pray me - Raghavendra

I have decided to bless all readers! Sing along, pray and get blessed!

Raghavendra Swami Suprabata (Bellur sahodariyaru)
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/carnatic_vocal/s/artist.104/
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/carnatic_vocal/s/album.61/


My fav:
Yeddu barutarE...nodE...

Mantralayadolu

My most fav: (rendition could have been better!)

Hari sarvottama Vaayu jivottama

Problem solving kills

Many people expect people to solve problems. Most smart people solve problems before the problems are completely presented! It is said, a stupid can throw a stone into the sea in a second, it takes many smart scholars "god knows how much" time to find the stone. But I have seen people, who can foresee problems, isolate a seeming harmless problem and let the average people solve the easy problem, and take precautions to see that there are less problems. These people who can do this are not always considered smart. They are average people by the standards of the average people?

I have come across striking examples for these cases. I have seen, smart people being rescued by average guys, from getting into problems! I do not know what to call this: the strength of average people or weakness of smart people. There are people who are both but mostly we tend to be either of them never both!

What are you?

Crocodile in next janma

My grandfather told me one day, "remember, you should disclose whatever you know to others", "withholding information that might be useful others is not nice", "if you do not share knowledge, you will become a Crocodile in the next life".

I did not want to be Crocodile in my next life, then, when I was a kid. I do not know, if there is such a thing as the next life. Yet, I do not want to be a Crocodile if there is another Janma! :)

The message was such a nice piece of advise. People in competetive places might take, who does this, to a stupid. Some consider voluntary disclosure an irritation. Many consider it unnecessary. I look stupid and I know when I look stupid: when I tell things I know about the context.

Many times we will have to choose between being stupid and nice, and being smart and not so nice.
Which one should I be?

I got given something pink

Few girls were distributing something; it looked pink. I should have known! I got given something pink. It did not take much time to figure out that it was a condom.

As part of the Sexual Health Month http://www.aidssaskatoon.ca/ was distributing THEM. Well, what should I do with it now?

It says "Hey, your sexual health month is safe and fun!". First thing that came to my mind is "It is not fair to give only condom, is it?"

They were giving it to both girls and boys. Why should only boys bear the burden of safety?
Oh my god world is turing pro-woman.

made up words

oldest word (english) I made up is "RETL". it is an acronym for "Regular Emergency Teerman Less". eg. retle meeting, means a meeting that has to be held regularly but the outcome is guaranteed to be useless.

latest is "rickyppointing". this is very simple, synonym for disappointing. I added an extra p to make it rhyme with disappointing!

other words are:

microwalE - Microwave oven
620 (next version of 420 for 6th and 20th letters!)
farts = short farm of Fine Arts
inenent of Monertia
kidney = Brain Heart Soul mixed masala. (why kidney? I do not know)
jike - hike softies get by jumping firms!
goofle - goofing up search
intelerection - intelectually stimulating
srewup - screwup (I miss typing c so much; I have to call it a word)
encagement - a connotative of engagement!
biochamchagiri - biochemistry

I will add more as I recollect them.

terrorism in India is un-islamic

“Both terrorism and the state's treatment of innocent Muslims ought to be condemned strongly,” - said blah

As Jamait-e-Ulema Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani says, “Everytime there is a bomb blast, innocent Muslims are suspected. We had to do this to clear our name.”

“Young minds are being misguided. This declaration will clear confusion in their mind about Islam's stand on terrorism,” explained Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi.

First, "it is to save my ass" attitude. Second, in the same breath they say that, "innocent Muslims are suspected". The real concern is their reputation and trouble that they are facing after terrorist attacks.

They do not seem concerned about terrorism at all! They are condemning terrorism so they can condemn so called "treatment of innocent Muslims"! Good job people, whats next? By the way they forgot to condemn SC verdict on paying compensation to divorced Muslim women.

I noted something yesterday:
It is significant because at least it has disturbed them, the scholars, and now they are willing to condemn it. It took so long to condemn the obvious? We have to note here the Gujrath episode that took as long for Hindus to condemn the massacre.

Hindus and Muslims hate each other don't they ? So much that they secretly desire to kill each other? Keep quite when others get killed?

