Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Who makes the Apple iPod? Here's a hint: It is not Apple. The company outsources the entire manufacture of the device to a number of Asian enterprises, among them Asustek, Inventec Appliances and Foxconn. But this list of companies isn't a satisfactory answer either: They only do final assembly. What about the 451 parts that go into the iPod? Where are they made and by whom? Three researchers at the University of California, Irvine - Greg Linden, Kenneth Kraemer and Jason Dedrick - applied some investigative cost accounting, using a report from Portelligent that examined all the parts that went into the iPod. Their study, sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, offers a fascinating illustration of the complexity of the global economy, and how difficult it is to understand that complexity by using only conventional trade statistics. The retail value of the 30-gigabyte video iPod that the authors examined was $299. The most expensive component in it was the hard drive, which was m

VARANASI, India (Reuters) - After checking in at the Mukti Bhawan hostel , guests have two weeks to die or else they are gently asked to leave. The hostel -- a short walk from the Ganges river in Varanasi -- is a final stopover for elderly Hindus hoping they will shortly end up on one of the hundreds of funeral pyres lit on the river bank each day. (An old man sleeps on the floor at the Mukti Bhavan hostel in Varanasi June 1, 2007. The hostel -- a short walk from the Ganges river in Varanasi -- is a final stopover for elderly Hindus hoping they will shortly end up on one of the hundreds of funeral pyres lit on the riverbank each day.) "While the rest of the world celebrates a new life when a child is born, similarly we celebrate death," said Bhairav Nath Shukla, the cheerful manager of Mukti Bhawan, one of several places offering shelter to outsiders wanting to die in the city. Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi and having their remains scattered in the Ganges allows thei

Chinese archaeologists excavating a 2,500year-old tomb in east China's Jiangxi province have discovered a well-preserved body, many pieces of bronze, gold, silver items and porcelain and jade from one of the 47 coffins discovered. The tomb, in Lijia village in Jing'an county, is 16 metres long, about 11.5 metres wide and three metres deep. It is believed to date back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 BC) . It is the largest group of coffins ever discovered in a single tomb and the excavation has been dubbed "the most important archeology project of the year" by cultural experts and media. Nine coffins were opened by archaeologists earlier because they were rotten and partly destroyed by tomb robbers. Archaeologists opened another coffin today and found a relatively complete human skeleton, bodily tissue, as well as many bronze, gold and silver items including porcelain and jade. "This is the first time that such a complete bone structure was found in southern

Too many pro wrestlers dying young ATLANTA (AP) -- Everything is planned. The high-flying moves. The outlandish story lines. The crackpot characters. One thing isn't in the script: the staggering number of pro wrestlers who die young. Chris Benoit was the latest, taking his own life at age 40 after killing his wife and son in a grisly case that might be the blackest eye yet for the pseudo-sport already ridiculed as nothing more than comic books come to life, a cult-like outlet for testosterone-raging' young males to cheer on their freakishly bulked-up heroes. But the tenacious, grim-faced grappler known as the "Canadian Crippler" was hardly alone in heading to an early grave. The very same weekend Benoit killed his family, the body of old tag-team partner Biff Wellington (real name: Shayne Bower) was found in his bed, dead at 42. A couple of weeks ago, former women's champion "Sensational" Sherri Martel passed away at her mother's home in Alabama. Sh

By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors. On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief" Sanjay Dutt In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis

The open source browser, Firefox, which can be freely downloaded, now has a child-friendly extension called Glubble. Glubble, ( www.glubble.com ) which has a Walt Disney sound and look to it, will make browsing the Internet an easier game for kids. Designed by Glaxstar, a company which has built other free addons for Firefox, the browser is user specific (you need to create a user name and password to browse) and parents can tweak it easily to restrict access to sites according to the age of the child. In that sense, it is parent-friendly too. It initially gives access to some 350 sites including Disney, National Geographic and Animal Planet, which kids dote on. Parents can add on or delete as they wish. Even if searches are given on Google or Yahoo, kids will get to see only those sites which fit Glubble specifications.

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson , who is currently in Finland, has thought of a unique business idea to honour her Finnish heritage - opening a chain of strip clubs ! "I thought of a great way to celebrate my Finnish heritage at home," she wrote on her blog. "I'm going to look into opening a chain of strip clubs and I'll call them Lapland!!!" Anderson, whose great grand father was Finnish, is touring the Scandinavian country with her dad, Barry Anderson. "Our heritage is here. We are both excited. We will be taking lots of saunas. Save my liver," Anderson added. The actress has also appealed for the closure of fur farms. "Sweden and England have banned it Let's hope Finland will too,"she said.