What Does Kodak Mean?

A factoid: Kodak originally meant nothing! The following is extracted from The Book of Answers.

According to George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, the name is his invention: "I knew a trade name must be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled...and in order to satisfy trademark laws, it must mean nothing....The letter k had been a favorite with me - it seemed a strong, incisive sort of letter....Then it became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with k". The name Kodak is the result.

Jessica Lynch

The following news article on ABC begs the question, "what exactly is going on in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan"? As it is impossible to know what each soldier is doing in foreign wars, in many cases, I think we just accept the prima facie evidence on killings of insurgents, without further investigation (for the lack of resources).

I am sure that there are trigger-happy soldiers out there who have no respect for civilian lives. They shoot first and ask questions later. Every civilian who is killed is simply labeled as an "insurgent". I don't think we would ever hear of these war crimes. No wonder we are losing (lost) respect of the world. And of course, there are many brave, patriotic, and innocent U.S. soldiers out there who are caught in a wrong war. If not for them, the freedoms we are enjoying wouldn't be possible.

Questions are raised over the rescue of former P.O.W. Jessica Lynch, now there's an investigation underway into what really happened in Iraq. Lynch was wounded and captured when her convoy was ambushed in March 2003.

Special Forces rescued the Wirt County native nine days later from an Iraqi hospital. U.S. officials originally said Lynch fought her attackers until her ammunition ran out, but she later said she never fired a shot. Tuesday, Lynch told her side of the story.

Lynch and the family of Soldier Pat Tillman spoke to a House of Representatives panel about the inaccuracies surrounding what happened to both soldiers and why the truth was hidden. She says the heroic stories told through the media were fabricated.

Lynch came home a hero and will be forever physically and emotionally scarred; however, she says she did not fight back like military officials originally said.

Lynch heralds those who lost their lives as the real heroes. Soldier Pat Tillman died on the battlefield and his family was told several inaccuracies about his death.

They told the panel the lies were made up as propaganda for the war to keep up Americans' support. Lynch; however, doesn't blame government collusion

Members of the military also spoke to the panel. They were questioned about whether or not there was any type of cover up in the two cases. Despite all the inaccuracies, Lynch says there is some truth in her story, she will always remain devoted to the military service and her country.

Cephalalgic Experience!

"I've just had the most awful time," said a boy to his friends. "First I got angina pectoris, then arteriosclerosis. Just as I was recovering, I got psoriasis. They gave me hypodermics, and to top it all, tonsillitis was followed by appendectomy."

"Wow! How did you pull through?" sympathized his friends.

"I don't know," the boy replied. "Toughest spelling test I ever had."

Source: Unknown

The Master Cleanse

A few of my colleagues invited me to join them in the Master Cleanse process. I may take up on their invitation in the future (they are doing it once or twice a year), if I am convinced that it is beneficial. I don't know enough about it now. Here is some information on Master Cleanse that I extracted from the Raw Food Site.

What is Master Cleanse?

For a minimum of 10 days, you drink only the lemonade mixture, made with organic grade B maple syrup, fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice, and cayenne pepper added to spring, distilled, or purified (NOT fluoridated) water.

Why do it?

Please believe me when I say that the Master Cleanse (or the Lemonade Diet) by Stanley Burroughs is, in my opinion, the fastest and most effective way to regain your vitality and to feel the joy of living again, never mind that it will help you lose weight and give you astounding energy.

Dr. James F. Coy on Master Cleaning

In my environmental medicine practice, I attempt to identify toxic elements, physical and spiritual. Then I can help the patient avoid, protect against or detoxify them. I follow that with nutrition to promote as much additional healing as possible. In detoxification, my goal is always to use what works without further harming the patient and I use many, many things.

The Master Cleanse is simple and combines & surpasses many other detox methods. It literally has been a God-send to my practice. I am grateful to Peter for seeing, loving, and promoting the values of this cleanse.

What is detoxification?

Detoxifying literally means removing poisons from your body. Once these poisons are gone, you will feel energetic, vital, happy and healthy. It is the poisons that make us feel tired, mentally confused, irritable, unhappy, depressed and ill. Consequently you should look forward to detoxification.

My colleagues who completed Master Cleansing, said that they lost weight, felt better physically, and that they were more focused during and after the cleanse. Some sceptics in my office say that it is excessive, crazy, and that we would lose more muscle mass than fat during this process.

