Being Insouciant...

Look at the sentence - We are happy to inform that a new job ....that fits your criteria exactly! ...YEAH???

They are sending the job which clearly says its for female!

They either are very funny people , trying to crack a joke on me or are extremely pathetic!

I have not done any operation of changing my sex ( I dont earn that much) - and I am definitely MALE!

Thanks for identity crisis! You are really no.1 in WORST MATCHING OF JOBS!!!

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“Poker” apparently derives from German pochen, meaning to beat or beat up or pulverize. Aggression is at the heart of the game, which has a rich history of violence. Every duffer knows that two pairs, aces and eights, is called “The Dead Man’s Hand” because those were the cards Wild Bill Hickok was holding when shot from behind by an assassin named Crooked Nose Jack McCall.

The violence follows naturally enough from the pioneer nature of the game. The “cowboys full” of McManus’s title means a specific poker hand of three kings plus another card paired, but it also indicates how the game has flourished in Western settings.

Las Vegas is the site of the poker World Series and the fast, bluff-­emphasizing, aggressive and TV-friendly variation for the central tournament is called Texas hold ’em, which on the Internet and television has nudged older forms, draw and stud, toward the margins.

Devotees of the friendly game have included Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

The friendly game, with a limit on bets (sometimes doubled for the last round), usually allows the dealer to choose the game, with an emphasis on the old, traditional stud and draw variants rather than the hyper-charged hold ’em, which in tournament play is no-limit, meaning a player can go “all in”: betting all of one’s chips at once.

Noted from this NYT article on the book -The Story of Poker By James McManu

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Source - The Economist

Sales of American newspapers keep falling

MORE bad news for America's newspaper industry. In the six months to the end of September, daily circulation fell by 10.1% to 30.4m compared with the same period in 2008. All of the top 20 papers have seen their circulation plunge, with the exception of the Wall Street Journal. 

1 -  The population is turning more and more online. 

Penetration of Internet in USA is at a staggering 74% of entire population. Figure for India would be in single digits. 


2 -  It is a very urbanized nation, with 81% of the population residing in cities and suburbs as of mid-2005 (the worldwide urban rate was 49%)
Newspapers generally find devout readers at suburbs where people have luxury of time


3 - Habit change 
US now wakes up to latest friend request on Facebook or Twitter.No more people wake up and read USA Today with coffee - they pick up blackberry or Apple to check their emails while smelling the coffee


4 - "Social Revolution" - 
Its kind of "Reverse Globalization". People are getting more social. With so many interesting tools to stay connected with the friends, families, etc, meaning for "news" is now changed.

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Hey guys...here are 5 quick, small but very useful tips for Google Wave users...based out on my 1st day expedition on  it -

Tip 1. Profile picture 

In case your profile pic is not visible to others - check out if you have filled out your Google profile or not - http://www.google.com/profiles

Google Wave is picking up your information from there!

Tip 2.  Editing a blip as other is typing

There is a drop down arrow in the time stamp - just click and you are ready to edit it on the go.


Tip 3 Embedding widgets or apps

Google has still not allowed us to import a lot of things like twitter feeds, but there are many neat apps and bots built inside -



There are many more like Sudoku, Conference, Video chat, etc - these can be done by first installing them and clicking to run them...

Here is how to Install them -

3a) When you joined Wave - you would have got 2 messages - one would be for extensions - go to that wave and install the gadget of your choice



3b) Create a new wave and you would notice new tabs for the new apps


Tip 4 Adding friends to a new wave


Go to create a new wave - then click on the small + button shown in 2 in the pic and then select the friends from the drop down menu




Tip no. 5 Enable search (like Twitter) to ensure you dont miss any wave on that topic.


You can create a search term and save it like on Twitter - and then you want to see which Wave Buddy used that term or to follow conversation on that topic - just click on the "searches" and the topic to follow it all!


Thats all as of now...please do share your comments or any more tips on this...

Happy riding on Google wave :)))

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This is how my Google Wave looks right now!...Please note @Animeshpathak's  response :))

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Destination branding is something which is very important today in the globalized world -it helps in attracting tourists, also in investments ...and anyways who does not like to see finely landscaped, green fields, beautiful people in beautiful places...right? WRONG!

Anyways before I introduce you on "What not do in commercial / viral marketing for destination branding...here is a look at my fav campaigns on "what to do" :) -

Some of my favorite campaigns are -

1. India's Incredible Campaign

What is brilliant about this campaign is the portraying of the same age old story - tourist comes to visit a country and goes around...but never has the emotional appeal as visible and as addictive as in this campaign....




2. Malaysia's Truly Asia





But here is the twist - I read a news today about Denmark's attempt to attract tourists by viral marketing and going a step too far ...here read this -

Denmark's official tourism agency, has removed a promotional video from its YouTube site after criticism. The film, shot in video-diary style, purports to be the work of a Danish woman with a baby: she says that the child is the result of a one-night stand with a foreign visitor and that she hopes the father will see the video and contact her. (Source - The Economist)

This is simply outrageous - no visitor would like to come for a one night stand and then meet a girl and father a son!...ridiculous!

Look at the video and let me know what you think of it :)

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Guys, today I am in a little preachy mood - I want to tell all of you to avoid one small BIG mistake lot of you make while chatting / talking with other people!

How many times have you said - "And, what else is happening in your life" or "What else is happening in life?" , or in Hindi - "Aur bata, kya chal raha hai?" 


If the answer is "quite often" - then I would like to urge you all to please shun this habit - this may subtley result in people shunning you as a bad communicator!

Psychologically, people while conversion, like to be put up at ease and not confronted. And this small question puts every person in exactly that. Te person might be in stress / frustated, about to end his/ her life but does not want to tell you, so is pissed at your asking - "So, what else?" 


And Beware, if you use this sentence in front of a girl you are trying to woo - this sentence could be the end of it all! This also might mean, that since you are such a bore, you can' think. Your girl might just paint you as a person incapable of having interesting conversation.

Now, here is a quick solution if you suffer from this problem -

Try to be personal when you are conversing with the guy. Try to think of some personal things like...

1. To a frined when you are meeting him after years - 
Oh Boy!, I still remember the day we had when we went in that party...remember?


2. To an office colleague whom you helped in finding a job for his brother -
How is your brother, is he happy in his new job?

3. When out on a first date -
Hey, you should wear this red color often, makes you look really smart!

Please don't ask "How is Life?" Again! - no body wants to answer that question, seriously!


Photo courtesy - Gettyimages.com

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