Chairman of the Data Committee: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep doing those experiments? Do you believe you're collecting data for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the University itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as a graduate programme. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't graduate. It's pointless to keep analyzing data. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Graduate Student: Because I choose to.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Epar and Opar.
Epar Bangla refers to the Indian State of West Bengal, capital Calcutta (Kolkata), mostly populated by Ghoti's and apparently has been going to the dogs for ever.... (this is a delicate and subtle point.. everyone will tell you that West Bengal and its inhabitants have been going to the dogs for ever... the fact that we are not yet there leads one to either of two conclusions... 1. the dogs are really far away or 2. people who say such things are full of shite.).
Opar Bangla refers to Bangladesh, capital Dhaka, mostly populated by Bangals, tropical cyclones and amazing seafood. Now if West Bengal has been going to the dogs.... its spiritual brother, the independant country of Bangladesh cannot be very far behind... in fact, is probably leading the way. But again, as those people have managed to keep their country afloat for quite a while.. they obviously have a lot going for them.. apart from the fact they simply cannot decide upon what kind of government they want.
Now "epar" means 'this side' and "opar" means 'that side'. So, obviously, while Epar is home to me and Opar is the home of my ancestors (not kidding), the situation is probably just reversed for any regular Imran or Abdul sitting in Dhaka. The reason I suddenly got to writing is because I was on Orkut where someone was saying that the best Epar Bangla band is 'Fossils' while the best Opar Bangla band is 'Miles'. So, then think about this... we keep exchanging musicians and other artists all the time.. Bangladesh keeps a more or less continuous flood of refugees on the borders of West Bengal, so why not simply cut the border away and reunify? After all the whole separation of Bangla.. the whole Bangla was a uniquely British piece of work.. done by His Sonofabitch Excellency, Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of British India waaaay back in 1905. Isn't it time to undo this rather hideous piece of work?
Opar Bangla refers to Bangladesh, capital Dhaka, mostly populated by Bangals, tropical cyclones and amazing seafood. Now if West Bengal has been going to the dogs.... its spiritual brother, the independant country of Bangladesh cannot be very far behind... in fact, is probably leading the way. But again, as those people have managed to keep their country afloat for quite a while.. they obviously have a lot going for them.. apart from the fact they simply cannot decide upon what kind of government they want.
Now "epar" means 'this side' and "opar" means 'that side'. So, obviously, while Epar is home to me and Opar is the home of my ancestors (not kidding), the situation is probably just reversed for any regular Imran or Abdul sitting in Dhaka. The reason I suddenly got to writing is because I was on Orkut where someone was saying that the best Epar Bangla band is 'Fossils' while the best Opar Bangla band is 'Miles'. So, then think about this... we keep exchanging musicians and other artists all the time.. Bangladesh keeps a more or less continuous flood of refugees on the borders of West Bengal, so why not simply cut the border away and reunify? After all the whole separation of Bangla.. the whole Bangla was a uniquely British piece of work.. done by His Sonofabitch Excellency, Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of British India waaaay back in 1905. Isn't it time to undo this rather hideous piece of work?
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Doggerel/
So I am not a poet.
But does that really matter?
I have read through Voet and Voet.
That is a Biochem book,
And it has taught me so much, look!
Yes, so poetry does not agree with me,
sentimental love poems even less,
but to you, long suffering reader,
this little I will confess.
Writing shitty verse is actually fun,
Sometimes you get to use your favourite pun.
But where do I get my poetic licence?
Is there an exam I must write?
Is there a dragon I must fight?
Does it involve having to parallel park?
I must say, this makes very little sense,
But of course, its all for a lark.
But does that really matter?
I have read through Voet and Voet.
That is a Biochem book,
And it has taught me so much, look!
Yes, so poetry does not agree with me,
sentimental love poems even less,
but to you, long suffering reader,
this little I will confess.
Writing shitty verse is actually fun,
Sometimes you get to use your favourite pun.
But where do I get my poetic licence?
Is there an exam I must write?
Is there a dragon I must fight?
Does it involve having to parallel park?
I must say, this makes very little sense,
But of course, its all for a lark.
More Harry Potter Titles.
Harry Potter and the Precipitated Protein.
Harry Potter and the Feminist.
Harry Potter and the Broken Record.
Harry Potter and the Tax Return.
Harry Potter and the Unearthly Glow early on Friday Afternoons of the Pornographic Parchments.
Harry Potter and the Feminist.
Harry Potter and the Broken Record.
Harry Potter and the Tax Return.
Harry Potter and the Unearthly Glow early on Friday Afternoons of the Pornographic Parchments.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Because the Indian moviegoing audience is full of arseholes.
Hence, a great movie like Lakshya bombed at the box office. While shitty Shahrukh Khan movies with funky foreign locations and no storyline whatsoever make truckloads of money. That is the Indian movie audience for you. A few words about Lakshya. In 1999, Pakistan attacked India. The Indian and Pakistani armies are fighting a low intensity way all year round on the highest and most brutal battleground in the world: the mountains of Kashmir. During the winter months, both armies have traditionally moved back from their frontline positions on the Line of Control. This has long been a gentleman's agreement. In the winter of 1998, however, the Pakistani army took advantage of the Indian army's withdrawal and proceeded to equip and arm both regular infantrymen (of the Northern Light Infantry) and irregulars (mujahideen, fedayeen and other unsavoury sorts) who built bunkers and lived out the winter. Come spring, the shooting started. People have called this a colossal failure of the much vaunted Indian Intelligence agencies. That is a matter for debate. What happens to be recorded fact though, was that the Indian army came back with a vengeance. Although hobbled by the Prime Minister's decision to not cross the Line of Control (which would have made things much easier, the army could have simply looped across the Paki positions and shot their backsides out; instead of which, they were forced to literally fight their way up), the army kicked Paki and mujahideed arse quite thoroughly.
Ok, so that was about the Kargil war. The movie Lakshya is about a restless young college student with no goals, no ambitions, just an abiding distrust for whatever his father has planned for him who joins the Indian Military Academy for a lark, for no other reason than his friend was writing the exam and he decided to as well. In the first semester of training (which my friends who are in the services have told me is rather.. brutal), he cops out and deserts. He comes home to see that this is exactly what his father had expected him to do. This, and the fact that his hot girlfriend won't have anything to do with a loser lights some kind of spark in him and sends him back. He graduates and like a large number of his batchmates, is posted to a regiment in Kashmir. His regimental commander, Col. Sunil Damle is played to perfection by the great Amitabh Bachhan. It is while standing at the Line of Control and looking over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir is that he begins to understand what it means to be an Indian. And then, the war starts. The high point of this magnificent movie is the raid on Point 5179, an important artillery spotter peak by a small unit for our hero's battalion. THIS LINK has a video of the climb to Point 5179. Check it out. The dialogue at the end of this clip translates to :
Jawan: Sir?
Karan: Yes, Trilok Singh.
Jawan: I feel dizzy when I look down.
Karan: Well, Trilok Singh.. don't look down.
Jawan: Yes Sir.
Ok, so that was about the Kargil war. The movie Lakshya is about a restless young college student with no goals, no ambitions, just an abiding distrust for whatever his father has planned for him who joins the Indian Military Academy for a lark, for no other reason than his friend was writing the exam and he decided to as well. In the first semester of training (which my friends who are in the services have told me is rather.. brutal), he cops out and deserts. He comes home to see that this is exactly what his father had expected him to do. This, and the fact that his hot girlfriend won't have anything to do with a loser lights some kind of spark in him and sends him back. He graduates and like a large number of his batchmates, is posted to a regiment in Kashmir. His regimental commander, Col. Sunil Damle is played to perfection by the great Amitabh Bachhan. It is while standing at the Line of Control and looking over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir is that he begins to understand what it means to be an Indian. And then, the war starts. The high point of this magnificent movie is the raid on Point 5179, an important artillery spotter peak by a small unit for our hero's battalion. THIS LINK has a video of the climb to Point 5179. Check it out. The dialogue at the end of this clip translates to :
Jawan: Sir?
Karan: Yes, Trilok Singh.
Jawan: I feel dizzy when I look down.
Karan: Well, Trilok Singh.. don't look down.
Jawan: Yes Sir.
David Duchovny...
No, it’s not obvious. Why did a talented actor like David Duchovny have to disappear into obscurity? Like everyone else, I used to be a diehard fan of the X-Files about a decade ago. In fact, for a while, my computer password was ‘truustno1’ or something similar. The movie was great. Duchovny made such a great character of being an inarticulate mumbler, that everyone expected great things for him on the big screen. In fact, so did everyone for his partner, played so well by Gillian Anderson. But these two people seem to have fallen prey to their own images as agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. One might, I would say, have trouble imagining them as anything else. Which is, I suspect what happened. Of course, I may be wrong.. but then.. I am a fan, and fans are entitled to their interpretation of things. The one episode of X-Files that I had serious trouble with had Scully driving like the blazes from coast to coast because it was only by traveling parallel to the equator that she could prevent her passenger from dying most horribly. Yes, I disliked this episode because it defenestrates Special Relativity. That is too much to take.
Anways, I was watching ‘Playing God’ last night which has Duchovny as a surgeon who has a drug problem and loses his licence… and then by a series of strange events gets involved with the Mob. Nice movie, could have been handled better, but the failings were more of a directorial nature… the actors were perfectly competent. The soundtrack was quite interesting… but frequently missing when I thought it would be of some help. See it.
Anways, I was watching ‘Playing God’ last night which has Duchovny as a surgeon who has a drug problem and loses his licence… and then by a series of strange events gets involved with the Mob. Nice movie, could have been handled better, but the failings were more of a directorial nature… the actors were perfectly competent. The soundtrack was quite interesting… but frequently missing when I thought it would be of some help. See it.
Totakaahinee
THIS LINK leads to a recitation of the poem Totaakahinee written by the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The poem is an allegorical description of the wretchedness in which 'education' finds itself. The bloke reciting is my friend Suman Chakraborty, a chemist, an actor and one extremely skilled at the peculiarly Bengali art of 'Aabritti'.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Singur and land grabbing by the State.
This is an extract from a Statesman article a few weeks ago on the ongoing crisis at Singur where the State Goverment of West Bengal seems to have allied itself with Tata Industries and is busy "appropriating" cultivable land from peasants to set up a small car factory.
Special Article
ON LAND-GRABBING
Dr Singh’s India, Buddhadeb’s Bengal, Modi’s Gujarat have notorious US, Soviet and Chinese examples to follow ~ distracting from the country’s real economic problems
By SUBROTO ROY
AT a business meet on 12 January 2005, Dr Manmohan Singh showered fulsome praise on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as “dynamic”, “the Nation’s Best Chief Minister”, whose “wit and wisdom”, “qualities of head and heart”, “courage of conviction and passionate commitment to the cause of the working people of India” he admired, saying “with Buddhadeb Babu at the helm of affairs it appears Bengal is once again forging ahead… If today there is a meeting of minds between Delhi and Kolkata, it is because the ideas that I and Buddhadebji represent have captured the minds of the people of India. This is the idea of growth with equity and social justice, the idea that economic liberalization and modernization have to be mindful of the needs of the poor and the marginalized.” With such support of a Congress Prime Minister (as well as proximity to Pranab Mukherjee), Mr Bhattacharjee could hardly have feared the local Congress and Trinamul would pose any threat in the 2006 Assembly Elections despite having more potential voters between them than the CPI-M.
Dr Singh returned to the “needs of the poor and the marginalized” at another business meet on 8 January 2007 promising to “unveil a new Rehabilitation Policy in three months to increase the pace of industrialisation” which would be “more progressive, humane and conducive to the long-term welfare of all stakeholders”, while his businessman host pointedly stated about Singur “land for industry must be made available to move the Indian manufacturing sector ahead”. The “meeting of minds between Delhi and Kolkata” seems to be that agriculture allegedly has become a relatively backward slow-growing sector deserving to yield in the purported larger national interest to industry and services: what the PM means by “long-term welfare of all stakeholders” is the same as the new CPI-M party-line that the sons of farmers should not remain farmers (but become automobile technicians or IT workers or restaurant waiters instead).