American Heroes Air Show - Austin, Texas

Rama and I went to this air show early morning on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at Camp Mabry. The intent of this show was to expose janata* to different kinds of helicopters and their uses. My colleague Martin says that this is a government propaganda to gain our acceptance to these machines which in turn would facilitate Orwellian Control!

What ever the intent was, I enjoyed the close look of these machines and feeling their controls. The coolest things of course was watching landing of Apache and then getting a closer look of this sleek beauty created for just for one thing - destruction. I couldn't think of a better example for "beauty is skin deep" while watching these war machines. I must admit that its intended use (annihilation) failed to bother me (but it should have) while watching and feeling this ~ $18** million engineering marvel. Here are some photos I shot at this show (double click on each picture for an enlarged image).

* Janata = public in Hindi (one of the official languages of India)
** Cost in 1984 , must be a lot more now, I guess

Some stuff on sale - I am assuming that the 100-meter warning is being used in Iraq

Apache - we were at the closest safe distance to the landing spot (I guess about 500 feet) and still we felt like we were facing gale force winds - the rotors were pretty powerful.

A small one, for medical and emergency evacuations

Another small one

One of the military helicopters

The pilot explaining about Apache and its Hellfire missiles

Controls of a small helicopter

Rama in front of Austin Police helicopter

Controls in one of the military helicopters

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

I have been reading recently about this strange behavior (bee-hive err?!) of the bees. For the past couple of years, large colonies of bees have been leaving their hives and are not returning. The apiarists are puzzled and worried. Here are some excerpts from Fort Collins Weekly about this queer phenomenon.

Right now, that mystification is almost universal. Across the country, beekeepers are grappling with the bizarre disappearance of hundreds of thousands of honeybees that leave their hives and are never seen again. In many cases, all that is left is an empty hive, a handful of sick bees and a swarm of unanswered questions.

While scientists, academics and Congressional probes scramble to find out what’s happening to these vanishing bees, one thing is becoming clear: the impact of honeybees’ disappearance on the nation’s food supply could be significant. Commercial beekeepers like the Gilmores’ Colorado Pollination Co. are responsible for pollinating crops as diverse as almonds, cherries, squash and cucumbers. Crops like wheat and corn are pollinated by the wind, but 90 different flowering crops are pollinated by human-managed bee colonies that are trucked back and forth across the country purely for the sake of pollination. In fact, the Gilmores’ hives just returned from California, where two-thirds of the nation’s bees are employed every year to pollinate almond trees by the Almond Board of California.

Nationally, migratory honeybees are responsible for pollinating an estimated $14 billion worth of crops, making them a lynchpin in farmers’ harvests from coast to coast.

In addition to being critical to the food supply, honeybees are critical to those who raise them commercially, with beekeepers earning about $125 per hive for pollination contracts, according to Jerry Cochran, a former state bee inspector and the current nursery and seed management program director with the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

“If they don’t figure something out, there are beekeepers worried that the industry will collapse,” Cochran says.

Indeed, some beekeepers’ personal industries have already collapsed. A beekeeper in upstate New York recently reported having lost half of his 4,700 hive colony to CCD; in Colorado, a beekeeper in the San Luis Valley lost 5,000 of his 6,000 hive colony. CCD has been reported in 24 states, with many affected beekeepers reporting between half to almost all of their colonies vanishing on the wind.

While the phenomenon hasn’t yet been significant for Northern Colorado beekeepers, the lack of explanation for the bees’ disappearance has most of them on edge and wondering if their own colonies will be affected.

Theories as to CCD’s causes have covered a lot of territory. One theory is that the proliferation of cell phone towers, perhaps combined with the use of new nicotine-based pesticides, have been interfering with bees’ navigational abilities, making it impossible for them to find their way home. Others suspect a new virus or microscopic parasite infecting hives. Others suggest stress—particularly among hives that are transported long distances for pollination—or genetically modified crops, specifically those with a gene that produces the bacterial toxin Bt. Alone, Bt isn’t believed to affect healthy bees, but when introduced to bees infected with parasites, it could lead to infection, according to a German study recently cited by the Christian Science Monitor. Others believe high-fructose corn syrup used to supplement bees’ diets when they are pollinating crops with little nutritional benefit to bees, like canola, is to blame.