We are a bunch of people, swimming in the cow urine stagnant inside the pig shit.

mind games

people play games! you know what i mean. i will use the terms the player and the pawn. the anatomy of the game is something like this:

the player wants the pawn to feel that pawn is being controlled. this is independent of whether the pawn is really being controlled.

there are at least two things to do at any situation, including to do or not to do. if the player can get the pawn to think that he is making decisions that player wants; player wins. this is based on confusing the pawn on what the player is expecting the pawn to do (among other things).

there is a trick to win the game. the pan should make moves that are favourable to the pawn, irrespective of player's moves. Simple! then the premise is "i did what i wanted and you wasted your time"; the player looses. if the pawn tries to defeat the player by making counter moves the pawn will definitely loose. this is because as i said before the winning is not based on sequence of moves but an unprovable claim that (irrespective of what pan does) player wanted to see that particular sequence.

i do not like mind games. most easiest way to win a mind game is by refusing to be part of it. first attempt of the player is to draw you the game. the player is playing a game "choose your own battle ground". the pan has to play the game "choose your enemy".

the game is always on guys but i am out! when my close friends try to draw me to mind games, i remind them that we are friends! i usually do that by asking "what is that on your hair?" and pat his/(her?) head.

what about games that we get into over email and online communities? bad thing about them is there is no way to know if a game is being played or a gunine transaction is being carried out. trick remains the same: make moves favourable to you.

there is another saying, "it is better to loose, than loosing a friend". I treasure this more than tricks or triumphs. this way we will never loose the game.

instinct

Use of the word design in this post means "evolved". I am used to conversation that uses design. When we talk about nature I mean evolution.

It occurred to me that instincts do not work for favourable results (good for life stuff). Instincts are designed to help reduce the effort that body/mind has to put in doing something or designed to be favourable for the human body and mind.

This is bit tricky. Based on our genetic make up, we are comfortable with certain ideas and reality. So our instincts drive us to maintain this comfortable situation. Direct implication of this is that strategies driven by instincts may not be beneficial for the social context or the problem at hand. Because instincts maximize comfort and what is comfortable for us may not be beneficial for us.

We hear people say "go out of your way", "go out of comfort zone", you will be able achieve more.


An example to make thoughts concrete:
People try to avoid their friends when they have to explain some uncomfortable issue. But that might create misunderstanding. I am sure you can think of more.

whatever

My colleague says this a nude lady! I do not know. I can not stoop to that level! What else this can this be? Can you help me put up a brave face throwing a weired interpretation?

J H Patel - a witty politician

On the opposition criticism of the power shortage, Patel said "The Opposition leaders are unnecessarily raising a hue and cry, let them touch the electric wire once and feel it!!". [೧]


"They say government gas done nothing, what to say to these blind guys who can not see irrigation channels that run many kilometres?" - J H Patel, Sagara 1996
[along with Ramakrishna Hegde and Sushma Swaraj ]

When asked to take the responsibility of power ministry or execise ministry patel remarked, "One gives shock, other a kick! I think I like them both!"
- Ramakrishna Hegde says [೩]

"I like wine and women and wife knows about it!" - J H Patel

``Hegde says there is power, power and power at Delhi and the state has to buy it. I do not know which power Hegde is talking about. Certainly it is not electricity'', Chief Minister J H Patel said in a sharp reaction to Union Commerce Minister's statement that state can buy power from the central power grid on downpayment.

Read these aussom ಕnnada jokes by J H Patel [೪]


[೧] http://www.ourkarnataka.com/profiles/jhpatel.htm
[೨] http://jhpatel.org/gallery.html
[೩] http://www.kannadaratna.com/jhp/hegde2.html
[೪]http://www.kannadaratna.com/jokes/jokes2.html

Why is Bengaluru not Bengaluru yet?

I had a glass of milk the day Bengaluru got its rightful name. But the Indian media, mostly run by the liberal biased drunkards, is not calling it Bengaluru yet. They are not out from the party hangover about the "good" news to open pubs till 1.00 in Bengaluru. I will talk about drunken mothers and pink babies later; now let us deal with these lefty media people.

