Losing weight the sweat free way

Never in my life have I ever felt a profound and deep respect for the scientific community than when I read today that they had developed what is probably, the most significant achievement in the history of science since the television. A cure for obesity which does not involve moving a muscle. According to this BBC report, US scientists have devised a drug that can switch on a gene to burn body fat, offering hope of an exercise pill. They've tried it on mice, and those mice are losing weight alright! If they get down to human trials, I would definitely want to volunteer...
This one's going to be one hell of a best seller in the life style drug category. It would be bigger than viagra even!!

Is it ingenuity or just plain stupidity?

Lets stop talking about human ingenuity. Ya, so there are a lot of smart people out there. And these people make sure that the remaining bunch feel really stupid about themselves. But stupidity is also an amazing thing. Other people's stupidity especially. Right from the guy who first looked into the wrong end of gun to see what would happen to the people who walk around thinking that UFOs will take them to a better place, they have kept mankind entertained for centuries, and still continue to do so. Its always very comforting to pick up the newspaper and read about how somebody would slash their wrist before their supposed lover's wedding hall, just to prove a point. Ofcourse, the irony in the situation where the aforementioned dejected lover got arrested for trying to commit suicide just had me laughing in splits.
So, it grieves me no less that human stupidity can also be used as an excuse. An article in Wired deals with how immediately after the Virginia Tech incident, people had started registering domain names like vamassacre.com and selling them on ebay. When one of the guys who registered these domain names was asked as to why he would do such a thoughtless and heinous act, his reply was and I quote, from the article, "I didn't think it through. I was just thinking about the money first." Wow! Duh!
This isnt an isolated phenomenon. People had the foresight to find out which were the expected hurricanes for 2006 and then register the domain names in advance, so that they wouldnt miss out on the "gold rush" afterwards. Who cares about human compassion, when u're trying to make a quick buck?
It brings me back to my initial statement. Human ingenuity is cool! And so is stupidity! It makes for great reading.

Weathering the storm

"If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm. "
- Mohandas K Gandhi

More amazing storm photos

I am all for reservation...

The railway ticket kind, the crappy low cost airline kind, and yes, the really cool movie ticket booking kind... But not for the education system.

It was Aristotle who said that "The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law." But in India it seems, this is not the case. Politicians, in order to stir up vote banks, have been flaying the reservation issue ad nauseum. Its had unbelievable repercussions so far, and everybody who's anybody has an opinion on the issue.
Its highly controversial. My stand on it is pretty clear. I am against reservation. I am against reservation for post graduate programs, and private sector jobs. I am against somebody who's already made use of the reservation system to gain a seat in a graduation program, and then use the same excuse to get into a post graduate program and then get a private sector job. How much further will it go? Will appraisals and promotions in organisations be decided on reservation as well? Will children of people who have already benefited by reservation get the same benefits again?
It was really heartening to see the media and the general public rally together against such atrocity. In keeping with ensuring that the anti reservation message is propogated as far as possible, the following site gives people full access to all details.

Antireservation.org

Check out the wiki... Make up your mind, and support the cause. Its worth fighting for.

Shit happens.... and its got a website too

Sometimes, there's more to life than just weird and interesting stuff to read. I mean how many silly things are there on the net? I mean its all right to want to learn how to feed pigeons or even learn how to make houses from matchsticks, but you never truly understood the sheer availability of useless information on the net unless you come across a site like Poop Report. Yes, its true, shit happens, and they're there to make sure that it gets reported.

Read on at

"The Intellectual Appreciation of Poop Humor PoopReport.com"

Die, Die, my darling

I guess one's mortality is never as such a concern until one is truly made aware of it. People go about their life aspiring, dreaming, scheming and in general living with the general idea that there's something to look forward to. But there's always some moment in everybody's life, even for a few seconds, that they are confronted by the sheer fragility of it. That one point of time, when suddenly clarity hits you like a brick wall, and your thoughts explode in your head wondering how and why and what, and you think... thank god I have life insurance??

What would be a person's last thought before he dies? well, if you are one of the following people, I doubt they actually thought they were going to die...

30 Strangest Deaths in History