If only this could be harvested!

Perspective: India's next big business? from CNET

"If you don't get into the Bay of Bengal now, you will be left back as an Okie,"
he said during a presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference last week. "Unless you step into the breach, you may regret one day dismissing me as a raving lunatic."
The optimism is grounded in massive oil deposits, close to 30 billion tons, in Central India. That's twice the size of the deposits in Iraq (13 billion tons, according to the Institute of Petroleum) and just shy of Saudi deposits. With this, India, which imports 70 percent of its oil, could become an exporter, Aiyar hypothesized. Although nations are clamoring to build their economies around clean industries like semiconductor design and outsourcing, there's still a lot to be said for 19th century activities like drilling holes into the ground and blowing up rocks.
Unfortunately, oil is stuck under the Deccan Traps, a deep layer of volcanic rock created 65 million years ago when the protocontinent Gowandaland smacked into Eurasia. The collision coincided with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

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quote

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.
-- Clifford Stoll

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More ways to organize your news!!!

Yahoo unveils RSS e-mail folder from MSNBC

Looking to gain another edge on its rivals, Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday will begin testing a new e-mail folder designed to make it easier for people to track the latest information posted on their favorite Web sites.

The free feature relies on Really Simple Syndication, an increasingly popular technology that can compile content from a wide array of Web sites catering to a user's personal tastes.
Millions of people have signed up to receive automatic feeds on everything from the international news to family recipes since Yahoo first began providing its RSS service last year, said Scott Gatz, the Sunnyvale, Calif-based company's senior director of personalization products.

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song

chalo ek baar phir se ajabnabi ho jaye...

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Another intersting feature by Google(ofcourse)

Hello, this is Google, your operator, speaking from CNET

A Web surfer can click a phone icon adjacent to an ad, enter his or her own phone number and then click a "connect for free" button. Google's service calls the advertiser's phone number and when the Web surfer picks up the receiver on his phone, he or she hears ringing as the call to the advertiser is connected, according to a Google Click-to-Call frequently-asked-questions page.
Unlike voice over Internet Protocol, a technology that sends voice transmission over the Internet, this service appears to connect two parties over the regular phone lines. However, Google declined to provide more details, including the specifics of the technology employed.

How do they do it????

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Gud English

(Note: I am not sure any of this is true but it is gud read)

[via Shethra]

In TN , well Known Person,Mr Jeppier,Chairman of Self finance Engg Colleges Association ,who is always speaking in English ...Sathyabama college Students have Collected & published the Book Jappier's Spoken English... Njoy ...........with his..............English..............
Now, here are some classic English sentences from the great Mr. Jeppiar.
The stalwart talks to his students:

# At the ground:-----------------
All of you stand in a straight circle. There is no wind in the balloon. The girl with the mirror please comes her...{Means: girl with specs please come here).

# To a boy, angrily:---------------------
I talk, he talk, why you middle middle talk?

# While punishing students:-----------------------
You, rotate the ground four times...
You, go and understand the tree...
You three of you stand together separately.
Why are you late - say YES or NO .....(?)

# Sir at his best:---------------
Sir had once gone to a film with his wife. By chance, he happened to see one of our boys at the theatre, though the boy did not see them.
So the next day at school... (to that boy) -
"Yesterday I saw you WITH MY WIFE at the Cinema Theatre"

# Sir at his best inside the Class room: ----------------------------------------------
Open the doors of the window. Let the atmosphere come in.
Open the doors of the window. Let the Air Force come in.
Cut an apple into two halves - I will take the bigger half.
Shhh...Quiet, boys...the principal JUST PASSED AWAY in the corridor
You, meet me behind the class. (Meaning AFTER the class..)

This one is cool >> "Both of u three get out of the class."

Close the doors of the windows please. I have winter in my nose today...
Take Copper Wire of any metal especially of Silver.....
Take 5 cm wire of any length....
Last but not the least some Jeppiar experiences ...

Once Sir had come late to a college function, by the time he reached, the function had begun, so he went to the dais, and said, sorry I am late, because on the way my car hit 2 muttons (Meaning goats).

