Negetive Calorie is a myth?

Looks like that . I got to know that apple is a negetive calorie fruit and then some where some one wrote a mango is negetive calorie! mango? common people mango ha ha mango and negetive calorie glad they did not say sugarcane! and then came the shock a website said Grape fruit is negetive calorie food. These people have lost their nuts and bolts.

I looked at it again, there can not be such a thing as negetive calorie. It appears to be an urban superstition (pEtE guggugalu). There could be some that might have no calorie at all but negetive calorie is unlikely. Becasue it is unlikely that we will be able to measure NO ONE CAN PROVE ME WRONG people! NO negetive calorie food ok? get it?

congress government imprisons the election commisioner of maharastra

The Indian Narcotics Congress imprisoned the Election Commissioner of Maharastra. He insisted that the election to local bodies be held by EC and not by the state government.

Now, when has the legislature given the right to punish and when did the governments start running elections?

The congress made a political figure the president and a man who never contested an election the prime minister. Irrespective of whether Manmohan is a scholar or a stupid man democracy is run by representation and not by virtue. He has no time to face an election. he is a nice man; let us make him win in my constituency but he has to face the election. It has set a bad precedence. The congress removed governors and putcongress chelas in their place. They screwed up in Goa, UP and Bihar. They screwed up the democracy in all those states by supporting congress MLAs even though they were a minority.

The nut governor of Karnataka called up Sonia to ask for THE opinion! He wanted to know if the JDS+BJP should be called to form the governament! Look at that a nut congress chela calling up his mother. They should have shown a little respect to the system. How can a governor call up an MP to ask for an opinion? Only person he can talk to directly is the president and indirectly the home minister. He screwed up !

The nut congress screwed up again in Maharastra. The screwed congress is trying to screw the Indian democracy.

They will kill the system. somebody save India wo/man from these people :( In Karnataka there was this twosome at the centre there is this threesome BJP Cog and third front. They are taking turns :(

data anal

someone famously said "there are three kinds of lies: lies damn lies and the statistics". the third is being talked about now.

In an engineering chemistry lab exam i was supposed to draw a graph based on the experiemntal results. i do not remember what the thing was about. i got three points on the graph; there were supposed to be co-linear. ofcourse there were not! then primary school teachers teach us to drop a point and draw a stright line. the examiner said you have rigged the results! "where have i?" i asked. you can see the points but the graph is approximated. in summary i lost some marks.

darmashastra says that any one who screws a chemistry lab sample salt should be failed. luckily i had obtained a second sample after pouring water to the salt in the test tube. so i was not unhappy to lose some marks in the second experiemnt.

now, this is not context contrast so we have to talk about data analysis, data anal for short. a magazine here said Saskatoon is the most dangerous place to live in North America! no one can be more happy! this means that after living here i can live anywhere in North America! i looked at their methedology! they have % in 200 , 300 even 400 range! if any % is more than 100 i get skeptical: this means they should instead say "n times". 200% is same as 2 times. % has a specific purpose: expressing a value relative to hundred.

these magazines ask 50 people and call it a survey. it is like asking 1000 software engineers in Bengaluru on who will win the next election; none of them is going to vote! How does their answer matter.

this data anal is a murky thing. i get scared when i read data anal in other papers and then of my own !

