Random Thoughts

How to fix fixing

2010-09-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

I watched sadly and helplessly, like millions around the globe, yet another cricket corruption scandal brining the game to shame. Nobody seemed too surprised that Pakistani cricketers were involved in this - Sunil Gavaskar even indirectly hinting that one's upbringing plays a major role in their honest commitment to the game. This is not the first time that Pakistan players have been caught on the wrong foot and one indeed wonders if they are more corrupt or just more stupid than others who might be doing it, or just unlucky for being born in an unfortunate and failing country which naturally makes them more gullible to bookies who provide easy quick money.

Money, insecurity and instability are at least partly to blame - the rest being immoral greed. Otherwise i find it hard to believe that an 18-year old bowler would want to risk his career for a sum that is way less than what he would earn in match fees assuming he has at least 5 years of international career. As fans, we get frustrated that players succumb to betting temptations, but i don't think many fans bother to look at it from a player's viewpoint, especially if the player is from a poor country like Pak or Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.

Everyone talks about legalizing betting. ICC might do it this time, it will only add to one more revenue stream for them. But this will not end corruption until players are also included as stakeholders in the betting system. Governments/ICC/BCCI must remember that legalization of betting is not only for revenue and tax generation but it is for making the game more honest. ICC should get it right right from start if they want to legalize it, and insulating players from bets is utmost essential if betting and honest game are to co-exist.

How to insulate a player from a bet? How to make sure that a gambler does not bribe a player? Just because betting is legalized, private approaches to a player and private dealings will not cease - players will keep taking the risk of being caught red-handed for making a quick buck. But what if ICC's betting system gives a cut to players for bets being placed upon them? perhaps if players get 'betting fee' irrespective of their game, they will not feel the need to risk an illegal way to make money.

To elaborate - say X is ICC's betting agency, and gamblers want to place a bet on player P scoring a century. They pay their bid to X making up a betted sum of M rupees. X keeps 10% of M as admin fee for betting - P gets 40% of M as betting fee because he is popular enough to gamble on and also earns ICC an admin fee - rest 50% of M goes to winners of the bet.

There can be many variations of this and i don't even know half of nitty gritty involved in doing this all properly legally without tax evasion etc. But i am pretty convinced that any betting scheme should provide players a fee to stay neutral and play their natural game. I guess in the past stock markets and brokers must have been similar to what cricket and bookies are today. Systems and regulations would have had to be introduced in early days of stock trading to remove any wrongdoings by influential brokers or insider trading etc, similar measures have to be introduced in cricket.

There is no point in empty moralizing, we just need to accept the frailty of human nature and accept players as normal humans susceptible to all-too-human temptations. We have to incentivise the players if they are to play a fair game in spite of betting.

A golden oldie - for all musafirs...

2009-09-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

साहिर लुधियानवी और सचिन देव बर्मन की रचना :

वहां कौन है तेरा, मुसाफिर, जाएगा कहाँ
दम ले ले घड़ी भर, ये छाया, पायेगा कहाँ

बीत गए दिन, प्यार के पलछिन,सपना बनी वो रातें
भूल गए वो, तू भी भुला दे, प्यार की वो मुलाकातें
सब दूर अँधेरा मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ...
दम ले ले घड़ी भर, ये छाया, पायेगा कहाँ...

कोई भी तेरी, राह न देखे, नैन बिछाए न कोई
दर्द से तेरे कोई न तड़पा, आँख किसीकी न रोई
नहीं किसको तू मेरा,मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ...
दम ले ले घड़ी भर ये छाया पायेगा कहाँ...

कहते हैं ग्यानी, दुनिया है पानी, पानी पे लिखी लिखाई
है सब की देखी, है सबकी जानी, हाथ किसी के न आयी
कुछ तेरा न मेरा, मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ...
दम ले ले घड़ी भर, ये छाया, पायेगा कहाँ...

राम निरंजन भजन

2009-08-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

कबीराचे हे विलक्षण भजन आणि कुमार गंधर्वांच्या गाण्यातली उत्कट गोडी (ऐका) - जणू गंगा-यमुनेचे प्रयागच! स्वरांच्या ओघात यथेच्छ स्नान झाल्यावर अर्थसुद्धा अवश्य वाचा.

राम निरंजन न्यारा रे
अंजन सकल पसारा रे...

