Osho on fuck

this is the fucking best video i've ever seen. the sheer fucking quality of the message together with its fucking universality will make an indelible mark on whoever listens to it. look at the left side of this post and click on one of em and laugh your way to fucking glory.
the way he maintains his composure throught the show is brilliant, tho towards the end he himself ends up laughing.

Things not to list as a weaknesses in interviews

As i was browsing for the right words to describe my weaknesses, i stumbled upon this particularly funny list. it is a list of things that u shud not list as weakness in ur interview

• "Kryptonite."
• "A tendency to burn things down."
• "Spreads diseases effectively."
• "Fear of work."
• "You're a weakness!"
• "Bad at math and stuff."
• "Social me not."
• "Will work for sexual favours :P"
• "Vomits wildly at the mention of any state capital."
• "Steals other people's possesions and returns them wet."
• "Sometimes I like to lick coins I find on the ground."
• "I'm a bleeder."
• "I eat socks."
• "I AM socks."
• "Umm, I write lists in class."

once upon a time..

* Once upon a time quality was craftsman's pride, now it is a departmental mess.


* Once upon a time mouse was an untouchable mammal, now it is hand held pest.


* Once upon a time wisdom was cultivated by wise people, now it is flashed on T-shirts.


* Once upon a time teacher tought and students learnt, now teacher trade and students consume.


* Once upon a time population was a problem, now it is a flourishing mass market.


* Once upon a time competition brought out the best, now it brings out the worst in people.


* Once upon a time there was a golden rule, now if you have gold, you rule.


* Once upon a time truth telling was good for your soul, now it is bad for promotion.


* Once upon a time success meant living by ideals, now it is about using above all principles.

Rajnikanth - Awesome Myths

Rajanikanth makes onions cry

Rajanikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.

Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than
Death can process them.

Rajanikanth can build a snowman...... out of rain.

Rajanikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.

Rajanikanth can drown a fish.

When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights
on,............. he turns the dark off.

When Rajanikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not
even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajanikanth and
Rajanikanth.

Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajanikanth can throw
Brett Favre even further.

The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.

Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will
die.

Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.

A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for
handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot
belongs to Rajanikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park
there.

Rajanikanth' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no
one fools Rajanikanth.

If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you
mean Rajanikanth?" It simply replies, "Run while you still have the
chance."

Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.

Once a cobra bit Rajanikanth' leg. After five days of excruciating
pain, the cobra died.

When Rajanikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many
seconds you have left to live.

Rajanikanth can kill two stones with one bird.

Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first
to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing
around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.

Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs.
Rajanikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.

There is no such thing as global warming. Rajanikanth was cold, so he
turned the sun up.

Rajanikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

Rajanikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life… unless
it gets in his way.

It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.

Rajanikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by
yelling, "Bang!"

In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajanikanth could
use to kill you, including the room itself.

Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man,
there is Rajanikanth.

Rajanikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajanikanth only
recognizes the element of surprise.

Rajanikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.

With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajanikanth is beginning to worry
about his drinking habit.

The square root of Rajanikanth is pain. Do not try to square
Rajanikanth, the result is death.

When you say "no one's perfect", Rajanikanth takes this as a personal
insult

RUPERT MURDOCH

"All power corrupts, absolute power is even more fun" -Simon Travaglia

Rupert Murdoch is a man with such kind of power. My god then he must be having loads of fun. Born on March 11th,1931, he has grown the giant mammoth of a media company ‘the News Corporation’ into one of the largest and most influential media groups in the world from a small town newspaper in Australia. Beginning with newspapers, magazines and television stations in his native Australia, Murdoch expanded into British and American media, and in recent years has become a powerful force in satellite television, the film industry, the Internet, and other forms of media. His tentacles have spread everywhere in the globe.

Murdoch was born in Melbourne(famous for MCG among other scenic attractions) and studied at Oxford University on UK. His father died in 1952 and left a will stating that Rupert should begin his career at The News "if they consider him worthy of support." At that time Rupert had written in Oxford student newspapers and had worked for a number of newspapers in a junior capacity. At the tender age of 23, he became the managing director of ‘The News’ and immediately developed an enthusiasm for the newspaper business that was not there before. His drive and energy infected the staff and the paper's circulation and advertising revenue began to grow. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion. He bought a rundown Sunday Newspaper in Perth, Western Australia, and, using the tabloid techniques that Northcliffe had taught his son, made it a roaring success.

Over the next few years, Murdoch established himself in Australia as a dynamic business operator, expanding his holdings by acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory. including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, The Daily Mirror, as well as a small Sydney-based recording company, Festival Records. His acquisition of the Daily Mirror allowed him to challenge two powerful rivals in Australia's biggest city and to outwit his afternoon rival in a long circulation war.

