This actress prefers six lovers!
Gang-raped for 37 days, she wants to live
Tom cruises on to new lady love
It doesnt matter if the people we are talking about are hi-flying Hollywood personalities or down-to-earth girl next door from Pakistan...These are some of the headlines in my daily read, http://www.samachar.com This persisted the thought of this blog entry in my mind long enuf for me to write something about it. Just like the road usage, morality has probably taken a 180 degree turn after America was formed. But sadly, this western culture has drifted into the Indian society. As with well over a 1000 years of being ruled by non-Indians, I am sure the Indian culture will remain intact, even after inculcating some alien cultural aspects. But on the whole, it has deteriorated in the last few years with the formation of the new IT upper middle class zooming in their Hyundais and getting a plot atop a multi storied complex. The sex scene rampaging Bollywood hasnt helped money-wagging young IT pros. Its sad that people often talk about morality of others while their values and virtues are themselves questionable. Everyone decides their own right and wrongs, but still they are a part of the society and must abide by the explicit and implicit societal roles and rules. Morality, integrity, honesty, loyalty everything has taken a beating. This is the general trend seen in today's society. And its not only the guys to blame as girls probably do as much as guys nowadays. Its a shame that lot of people do things because its cool...and dont think about the consequences of their act or the possible repurcussions. A lot of people holding reputed posts have been recently questioned on the basis of their personal and professional conduct. The remorse at the end of it is just not worth it. The divorce rates in India in the past year is quite appalling. And its directly proportional to people's trust in their partners and the increase in the number of private detective agencies. I believe the root cause of everything is Temptations. Temptations will always be there, but its a personal choice of whether you want to give into it or not. Your net worth is exponentially proportional to your integrity. If your integrity is compromised once, in the next instance the trust in you will be exponentially lesser. If you think twice before, you really save much of the disgrace later on. Momentary pleasure often leads to eternal despair. I am not arguing about whether its right or wrong, but I am just reflecting on my thought that you have to be fully responsible for whatever you have done or will do. As a person, you play a lot of roles in life, with lot of responsibilities and regulations. Morality has a big part in how you achieve your goals and decides whether you "truly" succeed in life. Shortcuts and cut-shorts are usually appealing, but the result of treading along that path might be repelling. The end does not justify the means. The means validate your end. Make no bone, think on your own so that later you are not prone to groan!
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Saturday, April 30, 2005
The Mathematics of Numbers and Pseudo-Sciences
It might sound surreal, annoying or intriguing, whichever way you look at it, you might love it or curse it, but you can never run away from it. Thats the magic of numbers.
Numbers rule every bit of our lives and if only we stopped a moment and look back at your life, you might realise some truly amazing coincidences and timely contructs that evade all scientific explanation. Now that leads us to the question, What is science? Wikipedia defines it as "Science is a process for evaluating empirical knowledge (the scientific method), a global community of scholars, and the organized body of knowledge gained by this process and carried by this community (and others)." Now, look at some classic examples...I mean really classic...Numerology, Palmistry, Astrology, Vedic Mathematics....
I can hear you protest and some knowledgeable few will argue that those are psuedo sciences. But look at the definition and it fits in very well. Does the definition make it mandatory for the sciences to be organized in words? The scientific method refers to experimentation, documentation and is some process of getting that knowledge which can be repeated by anyone with the same results. Doesnt it trivialize it to Common Knowledge? Psuedo-sciences as they term it, are also valid sciences because it follows thorough analysis and has its own methodology. I wonder that if people cant understand something, does it mean its not a science? Then chemistry is not a science cos the blind guy playing the piano at the station cannot understand it! Another reason given for classifying pseudo-sciences is that it does not have good documentation. Paper was invented by Chinese in probably the 1100 Century BC or something. Does it mean no life existed before?
A very down-to-home example would be the argument that the Indian civilization exists only from the Indus valley civilization, cos thats the maximum time archeologists can decipher some trace of. Then are the Hindus mad to catalog the time in terms of Kalpas, Yugas and Infact a "scholar" has found the Rig Veda dates to 6.5k BC. Thats extending our known timeline back by 4000 BC. Dudes, wake up. Its all there but the fact that YOU have not found out doesnt mean that its not there. Another interesting phrase in this context will be "Precessional changes are the hallmark of Hindu astronomy. We cannot ignore them in ancient texts just because they give us dates too early for our conventional view of human history" A very good point made, cos the conventional view is not the correct view. Its just a view. Didnt the convention that earth was a centre of the universe hold true for close to 2000 years in the western mind? Check out http://www.vaishnava.com/timelineintro.htm for an interesting read.