अंजन उत्पति ॐकार
अंजन मांगे सब विस्तार
अंजन ब्रहमा शंकर इन्द्र
अंजन गोपिसंगी गोविन्द रे

अंजन वाणी अंजन वेद
अंजन किया ना ना भेद
अंजन विद्या पाठ पुराण
अंजन हो कत कत ही ज्ञान रे

अंजन पाती अंजन देव
अंजन की करे अंजन सेव
अंजन नाचे अंजन गावे
अंजन भेष अनंत दिखावे रे

अंजन कहाँ कहाँ लग केता
दान पुनी तप तीरथ जेता
कहे कबीर कोई बिरला जागे
अंजन छाडी अनंत ही दागे रे

राम निरंजन न्यारा रे
अंजन सकल पसारा रे...

Meera Bhajan

2008-08-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

लता मंगेशकर / हृदयनाथ मंगेशकर जोडीचे हे अप्रतिम मीरा भजन.
नक्कल हा प्रशंसेचा सोपा साधा मार्ग आहे असं म्हणतात. लिहून काढ़णें ही ब्लॉग-जगतातील माझ्या सध्याच्या आवाक्यातली प्रशंसा! शब्द चुकले असतील तर जाणकारान्नी क्षमा करावी आणि योग्य शब्द सुचावावेत.

करम की गति न्यारी संतों करम की गति न्यारी |
बड़े बड़े नयन दिए मिरगन को बन बन फिरत उघारी |
उज्ज्वल वरन दिनी पगलन को कोयल कर दिनी कारी |
औरन दीपन जल निर्मल किनी समुन्दर कर दिनी खारी |
मूरख को तुम राज दियत हो पंडित फिरत भिखारी |
मीरा के प्रभु गिरिधर नागुन राजाजी तो कान बिचारी |

RBI finanace education initiative

2008-05-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

RBI explains fundamentals of monetary policy and banking basics in a comic strip format.

Viterbi and other gurus

2008-05-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Prof Viterbi has been one of the most remarkable academic industrialist in American telecom sector. His famous algorithm to find the most likely sequence of emitter states given an observed sequence of events has found immense application in not only telecom, but also distant fields such as bioinformatics. Coming to US in 1939 as an Italian refugee, he went to MIT to study electrical engineering. After his MIT masters, he went on to U Southern Calif for PhD in digital communications. During his UCLA lecturership, he formulated the Viterbi algorithm which was then so difficult to execute on a computer that its significance was not recognized. But as Moore's law caught on and world became more interconnected than ever, Viterbi's contribution has been recognized. Now he has an Engineering School named after him, a few companies, an emeritus professorship and also a venture capital firm.

Sometimes luck smiles on you and you get to meet most exceptional people effortlessly. Yesterday was one such day when I could spend some time with Viterbi. It so happened that Viterbi was invited to deliver a lecture at the IISc Centenary celebrations, after which he met up with the IISc director Prof Balram and got pointers regarding places to visit in Bangalore. One place was Strand, amongst others like Tejas Networks, NCBS and Infosys (unbelievable to be mentioned in the same breath as the three). I was essentially assigned the job of being with him during his Strand and NCBS visits. So I got to attend his meeting with the Strand top brass. Viterbi was clearly impressed with the variety of ideas we are investing and selling. Perhaps he would someday put some of his VC money in Strand. Then Viterbi and myself went to NCBS to meet the director and a professor there. Thanks to Bangalore traffic, both to and fro journeys took 10x more than they should and I could talk with the telecom guru one-on-one for almost 90 minutes. If only I had known about this for a day in advance, I would have prepared properly to interview him and posted that, yet the extempore conversation was also quite valuable for me. Prof Viterbi came across as a deeply content and happy person, with keen eye for all that is changing our world. Telecom of course, and healthcare, manufacturing, space travel, globalization's impact on the poorest, traffic decongestion, urbanization, construction workers and so on and so forth. He was extremely polite in entertaining my blabber as I am a nobody for him really. Big guys never lose sight of the fact that dignity begets respect in return. When we reached NCBS, we first went up to meet the director Prof Vijayraghavan who gave a nutshell view of his institute. Then he sent us to the eminent neurobiologist Prof Upinder Bhalla. Prof Bhalla has a composite lab with both computational modelling and experimental rigs. His work has been making news in big science journals of the world. Viterbi was most impressed by the rigorous analytical and engineering approach he has taken to study mice brains. This was my first interaction too with Prof Bhalla and it was a pleasure.

