Bush V/s Bush

sweet dhal n salty chocolate....

When your going through a hectic week my mind gets preoccupied by all the things I am trying to do.Added to that, I have to cook my own food :( where in lies the danger as I added sugar instead of salt to dal and curry already and salt instead of sugar to a hot chocolate I was trying to drink.

Check out the new pesticides in the market :

Unbeleivable!

I had watched a German movie called 'Das Expertiment' about a prison-simulation experiment for two weeks advertised in a newspaper.

I just realized today that similar kind of experiment was carried out when the guy who conducted the experiment was interviewed on The Daily show.The experiment is famously known as the Stanford prison experiment.Here's a brief description :

The Stanford prison experiment was a psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular to the real world circumstances of prison life and the effects of imposed social roles on behaviour. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Undergraduate volunteers played the roles of guards and prisoners living in a mock prison that was constructed in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

It is so insane and the conclusions are so arbitrary which claims all good people can turn evil.If given a chance I would never hit a guy even if I wouldn't have to face any punishment and I am pretty sure there are a lot of people like me.Here's an article written by one of the 'consultants' of the experiment.It goes like :

Prof. Philip Zimbardo this "landmark" experiment is a classical treatise on the "power of the situation" and a full-blown explanation of the evils of every prison from Folsom to Abu Ghraib. I can assure you, it is neither. I say this not because I am an African American ex-con who served 17 years in San Quentin for attempted murder or one who spoke before Congress on the issue of prison reform. I say it because I was the Stanford Prison Experiment's chief consultant. I armed the Zimbardo, Craig Haney and Curt Banks with the ideas that enabled them to infuse this study with the verisimilitude that it hangs its hat on to this day. And shouldn't.

A hollywood movie is going to come out in 2008 about the experiment.

There are lot of crazy things going on around us!

Political Satire at its best!

A clip from Colbert's report on Bush's trip to South America.Very funny!

Few pics from Minneapolis

Few pictures that I took after two winter storms with 2 feet of snow.

Attenborough - Potoo Camouflage

awesome nature video....check out more of attenborough's video on bbc worldwide at youtube.

Bajji

I was reminded of one of my childhood incident when I checked out this video on eye donation in which bajji's were being cooked.

It was a get together when I was in Guntakal. My father used to work in Railways
, and all the families used to meet up at the Railway club for dinner and some recreation.I used to hang out with all the kids of my father's colleagues.

This incident occured during one of those get together. We used to pounce on the starters whenever the dinner was declared open.Generally the starter used to be a Bajji and as usual we pounced on the starters and started gorging it.However, after a few bajji's everyone realized there was mirchi(green chilly) inside it and everyone of us were running helter skelter for water.After enduring this nightmare every time I eat bajji's outside I first check whether there is mirchi inside it or not.

After all,
Once bitten twice shy!

Yes, I am Psychic!

Otherwise, How would I have come across this news item on BBC

The Ministry of Defence has defended a decision to carry out tests to find out whether psychic powers could be used to detect hidden objects.

During the tests, defence experts attempted to recruit 12 "known" psychics who had advertised their abilities on the internet.

However, when they all refused to take part in the research, "novice" volunteers were drafted in.

During the study, commercial researchers were contracted at a cost of £18,000 to test them to see if psychic ability existed and could be used for defence purposes.

Some 28% of those tested managed a close guess at the contents of the envelopes, which included pictures of a knife, Mother Teresa and an "Asian individual".

However, most subjects produced guesses that were not close to the correct answer and one subject even fell asleep while he tried to focus on the envelope's content.

Then I clicked on one of the related links which led to the COLLEGE OF PSYCHIC STUDIES

It has a very interesting set of courses.My favourite one being "The Art of Dreaming".Just imagine how beautiful will the class be.

I would love to work in such an institution teaching people "The Art of Dreaming".

Which one is your favourite course?

You needn't answer that as I already know the answer as I am a psychic after all.

Perspective thats all matters!

Check what a wonderful view few people have :-)















Colleen Derry: "The view from my kitchen window looking over the Columbia River in Washougal, Washington, USA. It makes doing the dishes almost enjoyable."

courtesy: BBC Pictures

All due to nothing!

