The Greatest Show on Earth: Evolution

All of us have religious friends, who might otherwise be fairly smart and logical but assume a veil of irrationality when it comes to anything that challenges their "faith". All logic and science is kosher as long as they don't contradict their beliefs. Out of respect you tread not to offend them but at the same time you wish you had solid arguments or anecdotes that could help them discover their irrationality if only one step at a time.

Richard Dawkins's "The Greatest Show on Earth" is just that. Through a series of examples, historical as well as contemporary, worded in layman's vocabulary, he conveys the scientifically observed tenets of evolution. Evolution is not a theory. It's a fact. It's a fact beyond reasonable doubt. It's a fact beyond all doubt. It's a fact. Period. It can be proven with scientific rigor, it can be repeated, and to date there hasn't been a single observation or finding to the contrary.

When you think of evolution you might think of centuries of chiseling of the genetic code through natural selection. The picture of fish to amphibious mammals to apes to humans is all too familiar. But did you know that there are examples of evolution that you can observe in daily life, today? Evolution through natural selection is the reason why every time you have a bacterial infection the doctor requires you to complete your antibiotic dosage -- you're not supposed to terminate it premature even if you feel fine, or else you'd have selected in favor of resistant bacterial mutations before you get rid of the entire population.

I've just finished Chapter 5 and I've already seen several such examples from daily life, as well as examples from radioactive timing of fossils from millions of years of evolutionary life. The grandeur is so beautiful and makes so much sense through an understanding of evolution that you begin to pity the desperate arguments by creationists who believe that all life originated merely some thousands of years ago through the whims of a sad God. The book is absolutely delightful so far.

The Rubaiyat

Look not above, there is no answer there;

Pray not, for no one listens to your prayer;

Near is as near to God as any Far,

And Here is just the same deceit as There.

And do you think that unto such as you;

A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew:

God gave the secret, and denied it me?--

Well, well, what matters it! Believe that, too.

"Did God set grapes a-growing, do you think,

And at the same time make it sin to drink?

Give thanks to Him who foreordained it thus--

Surely He loves to hear the glasses clink!"

                                --- Omar Khayyam

A trip to Yellowstone

Yellowstone, the country's first national park, is unlike any other. Every spot in the park reinforces this.

From high mountains to grassy plains, craters to waterfalls, huge trees to wild animals in abundance, each of the 5 entrances to the park presents an entirely different perspective.

We began our visit from its southern neighbor, the Grand Teton park. In retrospect, it wasn't such a good idea. The only thing the Grand Teton park has is the Gand Teton mountain. Nothing else was exciting enough but we fruitlessly spent an entire day looking around in this park.



As soon as we entered Yellowstone, it was a dream. Only you could see it living and breathing infront of your eyes. The first wild animal we saw was a bison, a creature which has been living on this earth since the last ice age. With shredded furry coats they looked like having a good time in the summer. In fact, they'd quite often get near the roads, sometimes even block traffic, with onlookers every so happy to point their cameras while they made their way across the road.

We also saw elks, mule deers and pronghorns. They can be easily seen in the Lamar Valley area, the stretch coming from the north-east entrance of the park. At one spot in Lamar Valley there was a huge lineup of stationary vehicles, so we stopped too. People were peering into the adjacent hill and I was able to see a wolf on its chase. Pretty neat!

I didn't see any bears. In retrospect, that was a good thing, since the very day we made out of the park, someone was killed by a bear in the interiors of the park. When you see a bear, don't run, don't startle, just drop dead. As per common wisdom, that's your best defense. But I think if a bear attacked me I'd attack it directly in its eyes rendering it directionless. I mean how difficult can that be?

Yellowstone has the highest concentration of natural geysers in the world. There are hundreds of them. You can see them active any time, any season. And boy are they colorful! Apparently, aside from the minerals being pushed out from the inside of the earth with the boiling steam, the colors are also caused by some thermophile organisms that live here. Puddles of green, turquoise, greenish-blue, boiling mud, were abundant. It was breathtaking. Nothing like I'd ever seen before.

