Galileo Humor

I liked this humor. This shows how scientists were treated in the time when churches had absolute power.

This was originally taken from History of Astronomy

What's up with the Pope?

When you realize no one is really paying attention to you or commenting on your Facebook status even though you change it more often than you change your underwear then, you act out of desperation and write something really stupid. Don’t tell me you have not seen people writing controversial statements on their Facebook statuses expecting tonnes of comments.

It seems Pope has been using a lot of Facebook these days, with high privacy settings, of course. What should I make of his Facebook status message which says that the use of condoms would make the ailing situation of AIDS in Africa even worse? Of course, he fulfilled his purpose by drawing out thousands of comments. Did he act out of desperation because for Christians, religion was starting to get limited to Sundays? He caused a stir and uproar among the large population. Even many Catholics must have felt really let down and misrepresented. I mean what is his basis? A person with his authority is in no position to make value judgments. It would be stupid to think he had not foreseen that this mass uproar would be created. Pope must have been watching a lot of Britney and must have learnt from her on how to stage a publicity stunt. Well done the Great Pope, you are a quick learner.

Abstinence? Why should anyone abstain from sex? Sex is a physiological need. Humans are unusual in that they have too less sex. I’m not kidding. If you were to look at scientific evidence of primates and compare bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans, there is a solid link between the size of testicles and frequency of sex per day. The analysis predicts that on average, humans would have sex at least once a day and that is a natural rate, chimps mate several times a day. Again, these rates are normal and early humans might have followed this trend until this notion of abstinence was imposed by religion. Osho and Freud, all they were proposing were what was in nature. And religion boycotted them. Pope is against contraceptives because it is against natural law of sex for reproduction and advocates abstinence. But how the hell is abstinence any more natural? What hypocrisy? The only reason the Pope is against the use of condoms is because of his reluctance to budge against his dogmatic beliefs. Please correct me. It’s not his. The unwillingness to change and upgrade and keep on using Pentium I even though Pentium IV has arrived in the market has been trademark of all religions; this deep conservatism seems to be the common ground of all religions. It is fine with me, if they don’t want to change, they will be left behind.

A Death in the Family

Lightning didn’t strike me but I know even if it would have, it could not have been worse. I guess I will start rambling on after few sentences so, I am warning you ahead. I received a call from my home and the news delivered was distressing. I do not call home often, usually they call me. I am trying to live in this little isolated world of my own, divorced from all worldly bonds and emotional attachments. Every call from home creates a little hole to peek in my little isolated world. It’s not that I hate my parents or family. They are the only people I love and they mean to me more than anyone else. This is a normal behavior of an adolescent I guess, normal since I am growing amid an American society.

Life and death are the two biggest mysteries that haunt every human minds, even more so thinking, active and intelligent minds. The only death that I have seen closely is the death of my grandfather. It was an unusual death in many ways, ways that I do not intend to mention here. I was only 14 years old then and the concept of death was alien to me even though I knew that being dead means not being able to find that person on this Earth or in this universe. I was very close to my grandfather and I was his favorite among all cousins that I grew up with, in my large family in my village. It has hardly been 6 years since I lost my grandfather and the pain has not healed yet and it seems I am going to lose my grandmother now. It’s unfair.

Can’t they wait? Death should give me sometime so that I can overcome the pain of losing my grandfather and those childhood days that I spent in his arms listening to folklores. It should give my grandmother sometime so that I can finish my college degree and go back home to see her. The tears in her eyes when I left for the United States have stamped an indelible image in my mind. I vividly remember her words, “You are going so far from me. I do not know if I will ever see you again before I die.” Even though she said these words in a serious tone, I knew this was just an intended humor. Her words have turned true, what an irony. I wish they had not.

My father did not hide anything; he explicitly said, “She is in her last stages. She is confined to bed now and cannot move at all. It seems she will not live for long. Do you have any of her photos?” As a grown-up adolescent, I know about this process of life and death, unlike Siddartha Gautam(Lord Buddha). But my incomprehensibility and inability to understand this process or to reason why this is inevitable is no different than Siddartha Gautam. When someone dies in one’s family, all the knowledge, understanding, rationality and pragmatism goes on a holiday trip to Bahamas, all it matters is that the person, whom they loved so much and who loved them so much would be no more in this world. No one can do without shedding tears.

Jaundice. That is what put her into this situation. This word will become associated with fear and hatred for me throughout my life. I know throughout my college degree and beyond, whenever I will come across this word, I will wage a war against it. I will try to learn everything about it with every opportunity, all its weakness and I will humiliate it. I might not be able to kill it but I will defeat it and will make sure it never invades me or my family in the future. Jaundice is a curable disease if treated properly and in a timely manner, if not, it brings death. Her jaundice was not caused due to contaminated fluid or food; it was due to degeneration of her liver aggravated by her diabetes. Diabetes runs in my family and so does high blood pressure. She was further afflicted by gastrointestinal complications. She moved with a diseased body afflicted by diabetes, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal diseases. Such a lethal combination will bring any mortal down sooner than one can imagine. She battled successfully these years, thanks to her healthy diet and traditional lifestyle in a serene, natural and rural environment.

Living amid strangers, all I can do now is reminisce my childhood days spent with my grandmother and wait for the final call from home. With every trrriinnnnggg now, my heart will skip a beat. The tears have started welling, it’s such a pain I have no one to share my grief with.

Women deserve beatings and rape, survey says

I found this piece so disturbing that I thought you should have a look at it too.