They have no problem calling Calcutta Kolkota, Bombay Mumbai, Madras Chennai. But Bengaluru, they kind of do not like the name yet. They still want to impose what they want to call it or is it still waiting for the Goondas of India approval?

The "real Bangalorians" are not helping either, they like the colonial name. They want to sound British? I heard no complaint from them about the this pub thing yet! They are not scared that "heritage" of Bengaluru is being tampered. For "real Bangalorians" drinking is acceptable from the day Churchill was stationed in the cantonment, and army officers kept the "heritage" going.

Fixing slums, improving roads or efforts integrate new comers to the local culture is not the priority of the media. More booze, more medical problems, and providing condoms to call centre employees are high on their agenda. What an intellectual garbage, this country has produced after 60 years of independence! What to say to these kednyless people who can not even see the results in the west, of things that they claim the best for society?

The nut GOI is meddling with election and delimitation of constituencies, using it to delay elections in the Karnataka state the media is happy with it and is having fun bossing over local people.

Haven't you heard the uproar in Maharastra? It takes lot of guts to kick these self proclaimed ''I know what is right for you" people.

women want VAT removed on napkins

What about contraceptives? I am going to come down on this Petty Zinta brigade.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080219/jsp/nation/story_8920768.jsp

Ok, now I have some time. It is not surprising that this filmy elitist women find napkin the most important problem for the Indian women (bottom up approach :)). What are these women organisations? How many of their members are from villages or slums?

Women in India are bothered more about things such as education and basic needs such as drinking water. Even most prosperous regions do not have proper drinking water in the summer. I never found more than 20% girls in any class I attended so far! If, we as a nation want to progress, are we going to do that by keeping half of our population uneducated?

Women worry about education to their kids, fulfilling daily requirements on top of daily chores they have to work in the farms and get paid less than men. Handover the money to men and cook while their men play cards or drink. Should they not follow Sita devi the epitome of womanhood in India? (!)

Why tax exemptions for women? So men can misuse this clause? Not that I have a solution but we are not getting to the right problems. Ministry of education should commit to make sure that within a given number of years say 10% more girls will be in the schools. Kumarbangarappa won MLA seat in Soraba constituency completely because of women vote. Women voted enmasse, for he worked to ensure that many villages had proper water supply. Women were vocal about it, they said "we do not care if he makes our lives easy we are going to vote for him".

P Chi ( P Chidambaram) should speak to women in slums, women in villages or poor women in the cities who wash dishes to pay fees for their kids education, not to Petty Zinta. This is very rickypointing (disappointing) man!

{oh yes, after the controversy in India's Australya tour fans have decided to use rickypointing synonymous to disappointing}

why is ignorance bliss?

What is profit?

Well we can find it in any standard text book? Can't we? Then what should I do let everyone else think about it and accept whatever they say? So, let us think and decide what profit is.

How Yakshagana Taalas map to Karnataka Sangeetha Taala?

Adi Taala in Yakshagana

Tatkara:
Ta hasta din da din na - ta tom ta di na ka
8 beats
4 + 2 + 2
7 + 2 + 4
{1+2+2+2} + {1+1} + {2+2} (Gathi) (I do not know I am srewing up here)
There are many improvisations I can think of here and my god they get complex.

Karnataka Sangeetha
(Chatusra jathi Triputa)
4+2+2


Holy crap I have a realization today; I will bet my life for this. The most complex rhythm patterns of percussion are not in Karnataka Sangeetha but in Yakshagana chande rhythms. But this complexity comes at the cost of sophestication? Let me think... where is that old book... man...

the fear of being not different

this god business

This Feynman is something. Listen to his argument against UFOs
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2513yaz36lc

If we apply that to GOD. We have "It is unlikely that GOD exists". This is more scientific than what I thought is more scientific "I do not know". I believed being agnostic is more scientific than being atheistic. Holly, but being agnostic is definitely not unscientific. As our bad luck may have it we can not reject believing in to be unscientific either! Another theory might be true who knows? Didn't scientists believe in ether before?

Bhiksha naivacha naivacha

My father taught me this when I was a kid: never ever beg.

