Unable to attract a single girl, frustrated man sues Axe

New Delhi. In what could prove to be a major marketing and legal embarrassment for Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a 26-year-old man has filed a case against the FMCG company, which owns the Axe brand of men grooming products, for 'cheating' and causing him 'mental suffering'. The plaintiff has cited his failure to attract any girl at all even though he's been using Axe products for over seven years now. Axe advertisements suggest that the products help men in instantly attracting women. Vaibhav Bedi, the petitioner, also surrendered all his used, unused and half-used deodorant sprays, perfume sticks and roll-ons, anti-perspirants, aftershaves, body washes, shampoos, and hair gels to the court, and demanded a laboratory test of the products and narcotics test of the brand managers of Axe. Vaibhav was pushed to take this step when his bai (maid) beat him with a broom when he tried to impress her by appearing naked in front of her after applying all the Axe products. No girl ever asked Vaibhav to call her "Where the !@#$ is the Axe effect? I've been waiting for it for over seven years. Right from my college to now in my office, no girl ever agreed to even go out for a tea or coffee with me, even though I'm sure they could smell my perfumes, deodorants and aftershaves. I always applied them in abundance to make sure the girls get turned on as they show in the television. Finally I thought I'd try to impress my lonely bai who had an ugly fight with her husband and was living alone for over a year. Axe effect my foot!" Vaibhav expressed his unhappiness. Vaibhav claims that he had been using all the Axe products as per the company's instructions even since he first bought them. He argued that if he couldn't experience the Axe effect despite using the products as directed, either the company was making false claims or selling fake products. "I had always stored them in cool and dry place, and kept them away from direct light or heat. I'd always use a ruler before applying the spray and make sure that the distance between the nozzle and my armpit was at least 15 centimeters. I'd do everything they told. I even beat up my 5-year-old nephew for coming near my closet, as they had instructed it to keep away from children's reach. And yet, all I get is a broom beating from my ugly bai." Vaibhav expressed his frustration. Vaibhav claims that he had to do go a lot of mental suffering and public humiliation due to the lack of Axe effect and wants HUL to compensate him for this agony. An advocate in Karkardooma court, who happened to mistake Vaibhav for some deodorant vendor when he entered the court premises with all the bottles, has now offered to take up his case in the court. HUL has been served a legal notice in this regard. HUL has officially declined to comment on the case citing the subject to be sub judice, but our sources inform that the company was worried over the possible outcomes of the case. The company might argue that Vaibhav was hopelessly unattractive and unintelligent and didn't possess the bare minimum requirements for the Axe effect to take place. Officially HUL has not issued any statement, but legal experts believe that HUL could have tough time convincing the court. "HUL might be tempted to take that line of argument, but it is very risky. There is no data to substantiate the supposition that unattractive and unintelligent men don't attract women. In fact some of the best looking women have been known to marry and date absolutely ghoulish guys. I'd suggest that the company settles this issue out of court." noted lawyer Ram Jhoothmalani said.

"Jai Ho!" : The Pussycat Dolls version

I recently saw this pussycat dolls' version of Jai Ho!. Well, I dunno if just me, or did u also notice? that, day by day the presence of the other members of the "band" (???) is growing smaller and smaller than Nicole's in any of the videos. No offence to all u Nicole fans, but I guess its just a lil justice if the others get some air time atleast and not just measly, out of focus camera jabs dat they are being subjected to in the videos. Wonder how they stand upto this. I think maybe its cos they think they'd be nothing without her..or maybe she is THE most hyper talented woman musician/magician who has them under her wicked spell . Anyways, I felt that all of them looked like drag queens at some points of the video....but since this is for the Nicole fans...the video follows....

T2 BOX SET ::: WTF?????

Well, all the cyborg talk of the last post led me to snoop around for Some T2 jewels...T2 or Terminator 2 is a movie I really, really, really , really like... it was like the most wonderful movie I had seen at that time, with all its SFx and stuff like dat... back in the glory days when we used to watch movies on VHS..(*sigh*),.,... So when i saw this foto in a site, I really rushed to see wat it was...well it was the T2 box set....and that quickly brings us to the next question...what is in the Box?...

