pushmind publishing

effective fake identity generator

2011-09-30T23:20:00.000+05:45

Here’s one, a fake identity generator. It lets you select your name set, such as a Hobbit name, a Finnish name, a Japanese name or whatever you select. Additionally, it lets you select your country. For example, I selected a Hobbit name set with Australia as my country. Further, I selected my gender as 100 % male and age 30 years. After that when I hit the Generate button, it provided my fake identity as follows:

Bodo Brownlock
38 Baker Street
Green Valley WA 6330

Phone:(08) 9069 3632
Mother's Maiden name: Tûk
Occupation:Ticket agent
Company:Hit or Miss
Weight:203.5 pounds (92.5 kilograms)
Height:5' 9" (175 centimetres)

What more, it also generates a QR code based on the fake information. Mine looked like this.

Go on now, generate as many identities that you like, on this fake identity generator. Just don’t forget to save your QR codes; they look awesome. And while you’re at it, take a look at this.

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is hell exothermic

2011-09-20T17:54:00.000+05:45

I do not know who originally wrote this but it is a classic.

A thermodynamics professor had written a take-home exam for his graduate students. It had one question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof.

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.This gives two possibilities:

If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms Therese Banyan during my Freshman year, 'That it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then the second cannot be true, and so Hell is exothermic."

This student got the only A. via.

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short but funny jokes

2011-09-10T17:46:00.000+05:45

Here’s a collection of three jokes, sitting idly inside a notepad file for ages in my desktop. They’re indeed hilarious.

A Saudi Prince went to Germany to study. A month later, he sends a letter to his dad saying, "Berlin is wonderful, people are nice and I really like it here, but I'm a bit ashamed to arrive to school with my gold Mercedes when all my teachers travel by train." Sometime later he gets a letter from his dad with a ten million dollar check saying, "Stop embarrassing us, go and get yourself a train too!"

Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want". The second engineer nodded approvingly, "Good choice, The clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

During one of her daily classes , a teacher trying to teach good manners, asked her students the following question."Michael , if you were on a date having dinner with young lady , how would you tell her that you have to go to the bathroom?" Michael said "Just a minute I have to go pee". The teacher responding by saying , "That would be rude and impolite ". What about you Sherman , How would you say it ?" Sherman said , "I am sorry , but I really need to got o the bathroom , I'll be right back .." That's better , but it's still not very nice to say the word bathroom at the dinner table.. You , little Edward , can you use your brain fro once and show us your good manners?" "I would say Darling , may I please be excused for a moment ?I have to shake hands with a very dear friend of mine , whom I hope to introduce you to after dinner. The teacher fainted!

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nepalese history in facebook

2011-08-31T11:29:00.000+05:45

Just imagine what it would be like, if Facebook was there in the past. Here’s an imaginary series of events in the history of Nepal, expressed through Facebook; for the lighter side of life. Enjoy.

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yet another super alphabet

2011-08-20T23:04:00.000+05:45

A really creative Neil Cameron at his site, has created one of the most badass alphabets ever. We are thankful that they don’t teach this one to kids at school. But if they did, just imagine how many PhD’s would come up as experts on Buffy, Edna, Gundam, Hager, Joss and the rest. So without further ado, here are some highlights of the alphabet:

A is for Aztecs in Atomic Armour Attacking Anomalous Amphibians
B is for Buffy Bravely Battling Beelzebub
D is for Doctor Who Defeating Doctor Doom in a Deadly Disco Dance-Off
F is for The Fantastic Four saving the Finnish ambassador From Fred Flintstone, who's Flinging Flaming Fajitas at his Ford Fiesta
G is for Galactus Geeking out with his Glove puppets of Gundam and Godzilla
H is for Hagar the Horrible Hacking Hello Kitty in Half
I is for Indiana Jones Inching away from an Inebriated Ironman
J is for Joss. Just Joss.

The full alphabet is on this page, given as a very good illustration.

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offshore wind-lens generates mega-energy

2011-08-10T21:34:00.000+05:45

Forget about traditional tri-blade wind turbines — the ultra-efficient turbine of the future might look completely different if Kyushu University professor Yuji Ohya has anything to say about it. Ohya and his team recently unveiled the Wind Lens, a honeycomb-like structure that purportedly triples the amount of wind energy that can be produced by offshore turbines.

The Wind Lens was unveiled at Yokohama Renewable Energy International Exhibition 2010. The structure works similarly to a magnifying glass that intensifies light from the sun — except in this case, the lens intensifies wind flow. Ohya’s design doesn’t have too many moving parts — just a hoop (AKA a brimmed diffuser) that “magnifies” wind power, and a turbine that is rotated by wind captured from the hoop. Each Lens, which measures 112 meters in diameter, can provide enough energy for an average household.

Ohya doesn’t know if the Lens will go into commercial production, but if nothing else, it could provide a more aesthetically appealing alternative to traditional offshore turbines. via.

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quickly convert multimedia files online

2011-07-24T21:39:00.000+05:45

Of course you have many tools and software to convert files from one format to another. In fact you convert files according to your need. Sometimes you are in a hurry to convert that movie file into a format that your mobile understands. At other times, you might be searching the Internet for a good and decent conversion programs. In any case, well, waste no more time; look no further. Online Convert is probably the best and the quickest option for you.

In a couple of easy steps, get your file converted. Just select the file you want to convert and upload it. In a moment (depending on the size of your file), your file will be converted, and you will be prompted to save your converted file to your computer.

That’s it. That’s probably the quickest (and of course, free) method to convert your multimedia file formats. In case you were wondering, the site supports not just multimedia file, but a variety of documents, e-books and other file types.

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hitman leon, aka the professional

2011-07-12T18:18:00.000+05:45

Leon is a loner. He is a hitman with only one passion – a passion for his job. Therefore he trains himself well, keeps his senses alert, loves his weapons and makes no mistakes. He is simply the best hitman in town.

One day when he sees the entire family of his neighbour murdered in cold blood over a matter of cocaine information, he has but no choice to welcome to his life the sole survivor of the family, a twelve-year old girl. Matilda, an extra-ordinary girl with a fierce appetite for revenge of the murder, is ready to take on any job from hitman Leon. She even demands to become his apprentice. But he has nothing to offer to Matilda. So where does the story go?

In an interesting plot by Luc Besson, viewers are once again charmed by his flair for creative story-telling. Hitman Jean Reno is bold, the turns in the narrative are steep, the actions are credible and Natalie Portman is superb in her first ever silver-screen appearance in Leon.

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transformers: dark of the moon

2011-07-05T13:12:00.000+05:45

Once again Michael Bay along with his crew is successful in walking away with kudos with their performance in Transformers III.

With fast-paced visuals and equally fast story, this time in 3D, the citizens of Cybertron seem a bit real and lifelike, as compared to the prequels, that is. On this hair-raising episode, the Decepticons have a larger and more deceptive plans that leave the Autobots fighting on the edge of the knife. One little mistake, and beloved Earth is doomed forever. In fact the Decepticons are trying to transport their entire planet of Cybertron in place of the physical space occupied by Earth.

Will Sam once again be able to act on the nick of time, thereby helping to evade earthly doom? It remains to be seen; and it remains to be seen whether the makers of Transformers III will walk away with the Oscars as well.

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an automatic complaint-generator

2011-06-29T12:41:00.000+05:45

Parts of what follows below were actually painful to write. However, because of the on-going misinformation campaigns launched by Mr Manish Adhockery and his apostles I feel it is my duty to write this. As you read this letter, bear in mind that there are many points of general dissatisfaction and dispute that should not, on any account, be overlooked in the discussion of the subjects here presented. One of these is that if Manish can overawe and befuddle a sufficient number of prominent individuals then it will become virtually impossible for anyone to defy Manish. He's like an evil genius except without the "genius" part, and deep down in our bones, we all know why. There is one final irony to my story. It is legitimate to have misgivings about lethargic worrywarts who provoke terrible, total, universal, and merciless destruction.

The above paragraph was not written by me – it was generated using an automatic complaint-letter generator on this site. It lets you generate complaint-letters against a person or against a company. Give it a try, and you’ll be amazed how you can vent off your anger in no time! If you like, there is also an iPhone application called iComplain. I say, this generator serves as one of the coolest anger-vent programs available on the market, which you realize at once when you start reading the automatically generated complaint. I decided to do an additional single-paragraph complaint against a hypothetical company called HypoWratho, and here’s the complaint.

In all my letters, I try harder than anything else to make myself clear. I try to state things as simply and unambiguously as I can because I find that that's the best way to convince my readers that the popularity of HypoWratho's blandishments among thrasonical, depraved jackanapes is a harbinger of scary things to come. To begin with, HypoWratho's litigious spin doctors are nothing more than subservient blobs of easily controlled protoplasm. That's why they're so willing to help HypoWratho take over society's eyes, ears, mind, and spirit. Okay, this letter has become much too long so I'll just jump right to the punchline: HypoWratho's oleaginous machinations involve a gradual abandonment of concern for reason or evidence and rely on propaganda to maintain public support.

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i, robot with will smith

2011-06-21T09:43:00.000+05:45

Sunny is smart, clever and unique. He has extreme love and dedication towards his father. He feels belonged when spoken to kindly, and feels angry when posed with unnecessary questions repeatedly. It makes his feel irritated. Sunny is not a child; he is a robot. He feels he is unique.

When Chicago detective Spooner begins the investigation of the death of Alfred Lanning, Sunny is brought into the case as a major suspect. He tries to run away from the police, but Spooner plays tough on him. After all, Lanning is not just another dead guy – he is the biggest name in robotics, and the founder of USR, one of the most powerful companies on the planet. Besides, Lanning means a world to Spooner himself.

Dr. Lanning made Sunny unique – in function and capability. He created a robot that could dream. He created a robot that is one step up the robolutionary ladder. Why? Why would Lanning create a marvel of robotics and then die by the most baffling means ever?

I, Robot is one of a kind of a robot movie. Depicted in a society ahead of ours in time, the story is one hard riddle for Converse-loving, robot-hating detective Spooner.

Technorati Tags: will smith,bridget moynahan,alex proyas,i robot,issac asimov,sci-fi,bruce greenwood,viki,robotic scifi stories,shia labeouf

pirates of the caribbean: on stranger tides

2011-05-25T15:55:00.000+05:45

Captain Jack Sparrow does not have a ship this time; neither does he have a crew. Wanted by the authorities of Spain and England, he is forced aboard Captain Blackbeard's ship whose First Mate is one of his old flames, Angelica. Set sail to find the Fountain of Youth, or Aqua da Vida, per se, Captain Blackbeard does not know that the Spaniards and the English are after it as well.

In an adventure full of wit, thrill, frill and humour, does Jack make it to the fountain? In an adventure made exhilarating by the presence of zombies and mermaids and greedy sailors, does he even get close? Watch Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to find the answers.

Oh, and you're guaranteed your share of adventure, as always.

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good [f]luck chuck

2011-05-15T20:42:00.000+05:45

Women fall like rain upon Charlie, aka the dentist Charles Logan. He is believed by them to be the lucky charm – sleep with him once, and you will get married to the most amazing man of your life. Charlie, on the other hand, is a good soul who refuses to take advantage of these girls. He believes that sex is nothing without love; and thus avoids them hoping that he will find the true love of his life. And so he does.

He loves Cam like crazy. He wants to marry her; and in the process, does all sorts of activities aided by his childhood friend Stu.

Will he get Cam to marry him, or will he let her go forever? Good Luck Chuck has the answer.

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unfailing a failed mission

2011-04-17T20:32:00.000+05:45

Astronaut Jim Lovell is looking forward to land on the moon; and after six months of rigorous training and simulation, he is ready for lift-off. As the day of launch approaches, one of the three crew members is disallowed (probably due to internal politics) to travel, brining in astronaut Jack who has had no training for months, and who is mostly shown pursuing his sexual interests. Thus a crew of three embarks, one of whom could be considered a guest astronaut.

During the journey, when Jack is doing his routine instrumentation inspection he hits a wrong button, bringing havoc to the vehicle Odyssey along with her crew. Danger ensues, following a loud voice of Jim Lovell at the command center – Houston, we have a problem!

Watch Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon and others to experience a true event in history – and an impossible attempt to un-fail a failed mission, in Apollo 13.

