French TV: Pool Dominos Effect - Very Cool

Source: Youtube

Fish Capable of Human-like Logic

New research shows that the fish have the reasoning capacity of a 4- to -5-year-old child when it comes to figuring out which of its peers is "top dog."

Stanford University scientists made the discovery — said to be the first demonstration that fish can use logical reasoning to figure out their social pecking order — by studying fights among small, highly territorial, spiny-finned fish called cichlids, common in freshwater in tropical Africa, including in Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.

This type of reasoning, called transitive inference (TI), is a developmental milestone for human children, showing up nonverbally as early as ages 4 and 5; it also has been reported in monkeys, rats and birds. It allows thinkers to reason that if A is bigger than B, and B is bigger than C, then A is also bigger than C.

Male cichlids (Astatotilapia burtoni) regularly fight aggressively to establish real estate from a pool of limited territory, to secure control of scarce food resources and to maintain a location for spawning with females.

The ability to know in advance with which peer they could pick and win a fight is an advantage for these fish, Fernald said. To learn about fish learning, Grosenick designed experiments that staged dozens of fights across 11 days among five different fish (known to the scientists as A, B, C, D, and E, with A being the strongest and E the weakest) in a circle of transparent, plastic tanks that allowed a “bystander” fish in a center tank to observe each fight as it took place. A fought B, B fought C and so on.

Later on in an open tank, the bystander got to choose between whether to hang out with either the A fish or the E fish, even though the bystander never saw A fight E. The bystander also was tested to choose between the B fish and the D fish, which had never faced off.

Bystander fish in experiments typically chose the weakest fish—either D or E (those that had lost the most fights)—as their preferred companion, making the safest choice for their long-term survival and ability to reproduce. This preference shows, the team writes in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Nature, that the fish used observation and logical reasoning to infer or deduce the relative ranking among the five fighting fish.

Source: MSNBC

Though the researchers most likely covered all the bases, I am curious about a couple of things.

(1) Were the strongest fish also the biggest? This is important because the "bystander" probably was gravitating towards the smaller fish, irrespective of their fighting capability. May be the "bystander" went to the smaller fish due to their size, and not because they were losers?

(2) Could this behavior be due to genetic programming (at least in part), and not entirely a learned response? I don't know if deer are programmed to flee when they sense a hungry lion. If they are raised amidst a pride, would they attempt to hunt other deer along with their lion friends (and behave like Mowgli in The Jungle Book)?

Sure, we see cats and dogs getting along well if they are properly exposed to each other. I wonder if genetic programming cautions a Goldfish that it is not advisable to fight African Cichlids. Is it possible that the "bystander" instinctively knew which type of fish to hang out with, and the response had nothing to do with learning?

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. - Robert Frost

Jesus Tomb Claim Sparks Furor

According to NBC this AM, this could become very big news.

Claims by a Canadian documentary filmmaker to have found not only the burial place of Jesus, but his DNA and evidence he had a son, are being dismissed as "fanciful and absurd" by both church leaders and archeologists.

"I think this is more fanciful and absurd theorizing. Every Christian knows that Jesus, the son of God and man, died and rose again on Easter Sunday," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Catholic church in New York, where details of the discovery will be unveiled this morning. "No alleged DNA test or Hollywood film is going to change that," he told the New York Post.

The discovery could have profound implications 2,000 years after the boxes were placed in the ground, shaking the foundations of modern faith and raising Da Vinci Code-like speculation that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene.

"It's mind-boggling. It's an altered reality," Toronto documentary director Simcha Jacobovici told the Star. The burial box of Jesus and one said to belong to Mary Magdelene will be on display at a press conference in New York City this morning to announce the $4 million documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. The location of the press conference is being kept secret to prevent a mob scene.

Source: Toronto Star

Memory Test

Three old men are at the doctor for a memory test. The doctor says to the first old man, "What is three times three"? "274" was his reply. The doctor says to the second man "It's your turn. What is three times three"? "Tuesday" replys the second man. The doctor says to the third man, "OK, Your turn. What's three times three"? "Nine" says the third man. "That's great" says the doctor. "How did you get that"? "Simple" says the third man. "I subtracted 274 from Tuesday".