At Sathyabama college day 2002:
"This college strict u the worry no .... U get good marks, I the happy, tomorrow u get good job, jpr the happy, tomorrow u marry I the enjoy"

At St. Josephs fresh years day 2003:
"No ragging this college. Anybody rag we arrest the police"

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I sit and think

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall never see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

--JRR Tolkien [via Far From Perfect ]

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Cyborg - a form of art???????

Pardon Me, but the Art Is Mouthing Off from NYTimes

IT was late in the day, rain was streaking the windows of a converted warehouse in San Francisco and the robot was not behaving. Represented by a talking head on a flat-screen monitor, and equipped with voice-recognition software, the artificial intelligence computer - known as DiNA - was designed to chat with visitors about current affairs. She is supposed to be a political animal, or more precisely, machine. But at this point in early November, just a few weeks before making her New York debut, she sounded rather clueless. When asked her opinion of the war in Iraq, she called it a "silly question." When asked whether she supported President Bush, she didn't recognize his name.

The robot's programmer, Colin Klingman, was taken aback. "She has a lot to say on Bush, believe me," he said. "I'll have to check the code."

The robot's creator, on the other hand, seemed unfazed. "She still has a lot to learn," said Lynn Hershman Leeson, the 64-year-old digital-media artist. "And she's not yet connected to the Internet, where she can gather information on anything from the mayor of Pasadena to the capital of Pakistan."

An animated exchange with the programmer followed: could that Internet integration happen in time for DiNA's New York debut at Bitforms gallery? Ms. Hershman Leeson calmly insisted it was important. The programmer relented: "Well, then, that's it. Whatever Lynn says will happen, will happen."

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No comments!

Forced to Marry Before Puberty, African Girls Pay Lasting Price from NYTimes

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quote

Hope is a waking dream.
-- Aristotle

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Fire Fox followed by Gmail

The 100 Best Products of 2005 from PCWorld

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Child Labors... Do they have a choice?

Child workers refuse to quit jobs from BBC

"And for his pains, Tabrez was paid a pocket money of 50 rupees (just over
$1) a week, and at the end of the month, his employer sent 800 rupees (roughly
$17) to his parents.
Alam has never been to school and can neither read nor
write.
Tabrez Alam wants go back to work. He does not have many plans for the future.
"I will take up any work I can find. There is not much to do back home so I will have to go somewhere else to find work," he says.
Perhaps that explains why forcibly rescuing children from factories does not
work.
Most such children have nothing to go back to. Their parents are unable to provide for them, and many return to work once the dust settles."

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good or bad?

Scientists close to producing baby from two dads from The Hindu

"Yet this startling idea is now a serious scientific prospect, say
researchers. Breakthroughs in stem-cell technology could soon lead to
`non-traditional' parents having their own offspring, not always with the help
of a woman's genes, some scientists saying within the next four years. The new
technology currently falls outside existing controls on human fertilisation
science."

[...]

"The technique behind this revolutionary science has been developed
over the past two years. "We still have several years to go before we can use it
on humans," said Professor Harry Moore, of Sheffield University's Centre for
Stem Cell Biology. Following pioneering work on mice carried out by American
researchers, teams — including Moore's — have used embryos donated by patients
undergoing IVF.
"You allow the embryo to develop for a short period in the
laboratory. Then you take out the cells from which it is composed," he said.

These cells are known as stem cells and they have the potential to turn
into cells of any type of tissue: skin, heart, kidney or brain, for example.
What researchers are now doing in laboratories round the world is developing
techniques to turn these stem cells into specialised cells.
Thus
insulin-secreting cells could be created for diabetics and brain cells for
Parkinson's patients."

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thought

Sometimes you have to let it be, to let it change.

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quotes

Never mistake motion for action.
-- Ernest Hemingway

Character develops itself in the stream of life.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Technology and cricket

Cricket can learn from American football from The Hindu

Some very good suggestions to reduce some very frustrating umpiring decisions.

"What to do? Obviously the idea of sending every appeal to a third umpire
must be rejected as slow and belittling. Instead, consideration could be given
to the sort of compromise reached in American Football whereby each coach is
allowed four challenges during a match. To question a decision he must throw a
red flag onto the field, a move that in other circumstances might provoke a riot
in George Bush country. If replays indicate that the ref was right then a
challenge is forfeited. Compelling evidence is needed before a decision is
overturned.
Applying the idea to cricket, captains could be allowed two
challenges an innings. Of course they must not waste them. Shane Warne could get
through the allocation in his first over. Unless all three stumps had been
flattened, Justin Langer would seek a second opinion. Just as well Steve Waugh
has retired. The captain must be firm."

