December 2008 - Posts - A Daily Download

December 2008 - Posts

Holiday Notice

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
This blogger is taking a break till 3 January. The next new posting will be on 4 January. Happy New Year Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

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Mr Raju, can you just say sorry and get on with it please?

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
The Satyam-Maytas controversy has gone on long enough now. For those who came in late, the board of Satyam approved the company's decision to buy two companies promoted by its chairman's family -- for $1.6 billion -- and then scrapped the deal when shareholders and analysts protested. Enough stories have been written about the company's...

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Acoustic Dead

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
For someone who loves the Grateful Dead's extended (some would say mind-numbing) jams, this writer's first brush with the band came, surprisingly enough, with an acoustic studio album (again, a rarity for the Dead) (corrected 17 December), Reckoning. Still, there's a certain charm when all-electric groups suddenly go acoustic. I've listened...

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Recession or depression?

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
So, is the world going through a slowdown, a downturn, a recession, or depression ? And what of India? Truth is, it all depends on what you read. The terms, slowdown, downturn, recession, and depression are being used frequently (alsmost as frequently as "unprecedented" which is my choice for word of the year) and, sometimes, interchangeably...

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Replace Ponzi with Madoff

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Should we seriously reconsider renaming Ponzi schemes as Madoff schemes? According to this entry in Wikipedia , Charles Ponzi's scheme made him around $15 million (he eventually returned a third back to investors) in the 1920s. Using this wonderful website , I calculated the current worth (fine, worth in 2007) of that amount. Here's what I got...

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Tech Flu

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
This doesn't surprise me given the state of the healthcare system in that country, but it looks like when most Americans get the flu, they go to Google to find out what to do. At least that's what this article today in Slate seems to suggest. Turns out that with a lot of people checking what to do on Google , the search engine, Google.org ,...

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What's kiddie porn, what's not?

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Yesterday's Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times has an article on British nationals Duncan Grant and Alan Waters who were acquitted of paedophilia charges and now seem to be back working at the same shelters for street children where they are alleged to have committed their crimes. The story isn't up on their website but it is there in the epaper...

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Sarin for Yahoo?

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under News The Wall Street Journal reports that Arun Sarin, who retired recently as CEO of Vodafone is being considered for the top job at Yahoo Inc. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122878898730490481.html?mod=testMod The report says: Mr. Sarin, 54 years old, has largely stayed out of speculation over whom Yahoo might tap for the job, which has included...

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Comic Relief

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under Cult Non-fiction And you thought comics were only for the jelly-brained? Wired magazine has this fascinating article called How comics can save us from scientific ignorance about The Stuff of Life: A graphic guide to genetics and DNA , a comic book on genetics that will also be the first in a series of science comics. The book is authored by Mark...

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Safari suit suite

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under News I know it's a little late in the day to be pointing to reviews of Quantum of Solace but this one in The New Yorker was so good that I couldn't resist it. Here's a sampling: Sean Connery smoldered like Troy, but that told us nothing about the fires within. As for Roger Moore, he didn’t need a soul. He had a safari suit. Safari...

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Monstering

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Posted under News, Cult Fiction What India and Indians need now is a healthy does of Monstering. Pity the country doesn't have its Spider Jerusalem to do this. Spider, for those who came in late, is the Gonzo journalist hero (created by Warren Ellis) of a dysfunctional and dystopian future America who dares to take on the president of the country...

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Forget dollars, try sloth bears

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under life Last year, on a trip to Mysore, my wife, son and I decided to visit the zoo on a whim. I'd heard that Mysore has a good zoo but had never visited it. Still, I wasn't prepared for what we saw. The zoo simply blew our minds. It had more animals than most zoos I've visited (including a silver-backed gorilla, probably the only one...

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How to channelise the anger

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under Rants When Mint asked people to offer concrete suggestions on what they would do to tackle terror if they were the country's Prime Minister, the paper was deluged with responses . A Mint report in this morning's paper says "Mumbai swells with good intentions" and asks, "will actions follow?" If the past is any indication...

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Obama covers

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Under News In July, the New Yorker magazine stirred things up with this cover of Obama. But it's unlikely that anyone would have problems with its November cover which is probably the best I have seen on Obama in the white House Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

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