In the Dying Light

ramanujam I know I know -- just kidding about this subcontinental puerile preoccupation .....pedaram sultan bood....my dad can beat up ur dad.....my yogurt is butter than ur yogurt.......:)

......sorry if I hurt ur feelings.........

Re: # 159

[Humor can take many forms - some of which can be considered ``sick`` by some (usually by the supercilious types).]

We have been there before...those who do not agree with you become supercilious. Just look at your posts everywhere; you are patronising and you tell new writers about how late you have come to their boards as though they have been waiting for you.

You have seen nothing yet...and your so-called ``short-lived`` appearances are just attention-getting devices. Not only that, you use phrases from my articles, posts, ilogs in a feeble attempt at `getting back`. If you have seen plenty of truly sick humour around here, then you are hugely responsible for contributing to it. (Do not forget those nasty references and lewd language...)

You do not merely create stereotypes, but imaginary demons to come out as the `knight` you once so fancied yourself being.

And YOU ought not to be talking about inconsistencies...on every article you carp, then you say you have re-read the piece, then you demur, then you realise you need to come up with a smart come-back...oh, enough...

[(Sorry, ma`m - NOBODY is perfect - so nobody is beyond getting caught reaching inside the cookie jar - and nobody is too big to be called out by this interactor!)]

Oh dear, who cares? You seem to have this huge chip about being this terminator (one of your nicks boasted about being a lion!). You are not.

[It is within my perfect legitimate rights to appear on whichever board I choose, and unlike your great ``fan club`` - I DO like a variety of topics and I do feel I have to say something when I do say it - so I say it. And I do have a certain advantage which comes from being a simple ordinary individual - unlike the hall-of-famers haunting these hallowed (but in many instances mostly hollowed) halls - so I can speak my mind plainly!]

You speak your mind plainly? Hah...you need to come with all your nicks on my writer`s page and leave your comments. Do not worry your little head over my so-called fan club. Do not forget your old posts...it is a whole lot of interactors who have coteries here and who keep posting and badgering writers; they take 50-100 posts to say they did not like something. Strange.

[If you have a problem with what I say or how I say it - you have the power to ban me (in the end it always boils down to that gun of user ID/password, doesn`t it?) Simple as that! Feel free to exercise it! Otherwise, feel free to get used to it!]

You were banned because you were using multiple nicks and spamming one board long ago. As long as you stick to the guidelines, there is no reason to ban you. And I don`t have to get used to you...there are several hundred interactors who need my attention as well.

[Why do some people get ticked at what one has to say? And why do some people persist in saying stuff that is most of the time highly provocative - whether of substance or not? Good question. You don`t happen to know anybody like that, by any chance?]

Ask yourself first before trying to show the mirror. I have kept quiet all this while because I thought at some point you will cease being single-minded in your agenda, and anyone looking at your `history` here carefully will know just what it is all about...

You had sent in one article that was published. If you are using another name/nic, then that will have to be looked into.

[My ``feedback`` on enhancing the value of this site by increasing its transparency (and by dismantling its class structure) has been already documented elsewhere and - from all indications - promptly ignored! And what is four months in the scheme of things?!]

Your `feedback` has been nothing but a litany of complaints about issues that have to do with increasing your interact index. It has to do with YOU. Wonder why you never thought of this class structure before I came in in the new role. Don`t teach us transparency. All the details are there if people choose to check them out.

Many use the FP forum only to gain more visibility for themselves and appear to be the keepers of other people`s consciences.

If you wish to enhance the value of this site, then first learn to conduct yourself with decorum (I am not talking about your comments on this board).

One is aware that you feel the desperate need to have the last word, therefore say what you wish and be done with it. I have had my say.

Best wishes.

PS: I am aware this is off-topic and should the need arise, this post will be filtered out.

ramanuja,

... stop it before people of your ilk from the other side start flooding this board with articles on how their bedouin ancestors invented algebra, medicine and surgery in addition to perfecting the art of suicide bombing ..............

