Executive Privileges

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him: Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?

The crow answered: Sure, why not. So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate him.

Then the crow thought: "Poor rabbit, I forgot to tell him that if you want to do nothing, you must sit very high..."

Wayne Dyer on Meditation

I watched and listened Dr. Dyer's speeches on TV a few times, and I fell in love with his thought process. Here is the content of Share Guide's interview with Dr. Dyer. It is long, but those with spiritual inclination will love this.

The Share Guide: I've been playing your tape set, The Wisdom of the Ages and reading the book that goes with it. It's a collection of your writings based upon the teachings of some of the greatest spiritual thinkers of the last 25 centuries. My first question is, How did you get the idea for this project?

Wayne Dyer: I originally was going to call this book 60 Days to Enlightenment. Abraham Maslov--who always impressed me and who was a great teacher of mine before he passed away in 1970--always talked about highly functioning, Self-actualizing people. I wrote a book dedicated to him back in the 1980's called The Sky is the Limit. I later became much more intrigued with this idea of enlightenment and higher consciousness and higher awareness, and I began to look at some of the themes that are in this concept of enlightenment. Themes like agelessness, and balance, and imagination, and independence, and power, knowing and leadership, patience and inspiration. . .these kinds of ideas…and I just kept a file on them. Then I thought, if somebody could read an essay based upon these enduring kinds of lines or quotes, it would really make a nice collection. I was going to call it 60 Days to Enlightenment--the idea being here are the 60 themes, here are what people who lived at this level of enlightenment are like, and here are some ideas for you, in a short essay, to go out and practice each and every day. So this is how I started writing about it. As I began the project, it sort of unfolded in a really sweet and wonderful way.

The Share Guide: Didn't you take 60 days yourself to write it? And Spend one day studying each particular master?

WAYNE: Right, I would get up early in the morning and start by having a look at what their lives were like, read their biographies, find information in encyclopedias and so on. Then in the afternoon I would immerse myself in all of their writings. Some of them were artists, some of them were freedom fighters, and some of them were poets and novelists, and I would immerse myself in their work and their message. Later in the evening, I would just look at a picture of them or an engraving of some kind, a rendering (some of them were very old), and then I would just get very quiet. I would listen, and allow them to speak to me, and I would say "What would you say to the people here today who are walking among us about these ideas that you've written about?" And the writing was done with a ball point pen and a legal pad. Everyone was telling me that I couldn't write a book in 60 days, especially with this kind of research that's involved. I remembered what Patanjali said about inspiration--how when you're inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds…your mind transcends limitations and your consciousness expands in every direction. Dormant forces, faculties and talents come alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. And I was inspired. I was literally in the world of spirit. As they say: "When the student is ready, the teachers appear." Whenever I even got mildly stuck, the right person would telephone, or something would show up in the mail. It would always just be perfect.

The Share Guide: It's kind of like running a marathon?

Wayne Dyer: It is similar to that...very similar, and I've done that on several occasions. It's a process called surrendering. Ultimately you just realize that it's not your body that's going to get you through this thing. There's something in there called a spirit. It's like looking at a great painting and you say, "What painted that painting?" What in the physical world painted it, and when you look at it, you say, "Well the brush did, and the paint." But that's not the source of the painting. The source of the painting is in the spirit of the person who holds the brush and who dips it into the paint--so actually the source is something different.

The Share Guide: I know you've written quite a number of books, part of which I've read but this one is unique in the way it's put together. How did you feel on the 60th day when you were done?

Wayne Dyer: It felt like I wanted to keep it going; I wanted to do 61, 62, etc. It was like being back in school, back in college and reading and immersing yourself in the great poets and philosophers and thinkers, but not being graded. That's a nice feeling, because very often when you're in college, you're more concerned about what's going to appear on your transcripts, or what you're going to get on your paper. There was none of that. I was doing it for the right reasons, finally. I also was a teacher for many years, and my students often would say to me, "What somebody said or lived five hundred years ago, what's that got to do with me today?" I thought this book might answer that.

The Share Guide: I like the book a great deal. If I have a particular emotion that's bugging me, there's essays for all these different thoughts.

Wayne Dyer: That is the idea behind it...We've got a public television special based upon it.

The Share Guide: On book cover, it says "A modern master brings eternal truths into everyday life." and I'm thinking to myself, "What is Wayne's definition of a spiritual master?"

Wayne Dyer: Yes, that's an interesting word. Somebody else wrote that on the cover of the book. I don't consider myself a modern master by any means. I think I'm working and heading in that direction, but I'm certainly not at an arrival point. I talk about mastery in one of the essays in the book. There are four pathways to mastery. The first, the lowest pathway, is what is called the pathway of Discipline. This is the time in our lives when we train our body. We think of ourselves as having to go to practice; we have to really work hard at whatever it is we want to learn, just get some discipline.

The second pathway is the pathway of Wisdom, which is the application of the mind to the discipline of the body. When we send our kids off to school, most of the time we want them to get through these first two pathways. We tell them to get some discipline and use your head, and then you'll be educated. And that's true--that's basically what education is--it's a practice of getting some discipline and using your head. But it's not mastery.

The third pathway is called the pathway of Unconditional Love. You have to reach a stage or place in your life where what you are doing is something that is consistent with your sense of love for it. If you're not doing that, then you're stuck at the first or second pathway. An example is someone who's absolutely at the top of their game--when you watch Pavarotti singing, for instance, he has great discipline. Obviously he's been to practice. And he has great wisdom; he's obviously studied. But he's not the greatest tenor on the planet because he's been to practice and because he studies more than anybody else. He conveys a great sense of love for what he is doing every time he sings. You see the bliss, you see the joy. I think you have to get to that place. But that's still not mastery; that's approaching mastery.

The highest place is called Surrender. This is when you ultimately reach mastery--when you let go and let God. When you surrender the little mind to the Big Mind, and allow for the idea that it's not you who's doing this. You are not what you have, you are not what you do, you are not your reputation. You are the Divine, you are connected to God, and you have reconnected to your Source in such a way that it is really God working through you, or you working with God. I think that's ultimately what mastery is. I've been able to get there on occasion in my writing and also in my speaking, when I really just let go. I've also been there in marathons, in tennis matches and so on, when you absolutely just let go.

The Share Guide: That's your moment of satori?

Wayne Dyer: Yes, it's an awakening.

The Share Guide: Can you talk a little bit about putting spiritual thoughts into action in the world?

