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Friday, October 28, 2011

It had to be Kumar! Real.life 'slumdog' scoops jackpot


Sushil Kumar, a Bihar commoner 27,  not yet a civil servant

Sushil Kumar earned EUR86 a month working in a government office in the state of Bihar before he gave all the right answers on the popular TV show.Sushil Kumar earned EUR86 a month working in a government office in the state of Bihar before he gave all the right answers on the popular TV show.

A poor government clerk from eastern India has become the first person to win the jackpot on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Sushil Kumar earned €86 a month working in a government office in the state of Bihar before he gave all the right answers on the popular TV show. He won 50 million rupees (€719,400).

The 2008 Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire  was about a man from a poor background who hits the jackpot on the show, which is hugely popular in India. Mr Kumar told show host and Indian movie hero Amitabh Bachchan that he was thrilled he could now afford to pay for a preparatory course so he can take India’s civil service exam. 
He said he also planned to use some of his winnings to build a library in his home town. He also wants to buy a home for his wife and give his brothers money so they can set up small businesses. Mr Kumar’s episode was recorded on Tuesday night and will be broadcast next week.


Monday, October 24, 2011

an uncanny full house theater with bikers ..... and you?


stunts with bikers in cinema

SEP222011
To reinforce the new product Duval Guillaume Modem proposed an original experiment, as Entertainment advertisers are learning that the most engaging video advertising feels like part of the video experience.
In Belgian cinemas some innocent couples were confronted with a theatre filled with not-so-friendly gentlemen and only 2 seats left… 
How will they react? and you?Put yourself in an uncanny (=impossible) situation.You go with your boyfriend to the cinema and the seller tells you that there are only two seats left in the middle of the room.You go and see 148 bikers with bad face staring at you.What would you do? Who would convince who?
Those who were not intimidated, .... got to know.
In the beginning of this year, Carlsberg launched a new global positioning and baseline ‘That Calls for a Carlsberg’. Carlsberg is a well-known brand, but people didn’t necessarily know what the brand stands for. With this global positioning Carlsberg wants to add essence to the brand and tell the Carlsberg story, so every market understands that Carlsberg beer stands for tradition, quality, a great taste … and making the right choices.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

la contra de la vanguardia

TOTES les contra de la vanguardia
Broggi, cirujano y humanista   Vive tu vida hasta el final: ¡aprópiate de tu muerte! (17-10-2011)

¿Qué aconseja a los moribundos?
"No te olvides de vivir", que dijo Goethe. Ved tan inevitable vuestra muerte... como la vida que os queda. Reconcíliate con la vida: entiende que la vida estaba antes que tú y que seguirá sin ti. Nos acostumbramos a vivir... y nos apegamos. Pero la vida no te necesita. Piénsalo. ... ¡Y perdónate! No te juzgues: hiciste lo mejor que pudiste y quédate contento.
¿Qué es lo importante para bien morir?
Sentirte acompañado, mirado, admirado: que haya alguien a tu lado que te vea de verdad. Y para eso suele ser mejor un amigo que un familiar.
¿Conoce alguna muerte ideal?
Rilke dijo: "Señor, da a cada uno su propia muerte". Que tu muerte encaje en lo que ha sido tu vida. Como la de Sócrates... que condenado a morir con cicuta, convoca a sus amigos, charla con ellos, hace salir a los que lloran, bebe y se despide: "Parto hacia la muerte y vosotros hacia la vida: ¡sólo los dioses saben quién tendrá mejor suerte!". Como dijo Quevedo: "Que mi vida acabe y mi vivir ordene".
  Hasta el final, ¡todo es vida! Me impresionó un paciente amigo mío que, moribundo, sacó una botella de vino y me invitó a brindar...




