So my buddy, let's just call him 'P', tells me something pretty interesting the other day.
So someone in P's family owns a famous fine dining restaurant in New Delhi's Select Citywalk.
Apparently their (and almost every other restaurant's) waiters are trained to put more food on the plates of kids than adults.
This is because usually, kids eat less than adults. And no self respecting parent would ask a waiter to not give their kid so much food. So you use up more food and they get more business! o.O
The horoscopes in the newspaper tell me I'm an Aquarian which means when i was born, on 9th February, the Sun was in the constellation of Aquarius, the water carrier, and it was but only over two thousand years ago, when the system of astrology was developed. In the 2000+ years since then, the earth’s axis has moved, kind of like a wobbling top and now, in 1992, the sun was not in Aquarius, but in Capricornus. So now im a capricorn?
In fact, the sun is now one zodiac behind where it’s “supposed to be” according to the astrologers. So if you think you’re a Virgo, you’re actually a Leo and if you were born between 17th November and 17th December, you’re neither Scorpio nor a Sagittarian, you’re actually an Ophichan. Yup, 2000 years worth of wobbling of the earth’s axis means there’s now 13 zodiacs and not 12.
If you want to run your own simulations and see where the sun was when you were born, point your browsers to www.stellarium.org and download the free software, plug in the date of your birth, and look for the Sun and see which constellation it’s in.
Makes you think twice before believing in a system which can’t even get its basic organization right, doesn’t it? and that, along with their other bull crap is why us astronomers get mad when you call us Astrologers!
Hey everyone!! So it's that time of the year again, when commercies ("commerce students" aka people with foresight) dust off their books and actually open 'em and us poor sciencies ("science students" aka the crazys) are going crazy working our asses off to get into a "good" college, which for most people happens to be one of the IITs, which is the acronym for Institute of Infinite Torture, Institute of Indian Technology, etc. These institutes of so-called national importance were set up by the Indian Parliament at various campuses across India, decided purely on merits of political alliances of the ruling party. Operation IIT began under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to reduce the average intelligence of Indians. Just like Zion in Matrix, where 3% of the people who do not accept the Matrix are gathered together to prevent dissent as a whole, IITs were formed by the Government of India to gather at one place the 3% of the intelligentsia of the country and export them away. The IITs have proved to be very productive, growing from a single institute in 1951 to 16 now (and counting).
The admission to IIT is via an exam called JEE. Various definitions for JEE have been suggested. The most commonly accepted of them is "Just Engineering and Engineering". The geeks and nerds of India start preparing for IIT-JEE right after entering kindegarten. A very effective test of whether a guy is fit for getting into the IITs is asking a very simple question: "Do you have a girlfriend"? A guy who says anything else other than "What's a girl?" would not get through the test. Girls are considered unfit to get into IITs, though some girls manage to get the application forms as they look like guys. To make sure no girl gets through the system by bribing to get the application forms, the applicants are required to specify their gender and affix a photograph in the application form. Those faces that resemble anything girly are not selected.
Fig 1.21 (b): What the IIT-JEE topper looks like
The entrance exam, IIT-JEE, is an extremely selective undergrad admission process (accepting less than 3% of their applicants). Whether it is extremely selective or extremely rejective has always been an issue of debate. Sources close to the institute say that it was designed to teach the masses how to face rejection. The original plan was to reject everyone, but the fallout was that people stopped taking the test. Eventually they had to invent IITs so as to inspire people to take the test.
As they say, if the input is right, the output is automatically right. The six-hour Joint Entrance Exam held, as the name suggests, jointly by IITs. Since Indians are well known for cramming up loads of information, questions in JEE are never repeated.
But then there's the elite few who don't really want to go to an IIT: The enlightened ones - a not so secret cult that chooses to reject outrght the dominance of the IITs on the college scene and want to join other colleges like MIT (Manipal Insti. of Tech LOL), CalTech (Calcutta), and of course - the very prestigious AMITY NOIDA!!
Here's in a nutshell why i don't want to go to an IIT-
The Average IIT-ians room
"Non-males" at IIT
The cool crowd @ IIT
phew!! That's been one long post.. i might add some more video if i find something worth sharing. If you guys find something, put it in the comments!!
People always wonder why i'd pay more for an apple product, or why i push apple so much. Here's one of the billions of reasons. The other day, while on vacation in New York, I lost my unibody MacBook's charger cable. So i look it up on apple.com and find they dont sell replacements - I'll have to spend 80$ on a new charger! Holy Shh--ining light upon us :p
So next thing i know i'm in the apple store, remember i'm in New York, live in New Delhi, India, bought the MacBook in Pittsburgh, PA and have no reciept or proof of purchase. So i walk upto an employee and tell him how i lost my cable and needed a new one, mentally preparing myself to have to buy another charger and guess what? He goes out to the back of the store, and a few minutes later comes out with a brand new cable- No extra fees, No checks, No questions asked - Completely free!!
Qutub Minar is the world's tallest brick minaret in Delhi, India. It was built by Qutb-ud-din Aibak and the topmost storey of the minaret was completed in 1386 by Firuz Shah Tughluq. The Qutab Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture.
Now, some pictures:
[clisk on the pictures to see a bigger size.]
This was a really cool picture i got of the lighting at the Qutub minar. There are at least 3 different types of lights in this picture. Unfortunately, they hadn't let me take in my tripod so I had to shoot with my 50mm prime wide open at f/1.8 Although this makes for a cool composition as an abstract, I couldnt get much of the actual structure.
This is probably the [second]best picture I got there. As I was standing almost right nest to the minar, I couldnt get the whole thing in a single shot. This is a composite of about 4-5 shots that capture the full extent of how tall it is! This was taken with my 18-55 set at 18mm, wide open.
Architectural Astrophotography!
This is a really cool picture because it shows 4 solar system objects!! The ground and Qutab minar are on the Earth. In the sky, from left to right are, the Moon, Jupiter and Venus. Click on the photo to go to the flickr page where there are notes. Again I didnt have a tripod so this was kinda hard to take.
Although I was dissapointed that I couldnt take my tripod with me and that they empty the place during twilight so i missed the "golden hour", I did get some interesting pics!
