Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A funny forward from a friend about Women

In the world of romance, one single rule applies. Make the woman
happy. Do something she likes, and you get points. Do something she dislikes, and points are subtracted. You don't get any points for doing something she expects.

Sorry, that's the way the game is played.

Here is a guide to the point system:


SIMPLE DUTIES

* You make the bed (+1)

* You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow (0)

* You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)

* You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) In the rain (+8) But return

with Beer (-5)

* You check out a suspicious noise at night (+1)

* You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing (0)

* You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)

* You pummel it with iron rod (+10)

* It's her pet (-20)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS

You stay by her side the entire party (0)

You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with a college
buddy (-2)

Named Tina (-10)

Tina is a dancer (-20)

Tina has silicon implants (-80)

HER BIRTHDAY

You take her out to dinner (+2)

You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+3)

Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)

And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)

It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted

the colors of your favorite team (-10)

A NIGHT OUT

You take her to a movie (+1)

You take her to a movie she likes (+3)

You take her to a movie you hate (+6)

You take her to a movie you like (-2)

It's called 'Death Cop' (-3)

You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE

You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)

You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy

Hawaiian shirts (-30)

You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)

THE IG QUESTION

She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) [Yes, you lose points no matter what]

You hesitate in responding (-10)

You reply, "Where?" (-35)

Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION

When she wants to talk about a problem , you listen, displaying what
looks like a concerned expression (0)

You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)

You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)

She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-4000)

Google Finance

Here's the link for Google Finance. Here's the funny thing. The data, quotes and other info in this site keeps updating without a page refresh!! I haven't seen anything like it before. I have no idea what technologies they are using for this behavior. Its simply AWESOME!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Nike Cricket Crazy

Cool ad by Nike, for the upcoming World Cup. Seems Nike is India's sponsor.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

45% of Indian girls married off before 18

WHOA!!! Just Whoa!

More from Kounteya Sinha of TOI:
It’s a social ill that continues to shame India. Nearly 45% of women in the country, aged between 20 and 24, are married off before they reach 18, the legal age to marry. What’s worse, the number is over 50% in eight states.

While 61% of women in Jharkhand were married off before 18, the number stood at 60% in Bihar, 57% in Rajasthan, 55% in Andhra Pradesh, 53% each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 52% in Chhattisgarh.

[snip]

The survey, which interviewed 1,24,395 women and reported a response rate of 94.5%, shows that this social malady exists mostly in rural India. While 52.5% of the cases of under-18 marriages were found to be in rural areas, the number stood at 28.1% in urban India.

Monday, February 19, 2007

33rd National Games concluded officially

33rd National Games of India have officially concluded. 'Services' ended up with most Gold's (59) and Assam ended up with most medals (148). I don't know why Services is regarded as another state. Is there a state called Services that I didn't know of? hmm.. Also, the website has the symbol of Olympic Games on 'Games Result' button for some reason.

Herez a spreadsheet analysis of how various states performed. Andhra did pretty well in medal's per contestant category.

First one is list of states sorted by 'medal's won per contestant'
Second one is when sorted by number of medals



Iraq: The hidden Story

From crooksandliars.com:
What the media isn't showing in Iraq: (h/t Hardliner)

It's a gut-wrenching 49 minutes, but worth your time. Americans, these actions are being done in our name. This is our legacy.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Snow on Feb 1st

Pictures taken from inside our apt in stl,mo this Feb 1st. There was another snow storm yesterday. This is like 4th or 5th storm this season. Not fun! :(

 

 
Posted by Picasa

Friday, February 16, 2007

A good start to end Noise polution

A no-honking Zone is going to be enforced around 100 meter radius of any school/hospital/educational institutions in Hyderabad. A good idea to start reducing the unbearable and useless honking situation in Cities. Obviously, they have to improve the conditions which would reduce the scenario's for honking. Such as, people crossing the roads where ever they want, vehicles parked in the middle of the road and such.

From TOI:
The 'no-honking' rule in identified silent zones will be enforced in the city after a month.

The government on Wednesday announced that a 100-metre radius around hospitals, educational institutions and courts will be notified as silent zones.

Wheel Of Food

Very cool Wheel from Baumgardner's Coverpops.
Thanks BoingBoing:
Unsure of where to go for lunch? Spin the Wheel of Food, a silly-fun interface for Yahoo! Local created by Jim Bumgardner.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

2 Indians in American TVee

There are 2 Indians who are competing in two reality TV shows here in US. I saw that 'Surya Yalamanchili' was on Apprentice 6. I just came to know that there are a couple of Indians in American Idol too. He is 'Sanjaya Malakar'. He is 17 years old and hez through to the top 24. His sister, Shyamali, was also a contestant in AI6 and she didn't make it to top 24.

Monday, February 12, 2007

08' Presidential Front Runners

A brief look at the ages, dob's and religion of the current front runners of the US presidential race. The oldest dem candidate is of the same age as the youngest rep candidate.