Talking a bit on the Hindu catalog of years, they catalog it in terms of yugas and kalpas. 1 kalpa is 1 day for Brahma and equal to 1,000 maha yugas (4.32 billion human years). The lifespan of Brahma is 100 Brahma years, or 72,000 kalpas, or 311.04 trillion human years. See http://baharna.com/karma/yuga.htm for detailed breakdown. We are located in the fifty-first Brahma year of the life of our Brahma. Within that Brahma year, we are in the first Brahma day, called the Varaha kalpa. Within that Brahma day, we are in the seventh manvantara, and in the 28th maha yuga of that manvantara. This would place us at about the 454th maha yuga of the 1,000 maha yugas that comprise this day of Brahma. Within this maha yuga, we are in Kali Yuga. The 5105th year of Kali Yuga will correspond to the year 2,005 A.D. That means that we are fairly early in Kali Yuga and this age will continue more than 426,000 more years. Isnt it a weird correspondence to the "fact" deduced by the "scientists" as the lifetime of our Sun and our very own "Pralayam"?
Although the existence of Brahma might be questioned by many, are the hindus crazy to just act like a random number generator and give some weird calculations if they dint have a point? And every one of the Hindu Brahmins repeat the ages right from the Kalpa to the Yuga to the Varsha to the Ganta to the Thithi during their ancestral rights every month. How much more do the scientific journals need to classify something like this as a science? Vedic phrases are passed down through sounds (in the language Forbes calls the best language for computer), as written knowledge is very much prone to interpretation and miscorrelation and mis-representation as time goes by. Main reason for Nostradamus predictions to go questionable. We will never find out what was the vision behind it sadly. Just because the "scientists" have no means of verifying the things, they call them "assumptions" and "hypothesis". Their science is too rigid in their structure and no wonder they have so many limitations. The science never allows anyone to go beyond its boundaries without it being prefixed with "psuedo". In Ramayana, the epic every Hindu has atleast heard of, Vishwamitra does a Yaga to make sure Rama's mother can conceive. For that maha yaga, he gets the agni kundam from the moon...The description of the rock fits in exactly to the description of the moon rocks by the "Discoverers" (Scientists from NASA). Any takers? On hindsight, Brahma might be just an analogy to make it easier for people to correlate. Just like we say "Figure" to describe a hot chick and probably worship Aish Rai's pic. Imagine people 1000s of years hence arguing about whether "Figure" actually existed lookin at an estranged decipated pic on the archelogist-excavated wall!
Another set of sciences in big debate is Numerology and Palmistry. Statistics is recognised as a valid science, but they dont acknowledge the basic fact that if something is predicted and does not happen, it is not going to be around for long...What about "petrol Ramar", a prodigy in South India in the 21st century spoofing around with some chemicals? BBC and CNN reported it as authentic... So many millions of people believe in something and that itself is proof that atleast some of it is worth the devotion. May not be 100% but what is? Astrology exactly maps the movements of the planets (confirmed 1000s of years later by Astronomers - Shhhh they are scientists) and even depicted "invisible" planets like Uranus and Neptune as Raghu and Kedhu. The Chinese can tell you everything about a person from a thumb! How can they do such things if they dint have a way of doing it?
And who defines what is a science? Western science as is prevalent in today's world is a kid (only a couple of 1000s of years old) and of utmost disconcern to the wealth of knowledge available in the world. The western scholars term themselves as founders of principles and inventors of theories. Alas, if only they look back at the classic studies, they will realise that the real founders and inventors were are just a few thousands of years ahead of them. Japanese and German universities are spending millions to go through the Vedic scriptures and find some stuff from them. Going back in time yeh? Knowledge as is now, is retricted, limited and shabby. Too bad we lost most of what was probably "Common knowledge" a few thousand years ago. Just another coincidence. The pole star actually changes once every 24000 years. The effects of this is still unknown. A hindu knowledge cycle lasts for 24000 years out of which 12000 years will see a rise in knowledge and another 12k years will lead to the destruction of the same. We are in the 2400 year of the waxing phase. Good for us!
I can go on and on about this, but I have diverted away from the topic by miles already. So, just to do justice to the title, let me quote a few things. Just relax, take some time off and look back at all the nice things in your life...Does the date on which it occured related to your birth date (25 equals 2+5 (7) )? Some people can find patterns in these and they have abstracted it to a level where they can predict patterns in other sample sets (other people). I practice it myself and thats not the only reason why I am writing this...Its just as simple statictics as it can get. For any further info on the statistical methods and probabilities, visit my roommate Dinesh @ http://dineshd.blogspot.com
Point Blank: You can never have equality! Acknowledge the difference and Provide for the difference, rather than bawling over equality in everything. CRAP !!! ("Common" Recollections Are Presumptious!)
