Something Interesting.....

It seems among the CEO's of fortune 500 companies...a majority of them are white (comes as no surprise!!) and almost 58% of them are nearly 6 feet tall....

Some time back, researchers analyzed data from four very large sample size (corrected for variables such as age, gender, weight) and figured that an inch of height is worth $789/ year in salary . That means that a person who is six feet tall but otherwise identical to someone who is five feet five will make on an average $5,525 more per year.

go figure...

P.S: from Blink.

For MBA Aspirants......

It took me 2 months of preparation for the GMAT exam and though I was not happy with my score of 680, I am satisfied with it (the idea of giving GMAT again crossed my mind a thousand times but I felt I didn't have the patience to prepare for the exam, again!!!)

Some books that I would recommend for the GMAT preparation:

1. The official guide for GMAT review, 11th edition
This is the first book that anyone should refer. Give the practice tests and identify the weaknesses. Review the concepts and practice every question in the book (Give more time reviewing your weak areas).

2. The official guide for GMAT verbal review and The official guide for GMAT quantitative review
There are some additional questions compared to the big book.

3. A very good site for reviewing and practicing quantitative section is the manhattangmat.com.
I just used their online services for both quantitative and verbal sections. I particularly liked their challenge problems section.

4. This site helped me more than any single study source, both paper and e-paper. Their forum will answer most of the questions that you would encounter during your preparations.

will give more input in future posts....happy GMATing. Good Luck.

Blink!!!

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell refers to a study done by Dr. Gottman of the University of Washington about the success and failure of a marriage. Dr. Gottman considers "Contempt" to be the most important factor for a marriage failure.

Excerpts from the book....

"If Gottman observes one or both partners in a marriage showing contempt toward the other, he considers it the single most important sign that the marriage is in trouble."

"You would think that criticism would be the worst," Gottman says, "because criticism is a global condemnation of a person's character. Yet contempt is qualitatively different from criticism. With criticism I might say to my wife, 'You never listen, you are really selfish and insensitive.' Well, she's going to respond defensively to that. That's not very good for our problem solving and interaction. But if I speak from a superior plane, that's far more damaging, and contempt is any statement made from a higher level. A lot of the time it's an insult: 'You are a bitch. You're scum.' It's trying to put that person on a lower plane than you. It's hierarchical."

Gottman has found, in fact, that the presence of contempt in a marriage can even predict such things as how many colds a husband or a wife gets; in other words, having someone you love express contempt toward you is so stressful that it begins to affect the functioning of your immune system. "Contempt is closely related to disgust, and what disgust and contempt are about is completely rejecting and excluding someone from the community. The big gender difference with negative emotions is that women are more critical, and men are more likely to stonewall. We find that women start talking about a problem, the men get irritated and turn away, and the women get more critical, and it becomes a circle. But there isn't any gender difference when it comes to contempt. Not at all." Contempt is special. If you can measure contempt, then all of a sudden you don't need to know every detail of the couple's relationship.

should be pondered.....

Olympics Torch Relay

It is supposed to unite the world. It is supposed to spread good will and friendship among people. But the Olympics torch relay drew wide protests wherever it is undertaken. Why do people protest during such an important event? Publicity. If I protest in front of my house, I don't think even my neighbor would care. If I protest in the torch relay, the whole world would notice. The anti- China protesters took this opportunity to show the world (in front of thousands of camera's) how "anti" China is- in human rights.

The relay was cut short in paris, it drew large number of protesters in San Fransisco (the only time it would be in US), British PM said that he would skip the Olympics opening ceremony and the US president is thinking about skipping the ceremony and so on. These events are enough to project what will happen in the near future. There will be mass protests wherever the relay is going to take place.

Why doesn't the IOC stop the relay? It is obvious now that the relay is going to be a flop show. I am even projecting that there will be protests when it takes place in Shanghai and Beijing. So stop the torch relay and just keep it in a vault and introduce it during the opening ceremony. (It is interesting that the torch will be carried atop Mount Everest- may be it will be the only place where the protest won't take place!!!)

My Predictions

I am no expert here. So I am expanding my prediction to 5 players. Lets see if one of them can win this year.

1. Phil Michelson (2 times champion)
2. Vijay Singh (1 time champion)
3. Retief Goosen (finished in top 15 in his last 6 Masters)
4. Zach Johnson (Defending Champion)

and

5. Tiger Woods (4 times champion)

The Masters-2008

Augusta, Georgia- The one place every golf lover want to be this time of the year. The next few days are going to be some of the exciting days in the golf calender. The big question is going to be : who is gonna walk away with the green jacket?

94 players, 4 days, 72 holes, 1 green jacket.

A mathematical "anomaly"

1+4+16+64+256+................... (i.e. 1+ x^2+x^4+x^6+x^8+x^10+........where x=2) is -1/3.
What the hell. How can the addition of positive numbers to infinity give a negative value?

MLB-2008 Season

The MLB season started of with a bang for the KC royals. They won their first game of the season. What's more, the first pitch of the game was thrown by Miss USA 2008!!! We will take that as a good (beautiful) sign and.....go Royals!!!