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a con-movie from bollywood

2011-04-01T00:08:00.000+05:45

Mysterious A is a sophisticated thief who chooses only the most precious items as his loots around the world. The police is baffled every time after seeing his signature ‘A’ in place of the item he just stole. But ACP Jai Dixit, a bright and promising young officer of Mumbai Police sees a pattern in the thefts of A. He knows the location of the next theft, and tires to out-think A, one step at a time.

Thus begins a chase that takes them to Rio, and a series of interesting events surrounding the theft of the first coins minted by human hands.

You are invited to watch Dhoom 2, a con-movie from Bollywood, that is interesting in the core, original in story-telling, and convincing to the heart and mind. The plot is great, and they have English subtitles, too.

Technorati Tags: jai dixit,mysterious a,thief aryan,sunheri,aishwarya rai,hrithik roshan,abhishekh bachhan,bipasa basu,dhoom 2,uday chopra

pirates of the caribbean: at world’s end

2011-03-27T20:05:00.000+05:45

Some more quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End:

" I prefer rum... Rum's good."

"Well, then you wouldn't be here, would you? So you can't be here! Q.E.D. - you're not really here!"

"Send this pestilent, traitorous, cow-hearted, yeasty codpiece to the brig."

"Love, that is a dinghy. My vessel is magnificent and fierce and huge-ish. And gone. Why is it gone?"

" I have no sympathy for any of you feculent maggots and no more patience to pretend otherwise. Gentlemen, I wash my hand of this weirdness."

"And all of this pales to utter insignificance in light of the fact that my ship is once again gone. Savvy?"

"Now we're being followed by rocks. Never had that one before."

"Have you, now? It's very kind of you. But it would seem that as I possess a ship, and you don't... you're the ones in need of rescuing, and I'm not sure that I'm in the mood."

"For sure, you have to be lost to find a place that can't be found, elseways everyone would know where it was."

"Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!"

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pirates of the caribbean: dead man’s chest

2011-03-20T19:13:00.000+05:45

Upon returning almost empty-handed from a mission, Jack faces an eager, awaiting crew. They ask him about the mission of which he apparently has no idea whatsoever - only that he understands he forgot about it altogether. Thus, to evade the crew's questions (about a certain key and a chest); he devises an elaborate wordplay that reads:

"No. If we don't have the key, we can't open whatever we don't have that it unlocks. So what purpose would be served in finding whatever need be unlocked, which we don't have, without first having found the key what unlocks it?"

Some more memorable quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest:

"No. You want you to find this, because the finding of this finds you incapacitorially finding and or locating in your discovering the detecting of a way to save your dolly belle, ol' what's-her-face. Savvy?"

"You mistrust me? Listen, you can mistrust him, trust me."

"Let us examine that claim for a moment, former Commodore, shall we? Who was it that, at the very moment you had a notorious pirate safely behind bars, saw fit to free said pirate and take your dearly beloved all to hisself, eh? So whose fault is it *really* that you've ended up a rum-pot deckhand what takes orders from pirates?"

"Darling, I am truly unhappy to have to tell you this, but through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of circumstances that had nothing whatsoever to do with me, poor Will has been press-ganged into Davy Jones's crew."

"My tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature informs me that you are troubled."

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pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl

2011-03-18T18:52:00.000+05:45

"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.'

What fierce pirate Hector Barbossa will make of these lines by Jack Sparrow, is anybody's guess; but witty Jack never ceases to vex his competitors at the opportune moment. Here's a compilation of some memorable quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we're all men of our word really... except for, of course, Elizabeth, who is in fact, a woman."

"When you marooned me on that god forsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate: I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

"Fortunately, I know how to counter it; the man who did the waking buys the man who was sleeping a drink; the man who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking."

"Of the two of us, I am the only one who hasn't committed mutiny, therefore my word is the one we'll be trusting. Although, I suppose I should be thanking you because in fact, if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, I would have an equal share in that curse same as you."

"Drink up me 'earties. Yo ho."

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best albums of the decade

2011-02-25T22:24:00.000+05:45

Without further ado, I give you the top albums of the past decade:

Turn Back the Years by Hank Williams, 2005
The College Dropout by Kanye West, 2004
Portrait of a Legend by Sam Cooke, 2003
Elvis: 30 No. 1 Hits by Elvis, 2002
The Anthology by Muddy Waters, 2001
Kid A by Radiohead, 2000
Stankonia by Outkast, 2000
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey, 2000
The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem, 2000

This list is from the All-Time 100 Albums of the last half-century by Time.

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a picture think-tionary for life

2011-02-19T18:25:00.000+05:45

We all have problems in life. All the time we keep on looking for answers to our problems, but often forget that asking the right questions can cut lots of trouble in the process.

Here’s one site that makes a different approach – encouraging people to find solutions by helping them ask questions about themselves. It sure is a unique approach that is strong in the core and simple on the outside.

Huge thanks go to the creators. Meanwhile, make sure that you check out the archives section, from which some of the questions below have been taken:

Through all of life's twists and turns, who has been there for you?
Where do you spend most of your time while you're awake?
What things in life should always be free?
How would an extra $1000 a month change your life?
What are you an expert at?
What is your favorite sound?
Right now, at this moment, what do you want most?

Technorati Tags: dealing with problems,just a thought,unique approach to problem-solving,picture think-tionary,visual thought-book,change of seasons,encouraging people,experiments in psychology,to think or not to think,simple yet strong thoughts

growing a square watermelon

2011-02-07T17:56:00.000+05:45

Next time you visit the store, make sure that you look for cubic watermelons. Yes, you heard me right – cubic watermelons!

It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention; and for Tokyoites always clamouring for space, this new shape has provided them relief. The cubic shape gives them what they crave for, at least within their refrigerators. According to the farmers who grow them, cubic watermelons were created because they are easy to stock, easy to cut and easy to package.

The idea of a cubic shape, as opposed to its natural shape occurred to one farmer in Zentsuji in 2001. Since then, farmers in the quiet town in southern Japan have been famous around the world. Without doubt, Zentsuji has been registered as the birthplace of cubic watermelons. The concept is simple – as the fruit is growing in the vine, put it inside a cube-shaped glass casing, and Mother Nature takes care of the rest. Not as difficult as it sounds, is it?

Cubic they might be, but they come with a price tag. Each piece of the fruit sets you back 10,000 Yen, or roughly five times as costly as its normal brethren. Therefore many people might use them as presents or fashion statements, rather than daily consumption items.

It is not for nothing that Japan is called a land of innovation. New ideas emerge here almost every other day. So it remains to be seen what they are going to grow next – maybe a pre-cut, ready-to-eat, seedless variety? Who knows?

Technorati Tags: square watermelons,cubic watermelons,miracles of nature,fridge-friendly fruit,tweaking the nature,expensive fruits,innovative ideas,zentsuji farming,farmers in japan,the race for space

the tourist

2011-01-25T16:40:00.000+05:45

Frank, a maths teacher from Wisconsin, is seemingly mistaken for the cunning and inconspicuous Alexander Pierce. Wanted for a theft of 744 million Pounds, Alexander is nowhere to be found.

Enter Elise, a gorgeous tourist who is constantly under surveillance, and whose identity very much hidden. Supposed to be the girl-friend of Alexander, Elise is the only clue to find him, and also to find the money.

Will they be able to track him down, or will Alexander once again get away with the money? It's a hard riddle for the Europol, and even for Elise.

Technorati Tags: wisconsin teacher,maths teacher,angelina jolie,johnny depp,remake of anthony zimmer,gk films,golden globe nominations,florian henckel von donnersmarck,riddles for europol,gorgeous tourist

the early twenty-first century

2011-01-19T15:11:00.000+05:45

The day passed with heavy rainfall, and in the afternoon I found myself in the storage room sorting out my old movie collection. There were movies mostly from the nineties, those that had affected my imagination and impressed me as a teenager. One such movie was The Fifth Element. As soon as I did dusting off the cover, I decided to watch it once gain. So I took out the VCR, cleaned it all day and in the evening, sat in front of the TV.

The Fifth Element features genetically engineered beings, flying cars, visitors from space, smart homes, light-speed travel, interplanetary vacations, and last but not the least, ultra-sophisticated handguns. It is a technological mecca for Sci-Fi lovers, with seamless animations and visual effects. It brought back some wonderful memories, of how we re-winded the scenes and played and re-winded and played and so on. We often talked about whether the technologies shown in the movie would one day be realized, possibly in the near future!

Come to think of it, the last fifteen years turned out quite peculiar in terms of technology, as compared to what was shown in the movie! For example, the closest thing to a flying car today is the Moller Skycar; the next-of-kin of genetic engineering is the cloning of a sheep called Dolly. As for human contact with aliens, it consists of pure speculations about ancient civilizations, their mythologies & countless archaeological findings of elongated skulls. Comparing further on, sophisticated handguns and weapons systems are emerging – not quite as shown in the movie, but something evolving rapidly (as seen in countless documentaries). Smart homes, too, are becoming reality, if money is no object – thanks to the advances in digital computing, cheaper hardware and nanotechnology. As for light-speed travel, it is hardly more than theory. Yet, interplanetary vacation has begun in the form of orbital or space tourism, and heavy investments by some promising companies.

To sum it up, technologies shown in The Fifth Element are far from reality, nonetheless Luc Besson and the entire crew deserves a loud applause for the wonderful work. I know it might be a little late to congratulate them, but it is never too late to thank someone who had inspired you at some point in your life. It is often said that you cannot make something a reality without first imagining it, so thanks for taking the first steps.

The future is unknown and what it may hold for humanity is yet to be seen; but future, as it is, is whatever you make of it.

Then I moved on to a next movie in the collection.

Technorati Tags: the early twenty-first century,a decade in technology,decade of the 2000's,the beginning of 21st century,speculations on futurefuture,luc besson,the fifth element,bruce willis excellent performance,unique scifi movie,milla jovovich excellent performance,a rainy day in kathmandu,a rainy day in the basement,technological utopia,fiction and reality,turn of the century

how things used to be

2011-01-11T11:11:00.000+05:45

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."
England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell. Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer." And that's the truth.

Who said that History is boring!?

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beautiful design for beautiful lifestyle

2010-12-29T12:54:00.000+05:45

Beautiful Life is an online magazine dedicated to all aspects of design, featuring interesting and unique information about creative design, beautiful art and luxury lifestyle.

There are a number of excellent design samples, such as a digital mechanic clock that displays time in a very unusual way. With every single minute, a few of the small bars in the numbers move or spread over the black surface to disappear in the frame, while the rest regroup to show the current time.

Another one is an interesting "smart" house featuring full automation and ability of independent existence. It has roof covered with solar panels, it can collect fresh water from rains, it has toilets that are connected to the compost container in the basement, where all the organic waste will be converted into clean, dry compost that needs to be removed only twice a year. All functions of the house are monitored by an array of sensors, and regulated by a house brain that can be controlled trough any laptop computer. Capable of adjusting a family of four, theoretically, this house could be built even in the desert or even on a mountain top.

Featured here is yet another beautiful design – the Urban Forest. This construction is designed as a cylindrical skyscraper made from multiple floors of different shapes and sizes which have been layered slightly off-center from one another. Each floor has a large glass gallery, from which is very convenient to overlook the city panorama. It is a very spectacular idea but at the same time it’s interesting to see when this skyscraper will be built.

Check out their homepage for great inspirational designs.

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to design for beauty or the beauty of design

2010-12-20T11:46:00.000+05:45

It is hard to deny the fact that there is a fine line between design and beauty. An object that has a clever design is undoubtedly an object of beauty, at least in all things natural. Take a shell for example. It has a beautiful structure with all the high and low areas of curvature; or take a flower that has spellbinding vigour! If you are one of those who thinks comparison of design with natural things is futile, then think again. Aren’t human beings natural? Don’t we derive our every inspiration from nature?

People at Yanko Design have been working hard, designing better and beautiful things. Browsing through products on their store, I found it difficult to determine which one was an actual product and which one was conceptual. It is recommended to browse through their RANDOM DESIGN section on the homepage.

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microsoft worldwide telescope

2010-12-15T23:42:00.000+05:45

Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope is one of a kind software. It acts as a virtual window to the earth and space using a number of telescopes scattered throughout and around our planet. According to its website it is specially targeted towards students and educators; but everyone is invited to take a look at the wonders of our universe, and of course our home.

