Controlled Randomness

River crossing

2009-09-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

We're Linux

2009-04-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

From a competition run by the Linux Foundation (Link)

The winner:

1st runner-up:

2nd runner-up:

Pinnochio Paradox

2009-04-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Chinese food == Linux ??

2009-01-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

Funny and informative talk by Jennifer Lee of NYTimes on how "chinese" food in America is not really authentic Chinese food. Fortune cookies, one of the distinctive symbols of Chinese restaurants in USA, is of Japanese origin!! A similar 'localization' of Chinese food has happened in India with the "Manchurian" dishes. And, as described the talk,
this localization phenomenon is wide-spread around the world.

Jennifer compares the growth, variety and spread of Chinese food to that of Linux. And, McDonalds is the Microsoft of food!!

Jennifer is also the first person I have come across with a number in her name "Jennifer 8 Lee". I wonder if its the Chinese equivalent of King George VIII.

Forecasts

2009-01-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

If you follow financial news, you will often come across the terms "profits exceeded the forecast" or "profits were below analysts' forecast", especially while discussing quarterly/annual results. The stock price fluctuates accordingly. I keep thinking to myself "why can't the analysts get it right?". Most news articles, however, are written to implicitly imply that it was the company's fault to not match the forecast. In my opinion, it should probably the other way round: we should criticize the so-called experts/analysts for their incorrect forecasts.

Some related thoughts on this:
* The analyst (or his firm) could possibly profit in the stock market by deliberately supplying misleading forecasts. My guess is that there are some regulations (from agencies such as the SEC) to prevent this.
* Is there a stock-price type indicator for the analysts performance: higher price for more accurate forecasts.

Poetry in perl

2009-01-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth

written in Perl as

while ($leaves > 1) {
 $root = 1;
}
foreach($lyingdays{'myyouth'}) {
 sway($leaves, $flowers);
}
while ($i > $truth) {
 $i--;
}
sub sway {
 my ($leaves, $flowers) = @_;
 die unless $^O =~ /sun/i;
}

See more examples at Perl Poetry Contest

Wingsuit base jumping!

2009-01-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Watch this amazing video! Scary and thrilling at the same time. Apparently its from the movie "Seven Sunny Days http://mspfilms.com/store/844

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

DIY Prescription Glasses

2009-01-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

A neat invention by a Oxford Physics professor.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/22/diy-adjustable-glasses-josh-silver

"Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription."

the paradox of india

2008-11-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

These images symbolize the strange mix that is today's India: a country with centuries of history and tradition leaping head-first into the modern technological and scientific world.

P.S.: Pictures from ???? I lost track of the source of the pics :( Will update if I come across them again

Unusual buildings

2008-11-12T16:06:00.001-08:00

Dome House, Florida

Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea

Habitat 67, Canada

Basket building, Ohio USA

Kansas City Library, Missouri USA

UFO house, Taiwan

More can be found here: http://unusual-architecture.com/

Presidential breakfast cereals

2008-10-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

Obama and McCain breakfast cereals: More details here

Exploiting depth in photographs

2008-09-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

These are some photos that exploit the lack of depth in a photograph. These clever angles make for interesting pictures because they capture a 3-d world on a 2-d medium. I think the technical term for it is 'perspective distortion' - objects closer to the camera appear larger than those in the background.

More such pics can be found at http://www.flickzzz.com/2008/08/no-photoshop-here.html

2008 US Presidential Elections ... the story so far in 2 minutes

2008-08-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Time for Some Campaignin' | Funny Jokes at JibJab

haha... visit http://www.jibjab.com/originals for more.

using AI for animation

2008-07-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

This presentation talks about using an 'evolutionary' method to generate animations through simulation. What is fascinating is that the models use neural networks to adapt their behavior i.e how to react to different stimuli. A very interesting use of AI. This animation technology has apparently been used in GTA4 and the latest EA Madden. (Note: the talk was filmed in 2003).

An aspect that caught my eye in the presentation was this: when the different stages of the '2 legged walking model' was presented, I noted how similar it is to the various stages of a baby learning to walk - kicking, standing up, walking a few steps and falling , and finally, able to walk without falling down.

Hiding an elephant: via Photoshop

2008-07-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

A "photoshop" contest with the theme "Hide an elephant". The entries are very creative and some are hilarious. Check out http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=19677&display=photoshop

Learning to appreciate classical music

2008-07-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

and the concept of 'shining eyes'. A brilliant talk by Benjamin Zander.

Or visit this page. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Corn starch - defying the laws of common sense physics

2008-06-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

Corn starch + water seems to defy the usual properties of a liquid. I wonder if there is a more practical application of this phenomenon. Maybe something like an impact protector shield.

India - Old and New

2008-06-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

The Naagin (Man Dole Tan Dole) original song (1954) and the new one from Decibel (2007).

Confidence in "Who wants to be a millionaire"

2008-06-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Watch this clip from Who wants to be a millionaire. The contestant, John Carpenter, is attempting the million dollar question. He is so confident of his answer that he uses his lifeline to call his dad and say "I'm about to win a million dollars". Now, thats confidence for you. And a touch of showmanship and a touch of arrogance!

sudoku in court

2008-06-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/10/australia

A three-month-long drugs trial costing $1m (£485,000) has been abandoned in Australia after it emerged that jurors had been playing sudoku for almost the entire duration of the hearing.

