, local media have reported.

Dong was seeking apologies and 500 yuan ($67) in "psychological damages" from both SARFT and UME, the cinema chain showing the movie, the paper said. The court has not yet accepted the case.

Marriage of convenience!

2007-11-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

"Every dog has its day"
English Proverb.

A man known as Selvakumar has married a bitch in a ceremony which took place in Sivaganga district, 50 km east of Madurai in South India. The bride has been renamed Selvi (Mrs. Selvakumar) after the marriage. "Chosen" by the family, she was bathed and dressed in a sari before the "couple" exchanged marriage vows.

The man believes he had been cursed by the killing of 2 stray dogs 15 years ago - suffering paralysis and loss of hearing. An astrologer since advised him to marry off a female dog to ward off the curse. The groom and his family had a marital feast where the dog was given a bun!

In the recent past a donkey wedding was also arranged to bring monsoon rains in the IT capital of India - Bangalore.

Kilo gets lighter...

2007-11-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

“The nicest thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”
Andrew S. Tannenbaum

Watch out for the weight next time you step out to buy grocery because the kilogram just got a little lighter. "Le Grand K" - the cylinder of platinum & iridium is the only object known to scientists that has a mass of exactly 1 kg. It is the reference object from which the unit of mass is derived. All objects measured in kilograms - grocery to a warship are defined by Le Grand K's mass.

Several copies have been distributed across the world to act as arbiters of mass. They are measured against Le Grand K to ensure the integrity.

Losing some weight
But there is a fluctuation of mass between the sisters with either the Le Grand K losing some mass or others gaining some. However as they all are measured against each other, finding out the "one" is difficult.

Common man can however lay to rest his concerns as the fluctuations are about 50 parts in a billion. Although tiny, the difference is crucial to scientific community as these cylinders act as reference for kilogram.

New standards
As a outcome of the drift scientists are devising new ways of defining the kilogram. The basic idea is to measure kilogram in terms of constants of nature just the way a meter is defined as the distance traveled by light in vacuum in a precise fraction of a second. Another idea may be to redefine the kilogram on the basis of the mass of an atom.

What ever it may be one thing is sure - the small lump of metal in Paris is going to be used for some time to come.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Think different - Inspirational Video...

2007-11-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Found this inspirational video on Youtube. It features Einstein, Martin Luther King, Richard Branson, Muhammad Ali, Gandhi , Churchill, Lenon, Bob Dylan, Edison , Alfred Hitchcock and Picasso.

The video is promoted by Apple.

Oprah on YouTube now...

2007-11-06T05:02:00.000-08:00

Oprah Winfrey - the popular talk show host has launched her own channel on the online video sharing website You Tube. The channel will feature backstage video grab, upcoming programs, and interviews with the "already stars" on Youtube.

Oprah is the world's most powerful celebrity according to Forbes - she beat Tiger Woods & Madonna, Elton John and David Beckham to the top. She had an estimated earning of $260 million last year.

Featuring on the channel will be the founders of You tube, the "dirty dancing" couple, the "evolution of dance" guy, the P. Diddy assistant and even Tyson the skateboarding bulldog!

Watch them here.

Kylie Connect

Meanwhile singer Kylie Minogue also launched her own social networking website. Users can download (for a fee) Kylie's popular numbers and wallpapers from the page all the while participating in a lucky draw - the prize booty being a rendezvous with Kylie herself!

Kylie recently received the Music Industry Trust Prize for her contribution to the pop world. Her much awaited tenth album X featuring 13 new tracks releases on November 26. Her single 22 hearts has already been branded a "surefire no. 1" by Sun.

Britney Spears - an accountant's nightmare!

2007-11-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

Britney Spears earns roughly $737,000 monthly but saves or invests nothing!

According to the court papers released in the custody dispute with KF, she spends lavishly on clothes & entertainment. Here is an account of her monthly expenses:

$49,267 - in mortgage for two houses
$16,000 - for clothes
$102,000 - for entertainment, gifts & vacation
$4758 - dining out
$500 - Charity

She has to pay KF $15,000 per month in child support and $20,000 in spousal support. Her ex-hubby Kevin Federline has comparatively modest expenses with $7000 being the highest amount to be paid in monthly rent.

The court had prohibited the divorced couple from driving their children unless they're properly insured and have a valid driver's license. However Britney was photographed driving her kids a few days after the order was passed out leading the court to relinquish the children.

Next thing Britney went into a Motor vehicles Dept. office and applied for a licence!

World's richest man - an Indian!

2007-10-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

In yet another high for an Indian, business tycoon Mukesh Ambani today became the world's richest man. He overtook Gates, Slim and Buffett to reach the milestone. This all came courtesy the current bull run in the Indian stock exchange which has ballooned his market cap in Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd.

Its 20-20 time!
The Mumbai based BSE index touched an all time high of 20,000. In doing so it became the 20th nation in the world to have touched the 20K mark. The countries whose stock market indices have crossed 20k level include Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezeula, Peru, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Italy, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Hong Kong. Another Indian born Lakshmi Mittal is already in the top 5.

The five richest people in the world with their net worth

1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)

2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)

3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)

4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)

5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)

Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%). Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.

How to make an English cup of tea!

2007-10-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

"No sex please, we are British"
Unknown ( at least I don't know, somebody said the queen!)

The British are said to be reserved in manners, dress and speech - with its stiff upper lip. Known for their politeness, self-discipline and sense of humour (did someone say dry?). Much has been written about the social dos and don'ts in Britain.. sample a few!

Don't

Stare at anyone in public. (what about people watching?)
Ask a lady her age.
Do gesturing in public like backslapping and hugging.
Do not pass wind in public (ha ha....)
Ask questions like "How old are you?" ,"You seem to have put on some weight?", "Why aren't you married?" or "Why is British food so bad?"

and many more...

English Tea
Britishers also like to distinguish themselves from the Americans by the way of their accent and drink (tea for British ,coffee for Americans). Now a 17 years old school boy in Britain named Charlie McDonnell has created a video named "How to be English ?". The video has been a major hit online attracting thousands of visitors. The video takes a tongue-in-cheek look at English manners and mannerisms including how to make the perfect cup of tea. Watch it here. The video is really funny!

"I set up a You Tube account about six months ago and thought I might as well do something with it and started filming little videos and sketches. The 'How to be English' one was one of the most popular. I got quite a few comments from Brits accusing me of being an American pretending to be English," McDonnell told reporters.

The teenager's satirical sketches have now won him an invitation to appear on the ABC channel's popular daytime show The View, co-hosted by Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg!

The runaway bride..

2007-10-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Chiru's daughter runs away..
Meanwhile in a truly filmy way, Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi's younger daughter Shirija "eloped" with her lover Shireesh Bharadwaj, a final year engineering student. They married at the Arya Samaj , Hyderabad in the morning. The marriage was also telecast live by a Telugu television channel.

However the couple looked confident although expressing fear for their safety.
"Today morning, I eloped from home and got married to Sirish Bharadwaj. I am 19 years old and he is 22. Since we are majors, we have the right to get married. We got married in Arya Samaj temple today. We have been in love for the past four years and decided to get married this year. We want support from the media and the police because of threats from my family's side," said Srija.

Troubled times..
The actor and family seemed to shell shocked by this act of the runaway bride. Chiru's most anticipated movie Shankardada which was released recently didn't do well at the box office while his son Ram Charan made his debut a few days ago. Chiranjeevi's younger brother Pavan Kalyan has been in news for a bigamy case filed against him by his wife Nandini in a Visakhapatnam court. Chiru's elder daughter Sushmita's marriage with actor Uday Kiran was cancelled at the last minute when it was learnt that the groom was in love with another girl.

