How Brad Became Benjamin(video)

Behind-the-scenes footage and DVD Special Features are often hit-or-miss. Sometimes you get the insight and insider knowledge you were looking for, and sometimes you get completely disposable filler. Well, this video from TED2009 is one of the good ones. Digital Domain’s Executive Vice President Ed Ulbrich gives a talk on the technology his team pioneered in order to create photo-realistic versions of Brad Pitt’s face at various advanced ages for David Fincher’s Oscar-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I’ve had more than my fair share of people ask me how they pulled off the amazing effects we see in Benjamin Button (why anyone assumes I know is another mind-boggling affair). Well, this video’s for you guys. It’s honestly a really interesting watch and it runs down the process without being too superficial or inundating us with information. Highly recommended.

Filmfare awards 09 and the winners are ....

Bollywood stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra were declared the best male and female actors respectively at the glittering 54th Idea Filmfare Awards ceremony in Mumbai late Saturday night.

Hrithik won the award for essaying the role of Emperor Akbar in Jodhaa Akbar, while Priyanka walked away with the black lady statuette for her performance in Fashion.

Jodhaa Akbar pipped Dostana, Ghajini, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and Rock On!to bag the best film trophy, while the best director award went to Ashutosh Gowariker for Jodhaa Akbar.

Held at the Yash Raj Studios here, the evening saw a plethora of Bollywood's Who's Who dressed in their fanciest best walking the red carpet at the event.

Here is the list of 54 Idea Filmfare Awards 2009:

Best Movie: Jodha Akbar

Best Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar for Jodha Akbar

Best Actor in a Leading role (Male): Hrithik Roshan for Jodha Akbar

Best Actor in a Leading role (Female): Priyanka Chopra for Fashion
Best Actor in Supporting Role (Male): Arjun Rampal for Rock On!

Best Actor in Supporting Role (Female): Kangana Ranaut for Fashion

Critic Awards

Best Actress: Sahana Goswami for Rock On!

Best Actor: Manjit Singh for Oye Lucky! Lucy Oye!

Best Jury Award: Nishikant Kamat for Mumbai Meri Jaan

Special jury mention to Prateik Babbar and Purab Kohli for Jaane tu ... and Rock on! respectively

Music

Best Music Director: A R Rahman for Jaane tu ya Jaane Na)

Best Lyrics: Javed Akhtar for Jashn-e-Bahara (Jodha Akbar )

Best Playback Singer (Male): Sukhwinder Singh for Haule haule (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi)

Best Playback Singer (Female): Shreya Ghoshal for Teri ore... (Singh is Kinng)

R D Burman Upcoming Talent: Benny Dayal for Ghajini



Best Story: Abhishek Kapoor for Rock On!

Best Screenplay: Yogendra Vinayak Joshi, Upendra Sidhaye for Mumbai Meri Jaan

Best Dialogue: Manu Rishi for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!


Technical awards

Best Background Score: A R Rahman for Jodha Akbar

Best Costume : Manoshi Nath for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Best Cinematography: Jason West for Rock On!

Best Sound Design: Vinod Subramanyam for Rock On!

Best Choreography : Longines for Pappu Can’t Dance Sala . ( Jaane Tu...)

Best Editing: Amit Pawar for Mumbai Meri Jaan

Best Production Design: Vandan Kataria and Monica Angelica Bhowmick for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Best Action: Peter Hein for Ghajini

Best Visual Effects Award: John Deitz for Love Story 2050



Best Sensational Debut (Male): Farhan Akhtar and Imraan Khan

Best Sensational Debut (Female): Asin Thottumkal for Ghajini


Sony Filmfare Best Scene Award: Rab Ne Bana di Jodi

Lifetime Achievement Award :Bhanu Athaiya, Om Puri

Breakup of awards won by each movie

Rock On - 7

Jodha Akbar - 5

Jaane Tu yaa jaane na - 4

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye , Mumbai Meri Jaan, Gajini - 3

Fashion - 2

Singh is King, Love Story 2050,Rab ne bana di jodi - 1

Things that we do not agree with Filmfare Awards 2009:
1. A Wednesday did not get a single award at Filmfare Awards, in spite of being the most under-rated movie that stood out all gun. Most would agree that A Wednesday deserved awards for the best script(this was really an original story), best dialogue and best actor in a critics's role to Naseeruddin Shah.

