Who is Mysterion?

If you are a fan of South Park, you would have watched the episode, "The Coon" (S13 E02), where Cartman poses as a superhero calling himself as "The Coon" and a mystery superhero, who calls himself "Mysterion" steals his show. At the last scene of the episode Mysterion removes his mask and Mr. Garrison says, "He's in my class", but everyone has the similar face in South Park. Hence the mystery of the Mysterion was left a mystery.

The latest episode of South Park, "The Coon 2: Hindsight", brings back the Coon and the Mysterion along with few new superheros forming a team called, "Coon and Friends". This is a two part episode (the second part will be played next week).

The superheros in this team are:

Coon = Cartman
Toolshed = Stan
Iron Maiden = Timmy
Tupperware = Token
Mintberry Crunch = Bradley (A new blond guy)
Mysterion
Mosquito
Human Kite

The identity of Mysterion, Mosquito and Human Kite were left a mystery. Before the end of the episode, the team without the mask is shown. So Mysterion, Mosquito and Human Kite could possibly be Kyle, Kenny and Clyde (not in order).

The way Cartman beatsup Mosquito makes me think Mosquito could be Kyle. So Mysterion could either be Kenny or Clyde.

Cartman always picks up on Kenny as well. In the episode, "The Coon", when Mysterion unmasks, Cartman was only delighted. I dont think he would have reacted so if he had realized that Kenny was Mysterion. So my guess would be Clyde.

Hopefully, next week, they will reveal who the real Mysterion is.

Too Many, Too Soon!

Well, for the last one year my life was moving very slowly. Finished Engineering but still had backlogs, unemployed, and worst of all, sitting vetti at home almost all the time. But things changed after a year, and it changed too quick.

The very next day I finished my backlog exams, I attended an interview at Allsec Technologies for a BPO. I got selected and was asked to join the next day. I made some lovely friends in there within 3 days. Work at Allsec was fun. I worked there for about 2 and a half months and meanwhile one of my friends told me about this job at E4E technologies for an enterprise support. I found this job to lead me to a better future and attended an interview there and got that one too. I'm currently under training there.

Well, that's about my work. My sister gave birth to a girl just a day before my birthday. She is very cute! She is named 'Simra' (meaning Princess). Mom started talking to sis ever since Simra was born. Also a week back my sister brought my niece home for the first time ever. Mom has bonded well with sis but dad is yet to. I guess it will take time for him to come down.

I also bought gifts for my sis' b'day and my niece's naming ceremony from my own salary. It's a pretty nice feeling when things are going so smooth all of a sudden. And all of this happened within a month. I hope life continues to go smooth for the coming months. :)

A Never Ending Game!

It was during the 2004 Tennis French Open when Fabrice Santoro beat Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14. The match which took place for 6 hours and 33 minutes was considered the longest tennis match ever until day before yesterday.


Wimbledon 2010 was in progress on 23rd of June, when John Isner faced Nicolas Mahut. They had been playing a grueling match for 10 hours and the score-card displayed as 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 59-59. The day grew dark and the match was said to continue the next day (yesterday). But the record was already made.


The match ended with the last set reading as 70-68 as John Isner moved on to the second round. The time read out as 11 hours 5 minutes - The Longest Ever.


A tribute to both Isner and Mahut for "The Greatest Game Ever Played"!

When Isner Won

Matrix Mystery

Well, those who had watched the matrix movie know for a fact that the movie itself was full of mysteries. But this is one of the greatest mysteries of the movie I had ever come across. Have a look at the date in Thomas Anderson's (Neo) passport.

Movies I Love!

Nearly the first 18 yrs of my life I scarcely watched movies. But the last 5 yrs I watched so many movies. Some I liked, some I didn't, some I hated, some I loved and some I couldn't take my mind of. I never watch movies based on genre. I think I like movies of almost every genre. What I really expect in movies are logics and plots. I hate movies where one can guess the ending before the climax.

There are several movies I like but when it comes of logic and plots, the most favorites would be 'Matrix', 'Back to the future' and 'Pirates of the Caribbeans'. Not only that their logics are good but their plots are wide. Especially in Matrix and Pirates, every single word a character speaks has a meaning.

