GIBGNAB

What IPhone apps do you use?

2012-01-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

In October 2011, my husband got me a brand new white IPhone 4. I have been addicted to the phone thanks to the App Store.

IPhone 4

This post is mainly to get suggestions from all the readers about the best apps in the market that I could download on my IPhone. Free app suggestions are recommended :-)

I am giving below a list of apps that I use almost every day. They enhance my productivity, fitness, knowledge etc. All apps that I have on my Iphone are free.

IBooks - I use this app to read PDFs transferred from my computer.
Kobo - This is another e-book reader app. The disadvantage is that you need a Facebook account to log in to the app and advantages are it allows screen orientation lock in both vertical and horizontal modes.
Pandora Radio - To listen to online radio.
Desi Music - Good collection of regional music - Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil. Has a range of radio stations for all the channels.
Ted - To listen to inspiring Ted videos. The clarity of the videos is amazing!
Books - This app is merely titled "Books". I found the library extensive and downloaded a lot of books on the subject of history.
Letris 2 - This is a game app that allows you to create words. One of the few games I play.
Workout Trainer by Skimble - This app has a list of very good workouts under different categories like fat burn, thighs and legs, complete body workout, running, cycling etc.

(Note: I have given links for most of the apps above.)

Part 2: How to Teach Your Baby Math

2012-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Prologue

In the previous post, I had given a summary of the first three chapters from Dr. Glenn Doman's book titled "How to Teach Your Baby Math": http://gibgnab.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-teach-your-baby-math-by-glenn.html

Chapter 4 and 5

Chapter 4 and 5 of the book read like a book on neuroscience. The brain and the science behind it has always interested me. If not for the method, these chapters would be interesting to read as they give a glimpse of how a child's brain grows and what are the important functions of the brain.

Key Points

I have captured some key points from these chapters.

Chapter 4 Children Can Learn Math

“Feel the dignity of child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not.” - Robert Henri

All babies are linguistic geniuses.
All babies learn a foreign language prior to two years of age, speak it fluently by four years of age and speak it perfectly by six years of age.
Only we human beings have such a cortex; only we human beings talk in a contrived, symbolic language, and that unique human speech is a product of the unique human cortex.
It is easy to teach a baby anything if the facts are presented in a precise, discrete and non ambiguous way - Words, musical notes and numbers are particularly precise, discrete and non ambiguous.
The younger they are, the faster they learn them.
The ability to take in raw facts is an inverse function of age.
Wisdom the tiny child does not have; but the ability to take in raw facts - in prodigious amounts he does have.
It is easier to teach a 1 year old any set of facts than it is to teach a seven year old - by set of facts we mean “group of related facts”. Thus a group of portraits of Presidents of the United States would be a set of facts. Cards each containing the flag of a different nation would be a set of facts, cards each containing a different number of like objects would be a set of facts, and so on.
If you teach a tiny child the facts he will intuit the rules.
The tiny child has a huge ability to discover the laws if we teach him the facts.