The nationwide CCD outbreak didn’t happen overnight—in fact, it’s been going on for nearly two years now—and initially, it was thought to only affect migratory hives like the Gilmores’, those that were placed on flatbed trucks and driven across the country as contract pollinators.

“The nature of migratory beekeeping is by nature very stressful on the bees,” Cochran says. “That’s the only thing that they could connect to them.”

But there have been reports of stationary beekeepers experiencing the same problems, leading to new theories that consider other factors in addition to hive stress.

“My guess is that it’s going to be an interaction of factors, stress being one factor,” Cochran says. “When they look inside the bees (that remain in a collapsed hive) they see a whole host of things (that point to fungal or parasitic infestation). Something is going on with these bees that makes them very susceptible to these things.”

The multiple-factor theory is one that’s widely held. The current bee population in the United States is maintained by a mere 600 queens that are keeping a bloodline alive that dates to the 1600s.

“Since then it’s kind of been a static gene pool,” Macpherson says. “There’s some real concern as to whether we have done a disservice here. We’re using all these chemicals and feeding them sugar syrup. Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this and we should let the weak ones die off.”

Instead, bees are fortified with chemicals and supplemental diets to maintain their population as they pollinate flowering plants in a highly-managed environment, where they contend not only with genetically modified crops, but synthetic pesticides. CCD appears to many scientists to be an immune system disorder, with some theorizing that it is a natural reaction to being bred in a highly unnatural environment that suppresses evolutionary adaptation.

Perhaps the bigger question is how well the food chain will rebound in the wake of a substantial bee loss. According to a Cornell study, honeybees are responsible for having pollinated every third bite of food consumed by Americans. Almond trees pollinated by bees produce 60 percent more nuts than those that don’t use bees.

For years now, American and European scientists have tracked a decline in natural pollinators—wild bees, wasps, native butterflies and other insects—due to a host of reasons, including widespread pesticide use, lose of natural habitat and new diseases. As those populations have declined, farmers came to rely more and more on honeybees for pollination. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, honeybees provided an economic benefit to agriculture of between $1.6 billion and $5.7 billion in 1994—that figure has risen to $14 billion as reliance on honeybees has grown.

Post-post addition: An article on this subject in NY Times, courtesy, Raama. The moral I learned from this: If we try to fleece bees into doing our work*,bees flee!

* Using bees for our work - improve agriculture by carrying bee colonies across the country and using them for pollination.

Caffeinated Soaps!

According to Reuters:

Inventors have created a soap infused with caffeine which helps users wake up in the morning. The soap, called Shower Shock, supplies the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee per wash, with the stimulant absorbed naturally through the skin, manufacturers say.

While they were at it, I wonder why they didn't work on soaps that supply nicotine too. A couple of my colleagues mentioned (when I suggested them to quit smoking) that they can't hear the call of nature until they play the silent clarinet*. Perhaps washing their hands with a nicotine soap would do the trick!

*My Vizag friend Saiappa used to call smoking as playing "mooga sannai". In Telugu, mooga = silent, and Sannai = a musical instrument. Clarinet is the only substitute word that I can think of for Sannai now.

Living to Work

Americans may be the most overworked, vacation-deprived people on Earth. On average, we get 14 vacation days a year—less than other Western countries—and the typical U.S. employee only uses 10 of them. And 37% of workers take less than seven consecutive days off a year.

"Overwork in America,” a study by the Families and Work Institute, found that one in three employees experiences feeling overworked as a chronic condition. “The very skills that are fundamental to succeeding in this global economy—moving quickly from task to task with little time for recovery in between, facing many interruptions and working outside normal work hours, including vacations—can become detrimental,” the study reported.

E-mails, computers and beepers have blurred the line between work and home. In addition, many firms tie raises to performance. In service businesses that have no clear-cut way to measure performance, this means rewards sometimes go to those who work the longest hours.

The respondents to PARADE’s annual survey emphasize that having some control over their hours is a major plus. “The flexibility is the beauty of my job,” says Linda Lutich, a flight attendant who earned $48,400 last year. “My hourly wage is $50.65, and it’s my choice as to how many hours I fly each month.”

