Missed Connections.

When I see work like this - I feel very happy and hopeful :)


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/craigslists-missed-connections-as-art/

"Some browse the "Missed Connections" section on Craigslist in the hopes of spotting a posting from the dapper gent they exchanged a glance with in the checkout line. Others read the listings purely for entertainment.

Sophie Blackall, an illustrator living in Brooklyn, N.Y., saw it as an endless goldmine of material "


http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/
" Messages in bottles, smoke signals, letters written in the sand; the modern equivalents are the funny, sad, beautiful, hopeful, hopeless, poetic posts on Missed Connections websites. Every day hundreds of strangers reach out to other strangers on the strength of a glance, a smile or a blue hat. Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I'm trying to pin a few of them down."

[via http://waxy.org/links/]

state machine of life - do not encode in gray

Himu (pronounced he-moo) couldnt hold back his tears now. He had his feet up, while on a comfortable chair on the balcony of his new apartment in downtown Chicago. His wife was on the phone with one of her old friends. Himo had just slipped back into the past - ably assisted by the glass of absolut vodka in his hand. His father always called him Himaayat, as did the INS officer who stamped his visa the first time he entered the US. But he felt more comfortable with a name, that did not mean or stand for anything. He had been successful in life but always worried about the future and felt anxious about the present. Wanted rituals to help feel sane, and at the same time felt anxious because he didn't feel the wind in his face.
He was now thinking about the one bedroom apartment in Mahim where he grew up till he was 18. His current state of relative bliss reminded him of the times when he spent some evenings staring out of this apartment on the 4th floor. People walking by - women going to the temple, fathers returning home from work, kids playing games, stray dogs busy trying to catch their tails. He could have spent hours in that state of reverie. The best place to be is where you can see others when they can't, he thought. If he could relate his current state with one of 30 years ago, did he really have to travel so much in life. What if he had stood there on his balcony, holding onto the grills, for 30 years - would he have "felt" any different today. Even if there was an accelerated simulator for life, he thought, I couldnt have controlled values to all the input parameters. But then like Kavita had said "We make life sound too complicated". Maybe life is just a handful of states of mind - and if you profiled anyone's life, we would all have spent very similar amounts of time in each of these states. Although we keep taking these gazillion different arcs into and out of these states of life.

Paulo but-ak gaya !!

Whenever paulo wanted to stop being a glutton, the ghost of his mother would come in his dreams, and say "Yes thats the right thing to do. But maybe you should hold onto whatever you have for some more time. Who knows you might want it later and you might not be able to get it so easily. We need to be practical in life." Paulo would then begin cluttering the clean solution he had with more and more exceptions (if statements). Exceptions always make a design messy. Maybe thats why God had decided that she will not equip Paulo with a head to deal with exceptions. She could have built him with an extremely fast exception look-up table, but even she feared being not able to match the complexitty of the exceptions that Paulo might want to fit into this table. Paulo as usual is stunned into inaction and takes recourse in the sweetness dished out of Olga's kitchen. Not even being able to relish it wholeheartedly.

The United States' swine flu vaccines will leave millions worldwide unprotected. - By David Dobbs - Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/id/2228700/pagenum/all/#p2

this robust and effective vaccine supply stands to sharply check swine flu in the United States, saving anywhere from a few thousand to 50,000 lives.
But what if we could save two to four times that many lives by vaccinating another 200 million to 300 million people worldwide?

The Paradox of the Knower | Futility Closet

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/09/13/the-paradox-of-the-knower/

No one knows that this sentence is true.
That sentence can't be false, because that would lead immediately to a contradiction.
But if it's true, then omniscience is impossible.
Therefore there can be no all-knowing being.

tennis lessons

  Its interesting how tennis can teach you life lessons. When returning serves you can either slice the ball back or you can power it back. The second option needs you to move your feet and time the ball well so more energy and effort needed. But the first gives you very little in form of rewards cos a limp slice back will be simple forehand practice for the person on the other side. The other aspect of getting on top of the ball is that you move forward with the shot and your subsequent shots are more offensive.

Total Empathy

There are times when you need help in the form of - total empathy. i.e. you want someone to feel the anguish and anxiety that you are feeling. And you want to "know" that they are feeling your pain. When you dont get that - from someone you expect to deliver - you get very very angry !!

This seems to be very human. But most of us dont realize the value of this, when we are not on the demanding side.

Even after the anger loses steam, the scar remains deep. Why is that ? I hope we evolve more socially helpful body mechanisms? Maybe 10 generations from now, we will be able to heal sooner or not even feel the need of other humans. Asimov does imagine such future worlds. Lets hope we get to live his dreams. Meanwhile I can deify such ideas with repeated recollections. Also I can try to deliver when the need arises for someone close.

 

Easy Math

Funny

Easy Math - Free videos are just a click away

Personal Tech: Got a Burning Question? Ask the Net

Very nice !!

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/09/03/technology/circuitsemail/index.html?8cir&emc=cir

I've used Aardvark several times apiece for professional and personal queries, and I've been astounded by its utility every time. The answers are on my screen between 60 seconds and five minutes after I've asked them: private, targeted, and generally accurate.
When I was working on a column about U.S. cellphone ripoffs, I asked: "In Europe, are both senders and receivers of text messages and phone calls billed for each message?"
Ding! Paul from Fleetwood, England responded: "Depends what you mean: country to country or domestic?"
I responded: "I was thinking domestic." His answer: "Domestically, it is only the send who pays for both texts and calls. This is the case in all EU countries."

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Internet : Divorce at the click of a mouse in Brazil

I think it makes sense. I don't think Indians have the balls to bring such laws into effect. As a people, we are 2 degrees away from accepting facts of life.

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article14586.ece?homepage=true

The Brazilian Senate has approved a bill that would allow consensual divorces to be filed and resolved on the Internet.
The Senate's official news agency says the bill would speed divorce proceedings, allowing couples to split without lawyers or having to wait in line in court.
Couples could file for legal separations, divide property and decide alimony via the Internet as well, according to the bill approved Wednesday by the Senate constitutional commission.