Inspiration

The four great personalities in this world where I derive the energy and inspiration from,

1) Kids
2) Dogs
3) Very Old People
4) Saints

We can derive unconditional love from these people. They don't care who are and mostly what you are. They just love ..

The Stone Throwers

Outside a picturesque little town was a huge heap of stones. The people of that town had the habit of assembling there and attempting to hit the stars with those stones. They also had the custom of praising people who could fling the stone the farthest. Last of all, everyone in the town used to indulge in stone throwing for the best part of their day.

One day a young male came along to the stone throwing area. He was egged along by everyone to throw stones at the stars. The young lad had a curious question in his mind. He asked them why are they all doing it and why should he also do it? Other youngsters like him frowned upon him for such a question. Most females in the town did not want to associate with him. Some well meaning old men and women in the town tried to impart their wisdom about stone throwing to him. They said it would make him happy now and would guarantee his future happiness.

He was not convinced. He said he is already happy and does not want to shoot down stars by throwing stones at them. He said he would rather sit simply in a corner. The whole town was aghast. They could not believe that a healthy and physically fit person like him would not want to throw stones. A lot of people tried to convince him about the importance of stone throwing. When everyone failed, he was labeled a lazy moron and was kicked out of town.

Other people in the town then continued to throw stones happily.

16000 in 2007

Over 16000 farmer suicides in 2007 - Sainath writes in India Together

16000 * (4 / 365) = 175

Mumbai attacks lasted for 4 days from 26th to 29th of Nov 2008 and at least 173 people. FYI. Read about the aftermath of the November attacks here.

CS MS
கற்றது கணினி விஞ்ஞானம்

So, thats it folks! My masters is over! or in baba style, gatham gatham :D (sorry to non-rajini followers who wouldnt understand this). They've decided to confer an MSc degree in Computer Science on me!!

PostSecret

Postsecret is a wonderful project. Check out its blog here, if you have not seen it before. There is also a book on the same name. There is one post every week in their blog. Some of the posts are so poignant that they have some times moved me to tears. Here is one that made me laugh out aloud. :)

Auto bailout

Auto companies saying that millions of jobs will be lost if they are not bailed out is a bit like terrorists using innocent civilians as human shields.

Mumbai attack aftermath

Hotel Taj : icon of whose India? - by Gnani Sankaran

I completely agree with the above write up. A friend of mine, Naveen, wrote the following in an email discussion that happened about this article in a google group (posted here with permission; emphasis mine).

thanks for forwarding this jaganath. in a face saving effort NDTV added a small segment on the announcers at CST after 3 days of forgetting. Barkha Dutt's coverage made me want to vomit (don't receive the other channels, so cant say abt the rest). It was obvious she was using the whole thing to make a name for herself, and her company. whip up frenzy and act like a moral guardian of the society. and whose icons are these places anyways? i make it a point a walk around south-bombay everytime am in town, but have never even noticed leopold's or the two hotels. CST, vada pav joints nearby, the old book shops, Iranian bakeries and parsi joints, the university etc hold far more charm. Am sure this applies to a lot of common citizens who don't hang out at pubs and 5 star parties. So 'icon'-izing of certain parts over the others, comes across as trying to mainstream a certain narrative of what south-bombay stands for, and thats a deep loss for those of us to whom it means a lot many more things. also, where were all these people who are now jumping up and down about the lack of the "crisis management", during the recent bihar floods (or a hundred other such calamities before) where the govt had been incompetent. There was nobody besieging the home minister then, no celebrities on TV demanding accountability, or no prime-time journalists in the 'line of fire' (or water). While terror related events are serious and needs to be dealt with (hopefully not with more 'WAR on terror'), this whole 'the sky has fallen down', 'we are have been betrayed' etc tone of the channels reeks of hypocrisy. we need to be careful of whatever they are trying to peddle into our heads.

India has always (at least since I have been alive) had inept and self serving politicians. Be it natural calamaities or terror strikes, when it affects the common man it does not matter to the govt but when it affects the high and mighty, the entire might of India is pulled in to respond. In the 2001 parliament attack, a total of 7 people died. India responded by beating the war drums and mobilized its armed forces for a full scale war with Pakistan (thankfully, good sense or good luck prevailed). Yes, the symbol of Indian democracy was attacked and thats a very serious issue. The problem is not with the response per se but with the relative lack of response in other cases when the high and mighty are not injured. Similarly, now, after the rich and famous were attacked, large scale resignations of senior politicians ensued as India is preparing for a war time dance. In the 2006 mumbai train bombings, more than 200 people were killed and over 700 injured. No politician deemed it necessary to resign on account of moral responsibility. Now, after the current crisis, the Union Home minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Deputy Chief minister R.R. Patil and the Chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh resigned owning up moral responsibility. These people were in power even during the 2006 mumbai train bombings but none of them chose to own up moral responsbility then. Shouting now about an incapable political system might be useful if it brings about a change but the fact that the govt responds, the govt is asked to respond by media and people, only when high profile lives are threatened is something that all Indians need to be seriously concerned about.

His Holiness Param Pujya Sri Sri Doctor Commander Selvam Siddhar!!!!

எவ்வளவு பெரிய பெயர்????? (What a bigggggg name!!!!???)

Came across a series of videos on youtube that this person was arrested recently. Check out the following video and the related videos. Royal fun!! (slightly old news though)

Inspired by - 2

Every time I am disturbed by some event, this is the song I listen to for mental peace and solace: Raghupathy ragahava raja ram



This song is one of the most favorite songs of this great man - Gandhi. His life and his principles have been a source of tremendous strength and courage for me in times of trouble. He is one man whom I always look up to for inspiration.