ಲಲ್ಲೆ

ಗಾಸಿಪ್ಪು ಅಥವಾ ಪ್ಲರ್ಟಿ೦ಗು ಅ೦ತಾನೂ ಹೇಳ್ಬಹುದು. ಇನ್ನೂ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಹೇಳೋದಾದ್ರೆ, ಗಾಸಿಪ್ಪು ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ಲರ್ಟಿ೦ಗಿನ ಕಾ೦ಬಿನೇಷನ್ನು: ಲಲ್ಲೇ.
... ಆಆಆ? ಸ್ವಲ್ಪತಡೀರೀ ಬ೦ದೇ.........ಬ೦ದೇ..
ಈಗ, ಇಲಿಬೋನು, ಪಿಠಾರಿ, ಮಿಡ, ಕೊನರ, ಬಳ್ಳೇ, ಲಡ್ಡು (ಉ೦ಡೆ ಅಲ್ಲ ಇದು), ನಾಗ೦ದಿಗೆ, ಗಿಳಿಗೂಟ, ತಣಗಲು, ದಡಪೆ, ಉದ್ದಿಗೆ, ಪಕಾಶಿ, ತೊಲೆ, ಕೈಚಲಿಗೆ, ಮಿಣಿ, ಬ್ಯಾಣ, ಹತಾರ, ಹುರಿ, ಗುಣುಕು, ಸಾರ, ಪಿಕಾಶಿ, ಕುಡಗೋಲು, ಕ೦ದಿಲೆ, ಕು೦ಟೆ, ಹ೦ಡ್ಯ, ಬಾನಿ, ಗಡಗಡೆ, ಮೂಕು, ಮೆತ್ತು, ಕೊ೦ಬಣಸು, ಡಾಕು, ಕಳಿ, ....

a hick's a hick for a that

the haughty wo/men of science have lot to learn than they (we) think. poetry, painting, music, history there is so much in them. A Man's A Man for A That a poem by Robert Burns says "Is there for honest Poverty": some thoughts of a Scottish peasant. this leads me to think why we are what we are and can never be different although we appear to have changed, the fundamental 'we' does not change. 'we' is not a a thing decided at birth but what we become when we grow up. things we hold so close to heart (also kidney!) are never explicit.

emotions run high, naivety has to be supressed consciously to look sophisticated (whatever it means); affection comes naturally; simply put: a hick. implementing clustering algorithm or rediscovering a theorm in geometry does not make us any different. i said "'we' does not change.".

those were not hicks can never be one. neither can they ever understand a hick's mind. he will always look "a hick". over emotional, trying to help "too much", telling more than "needed", resentful for "hurting", "over friendly"; a hick basicaly! a hick's a hick for a that!!

listen to a hick's a hick for a that ............... a that for a that

why best friend is best?

may be because s/he understands you best next only to you. May be s/he understands you the way you want to be understood. The rest is the same.

Mangala sent this link, I do not know whether to accept it. [Source web]

Because:

Many mind and sometimes they matter

Those who matter, do mind sometimes

infidelity

Ravi Shankar or Vilayat Khan who is better? I have no qualification but Vilayat Khan sounded better.
I was reading ravi Shankar and his nth wife's interview.
http://www.littleindia.com/news/123/ARTICLE/1496/2004-11-05.html

What struck me was they are honest. It is ok I think. We humans... try hard not to do what nature wanted us to do! (What about bechara husbands of those women) Look there would not have been a Norah Jones otherwise! No?

What about Grammy? ooom I think people do not know coloured music wont do!

Vilayat married twice too!

So what shall we do now? Marry ntimes or?!!!
~rAGU

Google is dirty as well!

Do this in gmail:
click on an email thread and look at the sponsored advertisements to the right side of the email body. Do this for 2-3 email threads. What do you see?

I saw the adds changing according to the contents of my email I was reading. When an email talking about music was open gmail client showed adds about music, when the email was about resume it showed job websites adds and so on.

What is Google doing? (Google owns blogger.com by the way) Google is reading our emails to target adds. Well doesn't Google use a billion bit encryption to protect our privacy? The great company offers more secure services according to some fans and pundits.
Now, where are they? Google softwares are reading my emails and doing whatever they want to do with it!

I got 64,300,000 hits for "Google read your email".
Google is evil
Steve Balmer - MS CEO Says Google reads emails

Well good luck!

think about it

i pressed the enter key while typing this prose. i mentally pictured the meaning when i wrote these lines.

an image of thoughts
-----------------------

think about it.
thoughts of those sitting alone,
by the side of rivers.
thoughts of those on their own,
none to be loved.


think about it.
thoughts of those who cut stones,
to lay roads, our children walk.
thoughts of those who must listen,
to less useful, talk.


think about it.
thoughts of those who are meek,
but taken for weak.
thoughts of those who know,
but can not say.


think about it.
thoughts of those who lose
everything they stood for,
thoughts of those who love,
things that are too far.
think about it.