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can you feel the love tonight

2010-11-30T21:30:00.000+05:45

There's a calm surrender to the rush of day
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away
An enchanted moment, and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And can you feel the love tonight
It is where we are
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
That we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight
How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds
Believe the very best

There's a time for everyone if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn
There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Technorati Tags: oscar winning song,disney songs,great animated movie songs,the lion king ost,elton john,tim rice,best of elton john,hit singles,best original song,elton john grammy

create barcode for your name

2010-11-24T23:34:00.000+05:45

This is an addictive source to create a barcode of your name. Just enter your name in the DATA TO ENCODE field and click Submit. Or, if you are curious enough, feel free to try out various settings. I generated a barcode for Pushmind Publishing.

Above is a classic 2D barcode; but encoding is not limited to this. There are other methods of encoding, such as the QR Code below, again for Pushmind Publishing.

While you’re at it, why not find out how much does your barcode really worth?

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curses of captain haddock

2010-11-11T20:50:00.000+05:45

Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!

This collection is splendid but not meant for some raggle-taggle ruminants. Lily-livered landlubbers need not see it unless they are megacycle pyromaniacs. To think of it, Captain Haddock is definitely not a miserable molecule of mildew, neither does he like miserable blundering barbecued blister but on second thoughts, ten thousand thundering typhoons is a different story - one that might change your mind into looking this list.

Diplodocus, cushion-footed quadrupeds and iconoclasts are most welcome; and bring some sea-gherkins or saucy tramps while you're at it.

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bizarre laws of usa

2010-10-30T20:50:00.000+05:45

Extraordinary it does sound, but did you know that in Illinois, you may be arrested for speaking English? Instead, make sure that you speak American the next time you visit Chicago! Sound interesting? Welcome to the list of bizarre laws in the US of A.

Alaska – Whispering in someone’s ear while he’s moose hunting is prohibited.
California – You may not eat an orange in your bathtub.
Florida – If you tie an elephant to a parking meter, you must pay the same parking fee as you would for a vehicle.
Hawaii – All residents may be fined for not owning a boat.
Illinois – It is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is “American.”
Kentucky – Every citizen is required to take a shower once a year.
Massachusetts – No gorilla is allowed in the backseat of any car.
Michigan – A woman may not cut her own hair without her husband’s permission.
Nevada – It’s illegal for men with moustaches to kiss women.
New York – While riding in an elevator, you must talk to no one, fold your hands, and look toward the door.
North Carolina – It’s against the law to sing off-key.
Ohio – In Oxford, Ohio it is still illegal for a woman to undress in front of a picture of a man.
South Dakota – It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep in a cheese factory.
Pennsylvania – It’s illegal to sleep on top of a refrigerator outdoors.
Texas – You may not shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
Wyoming – Unless you have an official permit, you may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April.

I wonder what circumstances arose in the past, that led to the creation of these laws in these states. My thanks to divinecaroline who made this wonderful list.

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fun-stuff: guys are cool because

2010-10-20T22:11:00.000+05:45

Girls are cool too, in their own peculiar way, but someone (probably a guy) has gone over a lot of trouble to create this great list. I just wished I knew who wrote the original list. If you are the one then tell me and I’ll link back to you:

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
At least a few belches are expected and tolerated.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
Christmas shopping can be accomplished for 25 relatives, on December 24th, in 45 minutes.
Dry cleaners and hair cutters don't rob you blind.
Everything on your face stays its original colour.
Gray hair and wrinkles only add character.
If another guy shows up at the party in the same outfit, you just might become lifelong friends.
If someone forgets to invite you to something, he or she can still be your friend.
Phone Conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
Same work...more pay.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
Wedding dress - $2,000. Tuxedo rental - 75 bucks.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are not expected to know the names of more than five colors.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
You can "do" your nails with a pocketknife.
You can drop by to see a friend without having to bring a little gift.
You can go to the bathroom without a support group.
You can kill your own food.
You can leave the motel bed unmade.
You can open all your own jars.
You can quietly enjoy a car ride from the passenger's seat.
You can quietly watch a game with your buddy for hours without ever thinking: "He must be mad at me."
You don't have to clean your apartment if the meter reader is coming.
You don't have to learn to spell a new last name.
You don't have to shave below your neck.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
You don't mooch off other's desserts.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.
Your belly usually hides your big hips.
Your pals can be trusted never to trap you with. "So, notice anything different?"
Your underwear is $10 for a three-pack.

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an interesting poem on computing

2010-10-10T22:10:00.000+05:45

The following poem is said to be a plagiarised version of an original piece written by Gene Ziegler in 1994 with the original title A Grandchild's Guide to Using Grandpa's Computer. According to a furious Gene who found that some guy stole his creation, he explained in his website (now down):

Unfortunately, the internet being what it is, some scoundrel whose editing skills exceeded his or her ethical standards edited the poem, reduced it by half, removed my name, and re-circulated it under the title If Dr. Seuss were a Technical Writer, attributed to the ever prolific Anonymous.

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash.

If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
then you may as well reboot it and go out with a bang,
'cause as sure as I'm a poet, that sucker's gonna hang.

When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
and the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk,
and you have to flash your memory and you want to RAM your ROM,
quickly turn off your computer and be sure to tell your mom.

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futuristic mobile phone

2010-09-27T23:24:00.000+05:45

The Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps in nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities. Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices:

Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live
Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving
Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension
Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge
Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

In addition to the advances above, the integrated electronics shown in the Morph concept could cost less and include more functionality in a much smaller space, even as interfaces are simplified and usability is enhanced. All of these new capabilities will unleash new applications and services that will allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways. via.

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driving the leaf

2010-09-12T20:15:00.000+05:45

Nissan Leaf makes a statement in ecological driving experience. If you consider yourself a responsible consumer and on seriously thinking of buying a new car, then get yourself the Leaf. Give some credit to the designers and builders, and do yourself a favour.

Sorry, my mistake. Give some credit to the designers and builders, and do mother nature a favour. After all, Nissan Leaf

is nature friendly
requires low maintenance
has lesser cost to operate
is ideal for city lifestyle

Or maybe, just watch the demo this time, and commit yourself to buying a green car in the future!

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the story of the fockers

2010-09-03T19:25:00.000+05:45

Jack Byrnes is wondering what sort of parents would name their son Gaylord Focker, and before giving his daughter's hands to the son, he wants to meet such parents. So Jack takes out his ultra-sophisticated personal RV for a trip to visit the Fockers in Miami. Greg cancels the already-made airlines reservation. Pam carries her little nephew L.J. and Dina packs her bags. Hence the journey begins.

When they arrive in Miami it's a nightmare for jack, and it doesn't take him days to decide what he should do... to try to discontinue his daughter's relationship with Greg. He tries everything under the Sun to make Greg appear unfit for Pam, but only if he knew his daughter Pam was pregnant!

By setting a whirlwind of events and confusions, Meet the Fockers does well to give a full-stop to what had begun in Meet the Parents.

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pressure cooker for healthy food

2010-08-25T01:28:00.000+05:45

Back in the late eighties and early nineties I remembered as a kid, the taste of vegetables and meat and even rice. They tasted so wonderful! As years went by, the taste was forgotten. Every year I tried newer dishes from different cultures in different restaurants in different countries, thus eliminating my childhood taste buds entirely. At least that was what I had thought, that is, until last week.

As I was sifting through stuffs in the messy store-room downstairs I got hold of a cooking utensil, the pressure cooker! I wanted to try it but it needed a hard proper cleaning before making it usable; but the temptation was too strong, and after three hours of cleaning, the cooker was fit to cook.

The first thing I tried was rice. It tasted wonderful and needless to say, revived my childhood taste-buds. In the coming days, it was curry chicken, followed by vegetables of all sorts – radish, broccoli, cabbage, legumes, asparagus – you name it. My gastronomic system was beyond doubt, satisfied.

Then I sat down to point out the benefits of a pressure cooker:

Pressure cooking retains the nutrients present in the food, which, if cooked otherwise, would lose some taste and some dietary essence.
Foods cook faster in pressure cookers, even compared to microwave ovens – the magic being pressurised water vapour.
A pressure cooker cooks food to the last single strand of fibre, with much lesser effort compared to other methods, like microwave or open pots.

Alas; a downside is that unless you have an electric pressure cooker, you can’t deny the noisy sss… sss… sss… – the whistle that may disturb your neighbours or guests, each time your food is ready.

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win by brian mcknight

2010-08-15T23:37:00.000+05:45

Dark is the night, I can weather the storm
Never say die, I’ve been down this road before

I’ll never quit, I’ll never lay down
See I promised myself I would never let me down

So I’ll never give up, never give in
Never let a ray of doubt slip in
And if I fall, I’ll never fade, I’ll just get up and try again
Never lose hope, never lose faith
There’s much too much at stake
Upon myself I must depend
I’m not looking for a place ashore, I’m gonna win

Won’t stop me now, there’s still a ways to go
Some way somehow, whatever it takes I know

I’ll never quit, I’ll never go down
I’ll make sure they remember my name 100 years from now

When it’s all said and done
My once in a lifetime won’t be back again
Now is the time, for me to stand
Here is my chance, that’s why i

Technorati Tags: win,men of honour,men of honor,brian mcknight,legacy song,song of inspiration,inspiring words,inspiring songs,win by brian mcknight,cuba gooding jr,cookie song,robert deniro

different types of search engines

2010-08-03T20:34:00.000+05:45

Today, Google is the most powerful search engine on the planet. Billions of people google for all kinds of information they need, for activities ranging from doing homework to finding a restaurant nearby. Albeit a powerful one, Google is not a specific-purpose but just a general-purpose search engine among a plethora of others. As you are already aware of other types of search engines, take a look at a few of them listed below:

Alexa – more of a website monitor and less of a search engine; can be used to search sites.
Alibaba – the largest directory of suppliers around the world.
AltaVista – one of the oldest search engines.
Answers – find people-centric questions and answers in a variety of topics.
AnyWho – a telephone directory.
AOL Search – now employs Google’s search technology.
Araby – an Arabic language search engine popular in the Arab world.
Ask – former AskJeeves, this is still a popular one.
AskMeNow – a rising mobile search engine.
Baidu – the most popular one in The People’s Republic of China.
Bing – a general-purpose search engine from Microsoft.
Blinkx – a video meta search engine.
Bloglines – a search engine of blogs from around the world.
Blogscope – one of the rising blog search engines.
Business.com – a comprehensive business listing.
CareerBuilder – job and career related search engine.
CheatSearch – find cheats to the games you love.
Craigslist – a classified ads search engine; popular in North America.
Dice – an IT related search engine.
eHow – an online people-centric knowledge pool.
Email-Search – lets you search people through their email addresses.
Excite – a popular search engine from the mid- to late-nineties.
FlixFlux – a torrent search engine for audio-visual content.
Gigablast – according to the homepage it is not a coal-based search engine.
Go – a popular entertainment search engine.
Gonzui – a source code search engine.
Goo – search engine for all things related to Japan; popular in Japan.
Google – a general-purpose search engine from Google.
Grokker – a visual meta search engine.
Grub – they want to help fix search.
Guruji – the most popular search engine in The Republic of India.
Healia – the health search engine.
Hotbot – yet another search engine from the nineties.
IFAC Search – search for matters related to finance and accounting.
Info – a meta search engine.
InfoSpace – find people and local businesses.
JavaScriptSearch – search for code snippets.
LexisNexis – a subscription based search engine of interesting news.
Lycos – a popular entertainment portal and search engine in the nineties.
Mahalo – a human search engine.
Mamma – the mother of all search engines established in 1996.
MapQuest – a cartographic search engine.
Mobissimo – a meta search engine related to travel information.
Monster – the largest job and resume search engine on the planet.
Naver – the most popular search engine in Korea.
Northern Light – a popular search engine in mid-nineties and early tens.
Scirus – a scientific knowledge search engine.
Sesam – search engine customized for the Scandinavian market.
Shopping – a shopping search engine.
Shopzilla – search, compare prices and buy anything.
Skoolz – a school and college and university search engine.
Technorati – probably the largest blog catalogue.
The Lawyers’ List – a comprehensive list of lawyers in North America.
The Pirate Bay – one of the largest torrent search engines.
Topix – a news search engine.
Trexy – a search engine that lets you keep track from searches in other search engines.
Vivisimo – an experimental search engine that uses scientific linguistic functions.
Web-Cam-Search – the largest collection of web cams throughout the planet at one place.
WebMD – information related to health.
Wikia Search – an open source Internet search engine; comes from Wikipedians.
Wink – a people search engine from social networking sites and from the Internet.
Yahoo Search – a general-purpose search engine from Yahoo!
Yandex – a Russian search engine; for Russia.
YouTube – the second largest search engine on the planet. For videos only.
Zillow – a real estate search engine.