In summary, an unexpectedly great day spent with gurus of various worlds.

Ban single-commuter 4 wheelers from Bangalore roads

2008-05-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has lived in Bangalore for 6 months would know the plight of the city's commuters. Public bus transport in India's silicon metropolis is way too crowded and slow for its populace. Metro rail will surely take 2 more years to arrive and it certainly would not cater to traffic on all the routes. Autorickshaw-wallas are not catering to the public, most are arrogant extortionists not quite eager to work hard to earn their money.

Thus, bus transport remains the only option for the commuting public in the immediate future. How to make their life better during the transport? How to make sure they reach their destination on time, with least amount of standing time in a smelly sweaty crowded unhygienic bus?

Many fancy solutions can be suggested: redesigning the buses, increasing their numbers, more flyovers and underpasses, expediting the metro etc etc. And the contractor/politician nexus would like all of them! But the single most effective solution is banning single-commuter 4-wheelers (SC4Ws) on road. Or at least taxing them prohibitively.

A small car can seat 3 passengers and a driver. An equivalent area in form of a bus can seat 6 passengers. A small car is such inefficient use of road space that I dont have to rant against larger SC4Ws. It is criminal insensitivity of SC4W users to block roads and give miserable time to bus commuters. And such insensitivity can be tolerated only in India. We don't protest because nobody cares and nobody cares because we don't protest!

Many would argue that it is the government's job to make wider better roads, more comfortable buses with more frequency etc. That is just shirking away from one's duties and conscience. Is empathy not part of good citizenship? Is accommodating other's needs not the basis of peaceful coexistence? How long the 1% rich would misuse 99% of state resources? Is it not simply inviting violent trouble?

And make a minute of yours green by thinking of petrol wastage due to SC4W usage on city roads. Clogged city roads can diminish the mileage of vehicles by as much as 50%! So its not good for the city's health too for so many SC4Ws inefficiently burning gallons of petrol everyday.

If it is too much legal trouble to ban the SC4Ws, there should at least be a heavy tax on such users. I am talking to the tune of lakhs per year! Let them understand the true cost of the luxury that comes by discomforting so many. That money can be then used to fuel the flyovers, underpasses, metros, better & more buses and the works.

How to keep publishing.

2008-05-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The phrase "publish or perish" is frequently used in academic circles. Life in the ivory tower is judged primarily by the work one puts in the form of articles and gets published in peer-reviewed journals. But journal articles are no less important in high-tech industry as they are the most respectable advertisements of your products or services.

High-tech industry is full of former academics, yet not all such companies produce publications on a regular basis. Granted that publishing is not the primary focus of the guys running the show, but it simply does not seem to be there even at the bottom of their TODO list. It seems that companies are not leveraging the academic medium at all to forward their cause.

This article will highlight the importance of publishing from the individual and organizational viewpoints, and suggest a strategy to ensure a consistent flow of publications. I will also argue that publishing should positively impact patenting.

Why publish?

Publishing is generally to make a point. And making a point effectively is quite an art. First, you need to have a point that is valuable to your audience. Then you need to make your readership realize the value of your ideas in the larger scheme of things, and of course, convey the idea precisely. So in order to publish, you need to do well thought-out focussed work.
Publishing is the best advertisement for a knowledge worker. No need to emphasize the fact that undocumented work is generally forgotten, even by the worker herself. The only way to ensure longetivity of your work (and reputation!) is to put it in a journal or an archive, and make it accessible and searchable.
Peer-review is free! Journals will take care of obtaining reviwers' time to do a critical analysis of your work, so you get free opinions and chances to revise your work. This reduces client criticism and client loss.
Articles add credibility to your offerings. Talks and client pitching is also important, but their impact will multiply with articles. Articles get you respectability, take you to the right audience, lead to talk invitations and get you connected into the right networks.

