Blog Post #24 - Amazon Mechanical Turk, Electronic Pill , Google Driverless car and Thought controlled bionics- Eric Schmidt the new digital age

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk? Some of the book I read had something about Facebook,Amazon and Google  ( That should tell you about the books... all visionary technology books that talks about how the world will change ..and you will change).

This new one , from which I will be quoting from time to time in this blog is from Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. Interesting to find someone who had worked from state department is working along side Eric .

Politics these days depend on technology . From Obama Campaign to Arab springs twitter and facebook  are part of the strategy.

Interesting intersection of ideas. While, I have read only the first few pages some things jumped on me.

Amazon Mechnical Turk : Check the site and you will get an idea.The real mechanical Turk was this old idea in warfare where the Turks operated an amazing robot like machines few centuries ago and won battles and wars.

It was a facade under which real humans fought.. interesting concept. In this age and era we want everything to be automated. This is where Amazon Mechanical Turk comes to play.. check it out.

In 2012 FDA approved electronic pills
In 2011/2012 Nevada passed laws approving driver less cars and California followed.

What does this mean to mean? I can swallow a pill which will connect to my cell phone and my doctor helping us understand what is happening inside the body after the chemicals react with my biological system.

I can sleep in my car while my car goes to work and comes back home.

What excites me most is the researches on fMRI and Thought controlled gadgets. Look at the first set of success stories


Finally mind controlling physical objects.
Can you bend that spoon now?

Blog Post #23 - How to buy time when some one asks you a question?

I am not sure which I book I took these notes from . I thought I will share these wonderful suggestions ( none of which I practice yet)

If our Brain gets 3-5 seconds it can sort out lots of information and it allows you to maintain composure

So give it a try and let me which worked and which didn't. If you have additional suggestions please let me know.


The situation : You are not normal (what is normal?) - say you are angry and some one asks you a question

The situation : You are presenting to a group and some one who loves you (pun intended) asks you a question that is not easy to answer.

The situation  You are talking to a hungry and angry spouse

The situation : Your kids or teenager wants to test you patience and asks why they can't do something while their friends are already doing it or allowed to do it.

You can

1. Think - Tell them - Let me think about it before I respond
2. Pause.  It is a sign of confidence. Pause and look as if you are waiting. People will give you more reason as to why they asked what they asked even if you don't ask for additional information.
3.Repeat - Ask the questioner to repeat
4.Return - Let me know you will return to that topic later.
5. Group - Open the question to a group if available. Pass it to everyone
6. Ask a question back -
                       What do you think?
                       Specifically, what would you like to know
                       What will you do?                      
7. Find why they are asking
8. Ask them to define part of the question - not repeat but only clarify specific items
9. Take a sip of water

Blog Post #22 - Printing Press and now 3D Printer - Did this change your life?

Imagine a traveler walking through Alexandria during early part of whenever Alexandria was famous.
The traveler's copy of any manuscript that they carried was confiscated and copied.
The original was kept in the Alexandria Library and the copy was given to the traveler.

What about the printing press? They didn't need it.

The 4 Vedas
Rig Veda - sings the praise of all the hindu gods
Yajur Veda - which documents and explains every ritual and function
Sama veda - Concerned more with musical hyms
Athervana veda - with yoga, ayurveda, black magic and aircraft building

All of these were well documented in palm leaves and also taught and transferred using listen/hear Guru- student traditions.

What about the printing press? We didn't need it.

The most printed book I believe is the Bible and the second is Euclid's The Elements . 13 books of Math including geometry and arithmetic.

I don't know how a real printing press works. I do know Gutenberg made a lot of money  not by printing bible but by printing indulgences for the church(google and learn this money making scheme)

When we visited Fortworth's Department of Printing and Engraving I was amazed how they made 54 million dollar per hour (most of them with high school degrees!!)

The money we use comes from these printing press and there is only one factory in Massachusetts which makes the paper for the government.

Think. It is printing money . Every government uses advanced technology to press its money.It gets complex when one government starts printing another's     (Think North Korea and USA)

Text Books are from the press . So is every single box label that you see.
T-Shirts too and Balls.

Look everywhere printing press in action.

Now let us turn to additive manufacturing. The process of building up things in 3 dimension.
Aptly named 3D printing this is the next printing that will change our lives.

