When I was in Seattle last week, the conference organizers were offering a cruise around the Seattle lakes and locks. I decided to check it out – take a breather from the conference chaos, and heave a sigh of relief after my talk.

At first, I thought “locks” was a mis-spelling of “lochs,” but it’s not. The Hiram M. Chittenden locks are actually a feat of maritime engineering. Being the lazy guy that I am, I’ll just let Wikepedia do the explaining:

The locks and associated facilities serve three purposes:

• To maintain the water level of the fresh water Lake Washington and Lake Union at 20–22 feet above sea level^[2][3] (Puget Sound‘s mean low tide).^{[citation needed]}
• To prevent the mixing of sea water from Puget Sound with the fresh water of the lakes (saltwater intrusion).^[5]
• To move boats from the water level of the lakes to the water level of Puget Sound, and vice versa.^[6] [link]
  

We started on Lake Washington on an unusually sunny day.

I only had my cell phone with me, so I apologize in advance for the small sizes, the consistent wide angles and the occasional graininess.

We went past some houseboats in front of the George Washington Memorial bridge (not to be confused with the George Washington Bridge), before going under the bridge itself.

We also sailed past a past-century oil refinery which has since been cleaned up, aestheticized by a local artist and made into a park by the government.

Did you know that if you want a bridge to be raised in Seattle, you have to give an hour’s notice? Here’s the number to call (fortunately, we squeaked through below it).

And then we were headed to the famous locks.

I noticed an interesting apparatus on the way. Have no idea what it is or does, other than the fact that it was huge (see the street-lamp to its right for comparison).

Here are a couple of shots of the locks, from the Lake Washington side, looking on to Puget Sound.

Just before we entered the Sound, there were two locals intently watching the entire crossing process.

The post-lock panorama was pretty.

We saw Mt. Rainier in the distance.

And a suburb of Seattle called Magnolia, which has no such trees (but apparently they’re working on it).

We started to see downtown in the panorama (Rainier’s to the right, a bit of Magnolia to the extreme left).

This little guy seemed more interested in me, than in the view…

Ultimately, it got too cold and windy to stay upstairs, so we went downstairs into the cabin, and got the final shot of Seattle’s downtown (with the Space Needle in the left-middle window, if you can make it out).

And then we trundled back to the conference center for more of the chaos and a helluva long day.

Well, the other day, I was having a coffee at Ritual Coffee Roasters down in the Mission (here in San Francisco). It’s one of the best coffees in town, as I’ve blogged earlier. So I walk into the restroom, and on the paper towel dispenser, I see:

I wasn’t sure initially, but that is Appu – the 1982 Asian Games mascot. I double-checked on two sites. Now, what the hell is a sticker of the 1982 Asian Games doing in a coffeeshop in San Francisco, 25 years later? That’s a question to ponder. Take a closer look:

Well, whoever put that there, for whatever reason, it definitely got my attention. And now, you’re probably wondering what that comic says on the dispenser. Well, I anticipated that, so I got a close-up of it:

Not really very interesting. Unless you’re in art school and/or an artist having a mid-life crisis. I’ll tell you what was interesting, though: The patterns the barista made on our coffees. Check them out:

Nice, no? The second one looks like a garlic or a heart, depending on where you are in life…

This time, however, the Bongs have gone too far, according to Penguin India. They are suing a Bong group for creating a massive Durga statue set in an intricately-made Hogwarts (that’s from Harry Potter, for those who are living in caves).

The community group is being targeted by lawyers representing Penguin India on behalf of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers who hold the rights to Harry Potter in India. Members say that they make a different model every year – in the past they have built the Titanic.This year they chose Hogwarts School – as well as life-size models of Harry Potter and his friends. Organisers said a mock steam engine train is also being constructed next to it, to resemble Hogwarts Express. Correspondents say the construction is nearing completion and is expected to cost around 1.2 million Indian rupees ($30,000). [link]

Ok, correct me if I’m wrong, but these things are usually the result of people going around door-to-door, collecting money and then using that money to build the mandaps (which is what these imaginative settings for the idol are called). So who exactly are they suing? Is it the lane or apartment building from which the money was collected? And I’m not even sure if these things make a profit. Generally, people give some money when they pray, but it’s not exactly commercially-viable. It’s more like a goodwill thing. Anyhow, apparently the High Court disagrees with me, as does Warner Brothers.