Strategies to get published

Hire a technical writer. The role of technical writers is often underrated in organizations full of intellectuals and innovators. Little appreciated by them is the fact that inventions need to be communicated, offerings need to be clearly advertised. A technical writer takes the writing burden off creative minds and lets them do what they are good at, and more importantly, stops them from finishing in hurry what they are not good at.
Appoint a Publications Manager. Someone needs to be officially responsible to initiative in identifying publishable stories and instruct the technical writer on getting in touch with the relevant people to develop them fully. This guy would ideally have worked in editorial capacity in a publishing house. She would have contacts in the publishing world as well broad knowledge of the relevant field and market.
Make working papers part of the process. This is really difficult. Employees are already burdened with meeting targets, busy innovating, delivering services. But it needs to be done. Perhaps ticket-based job assignment, a wiki-page per assigned task and uploading of all relevant documents on the wiki would be priceless for preventing loss of information relevant for publishing. The Pub-Man and TechW can then mine what they need without bothering the employee too much.
Collaborate with academics. This is an easy way to get published if you have projects that permit academic collaborations. Academics will take care of publishing while you take care of all the interesting stuff. Publishing is their job!
Network with editors. Publications Manager should ideally do this, so also the scientific management team that goes to conferences. Editors need articles to fill up their issues and they may not always have enough matter. Well-networked organizations will get invited to contribute a review, an opinion article or an article. A working paper can easily get published when its invited.

Publishing and Patenting

Patenting is crucial for not only getting first rights to exploit your invention, but it also gets you noticed when competitors and potential clients mine patent databases. Publications from a company are generally seen by the world only after the relevant patent has been filed. Patents Manager and Publications Manager have a lot of synergy to exploit. Filing a patent requires a belief that you have discovered something valuable that has not been done before. Patent document and publication manuscript are essentially similar in spirit - you are claiming a novel and useful procedure. A workplace process oriented towards doing publishable work will certainly lead to more patentable work.

Conclusions

Publications finally depend upon the organizations quality of work and a spirit of innovation. They indicate organizational willingness to go the extra mile for that additional ounce of value. To conclude, an ambitious high-tech company must have publishing ingrained in the organizational culture, and must find formal mechanisms to keep publishing.

Books I need to write

2008-04-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

Many people have some tasks they feel compelled to carry out. Mine is writing articles, books, whatever and communicating with a broad audience to share my experiences and interests.

This is a growing post containing a list of books I should and can write.

A simple guide to liver transplant
This will be aimed at non-medics who are suddenly confronted with the prospects of a liver transplant for their near and dear one. I will try to write, in plain English, a small history of liver transplants, a brief overview of exact funtions of liver in the context of other organs, the need for transplant, post-transplant care and everything else that one needs to know to make an informed decision to undergo this complex, expensive and time-consuming procedure.

Tales preceding an arranged marriage
This book will collect experiences from individuals who have significant experience of the selection process preceding an arranged marriage. These people will not be matchmakers, but prospective brides/grooms themselves. This is really inspired by the fascination I have for the institution of marriage and also seeing the ordeals some acquaintances have gone through, and also an attempt to understand the selection before I start going through it!

Random Thoughts

2006-06-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts

Long time, have to start bogging again.

Scientist and spiderman

2005-02-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

Spiders are wonderful creatures - they find a vantage point to lay a trap, then they work hard building and rebuilding their nets with intricate patterns, and then wait cautiously until an opportunity comes along. Researchers have spent quite some time looking at spider evolution, in nature as well as simulated in-silico. A very interesting aspect in spider reproduction is the fact the the more dispensable sex (read male) captures the all-important, center-of-the-universe sex (read female) with his net, does his act and then runs away for his life, and doesnt often escape the by-now-pregnant female. So is spider life from gender persepctive. But as Dawkins would say, genes of such suicidal male spiders survive in the gene-pool and those of the more cautious, celibate male spiders, do not.

But anyway, I am getting a bit carried away with spiders and evolution and all that, let me get back on track. So, because spiders are so fascinating, it was just a question of when, not whether, a spiderman would occupy his corner in urban folk-culture. Spiderman was a huge hit in his comic-strips and later his celluloid version when Hollywood spotted and cashed in on the spiderman brand. I myself saw both spiderman movies, and cant wait for the next one. What I like most about spiderman is that he is not too supernatural, he has all those reflexes and he can, of course, spins webs and he can stick to the walls, but he cannot fly, he cannot uproot buildings and such intimidating stuff. He just uses his environment for commuting and setting traps. He is very versatile, I like the way he throws ropes on all famous building in New York and sort-of flies his way. This act of his tempts me to liken a successful researcher to him.