Well, the following are the items in the box:

• Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray
• Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD
• Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition DVD
• Terminator 2 Digital Copy
• A 14" terminator endoskull which is the container for the said discs. This lil thing...actually lights up and makes wierd noses!!
  

This Terminator 2 Complete Collector's Set for just $120....now which moronic numb-skulls will buy four copies of the same dvd for that price???...well certainly not ME(ur still asking why?? cos i am not a moronic numb-skull, u numb-skull!) even though its like one of my favorite movies of all time ..hope u don't get duped by scooping up this stuff under the influence of terminator salvation fever (wat ? dont tell me u dont know the name of the forthcoming sequel to the terminator series)...By the way, during the same search for T2 stuff, i found some nice unreleased stuff from the T2 movie...will post them in some subsequent post ....
So 'til that time ..
Hasta la vista, baby

The day of the Cyborg draws near!!!

Just read it in one editorial of one of the newspapers dat I read... (actually i read only one ... was just feebly trying to show off some cerebral Machoism, by saying 'papers'!! heh heh) ...that some medical scientists may have taken quite a giant step towards one holy grail of Medical science....an implantable "Total Artificial Heart".

According to the article, a group of medical scientists from the The IIT Kharagpur's School of Medical Science and Technology, seemed to have devised an artificial heart, which it seems, can be made available for just Rs.100,000!!- thats 30 times cheaper than the ones avaialble abroad. The device is the result of 4 four years of effort ..which has resulted in the unique 13-chambered (and I thought the human heart had only four!!) prototype which is allegedly more reselient and tougher than any model available anywhere. It has already been succesfully tested on small animals like frogs etc..with tests on goats in the pipline (will be held around May...PeTA ppl hope u guys are reading this stuff?...so get ready for some action already !!... this technology needs some publicity..) After obtaining the requisite permisssions from the Indian Council for Medical Research, the inventors of the device, hope to go in for human implantation.....

Wat are the effects of this? well, for one, it catapults India into the 'cutting' edge arena for advanced prosthetic research... it also provides,and, in a way , accelerates the Judgment Day as told to Sarah Conner (Dunno wat i referring ? well, go and watch Terminator and Terminator 2... u dolt!) by providing a huge step towards the cheap and mass production of bionic ppl (otherwise known as cyborgs...hmmm, I know that Ur thinking i watch too much sci-fi...but hey don blame wen the day finally dawns on us....)....other side effects includes some stuff for humans by saving lives through providing cheaper alternative to saving lives of many ppl...wo know this may end up increasing the already swelling throngs of medical tourists to India...

But then one may also wonder dat till when this technology will be required? or who knows? by the time the tech is finally ready for use the regenerative medicine may itself get a boost of its own and thus make the prosthetic, a tech of yesterday .....

Uncyclopedia ::: get all ur "Un-Knowledge" Here !!!

Hmmm, random web-surfing leads you to some pretty wierd/novel/funny/shocking/yada yada sites. I found Uncyclopedia on one such random ride atop a strange wave in the vast "Internet-ic" Ocean....

Welcome to Uncyclopedia,
the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
24,014 articles in English

.... are the words which welcome you on the home page ....leading you on to unlearn virtually everything that you have learnt since childhood...
A parody of the Wikipedia...this wiki of satire aims to be as expansive as its analogous site....and also operates in a pretty similar manner...'cept for the fact that the authors are supposed to write nothing but the absolute fiction about anything in the world (without being offensive of course, ...the times being troubling as they already are)...

Well, I found that I was behaving pretty much the same as in Wikipedia, wer I'd start in some random topic and keep drilling and wandering till I reached some wierdo page which is completely unrelated to wat I came searching there for in the first place...albeit the difference being that none of the pages were fact( fiction at its purest!!)...in general, the experience was quite fun ..though I found some articles too ridiculous to be funny (Guess i am too "smart" !!...hmmm now thats a fiction that'd make a good entry there heh heh).. Anyways, here's an excerpt which I think made quite a splash when it was published in the wiki :

The One True Monster

The Flying Spaghetti MONSTER is only called such because of his distinctly non-human form; we were not created in his image, not by a long shot.

