Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Found the following website called Overplot created by Google employee Mihai Parparita which maps funny conversations people overheard in New York onto a Google Map.

Below is a sample of quotes from the site:

Dad: All I know is right now, somewhere, an artist is sitting back and laughing at us.
Little girl: Or if he’s in Australia, he might be sleeping.

Subway conductor: Please enter the train as human beings, not wild animals.

Dim bulb: I’d say the odds are pretty good. At least fifty-fifty.
Dimmer bulb: No, they’re not that good. More like forty-forty.

Thanks to Google Blogoscoped for the link.

– Suramya

Found this interesting article on The Register about Cross-cultural dispatches from the gender wars

Below are some that I really liked:

1. Among the Native American Navajo, cultural tradition assigns gender to the rain. Male rain is the brief, drenching, thunderous storms of late summer. Female rain is the long, soft, dampening drizzle of winter. It is further believed that male rain acts as a power wash and drives off whatever bad there is. Female rain acts as a tender rinse and brings forth the colour of the grass and wild flowers of the springtime.

4. The Chamula people of Mexico practice a six-month trial marriage to see if the couple can live together successfully. What makes this arrangement different from what we so often practice is that this trial marriage is without sex.

5. In the remote northwestern desert region of China, there is an oasis town by the name of Hami. It is a customary courtesy for both married and unmarried women to offer themselves to any traveling man. It is seen as merely good manners among a people who highly value good manners in all things (by the way all you men out there, the tour bus leaves for Hami in five minutes!).

– Suramya

One of the most common problems documentary filmmakers face is the incidental appearance of copyrighted art, music and other media in the world they are documenting. This really interesting comic by three law professors takes a look at the legal barriers to documentary filmmaking.

Check it out: Bound By Law

Thanks to The Photos Blog @Wired for the link.

– Suramya