Chapter 5 Children Should Learn Math

“Mathematics possesses not only truth but supreme beauty” - Bertrand Russell

Doing math is one of the highest functions of the human brain. Tiny children should learn to do math at the youngest possible age because of the effect it will have on the physical growth of the brain itself and the product of that physical growth - what we call intelligence.
Function determines structure. I am what I am because of what I do.
The brain grows by use.
Everything you learn in life enters the brain through the five pathways through which we hear, feel, see, taste and smell (which is at the back of the brain).
These five pathways grow by use.
Reading grows the visual pathways. Listening to great music grows the auditory pathways.
David Krech’s conclusions were that rats that were raised in sensory deprivation had small, undeveloped, stupid brains, while rats that were raised amid sensory enrichment had large, highly developed, highly intelligent brains.
The front half of the brain is composed of motor pathways by which we respond to incoming information. Tiny kids can and should swim, do Olympic gymnastics, dance and pursue all other physical activities at one and two years of age.
The brain is the only container that has this characteristic: The more you put into it the more it will hold.
Intelligence is a result of thinking.
There are six functions of the brain that are unique to man. Each of these is a function of the unique human cortex. The first three are motor in nature: 1. Mobility: Only human beings can stand erect on two legs and walk in perfect cross-pattern. 2. Language: Only humans speak in a contrived, symbolic language. 3. Manual competence: Only human beings can write that symbolic language that we have invented. The three sensory skills are: 4. Vision: Only humans can see in such a way as to read that symbolic written language. 5. Auditory: Only human beings can hear in such a way as to understand that symbolic spoken language. 6. Tactile: Only human beings can feel a complex object and identify it by touch alone.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is the core or the heart of the book. It is the chapter where they actually give the method and process to teach your baby math. Out of respect for the author & copyright considerations, I will leave out the review of this chapter. It is definitely worth reading this book if you are not previously familiar with Glenn Doman's method.

Related videos

The summary of the points from Chapter 4 and 5 can also be viewed through this video by Dr. Glenn Doman

Summary

My firm belief is that to infuse creativity, innovation, intelligence in human beings it is best done when they are young. Such an education will also eventually change human relationships, business, management, medicine, science and every other field. To change the world, all that we have to do is recognize the genius hidden in every child and bring it out to the fore.

How to Teach Your Baby Math by Glenn Doman

2012-01-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

I borrowed this book "How to Teach Your Baby Math" by Glenn Doman.

Prologue

I was first introduced to the Glenn Doman method of early childhood education while I was working as a Research associate at Mother's Service Society in Pondicherry. Ever since, I have been fascinated with the simple but very effective method proposed by Glenn Doman to teach a child (right from 3 months of age) "anything" right from reading, foreign languages, math, music, encyclopaedic knowledge etc. If these methods were to be adopted by teachers and parents worldover (and especially in India) we would have a bunch of young geniuses to whom we can entrust the functioning of the world 20 years from now and be sure that the world is in safe hands.

Glenn Doman and his books

In May 1964, Glenn Doman published a book called “How to Teach your Baby to Read” under the title of Gentle Revolution. Since then the book has sold millions of copies and has been translated into 15 languages. Thousands of parents have employed these methods to teach their child to read and reported astonishing success. 10 years later, Glenn Doman released a series of other books to teach young children Math, Encyclopaedic knowledge etc.

How to Teach Your Baby Math

Fortunately, I found this book in the Boise Public Library. This book is a light read. It has a total of 6 chapters and 105 pages. So you can finish reading the entire book in a couple of hours. But the best part of the book is that it will change your perspective about your child.

I made notes of important points discussed in the first 3 chapters of the book. Sharing it here for everyone's benefit.

Introduction

Mothers, closely followed by fathers, know more about their own children than anybody else alive.
The process of unlearning is a great deal harder than the process of learning and for some people, unlearning is simply impossible.
The fact is that neurological growth, which we had always considered a static and irrevocable fact, is a dynamic and ever-changing process.

Three reports from mothers who had tried “How to Teach your Baby to Read”:

1. It is much easier to teach a 1 or 2 year old to read than it is to teach a 4 or 7 year old.

2. Teaching a tiny child to read brings great happiness to both mother and baby.

3. When a tiny child learns to read, not only does his knowledge increase by leaps and bounds, but so also does his curiosity and alertness - in short, he clearly becomes more intelligent.

Chapter 1 Mothers and Tiny Kids - The World’s Most Dynamic Learning Teams

"We mothers are the potters and our children the clay." - Winifred Sackville Stoner Natural Education

Mothers could teach their tiny children absolutely anything they could present to them in an honest and factual way.