I was looking for a photograph of Gandhi to upload here but most of the photos I saw portrayed him with a hallow around his head. This is just nonsense. He was but a fellow human like the 6+ billion humans on this planet. The special thing about him was that with patience, perseverance and a stubborn will he cut through his own ego and demons. By placing a hallow around him, which puts him on a pedestal, he becomes yet another of the countless, useless, gods in India. So, I have decided not to put up any photographs.

Love crosses mammalian boundaries

and so does Prozac!!!

Read this story about prozac being given to a parrot which has been depressed after its owners' death.

Salangai Oli dialgoue

This scene (at the beginning there is a small clip from another movie) is from the movie "Salangai Oli" and the final dialogue of kamalhasan could probably be appropriate to a lot of us :).



Yatho hastha tatho drishti
Yatho drishti tatho manah
Yatho mana tatho bhavah
Yatho bhavah tatho rasah


(Where the hand goes the eyes follow
Where the eyes go, the mind follows
Where the mind goes, emotion follows
Where the emotion goes, resonance with environs follows)

He quotes the above and tells the dancer that eyes, heart and emotion has to mix with the art one practices in order to perfect it. He adds that the dancer's eyes are on the audience, heart is in their appluase and desire on the titles she will get.

How true!! :)

Matrix runs on Windows

Enjoy!!

சட்டக்கல்லூரி காட்டுமிராண்டித்தனம்

தமிழனென்று சொல்லடா,
தலை குனிந்து நில்லடா.
-- மிகுந்த வேதனையுடன்

Inspired by - 1

Ill start with the proceedings with this celebrity with whom I have spent a lot of virtual time in recent times. He is none else than our own ulaga nayagan, padmashree Dr. Kamal haasan.

The most important characteristic of him that attracts me is his passion. His passion for cinema and the extents to which he goes to attain perfection in his chosen field simply amazes me. In order to get a hoarse voice in a scene in some movie, he apparently went and shouted into a plastic bag for about 3-4 minutes before the scene. What passion!!!! When I am bored and dull, I do a few things to cheer mysely. One of them is to pick up a video that features him from youtube and listen to him :). I am completely enamored by Mr. Ulaga Naayagan.

As a child, I had at least 100 different ambitions. I used to imagine myself in each of those roles. When it came to movies, I once tried to list down the top 25 tamil movies that I would love to direct (aaah!! what would we do without imaingation). Guess what, 12 of them were ones that featured kamal hassan.

Yes, he is a tremendous actor with great skills but its the passion that stands out (even if you don't understand tamil, a cursory glance at these videos will be sufficient to know about this masterful craftsman). Though passion is no subsitute for skills, I believe skills will come with passion but the converse is NOT true. Cut to real life and I find him to be on of the most level headed celebrities. When tamil movie stars got together to protest against Karnataka first for water sharing issues, and similarly recently on the issue of the tamil struggle in Sri Lanka, Kamal's speech was one of the most mature and well thought out. It was so much unlike the many other dumb heads who were spitting venom with their careless words.

Three cheers to ulaga naayagan!!


PS: The order in which I am presenting people who have inspired me is not important.

Inspired by

I am thinking of starting a new series of posts called "Inspired by". There are a lot of people who have inspired me in life. They bring pure happiness upon me every time I converse with them (in case of personally known people) or when I see them on TV or read about them (mostly public figures - living and dead). I am hoping to start this series soon. I will not be mentioning them in any particular order. Lets see how it goes.

Caveat Harry Potter

Here comes Dr. Dawkins

Post retirement, he plans to take on the likes of Harry Potter in order to improve rationality amongst kids! This promises to be an interesting fight. The originator of the idea of the extended phenotype vs an important phenotype of the human race - story telling!! :)

Yes, Mr. Dawkins. I agree with you that science has a lot of magic in it. But, science does not have despotic rights over magic!

Some interesting links

All of you who know people who are depressed or depressed themselves (now or the past or the future :D), read this: cognitive therapy is as efficacious as antidepressant medication at treating depression

Science fiction is here and is quite scary too: Pentagon wants to develop robots to detect a non-cooperative human

:)

ஒரு காதல் பாட்டு கேட்க
உன்னை காணும் சபலம் கூட
என்னை நீ தீண்டும் எண்ணம் சூழ
கண்ணே, உன் வலையோசைக்காடும்
உன் இமையை காணும் தருனம்
என்றென நான் இங்கு வாடுகிண்றேன்


Rough translation

As I hear a romantic song
as I crave for your sight
and as the thought of your touch haunts me
dear, the dance of your eye lashes
to the tune of your bangles,
I wonder, when again will I get that!!

The liberals' Achilles heel

To be a liberal is one thing and to "want" to be liberal is another. These are not two people but instead two different forces within the same person. While the former in general goes beyond conventional boundaries, it has and knows its boundaries. The latter force incessantly wants to be liberal and is continuously challenging the person to go beyond and accept things. It does not want to listen to the cautioning voice of the former force and ends up roughshoding the former. It is always on a slippery slope. It might easily take the person on a ego trip and/or easily allow the person to be taken for a ride by others. Caveat liberal, the second force is thy achilles heel!!

Kids

"When a new life comes through us, it is jst a magical feeling, that will flush away the past and brings one to the present with a the sense of achievement ..This in turn tells us the very essence of life surpassing everything we have or had or ever wish to have".

wrote this note to my friend who will be a proud Dad soon ..

Hunger in India

Hunger in Indian states alraming - Report on BBC
There is a graph in there that shows that Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand are the states that are in the worst shape. The hindi heartland is certainly in pathetic shape! Also, MP's situation is comparable with the problems of Chad and Ethiopia.