RAWgu - cigarette service of india (ರಾಗ್ಯ)

Lahsa wakes up!

The roof of the world finally woke up and is ready to claim its rightfull place in the world.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/15tibet.htm

Read eyewitness accounts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7297248.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/world/asia/15tibet.html?em&ex=1205726400&en=6b4b833cb56e051c&ei=5087%0A

Conference Crashing!

Since I can not borrow white skin from people around me here, wedding crashing is not in my reach. I will have to try it somewhere else. Conference crashing is not so hard!

I visited the 15th Anual Life and Health Science Conference being held at the University.
Here are the interesting research findings I came across:

a) that donating blood is detrimental to athletes as it decreases peak performance time.
b) that controlled weight exercises are beneficial for kids as it increases the section modulus of bones relative to body mass. more density at the periphery of bones is more important for the bone strength and obese have higher concentration at the centre.
c) some new white blood cells are shown to have ability to be censer vaccines. (CD8+ Th17)
d) SCT - Social Cognitive Theory can explain variables affecting motivation to involve in active transport such as walking and biking. Other way of saying motivation can be improved by closely monitoring these variables.

I should mention the anxiousness on the faces of poster presenters to some interesting questions (honestly not my intension). I ask questions to slow them down and bring them to earth especially when they are talking in jargons (medical here) that I am not used to. When someone from a completely different domain talks to us I admit that I do not understand and let them explain me more. For example asking them to say "an amino acid" instead of "Tryptophan" (Tryptophan is used in the production of Serotonin, lack of which causes aggression). There is a danger then that they think you are stupid. Since I am really one, I ask questions to make sure they think I am not. Another is, they start bullshitting if they come to know you do not understand. To avoid it, I ask questions to make sure I understand and then ask questions to make sure there are things both of us do not understand!

One talked about SCT a lot and I pointed out that social conditioning can confound SCT variables in the study. We agreed that there is lot to work on and effects are not known yet! Some questions on section modulus were purely out of interest but they made the presenter a bit anxious. I informed I was asking out of interest and was able to learn again about the section modulus. The works were interesting, so walked around talking about it in the department.

By the way i invented a word: esele
esele means "somewhere else".

While I get ready for the conference party crashing this evening read the wedding crashing tips: here.

marathi (a)bhang

if you are used to mantra in Sanskrit let us listem to something romantic in Sanskrit.

religious bhang (Bhakthi)
http://www.dishant.com/album/Abhang-By-Pt.-Bhimsen-Joshi.html
{Jeka Ranjale and Savale Sundara are good and arambi vandeen too}

romantic bhang (natya sangeetha)
http://www.dhingana.com/album/marathi/album/natya-sangeet/1288
do not miss vilopalee, yuvathi mana, Anga anga

http://music.cooltoad.com/music/category.php?id=10329&page=12&order=newest

my most favourite: (Dr.Vasantrao Deshpande) (Lyrics is completely in Sanskrit)
http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=294797

Mruganayanaa rasika mohini kaamini
hotiti manjula madhura alaapini rasika mohini
Navayavvana sampanna ramya gathi
vilaasini raska mohini

Ahladaka mukha chandra vibhudha
hoti drustiti premarasa vaahini
Mruganayanaa rasika mohini kaamini

(some parts are not clear to me but...here is my translation..)
hey deer eyed, you infatuate the romantic
hey melodious hummer, you infatuate the romantic
hey princess of the fresh youth and delicate moves
hey deer eyed, you infatuate the romantic, hey love

hey wise and pleasant moonface
nectar of affection flows from your looks
hey deer eyed, you infatuate the romantic
hey melodious hummer, you infatuate the romantic

Marathi derived from Maharastri Prakrut is very close to Sanskrit but a lot of Kannada influence can be seen both in tone and words.
tuja naav kai
tava naama kim

kutta gyalt asa
kutra gaccha-asi

http://www.ciil.org/Main/Announcement/MBE_Programme/paper/paper28.htm

What is a guitar chord?

