Online Observations

Nationmaster.com has been a go to source for a long time for statistical information about the world. Here you can find data on crime, transportation, people, population, media, lifestyle, and many more categories.

However, raw data alone is not very exciting. What makes these data dumps exciting is if you try and interpret them. While you are free to start diving into these interpretations, I recommend you start with some of these interpretations already present on their website. Take for instance this little fact about Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka has the lowest divorce rate in the world.

Alone, this is a nice to know fact, but also consider this:

Sri Lanka has the highest rate of female suicide in the world.

This makes you think, is there a correlation? Do females in Sri Lanka simply commit suicide instead of getting divorced? I suppose the next thing to see is of those who commit suicide, how many are married.

Here’s another one:

Indians go out for movies 3 billion times in an year, way more than any other country.

Head over to the Nation Master facts page to read more interesting facts and move around the site to find your own.

Pixeloo has done it again. Last month he had brought Jessica Rabbit to life (and I believe nothing can top that effort). This time around he  has taken Stewie Griffin from the Family Guy and made him real. It is quite amazing how this Photoshop wizard brings things to life. Below is a quick look at the latest effort. Click the image to go to the original article and a chance to look at the high resolution version of the image:

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Have you ever searched for icons on Google Image search? Had any luck? No? Thought so. Google is not so good at searching for icon files. You might want to change the look of your desktop by replacing those drab icon files that got installed by default when you installed your applications (that image on the left is my icon for the photos folder on my computer). Or you might be looking for an icon for that new application that you just developed. This is where IconLook comes in.

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Here’s a tip that not many employers would like their employees to know about. How would you like to spend time at work reading your favorite book and yet if someone takes a look at you, you will seem deeply engrossed in work? I bet, a lot of people would love to be able to do just that (if you like to read books that is).

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Zinio is a premier provider for online subscriptions to your favorite magazines. But, what happens if you don’t want to pay for them. Or you would like to read some magazine to see if you like it? Can you get them for free? It turns out that you can.

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I have been away a lot and so the posts have been few lately. Here are a few quick links which I find to be very interesting:

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For years, I have had one complaint with Microsoft Windows. And that is the fact that the progress bars in Windows never show the right status. The amount of progress shown on the bar is never an indicator of the amount of time remaining versus amount of time taken so far. Ideally, equal amounts of length on the progress bar should represent equal amounts of time.

Google, it seems, can’t crack this either.

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I took this picture when I went to visit one of the families that I did get to meet. I rang the doorbell, and Christopher came out with his kitten to greet me. I was taken by how much Christopher and the kitten appeared to be the same person.

- Mary Ellen Mark, on an assignment covering poverty in America.

One of the tricks was for his dogs to beg with cigarettes in their jaws.

- Mary Ellen Mark, from one of her many visits to India

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Every once in a while you come across something on the Internet which cause you to laugh your ears off. Well, today was one such day. This image found on Laughing Ninja is hilarious (click to see larger version):

This reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes - when Calvin used to create those snowmen.

There are a lot of people who like to buy domains - either because they think that collecting some good ones may reap rewards in the future, or they are looking for a good name for the new blog or site they are going to launch. Well, if you, for any reason, are looking to buy a domain name and don’t know where to start, your job just got a whole lot easier. Here are some very nice services which help in domain name search, availability, and registration.

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