My New Year Resolution is that I won’t be purchasing anything from the Malls anymore. As far as possible I am going to avoid the `Mall Culture.’
Lets see how far I can go…
Absurdity of TV Censorship
Recently I was watching a movie on the TV, a movie that I had seen earlier. But then as I watched on there seemed to be scenes, dialogs and words missing from the movie. According to the new laws of censorship in cinema one cannot show cigarette being smoked on the screen and forget about liquor not to mention anything about strong language or nudity. Similar things have been adopted for the TV channels. Don’t show this, don’t talk about that.
I ask the question why?
Why is that we need to censor things which according to some individuals is vile, corrupting? As a democracy Indians do have a right to elect whom they see fit to govern them, so aren’t enlightened citizens good enough to select what they want to see? Because, if they are not, then even giving them voting rights would be dangerous, they might elect vile and corrupt politicians to power! And if at all the things such as cigarette and liquor, harsh language with all the Effour letter words,love acts, nudity will corrupt the population, why not banish them from the society. One one hand the government is keen on taxing the industries which manufacture these products in the first place, on the other hand this thing happens! Also one of the arguments that is given is that closing of such industries will take away employment from a whole lot of people. So by censoring cigarettes and liquor is not the government doing exactly that? There is a contradiction which I think I will never be able to understand.
I remember there was a question raised in parliament about this some years back by somebody. It must be sometime in August the logo for a music channel had the Indian tricolor on it. At the same time late in the night [11ish] there used to be a program for dancers. PYTs used to dance on music wearing as you might have guessed a bit skimpy clothes. So some morally upright MP raised this question, that how could be such a thing allowed? In response somebody else pointed out what was the MP doing watching such a thing in the first place at such an unholy hour in the night. The story here reflects the typical attitude, they want all for themselves but when it comes to public, the public needs to be told what they should watch on media. This the Government is doing, controlling the media and trying to control your thoughts.
But fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the government, this is the age of Internet. The example of Wikileaks has shown us that even the mighty US Government cannot stop the flow of information on the Internet. But who can forget Indian Governments attempt to kill Savita Bhabhi? India’s first own porn star was put to death by an Government by issuing the ISPs to not allow to access the said web site which hosted her. But that did not kill her, did it? Instead she became immortal.
Perhaps the Government should look at the implications and be practical when they are trying to implement the laws of morality over general public. Do not we see people smoking and drinking in public, isn’t molesting of women and their brutal rapes a part of our daily lives, aren’t children getting the worst of the things that we as a civilization have to offer to them? Then why make a facade of moral values to try to take control of the media? This is my take on it. The Government doesn’t bother whether you or your children grow up as shitbags, but what it bothers about is the control, the thought control precisely.
Government wants the control.
Controlling media would also control what people think and see. And its not just about any Government, the politicians that we see are just the tip of the iceberg. The Government is a system which wants above everything else, the control. There was a time when the control was easy, but we still haven’t got over the License Raj, have we? Now they want to introduce the UID, a solution for all the ills in this country. UID, at best, is a solution looking for a problem. The UID project is in place just because the industry has something to sell, and tax payers money has no guardians. They say they will monitor all the progress of an individual. And you know how safe are we when we give all the control to a central authority.
From what we have happening in India in the recent years it wont be long before we have our own version of Orwellian dystopia.
Big
BrotherBabu is watching you.
The UID will enter into all aspects of your life, birth, education, property, communications, death, travel. UID does not make your country safe, but makes it easier to target “the most dangerous man” as told by Spyder Jerusalem in the Vertigo comics series Transmetropolitan.
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to
think things out for himself, without regard to prevailing
superstitions or taboos. Almost inevitable he comes to the
conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and
intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. Even
if he is not romantic personally he is apt to spread discontent among
those who are.
– H L Mencken
Till then beware of what decisions that you support, as they will be paid for by your own children…
Turtle Art Galore…
Here is one for the Turtle Art!
The idea that the child should program the computer and not the other way round was initiated by Seymour Papert in his book Mindstorms. Papert calls the field constructionism instead of Piaget’s constructvism. Will elaborate the detailed differnces in some other post. But we at gnowledge.org lab are tryingto bring that in India using Sugar as a learning platform and we are not exclusively using OLPCs for that. We conduct regular teacher training workshops throughour India. One of our basic guidelies in all this is the use of Free and Open Source Software in education.
