Due to various reasons, I am moving this blog to Wordpress. |
Monday, May 21, 2007
Moving ...
Friday, April 06, 2007
Can you google backwards ???
For those of us who cannot think straight, someone created this : |
Insurance insurance
No...the title of this post was not a typo. Read on ..read on, I say ! This intensifies my belief that everything has a market. Not only can you pawn on your own life, you can do so on others' lives too !!! The second insurance story ? Wedding Insurance ... yes ! Love may be priceless, but unfortunately getting married can be very expensive. If you have recently become engaged or currently planning the wedding of your dreams, you should see if wedding insurance is right for you.I know what you are thinking --- but I am sorry. One thing that is generally not covered, however, is change of heart. Now, I ask myself: I know that love is priceless and so forth, but consider this: Suppose you had a girlfriend and you bought her gifts, flowers, chocolates. And then, after an expensive courtship, she ditches you and marries someone else. Is there an insurance policy that can recover your losses due to this unforeseen catastrophe ? If yes, how would one calculate the premium for such a policy ? Would they match horoscopes, tastes, eye colour ? Think...think .... |
Going in circles...
Atanu Dey gives some background to the recent hullabaloo about British personnel taken hostage by Iran : Then there are references to the Iraq occupation and the real reasons behind it: This may be too simplistic a statement of facts. Nevertheless, I think this holds true in most scenarios: think Afghanistan where the Americans , for so long, supported Osama Bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets. Now he is enemy number one. Closer home, the Indian Army helped train the now-dangerous LTTE into the efficient fighting unit that it is now. Today, we are hunting them. The world, it seems, is going in circles. It would be mighty funny if not for the fact that millions of innocent lives are lost or destroyed in the process. |
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Who is the Knowledge Commission working for ?
I did not notice this story earlier. It only came to me today while reading this post : The things our Government would have us believe ! If only we, as citizens, took the time and effort to understand these issues, we could dent such efforts from our government. |
How much is the square of 48 ?
Do you know how to calculate squares of numbers close to 50 ?
Do you know who is Bethe ? See, how many things you learn just by reading this blog !!! |
Grandma stops traffic on Bannerghatta Road...!
Sometimes, I wonder where the will and wish to do good comes from. Is it the youth ? does it come from our exposure to other cultures ? is it from our extensive education ? Read on...there are some things in this country of ours that just defy explanations ! |
Chalo India: Now, own Bollywood
Cutting the Chai writes about Moserbaer putting video pirates out of business in this informative piece: Like they say, "It happens only in India" ! |
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
The horrible world we live in...
India Uncut never fails to shock me...
Thanks to Amit Varma for bringing this piece to us. How insensitive can we humans be ? |
Opening access to research
Quite an old piece but relevant today: The SHERPA initiative is arguing that scholars put their research work on university/institution archives so the general public can access them free of cost. My question is: how then, do the research scholars make money ? It is correct that journal costs are way too high. However, I do not think making the papers themselves free will help. What are your comments ? Is that the way to go ? |
Banning cricket !
Villages in Haryana ban cricket: How about banning politicians, I say. Surely, politicians do more harm than silly, incompetent cricketers ! "Social boycott", my foot ! Who would want to have anything to do with such a society, anyway !!! |
The thing with trust....
Excellent post on a blog that is fast becoming my favourite: The thing with trust is: it takes a long time to build and once it is broken, it is very very difficult to get it back. So, what I wonder is this: how do we so readily believe in God, whom we have not seen in all these years, but are not ready to trust our neighbors whom we have grown up with ? How do so readily trust our politicians who rain catastrophes and scams on us by re-electing them again and again, but are not willing to forgive our friends ? I am worried...deeply worried. |
Are you one of Nero's guests
Chilling piece here from Alternative Perspective: Emperor Nero's parties in his garden were attended by all the Who's Who of Rome. Often the the parties were in progress, but then the dusk fell, and night arrived. There was no light around for the guests to continue to enjoy the festivities. Nero came up with a innovative solution to provide illumination: the prisoner and poors were brought and burnt on the stakes party all around the arena to illuminate the garden... Tacitus (The Annals, Book XV, C.E. 62-65 ) noted:It makes me think: is our social responsibility not really an obligation ? Are we condemned to be busy with our own lives and not root for justice ! We are a suppressed and busy people. We barely have enough time for our own lives...we are too scared to rebel against emperor Nero. |
Video karaoke, possible ?
Ever remember when you went out for a movie with your friends and then you came to a sad scene where a friend made a funny comment and you all started laughing uncontrollably ? |
Google, Why ?
