Overreact much?

     Happy New Year all. I should say that I'll write more this year but can't because of many things. School, lack of good topics, etc. Important thing is that I got a red hot topic I must write about. Its related to the Delhi rape case but not about it exactly. My opinions about the perpetrators are quite clear about that. Each of them must be gibbeted for a week and then hung, drawn and quartered. Man, the middle ages had some awesome punishments! You have probably heard of the rack where they stretched a person slowly until he died or pressing where they put people between two wooden boards and then added a little weight every day so that the victim would get crushed very slowly over the period of about two months. Imagine someone lying there thinking, "My right floating rib took 5 days to break but my left one broke in just 2! How very odd!" Yeah, I'm sorry. I know I have a messed up morbid sense of humor.
     Anyways, don't people always have the tendency to point fingers find excuses? My roommate recently showed me a news clip which reported that this rapper Honey Singh has been charged with writing songs obscene lyrics and was banned from performing in Gurgaon on New Year's Eve/Day. A prime example of people's tendencies as mentioned above. It also reminds me when I was reading how Rammstein and Marilyn Manson were blamed for influencing Klebold and Harris who perpetrated the Columbine School Massacre. The video game Doom was also blamed somewhere I believe. I used to listen to Rammstein when I was in high school. Almost every kid who was learning German back then, used to listen to them. But I can't recall a single person shooting at people in my school.
     I have always been interested in history of crime and have generally heard of the popular crimes throughout history. For example, serial killers have always fascinated me. Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, the killer clown John Wayne Gacy would be the prominent ones I can recall reading about. Did Jack the Ripper watch the bloody endings of several plays and operas of the time? Shakespeare had some plays where almost everyone gets brutally murdered (I can think of Othello at least). Maybe he did. But so did billions of other people before and since. Ted Bundy blamed porn for his crimes. But he wasn't the only person who watched porn and snuff movies, was he?
     And then I think of movies like Human Centipede and the more popular Saw series. More than a million people must have watched these movies and presumably found some sort of entertainment value in it. For the record, I don't think I fully grasp what's enjoyable about people getting dismembered, however ingeniously it may be. Hey I may be morbid, but I don't think spending a Sunday afternoon watching someone's face being ripped by a bear trap or someone jumping in a well of syringes, is fun. I would rather go to the pub.
     My point is that there is violence and crime and depravity of all sorts depicted in film, music and literature. Billions have seen, heard, read and enjoyed it. But do each of them go out commit murders, rapes and tortures? No. So stop blaming the entertainment. As I said, my interest in the history of crime and to some extent some conclusions drawn from Anthropology have led me to realize that there were, are and always will be depraved, psychotic and messed up people in the world. If all the songs and movies were about love and peace, people would probably still kill, rape and beat each other. Although if all 'entertainment' was indeed about love and peace, accidental suicides by exaggerated facepalms would probably be pretty high.
   I was seeing people's comments on Honey Singh's videos. I can't believe people are judging him based on one explicit song. He makes regular Punjabi songs other than that one song. Even so, that song is supposed to be funny, the same way swearing can be funny. Haven't these moral police ever laughed at a dirty joke about the other gender? One sensational rape case and everyone runs around to find these ridiculous reasons. Its not TV and music which influence people; its just that people are messed up.

iPhone-y 'jokes' [part 1]

Since the iPhone became the standard issue phone for dumbasses the world over (excluding all people I know personally and have iPhones, come on guys you know I don't mean it for you :P), this new meme is all over Facebook. Its that annoying and often extremely unfunny text conversation between two people. Apparently it's just a website where you can type in what ever BS comes into your brain and display it as a conversation which is supposed to be funny. Having never used an iPhone (I do own a 2nd generation iPod Touch which I use almost exclusively for music), here's a list of things (in no particular order) I understand happen automatically by no fault of yours when you have an iPhone:

