Im home after a pretty long break.Last week, while everyone else went home, I stayed back because of my 'bad mood' on Friday evening.So, I was just about the only one outside Calicut, to leave for home this week. Theres a farewell party hosted by the students, mainly my batch, for Anand sir, our beloved teacher in school.12pm is normally CC(Computer Center) time for me, in college.The short bath after that;the newspaper skimming right after;thus ending the day at around 3-4 AM.
While i used to sleep a t 1-2AM, at the latest, while studying in school, this has to be the most abnormal sleeping pattern. It all started in 11th, when a couple of my friends, as they told me, could stay up till around 1 am everyday, and still stay alive!I hadnt gone past 12pm(or am) ever, except wen i was small and used to watch WCW Nitro! Anyhow, this newly acquired information helped me stay up till late and 'study', listening o music as well, of course.In 12th, chatting was also added o the agenda.1st day in college, I slept at 11pm.And ever since,..the life of the eventuality of an anomaly has remained anomalous:|:|
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Attracting talent.
The number of user-generated-content powered websites is mindboggling.Including blogger, wikies, the other infinite blog sites, flickr, youtube etc. , the challenge these days, (the days of Web 2.0) is to be able to organise the user generated content and to attract the maximum number of (hopefully good) contributors.
Uncyclopedia, a spoof of wikipedia has several impressive articles appealing to the sense of humour. Although the articles, in general, provide a similar approach trying to be funny(citing obscenely wrong timelines, putting celebrity names into everything etc.), there are some articles which are distinctly funnier. Although a 'nonsense' site, the challenge in front of an uncyc admin is to ensure that the nonsense is of high quality and that users do not actually copy paste from wikipedia and all that. For this, a very serious approach is needed, to filter out what is NOT funny from what is funny. And that, is no joke.
Proceeding to the joke(in a serious tone nevertheless), the joke was on the Zeno's 1st paradox, claiming that the paradox statement is correct and that it has various applications in the real world.
The paradox in short:"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead" :Achilles
The essence of the statement is that when the slower runner is given a headstart (i.e he starts the race ahead of the faster runner), the faster runner will always have to reach the point where the slower runner reaches, during which interval the slower runner would have run a further distance. The faster runner now has that distance to cover and so on.
The contributor to uncyc claims that Zeno's paradox is used by the US defence to its end.ESRs(Extremely slow Rockets) are always kept hovering over planet earth, ready for firing.When the enemy fires a missile towards the US, these ESRs are also fired to the same target(preferably just in front of the enemy missile).The missiles never catch up to the ESRs, which are slower than the earth's revolving speed, and hence the USA is invulnerable to missile attack!
Environmentalists, apparently are upset with this strategy, which results in a huge number of missiles floating around.There is also concern over the rising tortoise population, since the arrows shot at tortoises never reach them!:D
This post is a great example of user generated comment on user generated content: something that requires practically no effort(yup, i'm lazy:|).Furthermore, it strengthens the idea that in this time(don't take it literally, as in 1:45 AM IST) where data and content are plentily available, it is the organised presentation of data that really counts.
For the intellectually inclined reader, here is a page on Zeno's paradox on wikipedia.
Uncyclopedia, a spoof of wikipedia has several impressive articles appealing to the sense of humour. Although the articles, in general, provide a similar approach trying to be funny(citing obscenely wrong timelines, putting celebrity names into everything etc.), there are some articles which are distinctly funnier. Although a 'nonsense' site, the challenge in front of an uncyc admin is to ensure that the nonsense is of high quality and that users do not actually copy paste from wikipedia and all that. For this, a very serious approach is needed, to filter out what is NOT funny from what is funny. And that, is no joke.
Proceeding to the joke(in a serious tone nevertheless), the joke was on the Zeno's 1st paradox, claiming that the paradox statement is correct and that it has various applications in the real world.
The paradox in short:"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead" :Achilles
The essence of the statement is that when the slower runner is given a headstart (i.e he starts the race ahead of the faster runner), the faster runner will always have to reach the point where the slower runner reaches, during which interval the slower runner would have run a further distance. The faster runner now has that distance to cover and so on.
The contributor to uncyc claims that Zeno's paradox is used by the US defence to its end.ESRs(Extremely slow Rockets) are always kept hovering over planet earth, ready for firing.When the enemy fires a missile towards the US, these ESRs are also fired to the same target(preferably just in front of the enemy missile).The missiles never catch up to the ESRs, which are slower than the earth's revolving speed, and hence the USA is invulnerable to missile attack!
Environmentalists, apparently are upset with this strategy, which results in a huge number of missiles floating around.There is also concern over the rising tortoise population, since the arrows shot at tortoises never reach them!:D
This post is a great example of user generated comment on user generated content: something that requires practically no effort(yup, i'm lazy:|).Furthermore, it strengthens the idea that in this time(don't take it literally, as in 1:45 AM IST) where data and content are plentily available, it is the organised presentation of data that really counts.
For the intellectually inclined reader, here is a page on Zeno's paradox on wikipedia.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
What If..?
