India...Incredible India...

Two minutes. 120 seconds. A million facets. A billion people. Countless vistas. Belonging to the one and only...Nature. All showcasing the good in the land that is home to a sixth of humanity.

In those 120 seconds, this video paints a fascinating montage of India. Set to a thumping rhythm that is at once pulsating and engaging, the rhythms of the melting pot that India is, are captured beautifully and artfully.

And thankfully, it showcases the best way to experience India. Not on a guided tour.

Its a party! College style!

Octopuses and Coconuts.

Now, for the life of me, I would never dreamed of linking a coconut shell and an Octopus in the same sentence. Maybe I am a poor creative writer or sci-fi writer.

But as is always the case with Nature, here is a bizarre story of Veined Octopuses, which not only use the coconut shells to hide in (see picture above), but actually "walk" around with them. National Geographic has this all covered in an interesting article complete with video. Here.

Saturn's Double Light Show

HubbleSite has this wonderful photograph as well this excellent video that showed Saturn with its rings nearly edge-on, resulting in the ability to view a symmetrical light show on both poles. According to the site, the geometry of the solar system allows a simultaneous view of both poles only twice during one revolution of Saturn around the Sun.

Watch the video to appreciate the symmetrical light show. And enjoy.

"Fear the blobfish"

So I came across this hilarious piece of writing in the LA Times. Click the link and read. No, I mean it. Read it fully. Done? Good.

You know it is about the blobfish and you have to admit, it is somewhat unnerving to look at. It is like revolting scene in a movie that you cannot take your eyes off of. It is like the fender bender on the freeway that everyone has to have a look at, craning their necks in weird angles and causing traffic to slow down to a crawl.

So, what is my point with this post? Just this. We seem to have forgotten what it is to have a good laugh at something. We take everything we read, and wring it through our own spectral biases and then react either in sheer delight or scathing scorn. Somehow everything has gone in the direction of "you are with us or against us" that seems to be pervading everything and everyone these days.

I really am hoping that the pendulum would veer toward the center at some point, and soon.

Choreograph

Interesting and possibly inadvertant choreography. See this video at around the 45th tick on the countdown to see what I mean..."dancing to a different tune...from a report filed from inside secretive North Korea."

The Sun or The Mist

My brother the nature fan(atic !!!) snapped this wonderland scene enroute to Tirunelveli on one wonderful winter morning. Talk of being there at the right time at the right place with the right equipment.

Summer of movies

Wifey and I both love to watch good movies. We both get bugged with typical run-of-the-mill movies (read: most desi movies). So while Netflix and public libraries contribute to satisfying the thirst to watch good movies, there is still the occasional indulgence towards typical summer blockbusters. So far, we're two into the summer movie season. Pirates of the Carribean - At World's End, and Ocean's 13.

Loved Pirates. Loved being able to loudly guffaw in the theaters. (Side note: Only Ocean's 11, Ice Age, and Pirates of the Carribean - Curse of the Black Pearl have provided for totally, utterly, and completely satisfying movie-going experiences. These three movies were a perfect synergy of disparate sources of joy - all coming together at the right place at the right time.). Granted that both movies sorta-kinda-desparately tried to live up to the glib-tongued smart-a** feel of their original versions, they were still good in their own merit. Weirdly enough, we've missed the third installment of two other successful movie franchises of the recent decade - Spiderman, and Shrek. And even more weird, we don't even care we have missed it. I guess you can only flog a dead horse ever so much.

Oh well...I am working up the reasons to convince her to go with me to see Ratatouille from Disney-Pixar, and maybe she won't need nudging to see HP-OotP.

Netflix is providing the nature-fix through the Planet Earth series from BBC/Discovery. Thankfully, they are shipping the Sir David Attenborough narrated version. No offense to Sigourney Weaver (she did a very excellent job in another amazing documentary - Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry), but in Planet Earth, her narrative is, to say the least, awful. Well, maybe the reality is that I am biased towards Sir David Attenborough's clear, concise and involved narrative. Maybe it is watching series after series of Sir Attenborough's works including Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, Blue Planet - Seas of Life etc. Maybe it is also the knowledge that he is actually a field guy (an expert even) in wild-life reporting. Whatever it maybe, watching Planet Earth seems that much more complete with his narrative.