...... who cares about what our forefathers did way back then, when they are still squatting on the railroad tracks and running around in loin cloths and generally behaving like a bunch of savages - call centers and underwear is but a small step in the right direction .......... but coming up with zero and negative numbers centuries ago is quite irrelevant, isn`t it ? ......... i marvel at the greatness of panini every time i have his sandwich, the other panini never crosses my mind even though i might share a few genes with him .........

........ what is really sobering is the thought that we are still struggling with the concept of indoor plumbing and eating utensils ......... who cares about yativrsabha varahamihira aryabhata ......... but i do agree that bose did invent the radio for fools who don`t understand the concept of price and value ............

#160 by nasah


There is a difference between the ACTUAL achievements of the Hindu mathematicians etc., as opposed to the camel dung theories popularized by the illiterate bedouin like how the sun goes around the earth, how the earth is flat, and how mountains serve as paperweights to prevent earthquakes.

#160 by nasah

[Hamidm -- see this is what happens when good Mulims like you don`t believe your own Koran has the cure for cancer -- the good Hindus will jump in to take the credit for (``TV, FM, AM, XM, Cellphone, Bluetooth - you name it``) -- with their puranay Puranas....... ]

Try not to make asinine statements. The point was that Bose, a ``Hindu`` was the ACTUAL discoverer of Radio, as opposed to Marconi. Has nothing to do with the puranas.

Re: # 146

Hamidm -- see this is what happens when good Mulims like you don`t believe your own Koran has the cure for cancer -- the good Hindus will jump in to take the credit for (``TV, FM, AM, XM, Cellphone, Bluetooth - you name it``) -- with their puranay Puranas.......

Re: # 147

Okay, so I should not have brought in that gentleman`s name - the gentleman, for what it is worth - who I admire greatly. A simple inadvertant instance of third-party catalysis-ism, I suppose - which should by no means be confused with a cataclysm!

(Incidently, I was unaware that Mr. Coelho writes for this website.)

Humor can take many forms - some of which can be considered ``sick`` by some (usually by the supercilious types). Frankly, I have seen plenty of what should be TRULY considered ``sick`` humor around here - because such ``humor`` hits individuals in areas of life over which they have little control - including ridiculing whole nations, regions, religions, ethnicities, languages - not to mention gender - and creating stereotypes! All of that seems to be fine with the current management - writers, ``writers``, and interactors all feel free to indulge in that food-fight willy-nilly - but point out a single trivial inconsistency in this instance - and all hell breaks loose! (Sorry, ma`m - NOBODY is perfect - so nobody is beyond getting caught reaching inside the cookie jar - and nobody is too big to be called out by this interactor!)

It is within my perfect legitimate rights to appear on whichever board I choose, and unlike your great ``fan club`` - I DO like a variety of topics and I do feel I have to say something when I do say it - so I say it. And I do have a certain advantage which comes from being a simple ordinary individual - unlike the hall-of-famers haunting these hallowed (but in many instances mostly hollowed) halls - so I can speak my mind plainly!

If you have a problem with what I say or how I say it - you have the power to ban me (in the end it always boils down to that gun of user ID/password, doesn`t it?) Simple as that! Feel free to exercise it! Otherwise, feel free to get used to it!

Why do some people get ticked at what one has to say? And why do some people persist in saying stuff that is most of the time highly provocative - whether of substance or not? Good question. You don`t happen to know anybody like that, by any chance?

[...If you have an opinion, please send in an article.]
How do you know that I have not in the past already published articles here? (Hush, everybody!)

My ``feedback`` on enhancing the value of this site by increasing its transparency (and by dismantling its class structure) has been already documented elsewhere and - from all indications - promptly ignored! And what is four months in the scheme of things?!

#157 by kaalchakra

[Ramanujan

Hope you won`t flood Chowk with information! ]

There is an unfortunate tendency that has gripped people in our subcontinent to ACTUALLY feel inferior to the Europeans. This does great injustice to the FUNDAMENTAL contributions made by Hindus to world civilization.

Unfortunately, there is no other way than post what I have posted. The information out there is many times this volume, so I tried to pick a couple that illustrates the FUNDAMENTAL nature of the contribution of Hindus to science, like the discovery of the number 0, the decimal (base 10) system which provides the model for the base 2 (binary) system, the concept of infinity in mathematics, and a million other things.

