SpinalTrap

Amazon launches Junglee

2012-02-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Online retailing giant Amazon recently launched its India specific service called Junglee. TOI called Junglee it a watered down version of Amazon and NDTV was replete with quotes on how it is Amazon's strategy to understand the online market dynamics of India.

Be that as it may, our work at DY Works pushes us to assess the brand launch from a strategic design perspective.

Here are some thoughts on the elements that have been taken forward from the mother brand to the child (regional) brand -

Font Type - San serif (informality)
Font Style - lower case (approachability)
Colours - Black and orange (readability and mother brand connect)

However, there seemed to be some glaring issues here. Junglee in India means WILD. The term is also the name of a popular Shammi Kapoor film which is far from the simplistic image the logo portrays. The user interface for the website (which is the primary point of interaction for the brand) is also anything but Wild.

I've also seen a lot of comparisons of Junglee with Flipkart. However, as it stands, Junglee is not offering direct purchases from the website. It shows you the best offers from other online retailers (including Amazon) and then pushes the user to the resellers website for the purchase. So, for the moment Flipkart should not worry too much the service. However, Junglee is still in beta and there could be some surprises in store.

Would love to hear from you on what your views are on the brand and it service offerings.

Earn clicks from your customers

2011-11-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

I have the privilege of managing the Brand Exponents blog that chronicles the happenings at DY Works. Month after month, I have been noticing that our blog traffic has been growing, new posts are being added, yet the content that seems to drawing in the traffic is the same. The revelation was that your blog can benefit from positive promotion of your work and clients. (So what new ??? read on ...)

Diamonds in the data mine

Forgive me for the borrowed title, however, here is a look at the content that draws the most people to the Brand Exponents blog.

Top Blog Subjects -

No surprises here. Four of the top subjects viewed are clients. A closer look at visitor distribution reveals that a whopping 47% of the content viewed on the blog is Client related.

Top content viewed distributed by subject

How can your clients promote you?

Long story short ... you need to ensure that enough stories about your clients are getting published. Here is a quick list of things you can do to add client content to your blog -

Your work - Ensure that all your client work hitting the market is showcased
Promote your client's content - Any videos, pdf or slides related to your client that hit the social media space, should be collated and commented on.
Awards - Take time out to promote content talks about clients winning awards. This really helps.
Opinion - Wherever possible, add an opinion on client work. Be positive with suggestions.
TELL YOUR CLIENT - MOST IMPORTANT. Once you've posted your client's content on your blog, please inform them. They might want to share it with their peers.

Hope this is useful.

DY Works at Comic Con 2011, Mumbai

2011-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

DY Works at Comic Con 2011

From the DY Works Blog

Sunbird and Google Calendar Sync for Thunderbird 3

2010-06-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Steps for integrating Sunbird and Google Calendar in Thunderbird 3

Download and install Sunbird Application (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/download.html)
Once Sunbird is installed, Launch Thunderbird 3
Click on Tools > Add Ons > In the property page ensure that 'Get Add ons' is selected
A search box will appear on the right hand top corner ... here you must search for 'Lightning'
A list of add ons will appear ... Select 'Lightning' and click on 'Add to Thunderbird'
In the Software Installation Screen, Press 'Install Now' button
Once the add on is installed, it will ask you to restart Thunderbird ... go ahead and restart Thunderbird ... when Thunderbird restarts you should see the calendar sidebar on the right side of the application
Click on Tools > Add Ons > In the property page ensure that 'Get Add ons' is selected
A search box will appear on the right hand top corner ... here you must search for 'Lightning'
A list of add ons will appear ... Select 'LightningButton' and click on 'Add to Thunderbird'
In the Software Installation Screen, Press 'Install Now' button
Once the add on is installed, it will ask you to restart Thunderbird ... go ahead and restart Thunderbird ... when the application restarts you will not immediately see any change
To the Lightning buttons Click on View > Toolbard > Customize
The 'Customize Toolbar' dialog will open ... scroll down to find four buttons

Calenda
Tasks
New Task
New Event

Drag these 4 icons on the main tool bar
Once this is done, within the 'Customize Toolbar' click on 'Done'
Click on Tools > Add Ons > In the property page ensure that 'Get Add ons' is selected
A search box will appear on the right hand top corner ... here you must search for 'Provider'
A list of add ons will appear ... Select 'Provder for Google Calendar' and click on 'Add to Thunderbird'
In the Software Installation Screen, Press 'Install Now' button
Once the add on is installed, it will ask you to restart Thunderbird ... go ahead and restart Thunderbird ... when the application restarts you will not immediately see any change
Now you have to log into your Gmail Account and click on 'Calendar'
In the Google Calendar View > My Calendar pane, click on the dropdown next to the Calendar you want to sync and click on 'Calendar Settings'
In the 'Calendar Details Tab' the last section is called 'Private Addres' ... here you need to click on 'XML' icon ... a div will appear with a link
Copy this link (it will be used in Thunderbird to sync your Calendar)
Now you go back to Thunderbird; click on 'Calendar' button
Add a calendar by clicking on File > New > Calendar
Select 'On the Network' and click next
Then select 'Google Calendar' and paste the link the location text box ... click next
Enter your gmail username and pwd ... click next
Add the Calendar Name; select the calendar color and click next ... then click 'Finish'
You should now see your calendar on the left had side of the page
In case your events haven't loaded ... right click on the calendar and click on 'Reload Remote Calendar' and your events should appear
Great .. you are now ready to use the system

Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence - A Book Summary

2009-10-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence - A Book Summary

The Theory of the Business

2009-05-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

By Peter F. Drucker
Excerpts from HBR / September-October 1994

Other than outsourcing and reenginnering, most management tools are designed primarily to do the same things differently.

They focus on the “how to do” tools …
(whereas) “what to do” is increasingly becoming the central challenge facing managements.

Indeed in many cases, the right things are done fruitlessly. (This is because), the assumptions on which the organisation has been built and is being run no longer fit reality.

Every organisation, whether a business or not, has a theory of the business. [This is captured in the business model … and profits ensure that the business model is still valid – Form “What management is”]

Indeed, a valid theory is clear, consistent, focussed and is extraordinarily powerful.

e.g. 1870, George Siemens founded the Deutsche Bank to use entrepreneurial finance to unify a still rural and splintered Germany.

The theory of the business can explain both the success and the failure of the business.
What underlies the malaise of so many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory of business no longer works.

One of GM’s core competencies has been to “overpay” for well-performing but mature businesses and then turn them into world-class champions.

e.g. In the early 1980’s – the very years in which GM’s main business, passenger automobiles, seemed almost paralysed – the company acquired two large businesses: Hughes Electronics and Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems.

GM also overpaid of Buick, AC Sparkplug and Fisher Body … and then turned them into world-class champions.

Yet what worked so beautifully in those businesses that GM knew nothing about failed miserably in GM itself.

The reason why policies, practices and behaviours that work for decades, top showing results is that the realities that each organisation actually faces have changes quite dramatically from those that each still assumes it lives with.

e.g. IBM did not create the personal computer (Kodak did). But in 1950, its flexibility, speed and humility created the computer industry.

It is possible to have a bouquet of companies that complement each other and equally impossible to have a group of companies that contradict each other (as their basic definition of information is contradictory)

e.g. It is easier for GM to own generating stations and toaster manufacturing units that for IBM to own the Mainframe and PC business (the mistake committed by IBM leading to the rise of Microsoft). Both business (Mainframes and PCs) are primarily competitive and hence cannot be complementary. The resultant entity will not be able to achieve efficiencies in either one of those fields. Thus, the assumption that a computer is a computer – or more prosaically, that the industry is hardware driven – paralysed IBM.

Since the early 1920s, GM assumed that the US automobile market was homogeneous in these values and segmented by extremely stable income groups. But in the late 1970s, its assumption about the market and about production became invalid. The market was fragmenting into highly volatile “lifestyle” segments. Income became one factor among many in the buying decision, not the only one.

A theory of business has three parts

Assumptions about the environment
1. Society and its structure
2. Markets
3. Customers
4. Technology and trends
Assumptions about the specific mission of the organisation
1. E.g. Sears, Roebuck and Company – informed buyer for America
2. E.g. Marks and Spencer – change agent in UK
3. E.g AT&T – ensure that every US family has access to a telephone
Assumptions about the core competencies needed to accomplish the organisation’s mission
1. E.g. Westpoint – Turn out leaders who deserve trust
2. E.g. Marks and Spencer – Ability to identify, design and develop the merchandise it sold
3. E.g. AT&T – Technical leadership that would enable the company to improve service continuously while steadily lowering rates

There are four assumptions of a valid theory of the business –

The assumptions about environment, mission and core competencies must fit reality
The assumptions in all three areas must fit one another
The theory of the business must be known and understood throughout the organisation
The theory of business must be tested continuously

Some theories of the business are so powerful that they last for a long time. But eventually every one becomes obsolete.

Once you achieve your original objectives, it means that the assumptions have become obsolete.
A company needs to systematically monitor and test its theory.

There are two preventive measures –

Abandonment – Every three years, the company should challenge every product, every service, every policy, every distribution channel. By challenging its theory, an organisation forces itself to think about its theory.
Study Non-customers – Talking to people who are not your customers will give you better insight about the product that talking to people who are your customers. e.g Walmart caters to 18% of the US retail market, i.e. 72% of the market does not shop at Walmart. This is where the best insights can be picked up.

Although, being customer driven is vital, it is not enough. An organisation must be market driven too.

There are two early indicators of problems with the theory of business –

Unexpected success – Whether one’s own or competitors
Unexpected failure – Whether one’s own or competitors

There are two cures for problems with the theory of business –

Hardwork – To establish, maintain and restore the theory does not require a Genghis Khan in the executive suite. It requires hard work.
Decisive action – Using the surgeon’s time tested principle for effective decision making: A degenerative disease will not be cured by procrastination. It requires decisive action.

Install CAPTCHA into default Joomla 1.5 Contact form

2009-03-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

Amazingly useful post for those who want to integrate Bigo Captcha with their default joomla contact page.

After installing the plugin, these are the main files that need to be hacked -

administrator/components/com_contact/contact_items.xml
components/com_contact/controller.php
components/com_contact/views/contact/tmpl/default_form.php

---

administrator/components/com_contact/contact_items.xml

Hacks to this file allow you to display a radio button that in the backend using which you can toggle on/off the captcha display.

---

components/com_contact/controller.php

Hacks to this page ensure that the captcha file is generated, if the radio button is selected in the above page.

---

components/com_contact/views/contact/tmpl/default_form.php

Hacks to this page decide the position for the captcha image and the input box

View the original post for code >

Where are the content parameters in Joomla! 1.5?

2009-03-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

We were quite stumpped by the fact that we couldn't change the content display parameters through global configuration.

Fortunately, these parameters have been moved to a component level and can be accessed via Content > Article Manager > Parameters

Link to the original Joomla Doc post

Digesting Digital Macro

2009-02-24T01:57:00.000-08:00

So, Kirti recently showed me a couple of tricks I could do with my Canon. (You're sick man, you need help).

I had been struggling to get good photographs in natural light using the digital camera. Almost all the shots would get blur. Clicking food photographs (or other closeups) with flash is considered sacrilege, however it seemed the only way I could get a sharp image.

This is where Digital Macro kicks in.

The shot are generally clear around the focus area
They actually give you a depth of field (the cool blurring effect away from the focus area)
Thanks to your digital camera you can shoot multiple times making minor adjustments
If you play a bit with color saturation then you can get really vivid photographs

The results are quite interesting.

Resources:

What is Macro / Digital Macro?
What is Color Saturation?
Kirti's Site - Feastguru

Ode to Neptune Marinara

2009-02-03T23:27:00.001-08:00

Caesar was no average man;
hailed from Wales to Sahara.
He'd fuss a lot about his tan,
and feast on 'Neptune Marinara'.

What's that you ask? I smile with glee!
to know you're ripe and ready;
To hear an ode to flavour's burst ...
a Tuna and Penne ditty.

---

Sun-kissed tomatoes lent their blush,
his spirits were renewed.
Neptune loosed his tuna plush,
strength to every sinew.

That day Oregano played the host,
and Garlic paved the way.
Basil crowned him to a toast,
rich flavour held its sway.

Glistening Penne from foaming waters,
flew in all a sunder,
Wrapped in crackling, creamy butter,
Cooked in the lap of thunder.

This manna came down by Angel's flight;
the news spread ear to ear.
He gave it to the promised Knight,
whom we now call Caesar.

"What's this magic that heaven has sent"
His foes began to flee.
"My strength is back, my heart's alive;
Tis the spirit of Italy".

---

You cry out hoarse, "Hold that plate";
"Marco brought back the Penne!"
So I dreamed a bit about the date;
to raise the cheers of many.

A corner shop in the land of Juhu,
played host to a hungry me.
"Alfredo's" said the bright, big sign,
and its aroma raptured me.

The menu was placed, I saw it in bold,
it said "Neptune Marinara".
What a delight I did behold,
and whirled into this saga.

So drive you down into this land of Juhu;
Hunt down this little wonder.
It's Tuna and Penne from Mediterranean blues,
"Marinara" you will cheer.