LC-333-  Albert Turull, especialista en onomástica  "Si te llamas Arturo García, vienes a ser 'un oso muy oso'"


LC- 28/X - Esteva de Sabrera (Univ. Barcelona) Historiador del medicamento



Cuando no existe un medicamento, el hombre se lo inventa: cure o no. Y algunos causaban más víctimas que curaciones. A mí me fascina, por ejemplo, el emplasto de Paracelso para heridas de espada: se aplicaba sobre la espada y no sobre la herida.
 Magia simpática.
En ella lo similar produce lo similar y las sustancias en contacto se contagian propiedades. Además, creían en otra relación igual de falsa, pero más lucrativa: cuanto más caro y escaso es el remedio, más efectivo.
... Galeno prescribe la triaca, que se elaboraba con carne de víboras hembra no preñadas.
 Magia simpática y arriesgada.
Mucho, porque san Isidoro aconseja que los cazadores de víboras vayan desnudos.
¿Por qué?
San Isidoro sabrá. 
.... Veo que la farmacia tiene pasado –y próspero–, pero no sé si tanto futuro.
.... En fin, las crisis son el modo en que el capitalismo hace su gimnasia.
 ¿Ha sido la Viagra el medicamento más rentable que ha existido?
Lo fue más el guayaco, planta americana, usada como antisifilítico: suponía tales beneficios que, cuando los banqueros Fogger financian a Carlos V como emperador, le exigen a cambio el monopolio del guayaco.
 annex1The Italian scholar Rodolfo Taiani, in Pharmacy through the Ages, considers that  “…Brilliant sales campaign, prompted by the Fuggers, ..This family had the monopoly of this drug, which became extremely valuable and was sold at very high prices.”
annex2Nicolás Monardes (1493-1588)
historia_enfermedades_venereas/libro_monardes
Libro de Monardes con el guayacán
La madera del Guaiacum officinale y del Guaiacum sanctum, árboles de pequeño crecimiento, tiene en su corazón, el Lignum vitae del cual se saca el guayacán. En latín se denomina “Madera de vida’ por sus usos medicinales. Otros nombres son palo santo, madera santa, corazón verde y madera de hierro.53
El primer caso de sífilis curado por el guayacán lo relata Nicolás Monardes, cito textualmente: ‘Dio noticias del a su amo de este manera. Como un español padeciese grandes dolores de bubas, que una india se las había pegado, el indio le dio el agua del guayacán, con que no sólo se le quitaron los dolores que padecía, pero sanó muy bien del mal; (…) y cierto para este mal es el mejor y más alto remedio de cuantos hoy se han hallado y que con más certinidad y más firmeza sana y cura la tal enfermedad.



the birth of the queen of chess

Birth of the Chess Queen: A History - by Marilyn Yalom - HarperCollins, 2004
Reviewed by Rick Kennedy