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Its all in your brain!!!

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis from NYTimes

"In medical hands, hypnosis was no laughing matter. In the 19th century,
physicians in India successfully used hypnosis as anesthesia,
even for limb amputations. The practice fell from favor only when ether was
discovered.
Now, Dr. Posner and others said, new research on hypnosis and
suggestion is providing a new view into the cogs and wheels of normal brain
function.
One area that it may have illuminated is the processing of sensory
data. Information from the eyes, ears and body is carried to primary sensory
regions in the brain. From there, it is carried to so-called higher regions
where interpretation occurs. "
...
"According to decades of
research, 10 to 15 percent of adults are highly hypnotizable, said Dr. David
Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford who studies the clinical uses of hypnosis.
Up to age 12, however, before top-down circuits mature, 80 to 85 percent of
children are highly hypnotizable.
One adult in five is flat out resistant to
hypnosis, Dr. Spiegel said. The rest are in between, he said."
...
"Brain scans show that the control mechanisms for deciding what to do in
the face of conflict become uncoupled when people are hypnotized. Top-down
processes override sensory, or bottom-up information, said Dr. Stephen M.
Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard. People think that sights, sounds and touch
from the outside world constitute reality. But the brain constructs what it
perceives based on past experience, Dr. Kosslyn said.
Most of the time
bottom-up information matches top-down expectation, Dr. Spiegel said. But
hypnosis is interesting because it creates a mismatch. "We imagine something
different, so it is different," he said."

Sounds like Imperious Curse... But only that is is not being used by dark wizards but Aurors of decease, the doctors. For those of you it seems gibberish check out the terms from A Harry Potter Dictionary.
Anything in itself is not good or bad it is its use that makes the difference!

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quote

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances -- it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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:) Evolution of the evolutionary Darwin.

Darwin Exhibit Makes N.Y. Opening from npr.org Science Friday

Brief look at Charles Darwins scientific life.

Some things that I picked up while listening to this story...
He and his wife were upset that they will not be able to spend eternity together!
He was sacared as it was as if accepting to murder.
He published his work 20yrs after he discovered it.

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Intresting

Polls on Women in Leadership Roles from npr.org News & Notes with Ed Gordon

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Brave mouse implies brave human!!!!

Fearless Mice May Shed Light on Fearful Humans from nrp.org Morning Edition

""They're kind of like fearless mice," he says. "They go to open spaces. They explore freely. And really for mice it's not a good thing because some predator can come and eat them."

The mice are fearless because they have been genetically modified. They are missing a gene called stathmin."

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good or bad????

The Problem With an Almost-Perfect Genetic World from NYTimes

"MIA PETERSON is not a fan of tests. Because she has Down syndrome, she says, she cannot always think as fast as she would like to and tests end up making her feel judged. A recent driving test, for instance, ended in frustration. The Boston Globe

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Genetic testing may adversely affect children with Down syndrome. Fewer Born With Down Syndrome

Ms. Peterson, 31, the chief of self-advocacy for the National Down Syndrome Society, prefers public speaking and travel. And her test aversion extends to the latest one designed to detect Down in a fetus. "I don't want to think like we're being judged against," Ms. Peterson said. "Not meeting their expectations."

Heralded in the Nov. 10 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the new prenatal test provides earlier, more reliable results for all women than the current test, which is routinely offered to only older women who are at higher risk. But for people with Down syndrome and the cluster of other conditions subject to prenatal screening, the new test comes with a certain chill.

Because such tests often lead to abortions, people with conditions from mental disability to cystic fibrosis may find their numbers dwindling. As a result, some fear, their lives may become harder just as they are winning the fight for greater inclusion.

"We're trying to make a place for ourselves in society at a time when science is trying to remove at least some of us," said Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People With Disabilities, who suffers from bipolar disorder. "For me, it's very scary.""

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Or maybe NOT!

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Back in Business :)

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:)

Mother Nature tops Time person of the year list from Ruters "Oddly Enough"

Everything is fine untill this last section :) :) :)

"Some selections have been notoriously unpopular with Time readers, such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
Time's 2004 Person of the Year was U.S. President George W. Bush."