Have you ever thought if things could be different from the way they are? We at NITC aspire to think.And aspire to inspire.And perspire to expire.And such shit:|.Last day, there was a very serious discussion about how lame the arab nations were, : depending fully on the oil they produced.I mean,.. the sheikhs over there dont have to work at all.They just drink n party day in day out. Theres a rule in certain such countries which roughly implies that a company you start must be in the name of a sheikh.What easy money for those guys! Born on the land of liquid gold..
But theres an urban legend which is probably right, that says that water is actually costlier than oil, in the gulf nations.Keeping in mind that we are all striving for an alternative, cheaper choice for petrol/diesel/gas, and that a guy infamously fooled Keralites with an engine that he claimed could run with water(but had another hiden engine concealed from view), a success in this attempt to get an alternative could very well signal the financial collapse of gulf nations.Think about it: If water is found to be able to run engines, oil prices would be lowered to a few dollars per barrel.Petrol would cost less than 5Rs per litre!Maybe then theyd start drinking petrol.Maybe petrol has enough nutrients for the body to be a 100% complete diet.Maybe the evil after-effects of petrol drinking are seen only a decade after it is drunk.Coming to think of it, petrol's consumption mite decrease if we drank it instead of using it as a fuel.What that means is that oil reserves' survival would be extended by several decades.And maybe the after effects of petrol drinking cause mutations such as laser vision and mind control.Mayb these mutated beings would fight with the non mutated people! What a brilliant idea!
The normal humans(now outside the arab nations) would want the death of these superhuman sheikhs.But the sheikhs have the humanitarian claim that they are also human beings after all, with feelings and emotions just like the others.There might be schools set up by the elder mutants for efficient use of the sheikhs' powers.But still, I dont think that the non-sheikhs would co exist with the sheikhs.Theyll wage an all out war with the arabs, and finally either the sheikhs or the non sheikhs will survive!
Reality check.May be not.Anyway Ive class tomorrow morning 8 AM, so bye for now!:)
But theres an urban legend which is probably right, that says that water is actually costlier than oil, in the gulf nations.Keeping in mind that we are all striving for an alternative, cheaper choice for petrol/diesel/gas, and that a guy infamously fooled Keralites with an engine that he claimed could run with water(but had another hiden engine concealed from view), a success in this attempt to get an alternative could very well signal the financial collapse of gulf nations.Think about it: If water is found to be able to run engines, oil prices would be lowered to a few dollars per barrel.Petrol would cost less than 5Rs per litre!Maybe then theyd start drinking petrol.Maybe petrol has enough nutrients for the body to be a 100% complete diet.Maybe the evil after-effects of petrol drinking are seen only a decade after it is drunk.Coming to think of it, petrol's consumption mite decrease if we drank it instead of using it as a fuel.What that means is that oil reserves' survival would be extended by several decades.And maybe the after effects of petrol drinking cause mutations such as laser vision and mind control.Mayb these mutated beings would fight with the non mutated people! What a brilliant idea!
The normal humans(now outside the arab nations) would want the death of these superhuman sheikhs.But the sheikhs have the humanitarian claim that they are also human beings after all, with feelings and emotions just like the others.There might be schools set up by the elder mutants for efficient use of the sheikhs' powers.But still, I dont think that the non-sheikhs would co exist with the sheikhs.Theyll wage an all out war with the arabs, and finally either the sheikhs or the non sheikhs will survive!
Reality check.May be not.Anyway Ive class tomorrow morning 8 AM, so bye for now!:)
Monday, March 10, 2008
Foreign Aid is bad?
Im preparing for tomorrow's debate prelim using stuff from google,wiki and of course motivation+ideas from friends on orkut and yahoo.'Foreign Aid is a dangerous and addictive drug'.Im not seriously into the debating thing though, the whole point in participating being that while i prepare for the event, I increase my knowledge on random facts about the economies of the world.(yes, you can take that as a disclaimer in case I dont get through:D)..Since its 1:20 AM IST, I shall rather quickly try and put in an orderly manner, the facts I may put forward(note the formal tone, fine tuned in preparation for tomorrow:P).This is the first time these lethal facts are being combined!!:|
Foreign Aid is mostly of the economic type, given by the developed countries(US, Europe,Australia) to the developing countries(non europe,non US,non Australian :|).it may also be done by NGOs like ActionAid, Oxfam, MercyCorps etc. or UN branches like IMF and also World Bank.The aid is mainly to fund
Other cases include the tsunami hit region's countries which continually borrowed money.The countries, though they had much of their debts written off are still in huge debt pits.Most of South America borrowed excessively during civil wars.Egypt borrowed huge amounts for the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
The problem with being in a huge debt, is that it hampers growth.In most cases, the countries are unable to climb over the debt, in which case, if they barely do, are demanded to pay off their debts.In general, they dont.This is a fact which is widely accepted, and a list of HIPC: Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was made, whose loans were to be considered for writing off.34 countries from Africa and 4 others, which were hopelessly in debt were included.Other countries, which were in deep debts were not in a dire enough situation were ignored.But these offers often have hidden agendas.Anyhow, most of the severely affected countries are still to be dealt with.The terms and conditions for a similar debt relief plan by the G8, as alleged by John perkins, a self admitting EHM(Economic HitMan) are as follows:
Also, financial help given by countries may be to neutralise politically, the recipient nation, and to control the resources/ decision of the country.It also widens the gap between the developing countries which receive help and those which dont.
