I MUST MUST Eat @ BBQ Nation, Kalyani Nagar!

What a wonderful day! After another pathetic journey to Mumbai the previous night(man I need to find a better way to get home than the 6 1/2 hours long one I take now), this morning I woke up to the soft and tender hands of my nephew probing my cheeks and nose. There is no better sleep than that one. Really.

I finally got time to sit down in peace, think, remember and jot down the words I have been wanting to write since Thursday.

NOT JUST ME, WE SHOULD ALL EAT @ BBQ NATION!

Oh my god, here we go. So, I went to BBQ Nation as part of an outing with my mentor at ZS. At ZS, each employee at ZS has a mentor who guides him/her through his life at ZS, work..*goes inaudible*...long story short: free - lunch - hog - budget - high.

We had to go someplace nice, kind of pricey but let us have a good time. And my word were we right about BBQ Nation! It has everything a guy thinks of before going to a buffet worth Rs. 486.

Ambience? Super!
Starters? Way too many!
Veg starters too?! Yes yes!
Loud? Very!
Salad? Make your own boy!

A lot of people have already been to BBQ Nation before. Not me. This was my first visit and I am raring to go back again. Now, as a blogger about restaurants, I should point out things that make BBQ Nation unique even if you already know.

Right in the center of your table is a cavity in which the waiter first puts an iron container open at the top with holes on two sides. Next, he drops in a dozen odd burning charcoal pieces and covers it up with a grill. And voila! You have your personal live barbeque counter with unlimited starters. Out of 44 veg and 44 non veg starters, I believe they offer 14 each day and vary it throughout the week. 8 are vegetarian (ahan! 8 veg starters that's right!) and 6 non-veg, including the super famous Prawn preparations on skewers for you to turn, rub with random sauces and enjoy. Keep asking for more!
Advice 1: Don't ask for the gilafi nan. They'll make you wait for it and it tastes pathetic.
Advice 2: BBQ Nation generally gives you a free mocktail, including beer. *stop grinning, read on...*

40 minutes later, after it suddenly dawned upon you that you're so full that you wont be able to enjoy the rest of the courses, you get up and walk over to the salad and soup bar. Choose your soup, make your own royal salad, try the pasta or the noodles. Then, you go back to your seat, take a deep breath, look up to the heavens for strength and resilience and dig in. 10 minutes later, you almost give up. Then you remember its a buffet, its free and you won't come here often. You must make most of it. You tell the prompt waiter (oh did I mention the service? Impeccable.) to clear your plate, he smiles and understands you're in for another round.

You turn your head a full 180 degrees and realise you shouldn't have hogged on that mushroom tikka so much. So, you become picky. You reject half the stuff and still end up with 4 curries, 2 daals, pulav and burnt garlic noodles.

Damn I am hungry.

Am I sounding like a blogger hired by them? I should be! The place is darn good! Desserts mein kya bolun? Mast tha! [desserts - in- what - I - say? amazing it was]

Now, when I rack my brain to find something I can criticize BBQ for, I seem to remember asking for a finger bowl at the end. He brought one that wasn't hot. BUT! He realised it was cold and replaced it with a hot one in 30 seconds. See? Now that's why I love the place!

I wasn't allowed to click photos inside, so this is all I have:

Aargh, the pics are so n00bish. But I make my point no? Go go to BBQ if you haven't. Go again if you have already!

I Dont Have A Choice. I Must Eat @ DC

After a hopeless, crappy, dirty, bumpy and absolutely eventless 7 hour journey from office to my home in Mumbai, I thought I wouldn't write a review this weekend. Last night, I thought I'd quit everything. Including mangoes.
But then, there is nothing like that joy-filled shout from your 10 month old nephew on his first sight of rain from the balcony, or the fluid motion of Federer on a tennis court, or the first bite of bhabhi's bhindi. And I changed. It sounds better with background music. Aah forget it.

So anyway, since I was not in Pune, I thought I'd write a different kind of review. Not for a restaurant, but an entire complex of restaurants! A place where there are probably 15 odd places to eat, ranging from absolutely shabby with good food to fancy with good food. The important thing is pretty much all of them serve good food. The complex is named Destination Center and its kind of like the only busy, non-green and noisy place in all of Magarpatta. Here, every day, atleast a thousand folks from the area come to buy their groceries, take out cash and eat.