One of the first things that we introduce to newcomes in Sugar is the Turtle Blocks.
How to define Turtle Art? Well it is a studio! It has components of mathematics. logic, and art embedded in it. Artemis Papert [related to Seymour Papert?] has a website on the art that can be created using Turtle Art here www.turtleart.org
Have a look at the amazing gallery with the source code also available in case you want to have a peek at how such lovely pictures can be made using Turtle Blocks!!
Here is mine, adopted from the cover of the Turtle Art Book 3 by Artemis Papert.
And this is how I did it.
An Open Letter to the Railway Minister
This is an open letter to The Railway Minister of India. Whoever it is. Though currently Mamta Banerjee aka Didi is the one who is holding the post. This post is related to the derailing and death of the Gyaneshwari Express:
The Gyaneshwari Express derailment occurred on 28 May 2010 in the West
Midnapore district of West Bengal, India. It was disputed as to
whether sabotage or a bomb caused damage on the railway track, which
in turn led to a train’s derailment before an oncoming goods train hit
the loose carriages killing at least 141 passengers.[1]
Now the aftermath of this incidence is that instead of accepting that there is a problem of law and order as regards to the Maoists, the Government is steadily denying that there is a problem. As a result of that all the night running trains in the affected areas have been halted. Instead of trying to look for a solution to the problem, the Government is trying to hide it from the people. So as a result the common people are suffering. The media is supporting the Government in totally being oblivious to the delay in the trains caused by this. I don’t know of any coverage, but if it is there, I have not seen it.
The trains get late everyday on an average by 8 – 10 hours! Can you believe this? Once in a while is okay, but everyday? And that too from last 7-8 months? Miss Banerjee what do you have to say for all this delay? If you and the Government is so scared of the Maoists that you cannot run trains in their dominated areas after sundown, at least admit it! You can at least change the train timings… But you are too clever to do that, as you have the state elections lined soon, so instead you will not do this, citing no reason whatsoever?
Think about the trouble it is causing to people, who have to catch trains at odd times, have to sleep on platforms, just because the trains are running late on a regular basis. The railways are there for the public, are the not? And if the public is being left out of the equation, there is something missing. Are you not ashamed as the railway minister, that trains are running regularly late? Or is it the chalta hai attitude that you want to show off? If you cannot solve the Maoist problem at least you can change the train timings so that the passengers are not left in turmoil at the railway station waiting 10 hours after the scheduled time of the arrival of their train…
On Cameras…
A worthy quote from issue 1 of 4 part limited series comics Gangland from Vertigo Comics on cameras and photos..
I’ve been always fascinated by cameras. Little boxes and inside
each one, a tiny thief, ready to steal at touch of a button. To
pocket a moment of time.What they steal can never be returned; what they take they keep
forever…Stealing moments in time with my invisible eye…
As if I could replace what’s missing in my heart with a few spare
moments clipped from other people’s lives.
Sophie’s World
I had heard about Sophie’s World from quite a number of sources. Finally I got a worn out copy from Fort for 100 bucks. Finished it in the next couple of days. This was about two years back. It is one of the best bedside introductions to philosophy…
Embedded in mystery and weirdness.
The best part of the climax is a p”hilosophical party”, which I also wish to have…
Quotes:
Who are you?
“You are me.”
“I am you.”
You can’t experience being alive without realizing that you have to die, she thought.
Where does the world come from?
How could it be “the easiest way”?
… the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…
Why was it so difficult to be absorbed in the most vital and, in a way, the most natural of all questions?
So it is easier to ask philosophical questions than to answer them.
Actually, we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat.
and anyway it would be pointless to chase after someone who was determined to get away.
It all has to do with habit.
Do you think it can do what it does?
A philosopher never gets quite used to the world.
She understood that people had always felt a need to explain the processes of nature. Perhaps they could not live without such explanations. And that they made up all those myths in the time before there was anything called science.
… nothing can come from nothing …
Once we have determined what a particular philosopher’s project is, it is easier to follow his line of thought, since no one philosopher concerns himself with the whole of philosophy.
