The Home Depot Song

I have theorised that all songs are clandestine commercials.

Included here is a case study, outlining the hypothesis that Celine Dion's "Because you loved me..." is an insidious ad for Home Depot. I have outlined the first verse of the song with their corresponding merchandise here,

For all those times you stood by me
	For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought to my life
	For all the wrong that you made right

Just so there is no doubt that this is happenstance, here's a few more examples, because, SCIENCE!

You were my strength when I was weak
	You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
	Lifted me up when I couldn't reach

References: [1] http://www.homedepot.com [2] Because You Loved Me - Celine Dion - YouTube

Petrol price misrepresentation on social networks

A misleading post regarding petrol prices in India and Abroad is doing the rounds (again!). 

Here's a copy of the post in question

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1643365812604804&set=gm.497492003745383&type=3&theater

Let's look at the accuracy of each of the above claims, just so we learn that the purpose of any media needs to go beyond the reconfirmation of the reader's preconceived notions.

Country	Price in shared image(INR)	Actual price in USD	Actual Price in INR	Difference in %age
Pakistan	26	0.6	40.2	55%
Cuba	19	1.41	94.47	397%
Nepal	34	0.94	62.98	85%
Afghanistan	36	0.77	51.59	43%
Bangladesh	22	1.29	86.43	293%
Italy	14	1.51	101.17	623%
Burma	30	0.55	36.85	23%
Sri Lanka	34	0.88	58.96	73%
India	82		60	-27%

Conversion rate used : 1 USD = 67 INR

As we can see clearly, not only is the data clearly misrepresented, but we can see how ridiculous the bias in "reporting" is. Italy and Cuba, purported to have the cheapest petrol on the list, actually have the most expensive. 

India, whose government the creator of the image so callously dismisses, is the only location with over-reported prices. Not to mention, prices vary way more based on crude prices, than on variation of taxation, given a fixed jurisdiction.

And let us not even forget the fact that petrol prices, governmental acumen and quality of life have little bearing on one another

A request to all that may chance across this post :

Please, at least try to fact check random posts by people about "facts" and "data", before you jump to share and retweet these posts, and further contribute to the spread and celebration of misinformation.

Note that these prices are mostly accurate as of early March 2016, and may vary considerably base on a variety of factors.

P.S. And what is the deal with the .00 after every price in the image. I though significant digits were, well, significant.

Sources:

http://pakbiz.com/finance/petroleumprices.html

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5862/oil/petrol-price-per-gallon-around-the-world/

http://www.globalpetrolprices.com/

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/government-eases-petrol-price-by-4-paise-diesel-price-down-3-paise/

10.43252003274489856000 reasons why "X reasons Y" lists are boring

The barrage of sites with mind-numbingly stupid content and clickbait titles is neither new nor exhilarating.

However, ad-mongering, for the lack of a better word, and short-shorter-shortest attention spans of people, when paired with the ubiquity of technological access has made them garishly visible and overwhelming, sometimes to the point of frustration, and oftentimes, far beyond.

Here's a list of reasons why these word-bundles posing as "articles" are a force of evil. Also, the mandatory "You won't believe number 7!"

1. Their titles offer little to no information about the actual content.
2. Their content is usually unnecessary at best.
3. Oversimplifications are not just made and brushed over, but celebrated.
4. They are mostly opinion-pieces, with the opinion being "I am better than you" or "Yoohoo, You get a stereotype, you get a stereotype, everybody gets a stereotype! There's enough for everyone."
5. The primary purpose of these articles is to entice with a title that tugs at heartstrings of potential readers, so that their clicks help earn ad revenue.
6. The secondary purpose is to reinforce biases, stereotypes and self-indulgence.
7. For some reason, a vast section of the populace believe other people share their biases and would love to read fluff pieces of no consequence.
8. Most use cringeworthy images/gifs they don't hold the rights to publish.
9. The authors are often deluded enough to think they have invested this new awesome format no one ever though of.
10. The grammar is, well, horrendous on most occasions.

Notable trivia:

• This post has the highest number of quotes I have ever had, scare or otherwise. If one chooses to be pedantic, yes, I mean quotation marks. There, there...
• The list is 0.43252003274489856000 items shorter than the title. So Sue Me.
• 43252003274489856000 is the total number of possible combinations on a standard Rubik's Cube.

P.S. I think "notable trivia" is an oxymoron, but I've been wrong before. 

Please copy this as your status if you...

Dear friends,
So you didn't have a laptop in your childhood. That was not because of how your parents raised you, but because it was not at all useful for you to have that prohibitively costly toy then, which can bring to a kid today the world's storehouse of knowledge, and a lot more. 

The iPod wasn't invented, Blackberry is not meant for children to play with, some of you probably did have a Nintendo, and just didn't know it, and the Xboxes and PS3s were yet to be brought out in their current form. 
 
And really, Wi-fi? What would you be doing with a Wifi again, if there was no internet backbone to connect it to?

You have possibly lost out on a lot more than you purportedly gained because you had a Contra instead of a Commodore, an Atari, an Apple II, or the likes back then.

I had a beautiful childhood too, not because I didn't have a lappie, a PS3 or whatever, but because of all the great things I did have, among them great family and friends.

It is good to appreciate what you have, but that does not entail begrudging others their benefits or differences.

Sharing lame statuses in an attempt to appear what ever you are trying to appear as, does not change the lameness of the initial premise.




GROW UP!

Yours sincerely,

Koushik Kumar Nundy.

P.S. This is in direct response to a facebook status meme about how beautiful some of my peers' childhoods were, and how cool they are courtesy their non-involvement in technical and democratic exercises in their tiny tot times. However it can be generalised to cover any such "Please copy this as your status if you.." incidents, because,

1. FB asks for what's on YOUR mind, G+ asks for what's NEW,... please, this is neither particularly in your mind, nor is it too new!
2. Twitter asks what's happening, if you post such status forwards, your childishness, if not your childhood is still happening.
3. If copying statuses would cure cancer and rid us of terrorism, corruption and a thousand other maladies, oncologists, radiologists, soldiers, political leaders would have all become "Social Media Experts" instead.
4. People who are on such platforms to keep in touch with old friends or develop bonds with new ones, are truly, madly, deeply getting irritated.
5. When people start getting tired of such stuff, they will write even more tiring blogposts as this.
6. Some people will get an irrepressible urge to post this as their status "Please copy this as your status if you don't like "Please copy this as your status ..." statuses."