Niedja Fedrigo, who earned $34,500 teaching at the University of Michigan, also prizes the flexibility she has. After “the inspiration I get from my students,” she says control over her schedule is the No. 1 reason she enjoys her job. Fedrigo has Fridays off and four months free to do research and travel.

Few workers are that lucky. Some companies have made changes, but many haven’t responded to employees’ desire for flexible schedules that make it easier to balance work and family life.

Source: Parade

Allowing employees to work on flexible schedule (when possible) would be a good boost for their morale and is good for the environment. It boosts morale because we can schedule our work around our personal life, rather than the other way around. It is good for the environment because roads will be less congested as everyone wouldn't leave to work at the same time. This way, we spend less time on the road, spend less gas, less emissions, and hence better environment. Of course, if everyone car pools, then the rigid work schedule might make sense. Most of us live for working than working for a living. And hence I like Homer Simpson for his words with infinite wisdom "To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

Earth Day 2007

Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you will die too.- John Hollow Horn

Today is Earth day. Looking back at the environmental movement for preservation of this third rock from the sun, I think the US is going generally in the right direction but the magnitude needs work in some areas. Unfortunately, we Indians pretty much have no direction or magnitude in environmental protection. Sure, our economy is growing. But this is like building a 100-storey building without proper foundation. This growth cannot be sustained in the long run without adequate natural resources.

I attended a presentation by Dr. Bridget Scanlon on arsenic contamination at our agency last year. Her studies on behalf of the Bureau of Economic Geology included health defects due to arsenic in West Bengal and Bangladesh. She showed some revulsive photographs of Bengals with body parts amputated and skin diseases, due to their chronic exposure to arsenic in groundwater. Our environment has both natural and anthropogenic arsenic. While people in the US panic when they see arsenic at a concentration of 0.01 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in groundwater, Bridget observed arsenic concentrations as high as 4.3 mg/L in West Bengal in this medium. I e-mailed her study material to the Department of Environment in New Delhi last year.

With all the pesticides we (Indians) use without proper management, the arsenic issue in West Bengal probably is just a tip of the iceberg. We still use things like DDT and Lakshman Rekha (known as Chinese Chalk in the west) which were banned in the US a long time ago.

Environmental awareness has increased dramatically in the US since mid-70s with the Love Canal disaster. People started being a lot more careful with the wastes they generated with "cradle to grave" responsibility under RCRA, and "strict" and "joint and several" liability under CERCLA.

I attended a 3-day training conducted by the ASTM on ASTM 1527 and ASTM 1528. The focus of the training was All Appropriate Inquiries, and it was attended by environmental regulators (like me), consultants, city managers, bankers, and real estate developers. I was happy to see the eagerness shown by the regulated community in conducting environmental due diligence, albeit most of the sincerity was for their own good.

Many of us hate attorneys. I believe that they do more good than harm. Having good regulations coupled with aggressive attorneys on the lookout for violators, would be like having an electric fence guarded by Pitbulls. I hope that the media in India would stir up public interest in (waiting to be exposed) Love Canals we have in our backyards.

Ms. Lois Marie Gibbs on Love Canal:

The Love Canal crisis began in the spring of 1978 when residents discovered that a dump site containing 20,000 tons of chemical wastes was leaking into their neighborhood. The local newspaper ran an extensive article, explaining that the dump site was once a canal that connected to the Niagara River five miles upstream of Niagara Falls. This canal, 60 feet wide and 3,000 feet long, was built by William T. Love in the 1800s in an attempt to connect the upper and lower Niagara River. Mr. Love ran out of money before completing the project, and the abandoned canal was sold at public auction, after which it was used as a municipal and chemical dump site from 1920 until 1953. Hooker Chemical Corporation, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, was the principal disposer of chemical wastes at the site. Over 200 different chemicals were deposited, including pesticides such as lindane and DDT (both since banned from use in the U.S.), multiple solvents, PCBs, dioxin, and heavy metals.

In 1953, after filling the canal and covering it with dirt, Hooker sold the land to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for one dollar. Included in the deed was a "warning" about the chemical wastes buried on the property and a disclaimer absolving Hooker of any future liability. The board of education, perhaps not understanding the potential risks associated with Hooker's chemical wastes, built an elementary school near the perimeter of the canal in 1954. Home building around the canal also began in the 1950s, and by 1978, there were approximately 800 single-family homes and 240 low-income apartments, with about 400 children attending the 99th Street School next to the dump.

