The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment

One of the fads I have found over the internet is the Diet Coke & Mentos experiment.

What you need:
2L Diet Coke bottle
A pack of Mentos.
A Test tube or a pipe which hold the mentos (rolled up paper should be sufficient)
A thin card

Steps:
1. Place the Mentos in the test tube or any pipe and cover one end with a card.
2. Open the Diet Coke bottle (preferably when it is chilled) and place the tube with the card on the nozzle of the bottle. The card should prevent the mentos from falling into the Diet Coke.
3. Now quickly slide the card out so that the Mentos can fall into the Diet Coke. What you will see is the following result.
See the video for the result.

For Ol' Times Sake

In the good old Doordarshan days (the good is disputable), one of the little gems that used to be the Films Division short animations. The Tree of Unity, Swimy (the fish), Ek Anek Aur Ekta. There were also the music videos 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' and 'Baje Sargam Har Taraf Se'. The running theme used to be unity. But somewhere along the line, these films and their message got lost.

But they were never were forgotten. In fact, I found one of them on You Tube.
Do watch it, for old times sake.

Snakes On A Plane

Snakes On A Plane - a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson. The story is about snakes that terrorize passengers on a plane. This movie has had unprecedented buzz over the internet thanks to the bloggers. One of the more popular blog page is "Snakes on a Blog".

And the fact that Samuel L. Jackson is in it ups the cool factor. Due to the fan requests, the producers have reshot some more scenes just so that Sam Jackson can say some of his trademark explitives:
"I want the m--ther f---ing snakes off the m--ther f---ing plane!!"

This makes me think about one thing. Why can't books or movies be more direct and tell us what exactly we are going to get in a book/movie. A suggestion for re-titling some of
the recent books/movies:

1. "Titanic" should have been "Cheesy Romance on the Titanic"
2. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" should have been "Harry Potter and the Death of Dumbledore"
3. "The Da Vinci Code" should have been "How to run around Paris and London and find out that Jesus was married"
4. "Brokeback Mountain" should have been "Gay Cowboys getting it on at Brokeback Mountain"

A Comedy Of Errors

Apple Corps and Apple, Inc. were in the courtroom recently over usage of "Apple" and the apple logo. Apple Corps is the company formed by the Beatles to manage their records and their earnings. The case between them and Apple Inc. was over an agreement these 2 companies had that Apple Inc. will not get into the music business. Of course as we know, iTunes from Apple Inc. became "the" music shop and Apple Corps sued. The court verdict came out in favor of Apple Inc.

The BBC News 24 was bringing in a Technology expert named Guy Kewney into their studio for his reaction on the verdict of Apple vs. Apple. Guy Kewney, a white Irish tech expert, was waiting in the reception to be called into the studio. A BBC studio staff meanwhile went and called out for Guy Kewney. A guy named Guy Goma, responded and was escorted to the studio and fitted with a microphone. He was then introduced as Guy Kewney on live telvision. Meanwhile, the real Guy Kewney watched the whole interview from reception area in shock.
Click on the video below to watch the hillarious reaction of Guy Goma on being introduced.

BBC apologized later for the whole incident.

p.s.
The man who appeared in the interview was not a cab driver (as I reported earlier) but a job applicant (explains why he is well dressed).
Read the story here.

A Skin Condition

When William Shakespeare coined the phrase "winter of discontent" he must have been suffering from dry skin. Only the irritations of dry skin can bring out such fury in the imagination. Dryness has resulted in my legs resembling the surface of the moon. White and rough with no visible sign of life. I used a moisturiser called "Nivea Body - Aqua Milk" - which should be called de-moisturiser. As a result of using this, my skin has become like Kalahri Desert with no sign of water anywhere. I feel sorry for all the germs on my body. They are all going to die of thirst because of this.

I want my money back.

An Incovenient Truth

I wish for everybody to see this movie, when it comes out. It's important for as individuals and as a society to understand what is happening to our planet.

Kazhcha: Worth A Million Looks

I recently had the good fortune to see probably one of the best movies I have seen in recent past. The movie is called "Kazcha" (meaning Sight). It is a Malayalam movie starring Mammootty. This is a 2004 movie which I hear was a success in Kerala. But all that is irrelevant. It is the story of a man who makes a living showing roadshows of movies around a small town in Kerala. He stumbles upon a little boy who somehow lands in Kerala after the earthquake in Gujrat 2002. He is become a streetside urchin and is found by the character of Mammootty. Both of them do not speak in langugages each can understand (the boy speaks in Kutch and Mammootty speaks in Malayalam) too but develop a bond after the boy rescues Mammootty's daughter from drowning. He becomes a part of the family but beauracracy intervenes and he is to be sent back to Gujrat. What follows is the search for his parents and the heartbreaking conclusion. That is the story part.

Although this movie is on the surface about the relationship between the boy and , it is a thinly veiled attack on the corrupt system in our society. One gem of a scene involves Mammootty and his family visiting the boy in the government hospital, they have to wade through a narrow alley in hospital of hazardous substances thrown. Mammootty's daughter even complaints about the stench. Other than that they don't mention too much about the horrendous conditions in the government hospital but is there for all to see.

It has been a long time since I have seen a movie that works well on so many levels. It is also one of the most beautiful looking movie that has come in sometime. It is well acted by all the lead and supporting actors. There are minor quibles I have about the movie, like the opening sequences (the editing and sound was a bit jarring) and of course the songs which I feel are not necessary for a movie like this (the songs by themselves were pretty good). But then again, these are minor quibles.

The film's director is Blessy. I hope to see more of his work in the future (his latest movie "Thanmatra" is about an alzheimer's patient). I had been disillusioned that new movies these days (and I mean all languages) that I really like and could identify with. Finally, I have found one that did.