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.
Influence of Technology
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 For all practical sense, Gel can not be repealed, once applied, it is sealed.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
Epidemic
Today two items stopped working
1) My not even two years old cellphone's head phone stopped working. The problems is more complicated, it resets the connection within two minutes. I can not convince myself that the age of cell phone is just two years. I am talking about Motorola Razor phone made for Verizon
2) Nine months old backpack, purchased in India gave up. Today strap got disengaged. This shows that the virus has reached India too. It would have been perfectly normal if I had purchased the crap in a US chain store.
Here is the list of the things that died in less than 2 years
-Pressure cooker.
-Cooking vessel.
-Salt shaker
-Hair drier
-Rubbermaid box(stared to leak)
-Cellphone charger(previous phone)
-Cellphone head phone(current phone)
-Backpack
Things that I purchased in 2000 sees to be durable. Samsung cellphone, purchased in 200 had been functioning well when I lost it in 2005. Backpack that I purchased in 2001 is torn but still usable. So moral of the story is, do not throw anything that is old.
Lazy and crocked style capitalism of wall-street has become global epidemic, will surely drive the world to ditch while morons like me vent anger by blogging...and continue popping pills, just to survive these un-engineered materials.
Dumb or smart
Either you have to be dumb enought to not see problem or smart enough to fix the problem. Anything in between is going to be just a torture.
Friedrich Nietzsche - 001
On friendship
"Be at least mine enemy!"- thus speaketh the true reverence, which
doth not venture to solicit friendship.
If one would have a friend, then must one also be willing to wage
war for him: and in order to wage war, one must be capable of being an
enemy.
On women
In woman's love there is injustice and blindness to all she doth not
love. And even in woman's conscious love, there is still always
surprise and lightning and night, along with the light.
As yet woman is not capable of friendship: women are still cats
and birds. Or at the best, cows.
As yet woman is not capable of friendship. But tell me, ye men,
who of you is capable of friendship?
..............................................................
..........................................
...................................
....... Thus spake Zarathustra.
Why kill to rob a Bank?
Bank robber kills 8 to rob a bank
This news amuses me because he could have robbed the bank peacefully if had come Manhattan :-)
Copy & Paste : modern day activism
I heard a radio program on recent protests in Iran. Speakers also spoke about great movements like Indian Independence, US Civil rights and it made sense. I add SA Apartheid and Iranian revolution of 70's to that list. How these previous generations succeed in organizing using pathetic communication devices compared to current standards?
I think movements need sustainable will, not just spontaneous armchair, feels-good actions like tweeting, blogging, YouTube clips etc... Everywhere people(including me) express great outrage but hardly move. Pattern is easy to spot: so many Americans have expressed deep outrage about the clout of financial companies but not even a day of protest.
There is so much chatter about Iranian protests, it even beats dead Micheal Jackson. BBC World Service is on its tows, it even interviewed a lady in Philippines who wrote poem about that protester who got squashed by Iranian militia. It was a fortnight of celebration for wired community.
Till this year, I believed in cheer leading and hoped it would give birth to some leader. Last nail to that coffin of hope came from all talk American society, which consumes probably 80% of internet of traffic but took no action to stop Financial companies taking over their Nation. So what can I expect from Africans, Burmese but I give some credit Palestinians.
As you can see I do F**ing blog and do not take any physical action. What is the difference between my mom, who is not even aware of wall-street crooks and me, bloggers?
Mouse clicks do not slap dictators; we lack leaders and soldiers but have abundance of bloggers to archive....I mean to copy/paste :-)
Confession: This post is strictly for recreation and to induce sleep, in what is already a leisurely night.
Doctors in US
Coming from outside into US, I find doctors as another businessmen. It was a shocking realization. I saw word ‘discount’(on insurance report) and till then I was under the impression word ‘discount’ applied to other businesses. I visit ophthalmologist, the main doctor answers to my questions like an attorney, as if I am going sue if he wavers. Doctors work like clock, their behavior makes very clear(to patient) that they are spending time!!!.
I think others also share responsibility for this state. How can doctors be immune when the society’s pulses are ‘profit’ & ‘earnings’?
