Thursday, October 30, 2008

The IgNobel Update


It seems that the 2008 IgNobel prizes have been announced and as always there are some great people who have been awarded. You can read all about it somewhere in this article, that bloody link button wont bloody work like the way it bloody should.


yes here is the link finally.

And as always there are some front runners.

1. For my wife: NUTRITION PRIZE. Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.
REFERENCE: "The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips," Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, Journal of Sensory Studies, vol. 19, October 2004, pp. 347-63.

2. For the medical rep: MEDICINE PRIZE. Dan Ariely of Duke University (USA), Rebecca L. Waber of MIT (USA), Baba Shiv of Stanford University (USA), and Ziv Carmon of INSEAD (Singapore) for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine..
REFERENCE: "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy," Rebecca L. Waber; Baba Shiv; Ziv Carmon; Dan Ariely, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 5, 2008; 299: 1016-1017.

3. For broke male lap dancers thinking of a sex-reassignment surgery: ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.
REFERENCE: "Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 375-81.


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Manouvering around the kitchen

I must stress that it is not easy. I hope that the next time around, someone doesn't put the sugar in a jar of horlicks.
Tea was never so difficult to get around into the cup, what when there is nothing where it is supposed to be. Hmm, wonder whether I should get my stuff simply from the neighboring dhaba?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Kidnap

I saw this movie Kidnap yesterday and it has to be one of the stupidest, most foolish, cliched and nut case movies ever. In fact I have never felt so morbidly curious about how stupid a movie can be since Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
So there, at last I have it off my chest.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

toilet sign


toilet sign
Originally uploaded by ChrisThorn
Empty pocket and a full gut/bladder....not a great combo

HCB

"To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."

HCB

"To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Look Like an Artist-2


Do I look artistic enough)

Me, Sanjay Kaushal, Pradeep Mahajan and Raghu Rai.
And thats a mighty expensive FabIndia Kurta brought exclusively for my wearing and Raghu Rai's viewing pleasure.

Raghu Rai


Raghu Rai
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh
Raghu Rai said that he had come to Chandigarh to uproot photographers from their comfort zones. Well, I don't know how far he succeeded but there certainly was some food for thought. First things first, the workshop was not a workshop in the conventional sense. In fact there was no technical baloney at all. It was all about philosophy and doing what looks great.
Rahu Rai has his own style of pictures and keeping my normal hoity-toity attitude aside I have to admit that his sense of timing is quite immaculate. He uses great equipment and admits that he does. So his lack of pretensions was quite refreshing. We has another session where participants of the workshop projected their own hopelessly pretty sunsets and cliched landscapes and he was quite forthright about saying that most of it sucked.
I went away feeling irritated about the whole coming down to earth experience and then looked at some of my old pictures and realized that while I am frequently good where I have to seek out a picture, I am often overwhelmed whenever I am overwhelmed by possibilities. I think I have to work on that now.
I took this picture and it just quite naturally suggested itself, about the only thing that I have been happy about in a long time.
Raghu Rai had a look at it and I believe was quite amused though he thought that the lettering behind his head was a bit too prominent. Well, I really cant help that even though that is an excuse.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Look like an artist

Is it important to be an artist or look like one, or does one feel and think like one once one starts looking like one. I like to think that I am an artist and the only time that my sartorial vanity kicks in is when I think that I should like an artist.
So I got a couple of Kurtas today (suitably artistic looking) and now I feel like I can take on whatever the photography workshop throws at me tomorrow and the day after.
Very Raghu Raiedly yours
Shrink Imm (abbr as per Index Medicus)

Thursday, October 02, 2008

2nd October

Two great things happened today. There is a ban being imposed on smoking in public places in India and there is a ban on plastic bags in Chandigarh. I went to two shops and one of them thankfully has started using paper bags. It is thankful that there are still some meaningful ways in which we can remember Mahatma Gandhi.
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