The departure in 1966 of the Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies saw a chaotic six years of politics after Menzies' chosen successor Harold Holt drowned, to be replaced by John Gorton and then William McMahon. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph. In that year's election, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it win power. As the Whitlam government suffered a great loss of public support following its 1974 re-election, Murdoch soon turned against Whitlam and supported the Governor-General's dismissal of the Prime Minister.In the meantime, Murdoch turned his attention overseas. His business success in Australia and his fastidious policy of prompt periodic repayments of his borrowings had placed him in good financial standing with the Commonwealth Bank and he obtained its support for his biggest venture yet, the takeover of a family company which owned The News of the World, the Sunday newspaper with the biggest circulation in Britain.

When the daily newspaper The Sun came on the market in 1969, Murdoch went to his bankers again and snapped up what had been a money-losing upmarket broadsheet with a declining circulation and relaunched it as a cheap racy tabloid which by 2006 was selling three million copies a day. Murdoch's biggest thrill came the day he was able to take over The Times, the paper his father's mentor Viscount Northcliffe, had once owned. The distinction of owning The Times came to him through his careful cultivation of the owner who had grown tired of losing money on the property. During the 1980s and early 90s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to Labor and the party's leader Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a serious political issue in Britain particularly with regard to Murdoch's enthusiasm for the invasion of Iraq.

Murdoch acquired Star TV from a Hong Kong company in 1993 created offices for it throughout Asia. Including Singapore, China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc. It is one of the biggest Satellite TV networks in Asia.

The effect that Rupert Murdoch has had on media and entertainment industry is massive. Along the way he created an empire that has gone from strength to strength, securing positions in every important media and country. he has married three times(goodness gracious) first in 1956 to Patricia Booker, divorced her in 1967, went on to marry Anna Tõrv on the same year. Anna and Rupert divorced acrimoniously in June, 1999. Seventeen days after the divorce, on June 25, 1999, Murdoch, then 68, married Chinese born Deng Wendi, later changed to Wendi Deng. She was then 30, a recent college graduate from Yale and newly appointed vice-president of STAR TV. Anna Murdoch was also remarried, in October 1999, to William Mann. aye that sure sounds different in India but as Goundamani says in one of his films “this and all is normal in political life my friend” .

With his great success and power he has also created a lot of critics but Murdoch continues to brush them all aside and is happily living his life with his young wife and continuing to grow his global empire.

Pranksters et al

Oldest Prank
The most daring but successful prank in history was carried out by Doge Dandolo in 1203/4, when he first derailed, then hijacked, the Fourth Crusade, tricking the Crusaders into doing the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do. The crusade was supposed to conquer Egypt first, and then take back Jerusalem. Venice was contracted a year earlier to provide the ships to carry a sizeable army across the Mediterranean. When the crusaders arrived, their numbers were lower than anticipated, and they were unable to pay the agreed amount for the vast armada that had been assembled in Venice.
The aged Doge Dandolo, seeing an opportunity to hoodwink the crusaders, made a big show of "taking the cross" himself, and offered to forgive their debt if they would come with him on a short detour first. This was agreed, and together they first sailed to and sacked Zara, a Christian city that Venice had recently lost to Hungary, and then sailed on and sacked Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire-with Dandolo making sure that most of the crusaders never knew that Pope Innocent III was threatening them with excommunication if they did so.
There is a wonderful irony in the fact that a blind octogenarian not only managed to con the gullible crusaders out of recapturing Jerusalem for Christ, which was their primary goal, but also tricked them into sacking the main centre of Christianity in the east instead.
Finest prank
The finest prank in history was perpetrated towards the end of the second world war, against a background of gloom and horror that made it all the more brilliant. German and allied airforces were launching bombing raids on each other's factories with ferocious regularity. The Germans hatched a plan to deceive allied intelligence by building mock wooden factories painted in industrial colours, the hope being that the enemy would waste much of its precious ordinance on them. Soon enough the British figured out what the other side was up to, and sent a lone Avro Lancaster to an industrial area near Duisburg. The plane's mission: to drop a wooden bomb on one of the fake factories.
Imagine the looks on the faces of the German army officials, staring at a harmless "bomb" made from wood, and looking up at the sky, where a crew had earlier put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of a jape. Even they must have been touched by the humour of it.
The road-digging prank
The classic version, pulled by students on numerous occasions, goes as follows. A group of mischievous types procures hard hats, pneumatic drills and other construction-related items. They then cordon off a city-centre section of street and start tearing up the tarmac. One of the group calls the city police to report that students dressed as construction workers are ripping up the road-come quickly! A little while later, he calls the state police, explaining that he and his colleagues, a group of road workers only trying to do their job, are being harassed by a bunch of pranksters dressed as policemen. Before long, the city police arrive to arrest the students, and the state police come to arrest the city police. Chaos ensues.

