Hillary Clinton was begging for women's votes by pointing to similar female body organs - the sickest possible form of campaigning!

• First female president my ass. First female president for the sake of having a female as the president is no argument at all. This was nonsense from the start. She's corrupt, she's a prolific liar, she's a cheat, she's a criminal who deletes the evidence [both Clintons are criminals actually], and she's a born crook and she's just rotten. Just because female body organs are attached to her body doesn't mean that the post should be handed over to her. Nonsense.
• Obviously, radical feminists are now going to cry. They wanted her to get the post just because she too has their organs. They felt "entitled". Not gonna happen. Sorry. Deserve tears. Keep crying.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqYJRc0TJkQ
• Bringing female celebrities - one after the other - was a shoot-yourself step. Like they were gonna make her win just like that. Made Hillary look even more elite and a solid part of the establishment. The look on her and their faces was as if she had already won. Like it was some sort of celebration going on. Like the "women" card was all that was needed. Now they say she cried a lot. Obviously that was gonna happen.
• She thought she could unleash a bunch of ugly feminists on the stage every now and then and she would win this election just like that based on women's votes without alienating anyone else? Only in her parallel universe. Where are these fat ladies hiding now?

• Watching the first debate right now [13-Nov-16]. How in the world could NYT/WaPo claim that she won this debate? She was continuously looking down at her notes. She was carefully vomiting out the lists that she clearly had memorized - she was never speaking candidly. She didn't know or talk about VAT or Mexico. Her sentences look like those spoken by a school student at a debate competition. He never looked down at notes. He spoke candidly, fast, from his heart, without inhibitions. And they say she won? The important question is how much were they bribed to make such a claim. How could she question his not releasing his tax returns when she herself cleverly deleted emails detailing her criminal acts? She didn't have any answer for those 33,000 deleted emails. How would she? She's not looking presidential at all. More like a retired waitress, especially with that red. Or maybe a ghoul. He does look statesmanly. He knows so much - he's giving out names, numbers, statistics, and so on, but she's using, for the most part, hollow and emotional words. Proper script. As the debate is proceeding, I'm amazed to see how intelligent, logical and knowledgeable Mr. Trump is! Totally amazing! God knows why she's continuing to give that wicked smile. Doesn't she know any other expression? Does she think that laughing/smiling equals confidence? In fact, it shows her inner insecurity and nervousness. Just noticed that what she's saying is more of giving out broad/generalized "knowledge" [devoid of supporting facts] and she isn't laying out any concrete plan/steps at all! Noticed that Mr. Trump is mostly serious and doesn't foolishly smile all the time - he's serious about doing and saying, while she's clearly carefully speaking every word, as if worried about not spilling something unintended [the dirt inside that brain]. Just felt that thank goodness this bitch didn't win. On NATO, she's giving a wicked smile meaning "dude you've no idea what you're saying". Now we know her overconfidence about her foreign experience in part led to her fall. Final word - the host of this debate was very good. Fair, balanced, calm, unbiased. No complaints from him. And one more thing, I think most of her so-called "punch lines" were no lines at all. Like the "I prepared to be president" was largely fake. It wasn't from the heart. It was script. And it showed. He shattered all her preparation and psycho-tricks [like repeatedly calling him "Donald"] because the man was honest, candid, uninhibited, fearless and unscripted. More generally, it seems that most of what Hillary Clinton does or says is fake.
• Pundits and analysts who are now laying out reasons for Clinton's loss, and are pointing out that she shouldn't have devoted resources/time/money to states like Arizona fail to think about one basic point - just because you're "investing" more and more "resources" doesn't mean that you'll eventually be able to turn voters your way. Hillary Clinton is such a nasty woman that no matter what she did, she was going to lose. Instead of blaming her strategies or Obama or Comey or Huma, the blame is actually on her own self. She wasn't competent enough. She was corrupt to the core and voters knew it. You can't "manage" such facts no matter how hard you try. These self-appointed analysts/gurus/pundits are simply saving their asses now.
