Visiting the queen is about to get costlier - Article for the day 29 June

Well, after the serious post yesterday I thought I'd switch gears a bit and move into a more humorous post.

For all the ruckus that Britain's proposed 3000 pound security deposit for visas has caused, this was a nice take.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/uks-visa-bond-yet-another-reason-to-skip-london-904405.html


P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

What is democracy? - Article for the day 28 June

Following up on this post I am starting off on a pretty heavy note. The riots in countries all over the world against the existing regimes will probably be what history remembers this decade for. This well articulated piece in The Economist talks about what democracy means. Just winning elections does not a democracy make.

Sharing food for thought

So a few days ago I came across this article which stated that Facebook was broken. A few friends and me started discussing this and were wondering what we could do about it. Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn were discussed as possible alternatives. The worst of them was a email chain to groups of people. (I feel we deal with email overload on most days). At the end I realized that most were "push systems". I am trying to push my content out to people who are friends with me, followed me, have me in their contacts etc.

So my attempt at a solution is to use blogger as a pull system. I will post articles that I like (possibly with a little commentary) on my blog. People can then read them here at their leisure. It won't get lost in a stream of newer updates. People can comment on it and start a discussion without it disturbing their day. It probably won't get a lot of traction, but hey, I have a ready list of good reading material for a rainy day.

What say?

P.S. Incidentally this is my 100th post. Yay!! Looks like the next 100 will come a lot faster :) 

Photoblog - Summer and Beaches

Summer. The word brings back memories of summer holidays and days spent idly on the beach. Growing up in Mangalore I could spend hours just watching the waves crashing along the shore. As fate would have it, I landed up at KREC (Or NITK to use its present name) the only college in India to have its own private beach. The lighthouse and beach have been home to many a story through the years. 

The clouds gather before a storm

Coconut tree lined beaches

The Surathkal Lighthouse

View from the Lighthouse

View from the light house 2

After graduation and into the working world, wanderlust took root. Work hard and party harder was the motto. Weekends and holidays meant trips to various places. The first among the exotic trips was a visit to Egypt.

Pictured here is the Citadel of Qaitbay. It was built on the ruins of the Lighthouse of Alexandria (One of the seven ancient wonders of the world).  Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great and was the sea port between Greece and the Nile Valley. . 

Speaking of the Nile valley, the next is the Faiyum Oasis. This oasis in the desert is different from others in the world, in the fact that it is fed from the river Nile and not underground springs.

Another one of these trips took me to Sri Lanka. Pictured here are the beaches of Unawatuna, Galle fort and Hikkaduwa. Una-Watuna literally means “fell down”. 

 

This stems from mythology as a part of the mountain that fell down when Hanuman was bringing back the mountain to help heal Lakshman. Hanuman was unable to figure out which herbs were required by Jambavan and picked up the whole mountain and brought it back to the battlefield.

Hikkaduwa has brilliant corals and is a lovely place to do snorkeling or scuba diving

Galle Fort is a Dutch fortress built in traditional European style. The sunset from here is a must do and pictures really do not do justice to the beauty of this beach. 

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Work took me to Los Angeles and one particular long weekend, we did a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Pictured here are some of the photos of places along the way.

 

Elephant seals are one of the highlights of this trip where the whole beach is covered with these huge animals (They weigh between 2 to 2.5 tons) who have come ashore for the mating season. This happens only in December.

Pebble beach, as seen in the picture, is a beach completely covered by pebbles that have been polished smooth by years of exposure to the waves. 

Malibu beach’s claim to fame is the number of Hollywood stars who have moved there. It has its own helipad and is awash with surfers and people building sand castles. 

For people who dream of beach retirement homes Manhattan Beach is the place to be. Its beauty has been used as the film location for greats like Starsky and Hutch, Tequila Sunrise and more recently TV series like CSI: Miami, The O.C, Weeds etc. It is also home to the Wimbledon of beach volleyball, “The Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament”. However, with people like Tiger Woods and Shaquille O'Neal moving in, the cost of owning property here just a dream for most of us.

Well, this is what summer means to me. The sun, the sand and the travel. What about you?


P.S. This post was written as an entry to the internal magazine of the company I work with. The topic was "What does Summer mean to you".