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Ever wonder what breakfast in Pakistan looks like? How about Uganda? According to some hostellers, breakfast in Pakistan typically involves Aloo Paratha, perhaps with a side of salty buttered tea to dip it in. In Uganda, it's katogo, this particular example being green (non-sweet) cooking bananas, mixed with cow organs.
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Oct-13-11

"Google+ is a knee-jerk reaction, a study in short-term thinking, predicated on the incorrect notion that Facebook is successful because they built a great product." "Last night, high-profile Google engineer Steve Yegge mistakenly posted a long rant about working at Amazon and Google’s own issues with creating platforms on Google+...The most interesting part to me, though, is Yegge’s blunt assessment of what he perceives to be Google’s inability to understand platforms and how this could endanger the company in the long run." It's quite long, but there's some interesting insight - all the more because it wasn't initially intended to be made public. (via SiliconFilter/via G+)
comment posted at 11:04 AM on Oct-13-11

India's Lost Southern Border: Somewhere near the town of Mandapam on peninsular India, India's vast rail network is at its closest to the sea-coast; indeed, it crosses a 2.4 kilometre stretch of the sea, and then extends for another 12 kilometres, before terminating in an ancient temple town, Rameswaram_(YouTube), close to the impressive Ramanatha Swamy temple around which the town is centered. Another 20 kilometres through an increasingly rough terrain brings us to a forgotten fishing hamlet, Moonram Chathiram, before bringing us to some ruined buildings, abandoned rain-tracks, a submerged temple and a ruined church. Welcome to Dhanushkodi_(YouTube). Till tragedy struck on the night of December 22nd 1964, this was India's only border-town in the south.
comment posted at 11:32 PM on Oct-11-11

Life as an Italian American Sikh Female Taxi Driver Maria Provenzano Singh is an ordinary Italian American woman who married a Sikh man and became a taxi driver.
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Oct-10-11
comment posted at 11:34 PM on Oct-10-11

An esteemed UC Berkeley tradition is to award Nobel prize winners free parking. Every Nobel prize winner who works at the UC Berkeley campus is awarded the "Nobel Laureate Parking Permit," that allows the holder free parking on campus; a precious and scarce thing, not unlike the Nobel Prize.
comment posted at 8:36 PM on Oct-10-11

The Dalai Lama was prevented from going to South Africa for Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday by visa problems. So they used Google+ to "Hangout" instead.
comment posted at 3:33 AM on Oct-9-11

Shocking Moments In U & PG Rated Movies
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Oct-7-11

According to a press release issued by Apple, co-founder Steve Jobs has passed away.
comment posted at 10:44 PM on Oct-5-11

You need a permit (PDF) to use amplified sound in New York City. Which the #OccupyWallStreet protesters haven't got. So they've come up with a unique solution for transmitting their message - the human microphone.
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Oct-4-11

Temporary marriage: the next big thing? The divorce rate in Mexico City is huge, with half of marriages ending within two years. Some lawmakers there are introducing a reform to the civil code that would make marriage contracts renewable, with a minimum of two years.
comment posted at 11:03 PM on Sep-30-11

We are the 99 percent.
comment posted at 1:25 AM on Oct-1-11

So you are a hired assasassin, but what happens when it turns out the victim you are supposed to kill is a childhood friend and / or someone you fall in love with? Well obviouisly you fake-up evidence of your killing with the help of a machette under the armpit and lots and lots of tomato ketchup...
comment posted at 8:13 AM on Sep-24-11

Mansoor 'Tiger' Ali Khan, erstwhile Indian cricket captain, has died. His legacy evokes a previous era in Indian history: a last-generation Royal blinded in one eye as a young man, he captained the Oxford then the Indian teams (his father had played for Oxford and England before captaining India), and married movie actress Sharmila Tagore with whom he had children who went on to become movie stars themselves. Some memories of a man known for his cricketing skill, style and charisma.
comment posted at 8:06 PM on Sep-22-11
comment posted at 11:24 PM on Sep-22-11
comment posted at 1:44 AM on Sep-23-11

Reamde - Neal Stephenson's much anticipated book, has just been released. Perhaps you can ask Neal questions at one of his book-signings. I know I've got some questions about Bitcoin and what he thinks of his 1995 predictions now with the latest happenings over at Mt Gox. :)
comment posted at 9:15 PM on Sep-20-11

