Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

The plot may not be that sophisticated, but the writing is breathtaking. especially the last chapter where The Jew is about to go to the gallows - it's amazingly written. Suddenly you start feeling for the bad guy!

Boo... for Books

This is it. I am throwing away all my books and burning down a few libraries. I am probably going to be the first Library Bomber (of this century at least).

When Britney Spears "wrote" a book, it was joke. When Sarah Palin signed a book deal, it was quite ironical, but not that funny. Now this: Joe the Plumber (who is not a licensed plumber and whose name is not Joe), is "writing" a book. At least the earlier bimbos did something which can be called achievements. But this guy, a cheap-shit who doesn't pay his taxes, got some attention just because the "country first" candidate was so desperate for power that he was ready to sell his soul... wow, someone please wake me up from this nightmare.

yearning for a little R&R

It's been a long 2 months since the last post.

These have been absolutely the most hectic and the most productive weeks of my life. It has nevertheless been exhausting, and unhealthy. And I am looking at a few more weeks of this. I don't remember what it is to be relaxed. I don't remember how it feels to get 8 hours of solid sleep. I don't remember life without a hundred niggles and little pains all over the body. I so much wish to not have to rush every minute of the day. A vacation is so alien in concept, I am afraid to think of one.

Ironically, in the middle of this craziness, a strange thought occurred to me. What if I was stuck in an eternity with nothing to do? How would that be? It'd be impossible to do nothing. So, what would I do? I'd build things, I guess. Especially using a computer, because that's pretty much the only skill I have. But it's also a convenient one, because after all, everything in the universe seems to come down to information - storing, replicating, communicating - and a computer is pretty decent at handling information.

So may be I'd start building stuff on my computer. First, I guess, for the heck of it, I'd redo the stuff that's already been done. There would be enough time, even for a dim-wit like me, to be able to build complex stuff by trial and error; say an operating system from scratch or a virtual reality simulation.

Soon I guess I'd want to build new stuff, may be build my own virtual fantasy world. I'd define the laws of that universe. I'd build in a bunch of knobs such that tweaking each a little creates a new universe. Again, with time on my side, I'd start creating very interesting, complex stuff. Stuff that interact with each other, stuff that does stuff; stuff that may even start wondering how they came about, if there is a creator, if there is a point to all the fuss in their world, and if they really have be rushing all the freaking time.

Pain in the Neck $%^*

I am not new to sprains, but this one is special. It took me to a doc for the first time (for a sprain), it made me take a prescription pain med for the first time, it made me collapse from dizziness (not a first, but the first significant one). And it made me aware of one of my fears, which I thought I have mastery over: fear of pain.

It started slowly - may be some bad sleeping posture, may be too much computer work - but suddenly got bad when after a nice long warm shower, I stupidly gave my neck a jerk. Sleeping absolutely still probably caused the dizziness - though the doctor theorized it was the pain that did it. We agreed to disagree.

So I have been prescribed two meds - one a strong pain killer and the other a muscle relaxant.

Do you read the warnings and side effects of these meds? It's always amusing. Unless, you are a bit faint at heart, in which case, you'd probably prefer your sickness to the possible ("rare, but very serious") side effects of these chemicals.

Apart from a number of "unlikely but possible" potentially fatal side effects, my pain killer also has a couple of interesting ones: stiff neck and dark colored urine (both of which are very serious and should be brought to the doc's attention immediately). I think it'll be a bit ironical, if this med should cause me a stiff neck!

The other one, the muscle relaxant, seems a lot more tame in comparison. However, it does have one "completely harmless and temporary" side effect: green-black colored urine. That'll be a nice spectacle, unless of course, it was caused by the pain med :)

Humpty Dumpty

Ever thought about what the heck that nursery rhyme means? Does it make any sense?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty is usually shown as an egg. May be that's a metaphor, or may be it's literal. Either case, why do you need horses for the repair job? May be make crazy glue?

Also, why so much violence in a children's rhyme? (Jack and Jill is another example.)

But it turns out, there is more to Humpty Dumpty than a foolish egg who chose to sit on a wall. It's said to be anything from a simple riddle to a historic annecdote from mideaval England. Look it up in wikipedia.

make pollution visible, make it smell

Here is a simple idea to tackle carbon emissions - make them visible and unpleasant.

I know California has some tough smog standards, but even then I find it amazing that air is clear and pretty fresh here in the Bay Area. You could be right in the middle of a commute hour grind on Highway 101, and still not really smell the pollution the cars are spewing out.

So I don't really worry about it.

Imagine that the exhaust from your car is black and smells like a dump. I bet you'll notice that pretty soon. I bet everyone will notice the amount of this stuff they are contributing.

But it'll be so unpleasant, we won't like it. It'll never happen, not just for that reason, but more so because we'll need the oil companies to cooperate to make it work, and I don't expect them to be bending over their backs to implement this.