India Statistics

India is my country. All indians are my bros and sis... reminds me of my good ole days at school.. anyways, for here is a must-know for all indians

national country name: Bharat (Hindi)
capital: New Delhi
population: 1.06 billion
area: 3,166,414 sq km (appr. equiv to Western Europe)
population density: 310 persons per sq km
urban: 26.8%
rural: 73.2%
GNI (GNP): USD 470 per capita per year
highest point: 8598m (Kanchenjunga)
languages: 22 official + 1600 minor languages and dialects (dec2003)
national language: Hindi
major languages: 40.2% Hindi; 8.3% Bengali; 7.9% Telugu (1991)
number of states: 28 + 7 union territories
money: Indian rupee
time: GMT + 5,5 hours
electricity: 240V, 50Hz
government form: constitutional democracy
government: Congress party led UPA coalition
Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh
President: Pratibha Patil
religion: 80.5% Hindu, 13.4% Muslim, 2.3% Christian, 1.9% Sikh, 0.8% Buddhist, 0.4% Jain, 0.01% Zoroastrian, 1.3% other (2001)
literacy rate: 64.8% (male 75.3; fem 53.7%) (2001)
gender ratio: 933 fem to 1000 male (2001)
child (0-6 yrs) gender ratio: 927 fem to 1000 male (2001)
life expectancy: 61.5yr male; 62.7yr fem
daily calories intake: 2,388 per capita

French Class

A language instructor was explaining to her class that, in French, nouns are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. "House," in French, is feminine -"la maison." "Pencil," in French, is masculine -"le crayon."
One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups (appropriately enough, by gender) and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be masculine or feminine noun. both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.
The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval.

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:

1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data, but they are essentially clueless.

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

Of course, the women's group won!

Research In motion

the first thing that comes to one's mind when you think about Blackberry is its sleek nature and widespread usage. Lets take a look at the company which was behind this marvel of technology, which is "research In motion".
RIM is a Canadian based wireless company headquartered at waterloo, Ontario.In 2007, RIM was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only wireless technology company to receive this honour.

The ubiquity of the BlackBerry devices in the corporate environment and the compulsive use of its ability to quickly send and receive e-mail has earned it the nickname "Crackberry" as users feel they can not live without it.



Trivia:Since the turn of the century, RIM has been embroiled in a series of suits relating to alleged patent infringement. Its propensity at litigating elicited the moniker "Lawsuits in Motion" in the media

Nasdaq 100

The NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, it is a modified market value weighted index the companies weights in the index are based on their market capitalization with certain rules capping the influence of the largest components. Market capitalization is nothing but the product of the price value of the share and the number of shares issued by the company.

Mostly the companies are in United states but a few other companies are from other countries also. As of December, 2007 the countries (excluding the United States) represented in the NASDAQ-100 are;

