Brown Motion

Strategy in action - Automobile Lease New Car Models New HD TVs New 3D TVs Prenups Dental Fillings Hair styles Nutri fads Acai Berries Omega 3s Smart Water Even smarter water Coco nuts? (water variety) Spring Mattresses Air Mattresses Oxygen Bars Nut Bars No bars.... no dial tone - over and out

Look to Hollywood to glitz a place up. I mean they pulled it off with the Dharavi slums (Slumdog..) too - the goop looked attractive. This time it was Paris (during day and by night). We watched Woody Allen's magic - Hollywood discounts and all - in a film titled 'Midnight in Paris'. This was coincidentally a second Woody movie for us in a week - but was very enjoyable with the music, merriment and mystique of an era gone by in how the story weaves back and forth through time. Having been to the city of lights not too long ago the landmarks and views from the various angles and times of day provide an additional level of interest - like being there with the protagonist - who is also doing that - being there in a different era so to speak. A fresh take on the classical masters of the early 20th century - writers, artists and painters; all contemporaries but not sure if they actually knew each other the way the movie portrays it. In one scene you had Pablo Picasso, Ger...

When you read some of the reactions from audiences and just common yokels to an event that they witnessed you realize there is too much pent up angst. They have too much invested in that one thing it would appear to react in a way that seems irrational to a rational human. As an example people going up in ire regarding what one Country (style of cooking involving copious amounts of sugary and sticky and meaty portions) Cook (aka Chef in haute parlance) peddles on prime time TV and then turns around and makes a quick buck selling diabetes meds. Certain in the consuming public went ballistic calling her all sorts of names. Hey - whats to get twisted about? She could sell condoms and thongs for all you care (that would be a sight to watch since she is getting up there in age and girth). How is it anyone's business to decide how qualified she may be or whether she is being hypocritical. If you are buying what she is selling you are the numbnut not her. Same with a recent qualif...

Its getting close to that time of year in US politics where the Commander in Chief will be elected come Dec 2012. Be it a king, monarch, Prime Minister or President or for that matter a Chief Executive there is always somewhat of an arbitrary process to identify this entity that will end up leading/ruling/dictating/monarching (is that a word?) the masses under that role's purview. It is ironic that many like to consider the role of the US presidency as more of a 'Commander in Chief' job as opposed to 'Chief Executive' although his task is largely focused on the latter - running a country than issuing guidance on how to strategize our next attack. But setting aside the ironies of nomenclature for a minute or two let us look at this whole idea of electing - elections in particular. After accounting for the amazing accident of having been born on the planet that we inhabit to then be in the confluence of events that lead up to being elected (or usurp in some cases)...

Said Einstein. No it was Shakespeare I think but then again what does it matter. I guess a lot since I discovered having a short name is always a plus - especially if you tangle with any call center support (you need that to discover how to turn on that bluetooth you just got - not from rinsing with mouthwash but to wirelessly yak with humanity). Otherwise my friends with certain highly prized first and last names hailing from the south of the Indian peninsula have to budget 15 minutes to establish their identity using the spelling of their names...those converstaions go something like - Mie name is Ravichandrashekhar Venkatachari Bhatiprollu - R as in Robert, A as in Apple ....you can simply imagine that the person on the other end has asked for a bathroom break after the thrid occurence of the A in the first name and its not even close to being done. Then middle and then last name...is this guy or gal in Phillipines going to last that long? After which comes the whole argume...

Addicts of the world unite - Apple Corporation has fleetingly become the largest company in the world based on market capitalization. Keyword fleetingly. ExxonMobil is traditionally the other one that has held that title. Market cap is defined as total shares otustanding times the market value of the share. This is merely a reflection of what investors view the worth of the business to be. Now Apple has not had a run up out of that zone where it barely scraped Exxon for the top slot - a mere reflection of being too big to grow based on an earlier high water mark (or high Gas Mark)! Though on closer inspection it appears there are some similarities betwixt the two. Both are commodities that people now find hard to leave their home without. It is omnipresent where you look - and is addictive. People need to speed on the blacktop as much as the information highway and this speed (some drugs were actually called that) need is satiated with both these products. But if only people ...