“Let us sing praise to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for He is a loving God. Of His might and dominion, there is no compare; of His mercy and deliciousness, there is no equal. No other god can challenge Him; in the taste test, He is invincible. Through His pasta, He has blessed us with everlasting life, and holy is His Name. For He is the Flying Spaghetti Monster: the One, True, and Most High God, creator of man and midgit, giver of pasta, giver of sauce, from age to holy age; not created He was, but ever He lives, through the glory of spaghetti, now and forever. R'Amen.”

~ Ishmali Camuwundra on the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Here's the Wikipedia page on its parody....

I think the wiki's worth one visit atleast .... to see how imaginative ppl can really be !!!

Live Earth India:::tickets available and performers line-up announced finally!!!

Its finally announced folks!!!!!!...the line up to the mother of all concerts in India and also how and wat u need to do to get there ppl.....!!!!


Really, super duper, adrenalinally, hyperactively excited to get the update...so without much of an ado will spill the beans ..the source to all this is from the Live Earth India website which is included as an enclosure to the post.

The Artists Line-up:

• ROGER WATERS,
• WILL.I.AM.,
• ANOUSHKA SHANKAR,
• ABHISHEK BACHCHAN,
• AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN,
• HRITHIK ROSHAN,
• PREITY ZINTA,
• BIPASHA BASU,
• FARHAN AKHTAR,
• ARJUN RAMPAL,
• DIA MIRZA,
• SHIAMAK DAVAR
• Hard Kaur,
  
• Jalebee Cartel,
  
• Vishal & Shekhar,
  
• Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy,
  
• Sunidhi Chauhan,
  
• Sonu Nigam
  
• Shaan.
• BON JOVI
• AMITABH BACHCHAN and others..
  

The Ticket information:
Music fans across India can purchase tickets for this once-in-a-lifetime concert today online at www.bookmyshow.com/liveearthindia, via phone on 39895050 and in-stores Rhythm House (South Mumbai), Hiro Music (Bandra) & Music World (Malad).Concert tickets are priced at Rs. 625, Rs. 1250 and Rs. 2500.

If u dont get these, u can still catch the show online on MSN Live..the online partner to the concert or on the Telly with Star Tv's Channel [V].


So wat are u looking at??? ...go get 'em tickets before they all run out!!!!!!

click this link for more dope on this stuff

Tell A Friend ::: New Twist to the bookmarking tale~!!!

I came across "Tell a Friend" while looking for some tool which would allow for better bookmarking of my posts..and man! I really loved it!!. So, didn't waste any time in adding the lil thingy to my blog. (You'll notice it at the bottom of each of my posts)
Now we all know that when tongues wag, the lamest rumors become the hottest news.And, this is where "Tell a Friend" comes into the picture..(for the record though, I ain't implying that my posts are lame ok!!)

The site or rather the tool harnesses the power of "The Word of Mouth" (although its more like "word of fingers" in this case!!) concept of marketing ur goods .

The explicit video that I have posted (source: from tellafriend.socialtwist.com) will allow for the better understanding of this concept..as will the learn-more page here.
What struck me about the thing are two things...the ability to send messages thru instant messengers and the high level of customizability (see! i know long words too!!). Man, you can even customize the pop-up window!!. Hmmm mention of the pop-up brings me to a  major highlight...cos using tell a friend..u can spread the fire without leaving the page...unlike almost all the similar available widgets..now aint that cool!!
Coming from the horse's mouth:

• It's free!
• Just copy and paste. No integration or coding.
• Users can share content across IM, Email or Social Networks
• Users share content without leaving your site
• Visitors can access their contact lists and easily reach out to their friends
• Leverage trust-in-friends to spread the word
• Have announcements which are context-rich

And to add to all this blitz, it also has the features like analytics, choose ur widget etc..(features which are, de rigueur these days). For corporate customers, they are packing in more goodies.(well its obvious of course!! cos they'd be showing them the dough, u freeloader!!).

