Stupid mainstream media (again)

See this news item here which showed up in Indian Express just after Large Hadron Collider. Just to get a juicy headline, the news paper claims "prove rumours wrong". Now, I don't believe that the LHC experiment is going to end the world but the time has not come to say that rumours have been proven wrong. Today the beam was only shot in clockwise direction, then it would have to be fired anti-clockwise and only after that beams will be fired in both the directions for collision.
Only when collision happens, we can conclude that rumours have been proven wrong. Why don't the news papers just stick to reporting, rather than making up news. 

We are like that only

Some people never learn. Here is an interesting news story that I saw in today's news paper.

The CCTV footage showed how Bhatia manoeuvred to steal the wallet, trying to make sure that no one around noticed him while carrying out the act, official said."First he waited for Mehta to proceed ahead. Then he looked around pretending to be browsing for a particular item in the shop. After a few minutes, he pulled out his own wallet and kept it above Mehta's, only to pull them both into his bag immediately," said a police official. "I had given up all hopes of getting the purse. The incident proves that thieves do roam about in suit and tie," Mehta said.

Yes, thieves do roam about in suit and tie.

NSG Waiver for India

Finally the NSG approved the waiver for India for civilian nuclear cooperation and the reactions have been usual. Now I can go an try to analyse if it was good for India or not but I thought let's look at the reactions and probably that would give the indication on whether it was good or bad for India.
Worldwide most of the countries have welcomed the deal. There have been some countries like Austria and some other countries that have been less enthusiastic about the deal but that probably has more to do with ideology of not supplying the fuel to not NPT countries.
Most notable country that at the last moment was against the deal was China. I would not be surprised at that reaction of China. They have lot to lose with India being able to buy fuel from market. I read somewhere that the price of nuclear fuel has gone up few fold since the year 2000, India joining that club of buyers would put further pressure in that market. Also I always believed that China just doesn't like India.
Who else is against the deal, not surprisingly BJP and Communists. Now if you look at the groups that area gainst the deal for non idelogical reasons, it is BJP, Communists and China and ofcourse pakistan. I don't really know what is the common interest there.

Snake on an Air India plane

Here is an interesting story. An airbus from Air India had an unlikely passenger on board. A snake was having fun in plane below one of the seats. The best part is the interesting statement from Air India spokesman.

"There was commotion which scared the snake and it went further inside," an airport official quoted.

Reports that the snake was a venomous cobra were denied by an Air India spokesman.

"The aircraft was parked at Delhi airport for maintenance purposes. There was a snake but not a cobra," he told.

"We have no details of what kind of a snake it was, or where it is now. We have taken up this matter with Delhi airport authorities."

The interesting part is that Air India denies that the snake was a cobra but then claims that they have no idea which snake was it. Really funny if you are reading about it but must be bizarre for passengers.

Russian PM Putin saves TV crew from Siberian tiger

Here is an interesting story, Vladimir Putin actually tranquilized a tiger who charged at a TV crew.

Just as Putin was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran towards a nearby camera crew, the country's main television station said. Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilizer gun.

Interesting notices

Recently on my visit to one top technology MNC in Bangalore, I came across following notice board in cafeteria.


I find two things funny with this notice.

1. This is a technology MNC and is counting spoons. I am sure the cost of the spoon is not really much and if they think it is a big issues, just tell the employees to get their own spoons.
2. If you really decide to count the spoons, atleast count them right.

I suppose nobody cares.

Excuses, excuses

So, our cricket captain has come up with another gem. No I am not talking about the good innings that he played in the last match against Sri Lanka. I am talking about his new excuse on why we are dropping catches. See here. He claims it is because of the crowd's wardrobe.

Since Sri Lanka had a colourful crowd it becomes difficult to spot the ball in the night specially after it (ball) becomes a bit dirty,

Other teams, are you listening. Just request your fans to wear colorful clothes to defeat India. Indian fans, please wear all black attire for day-night matches and all white attire for day matches.

iPhone magic fails in India

Finally the iPhone was launched in India and it seems it pretty much failed to impress users.

The stage was set for a grand launch, complete with confetti and cheerleaders, but at the stroke of midnight, there were just 10 people who actually bought the high-end device.

At a Vodafone store in Connaught Place, Central Delhi, journalists outnumbered customers by a huge margin. Only about 15 customers turned up to buy the phone. The Airtel retail store nearby wore a deserted look on Friday afternoon, with not a single customer buying the iPhone.

May be things will look as time passes by but I would really be surprised if it is really a block buster. It is priced same as an N96 and is no comparison to the features that it offers.