What Inflation? Some Items That Actually Cost Less

2008-06-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Read an interesting article related to inflation - http://biz.yahoo.com/cnbc/080613/25141477.html?.v=1&.pf=banking-budgeting

My off-take from the article was -

Rising oil prices + stagnant economy + flagging demand + falling consumer prices = Recession.
Reduction in impulse purchasing (electronics, womens' apparels, theme park visits) is probably the main cause for drop in demand, that eventually leads to reduction in prices.
Change in consumption and gifting habits (toys, fine dinnerware) is also contributing to decrease in demand for these categories.
Productivity gains for some categories (electronics, toys) have also impacted prices.

I based these inferences on the following observations -

"People don't often remember [the positives] ... The economy is not falling apart. It's just stuck." said Jim Glassman, senior U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase.
The consumer sentiment had plunged to a 28-year low in June.
But there are certain exceptions to the rule -
Electronics - 9% lower
Average price points have fallen for consumer electronics across various categories like Digital Cameras, Laptops, LCDs, TVs, Laptops etc.

"What is new is now old so much faster (hence) Prices come down sharply." - Scott Krugman, Vice President of the National Retail Federation
Womens' Clothing - 4% lower
Another area to spot savings is women's apparel, even though the price for men's and children's clothing is on the rise.
Hotel Rooms - approximately 1% lower
This slight price reduction mainly stems from a decrease in business travel, JP Morgan economist Glassman said.
Theme parks - approximately 30% cheaper
Following the Hotel room theme, Theme parks are also responding to decrease in demand.
Toys - 5.3% lower
The severe competition in this industry, paired with cheap overseas production costs, caused this steady 5.3 percent year-on-year decrease, Glassman said.

The industry's target audience is shrinking, as the nation's second largest demographic, 15- to 25-year-olds, has simply outgrown its products, Glassman said.
Dinnerware - 6% to 14% lower
Multi-pack sales saw the biggest reduction.

Hope this article was insightful.

Would love to hear your comments on it.
Cheers

Ultraviolet - Movie Review

2008-06-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ion Flux Meets Equilibrium

Rating 2.5/5

This was a movie that I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately I saw Æon Flux and Equilibrium before and was hence really disappointed with what Ultraviolet had to offer.

The Ultraviolet plot has nothing unique. It's the same futuristic dystopia where a society is divided by blood contamination ... and one disgruntled mercenary turned good guy/gal brings down the entire 'unjust' system. (Some readers threw up at this stage).

While I love Mila, Ultraviolet hasn't even come close to the cool of Æon Flux. The characters in the film are not well developed and the bad guys take the storm trooper syndrome to new heights. Some of the fight sequences, hand-gun / sword fights seem to be glaring lifts from the 2002 flick - Equilibrium.

While framing as a technique might have been great in some movies, especially those inspired from comics, Ultraviolet seems 'jerky'.

Bashing apart, I must admit that I liked the screen play otherwise. Especially the Shanghai architecture that really makes the place look futuristic. There are glimpses of some nanotechnology concepts that are good too.

The special effects types and Mila followers may want to give this film a one-timer. However, overall, I'd recommend people to stay away from this film.

Would love to know what you felt about it.

Designing application with character

2008-05-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Recently saw this training video on designing an application with character. These were the main points that I learned from it…

no body gets passionate about process … your application needs character
it should be able say hello is a different way, every time you log on
confirmation and error messages are equally important as headings and images
be conventional with menu items and icons
designers should re-check after development and programming is done
adapt design based on customer feedback

Hope this helps

The right stuff

2008-02-25T20:22:00.000-08:00

Advice from the correct (knowledgeable) person, whether positive or negative, is always encouraging.

Joomla v/s Drupal

2007-10-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

While Drupal has a very powerful system, I’ve found Joomla development to be a lot more systematic. It is also easier to train resources to work on large Joomla deployments. Joomla seems to be more inviting to our freshers too as the conventional admin section makes it seem ‘familiar’. On the above counts, Drupal projects have just crumbled. Drupal also has some way to go before having an extension library like the one available for Joomla.

Note - I am continuing to explore Drupal nonetheless. If I find a better way of deploying it, I'd like to. The same goes with Wordpress.

Similar comments on OSSkin >

TinyMCE editor problem in Firefox

2007-10-27T03:54:00.000-07:00

For all those out there who are using the TinyMCE html editor within the Joomla framework here is a tip.

Very often, TinyMCE will completely stop working in Firefox and you will be left wondering what happened. The following steps should set it correct -

Go to the root folder of the joomla installation
Open the configuration.php file
find the $mosConfig_live_site variable (line 46 approx)
Add www before the value of this variable (i.e. from 'http://foosite.com' to 'http://www.foosite.com')
Login to your joomla administration section and use tinyMCE to your hearts content

Cheers.

More info on TinyMCE - Official TinyMCE Website

The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time - Book Review

2007-10-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Rating - 3/5

Extremely interesting but a bit slow

The author, Mark Haddon, spins a brilliant tale from the perspective of an autistic boy. The book follows the cold rationale of a mind that is not capable of emotion, yet has the innocence of a child. Christopher, the protagonist and narrator, talks about the his daily routine and chance adventure in great detail and makes otherwise mundane situations seem eventful.

What I loved about the book was the authors ability to not only transport you into the boys surroundings, but also give you a spare set of blinkers so that you can empathize with boy's world-view. As I mentioned earlier, the book is brilliantly detailed and most readers will lap up the puzzles and diagrams that dot the pages.

I don't know how much the author intended it, but the book brings out some curious aspects of British society. I was intrigued by the integration of Indians, people and culture, portrayed in the book. We seem so conditioned about the fact that Indians are a separate commune everywhere that it did not occur to me, until I read the book, that, the Indian diaspora in Britain is trying to lead a normal life too. The tattered family fabric of modern nuclear families was the second striking aspect of this book. Whether the author was reporting these as a matter of fact, or making a statement (about both immigrants or troubled families) is something you will have to decide.

The story starts off well, however, the pace tapers off after the first fifty pages. The plot is good, however, it gets a bit predictable at places. If your in the mood for some fast paced action, your completely in the wrong direction. I had to overcome the tedium of some parts of the book by telling myself that this is an autistic kid speaking. It will be great for relaxed readers who like to soak in more than the obvious.

I would recommend this book with qualification, more for the innovative writing style and unique plot than for overall experience.

Memorable Quote

“He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly." - Christopher

Remove XML Declaration in Joomla template before starting

2007-10-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

VERY IMPORTANT

Please ensure that before you start any joomla, go in to the site template section and comment out the XML declaration if it exists.

This will ensure that the CSS used by most third part components, modules and plugins render properly in IE6+.

Be sure you clear out the XML declaration before you start or else all your customization efforts will go down the drain. As soon as you remove this declaration the css rendering in IE 6+ changes. So it's best done before all the customization starts.

Book Review - Imperium

2007-10-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

Rating - 4/5

This is a book that talks about the zenith of the life of roman statesman - Cicero^[1], as written by his trusted slave and assistant Tiro^[2]. Through this writing Robert Harris has created an entertaining tale of the super metropolis of the old world. Colorful characters, a fast paced plot make it great reading material.

Tiro pens down two major periods of Cicero's life. The first section deals with Cicero's life as a Roman senator, trying to rise up the senate and Roman law courts as an outsider (one who is not considered and aristocrat). While the second section of the book deals with his accent to the role of Roman consul.

If historical fictions could be racy, then this book would definitely be a benchmark. Couldn't put it down ... almost read it at one go. If you're a 'Rome' fan then this is one book you shouldn't miss. A lot of general readers I know have also loved it.

What I liked most about the book was the character outline. Robert Harris has managed to bring them to life, portraying each character as individuals driven by thought, motivations, self interest and aspirations. He has also placed familiar people like Caesar and Pompey at the right places to ensure that your interest doesn't wane. How much of this is by design / commercial interest or actually necessary to the plot of the book is for you to decide.

The only thing that was probably questionable about the book was the overly modern depiction of Rome. You wouldn't believe that we are talking about an ancient city. It seems like this could be happening in present day Mumbai or New York. Once again, puritans might think this is a gimmick to sell more books ... others might say that Rome was truly the blueprint for modern cities.

Memorable quotes:

"If you want sympath, get a dog"
- Ancient adage referred to by Cicero

The book is a quick read and worth it overall.

Links:

Joomla - Change login link to logout

2007-09-07T02:30:00.000-07:00

How to change the 'login' menu item to 'logout' after the user has logged in?

I really struggled to find the solution for this. So here goes ...

Note: This solution is only for those users who want to use the Login link in the menu and connect it to the com_login in the main body of their joomla site

Summary:

We will try and achieve the desired result by creating two similar menus and two module positions corresponding to each menu.
The difference between the two will be that one has a Login link, the other has the Logout link.
We will then insert a piece of code in the template to toggle between the menus based on user login.

Steps:

Go to Site, Template Manager, Module Positions
Create 2 new module positions: pos_menuguest and pos_leftmenureg.
(These will be used to switch between the login and logout button)
Go to Menu, Menu Manager
Create 2 Menu's: menuguest and menureg
Go to Menu, menuguest
Add the menu items you want shown when you are NOT logged in
Make sure that your "Login" link is part of menuguest
Go to Menu, menureg
Add the content you want shown when you are logged in
Make sure that the "Logout" link is part of menureg and Login IS NOT PART of menureg
To ensure that there is no problem, change the Access Level of the Logout link to "Registered"
Go to Modules, Site Modules, menuguest
Assign it to position pos_menuguest
Go to Modules, Site Modules, menureg
Assign it to position pos_menureg
Open your index.php of your template
(or go to Site > Template Manager > Site Template > Edit HTML)
Add the following in the appropriate place
(usually within the "left_inner" div or the position in your template where you want the menu to appear)
```
<?php
if ($my->id) {
  mosLoadModules ('pos_menureg');
}
else {
  mosLoadModules('pos_menuguest');
}
?>
```

If you have understood this procedure, you should be able to apply it to mod_login in a similar manner if required. This technique can be applied to other aspects of your site, like changing images, news items etc which depend on user login and cannot be controlled by joomla core.

---

Hope this helps. Cheers.
Devatanu

Transformers - A movie review

2007-08-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Autobots Roll Out !

Rating - 5/5

For someone who’s grown up on Transformer comics, you will be blown away. Unlike a wave of new comic-to-film movies that have changed the plot lines to suit the general public, Transformers has been true to the original plot line right to the tee. They have exchanged a Wolkswagon Beatle for a Camero, but no one’s complaining.

The movie is a visual treat. The plot is engaging and the script is brilliant. I was most impressed that they didn’t make it a retarded geek flick. It actually had some intelligent humour, brash when needed, subtle when suitable and down right funny on the bone ... rare for an action film.

The casting was excellent and introduced at the right moments in the movie. And they really did make those CG robots act.

Forgive me but I need to add this … The craziest moments for me were the EMP discharges, the Autobot beacon and Decepticon mobilisation (Please reply with your favourites). Mind blowing overall … getting Goosebumps recalling the whole thing : ) … The best part of it was that my wife and bhaabi enjoyed it too … more brownie points for Bro and I.

Please see it on a big screen.

Nudity - None
Abusive Language - Minor and in jest

Home Buyers Beware !!!

2007-08-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

A killing zone
All of you out there need to be cautioned about the malpractices that are being adopted by builders in Mumbai. Most working professionals put away a good part of their life's earnings in their dream homes. And with the recent real estate boom in the city, the unscrupulous builders are out to make a killing.

What to watch out for
My recent experience with one such unscrupulous builder - Shah & Chheda Homes Pvt. Ltd. has prompted me to write down the common traps that are laid out for the prospective victim.

Miscellaneous Charges
If your builder is asking of extra charges over and above the contract amount then refuse it or ask him to mention the breakup of charges in a receipt. Most of the builder state that this is for electricity and water connection. This is a complete hoax as these are supposed to part of the livable standards of the house that you are paying for.
Improper Civil Work
Beware if the builder is in a hurry to give you possession of the property. First scan for any possible failures in the civil work like leakages, damping, poor fixtures etc before giving the final amount.
Compulsory Garage
If the builder has just informed you that you have to take the property with the garage, then walk away. There is no law that gives them the right to force you to buy the garage.
Carpet Area Calculation
Measure the carpet area of your flat thoroughly before concluding the deal. Check if loading is below 35% and only then go ahead. Trust me, I have burned my fingers on the super-built up racket. Insist on getting the loading figures up-front.
Society Formation / Charges
If the society has not been formed, then be very clear about the maintenance charges that you will have to pay till it is formed. Most builders assure you that the "Miscellaneous Charges" you paid above will cover one years maintenance, but once you take possession of the flat, then they suddenly start asking you for maintenance.

Hope this information is useful to you. Keep a keen eye out for those who are trying to take you for a ride.

Cheers,
Devatanu

Active Blogger

2007-08-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't been away really !!

While I haven't submitted a post on Spinal Trap for a while, a lot of time has been spent in the recent past on the following blogs -

Eco Responsive
This is an environmental initiative that has been started by our company. Being a committee member, I have been championing the e-awareness bit (e for wEb). It might interest the eco inclined few. more >
Cyberbackoffice Blog
This is a team blog for CBO - Cyberbackoffice. Random stuff from our team is going up on this recently started blog. Mostly stuff that doesn't make it to the website ... like The Lighthouse Club. more >

Hope you enjoy these blogs.