Reminds me of the tamil poem...
பிள்ளைக்குப் பாலில்லா பிச்சையரின் தேசத்தில்,
கல்லிற்குப் பாலூற்றும் கதையொழிதல் என்னாளோ?

( In a country of beggars where kids don't have milk,
when will the practice of giving milk to stones stop? )

Of course, the second line can be in so many ways other than the usual way (though I agree with the current version too).

Posts

Read some good blog posts that came in today. A refreshing collection!

• Link to a parody on hate mongering

• Poetry 1 - On complexity

• Poetry 2 - Fear of feeling

• Why does power corrupt - A nice discussion

• Dilbert comedy strip

• Quote on economic forecasting

Sagespeak

The heart is rarely conufsed over two choices, provided you listen to it carefully over the din produced by your mind's noise. If you can silence the mind's incessant chatter and listen to your heart carefully, the confusion will wither away. The way forward will then be obvious!!

-- Received this piece of sage like advise recently!!

Middle path bias

Psychologists often hit us with a lot of jargon. When you research them, they turn out to be fairly regular feelings. For example, confirmation bias is our innate tendency to continually try to justify that we are correct even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. I often find myself experiencing this. Similarly, cognitive dissonance is the struggle we face when we seemingly have evidence to support both of two opposing view points.

I wonder why there is no such term called middle path bias to refer to most people's innate tendency to believe that their choice is the one that is closest to the middle path. Of course, I am jumping the gun in claiming that this is an innate tendency of most people. But, I certainly show this now and then and I have noticed it in a lot of other people. Lack of a term indicates lack of much study in this direction. I guess this is a good direction to investigate. For e.g., is this a common bias?, if it is common, what are the evolutionary reasons for this?, how does this affect peoples view points on socially important issues?, what are the best ways to address this bias? etc...

பிரிவாற்றாமை

Thiruvalluvar is omniscient!!!

இன்கண் உடைத்தவர் பார்வல் பிரிவஞ்சும்
புன்கண் உடைத்தால் புணர்வு

இன்னாது இனன்இல்ஊர் வாழ்தல் அதனினும்
இன்னாது இனியார்ப் பிரிவு

Reasons



Check out wordle!! Good way to kill time.

Thiruvasagam

A fundamentalist interpretation of some of these lyrics from Thiruvasagam could be quite dangerous. An unintrepreting observation of the lyrics and emotions of the poet reveals the beauty within. The lyrics below are only from the stanzas that are in this composition. Of course, music by Ilayaraja is enchanting as always.

புற்றிள்வாள் அரவும் அஞ்சேன் பொய்யர்தம் மெய்யும் அஞ்சேன்
கற்றைவார் சடைஎம் அண்ணல் கண்ணுதல் பாதம் நண்ணி
மற்றும்ஓர் தெய்வந் தன்னை உண்டென நினைந்தெம் பெம்மாற்கு
அற்றிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே

Meaning in tamil

வன்புலால் வேலும் அஞ்சேன் வளைக்கையார் கடைக்கண் அஞ்சேன்
என்பெலாம் உருக நோக்கி அம்பலத் தாடுகின்ற
என்பொலா மணியை ஏத்தி இனிதருள் பருக மாட்டா
அன்பிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே

Meaning in tamil

கிளியனார் கிளவி அஞ்சேன் அவர்கிறி முறுவல் அஞ்சேன்
வெளியநீ றாடும் மேனி வேதியன் பாதம் நண்ணித்
துளியுலாம் கண்ணராகித் தொழுதழு துள்ளம் நெக்கிங்கு
அளியிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே

Meaning in tamil

பிணியெலாம் வரினும் அஞ்சேன் பிறப்பினோ டிறப்பும் அஞ்சேன்
துணிநிலா அணியினான்தன் தொழும்பரோடழுந்தி அம்மால்
திணிநிலம் பிளந்துங் காணாச் சேவடி பரவி வெண்ணீறு
அணிகிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே

Meaning in tamil

தறிசெறி களிறும் அஞ்சேன் தழல்விழி உழுவை அஞ்சேன்
வெறிகமழ் சடையன் அப்பன் விண்ணவர் நண்ண மாட்டாச்
செறிதரு கழல்கள் ஏத்திச் சிறந்தினி திருக்கமாட்டா
அறிவிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே

Meaning in tamil

கோணிலா வாளி அஞ்சேன் கூற்றவன் சீற்றம் அஞ்சேன்
நீணிலா அணியினானை நினைந்து நைந்துருகி நெக்கு
வாணிலாங் கண்கள் சோர வாழ்ந்தநின்றேத்த மாட்டா
ஆணலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே.

Meaning in tami

For those who cannot read the above:
The poet, Manikavachagar, is a shaivate mendicant and sings about things that he is afraid of and those that he is not. In the first line of every stanza he says he first says he is not afraid of some gory thing. Then, he goes on to describe some characteristic of his lord and says he is afraid of those who do not recognize that characteristic. It is really awesome poetry.

Some quotes from these collection of lines that I really like are:

புற்றிள்வாள் அரவும் அஞ்சேன் பொய்யர்தம் மெய்யும் அஞ்சேன்
=> Neither am I afraid of the venomous snake, nor am I afraid of the feigned truth of liars

அன்பிலா தவரைக் கண்டால் அம்மநாம் அஞ்சு மாறே
=> Am mortally scared of loveless hearts

கிளியனார் கிளவி அஞ்சேன்
=> Am not scared of the chatter of chatter boxes

பிணியெலாம் வரினும் அஞ்சேன் பிறப்பினோ டிறப்பும் அஞ்சேன்
=> Neither am I afraid of diseases, nor am I afraid of birth and death

கோணிலா வாளி அஞ்சேன் கூற்றவன் சீற்றம் அஞ்சேன்
=> Neither am I afraid of the death laden arrow, nor am I afraid of the anger or the lord of death


I wish I could say these too :)

Quote of the day

"Evil starts at 15Volts!!!"