Source: Unknown

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

The Mystery of 108

Came across these explanations when I was trying to find the logic behind using 108 Rudraksha beads in Japamalas.

The number 108 is very auspicious for Hindus. It is the number of beads of a rosary and of many other things in Indian cosmology. But why is this number considered to be holy? The answer to this mystery may lie in the fact that the ancient Indians took this to be the distance between the earth and the sun in sun-diameter units and the distance between the earth and the moon in moon-diameter units. Two facts that any book on astronomy will verify : Distance between earth and sun = 108 times sun-diameter Distance between earth and moon = 108 times moon-diameter. Indian thought takes the outer cosmology to be mirrored in the inner cosmology of the human. Therefore, the number 108 is also taken to represent the 'distance' from the body of the devotee to the God within. The chain of 108 'links' is held together by 107 joints, which is the number of marmas, or weak spots, of the body in Ayurveda. We can understand that the 108 beads of the rosary must map the steps between the body and the inner sun. The devotee, while saying beads, is making a symbolic journey from the physical body to the heavens. - India First Foundation

I checked NASA website to see if this is true. I noticed that the ratio of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, to Diameter of the Sun works out to be 107.55; also, (distance between Earth and Moon)/(diameter of the moon) = 110.63. These numbers are close enough to 108. However, Dr. Koenraad Elst thinks that this is just a coincidence. His argument is, while the distance between the sun and its planets is fairly stable, the distance between the earth and the moon is subject to steady and ultimately very sizable changes.

Here is one more explanation I found, among many:

Perhaps 108 was given special status because of its relationship to the number 9, which also has been conisered+ an important number in Hinduism and other Asian cultures*. Some examples follow. When 108 is divided in half the result is 54; 5 + 4 = 9. Half of 54 is 27, and 2 + 7 = 9. When 108 is multiplied by 2, the result is 216; 2+1+6 = 9. When 108 is multiplied by 3 the result is 324; 3+2+4 = 9. And, of course the sum of 1+0+8 is itself 9! - Chelsea Yoga

This explanation begs for a new question. Why 9 and why not 6.74?! May be 9 for Navagraha? Though I did not find a satisfactory explanation for the choice of 108, I think that a Japamala is a good tool for meditation, and that meditation is good for health and spirit. I guess that would be sufficient knowledge for now - just keep using it while continuing the quest for knowledge:-)

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest - Henry David Thoreau

+ noted the spelling mistake (conisered), but left it uncorrected as it is a quotation.

Awesome Table Tennis Rally!

I wonder why the guy who fought so hard, gave up the point in the end by climbing on to the table? I guess it is equivalent to resignation in Chess. Talking about Chess, Windows Vista has some really cool 3D graphics Chess (one of the free games provided along with the software).
Source: You Tube

Asimo at CES 2007 Las Vegas

Human like movements by ASIMO, a humanoid robot created by Honda Motor Company (Honda), are pretty impressive in the following video.

At first, I thought that they named it ASIMO as a homage to my favorite Sci-Fi author Dr. Issac Asimov. I was surprised to learn that ASIMO is an acronym derived from Advanced Step in Innovative MObility. By the way, acclaimed Czech playwright Karel Capek made the first use of the word ‘robot’, from the Czech word for forced labor.

Finally, it was funny to watch the presenters of ASIMO talking to it as if it was a dog or an infant! I wonder, if (when?!) robots take over the world in the future like in the Sci-Fi movies, if they would get agitated on watching their humble beginnings, the way apes felt in the movie Planet of the Apes!

At UPS, Left Isn't Right

Watch a UPS truck make its way through a neighborhood and see if it makes a left turn. If it does, you will have witnessed something unusual.

The company plans its loop-shaped delivery routes in a way that minimizes left turns. Left turns use more fuel than right turns because the driver has to wait for oncoming traffic to pass.

