"Aadhi" bhagavn mudhatre Ulagu

Make Dried Apples for a Cheap, Healthy Snack That Stores for Months [Food]

2012-02-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Make Dried Apples for a Cheap, Healthy Snack That Stores for Months [Food]:

Dried apples are not only a nutritious snack, they're fantastically delicious too and easy to make at home. All you need is a little lemon juice and water and you can preserve a bunch of apples for the whole winter. More »

thought of the day : it could very well be true.

2011-08-25T23:52:00.001-07:00

thought of the day : it could very well be true.:

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," a positively brilliant quotation by the great Benjamin Franklin, displayed artfully on a 5x7" print from Felt & Wire Shop. ($8)

thought of the day : it could very well be true.

2011-08-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

2011-08-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

Vacation Stress

2011-07-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Vacation Stress: "

Very very accurate.

Pencil Shaving Art

2011-07-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Pencil Shaving Art: "

Advertise here with BSA

super cool pencil Shavin art by designer Kyle Bean.….See more Here

Start your own Design Contest today and choose from 50–200+ custom design made just for you.

Design You Trust RSS Feed Design You Trust on FB Design You Trust on Twitter Design You Trust

36 Strong Logo Designs Inspired by Animals

2011-07-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

36 Strong Logo Designs Inspired by Animals: "

Nothing says branding more than your very own logo. Corporations, organizations, groups and teams all have their own emblems, symbolizing the very ideals and vision that they stand up for. From the purely graphic to the wordy, you too can establish your very own brand with your own logo!

Represent and be recognized through these fierce animal-inspired logo designs. In as much as the inspiration for these designs are strong, regal, and the leaders of the pack, then so too are the companies and organizations that they characterize.

Xerxes

Black Sparrow

Mosquito

Church of the Hills

Fox

Istocna Cuda

Cinqleo

Pacific Shore Capital

Serpent Studios

Artopus

Sprintfox

Flamin Fish Taco

Stallion Construction

Hedgehog

Asgardia

Elk

Collaborative Conservation Network

Slugshot

Profis Bud

Fundrival

Red Lions

Ecodeer

Fox Burrow

Fire Officers Association

Powerplant

Silver Squid

Orange Cat

Vangaard

Bison, Vancouver

Flaming Eagles

Humberstone

Tuatara

Unimedia

Ken L Gazelle

Icarus

Taurus

GO Squirrel GO!

2011-07-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

GO Squirrel GO!: "

Final Frame: What's Your Pleasure?

2011-07-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Final Frame: What's Your Pleasure?: "

Read Full Post"

The Art of Bribery

2011-07-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

The Art of Bribery: "

Interesting piece on bribery in China. The following four scenarios all have counterparts elsewhere but, as relayed by the author, in China the elegance of the art and the elegance of the bribe are all brought together with true appreciation.

The First Scenario:

The corrupted official can sell a fake painting at any rigged gallery. After coordinating with the official, the briber will go to the designated gallery and buy it at the agreed price plus the commission of the gallery owner. All of the three parties know that the painting is fake, but eventually they are all benefited. This fake painting can be reused and it can go through another bribery circulation of other “elegant” buyers and sellers.

The Second Scenario:

The briber puts a real and expensive painting at the gallery. The gallery marks down the price as if it were a fake painting. The official buys it as if he has the greatest bargain on earth. Sooner or later, the official can resell it at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

The Third Scenario:

The briber visits the official and gives him/her a real or fake painting as a present. Three days later, a seemingly unrelated person knocks the door of the official and buys that particular painting at an unreasonably high price. This buyer is actually a trusted subordinate of the briber, and, by doing so, the whole process does not involve the gallery whose owner will certainly ask for a commission.

The Fourth Scenario:

There are rigged auction houses all over China and they become the most suitable places for elegant corruption. The briber, first of all, gets a fake painting either from a gallery or a fake painting factory. Then, s/he provides relevant document proof of scholars and experts to take care of the problem of authenticity. These scholars and experts are paid to confirm the authenticity of this fake painting. They falsify every historical detail, evidence of painting style and scientific verification of the materials used. The forged painting is then given to the official as a gift and is auctioned at a very high price. Eventually, there is always someone coming from nowhere who wins the bid. Again, the bidder is a trusted person of the briber. These auction houses get hush money before the whole corruption process is completed.

Hat tip: Daniel Lippman.

Google Reader (1000+)

2011-06-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Google Reader (1000+): "The Beauty lies in the Coma Berenices constellation. This is a fascinating region of the cosmos. The Coma Berenices was named after an historical figure, one of the few constellations to do so. In this case, the honor went to Queen Berenices II of Egypt. Although Coma Berenices isn’t a very large constellation, she contains the Northern portion of the Virgo Cluster, along with several globular clusters. She boasts eight Messier objects; one of which is the Beauty. You will find a tremendous number of galaxies here, assorted nebulae, quasars, and the Northern Galactic Pole.
Enjoy."

MORE BAD NEWS: Software Can Copy Your Keys From A Photograph Taken 200 Feet Away

2011-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

MORE BAD NEWS: Software Can Copy Your Keys From A Photograph Taken 200 Feet Away: "

A new piece of software cleverly titled Sneakey makes it possible to copy keys using nothing more than a photograph, even if that photograph was taken from far away, according to Peter Murray at Singularity Hub.

In one demonstration, the software helped create working keys using a picture taken with a cell phone camera and a picture taken with a telephoto lens over 200 feet away.

This might have you thinking twice about taking your keys out in public.

Who's to blame for this? A group of scientists at UC San Diego. The technology behind it is relatively simple -- they just applied a straightforward principle that ended up having far-reaching implications.

First they photograph a blank key of the same brand. The software that compares the differences between the blank key and the target key, and that's enough to create a functioning copy.

Essential gear for the next spy movie. Let's hope it's being used by the good guys.

Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

The Strongest Computer Virus In History Has Arrived

The Best Kinect Hacks We've Ever Seen

MAIL HACK: Watch The Amazing Journey This Disposable Camera Took To Hawaii

Gravity is a bitch

2011-06-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Gravity is a bitch: "

‘Utterly-Butterly’ Delicious Amul Set To Expand Its Wings In The US With A Manufacturing Plant

2011-06-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

‘Utterly-Butterly’ Delicious Amul Set To Expand Its Wings In The US With A Manufacturing Plant: "

How many brands exist which you and I can associate fond childhood memories with still continue to delight us? Well, Amul is one such brand for me. Amul Butter was part of uncountable breakfast meals for me and continues to be. A brand that came to define the product itself similar to Xerox, Amul has in every sense come to stand unanimously for ‘butter’. The fact that the brand has been around for so long is what it makes it only special.

Amul, a brand that was born to foster rural development and ensure that farmers get the right remuneration for their produce has now become a name to reckon with and is Asia-Pacific’s number one brand. Now, a brand that grew out of an untested co-operative model has set its sight to tap the international markets.

Amul is all set to setup a manufacturing plant in the United States to specifically cater to the demand for its products in the US and Europe. The company intends to start with manufacturing of ghee and paneer and then gradually start manufacturing other products

An Indian company setting up a new manufacturing unit in the international market may not be a big deal especially in the recent past where numerous Indian companies have expanded their footprint across the globe. But for some reason, Amul in principle is significantly different from typical private and public companies in India and continuing success of Amul is worth taking note of for various reasons.

Amul could teach the corporate world a thing or two about doing sustainable and clean business…

Amul by no means is small or medium enterprise;it recently crossed $2 Bn in revenues. Now for a company which effectively was formed on principles of ensuring fairness across the entire manufacturing / supply chain and ensuring that the bottom of the chain supplier – the farmer gets his due, I really don’t know how many $2 Bn companies can match Amul.

Amul has a company has always believed in sustainable operations. By not undercutting the farmers for their effort and paying them in full, Amul has for the most part established itself as an organization with fair business policies and ethical conduct. (*I have personally never come across any frauds/malpractices associated with Amul)

Amul is a testimony that there is indeed ‘Future at the Bottom of The Pyramid’. Amul was and continues to remain a rural initiative for the most part. Brining individual farmers under a co-operative model has done wonders for Amul. The co-operative model which makes clear business case makes me wonder why other organizations have not managed to replicate the co-operative model into successful ventures

Amul has stood for high standards of product quality and this could be the very reason a dairy brand was able to leave its mark in International markets. Again, it is my assumption but I doubt if Amul had to resort to any knee-jerk initiatives even in tough economic times

Amul’s advertising strategy has also been unique for the most part. For years, Amul has relied on traditional hoarding ads but with a fresh twist. Amul continues to delight the masses with its hoarding ads which for the most part provide a humorous take on current affairs. It has recently diversified into TV advertising etc. for various products, but as far as I can remember hoarding ads is all the marketing that Amul has done for a long time and I would say it has gotten the maximum bang out of that

An organization that started out as a rural development initiative is now an international brand. If that is not enough, Amul has also embarked on contributing its bit to Green Revolution as well.

Amidst all the good that Amul has come to represent, I wonder how has it has survived and excelled in the markets for decades without any major question mark on its business and operating standards. Amul to me is a great example of a successful organization even as we witness large companies in India get tangled with huge scams and unethical operations.

What are your thoughts on the continued growth of Amul over so many years? Is the co-operative model followed by Amul worth replicating across various developing regions and sectors?

Guruji spreads its wings with music search

AMUL ranked as Number One Indian brand in Asia Pacific !

An Airline That Is Bucking The Trend,Paramount To Expand Fleet and Provide Value Additions

Reliance enters steel plant construction. Next is what?

Chennai – Fast becoming India’s Auto Manufacturing Hub!

Our Narrowing Food Tree

2011-06-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Our Narrowing Food Tree: "

From NatGeo:

Sentence of the Day

2011-06-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sentence of the Day: "

NPR: The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

That’s more than NASA’s budget. It’s more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It’s what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

Woman dies of heart attack at own funeral

2011-06-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

Woman dies of heart attack at own funeral: "

Shock of resurrection proves fatal

A Russian woman died of a heart attack at her own funeral, after waking up to find praying mourners filing past her coffin.…

Failing to drink

2011-06-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

Failing to drink: "

The Most Eco-Friendly iPhone Speaker Made from Bamboo, Uses Zero Electricity

2011-06-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

The Most Eco-Friendly iPhone Speaker Made from Bamboo, Uses Zero Electricity: "
image via YouTube video

I think this just might be the greenest speaker for iPhones that we've come across yet. It's a piece of bamboo. And that's it. Just a piece of bamboo...but it works wonderfully. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Google To FCC: Stop Letting The Voice Network Tail Wag The Internet Dog

2011-06-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

Google To FCC: Stop Letting The Voice Network Tail Wag The Internet Dog: "

The Internet carries nearly 160 times more traffic than voice networks in North America, yet many of the regulations and inter-carrier traffic fees are based on the quickly receding era when voice networks ruled. Google calls this the “Tail Wagging The Dog” in a letter to the FCC (embedded below) urging them not to impose antiquated per-minute voice traffic fees on IP networks. This is becoming an issue as IP voice traffic approaches that of traditional circuit-switched voice traffic. Google’s lawyers write in their letter:

Standalone voice traffic already is decreasing markedly relative to other forms of communications traffic; in fact, as depicted in the attached, the majority of voice traffic will be IP-based in just a few years. Accordingly, the FCC should not allow what amounts to the very small tail of legacy voice wireline services to wag the very large dog of all communications traffic exchange. In particular, per-minute voice traffic origination and termination charges are a persistent but unwelcome relic from the circuit-switched telephony era, and not best-suited for modern IP traffic and networks.

Google illustrates the changing nature of the network in a series of dramatic slides. Back in 1997, U.S. Internet traffic was only 3,300 terabytes per month, compared to 54,000 terabytes per month for the voice network. Three years later in 2000, voice traffic peaked at 66,000 terabytes per month, while Internet traffic had grown more than eightfold to 28,000 terabytes oer month.

By 2005, consumer IP traffic had reached 669,000 terabytes per month (with 2 terabytes of that being IP voice traffic), while voice traffic had shrunk to 48,000 terabytes per month.

In 2010, consumer IP traffic in North America completely dwarfed voice traffic with 5.7 terabytes per month versus 36,000 for the aging voice network. What’s more, IP voice traffic (Skype, Google Voice, etc.) accounted for 21,000 terabytes per month, or nearly 60 percent of what was going over the old switched network.

All of these networks, both data and voice, are going to IP networks. By 2015, Google estimates that consumer IP traffic in North America will more than triple again to 19.4 million terabytes per month, whereas the voice network will shrink further to 26,000 terabytes per month. And IP voice traffic will be almost as big at 21,000 terabytes per month (See top slide). The entire letter with all the slides is embedded below.

