Facebook

Yesterday when Microsoft picked up a stake in Facebook, there was a lot of talk about how a 3-year-old company was valued at $ 15 billion & became the most expensive internet start-up.

I'm an avid Facebooker & I think its a brilliant concept: not just as a networking site or as a business idea, but as a platform for creativity.

I continue to be amazed by the hundreds of new tools that young "college-students-cum-entrepreneurs" come up with everyday on Facebook. I read somewhere that the makers of one of the Facebook applications (was it "The Super Wall"?) are millionaires in their own right.

Its like a beauty contest for creativity; and that makes it fantastic.

History

The travel bug bit me again. We're going to Cambodia next month (yippie, I'm so excited!!). Planning this trip is like a dive into history: the Angkor sites are beautiful silent witnesses to rich ancient heritage; whereas the land-mine museum is a testimony to the depths of human avarice. This thought crossed my mind while I was sitting with my copy of the Lonely Planet- Cambodia:

History appears in many ways:
Through books, through stories,
Through songs, through cities.

Through pyramids & castles,
Through battle grounds & grave yards,
Through food & thought,
Through poetry, through art.

In the crystal ball,
There it is,
Only a pretense of future,
In fact a copy of the past.

The Dali Statue

Singapore has a great public art collection, which can be seen in many parts of the Central Business District. This piece here is created by Salvador Dali and is called "Homage to Newton" (popularly called simply "The Dali Statue"). Bizzare as Dali's surrealist style looks, I find his work here quite interesting.

It is a homage to Isaac Newton & his pursuit of science. The plaque below the statue explains that the open torso is meant to depict Newton's open-heartedness & the open skull is meant to depict his open-mindedness; both important qualities for not just pursuit of science, but all human endevours.

Baby Blues

A good friend of mine had a baby recently & she wonders why people use the term "sleep like a baby" to mean "sound sleep"; when in fact babies wake up every two hours.