Chapter 2 The Long Road to Understanding

"Man a dunce uncouth, errs in age and youth; babies know the truth." - Swinburne

Why kids understand better and faster than adults: Could it be possibly be that we adults had so long used symbols to represent facts that we had learned to perceive only the symbols and were not able to perceive the actual facts? It was clear that children could perceive the facts, because they were virtually all doing so.
Languages are made up of facts called words, numbers or notes, depending on which language you are talking about. In the learning of pure facts, children can learn anything we can present to them in a factual and honest way. What’s more, the younger they are, the easier it is.
Words are written symbols that represent specific, factual things, actions or thoughts. Musical notes are written symbols that represent specific, factual sounds, and numerals are written symbols that represent specific, factual numbers of objects.
Tiny children can actually see and almost instantly identify the actual number of objects as well as the numeral if they are given the opportunity to do so early enough in life and before they are introduced to numerals.

Chapter 3 Tiny Children Want to Learn Math

"Children and genius have the same master organ in common - inquisitiveness. Let childhood have its way and as it began where genius begins, it may find what genius finds." - Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

There has never been, in the history of man, an adult scientist who has been half so curious as is any child between the ages of 4 months and 4 years.
The truth is that a child begins to learn at birth or earlier.
A tiny child has, burning within him, a boundless desire to learn.
We can diminish the child’s desire to learn by limiting the experiences to which we expose him.
We can multiply by many times the knowledge he absorbs if we appreciate his superb capacity for learning and give him unlimited opportunity while simultaneously encouraging him to learn.
Tiny children never invent either toys or games. They invent tools.
A playpen seriously restricts the child’s neurological growth by limiting his ability to crawl and creep. This in turn inhibits the development of his vision, manual competence, hand-eye coordination and a host of other things.
Learning is the greatest game in life and the most fun.
In summary, babies want to learn about everything, they want to learn about it right now and, having no judgment at all, they want to learn about everything with a fine impartiality.

The review of the remaining 3 chapters will be continued in the next post.

A Brief History of India by Alain Danielou

2012-01-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Currently reading "A Brief History of India" by Alain Danielou.

The author gives an interesting perspective on the history and timeline of Indian civilization.

The author contends that there were three phases of civilization in India:

The First Civilization - Proto-Australoids
One of the oldest and aboriginal peoples of India are the Mundas who spoke the Munda languages.

The main tribes related to the Mundas are: Santals, the Gonds, the Bhils, who are probably the ancient Villavars or “bow-drawers”; the kui-, kolami-, and kondhi- speaking peoples of central India and Orissa; the populations of the Nicobar islands in the Gulf of Bengal; and the Khasis of Assam [reference from the book].

The Second Civilization - The Dravidians
A race that was neither Aryan nor Semitic (also termed Indo-Mediterranean) spread from Spain to Ganges in the third millennium B.C.

There must exist some relationship between the Dravidians of India and the other branches of the great Mediterranean race, the Iberians of Spain, the Ligurians, the Palasgians, the Etruscans, the Libyans, the Minoans of Crete, the Cyprians, the Egyptians, the Hittites and the Sumerians.
Basque (western Iberians), Georgian (eastern Iberians), Sumerian, Hurrian and even Turkish are directly related to Dravidian languages [reference from book].

The Third Civilization - The Aryans

The separation of the Vedic Aryans and the Iranians took place prior to 2800 B.C. Starting from this period, the Vedic Aryans began emigrating progressively to modern Afghanistan and the North-West of India. [Wikipedia quotes that separation of Indo-Aryans with Iranians, linguistically, took place in 1800 B.C]

Summary
In the second phase of civilization (Dravidian) the author proposes an "out-of-India" theory where he suggests that India might have been the cradle for the Indo-Mediterranean civilization. This stance is debatable. Need to read the book in detail and explore.

Great souls behave in strange fashion

2012-01-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.motherservice.org/publications

Reading about great souls like Ramakrishna Parahamsa, Ramana maharishi, Sri Aurobindo is a delight in itself. The ways of great souls are strange.

Here are two of my favorite stories related to Ramana Maharishi and Sri Aurobindo.

