June 2010
22 posts
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“It is unfair to compare the first solar plant to the 100,000th coal plant.”
– Tom Werner - CEO, SunPower
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Brazil vs Portugal
This, for me, was the most awaited match in the league stages. As it turns out, it turned into a scrappy first half and a dull second half. There were chances for either side in a match marred by excessive card-showing by the Mexican referee. I would rate Eduardo, the Portuguese ‘keeper as the best in the game due to the fine saves he pulled off. Both teams failed to convert half chances,...
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“When Exxon was fined $5 billion for the Alaska oil spill, nearly $40,000 was...”
– M J Akbar
World Cup: Argentina vs Nigeria
Quick Summary: Argentina score in the sixth minute via Gabriel Heinze and then fail to live up to their hype. Nigeria play sitting ducks in the first half till they realise they’re the Super Eagles in the second and create chances. Messi takes half-hearted shots at the goal.
Argentina are playing like a bunch of stars rather than a champion team.
Rookie Rock Fan Mistake
Overheard: “Eric Clapton was called slowhand because he played the guitar quite slowly.”
Clarification:
The Yardbirds rhythm guitarist, Chris Dreja, recalled that whenever Eric Clapton broke a guitar string during a concert, Eric would stay on stage and replace it. The English audiences would wait out the delay by doing a “slow handclap”. [The British colloquialism is “to be...
World Cup Opener: South Africa vs Mexico
Quick Summary: Mexico starts off well, stumbles and lets SA take advantage. SA score a stunner. Mexico comes back late in the second half to equalize. Very middling game.
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“But nowadays everybody’s a comedian, even the weather girls and continuity...”
– Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt.
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Iceland via live webcams
go:
Ever wanted to check our Bjork’s homeland? We have.
Now through the site inspiredbyiceland.com, you can view Icelandic ice, lagoons, and town life through five different live web cameras.
Choose from Blue Lagoon, Austurvollur, Skolavordustigur, Tjornin, or Jokulsarlon. Hard to spell, but easy on the eyes.
Our personal favorite is Jokulsarlon. It’s all light white and pale gray beauty.
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“Because when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave”
– Coraline Jones. Source: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
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On Yellow Hearts
This post was written thanks to a reminder by BombayAddict and Paromita.
In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to witness an open heart surgery, technically a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG or cabbage, as the doctors call it). You have to go in for CABG when the blood vessels that supply fresh oxygenated blood to the muscles of the heart (yeah, they need blood too), the Coronary...
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On language
Here in India where languages have scripts quite different from the rest of the world, the characters (or syllables) are phonetic. So when you use English to spell out words in local languages, the pronunciation comes out quite differently. This thought struck me while at a station called Vilé Parlé, which without the accented e, sounds like a sinister place. Then again, there are the English...
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Adjustments
Bus journeys where you have ample time to notice people, provided you’re not sleeping, makes you spot interesting things. How people keep fiddling with things right from the beginning till the end. First up is the luggage. If it can’t be stowed in the hold or the overhead rack, it goes under the seat, where it keeps shifting with the bus’ swaying. Then there are minor things like...
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Yet another bus journey
This is probably the most entertaining bus trip I’ve had to Pune. There’s the bus. Ambling at an amiable pace of sixty kilometres an hour. Some witty pieces by Douglas Adams to read, and there’s no Salmon of a Doubt that this is a great book. Then there are the kids ‘playing’ antakshari, whose English equivalent I believe, doesn’t quite exist. In any case, these...
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May 2010
2 posts
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