1) You are bound to send texts to the wrong person (often very conveniently a parent) instead of a partner (girlfriend or boyfriend) and have no way of knowing your mistake until your 'secrets' have been exposed and you have been 'grounded'.
Exhibit A: http://crazyhyena.com/epic-busted-son-image_en
           B: http://phonelaughs.com/171/proof-that-girls-play-
           C:http://phonelaughs.com/215/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-cheating-on-you/
2) Autocorrect changes words you type into something completely unrelated and almost always something highly inappropriate.
Exhibit A: http://www.larrysfunnybone.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/clip_image0022.jpg
           B: http://crazyhyena.com/keep-doctor-awey-funny-text-message_en

3) People with iPhones often text important things instead of, say, calling a person or actually meeting the person. Texting about something that will require you to meet anyways also is necessary. This I assume is done to keep a record of everything you talk about with everybody.
Exhibit A: http://weknowmemes.com/2012/07/dad-can-i-have-money-for-some-coke/
why would you text your dad asking for $1.35?
Exhibit B: http://luulz.blogspot.com/2012/06/mom-do-you-have-any-gum.html
To be continued....

Fanaticism and Communism

     I just read on CNN that Malala, the little girl who was shot in the head by Taliban is conscious and able to communicate. In your face, Taliban, you fucking assholes. This just shows that you can't silence the voice of reason. I wish Malala a speedy recovery and hope she can continue to stand up to those misogynist bastards.


     This reminds me of the conversation I was having with my roommate the other night over a couple drinks. When I switched majors to Anthropology, I studied many things about the origins of man and also origins of human and animal behavior. Right now I am taking this class called "Great Adaptations" which is essentially like taking Discovery Channel, National Geographic and BBC Earth for 3 credit hours. Animal behavior has fascinates me but also makes me realize how primitive human behavior still is. After a few million years of evolution when we went from living in caves to building skyscrapers and from gathering wild berries to tailoring plants to precisely suit our needs, some things about us still remain extremely animalistic.

     I was discussing with my roommate how people can find a way to discriminate among each other no matter how even the playing field may appear to be. The obvious examples that come to mind are racism, caste discrimination, etc. But then even without color differences, there are still tensions and discrimination. Consider WWII. It was almost exclusively a white man's war. There was prejudice involved but then again, the Nazis still saw themselves as "more white that others". It reminded me of George Orwell's brilliant analogy of "all animals are equal but some are more equal than others".

     And that brought the conversation to communism. One of my favorite topics *grin*. I was intrigued by communism when I was something like 12 or 13. In my teen mind, the idea that the whole society being seen as equal was a brilliant idea. Given the political situation in India, where each state has its own very distinct culture since thousands of years, it seemed like a perfect cure (again this was to my naive teen mind). I maintained a view that communism was a brilliant idea and even used to declare my political views as very left liberal. I didn't really give it much thought for a few years. I used to think America is needlessly hating on commies (I still maintain that view partly but the perspective has changed).

     Last semester I took a Soviet history class and I realized how the 'vision' had changed and warped from Lenin to Stalin. I also thought about human behavior and the reason communism doesn't work. Although some policies of socialism can do wonders, most people in America don't know why exactly they hate communism. They don't know the first thing about it and just know that it is somehow the 'evilest' man has ever conceived of.

     I think the shortest way to give the answer to why communism doesn't work is to write about this article i read a few years ago. It was by a scientist who studied animal behavior and related that to political ideas or something like that (mind you it has been a few years since I read that). Anyways, he made the analogy that ants and bees are very clearly in a strict communist society. Each type of ant/bee has a particular function. And they survive great with that system. But unfortunately humans have aspirations and often frivolous needs. They have greed and hatred and grudges and prejudices. And that's where communism falls completely apart.

Miss/Mr. Universe?