Cheers,
Devatanu

Chaddi ke bhao mein T-Shirt

2007-08-09T18:59:00.001-07:00

T-Shirts at the price of undies ...

I was surprised to hear a youth blaring this pitch at Bandra Station the other day. I didn't think people would connect "chaddi" with "value for money". But come to think of it, for guys, theirs nothing more VFM and more "used till utter destruction" than undies.

What will baffle the marketing guys though is that T-Shirts were being sold [like hot undies] at Rs. 30 a piece. Compared to some of the new undies available, the tees seem to be at a discount. Infact, the malls around the suburbs sell kerchiefs for Rs. 45.

Hmm... what a selling proposition ...

Text news is better

2007-05-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Text news archives are better than having image scans

Most clients now a days need a News or Press Section. The most common question asked by them is whether the news section should have text OR scanned images?

I usually recommend going for a text based system for the following reasons -

Readability - There are issues, always, with the clarity of scanned images due to which people cannot read parts of or the entire scanned article. Sometimes, internal staff leave comments / pen marks on the article that get scanned and uploaded as well.
Visual Standardization - From a technical point of view, the rationale was as such - Scanned articles do not have any standard size. Some articles might be really small, while the others might include an entire page / newspaper. Under such circumstances, it becomes impossible to programme the site to display all the articles in a standardized format. Having text only news, ensures that highlights and details of all news items are displayed in a uniform manner

Printability - Images for web-uploads are optimized to 72dpi. This is too low for print outs (which need a minimum of 300dpi). If the news articles are maintained as images, then they cannot be printed out for use later.

Reusability - Having the news archives as text only, meant that parts of an article can be easily copied and emailed or incorporated in presentations etc. Having this as an image would mean that the entire article would have to be mailed as an image or parts of it would have to be re-typed every time they need to be incorporated

Search Engine Friendly - If the news items are in text, then there is a higher likely hood that key phrases from the article might lead web users to your site. This will not be possible if the articles are uploaded as images.

House Keeping - Having the news items in text would also ensure that news articles can be searched in the database for certain keywords (e.g. Stock Market Crash) and be deleted, edited etc. If these were images, then all articles / scans would have to be individually viewed and read before taking any action.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to write back with any points that I might have missed out.

No Satisfaction at Toyota

2006-12-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

What drives Toyota?

The presumption of imperfection--and a distinctly American refusal to accept it. From: Issue 111 | December 2006 | Page 82 | By: Charles Fishman

Read the original article from Fast Company

Deep inside Toyota's car factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, is the paint shop, where naked steel car bodies arrive to receive layers of coatings and colors before returning to the assembly line to have their interiors and engines installed. Every day, 2,000 Camrys, Avalons, and Solaras glide in to be painted one of a dozen colors by carefully programmed robots.

Georgetown's paint shop is vast and crowded, but in two places there are wide areas of open concrete floor, each the size of a basketball court. The story of how that floor space came to be cleared--tons of equipment dismantled and removed--is really the story of how Toyota has reshaped the U.S. car market.

It's the story of Toyota's genius: an insatiable competitiveness that would seem un-American were it not for all the Americans making it happen. Toyota's competitiveness is quiet, internal, self-critical. It is rooted in an institutional obsession with improvement that Toyota manages to instill in each one of its workers, a pervasive lack of complacency with whatever was accomplished yesterday.

The result is a startling contrast to the car business. At a time when the traditional Big Three are struggling, Toyota is thriving. Just this year, Ford and GM have terminated 46,000 North American employees. Together, they have announced the closing of 26 North American factories over the next five years. Toyota has never closed a North American factory; it will open a new one in Texas this fall and another in Ontario in 2008. Detroit isn't being bested by imports: 60% of the cars Toyota sells in North America are made here.

Toyota doesn't have corporate convulsions, and it never has. It restructures a little bit every work shift. That's what the open space in the Georgetown paint shop is all about.

Chad Buckner helped clear the space. Buckner, 35, has a soft Southern accent and an air of helpfulness. He is an engineering manager in the painting department, where he arrived straight out of the University of Kentucky 13 years ago. His whole career has been spent at Toyota.

As recently as 2004, a car body spent 10 hours in painting. Robots did much of the work, then as now, but they were supplied with paint through long hoses from storage tanks. "If we were painting a car red, before we could paint the next car white, we had to stop, flush the red paint out of the lines and the applicator tip, and reload the next color," Buckner says. Georgetown literally threw away 30% of the pricey car paint it bought, cleaning it out of equipment and supply hoses when switching colors.

Now, each painting robot, eight per car, selects a paint cylinder the size of a large water bottle. A whirling disk at the end of the robot arm flings out a mist of top-coat paint. When a car is painted--it takes just seconds--the paint cartridge is set back down, and a freshly filled cartridge is selected by each robot.

No hoses need to be flushed. There is no cleaning between cars. All the paint is in the cartridges, which are refilled automatically from reservoirs. Cars don't need to be batched by color--a system that saved paint but caused constant delays. Cars now spend 8 hours in paint, instead of 10. The paint shop at any moment holds 25% fewer cars than it used to. Wasted paint? Practically zero. What used to require 100 gallons now takes 70.

The benefits ripple out. Not only does Georgetown use less paint, it also buys less cleaning solvent and has dramatically reduced disposal costs for both. Together with new programming to make the robots paint more quickly, Buckner's group has increased the efficiency of its car-wash-sized paint booths from 33 cars an hour to 50.

"We're getting the same volume with two booths that we used to get with three," Buckner says. "So we shut down one of the booths." If you want to trim your energy bill, try unplugging an oven big enough to bake 25 cars. Workers dismantled Top Coat Booth C, leaving the open floor space available for some future task.

So what do Buckner and his crew do with a triumphant operational improvement like that? By way of an answer, he walks to the second area of open space, where the sealer-application robots used to sit. They've been consolidated, too. Buckner points to another undercoating booth that the engineering staff is now working to eliminate.

Indeed, shutting down Top Coat Booth C liberated a handful of maintenance engineers--who turned their attention to accelerating the next round of changes. Success, in that way, becomes the platform for further improvement. By the end of this year, Buckner and his team hope to have cut almost in half the amount of floor space the paint shop needs--all while continuing to paint 2,000 cars a day.

Even at home, constant improvement is the rule: "When I'm mowing the grass, I'm trying different turns to see if I can do it faster." --Howard Artrip, Assembly Manager

For Buckner, the paint-shop improvements aren't "projects" or "initiatives." They are the work, his work, every day, every week. That's one of the subtle but distinctive characteristics of a Toyota factory. The supervisors and managers aren't "bosses" in any traditional American sense. Their job is to find ways to do the work better:more efficiently, more effectively.

"We're all incredibly proud of what we've accomplished," says Buckner, a little puzzled that his attitude might be considered unusual. "But you don't stop. You don't stop. There's no reason to be satisfied." The Process Process

What is so striking about Toyota's Georgetown factory is, in fact, that it only looks like a car factory. It's really a big brain--a kind of laboratory focused on a single mission: not how to make cars, but how to make cars better. The cars it does make--one every 27 seconds--are in a sense just a by-product of the larger mission. Better cars, sure; but really, better ways to make cars. It's not just the product, it's the process.

The process is, in fact, paramount--so important that "Toyota also has a process for teaching you how to improve the process," says Steven J. Spear, a senior lecturer at MIT who has studied Toyota for more than a decade. The work is really threefold: making cars, making cars better, and teaching everyone how to make cars better. At its Olympian best, Toyota adds one more level: It is always looking to improve the process by which it improves all the other processes.

There's a certain Zen sensibility to that--but also a relentlessly capitalistic, tenaciously competitive quality. If your factory is just making cars, once a day the whistle blows and it's quitting time, no more cars to make that day. If your factory is making a new way to make cars, the whistle never blows, you're never done.

Without fanfare, in fact, Toyota is confounding conventional wisdom about U.S. manufacturing. Toyota isn't outsourcing; it's creating jobs in the United States. It isn't having trouble manufacturing complicated products here--it's opening factories as quickly as its systems and quality standards allow. It's offering union wages and good health insurance (to avoid being unionized), and selling the products its American workers make to Americans, profitably and more inexpensively than its U.S. competitors.

So put aside everything you think you know about the current state of the car business in the United States. Sure, Toyota enjoys some structural advantages in the form of lower health care and pension costs. But the real reason it is thriving is because of people like Chad Buckner saying, "There's no reason to be satisfied." It's not just the way Toyota makes cars--it's the way Toyota thinks about making cars.

That thinking is hardly novel: Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement have been around for more than a quarter-century. But the incessant, almost mindless repetition of those phrases camouflages the real power behind the ideas. Continuous improvement is tectonic. By constantly questioning how you do things, by constantly tweaking, you don't outflank your competition next quarter. You outflank them next decade.

Toyota is far from infallible, of course. In the past two years, recalls for quality and safety problems have spiked dramatically--evidence of the strain that rapid growth puts on even the best systems. But those quality issues have seized the attention of Toyota's senior management. In the larger arena, when the strategy isn't to build cars but to build cars better, you create perpetual competitive advantage. By the time you best your competitors, they aren't just a bit behind you, in need of a reorganization and a sales surge to regain the lead. They are a decade behind. They just don't realize it. The Story Of The Totes

The Toyota factory in Georgetown sits on a piece of green ground as flat as a table. The factory itself is low, yet so large it stretches to the horizon, no matter what side you approach it from. There's space inside to play 100 football games, with room for fans on the sidelines. A network of heavily trafficked streets runs through the place, with travel lanes in each direction.

Cars are the most complicated objects most people use routinely; to watch cars get made is to pull back the curtain on raw human ingenuity. At Georgetown, that ingenuity often appears in unexpected, and unexpectedly simple, ways.

Howard Artrip, 45, is standing at the assembly line alongside a rack of blue plastic totes filled with sun visors and seat belts. Just beyond Artrip and the rack of totes, a line of Camrys and Avalons pass by, freshly painted but hollow--no engines, no dashboards, no seats.

Artrip, a manager in the assembly area, is telling the story of how the totes--ordinary Rubbermaid carryalls--solved a decision-making problem. "There used to be eight racks of parts here," he says. The racks crowded the workstation, giving the worker ready access to all possible parts. The operator would eyeball the car coming up the line, step to the racks of visors and seat belts, and, says Artrip, "grab the right parts and run to the car." He or she would step into the slowly advancing car, bolt belts and visors in place, step back onto the factory floor--and do it again. All in 55 seconds, the unvarying time each slowly moving car spends at each workstation.

The problem was, there were 12 possible combinations of sun visors and nine variations of seat belts. So just deciding which parts to snatch had become a job in itself. In every shift, 500 cars passed the racks, each car needing four specific parts: 2,000 opportunities to make an error. Even with 99% perfection, five cars per shift got the wrong sun visors or seat belts. The job--installing parts--had become cluttered with meaningless decision making.

So a team of assembly employees made a real decision. Don't make the worker pick the parts; let him focus on installing them. The idea seems obvious in retrospect: Deliver a kit of presorted visors and seat belts--one kit per car, each containing exactly the right parts. The team applied the simplest technology available, the blue Rubbermaid caddy. "We went just down the road to Wal-Mart and bought them," Artrip says. Now, the line worker doesn't have to make any decisions at all. Just grab the handle of the blue tote like a lunch pail and step into the car.

Media accounts often report that a typical Toyota assembly line in the United States makes thousands of operational changes in the course of a single year. That number is not just large, it's arresting, it's mind-boggling. How much have you changed your work routine in the past decade? Toyota's line employees change the way they work dozens of times a year.

In the case of the blue tote, the change came out of a routine analysis of dozens of assembly-line jobs at Georgetown. When the simplification effort started three years ago, Artrip's team found 44 jobs where assemblers had to make 1 or 2 decisions as they installed parts. They found 23 workstations that required between 7 and 11 decisions.

Any jobs requiring 7 to 11 decisions in 55 seconds were going to cause problems. So dozens of jobs incurred small changes--grab the blue tote instead of choosing individual parts. Now, 85 line jobs require just 1 or 2 decisions. Not a single job requires 7 or more decisions. The work is easier, the results are better.

This is exactly the kind of work Artrip has spent more than half his career at Toyota doing: looking for ways to make the assembly line faster, simpler, safer--ways to make it easier to do the work perfectly. Continuous improvement is not some add-on to the real work, it isn't some special project Artrip has to do on top of his routine responsibilities, nor is he a guy who parachutes into the assembly line from an engineering building somewhere else. It is what he comes to the factory every day thinking about. It isn't exhausting, it's exhilarating.

Artrip has been at Georgetown for 19 years. The way he does his work is so compelling it has become part of his personal life. "When I'm mowing the grass, I'm thinking about the best way to do it. I'm trying different turns to see if I can do it faster," he says. He has analyzed his morning routine. "I do the same standardized work in the shower every morning. I have to get here at 6 a.m., and I know it takes 19 minutes, including walking into the plant." He smiles. "I've maximized my sleep time." Problems First

James Wiseman remembers the moment he realized that Toyota wasn't just another workplace but a different way of thinking about work. Before joining the company, he had been a factory manager, first for a swimsuit maker, then for a steel-tubing manufacturer. He joined Toyota's still-new Georgetown plant in October 1989 as manager of community relations. Today, he's vice president of corporate affairs for all of Toyota manufacturing in North America.