Penguin India’s spokeswoman Nirmalya Roychowdhury told the Associated Press news agency that Delhi High Court has already ruled that the organisers of the Durga Puja festival must remove the display or pay the fine for copyright violation.

“Sadly, the organizers of this large-scale commercially sponsored event did not approach us for permission to go ahead,” Warner Brothers said in a statement in London.

“This event falls outside the guidelines set up by Warner Bros., JK Rowling and her publishers to help charitable and not-for-profit organizations to run small-scale themed events that protect fans and allow everyone to enjoy Harry Potter books, films and events in the spirit in which they were created,” the statement said. [link]

Seems to be one in a long line of frivolous lawsuits that are on the increase in India. Is it a consequence of economic growth? Or is it just another example of the corporate bigwigs frustrated by media piracy, and taking it out on the little guy?

Update: Good news – looks like the courts in India rule in favor of the little guy. Read this:

Indian fans of Harry Potter books welcomed Saturday a court verdict that gave the go-ahead to organisers of a religious event to build a life-size replica of the fictional Hogwarts Castle.

The Delhi High Court threw out on Friday a claim by author J.K. Rowling that the giant structure constructed in the city of Kolkata infringed copyright.

Organisers now have permission to keep the papier mache and bamboo castle in place until Durga Puja, the biggest Hindu religious event in eastern India, on October 26. [link]

Two young brothers, one of them still in college, have put Kolkata on the world?s Internet map by building the hottest online game on social networking phenomenon Facebook.

Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla have built a free online scrabble game that has 800,000 registered users on Facebook… [Hindustan Times]

The Agarwalla Brothers

Yes, it’s the the Scrabulous App on Facebook that I’m sure every user has seen, if not used. I’ve expressed my views on the whole social networking thing (and Facebook, in particular), in the past. But this is pretty cool.

There’s more:

The Agarwalla brothers run Scrabulous from the offices of their home-grown software company in an office in Calcutta.

Of the 30 software developers the company employs, a few work on the online game, “fixing bugs and improving the systems,” as the brothers describe it.

The Calcutta-born brothers are scrabble buffs in a city which is Scrabble-crazy. [BBC]

It sounds expensive, and it is – but it’s a labor of love for them, so it doesn’t bother them much.

Rajat Agarwalla said he had tried all the Facebook advertising networks and found that none earned much money. Now he is using Google AdSense to put text advertising links on the Scrabulous canvas page, and he said he is barely recouping his swelling bandwidth costs.

But that is fine with him, because developing for Facebook is only a hobby for the Agarwalla brothers.

?We see it as a project and as a community, where people are actually having fun with each other, rather than paying to have fun or thinking someone is running this as a professional enterprise,? Mr. Agarwalla said. [NYT]

Nice.

Okay, this may be a tad too cynical, but take a little Buddhism, add a military regime, throw in a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (imprisoned) and you get something which is just begging for a Hollywood celebrity to make it their cause du jour. Well, there’s no need to beg, because it’s done already. Be warned: what you’re about to see is cheese personified. I’d keep a bucket handy to puke into, just in case.

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All jokes apart, what’s happening in Burma is truly egregious. Just today, a Japanese journalist was shot dead for filming the junta. Someone managed to get a video of it, and the entire Japanese news report of the incident is posted on YouTube. It isn’t gory, but it’s certainly stomach-wrenching. And this time I’m serious.

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…somebody has just shown me a thing called ?Facebook?, which they say is being used by lots of new graduates. I have been told that the economic value of my ?network? is not what it was. What is going on?

The Economist (Tim Harford) replies:

…simple arithmetic ignores an offsetting effect: diminishing marginal returns. The first mobile phones were used to conduct multi-million-dollar deals. One more mobile phone today is one more source of classroom text messages. Many people who sign up to Facebook quickly find they have no use for it. [link]

Hear, hear. Count me in as one of those. I was coaxed into joining by several different people, and did so in the hopes I could network professionally. But except for reconnecting with old school chums in India (and the associated short-term thrills), it served little purpose to me. In fact, there were even some negative externalities since I was forced to deal with certain people who I was quite comfortable keeping ten thousand miles away, both physically and mentally.

(via)

Pacino increasingly sought out big, shouty parts and then inflated them past their already outsized proportions: He out-Sataned Satan in The Devil’s Advocate (1997), spontaneously combusted at regular intervals in Two for the Money (2005), and imitated a disgruntled spaniel in this year’s Ocean’s Thirteen.