The accused, two men who were facing possible life sentences on drugs manufacturing and firearms charges, spotted members of the jury playing the puzzles. While one of the accused was giving evidence, he noticed the jurors were writing vertically and not horizontally. The second accused man saw the same thing.

Impact of Friends on India's popular culture

2008-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

"Ever since Monica, Joey, Chandler, Ross, Phoebe and Rachel started hanging out at a coffee shop in the early 90s, the concept of the platonic friend has becoming enormously popular." Source: http://monkinhotwater.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-mans-worldnot.html

This is an interesting observation by this blogger. I used to wonder why "Friends" is by far the most popular sitcom in India when there are several other sitcoms which are better/more funny. The above observation may be an interesting pointer as to why. Guys and girls hanging out in a platonic way was rarely shown on TV/Cinema in India. If an Indian movie has one hero and one heroine, they obviously get paired up. Two heroes implies two heroines, and so on. If there is an extra hero/heroine, that person is 99% probable to die, either by some incurable cancer-like disease or killed by the villains or in an accident. In the remaining 1% cases, she sacrifices her love or finds a new partner (usually a guest appearance by a big name actor).

Friends changed this equation and showed it was okay to have 'unpaired' lead actors and they could still hangout together. Maybe this influenced young people watching the show to change their attitudes regarding the opposite gender. Spending time with a mixed-gender circle of friends no longer had to be about pairing up. Of course, its not that connections don't happen; just that the anxiety and tension associated with hanging out with someone of the opposite gender was significantly reduced. I wonder if there is a formal study that describes the impact of the show on the popular culture in India, growth of coffee shops, etc. I'm sure coffee places like "cafe coffee day" owe a large part of their success to the show.

Leave-Me-Alone box

2008-04-29T02:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a machine that effectively does 'nothing'. Well, you flip a switch and the machine flips it back.

Read more about it here. You can even order one- it would make a nice gift, maybe for an office-mate.

Optical Illusions

2008-04-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is not a spiral. They are a concentric circles. (Try and trace them with your mouse pointer!)

A set of horizontal straight parallel lines.

A and B are the same color. (Go ahead and try to pick the color in Paint/Gimp or a similar tool!).

The white triangle is not actaully drawn. Its just an illusion.

A and B are the same size. Notice how the left edges are not aligned along the same vertical.

Diagonal straight parallel lines.
The two orange circles of the same size. This is more like Gullivers travels. A human is a dwarf in a land of giants and, a giant in a land of dwarfs. It's all relative.

For detailed explanations of the above illusions and for some more illusions, see here

Innovative Business Cards

2008-03-16T23:46:00.001-07:00

Declaration of Romantic Intent (Form V-22)

2008-03-15T13:21:00.001-07:00

Dear (name of Recipient), I wish to inform you that I consider you to be a (superlative) human being, a quality which I consider (adjective of magnitude) attractive.

Scared eggs

2008-03-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Full set of furniture in a small box

2008-03-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

An armoire, a desk, a height-adjustable stool, two more stools, a six-shelf bookcase, and a bed with a mattress: all in a small box. It is easy to assemble,no tools required. More details about the Casulo box can be found here.

Creating a buzz with viral marketing

2008-02-19T17:48:00.001-08:00

Apparently these bizarre ads in Canada have got many people looking around for answers as to what is actually being advertized here. I like the name of the medicine "Obay".

WWII as a MMORPG

2008-02-17T15:43:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.4guysfromviewpoint.com/?p=76

*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
*Eisenhower has joined the game.*
*paTTon has joined the game.*
*Churchill has joined the game.*
*benny-tow has joined the game.*
*T0J0 has joined the game.*
*Roosevelt has joined the game.*
*Stalin has joined the game.*
*deGaulle has joined the game.*
Roosevelt: hey sup
T0J0: y0
Stalin: hi
Churchill: hi
Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0J0: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]: sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got crap to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: stfu
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: Eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0J0: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
benny-tow: haha
benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1
T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full
Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
Roosevelt: yah thats right biznitch im comin for ya
Stalin: church help me
Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
Stalin: dont be an arss
Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
Eisenhower: LOL
benny-tow: hahahh oh sh1t help
Hitler[AoE]: o man ur focked
paTTon: oh what now biotch
Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
*benny-tow has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: lame
Roosevelt: gj paTTon
paTTon: thnx
Hitler[AoE]: WTF Eisenhower hax hes killing all my sh1t
Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
Eisenhower: Nuts!
benny-tow: wtf that mean?
Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker
Stalin: rofl
T0J0: HAHAHHAA
Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
*Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
Stalin: OMG LMAO!
Hitler[AoE]: WTF i didnt click there omg this game blows
*Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
paTTon: hahahhah
T0J0: WTF my teammates are n00bs
benny-tow: shut up noob
Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
Eisenhower: yah me too
T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
Eisenhower: fock u
paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
Stalin: go to hell lol
paTTon: fock this sh1t im goin afk
Eisenhower: yah this is gay
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy sh*tholysh*thoylshti!!!111
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!*
Eisenhower: awesome!
Churchill: gg noobs no re
T0J0: thats bullsh*t u fockin suck
*T0J0 has left the game.*
*Eisenhower has left the game.*
Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for ****
Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
tru_m4n: l8r all
benny-tow: bye
Churchill: l8r
Stalin: fock u all
tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
*tru_m4n has left the game.*
benny-tow: lololol u commie
Churchill: ROFL
Churchill: bye commie
*Churchill has left the game.*
*benny-tow has left the game.*
Stalin: i hate u all fags
*Stalin has left the game.*
paTTon: lol no1 is left
paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
*paTTon has been eliminated.*
paTTon: o sh1t!
*paTTon has left the game.*

The 'Nine' Clock

2008-02-08T16:11:00.001-08:00

Now thats a clock for nerds.