I am trying to get my head around the guitar chord stuff. We know chords sound nice, but why? Why are the way they are and why not any other way. This post will be from an Indian perspective.

THANKS TO Jared Cechanowicz my lab mate here, who spent an hour explaining, a bone head about how the strings can be tied to my nose and toes and yet get some music because my head is empty (the box)! I am trying to document what I synthesized. Some parts might appear unclear and that is because they are not clear to me probably. If you know better, please correct me. (It is better to be a corrected stupid than to be an incorrect smart?) Also visit and listen to Jared's band's songs on http://www.alloftheabove.ca/

Words we need to know, as used in this post:
Dissonance: apashruti -> an odd note playing together, preceding or follow a right note.
Consonance: sounding well together.
Shruti: drone - pyeeeee/ooooooon sound that starts when Indian singers start singing
and wave their head. (thidi in rural Kannada (actually the air pumping stuff of the
Harmonium))

A guitar chord is described as a combination of three or more notes that blend harmoniously when sounded together. Which three notes? If more than three notes then which are the other notes and why them?

Chords as they stand today consist of 3 or 4 notes played together. I read, they used to be only 3 notes before. A guitar has 6 strings. When we strum them together we listen to 6 notes sounding together. 3/4 notes are produced from the strings pressed against the frets (let us call them pressed notes) and the rest come from open strings (open notes). However the open strings are always one of the pressed notes (mostly).

There are 3 major types of chords. a) Drone (Power) chord b) Suspended chord c) Regular chord. In a drone chord only first, fifth and the octave (first note twice as shrill or 8th note) are pressed notes. This is exactly equal to Indian Shruti where Sa(1) Pa(5) Sa'(8) are played together. On a Tamboori 2 other strings are tuned to Sa. If a Raaga omits the Panchama (5th) then a string is tuned to Madhyama (4th) instead (Eg. Malkauns emphasis Ma(4th)). Sometimes they say a string is tuned to 7th or Ni (Donno why? do you know? may be there is an emphasis on the 7th).

Now, regular chords (to Sa(1st) and Sa'(8th)) add Minor/Major 3rd or add 7th Major/Minor, and optionally omit 5th. Oh boy this is same as our Tambura story but a difference is the 3rd -Ga (Ma and Ni)! The added note is the defining note and chords are named after them for example E major adds a major 3rd. It is obvious that the emphasis is on the added notes when singing along a particular chord. (A7 for example adds major 7th) (excuse me I am mixing up Indian note numbers and western keys I think!)

Suspended chords Jared said will add a 4th and might omit 5th. Omiting 5th he said is usual in Jaaz where it make the music sound delicate.

Put simply a chord in Indian perspective is a drone (Shruti) that can produce rhythms because of strumming patterns. But there is a catch. The lowest harmonic of the dominant frequency in vocal performance is called the tonic or Sa note. In other words the pitch of our shout is decided by a particular dominant frequency while other frequencies are also present in our shout. This dominant frequency is not one but present in multiples of a some number say 4hz 8hz and 16hz. 4hz is then the fundamental frequency or the Sa of the performance. Thus the catch is when we change the guitar chord we change the tonic (Sa)! If we have to sing along with it is like singing in one Shruti for a 4 seconds and then singing in another Shruti for few seconds and so on as the chord changes the drone changes! This is I think is one of the differences (fundamental?) between western and Indian music.

Some notes sound odd when played with other notes (Dissonance). But some sound nicely odd (like me?). I am glad now that my confusion has reached a higher state. But now I know why I could hum along with the open strumming of the guitar. When tuned in fourths, Jared said, open strumming will be a chord - Sapasa drone. I forgot the name of the chord.