I believe this is indeed a profound statement. Check out the following talk by psychologist Philip Zimbardo to know more.

Answers

Grad school kills the child like spirit in most poeple. It really does. A couple of answers that some friends in grad school gave me are evidence for this claim.

This gem of a conversation happened early this year. Calgary was experiencing a total lunar eclipse. At about 15 minutes walk from my house, there is a nice open area that masks us from the blinding city lights. IMO, a nice place to enjoy a celestial spectacle. I was going there when I met a friend and asked him if he would come with me. The (now classic in my friends' circle) resposne was, "Ill look it up on youtube". :) A lot of responses came to my mind but this being a 'U' blog, I cannot write them here. :D

The second one happened quite recently. Its now the fall season in Calgary and it is breathtakingly beautiful. One evening when it was a bit rainy, I was just standing at a point and enjoying the awesome fall colors. Another friend passeed by and his remarkably bland observation was, "Oh, Did'nt you see them last year!!". I had no clue what to reply!

Life of mammals

A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth a thousand pictures (or may be more, depending upon the frame rate).

The clip in the following video is from the BBC series called "Life of mammals" (part 5). The song is not from the original video. Definitely watch between the time slots 2:40 to 2:50. Absolutely awesome. Anyone who sees this will get a very strong intuition on some of the biology and physics of tails in animals.

If possible, please watch the entire series. I am absolutely thrilled and fascinated to see this. I think a smart kid can work out the principles of evolution by watching this series. No irritating teachers, boring text books or painful exams will be needed. Following is the first part of the series.

Fallin for Calgary's fall

வண்ண வண்ண இலைகள்
வண்ண வண்ண நினைவுகள்
இலைகளோ உதிர்ந்தன
நினைவுகள் ஏனோ உதிராமல் ஒட்டிகொண்டன

Approximate number sense

NYT had an article a couple of days ago about the innate number sense that humans posess. It also gave a way to test our approximate number sense. Check it out. I scored 90%. Good way to kill some time!

LHC

LHC - Large Hadron Collider. Some crazy physicists, in collusion with equally nutty engineers and others, are gonna accelerate particles to super high speeds (very close to the speed of light) and collide them head on in order to find out whats inside them. And then, what Prahlada said "தூனிலும் இருப்பான் துரும்பிலும் இருப்பான" (he is inside the pillar, he is inside the atom) is expected to come true. The sarcastically or respectfully (depending on the side you are) named 'God particle' is expected to pop out of the particles when they collide at such high speeds with each other. Lets see what happens. And interestingly, Stephen Hawking thinks this is not likely to happen and has even placed a bet of $100 on that.

Meanwhile, in headquarters, a conspiracy is brewing.

P1: We conduct thesis defenses for students in order to find out whats in their head.
P2: Yes. Thats right.

P1: Why dont we follow the LHC model? Lets accelerate grad students along the corridors of our department and then make them collide head on with each other.
P2: Then?

P1: We can then observe if their knowledge of thesis pops out.
P2: Wow. Thats a wonderful idea. Will talk to the co-ordinator right away.

P1: I am wondering what would be the pairing. It sure is boring to smash grad students from the sam lab with each other.
P2: Yup. We could do Theory vs S/W Engg; Crypto vs HCI; Bio computation vs Quantum computation etc...

P1: That sounds good. I really like the pairings.

BTW, a lot of nuts have joined together to claim that the world might end when they start the LHC. Scary huh (this has been refuted so many times already). But if thats really the case, then I know what to do tonight. I meant Ill pray. I hope you were not one of those perverts who thought otherwise.

Lows

It is when you hit a low point, you have the best opportunity to:

• Introspect and fix errors in ones thought and action via first principles
• Reach the highest possible point.

This is because, when you are at a low, there is no pressure to meet expectations. This takes one out of the glare of attention. No one cares what you do. It is easiest at this point to work on things (e.g. discipline) via first principles. To reach the highest possible point, we need the most acceleration. It is obtained best when you have been gradually increasing it for a long time. Contemplating these (personal) truths always helps me at lows (Not that I am at a low now. Just some random musings).

Psychology experiments

They say, that other sciences have classic laws but psychology has classic experiments. Biology has Darwins principle (don't know why it is not called a law), physics has Newtons laws and so on. But, psychology has experiments. Asch's conformity experiments and the Ultimatum game are very popular and I am guessing should be found in all standard text books (am guessing here because I have not read any psychology text books). Please read briefly about the above two experiments before proceeding.

There are a lot of variations that one can think about in the conformity experiments. For e.g., when the actual subject was told to write down the answers, conformity decreased tremendously. Also, when one person other than the actual subject was told to give correct answers, again conformity decreased. From our day-to-day experience, these results are intuitively correct. I have some more variations that I think are very interesting (there could be some ethical questions to be considered before proceeding with these though):

a.) The questions need not always be about the correct answer to a question. One other idea could be to ask about the usefulness of a product. Another idea could be to ask about political opinions.

b.) Instead of the other people in the room merely answering their question, what if they are made to gasp or look at the actual subject curiously when the actual subject gives out the answers?

c.) Choose the other participants such that the subject does not know them. Introduce the others to the subject and tell the subject that each of them either has  phd in mathematics, is a prof in physics etc. Let it be that all of them are from famous places like MIT, Stanford etc. Then conduct the test. This test could be both in terms of right/wrong answers and in the form of opinions.