View this document on Scribd

CrunchBase Information

Google

Information provided by CrunchBase

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly...

2011-06-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly...: "

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. Thus it absorbs the visible light despite the scattered shortest blue fraction, giving it its distinct deep blue waved appearance. This cavity in the glacier ice formed as a result of a glacial mill, or moulin.

Rain and meltwater on the glacier surface is channelled into streams that enter the glacier at crevices. The waterfall melts a hole into the glacier while the ponded water drains towards lower elevations by forming long ice caves with an outlet at the terminus of the glacier. The fine grained sediments in the water along with wind blown sediments cause the frozen meltwater stream to appear in a muddy colour while the top of the cave exhibits the deep blue colour.

Due to the fast movement of the glacier of about 1 m per day over uneven terrain this ice cave cracked up at its end into a deep vertical crevice, called cerrac. This causes the indirect daylight to enter the ice cave from both ends resulting in homogeneous lighting of the ice tunnel.

How Larry Page Thinks About Search (GOOG)

2011-06-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

How Larry Page Thinks About Search (GOOG): "

Google's SVP of the search division, Alan Eustace, stuck around to answer a few questions after today's Google Inside Search event, and he gave some new insights into the way CEO Larry Page thinks about search.

Here are some long term goals:

Answers, not just results. Page isn't satisfied with the fact that Google only provides a set of disconnected Web results queries, and wants it to provide more organized and sequenced results. For instance, conducting a search on 'what's the best way to build a space suit?' might provide a set of instructional videos first, followed by businesses that can provide supplies, engineering resources, and so on to complete the actual task.

Providing relevant results BEFORE you search. Take the example of a person who's suffering from a knee problem and has been researching surgery techniques. After his search is done, Google might get information that there's a new experimental technique that can reduce recovery time by 30% -- but there's no way for the person to get that information until he conducts another search. Google would like to find a way to deliver this kind of information even when people aren't actively looking for it.

Better context. Eustace gave the example of somebody planning a trip to New York next week, and asking a question like 'what should I do in New York?' Google should be able to understand the question, provide a list of activities based on known interests, and then remember that you're in New York during a certain time period when you conduct future searches.

Eustace also said that Google still gets more desktop searches than mobile searches, and that there's an internal bet going on when mobile will surpass desktop. He wouldn't give us the over/under date, but said he's on the 'sooner' side because mobile search has a kind of immediacy that is very appealing.

That's not only the case with local queries -- like 'where's a good cafe nearby?' -- but also with general knowledge questions. Helping your kid answer a question like 'why don't babies drown in their mothers' bellies?' immediately is a lot more satisfying than waiting until the next time you're in front of a computer.

Please follow SAI: Silicon Alley Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

Google Announces Instant Pages -- Making The Web Load Faster

Google Making Big Search Announcement Tomorrow?

Here's One Reason To Hate Amazon's Android App Store

Why We Love And Hate The Smartphone

2011-06-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Why We Love And Hate The Smartphone: "

It's hard to remember what life was like before the smartphone – but for better or worse it's revolutionized the way we communicate, work, search the Web, and of course, settle trivial debates with our friends.

This cute graphic from Matthew Inman of "The Oatmeal" illustrates our fascinating love-hate relationship with the mobile phone that's transformed all of our lives.

Republished with permission from Matthew Inman aka 'The Oatmeal,' a former web designer turned comic artist. You can see more of his work on The Oatmeal. Matthew is a one man operation, so be sure to check out posters and prints from his shop or order a copy of his book.

Please follow SAI: Silicon Alley Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

I could stare at this for hours

2011-06-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

I could stare at this for hours: "

Nickelodeon to Air 1990s Programming Beginning This Fall

2011-03-11T01:10:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon to Air 1990s Programming Beginning This Fall: "

Old-school Nickelodeon fans, your day has come - the network has announced that beginning this fall, TeenNick will air 1990s programming favorites including Clarissa Explains It All, All That, Rugrats, and Kenan & Kel!

The programming block will air from midnight until 2 a.m. and be called The ’90s Are All That, EW reports, adding that the network approved the idea after seeing interest from fans across social media sites.

Also airing in the block are Pete & Pete and The Amanda Show. EW notes that over time, TeenNick hopes to air other ’90s shows and movies.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE 1990s Nickelodeon show?

right or not right?!

2011-03-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

right or not right?!: "

graphical typo-posters by unknown artist.

more poster here.

Design You Trust RSS Feed Design You Trust on FB Design You Trust on Twitter Design You Trust

†

2011-03-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

†: "

http://1990-1999.tumblr.com/

A Million Random Digits: review of reviews

2011-03-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

A Million Random Digits: review of reviews: "

Recently on his blog (here), Robin mentioned an amazing book, called 'A Million Random Digits' published by RAND corporation. The book was initially published in 1955, but RAND published a nice (and expensive) second edition.

A great thing is that on Amazon, there are several extremely interesting reviews of the book. E.g.

Didn’t like the ending, February 10, 2009 By Damien Katz

Even though I didn’t really see it coming, the ending was kind of anti-climatic. But overall the book held my attention and I really liked the '10034 56429 234088' part. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who feels that way.

I found a typo, September 14, 2007 By fanfan

To whom do I write to report typographical errors? I noticed that the first '7' on the third line page 48 should be a '3'. The '7' that’s printed there now isn’t random. Other than that, this is really an excellent book.

Superb and original plot, April 21, 2007 By Herr Tarquin Biskuitfaß

This one has a very unpredictable plot, sublime character development in a style that stubbornly defies any sort of development in its rare and iconoclastic brilliance, and is told remarkably with numbers instead of letters. Take, for example, this passage on page 202, '98783 24838 39793 80954'. I’m speechless. The symmetry is reminiscent of the I Ching, and it approaches a rare spiritual niveau lacking in American literature. It not only reads well, but it looks great too. I have a tattoo of page 214 on my arm, and I’m hoping to get 202 on my belly to celebrate my next birthday. It is an injustice that Rand Corporation has not received the Nobel Prize for Literature, nor even a Pulitzer.

A serious reference work?, October 16, 2006 By BJ

For a supposedly serious reference work the omission of an index is a major impediment. I hope this will be corrected in the next edition.

Not Nearly A Million, September 3, 2006 By Liron

This book does not even come close to delivering on its promise of one million random digits. My expectations were high after reading the first sentence, which contained ten unique digits. However, the author seems to have exhasted his creativity in this initial burst, because the other 99.999% of the book is filler in which those same ten digits are shamelessly reused! If you are looking for a larger offering of numerals in various bases, I highly recommend "Peter Rabbit’s ABC and 123".

Wait for the audiobook version, October 19, 2006 By R. Rosini "Newtype"

While the printed version is good, I would have expected the publisher to have an audiobook version as well. A perfect companion for one’s Ipod.

Wait for it…, February 10, 2009 By Cranky Yankee

It started off slow, single digit slow in the beginning but I stuck with it. I eventually learned all about the different numbers, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0 and their different combinations. The author introduced them all a bit too quickly for my taste. I would have been perfectly happy with just 1,2,3,4 and 5 for the first 20,000 digits, but then again, I’m not a famous random-number author, am I? After a while, patterns emerged and the true nature of the multiverse was revealed to me, and the jokes were kinda funny. I don’t want to spoil anything but you will LOVE the twist ending! Like 4352204 said to 64231234, "2242 6575 0013 2829!"

OK, I have to admit I tried to check a few of them (that's my freaky part). For instance the first one is a fake: the two first numbers - for instance - never show up together (consecutively),

> DIGIT=read.table('
+ http://freakonometrics.blog.free.fr/public/data/digits.txt')
> DIGIT=DIGIT[,2:11]
> k=1
> I=apply(DIGIT[,1:2]==c(10034,56429),1,sum)==2
> for(k in 2:9){
+ I=cbind(I,apply(DIGIT[,k+0:1]==c(10034,56429),1,sum)==2)
+ }
> I0=which(apply(I,1,sum)>0)
> DIGIT[I0,]
 [1] V2  V3  V4  V5  V6  V7  V8  V9  V10 V11
<0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

Nevertheless, I did have some fun reading those reviews. About the book, unfortunately I have to confess I stopped after 99998 appeared (the first time).

This post was kindly contributed by Freakonometrics - Tag - R-english - go there to comment and to read the full post.

Parenting Handbook: Father Hand-Paints Super Mario Bros. Mural in Son's Bedroom

2011-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Parenting Handbook: Father Hand-Paints Super Mario Bros. Mural in Son's Bedroom: "

Anyone accepting nominations for parents of the year? Because this guy deserves it. On a whim, a Tennessee man named Casey Fleser—a self-professed "software developer, hobby collector, family man, and all around good guy—decided to decorate his sons' room in a Super Mario Bros. theme. "I didn’t really think about it," he explains, "except that it would be cool." Well, sometimes cool equals expensive, and Fleser came face to face with a set of decals that would help make the coolness happen—for $1,100.

The aim was to recreate World 1-1, the video game's uber-recognizable first level:

"I worked it out so each pixel would work out to 1/4″ square and my scene would be 232 (58″) pixels tall by about 2060 pixels wide (515″). Since the vast majority of it was sky, it surely wouldn’t be that much work, right?

So we got to work and quickly had our three background color painted: black on the bottom, an orangeish stripe along the middle that would be the ground, and the blue sky above. The next day we’d pencil in a grid and start painting pixels."

Later, Fleser reflected on the process. 'Now if I can just avoid blurting out any more ridiculous ideas,' he writes.

· This Year's Stupid Idea [SGnTN via Boing Boing]

Twitter Is Having Acquisition Talks With Facebook And Google And Thinks It Can Become A $100 Billion Company

2011-02-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

Twitter Is Having Acquisition Talks With Facebook And Google And Thinks It Can Become A $100 Billion Company: "

No one will accuse Twitter of not thinking big.

Twitter thinks it can become a $100 billion company, report Spencer Ante, Amir Efrati, and Anupreeta Das in the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter has also had 'low-level' acquisition talks with Facebook and Google and other companies and wants an $8-$10 billion takeout price.

Google and Facebook apparently still have 'latent' interest in buying Twitter, but the talks are on and off and don't sound particularly serious.

Some other interesting details from the article:

Twitter had revenue of $45 million in 2010 and lost money

Twitter estimates that its revenue this year will be $100-$110 million

One of Twitter's new ad services, Promoted Trends, is selling out every day

Twitter now has more than 350 employees

Twitter's 'president of revenue,' Adam Bain, has already built a sales force of more than 20 people

If Twitter would actually sell for $10 billion, Google should just step up and buy it (see the reasons here). The company would barely miss the cash, and Twitter would actually put it on the map in social media.

We actually don't think a Twitter-Facebook deal is even plausible at this point. We think there would be a protracted anti-trust investigation prodded along by Microsoft and Google, and we don't think Facebook could come up with enough cash to make the deal work. We also think that, if Facebook were to get close to buying Twitter, Google would pay whatever it took to steal Twitter away.

Join the conversation about this story »

Endgame, and the rationality of Bobby Fischer

2011-02-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

*Endgame*, and the rationality of Bobby Fischer: "

The author is Frank Brady and the subtitle is Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall -- from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness. It is sure to make my list of the best books of 2011 and it requires no real knowledge of chess. Here is an excerpt on the rationality of the young Fischer:

While they were waiting for the results, Bisguier asked Bobby why he's offered the draw to Shipman when he had a slight advantage and the outcome wasn't certain. If Bobby had won that game, he would have been the tournament's clear winner, a half point ahead of Bisguier. Bobby replied that he had more to gain than lose by the decision. He'd assumed that Bisguier would either win or draw his own game, and if so, Bobby would have at least a tie for first place. That meant a payday of $750 for each player, a virtual gold mine for Fischer. Recognizing Bobby's greater need for money than the capture of a title, however prestigious, Bisguier noted: "Evidently, his mature judgment is not solely confined to the chessboard."

Much later in Fischer's life:

...Bobby and Miyoko attended a screening [in Japan] of the American film Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese Zeroes began bombing the ships in Battleship Row and destroyed the USS Arizona, Bobby began clapping loudly. He was the only one in the theater to do do -- much to the embarrassment of the Japanese. He said that he was shocked that no one else joined in.

There are many revelations in this book, including that Bobby turned to Catholicism in the last period of his life.

Ask the Commenters Roundup [Hive Mind]

2011-02-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

Ask the Commenters Roundup [Hive Mind]: "

What Kind of iPhone Owner Are You?

2011-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

What Kind of iPhone Owner Are You?: "

by All Area Codes

Good stuff. I think if you’ve spent any time on iPhone related forums (or just with a lot of iPhone users) you’ll find several of these very familiar. The Complainer is definitely one that I’ve seen plenty of around the web.