Why does everyone want to work at Google ? Because, according to Fortune magazine, it is the best place to work in America. No wonder, the search company gets 3000 new job applications each day - that's more than a million every year. No wonder, indeed...! |
Some kind of History
Touching piece on the convictions for the crimes committed against Sikhs in 1984: If you check around, you'll find your own crop of similar explanations. The Bhiwandi killings of 1970 and 1984, the Delhi killings of 1984, the Mumbai killings of 1992-93, the Gujarat killings of 2002: pick any one, plenty of your fellow countrymen rationalize it, using words like "retaliation", "justified", "lesson", "water under the bridge" and more. Why, on the day I read about the conviction of Gurpal's killers, I also read a report in the Times of India with this title: "For RSS, Gujarat riots are history."History means so many things to so many people. For some, it is a distant scene: something that they watch as if they were watching a movie or a game of cricket. At the end of it, they can brush it off and get on with their lives. But for some, it is a painful episode which keeps coming back like a recurring nightmare. It leaves an indelible mark on their lives. It is time we started recognizing the value of human life. |
Bad kids ? Train the parents
Interesting piece on the Freakonomics blog: I personally do not agree with this view. I feel that the best parents are those with the best intentions in their heart. Of course, this has to be combined with that essential element called love. Parents have to stop thinking of their kids as extensions of themselves and treat them as individuals in their own right. What sayest thou ? |
Everything considered, its the same story !
A Bangladesh perspective to the slide in Indian cricket This is typical sub-continent rhetoric. Everytime we beat Australia or South Africa, we talk about how India have shown these great nations their place. Bangladesh, unfortunately, is following that route. I am reproducing verbatim, my comments on that post (do read the other comments -- I found them nauseating, at best): It is funny how one win can make dreamers out of losers !Incidentally, I read this piece from Prem Panicker's blog only a couple of days ago. Do read it...
All things considered, we are birds of the same flock ! Update: Found this piece about Bangladesh fans burning effigies of their cricketers , huh ! |
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Does the Sun have a companion ?
Intriguing theory here from scientist Richard A Muller.
The theory goes on to state that this star re-emerges every 26 million years to cause a shower of meteors on our planet causing mass extinctions:
I dream that when this "nemesis" reappears, it will sweep away all the planets from the Solar System and our earth will start revolving round this new star, instead of the Sun. That way, we will all get to see new places in the universe !!! Now, I ask this: how will that change you as a person ? Are you ready for the joy ride ? |
A new cricket league !
I love reading Prem Panicker's blog:
Read here for more info. I am hoping that this will bring a revolution in Indian cricket. If nothing else, we will have something to switch to if the national team repeats its recent performances ! |
Dumbing down...
Whenever I watch a hindi movie, or discuss cricket with my office colleagues, I am faced with what I like to call "dumbing down the topic". |
Why we don’t have product-making companies?
I found this very elaborate and very thought-provoking piece: I posted a comment on that blog which I reproduce verbatim here: What do you think ? Is the services industry a fad ? Do we need to re-look at the allocation of resources ? Are we putting all our eggs in the Services sector basket ? |
When life gives you a lemon...
The next time you feel hard-done by life, read this I feel happy when I do not overstay at office in the evening and reach home on time, that is 7:35 p.m. Oh how happy I feel to see my wife and childrens. I hope they too feel happy to see me. If I reach on time, I get a royal reception from them, if I am late even by half an hour, I have lot of explanation to do. Sometimes, the simple things in life are what make it so special. So, shake off that scowl from your face, wipe off that frown and look forward to the simple pleasures that await you at the other end of life. |
Watching the community
My dear dear readers: |
Monday, April 02, 2007
Getting their act together !
I stumbled upon a wonderful photo gallery !!! |
1960s version of Google
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Outsource your complaints !
Are you the kind of person who spends most of his/her life complaining ? |
Labels: Best of the Net
Fitness, anyone ?
EMI catalogue without DRM
Good News !!! iTunes is slowly moving towards non-DRM music: By now you may have heard today's surprising news: EMI and Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store will offer EMI's entire catalog for sale without DRM! In a press release from Apple, Steve Jobs said, "We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year."Good news...from a dear friend. |
Censorship in Iran
Iranian Censorship at its best ...
It is astounding that there are people who believe that this kind of censorship will actually work. It is even more astounding that such people are actually in government and their policies are endorsed by millions of citizens who voted them to power !!! I guess that is the beauty of democracy... |
Labels: Best of the Net
Friday, March 30, 2007
Revamp ? Really ?
It is official: the Indian cricket team has failed and we are all looking for an entire revamp of the way the game is played in the country. |