Kaleidoscope

"Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission"

I was simply amazed to learn about the possibility of a universal translator the way it is used in Star Trek. Everyone can speak in their mother tongue and with this amazing technology will hear others in their mother tongue.

Wow! what if that is possible now?

With my mind dwelling on this idea, I sprung to another branch like a monkey - the branch is "how language would have been formed?"

I visited Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language. My immense thanks to them for such a rich and interesting collection of information on wide variety of subjects. With fullest respect to the effort and the information that they have in wiki for everything, I here by share a very few interesting information that I read from there. I believe that it will motivate you all to read all of it in wikipedia and also spring your imagination, if not like mine, in your own way!

*All humans possess similar linguistic abilities, and no child is born with a biological predisposition favoring any one language or type of language

*Anatomically modern humans first appear in the fossil record 200,000 years ago in Ethiopia.

*There is still some debate as to whether language developed gradually over thousands of years or whether it appeared suddenly.

"Linguistic monogenesis (the "Mother Tongue Theory") is the hypothesis that there was one single protolanguage (the "Proto-World language") from which all other languages spoken by humans descend."

Will stop here... Have a nice day!

Today, a few hours ago, I enjoyed watching 'Death Wish', an episode in Star Trek which featured the characters 'Q' of the continuum, who possess seemingly omnipotent power.

In one of the scenes, a character ( one Q ) pleads for his mortality in a hearing while the other reasons that the requestor be not granted his wish. To justify his stand,he brings three characters from Earth, one of which is Newton. Newton identifies the Q ( the requestor ) as the man who shook the apple tree (yes, the famous apple tree incident) which helped Newton formulate his theory on gravity.

Right after watching this episode,I started thinking about how the universe, especiallt earth is governed. Other than the orderly motion of the earth and the amazingly surprising sustenance of life with all its dependencies with the environment, would there be any forces, who do not wear an uniform and who we do not see, be having any special interest or a duty in assisting nature?

Looking at the orderliness of the universe, earth and the raw human mind with inorderly tendencies, I tend to believe that there must be some forces guiding or helping the human mind to route its creative capacity to evolution. Or Is the mind itself that force?

The funniest and probably a true idea that popped in my mind is that the induction of human beings on earth is what necessitated a 'governing' body other than or derived from Nature.

Intriguing! Especially my questions on this subject yield further questions and keep my mind fresh. This leads to further quest for information.

Thanks to www.spaceandmotion.com for the image. The site is fantastic with interesting material on the subject matter and various others.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare.It is because we do not dare that things are difficult.

 Very impressed by this quote from Seneca, I attempted to find more about her. Yes, I thought Seneca was a "she".

Through wikipedia, I learnt that Seneca was a "He" and was an ancient Roman Philisopher. We can find more information about him and his works at

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

Thanks to wikipedia for this information and for the image

Today I was watching a game of cricket between Australia and England. This game was a crucial one for Australia, a must win to move to the second round in the 20-20 world cup (cricket).

Australia won the game!

I have been following cricket for a good number of years. This is not the first time Australian cricket team has come out from a so called, pressure cooker situation successfully. In fact, as far as my memory goes, Australia has more than 90% of the times have come out of such situations successfully.

Era is different, players are different, yet the Australian cricket team continues their successful roll for decades. What differentiates them from the rest of the cricketing world? I think they just believe that they will win every game. Not just a casual belief, deep down, to their core they believe. Ofcourse, their skills are great, but I think that it is their belief that propels their skills to be applied thoroughly in the field.

Irrespective of  the views of some critics about the manners of Australian team, there is no doubt that they have raised the game of all the cricket teams in the world. Tribute to them - the current team members and the earlier!

Thanks to timesofindia.com for the picture. This picture is of the current Australian cricket team captain Ricky Ponting and their star batsman Mathew Hayden, from today's ( Sep 14th, 2007 ) match against England.

Some stats from wikipedia about the achievements of the Australian Cricket Teams ( Current and the earlier ones ).

Australia has led the ICC Test Championship table since the creation of the ICC Test table system in January 2001.

They are also the first-ranked international one-day cricket team and winners of the last three Cricket World Cups.

Australia won the Cricket World Cup 4 times in total; 1987, 1999, 2003 & 2007. As of 28 April 2007 they are undefeated in 29 consecutive World Cup matches. They have led the ICC One-Day International Championship table from its inception through to February 18, 2007, and then again from April 7, 2007.

In 2002, they were named World Team of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in recognition of their world record sequence of test match victories.

You can read more details in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_cricket_team

Thanks to wikipedia for the stats.

