If you have been watching Television all morning, you have probably seen this image

Wikipedia

For the record, here are screen shots of some other big online companies that are participating in the online strike against the Acts:

Hollywood and Silicon Valley have their own takes on the Acts and the discussions will not go anywhere anytime soon.  Here are a few basic Q&As from the capital of Silicon Valley.

A guide to SOPA and PIPA 

As for my take, I’m still trying to come up with it. In the meantime, I’ll just say that the one thing that I am absolutely sure of, is that I am not in favour of censorship.

With the over a score of languages spoken within its boundaries and the passion Indians have for movies, India might have become the country that produces the most number of movies a year.  Yet, if you look at the success of Hindi movies (Bollywood Movies) in the southern parts of the country as opposed to south Indian movies being viewed by audiences in the northern and central parts, there is a stark difference, unless the project has been remade or dubbed. (As in the cases of Bodyguard, Manichitra Thazhu, Bombay, Robot and the like.)

Going against these rules a recent Tamil movie song has caught the whole country by storm. It doesn’t stop there, this phenomenon has even captivated the Non-Resident Indians. No prizes for guessing. It is ‘Why this Kolaveri.’

When you come to think of it, it is a song that is supposedly in English with a strong Tamil influence, and almost lame lyrics. It was supposed to be just a You Tube release of a video shot during the recording of the song and look at the hype and hoopla that came off it. Why this Kolaveri has got the whole nation and then some grooving to its peppy beats. It’ s been playing all over India, homes and iPods of Indians abroad and even some malls outside India. It one song that’ll rock every News Year’s party, this year. If you haven’t got a chance to listen to the Kolaveri tune, this is your chance.

You have no reason to believe that it has actually taken over, until you have seen these videos of flashmobs:

This one is from Mumbai, the seat of Bollywood big budget flicks. Could Dhanush now have as many fans as the Khans?

Also making its rounds on the internet is this one from Aukland, New Zealand

Then, there’s been this; a reply to the original lyrics (we women like these words better, but can’t ignore the official video too; such is our plight.)

And then yesterday I came across this Malayalam version. These ‘soup’ boys have done a good job with the lyrics and I love the voice too. What I can’t get over is the “Pashu, Pashu – Parishudda Pashu,” the literal translation of Holy Cow. It’s hilarious. I’ve listened to it a couple of times but I can’t help laughing out loud, when it comes that part of it. So, this version tickes your funny bone too.

Kolaveri in unavoidable. Kolaveri has turned out to be a uniting force too.  We don’t know how long this number will top the charts. For now we have faith in this song. For now, we have embraced it as the religion that has brought us all together.

In yet another bizarre incident, passengers who were on an Austrian airline that was flying from Amritsar in India to Birmingham in UK were stuck in airport in the owner country for several hours. The reason: the passengers had to come up with $31,000 to refuel the carrier. Not enough passengers are having to paying for luggage and food, these days? Do we have to worry about cash-strapped airline companies getting ideas from this episode?

By way of news, there was another story of a passenger who filed a case against Southwest because he had collected coupons for 45 free drinks and the airline had called off the offer. Sigh! I must say it’s the first two stories that I can’t get off my mind.

Magazine (Dynamic) view

The disappointment comes from the bloggers’ side because even if blogged in, it does not let the blogger do a quick edit from the post itself. It becomes cumbersome to go back to the dashboard and then do the editing. What more, you cannot preview your page. This is really upsetting. The captions for the images look the same size as the body of the post and the separation between them is very little. Bloggers who have hundreds of posts cannot go and edit all posts and put in a page break there, so they might as well stick to the old template, because it is easier to use.

Apart from that, the widgets (gadgets) have disappeared, taking along with them the followers, the About (the blogger), blog rolls, categories and all the other things that facilitated easy navigation to a number of other pages. It is true that the new look allows the reader to go to the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ page both from the top of the post and at the bottom as opposed to the older version, which only linked the two pages on either sides, at the bottom of the post.

Coming back to the widgets, it may not be able to have them on the new dynamic home page. That should be ok with most bloggers. However Blogger should not have gotten rid of it in the full-post pages.

The labels (tags) look like a part of the body of the post as they are in the same colour and font size as that of the post. The Dynamic looks do not allow customisation too. Thankfully it is not difficult to revert to the older template, if you have saved it.

Each time Blogger brings in new templates, they are almost always better versions in every way, perhaps that is the reason that this time it has been very disappointing.

Like we all know, the man said to be behind the 9/11 attack was found right there in Pakistan. America wondered how Pakistani intelligence and the government failed to learn about OBL’s whereabouts when he lived not too far away from military and government establishments. America just might have the answer now.