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Kansas State Board of Education's definition of science

Philosophers Notwithstanding, Kansas School Board Redefines Science from NYtimes

"The changes in the official state definition are subtle and lawyerly, and involve mainly the removal of two words: "natural explanations." But they are a red flag to scientists, who say the changes obliterate the distinction between the natural and the supernatural that goes back to Galileo and the foundations of science.
The old definition reads in part, "Science is the human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us." The new one calls science "a systematic method of continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."
Adrian Melott, a physics professor at the University of Kansas who has long been fighting Darwin's opponents, said, "The only reason to take out 'natural explanations' is if you want to open the door to supernatural explanations.""
...
"There are two equally worthy ways to understand the divine, Galileo said. "One was reverent contemplation of the Bible, God's word," Dr. Holton said. "The other was through scientific contemplation of the world, which is his creation."

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Owning internet

Other Nations Hope to Loosen U.S. Grip on Internet from NYTimes

"When Libya lost the use of its Internet domain ".ly" for five days last year, it needed help from an agency in California that reports to the United States Commerce Department.
Anyone looking to do business with an .ly Web site or e-mail an .ly address probably met with a "file not found" or "no such person" message. For anyone on the Internet, Libya was just not there.
In a day when Internet access is critical to world commerce - let alone casual communication - even a five-day lapse is a hardship. And when one government needs the help of another to make its citizens visible again on that network, it can be a damaging blow to its sovereignty, and perhaps a matter of national security, even if the cause was a dispute over payments, as in the Libyan case.
What if, by historical chance, France or Britain controlled country domain names on the Internet? Would the United States settle for asking another government to fix its own addresses?
That kind of power to hinder or foster freedom of the Internet, centralized in a single government, is the crucial issue for many of the 12,000 people expected in Tunis this week for a United Nations summit meeting on the information age."

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Free MS product... any takers!

Microsoft eyes making desktop apps free from CNET

"Although no specific plans have been made, executives within Microsoft are examining whether it makes sense to release ad-supported versions of products such as Works, Money, or even the Windows operating system itself, according to internal documents seen by CNET News.com.
"As Web advertising grows and consumer revenues shrink, we need to consider creating ad-supported versions of our software," two Microsoft researchers and an MSN employee wrote in a paper presented to company executives earlier this year. The document was prepared for one of Microsoft's twice-yearly Thinkweek exercises, in which Chairman Bill Gates and other top executives gather to consider potential new avenues for the company to follow."

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Curiosity is good.

Lack of curiosity is curious from triangle.com

"Over dinner a few weeks ago, the novelist Lawrence Naumoff told a troubling story. He asked students in his introduction to creative writing course at UNC-Chapel Hill if they had read Jack Kerouac. Nobody raised a hand. Then he asked if anyone had ever heard of Jack Kerouac. More blank expressions.
Naumoff began describing the legend of the literary wild man. One student offered that he had a teacher who was just as crazy. Naumoff asked the professor's name. The student said he didn't know. Naumoff then asked this oblivious scholar, "Do you know my name?"
After a long pause, the young man replied, "No."
"I guess I've always known that many students are just taking my course to get a requirement out of the way," Naumoff said. "But it was disheartening to see that some couldn't even go to the trouble of finding out the name of the person teaching the course."
The floodgates were opened and the other UNC professors at the dinner began sharing their own dispiriting stories about the troubling state of curiosity on campus. Their experiences echoed the complaints voiced by many of my book reviewers who teach at some of the nation's best schools.
All of them have noted that such ignorance isn't new -- students have always possessed far less knowledge than they should, or think they have. But in the past, ignorance tended to be a source of shame and motivation. Students were far more likely to be troubled by not-knowing, far more eager to fill such gaps by learning. As one of my reviewers, Stanley Trachtenberg, once said, "It's not that they don't know, it's that they don't care about what they don't know.""

