Happy

The battle rages
to steal those moments
from life's crummy fingers

The bill says that it is six six six
and I wonder if that includes the tips

bright red eyelids
dilated pupils

I sail on the black river
while there is nary a quiver

angry smiling people flow by
blowing their horns as they think of an alibi

Another Joke

What did the hardcore techie Sardarji name his son?
Ans: Pageinder

read-absorb-reflect-read

http://xkcd.com

Read, enjoy ....

my words, valuable, less post

(borrow because everything that is to be said has always been said, we dip into the eternal stream of ideas with our minds. They make awful containers and are limited by their size. Keep dipping in I say, there is so much!!!)

joke I made up

Why did Santa go to Egypt for his honey-moon?
Because he wanted his wife to become a mummy.

Yeah, I know, shit happens...

Evil space aliens

They are everywhere, slowly and constantly gnawing away inside humanity. Nobody knows the truth, but the Evil space aliens led by whacko jacko have inducted an important new recruit into their secret society. These sinister plans shall not go unanswered. Fortunately for planet earth and all of humanity, we are here to expose the evil designs of these insidious creatures. Their plan is simple, and diabolical. They first identify important and powerful people, celebrities and the like. Then they infect them. Did you think that dream catcher was entirely fiction? Then these celebrities turn into hedious replicas of King Whacko Jacko. Did I hear the word proof? Did I hear some guffaws? Here it is the ultimate proof, their newest recruit, Shah Rukh Khan.

Inevitability

Ok, I loved this site. Read, and ye shall know why:

In these irrationally exuberant times, it's getting harder and harder for the self-respecting pessimist to stay unhappy. So pervasive is the hope, so overwhelming the positivity, that without the firmest grip on your sullen perspective, you might actually lose it. Then one day, you wake up looking at the bright side, whistling some inane showtune, and generally annoying everyone around you.

Fortunately, we've created a solution. Despair, Inc. is proud to introduce The Pessimist's Mug™ Specifically engineered by the chronically cynical pessimists of Despair Laboratories™, this crystal-clear mug will help all who drink from it to Stay
Grounded™ by forever reminding them to see when the glass is half-empty.

The main theme, the core of this website, was born out of spoofs of those evil motivational posters that were getting the goat of any self-respecting cynic. In their very own words:

MOTIVATION. Psychology tells us that motivation- true, lasting motivation- can only come from within. Common sense tells us it can't be manufactured or productized. So how is it that a multi-billion dollar industry thrives through the sale of motivational commodities and services? Because, in our world of instant gratification, people desperately want to believe that there are simple solutions to complex problems. And when desperation has disposable income, market opportunities abound.

AT DESPAIR, INC., we believe motivational products create unrealistic expectations, raising hopes only to dash them. That's why we created our soul-crushingly depressing Demotivators® designs, so you can skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointments that follow!

(Please note that these de-motivators are trademarked and marketed [cynical chuckle])

The best part is of course the section of "demotivators". This one combines two of the three most essential survival mantras as propounded by me, the prophet. They being; Irreverence, Humor and Cynicism. The acronym that I am making up for this will be CHI And these guys have the H and C of CHI covered. Actually, some aspects are irreverent too, but then, thats debatable and I shall award them only C and H out of CHI.

Some of my favorites from the list of de-motivating posters:







Well, to be perfectly honest some of their videos can be boring and repetitive but then, this definitely is worth a days laughs. If we are not cynical about a site about cynicism will we be doing justice to cynicism? Shouldn't we be cynical about out own ability to be cynical? and so on and so forth.......

ummm....

Interesting wonly....

Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000), born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was an Austrian-Jewish naturalized American actress and communications technology innovator. Though known primarily for her great beauty and her successful film career, she also co-invented the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication.

Such enchanting beauty, such smarts, such a colorful life!! It is said that she was the first mainstream actress to pose nude in front of the camera.

Somehow, there is this buzz in my head ... "moth, fire" :D [I ignore it, as usual (GRIN)]

Fire on the mountain

When I was a kid, a very young kid, maybe 6 years old, I was taught all about life there is to learn (Thats a typical exaggeration of mine :D ) during "games period". Specifically, with a very interesting and profound (The E word again) game called "Fire on the mountain". Pity I did not realize how important this "game" was.

For those of you who don't know, a "PT Teacher" in Indian schools, is somebody who is the equivalent of a gym instructor in the western world's schools. They teach kids how to endure drudgery and discipline in the hot sun. Sometimes, they let kids play some games too, the good ones at least, do. One of such games we played was "Fire in the mountain". Here is how it would be played.