Just over five months after the ban came into force, the Guardian reports on the impact of France's so-called burqa ban on niqab-wearing women.
comment posted at 9:02 PM on Sep-19-11

After nearly 200 years of rest, Mount Tambora is rumbling again and spewing ash. The last eruption of Mount Tambora was in 1815 and at the time was the largest eruption in the world since 180 AD. The massive amount of volcanic ash kicked into the stratosphere (around 160 cubic kilometers of ejecta were released) cooled Earth's temperature by over a degree Fahrenheit and caused "The year without a summer". In comparison, the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens released around 1 cubic kilometer of ejecta.
comment posted at 10:20 PM on Sep-19-11

An unauthorized Angry Birds theme park has opened in China. There is also a Blizzard-themed park called Joyland.
comment posted at 7:49 PM on Sep-16-11

Microsoft announced today that Internet Explorer 10, part of Windows 8 and a massive UI and structural redesign, will come in two flavors: a desktop app that will continue "to fully support all plug-ins and extensions, " and the flagship version intended for touchscreen devices called Metro, which will be as "HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free". Specifically, Metro won't support Adobe Flash.
comment posted at 9:38 PM on Sep-15-11
comment posted at 11:45 PM on Sep-15-11

Democracy’s Saintly Challenger India is no stranger to protest movements, hunger strikes, and the mass mobilization of citizens for a popular cause. But the recent fast by the Gandhian leader Anna Hazare, culminating in an extraordinary Saturday session of Parliament to pass a resolution acceding to his main demands, marked a dramatic departure in the country’s politics.

The Anna phenomenon reflects a “perfect storm” of converging factors: widespread disgust with corruption, particularly after two recent high-profile cases of wrongdoing (in allocating telecoms spectrum and awarding contracts for the Commonwealth Games); the organizational skill of a small group of activists committed to transforming India’s governance practices; the mass media’s perennial search for a compelling story; and the availability of a saintly figure to embody the cause. It also raises important questions about civil society’s role in a democracy.
comment posted at 3:45 AM on Sep-7-11
comment posted at 4:25 AM on Sep-7-11
comment posted at 5:47 PM on Sep-7-11

The PC industry is built around an idea of almost infinite variation: different Wi-Fi adaptors, different Ethernet chipsets, different GPUs, different USB3 controllers. This variety is then reflected in the systems available from manufacturers—and more importantly, it's reflected in the way the systems are actually built. … The big reason that HP wants to get out of the PC business is that it's simply not very profitable for HP—and that's true for all the major PC OEMs, Cupertino excepted. Cheap PCs are certainly important for making computing accessible, but they also mean that PC vendors have made themselves vulnerable: endless price cuts and a failure to emphasize the value of a quality product have cut revenues and slashed profitability. Desperate to compete on pricing and pricing alone, the mass-market PC OEMs have ended up cutting their own throats.

Ars technica explains why the PC industry is having such a difficult time trying to build a competitor to the MacBook Air.
comment posted at 11:59 PM on Sep-5-11

Far too many people, especially perhaps-innocent grad. students, have been misled into thinking that, in terms of quoting LZ or CZ, they may do what they want, and do not have to worry about me. Paul Zukofsky, son and literary executor of poet Louis Zukofsky, wrote a spirited copyright notice that appears on a site dedicated to his father's work.
comment posted at 9:07 PM on Sep-4-11
comment posted at 9:56 PM on Sep-4-11

(Almost) Everything You Need to Know about Culture in 10 Books
comment posted at 12:23 AM on Sep-2-11

Wikileaks has alleged that Guardian editor David Leigh negligently leaked the encryption passphrase to the unredacted 'Cablegate' archive in an upcoming book. The Guardian denies the charges, but states that "[a] Twitter user has now published a link to the full, unredacted database of embassy cables", potentially putting informants at risk.
comment posted at 11:58 PM on Aug-31-11

Massive Biometric Project Gives Crores of Indians an ID: Aadhaar faces titanic physical and technical challenges: reaching millions of illiterate Indians who have never seen a computer, persuading them to have their irises scanned, ensuring that their information is accurate, and safeguarding the resulting ocean of data. This is India, after all—a country notorious for corruption and for failing to complete major public projects. And the whole idea horrifies civil libertarians. But if Aadhaar’s organizers pull it off, the initiative could boost the fortunes of India’s poorest citizens and turbocharge the already booming national economy.
comment posted at 4:11 AM on Aug-31-11
comment posted at 7:44 AM on Aug-31-11

When Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was released from government custody it was with several conditions. Ai was slapped with a travel ban, was not to speak to the media about his detention and was banned from using social media. Since his release he has returned to Twitter, joined Google+, given an interview to a Party-run newspaper and on August 28 he published a piece in Newsweek that calls Beijing "a constant nightmare".
comment posted at 6:58 PM on Aug-30-11

A self-styled "ninja" is patrolling the streets of Yeovil in a bid to make the town a safer place. 'Martial arts expert and father-of-two Ken Andre, 33, also known as Shadow, has been monitoring the streets of the Somerset town for the past six years.'
comment posted at 3:22 AM on Aug-28-11

After 14 years, Rob Malda is walking away from Slashdot.
comment posted at 7:20 AM on Aug-25-11

In 1989, invited to an open air theatre, late at night, I first experienced the 6 hour long screening of Peter Brook's Mahabharata, a much revered Hindu epic which includes the complete Bhagavad Gita as a central part of its narrative. Brook's multiracial casting and innovative treatment received criticism yet its impact has been acknowledged anyone who sat through the 9 hour play, the 6 hour TV serialization or only the 3 hour DVD.
comment posted at 4:09 AM on Aug-23-11
comment posted at 5:56 AM on Aug-23-11

Skincare company Nivea withdraws a controversial magazine ad after accusations of racism. The ad shows a black man in the act of throwing out a full-face mask which has a beard and an afro. The image is juxtaposed with the slogan "Re-Civilize Yourself."
comment posted at 10:29 PM on Aug-22-11

Researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute say they've uncovered a pattern that triggers riots wherever it's found. What is that pattern? The price of food. When it rises to a certain level, social unrest & violence are soon to follow. According to their calculations the food price index is due to peak in August of 2013, assuming no corrective action is taken. The original paper is here.
comment posted at 8:35 PM on Aug-21-11

A husband and wife ambassador team leave soon for Armenia. The UK has found a solution to the challenge of "trailing" foreign service spouses.
comment posted at 7:26 PM on Aug-21-11

The Exile's Ramon Glazov reports on the blitz debut of Australia's own Tea-Party-esque political demonstrations.
comment posted at 2:12 AM on Aug-19-11

Where's Wall-E?
comment posted at 9:36 PM on Aug-18-11
comment posted at 9:37 PM on Aug-18-11

The Outer Limits episode, The Architects of Fear is built around faking an alien invasion in order to stop nuclear armageddon. In a recent interview, Paul Krugman of the New York Times proposed a fake alien invasion to stimulate the economy.
comment posted at 3:21 AM on Aug-19-11

Cramming for College at Beijing's Second High.
comment posted at 4:26 AM on Aug-19-11

Suck on it Applesoft. "Everyone was baffled when Google made those crazy bids for the Nortel patents last month. Remember? They bid things like the distance from the earth to the sun, the number pi, and some other wacky numbers from mathematics."
comment posted at 7:45 AM on Aug-17-11
comment posted at 8:05 AM on Aug-17-11

জয় হে : So you have seven swara's, or musical notes, each associated with elements, animals, chakra's and Hindu gods. Linearly arranged swara's, or sur's in Hindi, form a swaramalika, a chain of swara's. Mixing yours and my swara's, for instance, produces our sur_(YT) (text). Once again,_(YT) on a Continuum Fingerboard. The seven swara's together are also called a 'sargam', a Devnaagri acronym formed by taking the first letter of each note. Sargam mix with each other and form raaga's, melodic modes that depict the colours, hues and moods in Indian classical music. Assembling known maestros from every corner of the nation, and asking them to play their sargam's, you get desh raag_(YT): the Sound of a Nation.
comment posted at 7:47 PM on Aug-15-11

The original Yahoo, Bollywood actor (and internet buff) Shammi Kapoor passed away after illness in Mumbai on 14th August 2011. The actor belonged to the Indian film industry's famous family of actors which included his father, Prithviraj, and brothers Raj and Shashi Kapoor. (His first wife Geeta Bali was a superstar in her own right) One of the most popular stars of his generation, also known as the "Elvis Presley of India" he starred in hits like Junglee, An Evening in Paris, Chinatown and Kashmir Ki Kali.
comment posted at 11:11 PM on Aug-14-11

Five myths about Africa .
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Aug-13-11