After reading the newspaper article about Love Canal in the spring of 1978, I became concerned about the health of my son, who was in kindergarten at the 99th Street School. Since moving into our house on 101st Street, my son, Michael, had been constantly ill. I came to believe that the school and playground were making him sick. Consequently, I asked the school board to transfer Michael to another public school, and they refused, stating that "such a transfer would set a bad precedent."

Receiving no help from the school board, city, or state representatives, I began going door to door with a petition to shut down the 99th Street School. The petition, I believed, would pressure the school board into investigating the chemical exposure risks to children and possibly even into closing the school. It became apparent, after only a few blocks of door knocking, that the entire neighborhood was sick. Men, women, and children suffered from many conditions--cancer, miscarriages, stillbirths, birth defects, and urinary tract diseases. The petition drive generated news coverage and helped residents come to the realization that a serious problem existed. The media attention and subsequent inquiries by residents prompted the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to undertake environmental testing in homes closest to the canal....Eventually, the 239 homes closest to the canal were demolished and the southern sections of the neighborhood declared unsuitable for residential use.

About Ms. Gibbs, Envirolink wrote:

Sometimes circumstances create reluctant heroes. In 1978 Lois Marie Gibbs saw herself framed by the American dream--a wife and mother who worked hard and sacrificed to own a home in a typical suburban neighborhood. She was not a political activist, and she had never given a public speech. The situation at Love Canal, New York, led this "ordinary" woman to do extraordinary things, and when all was said and done she had become a symbol of what happens when citizens, provoked by injustice and emboldened by outrage, stand up for themselves and their families. Known to many as the "Mother of Superfund," her story is one of legend, and not only because of her relentless demand for the truth that opened the eyes of an entire nation. Her actions, and the actions of her neighbors who formed the Love Canal Homeowner's Association, demonstrate how one committed person--one committed community--can change the course of history.

DWI

Slugged a couple of frozen margaritas in a jiffy at a happy hour with colleagues yesterday at NXNW. As I am not a big fan of, or a frequent consumer of alcoholic beverages, I felt tipsy and ended up staying late, out of respect for 0.08. While driving home, I remembered this funny incident* in New Orleans while I was in school.

My friends Sanjay and Lionel (from France) borrowed Sas' Mazda RX 7, had some serious fun in downtown, and were returning home at 1 AM. Just a block away from where we lived, Sanjay jumped a stop sign and was caught by the cops. Lionel, for being a very creative guy (so is Sanjay), got a brilliant idea! He suggested Sanjay to pretend that he couldn't speak English. Lionel reasoned that the cops, on remaining incommunicado for a while, would get frustrated and let them go with a mere warning. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

The cops asked them to get out of the car and got suspicious they were drunk (probably, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure that out!). They asked Sanjay to take a breathalyzer test. Lionel started speaking in French and Sanjay refused to take the test (don't pick battles that you can't win!). The cops promptly put them in jail for DWI. As it happened over a weekend, they were scheduled to wait in Jail until Monday for judgement.

We got this news at 3 AM on a Saturday and we went to bail Sanjay out. I vividly remember driving through a ghetto (didn't bother me as I was also living in one) to find a bail bondsman. I don't remember all the details but we finally managed to reach the police station for Sanjay's release. Since I was going to sign the papers, the cops asked what my name was. I started spelling my last name "DWI..." and they started laughing hysterically. I didn't get the joke immediately as I didn't know what DWI meant at that time. It was a funny incident.

Soon after his release, we changed Sanjay's name to "Sanju daada". This name is misleading as Sanjay is a creative genius and is an excellent artist (it is unlikely for talented people to end up in jails - but hey, even O. Henry spent time in jail!). The last time I heard, the free spirits Sanjay (in US) and Lionel (in France) have become very successful in their careers after finishing their degrees in business administration.

*As this happened a long time ago, need to check with Sas on details. The arrest incident is second hand information.

Jerome Murat

My childhood buddy Raama exposed me to this classic video. Enjoy!

Beauty Tips by Audrey Hepburn

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone... People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

If you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

Keep on dancing like nobody's looking!