People file frivolous law cases. Everyone makes mistake, penalty should be to punish without destroying and also should not be for profiting. Govt should put threshold on penalty, at least to prevent law suites from making whole medical system expensive.
Govt.of China, Google and capitalist dogs
Just for the sake of recording I am posting this. I may needs this sometime when Google comes out blaring that it is the emblem of free choice.
This also to prove, current capitalist are dogs
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKrY51vO2V86xiICf35Q05J0FIEAD98TPD380
Indian spice to fight lens Fungus...
All of a sudden several of my lenses have got fungus(Pentax f2.8 100mm Macro and Sigma f2.8 180mm Macro). I had not had to fight this for few years; Last time I faced fungus was in 2001, and I spent 175$ for cleaning. At that time, Pentax said that fungus has etched in to glass and replaced the glass.
Today, I found these two articles on Fungus, and one suggested the use of Carom key ingredient of Indian spice. Carom is anti fungal.
http://www.mypentax.com/Fungus.html#kill
http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/fungus/
This article suggest to have a pack of Silica gel inside lens case and also to observe for change in color of Silica. This is an important piece of information, change in color of Silica means it is saturated with water, time to change.
Immigration
Ten more people die while trying to get in to US. Death like this is not so much troubling compared to the motivation behind such desperate act.
http//www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/us/08arizona.html?ref=global-home
Non-US media broadcasts news like this way too often. It is always people trying to get in to West or its kins. Africans take risk of crossing ocean to reach Italy on flimsy boats regularly; there are many African Jews, waiting to get in to so called promised land called Israel and get treated like second-hand people for obvious reasons and still those Jews try; Australia catches illegal immigrants(coming from Afghanistan) regularly and locks them in camps(Yes, they feel better for not getting deported); there are people from Philippines trying to enter its affluent neighbors; funniest incident was one African sportsman, when on tour to AUS over stayed his visa.
May be it is impossible for people to resist pampered life-style that they get to see on TV; may be it is not temptation but miserable state of their respective society. Who knows but it is very apparent that we are living in highly tilted world, as if a part is sinking in to sea.....
Having spent all my life in India, reading such news while sitting in NewYork makes me guilt of having exceptional advantage over others; as if every other person is a lame in this race....
"Energy conservation lifestyle" Google could do more
After living in US for 8 years, I think in US, conservation is like a occasional event like festival or party, where as in Asian countries(like my home country India) it is a lifestyle(yes, motives are different). Here are examples for conservation that encomposses whole life: in India, I have washed bowl using trickling tap water; also was conscious of number lights that are on at any time in home; always traded paper & plastic for goods. What I am trying convey is conservation should extend to water, electricity, petrol etc... not just be a symbol like hybrid car.
I believe conservation will show substantial yeilds once people start thinking about it all the time. Here are two ideas that I think might help in this regard.
1) www.google.com could have a tab called "Conservation" like 'News', and in this section, people could share realistic ideas & experiences about conservation. Person after reading these for 10 times, may start to change his/her's lifestyle to conserve energy.
2) www.google page could randomly show messages, like reminder, about actions that an individual could take to save energy.
Shoppig bags
True US society has few employment opportunities because people are lazy. I mean, don't like to do ACTUAL work, rather be middle man.
Here is an example, shopping bags made by cloth, sold in grocery stores. It is so easy to stitch them, no complex cutting like blouse, shirt or trouser but still people do not mind paying. In my family circle, in Bangalore, almost every person knows stitching, so feel not worth buying them. I rather stitch myself, I used help my mom and aunt stitch clothes, woolen sweaters.
This is just an example for available opportunities; yes these would not yield million.
Repetative books authors
When I am home I usually keep radio on all the time. So, I get to hear same book author interviewed in 2-3 different radio stations; some times radio stations are separated by continent.
What I find interesting is authors quote same example in every one of those interviews. That somewhat disappoints me because it sounds premeditated. I usually imagine writers as individuals with 100 eyes, and this repetitions paints them as less spontaneous.
Here is latest example: David Kessler, author of 'The End of Overeating', was trying explain the grip that food has on peoples' mind; he even used word addiction. And in the course of this description, he quoted exactly same example on both BBC and NPR. The repeated line is, I start to salivate in anticipation of Chinese dumplings as soon as his flight lands in San Francisco.