This should be my shortest post so far, but I just had to write about this. I just read on CNN that the Miss Universe pageant will no longer ban transsexual competitors.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/10/showbiz/miss-universe-transgender/index.
Hey I am all for women's  rights and all but then again this is not a woman is 'it'? 'Its' a plastic surgery freak. Can you imagine that the supposedly most beautiful woman in the world is not actually a woman? But leaving the 'reassignment' part aside, 'its' not that different from the other competitors is 'it'? All other competitors are surgically and cosmetically enhanced too.

This brings me to the topic of transgender. I am generally liberal in my views and support most freaks and geeks (like gay people, I mean whatever makes you happy right?) but this is something I can't stand. Also I should say that don't have problems with gay people as long as they aren't all in your face about it. My friend was once telling me how a girl (who was lesbian) compared the discrimination against gay people to the discrimination faced by blacks in the recent past. This is beyond in your face. That is an outright wrong comparison. But then again I am assuming not all gay and transsexual people are like that.

What I have a problem is that when gay or transsexual people want everyone to just overlook the fact that they are different. Its like wanting people not to notice that Obama is black. I mean you see it right in front of you. You can't not see it. I am straight, I am going to be naturally creeped out if I feel a guy who is gay is hitting on me or even being 'overly gay' around me. I am sorry gay people, I can't help it. And I am not just saying this.

There is this incident that happened at the cue club bar I go to almost every weekend (FYI, I love playing pool). I was with my friend and we were minding out own business playing some good games. Then some 'girls' started playing on the table next to us. Which is fine because they were playing and keeping to their own. Still I couldn't help noticing that their Adam's apples were bigger than mine and their voices were not unlike Howlin' Wolf (i.e deep and raspy). Nevertheless, we ignored them until they stopped playing and started sitting on the pool table and laughing deeply and loudly. Now I don't want to go into more detail but I can tell you their behavior was enough to start thinking about ending my favorite game quickly and get the hell out. See now this is what I am talking about. Fine you used to be guys and now your 'girls', but can't you just behave like other girls do. Also unlike in the case real girls, no one wants to see up your skirt, so don't raise your legs up in public places.
How can you be expected to be seen as normal if you behave in a loud and brash manner? If you make a spectacle of yourself and be generally unpleasant, people are not going to like it even if you are normal. You want society to accept you? Then try to behave like normal people do and keep your sexuality in the bedroom.

About 2 decades of Nostalgia

     First off this post isn't about cars as I plan to make most of my posts from now on. This is just a generic reminiscence of the years past. I just turned 22 this last Sunday. I was telling someone how I never thought beyond 21 when I was a kid. In fact even when I was 21, I never thought, ok 22 is coming up. Since 21 is a landmark year when u are officially an adult, if you know what I mean. When society decides you have enough sense to afford to lose a bit of it with alcohol, that's something right? Not that most people wait until then (I didn't either, for that matter). The reason I got a bit nostalgic today because I was listening to some music from my early teen years. Now some will say thats not too long ago. It isn't but even during that time, things have changed. I was listening to some electronic music that all people seem to be listening to these days, aka dubstep. 

     Now when it comes to music, my iPod playlist dwells quite a bit in the 70s and 80s. It ranges from old AC/DC to Iron Maiden to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and then goes on to Metallica and Megadeth (yes both are good but if pressed I would now go for Megadeth). But then again, its not all music from before I was born. There's some relatively modern heavy metal, bands which came about in the late 90s and early 2000s. There's Opeth, Children of Bodom, among others and most recently a Swiss band called Eluveitie. But this is all well and good when I am at home or if my iPod is pumping this old school music down my ears. But when I go to clubs or talk to people, I notice that I am on an entirely different page. Despite the occasional freak, with ear studs that look like he had an accident with the nail gun and neck tattoos, burps out the words, "Kewl shirt, maaaan." pointing at my Children of Bodom shirt, for the most part there's no common point between my music and what's well known. This dubstep stuff seems to have been around since almost a decade. But these days everyone is listening to it. So I thought I would give it a listen. Other than the fact that all songs sound the same, which sounds like a computer having a seizure, its not too bad. Its actually quite catchy I admit.