It is a political viewpoint coinciding with interests of organised capital and industrial labour in India today, as represented by business lobbies like CII, FICCI and Assocham on one hand, and unions like CITU and INTUC on the other. Business Standard succinctly (and ominously) advocated this point of view in its lead editorial of 9 January as follows: “it has to be recognised that the world over capitalism has progressed only with the landed becoming landless and getting absorbed in the industrial/service sector labour force ~ indeed it is obvious that if people don’t get off the land, their incomes will rise only slowly”.
Land is the first and ultimate means of production, and the attack of the powerful on land-holdings or land-rights of the unorganised or powerless has been a worldwide phenomenon ~ across both capitalism and communism.
In the mid-19th Century, white North America decimated hundreds of thousands of natives in the most gargantuan land-grab of history. Defeated Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux spoke in 1868 for the Apache, Navajo, Comanche, Cheyenne, Iroquois and hundreds of other tribes: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept any except one: they promised to take our land, and they took it.”
Half a century later, while the collapse of grain prices contributed to the Great Depression and pauperisation of thousands of small farmers in capitalist America in the same lands that had been taken from the native tribes, Stalin’s Russia embarked on the most infamous state-sponsored land-grab in modern history: “The mass collectivisation of Soviet agriculture (was) probably the most warlike operation ever conducted by a state against its own citizens…. Hundreds of thousands and finally millions of peasants…were deported… desperate revolts in the villages were bloodily suppressed by the army and police, and the country sank into chaos, starvation and misery… The object of destroying the peasants’ independence…was to create a population of slaves, the benefit of whose labour would accrue to industry. The immediate effect was to reduce Soviet agriculture to a state of decline from which it has not yet recovered… The destruction of the Soviet peasantry, who formed three quarters of the population, was not only an economic but a moral disaster for the entire country. Tens of millions were driven into semi-servitude, and millions more were employed as executants…” (Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism).
Why did Stalin destroy the peasants? Lenin’s wishful “alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry” in reality could lead only to the peasants being pauperised into proletarians. At least five million peasants died and (Stalin told Churchill at Yalta) another ten million in the resultant famine of 1932-1933. “Certainly it involved a struggle ~ but chiefly one between urban Communists and villagers… it enabled the regime to obtain much of the capital desired for industrialization from the defeated village… it was the decisive step in the building of Soviet totalitarianism, for it imposed on the majority of the people a subjection which only force could maintain” (Treadgold, 20th Century Russia).
Mr Bhattacharjee’s CPI-M is fond of extolling Chinese communism, and the current New Delhi establishment have made Beijing and Shanghai holiday destinations of choice. Dr Singh’s Government has been eager to create hundreds of “Special Economic Zones” run by organised capital and unionised labour, and economically privileged by the State. In fact, the Singur and Nandigram experiences of police sealing off villages where protests occur are modelled on creation of “Special Economic Zones” in China in recent years. For example, Chinese police on 6 December 2005 cracked down on farmers and fishermen in the seaside village of Dongzhou, 125 miles North East of Hong Kong. Thousands of Dongzhou villagers clashed with troops and armed police protesting confiscation of their lands and corruption among officials. The police immediately sealed off the village and arrested protesters. China’s Public Security Ministry admitted the number of riots over land had risen sharply, reaching more than seventy thousand across China in 2004; police usually suppressed peasant riots without resort to firing but in Dongzhou, police firing killed 20 protesters. Such is the reality of the “emergence” of China, a totalitarian police-state since the Communist takeover in 1949, from its period of mad tyranny until Mao’s death in 1976, followed by its ideological confusion ever since.
Modern India’s political economy today remains in the tight grip of metropolitan “Big Business” and “Big Labour”. Ordinary anonymous individual citizens ~ whether housewife, consumer, student, peasant, non-union worker or small businessman ~ have no real voice or representation in Indian politics. We have no normal conservative, liberal or social democratic party in this country, as found in West European democracies where the era of land-grabbing has long-ceased. If our polity had been normal, it would have known that economic development does not require business or government to pauperise the peasantry but instead to define and secure individual property rights and the Rule of Law, and establish proper conditions for the market economy. The Congress and BJP in Delhi and CPI-M in Kolkata would not have been able to distract attention from their macroeconomic misdeeds over the decades ~ indicated, for example, by increasing interest-expenditure paid annually on Government debt as a fraction of tax revenues (see Table).
This macroeconomic rot originated with the Indira Gandhi-PN Haksar capriciousness and mismanagement, which coincided with the start of Dr Singh’s career as India’s best known economic bureaucrat.
The author is Contributing Editor, The Statesman.
Special Article
ON LAND-GRABBING
Dr Singh’s India, Buddhadeb’s Bengal, Modi’s Gujarat have notorious US, Soviet and Chinese examples to follow ~ distracting from the country’s real economic problems
By SUBROTO ROY
AT a business meet on 12 January 2005, Dr Manmohan Singh showered fulsome praise on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as “dynamic”, “the Nation’s Best Chief Minister”, whose “wit and wisdom”, “qualities of head and heart”, “courage of conviction and passionate commitment to the cause of the working people of India” he admired, saying “with Buddhadeb Babu at the helm of affairs it appears Bengal is once again forging ahead… If today there is a meeting of minds between Delhi and Kolkata, it is because the ideas that I and Buddhadebji represent have captured the minds of the people of India. This is the idea of growth with equity and social justice, the idea that economic liberalization and modernization have to be mindful of the needs of the poor and the marginalized.” With such support of a Congress Prime Minister (as well as proximity to Pranab Mukherjee), Mr Bhattacharjee could hardly have feared the local Congress and Trinamul would pose any threat in the 2006 Assembly Elections despite having more potential voters between them than the CPI-M.
Dr Singh returned to the “needs of the poor and the marginalized” at another business meet on 8 January 2007 promising to “unveil a new Rehabilitation Policy in three months to increase the pace of industrialisation” which would be “more progressive, humane and conducive to the long-term welfare of all stakeholders”, while his businessman host pointedly stated about Singur “land for industry must be made available to move the Indian manufacturing sector ahead”. The “meeting of minds between Delhi and Kolkata” seems to be that agriculture allegedly has become a relatively backward slow-growing sector deserving to yield in the purported larger national interest to industry and services: what the PM means by “long-term welfare of all stakeholders” is the same as the new CPI-M party-line that the sons of farmers should not remain farmers (but become automobile technicians or IT workers or restaurant waiters instead).
It is a political viewpoint coinciding with interests of organised capital and industrial labour in India today, as represented by business lobbies like CII, FICCI and Assocham on one hand, and unions like CITU and INTUC on the other. Business Standard succinctly (and ominously) advocated this point of view in its lead editorial of 9 January as follows: “it has to be recognised that the world over capitalism has progressed only with the landed becoming landless and getting absorbed in the industrial/service sector labour force ~ indeed it is obvious that if people don’t get off the land, their incomes will rise only slowly”.
Land is the first and ultimate means of production, and the attack of the powerful on land-holdings or land-rights of the unorganised or powerless has been a worldwide phenomenon ~ across both capitalism and communism.
In the mid-19th Century, white North America decimated hundreds of thousands of natives in the most gargantuan land-grab of history. Defeated Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux spoke in 1868 for the Apache, Navajo, Comanche, Cheyenne, Iroquois and hundreds of other tribes: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept any except one: they promised to take our land, and they took it.”
Half a century later, while the collapse of grain prices contributed to the Great Depression and pauperisation of thousands of small farmers in capitalist America in the same lands that had been taken from the native tribes, Stalin’s Russia embarked on the most infamous state-sponsored land-grab in modern history: “The mass collectivisation of Soviet agriculture (was) probably the most warlike operation ever conducted by a state against its own citizens…. Hundreds of thousands and finally millions of peasants…were deported… desperate revolts in the villages were bloodily suppressed by the army and police, and the country sank into chaos, starvation and misery… The object of destroying the peasants’ independence…was to create a population of slaves, the benefit of whose labour would accrue to industry. The immediate effect was to reduce Soviet agriculture to a state of decline from which it has not yet recovered… The destruction of the Soviet peasantry, who formed three quarters of the population, was not only an economic but a moral disaster for the entire country. Tens of millions were driven into semi-servitude, and millions more were employed as executants…” (Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism).
Why did Stalin destroy the peasants? Lenin’s wishful “alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry” in reality could lead only to the peasants being pauperised into proletarians. At least five million peasants died and (Stalin told Churchill at Yalta) another ten million in the resultant famine of 1932-1933. “Certainly it involved a struggle ~ but chiefly one between urban Communists and villagers… it enabled the regime to obtain much of the capital desired for industrialization from the defeated village… it was the decisive step in the building of Soviet totalitarianism, for it imposed on the majority of the people a subjection which only force could maintain” (Treadgold, 20th Century Russia).
Mr Bhattacharjee’s CPI-M is fond of extolling Chinese communism, and the current New Delhi establishment have made Beijing and Shanghai holiday destinations of choice. Dr Singh’s Government has been eager to create hundreds of “Special Economic Zones” run by organised capital and unionised labour, and economically privileged by the State. In fact, the Singur and Nandigram experiences of police sealing off villages where protests occur are modelled on creation of “Special Economic Zones” in China in recent years. For example, Chinese police on 6 December 2005 cracked down on farmers and fishermen in the seaside village of Dongzhou, 125 miles North East of Hong Kong. Thousands of Dongzhou villagers clashed with troops and armed police protesting confiscation of their lands and corruption among officials. The police immediately sealed off the village and arrested protesters. China’s Public Security Ministry admitted the number of riots over land had risen sharply, reaching more than seventy thousand across China in 2004; police usually suppressed peasant riots without resort to firing but in Dongzhou, police firing killed 20 protesters. Such is the reality of the “emergence” of China, a totalitarian police-state since the Communist takeover in 1949, from its period of mad tyranny until Mao’s death in 1976, followed by its ideological confusion ever since.
Modern India’s political economy today remains in the tight grip of metropolitan “Big Business” and “Big Labour”. Ordinary anonymous individual citizens ~ whether housewife, consumer, student, peasant, non-union worker or small businessman ~ have no real voice or representation in Indian politics. We have no normal conservative, liberal or social democratic party in this country, as found in West European democracies where the era of land-grabbing has long-ceased. If our polity had been normal, it would have known that economic development does not require business or government to pauperise the peasantry but instead to define and secure individual property rights and the Rule of Law, and establish proper conditions for the market economy. The Congress and BJP in Delhi and CPI-M in Kolkata would not have been able to distract attention from their macroeconomic misdeeds over the decades ~ indicated, for example, by increasing interest-expenditure paid annually on Government debt as a fraction of tax revenues (see Table).
This macroeconomic rot originated with the Indira Gandhi-PN Haksar capriciousness and mismanagement, which coincided with the start of Dr Singh’s career as India’s best known economic bureaucrat.
The author is Contributing Editor, The Statesman.
I am relieved.
Because as it turned out, this experimental data I was analyzing had been giving me nightmares this last week. I was rather apprehensive that the data was ratty. Turns out that the issue was human error. The human in question being, of course, yours truly. Yes, I was quite spectacularly stupid. But that is easier to correct than ratty data.
Calculations
I am notoriously lazy. So lazy, in fact that I had not computed my share of the expenses of a couple of roadtrips .. a semester ago! Anyway, I finally got that out of the way yesterday and it that has been a good thing. One might think that I have overdosed on Procastin X.
Friday, February 02, 2007
And while on the theme of Harry Potter
I would like to recommend a particular work of fanfiction to you. In case, you are a complete neophyte and have no idea what fanfiction is... here is a definition from Wikipedia:
Fan fiction (also commonly spelled as fanfiction and frequently abbreviated to fanfic or occasionally just fic) is a broadly-defined term for fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators. Fan fiction usually describes works which are uncommissioned by the owner of the work, and usually (but not always) works which are not professionally published. Fan fiction is defined against original fiction, which exists with its own discrete universe, and against canon works within the universe. Most fan fiction writers assume that their readers have knowledge of the canon universe in which their works are based .
