Irony

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8557215.stm

What an irony - KSBC is opening hospitals specialising in treating alcohol-related problems. So you first market alcohol, get people drunk and then open hospitals to fix problems - now this will be the non-profit venture of this corporation.

Reminds me of a conversation with a friend. I was listening to a radio show where the host was interviewing a Pastor who is helping gangsters come out of their gangs and lead a better life. One service that he offers is tattoo removal. My friend commented "Interesting, first you open a tattoo business, attract gangsters and tattoo all over their body. Then start another business for tattoo removal". I felt bad when he said that because I really appreciated the efforts of this Pastor. When you look at the society as a whole, yes, it might look as though you create problems in one side and then fix it - all the while making money.

Watching a live basketball game

I was at the Oracle Arena last night to watch a basketball game between Warriors and Blazers. This is my first time in a basketball court. I've watched 2 baseball games, but other than that, I've never been to any games. I enjoyed the game, but more than that I enjoyed watching the spectators(not all of them looked like fans).
In the first half, I was surprised to see that people were not very excited about the game. Some of them looked like they didn't have anything better to do on a Thursday evening, so decided to come here. They didn't seem much interested in the game. However, this changed in the 2nd half - one small group of Blazers fans were making lot of noise. So the whole stadium started making noise supporting the Home team.
During the break, I noticed that balloons were distributed to fans in one section. These people were sitting right behind one basket. Later I realized that this was a deliberate move to distract the Blazers from scoring points. Whenever, the Blazers team were trying to score a point, the fans would wave the balloons to distract the player.
Also, the music that was played when the teams tried to score was different - a motivating cheering music for the Home team and a boring drum beat for the Blazers.
When the home team got a 3-pointer, it was flashed on the screen, but when the visiting team scored a 3-pointer, nothing happened, just their score was updated.

All this was really shocking to me, I was fine with the fans supporting their home team, but the whole environment was against the Blazers. It was funny though when I realized what they were doing.

Cheerleaders, dancing girls, the Flying Warriors(who jumped on a trampoline, did some acrobatics before throwing the ball into the basket) and some clown like people entertained the fans during breaks. There were free t-shirts, pizzas, sandwiches and other gifts that were thrown randomly to fans who made the biggest noise.

The game as such was good - Warriors were in the lead mostly, but towards the end lost by 5 points. It was a good experience on the whole :)

Love between husband and wife

When I got married, I was so against the rituals and thali and everything else, because no one gave me any acceptable explanations. When I saw wives wearing 'thali', but in an unhappy marriage, I was only confused. Here, I finally realize that there is a meaning to it, though it's not done properly these days :-(

And what an amazing explanation on the relationship - especially how to handle it when the chemicals stop working :-)

Tuktastic

நம்ம ஊரு ரொம்ப முன்னேரிடிச்சு
http://tuktastic.com/

Running barefoot

http://barefootted.com/uploaded_images/FooterRunning072209-735560.jpg

Flight travel when sick

This is interesting. See where technology has taken us. If you are sick with high temperature, you cannot hide it from the airport authorities anymore.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1946595_2010916,00.html



Ghosts in the Machine
A thermal scanner shows the heat signatures of passengers arriving at Seoul's Incheon Airport. Such devices were deployed in the spring to help prevent the spread of swine flu.

Sunitha Krishnan's fight against sex slavery

As Sunitha says, it has become a fashion to discuss topics like this. It feels good and correct to help these victims by giving money, but what is required is accepting them in our lives.

Silence within

SILENCE - brings in more clarity and patience too. When I don't react to external situations immediately and just watch it all silently...wow!! it's such a wonderful way to handle life.

Over the last one month or so, I've been having issues at work. My bad health and the fact that I'm staying away from my team complicated it further. I just wanted to quit my job. Then I decided to be silent and not think about this for a while. One week - I just didn't react to any situation at work. I just did what had to be done. I just took my life as it came without thinking a lot. It was difficult in the beginning, but slowly after 2 days, I noticed that my mind started to calm down. And today, I handled all the situations very smoothly.

Thanks to Suresh, I came across this article today. It's wonderful when we can make this a reality.
http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/2005/March/feature3.htm

TED Talks - Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

This talk was so powerful, especially when I read Beau's detailed explanation here. Here's the piece that I loved to know

For instance, while looking at one of my color illusions (say the multicolored cube) you're aware of one reality: that two tiles look very different, while simultaneously being aware of an opposite reality: that the two tiles are in fact physically the same.

This capacity to be an observer of yourself is phenomenal and possibly unique to humans. Indeed, to literally "see yourself see" is in my view the principal act of consciousness, which has the power to transform one's view of the world and of oneself.

The importance of the above observations stemming from my own work and that of others transcend neuroscience. They show us in an explicit (and I hope engaging) way that our senses are not "fragile," as many would have you believe.

They show us instead that we are not outside observers of nature defined in isolation. We are instead indivisible from nature, defined by the trial and error process of interaction, a process in which we can choose to become active agents (but too often choose not to).

Understanding this point is I believe critical to personal and social well-being, since the typical barrier to a deeper insight into oneself and others is the overriding, but necessarily false impression that what "I" see, what "I" hear and what "I" know is the world as it really is.

But, by "seeing yourself see," in other words by actively exploring how your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and even the colors you see reflect your physical, social and cultural ecology, only then is it possible to understand the source of coherence and conflict within and between individuals.

Put another way, only by accepting my own humanity can I accept the humanity of others. "Seeing myself see" creates the opportunity for this acceptance. Illusions, then, were not the point of my talk, but simply a tool for encouraging this process.

Resolving uncertainty is essential to our survival. Hence our fear of ambiguous situations is palpable -- e.g., the inability to resolve sensory conflict between the eyes and ears can result in nausea (like seasickness). And yet it is only by embracing the unknown within education, science, art and most importantly within our own private lives that we will find new routes to more enlightened ways of seeing and being.

Thus, courage not confidence is at the heart of this process of actively redefining normality, which is the route to compassion and creativity.

TED Talks - SixthSense

Demo of SixthSense - a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment, enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

When I looked at the guy whose name and other details were projected on him, I was thinking about interviews. A face-to-face interview will have more meaning then :-)