Maya Angelou : the African-American writer, poet, actress, ....

http://yralindia.tumblr.com/post/87180611033/16-inspirational-maya-angelou-quotes-that-young-indians

Angelou describes her writing process as regimented. Beginning with Caged Bird, she has used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She gets up at five in the morning and checks into a hotel room, where the staff has been instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She writes on legal pads while lying on the bed, with a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and leaves by the early afternoon. She averages 10–12 pages of material a day, which she edits down to three or four pages in the evening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Why_the_Caged_Bird_Sings

Internet Trends 2014 : Informational Read

http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/internet-trends-2014-05-28-14-pdf

Short Film Shadow : Awesomely scripted!

Gender Discrimination in China : subtle, invisible yet devastating

Female literacy rate is dropping. 

Only some 13 percent of women in China were illiterate (with female youth literacy rates at close to 100 percent) compared to well over 50 percent in India (where female youth literacy was only at 68 percent). The data has changed in the intervening years: for the 2008-2012 period female youth literacy in India is at 74.4 percent. The corresponding figure for China is however 99.6 percent. Similarly, for the 2008-2012 period adult literacy rates for women as a percentage of men is only 67.6 percent in India compared to 95.1 percent in China.

Male Child Preference.
In China, traditional male preference was compounded by the State’s one child policy, which confined much of the population to a single offspring, leading to a spike in sex-selective abortions. At 117-119 boys for every 100 girls, China’s sex ratio was worse than India’s record of 108-110 boys to every 100 girls.

House Ownership and Marriage Laws
It is almost impossible for young people to pay for apartments out of earned salaries. Parents therefore contribute substantially to down payments and mortgages for their children. Crucially parents overwhelmingly choose to help only male offspring, given the widely accepted notion that a young man needs a property in his name in order to attract a suitable wife. As a norm, daughters are not aided by parents in acquiring homes since it is assumed they will marry a man with a house to his name. Women spend their own savings in helping a male cousin to buy property in order to enhance his chances in the marriage market, foregoing their own shot at property ownership.

A new 2011 interpretation by the Supreme Court of China’s Marriage Law rules that marital property should not be shared equally in the event of a divorce, but each side should keep what is in his, or her, own name. But, given that a vast majority of such property is solely registered in the husband’s name, women suffer serious and disproportionate financial consequences due to divorce.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/the-myth-of-leftover-women-091025071.html

Riding a driverless car :)

Google's robotic cars start as standard vehicles but each packs about $150,000 in equipment, including a $70,000 radarlike Lidar system, with a laser on the roof and enough cameras and high-tech gizmos inside to make any Silicon Valley techie envious.

These devices allow the vehicle to generate a detailed 3-D map of its environment, based on maps Google has produced, and take pictures of its surroundings to detect cars, pedestrians, construction zones and other obstacles in its path.

And how many accidents have occurred in which the driverless vehicle was at fault? One, Google says, with an asterisk. "We actually haven't had any at-fault accidents while the car is in self-driving mode," said Google spokeswoman Katelin Jabbari. "The only at-fault accident was caused while a driver was in control."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_25755137/test-driving-googles-driverless-car-look-mom-no

Ads that revisit women and equality

http://yralindia.tumblr.com/post/86296963763/6-ads-that-present-indian-women-in-a-way-that-makes-us

Entrepreneurship and Happiness :)

Entrepreneurialism is a never-ending lesson in humility. If you are an effective entrepreneur, you end up hiring people smarter than you are in every function.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/janepark/2014/05/16/are-entrepreneurs-happier/

bSafe App : Personal Social Safety Assistant

The app lets you share your location with your network easily so that you can find each other. For this, there's an "I’m Here" option to tell selected people where you are right now. Users can virtually walk with each other home using Follow Me’s live GPS trace. This means once you activate the app, your friend or mother at home can track your location in real time till you reach home. There is a Timer Mode inbuilt that can help you trigger an automatic alarm if you have not checked-in in time. Coming to the most important one of them all for the mothers. A "Guardian Alert" button can be used to instantly notify your friends and family members that you need help. Using GPS they get to know where you are and a video tells them exactly what is happening.
http://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/bsafe-app-could-be-your-new-personal-social-safety-assistant.74786/

Democracy : Interesting Quotes

http://yralindia.tumblr.com/post/85738515063/10-quotes-to-remind-us-of-the-flaws-of-democracy

Cartoons of India’s Gandhi, Pakistan’s Malala used to sell mattresses

http://yralindia.tumblr.com/post/85712202688/cartoons-of-indias-gandhi-pakistans-malala-used-to

Gifts and Tax in India : An Informational Read

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/find-out--how-are-gifts-taxed-054645277.html

What to see in Japan

https://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/photos/9-unusual-and-wonderful-things-about-japan-slideshow/

Hiding Info can Disqualify Candidates in and after Elections

The Supreme Court has held that a candidate can be disqualified if he or she fails to disclose information about assets held by spouse and dependent children.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Hiding-Info-can-Disqualify-Candidates/2014/05/14/article2223597.ece

Hotel inspired by Natural Waves in Ahmedabad

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/how-natural-waves-inspired-this-hotel-in-ahmedabad-slideshow/

e-Challan- Delhi Police Gets Smarter with e-Challan

The e-Challan system is modelled after similar program that are in place in cities like New York and London. The basic idea behind the scheme is to deploy hand-held devices instead of the traditional manual challan book to record offenses, maintain a registry of all the cases and help spot repeat offenders. The device will be linked to the central server at the traffic police department.