Selective Marxism and Capitalism inside same corporation
Based on my luke warm book knowledge, Marxism advocates normalisation of salary, and on the contrary Capitalism says more the one works the more one would earn. Bhagvath Geetha, holy literature in Hindu religion, says something like "work without worrying about outcome", which I think comes close to Marxism theory.
Now, talking about my own experience in US corporations: I have seen both these theories applied inside same company; yes, I mean both; some get Marxism and some Capitalism, depending how close you are to top. Yes, I meant, workers at lower cadre get Marxism treatment where as the top officials get to taste real Capitalism. When I say Marxism, I do not mean that lower folks get absolute zero; but compared to the leaps that top officials take in earnings, lower levels take home relatively nothing. How much one exploited depends on how expandable one is. I have seen colleagues who did not get any rise for few years in sequence.
To give more to one, company has to suck somewhere else. So saying capitalism needs Marxism is not a stretch at all.
Swiss bank rules are discriminatory and dogmatic
1) Swiss bank, UBS say "Under Swiss bank secrecy laws, disclosing clients’ names is a criminal offense that can carry prison terms and large fines. "
2) Taliban says that according our age old customs, it is criminal for women to claim equality with men.
I think both 1 & 2 are descriminations that should be abolished without any debate. For Tax criminals Swiss is same as Afghanistan is to terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/global/27tax.html
What is loosing-touch?
We say, "I lost touch with him"; What does that mean, on a scale of 1 to 10?. Following is my observation (not a theory :-) about loosing-touch.
Let us start with two random individuals L & M, who do not know about each other at all. And some how L & M develop a friendship, and then L brings L1, M brings M1 in to group. In the end, group consists of L, M, L1 and M1. Assume that this group does not grow any more, all it contains is four individuals. Few decades pass by and all four stay as friends.
Then one day M dies, and the remaining members of group(L1, M1 and L) may not feel that they lost 100% contact with M because they can still talk to someone about M. To make this more clear, let us focus on L. In spite of M's demise, L may not feel that she/he lost all contact with M because L can still talk to L1 & M1 about M.
Then few years later both M1 and L1 die, leaving L alone. Now L, at last feels that he/she lost all contact with M, L1 and M1 because L can not talk to anyone about three missing friends M, L1 and M1. Note that L may still have 1000 freinds but can not talk about M or L1 or M1 with them.
So, I somewhat or loosely summarize this as follows: an individual(X) looses 100%contact with another individual(Y), only when X can no longer discuss about Y with anyone.
A question remains?
In the context of above example, assume M has left an offspring, and does that make L feel that he/she still has contact with M? May be...
Applying this to our real life....
One may get away by not noticing this at all, as long as the individual resides among the people with who you grew up( like classmates, same town, same community etc....). Immigrants are good candidate to test this hypothesis :-)
Running bare footed on sand
At around 1998, we were trecking in remote part of India. On that day, we started trecking early in morning, in bare feet(to avoid shoes from getting wet in stream). Sun had whole sky for himself, and we started to head back at around 2.00pm. On the way back, we had to cross appromximately 2kms of land, almost flat, with no grass, no shade and ground was dusty and baking. We were bare footed and there was no respite from hot ground, so we almost ran the whole distance continously, to reach the place where we had deposited our footwear. It seemed, as we ran faster, every step became closer to heat.
Marriage is like this run; bare feet, on shade, hot sandy ground. I am not saying life is desert, but I am focussing on the consistent speed of runner and also the frequency at which his/her's feet has to hit ground. On this marathon, runners should not forget to keep their foot off of hot sand, so as to not get burnt. So it is all about consistency, should be more consistent than breathing.
Moral of this story is, one should drink but not much; should sleep not too late, not too long; should not blog for too long :-)
'self-examination'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103372877
Carol Leifer uses 'self-examination' to indicate her visits to Psychologist
For Kellermann's peers to learn
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8012527.stm
I have read several opinions on Kellermann's death. I would not say it is a sad event. Guy was not happy, so took this step, and his death is not going to load burden on society because he was financially sound. This event is devastating to his family but could still live comfortably.