So which type of iPhone owner are you? Do any of these fit you, or have you got another type to tell us about?

Source: allareacodes via Gizmodo

Correction of the Year?

2011-02-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

Correction of the Year?: "

This is almost too good to be true. Via The Media Blog, here's a correction that ran in Australia's Morning Bulletin:

Will Sturgeon writes on The Media Blog:

It is a little surprising that the reporter didn't think to check. 'Crikey, that's a lot of a pigs mate, are you sure you mean 30,000?'. Similarly, if they really thought there were 30,000 pigs floating down the river, why did they only put it on page 11? That would be Biblical!

The obvious source of the error is a mishearing of the initial fricative in sows and [saʊz ənd] as thousand [ˈθaʊzənd]. But beyond that, I think the misunderstanding between the reporter and piggery owner could have been amplified by the use of pig in its specific or "marked" form — that is, meaning 'a young member of the domesticated subspecies Sus scrofa domesticus' rather than the general or 'unmarked' version, 'any member of Sus scrofa domesticus.' As the Oxford English Dictionary explains under sense 2a of pig, the more specific sense of the word is 'chiefly used in periods when and regions where the usual words for an adult pig are swine, hog, sow, or boar.' (The sense is now mainly restricted to North America, according to the OED.) So if the hapless reporter wasn't expecting the semantic distinction of sow vs. pig as used in animal husbandry, then it would be much easier to construe the remark as referring to pigs in the general sense.

Still… 30,000?

(Hat tip, Lynne Murphy via Twitter.)

Google’s New Vivid Office in London Featuring Telephone Booths, Giant Dice and Beach Huts

2011-02-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

Google’s New Vivid Office in London Featuring Telephone Booths, Giant Dice and Beach Huts: "

All Google offices around the world can be characterized by originality and out-of-the-box staff interaction ideas. This particular project was developed by architecture firm Scott Brownrigg and is located in London. As seen on Dezeen, the total space of the office is 40,000 sq ft and the theme behind the design is Brighton beach. Here are further details from Google: “Brightly coloured timber beach huts are meeting rooms and giant colourful dice accommodate individual video conference booths, original dodgem cars and traditional red telephone booths are all work spaces available to staff and visitors. Open plan workstations for all staff are mixed with a few offices, meeting rooms and open break out seating areas and support spaces for printing and IT technical support. Scott Brownrigg Interior Design has designed a fully fitted out gym/shower facility, massage and spa treatment centre, and an Asian Fusion/Sushi restaurant that is free for all staff. What a fantastic way to gain the loyalty of your employees!

Ready for more amazing design ideas? Check below !

Dice Lamp- Play On!	Surreal Looking Beach House Within a Dramatic Environment	Awesome Modern Office Chair	Beach House in Malibu, California
Luxurious Home in London’s Holland Park	Sakuragawa House by Suppose Design Office

Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

Wearable Planters

2011-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Wearable Planters: "

Why should your plants stay at home? That's what Atlanta-based Colleen Jordan asked and why she subsequently designed these adorable wearable planters! Carry a sprout, a succulent, or a flower you found on your morning walk.

55 Breathtaking Examples of High Speed Photography

2011-01-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

55 Breathtaking Examples of High Speed Photography: "

High Speed Photography is getting very popular day by day. High speed photography produces awesome results because of a relatively faster shutter speed. This form of photography comes into play when we want to capture those scenes which cannot be witnessed with bare eyes.

We have already published a post about 40 Stunning High Speed Photographs and that was greatly appreciated by our readers. Now we have gathered another great collection of High Speed Photography. This round-up contains 55 most stunning and appealing high speed photographs which demonstrate the remarkable skills of the photographers who have taken such amazing snaps. Full list after the jump.

Golf Splash 1

Smash!!

The blind golfer hits an egg

Bananas to the beat

By Lee Delaunay

High Speed Photography3

4 \ 31

Splash

C-Break

Splash

Lime Drop 2

Red Rain

Breaking Free

High Speed Balloon Popping

Colt Government Airgun Meets Mr Plum

More Broken Christmas

Whiplash!

Mega Fountain for Mega Tower

High Speed Lighter 3

Lights Out

Coffee Splash

Suspended

Lemon Splash

Year 2008

Another high speed try

Eggsplosion

A One Cent Martini

Crash

Through the Looking Glass

Bam! (Fist)

Banana shot 1

Orange

Quarters

Distortion

Water balloon No # 2

Coffee & Splash

Crazy drops

tea

Santa Better Watch Out

The Endless Summers

By Lee Delaunay

Another Crown

Stawberries and milk.

Fun with marbles and colors

Micro-Stroboscopic Drop Collision Sequence

Glasnost

Shattered Glass

High-speed photo balloon test

Splash!

Paintball meets Light Bulb! – Series #2

High Speed Photography (Attempt #1)

Blue tit in Flight

Near Death Experience

Bullet Art

Brought To You By

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Hideous fonts may boost reading comprehension

2011-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

Hideous fonts may boost reading comprehension: "

On the subject of fonts (or, typefaces, to use the more technically accurate term), feelings often run high. People have their favorites, for reasons both practical and sentimental. The story of how Helvetica became the preeminent typeface of our times has inspired a documentary film, while loathing of Comic Sans has prompted what can only be called a typographical jihad. A surprising number of older authors name Courier as the font they prefer to write in because it resembles the characters of a typewriter and therefore kindly suggests that the current draft is still available for improvement. But surely everyone can agree that a good typeface is easy to read, right?

Bottle Caps: 31 Reasons To Create Gorgeous Recycled Crafts

2011-01-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Bottle Caps: 31 Reasons To Create Gorgeous Recycled Crafts: "[ By Marc in Furniture & Interiors, Guerilla Action & Art. ]

Bottle caps typically only come to mind when one is cracking open a beer, or drinking a classic bottled soda. With little changes to the actual function of caps (minus the ability to twist off in some cases), the bottle cap is a holdover from earlier times and seems immune to change. As a raw material for crafting, bottle caps are given a new life as part of gorgeous and surprisingly functional works of art.

(Images via nowthatsnifty, ofmiceandramen, technabob, octavarius, technabob, odditycentral)

Drinking goes along well with video game playing, so it makes sense that some geeks would put their piles of bottle caps to good use! Some classic pixelated characters are simple to replicate, while other subjects are much more complex. Regardless of the difficulty, the end product will pull the heartstrings of any true dork.

(Images via artcar, nowthatsnifty, artcar, twoeyeworkshop)

It’s not uncommon to slap corny stickers all over one’s car, but some drivers like to give their vehicle a more unique look. Enter the bottle cap vehicles; a collection of cars that are covered in intricate bottle cap patterns and designs that are quite visually appealing.

(Images via apartmenttherapy, mollybright, inhabitat, pik-a-boo, bakati, bakati)

Bottle caps are not the first material one probably thinks of when contemplating a detailed portrait. Some artists relish using unique recycled materials, and prove to be up to the challenge of creating realistic portraits out of a difficult raw material.

(Images via wearableartblog, greatgreengoods, historia-antiques, redbarncreations, greatgreengoods)

Bottle caps are a surprisingly handy tool for decorating household furniture. If one really wants to impress friends, why not create a bottle cap dress like the one shown above? There’s no doubt it would be uncomfortable, but it would also be the talk of the town.

(Images via cultmodern, tamcao)

The incredible detail attained by some bottle cap artists is unbelievable. Portraits come to life as realistic depictions despite the mundane materials used to craft them.

(Images via bakati, johntunger, bakati, johntunger, johntunger)

Lazy days on the beach inevitably end with piles of beer bottle caps and it’s nice to see some beach bums turning them into something that’s not only decorative, but environmentally friendly to boot. Artists such as John T Unger give bottle caps new life in these festive marine-themed creations.

(Images via hungryholler, inventorspot, kempa, recyclednight, craftzine)

The next time one is looking for an interesting and fun craft project, or even something more ambitious, look no further than the counter after a big party. Bottle caps might be easy to overlook, but that just makes the challenge of creating stunning bottle cap artwork that much more enjoyable.

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Fast Food Ads versus Reality

2011-01-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

Fast Food Ads versus Reality: "

I don’t eat Western fast food* often perhaps once every 6 – 12 months. However, when I travel, I do like to go to different countries and see what their fastfood versions are like.

*McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, you get the idea. I consider Vietnamese pho, Middle Eastern shawarmas and all that stuff to be fast food as well.

For instance, in Paris, France, the McDonald’s cafes sold macarons.

They didn’t look anything like the photo below, although they were very tasty. Cake-like and blasphemous at the same time**.

Citron (Lemon) pictured below was my favourite. My mouth is watering.

**All Parisians swear up and down that that Ladurée is the best in Paris but my unsophisticated and plebian tastes preferred the McDonald’s version.

More like a cake. Less like whipped air. In my defense, BF is originally from France and says he preferred the McDonald’s version too.

So when I take a look at these following images of fast food advertisements versus reality, I’m slightly disgusted but fascinated at the same time:

Conclusion? We all knew this, but as is with all media, take anything you see, read or hear with a grain of salt.

Note: I said “media” because even watching the news can shape your world view. Television shows, movies, anything you watch and consume as a media consumer, has an agenda. Figure out what it is and then proceed.

These are images all taken from a fabulously documented site called: Fast Food – Ads vs. Reality. You can see more the site.

Here are more from another site called Pics Roll:

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Fast Food Happiness vs. Long-lasting, Bellyful Happiness

Cooking for the Week: Recipes & Food Blogs

Renting versus Owning

A Minimalist’s Pantry and Stock of Food

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: Fabulously Broke in the City, a lifestyle blog with just a hint of money talk!

Elephant!

2011-01-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Elephant!: ""

Still life. Totally brilliant.

2010-12-13T03:04:00.000-08:00

Still life. Totally brilliant.: "

Wires transform these objects from inanimate to hilarious works of art.

Found on: http://www.bentobjects.blogspot.com/

Submitted by B.Jones

Google Launches Largest eBookstore

2010-12-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

Google Launches Largest eBookstore: "

Google launches eBookstore of its own kind, called as Google eBookstore. The main motive is to provide you free books to read. Google eBookstore is said to be the largest digital eBookstore.

Google eBookstore is having more than 3 million titles in all, agree that’s huge. Out of 3 million titles 2.8 million of Google’s ebooks are free and without copyright. There would be around 4,000 publishers providing content via Google ebooks at launch including Hachette, Macmillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster and many more.

Another good part about Google’s ebook is that they are stored in the cloud which makes it easy to read them on any device that is smartphones, iPad etc. thus start reading at one device and if you want to switch to another device and at anytime and no need to download that book and of course how can we forget about huge space Google provide. Apart from it Google is also providing a web reader application so that you can also read eBooks from any web browsers.

Check out the video of Google eBooks:

Amazon did start the journey of ebooks but it seems that Google put good step which would be useful for readers as well as publishers to promote their books online. What you think about Google ebook store? Drop in comments.

Google Launches Largest eBookstore is a post from: CallingAllGeeks

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40 Extremely Shocking Advertisements

2010-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

40 Extremely Shocking Advertisements: "

You can always take innovative approach in advertising your product since it is one of those industries which are never frightened not only to push the boundaries of acceptability, but also to offend so as to convey the message. These advertisement campaigns are almost against the domestic violence, cigarette smoking, alcohol and substance abuse, human rights violations and campaigns for nature preservation which were often focused in an ad campaign. These ads are the perfect example of call to action advertisement.

Here, we have compiled a list of 40 Extremely Shocking Advertisements that demonstrate how you can push the boundaries of advertising. These ads are not the ordinary ads rather they are somewhat very shocking and will call to action. Let us have a look.

Imagine This is Yours

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation: Chair

Amnesty International: Archery

WWF: Blood

Anti-Smoking

Stella Coffee Pot: Spider

Save the Children: Child labour

Humans for Animals: Monkey

RSPCA: Woman

Stop violence against women

They Weren’t Born to be Worn

Masterlock: Hippies

RSF: Ink

Skins: Defy genetics, 2

Fur Free: Angry fox, 2

Ashtraymouth: Roach girl

Domestic violence: Livingroom

Lung cancer awareness: One

Smoking Kills

Humans for Animals: Seal (Don’t treat others the way you don’t want to be treated.)

Money isn’t everything

Stop Climate Change Before it Changes You

Not recycling this newspaper is the same as cutting down another tree

Lung Cancer Fundation: Second hand smoke in the home

UNICEF: Every child needs a family

One click could change your future, Belt up.

What does if take to get people talking about domestic abuse?

War leaves many scars

APAV, Victom Support

For a living Planet

Seatbelts Keep People Together

We dont have enough donors

Sharing The Pain Cuts it in Hale

Just When will you Start Recycling?

