Kaleidoscope

Eating and Drinking
2007/06/10,18:36

And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,

"Your seeds shall live in my body,And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."


   I read this interesting verse of Kahlil Gibran's  on 'Eating and Drinking'. Thanks to www.leb.net for the online version. His perspective  of looking at what has now become a routine thoughtless activity  - 'eating' is refreshing and it does spur a thought.

What do you think? 

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival - W. Edwards Deming
2007/06/10,08:59

On a sunday night at 22:00, I was browsing the internet on 'Learning' and came across this very interesting quote.

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival

                                                             - W. Edwards Deming

I laughed aloud and meanwhile was curious to learn about the man who said this. Where else but wikipedia these days.....?

And to my surprise I learnt that Edwards Deming, being an American, contributed immensely for his work in Japan and that his contribution was vital in Japan producing innovative high-quality products.

He was an American Statistician, College professor and Consultant. He is also credited with improving production in United States during World War II.

 There is a good amount of information on him, his philosophy (14 points) and Seven Deadly Diseases!! in Wikipedia - you may want to read! I could not agree with all of it - but it is an interesting read!

 

Mind without Fear - by Rabindranath Tagore
2007/06/10,08:37

In my opinion, this is one of the best poems ever written. It is by Rabindranath Tagore. I feel the passion of Tagore for his countrymen.

Anytime I feel dull, I read this poem. Instantly, Tagore's words rejuvenate my thinking and feelings. Tribute to him and thanks to http://www.kahlil.org/gitanjali.html for the online version of this timeless jewel.

 MIND WITHOUT FEAR

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action- 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Recovered from Sea!
2007/06/10,07:19

 

It always surprise me whenever I hear people say, "So and So much of this country's land is recovered from sea". I begin to wonder

1) First of all, how is that possible?

2) What happens to the fish and other living beings in that area during the recovery process? Do they migrate to other distant parts of the sea or Do they just die / get killed?

 3)And will the land remain solid? Will it be hard? How are the waves stopped or controlled from extending or rather flowing towards their usual distance?

 The first time I heard such a thing when I was in Netherlands. Curiously I browed Wikepedia to see how the dutch managed to do this. I was surprised to learn that in the 13th century itself, they used windmills to pump water out of the land below sea level. In addition to recovering the land from sea, the dutch needed to protect against the floods.

To put an end to the threat from the sea once for all, the dutch launched a project called "Delta" in 1958 which was largely completed in 2002. The goal of this project is to reduce the risk of flooding in the Zeeland ( a key region in Netherlands ) to once per 10,000 years.

I still would like to explore on the details of the process of how these amazing people achieved this and will keep myself and others who view this blog posted.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the news and picture. Tribute to the those people of Netherlands who architected, those who orchestrated and those who labored in this interesting project which stretched the human possibilities.

 

 
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