Extreme camouflage

2008-02-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

Watch this video. Towards the end you can see an amazing wonder of nature - underwter camouflage. The video also shows the dynamic colorfulness of marine life. These biosystems are extremely powerful compared to the human designed systems. If we are able design anything half as good, it would be a significant achievement.

Sound waves as fire extiguisher?

2008-01-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

A very interesting article about the interaction of sound and fire (candle flame). A video of the experiment can be found here.
Mythbusters also seem to have explored the same: http://mythbustersresults.com/episode76

From the article:
"In 2004 Dmitriy Plaks and several of his fellow students at the University of West Georgia tested whether sound waves can douse fires in hopes of using sound to extinguish flames in a spacecraft. They placed a candle in a large topless chamber with three bass speakers attached to the walls. The candle was lit and the Canadian rock band Nickelback's "How you remind me" was pumped through the subwoofers. Within roughly 10 seconds, once the song hit a low note, the flame was out, according to results published in 2005 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

"We don't know exactly what's going on," Plaks says, now a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Physicist James Espinosa at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., a former advisor to the student team, notes that the candle wasn't running out of oxygen to fuel the flame because the chamber was large and open to the air. He also doesn't believe that wind—which would actually displace the warm air around the candle with cooler air—had put out the fire, although only high-resolution thermal images would have been able to verify that.

There is another indication that the fire hadn't been extinguished by wind: frequency (the time it takes for succeeding peaks of a sound wave to pass a fixed point). "There's some special frequency at which a candle flame extinguishes," Espinosa notes. The students tested a range of frequencies from five to several hundred hertz. They found that the effective range was between 40 and 50 hertz, within the range of human hearing."

My guess that it has to do something with resonance of the sound waves. Maybe we should equip our firetrucks with large speakers blaring music or sound at different frequencies. This should speed up the process of containing fires.

Genuinely 'authentic'

2008-01-23T20:49:00.001-08:00

Sunset

2008-01-22T23:09:00.000-08:00

Human Tetris

2008-01-16T00:13:00.000-08:00

So much for security of checked-in baggage

2008-01-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

Read this funny story from a air traveller. It also raises a few questions regarding security. Source of the story: http://www.elliott.org/first-person/round-trip-on-the-conveyor-belt/

Round trip on the conveyor belt

In North American airports, there are warnings posted above the luggage carousels: “Please don’t step on the conveyor belt.” These signs are often missing when you travel internationally, and I recently discovered why.

Two years ago, I was in China with a friend who is a professor at the University of Texas medical school, and a group of his students. We had traveled from the old capital of Xian, westward through the oasis towns and deserts of central China, ending up in the 2,000-year-old Uighur city of Kashgar, near the Afghanistan border.

At a sprawling bazaar known locally as the Camel Market, I picked up several small handmade Uighur knives as gifts. Instead of packing them into my checked-in luggage, I slipped them into my carry-on bag by mistake.

We flew out of Kashgar the next day from an incongruously modern airport recently built to open up this very remote part of China to trade and tourism. Everything went fine until my carry-on bag passed through the X-ray machine.

A security screener opened my bag and removed the knives. Although he spoke no English, it was clear they were not allowed on the plane.

But instead of tossing my mementos in the trash, he handed them to me and pointed in the direction I had come, back toward the ticket counter. Interpreting this as a suggestion that I might be able to check the knives through, I returned to the ticket counter.

The ticket agent also spoke no English, but nodded knowingly as I held up the knives. Speaking in Uighur, he pointed to the empty luggage conveyor belt

“Well,” I thought, “he’s trying to tell me that my bag has already gone and there’s nothing he can do.” I thanked him and turned to leave.

But he stopped me with a tap on the shoulder and again pointed to the conveyor belt. This time he made a more sweeping gesture from me to the conveyor belt.

Reluctantly, I stepped into the slot where bags are passed though the counter. No objection from the agent.

I walked over to the conveyor belt. Still no protests.

I climbed on to the carousel. The agent smiled and flipped a switch. The belt lurched forward.

I passed through the slit rubber curtain into a dark, cavernous space. My moving sidewalk looped and rumbled through the bowels of the airport. After a while, a faint light appeared, leading through another slit curtain that spilled into a baggage loading area.

The baggage handlers were not at all surprised to see a knife-wielding American emerge from the conveyor belt. They helped me find my bag and I repacked my knives.

Now the only question was: How do I get back to the terminal? No one spoke English, so there was no point asking for directions. Gestures didn’t do much good either.

Seeing no other way out, I turned around, pushed through the slit curtain, double-timed it back up the belt and burst through the top curtain into the check-in area.

The ticket agent was clearly expecting me, since other bags were stacked on the floor in front of the belt awaiting my return.

I bowed to him in thanks, not only for saving my Uighur knife collection, but also for surviving my behind-the-scenes tour of a Chinese airport.

