stressedout

Have you ever been in this situation - its like you are sooo tired .. you have worked all day and just want to relax now. You are stressed out, ur neck and shoulders are aching .. you get the picture. Just about dead. And you come home and dont feel like relaxing. You, of all the freaking times, want to do something .. anything right then! The body needs a rest, the brain needs to cool down .. but just wont let you. Heading towards a heart attack, I tell you.

San Hosay

I am in San Hosay for a few days. Caleefurnia rocks. I just dont understand what I was doing in the northern part of the US all this while. Its not like I havent been to Caleefurnia or Texas or Florida or Arizona or whatever before, but its just that I realized all my years in the US have been wasted. I should be living in the damn SOUTH .. where winter means it gets slightly chilly and you just have to roll your convertible top up when it rains.
Thats not the point of this post. At least not now. So I am staying with some friends .. deep thinkers both of them. Always a pleasure chatting with them .. interesitng topics and well thought of opinions which make you rethink your own view-point often. Heres one that I caught yesterday. Its very unfortunate that the English language had to be so popular. Imagine if any of the Indian (or other) languages which have extensive support for all pronounciations were popular .. it would have been so much better. Speech programming like text to speech etc would have been a breeze.
Quite true. Na?

Torture of the ..

I saw The Passion of the Christ yesterday night. I wish I shouldnt have. That film has remained in my mind till 12 hours later .. not (entirely) because of the depicted violence or anything, but because I fail to understand the logic behind making it. So much so, that I am not filing this under 'entertainment' at all .. but under 'ponder'.

Showing the last 12 hours of Christ's life .. brutal in-your-face torture and violence is all that it has to offer. This, is not a film about the teachings of the christ, as they constitute hardly about 1% of the total content. What passion was Mel Gibson talking about? The film starts with the capture of the christ and ends with his crucification. It is not a film about the christ at all. It does not tell us what he wanted to convey, it does not show his teachings; all it does is show us how he died. Horribly.

I dont know why so many people have raved about the film: [Yet it is also a preeminently important cinematic expression of the faith — probably one of the most important religious films of all time.]. Please. If it is seen as anti-semitic by people .. rightly so, I would say .. as thats what it shows.

Fortunately, the film does show him speaking .. though uttering (only) well-known quotes like 'Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do' and 'Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword' .. but again thats about it. I would have prefered more along the teachings line and less along the torture line. That; would have shown us the passion.

Adding some spice..?

Why do some people think that making food, of which chilli powder constitutes approximately 10% makes it taste better?

Settling to a comfortable level of mediocrity

Why is it that the people I see are satisfied with what they have, when clearly they can have (and thus, perform) better? Are they just plain old complacent, or is there anything more to it? Is it that people are so afraid of change, so unreliable of the self, that they go for a mediocre future rather than putting in more effort, taking a few calculated risks and reaching the level that they have the potential for? Why do individuals underperform? Why do organizations comprised of such individuals suck? Why is it that such organizations will seek people who would fit into this web of sycophancy, buck passing, irresponsiblility and lack of vision; instead of those who can lift them up from this muck?
Why are some exceptional people capable of creating a change within such organizations with able leadership, while other people with similarly exceptional capabilities settle down to their own level of mediocrity under a similar set of circumstances?

Who is Raveena's husband?

Okay ... this is a howler. I don't know whether to laugh or cry out in anguish and try to rip my hair out of my head. We seriously are in big trouble. Every govt. that comes along purges the school textbooks of what its predecessors put into them and pushes its own propaganda into the same!

Hindi textbooks of class X, in Karnataka, place Sonia Gandhi beside Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi in the chapter Bharatanari. Gandhi has been described as a great woman working for the emotional integration of the nation through Rajiv Gandhi Pratisthan

And if you are shocked by this .. what about 5th std students learning about the Vadras .. a whole chapter dedicated to Lalu Yadav .. a 'match the following' which includes matching Rahul Gandhi's photo with his name?

Still want more? .... In Ranchi University the General Knowledge section of the commerce paper (they have a general knowledge section?) asked the followinf question - Who is actress Raveena Tandon's husband?. [Link]

via A time to reflect.