Wayne Dyer: The word "spiritual" gets tossed around a lot. It's almost like a buzz word now. I think you have to define it. Patanjali said 2300 years ago that spirit, reaching that higher place within, has certain qualities or characteristics. He said that ignorance is not being ill-informed, but ignorance is false identification--identification with the lower self, with the Ego, with the false Self and with the physical world. When you move into the world of spirituality, he said, what you are doing is you are becoming more informed in the sense that you are no longer identifying as a human being having a spiritual existence, but the other way around, as a spiritual being having a human experience. It's a new sense of identification. You begin to rewrite your agreement with your reality, with who you are and what you're here for. You see yourself as connected.

I think spirituality implies more of a sense of cheerfulness. One of the ways you're getting there is when you're more blissful on a regular basis. Most of the yogis, the gurus, the great spiritual teachers that I've read about or that I know, almost all of them are in a constant state of bliss. They can find bliss in almost anything. Also, effecting great spiritual change means not making your own quotas the source of your existence. Asking the questions, "What are your needs? How may I serve?" becomes much more important than "What's in it for me?"

In one of my books, Manifest Your Destiny, I talk about the Four Archetypes that Jung spoke about that we progress through in our life. It's very much like the four pathways to Mastery. He said the Archetype of the Athlete is first, which is identification with our bodies, and what we can do. Next is the Archetype of the Warrior, which is when you're in your adult life and you start saying what warriors say: "How much can I get? Who can I defeat? Who am I better than and how much stuff do I have? Then you move along to the Archetype of the Statesman or Stateswoman, which is the time when we stop asking what's in it for me, and begin to say what can I do for you? Service becomes much more important than serving self. I wrote about it in the Prayer of St. Francis. Ultimately, the Archetype of the Spirit is where you begin to see your Self, where you begin to realize that this is not your home. I think it's that recognition that this body is not who I am, this personality is not who I am, this Earth is not my home…the telling question of our existence is whether or not we have a relationship to the Infinite. If you see yourself as an infinite soul, an infinite being, sort of disguised as a person in the 21st century. I remember when they asked Mother Teresa what she did everyday she said, "Every day I see Jesus Christ in all of his distressing disguises." She would tend to the people, the Untouchables, in the streets of Calcutta. I think that's a beautiful way of phrasing it; that's sort of my take on spirituality.

The Share Guide: That really is beautiful. I noticed that you led off your book with a section on meditation, and that it was the only one that had two quotes. Can you talk a little about meditation?

Wayne Dyer: I can't imagine my life without it. I couldn't have imagined myself with it a while back! Most people think meditation is something to do to get rid of the stress of your life, something to do to make yourself less tired, to be more energizing and so on. I think Pascal's statement "All of man's trouble stems from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone" is very significant. Most people don't know how to meditate. They don't take the time, because they don't understand the value of it. In my opinion, it's the only way you can come to make conscious contact with God. God is that which is indivisible. You can't divide it. God is One. There's no place that God is not. So when you read about people like Gandhi and Maharaj, and Jesus, and people like Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna, Mohammed and so on, they're called non-dual beings, people who have "transcended." Like it says in the Bhagavad Gita, "they've gone beyond the duality of the physical plane," so that there's no up and down, right and wrong, beginning and end, rich and poor--there's none of that. There's just this ONE.

Meditation is a way of coming to know that Oneness. Meditation is done in silence, and in silence that's the only part of you that can't be divided. Everything else is duality. You've never seen a person with a front that doesn't have a back, with an outside that doesn't have an inside. There's this duality to the physical plane; it's always there. It's only dark because there's something called light. If it was always light there'd be no such thing as dark.

The Share Guide: So the unity is in the stillness?

Wayne Dyer: Right. Stillness is indivisible, and as Melville said, "God's one and only voice is silence." That's the power of meditation: it gives you an opportunity to make conscious contact with your Source and to regain the power of your Source. The power of your Source is the power to sustain and create life; it's the power to perform miracles. It's the power to live at a level of awareness that goes beyond just ordinary human consciousness or ordinary human awareness. Patanjali speaks a great deal on that, in his original Yoga Sutras. When you begin to go to that stillness and it becomes your regular way of being, you can start to heal people by being in their presence. You can start to read minds. You can even impact natural forces just with your consciousness--that's the power of meditation to me.

The Share Guide: I know a lot of people don't meditate regularly because their mind wanders and they get fidgety. I know you recommend Japa meditation. Is there any particular mantra or method that you recommend?

Wayne Dyer: My japa has a mantra. It's the repetition of the sound of the Names for the Divine.

The Share Guide: So any Name of the Divine, any mantra, will have the same effect?

Wayne Dyer: Yes. Usually it has the sound "AH" in it somewhere--whether it's Yahweh, or God, or Krishna, or Allah or Ra or Kali or Durga. I list 30 of them in Manifest Your Destiny. In the New Testament it says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So the repetition of God is a powerful mantra. You do it outwardly at first and then inwardly.

The Share Guide: There's one other subject in your book I wanted to address, and that's Patience--probably because it's the one I have the hardest time with. How do you deal with tension that comes up when you're in situations you can't avoid?

Wayne Dyer: Let me use an example to answer this. My oldest son, who's 25, was telling me that he takes a shower every morning, but when he comes out of the shower and he dries off, two minutes later he's sweating just as much as before he went into the shower. And he was saying to me, "I just don't understand that." And I said, "Your mind is not at rest when you're taking a shower. During the entire time that you're in the shower, you're in a rush and you're thinking 'I have to get through this, and I have to hurry up, and I have to towel off and get dressed and I got deadlines'…Then your body is reacting just as if it were still running or exercising, because the mind controls the body. It's not the other way around." So what I said to him is this: "What I recommend is that you meditate while you shower, or just get very, very quiet. Even if you only have one minute to shower, even if your deadline is such that it's very short, treat that one minute the same way. Get very, very peaceful."

And he told me the next day it was the very first time that he's come out of the shower, dried off and he wasn't sweating again. Now I do this in traffic, when I'm at a red light. Try this: When you're at a red light, recognize the fact that you have to sit there for a minute or two whether you like it or not. Now you have a choice in that two minutes--you can either sit there and fret and look at your watch and stomp and be all upset while you wait for the light to change, or you can sit there for the same two minutes and you can meditate. You can get very quiet, you can close your eyes and so on. The reality hasn't changed, nothing's changed, except you process the experience in a relaxed, and peaceful and blissful way rather than in a hurried and harried and raising up the blood pressure way.