Ron Robins is a retired attorney.

Laptop with antique appearance

2008-01-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

More pics at http://m3.alexweidmann.com/piles/?s=steampunklaptop

(muscle) Car collection

2007-12-27T01:58:00.000-08:00

More pics here

Destruction (and creation of new) of jobs through globalization

2007-12-26T03:45:00.000-08:00

Read the full NY Times article here.

"Globalization is said to create winners and losers. For the Sawants, it created both. And that duality reflects the furious pace at which entire professions are being invented and entire professions destroyed in the rush to modernize India.

There is, on one hand, a national quest under way to excise inefficiencies — to cut out middlemen. As go the letter writers, so go bank tellers as India adopts A.T.M.’s, phone-booth operators as cellphones spread, and rural moneylenders as new Western-style supermarket chains start trading directly with farmers."

Review for a pen

2007-12-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

An innovative and funny review of a pen purchesed on Amazon.

$7.2million for a 10hp car

2007-12-07T22:38:00.001-08:00

yes, thats the price paid for this antique (ancient) car - a 1905 Rolls Royce 2 seater. Still in working condition.
Link.

Lucky to survive

2007-12-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

The driver of this car escaped with very minor injuries. Seems unbelievable if you look at the pics of the crash. More pics can be found here.

Website design technologies

2007-11-28T23:08:00.001-08:00

It can also be done using precious stones (Pe(a)rl and Ruby), maybe a big snake (python), etc.

interesting 'paintbrush'

2007-11-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

"Magic" Digital Video Brush - video powered by Metacafe

the brush has integrated LEDs, touch sensors, and a camera. This gadget basically captures the texture and video and reproduces that in the drawing. The painting, of course, is done on a special display screen.

Ten commandments of Black Friday shopping

2007-11-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

Source: http://gradmoneymatters.com/2007/11/ten-commandments-of-black-friday.html

Thou shalt be prepared. Do your research.
Thou shalt make a prioritized list.
Thou shalt know the store layout.
Thou shalt know the sale hours.
Thou shalt know the store policies.
Thou shalt shop in tag teams.
Thou shalt make sure that your cell phones are fully charged.
Thou shalt wear comfortable clothes and preferably running shoes.
Thou shalt keep some water and snacks in the car.
Thou shalt not buy junk just because it is on sale.

Is the dollar safe?

2007-11-15T02:51:00.000-08:00

Recently I had some thoughts on money: What does it mean when you say "the economy grew by 3%".... where did this 3% appear from? Is there something like the principle of conservation of money, similar to the principle of conservation of energy? If you are making a profit then somebody is making a loss. Or does the 3% represent the transformation of raw material, resources from nature in to goods that can be measured in currency?

I came across this article which is somewhat related: "http://www.mondovista.com/money.html" . DISCLAIMER: I have no idea regarding the authenticity of the information in this article. And, I have my doubts about all these "conspiracy theories".

The article explains the origin of the currency,paper money, the recent process of 'printing as much money as you want'. It also explains how the US is able to withstand such huge trade deficits (another question that was on my mind). See the following graph:

The article also talks about why the US dollar is in so much demand world-wide: basically the dollar is a currency for oil.

From the article: "Oil and dollars have become the blood of our present civilization. A collapse of this fiat dollar system will not only destroy America's economy and lifestyle but it will have devastating impact throughout the entire planet. Since virtually all wealth is based on this dollar-for-oil scheme, a collapse of the system will send the entire world into an economic depression. This is what the politicians and decision makers are trying to avert. But the collapse is predictable and inevitable."

If the article is indeed true and given the uncertain future of oil, what does the future hold for the dollar and the US economy?

Context aware image resizing & editing

2007-11-14T02:21:00.000-08:00

A very interesting take on image resizing. From SIGGRAPH presentation. Watch the last few seconds of the video and see how to make people disappear.

missed connection?

2007-11-13T00:11:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting story: Patrick Moberg was riding the NYC subway last Sunday when he saw the girl of his dreams, but before he got a chance to talk to her, she disappeared into the crowd. Instead of walking away from his missed connection, he created a website: http://www.nygirlofmydreams.com/

It worked! He's got in touch with the girl of his dreams.

The power of the Internet and social networking.

Rubik's cube feats

2007-11-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

With one hand in 20 seconds.

in less than 20 seconds, using feet!

By a 3 year old in less than 2 minutes.

"I've done my bit for the environment"

2007-11-04T17:32:00.001-08:00

The Toyota Prius has become a symbol of going green and saving the world from global warming effects. I recently saw a woman on TV saying "I've done my bit for the environment" pointing to her new Prius.
That is the wrong attitude/impression to have. First, it is laudable that she has started to think about the environment and global warming, etc. Thinking about the problem, learning more about it is the right direction before actually 'doing your bit'. But buying a Prius is not the end of the story. Its just the start. I would also like to point out that the 'tone' of her statement indicated that driving the Prius was somewhat of a compromise. Let me just say the Prius is a good car in its own right and need not be seen as a step down from your favorite sedan. (although its not comparable to a top-of-the-line luxury car or a sport(y) car .

