Some questions for the ones still reading this blog

Can you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. but it’s only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where’s that extra penny going to?

Once you’re in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.

Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Why do they call it an asteroid when it’s outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it’s in your butt?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?

The Depahted

HOHOHO!

In Memoriam II

Brilliant post!

In Memoriam

Blood On The Tracks by Ruchir Joshi

We won!

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If Simpsons Was Star Wars

I mean, really, how dumb can you be...

In July, bankrupt Northwest Airlines begins laying off thousands of ground workers, but not before issuing some of them a handy guide, "101 Ways to Save Money." The advice includes dumpster diving ("Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash"), making your own baby food, shredding old newspapers for use as cat litter, and taking walks in the woods as a low-cost dating alternative.

...and dumber

Ooooh!

Simon Briggs writes in the Daily Telegraph:

"India used to be a deferential sort of team, and a soft touch on foreign soil. But that was before the arrival of Sourav Ganguly, the man with the thickest skin in cricket. He turned them into a more streetwise, self-confident crew, and in this series they have stood up to England's bullying tactics and then replied in kind."

Dadu's birthday

At Hard Rock Cafe. Copious amounts of alcohol, knicknacks and a few unfinished plans. And dreadlocks.

Awesome

I Am Rich

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"Bangla" performing in Germany

Check out the video of a band called Bangla, performing in some rock show in Germany. The first song is agit-prop. The real surprise is the second song. Don't miss it.

Thanks, Souvik for the link.

Random

Why do people treat blogs like confessionals?

Why do we always seek adulation for our point-of-view?

The Worst Movie Scenes Ever

...according to someone.

Bhut Jolokia

In September 2000, a military laboratory in the garrison town of Tezpur in northeastern India announced that it had identified the hottest chili in the world. Chili heat is measured in Scoville Heat Units (shus), from the American chemist Wilbur Scoville who invented the scale in 1912. Pure capsaicin, the main capsaicinoid in a chili, measures 16 million shu. A bell pepper typically measures zero. An Italian peperoncino, used to spice up pasta dishes in southern Italy, measures about 500 shu, while the spiciest Thai chilies come in at around 100,000. Most people are reduced to tears by eating anything above 200,000, and until now the hottest chili ever measured was the Red Savina, a type of habanero grown in California by a commercial chili farmer, which measured 577,000 shu.

According to the tests carried out by India's Defence Research Laboratory, pods from the bhut jolokia, or "ghost chili," a plant grown across northeastern India, had measured 855,000 shu. The chili world met the claim with skepticism, but in 2005 the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico finally grew enough bhut jolokia from seeds a member had collected in India to be able to test it. The results were stunning: the bhut jolokia, also called the Naga chili after a traditionally fierce local tribe that enjoys eating them, measured just over 1 million shu, the sort of heat you normally find only in the hottest chili sauces made from pure pepper extract.

On a recent visit to Tezpur, I met with the director of the Defence Research Laboratory, R.B. Srivastava, and the scientist in charge of cultivating the bhut jolokia, R.K.R. Singh. The two men explained that the bhut jolokia was so popular in northeastern India that it was known as "the king of chilies" and celebrated in a festival that coincides with the beginning of the chili season in April. The men discussed the possibility of using the bhut jolokia in antiriot weapons such as tear gas. (I wasn't allowed into the laboratories, Srivastava said, because I was a foreign national and clearance could take weeks.) The bhut jolokia might also make a good food for India's troops, he suggested. We joked about soldiers eating bhut jolokias to get in the right mood before going into battle. "A balanced approach has to be there," Srivastava said, half seriously, "or they will be running to the toilet all the time." The laboratory is contemplating applying for Geographical Indication certification, which would mean only bhut jolokias from northeastern India could be sold as such. "The commercial applications are there," said Srivastava, who mentioned using the chili in medicines and even, by smearing it on string encircling villages, to keep elephants away from crops and humans. "Chilies are packed with vitamins and just so good for you."