Please keep in mind that this list is far from complete, and if you are curious to find more, why not search for one yourself?

Technorati Tags: search engine,search,search engine list,popular search engines,search the Internet,Internet search engine,search is on

case modding at its best

2010-07-24T20:50:00.000+05:45

Modding the case of a CPU is always a relaxing hobby. Take a look at these examples before trying to mod your own design. Keep in mind that a good mod goes a long way, while a bad one might attract you into changing it for the better.

This is an extremely useful site for getting you started, while you might want to check this, this and this out.

Technorati Tags: cpu casing,cpu,central processing unit,modding,modified cpu casing,brilliant cpu mods,geek at leisure,geek at work,case modding

the story of gaylord focker

2010-07-20T16:13:00.000+05:45

Pam (a.k.a. Pamela Byrnes) and Greg (a.k.a. Gaylord Focker) like each other. Greg is on the verge of proposing to Pam, and has even made a diamond ring. Now Pam has a dad whose approval she needs before marriage. So she brings Greg along to her house for the week.

Things start to get in motion right from the airport. Greg's bag is mishandled and probably lost by the airlines company, which is why he arrives at her parents' house empty-handed. He doesn't have his tooth-brush, he doesn't have his clothes, and by the end of the week, he doesn't have the important thing for which he has come to her house – her father's approval.

In a series of mishaps and mumbo-jumbos, even the wedding of Pam's sister is seemingly ruined by Greg; and hence the anger of the entire Byrneses, especially that of the big Mr. Jack Byrnes, a walking, talking, stalky lie-detector and a former CIA agent. A miserable Gaylord Focker thus walks out.

What happens next is your guess, unless you watch Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers.

Technorati Tags: gaylord focker,pam byrnes,robert deniro,cia jack,jack byrnes,meet the parents,ben stiller,family comedy,comedy movie

three heist up: ocean’s thirteen

2010-07-08T00:26:00.000+05:45

Willy Bank has opened a new hotel in the heart of Las Vegas, and in the process, has broken the heart of his lifelong friend and partner Reuben. Now Reuben is taken to bed with very little hopes of recovering.

When Reuben’s friend Danny Ocean learns this truth, he once again assembles his trustees and friends for revenge with Willy Bank. With a team of twelve, Ocean makes a plan to rob Bank’s casinos on its opening night, but there is a little problem – the casino’s security system. Equipped with advanced real-time monitoring systems and a sophisticated artificial intelligence, the Greco security system bows down only to natural disasters.

So how do they work around that? You are invited to witness one of the greatest heists in the history of Las Vegas, in Ocean’s Thirteen.

And while you’re at it, you might want to check out one heist up and two heist up.

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silly little music

2010-06-30T19:28:00.000+05:45

Download this Media File - (Right Click)

Sometimes your heart just flies to something you never encountered before. Just listen.

Technorati Tags: silly little music,soft piano,soft beats,soft music with beats and piano

back to the future four

2010-06-29T19:02:00.000+05:45

Is there a chance of Back to the Future 4 hitting the screens? Are they going to continue the trilogy into a quad-ro-logy or a pent-o-logy or a hex-o-logy of some sort? Since the last of the trilogy came in 1990, many fans around the world have been waiting for the next episode. It’s been eleven years, and the question is, will the fourth part ever be made?

Oh! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Doc Brown again – with one of his charming inventions, and wouldn’t you love to see Marty again in all his innocence and passion for adventure? Being a fan of the trilogy don’t you sometimes wonder why the initiatives are not being taken? Don’t you speculate now and then whenever you flip through your DVD collection, about the minute-est jokes and sequences the trilogy has to offer? Don’t you think about Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen and even about Buford ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen, all of whom hate manure?

Don’t you seriously miss their adventures? I do.

As Buford said it, “Boys, we got ourselves a new nostalgia – it’s high time we had a screening!”

Technorati Tags: back to the future 4,back to the future iv,back to the future,doc brown,emmet brown,marty mcfly,buford tannen,mad dog tannen,griff tannen,biff tannen,william sean mcfly,88 miles per hour,eighty eight miles per hour,back to the future trilogy,clint eastwood,lorraine baines,george mcfly,jailbird family,nostalgia,robert zemeckis,neil canton,deorean,christopher lloyd,michael j fox,time travel

ten questions to think

2010-06-17T23:28:00.000+05:45

These questions are really worth considering:

If a person owns a piece of land do they own it all the way down to the core of the Earth?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
Isn't Disney World a people trap operated by a mouse?
Why are they called buildings, when they're already finished? Shouldn't they be called builts?
If "con" is the opposite of "pro," then what is the opposite of progress?
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?
There is a difference between wanting a job and wanting work.
Why is a person that handles your money called a 'Broker'?
Why does mineral water that 'has trickled through mountains for centuries' have a 'use by' date?

You might also want to explore some funny notes, a poem and clever definitions as well.

Technorati Tags: pun,english funny,twisted humour,english humour,magazine clips,thinkable or unthinkable,to think or not to think

the art of conversation

2010-06-07T23:38:00.000+05:45

(with a human female)

To all the gentlemen for a good laugh, and to ladies with a good sense of humour, via:

Are you one of those who often wonders that women say one thing and mean something else entirely different, at least in some situations? If yes, then this primary vocabulary set is a good start to learn the art of conversation. Next time, make sure that you properly understand what she is actually saying, if she utters one of the following words during conversations:

Fine – This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
Five Minutes – If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five Minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
Nothing – This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
Go Ahead – This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
Loud Sigh – This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)
That's Okay – This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
Thanks – A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome.
Whatever – Is a women's way of saying F@!K YOU!
Don't worry about it, I got it – Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking, "what's wrong"; for the woman's response refer to #3.

Technorati Tags: sarcasm,what women say,what women mean,the art of conversation,talking to a human female,what men listen,what men understand,male understanding,female understanding,good laugh,excellent laugh,wonders of english,female sarcasm,male sarcasm

baz lurhmann – everybody’s free to wear sunscreen

2010-05-30T23:34:00.000+05:45

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99, if I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life – the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary – what ever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can – don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance – even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Except certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Technorati Tags: baz luhrmann,everybody's free,wear the sunscreen,sunscreen wise,class of 97,golden oldie,wise words,soothing music,wise music,sunscreen tips,tips for sunscreen

meet alfie from the city

2010-05-11T23:17:00.000+05:45

How often do your good deeds go unpaid? And your bad deeds? The consequences of his actions finally crash down upon a womanizer, that force him to consider the bigger questions of his life.

Alfie is a modern-day manifestation of Don Juan. His peculiar way with women causes him numerous successes with them. Blonde, brunette, red-head…you name them. Women think he is a big-time catch, and Alfie never fails to grab every opportunity of that thought. At the end of the day he is always on top.

Enter Nikki. She makes Alfie feel great at first. Over the days, the charm diminishes, and eventually one rainy night she is compelled to leave Alfie forever. Clearly, Alfie is hurt from within, with high waves of regrets sweeping through him.

Will Alfie overcome the pain, or will he forever wander the dark lanes of despair? It’s worth finding out.

Technorati Tags: alfie,modern day don juan,womanizer,high-time womanizer,womanizer in pain,the story of alfie

twenty popular foreign phrases

2010-05-01T11:09:00.000+05:45

A little Latin, or French is always joyful to your heart. Some most commonly used phrases along with their meaning – for your reading or writing pleasure:

annus mirabilis – wonderful year
bona fides – good faith; credentials
carpe diem – seize the day; enjoy the present
casus belli – cause justifying a war
de facto – of fact; it is
Deo volente – God willing
ecce homo – behold man
exempli gratia – for example
humanum est errare – to err is human
in toto – entirely; in total
modus operandi – mode of operating
multum in parvo – there is much in little
nil admirari – wondering at nothing
nolens volens – willing or not
persona non grata – unwelcome person
pro forma – as a matter of form; standard
quod erat demonstrandum – which was demonstrated; that which was shown
sine qua non – without which, nothing; it is essential
tempus fugit – time flies
verbatim et literatim – word for word, letter for letter

Technorati Tags: useful phrases,latin phrases,french phrases,foreign language,foreign phrases,borrowed word,twenty phrases,idioms and phrases

in an extremely efficient governance

2010-04-21T23:08:00.000+05:45

Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your national ID number?"
Customer: "Hi, I'd like to place an order."

Operator: "I must have your NIDN first, sir?"
Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, it's 6102049998-45-54610."

Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Email address is sheehan@home.net. Which number are you calling from, sir?"
Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information?"

Operator: "We're wired into the HSS, sir."
Customer: "The HSS, what is that?"

Operator: "We're wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. This will add only 15 seconds to your ordering time"
Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas."

Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea, sir."
Customer: "Whaddya mean?"

Operator: "Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice."
Customer: "What? What do you recommend, then?"

Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it."
Customer: "What makes you think I'd like something like that?"

Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion."
Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then."

Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, and your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99."
Customer: "Lemme give you my credit card number."

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit."
Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here."

Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's overdrawn also."
Customer: "Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?"

Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick 'em up while you're out getting the cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward."
Customer: "Wait! How do you know I ride a 'cycle?"

Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid for and you just filled the tank yesterday."
Customer: Well I'll be a "@#%/$@&?#!&?#!"

Operator: "I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 4, 2004 conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see here in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge." & "Oh yes I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the State Correctional Facility. Is this your first pizza since your return to society?
Customer: (Speechless)

Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"
Customer: "Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 litre of Coke".

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits this. Thank you for calling Pizza Hut!" via.

Technorati Tags: pizza in alternate reality,alternate reality pizza,pizza ordering,pizza hut (un)reality,connected world,connected life,new government efficiency,government efficiency,efficient governance

evening at the restaurant

2010-04-19T23:44:00.000+05:45

In the afternoon, my friend and I had a conversation over the phone to meet at seven at a restaurant nearby. Since I arrived early, I decided to take a table.

It’s evening now. I’m sitting in a cafe at Koteshwar. The girl across the table is seated with a confused-looking fellow, who might be in question, a worker at a local furniture-maker. They speak with a low voice, look at each other and leave.

I take a few sips of the liquid the restaurant calls coffee. I think whether my stomach will get upset over this issue. I take a quick glance around, only to see the dissatisfied faces of some waiters. Are they underpaid? I try not to think over their financial inadequacy. Suddenly my friend enters view.

He is a vet, and a most polite fellow. He talks with reason, and gives his personal point of view in most cases. Just as he gets seated, he mumbles a comment about a waiter’s face, “Is he underpaid?”

How much I’d like to know!

Our conversation turns towards cost-estimation for running a restaurant. We start with the available floor space, the number of tables, the size of kitchen, the count of waiters, the decoration and of course, the menu itself! Our conclusion: it takes a minimum of $15,000 to call a restaurant restaurant, otherwise we’d be running something else in the name of a restaurant.

Suddenly a solemn-looking man on the next table stands up and comes towards us. He puts down his files on our table, pulls up a chair and says, “I’m waiting for the owner here, to settle his debt of this restaurant.” Delighted, my friend asks the amount, on which he curtly replies, “around $ 15,000.”

The vet looks at me and gives me a twisted wink!

Technorati Tags: upset stomach,upset creditor,running a restaurant,restaurant cost,vet at a restaurant,a vet and a writer,the fifteen thousand dollars,dissatisfied waiters,missing owner,evening at the restaurant

shoot your pictures in 3D

2010-03-27T23:19:00.000+05:45

Fujifilm, the maker of cameras and camera accessories has made available one of the first 3D cameras for sale. According to its website, the 3D camera can efficiently replicate colours with with 10 megapixel sensor.