For people like me who are new to Magarpatta, there is clearly a need for a guide to good and economical dinners. So, I'll try making one.

First up, comes the very famous Ghar Ka Khana (GKK). This is where you literally get ghar-ka-khana. 65 for a thali that consists of 4 rotis, one vegetable curry, dal and rice. But the thing to rememeber is, if you order this thali, you can easily keep half of it for tomorrow. The quantity is just amazing. Taste is good too. But, GKK's real fame comes from the daily tiffin service for 60rs, paid wholly in advance. Completely veg. Only let down - doesn't deliver/serve on Sundays.

Next is Vandana, another thali restaurant for 60rs, this one seems a bit gujarati-ish with kadhi, chaas, papad and more variety in veggies. But, equally nice. You can pay 20rs more and get unlimited dal and rice. But, that just seems stupid.

Both these restaurants are on 1st floor. Majority of the restaurants are on the ground floor. And that is where we are suddenly hit by this uncanny Incredible India feeling, with restaurants named after states. Bengal, Punjab, Andhra, Hyderabad and Bombay. And Chinese too. All of these restuarants are good, but pricier. But then, you have to keep in mind that I am comparing these restaurants with Vandana. In absolute terms, they might  not seem too bad. Chinese Box's hakka is particularly good, loaded with veggies and in enough quantity.

Right in the center of DC lies Mini Punjab and in its back end, is Smokin Joes. Both are probably good to try once. Mini Punjab is very expensive with DC standards. It is also full of nonsense meals and reviewed with similar criticism for Kapil Sibal. If you want to have a nice, cheesy sandwich made with coriander chutney and a jug of fresh mango/pineapple/watermelon juice, you should head to Juice Destiny run by an extremely talkative sardar. But somehow, the prices on the menu aren't what they charge. No no, don't get all excited. They charge  more. x-( Again, total cost should be <= 120.

Smokin Joes is situated behind Mini Punjab and is like any other smokin joes. You should instead probably go to Chinese In Box, WOW Kolkata or Hyderabadi Zaika, which are a bit higher on the price range but offer much more variety in their respective cuisines.

After all this, you must head down to Kwality Walls. Ha! Don't. You won't find any ice cream for less than 50. Which only makes me wonder why there isn't a Gelato or a Baskin Robbins in DC, coz Kwality Walls just isn't worth it. Instead, try Amul, which is adjacent to the veggie vendor.

And since a friday evening calls for it, a huge Fosters sign hangs near Juice Destiny. And...

---

I Must Eat @ Roopali and Drink at TJ's

What do you do with a few thousands of your newly earned money and an entire weekend? Do you go to The Westin Koregaon Park? Or do you go to Malaki Spice? No, thats where employees go for a team dinner on client money.
Instead, we went to Roopali, 15 kms away from Magarpatta on FC Road, near British Council Library. And, the experience was, as they say, so-so. (I am not particularly proud of using so-so, I hope you know.) We ordered South Indian, AGAIN! Which pushes me to rename this series to "I MUST EAT SOUTH INDIAN @".

But before Roopali, I must tell you the epic fails 12 hours before.
*Scene blurs into a black and white animation*

After sharing one Pazzta around 9PM, we felt we could devour a horse at 1.30. So, we set about trying to recreate this:

 (We had cooked this the previous Saturday.)

But, all we got was a cracked bowl, debris in the microwave, burnt garlic and some discoloured butter. We lost hope, but not all of it. At that moment, our gaze settled upon bhujia. So we mixed oregano and lemon juice and tried as much as we could to enjoy it.
This morning, we woke up with vengeance. We felt we deserved a lunch buffet at Marriott. And we expected an awesome lunch at Roopali.

*Scene blurs and we enter reality*

Roopali sure is famous as a quick sit-eat-pay-run place, but its fame is largely because of its sister concern Vaishali. Silly us, we didnt go to Vaishali. At Roopali, we had to wait for 5 mins to get a place and such is the rush that in a table for 6, he accomodated us and another couple of girls. That didnt bother us much, but what did was the food. Masala Dosa for Rs. 50 wasn't a delight, nor was the Sambhar. Then, with courage we ordered a Tomato Uttapam, and my word were we delighted!

Fancy huh? It tasted amazing, and with a little bit of butter floating on top, this was the moment of the day. Naturally, we ordered extra sambhar and chutney. And Roopali wiped our smiles faster than they do in the Tide ads. We were charged for extra Sambhar and chutney!

