Niyati ki Nashib

Chandrayaan, Chess and Cricket ...

Refering to a very old previous post. What a day today is !

We are on our way to the moon. Fingers crossed.

I cannot hide the tingle of excitement and pride as I watch the launch ! The fourth stage has been deployed --- What a feeling ! Infinite amazement ! Un-describable ! If that is a word. How can such things be described in words ?



On a smaller scale, we are looking good to get a world champion here Anand defeats Kramnik to lead by 3 points in the World Chess Championship,




And perhaps the least significant one is where India comprehensively beats the pretend world champions by some 300 runs in Mohali.

A very good day indeed !!


P.S: Disclaimer for the images. Duh.

P.P.S:

Another thing to note:

The net budget for Chandrayan is ~ 80 million USD. Barack Obama collected ~ 150 million USD for his presidential bid on Sep '08

i.e - India is sending an entire spacecraft to the moon, in about as much money as Barack can collect in 15 days. Incredible.

Global Warming and the attack of the concentric circles.

Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot

Big Tobacco fights Breast cancer.

"Big Tobacco has joined forces with the breast cancer industry in the launch of its newest product aimed at raising money for breast cancer research: "Pink ribbon" SlimSmokes cigarettes for women. For every pack of cigarettes sold, the manufacturer pledges to donate two cents to breast cancer research. "We aim to raise money to help find a cure for breast cancer," said Yin Hailing, spokesperson for Phillip Porous, the maker of pink ribbon SlimSmokes cigarettes. "Because the longer our best customers live, the more they can smoke! " 

Furthermore,  

"Accordingly, the Susie B. Wheezie Foundation proclaimed that buying these pink ribbon cigarettes is like "investing in your own future," since funds from the sales will be used to find a cure for the disease caused by the product itself. A new event called, "Smoke for the cure" is planned for next year as a way to increase product sales and raise more money for breast cancer research."

Read the rest over here . 

The answer to everything

Do you want to know the answer to the meaning of life ? Do you wonder about the answer to the universe ? Would you like to have that one single answer to everything ?

Hold your breath.

Concentrate.

Hear it from me now. Hear the answer you have always been seeking.

Here is the answer which will solve all your problems, end all your wanderings and be the ultimate fruit of all your cogitations. Here is the path to eternal tranquility. Here lies the seed of brahman and here is the sound of Aum.

Are you ready for the answer ? pakkka ? ? Here we go then.

The answer is 42.

Sounds incredible ? Check it by googling it up or check it here.

Tathaastu ! :)

A lead in the war against HIV

A series of important meetings are taking place that could decide the fate of upcoming HIV blocking drugs. Pfizer seems to have taken the lead, but there are other Pharmaceutical giants, including Merck which are closing in on HIV inhibitors.

A panel of experts meets in Rockville, Md., to advise the Food and Drug Administration on whether to approve Pfizer's maraviroc to fight HIV. If approved it would be the first in a new class of treatments that block HIV from entering white blood cells through a pathway present in some patients that carry the virus.

There have been numerous research directions that have given moderately successful results - with several candidates for cancer inhibiting markers being discovered. The fight against cancers is not completely won, but the progress has been commendable.

HIV, along with cancer remains the holy grail for the biotechnology world and all advancements in combating them come as great news.

The developments are heartening and the success of this research would not only go a long way in providing a boost to the Pharmaceutical industry,but much more importantly - help in saving lives.

The Pleasure of Finding Things !

For people who enjoy "finding things" - here's a video of Richard Feynman himself. A great watch !

At the very Limits of Modern Science

Here is an interview with Dr. Robert Lanza. Dr. Lanza seems to be asking a lot of very interesting and very pertinent questions.

Read the transcript as below -

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Wired News: You call your theory of the universe a biocentric theory. What, exactly, does that mean?

Lanza: This new theory presents a shift in world view with the perspective that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.

WN: I imagine that a lot of physicists will be rather upset by your article. How do you expect them to react?

Lanza: People are not going to be very happy with what this all means. This theory is going to invalidate their (some scientists) entire life's work. I will definitely get crucified.

We've got the scientific structure and framework incorrect. We need a theory that is internally consistent. We can't do this without creating a biological understanding of space and time. This will require restructuring science so that biology is above physics.

WN: Does that mean you think that big physics and astronomy projects should not be funded?

Lanza: Of course they should be funded. I don't think that everything should be changed. What I am saying is that there is a missing piece to the puzzle of how the universe works. The answer is biology. It is as simple as that. The biological picture of space and time must be integrated into our understanding of physics.

WN: Why do you think that there is such a deep misunderstanding of what time and space really are?