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quote

Some pray to marry the man they love, my prayer will somewhat vary; I humbly pray to Heaven above that I love the man I marry.
-- Rose Pastor Stokes

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anonymuncule

ek shyam zindagi ke

dubo jane vali barsat,
garajte chamkte badal hazar,
halki barish ke phuar,
kahi urdte badal char,
saf kula nila asman,
uspe chamakti kirne beshumar,
dhimi hawa lati kushboo unjaan,
dhondne use badhte kadam char,
ujagar hota phuloo ka rang tamam,
khamoshi ko jagati panchiyo ke awaz,
dhime dhime pattiya gungunati koi raag,
dhalte suraj ki aakh micholi sab ke saath,
phir sitaro bhare aachal me sab samoti raat.

ye zindigi ki ek shyam aur sang hota tumara saath.

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thought

why?

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quote

A smile on the face is a sign that the heart is at home.
-- Unknown Author

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Just a note.... for the few and far readers

If u are seeing this entry as the top entry of my blog then I am still in the writting mode(and this mode may just change by the time I finish this note). That is my blog will be more of what I write than what I read.... so it can be safely avoided :) You won't be missing much!

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anonymuncule

kushi ka pal, aachnak aata hai aur bina kuch kahe chala jata hai.
gum ka ek lamha, rukh sa jaata hai aur her ehasas per apne nishan chod jata hai.

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anonymuncule

Risthtey

waqt tham sa gaya hai
dil bhar aaya hai
per phir bhi uderne ke tammana hai

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anonymuncule

Aajnabi

Jab zindagi main andhera chane lage,
Jab kisi modh per dil thanha lage,
Jab shyam asuoome dhalne lage,
Jab rahien manzillo se door jane lage,
Jab manzil per khushiyon ke talash ho,
Jab naaye humraaz samajhne me tumko naakaam ho,
Jab vo thakne lage jo thame thumara haath ho,
Tab...
us andhare main,
un aasuoo main,
us modh pe,
us manjil pe,
Tum aapne saath ek aajnabi ko paaoge.

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anonymuncule

Words!!!!

shatter dreams,
build hope,
bring you close,
tear you apart,
strengthen relationships,
weaken trusts,
spin lies,
hide truth,
comfort you,
hurt you,
express thoughts,
confuse feelings,
start a war,
end in peace,
destroy characters,
save lives.

Oh words just so many words...
can we live without them?
are we bound to them?
can we see above them?
are we limited by them?
can we feel beyond them?

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anonymuncule

Swikar

Pyar, parivar,
Niradhar swikar.
Dosti, mohabath,
Vichar swikar.
Mehaman, vidwaan,
Achar swikar.
Guru, bhagavan,
Vishwas swikar.

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hhhmmmmm

A pope for our times: why Darwin is back on the agenda at the Vatican from Times Online

"He argued that the real message of Genesis was that the Universe did not make itself, and had a creator. “Science and theology act in different fields, each in its own.” In Rome, the immediate reaction was that this was a Vatican rejection of the fundamentalist American doctrine of “intelligent design”. No doubt the Vatican does want to separate itself from American creationists, but the significance surely goes further than that. This is not another Galileo case; the teachings of the Church have never imposed a literal interpretation of the language of the Bible; that was a Protestant mistake. Nor did the Church condemn the theory of evolution, though it did and does reject neo-Darwinism when that is made specifically atheist.
Indeed, one can go back nearly 1,500 years before Darwin and find St Augustine of Hippo, the most commanding intellect of all the early doctors of the Church, teaching a doctrine of evolution in the early 5th century. In one of his greatest works, De Genesi ad Litteram, he stated that God did not create an organised Universe as we see it now, but in the beginning created all the elements of the world in a confused and “nebulous” mass. In this mass were the mysterious seeds of the creatures who were to come into existence.
Augustine’s thought does therefore contain the elements of a theory of evolution, and even a genetic theory, but does not have natural selection. St Augustine has always been orthodox. He did not foresee modern science in AD410, but he did have an extraordinary grasp of the potential evolution of scientific thought. Cardinal Poupard’s address to the journalists should not be seen as a matter of the Roman Church changing its mind and accepting Darwin after 145 years."

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One win one loss

Evolution Slate Outpolls Rivals from NYTimes

"The vote counts were close, but of the 16 candidates the one with the fewest votes was Mr. Bonsell, the driving force behind the intelligent design policy. Testimony at the trial revealed that Mr. Bonsell had initially insisted that creationism get equal time in the classroom with evolution.
One incumbent, James Cashman, said he would contest the vote because a voting machine in one precinct recorded no votes for him, while others recorded hundreds."