I think these are very interesting variations but I do not know if these have already been done. The first one could explain why people buy useless products advertised by others. The second one could bring on more pressure to conform. I like the third one most. It could tell how we conform in the face of 'expert' opinion.

The second experiment is the Ultimatum game. It seems a bit trivial to me. Of course, if someone offers me $1 when they are taking $99, I would reject it. But, what if someone were to offer me $100000 when they took the left over portion of $1 million? There seems to be some work in this regard but this version is not being talked about often. I think, the version where I will stand to gain much more than my monthly income is the one people should be interested in. Even in that case, the experimental setup is not quite right. In the case where $100, is to be split, researchers can spend that and the subjects will know that they will get that amount. But in the case where the amount to be split is $1 million, the subjects do know that they are not going to get the huge amount of money and it is only a thought experiment. This could seriously affect the outcome. So, the case where $1 million is the amount to be split and with a different kind of experimental setup is the one that is needed. 

If there are any experts in this field reading this, please enlighten us about what you think about these suggestions.

PS: The promised continuation to 'Correct Action -1' is coming up soon.

Correct action - 1

From Gautama Buddha in his eight fold path to Patanjali in his niyamas, correct action have also found great emphasis in Indian spiritual discourse (probably in a lot of others also). I have been intrigued by this for a long time. When life was much simpler in small communities, correct action was probably slightly more easier to define that today (am not implying that it was easy to follow). But, in todays world, where the actions of one person living in one part of the world has its effects on the four corners of the world, it is not easy to define. Some questions that evade easy answers would be

a.) I want the sky to be blue and the river water pure enough for me to drink directly from it. But, does it mean that I quit my jog which depends on an economy that for its very existence has to pollute both land and water?

b.) I want to be friendly and compassionate to everyone around me. So, do I fight the oppressive and often violent social structures of which I am a part of?

The questions are endless. The answers are not readily forthcoming. From my experience, the actual answers are quite personalized to every individual. But, that is not to deny a common factor in the different ideosyncratic answers. The methds I try come from three different domains - spirituality, science and misc (for want of a better word). I do acknowledge sometimes the directions from any two of these are directly opposite to each other but its part of the problem to deal with such situations.

Spiritually, I find that it really helps to contemplate on compassion and selfless action. If the action that I do is contradicting either of this, it is a big red flag to me. I would be extremely cautious even moving a centimeter in that direction.

Scientifically, I find it is important to have a basic understanding of evolutionary biology, human psychology, physics (at both the particle and astronomical granularities), computer science (this is slightly questionable), anthropology (society, culture, language) and philosophy. Now, I am not an expert in any of these. But, many times, our society decides to take a course of action with the reasoning couched in the language of one of these sciences. Without a basic understanding of these sciences, it is certainly not possible to identify most of the baloney dished out to us in the name of science.

The miscellaneous title gives an impression of this being not so important. But, that is certainly not the case. Its use only reflects the poverty of my english vocabulary. This category contains the fields of environmental studies and current affairs. Undoubtedly, my study of environmental effects of my middle class life practices and awareness of current affairs played a huge role in creating a huge shift in my outlook to life.


PS: In the next post, I will post some example of when each of these were helpful to me.

No licence to rape a woman who appears to be promiscuous: SC

This should probably rank as one of the mose weirdest ruling the Supreme court of India had to ever give. What is more weird is that the Uttar Pradesh High court had actually given the opposite overdict some time ago and had acquitted a rapist!! Bravo!!

Malthusian prediction

Thought provoking article in SciAm on Malthus's prediction.

Some time last year I read a book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I read a few blogs criticising and dismissing the book and called it denigratingly Malthusian. Hidden in the criticism is the mocking attitude towards Malthus's prediction. Guess, we cannot get rid of Malthus' spectre that easily. BTW, I loved the book Ishmael.

Do you still use Deo/Scent?

Hidden power of scent talks about how important our body odor is. Some extracts...

Although humans probably do not ordinarily use smell to navigate toward the nearest source of chocolate, we do seem to use odors—in most cases, subconsciously—to evaluate potential mates. Each of us has a unique scent: milky exudates of various glands, including the apocrine glands, which are located around the nipples, genitals and armpits, contain roughly 200 chemicals. The ratio of chemicals, which are metabolized into an aromatic brew by skin-dwelling bacteria, varies from person to person. Men and women, for example, have distinct odors governed by different ratios of sex hormones.

...

One trait that people may be subconsciously evaluating through scent is immune system status. Some studies suggest that variations in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)—a gene region coding for cell-surface proteins that help our immune system distinguish our own cells from those of invaders—can influence body odor. In a now classic 1995 experiment biologist Claus Wedekind of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and his colleagues demonstrated that women can determine the status of a man’s immune system by sniffing his body odor. When women rated the odors of T-shirts men had slept in for two nights, they consistently preferred the scents of the men whose MHC genes differed significantly from their own, the researchers found. (Men could also differentiate MHC genes by smell.) This tendency may be adaptive: a mixing of divergent MHC genes through mating may lead to a more robust immune system in the resulting children than would occur from the mixing of similar MHC genes.

May be someone should send these research details to companies that make ads like these.

Grad school wisecrack no. 745

Grad school teaches you the ability to deal with the archer who reaches you before the arrow he fired at you does.

All the world's a panopticon

A series of excellent articles from Scientific American on online privacy and security:

1.) Scary story on how your identity can be stolen easily

2.) Issues with electronic voting

3.) Big brother sees all

4.) Loss of privacy and loss of security

5.) Privacy in an age of terabytes and terror

The paradox of choice



This is an excellent talk by Barry schwartz. He talks about the opportunity cost of providing choices. He says, for an individual, some choice is better than both no choice and lots of choice. It would be interesting to know whether this extends to the choice available to groups of people also. This could have tremendous consequences of how society is organized. For e.g., this could put an upper limit on the number of parties in a democracy.