Traditional cameras have been able to shoot and display frames in two dimensions, but this one can capture a third dimension: depth. the trick is to add a second lens. While the first lens does the routine 2D work, the second lens does a magical job of capturing the inherent depth. Two separate processors, built inside, then mix the two into a composite image that can be viewed normally on a 3D LCD monitor, thereby providing a richer experience. Or if you don’t want to invest on a 3D monitor, the camera has one built-in – so there is not an actual need for that. But it’s a good idea to get one, because more digital content will eventually require 3D viewing in coming years. And did I say that the camera has a 2D shooting/viewing mode as well?

With the cost of electronics spare-parts going down, 3D cameras really have a potential in the mass market. It’s just that a few more competitors are required on the arena.

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generate incredibly earthly wallpapers

2010-03-18T21:50:00.000+05:45

Code from the 70s has provided an amazing wallpaper generator. It allows you to select the center position, date and time. Once you're satisfied with the results shown in the preview area, input the desired resolution and click Generate. This is a one of kind service – and is in fact the web version of Desktop Earth Online.

If you want more check out the cool wallpaper generator here; and also take a look at the calendar wallpaper generator from BigHugeLabs.

Technorati Tags: incredibly earthly,wallpaper generator,cool calendars,code from the 70s,amazing wallpapers,desktop earth online,bighugelabs,calendar wallpapers,earthscape,online wallpapers

review your grammar skills

2010-03-09T20:24:00.000+05:45

Are you writing a book? An essay? Or just a story?

Or are you a student just trying to test your English language grammar skills? Welcome to the Improve Your Writing page. It provides a series of lessons about parts of speech in a simple and understandable way. Plus, it has a number of joyful tests that are interesting to take. Learn about the usage of punctuation marks and writing styles; and about some common confusions found in the English language here.

Technorati Tags: grammar confusion,english grammar review,regular grammar tests,grammar fun,richness of language,grammar skills,common confusions

an impossible love story

2010-02-27T01:05:00.000+05:45

Abhay is a lonesome geek trying hard to grab the attention of the gorgeous Alisha. Alisha, who studies in the same college as Abhay, is completely unaware of his existence. Surprisingly enough, Alisha leaves college mid-semester never to be seen again, and Abhay is left alone with just the memories of Alisha.

Fast forward seven years, and Abhay still misses Alisha desperately. Meanwhile through his post-grad years Abhay has developed a revolutionary software – the mother of all operating systems, which he wants to sell to a prospective IT company. But to Abhay’s disappointment, his software gets stolen in the process.

Thus, a determined Abhay embarks to Singapore where he believes his software is taken and about to be released by a giant company. Now Abhay has but to battle against all odds to reclaim his stolen software from the company whose PR chief is none other than Alisha herself.

Pyaar Impossible is a new generation story that idealizes love, passion and caring.

Technorati Tags: pyaar impossible,abhay & alisha,mother of all os,operating system superdrive,singapore love story,uday chopra,priyanka chopra

murphy’s law and corollaries

2010-02-24T23:34:00.000+05:45

Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base. It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash. One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it."

The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" which he called Murphy's Law. Over the years, many people have made their own additions, and the compilation is pretty impressive. Take a look.

MURPHY'S LAW – If anything can go wrong, it will.
O'TOOLE'S COMMENTARY – Murphy was an optimist.
MURPHY'S FIRST COROLLARY – Nothing is as easy as it looks.
MURPHY'S SECOND COROLLARY – Everything takes longer than you think.
MURPHY'S THIRD COROLLARY – If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
MURPHY'S FOURTH COROLLARY – Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
MURPHY'S FIFTH COROLLARY – Every solution breeds new problems.
MURPHY'S SIXTH COROLLARY – It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
MURPHY'S SEVENTH COROLLARY – Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
MURPHY'S EIGHTH COROLLARY – Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
MURPHY'S CONSTANT – Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value.
BOLING'S POSTULATE – If you're feeling good, don't worry. You'll get over it.
MURPHY'S LAW OF MULTIPLES – If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
THE ORDERING PRINCIPLE – The supplies necessary for yesterday's work must be ordered no later then noon tomorrow.

One of my favourites is the Law of the Perversity of Nature, which says, “You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter”.

Which one is your favourite law?

Technorati Tags: murphy's law,project mx981,edward a. murphy,edward murphy,wrongly wired,origin of murphy's laws,corollaries of murphy's laws,ordering principle,law of multiples,law of perversity of nature,murphy's laws collection

alex hitchens and sara melas

2010-02-18T23:22:00.000+05:45

Hitch is a story that happens between every boy and girl walking down the love lane. Well, not EVERY boy and girl – at least leaving the exceptions, of course! Hitch portrays the love saga of countless Alex Hitchenses and Sara Melases searching answers about the love of their lives. If you are not one of them, then pass this movie on.

Will Smith plays the mysterious Hitch, the love guru, aka, the date doctor, that every guy craves for finding – because Hitch is a magician of girls! He is popular as a person who can guide them in getting the girl they want. At the centre of the story, Eva Mendes plays Sara, the workaholic gossip columnist for The Daily Standard. Hitch creates, tutors and follows the rule that every girl can be swept off her feet in any given day; whereas Sara is the stubborn beauty who just doesn’t believe in love.

Hitch is the chemistry between these extremes – a chemistry that searches for a balanced reaction, indeed! Love stories need not be your forte, Hitch is just the show for you.

Technorati Tags: alex hitches,sara melas,hitch,andy tennant,will smith,eva mendes,date doctor,love guru,workaholic beauty,stubborn beauty,extreme chemistry

the amazing fact generator

2010-02-05T22:36:00.000+05:45

A quick fact now and then is a fun thing to know. Needless to say, interesting facts can be shared at parties, at chit-chats, and during gather-ups! Just think how cool it would sound if you knew that:

Because of the angle that the oesophagus enters the stomach, horses are physically unable to vomit.
Picky linguists will tell you that the feminine version of “dude” is “dudine,” not “dudette.”
The first documented bank notes came from China. The bills were one-foot-square pieces of white deerskin with colourful borders, and were used as early as 118 BC.
Wilbur and Orville weren’t the only Wright Brothers. They had two older brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin, plus a younger sister, Katharine.
In 1759, Arthur Guinness leased St James’s Gate brewery (where they brew Guinness) for 9,000 years for 45 pounds a year.
Aluminium used to be so hard to produce that it was valued higher than gold. Napoleon III even had all of his fine cutlery made of aluminium.

These, and a lot of other facts were generated with the amazing fact generator here.

Technorati Tags: automatic facts,amzaing facts,amazing fact generator,fact generator,mental floss,interesting random facts,interesting facts

the essence of url shortening

2010-01-31T22:58:00.000+05:45

URL shortening is massively popular in recent years, and needless to say, you encounter at least a few shortened URL’s daily. Is the phenomenon just a passing phase, like a child tearing off the crust of bread, or is there something more to it?

In recent years, microblogging sites such as Twitter and Tumblr have emerged as strong links in the chain of social networking. Albeit popular, they pose a grand question – one of usability! For instance, what purpose can Twitter serve, with a look that forever stares blandly on your face with a text-box asking you that eternally profound question – what are you doing? Please, can you answer it in exactly 140 character?

When Twitter started out, it was meant to be a fun mobile application but today it has become a necessity for social network marketing. Not quite what the founders had in mind! And thus with online marketing, Twitter now has proved itself worthwhile, which is why, marketers use it so much. With a limited space of 140 characters, the strategy is to convey a description along with the shortened weblink.

Next up, it’s the gazillion handhelds and smartphones that are still a pain-in-the-ass when it comes to typing long paragraphs. A short and quick line of text would suffice the purpose, and complete the essence, of microblogging.

Thus, mobile marketing is the right answer – for marketers, consumers and everyone in between. So, lets shorten some URL’s and tweet them, to let everyone know what you are doing!

Technorati Tags: url shortening,microblogging essence,mobile web marketing,what are you doing,social network marketing

hilarious highwayman

2010-01-15T00:43:00.000+05:45

A police officer pulls a guy over for speeding and asked, "May I see your driver's license?". The driver answered, "I don't have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI."

The officer asked, "May I see the owner's card for this vehicle?". The driver answered,"It's not my car. I stole it."

The officer asked, "The car is stolen?". The driver answered, "That's right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner's card in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there."

The officer asked, "There's a gun in the glove box?". The driver answered, "Yes sir. That's where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the trunk."

The officer asked, "There's a BODY in the TRUNK?!?!?". The driver answered, "Yes, sir."

Hearing this, the officer immediately called his captain. The car was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the driver to handle the tense situation. The Captain asked, "Sir, can I see your license?". The driver answered, "Sure. Here it is." It was valid.

The Captain asked, "Who's car is this?". The driver answered, "It's mine, officer. Here's the owner' card." The driver owned the car.

The Captain asked, "Could you slowly open your glove box so I can see if there's a gun in it?". The driver answered, "Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it." Sure enough, there was nothing in the glove box.

The Captain asked, "Would you mind opening your trunk? I was told you said there's a body in it.". The driver answered, "No problem." Trunk is opened; no body.

The Captain said, "I don't understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn't have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glove box, and that there was a dead body in the trunk."

The driver answered, "Yeah, I'll bet the lying s.o.b. told you I was speeding, too!"

Technorati Tags: the lying s.o.b.,what an escape,funniest traffic joke,best con joke,highway laughter,hilarious highwayman

2010.01.02 – happy palindrome day

2010-01-02T01:31:00.000+05:45

Whenever we write date, we are used to a number of date formats such as

yy.MM.dd
M/d/yyyy
M/d/yy
MM/dd/yy
MM/dd/yyyy
yy/MM/dd
yyyy/MM/dd
dd/MMM/yy
yyyy MMMM dd, dddd
dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy
MMMM dd, yyyy
dddd, dd MMMM, yyyy
dd MMMM, yyyy
ddd MMM yyy
and a lot of such variations.

Thus, many people around the world being accustomed to using long date format <yyyy.MM.dd> as in <2010.01.02 – two thousand ten january two>, it seems only sensible to greet someone on this day with a Happy Palindrome Day!

Technorati Tags: happy palindrome day,greetings for the geeks

10.01.01 – happy binary day

2010-01-01T01:14:00.000+05:45

Whenever we write date, we are used to a number of date formats such as

yy.MM.dd
M/d/yyyy
M/d/yy
MM/dd/yy
MM/dd/yyyy
yy/MM/dd
yyyy/MM/dd
dd/MMM/yy
yyyy MMMM dd, dddd
dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy
MMMM dd, yyyy
dddd, dd MMMM, yyyy
dd MMMM, yyyy
ddd MMM yyy
and a lot of such variations.

Thus, many people around the world being accustomed to using short date format <yy.MM.dd> as in <10.01.01 – two thousand ten january one>, it seems only sensible to greet someone on this day with a Happy Binary Day!

Technorati Tags: happy binary day,greetings for the geeks

the 3 idiots of hirani

2009-12-29T00:37:00.000+05:45

College life is full of joy - laughter, cheers, peers and beers, but there's a little bit of a problem - deadlines! There are deadlines for assignments, reports, viva, quizzes, projects and of course examinations, that require timely attention!

Three students share a common lifestyle at Imperial College of Engineering headed by the perfectionist director Viru Sahashtrabuddhe. Raju is a typical student determined to earn a degree and therefore a living for his financially deprived family. Farhan is a wannabe wildlife photographer turned engineering student. And Ranchhod Das Shamal Das Chachand, aka Rancho, is the one whose passion is engineering - it's just that he dislikes the entire education system. The greatest question is: How do they graduate?

3 Idiots chronicles around the lives of students in a typical Indian engineering college, it's abilities and it's inabilities. The depiction of a fourth student, Chatur Ramalingam, in search of a strange scientist Phunsukh Wangdu, has made the story more sumptuous, hilarious and loving.

3 Idiots is a must watch. Grab very little or no pop corn at all, because you will be fixing yourself entirely to the screen, with no time to eat. All you will need is a comfortable seat.