• NYT is blaming "data" for its wrong "prediction". Bullshit. What about the unbelievable amount of anti-Trump bias in NYT's coverage? They won't even mention it!
• Those bloody forecasts by NYT and others. Now they can shove those forecasts inside their behinds. These forecasts, clearly, were not intended to accurately reflect the public opinion, but were in fact intended to affect/alter/shift/move/pull the public's vote. Why not? For Hillary the public is stupid, little folks. She's the great one who's destined and even entitled for the billions.
• Watching second debate. Moderators are biased - both the guy and the ghoul. Hillary doesn't look presidential. She looks like a granny. Her words are boring. She's saying nothing impactful. The ghoul woman is visibly anti-Trump. Seems like she has taken bribes. Lol, how she's hiding behind Lincoln to hide her double face. The ghoul is getting personal now. Just realized Hillary is repeating the same boring points over and over and offering nothing concrete about the economy, jobs, industrialization, etc. Just noticed that her voice is irritating while his is statesmanly. Looking at Hillary's face while Mr. Trump makes his forceful arguments reveals that internally she's full of fear at his much superior thoughts and performance. She knows he's far more superior to her. Her tired/resigned/fake look says it all. Trump is shattering her now. Blowing her to pieces and the best thing is that she knows this. Just noticed, whenever Trump says something that exposes Hillary, she quickly goes for the microphone and holds it in her hands as if she has a strong response in her mind which she's eager to say. But not one single time has that holding of mic gotten converted into a forceful response from Hillary. It's just a psychological reaction of her, signaling to others and to herself that I have a response when in fact she doesn't. The most shocking thing is that Hillary repeatedly asks people to go to hillaryclinton.com to "learn more" when she herself is standing right there! Trump praising Hillary's "never quit" trait is so honest of him! Sometimes from Hillary's look it seems that inside of her she might have admiration and respect for the fact that Trump's intellect, logic, and thinking are far superior to her's, and she knows this. Final word, his kids are a tremendous assets for his campaign. Their presence creates a very good psychological impact on people.
• It's now beginning to appear that pathologically resorting to cheating and lying is probably the way of life for Hillary Clinton. So much that she herself doesn't realize that what she does is wrong and also illegal. In a sense it seems that, ironically, Hillary herself is "irredeemable". She can't be corrected. Perhaps she's mentally sick and a psychopath. She'll keep having remorse and sorrow and she'll keep thinking that she has been wronged, because she [and her supporters] just can't see anything criminal/illegal in whatever she says and does. They all think that she's right and that there's nothing wrong with changing positions on issues, or in taking bribes from "special interests", or in playing trickery to oust Bernie, or in lying prolifically, etc.
• The repeated claim that Hillary won the popular vote and so she, perhaps, is wanted by "more Americans" is bullshit. Both campaigns were optimized to maximize electoral votes. That's where Trump won. Had popular vote been the key factor, the campaigns would've been run that way. So Hillary is getting something incidentally, because even her own campaign was optimized to maximize electoral votes. It's illogical to claim, therefore, that Hillary is preferred by more number of Americans [one could respond saying that more American states want Trump].
• Watching the third debate. As soon as WikiLeaks was mentioned, Hillary quickly and immediately started deflecting the discussion to Russia, hacking, espionage, etc. Such a nasty woman she is. She's continuously looking down in this debate as well. She laughs so much, so frequently and so wickedly. Why? Is it overconfidence? Or is it inner nervousness? It seems like that there are certain terms and phrases that she deliberately and repeatedly throws around in each debate, so as to give an impression that she's "connected" to those folks. But it all seems fake and scripted. Not real, not passionate, and not from the heart. The moderator seems unbiased. Hillary is more aggressive in this debate than the last two. Hillary's teeth look ugly. Hillary is speaking a lot more in this debate than in the last two. Her performance is improved.

Update [2-Jan-17]: Just like religion, caste, language, etc., have been forbidden from being used or pitched in order to win votes, the "women" card too must be outlawed. Far too many female politicians have been abusing this diviside card for far too long and it's time to close the door on this.

Narendra Modi's many objectives behind demonetizing 500, 1000 rupee notes [COMPACTIDEA]