You can experience the difference for yourself here in the US - watch Planet Earth Wednesday nights on Animal Planet, and then get your hands on the Attenborough-narrated DVDs selling through retailers or available to rent at your neighborhood or internet video store.

Next up on the 2-do-list - classics and yesteryear black & white features...afterall, "our" movie is one such b&w classic - the evergreen (or should it be ever-black-and-white???) "The Shop Around The Corner".

Eating Out vs Eating In

Eating out is the new eating in, or so claims this feature on MSN Money, and lists two peoples opinions to substantiate the purported fact that eating out actually comes out pretty even on dollar terms to eating in (also known as cooking at home).

That is as fallacious as can get in terms of substantiating an argument - take two premises, make comparisons on essentially uneven terms, without establishing common ground, come to conclusions on those uneven terms, and then proclaim one argument as the winner over the other...and the media companies wonder why people are skeptical of their reporting?

Take the first example of a person who would get off with spending $17 plus tips on dining out on hand-stuffed ravioli slathered with puttanesca sauce as opposed to about $30 for cooking at home (you know, driving to the farmers market, buying organic veggies, spending an hour cooking etc). Another dude goes as far as counting his hourly rate to the cooking time and opines that taking out his family to eat would essentially come out to the same...

Crunching numbers, this is supposed to prove that eating out is cheaper. Count me as one of the skeptics to this theory, and also to the veracity of this feature. For one, both the examples are set on uneven terms. Hey, the second dude factors his wages for cooking at home, but not for his waiting at a restaurant for his food to arrive etc...and the first dude prefers organic veggies for home cooking, but would rather eat cholesterol-laden ravioli made from non-organic stuff at a restaurant...comparison indeed.

Heck, the simplest logic demands that eating out be more expensive than dining at home. Just the simple fact that eating out is a convenience, and any convenience costs money. That's why a cup of coffee that otherwise costs about $0.10 sells for at least $0.99 at your local gas-station. Do the math...and enjoy dining out, because that is indeed an occasion to indulge the senses...

Baseball Bliss

Now, it must be said that thanks in part to a series of collapses over the past several years (2001 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2002 to the Anaheim Angels, 2003 to the Florida Marlins, 2004 to the Boston Red Sox and 2006 to the Detroit Tigers), bashing the New York Yankees for their collapse is becoming almost too sad. Almost. Because it is never enough to poke fun at those Bronx bomber fans with their sense of entitlement, bordering on the obnoxious.

So, to all those Yankee-haters amongst us, ESPN.com has this veritable top-ten list of Yankee collapses. And you may note that of the ten, five happened in the last six years. Must be that baseball players now no longer believe the "mystique" and "aura" of Yankee Stadium. Must be Curt Schilling's famous quote in 2001 ("Aura and Mystique sound like night-club dancers") is coming true. Afterall, night-club dancers do have their shelf-life and then they are just consigned to dust-bins. Thanks to the fawning New York-based media, we've been treated to stories of Yankee mystique and aura etc, and of how Yankee Stadium is the toughest place to play in etc. Now, thanks the same media, we can gloat over the failure of these paper-champs. Until their next such collapse.

LiveScience.com - Nature's Wrath: The Most Dangerous U.S. Cities

LiveScience.com - Nature's Wrath: The Most Dangerous U.S. Cities

Now what can we learn from animals?

Two specimen examples of things that we can indeed learn from animals... Frog giving a rat a piggy-back ride to help survive the monsoons in Lucknow, India. And a dog helping feed tiger cubs in Hefei, China.

If its a spade...call it a spade

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/15franc.htm

Someone with guts to say what the mainstream hype-driven media refuses to report.