Well, the guys have tied with a lotta bigshots for their promotion and seems they are going all out on this one. The people behind this have added fewer social bookmarking option leaving out a few important ones but, with its ability to send messages thru IM, it beats the pants off of its competition in terms of versatility. Check out the home page.
I give my thumbs up on this one (...and hopefully it'll be up for some time)



P.s: I noticed that this site is part of SocialTwist which is in turn a business of Pramati Technologies..home to India's own Application server...my kudos to them

So wat are u waiting for....

Add Recent Posts and Recent Comments to Blogger ::: The Easiest Way~!!!

Hmmm now this has been around for many days and not many talk about it even though lotsa ppl use the "Recent posts" and "Recent Comments" in the same way as I do but don't write 'bout it...( i wonder why??!!)....So "much ado About nOthing~!!" does wat its meant for ... ;) :p

How to Add "Recent Posts" / "Recent Comments" to Blogger
(and I am gonna tell it 2 u even if u already knew how to!)

Step1:
Click the Layout view of the respective blog in your Dashboard. You'll find that you have been directed to the page elements page.
Step2:
Click the "Add a Gadget" Link which you have on your Layout. This time something'll pop up...more precisely a pop up window.
Step3:
In that pop up window (the window from Step2 or did u forget already??) you'll find a gadget that goes by the name of "Feed" ...Click the Blue Button wit a white "plus" sign on it to the right side of the "Feed" gadget.
Step4:
On doing step3, you'll find the window's changed and now the silly thing's asking u to feed it some URL. Well, dont hesitate ...paste ur comments/Blog feed URL to it...the comments feed in my case is:
http://rajsharmablogs.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
And so this step will create for ME (not U awrite...use ur own feed for dat!!) a "Recent Comments" thingy
Click on the "continue" button.
Step5:
You'll find the window's changed again (the chameleon dat it is!!). Make the required changes you need and click the "Save" button.

Behold! a "Recent Comments" Widget to ur Blog... see? no sweat!!!...Repeat the steps for including a "Recent Posts" widget to your blog but while in Step4, just provide your blog feed URL
(e.g.: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rajsharmablogs)
instead of the Comments feed...to get ur desired results..

Hope u liked the post ...(and hopefully, i dint shove it down ur scrawny throats like the spinach of ur Yore!!)

'til l8r ....tk cr

Comment in same post page ::: Its here... finally!!!

Its finally here!!...after spending many days in "Blogger in Draft" anonymity, the post comment on the same page that u see the post has become a feature in Blogger.com. Finally, i can comment in peace in a blogger blogpost without having to look at drab, redirected post comments page...good riddance!!! comments page!! (though it'll still be around if u post from the main page of the blog)

Display Favicon in Blogger ::: Faviconize Yourselves!! (New)

Well I had a personal favicon on my blog until today I discovered that the silly thing had disappeared!! ...so had a look under the blog's hood and did some tweaks and behold! the lil thingy's back!... So, since I underwent the entirely tiresome process of cut-pasting the one line of code, I've decided to document the entire process of putting in a Favicon for ur Blogger.com Blog (oh and by the way, u'll find it's a little different from other places). Here goes:

How to add a Favicon to your Blogger.com Blog (for Dummies!!!)

Create a favicon

Step1:

Make an image/logo that'll suit ur blog in an image editor (MS-Paint is one for starters)

Step2:

Convert the image to a favicon (.ico) file using any of the many online tools available out there in the Internet. I used www.html-kit.com for my favicon

Step3:

Host the image from some file hosting server that allows a direct access to the image file. I used my trusty 'ol Fileden.com account for this one.

Now add the freakin' favicon to ur Blog already!

Step1:

Login to Ur Blogger.com account and reach ur dashboard.

Step2:

In the dashboard, click on the layout link for the particular blog.

