tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2302244133955495162024-02-21T12:29:31.011+05:30GeorgesqueSee what I see. Hear what I hear.George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-29063427744838947602008-09-01T19:18:00.016+05:302008-09-04T18:33:20.934+05:30Fooled By RandomnessI am back.I have just finished reading a book that has motivated me sufficiently to want to write a post: "Fooled by Randomness - The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" by Nissim Nicholas Taleb (2001). Taleb subsequently wrote a second book, "The Black Swan"(2007), the title of which has become popular since the recent credit crisis in America, to describe rare, George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-56599637104946025482008-05-02T11:23:00.014+05:302008-05-02T12:04:07.183+05:30Saying hello with prideI spotted this giant hoarding advertising a new prepaid plan from Airtel, India's largest mobile company, near my home in Bangalore. The model, is of course, Shahrukh Khan, Bollywood's leading actor. The text reads, "Garv se bolo, hello!", which is Hindi for "Say it with pride - hello!".The last time I heard a similar exhortation was in the early nineties, when India was in the grip of a George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-62779512479382150842008-04-30T10:03:00.003+05:302008-04-30T10:31:55.861+05:30This really made me laugh."Sometimes, a joke will make a person laugh. Sometimes a funny picture or video will. Sometimes a clever song, a dramatic accident, the misfortune of others…nothing is ever guaranteed to make everyone laugh. Except for the sound of babies laughing." See the other 6 videos at Say No To Crack. Each one of them is very, very funny.George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-24017469871557006172008-04-26T12:19:00.029+05:302008-04-26T18:25:27.999+05:30Something useful, finally.I just got some serious dental work done- a root canal. Like most people, a visit to the dentist is not something I look forward to, so I procrastinated until what could have been a simple filling needed the distressing blasting and excavation that is a root canal procedure.One of the ways I manage to put off tasks that I would rather not do, is to cleverly channel my energies on a 'George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-17396433462008932522008-04-17T13:51:00.008+05:302008-04-17T17:29:32.911+05:30Secrets on a PostcardThis secret website:how I missthe churches of my youth!Bad haiku? Beautiful blogGeorge Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-56175704679095370032008-04-16T16:51:00.007+05:302008-04-16T17:13:10.328+05:30PeriodicityIn the early nineties, when CERN first threw the World Wide Web open for everyone, some of the happiest people on the planet must have been chemists. They now had a neat little way to represent their beloved Period Table (PT). With hyperlinks, they could finally display all the important data about each element without being constrained by those little boxes. So, they set about populating the webGeorge Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-54248644367938516312008-04-15T19:47:00.013+05:302008-04-15T20:13:47.626+05:30Time.com's First Annual Blog IndexTime.com has published an Index of The Top 25 Blogs. I found a lot of blogs there that I had never heard of, and which I have now subscribed to. If you have as much time on your hands as I do, have a look. But this being Time, the Index of The Top 25 Blogs does not have an index! You must click through 25 pages (each page carrying a writeup on one blog). Fortunately, the good folks at George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-75173526720269912832008-04-15T09:35:00.007+05:302008-04-15T10:27:58.279+05:30"...we like the big fish"The little fish like the mangroves, the big fish like the little fish -- and we like the big fish. - Mr. Ahmed Shengabay, Eritrean fisherman/farmer.I loved this line; hence this post. In the photo, Mr. Shengabay is on the right. To his left is Mr. Simon Tecleab, an Eritrean marine scientist, and they are planting a mangrove seed in the Eritrean Red Sea village of Hirgigo. The photo is from AFP.IGeorge Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-81119765842157166262008-04-12T10:04:00.009+05:302008-04-12T10:59:32.900+05:30The 'mouthfeel' of water?In my last job, I was the boss of the Indian unit of an American outsourcing company. Our customers would visit from America, and it was my job to entertain them, and make sure that they were comfortable. Most of these guys liked Indian cuisine, but every once in a while, you would get a few who wanted more familiar, less spicy food. I would take them to a restaurant close to our office called George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-32511672427771584562008-04-11T19:14:00.003+05:302008-04-11T20:28:47.406+05:30The March of the Meat Eating ChineseWorld food prices have doubled or tripled over the past few years, with most of the increases happening in the last few months. A particularly depressing article by Paul Krugman in the New York Times looks at why this has happened, and what could be done to correct it (very little apparently). One of the reasons for the rise in prices, he says, is that the Chinese are eating more meat as they getGeorge Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-52993187389631662562008-04-11T19:04:00.002+05:302008-04-11T19:18:10.731+05:30Open OutcryRaymond Carbone trades in energy options on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Traders such as Mr. Carbone buy and sell billions of dollars worth of various metals and energy products, including crude oil and electricity. And they do this using the Open Outcry system, where traders shout and use hand signals on a physical trading floor.Most exchanges in the world have moved to electronic George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-34280414946112821002008-04-10T16:56:00.005+05:302008-04-10T17:05:28.844+05:30China's Environmental ProblemI love reading The New Yorker, for the excellent writing, yes, but also for the incredible detail to which they go when following a story. The country that gets blamed the most for shortening attention spans across the world, is also the home of magazines that think nothing of devoting 40% of their pages to a single story. You read that story, and the feeling is similar to what you get when George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-25082750946225454872008-04-09T10:13:00.008+05:302008-04-09T11:44:49.445+05:30Consolidate multiple email addresses with GmailMy primary email account is now Gmail. I also have Yahoo and Hotmail accounts, which I opened years ago. These mostly receive emails from websites that I have registered with, and since those are rarely important, I don't normally check these accounts very often. However, every once in a while, a friend or acquaintance sends a mail to my Hotmail or Yahoo addresses, and several weeks pass George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-5090359801388786352008-04-04T11:23:00.007+05:302008-04-04T14:53:04.455+05:30Pardon my FrenchEver been in a position where you are holding forth on your favourite French, Spanish, or Russian author/artist/director, and you hesitate, because you are not sure how to pronounce their names?You could bluff your way through, and hope that no one in your audience is going to correct you, or, you could look up Forvo, a Web 2.0 service where you can listen to the pronunciation of the word.At the George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-57278880044657644922008-03-30T11:06:00.034+05:302008-03-30T16:17:31.475+05:30DignitySometimes, understanding comes from the strangest sources, and at the most unexpected times. You read, you think you know all the facts, you form an opinion, and then, one day, suddenly, something happens, and you understand, you really get it. A couple of days ago, I watched 'Black Snake Moan' , a movie set in the southern United States, directed by Craig Brewer, and starring Christina Ricci, George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-81112640220250990922008-03-20T16:55:00.000+05:302008-03-20T20:26:06.333+05:30Google wants to helpOn Tuesday, Google launched Google for Non-Profits, a collection of free tools to "promote your work, raise money, and operate more efficiently.". While most of the applications are already available free to anyone, there are two additions, Google Checkout and Google Grants, which should be of interest to you if you run an NGO and are looking to improve the way you do things.The standard George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230224413395549516.post-51534297289314383462008-03-19T12:38:00.000+05:302008-03-20T22:39:20.608+05:30Chain LettersLike most people, every once in a while I receive a chain letter by email - of the kind that promises cash from Bill Gates, or free cellphones and laptops from Nokia and Ericsson, if I would only forward the email to my friends. I diligently reply with a polite mail explaining why the email was likely to be a hoax, using information from Snopes.com, a remarkable site that is like an George Karimundackalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16649325030247159647noreply@blogger.com0