Technorati Tags: 3 idiots,chetan bhagat,rajkumar hirani,3 idiots of hirani,vinod chopra production,aamir khan,viddu vinod chopra,best bollywood movie

modern day zen habits

2009-12-15T21:00:00.000+05:45

Over the years, Zen people have developed a deep understanding of human qualities. They meditate along the paths of Buddhism, but sometimes take a side trip. Here are some findings for the trip, and yes, they are for the lighter side of life; via:

Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either; just #$!@! off and leave me alone.
It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbour's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
No one is listening until you make a mistake.
Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat & drink beer all day.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

Technorati Tags: zen quotes,zen sidetrip,buddhism sidetrip,lighter side of life,twisted philosophy,fun philosophy,twisted zen

who got the blues

2009-12-11T21:04:00.000+05:45

Here’s an interesting read from the National Geographic magazine of 2003 June by Joel Achenbach. It includes ponderings about the colour blue, and how humanity has obsession with the colour.

When we finally get around to writing the entire story of civilization, we’ll devote a chapter to the colour blue. Sure, children around the world choose red as their favourite colour. But that’s just a phase, like tearing the crust off the bread. Make no mistake: Blue rules.

For thousands of years humans have found ingenious ways to turn things blue. In the ancient Mediterranean, biblical blue dye came from a hermaphroditic snail with a gland that generates a fluid that becomes blue when exposed to air and light. Another blue dye came from a plant called woad. Its leaves had to be ground and fermented before the pigment emerged. Celts painted their bodies with it (think Mel Gibson in Braveheart). Another plant – known as indigo – produced the colour more effectively. Indigo plantations sprawled across Asia, while woad lost lustre.

Eventually synthetic dyes replaced natural ones. In 1897 the Germans manufactured the first synthetic indigo from coal-tar derivatives. Synthetic dyes triggered an explosion of blue fashions in the 20th century. Policemen switched from black uniforms to blue. The blue blazer replaced the black suit. And in the 1950’s blue jeans took off, radiating youth and rebellion. Next up: Biotech blue. When Australian toxicologist Elizabeth Gillam was studying bacteria implanted with human DNA, her cultures unexpectedly turned blue. She suspected a mould contamination. But after conferring with Fred Vanderbilt University, Gillam realized she’d stumbled onto something wonderful: The bacteria were producing the indigo molecule was part of their metabolism. “This is a good lesson for student scientists,” says Gillam. “If something looks bizarre, don’t discount it. It might be much more interesting than the result you expected,”

Biotech indigo could be used to create blue plant tissues, including flower petals (imagine a perfectly blue rose). Scientists speculate that the process might even yield blue cotton, which would mean your jeans wouldn’t need any dye. But then how would we ever get that nice faded look?

Technorati Tags: blue rules,hermaphroditic snail,woad blue,synthetic dye,blue fashion,biotech blues,elizabeth gillam,blue cotton

consider these while writing

2009-12-05T00:16:00.000+05:45

Frank L. Visco quoted, “my several years in the word game have learnt me several rules” Let’s take a look:

AVOID ALLITERATION. ALWAYS. PREPOSITIONS ARE NOT WORDS TO END SENTENCES WITH. AVOID CLICHES LIKE THE PLAGUE. (THEY'RE OLD HAT.) EMPLOY THE VERNACULAR. ESCHEW AMPERSANDS & ABBREVIATIONS, ETC. PARENTHETICAL REMARKS (HOWEVER RELEVANT) ARE UNNECESSARY. IT IS WRONG TO EVER SPLIT AN INFINITIVE. CONTRACTIONS AREN'T NECESSARY. FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES ARE NOT APROPOS. ONE SHOULD NEVER GENERALIZE. ELIMINATE QUOTATIONS. AS RALPH WALDO EMERSON ONCE SAID: "I HATE QUOTATIONS. TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW." COMPARISONS ARE AS BAD AS CLICHES. DON'T BE REDUNDANT; DON'T USE MORE WORDS THAN NECESSARY; IT'S HIGHLY SUPERFLUOUS. PROFANITY SUCKS. BE MORE OR LESS SPECIFIC. UNDERSTATEMENT IS ALWAYS BEST. EXAGGERATION IS A BILLION TIMES WORSE THAN UNDERSTATEMENT. ONE-WORD SENTENCES? ELIMINATE. ANALOGIES IN WRITING ARE LIKE FEATHERS ON A SNAKE. THE PASSIVE VOICE IS TO BE AVOIDED. GO AROUND THE BARN AT HIGH NOON TO AVOID COLLOQUIALISMS. EVEN IF A MIXED METAPHOR SINGS, IT SHOULD BE DERAILED. WHO NEEDS RHETORICAL QUESTIONS?

The rules seem to be pretty handy; but can they really save you from getting black and blue?

Mit einem blauen Auge davonkommen.

Technorati Tags: mit einem blauen Auge davonkommen,black & blue,golden rules of writing,keep writing,frank l. visco

how we watch tv ads

2009-11-26T13:34:00.000+05:45

Here’s an interesting read from the National Geographic magazine of 2003 February by Joel Achenbach. It includes summaries of research about how we watch television adverts, and what our perception becomes.

Given that tens of millions of dollars are spent to make and air advertisements, you figure at least a few million more might be devoted to figuring out how viewers perceive them. Sure enough, researchers have spent decades watching people watching ads. Of particular interest: what we do with our eyes.

“Our eyes are very busy. They’re continuously scanning the visual field in front of them,” says Moshe Eizenman of the University of Toronto, the inventor of an eye-tracing device. Research shows that our gaze zooms in on moving object, such as the lips of a speaking person. Our eyes are drawn to sharp edges and contrasting colours. That’s why commercials often show a colourful product against a white background, and why luxury sedans are constantly hurtling along mountain roads. A good ad should “encourage a natural visual scanning pattern,” reports Eizenman, and his work suggests that may not happen if an ad makes the viewer think too much.

Chris Janiszewski, professor of marketing at the University of Florida, did a study some years ago on a Mountain Dew commercial. The ad featured Dew-drinking young people surfing river rapids. This frenetic scene was followed by an image of a Mountain Dew can. After showing the commercial to a group of test subjects, Janiszewski then rearranged the ad for a different group. This time he showed the can first, then then surfing. Finally he had both groups view photos of four different soda brands sitting on the shelf while training infrared lights on the subject’s pupils. The second group – the ones who saw the can, then the surfing – looked at the Mountain Dew more quickly. Janiszewski concluded that advertisers can better “condition” viewers if they show the product first.

Further research will help in finding more, but right now, what can you Dew about it?

Technorati Tags: ad perception,advertisement perception,human perception,watch adverts,tv adverts,chris janiszewski,moshe eizenman,university of toronto,university of florida,advertisement research

how much does your barcode worth

2009-11-19T09:24:00.000+05:45

Ever tried to barcode yourself? Barcoding yourself is the act of receiving your very own personalized barcode that you can print on mugs or t-shirt, demo or embed on your web site. In order to get your barcode, you need to enter the your age, weight,height, etc. According to the barcode yourself site, it is a complete, interactive experience, created using the personalized data of participants.

Technorati Tags: barcode yourself,bmi barcode,semplate barcode,value yourself,your worth,barcode worth

comic comparison

2009-11-10T00:03:00.000+05:45

Many developing nations have similar kinds of problems such as a social problem, governance, infrastructure problem, and the problem of the masses; and this is not just confined to developing nations. As shown in this wonderful animation, a contrast is given between the EU and Italy – how things are simply different! For the lighter side of life, and for humble devotion to pizza, here’s the animation

Technorati Tags: comic comparison,lighter side of life,humble devotion to pizza,italy and eu,wonderful animation

how much is one trillion dollar

2009-10-31T22:21:00.000+05:45

Here’s a really interesting page from Plain Truth Ministries (PTM), about how much one trillion dollar actually is. It provides an illustrative comparison of the size of an adult human being against one trillion dollars stacked in rows and columns. Starting from a single hundred dollar bill, it portrays the mass of the magic trillion we hear about now and then.

lab for laughter

2009-10-23T23:28:00.000+05:45

LaughLab was a year long project set out to discover the world's funniest joke. It was created by Professor Richard Wiseman and The British Association for the Advancement of Science, and involved people sending in their favourite jokes, and rating how funny they found the jokes submitted by others. The project was reported across the globe, accumulating over 40,000 jokes and 1.5 million ratings. LaughLab has now finished, but you can read all about it on this site. The winning joke from their site:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

excellent movie clichés

2009-10-11T00:13:00.000+05:45

Word processors never display a cursor.
You never have to use the space-bar when typing long sentences.
Movie character never make typing mistakes; and all monitors display inch-high letters.
High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA, or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces. Those that don't, have incredibly powerful text-bases command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.Corollary: you can gain access to any information you want by simply typing "ACCESS ALL OF THE SECRET FILES" on any keyboard.
You can infect a computer with a destructive virus by simply typing "UPLOAD VIRUS".
All computers are connected. You can access the information on the villain's desktop computer, even if it's turned off.
Powerful computers beep whenever you press a key or whenever the screen changes. Some computers also slow down the output on the screen so that it doesn't go faster than you can read. The really advanced ones also emulate the sound of a dot-matrix printer.
All computer panels have thousands of volts and flash pots just underneath the surface. Malfunctions are indicated by a bright flash, a puff of smoke, a shower of sparks, and an explosion that forces you backwards.
People typing away on a computer will turn it off without saving the data.
A hacker can get into the most sensitive computer in the world before intermission and guess the secret password in two tries.
Any PERMISSION DENIED has an OVERRIDE function.
Complex calculations and loading of huge amounts of data will be accomplished in under three seconds. Movie modems usually appear to transmit data at the speed of two gigabytes per second.
When the power plant/missile site/whatever overheats, all the control panels will explode, as will the entire building.
The more high-tech the equipment, the more buttons it has. However, everyone must have been highly trained, because the buttons aren't labelled.
Most computers, no matter how small, have reality-defying three-dimensional, active-animation, photo-realistic graphics capability.
Laptops, for some strange reason, always seem to have amazing real-time video phone capabilities and the performance of a CRAY Supercomputer.

For many clichés regarding cars, bombs, clothes, aliens and food, visit this site.

moral stuff, more or less

2009-09-30T18:36:00.000+05:45

Just cannot remember from where these lines were copied; but the author really is thoughtful, and the words are worth reading. Go on.

If you want something done, do it yourself: Obviously true, and doing it is usually very good for your self esteem. A surprising amount of work can be done this way, and experts are not always necessary. However, there is a risk of becoming overworked if you try to do everything yourself - we all need other people after all.

Never procrastinate anything you can do right now: Very powerful. There are many things that can be fixed or solved with a minimum of effort, but are often pushed aside as unimportant. Unfortunately they won't go away, and in time the feelings of guilt for not having done them will make you even less likely of fixing the problems.

When you have several things you could be doing and don't know which to do, just do any one of them! If you cannot decide between two or more possibilities, then there is a good chance that the differences don't matter. However, most people begin to hesitate in this kind of situation. If you are conscious of this, you can just choose one choice randomly or according to some standard method.

Always assume that you will succeed: If you don't expect to succeed in an endeavour, then you will not do your best and will not notice possible solutions, while if you feel that you will eventually succeed you will concentrate all your power at the problem. Of course, there is no point in attempting what you cannot do, a certain amount of self-knowledge is always needed.

If you can't find a solution, change the rules: Remember that there are no no-win scenarios.

If you cannot do anything about something, there is no point in worrying about it: Worrying is stressful, and in most situations doesn't accomplish anything - it just wastes energy. Instead of worrying about things, either do something about them or find ways around the problem. One useful idea is to write down your worries on slips of paper, and then put them away in a box. Regularly, once a week or so, you open the box and see what you can do about the worries that are still relevant.

Do not rely on conscious decisions for speed - Just Do It: The conscious mind is surprisingly slow, conscious choices and actions are delayed for a significant time (a reflex acts within some tens of milliseconds, an unconscious reaction to external stimuli circa 100 milliseconds and a conscious choice several seconds). The duty of the conscious mind is usually to inhibit rather than start action, and if you become too conscious of what you are doing in a tense situation you will hesitate or slow down. It is a good idea to learn to rely on your non-conscious mind, since our conscious mind is slow and has very low bandwidth while the other systems in our brains have a tremendous capacity and actually do most of the real work anyway.