So I am taking the liberty to divide fanfic into certain categories... this is my definition and my interpretation.. you are free to agree, but of course, you are wrong, and I am right (on this blog at the very least.):
1. Plot extension: same characters, same story, extending the tale. Very much seen in ongoing works.. where it assumes a speculative air about what the next genuine volume will contain... such as in the HP series.
2. Alternate Universe: quite obvious. Same characters, but plot development follows quite different lines. Subcategories may include crossover genres where two major works of fiction may be combined.. in some hilarious cases, HP and LOTR.
3. Prequel: sometimes written so as to be self consistent with the bona fide literature, while talking about events leading up to the actual story. May sometimes consist of the histories of specific people who may/may not be central to the bona fide story.
The story that I am about to recommend is by the Wolfie Twins, and is called the Call of the Wild. It is available here. Do read it. It is somewhat long, but the writing is quite good and is rather erudite. There is much to discover and very little that is trivial. It is a must read for lycanophiles. Does that pique your interest? It should. Remus Lupin fans, attention! Read!
Ok, so this particular work deals with Lupin and what made him the man, or rather werewolf he is.
Fan fiction (also commonly spelled as fanfiction and frequently abbreviated to fanfic or occasionally just fic) is a broadly-defined term for fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators. Fan fiction usually describes works which are uncommissioned by the owner of the work, and usually (but not always) works which are not professionally published. Fan fiction is defined against original fiction, which exists with its own discrete universe, and against canon works within the universe. Most fan fiction writers assume that their readers have knowledge of the canon universe in which their works are based .
So I am taking the liberty to divide fanfic into certain categories... this is my definition and my interpretation.. you are free to agree, but of course, you are wrong, and I am right (on this blog at the very least.):
1. Plot extension: same characters, same story, extending the tale. Very much seen in ongoing works.. where it assumes a speculative air about what the next genuine volume will contain... such as in the HP series.
2. Alternate Universe: quite obvious. Same characters, but plot development follows quite different lines. Subcategories may include crossover genres where two major works of fiction may be combined.. in some hilarious cases, HP and LOTR.
3. Prequel: sometimes written so as to be self consistent with the bona fide literature, while talking about events leading up to the actual story. May sometimes consist of the histories of specific people who may/may not be central to the bona fide story.
The story that I am about to recommend is by the Wolfie Twins, and is called the Call of the Wild. It is available here. Do read it. It is somewhat long, but the writing is quite good and is rather erudite. There is much to discover and very little that is trivial. It is a must read for lycanophiles. Does that pique your interest? It should. Remus Lupin fans, attention! Read!
Ok, so this particular work deals with Lupin and what made him the man, or rather werewolf he is.
Alternate Harry Potter titles
Alternate Titles:
Harry Potter and the Pasta Disaster
Harry Potter and the Unmentionable Itch
Harry Potter and the Eating Disorder
Harry Potter and the PTA
Harry Potter and the Broken DVD
Harry Potter and the Friday Night Incident
Harry Potter and the Killers of Kathmandu
Harry Potter and the Jailbirds
Harry Potter and the Graduate Student
...
the list will continue... contributions are also welcome...
Harry Potter and the Pasta Disaster
Harry Potter and the Unmentionable Itch
Harry Potter and the Eating Disorder
Harry Potter and the PTA
Harry Potter and the Broken DVD
Harry Potter and the Friday Night Incident
Harry Potter and the Killers of Kathmandu
Harry Potter and the Jailbirds
Harry Potter and the Graduate Student
...
the list will continue... contributions are also welcome...
Pratul and Baborer Prarthona.
I was in Chicago last week and Sutirtha-da got me to listen to 'Baborer Prarthona' sung by Pratul Mukhopadhyay (of 'Aami Banglaye Gaan Gai' fame). This song is available here. Listen to it. A few minutes on the net also got me this poetry page. Check out.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Ever had the feeling that
you were in an argument in which the other person was such a buffoon that he/she/it could simply not get what you were trying to say? (If the reader is a woman who is in a relationship, then don't bother replying, of course you have!)... well.. this is exactly the kind of situation where you need a Point of View Gun. Click Here to read on.
For Olympus Users
Here is a nice resource for Olympus E System users.
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/
Here is a thought to ponder upon.. Olympus E System compatible Zuiko lenses use a fly-by-wire approach to manual focus: when you twist the manual focus ring, it drives the focus motor which moves lens elements. Is this better or worse than Sigma type lens manual focus rings which mechanically move lens elements?
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/
Here is a thought to ponder upon.. Olympus E System compatible Zuiko lenses use a fly-by-wire approach to manual focus: when you twist the manual focus ring, it drives the focus motor which moves lens elements. Is this better or worse than Sigma type lens manual focus rings which mechanically move lens elements?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Ann Arbor on Orkut
This community on Orkut has, at the moment of writing 972 members and is described as "Lovely college town in warm & sunny Michigan. Somewhat influenced by the local university."
The current temperature, according to weather.com is 3 degrees F. In Celsisus that is (3-32)*5/9=-16 degrees. Minus sixteen degrees. Warm and sunny; my left foot!!
Also, about somewhat influenced by the local university. I quote from Wikipedia here.. 'with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000 census, of which 36,892 (32%) are college or graduate students.' Yes, somewhat influenced by the local university, where every third person is a student at the aforementioned local university.. is something of an understatement. Anyway, I have to go now.
The current temperature, according to weather.com is 3 degrees F. In Celsisus that is (3-32)*5/9=-16 degrees. Minus sixteen degrees. Warm and sunny; my left foot!!
Also, about somewhat influenced by the local university. I quote from Wikipedia here.. 'with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000 census, of which 36,892 (32%) are college or graduate students.' Yes, somewhat influenced by the local university, where every third person is a student at the aforementioned local university.. is something of an understatement. Anyway, I have to go now.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Secret Crush
Confession time people! I have had a soft crush on Tajel for a while now. Who is Tajel? Here is the answer from Wikipedia ...
- Tajel – Cecilia's roommate, Tajel, is an anthropologist and the lone social scientist in the main cast. This implies that Tajel is also the only one who has ever gotten to leave the school (or even the laboratory basement) for any academic reason. She is a dedicated activist who frequently attends or organizes rallies. Her frustration with U.S. politics is exacerbated by her not being a United States citizen.
We are, of course talking about PhD Comics, and while you might tell me that having a crush on a cartoon character is ridiculous, what about all those people who have crushes on film stars, pop stars, and so on. And I am not even talking about all those people who have crushes on Ceclia.
Anyway, this post appeared because I was tickled to see that Tajel uses a Macbook, as do I.
T3
I was watching Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines last night. Well, not really watching, more like glancing over while cooking. I remember this priceless scene when Arnie, playing the friendly Terminator is reprogrammed by the evil TX and then tried to the kill John Connor, the "hero". Connor tries to reason with him, and reminds him of his directive that he is to 'never kill humans'. Arnie manages (if that were possible) to look even more puzzled.. with corrugated forehead and all. He finally behaves like something halfway between a crashing Windows machine and a regular garden variety maniac. He proceeds to smash the bonnet of a pickup truck to smithereens and then his software hangs. Yes, definitely Evil Empire source code.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Fake gurus.
I like the box very much, thank you.
Every time I see/hear the slogan ‘thinking outside the box’, I am tempted to some act of wanton violence. I have here a link which leads to an allusion to what thinking outside the box might be all about. As it turns out, this concept implies the availability of resources outside the proverbial box. It implies reaching in ‘space’ outside the box, and not in thought. Hence, my dear friend you are forever trapped inside the box. But think of it this way, the box is quite a nice place to be.
Ground realities: by and large, the method of logical reductionism WORKS. This is why it happens to be the cornerstone of Occidental philosophy and science. The method of science known to every young student has everything to do with method and order. To begin with, we draw a ‘free body diagram’. This is a picture of the system in which we try to mark out each and every force acting on the object of interest. Once that is done., we proceed to find their total effect on the body. Epiphanies do not happen, for the most part. Every neophyte knows that method and diligence are what moves the world, not flashes of intuition. In other words, there are no shortcuts. You have to come up the ladder, you have to pay your dues to the Gods and Goddesses of your particular discipline.
This is not a policy favoured by gurus. Guru means ‘teacher’. The ancient Hindu word from which the current American word derives (not English, American) carries with the reverence which India and Indians have long accorded masters. There is another equivalent word, ‘Acharya’. Both words mean a whole lot more than just teacher. They are used for persons who have proved beyond doubt that they are extraordinarily competent in their chosen fields and ability of such magnitude is always deserving of the greatest respect. Hence, for most Indians (except for those sniveling brown nosing MTV loving bastards I see every so often), a teacher is a person to be venerated right after parents. The American meaning of ‘guru’ is an abomination, a perversion. Here, a guru is a charlatan, a trickster who flogs snake oil to the gullible. From time to time,, such guru’s hire smart marketing agents and then wear Armani’s and fly in private jets. These are the worst offenders of them all.
Edward de Bono invented lateral thinking. If you feel that your soul can withstand the shameless self adulation in his ‘authorized website’, please have a look here and here. This person comes up ‘messages’ to his followers. These messages are more self adulation and by and large little advertisements for his new books. If you are an eager middle management type, then you have probably read his books, trying to improve your lot. I seriously doubt that any improvement will come that way. It is probably a better idea to spend more time observing your most efficient competitor and taking notes.
Ok, so what is lateral thinking again? Apparently, it is the ability to stop thinking along the straight and narrow and make a jump over uncertainty and arrive at the right conclusions. De Bono invented it, they say. Now I have a word for the skill just described. It is ‘intuition’. So de Bono invented it, right. Which is much the same as saying that he invented …. Breathing? To be honest, I am not against the idea of lateral thinking. It solves problems! But it is not a substitute for the straight and narrow approach. It is an addition.. it is great when it is available.. but we should (and do) make do without it. The very idea that reading a book of ‘powerful mind techniques’ is a substitute for training and education is absurd. If that were so, then we would have Einstein’s in every household. But that is not so.
Bottom line: don’t fall for marketing nonsense. Think. But don’t let people tell you how to.
Every time I see/hear the slogan ‘thinking outside the box’, I am tempted to some act of wanton violence. I have here a link which leads to an allusion to what thinking outside the box might be all about. As it turns out, this concept implies the availability of resources outside the proverbial box. It implies reaching in ‘space’ outside the box, and not in thought. Hence, my dear friend you are forever trapped inside the box. But think of it this way, the box is quite a nice place to be.
Ground realities: by and large, the method of logical reductionism WORKS. This is why it happens to be the cornerstone of Occidental philosophy and science. The method of science known to every young student has everything to do with method and order. To begin with, we draw a ‘free body diagram’. This is a picture of the system in which we try to mark out each and every force acting on the object of interest. Once that is done., we proceed to find their total effect on the body. Epiphanies do not happen, for the most part. Every neophyte knows that method and diligence are what moves the world, not flashes of intuition. In other words, there are no shortcuts. You have to come up the ladder, you have to pay your dues to the Gods and Goddesses of your particular discipline.
This is not a policy favoured by gurus. Guru means ‘teacher’. The ancient Hindu word from which the current American word derives (not English, American) carries with the reverence which India and Indians have long accorded masters. There is another equivalent word, ‘Acharya’. Both words mean a whole lot more than just teacher. They are used for persons who have proved beyond doubt that they are extraordinarily competent in their chosen fields and ability of such magnitude is always deserving of the greatest respect. Hence, for most Indians (except for those sniveling brown nosing MTV loving bastards I see every so often), a teacher is a person to be venerated right after parents. The American meaning of ‘guru’ is an abomination, a perversion. Here, a guru is a charlatan, a trickster who flogs snake oil to the gullible. From time to time,, such guru’s hire smart marketing agents and then wear Armani’s and fly in private jets. These are the worst offenders of them all.
Edward de Bono invented lateral thinking. If you feel that your soul can withstand the shameless self adulation in his ‘authorized website’, please have a look here and here. This person comes up ‘messages’ to his followers. These messages are more self adulation and by and large little advertisements for his new books. If you are an eager middle management type, then you have probably read his books, trying to improve your lot. I seriously doubt that any improvement will come that way. It is probably a better idea to spend more time observing your most efficient competitor and taking notes.
