October 2004
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Top 250 movies
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Entirely unrelated stuff
Microsoft's new idea for becoming userfriendly seems to be this! WTH??? [I got it when GMail was acting up and FF said "Connection timed out when trying to contact..."]
In other news - "A US study found parents who were married or living together before conception were slightly more likely to have a boy than those who were not."
and
"Pregnant women carrying boys tend to eat more than those carrying girls, research has found."
Both of which can be explained by the long known fact that female embryos are more robust than male ones, and thus more likely to survive full term even in unfavourable conditions.
- Chinmay
Friday, October 15, 2004
A Geek's Life
Staying in school all night, listening to the soundtracks from Kill Bill vols. 1 and 2, grading mid-terms, purifying nanoparticles, planning experiments.
Leaving for the Smokies tomorrow on a three day trip. Fun will be had, trails will be trodden, photos will be shot.
It doesn't get any better.
- Chinmay
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
The US Election
People, there are barely three weeks left before the US election. I'd have to agree with George Soros that "a second Bush term would unhinge the future of the world."
Spread the word.
Here are some stuff to start out with -
The Soros speech
An NYTimes article detailing Kerry's foreign policy [which is, rather unfortunately, still undeclared]- specifically for controlling terrorism.
Watch The Choice on your local PBS station tomorrow [Tuesday, Oct. 12, 9pm]
The Bush Archives by Sierra club and RAW Archives
Finally, I quote Rick Bass from Orion Magazine -
"Forty years from now, young people will be calling upon us to tell them what it was like, in this crucible-forged time when democracy was attacked not just from abroad, but from within. What was it really like, they will ask. They will want to know how close and intense it was, and how we achieved our victory, their victory.
"We sharpened our knives, we will tell them. We were frightened, and we were fearless. We chose courage rather than silence. We turned our backs forever on the myth of pure self, on the myth of utter independence and disconnectedness. That myth, we will tell them, was no longer compatible with the genius of democracy.
"We were frightened -- terrified -- of the seeds, the sprouts, of dictatorship arising in our own homeland, we will tell them, but we cut it down, just barely in time, by throwing everything we had at it -- body and soul, intellect and intuition, everything. We rose above our fears, we will tell them and chose action.
"It was terrifying, we will tell them. It was glorious."
- Chinmay
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Stock Market
So I made up a mock portfolio using the portfolio tracker on Yahoo! India Finance and it (the portfolio) goes up 6% in as many days! Beginner's luck huh? Too bad I blew it on a mock portfolio!
Meanwhile, if you want to learn about investing in the stock market, the Sharekhan School is a great place to start. If you want the articles on the site in a collected form, drop me a line.
- Chinmay
Monday, October 04, 2004
My Life
For the last couple of days I was thinking about the piece below. I guess it could be passed off as standup comedy, provided I'm in a bar full of drunken graduate students... [I've also heard it helps if you hand out pot sometime before you begin]
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Being a graduate student not taking any courses, my schedule is pretty flexible these days. Consequently, I'm now on Hawaii time. Living in Central, that makes my day a little ... different. When I wander into the lab, all fired up, my cheery "Good Morning!" is usually greeted with a dumb silence. If somebody is really pissed of, I manage getting a "Yeah whatever... Let's get this day over already..."
Later when I ask people if they want to go for lunch, most are about to drift off to the gym.. OK OK, to a beer bar... Once in a while, the Really Pissed off Guy will put on an Apu accent and say "ShoulDn't you be having youR afTeRnoon tea?"
Being a vegetarian, I'm in trouble when I haven't packed my lunch. The school cafeteria is out, of course (Hey, it's one of dem vegetarenians! Do we have any salad left?) and going to Hardee's and asking them to remove their precious Angus beef from the burger will probably just land me on the street.. ear first. So I just go to Taco Bell.
"... and Can I have beans in it instead of the beef please?"
'tap tap tap' .... "anything to drink?" [see! nobody cares!]
"A glass, I think I'll have some water" [No way I'm paying them a dollar for something that costs 3 cents!]
Once in a while, I switch to Subway. They actually delight in making a vegetarian sandwich! Considering most are run by Patels, I guess not a big deal. Still, they've saved my life more than once. Now you might wonder, if I like them so much, why don't I always go to Subway? Well.... the problem is, with my accent, there's an equal chance of getting either a Veggie sub, or getting my "clothing wedged between the buttocks"! I had to stop ordering the 12" subs, satisfying as they might be....
Anyway, don't think I'm vegetarian because I'm a sissy or anything! Far from it.... In fact, I've killed so many cockroaches in my apartment, I now have a cockroach version of Fatwa on my head. I have to spray myself with bug spray every night before going to sleep! And I hear now mice too [whom I've also killed, as you no doubt guessed] are teaming up with the roaches!
One day I'll fail to show up in the lab, and they'll just find a few bones scattered around my room...
"He was OK, I guess. Never talked to him much"
"Yeah.. but I hear he messed with the 'Roaches"
"gasp!"
- Chinmay
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