Author Archives: linuskendall

Merry Christmas, or Happy Enlightenment

This morning (Christmas Eve, no less), I headed off from my place in Bokaro to visit Bodhgaya. Bodhgaya is, as far as symbolism goes, about as far away from christianity and Christmas as you get. It is the place where Buddha found enlightenment under a Bodhi Tree, the decendant of which is still standing.
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My first impressions, entering into this place from the main road from Gaya (the non-holy sister city), is that of a buddhist Disney Land… I felt like an Alice, who, once entering from the main road and passing that holy bodhi-tree had fallen down into the rabbit hole and find myself, no longer in India, but in a saffron-coloured Wonderland.

 

 

  I guess I’ll happily camp down here for a few days, read my book and snack on Tibetan food in the Tibetan Om Cafe. My Laxmi hotel (named after the Hindu goddess of wealth, just to make the religious references a bit mixed up…) has a room with a wonderful view that I negotiated after being shown a horrible little hole.

 

 

So, merry christmas to all of you in red & white and happy search for enlightenment to all of you in saffron!

 

Photo by Nir Nussbaum

Mad Science

A friend of mine, with an overly sceptical view of natural sciences, sent me this article on how "science" is often misused to perpetuate and "proove" our held beliefs, norms and associated behaviours. 

The article lists a number of amusing (and scary) anecdotes about misused science, and comes up with the following five items to watch out for:

1 Do the Conclusions Fit a Little Too Well With Cultural Stereotypes? 

2 Does the Study Agree With the Headline?

3 Can You Spot the Double Standard for men and women!

4 Is There Another Conclusion That Would be Just as Valid?

5 Is the Study Even Science?

I love to quote research findings that I find entertaining on this blog, and while I often like to do additional research on stuff I read and hear, I do agree that before believing any results you find you definitely should question them. 

However, where I disagree with the article is where it states that scientific research should only be read and interpreted by those with an education to do so. It IS important that we provide access to science through blogs, media, popular scientific literature etc. 

Summarily rejecting any type of quantitative research and saying it's not to be popularly consumed (… or as the article sometimes seem to hint: not even possible to execute) based on a number anecdotes is hardly good science nor, in my view, accurate. 

Anyway,it makes good reading, catch it all here: http://bitchmagazine.org/article/mad-science

I got a gut feeling for you, babe (or: Love Is a Gut Feeling…)

Matchmakers: In Irish they are Babhdóir, in Yiddish they are Sadchen. For fruit flies, the matchmakers might be gut bugs.

Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) with the same set of intestinal bacteria preferred mating with each other, discovered professors Eugene Rosenberg, Daniel Segel, and doctoral student Gil Sharon at Tel Aviv University in Israel. They published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Fruit_flies When the flies’ intestinal bacteria were killed off with antibiotics, the flies mated randomly. When the bacteria were added back into their guts, they went back to mating preferentially.

Mating choice and reproductive separation are believed to drive evolution. And the researchers believe this study suggests evolution can be driven by a community of organisms living symbiotically, not just the individual organism. The symbiotic community of organisms, called a holobiont, evolves together. In this case, the fly’s intestinal bacteria influenced mate choice.

In the experiment, the researchers mixed two different foods into the agar medium on which the fruit flies were raised. One lived on a standard cornmeal-molasses-yeast mixture. The other was raised on starch.

via news.discovery.com

Humans make it so complicated sometimes… why not just trust your stomache bacteria?

You got the craft?

via youtube.com

I didn’t have to be, given the gift to rip

I’ll never master me, I know that it’s from Him

or Her or It, dimensions that sit

Waitin’ to sift through me, I fall short, still it hits me swift

I didn’t have to see, I coulda hit the lick

I coulda drifted it quick, I coulda quit so quick

It’s really a trip, I guess I was picked

I don’t know what I did to deserve a ride like this (Damn!)

I didn’t have to eat, I coulda been so thin

I didn’t have to be, quoting these sentences

I didn’t have to reap, the work put in but then

even the work in itself was such a blessin

I didn’t have to see, the planet lip to lip

I didn’t have to make, a livin’ writ to writ

I didn’t have to dream and then begin to live it

And for that, I vow to be a vessel

This Craft, this beat, this rhyme, this vibe

This style, they say music gives new life

From a source inside that is forever flowin’

This stage, this mic, this crowd, this show

This life, I’ve been given a gift tonight

And for that, I vow to be a vessel

I give thanks for my rhymin’ ability

I don’t front like it’s not a responsibility

I can open a mind, if the youth will listen to me

I’m not goin’ to front, like I’m on some killin’ spree

and as hard as the times are, God is livin’ through beats

that come not from minds, but that travel through spiritual reasons

Some of the time, I feel like, it’s not even me

No mon-ey can buy gateways to infinity

Still I’m hun-gry to shine, when I know I should let it be

I want but I have, every single thing that we need

So help me align self with soul and then I’ll be free

To sculpt and design verbal styles and experience freedom

…

“Let go, do what’s in front of you”