The victory of shtick over craft is disheartening. It’s important to remember, though, that the man is a populist, whether he’s communing with admirers outside the stage door or directing Looking for Richard, a film obsessed with making Shakespeare accessible to a mass audience. [link]

One section of the capital of Puerto Rico – San Juan – has cobbled streets, brightly colored buildings and beautiful sculptures. This part, called Old San Juan, shows the strong influence the Spanish had on Puerto Rico, and also has several historical monuments and forts. The old city is very small and very dense and we took a self-guided walking tour.

We started with a view of the marina, and an old sail-ship moored there.

Next, we walked by La Aduana, the old, pink Customs House, which is still used by the US and Puerto Rican port authorities.

Across the street from the Customs House, is a corner of the wall that once enclosed the old city. And there’s a watchtower there, which are the icons of San Juan, as you can see at the bottom of the pic.

From there, we walked along the wall, and passed by some old statues which precede La Princesa – formerly, a jail (and now an art museum).

The statue on the left is part of a set of three that’s displayed prominently. Although I’ve looked around a little bit, I’ve not been able to find out exactly who created them, or how old they are, or what they stand for.

Being on a limited schedule, we didn’t stop in at the museum, but its huge white wall had ornate brackets for their lamps, and there were some other travelers taking a break, perhaps.

We walked on to Raices (meaning ‘roots’), an imposing bronze sculpture and fountain. The fountain represents the Taino, European and African ancestors of the modern-day Puerto Rican. Here’s a detail.

The large city wall then turns a corner and pushing us to the edge of the water, left a narrow path to walk down on…

…but also gave a nice view of one of the city’s edges.

Going inside the wall and entering the city from the San Juan gate, we were hit in the face with a gulmohar tree sandwiched between two colorful buildings, offering some welcome shade.

Looking back, we saw the inside of the San Juan gate which looks out on to the bay (or bahia). Here’s a detail.

Taking a side-road led us up to a view of some of Old San Juan’s famed colored houses, some of which have been around since the Spanish colonial era. This view looks down Calle Sol (or Sun Street).

To the left, we saw Plazuela de la Rogativa, on which there is a statue commemorating a march made by a bishop and some townswomen to scare off the British (it worked).

Beyond the statue is a nice panorama of new San Juan, sandwiched between two watchtowers.

To the right, is a beautiful old house with a mural of Mary and Jesus.

From there, we walked up a small pathway, past the Instituto de Culturo Puertorrique?a…

…and on to Fuerto San Felipe del Morro also known as the El Morro fortress, which is surrounded by a vast field.

We got there at closing time, so we didn’t really get a chance to go in, but across the street from El Morro are two great sculptures. Again, I can’t seem to find any info on the who/why/when, but they’re definitely worth a look.

Walking away from Casa Blanca (the ancestral home of Ponce De Leon’s descendants) we passed by some colorful walls.

You turn right on to Calle Cristo and see the blue-ish cobbled path in all its glory – a trademark of Old San Juan.

At the end of the road is the Capilla del Cristo (Chapel of Christ), in front of which we saw a family having dinner in the middle of the road.

Also on the Calle Cristo is the Catedral de San Juan Bautista or the San Juan Cathedral.

On the way back to the car, we passed some locals rapt in animated conversation at the street corner.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and we too, had to say goodbye to our island in the sun.

And from the ad below, it looks like our desi brethren back home are still doing some excellent work. Kudos to them, I say!

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The story is even more racy than the title – a lesbian marries four women in Nigeria, where homosexuality is forbidden by the Sharia law there, and same-sex marriages are illegal.

A Nigerian lesbian who “married” four women last weekend in Kano State has gone into hiding from the Islamic police, with her partners.

The theatre where the elaborate wedding celebration was held on Sunday has been demolished by Kano city’s authorities.

…

The BBC’s Bala Ibrahim in Kano says Aunty Maiduguri and her four “wives” are thought to have gone into hiding the day after they married. [link]

Of course, polygamy is allowed by Sharia in Nigeria, and a man is allowed to take four wives if he can support them. If you ask me, I say more power to them all. Screw the outdated notions of the Nigerian legal system.

But forget about all that. I’m more worried about what’s happening to the Beeb. I’d expect this story to be in a bloody tabloid, not the BBC!