Kuch bhi....

Have been idle here for a while and feeling guilty about it too.....so many posts came to mind and went away.....
Finally today I thought of writing at least something......and here it is

"Something"

Coming back with more soon.....

They knew you loved them already....

Was reading a post on Slashdot about extreme caving, and found this one comment...

I second the statement, "I'm not claustrophobic, but this is insane". It's the sheer un-rescue-ability of it all, if you simply get wedged, that gets to me.

A young man died cave diving in the Rockies not far from Calgary a few years back. The awful bit was that he got delayed coming back, wasn't sure how far it was, went to the limit of his air, turned the little knob that gives you the last five minutes, and used that time scratching out a goodbye to his family on the air tank.

Right around one more corner from where he would have seen the flashlights of his friends waiting for him.

Lessons I took from it:

1) Cave diving is insane.

2) If you're ever certain you're at that last moment of your life, nevertheless spend it trying to survive. Your family actually knew you loved them already.

Is this true for you?

Roger Ebert writes about the possible impact of websurfing on our brains. I think I relate to what he is saying. Do You?

Read here.

ISS-Atlantis transit over Sun

Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis 50 minutes before docking, taken from the area of Madrid (Spain) on May 16th 2010 at 13h 28min 55s UT.




Photolink via : Discover blogs and Thierry Legault

Click on image to view enlarged version.

"The Empire on which the sun never sets"

As you know, the title phrase of this post refers to the global empires set up by Europeans between the 15th and the 19th centuries.
Imperialism or European colonisation was heralded by the Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the early 15th century, a period known as the "Age of Discovery". We have all heard of Columbus and Magellan; there were many many more of them who spread out to discover "new lands"...the Americas, African coast, Middle east, India, eastern Asia and even Australia. Soon after, they were joined by the British, the French and the Dutch in direct competition in exploration (they actually started as pirate attacks on Spanish fleets loaded with riches obtained from the new lands...but soon they developed their own expeditions and settlements).
The Spanish colonialization was primarily for bolstering their economic status by trade and religious conversions; on the other hand, the British colonization was mainly aimed at "making new societies" as per the whims of the colonists and then began the enslavement of "native savages". British Imperialism, as it turned out, flourished over all others especially after Napolean's downfall and its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.....!!
Decolonization began in earnest only in the 20th century. This interesting animated link here shows the rise and fall of British Empire. Over the hundreds of years of colonization, millions of people moved to and from the British colonies. There have been pros and cons of this Imperialization; on one hand spread of technology early on was one of the advantages, on the other, tension and discontent between the native and non-native settlers continues till date.

So now you may ask...why this discussion on the history of colonization, especially British Imperialism :)
Well, yesterday I watched this movie called Pocahontas (animated Disney movie) where the story backdrop is an English governor who is seeking gold and riches in the "new land" and is ready to sacrifice the savages inhabiting the land which is now "His".
What the discussion between me and my friend led to was......... human settlements evolved and developed at several places simultaneously across the globe... why was it then that the European settlements progressed and developed much faster than the others?? The civilizations may have arose across several parts of the world and grew too, but technological development was much faster here which empowered them to dominate the world....why was it so? I have not yet been able to find an answer to that yet. So....help!!!! :) and if you think that I have got some points wrong...feel free to point them out.

Zimbabwe!!!

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Grandfather paradox....

Found this story in the current issue of Nature.
Started out to be an interesting read...but got lost towards the end :P
Somebody help!!

Grandfather paradox

Somebody help him!

Bal Thackeray is having trouble finding the marathi word for Terminus... :D

http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/cant-stand-the-station-being-called-cst-says-bal-thackeray-21158.php

so, no, CST won't do anymore. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminusinmarathhi it shall be.

Ye muh aur masoor ki daal!

At the risk of seeming to have completely taken over the supposedly "team" blog, here is the result of my latest experiment in cooking. Masoor ki Daal (and daal chaaval).

not much to write home (or on blog) about, I know. But junta ki demand hai ki khaana banaana seekho to photo shoto bhi lo aur doosron ko dikhaao. :)

Wow!!!

Awesome pic of the icelandic volcano, courtesy APOD.

iPad (@xkcd)

:D :D :D

The meaning of I, Me, Myself....

"If there is anything about your “self” of which you can be sure, it is that it is anchored in your own body and yours alone. The person you experience as “you” is here and now and nowhere else."

Under certain circumstances, however, the statement mentioned above can be questioned.

Check out this interesting article by V.S.Ramachandran "Hey, Is that Me over There?"

Changes in the front parietal lobe of your brain can actually cause the sensation of disembodiment creating an "out-of-body" experience. It is amazing to note that in such cases you can actually see yourself doing things and not feel physically anything at all as would be the case when you watch another person in front of you. There are also these interesting conditions of several patients described in the article where it is observed that damage to this part of the brain, depending upon the extent and region of damage, creates different illusions.

One of the more fascinating illusions is the description of a patient who actually believed to have a twin attached to his body on his left-hand side who mimicked his actions with a very slight time delay!! I can't really imagine how these conditions would actually psychologically effect the patients.....it must be difficult to live thinking and believing that you have a conjoined twin who is with you all the time, watching you, mimicking you......I also wonder in such cases if it is also reported that the "twin" talks to you??? But they do not mention any such thing in this article of course.
They mention that the sense of ownership of material things by humans is an extension of the sense of "self" ownership. Ironically, I can imagine "hating" my beloved car when it doesn't start or gasping when my favourite coffee mug breaks...but I cannot imagine myself, or anyone else for that matter, hating one's arm for being a communist!! (The condition described for a patient in the article).

Always a treat to read about and ponder over the mysteries of the working of "our" brain. :)

World's largest "natural" musical instrument....

The Great Stalacpipe Organ



Located deep in the Luray Caverns in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley is the Great Stalacpipe Organ, the worlds largest natural musical instrument.
It's fascinating to see how such amazing ideas can occur to people ....
Check out its history and some compositions played on it here and here

ipad smasher

Hey guys..did you see the youtube video of a guy smashing ipad?

He stood in line for 8-9 hrs and then paid 500 bucks to buy it and then he and his friends smashes it...

Seismic Waves (@ xkcd)

Heh! :)

A nice read

Read it when you have some time. A nice essay with some nostalgic value of those pre-liberalization quasi-socialist-India days. perhaps I relate to it so much because my father WAS one of those beaurocrats bureaucrats.

As I said... nice read..

http://bidoun.com/bdn/magazine/11-failure/slow-speed-by-kai-friese/

1700-0900=2400

Trying to pay my internet bill. First, the online bill pay thing doesn't work. So I decide to call their "For your convenience, we are available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week" phone number to contact customer service. After 5 min of entering numbers and speaking clearly and loudly my answers to the automated machine, it connected me to the customer service automated machine which said "Our offices are closed right now. Please call us during normal office hours."

24 hours a day, seven days a week. Indeed.

In the beginning.....

God said, "Let there be a team blog!"

To honor the "team blog" spirit, even the name was arrived at by discussions among three of the members. Things become easy when all three are Harry Potter fans! Some of the other names considered were:

Pens or Bludgers
Lukkha's Lounge
Perpetual Writers Block
Writers Unblock
Rainbows, Pots of Gold and whatnot
I'm Just Making It All Up
Making It Up As We Go
Nitwit Blubber Oddment Tweak
Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes
Wrackspurts, Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks


Most of the  interesting ones were not available and the others were vetoed or were just not as good as Bertie Bott's.... Specially because the idea behind this blog is that the authors will post whatever comes to their mind. So, the name DOES have that flavor! :)


And then there was light posting....