We do so many things and I feel everything for nothing.

A country invades another country over nothing (no credible evidence).
People have arguments over nothing(e.g. Sachin's form).
People later realize they fought over nothing.(e.g. Shipa v/s goody)
After the fight they don't achieve anything.

We blame nothing for bad deeds(An idle mind is a devil's workshop).
We keep running after something,
after we achieve that thing it becomes nothing,
which makes you go after something else,
Otherwise you are bound to do nothing,
Which turns out to be my favourite thing.

After all our life revolves around nothing!

Check out one of my favourite videos which is minutely related to this post.

Advice: Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen!

You can check the original article here

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-970601sunscreen,0,4664776.column

Stuff of your dreams!

A very interesting article on 5 materials having 'unbelievable' properties.

Grad student life v/s normal life

Graduate student life v/s normal life summarized in 4000 words.

Definition of furniture:

Normal life

Grad life

Definition of Bed:



Normal life

















Grad Life

After all each picture is worth a thousand words! :)

Sleep!

This vacation I have slept a lot and just before sleeping I thought about the 'types' of sleep I love:

1. Sleeping after a heavy meal : Didn't get to practice this for a whole semester but doing this for the most part of my trip in Atlanta.Home cooked food cooked and served by someone else for a change :) and the sleep it induces is so heavenly that I get a hangover after I wake up.

2.Sleeping after a heavy workout:I remember when I went for trekking around Pune during my summer internship.We used to go trekking during the day and I used to play soccer after we returned from our trek and we used to sleep 12 hours straight for a few days.We were lucky that our guide didn't notice us missing from our work.

3.Sleeping in class after lunch: Most of us (I think) feel the boring lectures are equivalent to lullabies.I used to sleep so much in classes that some of my friends used to call me 'crash god'.During my school days one of my chemistry teachers used to chide me by saying 'supply that guy with pillows', 'wake the guy up who is try to brush his teeth'(due to my posture with my mouth open), etc.

I came across a very interesting link which categorizes different ways of sleeping in class.Here is the link to it.It is on a website maintained by Purdue students which says it is a survival guide in computers, academics and campus life. A very interesting read indeed, do check it out.

Life in Antartica

This is one of my favourite photo journals from BBC's In pictures section.

They have an annual marathon in Antarctica.It must be surely fun!

Do check out the photos of the year as well in the In pictures section.

Life in Antartica doesn't look so bad in the pictures.

Glad to be in a trash can!

The trash can at O'Hare International airport, Chicago proclaims "We're glad you are here".











didn't get it?

"We're glad you are here(trash can)"

What I do during exam time

I sleep for around 30 mins 5-6 times a day....just doze off when I have some heavy reading which I do right before the exams...

perfect proposal!

Enjoy!

Uncomfortable silences

I watched 3 movies in the past week .Out of the three movies, Black Hawk down, Seven years in Tibet and Pulp Fiction, the movie which I loved the most was pulp fiction.Now it is one of my favourite movies.I loved a dialogue in particular,
which goes like :


Mia: Don't you hate that?
Vincent: What?
Mia: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?
Vincent: I don't know. That's a good question.
Mia: That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.




I feel that a mark of a close friend is when he gets to know what you are trying to convey in 'comfortable silence' which is conveyed by this quote :

Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say.

Pulp Fiction is a must watch movie and I don't why I didn't watch it for such a long time.

Black hawk down is a really long movie with not much of a story.Loved the quote at the start of the movie :

Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

Plato

Seven years in Tibet has a really nice story with good performances by Brad Pitt and the kid acting as Dalai Lama.The main theme of the movie is how a person from a western civilization, where(according to the movie) being at the top is the most important thing, confronts Budhism, where controlling one's ego is the most important thing, and undergoes a change in the outlook towards his life.

This is the life of Raghuram

Motivation : rhyme of Solomon Grundy

Bored after weekdays
played his heart out on friday
slept through saturday
woke up on sunday
realized had an exam on monday
realization didn't sink in the whole day
caffeine kept him awake for two days
but there is one more exam on wednesday
thus, he surrenders to caffeine everyday
This is the life of Raghuram

:)