At the swimsuit factory and the tube factory, "there was always a lot of looking for the silver bullet," Wiseman says, "looking for the big, dramatic improvement. And I had the attitude that when you achieved something, you achieved it. You enjoyed it." He was steeped in the American business culture of not admitting, or even discussing, problems in settings like meetings.

In Wiseman's early days, Georgetown was run by Fujio Cho, now the chairman of Toyota worldwide. Every Friday, there was a senior staff meeting. "I started out going in there and reporting some of my little successes," says Wiseman. "One Friday, I gave a report of an activity we'd been doing"--planning the announcement of a plant expansion--"and I spoke very positively about it, I bragged a little. After two or three minutes, I sat down.

"And Mr. Cho kind of looked at me. I could see he was puzzled. He said, 'Jim-san. We all know you are a good manager, otherwise we would not have hired you. But please talk to us about your problems so we can all work on them together.'"

Wiseman says it was like a lightning bolt. "Even with projects that had been a general success, we would ask, 'What didn't go well so we can make it better?'" At Toyota, Wiseman says, "I have come to understand what they mean when I hear the phrase, 'Problems first.'"

It's another cliché that is powerful if you take it seriously: You can't solve problems unless you admit them. At Toyota, there is a presumption of imperfection. Perfection is a fine goal, but improvement is much more realistic, much more human. Not a 15% improvement by the end of the quarter, a 1% improvement by the end of the month.

The challenge, of course, is to make the rhetoric real, to make the presumption of imperfection integral to how people think and work. Pete Gritton knows better than most how that happens; he and his staff have hired all the Kentuckians who work at Toyota Georgetown. He's vice president of HR and administration for Georgetown, and vice president of HR for Toyota manufacturing in North America.

"We want people to be problem solvers," Gritton says. "Because every time there's a problem, we don't send out some guy in a white shirt with a clipboard." New hires--10% of job applicants make it through screening tests that include a team-building exercise--are immersed in Toyota's process for process improvement. There are daily work-group meetings, a written suggestion program, and longer-term problem-solving teams. But everything is grounded in two hard realities.

First, of course, "we have to make 2,000 cars a day. We can't vote about how to make each one," Gritton says. "We can't stop every few minutes and change the process." And then there is the most basic rule, the reason "continuous improvement" is not a matter of character or national culture or willpower, but is itself a kind of assembly line. "The rule here is that improving something starts after understanding the standard--understanding how we do it now," Gritton says. "If you don't understand what you're trying to improve, how do you know that your suggestion is an improvement?"

No one at Toyota Georgetown can talk about his work without explaining how it has just changed, or is about to change. Chris Gentry, a supervisor for instrument-panel assembly, is showing how his area is about to be redesigned. It was set up just this year to handle the 2007 Camry--but after working with it for most of a year, workers now see inefficiencies. Some work will be moved back to an area where kits are assembled; some movement of parts can be off-loaded to seven newly built transport robots. Two jobs will be eliminated and the workers redeployed elsewhere; 18 seconds can be shaved from the assembly process.

"We set it up for the model change," says Gentry. "Now we'll fix it. We standardized it, now we're improving it." It's not the instrument panel--it's the way you make the instrument panel.

In the 2007 Camry, there is a tiny change that drivers won't notice. The Camry's radiator support bar--a brace of steel running across the lower front of the engine compartment--isn't installed when the body is first made. It used to be, but it blocked access to the engine compartment. Workers had to stretch and lean in to install engine wiring and components. With the bar's installation held out until near the end of assembly, workers simply step into the engine compartment and get right up close to their work. That idea ricocheted from the plant floor in Georgetown, up to Toyota's design team, and then out to Camry assembly plants around the world.

Once you see how woven into the work improving the work is, each particular improvement seem less interesting. What's interesting is to compare how they think about work at Georgetown with everywhere else. How come the checkout lines at Wal-Mart never get shorter? How come the customer service of your cell-phone company never improves, year after year? How come my PC gets harder to operate with each software upgrade? How come I don't know how many minutes it takes me to get from my doorstep to my office, so I can maximize my sleep?

It's almost as if Toyota people see the world with special four-dimensional glasses; the rest of us are stuck in 2-D. In The End, There Is No End

Lots of companies have tried to learn and use the methods that Toyota has refined into a routine, a science, a way of being and thinking. Not least among those are … GM, Ford, and Chrysler. For more than 20 years, in fact, Toyota and GM have operated a car factory together in California--the NUMMI project--that has allowed GM to study Toyota's methods up close.

And the Big Three have each gotten better at making cars: In the past decade, GM and Chrysler have cut by one-third the hours they need to assemble a car. But they all still trail Toyota. No one knows that better than GM. "We've made a whole lot of progress," says Dan Flores, a spokesman for GM's North American manufacturing operations--much of it by learning directly from Toyota. "Transforming a company the size of GM is a daunting task. The culture of the plants doesn't change overnight. But there has been a cultural change in the company--and that change continues."

Without any fanfare at all, Toyota is confounding, if not defying, conventional wisdom about the current state of the U.S. economy.

Typically, though, the Big Three take an all-too-American approach to the idea of improvement. It's episodic, it's goal-oriented, it's something special--it's a pale imitation of the approach at Georgetown. "If you go to the Big Three, you'd find improvement projects just like you'd find at Georgetown," says Jeffrey Liker, a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and author of The Toyota Way, a classic exploration of Toyota's methods. "But they would be led by some kind of engineering group, or a Six Sigma black belt, or a lean-manufacturing guru of some kind.

"They might even do as good a job as they did at Georgetown. But here's the thing. Then they'd turn that project into a PowerPoint. They'd present it at every place in the whole company. They'd say, 'Look what we did!' In a year, that happens a couple of times in a whole plant for the Big Three. And it would get all kinds of publicity in the company.

"Toyota," Liker says, "is doing it in every single department, every single day. They're doing it on their own"--no black belts--"and they're doing it regularly, not just once."

So you can buy the books, you can hire the consultants, you can implement the program, you can preach business transformation--and you can eventually run out of energy, lose enthusiasm, be puzzled over why the program failed to catch fire and transform your business, put the fat binders on a conference-room shelf, and go back to business as usual.

What happens every day at Georgetown, and throughout Toyota, is teachable and learnable. But it's not a set of goals, because goals mean there's a finish line, and there is no finish line. It's not something you can implement, because it's not a checklist of improvements. It's a way of looking at the world. You simply can't lose interest in it, shrug, and give up--any more than you can lose interest in your own future.

"People who join Toyota from other companies, it's a big shift for them," says John Shook, a faculty member at the University of Michigan, a former Toyota manufacturing employee and a widely regarded consultant on how to use Toyota's ideas at other companies. "They kind of don't get it for a while." They do what all American managers do--they keep trying to make their management objectives. "They're moving forward, they're improving, and they're looking for a plateau. As long as you're looking for that plateau,it seems like a constant struggle. It's difficult. If you're looking for a plateau, you're going to be frustrated. There is no 'solution.'"

Even working at Toyota, you need that moment of Zen.

"Once you realize that it's the process itself--that you're not seeking a plateau--you can relax. Doing the task and doing the task better become one and the same thing," Shook says. "This is what it means to come to work."

* Toyota's sales gain in 2005 from three years before: 34% * Its profit per car: $1,587 * Share of cars it sells in North america that are made here: 60%

Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com) is a Fast Company senior writer and author of The Wal-Mart Effect.

Thumbs.db Menace !

2006-10-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

It has been noticed by a lot of us that while uploading a site, a windows file – ‘Thumbs.db’ is created in the folder. This file is a menace as it creates a cache of the thumbnails of the files that are in the folder. It needlessly increases the size of the upload folder and being a system file, often goes undetected.

PLEASE AVOID THIS SITUATION

Getting rid of this problem is simple:

Go to the Windows Explorer
Select the menu item Tools > Folder Options
In the property page that opens, select the View tab
In the view tab, there will be a set of Check Boxes grouped as Advanced Settings
Check the option that states Do not cache thumbnails
Click the Apply Button
To ensure that these changes are applied whenever you open windows explorer, click the Apply to All Folders in the same property page
When the alert message appears, select Yes
Once the alert message close, select OK on the property page and restart Windows Explorer

Hope this helps ... Cheers ...

An Elephant Crackup?

2006-10-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

from New York Times

By CHARLES SIEBERT
Published: October 8, 2006

"We're not going anywhere,'' my driver, Nelson Okello, whispered to me one morning this past June, the two of us sitting in the front seat of a jeep just after dawn in Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwestern Uganda. We'd originally stopped to observe what appeared to be a lone bull elephant grazing in a patch of tall savanna grasses off to our left. More than one ''rogue'' had crossed our path that morning — a young male elephant that has made an overly strong power play against the dominant male of his herd and been banished, sometimes permanently. This elephant, however, soon proved to be not a rogue but part of a cast of at least 30. The ground vibrations registered just before the emergence of the herd from the surrounding trees and brush. We sat there watching the elephants cross the road before us, seeming, for all their heft, so light on their feet, soundlessly plying the wind-swept savanna grasses like land whales adrift above the floor of an ancient, waterless sea.

Then, from behind a thicket of acacia trees directly off our front left bumper, a huge female emerged — ''the matriarch,'' Okello said softly. There was a small calf beneath her, freely foraging and knocking about within the secure cribbing of four massive legs. Acacia leaves are an elephant's favorite food, and as the calf set to work on some low branches, the matriarch stood guard, her vast back flank blocking the road, the rest of the herd milling about in the brush a short distance away.

After 15 minutes or so, Okello started inching the jeep forward, revving the engine, trying to make us sound as beastly as possible. The matriarch, however, was having none of it, holding her ground, the fierce white of her eyes as bright as that of her tusks. Although I pretty much knew the answer, I asked Okello if he was considering trying to drive around. ''No,'' he said, raising an index finger for emphasis. ''She'll charge. We should stay right here.''

I'd have considered it a wise policy even at a more peaceable juncture in the course of human-elephant relations. In recent years, however, those relations have become markedly more bellicose. Just two days before I arrived, a woman was killed by an elephant in Kazinga, a fishing village nearby. Two months earlier, a man was fatally gored by a young male elephant at the northern edge of the park, near the village of Katwe. African elephants use their long tusks to forage through dense jungle brush. They've also been known to wield them, however, with the ceremonious flash and precision of gladiators, pinning down a victim with one knee in order to deliver the decisive thrust. Okello told me that a young Indian tourist was killed in this fashion two years ago in Murchison Falls National Park, north of where we were.

These were not isolated incidents. All across Africa, India and parts of Southeast Asia, from within and around whatever patches and corridors of their natural habitat remain, elephants have been striking out, destroying villages and crops, attacking and killing human beings. In fact, these attacks have become so commonplace that a new statistical category, known as Human-Elephant Conflict, or H.E.C., was created by elephant researchers in the mid-1990's to monitor the problem. In the Indian state of Jharkhand near the western border of Bangladesh, 300 people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004. In the past 12 years, elephants have killed 605 people in Assam, a state in northeastern India, 239 of them since 2001; 265 elephants have died in that same period, the majority of them as a result of retaliation by angry villagers, who have used everything from poison-tipped arrows to laced food to exact their revenge. In Africa, reports of human-elephant conflicts appear almost daily, from Zambia to Tanzania, from Uganda to Sierra Leone, where 300 villagers evacuated their homes last year because of unprovoked elephant attacks.

Still, it is not only the increasing number of these incidents that is causing alarm but also the singular perversity — for want of a less anthropocentric term — of recent elephant aggression. Since the early 1990's, for example, young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses; this abnormal behavior, according to a 2001 study in the journal Pachyderm, has been reported in ''a number of reserves'' in the region. In July of last year, officials in Pilanesberg shot three young male elephants who were responsible for the killings of 63 rhinos, as well as attacks on people in safari vehicles. In Addo Elephant National Park, also in South Africa, up to 90 percent of male elephant deaths are now attributable to other male elephants, compared with a rate of 6 percent in more stable elephant communities.

In a coming book on this phenomenon, Gay Bradshaw, a psychologist at the environmental-sciences program at Oregon State University, notes that in India, where the elephant has long been regarded as a deity, a recent headline in a leading newspaper warned, ''To Avoid Confrontation, Don't Worship Elephants.'' ''Everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed,'' Bradshaw told me recently. ''What we are seeing today is extraordinary. Where for centuries humans and elephants lived in relatively peaceful coexistence, there is now hostility and violence. Now, I use the term 'violence' because of the intentionality associated with it, both in the aggression of humans and, at times, the recently observed behavior of elephants.''

For a number of biologists and ethologists who have spent their careers studying elephant behavior, the attacks have become so abnormal in both number and kind that they can no longer be attributed entirely to the customary factors. Typically, elephant researchers have cited, as a cause of aggression, the high levels of testosterone in newly matured male elephants or the competition for land and resources between elephants and humans. But in ''Elephant Breakdown,'' a 2005 essay in the journal Nature, Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that today's elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma. Decades of poaching and culling and habitat loss, they claim, have so disrupted the intricate web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants have traditionally been raised in the wild, and by which established elephant herds are governed, that what we are now witnessing is nothing less than a precipitous collapse of elephant culture.

It has long been apparent that every large, land-based animal on this planet is ultimately fighting a losing battle with humankind. And yet entirely befitting of an animal with such a highly developed sensibility, a deep-rooted sense of family and, yes, such a good long-term memory, the elephant is not going out quietly. It is not leaving without making some kind of statement, one to which scientists from a variety of disciplines, including human psychology, are now beginning to pay close attention.

