Kaleidoscope

Today I googled for Kaleidoscope. When I was a kid, I was presented a cheap version of what was sold for thousands of dollars elsewhere. I loved watching the changing colors and patterns through this foot long tube. I did not know what its name was then. I think, after a few years of my acquaintance with it, I knew the name.

I came across an interesting historical information that Kaleidoscope was known to the ancient Greeks ( kalos, eidos, and skopos are Greek words meaning beautiful, form, and view ) and it was patented by Sir David Brewster from Scotland in 1817.

I started to wonder,

1) If it was known to ancient Greeks, then why was it not for their descendants? Why would it take a Sir David to discover it in 1817?

2)Are modern inventions - really inventions from the scratch? or improvisations over discoveries of what was done at early times?

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information and the images. 

Fleas

Adam
Had 'em.

When I googled , I found the above to be the shortest poem written so far. There are different claims on who the author of the poem is. An interesting couplet it is, it triggers a wonder, what does 'Had'em' represent?

I was looking at the world clock web site to fix up a time to conference with my friend. While doing so, I came across an interesting information. It was interesting, because I thought Australia would be sitting at the tip of the time race. I learnt that it is not and that Newzealand is ahead of Australia by 2 hours ( certain cities ). Then I searched for any other country which is ahead in the time race. There is one and it is Republic of Kiribati and the name of the place is Kiritimati, Christmas Islands, Kiribati.

I have never heard of either the place or the country. I searched in wikipedia to learn about this republic. You may want to visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati

 Thanks to wikipedia for the image and information about Kiribati and to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock for the time.

 
Humanity!

I looked up in the dictionary for the meaning of the word "Humanity". One of the definitions is "Quality of being human". Another definition said "Benevolence".

My thought jumped to Humanities in Education field. We have department of "Humanities" in colleges and universities. And interestingly, artistic studies are grouped under this topic and this department is the one that is poorly funded.

Come to think of it, Engineering, Medicine also are an art in their own respect. But the reason for the rich funding of those departments is that ultimately these studies promote consumption and generate money. While Humanities is ignored as a branch of study fit for people who want to teach!

This may not be the case in many countries  - but it is so in the countries I visited.

Anyway back to the word - Humanity!

I think "Humanity" -  the word came to existence because of people who lived the live purposefully and demonstrated the value of life by adhering to the values they practiced till the end of their lives and therefore defined the best qualities of human race. It may be that the collective term of these best qualities is what is humanity. 

I read an interesting article in BBC - " Life from Mars theory put to test "

The theory tested was if meteorites could have carried life forms to earth from Mars. Feel free to read the article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7056686.stm

I started thinking about the possibilities of such an event and what would that mean if it were true?

Will people start to call themselves Marsians? If they do how many references need to be corrected? And if not , and if there life forms in Mars, would they have any similarity to us, humans? Language, technology, Culture - What if they are replica of us?

In some of the parts of the world, I am witnessing the focus to retain the old names to cities, despite the new name being in use for a few centuries. People who are familiar with this can identify with my wonder on "Marsians".

In some of the ancient yogic literature, I found some references for life forms similar to we, people in other planets, world and recently as fancy as in Star Trek.

While these explorations are within the territory of my imagination, I need to admit that it is still fascinating. One day, I think, we humans will unwrap or fully discover who we are and where we are from. It may become so simple as watching a natural scenery!

Thanks to BBC for the information. Thanks to www.calacademy.org for the beautiful picture of 'Mars' land.
 

Today in the headlines, I came across the news - Wildfires blaze across California. From BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7055721.stm ), I learnt that  40,000 acres  of land was burnt and that 250,000 people had to evacuate their homes.

It is a sad news that made me think about how and why forest fires occur ( other than deliberate attempts and carelessness by human ). I visited Wikipedia to learn more about the cause of wildfires - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire

Interesting information from wikipedia as below. For the full information, feel free to visit the above URL.  

Some plants encourage fire ( example: Eucalyptus has flammable oils in their leaves ) to eliminate competition from less fire-tolerant fellow species.

Plants have come up with defense mechanisms too , to combat this wildfire. Some plants possess reserve shoots that sprout after a fire, some possess fire resistance seeds

When the evaporation of water in plants is higher than the absorption from the soil, the plants dry out and release the flammable gas ethylene. Thus it also is due to a natural imbalance.

The fire that spreads from tree tops ( known as crown fire ) is the deadliest type of forest fire as it can spread rapidly as opposed to the 'Lower' - Bushes fire or 'Jumping or Spotting fire' which is caused by the carry over of burning leaves and branches by wind from one spot to other.

Thanks to BBC for the picture and Wikipedia for the information.

In the dance studio that I visited for the second time, I found this informative brochure on the various dance programs they conduct.

What started out as a birth preparation exercise regime, this mystical dance course focuses on calculated pelvic movements and body undulations.

Surprised, I visited wikipedia to find about the origins of Belly Dance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belly_dance

I did find references in Wiki for this theory, though other theories of how this dance would have originated were also mentioned.

It is indeed an interesting theory, and well supports human creativity, that is inspired by any observed phenomenon.

After two and a half years I watched a theatrical performance,

Waves of Love

The World of the Whirling Dervishes by Istanbul Historical Turkish Music Ensemble.

The program is also in celebration of the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth.