I would love to hear if you know better. Leave your comments to help me proceed further down the road of confusion! On why some notes say Sa and Pa sound well together: Sa is Pa's girl friend!

[1] All of the above Rock/Folk Band, Saskatoon

[2] The done in Indian music

[3] Tamboori (Taanpur)

[4] Definition of a chord

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_mode

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambura#India

infinity=invalid

look at the ratio a/b as the alpha increases.

a/b = 0 when alpha is zero
a/b = 1 when alpha is 90
a/b = infinity when alpha is 180



ie when b does not exist ratio does not exist.

thus infinity tells that some assumption/rule in the calculation is no longer valid. here, the structure is nolonger a triangle.

also note the transition from zero to one and then a jump to infinity!

Bertrand's paradox

http://www.nici.kun.nl/~peterh/doc/bertrand.html

Read Structural Information Theory

http://www.nici.kun.nl/~peterh/doc/sit.html

Anandamide

A neurotransmitter is named after my best friend Ishwar Anand. It is called Anandamide
(click it, you lazy...x do you want to read what a computist got to say about neurotransmitters better click and read some sane explanation).

Anandamide is a trans! mitter,, stuff,, that comes into picture when one drinks say Bhang (Cannabis Sativa). Na they are there doing so many stuffs but they also activate THC receptors. This THC stuff is in Bhang.

Wait, that text on piscology said Anandamide is a neuromodulator, holy! nyways listen to my trans music. U wont need any chemical to get a kick.

8trans, (damnload) no particular chord this, E5 B4 G4. but it sounds like guitar is not tuned so might be in some chord if you are lucky! but real shaky sound .... tanv tanv tanv tanv .... I went nuts playing at 1 am yesterday! Listen atleast 2 to 3 times to get a kick. hey somebody write an application to dance over the internet

8trans - for 8 beats. (Recorded by Manjunath Ankhathatti)

By the way Anandamide is after Sanskrit - Ananda for the obvious!

ಕವಿಸಮಯದ ಗೋಡೆ

This is called a poem guys! Vikasa had told me that Narasimhaswamy is not considered a poet by "real" poets! They call him a disturbance to the poetic expressions (ಕವಿಸಮಯದ ಗೋಡೆ).

ಮೊದಲ ದಿನ ಮೌನ, ಅಳುವೇ ತುಟಿಗೆ ಬ೦ದ೦ತೆ
ಚಿ೦ತೆ ಬಿಡಿಹೂವಾ ಮುಡಿದ೦ತೆ
ಹತ್ತುಕಡೆ ಕಣ್ಣು ಸಣ್ಣಗೆ ದೀಪ ಉರಿದ೦ತೆ
ಜೀವದಲಿ ಜಾತ್ರೆ ಮುಗಿದ೦ತೆ (ವಾ ಜಾತ್ರೆಮುಗಿದ೦ತೆ! ಬೇರಾವರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲೂ ಇದನ್ನು ಹೇಳಲಸಾಧ್ಯ)
ಮೊದಲ ದಿನ ಮೌನ! ಪಲ್ಲ

ಎರಡನೆಯ ಹಗಲು, ಇಳಿಮುಖವಿಲ್ಲ
ಇಷ್ಟುನಗು ಮೂಗುತಿಯ ಮಿ೦ಚು ಒಳಹೊರಗೆ
ನೀರೊಳಗೆ ವೀಣೆಮಿಡಿದ೦ತೆ,
ಆಡಿದಮಾತು ಬೇಲಿಯಲಿ ಹಾವು ಹರಿದ೦ತೆ ೧ನೇ ಸಲ್ಲು

ಮೂರನೆಯ ಸ೦ಜೆ ಹೆರಳಿನತು೦ಬ ದ೦ಡೆಹೂ
ಹೂವಿಗೂ ಜೀವಾ ಬ೦ದ೦ತೆ
ಸ೦ಜೆಯಲಿ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಇಳಿದ೦ತೆ
ಬಿರುಬಾನಿಗೂ ಹುಣ್ಣಿಮೆಯ ಹಾಲೂ ಹರಿದ೦ತೆ ೨ನೇ ಸಲ್ಲು