His peers have only one thing to learn that is death is going to be same for everyone; all we are doing is here is spend some time and let us be fair
Reincarnation: an infinite torture
This is an another a way to view reincarnation that I heard in Deine Lakaien's song Reincarnation. I am far from believing dogmas like reincrnation but if it all exists it is bloody recursive loop. May be this song will wakeup the believers :-)
Reincarnation.......the torture will not end
Reincarnation.......our bloody fate
Deine Lakaien - Reincarnation
There is no peace in heaven
There is no peace on earth
There is no love in heaven
There is no love on earth
There is no faith in heaven
There is no faith on earth
There is no hope in heaven
There is no hope on earth
So you go round and round
another live another wound
from death to birth, from birth to death
No time to waste, no time to rest
So you go round and round
another live another wound
and when you finally touch the light
they send you back into the night
There are no friends in heaven,
there are no friends on earth
There are no saints in heaven,
there are no saints on earth
There are no ghosts in heaven,
there are no ghosts on earth
There are no gods in heaven,
there are no gods on earth
Reincarnation, the torture will not end
Reincarnation, our bloody fate...
Reincarnation, the torture will not end
Reincarnation, our bloody fate...
Did he say Banks have capital?
“Currently, the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators,” Geithner said
http://www.bloomberg.com/
Read this...http://turnerradionetwork.blogspot.com/2009/04/
...Bank of America`s total credit exposure to derivatives was 179 percent of its risk-based capital; Citibank`s was 278 percent; JPMorgan Chase`s, 382 percent; and HSBC America`s, 550 percent. It gets even worse: Goldman Sachs began reporting as a commercial bank, revealing an alarming total credit exposure of 1,056 percent, or more than ten times its capital!...
attributes of happyness
I think people use wrong attributes to measure happyness: No, I am not going to say money, it is number human relations. Many equate not having money and time sucking, complex web of relations as being deprived of happyness. I do not understand that philosophy;
Some working people who got pets, to make themselves happy, may have ended up making pet's life miserble because animal is forced to spend time alone, in 20' x 20' apartment.
It is like strenous climb to just to fall :-)
Different blues
You want different BLUE hues. To start, out of tube you can get Pthalo Blue(PB), Cereleum Blue(CRB), Cobolt Blue(CB), Utramarine Blue(UB). Identify these colors on color wheel(it is as below):
---SET-1
[violet]
UB
CB
PB
CRB
[green-blue]
2)
Now above Blues have compliment in ORANGE and YELLOW-Orange, and those compliments colors are Burnt Sienna (BS), Burnt Umber(BU), Raw Sienna(RS), Burnt Sienna(BS) and Yellow Ochre(YO).
Identify these colors on color wheel(it is as below):
---SET-2
[orange]
BS
BU
RS-YO
RU
[yellow]
3)
Now mix both SET-1 and SET-2 to get different compliments. These compliments are going to be dark, say these mixes as SET-C.
4)
Now you can mix both SET-1 and SET-C to get various dull blues. I say dull because colors in SET-C is going to kill the chroma of SET-1
However you try, it is impossible to comeup with definite formula or procedure to achieve this. You have to experiment with the colors that you have; basically it is very very confusing. You better write down the results.
Does your job also suck?
Being a s/w engineer, I used to think the day of me saying that my job sucks would never come, no it is here. I do not see it changing anytime.
I feel sick looking at try/catch in C#. First of all having try/catch everywhere is a sign of lack of faith in own code or deterioring quality, and try/catch is a final weapon and using it everywhere seems like an act of desperation or overkill.
Sometime I think, developers use try/catch at the drop of the hat, to blot their code so that they can tap their own back, as if they did something big(BTW. Microsoft has given a class for every sh*t, so developers hardly have to do anything).
Financial HIV & AIG condoms
Current financial crisis is vast, crosses continents like HIV. Like any typical HIV victim, during lusty swaps, these bankers forgot to wear condoms, and some had but third-rate ones made by AIG.
Bastard bankers
Citigroup says AIG tax would hurt firm, sector
CEO of boA, JPC and Citi are trying to block the taxing tax.