Once the matriarch and her calf were a comfortable distance from us that morning, Okello and I made the 20-minute drive to Kyambura, a village at the far southeastern edge of the park. Back in 2003, Kyambura was reportedly the site of the very sort of sudden, unprovoked elephant attack I'd been hearing about. According to an account of the event in the magazine New Scientist, a number of huts and fields were trampled, and the townspeople were afraid to venture out to surrounding villages, either by foot or on their bikes, because elephants were regularly blocking the road and charging out at those who tried to pass.

Park officials from the Uganda Wildlife Authority with whom I tried to discuss the incident were reluctant to talk about it or any of the recent killings by elephants in the area. Eco-tourism is one of Uganda's major sources of income, and the elephant and other wildlife stocks of Queen Elizabeth National Park are only just now beginning to recover from years of virtually unchecked poaching and habitat destruction. Tom Okello, the chief game warden at the park (and no relation to my driver), and Margaret Driciru, Queen Elizabeth's chief veterinarian, each told me that they weren't aware of the attack in Kyambura. When I mentioned it to the executive director of the wildlife authority, Moses Mapesa, upon my initial arrival in the capital city, Kampala, he eventually admitted that it did happen, but he claimed that it was not nearly as recent as reported. ''That was 14 years ago,'' he said. ''We have seen aggressive behavior from elephants, but that's a story of the past.''

Kyambura did look, upon our arrival, much like every other small Ugandan farming community I'd passed through on my visit. Lush fields of banana trees, millet and maize framed a small town center of pastel-colored single-story cement buildings with corrugated-tin roofs. People sat on stoops out front in the available shade. Bicyclers bore preposterously outsize loads of bananas, firewood and five-gallon water jugs on their fenders and handlebars. Contrary to what I had read, the bicycle traffic along the road in and out of Kyambura didn't seem impaired in the slightest.

But when Okello and I asked a shopkeeper named Ibrah Byamukama about elephant attacks, he immediately nodded and pointed to a patch of maize and millet fields just up the road, along the edges of the surrounding Maramagambo Forest. He confirmed that a small group of elephants charged out one morning two years earlier, trampled the fields and nearby gardens, knocked down a few huts and then left. He then pointed to a long orange gash in the earth between the planted fields and the forest: a 15-foot-deep, 25-foot-wide trench that had been dug by the wildlife authority around the perimeter of Kyambura in an attempt to keep the elephants at bay. On the way out of town, Okello and I took a closer look at the trench. It was filled with stacks of thorny shrubs for good measure.

''The people are still worried,'' Byamukama said, shaking his head. ''The elephants are just becoming more destructive. I don't know why.''

Three years ago, Gay Bradshaw, then working on her graduate degree in psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute outside Santa Barbara, Calif., began wondering much the same thing: was the extraordinary behavior of elephants in Africa and Asia signaling a breaking point? With the assistance of several established African-elephant researchers, including Daphne Sheldrick and Cynthia Moss, and with the help of Allan Schore, an expert on human trauma disorders at the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at U.C.L.A., Bradshaw sought to combine traditional research into elephant behavior with insights about trauma drawn from human neuroscience. Using the few remaining relatively stable elephant herds in places like Amboseli National Park in Kenya as control groups, Bradshaw and her colleagues analyzed the far more fractious populations found in places like Pilanesberg in South Africa and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. What emerged was a portrait of pervasive pachyderm dysfunction.

Elephants, when left to their own devices, are profoundly social creatures. A herd of them is, in essence, one incomprehensibly massive elephant: a somewhat loosely bound and yet intricately interconnected, tensile organism. Young elephants are raised within an extended, multitiered network of doting female caregivers that includes the birth mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends. These relations are maintained over a life span as long as 70 years. Studies of established herds have shown that young elephants stay within 15 feet of their mothers for nearly all of their first eight years of life, after which young females are socialized into the matriarchal network, while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back into the fold as mature adults.

When an elephant dies, its family members engage in intense mourning and burial rituals, conducting weeklong vigils over the body, carefully covering it with earth and brush, revisiting the bones for years afterward, caressing the bones with their trunks, often taking turns rubbing their trunks along the teeth of a skull's lower jaw, the way living elephants do in greeting. If harm comes to a member of an elephant group, all the other elephants are aware of it. This sense of cohesion is further enforced by the elaborate communication system that elephants use. In close proximity they employ a range of vocalizations, from low-frequency rumbles to higher-pitched screams and trumpets, along with a variety of visual signals, from the waving of their trunks to subtle anglings of the head, body, feet and tail. When communicating over long distances — in order to pass along, for example, news about imminent threats, a sudden change of plans or, of the utmost importance to elephants, the death of a community member — they use patterns of subsonic vibrations that are felt as far as several miles away by exquisitely tuned sensors in the padding of their feet.

This fabric of elephant society, Bradshaw and her colleagues concluded, had effectively been frayed by years of habitat loss and poaching, along with systematic culling by government agencies to control elephant numbers and translocations of herds to different habitats. The number of older matriarchs and female caregivers (or ''allomothers'') had drastically fallen, as had the number of elder bulls, who play a significant role in keeping younger males in line. In parts of Zambia and Tanzania, a number of the elephant groups studied contained no adult females whatsoever. In Uganda, herds were often found to be ''semipermanent aggregations,'' as a paper written by Bradshaw describes them, with many females between the ages of 15 and 25 having no familial associations. As a result of such social upheaval, calves are now being born to and raised by ever younger and inexperienced mothers. Young orphaned elephants, meanwhile, that have witnessed the death of a parent at the hands of poachers are coming of age in the absence of the support system that defines traditional elephant life. ''The loss of elephant elders,'' Bradshaw told me, ''and the traumatic experience of witnessing the massacres of their family, impairs normal brain and behavior development in young elephants.''

What Bradshaw and her colleagues describe would seem to be an extreme form of anthropocentric conjecture if the evidence that they've compiled from various elephant resesarchers, even on the strictly observational level, weren't so compelling. The elephants of decimated herds, especially orphans who've watched the death of their parents and elders from poaching and culling, exhibit behavior typically associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related disorders in humans: abnormal startle response, unpredictable asocial behavior, inattentive mothering and hyperaggression. Studies of the various assaults on the rhinos in South Africa, meanwhile, have determined that the perpetrators were in all cases adolescent males that had witnessed their families being shot down in cullings. It was common for these elephants to have been tethered to the bodies of their dead and dying relatives until they could be rounded up for translocation to, as Bradshaw and Schore describe them, ''locales lacking traditional social hierarchy of older bulls and intact natal family structures.''

In fact, even the relatively few attempts that park officials have made to restore parts of the social fabric of elephant society have lent substance to the elephant-breakdown theory. When South African park rangers recently introduced a number of older bull elephants into several destabilized elephant herds in Pilanesburg and Addo, the wayward behavior — including unusually premature hormonal changes among the adolescent elephants — abated.

But according to Bradshaw and her colleagues, the various pieces of the elephant-trauma puzzle really come together at the level of neuroscience, or what might be called the physiology of psychology, by which scientists can now map the marred neuronal fields, snapped synaptic bridges and crooked chemical streams of an embattled psyche. Though most scientific knowledge of trauma is still understood through research on human subjects, neural studies of elephants are now under way. (The first functional M.R.I. scan of an elephant brain, taken this year, revealed, perhaps not surprisingly, a huge hippocampus, a seat of memory in the mammalian brain, as well as a prominent structure in the limbic system, which processes emotions.) Allan Schore, the U.C.L.A. psychologist and neuroscientist who for the past 15 years has focused his research on early human brain development and the negative impact of trauma on it, recently wrote two articles with Bradshaw on the stress-related neurobiological underpinnings of current abnormal elephant behavior.

''We know that these mechanisms cut across species,'' Schore told me. ''In the first years of humans as well as elephants, development of the emotional brain is impacted by these attachment mechanisms, by the interaction that the infant has with the primary caregiver, especially the mother. When these early experiences go in a positive way, it leads to greater resilience in things like affect regulation, stress regulation, social communication and empathy. But when these early experiences go awry in cases of abuse and neglect, there is a literal thinning down of the essential circuits in the brain, especially in the emotion-processing areas.''

For Bradshaw, these continuities between human and elephant brains resonate far outside the field of neuroscience. ''Elephants are suffering and behaving in the same ways that we recognize in ourselves as a result of violence,'' she told me. ''It is entirely congruent with what we know about humans and other mammals. Except perhaps for a few specific features, brain organization and early development of elephants and humans are extremely similar. That's not news. What is news is when you start asking, What does this mean beyond the science? How do we respond to the fact that we are causing other species like elephants to psychologically break down? In a way, it's not so much a cognitive or imaginative leap anymore as it is a political one.''

Eve Abe says that in her mind, she made that leap before she ever left her mother's womb. An animal ethologist and wildlife-management consultant now based in London, Abe (pronounced AH-bay) grew up in northern Uganda. After several years of studying elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park, where decades of poaching had drastically reduced the herds, Abe received her doctorate at Cambridge University in 1994 for work detailing the parallels she saw between the plight of Uganda's orphaned male elephants and the young male orphans of her own people, the Acholi, whose families and villages have been decimated by years of civil war. It's work she proudly proclaims to be not only ''the ultimate act of anthropomorphism'' but also what she was destined to do.

''My very first encounter with an elephant was a fetal one,'' Abe told me in June in London as the two of us sipped tea at a cafe in Paddington Station. I was given Abe's contact numbers earlier in the spring by Bradshaw, who is currently working with Abe to build a community center in Uganda to help both elephants and humans in their recovery from violence. For more than a month before my departure from New York, I had been trying without luck to arrange with the British Home Office for Abe, who is still waiting for permanent residence status in England, to travel with me to Uganda as my guide through Queen Elizabeth National Park without fear of her being denied re-entry to England. She was to accompany me that day right up to the departure gate at Heathrow, the two of us hoping (in vain, as it turned out) for a last-minute call that would have given her leave to use the ticket I was holding for her in my bag.

''My dad was a conservationist and a teacher,'' explained Abe, a tall, elegant woman with a trilling, nearly girlish voice. ''He was always out in the parks. One of my aunts tells this story about us passing through Murchison park one day. My dad was driving. My uncle was in the front seat. In the back were my aunt and my mom, who was very pregnant with me. They suddenly came upon this huge herd of elephants on the road, and the elephants just stopped. So my dad stopped. He knew about animals. The elephants just stood there, then they started walking around the car, and looking into the car. Finally, they walked off. But my father didn't start the car then. He waited there. After an hour or more, a huge female came back out onto the road, right in front of the car. It reared up and trumpeted so loudly, then followed the rest of the herd back into the bush. A few days later, when my mom got home, I was born.''

Abe began her studies in Queen Elizabeth National Park in 1982, as an undergraduate at Makerere University in Kampala, shortly after she and her family, who'd been living for years as refugees in Kenya to escape the brutal violence in Uganda under the dictatorship of Idi Amin, returned home in the wake of Amin's ouster in 1979. Abe told me that when she first arrived at the park, there were fewer than 150 elephants remaining from an original population of nearly 4,000. The bulk of the decimation occurred during the war with Tanzania that led to Amin's overthrow: soldiers from both armies grabbed all the ivory they could get their hands on — and did so with such cravenness that the word ''poaching'' seems woefully inadequate. ''Normally when you say 'poaching,' '' Abe said, ''you think of people shooting one or two and going off. But this was war. They'd just throw hand grenades at the elephants, bring whole families down and cut out the ivory. I call that mass destruction.''

The last elephant survivors of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Abe said, never left one another's side. They kept in a tight bunch, moving as one. Only one elderly female remained; Abe estimated her to be at least 62. It was this matriarch who first gathered the survivors together from their various hideouts on the park's forested fringes and then led them back out as one group into open savanna. Until her death in the early 90's, the old female held the group together, the population all the while slowly beginning to rebound. In her yet-to-be-completed memoir, ''My Elephants and My People,'' Abe writes of the prominence of the matriarch in Acholi society; she named the park's matriarchal elephant savior Lady Irene, after her own mother. ''It took that core group of survivors in the park about five or six years,'' Abe told me, ''before I started seeing whole new family units emerge and begin to split off and go their own way.''

In 1986, Abe's family was forced to flee the country again. Violence against Uganda's people and elephants never completely abated after Amin's regime collapsed, and it drastically worsened in the course of the full-fledged war that developed between government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. For years, that army's leader, Joseph Kony, routinely ''recruited'' from Acholi villages, killing the parents of young males before their eyes, or sometimes having them do the killings themselves, before pressing them into service as child soldiers. The Lord's Resistance Army has by now been largely defeated, but Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for numerous crimes against humanity, has hidden with what remains of his army in the mountains of Murchison Falls National Park, and more recently in Garamba National Park in northern Congo, where poaching by the Lord's Resistance Army has continued to orphan more elephants.