I still like this idea though. A very effective way to influence people's behavior will be to give them immediate and appropriate feedback. Incentives are nice, but they go only so far. A little bit of in-your-face disincentive may work better.

I love these asset bubbles!

I consider the timing of, first the stock market bubble, and then the US housing bubble and the alleged other asset bubbles (commodities, oil, you name it) that are going on right now to be a tremendous blessing for me and my generation.

Imagine being bitten by these a decade or more from now, when, in the middle of our lives and careers, we see a chunk of our lives' savings evaporate into thin air.

By being exposed to these surprises relatively early in our adult lives, I think we have a great opportunity to learn the right lessons and become wise. So by the next time when there is a Robotics bubble or a Near Earth Orbit Real Estate bubble, we'll play that market like the veterans we will be. I can't wait!

But wait a minute: did a gullible green-horn say this back in 2005: "A DESTABILIZING contraction in nationwide house prices does not seem the most probable outcome...nominal house prices in the aggregate have rarely fallen and certainly not by very much." It was none other than the maestro octogenarian Alan Greenspan.

Mm, so much for age and wisdom.

Can a clone be President?

No, I am not referring to John McCain, the Bush clone (as the Dems would like to charecterize him).

According to the US Constitution, only a "natural born citizen" can be President. This the exact wording: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

As any one can imagine, the term "natural born citizen" is open to interpretation, and perhaps an anachronism.

There have been Supreme Court rulings and over-turnings, Congressional laws to address various cases; but still there is some confusion about say, someone born to US parents outside the USA - whether they are considered citizens by birth or by naturalization. (Incidentally, John McCain was born at a U.S. military base offshore to U.S. parents.)

But my concern is about the bio-engineered future - are persons born by artificial insemination, or in vitro fertilization, let alone cloning, considered "natural born"? There is no way the writers of the Constitution could have considered these cases. (In fact, there was apparently no debate or discusison over the "narutal born citizen" clause before the Constitution was adopted.)

If you argue that the Constitution doesn't say "naturally conceived", just "natural born", then how about Ceaserean births? Are those "natural" births?

My point is not to nit pick on definitions and Constitutional gray areas. I often wonder where the balance should be between conserving the sanctity of the Constitution and keeping it updated as values and realities change with time.

I also find it ironical that a country built on immigration has this exclusion, whereas India, a country brutalized by foreign rule doesn't.

important stuff

The important decisions in your life all seem to have some common characteristics:

• Your situation is unique (at least, different from all the people you know)
• You have most probably never dealt with something like that before
  
• There is no single right answer
• Circumstances are never perfect (you'll most probably have to compromise on something)
• There is no deadline
• It's extremely difficult or impossible to predict the outcome
• You can never reduce the data to any formula or spreadsheet or anything simplistic like that (i.e. there are always unknowns and unquantifiables)
  
• No matter how much you analyze, research, meditate, pray, in the end it will still feel like a gamble

But, you'll do well not to succumb to buyer-remorse, no matter what you decide!

Shakira and Education?

I admit it. I've not heard a single Shakira song or seen a single Shakira video before today. (But when I did YouTube just now, I recognized that video with some Indian dance theme - I've seen it before somewhere). Anyways, it seems this woman is a Pop Sensation. She's originally from Colombia. If that's all I knew about her, I would have ignored her - like I did until this evening.

I happened to listen to NPR when she was interviewed. She was talking about some education evangelism she's into. 'Photo Op', I dismissed it. And then she started really talking about what she's out to do, why and all the relevant stats, and I was taken quite aback. I certainly did not expect that clarity of articulation or the sophistication from a pop diva. Hillary Clinton would have been proud of that interview.

Today Shakira went before the US Congress to lobby for a legislation called "Education for All Act of 2007". Fantastic, I thought - given this Congress' reputation, only a Shakira belly dance can get their attention toward some important issue!

But wait! Listen to this:

"The measure would provide 10 billion dollars over five years to help poor nations implement strong, accountable national education plans designed to provide a quality basic education for all their children".

So basically 10 Billion Dollars of US tax-payer money to be distributed to poor nations so that they can improve their education systems.

That doesn't sound right to me. Doesn't the US' very own (public) education system SUCK? Hello?!! Isn't the governarator of California cutting Education spending left, right and center? Aren't US school children ranking in 3 digits in Math and Science among the countries of the world?

I hope this Bill doesn't pass.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for philanthropy. I do it myself, especially for educational causes. But that's the way it should be: private philanthropy can fund foreign educational programs. That's why there are all those Billionaire Dogooder Foundations.

The US Govt. must get its act together and fix the education system of this country first.

to learn like a child

I've read and heard many times about the amazing capacity of kids to learn and the lamentable decline of that ability as we age. As with everyone, I had assumed I am the exception to this rule. Reality has been slowly, but surely hitting home - for several years now. Observing my 17 month old son constantly is not helping my self esteem at all! He regularly amazes me by remembering things I tell him just once.