When I first read these words of wisdom, I thought that it was atypical for a famous actress to have such a deep humility (it is possible but not probable, I think). Sure, things like old age and a drop in fame can bring famous people into a mood of reflection. Anyway, what is said is more important than who said it.

Virginia Shooting (Continued)

I noticed in The Hindu that the list of innocent victims in the brutal Virginia Tech shooting included Professor G.V. Lokanathan, a faculty member of Indian origin.

It is sickening to watch unnecessary violence. This is the time for all of us mourn for the victims and think of ways to prevent or minimize this kind of tragedies. I believe that violence erupts when someone feels (correctly or incorrectly) that the world is unfair to them.

To ensure peace, first of all, I think that we must shun first hand violence. Violence can be in many forms - unwarranted attacks, hazing, verbal abuse, etc. There is no need to use force unless our backs are against the walls and our lives are genuinely threatened. Even in this situation, only aggressive defense (to control the offender) with reluctance is justified. Sure, the world we live in is not ideal to make this possible always, but we must try.

The second thing is, we must shun second hand violence. That is, we should not offer our support to people who believe that aggression is the quick fix for the problems in the world ("be reasonable, do it my way" attitude). As you may have guessed, like many opponents of Iraq war, I am building a case against unjust wars and preemptive strikes at this moment of reflection. Unnatural loss of life in any part of the globe is unnecessary. Logic for supporting diplomatic efforts for resolution of wars is simple - we can gather more flies with sugar than with vinegar.

I am thinking of the lives of people in Iraq, who are caught in an unjust war. Iraq is about the size of California. We must realize that ten times as many people as in Virginia Tech shooting are dying EVERYDAY in Iraq, for the past FEW YEARS! We all are mourning today for the wrongful death of 33 innocent people. Let us just try to imagine how hard it would be for the innocent Iraqis to deal with their situation - death and violence every where, no food, no water, no shelter, no electricity, extreme heat, uncertainty, fear.... Just because a human being is on the other side of an arbitrary line, his life need not suddenly become unimportant and insignificant.

Sure, there are radicals who resort to violence to promote their cause. I agree that they must be restrained and punished swiftly. I do not support any one who resorts to violence unnecessarily. But we (the people) are getting impatient and are resorting to violence without fully exhausting peaceful alternatives. I hope that we all would grow up soon.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Déjà Vu

While I was at Raju's place along with a small group of friends last weekend, I experienced déjà vu*. Like many, I too experience déjà vu every once in a while and get that weird feeling.

We were sitting and chatting, and Kiran asked Siri a question. On hearing it, I immediately had a strong feeling that I was at that exact scene some time before, and I heard the same question! - the setting was the same, Siri was wearing the same outfit, same group of people, same ambiance etc. I had this eerie feeling that continued for the next 30 seconds or so. I knew what Siri was going to reply, and she gave the exact response I was expecting! Added to that, I also knew that Raju was going to interject with a comment and he did, with the exact comment I had in mind! So, I knew the future for a brief period of time!! I wonder if I had blurted out my observation say after the first 5 seconds, if the same conversation I had in mind would have continued for the next 25 seconds or so! I read somewhere that about 70% of us experience déjà vu at one time or the other.

The scientific community believes that déjà vu is a trick that our minds plays with us once in a while, but I find it hard to dismiss it as non-paranormal. With these occasional experiences of (apparent?) precognition, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that clairvoyance could be an innate capability for many (or all) of us. Perhaps some (e.g., genuine psychics, if any) have it stronger than the others.

Regarding déjà vu and precognition, here are a couple of quotes from one of my favorite movies, The Matrix:

[Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a similar black cat walk by them just like the first one]

Neo: Whoa. Déjà vu. [Everyone freezes right in their tracks]

Trinity: What did you just say?

Neo: Nothing. Just had a little déjà vu.

Trinity: What did you see?

Cypher: What happened?

Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.

Trinity: How much like it? Was it the same cat?

Neo: It might have been. I'm not sure.

Morpheus: Switch! Apoc!

Neo: What is it?

Trinity: A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change
something.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle: I'd ask you to sit down, but, you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase.

Neo: What vase?

[Neo turns to look for a vase, and as he does, he knocks over a vase of flowers, which shatters on the floor]

Oracle: That vase.

Neo: I'm sorry...

Oracle: I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it.

Neo: How did you know?