"PT Teacher" would make all of us kids stand in a circle facing in the same direction. (much pushing and shoving coupled with jockeying to get near your people) "PT teacher" would then chant
"Fire on the mountain run! run!! run!!!"
And keep chanting this while we ran around in the circle. (Running around in circles, with a watchful eye on the other kids around, maintaining "strategic position")
And then suddenly, after an indeterminate amount of time, "PT Teacher" would stop the chanting and shriek out some random number between 2 and 7 depending on how many people were working, oops! I mean, depending on how many kids were playing, and that many kids had to get into groups of the number called out by hugging each other. Now, whoever was left out, without a group, was declared "out" and had to sit out and watch his other "friends" continue playing the game :-)

Now, I don't know how many of you have played this game as kids, but I bet that many feel they are playing a similar game right now :D Work, and maybe more generically, life seems more and more like "Fire on the mountain". What say, gentle reader?

Billboard bashup

This picture is from here. Wonder how much money the owner of the top most billboard would have made.

Pantheism, Panetheism, Omega Point and Gods Debris

Sometime last week, I was reading about Pantheism on wiki:

Pantheism (Greek: πάν ( 'pan' ) = all and θεός ( 'theos' ) = God) literally means "God is All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent

Basically, it is a particular perspective on the Advaita school of Indian philosophy. Now, those of you mischievous kids out there wondering why I was doing this in the first place:


Advaita is also sometimes described as being monist in nature. But then it does seem that all these are but labels being applied by the newly formed western civilization taking its first baby steps after a long time.

The vishishtadvaita school on the other hand was superficially identified with the label, Panetheistic

Panentheism (from Greek: πάν (‘pan’ ) = all, en = in, and theos = God; "all-in-God") is the theological position that God is immanent within the Universe, but also transcends it. It is distinguished from pantheism, which holds that God is synonymous with the material universe

Meanwhile, I came across this on the same page: Omega Point

Omega point is a term invented by French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the ultimate maximum level of complexity-consciousness, considered by him the aim towards which consciousness evolves. Rather than divinity being found "in the heavens" he held that evolution was a process converging toward a "final unity", identical with the Eschaton and with God.

Apparently, these ideas have influenced various artists, authors, shapers of popular culture like Issac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Scott Adams and (not in the same league, but still) Gregory David Roberts

This quote from this page got me really interested

There is a Dilbert comic strip in which Dogbert postulates that since everything develops from simpler forms to more complex forms, a supreme being must be our future, not our origin. His idea is that God must be the entity that will be formed when enough people are connected by the Internet

So, I decided to take a look at Scott Adam's take on this. I had always complained to myself that unlike the other favourite comic strip author of mine, Bill Watterson, Scott Adams (at least to me) seemed to be less concerned about the philosophical aspects of life :D. He had never disappointed me when it came to awesome insight into human nature or his surreal sense of humour. But boyohboy he does not disappoint. I first searched for the strip where the above quote was from, here is a transcript of the strip:

Dogbert: Simple Molecules combine to make powerful chemicals... - Simple cells combine to make powerful lifeforms. - Simple electronics combine to make powerful computers. - Logically, all things are created by a combination of simpler, less capable components. - Therefore, a supreme being must be our *future*, not our origin! - What if "God" is the consciousness that will be created when enough of us are connected by the Internet?!! -
Dilbert: That would certainly limit the types of files I download- I wonder what it would do to response times. - It's so nice to spend time alone with my thoughts. My web browser would *fly*!

But the best part was when I was led to "God's Debris" by Scott Adams. Now, I have read many of his books and do own three of them, but somehow, this book had unfortunately escaped my attention. It is available online and you can read it here. It is just over a hundred pages of giant size font text. It will not take you more than an hour to read it. Read it, it is time well spent.

Here is a related quote from the book:

"Humanity is developing a sort of global eyesight as millions of video cameras on satellites, desktops, and street corners are connected to the Internet. In your lifetime it will be possible to see almost anything on the planet from any computer. And society’s intelligence is merging over the Internet, creating, in effect, a global mind that can do vastly more than any individual mind. Eventually everything that is known by one person will be available to all. A decisioncan be made by the collective mind of humanity andinstantly communicated to the body of society."

“In the distant future, humans will learn to control the weather, to manipulate DNA, and to build whole new worlds out of raw matter. There is no logical limit to how much our collective power will grow. A billion years from now, if a visitor from another dimension observed humanity,he might perceive it to be one large entity with a consciousness and purpose, and not a collection of relatively uninteresting individuals.”

“Are you saying we’re evolving into God?”

“I’m saying we’re the building blocks of God, in the early stages of reassembling.”

