Desi In Toronto

March 29, 2007

The Sun Will Rise From The West Tomorrow

Filed under: Bush Administration — agsharma @ 7:25 pm

I never, ever imagined I would say this but George W. Bush is absolutely right!!!!


US President George W Bush joked about sliding ratings and his post-White House plans as he lampooned himself at an annual press dinner on Wednesday.

“A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice-president had shot someone.

“Ah, those were the good ol’ days,” he said, to applause from the audience.

Journalists were also treated to a Karl Rove rap at the meal where presidential self-deprecation is the tradition.

One of the biggest laughs came when the president spoke of plans for his post-White House memoir - he said that former President Bill Clinton had written a 10,000 page-long tome.

“I’m thinking of something really fun and creative for mine,” he said. “You know, maybe a pop-up book.”

He asked the audience which title they liked best - “How Dubbya Got His Groove Back”, “Who Moved My Presidency?” or “Tuesday with Cheney”.

My question is this…………does this kind of humour justify 3,245 dead American soldiers?

March 28, 2007

Coffee Time

Filed under: Society — agsharma @ 10:36 pm


Boy, I can totally relate to this.

Andy Warhol Lives!!

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 10:29 pm

Damn!! Does this guy have 10,000 fingers cause he has one in every conceivable (metaphorical) pie. Came across this on wikipedia.

15 minutes of fame (or famous for 15 minutes) is an expression coined by the Americanartist Andy Warhol. It refers to the fleeting condition of celebrity that attaches to an object of media attention, then passes to some new object as soon as the public’s attention span is exhausted. It is often used in reference to figures in the entertainment industry and other areas of popular culture.

I will always be thankful to the guy for giving the world The Velvet Underground. Although his contribution with the group was strictly monetary, he however did have his fingers in the “pie” that spawned alternative rock scene.

Moronic Mainstream

Filed under: Moronic Mainstream — agsharma @ 9:36 pm

<Link>


Canadians appear to be a fickle bunch when it comes to deciding what federal political party to support — cool comfort for leaders trying to gauge their chances.

A new Decima poll, provided to The Canadian Press, suggests that a whopping 57 per cent of voters have changed their political allegiances over the past few months. That’s up from 48 per cent of wavering voters two years ago.

The highest volatility was among women and middle-income earners, and in Atlantic Canada.

I have a really hard time understanding why the mainstream media like the “esteemed” Globe And Mail have a hard time about people changing their minds. It happens to me all the time. Yesterday I thought blonds were hot….now I think all women regardless of their hair colour are hot. This is what comes with LEARNING.

And that’s the case with politics. E.g. climate change because of human activity is a growing concern, everyone is looking for a party that puts emphasis on better climate controls. And if the party that they had been supporting all along gives not a shit about the climate, fine then let’s look elsewhere. That called a smart decision NOT fickleness.

March 27, 2007

Intelligent? Am I?

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 10:06 pm

Ok I knew there had to be a reason why a straight laced guy like me would like heavy metal. And Whoop deedoo!! There is a reason.

Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent “metalheads” are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.

Although this did dampen my euphoria a bit.

Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.

The heavy metal fans in the study had lower self-esteem and more difficulties in family relationships and friendships.

March 18, 2007

Size Matters?

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 9:45 pm

Here is a perfect illustration of our place in this universe <Link>…..





Hawking’s World

Filed under: Science — agsharma @ 6:33 am

Am a big fan of Stephen Hawking as he is one of the few (John Gribbon, Kip Thorne and John Wheeler among others) who have tried to explain to us lay people the worlds of the universe in a clear language.

Here is something interesting that he said :

Hawking spoke to a packed audience in Zellerbach Hall about how Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and quantum theory explained the creation of the universe.

His lecture, which touched upon subjects such as black holes and spacetime, was peppered with quips that drew laughs from the audience.

“If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was, what happened before the beginning,” Hawking said. “What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

A few “bubbles,” Hawking said, will grow to a certain size until they are safe from collapse, and will begin to develop galaxies, stars and eventually human life.

“The universe began with accelerating expansion which we call inflation, because the universe grows in the way prices go up in some countries,” Hawking said. “It expanded in a million trillion trillionths of a second.”

I wonder why he is moving in this direction. The theory of the first few seconds of the creation of the universe is still in works so why choose to go where the theories don’t exist at all!! But then again, that’s what scientists do!!

The Music Industry

Filed under: Music — agsharma @ 6:04 am

So, we have someone supporting Internet radio broadcasters.

After the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decided to drastically increase the royalties paid to musicians and record labels for streaming songs online, National Public Radio (NPR) will begin fighting the decision on Friday, March 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the CRB panel. The suggested new rates would increase to $.0008 per-play for 2006 (retroactively), $.0011 for 2007, $.0014 in 2008, $.0018 in 2009 and $.0019 for 2010, which could put some Internet broadcasters out of business and force public radio stations to quit streaming online.

So what does this mean for the artists creating the music? Absolutely nothing!! It’s a misconception that artists make their money off the sale of their music. This happens to only a few artists. Unfortunately for every artist who actually makes money off sale of his/her albums, there are 10 who see very little money from the sale of their albums. They make their money from concerts and concerts alone.

The music industry is a cut throat business. That’s another misconception!! The creation aspect of the music industry is a cut throat business. The distribution and sale of the music is another issue all together. The sale is controlled by RIAA and RIAA alone. They are the ones who govern over what artist to back, what the sale points should be, how the album released by an artist is to be distributed and, yes, what the cost price should be for the album.

And that’s why piracy exists. If the sale price of a music CD was under $10/-, there would not have been minimal piracy. If the sale points (on-line and on shelf) and sale controls (free of DRM) were deregulated, the competition would have ensured that it’s the artists who get rich. And not the fat cats of music industry.

This issue affects Internet Radio Broadcaster only. Not the people whose music everyone is fighting for. They are an ignored lot.

March 3, 2007

The Customer Is Always Right

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 1:54 am

When I saw the headline (Passage from India: bank switches its customer calls back to UK), I thought “That’s interesting, so the business model is failing”. But no. That’s not the reason why the call centre was shut down :

The Lloyds TSB in-house union, the Lloyds TSB Group union, claimed that more than 400,000 Lloyds TSB customers had signed a petition saying they were opposed to having their financial arrangements handled abroad, although the bank insisted this was not the reason for the reversal.

The Lloyds TSB Mumbai call centre opened in 2004 and at its peak employed 700 staff. When it was opened, Lloyds shut a call centre in Newcastle with the loss of 968 jobs.

Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary of the union, said: “This is a victory for common sense. Lloyds TSB’s reputation has been seriously damaged because of customer dissatisfaction with having to deal with the India call centre, with customers and staff unable to understand each other.”

Highlighted by me.

I whole heartedly agreed with this person until he made his last statement. So, people in India speak Martians’ English while those in England speak propaher English. What utter crap. This probably happened because of some local politician trying to score voting points. Barclays and HSBC still have their customers dial call centres out of UK. Do the majority of the 20 million customers of these two banks (as compared to 400,000 customers of Lloyds) complain about not “understanding” the staff. What a moron!!

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