Random Access
The search has just begun !!! (into the treasure trove called Past)
Numbers rule every bit of our lives and if only we stopped a moment and look back at your life, you might realise some truly amazing coincidences and timely contructs that evade all scientific explanation. Now that leads us to the question, What is science? Wikipedia defines it as "Science is a process for evaluating empirical knowledge (the scientific method), a global community of scholars, and the organized body of knowledge gained by this process and carried by this community (and others)." Now, look at some classic examples...I mean really classic...Numerology, Palmistry, Astrology, Vedic Mathematics....
I can hear you protest and some knowledgeable few will argue that those are psuedo sciences. But look at the definition and it fits in very well. Does the definition make it mandatory for the sciences to be organized in words? The scientific method refers to experimentation, documentation and is some process of getting that knowledge which can be repeated by anyone with the same results. Doesnt it trivialize it to Common Knowledge? Psuedo-sciences as they term it, are also valid sciences because it follows thorough analysis and has its own methodology. I wonder that if people cant understand something, does it mean its not a science? Then chemistry is not a science cos the blind guy playing the piano at the station cannot understand it! Another reason given for classifying pseudo-sciences is that it does not have good documentation. Paper was invented by Chinese in probably the 1100 Century BC or something. Does it mean no life existed before?
A very down-to-home example would be the argument that the Indian civilization exists only from the Indus valley civilization, cos thats the maximum time archeologists can decipher some trace of. Then are the Hindus mad to catalog the time in terms of Kalpas, Yugas and Infact a "scholar" has found the Rig Veda dates to 6.5k BC. Thats extending our known timeline back by 4000 BC. Dudes, wake up. Its all there but the fact that YOU have not found out doesnt mean that its not there. Another interesting phrase in this context will be "Precessional changes are the hallmark of Hindu astronomy. We cannot ignore them in ancient texts just because they give us dates too early for our conventional view of human history" A very good point made, cos the conventional view is not the correct view. Its just a view. Didnt the convention that earth was a centre of the universe hold true for close to 2000 years in the western mind? Check out http://www.vaishnava.com/timelineintro.htm for an interesting read.
Talking a bit on the Hindu catalog of years, they catalog it in terms of yugas and kalpas. 1 kalpa is 1 day for Brahma and equal to 1,000 maha yugas (4.32 billion human years). The lifespan of Brahma is 100 Brahma years, or 72,000 kalpas, or 311.04 trillion human years. See http://baharna.com/karma/yuga.htm for detailed breakdown. We are located in the fifty-first Brahma year of the life of our Brahma. Within that Brahma year, we are in the first Brahma day, called the Varaha kalpa. Within that Brahma day, we are in the seventh manvantara, and in the 28th maha yuga of that manvantara. This would place us at about the 454th maha yuga of the 1,000 maha yugas that comprise this day of Brahma. Within this maha yuga, we are in Kali Yuga. The 5105th year of Kali Yuga will correspond to the year 2,005 A.D. That means that we are fairly early in Kali Yuga and this age will continue more than 426,000 more years. Isnt it a weird correspondence to the "fact" deduced by the "scientists" as the lifetime of our Sun and our very own "Pralayam"?
Although the existence of Brahma might be questioned by many, are the hindus crazy to just act like a random number generator and give some weird calculations if they dint have a point? And every one of the Hindu Brahmins repeat the ages right from the Kalpa to the Yuga to the Varsha to the Ganta to the Thithi during their ancestral rights every month. How much more do the scientific journals need to classify something like this as a science? Vedic phrases are passed down through sounds (in the language Forbes calls the best language for computer), as written knowledge is very much prone to interpretation and miscorrelation and mis-representation as time goes by. Main reason for Nostradamus predictions to go questionable. We will never find out what was the vision behind it sadly. Just because the "scientists" have no means of verifying the things, they call them "assumptions" and "hypothesis". Their science is too rigid in their structure and no wonder they have so many limitations. The science never allows anyone to go beyond its boundaries without it being prefixed with "psuedo". In Ramayana, the epic every Hindu has atleast heard of, Vishwamitra does a Yaga to make sure Rama's mother can conceive. For that maha yaga, he gets the agni kundam from the moon...The description of the rock fits in exactly to the description of the moon rocks by the "Discoverers" (Scientists from NASA). Any takers? On hindsight, Brahma might be just an analogy to make it easier for people to correlate. Just like we say "Figure" to describe a hot chick and probably worship Aish Rai's pic. Imagine people 1000s of years hence arguing about whether "Figure" actually existed lookin at an estranged decipated pic on the archelogist-excavated wall!