Oracle: Ohh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

* From How Stuff Works: The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen." Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all. Say, for example, you are traveling to England for the first time. You are touring a cathedral, and suddenly it seems as if you have been in that very spot before. Or maybe you are having dinner with a group of friends, discussing some current political topic, and you have the feeling that you've already experienced this very thing -- same friends, same dinner, same topic.

Virginia Tech Shooting

University of Texas (Austin) Tower shooting on August 1, 1966 unfortunately is no longer the deadliest campus shooting (15 killed) in the US history. Today, as of now, at least 33 people were killed in shooting at Virginia Tech.

Guns have become a necessary evil in the society. I used to think that all guns must be banned. Now, even though I favor gun control, I no longer think that the government has a right restrict the citizens from carrying guns.

The Second Amendment to the US constitution reads "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It makes sense to me now. If not for this, physically strong can always control physically weak, unfairly.

Even though I don't oppose to people owning guns, it is kind of scary to know that as of 1993/1994, an estimated 59 million American adults possessed guns. Owning a gun is a pretty common thing in Texas. In my office, I am sure that I am one of the very few who don't own a gun. I wonder if I should let go off my reluctance and pledge my allegiance to Smith & Wesson.

Don Imus

Got tired of watching Don Imus the whole last week on every news channel. I think what Don Imus said on air waves was deplorable and he deserved a punishment. However, I believe that the issue was blown way out of proportion and Don was over-punished. I think Reverend Al Sharpton's actions in this issue are hurting the country than helping it on racial unity.

We must remember that Don Imus admitted his guilt and repeatedly apologized on various mass media. He sounded remorseful. We all make mistakes and I agree that we should be accountable for them, and face proper consequences for our actions. I think that a temporary suspension without pay would have been a punishment befitting his crime. If he repeats his slander again, then he would deserve a stronger punishment.

I sensed vengefulness in Reverend Al Sharpton. Didn't the Bible say "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13)"? By forgiveness, I don't mean to say that murderers and rapists should be allowed to roam freely on our streets. They should be punished, restrained if necessary, and FORGIVEN. Getting even is never a good thing.

I thought that Coach Vivian Stringer's words "...the healing process must begin..." were ridiculous. I noticed that everything in the US is increasing being described as a "process" or a "system" - fancy terms for needless exaggeration! What used to be a tooth brush is now a teeth cleaning system (coz it vibrates) and then we have "sleep systems" like sleep number beds! These guys talk as if humans were not sleeping for thousands of years.

Instead of simplifying our lives, we tend to make things lot more complex than they should be. Why can't we be like kids in some ways? When kids fight, egos flare up for a short period and then they get over it soon and start behaving as if nothing has happened. Just because someone made a stupid statement, we need not got to shrinks to initiate a "healing process" and work towards a "closure".

Why should Coach Stringer make such talented athletes feel like they were doomed and their lives were shattered? I am sure that it hurts to hear derogatory remarks. But when they knew that what Imus said is utterly baseless, they need not feel like they hit the rock bottom. If we get offended by some one's remarks, it means one thing for sure - at least somewhere deep down, we believe that there is an element of truth in that statement. I think the majority of blacks wrongly (and strongly) believe that they are inferior. This is when the problems start.

For example, if I accost a Japanese guy and say "electronics in your country suck!", how would he feel? Sure, it might hurt him initially, but he probably wouldn't lose his sleep over it. He will likely dismiss me as a lunatic. Or, he may even jokingly agree with me! Because, my opinions need not matter to him. After all, most of the world knows that the Japanese are world leaders in electronics. Their actions speak louder than my criticism. So, if Rudgers team members feel strongly that they are victims, they BECOME what they think.

Re: Reverend Al Sharpton, I am upset that no TV interviewer played him one of the offensive rap songs that degrade women (which is not hard to find) and asked him what actions is he taking to stop that song from reaching the media like MTV. I guess the timing is not right yet to challenge Reverend Sharpton's hypocricy.

MADtv - iRack (including blooper in the end)

My buddy Raama forwarded me this hilarious Video.

Drawing Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

Candidate for a Pullet Surprise

Hear is sum ting laik watt I posted be four.

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.

By the author's count, 127 of the 225 words of the poem are incorrect (although all words are correctly spelled)

Source: The Journal of Irreproducible Results

Crepes of Wrath!

