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only 1411 tigers left in india please save tiger

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 02:03:00 -0800

It’s so sad to learn that the estimated number of Tigers currently in India count to just 1411. At the start of this century, the entire world has around 1 lakh Tigers with India alone having 40000 Tigers in the wild. Increase in population meant that people would fight for place to live against the wild and hence, the decrease in the number. Keeping aside the fact that hunting wild animals used to be a sport for the ‘Maharajas’.

If we at least don’t ACT now, our future generation may well put Tigers besides Dinosaurs’ and learn about them as extinguished animals.
so please save tiger

Dhoni slips to second in ODI rankings

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 09:53:00 -0800

Australia's
Michael Hussey has replaced India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni
at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen after an outstanding series against Pakistan which concluded on Sunday.
The middle-order batsman pipped Indian Captain MS Dhoni by three points and relegated Dhoni to second place who was previously top of the rankings.

Hussey who guided Australia to a series sweeping 2 wicket victory over Pakistan on Sunday with a 46 ball 40 knock is at the top with 825 points, three ahead of MS Dhoni who have 822.

The Indian captain, who scored 184 runs from four innings with one hundred at an 61.33 in the tri-series in Bangladesh last month, first achieved the top spot in April 2006.

Hussey scored 220 runs at an average of 73.

Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina at 12th, 19th and 20th are the other Indian's in the top 20 list.

shivsena vs shahrukh khan

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 03:21:00 -0800

After slamming the business behemoth Mukesh Ambani for his 'Mumbai for all' remark, Shiv Sena has now launched an attack against Bollywood star
Shahrukh Khan over his Indian Premier League (IPL) comments.
The star, who owns the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, has come under the Sena fire for his 'pro-Pakistan' stand in the recent controversy over a perceived snub to Pak players at the IPL auction.

Saying that the party can not tolerate 'anyone praising Pakistanis', it is now planning on obstructing the screening of his latest movie
titled 'My Name Is Khan'. The movie is scheduled to release on Feb 12.

Over the past few days, the Bollywood icon registered his opposition against what happened at the Jan 19 IPL auction and opined that the issue could be resolved in a 'nicer' manner
The activists have already initiated the protest against SRK by tearing the posters of the movie in Thane.
Let us see how he dares to take in Pakistani players. We will see to it. We will not tolerate anybody praising Pakistanis. Balasaheb has already given instructions on the issue. You will see what Shiv Sena will do in the coming days," Sena leader Sanjay Raut is quoted as saying in a news report.
This is not the first time the Shiv Sena has raised a cry against movies. Earlier, Sainiks went around draping the posters of 'Kurbaan' with sarees to cover Kareena Kapoor's bare back

Review : 3 Idiots

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:25:00 -0800

By now, I guess the word of mouth is already out. It shouldn't be news to anyone that 3 Idiots surely deserves three cheers, and more.

But the first thing you realise about this film is not that a 44-year-old Aamir Khan can play a 22-year-old college kid, and he can get away with it. Well, he does.

What you realise actually, as director Raju Hirani does, is that to make a very urgent point, one doesn't need to preach and get all self-serious. A lot can be said purely through songs and suspensions of disbelief. And a wonderful genre called comedy.

The film is actually a fairly serious take on a cruel examination system that gets passed off for an education system in this country.

We produce IIT graduates who take up high-paying jobs. We don't make original thinkers who could pick up a Nobel prize for an invention.

Aamir's Rancho is actually one such natural genius. He obviously can't fit into an Indian classroom, where all you have to do is mug up, to rise up. He plays the fool. But he still tops the tests. His two friends remain flunkeys throughout.

And that is because, one of them, is burdened by his family's expectations and a fear of exams. The other is passionate about wildlife photography, and not physics.

In India, even now, you should either be in engineering or medicine. It's usually the parents' promissory note. It's also a suicide note for many.

The hilarious skits between the three friends and their dull, dreaded professor here, Virus, played by Boman Irani, reveal a non-stop Munnabhai comedy with a similar purpose.

Rancho takes on Virus and the system. Virus takes on Rancho, and his friends. And one day, Rancho completely disappears. Many years later, his friends go out in search of who he was.