2. Paresh Rawal has arguably given his career best performance in Mumbai Meri Jaan. Sad that he was even nominated!

3. Why has Filmfare scrapped the 'Best Actor/Actress in Comic Role'? What if you have someone excelling in a tragic or serious role, and the other doing absolutely amazing in a comic role? Shoudn't the actor playing comedy deserve better? People like Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal will be side-lined if they scrape the comic role awards. This year, Abhishek Bachchan had a chance to win for his funny act in Dostana.

Shipping Windows 7 in Sept : Microsoft.

Microsoft could have Windows 7 on shipping PCs by September, Compal president Ray Chen said today at an investor's conference. The PC contractor executive understands from plans that the software should be available in either late September or early October. The news would corroborate word of an April release candidate that would let Microsoft finish, manufacture and deliver Windows 7 well ahead of the holidays.

Compal builds systems on behalf of Acer, HP and other major PC makers.

Amelia Agrawal, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, maintains the official company position that Windows 7 will be available within three years of when Vista shipped. However, the company's and other leaks have increasingly suggested that the public goal, which would put the release in early 2010, is deliberately conservative and meant to avoid embarrassment in the event of an unexpected delay. Microsoft has acknowledged a shortened development track that includes just one public beta and one readily available release candidate before the ship date.

While Windows 7 itself has proven stable in testing, the company is believed under significant pressure to release it this year. One of the first significant declines in revenue surfaced in Microsoft's most recent financial quarter as continued hesitation over Vista as well as a preference for Windows XP in netbooks have both hurt the company's core business. Windows 7 improves both performance and user interface elements, and is explicitly designed to run more smoothly on netbook-level hardware.

NANO on March 23rd ???????

Tata Motors said on Thursday it would launch its Nano, slated to be the world's cheapest car, on March 23 and accept bookings from the second week of April.

The car expected to be priced around Rs 1,00,000 was unveiled in January 2008 and was scheduled to go on sale last October, but problems with the main plant location delayed the launch.

Since its unveiling on January 10, 2008 the Nano has evoked unprecedented interest with its website having recorded over 30 million hits in the past one year.

Just seen, never heard: 15 MPs who didn't speak

The most famous image of MPs is of them shouting and screaming in the Lok Sabha but there is set of legislators in the House: silent ones.

There were at least 15 MPs in the fourteenth Lok Sabha who never opened their mouths or asked a question in the five years of their terms. These MPs might be great at shouting slogans but they were simply dumbstruck when it came to questions and debates in the House.

Actor Dharmendra, who is famous for his weighty dialogues in movies, didn't speak a word in Parliament in five years. The Bikaner MP is not alone though.

Kannada actor M H Ambareesh, a former Union Minister and Congress MP from Mandya in Karnataka, didn’t have anything to say too.

Biren Singh Engti and Manikrao Hodlya Gavit make the list as does Babubhai Khimabhai Katara, the BJP MP from Dohad in Gujarat who is accused of masterminding an illegal immigration racket.

Also on the list are BJP's Baliram Kashyap, Sohan Potai and Somabhai Gandalal Koli Patel.

Shiv Sena MP Anand Prakash Paranjpe voted against his party’s wishes during the trust vote on July 22,2008 but has been largely silent.

Other ‘silent’ MPs include Beni Prasad Verma and Saleem Iqbal Shervani of the Samajwadi Party, BSP's Bhishma Shankar and Akbar Ahmad Dumpy, Kunwar Sarvraj Singh of the Janata Dal (United and NCP's Laxman Rao Pandurang Patil.

The story of deafening silence doesn't end there. Egged on by their parties, there were many others who debated with zest but forgot to ask basic questions about their constituencies.

BJP's PM-in-waiting Lal Krishna Advani and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, their parties top leaders in the House, didn’t have any question in five years.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who is the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister now, didn’t ask any questions when he was MP. Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit, one of the ‘Young Guns’ in Parliament, was mum for five years.

There are more statistics about questions that could stun. Actor MP Raj Babbar asked five questions while another in a similar league, Vinod Khanna asked four.

Congress MP Jitin Prasada asked six and his party colleague Rahul Gandhi asked five. Sachin Pilot, their party colleague, is takes the cake though. Pilot asked just one question in his five-year term.

Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav, one of the silent MPs, says he will be more involved in debates in his next term. “This time, I was busy with the party’s work, the next time my party and I will dedicate more time to the Lok Sabha,” he said.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who retired on Thursday, has been critical of unruly MPs but ‘silent’ ones peeved him too. “Obviously, people would not want silent MPs, they would want their grievances to be raised. But we can't compel them to speak,” he said.

Source : Cnn-Ibn

New Jersey for the Indian team

From next time the men in blue will be in different attire when they play One-Day International or Twenty20 international.
The new jersey, this time, changed for the second time in two years. Team India skipper M S Dhoni, pacer Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Pragyan Ojha and Rohit Sharma unveiled the jersey.

The occasion became more special when former players like Venkatesh Prasad, Vinod Kambli, Robin Singh and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan were also present wearing the old blue jersey of the Team India.

This time the colour of the jersey is totally different from the traditional colour, which the players were wearing. Skipper MS Dhoni also praised the new jersey.

"It would look good, won't get dirty easily," said Dhoni in a funny way. The Indian team will wear the new jersey when they tour New Zealand.

The Indian team will leave for New Zealand on Thursday and will start the tour with a Twenty20 match at Christchurch on February 25. The next Twenty20 game will played in Wellington on February 27. The ODI series starts from March 3, while the Test series will get underway from March 18.

Photographer captures the end of the rainbow on his iPhone

So now we know what's at the end of the rainbow - and it's not a pot of gold.

Instead it meets the northbound carriageway of the Highway 241 toll road in Orange County, California.And according to witnesses it was travelling at just over 30mph( I don't understand how they came up with that speed :D)

This amazing picture was snapped last Sunday, following a storm on the west coast of the US, by amateur photographer Jason Erdkamp's iPhone.

According to myth there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, perhaps hidden by leprechauns.

But Jason, from the Los Angeles suburb of Lake Forest, said: "There was no pot of gold, but I did win $25 that night on a lottery ticket."

Facebook wilts under pressure, scraps new policy on user info

Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early on Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information--for now.

The site posted a brief message on users' home pages that said it was returning to its previous ‘Terms of Use’ policy "while we resolve the issues that people have raised."

The ‘Terms of Use’ is the legalese tacked on to the bottom of most Web sites that details what the site's owners can do with the information that users provide.

Facebook, the Web's most popular social networking site, has been caught in a content-rights battle after revealing earlier this month that it was granting itself permanent rights to users' photos, wall posts and other information even after a user closed an account.

The popular site allows users to create personal profiles where they can then connect with one another, upload photos and share links. The site boasts more than 150 million active users.Member backlash against Facebook began over the weekend after a consumer advocate Web site, The Consumerist, flagged a change made to Facebook's policy earlier in the month.

The company deleted a sentence from the old Terms of Use. That sentence said Facebook could not claim any rights to original content that a user uploaded once the user closed his or her account.It replaced it with: "You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. ... (H)owever, you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

In response, Chris Walters wrote in the Consumerist post, "Make sure you never upload anything you don't feel comfortable giving away forever, because it's Facebook's now."Thousands of indignant members either cancelled their accounts or created online petitions. Among them were more than 64,000 who joined a group called ‘The People Against the new Terms of Service’.

On Monday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to quell the controversy by saying the company's philosophy is that "people own their information and control who they share it with."But members were not appeased because the site did not fix its Terms of Use. The company, in its post Wednesday, said it was returning to its previous Terms of Use because of the "feedback" it had received.

"As Mark expressed in his blog post on Monday, it was never our intention to confuse people or make them uneasy about sharing on Facebook," company spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a blog post. "I also want to be very clear that Facebook does not, nor have we ever, claimed ownership over people's content. Your content belongs to you."

Schnitt said the company is in the process of rewording its Terms of Use in "simple language that defines Facebook's rights much more specifically.""Well that worked pretty fast," wrote member Al Reford of Vancouver, British Columbia. "Numbers count when giving feedback :)"

I am not good enough for politics : DADA

Amidst reports that he is being wooed by political parties to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha poll, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday said that he was not good enough for politics.

"It is not true. I am not good enough for politics," Ganguly told reporters in Kolkata when asked if he was planning to join politics.Asked about reports that he was going to join the Samajwadi party, Ganguly quipped "I have my own state."