* Bermuda: Foster Wheeler and Marvell Technology Group
* Canada: Research In Motion
* Cayman Islands: Garmin Ltd.
* China: Baidu.com and Focus Media Holding
* India: Infosys
* Ireland: Ryanair
* Israel: Check Point and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.
* Luxembourg: Millicom
* Singapore: Flextronics
* Switzerland: Logitech
here goes a list of the companies and their tickers
1. Activision, Inc. (ATVI)
2. Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE)
3. Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM)
4. Altera Corporation (ALTR)
5. Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)
6. Amgen Inc. (AMGN)
7. Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN)
8. Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL)
9. Apple Inc. (AAPL)
10. Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT)
11. Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK)
12. Baidu.com, Inc. (BIDU)
13. BEA Systems, Inc. (BEAS)
14. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)
15. Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB)
16. Broadcom Corporation (BRCM)
17. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW)
18. Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)
19. Celgene Corporation (CELG)
20. Cephalon, Inc. (CEPH)
21. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP)
22. Cintas Corporation (CTAS)
23. Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)
24. Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS)
25. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (CTSH)
26. Comcast Corporation (CMCSA)
27. Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)
28. Dell Inc. (DELL)
29. DENTSPLY International Inc. (XRAY)
30. Discovery Holding Co (DISCA)
31. DISH Network Corporation (DISH)
32. eBay Inc. (EBAY)
33. Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS)
34. Expedia, Inc. (EXPE)
35. Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (EXPD)
36. Express Scripts, Inc. (ESRX)
37. Fastenal Company (FAST)
38. Fiserv, Inc. (FISV)
39. Flextronics International Ltd. (FLEX)
40. Focus Media Group Limited (FMCN)
41. Foster Wheeler Corporation (FWLT)
42. Garmin Ltd. (GRMN)
43. Genzyme Corporation (GENZ)
44. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD)
45. Google, Inc. (GOOG)
46. Hansen Natural Corporation (HANS)
47. Henry Schein, Inc. (HSIC)
48. Hologic, Inc. (HOLX)
49. IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)
50. Infosys Technologies(INFY)
51. Intel Corporation (INTC)
52. Intuit, Inc. (INTU)
53. Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG)
54. Joy Global Inc. (JOYG)
55. Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR)
56. KLA-Tencor Corporation ([KLAC)
57. Lam Research Corporation (LRCX)
58. Lamar Advertising Company (LAMR)
59. Leap Wireless International, Inc. (LEAP)
60. Level 3 Communications (LVLT)
61. Liberty Global, Inc. (LBTYA)
62. Liberty Media Corporation, Interactive Series A (LINTA)
63. Linear Technology Corporation (LLTC)
64. Logitech International, SA (LOGI)
65. Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. (MRVL)
66. Microchip Technology Incorporated (MCHP)
67. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)
68. Millicom International Cellular S.A. (MICC)
69. Monster Worldwide, Inc. (MNST)
70. Network Appliance, Inc. (NTAP)
71. NII Holdings, Inc. (NIHD)
72. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)
73. Oracle Corporation (ORCL)
74. PACCAR Inc. (PCAR)
75. Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO)
76. Paychex, Inc. (PAYX)
77. PetSmart, Inc. (PETM)
78. QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM)
79. Research in Motion Limited (RIMM)
80. Ryanair Holdings, PLC (RYAAY)
81. SanDisk Corporation (SNDK)
82. Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD)
83. Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL)
84. Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (SIRI)
85. Staples, Inc. (SPLS)
86. Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)
87. Steel Dynamics, Inc. (STLD)
88. Stericycle, Inc (SRCL)
89. Sun Microsystems, Inc. (JAVA)
90. Symantec Corporation (SYMC)
91. Tellabs, Inc. (TLAB)
92. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TEVA)
93. UAL Corporation (UAUA)
94. VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN)
95. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX)
96. Virgin Media (VMED)
97. Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI)
98. Wynn Resorts, Ltd. (WYNN)
99. Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX)
100. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)

The Jodha Akbar Controversy

Jodha Akbar is a film by Ashutosh Gowariker, starring a greek god by the name of Hrithik Roshan and an Indian goddess named Aishwarya Rai. They are coming as a pair after a reasonably successful Dhoom 2. The music is by the revolutionary ARR, a legend by its true sense and he has reinforced his status as the best musician on earth thro this movie. but recently this movie has been hit by a spate of controversies. the Movie was recently not allowed to be screened at theatres in rajastan and wsa also banned at ahmedabad. Rajput men and women also attacked the movie at Indore. so what was this controversy all about? lets see
Firstly the protesters claim that the fact that Jodha was Akbar's wife is factually incorrect. According to them, Jodha Bai was not the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber as shown in the film. The princess was the daughter of Motaraja Udai Singh of Marwar and that she was married to Akbar's son Salim alias Jehangir. And Mughal king Shahjahan was her son.
this is also supported by noted historians.

Wife or Daughter-in-Law

They have cited books to prove the above claims, Jodha Bai was the wife of Jehangir, aka Salim. Incensed by the distortion of the facts, the Rajput community of Rajasthan has threatened to not only boycott Jodha Akbar, but also stall its release in the state. As per the historical evidences, it was Jehangir who was married to the House of Jodhpur. The princess he thus married later came to be known as Jodhabai.

Real Story

the real story they claim is that Akbar did forge an alliance with the Rajput family, when he married the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber. However, there is no evidence to suggest that she was called Jodhabai. Rather, she was later titled ‘Maryam Rahmani’ or ‘Mother of Rulers of the Universe’. Infact, Gowariker has himself claimed that there is some confusion regarding the name of the Rajput wife of Akbar. Nonetheless, he claims to have taken permission from the Royal Family of Jaipur to use the name Jodha Bai.

so thats the story behind Jodha akbar. but i've also heard that its a lovely movie and that the stars are a treat to watch. thats usually what happens when u have adonis as the hero and the worlds most beautiful lady as the female lead. looking forward to watch the movie.