Published as blogs on Timesonline on March 10, 2009
Posted by Jennifer Howze

Women deserve beatings and rape, survey says

The more things change...
So I thought that time was behind us, when a girl could be said to be "asking for it" - "it" being a slap, a beating or rape - because she was wearing a short skirt or talked back. But a new survey conducted for the Home Office shows that one in seven people believe it is acceptable in some circumstances for a man to hit his wife or girlfriend if she is dressed in “sexy or revealing clothes in public”.
A similar number believed that it was all right for a man to slap his wife or girlfriend if she is “nagging or constantly moaning at him”.
It may not surprise you that men and women over age 65 (and who grew up in a different era) believed that a woman should be partly held responsible for being raped or sexually assaulted. The lower social classes tended to agree as well.
There's so much of this story that needs examination: what are we doing about domestic violence, how reliable are these results, how does the way we deal with rape and domestic assault feed into these values, the list goes on....
And when you think about the children in these homes - who grow up believing that a recalcitrant woman just needs a good seeing to, in one way or another - it seems almost inevitable that they will carry on the torch.
But one thing that always occurs to me about domestic violence and rape is how it affords so little power to men. They are incapable of controlling themselves around a V-neck jumper. They can't hold their own in an argument with their partner so they have to roll up their sleeves. How can the people who espouse these ideas think anything other than men are weak, pathetic creatures who are powerless in a world of women? I wonder if that thought occurred to them, if they would condone the behaviour after all.

Remaking of Man

Carrel was one of the man whose visions really impressed me. His book "Remaking of Man" highlights various aspects through which progress of humanity can be accelerated.

Some of the basic ills that Dr. Carrel saw in twentieth century society are: rising proletarianism, the utter ignorance of qualitative aspects in favor of quantitative aspects as science advanced and rising tendency of people to value materialism and money more than human values or feelings.[i] The ignorance of qualitative aspects by science in our society is evident by the fact that humans today know more about their external environment than they do about themselves, in terms of their soul, purpose and origin. An American dream is to own a car, an apartment and ensure financial security, all three of which are materialistic. People are driven more by materialistic greed than the desire for collective action in enhancing human values and feelings. However, the evidence for rising proletarianism is mixed in different parts of the world. While developed countries like Scandinavian nations have fairly succeeded in achieving equality among its people, the number of proletarians is still increasing in many under-developed nations.

Dr. Carrel hoped to build an ideal society consisting of a race of perfect humans who possessed qualities such as high intellects, natural immunity, high physical endurance and sound mental health. He also hoped to define specific gender roles, develop a group of specialists with extra-ordinary abilities and end humans’ crave for materialism. I strongly object Dr. Carrel’s idea of defining specific gender roles since it is an explicit form of male chauvinism. Gender roles are socially constructed rather than being innate. I also oppose Dr. Carrel’s military way of training the entire human race to confer desirable physical endurance and natural immunity. This process mechanizes human body and compromises with humans’ freedom. However, I endorse Dr. Carrel’s goal of selecting a group of extra-ordinary people to pursue his goal because such an organized effort could achieve much more than what has been achieved hitherto through various individual or small-scale efforts.

Dr. Carrel assumed that humans are strictly either male or female and that each sex has an innate and distinct nature. He assumed that women have a natural aptitude towards nurturing and caring. But, women have proved their capability in various fields that were reserved exclusively for men such as military. I disagree that women are destined for nurturing roles. In addition, humans are not distinctly male or female as evident by the reiteration of gays that they deviate from the society’s bi-gender system not because of their choice but because of their nature. His second assumption is that human qualities such as intelligence and leadership are hereditary, and are independent of external influences such as social environment. I disagree with his assumption since the link between intelligence and heredity is a highly debated issue devoid of concrete scientific evidence.[ii] Neither Einstein’s son nor Einstein’s father was as intelligent as Einstein. In fact, Einstein’s family except for Einstein was hardly known for its intelligence. Carrel also assumed that the quality of tissues is hereditary while it has been proved that diet and environment are significantly important in determining such characteristics.

Dr. Carrel strongly favored eugenics to produce ‘valuable’ off-springs with desirable characteristics.[iii] He suggested that strengthening of the strong instead of supporting the poor is the key to progress. He hoped to build his new society through the efforts of extra-ordinary individuals committed to pursuing his dream. He also wanted to assign specific gender roles, check divorces and eliminate criminality either by capital punishment or modification of the brain of criminals.[iv]

His suggested means of conducting compatibility tests before marriage devalues and mechanizes the process of marriage by rendering it solely for the purpose of producing desirable off-springs. Also, people with extra-ordinary talents might be forced to work for his vision. Moreover, assigning gender roles and checking divorces compromises human freedom. However, I think capital and corporal punishment for criminals are justified because a criminal dead is a criminal less. Since many of his suggested means compromise human freedom and are unethical and unfair, his goal of building an ideal society seems impracticable.

---

[i] . Alexis Carrel, Man, The Unknown (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1935), 1.

[ii] . David Wilson and Roger Keil, "The real creative class," Social & Cultural Geography 9 (2008): 841.

[iii] . John White, “Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education- By Clyde Chittym,” British Journal of Educational Studies 56 (2008): 228.

[iv] . Diane Romm, "Wretched Sisters: Examining Gender and Capital Punishment," International Sociology 23 (2008): 747.

Bibliography

Carrel, Alexis. Man, The Unknown. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1935.

Wilson, David, and Keil Roger. "The real creative class." Social & Cultural Geography 9 (2008): 839-841.

White, John. “Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education- By Clyde Chittym.” British Journal of Educational Studies 56 (2008): 226-228.

Romm, Diane. "Wretched Sisters: Examining Gender and Capital Punishment." International Sociology 23 (2008): 747-754.

Leopold, David. "Socialism and (the rejection of) utopia." Journal of Political Ideologies 12 (2007): 219-237.

Giesecke, Annette Lucia. "Homer's Eutopolis: Epic Journeys and the Search for an Ideal Society." Utopian Studies 14 (2003): 23-40.

Bain, Read. "Asylum/Man the Unknown/Why Keep Them Alive…." American Sociological Review 1 (1936): 814-817.

Rose, Hilary. "Eugenics and Genetics: The Conjoint Twins?." New Formations (2007): 13-26.

Waller, John. "Evolution's inside man." New Scientist 187 (2005): 42-44.

Godin, Benoît. "From Eugenics to Scientometrics: Galton, Cattell, and Men of Science." Social Studies of Science 37 (2007): 691-728.