Caste matters?
An India, that marches confidently towards the next century however seems to have its feet rooted in the medieval past when it comes to social events like marriage where things like religion, caste, creed ,region matter. It is interesting to note that Sirish is a Brahmin, while Srija is an OBC. This marriage has been opposed by both the families! Poor couple..

Yaara da Tashan!

2007-10-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you." - A.A. Milne

Is it all over?
Its loud and clear now.. the Saif - Kareena relationship is a rumour no more! The tinsel town of Bollywood has always had its share of heart breaks and love affairs but today was a Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham moment - khushi for Saif and gham for Shahid!

The most famous relationship in Bollywood had showed signs of fading away in the recent past with rumours of an eminent break up looming large but today it was all confirmed. While the duo were at the Indian Fashion Week attending a Manish Malhotra Show, Saif confirmed in a chat with reporters that their relationship was more than "friendship".

Saif & Kareena show up together in the upcoming movie Tashan. While it might not be the curtains down for the lovesome duo of Shahid-Karina, it might take something to bring back the old times!

BroadBand Blues - anyone?

2007-10-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Broadband Blues
There is good news in sight for people who paid up big bucks for their “high speed Broadband” Internet connection but feel they are being cheated. According to a recent BBC news item, top Internet firms in UK are being asked to explain why customers do not get the speed firms advertise.

Just a trickle?

The hunger for higher speed has increased with the advent of bandwidth hungry applications like video sharing sites, music and movies downloads and flash enabled web pages. It is estimated that 62% of readers who carry out speed tests get less than half of the top broadband speed advertised by their service provider. Of course the top speeds are advertised assuming a perfect connection, right from the service provider (ISP) to your machine. But even after considering the transmission, absorption, radiation and all other kind of loss involved, the final speed available to a consumer is a pittance.

Following YouTube video gives you a way to achieve upto 5 times faster Broadband speed..

Good times ahead..
The firms have been asked to find ways to deal with the technical problems so consumers are more informed about the potential broadband speeds in their neighborhood. Another proposal involves allowing the customer to test connection speeds before they sign a contract and letting them terminate the contract early if speeds are well below what is advertised.

With the government considering intervening in the way broadband is rolled out, surfers can expect happier times ahead.

BBC Pics of the year..

2007-09-21T21:47:00.001-07:00

Have a look at the BBC website Photographer of the year 2006.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5348588.stm

Posting one of the finalists for you..

Amazing entries...

Image Credits: BBC UK

Hippie Jesus swings to music..

2007-09-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

"What good is having someone who can walk on water if you don't follow in his footsteps?"
- Author Unknown

Religious authorities are seeing red over the television ad being aired for promotion of Plug TV. They say it is blasphemous! See it for yourself..

The video shows a long haired and pot bellied Jesus swinging to the music in a bar and drinking whiskey. He turns the bouncers into dwarfs when they disallow him an entry and two converts two fat women into blond babes with devil horns before being reprimanded by the GOD himself!

Window shopping in Amsterdam..

2007-09-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

"We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution."
- Victor Hugo

Red light Districts of Amsterdam
The Dutch city of Amsterdam has decided to close one-third of its brothels. Red Light District that everyone knows about is the one where women, of all nationalities, parade their wares in red-fringed window parlours, many ready to offer more than a school boy peep-show in a private cabin. Amsterdam prides itself on its liberalism and has legalized prostitution. Today prostitutes in Holland are taxpayers and have access to medical facilities and better working conditions.

Time's up?
However the city has had enough of it and plans to turn the brothels into shopping and housing complexes. The city authorities insist that they don't want to get rid of prostitution as it is a part of the history of the place, its just that there was too much of sex trade in the city center.

"What we do want is to get rid of the underlying criminality", the city mayor said.

Image Credits : http://www.amsterdam.info/pictures/red-light-district/

Mystery Spending

2007-09-20T01:08:00.000-07:00

"Spending is quick, earning is slow."
- Russian proverb

According to a new survey by Visa, Americans are spending an average of $45 a week on something they can't remember! Among those who report "mystery spending," men under age 35 are the worst at monitoring where it all goes, losing track of more than $3,000 a year on average.

The nationwide telephonic survey of 2036 adults reveals that almost half (48%) of respondents suffer from mystery spending. The survey also reveals that young men mystery spend on nights while young women do so while shopping.

News Credit: Visa USA
Image Credit: http://www.freefoto.com/

Pigeon Menace..

2007-09-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

"Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue."
— Dilbert

Every dog has its day but looks like the pigeons in Venice have a hard time ahead. The mayor of the city is contemplating a ban on throwing of rice on newly weds. Soiling of the squares is not the only problem with the pigeons chipping away at the marble statues and buildings. Repairing the damages caused costs each Venetian taxpayer 275 euros a year.

"Throwing rice at the bride and groom brings hordes of pigeons who then wait around until the next ceremony. The situation has become unbearable," said the city mayor Marco Agostini.

Next step in line is a ban of the sale of grain to feed the pigeons!

News credit: Reuters

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/diaa/

Walkers crisps got crispier!

2007-09-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

Walkers crisps got even more crispier! The company is the first to put carbon footprint figures on its products.

Carbon Footprints
Carbon footprints - which measure the amount of carbon (other GHG emissions) produced to directly or indirectly support any activity in equivalent tons of CO2 have become a bench mark. For eg. when you buy an Walkers crisp, carbon has been burnt during its production,packaging, transportation etc. Therefore the overall Carbon Footprint of a crisp is calculated by summing up all the carbon expanded during its lifetime.

In recent times carbon footprints have wielded great significance with its effect on increasing world temperatures and resulting climate change. 72% of the totally emitted GHG (Green House Gases) is CO2. Carbon footprints therefore measure the contribution of a product towards Global Warming. Countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, India and Germany have the largest CO2 emission levels with US also leading in the per capital CO2 emissions.

Walkers Carbon Footprint
Carbon trust on the behalf of Walkers have calculated the carbon footprint of a standard packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps. They have taken into account various stages in the life cycle of a Walkers Crisp starting from sowing of potato and sunflower seeds to disposing of the packet. The final carbon footprint calculation is 75g.

The stages involved in calculation :

Raw Materials : Potato, Sunflower and seasoning.
Manufacture : Producing crisps from potato.
Packaging.
Distribution.
Disposal of the packets.

Certainly a commendable step towards the future of this planet!

Image credits: Walkers

Big brother is watching you...

2007-09-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

According to a news item published in the BBC, citizen surveillance is on the rise. USA and Britain are the countries using state of the art gadgets to keep common people under their watch. The goal is to create a system that will match the facial image of the person with their gait, height, weight and other elements to identify a person instantly. With newer technology, radio waves can be used to find out if anyone is on the other side of the wall and may be their heart and breathing rates as well.

"As you walk through a crowd, we'll be able to track you. These are all things that don't need the cooperation of the individual." said Professor Challapa from Maryland University.

Changed times

Since 9/11 terror attacks are on the rise throughout the globe and countries like US and UK are always on the hit list. Round the clock surveillance gives rise to privacy issues even though it might lead to reduced crime rates. The terror suspects come from various strata of the society often mingling with the unsuspecting crowd making peer to peer surveillance nearly impossible. This system will provide means of non-contact surveillance.

However the public doesn't seem to mind! Opinion polls, both in the US and Britain, say that about 75% of us want more, not less, surveillance.

Most polluted places..

2007-09-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of world's top 10 polluted places according to a new study published.

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Potentially 275,000 affected
Linfen, China; Potentially 3m affected
Tianying, China; Potentially 140,000 affected
Sukinda, India; Potentially 2.6m affected
Vapi, India; Potentially 71,000 affected
La Oroya, Peru; Potentially 35,000 affected
Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Potentially 300,000 affected
Norilsk, Russia; Potentially 134,000 affected
Chernobyl, Ukraine; Potentially 5.5m affected
Kabwe, Zambia; Potentially 255,000 affected

It is interesting to note that developing countries like India, Russia and China figure most prominently in the list assembled by the Blacksmith Institute, a US-based independent environmental group. Click here for the entire story.