Don't try to explain away your actions for yourself: While we often do things we do not want to explain our real motivations for before other people (out of fear of embarrassment, anger or loss of image), it is a bad idea to try to convince oneself that the motivation was anything different from what it was. It will only reduce your self-knowledge with deliberate misinformation, and it is often valuable to understand what motivations you have (even if you dislike them or would never admit them in public).

Listen to your intuition, but do not believe it unconditionally: Intuitive or emotional thinking, analogies, "gut feelings" or "flashes of inspiration" can sometimes give fantastic new insights or show problems from a new direction. Unfortunately such thinking isn't always reliable, and quite often completely wrong! Such insights should never be accepted because you admire their beauty or they are intuitive, only because they fit with reality.

the 12 y/o aol’er

2009-09-17T00:43:00.000+05:45

This English to 12 year old AOLer translator is amazing. Don’t get bombarded by the language – look on the aesthetic side of it. With due respect to the author Lucas Longley, as mentioned on their site.

the largest swimming pool

2009-09-09T09:09:00.000+05:45

If you like doing laps in the swimming pool, you might want to stock up on the energy drinks before diving in to this one. It is more than 1,000 metres long, covers 20 acres, has a 30 metre deep end and holds over 200 million litres of water and the Guinness Book of Records named the vast pool beside the sea in Chile as the biggest in the world.

The giant pool took five years to build, cost nearly $1 billion and the annual maintenance bill will be over $2 million. The man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to the San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile's southern coast, since it opened in 2006 December. Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.

It dwarfs the world's second biggest pool, the Orthlieb - nicknamed the Big Splash - in Morocco , which is a mere 150 metres long and 100 metres wide. An Olympic size pool measures some 50 metres by 25 metres. Chile's monster pool uses a computer-controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other. via

drawing a thought

2009-09-01T15:03:00.000+05:45

Are you the one who likes to paint, or draw, but couldn’t pursue painting as a career or a hobby?

Sometime during school, drawing as a subject is put on pressure by maths and science. Gradually, like slow intoxication, you see the Periodic Table and Algebra murdering your drawing skills. Later in high school and college, you forget there’s something called art while being dumped in a heap of Calculus, Hydrostatics and Electromagnetic Fields. Childhood hobbies begin to backfire as soon as you graduate from college amidst confusion, hope and empty pockets. If only you had pursued what you had desired in the first place…

Sound familiar? Welcome to the band!

At the present day it’s easier to manage the resources to learn and pursue drawing as a career or a serious hobby. You can find a long list of web sites that provide you the training, the skills and finally, the market. Here are some handpicked web sites that might help you find the inner artist in you thereby helping you put Michelangelo Simoni to shame!

Learn to Draw - http://www.learn-to-draw.com/
Cartoon Critters - http://www.cartooncritters.com/
Art Graphica - www.artgraphica.net/
Painting - http://www.sumopaint.com/home/
Showcase - http://www.artvitae.com
Promote - http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/index.htm
Marketplace - http://www.artbreak.com/

cambridge cakes & ale

2009-08-26T13:01:00.000+05:45

Here is a true story someone found regarding exams at Cambridge University. It seems that during an examination one day a bright young student popped up and asked the proctor to bring him Cakes and Ale. The following dialog ensued:

Proctor: I beg your pardon?
Student: Sir, I request that you bring me Cakes and Ale.
Proctor: Sorry, no.
Student: Sir, I really must insist. I request and require that you bring me Cakes and Ale.

At this point, the student produced a copy of the four hundred year old Laws of Cambridge, written in Latin and still nominally in effect, and pointed to the section which read (rough translation from the Latin):

Gentlemen sitting examinations may request and require Cakes and Ale.

Pepsi and hamburgers were judged the modern equivalent, and the student sat there, writing his examination and happily slurping away.

Three weeks later the student was fined five pounds for not wearing a sword to the examination.

to pay or not to pay

2009-08-11T23:32:00.000+05:45

Software costs money, that is, the really great ones. And they should too, because countless programmers sit for long hours to bring you competent tools for your productivity. Take Photoshop for instance, or Flash, Windows, Mac OS, 3D Max, Avast!, Oracle – the examples are endless.

However, not all software cost money except download charges. There’s a team at osalt that believes, if you want success, open source is the way to go. They have a massive list of alternatives to paid software, and some of them are really good ones! Categorized into specific units, you can find alternatives of software related to business, database, networking, utilities, multimedia, et al.

legal guide for bloggers

2009-08-03T10:31:00.000+05:45

Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers. via

hearken the facts - x

2009-07-29T19:32:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

A pound of houseflies contains more protein than a pound of beef.
Russians generally answer the phone by saying, “I’m listening”.
The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.
The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the varieties of pickles the company once had.
You big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.
More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a typical French kiss!
Houseflies hum in the key of E.
More people are allergic to cow’s milk than any other food.
Sweden was the first country in the world to keep population statistics.
Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow.
A group of tigers is called a streak.
King Louis XIX ruled France for 15 minutes.
1 pound of lemons contain more sugar than 1 pound of strawberries.
India has more post offices than any other country.
Sweden is the largest spender on ketchup.
You skin is actually an organ.
Luther Crowell invented the paper bag in 1867.
Frozen lobsters can come back to life when thawed!
The screwdriver was invented before the screw.
The average person will drink about 16,000 gallons of water in his/her lifetime.
In February 2004, Sweden led the world in Internet penetration, with 76.9 per cent of people connected to the Internet. The world average 11.1 per cent.
Cats can hear ultrasound.
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
A Holstein’s spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
Annually, the amount of garbage that is dumped in the world’s oceans is three times the weight of fish that is caught from the oceans.
In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.
There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.
Leonardo da Vinci was dyslexic, and he often wrote backwards.
The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache.

hearken the facts - ix

2009-07-14T14:13:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.
Frogs cannot swallow without blinking.
Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
Texas is larger than France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Luxembourg combined.
The chameleon has a tongue that is one and a half times the length of its body.
99% of all animal species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
To melt away 1 pound of fat you will need to walk 34 miles.
One in every 9000 people is an albino.
The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
An ant can survive for up to two days underwater.
The average Italian consumes half a pound of bread a day.
Humans use a total of 72 different muscles in speech.
One third of the land in the United States is owned by the government.
The Blue Whale weighs as much as thirty elephants and is as long as three Greyhound buses.
Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered as a propagator of violence – he invented dynamite.
Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
The oldest patented company logo is the red triangle of Bass beers!
Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
The name jeep comes from GP, the army abbreviation for General Purpose.
If your mouth was completely dry, you would not be able to distinguish the taste of anything.
In the early 1960’s, Porsche commercially manufactured farm tractors.
A tree in metropolitan area will survive about eight years.
Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.
The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.
On the day that Alexander Graham Bell was buried the entire US telephone system was shut down for 1 minute in tribute.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team on his sophomore year.
One in ten people live on an island.

hearken the facts - viii

2009-07-01T23:51:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

Henry Ford, father of the Automobile, is also the father of the charcoal briquette.
Whales can never focus both their eyes on the same object at once.
The gecko’s eyes are open all the time.
An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
George Washington’s salary a year was $25,000.
Bulls are colour-blind, therefore will usually charge at a matador’s waving cape no matter what colour it is – be it red or neon or yellow.
Denmark has more than 600 castles and manor houses.
You can use pinecones to forecast the weather – the scales will close when rain is on the way.
The webbed feet of the stormy petrel enable it to walk on water. It spends almost its entire life over the ocean and only comes to land to breed. If a storm arises, they can’t walk on water and are forced to remain in the air all day and night.
American Indians were the first to grow corns. They called it maize.
More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby!
Racehorses can wear out new horse shoes in one race.
Babies’ eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.
A mother hen turns over her egg about 50 times a day.
Most people blink about 17,000 times a day.
Turtles can breathe through their butts.
Oysters can change from one gender to another and back again.
A pineapple is a berry.
The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E and F is feedback.
US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.
Alaska’s name comes from the Eskimo world Alakshak, meaning great lands or peninsula.
Electricity doesn’t move through a wire but through a field around the wire.
Research indicates that plants grow healthier when they are stroked.
Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors.
Saudi diplomats have 367 outstanding parking fines in Britain.
To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.
Seven Devils’ Peaks has Heaven’s Gate Lookout where you can see into four states

hearken the facts - vii

2009-06-19T17:58:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.
Humans blink over 10,000,000 times a year!
La Giaconda is the real name for Mona Lisa.
The E.Coli bacterium propels itself with a motor only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.
The tune of The Star Spangled Banner was an old English drinking song. It was not made the official national anthem until 1931.
There is only one intellectual game in which the computer is still no match for man, a game in which a competent teenager can beat the world’s most sophisticated computer program with ease: and that is the ancient Chinese board game Go, the oldest game in the world, and the only one at which man remains the undisputed champion.
The average guy will grow about 27 feet of hair out of his face during his lifetime.
10 years ago: first patent for a genetically-engineered mouse was issued to Harvard Medical School.
By the year 2012 there will be approximately 17 billion devices connected to the Internet.
In a fight between a polar bear and a lion, the polar bear would win.
Eskimo ice cream is neither icy, or creamy!
The Great Wall of China is about 4,000 miles long.
The face of the Sphinx is believed to represent pharaoh Khafre.
Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means “the capital” in the Korean language.
Swiss Steak, Chop Suey, Russian Dressing, and a Hamburger all originated in the U.S.
Wyoming has the lowest population of all 50 United States.
Chop Suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
The male howler monkey of Central and South America is the noisiest land animal, which can be heard clearly from a distance of ten miles away.
A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
At 120 miles per hour, a Formula One car generates so much downforce that it can drive upside down on the roof of a tunnel.
Octopuses have 3 hearts.
An exocannibal eats only enemies. An indocannibal eats only friends.
In 1987 American Airlines saved $40,000 by eliminating one olive from its First Class salads.
22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour.
Bill Gates’ house was designed using a Macintosh computer.
Moisture, not air, causes super glue to dry.
The thermometer is an Italian invention.
The province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats.
The Great Pyramid at Giza holds a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

hearken the facts - vi

2009-06-12T14:34:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

The top 109 highest mountains in the world are all in Asia and 96 of them are in the Himalayas.
A beard grows an average of 140 mm a year.
Laika, a dog, was the world’s first ever space astronaut. She was sent into space in an artificial earth satellite in 1957 by the Russian government.
Al Gore coined the phrase information superhighway.
Four Corners is the spot in the United States where a person can stand in four states at the same time.
A mole will die if it doesn’t get food within 12 hours.
Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any other place on Earth.
Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum!
Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run. The only other animals to do this are the giraffe and the camel.
Cattle are the only mammals that pee backwards.
Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250.
A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
Starfish have no brains.
The typewriter is an Italian invention.
We forget 80 per cent of what we learn everyday.
By recycling just one glass bottle, the amount of energy that is being saved is enough to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours.
The ‘L.L.’ in L.L. Bean stands for ‘Leon Leonwood’.
The smell of peppermint improvers concentration.
Finland has about 190,000 lakes.
Tasmania, Australia has the cleanest air in the inhabited world.
Julius Caesar was known as a great swimmer.
Darwin once ate an owl.
Cows do not have any upper front teeth. Instead they have a thick pad on the top jaw.
The grey whale migrates 12,500 miles from the Arctic to Mexico and back every year.
Mineral deposits in caves: the ones growing upwards are stalagmites, the ones growing downward are stalactites.
Panspermia is the idea that life on the Earth originated on another planet.
You can tape a small mirror onto a cone speaker, play music and shine a laser on to the mirror and the reflection will look like a laser light show on your wall.
The infinity character on the keyboard is called a lemniscate.
All porcupines float in water.
As much as 80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by your head!

two heist up: ocean’s twelve

2009-06-02T11:15:00.000+05:45

Continued from Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve begins with an extremely furious Benedict who individually threatens the original eleven of their lives; if his money is not returned with interest within two weeks.

Thus, situation calls for a second heist, a bigger and riskier one – this time, involving cunning detectives and the entire police force of Europe. And what do they rob this time? A precious collection off of a famous Dutchman who has safeguarded his collections in a Fort-Knox. Sort of.

Will they successfully pay off Benedict, or will the Europol eventually lay its mighty hands upon them? Even the great Francois Toulour doesn’t have a clue!

And while you’re at it, you might want to check out one heist up and three heist up.

