rantlust

Posted by tafkap on October 24th 2007 in Environment, Nature, Photography, Science
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A view from space (courtesy NASA)

For the image (and others) in hi-def see here

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Posted by tafkap on August 21st 2007 in Science
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Look at this video and count how many times the white team manages to pass their ball to each other without losing it to the black team (you don’t have to count how many times the black team does it with their ball). What did you observe? Read this for further insights.

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Posted by anupcs on July 10th 2007 in Gadgets, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science
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My cousin Kailas has always been the brainiest in my extended family as far as I am concerned. When he was in his early teens, he’d bug me with annoying questions about computers whenever I visited his family in Lubbock, TX. I struggled to answer most of these questions then. He eventually grew up, went to M.I.T. and got interested in robotic braces to help the injured. After years of hard work, the fruits of his vision, a company called Myomo has won FDA approval for their first product, the e100, that will soon be available in the US. Today’s New York Times has a nice feature on Myomo and its potential. Way to go little brother!

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Posted by anupcs on July 09th 2007 in Earth, Entertainment, Environment, Music, Science, World
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Thanks to TiVo, I was able to watch a lot of footage of the Live Earth concerts on July 7. The gigs were held in all seven continents in nine cities (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Hamburg, Sydney, Tokyo, and Adelaide Island in Antarctica) to highlight the inconvenient truths regarding global warming. A large number of music stars ranging from Metallica to Madonna and some newly revived oldies such as The Police and Genesis (sans Peter Gabriel) participated. Eco St. Gore appeared as well with his hybrid driving buddies Leo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz though there were no PowerPoint slides this time.

This is all good but as Ricky Gervais (of the British “The Office” fame) cynically hinted at Wembley while introducing an act, all these celebrities came to these concerts from all over the world, some of them with their entourages in private jets and is that a good message to convey when dealing with carbon offsets and the like? The BBC’s coverage of the concert ended with the following telling paragraph:

“Thousands of plastic cups were left on the Wembley Stadium floor at the end of the London concert, despite organisers urging the audience to put them into recycling bins provided.”

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Posted by anupcs on November 01st 2006 in Health & Fitness, Productivity, Science
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First came the Oxygen bars, now the rage seems to be the so-called Nap salons. Metronaps is one such company providing products and salons to help you take naps during work hours. They have salons in New York (for the partying Manhattanites) and Vancouver. As some fellow bloggers here on rantlust would attest, power naps are a good way to rejuvenate yourselves but paying someone to help you nap is something I am having trouble with.

A colleague has been encouraging me to try out the nap helper application, Pzizz. I have downloaded the trial version but am yet to take a nap. Being someone who can normally go to sleep with Judas Priest screaming for vengeance in the background, I don’t think I need this but hey, isn’t this just one more way to show corporate America that you care? Even the usually sane Merlin Mann of 43folders.com fame has bought into this.

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Posted by tafkap on July 08th 2006 in Mythology, Science
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Intriguing video from youtube. You may want to hold your comments until people have a chance to make an unbiased judgement for themselves.

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Posted by dharpe guje on July 08th 2006 in Science, World
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Stephen Hawkings the brilliant physicist is at it again……doomsday predictions! The latest is on global warming and how the earth could be like Venus and have surface temperature of 250 degrees centigrade and rain sulphuric acid. Over the years Stephen has been criticized for his doomsday predictions by many in the academic and related disciplines.

Is colonizing the moon or mars the next step in preserving human life? certainly food for thought.

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Posted by tafkap on July 06th 2006 in Nature, Politics, Science, Technology
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Boring. A movie should do the trick. Besides, much as I’ve enjoyed most of my day off sitting on my ass, I think I’ll walk down to the local Blockbuster, pick up a movie and burn a few calories on that three mile round trip.

I walked back with two movies in hand (Lost in Translation and Capote for the curious). Ah! The dog days of summer. How many birds can one kill with a single stone? Boredom, a cardiovascular workout, calories, energy independence and global warming. One man can make a difference.
(Read more…)

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