Got an answer?

2007-09-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

"We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." - Lloyd Alexander (American author)

These are some of the interesting unanswered questions - from daily life and experience. Have you got a clue?

Why is it so much easier to drink a whole pint of beer or orange squash, say, in one go than it is to down a pint of water?
Why are pears pear-shaped and not spherical like apples?
What causes cells to stick together in the human body rather than simply falling apart?
In a worst-case scenario, if one had to eat parts of oneself, which non-organs would be the most nutritious? Nails? Hair? Earwax?
Do elephants sneeze?
Do fish get thirsty?
How many human faces will I, an average person, see in my lifetime?
Why do humans feel compelled to dance to music and are we the only species that does so?
How do toothpaste makers get the stripes in toothpaste? And why do they persist until the tube is used up?

Find such questions and many more here..

A kiss...

2007-09-13T04:17:00.000-07:00

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. "
-Ingrid Bergman

However a new study at the State University of New York indicates that a kiss can make or break a couple's relationship. The study indicates that women placed more emotional importance on a kiss. Man on the other hand tend to see kissing as a means to an end – SEX.

"The complicated exchange of information that occurs during a kiss may inform evolved, unconscious mechanisms about instances of possible genetic incompatibility," say researchers.

The study was conducted on 1041 college students and consisted of three questionaries measuring kissing preferences, attitudes, styles, and behaviors. The study also indicates that women value kisses throughout a relationship however men place less importance on kissing as a relationship progresses.

Yahoo Photos closes down..

2007-08-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Yahoo's first generation photo sharing site Yahoo Photos closes on September 20th 2007 at 6 pm. The users can move their photos to the photo sharing site Flickr. Yahoo! is not accepting any new accounts or allowing existing users to upload new photos. Users have the option to transfer their photos to other photo sharing sites like Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Photobucket.

This follows after Yahoo's share in the photo sharing market has been cut down to 5.8 % (in the US market). Yahoo! bought Flickr in 2005 which has seen a phenomenal growth in the users and the volume of photos uploaded. Yahoo Photos is a more conventional photo-finishing site, full of family snapshots, while Flickr has attracted a passionate fan base of amateur and professional photographers who use the site to share digital photos online, and for whom printing is largely an afterthought. Yahoo! had been maintaining both the sites for the past two years keeping in mind the different user base but has decided to pull the plug now.

Just the way your mom would cook it...

2007-08-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."
- George Bernard Shaw

Very true indeed..! The love for food outweighs any other love in this universe. This love which has been epitomized for centuries, by the saying "Bhookhe Bhajan Na Hoin Gopala" (One can't worship on an empty stomach!) and more recently by the ad line "Hum kamate kyon hain? Khane ke liye!" (What do we earn for? to eat!)

Indian food habits

The battle for a decent and affordable square meal assumes gigantic proportions in cities. For any metro worth its salt having a sizable "IT workforce" and student population the population is much more accentuated. Anyone who has moved out of his/her home town to a bigger city misses the "maa ke haath ka khana"(home-cooked food).

Indian food habits are very much traditional even in this globalized age. Occasional bread-n-butter,pizza,burger or maggie is fine but cannot substitute a full fledged meal of Dal, roti, chawal and sabzi!

Now much has been written about the Mumbai ka Dabbawallas, known to deliver 200,000 dabbas (food tiffins) every day but a more recent phenomenon is the Mom's Kitchen which is managed by ex-IT professionals.

Mom's Kitchen

Mom's kitchen prides itself on being India's first fully professional tiffin service providing "end-to-end solutions" right from food preparation to food delivery (What a context!) Started by two IT professionals who got "frustrated" by the pathetic food quality of daily food in Pune, they claim to have the food prepared by the master cooks specially handpicked from Allahabad to retain the homely touch. Their USP is "fanatical devotion to unmatchable customer service."

The food is reasonably priced with the premium tiffin priced at Rs. 30 and the mini tiffin at Rs. 20. With the durable daals, sizzling sabzis and the rasila raitas it seems a runaway!

Interesting study

The "core team" consists of three former IT professionals- Vikram Pandiya, Ashwani Kumar Singh Rathore and Venkataramana Singanamala - all of whom kicked off their jobs. They make for an interesting study as Ashwin wants "all the Pizzas and Burger companies mushrooming around the country to ride back to their parent countries and establish Moms kitchen as a national brand."

The orders can be placed online at their website which also allows for tiffin customization. Their delivery areas cover a large part of Pune with plans to expand further with new centers. If this model succeeds one can foresee similar kitchens coming up other big cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi to name a few!

Blue for boys, Pink for girls..

2007-08-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions."
- Pablo Picasso

Ever wondered why men prefer blue and women pink?

A marketing gimmick? No... blame it on evolution ! Researchers from University of Newcastle say that pink may have helped women gather ripe fruit, or pick healthy mates. Whereas blue signals natural preference for a clear blue sky and good water source!

In an experiment, 208 young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred color from pairs of colored rectangles. While the universal favorite color appeared to be blue, when shown a spectrum of hues from red through blue and green to yellow women preferred red.

So next time, remember the color of rose you intend to present to your lady!

Super powers Vs Soft powers

2007-08-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

"To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States."
- George W. Bush, President of United States

A recent survey by BBC world service reveals that US, Israel and Iran were the countries with the most negative image in a survey done amongst 12 major nations. Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States and Venezuela were the countries voted on.

Israel got the most negative (56%) votes with Iran coming a close 54 % and the US 51%. On the other hand Canada had the most positive rating of 54% followed by Japan and France.

Super power / Soft power -

This survey once again brought to fore the military vs soft power conundrum. The countries pursuing dominance over the world through their military might were viewed in negative light, US and Israel being prime examples. On the other hand countries proliferating soft power like France, Canada, EU, India and Japan tend to be viewed positively.

Something to think about for the technologically and militarily advanced Super Powers of this world! And as Oscar Wilde said, "When good Americans die they go to Paris."

Feeling high...

2007-07-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

A recent research confirms that cannabis cause severe harm to the lungs - with one joint being as bad as five cigarettes. In the study, researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wakefield Hospital and the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, studied 339 volunteers.

This research confirms that cannabis poses a serious health risk to the lungs says Reuters . However, tobacco continues to be more harmful overall because it is typically smoked in much higher quantities than cannabis.

Cannabis - the culture

Cannabis have had a past of their own giving rise to the 420 Cannabis culture with the Beatles star Paul McCartney famously saying ,

"I spent my time [in the Tokyo jail] making a mental list of all those drugs which are legal but dangerous. We're all on drugs --cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women. Society thinks alcohol is terrific, yet it kills. Cigarettes can kill. They are worse than marijuana. It's just not true that marijuana can kill. What about the little old ladies on Valium? Think of aspirin's danger to the stomach."

after being deported from Japan for bringing almost half a pound of marijuana into Tokyo for an 11-concert Wings tour. He later said,

"I support decriminalization. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminal is wrong."

Cannabis - the history

Cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years all over the world including India, China and the Middle East. Painted pottery from the Neolithic Yang-shao culture (4200-3200 BC) indicated the presence of cultivated hemp. Hemp reached eastern Europe in the later part of the third millennium BC. Remains of hemp have been discovered in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) at el-Amarna and cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Rameses II (nineteenth dynasty).