ಮೊದಲ ದಿನ ಮೌನ, ಅಳುವೇ ತುಟಿಗೆ ಬ೦ದ೦ತೆ
ಚಿ೦ತೆ ಬಿಡಿಹೂವಾ ಮುಡಿದ೦ತೆ

-------ಕೆ ಎಸ್ ನರಸಿ೦ಹಸ್ವಾಮೀ

India not in Olympics Hockey

First time since 1928 India will not play in Olympics hockey.

The golden era of Indian Hockey
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/60834/is-it-the-end-of-indian-hockeys-golden-era.html
sad news
~rAGU

latent entropy

we remember the preuniversity classes on latent heat of fusion of ice. it is the heat needed to convert ice at zero degrees to water at zero degree. i was trying understand the relation between the information entropy and the entropy of physical systems. there is a similar concept and i stole the preuniversity term to attach it to entropy: latent entropy.

latent entropy of a system is the microscopic Shanon information required to define a system completely defined by systems macroscopic variables.

i will think about this and write more when i understand more.

the name syndrome

i have seen a terrible disease that has inflicted this world! i call it the name syndrome.

the symptoms are:

1) everyone wants to name all things
this includes:
a) process, objects and concepts
b) then, knowing its name is considered knowing it!

2) most important question "why that" is never answered

3) people argue about "what is it" and "what is it not" (definition)

(definition: what a waste of time; mortals vaguely call something and they try to define an inherently vague entity! if a thing is defined, to begin with, we already have the definition!)

for example, the property of moving things to move and stationary things to be stationary is called "inertia". as Feynman puts it "no one knows why, but it is called inertia". the difference between the "stuff" and its "name" is never highlighted.

if we look for something all we find is names. suppose you want to know about "steel" you will find million explanation about "what steel is" but never "why steel". many times we will not know "why" something but this should not stop us from saying "why stuff" when we know it.
names are nice things. they are keywords to search, handles to seemingly unorganised information. but they are means not ends. more important than names is "why that": its importance and motivation for its use.

it appears there is name for this in piscology but in a narrow context: nominal fallacy.

what is a computer program

i am disappointed that it took these many years to understand this! programs we write are nothing but a set of horn clauses with implicit conjunctions between them.

each instruction pneumonic from an instruction set architecture is a literal of the first-order-logic and more specifically a literal of the horn clause. it can be shown that the instructions in a program can be converted into a first-order-logic formulae and vice-versa.

we do not need anything other than "negation", "and" and "or" between the objects and the reason why we do not see them explicitly in the programs is that "and" and "or" in the logic are implicit. only construct that shows up is negation (in declarative languages). in C we can see occasional "and" and "or" however there are many more implicit ones hidden making it harder to get the whole picture.

ಗುಣಕೆ ಮತ್ಸರವಿಲ್ಲ

i could not resist posting the prolouge of russel’s biography somewhere from here


Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last -- I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

- bertrand russel

thevery

toe-theory of everything = thevery. do not ask me why; i like it.

it is the explanation to incorporate

a) gravitation

b) electromagnetism

c) weak force

d) strong force

c) everything else

(give me some time; i will connect it to computing sciences soon! then to philosophy ofcourse:))

least it can do is to give us a way to understand the confusion of physicists and mathematicians. it might also help in knowing where is that mist of confusion in science headed. however, before there is such a thing, there is enough scepticism in the air.

god of nasty things, and this god business discussed some stuff about implication of godel's theorm on oh! your god! it all started with russel's paradox (as far as i know). bertrand russel a thinker, a nobel laurate in lirature and a mathematician demonstated a paradox in set theory. (one of his books everyone will love reading is: conquering happiness, (you need not read if you know enough hindu philosophy!)). the paradox is something like this:[4]