The speculations about Ganguly joining politics gained momentum after his wife Don said earlier, "The West Bengal government definitely wants that he (Sourav) should step into politics and when I was in Lucknow for a programme, some minister who was there said that Sourav should come and fight from Uttar Pradesh

"Such offers keep coming but Sourav has not yet decided," she had added.

Asked which party wanted to offer a ticket to Sourav, Dona said "I don't remember, I think Samajwadi Party although I may be wrong. Since I am not into politics I don't exactly know the names of people in politics. But I think it was SP."

When queried on the matter, SP leader Amar Singh told reporters "Nobody from our side has officially gone to Dona Ganguly. But if Ganguly wants to join SP, we will consider ourselves lucky."

Sourav has already been invited by the ruling coalition in his home state to fight the coming elections on a Communist Party of India - Marxist ticket.

Every Indian to have debt of Rs 30,000 by March '10

Viewed from an angle, the average debt of every Indian has been estimated to soar to about Rs 30,000 in about a year with the government Competitive economies stepping up it borrowing programme in the next fiscal to fund public expenditure and stimulate the economy.

The average debt of a citizen would nearly be equal to his 10-month income, which on an annual basis has recently been estimated at Rs 38,000 by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) for a population of 115.4 crore (Rs 1.15 billion).

With the government adding about Rs 3,00,000 crore (Rs 3000 billion) to the public debt annually in the last few years, the total public debt is estimated to zoom to a whooping Rs 34,06,322 crore (Rs 34.06 trillion) by March 2010, nearly double the amount recorded seven years ago.

In order to fight the impact of the global financial meltdown on the Indian economy, the government substantially increased its market borrowing programme in 2008-09.

According to budget papers, as against the target of Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion), the government would end up raising Rs 2,62,000 crore (Rs 2,620 billion) during 2008-09, more than two and a half times the original estimate.

Part of the increase in borrowings can be attributed to the stimulus packages raising expenditure and reducing revenues through slashing duties.For the next fiscal, the government has pegged the market borrowing target at over Rs 3,00,000 crore (Rs 3 trillion), which is expected to be revised upwards at the time of the regular budget in July.

India's public debt includes market borrowings, external debt and other liabilities like small savings and provident funds.Funds raised through market borrowing programmes and issuing treasury bills account for a major portion of the public debt.

Of the total of Rs 34 lakh crore, about Rs 22.7 lakh crore will be internal debt, the amount raised through the borrowing programme.The external debt, which comprises funds raised from multilateral and bilateral lending agencies, is expected to be about Rs 1.38 lakh crore by the end of March 2010, while the other liabilities will account for the remaining Rs 10 lakh crore.

Baby-faced boy Alfie Patten is father at 13

BOY dad Alfie Patten yesterday admitted he does not know how much nappies cost — but said: “I think it’s a lot.”

Baby-faced Alfie, who is 13 but looks more like eight, became a father four days ago when his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman gave birth to 7lb 3oz Maisie Roxanne.

He told how he and Chantelle, 15, decided against an abortion after discovering she was pregnant.

The shy lad, whose voice has not yet broken, said: “I thought it would be good to have a baby.

“

I didn’t think about how we would afford it. I don’t really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10.”

Alfie, who is just 4ft tall, added: “When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried how people would react.

“I didn’t know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it.”

Alfie's story, broken exclusively by The Sun today has sparked a huge political storm with Tory leader David Cameron saying: "When I saw these pictures this morning, I just thought how worrying that in Britain today children are having children.

"I hope that somehow these children grow up into responsible parents but the truth is parenthood is just not something they should be thinking about right now."

Why blame H-1B workers for America's woes ???

As the U.S. recession deepens and job losses mount, finding fault with foreigners is very much in vogue. The tendency reared its head recently as U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Charles Grassley began pushing for legislation that would restrict banks and other financial institutions from hiring immigrants on the temporary work permits known as H-1B visas.