     But eventually I went back to rock and metal during my Youtube surfing. Then I found this old song by the Rasmus, a band I liked when I was 13. That's almost a decade ago. And that's what made me nostalgic. The comments underneath were almost as if I had made them. Most people were apparently around my age and listening to it for old time's sake. One comment was saying how this song is older than Youtube itself and said how Youtube came about in 2005. I couldn't believe it. I used to be under the impression that the most popular websites on the internet today have been around at least since the mid 90s. But I Wiki'd the launch dates of Facebook, Orkut, Youtube and then Wikipedia itself. All these things came around when I was around 12 or 14. Now I know why old people find computers so incredibly undecipherable. Most of the stuff everyone uses today hasn't been around long. And when you have been around so much longer than it has you feel old. And that's the reason, at 22, today I am reminiscing like an 80 year old.

One Way

     The couple posts I put in yesterday about cars, I quite enjoyed writing. I am now thinking of turning the blog into a automotive discussion blog. I have been advised often that a blog cannot be general. It has to have a direction. It has to be about something. Well the thing that has interested me most in recent years is cars. So why not write specifically about them?
     I think since I don't have anything particular to discuss today, let me write about my standpoints on certain companies. As I mentioned in the last two posts, I am definitely a Japanese car fan. Today pretty much three 'nationalities' of cars exist. American, German and Japanese. Yes there's car companies from Italy, Britain, France, Korea (South, of course, the North has bigger problems to worry about), India, etc. You might be surprised that I didnt mention Italy as one of the main nationalities of cars. But lets be frank, how many Ferraris do you see running around? How many Paganis, Alfa Romeos or Fiats do you see? Well the last ones a weak example. Fiats are in fact averagely common. But when you compare it to the popularity of Japanese or German cars, it pales. Another thing is that the Germans are taking over everything. Volkswagen own dozens of the brands that were originally from other countries. You might know that Audi own Lamborghini now (and VW own Audi in turn). I mean one of the original Italian super car brand is now German. Same thing with British cars. All of the best known British cars, with the exception of Aston Martin, are owned by other countries. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Rover and Jaguar are all bought out by foreign companies. The last two, I am quite proud to say, are owned by an Indian company (Tata).
     So the three nationalities of cars are exactly as different as each of the nations that make them. American cars are often thirsty, extremely powerful, enormous in size but crude, not very well engineered, and in general simplistic when it comes to build and performance. This is fine in America where many cities have straight big roads. But not elsewhere. German cars are generally luxurious, refined, expensive and carry a certain aristocratic image with them. Japanese cars are quite cheap, economical, light and small. You get a lot of bang for your buck. They are built with incredible attention to (engine) detail, reliable and overall easy to own.
     Jeremy Clarkson describes the American (muscle) car as similar to a killer whale, "striking to look at but you wouldn't want to own one." German cars make you look twice and fill you with awe and amazement. But that comes at a price. And often when you look at a BMW or a Merc, you don't really get actual visible things for the money you pay. You are paying about a quarter of the money for feeling elite and for the satisfaction of driving something refined. But then when something goes wrong, your wallets going to get much lighter. Also if you want to sell it off after a few years you are going to get much much lesser than what you spent. Japanese cars are quite unassuming. But you get a lot for your money. They'll be surprisingly comfortable, at least decently reliable, and with plenty of power for the roads you'll generally drive on. They'll be light on your pocket too.
     That being said, there are several American and German cars I absolutely adore. I smile and nod when I see a classic muscle car, because it is indeed a thing of menacing beauty. I turn and look at a Mercedes or a BMW and feel awed at it refinement and class. But if I see a classic Honda Civic or a Nissan Z, I just feel happy. Its something thats actually within anyone's reach and it can potentially deliver lots of adrenaline surges while not causing you to go bankrupt or breaking down after a few wheelspins.