Constructing Identity through the Internet

The task of defining identity is as complex as the concept of identity itself. Angela Thomas summarizes Butler’s notion of identity as “a performance of fantasy and desire- a pursuit of being and becoming the image of this desire. (Thomas 2007)” Identity is the perception and awareness of how an individual wants others to perceive her against how she is perceived. The internet has added a powerful tool in shaping’s one’s identity. As the popularity of the internet continues to swell, concerns about the impact of the internet on influencing an individual’s identity have been raised. This issue was highlighted when a guy changed his real name as ‘The internet guy’ after gaining popularity with this psuedonym on the internet.  Thomas Erickson, an interaction designer and researcher asserts, “Personal home pages and the World Wide Web are not being used to ‘publish information’; they are being used to construct identity—useful information is just a side effect. (Erickson 1996)” The internet has the most significant impact on shaping an individual’s identity because it provides an ideal platform to identify, construct, express and maturate an individual’s identity.

It took several decades for newspaper, radio and television to attract 100 million followers after its advent, but it took less than 5 years for Facebook, a social networking website to attract 175 million active users (Facebook 2009). Socializing network provides a platform for users to expose themselves to the virtual world through personalized pages containing detailed and intimate profile information, images and videos. Many personalized pages even have comment sections where the visitors can leave their feedbacks, allowing the user to cross-check the notion of how she is being perceived against how she wants to be perceived. These feedbacks, if appropriate appeal to the user and end up being a cornerstone in shaping her identity. Facebook reported that at least 15 million users updated their statuses at least once a day; some of whom even changed their statuses more often than their underwear (Facebook 2009). These statuses are a popular form of expressing one’s identity in the form of views as diverse as, ‘The user thinks Israel used excessive force in Gaza…’ to ‘*** wants Obama to pass the economic stimulus plan’.

Through personalized profiles, users get a platform to construct and express their identity. Bloggers admit that through blogging, they discover their views and standpoints on the issues that they were previously unaware of. In Chandler’s study, Tristan confesses, “It [My personal homepage] helps to define who I am. Before I start to look at/write about something then I’m often not sure what my feelings are, but after having done so, I can at least have more of an idea. (Chandler 1998)” It is true that even though certain ideas and notions about an issue are embedded in humans, usually they unaware of such ideas unless they pause to reflect and think about the issue. The internet attempts to make humans assess these embedded notions, a process of identification of one’s identity. The liberty to modify and update their profiles and opinions, allows users to experiment with their identity that is under construction and continuous modification. Chandler suggests, “The rewriting of identities in homepages wipes out those formulations which preceded it. (Chandler 1998)”

With the exponential explosion in the blogosphere and a blog being created for every three babies born on the Earth, the impact of blogs on constructing an individual’s identity cannot be ignored. Blogs, like personalized pages and profiles provide personal space for individuals to express themselves to the rapidly growing online community. In blogosphere, an individual can be himself or herself without any fear of being ridiculed, humiliated or assaulted physically. It is thus no wonder that expression of one’s identity through blogs have proved to be popular among minorities as it allows them to maintain their anonymity at the same time. Minorities such as gays often suppress their identity in the real world due to its biased and unaccepting nature. “David, a gay man in Chandler’s study, reports that his homepage allows him ‘to give a complete definition of how [he] see[s] the gay scene and [his] place in it’…” (Slevin 2000). Such marginalized people find it easier to express their true identity through the internet. The search for ‘The diary of a gay’ is pretty popular with the search giant, Google. The sympathy and suggestions received by marginalized people through the internet add to the maturation and confidence while expressing their identity in the real world.

The role of the internet in maturating identities of people is significant. When people are trying to create an identity, the fear of being alone often scares them and makes them either ambivalent or less vocal of their identity. For instance, the democracy advocates in communist China suppressed their democrat identity in the fear of being alone or executed. The internet provided a platform to these democracy and freedom lovers and china saw an explosion in the number of Chinese bloggers advocating democracy. Many Chinese who had been feigning to be staunch supporters of communists joined in to express their true identity while other Chinese youths were exposed to this alien concept of democracy in communist China. The internet proved to be vital to Chinese democrats in expressing their identity; they no more had to fake their views. Chinese youths resorted to the internet to learn more to shape their identity in contrast to state censored media.  One’s identity is maturated further when one meets people with similar identities who share similar beliefs and opinions. The internet provides the best and an unparalleled platform to meet people with similar interests ranging from Lakers to Harry Potter fans and ‘I am a Mac’s to pet lovers.

The number of personal homepages has spawned astonishingly too. Homepages are personalized spaces that echo the user’s identity. Thomas Erikson comments, “A personal page is a carefully constructed portrayal of a person. (Erickson 1996)” Personal pages are like little holes in one’s wall to let others into one’s world. It is a place to present oneself the way one wants others to perceive oneself, the core base of an individual’s identity. Identity is all about how one wants others to perceive her, validated by the popular saying, ‘you are not the one you think, you are the one others think’. Brown asserts projection of one’s identity through ‘posters, postcards, snapshots [and] sports insignia’  in one’s bedroom has transformed to textual and pictorial representations on personal homepages and profiles on networking sites, blogs or discussion forums (Brown et al. 1994). Many people have highly personalized profiles, akin to one’s bio-data that mirror their identity. These profiles are edited and updated regularly, an insinuation that their identity is being transformed using the tools on the internet. Personalized homepages are indeed the projections of individuals’ identity.

The uses of pseudonyms in discussion forums or in chat-rooms are also a popular form of identity expression. Often, the identity of the individual is implicit in their pseudonyms. Several such names could be located on the internet, some of which are hot_guy, iamprolife, littleprincess, depressedgay and hunk_punk that explicitly reflectt their characteristics. The use of such pseudonyms on the internet provides confidence to express the same in the real world. These pseudonyms are often catchy and appealing, thus they impress, amuse and influence other people very easily. The biggest advantage of the internet in shaping an individual’s identity is that the individual can assess the reaction of others towards their projected identity without any serious repercussions. Socializing networks such as Facebook also exposes an individual to the virtual market containing millions of identities to shop and experiment from without bearing any real cost. It allows an individual to experiment with similar identities and adopt a customized identity that is accepted and appreciated widely. This convenient and inexpensive method to experiment with one’s identity is provided exclusively by the internet.