Ok, so what is lateral thinking again? Apparently, it is the ability to stop thinking along the straight and narrow and make a jump over uncertainty and arrive at the right conclusions. De Bono invented it, they say. Now I have a word for the skill just described. It is ‘intuition’. So de Bono invented it, right. Which is much the same as saying that he invented …. Breathing? To be honest, I am not against the idea of lateral thinking. It solves problems! But it is not a substitute for the straight and narrow approach. It is an addition.. it is great when it is available.. but we should (and do) make do without it. The very idea that reading a book of ‘powerful mind techniques’ is a substitute for training and education is absurd. If that were so, then we would have Einstein’s in every household. But that is not so.
Bottom line: don’t fall for marketing nonsense. Think. But don’t let people tell you how to.
More bad physics.
People at the University of Calcutta, and its affiliated institutions, such as the venerated Presidency College (which is where the world began its so far unsuccessful attempts to teach my physics) sometimes mispronounce the Greek letter 'psi' as 'shy'. Just a matter of not pronouncing the sibilant correctly. But it so happens that if you are talking about the Schrodinger Wave Equation, and you happen to say 'del shy, del t', people will know for sure that you are from the University of Calcutta. Now that is not a bad thing, but I did get into an argument with one of our professors at the Institute where he kept saying 'doe psi, doe t', and I kept saying 'del shy, del t'. As it happens this professor (a person whom I regard with the greatest admiration) was right with the 'psi', and was dead wrong with the 'doe'.
Anyway, it is a matter of opinion, and my opinion is that 'shy', while carrying a nice touch of ethnicity.. as in if someone used that in a seminar and has a last name like Mukherjee or Ganguly or Das, I would go up to him afterward and chat.. is still wrong. It is 'psi'. P silent.
Now we come to 'doe'. The partial derivative (I am sorry that I do not have a symbol generator here to show it to you) is represented by the lowercase Greek delta. It can be referred to as 'delta' or 'del'. Not 'doe.' A doe is a female deer. As in...
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, I drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do...oh oh oh
Any more mispronunciations will be dealt with with utmost strictness.
Anyway, it is a matter of opinion, and my opinion is that 'shy', while carrying a nice touch of ethnicity.. as in if someone used that in a seminar and has a last name like Mukherjee or Ganguly or Das, I would go up to him afterward and chat.. is still wrong. It is 'psi'. P silent.
Now we come to 'doe'. The partial derivative (I am sorry that I do not have a symbol generator here to show it to you) is represented by the lowercase Greek delta. It can be referred to as 'delta' or 'del'. Not 'doe.' A doe is a female deer. As in...
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, I drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do...oh oh oh
Any more mispronunciations will be dealt with with utmost strictness.
Poker
My friend Pradeep is a very enthusiastic (and also a VERY good) poker player. He is trying to bring me up to speed. The thing is that, I am, by nature, a cautious coward. So, is No Limit Hold 'em really the game for me?
Hollywood Physics
I came across this site that takes down movies which have depressingly bad physics.. which is to say, pretty much any action/adventure/thriller movie made in Hollywood. With the possible exception of Meg Ryan romantic comedies, this might extend to all movies. End of story. Here is the site. Check out.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Although I am not a Brit
and I have never played Rugby .. (to be completely honest, I suck at ALL sports.. something that makes me put my accumulated strengths into other fields... such as being an unmitigated arsehole from time to time, intimidating the hell of people for the heck of it, being a sarcastic, prick) but we deviate from the point. For reasons which I will not share with you, lowly reader, I feel compelled to add here, a link to Rugby Songs. Be warned, they are rather bawdy.
Don't watch KungFu Hustle
It is a contender for the title of worst movie of all time. I spent an hour or so watching it and the only reason I am spending two minutes writing this blog is because if you come across it, you will hopefully not see it and that will be my contribution to world peace for this week.
Do not see it if you love your neurons.
My friend sat around telling me that it is a cult movie. I suggested replacing the 'l' with an 'n'. He is full of shit.
Do not see it if you love your neurons.
My friend sat around telling me that it is a cult movie. I suggested replacing the 'l' with an 'n'. He is full of shit.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Anand
The last lines from Anand were 'Anand mara nahin, Anand marte nahin'. Loosely translated, this comes to 'Anand did not die, the Anands (of this world) cannot die.'
What am I talking about now? Anand was a film starring Rajesh Khanna as Anand, a terminally ill, yet irrepressible bloke who has come to live with Bhaskar, a doctor, a role played to perfection by Amitabh Bachhan. Indeed, it is very difficult to imagine a situation in which Amitabh does not walk away with the audience in the palm of his hand. This is one of those rare films in which we see a very restrained side of Amitabh, who acts as the perfect foil to Rajesh Khanna's wholly over the top performance. But, there is no way that Anand could be anything but over the top. Faced with certain and inevitable death, Anand lives the only way he could.. and in his last days teaches Bhaskar and everyone around what it really means to be alive. There are few Hollywood which can touch the feel good factor of any Hrishikesh Mukherjee film. Anand is in a class totally by itself. See it to understand what I am talking about. For now, I am just going to attach the lyrics of Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye.
What am I talking about now? Anand was a film starring Rajesh Khanna as Anand, a terminally ill, yet irrepressible bloke who has come to live with Bhaskar, a doctor, a role played to perfection by Amitabh Bachhan. Indeed, it is very difficult to imagine a situation in which Amitabh does not walk away with the audience in the palm of his hand. This is one of those rare films in which we see a very restrained side of Amitabh, who acts as the perfect foil to Rajesh Khanna's wholly over the top performance. But, there is no way that Anand could be anything but over the top. Faced with certain and inevitable death, Anand lives the only way he could.. and in his last days teaches Bhaskar and everyone around what it really means to be alive. There are few Hollywood which can touch the feel good factor of any Hrishikesh Mukherjee film. Anand is in a class totally by itself. See it to understand what I am talking about. For now, I am just going to attach the lyrics of Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
happy new year world
and may it do everyone a lot of good. a small amount of sarcasm here.
there are two kinds of people, they say.. the first kind walks into a room and says 'there you are!', and the second kind says 'here i am!'. i guess i belong to the third kind which walks into the room, groans loudly and collapses into the nearest chair.
for what it is worth (nothing), i am back from a brief trip over christmas week and new year to boston and new york. tired, both inside and out and back to work and studies. there are some good things to look forward to this semester.. a dynamics course with a very physics bent... something i have been wanting for a while.. and of course, the graduate school candidacy.. which means an independant proposal. hence, no time for laziness and self pity and all those beautiful flaws which make me such an interesting person.
if you feel so inclined, do visit my photographs page on flickr.. no login is required, unless, of course you find yourself galvanized into action and actually want to comment on my efforts. here are the links.
Boston Photographs.
New York by night.
New York by day.
there are two kinds of people, they say.. the first kind walks into a room and says 'there you are!', and the second kind says 'here i am!'. i guess i belong to the third kind which walks into the room, groans loudly and collapses into the nearest chair.
for what it is worth (nothing), i am back from a brief trip over christmas week and new year to boston and new york. tired, both inside and out and back to work and studies. there are some good things to look forward to this semester.. a dynamics course with a very physics bent... something i have been wanting for a while.. and of course, the graduate school candidacy.. which means an independant proposal. hence, no time for laziness and self pity and all those beautiful flaws which make me such an interesting person.
if you feel so inclined, do visit my photographs page on flickr.. no login is required, unless, of course you find yourself galvanized into action and actually want to comment on my efforts. here are the links.
Boston Photographs.
New York by night.
New York by day.
Friday, January 05, 2007
The works of Julian May and Celtic Mythology.
I was not aware of this until recently, but the work of Julian May (The Plieocene Saga) mirrors and borrows quite a bit from Celtic/Irish mythology.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Stop the world!!!
Stop the world, I wanna get on!!
This absolutely lovely line is from Mel Brook's 'The Producers', which is a madcap ride on the amazing talents of Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick. Ever get the feeling that this is exactly what you want to say? I was recently in NYC and Boston, and had a very good time thank you Akash, Smita, Praveen, Jayanta, Aswin, Yashveer, Minu, Toto, Biplab, Debashree, Shrestha, Susmita, Dhritiman, Tulasi, Dinesh and Soumita.
This absolutely lovely line is from Mel Brook's 'The Producers', which is a madcap ride on the amazing talents of Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick. Ever get the feeling that this is exactly what you want to say? I was recently in NYC and Boston, and had a very good time thank you Akash, Smita, Praveen, Jayanta, Aswin, Yashveer, Minu, Toto, Biplab, Debashree, Shrestha, Susmita, Dhritiman, Tulasi, Dinesh and Soumita.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
NY in NY
I am at Praveen-bhaiya's place. 'Bhaiya' is a respectful honorific suffix attached to the name of an older bloke. It literally means 'elder brother'. He lives in NY city which is where I will be spending new year. But I will not be in Times Square.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
I thought I was going to write a review for Rocky
Not the beyond shitty Sanjay Dutt film, but the beyond praise Stallone film. But then I went on IMDB and found that someone has already said everything that I would have said about it.. so I am actually going to copy here the entire text and credit it to "MovieAddict2006".
"Rocky" is about a man. It is the story of a man who exceeds past all normal expectations and makes the most out of what he is doing. What is he doing? Boxing. Why? As Rocky says in the film, "You have to be a moron to want to box."
Rocky is played by Sylvester Stallone, whose only other film before "Rocky" was "Weekend at Kitty and Stud's," and, as you can probably guess by the title, it was an X-rated movie. But Stallone gives just about the best performance of his career here. Before he started getting into recycled action movies and unfunny comedies, the man had talent, as seen shining through in "Rocky." Somewhere along the way he lost that talent, but it's pretty evident that he had it at one time.
Stallone wrote the script, which is about a down-on-his-luck Philadelphia man named Rocky Balboa. Rocky is your average tough-guy you see walking down the street, but this film takes a closer look INTO the guy walking past you, and not AT the guy walking past you.
He lives in a beat-up, old apartment, infested with roaches, and he barely makes enough money to support himself. His job? Rocky retrieves money for loan sharks. His real job, however, is to break the loaners' thumbs if they don't pay up. He's a muscle man.
After he returns from his "job" every day, he takes time to do what he has been doing for the past six years, which is boxing. Then, after that, he takes a trip to the local pet store to see the love of his life, Adrian, who works there. He constantly tries to impress her and talk to her, but she is shy and literally does not talk much throughout the entire film.
But things change for Rocky after heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) decides that he wants to make a big performance on the 4th of July. He wants to appear nice by letting a regular Joe Schmoe fight him in the ring. All for show, of course. As he is looking through a book of local boxers, he points his finger at the letters THE Italian STALLION, a.k.a. Rocky. He says that fighting an Italian is perfect. "An Italian found America," Creed says. If he fights an Italian-American on the 4th of July, it will be symbolic and will also make Creed look good.
But Rocky doesn't realize this is all for show. When he receives word that Apollo Creed wishes to fight him in the ring, Rocky begins to train long and hard with Burgess Meredith, which results in the famous scene where Rocky runs up an entry of stairs in Philly with the music "Gonna Fly Now" playing in the background. This scene is spoofed by films world-wide, and it's one of the cornerstones in film history. You will see it all the time. It's just one of those film moments that are marked down in history.
The most entertaining thing about "Rocky" is how innocent Sylvester Stallone comes across in his role as Rocky. You feel for him when he is trying to impress Adrian and she shrugs him off. The scene where her brother invites Rocky over, and Rocky keeps saying, "Are you sure she knows I'm coming?" is a sign of how the guy has been put down. And then when she comes over to his apartment, he acts nice and talks to her. He's not trying any moves on her. He just enjoys being with her. Rocky is a bit of an idiot, as he himself admits, but he's a sweet idiot.