You can do this at every red light you hit for the rest of your life. You can do this in every shower; you can do this with every deadline. You can choose to deal with the deadline from the perspective that the deadline is what's causing you to be stressed, or you can remind yourself that there's no such thing as stress--there are only people thinking stressful thoughts. You can process it anyway you want to--stressfully or unstressfully.

The Share Guide: I like that. What key books do you recommend for people interested in your work? If one were to read 2 or 3 to start with, besides this newest one, what would they be?

Wayne Dyer: It's sort of like asking me which one of my children do I like the best! I started with Erroneous Zones and just progressed up through. Someone wrote me today and said they thought my book Your Sacred Self is the spiritual book of the millennium. That might be a good starting place. I guess it would depend on where they were. If they were looking to perform miracles and manifest it and so on I would suggest Manifest Your Destiny. Or if they want to understand a basic philosophy that moves away from psychology and into spirituality, I would suggest You'll See It When You Believe It. If you'd like to learn how to manage your own emotions and not be victimized by other people, if that's a problem for you in your life, then I would suggest Your Erroneous Zones and Pulling Your Own Strings and The Sky's the Limit. If you want to raise your kids in a way that embraces these principles I'd suggest What You Really Want For Your Children. I don't really know how to answer other than like that.

The Share Guide: That helps. Do you have upcoming projects that you want to mention?

Wayne Dyer: I'm working on a book tentatively called There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. I really believe that's true in any area of our lives, so I'd really like to help define these three words: Spiritual, Solution and Problem. That's what I'm doing now.

Photokina 2006 Cool Technology

DigitalCameraInfo.com. Cool technology shown at Photokina 2006 including 3D scanning, 3D printing and laser etching.

Intelligent Falling Theory

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding. The laws predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force. Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."
Founded in 1987, the ECFR is the world's leading institution of evangelical physics, a branch of physics based on literal interpretation of the Bible. According to the ECFR paper published simultaneously this week in the International Journal Of Science and the adolescent magazine God's Word For Teens!, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by secular gravity alone, including such mysteries as how angels fly, how Jesus ascended into Heaven, and how Satan fell when cast out of Paradise.

The ECFR, in conjunction with the Christian Coalition and other Christian conservative action groups, is calling for public-school curriculums to give equal time to the Intelligent Falling theory. They insist they are not asking that the theory of gravity be banned from schools, but only that students be offered both sides of the issue "so they can make an informed decision." "We just want the best possible education for Kansas' kids," Burdett said.

Proponents of Intelligent Falling assert that the different theories used by secular physicists to explain gravity are not internally consistent. Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein's ideas about gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a theory in crisis.

"Let's take a look at the evidence," said ECFR senior fellow Gregory Lunsden."In Matthew 15:14, Jesus says, 'And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.' He says nothing about some gravity making them fall—just that they will fall. Then, in Job 5:7, we read, 'But mankind is born to trouble, as surely as sparks fly upwards.' If gravity is pulling everything down, why do the sparks fly upwards with great surety? This clearly indicates that a conscious intelligence governs all falling."
Critics of Intelligent Falling point out that gravity is a provable law based on empirical observations of natural phenomena.

Evangelical physicists, however, insist that there is no conflict between Newton's mathematics and Holy Scripture. "Closed-minded gravitists cannot find a way to make Einstein's general relativity match up with the subatomic quantum world," said Dr. Ellen Carson, a leading Intelligent Falling expert known for her work with the Kansan Youth Ministry. "They've been trying to do it for the better part of a century now, and despite all their empirical observation and carefully compiled data, they still don't know how."

"Traditional scientists admit that they cannot explain how gravitation is supposed to work," Carson said. "What the gravity-agenda scientists need to realize is that 'gravity waves' and 'gravitons' are just secular words for 'God can do whatever He wants.'" Some evangelical physicists propose that Intelligent Falling provides an elegant solution to the central problem of modern physics.

"Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity,'" Burdett said. "And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus."

Source: Onion

Confusing Columbus

I finally started reading the book The World is Flat by Mr. Thomas Friedman (it has been on my "to read" list for a while). I came across the following interesting review of this book in Economist. This review is consistent with what I read so far. Now, here is something that is not addressed in this review. Mr. Friedman (to the little extent I read) praised the great strides made by India, primarily in software industry. Sure, it is something that all Indians should be proud of. I am not sure of what the magnitude of this pride should be.

I see that we (typically) achieve the education necessary to be a player in this "flat" world through utter lack of respect for the intellectual property rights (i.e., street corner software schools with all kinds of unlicensed software installed on their machines). This is unfair and it should change. While this practice is prevalent in other parts of the world, we come from the land of Vedas, right? With all the wealth of knowledge right under our noses, shouldn't we be the guiding lights for rest of the world in setting up the moral standards?

It costs like $10,000+ to get access to some of the software in the US, while you can get for less than $10 in street corners in Hyderabad. One might ask, is the West perfect in this regard? My opinion is, it is a lot closer to perfection than India and China. I say this because we should identify a need for change before it can happen. Our state of things remind me of Brood Parasitism. Anyway, here is the book review on Economist.

THE term “populariser” is often used to sneer at writers who manage to reach a wide audience by those who don't. But not all popularisers are guilty of sensationalising or over-simplifying serious topics. There is a sense in which everyone in modern societies, even the most earnest or intellectually gifted,relies on the popularisation of ideas or information, if that term is understood to mean the making of complex issues comprehensible to the non-specialist.

Achieving this is admirable. In the field of international affairs one of America's most prominent popularisers is Thomas Friedman, the leading columnist on the subject for the New York Times. Mr Friedman constantly travels the world, interviewing just about everyone who matters. He has won three Pulitzer prizes. If anyone should be able to explain the many complicated political, economic and social issues connected to the phenomenon of globalisation, it should be him. What a surprise, then, that his latest book is such a dreary failure.

Mr Friedman's book is subtitled “A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century”, but it is not brief, it is not any recognisable form of history—except perhaps of Mr Friedman's own wanderings around the world—and the reference to our new, baby century is just gratuitous. Even according to Mr Friedman's own account, the world has been globalising since 1492.

This kind of imprecision—less kind readers might even use the word “sloppiness”—permeates Mr Friedman's book. It begins with an account of Christopher Columbus, who sets out to find India only to run into the Americas. Mr Friedman claims that this proved Columbus's thesis that the world is round. It did nothing of the kind. Proof that the world is round came only in 1522, when the sole surviving ship from Ferdinand Magellan's little fleet returned to Spain.

