Lately though (past 2 trips) I've seen them being bitten by the "airport modernisation" bug. Perhaps we are exporting more than just silk and spices
On my way to the hotel to crash into bed. Have to go check out the la defense arch at night!
Oh and I'm famished.
While I don't actual figured CDG definitely seems bigger in size but most of that area is quite wasted and not really for use by passengers.
DIA on the other hand makes super use of the space available splitting the sitting and eating areas and the shops.
I wish they had somewhere to sit on the ground floor. I could sit and lust at the cars in peace without making my leg muscles give all hope of rest and aching beyond what I thought was muscularly possible..
Ok boarding time!
On Emirates this time and MAN do they know which planes to buy. The economy seat had so much leg space that the person sitting next to me could get up and move about without actually having to wake me up. This was really good for him because this flight being a 4am flight meant I was at my sleepy and cranky best and the last thing I wanted was for someone to ask me to get up cuz he can't hold it on a 2hr flight!!
Dubai airport, much like the city never ceases to amaze me. Built out of land reclaimed from the dessert, this place is living example of man's technical genius and a sensible government's will to make things better for its citizens and visitors.
Quick trivia - 40% of world's cranes are in Dubai!
1 hour stopover till my connecting flight to Paris.
I'm going shopping!! Would be crazy not to! :)
An absolute must experience to sit and have coffee here at 6AM.
No crowd, no traffic. THIS justifies the outrageous property rates this location commands
Usually, I like to, as they say, close the loop. If I start something, you can bet I am going to finish it. And if it is you who started it, .. well that's another story. However, there are some things that I did start or wanted to start but never finished and this book is top of the list (the others being learning to play the guitar and taking classes for French)
Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance: There has never been a book that I started reading and left unfinished. Never. Heck, I even went through an entire Nancy Drew! But ZATAMM is the exception that proves the rule.
Believe me, I started this book 3-4 years ago and I still haven't finished it. It's just too boring, I cannot figure out what the author is trying to say! I kid you not, everytime I try to read it, 5 pages is the maximum before I am hit by sleep like a steam roller.
Cleaning the shelves today, I found this book again. It is sitting in front of me, taunting me, daring me to read it and I can't. It's too boring.
Oh wait.. It's 2 in the night, I should be asleep but I'm not. Heck of an excuse to read it! As for the guitar classes, they will have to wait but I will hopefully start french lessons this Saturday. Look out for future posts in French!
Bonnuit mes amis!
The recent Al Qaeda threats to Indian brought back a thought that I had long forgotten. Why is the world looking for Osama Bin Laden?
Well, the world isn't actually. It's mostly America and the ease with which he and his "colleagues" are shooting videos, they aren't doing a terribly good job of looking either. Unless, we talk about looking the other way!
Digging up some information on the web, it seems that the US isn't looking for Bin Laden in connection with 9/11 at all! Surprising, you would say?
Here is the REAL reason why they are looking for him:
"Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people."
So they want him for attacks which killed 200 people but not the one which killed just under 3,000 people? Baffling.
Here's the thing, in nearly 6 years since 9/11 we have not had one shred of evidence which linked Bin Laden or Al Qaeda to the attacks. Al Qaeda hasn't owned up to the attacks. It is simply been the US government that has been claiming Bin Laden's involvement, without proof.
I am not saying Bin Laden is a saint but this certainly is food for thought.
The recent Indo-US nuclear deal has not gone down with our friendly neighborhood Al Qaeda and has resulted in them threatening us with "attacks" I don't know who the Chief of Propaganda at Al Qaeda is but he/she(?) clearly has misunderstood how things work in India so let me spell it out for him/her.
We don't care for your threats. Frankly, we don't even pay attention to it. Why? Because we have been battling terrorists and people have been dying because of that for far too long for us to be too worried about you. You are just another name on the long list we have.
When you say this attack will be bigger than 9/11, we are less than impressed. In terms of casualties 9/11 wasn't that big really. Total number of casualties including pilots and plane passengers was under 3,000.
In the past 10 years, in J&K alone, 40,000 people have lost their lives. That's an average of 4,000 per year in one state alone.
Then there is Punjab, the North east, the south and ofcourse, the preferred destinations - Mumbai and Delhi.
A very rough guesstimate would put official annual terror related fatalities at around 7,000-10,000.
So please don't go around telling us how you will kill thousands of people and expect us to shiver. We know what that tragedy is like. We have been fighting it for over a decade already.
And here's the funny bit. Al Qaeda's tape threatening India made less news (in India) than another recent tape threatening the US.
Bring it on.
Basically, Harry Potter is bad and Lord Voldemort is Good. He is apparently "Jesus".
Jesus DIED to save the rest of the world not cleanse the world of non Christians (Mudblood and pureblood)!
Excerpts:
"Ginny, like our own children, is captured by Potter's serpent-like green gaze, and maybe his tongue; Mrs. Rowling gives away in the first book that the boy can talk to snakes, and considering what we already know about Potter, we should not put seducing an innocent girl into original sin past him. Like our own children, it is a lure she cannot resist, and one the Virgin Mary never had to face."