And the end, when Rocky fights Apollo Creed, is amazing. A nobody who actually stands a chance against the heavyweight champion of the world. Creed and Rocky are being battered by each other. Creed goes into the opposite corner as Rocky, and one of Creed's managers says, "This guy thinks this thing is for real -- knock him out!" You feel sorry for Rocky there, because he is giving the fight all he's got, when it was just a publicity stunt from the beginning, but he didn't even realize it.
Things like that are what make "Rocky" what it has become over the years. It is a great film, and it has many classic moments that you will see spoofed in films all the time. You should probably see it just for that fact.
But the truth is, if you take away all the underlying intricacies, "Rocky" is just the story of a simple guy who gets a chance to do something amazing, and he gives it all he's got. I think we've all gone through something like that before, and if so, you will be able to identify with "Rocky" all the more.
"Rocky" is about a man. It is the story of a man who exceeds past all normal expectations and makes the most out of what he is doing. What is he doing? Boxing. Why? As Rocky says in the film, "You have to be a moron to want to box."
Rocky is played by Sylvester Stallone, whose only other film before "Rocky" was "Weekend at Kitty and Stud's," and, as you can probably guess by the title, it was an X-rated movie. But Stallone gives just about the best performance of his career here. Before he started getting into recycled action movies and unfunny comedies, the man had talent, as seen shining through in "Rocky." Somewhere along the way he lost that talent, but it's pretty evident that he had it at one time.
Stallone wrote the script, which is about a down-on-his-luck Philadelphia man named Rocky Balboa. Rocky is your average tough-guy you see walking down the street, but this film takes a closer look INTO the guy walking past you, and not AT the guy walking past you.
He lives in a beat-up, old apartment, infested with roaches, and he barely makes enough money to support himself. His job? Rocky retrieves money for loan sharks. His real job, however, is to break the loaners' thumbs if they don't pay up. He's a muscle man.
After he returns from his "job" every day, he takes time to do what he has been doing for the past six years, which is boxing. Then, after that, he takes a trip to the local pet store to see the love of his life, Adrian, who works there. He constantly tries to impress her and talk to her, but she is shy and literally does not talk much throughout the entire film.
But things change for Rocky after heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) decides that he wants to make a big performance on the 4th of July. He wants to appear nice by letting a regular Joe Schmoe fight him in the ring. All for show, of course. As he is looking through a book of local boxers, he points his finger at the letters THE Italian STALLION, a.k.a. Rocky. He says that fighting an Italian is perfect. "An Italian found America," Creed says. If he fights an Italian-American on the 4th of July, it will be symbolic and will also make Creed look good.
But Rocky doesn't realize this is all for show. When he receives word that Apollo Creed wishes to fight him in the ring, Rocky begins to train long and hard with Burgess Meredith, which results in the famous scene where Rocky runs up an entry of stairs in Philly with the music "Gonna Fly Now" playing in the background. This scene is spoofed by films world-wide, and it's one of the cornerstones in film history. You will see it all the time. It's just one of those film moments that are marked down in history.
The most entertaining thing about "Rocky" is how innocent Sylvester Stallone comes across in his role as Rocky. You feel for him when he is trying to impress Adrian and she shrugs him off. The scene where her brother invites Rocky over, and Rocky keeps saying, "Are you sure she knows I'm coming?" is a sign of how the guy has been put down. And then when she comes over to his apartment, he acts nice and talks to her. He's not trying any moves on her. He just enjoys being with her. Rocky is a bit of an idiot, as he himself admits, but he's a sweet idiot.
And the end, when Rocky fights Apollo Creed, is amazing. A nobody who actually stands a chance against the heavyweight champion of the world. Creed and Rocky are being battered by each other. Creed goes into the opposite corner as Rocky, and one of Creed's managers says, "This guy thinks this thing is for real -- knock him out!" You feel sorry for Rocky there, because he is giving the fight all he's got, when it was just a publicity stunt from the beginning, but he didn't even realize it.
Things like that are what make "Rocky" what it has become over the years. It is a great film, and it has many classic moments that you will see spoofed in films all the time. You should probably see it just for that fact.
But the truth is, if you take away all the underlying intricacies, "Rocky" is just the story of a simple guy who gets a chance to do something amazing, and he gives it all he's got. I think we've all gone through something like that before, and if so, you will be able to identify with "Rocky" all the more.
Dhoom, Maeri, etc.
Maeri. A song by the Indipop group Euphoria. Euphoria sounds some monotonous if you listen to a lot of at one go. But then, they have some absolute gems. One of them is Maeri. This song is filmed beautifully, starting with the band waiting for a train at a generic North Indian station.. complete with a fakir singing with a do-tara (a two stringed instrument). Euphoria is an extremely urban group, but they manage to carry an air of beautiful rusticity and do it so well!
Their other beautiful song is their very first one: Dhoom. Dhoom was filmed in Benares (one of the holy cities of North India). One of the fondest memories of being a Rhythmica hanger-on (I avoid the word groupie for obvious reasons… and to explain things here.. Rhythmica was the music group of the Institute.. and I only actually associated with them when they pitched in for Spandan events.. and Spandan was the Bengali cultural organization on campus.. and they had a drama group which had overlaps with Dramatiis, the Institute theatre organization.. in fact, they were Dramatiis, to a sufficiently good approximation.. ok this is getting complicated).. yes one of my fondest memories was sitting through Pradyut-da and Emtiyaz singing Dhoom at the SAC music room. Pradyut has one of the most amazing and powerful voices I have ever heard. Emtiyaz is technique and style in equal proportions. If these guys were not champs in engineering, they could have just as well earned a living as performers. Anyway, that seems like a lifetime ago, except , of course, that I was just listening to Dhoom online.
Their other beautiful song is their very first one: Dhoom. Dhoom was filmed in Benares (one of the holy cities of North India). One of the fondest memories of being a Rhythmica hanger-on (I avoid the word groupie for obvious reasons… and to explain things here.. Rhythmica was the music group of the Institute.. and I only actually associated with them when they pitched in for Spandan events.. and Spandan was the Bengali cultural organization on campus.. and they had a drama group which had overlaps with Dramatiis, the Institute theatre organization.. in fact, they were Dramatiis, to a sufficiently good approximation.. ok this is getting complicated).. yes one of my fondest memories was sitting through Pradyut-da and Emtiyaz singing Dhoom at the SAC music room. Pradyut has one of the most amazing and powerful voices I have ever heard. Emtiyaz is technique and style in equal proportions. If these guys were not champs in engineering, they could have just as well earned a living as performers. Anyway, that seems like a lifetime ago, except , of course, that I was just listening to Dhoom online.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Canada Roadtrip, Oct 2006 - II
The first installment of this travelogue was posted aeons ago.. here is the link.
Pretty close to the border now. We decided to stop for breakfast. There was this little restaurant near the bridge where we decided to break. Both cars pulled in, and we were off to a flying start with fresh coffee and random foods. Whilst engrossed in conversation, I did not notice Young Karthik tearing, or rather shredding his sugar sachet into tiny pieces. Which he then proceeded to reach out and drop into my cup of coffee. Which was, at that time, half full. Now there are many and really many bad things that have happened to me these last 25 years. But why someone would decide to ruin my morning coffee was quite inexplicable to me. As is usually the case when something like this happens, I began fuming. And then ranted for a while. Well, renting is better than bottling such feelings of injustice inside and one day snapping and then doing truly awful things, right?
Anyway, so we kept going, after another cup of coffee, when the waitress asked me to hold out my cup and I said that I will be needing another cup.
Crossing the Lake to Canada was quite a sight… it is very, very pretty up there. And then we were at the border post.. where the bloke waved us on with a cursory inspection (it helps if you are traveling with white people). We were in Canada.
I don’t know how much of it was psychological, but Canada did appear to have clearer blue skies than the US. And of course everyone is metric here, so C had a bit of fun changing her digital speedometer over to kmph. And EVERYONE speeds. Canadian drivers are really aggressive on the highway. It scared us all for a bit, but then, when in Rome..
Then there was this brief ruckus when the Louvvmobile slid up right alongside (at 100 kmph) and Young Krishnan started making wierdarse hand gestures. To which, we had to reply by flicking him, of course. It was only much later that we understood that he wanted to pull into a gas station to attend to nature’s call. Well, so much for sign language.. when the implicit reasoning is that there has to be some vulgarity involved….
There were all these huge trucks rattling along the road.. dump trucks… then we figured that they were returning from the US after dumping garbage. Yes, Canada dumps its trash in the US, specifically in Michigan.
Resources on the trash dumping controversy:
http://mcsrt.org/resources/trash/index.htm
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168--89408--,00.html
Pretty close to the border now. We decided to stop for breakfast. There was this little restaurant near the bridge where we decided to break. Both cars pulled in, and we were off to a flying start with fresh coffee and random foods. Whilst engrossed in conversation, I did not notice Young Karthik tearing, or rather shredding his sugar sachet into tiny pieces. Which he then proceeded to reach out and drop into my cup of coffee. Which was, at that time, half full. Now there are many and really many bad things that have happened to me these last 25 years. But why someone would decide to ruin my morning coffee was quite inexplicable to me. As is usually the case when something like this happens, I began fuming. And then ranted for a while. Well, renting is better than bottling such feelings of injustice inside and one day snapping and then doing truly awful things, right?
Anyway, so we kept going, after another cup of coffee, when the waitress asked me to hold out my cup and I said that I will be needing another cup.
Crossing the Lake to Canada was quite a sight… it is very, very pretty up there. And then we were at the border post.. where the bloke waved us on with a cursory inspection (it helps if you are traveling with white people). We were in Canada.
I don’t know how much of it was psychological, but Canada did appear to have clearer blue skies than the US. And of course everyone is metric here, so C had a bit of fun changing her digital speedometer over to kmph. And EVERYONE speeds. Canadian drivers are really aggressive on the highway. It scared us all for a bit, but then, when in Rome..
Then there was this brief ruckus when the Louvvmobile slid up right alongside (at 100 kmph) and Young Krishnan started making wierdarse hand gestures. To which, we had to reply by flicking him, of course. It was only much later that we understood that he wanted to pull into a gas station to attend to nature’s call. Well, so much for sign language.. when the implicit reasoning is that there has to be some vulgarity involved….
There were all these huge trucks rattling along the road.. dump trucks… then we figured that they were returning from the US after dumping garbage. Yes, Canada dumps its trash in the US, specifically in Michigan.
Resources on the trash dumping controversy:
http://mcsrt.org/resources/trash/index.htm
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168--89408--,00.html
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
India in the Pakistani consciousness.
Ask any ordinary Indian what he thinks about Pakistan and he will probably say something to the effect of 'stupid country with good scientists: they have nukes, but they cannot seem to live with democracy'. Each time our Prime Minister takes the peace flag to Pakistan, most Indians shake their heads with pity at the foolishness of politicians and say, 'do you not remember 1965? or 1971? Or 1999? The only message those people understand; is the type sent from the barrel of a 155 mm Bofors field howitzer.'
But then, think about this: being an Indian is not just a matter of idle pride. A Sri Lankan friend of me told me that being right next door to India is a pain, because amongst other things, importing Bollywood movies has killed the local film industry. Consider this in the larger context of being next door to this huge guy who sits around all day watching TV. I mean, this big guy has a messed up dirty house, but on the 15th of August he puts up some pretty nice lights. Everyone says that he has an aunt they all dislike who lives in that little room above tha garage and they all avoid her. Sure, but didn't they recently see her at a family gathering.. sure she looked a little under the weather, but she was smiling. And although we laugh at this big guy and do mean things to him like steal apples from his tree and sometimes hide his mail and other petty shite, deep down we know that he has a bloody huge stick and we have seen him use it in the past.
Yes, being India's neighbour means that you live under the fear of losing your cultural indentity to this huge behemoth. We can understand that. So, to all Indians, stand up and be proud. I suppose the biggest strength of the Indian polity is that we have bigger fish to fry than destroying Pakistan. Take for example early Jan 2001. The Pakistanis had sponsored terrorists who had carried out a suicide attack on the Indian parliament. Now we don't like our politicians too much, but this was pushing it. So... we were at the brink of war with Pakistan (not again!!).. there were some half a million soldiers waiting on the Western Front .. waiting, just in case the PM wanted to take Pakistan. I would imagine that at that time, most of the Paki High Command was shitting in their collective pants. What were the Indians doing? We were celebrating the Kumbh Mela, a once in 12 years religious festival where believers must bathe in the waters of the holy river Ganga at Allahabad. Estimates of how many Hindus actually made the pilgrimage vary from 25 million to gawd knows what... yes, all these people were lined up for a bath while the Army was preparing to invade Pakistan.
