Krishnan

Remembering Paul Gauguin

“Peak Oil” has been eating my brains out for the last couple of days.

Except a few chemical engineers around me who atleast seem to understand the enormity of the problem, most people around me seem blissfully ignorant and completely unaware. I even heard about some one saying “Oil can’t ever run out, it gushes out from under the earth.”

History seems all set to reverse itself.

I’m reminded of Gauguin’s words: “In order to do something new we must go back to the source, to humanity in its infancy.”

The human kind surely does not need oil to survive.

Great empires were established without a single drop of oil. Even though Rome was not built in a day, it was built before refineries were built.

In lieu of oil, humans will need to work harder, but that can’t be very bad. For centuries, our forefathers have done that.

But of course, working harder was never an acceptable solution to the human race. What we want is a simple magical energy solution will present itself to the human race so that the laziness can prevail and all can watch TV sitting on fat couches eating chips and drinking cola. It could be a simple wave of Harry Potter’s wand or a wierd gravity defying perpetual motion machine installed and maintained by Mickey Mouse. The solution has to come from somewhere.

People, atleast some of them, need to take up the role of artists to create the ultimate energy solution…and the painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.

Gauguin said : I shut my eyes in order to see

This means that if a painter limits himself to the mundane sight of the world, his ability to create things beyond the mundane sight is lost.

What I learn from this is that for one to arrive at a truly creative solution, one has to stop worrying about the norm. Creative solutions are obtained more easily if the norm is discarded and the mind is free to seek and try means that are new, different or innovated.

I’m going to close my eyes now, so that I can find a solution to the energy crisis. Check this space tomorrow 🙂

What every Indian should know

There is an interesting provision in the Indian voting system, as per a 1969 act, in section “49-O” of code of conduct of elections.

As per this, a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn’t want to vote for anyone!

Now, why should anybody go to the polling booth and say “I DO NOT WANT TO VOTE FOR ANYBODY”?

Simply because it can make a difference.

“Not voting” and deciding to “not vote for anybody” are two different things as per the constitution.

The decision to “not vote for anybody” prevents your vote from being misused. Also, it can alter the course of an election result even after a candidate has won a majority of votes.

If the number of people using the “49 O” option is greater than the winning candidates vote margin, then the election results would be null and void. Not only that, the candidature of the contestant would be removed and they cannot recontest, since people had already expressed their decision on them.

This way, if >50% people decide to use this option, then this means people do not have faith in any candidate who is contesting the election. The political parties would have to then either propose new candidates for the next elections who are acceptable to public or it may pave a way for new independent candidates.

This would instill some fear inthe political parties who would look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This could change the way of our whole political system.

Showing your power expressing your desire not to vote for anybody is more powerful than voting , so don’t miss your chance.

So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and you can do your share to improve India’s political system.

For those who know Tamil, there is an article about this at http://www.keetru.com/ohpodu/Oh_Podu.pdf.

Please pass the word on to everybody you know.

Write for Wikipedia

Over the last couple of days, I spent a lot of time wondering what web content I could create, all by my own.

Narrowing down on an answer was not easy.

I have lived three decades on this planet. Been there, done that – but would it interest anyboy at all?

Ideally, I’d like to create content that lasts forever.

But what is it that lasts forever?

People change companies. Companies change businesses. Businesses change technologies. Technologies change. Even science changes.

No matter what I write today, I’m cluttering up the disk space of some server.

If what I write does not serve a purpose today or is not required to be preserved for future, there is no point in my writing it. I only hope that a few bloggers realise this before they waste their efforts.

In these few years that I’ve known the net, I’ve read through a large number of blog sites, checked many search engines for the content they index and browsed through a large number of other websites created by individuals and companies.

I would argue that internet should be used only constructively for education and archiving and passing on our wisdom to the future generations.

All those websites out there that sell sleaze and whose only purpose is to make money would definitely disagree with me.

Internet, after all, is yet another product of the human mind and has consequently evolved to reflect the human mind. There are a great many number of things in it that have a varying degree of utility and legality.

After a self humbling experience of browsing the internet, which is as difficult as trying to understand the human mind itself, a tired traveller can just ask for two things.

“Organisation and structure.”

This is what Wikipedia has perfected.

To me, seeking knowledge on Google represents “the struggle of the mind to find a solution amidst chaos”.

Google is, beyond all doubts, a great tool for the internet. Given that the internet itself is the byproduct of actions of nerds, musicians, artists, perverts, maniacs, grand mothers, lawyers, psychopaths, educators, kids and pretty much every one else, it is natural that seeking knowledge from the internet is as chaotic like what it is today.

Wikipedia, on the other hand, to me represents order.

I am a structured learner. By typing the same search string into Wikipedia, I’ve often learnt much more than what I’ve learnt from Google.

Wikipedia does not help if you are looking to download warez, cracks, source codes for viruses or anything else illegal. Needs such as these, which have a varying degree of utility and legality, are best addressed by Google.

But what Wikipedia does, and does very well, is it lets you seek information in a very formal, structured and hyperlinked way.

I remember my excitement when I first learnt about hyperlinks from a text book without even having seen one and how fascinated I was by the idea that information can be interconnected in any manner we want. Reading through Wikipedia, I realise that the potential of the hyperlinking has been exploited like never before.

To me Wikipedia represents a dream fulfilled, a truly wonderful legacy that we will be passing on to the generations to come.

If every person can add even just one line to it in his life time, the entire 6 billion strong world can benefit from this wonderful tool. I can only urge every one to participate in the Wikipedia wonder, use it and contribute to it.

PI

Though PI has a reputation of being an irrational number (a number that can’t be expressed as a ratio of two integers), I did a small check to see which vulgar fraction within denominator <1000 comes closest to PI


Fraction    Value           % error

pi()       3.141592654

22/7       3.142857143    0.040249943

355/113    3.14159292     0.000008491

1043/332   3.141566265   -0.000839973

1753/558   3.141577061   -0.00049633

2152/685   3.141605839    0.000419718

Remembering Gibran

Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.