That aside, the more important point of doing your bit continues beyond the purchase of a Prius. There are many simple things in daily life to follow that can reduce your energy consumption and carbon footprint. (It'll even save you a few dollars as well). A few of the things I do differently now i.e. ever since I became environmentally conscious are these:

Turn off lights / air-conditioning when not you are leaving the room.
Turn off the monitor of your PC at work/home when I leave for more than 15 minutes (lunch, dinner, end of the day, meetings, etc)
During winters, set the temperature to 2-3 degrees below my usual level - I never notice the difference. Saves a lot of heating cost. If your house has temperature controls for individual rooms, make the fullest use of it: heating the bedroom only when you are asleep.
Try to combine my shopping chores in to a single trip: it is better to drive once with a full trunk rather than driving many times with a near-empty car. (Driving to the grocery store to buy a one tomato/onion/a bottle of water is an absolute crime. I knew a couple of people who did this.)
Carpooling: Not always easy. Use of public transport is also a good option.

flights

2007-11-02T14:42:00.001-07:00

Simulation of 24 hours of flights over europe. Fascinating. I wonder if there is anything similar for the US or the whole world.

Housing bubble

2007-11-01T21:22:00.001-07:00

The graph plots the price of a standard home since 1890 (adjusted for inflation). Obviously, incomes have not increased at the same rate. It is self explanatory as to whats happened over the last few years and why the housing market has become unsustainable.

India's answer to Bruce Lee (or is it Li?)

2007-10-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Bruce Li is no match for our very own Dharmendra in a kurta-pyjama. very funny

Source: here and here

Smallest Wifi device?

2007-10-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Eye-Fi today announced a 2GB SD memory card that includes wifi. The advertized application is to upload photos from your digital camera to the internet. Presumably it works with other devices such as handhelds also. But
the more interesting aspect is the size of the wifi radio. Arguably it is the smallest form-factor for a 802.11 device (at least the commercially available ones). I can imagine that we can come up with many more uses for such radios e.g. a home network, wifi-enabled cellphones, etc. The spec says the range of the radio is a modest 90ft outdoors and 45ft indoors.

11 weird cricket dismissals

2007-10-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Tipping a postman

2007-10-28T16:16:00.001-07:00

The full details of the experiment are found here. Surprisingly the mail was delivered!

Low minimum mutual funds

2007-10-26T01:03:00.001-07:00

Recently I started exploring options for investing the (little) amount of money that I have. Mutual funds seem to be a reasonable option - no hassle of tracking individual stocks and trading etc. However the better (and the best) funds usually have high minimum investment requirements - high for someone like me: limited risk taking ability.

There are some funds that have a more affordable (again for people like me) minimum investment requirements.
A couple of articles that talk about this are here and here.

I wonder if we can list mutual funds sorted by their minimum investment requirements.

Resourcefulness

2007-10-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you are short of a few digits ? Turn to math :)

Noise canceling headphones

2007-10-25T12:48:00.001-07:00

I had a set noise canceling headphones (Creative HN 505) and mainly used them at my workplace to drown the hum of computers. Recently I took them during a flight and then realized their true value - the experience was amazing. I know they are not as good as expensive noise canceling headphones from, say, Bose or Sony. In fact, the cheapest Bose headphones cost 20 times what I paid for my creative headphones. Anyway, all the engine noise was gone and it was as if I was travelling in a quiet car. The noise cancellation works even if you turn off music from your ipod.

Today I saw a Kensington product that looks just like the ones I have. And Creative apparently has stopped making the ones I have. Maybe they sold their technology to Kensington.

Parasites

2007-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Heres a cool flash-based animation/simulation:
"http://www.footloosemoose.com/michael_wp/2007/04/12/experiment-parasites/"

The simulation starts with all these bugs of different random colors and sizes. The bugs move around in a random direction and when they encounter each other one of them takes a bite off the other and grows. After reaching a certain size, the bug splits into two smaller ones. The most surprising part of it is that eventtually there is only one type of bug left in the whole screen.

Internet is the new TV

2007-10-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

After several years of fighting P2P networks and trying to prevent online circulation of TV shows, TV networks have started to provide their own offering. They have finally realized that the Internet is not a threat to their revenue, but instead it is a source of a new stream of viewers and revenue. A few networks that have started to offer full episodes online include CBS, NBC. These episodes do include ad-clips - different from the live broadcast version. (However I suspect most people wouldn't mind a couple of ads.) Such an offering may actually reduce the P2P distribution of TV series episodes.

TV shows are different from music and even movies in terms of the online audience. Putting up TV shows on the web helps people who normally wouldn't watch the show because the airing time is inconvenient can now watch it. In addition, there may be viewers who are impressed with what they see and tune in to see it on regular TV. So it might actually lead to increased viewership for a show.

Height of joblessness: from an IRC chatroom

2007-10-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

perils of a password

2007-10-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Until recently, I had a method of creating passwords for different websites: one for accounts that have sensitive financial information: banks, credit cards etc, one for websites with my credit card information, address information, one for my Gmail account, one for my Yahoo account and one for accounts with no sensitive information. Now the stupid thing that I used to do was this: many websites use my email address as the login handle. To keep things simple, I used the same password as the email account for the website as well. E.g: accounts with my gmail Id had the same password as my Gmail account. (I felt so stupid when I realized what I'd been doing all these years.) The fundamental issue here is that I put this information in the hands of third-party people, who I don't necessarily trust to the same degree as I trust Google. Gmail login initially was just for an email service. Now the same ID is used for all Google services including Checkout, AdSense , etc which contain sensitive information.

