The difference between you and me

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

For all you Seinfeld fans

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

Planet Earth

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

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

Summer of sequels

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:

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

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

Cycle of life

“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

See more of such pictures here

Want to be labelled poor!

"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

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.

Space saving furniture

For the bookworms: bookshelf/chair

Table/Shelf/ (Step-ladder ?)

Chair/Stove top

Coffee Table/ Bed

Find more of such items at http://www.americaninventorspot.com/_7_furniture

Pics from an era long gone!

See more pics at http://www.shorpy.com

A trans-atlantic journey!

This has been on every news site, but its still funny. Google Maps asks you to swim 3000+ miles in 28 days for a trans-Atlantic journey from New York to London. Whats more, it first takes you to France and then to London! Perhaps a case for Google to have flight ticket system (like orbitz,kayak etc). A fully integrated solution : Flight tickets, Car rental and driving directions as a bonus!.

Art movies

I was talking to a friend recently about "Dor" and he said something strange "isn't that an art movie?". That got me thinking 'how do you classify a movie to be art movie'? I think the general perception of a movie in India is the following storyline (or its umpteen variations) : "boy meets girl, fall in love, fight for love, marry and live happily ever after", spiced with generous sprinklings of song and dance sequences. Other aspects of the story such as corruption, oppression are woven around this main thread. Of late, this definition of a movie has been relaxed a bit to include movies that have a big star listed in the credits. (Just imagine how much impact Rang de Basanti would have without Amir Khan.) Any movie that doesn't follow this 'formula' is an art-movie.

I was actually very impressed with Dor. Two things that worked in favor of this movie were the strong storyline (bought from a Malayam movie) and Nagesh Kukunoor's direction. The cinematography was rich (as rich as any mainstream movie!). Some of the locations were stunning. Despite all this, it was still considered an art movie because a) it didn't follow the accepted storyline b) it didn't have any big stars.


I also saw "The Namesake" a couple of days ago. Again, the story was what made the movie good. Strong performances from the lead characters made it even better. The episodic style of direction gave a feeling that we were being rushed through the story. I guess I'll have to read the book to actually get the nuances of the story. Now, if only I could find enough time for that!!

wierd pics!

Multi-lingual code!

Apparently, the following code compiles in ten different languages (shell scripting included)! The cool part is that it produces different output in all of them. Can someone verify this? The languages are C, C++, Perl, TeX, LaTeX, PostScript, sh, bash, zsh and Prolog.

Of course, hats off the the original coder!!

%:/*:if 0;"true" +s ||true<</;#|+q|*/include<stdio.h>/*\_/
{\if(%)}newpath/Times-Roman findfont 20 scalefont setfont(
%%)pop 72 72 moveto(Just another PostScript hacker,)show((
t)}. t:-write('Just another Prolog hacker,'),nl,halt. :-t.
:-initialization(t). end_of_file. %)pop pop showpage(-: */
int main(){return 0&printf("Just another C%s hacker,\n",1%
sizeof'2'*2+"++");}/*\fi}\csname @gobble\endcsname{\egroup
\let\LaTeX\TeX\ifx}\if00\documentclass{article}\begin{doc%
ument}\fi Just another \LaTeX\ hacker,\end{document}|if 0;
/(J.*)\$sh(.*)"/,print"$1Perl$2$/"if$_.=q # hack the lang!
/
sh=sh;test $BASH_VERSION &&sh=bash;test $POSIXLY_CORRECT&&
sh=sh;test $ZSH_VERSION && sh=zsh;awk 'BEGIN{x="%c[A%c[K"
printf(x,27,27)}';echo "Just another $sh hacker," #)pop%*/


-Source: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2006/12/just-because-we-can.html

A right to cheat

See the full article here.

Students and their guardians are demanding that cheating be allowed during the ongoing +2 examination in the state. The administration has been taken aback by the sheer "immoral force" of this demand and had to use guns at some places to ensure students don't cheat.

Students went on the rampage at several places this month, "enraged" by the strict arrangements made by the administration at exam centres. They set ablaze government vehicles, threw stones at the police, ransacked college buildings and, in one case, even fired guns. Guardians fought shoulder-to-shoulder with their children at most places.

Searching for tigers in Bangalore

Census goes where no tiger has ever gone before

Can you spot a tiger on the streets of Bangalore? You won't, but apparently forest minister C Chennigappa can!

If one were to go by his reply in the legislative council last week, tigers do roam about in IT city Bangalore, mining hub Bellary, arid Gulbarga and tourist spot Hassan.

And thereby hangs a tail! Chennigappa said the census was conducted in Bangalore, Bellary, Hassan and Gulbarga forest circles during 2005-06 and the expenditure incurred in these places has added up to Rs 5.41 lakh.

But none of these forest circles are home for tigers! Corroborating this information is the annual census report of the Wild Animals of Karnataka for 1997-98, which incidentally was also furnished by Chennigappa himself in the council.

Wildlife enthusiasts are not amused. "Has anyone seen a tiger in any of these places? What is the need to spend money and do a tiger census here?"

Wildlife conservationists have started questioning the government's motive. Chennigappa had said Rs 25 lakh was earmarked for tiger census in the state after PM Manmohan Singh directed the setting up of a Tiger Task Force, which was mandated with estimating the tiger status.

But to spend that money, the forest department has gone in for a census even in places where they know for certain there is no animal present, let alone tigers.

The government has spent Rs 2.18 lakh on Bangalore circle, Rs 2.18 lakh in Bellary, Rs 1.16 lakh in Hassan and Rs 82,640 in Gulbarga -- totalling Rs 5.41 lakh.

"There needs to be a prey base for tigers to survive in any area, but Bangalore doesn't even have an effective green cover! Pray,why will a tiger roam around Bangalore when there are no deer, wild pigs or sambars for it to prey upon?" a conservationist asked.

"They are spending lakhs of rupees in areas from where tigers have retreated some 60 years ago because of depletion of prey base," the conservationist added.

A forest department official, however, defended: "The money was used to conduct workshops and pay wages for those associated with the census work."

The forest officer, however, didn't have an explanation for undertaking such activities in non-tiger habitats.

Conservationists cry foul: "The money could have been used for some productive purpose, at least in addressing the man-animal conflict which is taking a heavy toll on wildlife population in the state."

But the official maintained: "We will get a clear picture of tiger population in the state after the ongoing survey by the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehra Dun) is completed."

Sources stated that the census is conducted to ascertain tiger population in national parks and Project Tiger areas and not in urban areas.

Flexi-Couch

May not be the most comfortable one... but given that it can be 'folded' into a very small package, I can imagine its usefulness.

Sharp Edges

An Inconvenient Truth

Ever wondered why the weather has become extreme in the last couple of years? Watch Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". It puts some science behind your intuitions. The increased CO2 levels in the recent years and the close relationship between the CO2 level and the temperature, the world-wide occurence of drastic weather changes, etc. all make a compelling argument. The images in the documentary are stunning.

It is easy to confuse the global warming issue with the drive to use alternate fuels. I'm not an expert, but I think even using ethanol based fuels doesn't help.... any combustion based process releases carbon dioxide. May be the answer lies in a process/product that converts CO2 to something less harmful.

Go Green!