January182012

Nice mash-up for a wonderful song

(via Daring Fireball)
January122012

Funny Satire…on artificial beauty… (via Om Malik)
9AM

Picturesque video on “why athletics?” taken using the new Nikon D4. I recommend you to see it in HD (720p or 1080p) see the quality of the video.
December82011

Sehwag’s Double Century

Today, is one of the days in cricket that the batting gods have blessed the most entertaining batsmen in the world. When I woke up in the morning to check the score, Sehwag was already OUT but he had scored 219 runs. 219 runs!!!

Couple of decades back, if a team scored 200 runs in a one-day match it was considered to be a respectable total. To see a batsmen score it in one one-day innings is magnificent.

December12011

Cool but slow robot….

video 

November302011

Nice overview of Papers 2.1, this is a software I use daily and I can recommend for any one who wants to organize their PDF files (it is designed for scientific researchers but works well for all types of PDF files).
11AM

Interesting approach to make bone-like materials. 

video 

10AM

Nice bonsai plants at the chicago botanical garden.

photos 

10AM

Bitcoins - Rise and Fall of the digital currency

A very interesting news story about bitcoins, a digital currency.

article bitcoins wired 

9AM

No to ‘Air India Bailout’

There is a famous quote by Richard Branson which goes like this:

“I’ve always said the easiest way to become a millionaire is to start out a billionaire then go into the airline business.”

Airlines are like bus companies, only difference is that the bus cost a ton of money (couple of hundred millions dollars). It is a very capital intensive industry and the recent high oil prices is pushing the industry to bankruptcy. In India, were the interest rates are high (10-14% for borrowing), it is difficult for airlines to operate given that the interest costs are very high. 

I recently came across an article in Livemint about the restructuring AIR INDIA.

According to the latest plan submitted to the government, Air India is seeking total equity support of Rs. 42,920 crore till fiscal 2021. It also wants government guarantees for aircraft loans worth Rs. 30,584 crore till fiscal 2021. Air India’s board will meet Tuesday to decide the future course of action in the context of RBI’s approval and the lenders’ meet on Monday.

That is a total of Rs. 73,504 crores ($14.16 billions at currently market rate). The government of India is making a big mistake by still running Air India (they had their chance to sell to Tata/Singapore Airlines in 2001 and they missed the opportunity, a costly miss). I wish they spent this kind of money on education and poverty elimination.

November292011

The video accounts the thinking and the history of google’s search products (and how google has tackled the problem of search). I realize that Google is in the business of helping users to find ‘information created by others’ and make money by serving ads. Whenever they face a scenario where a website or database (say Facebook or Yelp) denies them rights to search and index them they create their ‘clones’ (Google+ or Google Places) or ‘droids’ (as in the case of android). 
7PM

Pensions & AMR Bankruptcy

That “failure” today means that taxpayers are likely to assume AMR’s pension costs and creditors will now queue in a New York bankruptcy court, collecting less than they are owed. The new airline, when it emerges at some point in 2013, is likely to be a smaller operation focused even more intently on its hubs, which have critical strengths. (Assuming it is not merged with some other carrier.)

Obama and the United States need to fix the spiraling rise in the cost of pensions and healthcare.

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