Ace: Tarantula

Spid will look after your baby. But not that baby

Popeye Detergent Hipoalergenic: Hell raiser

Workplace Safety Insurance Board: Sign

Government of the State of Santa Catarina: Hamburger

Aware Helpline: Verbal abuse (Verbal abuse can be just as horrific.)

Brought To You By

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11.23.2010

2010-11-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

11.23.2010: "

Politics of Photoshop: 15 Shady Edits for Political Purposes

2010-11-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

Politics of Photoshop: 15 Shady Edits for Political Purposes: "[ By Delana in Featured Articles, Gadgets & Geek Art, Subvertising & Counter-Ads. ]

Today, Photoshop and other photo editing tools are used extensively for everything from digitally slimming swimsuit models to retouching school photographs in an effort to erase the memories of adolescent acne. But some photo retouching has a rather more nefarious purpose: swaying viewers to one side or the other of a political debate. This practice is not a strictly modern one, though: people have been altering photographs for political purposes almost since the day photographs were invented. These political photo hacks date all the way back to the 19th century and continue up through the present day…because no one ever accused politicians (or their staff, followers or enemies) of being too honest.

Honest Abe’s Not-So-Honest Pose

(images via: Gajitz)

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most celebrated former American presidents, and this stately portrait of him standing in a rather regal pose has graced countless classrooms. But the truth is that Lincoln never posed for this picture; rather, it is Abe’s head (from a less-regal seated portrait) pasted onto the body of Southern politician John Calhoun. If you look very closely, you can see that the words on the papers have been changed from “the sovereignty of the states,” “strict constitution,” and “free trade” in the Calhoun photo to “union,” “constitution,” and “proclamation of freedom” in Lincoln’s.

Grant’s Grand Battle Scene

(images via: Gajitz)

Another iconic American history photograph is this one of General Ulysses S. Grant on horseback before his troops in City Point, Virginia during the Civil War. It’s a wonderful and oft-circulated piece of history…and it’s also a total fabrication. The portrait, bottom, is actually a composite of the three images above it: General Grant’s head on the body (and horse) of General Alexander McCook with a backdrop of a battle at Fisher’s Hill, Virginia.

Majestic Mussolini

(images via: Dartmouth)

In this 1942 portrait of Benito Mussolini, the horse handler holding the steed’s reins was thought to detract from the power and authority that the Italian Fascist wanted to portray. Therefore, Mussolini had him summarily dismissed from the photo after the fact.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

(images via: Dartmouth)

It’s rough falling out of favor with a political leader – particularly one who employs skilled photo editors to erase all photographic evidence of enemies’ existence. In all of these photos, a former friend, colleague or adviser was deemed unsavory after the photos were taken and subsequently edited out of the images. Top: a commissar is removed from a photo where he once walked alongside Josef Stalin. Middle: once Po Ku fell out of favor with Mao Zedong, Mao had him erased from this photograph. Bottom: Joseph Goebbels was one of Hitler’s closest advisers and a high-ranking Nazi official. Although his career experienced ups and downs, he never truly fell out of favor with Hitler, which is why it is puzzling that he was removed from this 1937 photograph.

(images via: Museum of Hoaxes, Dartmouth)

Likewise, Leon Trotsky (along with two other men) and Carlos Franqui suffered photographic deaths after publicly opposing the policies of Josef Stalin and Fidel Castro, respectively.

Grim Tydings

(images via: Museum of Hoaxes)

In 1950, with America in the midst of the Cold War and anti-Communist sentiment running hot, this apparent meeting between Senator Millard Tydings and Earl Browder, the head of the American Communist Party, was instrumental in Tydings’ unsuccessful senate bid. It was a fake cooked up by the staff of Senator Joseph McCarthy after Tydings insisted that the American government was not swarming with closet Communists, contrary to what McCarthy alleged. Even though the photo was admitted as a fake, Tydings lost his 1950 election and his made-up Communist ties were thought to be at least partly to blame.

Election Hijinks

(images via: Museum of Hoaxes)

(image via: Snopes)

During the 2004 presidential election, pictures surfaced of both George W. Bush and John Kerry in compromising positions. Bush was depicted as stupid and child-like, while Kerry was shown keeping company with unsavory characters or participating in activities that encouraged Americans to question his personal beliefs. Among the most memorable: the top picture apparently shows G.W. Bush reading a children’s book upside down, but it was clearly altered from the original image, show to the right. John Kerry was reported to have shared a podium with Jane Fonda at an anti-Vietnam war rally, but the images was later revealed to be a composite of two photographs from two separate events. Kerry was also reported to have spent time with Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, as evidenced by this photo…a photo which was soon uncovered as a fake.

(images via: Dartmouth)

(images via: Museum of Hoaxes)

The 2008 election was filled with just as much photo trickery. The infamous Sarah Palin photo above, in which the former Governor of Alaska poses in an American flag bikini with a large gun, quickly spread all around the world. It was, however, just as quickly proven to be a fake. Also a topic of discussion during the election was Barack Obama’s pledge to quit smoking, which has proven somewhat troublesome for the politician. This photo of the president with a cigarette in his mouth, however, is not a photographer’s lucky catch of a slip of willpower; it was created by an anonymous internet prankster.

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

(images via: Stinky Journalism)

In 2009, the director of Spain’s National Intelligence Center, Alberto Saiz, was accused of spending government money on lavish international fishing and hunting vacations. To disprove his presence on a certain fishing trip, Saiz released the bottom photograph above which was supposed to show that he was not present on the fishing boat. The only problem is that when his staff removed Saiz’s head from the photo, they replaced it with that of the man standing just a few feet away from Saiz…in the same photograph.

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My Name Is Mullah Akhtar Muhammed Mansour, And I Would Like Some Money

2010-11-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

My Name Is Mullah Akhtar Muhammed Mansour, And I Would Like Some Money: "

I mean, really: Ohhhhh shit.

For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the repeated appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.

But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

The intelligence budget of the United States is $80.1 billion annually. Just felt like interjecting that.

A man who had known Mr. Mansour years ago told Afghan officials that the man at the table did not resemble him. “He said he didn’t recognize him,” said an Afghan leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. … Last month, White House officials asked The New York Times to withhold Mr. Mansour’s name from an article about the peace talks, expressing concern that the talks would be jeopardized — and Mr. Mansour’s life put at risk — if his involvement were publicized.

Yeah, OK, this war is fucked.

The Talking Leads To Touching, The Touching Leads To Sex, And Then There Is No Afghanistan War Left

Borstal Breakout, Taliban Edition

Diplomacy Now!

வாழ்க்கையல்ல... வேதம்!

2010-11-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

வாழ்க்கையல்ல... வேதம்!: "மனோஹர் தேவதாஸ் - மஹிமா... இந்த ஆதர்ச தம்பதியின் வாழ்க்கையிலிருந்து நாம் கற்றுக் கொள்ள வேண்டிய பாடங்கள் அநேகம்!

மேற்படிப்புக்காக அமெரிக்கா சென்ற அவர்கள் அங்கேயே தங்குவதற்கு வசதியும், வற்புறுத்தலும், நல்ல வேலை வாய்ப்பும் இருந்தன. என்றாலும், ‘எங்கள் தேசம் இந்தியாதான்’ என்று, படிப்பு முடிந்த கையோடு இந்தியா திரும்பிவிட்டனர். சென்னையிலிருந்து தங்கள் சொந்த ஊரான மதுரைக்குக் காரில் போய்க்கொண்டு இருந்தபோதுதான் அந்த விபரீதம் நிகழ்ந்தது. சுமார் 20 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னால் நடந்த சம்பவம் இது.

மஹிமாதான் காரைச் செலுத்திக்கொண்டு இருந்தார். அமெரிக்காவில் அந்த நாட்டுச் சாலைகளில் குறைந்தபட்சம் 80 கி.மீ. வேகத்தில் லாகவமாகக் கார் ஓட்டக்கூடியவர் அவர். அங்கே அவர் இருந்த காலத்தில் ஒரு சின்ன விபத்து கூட ஏற்பட்டதில்லை. இங்கேயுள்ள சாலைகளுக்கேற்ப அன்றைக்கு மிக மிக மெதுவாகத்தான் அவர் காரைச் செலுத்தினார். என்றாலும், நேஷனல் ஹைவேஸில் படுவேகமாக வந்த லாரி ஒன்று ஓவர் டேக் செய்யும்போது, இவர்கள் காரை பக்கவாட்டில் உரசிச் செல்ல, கார் பக்கத்திலிருந்த பள்ளத்தில் உருண்டது. காரில் இருந்த மனோஹர், அவரது தாயார், ஆறு வயது மகள் சுஜாதா மூவரும் அதிர்ஷ்டவசமாக சிறு காயமும் இன்றித் தப்பிக்க, பாவம்... மஹிமாவுக்குதான் பலத்த அடி. முதுகெலும்பில் முறிவு ஏற்பட்டு, கை கால்கள் செயல் இழந்தன.

பின்னர், மருத்துவமனையில் சேர்த்துத் தீவிர சிகிச்சை அளித்தும், பூரண குணம் என்பது ஏற்படவே இல்லை. கொஞ்சம்கூட நகர முடியாத அளவுக்கு ஆளானார் மஹிமா. படுக்கையில் புரண்டு படுக்க வேண்டும் என்றாலும், பிறர் உதவியின்றி முடியாது. தோளுக்குக் கீழே உணர்ச்சியே இல்லை. சக்கர நாற்காலியே மஹிமாவின் உலகம் என்றாகிவிட்டது.

இது ஒருபுறம் இருக்க, இன்னொரு விபரீதமும் சேர்ந்துகொண்டது. மனோஹர் தேவதாஸின் கண் பார்வை மங்க ஆரம்பித்தது. மருத்துவர்களை அணுகியபோது, அவருக்கு ‘ரெடினிடிஸ் பிக்மெண்டோஸா’ என்னும் கண் குறைபாடு இருப்பதைக் கண்டுபிடித்தார்கள். இந்தக் குறைபாடு மனோஹருக்குச் சின்ன வயது முதலே இருந்திருக்கிறது. என்றாலும், அந்த விபத்துக்குப் பிறகு, பார்வை மங்குவது துரிதமாகியது. அவரால் ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட வெளிச்சத்துக்கு அதிகமான வெளிச்சம் இருந்தாலும் பார்க்க முடியாது; குறைவான வெளிச்சம் இருந்தாலும் பார்க்க முடியாது. தவிர, ஒரு குறுகிய வட்டத்தின் வழியாகப் பார்க்கிற மாதிரிதான் அவரால் பார்க்க முடிந்தது. இதை ஆங்கிலத்தில் tunnel vision என்று சொல்வார்கள். அதாவது, ஒரு சுரங்கப்பாதையின் உள்ளிருந்து பார்த்தால், வெளியே இருக்கும் பகுதி வட்டமாகத் தெரியும்; மற்ற இடங்கள் இருட்டில் கறுப்பாகத் தெரியும் அல்லவா? அது போல, இவரது பார்வை ஒரு ரூபாய் நாணயம் அளவுக்கே இருந்தது. மற்ற இடங்கள் கறுப்பாக இருக்கும். அவர் ஒருவரின் முகத்தைக் கூட முழுதாகப் பார்க்க முடியாது. இடது கண், வலது கண், மூக்கு என்று ஒவ்வொரு அங்கமாகத்தான் பார்க்க முடியும்.

ஆனால், மனோஹர் தேவதாஸ் மன உறுதி மிக்கவர். முழுமையாகப் பார்வை பறிபோகும் முன் தன்னால் எத்தனைப் படங்கள் வரைய முடியுமோ வரைந்துவிட வேண்டும் என்று படங்கள் வரைவதில் தன்னை ஈடுபடுத்திக் கொண்டார். தவிர, அவரால் நிறங்களைப் பிரித்தறியவும் முடியாது என்பதால், வெறுமே கோட்டுச் சித்திரங்களை மட்டுமே வரையத் தொடங்கினார். படத்துக்கான நீள, அகல அளவுகளை மனதிலேயே வகுத்துக்கொண்டு, ஒரு தாளில் கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாக வரைந்து, அதை முழுப் படமாக்குகிற அவரது திறன் எத்தகையது என்பதை நான் இங்கே முழுமையாக விளக்கியிருக்கிறேனா, அவரது நிலையை உங்களால் 100 சதவிகிதம் உணர முடிகிறதா என்று எனக்குத் தெரியவில்லை. சுருக்கமாகச் சொன்னால், அவர் வரைந்த படத்தை அவராலேயே முழுதாகப் பார்த்து சரியாகத்தான் வரைந்திருக்கிறோமா, இல்லையா என்று தெரிந்து கொள்ள முடியாது. மனைவியிடம் காண்பித்து அபிப்ராயம் கேட்பார்.