So, if you skipped the entire story to read the summary, here it is:
Roopali - FC Road, Famous, Didnt live up to it, Uttapam is good, Reasonable on your wallet.

So, I change my title to: I Might Want To Go To Roopali.

Now, another place I wanted to tell you about was TJ's. Its reviews have been in the papers recently. TJ's Brew Works is a restaurant with a brewery. Literally! They call it Microbrewery.

And they have a genius plan too - Prepaid Beer Card.
Yes. Yes. Just like your phone.
You have to buy a "card" for Rs. 500 and you get Rs. 500 as balance. Then, you go to any of the beer stations, that are linked to the brewery, swipe and choose your beer and pull the lever to fill up as much as you want! Simple! And new! And it counts the amount of beer you drink in a month and simultaneously shows rankings. The leader at the end of the month gets some reward. I asked, "A free litre of beer?" And the waiter said "No dude, its not that small a reward." :D

I don't consume alcohol so I wouldnt be able to give you personal reviews, but a friend tells me that you should avoid the wheat beer and try a particular black-colored beer.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, I move out of the guest house and into a flat nearby. I will try and continue this series and move away from South Indian food! Hope you are enjoying it. If you don't, well, Moo to you!

Kicking off the I-Must-Go-To series!

Are you hungry? Are you new to Pune? Have you stayed in Pune for long but were too lazy to go out?
Or...did you get here from Stumble Upon?
If you answered Yes to any of those questions, you, my friend, have come to the right place. Because, starting today, I will post a series of blog-posts in which I review restaurants, malls, stores, places, streets and I find worth reviewing.

Don't expect mind-blowing photos from a DSLR. Currently, all the photos will be from either an HTC Wildfire S or a Nokia Asha 200 ( I won't tell you which one belongs to me. Oh shoot, you guessed it.)

Dont expect any expert insights into the way they work, the way they make their money or anything close to intelligence.

But, what you should expect is:

1. a suggestion as to where you should go if you've not had anything significant since morning and don't have a siginificant amount of money either.

2. a description of what I did, why I did that, what I liked and what I noticed. For eg, when I went to office, I noticed that everyone didn't have a dustbin and that the two wings had different carpets. So you get it right? It'll have stuff everyone pays attention to.

Without much further ado than the amount of useless ado already, I present to you the 1st set of reviews.

I must go to Coffee House, MG Road, Pune

After a long talk over whiskey in the guest house(they had it, I just saw them I swear) the previous night, I woke up at 11 and decided that MG Road would be the first place we would visit in this new city.

Coffee House is an amazing little restaurant on MG Road, right opposite SGS Magnum Mall.

Poona Coffee House was a meeting point for established as well as aspiring politicians. One famous politician who used to work here as a cashier was Suresh Kalmadi, and it worked in his favor because this was where he met Mumbai's mayor and eventually Sharad Pawar. This is not the coffee house I had visited. 'My' Coffee House has no history. But its still recommended.

However! Coffee House is small but cozy, bustling with noise but exciting, has enough waiters around and has enough variety. But, I had read about how brilliant Coffee House's south indian food was. So, I tried the Masala Dosa and Aditi ordered an onion uttapam. And, it really was brilliant.

The uttapam was as big as the plate and well cooked. I had never seen an uttapam that big. But what really worked for me were the prices. 55 for the uttapam and the masala dosa each. So, a nice meal for two can cost as little as Rs. 110. No additional service charge, service tax, VAT, sales tax or even capital gains tax.

Dorabjee's abuts Coffee House and is also worth a visit. The Hindu tells me Dorabjee's was formerly known as Treacher & Co, a British wine and grocers set up to support the British Garrison (now Pune Cantonment). Dorabjee took it over in 1911 and has been called namesake eversince. Its collection of imported chocoaltes, sauces, liquors and cheeses still continue to serve so many of the foreigners that I saw today. Today, its a 3-floor supermarket that has everything from Ambi Pur to Sil Soya Sauce. Earlier, it even had a Westside, Landmark and a Planet M all inside it!
Here is what it looks like from across the road:

I noticed jams from Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Belgium and UK and chocolates from Switzerland, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, UK, US and Dubai. I noticed bone shaped dog food, a cat shaped squeezeee for the dog again and wonderful pastries for humans, like these:

Should you pay a visit? Yes. Should you pay? No. There are no discounts apart from a Rs. 100 off on a Rs. 400 Lindt. Useless. (-_-') But, you can probably try the bakery or the coffee shop on the top floor. Here is another pic, coz they're free:

So, that's all for today. I sincerely hope I remain regular with this. And, my previous blog-posts have all come at a regular interval of 3-6 months. So, there is some assurance.