Undaunted by this fact, Mr Friedman portrays himself as a modern-day Columbus. Like the Italian sailor, he also makes a startling discovery—this time on a trip to India—though it turns out to be just the opposite of Columbus's. An entrepreneur in Bangalore tells him that “the playing field is being levelled” between competitors there and in America by communications technology. The phrase haunts Mr Friedman. He chews it over, and over, and over. And then it comes to him: “My God, he's telling me the world is flat!” Of course, the entrepreneur, even by Mr Friedman's own account, said nothing of the kind. But Mr Friedman has discovered his metaphor for globalisation, and now nothing will stop him.

He shows his readers no mercy, proceeding to flog this inaccurate and empty image to death over hundreds of pages. In his effort to prove that the world is flat (he means “smaller”), Mr Friedman talks to many people and he quotes at length lots of articles by other writers, as well as e-mails, official reports, advertising jingles, speeches and statistics. His book contains a mass of information. Some of it is relevant to globalisation. Like many journalists, he is an inveterate name-dropper, but he does also manage to interview some interesting and knowledgeable people. Mr Friedman's problem is not a lack of detail. It is that he has so little to say.

Over and over again he makes the same few familiar points: the world is getting smaller, this process seems inexorable, many things are changing, and we should not fear this. Rarely has so much information been collected to so little effect. A number of truly enlightening books have been published recently which not only support globalisation, but answer its critics and explain its complexities to the general reader—most notably Jagdish Bhagwati's “In Defence of Globalisation” and Martin Wolf's “Why Globalisation Works”. Because of Mr Friedman's fame as a columnist, his book will probably far outsell both of these. That is a shame. Anyone tempted to buy “The World is Flat” should hold back, and purchase instead Mr Bhagwati's book or Mr Wolf's.

Roman Candle

Believe in miracles! I came across this unbelievable* news article.

A skydiving instructor in New Zealand escaped death by landing in a blackberry bush after his parachute failed during a 15,000-foot free-fall last week, according to reports.

Michael Holmes, 25, of Britain spun out of control when his main parachute apparently became tangled. “When the second parachute didn’t open, I realized it was all over,” he told The Times of London from his hospital bed. “I was going to die. You don’t have much time to say goodbye.”

“The next thing I saw were friends, firemen, ambulances and police dogs,” he added. Holmes survived the fall by landing in shrubbery less than 300 feet from a parking lot near Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand, suffering a punctured lung and a broken ankle.
Holmes, who was wearing a helmet-mounted video camera, was taping a group of 10 people from Taupo Tandem Skydiving when the mishap occurred, according to The Age, an Australian news Web site. The entire plunge, including the landing, was captured on videotape.

John Siddles, a witness, told London’s Daily Telegraph: “One of the skydivers coming down was going round and round, and he looked like he was all tangled up or something.”

The Daily Telegraph quoted the manager of the skydiving center, Hamish Funnell, as saying that Holmes was in good spirits at the hospital, “cracking jokes and hassling the nurses.” Police and the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association are investigating the incident.

* It is unbelievable because the word bush (Bush) was associated with something with a happy ending! What were you thinking?

Basking in the Reflected Glory!

Italian village basks in reflected glory

Sun deprived people might consider moving to the northern Italian village of Viganella, where residents are now basking in sunlight thanks to a giant mirror. The village's 185 residents are normally plunged in chilly darkness during winter months as surrounding mountains cut off direct sunlight. Viganella Mayor Pierfranco Midali says he has been looking forward to the innovation since an architect friend began pondering ways to help the sun-challenged hamlet. I've waited for this moment for seven years," he told Italy's ANSA news agency. The village now has a towering mirror measuring eight metres by five metres installed on the flank of one bluff.

The mirror is computer-driven to follow the sun's path and cast its rays back on Viganella. The Mayor says the project, which cost almost 100,000 euro ($A167,000), has spawned envy from Swiss and other Italian mountain villages. "It wasn't easy, we had to find the proper material, learn abut the technology and especially find the money," he said.
- AFP

Source: ABC News Online

Have an Ice Day!

One good way of saying "have a nice day" to many kids - My thoughts on watching news this AM about closing of schools, government offices, and even the Post Offices during the busy Christmas season in Denver. I used to love school closings, be it for rains, strikes, or occassional Nagula Chaviti holiday. Read full story on MSNBC.

Fleecing of India

While looking for environmental information in India, I came across this research paper Exceedences of Noise Level during Festival Day - Diwali* This reminded me of Fleecing of America by Brian Williams on NBC.

These guys procured (robbed?) funding from the Department of Science and Technology, conducted a study, and found out that it gets noisy during Diwali (Duh)! First of all, this looks like a very poorly planned (if there was a plan!) study. The presentaion and discussion were very unprofessional (esp. given that there were a couple of Directors on the team). There no mention chronic exposure limits (lower levels, longer exposure) and acute exposure limits (higher levels, shorter exposure). The conclusion is funny - they left the scope for this project open ended, like those Rocky movies!

I have a feeling that a good chunk of population evade taxes in India. And a good portion of the tax received probably gets spent on projects like this (unfortunately).

The Simpsons

THX Parody. Funny

Mr. Strange!

A lawyer named Mr. Strange was shopping for a tombstone. After he had made his selection, the stone cutter asked him what inscription he would like on it. "Here lies an honest man and a lawyer," responded the lawyer. "Sorry, but I can't do that," replied the stone cutter. "In this state, it's against the law to bury two people in the same grave."

Mr. Strange was not amused by the stone cutter's attempt at humor and asked if he had another suggestion. The stone cutter said, "I could write, 'Here lies an honest lawyer'." The lawyer protested, "But that won't tell people who it was." "It most certainly will," retorted the stone cutter. "People will read, 'Here lies an honest lawyer' and exclaim, 'That's Strange!"

Source: E-mail from Javier

God Said, NO!

I asked God to take away my pride.
God said, No.
It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said, No.
His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No.
Patience is a by product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No.
I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to Me.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said, No.
I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.
God said...Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

If you love God, share love!

To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world

Source: E-mail from Ed

Japanese T-shirt Folding

Where Did I Go Wrong?

I am upset. People in my street think that I am crazy. But I don't think so. I think that I am being blamed for being prudent and logical. Here is what happened.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed scattered dry leaves on my backyard. I don't have any large trees on my property, and I know that they came from some where else. My neighbor told me that it was Peter's kid's who created this mess while I was in the office. Peter lives across the street from my house.

I confronted Peter about it, and he asserted that his children have nothing to do with the leaves in my backyard. I knew that he was lying. I complained to the police about it, and police made a formal investigation. They didn't find any wrong doing by Peter's kids. I didn't trust the cops. I was mad and I decided to take the law into my own hands. My friends told me to take it easy, but I thought that it would be wimpy of me to stay put.

