Air India - Boeing deal

Air India recently announced its intention to purchase five 777-200LR, 10 777-300ER, and 20 787-8 airplanes, with options to buy three additional 777-200LR Worldliners, five 777-300ERs, and seven 787-8 Dreamliners at a later date.

Boeing had a heavy competition from Airbus. I decided to check out Boeing's new 787s.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/7e7/photos.html

It looks cool. The seats...hmmm...doesn't look comfortable, but Boeing tells this gives increased comfort for passengers. Let's hope so.

According to Boeing, the 777-200LR will enable Air India to provide ultra-long range, nonstop flights between any airports in India and the United States(Delhi-New York ,Mumbai – San Francisco).

WAW. That's interesting. Will save a lot of time for people like me.

The 777-300ER will be replacing the airline’s current fleet of 747-200 airplanes

My only issue is ...hmmm...looks like they removed 2 engines

Boeing says the engine efficiency has been improved and changed the design to reduce drag and airplane weight.

Science - To believe or not to believe?

Tonight I saw the DVD of a controversial documentary "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Moon".

It was an interesting documentary alleging NASA's moon landing as a hoax.

Do I believe it?
I do not believe man landed on moon in 1969. I have great respect for NASA, I admire and appreciate many of their works, and I wish I am wrong about this moon landing hoax. I will be one happy person, if man indeed had landed on moon in 1969.

But, if its true that NASA staged moon landing and all that happened in 1969 was a hoax, I pity all the HYPOCRITES in the world who believe science is everything and there is no God. They do not believe in God, as they haven't seen God, and some even don't believe in Hindu scriptures, and yet they go to temple and pray to God !

Doesn't make any sense to me :-)

If its proved that NASA moon landing was a hoax, I do not know how the hypocrites will react as they believe whatever the scientific community says. If science is proved wrong this time, it definitely isn't the first time.

Folks,

Don't forget to read my Super Awesome 'Origin of Life' theory.
Origin Of Life

Skava - Mobile gaming

Hey this is my classmate.

Hindu Article

About me, hmm...looking at my picture, looks like I still have to grow up, a lot.

Wire-Fu

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian movies, using a technique called Wire-Fu in action sequences. Basically Wire-Fu is a cinematic technique in which actors perform kung-fu moves while suspended by wires and pulleys that make them appear to fly, run up walls, and so on.

Remember 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Matrix'?

It made a lot of sense for a movie like 'Matrix', or 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' to use such techniques for stunts. But even normal action Tamil movies have employed that technique. It is so pathetic. It looks so artificial. It's just like trying to show-off.

Even Rajnikanth uses Wire-Fu in fight scenes in his latest movie 'Chandramukhi'. I was not impressed.

As usual, this weekend was also very relaxing. I finished Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'. The plot was ok. It started very well, fantastic in fact. But somewhere in between it became like an ordinary novel, very Hollywoody, and in the end it was just ok. I have now started to read another novel of Dan Brown's . 'Angels and Demons'. This one has also started damn good. Let me see how it goes. I feel that Iam learning a lot from Dan Brown's novels.

Then Saturday Saravanan and I went to 'The Interpreter'. The movie was an average one. Not very exciting and not very boring. Just ok. Nicole Kidman, WAW, she is so beautiful. Can't believe she is 38.

Sunday morning I went to the movie 'Chandramukhi' (review). Then later that day stayed at home and continued 'Angels and Demons'

Earth Day

Today is earth day.

"Also in Japan, I heard the story of a hummingbird from a professor I met. When the forest where the hummingbird lived went up in flames, the other animals ran out to save themselves. But the hummingbird stayed, flying to and from a nearby river with drops of water in its beak to pour on the fire.
From a distance, the other animals laughed and mocked it. "What do you think you are doing?" they shouted. "This fire is overwhelming. You can't do anything."
Finally, the hummingbird turned to them and said, "I'm doing what I can."
-Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner

"I'm doing what I can."

How humble, but very powerful, these words are !

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations"
- Iroquois

Seventh Generation Products
I'm not endorsing any product.
Iam doing what I can.

On tuesday night I saw the program 'Death of a Princess' on PBS. It was perhaps the most controversial film in the history of public television -- the story of a young Saudi princess who was publicly executed for committing adultery. It was very touching.

Also I have started to read Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'. This seems to be another very intriguing novel from the author of 'The Da Vinci Code'

Richmond Indians

Last weekend was relaxing. One of my friend had a housewarming party. So went to the party on Saturday evening and had nice time. It was fun. Lots of delicious food. Then saw the final one day cricket match between India and Pakistan. What a pathetic display by Indian cricket team. Losing a match without putting up any fight or resistance...well...it's not a new thing for Indian cricket team.

Then on Sunday I saw the movie 'Sahara'. Penelope Cruz is so hot even at 31. I love the way she speaks English. It's so cute.