1. Improve image in public. He created a splash by branding and packaging this as "kill black money" and "kill terror finance" and "kill fake currency notes". Most Facebook-savvy clueless urban Indians are blindly praising Modi for this move, uncritically assuming his altruistic intentions and not thinking about his other, undeclared, nefarious objectives [see below].
1. Squeeze opposition parties’ funds. Sort of financial asphyxia. Win upcoming state elections.
2. So many news stories are detailing how BJP itself did massive cash deposits of 500/1000 notes in various banks on various days before Modi'a public announcement. They knew about this in advance and took advantage to save their own truckloads of black money.
3. Government coffers will rise via increased tax inflow and this extra taxpayer money can now be merrily looted by government officials via overpriced tenders, unneeded maintenance/repairs, making new roads where there already are good roads, etc. Obviously the increase in tax inflows will not improve the lives of the Indian public. As always, the ministers/politicians will collaborate with the Adanis and the Ambanis and leech out this extra money and not let it reach the people. So why pay any taxes when you're not going to receive any benefits? [link 1] [link 2]
1. Old currency notes not deposited will result in reduced liability for RBI and another windfall for the government. The government will, as always, use this gold rush for its own enrichment. The public be damned.
2. Government is conducting raids, etc., and any so-called "black money" found is being almost completely taken away [30% tax and 200% penalty on this and 12% interest and 3% cess, etc.]. Again, this is yet another windfall for the government and the "babus" will see their cupboards filling with people's hard-earned money.
4. Narendra Modi's government isn't concerned that India's huge, cash-based parallel economy perhaps protects India from external/international financial shocks. This government also isn't concerned that most non-urban Indians do not have or use bank accounts, digital wallets, credit/debit cards, etc., and use cash directly. The hassles these folks are facing now are unimaginable, but politicians are laughing in their air-conditioned rooms. This government also isn't bothered that the exponential growth in usage of credit/debit cards will result in a windfall for AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/VISA, thus sending "our" money out.
1. Further, talking of "parallel" economy, this demonetisation move could've been done to bring more of the "black GDP" into the formal, measurable economy. So there might not be any actual growth in GDP, but because hidden/unmeasurable activities get converted into measurable, formal activities, there will be an illusion of GDP growth, thus reaping political windfall for Narendra Modi.
5. This move has created huge pains for the poor and the almost-poor folks, who were already struggling each day to make ends meet. They now have to stand for hours in lines/queues to withdraw [or deposit] cash, while the PM snores loudly in his air-conditioned cabin, even as people die [another link], or are now out of job because of shortage of currency, or starve or cry or complain. He doesn't care one iota. And let us not forget that his crony friends won't be affected by this [contrary to the spin done by the his government].
2. Raising value of Indian rupee versus US dollar [scarce rupee will rise in value].
3. Kill overseas as well as domestic terrorism financing, thus reducing oxygen supply of terrorists.
4. Back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the banking system might/could absorb all of the high-value currency notes, and then some more. If there are 25 crore savings accounts and 2 crore current accounts [including CC, OD, etc.], and if the deposits in the former are on average 1 lac and in the latter 5 lacs, then the total potential deposits amount to INR 35 lac crore, far more than the value of Indian currency in circulation. Of course, the now-invalid old currency will flow from person to person in order to reach the bank accounts where making deposits is possible, and this flow will have a price and those who deposit on the behalf of others will thus make some profits.
5. In any case, "black money" will come back once the new currency notes start flowing back into the system. Who is going to stop people from once again transacting in cash and storing this black cash in their cupboards? If/when this happens, this whole exercise of demonetizing certain notes and issuing their replacements might start to look like a political stunt with nefarious objectives.
1. Just today [24-Nov-16] I saw a person buying six drums full of diesel from a petrol pump in order to utilize INR approximately 66,000 worth of 500/1000 notes. And he repeats the same daily, I've been told. The government seems to be underestimating the determination of the common Indian man.
6. As of 9-Dec-16, the good-for-nothing politician Narendra Modi has shrewdly shifted the goalposts, not mentioning the so-called "black money" anymore [since it's expected that nearly all of the officially issued large-denomination currency will get deposited into banks by the 30-Dec-16 deadline], and instead focusing on cashless economy and digital transactions. Classic politician!
1. What he doesn't and probably can't understand is that digital/electronic transactions are dependent on constant availability of several national and international systems [Internet networks, mobile networks, cables, electricity, computers, and so on]. In a vast and technologically-evolving country like India, systems go down often, and shifting something as fundamental and necessary as payments to a not-fully-reliable system is not only irresponsible, it's also dangerous and should be stopped immediately.

Update [2-Jan-17]: This author has correctly and comprehensively captured Modi's disturbing psychology by analyzing Modi's words and actions [or lack thereof]. From a lack of acknowledgement of the many deaths due to demonetisation, to the omission of the previously-always-used-word "mitron", Modi's actions and words give a peek into the dark and perhaps dangerous corners of his mind.

