Since I have been slacking on my posts, I decided to combine a couple of them into one. From the new iPhone 4 release to the Oil spill in the Gulf to the Independence day celebrations, there are a wide variety of things where I feel obligated to comment upon. Of course, I don't want to leave out FIFA, there were some spectacular games this World cup season. I was originally voting for Argentina to win the cup as they had a great offensive tactic but after I saw them fall apart against Germany, I changed my favorite team to Spain (the so called 'underdogs'). It was very impressive to see them come to the Final in spite of loosing the first game in the tournament. They played some great soccer in the Semis and honestly it was quite interesting to see the German reaction in the 74th minute when Puyol's perfect header made it into the Goal. It was an amazing moment for the Spaniards, Milan Madrid was on fire.
So, what part reminds me of my granny? - Back home in India when I was a kid, my grandma used to listen to a personal radio (popularly called the 'transistor'). Just like you see Joggers with an iPod tied to their arm, I remember her carrying her radio everywhere around the house listening to Carnatic music and live cricket commentary. Every time she lost the reception on her radio, she used to bang on the radio's head and it was quite interesting to see the music come right back after the bang. Now, the most recent release of the iPhone 4 and its woes with the Antenna, reception issues. The company(APPLE) actually came out with a news release suggesting avid iPhone users a neat way of holding their handsets with 2 fingers. With more technological advancements, we often tend to go back to our primitive ways of fixing things which I found really amusing (like my grandma's bang on her radio).
Let me briefly talk about the Oil spill in the gulf, What a mess - huh?. I try to relate this back to one of my comments from my previous posts. When man tries to play or control nature, it is just a waiting game. I know some of the readers won't agree with my statement but its true though. Sure, we got oil from the offshore refinery but we got more than we bargained for, with this disaster. The magnitude of the effect is so huge to sum up. The break happened 5,000 ft. below the surface of the Ocean and the drill goes down 13,000 ft. below that. How do you even fix stuff that deep which is not accessible to humans? Well, we will leave it to BP and see how quickly they go Bankrupt. Add the Hurricane season to this, I sincerely hope that BP make it through.
Lastly, What's up with '4th of July' - I have noticed that most (or) all Americans celebrate the holiday but call it the '4th of July' than call it 'Independence Day'. You go 'Jaywalking' and ask young teens what 4th of July is, you get responses like - I don't know, It's Fireworks day or a BBQ Holiday. Essentially, we loose the significance of the day. It doesn't bother me either way but I have never seen an Indian call 'Happy 15th of August', we all call it 'Happy Independence Day' and we are proud of it. Well, India only got its Independence 63 years ago and who knows - 150 years from now, Macy's India may be advertising 'Happy 15th of August' and all our great grand kids may be celebrating that date.
Last few years, I have seen that all the hype is about the Fireworks and Barbeque sales for the '4th of July celebrations'. And guess what, the fireworks for this holiday are also 'Made in China'. As Thomas Wailgum (Senior Editor - CIO.com) rightly mentions in his Editorial, the irony of celebrating Independence from a foreign country, we import fireworks from another foreign country.
So, what part reminds me of my granny? - Back home in India when I was a kid, my grandma used to listen to a personal radio (popularly called the 'transistor'). Just like you see Joggers with an iPod tied to their arm, I remember her carrying her radio everywhere around the house listening to Carnatic music and live cricket commentary. Every time she lost the reception on her radio, she used to bang on the radio's head and it was quite interesting to see the music come right back after the bang. Now, the most recent release of the iPhone 4 and its woes with the Antenna, reception issues. The company(APPLE) actually came out with a news release suggesting avid iPhone users a neat way of holding their handsets with 2 fingers. With more technological advancements, we often tend to go back to our primitive ways of fixing things which I found really amusing (like my grandma's bang on her radio).
Let me briefly talk about the Oil spill in the gulf, What a mess - huh?. I try to relate this back to one of my comments from my previous posts. When man tries to play or control nature, it is just a waiting game. I know some of the readers won't agree with my statement but its true though. Sure, we got oil from the offshore refinery but we got more than we bargained for, with this disaster. The magnitude of the effect is so huge to sum up. The break happened 5,000 ft. below the surface of the Ocean and the drill goes down 13,000 ft. below that. How do you even fix stuff that deep which is not accessible to humans? Well, we will leave it to BP and see how quickly they go Bankrupt. Add the Hurricane season to this, I sincerely hope that BP make it through.
Lastly, What's up with '4th of July' - I have noticed that most (or) all Americans celebrate the holiday but call it the '4th of July' than call it 'Independence Day'. You go 'Jaywalking' and ask young teens what 4th of July is, you get responses like - I don't know, It's Fireworks day or a BBQ Holiday. Essentially, we loose the significance of the day. It doesn't bother me either way but I have never seen an Indian call 'Happy 15th of August', we all call it 'Happy Independence Day' and we are proud of it. Well, India only got its Independence 63 years ago and who knows - 150 years from now, Macy's India may be advertising 'Happy 15th of August' and all our great grand kids may be celebrating that date.
Last few years, I have seen that all the hype is about the Fireworks and Barbeque sales for the '4th of July celebrations'. And guess what, the fireworks for this holiday are also 'Made in China'. As Thomas Wailgum (Senior Editor - CIO.com) rightly mentions in his Editorial, the irony of celebrating Independence from a foreign country, we import fireworks from another foreign country.
Comments
Nice Blog! As always it is pleasure to read your comments on such variety of topics. I especially liked your comment on "Happy 15th of August"
PS: I did not get the relationship between Milan and Spaniards scoring a goal. I thought Milan was a city in Italy and AC Milan was an Italian football club.
take care
Santhosh
Thanks for your feedback on the post, I messed up on the name. I meant to say 'Madrid' instead of Milan. Good eye and you are right about Milan.