I can summarize Yalom’s Birth of the Chess Queen: 
a) the game of chess we play today has evolved from an earlier game with different rules and pieces; 
b) over time, the eleventh through fifteenth centuries, the Vizier, or advisor to the King, was replaced in Europe by the Queen, which then further morphed from the weakest piece on the board to the strongest one; and c) the transformation of the chess Queen paralleled the rise of various powerful real-life queens.
For many readers, the first part of the tale will be familiar.
Though historians still debate the exact origins of chess, most agree that it emerged in India no later than the sixth century.  In Sanskrit, the game was called chaturanga, meaning “four members,” which referred to the four parts of the Indian army: chariots, elephants, cavalry and infantry.  This fourfold division, plus the king and his general, provided the basic pieces of the game, first in India and then throughout the world.
As people and armies moved in conquest across lands, the game of chess followed.  As people adapted and adopted the ways of new cultures, so did chess.
The Persians took from the Indians the essentials of the game – the six different figures, the board with sixty-four squares – and rebaptized the pieces with Persian names.  This new nomenclature was to have enduring significance far beyond the East, for shah, the Persian word for “king,” ultimately served as the name of the game in several European languages, via Latin.
As the Muslims expanded their empire, in the seventh through eleventh centuries, again, chess traveled with them.
Arabic became the dominant language in many of these conquered lands, and some of the chess pieces took on Arabic names (al-fil for elephant, baidak for pawn, and firzan, fri or ferz for the general or vizier) while others retained their Persian labels (shah for king, rukh for rook, asp for horse).
The stage is set for the entrance of Her Majesty:
We have seen how the chess queen appeared around the year 1000 as a European replacement for the Arabic vizier, taking over his slow, one-step-at-a-time diagonal gait.  Despite slight regional differences, this is the pace she maintained throughout the Middle Ages.
Almost as dramatic as the modern-day pawn being promoted, upon reaching the 8th rank, and changing into a modern-day queen, (although not as instantaneously), over the years the old style queen grew in power and mobility.  Why?  Here we have the crux of Yalom’s thesis:
Yet, from the twelfth century onward, she seems to have acquired special value, far beyond her limited mobility on the board…The heightened authority invested in queenship during the course of the Middle Ages spilled over to the little queen on the board and paved the way for her to become the game’s mightiest piece...It should not surprise us that the queen’s official transformation into the strongest piece on the board coincided with the reign of Isabella of Castile (1451-1504).
From the quotes I have presented, you can see that Birth of the Chess Queen is an accessible work, not the stereotyped dusty and impenetrable “academic” tome.  This style stands Yalom in good stead, and can make her book enjoyable reading for those interested in her slice of early chess days.  At times, though, especially when telling the tales of royalty, the author takes on almost a breathless quality in her writing (one unsympathetic reviewer compared it to People magazine).  One example, of many:
In 1137, the young, elegant princess married Louis VII, when they were fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively.  She left the sunny court of Aquitaine for the murky skies of Paris.  There her lively mind, nourished on lyrical poetry, came in contact with the more earnest theological debates favored by her monkish husband.  There is no doubt that Louis, deeply in love with his stunning young wife, was initially more influenced by her than she by him.  She did her best to recreate in Paris the brilliant court life that had flourished in Aquitaine, replete with troubadours, storytellers, jugglers, and entertainment of every sort, including games of chance and chess…
Also, because history does not record much – and, much less so, of the lives of women – Yalom is left presenting some of the stories she finds, however shaky, as if to get them on the record, lest they be lost again.
Mathilda’s marriage to Ezzo, the count of Palatine, is associated with a chess anecdote that is too good to be left in silence, even if its veracity is questionable.  As the story goes, Mathilda was married to Ezzo, the count Palatine, after her youthful brother, Otto III, acting as her guardian, lost her to the elderly count over a chess match.  It is impossible to determine whether this tale is true, but Otto III is known to have been a quixotic personality, so the decision to marry off his sister in this fashion is not entirely out of keeping with his character.  We do not know the date of the event or even the age of the bride…


second review at The Guardian (2004):

Chequered past of the first lady

Steven Poole surveys the emergence of a new game


Yalom enjoys telling the stories of her favourite queens: Matilda of Tuscany, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Blanche of Castile, Margaret of Denmark and particularly Isabella of Castile, who ruled Spain along with her husband Ferdinand at the time of the chess piece's ascension to superpower status.
These queens, on Yalom's admiring accounts, could do little wrong: they are celebrated for courage and fortitude, and even occasionally fighting in battle themselves. Yalom acknowledges hastily that yes, Isabella drove Jews and Moors from her shores and instituted the Spanish Inquisition, but this just makes Isabella's a "mixed legacy". Well, some legacies are more mixed than others. In a curious little historical irony, chess, among the pursuits banned by the Taliban, was one of the enduring gifts to Europe of the Arabs, whose expulsion by Isabella still rankles among Islamist terrorists today.
Doubtless there is some truth to the idea that examples such as Isabella made the appearance of a kick-ass female monarch on the chessboard more credible. Yalom points out that in Russia, the old vizier did not become the queen or "tsaritsa" until much later, when the historical example of Catherine the Great was available. On the other hand, Yalom's thesis cannot be generalised too much. It is not as though the world had never known powerful female rulers before the early-modern period. And bishops and kings are still as powerful in today's chess as they were five centuries ago, despite their waning influence in the western world.
Meanwhile, Yalom's coyly touted "discovery" of a "hidden relationship" between chess development and the cult of the Virgin Mary is much less persuasive. Where there does not exist a documented link between one of her spunky heroines and chess, moreover, Yalom feels happily inclined to invent it. Thus the pages are littered with phrases of wishful thinking: "On their actual journey to Byzantium, Eleanor and her caravan of noble ladies most probably brought chess sets with them..."; "In all probability, [Adelaide] promoted the game of chess."
Exuberantly, Yalom strays beyond her thesis as narrowly defined, with a chapter on courtly love and the imagery of chess as a metaphor for sex in numerous engravings showing young couples playing, and also examines the rich material for instruction and warning that chess provided to moralists - who, for example, were deeply worried about the implied polygamy of the fact that one side could eventually attain several queens. She writes in a style that combines briskness with a somewhat cloying smell of baking cookies: Eleanor, for example, wore her various royal titles "as easily as the rich textures that adorned her body". And when Yalom laments the fact that a tome entitled The Edifying Book of Erotic Chess "was tragically destroyed" in the firebombing of Dresden, one might reasonably propose that its loss was not among the most tragic results of that catastrophe.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Subway ettiquette and Groundfloor manners by Shelowitz

