Use Expletives. Get Promotion.

Want your boss to appreciate your suggestions? Then use this advice by scientists at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.

The researchers found that statements sprinkled with expletives were significantly more likely to be believed than clean versions.

[...]

The study asked a group of 54 students whether they thought themselves more likely to believe a statement if it contained swearwords.

[...]

Both statements were rated more believable by the students given the four-letter versions. The denial statement with swearwords scored 5.2, compared with 4.2 for the sanitised version. The victim’s unexpurgated statement scored 6.3, compared with 5.1 for the one free of swearwords. The authors called the distinction “significant”, as swearwords were found to be more credible than the swearword-free testimonies. “Testimonies containing swearwords were perceived as more credible than swearword-free testimonies. Hence it is concluded that swearing increases believability of statements,” the authors said.

Now I know what to say the next time I meet my boss for an appraisal. And to take our learning further, here’s a fake mail from a Microsoft HR guy containing the choicest Hindi expletives that you could use. For Telugu expletives, read this discussion at Freehyderabad discussion boards.

Now get cracking you b******s! You can thank me later.

P.S: Feel free to share expletives from other languages.

Best Freebies on the Web

Checkout this slide show of 101 best web freebies on Business Week.

My favourite web freebies that find a place in the slideshow are as follows. (And they are all Open Source!):

Ubuntu - Have a new PC? Now you need an operating system, and that can run up to an additional $278 for Microsoft’s Vista operating system or up to $200 for Apple’s Leopard. The Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is free and comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, browser, e-mail, media player, and photo-editing software.

OpenOffice – The basic version of Microsoft’s popular Office suite runs as high as $400. There’s no charge for OpenOffice.org, and it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Gimp - Adobe Photoshop is a powerful graphics program, but with a $999 price tag, few can afford it. Open-source download GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) performs many of the same image editing and retouching tasks for free.

and of course,

WordPress!! – One of the first free blog hosting sites, WordPress offers features like user registration, spam protection, and a wide variety of designs.

I use all of the above freebies and recommend them to anyone who is heading for a paid option. Already evangelised quite a few victims. That said, I do wish to own a Mac some day .

PS: All links open into new windows/tabs.

Just Read: The Indians – Portrait of a People

I have finished reading Sudhir Kakar’s The Indians – Portrait of a People. This book tries to capture the essence of the Indian psyche. What makes us Indians what we are. Of course, the first thought that pops up is how can you do that in one book? This country is too vast and too complex for that. And this he admits in the Introduction itself when he says:

How can anyone generalise about a country of a billion people–Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains–speaking fourteen major languages and with pronounced differences? How can one postulate anything in common between a people divided not only by social class but also by India’s signature system of caste, and with an ethnic diversity characteristic more of past empires than of modern nations?

And yet, he, along with his wife and co-author Katharina Kakar, manages to pin point the vital characteristics that are woven together to form the Indian identity. This identity is something that is common to every Indian irrespective of where he / she lives. Just like it would be in the case of a person from Africa, Japan or China. He is an African or a Japanese or a Chinese first, everything else follows. “The Indian-ness”, he says, ” is about similarities produced by the overreaching, Indic, pre-eminently Hindu civilization that has contributed the lion’s share to what we would call the ‘cultural gene pool’ of India’s people.”

If I have, to (gulp!) put his thoughts in my words, I’d say we are Bhel Puri of sorts. The main ingredients being Religion, History and Hindu culture patterns.

The Indian-ness is something that is so woven into our minds that we don’t even need to learn it. We imbibe it in ourselves as we grow up. It’s so ubiquitous, that very few of us fail to recognise this all important characteristic. We are just too involved in our day-to-day chores. Take for example, the existence of Hierarchies in our lives. They are everywhere. At our workplaces, families, schools and even in informal gatherings. We want to know where we stand in comparison to the other person(s). Else we feel that something is missing. Not that we use this as a yard stick to measure our ‘performance’. But somehow, we are more comfortable when we know where we stand.

Another important part of our lives is the ‘family name’. What does your father do? This is perhaps the most important question that Indians ask.

Sudhir Kakar covers all this and many more ingredients in this book. I enjoyed reading it.

Image sourced from here.

Tackling Violence – The Commie Way

The West Bengal government has decided to call out Army to control clashes in Kolkata over Nandigram.

Earlier, activists of the All India Minority Forum protesting the violence in Nandigram on Wednesday indulged in brick-batting, blocked roads and clashed with police, which used batons and teargas to disperse the protesters.

The character, or lack of it, of India’s communists is on full display here. Nandigram burns for more than a month. Hundreds die. Forget sending the army, the CPI(M) makes sure that even the Police stays away. And when a bunch of protesters pelt stones, the army is called-in! Who needs terrorists when we have commies?

Update: Seems the situation is Kolkata is more serious than I earlier thought. The entire city had been brought to a halt due to the violence and lots of public property was damaged. It’s now being debated that the protests could have been used as a diversionary tactic. Mamata Bannerjee, who deplored what happened in Nandigram is yet to make a statement against what heppened today.

Update 2: This is my post # 100.

The Fatal Finger of Fate

This piece of commentary by one of the Cricinfo sleuths covering the Australia Vs Sri Lanka match cracked me up big time:

Sangakkara played a delicious knock, counterattacking in the end with some breathtaking shots, before the fatal finger of fate intervened. Malinga indulged in some hit and giggle before Australia wrapped up the series win.

Fatal finger of fate? I did not know fate used fingers to make its interventions. Heck, I did not know fate had fingers in the first place! It took a cruel intervention of fate to enlighten me. And am I glad or what?

Details of which finger fate exactly used are yet to come by.