Isn't this a Shame!?

A shameful state of National Games in India. Can't even provide the results of a sporting event. Its ridiculous. I mean these are National Games for God's sake. India Shining!! I can't avoid the glare in my eyes.

From Indian Express:
The mediapersons covering the 33rd National Games in Guwahati are badly hit by 'poor disemination' of results and information.

The media centre at the Nehru Stadium, venue of at least five sporting disciplines, wore a deserted look with no authorised person available for switching on the computers.

The situation at the media centre at the main sports complex at Sarusajai was no different.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Interesting!

Interesting!
Japanese is both a person of Japanese ancestry and the language of Japanese. hmm! link

Jap·a·nese (jăp'É™-nÄ“z', -nÄ“s')
adj.

Of or relating to Japan or its people, language, or culture.
n., pl. Japanese.

1.
a. A native or inhabitant of Japan.
b. A person of Japanese ancestry.

2. The language of the Japanese, possibly related to the Altaic family, written in kana and Chinese characters.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Any which way but lose!

An old but wonderful article by Sandipan Deb regarding India's (or Indians) obsession with Cricket. I cannot say I totally agree to his premise that all this is because of our "hunger for recognition from the world leads us to trumpet our supposed superiority to everyone else at the drop of a hat" but all in all a fun read.

A quote from the article:
Only 36 per cent of our population has access to sanitary means of excreta disposal. There are lakhs of Indians who subsist on our streets without even the most basic rights to a human life or a dignified death. Thousands of our citizens live as refugees in their own country, having lost their homes and means of livelihood. Last month, in a poll conducted by The Hindustan Times on the attitudes of Indian youth, more than 50 per cent of the respondents said that given a chance, they would live in some other country.

But even when they do go away to some other country, they have the rediff live cricket scorecard open surreptitiously on their computer monitors throughout their working day. They stay up nights in the US to watch India play in England. They participate in detailed analyses of the Indian team's strengths and weaknesses in countless Internet chat rooms. And they turn out in daunting numbers at the stadium whenever India's playing in their adopted country.

(h/t: sightscreen)

Nirali Magazine Blog

I stumbled across this blog in one of my regular random browsing escapade's. Looks like it concentrates on Indians across the globe. It is an interesting blog. link

11 Most Important Philosophical Quotations.

(h/t: Amit @ India Uncut)

1. “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates (470-399 BCE)
2. “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily” – William of Ockham (1285 - 1349?)
3. “The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” – Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
4. “I think therefore I am” – René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
5. “To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi).” Or, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is 6. “We live in the best of all possible worlds.” – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716)
7. “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” G.W.F. Hegel (1770 – 1831)
8. “Who is also aware of the tremendous risk involved in faith – when he nevertheless makes the leap of faith – this [is] subjectivity … at its height.” – Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)
9. “God is dead.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
10. “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” – Albert Camus (1913 – 1960)
11. “One cannot step twice in the same river.” – Heraclitus (ca. 540 – ca. 480 BCE)

Monday, February 5, 2007

Violence in Super Bowl Ads

The darkness of the Super Bowl ads

I watched most of these ads yesterday, but didn't notice the underlying theme. Gosh! Did we become so tolerant of violence in our media?

And the scientific evidence shows that they either did not connect with the audience or scared the hell out of them. hmmm

A comment in the above blog that makes sense:
By Anonymous, at 2/05/2007 7:33 AM

Sweet jehova! Let's not go overboard here. I think Anonymous was right when he said the companies thought it was safer to go with violence over sex. Sex get's you fined by the FCC. The violence in these comercials was the equivalent of Wile E. Coyote getting an anvil to the head. As another poster said, the tolerance for violence in this country is very high, particulary of the sort on display Sunday (during a violent sporting event). Make those ads realistic, showing the physical aftermath of said violence and you'd probably have several million poeple crying out with you.

American Humvee Driving in Baghdad

Wow! Winning hearts and minds, the american way.

(h/t:http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/04/winning-hearts-minds/)

Friday, February 2, 2007

School Pledge

Is this the pledge we read every day @ school in India when we were kids? I am sure mine started with 'India is my country'. But I don't remember if the rest of it is what we used to read out loud every single day at school. Do you guys have any other version of it? I got this from google.
India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always strive to be worthy of it. I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and elders and treat everyone with courtesy. To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their wellbeing and prosperity alone, lies my happiness. Jai Hind

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Cheney's note to McClellan


They write notes!! (TM: Atrios)

Here's the notes Cheney wrote to McClellan to lie to the press corps about Scooter, just like he did for Karl Rove. Wow!

From Kevin Drum:
So who was it that asked Libby to take the lead in talking to the press about Joe Wilson's trip to Niger? Apparently it was "this Pres," but immediately after writing this Cheney decided the passive voice was a better bet. Even in a note to McClellan, it was best not to admit that Bush had ever been involved. Plausible deniability, you see.

IPL Players - Where are they from?