Sad to see Russia desperately having to sell its advanced technologies to China for money [COMPACTIDEA]

Russia knows pretty well why China is buying this advanced Russian military gear - S-400, Su-35, etc. China quite simply wants to plug the obvious gaps in its military capacity while it continues to evolve its domestic industrial capabilities, and it wants to reverse-engineer sophisticated Russian military products to speed up the evolution of its defence manufacturing industry. It's very sad to see Russia selling its most advanced technologies to China, knowing fully well that China will rip these apart bit by bit to try and copy as much as possible. Like a desperate and helpless woman who is forced to sell her own self to predators in order to make some quick money for her survival, Russia is now forced to sell the hard work of its brilliant engineers and scientists in order to plug its monetary gaps.

Update [15-Jul-18]: Even more than Russia and Airbus - rather much more - Ukraine is almost totally prostituting itself nowadays. It has inherited legendary designs, products, technologies and manufacturing facilities from the USSR, and it is selling these for cheap to technology-hungry China and others to raise cash for its survival [and for corruption].

Why China Wants to Put the Gargantuan Antonov An-225 Mriya Back Into Production
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/5083/why-china-wants-to-put-the-gargantuan-antonov-an-225-mriya-back-into-production

Is This Giant Soviet Era Hovercraft China's New Access Weapon Of Choice?
https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/is-this-giant-soviet-era-hovercraft-chinas-new-access-w-1609439614

http://www.janes.com/article/63341/china-and-ukraine-agree-to-restart-an-225-production

Buying a company's shares doesn't mean that you'll get proportionate claim on its real profits [COMPACTIDEA]

I had an Indian friend during MBA who once told me that there's no need to do any kind of business. One can/should just buy shares of good listed companies and thus "participate in their growth" and "get a share of their profits". I laughed in my mind at his innocence. He likely has absolutely no idea of the kind of accounting and other frauds/tricks companies use throughout the world - fake bills/invoices, fake sale, fake expenses, altered interest rates, fake commissions, and so on, in order to reduce "visible" profit [to reduce tax burden] and yet to ensure that the real owners/promoters are rewarded lavishly. Most companies use shareholders only to raise money [sort of interest-free loan]. There's no obligation whatsoever to reward them handsomely [although CEOs, etc., keep uttering this "create value for our shareholders" phrase frequently], and this is exactly what most companies do. So my friend had no idea actually.

It's futile to ban high value currency note denominations as folks can always use precious or rare metals to pay [COMPACTIDEA]

What will investigating or banning high-value banknote denominations like 500 euro or 1,000 Swiss francs do? Politicians are themselves throat-deep in the crime pit - they take bribes during military equipment deals, they murder civilians via wars, they stash black money in Swiss banks, etc. Publicly they decry currency notes of high denominations, but privately they need small-volume-small-weight-high-value methods as means of payment and also to get paid. To rescue come precious/rare metals such as Gold and Platinum [that also happen to be very, very liquid as well]. You can transfer crores/millions via small amounts of Platinum, for example. So not much use banning the 500 euro "Bin Laden" note.

Update [Feb'17]: And no one can stop barter, the best insurance against sanctions and demonetisation of currency notes. Like between Iran and Russia.

Update [Mar'17]: Another example. A packet of 100 banknotes of AED 1,000 is worth about INR 18+ lakhs as of today. A massive amount of money neatly stored in a small packet.

Who would've thought that it would be Yahoo Mail that would, in a way, save Yahoo from a rapid and total meltdown [COMPACTIDEA]

It's Yahoo Mail that keeps bringing people back to Yahoo. Nothing else. Email addresses are sort of permanent, and changing them is very difficult, especially if you're using an address for many years and dozens/hundreds of your people use that address to communicate with you. No one would've thought two decades ago that it would be Yahoo Mail that would turn out to be the savior of its parent company. Yahoo Mail keeps bringing its users back to both Yahoo.com homepage and Yahoo's other Web properties. There's nothing that locks you to Yahoo Sports or Yahoo Movies or Yahoo Travel. Yahoo Finance, in contrast, is somewhat more resistant to switching if you have a lot of stocks in your watchlist, etc. Porting these to some other finance portal isn't easy/quick [and you've also gotten used to the interface/navigation of Yahoo Finance]. Yahoo Mail's contents [contacts, emails and especially your email address] are not portable at all. Hence your need to keep coming back.

