Christina Aguilera - Say Something (AMA awards)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_Something_(A_Great_Big_World_song)

Folks,

   What a great rendition...softness, tenderness and grippingly emotional. I watched the song being performed on AMA awards a few minutes ago.

A terrific opening by the Ian Axel on the piano...I was getting ready to realize my worst fears come true. The diva, olympian and goddess reveal her usual self and make a mockery.

I was in for the shock of my life. Christina was not herself. She let go and truly embraced the soul of the song...she played second fiddle...I am dumbstruck!

The ginormous self-control and self-restraint demonstrated by Christina makes me believe anything is possible ;-). Bravo Christina, Bravo! I cant wait to hear you more.

I would never have heard this song in a 100 years if it was not for Christina bringing it to a bigger audience...thank you thank you thank you!

Why Best Buy is ready for creative destruction while Amazon will be the emperor of the eCommerce land

This is a real story. 

2 amazingly different experiences and a warning shot to all those Best Buy investors. The end is near.

Amazon:
   I purchased an oven baking element from Amazon a few weeks ago. Amazon has a nifty feature that highlights products of a similar nature at the bottom of the page. I luckily found a product that was 50% cheaper and clicked through the links and completed the purchase. Product arrived in less than 4 days (UPS). I open the packaging and to my shock find that while it looked the same overall, the ends of the baking element was totally different. This discovery was made after a couple hours of sweating and crouching and making allowances for my stupidity that I could not figure how to insert a baking element into the oven and turn one screw.
   Anyway, It turns out that the page relevance on Amazon picked the wrong product because they referenced the same name I was looking for.
   I opened a claim with Amazon and in less than a week - received full refund for the product including shipping all amounting to $18 (no biggie).

Rating: Excellent! That is Amazon customer service for you!

Best Buy:

On Father's day, I decided to buy a chromebook for my dad. Off I go to Best Buy. There was this part-time worker, supposedly consultant who hounded me the moment I went in. I told him that I was serious about a purchase and did not wish to use BestBuy for "showboating" so I can go home and order on Amazon. Fine. He explained in great detail about the Samsung Chrome book ($249) and the Acer Chrome Book ($199), the advantages of a faster and ligher chromebook with a 16GB SSD drive, flora, fauna et al. I fell for it. i said I am gonna buy the cheaper acer for $199. I pick up 1 of the 2 products lying on the shelf. Odd thing, nowhere on the brown cardboard carton was any product specs other than the stupid barcode. Argh. Hey, in the past decade  nobody sold me the "wrong product". I didnt have to worry much. I pay for it. Bring it home. Start using it. Until 2 weeks later (ie 3 days past their 15 day return policy), I was crushing the box in which the chrome book (now, this is a white cardboard carton with all the specs on the outside...I dont know why this was packaged in a brown carton and kept for sale).
   To my horror, I found that I had bought the old product with 320GB HDD and2GB RAM...the consultant at BestBuy brought this product up but we didnt consider it since we wanted something that was fast.
  I called BestBuy and all I got was "the 15 day return policy is over" and was instructed to go to the store back and negotiate a trade-in. What the hell does that mean? I was sold a product I didnt want to buy. They obviously mis-advertised, displaying the latest model and selling an older model. Seemed more like a bait and switch to me. Although, the old and new product sell at the same price.  Call me naive, I have never had this experience. The product I picked has been pretty much the product I wanted...and due to the brown carton hiding the original packaging, I couldnt verify it was the same product at the time of the purchase.
  Bottom line, I will never step foot in Best Buy again.  With Amazon, I atleast have a recourse...

Rating: Poor and extremely disappointed. 

FLIGHT 4352 - Cincinnati <=> Newark, Beware, if you ever fly this leg

ForeWarned is ForeArmed - this proverb is worth its weight in gold with what I have to say here.

The worst flight in America - UNITED FLIGHT 4352:

Count how many times there is a mention of "we are constantly trying to do a better job" and tally against the statistics.

Passengers interested in avoiding cursed flights should check the on-time performance for flights on airline websites and by independent services like FlightStats.com. The list of chronically delayed flights can be found on the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website.

Flight 4352 OFFICIALLY enters the hall of shame. I rarely fly and often book my tickets looking at the lowest price first. It never occured to me to check flight times (implicitly assumed they were mostly on time).

