Confucius say

On a sleepy weekday afternoon, while I was on the lookout for something to entertain me, I got lucky, and stumbled on this site:
http://www.weirdfortunecookies.com/

I know there is nothing I have done here, it is somebody elses hard work, but then, I recommend you click on that link and have some fun :-)

here are some samples

The Senses

"The Senses"

when you plumb the depths of your shallowness,
when you see through the superficiality of your thoughts,
when you hear the logic in your favourite madness,
when you smell the insecurity that gives your success,
when you touch the joy in knowing your pathos,
when you taste the futility of reason,
thats when you need somebody to tell you, you are god

Death

Really nice series :-) Calvin confronting death

Eye Candy!

Here is some eye candy. Some serious hardware that India is buying from Russia.
From this article


Smerch-M doing its stuff



Smerch-M decked up and at display


The tunguska self propelled gun

How could I forget this??? :-)
I like this lady a lot.
I just mean to say she is hot
:D

The IMA hoax e-mail

I had written about one more of those hoax mails regarding pesticide levels in various soft drinks in India here.

While I did that, I also wrote to the IMA (Indian Medical Association), asking them if they have tested any soft drinks whatsoever. I know it is a stupid thing to ask, but I thought I might as well declare to the whole world that this is a HOAX!! And a rather dumb one at that, if I may humbly add.

And I was pleasantly surprised when Dr. Dharam Prakash, Hony. Joint Secretary, IMA replied and confirmed the obvious.

I am going to reproduce the original e-mail (again) here as well as the reply from the IMA.

Drinks released from IMA recently
Dear friends,


Pesticide Percentage(%) in cool drinks released from IMA recently.

1 Thums up 15.2%
2 Coke 13.4%
3 7 up 12.5%
4 Mirinda 10.7%
5 Pepsi 109%
6 Fanta 9.1%

If the Range exceeds 2.1%, then its very dangerous to the Human
Liver.Results in Cancer!
So don't drink any brand from Coke and Pepsi!
This Message is from Indian Medical Association. Please pass it to
all known persons in your e-mails Save Indians!!!.............Save
Mankind!!

And here is the reply I got. I have edited it to discourage spambots.

From:	"Indian Medical Association-Projects" Book Add Mobile Alert
To:	my mail id @yahoo.com
Subject:
Date:	Thu, 7 Sep 2006 11:31:48 +0530

Dear Sir,

Received your email and noted the contents.

I wish to inform you that IMA has not conducted any study on the pesticide level.

With kind regards,

Dr. Dharam Prakash

Hony. Joint Secretary, IMA

Boy oh boy! Some satisfaction this :-)

Man, the creator

I happened to read a few articles regarding Synthetic Biology, Synthetic Life, BioBricks, DNA Hacking and that sort. Looks like the future holds a lot of promise and potential, for the "good" as well as the "bad", to us as a species. Many people call this phenomena, Life 2.0.

There is this interesting comparison of some predictions regarding Synthetic biology with Moore's law . In this case, the parameters are the growing effiency of DNA patterns instead of the number of transistors on a silicon chip. These predictions have been made by Dr. Rob Carlson from the University of Washington. Here is a chart from this article from The Economist.



There are already DNA Kits for kids who are interesting in ruining their social life and learning about DNA intead of trying to ermmm spread it around :D

The one above is from Discovery and is called Discovery DNA explorer kit. It is for kids above 10 years, FYI. There are some websites for DNA hackers too! Just you wait and see, when people of my generation are 70 yearls old, we shall be mercilessly recycled for some vague genetic material by asexually reproducing young yahoos created synthetically by our progeny.


On a more serious note, I have a feeling that perhaps this is the next phase of evolution. We have understood the evolution of organisms, how they are but "mindless" machines doing the bidding of their masters, the genes, and then we had one of these organisms (us, homo sapiens) postulate and think about memes and how they are similar to and different from genes. Maybe the next stage will be the memes finding (or more aptly, building) better and more powerful carrier machines - synthetic life forms that exist at the confluence of biology, bio chemistry, nano technology and electronics.

Passion and Suicide

I happened to read the suicide note of Kurt Cobain, vocalist for the awesome alternative rock band Nirvana. A sad end to a very passionate and creative spark. And this note kind of gives a glimpse of what was in the man's head.

To Boddah

Speaking from the tongue of an experienced simpleton who obviously would rather be an emasculated, infantile complain-ee. This note should be pretty easy to understand.

All the warnings from the punk rock 101 courses over the years, since my first introduction to the, shall we say, ethics involved with independence and the embracement of your community has proven to be very true. I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guity beyond words about these things.

For example when we're back stage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins., it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love, relish in the the love and adoration from the crowd which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can't fool you, any one of you. It simply isn't fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do,God, believe me I do, but it's not enough). I appreciate the fact that I and we have affected and entertained a lot of people. It must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they're gone. I'm too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.

On our last 3 tours, I've had a much better appreciation for all the people I've known personally, and as fans of our music, but I still can't get over the frustration, the guilt and empathy I have for everyone. There's good in all of us and I think I simply love people too much, so much that it makes me feel too fucking sad. The sad little, sensitive, unappreciative, Pisces, Jesus man. Why don't you just enjoy it? I don't know!

I have a goddess of a wife who sweats ambition and empathy and a daughter who reminds me too much of what i used to be, full of love and joy, kissing every person she meets because everyone is good and will do her no harm. And that terrifies me to the point to where I can barely function. I can't stand the thought of Frances becoming the miserable, self-destructive, death rocker that I've become.

I have it good, very good, and I'm grateful, but since the age of seven, I've become hateful towards all humans in general. Only because it seems so easy for people to get along that have empathy. Only because I love and feel sorry for people too much I guess.

Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the past years. I'm too much of an erratic, moody baby! I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away.

Peace, love, empathy.
Kurt Cobain

Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your alter.
Please keep going Courtney, for Frances.
For her life, which will be so much happier without me.

I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!

Here is the image of the actual note:


Boddah, apparently was Kurt's imaginary childhood friend. As he grew up, Boddah became the ideal of what Kurt thought he should be like.

I admire the passion in such people and sometimes I wish I was really passionate about something, anything, but it looks like I am passionate about nothing. I was passionate about a lot of things a long time ago, or rather I like to think I was. Even so, somethimes I think that maybe being very passionate about something is not so good too. It could consume you. Confused :-)


Added later:
OK, as required by M, I have to acknowledge that the reason why I read a little more about Kurt and and his death is because she brought up his topic. OK, Are you happy now?