“I think I’d know it if we were part of an omnipotent being,” I said.

“Would you? Your skin cells are not aware that they are part of a human being. Skin cells are not equipped for that knowledge. They are equipped to do what they do and nothing more. Likewise, if we humans—and all the plants and animals and dirt and rocks—were components of God, would we have the capacity to know it?”

“So, you’re saying God blew himself to bits—I guess that was the Big Bang—and now he’s piecing himself back together?” I asked.

I just love his surreal take on these kind of things! He even coins a new word called "God dust" :D Apparently, we are all made up of it.

I am reminded of "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra. Unfortunately, it still lies unread upon my book shelf!

Related quote from one of the characters in Shantaram, Khader Khan.

The tendency towards complexity has carried the universe from almost perfect simplicity to the kind of complexity that we see around us, everywhere we look. The universe is always doing this. It is always moving from the simple to the complex

And the ultimate complexity is God according to Khader Khan aka Khader Bhai, the underworld boss. Anything that helps this move towards complexity is good, anything that destroys this move towards complexity is evil.

And to end it all, an awesome video, I have a feeling that this is actually a spoof, I came across this link while reading the website of Richard Dawkins who has this to say about Pantheism:
"Pantheism is sexed-up atheism". Take a look at the video, it is hilarious!!

The Athiest's nightmare, the banana:

I was older then, I am younger now

I dint want to post lyrics from the songs I liked on my blog.
But then, I am going to make an exception to put this out:

"My Back Pages" by Bob Dylan...

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

Girls' faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
"Equality," I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


At different points in time, we identify with various different songs. Right now, this one fits into my mind like a T. Stop sniggering!! I know I am not getting any younger, grrrrrrr!

Torture

Awesome article by Mark Bowden about "The Dark Art of Interrogation"

Explores the moral and ethical questions relating to torture and interrogation. In his own words:

The most effective way to gather intelligence and thwart terrorism can also be a direct route into morally repugnant terrain. A survey of the landscape of persuasion

Here is the crux of the problem, in the words of Bowden:

Getting at the information they possess could allow us to thwart major attacks, unravel their organization, and save thousands of lives. They and their situation pose one of the strongest arguments in modern times for the use of torture.

"they" in the above sentence refers to captured hard-core terrorists.

Torture is repulsive. It is deliberate cruelty, a crude and ancient tool of political oppression. It is commonly used to terrorize people, or to wring confessions out of suspected criminals who may or may not be guilty. It is the classic shortcut for a lazy or incompetent investigator. Horrifying examples of torturers' handiwork are catalogued and publicized annually by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations that battle such abuses worldwide. One cannot help sympathizing with the innocent, powerless victims showcased in their literature. But professional terrorists pose a harder question. They are lockboxes containing potentially life-saving information. Sheikh Mohammed has his own political and religious reasons for plotting mass murder, and there are those who would applaud his principled defiance in captivity. But we pay for his silence in blood.

Bowden then makes an interesting distinction, one that is not part of the Geneva Convention, apparently.

Then there are methods that, some people argue, fall short of torture. Called "torture lite," these include sleep deprivation, exposure to heat or cold, the use of drugs to cause confusion, rough treatment (slapping, shoving, or shaking), forcing a prisoner to stand for days at a time or to sit in uncomfortable positions, and playing on his fears for himself and his family. Although excruciating for the victim, these tactics generally leave no permanent marks and do no lasting physical harm.

Bowden then asks an interesting question:

Serious interrogation is clearly being reserved for only the most dangerous men, like Sheikh Mohammed. So why not lift the fig leaf covering the use of coercion? Why not eschew hypocrisy, clearly define what is meant by the word "severe," and amend bans on torture to allow interrogators to coerce information from would-be terrorists?

He then goes on to bring up the dangers of such a measure:

This is the crux of the problem. It may be clear that coercion is sometimes the right choice, but how does one allow it yet still control it? Sadism is deeply rooted in the human psyche ........... How can we ensure that the practice does not become commonplace—not just a tool for extracting vital, life-saving information in rare cases but a routine tool of oppression?

"Assuming you get useful information from torture, then why not always use torture?" asks Jessica Montell, the executive director of B'Tselem, a human-rights advocacy group in Jerusalem. "Why stop at the bomb that's already been planted and at people who know where the explosives are? Why not people who are building the explosives, or people who are donating money, or transferring the funds for the explosives? Why stop at the victim himself? Why not torture the victims' families, their relatives, their neighbors? If the end justifies the means, then where would you draw the line?"

