Tracking Greenie

My friend Supraja, announced the release of Greenie, a sea turtle in to the sea, with a satellite tag. The map on the right show where she has traveled, since being released into the open waters on Sunday, Aug 29, 2010.

I was planning to go, but timing didnt work out for me. However, the path and journey can be tracked online, by one interested at SeaTurtle.org.

And another discovery that i learnt recently was 'IFS'. Thats not Indian Foreign Service, as i used to think, it instead stands for Indian Forest Service. A civil service post, similar to the IAS rank. I understood this when i met Mr. R. Sundararaju, IFS,  the Chief Wildlife Warden, of Tamil Nadu. It was a chance meeting, when he visited DC, that lead to this. Interestingly i was also pleasantly surprised with his grasp on environment, wildlife and forest related issues and knowledge.

I was also disproved that a bureaucrat,  is usually just a paper pusher and doesnt know about the space where they work. This gentleman is quite knowledgeable on most issues related to his area, and also has the passion required of him.

Newt Speak !

Esquire recently published an article on Newt Gingrich. What struck me the most was the line, "It doesn't matter what I do, people need to hear what I have to say." Well spoken Mr. Gingrich. The excerpt below sets the context for this momentous quote.

But Marianne was having problems of her own. After going to the doctor for a mysterious tingling in her hand, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Early in May, she went out to Ohio for her mother's birthday. A day and a half went by and Newt didn't return her calls, which was strange.

They always talked every day, often ten times a day, so she was frantic by the time he called to say he needed to talk to her. "About what?"

He wanted to talk in person, he said. "I said, 'No, we need to talk now.' "

He went quiet. "There's somebody else, isn't there?"


She kind of guessed it, of course. Women usually do. But did she know the woman was in her apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed?


She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. " 'I can't handle a Jaguar right now.' He said that many times. 'All I want is a Chevrolet.' "
 
He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.


He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.


The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"


"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Well said Mr. Gingrich ! Well said !!
In spite of this hypocrisy, his followers will listen to him and look up to him, just like they do of the many like him. All i can think of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. If that equates to these leaders/speakers, then you can just imagine what the mice equates to.

"Reality Distortion Field"

This is an animated video by NMANews, a Taiwanese outfit, that also put out the animated version of the Tiger Woods story, now has this story about Steve Jobs and Apple. I find this funny, but not fully a subscriber to the theory expounded here. Of course its all done in jest.



Why they should do this, and why this resonates with a lot of people is another story, and i hope to find time to pen that soon.

Stuff people come up with !!

I was searching recently for the name of the parrot that was also supposedly doing the predictions for the winner of the 2010 World Cup Football. I hit on this page below. I grabbed the image of the page, lest they remove it or i loose it in the world wide web. What caught my eye, was not the parrot the prediction or the octopus and their psychic ability to predict winners, but the explanation offered by a comment at the bottom.

Nice going Mr. Damodaran !! I wonder what you would have come up with if Spain didnt end up winning the world cup.

Govt of India hikes fuel price

What is fiscal responsibility ? Why is the government more concerned about scoring brownie-points for its fiscal policies, than the population that it must govern? Ever wonder what would happen if we mimic societies of the so called developed countries?

Classical Tamizh - Semmozhi Tamizhmozhi

Here is the anthem composed by ARR, for the World Classical Tamil Conference. The anthem itself was penned by Karunanidhi. The song and music has the usual ARR class and touch. I am still trying to get a good grasp of the meaning of the lyrics here.

Pirapokkum ella uyirkum
pirandha pinnar
yaddhum oore yaavarum kellirrr
onnbadhu naazhi udupathu irende
uraividam enbadhu ondre
uraithu vazhndhom uzhaithu vazhvom..

theedhum nandrum pirar thara vaarai yenum
nan mozhiye nam pon mozhiyaam
porrai puram thallhi porulai podhuvaakave..
amaidhi vazhi kaatum anbu mozhi
ayyan valluvarin vaaimozhiyaam

SEMMOZHIYAANA TAMIZH MOZHIYAAAM (repeat)

orrarivu mudhal aararivu uyirinam varayile
unarndhidum udalamaipai pagirthu koorum
orrarivu mudhal aararivu uyirinam varayile
unarndhidum udalamaipai pagirthu koorum
thozhgapugal thozhgapiyamum
oppatra kural koorum uyar panpaadu
olikindra silamubum meghalayum sindhamaniyudane..
vazhayapathi kundalakesiyumm..