Since this realization, I've revamped my password strategy: different passwords for different accounts, except for those without sensitive information. I'm prepared for the additional headache of millions of passwords. But I've definitely become paranoid.

Time to rethink the login-password paradigm? biometrics?

evaluating competitors in a startup

2007-09-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

From Paul Graham's essay on Lisp and hacking: Beating the averages

If you ever do find yourself working for a startup, here's a handy tip for evaluating competitors. Read their job listings. Everything else on their site may be stock photos or the prose equivalent, but the job listings have to be specific about what they want, or they'll get the wrong candidates.

During the years we worked on Viaweb I read a lot of job descriptions. A new competitor seemed to emerge out of the woodwork every month or so. The first thing I would do, after checking to see if they had a live online demo, was look at their job listings. After a couple years of this I could tell which companies to worry about and which not to. The more of an IT flavor the job descriptions had, the less dangerous the company was. The safest kind were the ones that wanted Oracle experience. You never had to worry about those. You were also safe if they said they wanted C++ or Java developers. If they wanted Perl or Python programmers, that would be a bit frightening-- that's starting to sound like a company where the technical side, at least, is run by real hackers. If I had ever seen a job posting looking for Lisp hackers, I would have been really worried.

I just had a "D-Uh" moment when I read this.

The main focus of the essay is Lisp and the regard hackers have for it. Lisp was something I learnt in my undergrad for a few weeks (/days?) and wasn't very enthusiastic about. May be it was because the instructor gave the impression that it was a dead language and just a quirky little way of doing things. Maybe I should give it a shot again.

Personalized craigslist RSS feeds

2007-09-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a less known feature of craiglist. Say you are looking to buy a car and are looking for a particular type/price-range etc. The url for honda civics costing less than $5000 in Los Angeles looks like this "http://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/car?query=honda+civic&minAsk=&maxAsk=5000". All you need to do to convert this into an RSS feed is add "&format=rss" at the end of the url. This gives the listings in a RSS feed format and can be read by a feed reader. So, you can stay on top of the listings and be notified within minutes of a relevant posting.

This works for other craigslist searches as well: e.g. the following provides a feed for rental listings for a 1BR apartment in Mountain View costing less than 1500 per month:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa/sby/35?query=&minAsk=min&maxAsk=1500&bedrooms=1&neighborhood=35&format=rss

Perl one-liner for testing prime numbers!

2007-09-26T11:07:00.001-07:00


perl -wle 'print "Prime" if (1 x shift) !~ /^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$/' [number]

See http://montreal.pm.org/tech/neil_kandalgaonkar.shtml for an explanation
of how it works.  It basically involves backtracking.

Wireless problems

2007-09-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

stock markets and 9/11

2007-08-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

Stumbled upon a very interesting piece of news today.....
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/august2007/270807_market_crash.htm.
Allegedly someone is betting a lot of money (almost a billion USD) on a stock market crash within the next month. A more interesting bit of information from the article was that similar activities were observed a few days before 9/11.

I'm not sure of the authenticity of any of these information. They might just be another angle to 9/11 conspiracy theories. But sure enough, makes for interesting reading.

recursion....... with photoshop

2007-08-26T19:02:00.001-07:00

Woman spotted yesterday reading today's paper.

Need for speed..... in Paris.

2007-08-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Source: http://ironruby.org/traceway.html

"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit."

Visit the original page for a neat video+maps mashup.

Confident of your software?

2007-08-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

20 CEOs board an airplane and are told that the flight they are about to take is the first-ever to feature pilotless technology. It is an uncrewed aircraft. Each one of the CEO’s is then told, privately, that their company’s software is running the aircraft’s automatic pilot system. Nineteen of the CEOs promptly leave the aircraft, each offering a different type of excuse.

One CEO alone remains on board the jet, seeming very calm indeed. Asked why he is so confident in this first uncrewed flight, he replies : “If it is the same software that runs my company’s IT systems, this plane won’t even take off.” !!!!

That is called Confidence!!!

Source: http://www.fortunewatch.com/category/humor/

don't mess with grandma

2007-08-11T17:06:00.001-07:00

awesome photo

2007-08-11T17:04:00.001-07:00

Google local referral

2007-08-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.google.com/services/local-business-referrals/about.html
Just read about google's local business referral scheme. Its a brilliant marketing idea. The idea is to get the public to contribute information to their database and the public get paid for it. The beauty of it is, Google, now has access to information that wasn't previously on the internet... essentially they are creating content on the web. Of course, Google will try to sell AdWords to all the shops and increase their customer base and, thereby add to their already overflowing bank account. Obviously somebody has done the math and figured out that a one time payment of 10$ per business can still make the whole thing profitable. This whole exercise goes to show the power of money and "it takes money to make more money".

The Monty Hall problem

2007-08-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

Read this interesting math problem with a very counter-intuitive solution: For full details refer to wikipedia

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Because there is no way for the player to know which of the two unopened doors is the winning door, many people assume that each door has an equal probability and conclude that switching does not matter. However, as long as the host knows what is behind each door, always opens a door revealing a goat, and always makes the offer to switch, opening a losing door does not change the probability of 1/3 that the car is behind the player's initially chosen door. As there is only one other unopened door, the probability that this door conceals the car must be 2/3.