And then Bowden quotes Jessica Montell to suggest what would probably be a "reasonable" and realistic solution:

"If I as an interrogator feel that the person in front of me has information that can prevent a catastrophe from happening," she says, "I imagine that I would do what I would have to do in order to prevent that catastrophe from happening. The state's obligation is then to put me on trial, for breaking the law. Then I come and say these are the facts that I had at my disposal. This is what I believed at the time. This is what I thought necessary to do. I can evoke the defense of necessity, and then the court decides whether or not it's reasonable that I broke the law in order to avert this catastrophe. But it has to be that I broke the law. It can't be that there's some prior license for me to abuse people."

He then concludes with these interesting words:

The Bush Administration has adopted exactly the right posture on the matter. Candor and consistency are not always public virtues. Torture is a crime against humanity, but coercion is an issue that is rightly handled with a wink, or even a touch of hypocrisy; it should be banned but also quietly practiced. Those who protest coercive methods will exaggerate their horrors, which is good: it generates a useful climate of fear. It is wise of the President to reiterate U.S. support for international agreements banning torture, and it is wise for American interrogators to employ whatever coercive methods work. It is also smart not to discuss the matter with anyone.

SMS your donations

Here is an SMS I got:

Reach out to God! Make offerings (Rs10-Rs150) via SMS! Sms to 64655 @ Rs4/msg. Dharmasthala-SDM; Mantralaya-SRS; SiddhiVinayak-SVT; Jalaram-JST

It reminded me of a discussion I had with crvin regarding opening a chain of Temples, modeled on McDonalds. Think about it, there will be consistency of service besides a host of other positives. You could for example, walk into any of our TcTemples (Mc, I think is trademarked! grr) and say "I would like a number 3 with extra flowers, please". How convenient!

We could offer premium services like consultation on errant and threatening planetary alignments and the solution for such alignments. Consulting on the best time to start businesses, etc.. In short, corporatising priestly services and maintaining consistent service levels. Only the best and highly qualified priests shall be hired!

We would also be able to leverage scale and multiple locations of the TcTemples to offer cheaper and quality services. There could even be TcTemple members who will be able to access special services at multiple locations.

OK, enough of fun. :-) (And sarcasm too, if you dint notice. Personally, I prefer heterogeneity. But, I admit, I am sometimes seduced by banality and homogeneity)

Religion, God and spirituality for the masses has always had an economic and commercial aspect to it. I do not think there is anything wrong about that. Even when you buy a book about philosophy or spirituality, you are paying money and getting what you want (hopefully). I may be cynical, I may be agnostic tending towards being an atheist, (I am still afraid that God or one of his cronies will somehow be able to screw my life up :D more than it is already) but I would sure like to believe that every human should have the tools and the chance to reflect and think about matters of the mind. And, I would surely like to believe that there are exceptions, truly great people who are in some way, (siiiiggghhh!, for lack of a better word) divine.
And, in my own little biased way, I think that the religion that I was born into and the religion of my ancestors is the freest of the free market religions.

Private joke

OK, only people who can understand kannada and have watched Deewar and know some other things can understand this, sorry. (hehehe)

Tunta: "naanu apartment maaDiddini, site maaDiddini , investment maaDiddini, neen en maaDiddiya?"
Panta: "naanu, naanu drinks maaDiddini"

Joe Barbera is dead

Somebody who part created the characters that were such a big part of my childhood, is no more :-(
Among many other creatons, Hanna and Barbera created "Tom and Jerry". I still watch them on cartoon network and call me stupid, but I still love them a lot. Ah! The sheer wickedness of the violence in them :D

Bill Watterson

He is one of my favourites. Funny and philosophical, with an intellect that seems to understand the human mind so well. His works mean a lot to me. I would go so far as to call him a genius.

I have been reading "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" on and off from around a couple of months. I found these lines somewhere in book three of the above collection.

This one has a painted landscape of Arizona above these lines:

I made a big decision a little while ago,
I don't remember what it was, which prob'ly goes to show
That many times a simple choice can prove to be essential
Even though it often might appear inconsequential

I must have been distracted when I left my home because
Left or right I'm sure I went (I wonder which it was!)
Anyway, I never veered: I walked in that direction
Utterly absorbed, it seems, in quiet introspection.

For no reason I can think of, I've wandered far astray,
And that is how I got to where I find myself today

This one has a creature that has the head of a hippo, with mouth open wide and the body of a bird, talons open flying above Calvin's bed while a Calvin in night clothes is being sucked into the mouth of the hippo. :-)

At night my mind does not much care
If what it thinks is here or there,
It tells me stories it invents
And makes up things that dont make sense
I don't know why it does this stuff,
The real world seems quite weird enough