Microsoft Should Make Cars -- GM Should Make Software

Sometime back, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating the following: "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would be driving cars with the following characteristics:

• For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day. (lol)
• Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.(thats humiliating to MS)
• Occasionally, your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would accept this, restart, and drive on.
• Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart; in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
• Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought 'Car95' or 'CarNT.' Then you would have to buy more seats.
• Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was more reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads. (prteey true)
• The oil, water, temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single 'general car fault' warning light.
• New seats would force everyone to have the same back-end size.
• The airbag system would say 'Are you sure?' before going off. (roflol)
• Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
• GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more.
• Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
• You'd press the 'Start' button to shut off the engine. (a pun to close the proceedings)

Petrol Diesel prices up.

India Raises Petrol prices yaar..
lets see first the current petrol/ diesel rates in the country.
An excerpt from the Hindu

"Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs. 45. 52 against Rs. 43.52. In Kolkata it will be Rs. 48.95 against Rs. 46.86, in Mumbai Rs. 50.51 against Rs. 48.38 and in Chennai it will be Rs. 49.61 against Rs. 47.44.

Diesel in Delhi will now cost Rs. 31.76 against Rs. 30.76.

In Kolkata it will be Rs. 33.92 against Rs. 32.87, in Mumbai Rs. 36.08 against Rs. 34.94 and in Chennai Rs. 34.40 against Rs. 33.30."

not much of a difference.. but this hike is coming at the wake of spiralling crude oil prices.. the crude oil price touched $100 a barrel on Jan 2nd.. a whopping $100. currently it has settled to somewhere in the early $90s.

How does this price increase affect the common man? the price increase is just marginal. Now the Left parties oppose to a Two rupee hike in the price of petrol, as if two rupee is a matter of life and death for the common bike/car owning middle class people. Its just a sacrifice people can very well afford to make, but the left feels that armageddon has neared. It's been feeling that way since India's independence, but thats a different story;)

lets see what Murli Deora has to comment on the issue- “We have tried to ensure that the common man does not suffer. This is just a marginal hike to save the oil marketing companies (OMCs) from bankruptcy. We appeal to the people to cooperate with us. The hike will come into effect from midnight on Thursday night,” Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said at a press conference.

Mr. Deora said the CCPA also decided to raise the quantum of oil bonds to be issued to state-run oil retailers to partly compensate them for selling auto and cooking fuel below the cost.

At present, 42.7 per cent of the under-realisation on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene was met by the government through issuance of oil bonds. The percentage now was 56-57 per cent, Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said.

The government companies would earn around Rs. 840 crore in the next six weeks of this financial year.

The Rs. 2 a litre increase in petrol would give Rs. 180 crore additional revenue a month to the public sector oil companies. In the case of diesel, it would be Rs. 360 crore a month.

Petrol and diesel prices were last raised in June 2006 and LPG prices by Rs. 20 a cylinder in November 2004. Kerosene prices have not been changed since 2002.

So thats were the issue stands.. lets see later if more developments take place

Blackle- the black Google

Heard of Blackle? The power saving Google? If not then read on. There’s quite a noise going on about a new power saving technique- using black screens instead of white. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." - Says a research by Judy A. Roberson.

In January 2007 a blog post titled “Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year” proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages. Here is an excerpt from the blog.

“As noted, an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. I thought I would do a little math and see what could be saved by moving a high volume site to the black format.

Take at look at Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let's assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that's $75,000, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes.”

Even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly, seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

The site encourages you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Every bit counts! You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.

Help us spread the word about Blackle by telling your friends and family to set it as their home page. If you have a blog then give us a mention. Or put the following text in your email signature: "Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time".

That’s something that makes that makes everyone think. As usual, there’s always a backlash to everything that seems good. The first thing is the statistics. Is the statistics valid? Almost most of the computers use LCD monitors and not CRT. Even 25% as suggested was unacceptable to many. LCD monitors have a permanently on backlight and it doesn’t matter whether we switch the colors from white to black. Moreover LCDs save a lot more power than CRTs. The second is regarding the queries. The queries are not only text but also other forms. But I don’t think that makes a really big difference.

Whatever people may say, I, like many fellow Chennaites, use a CRT monitor, and I shall do my part in saving energy, by “Blackling” instead of googling

Anime

A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art and often adult themes.

Anime is an abbreviation of the word "animation". Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating in Japan. To the West, not all animation is considered anime; and anime is considered a subset of animation.

While some anime is hand drawn, computer assisted animation techniques have become quite common in recent years. Like any entertainment medium, the story lines represent most major genres of fiction. Anime is broadcast on television, distributed on media such as DVD and VHS, and included in video games. Additionally, some is produced as full length motion pictures. Anime often draws influence from manga, light novels, and other cultures. Some anime storylines have been adapted into live action films and television series.

