Element 112 to be named Heisenbergium?

The hunt is on for a new name for Ununbi (one-one-two in latin), the chemical element number 112. BBC did an interview with scientist John Hemsley, who seems to indicate a groundswell of support for naming the element after Werner Heisenberg (yes, the uncertainty principal). But till it happens, we'll never be certain.

Factonama # 11

Volkswagen's new pickup truck is called Amarok. It's has been derived from the name of the giant wolf in Inuit mythology. Unlike normal wolves that hunt in packs, Amarok is supposed to do it all alone.

Greek Alphabet Themed Names

7 billion people. 183 million domain names.

Verisign, the meticulous chronicler of the domain name grabgame, has certified that as on date, there are close to 183 million domain names in use. I feel, we've just scratched the surface. There will be an explosion of dot ins, dot coms, dot TVs, dot radios, dot shops and dot what nots in the future. Considering there are close to 7 billion people on this planet, I think the game has just begun.

Arivazhagan - The beauty with brains

While I was commuting to my office, I chanced upon a fascinating name while gazing at one of those over-cluttered political posters that dot the Chennai outdoorscape. The name in question belongs to a congress politician. I thought, it's a beautiful coinage because it marries beauty (azhagu) and brains (arivu). I haven't come across an English equivalent. Excitedly, I googled Arivazhagan. To my surprise, I found it's a common tamil name. Then the jigyaasu baalak in me took over. I was curious to know what these guys looked like in real life. Did they turn out to be as handsome as their moms imagined them to be? I must say google images didn't reveal any Adonis. But then as they say, beauty lies.

Ambasamudram Ambani

The name of a Karunaas flick, just launched. It caught my eye the moment I saw it. Yes, it rides on Dhirubhai's name. But what adds fizz to it is the alliterative touch of Ambasamudram. When put together, Ambasamudram Ambani teases you into imagining a tale of a smalltown systembeater. I like the sound of it. That's why enakku idhu pidichurukku.

Some Bings Before Bing

Bing has zing!

Microsoft has finally chosen the bid bada Bing as the name for its search engine. This is infinitely better than the zombiesque Live Search. My gutfeel is the success of Zune would have prompted the switch to 4-letter names. To know more about this intuitive search engine, go here.

Cyclone Aila

Aila! Now that's what you call a funny name. Jokes apart, cyclone naming conventions are based on arbitrary lists of names submitted by various countries around the world. Maybe someday there will be a cyclone named 'Avinash'. That said, considering what 'Avinash' means, maybe not.

Addendum: Some dope on cyclone naming conventions that found in an aftersearch.

Rechristening of Mr. You Know Who

Mr. You Know Who, famed for gifting positions of power to his two sons, daughter, grand nephew and scores of distant relatives, is hereby rechristened as Kalaignar Kudumba Nidhi. Etymology: Kalaignar (tamil for artiste) + Kudumba (tamil for family) + Nidhi (tamil for fund).

Mister This & Mister That

A women's magazine called XX

www.doublex.com.

Where to check your domain names

If you've thought up a name, and want to check if some one's taken it or not, don't go anywhere near GoDaddy.com, Networksolutions.com or Instandomainsearch.com. I have a reason for it. What these sites do is, they block the dotcom the moment you key in the name. They do it quietly, without your knowledge, using some goddamn bot. So initially, the result will show 'dot com available'. After an hour or so, when you search, you might just discover, it's been taken. Now these sites claim that they are blocking the names for your own good. But I don't see it that way. I think it's very unethical to block some one else's domain names without an explicit declaration. It's akin to intellectual property theft. That's why you must be smart whenever you wanna check names. Visit Net4domains or Domain299. These guys are not evil. They don't book the name behind your back. They book it, only when you place the order. That's why they have my vote.

A cricketer named Onions

How would you react if your dad had named you, Onions? I bet you would have thrown a tantrum. Or at best, lost some sleep. But Graham Onions has no such problems. His Allium Cepa surname might have come in handy in getting that extra attention from the Guardian and other newspaper hacks who revel in writing headlines like 'English selectors know their Onions'. Where he wouldn't have scored is - with women. It doesn't look good when you say: I am dating Onions. Right?

Name Trivia: Blu-Ray

"The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue laser (violet-colored) used to read and write to this type of disc. In part because of the shorter wavelength (405 nanometres), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on a DVD, which uses a red (650 nm) laser. A dual-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 gigabytes, almost six times the capacity of a dual-layer DVD, or ten and a half times that of a single-layer DVD."

Source: Wikipedia.

Chanderpaul gets his own street

New Garden Street in Georgetown, now sports a new name. It's called the Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive,a nod to Guyana's most famous cricket son. With this honor, Chanderpaul becomes the fourth cricketer of Indian origin to have a road/street named after him. The other three being: Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev & Sunil Gavaskar.