Every calendar's days are numbered.
Somebody's DarlingAmerican women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers. - W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years. - Gracie AllenYou don't know a women till you've met her in court. - Norman MailerGone with the water.Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. - Bill Gates September 30, 2005 in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2005
Marie La Coste: Somebody's Darling
MARIE LA COSTE
1845 - 1935
After the death of Marie's unnamed fiancée, a captain in the Confederate Army, apparently in 1862, the young French teacher became nurse and visitor at local hospitals for wounded Confederate soldiers. Her poem, which is sung at historical events today, is a distinctive memorial to those soldiers.
SOMEBODY’S DARLING
Into a ward of the white washed walls,
Where the dead and dying lay,
Wounded by bayonets, shells and balls,
Somebody’s darling was borne one day.
Somebody’s darling so young and brave
Wearing yet on his pale sweet face,
Soon to be hid by the dust of the grave,
The lingering light of his boyhood’s grace.
Matted and damp are the curls of gold
Kissing the snow of that fair young brow;
Pale are the lips of delicate mold -
Somebody’s darling is dying now.
Back from the beautiful blue-veined brow
Brushed all the wandering waves of gold;
Cross his hands on his bosom now;
Somebody’s darling is still and cold.
Kiss him once for somebody’s sake,
Murmur a prayer soft and low;
One bright curl from it’s fair mates take;
They were somebody’s pride you know.
Somebody’s hand has rested there;
Was it a mother’s soft and white?
And have the lips of a sister fair
Been baptized in the waves of light?
God knows best! He was somebody’s love,
Somebody’s heart enshrined him there.
Somebody wafted his name above,
Night and morn on the wings of prayer.
Somebody wept when he marched away,
Looking so handsome brave and grand;
Somebody’s kiss on his forehead lay;
Somebody clung to his parting hand.
Somebody’s watching and waiting for him,
Yearning to hold him again to her heart;
And there he lies with his blue eyes dim,
And the smiling child-like lips apart.
Tenderly bury the fair young dead,
Pausing to drop on his grave a tear;
Carve on the wooden slab at his head,
“Somebody’s darling slumbers here.”
Written by Marie La Coste
and subsequently published by
J .C. Schreiner & Son of Augusta, Georgia in 1864
(click here for Gujarati translation by Jhaverchand Meghani)
September 28, 2005 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 26, 2005
Mysterious Stars Surround Andromeda's Black Hole
Stars race around a black hole at the center of the Andromeda galaxy so fast that they could go the distance from Earth to the Moon in six minutes.
The finding, announced today, solves a mystery over the source of strange blue light coming from Andromeda's center. But it generates a new puzzle: The stars' phenomenal orbital velocity suggests they should never have formed in the first place.
Astronomers first spotted the blue light near Andromeda's core in 1995. Three years later, another group determined that the light emanated from a cluster of hot, young stars. Nobody knew how many were involved.
Continue reading.
September 26, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 25, 2005
Keystrokes Reveal Passwords to Researchers
BERKELEY, Calif. - If spyware and key-logging software weren't a big enough threat to privacy, researchers have figured out a way to eavesdrop on your computer simply by listening to the clicks and clacks of the keyboard.
Those seemingly random noises, when processed by a computer, were translated with up to 96 percent accuracy, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
"It's a form of acoustical spying that should raise red flags among computer security and privacy experts," said Doug Tygar, a Berkeley computer science professor and the study's principal investigator.
Researchers used several 10-minute audio recordings of people typing away at their keyboards. They fed the recordings into a computer that used an algorithm to detect subtle differences in the sound as each letter is struck.
Contiune reading.
September 25, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 24, 2005
Ask Jeeves decides to axe Jeeves
Search site Ask Jeeves is getting rid of the iconic valet that has been its companion since its earliest days.
Citing "user confusion" over what the butler character represents the search site has said that Jeeves will soon be phased out.
However, Ask's research revealed that Jeeves was getting in the way of people realising that the search site had changed and that it can handle many more types of queries than just straightforward questions.
"As a result," said the Ask statement, "the character may be phased out as the prominent icon of the brand, although no timeline or details have been determined."
In line with a series of changes made to the Ask site last year, Jeeves got a makeover which saw him get slimmer and more tanned.
In its statement Ask said that no decision had yet been made on the new brand name it will adopt to show how the search site had evolved.
September 24, 2005 in Web/Tech, World News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
reliance india call
Now reliance india call goes to UK too. Call anywhere in India, any time at 7.9 pence per minute for landline access number and 8.9 pence per minute for freephone access number. Rates are inclusive of VAT
September 24, 2005 in World News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 23, 2005
Psychopaths could be best financial traders?
LONDON (Reuters) - "Wanted: psychopaths to make a killing in the markets."
Such an advert will not be appearing in the world's newspapers any time soon, but it may have a ring of truth after research revealed the best wheeler-dealers could well be "functional psychopaths."