6-bit binary adder: wood and marbles.

2007-07-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

A neat little contraption - a binary adder. Would make a great gift for kids inlclined toward a computer science/engineering career. Read more at http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/.

go green by going black

2007-07-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've changed the template of the blog to use a black background. Just my $0.02 to conserve energy.
See here and check out Blackle. The energy savings are not much on a LCD monitor... but there are still many CRT monitors out there.

I personally prefer black backgrounds, especially for my shell,console and vi windows. They cause less strain on the eyes.

cloud formation

2007-07-23T23:12:00.000-07:00

Amazing half-time show

2007-07-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

glumbert.com - Samsung Dance

supposedly Samsung sponsored this show.

A job well done - almost!!

2007-07-19T18:44:00.001-07:00

This may take a while ... but once you get it, its quite funny.

group photos

2007-07-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

group photos of a different kind.

advertizing rivalry

2007-07-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

everybody's heard of pepsi-cocacola rivalry in marketing and ads. now, take a look at a different one - this one's about cars. The first is by VW. The second is a response by Nissan.

hat out of a rabbit!

2007-07-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

Men in coats.

Aussies!

2007-07-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

Peter Nyugen's essays

2007-07-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Well-Known Sayings

2007-07-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Source: http://www.ccng.uwaterloo.ca/~pasward/Opinions/sayings.shtml

A selection of well-known sayings. The original forms are listed below.

It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovated maneuvers.
Scintillate, scintillate, asteroids minified.
Members of an avian species of an identical plumage congregate.
Surveillance should precede saltation.
Pulchritude possesses sole cutaneous profundity.
It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitantly departed lacteal fluid.
Freedom from incrustation of grime is continguous to rectitude.
The stylus is more potent than the claymore.
Eschew the implement of correction and vititae the scion.
The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not reach 212 degrees.
All articles that coruscate with resplendance are not truly suritorous.
Where there are visible vapors having their prevalence in ignited carbonaceous material, there is conflagration.
Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.
Eleemonsynary deeds have their incipience intramurally.
Male cadavers are incapable of yielding any testimony.
Neophyte's serendipity.
A revolving lithic conglomerae accumulates no congeries of a small bryophtic plant.
The male presenting the ultimate cachinnation possesses thereby the optimal cachinnation.
Abstention from any aleatory undertaking precludes a potential escalation of a lucrative nature.
Persons of imbecilic mentality divagate inparameter which cherubic entities approach with trepidation.
Elementary sartorial techniques initially applied preclude repetitious actions to the squares of three.

The original, simplified forms are:

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Look before you leap.
Beauty is but skin deep.
Don't cry over split milk.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
A watched pot never boils.
All that glitters is not gold.
Where there's smoke, there's fire
Beggers can't be choosers.
Charity begings as home.
Dead men tell no tales.
Beginner's luck.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
He who laughs last, laughs best.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Fools go where angels fear to tread.
A stitch in time saves nine.

Mysteries of the earth!

2007-07-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

"On the morning of August 22, 1986, a man hopped onto his bicycle and began riding from Wum, a village in Cameroon, towards the village of Nyos. On the way he noticed an antelope lying dead next to the road. Why let it go to waste? The man tied the antelope onto his bicycle and continued on. A short distance later he noticed two dead rats, and further on, a dead dog and other dead animals. He wondered if they’d all been killed by a lightning strike – when lightning hits the ground it’s not unusual for animals nearby to be killed by the shock.

Soon the man came upon a group of huts. He decided to see if anyone there knew what had happened to the animals. But as he walked up to the huts he was stunned to see dead bodies strewn everywhere. He didn’t find a single person still alive—everyone in the huts was dead. The man threw down his bicycle and ran all the way back to Wum."

For a detailed explanation, see Strangest disaster of 20th century

Shadow magic

2007-06-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

Excellent illustrations to show the importance of the third dimension.
http://www.boredstop.com/shadow.htm

Top 10 worst cars of 20th century

2007-06-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

From http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/Worst-Cars/results1.html

10. VW Bus
"If everyone had to own one of these as a first car as I did, there would be no traffic jams anywhere. At least half of us would be so turned off by the experience of owning a car, that we would seek alternate means of transportation."

"There was no heat--unless, that is, the auxiliary gas heater caught fire."

"The flower stickers were the only things that held the car together."

"The bus had no heat, blew over in the wind and used the driver's legs as its first line of defense in an accident."

"It was a death trap on the highway-you could never go fast enough. The chances were good that you'd be hit from the rear."

9. Renault Dauphine
"Truly unencumbered by the engineering process."

"At the time, it cost about half the price of a Volkswagen... which was half the price of everything else. How could Renault do this? Simple. It had half as many parts."

"This car topped out at 45 mph. Since the minimum speed on the Florida Turnpike is 40, patrol cars would follow me, waiting for me to hit a hill so they could ticket me."

"From a historical perspective, it's a shame that the French spent their Marshall Plan dollars on automaking."

"A side impact by a bicycle totaled my Dauphine after only one year."

8. Cadillac Cimarron
"GM thought they could take a Chevy Cavalier, slap some Cadillac stuff on it, add an extra $5,000.00 and sell a bundle. Tragically enough, they pulled it off-for a while."

