Note to all our culinarily gifted friends: multiply by two when you're cooking for this blog.

And you can use this handy Recipe Adjuster Program to help you out.

Googling Googol

Edward Kasner, the mathematician, asked his little nephew for a name for a very large number (10 raised to the 100th power - or the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros), and little Milton famously answered "Googol."
Now, it is part of net lore (the official Google version is here) that the company was to be called Googol, but thanks to some goof up at the VC's office, it became the name we love to verb (Google frowns on this, incidentally).
Anyway.
Now that Google is on the brink of its IPO, Kasner's relatives are apparently seeing a googol zeros.
Here's a snippet from an article in the Baltimore Sun:

# As you know, Google now plans to make an initial public offering and expects to raise $2.7 billion. Does that fact make you more determined to be compensated?
Peri Fleisher (Kasner's great-niece) You don't need to give us anything. Just let us participate as insiders on the IPO. I don't think it's a lot to ask.
# Might you consider legal action?
Peri Fleisher I don't know if there is anything we can do. A cousin is going to start exploring that. I don't want to come across as threatening. Most of the people in our family are pretty intellectual and no one in our family has been really aggressive. But again, we're not wimps or wallflowers. If we do have a legal right, we're certainly going to exercise that. And now is the time. Google is big and popular now, but who knows what's going to happen when they go public. There are other companies are on their tails. Now is the time to capitalize.
# Do you use Google as a search engine?
Peri Fleisher I do. I also use Yahoo. After I was interviewed on [National Public Radio's] Talk of the Nation, I Googled myself, but it didn't come up. When I Yahooed myself, it came up immediately. It took longer for Google to post it.

Aside from risking Google's ire by using the G-verb, Ms Fleisher is also being slammed on the net, with varying degrees of bile and spelling quality. Here, here, here

We think we'll start Zigzacklyster

First there was Friendster (and the other YASNSs like Ryze, Orkut, LinkedIn, Ecademy and so on and on and on. And even reactions like Introvertster. Now, ladies, gentlemen, bloggers and blogreaders, there is dogster. And soon, Hurree and Partner will be happy to hear, there'll be Catster and Mousester and maybe PetRockster. And how about Hamsterster? (This just in: Da Goog tells us that there is already *shudder* a hamsterster.)

Junk in the mail

Ooh. We just found something that took us back decades. Remember those ads in the back of the phirang comic books? The X-ray vision glasses, the fake dog poo, the sea monkeys... Ever wondered what the products were really like? Check out Mail Order Mysteries. In fact check out the entire site.

Call me a shlimazl, or even a klloshar, but i have this altahmam, this saudade for gezellig. But i've never indulged in selathirupavar, and so, shaddup, pochemuchka. i mean, i am an ilunga, but don't push it.
Today Translations asked a thousand people on its network to nominate words that were problematic to translate, and then asked 50 of them to vote for just one of the top contenders. The winner was Ilunga (Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire). The ten English words rated hardest to translate: plenipotentiary, gobbledegook, serendipity, poppycock, googly, Spam, whimsy, bumf, chuffed, and kitsch.
Via Boing Boing by way of Backward City (Go there to see an interesting comments thread - but don't forget to come back here and add your own! This blog is sure Indian readers will have at least a few word to add aside from the Tamil selathirupavar, which means a certain kind of truancy. What kind i wonder?).

Stick your thumb into this.

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

That's the Guinness World Records’ standard in the category of mobile phone text messaging. The old world record was 67 seconds, but young Singaporean Kimberly Yeo had the 26 words down in 43.24 seconds. This blog predicts an Indian record-holder soon. (Oh, we managed 93 seconds first try, with one error.) [via Boing Boing and the Bartman.]

For the diaspora

Your Man In India, "a concierge services provider in India for people worldwide." And no, this blog doesn't make any money from referrals. Not principles, the blog assures you, just laziness.

To: Prime Minister of India
Cc: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh

To,
The Honourable Prime Minister of India
South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi,
India-110 011

CC: Kumari Uma Bharati
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Vallabh Bhawan
Bhopal

Honourable Prime Minister,

We would like to bring to your notice that 20 years after the Bhopal gas disaster, the Indian Government still has pending responsibilities toward the rehabilitation of the environment and lives of the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster.
The toxic wastes that lie within the abandoned factory and in the solar evaporation ponds represent an ongoing source of pollution threatening the health of people living in 10 municipal wards near the factory. Remediation of the contaminated sites and groundwater is an urgent need.
On March 17, 2004, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, USA, presented the Indian Government with a unique opportunity in the matter of remediating the environmental and groundwater contamination at Bhopal.
In reinstating the case of Sajida Bano et al v. Union Carbide Corporation and Warren Anderson to the Southern District Court of New York, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals has said: "... we believe that the district court should be free to revisit its dismissal of the claim for plant site remediation in the event that the Indian government or the State of Madhya Pradesh seeks to intervene in this action or otherwise urges the Court to order such relief." According to the U.S. Court of Appeals: "...the record contains no communication from Madhya Pradesh or the Indian government indicating its receptivity to an order of a United States court compelling work on the property."
It is estimated that a proper remediation of the site and its surroundings would cost hundreds of crores of rupees, especially if best practices were to be adopted. In the matter of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy v. Union of India & Ors, the Supreme Court has reiterated that "The legal position regarding applicability of the precautionary principle and polluter pays principle which are part of the concept of sustainable development is now well settled."
By making Union Carbide pay for the site remediation, the Indian Government is in a position to make Bhopal a demonstration of the best practices in remediation of contaminated sites, and build capacity within the Indian regulatory and scientific systems to deal with such problems elsewhere.
This matter is of considerable urgency given that the deadline for receipt of such a letter by the US Court of the Southern District of New York is June 30. The Government of India can either submit a letter or send a short amicus brief to the Court. In March 2004, the Honourable President of India was apprised of the US court order, and a copy of the same was presented to him.
We urge you to take urgent action in this matter, and hope that your office will respond by sending a communication to the US Court at the earliest.
We also urge the Government of Madhya Pradesh to immediately implement the directive of the Honourable Supreme Court of India issued on the 7th of May 2004, based on the Supreme Court Hazardous Waste Monitoring Committee’s recommendations, to provide pipelined water as “expeditiously as possible” in the areas affected by water contamination and to ensure immediate supply of drinking water to these areas through tankers.
Looking forward to your cooperation.
Sincerely,

Go here to sign the Greenpeace India petition to the Prime Minister.

It's not just bloggers who have way too much time.

Plus points: unabashedly opiniated, and amusing to boot. Negatives: for a site that stands in judgement on aesthetics, unimaginative, rather crude page design and some of those icons need work; way too many typos. But that's just us. Go see this comprehensive rating of the world's flags and make your own call.

OH, ALL RIGHT

"...Cummings' name should have the usual caps, and so we hope it will continue. We hereby proclaim it to be so, and we hope the dismal lowercase custom will disappear from the face of the earth."
From Norman Friedman's NOT "e. e. cummings".