Hence, in general, borrowing is never the way out of a situation, and if indulged in can have serious repercussions.
THANK YOU:D
Foreign Aid is mostly of the economic type, given by the developed countries(US, Europe,Australia) to the developing countries(non europe,non US,non Australian :|).it may also be done by NGOs like ActionAid, Oxfam, MercyCorps etc. or UN branches like IMF and also World Bank.The aid is mainly to fund
- Aspecific project OR a specific sector.
- Budget support.
- food/military.
- Untied(recipient has full choice how to spend OR the opposite, Tied.
- Technical(movement of doctors,engineers etc)
- and finally, Emergency(flood,famine,natural calamity,war)
Other cases include the tsunami hit region's countries which continually borrowed money.The countries, though they had much of their debts written off are still in huge debt pits.Most of South America borrowed excessively during civil wars.Egypt borrowed huge amounts for the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
The problem with being in a huge debt, is that it hampers growth.In most cases, the countries are unable to climb over the debt, in which case, if they barely do, are demanded to pay off their debts.In general, they dont.This is a fact which is widely accepted, and a list of HIPC: Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was made, whose loans were to be considered for writing off.34 countries from Africa and 4 others, which were hopelessly in debt were included.Other countries, which were in deep debts were not in a dire enough situation were ignored.But these offers often have hidden agendas.Anyhow, most of the severely affected countries are still to be dealt with.The terms and conditions for a similar debt relief plan by the G8, as alleged by John perkins, a self admitting EHM(Economic HitMan) are as follows:
- countries sell(local market of) education,health,water,electricity etc to MNCs
- discontinue trade restriction supporting local trade
- accept subsidisation of G8 businesses
- creation of trade barriers which threaten G8 businesses.
Also, financial help given by countries may be to neutralise politically, the recipient nation, and to control the resources/ decision of the country.It also widens the gap between the developing countries which receive help and those which dont.
Hence, in general, borrowing is never the way out of a situation, and if indulged in can have serious repercussions.
THANK YOU:D
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The beginning of a new beginning:|
I guess there have been too many beginnings.. but this is the final beginning!! I hereby take a vow to pay my dear blog, the attention it deserves!:)
Its nice to have something to keep track of your life.. and events in life. Something you could note your everyday experiences in.Maybe a book!.. maybe not.. Diaries have become less popular now(compared to blogs) because of the high risk involved if we divulge our personal shit to the diary, and of course if we choose to be more on the creative side than on the personal side, the diary does not give enough exposure:P.So i use my beautiful hard cover diary for squatting exceedingly large mosquitoes,.. and to read countries-and-capitals, global time zones,metric conversions and so on, when im more jobless than on the average day(or more likely, night).
The Rejuvenation of this blog was prompted(and not quite inspired) by the presence of a reasonably regularly updated, yet dismal blog.
Coming back to the (keeping) track of life: in recent times, Ive had yahoo chat archives and the orkut scrapbook as rough guides as to the track.Now that im here in NITC, having a CC(Computer Centre) with multiple terminals and 20mbps leased line from BSNL, having computers with LINUX installed, and that too the oldest possible version, I fail to log my chats:|
Of course, you may be wondering (and rightly so) if my life is so eventful to keep logging everyday.The answer is simple.Just put together the 14th and the 15th letters of the english alphabet together:).Anyhow, the world is quite vast:510.072 million sq km[1]... and so, i'll shed new light upon the happenings around and at times, over(in case of airplanes and satellites and all) us.:)
Its nice to have something to keep track of your life.. and events in life. Something you could note your everyday experiences in.Maybe a book!.. maybe not.. Diaries have become less popular now(compared to blogs) because of the high risk involved if we divulge our personal shit to the diary, and of course if we choose to be more on the creative side than on the personal side, the diary does not give enough exposure:P.So i use my beautiful hard cover diary for squatting exceedingly large mosquitoes,.. and to read countries-and-capitals, global time zones,metric conversions and so on, when im more jobless than on the average day(or more likely, night).
The Rejuvenation of this blog was prompted(and not quite inspired) by the presence of a reasonably regularly updated, yet dismal blog.
Coming back to the (keeping) track of life: in recent times, Ive had yahoo chat archives and the orkut scrapbook as rough guides as to the track.Now that im here in NITC, having a CC(Computer Centre) with multiple terminals and 20mbps leased line from BSNL, having computers with LINUX installed, and that too the oldest possible version, I fail to log my chats:|
Of course, you may be wondering (and rightly so) if my life is so eventful to keep logging everyday.The answer is simple.Just put together the 14th and the 15th letters of the english alphabet together:).Anyhow, the world is quite vast:510.072 million sq km[1]... and so, i'll shed new light upon the happenings around and at times, over(in case of airplanes and satellites and all) us.:)
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