Friday, March 30, 2007

Guess what?



Can you guess this one? Clue.. think scientific!



First, Mars had a face, now Saturn has a hexagon. A strange hexagon shape over the north pole of Saturn was first spotted by the two Voyager spacecraft and has been revisited by the Cassini probe. The 26 years between sightings indicate it is likely a permanent feature on Saturn, according to NASA scientists. In fact, Cassini found a second hexagon, significantly darker than the original. This is the first time the feature has been captured on one image.

On NASA's Web site, Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, "Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

read on..!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Guess what?



Can you guess whats happening here?? (think cryptic!)



Heroic Secret Service Agent Intercepting A Loaded, Highly Charged Question Intended For Bush

White House Secret Service Agent Anthony Panucci is being called a hero after intercepting what could have been a critically damaging question aimed directly at President Bush during a press conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday.

According to eyewitnesses, the press conference began with Bush fielding routine questions about March Madness and the dedication of a World War II memorial near his home in Crawford, TX. However, approximately seven minutes into the event, a lone reporter somehow managed to maneuver to the front of the press corps group and fire off a loaded, highly charged question concerning Bush's role in the controversial dismissal of eight federal attorneys last year.

"I just followed my training and did what I was supposed to do—put myself between the president and irreparable harm," said Panucci, who is credited with safely deflecting the attack away from Bush, as well as acting before the reporter had a chance to get off a follow-up question at close range. "And let's not forget my colleagues who rushed the president from the scene."

ha haa haa! read on...

Dave Barry on Ireland

Ireland, land of Bad Elvis

BY DAVE BARRY

(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Aug. 6, 1995. One of my friends who stayed in Ireland for sometime said "Ireland is quite similar to India".. read on...!)

I recently spent a week in Ireland, and I can honestly say that I have never been to any place in the world where it's so easy to partake of the local culture, by which I mean beer. Ireland also contains history, nice people, enormous quantities of scenery and a rich cultural heritage, including (more on this later) Elvis.

Geographically, Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep. It consists mostly of scenic pastures occasionally interrupted by quaint towns with names such as (these are actual Irish town names) Ardfert, Ballybunion, Coole, Culleybackey, Dingle, Dripsey, Emmoo, Feakle, Fishguard, Gweedore, Inch, Knockaderry, Lack, Leap, Lusk, Maam, Meentullynagarn, Muff, Newmarket-on- Fergus, Nutt's Corner, Oola, Pontoon, Rear Cross, Ringaskiddy, Screeb, Sneem, Spiddle, Spink, Stradbally, Tang and Tempo.

These towns are connected by a modern, state-of-the- art system of medieval roads about the width of a standard bar of hotel soap; the result is that motorists drive as fast as possible in hopes of getting to their destinations before they meet anybody coming the other way. The only thing that prevents everybody from going 120 mph is the nationwide system -- probably operated by the Ministry of Traffic Safety -- of tractors being driven very slowly by old men wearing caps; you encounter these roughly every two miles, rain or shine, day or night. As an additional safety measure, the roads are also frequented by herds of cows, strolling along and mooing appreciatively at the countryside, reminding you very much of tour groups.

A typical Irish town consists of several buildings, one of which is always a bar, called a ''pub.'' Next to this there will typically be another pub, which is adjacent to several more pubs. Your larger towns may also have a place that sells food, but this is not critical.

Inside the pubs, you will usually find Irish people, who are very friendly to strangers, especially compared with the British, who as a rule will not voluntarily speak to you until you have lived in Britain for a minimum of 850 years. The Irish, on the other hand, will quickly start a conversation with you, and cheerfully carry it on at great length, with or without your help.

One evening, in a busy Dublin pub, I watched an elderly, well-dressed, cap-wearing gentleman as he sat in the corner and, for two solid hours, struck up a lively conversation with every single person or group who sat within 10 yards of him, including a group of German tourists, only one of whom spoke even a little English. The man spoke to them in a thick brogue on a variety of topics for several minutes while they looked at him with the bright, polite smiles of people who do not have a clue what is being said to them. When he finished, they conferred briefly in German, and then the one who spoke a little English said, quote, ``Everyone is pleased that he or she is welcome.''

You definitely feel welcome in Ireland. But there's more to do there than just talk to Irish people in pubs. You can also drive around the countryside, alternately remarking ''Look, sheep!'' and ''Here's another tractor!'' You can visit a bunch of old castles built by the Normans, who at one point conquered Ireland despite being called the ''Normans,'' which is, let's face it, not an impressive-sounding name. It's kind of like being conquered by the ``Freds.''

Probably the best-known castle is the one in the town of Blarney, which contains the famous Blarney Stone. To get to it, you have to climb steep, narrow, tourist-infested steps to the top of the castle; there, a local man holds you as you lean out over the castle wall and kiss the Blarney Stone.

