Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

I am a fan of French cuffed shirts and cuff links. Not that I own many of either (or wear them much), but I am a fan nevertheless. And of course, I am also a fan of Lego.

You would think that if I could combine the two, I would be quite delighted — and it would seem that it is indeed so.

As it turns out, there is such a thing as Lego cuff links Lego-like cuff links, which are quite fabulous, to say the least.

Now, the question of course is this — where would you wear them? I would be unsure about wearing them in a formal setting, and I would be unsure about wearing cuffed shirts to an informal occasion.

Either way, they are certainly interesting and unique. I would perhaps get myself a pair just because!

As someone who grew up with Tintin, I distinctly remember laughing hard every time Captain Haddock had water in place of his whiskey, or had Professor Calculus do something that would cause him to burst out cursing.

After all, how could one forget his brilliant, “Billions of blue blistering barnacles!” — to this day, I would much rather have Captain Haddock’s “curses” than most of the other stuff that goes around (why, yes, I’m a prude).

But for those that remember the unforgettable Captain, here is an alphabetized list of Captain Haddock’s Curses and Exclamations.

Enjoy!

(via Paul Kedrosky)

Here are some interesting links that I’ve been meaning to post for a while –

• Old-School Economics: An interesting article on the NYT on the current recession stagflation.
• Anti-bubble: What’s up with all these attempts to coin weird sounding terms, anyway?
• It’s not over until the fat lady sings.

Sometimes, BPSK comes up with the most insightful (yet funniest) of statements.

Karthik: Did you hear about Northern Rock?

BPSK: No?

Karthik: Oooh, they are going to nationalize it.

BPSK: Trust the brits to fall back on Fabian socialism. Wonder how deep their new found capitalism really is.

Then he went on to mention something about how Maggie Thatcher, the grocer’s daughter would have told them that grocers don’t lend their own money to their customers etc. And here is the kicker –

BPSK: Of course, in the US they would give them a 0% loan and call it capitalism. Or Paulson would call Pandit and say buy them out.

BPSK: But at least the facade is preserved.

Facade, indeed. But I do not know what is more disturbing — that the world governments aren’t bothering to keep up the facade, or that some aren’t bothering at all.

So, ever wanted to know what really happened with the whole subprime mortgage mess? Look no further!

The Big Picture just posted these fantastic slides that have been making the rounds on Wall Street for a while. Click to launch the slide show. Enjoy!

A nice massage at the spa, followed by a hot shower, some spicy Asian noodles with green beans, and concluded by a reading of Omar Khayyam’s Ruba’iyat while sipping hot green tea (when the weather outside is -1f) while listening to some of the splendid music I talked about earlier.

Ah, the bliss.

I usually don’t write about music, mostly because I’ve a wide and eclectic taste and my likes and dislikes are often fleeting.

But last evening, I was at the local Barnes and Nobles looking around when they had some fantastic music that was being played. So, I walked up to the lady at the counter and asked her about it. No, I literally waltzed up to the lady and asked her what was being played, because it sounded absolutely fabulous and very danceable.

She called up the music and movies department, and they told me that it was a Putumayo collection, of Tango and Latin dance music. That’s all I needed to hear.

Now, Akshay had introduced me to the Putumayo collection, with their Blues Around the World, which I absolutely loved. Ever since, I’ve been gobbling up their music the way ogres gobble up evil, little kittens.

So, when the lady told me it was the Putumayo collection, I immediately asked her if she had any more similar music lying around. And of course, she did. So, I heard a few and ended up buying their Tango Around the World, Cuba and Afro-Latin Party collections.

Excellent music — and very highly recommended! The only downside, of course, is this unexplainable craving for a margarita and a beach. And a dance floor, of course.

For whatever reason, Google magically decided the other day that I am from the UK. As a result, all my search results were magically redirected to Google.co.uk. Now, if I was indeed from the UK, I would probably want that feature. But since I’m not, I decided I’ll just pass.

And I’d usually not care one way or the other, except that doing a search or weather becomes a pain. Ditto for other things, like movies or restaurants.

So I did a bit of looking around, and it turns out that there is some cookie that gets set that could make your life miserable this way.

The way around it? Just go to Google’s No Country Redirect page and you are magically ensured that this does not happen. Happiness all around.

A few weeks back, Delana got us tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra as a gift.

It was one of the most amazing sound and light shows that I’ve ever been to. While the first half was rather boring and Christmas-y (with a tonne of proselytizing), the second half was beautiful. And either way, the music and the light show was fabulous.

A must see — very highly recommended!