Simple Scheme.. Big Results

Last updated on: May 25, 2008 at 2:28 am By Desh Kapoor

It is a very simple scheme - kids from the weakest sections of the society, who are studying in the not so great environments of a Government school, are picked by teachers every other year based on a test. The kids' parent could be a helper in a garage or a peon in an office. 30 students in nursery and 30 in CLass V. Nothing special except the school they get to go to is one of the top three private schools in New Delhi. Springdales School. These kids are given free education and are given free books, uniforms, medical aid and other facilities. By Class XII, these kids are completely integrated within the school environment. When they give their final HIgh School examination, they can take the toughest of Indian competitive exams confidently. These students have gone on to become lawyers, doctors, teachers, Engineers, and even a Rhodes Scholar. Read more

Creativity

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 4:38 pm By Desh Kapoor

I do not mean by creativeness merely self-expression—writing a poem or painting a picture. I mean by that word something entirely different. Creativeness, reality, God, or what you will, must be a state of mind in which there is no repetition, in which there is no continuity through memory as we know it. God, or truth, must be totally new, unexperienced before—something which is not the product of memory, of knowledge, of experience. Because if it is the product of knowledge, it is merely a projection, a desire, a wish, and obviously that cannot be what is true or what is real. Read more

"The Third Jesus" book review by Ashish Samuel

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 4:18 pm By jessicafick

I had asked a friend of mine - from High School - to review Dr. Deepak Chopra's book "The Third Jesus". He obliged despite his busy schedule. Please share your views if you have read the book? ******** ********** Deepak Chopra’s book, The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore” Chopra attempts to present that Jesus Christ was referring to Buddhism/Eastern Mysticism. Most of his arguments were not taken from the New Testament; he draws it from Gnostic writings (extra-biblical documents) and quoting from apocryphal works which are not part of the bible. This means if he doesn't use those documents his argument will have no value. It becomes clearer to me that he is using the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as a way to promote his thinking (the modern religion, generally called new age thinking). You could also notice several inaccuracies. Read more

What if Oil Reaches $200/barrel?

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 4:15 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here some interesting information I received from a forwarded email. Don't know the source but it is fairly well said. - This would push shares of oil expenditure in nominal GDP to above peak levels of 1980 for most Asian economies. And Asian growth could be cut by at least another 1.5ppts. - Growth of economies with high energy-intensity, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan, would be affected more, while Chinese and Indian growth might be shielded by oil subsidy. - Average inflation rate could rise by another 3.5ppts, defying the notion that supply-driven inflation could go away by itself. Rates would move up much more rapidly across the region. Read more

Flying Fish sets a record

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 8:53 am By Desh Kapoor

Did you know that fish can fly? YES! There is a special species among the fishes that have wings and can fly. The Exocoetidae or flying fish are a marine fish family comprising about 50 species grouped in 7 to 9 genera. Flying fish are found in all the major oceans, particularly in the warm tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Their most striking feature is their pectoral fins, which are unusually large, and enable the fish to take short gliding flights through air, above the surface of the water, in order to escape from predators. Scientific classification KingdomAnimalia PhylumChordata ClassActinopterygii OrderBeloniformes FamilyExocoetidae In fact I would not have known about it had I not seen the video on CNN for the longest flight recorded of a flying fish. It was recorded in Japan a few weeks back. A crew member onboard a japanese ferry has shot a 45-second-long video of a flying fish in the air. It's thought a be a record. Read more

India has a visitor from Pakistan

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 6:56 am By Desh Kapoor

India has an old visitor from Pakistan. Although he seems ordinary, he is anything but. He shared a bench in school with the Indian Prime Minister in his village school in Gah a village in Pakistan. He has some special soveniers for him: - Soil and water of the village. - Manmohan Singh's school certificates from Class I to Class IV (wonder how he got those jobs without complete school certificates?!) - Photographs of Gah village and Katasraj temple - Punjabi tillae wali jutti. He is unaware if he will need to take an appointment with the PM and remarks in a very simple and uncomplicated way when asked about the appointment Read more

