Blog of Parag

Spring is here...

The signs of spring are definitely here. All the snow has melted away. Had first of our spring showers last night and gardner's friends are out in full force. And shoots of our tulips and daffodils are peeking out.

Vincent Van Gogh

Today is 152nd birth anniversary of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the best post-impressionist artists. He suffered from a mental illness and committed himself to many sanatoriums to cure it. His illness and treatments had an effect on his perception and drawing. Here are two paintings made by him over a period of one year. Although the subject of both the paintings is the same, the differences in style are astronomical. The one on left is "Starry Night over the Rhone" from 1888 and the one on right is "The Starry Night" from 1889, one of his most famous paintings. He painted the second one while he was in mental asylum of Saint-Remy.

   

He committed suicide about 13 months after he painted "The Starry Night". The last year of his life was very productive. He did 150 paintings during that period; 70 in last 70 days. He died a pauper but, his paintings are priced at tens of millions of dollars today.

Both the photos taken from WebMuseum

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Thousand salutations to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, on the occasion of his 375th birth anniversary

Photo taken in Jan2005 at kille Raigad, which was the capital of his kingdom.

Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday, Sujit!!!

Wish you many many more, brother....

Don't let the Indian cricket team's poor performance dampen your day. Have a blast!!!

Bah...

Tendulkar becomes India's highest run-scorer

What is the use if he couldn't save India from a pathetic loss?

Disgusting

India lost the last test match to Pakistan in Bangalore by 168 runs. It was just disgusting. Pakistani batsmen were playing as if the Indian bowlers were a bunch of school kids and our stalwarts except Sehwag, couldn't even play through the day to end the match in a draw. Kumble could score 37 and Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman together make 37 and Ganguly was out on 2. Smacks of match-fixing. Or was it some political play? Be nice and don't beat Pakistan, our loving brothers, in two test series in a row.

Whatever it was... it was fu(&ing disgusting.

Terry Schiavo pictures

There have been hundreds of hits on my blog through Google and Yahoo searches for "Terry Schiavo Pictures". Till now, so many people who come to my website, got disappointed when they didn't see any pictures of Terry. Here are a couple of photos for them....

Here are a couple of links where you can find all the information about Terry Schiavo case...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/05/schiavo.case/
http://www.terrisfight.org/center.html

p.s. PseudoFreud, I know you wanted to see this post.

Banned IMAX movies

If you live south of the Mason-Dixon line, you may not be able to watch IMAX movies like Volacoes of the deep sea, Cosmic Voyage and Galapagos in the IMAX theater at a 'science center' near you. Several IMAX theaters in the south decided not to screen Volcanoes as it mentions evolution and proposes that life on earth may have started in the ocean around the volcanic vents. These theaters are predictably in Texas, Georgia and Carolinas. The operators didn't want to screen the movie because most of their audience believes in creationism and would get offended by the mention of evolution.

Same reasoning applies to other two movies: 'Cosmic voyage', which talks about big bang as the beginning of the universe and 'Galapagos', which of course is about Darwin and evolution.

I just can't believe that there are so many people who reject evolution in the face of ample evidence that supports it. On the other hand, there is no real evidence for creationism except that it is written in the bible. Interesting, eh?!

Thanks, Amit for the link to CNN story

Pepsi free songs

I have been very lucky about getting free songs in bottles of Pepsi products. In last two weeks, I bought two bottles of Sierra Mist and found free song codes in both of them.

I should quit while I am ahead in this game. I used one free song code to get 'Candyshop' by 50cent. Would appreciate any suggestions for using the second free song code.

Living will

Last December, we decided to draft a living will and other such documents this year. In light of the recent Terry Schiavo case, it becomes very important that people take care of this. Anyway, even if something happens before I sign on that piece of paper, I am confidant that my wife and parents are sensible enough and will not get involved in a situation like Terry Schiavo.

The scent of a woman female cockroach

BIOCHEMISTRY: Irresistible Lure for Cockroaches Determined -- Pennisi 307 (5712): 1029b -- Science

Just like many other animals, cockroaches also make their own pheromones. After years of research, chemical formula of the male-luring scent emitted by female cockroaches is discovered. This was a result of painstaking research. The chemical broke down when it was being isolated. Each female cockroach makes so little of it that they had to dissect 15,000 (yes, fifteen thousand) cockroaches to extract enough material to study.

The researchers have been successful in making this chemical synthetically and it has shown to attract male cockroaches. This will be used in the next generation of cockroach control methods.

If the link in this post doesn't work, click below to read more.