Technorati Tags: ocean's twelve,ocean's 12,danny ocean,rusty,heist movie,las vegas,casinos,george clooney,brad pitt

hearken the facts - v

2009-05-23T14:56:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

Before writing 007 novels, Ian Fleming studied languages at Munich and Geneva Universities, worked with Reuters in Moscow, and then became a banker and stockbroker.
If you rearrange the words “A Domesticated Animal” you can spell “Docile, as Man Tamed it”.
In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.
San Jose was the original capital of California.
An adult female mosquito consumes about 5-millionths of a liter of blood in a single meal.
The entire town of Capena, Italy (including children as young as 2 years old) lights up cigarettes each year in honour of St. Anthony’s Day. This tradition is centuries old.
The average 21 year old has spent 5,000 hours playing video games, has exchanged 250,000 emails, instant and text messages and has spent 10,000 hours on the mobile phone.
Honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life.
Heineken beer is designed to foam for exactly five minutes.
Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards.
A gray fox can climb trees.
The original story from “Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights” begins, “Aladdin was a little Chinese boy…”.
The body’s largest internal organ is the small intestine at an average length of 20 feet.
About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they’re still sitting on it.

one heist up: ocean’s eleven

2009-05-11T09:45:00.000+05:45

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) along with Rusty (Brad Pitt) plan to rob three Las Vegas Casinos whose central repository is one of the most secure vaults in the world. Their accomplice – nine strangers who are adept at one or another skill required for the job.

They gather up as a team from all over the United States, and formulate a plan. No detail is overlooked in the plan; but for a robbery of this magnitude, no plan is ever perfect. A throbbing sequence of events, and a mystical play of the characters thus ready them for the final loot.

But will they pull it off, against Benedict, the most methodical owner of the casinos? Watch Ocean’s Eleven to discover one of the greatest plots in a heist movie ever.

And while you’re at it, you might want to check out two heist up and three heist up.

Technorati Tags: ocean's eleven,ocean's 11,danny ocean,rusty,heist movie,las vegas,casinos,george clooney,brad pitt

hearken the facts - iv

2009-04-23T17:32:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

In 1968, John Lennon and girlfriend Yoko Ono’s album Two Virgins was sold in the United States in a plain brown paper wrapper as on the real cover they both had posed nude.
The Basenji is the only bark-less dog in the world.
26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats.
The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of “F”.
Seals sleep only about one and a half minutes each time.
The weight of a carat (200 milligrams), the standard unit of measurement for gemstones, is based on the weight of the carob seed.
India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
Genetically-engineered babies were born first in 2001.
A rat can fall from a five storey building without injury.
The dollar symbol $ is a U combined with an S (U.S.).
According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg.
Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.
Pumpkin rule of thumb: the darker the shell, the longer the pumpkin lasts.
The X’s that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000’s when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X.
The first video aired on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles in 1981.

hearken the facts - iii

2009-04-16T22:22:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

Everyone is colourblind at birth.
The first computer company to register for a domain name was Digital Equipment Corporation.
For ever 230 cars that are made, 1 will be stolen.
There is enough fuel in a full tank of a jumbo jet to drive an average car four times around the world.
No two spider webs are the same.
Ewan McGregor was offered, but turned down, the part of Neo in The Matrix. Will Smith was also approached to play Neo but turned it down in order to make Wild Wild West.
By age sixty, most people have lost half of their taste buds.
Gold is the only sport played on the Moon – on 6 February 1971. Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.
The parachute was invented by DaVinci in 1515 AD.
About 39,000 gallons of water are used to produce the average car.
Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.
Male lions may mate 50 times a day.
Your skin weighs about 3.2 kg.
Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
In 1886, sales of Coca-Cola averaged only 9 drinks per day.

hearken the facts - ii

2009-03-21T01:15:00.000+05:45

A few facts that you might never come across, but your life will be incomplete without:

The little “you are here” arrow on maps is called an ideo locator.
A bird chews with its stomach.
Cold water weighs more than hot water.
The first Internet worm was created by Robert T. Morris, Jr., and attached more than 6000 Internet hosts.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Canada was –63 degrees Celcius in 1947, Snag River Yukon.
The word ‘set’ has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
Plants that are not cared for will cry for help, a thirsty plant will make a high-pitched sound that is too high for us to hear.
Sheep outnumber humans in New Zealand 15 to 1.
The ‘vintage date’ on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked, not the year of bottling.
The wheelbarrow is invented by a Chinese.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
The first product that Sony came out with was the rice cooker.
A company, Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song “Happy Birthday”.
One 75-watt light bulb gives off more light than three 25-watt light bulbs.
If a native Hawaiian woman places the flower on her right ear, she is available

english funny, words-bunny

2009-03-07T00:38:00.000+05:45

Will begin with box and the plural is boxes
But the plural of ox would be oxen not oxes
Then one fowl is goose but two are geese
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese
You may find a lone mouse or a whole set of mice
But the plural of house is houses not hice
If the plural for man be always men
Why shouldn't the plural for pan be pen?
If I speak of a foot and then you show me your feet
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is tooth, and a whole set are teeth
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?
Then one may be 'that' and three may be 'those'
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose
And the plural of cat is cats not cose
We speak of a brother and also a brethren
But although we say mother we never say mothern
Then the masculine pronouns are He, His and Him
But imagine the feminine She, Shis and Shim
So ENGLISH I fancy you will agree
Is the funniest language you ever did see!

the meanings of colours

2009-02-20T19:03:00.000+05:45

Colors are more than a combination of red and blue or yellow and black. They are non-verbal communication. Colors have symbolism and color meanings that go beyond ink. As you design brochures, logos, and Web sites, it is helpful to keep in mind how the eye and the mind perceive certain colors and the color meanings we associate with each color. Sometimes colors create a physical reaction (red has been shown to raise blood pressure) and at other times it is a cultural reaction. Colors follow trends as well. Avocado, a shade of green, is synonymous with the 60s and 70s in the minds of some consumers.

Continue here for the rest of the story.

who is anthony – anthony kaun hai

2009-02-07T00:32:00.000+05:45

Hitman Master Madan is hired to silence reporter Anthony Gonsalvez. But the man calling himself Anthony Gonsalvez whom Madan is rightly about to shoot in the head is not Anthony Gonsalvez. So where lies the confusion? Welcome to the show.

While trying to solve the puzzle, Master Madan learns the extraordinary but true adventures of the elusive Champak Chaudhary who goes by the alias Anthony Gonsalvez. Champak narrates his own stories, as Madan listens passionately until in the end Madan develops a liking for Champak.

You are invited to witness a story beautifully told where the plots are benevolently elaborated and generously complimented by appropriate sounds, words and colours. Anthony Kaun Hai is definitely an exciting movie!

puzzler – the puzzle kiosk, round 3

2009-01-26T17:22:00.000+05:45

A quick puzzle about speed and distance:

While in San Francisco some time back, I hired a car to drive over the Golden Gate bridge. I started in the afternoon when there was no traffic rush. So I could drive at a speed of 40 miles an hour. While returning, however, I got caught in the traffic rush and I could only manage to drive at a speed of 25 miles an hour.

What was my average speed for the round trip?

Check your answer here.

puzzler – the puzzle kiosk, round 2

2009-01-18T23:57:00.000+05:45

A quick puzzle to freshen you up – here it goes:

While visiting a small town in the United States, I lost my overcoat in a bus. When I reported the matter to the bus company I was asked the number of the bus. Though I did not remember the exact number I did remember that the bus number had a certain peculiarity about it. The number plate showed the bus number was a perfect square and also if the plate was turned upside down, the number would still be a perfect square – of course it was not?

I came to know from the bus company they had only five hundred buses numbered from 1 to 500.

From this I was able to deduce the bus number. Can you tell what was the number?

Follow this link to get the answer.

puzzler – the puzzle kiosk, round 1

2009-01-06T01:02:00.000+05:45

Lets begin the new year with an old puzzle:

While walking down the street, one morning, I found a hundred dollar bill on the footpath. I picked it up, noted the number and took it home.

In the afternoon the plumber called on me to collect his bill. As I had no other money at home, I settled his account with the hundred dollar bill I had found. Later I came to know that the plumber paid the bill to his milkman to settle his monthly account, who paid it to his tailor for the garments he had made.

The tailor in turn used the money to buy an old sewing machine, from a woman who lives in my neighborhood. This woman incidentally, had borrowed hundred dollars from me sometime back to buy a pressure cooker, remembering that she owed me hundred dollars, came and paid the debt.

I recognized the bill as the one I had found on the footpath, and on careful examination I discovered that the bill was counterfeit.

How much was lost in the whole transaction and by whom?

Answer here.

iidabashi subway station

2008-12-29T17:36:00.000+05:45

Take a look at this image!

Tokyo is full of wonderful architecture. This image came as a surprise ‘coz of the weird outlook bearing the appearance of a bug about to crawl up an innocent building (and then cause havoc). According to the creator, “The idea of learning from living organisms has made its appearance any number of times in the history of architectural thought.”

warning label generator

2008-12-18T20:22:00.000+05:45

Try this warning label generator just in case you’re in a hurry. They are great for doors!

common sense by thomas paine

2008-12-10T01:07:00.000+05:45

Common Sense is a pamphlet written in January of 1776 A.D. by Thomas Paine, an Englishman residing in America. He had made it anonymously published during the time of American Revolution, because of the possible dangers of treason with which he might be blamed, for the times were tumultuous and one couldn’t be too sure! It is a long pamphlet reflecting considerably just reflections about a new constitution for the free peoples of a new nation-to-be-born, that would be eventually called the United States of America. The writings on the pamphlet begins with,

Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.

In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise and the worthy need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly, will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is bestowed upon their conversion.

The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, is…

The full text is available here. Reading on, it is impressive to note that towards the end of the text he wrote,

…as men laboring to establish an Independent Constitution of our own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and aim. Our plan is peace for ever. We are tired of contention with Britain, and can see no real end to it but in a final separation. We act consistently, because for the sake of introducing an endless and uninterrupted peace, do we bear the evils and burdens of the present day. We are endeavoring, and will steadily continue to endeavor, to separate and dissolve a connection which hath already filled our land with blood; and which, while the name of it remains, will be the fatal cause of future mischiefs to both countries.

We fight neither for revenge nor conquest; neither from pride nor passion; we are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies, nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Beneath the shade of our own vines are we attacked; in our own houses, and on our own lands, is the violence committed against us. We view our enemies in the characters of highwaymen and housebreakers, and having no defence for ourselves in the civil law; are obliged to punish them by the military one, and apply the sword, in the very case, where you have before now, applied the halter. Perhaps we feel for the ruined and insulted sufferers in all and every part of the continent, and with a degree of tenderness which hath not yet made its way into some of your bosoms…

Common Sense feebly touched the minds of the authorities but fiercely ignited the minds of the public; and after less than six months of this publication, a new nation was born! On July 4, 1776, inside the rooms of an obscure red-brick house in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the United States of America came into existence. Among others, the Declaration of Independence said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

sky captain and the world of tomorrow

2008-11-26T23:33:00.000+05:45

When Hindenburg III docks in an alternative 1939 New York on a winter morning, onboard scientist Dr. Vargus is found missing. “Chronicle” reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) follows up on the story to find that eleven eminent scientists are missing from around the world. As the story unfolds she learns about an overlying suspicion, that all of them might have been kidnapped by an evil genius called Totenkopf, and taken to a secret laboratory on the outskirts of Berlin. The intentions of Totenkopf are vague, as is the rumor that Totenkopf is set to destroy the Earth.

Polly joins Joe (Jude Law), an old flame and chief of an elite squadron of independent air force fighters. Joseph Sullivan, Joe, is in search of his friend Dex, believed to have been kidnapped by Totenkopf; and Polly is in search of an extraordinary story for her newspaper. With the help of scattered clues set throughout the movie they travel around the world looking for Totenkopf. Their quick visit to Nepal to meet ally Kaji creates a turn that leads them to stranger places and allies, keeping them on the right track.

Done entirely in blue screen, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is an ideal retro-style adventure filled with unique futuristic machineries like flying airstrips, giant invading robots, skycars, ray-guns, jet-packs, ornithopters, amphibious aircrafts and last but not the least, genetically modified creatures.Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is sure to keep you glued to the seat until credits roll!