On the other hand, more and more regularly, I find myself evaluating the "use" of any new piece of information. Because it takes such an effort to learn something new, I'd rather use some excuse to ignore it.

There has also been this rather disturbing trend of taking things for granted. And then looking pretty stupid. Case in point: the other day, it was reported that the bathroom door was stuck. The knob won't even turn. I, being very smart (eh hum), quickly - and correctly - guessed that the lock should have been engaged when the door was closed, and now, since no one was inside to unlock, we are stuck. And I knew what the solution was. There would be a small hole in the knob, and I just need to insert a small needle like object; and the lock will disengage. I was wrong about that. (And I was foolish enough to make a cocky statement to the effect that people should watch and learn as I solve this mysterious problem with magical simplicity).

After struggling with a ball-pen refill for several minutes, it dawned on me that it wasn't that trivial. It also dawned on me that, I had just assumed that that's how it worked - never once bothering to verify that assumption. Once humbled, I did what was needed - took apart the lock in another door which I could observe from both sides, figured out how it worked and applied that knowledge to unlock the door that was stuck. (It turns out that this lock needs a small screw-driver to be inserted through that hole in the knob; and if you know exactly what to feel for and exactly which way to turn it, you can unlock it. I don't think this is a great design; but that besides the point).

We immediately realized how lucky we had been that we discovered this potential hazard before our little one locked himself up inside a bathroom. So we got hold of a knob-protector (which is supposed to deter a child from locking himself in), and installed it.

While we were discussing and demonstrating to each other how one can get locked in, our little fellow had been watching. Because, this evening, he was trying to open a door by turning the knob, and when it did not turn, he tried to undo the catch, while uttering "open, open".

Has Obama done an "uh oh"?

The Huffington Post Web site reported Friday that Obama, speaking of some Pennsylvanians' economic anxieties, told supporters at the San Francisco fundraiser: "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years. ... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

This could bury Obama. Clinton and McCain are already jumping on it.

If it does him in, it'll be sad. Because I think this is one rare occasion of frankness and intelligence from a politician.

change thresholds

Do you remember the last time you hiccuped? Perhaps you do, perhaps not. Nothing remarkable either way. But do you remember ever realizing your hiccups have stopped the same instant that happened? Let's give it an allowance of a few seconds, if you want. Even then, I bet not. We eventually realize we are hiccuping no more, but only after a while.

But I just had the once-in-a-life-time experience of knowing exactly when i had my last hiccup!

Not only that, it was easily the biggest hiccup I have ever had (at least in memory). I am sure i freaked my cube-neighbors out with that monster hiccup! Perhaps, I was so shocked at its magnitude, that my hiccups stopped right there!!!

I find this phenomenon of not detecting the end of such things interesting. Other examples include coughs, temporary pains, etc. One possible explanation could be that our brains are for the most part designed to detect change (in stimuli) a lot better than constancy. This might sound contradictory - when something stops happening, it's a big change. True. But, if the stopping happens gradually, the rate of change or frequency becomes so low at some point, that it falls below our brain's threshold. So we never notice the transition (from presence to absence).

This is pure lazy speculation on my part. But, while at it, let me have some fun.

As with most things, there should also be an upper threshold for rate of change that our brains can detect/cope with. An example I can think of is looking out a moving train. As long it is moving slowly (or the horizon is far away), we find it an interesting spectacle. But once the speed at which the scenery changes becomes too much, we tune out.

On the other hand, suppose that the train is passing through a desert. Now, again, we'd tune out quickly, but this time because the change is too little - the other extreme. I find this fascinating.

If you can think of more examples (or counter-examples) for the presence of the higher-threshold, or some real science related to this, do let me know.

what to do with old pills?

So, I found a bottle of expired prescription strength Ibuprofen in our med cabinet. I was about to throw it in the trash absent-mindedly, but luckily came to my senses before I did. What if some dumpster-diving druggie finds it? Or worse, what if the pills spill and some curious animal or child finds them? And there is always the silent danger of the stuff leaking its way into the water table from the land-fill.

The second option is to flush them down the toilet. This again can be a environmental hazard - because, apparently, sewage treatment plants are not designed to filter pharmaceuticals. So the chemicals can slip into lakes, rivers or the ocean, or end up in the sludge used as landfill covers or fertilizer. Even worse, they can find their way back into water supply - as has been rather sensationally reported several times recently.

So, what is a good citizen to do?