Courier companies such as DHL, Ecom Express, UPS, TNT Express, etc., are actually in a strong position to challenge online retail companies such as Amazon [COMPACTIDEA]

• Very roughly speaking, online commerce/retail involved two major portions - the "digital" or "online" part [marketing activities to get sellers who display their goods and prices, and a website plus a mobile application to display the available inventory and take orders and process payments], and the "physical" part [warehouse to store inventory of goods, and a full-fledged delivery system to deliver goods and maybe collect cash on delivery].
• Large courier/package delivery companies such as FedEx, Blue Dart, etc., already have extensive physical infrastructure in place [though they likely do not have warehouses to stock goods]. They've already covered a significant part of what constitutes an online retail service.
• The incremental cost to them of entering online retail is much lower than it is for someone who isn't already into the courier business. These companies simply need to "open up" [i.e., display online on a website] the inventory inside their warehouses and the rest they already know how to do efficiently and at scale.
• There should be significant synergies realized by these companies if/when they enter the online retail business [a lot of existing infrastructure will be reused].

Russia is right and US is wrong - American armed drones are fundamentally cruise missiles [COMPACTIDEA]

American assertion that its armed drones do not constitute a violation of the INF Treaty is, to be honest, hilarious. Armed drones are basically cruise missiles that can be flown as desired and that can be used to drop/fire conventional or atomic/nuclear weapons over the kind of distances that are of concern to the INF Treaty. Just because drones look like unmanned aircraft and are called 'drones' rather than 'cruise missiles' doesn't mean that they don't come within the scope of the INF Treaty. America shouldn't underestimate the common sense and intelligence of people of other countries - especially the brilliant people of Russia.

Update [25-Dec-17]: It's interesting that while the US refuses to accept Russia's [correct] conclusion that American armed unmanned drones are "effectively" equivalent to cruise missiles, the same US [correctly] sees and complains about China's artificial islands as "permanent aircraft carriers". Unsurprising double-standards from America.

I'm increasingly getting confident that government-owned companies are very important - even if these operate less efficiently than private firms [COMPACTIDEA]

• Looking at USA of today, it becomes clear that large, state-owned companies are important in every sector of every country's economy. USA is now a poisoned state that's practically run by greedy corporations. The concept of state-run companies doesn't exist [think of airlines, banks, etc., in America]. Overt and covert/tacit collusion keeps happening, and citizens are looted all the time, many times without they even realizing it.
• Think of India and its state-run behemoths in crucial industrial sectors - State Bank of India [SBI], Air India, Life Insurance Corporation of India [LIC], Steel Authority of India [SAIL], Bharat Heavy Electricals [BHEL], India Post, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL], National Fertilizers Limited [NFL], Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited [BSNL], and dozens others.
• These giant PSUs play the most important role of keeping private companies' actions in check. If not for these PSUs, private companies would literally milk the last drop of blood of India's citizens [imagine the sky-high charges Airtel would be able to charge for broadband if there was no BSNL to keep it in check].

Indian government shouldn't privatize these state-run enterprises in the name of "economic reforms", even if these are less efficient than private firms. They allow citizens to procure goods and services at honest prices.

Macromedia Flash was and is great - Google is desperately trying to kill it because it can't easily advertise inside it

Anyone who has seen Flash animations/games/puzzles/quizzes/videos on the early Web [or by opening downloaded .swf files directly inside Internet Explorer] knows that that kind of interactivity is missing from today's Web, despite staggering advancement in Web standards/technologies. There are not some but many things that just can't be done [today] without Flash. And in some ways the Web was more "alive" and interactive in the yesteryear than it is today [with the keyword being "in some ways"], all thanks to Adobe/Macromedia Flash.

Battery life, security, performance, memory usage, etc., are just excuses [all of these can easily be corrected by optimizing Flash Player]. Flash is being brutally murdered because it is so great. It gives Adobe the power and the direction. It enables platform independence [like Java], something that neither Apple nor Google wants [two of the biggest anti-Flash companies, unsurprisingly]. It's not easy to put ads inside Flash applications, hence Google sees Flash as its big enemy. And so on.

Despite all this, us folks who've seen its true power know what Flash is.

Update [19-Oct-17]: This Flash-powered form on AOL Listens website shows the power of Adobe's Flash. It must've been simple to render such a good-looking, animated and interactive webpage in Flash. It's probably far more complicated to do the same using pure Web technologies. And people and companies want to kill Flash. Idiots. Improve Flash, don't kill it.

Pepsi's current logo looks weak and malnourished and is overall unimpressive [COMPACTIDEA]

I was a Pepsi fan but the current logo is too thin and weak and has put me off and I've stopped drinking Pepsi and I prefer Coke now [its logo continues to be elegant/impressive]. Pepsi's old logos, in contrast, were muscular, manly, solid-looking, brimming with attitude, and overall impressive.

