Few ways to Cultivate Lifetime reading habit

• Set times
• Always carry a book
• Make a list
• Find a quiet place
• Reduce television/Internet
• Read to your kid
• Keep a log
• Go to used book shops
• Have a library day
• Read fun and compelling books
• Make it pleasurable
• Blog it
• Set a high goal
• Have a reading hour or reading day

Read more:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/14-ways-to-cultivate-a-lifetime-reading-habit.html

Credit Crisis Visualized

For ordinary folks like us jargon like CDO's, Credit Swaps, Credit Freeze, leverage etc can be confusing to comprehend, here is a nice visualization of what this credit crisis is all about:
http://vimeo.com/3261363


Source:
http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2009/02/credit-crisis-video.html


Venkat Reddy

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

For people who have seen Brad Pitt's Oscar winning movie "The curious Case of benjamin button", aside the interesting story the fascinating part is how they managed to portray brad as a 80 year old guy for most of the movie.

Here is a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ed_ulbrich_shows_how_benjamin_button_got_his_face.html

Movie trailer
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/thecuriouscaseofbenjaminbutton/


Venkat

Impressive Flickr Favs

Flickr boasts one of the best online photo collections, over time I bookmarked some photos which have compelling qualities. Most of these are captures of people in natural settings, some how such photos have a story of their own. There isn't any specific theme for the collection, just a arbitrary assortment of nice photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31417894@N00/favorites/show/

None of these are mine, its a collection from various public photos, though I am horrible even at basic photography its an attempt to spot good ones.


Enjoy,
Venkat Reddy

Tough Times

A comical depiction of company logo's to reflect the current economic crisis.

Original Source:
http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2009/01/renewed-logos-after-crisis.html

Venkat Reddy

Cooliris

If you happen to use sites with lots of pictures like Flickr, Picasa try this browser plugin Cooliris which gives a elastic view of the images. Scrolling through tons of images in sites like Flickr makes it a breeze and its a eye candy too. Its not just image site but works with lot of other sites like youtube, amazon listings where you might have to sort through lot of listings.

http://cooliris.com/

I have installed it for Firefox, I suppose it supports other browsers too, you have to check that out.


Venkat Reddy

Indian Fiction

If reading fiction interests you, here are some fiction novels with a Indian backdrop which I can recommend.

Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors
This historical fiction is set in 16th 17th century with rich descriptions of Mughal time period. The story is centered around the construction of Taj Mahal, though I have never seen it, reading the book made me enjoy more than I could seeing it in real.

The temple dancer: A novel of India by John Speed
This novel is also set in 17th century India, but its a blend of portuguse, Hindu and Mughal cultures. At the center of the story is Maya, a deva dasi who is promised as a gift to Grand Vizier of Bijapur by Portugese traders. Most of the story is a description of their adventurous journey from Goa to Bijapur. The other main character is a Portugese lady Lucinda who also accompanies the trip.

Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
This is set in modern India, where in a US born Indian marine biologist travels to Sunderbans in search of Irrawaddy dolphins. She befriends a local fisherman and a Interpreter to help her find these dolphins. The descriptions of local life and Sunderbans were really absorbing.



Venkat Reddy