I happen to be a proud owner of a backhoe. I like these machines and I bought this by spending big bucks (I lease it to construction contractors and make money off of it).

I was enraged at Peter and I put my backhoe to use to get even with him. One day, I scooped up a huge pile of dirt from my backyard, and dumped it on his front yard where he had nice flower beds, bushes, and plants. They were crushed under the pile of rubble I dumped. I was so mad that I did that a few more times and destroyed his lawn.

He was yelling at me all the time and I just ignored his complaints and did what I wanted to do. Knowing my A type personality, he realized that calling cops would do him no good in the long run. They would take down a complaint, start a formal investigation, and the case would go on for ever. He realized that I could inflict physical harm to him while the investigation is underway. He is an older guy with a frail body.

So, he decided to cleanup the soil pile by himself. He started shovelling the dirt and carrying it to his backyard, scoop by scoop. He worked on it couple of hours every day, for a week; he didn't even make a dent on the huge pile that I made with anger and pride.

Early this week, to my embarrassment, I realized that his kids had nothing to do with the dry leaves in my backyard. I didn't know how to deal with this shocker. To fix things up, I promptly hired a part-time handy man (70-year old guy), gave him my shovel, and asked him to help Peter in cleaning up the soil. They are working on it now as fast as they can.

In the mean time, my neighbors started complaining about what I did, and are bugging me to fix the neighborhood (i.e., by clean Peter's property) ASAP. They are being pretty vocal with their concern. I don't understand as to why they are being so pushy with me. It is not that I don't want to take responsibility. I am doing what I can!

To begin with, Peter's children are not exactly angels. I do know that they mess things up around the neighborhood. How could I possibly have guessed that they didn't spoil my backyard, given their track record? There was no other possibility that I could think of at that time.

I think that my neighbors are not treating me fairly. It all happened because of Peter. He is not cleaning up his property fast enough, and that is causing me trouble. Lately, he is dragging his feet with one excuse or another for not working on the pile on his property.

I think I should some how drive him off of my neighborhood. May be the new owner will take care of the mess a little better? My neighbors strongly disagree with my thoughts and actions, and I think that they need to grow up. This is not the first time for this kind of thing to happen in history!

Look at Mr. Bush. He did the exact same thing that I did! At least, my actions didn't physically harm anyone. He killed half a million people in the name of freedom, and he is a free man roaming around the world in Air Force One, with hundred million Americans firmly standing behind him (33% approval rating). Why don't I see a single person supporting me, even though I am in a similar situation? I tell you, we sure are living in a crazy world.

OK, I made this up. I don't own a backhoe either. I never wrote stories. I started typing this in an attempt to construct a simple analogy to Mr. Bush's logic (a contradiction in terms!) and events in Iraq. Sure, Mr. Bush is yet to officially criticize Mr. Maliki (PM of Iraq). But it is clear that he is expecting Mr. Maliki to do in one year, what he could not do with 150,000 troops, air force, navy, unmanned drones, and stealth fighters in three years.

Mr. Bush must understand that he created the mess and he must take care of it without whining. Or, he must admit his fault and step down. We all know that he cannot take care of it, as he IS the problem. He caused an irreversible damage. He caused half-a-million deaths and ruined a country. Isn't it brutal for a foreign power to remove a leader for causing 150 deaths, take his place, and kill 500,000 people? How can we expect the Iraqis to like the US? If Saddam is a bad guy, it is their internal problem. May be only dictatorship works in that region. They should have the liberty to gradually evolve into a democracy (if they choose so), at their own pace.

This is not to criticize the whole US. I think that the United States is a wonderful country (God bless the USA). Though it is not perfect, rest of the world must realize the positive contributions made by this great nation. Like many bumper stickers say, "We don't have to like Bush to love our country". There are many anti-war protesters and their voices are not being heard. In addition to Iraqis, Mr. Bush killed 3,000 + young US soldiers and caused physical disability to many more. I think he should be tried in the Hague for his war crimes along with Mr. Rumsfeld.

Golf Gun!

Came across the term golf field in one of the e-mails I read today. I wonder if it is a new term for golf course! This reminded me of this golf gun story that I heard somewhere.

Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez.

"How was he killed?" asked one detective.

"With a golf gun," the other detective replied.

"A golf gun?! What is a golf gun?"

"I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan."

FCC Ruling on F-Word

The FCC is ruling that the "F-word" will be acceptable language on public television and radio as long as it does not mean "it". So, when is @#$% Acceptable?

There were at least eleven times in history where the "F" word has been considered acceptable for use. They are:

1. What the @#$% do you mean we are sinking?-- Capt. E.J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912
2. What the @#$% was that?-- Mayor Of Hiroshima, 1945
3. Where did all those @#$%ing Indians come from?-- General George Custer, 1877
4. Any @#$%ing idiot could understand that.-- Einstein, 1938
5. It does so @#$%ing look like her! -- Picasso, 1926
6. How the @#$% did you work that out?-- Pythagoras, 126 BC
7. You want! WHAT on the @#$%ing ceiling?-- Michelangelo, 1566
8. Where the @#$% are we?-- Amelia Earhart, 1937
9. Scattered @#$%ing showers, my ass!-- Noah, 4314 BC
10. Aw c'mon Monica. Who the @#$% is going to find out?-- Bill Clinton, 1999
11. Geez, I didn't think they'd get this @%#*^ing mad. -- Sadaam Hussein, 2003

Source: E-mail from Ed. Slightly modified it (to make it suitable for almost all readers!).

Hunting

This is an extension to my previous Blog Post. One thing I noticed in many of my hunter friends is that they are loving, caring, family-oriented people. They do lot of charity, go to Church every Sunday, love their pets, and are good Samaritans. I didn't find them to be any different from non-hunters.

They call themselves conservationists and they call hunting "food harvesting". I see their point to an extent. For example, deer populate very rapidly as we killed their natural predators (such as bob cats) in large numbers historically. So, with their rate of growth, the deer would run out of food and could die of disease and starvation, if we don't take up the job of their ex-predators. In Texas, Texas Parks and Wild Life, collects exhaustive data on game population (I don't like calling these animals, "Game"). They issue licenses to kill (sorry, harvest!) only x number of deer every year (similarly, they have regulations on quails, turkeys, and other game hunting).