Many Universes (Multi-verses) and Assymetric Time

Last updated on: May 24, 2008 at 3:46 am By Desh Kapoor

The problem with understanding of creation is that it is just an interplay between Space and Time. These two are inextricably linked to our creation - past and future. Despite what we think the scientists claim, the truth is that we are nowhere close to understanding to the absolute micro and the absolute macro. Now, given the inconsistencies between how the past and future might be linked and the effects of entropy, there seems to be new thinking making rounds everyday. Here is another thinking that this article in Scientific American talks about - that Universe maybe not just be expanding and contracting but also maybe turning inside out when it reaches one "end" just like you could turn a balloon inside out and blow it from the other side. On both the sides it might seem as though this was the only experience little realizing that the arrow of time not be a straight line after all! Some cosmologists imagine that the universe went through a “bounce.” Before this event, space was contracting, but instead of simply crashing to a point of infinite density, new physical principles—quantum gravity, extra dimensions, string theory or other exotic phenomena—kicked in to save the day at the last minute, and the universe came out the other side into what we now perceive as the big bang. Though intriguing, bouncing cosmologies do not explain the arrow of time. Either entropy was increasing as the prior universe approached the crunch—in which case the arrow of time stretches infinitely far into the past—or the entropy was decreasing, in which case an unnatural low-entropy condition occurred in the middle of the universe’s history (at the bounce). Either way, we have again passed the buck on the question of why the entropy near what we call the big bang was small. Read more

Future of Pakistan and India

Last updated on: May 23, 2008 at 10:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

In an article written in July 2001, Kuldip Nayar describes how after the rout of Pakistan in the 1965 war - a war that was started by Bhutto as per Ayub Khan himself - Lal Bahadur Shastri did all he could to get peace with Pakistan. Bhutto never wanted that to happen and despite a small phrase added on the Tashkent Agreement - "Without resort to arms" - by Ayub Khan in his own handwriting (still in the archives of the External Affairs ministry in India), Bhutto never really intended to carry it through. A mistake - of believing Bhutto - that India would do again in 1971 by returning 90,000 prisoners of war after the war for a Shimla Agreement that was not even worth the paper it was signed on. It was around midnight. I used the hotline on which Kumarmangalam was speaking to someone in Delhi. When he hung up, I called the UNI office in Delhi. I dictated my biggest scoop, "Shastri dead." The journalist at the other end asked, "How is it possible sir? I am subbing his speech." Late that night, Ayub Khan came to the dacha. He prayed. He told me, "If this man had lived, there was a possibility of India and Pakistan coming together to live in peace." India honoured the Tashkent accord. But Pakistan never implemented it. Bhutto was against it. Haji Pir and Tithwa are two posts that have always been sore spots in many a soldier's mind in India, who fought in the 1965 war. India won those posts after shedding a lot of blood. Many soldiers wept and cried and vowed not to leave despite Shastri's acceptance of their return to Pakistan. His own wife refused to talk to him on the last night of his life. She was aghast and angry. The press were against Shastri. Read more

Contradiction and Integration

Last updated on: May 23, 2008 at 7:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

The division between contradiction and complete integration cannot be drawn intellectually, verbally. Integration comes into being only when there is the total understanding of oneself. And that understanding of oneself does not come through analysis because the problem then arises: Who is the analyzer? Read more

Orkut/Sonia Gandhi case and application of Indian laws!

Last updated on: May 23, 2008 at 6:18 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is by far the most ridicuolous case around! A guy was writing stuff like "Sonia Gandhi is a traitor or enemy of India" on Orkut and the Indian Government machinery went on an overdrive and arrested him. Worse, Google obliged the Government with the necessary details! It obviously makes you wonder what is Google upto? Now, everyone knows that there are numerous mashups of pictures of Indian actresses shown to be in nude. Was that obscene? Congress and the Left have called the RSS and other parties and leaders of BJP as fascists.. in fact there are numerous websites for everyone from those hating RSS to Raj Thackeray. In fact Jagadguru openly admits to be a hater of all religious Hindus. Have they been tried? NO! This shows the different standards for different people and personalities. The obvious question here is clearly - What is to be called "Obscene"? And who decides what is obscene and what is not? It is a subjective thing anyways! Or will the standards change depending on who is the person involved? For that seems to be the case in application of Indian laws in any case! Ostensibly he was tried under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000. This is what that relevant portion says about the obscenity. As you can see its interpretation is fairly wide! specially the third part. Using this you can possibly argue that even showing violent movies can corrupt kids who are likely to read and see that content! So, where does this end? It is clear this act is written to create mischief.. and the Indian justice system has messed in overstepping the line of common sense in Sonia Gandhi's case! Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form. - Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeal to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees. Read more