Watch that step…

Link via Mumbai Meri Jaan

Grafitti …

Grafitti….

Go spray !

Link via  Digital Inspiration

Can you google backwards ???

For those of us who cannot think straight, someone created this :

Now I can google the net backwards and forwards…and backwards and forwards…and…uh well ! you get the idea.

Insurance insurance

No…the title of this post was not a typo. Read on ..read on, I say !

Our first story comes from Richard Reich’s blog:

Selling your insurance policy !!! eh ???

Here’s an area of controversy and concern. There’s a new industry that’s sprung up called the “Secondary market for life insurance”. Here’s how it works. It’s mostly for elderly or ill people. The origination of this started some years ago when terminally ill people who needed financial help turned to their life insurance policies and sold them to investors. They got a percentage of their insurance amount based on how long they were expected to live.

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.

Wedding insurance is a form of special event insurance designed to provide financial protection if you have to cancel or postpone a wedding because of death or serious injury in the immediate family, the bride or groom is called to military duty, a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake occurs on your special day or other insured disaster.

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 :

Ever since oil was discovered there at the turn of the 20th century, Iran has been the object of plunder and high politics. From then onwards, both Russia and the UK repeatedly tried to control the country. Then, during World War II, Germany needed Iran’s oil and, in order to prevent this, UK forces invaded Iran and opened a pipeline to Russia, then our ally in fighting Germany.

Then there are references to the Iraq occupation and the real reasons behind it:

Ever since the Germans tried to build a Berlin-Mosul railway a century ago, oil has been the main motivator of Western nation policy towards the Middle East, but most American and British people are totally unaware of this as they cheerfully pump petrol into their cars. They still don’t fully realise why Bush and Blair invaded Iraq in 2003 nor, in the latest foolish episode, why Bush persuaded Blair to trespass on Iranian waters in the hope of provoking Iran into excessive reaction, giving cause for powerful American response with, Bush naively assumed, world-wide support.

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.

Who is the Knowledge Commission working for ?

I did not notice this story earlier. It only came to me today while reading this post :

We have heard this story before. Remember the early 90’s stories of Indian software engineers only working on low end maintenance projects? Or the early 2000 stories that only low end call center work is outsourced to India? What Dr. Bhargava says is likely to happen. The first that will test the waters are going to be younger educational institutions, those that have little to lose & a lot to gain. The Ox-Bridge/ Ivy Leagues will come in much later. But why should we quibble? Does the color of the cat matter as long as it catches the mice? If the new entrants offer value, they will have a market. If not, they will need to go back to the drawing board and rework their India strategy. Any one who is under the mistaken belief, that all a foreign university needs to do is to set shop in India and every one will flock to it, needs to read about the struggle of MTV, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Pizza Hut etc. to gain market share in India. India is an extreme value conscious market. You need to get your value proposition right to crack the market and the same will apply to higher education.

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.

For everything else, there’s Mastercard !

Priceless

How much is the square of 48 ?

Do you know how to calculate squares of numbers close to 50 ?

Do you ? do you ??? huh ??

I will do you a favour : read this :

When Bethe and Feynman went up against each other in games of calculating, they competed with special pleasure. Onlookers were often surprised, and not because the upstart Feynman bested his famous elder. On the contrary, more often the slow-speaking Bethe tended to outcompute Feynman. Early in the project they were working together on a formula that required the square of 48. Feymnan reached across his desk for the Marchant mechanical calculator

Bethe said, “It’s twenty-three hundred.”

 

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 ?

And then sometimes, I think not.

Don’t know what I am talking about ? Read this:

I was riding in a car on Bannerghatta Road. Work is finally getting done on that road to widen and pave it, so traffic was moving at a fast pace. As we passed an apartment complex on the left, I noticed an old lady with a red handbag making her way off the footpath and on to the road, probably in anticipation of a bus or to flag down an auto, I thought. But she did not stop moving. As our car passed her, she strode toward the middle of road, holding up her red handbag.

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:

A DVD for Rs 34! That would definitely be a cause of worry of the Pirates of Palika, who peddle their stuff for Rs 75-Rs 150. A VCD’s for a mere Rs 28. My neighbourhood DVD rental charges Rs 30 for a day. Looks like he’ll have to think of competitive pricing soon.

Like they say, “It happens only in India” !