"They work the right side of that truck all the way around that circle to where they started," said Heather Robinson, a UPS spokeswoman in Atlanta. "Unfortunately, it's hard to quantify (the fuel savings), but we are shaving millions of miles off the routes driven by our drivers."

The planning starts before drivers like Arnone get in their trucks. And a lot of that planning takes place in sprawling UPS centers like the one off Front Street in Yorktown Heights during the early hours of the morning.

Drivers wearing their brown outfits - or in the parlance of the company "browned up" - begin arriving while other workers use hand-held devices to scan the label on each package scheduled for delivery that day. That produces a second label that tells the worker the truck that will deliver the package. The second label also tells the worker the shelf in that truck where the package should be placed.

The scanning also produces the electronic manifest that drivers have on their hand-held computers, which are called Delivery Information Acquisition Devices, or DIADs. The driver scans each package with the device before handing the package to the recipient or dropping it at the door.

If Arnone is supposed to deliver, let's say, three packages to a certain business or residence and scans only two, the device will send a signal that there's still another package on the truck for that recipient.

If he parks his truck near a certain address and scans a package that's supposed to go to another address, the global positioning system in the computer will alert him that he's making a mistake.

Economizing drivers' time means the company does not need as many drivers on the road. The system reduces the number of truck trips out of the Yorktown Heights center by about three.

"Multiply that by the entire continental United States, and that's an incredible amount of fuel they're saving," Arnone said.

Just after workers finish plucking packages off moving belts and placing them in trucks inside the cavernous United Parcel Service Inc. distribution center in Yorktown Heights, a supervisor tells driver Chris Arnone to "Get Edd."

Arnone grabs his hand-held computer, which runs off software called "enhanced DIAD download," and looks at the list of stops he will make on his route in Bedford on this day, once he pulls out in a familiar brown box truck.

The small screen also tells Arnone, a 12-year UPS veteran, how many packages he has to deliver on each stop and where each package is located on his truck. The packages he'll deliver at the start of his route are on the shelves toward the back of the truck.

By making it easier for drivers to locate packages and bring them to the right addresses, the company reduces the chances of a driver's leaving a package at the wrong door or missing a delivery and having to double back to the home or business. Those kinds of missteps cost the company fuel.

UPS, the world's largest package carrier, saves millions of dollars a year in fuel costs with sage route planning, cutting-edge technology, alternative fuels and common-sense conservation. In an era when gasoline and diesel prices are always just a supply disruption away from shooting up to $3 and beyond, the company that asks, "What can brown do for you?" also spends a lot of time asking, "What can green do for our bottom line?"

Source: The Journal News

Dr Quantum - Double Slit Experiment

This is Video is amazing! Looks like this would be an indirect answer to "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"!

In physics, wave-particle duality holds that light and matter can exhibit properties of both waves and of particles. It is a central concept of quantum physics. Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie and many others, it is now established that small objects, such as atoms, have both wave and particle nature, and that quantum mechanics provides the over-arching theory resolving this apparent paradox.

President's day

Today is the president's day, a holiday for the US Government offices. It is celebrated as Washington's birthday and falls on third Monday in February every year. George Washington was actually born on February 11, 1731, on the Julian calendar (OS), in use before England's calendar reformation in September 1752.

According to Wikipedia,

In the late 1980s, ...the term Presidents Day began its public appearance. The theme has expanded the focus of the holiday to honor another February President, Abraham Lincoln, and often other Presidents of the United States. Although Lincoln's birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington's Birthday observances as "Presidents Day", "Washington and Lincoln Day", or other such designations.

Here is some trivia about the US presidents, from National Geographic.

The smallest President was James Madison (Presidential term 1809-17). The fourth President, Madison stood 5 feet, 4 inches (163 centimeters) tall and weighed less than 100 pounds (45 kilograms).

The tallest President was Abraham Lincoln (1861-65). He stood 6 feet, 4 inches (193 centimeters) tall.