“Then, let go, then do what’s in front of you”

This ain’t leisure, although it feels

It is a duty, a way to live, another way to give

Another way to just, have communion

With the source of the sun and moon and, a way to pay the bills

Displayin’ skills, I take it REAL serious

The vibe’s so mysterious, not just one more day to kill

..and I could lose my connection

if I do not respect it enough, fffade away it will

Day to day it gives energies

That replenish me, if I believe and I say it will

and act on it, ’cause action is the key to freedom

Only way to be a leader, lead by the way you live

….

By the end of the day what would you wish to happen?

I caught this in my Facebook feed, and I kind of like it. Not so much because of some kind of emotional reaction to what they're saying, but rather because it illustrates how, sometimes, disconnected we can be from what really makes as happy. Still, I really like the question. 

Another question asked – what is your secret? – created some beautiful moments. "I am a lot better before you really know me" somehow really struck me:

These come from the originators of the Post Secret blog – an art project where you send postcards with your secrets which are then published on a blog. It's been around for an age and a half, but still I really like to look at it at times and peek into our lives behind the curtains.

On a similar notes, the beautiful project 6 billion others by Yann Arthus Bertrand – who also made Home, have a set of interviews on the theme "what are your dreams now?" (and many other topics), I find this one somehow even more moving & powerful. Watch it here. 

Internet can be a beautiful thing sometimes!

“HIV/AIDS and sex work in Asia: Listening to sex-workers | The Economist”… not quite

via economist.com

In an audio interview about sex workers and HIV/AIDS in the Economist they’re highlighting a conference focused on listening to the sex workers themselves. I’m happy to hear they have such a meeting, however, in the interview about it the only voice we here is … the Director of the UNAIDS program.

Still it does bring up the issue of legalization which is good, as prostitution seems to me an area where moralistic opinion normally is rampant.

Seize the day – become a nudist & vegetarian!

Harvie’s optimism began to crumble 
He thought about fate’s horrible dealings 
How he felt powerless 
A victim to the world 

He wondered if he should just throw it all in 

“Seize the day, Harvie! Seize the day! Carpe Diem.” 
The simple profound word struck a chord 
Harvie decided to turn his world upside down and back to front, again! 
He stopped believing in fate and did exactly what the statue said 

He felt free and alive and joined a nudist group! 
He became a vegetarian and joined an animal liberationist society 
Liberating chickens and their eggs 
Harvie didn’t just seize the day, he was strangling it! 

From Harvie Krumpet by Adam Elliot 

Looking to trade your beauty for a rich wife or husband? Think again, you’re an exponentially depreciating asset

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married?

I wanted to ask:
what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York CityGarden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)Which age group should I target?Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys.How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? My target now is to get married)
Ms. Pretty

Reply:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours.
Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of “beauty” and “money”: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later. By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a “trading position”. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or “leased”.

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

signed,
J.P. Morgan

via facebook.com

Prisoners to get the vote for the first time in UK – maybe one day other countries would follow?

Prisoners will be given the vote in general elections for the first time in
140 years after David Cameron conceded there was nothing he could do to halt
a European court ruling demanding the change, The Daily Telegraph can
disclose.

via telegraph.co.uk

Thanks to a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights UK prisoners will now, against the wish of the government, get to vote.

If only countries like US (where in some states convict don’t even get their votes back after they finish their sentances!), Russia, Japan and India would take some inspiration.

From the most expensive private home on the planet to the tarpaulin roofs in less than a km

P1030
P1032
P1034
P1036
P1038

See the full gallery on Posterous

For those of you who aren’t following Indian news super closely, soon home of the more successful Amani brother, Mukesh CEO of half of the Reliance group (one of the largest companies in India) inherited (and split with his brother) from his father, will be completed.

This, mind you, is no ordinary home. In fact, it is seen as one of the most expensive, private homes built (I guess places like the Forbidden palace is somehow disqualified).

The building, estimated at a cost of 1 billion, is an extravagant layered creation, operated by 600 staff and with 3 helipads and whatnot else. The building is interesting no doubt. However, as you probably can imagine, it has raised quite some eyebrows. Estimates has it that almost half of Mumbai’s 16m citizens are living in slums. Certainly there are large amounts of them without proper sanitation or waste management.

Sure, in a free economy he does have any right to use his money anyway he see fits. I am sure he got his money under less exploitative conditions than Marie-Antoinette, but I do get the feeling that there is a clear “let them eat cake”-moment playing out here.