Another thing that he talks about is about modern day technology. We all know that it provides us the opportunity to work at any time of the day and from anywhere. So, we have to make a choice every second on whether we want to work or not. Result? Stress. Having failed to work during the weekends many a times, I have felt this stress Sunday evening. I am sure this miserable feeling would not be there is there were no scope of working during weekends :)

Cucumber laws

If it were not so horrendously sad, I would be laughing like mad at this. A report in the telegraph points out why Al-Qaeda stands alienated in Iraq. They had the following laws:

• They have banned women from buying suggestively shaped vegetables viz cucumber.
• Killed female goats as their private parts were not covered as their tails point upwards.
  
• No icecream because it did not exist in the time of the prophet.

Before I go on, I should say that we need to take the news with a small pinch of salt as we know that falsehood about opposition can spread in times of war. Despite that, I beleive Al-Qaeda has the capability to do these things. Extending this, does it mean men should not buy water melons, tomatoes, lemons, apples, oranges and the ilk? Ha ha ha. Of couse, we can make all sort of conclusions if the initial premise is absurd enough. I want to laugh like mad but I feel sad for the woman who dared to buy cucumbers, carrots etc for her personal use and was caught in the act (puns intended) :D.

Trove of endangered gorillas found

Some good news finally for people concerned about mankinds closest relatives. NY Times reports spotting huge numbers of endangered gorillas. Am sure Dian Fossey and her ilk would rejoice at this.

Ignobel

I would be happy to nominate this - 'A pill to replace exercise'.

Baked

Grad student (GS) comes back after a two hour long meeting with prof and is being quizzed by fellow grad student (FGS).

FGS: How was the meeting dude?

GS: hmmmm
GS: They baked me...
GS: They totally baked me..
GS: I am a baked potato now...
GS: If you have a fork, stick it in me!!!

FGS: ROTFLMAO!!!!!



Grad student (GS) has a meeting with two profs (P1 and P2). Prof had asked for a technical report about the results that are secured already. P1 reads this and has some comments.

P1: Alright.. let me see what you have here.

GS: :)

P1: hmm.. you have all the work here.. but.. it does not have motivation
P1: It does not have a story line
P1: It does not have related work..
P1: There is a typo here... and grammatical err.. may be not.. some kind of error.. you should use present participle here instead of past perfect..
P1: You should learn to write to an audience..
P1: You dont seem to have the desire to publish...
P1: You write as if only you are going to read.. fix this...
P1: and this..
P1: and that..
P1: and all these...
P1: The writing needs lots more work..
P1: I do not like this symbol.. you seem to be using symbols at your own will...
P1: Your write up is like that of a possibly beautiful girl with absolutely no makeup..

P2: Yes.. there are a few flaws that need to be fixed but we didnt ask him to write the paper but only the bare technical results..

P1: Ohhh... ok.. anyways.. fix all those..

GS: ram ram ram ram ram ram ram ram ram ram ram!!!! (of course silently)

Schadenfreude vs Mudita

For long, that is since I started preparing for GRE, I knew this word schadenfreude. This is a german word that is used quite often directly in English. It has no equivalent word in English. It means, 'enjoyment derived from someone elses' misfortune'. For a long time I simply wondered why isnt there (or atleast why dont I know) a single word meaning the exact opposite (in some language and not necessarily in English or German). But, I always stopped at wondering but never looked for it. Recently, I found the courage to look for it. And, almost unsurprisingly, it was a word apparently used regularly in buddhist circles - mudita (Wikipedia claims the word is present both in Pali and Sanskrit). It means, 'rejoicing in others' good fortune'. I was rejoicing at my fortune of finding this word. Does anyone experience mudita? :)

Biology

If only I was taught biology like this!! sigh!! sigh!!
Absolute must watch! Dont miss these 4 videos.

Evolution of the eyes


Evolution of the wings


Evolution of camouflage


The Salamanders tale

Rivaldo sai desse Lago

Was editing some wikipedia articles and somehow landed up editing the article of Prabhu Deva. In its talk page, I found this unbelievable piece of info.

A dance by Prabhu Deva for the song 'Kallori vaanil' from the tamil movie 'Pennin Manathai Thottu' has become a crazy hit amidst the brazilian youtubing community. Check out the following video. More than 800000 views and more than 1000 comments :D. I am stunned!!!!



Another Indian video that is similarly famous is the song 'golimar' from the telugu movie 'Donga'. The actor here is Chiranjeevi. This video has been uploaded many many times by people of different nationalities. Across multiple uploads, this too has more than 500000 views!!!!!



Hail Prabhu Deva!!! Hail Chiranjeevi!!!

Statistics

There is a famous saying that goes, "There are three types of liars. Liars, Damn liars and statisticians". Quite a lot of unwarranted sarcasm, I would say, for people who painstakingly go through huge volumes of data and present it to us. All that would change if data were presented like this. Statistics guru, Hans Rosling, presents a lot of data on the developing world in the most pleasing format possible.

Unacceptable ignorance

Is this even defined beyond personal idiosyncrasies?

If not, does this mean that all forms of ignorance is fine as long as there is a willingness and openness to learn from the part of the ignorant person?

Three of us had a debate on this that lasted for about two hours. I opined that every person has a context and there are some fundamental facts about that context. Ignorance of those would be unacceptable. Unacceptable here obviously does not mean that the person has to burnt at the stakes for their ignorance but simply to indicate that the person under question is being quite dumb. The other two in the debate opined that we cannot come to any common ground on what is unacceptable given a person and his/her context. It is always a personal line.


e.g:
1.) If a well educated canadian says that a vegetarian diet has holes in it (implying that it does not provide all the required nutrients), is it unacceptable ignorance?
2.) If an educated person born and brought up in Delhi all his life does not know that there are 4 major south indian languages, is it unacceptable ignorance?