History

The history of anime begins at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored in France, Germany, United States and Russia.

During the 1970s, there was a surge of growth in the popularity of manga comics — which were often later animated — especially those of Osamu Tezuka, who has been called a "legend" and the "god of manga". As a result of his work and that of other pioneers in the field, anime developed characteristics and genres that are fundamental elements of the art today. The giant robot genre (known as "mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Robot anime like Gundam and Macross became instant classics in the 80s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most popular in Japan and worldwide today. In western countries the word is used usually only to refer to animated programming of Japanese origin, with the term "cartoon" or "animated series" used for most other visual styles. However, some anime are co-productions with non-Japanese companies like the Cartoon Network. Thus, anime is no longer specific to the Japanese market.

Genres

Anime has many genres typically found in any mass media form. Such genres include action, adventure, children's stories, comedy, drama, erotica, medieval fantasy, occult/horror, romance, and science fiction.

Anime features a wide variety of artistic styles. They vary from artist to artist or by studio to studio. They are generally characterized by detailed backgrounds and stylized characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a wide range of audiences.

HOOKED ON THE HOOKAH

Like the trippy caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, hipsters are hitting the hookah pipe. These days it’s the ‘hep’ thing to do. Youngsters who haven’t even had their first puff of cigarette have started to visit hookah spots. Yes, cigarettes are not the current fad. This is surely not because of the statutory warning on every cigarette pack but due to a particular myth- hookah is not harmful as cigarette smoking. A typical case of jumping from the boiling water into the frying pan.

Now that the hookah bug seems to have bitten everyone - lets get down to the brass-tacks of what a hookah is all about - and what it means in terms of health bytes. Medical research on hookahs shows that they have many health benefits. Hookah is known to contain vitamin A, B and C. A review of the health effects of hookah use in the medical journal ‘Pediatrics’ concludes that the harmful effects of hookahs are much less than those caused by cigarette Many people familiar with the hookah say they are not as bad as cigarettes because the water in the basin of the pipe absorbs the dangerous chemicals found in the tobacco, a theory that is not too far from the truth.

Tobacco is placed on a metal plate with a hole in the bottom that connects to a water-filled metal container below and is heated by special charcoal. When the smoker inhales, smoke travels through the water, down the tube and into the smoker's mouth. The result, enthusiasts say, is a delicious assault on the senses that has none of the harshness of cigarette or cigar smoking.

Passing the smoke through water, as is done in a hookah pipe, does remove some toxic compounds, but existing research documents that still many toxins do remain in the water-filtered smoke. One study, detailed in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, indicates an average session of hookah smoking lasts an hour, or 171 puffs of tobacco smoke. By smoke volume, this adds up to inhaling about 100 cigarettes.

Another study in the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal that reports each puff of hookah smoke packs about the same amount of tar and almost three times the nicotine, the addictive chemical found in tobacco. “What’s worse is how hookahs are lit, with a piece of charcoal” said epidemiologist Samira Asma, the associate director for the Centers for Disease Control’s global tobacco program. “On top of extra nicotine and cancer-causing compounds, you inhale a lot more toxic carbon monoxide.” A case-control study of 214 Chinese tin miners found there was a two-fold increased risk for lung cancer among those who had ever used water pipes compared with nonsmokers. Twenty two of twenty five cases of lung cancer in a study in India were among those who were regular hookah users. Research with a series of Egyptian patients showed that hookah smokers who smoked in groups had increased rates of infection when compared with nonsmokers. Thomas Eissenberg, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-author of a hookah study, noted that he found that "Every risk of cigarette smoking is also associated with water pipes." Yes it also gives rise to testicular cancer, that sure must scare a lot of you

The reason why many people resort to hookah, apart from the fact that it’s the ‘in’ thing is that it tastes delicious. Unlike cigarettes, hookahs don’t leave a bad taste in your mouth. What’s more, hookah comes in loads of flavors. Flavors include mint, jasmine and mango. Double apple - a mixture of red and green apples - remains a bestseller. In our very own local ‘Mocha’ there’s rose, peach, orange, coffee and a lot more. The special flavors are Casablanca and red wine and so on. Casablanca has a mint touch and that makes it a cool favorite among Chennaites.What’s more, it’s easy on the pocket too. Two hundred bucks for a single pipe and a fifty extra gives you a double pipe.