Legend has it that if you do this, you will give the man a tip. Also at a castle in a town called Kilkenny I saw a local radio station doing a live remote broadcast, featuring a Frozen Food Challenge in which a resident had to answer a multiple-choice question on the history of refrigeration. She got it right, and won a hamper of frozen foods.

''Brilliant!'' she said.

But in my opinion the cultural highlight of the trip occurred in the town of Ennis, where a pub called Brandon's had a sign outside that said ''Traditional Irish Music.'' This turned out to be a traditional Irish Elvis impersonator. I realize that there are literally thousands of quality Elvis impersonators, and I'm sure you've seen some excellent ones, but I am here to tell you that this one, in this unremarkable town in western Ireland, was beyond question the worst Elvis impersonator in world history.

He sang along to a tape of instrumental Elvis tunes, which he played on a sound system that he never, not once in two solid hours, got adjusted right. Every time he'd start singing a song, the sound system would screech and honk with feedback; Elvis would then whirl around and spend minutes at a time unsuccessfully adjusting various knobs while he mumbled the lyrics, so that for most of the evening all you saw was Elvis' butt, accompanied by screeching and honking and vague off-key singing.

Often, by the time he'd finished twiddling the knobs, Elvis had lost track of what song he was singing; he'd frown into the distance, trying various tunes until he thought he was on the right track, at which point the screeching and honking would start up, forcing Elvis to whirl back around, like a man being attacked by bees, and treat the audience to another lengthy view of his butt. The crowd, which I will frankly admit was consuming alcoholic beverages, enjoyed this performance immensely, cheering wildly at the end of each song. They like their fun, the Irish. I'm definitely going back some day. Maybe I'll rent a tractor.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

"I Killed Bob"

BREAKING News! Bob Wolmer's murder mystery resolved

In response to the fervent [heart-wrenching] appeal by the Jamaican DCP Mark Shields to "the killers to turn themselves in", Greg Chappel -the coach of the Indian Cricket team - said "I did!".

Professional rivalry and Rage killing are being touted as the reason behind the murder. Greg had worked really hard along with the Indian cricket "think tank" to hog the limelight and ensure the first round exit of the Indian Cricket team from the Workd Cup 2007. But Bob somehow infringed on Greg's idea and undid Greg's humongous efforts by stealing the thunder with Pakistan's 3-day-earlier exit from the first round of the Cricket World Cup.

Another senior player in the Indian cricket squad is also said to have helped Greg in his vengence.

Senior ICC officials, refusing to be named, said "The pressure to FAIL is so high in a forum such as the World Cup that such unfortunate incidents happen. In future we would plan better and give these two friendly yet emotionally charged neighbours an equal chance to fail."

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You know.. the solution to India's [non]performance is not to hire an external coach, but to hire an entire team... maybe we can hire the Australians to play for India. I am sure the BCCI has enough funds, even otherwise, we can invite a public private partnership to fund the buyout... the bookies would more than welcome the effort and join in the process.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Comedy Time!

It is that time of the year when I roll on the floor in the mornings. It is not another form of morning sickness (pun!), just my morning dose of laughs... these full page color advertisements in the Times of India!! ...From IIPM.. that is trying to goad (daring) students into joining their institute.

All those students (and students' rich parents) who would dare(?!) to part with s**t loads of cash... in the fond hope of studying under the 'visionary' Chaudharis and in the lure of 'international' placements.

I dont want to get into the fraud of a newspaper Ad; almost everybody knows about these fraudulent claims. But, I am tempted to compare the IIPMs with the network marketing companies like Amway, HerbaLife,....maybe I should write a case study! Only that there is neither a 'tangible' commodity nor a 'tangible' benefit (being passed across the network) here.

You see these people employing 'mera papa ka sapna' strategy.. ('My dad's dream!')... projecting the father Chaudhuri as a paragon of virtues and minting money for themselves in the process.

I say 'Dare to think beyond the IIMs' AND 'Dare to ACCEPT you are not good enough' for an IIM'. Sure.. there is room for such realists (vs MBA romantics) in the corporate world.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

News!

Well... I should have termed it 'new'. I have created a new blog... dedicated to all you Techies.

Techie Rolls

Keep rolling!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Entrepreneurship & Jam

Here is one funny article... more like a parody of some of the recent popular books.... the best title among them being... "The Monk Wants His Ferrari Back" by Robin Sharmata Hai!!

My guess is... this author is a failed novel writer ;-)

Roses are red
Take Violet to bed
If she refuses
take Scarlet instead.

But, these guys seem to have all the choices!!

