(karthik.rao@multiplex.biz) saw this on newyorker.com and thought you'd like to see it.
A very nice article on Buckminster Fuller - the ideosyncratic inventor of the Geodesic dome
Click here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/09/080609fa_fact_kolbert/
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
About emotions and decision making
It is a great asset to be able to separate the influence of extreme emotions from the decision making. Easy said than done right. Yes it is but that can change. I have come to some realisation as I have gone about things. Certain situations would fluster me to the point of paralysis but if a friend comes to me for help on the same issue, my recommendations will be to the point to almost ruthless levels and devoid of any emotions. The difference I realise here is of the influence of extreme emotions in the decision making process. So here are a few points I have been pondering about this issue:
- Emotions have the habit of contaminating the facts surrounding an issue. It is important to judge facts on their merit alone. This requires a certain ruthlessness as its human nature to classify facts based on the emotion they generate. This requires practice. To shut out how you feel about an object or a situation without actuallu classifying it as good or bad is very difficult. The mind behaves like a large database system, the moment a new situation comes up, it looks to classify it based on certain known attributes. The trouble is that this can often be done before dilligent examination has been completed.Adding to that, almost everybody has his mind tuned to a certain threshold which determines the ratings we give to each situation. If your mind is set to negative settings/safe settings, it will colour the situation with a likewise rating. so sometimes the key is to just reset the threshold.
- Look at facts from a third person's point of view. Look at any situation as if it was not happening to you but to another person and you have to provide an impartial solution to it.
- Facts themselves are never positive or negative, its what we make of it that is positive or negative. This is something I am increasingly realising these days. A stock market crash can be a highly negative occurance or a highly positive opportunity depending on where you are looking at it. So it is important to be fanatically positive. Would you ever go into a battle with faulty weapons, never right? A fact when looked as opportunity will change the way you look at the situation. Whats more you will turn the situation which could have been potentially loaded with negative emotions into one with positive ones driven by possibilities and opportunities.
I like the word "opportunity". Its got such a positive vibe about it. It motivates you to think ahead, work towards a goal you can see and achieve. The best part is that often one opportunity's fulfillment leads to the opening of a newer, higher level, refined one. and best of all its there, everywhere around you. Anything you touch see or feel is some form of opportunity. One just has to identify and make the start. All of a sudden, the whole world resembles an amusement park with you at the gates. Wherever you go, a host of new enriching experiences await you.
Monday, September 24, 2007
India won th world cup today
India won the world cup today. Dint think I will be able to sy that in my lifetime after the seniors had made so sure that the baggage of history would be carried for generatins on. but this is different. This is a generation of of irreverents, who dont give a rats ass to the history of cricket or for anything else and who just do what is to be done. So Mr. Dhoni you just did it. Take a bow. you deserve it. You will talk about this for the rest of your life just like ol' Kapil and inshallah you will have the other world cup in your belt too. but today you have helped me enjoy my beer. Like Amitabh said in his ad" Kya waqt hai hai zindagi jeene ka" what a time to be an indian.
I saw Shahrukh Khan there today and was wondering - where are are the rest of our senior players. Probably tending to their injuries or their 'commercial' commitments. its quite a shame that a film star has the time to be preseent in a crucial final a\while our seniors spend the time at home balancing their accounts. Guys have a life.
I guesss Shahrukh was there because it was his fitrat - his nature. At short notice to cal up a few of his friends for dinner, say chak de india alound and ask for tickets for himself and his son. But it was a good gesture. At least he was there. just like that - almost. I wish I could do that someday. God you are listening right.?
But my pet grouse for today or atleast till this hangover lasts is - Where the F@%^k are the seniors? Tending to their injuries? Shame. Howeer, having said that, this much is for sure. I, am priviledged. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to enjoy my team's win and that too after beating Pakistan, England, South Africa,Australia and Pakistan again.
God - Bless my team. May there be consistency of the Australian kind.
As for me, I will tend to my hangover tommorrow and chart some course for myself for the day. Like they say 'in the end its you and your toothbrush the next day in the morning'
Over and out
PS: this piece has been writtwn in half euphoria and half beer influence at 00:30 in the morning.
Any spelling/grammatical mistakes may please be excused.
I saw Shahrukh Khan there today and was wondering - where are are the rest of our senior players. Probably tending to their injuries or their 'commercial' commitments. its quite a shame that a film star has the time to be preseent in a crucial final a\while our seniors spend the time at home balancing their accounts. Guys have a life.