Special Features of the Integrated Challan System 

• On the spot payment of pending challans

• Payment of challan by credit or debit card

• e-Challan notice will carry the photograph of the violations

• The public can view violation photos online

http://innovationjockeys.net/inspiration-details.php?id=33

Miss India Worlds : A Photo Gallery

https://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/photos/hottest-miss-india-worlds-you-must-know-slideshow/model-photo--1666438790.html

Nokia is still the most robust phone :)

The Nokia Lumia 520 can add another badge to its collection of accolades: it’s just blocked a bullet. This smartphone was resting in the back pocket of a off-duty Police Officer’s pants this week when he was fired upon by two robbers. Two shots, one bullet on-target for this man’s rear end.

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-blocks-bullet-legendary-ruggedness-remains-02327399/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

What Happens When You Break Up With Facebook: Nothing

One month after deleting its Facebook page, food delivery app Eat24 is on the rebound--with more downloads and response to other forms of marketing than ever.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3030153/most-creative-people/what-happens-when-you-break-up-with-facebook-nothing

A Harvard Girl Figured Out How To 3D Print Makeup From Any Home Computer And The Demo Is Mindblowing

Grace Choi was at Harvard Business School when she decided to disrupt the beauty industry. She did a little research and realized that beauty brands create then majorly mark up their products by mixing lots of colors.

http://www.businessinsider.in/A-Harvard-Girl-Figured-Out-How-To-3D-Print-Makeup-From-Any-Home-Computer-And-The-Demo-Is-Mindblowing/articleshow/34745942.cms

This Supreme Court appointed committee explains why the Uttarakhand floods happened

It is the first independent ‘official’ report acknowledging the destructive nature of hydropower projects and linking them to the floods that raged through Uttarakhand last year. In its report, ‘Assessment of Environmental Degradation and Impact of Hydroelectric Projects during the June 2013 Disaster in Uttarakhand’, the committee recommends the rejection of 23 HEPs in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins in Uttarakhand.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/this-supreme-court-appointed-committee-explains-why-the-uttarakhand-floods-happened-051241242.html

Social Media and India's General Elections : An interesting insight :)

Facebook, Twitter and Google have seen substantial increase in their India traffic and usage.

• Facebook has now 100 million users in India -its largest outside the US
• Twitter has more than doubled since January this year. 
• In 2009, Sashi Tharoor was the only Indian politician to have a Twitter account and had 6,000 followers. 
• Tharoor is now the second most popular politician on Twitter with 2.16 million followers, after Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate with 3.89 million followers. 
• Modi now also has nearly 14 million fans of Facebook. Barack Obama is the only other politician to have more Facebook fans than Modi.

Facebook started working on the Indian elections towards the end of last year. This includes launch of election tracker so that people can see in real time. Elections have helped Twitter expand in India.

http://www.ndtv.com/elections/article/election-2014/social-media-changes-face-of-indian-general-elections-518991

PaperFold : the shape-changing smartphone

Scientists have developed the world's first foldable smartphone that changes to a tablet and a notebook using a set of screens and hinges. Named PaperFold, the shape-changing smartphone allows users to fold open up to three flexible electrophoretic displays to provide extra screen real estate, the amount of space available on a display when needed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/computing/A-foldable-smartphone-that-can-turn-into-tablet-laptop/articleshow/34673288.cms

Global water relief nonprofit, Water Is Life, has created The Drinkable Book, which provides a portable water purification system in book form.

The Drinkable book is an actual tome about water that does exactly what it says. The books are printed on revolutionary filter paper that can kill off any of the world's far too common deadly waterborne diseases. Users tear out a page, which is coated with silver nanoparticles, and place it into the accompanying water box, like an especially helpful coffee filter.

The Drinkable Book reduces bacteria by over 99.99%, is very cheap to produce, and is capable of providing clean water for up to four years.
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3030020/heres-a-book-you-can-actually-drink-and-it-might-save-lives

For lovers of adventures on roads :)

http://blog.jamminglobal.com/

Umano, the news reading app

Umano, a popular app on Android and iOS reads news articles, editorials, and blogs.

Umano is not a machine-reading app. It provides you with hundreds of news stories read by expert voice-actors and journalists.
https://in.news.yahoo.com/umano--app-read-news-to-you-045720590.html

Malaysia releases report on missing flight MH370

It showed four hours elapsed between the first sign that the Malaysia Airlines jet had failed to report in when expected to and the decision to mount a search operation – and that time included lapses of communication and a false lead from the airline itself.

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-malaysia-releases-report-on-missing-flight-mh370-1984215

Underground Waterways : An Image Gallery

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/underground-waterways-that-lie-unseen-below-cities-1398850367-slideshow/

Ayrton Senna - The F1 Dirver

https://in.news.yahoo.com/lightbox/ayrton-senna-20-years-on-slideshow/flowers-lie-next-statue-ayrton-senna-park-close-photo-145452647.html