In all it was a memorable trip, well worth the 2500 miles I drove.

I like Americans

I like Americans.

You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.

They sleep with their windows open.

Their bathtubs are never dry.

They are not grown up yet. They still believe in Santa Claus.

They are terribly in earnest.

But they laugh at everything . . .

I like Americans.

They give the matches free . . .

I like Americans.

They are the only men in the world, the sight of whom in their shirt-sleeves is not rumpled, embryonic and agonizing . . .

I like Americans.

They carry such pretty umbrellas.

The Avenue de l'Opera on a rainy day is just an avenue on a rainy day.

But Fifth Avenue on a rainy day is an old-fashioned garden under a shower . . .

They are always rocking the boat.

I like Americans.

They either shoot the whole nickel, or give up the bones.

You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), American poet

Happiness

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

-- Carl Sandburg

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

One of the things I need to do before I die is to read Lord of the Rings. I finished Book 1 in the series yesterday. I'll admit I'm disappointed.

The book has so many unnecessary sequence of events, which don't have any connection to the flow of story, and seem like they've been put there to blot pages. For example, that Tom Bombadilo guy singing songs and being gay was magical and ultra-capable but sadly he doesn't have any part in the rest of the story; so why have him in the first place? Talking of songs, what's with the characters bursting into songs every now and then, sometimes for multiple pages? I skipped through every one of them except the first few ones. Oh and why do they have to address the characters with their fathers' name over and over again? Gimli, son of Gloin! Aragorn, son of Arathorn! Isn't it simpler to call "Gimli", and "Aragorn"? Will the reader forget who Gimli is unless qualified with the lineage? And why do every few sentences have to introduce 3 new nouns, unheard of before and probably won't be repeated later ever? It's not like I'm going to remember any of them. In fact, it makes it difficult to remember even the important ones.

My English teacher back in school days taught me that "good" is a actually a very inarticulate word. One uses "good" when one doesn't understand why it's good. When one does understand why it's good, one uses the specific qualification. Similarly, "great" is an even worse word, meaning that the writer wants something magnificent but can't really qualify it so. "Great" is repeated so many times in the book that it's lost its meaning. Every single character is either "great" or "dark" or "shadow". Every single one of them. Even Gollum. Great race of men! Great Elves! The great council! The great dwarves! The dark lord! The evil shadow! Give me a break.

This is indeed a series for which the movie is more enjoyable than the book. The book sure makes the movie more meaningful and understandable though. I've begun with the Book 2 and I hope it's more interesting than the first one.

"Paranormal Activity" -- A dumb homework badly done

They played the advertisements for "Paranormal Activity" so many times on television that I decided to go for it. I repent now.

It can hardly be called a documentary. Combine a story-less series of activities with a budget-less production and a crew with a single camera (which is used throughout the movie as the lens) and you get paranormal activity. First things first, there's nothing paranormal about this movie. There's a plump girl who gets aroused during nights because her boyfriend is busy all the time with his camera, something he carries everywhere he goes. Even when she's screaming, he grabs the camera first before rushing downstairs. The entire movie is shown through the lens of the camera and believe me this is high on the list of how a movie should NOT be made. You don't want to keep watching through a jerky camera for more than a few minutes, leave alone an entire movie. The scariest thing that happens in this movie is that the girl throws the guy away a few feet. That's it. I wasn't even amused.

The boyfriend supposedly wants to help but just ends up fighting because the girl wants him to give up the camera. He does not. The guy takes his camera everywhere -- to the toilet, to the dining table, to the bedroom. I mean everywhere. He's recording even when they have supposedly serious conversation about tackling the situation. And lord even when playing back the recorded movies on his laptop.

Did you note that I did not mention about ghosts or anything paranormal above? That's because there isn't any. Save yourself the time and go blackmail a bandit if you want to make better use of your time.

More Items for Sale

All items are available immediately. Reason for selling: relocating.