It was the first psychoactive substance (apart from alcohol) that became a common subject in modern popular music, with jazz classics from the 1930s such as Louis Armstrong's Muggles and Cab Calloway's That Funny Reefer Man topping the bill of marijuana-inspired fare.Finally, in 1937, through the considerable persuasive powers of Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Marihuana (Marijuana) Tax Act became federal law and in 1956 the drug was incorporated into the more comprehensive Narcotics Act.
The history is recorded by BBC in a news item here.

Bhang in India..

Back home in India, the cannabis served as a folk standard of potency. The three varieties are known as bhang, ganja, and charas. Bhang, the least potent of them all is consumed openly during the Indian festival of Holi as a drink and is widely depicted in Indian movies. It is interesting to note that the marijuana used in the United States is equivalent to bhang or, increasingly in recent years, to ganja.

In India while the government cracks down on rave parties where youngsters(allegedly) do drugs the lips are sealed when it comes down to open consumption of Bhang during Holi.

Watch your buddies !

2007-07-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

A new study done by researchers at the University of California in San Diego has shown that having fat friends and family may increase your chances of being fat too!

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, says it is plausible that "areas of the brain that correspond to actions such as eating food may be stimulated if these actions are observed by others"

This is the first time research has indicated the unhealthy side of social networking. So watch who you eat out with...OBESITY IS CONTAGIOUS!

All they did was weaken the nation..

2007-07-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, otherwise referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India served out his term to constitutionally highest post in India. Dr. Kalam has set several precedents during his tenure in the Rashtripati Bhawan which will be difficult to follow for the new incumbent Mrs. Pratibha Patil aka Pratibha Tai...

His dream vision for the future of India by leading the country to be a developed state by 2020, his special relationship and bonding with the kids (whom he hailed as the future of India), his past credentials as the missile man of India and his image as the "aam aami ka pratinidhi" led him to an iconic stature.

He really was the "People's President". Although the comparison is not correct, I would still term him as the best president since our first president Dr. Rajendra Prasad (who, incidentally is the only one to be elected in back-to-back presidential elections). He was also the only prominent national leader after Chacha Nehru to form such an emotional bond with the children...

He now plans to teach at Anna Malai University, in fact he has already joined at the varsity and wants to be referred to as Professor and not former President!

Pratibha Patil, the new President is just a bunny of Congress(I) leader Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (so is Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh) and it still needs to be seen if she can emerge out of her tutelage (although she was chosen specifically for that purpose!). And all this farce in the name of "women empowerment"!

Muslim President and vice-president, first Sikh Prime minister, first Dalit CJI (Chief Justice of India) and now first Women President !

As Col. Jessop would have said, " All they did was weaken the nation".

Benoit was drugged..

2007-07-19T02:35:00.000-07:00

Professional wrestler and WWE star Chris Benoit who passed away recently was indeed drugged said medical authorities confirming earlier suspicions.

Reports suggest that the testosterone was injected shortly before Benoit died. In addition to the male sex hormone he had also taken narcotic painkiller Hydrocodone and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax(two widely subscribed drugs). The level of testosterone found in his body was almost 10 times as the normal range. However the level of other two drugs was moderate indicating a theraupatic use over a longer period.

Chris Benoit had killed his wife and son at their home and then hanged himself last month. But investigators say that higher levels of testosterone do not lead to the abnormal behaviour. The WWE which was under fire following the release of the toxicology tests said in a statement that the testosterone had been taken after his April 2007 test.

However this incident has once again brought into light, the stressful lives led by the professional wrestlers like Benoit. Many others like him continue in an industry that feeds on the bruises and aches suffered by many such performers.

Hockey and MBA?

2007-07-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

Indian hockey isn't going through the best of phases these days.. clearly in contrast with the glories of the past. However realms of paper have been wasted on this and I am not the first or the last person to put my 50 cents worth into it. But what caught my attention was the recent news about the Indian midfielder Viren Rasquinha not being able to attend the national hockey training camp as he wanted to concentrate on his MBA exams ??

Now let me talk straight..I am not infringing on Viren's right to pursue education he can have all the degrees he wants to... But for a catch..he's not a wide eyed rookie or a regular bench warmer. He has been a formidable force in the Indian midfield for sometime now having played over 200 internationals,in fact he has been the Captain of the Indian Hockey team. Imagine Rahul Dravid (or for that matter any member of Indian cricket team) leaving behind cricket to pursue a mere MBA degree (where they are already rollin' in the Benjamins or the Lincolns or the Gandhis)

Viren has had a troubled relation with the hockey establishment in India as he had been dropped in the past leading him to raise questions about his exclusion. But whatever has happened now is a sad commentary on the state of Indian Hockey.

Australia and Pakistan - worlds apart!

2007-05-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Two news items, separated by thousands of geographical miles,but with a common leitmotif came across recently ..

Aussie bars...
First one relates to Down Under where a gay bar has won the right to ban straight individuals. It intends to provide "provide an environment in which gay men can express their sexuality without feeling threatened".

The news report published in The Independent on 29th May 2007, says that the gay men were being "gawked at" as if they were exhibits in a zoo. The Pub's owner said, "Heterosexuals have other places to go to; my homosexuals do not."

Pakistani courts..
On the other side of the world (literally!), in what is becoming an increasing turmoiled state - Pakistan , a court jailed the country's first publicly acknowledged same-sex couple for perjury.

The couple, who married last year had approached the Lahore High Court for protection, were instead turned away to the gallows for three years separately.
The couple on being queried said, “No matter, no matter. We love each other.”

Why are ducks the funniest animals?

2007-05-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

"For millions of years, In millions of homes,
A man loved a woman, A child it was born,
It learned how to hurt and it learned how to cry,
Like Humans Do!"

thus sang David Byrne in Look into the Eyeball.

But human nature has intrigued researchers, thinkers and philosophers alike over centuries. Some researchers have gone a step ahead and "created" a new discipline called Quirkology. It uses scientific methods to study quirky human behaviour.

Degrees of Quirkiness

1. Whether local suicide rates are related to the amount of country music played on radio?

2. Do vegetables have personality? ( Lemons are seen as dislikable, onions are stupid, and mushrooms are social climbers )

3. Are people named Bob more likely to have a rounder face?

4. Why ducks are the funniest animals?

and so on..

Quirkology - the book!

Prof Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire has written a book on it titled "Quirkology" which explores "the curious science of everyday life, including the psychology of lying, love, and laughter".

He even invites you to participate in future quirkology experiments here !

Pac-Man World Championship

2007-04-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

This bit is for all the PacMan enthusiasts out there..

Microsoft and Quiznos are joining hands to hold the first ever Pac-Man World Championship. The excitement begins on April 25 and would reach its crescendo on June 6th, the day dot-eaters from all over the world will fight for the numero uno.

The winner takes home a personalized Pac-Man embossed version of the Xbox 360, free Quiznos subs for 26 years, and 100,000 Microsoft Points that can be used to download movies, games, and other Xbox Live content.

Registrations start April 25, 2007, at 12:01 a.m. GMT.

Visit following link for registration.
http://www.xboxlivetournament.com

So what are you waiting for?

Why are we fat ??? - Part 2

2007-04-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

Continuing the assault on obesity [and not obese people :)] , is the following article...

For long corpulence has been blamed on too much of eating and too little of exercise. Caloric intake is much more than what could be burnt off by the body. Modern easy-going city lifestyle,lack of physical effort and sports and fat-rich junk food are blamed. Accordingly most of the efforts to reduce obesity have concentrated on addressing the above issues. Eating healthy and staying fit are modern day mantras.