So what is the reverse side of the picture like? I mean, what do Pakistanis think of us Indians? That is a question I have no answers to... but it would be very interesting to find out. Here is a link to Ayaz Amir's writings. He is a journalist with the Dawn, Pakistan's premier daily.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/arc-ayaz.htm
Here are a few references for the piece on Kumbh Mela:
http://www.kumbhamela.net/
http://www.kmp2001.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela
http://www.melafilms.com/
http://www.zenzibar.com/Articles/kumbhamela/index.asp
This links to a BBC satellite photograph of all these people!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1137833.stm
And a Channel 4 site:
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/K/kumbhmela/bkgndframe.html
And here are a few references of the 2001 standoff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_India_Pakistan_standoff
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=917228
http://www.dawn.com/2001/12/15/top1.htm
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/27war2.htm
But then, think about this: being an Indian is not just a matter of idle pride. A Sri Lankan friend of me told me that being right next door to India is a pain, because amongst other things, importing Bollywood movies has killed the local film industry. Consider this in the larger context of being next door to this huge guy who sits around all day watching TV. I mean, this big guy has a messed up dirty house, but on the 15th of August he puts up some pretty nice lights. Everyone says that he has an aunt they all dislike who lives in that little room above tha garage and they all avoid her. Sure, but didn't they recently see her at a family gathering.. sure she looked a little under the weather, but she was smiling. And although we laugh at this big guy and do mean things to him like steal apples from his tree and sometimes hide his mail and other petty shite, deep down we know that he has a bloody huge stick and we have seen him use it in the past.
Yes, being India's neighbour means that you live under the fear of losing your cultural indentity to this huge behemoth. We can understand that. So, to all Indians, stand up and be proud. I suppose the biggest strength of the Indian polity is that we have bigger fish to fry than destroying Pakistan. Take for example early Jan 2001. The Pakistanis had sponsored terrorists who had carried out a suicide attack on the Indian parliament. Now we don't like our politicians too much, but this was pushing it. So... we were at the brink of war with Pakistan (not again!!).. there were some half a million soldiers waiting on the Western Front .. waiting, just in case the PM wanted to take Pakistan. I would imagine that at that time, most of the Paki High Command was shitting in their collective pants. What were the Indians doing? We were celebrating the Kumbh Mela, a once in 12 years religious festival where believers must bathe in the waters of the holy river Ganga at Allahabad. Estimates of how many Hindus actually made the pilgrimage vary from 25 million to gawd knows what... yes, all these people were lined up for a bath while the Army was preparing to invade Pakistan.
So what is the reverse side of the picture like? I mean, what do Pakistanis think of us Indians? That is a question I have no answers to... but it would be very interesting to find out. Here is a link to Ayaz Amir's writings. He is a journalist with the Dawn, Pakistan's premier daily.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/arc-ayaz.htm
Here are a few references for the piece on Kumbh Mela:
http://www.kumbhamela.net/
http://www.kmp2001.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela
http://www.melafilms.com/
http://www.zenzibar.com/Articles/kumbhamela/index.asp
This links to a BBC satellite photograph of all these people!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1137833.stm
And a Channel 4 site:
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/K/kumbhmela/bkgndframe.html
And here are a few references of the 2001 standoff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_India_Pakistan_standoff
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=917228
http://www.dawn.com/2001/12/15/top1.htm
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/27war2.htm
Monday, December 18, 2006
Conversations with people and machines.
How do you know that the person at the other end of the phone when you call to report that your laptop/internet line/microwave oven or whatever is malfunctioning? Because based upon your questions, the respondent answers in a fashion that is characteristic of human intelligence. This is, in short what the Turing Test is. If you cannot distinguish between the responses offered by the machine and those that might presumably be offered by a human being, then the machine is said to possess human like intelligence.
The catch, of course is the nature of the conversation. In a day where most of our problems (at least those of the nature detailed earlier) are solved by people sitting far away (India, Pakistan, Phillipines, take your pick) with computers and telephone headsets, the degree to which the conversation may act as a test of intelligence is questionable. Personally, I have found that these people operate much like machines offering solutions from a large, but nevertheless fixed menu which has been written down by the powers that be. Flexibility, which is the hallmark of thought seems to have been lost with the standard response being, 'let me check with my supervisor.' Why then, should we employ humans in such positions at all? And this question was answered convincingly in the negative by many companies which now rely upon voice activated menus to help you through life.
However, let us get back to the initial topic of conversations with machines. The most famous such conversational line in public memory is, of course, 'There appears to be a problem with the AE 35 unit'. But then again, the gigantic intelligence of HAL9000, the fictional computer created by Arthur C Clarke which went insane is not something that we are even close to achieving. So while the topic of Artificial Intelligence is one that I might explore in later blogs, here is a conversation between a human and a computer to start off with.
The catch, of course is the nature of the conversation. In a day where most of our problems (at least those of the nature detailed earlier) are solved by people sitting far away (India, Pakistan, Phillipines, take your pick) with computers and telephone headsets, the degree to which the conversation may act as a test of intelligence is questionable. Personally, I have found that these people operate much like machines offering solutions from a large, but nevertheless fixed menu which has been written down by the powers that be. Flexibility, which is the hallmark of thought seems to have been lost with the standard response being, 'let me check with my supervisor.' Why then, should we employ humans in such positions at all? And this question was answered convincingly in the negative by many companies which now rely upon voice activated menus to help you through life.
However, let us get back to the initial topic of conversations with machines. The most famous such conversational line in public memory is, of course, 'There appears to be a problem with the AE 35 unit'. But then again, the gigantic intelligence of HAL9000, the fictional computer created by Arthur C Clarke which went insane is not something that we are even close to achieving. So while the topic of Artificial Intelligence is one that I might explore in later blogs, here is a conversation between a human and a computer to start off with.
What if.... SS-GB
yes, Today's what if blog asks the question,.. what if Operation Sea Lion had been successfully carried out? If you are wondering what this was, then the short and simple answer is that this was Nazi Germany's plan to invade England in the early days of WWII. As we know, this came to naught and the Allies were able to consolidate and regroup and eventually win. A wikipedia account is here.
Anyway, one of the fictional accounts written about a possible Occupied England was 'SS-GB' by Len Deighton. Now this was, at first sight, a regular murder (if there exists such a thing) investigated by a Scotland Yard detective. Except, of course, that is is Occupied Engand and Scotland Yard is overseen by the Great Britain offices of the infamous SS. This book is written with a characteristic premonitory flavour that has been Deighton's hallmark. An excellent read, although not Deighton's best, but certainly thought provoking. A few reviews are listed below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB
http://www.strangewords.com/archive/SSGB.html
Anyway, one of the fictional accounts written about a possible Occupied England was 'SS-GB' by Len Deighton. Now this was, at first sight, a regular murder (if there exists such a thing) investigated by a Scotland Yard detective. Except, of course, that is is Occupied Engand and Scotland Yard is overseen by the Great Britain offices of the infamous SS. This book is written with a characteristic premonitory flavour that has been Deighton's hallmark. An excellent read, although not Deighton's best, but certainly thought provoking. A few reviews are listed below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB
http://www.strangewords.com/archive/SSGB.html
The Kein Four - Finite Simple Group
This is what happens when people do too much math. Check out this video which originated from the University of Chicago.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Night Photography and other things.
Night photography is troublesome. You need light to take pictures. That is something of a problem at night. Hence, ISO boost, tripod, long shutter open time and other things. Did not work out though. Need to read the manual more carefully and experiment again.
Brilliant quote from 'How to lose a guy in ten days'.. (yes, I saw a chick flick and actually liked it).. "A woman's purse is the secret to her power.. there are all kinds of secrets there which should be hidden from mankind".. Kate Hudson looks soooo pretty here..
Brilliant quote from 'How to lose a guy in ten days'.. (yes, I saw a chick flick and actually liked it).. "A woman's purse is the secret to her power.. there are all kinds of secrets there which should be hidden from mankind".. Kate Hudson looks soooo pretty here..
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Snatch.. yet again....
Bullet Tooth Tony, Turkish, who is named after an airplane crash, his partner Tommy (that does not mean that they hold hands and walk in the park), Brick Top.. "Do you know what "nemesis" means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible cunt... me. ".. Boris the Blade, Boris the Bullet Dodger, Boris the ex-KGB agent.. this is the only movie in which you might actually learn something for that potential career as a gangster.. for instance, the disposal of people you might have shot, knfied or otherwise done in according to Brick Top: "...And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it's no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies' digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don't want to go sievin' through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, "as greedy as a pig". "
Strongly recommended with a Killian Red Irish beer...
Strongly recommended with a Killian Red Irish beer...
Friday, December 15, 2006
It is a great university.
The University of Michigan is an amazing place to work, and study and Ann Arbor is a great place to live. (If only it didn't get so bloody cold..) Here are some facts about the University.
It happens only in America!!!!!
I know this bloke who told me yesterday that when he is not doing molecular quantum mechanics, he is also a webmaster for a site called "Should I Dump Him Or Not !?!"
Quite self explanatory. Girls post their stories, sorry detail whatever circumstances have driven them to seek the opinion of Netizens.. and people resond. Eventually, it may come to an online vote.
Here is a direct link.
As is the case when I encounter something so cool, I feel the need to report it to my six and a half readers... so there.. I hope that I have managed to enrich your lives today.
Quite self explanatory. Girls post their stories, sorry detail whatever circumstances have driven them to seek the opinion of Netizens.. and people resond. Eventually, it may come to an online vote.
Here is a direct link.
As is the case when I encounter something so cool, I feel the need to report it to my six and a half readers... so there.. I hope that I have managed to enrich your lives today.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Why this post?
Some one recently accused me of being a fan of slasher movies.
NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!!
As it turns out, I am a fan of 'scary by implication', as in I prefer Hannibal over, say, Friday the 13th. Intelligent and stylish direction intrigues me far more than copious amounts of ketchup being split. The only exception to that might be the Kill Bill movies, which are special for totally different reasons.
Ok, back to where we were. So there is this Korean director called Chan-wook Park. I have so far seen only one film by him: 'Oldboy', a visceral revenge thriller that starts on an astounding premise and then hammers away at every sensibility for some 90 minutes before ending in a way you might expect, but when you see it, you will nevertheless be taken aback. These are a few of his quotations, taken from the IMDB page.
Some one recently accused me of being a fan of slasher movies.
NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!!
As it turns out, I am a fan of 'scary by implication', as in I prefer Hannibal over, say, Friday the 13th. Intelligent and stylish direction intrigues me far more than copious amounts of ketchup being split. The only exception to that might be the Kill Bill movies, which are special for totally different reasons.
Ok, back to where we were. So there is this Korean director called Chan-wook Park. I have so far seen only one film by him: 'Oldboy', a visceral revenge thriller that starts on an astounding premise and then hammers away at every sensibility for some 90 minutes before ending in a way you might expect, but when you see it, you will nevertheless be taken aback. These are a few of his quotations, taken from the IMDB page.
"In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain. Life is full of pain and happiness and that's what I wanted to show."
"Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act on it."
"I have principles and rules. I deal very carefully with acts of violence and make sure that audiences understand how much suffering these acts cause."
"In my films, I focus on pain and fear. The fear just before an act of violence and the pain after. This applies to the perpetrators as well as the victims."
Numerous times I lie in bed at night and imagine the cruellest torture. I imagine the most miserable ruining of that person's life. After that, I can fall asleep with a smile on my face. As long as it stays in the realm of imagination, the crueller the better - that's healthy. I'd like to recommend it to you all as well. I hope my films can help in any small way to help your imagination become at least a little bit crueller.
