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November 11th, 2009
deponti
 | 08:33 am - Morning Walk...and mental images...
The weather finally let up a bit today, and I went for an hour's walk; went down to Luz, down Katcheri Road (or Cutchery Road), down Santhome High Road to the Marina, along it and back through Sir Radhakrishnan (earlier Edward Elliotts) Road.
Didn't take a camera, but the images are vivid....
Newspaper vendors, with piles of the day's papers, busy putting in the advertising leaflets, and sorting them out for quick delivery.
Large piles of milk sachets...also being taken for delivery, or being sold as they are, on the pavement.
Several people who are still fast asleep in shop doorways or on the footpath. Some are just waking up, and retying their lungies.
Tea-shops along the way, already bustling with activity; knots of people standing around, eating small biscuits and sipping tea.
Stray dogs everywhere, approaching hopefully, but yet too scared of having a stone chucked at them.
Walkers and joggers in their "uniforms" (branded tees, branded running slacks, branded shoes, and sometimes caps....also branded...) walking or trotting along, also with umbrellas.
Beggars who share the road and footpath with these walkers, yet occupy a different planet.
A tourist taxi that has "Do Before Die" painted on its side. (I wish I had brought my camera after all.)
Women making kOlams along the pavements in front of their homes.
The cars of the rich, parked along the Marina (to have a healthy walk, it's necessary to pollute the atmosphere in your car.)
The autos, getting down to the first demand and bargain for fare, of the day.
Push-carts and "fish carts" (they are "mini carts", which got abbreviated to "min carts"...and "meen" is Tamizh for "fish", so then they became "fish carts"!) and pedal carts with vegetables on them...beginning the day's sales.
Dirty roads and footpaths, with LOTS of plastic and trash.
Puddles that I step over, skirt, or step gingerly through.
The realization that pedestrians have NO rights here. Footpaths are often just that...a FOOT in height from the road level, and difficult to get on, or off.....on the Santhome High Road stretch, often so narrow as to be unusable....
A lone raptor (NOT a Black or a Brahminy Kite, but too far away for id) flapping its wings slowly, fading into the sky.
The glass architecture on Radhakrishnan Road. Some old, gracious buildings, in bad shape.
Grey, leaden sky, not warm at all...but still, humid and sticky.
Traffic increasing as I walk towards home.
Pot-bellied police constables, who, to their credit, are alertly on duty on the roads.
Flower-sellers already displaying their wares...garlands and lengths of jasmine carefully preserved from yesterday.
The realization, once again, of how much I like walking....I am happy, content....and I head for home, coffee, and the day's newspapers.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) happy
Current Music: starting arangisa now
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astronomy
[ken_schneyer]
 | 07:54 pm - Brown Dwarfs for SF Story
Hi, astronomy types! I am once again seeking your counsel (which worked so well on my story "Calibration") on an astronomical question related to an SF story.
I recently read (in Sky & Telescope) that the WISE probe has the potential of finding brown dwarfs relatively close to our own solar system (closer than the closest star).
I have two three questions:
- How far away would a brown dwarf (classes L, T and Y) have to be to have gone undetected by existing infared and visual telescopy, but still be detectable by WISE?
- Is it within the realm of possibility that a rocky planetary body could orbit close enough to a brown dwarf to be in the "habitable" zone? (I'm imagining that any planet that was so close would be tidally locked.)
- Is is theoretically possible for a Y-class brown dwarf to be cooler than 373ºK (i.e., cool enough for there to be liquid water on the brown dwarf itself)?
You can probably see where I'm going with these questions...
Current Location: Rhode Island
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/stars/confused.gif) curious
Current Music: McCartney, "Heaven On a Sunday"
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deponti
| 05:41 am - Articles I wrote for Citizen Matters
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/author/31-deepa-mohan
I find that Metblogs has been quietly deleting some of my earlier articles, that were written with a lot of effort. VERY unethical.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) irritated
Current Music: none..off for a walk
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November 10th, 2009
status
| 06:59 pm
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The heavily armed monkeys guarding the servers currently report no site-wide problems. |
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deponti
| 07:30 pm - Mist Photography....
We thought the mist on the hills would prevent us from spotting birds. It didn't. We thought it would prevent us from photographing birds. It did.
But then we realized that the mist, in itself, was a thing of beauty.
( more images of the mist )
And just to see how it would look, I decided to take one image of the passing scenery through the rain-washed window of the car:
And finally, you can see the way the rainclouds are moving ...gliding...along the hilltops...
Rain and mist make for beautiful photography....!
Current Mood: serene
Current Music: some crap serial running on TV
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sainath
| 03:29 pm
 Life - Clouded by thoughts
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erhgyx
 | 12:01 am - Tweet Round-up
Autogen daily by LT
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November 9th, 2009
harmanjitsingh
| 09:14 pm - On Analyses of Sport Events
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/harmanjit/~3/pv4FhKKgOCI/on-analyses-of-sport-events.html I realize that sporting events such as international cricket matches and World Boxing Championships are entertaining because they are exciting, tribal, channels of aggression and adrenaline, etc., and I do not begrudge those who seem to find unending delight in watching these events and cheering for their favorite teams.
