5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower

Read this article on slow-eating. Myself being a slow-eater, I couldn't have asked for more!

India's Top 10 Most Valuable Brand - 2007

Source: Economic Times

How I Stole Someone's Identity - An article on Social Hacking

A very good example of what social hacking is and how careful one should be to avoid it. Read it here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=anatomy-of-a-social-hack

(Via: Digg)

Review of Nokia E66 - Read it on Tech Bangalore

Prashanth has published his reviews on Nokia E66 on his Tech Bangalore site. I had a chance to glance through this mobile when I met him. It looked like a phone for business people. Check his website for more details.

Balarama's wife Revathi and Einstein's "Twin Paradox" Theory

There is a story mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam. The story goes like this:

There lived a king called Kakudmi and he had beautiful daughter called Revathi. Kakudmi took his daughter to celestial world of Lord Brahma to ask him who would be the right husband for his daughter. Brahma was busy listening to music and Kakudmi waited for sometime till the end of music program. Then Kakudmi submitted his desire to Brahma. Brahma laughed and said "My dear Kakudmi, from the time you came here your earthly world has passed through 27 maha-yugas (millions of years) and so none of whom you have in mind or their descendents are alive now. Go back and marry off your daughter to Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna"

If you carefully read this story, there are some interesting points which are worth pondering.

First, Kakudmi took his daughter to Lord Brahma's world. This is a inter-stellar space travelling.

Second, even though Kakudmi was born millions of years before Balarama, during their marriage time she was still young! How is this possible? When Kakudmi and Revathi were in Brahma's world, their age was changing according to the world of Brahma not Earth! In today's science it is called "Twin Paradox". This is explained within the framework of "relativity theory". As per this theory, a person who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he/she has aged less than an identical twin who stayed on Earth.

Third, How different the time in Brahma's world compared to Man's (on Earth)? This article explains this (http://indiaheritage.org/rendez/article1.htm).

Happy Reading!

First Individual Gold for India in Olympics!

Abhinav Bindra has won India's first ever individual Gold in Olympics! He won it in Men's 10m Air rifle event. Check here for detailed report.

Abstract Art - By Mother Nature!

We might have seen abstract art from renowned artists around the world. But have you seen the greatest abstract art ever created?! The artist is our Nature! Look at the stunning abstract art as seen from 400 miles away above Earth!

Page 1: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth/1324)
Page 2: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth/1324/2
Page 3: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth/1324/3
(Source: Digg)

It fell from the sky!

Look at these stunning pictures of Meteors making a mark on Earth!
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1818757,00.html

Google retiring AdSense Referrals

Google is retiring AdSense Referrals program during the last week of August. Check here for more details: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/06/were-retiring-adsense-referrals.html

Hindus were denied Kashmir land

This is yet another (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7480217.stm) example of Pseudo-secularism and minority appeasement. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister has said that the state government would revoke its decision to transfer land to a Hindu body. This decision was taken after a protest from local Muslim people.

The land was required to build toilet and other necessary facilities for Amarnath pilgrims. The Muslim majority protested this decision citing the reason that

the transfer of land was part of a "conspiracy to settle non-local Hindus in the
valley with a view to reducing the Muslims to a minority".

It is evident from the statement that Muslims are majority and Hindus are minority in J&K. Are Hindus in J&K getting the same facilities as minorities get in other states? Does government and local Muslim leaders are aware of the fact that many "local Hindus of the valley" were thrown out of the valley and they are "refugees" in their own country?! Why so-called secular parties are quiet in this matter? Where are self-crowned secularists Deve Gowda, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and her Co, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Lallu Prasad Yadav, UR Ananth Murthy etc? Why are they not speaking in support of minority Hindus?

Discover India's Past to find its future!

I got into this article (http://www.covert.co.in/gurumurthy.htm) via Nilagriva's blog. A very informative and well written article by Gurumurthy.

Yahoo Map of Mysore!

You don't find street level details of Mysore in Microsoft's Map (http://maps.live.com/) or Google's Map (http://maps.google.com). I was curious to check Yahoo Map (http://maps.yahoo.com) to see how detailed level we get to see of Mysore. Surprisingly, Yahoo map has street level details. I could see major roads drawn in the map. When I was going through the streets, I found GRS Fantasy Park right in the middle of the city! I know pretty well that GRS Fantasy Park is situated in the outskirts of the city. In the map, it is shown as near to Narayan Shastry Road. The place was supposed to be marked as "Subbarayana Kere". I wonder how it would be if a traveler depends on these maps to explore the city. If it were some other place, probably that wouldn't have mattered. But, showing one tourist place in a wrong place is certainly a mistake which should be corrected.