Cool smoke or hot smoke, cigarette or hookah, everything is the same vice with different names. Yeah, it does analogies with Ram or Rahim, but that’s not the point. The day is not too far when our government wakes up, as usual- after it’s too late, to the harmful effects of hookah, raise a big cry, burn two dozen buses and do nothing but stick this piece of message on the hookah glass- “Statutory warning: hookah smoking is injurious to health”. That day is not too far.

Spy Jargon

Abort: This is one is pretty straightforward. It means to terminate a mission before it is completed, usually abruptly.
Access: An agent's ability to obtain sensitive information through government channels.
Agency: Slang for the SDI.
Agent of Influence: an agent with political power in a nation, planet or system if interest to the Agency.
Agent provocator: a spy who generates social and political turmoil.
Alimony: compensation paid to a long-term undercover agent when his assignment is complete.
Angel: slang for a spy of an opposing agency.
Apparatus: a spy ring; also called a "cell".
Attache: a military officer assigned to a foreign capital as a liaison and to gather data
Babysitter: bodyguard
Bag job: breaking and entering to steal or photograph intelligence material
Bigot list: the names of people who know of a certain clandestine activity, and who must therefore be safeguarded, or prevented from speaking about the projeects to outsiders.
Black: term used in specific phrases to signify something is covert of illegal in nature
Blind date: meeting someone at their choice of place and time, wirth all the associate risks.
Blowback: false rumors spread in enemy territory that are reported by their news agencies as the truth
Bodywash: a mundane explanation for an agent's death, to prevent outside suspicion.
Bogie: an unidientified agent or organization
Broken: a term applied to an agent who has become a liability; also known as "going bad"
Burn: to publicly uncovr an agent's true identity; also used by agencies, meaning to cut off from Control an agent who become a liability
Classified: sensitive material shown only on a need-to-know basis. Classifications include confidential, secret and top secret, in ascending order of security
Clearance: approval to read or handle classified material
Clean: to make secure, also known as "pacify"
Cobbler: Bothese slang fora forger; also called "shoe maker"; Bothans call fake documents "shoes".
Cold: the mental state of a spy working in hostile territory, often for months or years at the time; to get out is called "coming in from the cold"
Consumer: the final user of intel data
Control: the person in charge of an agent (that's means me), operation or organization; also known as "case officer" or "handler"
Cooking the books: slang for skewing intel to support political aims
Cousins: Bothese slang for spies of SDI
Cover: false ID, also known as "cryptonym"
Cutout: middleman between agent and agency
Dead drop: a locaion where an agent can safely leave intel data or reserves; also known as "dead letter box"
Deep cover: long-term insertion into hostile territory under an assumed identiy
Defector: someone who voluntarily shifts his allegiance from organization to another, defectors are said to have 'turned'
Dirty: treacherous
Disposable: Term applied to anything that can be sacrificed to ensure a mission's success
Doctor: Bothese term for police; agents arrested are said to have an "illness"; agents in jail are said to be at the "hospital"
Double agent: someone openly working for one intelligence agency and secretly working for another one, also called "double"
Ears only: data too sensitive to be commited to paper.
Eyes only: data that should be not be discussed without explicit permission
False drop: a place where an agent pretends to leave messages, or where messages are left in spoof code
The Firm: Alderaani term for the Agency
Floater: someone used for one-time or occasional operations, often unwittingly
The Great Game: the intelligence and counterintelligence profession
Go private: to retire from the game
HUMINT: data gathered by human, rather than satellites or computers
Illegal: a spy working in enemy territory with no diplomatic protection, usually with "legend"
IMINT: imagery intelligence, data gathered by aerial and satellite photography
Legal: an agent protected by diplomatic immunity
Legend: an artificial identity and history, usually employed by deep cover operatives
Letterbox: a cutout (see above) serving the in same capacity as a dead drop
Liquidate: to eliminate wayward agents
Load: to leave something at a dead drop
Make: to recognize someone, for example: "I've been made" means "I've been identified"
MICE (Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego): the four most common motivations exploited by agent recruiters
Mule: a covert courier
Noise: slang for collateral attention agents draw to themselves or their mission while on the field. Noise is generally discouraged
Operational climate: a description of a local and the chacen of a mission succeeding there
Padding: extra characters added to the beginning and end of encrypted data to help prevcent it from being deciphered
Peeps: photographs used for blackmail
Plausible deniability: the valuble ability to effectively refute involvment with an operation
Plumbing: plugging leaks within an agency
Sanitize: to eliminate all evidence of an agency involvment
SIGINT: signals intel, data gathered through eavesdropping on electronic signals
Sleeper: an agent established in a target area who does nothing beyond his cover until activated
Stringer: a freelance agent
Walk-in: someone who approaches an intel agency without being prompted
Wetwork: assassination (also known as "closing a contract", "neutralizaing", "sanctionning", "terminating with extreme prejudice", or "demoting maximally")