When a hero decides to take revenge, their hitherto tedious life is ended and they are born again as a completely different person. With the completion of revenge in sight, the hero has to face the fact that their pleasure up until that point must come to an end.
I've always tried not to fall for the lies that say things like 'you can do anything if you have the will' or that 'you're the only one who can carve out your own life.' According to the audience member's beliefs, you could call it the will of God or social systems, or fate; but in the end, what I'm trying to say is the same. And that is, 'Life doesn't go your own way."
Another question....
Why do Bangladeshi's have a bigger presence on the internet than do people from West Bengal, India? I mean, sure, they have a whole country going, but we are one of the biggest contributors to the software industry in sheer numbers of people. And surely, ALL of those software engineers don't spend ALL their time writing code? Ok, Indian Bongs, time to sit up and take notice. Lets not allow the internet to be taken over by a bunch of Slyhetis!!!
Back to the recurrent theme
I have changed my recurrent theme. The theme is now this: a question. ANY question.
And the question of the day is: WHY DOES MACINTOSH FIREFOX NOT SUPPORT BENGALI FONTS?
And the question of the day is: WHY DOES MACINTOSH FIREFOX NOT SUPPORT BENGALI FONTS?
This is beyond corny, but I had to post it.
Came across this on Orkut today....
Titanic song remake in Orkut song (deline cion)
Every time in my orkut
I see you. I scrap you.
That is how I know you go on.
Far across the Scrap Book
And testimonials between us
You have come to show yourself " single".
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the friends list does go on
Once more you logged on
And you're here in my scrap book
And my scrap book will go on and on
Testimonials can touch us one time
And last for sometime
And never let go till we're friends
Love was when I saw your friends list
One true time I hold to
In my life I'll surely view her/his profile
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the friends list does go on
Once more you logged on
And you're here in my scrap book
And my scrap book will go on and on
There is some amazing profile that will not
go away
You're here, there's so much to fear,
And I know that my friend will know I checked her/him out
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my friends list
And my friends list will go on
Titanic song remake in Orkut song (deline cion)
Every time in my orkut
I see you. I scrap you.
That is how I know you go on.
Far across the Scrap Book
And testimonials between us
You have come to show yourself " single".
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the friends list does go on
Once more you logged on
And you're here in my scrap book
And my scrap book will go on and on
Testimonials can touch us one time
And last for sometime
And never let go till we're friends
Love was when I saw your friends list
One true time I hold to
In my life I'll surely view her/his profile
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the friends list does go on
Once more you logged on
And you're here in my scrap book
And my scrap book will go on and on
There is some amazing profile that will not
go away
You're here, there's so much to fear,
And I know that my friend will know I checked her/him out
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my friends list
And my friends list will go on
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Helping feminists.
R is a feminist. She keeps telling me all this stuff about how wimmen are oppressed, and men are the reason the planet is going to the dogs (not bitches..) .. so I figured that my reader should also be told this kind of stuff.. this is what she sent me last
The South-Asian Woman's List of Good Resolutions
- 1. I resolve not to apologize for existing.
- 2. I resolve not to apologize to men (unless I have really done something wrong).
- 3. I will make a distinction between myself and my family.
- 4. I do not need to be married to be happy or dutiful.
- 5. I do not need children to be happy or dutiful.
- 6. I do not need a son to be happy or dutiful.
- 7. I will not avoid discussions about money.
- 8. I will not criticize other women so as to blame the victim of sexual harrassment or sexual assault. "She was wearing tight-tight jeans," "She is too mod."
- 9. I will support other women. Each one, teach one to be economically and emotionally self-sufficient.
- 10. I resolve not to betray my daughter into the arms of the patriarchy "for her own good."
- 11. I will evacuate any toxic environment that threatens my mental or physical safety.
- 12. I will take responsibility for my decisions and ask no one for pity.
- 13. I will not value a man based solely/primarily on his capacity as provider.
- 14. I will not cringe when stating that I make more than my husband.
- 15. I will not cringe at the thought of being the primary breadwinner of the family.
- 16. I will not sneer at men who are more sentimental than I am.
- 17. I will not push my son towards a stereotypical career any more than I do my daughter.
- 18. I will not die if my daughter chooses a mate who's in a "feminine" profession.
- 19. I will understand the pain of a man trapped in an unhappy career because he is compelled to be the sole provider for his family.
- 20. I WILL criticize the woman who cribs because her husband is not maintaining her in the style she would like to be maintained.
- 21. I will never use phrases like "Isn't he supposed to be a man" or "He isn't taking it like a man," or make comments about who wears the pants in the family.
- 22. I will accept that a man can be sexually harrassed by a woman.
-- Bisakha Sen & Shauna Singh Baldwin
Bisakha Sen is assistant professor of economics at U. Central Florida, doing research in labor economics. She is an aspiring Bengali feminist, and hopes to achieve the status of 'hell-raising Bengali feminist' in the not-too-distant future.
Shauna Singh Baldwin is an Indo-Canadian essayist, fiction writer, and radio producer who is working on her third book.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Requests
I do not have much time... k, that a total lie.. but I would give a lot for a partner who would help me to translate Jabberwocky into Bangla (that would be my native language). Anyone?
WHAT if?
There should be a recurrent theme in this blog... in fact, I believe that it already exists, without being declared as such: "What if?"
So I am going to start out by asking the following question: "And whether pigs have wings"...
and to put the whole thing in perspective.. let me give you the rest of that delightful poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter.. by that amazing genius.. Lewis Carrol.
So I am going to start out by asking the following question: "And whether pigs have wings"...
and to put the whole thing in perspective.. let me give you the rest of that delightful poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter.. by that amazing genius.. Lewis Carrol.
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright --
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done --
'It's very rude of him.' she said,
'To come and spoil the fun!'
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead --
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
'If this were only cleared away,'
They said, 'it would be grand.'
'If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
'That they could get it clear?'
'I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
'O Oysters, come and walk with us!
The Walrus did beseech.
'A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.'
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head --
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
Out four young Oysters hurried up.
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat --
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more --
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
'The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings.'
'But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,
'Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!'
'No hurry!' said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
'A loaf of bread,' the Walrus said,
'Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed --
Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed.'
'But not on us!' the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
'After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!'
'The night is fine,' the Walrus said,
'Do you admire the view?'
'It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
'Cut us another slice-
I wish you were not quite so deaf-
I've had to ask you twice!'
'It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,
'To play them such a trick.
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
'The butter's spread too thick!'
'I weep for you,'the Walrus said:
'I deeply sympathize.'
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none --
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
-- Lewis Carroll
Noise in measurement.
where does noise come from? one can imagine random thermal motionsof electrons in a resistor. so if i were to take a basic 100K resistor and connect a high impedance multimeter across it, i would see some readings. these would represent thermal noise inside the resistor. so, what is the correlation time of such noise? is there any physical process which has a correlation time of zero?
Monday, December 11, 2006
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Business goes on as usual..
Three articles, both from BBC news..highlight the continuing fact that inexpensive, quality clothing is made by people who work and suffer under terrible conditions... obviously, the trade unionism and ethical trade concepts seem to extend only to the western world.
1. The true cost of cheap clothes.
2. British firms exploit Bangladesh.
3. Child workers in India.. things continue regardless of what acts are passed.
1. The true cost of cheap clothes.
2. British firms exploit Bangladesh.
3. Child workers in India.. things continue regardless of what acts are passed.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Time - II
Time – II.
Disclaimer: I am not a mathematician or a theoretical physicist. I aim primarily to establish, or rather to discuss (establish is way to arrogant) the way time is viewed in literature, mostly popular literature and some films.
Paraphrasing Newton, we have his views on ‘absolute time’: “Absolute, true, and mathematical time, from its own nature, passes equably without relation the anything external, and thus without reference to any change or way of measuring of time (e.g., the hour, day, month, or year).”
Later physicists, principally the authors of modern physics, ie, people like Poincare and Einstein have constructed theories according to which it is incorrect, or incomplete to view time as an independent parameter on a ‘timeline’. Rather, it makes sense to talk about events that are separated by both space and time.. or rather ‘spacetime’. Here time is now viewed as another parameter like length, breadth and height. Relative time, as recorded by a clock on a spaceship depends on how fast that spaceship is moving. The faster it moves, the slower the clock ticks. The upper limit to this appears to be the speed of light. So far we have gracefully pirouetted around the question of whether the clock can tick backwards. Let me rephrase that: can time be made to flow backwards? Hmmm.. tricky. In fact, we will not try to answer that question in a scientific form at all.
But before we start our journey into the speculative, let us talk of Alice and Bob. They happen to have been taking a coffee break while their graduate students were preparing two spin half particles in an entangled state. Alice then walks off with one of the entangled particles and Bob has the other. When Alice wants to send some information to Bob, she performs a basic unitary operation on her particle.. which is just a fancy mathematical term for something like rotating its spin by 180 degrees. Bob’s particle is immediately affected by whatever Alice has done to her particle: such is the nature of entangled states. So it appears that information transmission is instantaneous. This is interesting indeed.
Anyway, to get back to our discussion of time and its treatment in popular entertainment, there have been very erudite discussions and speculations on superluminal, or faster than light travel. Most of these discussions are motivated by the simple analogy of an ant walking on the surface of a rubber ball. To get to the diametrically opposite side, he must travel a minimum equatorial distance of pi*radius. If some one is so kind as to provide him with a radial channel passing through the centre of the ball, he will only have to travel a distance of 2*radius. This is “hyperspatial” travel. In fact, most theories of superluminal travel speculate that there are available such “wormholes” in space through we which we might be able to travel to reach far distant reaches. I remember a particularly cheesy movie ‘Event Horizon’ which had a spaceship that seemingly passed through a black hole. Yes, black holes, (which are collapsed stars) seem to always be good candidates for space wormholes. Well, the Event Horizon came back and apparently it had been to some truly evil place, for its crew had died quite gruesomely. Yes, a particularly cheesy film indeed, made only slightly tolerable by the presence of Laurence Fishburne. In the next, and concluding article in this series, I will explore the religious connotations associated with such flights of science fiction.
References:
1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/ (support this project!!!)
2. http://eve.physics.ox.ac.uk/NewWeb/Research/communication/communication.html (this is an excellent reference written by two of the most respected scientists in the field of quantum computation)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_physics
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPT_symmetry
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time#Time_in_physical_sciences
6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/
7. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_intro.html
8. http://www.vectorsite.net/tarokt_7.html
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_paradox
10. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Quantum/bells_inequality.html
Thursday, December 07, 2006
etymologic
R introduced me to this amazing game. If you think you are good with etymology, then pit your skills online and find out.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Shibu Soren and 200,000 unnewsworthy girls.
A brief introduction. Shibu Soren happens to be a tribal leader of North India. His rise to power was marked by those uninvestigated acts of violence which seem to be always associated in some way to many Indian politicians. But there was a time, however brief, when he was likened to Birsa Munda, the famous 19th century champion of the tribal cause. Well, in 2005 Soren became the Chief Minister of the newly created foothills state of Jharkhand, although his government did not survive a confidence vote. Let us quickly fast forward to the present. Soren has been convicted of the murder of his secretary, Shashi Nath Jha and has been sentenced to life imprisonment. This has occupied all the news headlines back home. Everyone is seemingly happy about the fact that the courts have returned power to "the people".
I have a few comments about this. First: who exactly are "the people?" Are we talking about the same people who elected Soren to the various offices he occupied over his entire career? There is something to be said about the statement that people deserve the leaders they choose. If the best that this country can do is to put murderers and rapists in parliamentary seats, then, lie back and enjoy what your precious elected leader will do to you after he enters office.
Secondly, it is rather naive to believe that the long arm of justice will now reach out correct whatever ills our politicians have been perpetrating on us. The high and mighty of this land have always been just that: high and mighty. Justice is a middle class concept which has no meaning when you do not have a full belly. Then thievery and beyond is not a crime. And for those of us who have much much more than just a full belly, justice is, again, a tool for keeping the washed and scrubbed masses thoroughly in their place. Economic rules are merely there to be circumvented. And if you happen to be a bartender closing shop when a bunch of unruly patrons walk in, you better do what they want.. or else you might end up being shot and seven years later your murderer still walks free. Remember Jessica Lal?