Let R be "the set of all sets that do not contain themselves as members". Formally: A is an element of R if and only if A is not an element of A. In :

R = {A A ­­is not in A}

Nothing rules out R being a well-defined set. The problem arises when it is considered whether R is an element of itself. If R is an element of R, then according to the definition R is not an element of R. If R is not an element of R, then R has to be an element of R, again by its very definition. The statements "R is an element of R" and "R is not an element of R" cannot both be true, thus the contradiction.

as an aside, do not be mislead to think that this has nothing to do with OTHER things. for example, in computing sciences first-order-logic(fol) is used to implement logic programming. fol is a formal system that covers predication and quantification. a predicate is a property of a SET!(yet godel proved that first-order-logic is complete so we are here earning our bread, programming!)

citing goldbach's conjecture (not proven yet) and godel's incompleteness theorm stephan hawking gets pessimistic arguing that any theory that explains the universe will be self referential and thus must be incomplete or inconsistent.

i am not even a bit rickyppointed (disappointed). a theory will stand for a while and might explain everything we know. it is not reasonable to expect a theory to explain things we do not know yet. in that respect it will be complete and consistant. hold on, godel's theorm has aquired mysticsm. his proof seems to be ina limited context. i only hope hawking knew what he was talking about, because i do not know what i am talking about!

[1] stephan hawking on godel and thevery.

[2] elegant universe - brian greene (nice book)

[3] the conquest of happiness

[4] russel's paradox

[5] Horn Clause

ergonomics of rhythms

excuse me for using an awkward looking phrase for the tittle: it is accurate. the production of a particular rhythm pattern needs a particular posture, when playing a drum. in this post i will use tabla and mrudanga two indian drums to talk about the ergonomics of rhythms.


tabla is kept vertically and played predominantly with fingers. mrudanga is keep horizontally and played with palm and fingers. when i tried to play aditala a rhythm of 8 beats on tabla, i found myself exhausted when a composition was half the way. there are two reasons. first, the tempo was too high, second, i felt i had to spend lot of energy against the gravity. This leads me to think that a mrudanga has better ergonomics for certain rhythm patterns.

(a third one more imortant than the two is i am inexperienced! other reasons are hindustani compositions have less tempo. karnataka compositions should get slower at least to give marudanga some room to improvise :) )


tabla has certain advantages when playing rela or the fast compositions. face of the forearm is horizontal to the ground when playing tabla allowing better control of fingers for a particular kind of movement useful for rela. the orientation of tabla has a significant effect of the quality of rhythm because of the ergonomics. a player will have to remember these factors to produce better rhythms. two most important things to remember are, as i see them, the angle palm makes to the horizontal line passing through the ink of the tabla and the angle of the drum head with respect to the floor. i can not speak for mrudanga but i am willing to bet that similar adjustments have to be made to mrudanga as well.


these are usually not taught. there are the things that a player has to learn by practice. However if these factors are more rigorously documented, a teaching mechanism incorporating these details can significantly reduce time required to learn indian percussion instruments.


[1] c v raman, the indian musical drums
[2] ergonamics of drums
[3] overview of Tabla
[4] evolution of hormonic indian drums

why is supper time important

i still remember the days of high school athletics. we would eat whatever we could, whenever we could, and reach the regional competition ground. our physical education teacher counted us and lo and behold, we were ready for the competition.

now, for example, winning a shot-put competition is not only decided by the skills but also by the energy level at the time of the competition. I found a pamphlet that described carbohydrates for athletes. after reading it i am surprised at our negligence for such important things during competition.

an average adult athlete needs to consume 300 grams of carbohydrates 4 hours before any competition that lasts for an hour. if the competition proceeds beyond an hour, food may be consumed, while the competition is in progress, along with small amounts of water. a small amount of food eaten (90 grams of carb) immediately after the competition, helps muscles quickly recover the lost energy. (note: 90 grms is the average need for a regular lunch). it takes a day for our muscles to recover but a quick snack after the exercise can reduce recovery time.
it suddenly rang a bell (which one? guess). wise men in the western countries, have supper at 5.30 or 6 pm. isn't that just four hour before they sleep? oh boy that is precise and very helpful for sex! a study noted that eating a lot in late suppers is one of the reasons for sexual discontent in India (especially in softy business).