As Raju Hirani says, this film is about five per cent of Chetan Bhagat's bestseller Five Point Someone. This is in fact a hardcore Bollywood flick, which demands its own share of subjectivity while you watch many parts of the story fit very conveniently into the larger scheme.

Review : Chance Pe Dance

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:21:00 -0800

Director Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance begins with an imaginative title sequence, which tells us all that we need to know about the life of the Bollywood struggler.

Sameer, played by Shahid Kapoor, lives in a one room apartment
that is way too large to fit into any struggler’s budget but the rest of it rings true – he practices his expressions, does his pull-ups, has bread toasted under an iron with the last scraps of butter and then heads out to conquer the world with his unfailing optimism and charm.

This is the best part of the film. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from here.

Chance Pe Dance tries to combine a dance movie with a Bollywood-cinderella story and comes up empty-handed.

Samir is supposed to embody the hundreds of wide-eyed newcomers who land in Mumbai everyday with stardust in their eyes. He auditions relentlessly even while holding down a day-job as a courier boy. His meals most consist of vada pao and he ends up living out of his car because he can’t pay the rent.

But these scenes of struggle don’t touch you because Shahid is in star mode from the first frame. His hair is nicely messy; his biceps have just the right definition and his T-Shirts are Ed Hardy, even though a character in the film explains that they are all knock-offs.

Despite the daily rejections, Samir shows no vulnerability or rawness.

A hotshot director promises him the lead role and then backs out. Shahid’s eyes fully register the hurt and pain of having your hopes dashed. But even this scene doesn’t tug at your heart strings.

As soon as the director, played by Monish Behl, shakes Samir’s hand and says: yeh handshake koi contract se kam nahi hai, you know that the handshake means nothing.

Of course, Samir’s eventual stardom is a given. He will walk on the red carpet blinded by flash bulbs. And since Chance Pe Dance isn’t trying for Luck by Chance-style grittiness, no Faustian bargains are made for fame.

But Ghosh doesn’t even make Samir’s stardom feel hard-earned. You are not emotionally invested in either his struggle or his success.

The dance sequences in the film are lively but they are undermined by Adnan Sami’s absolutely uninspired music. This is a dance film without one memorable dance track.

But the biggest let-down is the script. It meanders and stumbles along bewilderingly.

At one point, Samir becomes a dance teacher in a school and over a few scenes, leads the kids to victory in a dance competition.

Just when he’s about hit big-time, his father’s shop is razed and he has to leave town. This crisis is also resolved in two scenes. What’s the point of all of this? I couldn’t tell you.

Through all these troubles, Tina, a choreographer played by Genelia D’Souza, holds Samir’s hand. She is perky to the point of being painful.

In fact, it seems like both Genelia and Shahid are squeezing in as many expressions as they can into each scene to compensate for the lack of a coherent script.

Review : Pyaar Impossible

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:18:00 -0800

At one point in Pyaar Impossible, Alisha, a hottie played by Priyanka Chopra asks major geek Abhay, played by Uday Chopra, "Tumhe lagta hai ki log ek doosre ko sirf khoobsurti ki wajah se chahte hain?" That's really shallow.

She could have been talking about the film. Pyaar Impossible is one of those superbly shallow films that manages to offend you on every level - as a viewer, as a woman, as a mother. This Notting Hill-style rom-com is singularly charmless and absolutely impossible.

Pyaar Impossible is a vehicle for Uday Chopra who has also written and produced the film. Uday has cast himself as a lovable geek who recognises his limitations.

In one scene he even says, "Main koi prince charming toh nahin hun." Which is why the college queen Alisha is barely aware of his existence. He saves her life but she doesn't know what he looks like.

They meet seven years later in Singapore. She is now a divorced working mother - a fact she repeats again and again. And her six-year-old daughter Tanya is the most demonic child seen on screen since Damien terrorised us in The Omen.

Somehow, Abhay ends up as Tanya's nanny. In one of the script's many absurd moments, Alisha leaves her daughter with a male nanny whom she has never met.

Before you know it, Tanya is trying to set up her nanny with her mom. She has a sleep over at a friends house so mom and nanny can bond. The next day she even asks Abhay, "Give me the goss."

If this was my daughter, I would donate her to charity. Together Tanya and nanny also foil the rival, Varun, played by Dino Morea, who incidentally has also stolen's Abhay's revolutionary new software program.

