A long time feeling,
Of feeling afloat, in sea wide,
As far as eye can see, flowing with the tide,
Something missing in this life another.

Pressure from people I love,
Unwilling to fulfill what might be necessary;
This frantic soul escaping worldly needs
Would stillness of the breath bring peace within ?

Love untold to a woman beloved,
Here I type, without anyone beside,
There lies the black hole right by my side,
That I would love to bend my vision around.

Love. Vacation. More friends. I miss them all…

One of the best moving quotes about Mathematics, something I feel so close to and deeply about, in words I could barely fathom to think and create as poetry, Bertrand Russell gives a killer of a quote, I’m bound to remember till I die. Here it is:

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

–BERTRAND RUSSELL, Study of Mathematics

O Fortuna is a poem from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in early 13th century. I do not know what is enticing about the tune but the chorus, the rhythm resonates within me. For years, I have not known the meaning of the song and now here it is (translated to english).

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are constantly changing,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!

A song, gives me peace,
Elates me to places high,
Without crutches or weird tease
I see tranquility and perfect harmony.

Life moves me away
From serenity found and felt ;
Insane thoughts and crazy friends
Deviate this mind at rest.

Music, my final solution.
For years, yet there is an alternate
To cure this cancer of the mind,
Sangeetham, high hopes, chance,
What difference is there, in their meaning core ?

Darkness closing in at dusk,
Clouds protecting earth from sun’s wrath,
Blood spilt beauty, another one of his prank,
Here lies serenity I’ve failed to see.

Just read an article on the Roast for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over at the Onion. It was hilarious. Of course, since it is the Onion, do not, for heaven’s sake start thinking that this was real.

Ofcourse, the article ends with Mahmoud’s closing statement:

“It warms my heart to see all of you here tonight,” Ahmadinejad said to boisterous applause. “I know some of you have been worried that I may be developing a nuclear program to use against you, but I would like to take this opportunity to assure everyone that its sole, peaceful purpose is to provide the Iranian people with energy.”

How nice, I thought until I read the next line.

Added Ahmadinijad, “We’re gonna need all the electricity we can get when we nuke you fuckers back into the Stone Age, you blood-sucking infidels. Good night, everybody!”

Haha.

This is satire at its best. The article should take your mind off real world problems for say 3 minutes ! Thinking about it, wouldn’t it be fantastic if there really was such a roast, without the shields of diplomacy at the U.N. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to miss that live telecast…

I recently read an article on the Scientific American on “Why we kiss” and it is interestingly controversial. Fortunately, it does address some of the common questions I’ve heard before and hence, this might be interesting enough to read on a sunday afternoon.

One of the first questions that is answered is “Why do we do it ?”

Excerpt from the article:

Whatever else is going on when we kiss, our evolutionary history is embedded within this tender, tempestuous act. In the 1960s British zoologist and author Desmond Morris first proposed that kissing might have evolved from the practice in which primate mothers chewed food for their young and then fed them mouth-to-mouth, lips puckered. Chimpanzees feed in this manner, so our hominid ancestors probably did, too. Pressing outturned lips against lips may have then later developed as a way to comfort hungry children when food was scarce and, in time, to express love and affection in general. The human species might eventually have taken these proto-parental kisses down other roads until we came up with the more passionate varieties we have today.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. I believe that a lot of the actions we perform are deeply influenced by what animals did out of survival which later became acts of luxuries and a part of social behavior itself. So I’ll leave this at that.

Another interesting quote from he article is as follows:

“Kissing,” said evolutionary psychologist Gordon G. Gallup of the University at Albany, State University of New York, “involves a very complicated exchange of information—olfactory information, tactile information and postural types of adjustments that may tap into underlying evolved and unconscious mechanisms that enable people to make determinations … about the degree to which they are genetically incompatible.” Kissing may even reveal the extent to which a partner is willing to commit to raising children, a central issue in long-term relationships and crucial to the survival of our species.

There are few other interesting tidbits of information about how human sensory organs behave and the reactions of the brain during a kiss. Useless, but fascinating nonetheless.

Well anyway, at the end of the day, it really does not matter what these studies come up with for results. Since perceptions are averaged over thousands of people and there is a high probability that me or you do not perceive like any of them or the person you kiss, all you can do is read it and move on 🙂

It is interesting enough following through the new developments in the nuclear industry with innovative GEN4 reactors sprouting out concepts little explored before. But then again, there is nothing like a hoax that seems very genuine from one of the biggest heads in the nuclear industry. Here’s an excerpt.

A blog called Next Energy News leaks a story about Toshiba building a “Micro Nuclear Reactor” that would be nothing short of a miracle.

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

via Gadgets-Weblog

Sad that this news was a hoax but in reality, if such a design were to be made in a feasible manner, this could be wonderful in lieu of the growing concerns on global warming and move towards greener energy. Well, it still would create new problems in the nuclear non-proliferation regime but lets deal with this one step at a time.

Dilbert, the ever so true picturesque depiction of an engineer’s mind has done it again. I guess this is strip is one of their oldies but I was riffling through some of the old files in my hard drive and found this gem.

Hopefully, to the technologically minded, this should send a resonating lol twitch.

So what do you say we give another shot to kill ’em writer’s block.

Am hearing Satriani with a bottle of good wine, after watchin a fantastic movie, and here’s me talking sane, as my insane hands type all by ’emself.

No I ain’t drunk. Or atleast not yet. But definitely am bitter at the feeble self typing this message. Feedback of sorts, I’ve been promising for months to keep this blog aloft and failed quite miserably. And now, I come to realization that maybe I should write no matter what since all those beautiful thoughts in my head seem to need an outlet.

Imperceptible as it might all seem, folks don’t get fooled by my changed writing accent. Here, now, I vow to write to my heart’s desire once again to reclaim this space I’ve ignored for so long.

Life has been harsh but has not taken a toll on me yet. I’ve seen worse as compared to where I am and so I have prevailed life’s cruel efforts to keep me down. People have called me “insensitive” to their pain, folks that have known me closely for 10 years but believe me, I’ve changed not. This coming year, I promise thee to deliver content worthy of thou time and enlightening enough to defeat buddha’s words.

Here’s another, to a happy new year !