The heaviest President was William Howard Taft (1909-13), who sometimes tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms) during his tenure. After he became stuck in the White House bathtub, Taft ordered a new one installed. The replacement was big enough to hold four grown men of average size.

The oldest President ever elected was Ronald Reagan (1981-89). The 40th President took office at the age of 69.

The youngest elected President was John F. Kennedy (1961-63), who reached the White House at 43. But the youngest President to ever serve was Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09), who was elected Vice President on a ticket with President William McKinley. In September 1901 a deranged anarchist shot McKinley twice in Buffalo, New York, and Roosevelt assumed the top office at 42.

Benjamin Harrison (1889-93), the 23nd President, was the first President to attend a baseball game. He saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Senators 7 to 4 on June 6, 1892.

William Taft started the tradition of the Presidential "first pitch" of baseball season. The event took place on April 4, 1910, during an opening day game between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.

Since Taft's first pitch, every President but one has opened at least one baseball season during their tenure. The exception: Jimmy Carter (1977-1981).
John Quincy Adams (1825-29), the sixth President, customarily took a nude early morning swim in the Potomac River.

George Washington (1789-1797), Thomas Jefferson (1801-09), and John Adams (1797-1801) were all avid collectors and players of marbles.

Four sitting Presidents have been assassinated while in office: Abraham Lincoln, James Abram Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1897-1901), and John F. Kennedy (1961-63).

Six other Presidents were luckier and survived their assassination attempts: Andrew Jackson (1829-37), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09), Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45), Harry Truman (1945-53), Gerald Ford (1974-77), and Ronald Reagan (1981-89).

Other Presidents have died while in office:

William Henry Harrison (1841), the ninth President, died of pneumonia one month to the day after making—in the snow—the longest U.S. presidential inauguration speech on record.

Zachary Taylor (1849-50), the 12th President, died in 1850 of an inflamed stomach and intestines just 16 months after he took office.

Warren Harding (1921-23), who presided over a scandal-plagued administration, died suddenly on August 2, 1923. Medical records suggest Harding battled high blood pressure and died of a heart attack. But rumors at the time claimed Harding either took his own life or was poisoned by his wife, who sought to end Harding's notorious philandering.

John Adams (1797-1801), the second President, and Thomas Jefferson (1801-09), the third President, both died on July 4, 1826. Calvin Coolidge (1923-29), the 30th President, was born on July 4, 1872.

The first President born a U.S. citizen was Martin Van Buren (1837-41). Van Buren was delivered on December 5, 1782, making him the first President born after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Virginia is the birthplace of the greatest number of Presidents. It boasts eight. Thirty-one states have never claimed a native son as President.

Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to travel abroad while in office; he visited the Panama Canal in 1906.

In 1943 Franklin Roosevelt made the first Presidential flight.

Richard Nixon was the first President to visit all 50 states.

Bill Clinton set a record for the most trips abroad: 133.

George W. Bush, the 43rd and current President, lost the popular vote to Al Gore in 2000. Bush is the fourth President to attain the highest office in the U.S. without the backing of the majority of the people. He shares the distinction with John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-81), and Benjamin Harrison.

James Monroe (1817-25), the fifth President, received every Electoral College vote except one. The holdout: a New Hampshire delegate who wanted to preserve the legacy of George Washington, the first and only President elected unanimously by the Electoral College.

Gerald Ford (1974-77) was the only President to serve who was not elected by U.S. voters either as President or Vice President. In 1973 then-President Richard Nixon (1969-74) appointed Ford Vice President after former Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. When Nixon resigned from the White House on August 9, 1974 (the only President to do so), Ford became President.

Bill Clinton (1993-2001), the 42nd President, was the second President to be impeached. In 1998 Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1868, but he was also later acquitted by the Senate.

George W. Bush is the second President to follow in the footsteps of his father. George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President. John Quincy Adams (1825-29), the sixth President, was the son of John Adams (1797-1801), the second President.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends - Abraham Lincoln

Frugal Living as a Form of Tax Resistance

I came across this article Your War Doesn't Fit Into My Budget by Mr. David Gross, on voluntary simplicity. I am impressed by his conviction for his cause.