Corporate-owned US news media is running America's presidential election this year, along with blames on Moscow

"Biased" is a pretty inappropriate term to describe what the US mainstream media is doing this election season [anti-Trump, pro-Hillary, anti-Moscow/anti-Russia, pro-Obama, anti-Putin, etc.]. The more proper words for US media's actions are "scandal", "crime", "fraud" and "travesty". I've never seen such a degree of poisonous bias in any news media as I've seen in American news media this year. Truth be damned - US news media is doing everything it can to reprogram the minds of American citizens so that they vote for Hillary, despite her numerous despicable and provable crimes.

Secondly, the amount of reference to Moscow/Putin/Russia that's going on this election season is simply unbelievable. Anything, anything, happening in the US is instantly blamed on Moscow/Putin/Russia, and US news media is desperately trying to hide and paint/polish/cover Hillary Clinton's ugly crimes.

ISPs that insert banner ads into customers' broadband Internet connections - BSNL, Connect, MTNL - should have their asses whipped hard [COMPACTIDEA]

Most funny thing is that when I opened a link to read about BSNL inserting advert-laden banners, my own ISP [Connect] inserted a banner at that very moment! This practice won't stop until asses of executives of these ISPs are whipped mercilessly.

One look at this chart shows why America is shit scared of the euro and is covertly trying to destroy it [COMPACTIDEA]

Ever since its introduction, euro has become a credible alternative to the US dollar, and in the eyes of the Americans, a threat too. It's only because the euro is already a sufficiently credible alternative to the US dollar that Iran can deal entirely in the euro and yet not feel any trouble. Loss of reserve currency status will destroy America's ability to finance its endless wars and could cause American families to become so poor that they have to run naked on their streets, fighting for basic necessities. So for Americans, euro must be contained and destroyed, and indeed, America is covertly destroying Europe and the euro.

Likely internal mathematical working mechanism of liquid funds

How can money market funds give returns as good as bank fixed deposits, without the duration commitments and the premature withdrawal penalty charges? Seems to me like if the entire corpus of a liquid fund is thought of as a pool of water [with fixed length and width], and the pool is growing in height/volume over time, and any withdrawals are more than compensated for by deposits [resulting in net deposits], then, say, ~90-95% of the pool can be safely invested into higher duration instruments by the fund manager [which have higher returns than shorter term instruments], with only ~5-10% kept in really liquid form to meet day-to-day withdrawal requests [which'll anyway be met even otherwise by incoming deposits]. The result? Practically, almost the entire pool is invested into long-duration, high-interest instruments, while giving each customer of the liquid fund the impression of full liquidity [with the critical assumption that not all of these customers are going to withdraw all of their money together]. Based on randomness, some withdraw, some deposit, and the overall effect is sort of zero, and ~90-95% of the corpus doesn't need to be touched. This mechanism will work even if the pool size isn't growing on a net basis, but is sort of stable.

This magic of liquid funds is possible only because the individual deposits of the customers are clubbed together.

My Microsoft Lumia 640 XL powered by Windows Phone 8.1 captures photos with dull colors [COMPACTIDEA]

Because I found similar complaints by several Lumia-owners on the Internet, I'll quickly copy the example photos taken by one owner to show this disappointing shortcoming of at least Lumia 640 XL. First photo by Nexus 5, second by Lumia 925. My Lumia 640 XL takes dull/faded/lifeless photos. When I compare these to those taken by my BlackBerry Z3, I can see the difference clearly [Z3's photos are rich, vibrant, colorful and overall full of life].

Does Russia need America's permission to sell weapons to Iran?

These news stories that I received a few months ago via Google Alerts seem to suggest so. I think Russia will simply spit on the faces of Americans, waking them up from their fantasy world where every other nation on our planet needs the consent of USA for everything. These journalists don't feel even a bit of shame for crafting titles that make it seem like Russia needs to ask USA before doing military deals with Iran. Maybe the dying empire feels good staying inside the illusion bubble that it is still the world's leader.

The allure of a secondhand car, with the example of Skoda Laura [COMPACTIDEA]

ALSO SEE OID 211Z.

In INR 4.25 lacs, one can either get the following Skoda Laura, or the basic variant of Chevrolet Spark. I don't think there's any comparison here. I would've surely gone for this Laura.