Step3:

On reaching the layout view, you'll get to see an "Edit HTML" link..click it!

Step4:

We've reached THE most important step now, so, pay attention!

Look for the title tag in the gibberish which will arise wen u click the "Edit Html" link.

Hopefully it look like:Below this, type the following additional gibberish:



Step5:
Click the "Save Template" button. Voila! u have a shiny new favicon.

well, many places may tell u to put ur <link> tag in the <head> section for putting the favicon into ur blog. But, you'll notice I have put mine below the <title> tag (which is still actually inside the <head> tag). Well, i recommend this different approach because Blogger.com appends the meta content in the <head> above the title of the blog while dishing out ur stuff to people and within that code, they have the code for the Blogger.com favicon as well and that was the reason why my favicon disappeared in the first place!.

Anyways u can learn more about favicons from here and there...

So until later ..ciao!!

Photofunia.com ::: Joyful Photo Fun!!!!

Hmmm not in wat ppl would call "Pink of Health" right now, which would explain my hiatus from posting to the blog. Well, now if u live in India and don't contract any kind of tropical fever once in a while then it'd be a real shame!! wouldn't it?? :P. Anyways, thanks for sticking in there....and doing wat the title of the blog says, "much ado about nothing~!!" lol.. really appreciate it...

Now getting down to business, something caught my eye in my friend Nischal Shetty's blog (u can spot it in my blogroll) and simply loved it.... Its a website called "Photofunia.com". The site is a online tool (yup!, yet another web 2.0 phenom!) for mashing and re-mashing ur pics ...online!. This website has some pretty cool photo-effects which it will render upon the photos that u provide the tool with. I tried it out wit some of my own fotos, which turned out some pretty interesting results...check out some of them below:
U can do all the Above stuff and more without having to be a Photoshop Wiz!! all at Photofunia.com

As of now, Photofunia.com has about 70 foto effects to chose from (but they all slightly differ from foto to foto ..which is good)..the facial recognition tech. is quite good actually but be sure to use a relatively bright foto or u might not get the effect u desire (read botched image!!)....anywz...its got my thumbs up on this one ...sooo wat u wating for? go.. go check it out!!

ciao!!

10 Effective Ab Exercises ::: C'mon lets Workout !!!

Hmmm of late, I am being approached by people around me, asking wen the next blockbuster is gonna hit screens and wat my opinions 'bout it are(all thanks to my blog and the raving reviews dat i write ahem! ahem!)....well ppl, yea i like showbiz a lot(movies in particular) but I ain't no walking, talking movie encyclopaedia folks!! (or so i tend to think..). So, to shake things up a li'l, I have decided to change the topic for couple o' days....but nothing to worry the movie trailers and reviews will keep coming, cos 'ol habits.. die hard!! (heyyyy... waitaminnit, die hard's a movie too!!..maybe i am a movie addict!!)....

Well, i came across this article at about.com...it instantly caught my eye, the reason being very clear from my earlier post (I am somewer between the 1 and 2 year stages...). Having gone from fab abs to ab flabs in recent days had really been a shock for me....so have started to take my exercises more seriously. By the way, in the process of this, have come across lotsa things 'bout exercising and health, which, I'll hopefully be able to share in my subsequent posts, its only the top ab exercises for this one..wit some of my quips on the various forms of bodily contortions...(u can check out the exercises by clicking the number one exercise link and moving onto the next ones in d page which opens)

1. Bicycle Exercise (my favorite cos its one of the few ones to target the obliques together with the abs)
2. Captain's Chair (its good for the entire upper body)
3. Exercise Ball Crunch (Never tried that huge ball ..so cant say anything bout this)
4. Vertical Leg Crunch (effective!!!)
   
   
5. Torso Track (its a tough one folks..be careful wen u do this)
6. Long Arm Crunch (one of the oldest in the books!!)
   
   
   
7. Reverse Crunch (yup it works!! hmmm well its supposed to or it wont be here :D)
8. Full Vertical Crunch (this golden oldie is actually quite effective!)
9. Ab Rocker (this looks like the one they show on TV!..dunno if it really works heh heh!)
10. Plank on Elbows and Toes (i dint know bout this one b4. do check it out its quite cool!!!)

