Caesarean Rhapsody

MIT (as expected) has broken ground in harnessing electricity from human activity.

See for yourself. I’m too spooked to speak even.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/crowdfarm-0725.html

Dunno how many people check the list of Google’s acquisitions over the years. I for one have made a hobby out of it. Just take a look at how the internet behemoth’s list of acquisitions has grown over the past 1 year itself. And how varied are the fields in which the acquired companies work.

August 15, 2006 Neven Vision Computer vision
October 31, 2006 JotSpot Website applications
November, 2006 YouTube Video sharing
December, 2006 Endoxon Mapping solutions
January, 2007 Xunlei (partial acquisition) Network
February, 2007 Adscape Video game advertising
March, 2007 Trendalyzer Software
April, 2007 Tonic Systems Presentation software
April, 2007 Marratech Video conferencing
May 11, 2007 GreenBorder Technologies Desktop enterprise security
June 1, 2007 Panoramio Geospatial Photo-sharing Service
June 3, 2007 FeedBurner Online RSS Feeds
June 5, 2007 PeakStream Parallel Processing
June, 2007 Zenter Presentations Software
July 2, 2007 GrandCentral VOIP Phone Aggregation
July, 2007 ImageAmerica High resolution aerial cameras

I won’t even hazard a guess at what Google is getting to with all this technology pumping in the veins of the monster (a benign one) that it has become. But it’s definitely a scary notion that corporate war might be on the horizon. With the recent antitrust rumours doing rounds, doesn’t look like it’s very far. Grab some popcorn n coke guys. Things are about to get interesting.

Australia may have discharged Dr. Haneef (should I be calling him a doctor in the first place?) but it has refused to apologize to him for anything. Kudos to John Howard for putting his foot down. I still believe that matters of international security take priority over personal egos and anguish. Just because someone has puppy-dog eyes doesn’t mean preemption of arrest or inquiry.

But hey, that’s not what I want to draw attention to in this post. My concern is a chronic itch that the former Karnataka CM H.D Kumaraswamy has rekindled. I have always had a problem with indian media glorifying criminals (Haneef is no better if you ask me. Where there is smoke there will be fire.) And now it is our politicians (who are themselves a subset of the clan) who are offering government jobs to these criminals.

As reported by popular media, Kumaraswamy has offered Haneef a senior practitioner’s post in any government hospital. Wow! A steady income (with perks) in one’s own country. What else could someone, who’s been deported from a foreign country, ask for?

And we say we live in a democracy!

All of us know that car makers don’t lose any sleep over the right shape and specs for cars in India. What really sells here is fuel consumption, sturdiness and reliability. To hell with maneuverability, power, and off-roading. Blood’s run cold here a long time back. There maybe a handful exceptions to this. But in a sea of a billion faces they’re too inconspicuous.

One such “family” car(?) is the Innova. All of us know that it’s got a derrière which would befit Sir Mix-a-lot’s description of a perfect woman. But this morning I saw a bumper sticker that puts it all across very concisely. No offense meant at Toyota but this one really takes the cake.

Russell Peters is the funniest. Some of this is extremely funny.

But please don’t flame me with some stupid anti-racism crap.

… or rather you won’t touch this!

If you are an iPod or more recently an iPhone, owner, you’re probably losing (or have already lost) a lot of sleep over the safety of your favourite (and uber expensive) Apple gadget. But now you can sleep peacefully. Here’s a nifty little camouflage for protecting your personal entertainer from those kleptomaniacs. It’s called Hide-a-Pod.
I am actually tired of bashing poor old Billy G through such posts praising Apple products, but the Zune is such a repulsive little piece of shit, that I couldn’t resist posting this one when I happened to stumble across it. Happy podding! (ok that didn’t come out too well)

The brat from Spain has been kicked hard in the cojones…once again. How much longer is it going to take for him to realize that he doesn’t stand a chance against the God without those helpful “performance booster shots” the kind gentleman back home in Madrid offered? The “prince” of Spain can now go and wallow in his “clay” and lick his wounds.

The undisputed king of grass has risen again. Hail Fedex!