Know the world ….

Wonder whether the countries listed themselves have so much information with them. The world factbook of CIA – “the place” to look for information and stats on any country ……

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Quick facts : INDIA - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/in.html

 

- 1,147,995,904 people ( est. as of july 2008), 31% of population less than 14 yrs of age

- 516.4 million strong labour force,  7.2% unemployed 

- 25% below poverty line, (who defines BPL ???)

- 39% illiterate and spends 3.2% on education

- Earns $141 billion and spends $178 billion

- has 58% of GDP as public debt

- consumes 2.438 million bbl/day of oil (2005)

- 233.62 million mobile phone connections and 60 million internet users

- 340 airports, 63221 km railway lines, 1.6 million km paved roads….

and a lot more stats ………. chk them out.

Google Chrome d….

I am loving it !!!!! Just installed the beta version of Google’s attempt of improving the browsing experience- Google Chrome – and boy what a browsing experience it has been. Its like picking the best features of all the browsers and designing a single package. I have less clutter and more usable screen space.

It took close to a minute to load the first instance of firefox. But Chrome is surprisingly fast and nimble. Its fast to load and relatively faster to download (when the same file is loaded in two different browsers). Still to test all of its features, but so far it has been exceptional.

The only point which does irk me is that, it seems to have borrowed its simple-to-use User Interface from other browsers. But I think that was what I wanted – a great browsing experience by combining the best features of each browser in a single package.

Google Chrome rocks !!!! If you are yet to test this one, get it now – here. 

The fine print here is – its still in the beta version. So wait for the complete version before you form an opinion about its drawbacks.

Here comes the Gustav !!!

and guess who are ecstatic because of it – The speculators.

“Hurricane of the century” exclaims the New orleans mayor. Thousands have started pulling out after mandatory evacuation was called for. However some people still stay put . Wherever they are, none of them would like to relive the disaster of hurricane katrina. The US gulf coast which experiences such hurricanes, is home to a sizeable refining capacity which are shutdown along with the oil rigs in the gulf of mexico, in the event of hurricanes. Though they are entirely different entities, predicting the path of the hurricane and the price rise of oil are similar – only thing that is of certainity is – both of them are sure to wreak havoc – and the only unknown is how hard is the impact going to be .

Not much can be done against nature, but this was the perfect excuse the speculators have been waiting for. Today – 31 Aug 2008 – Price of a barrel of light crude stands at $ 115. But one week from now, the prices are going to pushed up north. How much can this go up? My guess is about 10-15%, if not more …. what do you think ?

 

Sep 3, 2008 – Oil trades at $108.25 per barrel. Surprising !!! What’s the reason? This must have some explanation…..