In search of mates, frogs croak, birds sing, and cockroaches wear their own special perfume. For almost 10 years, researchers have tried to decipher the chemical formula of the male-luring scent emitted by female German cockroaches. Now that formula is finally in hand. As a result, city dwellers may one day be less squeamish about turning on the light at night: The chemical may result in a "very powerful system" for pest control, says Walter Leal, a chemical ecologist at the University of California, Davis.

On page 1104, Satoshi Nojima, a chemist now at the Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. in Tokyo, Japan, and his colleagues describe the arduous path they took to characterize this chemical, one of several pheromones produced by cockroaches. They also show that a synthetic version of it is a potent attractant for the insects. "It was very difficult to do, very time-consuming," says Robert Kopanic Jr., an entomologist at S. C. Johnson and Son Inc. in Racine, Wisconsin.

German cockroaches are the bane of urban residents. As many as 100,000 can live in a single apartment or house; baits and sticky traps are only moderately effective, and insecticides are not environmental friendly.

So it was exciting news when Coby Schal, an urban entomologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and Dangsheng Laing, now at Atex Bait Co. in Santa Clara, California, reported in 1993 that female cockroaches gave off a volatile compound, or pheromone, that attracts males from meters away. But taking the next step, identifying the pheromone, proved almost impossible. "Every time [we] tried to isolate it, it fell apart," recalls Wendell Roelofs, a biochemist at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.

Figure 1 Love is blind. A synthetic version of the female scent that attracts males (on female's back) may help with cockroach control.

CREDIT: NOJIMA ET AL., SCIENCE

Adding to the challenge, females produce so little pheromone that researchers needed to dissect 15,000 of them, removing the pheromone-producing gland from each, to extract enough material for analysis. And Nojima--who was working with Roelofs at the time--had to come up with new ways to pin down the attractant among the many compounds in the extracts.

Nojima joined a single detached cockroach antenna to electrodes and exposed it to the chemicals exiting a gas chromatograph, which had separated the roach extract into discrete components. If the antenna sent a signal to the electrodes, he knew he had a good candidate pheromone. The night before he flew back to Japan--his postdoc was ending--Nojima struck cockroach gold when his system recorded a hit. "After 10 years of work, it came down to one night," says Schal.

Fran Webster of Syracuse University in New York found that the newly isolated compound, called blattellaquinone after the cockroach's Latin name Blattella, has a novel structure. But it is similar enough to a commercial product that it is relatively inexpensive to synthesize. The compound clearly attracts male roaches: They prefer the dissolved synthetic pheromone over a control solvent about 93% of the time, on par with their preferences for the natural pheromone. Moreover, field tests at a cockroach-infested pig farm indicate that many males can't resist the synthetic version.

If the compound proves to be effective over long periods, it could be quite useful for pest control, says Kopanic. Even though blattellaquinone only attracts males, they are the wanderers among the two sexes. The new pheromone should lure males into traps or to poison laced with the compound. In the latter case, they would then transfer the poison, through their feces, to females and their young, suggests Schal. If so, for male roaches, the female scent may one day lead to poison, not procreation.

Music concerts 2005

We are getting a little comfortable about leaving Ashwini with a babysitter. Have plans and tickets to go to two music concerts this year. Bob Dylan in April and U2 in October. Hopefully, there will be more in the intervening months too.

Learnt in grad school

I knew going to graduate school would do me good. Two important things I learnt while getting a Ph.D. :

1. How to live happily in poverty when the end is not in sight.
2. How to type.

Tested my typing speed at this website and to my astonishment, it is 80 words per minute. Quite excellent for someone who taught himself how to type. Test your typing skills.

via Patrix

Sick sick people

I made a post about the Terry Schiavo fiasco last Friday. Over the weekend, my blog received several hits through Google and Yahoo from people searching for 'Terry Schiavo pictures'. Google search page for these words yields the following as #4 entry. Can't imagine how sick some people really are.

Terry Schiavo story

Yahoo! News - House Panel Seeks to Keep Schiavo Alive

This is getting into the realm of ridiculous. This is not about saving a life. This is a custody battle. In absence of a will, who gets to decide the life/death course of this woman?

Does her husband has the right to choose? I think yes. I am sure he loved and still loves his wife dearly and doesn't want to let her live in this vegetative state when there is no chance of recovery. I don't think Terry enjoys being in this state either.

Does her parents have the right to intervene? Absolutely not. The State courts should sort this out and they already have. US senate and house and federal courts should keep out of this. But, they want to make this a 'pro-life' issue. Isn't it ironic that on one hand they don't care about throwing away hundreds and thousands of absolutely precious lives in a war but, here they are so concerned about the life of a person who is already dead by most measures.