But looks like the obesity researchers are not buying this argument. Insisting that "something" else must have changed in our environment to necessitate such changes, 20 "obesity experts" have come out with 10 most plausible explanations (International Journal of Obesity, DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803326) for this epidemic. (Obesity has indeed achieved epidemic status in many parts of the world)

Some of the reasons suggested by the experts are:

1. Lack of Sleep.

2. Climate control.

3. Less smoking ( Smoking reduces appetite ! ).

4. Pre natal effects.

5. Heavier people have more children.

6. Demographics ( Some people are fatter than others! )

7. Increased use of drugs.

8. Pollution (looks like you can blame it for everything!).

9. Older parents ( later you conceive, fatter the progeny).

and finally ....

10. Fat people marry fat :)

Hope that now it does not come as a surprise that many of us are fat!

Why are we fat ???

2007-04-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

Looks like someone got the answer to the perennial query!

A new study conducted by researchers at Oregon National Primate Research Center, US indicates that in obesity the brain is unaware of body fat!

In both humans and mice, fat cells throughout the body release a hormone called leptin. This hormone controls sensations like appetite and thirst on reaching the brain.

In theory, when fat increases in the body so do levels of leptin, causing a decrease in appetite. But scientists have found that administering leptin does not reliably work to treat obesity. It is because the high fat diet makes the brain insensitive to leptin and hence oblivious of presence of fats.

The experiment conducted on mice surely works up sympathy for those fat human beings out there!

Indian Idol in America?

2007-04-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

Sanjaya Malakar, the American Idol contestant has in the last few weeks, stemmed up a lot of controversy. His insipid singing, absolute lack of talent, his "faux hawk" hair, his booming smile ... you can love him, you can hate him ..but you cant ignore him!

Sanjaya, despite "slaughtering" a song every week ,has hung on to the contest because of "public support" while others have been voted out. His tremendous success ( which perhaps is magnified by his mediocrity) which defies any logic could perhaps be explained by a campaign to "vote for the worst". Simon Cowell, one of the judges at the Idol has already threatened to quit if Sanjaya wins.

He has already inspired rage all over with a critic embarking on a 16-day hunger strike to get him off the show. The website vote for the worst has already had Sanjaya tie up with two other contestants for Longest running VFTW American Idol holder and he could be the all-time leader if he gets through next week!

With people all around getting cynical his "popularity" is rising enough to keep him in the contest. MTV has even compiled a list of 10 reasons why Sanjaya is still on the show. Indian call centres, always a butt of jokes for the American media, have also come to fore in the debate with Jay Leno suggesting that Sanjaya had survived yet another expulsion from the show because his father was from India, "where they have all the call centres".

Howard Stern, the American shock jock has also been campaigning for Sanjaya - by asking his fans to vote in jest for this season's underdog. Howard, who was also responsible for "Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf" winning the People magazine's annual beauty poll in 1998 beating Leonardo Di Caprio, George Clooney and others, says
he hopes to turn the Talent show into a farce and destroy its popularity.

"We’re corrupting the entire thing," Mr. Stern said on his pay show Thursday, the day after Sanjaya secured a place in the top nine. "All of us are routing American Idol. It’s so great. The No. 1 show in television and it’s getting ruined."

Interestingly Sanjaya has not found much of support in his parent's homeland India where the mainstream media (except perhaps TOI and a few bloggers) has ignored him completely. However the coming days might see a change with the competition tightening up to the last eight. It will be interesting to see how much support does he get if he manages to win the show. That would be quite a coup!

Top Fictional 15

2007-03-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Forbes is well known for bringing out many lists on a variety of topics mostly concentrating on companies and individuals. Lists like List of Billionaires, Best small companies, Best large companies, Fastest growing tech... (one could keep on going!) have made it popular among business leaders all over the world. No wonder it describes itself as the "HOME PAGE FOR THE WORLD'S BUSINESS LEADERS".

Breaking away from its image as a Buisness Magazine, it also produces lists under Education, Food & Drink, Health & Style, Personal Finance, Places, Real Estate, Sports, Technology, Vehicles and Travel!

I came across a rather interesting list - The Forbes Fictional 15. This list gives the fiction world's wealthiest characters. Interestingly these fictional characters are worth much more than their real-life counterparts with their aggregate net worth being $111 billion!

Jogging my childhood memories, the stingy cartoon character Scrooge Mcduck was there and so was Mario, the unforgettable moustached character from the video gaming world.

Also registering their presence in the Top 15 were Lara Croft, Richie Rich, Willy Wonka & Lucius Malfoy. However out went Santa Claus, for the very first time in Fictional 15's history!

Profiles, giving a snapshot of lives of all the characters, have been created on the site. Surely interesting stuff!

Latest Tech News..

2007-03-09T05:09:00.000-08:00

I have not been around for some days now....

So here are some latest tech news..

---> You Tube faces ban in Turkey over a clip insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who was instrumental in shaping modern Turkey. This led to a "virtual war" between Turks and Greeks, with each side berating the other by posting videos on the website. Similarly Jack Straw, leader of Commons also supported plans to impose "control" on You Tube.

And ... similar to Anna Nicole's death it led to Wikipedia temporarily suspending editing of an article on Ataturk.

---> In a challenge to Yahoo! and Google, the founder of Wikipedia plans a search engine. "The idea that Google has some edge because they've got super-duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now," he said. The new search engine plans to take as much as 5 % of the search market.

----> To add to the "blocking" rage around the world, Wikipedia was banned in China.Founder Jimmy Wales accused Yahoo! and Google of aiding censorship in China saying "This is something I would never do. I think access to information is a fundamental human right."
In response to the block, the main page of the Chinese Wikipedia has added a message at the top directing any mainland China user who succeeds in getting through to a special status page.

More later...

Team India gets new outfit, but...

2007-02-21T03:21:00.000-08:00

Indian Cricket Team's official apparel sponsor, NIKE unveiled a new "inspirational" outfit for the team for the upcoming World Cup in the Carribeans.

"Advanced Nike patented technologies have been incorporated into the cricket apparel to ensure zero distraction, superior comfort levels and enhanced performance", Nike said.

The jersey is made from Dri-FIT fabric, a Nike patented technology, which reduces cling and enables the skin to breathe better. The fabric is designed to wick sweat, which leads to better moisture management and is extremely light so that the player does not carry additional weight that may affect his performance.

Captain Rahul Dravid, Vice-Captain Sachin Tendulkar, former skipper Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik donned the new outfit at the press release.

Twist in the tail!

But to add a twist to the tale, just 24 hrs. later the International Cricket Council (ICC) informed the Indian board that only uniforms approved and supplied by the sport's world governing body can be worn at the World Cup in the Caribbean!

So why were the stars paraded in those outfits? Obvious Nike had an eye on the coming World Cup and Indian market with its fanatical support for anything that relates with cricket.

Although the new outfit is already available on major online store like Amazon it appears that the Indian team can sport the new clothings only after the World Cup.

This comes after Nike won a $ 27.12 million ( Rs. 199.96 crores) deal in Dec 2006, to sponsor the Indian cricket team's clothes for the next five years. To put it in perspective, this is more than shirt deals struck by Juventus, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Man U!

While other sports are neglected...

Amid all this razzmatazz, other sports in India get a step-brotherly treatment. Read this story about a man, who once was the best player at the National Kho-Kho games in 1987, but now works as a daily labor.

Joke of the day!

2007-02-21T01:31:00.000-08:00

Samajwadi Party, whose government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, is in danger of being pulled down in Uttar Pradesh (as it moved into minority), says it will withdraw support from the Congress led UPA government at the centre.

Read the news here.. and guess who published the news ... Sahara Samay owned by Subroto Roy.

Incandescent light bulbs are out..

2007-02-20T00:44:00.000-08:00

Global Warming has a (welcome) victim in the good ol' "incandescent light bulb".