Sleep, anyone?

Sleep .. is a demanding mistress. When she rules the roost, it is really difficult to think of anything else. Like the Continuum Transfunctioner it's mystery is only exceeded by it's power.
While most of us have long pondered upon sleep, it's use, necessity, etecetra, have you ever given a thought to a life without sleep? As in .. a life where sleep is not necessary. Now don't dismiss it off lagech. Give it a thought. Productivity would increase the world over, but so would costs. One would never have the sick feeling of being 'sleep deprived', but nor would one enjoy the true bliss that sleep gives us. Things would be a lot different .. thats for sure.
So on to the next step. Would you rather have a life where ..

you don't need sleep at all; or

all you do is sleep
I personally know both types of people. (Some ppl really prefer it that way .. frankly, I would'nt have thought so.)

Posted by anya at 02:45 AM Category: Ponder | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack

The shunners.

Yazad asks To Vote or not To Vote?.

While he focuses on a few points for either viewpoint .. lets look at a few instances where people choose not to vote. Have you sensed this in the young generation? The reluctance to vote? Yes, there are always those who have just turned 18 the year before and are absolutely excited about exercising their right to vote. They know that its just a drop in the ocean, but they also believe that every vote counts. They feel it's their moral duty as a responsible citizen to vote. Obviously I am not talking about these young people. I am not even talking about the ones who are past that, the ones who feel its useless, that its just choosing the lesser evil and whoever they vote for is gonna fleece the country bare.

I am talking about those who just don't give a damn, whose peers think its 'cool' to not vote; who know whatever happens, they are safe. They just don't care who comes to power. Sort of like the swollen babus our bureaucracy is chock-full of. Because 'Its the poor and the middle-classes who should care'. As children, they have seen their parents do the same. And its pretty understandable. After all .. who will engage in something that has no consequence for them? Thats why traditionally the voter turnout has been higher for the middle classes who have much to gain - or lose out out of the elections.

But thats where the wrong assumption is made. We are fast reaching a stage where governments make increasingly responsible decisions that influence the breadth of our economy. Election promises are changing for the better (it remains another matter if they are implemented as promised). It would not heed well to remain lax and continue this pooh-poohing. It is time to participate.

Can you patent life?

GM food is set to enter the world in a big way.I was reading up on Genetically Modified foods, particularly by Monsanto as it has arguably the most controversial GM history. In India Monsanto has been present for quite some years and I remember reading about their genetically modified boll cotton plants years ago.

Monsanto (or a sister company) came up with a weed killer that really socked the creepers. I mean whack! It wiped the field clean .. so clean in fact that more often than not the crop would also go ka-put on you. So they came up with engineered seeds which will resist their weed-killer. Pretty devious. You have to buy the other if u wanna use one. Anyways this is the least of their practices which have roiled the company in controversies. Monsanto guards their seed with exceptional vigour and farmers have to pay (me thinks) a certain sum each year to use their seed. i.e. you buy their seed once, grow the crop - and if you are gonna use seed of that crop again next year you have to pay them for it.

Anyways, I digressed quite a bit. The reason I started on genetically modifed things in the first place was because of the main question being posed currently. Can you patent life? Monsanto can demand royalty off their seed because they have patented that particular seed. Seed maynot be the first thing that comes to your mind when I say life, but engineered breeds of lab mice, pets are being patented. Sure you 'built' the thing its yours to claim.

Many people are fighting against this as they feel life should not be patented. Many envision a scenario where humans are engineered for a certain trait (may be anything) and patented. Once you have patented something you earn money off it .. pretty scary; yes. But if patents are not granted for seeds, lab-mice, whatever, then the GM wagon will slow down considerably. You spend tons of money on it you expect some return.

Obviously the counter argumet is 'why modify life in the first place?' I disagree with this view. Genetically modified products definitely improve output in whatever way they are designed to. Even before GM, we had modified products in the food chain. (chicken, fruit injected with hormones). Humans, through science have modifed the Earth as a whole in an irreparable way.. and it will continue. There is no way we can 'live as an observer' so to say.