Blog of Parag

New found religion

My life had no direction till I discovered the grace of His Holiness. My schools are responsible for my misguided life. I don't know why but they didn't teach anything other than evolution to describe the origin of life on earth. I hope they will open their minds and teach about how FSM created the universe and life on earth. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel.

Welcome Sujit!

My brother, Sujit has decided to join as another author on this blog. Please welcome him. Here is his first post.

Shantaram

Came across this movie, Shantaram, when I was looking for a movie by Helena Bonham Cater. It was a proud moment when I read that the movie is going to be in English and Marathi. The plot seems interesting and the whole movie will be shot in India.

what...tarian?

I always wondered how to describe my food preference. Now, I know the word I should use...

Pescatarian: Vegetarian that eats fish.

Thanks, Arun.

After the floods

Heard on my favourite radio program, This American Life:

First-hand accounts of people from New Orleans during/after the floods caused by Katrina. The program runs just under 1 hour. It is worth listening to in its entirety. Click here for a link to the audio file.

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Calling all Calvin and Hobbes fans... The biggest and most complete Calvin and Hobbes compilation is about to be released in a couple of weeks. Pre-order your own copy of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.

Thanks to Patrix for his post about it.

P.S. The same book is available at Buy.com for a better deal.

NCAA Football week #3

What a boring game!!! Nebraska eeked out a win against Pitt. Final score 7:6. I am glad that I wasn't watching. They have the next week off and then the first conference matchup against Iowa State. Ever since I have been following Nebraska football, this year is the first time when Nebraska will be underdogs against #24 ranked Iowa State that pulled an upset win against Iowa last week.

Texas easily beat up Rice and TAMU just kept scoring and scoring against SMU. Longhorns will take the next week off too and then play Missouri. Should be an eventless win for Texas.

Michigan took out its frustrations from last week on poor EMU at home. It was expected after that embarassing loss against Notre Dame last week. Finally, Michigan State came through and beat Notre Dame in overtime this week. That was nice. It should stop all the Notre Dame media hype that was going on for the last week or two. This game should have gotten over in regulation with the same result but, MSU made some really bad mistakes. I love MSU. I am going to be a Spartan fan for at least the rest of this season.

Got to watch part of USC game and it is very clear why they are ranked #1. The offense is just unbelievable. They will easily beat many of the NFL teams.

spin spin spin

March of the Conservatives: Penguin Film as Political Fodder - New York Times

This is a really interesting article. It is an example of how something unrelated can be manipulated to further one's point of view.

On the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com, an opponent of abortion wrote that the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it."

At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy.

A widely circulated Christian magazine said it made "a strong case for intelligent design."

"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."

Andrew Coffin, writing in the widely circulated Christian publication World Magazine, that is a winning argument for the theory that life is too complex to have arisen through random selection. "That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat - and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design," he wrote. "It's sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it's also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film."

Ben Hunt, a minister at the 153 House Churches Network.... "Some of the circumstances they experienced seemed to parallel those of Christians," he said of the penguins. "The penguin is falling behind, is like some Christians falling behind. The path changes every year, yet they find their way, is like the Holy Spirit."

I wonder what these people will have to say if a movie is made depicting the lives of bonobo chimpanzees? Bonobos are probably the most closely gentically-related primates to humans. We share 98% of our DNA with the bonobos. They should provide some guiding priciples to humans and not some birds who live in the cold extremes of the earth.

Bonobos live a relatively peaceful life compared to chimpanzees. Sex is an important way to ensure group stability and ease tensions. Bonobos substitute sex for aggression, and sexual interactions occur more often among bonobos than among other primates. Reduced male aggression, strong bonds between males and females, and frequent sex (including male-to-male and female-to-female) characterize bonobo society. However, the rate of reproduction in the wild is about the same as that of chimpanzees (a single infant is born every five to six years) beginning at age 12.

small interference RNA

I meant to write this over a month ago. But, kept forgetting. Small interference RNAs were featured on PBS program NOVA. Check out the following website. There is a nice movie that explains how these RNA molecules work and how they are being developed as a cure.

