Posts from — June 2004

Here’s a chance for all the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ fans to vie for a chance to appear in the movie version of H2G2 which is currently under production.

All you need to do is to enter into a photography contest run by BBC and the winner will get to act in the H2G2 movie.

BBC says,

we want you to send us a photograph of the place on Earth you think deserves to survive the planet’s destruction:
*Maybe there’s a building that you think is awe-inspiring
* It might be a breathtaking vista from the top of a mountain or bowl of a valley
* Perhaps you have a picture of an animal in its natural habitat that blows you away
* Or it might be a warning to other planets against pollution and over-industrialisation

So get your cameras out and go trigger-happy!! And do it fast… the deadline is 25th June 2004. :-)

With ideas like chai in kulhads, indigenous mathakola and now Internet on trains, flying thick and fast around the corridors of Railway ministry, the question of railway safety, with over 300 rail accidents occurring every year, is being conveniently ignored as usual.

World’s biggest online auctioneer, eBay, has bought India’s biggest online auctioneer, Baazee.com, for $50 million.

“The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”

Please tell me George W. Bush did not actually make that statement!! If he did, please explain what he was trying to convey?!

The Jun 21 2004 issue of TIME introduces its readers to Joe Blog. It finally jumps onto the bandwagon of news/media sites who’ve recognized the widespread appeal of Weblogs.

“Why are more and more people getting their news from amateur websites called blogs? Because they’re fast, funny and totally biased.”

…

“What makes blogs so effective? They’re free. They catch people at work, at their desks, when they’re alert and thinking and making decisions. Blogs are fresh and often seem to be miles ahead of the mainstream news.”

…

“They represent — no, they are — the voice of the little guy. And the little guy is a lot smarter than big media might have you think. Blogs showcase some of the smartest, sharpest writing being published. Bloggers are unconstrained by such journalistic conventions as good taste, accountability and objectivity — and that can be a good thing.”

…

“In a way, blogs represent everything the Web was always supposed to be: a mass medium controlled by the masses, in which getting heard depends solely on having something to say and the moxie to say it.”

…

“We may be in the golden age of blogging, a quirky Camelot moment in Internet history when some guy in his underwear with too much free time can take down a Washington politician.”
[link via Metafilter]

But we all knew that, didn’t we? ;-)