The power of ideas

TED Talks - here are some of the best presentations I have seen in recent times, and one learn so much about the topic being said and even more importantly the art of presenting.

Here some of my fav. -

1. Sir Ken Robinson - "Out of our minds: learning to be creative"
2. Majora Carter - a magnificient presentation about environmental justice & sustainable growth. Read here at some of her presentation highlights.
   
3. Al Gore
   

I can assure you that any regular reader will def. enjoy these talks and will appreciate them and the several other talks at TED.

Its HOT n Droooooling

Ref: DONATELLA'S NEW SUPERMODELS

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Update(Aug. 3): Looks like my reference blog removed the hot models, here is the parent ref..
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But again, Google can get them back, Here are they again :))

Its HOT n Boring

so, I decided (did I??) to take the world's quickest & shortest personality test :-)

Your Personality Profile

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky. Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

You Are 40% Cynical

Generally you give people the benefit of the doubt. But there are exceptions. You buy into many of the things that mainstream society believes, but you're not anybody's fool.

How Cynical Are You?

don't know how much is true :-)

PS - we need A/C!!

New Music Search

today i came across a new internet music service called Pandora while surfing on CNet News. Now you must be like, there are thousands more out there, why another one. But this one is different, if i might say, and quite interesting too. Its 'a bit' like Mercora, if you have used it, but unlike mercora, no need to download n install anything & a lot more functions . Also mercora was nice but way too many bugs in the software & slow.

Now Pandora is an online music search engine & internet radio which allows you to play music by searching artist, albums, song, genre etc. and then one can create customized stations of one music taste's based on recommendations, ratings, feedbacks on songs, artists n so on. Its not like the conventional internet radios, where I have no say on the type of music I wanna listen too. And also its based on Music Genome project.

Go ahead and give it a try!!

Melting Mohan

hehe, but its true, its so so very hot here. I know, you are from india n all those comments, but com'on we have fans, coolers, A/C's n what not :-)
its quite nice outside, kind 24 C right now but inside the room, its HOT, n no proper ventilation. When are we getting an A/C??

Conan O'Brien in Europe

Funny Clips of Conan travel,

Conan in Germany

Conan in Amsterdam

Conan trying to find his roots in Ireland

Watch at your own risk ;)

Daily Show: Israel/Lebanon Fallout

And if the last 2 videos were not enough, here is the best - how the american news channels are reporting the Israel-Lebanon crisis and how America feel about it or I should say where they might feel it!! Crazy reporting.. Jon Stewart gives the insight

Daily Show: Bush, Germany, and A Pig

can't imagine bush press conferences after seeing this one, they must be hilarious ;-)), he doesn't just seem to get it :)

Jon Stewart jokes about Bush swearing

As jon stewart said atleast he's on the topic :-))

Links

Some interesting links doing their rounds on blogspshere :

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel - First head of state to do Video Blog
  
• Pres. Bush giving a quick shoulder massage to Angela Merkel ;)
• Zidane headbutt as seen by different people - funny link :)
• CBS new upcoming "egg-vertising"

Indian bloggers - Censored

Since yesterday, there have been a a lot of reporting & talk on blogsphere about the domain blogspot.com being blocked by all major ISP's in India. And it has been confirmed that the Indian Government has issued a notice to block 'some' blogspot blogs. But various other's are being affected too like geocities, typepad n mebbe more to follow.

Links -

• Soon, you may not be able to see
• Blogspot blogs banned in India
• Blogger blocked by Indian ISP's

An excerpt from Digital Inspiration -

"Whoever may be responsible, India has clearly joined the Internet Filtering Club of China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Euthopia. If the access to restricted websites is not restored in a day or two, this issue is sure to gather active momentum ..."

Great Wedding

last weekend, I attended Daniel & Lena Wedding in Heidelberg. And as i said in my earlier post, it was my first German wedding. I had a great time and daniel-lena were great host. Best wishes for their new life ahead.

The wedding party took place near Heidelberg Castle, called Molkenkur, beautiful place. Heidelberg itself is a beautiful city, don't miss it. After a long drive from Munich to Mannheim, I arrived there all in sweat, it was extremely hot & humid that day; so after taking a cool shower, all ready to get the party moving :)

To my surprise, (ok not that much surprise as daniel already told me whos coming), lot of princetonians showed, who i haven't met for a long time - "Christoph, Marcela, Kaz, Paolo, Jens n more" and had a great time with all during the party; great people; great food (veg too, yes i'm sort of veg); great wine; great skits n shows by friends; great music n dance; everything was great :). And this time I was exempted from any speeches ;) and daniel-lena gave a wonderful thank you and welcome speech.

Next day, we all went hiking on Odenwald, it was equally great & the pictures are on flickr. But some of them are under "only for family n friends" options, so if you wanna see all, add me as an important contact in flickr :-)

Speechless

Once again, heinous act of terrorism killing hundreds of innocent people stuck us. I am speechless and have no words for it. Its not even a year and this is the second time, I am posting on "bomb blasts" killing innocent people in India and not just India but there are so many more in thousands being killed all over the world by the so called terrorists. As one Indian poet n lyricist mentioned - Who are these people, are they even humans? How can they justify killing innocent men, women & children. Do they have souls, families, kids?

News articles in Indian press :-

Enough is Enough!
They call us resilient?
Terror Tuesday 7/11

Where will it end!!

Update on Final Post

Looks like the controversy surrounding Zidane taking a new turn, reported on BBC, HERE & HERE, with strong abuses from the italian.

A friend just told me of blasts in Indian city of Bombay, still reading but here is the breaking NEWS on rediff.