Next thanks giving (not 2013 but 2014) you will be buying 3D printers for an absolutely low price . The patents are expiring by Feb 2014 for some of these printers.

You will get designs from open source or from market place. You will get the cartridges (from Amazon or Walmart). Printer,Cartridge and Design .

If everything you buy can be made in the cartridge .What will be made in china?

Ofcourse the 3D printer and the cartridge. China has invested heavily in making these machines.

From one printing (Printing press) which aided knowledge transfer we will move to the next printer (3D printer) that will make your imagination take a 3D shape and you can touch/feel in real life.

Welcome to your new world . Now in 3D.

Blog Post #21 - 24 * 60 = ? Answer is not 1440

This morning my son was asking me what is 24*60. I was mentioning there are couple of ways to do this

1. 25 * 60 - 1*60
2. 20*6 + 4 *60

He stopped me and said I want the answer and not the steps. This made me 'Think'.

1. Think and give a definitive answer -

                    My rule of thumb is -  if the answer is not yes it is no.
                    It sounds black and white.
But when you look for white any other shade will not make it white. Might as well take any other non white shade as black

                    A lot of times in our business meetings we talk about details and explain the steps,process,procedures and details while the other person only wants the answer.

                    A simple yes or no question in a meeting always gets very lengthy replies which amounts to 'May be' 'It depends'.

2. Another important factor is asking the questioner why he/she is asking. In this case the interest/intent  was to find how many minutes are there in a day (Proud he is my son.. i am calculating days in another post and at his level he is calculating minutes..may be the little one will be calculating seconds).

Always ask 'why' is the lesson I learnt. Why are using asking this question? What are you intending to achieve?

Next time you go to your meeting or some one is asking you solve a simple math problem try the following 2 ideas

1.  (whenever possible) Answer first: Answer with a firm 'Yes' or 'No' .Then ask if the other person is interested in the details.
2. Ask why to understand the context . Unless we ask why we will never know why the other person is asking the question.

Blog Post #20 - 50 Topics for 50 weeks... let us learn 1 a week

The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel:

Thanks to The Atlantic  I have this list of the top 50 break throughs that enabled humans to progress.
Starting next weeek I will start posting on each topic (non wikipedia content and from the books and from life..focusing on history and people.)

The idea is to think about the people who made these possible and what motivated them to create the following. If you know anything interesting about any of these ( Like you are allergic to pencillin, got shocked  while switching off a non grounded wire or lost your glasses..let us discuss and learn together.)

1. The printing press, 1430s
2. Electricity, late 19th century
3. Penicillin, 1928
4. Semiconductor electronics, mid-20th century
5. Optical lenses, 13th century
6. Paper, second century
7. The internal combustion engine, late 19th century
8. Vaccination, 1796
9. The Internet, 1960s
10. The steam engine, 1712



11. Nitrogen fixation, 1918
12. Sanitation systems, mid-19th century
13. Refrigeration, 1850s
14. Gunpowder, 10th century
15. The airplane, 1903
16. The personal computer, 1970s
17. The compass, 12th century
18. The automobile, late 19th century
19. Industrial steelmaking, 1850s
20. The pill, 1960


21. Nuclear fission, 1939
22. The green revolution, mid-20th century
23. The sextant, 1757
24. The telephone, 1876
25. Alphabetization, first millennium b.c.
26. The telegraph, 1837
27. The mechanized clock, 15th century
28. Radio, 1906
29. Photography, early 19th century
30. The moldboard plow, 18th century

31. Archimedes’ screw, third century b.c.
32. The cotton gin, 1793
33. Pasteurization, 1863
34. The Gregorian calendar, 1582
35. Oil refining, mid-19th century
36. The steam turbine, 1884
37. Cement, first millennium b.c.
38. Scientific plant breeding, 1920s
39. Oil drilling, 1859
40. The sailboat, fourth millennium b.c.

41. Rocketry, 1926
42. Paper money, 11th century
43. The abacus, third millennium b.c.
44. Air-conditioning, 1902
45. Television, early 20th century
46. Anesthesia, 1846
47. The nail, second millennium b.c.
48. The lever, third millennium b.c.
49. The assembly line, 1913
50. The combine harvester, 1930s

Blog Post #19 - Amazon is a river, Google is a large number (with a spelling mistake..i guess they didn't have did you mean Googol) and HP/Dell are someone's names!