I was watching Feynman's interview on youtube.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

The video is here: a must watch.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgmrMZ0h54

He says his father new the difference between knowing something and knowing the name of it. When asked about a rolling ball in a truck his father said, nobody knows why, things that are not moving tend not to move and moving things keep moving. They call it inertia. But nobody knows why? The last sentence is the key. We have a word for the phenomenon but we do not know why that happens. We often confuse between the name and the reason (or meaning). This needs to be tought.

The point is , the dgree of maturity of foundations of social transaction and thinking, we have developed is determintal to understanding and our capability. Family, ethnicity, and other similar factors influence our ability. My father had taught me many things. In retrospection, it is important to notice what I did not learn.

I want to mention a thing that my father taught me. There are a few words from some wise individuals:
If you have lot of money do business
If you have little money go farm
If you do not have any money labour or work for others.
But never ever beg.

Now to make sure I know the difference between begging and borrowing he would ask me to go to our neighbours and borrow money for him.

We confuse between seriousness and maturity, information junkie and a scholar, truth and halftruth. One such thing is knowing the name (never ever beg) and knowing its meaning.

Feynman also says he once got to know that his father's ability was also limited upon discussing calculus. He says "I realised that I had learnt more in some sense than he". How many of us get to say that?

I can say that I know more about many things than my father does. Do I really? What I am sure is, cleverness that lets my father succeed in everything he tries is based on his ability to generalise lessons to an unimaginable level. He learns more everytime he learns because he can generealise lessons beyond the context of the lesson. He can derive rules for actions that can be applied elsewhere and he quickly comes up with other related rules. More than everything else he is conscious about these rules and practices them perfectly.

I can not do that. It is said leaders forsee risks and get ready to manage them; they succed. Shouldn't we beg for this ability if someone or somethng can give it to us?

Skate where the puck is going, not where it’s been

Is being Indian not enough

This article in rediff is interesting: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/feb/15guest.htm.
The article predictably rants and raves as can be expected by any North Indian RSS chaddi.

The author asks: "Is being Indian not enough?"
It is like someone asking "How do you say Hi! in Indian?".

What do you mean? Indian?

Winston Churchill once infamously said, "India is merely a geographical expression. It is no more a single country than the Equator." Frustrated Churchill and many men like him are dead now; we do not have to deal with them.

Irrespective of weather I am a Havyaka Brahmin living in Delhi or a UP Bhayya living in Bengalooru, I have the responsibility of integrating myself into the local culture. The first step is learning to appreciate the local culture. As long as we do not have a heart felt appreciation for the host culture we remain alienated. (what about Havyaka Brahmin living in Saskatoon)

Some wise people have told me that they like freedom and they do not want to learn the local language and they should not be forced, they think. These freedom fighters, as I call them, do not realise that there is no such thing as the absolute freedom. Freedom often is relative to surroundings. Being able to do what others do. Complete freedom means randomness. There can not be a harmonious society with its members being free. In a given setup people collectively agree to not to do some things, which is inherited through their culture or state. Freedom is restricted by law, morality, social conformity, our desire to socialise and many more. Perception of violation of freedom can be countered by convincing ourselves, issue to be part of any of the items listed before.

By the way being Indian is enough if only some one could tell me what being Indian means. Being "something" requires knowing what "something" is. When there is no such "something", being "something" definitely will not be enough! We have to be that "something" which can be hormoniously integrated into our surroundings. Difference is always appreciated along with commonalities. Difference alone is not a merit [Ragu 2008!].

Stop worrying about being Indian and start reading about dying Software Engineers:

http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/feb/14spec.htm

Left Brain (left as past tense for leave)

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (46%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (44%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

A professor of pisychology tells that there is a delay of around 25ms in communication that occurs betwen left and right halves of the brain. Our head (and tail) have evolved to minimize the delay by allocating half the brain for related tasks. I am in search of tasks that must use bothe halves and show the delay and uncomfortable feeling that generates.