(source:about.com)

I tried out almost all the exercises above ('cept for the pilates one with the huge Ball and torso track) and well, i can say they all are quite effective but only to the extent of wat u eat (and u should see me gorge!!! Its the reason why I still am li'l on the pudgier side in d belly area :D) and ur genes...well, Ur genes u can't help but wat u can is, by eating a low calorie, filling diet (do not crash diet it'll make the situation worse) and stay happy!! (believe me extreme mood swings really do wreck havoc wit ur regimen!!!)...Don't keep dreaming about 6 packs ..they'll come to u if u have them in u (thats in the genes part)

so until l8r,

ciao

(dont forget ur cardio!!!!!)

Software Career Growth Meter... Where do you Stand??:::email forward

Ha ha !..I got this picture few days back in my mail...still at awe how the foto actually imitates real life!!!

keep watching this space, i have a good post related to this comin up in a few hours....hope u'll love it.....ciao

Indigen ::: Ice age but not quite heh! heh!

Well i was scouting around for trailer of the new Ice Age sequel coming up in july '09 and came across this funny lil small cartoon called Indigen. I am sure u guys will really enjoy this lil one.
In this there's a Scrat lookalike who goes around creating trouble for an african aboriginal who gets a really hard time..in a battlefield...made by a talented french group...looks as good as Ice Age if not better...

The video kind of makes u think whether the two are indestructible or something..it also reminds one of the classic Tom and Jerry adventure albeit it has a lot of gore in it...lots and lots of it actually!!! Watch out for the blood,  gore, flying body parts and stray missile folks!!!

watch the video for more details....

Bon Jovi snubbed by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame !!!

The veteran New Jersey rockers, Bon Jovi, won't be blazing in glory in 2009 at the inductions to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first year that they are eligible.

For the uninitiated, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shores of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the music industry, particularly in the area of rock and roll. The museum is part of the city's redeveloped North Coast Harbor.

Artists become eligible for the Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first single or album and are represented in an exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

This year’s nine nominees, who will be whittled down to five inductees, are Metallica, Run-D.M.C., the Stooges, Jeff Beck, War, Chic, doo-wop group Little Anthony and the Imperials, pioneering rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson (the “Queen of Rockabilly”) and soul singer-songwriter Bobby Womack.Five of the nine nominees will be inducted April 4, in a ceremony at Public Hall in Cleveland rather than the ceremony's usual site (the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York). The inductees will be announced in January.

Well, there is some solace for Bon Jovi considering that lots of other candidates were snubbed as well: Yes, Kiss, Genesis, Brian Eno, Chicago, Neil Diamond ...to name a few.

Morever, being a rockstar/playing rock...was always like somthing that was opposed to any frilly official acceptance, like striking out on your own..rebellious etc etc...so this non-nomination kinda satisfies the idea/philosophy behind being a rocker...I guess Bonjovi won't be giving The ROck and Roll Hall of Fame a "Bad Name" this time atleast ..heh heh!!

anyways...

till l8r,

tk care...

p.s; almost all the pictures are taken from wikimedia..except for the first one which is from the Rock and Roll Hall of fame website

Live Earth Concert In India::: Bon Jovi to rock the show!!!

Hey hey hey people!!...the popular Live Earth Concerts for climatic awareness touches down  to India this December. This event is like a sequel to the hugely successful series of concerts held last year. These were organized by former US Vice President and now custodian of environmental awareness, Mr. Al Gore. That event saw an estimated two billion people watch 150 acts perform simutaneously in 11 cities around the world!! (Phew!! now thats wat i call an audience!!). Live Earth 2008 Concert in India will be co-produced by Mumbai-based event management company Wizcraft Entertainment and Live Earth producer Kevin Wall.

The Bachchan family members, including actress wife Jaya, actor son Abhishek and his wife, the former Miss World and actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, are expected to participate. But, the most prominent among them The Big B, Amitabh Bachchan plays the most important role this time too, like always. He's going to be the spokesperson for Live Earth India.