These are the options:

1. drop them off at a local hazardous waste handling facility
   
2. check with your pharmacy if they can take it back (and dispose it off responsibly)
3. find some charity that can (legally) accept (unexpired) meds to redistribute to those who can't afford them
   
4. if none of the above works, you still have the trash or flush options. picking between these two is a toss up. but if you must throw it in garbage, take some measures to protect your own identity and anyone who may get harmed, by:
• scratching off any ID info in the container
• pulverizing the pills, perhaps mixing with something unpleasant like cat litter, packing tightly first in a child-safe container and then in water tight bags perhaps

But I think the best action one can take is avoiding purchasing too many pills which they are unlikely to use.

what did i learn in the classroom?

While thinking about futuristic education for the last post, a little reflection back to my education, inevitably, happened. And I realized that, when I came out of my 16* years in classrooms, I :

• knew nothing about time management
• could not prioritize tasks
• had little idea about money
• had no clue about what kind of career i'd really like to purse
• had no idea what my career choices were (unless you want to count "doctor or engineer")
  
• didn't understand politics
• didn't understand government in any practical sense
  
• didn't know my basic rights or responsibilities as a citizen (i do remember memorizing some stuff for my 5th grade Civcs class, though)
  
• had little organizational or leadership experience
• didn't know anything about nutrition or exercise
  
• had no idea how to do research or complete a project
• had no confidence to stand up and speak to a group of people (it still hurts!)
• had no "extra curricular" skills (still don't)
• had no clue about art of any form (still don't)

Is it me, or was my education a bit off the mark?

Okay, not all was bad. I did pick up some good math and science skills. The math skills do help me out till today, both in my job and personal life (especially finances). I also (hopefully, obviously!) picked up some decent English writing skills - that's helping in griping about the system today ;)

(* I am not counting KG or the stupid extra year I spent in 6th grade, because I was "under aged")

education factories

Another quote from the book Future Shock. Here Alvin Toffler is discussing how the (western) educational system of his day (early 70s) was inadequate in preparing young people for the future. He argues that the school system was a hang-over from the industrial era, and the coming era of "super-industrialism", as he called it, demanded a radically different model.

"...the whole idea of assembling masses of students (raw material) to be processed by teachers (workers) in a centrally located school (factory) was a stroke of industrial genius. The administrative hierarchy of education, as it grew up, followed the model of the industrial bureaucracy. The very organization of knowledge into permanent disciplines was grounded on industrial assumptions. Children marched from place to place and sat in assigned stations. Bells rang to announce changes in time.

"The inner life of the school thus became an anticipatory mirror , a perfect introduction to industrial society. The most criticized feature of education today - the regimentation, lack of individualization, the rigid system of seating, grouping, grading and marking, the authoritarian role of the teacher - are precisely those that made mass public education so effective an instrument of adaptation for its place and time.

"Young people passing through this educational machine merged into an adult society whose structure of jobs, roles and institutions resembled that of the school itself. The school-child did not simply learn facts that he could use later on; he lived, as well as learned, a way of life modeled after the one he'd lead in the future.

I don't know about you, but this quite accurately describes the schools and college I passed through back in India in the 80s and 90s. And I am not sure things are much different now, unfortunately.

The only practical flavor of education you could get there was what's called "vocational education", which was a stream parallel to higher secondary and college (the "academic stream"). The kind of fields available in those "polytechnics" and "industrial training institutes" were pretty limited, and rather backwards-looking in terms of scope.

To be honest about it, there was a definite classism between the two streams: you'd consider the vocational stream only if you were not "good enough" for the academic stream.

Looking back, that doesn't make any sense. Because of that social attitude, a vast majority of us went through the academic stream, while a tiny minority went through the vocational stream; while you'd expect a developing economy to require the reverse. However, it has turned out to be a serendipitous blessing for India, thanks to the coming of the "service economy", information technology and globalization.

Back to Toffler's point, how can the school or college of today, prepare a student for the future? Today, it's clear that, "16 years of classroom education, and I am set for life" approach is going to land someone in big trouble. Rapid obsolescence of knowledge and skills is not just a phenomenon of the high-tech industry alone.

Of course, the best thing to teach someone is the ability to learn. Beyond that, what should the educational system prepare the young people for: an era of mind-boggling technological revolution, hyper-choice, super-specialization, long life expectancies, a planet-sized "cultural melting pot", accelerating generation gaps, sustainable development? The funny thing is, none of these is really futuristic. All these are just extensions of the trends we already see today. Yet, our educational systems don't seem to ready at all.

Have we really moved beyond the factory systems yet?

can you trust yourself?

Here is a fascinating "visual cognition" test. In the video pointed to below, your brain's ability to track multiple types of events that happen fairly rapidly will be tested. It takes about a minute; make sure you are not distracted; restarting the test is not a good idea. (It also helps to make sure the computer is lightly loaded - because the Java applet tends to freeze up easily - which may ruin the test).

In the video, a bunch of people will be passing and bouncing balls among themselves. Some of them are clad in white and some black. You are supposed to count the number of times the white people pass the ball to each other - count bounce passes and direct passes separately.