Contact: 99086 89990 [or nirnimesh@gmail.com]

Wooden Cot (with mattress) Cot: ~2yrs old. size: 3ft x 6ft. Cost price: Rs 3000. Expected price: 2000   Mattress: Duroflex ~2.5yrs old. Fits in the above cot. Cost price: Rs 2400. Expected price: Rs 1500
Microwave Oven Onida Power Grill. 20L. 800W Microwave power + 1050W Grill power. Easy to Use Jogwheel controls. 2 Combi Grill settings. 24 Customized Indian Auto Cook Menus. 1 yr old. Original packaging available. Excellent condition. Includes 2 free cooking recipe books and a mitten. Cost price: Rs 6500. Expected price: Rs 4500

Items for Sale

All items are available immediately. Reason for selling: relocating.

Contact: 99892 99704 [or n@gmail.com]

Wooden Cot ~3yrs old. 4ft x 6ft. Cost price: Rs 2500. Expected price: Rs 1500. Add Rs 200 for cotton mattress
Breakfast Table Set 1 table + 2 chairs. Totally disassemble-able. Original packaging available. Bought from Reliance Mart, 11 months old. Cost price: Rs 2400. Expected price: Rs 1500
Microwave Oven Onida Power Grill. 20L. 800W Microwave power + 1050W Grill power. Easy to Use Jogwheel controls. 2 Combi Grill settings. 24 Customized Indian Auto Cook Menus. 1 yr old. Original packaging available. Excellent condition. Includes 2 free cooking recipe books and a mitten. Cost price: Rs 6500. Expected price: Rs 4800
Center tea table Wooden. ~3 yrs old. Good condition. Cost price: Rs 400. Expected price: Rs 200
Steel Almirah ~3 yrs old. Cost price: Rs 4500. Excellent condition. Expected price: Rs 3500
Wooden rocking chair with cushion ~3 yrs old. Comfortable. Cost price: Rs 3500. Leg rest broken (but fixable). Cost price: Rs 3500. Expected price: Rs 2000
Acoustic Guitar + Electronic tuner + Original bag Granada. 6 string. 4 yrs old. Excellent condition (hardly ever used). Still has the original shine and smell. Also included: a new (unopened) pack of strings set, 2-3 extra strings, pick. Cost price: Rs 3500 (for guitar) + Rs 400 (for tuner). Expected price: Rs 2700
Book Shelf 4 levels. 50 inch height. ~6 months old. Excellent condition. Original packaging available. Disassemble-able. Bought from Reliance Mart furniture. Cost price: Rs 1600. Expected price: Rs 1250
Roti Maker Jaipan. Used sparingly. Original packaging available. Cost price: Rs 1500. Expected price: 1000
Sandwich Toaster Used 4-5 times. Cost price: Rs 600. Expected price: Rs 300

Why I Love my Android Phone

When I used to read fairy tales as a child, I used to wonder what if I could see what's there on the other side of the world, or where this road leads to, or how far is the nearest candy-shop. How neat it would be if I could have access to all kinds of information in the form of a magic wand. What if I didn't have to memorize the width and height of the Meenakshi temple.

We are living it today.

If you've met me in the last few months, chances are I've shown you my android phone.

I have an app (Places Directory) on my phone that not only lists the nearest restaurants/petrol pumps/ATMs and gives driving directions, it points in the direction. I could literally follow the arrow and reach to an ATM. There's another app (Shazam) that can recognize any song you play it, and discover the video on youtube. Another one (Sky Map) that I can use to recognize the constellations and planets -- I used it to identify Venus, the morning star (turns out, the white dot I had been passing off as a star is actually Venus). When I last went to my home town, my brother could track exactly where in the journey I was, with the precision of a few meters, since I had Latitude enabled on my phone. It only adds to the orgasm that I did not have to pay a penny for any of the above apps -- they're all free.