Lanza: Our minds are structured to think that way. Even Einstein avoided the question of what space and time are. He simply defined them as what we measure with clocks and measuring-rods. However, the emphasis should be on the "we," not the measuring.

WN: Do you expect that some people will read your article and think you mean that they can sit on a mountaintop and meditate to change the world around them with mind powers?

Lanza: We can't decide that we want to jump off the roof and not get hurt. However much we want, we can't violate the rules of spatiotemporal logic.

WN: In your article, you make the assertion that time and space do not exist. What do you mean by that?

Lanza: There is something very unusual about them. We can't put them in a marmalade jar and take them back to the lab for analysis. Space and time are forms of animal sense perception. Space and time are not objects or things -- they are forms of animal sense perception.

Thousands of articles and books have danced around the desire to toss off the current mechanical world view that has dominated Western culture for hundreds of years. While some imply that time and space may not in fact exist, this article diagrams, for the first time, such a universe -- a universe in which time and space do not exist as physical realities independent of humans and animals.

WN: You seem to disagree with how the world was created.

Lanza: There are serious problems with the current world view. We pride ourselves in our current beliefs and then we (scientists) say, and by the way, we have no idea why the big bang happened.

WN: Can you explain why we should doubt the things that are accepted as the truth in science classes everywhere?

Lanza: For the first time outside of complex mathematics, this theory explains the provocative new experiment that was just published in Science last month. This landmark experiment showed that a choice you make now can actually influence an event that has already occurred in the past.

Source : http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,72910-0.html

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To say that the answers to these questions have been the holy grail of all physicists since time eternity would be an understatement.

In these hazy realms where the modern western-centric science fails to answer some questions, one could turn more eastward for some of the most profound ideas ever thought of.

Dr. Lanza may not find all the answers over here - but i deem that this and this is the closest that anyone has ever got to answering all these questions !

I would rate Vivekananda and all those who thought of these concepts, among the brightest scientific minds to have walked the face of the planet !

The Science of Happy

A la descartes, I am turning this blog into an analysis of things . Apologies for that. Bear with me for now. I shall change gears soon.

Anyways, the topic I want to discuss is happiness. What is happiness ?. It is an emotion right ?. Well, fundamentally you could break down human emotions into two sets - happy and sad. The rest are just the variations of these two basic emotions in different ways, say greed, envy, love, hate and so on.

The first question that one can raise is - why do humans need to be happy ?. Why does everyone want to be in that state? Why not be sad all the time ? What is it about this emotion that makes it the "preferred emotion " ?

Analyzing a bit more - Happiness and the positive emotions are a state where your mind says "this is the way things should be ". So this would mean that happiness is a state where you would not like to change anything. Everything is just as it should be. Again, Sadness and the other negative emotions is where you want something to change.

Doesn't this reflect the laws of nature ? Din't Newton say "Every body shall continue to be in its state, unless an external force is applied "- the famous law of inertia ?

So could we say that it is by this law of inertia that Humans want to be in a state where they dont want to change anything ? That is the exact reason you would like to be with people about whom you wouldnt want to change anything ( or as few a number/quantity of change of things), or you like to eat food to which you just dont want to add any more ingredients. Its just perfect. Its just following its natural inertia.

On the other hand if you think that your food needs some more salt, or your bank account needs more money - well things need to be changed. That is where the inertia is broken and we are in the realm of the negative emotions.

But then there is no perfect inertia in the real world. There are always some forces right? There is friction, there is gravity and electromagnetism and what not.

In the same way - there can be no perfect happy state. There are always forces that keep changing things. Not only the changes in our lives but changes in our likes, our ideals, the way we want things to be. This is the reason people cannot remain in a "happy" state for long.

But what if you start liking change - irrespective of what the change may be ?. What if you say "Isnt it great that I am losing my job - now i get a chance to look for a new one ! ". Wouldnt such an attitude make you perpetually happy ? .

[ It is a another argument that if this were the case, then humans would still have been happy to live in trees and would never have invented anything !! ]

Well, then "to be happy" would be to say "Well there is change - I know it exists. Let me deal with it the best I can". Would that guarantee perpetual happiness ?

How can I find perpetual happiness ? How can I solve this mystery ? How can I solve the biggest problem that billions of people grapple with, the biggest problem that plagues humanity ? How can I ?

Thats Ok ! , I dont want to solve any more problems or change anything in the world - I am perfectly happy with just the way things are right now . Problem Solved ! :)

Ways of Life.

It all started in the water. Some molecules get together and interesting patterns start developing. There is a structure. It looks good. The molecules keep combining with each other. They keep organizing and re-organizing. The structure keeps getting more complex.

Then there is life.

The ancient life form keeps evolving. Organisms are formed. They learn to thrive in the water. They learn to live on the land. They learn to fly. The process continues. Some ones are good, some not so. Creatures are manufactures, some live, some die. Darwin is happy.