These are just examples. The main question is that, given a context, is it possible to arrive at some sort of common ground on what is unacceptable ignorance?



அறிவின்மை இன்மையுள் இன்மை பிறிதின்மை
இன்மையா வையா துலகு

Humans vs Animals

An example of how we observe the same thing differently.

Example1

Scene1:
A lady kisses her young baby on her cheek and necks and sings 'aarari ra ro'.
Observation:
The young mom is showering affection on her kid.

Scene2:
A chimpanzee mom kisses her young baby chimpanzee on her cheek and necks and sings a chimpanzee song.
Observation:
Chimpanzees kids are intimately cared for by their parents.

(Words from a national geographic video)

The message is clear! Humans love!!! Chimpanzees care for!! If it were some other 'lesser' species like a cat, I would expect the language to get progressively farther from love. Pathetic!!!


Example2

Scene1:
An elephant is doing something with another dead elephant.
Observation:
The elephant is mourning its dead (presumed to be) mate. Poor creature.

Scene2:
A lady is crying over her the body of her dead husband.
Observation:
Poor lady. She is crying at the loss of her husband.


For an elephant, its a mate. But, it is husband/wife for humans.


Our language is a window into our perception of reality. The perception that the above described use of language is unmistakable. It is brimming with human superiority. Needless to say, both our perception and language (with respect to fellow species) needs a dramatic overhaul.

In defense of Dasavatharam

Finally, the over hyped and so called magnum opus of Kamalhasan, Dasavatharam, was released recently. Most of us would have watched it by now or atleast read / heard reviews about it. Quite a few reviews that I read / heard were supremely critical of the movie and rated it between bad and ok. That is nonsense. Yes, there are quite a few flaws (some fancy dress competition like makeup, holes in screenplay etc...) and the movie is not even remotely a competitor for Kamal's best movie award. Despite all that, the movie is is quite good. It has a lot of positives on its side and the balance is significantly positive.

Read this (randomly stumbled on to this) review and it contains most of the positives I wanted to write about. I dont agree with a few points (some over stretching of imagination and some non existent connections). Still, a good review.

There are a few other points (+ve and -ve) that I wanted to mention (which were generally missing in reviews I read / heard):

1.) Lot of people criticize the music. But, not everything is bad with the music. I frankly dont know why everyone is so ticked off. 'Kallai mattum kandal' and 'Mukunda mukunda' are quite good. The BGM during some of Balraam Naidu's scenes were pretty good. We cannot expect Alaipayuthey quality songs in every movie :).

2.) Lyrics of the song 'Kallai mattum kandaal' is amazing. The first line is a rip off from a famous quadruplet from thirumandiram - 'marathai maraithathu maamatha yaanai, ...'. 'Oona kannil paarthaal yaavum kutram thaan, gnana kannil paarthaal yaavum sutram thaan'. This could apply to this movie also :D... (hehe, that was a bit hyperbolic).

3.) Most people have tried to connect different roles of kamal to the different avatars of lord vishnu. I think, a bijective mapping is not necessary. Most of the roles have multiple interpretations.

For e.g. Boovarahan - From the name and his role in the movie, an obvious connection is varaha avatar. But, there is more. Like Krishna saved Draupadi, he saved the heroine from being molested. Also, Krishna is supposed to have dies when an arrow hits his leg and a similar fate befell Boovarahan. So, the point is that most of the roles have connections to multiple avatars of Vishnu.

4.) The first 10-15 minutes were unbelievably amazing. Inside sources (wow!! use of this word makes me feel like I am reporting on an investigative journalistic piece :D) say that that section was much longer (closer to 30 mts) but were edited out in the final cut. How I wish they had not chopped off lots of details.

5.) Definitely increases awareness on bio terrorism and some other environmental aspects. Though, I feel a golden chance to explain the inside workings of bio weapons departments was squandered (like moral dilemmas faced, abuse of other species, pressures from higher ups etc...).

6.) Kamal takes additional efforts everywhere. The movie has the 'butterfly effect' as part of its theme. But, Kamal wants to ensure that this does not lead to the interpretation of fate and other superstitious beliefs. In the dialogue between Kamal and Asin in the last scene, Asin says the Tsunami was helpful as otherwise the virus would have killed so many other people and she says that it was an act of god. This statement when viewed in the light of 'butterfly effect' points strongly towards the Hindu concept of fate. Kamal immediately kills all such thinking when he says, 'Why did not god act to prevent scientists from getting such destructive ideas?'. Brilliant.

7.) One important problem was Kamal dedicated this movie to his own narcissism. Almost every frame had him. Yes, with 10 roles, things tend to be like that but it need not necessarily have been that way. For e.g., Asin's role could have been much more meatier. She was quite annoying many times. Portraying her as this agraharam girl who is so dumb and does not know anything else but saving 'perumal's' idol is quite dumb. It is not even the sterotype. If her role had been more meatier, it would have made things so much better.

8.) The last song that sings Kamal's praise was quite unnecessary. A separate video showing the making of Dasavatharam would have been so much better.

9.) Napoleon looks like a chola king for sure. But, his classic tamil was horrible. Kulothunga cholan will be twitching in his graves if he heard it. Asin's classsic tamil was quite crappy too.

10.) The different avatars (that have connections to Vishnus avatars) include white christians, an indian christian, a muslim, hindus and atheists. I can smell a message here.