I must find a place to stay in Pune, so off I go to Magicbricks. Oh no wait! You forgot your C&H treat!

Ready to rumble!

Of late, I have been feeling a funny feeling, one that is filled with a sense of finality and of a new beginning too. And I have been finding it somewhat difficult to cope with it. I say somewhat difficult because I knew the end of college was coming and it feels better than it did when I was in the train back to Mumbai, and also because I don't know what to expect from work.

Its been 10 days since I left college and obviously, I am raring to get back to it. Honestly, the feeling has subsided quite a bit. But, the urge to go back hasn't. What has changed is that the fact that college is over has started to sink in now. I think everyone must be realising this now. It was bound to end. It has. And there is no point fretting about how badly we want to go back. Its pointless. That has changed how I feel. In a week, college has changed to a trove of memories and mine are littered by little bits and pieces. Its not like the strands in a pensieve that J. K. Rowling wrote about. Mine are more like little flashes of scenes, emotions and dialogues all knitted together to form this bizarre modern art of a cloth that I wear everyday to bed. My memories of college are more about people, places, situations and events individually. For example, I remember Harry washing his hands before leaving for class, even after taking a bath. Or, I remember how we always thought the Chem prof had actually died when he sat on his chair in the lecture hall. Or, how everyone thought Dodo was a nuclear energy researcher turned mathematician and his skin was peeling off because of exposure to radiation!

What is also happening is, in 4 days, I will start working in Pune. Its a big shift, I suppose. I have not heard much about how life suddenly changes from "Dad, I am running out of money" to "Hey, HR, when is my salary coming?". I bug PK about it almost everyday, trying to get as much information as I can about life at ZS. I think I might have bugged him too much. But, I am doing all that because I need to keep myself calm and happy and excited about working.

I still have a lot of doubts about life as an employee. How do you manage the 1st month till you wait for your salary? That period is kind of like college I guess? Am I really gonna be so tired I'd rather sleep the entire weekend? Which laptop am I gonna get when I join? Will Limbo run on it? (Coz it doesn't on the one I am typing this on right now :) ) But, more serious ones like how long am I gonna last there? Am I going to get through IIM selections like so many of these ZS people have this year? Will I find friends who will be even half as fun as the ones I met in college?

I don't know what lies in store for me. But, I do know it'll be good. It has to be now that I blogged about it!

As usual, here is your C&H treat!

You don't get to be mom if you can't fix everything just right!

Like the rest of the posts on this blog, this one is being written out of pure frustration and again, as usual, it won't delve on that frustration for long as I have SO MANY things to write about.
In the past 30 days, I have witnessed a lot of things, seen many unknown sides of people, sat idly and thought for hours, and realised a thing or two. But, mostly, I've just lied down and stared.

Yeh blogpost sankshep mein

My guess is it happened on my way to Pune for a quiz (disaster, that I won't talk about) with Utsav. Excited like a bunch of school kids, we forgot to pack dinner and lunch for the 30 hour journey and we ended up buying chips, biscuits, cakes, coke, bhelpuri, some more biscuits and *drumroll* TRAIN FOOD. I think that got me the virus and 4 days later, I was in a hospital with a drip and completely drained of energy to even turn to another side and sleep. Days went by and my condition deteriorated to a point where I had no sleep, no food and a lot of headache. Hepatitis A is a cruel disease. It doesn't pain much in the dictionary sense of pain. Well, inexperienced nurses puncturing 5 of your veins to fix the VeinFlow contraption does pain. But what I really mean is it hurts a lot. To just lie there, staring at the ceiling while your head bobs and you wish you never had that plate of uncooked rice, is just stupid, mundane and very sad. I puked everything given to me, including meds and before I knew it, I was on "liquid diet" and I had to take in soups, Dal ka Paani and whatever my body didn't throw out. Along with all the nausea and exhausation, I had a series of other complications that scared the crap out of my mom. Sonography revealed a couple, blood revealed the rest.
15 days later with 2 sonographies, an endoscopy and 20 odd blood tests, I came back home with a severe headache. A week passed by before I could last a day without headaches and wanting an afternoon nap. That would be where I end the description of my disease. But at that as well as this moment, my sclera and my arms and legs are yellow.

