Want To Buy Hell, Anyone!?

October 27, 2006

Ashok Online Rants Leave a comment

The online version, that is! And it might set you back by a fortune too. :-)

The domain name Hell.com is up for sale, and is expected to go for more than a million US dollars in auction! Whoever buys this domain will have an opportunity to “redefine what Hell is”, according to Moniker, the firm conducting the auction. If you’re rich (and a bit whacky too), you can probably buy it as a perfect Haloween gift for that special someone in your life!

It’s actually interesting how much some of these domain names get sold for. Here’s a few examples (source: this article on Wall Street Journal):

  • Sex.com – $12 mil.
  • Diamond.com – $7.5 mil.
  • Business.com – $7.5 mil.

The above WSJ article also mentions that Heaven, after all, is not as popular as Hell. The owner of domain name Heaven.com says the site nets him only 5 to 6 dollars a day in advertising revenues! The saving grace is that he didn’t pay millions to own that domain name — he got it for free from his former employer!

UN Security Council – Not Full Yet!

October 25, 2006

Ashok Online Rants Leave a comment

Just read this news article about the still-ongoing contest between Venezuela and Guatemala to fill the final seat on United Nations Security Council — neither country has been able to muster the necessary two-thirds majority to win, even after 36 rounds of voting!! The latest vote count is Guatemala’s 109 versus Venezuela’s 72 (the magic number to hit — 121).

If you’re thinking 36 rounds of inconclusive voting is ridiculous (which it is, obviously), you should know that they have long ways to go before breaking the existing record — 155 (yes, a full one hundred and fifty five!) ballots before Mexico won the Security Council seat, back in 1979-80!

Given the effectiveness (or lack there of) of UN Security Council in addressing any of the world’s pressing issues these days, you’d think it’s really a waste of resources for both contestants to fight it out for so long. Wish they had better process in place to break such deadlocks — but again, we’re talking of UN Security Council here, sigh!

Update (Nov 02, 2006)

After 47 rounds of fun, Venezuela and Guatemala finally decided to back off and support Panama as the compromise candidate. End of a farse, finally! Morale of the story, for Hugo Chavez especially, is that there is still something called “decency” about how a Head of State should talk on international stage, regardless of how badly he disagrees with other Heads of State. He really blew it up for his country when he foul-mouthed George Bush in United Nations General Assembly a few weeks ago, possibly turning off a few fence-sitters who might have voted for Venezuela otherwise!

Explore Australia

October 24, 2006

Ashok Travel Leave a comment

I watched the program “Atlas – Explore A Nation” on Discovery Channel the other day. They covered Australia and its culture in that program. Boy, it sure looked like an amazing country! The program was full of breathtaking visuals and the photography was superb.

One of the things that really caught my attention was the vastness of ocean shores the Australian Navy is responsible for. Apparently, Australia owns about 10% of the world’s oceans, and yet there was only one occasion when the country’s coast line was breached by enemies – during the second world war – by Japanese. Pretty impressive.

They also covered Australian tribals in great detail. I liked the paintings they make – with bright yellow and red dots on a canvas. And there were a few clips from Australian Navy’s training program, where the candidates need to climb up from the submarine (immersed 6 floors deep in water) to the water surface – without breathing. They even put clips on their noses to make sure they don’t breathe!

All in all, it’s a beautiful introduction to Australian culture and people and I certainly recommend watching it if you get a chance. If you’re interested, here is the link to the Discovery Channel’s website.

Tata Steel’s Bid For Glory

October 20, 2006

Ashok Business, India 5 Comments

Finally, Globalization is a 2-way road for Indian companies!

Tata Steel’s $8 billion purchase of its Anglo-Dutch rival Corus would mean a lot to the Indian companies. After years of being at the receiving end of Globalization and fighting to survive and improve their competitiveness, they are slowly beginning to open up. This deal is by far the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian company and is a sure sign of things to come!

According to this article in Economist, the combined company is likely to be the sixth largest steel manufacturer in the world, catapulting Tata Steel from its current 56th position.

It’d be interesting to see if Mittal would be interested in buying Tata Steel at some point!