According to Buddha there is no east or west, north or south.

People came up with this notations and believe them to be true.

Sun rises in the east. (Do you know what direction the moon rises and sets every day?.. out of scope in our education system?)

Do you know that the sun never rises or sets? You do know it but yet you mention every day that sun is rising as though it is  a fact.

When you know it is day in a place do you know it is night somewhere else. Do you?
Honestly can you believe it is night and day at the same time and use this knowledge in your daily conversation (got it.. you guys are working with some remote team - offshore/onshore and near shore)

Humans love facts,stories and stories about facts.

The common issue is this idea of fact. The fact that fact exists mean you use it or understand it everyday.

Sun doesn't rise. Moon doesn't rise.

Directions don't exist. Neither does the continents nor ocean.

A large water body exists and pieces of land exists.

Land also exists under water. Water also exists above land and in-between land.

We name things. We own them. Every boat needs a name .. you know that and if there is no name for a boat it is considered bad luck and the boat will sink!!

You are not your name and yet we think other people have names. Animals don't have names either.. we came up with this common taxonomy to communicate mutually.

Amazon is a river in south america.
Even the founders of Google didnt know how to spell Googol
and we think they are genius. (They are!)

People's name are products - HP and Dell.

We are a species who have a need for communication.

"A white horse is not a horse" - Check wikipedia to understand why a white horse is not a horse. The Chinese knew it.
I read about this in the book The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood.

Think. What you see is what you call it and not what it is.

Copernicus was wrong. You are the center of the universe not earth nor sun.

The world happens in front of you , around you and within you .

Blog Post #18 - Time

What is time?
Clock is time.
So is seasons.
Night is time so is day.
Calendar is time .

Here is where it gets interesting - Einstein said the fourth dimension is time and if you travel in a space craft at the speed of light.. ok I hear you. You know that theory. Do you really know that theory? Do you believe it?

What happens when you sleep? Where do you go? What happens to that time?

Let us do some math

You productive life is 18 to 70 = 52 years =  18980 days

If you are 38 years old then you have 32 years of productive life = 11680. some of my friends have about 10,000 left (yes my friends are getting old.. not me?)

With every passing day you lose 1 from this 10k.

Each day has its routine for everyone which takes care of about 20 hours ( 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, commute + eat + drink + rest room + useless and useful talk + shower ).. leaves about 4 hours.

4 times 10k = 40k hours ..

What will you do in the rest of the 40k hours left?

Sounds depressing? The idea was to use math to get to the point that days are long and years are short.

We all leave a small foot print. We may not invent printing press or electricity or some theory that helps humanity but we can do our part to help the world be a better place.

Teach a child something you know
Donate to charity
Be kind to people (for the 40k hours left..)
Smile (force a smile and you will be happy..try this..stand in front of mirror. Put your finger between your teeth and voila.. the mind responds to body.try it. )

Blog Post #17 - Tat Twan Asi = Know Thyself. Self awareness what does it mean?

Next time you visit a temple with south indian gods in it please note what is written above Ayyappa.

Tat Twam Asi.

A Very profound truth - it means Know thyself.

Ramana Maharishi asks every to ask the following two questions

1. Whom am I?
2. Who is asking Whom am I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcvuctV0FJo

The essence of whom am I is definitely not double helix structure = DNA

Observe in a day how many time we use the word I ( even in this post...check how many Is) and yet there is no one who knows who is 'I' .

Science is close to explaining what makes the body and the mind. The missing link = spirit.

If I talk to you , who is talking to who?

When you die what dies? What makes the body decompose when you leave? There are folks who have artificial heart (sometimes no heart..) . Some folks who have severe brain damage. They still live - who lives?

Blog Post #16 - Intelligent people talk about Ideas,....

When I was in Bahamas we visited 2 places which had wall postings that made them part of my vocabulary

1. In Pirates museum there was a sign which said ' May god bless you with a net big enough to catch a fish and its holes small enough not to let the fish out'

This made me think - we make money ..  we must  make sure  a lot of it stays with us while only some go away as expense . We learn.. we should retain more of what we learn than what we lose.