Another set of sciences in big debate is Numerology and Palmistry. Statistics is recognised as a valid science, but they dont acknowledge the basic fact that if something is predicted and does not happen, it is not going to be around for long...What about "petrol Ramar", a prodigy in South India in the 21st century spoofing around with some chemicals? BBC and CNN reported it as authentic... So many millions of people believe in something and that itself is proof that atleast some of it is worth the devotion. May not be 100% but what is? Astrology exactly maps the movements of the planets (confirmed 1000s of years later by Astronomers - Shhhh they are scientists) and even depicted "invisible" planets like Uranus and Neptune as Raghu and Kedhu. The Chinese can tell you everything about a person from a thumb! How can they do such things if they dint have a way of doing it?
And who defines what is a science? Western science as is prevalent in today's world is a kid (only a couple of 1000s of years old) and of utmost disconcern to the wealth of knowledge available in the world. The western scholars term themselves as founders of principles and inventors of theories. Alas, if only they look back at the classic studies, they will realise that the real founders and inventors were are just a few thousands of years ahead of them. Japanese and German universities are spending millions to go through the Vedic scriptures and find some stuff from them. Going back in time yeh? Knowledge as is now, is retricted, limited and shabby. Too bad we lost most of what was probably "Common knowledge" a few thousand years ago. Just another coincidence. The pole star actually changes once every 24000 years. The effects of this is still unknown. A hindu knowledge cycle lasts for 24000 years out of which 12000 years will see a rise in knowledge and another 12k years will lead to the destruction of the same. We are in the 2400 year of the waxing phase. Good for us!
I can go on and on about this, but I have diverted away from the topic by miles already. So, just to do justice to the title, let me quote a few things. Just relax, take some time off and look back at all the nice things in your life...Does the date on which it occured related to your birth date (25 equals 2+5 (7) )? Some people can find patterns in these and they have abstracted it to a level where they can predict patterns in other sample sets (other people). I practice it myself and thats not the only reason why I am writing this...Its just as simple statictics as it can get. For any further info on the statistical methods and probabilities, visit my roommate Dinesh @ http://dineshd.blogspot.com
Point Blank: You can never have equality! Acknowledge the difference and Provide for the difference, rather than bawling over equality in everything. CRAP !!! ("Common" Recollections Are Presumptious!)
Random Access
The search has just begun !!! (into the treasure trove called Past)
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Steve Slater - An epic battle
A tribute to the flickering star on Star Sports...How often do we hear the same crap? Over and over again...and again...Every fortnight, his voice booms over millions of tv's across the continents, but never stops his contingency. Whether it be booming about Michael Schumacher last year when Rubens Barrichello is shown, or unwittingly identifying a Sauber as a Red Bull for an entire lap, nothing can beat Steve Slater. I wonder what made him so special and everlasting on the fast changing Commentary scene...from Martin Brundle to Chris Goodwin to the new kid of the block (why should everyone be associated with Mercedes-McLaren?). At times you really feel sorry for the old chap when Chris Goodwin unceremoniously shoots down his 'analysis'. What would be more appropriate than the latest San Marino GP when he went on about Schumi having enough fuel to last the distance when anyone in their weirdest thoughts wouldnt have contemplated it? The plus about Steve is that he is very much a gentleman...as he makes tht gal, who used to compere for a while, look like a F1 guru in front of him. Ofcourse, the old hog has a crazy admiration of Montoya and an innocent excited smile when some cars come to a standstill.
Humility is a trance
Too much of it means ignorance
Everyone would love him at second glance
Cos he brings so much fun into a sport equivalent to a penance.
It really did not matter whether Ferrari won last year or Renault dominate this year, its all about one man...the man behind the scenes giving inspiration and maintaining the momentum after years of priceless service to the F1 community...After all, whats a pack of cards without a joker worth?
Trivia...Whats the second most watched sport in India after cricket?
Whats the sport where all the players get salaries only in millions?
Whats the sport where you seat yourself cramped like a toy barely a meter high, yet fly like a rocket?
Whats the sport where the players AND the players' wives n gf leave u stunned in disbelief?
Probably should rename it Formula Steve Bernie....and tuning in to the next epic battle of Steve vs Formula 1..
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Humility is a trance
Too much of it means ignorance
Everyone would love him at second glance
Cos he brings so much fun into a sport equivalent to a penance.
It really did not matter whether Ferrari won last year or Renault dominate this year, its all about one man...the man behind the scenes giving inspiration and maintaining the momentum after years of priceless service to the F1 community...After all, whats a pack of cards without a joker worth?
Trivia...Whats the second most watched sport in India after cricket?
Whats the sport where all the players get salaries only in millions?
Whats the sport where you seat yourself cramped like a toy barely a meter high, yet fly like a rocket?
Whats the sport where the players AND the players' wives n gf leave u stunned in disbelief?
Probably should rename it Formula Steve Bernie....and tuning in to the next epic battle of Steve vs Formula 1..
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
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