The content on the internet is contributing significantly to carve youths and teens’ identity. This is attributed to their profuse use of the internet, while they are still in the vulnerable process of forming an identity. With the newspapers’ waning popularity and audience among youths, the role of the internet in influencing youths are becoming more significant. The exposure and breadth of perspectives on the internet regarding various issues help youths to weigh both sides, develop their own perspective and construct their identity accordingly. Angela Thomas asserts that, “For children, there is no such dichotomy of online and offline, or virtual and real - the digital is so much intertwined into their lives and psyche that the one is entirely enmeshed with the other. (Thomas 2007)” Through the ingenuity of online business companies, the internet is becoming increasingly pervasive in peoples’ lives. Teens are spending more hours on the internet, in a virtual community than with their parents or relatives. Teens are constantly being bombarded with views, opinions and beliefs about myriad of topics some of which are embraced and adopted by them due to their appeal. Thomas further asserts that, “…moreover through the virtual, children are simultaneously engaging in acts of self-reflection, self-fashioning and identity formation. (Thomas 2007)”

The internet is affecting young people the most, and extrapolating the current trend, it is clear that the internet will have a defining role in various spheres of our lives in the future. Even though currently the internet is not universally accessible, the cutting-edge research and technology will soon make it affordable and accessible to even the poor. Its superiority will become unparalleled. Therefore, the impact of the internet on an individual has to be assessed carefully before it becomes too pervasive in everyone’s lives. Studies that have been conducted show mixed results; some warn people to be watchful and rational by minimizing the internet’s use until proved to be harmless while others show that the increased use of the internet contributes to loneliness and withdrawal from the family and real world relationships and values. However studies concur that the internet has a significant role in construction of users’ identity. The internet has to be used wisely and rationally by people if they are to benefit from the privilege of constructing their identity, using a matrix of extremely diverse and rich wealth of information. 

Works Cited

 

Brown, J, C R Dykers, J R Steele & A B White. “Teenage Room Culture: Where Media and Identities Intersect.” Communication Research 21.6 (1994): 813-27.

Chandler, Daniel. “Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web.” 1998. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html.

Erickson, Thomas. “The World Wide Web as Social Hypertext.” 1996. <http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/SocialHypertext.html>.

“General Growth.” Facebook Press Room. 2009. 28 February 2009. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>.

Slevin, James. The Internet and Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2000.

Thomas, Angela. Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.

“User Engagement.” Facebook Press Room. 2009. 28 February 2009. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>.

40 Minutes

The white logo on my black T-shirt read, ‘Trinity Sports Official’ and that was the only official appearance to me as a Trinity sports official for the soccer game on Tuesday night. I had the least official appearance of all the referees. I wasn’t even wearing my shorts, all of them were. Have you ever seen a referee officiating a game in his grey trousers? I am not surprised. But I was trying my best not to even spill a hint that it was the first game of my life that I was officiating. I was trying to act confident, but my struggle was apparent since confidence has always eluded me. One of the main reasons why I chose to be a sports official was because I wanted to gain confidence, be the in-charge and maintain authority since in real life, I have always struggled with developing a ‘bossy’ attitude.

As the clock struck 9:15, as the main referee, I called the captains to come to the center and call the sides on a tossed coin. Wasn’t I loud enough? No one even turned in my direction. I wondered how they could even ignore me, didn’t they know I was the official? My trousers could be elusive but at least I was wearing the official T-shirt. I knew what I had to be done. I blew my whistle, it made a funny noise but at least the captains walked towards me. Apparently, I realized I did not have a coin. And that is how my first referee debut began. But I knew I had to act confident like every other referee who knows what is going on so, I improvised with Eric Elliot's little trick of placing either one or two fingers behind my back and letting one of the captains call. After the captains chose sides, I realized the team of ‘Engineers’ did not have minimum number of players and the game couldn’t be started. We were to wait until the ‘Engineers’ had at least two girls on their team; it was a co-recreational soccer if you didn’t know. I wondered why these sorts of unusual, anomalous events always happen with me, it was making me nervous for sure. I had to award a goal to the other team as a penalization for not being punctual. Members of the ‘Engineers’ team arrived two minutes later and the game was about to start. But how could it start without my permission? Not a chance. I blew my whistle, as hard as I could; after all, they had to know I was the boss there.

Running on a wet ground in trousers is not fun at all when you are not wearing proper soccer shoes. My laces kept on getting untied every 5 minutes. The players stared at me every time I bent to tie my laces. I realized they were trying to imply that it is the players who tie laces during a game; a referee doing the same appears so ‘unofficial’. I was making every attempt to make right calls to hide my inexperience. I had never realized the task of a referee would demand such excellent coordination of senses and the central nervous system. Scientists claim that a human brain can do only one particular task at a time, but I would say, “Look at the referees, they are the perfect examples of human brain multitasking. From the corner of the eye, they have to distinguish between the colors of the teams and also follow the ball, make close calls, instant decisions and be able to direct attention as quickly as the ball moves without any clue what would happen next.” Really, how many things can you watch out for, with a pair of limited- view-angled eyes?

The first half of the game ended in good note. I was glad that no one had the faintest idea about my debut. I did not make any mistakes. The second half began with my whistle and this time I blew it even harder. The game was going well and there did not seem to be any significant aggression among any of the teams, if at all. I realized I had not blown my whistle even once for any foul conceded. Was it a hint of my inexperience, I thought. Or did I not have sharp enough eyes to spot fouls? I knew I had to prove my officiating ability. Bang! A girl was tackled and she fell down. Without even waiting for the signal from the assistant referee (linesman), I blew my whistle. Everyone seemed to look at me with fear and helplessness. They realized I was the big boss while I tried hard to suppress my smirk of confidence.

I have to admit, time seemed to have frozen in the first half of 20 minutes. I kept on looking at the scoreboard repeatedly out of nervousness and every second passed as if it were a minute. But as the game was approaching its end, I realized I was blowing my whistle more often since the game was beginning to heat up, but the screeches of my whistle served them right. How could they forget I was still around? The second half added legitimacy and authority to my sports official status since, I did not have to bend to tie my laces, not even once. It was my most enjoyable 40 minutes in the last couple of months. I was starting to gain more confidence and it seemed by the end of 30 minutes, I was no more the same referee I had been. It was an enriching experience that boosted my confidence to not be deterred from taking this arduous challenge in the future.