SEMMOZHIYAANA TAMIZH MOZHIYAAAM (repeat)

kamba naataalvarum kavi arasiyevai nallaalum
yemmadhamum yetrum puzhgal endru
yethanayo aayiram kavidhai neivor tharum
thadai anaithukkum vithaaga vilangum mozhi

SEMMOZHIYAANA TAMIZH MOZHIYAAAM (repeat)

aagam endrum puram endrum
vazhvai azhagaaga vaguthalithu
aadhi anddam illathu irukindra iniya mozhi
modhi vazharum uyiraana ulhaga mozhi
modhi vazharum uyiraana ulhaga mozhi
thamm mozhi namm mozhi
adhuve…

SEMMOZHIYAANA TAMIZH MOZHIYAAAM
tamizh mozhi tamizh mozhi tamizh mozhi yaaaa…
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam
tamizh mozhi yaam tamizh mozhi yaam tamizh mozhi yaam
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam
Thamizh Mozhiyam Engal Thamil Mozhiyam
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam
Thamizh Mozhiyam Engal Thamil Mozhiyam
Vazhiya Vazhiya ve..Thamizh .. Vazhiya Vazhiya ve
Vazhiya Vazhiya ve..Thamizh ..
semmozhiyaana tamizh mozhiyaaam

Bhopal - 28 years later - a big joke

20 thousand people dead, the court decides to give a guilty verdict, with just 2 years imprisonment, and fine of a few lakhs of rupees. All this quickly followed by a bail, with a bond of Rs. 25000 !

A small perspective

Here is a small perspective on you, me, us, and our planet, earth that we live on. We live on possibly the only planet that seems to have intelligent (pretentious) life forms. And instead of trying to protect it, we are looking to find other life forms. Why? Well possibly to export our destructive powers?

Earth (12600 km), with its satellite Moon (3500 km)

Venus is about the same size as Earth

Suddenly dwarfed in comparison with Neptune and Uranus

Jupiter's diameter is 143,000 km

All pale in comparison with our Sun - 1,392,000 kilometers !

Sun is not the largest star in our galaxy, Sirius something bigger at ~2,500,000km

Pollux is about 8.3 times of Sun

Arcturus is about 31 times the size of Sun.

Aldebaran is 51 times. Sun is a mere dot in this pic.

VV Cephei is about 2400 light years away from Earth

Canis Majoris is ~2000 times our Sun

At this point we, our earth, cannot even be represented. All of this within our Milky Way or nearby galaxy. The Milky Way, Akash Ganga galaxy itself is about 1 million light-years in diameter. The solar system is not at the center of the galaxy, as is normally represented.

So, if it took God (as supposed some where), 6 days to create our planet, and one day to rest, i strangely feel (s)he is still working somewhere.

At end of this, i wonder if this is the right time to bring up my problem with including and positioning  large images in my blog.

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I tried to locate the original pictures, in an effort to find out the authenticity too. Unfortunately no luck there, and apparently several people also tried the same without luck. So bless the person or persons who created this. I assembled these from two or more sites. It took me over a week or so do this, i have almost lost the sites where i picked up which pictures. But if you do a simple search for 'earth size perspective' you will hit a dozen, refine your searches and see more refined(?) versions.

Ethylene

I came across this by accident. But it was interesting reading. I always wondered about this, have recently been affected by this.

"Bananas use ethylene to stimulate fruit ripening. A bunch of bananas will stay green for a long time until the ethylene concentration in the air around them becomes high enough. When that happens, then they begin ripening and they begin releasing more ethylene, which makes them ripen faster and release more ethylene, etc. In this way, all of the bananas will ripen very suddenly and simultaneously." - Ask a Scientist 

 It has both positive and negative effects. The negative is obvious that one bad (ripe or overripe) fruit can quickly damage the rest. The positive is that you can quickly ripen a bunch, or hasten the process, by storing them together in an enclosed environment. No wonder then, that my granny used to store mangoes inside bins storing rice to ripen faster.

my phone is an iPhone