The 15 Richest Fictional Characters

The Forbes' annual listing of fiction's 15 wealthiest characters. This year's selections include a duck, an alien, and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Aggregate (fictional) net worth? $137 billion.

Are you Feeling Lucky?

On Google's clean, white homepage the little "I'm Feeling Lucky" button has survived in spite of many changes to the page in all these years. Did you know that it costs Google around $110 million in annual revenue? The button takes searchers directly to the top search result and this doesn't allow Google to show search ads on one percent of all its searches.

Then why does Google keep such a costly button around?

What After Harry Potter?

Barry Cunningham, who as an editor at Bloomsbury was the first to spot the potential of Harry Potter, is now tipping Tunnels, co-authored by Roderick Gordon and Brian William, as the next big thing. Tunnels, the first of the books, is a "fantasy tale about a boy archaeologist, who discovers a world of thrilling adventure after digging a hole."

Cunningham has already secured more than £500,000 in advances for the authors and is currently in Hollywood, in discussions to sell the film rights.

The book will be available from July 2, 2007 2008 onwards.

The complete report here. More on "the new Harry Potter" here.

Of course, Tunnels will have it tough if the Harry Potter series continues beyond the seventh book.

The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter — a Theme Park

[. . .] Warner Brothers and Universal studios plan to take fans of the schoolboy magician on another (expensive) adventure with the creation of a billion-dollar park in Orlando, Florida.

The film-makers believe that they can recreate the dream of every child reader, and probably a few million adults too, who have imagined themselves flying in a game of Quidditch or walking into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a lesson in spells rather than spelling.

[. . .]

Rowling has been involved in the project from the beginning. She said yesterday: “The plans I’ve seen look incredibly exciting, and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed.”

There are plans for visitors to wander through a lifesize Hogwarts Castle, encountering some of the characters and seeing “magic” recreated in front of them. There will also be Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade, home to wizards and magical creatures, with its steep roofed slate-and-stone buildings and eccentric shops selling broomsticks, cauldrons, wands and magic potions. The Hogwarts Express will be steaming away at the rail station. [. . .]

Details here and here.

Has our Prime Minister Lost it?

PM Manmohan Singh has asked businesses not to fuel a rich-poor divide with excessive salaries and greedy behavior:

Resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption," he said. "Rising income and wealth inequalities, if not matched by a corresponding rise of incomes across the nation, can lead to social unrest.

He also added:

We cannot afford the wasteful lifestyles of the Western world. Conspicuous consumption must be reduced.

Seriously, is this guy an economist? As far as my limited knowledge of economics goes, spending and consuming is one good way (the best way) to ensure that the benefits of wealth are distributed to all involved in the manufacture of what (whether goods or services) was consumed.

Manmohan Singh's primary theme in his speech to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seems to be the idea of equitable distribution of wealth. Hence all that beef in the PM's speech about "wasteful lifestyles" and "conspicuous consumption." The way to spread wealth is that someone spends it — whatever be that person's lifestyle. The wealth will eventually trickle down to all in the manufacturing and supply chain.

The way to ensure that the a rich-poor divide doesn't grow wider is not by recommending that the salaries of senior executives in any industry be limited but by making sure that businesses and industries have enough incentives to grow and create more and more jobs. If the government can do that, then perhaps it won't have to keep up the pretence of being humane and compassionate and the PM can stop being stupid and directing the industry about how it should be doing its business and paying its employees.

The Dying Art of Browsing Books

Buying books online may be very convenient but however hard an online bookstore may try it cannot replicate the “serendipity” of discovering something in a bookshop.

Bookshops, Margaret Atwood rightly believes, are missing out on “the sales that they wouldn’t expect to make, but make because somebody sees this beautiful cover and they pick it up and read the front flap."

How internet booksellers are killing art of browsing.

The Taming of Indian Street Food

From The New York Times:

[. . .] as incomes rise and ways of eating change, the inevitable has happened. Street food, that emblem of raucous, messy, urban India, is slowly being tamed.

In recent years, it has begun to come indoors, get sterilized, and go upmarket.
[. . .]

So we have fast-food chains where cooks use gloves, food is served in disposable plastic cups and plates, pani puri (a.k.a gol gappa, or phoochka) is prepared with mineral water, five star hotels serve chaat with a bottle of champagne, and pani puri spiked with vodka is favorite cocktail snack.

So All May Eat

Some soul food.



Link via: Ajeya Row

The Future of Bookstores

It's the morning of July 21st, 2007. The last Harry Potter book is out. You forgot to pre-order it. You decide to go to the local bookstore and pick up a copy. You walk into a bookstore, browse the bookshelves but can't find the book. It's sold out. The bookstore manager checks the store computer and confirms that no print copy is available. You are disappointed. The bookstore manager says that they can order a print copy for you but it will take a few days. Everybody else will have read the book by that evening, except you. That's not how you read a Potter book. It HAS to be read on the day it hits the bookstores. You curse your memory, your laziness, and your lousy luck.

And then the store manager adds " [. . .] we can sell it to you in other formats, some of which could be ready for downloading by the time you get home. How would you like it?"

Is that even possible?

In fact it is imperative that bookstores, if they want to survive and thrive, also distribute books in multiple formats, including digital content.

With books increasingly available in multiple formats -- among them digital "e-books" and audio versions downloadable to your iPod -- what's to prevent people from bypassing brick-and-mortar bookstores entirely, further undercutting enterprises already under pressure from online competitors?

The Caravan Project -- a tiny, experimental venture is just what might help brick-and-mortar bookstores survive.