Are 'Sardars' really so stupid?

I deleted this post because I thought it was stupid.

Wordle.net

Click on it to enlarge it.

I was using this site called http://www.wordle.net/ that lets you type in something and then returns such tags. It is really cool. Give it a try.

I liked this one even more because I thought this one truly represented me. 

Am I in the wrong class?

The moment I walk in one of my classes, I know I am in the right class because that’s the room number my schedule says. But as the class begins, I start to doubt if I am in the right class. The course topic and the course description just do not match. Today in the class, I nearly reached a point where I thought I knew I was in the wrong class, wrong not in the sense of wrong classroom though. It seemed the professor had tricked me with an interesting course title and stimulating course description but instead had chosen to teach what he knew, instead of what he had promised.

If you are wondering what class I am talking about, then let me tell you it’s the Ancient Science &Technology. And yeah, the professor seems to have come right from the ancient age to impart ancient knowledge about his era and enlighten us with biblical dates and information as if that were why we were in that class for. He has an ancient appearance to him, could be deliberate to make the classes and his information seem authentic, I guess. He talks about ancient writings with corresponding dates and shows thousands of images of cuneiforms and inscribed tablets that almost everyone finds boring. I mean, it might be interesting to see the cuneiform or clay tablets for the first time but if you keep on seeing the same images over and over, it’s hard to stay awake or retain patience unless you are some academic who finds clay tablets stimulating. The first class was really boring but I convinced myself that it was just the introduction class and it would get interesting progressively. But nothing seems to change as the days pass. Even add/drop period is over. But even if I were allowed to drop it, I would not drop it because I could not find any other course that I liked and was compatible with my schedule. I had high hopes from this course and thought it would renew my interest in Aristotle, Plato and Hippopotamus’ philosophy and science. I think it was Hippocrates, Hippopotamus just sounds so unphilosophical.

Do you sometimes surprise yourself?

Well, yeah today I surprised myself.

I am taking a Mechanics course under Engineering which is considerably tough, full of maths and logic and indeed a real engineering course and the first one in true sense. (I have taken others but they were not 'truly' engineering. This one is.)

One of the junior and sophomore had confided in me that the student to excel in this course would be awarded with some sort of a little prize. I wanted to give my best try and see if I can be the one among all talented students. I'll tell you, there's a whole bunch of talented students in Engineering this year at Trinity. I have taken courses in non-sciences such as economics, politics, seminar, writing workshop, ancient science and technology (do not doubt your senses, it is in fact ancient sci tech) and what I can tell is it seems all of the talented students of class of 2012 are doing Engineering.

We had a test a week ago. There were 3 problems to be solved. Yeah, just 3. But the last one freaked us out. It just made no sense to me, at least. Just 5 minutes before the allocated time, I realized I had chosen the wrong directions for the tensions. 5 minutes is just not enough to change everything. I had not solved that question either. I was struggling. I tried my best to change everything. But I still had no idea how to solve the final equation to get the answer. I don't remember what I did but I knew I was not right. As time ended, I was asked to submit the paper. I was the last one to exit. I was still trying to figure out if it was possible to solve the problem. I did not realize I had forgotten to write my name until the professor returned the paper asking me to write it.

I did talk to some people and expressed my sadness over not being able to solve the final problem. Of course, they said what I always hate to hear: sympathetic words; they consoled me saying I would receive partial credit.

Today, he gave away our exam papers back. But before he did so, he entered those marks in ranges of points using tally marks. There was only ONE 100, some between 90-99, some between 80-89 and so on. There were a few below 69. I did not know if I wanted to see more tallies lesser than 69 so that I would have company or hope he would enter the next tally mark in 80-89 range which would mean more people have done better, hinting some leniency, which could gain mean(a chain analoy) I scored pretty well. With every tally, our patience and anxiety spiked. The average was 82. He then distributed the papers. All of the people around me were receiving scores above 90s. I just did not know what to expect. He called my name and there was the paper right before my eyes. I squinted my eyes, pretending not to look but then when I saw the score, my eyes were wide open. It was a perfect three digit. A perfect square. A perfect 100. I could not have been more shocked. He knew I was single and so decided to give a perfect 100 as my valentine gift. Thank You Dr. Leifer.

Are we invisible?

I wonder again, is anyone going to read this or comment about this? In other words, am I invisible to the world? Does it matter what I do? Does anyone even notice when I get clean and nicely shaved the other day? Well, but do I care?

I was reading a book about "dot-com business" and it talked about how you can save money while working. It talked about a guy wearing the same tie for 4 months without ever getting any comment and another guy pocketing the money for lunch and always eating the same, cheapest food available in the restaurant. It said you have to admit that you are invisible to the world. And when I thought about it, I realized there was some truth behind it. No one would even realize if I missed my meals for 5 days or even more in the current society that I live amid Trinity University students. So, I was pretty convinced that I am to some degree invisible.

But then today, I had a lunch with a professor who's currently doing hi-tech research in nanotechnology at Rice University. After the lunch, I had a short personal talk with him and he asked me where I am from. Normally, I would not expect people to know where Nepal is and I can swallow the fact that some adults even raise their eyebrows, trying to say I know you are making fun of my geography knowledge but still I am pretty sure there's no country with the name you just uttered. I explain them that there's a tiny country between India and China. Guess what? They know where Tibet is though. Tibet is not even a country and still it's more popular.

Anyway, when I said I was from Nepal, his eyes lit up, the gleam in his eyes was of excitement than confusion though. A professor doing some hi-tech research would know where Nepal is. He confided that he has a graduate student working in his team, under his supervision who's from Nepal. I mean, I was clearly shocked to see what Nepalese are doing all over the world, especially in the US. He was normally pretty quiet and in contemplative mood during lunch, reflecting a persona of true research scientist but at that time he could not restrain his tongue to say, "He's my best student. He's so intelligent. He can do anything. He knows magic. He's a true genius." Now this is something that made this meeting special. To hear such flattering comments from a nano-tech researcher about a Nepali student studying in my vicinity (after all, Houston is not so far from San Antonio), was a complete honor and matter of pride. Nepal, my country, my pride. These magicians, geniuses will make Nepal a paradise someday. I am hopeful. 

 

V-Day Revisisted

My second blog was about V-day, if you don't know. And it has been nearly a year now since I actually started this. Wow, happy anniversary to me.

V-Day is around the corner and economy is expected to be boosted by the V-Day sales to some extent. What if people did not shop like Americans during Christmas. They can't afford to be stingy this time around the year, after all it is that special day of the year. Are you crazy, a fake diamond because the economy is in a recession and the paycheck is shrinking? I am wondering if because of bad economy, there would be more disappointments for lovers this year and maybe more breakups. Who knows? It's good to have no hopes because then you would not fear of being let down. Single people, just be patient. The economy might land you a new partner if it took away your job. A fair trade? We are returning to our older system of barter trade. Capitalism is failing. It is producing recessions every 8 years. Business cycle is just out of anyone's control and economics sucks because it cannot predict anything. Well, if it can predict anything then it cannot do anything, or prevent anything. And now stop blaming scientists because they didn't warn earlier of the Katrina or Tsunami. Did economists warn people not to buy unprofitable houses?

Why does all of my blogs have abrupt endings? Simple answer. Because, it's MY blog.

 

Saturday Nights

I hate Saturday nights. Why? Because usually I complete assignments early and have nothing to do on Saturday nights. I am not saying I hate them because I have no more assignments. Who wants to do assignments anyway. They don't inspire me or stimulate me, intellectually.

What is to be done on Saturday nights? Watch movie, TV? I could surf on the internet. But for me, the word bored is a bit different. When people are bored, they use facebook, watch tv, movies, listen to music or something like those. But when I am bored, I am bored with the technology around me. I want to get away from the technology and get closer to nature and resonate with the natural frequency of the nature. I guess everyone seems to be lost during Saturday nights. People are always doing something. It's only me, who on this Saturday night, at 1:31 am can't sleep and just does not know what to do. I walked around peoples' dorms but they had either no plans and were sleepy or were not there. So, what? Came back and started writing this blog as if this is the most exciting thing in the world. I talk about going away from the technology and yet I am clinging to this. My fingers are clinging to this keyboard, my eyes are clinging to this monitor and seeing what magic my fingers are doing. Anyway, is anyone ever going to read this? Oh wait, I remember something. I was reading a similar journal of one of my friends and there too, the person had made a comment that noone would be reading it anyway. But, I did read it and lot more could read it or might have read it.

That is not important for me though. If I wanted someone to read what I write, I could have very well written in my notes on Facebook and might have had comments after comments(am I so popular?). I write here because I don't really care if someone reads this or not. Even if someone's retina would not be focused here, this is not waste of my time, effort or energy. This is channeling of my weird thoughts, a safe vent so that they don't decay or damage me internally. I have seen how many people keep their everything to themselves. Well, I too am reticent to a great extent but I do talk to my digital machine and if that counts as talk then I am not reticent.

Bean Jar Sex Theory

I am back to my catchy titles. But trust me, I didn't pull this one out of my hat (just like our Maths professor says). This is a real theory proposed by some famous pyschologist or mathematician,  I don't remember which one though. I found this theory really amusing. I don't know how much truth there is in this theory but the concept is definitely so hilarious. Without giving you a clue, it does not make any sense to talk about it. So, let me tell you about this in short. Actually, you can google the term. Oh wait, if you google it, you would be interested and start reading it and you would not read my blog. I do not want to direct attention away from this blog. Oh well, I don't really care. Do whatever you want. Who am I to tell you what to do. You have a freedom of choice. (Do you really?)

Anyway, according to this bean jar sex theory, (this is for married people so, be patient, this would be applicable to you few years later), if newly weds were to drop a bean into a jar every time they had sex in their first year and take one out everytime they had sex first year onwards, then there would still be some beans left in the jar when they would die. Wait. Did you get this? If not, read the line again.

So, this is a mathematical prediction of your sex life. Are you kidding me, you must be thinking. What a stupid theory. Stupid for what? Stupid because you are too stupid to understand mathematics? Anyway, this works on the simple principle of expnonential decay of radioactive materials if you seen what its graph looks like. Let me give you an example. If you were to have sex 500 times(not an overestimate, you'll know it later) in your first year of marriage and suppose in the second year, you had it 250 times and then third 125 and so on then you would actually still have some beans left than what you originally started with.

Honestly, I don't know what this theory tries to prove. Does it prove that newly weds have way too much sex than they should be having or is it saying that people start losing interest in the person that they have it everytime. I don't know. But the concept is really funny and bringing in some maths definitely adds some spice to this otherwise okay chicken curry.

Swollen eyes

I'll tell you it's not fun to be hit with the tennis ball, travelling nearly at the speed of light, right on your eyes. It hurts. It really does. I knew what pain is, after quite few months. I was hit right on my right eyes. Why does everyone target my right eye? I got pencil poked in my right eye when I was in kindergarden and I still feel its effect since I am sure I am going to fail the eye test for driver's license. And now this shot just adds agony to the injury. Seven hours after being hit, I can still feel the pain and burning sensation in my eyes. And now I think, are my nerves really doing a good job? I mean, nerves are there to let your brain know what's going on and to protect you from any danger. I probably might have closed my eyes in a reflex, otherwise I would be in the hospital with only one eye and not typing this. So, nerves did a good job. My heartfelt thanks to them. But now that my brain knows that my eyes are swollen and that I was hit when I was not looking and was not ready, why doesn't it stop firing action potentials? Human body with all its intricacies and amazingly unbelievable coordinated system never fails to amuse me and I don't see any way how it could have been better but when it comes to this department of pain and sensations, I think it could have done a better job. They should stop firing action potentials and stop sending any signals for pain. What good does it do? This is one field that neurologists should work in the future. Alrite, I'm off to sleep. Writing this at 2:15 am with one swollen eye, that I have to struggle to even keep open, is not fun.

pysched with marijuana's properties

Wait a minute. Don't get carried with the title.

