Category / Reviews

by Nirupam Biswas

Maybe Pizzas and Subways have caused some allergies in me

Like many I have feasted over many Pizzas and ‘healthy’ Subway burgers. Infrequently and sporadically I have seem to get allergy attacks where hives form on your skin [1].

Hives will cause lot small swellings to form on your body, as it happens in case of insect bites, but all throughout the body. Many of the swelling may merge to form bigger islands. Along with that you will get extreme burning sensation throughout your body over your skin and incessant itching, but itching only spreads the hive formations.

I remember, I had this for the first time in my life, more a year ago. I had a Domino’s Non-veg pizza and after 15-20 mins I went to a local market, where it was hot and sweaty. I started having itchy sensations over my head and arms, along with some hives. The hives were not red and looked like it happened as a result of some mosquito bite. Then when I started scratching them then the situation aggravated. In half hour I was back home and my body was full with hives and islands and it was burning my skin. I took a cold shower, even though it gave a little relief, but it felt like thousand stings. My roomies grew concerned about my situation so we went to a doctor and took a shot of an anti-allergy medicine. It took about an hour to recover after that.

Later I called Dominos to query about any ingredients they put which is known to cause allergy, but as I expected they did know of anything. I had the dreaded thought that I have developed allergy of chicken! Finally I concluded may the heat, sweat and dirt caused this. Time passed and I had many more pizzas and I never had such an issue except for one another day. This time I was at home and was cool and dry. This time I tired not to scratch and in 15-20 mins I recovered.

It has been now one year and today after having Subway burger that same hive allergy struck me. Today also I was cool and dry and I tried not to scratch myself and I recovered in 15-20 mins, but now I could not ignore this anymore. So, I googled and found loads of information. So my final conclusion is I have developed allergy against corn syrup.

Conclusion

It seems I have developed allergy against High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). This is a very dangerous substance and unfortunately, as I found out today, it is present in almost all fast foods. Including Subway burgers and Domino’s Pizzas [2][3][4]. This is also known to cause allergies, like hives [5].

Links

by Nirupam Biswas

Rush Hour 3 – Review


Yesterday I saw Rush Hour 3. I know it was released long ago, in fact one year ago, but I have much less time or rather I love to do others tasks more and so movie watching takes a back seat. Anyway back to the movie. This is one of the most ridiculous movies I ever have seen, yes there are some, much more ridiculous, but its one scene broke all limits and forced me to actually blog about it!

Warning story spoiler (huh! as if it has any story)

This movie uses numerous well known formulae to create its plot. This movie has a typical protagonist (Jackie Chan) who has an evil brother – the villain. The protagonist tries to shrug off any fact that he actually still cares about his evil brother, but he indeed does care about him. The evil brother in question doesn’t give a damn about his protagonist brother, but he is very much aware about his brother’s weakness for him. So much so that the evil brother doesn’t fear a gun at his temple when pointed by his protagonist brother, after all the writer of the story has given him his word. The movie’s focal point was that a criminal secret society has (again) a secret ridiculous ritual. Because of the only reason that they
want it to remain secret that they rough-up and kill people. The same old story. Yawn!

The movie starts with a scene with a traffic cop (Chris Tucker), iPod in his ears, guiding the traffic or shall we say just dancing. Here we get to meet the typical black side-kick that many movies have. Oh, yes, by-the-way the evil brother – the villain, is not the main villain, as it can very well be assumed when a villain is shown in the very first 15 mins of the movie. Another typical formula, make an old, caring and father figure the main villain. I had a gut feeling who was the main villain from the very beginning, so much so, when I saw the protagonist trusting him so much I felt like going through the screen and pull Jackie Chan’s ears and tell him – You fool, can’t you see he is the real villain, haven’t you seen enough movies? The movie is peppered with ridiculous moments, I am still coming to the biggest of such moments. In one scene when Jackie and his associate reach the hospital where the shot ambassador was kept, they find not a single security personnel. During this time the villainous gang attack but our heroes save the day, as expected. Later nowhere in the movie they raise question about it. As if they had an amnesia and now none of them remember that they were just now attacked and mysteriously there was no one else to cover.

Now the biggest ridiculous moment of all. This is the only scene that actually forced me write this blog – This is my first movie review. This was so so (double ‘so’ was intended) ridiculous. In the climax of the movie it was shown that the mafia has control over the Eiffel Tower! Not even that, they even happen to have a plush apartment up there, and nobody in France seems to be bothered about it or maybe they don’t know about it – Ah the might of the writer’s pen, they can make anything possible. The last scene too was kinda funny. When the old, caring and father figure main villain, points his caring gun at our protagonists, a shot is fired, and (here we go again) as always he gets the shot, but from a cab driver who wanted to kill someone without reason (‘to become a true American’), and as this was not a ‘no reason’ hence his dreams were shattered. Poor driver. Then happens the funny part. The dying old, caring and father figure main villain walks up to the pool to take his eternal plunge. In many movies the villains take plunge into the near-by pools when they are shot (during the climax), as if to hide their shameful faces, but never before I had ever seen them walk for meters for the plunge. He didn’t looked like he was shot, rather he looked like a tired person lost in the desert and seeking water. Brett Ratner you could have made him walk up close to the pool when he was alive and then he could have just fallen into it without the walking stuff. Anyway this last part did really give me the laughs.

Conclusion

What can I conclude? You have nothing else to do and have no other options then, well, you have no other options, so see this movie, else recommend this movie to your enemy.

by Nirupam Biswas

Peach: Big Buck Bunny…. Coming Soon


To download the trailer in HD and other resolutions or find several mirrors, click here


Hi Definition streaming version

This movie is coming soon near you, and what’s more this movie is completely FREE! You can also get the original source of the movie for free again. This is an Open Source Movie!!! Visit its site at www.bigbuckbunny.org and peach.blender.org.

by Nirupam Biswas

Ohloh

Ohloh

This is a site of one of its kind. It collects statistics on opensource projects. You can find cache of information on the projects and statistics of their activity like — what is the amount code that has been put into the projects (given with year-wise breakup) and of the whole code how much are blank spaces and comments. You will also find names of coders and how much they have contributed listed there, and much more. The site is still in beta stage hence that means the data there could still be inaccurate.