The 'Live Earth' initiative by Emmy Award-winning producer Kevin Wall and Al Gore has found support in co-nobel prize winning environmentalist Rajendra Pauchari and Director Shekhar Kapoor(who'll also serve as the creative director of the event), besides Bachchan. 

Jon Bon Jovi's Band is almost a surety for the concert, which will have many more internationaly famed performing artists on it. All the people on the show will have their take on the Issue at hand i.e. to bring worldwide awareness on the environmental issues. The benefeciaries of this concert are; Pachauri's  TERI ( The Energy and Research Institute) and

 an organisation 'Climate project India', which is dedicated to climate issues and poverty alleviation. For TERI, the artists hope to create awareness for the "Light A Billion Lives",  a project that aims to put a solar-powered lantern in a billion homes. This a project 

 promoted by the eminent

 New Delhi-based Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Live Earth 2008 India takes place on December 7 at the 20,000-seat Mumbai Andheri Sports Complex.

Keep watching this space for more updates on this.

Ciao,

Till L8r

HAve fun and Make merry!!

A Fox enters the Bollywoods!!:::Twentieth Century Fox forms Fox Star Studios

Twentieth Century Fox has entered bollywood following in the heels of other major Hollywood Film studios like Universal and Sony, to form Fox Star Studios. This is  a  joint venture between Fox and the Asian satellite broadcasting Star, both part of tycoon Rupert Murdoch's empire NewsCorp. 

Hope this venture will churn out better stuff than what Sony had to offer thru last year's super dud, Sawaariya. 

My personal feelings are mixed towards the live action category of films that will be produced from these stables, cos its pretty tough to get the Indian audience right. But with titles like Minority Report, iRobot, The TransporterX-Men etc Fox is a force to be reckoned.

On  the animation front though, the scenery looks quite rosy with Disney tying up with YashRaj house for their ani-flick, Roadside Romeo directed by Jugal Hansraj(of Mohabbatein and Masoom fame) to be followed by couple of more such features from various studios. I am quite looking forward to all the cool animation stuff they are goin to bring on.

Coming back to the dope, this new venture will be helmed by Vijay Singh as its CEO, who currently holds the position of President, Strategy 

and Corporate Development of STAR India.

Fox STAR Studios India plans to produce Bollywood and Indian regional films. It will also build a national theatrical distribution footprint and enhanced capabilities in the home entertainment and digital media platforms in India while also leveraging Fox Theatrical Network's global distribution strength across 44 countries worldwide.

Hmmm... With Sly(arrey apna Rambo re!), snoop dogg etc. etc being roped into the loop, seems like Hollywood is all ready to storm the Bollywood castle on the home turf this time ppl!!... Have fun!!

For those who "Chrome" in late!!

Hmmm lots of buzz surrounding the newborn Chrome. The pros, the cons..the easy chrome hacks, the not so easy Chrome hack-nots ...like it or not, if you are a web surfer chances are u haven't been able to ignore it. Though I have been commenting and reading on it on some other sites and blogs, i still find it too early for my blog to carry a verdict on it (its still a baby after all!! let it grow ppl!).
Anyway for the time being, I have simply loved reading about the eComic on Chrome the people at Google have put up.
Have fun reading it like I did.
Till l8r,
Ciao!

Google chrome:::The story till now

So, Google claimed to have captured 1% share of the Browser pie on the first day of its release. But, the sceptic that I am, I waited for some third party results verifying the same.