How can I “see” a flower, for example?
You probably wouldn’t admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.
She decided that philosophy was not something you can learn; but perhaps you can learn to think philosophically.
Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?
Why did people quit playing when they grew up?
“I’m not playing!” Sophie retorted indignantly, “I’m doing a very complicated philosophical experiment!”
Do you believe in Fate?
Is sickness the punishment of the gods?
What forces govern the course of history?
Who had the right to call other people’s belief superstition?
One day we will meet, but I shall be the one to decide when and where.
Thus the “fortune-teller” is trying to foresee something that is really quite unforeseeable.
This is characteristic of all forms of foreseeing. And precisely because what they “see” is so vague, it is hard to repudiate fortune-tellers’ claims.
Over the entrance to the temple at Delphi was a famous inscription: KNOW THYSELF! It
reminded visitors that man must never believe himself to be more than mortal—and that no man can escape his destiny.
…wisest is she who knows she does not know…
Is there such a thing as natural modesty?
Wisest is she who knows she does not know…
True insight comes from within.
He who knows what is right will do right.
But today, most people think it is “natural,” even though
it is still strictly forbidden in lots of countries.
But the more she did, the more clearly she saw that knowing what you don’t know is also a kind of knowledge.
But didn’t all knowledge come into people’s heads from the outside?
The history of ideas is like a drama in many acts.
In order for democracy to work, people had to be educated enough to take part in the
democratic process.
“The question is complex and life is short.”
Modesty—or the lack of it—is first and foremost a matter of social convention.
“You can seek him in the present, you can seek him in the past, but you will never find
his equal.” on Socrates
So it is no easy matter to distinguish between the teachings of Socrates and the philosophy of Plato.
Socrates saw his task as helping people to “give birth” to the correct insight, since
real understanding must come from within. It cannot be imparted by someone else. And only
the understanding that comes from within can lead to true insight.
Something within him left him no choice.
A “philosopher” really means “one who loves wisdom.”
A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little.
…it troubled him that he knew so little.
“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.”
Any one question can be more explosive than a thousand answers.
All he knew was that he knew nothing—and it troubled him. So he became a
philosopher—someone who does not give up but tirelessly pursues his quest for truth.
Can you live a happy life if you continually do things you know deep down are wrong?
“We don’t learn anything there. The difference between schoolteachers and philosophers is that school-teachers think they know a lot of stuff that they try to force down our throats. Philosophers try to figure things out together with the pupils.”
“It’s not him who’s disturbed. But he likes to disturb others—to shake them out of their rut.”
… several tall buildings had risen from the ruins …
We still speak of Socratic or Platonic philosophy, but actually being Plato or Socrates is quite another matter.”
Plato’s four tasks.
First you must think over how a baker can bake fifty absolutely identical cookies.
Then you can ask yourself why all horses are the same.
Next you must decide whether you think that man has an immortal soul.
And finally you must say whether men and women are equally sensible.
… a longing to return to the realm of the soul…
Because even though some horses were as brown as bears and others
were as white as lambs, all horses had something in common.
All she knew was that dead bodies were either
cremated or buried, so there was no future for them.
Why are horses the same, Sophie? You probably don’t think they are at all. But there is
something that all horses have in common, something that enables us to identify them as
horses. A particular horse “flows,” naturally. It might be old and lame, and in time it will die. But
the “form” of the horse is eternal and immutable.
Because clearly, the mold itself must be utter perfection—and in a sense, more beautiful—in comparison with these crude copies.
… the girl in the mirror winked with both eyes…
Was it the path she had taken earlier?
How could a person who had never seen a live chicken or a picture of a chicken ever have any “idea” of a chicken?
What came first—the chicken or the “idea” chicken ?
Are we born with innate “ideas”? What is the difference between a plant, an animal, and a human?
Why does it rain?
What does it take to live a good life?
…a meticulous organizer who wanted to clarify our concepts …
You’ll have to content yourself with the fact that you are not the only one who can’t exceed your own limits.
Everybody is more or less peculiar. I am a person, so I am more or less peculiar. You have only one girl, so I am the most peculiar.
Common sense and conscience can both be compared to a muscle. If you don’t use a muscle, it gets weaker and weaker.”