The Australian government plans to phase out Australia's 87 million standard light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs by 2009 or 2010. The Howard govt. wants consumers to pay $5 for an efficient compact fluorescent bulb rather than 50 cents for the wasteful incandescent variety that have lit up households for 125 years.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the expensive bulbs will pay for themselves within a year by reducing household electricity bills by up to 66 per cent and eventually cutting Australia's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by four million tonnes a year.

The move has received support from environmental groups and opposition parties. Australia ranks among the highest 1, 2 per head emission of GHG and is also the first country to initiate such "reforms".

Mr. Howard said, "We need to take practical measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But it is difficult to see why he refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol setting Greenhouse Gas reduction targets, instead requiring energy-hungry developing countries like India and China to help combat climate change!

United States, the largest emitter of GHG in the world has been the biggest culprit so far by obdurately refusing 1, 2 to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But there are signs of some change 1, 2 in the outlook of the Bush Administration, already under immense pressure from nations and environmental groups.

With the world temperatures rising and its effects becoming all too visible 1 , 2 the efforts to reduce GHG emission are on a high now. Richard Branson, owner of Virgin brand, recently offered a prize of $ 25 million to anyone who can reduce billion of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Hope sanity and good sense prevails, so that our beautiful earth - remains as ever beautiful!

Big B for President!

2007-02-19T05:41:00.000-08:00

Big B has once again, refused to join politics in any form. After news of his nomination as a presidential candidate was doing the rounds. He clarified his views on the topic.

“After leaving active politics, I had said I would never return. I’ve never done anything since then to indicate the contrary… I’ve attended functions that were organised by politicians who are my friends, like Amar Singhji and Mulayam Singhji from the Samajwadi Party" , he said.

Oops she did it again!

2007-02-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

Britney Spears, the pop diva has done it again!

She stunned everyone after she shaved her head bald and also tattooed the back of her neck, wrist and hips (?) - a pair of red and pink lips. Reportedly the salon owner tried to talk her out of shaving her head but she used an electric clipper and did it herself.

The transformation came on the same day People magazine and other entertainment media reported that Spears recently entered a rehabilitation center in the Caribbean island of Antigua and checked out a day later.

This incident has sparked fears over her mental condition - leading to a mental breakdown. The 25-year-old singer - who is said to be terrified of losing her children in a custody battle with estranged husband Kevin Federline - was seen crying in her limousine before entering Esther's Haircutting Salon in Tarazana, California, on Friday.

However some enterprising person has already put up her locks on sale at eBay. Bids for the hair had reached $1.1 million when last seen!

Stallone carried drugs?

2007-02-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

When "Rocky Balboa" - Sylvester Stallone, arrived in Australia for the promotion of his latest movie Rocky Balboa, he would have had little idea about what lay in store!

After touching down at Sydney International Airport at 10:10 p.m. he was detained by the custom officials and left well after midnight. He was held up for possessing some human growth hormones in his luggage. These items were detected during a routine X-ray of luggage. It was rumored that Stallone may have been carrying bodybuilding drugs, banned in Australia. (Customs are still carrying out tests to ascertain the composition of the substance)

Later the luxury hotel room and the private jet of the actor was also raided by Custom officials even as members of his entourage were seen throwing items out of the window!

However Stallone said all the drama was the result of a misunderstanding.

"I do know (why I was stopped) but I can't tell you " he said. "To (Customs) it's major, but it's really minor stuff. I just made a mistake ... I misunderstood a few things and we are going through the process.''

When asked on the red carpet what was in his luggage, he joked, "My wife."

Australia Crushed..

2007-02-16T02:46:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you heard that line ..?

Not in recent memory I bet, and yet, it is very true. Australians were mauled by the Kiwis during their first encounter in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, 2007 (BTW the Chappells include our very own Guru Greg). And to make it worse, this was Australia's first ever defeat by this margin (10 wickets).

Current Australian team has dominated the world cricket scene like no one else (not even the mighty Windies in the 80's). Australian cricket team, has been playing well along the last two decades - winning the 1987 world cup, since recovering from the retirement of the irreplaceable trio of Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell after the 1984, Sidney test.

But nothing matches their unparalleled rise under the indomitable Steve Waugh. And Ponting has not done too bad either! With two successive World cup titles under their belt (1999 and 2003) - Australia seemed insurmountable.

Their rise was matched with the subsequent decline of other teams. Pakistan after Imran, England after Stewart and South Africa after Cronje have never looked the same again. Even with the brilliance of Lara, Windies could never really match their predecessors and India have always been a "Star-Studded Paper Tiger" in the 90's. SriLanka was probably the only aberration, when the sparkling willows of Jayasuriya and De'Silva won them the World Cup in 1996. Frankly, SA had been their only competitor for the better part of 90's but unfortunately they managed to stumble at the last post!

In this context, the Ashes series of 2005 was a landmark and probably the best thing to have happened to World Cricket. Although Aussies regained the Ashes this time demolishing England by a whopping margin of 5-0, the pommies beat them in the best-of-three finals of CB series.

But their crushing defeat against the Kiwis as well as the retirement of Warne, McGrath, Langer and Martyn has put their status as the No. 1 team under threat as they risk losing to the Proteas who are on a resurgence now.

Is this the beginning of end of the Aussie dominance of the world cricket. Will a new Champion emerge out of this World Cup? Only time will tell.

Updated 19 Feb,2007 --##--

And Australia did manage to lose their no 1 ranking to South Africa. They have slipped to the second place after being beaten by New Zealand in the second match of the Chappell-Hadlee trophy to NewZealand. And what a win it was for New Zealand, shaking off the disappointment of not reaching the finals of CB series, they chased down a total of 336 and that too in 49 overs! Kudos to them.. World cricket is suddenly getting alive !

Updated 20 Feb,2007 --##-

Well its a dream.. New Zealand have white washed Australia 3-0 in the ongoing Chappell-Hadlee series. They chased an incredible 346 for victory. This is getting better and better!

Race for faster chips..

2007-02-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

The Race for faster chips is on...
As the Moore's Law goes - "The number of transistors on integrated circuits would double every 18 months or so " - this remarkable rate of advancement has resulted in smaller feature sizes, improved manufacturing techniques, which allow making larger chips and wafers and more efficient circuit designs and materials, which allow better circuit performance.

But as the size of transistors shrank and chips became more & more crammed - the fundamental physical constraints came into play. In fact, the consequences of miniaturization were predicted to be opposite to their original purpose, with smaller transistors performing even worse.

A different approach is to work with multiple processor chips working in parallel. But all such approaches will plateau some 10 or 15 years later, paving the way for research in nanoelectronics. As the components involved achieve smaller dimensions, their quantum effects cannot be ignored.

IBM, on Wednesday announced that it has devised a way to triple the amount of memory stored on microchips and double the performance of processors. This development is expected to speed the movement of graphics in gaming, networking, and other image intensive, multi-media applications.

In a statement, Subramanian Iyer, Development Director, IBM, said, "IBM is effectively doubling microprocessor performance beyond what classical scaling alone can achieve. As semiconductor components have reached the atomic scale, design innovation at the chip-level has replaced materials science as a key factor in continuing Moore's Law. Today's announcement further demonstrates IBM's leadership in this critical area of microprocessor design innovation."

IBM plans to use dynamic RAM (DRAM) instead of static RAM (SRAM) as the embedded memory cache built onto each chip. The change will allow each chip to store its data in one-third the area and use one-fifth the electricity for standby power. IBM is already using the new embedded DRAM (eDRAM) in 65nm prototype chips, and plans to roll it out commercially by 2008 for its entire range of 45nm chips, including its Power line.

Orkut logo on V-Day

2007-02-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

Check out this Orkut logo designed especially for the Valentine day.
This follows the tradition of Google putting up special logos on its web pages for various occasions like New Year's Day, Halloween, Soccer World cup ...
To view the logos, which give a glimpse of the creativity bubbling inside Google visit the links - Holiday , Fan logos , Googlers at play.