Story 1
Thieves entered Sri Ramanashram and finding no valuables there sought out the chief 'culprit'. They questioned the Maharishi why there were no valuables for them to steal. In the process the Maharishi was beaten by the rogues. His disciples rushed to the rescue of their master to prevent this heinous crime. Maharishi, in his own inimitable fashion declared, "Do not interfere. Let them continue. They are doing their puja to me!"

Story 2
In the early days of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a bread delivery boy was found to have stolen Rs.5 and was beaten by the disciples. Sri Aurobindo heard the noise from the next room, came out, asked his disciples not to beat the boy, and ordered them to 'return' the Rs.5 to the boy. Strange are the ways of great men.

Source: http://karmayogi.net/?q=life%26teachingsbook12

Requirements of intelligence

2011-12-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

In the 3rd part of the introduction series by Glenn Doman, the author talks about the requirements of intelligence and how parents can multiply their baby's intelligence. The institute staff have spent nearly 2000 people years studying intelligence.

Key points from the video:

With the genes of Homo Sapiens and an enriched environment the child can be anything he wants to be.
We adults are absolutely positive that we are smarter than kids which makes us arrogant.
Before the age of 6, the child's ability to take in information will be better than any other time in his entire life.
1 year olds can learn a foreign language, read and do maths easier than 7 year olds - That is why the first 6 years of a child's life are so important

Requirements of intelligence:

1st requirement for intelligence is the ability to take in facts.
2nd requirement for intelligence is the ability to store facts.
3rd requirement for intelligence is the ability to retrieve stored facts as useful knowledge.
4th requirement for intelligence is the ability to combine and permutate facts and knowledge to discover new facts and laws.
5th requirement for intelligence is the ability to use facts, knowledge and laws to successfully solve problems of increasing importance.

Steps to multiply your child's intelligence:

Give your child a huge number of clear facts
Present the facts frequently to insure their permanent storage
Provide frequent opportunity to retrieve the facts for useful purposes.
Provide your child with sets of related facts so that the child can combine and permutate the facts in the greatest number of useful ways.
Present your child with ever increasing opportunity to solve problems of increasing importance

Cheerfulness

2011-12-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

Karmayogi.net is a site full of profound wisdom and deep insights. Reading the articles in the site and understanding the essence of the writing refreshes and stimulates the thinking and emotions. This is the first step. The second step is to put the words in practise.

I have taken some excerpts about "Cheerfulness" from the site.

Creation is Joy and Bliss

It is said that humour is the salt and savour of life. Even when people are miserable, they still prefer to go on living, because at the center of life there is joy. The philosophical basis of the creation is joy and bliss. Every form of creation in life is created through an expression of joy.

The opposite of joy is depression and we often come across people steeped in it. Many of them have what they believe to be a valid reason to be depressed. Many others acknowledge they have no known reason for depression.

There are people who are naturally cheerful and spread cheer all around, but there are also people who seem to have been born sad. Is there any hope for them? Sadness is not natural to man. It is really a perversion of the emotions.

What should one do?

No sadness or depression will stay with a person unless he clings to it.

Medical science has created some drugs which alleviate sadness or depression. But these drugs are temporary, and act mainly on the physical level.

If a person does not encourage sadness, does not cling to it, does not indulge in it, sadness will leave him within days. The first thing a sad person must do is take the decision to get rid of sadness. That decision must be one of full energy and must be irrevocable. Once that decision is made, the hold of depression over the person will break. Then he must concentrate on joy, call joy, long for joy and eagerly welcome it to enter his mind, emotions and body.

Kala Pani song

2011-12-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Planning to make a series of posts on some evergreen songs from old Hindi movies.

Kala Pani was a movie produced by Dev Anand and directed by Raj Khosla in 1958.

Here is a song from the movie: Acha ji main hari chalo maan jaao naa
Singers: Asha Bhonsle and Mohammad Rafi
Music Director: S. D. Burman
Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Enjoy the glowing beauty of Madhubala and the unique mannerisms of Dev Anand in this song.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_Pani_%281958_film%29

Myths about Mothers

2011-12-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

This video is the 2nd video in which Dr. Glenn Doman introduces his institute and method of childhood education.