India has 360 million cell phone users. That's roughly one-third of the population. By 2011, it's poised to grow to 600 million. This means that cell phone would be the most unifying thing in the country, more so than language, and much more than the number of people who vote. The most interesting aspect of this population is that a majority of these are youngsters, and many are first time users. This is their first real interaction with a technological device with duplex connectivity. Imagine what it would do to democracy. You could have an election every day (I'm not suggesting that democracy is a good idea.. just that it's possible).

There's satisfaction, then there's happiness, and then there's the ecstasy you experience when you install an OS on your phone yourself. Why? Because I can.

Oh, and yes, I did run a hello world C program on it.

Eye and I

So I saw the eye doctor last Friday after I experienced some minor irritation in my eyes leading to fatigue. The doc did a thorough examination and concluded that everything was ok, and that I needed to blink more. Get a load of this! My name "Nirnimesh" translates to "one who does not blink much" and the doc wants me to blink more. I'm standing true to my name. :)

3 Things for which I cannot forgive Congress

It's election in Hyderabad tomorrow. And there are 3 reasons why I cannot vote for congress.

1. OBC Reservations: Nothing severs equality of opportunity more than providing reservations based not on merit but by birth. Congress introduced reservations for OBC in higher education institutions and set a precedent against merit. I remember marching on a rally against this, a few years ago. Arjun Singh, the perennial a$$hole, became an overnight champion and messiah.

2. 26/11: What do you do when a mole steals into your house and breaks your stuff? I hammer it with a broom and throw it out, as soon as I can. A handfull of armed militants attacked Mumbai and threw the country out of gear for 3 days. I repeat -- 3 whole days. For three days, the government didn't have a clue about how to sort out the matter. Instead, we managed to lose 4 top police officers, the likes of whom we can't easily get in police force. This national tragedy became an international shame for the country. A rogue state like Pakistan had demonstrated India's incompetence to protect its soverignity. No wonder then that a third rate failure like Pratibha Patil is the President, the supreme commander of the armed forces.

3. 3G Melodrama: India has the 2nd fastest growing telecommunications industry in the world. Telephones have made their way into the veins of the country in a way that roads haven't. Small-scale farmers, auto-drivers, village shop-keepers not only have cellphones, they use it. India looked ready for continuing its dominant stride in the Information Age. 3G was knocking at the door. We had to let it in. Instead, the 3G auction was delayed, license prices were doubled overnight, and lots of confusion eventually led to it being postponed forever.

These are the three things I feel the strongest about. I haven't even mentioned other things like: daily power cuts in Hyderabad, the national highway project melodrama, the royal lineage of potential PMs, the Gandi-ization of every road, bridge and scheme names, the international shame that the uncertainity over the nuclear deal brought, and Shivraj Patil as home minister.

Advani for PM

I was browsing my usual way a few days ago when I first noticed ads for "Advani for PM". What was interesting was that this ad was on slashdot. After a few days I started seeing these ads at a lot of places -- online discussion forums, blogs, news websites, and so on. These were served through some adsense account, I believe.

Ordinarily I wouldn't bother about these kinds of political blabbers. But since I had already been amused at seeing such ads on a technical website (I was searching for 'assembly language on mac') I wanted to be amused even more so I clicked on the banner labelled "My IT vision" near Advani's face.

The banner linked to a doc detailing Advani's IT strategy. And I must admit there were quite a few very interesting points there. Whether or not they can get implemented will be seen in time but the fact that someone in these scurry circles has actually been thinking not just abstract melodrama but specific numbers and figures is impressive (2 Mbps unlimited broadband for Rs 200 pm!).

I knew that techies like us hardly ever formed a voice in a political arena. We never mattered enough for these politicians. Have things changed recently? Are we a potential votebank target? Are we being noticed?

I also found that Advani has a full-fledged website being updated on a continuous basis with links to the party manifesto, documentaries, question answers, and digs on congress. I couldn't find a similar one for Congress. I'm not saying that it does not exist. I'm just saying that I couldn't find it. All I could find was a link to a .doc, which I hate to click on.