Disclaimer: Please note that the above image is proprietary and its use for commercial purpose is illegal.

Google setback on copyright

2007-02-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

For those (incl. me) who regularly look at Google News as a source for current updated news on international and domestic affairs, sports, science and technology, health and entertainment, the recent ruling of a Belgium court might be a little upsetting.

Ruling that Google news and Google search for Belgium cannot show excerpts of news from French- and German-language Belgian newspapers, the court put up a fine of $32,500 if Google violates the ruling. This follows the suing of search engine in March 05 for atleast 17.5 million dollars by the world's oldest and 3rd largest press agency( behind AP and Reuters)- Paris based Agence France Presse.

However Google has decided to appeal the ruling. " It is important to remember that both Google Web Search and Google News only ever show a few snippets of text. If people want to read the entire story they have to click through to the Web publisher's site where the information resides. We believe search engines are of real benefit to publishers because they drive valuable traffic to their Web sites." , Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.

This ruling could possibly have an impact on other European countries who might follow suit. This ruling is in line with various such noises that have arisen in the past against Google's privacy and copyright policy.

Meanwhile Le Soir and La Derniere Heure - two of the Belgian papers represented by Copiepresse, the group of French and German language publications that filed the suit against Google - show a slight decline in traffic over the past year (vindicating Google's stand?).

This ruling and the subsequent appeal are being watched closely by Yahoo! and MSN as Copiepresse had previously warned them to remove the articles, pictures and links from their search websites.

Yahoo! combine email & IM

2007-02-13T04:02:00.000-08:00

There is good news for people who are hooked to chatting. Taking a cue from Google, which has already integrated chatting into its email service Gmail, Yahoo! also plans to do away with installing the Yahoo! messenger client on the machine. The users can now access the Yahoo! messenger from within the Yahoo! mail page.

The new feature, built on the Yahoo! Messenger platform, began rolling out today to Yahoo! Mail beta users worldwide, and will be available to all users in the coming months.

"Yahoo! is focused on making it easier for people to connect to those who matter most to them," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail. "By bringing Yahoo!'s leading instant messaging capabilities to e-mail users, we're transforming Yahoo! Mail into a tool that's about communicating; regardless of the form that communication takes."

The users will be able to see the online status of their contacts and then exchange messages real time. This brings an end to the tiresome part of downloading and installing the IM client and will bring along a seamless experience across various applications - the best part of Web 2.0.

Sleep..

2007-02-13T02:08:00.000-08:00

"I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.",
said Mark Twain.

Albert Einstein, JFK, Winston Churchill, Napoleon, Thomas Edison and Leonardo de Vinci also used to enjoy midday naps. Many of us would agree (or perhaps would want to agree!).

Everybody dreams about a good nap in the middle of the day (My favorite is - under the shade of a tree after a good meal) but have to make-do with sleeping on an armchair in the office. For such sleep enthusiasts, there is good news in store. According to the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece - a nap a day keeps the doctor away.

As per their findings published in Archives of Internal Medicine, those who took afternoon siestas of 30 minutes or more at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who did not. Their study, conducted on 23,681 men and women indicates that regular or occasional naps reduce the risk of death from heart attacks or other heart-related ills by 64 %.

"We all know that the three pillars of health are diet, exercise, and sleep, and, sometimes, people forget about the importance of sleep," said Dr. Alex Chediak , president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a University of Miami researcher.

It would be very encouraging if someone could pass on this philosophy to employers all over the world. Please don't forget my boss!

Shankar Dada Zindabad?

2007-02-12T05:29:00.000-08:00

The runaway success of Munnabhai movies, MunnaBhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai has prompted many creative minds in the Indian film Industry. Among those "inspired" by the movie and its funny duo of Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi, are the actor-turned-director Prabhudeva and Writer Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao.

Inspired by the success of "Shankardada MBBS", they are working on the sequel, the newer version being named "Shankardada Zindabad". The movie stars Chiranjeevi and Srikanth as "ATM" - 'Any Time Murder'.

“I am 100 per cent sure that I will enjoying doing this. It is a kind of re-make and it definitely gives me a lot of kick and energy. We accepted this proposal because of the success of Shankardada MBBS,” Chiranjeevi says.

Telugu movie fans - watch out for this one!

Vodafone tie-up

2007-02-12T04:09:00.000-08:00

I witnessed with interest and curiosity, the recent battle between corporate bigwigs like Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Hindujas and Essar group to win the controlling 67% stake in Hutchison Essar. Ultimately the battle was won by Arun Sarin headed Vodafone which beat suitors with a $11.1 bn bid ( hence valuing the firm at $18.8 bn). Although Vodafone was accused of overpaying, its shares rose immediately after acquisition by 1.8 %.

It is interesting to note that the shares of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. had risen 28 percent since the start of November in anticipation of a sale!

Vodafone also sold its 5.6 % direct stake in Bharti Airtel to Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 bn as per TRAI regulations. However for people on Hutch's network, there is good news in store.

After signing deals with popular online services like MySpace (where customers can access their MySpace accounts through their handsets), eBay( to search and buy items) and Google's Youtube (watch and upload videos to YouTube), Vodafone announced yet another agreement, this time with Google Maps.

The deal will allow Vodafone users to access the Java application, Google Maps for Moblie, offering local listings, search and navigation facilities. However there is still some wait for users in India, as the service is primarily focused at customers in UK and other EU nations.

Note: The image as well as the trademark "Hutch" are proprietary (Courtesy Hutchison Essar Limited).

Social Networking

2007-02-09T05:35:00.000-08:00

I first heard about Social Networking through MySpace, later Google opened up its own social networking site Orkut which has since gained a lot of ground in India.

Social networks connect people with all different types of interests, and one area that is expanding in the use of these networks is the corporate environment. Sites like Linkedln and Ryze are examples of such networks.Businesses are beginning to use social networks as a means to connecting employees together and helping employees to build profiles. This makes them searchable and be connected to other business professionals.

Cisco's move to buy a social networking company based in San Francisco, that has developed software that allows large companies to easily add social-networking features to their Web sites.Using this tool, companies will be able to create communities in which users can share audio, video and photos, as well as post blogs, podcasts and profiles.

It seems odd that a hardcore "hardware" company like Cisco would but up a social networking company! Sometimes back this would have been dismissed with a laugh, but not now. For more than a year, Cisco has been implementing a strategy to broaden its product portfolio beyond simply being the "plumbers of the Internet."

Cisco executives say this acquisition will likely be the cornerstone of the company's digital media strategy, because social networking is an important way that people connect with and discover content.

Disney has already seen the value in the social networking phenomenon. It recently revamped its Web site to create a MySpace for tots. Kids are able to play games, watch music videos, customize their Web sites with Disney characters like Tinkerbell or chat with other kids.

This trend might be followed by many more businesses across the world.

-##-Updated on 15 Feb,2007 -##-
Hello, found this article on Social Network Analysis.

Anna Nicole

2007-02-09T04:50:00.000-08:00

Anna Nicole Smith, the curvaceous, blond beauty and a Playboy model passed away at 39. Her life has been like a fire-cracker, giving lots of light (and smoke) to the world, but getting extinguished untimely. Her death has been a shock to many.

All through her life, she had been embroiled in controversies...
From teenage pregnancy to working as a topless dancer at a strip club, and marrying a man who was probably the age of her great grand-father to legal fights over right to estate and fatherhood of her daughter - to add to it -her 20 year old son died just five months ago . Whooh.. probably a little too much, but then you only get one life!

Even in death, she managed to shake the world, her death news sent the wikipedia into overdrive with many users trying to update the news of her death at the same time. In the space of 2 hours, more than 300 edits were done to her entry.