Some old cartoons and jokes that I came across recently... Communism is bad...as man exploits man In Capitalism it is the other way around; Dalai Lama walks in to a brand new Pizza Hut in Dharamsala and says - Make me one with everything!; Anything in fine print cannot be good news; The househelp went to look for Brillo Pads and called back saying the only brands the store had were Kotex and Depends, (strange that the store did not have an abundance of iPads I thought); Couple is driving along a freeway when the wife looked over her shoulder and yelled at the husband who as usual (me) was speeding away on the freeway - Goddamn it you are going at 100 mph again - so driver turns to her and says - SO ARE YOU.

Humans have five senses (most of us do anyway). Sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing and TASTE. Never mind that Common Sense is not listed as most do not come born with it. But that is a subject of a different blog. My focus is to talk Taste. As in the one made possible by the millions of papillae of the muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. Simply said TONGUE. What got me thinking about Taste and how varied it is all over the world is my recent traveling and more importantly a visit to my doctor. Not the holiday blues but just a routine maintenance check on the functional organs with my doc revealed that I needed to tweak my diet or else the Ticker (Heart) was going to be in trouble. Troubling if you are a hypochondriac but otherwise mildly entertaining as it opened a whole new line of research that I was ignorant about. As in Diets and therefore Taste as a matter of personal preference. Being born in...

As you cruise the roads of America you realize there are too many signs. I was talking to a little old lady from Chelsea England the other day and she too pointed it out. That was in a good way to say that people in America must never get lost what with so many nice signs and all. I told her to take a guess again. She was miffed with the state of affairs back home where signage for many a reason did not exist or what was there did not sufficiently educate the fellow motorist. Back to the stateside observations - Some signs purely leave you dazed and confused as to their intent and more so their meaning in these days of everyone and their uncle suing the other's uncles and aunts. Take for example most common signs in residential areas - 'SLOW CHILDREN' (big yellow sign) right at that corner to Uncle Benny's house followed by the people walking sign. Now I am not a big fan of children in particular but I do know that my child is fast mentally and physically s...

In America I came across a series of books on variety of subjects titled 'For Dummies'. Everything from preparing taxes (that is daunting) to cooking to using the newest Apple computer was bundled under the Dummies title and clearly was making a killing selling it. A recent news article also showed an MIT engineer professing that he needed help setting up his latest HD TV at home since the manual and the remote control were beyond his technical capabilities. Now I am not sure whether to believe that the American spirit is so honest as to admit that most of them are essentially stupid as to require 'Self Help Dummy' books to manage their day to day lives or that things are so out of control that having the Dummy book is part and parcel of modern civilization? 'Youtube' is its online incarnation where a so called expert has posted his attempt at fixing that leaking plumbing or changing out that battery in his dad's Datsun convertible. I am not sure if D...

Off late the TV world has turned dreary - actually it has been on a constant decline but I just decided to qualify it now. One comic that seems to have taken on where Seinfeld left off is Chelsea Handler. A Jersey girl with a big mouth uninhibited to a large extent goes all out in discussing every known taboo topic and gets off making fun of anyone involved from politicos to film stars to pets. It is refreshing to see someone enjoy making fun of others and getting laughed at herself through another of her late shows that is also available to cable subscribers. She has also managed to gouge the idiotic consumers wallet by selling a number of books that rant about her upbringing or lack thereof and how she became immensely successful. Of course there is no charity show here having hung out with a lot of immensely successful white and not so white guys in her dating circle. Using a midget (or little person as they prefer to be called) she also adds some xtra quirky flair to her sh...

So goes the jingle for the thirsty paper towel made by a stateside consumer product company. Pretty effective product I must admit being a loyal customer for many a years to scoop liquids and spills and keep the counters clean. The advertising for said product however left me exasperated. It shows a young family with kids bouncing around the place like they had extra sugar before bed time and are now all ready to expend the calories on the household as it gets ready for a snack. Here comes an attempt to bake followed by some fooling around with large liquid containers designed to tip at a sneeze. Add bouncy kids with toys and sloppy hands it is ideal setup for the paper towel to come swooping in and clean up the mess. The inevitable occurs allowing for the eargerly expectant mother in this ad to jump in with her trusty paper towels. What throws me of is a couple of things that are portrayed as being 'American family business as usual'. 1. One can be careless around ...