Wolfie to lead World Bank

A New Boss for the Bank (washingtonpost.com)

Paul Wolfowitz is nominated by President Bush to lead the World Bank. Last major economic prediction made by Mr. Wolfowitz: "Iraq reconstruction will be paid by Iraqi oil revenues." Yeah, right and pigs do really fly.

Ebbers Convicted of Fraud

Yahoo! News - Ex-WorldCom Chief Ebbers Convicted of Fraud

A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated eight days before returning guilty verdicts on all counts — one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings. The crimes carry up to 85 years in prison.

Hallelujah!!!

iTunes

I am impressed with iTunes yet again. Not only it does a great job of organising all the music, but, it handles multiple processes very efficiently. I was listening to music from the library, ripping songs from a CD and downloading a song from iTunes music store, all at the same time. Cool, eh?!?!

Space-time

Absolute space doesn't exist.
Absolute time doesn't exist.
Space-time is absolute.

Post-processing of digital photos

A lot of people scoff at digital photos that are post-processed using softwares like Photoshop and Gimp. I think what they don't realise is that there is a lot of processing art involved in slide/print photography as well. Use of filters while taking the pictures, using different mixtures of chemicals while processing the film, and dodge/burn techniques while making a print are the very same things that are achieved with the use of post-processing software in the case of digital photos. Great photographers like Ansel Adams spent days in their darkrooms to get the precise contrast and right level of details which make their photos such pieces of art. All this processing (film or digital) is necessary because no camera lens can duplicate what the human eye sees. The photographers try all kinds of processing tricks to create a photo that resembles what they remember of the original image seen through their eye.

One of my favorite photoblogs is [daily dose of imagery]. All the photos posted there are quite excellent. The author, Sam Javanrouh, is a professional artist, so, it is not a surprise that he is so good at it. He wrote a few tutorials about post processing to describe his workflow. Here is one of them that shows how the original photo is transformed into a brilliant image. Many of us take photos that look like his original but it takes the knowledge and expertise of a professional to convert them into something outstanding.

Fun in snow

Spring is slowly showing its signs. Last weekend, we saw temperatures in 40s. The snow started to melt, became sticky and was perfect for packing and moulding into a snowman. We ventured out on Saturday afternoon to make Ashwini's first snowman at home. I am sure she must have helped in making one at her daycare earlier. They have so much fun there, I wish I was a 2 year old.

March of Dimes

Some facts about March of Dimes that I learnt recently...

• This charity was started by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who asked mothers to collect dimes and send them to Washington, during the great depression.


• MOD is one of the top 20 charities in US.


• MOD supported reasearch that lead to Salk Polio Vaccine, which was invented here in Ann Arbor, MI at University of Michigan, 50 years ago.


• MOD-funded research has proved the importance of folic acid intake during pregnancy. It is helpful in proper development of central nervous system of the fetus.


• MOD-funded research is responsible for discovery and design of equipments that are used in neonatal ICU.


• Many other contributions that I can't recall now...

I am participating in WalkAmerica to raise funds for MOD. If you think this is a worthwhile cause, please consider making a donation at my webpage or find a walk in your area at Walk America website.

Many thanks to those who already showed their support by making a donation.

She got what she wanted...

Yahoo! News - Kobe Bryant, Accuser Settle Colorado Lawsuit

Looks like this woman got what she wanted all along. An unspecified amount of money for settling the case out of court. If she really wanted to punish Kobe for what she claims he did, she would have testified in the court and not decided to drop the charges instead.

Hope that Kobe learns a lesson and becomes a model husband.

Disclaimer: I am neither insensitive to real rape victims nor do I believe that getting raped is somehow the rape victims' fault.

Happy Birthday, Yahoo!!!

It was 10 years ago today, when Yahoo! become an incorporated company. I still remember using the Yahoo website in its Stanford days when it was a directory of websites. I have used Yahoo! as my primary search engine till Google came around. I think I created my yahoomail id back in 1996 or 1997 and still use it.

Here is a nice retrospective view of 10 years of Yahoo! as a company.

Don't forget to celebrate Yahoo's 10th birthday by going to the following site...

Yahoo! 10th Anniversary Ice Cream Giveaway

Hear ye hear ye

All rise and bow to the mighty Sir Bill

To Walmart or not to Walmart???

I am sure many of you have faced this dilemma as I do all the time. Should I shop for the best available price or support a local business by paying a little more? I think about it every time I shop for something and find myself feeling guilty for making a choice for personal gain and buying the cheaper alternative.