But I want to talk about three special movies that I love the most. These are the movies that I can watch all my life repeatedly and still watch them as if I'm watching for the first time. Two of them were directed by Christopher Nolan, his latest two.

My third favorite is 'The Prestige', directed by Nolan and the cast are Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johnson. This is a movie with a huge plot, different time lines and one of the best suspense thrillers ever. Usually the suspense is at the climax but this movie is full of suspense right from the first act. I have no words to say how brilliant the story line is. I never liked Christian Bale but after watching this, he is one of my favorites.

My second favorite would be, 'The Dark Knight' again by Nolan with Bale and Ledger as the lead. This movie has a cold opening, that is it starts without any title. This is the only superhero movie I ever liked. The director was very clear in what he wanted his hero to be. First time ever logics were used in a superhero movies (there are some flaws but better than no logic at all). He didn't show Batman as the hero who saves everyone, or as the hero who does everything right. That was the main reason I liked this movie. Ledger's acting and Zimmer's music together create such a tension throughout the movie which can't be explained by words. I have seen this movie about 6 times and I will keep watching it. No Doubt!

The most favorite movie of my life would be, 'Rang De Basanti'. All I can say about this movie is that I have seen it 20 times and if someone talk to me about this movie, I would want to watch it again. I seriously have no words to say anything about this movie, this would always be my all-time favorite.

Mysterious Hole in Guatemala City

On the 23rd of February 2007, a 330 foot deep sinkhole swallowed up over a dozen homes in a crowded neighborhood in Guatemala City. Over 1000 people were evacuated and two people were killed. The giant hole emitted a foul stench, tremors and loud noises. The authorities blamed the sinkhole on a ruptured underground sewage flow. Sinkholes are caused by changing geological conditions or by a failure to maintain aging underground pipes and sewage systems, but the common factor in both is usually water. Ground underlain with carbonate bedrock - limestone for example - is most prone to sinking because the bedrock erodes with repeated exposure to water. The rock corrodes and the sediment swells with water and eventually everything reaches a critical mass point. The sinkhole phenomenon appears to be intensifying all over the world as ground water continues to face depletion and earthquakes weaken substrata layers of earth.

Here's a local news report on the incident.

Bruce Lee plays Table Tennis

This is one amazing video of the famous Kung fu Master, Bruce Lee playing Table Tennis with his nunchaku. Its totally awesome. But it is fake! This is the new ad for Nokia N96. This was probably done using CGI. But watching this video makes me think Bruce Lee might well be able to do this.

Will It Work?

*~*Disclaimer: The following content is purely of my own. I never came across it or was inspired anywhere from any books or from any site.*~*

I always wanted to post things that my mind comes out with and where else can I post other than in blogs? I got this idea fairly recent and I have no idea if its possible or not. It may even sound stupid.

I am always a fan of India and am always proud to be an Indian. I strongly hope that India would be a developed country by 2020. Its been 10 yrs since the road to development started. India has changed a great deal in the last 10 yrs but I don't think these changes are fast enough to make us a developed country in the next 10. There is one thing that India must try to concentrate hard and it is 'Science and Technology'. Our S&T has always been lagged compared to the Europeans and Americans. We had never been able to catch up with their S&T. Why is it so?

We always have to wait for Samsung and Sony to bring in LED TVs, Nokia and Sony Ericsson to bring in new technologies in Mobiles, etc. We do not even have HD discs where as in US, HD discs are replaced by Blue-Rays. Why do we always depend on foreign companies to decide when to bring in the technologies to our country? Why isn't there a single Indian company which can try to bring in a new technology on its own before the foreign ones? The answer is simple. The Indian companies cannot afford to waste money doing research, when they can produce hundred more products with the same cost. Instead they wait for the technology to come here so that it is easier to comprehend and also spend less money.