''I started looking again at what has happened among the Acholi and the elephants,'' Abe told me. ''I saw that it is an absolute coincidence between the two. You know we used to have villages. We still don't have villages. There are over 200 misplaced-people's camps in present-day northern Uganda. Everybody lives now within these camps, and there are no more elders. The elders were systematically eliminated. The first batch of elimination was during Amin's time, and that set the stage for the later destruction of northern Uganda. We are among the lucky few, because my mom and dad managed to escape. But the families there are just broken. I know many of them. Displaced people are living in our home now. My mother said let them have it. All these kids who have grown up with their parents killed — no fathers, no mothers, only children looking after them. They don't go to schools. They have no schools, no hospitals. No infrastructure. They form these roaming, violent, destructive bands. It's the same thing that happens with the elephants. Just like the male war orphans, they are wild, completely lost.''

On the ride from Paddington that afternoon out to Heathrow, where I would catch a flight to Uganda, Abe told me that the parallel between the plight of Ugandans and their elephants was in many ways too close for her to see at first. It was only after she moved to London that she had what was, in a sense, her first full, adult recognition of the entwinement between human and elephant that she says she long ago felt in her mother's womb.

''I remember when I first was working on my doctorate,'' she said. ''I mentioned that I was doing this parallel once to a prominent scientist in Kenya. He looked amazed. He said, 'How come nobody has made this connection before?' I told him because it hadn't happened this way to anyone else's tribe before. To me it's something I see so clearly. Most people are scared of showing that kind of anthropomorphism. But coming from me it doesn't sound like I'm inventing something. It's there. People know it's there. Some might think that the way I describe the elephant attacks makes the animals look like people. But people are animals.''

Shortly after my return from Uganda, I went to visit the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, a 2,700-acre rehabilitation center and retirement facility situated in the state's verdant, low-rolling southern hill country. The sanctuary is a kind of asylum for some of the more emotionally and psychologically disturbed former zoo and circus elephants in the United States — cases so bad that the people who profited from them were eager to let them go. Given that elephants in the wild are now exhibiting aberrant behaviors that were long observed in captive elephants, it perhaps follows that a positive working model for how to ameliorate the effects of elephant breakdown can be found in captivity.

Of the 19 current residents of the sanctuary, perhaps the biggest hard-luck story is that of a 40-year-old, five-ton Asian elephant named Misty. Originally captured as a calf in India in 1966, Misty spent her first decade in captivity with a number of American circuses and finally ended up in the early 80's at a wild-animal attraction known as Li on Country Safari in Irvine, Calif. It was there, on the afternoon of July 25, 1983, that Misty, one of four performing elephants at Lion Country Safari that summer, somehow managed to break free of her chains and began madly dashing about the park, looking to make an escape. When one of the park's zoologists tried to corner and contain her, Misty killed him with one swipe of her trunk.

There are, in the long, checkered history of human-elephant relations, countless stories of lethal elephantine assaults, and almost invariably of some gruesomely outsize, animalistic form of retribution exacted by us. It was in the very state of Tennessee, back in September 1916, that another five-ton Asian circus elephant, Mary, was impounded by a local sheriff for the killing of a young hotel janitor who'd been hired to mind Mary during a stopover in the northeast Tennessee town of Kingsport. The janitor had apparently taken Mary for a swim at a local pond, where, according to witnesses, he poked her behind the left ear with a metal hook just as she was reaching for a piece of floating watermelon rind. Enraged, Mary turned, swiftly snatched him up with her trunk, dashed him against a refreshment stand and then smashed his head with her foot.

With cries from the townspeople to ''Kill the elephant!'' and threats from nearby town leaders to bar the circus if ''Murderous Mary,'' as newspapers quickly dubbed her, remained a part of the show, the circus's owner, Charlie Sparks, knew he had to do something to appease the public's blood lust and save his business. (Among the penalties he is said to have contemplated was electrocution, a ghastly precedent for which had been set 13 years earlier, on the grounds of the nearly completed Luna Park in Coney Island. A longtime circus elephant named Topsy, who'd killed three trainers in as many years — the last one after he tried to feed her a lighted cigarette — became the largest and most prominent victim of Thomas Edison, the father of direct-current electricity, who had publicly electrocuted a number of animals at that time using his rival George Westinghouse's alternating current, in hopes of discrediting it as being too dangerous.)

Sparks ultimately decided to have Mary hanged and shipped her by train to the nearby town of Erwin, Tenn., where more than 2,500 people gathered at the local rail yard for her execution. Dozens of children are said to have run off screaming in terror when the chain that was suspended from a huge industrial crane snapped, leaving Mary writhing on the ground with a broken hip. A local rail worker promptly clambered up Mary's bulk and secured a heavier chain for a second, successful hoisting.

Misty's fate in the early 80's, by contrast, seems a triumph of modern humanism. Banished, after the Lion Safari killing, to the Hawthorn Corporation, a company in Illinois that trains and leases elephants and tigers to circuses, she would continue to lash out at a number of her trainers over the years. But when Hawthorn was convicted of numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act in 2003, the company agreed to relinquish custody of Misty to the Elephant Sanctuary. She was loaded onto a trailer transport on the morning of Nov. 17, 2004, and even then managed to get away with one final shot at the last in her long line of captors.

''The details are kind of sketchy,'' Carol Buckley, a founder of the Elephant Sanctuary, said to me one afternoon in July, the two of us pulling up on her all-terrain four-wheeler to a large grassy enclosure where an extremely docile and contented-looking Misty, trunk high, ears flapping, waited to greet us. ''Hawthorn's owner was trying to get her to stretch out so he could remove her leg chains before loading her on the trailer. At one point he prodded her with a bull hook, and she just knocked him down with a swipe of her trunk. But we've seen none of that since she's been here. She's as sweet as can be. You'd never know that this elephant killed anybody.''

In the course of her nearly two years at the Elephant Sanctuary — much of it spent in quarantine while undergoing daily treatment for tuberculosis — Misty has also been in therapy, as in psychotherapy. Wild-caught elephants often witness as young calves the slaughter of their parents, just about the only way, shy of a far more costly tranquilization procedure, to wrest a calf from elephant parents, especially the mothers. The young captives are then dispatched to a foreign environment to work either as performers or laborers, all the while being kept in relative confinement and isolation, a kind of living death for an animal as socially developed and dependent as we now know elephants to be.

And yet just as we now understand that elephants hurt like us, we're learning that they can heal like us as well. Indeed, Misty has become a testament to the Elephant Sanctuary's signature ''passive control'' system, a therapy tailored in many ways along the lines of those used to treat human sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder. Passive control, as a sanctuary newsletter describes it, depends upon ''knowledge of how elephants process information and respond to stress'' as well as specific knowledge of each elephant's past response to stress. Under this so-called nondominance system, there is no discipline, retaliation or withholding of food, water and treats, which are all common tactics of elephant trainers. Great pains are taken, meanwhile, to afford the elephants both a sense of safety and freedom of choice — two mainstays of human trauma therapy — as well as continual social interaction.

Upon her arrival at the Elephant Sanctuary, Misty seemed to sense straight off the different vibe of her new home. When Scott Blais of the sanctuary went to free Misty's still-chained leg a mere day after she'd arrived, she stood peaceably by, practically offering her leg up to him. Over her many months of quarantine, meanwhile, with only humans acting as a kind of surrogate elephant family, she has consistently gone through the daily rigors of her tuberculosis treatments — involving two caretakers, a team of veterinarians and the use of a restraining chute in which harnesses are secured about her chest and tail — without any coaxing or pressure. ''We'll shower her with praise in the barn afterwards,'' Buckley told me as Misty stood by, chomping on a mouthful of hay, ''and she actually purrs with pleasure. The whole barn vibrates.''

Of course, Misty's road to recovery — when viewed in light of her history and that of all the other captive elephants, past and present — is as harrowing as it is heartening. She and the others have suffered, we now understand, not simply because of us, but because they are, by and large, us. If as recently as the end of the Vietnam War people were still balking at the idea that a soldier, for example, could be physically disabled by psychological harm — the idea, in other words, that the mind is not an entity apart from the body and therefore just as woundable as any limb — we now find ourselves having to make an equally profound and, for many, even more difficult leap: that a fellow creature as ostensibly unlike us in every way as an elephant is as precisely and intricately woundable as we are. And while such knowledge naturally places an added burden upon us, the keepers, that burden is now being greatly compounded by the fact that sudden violent outbursts like Misty's can no longer be dismissed as the inevitable isolated revolts of a restless few against the constraints and abuses of captivity.

They have no future without us. The question we are now forced to grapple with is whether we would mind a future without them, among the more mindful creatures on this earth and, in many ways, the most devoted. Indeed, the manner of the elephants' continued keeping, their restoration and conservation, both in civil confines and what's left of wild ones, is now drawing the attention of everyone from naturalists to neuroscientists. Too much about elephants, in the end — their desires and devotions, their vulnerability and tremendous resilience — reminds us of ourselves to dismiss out of hand this revolt they're currently staging against their own dismissal. And while our concern may ultimately be rooted in that most human of impulses — the preservation of our own self-image — the great paradox about this particular moment in our history with elephants is that saving them will require finally getting past ourselves; it will demand the ultimate act of deep, interspecies empathy.

On a more immediate, practical level, as Gay Bradshaw sees it, this involves taking what has been learned about elephant society, psychology and emotion and inculcating that knowledge into the conservation schemes of researchers and park rangers. This includes doing things like expanding elephant habitat to what it used to be historically and avoiding the use of culling and translocations as conservation tools. ''If we want elephants around,'' Bradshaw told me, ''then what we need to do is simple: learn how to live with elephants. In other words, in addition to conservation, we need to educate people how to live with wild animals like humans used to do, and to create conditions whereby people can live on their land and live with elephants without it being this life-and-death situation.''

The other part of our newly emerging compact with elephants, however, is far more difficult to codify. It requires nothing less than a fundamental shift in the way we look at animals and, by extension, ourselves. It requires what Bradshaw somewhat whimsically refers to as a new ''trans-species psyche,'' a commitment to move beyond an anthropocentric frame of reference and, in effect, be elephants. Two years ago, Bradshaw wrote a paper for the journal Society and Animals, focusing on the work of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, a sanctuary for orphaned and traumatized wild elephants — more or less the wilderness-based complement to Carol Buckley's trauma therapy at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The trust's human caregivers essentially serve as surrogate mothers to young orphan elephants, gradually restoring their psychological and emotional well being to the point at which they can be reintroduced into existing wild herds. The human ''allomothers'' stay by their adopted young orphans' sides, even sleeping with them at night in stables. The caretakers make sure, however, to rotate from one elephant to the next so that the orphans grow fond of all the keepers. Otherwise an elephant would form such a strong bond with one keeper that whenever he or she was absent, that elephant would grieve as if over the loss of another family member, often becoming physically ill itself.

To date, the Sheldrick Trust has successfully rehabilitated more than 60 elephants and reintroduced them into wild herds. A number of them have periodically returned to the sanctuary with their own wild-born calves in order to reunite with their human allomothers and to introduce their offspring to what — out on this uncharted frontier of the new ''trans-species psyche'' — is now being recognized, at least by the elephants, it seems, as a whole new subspecies: the human allograndmother. ''Traditionally, nature has served as a source of healing for humans,'' Bradshaw told me. ''Now humans can participate actively in the healing of both themselves and nonhuman animals. The trust and the sanctuary are the beginnings of a mutually benefiting interspecies culture.''

On my way back to New York via London, I contacted Felicity de Zulueta, a psychiatrist at Maudsley Hospital in London who treats victims of extreme trauma, among them former child soldiers from the Lord's Resistance Army. De Zulueta, an acquaintance of Eve Abe's, grew up in Uganda in the early 1960's on the outskirts of Queen Elizabeth National Park, near where her father, a malaria doctor, had set up camp as part of a malaria-eradication program. For a time she had her own elephant, orphaned by poaching, that local villagers had given to her father, who brought it home to the family garage, where it immediately bonded with an orphan antelope and dog already residing there.

''He was doing fine,'' de Zulueta told me of the pet elephant. ''My mother was loving it and feeding it, and then my parents realized, How can we keep this elephant that is going to grow bigger than the garage? So they gave it to who they thought were the experts. They sent him to the Entebbe Zoo, and although they gave him all the right food and everything, he was a lonely little elephant, and he died. He had no attachment.''

For de Zulueta, the parallel that Abe draws between the plight of war orphans, human and elephant, is painfully apt, yet also provides some cause for hope, given the often startling capacity of both animals for recovery. She told me that one Ugandan war orphan she is currently treating lost all the members of his family except for two older brothers. Remarkably, one of those brothers, while serving in the Ugandan Army, rescued the younger sibling from the Lord's Resistance Army; the older brother's unit had captured the rebel battalion in which his younger brother had been forced to fight.

The two brothers eventually made their way to London, and for the past two years, the younger brother has been going through a gradual process of recovery in the care of Maudsley Hospital. Much of the rehabilitation, according to de Zulueta, especially in the early stages, relies on the basic human trauma therapy principles now being applied to elephants: providing decent living quarters, establishing a sense of safety and of attachment to a larger community and allowing freedom of choice. After that have come the more complex treatments tailored to the human brain's particular cognitive capacities: things like reliving the original traumatic experience and being taught to modulate feelings through early detection of hyperarousal and through breathing techniques. And the healing of trauma, as de Zulueta describes it, turns out to have physical correlatives in the brain just as its wounding does.