See all 10 posters here
The goal: to call New Yorkers out for their inappropriate or disgusting behavior, and to make them laugh i the process. “Keep your hands to yourself, perv,” one sign says. Another: “Keep your finger out of your nose. Please.” The posters bear the stamp of the MEA: Metropolitan Etiquette Authority.
MEA battles nose pickers

His new campaign deals with the manners on the ground this time.  Below one of these 
clever signs by Jason Shelowitz. This is found in DUMBO, Brooklyn and blends nicely into the environments - Passers-by nearly didn't notice it!!
Click this  Etiquette Project link to see more pics)


Jason Shelowitz has made it his mission to educate New Yorkers on proper urban decorum. 
All he had to do was break the law. (...) One encourages smokers not to litter. Another requests that 
walkers pay attention while crossing the street. A third, Mr. Shelowitz’s favorite, calls for police officers
 to pick up after their horses. The last, which has become something of a viral sensation on Facebook, 
reads simply: “Pull Up Your Pants. No One Wants to See Your Underwear.” Next to the text is an image
of an offending traveler, with a line through his semi-exposed backside.

         

strange stories and twixted


Blonde Supermarket JokeShown-up in the Supermarket

Dylan is in a queue at the Supermarket when he notices that the rather dishy blonde behind him has just raised her hand and is giving him a big 'hello'.
He is rather taken aback that such a looker would be waving to him, and although her face is vaguely familiar, Dylan can't place where he might know her from, so he says, 'Sorry, do you know me?'
She replies, 'I may be mistaken, but I thought you might be the father of one of my children'
Dylan's mind shoots back to the one and only time he has been unfaithful, 'Blimey!' 
he says, 'Did we meet on Frank's stag do in Newport?  Dylan continued, 
'When I was released from the police station and got back to the hotel room, 
you had gone.'
No, 'she replies, 'I'm your son's English Teacher'.
Names have been changed to protect our friends.



Strange Story Story of the Cigars (89)
A man from Charlotte, North Carolina, having purchased a case of very expensive cigars, insured them against, among other things, fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile, the man .... filed a claim against the insurance company, stating that the cigars were lost 'in a series of small fires'.
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The man sued ....






– and won.

In delivering the ruling the judge, agreeing that the claim was frivolous, stated nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire, without defining what it considered to be 'unacceptable fire', and was obliged to pay the claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal the insurance company ....... 






... accepted the ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he had lost 'in the fires'.

After he cashed the cheque, however, the company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the man was ....






.... convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

AudioQuotes..... The best chunks of hark.com


Parallel Reading. 
Repeat, and learn, 25 seconds in each quotation.
 