Whereas take ISRO. Its had its own R&D department. It creates its own model of rockets and satellites. And where does ISRO stands? It is One of the 7 Space Departments in the world which launches its own satellites. It is One of the 5 Countries in the world which has its own space program. It may not be the best, but being in top 5 is not an ordinary feat.

So then I came up with an idea (may or may not be possible). Our Government can build an organisation/laboratory which will work only on researches in technologies in every possible field (just like CERN laboratories in Switzerland). This org/lab must try to do research in every new technology that comes up anywhere across the globe. It can sell any successful research to any Indian company so that we can start producing our own products with latest technology and also with good standards. Our govt must maintain an annual budget. It may find its profit by selling the research reports to the companies.

As far as I can see, this org/lab can help not only in improving the technology but also the infra-structure. It opens thousands of job opportunities. Also MS graduates can work here in India rather than working for other countries.

This can also promote the people to buy Indian products as we can meet the same standards of the foreign ones. If this works then it may result in decrease in imports and increase in exports, which is the most important thing for a country to be recognized as a developed one. Remember the old slogan, 'Be Indian Buy Indian'? It may be possible.

I do not have any knowledge on Marketing and so I do not know if this is logically possible. I would love to view your comments (positive or negative). If you think this can work and if you love to see a developed India I would ask you to spread this message. May be it will work.

Karbon Kamaal Catch!

I'm not used to post others posts in my blog, but I read this one and I kind of liked it. It's about the "catch-phrases" used in the IPL.

Posted by Sam Garfield at Cricinfo Blogs.


"The tournament is just over a week old but we already have one clear winner: “Karbon Kamaal Catch” has gone effortlessly past terms such as “DLF Maximum” and “Citi Moment of Success” to emerge as the most nauseating term in cricket.
The clincher is of course the word Kamaal, which translates to “magically wonderful”. So when the commentator gushes about a dolly at cover being a Kamaal catch, it makes the sellout even more pathetic. And then he goes on about how a missed catch could have been a Karbon Kamaal Catch and how a Karbon Kamaal Catch was also a Citi Moment of Success.
But this is the one I’m waiting for: "Ah, that could have been a Karbon Kamaal Catch, but it is a DLF Maximum, and that’s a Citi Moment of Success."
I wonder if the corporates who hand out the cash to make commentators go silly ever worry about ridicule."

Google Suggestion Comedies

You must have heard about Google Suggestions. Type any letter(s) on the Google Search and it will give you suggestions based on the top searches made.

For eg: Type 'in', and google suggestions gives indian railways, indian airlines, etc.

Some of the suggestions are really hillarious (shows how jobless people using Google Search are). Here are the few that I came across.


"Does je"            -    Does jesus have a tatoo
"My ears are n"   -    My ears are not a toilet
"heh"                   -    hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
"Don't tell g"        -    Don't tell god what to do with his dice
"I want to do a"   -    I want to do a poo at paul's
"I'm wat"             -    I'm watching you pee lego
"Please will"         -    Please will you take your children home before i do them in
"I like"                 -    I like to tape my thumbs to my hands to see what it would be like to be a dinosaur

Courtesy: googlelolz.com

Shock Collar

I came across this term while I was searching for some astronomy news across the Internet. I found this to be an interesting fact which I thought I'll share it here. What is Shock Collar. Let's see what Wikipedia explains.

The Prandtl–Glauert singularity or P.G. singularity is sometimes referred to as a vapor cone, shock collar, or shock egg. The point at which a sudden drop in air pressure occurs is generally accepted as the cause of the visible condensation cloud that often surrounds an aircraft traveling at transonic speeds. It is an example of mathematicaly singularity (I don't know what that exactly means. So anyways...). Here are some of the pics of shock collar.

I found only three good pics of Shock Collar as there aren't many.

Interference With Eclipse

Here is one of the most spectacular picture taken during the Partial Solar Eclipse on July 22nd, 2009 at Hong Kong. The picture shows a very rare and unusual pattern of sunlight. The pattern seen here is known as the Interference Pattern. This is caused due to the superposition of the direct sunlight and the light reflected from the  window grids of the building on the left. (To know more about Superposition of light, check your 12th Physics Book ). This picture was taken from the 27th floor of a building.