Some success stories expose failures. America’s Most-Wanted No 2 Whitey Bulger went unnoticed for 16 years,  most of which he was ‘in’ the country. Sex offender Phillip Garrido had a young woman captive in his backyard for over 18 years, during which parole officers inspected his house 60 times but failed to see/recognise and rescue Jaycee Dugard. But again, SIXTY times?

pic courtesy - www.freedigitalphotos.net

I just came across a question that asks, would you boycott Casey Anthony’s book or movie if it came out. The answer is no and I speak for a lot of other people on the face of the earth that have been following the trial or have been remotely interested in the Casey Anthony case.

I know that America is furious with Casey Anthony now that she has been pronounced ‘not guilty’ in the killing of her two year old, Caylee. There has been talk about book deals and ideas for a movie about Casey Anthony. There has even been talk of which actresses would suit the part of the defendant. If and when this happens, there will undoubtedly be a lot of money involved and Casey will get a good share of it. I can see the people are not pleased with that. Casey’s case has not done well in the court of public opinion and people know for sure that she will be ostracized.

But Casey has not spoken in court. We the public know not the truth. Whether she will tell the truth in a memoir or not, we would all like to see what she has to say, wouldn’t we? We are still curious, aren’t we?

The story of the boy who, while grazing his sheep shouts `Wolf, Wolf’ to find out if the people would really come to his rescue if he did that?

Remember that the wolf does really come later, but nobody takes him seriously thinking he might be playing the fool once again? I wonder if Mr. Trump has heard that story!

There seems to be little else on the news channels other than the details of the Osama killing. Bin Laden happens to have been the world’s most wanted terrorist and so that’s all there is on television. If this doesn’t prove that this is the most important news of the year, I don’t know what does.

It’s a post-OBL world. The Navy Seals did a remarkable job. The president who gave the ‘go ahead’ is being applauded even by people from the other side of the line of (political) demarcation. Does the Commander-in-chief even need to campaign for term II now?

Courtesy:FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank god I was not invited to the Royal wedding of Will and Kate. I had the luxury of sitting with some onion rings and watching the regal event. I camped on my couch last night and watched the happenings into the wee hours of the morning. I could have gotten all my sleep and caught up with the highlights of the wedding as they replayed on the news channels all day long. But there really is nothing like watching it live, especially since I’m more of a nocturnal creature.

I always say, I can stay up till six in the morning but just cannot wake up that early. I stayed up till 4:30 am PST that was when the newlyweds and the rest of the royal family rode into the Buckingham Palace.

I was barely one when Prince Charles and Lady Di wedded and I was not even aware of the other royal Brits’ big days and when it’s Prince Harry’s, I probably won’t have the energy to catch it live so I got a peek at ‘this’ historical day. It was interesting to watch the changing of the guard, the millions of people who gathered to watch the royal groom and the bride drive by and the wedding itself. There was many a lesson about royal ways, the rehearsals and the preparations and the attention to detail and all. That the bride’s wedding dress was one that world waited to see, needs no mention, but seeing the headgear that the guests had on was fascinating. What variety!

Anyway, my favourite part was the sight of the royal brothers when the bride was being walked down the aisle. The scene is this: the bride has arrived and Prince Harry catches sight of his sister-in-law-to-be and cannot help updating his brother, the groom with that. The expression on his face is one to watch. Then there’s the man of the day stealing a look at the love of his life obviously not able to resist the sight of the girl in her wedding dress. What a moment. It was so ‘cute,’ for want of a better word.

Check it out here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=13487917

I got to see all that I wanted to watch, except the so-called first kiss on the balcony, which I later saw in a replay of the royal wedding. But then as the day wore on the hullabaloo continued so much so that I had an overdose of the royal festivities and celebrations on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

All the guests on Live with Regis and Kelly were dressed for an English (should I say ‘Royal’ again) Wedding; all in suits and hats. So were the hosts and guests on The View and Oprah. Last night, there were royal security personnel look-alikes on Jimmy Kimmel Live too.

The studios also got an English touch. Wait, there’s more. Oprah’s guests got replicas of the famous Sapphire and Diamond ring that was once Princess Diana’s now Catherine’s. These guests in Harpo were also treated to Prince William’s favourite Chocolate Biscuit cake and Kate’s favourite gummy chews. Oprah show’s Ali Wentworth found another Kate Middleton in the UK and — listen to this: an American Will and Kate engaged couple got married on The View.

This is a must see http://theview.abc.go.com/blog/wedding-view

“I’m like a real smart guy”

“People are calling me and saying please don’t give up”

Obama Yesterday

The Trump response:

Now that the birth issue has been put to rest and all publicity is  good publicity,  Trump talks about products made in China. But :

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2011/04/28/exp.sylvester.trump.hypocrite.cnn.html

Also read Mr. Trump, What next