Modern science is saturated in the sense that there are too many workers out there looking for diamonds in the same coal mine. Because diamonds are so rare, there is immense competition for spotting one; but the worker has to sustain himself while he is at it, he has to tell hopeful tales of glitter while innovating his technique - he has to borrow ideas, try tricks and meta-tricks (combinations of tricks). He has to make the most of his environment, he has to latch onto all structures in his surroundings to keep going, to stay afloat and to stay in pursuit. Spidery way of commuting is quite akin to multidisciplinary research, where one borrows interesting ideas from any field which offeres them, and creates the much-needed intellectual churning right across the scientific spectrum.

Only a prepared mind can spot and make the most of an opportunity - if one doesnt know about turbines generate electricity, one would not think of building a hydroelectric station. Remember spiderman has a bit of spidery precognition ? Very similarly, a good scientist 'senses' the utility of an idea without actually trying it, he guesses the area where his work will have maximum impact. Most famous scientists did not achieve fame because they did a huge amount of work, no, they spotted the opportunity, invented its utility, and shaped the future. Thats why Nobel prizes are not given for maximum quantity of high quality work, they are instead won by visionaries who grabbed a chance to innovate and extended knowledge horizons in unforseen directions. Vision matters, ask spiderman.

Lastly, about donning the spiderman attire. I guess spiderman wont be even half as impressive without that outfit (I mean in normal clothes, I have no idea what he looks like otherwise). Human fallibility has to be masked to overcome formidable challenges. Spiderman's enemies gain a lot by looking at his confused, frightened face, as opposed to his mask. A researcher is really masking his human intuition and related anxieties, else it is difficult to enter the unchartered waters.

It would be unfair to confine this spiderman analogy to scientists only, because almost all humans are always searching for something and running their own enterprise, trying to boost one's own brand. Perhaps there are many more analogies I missed to spot. But hey, I have to be off spinning a new web !

Killing Pablo

2005-01-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

'Killing Pablo' is story of Pablo Escobar's rise and more unbelievable rise and ultimate fall. Pablo was the most notorious drug lord world ever saw.

Mark Bowden, the author, is cool ! He has kept things detailed enough without boring the reader. He is the author of 'Black Hawk Down' as well. I guess this guy must be loving his investigative journalism.

More on 'Killing Pablo' soon ........

Jug Suraiya

2005-01-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

I guess lots of avid readers know Jug Suraiya, the Times of India columnist. Although most of the times in his jugular vein, he sometimes gets serious as well, and his serious columns are also every bit as (or probably more) readable as the usual ones. See his latest one about welcoming the new year in the aftermath of tsunami disaster :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/977562.cms

The Biggest Miracle

2004-12-31T03:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time of miracles - grandmas and grampas recognizing their tiny grandchildren in the sea of humanity at the airports, bed-ridden people recovering just in time to be with their families, discovery of voice (and joy) in the togetherness of carol singing, and so on. This is also the time of birth of son of God, Jesus, who himself by a miracle, was born to Mary in not-so-heavenly surroundings, later he led a life full of miracles, befitting a prophet. That he was born as an ordinary human being, to ordinary parents, and died in helpless condition, just like ordinary human beings, is so unbelievably true.

Talking of miracles, I remember the 100 questions Yama (the God of Death and Justice) put forth to Yudhisthira, his own son. This story is from Mahabharata, one of the two Hindu epics, during the 12 year long period of forest dwelling that Pandavas had to endure. While looking for water in the forest, four younger brothers of Yudhisthira (one who is unmoved in war) are killed by Yama, disguising as a Yaksha owning the pond, because they dare to disregard him and satiate their thirst. Yudhithira is deeply aggrieved and angry looking at the corpses of his beloved younger brothers, but still manages to answer the 100 questions Yaksha asks, and also additional 4 questions that save lives of his 4 brothers. These questions and their answers are very instructive and reflect a lot on Indian philosophy and way of life, that we often briefly call Hinduism. These questions are so important that any difficult questions or decision one is faces in life, is often called yaksha-prshna (question of Yaksha), in almost all languages of India

One of the question that Yaksha poses is about miracles, he asks, Yudhisthira, tell me what is the biggest miracle on earth ? Yudhisthira replies immediately, O Yaksha, everyone born here knows that he will some day die, multitudes die everyday and are cremated by their loved ones, still everyone lives as if he is immortal, he plans his resources as if he is going to live forever.