"In a particularly distasteful and lewd display, Potter tries to tempt the rightfully furious Angel by raising his pant leg and showing him his nude ankle. In this way the Harry Potter books contribute to the hidden gay agenda."
HUH WHAT??
Frankly, this lady needs help.
If you get it, let me know in the comments section. Its bloody brilliant!
If you have read Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, then you probably know that all the world is not really a stage, its an experiment. And a rather critical one at that. It is an experiment to find the ultimate answer. The answer about life, the universe and everything. Well, in Douglas's book, the answer is "42" Yup. This is the answer that solves the ultimate question.
Now scientists have found that Mr. Adams wasn't that far off the mark. Infact, he had the answer dead right!
You can read all about it here. Take THAT Nostradamus! and take THAT you snooty scientists with your pretentious Nobels.
I get it, that George Bush is sending over troops by the plane loads. But someone please tell me what the hell this is. Looks like a blood filled lake to me. If you think you can stomach it and want to see it for yourself, head over here
If this is what it looks like, may George Bush burn in hell while he is still alive!
This is just BEYOND gross. NASA (Not A Smart Agency) has decided that it is going to pay up 19 million USD so the astronauts in space can drink recycled urine instead of water.
This is their attempt at solving re-entry problems. Assumption is, if astronauts have been drinking theirs (and their colleagues) recycled urine for weeks, they are going to actually look forward to a messed up re-entry and death instead of living with their loved ones NEVER kissing them for the rest of their lives.
The Russians are laughing all the way to the bank with this one. While socialism has collapsed, they have done the Americans over by getting them to PAY for drinking piss. I bet they are praising capitalism right about now! Bring on the Absolut and put some Tchaikovsky Comrade!
Yup, the votes have been counted and the results are in! And before you get all antsy, The Taj Mahal is in the 7 wonders so with a sigh of relief politicians can now device new scams to siphon off money in the name of saving/protecting/beautifying the Taj etc. Here's the list of those that made it vis-a-vis those that I voted for.
My Votes
1. The Taj Mahal
2. The Eiffel Tower
3. Chichen Itza
4. Easter Island Statues
5. Machu Picchu
6. Pyramids of Giza
7. Stonehenge.
The Winners
1.Chichen Itza
2.Christ Redeemer
3.The Great Wall
4.Macchu Picchu
5.Petra
6.The Roman Colloseum
7.The Taj Mahal
What amazes me however was the sudden flurry of activities in India around this voting. Quick question, HOW do we know all those SMSes sent were actually reflected in the votes for the Taj? I don't see the SMS numbers and/or codes listed anywhere on the "official website" just promos floating about on billboards and TVs.
Frankly, it smells like a big scam to me but we'll never know now.
Kids mother puts a church CD into the computer and up pops some porn clips. The kid is worried sick till he sees her mom screaming about how the CD has been possesed by the devil. She then promptly takes to smashing it with a hammer.
Dont you just LOVE it when both, God and the Devil are on your side?
More here
It is amazing what the internet can do for you. With it's wide reach and instant access, it really is a whole new world. Infact, THIS could be the new dimension that scientists are looking for elsewhere. It affects our daily lives, it has world changing consequences, without it, the world cannot exist any more. It is not critical but plain NEEDED for us to function today. Therefore, if you do it right, you could be very famous real quick. If you get it wrong however, you could end up in a psychiatric ward like the first (I think) YouTube star "The star Wars Kid"
If you get it right (almost) however, you could be like this lovely girl fondly known as "The Everywhere Girl" or Jennifer Chandra.
The story is fascinating. Jennifer Chandra did a photoshoot at Reed College and sold the shots to Getty Images, an online image bank.
Call it the overuse of stock photography or plain laziness at corporations to hire photographers and do their own photoshoots, people have repeatedly used Jennifer's photographs in all sorts of advertisments. From Dell,Gateway, HP, Visa, Microsoft, BBC, US Department of State, CNN and tons more. Hence the name "Everywhere Girl"
If you would like to see a collection of her ads so far (and I believe this is ongoing), click here
While the everywhere girl is actually quite cute, our next internet model is anything but.
If you and your cause are both extreme Islamic fundamentalist you have your very own poster
boy "fondly" called The Islamic Rage Boy. His real name is Shakeel Bhagat and he is 31 years old. He is also very VERY angry about something.
Just what that something is, he hasn't quite been able to figure out yet. Whether it is Salman Rushdie's Knighthood, or freedom for Kashmir, or the pope benedict's faux pas with anti Islamic comments. He was even screaming himself hoarse and shaking his angry finger and bug infested beard (no seriously it probably has its own flourishing flora and fauna!) at those Danish cartoons about The Prophet.
Frankly, those cartoons aren't even that clever but if you would like to see for yourself, click here.
Shakeel's protests rage range through the whole gamut of the "protest inventory". With his massively intense face and loud (ofcourse angry) slogan shouting and scuffles with the police, the chap clearly works hard. The only thing that I think he could be so angry about is the same thing that most professionals in this world are angry or unhappy about. The pay must suck.
Speaking of which. The Everywhere Girl isn't a millionaire either. Despite all her fame she has difficulty paying her bills. Clearly, being famous on the internet doesn't mean you will move to Beverly Hills with a shiny Ferrari in your backyard. Pity.
