Insanely Useless facts #2

Alright here is the sequel to the earlier post, and this time I have managed to collect quite a few of them. So here goes some useless stuff!!!!!!!!!

1. 'Insomnia Cafe' does that name ring a bell?? Naah I bet none of us would remember a thing like that. But believe it or not that was one alternate title that was considered for the hit television series 'Friends'!!!!
2. It takes about 50 hours for a snake to digest one frog. That is a shade more than two full days. Would solve quite a lot of problems had we taken so long to digest our food!!!!!!
3. The United States of America shreds about 7000 tons of used currency every year. That is a lot of money!!!!
4. The bite of a leech is painless due to its own anesthetic. It will gorge itself up to five times its body weight and then just fall off its victim. Believe it or not the medical uses of leeches dates back as far as 2500 years. Their saliva contains a property that acts as an anticoagulant for human blood. Very caring I must say. Bite --> Apply anesthetic --> medicate --> fall off. Cheap treatment!!!!!!
5. It is quite well known that female mosquitoes are the ones that draw blood and spread disease. In case you have something against them do not bother cursing them. It seems they are deaf!!
6. Even if the stomach, the spleen, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area are removed, the human body can still survive. And even if 80 percent of your liver were removed, the remaining part would continue to function. Within a few months, the liver would have reconstituted itself to its original size.
7. Finally the most useless of all facts for this post-- The wiring in my brains are fried. Any electricians out there?????

The world never ceases to wonder me!!!

This has been a pretty dry season for Bollywood. Apart from Kaminey not many movies have made their mark at the box office so naturally there has been a dearth in the number of hindi movies that I have been watching. That did not stop me from watching a really lame and bull crap of a movie titled 'Jai Veeru - Friends Forever' or what ever the lame ass tagline was. This movie is about 2 friends and blah blah blah....oh let me cut the crap and come straight to the point.

There is this particular scene where in one of the guys aims a gun at the other. There is a freak accident and he fires at the other guy. The events that followed were not at all expected. The other hero gets shot in the forehead. I would say on the very top of the forehead. Who in their right state of mind would dream of a hero being shot in the forehead just about 50 minutes into the movie and that too in Bollywood. What followed though was totally expected. This guy makes a miraculous recovery and in within 6 months time resumes duty as a police officer. Yippiee go Bollywood!!! Go Hero!!!!! Who the hell gives a damn about science and modern day technology and facts?????

This actually prompted me to dig into such things and I came up with the fact that 92% of the bullet injuries to the head leads to mortality. This guy was really really lucky to be in the 8% basket. Fine its a movie and people get to use their luck and imagination as they want. No more comments about it. But the most unusual and startling thing that I discovered was that a woman in America somewhere in Mississippi I believe survived a head shot from a .38 caliber handgun. For those of you who do not know what that means its the gun which is very similar to the ones used in our Bollywood movies, especially the ones with the 6 cylindrical slots. Ok now you got the picture!!!!!

An assistant professor of Surgery after examing her stated that there is a space in the brain it seems through which a missile could pass without causing any damage!!!!!!! So that means the 8 out of every hundred person could survive a headshot. But then again the possibility is very less it seems for the missile to pass through that space. Aaaahhh the wonders of nature or should I say the miracles of doctors nowadays.

Well I forgot to mention the funny part of this story. Firstly the woman actually got shot and then made tea for herself and even offered the police officers who came to her place. And the best part is that this lady is American and residing in US and this information was pulled out from a UK newspaper. Its a crazy world out there I tell you!!!! As proof you can go ahead and check out this link for the real story.

P.S--> I had to come back and add this. It was truly one of the most lamest movies I have ever seen. Its a good thing though, that I paid for it with a few hours of my sleep and nothing else, which I am sure a few people are gonna disagree to. And NO it definitely not remotely close to Jai and Veeru from Sholay. Just the names of a few evergreen characters is not enough to attract crowds to the theaters I guess!!!