I knew this story for long, almost all Mahabharata-read people know it. But every reading is not like any other and different shades emerge with different strengths. While earlier I was always impressed by the patience and courage of Yudhisthira, I hardly ever paid any attention the actual conversation. The profundity of the biggest miracle answer takes a while to sink in. Sometimes commonplace events are waving their banners of messages at us, but we are utterly blind to them, probably due to arrogance, indifference and all such evils. So finally I realized the meaning of the answer. A friend of mine says that understanding and realizing are poles apart, where understanding is like knowing the rules of the game, realizing is like being one with it. If Yudhisthira's answer doesnt disturb you for a while, probably you have understood it and not quite realized it.

Remember the funeral processions all over the world, the elaborate procedures of the Last Journey. I immediately associate this to the inconvenience caused to people trying to rush to their offices ! The gravity of death is hardly noticeable beyond the group of close relatives. Life flows as usual around the sinking ship, little realizing that its own vortex is waiting to engulf it somewhere downstream. After the tragic event, even close relatives get on with life in surprisingly little time. Loss of the departed one is quietly forgotten as fate and the void left behind gets occupied gradually but inevitably by someone else. But more miraculous is the fact that life never imagines its fate, it never loses heart looking at what is its destiny. It thrives and gives a damn to death, although death is a reality. Creatures of such immense reason and logic, ignoring the ultimate fact and indulging in the fun and frolic of life, seems to me the essence of the ongoing miracle.

-----------------------
If you wish to know more of Mahabharata, an immensely interesting epic and revealing India value system, I recommend R. K. Narayan's English version, later you may refer advanced texts to read more details. Pictures in it are drawn by R. K. Laxman.

Swades !!!!

2004-12-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Saw SWADES yesterday, i was deeply moved by it.

Remember the kids running around in Indian trains doing petty jobs like cleaning, singing, vending or outright begging ? Who would not be moved looking at the sorry picture thses kids make ... Shahrukh getting angry and frustrated in the train was the high point of the movie for me. Believe it or not, I did want to cry out, a few tears rolling helpessly down my cheeks. We cannot be called a nation, leave alone a great one, if we dont wipe illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and child labour from our motherland. Now having lived outside the country for some time, I guess my self-defense mechanism of apathy has grown weaker and such things do bother my conscience now. In India, no one gives a damn about beggars, children wiping cars at signals and shameful things like that. Just the way we are immune to many microorganisms the westerners would succumb to in a week, we are totally immune and insensitive to thses social evils, so much that we just take it as an 'integral' part of India. As much as we claim Kashir to be one with India, these deep rooted evils are also one with India and I am afraid, Indian-ness. We need actions from individuals, not policies from invisible buerocrats.

Okkkkay, another outstanding feature of the movie is the underplayed romantic angle. One rarely sees decent looks and decent clothes going hand in hand. Why do our cinema makers think that audience wants to see explicit obscenity ? Indian girls and Indian clothes are an irresistible combination, I havnt found anyone denying this yet, and I would love to see more characters like the one Gayatri Joshi played. Thats the lovable and realistic face of the fairer sex.

Go on, see Swades and make it a superhit ! Let doing something for the country become the latest fashion and passion among NRIs and Indian city dwellers.

Tsunamis

2004-12-27T05:58:00.000-08:00

I was really deeply shocked by the earthquake induced tsunamis striking Asia, especially south India. People dying in thousands, nature keeps reminding us of the destructive form it can take. We are by no means its masters yet, we merely cajole her into doing something for our pleasure sometimes. A really sobering lesson for all those who believe in the power of technology and the divine role of mankind in the grander scheme of things. We, as a human race, better behave ourselves and avoid pushing nature to her limits. Nature will ruthlessly retaliate when it cant take any more of abuse.

Wonder how one cannot even get a warning of such things from so many satellites and seismo-sensors.

Envoronmentalists, geologists and the like - get into top gear ASAP !!

2004-07-06T01:07:00.000-07:00

Well, ever thought of how things fall in place in nature ?
or is it just that we think whatever happens has fallen in place perfectly ?

Whatever. i dont really believe science is all that scientific and shdnt be taken too seriously. its a game and shd be played hard, but it certainly is not a religion and nothing in science is sacred or unquestionable.

Often I think that majority of scientists world over are 'soft', they are not critical enough of their own work or that of others. If professional scientists are not curious enough and dont dare to question, science will ultimately be the loser.

First Blog !

2004-07-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hey World !

stand up and take note of this profound radical lateral random thinker.
and be more disciplined in your applause.
brilliant.

more later.