After viewing the video come back to read the rest of this post. You are in for a surprise: I guarantee it ;)

Click here for the web page with the video.

Are you done? Do you have the two counts ready? Are you sitting down? If yes, read more.

Did you notice anything unusual in the middle of the video? Any surprising, unexpected event? No? Are you sure? Now go back and see the video again - don't count anything now - just watch.

How does that feel? There is no trick in the computer. It's your brain that has tricked you! "Inattentional Blindness" is the name the researchers are giving this bug in our firmware. If you feel like you need a drink now, I understand ;)

the next big thing

It's not nano tech. It's not fuel cells. It's not wearable computers. It's definitely not a smart-phone-video-player-gps-dishwasher-all-in-one

I think the next truly revolutionary advance in technology will be in transportation.

The communications revolution (internet + cellphones, mainly) is satisfying the human need to "reach" - i.e. to communicate (obviously), to access information and entertainment, and do commerce - instantly, and without regard for geography. It fundamentally changed the way people think about reaching. It is a big deal.

Compared to that, nano-tech or any consumer electronics innovation will fade in impact. Yes, new materials and new medical possibilities that nano will usher, will make life easier (and perhaps longer), but they will unfold gradually, and they will not change people's fundamental assumptions or day-to-day life. (Except if nano-tech can engineer immortality - but I doubt it will happen any time soon to be of use to you or me.)

But instant and distance-oblivious reach is only the second best thing; after the need of "presence". People would rather *be there*. Instantly, if possible. Without regard to geography.

Imagine traveling hundreds of miles in minutes or seconds. Imagine that being affordable. That will turn the world upside down!

You won't have to live where you work; you could live in another country, if you want. You could visit another continent for the weekend. You could visit your parent living in another city after work and be home for dinner. You could shop local produce in the other hemisphere. If you were Angelina Jolie, you could visit the African kid next in your adoption list for every diaper change.

That'll fundamentally change the way people think about distance, commute, immigration, shopping, relationships, commerce, property and perhaps, time.

What do you think? Can there be some thing else more revolutionary?

PS: an infinite energy source will be a revolution of unimaginable impact. but i don't expect it to happen any time soon.

why do we get sick in the winter?

I am patting myself on the back as I write this in great excitement! My intuition is turning out to be right! There seems to be a *better* reason for why the flu is more prevalent in the winter season, than what doctors and scientists have been telling us for some time now: the cold weather makes us stay indoors more, and so we pass on germs among ourselves a lot more... and, it's the school season (unlike in the summer), and kids are unbeatable when it comes to spreading bugs.

Whenever I heard this, I said, "Mmm seems to make sense. But is that it? Something seems to be missing from the equation..."

Now, a study by NIH (National Institutes of Health) scientists is pointing to something new and interesting.

In cooler weather, the flu virus's outer covering hardens to a rubbery gel that could shield the virus as it passes from person to person. Thanks to this protection, the virus spreads successfully. "Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," Dr. Zimmerberg said. "It's only in this liquid phase that the virus is capable of entering a cell to infect it."

If the weather is warmer than 60 degrees F (16 degrees C), the virus' fatty, protein-studded coating stays melted while it travels through the air, weakening it and exposing it to drying out, and so the virus loses its ability to spread from person to person.

More here.

I am pretty sure something similar applies to the common cold virus as well. Look out for that announcement soon!

The other day when I was talking to my mom on the phone, I mentioned how all of us here are down with cold. She immediately said, "it should be the climate change". "Wow", I thought, "global warming can do this?!" Then I realized she had meant, "weather change" :)

Ironically, this age-old misbelief (that going out in the cold will cause you to catch a cold), seems to have been a bit right - though it's proponents didn't have a clue how.

easy ways to do some environmental good

doing environmental good is not that difficult. here are a few simple things (that you probably don't see in the usual lists):

1. you don't really need a dozen paper napkins to clean up after going to a public restroom. i have found that i can do with just ONE, or at most TWO
2. stop junk mail. this would be all those coupons and ads and flyers that you never even look at and throw into the trash can right out of the mail box. i found that it's not very hard to stop almost all the junk mail i used to get. it took me a few phone calls and one letter. there is even a website now that gives step by step instructions, letter templates, etc.: www.stopjunkmail.org
3. use a piece of cloth (an old t-shirt or pant, for example) to plug the gap between the door and the floor/carpet. this insulation can make quite a difference to the amount of heating the room needs
4. remove dead weight from the car. if you have some heavy junk sitting in the trunk forever, it's just reducing your mileage for no good reason

tracking guns

I believe in gun limits. I haven't learnt about this enough to take an extreme stand like calling for a ban on all personal fire arms. But I think I'll end up there, sooner or later. According to the NRA, there are 250 million guns in the USA. I can't see how that can be a good thing. Especially, given the statistics and studies (which are contentious, for sure) that show that most domestic guns kill people in the household - not strangers or intruders.