If the plot description sounds convoluted, imagine what the film is like.

Director Jugal Hansraj stretches out this limp tale over two and a half hours. The film's message is just as garbled as the plot.

In one scene, Abhay demonstrates to Alisha that ugly people can't find love. So, he makes her unattractive and takes her to several bars. And she is so shocked to find that the boys aren't interested in her ugly avtaar that she starts to weep.

For most of the film though, Priyanka looks like a million bucks - it seems like Jugal and Uday have spent more time on her styling than the script. But for reasons unknown, she acts like a hyper teenager.

Uday plays the nerd with absolute sincerity but it's hard to summon up any affection for him. And Dino seems to have decided that expression is a waste of time. His face just stays blank.

Pyaar Impossible is depressingly dim-witted.

Review : Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:14:00 -0800

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year is a sweet but slight film, which should be watched for its good intentions, its inherent decency and for Ranbir Kapoor's performance, which firmly establishes him as the best actor of his generation.

Ranbir plays Harpreet Singh Bedi, a B Com graduate with 35 per cent marks who becomes a salesman in a computer company.

His idealistic vision of the working world shatters quickly. Within a few days of working, a client asks for a kick-back. Harpreet is aghast and files a complaint. But his honesty only brings him a demotion and humiliation.

Determined to do it his way, Harpreet forms his own company within the company. Other disgruntled employees also find their way to Rocket Sales - a place where even the chaiwallah is an equal partner because he brings talent to the table.

Harpreet and his band of rebels show us that eventually honesty and hard work is a sound business decision.

This is a tough story to tell and sell. Director Shimit Amin and writer Jaideep Sahani, who earlier collaborated on the excellent Chak De, are working here without any of the highs and lows of that film.

The drama here is more restrained. The obstacles seem more ordinary. The characters are wholly believable.

Starting with the titles, Shimit and Jaideep create wonderful little details - so Harpreet's grandfather, played nicely by Prem Chopra, rattles off a check list before Harpreet goes for a job interview, which includes the question: motion clear hua.

A street side tea stall becomes the conference room of the fledgling company and even the telephone on Harpreet's desk has just the right amount of grime.

But the trouble with Rocket Singh is that it never engages you fully. The first half is especially slow but even in the second, the film doesn't grab you by the gut.

There are long stretches in which the restrained story-telling becomes indulgent and topples over into sheer boredom. And there are several moments at which you wonder if this is more information about salesmen and their difficult lives than you ever needed.

The supporting characters in the film are interesting - I especially liked Giri, the babe-obsessed computer whiz, played by D Santosh and Koena, the fashionable but ambitious and smart receptionist played by Gauhar Khan. But none of them are as sharply etched or as memorable as the women in Chak De.

Finally then, it is up to Ranbir to carry Rocket Singh over its limitations and he rises to the challenge exceedingly well.

Watch his eyes in the scene in which he first discovers that honesty doesn't pay in this company or his body language in the scene, in which his grandfather has to come to jail to get him. He is outstanding.

Rocket Singh never becomes more than the sum of its parts but still I recommend that you make time for it. Just be prepared to be patient.

noreply@blogger.com (youthicon) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 08:19:00 -0800

Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat

Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat
Published October 11, 2009 Books ,
Tags: Chetan Bhagat, Love story, Marriage, Two States

Chetan Bhagat magnanimously dedicates this book to his in-laws. He admits that book is inspired by his own experiences and yet he requests the book be treated as fiction. Its hard to considering every second couple in this country undergoes similar experiences. Not to mention, every Boolywood movie harps on same theme.

The book is all about an IIMA couple’s struggle to marry. Krish is north Indian Punjabi boy Krish in love with Tamilian Brahmin girl Ananya. (Chetan Bhagat too is Punjabi and his wife is a South Indian.) The only catch is, Krish and Ananya don’t want to elope or be estranged to their families, therefore, they choose to convince their parents for the marriage.

two_states

Both Ananya and Krish take turns to win over each other’s families and then they try to make both the families like each other. After all in India, you don’t marry the guy (or girl for that matter), you have to marry the family. In fact, Krish does get 4 gold rings made to propose girl’s entire family! :-/ Sounds cheesy? Well, irrespective of my shortened plot summary, you must concede it is a mammoth project to accomplish anywhere, in real life.