Grassley and Saunders got their dander up after an Associated Press story detailed how big U.S. banks brought in skilled foreign labor during the six years before the financial crisis.These workers entered the U.S. on H-1B visas and some firms (not necessarily these banks) found ways to pay H-1B workers less than Americans in comparable positions, the article claimed. Outraged by these findings, Sanders and Grassley pushed the Senate to pass legislation restricting banks from hiring H-1Bs

These visas are valid for up to six years. If a worker on an H-1B visa wants to stay permanently, he has to apply for a permanent resident visa.These visas are in very short supply and can take more than a decade to obtain. But placing limits on this mechanism for bringing foreign workers to the U.S. is not the answer to the country's rising unemployment rate and may undermine efforts to spur technological innovation. Holders of H-1B visas add substantially to U.S. innovation

One reasearch found that when H-1B visa numbers went down, so did patent applications filed by immigrants. And when H-1B visa numbers went up, patent applications followed suit. Indians contributed to 7.6% and Chinese contributed to 11.8% of all patents filed from 2000 to 2004, even though Indians and Chinese comprise less than 1% of the U.S. population each.

Tech companies were highly dependent on Indians and Chinese for their innovation. In 2006, these groups contributed to 33% of patents filed by Intel, 23% of those for Microsoft, and 22% of patents filed by IBM. Even for consumer giant P & G, the immigrant patent contribution was 11%.

Foreign nationals residing in the U.S. were named as inventors in 25.6% of international patent applications filed from the U.S. in 2006. This increased from 7.6% in 1998. That's an astonishing 337% increase.

As of Sept. 30, 2006, there were 1,181,505 educated and skilled professionals waiting to gain legal permanent-resident status.These workers were on visas like the H-1B. To make matters worse, there is yearly allotment of only 120,000 permanent resident visas for such skilled workers and a 7% limit on how many visas can go to immigrants from any one country.

So immigrants from populous countries such as India and China could be waiting decades for a permanent resident visa unless immigration quotas are relaxed.

The economic downturn has made matters much worse. When American workers who have the skills to file patents and develop new technologies get laid off, they often start new companies.And these companies generate employment and help the economy recover. When workers on H-1B visas get laid off, they usually have no choice but to return home and start their companies abroad.

So they are planting the seeds for future economic growth in their home countries, seeds that could easily have been planted in the U.S.So the critics of skilled immigration may get their wish. We will scare away the world's best and brightest who have always flocked to our shores. But the next Silicon Valley won't be in located the U.S. It will likely be in Hyderabad or Shanghai.

Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.

Source : treebeard31.. click here

Slumdog Millionaire sweeps BAFTA Awards

Slumdog Millionaire swept the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards 2009 winning seven awards from the 11 categories it was nominated in.

Slumdog Millionaire won awards in the following categories: Best Film, Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Best Music (AR Rahman), Best Editing (Chris Dickens), Best Sound (Resul Pookutty, Glen Freemantle, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp) and Best Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle)

The awards were presented at a glittering ceremony on Sunday night at The Royal Opera House in London, England.

Apart from Rahman, Pookutty is the other Indian to win a BAFTA Award for Best Sound for Slumdog Millionaire.

Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel who was nominated for Best Actor lost to Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

Freida Pinto who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress lost to Penelope Cruz who won for Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

Other winners at BAFTA:

• Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

• Best Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

• Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

• Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicki Cristina Barcelona)

• Best Production Design: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Make-Up & Hair: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

• Best Original Screenplay: In Bruges

The BAFTA Awards are often called the British Oscars, so it is certainly an important night for the team before they head for the grandest night of all - the Oscars in Los Angeles.

England allout for 51 [:o]

It's been so long that West Indies' fans have had cause to cheer this long and hard, and the players - who, to be honest, look shell-shocked - are walking around a sun-baked ground to wave to the supporters. An outstanding allround performance from a team which - whisper it - might have turned the corner.

England, though, are disconsolate. It's their third-lowest Test total (their second-lowest of 46 came here in the Caribbean in 1994) and today their batsmen have lacked application and intent, against Jerome Taylor whose 5 for 11 won't be forgotten for a while.

It's just pure elation for West Indies almost disbelief.
With such a disasterous performance in carrebian it looks like the ashes this year is going to be a nice watch with bost australia and england on a downslide....

	England 2nd innings			R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
		AJ Strauss	c Ramdin b Taylor	9	69	50	0	0	18.00
		AN Cook	c Smith b Taylor	0	11	6	0	0	0.00
		IR Bell	c Ramdin b Benn	4	24	22	0	0	18.18
		KP Pietersen	b Taylor	1	3	3	0	0	33.33
		PD Collingwood	b Taylor	1	35	20	0	0	5.00
		A Flintoff	b Edwards	24	78	47	3	0	51.06
		MJ Prior	b Taylor	0	2	4	0	0	0.00
		SCJ Broad	c Marshall b Benn	0	5	2	0	0	0.00
		RJ Sidebottom	lbw b Benn	6	51	43	0	0	13.95
		SJ Harmison	b Benn	0	10	3	0	0	0.00
		MS Panesar	not out	0	3	3	0	0	0.00
		Extras	(b 2, nb 4)	6
		Total	(all out; 33.2 overs; 155 mins)	51	(1.53 runs per over)

Its not all merry at Google!!!!!!!!!!!