While I kept following the pages, I could imagine the rhetoric Congress has been pulling off for ages in the name of Nehru and Gandhi. I mean come on. Agreed that these people must have done good things at their time, but enough is enough. Live in the present. "Aam aadmi ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath" just gives me a feeling of one guy masturbating. If you think of more than one guy, they're gay and beating each other off. Nothing more. It doesn't tell me anything concrete. It's like an abstract class with pure virtual functions which no one wants (or intends) to inherit.

Anyways, I'm not sure Advani is the right person. But given the political chaos, if I had to choose between Manmohan (aka Sonia with beard), Advani and Mayawati (or the entire breed), I think I'd go with Advani.

Maybe I should have taken the pain to get my voter id card this time.

I See Stupid People

The punchline in The Sixth Sense went by:

I see dead people

 
There's this boy who could see dead people. He was haunted by them to such an extent that he could not make out the difference between the living and dead. He had been taught to fear the dead, so he did, except that he could not separate them from the living.

I see stupid people. They're all around. I don't know what their purpose in life is. Frankly, I don't think they even have a purpose. They breathe, because they'd die otherwise. They go to work, because they'd die otherwise. They marry, because the society wants them to. They breed, because the society would kill them otherwise. There's not one thing that they'd do if not by a force threatening of something more devastating. They're like a paper boat being carried along by the river's current. They don't have a will of their own. They're not alive.

The difference between dead people and stupid people however is that stupid people are easier to identify. Their actions follow no logic. You could identify them with just an imbalanced mathematical equation. It's so mundane that you could almost automate the process, the input being a stream of people and the output being a binary flag associated with each indicating whether or not he's stupid. It's a bit more complicated than that since the classification is not black or white, but a rounding off can be performed.

The problem after classification however is what to do with the stupid people. I would gladly leave them alone but they don't leave me alone. They make life difficult for me. They take my money in the name of law, they haunt me in the name of society and they try to stop me in the name of progress. They run the government, they make the rules, they pass judgments and then they decree punishment.

It's not like they'd understand logic. I don't want them to understand logic, as long as they leave me alone. Just leave me alone. I don't want you, I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to hear you. I don't want to see stupid people. I'd gladly see dead people instead.

The Sad Tale of 3G in India

What does it take for a compelling technology to go down the drains? Answer: let the government regulate it.

3G, poised as a definitive stage for mobile internet, has gone through a similar harassment through the hands of the government in India. I can recall hearing about it as early as 2008. The spectrum war, the auction, the technology and how it would prove a boon for the millions of devices carried around by millions of Indians. Alas!

The service providers geared up for 3G, pulled up their socks, deployed the technology and have just been waiting for the government's permission. The government, on the other hand, delayed the auction indefinitely, created all kinds of controversies around it, and finally let state-owned MTNL and BSNL launch the service. BSNL and MTNL, known for their indifference to customers (have you ever heard of customer service for BSNL/MTNL? have you ever been to a BSNL office? I have. It's a hole where serendipity abounds) and slow head towards new technology, choose to launch 3G in select towns in India, carefully choosing not to launch it where it might be useful. Are you surprised then that there are a mere 3000 3G customers for BSNL? 3000! That's all.

And now it's election time. All business, development, and progress must be set aside as a bunch of retards fist together for a seat in the parliament run by my tax rupees. The fate of real 3G has been put in coma, while I hold in the air my 3G-compatible phone and look up in the sky. Sigh!

The Depravity of the Third Front

Communists are weird people. And not in a good way.

As the country prepares for general elections, all kinds of political weirdos are born. Third Front has been born too. The chief among this is the communists - the same people who vehemently opposed the Nuclear Deal and threw the country in a limbo for a long time, opposed any kind of disinvestment, blocked all labor reforms, discourage education in the country - basically leave everything just as it is so that "social harmony is not rippled".

"I don't see why industry or corporates should feel that this coalition will be less favourable or hostile to them," CPM leader Prakash Karat told CNN-IBN

I mean, how? How on earth do you think that after your Nuclear Deal parable anyone ever would want to support you. Have you been living in dungeons? Mr Prakash Karat, please buy a computer and look out.