Since I adopted a frugal lifestyle four years ago, of all the dumb, harmful, and worthless things I don't miss wasting my money on, I don't miss the war on Iraq the most.

When the war on Iraq started, I quit my job and deliberately reduced my income to the point where I no longer owe federal income tax. I transformed my life, concentrating on what really matters, so that I can live within my means without paying federal income tax - honestly, peacefully, and legally.

American households have, on average, spent more than $4,000 apiece on the Iraq war (so far), and that's just the extra costs of that war above and beyond what they spend to keep the military going year after year (another $5,000 per year per household).

By and large, these households spend this money whether they want to or not, because they don't think they have a choice. At most, they grumble about "death and taxes" and they wish the politicians were nobler and wiser while they watch their paychecks get whittled down by the I.R.S.

But the times call for more than complaining and wishful thinking. We have to put as much of our effort as we can on the side of our values, instead of allowing so much of our effort to be stolen by the tax man and used to promote the values of politicians and the military/industrial complex.

As it says in Your Money Or Your Life, "when we go to our jobs we are trading our life energy for money." When we pay taxes, the government is taking our life energy from us. If you live frugally on a low income, the I.R.S. takes less from you -- so you can dedicate more to your own priorities.

In fact, when it comes to the personal income tax, about two-in-five American households live "under the tax line" and pay nothing at all. Opponents of the Iraq war and other government priorities would be wise to ask if they should endeavor to become part of this two-in-five.

There's a long history of frugality being used in the arsenal of groups opposed to government policy -- including the American "Founding Fathers". During the first Continental Congress in 1774, John Adams wrote home to his wife, "Frugality, my Dear, Frugality, Œconomy, Parcimony must be our Refuge. I hope the Ladies are every day diminishing their ornaments, and the Gentlemen too. Let us Eat Potatoes and drink Water. Let us wear Canvass, and undressed Sheepskins, rather than submit to the unrighteous, and ignominious Domination that is prepared for Us."

Maybe it's not time for another American Revolution just yet, but it's certainly time for more Americans to put their money and their life energy where their hearts are.

Good News for Grumps!

I just realized that I work with a bunch of really creative people, on reading this article in Seattle P.I.!

Recent research shows it could be the grumpy workers who are actually a company's most creative problem-solvers, said Jing Zhou, associate professor of management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

It's the happy, cheerful folks who tend to think things are going well and that there are no problems to be solved, she said. They're less likely to be pondering potential pitfalls and often don't see problems until there is a crisis.

It's a departure from the general management philosophy that a positive mood leads to creative problem-solving, said Zhou, who based her findings on the results of 161 responses from employees and their supervisors at a large oil-field services company.

The supervisors ranked the creativity of their workers and that ranking was compared to the workers' self-assessment of their moods. Traditionally, researchers have tested creativity by getting people to watch a short funny movie that puts them in a good mood, she said. Then they ask them to solve a problem like a puzzle.

The trouble with experiments like that is it isn't really applicable to the workplace, she said. The research subjects don't seek out their own problems to solve nor can they control how long they spend with the solution.

Focusing on how people process information, Zhou found in her research that those in periodic bad moods tend to be more detail-oriented and analytical. They're also challenging the status quo.

And when someone is in a negative mood, they're also motivated to get out of it. Of course, Zhou's not talking about someone who is sour all the time. "If you are like that, there is little anyone can do," she said.

But the occasional grump also needs a good leader who creates a culture that allows room for the employee to operate. Without one of those key qualities that encourages change, the employee just stays cranky.

A positive mood means getting along, said Bob Hogan, president of Hogan Assessment Systems in Tulsa, Okla. A contrary attitude, however, can lead to advancement.

That's because an independent worker often has a willingness to take people on, said Hogan, who does personality testing for corporate clients. A mood of contentment doesn't fit with creativity, he said. So what kind of employee does a company want to hire? It depends on the type of job, according to Hogan.