I guesss Shahrukh was there because it was his fitrat - his nature. At short notice to cal up a few of his friends for dinner, say chak de india alound and ask for tickets for himself and his son. But it was a good gesture. At least he was there. just like that - almost. I wish I could do that someday. God you are listening right.?
But my pet grouse for today or atleast till this hangover lasts is - Where the F@%^k are the seniors? Tending to their injuries? Shame. Howeer, having said that, this much is for sure. I, am priviledged. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to enjoy my team's win and that too after beating Pakistan, England, South Africa,Australia and Pakistan again.
God - Bless my team. May there be consistency of the Australian kind.
As for me, I will tend to my hangover tommorrow and chart some course for myself for the day. Like they say 'in the end its you and your toothbrush the next day in the morning'
Over and out
PS: this piece has been writtwn in half euphoria and half beer influence at 00:30 in the morning.
Any spelling/grammatical mistakes may please be excused.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Survival of the sickest
A Medical Maverick discovers why we need diseases
Dr. Sharon Moalem
Jonathan Prince
Just started this but straightaway a recommedation. This book talks about something that many of us realise intrisically - that sickness and disease is by itself a very complex operation of the body and the pathogen. What this does is try to look at the root of our diseases froman evolutionary point of view. The central tenet that this starts from is quite simple - If evolution weeds out the undesirable trait over generations, why is it that certain hereditary mass killers still remain? The strongest case in point - Diabetes or for that matter obesity. Why is it that evolution has still not found a way out for these or to be more exact, why havent our bodies evolved to make us resistant to diabetes and obesity?
What he does move in to do then is to track the history of these hereditary conditions. Starting from Hemochromatis (excess absorption of iron by the body) to Diabetes and moving on to the other hereditary conditions.
Taking the case of diabetes, his postualation is that the current conditions of diabetes might be an evolutionary response to the rapid freezing during ice ages wherein the body would have to increase the sugar concentration in the body to avoid the effects of freezing. While it makes for good enjoyable reading, it still begs many questions.
a. why is that diabetes is prevalent even in populations not traditionally exposed to the Tundra climate. South India is a good case in point. The one plausible reason I can think about is that these communities, by the nature of their climatic and working conditions tended to be heavy users of carbohydrates and glucose. This would normally be used up quite quickly as one went about the dialy grind. But the rapid development in the way of living - a clear sedation of working atmosphere means that the bpdy does not do its share of work in removing the excess sugar from the system. and hence the problem of diabetes.
Additionally, all symptoms of diabetes point to a response of the body towards freezing. The body starts removing excess water through urination, the concentration of sugar increases in the blood. This is intriguing as the body apparently starts acting in a freeze response mode. Is it a case of the body's radar malfunctioning or just something else.
Dr. Sharon Moalem
Jonathan Prince
Just started this but straightaway a recommedation. This book talks about something that many of us realise intrisically - that sickness and disease is by itself a very complex operation of the body and the pathogen. What this does is try to look at the root of our diseases froman evolutionary point of view. The central tenet that this starts from is quite simple - If evolution weeds out the undesirable trait over generations, why is it that certain hereditary mass killers still remain? The strongest case in point - Diabetes or for that matter obesity. Why is it that evolution has still not found a way out for these or to be more exact, why havent our bodies evolved to make us resistant to diabetes and obesity?
What he does move in to do then is to track the history of these hereditary conditions. Starting from Hemochromatis (excess absorption of iron by the body) to Diabetes and moving on to the other hereditary conditions.
Taking the case of diabetes, his postualation is that the current conditions of diabetes might be an evolutionary response to the rapid freezing during ice ages wherein the body would have to increase the sugar concentration in the body to avoid the effects of freezing. While it makes for good enjoyable reading, it still begs many questions.
a. why is that diabetes is prevalent even in populations not traditionally exposed to the Tundra climate. South India is a good case in point. The one plausible reason I can think about is that these communities, by the nature of their climatic and working conditions tended to be heavy users of carbohydrates and glucose. This would normally be used up quite quickly as one went about the dialy grind. But the rapid development in the way of living - a clear sedation of working atmosphere means that the bpdy does not do its share of work in removing the excess sugar from the system. and hence the problem of diabetes.
Additionally, all symptoms of diabetes point to a response of the body towards freezing. The body starts removing excess water through urination, the concentration of sugar increases in the blood. This is intriguing as the body apparently starts acting in a freeze response mode. Is it a case of the body's radar malfunctioning or just something else.
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