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I referred to Rashmi Bansal's blog today to read an article on entrepreneurship... It seems IIMA is giving the campus entrepreneurs a safety net... that they can avail of the institute's placement service upto 2 years after they pass out (just in case their venture fizzles out)

Thats a good move... all IIMs should follow suit.... and increase the time to atleast 3 yrs.. it takes atleast a year to actually get some hang of the business and all...

you an entrepreneur? She is interested in hearing your experience...
"If you fit the profile (first-generation entrepreneur) and have been running your venture for at least 6 months, get in touch with me at rashmi_b@yahoo.com. Would also love to hear from some of you who have dropped out this year or recently quit your jobs and are 'in the process'. "

Well... I would join the gang in some years ;-)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Ind!

This is supposed to be a well-worn aphorism about India, but I saw this for the first time today.. Still it seems quite interesting!

"We're great at running markets and states. The problem is we run our markets like states and our states like markets."

Film-making

All you Youtube junkies, why dont you try your hand at some serious film making?!
(Well, this has started already, but if you are really interested, you should check if you can join now) Check for the next edition..

Course on Film Making

Date : Sun, 4 Mar 2007 - Wed, 7 May 2007

A ten week (weekends)course on film making covering narrative, screenplay writing, cinematography and editing by Prakash Belawadi, film maker Anand Subramanian and actress/director Mallika Prasad.

Venue: Centre for Film and Drama

Contact 22356262/63, 94480-50541 or email prakashbelawadi@yahoo.com

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At a totally different plane, heard that Mira Nair's 'Namesake' (based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel by the same name) has released in the US to rave reviews. Looking forward to that movie... and then to reading that novel...!

Friday, March 09, 2007

My Experiments with Experimenta '07

There is this festival (simply, screening) of experimental films at the Goethe Institut (Max Mueller bhavan, CMH Road, Indranagar) going on over this weekend. I checked out the picture play y'day.

It was a collection short films ranging from gaming ( Quake III) to Life in Congo after 30 yrs of civil war. There were also abstract videos like 25/75 which was supposed to be about (2 digit) lottery business in Shillong and didnt make much sense to me (And neither to the rest of the audience... nobody clapped at the end of it ;-).

The piece about Congo was good and a li'l depressing too.. (Background: Congo had its first elections since 1970 in 2004... the country has been ravaged by civil war) It showed a group of children (sons of construction workers) playing at the yard. And they were enacting a story... the story of who will win the election and how the winner would be murdered because he is Rwandan and not Congolese. It shows how civil war has seeped into the blood of these youngsters and I think thats probably why we would never have much economic competition from the African continent.

Overall it is pretty good.. I would like to experiment again.. maybe today or tomorrow.

You can find more details and the schedule here!

200 Not Out!

Ha! I have crossed 200 posts! Never realized that I have been writing so much... Now I dont know what to write!! ;-)

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Speechless

Till yesterday, I was thinking that she was my best friend. I thought I knew her well and that we were the best pals in the whole school. But, today, we have a new relationship.. she has become my step mom!!

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Well, I havent seen Nishabd... but I guess this could be the tagline... 'yesterday, we were pals... today, she is my step-mom!!'

If you have seen the movie, let me know if I should see it or not....

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Can somebody stop that monkey in the white suit? Upen in Shakalaka... forgot the song...

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Order

Setting things right and ready seems to be order of the day.. At work, i have been getting all the accesses and making sure my profiles and details are all updated. The desktop that I was working on had come to have just about 2 MB of free disk space. I had the admin guys uninstall all kinda software loaded by the previous user. Visual studio, .net et al that takes up 5 - 10 GB of space... I have no use for them all now ;-)

At home, I am getting my house repainted.. Its such a pain getting these guys to come the day/time you want them to. After about 2 months and 4 different painter/contractors, I finally got some portion of the work started. Relearning a lot of micromanagement fundas!!

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I dont know if anybody has used this idea. Probably a new form of chatting... When the admin gal was working remotely on my system, we communicated with each other on notepad. Its like she took remote control of the system and started running programs and uninstalls. And she wanted me to tell her which all programs she should uninstall. So, she opened notepad and started typing. And I responded on the same notepad since it is pretty much on my desktop. Do you get what I am saying? There is one notepad application and both can type on the same at the same time. And the best part is each one can see what the other is typing ... letter by letter... all typos and corrections as and when they are doing it.. I think this is much more intimate than our usual chat messengers wherein we see only the completed sentences.... any one has all the time in the world to think and phrase and rephrase whatever they want to say. What do you think?

Well.. if nobody has come up with this form of chatting, its mine to rake in the $$$s!! I shall call it iChat.. or intimate chat :-)

Eternal Life!

Javeda Zindagi  I love this song from the movie, Anwar... just melts my heart every time I hear it. (Courtesy: musicmania from ...