January 5, 2009 – 6:58 pm
Here is another top 10 list via Wired, according to which the “Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2008″ are the following. This information is included here not necessarily as an endorsement of the weight given to these breakthroughs in comparison to others, but to provide an insight into what some of the milestones are that [...]
January 5, 2009 – 6:39 pm
I am usually not fond of accepting any proclamation of a Top X, you name the number, of anything at face value. There is subjectivity in the evaluation of the aesthetics and usefulness of a given item. For what it is worth, a top X listing is usually a reflection of the limit of knowledge [...]
December 31, 2008 – 8:53 pm
The drastic losses incurred in the financial markets is one of the prime examples of a major collective human experience during the past year. This particular decline in the stock market value amounting to $7,000,000,000,000, which I would call the big debacle, is discussed in a NY Times article. Excerpt from the article:
…In a mere [...]
By Fetu
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Posted in General Musings, Pieces of Information
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Also tagged 500, 7 trillion, dow, economy, finance, financial markets, NY Times, standard & poor's, subprime, the big debacle, U.S., USA
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December 28, 2008 – 4:21 pm
Looking through the photographs by Boston Globe chronicling the year 2008, I was drawn to a set of them that have a common theme of “human flight: attempts at defying gravity” running through them. Below are some of those photographs for your viewing pleasure:
December 28, 2008 – 3:38 pm
The Boston Globe has a breathtaking display of photographs portraying the vastitudes of joy and pain, love and hate, calm and calamities, and peace and terror in the human experience during the year 2008.
2008 has been an eventful year to say the least – it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of [...]
December 27, 2008 – 6:02 pm
Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the 2004 Tsuinami of the Indian ocean, which caused a tremendous amount of destruction, took the lives of more than 200,000 people, and caused the displacement of many others. It was a moment that shall remain transfixed in the collective imagination of all the people. In a previous post, [...]
By Fetu
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Posted in General Musings, Writings
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Also tagged 2004, congo, darfur, election, indian ocean, november 4, obama, somalia, tsunami, world, Writings, zimbabwe
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December 23, 2008 – 11:37 pm
… than the delivery system.” That is according to a publisher discusing about the transformation that is taking place in the way books are being read. Gregory Cowles, who blogs about books for NY Times, states that “2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on.” The argument is based on his observation of [...]
By Fetu
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Posted in Arts and Culture, Pieces of Information
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Also tagged amazon, blog about books, books, comment, ebooks, Gregory Cowles, information, kindle, NY Times, publishing, story, transformation
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December 20, 2008 – 12:55 am
I would not dare add my words next to those of the seminal speeches of Barack Obama shown below in condensed word cloud representation with the exclusion of common words in the English language. It is very striking to note that each of these speeches have a particular and unmistakable message and theme as exemplified in [...]
By Fetu
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Posted in General Musings, Writings
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Also tagged 2002, 2004, Barack Obama, communication, democratic convention, election, iowa, message, new hampshire, obama, president, race, speeches, theme, word cloud, wordle, Writings
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December 18, 2008 – 11:29 pm
Here is a list of Time’s choice for pictures of the year. The following two I find telling about the current state of affairs of the world.
Here is a candidate of a major party for the presidency of the U.S. having to be patted down before boarding a plane. I find it amazing to think that [...]
December 18, 2008 – 11:03 pm
The “Person of the Year” has been chosen to be Barack Obama. Given the unprecedented nature of his accomplishment and the far-reaching consequence of his election to become the 44th president of the U.S., this decision did not surprise me all that much. The runners-up were Henry Paulson, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sarah Palin, and Zhang Yimou. They [...]
December 16, 2008 – 12:53 am
The Google Zeitgeist 2008 has some revealing insights into the collective conscious and state of being of the world population, or at least those that use Google search, at this slice of time. The most interesting insights to me are the how to searches. The top ten apparently are:
how to draw
how to kiss
how to [...]
December 14, 2008 – 4:52 pm
The 8th Annual Year in Ideas at NY Times Magazine is out. You can check it out here.
“The Story You’re Delivering is Always More Important…
… than the delivery system.” That is according to a publisher discusing about the transformation that is taking place in the way books are being read. Gregory Cowles, who blogs about books for NY Times, states that “2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on.” The argument is based on his observation of [...]