An Inconvenient Truth

Here we go again...another attempt at trying to educate the masses on the effects of climate change, and how we are bringing purported disaster on ourselves.

You want to have an opinion of this movie? Watch it yourself, and THEN evaluate the FACTS for what they are, PRIOR to jumping to a conclusion on whether or not this is a propaganda movie, irrespective of your political dispensation.

Are You Being Served?

Ground floor: perfumery,

stationery and leather goods,

wigs and haberdashery

kitchenware and food. Going up!

First floor: telephones,

gents ready-made suits,

shirts, socks, ties, hats,

underwear and shoes. Going up!

Second floor: carpets,

travel goods and bedding,

material, soft furnishings,

restaurant and teas. Going down!

"Are You Free?"
"I am free"

Are You Being Served? (or AYBS? for short) runs on weekday afternoons on BBC America, but for those of us at work, public libraries should have the entire DVD set available for loan. Crass and cheap at times, with plenty of double-entendres to go around, and totally politically incorrect at all times, yet this show manages to pull the laughter hidden deep inside our bowels.

How does it manage to do that? With plenty of good acting, fantastic dialogue, and excellent comic timing with superb facial expressions to go-along as displayed by the actors involved. The actors share a chemistry that shines through. Mostly though, despite its reliance on cheaper tactics to elicit laughter, the basic script is outstanding in its comedy potential.

Recommended comedy watch, considering that despite its sometimes crude portrayals, its got my parents laughing their tummies out...

Sweating It Out!!!

Old Spice tells us in a breathless press-release this past week that Phoenix has held on to its title of the sweatiest city in America. Surprise, surprise...considering that Phoenix IS the hottest city in the nation...Surprise, surprise #2...Phoenix was named the sweatiest city only three times in the five years that this survey has run...

But having visited my native Chennai this past May, and being faced with gallons of sweat running right down my face and down my shirts, I CAN attest to Phoenix atleast being a lot more comfortable because of the drier conditions. Dangerous yes...but nothing that lugging a gallon of water with you can't fix.

Boy, can't wait for sizzling July...especially with parents in town :) Its going to be fun for them.

Found in Translation

If you are like me, and can never remember the multi-lingual names of your favorite Indian food stuffs in your favorite and mother-tongues...

You need this resource.

Bon Apetite

Economic Spiral

Interesting perspective on the flattened globalized world. Are we headed...
Toward perpetual prosperity or totally out of control?

NASA - NASA's Cassini Discovers Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus

NASA ::: Cassini ::: Saturn ::: Enceladus ::: Water!!!

"We previously knew of at most three places where active volcanism exists: Jupiter's moon Io, Earth, and possibly Neptune's moon Triton. Cassini changed all that, making Enceladus the latest member of this very exclusive club, and one of the most exciting places in the solar system," said Dr. John Spencer, Cassini scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. (from above link to NASA)

Maybe, if funding for such projects are kept up, we'll have scratched the surface a little more by the end of the next century?

In the midst of this, two other ideas/questions pop-up - one of a diametrically opposite view, and another a sort of a paradox.

The diametrically opposite view - have we exhausted all possible venues of development and improvement of life on this planet that we currently call home that we are looking to explore the possibility of life on other bodies in the Solar System?

The paradox - plagiarized from the promo for the excellent BBC/Discovery co-production "Blue Planet" - we know more about outer space and the moon than we do about our own oceans and water-bodies.

A Model, a role model at that...

From the South Asia pages of the Beeb a.k.a BBC.

A heart-warming story of Guriya Khatoon.

Five Years Studies done in Nine Months.

Some may fold in the face of a single strike. Not this girl. All of thirteen years young. Talk about perseverence and guts. She had three strikes against her - poverty - Bihar - gender. Pile up the fact that her family tried to hush her up behind a purdah because she is Muslim.

Yet, in her own words - "...you have to face all your challenges in life, but most of all get an education. Because without it, you can't change your life - or your world."