Of course, it goes without saying that even though both Krish and Ananya are exceptions to their North Indian and South Indian clan; this book is perfect opportunity to dwell into age-old ‘North India versus South India divide’.
Krish maybe Punjabi boy, but he is blissfully unaware how in his community greedily and offensively ‘boy’s’ side can come on the ‘girl’s’ side during a Punjabi wedding. Similarly, Ananya, the Tamilian girl is completely unlike other Tamil girls: For one she is not as dark as southern girls ( a fact she will be reminded over and over again by Krish’s Punjabi clan) and unlike her staunch family, she both drinks and eats meat. (May be we should thank IIM for breaking the latter stereotype ;) )

Though the premise is most realistic, it draws your attention to cultural differences in diverse India. Some of them are as simple as boisterous, loud Punjabi music versus quiet, mellifluous Tamilian Carnatic music. However, the difference in sensibilities is predictable. I familiarized myself once again with all the clichés.

In fact, after reading the blurb and title Two States; I was aware that plot progression will be predictable. So what if the book questions the racism India practices against its own countryman? It questions why we are scared to marry outside our clan. Lovers themselves have the dilemma that if it is worth it to marry with making so many members of the families unhappy. Is it worth it?

But then since we have been asking these questions for a long time with little progress, I personally read the book with complete detachment in one-go. I had a fair idea what was to come, so there weren’t many heartstrings moved or surprises for that matter.

I don’t need to comment on Chetan Bhagat’s language, for we all know he has never claimed to be literary. Sometimes lines are cheesy and you may have heard them before. For example, My father never smiled through his wedding. How could he, he was marrying your mother? Or

However, long ago, I had read this post about 5 elements of Chetan Bhagat’s wrting: young, modern characters (it helps if they are from IIT or IIM); conversation with F word, Blooywood-ish plots complete with proposals on knee; a love story and a twist at end. All these elements are there in this book, only you know the twist for this book.

Every Indian who watches Bollywood knows the twist in this story. Yet you must read this book once, if only to know what lovers from different communities go through at the hands of their families. How love is at mercy of societal, familial norms. And how a man eternally finds himself torn between his girlfriends/wife and mother. No prizes to guess the last one. Oh yes, I forgot there is also a hurried, steamy account of a college affair; you could find bit of Five Point Someone reminisces there.

Review all said and done, I sometimes wonder why couples from different communities give into their feelings for each other when they know they won’t go against the grain of their families and that their families will never ever accept their partner. It is an unnecessary heartache and heartaches do leave scars, even if time heals them. I am glad at least Krish and Ananya, Chetan Bhagat book’s protagonists, tried even if results weren’t always desirable.

About YAHOOOOOOOO!

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:55:00 -0700

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were Electrical Engineering graduate students at Stanford University. In April 1994, "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!", for which the official backronym is "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".Filo and Yang said they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, which comes from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated and uncouth". Its URL was akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo.

The Yahoo! domain was created on January 18, 1995. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on March 1, 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated. On April 5, 1995, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital provided Yahoo! with two rounds of venture capital, raising approximately $3 million. On April 12, 1996, Yahoo! had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.

Like many web search engines and web directories, Yahoo! diversified into a web portal. In the late 1990s, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, Excite and other Web portals were growing rapidly. Web portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stayed at the portal.

On March 8, 1997, Yahoo acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, RocketMail, became Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo! also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into Yahoo! Games. Yahoo! then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on October 12. On March 8, 1998, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Pager, an instant messaging service that was renamed Yahoo! Messenger a year later. On January 28, 1999, Yahoo! acquired web hosting provider GeoCities. Another company Yahoo! acquired was eGroups, which became Yahoo! Groups after the acquisition on June 28, 2000.

When acquiring companies, Yahoo! often changed the relevant terms of service. For example, they claimed intellectual property rights for content on their servers, unlike the companies they acquired. As a result, many of the acquisitions were controversial and unpopular with users of the existing services.

YAHOO THEMES AND LOGOS

The first logo was used when the company was founded in 1995. It was red and had three icons on each side.

The logo used on the main page yahoo.com used to be red with a black outline and shadow, but in May 2009, along with a new theme redesign, the logo was changed to purple with no outline or shadow.