Tata Teleservices behaving like ICICI Bank

It seems like the disease is spreading. First it was ICICI bank and now Tata Teleservices who have started threatening their customers.

Later, the company announced a change of plan which did not suit Nandwani, so he asked for the connection to be cancelled. Instead, he received a bill amounting to Rs 2,000 and his outgoing calls were suddenly barred. When he complained against this, he started receiving threatening calls from people claiming to be advocates and recovery agents of the company. He also filed police complaints. The companyâ??s plea that on surrender of the handset the customer was required to pay Rs 2,000, did not find favour with the commission.

One more company black listed. But I am really running out of decent service providers right from banking to telephony.

Akhil Kumar loses quarter finals in olympics

I finally watched the Olympic boxing 54 Kg match between Indian Akhil Kumar and Moldovan Gojan Veaceslav. I have to say that I don't understand boxing much but it seemed like that Moldovan just went with a strategy of all out defense with precision attack. I think almost everytime Gojan went for attack, he scored the point while Akhil was relentless in his attack but just did not find the righ spot where he gets the point. The only option that he had was to go for a knock out but he could not do that.
I always believed that boxing is a game of raw power, but I think I was wrong. It was as much about strategy and tactics as much it is about power and Akhil lost the game in strategy part.
If only bouts were decided on the basis of "energy" in the court, Akhil must have won. Looking forward to other two guys..Technorati Tags: Olympic, India, Sports

Interesting essay

Here is an interesting essay. It just is not interesting enough in english, so I am re-producing it in Hindi.

ए� �र�ब �म�र ल��� �� स्��ल म�� �र�ब परिवार पर निब�ध लि�न� �� �हा �या। �सन� निब�ध �ु� �स तरह स� लि�ा।

ए� �र�ब परिवार था। पिता �र�ब, माता �र�ब, ब�्�� �र�ब। परिवार म�� �ार न��र थ�, वह भ� �र�ब थ�। ए� �ार थ� वह भ� ���� हु� �ा�ा स�ार� थ�। �न�ा �र�ब ड्रा�वर ब�्��� �� ���� �ार म�� स्��ल ��� �र �ता था। ब�्��� �� पास भ� पुरान� N-95 म�बा�ल फ�न थ�। �र म�� सिर्� �ार स����ड-ह��ड एस� थ�। सारा परिवार ब�� मुश्�िल स� ऐश �र रहा था।

Let me take a stab at translating this one, just not as interesting as the hindi version.

The teacher asked a rich girl to write an essay on "A poor family". Here is how she went.

Once upon a time there was a poor family. The father was poor, mother was poor and children were also poor. The family had four servants and all of them were poor. The car was a old broken Tata Safari. Their driver used to drive the children to school in the old safari. Children also had old N-95 phones. The house had only four second hand ACs. The whole family was finding very hard to enjoy life.

Shabana goes ballestic again

Shabana Azmi is a strange character. Every now and then she will come out with a statement that completely does not make sense. When she talks about some discrimination against muslims she will blame the state but she will either not talk about discrimination against "other groups" or be unwilling to place the blame on muslims.

I think Indian state does not discriminate against anybody. The laws are very clear. Groups and individuals may be discriminating against and that is definitely bad but one can not blame Indian State for it. Everywhere a community which has a significant presence, discriminates against other, in Kashmir muslims are doing it, in other places other groups are doing it. Both the discriminated and discriminator are responsible for it. Why take a holier than thou approach and only blame government.

Sania and self promotion

Sania Mirza just got out of olympics and to make sure that she remains in the media, she just had to say something.

I think it is a good idea if such an opportunity comes my way to go and play in Pakistan

I seriously believe she gets too much press for the accomplishment that she has to show for it. But then may be I should just stop reading about her.

Crazy people in this world

So here is the news that I saw. Now this guy seems to be a self help guru but his dad is talking about being the youngest to own a benz. Clearly his deciples need to get a grip. Strange is the world that we live in.

His catch-line 'Unleash Your Hidden Potential' also sounds so close to Robbins â?? 'Unleash the Power Within'. Says his father, Kamlesh Desai, "When Sneh was just 15 years old, I shut down my business due to heavy losses. Since then, Sneh took charge of the household."

Communists again

I don't know what it is between me and communists but somehow I always find something in the press that I find interesting about them. May be I just like them too much, Nah...

Here is an interesting piece of news. Basically a communist trade union leader M. K. Pandhe(who probably is instrumental in destroying economies of couple of states single handedly) thinks that if Samajavadi Party supports nuclear deal then it will lose the support of muslims.