A clip from the episode "Crepes of Wrath", Season 1, Simpsons.

Limericks I Liked

A tutor who taught on the flute
Tried to teach two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,"
Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?"

Source: Workinghumor

if ( i = t^2 + e)
& (e = 14 + 3)
.·. i > π
& e > i
& (e / π) i 4 t [24]

Or in English

if i equals t squared plus e
and e equals forteen plus three
then i is greater than pi
and e is greater than i
and e divides pi by i for t [24]

The last line being read as "and he divides pie by I for tea."

Source: Wikipedia

Not sure if the last line is technically correct, but I liked the creativity

Butt Yoga

Two men meet on the street.
One asks the other: "Hi, how are you?"
The other one replies: "I'm fine, thanks."
"And how's your son? Is he still unemployed?"
"Yes, he is. But he is meditating now."
"Meditating? What's that?"
"I don't know. But it's better than sitting around and doing nothing!"

Source: SwamiJ

Meditation

If there is something you truly want to know, then you truly want to listen to your own wisdom. You know, meditation is learning how to listen with your own wisdom, so that you can see. I think why meditation is amazingly important, is that somehow our unconscious world is much bigger. It is huge, universal, and we don't understand that one. Meditation allows this world to be light and knowable, understandable. That is why it is important. Normally we are totally robbed by the egotistic, conventional mind, not allowing the fundamental mind to be functioning. That is why one should have confidence, truly... through experience, one has confidence in one's spiritual journey.

- Lama Thubten Yeshe

Puzzles

A couple of interesting puzzles from the archives of Parade

(1) My son is a 29-year-old firefighter and Iraq veteran. His nickname is “Seven Eleven.” What is his real name?

(2) Say that cucumbers are on sale, so you buy 100 pounds of them at your local market. The cucumbers are 99% water. Some days later, they dry out to 98% water. How much do they weigh now?

Answers

The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons

NCAA Men's Basketball 2007 - Final

Was able to Chug only so far on Chalk:-( Tied for 30th place in one bracket and ended up in the 91st place in the other (total brackets = 97).

Rubens Tube

Michael Jordan

Here are a collection of clips on His Airness (Basketball Jersey Number 23 = Jersey #10 for Soccer?). The last one (the best-rated) is really cool.

Habitat for Humanity

Along with a few of my colleagues, Rama and I donated our muscles for a Habitat for Humanity's (H4H) deconstruction project on March 10, 2007. It was very rewarding work. We salvaged material (to the extent we could) from a house donated to the H4H (for selling it in the ReStore). This is a perfect example of a win-win situation. The donors get tax write-offs and they don't have to deal with all the mess. Consumers of affordable housing get cheap building material. Landfills save space, as this material would have ended up there if not for this recycling.

Our bodies were sore for a couple of days after the work, but it was worth it. I have a lot of respect for people who do this kind of work for a living. I was delighted to see that our work was covered in our agency-wide newsletter (including pics. of me and Rama).

Enjoyed Pizza (for lunch, along with drinks) sponsored by a local.

Exploding Trees!

Maple-syrup maker Ryan Tilley braves a forest aflame with exploded maple to tap his trees.

I remember listening to this captivating news report on NPR a couple of years ago, while driving to Robinson, IL from St. Louis, MO airport (work-related travel), on a deserted Rural Route amidst corn fields in the Midwest. The following is an excerpt of this article from Wikipedia.

Exploding trees are phenomena mostly observed in the northeastern United States and Canadian wilderness, and usually involve maple trees. In the Canadian wilderness, maple trees have been known to explode due to the extreme cold which causes the wood to contract, applying tremendous pressure on the sap inside. This often leads to a sound similar to a gunshot when the tree explodes.

A tree may also explode when struck by lightning [1], [2]. The strong electric current is carried mostly by the water-conducting sapwood below the bark, heating it up and boiling the water. The pressure of the steam can make the trunk burst. In Australia, the native eucalyptus trees are also known to explode during bush fires due to the high flammability of vapourised eucalyptus oil produced by the tree naturally. [3] [4]

Now, on a totally unrelated subject, calendar on my desktop is strangely showing a wrong date (see below). This is weird.
And then, easy-to-follow instructions for Google TiSP (BETA) are not making any sense to me. I wonder what is going on. Is it just me?