at
11:44 AM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
This month, March 22nd, is recognized by the United Nations Water Group as "World Water Day", this year's theme being "Clean Water for a Healthy World". Although we live on a water-covered planet, only 1% of the world's water is available for human use, the rest locked away in oceans, ice, and the atmosphere. The National Geographic Society feels so strongly about the issues around fresh water that they are distributing an interactive version of their April, 2010 magazine for download - free until April 2nd
at
1:57 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Can you spot something unusual in this screen shot grabbed from Google Maps?
The effect is caused when two separate airplane or satellite pics are taken of different sections/plots of a city, and then stitched together. Each pic is taken from a different angle, so the taller buildings' pics are taken with different perspective points, causing them to appear to lean toward or away from each other.
This effect has become known as the "Escher Effect", or the "Google Escher Effect". It is named after Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), one of the world's most famous graphic artists. He is most famous for his so-called impossible structures. Check below for two of his notable works
at
1:27 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Did you know, as it stands today, America has twice as many aircraft carriers as the rest of humanity combined. Comparitively, the rest of the world's carriers have about 15 acres of deck space, one fifth that of America's!
at
1:07 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Some interesting notes on coffee from THE HNDU:
The coffee spread to the rest of Europe in the 17th century. One of the first coffee houses in England was opened in Oxford by Jacob, a Turkish Jew, in 1650. Its coffee was described as "a simple Innocent thing, incomparable good for those that are troubled with melancholy".
Coffee became popular with scholars as it sharpened the mind rather than dulled it like alcohol. Coffee houses became meeting places, debating chambers and even laboratories. Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley once dissected a dolphin on the table of a coffee house in London. Lloyd's of London and the Stock Exchange started life as coffee houses.
But the craze had its detractors. The brewing of ale had long been the preserve of women, known as "brewsters" or "alewives". In 1674, a group of them – alarmed at falling trade in taverns – drew up the Women's Petition Against Coffee, claiming: "Coffee makes a man barren as the desert out of which this unlucky berry has been imported."
at
1:03 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Dr. Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University (1908 ) thought that a flavor other than sweet, sour, salty and spicy existed and proceeded to ascertain its original form. This flavor is called "umai" in Japanese and is best translated as "delicious." His experiments resulted in the discovery that the "delicious" flavor of kombu (a type of seaweed) comes from a compound and invented a method of obtaining the flavor in its purest form. This was nothing but Monosodium Glutamate!
Commercial production of this monosodium glutamate was carried out by Saburosuke Suzuki, the founder of Ajinomoto Co. Inc, under request from Kikunae Ikeda. Dr. Ikeda's invention, sold under the name Ajinomoto. The literal translation of Aji no Moto is “Essence of Taste.
Some more for trivia buffs:
1. Ajinomoto Co. is also a leading supplier of the Amino Acid L-Glutamine and Aspartame (or artifical sweetner)
2. Ajinomoto Co. is active in 100 countries and regions worldwide, employing around 24,861 people as of 2004. Yearly revenue stands at US$9.84 billion
at
5:02 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
1 comments
The number of pleats in a chef's hat is also a status symbol. The toque (chef's hat) dates back to the 16th century when hats were common in many trades. Different heights of hats indicate rank within a kitchen. The symbolism of the 100 folds of the toque are said to represent the many different ways a chef knows to cook an egg!
at
6:00 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Dark Tourism
The words in focus are related to the trends in Travel
Dark tourism - Act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme.
Types:
1. Grief tourism- Travel somewhere to visit a scene of some tragic event (Eg: Ground Zero, cemetaries etc)
2. Disaster tourism - visit disaster zones – especially when little time has elapsed since the disaster (eg: Onslaught of visitors following some kind of natural disaster, such as those visiting south-east Asia following the 2004 tsunami crisis, or people traveling to New Orleans to see the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina)
3. Poverty tourism - Tours to slum areas and poverty stricken towns.
4. Suicide tourism - categorised into two types:
Traveling to a particular destination with the intention of committing suicide, often by jumping from a famous landmark (Eg: from the Eiffel Tower)
Terminally-ill people travel to countries where euthanasia is not illegal to end their life legally (eg: Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland)
5. Doomsday tourism - Travelers seek out to critically endangered habitats and ecosystems and try to experience their grandeur before they vanish (eg:e Great Barrier Reef, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Galapagos Islands)
at
5:30 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
Oxford English Dictionary- Latest word entrants (September 08)
"phwoar" - "expression of enthusiastic or lubricious approval"
"stud muffin"- an attractive man
"arm candy" - a good-looking date
"hairy eyeball" - the look made by someone expressing "hostility or disapproval
"mallrat" - someone who spends too much time hanging around shopping centres
"shagtastic" - uttered by Austin Powers "Shagtastic" was made popular a decade ago by Mike Myers's spoof spy and is also used to describe someone very sexy
"Britneys" - for beers, to rhyme with the name of Britney Spears.
at
5:26 PM
Posted by
Ashwin Bryan Pinto |
0
comments
CONTROL (2007)
One of my favourite movies!
Based on Deborah Curtis's biography "Touching from a Distance", Control is the biography of Joy Division lead singer Ian Kevin Curtis, taking his story from schoolboy days of 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980. In this time we see Curtis grow from David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Jim Morrison,-infatuated teen to Sex Pistols-inspired punk, and eventually to rising new wave star.
The movie portrays Curtis's secondary school romance with Deborah, their marriage at a very young age, his problems balancing his domestic life with his rise to fame, his affair with Annik Honoré, his struggle with poorly medicated epilepsy and depression and his suicide. In the early hours of 18 May 1980, Curtis hanged himself in his kitchen after having viewed Werner Herzog's film Stroszek and listening to Iggy Pop's The Idiot.
TRIVIA:
Initially, the band was called Warsaw before changing its name to Joy Division in 1978, due to conflicts with the name of another band, Warsaw Pakt. The name "Joy Division" stemmed from the sexual slavery wing of a Nazi concentration camp in the 1955 novel The House of Dolls.
Curtis's memorial stone is inscribed with "Ian Curtis 18 - 5 - 80" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (currently reported stole
The actors playing Joy Division in the movie Control, learned how to play the songs themselves. So the scenes where the band is playing live is not from tape, but actually the actors playing live.
Thing to watch out for: The unique dancing style with swaying hands reminiscent of the eplileptic seisures that Ian Curtis experienced, sometimes even on stage.