11.) The graphics in the movie was criticized widespread and I think it was quite undue. Comparing it with graphics in hollywood movies is quite atrocious. There is a small factor called budget. Comparing it with graphics in other Indian movies is more appropriate.

J.K.Rowling's speech

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination - J.K.Rowling's speech at Harward graduation. Its a pretty good one. Here are some excerpts that I loved.

* There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

* Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

* Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

* Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.

* Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my lif

Aarushi

Rediff reports that, with regards to the Aarushi murder case, Krishna says that, 'There was nothing wrong in Aarushi's character'.

WTF? There is a girl killed here. A young one too. Of course the investigation might need to look into her sexual affairs with accused / other murdered people. But, talking in terms of the badness of their character due to their sexual activities should be condemned in the strongest terms. And this is true even if the person is underage. If a guy or a girl chooses to sleep with a different partner every night all their life, it is their choice. As long it does not affect someone else, it should be completely accepted. Talk of character due to sexual activities is a horrible practice. Needs to be completely eliminated.

Freedom

Freedom can only come out of pain, just like a new born free from mothers womb, and a spirit free from the human body. Birth itself is a freedom, and death then is a freedom. Why then the clutch in the path inbetween, and so there is a key to freedom in "life". The search, walk for that key is the path to the real freedom.

Path

There is a difference between knowing the path than learning the path. There is even much of a difference between walking the path than knowing the path ..

Love != f (organic chemistry)

(this means, love is not a function of organic chemistry)

Recently watched the tamil movie Aayutha ezhuthu (Yuva in Hindi) again. This particular scene struck me for its ridiculously bad reductionist dialogues by Sujatha.




The protagonist, who incidentally is a very bright physicist in the movie, explains to his sweetheart that love is non-existent and it is merely organic chemistry. He also goes on to say that it is all a matter of hormones like Androgen, estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. He explains all of this with an air of supreme nonchalance as if they have been established truths for millennia. This obviously has the implication that those who did not know that love is merely organic chemistry are dumb morons.

Such absurd reductionism!!! It is a pity that Sujatha, a person holding a bachelors in physics and masters in electronics, subscribes to such stupid reductionist notions. Physics nobel laureate P.W.Anderson so lucidly explained in his 1972 article, More is different, in Science journal that such notions are totally absurd.

Anderson explains that, 'the main fallacy in this kind of thinking is that the reductionist hypothesis does not by any means imply a "constructionist" one: This ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe'. He goes on to roughly arrange the sciences in a hierarchy as 'particle physics, many body physics, chemistry, molecular biology, cellular biology, ..., physiology, psychology and social sciences.' He then says, 'The elementary entities of one science obeys the laws of the science that precedes it in the above hierarchy. But, this does not imply that one science is just an applied version of the science that precedes it. At each stage, entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one. Psychology is not applied biology nor is biology applied chemistry.' He explains his claim using the principle of symmetry making. Ill strongly recommend the readers to read the article by Anderson. Thus, love is not simply a function of organic chemistry. Unfortunately for us, neither did Sujatha nor Maniratnam (the director of the above mentioned movie) knew about this. As a result, they subjected large swathes of unsuspecting populace to such stupid ideas.

Funnily, the article actually ends with a ridiculing poke at molecular biologists. Quoting from the article, 'The arrogance of the particle physicist and his intensive research may be behind us (the discoverer of positron said "the rest is chemistry"), but we have yet to recover from that of some molecular biologists, who seem determined to try to reduce everything about the human organism to "only" chemistry, from the common cold to all mental disease to religious instinct.'

Wonder what Anderson would say about people who think that love can be reduced to chemistry.


PS: Interested folks should read 'Reinventing the sacred' by Stuart Kauffman and 'Turning Point' by Fritjof Capra.


PPS: An objection to the post from a friend.

"It is a pity that Sujatha, a person holding a bachelors in physics and masters in electronics, subscribes to such stupid reductionist notions." How do you know that he "subscribes" to ? Thats the objection.

Yes. This is correct. The words spoken could well have been written for the protagonist and Sujatha may not have subscribed to this view. There is absolutely no evidence to support the fact that Sujatha subscribed to this view.

But, there is something subtle going on here. The scene depicts the protagonist as a very well learned and 'more knowledgeable' person than the hoi polloi. This is achieved here by making the protagonist mouth some 'modern' scientific 'truth'. I really doubt if Sujatha would have written this statement if he had not 'believed' in it himself but of course there is no clear cut evidence. I am sure they would not make the protagonist say something like 'the earth is flat'. Despite that, I withdraw the above pointed criticism of Sujatha. The connection I made out is by no means clear. But, I do wish to make the point that my suspicion is highly likely.

I am not cleaning up the original post as it would cause confusion if someone who has already read it reads this again.

Flower and garbage

The flower is on its way to become garbage. The garbage is on its way to become flower. Realize this. Don't fear the garbage.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Aham annamasmi

We are what we eat. A basic and fundamental theorem that unfortunately beats most of us. We are absolutely nothing else but what we eat. That includes our finger nails, blood, heart muscles, WBC, neurons in the brain and.... the thoughts in our brain. We eat better and we will have better heart and better thoughts.

So, avoid chemical rich food, avoid packaged food, avoid frozen food, avoid microwaved food. The last one is especially bad. That is basically nuking our food. Avoid this crap. Non-organic food is NOT food. Food cannot be anything but organic. If its not organic, its not food.

I am sure many of us would have read news about how fish, deer and other animals have died because they ate plastic bags etc. I used to wonder when I was a kid how come these animals did not know that what they are eating is gonna kill them. Now, sadly, I know the answer.

Watch this video to hear what Mark Bittman has to say about the food we eat.

PS:
1.) Read this article - Rethinking the meat guzzler
2.) Changed the title of the post