Sometimes, the logo is abbreviated with Y!.

Themes and page designs are different on some international Yahoo! home pages, such as Yahoo! Australia and Yahoo! Japan.

About GOOGLE

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:50:00 -0700

Google began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page, who was soon joined by Sergey Brin, when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page. Their search engine was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. A small search engine called Rankdex was already exploring a similar strategy.

Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally, the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on 15 September 1997,and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on 4 September 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total initial investment raised for the new company amounted to almost $1.1 million, including a $100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.

Both Brin and Page had been against using advertising pop-ups in a search engine, or an "advertising funded search engines" model, and they wrote a research paper in 1998 on the topic while still students. However, they soon changed their minds and early on allowed simple text ads.

In March 1999, the company moved into offices in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View, California at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 2003. The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since come to be known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.

The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among a growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design and useful results. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at 5 cents per click. This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture Services, before being acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded as Yahoo! Search Marketing).Goto.com was an Idealab spin off created by Bill Gross, and was the first company to successfully provide a pay-for-placement search service. Overture Services later sued Google over alleged infringements of Overture's pay-per-click and bidding patents by Google's AdWords service. The case was settled out of court, with Google agreeing to issue shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license.Thus, while many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.

A patent describing part of the Google ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on 4 September 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.

The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of the word "googol", which refers to 10100, the number represented by a 1 followed by one hundred zeros. Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet

ACQUISITIONS

Since 2001, Google has acquired several companies, mainly focusing on small start-ups.

In 2004, Google acquired a company called Keyhole, Inc. which developed a product called Earth Viewer, renamed in 2005 to Google Earth.

In February 2006, software company Adaptive Path sold Measure Map, a weblog statistics application, to Google. Registration to the service has since been temporarily disabled. The last update regarding the future of Measure Map was made on 6 April 2006 and outlined many of the known issues of the service.

In late 2006, Google bought the online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Shortly after, on 31 October 2006, Google announced that it had also acquired JotSpot, a developer of wiki technology for collaborative Web sites

On 13 April 2007, Google reached an agreement to acquire DoubleClick. Google agreed to buy the company for $3.1 billion.

On 2 July 2007, Google purchased GrandCentral. Google agreed to buy the company for $50 million.

On 9 July 2007, Google announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire enterprise messaging security and compliance company Postini.

On August 5 2009, Google announced the purchase of video software maker On2 Technologies for $106.5 million - its first acquisition of a public company

The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:19:00 -0700

1.
Got milk? (1993)

California Milk Processor Board
2.
Don’t leave home without it. (1975)

American Express
3.
Just do it. (1988)

Nike
4.
Where’s the beef? (1984)

Wendy’s
5.
You’re in good hands with Allstate. (1956)

Allstate Insurance
6.
Think different. (1998)

Apple Computer
7.
We try harder. (1962)

Avis
8.
Tastes great, less filling. (1974)

Miller Lite
9.
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (1954)

M&M Candies
10.
Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (1956)

Timex
11.
When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. (1982)

FedEx
12.
Reach out and touch someone. (1979)

AT&T
13.
A diamond is forever. (1948)

DeBeers
14.
Finger-lickin’ good! (1952)

Kentucky Fried Chicken
15.
The uncola. (1973)

7-Up
16.
Let your fingers do the walking. (1964)

Yellow Pages
17.
There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard. (1997)

MasterCard
18.
What happens here, stays here. (2002)

Las Vegas
19.
You’ve come a long way, baby. (1968)

Virginia Slims Cigarettes
20.
We bring good things to life. (1981)

General Electric
21.
Please don’t squeeze the Charmin. (1964)

Charmin
22.
Does she or doesn’t she? (1964)

Clairol
23.
Have it your way. (1973)

Burger King
24.
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. (1966)

Alka-Seltzer
25.
Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi generation. (1964)

Pepsi
26.
The ultimate driving machine. (1975)

BMW
27.
The quicker picker-upper. (1991)

Bounty
28.
Look, Ma, no cavities! (1958)

Crest
29.
Pork. The other white meat. (1986)

National Pork Board
30.
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon? (1980)

Grey Poupon
31.
Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. (1992)

U.S. Dept. of Transportation
32.
Have a coke and smile. (1979)