''What I say is, we find bypass,'' she explained. ''We bypass the wounded areas using various techniques. Some of the wounds are not healable. Their scars remain. But there is hope because the brain is an enormous computer, and you can learn to bypass its wounds by finding different methods of approaching life. Of course there may be moments when something happens and the old wound becomes unbearable. Still, people do recover. The boy I've been telling you about is 18 now, and he has survived very well in terms of his emotional health and capacities. He's a lovely, lovely man. And he's a poet. He writes beautiful poetry.''

On the afternoon in July that I left the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, Carol Buckley and Scott Blais seemed in particularly good spirits. Misty was only weeks away from the end of her quarantine, and she would soon be able to socialize with some of her old cohorts from the Hawthorn Corporation: eight female Asians that had been given over to the sanctuary. I would meet the lot of them that day, driving from one to the next on the back of Buckley's four-wheeler across the sanctuary's savanna-like stretches. Buckley and Blais refer to them collectively as the Divas.

Buckley and Blais told me that they got word not long ago of a significant breakthrough in a campaign of theirs to get elephants out of entertainment and zoos: the Bronx Zoo, one of the oldest and most formidable zoos in the country, had announced that upon the death of the zoo's three current elephant inhabitants, Patty, Maxine and Happy, it would phase out its elephant exhibit on social-behavioral grounds — an acknowledgment of a new awareness of the elephant's very particular sensibility and needs. ''They're really taking the lead,'' Buckley told me. ''Zoos don't want to concede the inappropriateness of keeping elephants in such confines. But if we as a society determine that an animal like this suffers in captivity, if the information shows us that they do, hey, we are the stewards. You'd think we'd want to do the right thing.''

Four days later, I received an e-mail message from Gay Bradshaw, who consults with Buckley and Blais on their various stress-therapy strategies. She wrote that one of the sanctuary's elephants, an Asian named Winkie, had just killed a 36-year-old female assistant caretaker and critically injured the male caretaker who'd tried to save her.

People who work with animals on a daily basis can tell you all kinds of stories about their distinct personalities and natures. I'd gotten, in fact, an elaborate breakdown from Buckley and Blais on the various elephants at the sanctuary and their sociopolitical maneuverings within the sanctuary's distinct elephant culture, and I went to my notebook to get a fix again on Winkie. A 40-year-old, 7,600-pound female from Burma, she came to the sanctuary in 2000 from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisc., where she had a reputation for lashing out at keepers. When Winkie first arrived at the sanctuary, Buckley told me, she used to jump merely upon being touched and then would wait for a confrontation. But when it never came, she slowly calmed down. ''Has never lashed out at primary keepers,'' my last note on Winkie reads, ''but has at secondary ones.''

Bradshaw's e-mail message concludes: ''A stunning illustration of trauma in elephants. The indelible etching.''

I thought back to a moment in Queen Elizabeth National Park this past June. As Nelson Okello and I sat waiting for the matriarch and her calf to pass, he mentioned to me an odd little detail about the killing two months earlier of the man from the village of Katwe, something that, the more I thought about it, seemed to capture this particularly fraught moment we've arrived at with the elephants. Okello said that after the man's killing, the elephant herd buried him as it would one of its own, carefully covering the body with earth and brush and then standing vigil over it.

Even as we're forcing them out, it seems, the elephants are going out of their way to put us, the keepers, in an ever more discomfiting place, challenging us to preserve someplace for them, the ones who in many ways seem to regard the matter of life and death more devoutly than we. In fact, elephant culture could be considered the precursor of our own, the first permanent human settlements having sprung up around the desire of wandering tribes to stay by the graves of their dead. ''The city of the dead,'' as Lewis Mumford once wrote, ''antedates the city of the living.''

When a group of villagers from Katwe went out to reclaim the man's body for his family's funeral rites, the elephants refused to budge. Human remains, a number of researchers have observed, are the only other ones that elephants will treat as they do their own. In the end, the villagers resorted to a tactic that has long been etched in the elephant's collective memory, firing volleys of gunfire into the air at close range, finally scaring the mourning herd away.

Charles Siebert, a contributing writer, is at work on "Humanzee," a book about humans and chimpanzees.

And now you know - CTRL + ALT + DEL

2006-09-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered who has invented the CTRL + ALT + DEL key combination?

Answer - David Bradley
He is the one who spent 1 minute and 23 seconds writing the source code that has rescued and will cointinue to rescue PC users worldwide for decades. This extraordinary IBM employee retired on Friday, January 14, 2005; after a prolonged service of 29 years. His formula forces obstinate computers to restart when they no longer follow other commands. By 1980, Bradley was one of 12 people working on the debut. The engineers knew they had to design a simple way to restart the computer whenever it fails to respond to the user. Bradley wrote the code to make it work.

Bradley says -

"I did a lot of other things than Ctrl-Alt-Delete, but I'm famous for that one." His fame and success is achieved each time a PC user fails. He commented on his relationship with Bill gates by saying, "I may have invented it, but Bill gates made it famous by applying my formula when ever any M*cro$oft's Windows operating system made by him CRASHES, thus I win when ever he loses."

Word Mentality - Avuncular

2006-08-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Avuncular

Adjective

Of or pertaining to an uncle
Thornton's reputation was that of a soft-hearted and avuncular veterinarian known for getting teary-eyed while listening to even slightly sentimental stories.
Resembling an uncle, especially in kindness or indulgence.
A man with such a nice, avuncular personality would not blow up the world.

...the word and vocabulary list continues

Word Mentality - Expiate

2006-06-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Expiate

Verb

obsolete : to put an end to
1. To extinguish the guilt incurred
  He thought that one act of kindness would expiate his cruelness.
2. Atone for or make amends for
  She devoted her life to charity to try to expiate the wrongs of her youth.

Etymology

Latin expiatus, past participle of expiare to atone for, from ex- + piare to atone for, appease, from pius faithful, pious

Interesting Anagram

Ape Exit

...the word and vocabulary list continues

Word Mentality - Schadenfreude

2006-04-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Schadenfreude

Noun

Taking malicious satisfaction in another person's troubles
The colleagues were so gleeful about her fall from grace that one cannot help but think that the modern work place is Schadenfreude.

Etymology

Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy (from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from fr, happy)

...the vocabulary / wordlist continues

Word Mentality - Hortatory

2006-04-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hortatory

Adjective

Giving strong encouragement
He later gave up the ministry in the conviction that he could reach thousands with his beguiling pen and only hundreds with his hortatory voice.
Serving to encourage or incite
The former West German Chancellor's book ... is a call to action, and, even in this good translation, the book relies heavily on the hortatory language of political appeals.

Synonyms

Exhortative, Exhortatory, Hortative

Interesting Anagrams

Hot Rotary, Harry Toot, Arty or Hot

...the vocabulary / word list continues

Word Mentality - Invidious

2006-03-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

Invidious

Adjective

Tending to provoke envy, resentment, or ill will
In his experience people were seldom happier for having learned what they were missing, and all Europe had done for his wife was encourage her natural inclination toward bitter and invidious comparison
Containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice
The invidious treatment meated out the Indians in South Africa mirrored the discriminiation and contempt faced by colonial Indians.
Envious

Etymology

Latin - invidir - to look apon (with an evel eye)

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Sesquipedalian

2006-01-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

Sesquipedalian

Adjective

Given to or characterized by the use of long words
Instead of getting to the point, he would give a sesquipedalian rationale for his actions
Long and ponderous; having many syllables
Her choice of sesquipedalian words make her poems undreadable

Noun

Long word
The author carefully placed sesquipedalians in his works to ensure that they would appeal to an eclectic audience

Synonym

Polysyllabic

Some interesting Sesquipedalians

Floccinaucinihilipilification - the act of estimating (something) as worthless (In the Guinness Book of world Records)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - A word that is miraculous way to talk oneself out of difficult situations, and even as a way to change one's life according to the 1964 movie Mary Poppins

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Sheet Anchor

2006-01-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Sheet Anchor

Noun

A large anchor, formerly always the largest of a ship's anchors, used only in an emergency
He cast the sheet anchor in a last ditch attempt to save the ship from crashing into the rocks
That on which one places one's reliance when everything else has failed
We are blessed that we have God as our sheet anchor of hope and should learn to turn to Him for more than just our crises

Interesting Anagrams

Heathen Orcs, Hen Thoraces, Chasten Hero, Cone Hearths, Corn Sheathe, Thrones Ache, Hone the Scar

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Renascent

2006-01-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Renascent

Adjective

Surging or sweeping back again
Heading the pack of institutional investors were dedicated "emerging-market funds", set up specifically to reap high returns in renascent stock and bond markets.
The Miracle Unmasked

Etymology

Renascent comes from Latin renascens, present participle of renasci, "to be born again," from re-, "again" + nasci, "to be born"

Synonyms

Resurgent

Interesting Anagrams

Entrances, Ten Cranes, can resent, Tan Screen, Rents Cane, Teen Narcs, Acne Rents (Yuukkk), Near Scent, earn cents

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Consilience

2006-01-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

Consilience

Noun

Act of concurring; coincidence; concurrence

The consilience of inductions takes place when one class of facts coincides with an induction obtained from another different class

Interesting Synonyms

Concise Nile, Neon Icicles, Incense Coil, Silence Icon

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Cloister

2006-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Cloister

Noun

Residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)
A courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)

Verb

Surround with a cloister, as of a garden
Seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister
"She cloistered herself in the office"

Synonyms

Convent, Monastary, Priory

Interesting Anagrams

Costlier, to Relics, crest oil, Orc Islet, Tic Lores, lost rice

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Recondite

2006-01-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

Recondite

Adjective

Difficult to understand
"And his fondness for stopping his readers short in their tracks with evidence of his recondite vocabulary is wonderfully irritating."
Concerned with obscure subject matter
"some recondite problem in historiography"

Synonyms

Abtruse, Deep

Interesting Anagrams

Red Notice, Nordic Tee, One Credit, Erotic Den, Rio Decent, Entire Doc, Ice Rodent, Cider Note, Nero edict, erect Odin, Inert Code, Noted Rice

...the word and vocabulary list continues...

Hunt for Tikka Masala

2006-01-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the Oxford English Dictionary is looking for printed evidence for Chiken Tikka Masala before 1975...

http://oed.com/bbcwordhunt/list.html#tikkamasala

If you are interested you can check out the entire list of words that is being researched by OED in conjunction with BBC at the moment:

http://oed.com/bbcwordhunt/

And now you know - Ajax

2005-12-29T22:05:00.000-08:00

Ajax

Noun

Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, or Ajax, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications using a combination of XHTML, CSS, DOM manipulated through JavaScript and the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together.
Ajax - The Great: Also known as Telamonian Aias as the son of Telemon and a king of great stature and colossal frame, the tallest among all the Greek allies who fought in the Trojan War.
Ajax - The Lesser: Also known as Locrian Ajax for being the leader of the Locrain contingent during the Trojan war.
FC Ajax is a popular European football club based in Amsterdam that traces its name to Ajax - The Great

References

More information on Ajax Programming
Here's more information on Ajax - The Great
Article on Ajax - The lesser from Wikipeadia

Word Mentality - Quiddity

2005-12-29T02:58:00.000-08:00

Quiddity

No...this isn't the game from Harry Potter.

Noun

The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.
A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble.
An eccentricity; an odd feature.

She has looked after my interests with consummate skill, dealt with my quiddities and constantly kept up my spirits.

Synonyms

Cavil, Haecceity, Quibble

Interesting Anagram

Tidy quid

...the vocabulary and word list continues

And now you know - SPAM

2005-12-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

Spam

This piece was started as a knee-jerk to the criticism that most of the vocabulary I put up was not relevant to my colleagues. So when I needed to think of an interesting post, it took me about 15 micro seconds to come up with the word...SPAM

Definition

Noun: An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it
Verb: To indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities. To spam someone.

Origin of the Word

Spam is a canned pork product was made by the Hormel Foods Corporation in (among other places) Austin, Minnesota (aka Spam Town USA). The word is supposed to stand for "SPiced hAM.

The word got associated with spam as we know it today, thanks to a play written and presented by the Monty Python where a memorable scene unfolded as such...a waitress is trying to say a few dainty words to some customers while a group of Vikings start screaming - SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM..... The screaming increases to such an extent that all other conversation is drowned out...thus leading to its current use, as a disrutive form of communication.

Word Mentality - Dead Leg

2005-12-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

Dead Leg

Noun

Plumbing: A length of pipe between a hot-water cylinder and a hot tap, in which standing water cools when the tap is off, wasting water and energy.
Dead legs should be as short as possible and the storage cylinder should be situated close to the hot tap which is in most constant use.
Slang: An idle or worthless person; a dead-beat, a ‘loser’.
A film team made up of deadlegs plodding through the undefined screenplay of a failed writer is heading for certain ruin...
Colloq: A temporarily numb and weak leg, usually one deliberately caused by a kick or blow, esp. of a person's knee to another's thigh.
They'd steal my bag, hit me, gimme a dead leg, you know?