Number of States in India

How many states are there in India?

I was watching this episode in Friends where Ross could not name all the 50 states in the US. And that's when I thought, wait a minute! I don't even know how many states are there in India. The last time I read a number in the text books it was 25, and I was twelve years old. Maybe they stopped putting that in text books for fear of getting outdated. I mean creating new states is in a way the piece de resistance of several budding Indian political leaders. There's a saddist who wants Telangana, a few more who want a piece out of Jammu & Kashmir, and I'm pretty sure several leaders are toying with repeating the tactics with other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka.

I think I lost interest in the count when they stopped calling Delhi a state. And whenever you raise the issue half of the people would say that Delhi is still a Union Territory while the other half would think it's a bonafide state. I wonder if I can name all the states. I know I can name the 25 that I learnt when I was twelve.

New York City

I was in New York City on New Year's eve. Yes, I went to Times Square. Yes, I was there when they dropped the ball.

I had known about the greatness of this city, through movies (remember Gotham city from Batman?), news, elsewhere but I had to see it to really believe it. Called the city that never sleeps, New York, aka the big apple, truly is a magnificent place. The mix of people, culture, business, infrastructure I saw there is like nothing I had seen before.

After ~2 months, one thing I can foremost recall is the metro system. It's spellbinding. Not just about the punctuality and infrastructure but the planning, the day to day operations, the details, the ticket booth, everything.

I even went to Wall Street, the financial capital of US, and by extension also for the world (almost). I went there on a holiday. It seemed like any other street but I could imagine the scurry of stock brokers that must be the order of that street on working days.

I went to Madame Tussaud's near Times Square. It houses waxed life-size statues of celebrities. It became extremely difficult inside the hall, within a few minutes, to tell if a person was for real or a statue. The pictures above do not do justice (damn my cheap camera). I gawked a real person and almost touched him only stopping to think for a second before the person moved coz guess what it was not a statue!

Apart from the usual suspects like the statue of liberty, the Empire State building, I also visited the Museum of Sex, which housed this funny board.



I was amused to find a case study on necrophilia in animals.

All in all it was a trip I'll remember for years and whenever greatness is attributed to a place I'll automatically think about the New York City.

My New Toy: Android Dev Phone

I got myself a new toy - Android Developer Phone. It's an unlocked incarnation of HTC's dream phone. And I love it.

My favorite feature? I can reflash it and install the OS from scratch.
Why? Because I can.

The Depravity of our Health Minister

The guy who banned smoking in public places is in the news again. This time he's trying to stop pub-culture.

Starting from the assumption that drinking is against Indian ethics, he somehow concludes that we cannot progress unless India bans pub-culture. Now, wait a minute! What's the rationale? I'm listening - explain me please?

He mentions that 40% of road accidents happen because of alcohol. Even if I believe these numbers, what he does not tell you is that 99% of those accidents would happen because the road was un-even or had spiky speed-breakers or massive pot-holes. For what it's worth, US has more cars, more roads and more alcohol. They use alcohol detectors instead of banning pubs outright.

Reminds me of a SouthPark episode where Cartman toilet-papered his teacher's house to avenge a punishment but the police booked the store who sold the toilet-paper.

I also disagree with the stupid Health Minister when he says that drinking is not in our culture. How exactly? Let's begin from the beginning. It's well known that Kauravas were to drinking as motherboard is to computer. Lord Shiva, we all know, is perennially drunk. All the members of parliament drink (they do more when they're drunk, but let's focus here), most people in villages drink (heard of toddy?) or smoke (heard of beedi or hookah?). Which culture of the Indian society is the doorknob-headed health minister talking about again?

What the government should instead focus on is to improve education and way of life, not banning everything and anything that brings happiness. Mr Health Minister, just because you coughed up the first time you tried drinking coz it was too much for you and your wife pointed and laughed and burnt your wee-wee with her smoking cigarrette does not mean that you should go ban alcohol, cigarrette or laughter.