Continuing to offer 4%, 6%, 7%, etc., interest rates in deposits in savings accounts is going to be difficult for Indian banks

When interest rates for loans/ODs were ~13%, 4% looked cheap and even 6%/7% looked possible. But interest rates on securitized business loans/CC limits are around 10% now, and the best interest rates on FDs are around 8-8.5%, so 4%/6%/7% on savings accounts looks difficult to me. The old ratio of 7%/13% is now 7%/10%. The entire calculation has changed. As a percentage/proportion of the interest rate on loans, the interest rate on savings accounts is now much higher.

 

 

Deutsche Bank must not fail, and the world must not allow it to fail [COMPACTIDEA]

I say the world, because non-US champions must stay alive and healthy to prevent this world from becoming America's playground and to prevent us non-Americans from effectively becoming slaves of America/Americans. If a bank must fail, let it be American - JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, BoA/BofA, Morgan Stanley, etc. Not Deutsche, BNP, ING, or RBS.

In a way, The Washington Post's online subscription is competing with cable TV subscription, and so on [COMPACTIDEA]

For someone who loves both but can't buy both, the competition is real. Further, The Washington Post's online subscription offers a wealth of professionally-made content - news, commentary, videos, and so on for a relatively reasonable price [especially when bought for a full year]. It could satisfy the bulk of one's daily content needs, if not all [which it certainly won't, but YouTube could start to fill that gap soon]. Similarly, The Washington Post's online subscription also competes with Netflix's, even though the comparison isn't quite obvious [it shows up for those who like/need/want both but can't afford both or don't want to spend on both].

 

KGB is a formidable brand - Russia should resurrect this world famous agency [COMPACTIDEA]

There isn't any function of KGB left that isn't already covered by Russia's current agencies - FSB, FSO, SVR, and GRU. Except one - a dreaded, formidable, respected, world-famous brand name. The word KGB still holds unparalleled recognition and status in the world. Even the word CIA doesn't feel as much exotic, fear-inducing and eyebrow-raising as KGB does. Russian President Vladimir Putin should revive this name, this globally recognized brand that the Soviet Union spent decades nurturing and cultivating into the force it was.

In a way, Libya's destruction occured because of Russia's abstention from UNSC vote [COMPACTIDEA]

Russia had already seen how US unilaterally attacked and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet it abstained from UNSC vote on Libya, which the Americans and Europeans quickly [and purposely] misinterpreted as they pleased to launch a murderous blitzkrieg on Libya, an operation that was never sanctioned by the vote. Libya fell, along with its charismatic ruler Muammar Gaddafi, and the once-prosperous nation is now in ruins, being looted bit by bit by the West.

 

Russia has a lot of moral responsibility for what has happened and is happening in Libya. If only Russia had exercised its veto, the hundreds of thousands of Libyans killed in Western bombings ask from the skies.

Why do restaurants in India charge both service tax and VAT on the full basic amount of the bill [COMPACTIDEA]

I don't like this and I don't find this logical, no matter what people say. Service is only a component of the total "experience" we got at the restaurant. Part of the experience was the food [the "product"] and rest was service. Then how can the full basic amount of the bill [before taxes] be entitled to both service tax and VAT? This isn't about the service charge. Either something is entirely a product or entirely a service or part product and part service. Current taxation doesn't seem correct. People are being looted by the Indian government which clearly sees this but stays quiet. And in this CCD bill, there's even some an Additional Tax charged. The basic bill got inflated by ~24% due to taxes. And the money that a person spends on buying this stuff at CCD was already taxed in the form of income tax. This 24% burden is after that 10%-30% income tax burden. Bullshit!

Is Chrome OS of today anything more than a locked-down version of Windows? [COMPACTIDEA]

Ever since I started using Google's Chrome OS on a Asus Chromebit a few weeks ago, I've felt that maybe Chrome OS is nothing more than a highly locked-down version of Windows. Windows can be stripped and locked down so that it'll run nothing but a Web browser. It could be packaged on a USB stick and optimized in a way that booting [and shutting down] would take place in seconds. Other customizations could be made easily as well. What makes Chrome OS different/novel, if anything? Isn't Chrome OS a subset of Windows? Isn't it an OS that can run only one application - the browser? Can't Windows be "reduced" to start mimicking Chrome OS and thus start providing the admittedly many genuine benefits of Chrome OS? It looks very much possible, especially since Google itself constructed Chrome OS by initially starting with Linux. The many shortcomings of Chrome OS could be addressed this way [for example, not having a lightening-fast Notepad to quickly write down something].