Fine, our forefathers disturbed the ecological balance and we are trying to restore it. But why so much excitement on making the kill? I saw some TV clips where sons (~12-yr olds) shoot deer and their dads cry with tears of joy on the kill. BTW, there is a hunting channel on TV that shows things like tracking, masking human scent, shooting, rifle reviews etc. 24/7! As a stark contrast to this, I remember the refinement a Bushman displays by apologizing his prey prior to shooting it with an arrow in the movie The Gods Must be Crazy (hope this custom was/is true).

The only explanation I can think of for this erratic behavior in otherwise kind human beings is, we all get desensitized on different things. For examples, in India, we eat food without any guilt consciousness in rail stations and hotels knowing (sometimes seeing) fully well that there are starving kids within like 100-ft radius. Similarly, in India, we see trash on roads and we don't bother to pick it up. Bribery is no big deal for us. One of my friends was steaming mad at Mumbai Customs folks once because they asked for a lot more bribe than he was prepared to pay! I think the most of us are educated beyond our intelligence.

I was chatting with Kumar (childhood buddy and currently a student at Insead) about bull-fighting in Spain a couple of weeks ago. He too agrees that lots of otherwise very refined Spaniards are desensitized to this brutal sport. Similarly, vegetarians like me don't know if we are hurting plants for our survival, and we don't want to know - it could turn out to be an inconvenient truth! So, in conclusion, I guess I should refrain from criticizing the hunters too much.

Light at the end of the Barrel for Blind Hunters!

Texas State Rep. Edmund Kuempel filed a Bill that would help legally-blind people in hunting! Hunting is THE thing in Texas. Heard about this Texas House Bill 308 on the radio while driving to work this AM. Spoke to my colleague Dean about it. Dean is a big time hunter and he holds a hunting lease in West Texas. In addition to paying big bucks for the lease, he pays to watch deer on his lease via web cast, through a set of cameras on the property. Based on which corn feeders are visited most by the deer with big racks, he would set up his deer blinds. He would have the ability to pan the cameras to look around.

Dean said that a couple of years ago one of the State Representatives thought about proposing a Bill that would allow people to hunt deer from their offices using remotely-operated rifles that are connected to web cameras! Apparently, that idea was dropped. I just can't understand the enjoyment these hunters draw in killing animals. They are so passionate about it. I get amazed by watching hunting rifles, scopes, and thousands of hunting supplies at Academy, when ever I go there to buy shoes, etc. during hunting season. Here is an article about House Bill 308 in today's Austin American Statesman.

No state law restricts the hunting rights of people who are blind or
visually impaired. There are, however, laws prohibiting the use of "beams of
light" to aid a hunter.

State Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, wants to change that. He has filed a
bill that would allow hunters who are legally blind to use laser sighting
devices, as long as they are accompanied by a person who is not visually
impaired and abide by the usual time and seasonal restrictions.
Such devices
project a beam of laser light on an animal, allowing a seeing person to better
direct a hunter where to aim.

Kuempel said that laser beams would give seeing hunters an "unfair
advantage" but that such devices would make hunting "a whole new ballgame" for
the visually impaired.
"This opens up the fun of hunting to additional
people, and I think that's great," said Kuempel, who filed House Bill 308 late
last month.

Steve Hall, director of hunter and boater education for the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department, said that as long as people who are visually impaired
take the mandatory hunter education class and obtain a license, there is nothing
legally stopping them from going out on their own.

"But we've never had a case where someone with a visual impairment
would want to hunt alone anyway," Hall said.

He said that the department has printed some of its educational
materials in Braille and that it can fully accommodate any physical disability.

And while Hall said he can "count on one hand" the number of times he
has witnessed a hunter who was visually impaired, he said the experience was
emotionally rewarding to both the hunters and himself.

"They all took game, as I remember," Hall said.

Kuempel said he has yet to meet with groups that advocate for the
visually impaired to talk about the bill but plans to do so soon. Tommy Craig,
president of the National Federation for the Blind in Texas, said he had not
heard of the legislation and did not anticipate his group issuing a formal
opinion on such a measure.

Glenda Born, who works as an assistant technology specialist with the
state's Division for Blind Services, said she thinks there are more important
matters that need to be addressed.
"I personally think it's a little off the
wall," said Born, who is blind.

The Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, under
which Born works, had no official comment. Spokesman Glenn Neil said the
department does not comment on pending legislation.

Kuempel said 15 states allow people who are blind or visually impaired
to use laser sights, and he doesn't want Texas to lag behind.

"I talked to some people who were talking about legally blind people
hunting, and I checked, and, lo and behold, other states already had it,"
Kuempel said. "So I said, 'It sounds like a good thing for the State of Texas
and its people who are legally blind.

Science Experiment - Marshmallow

Pretty neat!

Who says that they don’t have good ads anymore?!

Why?...

Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
Why is it that to stop Windows, you have to click on "Start"?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Source: E-mail from Mike T.

George Carlin's Wisdom

The paradox of our time in history is that we have

taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider

freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more,

but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have

bigger houses and smaller families, more

conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees

but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment,

more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but

less wellness.


We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too

recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get

too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read

too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our

values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate

too often.


We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We've added years to life not life to years. We've

been all the way to the moon and back, but have

trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.

We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've

done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.


We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We

write more, but learn less. We plan more, but

accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to

wait. We build more computers to hold more

information, to produce more copies than ever, but

we communicate less and less.


These are the times of fast foods and slow

digestion, big men and small character, steep

profits and shallow relationships. These are the

days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier

houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick

trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one

night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do

everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.


It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and

nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can

bring this letter to you, and a time when you can

choose either to share this insight, or to just hit

delete.


Remember, spend some time with your loved ones,

because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to

you in awe, because that little person soon will

grow up and leave your side.


Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you,

because that is the only treasure you can give with

your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and

your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and

an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep

inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for

someday that person will not be there again.


Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time

to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we

take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't send this to at least 8 people....who cares?

- George Carlin

Husband Software

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slowdown in the overall performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0 and NBA 3.0. And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Desperate
----------------------------------
Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind; Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Try to enter the command: C:/I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME and download Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0. If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will create Snoring Loudly. WAV files.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 or reinstall another Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have a limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support

Points to Ponder

1. The best way to get even is to forget..

2. Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death...

3. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts...

4. Some folks wear their halos much too tight...

5. Standing in the middle of the road is dangerous. You will get knocked down by the traffic from both ways.

6. Words are windows to the heart.

7. It isn't difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill, just add a little dirt.

8. A successful marriage isn't finding the right person; it's being the right person.

9. The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.

10. Too many people offer God prayers with claw marks all over them.

11. The tongue must be heavy, indeed, because so few people can hold it.

12. To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner was you.

13. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.