As hurting and boring and annoying as the disease sounds, it is also quite expensive. The pills I am taking after 1 month of recovery, twice a day, are Rs. 30 each. I take four of those. And that brings me to my second topic...as a passerby in the gastrologist ward was heard yelling,

"Yeh hospital business bahut mehenga hai bhai."

And he's damn right. Hospitals are just overpriced hotels with a crowded and smelly reception, ugly concierge service that'll prick you at 4am and get away by saying, "Blood sugar is normal." Regular bedsheet and towel changes, dishtv, swanky bathrooms, sofas and a view of South Mumbai like no other - that's what I got for falling sick. And they charged me a lot too, for every tiny little thing. They made sure I paid like an investment banker who just made it big. And the worst part is, the costs dont stop once you're out of there. Here's what I learnt today. Mumbai's real estate prices drive everything. From apartments to hotels to even fruit vendors, everything depends on where you are in Mumbai. Consider this. From Goregaon in somewhat-north Mumbai to Marine Drive in South Mumbai, the initial consultation fees for a doctor more than doubles. My bad luck? My doctor is in Marine Drive. So, add a 30km ride back and forth and you're looking at a pretty cool figure. Now, I can say Ouch.

Two heads are better than one. What about four?

My parents are worried about me. And to get me to recover quicker, they're trying everything. At a point in time, I was taking allopathic, homeopathic and ayurvedic medication but somehow managed to avoid a necklace made of  small wooden blocks tied together with the holy red thread that we find on wrists. I really don't know what they call it. And since I got better, I don't know which one of those really worked. People keep saying, "Just take it, what's the harm?" And after a while, you get sick of keeping track of the 1-0-1s and the 1-0-0s. Something must help me out.

Magic Touch

The little kid really kept me going. Not only by his occasional smile, long stares, kicks and frantic hands searching for something to hold on to and put in his mouth but also by making me feel I am completely normal. Others look at your eyes and hands and keep reminding you how yellow you are. But he doesnt show any of those feelings. Well, he doesnt show a lot of feelings really. But the point is he made me realise that I will ALWAYS have something to come home to and someone to think about on a shopping spree! You know how when you're at home and every 30 minutes or so, you head off to the kitchen to open the fridge to find nothing and even though you know there is nothing, you still go and open it? He's just like that! Every 10 minutes, I get up, take a look, give him a kiss, ruffle his hair, hold him up, swing him around and then lay him on the bed.

Here he is:

His first chat was:

cxv sd   dddxdvxvccj7y

:D

When you think about something for too long, the thing changes.


Those long nights in the hospital when I used to twist and turn and stare at the clock listening to amplifying noise of the seconds hand, I used to think about people who came and went by in my life and those who stayed. What made them stay? What makes a person more special to us? Is it the moments we spend or the things we talk or the things we do? I won't bother to say "There is a special connection" coz that's just stupid. But there has to be something that makes us click. Hehe. No. Not what you're thinking. The answer didn't dawn upon me in one brightly moonlit night. Stuff like that doesn't happen. I'll be frank. At one point in time, I scrolled my entire contact list on my phone and didn't feel like calling up anyone I hadn't called recently. Have you ever done that? Its not a great feeling though. You'll want to pass it off as a phase and call yourself moody and get away with it. But the truth is you do feel alone in life sometimes. Alone in relative terms.

What would I do without you?

No matter what happens, you know you're never alone because you'll always have your mother by your side. If not for real then in your head. And I think without her, I wouldn't have been able to make it through so easily. There were times when I couldnt sleep till 4am and didnt have enough energy to get up and sit straight or even get off the bed or even call out. I used to make barely-audible mumbles that mom heard. Promptly getting up, she'd hold my hand, stroke it and run her fingers through my hair and say "It'll all be over very soon." And that helped me calm down. I couldnt breathe properly simply because I didn't have the energy to take in long gasps of air. She'd hear those short pants of mine, thirsty for air and some energy I used to look up to the ceiling while she just stood...mute. She couldn't do anything at that time but then that's what I wanted too. Not some pills or a drip, just the touch. Only the firm grip of my mother's hands would get me through so many countless nights.
I don't know what I'd have done without her.
----~----
A week ago, I started writing this blogpost and I thought there is SO MUCH to write about. I don't know what happened but I am gonna stop here for the time.
Later then.


