Nobel Prizes

WMTW

2 US Researchers Win Nobel for Work on Genes

US duo win physics Nobel for backing up Big Bang

Stanford professor wins Nobel chemistry prize

I dont think  Economics Nobel will go anywhere outside USA.  USA rocks with intellect and innovation.

Oh yeah, India is the “knowledge super power”

 

Fastest super computer

On reading the news headlines “FASTEST SUPER COMPUTER TO BE BUILT”. Before reading further if  you don’t guess  who is building it and where… you are probably living in Mars.

Yes, its by IBM at a US govt lab.

From DIGG

IBM is at it again, trying to build the world’s most powerful supercomputer at a US government laboratory that could potentially be up to 4 times as fast as IBM’s very own BlueGene/L. The new machine has been codenamed Roadrunner, and this computer will follow a hybrid design that uses both conventional supercomputer processors as well as the new Cell chip design. It is hoped that the Roadrunner will hit petaflop speeds, maxing out at 1.6 thousand trillion calculations per second. In comparison, the BlueGene/L is only capable of a trillion calculations per second. The Roadrunner has a projected completion date of 2008 and will take up approximately 12,000 square feet of floor space

 

RIP – Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin is special.  He is too daring to be true sometimes (such as this pic).

We are sure going to miss him and  it’s truly sad that he died after getting stung by a sting ray. (getting killed by sting ray is a very low probablity event) 

 

Bidding farewell to Agassi.

Pete Sampras was the greatest player of his generation, but he admits he might not have been without a genuine rival.

“Andre made me a better player,” said Sampras after beating Agassi in the 2002 US Open final, the last match of his career. “Borg and McEnroe needed each other. I needed Andre. He was the only guy who forced me to add things to my game.”

Agassi summed up their rivalry thus: “We’re opposite in everything we do. We’re two styles going against each other. Every point, something special seems like it can happen. There’s been nothing in my career that compares to playing against Pete.”

[From BBC] 

 

Genius

‘I won’t have anything to do with the Nobel Prize… it’s a pain in the… I don’t like honours. I appreciate it, and I know there’s a lot of physicists who use my work, I don’t need anything else, I don’t think there’s any sense to anything else. I don’t think that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize – I’ve already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it (my work) – those are the real things, the honours are unreal to me. I don’t believe in honours, it bothers me, honours bother, honours is epaulettes, honours is uniforms. My papa bought me up this way.’

                                           — Richard Feynman

 

Good Wife

There has been lot of talk about what makes a good wife.

 Its summed up nicely here

 

Morgan Stanley

Here’s a little classic  MORGAN STANLEY Advertisement

 

Attempt Foiled

After todays attempt is foiled, Heathrow Airport closed to all incoming flights not already in the air.

German carrier Lufthansa, Spanish airlines Iberia and Olympic have canceled all flights to the UK.

Carry-on luggage on U.K. flights is limited to:

-Pocket-size wallets and pocket-size purses plus contents (no handbags);
-essential travel documents (for example, passports and travel tickets);
-prescription drugs and essential medical items except in liquid form unless verified as authentic;
-spectacles and sunglasses, without cases;
-contact lens holders, without bottles of solution;
-for those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags);
-female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg tampons, pads, towels and wipes);
-tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs; and
-keys (but no electrical key fobs).

I can’t imagine the chaos at Heathrow, one of the worlds busiest airports.  I vividly remember waiting in queues amongst grumbling passengers on normal days to board. Today would have been pandemonium for sure.

 

Good looks are a curse… ( a rant on females)

We all know that for some mysterious reason, good looking girls hook up with useless guys.

From one of the blogs,

Any good looking guy knows that women favor ugly men. It is a mystery, just like every single action that most females undertake. Maybe its about their low self esteem, since all good looking women have low self esteem, just look at the supreme arrogance they display, that is really a sign of an inferiority complex. Maybe its about controlling some ugly loser and spending all his cash and treating him like dirt. Maybe its just because they are irrational and there is no answer. I have a great personality, but, I get turned down for some ugly jerk who treats them like a piece of meat, and I am told its because of personality. Women make this judgment on looks alone, they are intimdated of a good looking guy and assume he is a jerk because he won’t bow before them, and they mainly just intimidated since their whole world is based on the supreme superficiality of the reflection they see as they put on their make up. They profit from their looks, exercising a level of power that is so potent and omnipresent that most people do not even see its existence. They primp and priss and strut around like gods, holding a man’s self esteem in the palm of their hand, which they are only to glad to crush to make themselves feel better. The good looking guy pays a dear price for daring to compete with her in her area. All of the good looking guys that I know get less women than unattractive guys, its an obvious fact, and completely unfair. I say they are insane and thats that. Don’t try to figure them out.

 

Recogonition

An veteran manager (many years of experience) told me

in his experience, rewarding an employee with a cash bonus or small raise, had only a very short term effect on the work of the employee. Much more enduring effects came from public recognition and small surprise awards. Annual rewards meetings giving gifts (such as home electronics) to top performers, surprise gifts of “Dinner for two” checks of, say, $200, etc. It was the public recognition that had the longer effect, not the size of the award.

Yes, its because, man as Tom Peters describes, is a “sucker of praise”.  Its this weakness HR folks tap into very well.