Insanely Useless facts #1

Yes yes yes I am planning to make this into a series. Will not bother with the sources, but will keep this coming as and when I can. And for people who know about these facts please "go take a hike" ( thats exactly how my sister would word it !!!! )

• Mr P.J.Tierney, father of the modern diner, died of indigestion in 1917. Believe it or not he died after eating in a diner. Thats what I would call a killer idea. Poor guy though!!!
• A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass. Now who in their right state of mind would go hunting for a glass and a solid steel ball to test that out???
• Candlepin bowling uses 10 small pins and 3 balls and is played primarily in the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The ball is 5 inches in diameter, made out of rubber and has no holes in them. Anybody up for a game?? , then meet me in Connecticut or Rhode Island in 3 years time!!!!
• Till date man has invented and classified about 50 million chemical compounds and elements. Talk about over working!!!!
• And last but not the very least, a bad breath is likely to induce a bat to bite someone. Yes thats right a giant mammoth bat will bite if you do not brush your teeth. This could be a much better plot for a toothpaste add though compared to the ones that come up now!!!!

Thats if for this time folks!!!!!!!!

With or Without you

The silence grows day by day

As life is thrown in a disarray

I still continue to wait...

With or without you

The deeds of past is catching on

Some coming undone from aeons

Life is still crawling on

With or without you

Fighting the storm raging by

Unable to say the last goodbye

Time still stops by

With or without you

Sleight of hand, the twist of fate

On a bed of nails she is made to wait

And the wait goes on

With or without you

Hands are tied and bodies bruised

Reasons are low to be enthused

Still you give yourself away

With or without you

Nothing to win

Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away

With or without you

With or without you

With or without you

I cant live

With or without you!!!!!

Inspired by "With or Without you" by U2

"I put int a few lines from the song without any

changes as they were just too beautiful to edit"

A Marvellous Disney World

Comics has always been a part of everybody's lives. Be it the silly antics of Mickey Mouse and Donald Ducks or the really funny fights of Tom and Jerry. There would have been atleast 8 out of 10 people who would have heard about the likes of Spiderman, Superman etc etc. I have been no different. I have been reading comics right from the time I could probably read I guess. Starting from the Amar Chitra Kathas and graduating to the Marvel and DC world. I would even spend hours watching cartoons of the likes of Scrooge McDuck and Talespin.

For those who have no clue about the desi versions of comics, there are dozens of them ranging from Chacha Chowdhary ( The guy whose brain works faster than a computer ) and many more super hero comics. To be more precise there are comics in India under the title Raj comics that present the super heroes of India. Nagaraj ( similar to spiderman, but as the name goes he has everything to do with snakes rather than spiders ), Super commando Dhruv ( the Indian comic book version of James Bond, with the high flying gadgetry ), Doga ( I really do not think that there is an eq uivalent in the western world to him...he is more like the Dog guy who is all chummy with all kinds of dogs..sounds weird but so is the series ), Parmanu ( very much the same as Captain Atom from DC comics ) are some of the Indian heroes to name a few. Comics in India took a real big leap when the series Pavitr Prabhakar was launched by Gotham Entertainment in collaboration with Marvel. It was the Indian version of Peter Parker aka Spiderman. There were many parallels in the comic book series right from the names to the powers of the the hero. The effort to make him look typically desi made the publishers dress him up in a dhoti as well, which came out pretty well. Sadly there were not many issues printed and as far as I have known the project has been shelved ( I could be wrong here).

Wondering why I am talking so much about comics??

Thats because of the hype generated by Disney having taken over Marvel Entertainment Inc. for a cool 4 billion dollars. The flip side of it would be to see heroes like the Hulk, Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four etc with characters like, Tarzan, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Aladdin etc, under the same banner. I am guessing that Marvel entertainment would be a separate division under the Disney banner. Other wise it would be really lame to see mashups like Iron Duck, Spider Mouse or the Fantastic Four comprising of Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Minnie. Does sound very lame when you actually come to think of it.