I want to find me go oooooooooooo kkkkkkkk ooooooooooooooooooo kkkkkkkk oooooooooooooooooooo kkkkkkkkk like a screwed up cd. Will let you know once I find it. You can also gooooooooooooo kkkkkkkk ooooooooooooooooooo kkkkkkkk oooooooooooooooooooo kkkkkkkkk

what are guitar chords?

mist in mysticism

where does mist (obscurity) in mysticism come from? ignorance? may be? (why begin with capital letter) in any case mysticism is insult (why use articles?) to religious philosophy.

in so called eastern religions god is not as important as philosophies. but like in other places people do what is convenient and claim that their religion is great

however eastern philosophies have gained bad name of being mystic. their association with religions has not been to their advantage.

it makes easy for west to dismiss everything eastern as mystic. so everyone has to believe that rational philosophy originated in west.

where does mist (obscurity) in mysticism come from?
russel said we need no proof to believe what we want to. mist partly is in ignorance and partly in wishful thinking of west.

for example yoga is thought to be mystic philosophy. in wikipedia if you search for eastern mysticism you will see yoga and vedanta in list. if someone tells me for example karma yoga is mystic philosophy i will not even be able to laugh! i can only snigger.

i have felt that there is need to articulate eastern philosophies to sound more clear and coherent. these philosophies are not crap written by some secluded psychotics but are time tested truths. these have helped create harmonious societies and coherent communities that have been able to withstand rough weather of political and social turmoil since millennia.

contemplation of brigu is illustrated in taittiriya upanishad. varuna brigus father helps him understand ultimate truth. that bliss is brahma(god). mystic? i dont see any mist here! kids are taught what to pray based on some philosophise. gist of prayer is "diyo yonah prachodayaath", enrich my intellect. hindi version would be "itani shakti hame dena data manki vishwas kamzore hona". if philosophy asks us not to wish for plasma tv but for few more biggest/longest cells in our body where is mist?

mist partly is in ignorance, lack of representation as expected in our times and partly in wishful thinking of west.

{fixed english. no commas no apostrophe no articles no capital letters. hey helping verbs you guys next!}

Amir Khan

Bellow is the link to one of the best Khyals


Amir Khan

quarter

quarter was a term to avoid. It meant country alcohol that was sold in thin transparent bottles, around my village. Of course it was a measure but it meant that colourless dirty liquid which less civilised drank. I was told to stay away from it at all costs and when I grew up even at the cost of friends. I realize not drinking did cost me some friends. I could not afford to go near and later on I did not want to.

My father gave me a bidi (country cigar) one day and asked me to smoke. My mother watched me. I was hesitant. I picked up the bidi and looked at my father. He said "go ahead bite it!". I inserted bidi in between my lips and looked at my father with pupils wide open. He he slapped my face with such force that apart from bidi falling, my head started reeling. It hurt me so much that I remember that slap every time I see a cigar! Yes my mother was so happy she was giggling looking at the groaning kid. I am glad my father did not ask me to try alcohol :) I would have been a handicapped the next moment.

Meat, my parents said, should never be eaten; it is less civilised and is against our traditions. Made perfect sense to me because of the respect I had for my parents. It still makes sense, not because of respect for tradition but (also) because I will not be a hypocrite when I play with a calf.

Are there religious reasons?
Why blame religion for injecting little bit of principle to our blood? Why call those parents archaic , orthodox or conservative who wanted to see their kid a scholar instead of having to see him in a gutter of the next village? Eating balanced food can produce enough stimulants and other ingredients needed for mind, body and soul. There is no need for artificially inseminating our gut with alcohol.

I needed two more quarters to buy juice from a vending machine. Sometimes we end up poor by keeping more money. If you want to be rich always, keep few quarters for phone, few for vending machines and if you do not want to beg by the side of the road, keep also few bucks and a quarter for the bus ride.

Who does not agree if I say north American economy is customized for sellers? Now you know why I thought about alcohol!

Calculating the height of a tree

Now, can the peepul tree in my village fall on our house? YES, It can even take half of our neighbour`s house with it when it falls. Here is how I used the trigonometry to figure out our sacred trees height:

I drew a base line on a card board one fine night. Measured placed the card board 50 ft away from the tree. Placed the torch as in the figure and increased the angle torch makes to the base line until the beam hit the top of the tree. Marked a line along the torch. Here we go, got the angle.

Height = 50ft * tan(angle). Height turned out to be 98 ft, enough to rout three houses including ours! There is another donkey way of doing this measurement. If the angle is 45 degrees there is no math needed. Distance of the torch from the tree equals the height of the tree. Then you need more people and crappy scrolling to do on the field. Many were curious to know how tall the tree was.