Key points from the video:

# Mothers know more about their babies than anybody else
# Mothers are right about their child 99% of the time rather than professionals who publish articles about children
# 200 years before there were no pediatricians, obstetricians etc. Mothering was the first profession.
# The Brain grows by use. Function determines structure.
# Human brain has 5 pathways - see, feel, hear, taste & smell
# In the first 6 years, the child's brain grows at a tremendous rate. It absorbs data very rapidly. The younger the child is, the faster the brain grows with use.

Dr. Glenn Doman

2011-12-20T11:11:00.001-08:00

Dr. Glenn Doman is the founder of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in 1955 in Philadelphia.

Dr. Doman has done pioneering research in the field of early childhood education. His method of education involves interaction between parents and the child from an age as early as 3 months after the child's birth.

Quoting from their website about their work:

All we do at The Institutes is to give kids visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation with increased frequency, intensity, and duration in recognition of the orderly way in which the brain grows.

Here is an introduction video by Dr. Glenn Doman introducing his work at the Institutes:

The key points expressed by him in the above video are:

# Every child born has an instintive potential greater than Leaonardo Da Vinci
# Process of learning starts at birth
# If you can present facts to a child in a honest, factual and a joyous way, it can learn almost anything
# We spend the first 6 years of a child's life de-geniusing them
# If you ask the average grown ups what 3 year olds like - they would say, children like to play patty cakes but children would love to learn more than anything else
# If you give a boy a choice between playing and learning Greek, he will pick up Greek
# What children need? - Full time adult attention
# Their first choice for learning - Mummy, Daddy or anybody who will pay attention to them

Crash Proof

2011-11-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Started reading the book Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse by Peter Schiff.

Update 11th Jan 2011: Stopped reading the book half-way through. Will write a comprehensive review of the book and my thoughts once I finish the book.

A few interesting and key points from the book are listed out here:

U.S has moved from a society that saved, produced, created wealth, and was a major exporter has become a society that stopped saving, shifted from manufacturing to non-exportable services, has run up record national and personal indebtness, and uses borrowed money to finance excessive consumption of unproductive imported goods.
Confusing consumption with legitimate wealth creation. U.S's GDP, dominated by consumption, is not a measure of how much wealth we have created but of how much we have destroyed.
U.S savings rate has collapsed since 1970-2006.
The Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 made the U.S dollar the currency used by other governments and institutions to settle their foreign exchange accounts and to transact trade in certain vital commodities, such as gold and oil.
There is a speculation that reserve currency status might be transferred to the euro or to a combination of foreign currencies.
The shift from manufacturing to services caused growing trade deficits.
America's most formidable overseas competitor was Japan, whose answer to America's "bigger is better" was "higher quality is better". U.S was obsessed with the Cold War and then the hot war, but the Japanese were obsessed with commerce.
The service sector not only produces fewer exportable goods but also makes us dependent on goods imported from economies that do save and produce.
Money is a medium of exchange. Wealth is what is received in that exchange.
A popular fallacy is that American's transition from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy is an example of progress comparable to its transition during the 19th century from an agrarian-based to a manufacturing-based economy.
Baby Boomers are Consumers, not Savers.
It does not make sense for billions of real-world Asians to support millions of real-world Americans.
Trade deficits occur when countries import more than they export.
We are financing consumption not with money we have saved, but with money we have borrowed, mostly from the same countries we are importing from.
Inflation results from an expansion of the supply of money and credit, deflation, technically defined, is a contraction of that supply. Deflation simply means that supply exceeds demand, causing consumer prices to fall.
Profitability is about margins. Margins remain constant as costs and prices fall together.
Production has to do with quantities, productivity with efficiencies. Productivity means output per unit of input, input referring to labor or time.
U.S GDP is over 70% consumption, which could collapse at any time because it is financed by debt and not supported by domestic production.
The present day U.S dollar is what is called fiat money.
Until 1971, when the Nixon administration made the historic decision to abandon the gold standard, the dollar was backed by a percentage of the country's gold reserve. Without gold backing, the value of the dollar is nothing more than its purchasing power. The abandonment of gold standard in 1971 freed the Federal Reserve, which controls the supply of money, from its only restraint on printing money, by which we mean the various ways it has of increasing the amount of money in circulation.