14. You'll notice that a turtle only makes progress when it sticks out its neck...

15. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher.

Source: E-mail from Ed

There is Always a Good Side

This Post is dedicated to my niece Swati, who is attempting (and is all set) to enter the real world, and is destined reach great new heights that she is perfectly capable of. Recently, she made it into the top 10 (after written, group discussion, and interview) of a multi-national consulting firm's examination, from a large pool of well-qualified candidates. She is not working for that company now, as the stars weren't aligned - I feel bad; I really feel bad for the company on missing out an excellent opportunity!

Everything depends on the way you look at things.
View every problem you encounter as an opportunity.
There is always a good side to every situation.

The optimist sees an opportunity in every misfortune.
The pessimist sees misfortune in every opportunity.
The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole.

You can develop success from every failure.
Discouragement and failure are two stepping stones to success.
No other elements can do so much for you
if you're willing to study them and make them work for you.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Source: Jon Stigliano, who provided training on management and transactional analysis to a group of us in my previous job.

Office Humor

Owed Two The Spell Czech Er

Eye have a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lea marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid,
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite.
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it.
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Source: E-mail from Phil, original source unknown

Grapes of Wrath and Vedanta

Yesterday, Sas (Sassosaurus) sent me this link to one of Swami Vivekananda's speeches. This is an excellent site with volumes of religious information. I enjoyed reading the article and his speech made a lot of sense to me. Also, I watched the movie Grapes of Wrath yesterday. I was surprised to hear Swami Vivekananda's vedanta from one of the characters (Tom Joad). The following are a few excerpts from Vivekananda's speech that I liked, and a transcript of Tom Joad's uttering of vedanta in the movie Grapes of Wrath. It is a great movie and I would say, it is a must see. This movie is based on a novel by John Steinbeck. My childhood buddy Raama loves Steinbeck and now I see why.

Excerpts from Swami Vivekananda's speech delivered in San Francisco on April 8, 1900.

...What religion can paint a heaven which is not like this earth? And it is all art, only this art is being made known to us gradually. We, with five senses, look upon this world and find it gross, having colour, form, sound, and the like. Suppose I develop an electric sense — all will change. Suppose my senses grow finer — you will all appear changed. If I change, you change. If I go beyond the power of the senses, you will appear as spirit and God. Things are not what they seem....

...These are what Vedanta has not to give. No book. No man to be singled out from the rest of mankind — "You are worms, and we are the Lord God!" — none of that. If you are the Lord God, I also am the Lord God. So Vedanta knows no sin. There are mistakes but no sin; and in the long run everything is going to be all right. No Satan — none of this nonsense. Vedanta believes in only one sin, only one in the world, and it is this: the moment you think you are a sinner or anybody is a sinner, that is sin. From that follows every other mistake or what is usually called sin. There have been many mistakes in our lives. But we are going on. Glory be unto us that we have made mistakes! Take a long look at your past life. If your present condition is good, it has been caused by all the past mistakes as well as successes. Glory be unto success! Glory be unto mistakes! Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!...

...Therefore Vedanta formulates, not universal brotherhood, but universal oneness. I am the same as any other man, as any animal — good, bad, anything. It is one body, one mind, one soul throughout. Spirit never dies. There is no death anywhere, not even for the body. Not even the mind dies. How can even the body die? One leaf may fall — does the tree die? The universe is my body. See how it continues. All minds are mine. With all feet I walk. Through all mouths I speak. In everybody I reside....

An excerpt from the transcript of the movie Grapes of Wrath.

Well, maybe it's like Casy says.

Fella ain't got a soul of his own, just... a little piece of a big soul.

The one big soul that belongs to everybody.

Then...

Then what, Tom?

Then it don't matter.

I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beating up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. And when people are eating the stuff they raise... living in the houses they build... I'll be there too.

I don't understand it, Tom.

Me neither, Ma, but...just something I've been thinking about.

Give me your hand, Ma.

Goodbye.

Goodbye, Tommy.

Grapes of Wrath Movie Trailer

Great Photographs

Source: Ed, original source unknown

Awesome Special Effects!

These guys are going to put ILM out of business! Also, in your face Spielberg! I am sure producers of this movie paid hefty royalties for Superman and Spider woman copy rights (need I say, I am being sarcastic?)


Seriously, Indian film censor board should ban this kind of movies that put our country to shame. It is OK (relatively speaking) to screwup on movies based on Indian culture and characters. But this is horrible.

Answers to Puzzles

A1. Spleen, Elixir, Stupid, Assure, Gutter, Jangle - Final: Resisting A Rest

Nice Photographs

Source: E-mail from Ed (original source unknown)

E-mail up to 1 GB Attachments

Read about this in Tech Monday Section of Austin American Statesman. I used this. It is pretty user friendly (and free!).

There's a new way to send large movie, music and other files without worrying about whether the e-mail systems involved can handle large attachments.

Free software from Pando Networks Inc. automatically converts your attachments into a small file that the recipient can simply open to download the original file from Pando or elsewhere. Major e-mail providers generally limit the size of files you can send or receive to 10 megabytes. That's fine for text and even small photos but not for sending an entire photo album, music or video.

And even if your provider lets you send the large files, the recipient's service provider might not accept them.

With Pando, files larger than a specified size are automatically converted. A copy of the file is sent to Pando's servers, and only a small attachment gets sent to the recipient, who must have or obtain the free software from Pando.

Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser are required to send files using the Web-based plug-ins, but Mac users can get the free stand-alone application to open them — as well as to send their own.

— Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press

Big Easy and Cajun Country

Rama, Radhika, Rushil, Sas, and I spent the evening of Thanksgiving in New Orleans. It was my first visit to NO after Hurricane Katrina. On our way back to Austin, we spent a couple of hours with Ramayya, Ramya, and Sangam in Lake Charles on 11/25/06; they were visiting their friends. I lived in New Orleans for 5 years (1993-98) and in Lake Charles for about 2.5 years (1998-2000).

We entered New Orleans during twilight hours, and watching empty streets that were once crawling with people was depressing. Watched 100s of damaged buildings along I-10 while entering NO. While driving along Canal Street, noticed lots (all most all of them) of abandoned buildings (that used to be very nice once) with piles of sheet rock, insulation, and shingles in front of them. It was hard to believe that this is a part of the US. It reminded me of scenes from Escape from New York. Went to the River Walk on Mississippi and it was deserted with eerie silence, broken occasionally by bells of the Street Car; used to be lively with lots of people walking around. Here are some pictures.