Coca-Cola
33.
I love New York. (1977)

NY State Dept. of Econ. Development
34.
Betcha can’t eat just one. (1981)

Lay’s Potato Chips
35.
Think outside the bun. (1998)

Taco Bell
36.
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. (1972)

United Negro College Fund
37.
It keeps going, and going, and going... (1989)

Energizer Batteries
38.
Hey, Mikey...he likes it! (1972)

Life Cereal
39.
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? (1987)

Partnership for a Drug-Free America
40.
They’re gr-r-r-eat! (1950s)

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
41.
The happiest place on earth. (1960s)

Disneyland
42.
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner. (late 1980s)

National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.
43.
With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good. (1962)

Smucker’s
44.
Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. (1979)

Calvin Klein Jeans
45.
Is it live or is it Memorex? (1970s)

Memorex
46.
Because I’m worth it. (1967)

L’Oréal
47.
The few, the proud, the Marines. (1991)

U.S. Marines
48.
Our repairmen are the loneliest guys in town. (1967)

Maytag Appliances
49.
Put a tiger in your tank. (1964)

Esso (Exxon)
50.
You quiero Taco Bell. (mid-1990s)

Taco Bell
51.
How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S. (1970s)

Rolaids
52.
This Bud’s for you. (1970s)

Budweiser
53.
When EF Hutton talks, people listen. (mid-1980s)

EF Hutton
54.
It’s everywhere you want to be. (1988)

VISA
55.
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. (1990)

LifeCall
56.
We make the money the old-fashioned way—we earn it. (1980s)

Smith Barney
57.
Intel Inside. (early 1990s)

Intel
58.
Don’t get mad. Get GLAD. (early 1980s)

GLAD
59.
Like a rock. (1990)

Chevy Trucks
60.
It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. (1972)

Perdue Chicken
61.
We will sell no wine before its time. (1970s)

Paul Masson
62.
Fly the friendly skies. (1966)

United Airlines
63.
Lifts and separates. (1960s)

Playtex Cross-Your-Heart Bra
64.
Thank you for your support. (1985)

Bartles & Jaymes
65.
Try it, you’ll like it. (1970s)

Alka-Seltzer
66.
Think small. (1962)

Volkswagen
67.
We answer to a higher authority. (1975)

Hebrew National
68.
Get a piece of the rock. (1970s)

Prudential
69.
The world’s favourite airline. (1983)

British Airways
70.
Nothing runs like a Deere. (1972)

John Deere
71.
Leave the driving to us. (1950s)

Greyhound
72.
The world’s online marketplace. (late 1990s)

eBay
73.
Quality is job one. (1979)

Ford
74.
Drivers wanted. (1995)

Volkswagen
75.
Think outside the box. (1990s)

Apple Computer
76.
Bayer works wonders. (1960s)

Bayer Aspirin
77.
The relentless pursuit of perfection. (1990s)

Lexus
78.
The king of beers. (1950s)

Budweiser
79.
Hertz puts you in the driver’s seat. (1961)

Hertz
80.
Cotton. The fabric of our lives. (1989)

Cotton Incorporated
81.
I want my Maypo. (1956)

Maypo
82.
RAID kills bugs dead. (1966)

RAID
83.
Fosters—Australian for beer. (1990s)

Fosters Australian Beer
84.
Catch our smile. (1970s)

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA)
85.
Pepperidge Farm remembers. (1970s)

Pepperidge Farm
86.
Solutions for a small planet. (mid-1990s)

IBM
87.
For those who think young. (1961)

Pepsi
88.
My wife, I think I’ll keep her. (1971)

Geritol
89.
Never let ‘em see you sweat. (1980s)

Gillette
90.
I’d rather fight than switch. (1960s)

Tareyton Cigarettes
91.
For fast, fast, fast relief. (1950s)

Anacin
92.
A silly millimeter longer. (1970s)

Chesterfield Cigarettes
93.
Take it all off. (1960s)

Noxzema
94.
The spirit of ’76. (1960s)

Unocal
95.
It’s not a job. It’s an adventure. (1980s)

U.S. Navy
96.
Did somebody say McDonald’s? (1997)

McDonald’s
97.
Ring around the collar. (1968)

Wisk Laundry Detergent
98.
It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile... (1980s)

Oldsmobile
99.
The toughest job you’ll ever love. (1970s)

U.S. Peace Corps
100.
Share moments. Share life. (1990s)

Kodak

Brain facts

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:08:00 -0700

BRAIN FACTS
Discover some of the most fascinating facts about your amazing brain...

