Blog of Parag

Just love how Nigella Lawson talks and also her choice of words. Heard her interview on NPR this morning where she was talking about recipes for Royal Wedding watching…

“everyone is giving a show of enormous bored nonchalance and indifference in this country, however, I think everyone’s going to watch it.”

“I can’t make myself feel it’s a pivotal experience in my life, but I think it would be an affectation to ignore it.”

Another point to note is that she started off with two recipes for drinks. Gotta admire British for their love of booze. The only reason to fly on British Airways despite their otherwise horrible service, is that they provide more than generous amount of alcohol to the passengers without charging extra.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Dewey, Cheatham & Howe
• Fedex routing
• Pale Blue Dot
• Battling Cancer With T-Shirts And Laughter : NPR
• A prairie home companion

admin Airwaves (TV & Radio), World

FedEx delivers millions of packages everyday around the World. They probably have the most efficient routing system for those packages. I remember reading sometime ago that they (or was it UPS?) set up the delivery route for trucks to minimize left turns to make them more efficient.

With all that sophisticated system, I don’t know what happened to this package that I received recently. It came from China into Anchorage, AK where it was cleared by customs. Then it flew to Newark, NJ and unexpectedly took a wrong turn and went off to Oakland, CA before making it to Connecticut via Memphis, TN. I am not sure why FedEx added a cross-country trip in the package’s routing. I have to wonder if one of my friends worked on the development of this routing software.

Jul 14, 2010 8:38 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery NORWICH, CT
Jul 14, 2010 8:30 AM At local FedEx facility NORWICH, CT
Jul 13, 2010 6:50 PM At dest sort facility EAST GRANBY, CT
Jul 13, 2010 3:30 PM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
Jul 13, 2010 12:36 PM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
Jul 13, 2010 7:04 AM Departed FedEx location OAKLAND, CA
Jul 13, 2010 2:10 AM Arrived at FedEx location OAKLAND, CA
Jul 10, 2010 2:21 AM Arrived at FedEx location NEWARK, NJ
Jul 9, 2010 4:13 PM Departed FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK
Jul 9, 2010 1:26 PM Int’l shipment release ANCHORAGE, AK
Jul 9, 2010 12:42 PM Arrived at FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK
Jul 9, 2010 1:43 AM In transit LANTAU ISLAND HK
Jul 9, 2010 1:37 AM At local FedEx facility LANTAU ISLAND HK
Jul 8, 2010 1:33 PM Left FedEx origin facility SHENZHEN CN
Jul 8, 2010 11:06 AM Picked up SHENZHEN CN
Jul 7, 2010 2:02 PM Shipment information sent to FedEx

From Anchorage, AK to Norwich, CT the routes traveled by the package were in this order: red, orange, green and then, blue.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Acadia 2010
• Grand Canyon
• Protected: Skiing trip
• Pale Blue Dot

admin Travel, World

It is 20th anniversary of this photo taken by Voyager 1 and famously named by Carl Sagan as “Pale Blue Dot”. Read the full NPR story here. I really liked Sagan’s description of the photo.

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ’superstar’, every ’supreme leader’, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

This comes from his book with the same name: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. It is a good read.

In the last 20 years, Voyager 1 and 2, traveling at about 35,000 miles per hour, have moved farther away (at about 10 billion miles or 16 billion km currently) from Earth out on the fringes of our Solar system. If they look back and take a picture now, Earth will not even be seen in it.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Fedex routing
• Vast Universe
• Solar eclipse — contd
• Solar eclipse

admin Astronomy, World

• Inflation in Zimbabwe is at an astronomical level. One US dollar fetches 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars. One half liter of bottled water costs a ridiculous sum of US$ 19 which makes it 1.9 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. — From an article about Zimbabwe in the NewYorker.
• From late 15th century to mid 17th century, when Europeans arrived in North and South America, the diseases they brought along were responsible for 90% of deaths among native people. This was before they systematically started killing the natives. — From Sarah Vowell’s latest book, The Wordy Shipmates
• About 30% of people who are eligible for enrolling in a 401-k retirement plan, don’t make use of it. Only 60% of enrolled individuals put enough money to capture employer matching funds. Less than half of those, put away maximum possible amount allowed by the plan. Don’t know why so many people throw away free money. — From either Kiplinger or Money magazine.