Self Awareness

2011-10-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

To know what you are thirsting for is self-awareness.
That alone is the Reality for you.
The surface occupies itself in non-activities when the depth is unable to express its thirst.
All surface activities, however they are seemingly directed, are really directed only to realise the self-awareness of the depths.
Man's value lies in or is indicated by the distance between surface and depth.

ஆழ்ந்த மனம் தன்னை வெளிப்படுத்த முடியாமல் தவிக்கும்பொழுது மேல் மனம் அர்த்தமற்ற காரியங்களில் ஈடுபடுகிறது.

மனிதன் மிகவும் சுறுசுறுப்பானவன். தனக்கு நல்லது என்று புரிந்து கொண்ட விஷயத்தைத் தீவிரமாகவும், முழுமையாகவும் நாடுபவன். ஒன்றை நாடாத மனிதனில்லை.

பிரம்மம், பிரம்மமாக வெளிப்படுவதில்லை. இன்று நம் வாழ்வில் உள்ள அம்சமாக வெளிப்படும்.

எதை மனிதன் அதி தீவிரமாக நாடுகின்றானோ அதுவே அவனுக்குப் பிரம்மம், அதுவே சத்தியம். அத்துடன், அதிதீவிரமாக நாடுவதை அவன் நிச்சயமாக அடைவான் என்பதும் சிருஷ்டியின் அமைப்பு.

Source: karmayogi.net

Investment types

2011-10-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

From the book Mutual Fund for Dummies by Eric Tyson, MBA.This books gives a good intro to mutual funds, stocks, types of investments etc. A good starting point to get your hands dirty in the world of mutual funds.

Key points from the book:

Types of investments:

1. Lending investments - Bank certificates of deposit (CDs), United States Treasury bills, and bonds. This is similar to the bank fixed deposits in India where you lend a principal amount to the bank at a particular rate of interest for a specified period of time. At the end of the time period, you get back your principal amount along with the interest amount.

2. Ownership investments - Real estate and stock - You own a part of the asset that has ability to generate earnings or profits. More potential profit as well as risk.

Bank saving accounts are insured by FDIC upto $100,000.
Money market funds are not insured.
Corporate, mortgage, and foreign government bond interest is fully taxable. Interest on government bonds issued by U.S entities is usually free of state and/or federal income tax.
When you hold stock in the company, you share company's profits in form of annual dividends + increase in stock price if the company grows and makes increasing profits.
When you invest in a mutual fund, you buy shares and become a shareholder of the fund.
Market capitalization = Total value of company's outstanding stock.
Open-end funds: The fund issues as many shares as investors demand. No limit on number of investors or the amount of money.
Closed-end funds: Mutual fund companies decide how many shares they will issue.
The better open-end funds charge lower annual operating expenses.
The most efficiently managed mutual funds cost less than 1% per year in expenses.
You would need to invest money in at least 8 to 12 different companies in various industries to ensure that your portfolio could withstand a downturn in one or more of the investments.
Mutual funds typically invest in 25 to 100 securities, or more.
Some stock funds, known as sector funds, invest exclusively in stocks of a single industry.
Commission-free funds are called no-load funds.

At the end of 2010, there were 7,581 mutual funds in the United States with combined assets of $11.8 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), a national trade association of investment companies in the United States. The ICI reports that worldwide mutual fund assets were $4.7 trillion on the same date.^[13][Wiki]

Education the builds whole personalities instead of half-baked individuals

2011-08-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

All through my schooling and college I have missed a "wholesome" education. Education that could contribute to the development of my personality. Of course the education I got was the "best" when seen in terms of the technical knowledge or information I received.