அவரின் மனைவி மஹிமாவும் சிறந்த ஓவியர். அந்த விபத்துக்குப் பிறகு அவரால் கைகளைக் கொஞ்சம்கூட அசைக்க முடியாமல் போனதால், வரைய முடியவில்லை. ஆனால், அதற்காகத் தளர்ந்துவிடவில்லை மஹிமா. மனோஹர் தேவதாஸ் படம் வரையும்போது அருகில் இருந்து நல்ல புத்தகங்களை ஏற்ற இறக்கத்துடன் வாசித்துக் காட்டுவார். அதைக் கேட்டு ரசித்தபடியே படம் வரைவார் மனோஹர். “உண்மையில், முன்பு நான் வரைந்த படங்களின் எண்ணிக்கையைவிட, படித்த புத்தகங்களின் எண்ணிக்கையைவிட, அந்த விபத்துக்குப் பிறகு வரைந்த படங்கள், படித்த புத்தகங்களின் எண்ணிக்கை பல மடங்கு அதிகம்” என்று கேணி கூட்டத்தில் சொன்னார் மனோஹர் தேவதாஸ்.

மனைவியை அந்த அளவு மிக அதிகம் நேசித்தவர் மனோஹர். “உங்களுக்குள் சின்ன மனஸ்தாபம்கூட வந்ததில்லையா?” என்று கேட்டதற்கு மனோஹர் சொன்னார்... “எப்படி வரும்? அவ தங்கம்னா தங்கம், அப்படித் தங்கம்! ஒரு உதாரணம் சொல்றேன். ஒருமுறை எனக்கும் என் அண்ணனுக்கும் மனஸ்தாபம் வந்துடுச்சு. அவனிடம் பண உதவி கேட்டபோது, காலி உறையை எனக்கு அனுப்பியிருந்தான். வெறுப்பு வந்தது. ‘இவனெல்லாம் ஒரு அண்ணனா!’ன்னு என் மனைவியிடம் கன்னாபின்னானு திட்டினேன். ‘நான் வேலைக்குப் போய், அந்த வருமானத்துலதானே இவனைப் படிக்க வெச்சேன். அந்த நன்றிகூட இல்லாம இப்படி வெறும் கவரை அனுப்பியிருக்கானே!’ன்னு புழுங்கினேன். ‘இத்தனைக்கும் அம்மாவை நான்தான் பார்த்துக்கறேன்’ன்னு பேச்சுவாக்குல சொன்னேன். உடனே மஹிமா குறுக்கிட்டு, ‘தப்பாச் சொல்றீங்க. நாம அவங்களைப் பார்த்துக்கலை. அவங்கதான் நம்மளைப் பார்த்துக்கறாங்க. நாம ரெண்டு பேரும் வேலைக்குப் போறோம். அவங்கதான் வீட்டையும் நம்ம குழந்தையையும் பார்த்துக்கறாங்க. இனியொரு தடவை அவங்களை நாம பார்த்துக்கறோம்னு சொல்லாதீங்க. அவங்கதான் நம்மளைப் பார்த்துக்கறாங்க’ன்னு அழுத்தமா சொன்னா.

ரெண்டொரு வருஷம் கழிச்சு, ஒரு திருமண நாளின்போது, மஹிமாவுக்கு ஏதாவது பரிசு தர விரும்பினேன். ‘என்ன பரிசு வேண்டுமோ, கேள்’னு சொன்னேன். உடனே அவ சொன்னா... ‘எனக்கு வேண்டிய புடவைங்க, நகைங்கன்னு எல்லாம் இருக்குது. அதனால எனக்கான தேவைன்னு எதுவுமே இல்லே. ஆனா, பரிசா ஒண்ணு கேக்கறேன். நிறைவேத்துவீங்களா?’ன்னா. ‘சொல்லு. கண்டிப்பா நிறைவேத்தறேன்’ன்னு சொன்னேன். ‘உங்க அண்ணன் மேல இருக்கிற கோபத்துல அவர் அன்னிக்கு அனுப்பின காலி கவரை இன்னும் பத்திரமா வெச்சுக்கிட்டு, மனசுல அந்த வெறுப்பை இன்னமும் சுமந்துக்கிட்டிருக்கீங்களே... முதல்ல அந்த கவரைக் கிழிச்சுப் போடுங்க. வெறுப்பை உதறுங்க. அதுதான் நீங்க எனக்குத் தர்ற பரிசு!’ன்னா. இப்படியொரு அருமையான மனைவியோடு எப்படிங்க மனஸ்தாபம் வரும், சொல்லுங்க?”

மனோஹர் தேவதாஸ் சிறந்த ஓவியர் மட்டுமல்ல; நல்ல எழுத்தாளரும்கூட! மதுரையைப் பற்றி ஓவியங்களோடு கூடிய புத்தகங்கள் எழுதியிருக்கிறார். மனைவி மஹிமாவின் மறைவுக்குப் பின், அவரைப் பற்றிய புத்தகம் ஒன்றும் எழுதியிருக்கிறார். மனோஹர் வேதியியல் நிபுணரும்கூட. ஆரம்ப காலத்தில் அவர் வரைந்த ஆயில் பெயிண்டிங்குகளை வைத்து ஒரு கண்காட்சி நடத்தி, அதன் மூலம் கிடைத்த 53,000 ரூபாயையும் சங்கர நேத்ராலயாவுக்கு வழங்கிவிட்டார். அன்றைக்கு மட்டுமல்ல, இன்று வரையில் அவர் வரைகிற படங்களை விற்பனை செய்து கிடைக்கிற வருமானம் மொத்தத்தையும் சங்கர நேத்ராலயாவுக்கும், மதுரை அரவிந்த் கண் மருத்துவமனைக்குமே கொடுத்து வருகிறார் மனோஹர்.

மஹிமாவும்கூட புத்தகங்கள் எழுதி வெளியிட்டிருக்கிறார். ஹாரிபாட்டர் எழுதிய ஜே.கே.ரௌலிங் போல, மஹிமா தன் குழந்தை சுஜாதாவுக்காகக் கற்பனை செய்து தினம் தினம் ராத்திரி விளையாட்டாகச் சொன்ன கதைகளைத் தொகுத்துக் கொடுக்க, அதை ‘தி மேஜிக் கார்டன் அண்ட் அதர் ஸ்டோரீஸ்’ என்னும் தலைப்பில் அதைப் புத்தகமாக வெளியிட்டிருக்கிறது ‘ஓரியண்ட் லாங்மேன்’ நிறுவனம்.

விவாகரத்துகள் பெருகி வரும் இந்நாளில், மனோஹர்- மஹிமா தம்பதியின் வாழ்க்கை ஆச்சரியமானது மட்டுமல்ல; பலருக்கும் ஒரு வேதப் புத்தகம் போன்றது என்பதில் சந்தேகமில்லை.
.

We know what you’re thinking about

2010-11-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

We know what you’re thinking about: "

(via izsmile)

Political Animal: The Ever-Evolving Republican Elephant Logo

2010-11-14T23:03:00.000-08:00

Political Animal: The Ever-Evolving Republican Elephant Logo: "[ By Steve in Graffiti & Drawing, History & Factoids, Subvertising & Counter-Ads. ]

In November of 2010 the Republican Party pulled off the most lopsided midterm elections victory in a generation or more; really something to trumpet about! Speaking of which, the use of an elephant to symbolize the GOP is also worth celebrating since this particular political animal first made an appearance on November 7th, 1874. Let’s take this opportunity to look back at the birthday boy in all his old (and new) glory.

(images via: St. Nicholas Center, AndrewJohnson.com, SoftSpot Blog and Virginia Western Community College)

The so-called Republican Elephant made its debut in the November 7, 1874 edition of Harper’s Weekly (1857-1916) and was the creation of Thomas Nast, a renowned political cartoonist. Nast had made a name for himself by caricaturing notoriously corrupt William “Boss” Tweed and Tammany Hall in the run-up to Tweed’s 1873 arrest on fraud charges. Nast is also recognized as the first illustrator to depict a fat Santa Claus – previously St. Nick was shown as a tall thin geezer.

(images via: Mental Floss, Getty Images and AfroCity)

The fact that Thomas Nast was a staunch Republican may have had more than a little to do with his selection of a bull elephant to represent the GOP while gleefully harnessing a donkey (actually a “jackass”, in the terms of the times) to depict the Democrats – a practice that went back to President Andrew Jackson’s era. Nast was hardly above chiding his political bedfellows, however, as the November 7 cartoon above shows a panicked elephant labeled “The Republican Vote” stampeding away from a brazen Democratic Donkey wearing a lion’s skin – a sheep in wolf’s clothing, as it were.

(images via: Abundance Secrets, America First Books and National Archives)

By the mid-1870s, the elephant had become the poster child (literally) for the Republican Party and, as needed, GOP politicians such as Benjamin Harrison. The image above right shows Harrison, in the form of an elephant, “broken loose” and running away with the 1888 Republican presidential nomination. Decades later, as the Roaring Twenties swung into gear, cartoonists like Clifford Berryman used the Republican Elephant to enlighten (and en-laughen) the wheelings and dealings in smoke-filled rooms that characterized the nomination process.

(images via: Public Domain Clip Art, Army Wife and Ellen Rixford)

Whether depicted as actual animals or as anthropomorphic representations, the Republican Elephant and its Democratic Donkey counterpart were firmly established in American pop culture at mid-century. The stage was set for the next stage in evolution as political discourse moved from cloistered backrooms to America’s living rooms.

(images via: NCA and The Conservative Reader)

Fast-forward to the age of television and we find the Republican Elephant slimmed down (somewhat), standardized and stylized – copyrighted, even – in a simple suit of red, white & blue (from the bottom up). A trio of white stars feature prominently in the blue field, as in the American flag. In contrast, the Democratic Donkey usually has 4 stars in its comparable blue upper field though it’s not unusual to observe variations with 1 or 3 stars.

(images via: Canton Truth, Amazon.com, Frog Style Biscuit and Ban T-Shirts)

A curious point in the Republican Elephant’s evolution occurred in the year 2000 during the first year of George W. Bush’s administration. With virtually no notice and little if any subsequent explanation, the 3 stars in the GOP Elephant logo were inverted so that they now stood points down. The law concerning “Respect For The Flag”, US Code Title 4 Section 8(a), reads “The flag should never be displayed with the union (the stars represent the union of the states) down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

(image via: Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie)

The GOP logo is hardly a flag, though it outwardly and consciously apes one – and by the way, the Democratic Donkey still wears its stars points-up… just sayin’. And just askin’: Hillary WTF??

(images via: Adult Party Pinatas, Sodahead and RepublicanElephant.com)

Certain political bloggers and conspiracy theorists have had a field day with the so-called “satanic” new logo that seemingly swapped its stars for devilish pentagrams. Does the Tea Party know about this? Maybe the RNC is in league with the Prince Of Darkness – the other one, not Dick Cheney. Most likely, though, the decision to flip the stars and otherwise adjust the proportions of the classic GOP logo were made ad hoc by the graphics firm charged with the task of making the logo more digital-friendly. Sure, that’s what happened, move along now, nothing to see here.

(images via: Cafe Press, Taylor Made Tees, RepublicanEnvironment.com and Notcot)

Like sports logos, the Republican Elephant logo has been tweaked, tinted and co-opted to lend a certain presence to non-political causes of all kinds. It’s also been made kid-friendly and gender-neutral, much in the same way that pink (or other color) baseball hats have gained in popularity in recent years.

(images via: This Next, About.com, Wikiality, Cafe Press, The Conservative Reader and Libertarian Party of Colorado)

Of course, using an animal to brand a political party naturally invites manipulation by those who are opposed to what the symbol stands for. As such, the GOP Elephant has taken its share of graphic hard knocks. Perhaps more than its share. Or maybe less. Depends who you ask.

(images via: Flow14, BrandlandUSA™ Blog, Black and Red and Groton Republican Town Committee)

What does the future hold for the Republican Elephant logo? Will future generations for whom living elephants are a thing of the past wonder what that strange beast is, and why it always votes Republican?

(images via: Listicles)

Having an extinct creature as one’s logo doesn’t exactly inspire confidence – no one wants to vote in dinosaurs, for example – so if the GOP decides to stick with the elephant over its dead body, we can probably expect some lively reinterpretations similar to those shown above.

(image via: BuzzFeed)(image via: BuzzFeed)

Then there’s the suggestion above, but methinks the presenter might be just a tad biased.

(images via: CtW Connect, Cake Creations by Julia, LaChoclatier Bakery and CakeCentral.com)

I suppose it’s too much to expect we all can have our GOP Elephant cakes and eat them too… oh, wait. Yes indeed, GOP logo cakes are big business – which somehow makes perfect sense. Plus, as anyone knows, an elephant pie is WAY tastier than a cow pie. Or so I’ve heard.