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What to say!!!! Redefinition of science???

Kansas Board Approves Challenges to Evolution from NYTimes

"The standards move beyond the broad mandate for critical analysis of evolution that four other states have established in recent years, by recommending that schools teach specific points that doubters of evolution use to undermine its primacy in science education.
Among the most controversial changes was a redefinition of science itself, so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations.
The vote was a watershed victory for the emerging movement of intelligent design, which posits that nature alone cannot explain life's complexity. John G. West of the Discovery Institute, a conservative research organization that promotes intelligent design, said Kansas now had "the best science standards in the nation.""

I have a simple question how can a board of some people decide what is to be taught in science when the majority of scientific community has little or no doubt abt evolution?
What is taught in science classrooms should not be decided on what majority thinks...

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Software's real bugs!

History's Worst Software Bugs from wired.com

My fav...

"With that recall, the Prius joined the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1947 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark 1 system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found.""

However, there is a list of software bugs as we know of it today.

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I did not know such a thing existed

The Literary Darwinists from NYTimes

"Jane Austen first published "Pride and Prejudice" in 1813. She had misgivings about the book, complaining in a letter to her sister that it was "rather too light, and bright, and sparkling." But these qualities may be what make it the most popular of her novels. It tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet, a young woman from a shabby genteel family, who meets Mr. Darcy, an aristocrat. At first, the two dislike each other. Mr. Darcy is arrogant; Elizabeth, clever and cutting. But through a series of encounters that show one to the other in a more appealing light - as well as Mr. Darcy's intervention when an officer named Wickham runs away with Elizabeth's younger sister Lydia (Darcy bribes the cad to marry Lydia) - Elizabeth and Darcy come to love each other, to marry and, it is strongly suggested at book's end, to live happily ever after.
For the common reader, "Pride and Prejudice" is a romantic comedy. His or her pleasure comes from the vividness of Austen's characters and how familiar they still seem: it's as if we know Elizabeth and Darcy. On a more literary level, we enjoy Austen's pointed dialogue and admire her expert way with humor. For similar reasons, critics have long called "Pride and Prejudic" a classic - their ultimate (if not well defined) expression of approval.
But for an emerging school of literary criticism known as Literary Darwinism, the novel is significant for different reasons. Just as Charles Darwin studied animals to discover the patterns behind their development, Literary Darwinists read books in search of innate patterns of human behavior: child bearing and rearing, efforts to acquire resources (money, property, influence) and competition and cooperation within families and communities. They say that it's impossible to fully appreciate and understand a literary text unless you keep in mind that humans behave in certain universal ways and do so because those behaviors are hard-wired into us. For them, the most effective and truest works of literature are those that reference or exemplify these basic facts.
From the first words of the first chapter ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife") to the first words of the last ("Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters"), the novel is stocked with the sort of life's-passage moments that resonate with meaning for Literary Darwinists. (One calls the novel their "fruit fly.") The women in the book mostly compete to marry high-status men, consistent with the Darwinian idea that females try to find mates whose status will assure the success of their offspring. At the same time, the men are typically competing to marry the most attractive women, consistent with the Darwinian idea that males look for youth and beauty in females as signs of reproductive fitness. Darcy and Elizabeth's flips and flops illustrate the effort mammals put into distinguishing between short-term appeal (a pert step, a handsome coxcomb) and long-term appropriateness (stability, commitment, wealth, underlying good health). Meanwhile, Wickham - the penniless officer who tries to make off first with Darcy's sister and then carries off Lydia - serves as an example of the mating behavior evolutionary biologists call (I'm using a milder euphemism than they do) "the sneaky fornicator theory.""

A different scrutiny on one of the books I really like. I wouldn't think of it this way!!!!!!! The entire atricle is rather long but good read.

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Blog regulations

Most blogs are terrible [from The Examined Life] [via IndiaUncut]

This is a write up on blogging (good and bad) and how will regulating blogs will effect.

