I had minor surgery last week, and I haven’t been reading much, or generally spending a lot of time in front of the computer since then.
That has been the reason for no posts lately, but now I have recovered to a point where I am able to write a little bit and I thought the links post will be a good way to start off blogging.
Let’s start with the stock market first, Bespoke has compiled the returns of 77 markets since the beginning of this year and it is interesting to see how wide the range is, and I was also intrigued by the countries at the top as I had no idea these countries were doing so well and they certainly haven’t been in the news that much.
From the earlier I article I learned that Pakistan and China have plans to have a speed rail network connecting the two countries through PoK. I had no idea about this, and this Wiki link gives some basic information about it.
Amazon is going to expand its footprint in India. I’m a big fan of Amazon and have no doubt in mind that they will be a boon for the Indian customer.
Let’s start this week with a very interesting story that appeared in the NYT about a AComplaintFreeWorld.org. The idea is that you wear a bracelet and every time you complain, you take the bracelet from one hand and move it to another. This way you are conscious of when and how much you complain and as a result stop or at the very least reduce your whining.
I think I will try doing this, (not with the bracelet) and see if I can feel a positive difference in my life.
The BBC had a story on how people in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the America were forced to Cannibalism in the winter of 1600s. I was eating while reading this story, and that is a very bad idea.
National Geographic has a great article on how Elephants communicate. Just amazing how complex and sophisticated their communication is.
Whether you drink or not, at some point, someone is going to ask you what a single malt is.
Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on people who add complexity to everything, and delay progress on all projects.
Finally, this car is in the Guinness book because it holds the world record for the highest recorded mileage on a car. Can you guess how much it has run?
Let’s start this week with a very interesting interview with the CEO of Guidewire – Marcus Ryu. I feel that a lot of CEO interviews are really lofty and talk about things that sound far away from reality, but this wasn’t anything like it. He spoke about practical things which made sense and were down to earth executable ideas.
Let’s start this week with a Business Standard editorial that examines the causes that have led to our big current account deficit, and also why it is a cause of  worry for us.
The NYT has an interview with a North Korean expert who explains how the current situation should be viewed, and thankfully this is one interview that didn’t have any hype and seemed to be grounded on facts.
I was really disappointed to read that Google will be shutting down its Google Reader service as it will affect me in a big way as a user and a blogger.
I use Google Reader multiple times a day, and over a thousand people use OneMint’s feed on their Google Reader. This also points in the direction that Feedburner will be Google’s next service that’s closed down, and that’s what’s used to deliver OneMint’s daily emails and that would affect OneMint quite negatively. I am hoping that all the backlash on the web makes Google reconsider their decision, but if they don’t, here are a few alternatives to Google Reader:Â Google Reader is shutting down, here are the alternatives.Â
I really loved this Outlook interview with Mohnish Pobrai and thought it had some great insights for investors. For me, one of the more important things to learn from this interview was how you should learn to appreciate the difference between who your following, and your own situation. I’ve often seen people talk about Buffett one liners as rules themselves, and talking about things like his holding period of forever without considering how he has this regular stream of money coming in from his insurance business. It is great to follow Buffett, but you should understand what he is saying in the full context of its operations, and not just in terms of sound bites.
China’s growth: a bountiful half decade: We all know how much China has grown in the past few decades, but even then, reading it in bullet points really wowed me.
Shyamendra Solanki (whose translation of ‘If’ I had shared earlier) has written a poem in Hindi about corruption, and I enjoyed reading it. You can see it here.
I want to start this week by saying that I feel this is the best weekend links post that I have ever done, and is certainly my favorite by a long stretch.
I’m going to share three amazing videos this week, and going through the videos and articles in this post may take about an hour or so but you wouldn’t want to miss it.
I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the first one, if not seen the video, I’m talking about Google Glass, and if it’s anything like the video, it’s quite outstanding and I can see how this can change the way we function 15 or 20 years down the line.
Here is the video, you need to watch it a few times to really understand what’s going on in all the frames.
The second concept is what they are calling 3Doodler, which is a pen that actually writes up in the air, a 3D printing pen essentially.
You have to see the video to get a better sense of what I am saying.
Now, two articles related to these things – the first one about Google, which is titled How Google Retooled Android With Help From Your Brain, and again I don’t think I’ll do justice to the article by writing about it so you better read it yourself.