I heard a story on NPR recently about a couple of ideas to make gun control work. Both don't work. Not yet, at least.

Micro stamping: Micro stamping uses lasers to engrave an alphanumeric code on a weapon's firing pin. When the gun is fired, the pin stamps the code on the bullet cartridge before it is ejected. Police who collect cartridges at a crime scene would be able to use a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms database to match the code to the exact weapon that fired them.

California has already passed a law requiring all new semi-automatic pistols sold in the state from January 2010 to be micro stamped (else deemed "unsafe").

Problems with Micro stamping include unreliability (code can be illegible, especially, after some amount of use of the weapon), not being tamper-proof (some claim the stamp can be obliterated with in minutes using only house-hold tools), cost (to manufacturers and in maintaining the computer database), the fact that cartridge cases can't be recovered many times (apparently many guns don't automatically eject the cases), that crime guns are illegal or old or both anyway, and the theory that it'll increase gun thefts.

Ballistic Markings Database: The second idea is the creation of a national database of images of toolmarks from all new guns sold in the U.S. The toolmarks, as any one who's watched a T.V. cop show knows, are akin to fingerprints for a gun, left on the bullets or cases fired from that gun.

Maryland and New York already operate such databases for guns sold or manufactured in those states.

We can expect many of the same objections to this method as with microstamping. In addition, and more importantly, a recent study found that the science behind the theory that each gun leaves an unique toolmark is not solid. The study also pointed out that the imaging and matching technology is not good enough, and will throw up too many false positives to be of practical use.

Fair enough.

However, I just can't believe that technology can be the main stumbling block for a viable gun control scheme to be implemented. Living in the silicon valley, I can't conceive of a situation where it's the computer algorithms and imaging technology that are the limitations. Surely, if there is an incentive to innovate, it'll be done. Keeping the politics aside for a moment, why are there no such incentives for us, the hi-techers? Isn't this a fantastic opportunity to do good? If we can come up with a cheap, effective solution, I am sure the consumers and the public will be willing to pay for it. Even if the politics is the main problem (and a turn-off for the innovators), I am sure there are smart people who can out-wit the politicians and the gun-lobby. Companies and VCs who do community outreach, employer match charity programs and what not, can fund this venture.

So, how about a non-profit silicon valley startup to solve the gun control problem?

get that big but out of the way!

I recently attended a communication skills class titled "Getting Your Point Across", sponsored by my employer. My experience with such classes has been mixed. But I usually do pick up a few nuggets that are quite useful. So here are some I picked up from this class: (some are nothing profound or new, but still, they are good reminders)

• set expectations: i thought this was a good one. the point is, many times communications fail because the two parties have different objectives and they don't realize that. For example, take the cliche'd "venting woman and the problem-solving man" situation: if only the woman says at the beginning, "i just want to vent. i am not looking for solutions", or, if the man just asked upfront, "do you want me to just listen or try to fix things for you?"!
• focus on what's being said - not what to say next ("Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood" - habit #5 from that popular book)
• people don't usually mind "clarifying questions"; it's "problem solving questions" that irritate. "interjecting" and "interrupting" are different things
  
• "listen with empathy" - i have no clue how to do this
• use open ended questions as much as possible. example: "do you think you can get this done by the deadline?" is a closed ended question, and most people will want to say "yes" even if they believe otherwise. however, the same question could be asked as, "what do you think about this deadline?", for which they may be more forthcoming.
  
• avoid email, when it can be talked face to face. if you need a record, send a summary email after the face-to-face
• and get that big "BUT" out of the way: "I like your idea, but ..." translates to "I don't like your idea."

So, an ideal communication session might go something like this, between Raj, who recently took this class, and his Boss, who's not enlightened yet :

Boss: Hey Raj, how is it going?
Raj: Do you really want me to answer or that's just the programmed first line you always use before giving bad news?
Boss: Well, I thought we should discuss last week's release, which was late by a month and had more bugs than the max row limit in Excel.
Raj: I can understand how you feel. Microsoft products are so user unfriendly.
Boss: The customers are threatening a class action law suit. With the quarterly results due...
Raj: Which class of customers are these? The ones we beg to download our product for free, or the board's family members who "buy" the product?
Boss: We may have to trim some resources.
Raj: Oh. How will you feel about losing me?
Boss: Very good.
Raj: Please send me an email about this, then.
Boss: Your account has been disabled already. We are withholding your last pay check to pay for that communications class you took. Bye bye.

genes and success

From Richard Dawkins' "River Out of Eden"

"It is not success that makes good genes. It is good genes that make success, and nothing an individual does during its lifetime has any effect whatever upon its genes."