District 9

District 9 has been nominated as one of the contenders for Best Movie Award at the 82nd Academy Awards. I'd be much surprised if this movie doesn't win. I know many would say that Avatar would win, but I personally think District 9 is way better than Avatar. A low budget movie which was not even considered to run a month, ended up in Oscar nominations. The reason is the concept is absolutely original. This was one movie that reminded me of none other while watching it.

The plot goes like this. An alien space-ship came to Earth around 20 years back. It doesn't have enough fuel to get back to its planet. The aliens have made a settlement in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Government has allocated an area for the aliens called, "District 9", which soon was converted into an alien slum. Well, this is the first 10 mins of the movie. I rather not say anything else about the movie coz it will end up in spoilers. Watch the movie and you will surely love it.

I personally feel it is 'The Best Movie of the Decade' (apart from Lord Of The Rings). And I would rate it 9.8/10. A Must Watch!

Emergency Number 108

You would have heard about the emergency number '911' is US. A similar kind of emergency toll free number '108' has been introduced in India by Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI). This was introduced in 2005.

108 is basically for police, medical and fire (Prank calls to 108 will be tracked by police). 108 is currently used in 11 states across India and around 2000 ambulances are in use. The Government of India promises to bring it all across the country by 2011 and also bring about 10000 new ambulances.

It's nearly five years since 108 was introduced but none here have even heard about it. Indian Government should have made sure to advertise it properly but all they did was stick bills on buses. Who even bother to read the bills on buses??? I hope the service would be as good as the '911', like in Hollywood movies.

Eeram

Eeram is the latest movie produced by Director Shankar. The movie was okay (I was expecting a murder mystery). But there was one thing I couldn't believe when I saw or rather i should say, when I heard. The composer of Eeram was Thaman and he did a fairly good job. But I was totally frustrated when I heard a particular sound track which was a perfect copy of 'Stranger', from 'Dark Knight' (Yes, Kavin. The same track which sounds like the train, which you posted in your blog). 

You may think its a very common thing, copying BGM from Hollywood. Even I was used to all these but not this time. Its not because I love Hans Zimmer or because I was amazed by the masterpiece of 'Stranger', but because of the complexity of the music. This annoying sound famously composed to hype to tension behind Heath Ledger's Joker was no ordinary music. 

That simple sound took Zimmer more than a week to record. Recorded with Cello and Guitar and few other instruments, removing certain frequencies which create the noise, modulating few other frequencies - this was no ordinary feat by Zimmer. And its totally disappointing to hear a local composer copying it with absolutely no pain at all. 

The video below will give you an idea of how much of hard work Zimmer went through to record the track (6:27).

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa Songs

Vinnaithanndi Varuvaayaa is the first album by A.R. Rahman for Goutham Menon. Its too early to say this but this could be the best album of the year. ARR proved to be versatile again. The songs are unique and original. It really amazes me on how ARR creates such unique songs even after 18 yrs of composing.


Omana Penne
A very beautiful romantic song. Melodious and the chorus is catchy. The song is calm throughout and it is one of the top songs of the album.

Anbil Avan
A nice dance beat song. Quite catchy! You will enjoy after repeated listening.

Vinnathaandi Varuvaayaa
I'm not a fan of this song but this is another master-piece of ARR. The chords used in this song is totally unique.

Hosanna
Starts as a lonely single but turns up into a heppy tune. My most favorite song of the album. The opening line is very strong. And what else to comment on Blaaze's rap??? The guitar strumming makes all the difference between the heppy part and the romantic part of the song.

Kannukkul Kannai
The Violin intro is really impressive. I have heard many tamil songs of the similar genre but none of them had been good enough. The difference was in the stereo rhythm and the violin intro that made the song more interesting to listen to.

Mannipaya
Another best romantic from ARR undoubtedly. The two unique tunes for the same line 'Oru naal sirithen...' shows the versatility of ARR. Using Thirukural as a stanza is purely original and adds up to the meaning.