Oh..wait!


Don't forget your C&H treat!

The Afternoon SOPA Opera

For those unaware, a heated debate is going on on two bills being passed in the Senate and the House of Reps, called the SOPA and PIPA. Catchy names sure, they are very similar to each other.
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011!!) are both aimed at curbing online piracy coming from websites inside and outside US jurisdiction. That includes The Pirate Bay with its servers in Stockholm (already raided) and its backup servers in Belgium and Russia.

Any law like this is bound to create a stir, but a few paragraphs in these laws are creating a furore in the internet community for nearly a month now. Support and opposition has poured in from all sides but it seems the bill isn't likely to pass. Take a small look at the list of opponents and you'll realize this is serious stuff:
Google, Facebook, AOL, Wikimedia, ANONYMOUS (I'll write more about this one coz its exciting!), Yahoo!, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, Mozilla Corporation, Reddit, Microsoft, StackOverflow, Tumblr, Bloomberg, Zynga etc. Even Al Gore is against it.

In fact, read this! An open letter to the US Congress was signed by 83 Internet inventors and engineers critiquing the bills. Among the 83 were the inventors of ...hold your breath...TCP/IP, IPv6, ICMP, Email, HTTP, RFC, DNS, Arpanet, MIME, OSPF, OAuth, BGP, Multicast and I am not even finished!
So, clearly something is wrong here.

Lets get into the details a bit. Why should we oppose the bill?

SOPA and PIPA both enable the US Govt. to remove and block websites that carry copyright-infringing content and also block the DNS servers [This is what China, Syria and Iran does to block Internet]. But more than the laws, its the provisions that are creating problems. The bills give immunity to ISPs (those who provide internet to users like Airtel, MTNL, Hathway etc.) who block the websites "in good faith" that they "consider" to be rogue. This clearly gives them unprecedented power. Sure if the ISP plays fair and by the rules, nothing will happen. But, worst case scenario?

Another provision is to force search engines to not index websites that serve violating content. And also websites that elucidate how to view blocked content. Even if you posted it as your Status or as a Wall Photo, Facebook will remove the update or remove your account, or risk legal action. Which in turn means, Facebook now has the right to read through user generated content - a big turn off for Privacy Protestors.
Majority of the opposition to the bill comes when you consider the worst-case scenario to all the provisions. So if everything goes according to plan, all innocent websites should be unharmed. But, we hardly live in an ideal world.

After going through a lot of articles, I found this quote to perfectly summarise everything: “the equivalent of being angry and trying to take action against Ford just because a Mustang was used in a bank robbery.”
Perfect.

Should Indians worry about this? I guess so! On two grounds, one being the fact that a lot of high quality pirated content originates from the US itself. The introduction of these bills means you can say goodbye to XYZ S02E18. Another ground being that India is foreign soil to the US and this bill caters to us specifically. Sites like songs.pk that now hosts songs that are owned by American studios like Fox will be shut down.

But most importantly, it messes with our notion of internet, a completely free knowledge-sharing world where everything is available but only hinges on choice. Choice is overrated now, don't you think?


Don't think everyone is opposing the bill. Again...hold your breath...MPAA, Disney, Ford, NBC, Comcast, Pfizer, Merck, Walmart, Dow, Adidas, Bose, 3M, Visa, Capitol Records, McGraw Hill, L'Oreal, Pearson, Penguin etc. Sony also did. Well, Sony's was a sad story really.
Sony came out in support of the Bill and then faced the wrath of Anonymous (How can we forget them?). Haha. Sony Pictures was hacked by Anonymous and they uploaded a threat on YouTube. This is classic Anonymous style. Flashy and stylish. Worded like an action movie on a comic book hero. Swift. Love it!



Tomorrow, 18th January 8AM to 8PM, Wikipedia is shutting down in protest. It sure raises questions on Wikipedia's famed neutrality stance though. So is Reddit and Wordpress (powers 15% of the web!). We're seeing the first large scale protest in 2012, carrying forward a glorious tradition set in 2011. How long will this one last? We'll wait and see.