Coca cola's violation of fair trade practices is finally being noticed. Not in India, Colombia or Turkey where this violations happen. But in U.S. The Univ of Michigan has suspended sale of Coke products in its campus. Here is the letter doing that. When I went to see Constant Gardener (good movie) last week in UFL's cinema there was a signature drive to do the same in UFL. I happily agreed to sign. This is after NYU also chucked out Coca cola for similar reasons.

Me and Sri are one of those minority who say no to any of the carbonated drinks. We prefer plain water and are plainly surprised that the Coca Cola is beating its main competition "Water" in U.S.

When the U.S universities are doing this, what do we do in Indian colleges ? We will negotiate with Coca cola and pepsi for sponsorships and will choose the one who pays more ! Our actors will endorse it to make some more money ! Will someone in Indian Universities take a clue from these ?

This is partly my wish and partly my vision, if you will, about how the connectivity in the world will be in the next 5 years. Now connectivity at home is unlimited. There is the broadband, and cable. I don't pay by how many movies I watch or how much I download. I pay for the connectivity.

What happens when I leave the house ? I pay for each message I send and receive. I pay for each call I make and receive. This trend will (has to ?) go away. I expect this in another 5 years in U.S, probably 7 years in India. People should be charged for mobile connectivity. Note, I don't want device based connectivity. I want one provider who allows me to go mobile. I should be able to connect with my laptop, blackberry, cell phone, whatever that is. I need one guy with whom I will maintain a subscription, and I stay connected all across the country/globe. The connectivity level should be as good as cell phones.

Let us see how this idea works in another 5 years.

BTW, You may ask why this connectivity is required for a guy who bought his first cellular phone in 2005. That is not the point, I don't need it. I prefer to be without this connectivity. But this is how I see it can be done in future :-)

Karthik forwarded this link about the most popular myths. I atleast quoted a couple of them within the past month in some conversation. I quoted the 10% brain myth and seven second thought myth.

As my code is running endlessly, staring at the giga bytes of data being printed becomes a bit boring. So I look around and I find myself sitting next to the H stack of the journals section of emory's library. As usual the library is deserted. So I take a look at the journals. Hinduism today, Healthcare financial management, Harvard Business review. I find myself reaching for the last one. I am no great fan of management philosphies. But somehow I was curious.

There was this article about people. Make a matrix with likeability and Competence as two axes. You have a lovable star, lovable fool, competent jerk, incompetent jerk. The authors present their survey results about what kind of co workers do people go to when they are in need of help. Everyone wants a lovable star, no one wants a incompetent jerk. When the choice narrows down to other two categories, people prefer a lovable fool over a competent jerk even though they may get better help from the competent jerk.

They also argue that you need competent jerks too. So they outline a manger's course of action to make use of the lovable fools and competent jerks. Choosing a fool : People's preference sometime amazes me !

The complete article is not in the web, but some excerpts are here.

Though I spend most of my time in Georgia nowadays, Florida is still my favorite in U.S. The reason is obvious - weather. So we decided to take a break and travel Florida during the christmas season. A sample of what the state has to offer along with my jottings follow.


The first stop : Universal studios. We have been to the Islands of Adventure and Disney before. So we stopped at Universal studios. We liked it. The rides, shows and regular theme park stuff. Though this is aligned with movies. They also had a holiday parade. Of course what is s parade without Santa. Surprisingly Santa had some cheer leaders too.


The next stop was Kennedy Space center, Cape Canaveral. Frankly, I didn't have lot of expectations due to security restrictions. But the place surprised us with a real saturn v. Built in 70's with the design in paper w/o all the 3-d modelling stuff, it did amaze us. That is me standing next to a saturn v.

The IMAX movie filmed in the international space station(ISS) was also worth watching. The parts that are waiting to be sent to the ISS can also be seen there. They are going to take another 6 years to send all those parts. The Lunar module and a lunar rock was also there. We liked it a lot.


So after a day of fantasy theme parks and real rockets we decided to see the nature in Florida. This time the stop is Ichetucknee Springs State Park.
We just picked it randomly. But again it turned out to be nicer than we thought. After 2 days with bus loads of tourists the deserted trails with its chirping birds and the river with fishes was a totally different experience. We met four other people when we were returning.



The north end is relatively more populated. Though there were only 10-15 other people. The trail was beautiful, with the clear springs, Ichetucknee river flowing without much of a noise. It was refreshing.

The last day was for rest. But as we were fresh we went to the Florida's museum of National History as this place is very close to my house. The main reason to go there was to see the butterfly rain forest. They breed and protect around 2000 butterflies in this place. When you enter the area there are butterflies all around, flying past you, waiting in the path, hiding behind rocks. They are just everywhere. Beautiful place.









The museum also has a mamooth and matodon exhibits.

Somehow the last 3 days were the best in the trip. But the first day was the most expensive :-).