Marketing Demystified

1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich. "Marry me!" - That's Direct Marketing"

2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: "He's very rich. "Marry him." -That's Advertising"

3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: "Hi, I'm very rich. "Marry me - That's Telemarketing"

4. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car) for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say: "By the way, I'm rich. Will you "Marry Me?" - That's Public Relations

5. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says:"You are very rich! "Can you marry ! me?" - That's Brand Recognition

6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. - "That's Customer Feedback"

7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" And she introduces you to her husband. - "That's demand and supply gap"

8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: "I'm rich. Will you marry me?" and she
goes with him - "That's competition eating into your market share"

9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: "I'm rich, Marry me!" your wife arrives. - "That's restriction for entering new markets"

YEARNINGS OF A NEW AGE

There exist several man-made wonders that leave us spellbound. The telephone is surely one among them, though we take it for granted totally. Here of course we are not comparing man’s creative capabilities with that of God. It’s just that none ever thought such a thing would even be possible.

Try reducing the level of abstraction we generally use with regard to the telephone. We are actually able to listen to the true voice of a person a trillion miles away. To this day, it brings smiles to our lips and tears to our eyes to actually feel the true emotions of our loved ones though we do not have the boon to be close to them physically.

The array of enhanced variations of Graham Bell’s telephone is quite indispensable today. But I’m convinced man will not stop here. Now that he has gotten used to listening to voices from the other side of the globe, speaking to them, exchanging ideas with them, seeing their images and even observing their movements, he would definitely wish TO FEEL them.

Man will find a way to overcome this yearning one day. It will be hard to come by though. Without much-needed magic, we cannot afford to disapparate at one end and apparate at the other end instantly. It would work more like the telephone itself. We would probably trap the information contained in a person as a whole, convert it into transportable form and reconvert it back again. Well, I guess we can count on our competent inventors to find a smooth way out

DOES COUNTENANCE REALLY COUNT?

So what’s in a face? ‘Agaththin azhagu mugathil theriyum’ translates into ‘the face is an index of the mind’. But the existence of the counter-quote ‘appearances are deceptive’ confuses me. Is this an off shoot of the yin-yang theory? Maybe..

It cannot be denied that countenance brings a person some strong opinion from others. But is this opinion always correct? Well, I strongly think otherwise. But, ‘the first impression is the best impression’, which is why some of us are doomed. People tend to anticipate future reactions based on their very first thought on us, which they form by just observing our countenance. just imagine what would have happened to Michael Jackson, if only he had

Probably for man, everything comes down to physical stuff. Showing in action goes way beyond just thinking or speaking about it. If health fails, nothing at all can be accomplished. Well, maybe he understands better the language spoken by faces.

Many a times we have noticed that strangers grade us right. This is because facial expressions, over time, form lasting features on faces.

The importance we attach to our faces cannot be denied. When we look at the mirror, we do not look at a face, but we look at ourselves. We look at our face and say , “that’s me” whereas we look at our arm and say, “that’s mine”.

The face is not the only way to express emotions. It is just one way among many- words, tone of voice, posture, music, behavior, etc. If people think observation of countenance is the only way to judge others, they are sure to miss out on something important. The society’s strongly- conditioned beliefs about ‘looking good’ are to be blamed. If a person has true talent, countenance will not count in any way

THE END OF FLAT SCREENS?

The mantra 3D and 3G are often heard these days!! Of these 3-D monitors are emerging successfully in various standards..Perspecta 1.9 is the first 3D display that lets users view 3D moving images from any direction around it. It can be viewed from top or from below. The viewer can also zoom in and out in real time. The system includes a 20-inch(50.8cm) dome displaying full-colour and moving images that occupy a volume in space,giving users a 360 degrees all encompassing view—without the need for special 3D goggles. Perspecta is plug-and-play , rendering all movement from widely used open-standard 3D applications.

Developed by US-based Actuality Systems, the Perspecta System is made up of a circular white polymer screen, 25cm in diameter, mounted on a 1-metre-high black box so that people can walk around it. Like a giant spinning lollipop, the screen, encased in a transparent polycarbonate shell, turns at 15 revolutions per second.

To display the image, software inside the Perspecta chops a 3D model generated by the computer into 198 separate pieces, like slices of cake, which are then projected onto the screen in quick succession by a graphics accelerator that feeds image slices to an optical system mounted below the screen. The result appears to the viewer like a 3D image composed of 100 million “volume pixels” or “voxels”.