Newsflash: people, stop daydreaming! What you voted for is what you get. Take my lovely home state, for instance. West Bengal has had a Communist government for.. what.. 30 years? This goverment came to power in the wake of the Naxalite movement of the seventies. One of its most popular acts was agrarian reform.. power to the farmer, so to speak. Communism and trade unionism go hand in hand. Except, that there was something distinct Frankensteinian about the form of unionism that the Left espoused..something that lead to the industrial decimation of the state. What is left today is being outcompeted by industries down South. And then came the Tatas. Them of the under Rs. one lakh (or was it two lakh?) car. And planned to build in Singur, an agricultural region of the state. And the governmment promised them the land needed and then proceeded to go out and get it.
Which understandably led to certain hiccups. In fact, lets go all the way and call it one big mess. And our very own Mamata-di promised that no farmer's land shall be usurped with inadequate compensation. So those people who have been screaming themselves hoarse about the Left's sucidal industrial policy over the last decade and a half are now throwing a spanner in the works. Meanwhile, the Left, always the champion of the farmer is now booting the aforementioned farmer off his land and giving his some paltry compensation, which he MUST accept, or its the police on his back. Hmm.. let me stand back for a moment and think about this.. role reversal? While, the Tatas, who have enjoyed (so far) a household reputation of being honest businessmen stand back; somewhat apprehensive at this turn of events. And the farmer, poor chap has no idea......
Ok, that was a point made somewhat tedious.. in case my reader has not got the point yet, let me put it down.. politicians are here for their own good... for the greater part, their five years in office is their five year ride on the gravy express.. and we have US to blame for this sorry state of affairs. That was US and not the U.S, by the way.. they have their own problems.
And those 200, 000 girls? Yes.. it seems due to the ball being dropped by the Central government and not being picked up by the relevant state goverment (Karnataka), 200, 000 girls hailing from families below the poverty line will not be able to finish school. What is also apalling, part from the fact, is that the media chose to bury this news article far far below the front page where Soren has been placed.
I have a few comments about this. First: who exactly are "the people?" Are we talking about the same people who elected Soren to the various offices he occupied over his entire career? There is something to be said about the statement that people deserve the leaders they choose. If the best that this country can do is to put murderers and rapists in parliamentary seats, then, lie back and enjoy what your precious elected leader will do to you after he enters office.
Secondly, it is rather naive to believe that the long arm of justice will now reach out correct whatever ills our politicians have been perpetrating on us. The high and mighty of this land have always been just that: high and mighty. Justice is a middle class concept which has no meaning when you do not have a full belly. Then thievery and beyond is not a crime. And for those of us who have much much more than just a full belly, justice is, again, a tool for keeping the washed and scrubbed masses thoroughly in their place. Economic rules are merely there to be circumvented. And if you happen to be a bartender closing shop when a bunch of unruly patrons walk in, you better do what they want.. or else you might end up being shot and seven years later your murderer still walks free. Remember Jessica Lal?
Newsflash: people, stop daydreaming! What you voted for is what you get. Take my lovely home state, for instance. West Bengal has had a Communist government for.. what.. 30 years? This goverment came to power in the wake of the Naxalite movement of the seventies. One of its most popular acts was agrarian reform.. power to the farmer, so to speak. Communism and trade unionism go hand in hand. Except, that there was something distinct Frankensteinian about the form of unionism that the Left espoused..something that lead to the industrial decimation of the state. What is left today is being outcompeted by industries down South. And then came the Tatas. Them of the under Rs. one lakh (or was it two lakh?) car. And planned to build in Singur, an agricultural region of the state. And the governmment promised them the land needed and then proceeded to go out and get it.
Which understandably led to certain hiccups. In fact, lets go all the way and call it one big mess. And our very own Mamata-di promised that no farmer's land shall be usurped with inadequate compensation. So those people who have been screaming themselves hoarse about the Left's sucidal industrial policy over the last decade and a half are now throwing a spanner in the works. Meanwhile, the Left, always the champion of the farmer is now booting the aforementioned farmer off his land and giving his some paltry compensation, which he MUST accept, or its the police on his back. Hmm.. let me stand back for a moment and think about this.. role reversal? While, the Tatas, who have enjoyed (so far) a household reputation of being honest businessmen stand back; somewhat apprehensive at this turn of events. And the farmer, poor chap has no idea......
Ok, that was a point made somewhat tedious.. in case my reader has not got the point yet, let me put it down.. politicians are here for their own good... for the greater part, their five years in office is their five year ride on the gravy express.. and we have US to blame for this sorry state of affairs. That was US and not the U.S, by the way.. they have their own problems.
And those 200, 000 girls? Yes.. it seems due to the ball being dropped by the Central government and not being picked up by the relevant state goverment (Karnataka), 200, 000 girls hailing from families below the poverty line will not be able to finish school. What is also apalling, part from the fact, is that the media chose to bury this news article far far below the front page where Soren has been placed.
Pretzel and Brezels
Pretzels are baked snacks that are twisted into a wierd knotty shape... the shape that results projects into a two dimensional multiply connected surface in two dimenions... in fact, in three dimensions as well if I have the definitions down right. My sis just told me that there is a Deutsch version of pretzels called Brezels which pretty much look the same, but probably has a more enlightened heritage to speak of.. and certainly appears to have greater variety going by the Wikipedia page. My personal take on it is that the mini pretzel makes for a good travelling snack.. especially if you can find a low calorie pack.
Monday, December 04, 2006
End Sem Frenzy
Too many things to do... homeworks to complete... homeworks to grade... exams to prep for... exams to grade.. labwork to be done... yes, this next two weeks or so will not be too easy..
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Time.. I
What price can one put on the future?
Ever since time began, people have been trying to think their way around it. There have been crystal balls and seers for as long as man has any memory. There have always been those whom we say can see into the future. But for the most part, our world is confined to merely three dimensions.
I do not plan to explore the physics of time travel, is at all, such speculation is possible .. you will have to ask a theorist for that. No, this blog has to do only with the way that time travel has been viewed in popular culture.
There seem to be two broad views around: the first is the chaotic viewpoint. This essentially means that changing the tiniest event of the past can cause catastrophic changes in the present and in the future. The theory rests on the assumption that every event in spacetime is somehow connected to every other event in spacetime… which is a pretty decent assumption.. and that ‘reality’ as we see rests on an unstable maximal point in the infinite dimensional space of ‘events’. Changing any single event from its ‘ordered’ occurrence can cause reality to go tumbling downhill, and Gawd knows what will happen after that.
This viewpoint was the one shown, in say.. ‘Back to the Future’.. where MJ Fox tries his best to get his parents together when they were high school students… or else his own existence is in jeopardy. This was also the perspective taken by Ray Bradbury is his short story… drat! I just can’t remember the name.
Nice. The other viewpoint is that reality sits in a minima in the aforementioned space of events. Changing any event is not going to do much, as negative or ‘restoring’ forces act to bring reality back to where it was. The Universe, in other words has a certain amount of ‘elasticity’.. that allows it to spring back from deformations of reality to what it is supposed to be like. This is the perspective taken by relatively fewer writers. But it has had its adherents.
The great Asimov has shown an interesting perspective in his book, ‘The End of Eternity’. Here he talks about the Universe being truly, accessibly, four dimensional. Hence, there are people who can move back and forth through time.. regulating it.. and policing it. If this sounds even slightly like the ridiculous Van Damme movie ‘Timecop’, then this would be a good time to buy the BOOK and read it. Anyway, these people, the ‘Eternals’ work to the ultimate end of human development and peace… and their motto is MPE/MPE. Which stands for ‘Minimum Possible Effort, for Maximum Possible Effect’.. hence perturbations in spacetime are supposed to be just as much as needed and not a bit more. But again, Asimov recognizes a fundamental truth… that to live is to achieve and if achievement is taken away.. then life itself becomes pointless. If we know what is to happen, then our future has not been revealed to us.. it has been taken away from us. Hence, the end of the book proceeds along this line of thought… any more would be a nasty spoiler.
To be continued…
Ever since time began, people have been trying to think their way around it. There have been crystal balls and seers for as long as man has any memory. There have always been those whom we say can see into the future. But for the most part, our world is confined to merely three dimensions.
I do not plan to explore the physics of time travel, is at all, such speculation is possible .. you will have to ask a theorist for that. No, this blog has to do only with the way that time travel has been viewed in popular culture.
There seem to be two broad views around: the first is the chaotic viewpoint. This essentially means that changing the tiniest event of the past can cause catastrophic changes in the present and in the future. The theory rests on the assumption that every event in spacetime is somehow connected to every other event in spacetime… which is a pretty decent assumption.. and that ‘reality’ as we see rests on an unstable maximal point in the infinite dimensional space of ‘events’. Changing any single event from its ‘ordered’ occurrence can cause reality to go tumbling downhill, and Gawd knows what will happen after that.
This viewpoint was the one shown, in say.. ‘Back to the Future’.. where MJ Fox tries his best to get his parents together when they were high school students… or else his own existence is in jeopardy. This was also the perspective taken by Ray Bradbury is his short story… drat! I just can’t remember the name.
Nice. The other viewpoint is that reality sits in a minima in the aforementioned space of events. Changing any event is not going to do much, as negative or ‘restoring’ forces act to bring reality back to where it was. The Universe, in other words has a certain amount of ‘elasticity’.. that allows it to spring back from deformations of reality to what it is supposed to be like. This is the perspective taken by relatively fewer writers. But it has had its adherents.
The great Asimov has shown an interesting perspective in his book, ‘The End of Eternity’. Here he talks about the Universe being truly, accessibly, four dimensional. Hence, there are people who can move back and forth through time.. regulating it.. and policing it. If this sounds even slightly like the ridiculous Van Damme movie ‘Timecop’, then this would be a good time to buy the BOOK and read it. Anyway, these people, the ‘Eternals’ work to the ultimate end of human development and peace… and their motto is MPE/MPE. Which stands for ‘Minimum Possible Effort, for Maximum Possible Effect’.. hence perturbations in spacetime are supposed to be just as much as needed and not a bit more. But again, Asimov recognizes a fundamental truth… that to live is to achieve and if achievement is taken away.. then life itself becomes pointless. If we know what is to happen, then our future has not been revealed to us.. it has been taken away from us. Hence, the end of the book proceeds along this line of thought… any more would be a nasty spoiler.
To be continued…
Friday, December 01, 2006
Pictures and Spies.
I once read a spy novel where some KGB lamplighters were shadowing this French (or was it a British bloke). The book had these shadowers continuously photographing their target. What they used was not any ordinary camcorder, but one of them really fast SLRs with high speed film roll and continuous (burst mode) capability. And they were shooting in B/W. Why, I have no idea. But this basic idea of hanging around and shooting at high speeds so as to capture snapshots of continuous motion has been around forever in the pro world. It is only recently that it has made an entry into the consumer market. Again, here I make a judgement, because film SLRs have had this for a while, the speed depending on the rate at which the motor could drive the film (shutter speed is not an issue). With compact digital cameras, well what you pay for is what you get… so what sells for a burst mode is a low quality sequence of pictures. CF cards are typically faster than xD or SD cards. The principal bottlenecks are electronic, not electromechanical as in film SLRs. What matters here is buffer size and for want of a better word, I am going to call bus speed. For a small bus speed, the speed at which the camera is able to write to the card (provided you have a reasonably fast card) is the limiting factor, and most DSLRs will conk out after maybe 5 to 10 frames at high quality. A large buffer will allow more frames before you have to stop. Then there is what is called the ‘flushout time’, the time it takes to write to the card and prepare for the next shot. Most prosumer DSLRs do anything between 2.5 to 5 frames per second. A Canon TXi(for those with tiny hands) or an Olympus EV500 is good value. If you are feeling self indulgent, or have a benevolent rich uncle, think about a Nikon D80. I don’t know how the new Pentax is going to work out, but I have a sneaky feeling that is might just give the people at Nikon/Canon some nightmares. And then go look at the new Leica D series. And drool.
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