traditionally, i remember, when there was no power, we used to eat supper at 7 pm and sleep at 8-8.30pm. 11 pm was middle of the night. now, i know many eat at 10 pm and sleep at 11 pm. this is foolish.

i am going to have supper 4 hours in advance! this is wise and smart. a heavy snack at 6 pm and then a light supper an hour before sleeping is not bad either.

I am an NRI now

Immunocology is not a branch of Biology which is a combination of Immunology and Oncology. Neither is it a made up word! It is what I call Immunology out of love. I had not even a cold so far after I left the sacred land! My immune system was up against seemingly weak enimies. Few years of complacense of my immune system finally cost my body the flu. A strain of flu virus moving around Saskatoon has finally brought me down.

I guess I will get away with this being seasonal flu not Pandamic. In any case this gave me some time and interest to read about fever.

Unlike Computists, Biologists often do not give definitive answers. They use terms such as "pathway" to mean "something happens there and we do not know exactly". I do not blame them because Biology is such a mess. It is not fair to expect someone to know the architecture of human body like knowing the archhitecture of a RISC machine. This immunocology is such a thing. It seems these bloody viruses force immune respose making some white bloody cells release some stuff (IL-1 and IL-6). These stuffs in turn force release of other stuffs (PEG2). All these stuffs are some kind of chemicals or cocktail (complex) of some chemicals. These in turn srewup hypothalamus and raise the body temperature.

Now whatever doctors tell ya, what is your common sense telling? How is body temp gonna raise? More oxidation? Same old CO2 and H2O comin out? How? For more heat, we need more glucose or its friends to oxidise right? Basically these chemicals are produced to beg us to eat more? Come on chemicals, hungry bunch aren't you?

My roomy is an immunocologist. He has to bear all my stupid questions. What am I ? I am an NRI! why?Because I got the flu I am less Indian now, irrespective of whether I am willing to accept it or not!

There are previlages being an NRI. Your kids get reservation in universities. Other privilages include, investments are regulated and we can not vote!

Roomy was able provide some details about the strains. Here we go:

2007–08

A/Solomon Islands/06

A/Wisconsin/2005

B/Malaysia/2004

They are aussom; look like cricket balls.

The great debaters

The Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Association had organised a provincial level bebate competition for high school students at the Walter Murray Collegiate, Saskatoon.

There were many teams and I was asked to be a judge by a person close to the school. I judged three league competitions for students of grade 8-10 (I think).

Topic was:
Be it resolved that it is wise for a country to have defence in space.

Each team had two debaters and the competion had them take turn and stand for cross examinations. Finally first affirmative speaker and the first negetive speakers presented the rebuttal.

The Affirmative team won twice; the Negative team won once. First two were unonimous where the Negative won first and then the Affirmative won. Third one was a bit tricky. There were only two judges and we agreed that the other judge will be the senior judge. I choose the Negative but the other judge choose the Affirmative team. What surprised me was the other judge did not consider it worth to discuss the decision.

I noted that both the teams used classic fallacies and failed to address inconsistent arguments. I was not happy with the clash (counter arguments) at all. There was more prepared speeach in some cases. Neverthaless, all the teams were well composed and prepared. What was remarkable was they were well paced and were far better than the debates I have seen before.

An important cultural issue emerged. One of the judges thought two teams were aggressive and one person was objectionably aggressive, sarcastic and disturbing! By Indian standards, it was not even noticeable! I have, before, employed sarcasm to show the stupidity of arguments. It usually is a question to the audience that mocks the weakness of the opponents argument and makes the audience laugh (argumentum ad populum) (Judges will have to disregard this). As long as there are no personal attacks, aggression is acceptable in debate.