NOVA | scienceNOW | RNAi | PBS

Here is a link to Nature journal's website that has pretty good animation about siRNAs too.

This is a very interesting technology that can be used to treat disorders at gene expression/protein production level. There are a few biotechs that are involved in developing these cures. One of them, Alnylam Pharma was bought by Novartis, recently. I bought some stock of SIRNA Therapeutics last month. They actually have a drug in Phase I trials. Hope that it will make it through and the company will be bought by a big Pharma at a premium.

Hi! My name is Mike

Hi! My name is Mike Brown and I am a scapegoat.

Embattled FEMA Director Mike Brown Resigns - Yahoo! News

Astronomer detectives?

This is quite interesting. Astronomers turn detectives to pinpoint date of Ansel Adams image. If I was living in California, I would plan a trip to Yosemite on the 15th Sept, to recapture the Adams photo with my camera.

Sky news, are you sure?

OK. Let's take this photo completely out of context.

Finally, Murdoch got it right.

Ganesh Chaturthi 2005 @ home

Ganapati Bappa Moraya; Mangalmoorti Moraya

NCAA Football week #2

Nebraska defense won another game. They beat Wake Forest easily 31:3. The offense is still sputtering. Hope they get their act together. After two easy weeks, next Saturday, they will face a challenge from Pittsburgh, who lost to Ohio today. Interestingly, former coach of Nebraska, Frank Solich is the new head coach at Ohio.

Texas won against Ohio State in Columbus, OH and fully justified their #2 ranking. QB Vince Young looked good. Next week Longhorns get a breather against Rice.

Michgan was upset by Notre Dame. This game along with Ohio State's loss is going to change the rankings a lot. Another big unexpected upset was Iowa State beating Iowa 23:3.

Steve Spurrier is back to coaching a college team after dismal 2-3 years with Washington Redskins. Now Steve coaches the Gamecocks of South Carolina, taking over Lou Holtz's place. They lost to Georgia today.

Faces of the fallen

Last year in May, Ted Koppel of Nightline on ABC read out names of 721 US soldiers that died in Iraq. During the following 14 months, about 1100 more names were added to that list. Washington Post website lists all the 1816 US soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq with photos and a short description. The number 1816 doesn't mean much unless you look through pages after pages of photographs of real people.

washingtonpost.com: Faces of the Fallen

American Heart Walk

Everyone knows someone affected by heart disease or stroke. I have set a personal goal to raise funds for the American Heart Association by participating in the American Heart Walk on Sept. 24th, 2005. We are raising critical dollars for heart disease and stroke research and education. Find Heart Walk events in your area.

You can help me reach my goal by making a donation online. Click on this link and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation.

I shall match your donation dollar for dollar and my employer will match my donation. Thanks for helping out.

Evening sky...

It was a beautiful evening sky today. Venus, Moon and Jupiter came together close to create this spectacular view. If you missed it, try again on Wednesday evening. The configuration will be different but, they will still be pretty close to each other.

The sky was clear except for the southwest sky where these interesting objects were. I managed to get a couple of nice photos even with the clouds.

The objects in the photo are (clockwise starting from the Moon): Moon with earthshine, Spica (Chitra), Venus and Jupiter.

2005 NCAA football week 1

College football season started with a bang before I even thought about it.

Nebraska won the first game as expected. If they had lost to Maine, it would have been a really really bad. Wake Forest comes to Lincoln next week. It should be an easy game.

Texas won big time against Loiusiana at Lafayette by the score of 60:3. Again as expected. They are ranked #2. Hope they survive their meeting with Ohio State next week.

Big upsets of the week: Oklahoma lost to TCU. Yay! Maybe they lost all the goo players in the graduating class last year. Pittsburgh lost to Notre Dame. Argh! As I type this, looks like unranked Georgia Tech is going to beat #17 Auburn.

I am so happy that football season has begun. Now, 4 months will go so fast with busy weekends.