When you see that there is too much I posted, just hit the PageUp button a couple of times.

That`ll solve your problem.

Raw_Dust

In conceptualizing a continuously changing universe, Hinduism incorporates the possibility of error in everything we see and know.


Ramanujan

Hope you won`t flood Chowk with information!

In my post #148, I should have highlighted the following for Hamidm2:

........

The main ideas of Jaina mathematics, particularly those relating to its cosmology with its passion for large finite numbers and infinite numbers, continued to flourish with scholars such as Yativrsabha. He was a contemporary of Varahamihira and of the slightly older Aryabhata. We should also note that the two schools at Kusumapura and Ujjain were involved in the continuing developments of the numerals and of place-valued number systems. The next figure of major importance at the Ujjain school was Brahmagupta near the beginning of the seventh century AD and he would make one of the most major contributions to the development of the numbers systems with his remarkable contributions on negative numbers and zero. It is a sobering thought that eight hundred years later European mathematics would be struggling to cope without the use of negative numbers and of zero.

......

Re: # 152

zeemax:

[The moral of this story is that, when things don`t seem to be going
your way, always know that God has a plan for you.

Now here you`re contrading your premise of `Nothingness`. Didn`t expect this from you of all people. Don`t be phoney.]

Please...I had prefixed this story with this sentence, ``And something to share, whether you believe or not....placebo? I would replace god with Destiny...``

Before that in #79, I had stated, ``The term Nothing instead of `void` was used because the shoonya stithi cannot be striven for in `emptiness`.``

For me, `shoonya` represents non-being, and for that you have to Be and Become. That is the reason one has to go somewhere even for Nothing.

It can be a placebo effect, and Destiny does have a role to play.

Honestly, being phoney would come in if I were on test. I assume my inner world is not being judged here...

hamidm:
i think there is a big difference. hinduism need not to stand and validate its philosophy, axioms, etc. by appealing to the material world.

Islam Has to because it calls itself Deen-e-Fitrat, Religion of Nature.

About the invention of the radio, the basis for ALL communications technology today - TV, FM, AM, XM, Cellphone, Bluetooth - you name it:

The following is from the prestigious SCIENCE magazine:

BOSE CREDITED WITH KEY ROLE IN MARCONI`S RADIO BREAKTHROUGH

DELHI, INDIA-The Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi holds a secure place in the history books for decoding the first ireless message sent across the Atlantic Ocean. That achievement, on 12 December 1901, ushered in the modern era of electronic communications. But it also triggered a century-long debate over who should get the credit for developing the receiving device that captured the famous message, sent from England to Newfoundland via Morse code. This month an article in a special issue of The Proceedings of the IEEE, marking the 100th anniversary of the diode and the 50th anniversary of the transistor, makes a definitive case for Jagadis Chandra Bose, an Indian biologist and physicist. Bose announced the invention in an 1899 paper presented at the Royal Society in London, writes Probir Bondyopadhyay, a satellite and commications engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston and also an amatertistorian. In contrast, says Bondyopadhay, Marconi ``was like a honeybee collecting honey from different flowers`` to improve his wireless transmitter. ``And he never gave credit to those who deserved it.``

The device, called a self-recovering coherer, contained a sequence of iron-mercury iron in a vacuum tube that was able to receive a long-distance message by continually resetting itself before each pulse. Bondyopadhayay says Marconi may have deliberately tried to divert attention from Bose`s contribution by leaving the impression that it came from others, including an Italian naval officer.

Ironically, Bondyopadhyay was drawn into the dispute more than a decade ago at the request of Marconi`s daughter, G. Marconi Braga, who was upset about media reports (including a 1984 article in The New York Tbnes) stating that Marconi should share credit with Nikola Tesla and others for inventing wireless radio. Braga, who died last year, ``asked me to look into the matter,`` says Bondyopadhyay. But instead of buttressing Marconi`s claims, his investigations led him to Bose`s role in advancing the technology. ``I`m a historian. I find the facts and publish the facts.... By clarifying this thing, all I am trying to do is to set the record straight.`` Amplifiers were not available in the early days of radio telegraphy, so the reception of messages depended on receiver sensitivity. Although Marconi and Bose succeeded in communicating across a few kilometers in separate experiments during 1895, a better version was needed for long-distance signals.

