Pete and Larry had not seen each other in many years. Pete invited Larry to visit him in new apartment.
"Great. Where do you live?"
"Here's the address. Park and come around to the front door, kick it open with your foot, go to the elevator and press the button with your left elbow, then enter! When you reach the sixth floor, go down the hall until you see my name on the door. Then press the doorbell with your right elbow."
"Good. But tell me… what is all this business of kicking the front door open, the pressing elevator buttons with m right, then my left elbow?"
Pete answered, "Sure, you're not coming empty-handed."
**
Man to wife: "Of course, I know where my willpower is. I buried it under a pile of pizza and wings!"
**
Fact of the matter…
The border between Mexico and the United States is the second largest border in the world. Mexico City is built over the ruins of a great Aztec city, Tenochtitian. Because it is built on a lake, Mexico is sinking at a rate of six-eight inches a year as pumps draw water out for the city's growing population.
**
Sarabajit Singh's death and after...
Sad and regrettable it may be… One feels no useful purpose will be served by all these public display of anger… other than worsening already strained relations between the neighbors. He may or may not have been a spy, but no country worth its salt publicly acknowledges its own shadowy man or woman who does the dirty work. The James Bond-kind of spies, hero-worshipped by lay men around the world - are all fictional and have no ghost of a resemblance to a real-life secret agent and he forever remains invisible and unsung throughout his/her career. And one country's great spy is another's chief villain.
**
Mindchow
You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.
**
Tongue in cheek…
A day without sunshine is like, night!
**
Line Maro
Is your dad an art thief? Because you're a masterpiece.
(Me: a thief's daughter could be a master thief, too...)
**
From the world of science…
US solar-powered plane begins historic cross-country flight...
San Francisco: A solar-powered airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the world took off early on Friday from here on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the US with no fuel but the sun's energy.
(Me: Hopefully it would prove to be a breakthrough technology…)
**
Add some orange peel to your bath water, as its natural oil helps skin become elastic and radiant.
**
Apply a mixture of turmeric powder and lemon juice to get rid of pimples.
--
Weird world...
Grapes reduce stress related heart failure...
Researchers have demonstrated that grapes are able to reduce heart failure associated with chronic high blood pressure (hypertension) by increasing the activity of several genes responsible for antioxidant defence in the heart tissue.
**
School closes because of nice weather...
Seattle: In sun-deprived Washington State, the promise of nice spring weather has prompted a small private school to give students a day off to enjoy the sunshine. Friday was "sun day" of sorts for 205 students at Bellingham Christian School. Principal Bob Sampson announced the day off on the school's site. He wanted to give students a chance to enjoy the weather and reenergize.
**
China busts ring selling rat meat as mutton...
Chinese police has broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1mn in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
**
Top Chinese official gets life sentence for graft...
A former provincial deputy governor of China was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes.
(Me: How one wishes we in India mete out such severe punishment to bribe-taking netas and babus. All that we do is endlessly talk wishy-washy about rampant corruption)
**
A man was walking on the beach one day, when he found a bottle half-buried in the sand. He decided to open it. Inside was a genie. The genie said, "I'll grant you three wishes. Go ahead and ask. But only three."
The man thought about his first wish and decided, "I want Rs.10 crore transferred to a Swiss bank account."
Next he wished for a red Ferrari. POOF! The car arrived.
He asked for his final wish, "I wish I was irresistible to women."
POOF! He turned into a box of chocolates.
**
Why such routine, flagrant FSI violations and illegal construction in Mumbai…
For one, it is simply the biggest blockbuster money-spinner in the country. I'll give u a simple arithmetic…
Land is obviously not an expandable commodity and Mumbai city is surrounded on three sides by the Arabian Sea. And influx of people into the city from the rest country continues unabated, and a small fraction of them hit the goldmine at some point, and they need accommodation, whatever the cost.
Builders buy parcels of available land, at astronomical cost – or the landowners get into an agreement with developers/builders to develop their land into residential apartments and share the profit – this is the current practice: with prices of flats galloping northwards almost every two months, the landowners stand to gain enormously.
The developers/builders then approach the local civic body, BMC, with their plans – how many storeys and how many apartments/flats in each - for the proposed construction. The constructed area for the building is limited to the FSI (Floor Space Index) which is a ratio of the size of the plot. These days every floor in a multi-story building has a maximum of 6 flats. Suppose the builder originally plans for 30 flats in ground+four storey building.
As is the usual business practice, the Selling Price is cost of the flat plus his profit margin. Since the cost of the plot is very high, it usually accounts for a very high percentage – often 60-80% - of the total cost of the flat. Now, if the builder flouts the FSI restriction and illegally adds on another 16 floors or whatever higher number each with 6 flats – as was done in the Campa Cola compound buildings – the per-flat cost drastically goes down and the builder is able to make bumper profit, a fraction of it he gladly shares with the netas n babus…
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