Pale Blue Dot

Have you seen the farthest picture of Earth ever taken? The photo was taken by Voyager 1 spacecraft when it was moving towards edge of our solar system. This picture was taken at around 6.4 billion kilometers away from Earth in 1990! Not surprisingly, Earth looks like a dot! After looking into this picture certain things came to my mind. Earth looks like a tiny dot in the whole universe. But, people here fight for a piece of land in this tiny dot! Astronomer Carl Sagan has rightly described his thoughts on this picture. Let me reproduce the statements here:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

How true his wordings are!
God has created so many tiny dots like this in the universe. And in one of these tiny dots, so many creatures! Is it not a wonderful art?!

Send your name to the Moon!

Here is a chance to send your name to the Moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft. Last date for submitting names is June 27, 2008. Hurry up!

Is there a life in Mars?

On Sunday, Phoenix spacecraft successfully landed on arctic plain of Mars. It took 9 months and 23 days to reach Mars from Earth! The objective of the mission is to determine if there is a water ice on subsurface of Mars. If water ice exists, how much of it is available and to find out if it can be useful in future. The findings of this mission will be exciting. Imagine, if we found that water ice exists in Mars and if we can use that to convert it to water and also to oxygen… Wow! We can also think of using that water for future human landing. Also, it would give a hint at life at Mars. When we say life, do not only think of human like creatures. It could also be micro-organisms.

Phoenix is already sending pictures of Mars at Arctic site. Take a look at wonderful pictures at NASA’s website.

Terrorists attack on India

Terrorists attacked again now targeting Jaipur. I feel very ashamed to see the “impotence” of central government in handling terrorists. I still wonder how many attacks the government is waiting for to happen before they wake up and take stringent action. After Sep 11 attack, not a single attack has happened in US. Why? It’s because of the way US dealt with terrorists. Why can’t India seriously deal with terrorists when again and again attacks are happening in the country?

Indian soldiers have lot of courage to fight against terrorists. But Indian government does not have courage. It’s not only the present government but also the previous governments including NDA. The reason why government is hesitant to take action is very simple! Its vote bank politics! It’s hard to believe but it’s unfortunately true that government is less worried about India’s security just because of minority votes! Just because most of the terrorists belong to one minority community, none of the political parties have “courage” to take action against people who belong to minority community. I’m not against any religion but I’m against people (from any religion) who are anti-nationals. Under the banner of secularism and human rights, there are terrorists who are still alive in the jail. They should have been hanged without showing any amount of kindness. This is the best and only way of dealing with terrorists. It’s very surprising that the person who attacked the parliament is still alive! Human right activists who are opposing death sentence to parliament attackers should be sent to Kashmir to fight against terrorists. Even if these activists die, there is no loss to the nation.

Why can’t Indian Muslims become proactive and urge the government to take stringent action against terrorists? Why they are mute spectators in these issues? I have not seen/heard prominent Muslim leaders being proactive in these issues.

Indian government should take actions before it is too late. If you cannot wage war against enemies, you will not have right to stay in the position.

Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions?

My friend sent a link to this thought provoking article by Mark Fidelman. This is something we Indians should be aware of.

15 Hours and 38 Minutes Young Moon!

Look at this beautiful and stunning picture. This picture of moon was captured on 6th April from France when Moon was only 15 hours and 38 minutes old (rather I should say young!). It’s very difficult to see the moon within 24 hrs. I’ve seen only two days old moon. I always wondered if I can see young moon. Well, this picture is really an inspiration to me and I’m definitely going to try to capture young moon!

Can Humans Live to 1,000 Years?

I was going through this article, where scientists are working in increasing the life span of humans. Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey has famously stated,

“The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today… whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries.”

Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California says

“I am working on immortality”.

It was an interesting piece for me as few days back I was going through a website where it had given explanation about different yugas. According to the information provided in this website, in Kruta yuga life of humans would be 1 lakh years, in treta yuga it is 10000 years, in dvapara yuga it is 1000 years and in kali yuga it is 120 years.

We have many instances where people have crossed 100-110 years. There are very few exceptions to this rule (kind of) like the people who were mentioned by Paramhamsa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi. The people who are still alive in the Himalayas and they have crossed 1000 years!

I was just trying to relate the article with what mentioned in our ancient texts. I was just wondering if scientists really can increase the life span of humans in near future. It is indeed interesting to see where this research is heading!

Namaste or Handshake?

I happened to visit this article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25205-2004Dec24.html) through this post (http://satyameva-jayate.org/2008/05/02/namaste-handshake/). Author feels that shaking hands could be dangerous as it could pass germs and flu virus from one person to other. Author suggests that “The Hindu namaste greeting (a composite of the two words that means, roughly, I bend or incline toward you), for example, is simple, elegant and touchless: a slight bow with hands pressed at the palms near the heart.”