(images via: Next Nature)

Some may wonder why it is that only elephants and donkeys tussle over the electoral pie election after election. The folks behind More Party Animals have the answer, sort of… the patriotic organism logos above give anyone wanting to start their own party a pre-designed political animal to get them off on the right foot… hoof… tentacle… whatever.

(images via: LIFE and DayLife)

Until that far-off day when moose lock horns with sea urchins (that’s gotta hurt!), the elephant will march on as the symbol of the Grand Old Party and will continue to battle the Democratic Donkey for American political supremacy.

(image via: Newsweek)

So go ahead, wear your chosen political animal over your heart, on your sleeve, or even on a fashionable scarf… just be sure you match the right animal with the right party… right Sarah?

(images via: Brand New, GOP.com and Organizing For America)

What the future holds for the currently resurgent Republican Party is anyone’s guess. The elephant’s place in party symbolism, on the other hand, is pretty much unshakable though it will continue to evolve to suit the times. The “Gazelephant” at above top, the brand new all-red official GOP logo and the eyebrow-raising mashup graphic announcing “Republicans For Obama” (wait, what?) demonstrate convincingly that the old beast still has a few tricks up his trunk. Thomas Nast would certainly approve!

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The logo designs that really stand out manage to combine memorable branding with super-simple text & basic graphics that say so much in such a small package.
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[ WebUrbanist - By Steve in Graffiti & Drawing, History & Factoids, Subvertising & Counter-Ads. ]

15 Cool, Crazy & Controversial Advertisements

2010-11-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

15 Cool, Crazy & Controversial Advertisements: "[ By Steph in Guerilla Marketing & Ads, Urban Images. ]

From severed arms to crosses made from marijuana, shocking imagery in ads aims to get our attention – and that they do. Advertisers are using bold and bizarre visuals to draw eyes in an increasingly cluttered world and their attempts range from disgusting gross-out tactics to clever interactive displays. Some of these 15 ads effectively help us remember what might otherwise be an obscure brand, while others fall flat, or worse, make us sick.

Finetra: Where Even Nightmares Come to Rest

(image via: scary ideas)

Finetra’s bedding is so comfortable, your razor-toothed evil alien demons will give up on their nightmarish intentions and just curl up with you instead.

You Eat What You Touch

(image via: adpunch)

Mmm, hamster muffin! This ad for Unilever’s Lifebuoy antibacterial soap tries a gross-out tactic to make people paranoid about what germs might be lingering on their hands when they eat.

If You Aren’t Totally Clean, You Are Filthy

(images via: creative advertising world)

A similar ad for Just Liquid Soap states, “If you aren’t totally clean, you’re filthy.”

Exhibit Yourself

(image via: trends updates)

The grotesque image of a man holding open the flayed skin of his chest, showing off his internal organs to the world, is meant to tempt viewers into ‘exhibiting themselves’ at HypeGallery.com, a place where users could show off their artwork and films.

Farewell to Arms

(image via: trendhunter)

A severed arm on the street would definitely attract some attention, and it was a fitting guerrilla stunt for the DVD release of Quentin Tarantino’s gory 2007 movie, ‘Death Proof’, in Amsterdam.

Mmm, Roach Pizza

(image via: ads of the world)

Imagine devouring an entire pizza and then seeing a cockroach in the box. A pest control company calling itself Dr. Barata (Dr. Cockroach) made up these boxes to scare pizza consumers into calling for help… or maybe just calling health inspectors on the pizza joint that thought these boxes were a good idea.

This Might Make You Puke

(images via: ads of the world)

Italian B-movie store Bloodbuster brought on the gags with a series of puke-themed posters that say “you can’t please everyone.” Doesn’t it make you want to rent one of their movies?

Get Them Off Your Dog

(image via: hooked on ads)

Gross out tactics aren’t the only way to get attention. Clever and interactive, this massive Frontline poster on a mall floor turns people into fleas when viewed from above.

Kiss My Glass

(image via: ad hunt)

Does this ad campaign imply that wearing Glassino sunglasses makes you look like an ass?

Samsung MP3 Player

(image via: ads of the world)

Evidently, this ad for a Samsung MP3 player is telling us that using their product is like having a tiny rapper yelling into your ear. Which is to say, awesome.

We Protect Your Cattle from Almost Everything

(image via: pixel pasta)

Barbed wire company Ideal Alambrec is up front about their product’s limitations: it’ll protect your cattle from almost everything. But when it come to aliens, there’s simply no guarantees.

Does It Matter How You Achieve Your Spiritual High?

(image via: ad freak)

Wonder Cafe, a forum for spiritual discussion, courted controversy with this startling ad featuring two joints formed into a cross. Whether the ad is interesting or crass may depend upon your own religious views, but it definitely attracted some attention.

Those Are Some Dangerous Nose Hairs

(images via: animal)

In what seems to be a bit of a safety hazard, Panasonic twisted power lines through the nostrils on a series of billboards in Indonesia to push nose hair clippers.

Come As You Are (Darth Vader)

(image via: advertolog)

McDonalds told the world to ‘come as you are’ in a long print ad campaign that featured some unexpected characters – like Darth Vader here, who somehow doesn’t seem too happy with his meal.

Don’t Talk While He Drives

(images via: fubiz)

This Bangalore public safety ad, aiming to prevent cell phone-related accidents, tells us that if you keep someone on the phone while they’re trying to drive, you could end up with blood on your hands… and on your face… not to mention splattered all over your clothing and bedding. Careful, that stuff stains.

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[ WebUrbanist - By Steph in Guerilla Marketing & Ads, Urban Images. ]

Capitalism kills creativity?

2010-11-10T03:50:00.000-08:00

Capitalism kills creativity?: "

I liked this comment on Sir ken robinson’s Ted talk “Bring on the learning revolution!” [youtube]

I think capitalism kills creativity, and it does it in three ways.

Firstly, the main aim of the ‘linear education system’ is to produce workers with measurable knowledge and skills, because that’s what employers want.

Secondly, most people need to give up their interests and passions in order to pay a ridiculously inflated property price and an outrageous mortgage by whatever means necessary.

Thirdly, when engaged day-in day-out for someone else’s profit, any existing passion is destroyed.

Don’t you think this makes sense ?

Yuck markets in everything

2010-11-10T03:48:00.000-08:00

Yuck markets in everything: "

There is a market in baby foreskins:

Because of this, they’re not tossed out with the rest of the medical waste after a birth. Instead, hospitals sell them to companies and institutions for a wide variety of uses. Companies will pay thousands of dollars for a single foreskin.

Some of the strangest purposes they’re put to:

Cosmetics: Foreskins are used to make high-end skin creams. The skin products contain fibroblasts grown on the foreskin and harvested from it. One foreskin can be used for decades to produce fancy face cream like the SkinMedica products hawked on Oprah.

Skin grafts: In addition to making products for skin, a baby’s foreskin can be turned into a skin graft for a burn victim. Because the cells are extremely flexible, they’re less likely to be rejected. Currently, this technology can be lifesaving in providing a real skin “band aid” to cover an open wound while a burn victim heals. Researchers at Harvard and Tufts are working on advanced skin replacements that use human foreskins.

Cosmetic testing: All those cruelty-free cosmetics you buy? Some of them are tested on foreskins. This yields better results, since they’re human skin. And it saves the lives of the rodents your shampoo would otherwise be tested on.

Does this make the hospital ever-so-slightly more interested in continuing the practice? For the pointer I thank Andromeda.

From the Rally to Restore Sanity

2010-11-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

From the Rally to Restore Sanity: "

A few more in the extension.

Mohammed is England's top baby name

2010-10-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

Mohammed is England's top baby name: "Hit the road, Jack.

Woman Kills Baby For Interrupting Farmville Session [Crime]

2010-10-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Woman Kills Baby For Interrupting Farmville Session [Crime]: "

A 22 year-old woman from Jacksonsville, Florida has pleaded guilty to killing her baby son over a game of...Farmville. More »

Tales of moral hazard from Vernon, Florida

2010-10-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Tales of moral hazard from Vernon, Florida: "

"There was another man who took out insurance with 28 or 38 companies," said Murray Armstrong, an insurance official for Liberty National. "He was a farmer and ordinarily drove around the farm in his stick shift pickup. This day - the day of the accident - he drove his wife's automatic transmission car and he lost his left foot. If he'd been driving his pickup, he'd have had to use that foot for the clutch. He also had a tourniquet in his pocket. We asked why he had it and he said, 'Snakes. In case of snake bite.' He'd taken out so much insurance he was paying premiums that cost more than his income. He wasn't poor, either. Middle class. He collected more than $1-million from all the companies. It was hard to make a jury believe a man would shoot off his foot."

The full story is here and I thank Noah Veltman for the pointer.

Indianizing the Facebook “Like” button

2010-10-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Lifted from "Doing Jalsa and Showing Jilpa" Blog

Indianizing the Facebook “Like” button: "

In India, we do things differently.

And in keeping with the rich tradition of orally imparted knowledge and MMS scandals, we rarely like to write things down, and that is why when we go to “foreign”, we spare no chances in pontificating, elucidating and prognosticating on the Great Indian Difference. In India, we have history. In India, we have ancient culture. In India, we have the world’s most unhealthy kind of vegetarian food. Etc. Of course, elderly Indian gentlemen with NRI children play it both ways, hitting forehands down the line glorifying Western infrastructure and orderliness while slicing backhand drop shots edifying the sanctity of Indian chaos when the audience is melanin-challenged. Even the murderous Blue line buses of Delhi will derive philosophical inheritance from the cosmic randomness of Shiva, especially if there’s a white chap politely paying attention.

For all of the intellectual vainglory, we still steadfastly refuse to update Wikipedia articles – that is left to small minority of passionate enthusiasts, right-wing zealots and Rediff commenters. In fact, the entire Indian internet can be, in the keeping with our ancient tradition of classifying stuff, divided into 5 castes.

Bloghards – People with blogs titled with a combination of the words “Random”, “Thoughts”, “Scribbles” and “Rants”. This crowd is also almost exclusively on Facebook because Orkut is totally like..um..untouchable. They are also too intellectually dense to be on Twitter

Twithers – Folks on Twitter. Tend to be slightly pretentious and RT. This crowd also stays away from Orkut

Mahipal – A whole generation of Indian men who believe that any girl on Twitter is like a personal ad on Craigslist, except the responses here are public too

Orkutiya – Dey rite lyk dis

Rediff Commenter – The visible visceral online manifestation of the Indian National Mood – Outrage. Note: Rediff commenters are everywhere, not just on Rediff

Top Saddam ally sentenced to death by hanging

2010-10-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

Top Saddam ally sentenced to death by hanging: "

Tariq Aziz, the dapper diplomat and highest-ranking Christian in Saddam Hussein's regime, was sentenced Tuesday to death by hanging for persecuting members of the Shiite religious parties that now dominate the country.

We Showed 'Troll Physics' Comics to a Physics Professor. Here's His Reaction.

2010-10-27T03:27:00.000-07:00

We Showed 'Troll Physics' Comics to a Physics Professor. Here's His Reaction.: "

Filed under: Humor, Photos, Science

Is it possible to 'troll' the very laws of matter and motion that govern the universe for your own kinetic benefit? For example, can one survive a falling elevator by jumping up in the air at the last minute? Also, f*cking electromagnetism - how does it work?

If you've pondered any of those questions before, the blog Troll Physics offers incredibly simple but impossible 'hacks' for manipulating the laws of nature to yield infinite energy, money and/or sexual partners. Since this site is pretty much a physics teacher's worst nightmare, I cornered one to get his reaction. David Morgan, a natural science professor with a PhD in physics, was kind enough to bring some logic and rational discourse to this hilariously asinine pile of hot meme trash. Read on for a play-by-play scientific smackdown.

DM: 'Up' is not 'North'...the only reasonable meaning for the word 'up' is 'in the opposite direction of the Earth's gravitational pull at the surface.' So saying 'holding the Earth up' doesn't even make any sense. I'm pretty sure I just got a little stupider while explaining that.

DM: Jumping off the ground - or even a chair on the ground - is nothing like jumping off a chair while you and the chair are in freefall. Because the chair isn't connected to anything, you'll be pushing the chair DOWN as much as pushing yourself up (via Newton's third law). And since you have much more mass than the chair, the force you and the chair exert on one another will speed up the chair's descent much more than it slows your own.

DM: If all the plants on the planet can't currently absorb the human-generated CO2 where they are, moving some of them closer to the cars certainly isn't going to help. Stupid.

DM: One look at the bottoms of the two wheels is enough to see that this doesn't amount to 'downhill' in any way whatsoever.

DM: You don't really need a guy with a PhD to explain to you that bacon isn't a plant, right?