A company that runs a call center wants employees with good moods because they're focused on acceptance and getting things implemented. "They will get punished if they're creative," he said. But companies want "overcaffinated, energetic and agitated" employees for advertising, marketing and product development, he said.

Hogan said he follows his own advice when it comes to his own hiring. When he's looking for a customer service representative, he looks for the person who is "sweet and smiling."

A research position? "I don't care about sweetness. It's focus and intensity."

In an effort to hire the best employees, Steve Hines has learned to pay close attention to the emotion he sees during job interviews. And when he doesn't see any, he gets worried. "If you are happy all the time, it sends up a flag," said Hines, vice president of human resources for Armor Holdings, a defense and law enforcement manufacturing company.

People whose moods go up and down are living in the real world, Hines said. They're the ones who see both sides of things.

Hines said he tries to get at that range of emotion in job interviews by asking applicants to describe the best thing they've done in the past couple of years and the most disappointing thing.

He then searches for the excitement when applicants describe their big accomplishments and then search for the change in mood and demeanor when they describe their low points.

It's not all that uncommon not to see the shift, he said, speculating that those applicants either don't have the emotional range or won't show it. That range is especially important for the engineers and other technical and professional employees, said Hines, who has seen first-hand how bad moods can spark creativity. "I don't just want you to come and do a job," he said. "I want creativity."

Get a Life!

The following is from Pulitzer Prize winning author Anna Quindlen's commencement address to Villanova University, Friday 23 June 2000. My childhood buddies Murali, Venkatesh, and Emani went to Villanova and I had an opportunity of visiting them and their beautiful campus about 8 years ago. I enjoyed reading this commencement address.

It's a great honor for me to be the third member of my family to receive an honorary doctorate from this great university. It's an honor to follow my great Uncle Jim, who was a gifted physician, and my Uncle Jack, who is a remarkable businessman. Both of them could have told you something important about their professions, about medicine or commerce.

I have no specialized field of interest or expertise, which puts me at a disadvantage talking to you today. I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know.

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first. Don't ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for re-election because he had been diagnosed with cancer: "No man ever said on his deathbed, 'I wish I had spent more time at the office."

Don't ever forget the words my father sent me on a was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living.

But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account but your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've gotten back the test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout.

But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, or at best mediocre at my job, if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter.

Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a Big Brother or to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my druthers, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all: I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that life is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.

Why Danes are Smug?

Danes are unrivalled in satisfaction with life. The University of Leicester recently published the World Map of Happiness with Denmark as number one. For more than 30 years this country with five million inhabitants has ranked first in Eurobarometer surveys. More than two thirds of Danes are "very satisfied" with their lives according to these surveys. In no other Eurobarometer country has this proportion exceeded a half, and for most of the countries the proportion is less than a third....

BMJ hypothesized the following as the top three reasons for this unusual happiness of Danes.

Hair colour—It may indeed be the case that "blondes have more fun." This hypothesis was launched in the 1950s by a commercial slogan for a hair dye and was cemented in popular culture in 1978 by rock musician Rod Stewart's album of the same title. Sweden, however, has a higher prevalence of blondes than Denmark.1

Genes—Genetic factors might influence differences in life satisfaction within a country,2 and Danes might have a special genetic constitution. Genotypes in Sweden, however, are similar to those in Denmark because most Swedes were Danes until the 17th century.

Food—Meals in Denmark can be politely described as unmemorable. "Danish cuisine" is an oxymoron, except perhaps the open faced "butter breads" that accompany the beer and aquavit Danes consume for lunch. Older Danes satisfy their hunger with potatoes, gravy, and a bit of pork, and younger ones devour hotdogs, hamburgers, and Baltic-style pizzas. Danish cuisine has some similarities with food from Switzerland and Austria, the second and third happiest nations according to the World Map of Happiness; this suggests that the consumption of comfort foods may be important for life satisfaction.

Finally, here is the Map of World Happiness published by the University of Leicester. I see that we Indians are not as happy as some others. But one (positive) way to look at it is, we (among others) are neither happy nor unhappy - a quality of a Karma Yogi?!