There was nothing new but idea was original because I did not know what internet was then in 1997. I saw the Internet a full 2 years later in 1999. It seems Red Indians watched bellow their ass and moved forword until they saw the tip of the tree. Their distance from the tree was approximately the height of the tree.

Bhaskara (12 century ACE ) uses algebra and trigonometry in his Leelavathi Ganitha to solve several similar problems. Beauty of his book was problems were as interesting as his solutions. As I say this, next time I am in India I will hunt for the book. By the way Peepul tree in our village is strong and its trunk measures 5-6mts. To this day neither have I seen an up rooted peepul tree nor would I like to believe that my ansistors are stupid enough to plant "danger" next to our house!

Spinning lady illusion explained

This post solves an illusion/riddle named Spinning Lady, doing rounds on the Internet and demonstrates how to get rid of the illusion.

First publication of Spinning Lady illusion appears to be in the Australian "Herald Sun" October 07. (Thanks to Aaron who showed it to me then) {Some have claimed that Nobuyuki Kayahara 2003 is its author} Apart from disagreeing to take it as a test to see if I am Right Brained or Left Brained (I am Wrong Brained by the way.), I argue that this illusion is created accidentally and I identify two central points that make this illusion possible. By reversing these two points, I prove that the illusion can be disambiguated. There is also argument that all silhouettes are ambiguous which is a bit like saying "all ambiguous things are ambiguous"! This post is about why at all they are and in particular this one is ambiguous.

If you closely look the at the animation (click on the image), some will see the silhouette rotating in clockwise direction, others will see it rotating in the anti-clockwise direction. Most, I have heard will see the clockwise rotation. We should be able to switch between these rotations by focusing on the shadow of the legs and imaging the rotation in a direction opposite to what we see.

Anurag Sinha identifies a feature that is also responsible for the illusion. I am here to hammer the last nail on the illusion's coffin. One thing you will notice when the silhouette appears to have changed the direction is the change of not only the grounded foot but also the floating hand. Left hand appears to float when the rotation is anti-clockwise and a right hand appears to float when the rotation is clockwise.

How can this happen? I mean when is our left hand our right hand? The notion of left and right and hence the notion of clockwise and anti-clockwise are based on our ability to distinguish front and back! If we watch a clock without a dial, from behind we will see it moving in an anti-clockwise direction. Thus, if we have no way of distinguishing the front and the back, we have no way of deciding whether the motion is in clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. If the cues are confusing, we end up in an illusion; some thinking in one way and other in another way.

There appear to be two points of confusion here: One is the foot that is grounded, other is in the floating hand! Look at these snapshots:

In the snapshot above left foot is on the ground right hand is floating

In the snapshot above right foot is on the ground left hand is floating

I drew eyes on the face of the silhouette (also boobs). Now we can distinguish between the front and back of the silhouette! Can`t we?

Thus, the illusion is created not only by the ambiguity in resting feet judgement but by also the total lack of cues to distinguish between the front and back of the silhouette. We should note that we can see front and back for certain range of angles but these are not the distinguishing part of the rotations. Thus, If we can introduce cues to tell the difference we can stop the illusion.

Further, I argue that this illusion is an accident; an accidental creation when an avatar rotating in "no one knows what direction" was converted to a silhouette (Only the author can tell and most importantly it does not matter!).

I did an experiment with this illusion. I added cues to distinguish front and back of the silhouette by drawing boobs and eyes to make it rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. I also had to add depth cues to the feet to disambiguate anchoring.

Now click and watch the edited animation. (It is not polished yet). Can you see it rotating in both directions? NO? You can only see it rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. Even if you can switch, my edits force you back to think anti-clockwise rotation. We can edit the animation to make it rotate in the clockwise direction too.

Thus, I have shown that the perception of rotation of this silhouette depends both on the depth cues and the cues to distinguish the front and back of rotating objects.

And yes, this is not a right or left brain test. Real left and right brain tests are elsewhere. (click)

Postscript:

This was created by Japanese designer Nobuyuki Kayahara. This is a Bistable illusion caused by lack of visual cues for depth.