It is on a sufi ritual, inspired by Rumi. Though I did not understand the meaning of the words, the visual display did communicate brotherhood, love and tolerance.

It started with people worshiping and then bowing to each other out of respect. And then, the whirl began. Wow! 7 people, with beautiful long white skirts, whirling for more than 30 minutes for the music in unison was indeed a sight to watch.

For me, it also symbolized a scientific understanding and a respect for the Nature which is governing all the whirling planets.

At the end of the program, the organizers gave a gift pouch. Of the gifts, the one that got my attention was a small box, beautifully printed or painted with the picture of the whirls.

On the back side of the box, 7 advices of Rumi are found in print as well.

1. In generosity and helping others, be like a river.

2. In compassion and grace, be like the sun.

3. In concealing others; faults, be like the night.

4. In anger and fury, be like the dead.

5. In modesty and humility, be like the earth.

6. In tolerance, be like the sea.

7. Either appear as you are, or be as you look

I like the 7th one very much.

I turned to my friend and colleague and asked

What is this P.S. thing we write at the end of a message?

An intelligent man who has answer or who will find an answer for any question I ask, he instantly told me that it means Post Script.

We both could not come to an agreeable conclusion ( imagination!) on how this word would have been derived.

I googled a while ago and came across interesting perspectives on this term.

* It is derived from the latin word Post Scriptum which means 'After Writing'.   Funny! Some say that it is meant for mentioning something hastily and i   incidentally

* It is used always after Signature ( Post Signature? )

* http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/post_scriptum offers another interesting    perspective. When an article which is already published and known is appended, the appended portion is referred as P.S. ( Post Script )   I think this makes more sense. This distinguishes the difference between  what was original or the first version and what was added so that one could appreciate the evolution in the thinking ( for all streams ) or discovery ( in case of a    scientific finding- for example )

When I use P.S. in my email, it is usually an information not asked directly or not the main content of my message. It is an useful supplementary information to the subject matter.

Today I thought of writing an article. But changed my mind to post some insightful, useful quotes after I looked at one of the quotes that I printed and displayed at my eyesight in my office.

The same quote looked very meaningful and deep to me today. ( the first one ).

So, It is quotes time in Kaleidoscope.

Thanks to Ayn Rand, Gandhi for the originals and www.brainyquotes.com for the online version.

I told my grandfather that it was so important to have a walkman to learn English! I thought he believed me and bought me one!

This was in my college days and the first thing I did with my walkman was to listen to songs.

That experience was so vivid and memorable. Suddenly, amidst the voices, I heard the sound of drum in one ear; from there it was rolling to the other. Somewhere at the center of my head, I heard voices. wow!

I was listening to the songs from an audio cassette all along the night of my travel from my home town to my college town. That was fascinating!

After college, I landed up in a job. The first gadget that I bought was a Sony stereo system. My second job was in States, the gadget country. I bought 3 ipods so far, sold one, lost one and gifted the last one. From 12 songs an audio cassette to 10,000 in a device smaller than the audio cassette in size! Never have I imagined that I would get hold of such a device in hand. At this juncture, I recollect what one of my friends said. He said, America is a land of technology and invention; that is inherent in the land and it will be so for future.

True it is. Now, we are in the era of Ipod touch, Zune, Zen and what not. What I learnt is that Asian companies are also catching up; come up with their own creativity in the models. Recently I bought a Samsung MP3 2 GB player that can hold 500 songs, so tiny and with a distinct feature called 3d sound. Personal musical players' market is indeed competitive, with a lot of choices for the buyers.  Every product has one or two unique features, a style and a memorable name. Hats off to competition! I do not want to do a gadget review here, but simply to express my admiration for these devices and thank the creative spirit of their producers!

Thanks to apple, creative, microsoft and samsung websites for the pictures.

        Shakespeare's sonnet 16 - This itself will ring a bell to most avid readers of poetry, even to people who are not much into poetry.

       The metaphors that he used are thought provoking, especially this one 

-       It is the star to every wandering bark,
        Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

       What does Shakespeare refer by the star's height? Does he refer to the physical proximity between the lover and the beloved? or what else could it be? And what a fantastic metaphor to say 'whose worth's unknown' - how beautifully he weaves the importance of star to a bark! Here is that famous sonnet!

 
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
        Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
        Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
        That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
        Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
        Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
        But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
        I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Thanks to Shakespeare for this wonderful work! 

My grandfather used to tell me what he could buy in his time for the same money we now use to buy a product. It is always mind boggling.  I used to think that we are paying way too much now, often forgetting the fact that we also earn that much proportionately.

This popped a question in my mind. What is the necessity to increase salaries and also increase the price of the commodities? Is it because man wants a change always, despite the natural changes?

Are common people confused with terms such as inflation and more frightening terms from Economics and thus evade their understanding of what might be very simple to follow? And because we don't understand, we run along on this non-stop treadmill of man made economical changes!

While these could apply to products, one of the alarming facts is that we need to buy drinking water, which definitely was not the case during my grandfather's childhood times!  How would it be like if we were to buy oxygen also to survive?

The release of new products and a subsequent price rise, salary rise to account for the cost of living while seem to be interconnected to man created need to keep upgrading things, surely a short supply of natural resources contribute to the price rise.

Short supply is due to several reasons. Gandhi mentioned one prominent reason. "The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed"

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