Did You Know?

...the weight of an average human brain is about 1300-1400g - @ 3lbs i.e., almost one bag of sugar.

It's smaller than an elephant's brain (6000g) but bigger than a monkey's brain (95g)! A dog's brain weighs about 72g and a cat's brain weighs abut 30g.

Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain!

Did You Know?.

..the brain represents about 2% of your total body weight. It is roughly 140mm wide, 167mm long and 93mm high

Did You Know?

...neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy

Did You Know?

...your brain uses approximately 20% of the total oxygen pumping around your body!

...and about 750ml of blood pumps through your brain every minute!

Did You Know?

...unconsciousness will occur after 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain

Did You Know?

...your brain consists of 60% white matter and 40% grey matter

Did You Know?

...information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Transmission can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.

Traveling at 120 meters/sec is the same as going 268 miles/hour

Did You Know?

The human brain is approximately 75% water

Did You Know?

..."I had brain surgery 10 years ago, so I know some pretty fascinating things about the brain. One of the most fascinating things I learned is that the brain itself is incapable of feeling pain. (That doesn't mean brain surgery doesn't hurt!)"

Fascinating Fact by:
Kris Webb ~North Carolina, USA

Did You Know?

...the number of internal thought pathways that your brain is capable of producing is:one followed by 10.5 million kilometers of standard typewritten zero's!

(source: Tony Buzan, Head Strong 2001)

Did You Know?

...your brain is capable of having more ideas than the number of atoms in the known universe!

(source: Tony Buzan, Head Strong 2001)

Did You Know?

...if you could harness the power used by your brain, you could power as a 10-watt light bulb

Did You Know?

...your brain consists of about 100 billion neurons!

That's about 166 times the number of people on the planet!
(source: Tony Buzan)

It would take you approximately 171 years to count them all!

(source: E. Chudler)

Did You Know?

...when you were born, your brain weighed about 350-400g and you had almost all the brain cells you will ever have. In fact, your brain was closer to its full adult size than any other organ in your body!

And...

...that your brain stopped growing
at age 18

Did You Know?

...all of your "thinking" is done by electricity and chemicals

NOSTRADAMUS

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:59:00 -0700

he was the French Christian Jew who lived in France in the 16th century, made many accurate forecasts, including the two World Wars. 18 of his 950 quatrains refer to a third world war. Some Nostradamus experts had given the date for the start of such a war as mid-1999, referring to the Balkan conflict surrounding Kosovo. They obviously misinterpreted the quatrains. Their attention then turned to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

NOSTRADAMUS

Born Michel de Notredame on 14 December 1503 in St Remy, France, he was the oldest of five sons. His grandfather, Jean, taught him Latin, Greek, Hebrew, mathematics and astrology at an early age. Nostradamus received a medical degree in 1529 and became physician-in-ordinary to Charles IX during the bubonic plague. He is said to have had extraordinary healing abilities.

Nostradamus
Nostradamus was in his late 40s when, it is told, he frequently went into a meditative state and had visions of the future. He began to document the visions in a mixture of Lain, French, and Greek quatrains, publishing his famous "Centuries" in 1558.

Nostradamus was married twice, losing his first wife and two children to the plague. He died on 2 July 1566. "Centuries" was translated into English in 1672. In 1781 it was banned by the Roman Catholic Church. Ironically, in 1553, when Nostradamus encountered a group of Franciscan monks he threw himself on his knees, clutching at the garment of one of the monks, Felice Peretti. When asked why he had done this he replied that he must yield "before his Holiness." Nineteen years after the death of Nostradamus, Peretti became Pope Sixtus V.

What the experts say Nostradamus predicted about the Balkan war
The war prophecy is reserved for someone whom Nostradamus refers to as "the tyrant." He predicted that the Slavs will "change their prince" and "raise an army in the mountains," suggesting a guerilla war. He speaks of "when the north pole is united" (perhaps NATO?), and there are many geographical references to the Balkans, such as Greece, Italy and the Mediterranean.