DM: This actually makes an interesting point, sort of. Why don't you recoil when you shine a beam of light? The answer is -You actually do! But not at the same SPEED as the light - with the same MOMENTUM as the light. The momentum (p) of a single photon of light is equal its energy divided by the speed of light (E = c p). So how much momentum does a beam of light carry? Well, suppose we shine a 100 Watt spotlight - we are producing 100 Joules of light energy per second (a Watt is a Joule of energy per second). So every second we are giving that light a momentum of (100J) / (300,000,000m/s) = .00000033 kg m/s.

To give a sense of how hard of a push that is, let's assume that the stupid troll thing in the wagon weighs 50 kg. To accelerate the wagon up to a speed of 1 m/s (around 3 feet per second... which is still pretty slow) would take (33 million * 50) seconds, which is 52 years. And that's assuming no friction!

(In reality, it would never move at all because of friction, so we'd have to do it in space. In fact, even though this seems like a feeble form of propulsion, NASA has plans for prototypes of a 'solar sail' to push space probes out of the solar system using no propulsion other than that provided by reflected sunlight!)

We'd like to thank Dr. David Morgan for playing along with us, and we assure readers that he very much 'gets' the joke. He is probably still shaking his head at this stuff, though.

link:// Troll Physics Blog

link:// Know Your Meme: Troll Physics

previously:// Trolling Hipster and Hysterical Ex Have Epic Phone Fight

previously:// What Happens When Trolls Troll Trolls?

More from our friends around the web...

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Paul the World Cup octopus dies

2010-10-27T03:23:00.001-07:00

Paul the World Cup octopus dies: "Paul the octopus, who predicted the outcome of eight matches at the 2010 World Cup, has died at an aquarium in Germany."

Spanish Hookers Forced To Wear Reflective Safety Vests [LOLCars]

2010-10-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Spanish Hookers Forced To Wear Reflective Safety Vests [LOLCars]: "

Sex workers in rural Spain are being forced to wear yellow fluorescent safety vests while renting their bodies in traffic or pay a fine. It's just another way the Spanish are embracing the concept of safer sex. [The Telegraph] More »

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About

2010-10-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About: "

Google Chrome has been steadily gaining in the browser market share since its launch 2 years ago. It’s not without its flaws but it definitely falls in the “kinda cool” category. Its simplicity and minimalistic, yet feature-rich, interface caused a lot of users to ditch their old and trusted browser in favor of this new tool.

Chrome has a lot of obscure features which could immensely enhance one’s browsing productivity if he were to know about them. This post intends to do reveal exactly those features.

Some of the following features might be something you already know. But as you read on, you are sure to bump into an amazing hidden chrome feature that you weren’t aware of, and that’s what makes this post worth going through. So, check it out!

1. Pin Tab

We have talked about Chrome’s cool Pin tab feature before. Just right click on a tab, hit “Pin tab” and the tab converts into a favicon and sticks itself permanently to the extreme left. Use this on those tabs that you never close (Gmail, for instance).

2. Paste and Go / Paste and Search

If you copy any URL outside Chrome and intend to visit that site on Chrome, then instead of doing Ctrl+V and Enter on the address bar, you could just right click and click “Paste and go.” Same for text that you want to search using Chrome’s address bar. Right click and “Paste and search.” Saves time in the long run.

3. Drag and Drop Downloads

You can easily drag downloaded files from Chrome to your desktop or any other folder on your computer. That means, from now on, you don’t need to go and change the download location each time you want the files to be downloaded in a separate place other than desktop (or downloads folder).

4. Resources Page

While the entire Developer tools feature which Chrome offers (you can access it by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I ) is unique and amazing, the Resources section is particularly useful for webmasters and anyone who owns a site and wants to know how fast his site loads on the browser. As you can see in the above screenshot, there are various options available to explore.

5. Task Manager

Chrome treats each tab as a separate process so that if one of them starts creating a problem, it can be killed and a browser crash could be prevented. It offers a built-in task manager to let you see the memory and CPU resources consumed by each tab. You can access it through Tools –> Task Manager or by pressing Shift+Esc.

6. Quick Calculation Results from Address Bar

You know that Chrome’s address bar doubles up as Google search bar too, but did you know that it could be used to make simple calculations? Yep, just type in 12*50 and wait a sec. The result will come up automatically.

7. Drag and Resize Text Box on a Webpage

Another very useful feature. A lot of times, the text boxes on webpages are annoying. They are too small and after you have typed a few lines, you get a scroll bar which is irritating. On Chrome, you could actually drag that box from the corner and make it bigger. You could try it right now with the comment box at the bottom of this page.

8. Site search from Address bar

If you have performed a search on a website then next time you can search it directly from Chrome’s address bar. Here’s how: lets say you have used this site’s custom Google search bar (located at the top right of this page) to lookup something before. Now, if you want to do it again, just type a few letters of site in the address bar, like guid.. and hit Tab. You’ll get a “Search guidingtech.com” option that’ll allow you to search this site directly from the address bar.

9. About:memory

For the geeks among you, Chrome provides an “About memory” page that can accessed by typing about:memory in the address bar. This gives detailed insights into how different processes in the browser are consuming memory.

10. Application Shortcuts

You could create standalone apps from webpages in Chrome by using Tools –> Create application shortcuts. This option could be used for sites that you use frequently and need them open all the time.

11. Sync Bookmarks (and AutoFills, Extensions) To Google Account

This could prove to be a very useful feature, especially after Xmarks, the daddy of bookmark sync tools, decided to shut down (though there is a ray of hope). We included this method previously in our Xmarks alternatives post, and have also talked about it in detail here – How To Sync Chrome Bookmarks Using Your Google Account. (Update: as pointed out by our reader Phistuck in the comments, this feature can now also sync your autofills, extensions and more. )

12. Get iPad Interface

Yes, you don’t need the iPad to see how your favorite sites look in the iPad. You could check it right on your computer, in Chrome. For more, read this – Switch To iPad Interface In Chrome By Changing User Agent String.

13. Select Reopen All Tabs

Chrome has an option that lets you reopen previously opened pages before you closed the browser. This comes in handy if the browser crashes for some reason and you had a lot of tabs open. I recommend that you make sure this option is checked. Learn how to do it here – How to Restore Tabs & Save Tab Groups In Google Chrome.

14. Organize Thumbnails Using Full Screen Key

This tip was contributed by a reader over at Lifehacker. You might not have noticed this but if you’ve got more than one Chrome windows open and you are using Windows 7, their thumbnails would interchange positions if you do a full screen ( F11) on any one of them. So, if you want to arrange the thumbnails in a specific order, you could use the same F11 key to do it.

15. Copy Paste Only Text

And last, but by no means the least, is this hidden Chrome feature that I, personally, have found it to be extremely useful since the day I discovered it. You know that if you copy anything from a webpage and paste it on some other application (except for pure text editors like Notepad), they bring along all sorts of HTML and CSS stuff with the text, right?

Next time, when you copy stuff from Chrome, and want to paste it somewhere else, use Ctrl+Shift+V instead of Ctrl+V if you just need the text. Quick and easy.

Hope you discovered something new about Google Chrome today. I’m sure there are lot of other cool features which I might have missed. Well, that’s why we have you, the readers. Start commenting!

Similar Posts:

How To Open Accidentally Closed Tab In Google Chrome

Switch To iPad Interface In Chrome By Changing User Agent String

How To Clear Cache In Google Chrome

[Quick Tip] Reduce Chrome Browser Tab Size Using Pin Tab

How to Open Multiple Links at Once in Firefox and Chrome

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About is a post from: Guiding Tech

20 die in air disaster after smuggled crocodile escapes on a plane

2010-10-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

20 die in air disaster after smuggled crocodile escapes on a plane: "

Wildlife smugglers will do just about anything for a quick buck, including sneaking a live predator onto an airplane with no regard for the risk to the animal or fellow passengers. This illegal activity reached a devastating and absurdist extreme recently when a man reportedly smuggled a live crocodile onto a plane departing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The crocodile got loose, the crew and passengers panicked, and the plane crashed, killing 20 people.

Oddly enough, the crocodile survived the crash, only to be hacked to death by machete-wielding locals on the ground.

[More]"

Steve Jobs and "the bicycle for the mind"

2010-10-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs and "the bicycle for the mind": "

I enjoyed this extensive interview with John Sculley about his time at Apple (he was CEO from 83-93) because of 1) his insight into Steve Jobs' way of thinking, 2) his willingness to talk about his mistakes, and 3) his insights about business in general...he gives Jobs a lot of credit but Sculley is clearly no slouch. Some high points:

[Jobs] felt that the computer was going to change the world and it was going to become what he called 'the bicycle for the mind.'

On the small size of teams actually building products:

Normally you will only see a handful of software engineers who are building an operating system. People think that it must be hundreds and hundreds working on an operating system. It really isn't. It's really just a small team of people. Think of it like the atelier of an artist.

Sculley was president of Pepsi before coming to Apple:

We did some research and we discovered that when people were going to serve soft drinks to a friend in their home, if they had Coca Cola in the fridge, they would go out to the kitchen, open the fridge, take out the Coke bottle, bring it out, put it on the table and pour a glass in front of their guests.
If it was a Pepsi, they would go out in to the kitchen, take it out of the fridge, open it, and pour it in a glass in the kitchen, and only bring the glass out. The point was people were embarrassed to have someone know that they were serving Pepsi. Maybe they would think it was Coke because Coke had a better perception. It was a better necktie. Steve was fascinated by that.

On why he should not have been hired as Apple's CEO:

The reason why I said it was a mistake to have hired me as CEO was Steve always wanted to be CEO. It would have been much more honest if the board had said, 'Let's figure out a way for him to be CEO. You could focus on the stuff that you bring and he focuses on the stuff he brings.'
Remember, he was the chairman of the board, the largest shareholder and he ran the Macintosh division, so he was above me and below me.

After Jobs left, Sculley tried to run the company as Jobs would have:

All the design ideas were clearly Steve's. The one who should really be given credit for all that stuff while I was there is really Steve. [...] Unfortunately, I wasn't as good at it as he was.

And finally, Sculley and Jobs probably haven't spoken since Jobs left the company:

He won't talk to me, so I don't know.

Jobs is pulling a page from the Don Draper playbook here. In season two, Don tells mental hospital patient Peggy:

Peggy listen to me, get out of here and move forward. This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.

Maybe Jobs is still pissed at Sculley and holds a grudge or whatever, but it seems more likely that looking backwards is something that Jobs simply doesn't do. Move forward, Steve.

Tags: Apple business interviews John Sculley Mad Men Steve Jobs"

Andy Warhol on Coca-Cola

2010-10-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol on Coca-Cola: "

This is one of my favorite quotes from anyone; it's from Warhol's 1975 book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.

Tags: Andy Warhol Coca-Cola"

How Allies Used Math Against German Tanks

2010-10-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

How Allies Used Math Against German Tanks: "

During World War II, Allied forces readily admitted German tanks were superior to their own. The big question for Allied forces, then, was how many tanks Germany was producing. Knowing that would help them counter the threat. Here’s how they reverse-engineered serial numbers to find out.

To solve the problem of determining production numbers, Allied forces initially tried conventional intelligence gathering: spying, intercepting and decoding transmissions and interrogating captured enemies.

Using these methods, the Allies deduced that the German military industrial complex churned out around 1,400 tanks each month from June 1940 through September 1942. That just didn’t seem right.

An overturned German tank alongside a rebuilt bridge in Houffalizo, Belgium, circa June 1945. Photo: National Archives

To put that number in context, Axis forces used 1,200 tanks during the Battle of Stalingrad, an eight month battle that resulted in almost two million casualties. That meant the estimate of 1,400 most likely was too high.

Obviously skeptical of that result, the Allies looked for other methods of estimation. That’s when they found a critical clue: serial numbers.

Allied intelligence noticed each captured tank had a unique serial number. With careful observation, the Allies were able to determine the serial numbers had a pattern denoting the order of tank production. Using this data, the Allies created a mathematical model to determine the rate of German tank production. They used it to estimate that the Germans produced 255 tanks per month between the summer of 1940 and the fall of 1942.

Turns out the serial-number methodology was spot on. After the war, internal German data put der Führer’s production at 256 tanks per month — one more than the estimate.

Here’s the math:

Suppose one is an Allied intelligence analyst during World War II, and one has some serial numbers of captured German tanks. Further, assume that the tanks are numbered sequentially from 1 to N. How does one estimate the total number of tanks?

For point estimation (estimating a single value for the total), the minimum-variance unbiased estimator (MVUE, or UMVU estimator) is given by:

where m is the largest serial number observed (sample maximum) and k is the number of tanks observed (sample size). Note that once a serial number has been observed, it is no longer in the pool and will not be observed again.

