They have named you for a reason, so that everybody can call you by that one name to uniquely identify you from the other person. If you are sitting next to a person, I call you by your unique name to distinguish you from the other. That is how naming works.

With introduction of nick names, the classic functionality of names is endangered. If I call Robert, Bob, its one more name that I have to remember. And there are likely to be more people similar to the name Bob than Robert. I don’t want to address Nathanial by Nate. If your parents have named you Nathanial, they wanted everybody to identify you with that, not as Nate. I get confused. Moreover, I have to think twice on how to store your name in my address book. And if you are on social network like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, you have different names for the same person. It even makes smartphones like Android* and iOS dumb. And I get even more confused when different people refer to you by different names. It even makes it difficult to search you on Google, Picasa or YouTube.

Why do we need all that mess? Why cant we have one and only one name associated with a person. Nick names/Pet names are inefficient, useless and they in fact invalidate the real purpose of names. If you don’t like your name, man the f* up. Live with it.

 *Android has a built in feature to merge Robert with bob and Nathanial with Nate

Carl Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan, talked about his death, their immense love and the afterlife. I think you can love someone the most when you both are aware of the fact that there is no second life, its all here and now. You can give and receive all your love while you exist in the life form for a tiny fraction of time, knowing that there is no tomorrow. The words she said below are magical. You can watch this video if you want to know who Carl Sagan was.

“When my husband died, because he was so famous & known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me — it still sometimes happens — & ask me if Carl changed at the end & converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief & precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive & we were together was miraculous — not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous & so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space & the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me & it’s much more meaningful…

The way he treated me & the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other & our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.“

– Ann Druyan, talking about her husband, Carl Sagan

Mind blowing fact: Ann Druyan is the president of NORML.

This post is in Hindi. Ignore this post if you don’t speak Hindi.

This is what happens when you watch Andaz Apna Apna too many times. You don’t need to be Shahrukh’s fan to enjoy this. That being said, I met a guy few weeks back and watched Andaz Apna Apna with him. Amazingly, he knew each and every dialog from the movie and he knew the inside story behind each dialog.

Source: The Testimonial Comics

Universe is a scary place. It is big, beyond your imagination. Sometimes, it screams on your face, do you know what I am, how grand I am, how old I am, can you even comprehend what I am, what are you compared to me? And when you know enough science you reply, dude, I AM you. Just look up at dark sky, the star you see, thousands of light years away, the light emitted hundreds of years ago by that star is detected by your eyes. Even if you can never touch that star you feel a connection to universe by that narrow photon beam. Your eyes are made from same material as that supernova. You are stepped out from the supernova. I feel safe being in the universe despite of the massive force and energy flares surrounding me.

Religion promotes fear in you, fear of death, fear of going to hell, fear of burning for eternity. People who understand science do not fear from it or from the vast universe. Instead they are amazed by it, they are curious about it. Astronomy is humbling and character building experience. If you appreciate universe, you won’t have fear of death. You don’t have to know the ultimate answer or solve any puzzle. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose which is the way it really is as far as I can tell possibly, but it doesn’t frighten me.

Secular student alliance has started a new bus ad campaign. Their message is very clear, you don’t need to believe in invisible man sitting in the sky to be Good person. You can be good without your imaginary friend.

Bill Gates, after creating the most successful company around, must have asked himself “Now what”? He started philanthropy foundation in 2000 and he did the best that he could with all his power. You got to love this man for his noble work no matter if you are Apple fan or Microsoft hater.

Warren Buffett decided in 2006 that he would donate almost all of his fortune to charity, all $40 billion of it! Buffett’s children will inherit a tiny fraction because he believes that money rightly belongs to the people, and should not be used to construct a familial corporate dynasty.

Donating large sums to worthy causes is not the only or even most important way a person might be “Good” but it is undeniably one of them. Perhaps for some people religion really does inspire them to help others and if it does, great. Just don’t imagine it is a requirement. Some people are good with God. Some, like Gates and Buffett, are just as good without God. So its not about where you are getting your morals from but how good your morals are.

This is a short movie inspired by Numbers, Geometry and Nature. Its amazing to see how different theories like Fibonacci, Golden Ratio, Delaunay, Voronoi are used by nature to create amazing life form. Its magical that a honey bee who doesn’t know anything about Mathematics or Geometry can create the strongest nest structure, spiders who doesn’t know anything about Chemistry can create strongest web that we have ever seen. Nature knows every thing, be it Mathematics, Geometry or Chemistry.

More information and source here.

Entrepreneur

I wasn’t born to be a middle manager, a middle man or middle anything. Ambition has kissed my chicks and she has whispered dreams in my ears; even so, I confess my dreams has been laughed at, and I, I love frowning back. I believe great things aren’t created by free people but man who are slaves to their ideas. I belong to my idea. And though I may be rejected, dejected or interjected, I won’t be denied. I am the harvester of opportunities, I am an Entrepreneur.

If you are wondering whats this ad about, its from the “The Power of Ideas“.

Bill Hicks

Bill Hicks (1961 – 1994) was an American stand-up comedian. His humor challenged mainstream beliefs, aiming to “enlighten people to think for themselves”. This is a clip from his show “Revelations” which he closed with “It’s Just a Ride”, one of his most famous and life-affirming philosophies. This is something that I always supported before I came across Hicks and will support it forever. You can find excerpts after the video.

The World is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round, and it has thrills and chills and is very brightly colored, and it’s very loud. And it’s fun, for a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they’ve begun to question, ‘Is this real, or is this just a ride?’, and other people have remembered, and they’ve come back to us and they say ‘Hey, don’t worry. Don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.’ and we KILL THOSE PEOPLE.

“Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! SHUT HIM UP! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account, and my family. This just has to be real.”

It’s just a ride.

But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that. You ever noticed that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter, because … It’s just a ride.

And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear wants you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead see all of us as one.

Here’s what we can do to change the world right now, to a better ride:

Take all that money we spent on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and WE CAN EXPLORE SPACE, TOGETHER, BOTH INNER AND OUTER, forever … in peace.

– Bill Hicks (1961 – 1994)

Here is the simple and delicious recipe for vegetarian tacos. I tried it, believe me it tastes great. Invite your friends Sunday evening over tea and make them this Tacos. They will be asking you for this recipe for sure.

At the ‘Beyond Belief’ discussion, Neil Tyson rebukes Richard Dawkins for his rhetorical style and Dawkins responds brilliantly. This is one of the reason I love science, if you don’t, watch what Dawkins has to say.