I am going to frame it here lest it is lost:

In 12 of the past 24 months ending in March, Flight 4352, which has changed flight numbers five times over the past two years to purge its bad history from airline reservation systems, was over 30 minutes late on at least half of its scheduled days, which is the DOT definition of "chronically late."

More depressing news - TB 117 and couches and carpets and cancers and thyroid disease and ...

An email from change.org landed in my inbox - I saved people from fire and now I have cancer (please sign the petition).

One lead to another and I read this horrifying and shocking article - the poisoning of michigan.

Some links:
Huffington post
National resource defense council


(sic)

Americans carry much higher levels of these chemicals in their bodies than anyone else in the world and California children contain some of the highest levels ever measured. During manufacturing, use and disposal, these chemicals are released into the environment where they can be found in air, water, and wildlife. They are carried on air currents as far away as the Arctic where they pollute native human populations, marine mammals, and even polar bears. Exposure to toxic flame retardants have been linked to real and measurable health impacts. Women with higher levels of flame retardants in their blood take longer to get pregnant and have smaller babies. Children exposed in the womb have lower IQs and attention problems. Other studies have linked flame retardants to cancer, male infertility, male birth defects, and early puberty in girls. A recent study in animals has linked

 Why is california singled out - because of TB 117. Read more here - TB 117.

TB-117 2013 is coming and it may not address all your fears. 
http://www.bhfti.ca.gov/about/laws/propregs.shtml. Debra Lynn Dadd explains why here

This is sad news - I didnt know that the air I breathe at home is contaminated with silent killers. A sudden spurt in some conditions and *my natural age* was always the common explanation. Thanks to Janette Neeves Rivera's petition, I understand how thoroughly fvcked I am to live in homes made of carcinogenic materials. No wonder that the generations past the 1950s suffer from untold and rare diseases - all the time I am asking why is that such conditions are not abound in third world? Cause the people are not rich enough to drink the modest concoctions of the western thinktank - eat, drink and breathe carcinogens.

The systematic reaming of middle class America - US health care

 A very riveting and interesting article that hits the nail on the head.

On being insured and the insurance company being the negotiator

“You keep thinking it’s free,” she said. “We call it free, but of course it’s not.”  (sic)

Yet, the sad story is,

1. The USA outpaces rest of world on a 7:1 ratio in terms of medical spending
2. The quality of care is most horrifyingly "average".
3. The total number of drugs/scans/tests/procedures ordered per patient is unnecessary (see it 'saving ass').
4. What more the drug/scan/procedures, USA is the most expensive in all 21 categories.
5. The list goes on and on...

Here is another gem,

The high price paid for colonoscopies mostly results not from top-notch patient care, according to interviews with health care experts and economists, but from business plans seeking to maximize revenue;

While several cheaper and less invasive tests to screen for colon cancer are recommended — colonoscopy has become the go-to procedure in the United States. “We’ve defaulted to by far the most expensive option, without much if any data to support it,” 

Latest NYT article on health care expenditures:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html?_r=0

An article by the renowned Dr Atul Gawande on escalating costs and an explanation as to why?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html?_r=0

No Whey - Whey is produced from Stomach of young calf (rennet)

Argh - Whey is not Vegetarian (If you are a lacto vegetarian)

Most Whey is made using rennet (the inner lining of stomach of young calves). Read here.
Another link pretty much reiterating the same thing:
A third link so it really registers -  Animal protein stays in Whey during cheese making
Beer and wines are not safe either:
http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj97jan/971wine.htm

If you are a lacto-vegetarian like me - watch out!
Most manufacturers hide animal based products under weird sounding chemical names and numbers (TRUE!), check this out...http://veganconnection.com/notvegan.html

USA only, Vegan beers, anyone? -  http://veganconnection.com/veganbeer.htm
USA only, Vegan Wines  - http://www.barnivore.com/wine

Zach Sobiech - R.I.P

A really really depressing day and week so far. I dont recall the click history - but I read about Zach and one click after another...it lead to a heart-breaking and uplifting story about Zach and hear of his passing a few days ago (May 20 2013).

This link gives a brief insight into Zach's life, diagnosis, suffering, family and his love - very touching!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NjKgV65fpo

We have heard this so many times - yet, when I heard Zach say "You dont have to find out you are dying to start living", it touched a chord deep down. Wisdom way beyond his years.