I do not understand why Govt. should give these bastards give any more...
F*ckers should be scrawl, weep, beg and die...
Fucking bastards
Obama addresses Iranian people
Obama addresses Iranian people
What a change compared to past administration....
TARP documents should be made public
sneaking-in bonus clause in to AIG contract
All the documents, related to any TARP activity should be published on-line so that public can go through it. Public could be a optional verifier and make sure that no one sneaks-in unjustified clauses(like above clause that aggreed to give bonus for AIG executives.). Tax-payers are funding TARP so have right to every related document.
BTW. Obama had promised to make every legislation available for public scrunity and has not done so till now.
Stoa - Taumel
This song succeeds by far, in creating dark mystery. Music is least stress full on ears, and almost at halfway, vocal starts. I could not decipher the words, partly because the voice is very faint, and she sings as if she does not want to disturb the background music. This is a haunting piece..To fully enjoy this song, read the lyrics aong with singer.
Meaningwise, this song is mobdidly encouraging; one example is
But Im to weak to try.
That lie was my undoing.
I say morbidly because she tries to make us act(without hesitation) by presenting us how we would regret otherwise, and the picture of regret is not violent but beautiful, like this
Tired eyes -
I scan the old horizon.
My path cant end this way.
But dyes rapidly fading.
In last lines, I think she equates hesitation to childish ness.
Thus far I was the child.
The sleepers now awakened.
You can watch this grainy video, I think it is a true Gothic song. And Qntal too has similar songs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU7rqnrghdw
Stoa - Taumel
Time runs out.
I left behind
My breath came up to here.
Till now I hesitated.
Tired eyes -
I scan the old horizon.
My path cant end this way.
But dyes rapidly fading.
Find to calm,
My heart without.
But Im to weak to try.
That lie was my undoing.
Breakable
Arising hope for silence, -
Thus far I was the child.
The sleepers now awakened.
Human suffering value..
If there were a way to assign value to each and every human suffering(irrespective of time), probably earth would sink....
Obama's address to Congress
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7908476.stm
I have heard every one of Obam's speeches, I think this is the best speech from him. Critics alwayed used ask for more details and today he gave good amount of them, especially how he is going to reduce deficit(I like the one about farm subsidy and military expenses). He spoke about individual responsibility and the one struck me was him urging parents to turn-off TV and make kids focus om home work.(I do not think it is all school that is responsible).
Major departure from previous years, focus was not on how US is going to take revenge and slice enemy throats.
Regarding economy, I am not sure Govt. should prop-up banks, not on ideological grounds but banks are in coma state, let them die, we can rebuild new ones.
I like how Obama highlighted the banker for sharing his money with his employees. Along with this, with his characteristic sincere and confident tone, his speech was very inspirational. No doubt he is such a grand speaker.
Jindal from GOP, sounded like younger version of McCain. He spoke about same things, I am so bored, I do not even want to write them.
Google s/w is no angel compared to that of MS
If any one thinks that s/w written by Google is any better than that of MS, no it is not. MS writes sh*t load of s/w to take care of. Here is one of Google's bugs that frustrated me enough to blog
1) In the blog editor provided in blogger.com, add a custom HTML code like & nbsp ; to the body of post and click 'Save'
2) View the final post, you would see the effect of & nbsp ;
3) Now, click 'Edit', to modify the same post and you will that version shown in editor will not have retained & nbsp ; So every time you modify the post, you have to add these special HTML characters. What an annoying piece of cr*p.
Today, I was editing following posting, about the poem by Oscar Wilde, and I inserted & nbsp ; in to post, to retain the indentation that is there in book. I saved and everything was fine but on re-edit, I lost all my special HTML chars. http://asnowfall.blogspot.com/2009/02/grave-of-keats.html
Good that Google is not in to writing enterprise s/w....
The grave of Keats - OscarWilde
Rid of the world's injustice, and his pain,
He rests at last beneath God's veil of blue
Taken from life when life and love were new
The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.
No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew, <--
But gentle violets weeping with the dew <--
Weave on his bones an ever-blossoming chain. <--
O proudest heart that broke for misery!