The education I conceive of in the future not just gives information but also helps in the overall development of an individual in terms of their personality, being independent, working in a team, overcoming psychological/emotional barriers like fear, jealousy, hatred, laziness, falsehood, working in such a fashion that does not lead to dire consequences like pollution, corruption, exploitation of natural and human resources etc.

We already have a ton of information on the internet. Some examples:

Khan Academy has 2400+ videos on various subjects like maths, science, physics. The number of videos on the site is bound to increase with time.

Our very own Wikipedia that is a mine of knowledge.

I also consider Youtube a good tool for visual knowledge.

Other informal sources of information in terms of blogs, tweets, other social networking sites etc.

What I find lacking is the "Education on Life" - How do you make the right choices in life, how to become a leader, how to lead a conflict-free life, how to accomplish at your highest capacity etc. This knowledge cannot be merely termed as "soft skills". These are the most essential skills for any individual to lead a fulfilling life.

Technical knowledge is required and good. But not sufficient. The knowledge imparted by schools in the future should enable the child to pursue and excel in any field be it politics, IT, science, art etc.

If we can make even a small dent in this field, the evolution or progress made by mankind will be enormous.

The first step should be understanding the "human mind" (the most powerful instrument in the hands of the teacher) completely.

To be continued in the next post...

Tracking the bus

2011-08-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

Every morning when I start out from home, I frantically call my bus driver to make sure he has not left the bus stop. In the past 3 weeks, drivers have changed 3 times. So whenever a new driver comes in, the entire timing of the bus changes. Also I observe, that almost every person who gets into the bus calls the driver thus posing a traffic risk of driver answering the calls while driving.

That's when I was thinking that there should be a better way to do this.

One idea struck my mind. If implemented, this could ease a lot of our pain while travelling in public/shared transport.

1. Every bus should have a sensor/tracker connected to a software mobile app called "Bus Tracker App".

2. As customers, we should be able to download the "Bus Tracker App" onto our mobile phone.

3. As the bus starts moving, the sensor will get activated and connect to the Tracker app through wireless/bluetooth
4. When we connect to this app from our mobile, we should be able to get exact info on where the bus is presently.

Wondering if such an idea is already implemented in developed countries? If so, are there any examples you can share?

Change your attitude

2011-07-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

“If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

At any given point in time, you’re only one thought away from changing your thinking. What thought can you change today?
(Author: Maryellen Smith)

Competition is an essential element in performing well at school, college or at work. In the absence of healthy competition, each of us would perform way below our inherent capabilities.

However, going forward, once we achieve the maturity of mind, this competition can be converted to cooperation. Most times, we feel jealous at other's success. Instead we should focus on how we can perform better than our previous achievements. We should be a channel not just for our growth but also our peers' and team growth.

When someone is better than us, we may shun them. But life has always taught me that it is better to work with people who are better than you than with those who are inferior. You can learn a lot of things from the experts.

(Inspired by #Trust30 30-day writing challenge from ralphwaldoemerson.me.)

Tool-making animals

2011-07-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I was intrigued by an article published in the Hindu today, titled "Tool-making animals" under the "Science & Technology" section. You can read the whole article here: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2224336.ece

Examples of tool-making animals
The author lists all the instances where birds, fishes, spiders and beetles have been adept at making tools. Sharing below some videos/photos of the same.

Tool-making crows

Tool-making fishes

The first photos of a tool-using fish in the wild show a blackspot tuskfish banging a clam against a rock to crack it open.

Credit: Scott Gardner (http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/diver-snaps-first-photo-of-fish-.html)

When in evolution can we trace thinking or sapience?
The author D. Balasubramanian ends with an interesting question.

A tool is made for a purpose; if the purpose changes will the tool be accordingly modified or a new tool made? These latter require a mind to think and make judgements. It is no longer just instinct but intelligence? Are spiders and beetles sapient? Clearly the crow and monkey are. How far in evolution can we trace thinking/sapience?