1. ROBIN WILLIAMS
Choose the best lines!
If you find other better quotations... share them with us.


clip1. Super philosophy (on somebody)
Will: "I went on a date last week". 
Sean: "How'd it go?" 
Will: "It was good." 
Sean: "Going out again?" 
Will: "I don't know." 
Sean: "Why not?" 
Will: "Haven't called her." 
Sean: "Christ, you're an ameteur." 
Will: "I know what I'm doing. Don't worry about me I know what I'm doing. Yeah, but this girls like you know, beautiful. She's smart. She's fun. She's different from most of the girls I've been with." 
Sean: "So, call her up Romeo." 
Will: "Why? So I can realize that she's not that smart. That she's fucking boring. This girls like fucking perfect right now. I don't want to ruin that." 
Sean: "Maybe you're perfect right now. Maybe you don't want to ruin that. But I think that's a super philosophy Will, that way you can go through your entire life without ever having to really know anybody."
Clip2. He talks with Conan O'Brien about technology.
Robin Williams on technology

2. Tom Hanks gives the commencement address at a US College (2005).
Tom Hanks on traffic problems ... and the power of four. (12 min) (Do the first 90 seconds)
As college graduates, you now live in a brand new world, with new versions of political upheaval, global pandemic, world war and religious polarization, the likes of which have rarely visited our planet all at once -- and thank God for that. Today’s main purpose is to celebrate your entering into society, ...
3. From Shawshank redemption (1995) film quotes (On 1966...)


"In 1966 Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison.
All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer damn near worn down to the nub.
I remember thinking it would take a man 600 years to tunnel through the wall with it.
Ol' Andy did it in less than twenty."


4.  A Cappella group does the song What Friends Are For from The Jungle Book. (02:46) (text starts on 00:23)
We're your friends. We're your friends. We're your friends to the bitter end, The bitter end. When you're alone, When you're alone Who comes around, Who comes around To pluck you up, To pluck you up When you are down, When you are down? And when you're outside lookin' in, Who's there to open the door? That's what friends are for. Who's always eager to extend A friendly claw? That's what friends are for. And when you're lost In dire need, Who's at your side At lightning speed? We're friends with every creature coming down the pike In fact we've never met an animal we didn't like, Didn't like. So you can see We're friends, We're friends in need. And friends in need Are friends indeed. We'll keep you safe in the jungle Forevermore. That's what friends are for."

Sharing a bike across the globe

Challenges and prospects

It turns out that many a visitor to the City of Lights has experienced a similar scene unfolding in front of them with the final realization that these Parisians are not riding their own bikes, but ones that they share with the whole city via the largest system of its kind in the world. The Vélib’ system, as it is called, is so simple that even non-Parisians can try it out. Just walk up to a bike station, purchase a one day pass for about €1, and hop on your new set of wheels. Then, when you’re done exploring the city, return the bike to any open spot at any station in the city.
Seems logical, doesn’t it? It’s rather common for first time encounters with setups like Vélib’ in Paris, SmartBike in Washington DC, or BIXI in Montreal to yield wide-eyed “Why doesn’t my city do this?” reactions. As busy people with places to go and things to do, we all need easy, affordable and accessible transportation. And living at a time when environmental awareness is more and more the norm rather than the exception, reduced emissions and earth-friendliness are becoming increasingly major factors in the way we select how we get around. In theory, bike sharing checks off all of the criteria on that list with a bold confidence. But does it measure up in real life?


To follow the bike shared programmes, click on this blog. Below, some other programmes