The world is me, she thought.
And as you know, when a thing gets bigger and bigger it’s more difficult to keep it to yourself.
It is the only way to become more than a naked
ape. It is the only way to avoid floating in a vacuum.
… going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way…
Sorry. My lips are sealed.”
But she had been nervous, and when you’re nervous its comforting to break all taboos.
“It’s easy to know better after the fact.”
We shall become better acquainted by and by
But philosophy is not a harmless party game.
One generation ages while another generation is brought forth.
Life is both sad and solemn. We are let into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other—and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived.
“It’s not a silly question if you can’t answer it.
“Does all this really matter?” “Does it matter? You bet it matters!
“Smart. But not so smart really.”
“Is it really as simple as that?”
For the wages of sin is death.
That was a serious slip of the tongue.”
“But a slip of the tongue is never wholly accidental.”
…such stuff as dreams are made on…
She knew her mother knew that Sophie knew her mother wouldn’t believe it either.
“No, there’s a lot I don’t know.”
“Well, nearly everything that’s important comes either from Greece or from Italy.”
That was actually quite a lot in the space of one second.
carpe diem’—‘seize the day.’
‘memento mori,’ which means ‘Remember that you must die.’
But any display of magnificence presupposes a display of power. It has often been said that the political situation in the Baroque period was not unlike its art and architec
… he wanted to clear all the rubble off the site…
“You begin to work out your own philosophy.”
‘How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?’
Y – The Last Man
Recently read the comics series Y The Last Man.
Tale of a single human male and his pet monkey, who survive an instant death to all the mammals that have the ‘Y’ chromosome; read males. All the mammal males, even the sperms die at the same time. This leads the world in chaos. Yorick the only male to survive this disaster is escorted by Agent 355 with Dr. Mann a scientist, who seems to be the only woman who is capable of doing anything about the catastrophe. So starts the adventure, with only one male remaining in the world
Quotes
#1
Who wants peace, when we have not yet begun to fight?
I am not afraid of the world…. I am afraid of the world without you.
# 5
When the game is over, the Queen and the Pawn go in the same box.
# 7
No price is too great for your opponents king.
# 8
There’s a line I never thought I’d have to hear again.
# 09
Your imprisonment was also your emancipation.
# 12
Euphemisms are only for those who feel guilt about what they are
describing.
With little power comes little responsibility.
# 13
None of us is innocent.
# 14
… but sometimes you must do terrible things for peace.
# 15
This is what happens to friends when a man comes between them.
# 18
Ain’t nothing worse than ladies in numbers.
Is this some kinda joke?
That’s what I keep asking myself.
The Day of The Locust
# 20
It was like, they had crossed the finish line already, you know? But I
still had a million laps to run.
Everyone else just thinks I’m dumb and impulsive and .. well not that
I am not…
Endings have to be earned.
# 21
Isn’t this the part where you do something stupid?
# 22
Good thing, our shit lawys goes according to plans…
Just because you can dance doesn’t mean that you are a dancer…
# 25
I came here for forgiveness… but now I’ve just got more shit to be
sorry for.
The things we do make us what we are.
You fuck better than you preach.
# 27
You, young man are wise beyond your years.
# 29
Karma is a fucking urban legend.
# 32
Waters won’t be always this calm.
# 35
And I’m no more guilty than you are qualified to sit on that bench.
# 37
The future never shapes up like you figure it will…
# 38
Come on, we have a rumour to kill…
# 42
Love isn’t an emotion it’s an abstract construct mammals assign to a
biological imperative they don’t fully understand.
# 43
Everybody needs somebody.
Sure, this will probably end up being another in a long line of
emotionally crippling misadventures.
No, real relationships can only be forged by hate.
The gangster of love knows how to simulate all passages great and
small.
Yes, you are very beautiful when you cry.
# 44
Everybody has got something to hide.
Everybody’s got something, right?
# 47
How is it wrong if no one ever knows about it?
We may be changing countries, but we will net let that country change
us.
# 49
Mixed messages in my bane existence.
# 50
Faith and science can be friends, but they make for a disastrous
marriage.
Answers to the unknown are all around us.
# 51
Our bodies tell us that we love so many, but there’s room in our
hearts for so few.