Got the lowdown from the statcounter.com blog:

This table shows which browsers are losing share to chrome:

	IE	FireFox	Safari	Chrome	Other
Aug 28	68.17%	24.66%	2.83%	N/A	4.33%
Aug 29	67.81%	24.78%	2.84%	N/A	4.57%
Aug 30	65.41%	26.38%	3.04%	N/A	5.17%
Aug 31	64.49%	26.91%	3.06%	N/A	5.56%
Sep 01	66.92%	25.26%	2.99%	N/A	4.84%
Sep 02*	67.58%	24.36%	2.91%	N/A	5.06%
Sep 03	67.81%	23.54%	2.70%	1.11%	4.87%
Sep 04	70.87%	21.26%	2.48%	1.15%	4.25%

The below table outlines the changes in market share over the period:

	IE	FireFox	Safari	Chrome	Other
Aug 28	-	-	-	-	-
Aug 29	(0.36%)	+0.12%	+0.01%	N/A	+0.24%
Aug 30	(2.40%)	+1.60%	+0.20%	N/A	+0.60%
Aug 31	(0.92%)	+0.53%	+0.02%	N/A	+0.39%
Sep 01	+2.43%	(1.65%)	(0.07%)	N/A	(0.72%)
Sep 02*	+0.66%	(0.90%)	(0.08%)	N/A	+0.22%
Sep 03	+0.23%	(0.82%)	(0.21%)	+1.11%	(0.19%)
Sep 04	+3.06%	(2.28%)	(0.22%)	+0.04%	(0.62%)

N.B: The Chrome browser was launched late in the day GMT time on Sept 2nd so the first full day of tracking for Chrome is Sept 3rd. For further stuff on the chrome story, please read the statcounter.com blog
But, my take on Chrome is, it is clean,good,sleek,fast, kinda makes me have a crush on it. But, I remain committed to mozilla firefox (till chrome trumps it I guess but dunno wen??) which, I feel, is streets better than chrome from both the viewpoints of lay as well as geek users.

Doomsday approaches??:::Swapping of Earthly poles

Hmmm, came across a forwarded mail warning about the impending doomsday, end of the world etc etc....the world's gonna end by 2012 it announced. Usually, i delete all this stuff from my inbox, but today i desisted. Had nothing better to do, so decided to go thru it, wasn't much long anyway.

"The world will end in 2012, say experts" ....

went the subject line...it had all myriad kinds of doomsday theories ranging from scientific to religious, stupid to the macabre...the one which caught my eye was regarding swapping of earth's poles....

So I ended up googling up the stuff, and wound up with some interesting findings. The claim it seems isn't half as false as the other theories in the mail. I got references to this in websites of NASA, some educational instutions, other blogs and more doomsday prophets...

The phenomenon:

At present, the overall geomagnetic field is becoming weaker at a rate which would, if it continues, cause the dipole field to temporarily collapse by 3000-4000 AD. The "South Atlantic Anomaly" (localized field reversal) is believed by some to be a product of this. The present strong deterioration corresponds to a 10-15% decline over the last 150 years and has accelerated in the past several years; however, geomagnetic intensity has declined almost continuously from a maximum 35% above the modern value achieved approximately 2000 years ago. The rate of decrease and the current strength are within the normal range of variation, as shown by the record of past magnetic fields recorded in rocks.The Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting from northern Canada towards Siberia with a presently accelerating rate. It is also unknown if this drift will continue to accelerate.

Research:

Glatzmaier and collaborator Paul Roberts of UCLA have made a numerical model of the electromagnetic, fluid dynamical processes of Earth's interior, and computed it on a Cray super-computer. The results reproduced key features of the magnetic field over more than 40,000 years of simulated time. To top it off, the computer-generated field reversed itself.

EFFECTS::

1. Its unknown whether this field decay will continue further.



2. Some speculate that a greatly diminished magnetic field during a reversal period will expose the surface of the earth to a substantial and potentially damaging increase in cosmic radiation. However, homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals.



3. There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions.



4. A possible explanation is that the solar wind may induce a sufficient magnetic field in the Earth's ionosphere to shield energetic particles even in the absence of the Earth's normal magnetic field.



5. Present society with its reliance of electricity and electromagnetic effects (e.g. radio, satellite communications) may be vulnerable to technological diruptions in the event of a full field reversal.



6. Natural Phenomenon like the aurora borealis, bird migrations etc. may vanish..

pretty heavy stuff huh???...

so till l8r...

Ciao.....