Final Post - World Cup 2006

Hallo leute, ich bin zurück - i am back from my mountainous tour of germany :)) (more on that later). First the world cup, which came to a wonderful finish with ITALY winning for the 4th time. Congrats to the italians.

But before that, even bigger "Herzlich Glückwunsch Deutschland" - "Heartly Congratualtions Germany". The news articles are filled with praises for the country, its people, its football team, the arrangements, the policemen, the cities, their love for fans of all nationalities, the overall hospitality n so on. Read HERE and HERE.


As per the final game, it was equally balanced, italy dominating first half and france the second half. And as per the big talk, Zidane Zinedine, I believe it was wrong. There is a lot of talk in press and several variations, some supporting, some not sure, some aganist it. Everyone wondering "What happened to Zidane?" True, he is a great player and also won the "Golden Ball" award for WC'06 but the way he displayed himself on field yesterday, was kinda disappointing for the team & country on a world stage. Also he was def. not at his best in the game, unlike last games where he single handidly took the team till finals with his beautiful footwork and support on field. Many games are full of fouling, falling and fibbing, but a player of his stature and exprience shouldn't have lost his temper, that too for his last international appearance. Mebbe, he gives the reason for it sometime in future!!

In the end, the last 4 weeks were full of great moments of play, great football spirit, great teams and wonderful times with great fans, great atmosphere, lots of paryting, drummin, flags, honking, celebrations, tears, beers etc. etc.; esp. here in Munich and I hope everyone else enjoyed the sporting event equally. So until next time, 2010, keep the lively spirit showed by everyone in your hearts :))

First Ever

ok blogosphere people, I'm off to attend my first ever German Wedding of a good friend of mine.

Pics n Exp. coming soon!!

Till then, n ya enjoy the finals of world cup

Reality Check - 2

A few weeks or months ago, Guy Kawasaki posted about a new VoIP service called jajah; I have been using it quite a lot to call internationally since then.

Few days back, they introduced FREE phone calls to all their members registered numbers, and unlike other services, one registers by providing any 3 phone numbers (like home, office & mobile) and hence one can call any registered number for free. Registration again is free.

To tell you the catch for free calls, as some of you might think, free calls, crazy. But since introducing free service, they have increased their normal calling rates to countries like india, australia, also swiss etc. (as i got charged almost double to call india last time).

Anyhow, if you register, even if you don't plan to use the service, your family, friends or contacts who might be using it, will be able to call you (ie. your registered number) for free. So, to make my life easy, join it!! :-)) and let me know your registered number.

Donuts & Candies

so, all teams or players or coaches I supported in the last few weeks are out of the world cup. The final team "Portugal" lost today to France.

I, with some friends of mine, was watching the game at our "one of the favourite" hangouts in Munich. And if you are in Munich, anytime, don't miss this shop. Its called "Donuts & Candies " and they have the BEST donuts of the world here :) (lots n lots of choices) & now oven toasted cream cheese bagels too and Michael is the best host.

And offcourse, we were supporting Portugal, as Michael is from Portugal and another friend supporting portugal and myself supporting Scolari, but we lost. So now its italy vs. france. To cheer up our moods, we drank (i only had ice tea) lots of beer, gooood german beer. And discussed everything apart from football, italy n france. Kinda boycotting all three :).. The evening ended with discussion about the terms for a marriage and various other issues relating to it .. how many kids, summer n winter places to live, marriage in india ;), s** issues, kids raising, work issues, n more n more :)) and even got rings exchanged (don't believe all i say) ;))

Graduated Finally

yesterday, i went to the university just to check my mails as my internet was not working and while I was there, i decided to check on whether my final degree is ready or not. So went to the lady and asked her about it.

I said "Bitte sprechen Sie Englisch" (i don't take chances with my german for official work)
She said "Naturlich n smiles"
I said "Is my final degree certificates ready or whats the procedure to get them"
She said "did you receive any letter for it?"
I said "No"
(she) a bit confused, but still checks the drawers n said "Can i see your passport"
I said "sure" - here
She said "oh here it is, we must have sent the letter to wrong address"

then she explained some official stuff and asked me to sign some documents, that I received my final degree and that i am exmatriculated from univ. successfully

And hands over my degree to me .. n said congratulations n good luck

I said "Thank you; Vielen Dank"

Just holdin it feels great, NICE :-)) , and somewhere along it says

**Attaintment of this degree confers the right to use the title "Master of Science (TUM)" and the Abbreviation "M.Sc. (TUM)"**

The official ceremony takes place once a year, which is planned for Nov. '06 or so, where I will get something sort of official certificate or so. But thats for later.

Moving On !!

What is the world, we literally have nothing to tell us - 2

didn't had time to think abt the question " What is the world" but my internet is up and running :-)) n i'm back to doing something's on my PC again ..

and germany lost :-( .. in the last 2 minutes.. so all teams i supported are out now, so instead I am supporting Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal's Coach (Brazil coach in last world cup)

What is the world, we literally have nothing to tell us

the topic has nothing to do with my post.. just wanted to keep my readers informed of my absence from bloggin. Last week, i was not in Munich and after i returned, my internet at home was not working anymore (hope repair guys comes soon) and since then, i am strugglin even to check my mails ;) .. its very surprising for me atleast that, without internet, i have rarely spent any time on my PC, nothing to do with the big machine taking so much space of my desk .. apart from watching some movies while eating :)

Today is the big game for germany.. goooo deutschland !!

thats all for now, wud be back as soon as my connection to the other world works out, till then, i will try to figure out "What is the World??"