 You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
-- Thomas Babington Macaulay

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
-- James A. Froude

The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.
-- Isabelle Eberhardt

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
-- Leonardo da Vinci

Thanks to http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/character-quotes.html for the online verison of the quotes. You can read more quotes on character and other catagories from this site.

Thanks to Wikipedia for all the images except for James ANthony Froude's which is from www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040245b.htm. Thanks to them as well.

Thanks to Thomas Jefferson for these wonderful quotes. Every quote calls for a deep reflection.

A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. 

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

One man with courage is a majority.

Thanks to Wikipedia and the artist Charles Wilson Peale for the image and to brainyquotes.com for the online version of the quotes. 

After thinking about what is around us yesterday, I continued to ponder on that line. I navigated from 'what is around us' to energy. Can energy be there without any motion in any place of the universe? When I asked this question, I thought that I was silly to ask these questions and simply I need to read what others have hypothesized and proved about these scientific facts.

Giving up that thought - well not fully, I referred dictionary.reference.com for the definition of potential energy.

The energy of a particle or system of particles derived from position, or condition, rather than motion. A raised weight, coiled spring, or charged battery has potential energy. 

Earth, to naked eye appears to be stationary. But it rotates. Is there a possibility that a particle or a system of particles which appear to be stationary be really in a motion? Like a human body, where there is movement of blood, movement of air, would there be some sort of movement within the particles which is responsible for potential energy?  How are these movements orchestrated?

I tend to think that everything is in motion and life is all about movement. Life is the cause of energy - we call it life in case of human. It may just be a different expression of life in inanimate objects which is the cause of energy in them, which orchestrates the creation of energy. Beyond this, my mind refuses to ponder and my eyes plead me to close them. Bye until tommorrow! 

Note: Thinking of energy, motion etc I thought of a cheetah which is known for its movement. Thanks to http://www.cathouse-fcc.org/gifs-jpegs/zulurun.jpg for the picture and to dictionary.reference.com for the meaning of the word potential energy.

Today morning, I started thinking about what would the real nature of what exists or what surrounds earth be?

In the day time, earth is lit by the sun. In the night, some stars and moon are around! When we do not see the stars and moon, we can experience the  complete darkness ( excluding Edison's invention that helps us immensely).

This leads me to think that what is surrounding earth or for that matter everything is basically dark or black, but that which is without any attribute or attributes difficult to describe! May be it is just the interaction of planets amongst themselves by orbitting or their interaction with "what exists outside of them - the space thing that is inherently dark" produce  qualities and quantitities (forms).

My imagination fits in well with the theory of Vethathiri maharishi , a saint and a scientist from India who voiced that the almighty is a dark space which holds everything - the universe in itself.

Yet, how do I know exactly what is around us? what is its capacity? How can it hold all these 'heavyweight' planets? How amazingly orderly are all these planets that orbit? - especially earth so much so that it sustains all our lives along with its rotary motion? What could be the contribution of what is around us to gravity?

The funny thing is my imagination and questioning only lead to further questions.  It is very interesting - I hope this article trigger some questions in your mind too.

One of my friend told me that these were answered already. But I like to keep questioning until I read others' observations / experiments - answers!.

Thanks to http://www.nineplanets.org for the image. You all have a nice day!

Today , after  buying the stationery I wanted, my eyes stalled at a small book named 365 inspirations on the shelf of a shop in the nearby mall. It is a collection of 365 quotes. After browsing the pages, I bought the book and had a nice time reading it while on my way back home. Here below are some of the quotes with the names of the authors.

A goal is a dream with a deadline - Napoleon Hill

The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death, but in what dies inside of us while we live - Norman Cousins

 Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. - Carl Jung

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers  - Ralph Nader

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test - Elbert Hubbard

I heard a great deal about how Lincoln faced his adversity. Curious to find the details on what he faced and how he overcame them, I googled for his autobiography and came across the site

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/education/failures.htm

It is a nice tabular representation of his failures and successes. The way information is grouped made the facts look mechanical to me and hence I browsed further to learn more about these set backs.

http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/lincoln.html

has a long list of all the sites about Abraham Lincoln.

From there, I navigated to

http://www.wiprogram.org/leadership/yl02_research_papers/old_papers/ABRAHAM_LINCOLN.htm

Some of the interesting or rather inspiring facts I learnt from the site ( as is - for all the details please visit the website).

Lincoln lost his first job as clerk in Denton Offutt’s store, when Offutss’s business enterprise collapsed.  In 1833, Lincoln and Berry, a successor store, failed leaving the partners in debt.  Lincoln spent the next seventeen years of his life paying off the money he borrowed from friends to start his business.

In 1832, in his first campaign for the state legislature, he finished eight from thirteen candidates.  In a campaign document he stated that if he were to lose, he ‘was too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.’  In 1835 Lincoln was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken.  In 1836 he had a nervous breakdown and spent six months confined to his bed.