O sweetest lips since those of Mitylene!
O poet-painter of our English Land!
Thy name was writ in water--it shall stand:
And tears like mine will keep thy memory green,
As Isabella did her Basil tree
ROME
Comments: The part caught my attention is marked with <--
The phrase ever-blossoming chain is simply superb.
Diorama's Times galore
I recently went back to Diorama's Times galore; this time sounded nice. When I first heard this song few of the lines made me cringe and dislike those lines were:
....
Time - doesn’t every angel fall?
I’m hunting shadows at night
...
But now went back to hear again and found some intriguing lines like these; they give merit to lyrics and background score was always to my liking. I wonder how these writers come with up such lines.
alive
within another brain
within another maze
a wonderful donation
I'll throw it away
stone by stone
sit down and cure
forgotten fever
....
who cares?
for you and I will once
flutter in these winds of scorn
while my little lake is so calm
....
....
"sin skinner" and "soul stripper"
Just last year, I found Diary Of Dreams, what a complete band. Diorama once worked for them and gives one more reason to love them. In fact, in the beginning, I could not differentiate DOD songs from the ones by Diorama.
DoD has two interesting song titles "sin skinner" and "soul stripper". For me, "sin skinner" brings the image of confession in church and "soul stripper" brings the image of confession of God because in Hinduism Yama is the God or angel of death.
I think lyrics of DoD are not always great but still they sound entertaining. Here is the line that I caught my attension and you should the watch this song being performed for video "Nine in Number"
My friends of slaughter
Noble brothers
Sisters of violence
And fathers of destruction
I enslave you all
You shall not deny me
You must obey
Marching into death with me
Die with me!
This is my gift for you
This is my therapy of hate
This is the poison room
This is your home my friend
Sensing ability of specialized individual and ordinary person
To recognize that that air is fresh one need not have to be scientist. That said scientist certainly has edge over layman because of his ability to split the air particles. Similarly to feel and understand the poem one need not have to be Professor in language (say English). Professor may be able to appreciate metering and use of syllables.
Greatness of Wikipedia
Wikipedia site, for layman like me, gives an impression that I am reading biographical history of individual. Generation grown being with Internet is less prone to doubt its merits. So whatever is your opinion, for a second, assume that Wikipedia site is akin to history book. Greatness of Wikipedia is it gives space for World leaders like Gandhi without denying space for porn stars.
What historian may say on Bush on Hamas
In few more hours GW Bush is going give the control of not only US but virtually the stop dictating things to whole World.
Bush and Hamas share same time in history so take a hypothical situation of a histrorian comparing Hamas's role with that of Bush's; The historian, looking back at Bush's actions, may say that he fought for spreading freedom and democracy across the world, and I do not agree with that judgment and add that, on the same standard Hamas members would become freedom fighters.
Munsel and Classical color wheels
This is the notes that I made while discussing Munsel Color wheel and Classical Color wheel with my cousin.
Shrinking Kitchen
Yesterday I was at my friend's house, it looked like recent construction. Kitchen did not appear to have its own space, instead looked to be part of living-room; like finger nail and finger. At one time homes used to have four walled kitchen,distinct like bedroom. Gradually kitchen's presence is shrinking.
Shrinking kitchen reflects change in society. People hardly cook at home. Some heat frozen vegetable or prepared food, and many do not even do that.
Few months back, I came across an interesting book, called "In defence of food", this is primarily about industrialization of food and also about talks about disappearing tradition of cooking. One food company marketer predicts demise cooking tradition in coming decades.
"Small town values" muslim passengers removed from DC flight
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfsO6SsGJUrRCXhujgS5ycbUIsfQD95F2IT00
These fellow passengers are disgusting, they do not deserve to live any civilized society, let alone USA. That ****ing airTran should get sued till to death.
AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson says the airline strictly followed federal rules.
Idiots at Govt. advice people to "report any suspicious activity"; these phobic people think that every muslim/forigner about to lynch them. Stupid Govt. should clearly state what it means "report any suspicious activity". My question is how these fucking passengers say that is suspcious when they can not even understand the language.
May be this is what they mean when they say "Small town values"
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