However, what I do find quite amusing is the "analysis" of a win or a loss in terms of statistics, "weather conditions", "team morale". As a typical example of this ludicrous post-facto wisdom, read this. (notice the word which is part of the URL).
In short, teams lose because they do not perform well (!). That otherwise intelligent people fall for such analyses simply boggles the mind.
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prashanthks
 | 11:50 am - Making a ‘friendly’ transition at work
Originally published at Mind Over Matter. You can comment here or there.
This post is inspired by a blog post made by my sister-in-law where she talks about how she changed her company and about the good friends that she had made. It got me thinking about my previous team, my xRPM team, and how much I miss those days together.
I recently switched my team. I had spent 3 years in the previous team and decided that I needed to switch. There were various reason why I had to take this decision, and in terms of my career and growth, I think I have made the right decision. However right is not always easy. It was one of the toughest decisions I have taken. Before joining my previous team, I was in another team for 2 years. These were the first 2 years of my professional career. But the switch to my second team came easy since, put simply, I was forced into the change. My previous team was being dissolved and I had to make the change. I found a team that I thought would be interesting and made the switch.
Initially, I interacted with just a couple of guys in the new team. I am always a collegiate at heart and my first reaction was to look up to these guys and learn from them. I always felt that I am a fresher and that anyone else in the company are senior to me. Over a period of time, I got to recognize these guys as my friends and not just peers. Eventually I met and interacted with the entire team, especially thanks to one team outbound which helped me gel with so many of the guys. Little did I realize then how much I would bond with the team. All of us were around the same age and all of us still had the college blood running through our veins. Goofing off, pulling each other legs, gossiping, giving coded names to identify others around – and enjoying it while the rest pull their hairs out trying to find out whom we were talking about. It was like mini college in here. It was like we were just doing some internship here, but were still enjoying our college days.
Slowly, the team changed. New members were added, close and not so close friends left the team, new friends were made, new groups were formed, but the ‘core’ group as I would call it, were always together and enjoyed a lot of moments together. Soon, a few in this core group also separated, either by leaving the company, or changing teams, or generally growing older and their line of thought changing, but the core group was not the core group anymore. Of course, we did continue to have a lot of fun and among the new teammates we still made friends and bonded as strongly as we did before. But things were changing, they definitely were.
“Change is the only thing in this world that is Constant” – Oh how I wish this weren’t true, but changes can also be for the better, and hence one must always accept change and look forward to change. For without change, there will be no spice in life and nothing to look forward to. (I think my sis-in-law has inspired me to put quotes in my blog posts, her posts are riddled with such quotes.  )
Soon, I too joined the category of leavers and I too moved out of my team. Only after I moved out it hit me how close I was to my team. Fine, one changes jobs for better work, for better opportunities, for better career growth, for better learning, but one can never change teams for better teammates, and can never never never change for better friends. Always factor this in, and never lose touch with friends, whether they are from school, college, or work, good friends are hard to find and it always pays to retain and maintain your friendship.
I really miss my previous team, not that I don’t miss my other team and friends from schools and college, but this team holds a very special place in my heart. Random talks, unnecessary but yet necessary treats, plotting love lives of others, irritating questions with unforeseen answers, stupid games on facebook, long drives, dressing for occasions… we did it all.
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harmanjitsingh
| 06:34 pm - The Pacifist and the Warlord
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/harmanjit/~3/9cIfdsUr0D4/pacifist-and-warlord.html - Lord of War (Andrew Niccol, 2005): Nicolas Cage acts as an illegal gunrunner, and this film is a nihilistic look at humans' propensity for violence. Not at all preachy, dripping with irony and black humour (some of which may be found repulsive by compassionate souls), and with some stunning cinematography, the film is not a glorification of Mr Cage's character, but is rather a perplexing treatise on harm and malice. The gunrunner is not malicious at all, but he is engaged in helping others carry out their malice. "I don't want people dead, Agent Valentine. I don't put a gun to anybody's head and make them shoot. But shooting is better for business. But, I prefer people to fire my guns and miss." And further, in a wry moment, he remarks: "They say 'Evil prevails when good men fail to act.' What they ought to say is, 'Evil prevails.'"
- The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986): A completely different kind of film from the above: serious, sincere, poetic, a polemic against violence. Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons, in a standout performance) is a Jesuit priest in opposition to the colonial powers in 18th century South America. He refuses to resist the violent aggressors, and leads his mission to martyrdom. One wonders at the end if his attachment to pacifism was also in part responsible for the horrific violence to the people under his leadership. One also wonders if peace and love can ever be taught without recourse to divinity. Very often, the religious claptrap is justified because it serves ostensibly noble ends. The film is rightly cherished for its great scenery and lilting music and won the Golden Palm at Cannes. (And it is rather peculiar that a film about the horrors of violent aggression shows a warrior on its poster, rather than, say, a face expressing love and kindness)
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deponti
| 08:04 am - The Rain.....
It was raining in Bangalore. It is raining in Chennai. Well, it held off long enough for me to take a long walk last evening, but this morning it's pouring again.
Here's an image I liked, from the Nandi Hills trip, of Garima holding out her hand to feel the raindrops...
Off to do various duties now...back later, when I can...
Current Mood: in PAIN
Current Music: none yet
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erhgyx
| 12:01 am - Tweet Round-up
Autogen daily by LT
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November 8th, 2009
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