On an ending note, I would particularly like to mention about The 99. Published and distributed by Tashkeel comics which is of Kuwaiti origins, from 2006. The entire series is based on the 99 different names of Allah. Who ever said that comics was child's play. Neither creating them is easy nor keeping track of them is easy. Going now to read the first version of The 99.

P.S- I have not mentioned a word about the DC universe which holds characters like Superman, Batman and the Justice League. I would rather not start about my favourite characters else the post will become never ending. Hats off to people like Stan Lee ( Spiderman, Hulk, etc ) Bob Kane ( Batman ) Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster ( Superman ) for having created such comic book legends.

I guess this much of comic gyaan should do for the time being!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happennings Lately

Lately i get a million ideas to write about, but then they all fizz out similar to the soda cans. Nevertheless I would just like to post about some stuff thats been going on lately.

• ->Classes have started and they are well as classes are supposed to be. Little on the boring side and a little on the interesting side. I know I am a little diplomatic.
• ->We had pest control done yesterday. And I am still suffering from the aftermath of it. My room is in a mess and I have got loads of cleaning to do.
• ->On the plus side we cleaned up the kitchen yesterday itself. Well half the kitchen. The other half is still lying on the counters and on the floors.
• ->The real sad part of the affair was during the cleaning process I managed to spill a lot of rice on the floor. And there was no way it could have been utilised, atleast not for edible purposes. I know very clumsy of me. Not that apologising now would get back the rice, but I apologize to the millions of people who do not have a morsel to eat, and here I am carelessly spilling it down.
• ->A couple of days back we played cricket. It was a practice session conducted by our captain. The session was good but the after-session was bad. I got dehydrated and puked and slept the entire day. Something which I am not too proud of, but still a lesson learnt.
• ->I resumed playing raqcuetball yesterday. I thought I had lost touch and presumed that I would suck at the game after not having played for about 3 months. But thanks to my friend with whom I managed to play I realized I played pretty well ( I am just kidding here, thinking that my friend will come and read this ;-)
• ->The saddest part is that I am still hunting for an on-campus job. Sometimes it just gets to me. Not able to figure out if its just my luck or if I really do not have the necessary skills. Well time will tell. As of now I keep hunting.

I really do not know what to title this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The gyrating sound of the hand towel being pulled out of its container, the familiar odour of cooked meat hanging in the air, the sights of sparkling clean floors and the constant drone of announcements cutting through the air. All very familiar indications of stepping back into the U.S. After quite a dull and boring two flights ( from Bangalore to London and London to Chicago ) these were the welcome signs that I received. Sitting at the terminal sipping a really chilled Sprite and gulping down a barrel of finger chips (pretty soon I might give up on these!!!!-----Alright who am I kidding) I wait for my final stretch of flight before I land in Phoenix.

The flight from Bangalore to London was not too eventful. Well there was this particular guy sitting right next to me who was quite curious about H1N1 virus. Funny how nobody seems to be discussing anything much these days apart from the swine flu. "A few hundreds catch the swine flu and everyone is hankering for a mask, but nobody still bothers about wearing a condom when there are millions contracting AIDS". An aptly put line doing the rounds on sms and emails these days. So this particluar guy was bugging the cabin crew guy as to why they are not wearing masks blah blah blah. Ok I have to admit that the guy was a little freaked out because of my sneezing the entire time I was awake. This was because of the really cold full blast air conditioning that was on inside the craft. First look at him and I thought ok decent guy, but then usually such impressions last only till the person in consideration opens their mouth. That was not the first time I felt such a thing. Moving on, the second leg of the journey from London to Chicago was very very uneventful. Apart from the fact that I got a seat next to a pretty hot Romanian chic. Otherwise my running nose ensured that my head was tilted towards the window all the time I was awake, which was only during the times when food was served.

I never realised that there would be a strange sense of happiness on returning back from India. I would say a stupid sense of excitement and thrill crept up when I switched on my phone and saw the AT&T carrier. But all said and done there is still no place like home and it really is a difficult task to leave behind family and all the loved ones. The feeling really grows large during the long walk from the customs till the point of take off.