Also I completed phase 1 of my project 'Richmond Indians'.
This is at http://richmond.planetvimal.com

THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT

The National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Spencer Wells, and the Waitt Family Foundation have launched the Genographic Project, a five-year effort to understand the human journey—where we came from and how we got to where we live today. This unprecedented effort will map humanity's genetic journey through the ages.

http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/

My friend Pat and I are planning to buy the kit and be part of this project.

This is an excellent presentation.

http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html

Google in Tamil

http://www.google.com/intl/ta/

Some of the tamil translations, links are funny.

For instance...When you click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button's equivalent in Tamil, you get

"Adhirshtam En PakkamTM" amukkaan thanaagavey ungal theyduthalin mudal inaya pakkathirkku kondusellum.

(ORIGIN : The "I'm Feeling LuckyTM" button automatically takes you to the first web page returned for your query.)

Button is called 'amukkaan' in Tamil. hahaha. Hilarious.

Anyway...let me click the 'Sign Out' amukkaan and get back to work.

Why India lost the third test match against Pakistan?

"I have to score runs whether I am captain or not.. that's the first and foremost thing. Captaincy is not on my mind." - Saurav Ganguly

(After losing the third and final test against Pakistan at Bangalore)

OK, now we know, why India lost the match. We did not have a captain. There was no one to captain the team.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1064779.cms

Pakistan kicks ass

What the hell happened on the last day of the test match?

Did the two cricket boards, BCCI and PCB, fix the match, the historic test series finale and Inzamam's 100th test?

Or did we just lack the guts to chase and win?

This Gautam Gambhir guy really screwed the day for us by getting Veeru Sehwag run out and the rest of the guys, reaaaaally sucked.

Dude, our cricketers suck ass.

Thanks to Balaji for making sure we lost this match, because we did not deserve to even draw this match. Pakistan deserved to win.

Coolest MP3 / Digital Music player

Do you know the coolest MP3 / Digital Music player?

You say, iPOD !
Nay.

In my opinion, it's THUMP.
Yep. It's Super Awesome.

Whaaaaat??? THUMP??? Why is it cool ?

Check it out.
http://www1.oakley.com/thump/

My Nissan Maxima for sale

Iam planning to sell my car Nissan Maxima.
Details here at http://nissan.planetvimal.com

NASA on Swades

This is what NASA says about Swades.

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), is an actual NASA mission, currently scheduled to launch in 2007.

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle/f-swades.html
Goddard News June 2004
Spaceport News May 2004

I want to see cricket: Musharraf

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf says he would love to see some of the India-Pakistan cricket series - but only if invited.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

"I don't believe in going anywhere without an invitation." - Musharraf

Disclaimer : Crossing LOC occassionally and going to India without an invitation is an exempt. Other risk factors include engaging in terrorist activities while peace negotiations are going on, inciting communal violence, supporting infiltrators and floating counterfeit currency.

India Today

The weekend so far has been relaxing. Went for an aroma therapy massage.
It was very relaxing.
Also I saw 2 Hindi movies. I usually don't see any Hindi movie unless it's a really good one or it's a Hrithik Roshan movie. I rented the DVDs of 2 movies, Page 3 and Swades.

These 2 movies, in my opinion, really portray the present India. I don't believe in coincidences. So for anyone, who doesn't know about India and who wants to know what present day India is like, should see these 2 movies.
The movies picture the 2 entirely different worlds in our country.
Page 3 is all about the rich high society plastic life people and their parties and get-togethers.

Swades is all about the poor farmers and villagers and their struggle in their day to day life.

I was particularly impressed with the screen writing of Swades. I thought it was very realistic and I really couldn't find any loopholes. Later when I mentioned this to Dixita, she said the movie was based on a real life story. So it all makes sense.
Shahrukh's acting was good. Different from his stereotype roles. Gayathri Joshi looks very beautiful and glamorous. She resembles and reminds me of one of my friend from college. This is her first movie and she has appeared in numerous TV Ads in the past.


One more thing I liked in this movie is the scene where Gita(Gayathri) challenges Shahrukh to name the five rivers in India, new state and number of lions in Asoka pillar. It's funny when people in India call NRIs as Non Returning Indians(Swades) and Non Reliable Indians(Page 3) and accuse NRIs of not knowing about what's going on India.
I just can't buy that argument. We people here don't ignore what's happening back home. Sometimes I feel that people here in US know more about what's happening in India than the people living there. Thanks to Internet and Satellite TVs.

Now come on...you have to understand that we are in US and all we do at work here is browse :)
Do you still believe we don't know what's happening back home?

German driving license

You think getting a driver's license in US is tough?
Well...think of Germany.

How Germany can drive you crazy

Tired of same Google?

Want to have some fun with google?

http://www.google.com.sa

Start typing in the search box. You will notice it behaving differently :)