Nightmare for the Minuteman

Reader's Digest gathered that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States now, with estimated 700,000 illegal aliens entering every year, mainly across the Mexican border! I heard that this (Spring season) is a busy time for the Coyotes! No wonder that hardly anyone knows about the 65,000 quota for annual H1-B Visas! I came across this interesting proposal that is being considered by Mexico.

MEXICO CITY - Mexican officials are studying the possibility of giving global positioning systems to migrants thinking about crossing the border into the United States. Supporters of the idea say they could be used to help the Border Patrol agents locate migrants in trouble. Hundreds of Mexicans are killed each year trying to sneak illegally into the United States. Some drown, while others die in the heat.

A Mexican university is developing the locators, which would be given to migrants for free. U.S. officials haven't signed off on the plan. Anti-immigration groups have criticized similar efforts to help migrants, but Mexican officials deny it will encourage illegal migration.

Source: thebta.org

I believe that illegal immigration at this scale is negatively affecting the US economy. Some argue that the illegal workers take up only those jobs that the Americans refuse to do. I don't think so. I think that the illegal immigrants have glutted the labor market and drove the wages down significantly. So, if someone wants to take up a job say in crop picking or a meat processing plant, they should be prepared to reduce their living standard significantly.

A small example? Cheapest haircut used to cost around $11 in Austin a few years ago. Now, I see signs that say haircuts from $5.50 and up. Think of a hair stylist who bought a house with a 30-yr mortgage, assuming that he/she would be making at least $15/hr (on an average)?

I will agree if someone says that illegal immigration is OK from humanitarian stand point - giving hard working people a chance to better their lives. But I find it hard to accept if someone says that illegal immigration is good for the economy. Sure, we may pay a few dollars less for a haircut but we get shafted with higher taxes that are needed to provide health care and education to the people who don't pay taxes (mostly, illegal immigrants).

A Random quote: The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it. - Bill Cosby

Austin Hindu Temple Opened

Gettysburg Address

Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Thought of blogging his eloquently put Gettysburg address. About three years ago, Rama and I visited the State House in Vandalia, Illinois where Abraham Lincoln started his political career as a state representative. It was a wonderful experience.

The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history.[1] It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In fewer than 300 words delivered in just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Source: Wikipedia

The Old Man, the Boy, and their Donkey

There was an old man, a boy, and a donkey. They were going to town and it was decided that the boy should ride. As they went along they passed some people who thought that it was a shame for the boy to ride and the old man to walk. The old man and boy decided that maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions. Later, they passed some more people who thought that it was a real shame for that man to make such a small boy walk.

The two decided that may be they both should walk. Soon they passed some more people who thought that it was stupid to walk when they had a donkey to ride. The man and the boy decided maybe the critics were right so, they decided that they both should ride.

They soon passed other people who thought that it was a shame to put such a load on a poor little animal. The old man and the boy decided that may be the critics were right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed a bridge they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story: If you try to please everyone, you will eventually lose your ass. People will talk ... let them ... You LIVE FOR YOURSELF !

Source: Geocities

Salutation of the Dawn

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Author: Kalidasa
Source: Thinkexist

A Scientist's Clone

Read this a long time ago, and came across it again; thought it was funny.

A scientist was successful in cloning himself, and was asked to speak at a national convention of cloning scientists. The meeting room was located on the 45th floor of a New York skyscraper.

"My fellow scientists," he began, but before he could utter another word, the clone jumped up and shouted, "He's a *&^^%*&!". Apologizing for the interruption, the scientist began again. "My fellow scientists," and again, the clone sprang to his feet
and yelled, "This dumb *%@(&+*! couldn't produce a copy on a Xerox. He's a
fraudulent *$3%$#*#+=!"

Incensed, the scientist rushed to the clone, grabbed him, and threw him out of the window. The crowd gasped, and security rushed into the room. A short while later, New York's finest arrived, and the events that had transpired were explained to them. The police chief said to the scientist, "We are going to have to arrest you".