Zach's song, "Clouds" is an internet sensation, you can read the lyrics and watch the video here - http://lybio.net/tag/zach-sobiech-clouds-lyrics/
 

why today's youth are fools and why colleges across the country want them to stay that way

Long long ago, I graduated out of a medium tier college. Not that it opened many doors for me or things would have been different had I graduated from a top-tier college. Chances are, regardless, the station I am at is where I would have been had I taken the umpteen other paths. I am not speaking of Destiny (It is a she and she is a Miss). However, I hate to admit...tip of the hat, Ms Destiny.

I am guilty of a crime - of not understanding American culture. It just belies common-sense.

Why is it harder to imagine that kids CAN stay with their parents and go to a local college/university spending the LEAST amount of money that doesnt endanger the kid or the parent financially? Why? Why? Why?

Back in the day, only because it was prohibitively expensive, and reservation policies that didnt allow a meritirous student like me to pursue an electronics engineering course, I was FORCED to pick a school outside my city. I was home-sick everyday of the 4 years. All in all, I spent somewhere close to $2000 (adjusted for exchange rates in the 1990s) for a 4 year college degree. I was able to earn close to $2000 in the very first year of employment ( I was living with my parents then, no bills, no expenses...free cash flow!)

Let us apply the same to the USA - kids are independent, have other expenses that need to be supported when they do graduate. The starting salary for a fresh out of college is no more than $40-50k. In one statement, let me state emphatically - this salary is NOT SUSTAINABLE. Unless the freshly-minted graduate lives a misers existence paying off the debt before enjoying the first $ as a debt-free man!


Confession - the 4 year degree certificate DID open doors for me, not the college nor the course!

Confession - 2: I am no Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, CTO ,whiz kid, genius, prodigy. But, just the above-average person any employer would love. If you are reading this, you shouldnt confuse yourself in thinking you are any better. 

See, the world is full of employees. The world is full of engineering graduates. Let us see if you make the connection!


What prompted me to write this article was this paragraph from the daily beast (How to Reinvent the college)

The hazy imprecision of this notion is a triumph of college marketing. Many colleges hope that whims and intangibles will guide student decisions. It’s simply not in their interest to encourage students to think closely about the economics of their choice.

 The economics of obtaining a college degree in the USA are far costlier than other parts of the world. It is hugely tilted in favor of the universities. It will be many times cheaper to get one in India (for example).

Online education may sound the death-knell for these greedy colleges which at this moment are acting like toll-bridges. Not for too long.

WHOLE FOODS Salad Fiasco - This is why Indian Vegetarians MUST never trust even Vegan offerings in Food Stores

I expect great things from Whole Foods. I have shopped there several times and am shocked to learn the latest goof-up.

As a matter of rule, I dont trust *anything*, absolutely anything sold by American food stores,  American/Chinese restaurants or chinese and indian cooks. I eat at only vegan restaurants where there is a little chance of animal/insect/seafood content contaminating the offerings (reminds me of something I am researching right now - POKA YOKE)

Check out this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/whole-foods-error_n_3249651.html

What is an affront to my senses is the wording in this paragraph:

The Food and Drug Administration noted the vegan salad contains soy, and the curried chicken salad contains egg. It said people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy or eggs run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they eat the salads.


The company, based in Austin, Texas, said no illnesses have been reported

No - this is unacceptable. Some vegetarians (lacto) like me cannot and will not eat animal-contaminated food, for religious and cultural reasons. We are not Vegan by choice or fashion! We chose Vegan so there are no assumptions whatsoever (no lac, no honey, no milk and its by-products too).

This thinking is embedded in American culture. I see it wherever I go - While it is hygienic and ultimately animal flesh is food - getting mentally sick from accidentally consuming contaminated food is the same as physical sickness emanating from allergies. American cooks (Teenagers), chinese or for that matter Indian cooks (in Indian restaurants offering a mix of veg/non-veg) dont get it.

Example, pizza places - they use the same gloved hands to dip into beef/pork and generously dip it into veggies. The pizza cutters are not dedicated for veggie lovers.
"Subway" - another worst example. The contamination of veggies as the workers move from meat to veggies is appalling.

This is happening everyday in America...people are ok with eating tiny chunks of beef, pork and chicken as long as it doesnt make head line news. Argh!


But, for now, I will take whatever 100% vegan restaurants there are in the offering and may their type thrive.

Why couponing is on its way out?

Americans are neither rich nor lazy - they seem to finally face the same problem most indians do in the united states -

"We cannot find coupons for the products we want to buy"

Interesting  article here: