Pictures are from USGA website http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2574
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/image.php?id=16101
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/image.php?id=15982
Land before and after Kasatochi volcano
Misplaced trust as a child
When I was young, I believed that people in authority knew everything, mean everything; and their actions have factored everything. As I grew older, I doubted this, courtesy of Indian politicians. After living in US, and seeing political system here(systematically & legitimatley hacked), I am dead sure I was very wrong about the ability of people in authority; they do not anything, not even honest. Now, I smell these people from far distance.
Mr Krugman says the same in his NYT blog.
"When I was young and naive, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
wallpaper with power consumption
Computer wallpaper like the one shown below lists CPU & RAM but not power usage. Wallpaper should disclose both the ability and liability.
This wallpaper(BgInfo.bmp) is generated using 'BgInfo', a SysInternals tool.
Wall-paper with power consumption.
I measured the power consumption and then inserted those details in 'BgInfo.bmp' using Adobe PS.
Computer manufacturer's like HP, Dell, IBM have the ability to provide bitmaps containing power usage. There is a debate about accuracy of power measurements. I think the accuracy is secondary; goal is to make people set PC to stand-by mode, turn off monitor etc....
When someone logs in to a machine, wall-paper should inform them about power consumption.
Unfair price for vegetable
Today for the first time I took note of the cost of tomato that I just purchased in Stop-and-Shop grocery store. Bill reads as follows(for one tomato)
Vine Ripe Tomato $2.99/pound $1.44
What motivated to take notice is FOOD Inc movie. In that movie, Micheal Pollen talks about alarming price difference between fast-food and vegetable He says collieflower costs more than $1 while burger at McDonald costs just 99cents.
Seriously this pendulum needs correction. I do not mind paying more for burger. Let us pay fair price and tackle obesity.
TBTF or Too complex to handle?
Simon Johnson is campaigning to eliminate TBTF but Paul Krugman is not that against TBTF(based on his blog posts).
My own though is TBTF leads to complex web and makes it hard to tell where the investor's money is landing. We start to see same thing with different wrapper without adding value to customer. We are not in market utopia, so as companies grow fairness comes down.
I think not having TBTF is a pragmatic solution.
Someone got to pay for that...
Heard a passer by say "Someone got to pay for that...". He was obviously talking about Health Care bill.
Line "Someone got to pay for that..." is a bill board statement, projects the speaker as a responsible citizen. Are these genuinely responsible?. May not be because many such speakers do not ask
"Who pays for defense bill?"
"Why am I paying so much for health insurance company?"
"Who contributes to monsterous TARP?"
Run away away!!
Referring to beaten Obama's interview to ABC network, in which 0bama expressed plans to move towards right, Paul Krugman says to liberals Run away away
Personally it is a great disappointment. I had not never taken any politician so seriously. Looks like I was as naive as Mr Obama.
It is time to say Good night to him...
Stockholm syndrome or Hyper Nationalism
Once in a while, Americans and Chinese readers use street fighting language while responding to article in Newspaper or Blog. Supporters of America draw attention iron fist of Chinese Govt. while Chinese argue that they are happy to grabbed.
Now the Google has refused to censor news in China. In response to this news, majority of Chinese readers have fiercely expressed solidarity with Chinese Govt. I do not understand the logic behind Chinese reader's response, whatever Google is doing, at least at the face, is good for Chinese public. To me it seems Chinese readers are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
What surprises me is that over the years, it has been close to impossible to find one Chinese reader who's response is moderate. They seem to take even the hint of criticism from western media as grave insult.
After spending all my life is democracies I do not trust Govt. completely; Govt. and God are not same. This mindset makes hard for me to understand Chinese defense.
Thing impossible for Obama to fake...
Obama may end up passing flimsy health care reform still make it to history book. There is no specific way to measure the effect of this reform so even a toothless one is also a reform.
Unemployment number are not so kind to Obama. Nothing short of genuine economic reform is going to improve job market. This time, bad job numbers are definitely going to expose the facade of GDP, Growth.
Wall-street is the biggest sucker, and is driving the greed and by-products. Without fixing this sucker, nothing is going to change, definitely not this time.
These numbers are going to nail him.
"What is for dinner" style of politics
Obama has left many of those who rooted in support of him disappointed. I followed his election from the beginning, much before Iowa primary. He sounded sincere. I have seen probably the most corrupt democracy on the planet, in India. With that mindset, Obama appeared to me like once in a life time leader, way above politics. I was not alone, millions did the same; people who had withdrawn from democratic process, due to hopelessness, came out to support him; students worked for his campaign like volunteer work. I heard on radio about a girl who went to night clubs in Pennsylvania, at wee hours, to do voters registration.
Is he fighting?
No. Obama has not demonstrated the grit that was required for implementing his promises. He is more like water, fit work in school, no way he can lead nation. I can not bank on him and hope he would fight for me.
Is he sincere at least?
I doubt his sincerity too. He hired same individuals who sowed the seeds of financial crisis. Given that Obama is smart so aware of history of his appointees, why did he hire same crooks?. Or Why not fire them at least now? Why did Obama extend Ben Shalom Bernanke term for FED Reserve?
Mentally, Obama has lost the game already. Parasites of political system know that President can be cultivated or transformed, and will not allow Obama to make significant change. Now only thing that can save Obama's grace is a honest apology.
I hate to say this because I really believed in him but Obama is going to end up like Jimmy Carter.
Is rationality the best selling point for atheism?
Having rational ideas is harmless but it may not be sufficient to convert believer in to atheist. To take my own example, I did not
become atheist after seeing lab-report :-).
There was a temple on the way to school which I used to visit often. Saying that I grew among a sea of believers is indeed an understatement. I used to go to temple at least two or three times a week.
From there, I gradually stopped believing in god, and years later came to know that this phenomenon is called as 'atheism'. So this conversion was not based on any anti-religion literature or one life changing event :-). I think years of reading current events in magazines, Newspaper developed this conviction, so it was an unconscious change.
Based on my experience, I think no amount of science can make believer an atheist. We can use scientific argument to make a kill if the target is already leaning towards atheism. I am not completely in favor of this method of sale. This method may not be sustainable on the long run; such converts could run back to God if there is any personal tragedy. And if this person happens to be loud mouthed celebrity, atheism gets bad press. Like democracy, for atheism to survive it should be borne out of inner pondering.
I heard of Mr Dawkins for the first time in 2006. I think, it is possible to realize absence of God on our own.
Influence of Technology
Not surprisingly, Technology is not in harmony with Nature: the way twig and PCB decay are very different. Similarly humans are not born with skills to deal with Technology. A good example for this is 5-year old throwing his Dad's PDA in to toilet. Modern life expects everyone to be 'adult' and that is impossible because one has to get through childhood.
Our generation viewed PC with respect, as center for learning(A good example is programming in C or Java). This is going to change; for next generation PC is a tool for avoiding learning how to write using pen, avoid adding two numerals. Latter has already begun, compared to me, my mom is way good in adding two numbers.
By extrapolating above examples one can get a vague idea of the scale at which technology is going to change the human behavior in future.
Economics is going keep the wheel of Technology turning. I do not see this equation changing any soon, may not in my life time.
Slowly I Married her - Leonard Cohen
Slowly I married her
slowly and bitterly married her love
Married her body,
boredom and joy
Slowly I came to her
slow and resentfully came to her bed
Came to her table in hunger and habit
came to be fed
Slowly I married her
sanctioned by none
with nobody’s blessings, in nobody’s name
amid general warnings, amid general scorn
Came to her fragrance, my nostrils wide
Came to her greed with seed for a child
Years in the coming and years in retreat
Slowly I married her
slowly I kneeled
And now we are wounded so deep and so well
that no one can hurt us except Death itself
And all through Death’s dream I move with her lips
The dream is a night but eternal the kiss
And slowly I come to her
slowly we shed the clothes of our doubting
and slowly we wed
I copied this from a recital so punctuations could be off. Leonard Cohen recites this in the context of his song "Where is my Gypsy wife", as you can see in this following clip. Recital starts at 2:56 min marker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2byWWMmf20
Gambling in Painting
I think painter like any other artist indulges in gambling. Sometimes gambling is a choice and sometimes it is inevitable; following is an example for latter.
Situation
Acrylic Gels are opaque when dry and turn transparent on going dry. This means at the time of application of Gel, I had to guess the outcome. Given that Gel takes more than 24hours to dry, I had to wait for quite a while, to see the result. For all practical sense, Gel can not be repealed, once applied, it is sealed.
Acrylic Gel can be mixed with color and that makes outcome more elusive, adding new dimension.
In this example, I wanted to give greasy texture so I applied Acrylic Gel. Some time I think I had not applied the gel at all.
Without Gel 
With gel
Devil's decoration
This is my latest painting, called Devils Decoration, let me describe in gruesome spirit :-).
What is Devil's art-work?
Bleeding body is an art-work in the eyes of Devil. And to frame this flesh, Devil uses victim's own bones. And then hangs it on wall, in his living-room, as decorative item.
I started to paint with the above idea and did not know how to fill rest of the canvas or create the ambiance. In order to create ambiance that is not cliche, I applied random color on canvas and simply enhanced the forms that I saw.
The bones and cracks have been generated using Hard Molding Paste so it looks multi-dimensional. Fluid texture comes from Gel. I used varieties of Paste and Gels, along with color-tubes. Given you have hard-body-color, fluid-color, number of types Gels, number of types of pastes, the potential combination could leave one owed, at least that is how I feel.
Gels also add to creativity in a way; Gels are opaque when wet and get transparent as they dry, and this makes them unpredictable, and makes us/painter accept reality :-)
"free-will" amidst the dynamics of time
I started to reside in Newyork from 2001. From that time I have been going to a Gasoline station near my home. The person who fills petrol there, is an Indian, specifically speaking, a Punjabi. I try best to fill gas there so that I can give him a tip. Whenever I go there, we exchange few words in English.
Right after few visits, I suspected his legality in US. Recently, two months back, it become more evident when he told me that his wife comes from India, once in couple of years to see him. Same distance exists between him and his children too. Basically, he can not move around in US borders.
Today, I met him again and remembered our past conversation. Driving back home, started dwelling more in to his situation, using my insight as an immigrant. Major difference between us is that I am sacred. Thinking about his life: I wonder how long can this go on? Is that it, will he never share the roof with his wife and offspring? Why we force ourselves in to such position? These must have made sense at one time, may make sense, to some extent even now. Did we think of exit strategy? Worst, does one exist at all?
Talking about my own life, a over-cast day is a brilliant one to me. On such a day view from my window is very peaceful, and I struglle to convey this to my mom over phone. What makes our communication worse is my mother does not have victorian-like background, so I can not tell her to relate to the verses of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
Recently, I had kept few paintings under sun and it was a beautiful set up. I could not convey this to my sister over phone, so I e-mailed this picture to her. I doubt this picture helped because photographs do not go beyond their frame.
Are we being forced?
No one sanctioned us to migrate, either legally or illegally. No one is also forcing us to maintain current status. Moreover, this is not an alienating country at all, in fact, for many of us, chances of getting discriminated is higher in our own native country.
Fundamental question is, do we have a choice?
In general, at almost every phase of our lives, neither we are forced nor we are given reasonable choice. French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, proposed existentialism and "free will" theory. According to that people have choice whether to do it or not. It seems, in his advanced years, he expressed doubts about this theory.
Dynamics of time
I also believe that state we are in, is partly due to our action and partly because of the dynamics of our time. We do not control the dynamics consequently can not posses free-will. For example, the Ice sheet in Arctic has to melt, it can not win over the dynamics of weather, and Iceberg can neither control the consequences of its own disintegration.
Ways to absolute free-will
We can not live and also have absolute "free-will". We may move closer to "free-will" if we became one with Gautama Buddha( by having absolute control over our desires). But we can definitely achieve rock solid "free-will", if we withdrew ourselves from this dynamics, in to death.
Reforming 'this' and 'that'
Obama talks about reforming this and that, and at the same time, seem not to realize(at least I think so) that same style-of-business runs through all these problems.
Without changing the culture at Wall-street, he can not bring any change, in any area. Even he manages, that may not sustain.
Will China prove Democracy overrated?
I feel so more and more...this comes from my past experience in India and what is going on now in US. In India, politicians use democracy as weapon to destroy growth and in US politicians use it as a sequence as speed dumps(to give an impression of constructivism) to divert growth.
In both countries, people have are happy to have a choice that has been not usefull till now. Elites and pseudo intellectuals have built TV shows around this democracy.
Politicians who are part of democracy will always brag it as best option, repeat Churchhill's quote. We people believe those preaching because it makes sense to brains crippled by excess automation.
Yes, democracy gives equal TV time to both satan and saint, but it is prudent if only the people are able to see the lessening difference..
For a second, come out of Churchill's quote in to day light, and look at voparizatin of Healthcare reform and Financial Reform
We continue saying, life goes on, so does our counter part in China, so what is the difference in the end.
Well, I am not going to do anything special either. I will also wait for next placebo, called Election. And it will definately make me feel that I have acted
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