http://mathoda.com the art, stories, and observations of Ranjit S. Mathoda Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:32:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Move over Vanilla Ice ... alpinekat, who has created a rap video explaining what the large hadron collider does, is now my favorite rapper Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM http://mathoda.com/archives/296 "Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There's a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?" Charlie Munger You can find my other favorite quotes at http://mathoda.com/quotes http://mathoda.com/archives/293 As part of photosynthesis plants somehow very efficiently split water into hydrogen and oxygen, using relatively small amounts of energy from sunlight. Humanity can accomplish the same split by using tremendous amounts of electricity (that's how oxygen is generated inside a nuclear submarine).  If plants had to rely on ... http://mathoda.com/archives/279 A remarkable prediction: "There is no question about it.  In the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has." Robert F. Kennedy (stated in 1968, when Robert was Attorney General, and his brother John had been the President) You can find my other favorite quotes at http://mathoda.com/quotes http://mathoda.com/archives/222 BMW has built a concept car that has a flexible skin over a skeletal structure. This allows the car to transform and appear more like an animal with expressive emotions than an inanimate object. Youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY http://mathoda.com/archives/221 The New York Times does a great job presenting interactive visual displays of data alongside the newspaper's stories. For a story profiling Tiger Wood's golf game, here's the interactive display of how Tiger Woods wins majors. For a story on inflation here's the interactive display showing how Americans spend ... http://mathoda.com/archives/220 Dean Kamen and his group at DEKA are remarkable inventors. Their inventions include the Segway, a wheelchair that can go up stairs, and a water purification device.  They may have made their most amazing invention yet, a nerve reading prosthetic arm that can pick up a water bottle without ... http://mathoda.com/archives/219 A Long Way Down is the first work of fiction I am publishing at mathoda.com.  You can read it online or download it here (adobe pdf).  Enjoy... A LONG WAY DOWN by Ranjit Singh Mathoda created November 30, 2000 When Jonathan Kapcane Swift jumped out of the old space station Alpha and started ... http://mathoda.com/archives/215 Saturday was a big day for Microsoft and Yahoo, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer offering about $33 a share for Yahoo, and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang stating that the Yahoo board had concluded that undervalued Yahoo by about $4 a share. Microsoft decided to walk away. A few hours earlier, ... http://mathoda.com/archives/212 There are lots of ways of sharing a hypertext link or a thought on the web, but none of them work the way they should. The current morass of sharing systems include: sharethis, the facebook bookmarklet, the friendfeed bookmarklet, the twitthis bookmarklet, the reddit bookmarklet, the google reader share ... http://mathoda.com/archives/211