'Super Moon': Large Full Moon This Weekend

"The full Moon has a reputation for trouble," wrote Tony Phillips, an
astronomer who maintains NASA's Science News site. "It raises high
tides, it makes dogs howl, it wakes you up in the middle of the night
with beams of moonlight stealing through drapes.

(abcnews.go.com)

the designer baby factory

Immediately on the heels of 'Vicky Donor' highlighting the penchant for handsome, beautiful and smart kids through sperm donation there is a story in 'dailymail' on designer babies through surrogacy.

And the economics:

Few American women are willing to act as surrogates — at least not cheaply — but impoverished Indian women are literally queuing up outside surrogacy clinics these days. It is cheaper to hire a womb here than anywhere else in the world, hence its dubious place at the centre of the sci-fi-style 'global baby' boom.

Canada Stops Making Cents

Canada minted its final penny today as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the coin was too expensive to produce and no longer needed for business.

Why?

The penny, with two maple leaves on one side and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the other, has lost 95 percent of its purchasing power since it was first produced by the mint.

(Bloomberg)

Newspapers are trying to avert economic disaster

The Who Needs Newspapers report says the keys to success include community-service-driven reporters and ethically managed reporting. 

Afraid of Social Networks

Who?

Who lese?

The  governments, the ruling classes....

Now its turn of Kuwait  which says "Social Networks Must Be Regulated To 'Safeguard The Cohesiveness Of Society"

Is Facebook worth more than the $96bn valuation looking at the idea of freedom it promises to people who do not even know that something called Facebook exists?

Who are we, asks Kalki Koechlin...

...in this article in HT.

" We are an army of sheep" says she and goes on to explain why are we so and what can be done about this.

I want this birthday cake

The last time I had a full fledged birthday party was 65 billion years ago.

There was no vegetarian  cake available in the city and I had to cut a slab of Milk Cake.

If I ever muster the courage to cut a cake it will be something like this !!!

Restore Dignity of President's Office

The entire nation will agree with the thought that "both the Government and the Opposition should ponder over how to restore the dignity of the President's office."

Is the government or the opposition listening or doing something to achieve this end?

Why does God create Musicians

"I believe — I still believe — that God sent him to this earth to be a special messenger, to make people happy"  said Phoebe Jacobs of Louis Armstrong. 

Phoebe was a publicist for Jazz Greats and died at 93 this week.

What a life working for  and with the jazz greats  "including Fitzgerald, Ellington, Goodman, Sarah Vaughan and Peggy Lee"

Courtesy: NYT 

Reuters : Photos of the Week

Reuters' Photos of the Week  are a mix of war, politics, sports and entertainment.

The photo on Sudan conflict is the one we would see but would still like not to see.  

What It Takes To Innovate: Wrong-Thinking, Tinkering & Intuiting

Polaroid inventor Edwin Land explains in this article on the99percent.com what it takes to innovate:

Point number 3 is worth mentioning here:

3. Embrace failure.
True innovators are practically impervious to the notion of failure. Whereas the everyman might feel shame or embarrassment in making a mistake, the inventor sees an opportunity for learning. 

Who is to blame for Siachen deaths - weather or mankind?

The Hindu says

In Siachen, weather is enemy as search for avalanche victims continues

"The weather and the inhospitable terrain have taken more lives on this side of the glacier as well as on the Indian side than the actual conflict, and now it is the most slowing factor of the rescue work."

Thanks to Sachin people know that Rajya Sabha exits

Author was this article was shocked, this week, to discover that an institution he once thought of as being a myth (like Santa Claus, dragons, and tasteful Marwadis), was in fact real. 

"The Rajya Sabha is apparently a real, actual thing. I always thought it was the sort of bedtime story politicians told their children to make them behave. "Beta go to sleep, or you'll wake up in the Rajya Sabha, where everyone's pointless and the only thing you're worth is one mark on a Civics exam.""

(Mid-Day)

There are no secrets online

That emotional e-mail you sent to your ex, the illness you searched for in a fit of hypochondria, those hours spent watching kitten videos (you can take that as a euphemism if the kitten fits) — can all be gathered to create a defining profile of you. (NYT)

How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet

Sachin RS Nomination - How media got it all wrong

At 1506hr yesterday rediff.com said:  "The Congress President is learnt to have talked in general about cricket and wished the player luck for his future" under the headline 

"15:06  Guess who came visiting Sonia? :  

Sachin Tendulkar along with his wife Anjali today paid a courtesy visit to
Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath Residence in New Delhi. 
Sonia wanted to meet the batting great and personally congratulate him on achieving the historic feat of scoring 100 international centuries recently.

Senior BCCI functionary and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla was also present at Sonia Gandhi's residence. Tendulkar and his wife spent close to half an hour with Sonia. The Congress President is learnt to have talked in general about cricket and wished the player luck for his future."

Suddenly at rediff.com learnt that what it had learnt was not correct and :

18:51  Batting maestro, yesteryear actress get RS call:   Just in: TV reports say Sachin has accepted the RS nomination. Confirmation awaited. Sachin, apparently, gave his OK to Sonia Gandhi, when he met her this morning.