It is a little comforting to see that the same question hounds people like Robert Reich, who was the Secretary of Labor in Clinton administration. He, being an economist, is someone who has some idea about how to deal with this issue. Click on the link below to check out his Op-Ed article from the New York Times. It is quite interesting.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Don't Blame Wal-Mart

Don't Blame Wal-Mart
By ROBERT B. REICH

Published: February 28, 2005

Berkeley, Calif. — BOWING to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking Wal-Mart's plan to open its first store in New York City. In the eyes of Wal-Mart's detractors, the Arkansas-based chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: it pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only $9.68 an hour, doesn't provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions, has a checkered history on labor law and turns main streets into ghost towns by sucking business away from small retailers.

But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

Instead, Wal-Mart has lured customers with low prices. "We expect our suppliers to drive the costs out of the supply chain," a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said. "It's good for us and good for them."

Wal-Mart may have perfected this technique, but you can find it almost everywhere these days. Corporations are in fierce competition to get and keep customers, so they pass the bulk of their cost cuts through to consumers as lower prices. Products are manufactured in China at a fraction of the cost of making them here, and American consumers get great deals. Back-office work, along with computer programming and data crunching, is "offshored" to India, so our dollars go even further.

Meanwhile, many of us pressure companies to give us even better bargains. I look on the Internet to find the lowest price I can and buy airline tickets, books, merchandise from just about anywhere with a click of a mouse. Don't you?

The fact is, today's economy offers us a Faustian bargain: it can give consumers deals largely because it hammers workers and communities.

We can blame big corporations, but we're mostly making this bargain with ourselves. The easier it is for us to get great deals, the stronger the downward pressure on wages and benefits. Last year, the real wages of hourly workers, who make up about 80 percent of the work force, actually dropped for the first time in more than a decade; hourly workers' health and pension benefits are in free fall. The easier it is for us to find better professional services, the harder professionals have to hustle to attract and keep clients. The more efficiently we can summon products from anywhere on the globe, the more stress we put on our own communities.

But you and I aren't just consumers. We're also workers and citizens. How do we strike the right balance? To claim that people shouldn't have access to Wal-Mart or to cut-rate airfares or services from India or to Internet shopping, because these somehow reduce their quality of life, is paternalistic tripe. No one is a better judge of what people want than they themselves.

The problem is, the choices we make in the market don't fully reflect our values as workers or as citizens. I didn't want our community bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., to close (as it did last fall) yet I still bought lots of books from Amazon.com. In addition, we may not see the larger bargain when our own job or community isn't directly at stake. I don't like what's happening to airline workers, but I still try for the cheapest fare I can get.

The only way for the workers or citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and regulations that make our purchases a social choice as well as a personal one. A requirement that companies with more than 50 employees offer their workers affordable health insurance, for example, might increase slightly the price of their goods and services. My inner consumer won't like that very much, but the worker in me thinks it a fair price to pay. Same with an increase in the minimum wage or a change in labor laws making it easier for employees to organize and negotiate better terms.

I wouldn't go so far as to re-regulate the airline industry or hobble free trade with China and India - that would cost me as a consumer far too much - but I'd like the government to offer wage insurance to ease the pain of sudden losses of pay. And I'd support labor standards that make trade agreements a bit more fair.

These provisions might end up costing me some money, but the citizen in me thinks they are worth the price. You might think differently, but as a nation we aren't even having this sort of discussion. Instead, our debates about economic change take place between two warring camps: those who want the best consumer deals, and those who want to preserve jobs and communities much as they are. Instead of finding ways to soften the blows, compensate the losers or slow the pace of change - so the consumers in us can enjoy lower prices and better products without wreaking too much damage on us in our role as workers and citizens - we go to battle.

I don't know if Wal-Mart will ever make it into New York City. I do know that New Yorkers, like most other Americans, want the great deals that can be had in a rapidly globalizing high-tech economy. Yet the prices on sales tags don't reflect the full prices we have to pay as workers and citizens. A sensible public debate would focus on how to make that total price as low as possible.

Robert B. Reich, the author of "Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America," was secretary of labor from 1993 to 1997.

Hulchul

Tried watching Hulchul last Saturday. The promos (and that unreliable source, again) promised non-stop laughter and a funfest. Instead it was all about shouting matches between the characters and potty humour. Couldn't take it for more than half an hour or so.

Don't even think about watching it, unless of course, you enjoy shouting matches and potty humour.

American?

Hmmm... Interesting. Just noticed the names of these two albums in my iTunes library that follow each other...