Nice Ride (Minneapolis, MN): Minneapolis is a city with 43 miles of bicycle lanes, over 80 miles of off-street paths and more bikeways on the way. Their bike share program, Nice Ride, was launched in June 2010 and claims to be the nation's largest bike sharing program. The Nice Ride system is a combination of your subscription price, plus trip fees: subscriptions are available for 24 hours ($5), 30 days ($30), 1 year ($60, or $50 for students); the first 30-minutes are free and each additional half-hour is charged in $1.50-$6 increments. Nice Ride bicycles are available 24/7 from April to November (all Nice Ride stations will be removed from the streets during the snowy winter months).
BIXI (Montréal, QC): Upon seeing the success and popularity of bike share programs in Europe, the city of Montréal decided to institute a their own system to complement existing public transportation as well as provide an alternative transportation option for residents and tourists. BIXI (BIcycle + taXI = BIXI), is a system is in service 24/7 from May until November (bikes are removed during winter months). Subscriptions are available for 24 hours ($5), 30 days ($28) and 1 year ($78); the first 30-minutes are free and each additional half-hour is charged in $1.50-$6 increments. BIXI even has a convenient iPhone app to find your nearest station and the number of bikes and bike docks available in real time (this information is also available on Google Maps).
Barclays Cycle Hire (London): Launched just last week (July 30th, 2010), Barclays Cycle Hire was developed by the BIXI system. More than 6,000 bikes and 400 docking stations will be deployed in the project’s first phase, the extensions planned for the future.
SmartBike DC (Washington, DC): With successful bike share programs across Europe, SmartBike launched the US's first bike share program 2 years ago in the nation's capital, Washington DC. Subscriptions are currently unavailable while the program rebrands itself as Capital Bikeshare and expands from 100 bikes to 100 stations and 1000 bikes, with expansion expected to be completed by Fall 2010. For more information visit DDOT orCapital Bikeshare.
B-cycle (Denver & Chicago): B-cycle was recently launched in Denver and is encouraging riders accross the country to get a bikeshare system in their own city. Membership options and costs vary depending on city, but most are available in day, week, month or year increments (discounts available for students and seniors) with the first 30-60 minutes per use free. As recently as July 26, B-cycle announced the launch of a new system in Chicago — for more information visit Chicago B-cycle.

Did i read that sign right?



 So how could anyone have put up signs such as these ones below? (click here)
what's the meaning of "learn"?



Seen during a conference:
For anyone who has children and doesn't know it, there is a day care centre on the 1st floor
This sign above (which, by the way, is an actual sign, similar to those below that have been spotted in different parts of the world) are just a few examples of how small mistakes in English can lead to a big difference in meaning. Just imagine the poor maid in the office mentioned in the fourth example! Or the wives in the second-hand shop situation! (to find mor funny signs, click here) that matter)?! Then, of course, there is the classic mistake in the top page example! Ask any mother who has given birth whether she knows that she has had a child!


 
 In an office:
TOILET OUT OF ORDER....... PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW
In a Laundromat:AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT
In a London department store:
                                                                   BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office:WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN
In an office:AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?
Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park:ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference:FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a farmer's field:THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.

On a repair shop door:WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T WORK).

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity and send this page to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle).  We all need a good laugh, keep on smiling.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Salman Khan -innovation in education


Innovation in Education (August 2010). Get the word out
Spreading the word about the Khan Academy is one of the best ways to help us. Each month we serve over 1,000,000 students, but there's no reason it shouldn't be 20 million. Please take a moment to share this site with your friends and community.  

Pangaea Pangaea (5:08 min ) - the idea of Pangaea and some of the evidence behind it




Let's bring India back down towards Antarctica.

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education








K
Check it at universalsubtitles (with downloadable transcripts) 

Bill Gates' favorite teacher

sal_khan.top.jpg(news) FORTUNE -- Sal Khan, you can count Bill Gates as your newest fan. Gates is a voracious consumer of online education. This past spring a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3, e-mailed him about the nonprofitkhanacademy.org, a vast digital trove of free mini-lectures all narrated by Khan, an ebullient, articulate Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. Gates replied within minutes. "This guy is amazing," he wrote. "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." Gates and his 11-year-old son, Rory, began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology. Then, several weeks ago, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in front of 2,000 people, Gates gave the 33-year-old Khan a shout-out that any entrepreneur would kill for. Ruminating on what he called the "mind-blowing misallocation" of resources away from education, Gates touted the "unbelievable" 10- to 15-minute Khan Academy tutorials "I've been using with my kids." With admiration and surprise, the world's second-richest person noted that Khan "was a hedge fund guy making lots of money." Now, Gates said, "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job." Khan wasn't even there -- he learned of Gates' praise through a YouTube video. "It was really cool," Khan says