There are these strange creatures that start walking on two legs. They are different from the rest. They are not so strong, nor so fast. They have some other quality. A quality that had never before played a pivotal role in the battle for survival, suddenly seems to be more important.

This power is akin to the power that afficianados of "age of empires" might be familiar with. It is when out of nowhere you discover that you have something that even though did not seem important before, has become a very important tool indeed.

This quality is the harnessing of the mind.

The humans continue to run the show. They take over the planet. They build their own beautiful structures and they destroy some beautiful natural ones. They love each other and keep the species growing. Some hate each other and kill a few here and there. But on the whole all is well.

New tools are developed. New ideas are thought of. Good tools, Bad tools. Good Ideas, Bad Ideas. Humans continue to change. They adapt to what they percieve and the process continue.

All this while they are living in this physical world. That is about to change.

Someone invents the internet.

It starts growing. Slowly at first. But the disease keeps growing. There is this fascination. There is this new world.

The very minds that once harnessed this gigantic piece of rock and had the entire planet to its mercy. These very minds now stop existing in the physical world.

These minds start living in a virtual world. They stare at screens and the process of evolution starts takes its toll. They dont need their muscles too much. Moving in the physical world is inconveniant.

They dont need to listen too well nor do they need to have a sharp vision. The sense of smell is gone. After all, there is no physical danger that they encounter as they sit in front of their screens.

Their physical faculties start deteorating, just like say the animal tails. If you dont need it ... well then it goes away.

Their mental powers keep getting sharper. They are thinking and processing more and more information all the time.

Slowly these physical creatures start living virtually. Their brains and the internal organs are the only organs that they need. All else is non-essential for survival. Everything starts disappearing.

There is a time when the humans as we know it, are nothing but their thoughts - present in some virtual world.

You dont see humans. You dont need to interach with each other. Your world is the computer screen. If you want to convey your thoughts to someone , the virtual human sends an e-mail. There are blogs. There are a variety of other things. Its a collection of electronic thoughts and electronic feelings.

The human species as we know it exists on the internet.

Then the power goes off.

Of Search and Re-Search

I have heard the word "research" being thrown around by the so called intellectuals so much, that I start to wonder what is research ?

The word research, by itself means "re search" i.e to search again. Doesnt this mean that the very word in itself, lacks originality ?

Let me make it more clear. Most of the so- called research that I see being done is nothing but searching through existing work and a 'putting together of borrowed ideas".

The world is full of such people who live in a delusional world of grandeur. They think themselves to be intellectuals just because the combine they ideas of a person A and a person B.

I think there is a need for differentiating true seminal work from these "copy-machines".

I know that people would argue with the "standing on the shoulder of giants" retort, but then there are still truly original thinkers. These, my friend, are the true intellectuals. Imagine conjuring the concept of gravity right from nowhere, or thinking of making machines that fly. How about thinking of space-time continuum or thinking of the existence of electromagnetic waves.
Personally, I would have much more respect for minds that seem to derive ideas from the "grass root" level, rather than ones who have a great understanding of two complex phenomenons and knows how to make them work together.

It is refreshing to come across ideas, that even though may seem wrong, follow a new direction.
Thus, I would give more credit to the discoverers listed above, than say, the inventor of the light bulb or the telephone.

So, have we seen a decline in such "original intellects' ?. Or is it that most of the good ideas have already been taken by the people of the past ?

We can never know, but one thing is for certain. It is becoming increasing apparent that the term research should refer to "where to look for ideas" rather than "to think of some ideas" .
Ok. Enough of such topics on the blog for now. I pledge to make my next post a little more on the ludicrous side.

Trepidations of using the cell-phone

I just got an email message, sent to me with an "urgent" status. Well, even though I found no reason to believe the self proclaimed importance of that pesky e-mail, it got me thinking in another direction. Why can we not have the same system on one of our living-links-to-the-rest-of-the-world, our cell-phones.

Imagine a situation say, when you are thinking of calling someone up to discuss some trivialities, just for the heck of it. And then to your amazement, you are reprimanded by that person, because you called him - just as he was about to find out, if aamir khan would be able knock the last ball out of the ground in the movie lagaan .

And yes, it works the other way round too. Haven't you ever received a call while you are busy doing something important or critical, say you are deep in thought debugging a 10000 line code with 1000 nested 'if' loops and then some one calls you. You think to yourself, "Hmm - could this be an important call, or is this just someone calling me to discuss his views on the general state of the universe at that point of time ? "

Wouldn't it be cool if you could just send a "urgent talk"/"casual talk" flag along with your call while calling someone. Just to make life a little more convenient both for the caller and the callee.

So, where is my patent ?