Future explorations/Questions

This puts in perspective the different levels of sapience throughout evolution. Has man really reached the peak of this sapience? How would this sapience evolve in the future? These are interesting questions to explore.

Art and Music

2011-06-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

I was going through Raja Ravi Varma's paintings and my eyes were caught by a collection of paintings named "Ragamala".

It was beautiful to discover these Indian medieval paintings [16th and 17th century] based on the "Ragas".

From here my search first went to Wikipedia

In these paintings, each raga is personified by a colour, mood, a verse describing a story of a hero and heroine (nayaka and nayika), it also elucidates the season and the time of day and night in which a particular raga is to be sung; and finally most paintings also demarcate the specific Hindu deities attached with the raga, like Bhairava or Bhairavi to Shiva, Sri to Devi etc. The paintings depict not just the Ragas, but also their wives, (raginis), their numerous sons (ragaputra) and daughters (ragaputri).^[2]

The six principal ragas present in the Ragamala are Bhairava, Dipika, Sri, Malkaunsa, Megha and Hindola and these are meant to be sung during the six seasons of the year - summer, monsoon, autumn, early winter, winter and spring.

Please read the entire Wikipedia article to learn more about the Ragamala paintings.

Malasri Ragini [Source: Wikipedia]

This is a brilliant art form connecting "Sounds/Music" to "Visual Images". Have you come across any other paintings/art where two forms are connected?

Two words of the day - 5&6

2011-06-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Since I missed posting the Word of the Day yesterday. Here are two words for today:

Word of the Day

Salient adj. 1. Strikingly conspicuous; prominent. "A salient argument."

Egalitarian adj. Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.

Source: http://www.wordthink.com/word-of-the-day-archives.html

Word of the day - 4

2011-06-21T04:43:00.000-07:00

What's in a name? The word of the day signifies why a name is important.

Eponym [n]
A person whose name is or is thought to be the source of the name of something, such as a city, country, or era. "George Washington is the eponym of Washington DC."

Source: http://www.wordthink.com/

Godavari song

2011-06-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite songs from the Telugu movie "Godavari". The singer has a beautiful voice. Sumanth and Kamalini make a great couple. Enjoy the song!

Word of the day - 3

2011-06-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Another word with a unique origin. I really enjoy the stories behind how new words were added to the English language.

Ritzy (adjective)

being, characteristic of, or befitting a snob : snobbish
impressively or ostentatiously fancy or stylish : fashionable, posh

Origin of the word: César Ritz (1850-1918) earned worldwide renown for the luxurious hotels bearing his name opened in London and Paris. (The Ritz-Carlton hotel company is a contemporary descendant of these enterprises.) Although they were by no means the first to cater to high-end clients, Ritz’s hotels quickly earned reputations as symbols of opulence. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a writer who often focused on the fashionably wealthy, titled one of his short stories "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," and the phrase "to put on the ritz" means "to indulge in ostentatious display." The adjective "ritzy," describing either something fancy or stylish or the haughty attitudes of the wealthy elite, first checked into the English language in 1920.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/

Word of the day - 2

2011-06-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

The next word I found has a very interesting origin.

Euphemism (n)

The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant;

Origin: The word euphemism comes from the Greek word ευφημία (euphemia), meaning "the use of words of good omen" which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eu , "good/well" + pheme "speech/speaking". The eupheme was originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken aloud; etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking).

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/euphemism

Priceless gift

2011-06-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Came across this moving video on TED. Stacey Kramer shares an experience that changed her life forever. Earth-shattering/traumatic incidents may after all be priceless gifts. Do watch it!

Word of the day - I

2011-06-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Thinking of posting 1 English word a day. Language learning is a continuous process. English is the only language that I use to express myself. So improvement is a key to expressing myself better.

Word for the day - 1

Eisegesis: An interpretation that expresses the interpreter's own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text.

Origin:

Eisegesis enters English in the 1900s in reference to Biblical studies as the opposite of exegesis, "critical interpretation of a text, especially of the Bible."

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday