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Category Archives: fun

Health Newsflash

In a startling discovery made by combining the latest artificial intelligence technology and data mining of health news sources, it has been shown that being charged with possession of assets disproportionate with one’s known sources of income is the leading cause of high blood pressure and coronary problems in India. See here for an example. […]

Of Tafiti and African names

If I had known that what I’m doing would one day be labeled by one of the world’s biggest companies as “Tafiti”, I can assure you I would have reconsidered a foray into research. So Microsoft has debuted a beta of Tafiti (which means “do research” in Swahili). I can’t run it yet – of […]

Washington Post on reading

The Washington Post is an oasis of sanity in a desert of inexplicable fanaticism: Through a marvel of modern publishing, advertising and distribution, millions of people will receive or buy “The Deathly Hallows” on a single day. There’s something thrilling about that sort of unity, except that it has almost nothing to do with the […]

Darth Vader to read the Declaration of Independence

James Earl Jones, whose lent his voice to the unforgettable Darth Vader, will read the Declaration of Independence at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, USA (via). If only we could hear a slightly modified version… “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to dissolve Rebel scum…”

Eating carbon

The Economist explains that companies in America are being forced to go green because of the inevitability of carbon-trading systems: if they want to have a say in the carbon market, they need to be lobbying for emission controls. A quote that cracked me up: As Mr Rogers explains: “There’s a saying in Washington: if […]

How many PhD students…

…does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer is… I don’t know, all I changed this morning was a tubelight.

Random thoughts

Occasionally I get the feeling that the universe is actually a sentient being. Like today, when I ate at Taco Bell after a really long time; the first packet of Fire sauce in my hands had this quote on it: “Ahhh… we meet again.” Events like these greatly increase my belief in my favourite quote […]

CS grad student’s inductive law of compulsive failure

You can never get anything right the first time. Every next try is the first time you’re trying to get the previous attempt right. By induction, no matter what you try to do, you’re doomed to failure :)

Obi-Wan’s cloak sells for 54,000 pounds

…according to the BBC. “If you sell me off I shall become more expensive than you can possibly imagine.”

Random thought

‘She hit me on the head with the rock again.’ ‘I think I can confirm that that was my daughter.’ ‘Sweet kid.’ ‘You have to get to know her,’ said Arthur. ‘She eases up does she?’ ‘No,’ said Arthur, `but you get a better sense of when to duck.’ — From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to […]