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Fuel alternative

World's next fuel source could be designer organisms from CNET

"J. Craig Venter, who gained worldwide fame in 2000 when he mapped the human genetic code, is behind a new start-up called Synthetic Genomics, which plans to create new types of organisms that, ideally, would produce hydrogen, secrete nonpolluting heating oil or be able to break down greenhouse gases.
The initial focus will be on creating "biofactories" for hydrogen and ethanol, two fuels seen as playing an increasing role in powering cars in the future. Hydrogen also holds promise for heating homes and putting juice into electronic devices. "

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:) more on ID and evolution case

In Intelligent Design Case, a Cause in Search of a Lawsuit from NYTimes

Closing Arguments Made in Trial on Intelligent Design from NYTimes

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Husband & Wife

From Vishnu Bhagavata
Husband and Wife must be souls like twin flames illuminating all about them.It is not a question of equality between them but of identity.

She is language; he is thought
She is prudence; he is law
He is reason; she is sense
She is duty; he is right
He is author; she is work
He is patience; she is peace
He is will; she is wish
He is pity; she is gift
He is song; she is note
She is fuel; he is fire
She is glory; he is sun
She is motion; he is wind
He is owner; she is wealth
He is battle; she is might
He is lamp; she is light
He is day; she is night
He is justice; she is pity
He is channel; she is river
She is beauty; he is strength
She is body; he is soul

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Take a guess before you click!

My favourite Microsoft product [from IndiaUncut]

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quote

You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
-- Pearl Buck

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Finally a home seires win after a long time !!!!!

7-0 will sound good too :)

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This is pathetic!!!

In pictures: Force Fed from BBC

"Souadou’s fingers are often clamped between two sticks, a frequently-used instrument of torture.
This, her grandmother explains, will stem her urge to vomit by distracting her with some local pain.
Officially, force-feeding is said to have disappeared after government health campaigns pronounced it wrong, but the message has yet to reach some remote areas of Mauritania."
...
"Some young women affected suffer from conditions such as early diabetes, heart disease, gallstones and arthritis, which may immobilise and eventually kill them.
The obsession of some Mauritanians with female obesity is continuing to cripple a small but extremely vulnerable sector of its society."

Another thought... why are women in most societies treated as a object to represent something, it can be wealth, honor, anything?

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Intresting non-techinical readup on Gravity etc.

On Gravity, Oreos and a Theory of Everything from NYTimes

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Translations of Hindi song lyrics

Not bad translations.... from http://www.bollywhat.com/lyrics/swad_lyr.html


yeh jo des hai tera swades hai tera
this country of yours is your motherland
tujhe hai pukaara
and is calling out to you
yeh woh ba.ndhan hai jo kabhi TuuT nahii.n sakta
this is a bond which can never break
miTTii kii hai jo khushbuu tuu kaise bhulaayega
how can you forget the scent of your earth
tuu chaahe kahii.n jaaye tuu lautke aayega
you can go anywhere but you'll always come back
nayii nayii raaho.n me.n dabii dabii aaho.n me.n
in new paths, in every sigh
khoye khoye dil se tere
to your lost heart
koii yeh kahega
someone will say
yeh jo des hai tera swades hai tera
this land of yours is your motherland
tujhse zi.ndagii hai yeh kah rahii
life is telling you
sab to paa liya ab hai kya kamii
you have achieved everything now what's left
yuu.n to saare sukh hai barse
looks like hapiness has been showered on you
par duur tuu hai apne ghar se
but you're far from your home
haa.n laut chal tuu ab deewane
now come back oh crazy one
jahaa.n koii to tujhe apna maane
where at least someone will call you their own
aawaaz de tujhe bulaaye
and will call out to you
vahii des
that very same country
yeh jo des hai tera....
this land that is yours.....
yeh pal hai vahii jisme.n hai chhupii
this moment has hidden in it
puurii ek sadii saarii zi.ndagii
a whole century of life
tuu na puuchh raaste me.n kahe
don't ask why in the road
aaye hain is tarah do raahe.n
has come a fork with two ways
tuu hi to hai raah sujhaaye
you are the one who should choose the path
tuu hii to hai ab jo yeh bataaye
you should choose
jaaye to kis disha me.n jaaye
which direction to take
vahii des
this very country
yeh jo des hai tera....
this land that is yours....

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quotes

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.
-- Agatha Christie

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or whereyou are,
or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about.
-- Dale Carnegie

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Happy Diwali

Wishing Everyone A Very Happy Diwali.

Hope the new year brings lots of happiness, love and laughter to you!!!

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