Idiagram: Solving complex business problems through visual models

Last updated on: January 16, 2008 at 1:37 am By Desh Kapoor

Saw a real cool site for business strategy and problem formulation, way to analyze, communicate and execute. Somehow I felt it made the entire thing a bit too complex! But nevertheless it looks rather cool.. just check out Idiagram. Here is the official word on what their visualizations achieve: The Power of Integration There are dozens of approaches to strategic planning and 'complex problem solving', so why do we focus on the use of pictures? What makes pictures – visual models, diagrams, metaphors, and stories – uniquely suited to helping us understand and communicate complex issues? The short answer is that visual models provide the power of integration: Read more

Shriya, Sivaji and the protests of Hindus with Katchis!

Last updated on: June 3, 2013 at 11:48 pm By Desh Kapoor

Sivaji-The Boss, Rajnikant's blockbuster hit was celebrating 175th day when the film actress came in a dress that some local Hindu organization did not like. So, they have sued her as she has "offended the HIndu Culture"! Now, who gave them the right to handle and save the Hindu culture anyways?! These useless ideologues in search of their 15 minutes in limelight try any and every cheap tactic to gain visibility! Sometimes it is Khushboo and sometimes it is Shriya. For a culture that created Khajuraho and wrote Kamasutra, to object about a lady wearing a frock is just insane! Moreover, the organization's name is Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK). For an organization that includes the Hindi word for female underwear - Katchi, to object someone wearing a skirt/frock is rather hypocritical.. isnt it? 😉 haha... In any case, the actress has apologized: Read more

Whistling Kettle

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 9:55 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is a funny one.. which gives an insight on how fear and ignorance can fashion your responses to situation totally different from what you have experienced in the past. How the baggage of the past affects your actions even though you are in radically different situations: A man who had lived his whole life in a desert was on his way to visit a friend. He'd never seen a train or the tracks they run on. While standing in the middle of the railroad tracks, he heard a whistle, but didn't know what it was. Predictably, he was hit by a passing train and thrown to the side of the tracks, with some internal injuries, a few broken bones, and some bruises. After months he had recovered and was at a party at his friend's house. While in the kitchen, he suddenly heard the kettle whistling. Read more

BigThink: Are we done with Juvenile Networking & Content Sharing?

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 3:58 pm By Desh Kapoor

And just when every network and sharing web site is going juvenile in its character and content.. here is a site which has started off with thinkers' content: BigThink Here is the official version of what the company thinks this site is. I am all for the web site owners making me think and assuming that I have an IQ > 50! What do you think? More importantly, what do you prefer? bigthink.com is a new and growing website, currently in its private beta version, with a simple mission: This is a digital age, one in which a wealth of accessible information empowers you, the citizen-consumer. But where is the information coming from? How accurate and unprocessed is it, really? Ask yourself this: how empowered do you feel debating a television screen or a newspaper? Our task is to move the discussion away from talking heads and talking points, and give it back to you. That is Big Think's mission. In practice, this means that our information is truly interactive. When you log onto our site, you can access hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with todays leading thinkers, movers and shakers. You can search them by question or by topic, and, best of all, respond in kind. Upload a video in which you take on Senator Ted Kennedy's views on immigration; post a slideshow of your trip to China that supports David Dollar's assertion that pollution in China is a major threat; or answer with plain old fashioned text. You can respond to the interviewee, respond to a responder or heck, throw your own question or idea into the ring. Read more

Rainbow over a Lake

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 1:56 pm By Desh Kapoor

What a picture of the Khuvsgul Lake from Mongolia - from Travellerspoint site. The more I see of this site.. I think I will be a regular there now!! Read more

Because you know that you are, you know also that the world is.

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 9:15 am By Desh Kapoor

Because of your existence, because you know that you are, you know also that the world is. So this consciousness, because of which you experience the world, is not unimportant; in fact, it is very important. Read more

When you love there is neither respect nor disrespect.

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 9:09 am By Desh Kapoor

Love is not the product of thought which is the past. Thought cannot possibly cultivate love. Love is not hedged about and caught in jealousy, for jealousy is of the past. Love is always active present. It is not ‘I will love’ or ‘I have loved’. If you know love you will not follow anybody. Love does not obey. When you love there is neither respect nor disrespect. Read more

A beating heart created in a lab

Last updated on: June 3, 2013 at 11:45 pm By Desh Kapoor

Scientists have taken the next step in biological science! They have created a beating heart "from scratch" so to say. As the video below says, the researcher here gave nature its tools and let it do the rest. It was kind of an interesting way to do it. This could create infinite possibilities for human longevity! Now human organs may have a chance to be created afresh rather than just be transplanted. Here is how it worked: Rather than building a heart from scratch, which has often been mentioned as possible use for stem cells, this procedure takes a heart and breaks it down to the outermost shell. It's similar to taking a house and gutting it, then rebuilding everything inside. In the human version, the patient's own cells would be used. "We took a rat heart and used soap to wash out the cells of the heart," said Doris Taylor, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, Medtronic Bakken professor of medicine and physiology and lead author of the study. The process is called "decelluarization." To do this, Taylor and her team hung up the heart from a dead rat, introduced a regular soap solution into the top of the organ, and let gravity do the work. The soap moved through the heart's blood vessels, dissolving existing cells, which dropped out of the bottom. This process was repeated until only the outermost casing of the heart was left, resulting in a "white, almost gelatin-looking heart," Taylor explained. This would be the equivalent of the gutted house. Read more

Monalisa – who was the model?

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 8:27 am By Desh Kapoor

Who was Mona Lisa? There has always been a speculation as to the identity of Mona Lisa. Who modeled for this famous painting that has fascinated millions! Now the art historians seem to have come to one person and established her identity! Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself. Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world. Read more

India is #2 dream destination for travellers in 2008

Last updated on: January 15, 2008 at 8:12 am By Desh Kapoor

According to TravellersPoint, a Travel related web-site, the top 7 dream destinations for travellers around the world in 2008 were these below. The survey was asked on the site in 2007 end from its members. I was kind of surprised to see India as #2! As the Indian economy matures, see more tourism flourishing. Strangely, I do not see China?! 1. Italy 2. India 3. Australia 4. Antarctica 5. New Zealand 6. Egypt 7. Thailand. Read more