He broke off his engagement to Mary Todd and, as a result experienced a profound depression.  However a year later he reconnected with Mary and he went on to marry her in November of 1842.

In 1836, Lincoln won election to Congress.  After his term ended, Lincoln spent the next five years focusing on his law practice.  In 1854, he came back to the political arena and one of the first things he did was to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which threatened to extend slavery to other states. 

 In 1855 Lincoln ran for the Senate but was defeated.  The next year he ran for vice President and was also defeated. 

Lincoln’s years of persistence and hard work, eventually paid off in 1860 when he was elected as the sixteenth President of the United States of America.  However, failure characterised the first two years of Lincoln’s Presidency.  The radicals pushed him to declare emancipation a war aim while conservatives tried to pull him away from making it a ‘a war about the Negro.’  His party suffered losses in the mid-term elections.

================================================================== 

In the same site there is an article about Lincoln's leadership. It says

Lincoln practiced what he preached.

 “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power” 

is his quote. I learnt that Lincoln was known , famous for his accessibility. The site also pours information on several of his leadership traits with examples from his life line.

Definitely, an interesting read. Thanks to all the websites for the information. Thanks to http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/lincpix/b63.jpg for the image.

Salute to Abraham Lincoln!

After watching an episode in Star Trek ( Voyager - Season 5 - Relativity ), I started thinking about the phenomenon of temporal distortion.

As is, the time difference between different grographical regions is facinating for me. While it is so, it is amusing for me to look at a possibility that there could be  localized distortions of time and space.

Why would it happen in first place? Would gravity within such a localized distortion be different from that exists outside of it?

Do these gravitational differences in space cause temporal distortions?

What is time? Can there be time without movement? What causes movement? Is the same force and its variation the reason for such distortions? What is the reason for the variation?

These are some questions that popped in mind during the thinking process. I find such questions to be interesting and I like them to be for you all as well.

Happy thinking!

One of the political leaders I admire is Abraham Lincoln. His simplicity and stead fast adherence to his ideals impressed me very much.

Today I browsed for his quotes. Here are some impressive ones.

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

The best:

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

Thanks to http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln78.html. My salutes to Abraham Lincoln.

A good poem is like a well constructed, beautiful building. I was browsing for poetry in the internet and came across Wordsworth's Daffodils in questions.about.com. Thanks to Wordsworth and to the website for the online version of this poem, which simply takes us to watch the daffodils along with the author himself. What kind of a guided tour it is! a fantastic one!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Thanks to poetseers.org for the image of wordsworth and to freefoto.com for the daffodils.

I broke into laughter when I saw this quote of Einstein's.

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

I went on to browse more of his quotes. I paused and thought for several minutes on each of the below quotes. So simple they seem to be, yet they are very thought provoking. Isn't it? 

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

Thanks to Star Trek, my attention is now on to space, planets and my imagination.

What is fascinating to me is the spherical nature of earth and the space travel associated with it. And more fascinating is when I make sense of the theories that I have read, applying them - well nowhere else but in my mind to the questions that come out of my imagination.

Today, first I started with a child like imagination. If the earth is spherical and if an aeroplane moves from the top to the bottom, why does the motion seem linear? If the motion is of speed that is equivalent to that of light, will one experience a travel along a circle and what would be that like?

First I ignored my thoughts as very childish. Then I was browsing through wikipedia about various hypotheses that human kind has produced and how flawed some of the hypotheses were after a while. This encouraged me to further question about several phenomenon that I observed in the day.

It is a happy day and I am now ready to call it off. More to come in this Kaleidoscope, but I cannot tell when! Thanks to Google for the image.

• September 2008 [1]
• August 2008 [4]
• July 2008 [17]
• June 2008 [19]
• May 2008 [28]
• April 2008 [31]
• March 2008 [20]
• February 2008 [9]
• January 2008 [3]
• December 2007 [10]
• November 2007 [17]
• October 2007 [23]
• September 2007 [30]
• August 2007 [15]
• July 2007 [7]
• June 2007 [13]
• May 2007 [3]
• April 2007 [2]

• Quotes [91] 
• Poetry [44] 
• General [117] 
• People [1] 
• My experiences [1] 

• Joy
• RESPONSIBILITY
• RESPONSIBILITY
• Life
• Society
• Responsibility
• Friend
• GOAL
• Mistakes
• The Sun

Community Links

• Community Blog Hub
• The Poetry Blog
• Notes by Farouk
• Kaleidoscope
• Cafe Novo
• The Book Blog
• Nxivm
• Executive Success Programs
• Keith Raniere
• Nancy Salzman