Possibly Related Posts:

• I-series savings bonds
• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Dollar cost averaging
• Backdoor into Roth IRA
• Amazon.com card rewards

admin Books, Money & Investing, US, World

Paul Krugman is the winner of 2008 Nobel prize for economics. I read his column and blog on New York Times website and was always impressed with clarity of his writing and his thoughts on economic policy. Just last month, I learnt that he is not a reporter but, a professor of economics at Princeton University. This morning his Nobel prize was announced. Congratulations, Paul!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Fedex routing
• Pale Blue Dot
• Numbers
• Micro-finance

admin World

Last year, I was searching for companies that let people participate in micro-financing. I came across two websites: Prosper.com and Kiva.org.

I have posted about my experience with Prosper.com sometime last year. It is a peer-to-peer money lending operation where you bid on funding loans and you get paid interest as the borrowers pay the loans back. My investment in Prosper loans has paid a handsome return of more than 10%.

Same time last July, I also opened an account with Kiva.org. It is a truly micro-financing site that lets you lend money, interest-free, to people in developing countries. Two loans that I had funded at that time, are more than 60% paid off and yesterday, I funded another loan. It feels good to help someone who is trying to stand on his/her own feet.

Possibly Related Posts:

• I-series savings bonds
• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Dollar cost averaging
• Backdoor into Roth IRA
• Amazon.com card rewards

admin Money & Investing, World

I watched a documentary on HBO called, “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo“. It described the horrifying plight of women in Congo that are raped by foreign militia as well as Congolese army that is supposed to protect them. These women are subjected to gang-rapes followed by mutilation with gun barrels or sticks or anything these soldiers can get their hands on. The massive internal injuries make the women incontinent and are unable to get back to normal life without complicated surgery and prolonged rehabilitation. It was very sickening to watch these victims tell their stories. The sad part is that the international community is not doing anything or even talking about this weapon of rape that is destroying the fabric of society in these war-torn countries.

This same issue is the subject of Nicholas Kristof’s Op-ed in the New York Times, today.

former U.N. force commander there, Patrick Cammaert, says it is “more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Fedex routing
• Pale Blue Dot
• Numbers
• Paul Krugman

admin World

ENGINEERING: A New Great Lake–or Dead Sea? — Stone 320 (5879): 1002 — Science

Read this very interesting article in Science about a large scale canal building project to divert drainage water to a large natural low-lying area in the desert to create a lake to irrigate farms around it. They have built thousands of kilometer long canals to feed this lake just to show-off the government power. The article talks about problems caused by such canals its detrimental effects on the land around them. This reminded me of a similar proposed project in India to connect all the big rivers by canals for conserving and redistributing water. I wonder what happened to that and if a rigorous scientific analysis was conducted to study its effect on the environment.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Mumbai attacks – Propublica report
• Fedex routing
• Mehendi
• Pale Blue Dot

admin India, World

The man in this photo, Thomas Beatie, looks like a normal guy with a big beer gut. But, that is a completely wrong perception. In his own words, his “situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns”. Here is his whole story. While the society is still struggling to accept gays and fighting for/against gay rights, transsexuals is another group that is going to start a whole new set of these social battles. Although I totally support gay rights, I haven’t thought about and hence, don’t have an opinion about transsexuals yet.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Fedex routing
• Pale Blue Dot
• Numbers
• Paul Krugman

admin World

Pangea day seems like a brilliant and powerful idea. here is some info from their website…

Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film.
Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.
Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked via satellite for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.
The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes.

Read more…

Possibly Related Posts:

• Nigella Lawson on Royal Wedding
• Fedex routing
• Pale Blue Dot
• Numbers
• Paul Krugman

admin World