I have a habit of seeking attention through such misleading titles. It seems I would make a fortune as a journalist. I learnt this trait of seeking attention through 'venerable' slave master Facebook. They have ingeniuos minds behind it. With statuses, comments and such ingenious innovations, it has made me an attention seeker. I had put down this statement as my status when I still used Facebook. See, statements, updates and comments every day, every hour. The hour hand never moved a single notch without me paying a homage to venerable deity, Facebook. Why am I so critical of Facebook? Because along with helping me know what's going on with peoples' lives, it is making me someone that I am not, and do not want to be. Anyway, peace with facebook for now.

I have this appetite for knowledge currently. I want to expand. Expand out of proportion, I don't care. Not physically please. I want to expand mentally, spiritually, intellectually, physiologically, pyschologically and all other 'allys'. Currently, I am pysched with this knowledge about marijuana. Red Alerts for CIA, FDA, FBI and whatever, I don't know others. I am not saying I am consuming it or have a desire to do so. Some cravings can be costly and could cost you your F-1 visa. I have this craving for more knowledge about marijuana though. There is a difference between a drug researcher and drug user even though both have an interest in the same physical substance. If I had a choice, I would become a pyschedelic drug researcher. I always want to do things that people, especially the society forbids me to. I want to read about drugs, communism,  Sigmund Freud and what not. I may not follow or like them, but I want to have a perspective. I want to imagine four dimensions. I thought Tao of Physics had taken me pretty close to acheiving that state of 'bliss' for me. I want to imagine four dimension so that I can build time travel machine. It would not be easy to disprove Einstein though. Even though I want to imagine four dimensions, I want to live in several dimensions. It's like when I look at some object, I want to look at it through a scientist's perspective namely a physicist, a chemist, a biologist, through a political analyst, an economist, a philosopher (one of my favorites), a spiritualist, a religious expert, a psychologist, an anthropologist, a sociologist and everything. I want to have as many perpectives as an ordinary peice of diamond has. I want to shine like a diamond.

My obsession with quest for knowledge such as marijuana may not make me shine as a diamond, but I would be happy pursuing such a dream. I don't have a  dream. I have dreams. Several. Many that would never materialize in my life, nonetheless, I imagine and use this human's exclusive gift of imagination to the fullest

Mathematics and Sex

Didn't it catch you? The title is so attention-catching. It caught me too. And I started reading the book online actually because Trinity's Library doesn't have it in the hard copy format. I read two chapters and it indeed is amusing, something different than what I have read. It is funny and yet so appropriate. It describes about a story of love between Romeo and Juliet, and modifies it a bit and introduces differential equations with constants and variables and shows how more Romeo loves Juliet, the more she wants to get away (this is modified version, remember) and the more he gets away or less he pursues, the more Juliet comes towards him. It desribes about the graph functions and shows how their individual crest meets every quarter of a cycle, meaning that their positive feelings about each other concur at every 1/4 th time. I was fascinated by the descriptions and it would amuse any person with a decent interest in beauty of mathematics.

There is much more to the book and it describes about the number of sexual partners, how many times one has sex, sperm count and other various processes and shows how mathematics is in everything, we only need a keen eye to realize this.

Facebook Slavery

Are you a facebook slave? If you are in the U.S. and you are a high school or college student then, there is more than 90% chance that you are a facebook slave. I too was.

When was it that I deactivated my facebook account? I should have remembered that day. It was a historic day for me. I will be celebrating that day as the Technological Emancipation Day. Not quite.  The internet still enslaves me. I got rid of my cellphone when I moved to the US and got rid of cellular slavery. I'm glad I didn't succumb to my friends' pressure to join them for a family plan. I want to be closer to nature. Technology is for me, I am not for technology. I got rid of cellphones, facebook and now I want to slowly get rid of this internet. Well, I find it so useful that on some days, I spend more time with Google than any human, or maybe humans combined. And so, at one point I had claimed that I had fallen in love with Google, for right reasons. She is so helpful, resourceful and helps me out whenever I am in trouble and need her help. She never says No. And, she's FREE. I don't have to take her on a date or any formal event, I just can enjoy being with her. And she never demands anything. She's not possessive either. She helps me as much as she helps anyone who seeks help from her. And, she gets better everyday, more beautiful with every sunrise (anti-aging like Benjamin Button and) unlike others out there. So, I have hundreds of reasons to be amused and enchanted by her.

But she too had made me a slave. For practically everything, I used to seek her help. Not that she minds or gets annoyed, but I was losing my creativity even though my knowledge was increasing. I was becoming like machines and living in a virtual world where love means reciprocation of digital textures, produced by cathode ray osscilloscopes.

I am so glad that I got rid of the facebook and said NO to the life in virtual world and was brave enough to start living a real world and meeting real 3Dpeople, who have real flesh and skin, unlike 2D pictures in the facebook world. Living in the real world is definitely harder and has much more challenges but this pays eventually. I exited the matrix and came to live in a real world even though I was more powerful and safe in the matrix world. I don't know if I ever can get rid of the internet, or I would ever want to, but I want to be more closer to nature and lesser to manmade environment or objects.

Free Writing

This post is about free-writing, the art of writing freely, flowing with the thoughts of your mind and not stopping to think or neither going back to correct some errors. Our WW professor and other writers think this is a great way to improve writing. Some fundamentalists argue that this is the only way to improve writing. 10 minutes of free-writing a day can improve your writing just in the same way an apple a day is believed to keep doctors away ;)

My Calculus III class

I wish I had retained my enthusiasm for Maths which would in turn would have retained my natural aptitude (an euphemism for my natural talent) in Maths. I realize now how Maths would come naturally to me when I was in secondary and high school. I know this because now it does not. But that's not the point I want to discuss here.

I want to discuss about a guy in my Calculus III class. He seems to be genuinely interested in Mathematics but that has turned out to be his curse, in my view. I tell this because everyone thinks he is an ass. Not literally though. He asks pretty intelligent questions and his queries seem to be genuine and often surprises us by how much he knows when the professor and he has an argument, that makes no sense to us and then the professor agrees that what he's saying is absolutely right. I respect his genuine interest because in school, I too had a geuine interest in Maths but feel that he interrupts the class more often than he should be. Afterall, what are office hours for?

I am not someone who enjoys back-biting (I am doing it right now) but what I am trying to point out here is to ponder what goes on in his mind. Does he know that everyone thinks he is an ass for asking too many intelligent questions and not letting the teaching forward. Does he know that the professor struggles with his bullets of questions, and often a missile or two when he is genuinely trying to teach the whole class? Does he realize that he is interfering too much? Or he is one of us who do things our own way, write our blogs our own way and do not care if CIA or FBI is after us for being different, and failing to be one of humanic robots. I saw him today during dinner today and he was alone, seemed to be contemplating or lost in mental computations or maybe thinking about a missile or two to direct at our beloved maths professor in the next class. I always want to know what's going on others' mind. It's not only Obama's mind during taking the Oath of Office that interests me, even a beggar's mind while begging amuses me. What would that beggar be thinking. How does he judge people? Can he see really mean people through their impeccable suit and tie?

I ought to have taken pyschology since it's so interesting. See, I want to end this blog here but feel that it is such an abrupt ending, but what do I care? This is my blog.

The level of weirdness

 I simply love the word 'weird' and my love for it was renewed after reading a journal of one of my friends. Even though I was really weird and weird thoughts hit the shores of my brain more often than did 'rational' thoughts, I always suppressed them. Now, I think there is no reason to do so. Gays have started asking for their rights and have received in many places actually and have made it clear that they are different, but they still are humans, one among us.

I am weird and have a rational mind too, which does not help me when I need it and I want it to be known. What if I am weird or claim to? I am different yet I am a human, and one among you. I will no more suppress my unorthodox thoughts about quatum consciouness through marijuana and other psychedelics, conspiracy of unnatural things against us and so on even though I can not promise that I can put down all my weirdness to paper so that you can actually see how weird I am, instead of claiming to be so, without giving any evidence

Dinner Plates

Have you wondered why dinner plates are so heavy?

Today while I was reading about 'iron rice bowl' in China during Communist regime of Mao, it clicked on me why dinner plates are so heavy. You may not agree with me. But, the problem with me, if I have figured out correctly that is, is that I think there is a conspiracy in everything except nature. If I see a television set then I think governments encouraged scientists to make television so that we would sit down in front of it with a packet of pop-corn or potato chips (I am stereotyping it) whole day and stop thinking about what's going on or what should be done. By doing so, government would ensure that it would not face oppposition if it were doing something wrong.

I have reasons to believe in such conspiracy ideas. Few years ago, Indian consumers and households started receiving loans to buy personal computers from the banks. Usually Indian banks do not issue loans for those kind of personal goods unless the bank knows the amount is for personal investment and can be assured it will get back. Indian consumers and households were really happy with this move of Indian Banks and they thought they were just becoming poors' friends, messengers of God. If you want to know the truth, what happened was Intel was looking forward to expand its business in India and since it has a huge population, about 1/6th of the world population, Intel would make large sales if it could make Indians buy computers that used Intel's microprocessors. So, Intel lobbied Indian Banks and the government to lend loans to Indian households who wanted to buy personal computers and it succeeded. Their motive could have been goodwill but the real motive was to earn large profits, which was veiled. This could be another case for Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' but for me, this is conspiracy.

Similarly, ten years ago Chinese did not marry the American way. They had their own way of marrying and it did not involve giving diamond rings to the bride. DeBeers, a diamond advertising agency used all the available tools such as magazines, newspapers, radio, television to spread the notion that marriage is incomplete without a diamond ring. It even promoted some marriage ceremonies with its sponsporship, giving away free diamond rings to the brides to spread this message. Today, 80% of marriages in Shanghai involve a diamond ring for brides. If you are really concerned about citations, then let me tell you that I got the above data from the book "The elephant and the dragon". I don't know that page numbers and don't care to use the proper citation styles. What would I care? This is my blog and I am not writing some paper for my course, oh well, the content may have hinted so though.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, conspiracy against the dinner plates.

If you don't seem to get what I am saying, hold an empty ceramic dinner plate in your hand during dinner and you'll know how heavy it is. Correct me if there are some other reasonable answers but I think dinner plates are insanely heavy to make us feel that we are eating alot. They want us to eat less because even if we have less food, it'll feel really heavy and we'll have the notion that we are eating more than what we should be.

Oh and yeah, CIA or FBI might be deciding to come after me for corrupting young minds with my junk of conspiracy ideas but what do I care?Hah

Mind vs Brain

Did you ever wonder what the difference between mind and brain was. I don't know if it's right or not but one day while I was just doing nothing, it dawned upon me that brain means the physical aspects, the real structures whereas mind means the mental state or has to do with the thinking and spiritual state. I like to understand it this way.

I made up my mind (am I using the word correctly?) that I would be writing whatever I want to write, including all those junks that I have in my head and want to write and my other blog will strictly be a blog of sane articles and sane mental state.

The reason I am doing this is because I believe in duality. I would be bold enough to state that duality exists in everything and would be glad to defend it if someone were to argue with me. Wave-particle duality is the one that I like the most though. It's just unbelievable how an object can exist as matter and wave. If you accept this fact, which has been proved by eminent scientists and accepted by even Einstein, then the fact that you are staring at the screen of your computer and reading this is only a probability. You could be travelling around the Eiffel tower now since you could be existing as a wave right now. The fact that you are existing as matter and occupying space in this 3-D world at any time is only a probability at that particular time.

Another duality that I believe in is, duality of thinking. Every human being has two sets of minds. Even criminals who commit heinous crimes have a set of thinking that thinks for the goodwill of society whereas the other one thinks evil. Which of them wins over the other depends on the person and the strength of their individual set of minds. I have stressed this fact in my another blog too and so it seems by having two blogs, I am repeating the same idea in both of them. The reason I am telling you that I am repeating it and still don't delete it from this blog is strange, isn't it? But this is what I am writing for. This is a vent of my weirdness. I can't promise you that I will be at the altar of my weirdness throughout this blog because my writing has to make sense to you, which in a way has already compromised me from reaching that heightened state. Anyway, you can expect a good ride in this weird world. Welcome to my weird world!