This has a variance of:

Once they knew how many tanks the Germans were building, the Allies knew how big a force was required to counter it. And that’s how Allied mathletes helped win the war.

This story was written by Ray Wert and originally published by Jalopnik on Oct. 19.

Top photo: U.S. infantrymen line up in front of a wrecked German tank and display a captured Nazi banner seized in Chambois, France, last stronghold of the Nazis in the Falaise Gap area, Aug. 20, 1944./National Archive

See Also:

This Day in Tech, Sept. 15, 1916: All Disquiet on the Western Front

Titans of War: Tanks Reshape the Battlefield

U.S. Army Considering Fuel Cells on Tanks

Try Explaining That To Your Insurance Agent

2010-10-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

Try Explaining That To Your Insurance Agent: "

(Mall Aurora, IL, USA)

(I work in security at a huge outlet mall. Occasionally, shoppers can’t find their car and we drive them around looking for it.)

Customer: “It seems my car was stolen. It definitely isn’t where I parked it.”

Me: “Okay, let’s drive around and just make sure it isn’t here.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous. I was here a year ago and it got stolen then, also!”

(We drive around the lots and all of a sudden she starts yelling.)

Customer: “Oh my god I don’t believe it! It’s here!

Me: “That’s your car?”

Customer: “No! I mean yes! That’s my car from last year. That’s right, that IS where I parked it!”

Environmental Photographer of the Year Exhibition

2010-10-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

Environmental Photographer of the Year Exhibition: "

The Environmental Photographer of the Year 2010 exhibition will open on 25th October, just a month before the Cancún climate-change conference.

Bonus Quote of the Day

2010-10-25T01:55:00.001-07:00

Bonus Quote of the Day: "'To hear the Republicans tell it, from the second President Obama took his hand off the Bible taking the oath of office, everything that happened after that was his fault. I'd like to see any of you get behind a locomotive going straight downhill at 200 miles an hour and stop it in 10 seconds.'

-- Bill Clinton, quoted by the Washington Post."

Cheap as in crappy

2010-10-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

Cheap as in crappy: "

via Macenstein.

Google - Do not be Evil

2010-10-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

How Google's Refusal To Pay US Taxes Means US Taxpayers Fund Its Innovation, Resulting In A Benefit Of $100/Share: "

We first discussed the topic of cash repatriation (or lack thereof) about a month ago. Since then, more and more seem to be waking up that of the over $1 trillion in cash on the corporate 'balance sheet' not only is most of it unusable domestically (without being taxed at the marginal tax rate upon repatriation), but that companies are effectively boosting earnings by not paying taxes (money which should be going to the US coffers to pay for the same corporate friendly policies enacted by the government, that is currently being funded almost exclusively by individual taxpayers, and the Fed of course). And massively so. An expose in Bloomberg details how courtesy of various, perfectly legal, tax avoidance schemes, Google's effective tax rate is 2.4%, which has resulted in $60 billion in less taxes paid to the US, and which has boosted the company's stock price by a whopping $100/share!

Per Jesse Drucker:

Google’s income shifting -- involving strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich” -- helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. “We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 percent.”

How does Google go about legally sheltering essentially all of its net income from the IRS?

Google, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine, uses a strategy that has gained favor among such companies as Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The method takes advantage of Irish tax law to legally shuttle profits into and out of subsidiaries there, largely escaping the country’s 12.5 percent income tax. (See an interactive graphic on Google’s tax strategy here.)

The earnings wind up in island havens that levy no corporate income taxes at all. Companies that use the Double Irish arrangement avoid taxes at home and abroad as the U.S. government struggles to close a projected $1.4 trillion budget gap and European Union countries face a collective projected deficit of 868 billion euros.

As a strategy for limiting taxes, the Double Irish method is “very common at the moment, particularly with companies with intellectual property,” said Richard Murphy, director of U.K.- based Tax Research LLP. Murphy, who has worked on similar transactions, estimates that hundreds of multinationals use some version of the method.

The high corporate tax rate in the U.S. motivates companies to move activities and related income to lower-tax countries, said Irving H. Plotkin, a senior managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s national tax practice in Boston. He delivered a presentation in Washington, D.C. this year titled “Transfer Pricing is Not a Four Letter Word.”

And with the hypocricy of such ethical stalwarths as Warren Buffett now having been exposed for all to see, it is only time that the company's which 'does no evil' is exposed for its own 'do as I say, not as I do' practices:

Google’s transfer pricing contributed to international tax benefits that boosted its earnings by 26 percent last year, company filings show. Based on a rough analysis, if the company paid taxes at the 35 percent rate on all its earnings, its share price might be reduced by about $100, said Clayton Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Co. in Boca Raton, Florida. He recommends buying Google stock, which closed yesterday at $607.98.

The company, which tells employees “don’t be evil” in its code of conduct, has cut its effective tax rate abroad more than its peers in the technology sector: Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone; Microsoft, the largest software company; International Business Machines Corp., the biggest computer-services provider; and Oracle Corp., the second-biggest software company. Those companies reported rates that ranged between 4.5 percent and 25.8 percent for 2007 through 2009.

Google is “flying a banner of doing no evil, and then they’re perpetrating evil under our noses,” said Abraham J. Briloff, a professor emeritus of accounting at Baruch College in New York who has examined Google’s tax disclosures.

“Who is it that paid for the underlying concept on which they built these billions of dollars of revenues?” Briloff said. “It was paid for by the United States citizenry.”

Of course, when US citizens, especially those who have never been in Congress, decide to pursue various tax shelter loophole, the result usually ends up being jail.

And here is where the tax repatriation issue comes in:

Technically, multinationals that shift profits overseas are
deferring U.S. income taxes, not avoiding them permanently. The
deferral lasts until companies decide to bring the earnings back
to the U.S. In practice, they rarely repatriate significant
portions, thus avoiding the taxes indefinitely, said Michelle
Hanlon, an accounting professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.

Which explains why as we noted a few days ago, the vast corporate lobby is already begging for a huge tax amnesty so it can repatriate its massive cash hoard from abroad on promises it will be used for what it should have been used in the first place. Surely, we can believe these honest tax evaders... But at least we can finally put the topic of the "vast cash on the sidelines" lie to rest.

Mure more here.

And here is a interactive graphic representation of Google's tax evasion (after the jump):

Catch a thief from your armchair and win cash

2010-10-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Catch a thief from your armchair and win cash: "

Here is the latest from the UK:

Anyone who owns a laptop computer can now fight crime from the safety of their home and win cash prizes for catching thieves red-handed, under a new British monitoring scheme that went live this week.

The service works by employing an army of registered armchair snoopers who watch hours of CCTV footage from cameras in stores and high street venues across the country.

Viewers can win up to 1,000 pounds ($1,600) in cash a month from Devon-based firm Internet Eyes, which distributes the streaming footage, when offenders are caught in the act.

For the pointer I thank Michael Rosenwald, who has just published a new book on the sports writing of Gay Talese.

From another front, S.S. sends me this link for "the culture that is Britain."

UAE: Hitting wife, kids OK if no bruises

2010-10-20T21:24:00.001-07:00

UAE: Hitting wife, kids OK if no bruises: "A court in the United Arab Emirates says a man is permitted under Islamic law to physically discipline his wife and children as long as he leaves no marks and has tried other methods of punishment, the country's top court ruled.

Slideshow: When You Put Money And People Together…

2010-10-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Slideshow: When You Put Money And People Together…: "

There’s so much we can do with money: spend it, save it, invest it, give it to those in need. Then again, some people go beyond the obvious. They turn their bills money into money origami, grafitti or other “art” pieces.

Others are even more creative: they pose with money to create images that are only half human. The results are fascinating and quite entertaining. Who said that money topics have to be boring?

Somehow I Am Now Wishing I Had Read More Nietszche When I Was Younger...

2010-10-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Somehow I Am Now Wishing I Had Read More Nietszche When I Was Younger...: "

Last week I spent some time with a group of people I don't usually spend much time talking to. They were not rich--by which I don't mean that they had overstretched themselves by buying a seven-figure principal residence but rather that they weren't rich: their household income was in the five or, for some of them, perhaps the very low six figures. And (which is unusual for Berkeley) they were not lefties, neither cultural nor sociological. They were deeply concerned with the future of our country. And they were desperate to figure out how to engage in effective political action--but had few illusions that the politicians they would vote for in November were their kind of people with their interests at heart.

I suppose that in a previous era, back when there were private-sector unions, they might have been union stewards. But now we have no private-sector unions.

And so they are activists from the California Tea Party.

So I went through my standard spiel. Housing bubble. 5 million excess houses built in the desert between Los Angeles and Albuquerque, and on all of them the least $100K of mortgage debt will not be repaid. A $500B loss in an $80T world economy. Shouldn't have been a problem—securitization exists to spread risks. But the banks pretended that the AAA MBS issued by other banks were high-quality Basel capital even though they knew full well the dreck that they were issuing. A financial multiplier of 40. A flight to safety. A big shift away from spending on currently-produced goods and services and on currently-employed labor as people tried to build up their stocks of safe assets. A multiplier as people who lost their jobs stopped spending, and the situation snowballed.

It could have been worse, I said. Without all of the rescue policies we would probably now have an unemployment rate of 16 percent rather than 10 percent.

But they question is what to do now with the economy. The idea is not to go to socialism—not to nationalize large chunks of the economy and have everybody work for the government—but to conduct strategic interventions in financial markets. Relieve the excess demand for safe high-quality assets and you remove the pressure on people to spend less than they earn as they try to build up their stocks of safe assets, and you get a virtuous circle of strong recovery.

So, I said, the right thing to do is the Bagehot rule: lend freely at a penalty rate. The government should throw huge amounts of money at the financial markets and in the process take a large chunk of the upside in equities and options.

SOCIALISM, they said. We don't want SOCIALISM.

But it's not socialism, I said. It's an attempt to avoid socialism—it's an attempt to conduct a strategic intervention into the market economy so that it can rebalance itself.

SOCIALISM, they said.

Well, I said, how about lending freely to the financial sector but forget Bagehot's 'penalty rate' stuff?

BAILOUT, they said. BAILOUT OF CORRUPT FINANCIERS WITH WASHINGTON CONNECTIONS, they said. WE LIKE THAT EVEN LESS.

Well, I said, how about pushing off taxes into the future, bringing forward infrastructure spending we know that we will want to do, and financing it by issuing more government debt? The spending should put some people to work, and the extra government bonds we print up will increase the supply of safe assets, decrease the excess demand, and so remove some of the downward pressure that is inducing people to spend less than they earn/

DEFICIT, they said. DEFICIT BAD. MUST REDUCE THE DEFICIT. GOVERNMENT MUST LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS.

But, I said, the U.S. government now can borrow at unbelievable terms. If you could borrow at such terms, you would bust out the top of your house and add a second story immediately.

GOVERNMENT MUST LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS.

OK, I said. How about having the federal government aid the states. We want to keep our police and our fire and our road maintenance and our schools running at their efficient levels, don't we? It's stupid to cut back on the long-term foundations of our economy and its growth because of recession, isn't it. How about a large program of federal aid to the states so that teachers, sewer workers, police officers, and firefighters can keep their jobs, keep protecting us—and keep spending and so provide employment for the rest of us?

ARE YOU KIDDING? THEY HAVE KEPT THEIR UNIONS. WE HAVE LOST OUR UNIONS. WE HAVE LOST OUR JOBS. THEY HAVE GONE TO CHINA. THEY HAVE VANISHED. WE ARE UNEMPLOYED. IF WE ARE EMPLOYED WE HAVE NO BARGAINING POWER WITH OUR BOSSES. IT IS NOT FAIR FOR STATE WORKERS TO NOT ONLY HAVE UNIONS, BARGAINING POWER, AND PENSIONS, BUT FOR THEM TO HAVE THEIR JOBS TOO. SINCE WE ARE LOSING OUR JOBS THEY SHOULD LOSE THEIR JOBS TOO. IT IS NOT FAIR.

Oh.

EVERYTHING YOU PROPOSE TAKES OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY, TAXES IT AWAY FROM US, AND GIVES IT TO SOMEBODY ELSE.

Oh.

BERKELEY SOCIALIST.

So what do you think we should do?

GET US JOBS!

But you have just rejected every idea I have for boosting employment—short of nationalizing the means of production and employing everybody by the government, that is. What are your ideas?

CUT TAXES. ABOLISH THE EPA. REPEAL HEALTH CARE REFORM. KEEP GOVERNMENT'S HANDS OFF OF MEDICARE. RAISE SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS. CUT THE DEFICIT.

Your Morning Sky

2010-10-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

Your Morning Sky: "

Into your morning sky, I traveled afar.

— Diane

"