On University of New Orleans campus - saw many of these "No Guns" signs. Of course, now we find them at middle and high schools too!


6217 Wain Wright Drive. I lived at this place for a couple of years. This place was mostly not affected by Katrina:-) Three successive batches of Desi students can do more damage to houses than a Category 4 Hurricane!


Intersection of Robert E. Lee Boulevard and Paris Avenue. Used to be a busy place with tons of students and PJ's Coffee shop; now, not a single person in sight.


Levee at Canal Boulevard


Abandoned house on Canal Street; used to be a busy street w/lots of people and traffic; now it is deserted.


We all had Cafe Au Lait with Beignets at Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street. Fortunately, the French Quarter was not directly affected by Katrina, as it is above sea level. Though there was some crowd in this area, it was no where compared to what it used to be like. We noticed a lady reading Tarot cards to a couple in a dark alley near Cafe Du Monde - that alley used to be filled with people and street side vendors. To sum up, we failed to see the New Orleans that we remember. I hope that this once-lively city regains its past glory soon.

Thanksgiving 2006 in Baton Rouge, LA

Rushil Yadavalli (born April 2006). If you think that he is cute in this picture, you should see him in real! He attracts us like a magnet.

Rama and I visited Rushil, Radhika, and Sas in Baton Rouge during Thanksgiving holidays (11/22 through 11/25). Had tons of fun (esp. w/Rushil) and shopped a little bit on Black Friday. This was my first non work-related visit to LA in about 4 years, and we met Rushil for the first time. Also, it had been a while since we met Sas and Radhika last time (in 2001?) when they came to Austin to watch Mexican free-tailed bats in flight (sorry Sas, felt compelled to mention this!). Here are a couple more pictures taken in Baton Rouge.

Sas and Rushil


Had to take this pic. just for the caption: Sassosaurus at Toys"R"us! It is Radhika by his side.

M.I.T. Digital Drawing Board

A potential job security threat for crash test dummies?!

Tattoo Tailor Made for Me...

...and probably for a few of my buddies!

Incredible Drawings on FLAT Sidewalks!

Source: Ed

Men Vs. Women

This pretty much sums up the essence of hundreds of books on men vs. women:-)

I am sure women can find a zillion pictures like this about men!

Why is It 7 Up? Why not 6 Down, or 11.9 to the Right?!

Answer to this question, and hundreds of other not-so-important questions can be found in The Book of Answers. Rama (my wife/my wifi in Raama's language!) bought this book last year. I skimmed through it recently and realized that it is a must-have for porcelain scholars, in addition to The Book of Lists and Strange Stories and Amazing Facts. These books are packed with utterly useless information! Of course, there is tons of other light reading material too.

7 UP: The 7 stands for the soft drink's original 7-oz bottle, the UP for the bubbles from its carbonation.

Dr. Pepper: Dr. Pepper bottles bear the numbers 10, 2, and 4 as these represent the times between meals when a person's energy is at its lowest and can be revived by Dr. Pepper.

Chanel No. 5: Coco Chanel considered 5 a lucky number, and when she introduced the perfume in 1921, she did so on the 5th day of May, the fifth month. She called the fragrance Chanel No. 5 (with "O", shown as superscript).

WD-40: WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement, 40th attempt", a name which came from Larsen's laboratory notebook. Larsen was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion by displacing water, and arrived at the formula on his 40th try.

Indians in the US of A

I agree with this article by Mr. Paramendra Bhagat.

I think the Indians are the most successful ethnic group in America is nothing to do with any kind of racial superiority. There are over a billion Indians back there. A few million of the brightest, most educated come over. I am surprised the crowd is not more successful than it is. Why so few Indians in the top positions of government and business, academia and media?

The number one factor is education. These are cream of the crop people for the most part.

It is not fair to compare the top 0.1% of the Indians with the average American. As in, it is not fair to all those Indians who have been left behind. The average Indian has to be compared to the average American, and the relationship between the disparity in income and the differing political infrastructures in the two places has to be tallied.

Talent is evenly distributed, what is not evenly distributed is opportunity.

We have to take pride in our achievements. But we also have to face the fact that we are not doing as well as we should. The glass walls and ceilings are still there. And the political battle has to be waged for equality. And we have to see there is a direct relationship between the political empowerment of the Indians in America and the plight of the Indians in India. We have to take active interest to better the lot of those in India.

Related Quote:

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none - Thomas Carlyle

Finally, excerpts from a nice article about Indians in Business Week.

Are Indians The Model Immigrants? 2000 ...the median household income of Indians was $70,708—far above the national median of $50,046 .... Indians own 50% of all economy lodging and 37% of all hotels in the U.S. .... in the late 1990s, close to 10% of technology startups in Silicon Valley were headed by Indians. ....Indian physicians working in almost every hospital as well as running small-town practices .....Indian journalists hold senior positions at major publications, and Indian faculty have gained senior appointments at most universities. Last month, Indra Nooyi, an Indian woman, was named CEO of PepsiCo .... 81.8% of Indian immigrants arrived in the U.S. after 1980. .....63.9% of Indians over 25 hold at least a bachelor's degree, compared with the national average of 24.4%.

A Bad Case of Mondays!

Funny Epitaph:

Here lies mangled Hiriam Brown
Peered up the shaft to see
If the elevator was coming down.
It was.

Money Trail!

Painting Porch

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do.

"Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?"
The blonde said, "How about 50 dollars?" The man agreed and told her that the paint and ladders that she might need were in the garage. The man's wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?"
The man replied, "She should. She was standing on the porch."

A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money.
"You're finished already?" he asked. "Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats. "Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50. "And by the way," the blonde added, "that's not a Porch, it's a Ferrari."

Source: Wocka

Cowboy Joke

A cowboy in Montana got pulled over by a State Trooper for speeding. The trooper started to lecture the cowboy about his speeding, and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the cowboy feel uncomfortable. Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket.

As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.

The cowboy said, "Having some problem with Circle flies there, are ya?"

The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said, "Well yeah, if that’s what they are. I never heard of Circle flies."

So the cowboy says, "Well, circle flies are common on ranches. See, they're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse." The trooper says, ”Oh," and goes back to writing the ticket.

Then after a minute, he stops and says, "Are you trying to call me a horse's ass?"

The cowboy says, "Oh no, officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse's ass."

The trooper says, "Well that's a good thing," and goes back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the cowboy says, "Hard to fool those flies though."

Source: Unknown

Bush Quote:

I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.- George W. Bush, September 29, 2000