# 52
Our sexes maybe equal, but they are not the same.
Because you confused your protective instincts with romantic
feelings.
# 53
Still, you can take the girl out of htthe amazon, but you can’t always
take the amazons out of the girl, right?
# 55
A good relationship isn’t where one the other person makes you feel
better, but where they make you better.
# 57
So you would have said no to the man, but yes to the last man.
I have so many different ways to respond to that, I don’t know even
where to begin.
# 60
We spend nine months trying to get out of a women and rest of our
lives trying to get back in.
Gel’fand’s Quote
This is taken from The Method of Coordinates by I. M. Gel’fand
E.G. Glagoleva A.A. Kirillov
Of course, it was not our intention that aIl these
students who studied from these books or even
completed the School should choose mathematics as
their future career. Nevertheless, no matter what they
would later choose, the results of this training re
mained with them. For many, this had been their first
experience in being able to do something on their own
— completely independently.
1 would like to make one comment here. Sorne of my
American colleagues have explained to me that
American students are not really accustomed to think
ing and working hard, and for this reason we must
make the material as attractive as possible. Permit me
to not completely agree with this opinion. From my
long experience with young students aU over the
world 1 know that they are curious and inquisitive and
1 beIieve that if they have sorne clear mate rial pre
sented in a simple form, they will prefer this to aIl
artificial means of attracting their attention — much as
one ,buys books for their content and not for their
dazzling jacket designs that engage only for the
moment.
The most important thing a student can get from the
study of mathematics is the attainment of a higher
intellectualleveL In this light 1would like to point out
as an example the famous American physicist and
teacher Richard Feynman who succeeded in writing
both his popular books and scientific works in a
simple and attractive manner.
I. M. Gel’fand
A Woman’s Snare…
They chatter with one man,
Look at another with amorous gestures;
And in their minds think of yet another,
Who then is loved by a woman?
From: Bhartrihari [7th Century]
When you read these lines, the immediate thing that you want to do is to find a woman in your memory lanes that fits the above bill. One will perhaps find not one, but many. But, perhaps this also applies to men, in fact I think they are more likely to do so, if you accept the explanations from evolutionary psychology and comparative psychology.
In evolutionary psychology they say that the males want to produce as many offspring as possible. So they try to mate with as many females as possible, many times the quality does not matter, only quantity does. This is so because the males do not have to invest [sic] a lot in mating. The analogy that is often given to the sperm production in males is to spam mails that hit your mailbox daily. Even if one in 10 million makes it, your job is done. But for the females the bodily investment is much larger. So females they say prefer quality over quantity. After the copulation it is the female who has to bear the child, and the responsibility of male becomes minimal. Imagine if a human male copulated daily with a fertile female, which I guess one can, how many children can he produce in a life time? Perhaps in thousands. Similarly if we think of human females producing children when they can, that is taking into consideration their biology; perhaps one child in a year, considering all other factors, the total number will be max at 2 dozen or so. So it is the males who would are more likely to be mating more than women to produce children and that too with many different ones, if they have the capabilities.
This particular observation is not general, and of course does not apply to all species. There are species of sea-horse in which the males rear the young ones, in almost all birds the rearing of offspring is the joint responsibility of the couple. In animals who have social structures, as in case of humans and monkeys, the young ones are raised socially.
But we being humans, do not copulate just for procreation, we do also copulate for recreation [of ourselves that is]. They say that dolphins and chimps are the only other creatures which do so, no wonder they are called intelligent. All other animals copulate when their natural cycle tells them to. So in this light of recreational copulation the above verses acquire a different meaning. There are women and men who copulate and want to copulate for recreation, it is perhaps their nature to do so, but perhaps they are bound too strongly by the social sanctions that surround them.
The next question to ask is that is it right for them to do so?
Well, the answer depends on what one thinks of such social norms. Are they to be followed in to to, or they have an interpretation dependent logic.
The answer is something that I do not know…
PS: Perhaps the essay might sound silly, it is; I have to expand on certain sections.
Why children hate maths…
Today, because it is the 15th Monday of your 5th grade year,
you have to do this sum irrespective of who you are or what
you really want to do; do what you are told and do it the
way you are told to do it.
From: The Children’s Machine by Seymour Papert