This is a profound and very disappointing fact! The first time I read this (over a decade ago), it hit me like a ton of bricks. Dawkins, who is also the author of "The Selfish Gene", "The Blind Watchmaker", explains:

"It is tempting to think that when ancestors did successful things, the genes they passed on to their children were, as a result, upgraded relative to the genes they had received from their parents. Something about their success rubbed off on their genes, and that is why their descendants are so good at swimming, flying, courting. Wrong, utterly wrong! Genes do not improve in the using, they are just passed on, unchanged except for very rare random errors."

The errors he is referring to are mutations, majority of which are harmful. A tiny minority can introduce a new advantage for a gene, and these improvements get naturally selected: the process of "evolution".

Now, there may be something a crooked individual can do to improve his genes: expose himself to a lot of radiation, and hope one of those mutations happens to be an improvement ;)

It's NOT just a game!

Every so often we hear some sportsman or a coach or a commentator say those wise words: "It's Just A Game". Every time, I hear that, I am a bit irritated. They are usually trying to rationalize a loss or some other disappointment; or perhaps trying to ease some tension. If it's the former, they are plain wrong in the choice of their rationale, and if it's the latter, it mostly won't work.

Sports fans are as passionate as normal people can get. Many of them are not of the type that easily says, "oh, well" and gets on with it. They invest precious time, emotion and money. I don't think they want to hear the stars they admire think it's not that important. It's very deflating for a fan to hear the team he's been rooting for say "it's no big deal" after a loss. The sports stars and administrators should know better. They are human too, and I am pretty sure, in most, if not all these cases, they are truly disappointed themselves. They are perhaps trying to cope by telling themselves "it's just a game". That's fine. But don't tell the die-hard fan it's just a game. It's not fair to him.

It's bad marketing as well. Sportsmen are entertainers - they should make their audiences feel good about watching the sport; they should make it feel important. The Hollywood types get this right all the time. Ever heard an actor say "it's just a movie"? Instead, they call it "work", "project", and all sorts of fancy things, don't they?

Sport is man's link to his hunter-gatherer past - when those athletic abilities evolved in him. It is also a link to the more recent medieval era, one which made him a warrior and a gladiator. These are strong influences which appeal to his lower brain - the part which can't be rationalized. That part of the brain believes sport is really important - because it still thinks it's about survival!

PS: when I say "man" in the above paragraphs, I don't mean "human". I do mean the male specimen of the species. I have no idea why (some) women like sports; so I can't speak to it.

Universal Electronic Device Charger

It's so stupid! Every one of us has half a dozen small consumer electronics gadgets, and each has its own charger. Not only is it a hassle to keep so many of them around (and search for them every time your device runs out of charge), it's a stupid waste. The charger is the dumbest piece of electronics in the whole system, and it should be a no-brainer to design an universal charger with a standard connector that works with all devices.

I really don't know why the manufacturers haven't done this yet. It will save them money (making, packing, shipping these pieces); it'll save consumers money and hassle; and it'll be good for the environment.

Duh!

PS: If you were the designer/contract-manufacturer of these chargers, it's understandable that you want to maintain status quo. If good sense prevails, you are probably going to be out of business (unless you are the best in the business)

moon

According to Douglas Adams, it's pretty easy to fly: throw yourself at the ground and miss it.

If I had been just a little more drunk when I read this first, I'd have probably tried.

Now, imagine yourself at some height above the ground - say a dozen kilometres. Now throw yourself at the ground, not directly, but at such an angle that you do miss it. No no, serious. It's possible to do this because the Earth is not flat or infinite. Once you miss the ground, you'll fling back around the Earth - thanks to Sir Isaac - and possibly come back to your starting point. This may not exactly be "flying" - but I'll take being a satellite! Because this is exactly what happens with satellites. Take an object sufficiently high above the ground (to be clear of obstacles like the Empire State Building or Mt. Everest, as well as to minimize atmospheric drag), and give it a sufficient sideways push - viola! You have a satellite.

Speaking of satellites, recently, the first HDTV video of the moon was captured by the Japanese Space agency JAXA's Selene mission. One of them shows Earth rising over moonscape. It's really eye catching - the strikingly beautiful blue Earth over the monochrome, barren lunar surface. Here is a still from that video.



Also recently, we had a lunar eclipse. It was pretty overcast in my area - so I couldn't see the Moon around totality. It's quite pretty usually - the Moon doesn't go totally dark - it becomes a rather dim red disc, which looks a bit eerie when the sky is clear.

While admiring the Earthrise picture, I realized a cool factoid. When it's an eclipse on Earth, it's an eclipse on the Moon as well! Say it's a Lunar eclipse down here. That means that the Earth's shadow is falling on the Moon. And that means, the Earth is blocking the Sun, as seen from the Moon - which is basically a Solar eclipse on the Moon. Similarly, if it's a Solar eclipse here, we have the Moon blocking the Sun. At that time, if you were on the Moon, you'd see Moon's shadow on the Earth. You'd probably call it a Terran Eclipse!

