Fyffe's Axiom
The problem-solving process will always break down at the point at which it is possible to determine who caused the problem.

Ever since my room-mate forced me into lifting weights at the gym, my diet has changed drastically.
Gone are the days of eating cheesy food, sugar laden sweets etc. Its been months since I have even had a slice of pizza.
Now everything is based on how much calories per serving, the amount of proteins I get from it, and how much harmful sugar it has.

My regular diet now consists of Low fat whole wheat tortilla, with a side of canned (black / pink / pinto / kidney) beans sauted with onion and red bell peppers (capsicum). To supplement that, I consume a lot of egg whites as omlettes, made with fat free cooking spray.

And my room-mate is more extreme. His diet is totally devoid of anything with lot of carbohydrates even. I shudder to think what will happen to me when I am like that.

The reason for this post, was the result of his recent trip to the grocery store, and the things he purchased there.

Front row - 6 packs of egg whites.
Back row, left to right: 5 packs of low fat cottage cheese (American speak for curd), 3 bottles of sugar free jams, 3 cans of beans (2 red and 1 kidney) and finally 3 packs of fat free sour cream.

I wait for you to make the judgement :)

The Futility Factor
No experiment is ever a complete failure - it can always serve as a bad example, or the exception that proves the rule (but only if it is the first experiment in the series).

EULA woes
We have all come across this familiar screen while installing software:

The all-familiar EULA agreement.
No, I was not trying to install Opera - Why, when I have Maxthon. This was just an example.

Have we ever bothered to read 'em?. We can't wait to click the next button. There are some softwares, which force you to scroll till the bottom before the Next button becomes available...

TG Daily (a tech news read) has an article, where they have painstakingly gone through EULA's of about half a dozen softwares and have given their take on them.

This was just lovely.

We'll make any changes to this agreement we like, and you've just agreed to them. Take for example Apple's service agreement for iTunes:

Apple reserves the right, at any time and from time to time, to update, revise, supplement, and otherwise modify this Agreement and to impose new or additional rules, policies, terms, or conditions on your use of the Service. Such updates, revisions, supplements, modifications, and additional rules, policies, terms, and conditions (collectively referred to in this Agreement as "Additional Terms") will be effective immediately and incorporated into this Agreement. Your continued use of the iTunes Music Store following will be deemed to constitute your acceptance of any and all such Additional Terms. All Additional Terms are hereby incorporated into this Agreement by this reference.

So, if we happen to install Ming the Merciless as our CEO and President for Life all you iTunes users shall be doomed to spend the rest of eternity listening to 90's pop music.

So if you have some time to kill, head over here.

Funkhouser's Law of the Power of the Press
The quality of legislation passed to deal with a problem is inversely proportional to the volume of media clamor that brought it on.

My (less than 55 words) short story, tagged by Sidharth.

Somebody may have already read it, though.

A nuclear holocaust in the near future. Everybody and everything had been wiped out, except a man inside his hut.

There was a knock on the door.

And I am tagging
Wtfdude
Twin Gemini
Shobha
Saumya
Blythe Spyryt
Reiya

Fulton's Law
When you need to knock on wood is when you discover that the world is made of aluminum, vinyl and fiberglass.

Old news, but I just love to put more salt in their wounds.

The ire of the IIPM's
IIPM has risen into the news again. Not for their false claims on all their ads, but by contesting that those false claims are false, legally, for suppressing the freedom of speech, and resorting to a underhanded literal blackmail to force their unethical practices. Makes me wonder what management practices they actually teach.

Years ago (well, 2-3 atleast), we (hostelites) shared laughter atleast one day a week when we used to see the hyped IIPM ads, on the newspaper as well as some prominent magazines. We poked fun at those ads, ridiculed them and continued on, with the thought of never even trying for that institute which seemed to desparately beg for students with those ads.

Ads in general do tend to be overhyped, and to some extent, false. I have had my fair dose of such ads, but continuing to use false facts even after the fact that they have been refuted is what seemed to amaze me.

Which brings me to the second point - how they shot themselves in the foot by going to the length of serving a legal notice to so many people to do so.
Suppressing freedom of speech is not what they teach in good B-schools. And resorting to blackmail by threatening to burn those laptops and cancel of the contract is going to the extreme.

What they should have done is atleast provided evidence atleast some of the "stuff" posted in those ads are atleast true, or better yet, ignoring the blogs.
People write countless stuff in blog. Not all may be true. But to go to extreme lengths to suppress information, is akin to putting people in prison and denying them food.

I do not point my fingers at the students there. They deserve a good education, and according to them, they have made a good choice. And they should get all their chances for it.
But not at the management. It is they who are responsible for all the ire. For the ever-raging blog war going on now. If any, it is they who should be held accountable.

My two cents....

Fried's Law
Ideas endure and prosper in inverse proportion to their soundness and validity.

Apologies for the late posting and the two week delay - I have been really busy with grad school.

For starters, I do not wish to continue where I left last week. I rather intend to focus on whether a concept of "seaworld" is sound at all.

My first point is that, animals here are used as a showpiece. Imagine yourself being put in their shoes. Imagine performing antics and acrobatics for them - would it be any fun? (True, thats what circuses are, but I abhor even them)

There are many such parks around the country and the world; and it is necessary that all animals are treated in a humane manner. No (un)intentional harm, no overcrowding, appropriate climate and a decent separation of visitors from the animals would actually help. But how many parks actually follow this? The last aspect is quite important because humans do not always behave civilized at all places, and they may push the animals to the extreme, which always does not result in good after-effect. The climate of the region where the park is located is also important - you cant put seals and walruses, which traditionally belong to the cooler regions in a hot state like Texas. Thats what happened to some of the animals in the tawdry Dolphin city in Chennai. That is one place I loathe a lot.

There are some pros of having such parks. If not, they would have long gone out of existence.
Its a good learning experience for the people - probably their only chance to see some really exotic mammals and birds - penguins, puffins, killer whales, lorikeets. These are some examples many would not even see in a lifetime.

Its also a good research opportunity to study the animals, to understand them, and attempt some (rudimentary) form of communication with them. This helps us better understand evolution - one of the few ways of doing so.

Last of all - its a quality way to spend an entire day.

To sum up, inspite of certain unacceptable negative attributes, having parks like this may win on the long run. Besides its a lot of fun.