Car Reviews (?) Part 2

     The reason I divided this into two parts is that people told me that long posts are tiring to read. Thats funny because I can't wait to write more! But thats okay, before you read this part, go have a glass of water or something. GO, NOW!
     Alright now that you're back, let me continue whining:
2011 Mazda 3: This was the first Zipcar I drove when I got my membership. Generally, I don't think of Mazda as one of the Jap Giants; Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Mazda's experiments with the Wankel engine and their happy and cute styling in the recent years, don't make them seem a formidable sporty company. But that being said, Toyota and Honda have almost completely backed out of the sporty everyday car market in my opinion. But that's a rant for another time. Remind me to tell you why. The Mazda 3, like almost all other Mazdas look like a little puppy dog which makes girls go "awww" or whatever. The gentle curves of its wheel arches and smiling front grill give it a 'gay and friendly look'. But under that hood hides a 2.5L 4 cylinder engine. That may not sound like much but team that with a semi auto transmission and you can make this puppy morph into a Rottweiler. That being said, unlike the Ford Focus, the Mazda won't be overly eager to flex its muscles by revving unnecessarily. A girl, charmed about its looks, can drive it to the store or salon or wherever it is that girls drive to usually, without worrying about what happens if you shift the gear lever into manual. Now I would be much more specific about how fast this car can go if I had access to a track. But I did notice how quickly I can get off from a Stop sign if I want to. The car will be at 60 mph without you really trying. and if your windows are up you will have to look at the speedometer to realize that. It handles like a champ too. So do I have a complaint about the Mazda? It would have to be the styling. Mazda needs to decide. Sporty or cute? It can go down the Toyota path and get rid of all their excellent sports cars and cater to hippies by bringing out a overrated hybrid, or it can use the last few drops of petroleum left on the planet to raise some hair and race some hearts!

A happy little puppy that can deliver quite a bite!

2011 Nissan Sentra: This was the car I drove most recently and boy I was not expecting what I got. As a company, I think of Nissan as the last remaining Japanese car company who can take on German and American cars. It keeps making the Z bigger and bigger. While Honda and Toyota were selling out disgracefully and discontinuing the NSX and the Supra respectively, Nissan brought out a car that would shake the world. The GT-R. Godzilla. Easily the greatest car of recent times. Thats not just me saying it; Google and you'll know. So you can imagine what I was expecting when I got behind the wheel of the Sentra. Of course I knew that this wasn't a Z or a GT-R. I also knew that this costs about half of that of a Z and about 1/6th of that of a GT-R. But as soon as I got in, all the cheap plastic knobs and vents jumped at me. I can safely say that a 14 year older Honda had better craftsmanship than this almost brand new car. The air vents were almost nonadjustable. The stereo display looked like a bedside alarm clock (although this could be Zipcar being cheap). The gear lever looked like it came from an over sized toy car. All this I could have lived with. After all Nissan made a car which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini from 0-60, and costs less than a third of the price of a Lambo. But this one time I turned right on red (as Clarkson says, America's only contribution to the civilized world), and a car was coming down behind me. He wasn't very close but I would hate to make him slow down. What I do at this point step hard on the gas which makes an automatic transmission downshift and give you a burst of acceleration. But nope. Nothing. The Nissan just groaned on at the 20mph accelerating at about 1mph a minute. The guy behind me came right up to my rear bumper expecting I would move faster soon. But nothing so he just changed lanes and overtook me probably thinking I was an old lady. Okay so maybe the Nissan doesn't have that much a sensitive throttle response. But then the gaps between gears are also massive. As James May once spoke of an old BMW Z4 he drove in the middle east, "the gaps between the gears are so big, I could fit an entire gearbox in them." It literally took 4 seconds to change from 2nd to 3rd at 4000 revs. "Change already!", I snapped and my roommate in the passenger seat who was changing the radio stations, looked at me like I was bipolar. "Not you, man, the car!", I explained. I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed. I have never waited so eagerly to stop driving a car as I did with this one!

I would rather have an auto rickshaw. well maybe not/