Happiness is U shaped

And if you are at the bottom of the U, you should be on MySpace.

A recent study (led by Andrew Oswald from Warwick University in Britain, and David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College) found that happiness follows a U-shaped curve in which people are happy in their 20s and get miserable in their 40s, and start looking up again beginning in their 50s, and if they live to be 70+, and happen to be physically well, they tend to be as happy as they were in their 20s. Remarkably, this is universal: the study surveyed 2 million people in 80 countries - and the U shape was observed in 72 of those countries.

The explanation of this is, at the moment, purely speculative. It goes like this: in the 40s people hit the traditional "mid-life crisis" - mortality sinks in, health fades, reality hits home in careers, finally they realize their lofty dreams aren't going to be realized, etc. And then, they get used to it. And if they live to be older and are healthy, they see how they fare better than their peers who are either sick or dead. Survivor bias may also be at play - the miserable die early, leaving the happy-go-lucky to hog all the senior discounts.

Another recent study found that size does matter, when it comes to one's social network. Recovery after a surgery - in terms of the severity of the pain experienced, the duration of recovery and the amount of pain meds needed - was found to be considerably better in cases where the patient had more people to call close friends.

You may not think of MySpace as the place where your "true" friends are. But (I heard Dr. Deal Edell say this), if one's body and brain think that's real, it'll work for them.

decision stress

I hate decisions. Especially about the small stuff. And about the important stuff. Especially, if I have to make them.

For example, take, eating out. the euphoria about not having to do the dishes vanishes in a few milliseconds - when you start trying to decide where you wanna go. Very soon you start thinking, let's just eat the left-overs (and throw away the dishes)

When i was single, a few of us used to go out for dinner every night. We used to go the same place and eat the same stuff, every single night. It made perfect sense then, it makes perfect sense now!

I have been reading the rather old and out-of-fashion book "Future Shock". Some of the stuff in there is still relevant. The section about decision stress in particular.

From “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler

…life is a blend of programmed and non-programmed decisions. Rational behavior always includes an intricate combination of routinization and creativity. Routine is essential… because it frees creative energies for dealing with the more baffling array of new problems for which routinization is an irrational approach.

When we are unable to programme much of our lives, we suffer.“There is no more miserable person than one for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the beginning of every bit of work are subjects of deliberation.” For unless we can extensively programme our behavior, we waste tremendous amounts of information processing capacity on trivia.

Amen.

Now, I cant decide if this post should end here, or I should say something clever to close. Boss walks by: decision made simple ;)

YouTube will bring real democracy, bring down tyrants, clean up politics, defeat evil corporations..

Consider these two examples:

VP Cheney in 1994: says that invading Iraq would create a quagmire in this video on YouTube.






Transcript:

> Do you think US or UN forces should have moved into Baghdad?

No.

> Why not?

Because, if we had been to Baghdad we'd have been all alone... it would have been a US occupation of Iraq... Once you got to Iraq, took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government, you can easily see pieces of Iraq fly off - a part of eastern Iraq, the Iranians would like to claim... in the north you've got the Kurds; if the Kurds break loose and join the Kurds of Turkey, then you've threatened the territorial integrity of Turkey; it's a quagmire if you go that far... how many dead Americans was Saddam worth? the answer was not very many, and I think we got it right.


Al Gore criticizes President Bush Sr. for being soft on Saddam, and claims Saddam had WMDs in this 1992 video.






Summary: There is ample evidence (from CIA, defense dpt., commerce dept. etc.) that Iraq has been deeply involved in developing/procuring WMDs (nuclear, chemical and biological), that Iraq has been supporting terrorism. Bush ignored all this, mis-led the American people, and was hell-bent on pursuing a policy of helping Saddam's regime financially... The "theory" that Iraq's behavior could be modified by just economic sanctions is highly flawed. That wouldn't work anyway because Bush has consistently looked the other way when Saddam has been engaging in all this atrocious behavior.

Now, depending on your level of cynicism or naivete, you might be shocked or say "yeah, politicians are hypocrites. what's the news in that?".

What got me a bit excited, however, is the very fact that we can see these clips now, with very little effort or cost. Thanks to the internet, it's now possible for a motivated individual to dig up such then-vs-now pieces and share with thousands for almost no cost. Sure this medium can be exploited and manipulated by the powerful, can be used for propaganda, etc. The net effect will still be that it'll be possible for the small guy to poke his finger in the big bad guy's face. Is that great for democracy or what?!

I was half kidding about bringing down tyrants and defeating evil corporations, but only half kidding!

Brave New World

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Brilliant! Far ahead of its time. We can see how this novel has inspired so many other novels and movies.