Western leaders try to discredit Vladimir Putin's popularity among Russian people because they themselves don't get half as much love

Barack Obama recently desperately complained about Putin's sky-high popularity levels among the Russian people. Not just that, he tried to discredit the popularity by comparing Putin to Saddam and by essentially implying that Putin's popularity "isn't real".

“When the interviewer asks him [Trump], ‘why do you support this guy [Putin]?’ He says, ‘He is a strong guy. Look, he’s got an 82 percent poll rating.’ Well, yes, Saddam Hussein had a 90 percent poll rating. If you control the media and you’ve taken away everybody's civil liberties, and you jail dissidents, that's what happens...” - Obama

In reality, all Western leaders are deeply jealous in their hearts that they don't get even half as much love from their respective populations as much Putin gets from the lovely Russian people. This jealousy, this frustration makes them angry and they try to "explain off" Putin's ratings. Look at the photos below and this full video. No Hollande, no Cameron, no Sarkozy, no Obama, no Merkel, no Blair, no Clinton and no Bush will ever get even a fraction of this kind of love and respect from their populations as Putin gets from his people. Because unlike Putin, these losers aren't true leaders. They'll continue to burn in the fireball of their internal jealousy and frustration.

A clear demonstration of value-for-money versus brand using Audi and Skoda cars [COMPACTIDEA]

Following screenshots make it clear that if you go for the Audis, you pay more and yet in terms of both size [implying space] and features [implying comfort, convenience, entertainment, safety, etc.], the Skodas are superior on an overall basis [taking a rough weighted sum of various features present or absent in these cars]. So if you go for the Audis, you're sacrificing size/features in order to get the four rings. With Skoda, your brand comes down somewhat but the meat you get to chew increases materially. The A3, for example, stands nowhere in front of the top, L&K variant of the Superb [if you compare the features and specifications in detail - and not look only at the screenshots here], yet it costs a lot more. And don't forget, the INR 38+ lacs Audi A4 petrol has only 1.4 liter engine! Happy wrapping the four rings around your neck :-)

Update [18-Sep-16]: Even the top variant of VW Jetta gives terrific value compared to far more costly yet smaller cars from, say, Mercedes. Of course, the brands don't compare.

DTH set-top boxes are currently locked to operators - this is not good at all [COMPACTIDEA]

It's like buying locked mobile phone that can be used on only one mobile network. Currently an Airtel box works only with Airtel, a Reliance box with only Reliance, and so on. Very bad. Boxes should be universal. Like we can change SIM in a phone, we should be able to change the smart card in a STB to switch to a different provider. Branding on the STB should be of the manufacturer, and not to DTH service provider.

It's possible that foreign firms that are subcontractors for American weapons firms slowly start supporting America's wars

The basic idea here is that when the fortunes [jobs/profits] of these foreign firms start to depend upon recurring "orders" from American defense firms [Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, etc.], then these foreign firms subconsciously/unknowingly start to like and want the relentless wars that America is waging worldwide. Absent these wars, the profitable American orders could/would dry up, leaving employees jobless and also creating ripples in politics. These foreign firms would, therefore, start to push their domestic governments to exercise support for these global American wars on the international stage, so that the factories keep running, even if this results in thousands or even millions killed in the process. In this way, American weapons-making companies are indirectly able to influence the politics in other nations, and are able to "buy" supporting votes for the American government's foreign policy decisions [which, obviously, these weapons companies themselves dictate].

The full power of Google's Chrome OS will be unleashed when Native Client code starts being used regularly [COMPACTIDEA]

Native Client has been promising desktop-class performance inside the Web browser for many years now, but we still don't see widespread usage of this marvelous technology. I recently started using Chrome OS, and I strongly feel that its true potential will be realized when Chrome OS eventually starts utilizing Native Client regularly and heavily.

My dislike for the narcissistic personality of Narendra Modi, my PM, is rising and rising [COMPACTIDEA]

From his uninvited spam mails/messages to the entire nation to his licking the rear-end of Mukesh Ambani to his low self-respect, my disdain for PM Modi only grows. He has clearly turned out to be someone very different from how he portrayed himself [and continues to do so]. He looks and feels fake, dishonest and a fraud, especially after recently appearing in newspaper ads for Reliance Jio network, plus an interview on Reliance-owned Network 18, and also a tweet licking Nita Ambani!

Update [15-Sep-16]: See how he's trying so hard/shamelessly to make Obama laugh, the way subordinates do with their bosses! Loser!