...the vocabulary and word list continues

Word Mentality - Soliloquy

2005-12-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Soliloquy

Noun

Drama / Literary Writing:
1. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener
2. A specific speech or piece of writing in this form of discourse
The act of speaking to oneself

Etymology

Late Latin soliloquium, from Latin solus alone + loqui to speak

Synonym

Monologue

Brief Explanation

Soliloquy is an audible oratory or conversation with oneself. It is a term that is typically applied to theatrical characters engaged in a monologue, but can also be a term that is simply descriptive of any occurrence when one talks with oneself. Soliloquy can take the form of a dramatic or comedic monologue that is illusory (or abstractly hallucinagenic or dreamlike) of either a single passage or an entire series of unspoken reflections.Source: Wikipedia

Famous Soliloques

...the word and vocabulary list continues

Word Mentality - Voluble

2005-12-18T21:33:00.000-08:00

Voluble

Adjective

Marked by a ready flow of speech; fluent
"she is an extremely voluble young woman who engages in soliloquies not conversations"
Twisting

Turning easily on an axis; rotating.
Botany: Twining or twisting
"a voluble vine"

Synonyms

Babbling, Chatty, Communicative, Talkative, Loquacious

...the word and vocabulary list continues

Aliagroup Anual Day - 17th December 2005

2005-12-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

Bollywood Night

This is probably one of the most exciting days in the group and the reasons are quite justified. The mood was electric and the Aliagroup Folks partied like there was not tomorrow.

Some snapshots

Finally made to a company event with Seema. Although I wasn't there for too long, I managed to soak up some of the energy.

Word Mentality - Precocious

2005-12-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

Precocious

Adjective

Characterized by or characteristic of exceptionally early development or maturity (especially in mental aptitude)
"a precocious child"; "a precocious achievement"
Appearing or developing early
"precocious flowers appear before the leaves as in some species of magnolias"

Words similar to Precocious

Advanced, Early, Gifted, Intelligent, Talented

Interesting Anagrams

Opus Cicero, Coir Coupes, Ore up Cisco, I curse coop, I scour OPEC....hehehe (did you think U.S. too), Ripe US Coco, I sue Orc Cop

...the word and vocabulary list continues

Sure there's more Cake

2005-11-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

Icing King

It seems that the only posts that I add now a days are related to face plaster during birthdays. "No more vocabulary?" you say...

There has been a slight lull due to the launch of a new product, but things will look up soon. While we wait for more vocabulary posts, here is the person who got nailed with the cake.

The alter

The offering

The sinner

Another one bites the dust

2005-11-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

Birthday boy gets plastered

If you did not have enough of Dinesh then here is another little gem from the anals of CBO.

The Temptation

The Conqueror

The Conquered

The plastering continues...

Word Mentality - Warren

2005-11-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Warren

Noun

A series of connected underground tunnels occupied by rabbits
An overcrowded residential area
A colony of rabbits
Burrow, Tunnel
A mazelike place where one may easily become lost
A warren of narrow, dark alleys and side streets.

Interesting Anagram

Warner

The vocabulary / word list continues...

Word Mentality - Occidental

2005-10-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

Occidental

Adjective

Denoting or characteristic of countries of Europe and the Western Hemisphere
Occidental architecture can be seen quite frequestly in India because of its colonial past.

Noun

A native inhabitant of the Occident
Most occidentals think that there is no development outside the western hemisphere.
An artificial language
The language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Estonian naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922.

Synomyms

Hesperian, Western

Interesting Anagrams

Calcine Dot, Cocaine Ltd, Con Dialect, Ice-cold Ant, Oceanic Ltd, A Celtic Don, A cloned tic, Lactic node, Old Inca Tec

...the vocabulary / word list continues

And now you know - Word Games

2005-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Word Games

Why would I want to set up a post on Word Games? …because I can…and word games can really be fun. Not to mention…this blog is where I post all my vocabulary, so word games was a natural inclusion.

What is word game?

Simply put, a word game is a letter arrangement games, where the goal is to form words out of given letters. (Yes, it is really that simple). There are variants to this form which are given belowTypes of Word Games

(Source – Wikipedia)

Simple Word Games

Anagrams
Boggle
Option
Pick Two
Scrabble
Hotspots Word Game
Swedish puzzles
Alpha Blitz
Upwords
Ghost

Paper and pencil word games/puzzles

Acrostic puzzles
Crossword puzzles
Cryptograms
Hangman
Jotto (or Giotto)
Word search

Structured word games, focussing on the semantics of words

Categories
Charades
Fictionary
One, Two, Three
LINQ

Linguistic word games based around words and letters

Anagram as discussed above
Constrained writing
Ditloids
Gry
Palindromes
Pangrams
Letter banks
Lipograms
Oxenfez
Shiritori
Word golf

Popular Word Games

Scrabble

Scrabble would have to the mother of all word games. There hasn’t been a team word game that has ever been so popular.

Crossword

The crossword is one of the most ubiquitous word games around. Any newspaper lovers, and even those averse to the press productions, love their crosswords shaken…not stirred.

Hangman

You have to be above six and less than two hundred years of age to qualify for this word game. Yes, that is the range of people who have chosen to spend their lived behind this simple, yet entertaining word game.

…what more?

Well, I am looking out for some good word games. Will keep posting them up here. Else it’s Google all the way.

'Bird' Mentality - Golf

2005-09-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

What is Golf's facination with birds?

I am sure you have noticed it, but I don't know if you felt curious about golf's fetish with birds. Well, for no apparent reason, I think I need to bring to your attention this uncanny use of 'birds' in the golfers' vocabulary.

Albatross

The albatross is a seabird. They range widely in the Antartic Ocean and also in the North Pacific, but are absent from the north Atlantic . Albatrosses are amongst the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses from the genus Diomedea have the largest wingspans of any birds.

...while golfing

An Albatross is a term used when a golfer scores a hole in 'three less strokes' than the 'par' strokes set for that hole. Therefore, if the par strokes set for a hole are '5' and the golfer can sink the ball in 3 strokes, then he / she would have scored an Albatross. By this logic, for a golfer to score an Albatross for a '4-par' hole, he / she would have to get a 'hole in one' (not to be mistaken - Whole in One). This term is more popular in U.K. and is often refered to as Double Eagle.

Eagle

Eagles are some of the larget birds of prey. Like all birds of prey, eagles have very large powerful hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs and powerful talons. They also have extremely keen eyesight to enable them to spot potential prey from a distance. They look extremely majestic in flight and are often symbols of free spirit, agility or keen-ness.

...but not while Golfing

As I mentioned earlier, When you play a hole in golf, there is a set score, or par, that you are expected to make. If you get the ball in the hole with two hits less than that score, you have hit an Eagle. This is extremely hard to do!

Birdie

Oh come on...I am not going to write anything remotely Nat Geo about this.

and the Golfers say...

...a score on an individual hole that is one stroke below par is a cool Birdie.

Buzzard

Buzzards A medium-sized birds with a robust body and broad wings. There are more than 40 (forty) types of Buzzards. These generally include the members of the Hawk family.

but that's not a Golf term

Well in Golf, a Buzzard is a situation in which a golfer scores a hole after hitting two more strokes than the designated par strokes.

Bird's Nest

Haaa...and you thought they'd limit themselves to just the birds. Well, nest is place of refuge built to hold a birds's eggs and/or provide a place to raise their offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building.

...when in Golf

A golfer will claim that the ball is in a Bird's Nest when the ball lands in a small depression usually filled with grass.

And now you know - Esperanto

2005-09-24T00:33:00.000-07:00

Esperanto - Hopeful

Believe it or not, but Esperanto is a constructed, international language. Unlike natural languages, Esperanto was created by one Dr. Ludovic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer) Zamenhof (December 15, 1859–April 14, 1917). The name is derived from D-ro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the language in 1887.

Esperanto and Geo Politics

Esperanto was supposed to used as the official language in China after the Xinhai revolution. There were plans at the beginning of the 20th century to establish Neutral Moresnet as the world's first Esperanto state. There is also a Japanese religion, Oomoto, that encourages the use of Esperanto. For those familiar with the Baha-i faith in India, it too encourages the use of Esperanto.

The linguistic construction of Esperanto also makes an interesting read for any language buff.In case you know a bit of spanish and have a flare for foreign languages, then you might try and read this interesting article on 'The Lord of the Rings' and the Christian Faith in Esperanto. Don't worry, you dont have to by a motor car or rent a house using this language.

Resources

Word Mentality - Euphonious

2005-09-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Euphonious

Adjective

Having a pleasant sound

"a euphonious trill of silver laughter"

(of speech or dialect) pleasing in sound; not harsh or strident

"her euphonious Southern speech"

Resources

Some information on the word Euphony

Word Mentality - Legation

2005-09-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

More from the world of geo-politics. We generally use the term Delegation, but are not aware of true source of its meaning.

Legation

Noun

The act of sending a legate
Diplomatic mission:
1. A diplomatic mission in a foreign country ranking below an embassy
2. The diplomatic minister and staff of such a mission.
3. The premises occupied by such a mission.
Historical - A Papal province

A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. The distinction between a legation and embassy was dropped following the Second World War, as all diplomatic representative offices were now designated as embassies, or high commissions. The term is still used for Papal representatives or other religious delegations.

Etymology

15th century: from Latin legare, legatum to send as a deputy

Synonyms

Foreign mission, legateship, commission, representation

Interesting Anagrams

go entail, to genial, at legion, Latin Ego, oil agent, not agile, align toe, giant Leo, Goa inlet, Tea Lingo, Nile goat, I got elan, lion gate...

Work - Kalpana Chawla

2005-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

We had done a Kalpana Chawla update for our client - Amar Chitra Katha, the comic has been featured on Rediff.

Our work is noticed and touches more people every day than we know :)

Happy Birthday Dinesh !!

2005-09-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

It was Dinesh's birthday on 8th September...and since we were just too lazy / ignorant, we decided to celebrate the same today. Apart from having a great time, we ended up with some geopolitics.

The Weapon

The Target

Fall of Bagdad !!

In case you were wondering what I was doing in all this...hehehe...I was disrupting enemy supplies...

The Commando !!

And now you know - Upper-case / Lower-case

2005-09-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

If you thought that 'Upper-case' and 'Lower-case' were obvious terms for 'capital' and 'small' aplhabets, you are in for a surprise.

These terms date back to the time when all types were pieces of metal (lead). Two wooden cases (drawers), the size of a small table, with several small compartments were used to hold these metal pieces. One case was kept flat on the table; the other case was positioned at an angle, above the top edge of the first case. All capital letters, small caps, fractions and an assortment of symbols were stored in the upper case, while the lower case held all lower-case letters, punctuation marks, numbers and units of spaces, etc.)

The original term for 'capital' letters is 'Majuscule', while the term for 'small' letters is 'Minuscule'. It would be interesting to note that before the concept of 'majuscules' most alphabet sets had a regular height. Other text styles that used decorative, yet regular form of majuscules and miniscules were known as 'uncials'.

Definition - Majuscule

Noun

One of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis

Adjective

Of or relating to a style of writing characterized by somewhat rounded capital letters; 4th to 8th centuries
Uppercase

"many medieval manuscripts are in majuscule script"

Resources

More information on 'Majuscules'

Word Mentality - Fusillade

2005-09-06T01:24:00.000-07:00

Fusillade

Noun

Rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms. Burst, salvo, volley

"Our fusillade from the left flank caught them by surprise"

Verb

Attack with fusillade

"The only way to stop the Cavalry was to fusillade them with arrows"

Synonyms

Burst, Salvo, Volley

Interesting Anagrams

Flailed us, Filled USA, Ideals Flu, Saudi Fell, Dual Files, Lauds Life, I fuel a LSD :) (among others)

Resources

And now you know - Thin Red Line

2005-09-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Thin Red Line

Most people would refer to this phrase as alluding the recent war movie by that name, but phrase traces its history back to the Crimean war and represented the bravery of Islesmen in the face of adversity.

The battle in question was the Battle of Balaclava (cira 1854), where the 93rd Highland regiment held off 25,000 Russian soldiers. The Highlanders were so outnumbered and compressed by the charging Russian cavalry that from a distance they appeared, famously, as "...that thin red line tipped with steel" (because of the colours in their uniforms).

Resources

Word Mentality - Poplar

2005-09-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Poplar

Noun

Soft light-coloured non-durable wood of the Poplar Tree
Any of numerous trees of north temperate regions having light soft wood and flowers borne in catkins

Resources

Great Days are made of these

2005-09-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

Catching up Hitesh after years (two to be precise)
Start with a bag of chips in the morning (with Dutt ;)
Early morning call with Seema
Cool Macromedia Studio 8 product launch
Lunch with the web team at Central
Happy Birthday by the entire team
Amazing flowers from Ady
Pineapple cake from Celejor
Rs. 850 voucher signed by the boss :)
'Kheer' made by mom

Another little gem

2005-09-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

For all the DIY and MOD fans...here is a little gem. Oh did I mention the 'Millenium Falcon' mod for a Mac Mini and iSight...ooops i've said too much...

And as always... Ady knows how to make your day bright :)

25 and ticking !!

2005-09-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

Read a one pager on how people feel that the Geeta should be looked as a source of spiritual growth for the younger generation instead of just the retired club.

I think as believers, we need to understand how essential 'Quiet Time' can be to us. Being my birthday, today is a better day than ever to start over.

Oh yes...Macromedia Studio 8 rocks !!!

Masonic meeting on 31st Aug

2005-08-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

Amid fever and chest congestion I reached the lodge only to find that the installation will not take place. One of the senior most members (Mr. Naval Baliwala) had expired earlier that day.

The service was interesting otherwise. Got another shot at being IG. Back to office tomorrow !!

GOOGLEee41d433e7184899

2005-08-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

Google Site Map test