Mulayam will have to think twice before supporting the deal as an overwhelming majority of Muslims are not in favour of the deal. Mulayam's support is much more among Muslim masses,

I fail to understand the point of Mr. Pandhe, after India announced the deal, even pakistan wanted it from US. If pakistan signs, will it not offend muslims. What muslims have got to do with the nuclear energy. I just don't get these communists.

Oil and protests

So every political party that can claim to be not in government is protesting the oil price hike. At times it is resulting in comedy. Here is an hilarious story.

chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his cabinet decided to go to work on bicycles in the afternoon.
But the CM's rally soon fizzled out with most ministers being either pushed by their bodyguards or giving up in favour of their official cars.

At 3.30pm, Chauhan and his ministers were on their way. The initial half kilometre was perfect. Soon water resources minister Anup Mishra could not keep up. More than 20kg overweight, he preferred being pushed on his bicycle by his bodyguards till the rally reached the road to Raj Bhavan , which is basically a steep climb. Here, most ministers gave up, including Mishra.

What can I say, Ha Ha..

Mystry of Oil in India

I don't understand much about oil business so I am not able to understand when different parties come up with different logic on why the price of petrol should be raised and why it should not be raised. After googling, here is some data that I found.

	Barrel	Gallons	Litres	Percentage of products	Cost per litre
Crude	1.00	44.60	168.83		30.80
Gasoline		19.40	73.44	43.50%	13.40
Diesel		7.80	29.53	17.49%	5.39
Heating Oil		2.70	10.22	6.05%	1.86
Heavy Fuel Oil		1.70	6.44	3.81%	1.17
Jet Fuel		4.10	15.52	9.19%	2.83
LPG		1.50	5.68	3.36%	1.04
Other Products		7.40	28.01	16.59%	5.11
Processing Gain		2.60	9.84	5.83%	1.80

So it seems every barrel (42 gallons) of crude produces different quantities of actual products like petrol and diesel. Now taking following numbers as indicative.

Barrel	42	Gallons
Gallon	3.78541178	Litre
USD	40	INR
Price	130	USD/Barrel

If one looks at numbers, for producing one liter of petrol, the raw material component only costs Rs. 13.40 at the current crude prices.

Now assuming that other components have only marginally increased and the primary factor in the increase of petrol is the price of crude, the current prices just don't make sense. Because the even if the price of crude has trebled, it is still capped at Rs. 13.40.

I am trying to get other data like the refining cost, marketing cost, taxes etc to make sense of Rs. 50+ of petrol price but the data is not very readily available.

If anybody has the data, give me and I will further do number crunching

Mother of all suck ups

So finally blogs outed the patent number 20080122796 filed by Apple which looks like a patent that encapsulates many things that are part of iPhone. The patent itself did not really surprise me, what really surprise me was the list of inventors that are part of this patent. The patent consisted of 20 inventors right upto steve jobs as the first inventor.

Now my mind thinks that this is just an example of of the biggest suck up in the history of patenting. Some (may be a couple of) engineer(s) invented something and then just to schmooze their boss, added his name and he added his bosses name and then it just traveled right up to CEO. It would be interesting to look at apple organization structure and see how are all these inventors arranged.

Or it could be just the places that I have worked and I could be completely wrong.

The third dimension

So this is really a story out of sci-fi story books. Almost unbelievable. When a wife went to file a complaint against her "in-laws", she realized that she has already divorced her husband 10 years back. Almost sounds like one of those movies where one can go back in time and change the present as one knows it. It would have been great if that was true, in reality it is again the corruption at work.

Virender Verma and Meena got the shock of their lives when a local court recently stated that the happily-together couple got a 'divorce' 10 years ago.

Married in 1989 and parents of two children, the two came to know about their separation on May 26. The couple accused Virender's advocate brother for forging their divorce documents.

Apparently all this happened because the wife filed the complain under domestic violence act so they just proved that this is not domestic violence because she was not even married anymore for last 10 years.

You can't help idiots

Many horrible things that happen in India are blamed on illiteracy prevailing. But sometime one feels that that these happen because some people are just idiots. See this news item. Here is a couple who is doing these bizarre things.

A British couple, who travelled to India for fertility treatment, abandoned their twin babies in the UK because they wanted a male child.

The mother aged 59 and father, 72, conceived in India with fertility treatment and dumped their twin babies in a British hospital after finding out they were girls.

Now somebody please tell me, what will you blame this on. To top it off they want to do it again.

The report said the husband also wanted to know how soon it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly out again for further IVF in the hope of getting a boy to continue the family name.

Why do they want to continue the family name that they themselves are actively working to destroy.