A team of U.S. scientists has found the emotionally impaired are more willing to gamble for high stakes and that people with brain damage may make good financial decisions, the Times newspaper reported Monday.
In a study of investors' behavior 41 people with normal IQs were asked to play a simple investment game. Fifteen of the group had suffered lesions on the areas of the brain that affect emotions.
The result was those with brain damage outperformed those without.
Continue reading.
September 23, 2005 in Info, Reality | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 22, 2005
A Female Sensibility
Videogame makers have ignored half their potential market. Now they're having a second look, and altering the possibilities of gaming.
Videogame economics are such that companies are willing to hemorrhage money selling consoles like the Xbox and the Sony PlayStation at a loss to build market share, then make money selling the games. But the kind of growth that's needed to make that model work is hard to imagine unless more women are brought into the market. "Whoever takes that philosophical leap—'We're solid enough to appeal to our core, we can reach outside our demographic'—they're going to win out in the end," says Ankarino Lara, director of GameSpot.com, a popular gaming Web site. "Female gaming is the last frontier; 2006 is going to be a milestone year."
Continue reading.
September 22, 2005 in Games | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 21, 2005
How smart are you?
Hardly a week passes without headlines about academic standards. Are exams getting easier? Are people getting smarter?
Well, here's a chance for Magazine readers to test themselves - first on English - then on maths.
September 21, 2005 in Fun | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 20, 2005
Well, if you can't even trust a hitman..
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman called in the police after a hitman she paid to kill her lover's wife failed to carry out the job.
The 32-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said Friday.
The woman contacted a private detective through a Web site last November and paid him 1 million yen in cash to murder her love rival, the paper said.
The 40-year-old detective accepted the money and suggested he could carry out the job by chasing the victim on a motorcycle and spraying her with a biological agent in a tunnel.
Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target safe and well, the paper said.
September 20, 2005 in Reality, World News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 18, 2005
Anton Webern
'A novel contained in a single sigh' On Sept. 15, 1945, Anton Webern stepped out to smoke a cigar. An American soldier, seeing the glow of the cigar, panicked and shot Webern three times. Webern, along with Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, is credited with -- or blamed for -- ushering in an era of composition emphasizing strict, mathematical order over all elements of music, a reaction against the suicidal excess of Romanticism. On the anniversary of his death, BBC Radio 3 hosts Webern Day, during which Webern's complete works will be broadcast. The total time to perform his 31 works is about three hours.
September 18, 2005 in History | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 17, 2005
speaks volume
It's one year old article from National Geographic. It speaks volume...
September 17, 2005 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
6 views of the Islamic world
6 views of the Islamic world What is at the the root of the clash between Islam and the West? And what do your answers say about your own beliefs? (via the Guardian)
September 17, 2005 in Info | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 16, 2005
Bill Gates meets Napolean Dynamite.
Bill Gates meets Napolean Dynamite. Microsoft has a history of doing little spoofs at their developer events (a couple years ago Gates and Ballmer did a send up of the GTI commercial and then there was The Matrix). While this one is a shaky camera capture (hopefully someone uploads the original), it's still pretty amusing and fun to watch Gates poke fun at himself. Of course, the unintended comedy videos involving Gates are often funnier.
September 16, 2005 in Fun, Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 11, 2005
Collect Britain: Accents & Dialects
In England alone, an intrepid traveler may overhear hundreds of dialects and accents. What's more extraordinary is how these brogues and drawls have evolved throughout the 20th century. Thanks to the British Library's Sound Archive, you can eavesdrop on English people from across the country without packing your bags. For instance, meet Dick Gilbert. In 1958, when he was 79 years old, he spoke about his experience as a young farm hand. The Sound Archive offers the lexis, phonology, and grammar break-down of Dick's commentary. But more importantly, it allows you to marvel at his voice. With recordings ranging from the 1950s to 1999, the site offers a wealth of samples. Some are downright incomprehensible, some are thoroughly entertaining,
but all are fascinating. So listen up; England is speaking to you
September 11, 2005 in Fun, History | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 07, 2005
Comparison New Orleans vs. Mumbai (Bombay)
New Orleans vs. Mumbai (Bombay)
inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans...48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and its business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..
oopss...did i get the last fact wrong???
September 7, 2005 in Info, Reality | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
September 04, 2005
JohnAugust.com
If you're writing a screenplay (and let's face it, who isn't?), get thee to this blog. Subtitled "a ton of useful information about screenwriting," the site shares, well, a ton of useful information about screenwriting. John August, whose credits include "Big Fish," "Go," and "Charlie's Angels," walks us through the trials and tribulations of wielding the pen in Hollywood. Along the way, he addresses such topics as...
Even if you don't indulge in fantasies of writing your own screenplay but just love movies (and let's face it, who doesn't?), you'll enjoy this glimpse into the inner workings of La-La Land.
September 4, 2005 in Art, Books, Info | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
