Walmart-ville

Even as thousands of protesters pour out on the streets of Mumbai protesting against Walmart and Walmart-esque stores across India, Goodmagazine has this very interesting InfoGraphic on how widespread and large Walmart stores really are.


It turns out, Manhattan is a tad bit smaller than all the Walmarts put together.

This brings us to a bigger question: Walmarts are going to wipe out small traders? Computers are going to wipe out accountants? Robots are going to wipe out Factory Workers? Are we to just go back to the stone age so everybody can wield a club and go hunting?

Aren't the store chains going to provide hundreds of thousands of new (and higher paying) jobs in production, supply chain and outlet manning? I for one really support these mega-stores as it brings in convenience, so far available only in developed countries. But then again, I am an arm-chair theorist, these stores aren't going to hold back my next meal..

EverWonder? #7

EverWonder™ why there is no mouse-flavored cat food?

Blip-Blip-Blip

50 years ago, on this day, an event took place that set in motion a sweeping change in every aspect of human existence. The 183 pound basketball sized Sputnik 1 was placed in orbit by pioneering Soviet scientists on Oct 4th 1957. Today we cannot imagine how life would be without the aid of the hundreds of artificial satellites enabling things we now take for granted: GPS, TV, Radio, Internet, weather prediction, Live Telecasts.

Kudos to the russian designers, engineers and technicians who really heralded the dawn of a new age!

Arrrrrrh!

A bit late I know, but september the 19th was the International talk like a Pirate day.



Aarrrrhh, Shiver me timbers!

Buzzword Mania

In my two years of living in corporate hell, I think I've come across atleast a dozen individuals who can speak for a couple of hours using nothing else but words and phrases from this list:

• Back to the drawing board
• Get our ducks in a row
• Do the heavy lifting
• Think outside the box
• Value-Added
• Sea Change
• EOD
• deliverable
• actionable
• metrics
• synergy
• core competencies
• Built from the ground up
• Drink the Kool-Aid
• Level playing field
• Steep learning curve
• 800-pound gorilla
• Lion's share
• Low-hanging fruit
• leveraging our assets
• mission-critical
• moving parts
• client-focused
• fudge factor
• client-based
• empower
• peel the onion
• ethical
• mission statement
• out of the loop
• process
• service organization
• initiative
• recognition
• streamline
• boil the ocean
• globalize
• exponential
• high priority
• dog and pony show
• push the envelope

Why! oh Why can people not speak like normal human beings!

Skywards

| Olympus C4000 | F/3.2 | 8.2 mm | 1/1000 Sec | ISO100 | No Flash | Post Processing: Border |

Poooooolo

| Olympus C4000 | F/2.8 | 9.1 mm | 1/15 Sec | ISO200 | No Flash | Post Processing: Contrast, Crop, Text |