grad students and the aviation industry

the aviation industry owes us grad students bigtime. we make up for their lack of good in-flight entertainment and reading material and provide advisors with entertaining,
and often humorous reading and viewing material.

RITA ROCKS!!

go figure :-)

ode to spam

spam is one of these things that makes you feel important in life

if you dont receive academic spam inviting you to conferences in exotic places and
publishing in obscure journals your standing in the research community is questionable
if you dont receive credit card applications then you dont exist in the view of the
financial world
if you dont receive email spam then you dont have an online presence

today, i have finally been granted a status in the research community -- i have got my first piece of academic spam .. hooray!!

the battle between intelligence and erudition.

there are two kinds of cleverness -- the stuff that arises out of your natural
intelligence, and the stuff that arises out of knowledge/wisdom that you have gained over time.
to kickstart some form of intelligent thinking some learning is required, since it
is often necessary to learn the language/formalism and the tools of the trade
before one can apply the intelligence usefully to problems.
beyond a point however i think learning begins to stifle creativity, and hence
affects your intelligence. there can be many reasons for this, one possible
hypothesis is that the desire to learn outlasts the desire to think, since it
is easier to get engrossed in the knowledge pool out there and it is large enough that you can spend an entire lifetime trying to learn it. the other reason could be that the knowledge begins to affect the way you think -- it rewires your brain in some
subconscious way forcing you to think exactly the way that the sources of wisdom thought. the third reason could be that, too much knowledge can introduce some innate cynicism and scepticism regarding your own competence, you start to feel
that most of your "original" thoughts cease to be original since they would have been stated in some context or another, with high probability. and thus it ceases to incentivize original thinking.

random mental associations

school days:
independence day -- 10 paise orange candy
republic day -- not knowing if green is on top or orange is on top (still cant figure!)
7:00 am -- mr belvedere

school teachers:
"minus half"
teacher: yes yes that u will get only with experience
student: sir, how do we get the experience
teacher: that u will get only with experience


coaching-classes -- "kavalapadathe sagothara" gaana paattu from nearby slum
maths "anusha vidusha and burly badushah"
physics "the cancelling is counselled"
chemistry "you have practically missed the bus"
songs:
europe final countdown -- ace of base
chumbawamba tubthumping -- sachin at sharjah

will keep adding as things unearth themselves

(de)addiction strategy

the sure shot way to cure an addiction is to overdo it until the point when it becomes boring.
try it .. works every time .. at least with things like games/songs ..

to cut or not to cut that is the question

arguments for cutting:
1. brownie points with folks at home
2. avoid questions like "yaaru intha paiyan"


arguments for not cutting:
1. "effort" spent over the last 6 months
2. last chance to appear pseudo-intellectual
3. pseud value
4. can say been there done that at the end of it


not cutting wins unanimously 4:2

what is to be cut is open to imagination

desperately seeking depression

what is it about the human psyche that makes us go search for sad/depressing stuff?

case studies: books, music, movies

the best music (at least in indian films) seems to be those that have a depressed protagonist (preferably drunk beyond redemption).

the best books seem to be ones that are absolutely wrought with depression and thought-provoking stuff.

the best movies seem to be inspired by human tragedy and war.

inspired by current addiction to kabhi na kabhi ..from sharaabi

maybe its just me ...

easter

the only useful festival in the calendar is easter -- only time theres a wide variety of sweet and sour candy, jelly beans in the market in abundance.
all other festivals suck.

research

"Of course, my task was not to invent a new theory but to assemble the existing knowledge, quite doable if one could write clear English"

--quoting herb simon out of context :-)

more quotes

"much hostile and aggressive behavior among animals is the expression of social insecurity"

"when two creatures meet, the one that is able to intimidate its opponent is recognized as socially superior, so that a social decision does not always depend on a fight, an encounter in some circumstances may be enough"

"socially inferior animals are the ones that make the most strenuous, resourceful efforts to get to know their keepers. they prove to be the ones most faithful to them, most in need of their company, and least likely to challenge them or be difficult"

-- "life of pi"

thanks to wikiquote!

"This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

qotd

"he had fought so many wars not out of idealism, as everyone had thought, nor had he renounced a certain victory because of fatigue, as everyone had thought, but that he had won and lost for the same reason, pure and sinful pride"

-- "one hundred years of solitude" gabriel garcia marquez

V

long time since i used truly positive adjectives ... v for vendetta is absolutely awesome

p.s: reminded me of an old vinod kambli ad .. v for victory, v for veedol .. poor chap had to make do with cheap motorcycle
lubricant ads, while his schoolmate got all the big bucks :-)

greatest game ever .. i dont think so

In reference to this:
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/rsavaus/content/current/story/240507.html

Calling it the greatest game ever is a grave injustice to the game. No doubt, it was close, nail-biting, exciting, and had most ingredients of a masala-packet encounter. But, the game is supposed to be a contest between bat and ball, and the last I heard it was not a contest between bat and bat. Unfortunately in recent times ODIs have become increasingly a contest between bats on either side, and bowlers are reduced to pale shadows of themselves with little or no assistance from the pitches. Flat track bullies like Younis Khan, Veeru Sehwag (the list is long..) dominate the game with absolute nonchalance and rake up averages and astonishing scores entering themselves in the record books -- but whats the net worth of these records? I hope this game serves as a wakeup call to administrators and viewers all around the world to re-think what cricket is supposed to be about.

I will have at least one person to agree with me, the pitiable Lewis, who suffered the ignominy of scoring a century for the wrong reasons.

All said and done, its good to see the Aussies are mortal (with even playing conditions, unlike calcutta/madras dustbowls, with umpires like bansal and jayprakash who are ever trigger-happy with lbw and bat-pads) ..

quote of the day

"thats the trouble with you sad city types: you think a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it's real"
-- "Haroun and the Sea of Stories"

you know you are in trouble when..

you are half-asleep in the morning and you see a screensaver in your head!

sorry for my..

incompetence
indolence
insolence
insouciance
ignorance
irreverence

cranial conundrum

assume the existence of some person X. X cannot be happy because X's brain gets
worried when X is happy that X is not worrying enough about things that X should be worrying about. For the exact same reason X cannot have fun, because whenever X has fun the brain's response is to drive X into depression for not being depressed enough.

Is there a solution to X's dilemma?

self-contained/self-referential/self-consistent

"he was in the throes of composition, in a wilderness of doubts and misgivings - not only about the material and its validity but a fundamental harrowing doubt about his competence to write at all. What evil genius impelled me to undertake this task? What conceit? Waste of time ... With all the self-criticism on one side, he was still struggling to whip the pen on, not having the heart to stop it. But it was a torment."

-- R. K. Narayan, "The world of Nagaraj"