Update: News reports suggest that drugs were found in her hotel room. Her mother also blamed drugs for her tragic death.

Update on 19 Feb,2007 --##--

Even after she's gone, Anna Nicole remains in news. This time it is her intimate pictures with the Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, that have sparked a controversy with allegations that Gibson fast-tracked Smith's application for permanent residency on the island chain.

Gibson later resigned apologizing to the people of his country.

"I want to apologize to all persons who may in any way have been offended by anything that I have said, done, or perceived to have said or done," Gibson said on state TV Sunday night. "To the extent that my beloved country has in any way suffered . . . I want to apologize to the Bahamian people as a whole."

He also denied any sexual relationship with Smith.

Gmail to open its gates..

2007-02-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

Google's email service, Gmail is ready to open up its services to all. Until now, Gmail was available through invitation only. Although it was not much of a restriction, as every user was allowed 100 invitations.

But now Google wants to do away with all this..although the "beta" tag still remains.
Read the AFP report here.

iPod on NY streets..

2007-02-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

The ever changing technology is churning out newer and newer gadgets by the day. What is hip today, is a goner tomorrow. In this mercurial age, iPod has been able to hold its own. Designed and marketed by Apple Computers, they are a type of digital audio players which can store up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and up to 100 hours of video - or any combination of each.(Source Apple Computers)

You can watch the latest movies (by buying them at the iTunes Store), download TV episodes, new iPod games, audio books and lots of free podcasts. They have been such a craze with the younger generation that many colleges offer their courses as podcast, straight into your iPod! Although this has already led to concerns.

Some days back Wallmart also launched an online movie download store where it plans to sell movies and television episodes. It intends to compete with Apple with its "cheap" prices.

Now iPod has run into rough weather with the NY state senator Carl Kruger planning to introduce a legislation that will impose fines of $100 on anyone caught using a cell phone, portable music player or video game system (read iPod) in a New York crosswalk.
This comes in the wake of death of two pedestrians who died while crossing a street and could not heed to the warnings of bypassers because they were listening to music.

"You can't be fully aware of your surrounding if you're fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod,If you want to listen to your iPod, sit down and listen to it," Kruger declared.

"You want to walk in the park, enjoy it. You want to jog around a jogging path, all the more power to you, but you should not be crossing streets and endangering yourself and the lives of others", he said while taking an aim at the "iPod oblivion".

"Tuning in and tuning out can be a fatal combination on the streets of New York," he concluded.

But if this legislation becomes a law it can become very difficult to enforce on the streets on NY. With most of the users of iPod coming from a young age group, a large resistance is expected to the move.

Beedi Song..

2007-02-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

I came across this "translation" of the Beedi song from Omkara. Its quite funny so I thought I would share it. Apologies if copyrighted!

"Daan doong dudung daan doong dudung......
Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against us
Mother in law
Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against
Mother in law

Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Daan doong dudung daan doong dudung......
Dont not take out smoke from the lips dont not take out smoke from the lips
The world is very crooked
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove

Not glass
Not stole
Cold air is also against
Mother in law
Its so chilly take somebody's quilt go and take fire from neighbors stove
Take fire from neighbors stove
Yeah yeah
Not crime
Not chaos
Without sin died
U called me in the after noon
Talked bangales
Masked himself

Burn the small stove 4m from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver
Lit up the ciggi from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver

Not even kinfe shaprpnees
Not even plough or plougher
Bite so that it leave imprints
This crop any farmer vill leave
Make house of cruel like this cato (billo)
Make house of cruel like this
Cruel like this
Cruel like this
Make house of cruel like this

Not even called me
Not even told me
U woke me up 4m sleep
I dont know 4m ver this fate came
He came near by making me eat cardaemom
Burn the coal from liver oh lover
There is lot of fire in the liver"

Himesh bhai..

2007-02-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

Himesh Bhai to stop singing ?

I got a shock (breather?) on hearing the news..
Himesh Bhai will stop singing ? Itni meharbani kyon ?
Later he clarified that he will stop nasal singing. Ek hi baat hai Himesh Bhai..
Read the full story here ..

War of Words - Bollywood Ishtyle..

2007-02-06T03:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the quotes from two of the biggest stars in Bollywood who are engaged in a war of words.

"I am sexy, smart and young, that was his century, this is mine."
- Shahrukh Khan (SRK)

"Whatever he says is correct. I am old and he is young and I agree that he is smart and sexy. Let's see what happens to him after 35 years"
- Amitabh Bachchan (Big B)

"I want to do more good work so that he can copy me."
- (Big B)

"I have never imitated anyone. I am quite good at what I do."
- (SRK)

"I have been able to get people to warm up to me"
- (SRK)

"I just hope I'm Shahrukh Khan. No one else."
- (SRK)

"Let me also say, nothing and nobody lasts forever, not Shah Rukh Khan, not me. It's how long you last and what you achieve within that time that matters"
- (Big B)

However Mr. Bachchan says this "cold war" has been created by the media.
"It makes good copy so you people keep writing about it", he said.

More to follow..

Indian Pietersen?

2007-02-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

For those who followed this year's Ranji trophy final between Mumbai and Bengal, would have noticed a player with the shirt sleeves folded up the shoulder ( ala Warne),ambling along with a swagger and an air of unmistakable confidence about him .Apart from the Indian regulars Tendulkar,Ganguly,Zaheer,Agarkar,Zaffar and Powar who hogged the limelight( remember the NECC hoardings all around the stadium ?), there was this guy managing to bask in his own glory. From becoming the highest run-getter for Bengal in a single Ranji season (overtaking Arun Lal's 729 in 1993-94) to helping Bengal reach the final (he scored 151 in the second innings of the semifinal against Karnataka while chasing 307 on the final day) this 21 year old lad has come a long way.

Manoj Tiwari who has already earned the sobriquet of "Chota Dada", is very well on the path to emulate (and even overtake !) him. Armed with good attacking and defensive technique, and more importantly grit and determination to give the best, he could very well be the Indian Kevin Pietersen.

He is certainly one of the future prospects for India and indeed the find of the season. Let the dust settle down on the World Cup and Indian cricket team's heroics(?) and there will be a talk about building a team for next World Cup. This guy will sure be in the reckoning then. To be followed...

P.S. Meanwhile the Ponting juggernaut rolls on. He recently swept the Allan Border medal for best cricketer, the Test Player of the year and the ODI player of the year awards at the Cricket Australia functions (after being the ICC player of the year for 2006).

Born in the USA

2007-02-05T20:30:00.001-08:00

"Born down in a dead mans town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog thats been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
I was born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the u.s..a....

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said son, dont you understand

I had a brother at khe sahn
Fighting off the viet cong
Theyre still there, hes all gone

He had a woman he loved in saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
Im ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go

Born in the u.s.a., I was born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a long gone daddy in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a.
Born in the u.s.a., Im a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a."

So went the Bruce Springsteen single!

It was the first thing to hit my mind as I saw the news about a court-martial being initiated on an Army officer for refusing to go to Iraq.

In his defence ,Lieutenant Watada said what everyone knows and believes - that the Bush administration had incorrectly used 9/11 to instigate a needless war against Iraq - that no biological,nuclear,chemical or any unconventional weapon had been found in Iraq - that Iraqis had been mistreated by the American soldiers.
The Lieutenant has become the focal point for many antiwar campaigners and has received support from them.
This incident also reminds me about Muhammad Ali refusing to join the Vietnam War , famously stating that he "got nothing against no Viet Cong" and that "no Viet Cong ever called me nigger." (also captured in the movie Forrest Gump). He even got sentenced for five years in prison (later reversed by the Supreme court).

However the trial of Lieutenant Watada is in progress and under public scrutiny.
It would be interesting to follow the court's ruling.