After some time, a colleague brought in a small saucer containing three bhut jolokia pods. The pods had been picked a few weeks earlier and were beginning to shrivel. They were about 5 cm long and a burnt orange color. They had an extremely pleasant smoky aroma — half the reason people in the region adore them, said Singh, who is from the nearby state of Manipur and found the bhut jolokia "horrible" as a child but now loves it in small doses. With a cup of milky tea on hand in case of an emergency (milk or yoghurt is a much better way to counter the effects of chilies than water or alcohol), I used my fingernails to tear off a tiny shard of bhut jolokia skin. The men warned me not to try the seeds or the ribs. "Just place it on your tongue, don't swallow," Singh said. The heat took a few seconds to register but quickly spread across my tongue and around my mouth. It was hot, but not unpleasant. I tore off a slightly larger piece of chili and placed it between my front teeth. As I bit down I could feel the chemicals burst out and begin to heat my gums and tongue and down into the top of my throat. I took a swig of tea. Singh smiled and suggested I stop there. "You survived," he said.

Courtesy: TIME.com

Do I really need My Space?

Well, Q thinks I do. Anyway, I have this vague plot for a sci-fi movie where corrupt politicians and urban planners in a crowded Indian city try to placate surging demand for affordable live-able space, by selling plots on MySpace to gullible middle-class folks. It's kinda revolutionary. And angsty.

Battle at Kruger...the awesomest wild life video you will ever see!

The smackdown took place at an ordinary watering hole at Kruger national Park, where a small herd of cape buffalo were drinking and idling, wandering dangerously close to a pack of concealed lions that either did not smell very lion-like or, more probably, were crouching deliberately upwind. On the other side of the hole, six tourists and a guide watched in a parked range vehicle. The lions waited until the buffalo got close enough and then pounced, seizing the baby and scattering the adults. That's usually a game-ender for a baby buffalo, but things got even worse for this one as he struggled backwards, splashed part way into the water, and got his hind legs snagged by a pair of crocodiles. He somehow yanked free of them, but remained in the jaws of the lions until suddenly the adult cape buffalos stormed back in much greater numbers, dispersed the lions and made off with the remarkably unharmed baby.

This is not wildlife video. This is a thriller. This is Tarantinoesque! The video was shot by Dave Budzinski and his friend Jason Schlosberg while on vacation at Kruger.

Courtesy: www.Time.com

The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free

The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free is an anarchist parody of the popular Tintin series of comics. The book was written under the pseudonym "J. Daniels" and published by Attack International in April of 1988 and then republished in 1999. The story features a number of characters from the original series, notably Tintin himself and Captain Haddock (referred to only as 'the Captain'), but not the original themes or plot. The characters themselves have been changed, practically beyond all recognition. For example, Wolff from Destination Moon makes an appearance as the ineffectual "Mr. Jones, the Union Representative," while Thomson is converted into the revolutionary firebrand Frank (see image below). Tintin himself quite uncharacteristically uses a great deal of violence and profanity.

While anarchist themes and ideas are strongly expressed throughout the comic, none of the characters explicitly refer to themselves as anarchists. Some have criticised the comic for this, regarding it as contrived. While the ideas therein are those held by anarchists, some Marxists and left communists hold these ideas as well.

From Wikipedia.

Read the comic here.

Original Sins

As part of our series on how Indian movies have 'influenced' pop culture across the world, I present a few instances.

VIDEO#1
Before MTV broke the air-wave ceiling with Rancid's "Video Killed The Radio Star", the English music video was an idiom we called our own. Edgy editing techniques, captivating choreography, we showed the world how to put the funk in funkadelic.

VIDEO# 2
Today the Superhero genre has seen a plethora of proliferations, from Christopher Reeve's simplistic Superman to the dark, confused Batman Begins. But has anyone thought of a musical Superman? Saving the world one pelvic thrust at a time?

VIDEO# 3
Move over Whacko Jacko! Now we know what George Romero's inspiration was. This is what I don't like these Hollywood types. It's ok to get inspired by Indian auteurs. But at least have the decency of paying a homage to Chiranjeevi.

VIDEO# 4
And finally, the Fab Four! Well, it looks like they were preceded by the Panch Pandavas. Led by Mr Paunch, good 'ole Shammi Kapoor. Now we know where those helmet-haircuts and those drain-pipe trousers came from!