"Hands down, worst car for the money spent. Yugos were junk, but at least they were cheap. This heap had a Caddy price tag!"

"A stupid marketing ploy. Nothing more than a Chevrolet Cavalier, which Roger Smith gussied up and called a Cadillac."

"When we traded it in my wife was upset because we didn't keep it long enough for her to buy a gun and shoot it."

7. Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare
"This car began to rust while it was still in the showroom."

"The stalling problem was so bad that I had to take a clockwise route to work so I could make all right turns, and not risk stalling on a left turn in front of oncoming traffic."

"After the floor boards rusted out in the rear, they would fill up with water and freeze. I ended up putting soda crates on the floor in the back to keep people from falling under the car."

"The only useful purpose this car served was as the model for the car used in National Lampoon's Vacation."

"Owning a Volare was total ego death--the theme song, the vinyl Landau roof, the inability to pass another car on the highway."

6. Renault Le Car
"I'm convinced that the body metal for this car was supplied by Reynold's Aluminum."

"Like any French restaurant in America, it was overpriced, noisy, moody, and would put you in mortal danger if you had an accident with anything larger than a croissant."

"Our Le Car couldn't climb a hill fully loaded, so the passengers had to get out and walk up."

"I left it unlocked overnight, and it was finally stolen. The insurance check paid for a textbook."

5. Chevy Chevette
"An engine surrounded by 4 pieces of drywall!"

"The Chevette just reeked of dinky-even the ad shouted that this was the dinky little car for you. The ad didn't show the car going anywhere fast... because it couldn't."

"Plywood floor, printed circuit 'wiring' and no redeeming qualities. It was a throw away, 'Saturday Night Special' from the word go."

"If I got on the Interstate without being run over, the car would creep towards 55. About an hour later, I'd reach it. Then, the shaking would begin."

"The big winter of 82-83 froze all the Chevettes in my town like dumb ducks on an icy lake."

4. AMC Gremlin
"Calling it a pregnant roller skate would be kind."

"It was entirely possible to read a Russian novel during the pause between stepping on the gas and feeling any semblance of forward motion."

"The car had all the quality and safety of a cheap garden tractor."

3. Ford Pinto
"Dad had a baby-poop-orange Pinto the year that car thieves hit our street. Although a dozen cars were stolen in one night, ours was there the next morning, on a strangely empty block."

"Remember that great Pinto bumper sticker, 'Hit Me and We Blow Up Together?'"

"The car would do 75 mph in 2nd gear, shaking apart and sounding like a bat out of hell. In fourth gear, the top speed was 70 mph. What's wrong with this picture? You do the math."

"I took this car to a high-crime shopping mall and left it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. I came back several days later and, much to my disgust, it was still there."

2. Chevy Vega
"When the rear end went on my Vega, the Chevy dealer accused me of racing it. Racing who? My grandfather in his wheelchair?"

"As near as I could tell, the car was built from compressed rust.

"My Chevy Vega actually broke in half going over railroad tracks. The whole rear end came around slightly to the front, sort of like a dog wagging its tail."

"Burned so much oil, it was single handedly responsible for the formation of OPEC."

1. Yugo
"I once test drove a Yugo, during which the radio fell out, the gear shift knob came off in my hand, and I saw daylight through the strip around the windshield."

"The Yugo's first stop after the showroom was the service department: 'Fill 'er up and replace the engine!'"

"Any time we made a right hand turn, we all had to lean to the right to prevent the driver's side rear tire from scraping against the wheel well."

"At least it had heated rear windows--so your hands would stay warm while you pushed."

"The only car with a last name: Yugo .. sometimes."

More space-saving furniture

2007-05-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

The importance of a well composed email

2007-05-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Dilbert by Scott Adams.

The difference between you and me

2007-05-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

http://rvincoletto.multiply.com/journal/item/554

For all you Seinfeld fans

2007-05-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

You can actually buy 'nothing' and its just $6.
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/nothing/index.html

Planet Earth

2007-04-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, I saw several episodes of Planet Earth on Discovery. It was originally produced by BBC. The whole filming took 5 years of several photographers and cameramen. The footage, as you expect from such a huge project, is breathtaking. Here's a sample that was voted as the viewers' favorite:

Super cooled water

2007-04-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.influks.com/post1121.html

Summer of sequels

2007-04-25T02:18:00.000-07:00

Summer 2007 seems to be a season for movie sequels ... well make that sequel to a sequel. And in some cases its the n+1'th sequel. Hows this for a list of movies releasing this summer:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End
Spider-Man 3
Shrek the Third
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Live Free or Die Hard
The Bourne Ultimatum
Ocean’s Thirteen
Rush Hour 3

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/24/053843.php

Cycle of life

2007-04-25T00:58:00.000-07:00

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating… then you finish off as an orgasm! Amen.”

- George Costanza
Seinfeld

Logistical creativity

2007-04-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

See more of such pictures here

Want to be labelled poor!

2007-04-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

"At a time when financial honchos are sweating it out to accelerate Karnataka's growth rate, here comes a shocker: Nearly 16 lakh people in the state want to be labelled 'poor'. Reason: They do not want to miss out on the populist schemes that below-povertyline (BPL) families are being bombarded with."

Read the full story here.

The belt-flip trick

2007-04-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Looks very cool! I can imagine several ways this trick can go wrong, so don't try this yourself unless you know what you're doing.