Aaromale
ARR is known for composing out of the league tunes for marriage related songs like Maangalyam (Alai Paayuthe) and Kummi Adi (Sillunu Oru Kaadhal). Here is another one. Would anyone think of composing a powerful tune for marriage related song??? The lyrics is in malayalam but when I read through the translation the lyrics sounded equally powerful.

Altogether I feel this is the best tamil album ARR has composed in quite sometime.

B'lore Trip

Me and my friends (Hari, Rohan and Kavin) had planned to have a holiday trip every year starting from '09. But it remained as a plan. Last month I had to go to B'lore for my cousin's 10th b'day party. As Ro was totally bored he decided to join me. Later we convinced Hari too (Kav was in US and he couldn't join). And hence our the trip plan began (even though a year later).

It was a 4-day trip and we decided to cover B'lore and Mysore (Even though 4 days wasn't enough). We boarded the train on 22nd night. Our berth wasn't confirmed, it was only RAC. So we had to share the berth and we couldn't sleep properly that night.

23rd Jan:

We reached B'lore in the morning. The climate was freakishly cold and we were waiting for our auto (a family friend in b'lore booked an auto for us for the entire day). We went went straight to my uncle's house, had breakfast, and made a huge plan for the day and began our journey. We first visited a place called 'Iskcon', a society for the disciples of Lord Krishna. It was a good place to visit whether or not you are a devotee. We then went to 'Sankey Tank', a large tank where boating is available. Unfortunately it was closed. It was noon already. Our next plan was to the museum but we were so tired that we decided to bunk it. We then went to the planetarium. There were a lot of interesting science experiments. We then went for the planetarium show and the funniest part is that all three of us slept off. We realized that we were too tired and so we had lunch in a restaurant and went back to my uncle's place and slept for three hours.

After a good sleep, we went to visit the musical fountain. It was nice in the first few mins but then it was all repetitive. We were about to visit the 'Vidhan Soudha', when the auto broke-down. We paid the auto and walked to the MG Road. It is the best place to spend time for any youngster in India. The road is full of bars, pubs, coffee shops and restaurants. We spent the entire evening there trying out food we never had before. 

24th Jan:

It was the party day (cousin's 10yr bday party). Ro decided to visit his grandmother in the morn, while me and Hari went for a walk around the place, promising my uncle that we'll be back on time for the party. Me and Hari walked and walked and we were surprised that we reached on time for the party. The cake was ready and the b'day boy was sitting the b'day hat. But everyone were staring at us. Only when we went inside we realized that the party had already begun (Ro was back only after the party finished). The rest of the afternoon passed by Hari and me scaring my niece with a party snow.

At dusk when everyone left, Hari, Ro and I decided to visit the 'Forum Mall'. We spent the entire evening in the mall looking around various shops and beautiful girls .

25th Jan:

 We took a bus to Srirangapatnam in the morning. It was a 3-hour journey from B'lore. We spent the entire time making jokes, having fun and snapping pictures of everything we came across. We were planning to go to 'Balmuri Falls'. We reached Srirangapatnam in the afternoon and we asked for an auto who asked for Rs. 400. We decided to ask someone if there was a bus that leads there. One guy asked us to take a bus to a place he called, 'pompus', and another bus to another destination and a 4km walk. We got into the bus but the conductor was staring at us when we asked for 'pompus'. We repeated our destination another 4 times and there was no reaction from him. Then a guy next to us corrected it as 'Pump House'. It was hilarious.

On the way to the falls we found a restuarant called, "The New Inchara Hotel". The new Inchara fed us some tasty food after which we went to the falls. After the long walk the surprise was awaiting. It wasn't the falls we were expecting. The height of the falls was barely up to my waist.

We spent some fun time in the falls even though Hari refused to come near the water. After maybe the best evening of the trip we went back to Srirangapatnam and boarded a bus to Mysore. We stayed at another Uncle's place for the night.

