Paula Zahn, one of my favorite newswomen in the prime time CNN slot, is leaving CNN and is expected to announce her departure today.

I am not a huge fan but I certainly do appreciate her work in the wake of the 9/11 and aftermath. When she moved to her own primetime slot and stood beside stalwarts like Larry King & Anderson Cooper on CNN a few years back, I felt she brought a much needed balance to the typical CNN evening - what with her different political & social perspectives, her personality and her great smile, not to mention those lovely ear rings she wears once in a while ;).

One of my personal favorites in her show, not that she never had her own tongue biters, was when she went to a marine base right before election day in 2004 to have the nation hear from the families of soldiers fighting in Iraq. Not that I wanted Bush to win or something, but it felt like that act brought a balance to an otherwise tilted CNN evening. It helped me hear from people that thought most of this country’s response to an attack on its home soil. Did I mention the ear rings ?

I donot know for now if it is CNN singing Dont leave me and Paula Zahn singing Walk away or vice versa yet. I hope the blogosphere will soon reveal.

My personal favorite : Lambo Murciélago LP640
Click on the Image above to see other images.
Engine Type: 12 cylinders V 600
Compression Ratio 11:1
Maximum Power: 471kW(640 PS) AT 8000 rpm
Maximum Torque: 660 Nm AT 6000 rpm
Emission Control System: Catalytic convreters with lambda sensors
TOP SPEED: 340km/h
Permanant 4-wheel drive and electronic traction control system
$$$: ??

Lamborghini Pictures Courtesy:
click2amuze
gunco
desktopextreme
topgear
lamborghini official website

Anil Dash blogged about an unignorable infograph that CNN did about the how USA is getting fatter by the year !

I think this is something that the whole world ought to consider seriously at this point. On a side note, I wonder what the world’s obesity demograph would look like. A Couple of things :

- Hotter parts of the country in the south, are somehow ending up as the most affected parts consistently. I am from South India and I could venture to guess why this could be.

Traditionally, tropical climates are used to greater amounts of spice and plenty of play time in the Sun for kids growing up, not to even mention a whole summer vacation of just running around until we catch a thick, dark tan and get chided/stopped by parents. That culture is now being replaced quickly with Cheese, flat TVs, online social networks and indoor games (God bless the ‘fair is for beautiful’ frenzy).

I heard of a few friends of mine that live within the same block texting each other in India to make plans for the evening. I grew up just outside a small town where telephone access was a privilege. People (my parents’ age) would just walk to each others’ homes to greet and meet in the evening. Not to mention, they all worked in the same office ! May be, it was a little too much but it certainly did help my parents stay on the healthy side of BMI for a good amount of time.

- With Countries like Brazil, India and China celebrating new-found wealth, fansy luxuries are the talk of the town at this moment. I guess it is only human to be a luxury lover but if that is cutting into what we burn and adding to what we eat on a daily basis, it might be time to trade off our broad IT minds with our narrow waists before one can realize

- Fast food was fun. It still is once in a while to satisfy our cravings for that warm Donut or that guilt-free, carb rich lunch. It still could be, daily, if I can burn what I eat. But how much do I work out ? ummm……I guess I should go back to that diet chart that I made a few years ago

VentureBeat did a story on how the early bird advantage with Facebook apps is helping out Slide, RockYou and HotOrNot to steadily increase their traffic. Although, like the article suggests, the data may not reflect the actual contributions that facebook has made to the traffic growth for these young startups - primarily because they have been on a growth mode and gobbling up every opportunity to grow for sometime now.

I personally like the Facebook (fb, if you may) idea of opening up their portal to create a Virtual OS base for third-party applications but still think there is distance to go for them.

Couple of things :

- Facebook does not seem to have a targeted advertisement strategy woven deeply into Individual User profiles. The Only viable creative thing they did with campaigns was “Facebook Flyers” - if we ignore the fact that I could as well walk up to the bulletin boards of nearby Schools to avoid shelling big bucks to a campaign with so-so conversion tracking tools. Even their banner ads just donot cut it for me. The closest relevant thing that I clicked on was an electronics provider. That might sound pretty good if I did not tell you the rest - Hilton Hotels while looking at friends (just in case I felt the rush to visit one, ummm…), KnowHow2Go on my profile page (In case I felt like going back to college, ignoring the fact that I graduated 4 years ago) and Hairspray Ringtones on my new friend, Michael Parekh’s page (I mean …come onnn, every guy with good-looking hair does not use a hairspray !?!).

- Facebook throttled the viral growth potential for third party application providers by limiting the number of people a user could invite to try out an application at a time. I totally understand the performance concerns (not to mention the ‘Thunder stealer’ factor) that led to this decision but I feel the chop down from ALL to 10 is too much.

- Facebook does not seem to have a great video sharing strategy , atleast not an obvious one, either as a self-built application or a third party tie-up with YouTube, Meta cafe, Bright Cove or any of those hordes of video sites of there. I personally would like to see if Facebook can make it easy for their College going core audience to develop a quick video introduction (atleast an audio, may be ?) to their profile or resume - and make it easy and convincing enough for most people to try it out. Now, THAT is something no social network has done so far !

“Any plans for weekend?” asks my friend, wearily expecting the famous one-liner back.

We were just driving back from work and there was not much energy left in either of us to think about what to talk and if to talk.

I plan to not plan this weekend, I responded.

Did one of you guys ever feel the need to have a non-eventful weekend where you are all by yourselves ? Yea, better if it is a nice little two-day period in the middle of a nice summer month when the beer is chilled, the pool is hot and the skies are pretty blue! Now, THAT would be my vacation

Do you know what is hot in the world of Cars ?

I just heard that Porsche is coming up with new features where you can customize your Porsche nameplates.

The Porsche site describes, “You can now give your Porsche an exclusive personal touch. Instead of the type designation, you can have a customised text in the same font placed on your Porsche. Texts can be made for all 911 models - Cayenne - Boxster and Cayman. We can manufacture your personalised text in the same colours as the type designation, in grey or black, or ‘chrome’ or ‘gold’ if you prefer. Just imagine having your girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s name on the back instead of Carrera 2, or the name of your dog, cat or horse instead of Cayenne? No problem! Any conceivable name can be made to order…. from Laura to Larry, from Amber to Arnold, from Roxanne to Roderick…”

Aint that cool ?

The feature is available on all Porsche models - Cayenne - Boxster and Cayman. The website adds to say “We can manufacture your personalised text in the same colours as the type designation, in grey or black, or ‘chrome’ or ‘gold’ if you prefer. Just imagine having your girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s name on the back instead of Carrera 2″ !!

ummmm…now that’s one nice reason to think of owning one . What say you all ?!