I always felt that Namaste is better than Handshake. But, in today’s world, handshake has become so common that if you don’t reciprocate it, you will be considered as uncultured or rude. More awareness should be created among people.

WorldOMeters!

Do you know the current world population?
Do you know how many bicycles are produced this year worldwide?
Do you know how many newspapers are circulated this year worldwide?
Do you know how many miles Earth has traveled in space within our solar system this year?
Do you know how many people have no access to safe drinking water?
Do you know how many people die because of smoking?

Well, I’m not conducting any quiz competition here. Here is an interesting and informative website http://www.worldometers.info/. It not only answers the above questions but also gives some more statistics. Some of the statistics are worth pondering. Though the figures are not 100% accurate, they (website team) make sure that they give as accurate number as possible based on the reputed and reliable sources available all over the world. Also take a look at another website http://www.stopthehunger.com/. Whenever we waste some food, we need to check this website to see how many people are dying because of hunger.

ISRO Sets A World Record

ISRO has created a world record by launching 10 satellites using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9). 10 satellites include 2 Indian satellites and satellites from Canada, Germany, Denmark, Japan and Netherlands. It’s a very proud moment for all Indians. This feat not only shows our remarkable achievement but also the success of PSLV in putting the satellites into orbits. It is 12th consecutive successful launch of PSLV. Just to note, India is one of the very few countries which have the capability of launching satellite indigenously.
I wish ISRO much more success in the space program.

Why people drive like this?

The road in topic is Hosur Road between Silk board junction and Electronics City. Some of the highlights are: Fly-over construction is under way and lots of people cross this road from both ends and it is more near Bommanahalli and other few points. This road has become kind of 4 lanes, each of 2 lanes for one way traffic.
Let me now come to the core issue of the topic. I’ve seen people driving on this road. Let me describe this in detail:

Two-wheelers: They are also one of the craziest drivers. They try to squeeze in wherever possible. They are also not bothered about the lane. They keep switching the lanes. The way they drive the vehicle is like a dirt track race.

Cab Drivers: All cab drivers including private maxi-cab drivers come under this category. They are worst. They drive as if world is going to end today! Still worse they just don’t bother about fellow drivers. When they are switching the lanes, they don’t even bother of looking at the rear window and they assume that whoever is coming from the back at the other lane should stop. They are also one of the top contenders in “Most Honking” category.

Heavy Vehicle Drivers: Bus and lorry drivers come under this category. The driving by private bus drivers is most horrifying. The way they make their own way is very dangerous. Sometimes I think of dragging them out and hitting! Another common scene is the race between private buses! They have made this road a race track. They keep honking as if it is an ambulance!

Why drivers don’t understand that it is dangerous to drive zig-zag?
Why drivers do not care to follow single lane?
Why drivers do not have patience to wait for pedestrians to cross the road?
Why drivers keep honking despite knowing that traffic is moving slowly?
Why drivers do not implement basic driving rules?

Why?...

Let us bring back our money!

Here is a good article on black money being kept in tax heaven banks like Swiss Bank. Author concludes saying only we countrymen, can bring back that money. But the question remains is How? As most of the politicians might be involved in some way or other, there will be a collective effort from all the political parties to make sure that no such activity would happen which will expose their (ill) wealth. Definitely we need people like General Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Alberto Fujimori of Peru and Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines.

I remember Shri Rajiv Dixit of Bharath Bachao Aandolan had started an initiative to collect the signatures from people of India in support of getting the account details of Indians from tax heavens banks. In fact, I was also involved in that campaign and I had collected more than 500 signatures. The aim was to collect 1 crore signatures and present it to the then President of India Shri APJ Kalam.

At least, one can contribute towards this by educating / making people aware of such corruption. Like I did, you also can blog such articles or send it to your friends circle.

Long time No post!

Its been long time since I blogged on a particular subject. I recently moved from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and I’m busy in setting the things up. There are a couple of subjects which I would like to blog such as my 4 long years stay in Hyderabad and my experience of initial days of Bengaluru. Bengaluru is not new to me. I stayed here for almost 3.5 years. But seeing this city after a gap of 4 years and the experience I had for initial few weeks was, I thought, worth a topic for blogging. I also want to blog on my experience with Hyderabad RTO and Police stations. As usual my blog is not always discussing about a topic. Whenever I come across any interesting topic in the internet, I do post it.

Preface

I've been using Windows Live Space for blogging (http://itsmesuresh.spaces.live.com/). Somehow I was not very satisfied with Live Space. May be, it is because of lot of restrictions in that site. I was looking for a better blogging site and I chose Blogger. I pen down my thoughts here.