26th Jan:

We got up in the morning with absolutely no plan at all. We went to the terrace to catch a glimpse of the sunrise behind the famous 'Chamundi Hills'. Looking at the sunrise we decided to go to the hills. We took a bus to the hill top and spent time looking at the shops and beautiful scenery. We were unhappy with the bus journey since we couldn't catch most of the beautiful scenery spots. When we decided to leave I came up with an idea of walking down and both of them agreed. We walked down the entire 7km. People whom we passed through would certainly have thought,"Who are these jerks walking down the hill" as we were the only ones walking down. After a tiring one and a half hour walk we decided to quit the Tippu Palace and everything else in Mysore and decided to go straight back to B'lore.

It was 3pm when we left Mysore but we reached B'lore only at 8. I have no idea what took so long as there wasn't any traffic. We packed our bags and my uncle dropped us to the station. Again our berth was in RAC and again we had to share the berth.

We didn't visit many places at all as 4 days were too short. But we did enjoy the most. About 70% of the budget was spent on food. The year started really well for all of us and we decided to have such trips every year.

Back To The Start

Well, this is a song I wrote months ago when I was just sitting at home idle. It was exam time and I had a huge book-fever. I couldn't read a line and my head was throbbing heavily. There was not a single game in my PC and net wasn't working, nothing worth watching on TV. Altogether, it was one longest day of my life and I was almost reaching madness. I don't know how but I ended up writing this song. Hope its good!

"Everytime I try to do it,
I'm failing all again.
I try to do it one last time,
But I lose the hope away.

I'm trying hard,
Yet I'm far.
I falling right back to the start.

I didn't wish this to happen,
But I couldn't help myself.
I guess its getting too much for me,
Yet I got to do that.
I know I cannot finish,
What I intended to do.
Well, I'm never gonna stop,
Coz, I want  to do it, woo hoo!"

Wiki Blunder!

Wikipedia is the best encyclopedia in the world and there is no doubt about it. One day I was so bored that I started browsing, clicking links after links. One led to another and I end up with a news of the death of the actor 'Kunal Singh' of 'Kadhalar Dhinam' fame. I wanted to read more about his death and I tried Wiki search but did not find his page. I found the page 'Kadhalar Dhinam' and clicked on the link to the actor. And here I found the big wiki blunder.

I clicked on the link of actor Kunal but I ended up in the page of 'Kunalan', son of Ashoka the great, emperor of 3rd century BC. I so used to believe that wiki is perfect and I felt very bad when I realized this mistake by wiki.

How Does a Gun Silencer Work?

Well, I was watching so many action movies but every time I see a gun with a silencer I can't stop wondering how it works. As usual I checked on the net and Bingo! I got the answer. But the answer was amazingly simple. There is absolutely no mechanism in a silencer.

All that's required is that, the silencer should be slightly bigger than the gun barrel. That's all it takes to mute the firing sound (not exactly mute though). Well, I'll use the same example as I got through.

Imagine a balloon filled with air. You pop it with a pin and it burst making a huge sound. That is because the air pressure inside the balloon is very high and when the balloon pops, there is a huge drop in the pressure in a very quick time, creating the sound. But when you remove the end of the balloon, the air pressure reduces slowly and hence the sound is very less.

Similarly, in a gun, the gun powder is ignited behind the bullet. The gun powder produces a high pressure pulse of hot air. And as the bullet is out of the barrel, so is the air behind it. The air pressure in the barrel is around 3000 pounds per square inch (psi). So you hear the sound as there is a huge drop in the pressure. But in case of a silencer, when the bullet is out of the barrel, the air is released into a slightly larger volume and hence there is no huge drop of pressure but a considerable one. When the bullet is out of the silencer, the pressure is only 60 psi. Hence the firing sound is so much reduced.

Simple, yet effective!

Lessons Learnt in '09

I'm happy as I got through the rough page of my life. But certainly I must be positive about this past year. I learned quite a lot about life. Some of them I remember are...

• Never get emotionally attached to any one in life.
• Know your limits to each and every person you are acquainted with. 
• Never consider everyone the same.
• Do what you feel important rather than what you think important

I had to learn the first point in the hard way but at least I should be happy that I finally learned it. I really hope this new decade will turn out a better road - if not a highway, at least an expressway