Questions about the coherer`s true origin arose shortly after Marconi announced his results. The editor of a prominent Italian technical magazine, L`Eidu, made the case for an Italian navy signalman, P. Castelli. In response, Marconi said the receiving device he used was a gift from the Royal Italian Navy through his childhood friend, Luigi Solari, a Navy lieutenant. But in a July 1902 letter to the editor of The Times of London, Solari wrote that the idea came to him ``in some English publication which I found myself unable to trace.`` One year later, in the same newspaper, he declared that he ``did not invent the coherer.`` This sequence of events was first pointed out by a British historian, Vivian Phillips, in a 1993 paper in IEEE Transactions. But Phillips didn`t mention Bose or speculate about the identity of the real inventor, the author of the mysterious publication
to which Solari referred.

The solution, however, was readily available in the literature. Bose, a maverick scientist working out of a one-room laboratory in Calcutta offered it in a paper that appeared in the April 1899 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Titled ``On a Self-Recovering Coherer and the Study of the Cohering Action of Different Metals,`` the paper described the use of an iron-mercury coherer for detecting radio waves, then called electric radiation.

``For very delicate adjustments of pressure,`` Bose wrote, ``I used in some of the following experiments an U-tube filled with mercury, with a plunger in one of the limbs; various substances were adjusted to touch barely the mercury in the other limb.... I then interposed a telephone in the circuit; each time a flash of radiation fell on the receiver the telephone sounded.`` After a series of experiments, Bose concluded that ``there can be no doubt that the action was entirely due to electric radiation.``

In his IEEE Proceedings paper, Bondyopadhyay describes how Marconi, in the years after the experiment, ``shifted attention`` away from Bose`s contribution through a ``careful choice of words ... and clear diversionary tactics.`` And he suggests that the obfuscation was deliberate. ``Marconi didn`t disclose immediately what he used in receiving his message,`` says Bondyopadhyay, noting the inventor`s vagueness about the device in a New York speech 1 month after his landmark experiment and later that spring in London. ``There was a bad motive involved, I suspect, but I don`t come down too hard on him for that,`` the engineer adds.

Bondyopadhyay also explains why the controversy wasn`t nipped in the bud, pinning some of the blame on Bose`s scientific colleagues. ``It is embarrassingly obvious that the British learned men of the day ...never discovered Bose`s work, Despite its being so prominently displayed in the most prestigious publication of the British empire. It is clear that they never read this esteemed publication [or] did not connect Bose`s work with Marconi`s use of the device.``

Prasanta Kumar Ray, a biochemist and current director of the Bose Institute in Calcutta, applauds Bondyopadhyay for correcting ``a grave historical injustice`` that robbed Bose of a share of Marconi`s 1909 Nobel Prize. ``No one can deny that it was Marconi who used and utilized this discovery for the larger benefit to mankind, but Bose made the actual scientific discovery,`` says Ray. As to why Bose himself didn`t clear up the mystery, Ray notes that ``Bose was in a search for true knowledge, and he shunned crass commercialization of inventions.``

Even Italy`s former science minister, Umberto Colombo, says he`s glad for the new information. ``I am not surprised about this revelation against Marconi`` he told ScierKe. ``But it will not undermine Marconi`s sole position in the history of science and in commercializing wireless telegraphy.``

- Jeffrey Mervis and Pallava Bagla
SCIENCE , VOL. 279, 23 JANUARY 1998.

#141 by FarzanaVersey

The moral of this story is that, when things don`t seem to be going
your way, always know that God has a plan for you.

Now here you`re contrading your premise of `Nothingness`. Didn`t expect this from you of all people. Don`t be phoney.

Hamidm2

LOL...It does seem like the same kind of thing. But check the details for yourselves.

Panini, in particular, should be of interest to Pakistanis. He was a Pakistani himself. :)

re:#140 by anil
You have to be spiritually evolved to appreciate The Autobiography of a Yogi. I do not think u are there yet.
Sridhar