Before this article I thought Google was one of the hippiest and happiest place to work in. And the fact they didn’t care if you turned up for work in bikinis.

These emails make me think I am grossly wrong!

Click here to read the article about why people quit google....

Those who dont have much time to read such a big article the following sums it up perfectly

Google employees are working in a “virtual prison” full of myth. The idea that Larry Page is still reading all CVs is a myth. The fact that all employees are happy in a happy environment is a myth too. From people I know that work in Google, I can tell you that it’s far from being the ideal company to work for.
Their strategy is simple: they setup strict rules in order to keep secret all internal issues to the external world. When you speak with “Googlers”, you really see that it has nothing different than a sect! If one Googler dare to criticized or comment on Google or other employees, he/she is red flaged by the watch dogs inside the company.
Using their magic marketing aura, they are able to attract qualified labour at a low cost (offering benefits such as free food, games, stock options that worth nothing and supposedly nice environment). The real face of Google’s inside is much more depressing. High competition, low benefits, hard boring and manual work.
Also in terms of technology, it is amazing to see that Google’s internal systems and organization is very rudimentary and doesn’t work well. They may have good technology for their users, but their employees suffers under huge manual boring tasks that can be easily automated with proper management, organization and systems.

Puzzle of the day

Manish was on his way to an interview. On the way, he encountered his long lost cousin, Vijay, whom he hadn't met in more than a decade. They started catching up on lost time. Manish learned that Vijay had 3 sons. When he asked about their ages, Vijay replied, "You're going for an interview, right? Consider this a trial question. Figure out their ages from this: The product of the ages of my three sons is 36." To this, Manish grumbled that he needed more information. Vijay, then, pointed to a sign board across the street that displayed the address of the area and said that the sum of the ages of his three children was equal to the last two digits of the pin code of that area. Yet, Manish demanded more information. Finally, Vijay said, "My eldest son wore a black shirt today. This is all I can tell you." What were the ages of the three children? Provide a detailed explanation for your answer.

Rahman to Slumdog... critics: Make your own film

Oscar nominee A R Rahman has a polite suggestion for those in Bollywood who complain that the hit film Slumdog Millionaire casts India in a negative light with its depiction of poverty in Mumbai's slums: don't just criticise it but make your own film.
"In my opinion if creative people want to comment on a film, and if I were a director and felt that way, I would make another film and prove my point and say this is what India is about," Rahman said in an interview from Los Angeles before returning home to work on film scores before participating in the February 22 Oscars awards show.
As for Slumdog Millionaire, the noted film music composer believes it is "a great statement of showing in a way the past reality and the growth of the economy in India, which all comes across beautifully."
Forty-three-year-old Rahman has been hailed in India for his three Oscar nominations for Slumdog Millionaire - for best original score and the songs O ... Saya and Jai Ho. But the rags-to-riches saga of a Mumbai orphan who competes on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? quiz show received a controversial reception in India.
Rahman refused to comment on a defamation lawsuit filed against him and actor Anil Kapoor, who plays the quizmaster in the film, by a Mumbai slum-dwellers' rights group alleging its members found the term "Slumdog" insulting.
But he said he had no qualms about working on the film with British director Danny Boyle and his crew, whom he described as "very sensitive people."
"When you came out of the film ... that felt so good and positive that nothing else mattered to me," said Rahman. "I loved working with Danny and I loved his whole vision of the screenplay and the artistic quality of the film.
"And for me it's not about India alone, it's about the human spirit which triumphs, and this could have happened in China or Brazil or anywhere else."
Rahman says the film is consistent with his humanitarian goals. An honorary UN ambassador, he set up the A R Rahman Foundation to support educational programs for underprivileged children across India, supporting in his own way the UN millennium goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2015. He has also founded a conservatory in his home city of Chennai to prepare youngsters for careers in music by offering training in both the Western and Indian classical music traditions.