The war is linked to when the "eagle" (United States) and the "cock" (France) stand together. There also is specific reference to the time when England, Poland and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) "form a new alliance." The former Eastblock countries recently joined NATO.

He predicted that the Allies will win, that the war will be protracted, lasting seven months, and that it may go beyond the Balkans, toward the north, but that after the war there will be "peace on earth for a long time."

Nicolaas van Rensburg
The forecasts by Nostradamus seemed to be confirmed by other seers, including Nicolaas van Rensburg, the famous South African seer who lived 1862 to 1926. At the turn of the 20th Century Van Rensburg had also predicted the use of electricity, the massacre of six million Jews, the Chernobyl disaster, the rise and fall of Russia, and the European Union - in the last two instances accurately describing the flags before they were designed. Of the third world war, he predicted that England would left weakened, while Germany would rise to become the world's most powerful nation. Further such predictions by the famous American seer Edgar Cacey are available in the book Predictions for the 21st Century

What the experts say Nostradamus predicted about the WTC attack
"In the year of the new century and nine months, from the sky will come a great king of terror. The sky will burn at 45 degrees... fire approaches the great new city... there will be thunder... The third big war will begin when the city is burning."
So it is quoted among rumour mongers. The facts are:

Nostradamus appears not to have made predictions about the World Trade Centre attack or, at least, none that could easily be understood from the quatrains. He did not mention "the new century," or "nine months" and New York is not at 45 degrees; the Manhattan latitude is 40° 47' N. For more, see Skeptic's Dictionary

What then?
Of course, not only have the "experts" on the prophets not always been correct - the seers themselves have not always been quite so accurate in their forecasts. In fact, many predictions have missed the mark.

Time will tell if the Kosovo conflict or, indeed, the World Trade Center attack had put the spark to a bigger barrel. As for the end of the world... Nostradamus predicted it to be the year 3786 or 3797, depending on which Nostradamus expert you believe.

Cryptic numerology:
After the WTC attack on 11 September 2001, Uri Geller asked everyone to pray for 11 seconds for those in need. Why?
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11 by American Airlines;
Flight 11 had 92 on board: 9 + 2 = 11;
Flight 77 had 65 on board: 6 + 5 = 11;
New York City - 11 Letters;
State of New York - 11th State added to the Union;

Rahul Gandhi

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul/Abhishek) — Thu, 1 Oct 2009 02:04:00 -0700

Rahul Gandhi (Hindi: राहुल गांधी) (born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. His political party is the Indian National Congress. He belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi family, the most prominent political family in India. He has been widely credited with Congress's win in 2009 general elections. He turned down a cabinet post in the Manmohan Singh government and is concentrating on strengthening the party at the grassroots.

Rahul Gandhi was born in New Delhi, the first amongst 2 children of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India and Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, the current Congress President. He is the older brother of Priyanka Gandhi. His grandmother was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India, and his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru was a distinguished leader of the Indian independence movement[3].

He attended Modern School, New Delhi[4] before entering the The Doon School,also his father's alma mater,[5] from 1981-83 before being home-schooled for security reasons.[6] Starting university at Harvard and eventually got his B.A. from Rollins College, Florida in 1994[7]. He received an MPhil in Development Studies in 1995 from Trinity College, Cambridge.[8] In 2004, he was reported to have been dating Veronica, an architect from Spain. The two met while at university. [9]

Rahul Gandhi had advised austerity for all the congress members and claims to wear simple clothes and not waste money. He said its the duty of all politicians to be austere. [37] But it is alleged that he has a personal biking track as well as one for go-karting. [38] Rahul Gandhi has a ministerial bungalow (He is only a 2-term MP), and a fully kitted gym at home. He is a regular member of at least two of the Delhi's poshest gyms, and one of them is a 5-star. [39] Rahul Gandhi's trip to chennai to campaign for austerity had costed the party Rs 1 Crore. [40] Rahul Gandhi took a train in AC chair car to Ludhiana and saved Rs 445. [41] Rahul Gandhi traveled back to New Delhi in the Swarn Shatabdi Express, which was attacked with stones by some unknown persons. The reason for throwing stones is not clear. It can not be said that it is an attack to harm him, or a protest, or just a playful act by some children to have fun