"The scientist replied, "For what? You can't arrest me for killing a clone!" The attending scientists nodded in agreement."Well!" retorted the police chief. He thought for a moment and ordered the scientist held for making an obscene clone fall.

Source: Frappydoo

Asimov's Short Story

As is well known, in this thirtieth century of ours, space travel is fearfully dull and time-consuming. In search of diversion, many crew members defy the quarantine restrictions and pick up pets from the various habitable worlds they explore.

Jim Sloane had a rockette, which he called Teddy. It just sat there, looking like a rock, but sometimes it lifted a lower edge and sucked in powdered sugar. That was all it ate. No one ever saw it move, but every once in a while, it wasn't quite where people thought it was. There was a theory that it moved when no one was looking. Bob Laverty had a heli-worm he called Dolly. It was green and carried on photosynthesis. Sometimes it moved to get into better light and when it did so it coiled its wormlike body and inched along very slowly like a turning helix.

One day, Jim Sloane challenged Bob Laverty to a race. "My Teddy," he said, "can beat your Dolly." "Your Teddy," scoffed Laverty, "doesn't move." "Bet!" said Sloane. The whole crew got into the act. Even the captain risked half a credit. Everyone bet on Dolly. At least she moved. Jim Sloane covered it all. He had been saving his salary through three trips and he put every millicredit of it on Teddy. The race started at one end of the grand salon. At the other end, a heap of sugar had been placed for Teddy and a spotlight for Dolly.

Dolly formed a coil at once and began to spiral its way very slowly toward the light. The watching crew cheered it on. Teddy just sat there without budging. "Sugar, Teddy. Sugar," said Sloane, pointing. Teddy did not move. It looked more like a rock than ever, but Sloane did not seem concerned.

Finally, when Dolly had spiraled halfway across the salon, Jim Sloane said casually to his rockette, "If you don't get out there, Teddy, I'm going to get a hammer and chip you into pebbles." That was when people first discovered that rockettes could read minds. That was also when people first discovered that rockettes could teleport. Sloane had no sooner made his threat when Teddy simply disappeared from his place and reappeared on top of the sugar.

Sloane won, of course, and he counted his winnings slowly and luxuriously. Laverty said bitterly, "You knew the damn thing could teleport." "No, I didn't," said Sloane, "but I knew he would win. It was a sure thing." "How come?" "It's an old saying everyone knows. Sloane's Teddy wins the race."

Source: Asimov Online

Enjoy Your Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive; and in some cases, even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... and then began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

Source: The Pulse

Astronaut Arrested!

ORLANDO, Fla. - An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.

U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail. Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman.

Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery’s trip to the space station last December, police said.

Source: MSNBC

Jesus' Math

One day, Jesus said to his disciples, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like 3x^2 + 8x -9." A man who had just joined the disciples looked very confused and asked Peter, "What on Earth does he mean by that?" Peter replied, "Don't worry, it's just another one of his parabolas."

Source: ddhr.org

Super Bowl Day

It is Super Bowl Sunday. I see that there are still a few tickets available at Stubhub for about $2,500 to $13,500 a pop (probably, these numbers change every minute!).

If you were selected for broadcasting a 30-second Advertisement during this year's Super Bowl, you would have paid $2.6 million for it - it works out to about $87,000 per second!

Here is a really cool Fed Ex Ad from last year's (2006) Super Bowl. I Loved the guy kicking the baby dinosaur and getting pasted by a giant foot in the next second - a little unintended "there is always a bigger fish" message!

Moral/Ethical Dilemma

Here is an excerpt from what I found on IT Contractor. Not sure if it actually was part of an interview or not, but it sure is a nice one.

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car? Think before you continue reading.This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with an answer.WHAT DID HE SAY?He simply answered:

"I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams."

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box".

Punxsutawney Phil

It is Groundhog day today. According to Wikipedia, "Groundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks."

I loved the following Air America Radio's comment on State of the Union address of George Bush around Groundhog day last year:

It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication while the other involves a groundhog.

Relative Moralism

Source: Neil Rogers Show