2. In Athena Mediterranean restaurant there was
"Intelligent people talk about Ideas
Holy Ghost people talk about spirituality and
Little people talk about people"

What are you? Do you talk about ideas to make things happen or spirituality or people?

I once read " There were 3 Turtles sitting on the banks of a river and one decided to jump into the river. How many will be there after 5 hours?"

Answer : 3 Tutles.

Deciding doesn't mean acting.

 In the book WillPower Instinct the author covers a case study where the thought about donating to charity makes you feel so good that you never actually do it.
Thinking makes it appear as though you completed what you set out for.

 Instead you should think about what is the next step to finish this philanthropy act that you thought about. Profound.

So what did you decide today and did you do it?

Blog Post #15 - Bucket pitch - My volunteer activity and my experiments

First watch Dan Ariely.

What makes us feel good about our work?

So what that this have to do with an elementary school volunteering for Hoe down. ( i really don't know what it means) but this event was and has been always like a carnival .

Cactus Ranch Elementary (CRE) Hoe Down was the name of this yearly event.

My job was to pick up the pitch ( a resin like substance in a bag) which the kids have to thrown in one of the 4 buckets maked 2,3,4 and 5 ( Why wasn't there a 1?)

To make this boring game interesting to me I tried the following

1. Ask the kids first to determine if they want to try or difficult version of the game. Some kids (most big kids) will say difficult. Some Kids (most small kids) said easy. Smart kids asked the question ' What is easy and what is smart?'

2. In any case for every kids  I explained easy means they need to drop the pitch into bucket 2 or 3. Difficult in my game was bucket 4 or 5. The kids who wanted prize always went to 2 no matter what they chose. Smart kids.

3. I doubled the stake by saying get 2 in same bucket I will give you 2 gifts. Some kids got so interested they wont stop trying. There was a kid who even after I said I wont give you any gift after couple of tries.. kept trying. Welcome to the world of gamification.

The kids had fun and so did I.

Blog Post #14 - World war 1 - war of chemist , World War 2 - Physicist and Math war..

Cause of World War 1 - A not so prominent possibly spoiled Ferniard Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the Archduke of Austria Hungary). I think his most important role in world history is to be the catalyst that ignited the war which was brewing for years.

The war traditionally known as trench war was mostly fought without moving much. Most causalities happened because of disease.

So far so good - y'all know this.

Once the tanks entered the equations changed cos no one can continue to sit in trench and wait cos the tanks could roll easily without inhibition. 

The major weapons and bombs involved using chemistry.

By the time World War 2 loomed the dynamics changed more to Physics . Einstein's letter Oppenheimer Leadership and all these physicist becomes heroes. 

So where did math come into picture. .. Enigma.

Once you finish reading about Enigma do understand that the German Army,Navy and Railways were all using Enigma .

3 facts i gathered from the book I am reading ( Fermat's Enigma)

1.  Instead of using a new encryption key and publishing it (making it static) the germans used to second the key as the prelude of the new information for a new day.. marvelous. Unless you know the previous day key you will not know today's key.

2. For an information like DODE the encoded information could be RKFM. Obviously each D got encrypted differently.  Not a big deal. But Turing and his team the encrypted value of D could never be D by Enigma.. good deal.. They even used context - asked the Intelligence to plant a mine in a German facility ensuring the guards see it. They intercepted the communication to look for word 'mine' and use that to decrypt the other communications like U boats.. Genius.. Sad story - Turing was always under surveillance post world war 2 and eventually accused of homosexuality..  Did he commit suicide or did 'they' kill them? You can encrypt data but you cannot decrypt the truth behind how Turing died.

3.The brilliant British sometimes let the Germans hit some targets even when they knew the fact through the intercepted communication. They allowed casualties according to the book.  Quite Interesting.

Blog Post #13 - Sir x = (a + b^n)/n hence God exists, reply!!!

The story is as follows: Once at the court of Catherine the Great Euler met a French philosopher named Denis Diderot.

Diderot was a convinced athiest, and was trying to convince the Russians into athism also.

Catherine was very annoyed by this and she asked for Euler's help.

Euler thought about it and when he began a theological discussion with Diderot, Euler said: " (a+b^n)/n = x, therefore God exists" Diderot was said to know almost nothing about algebra, and therefore returned to Paris.

So Unless you know algebra you cannot dispute if God Exists or not.!!!!

Blog Post #12- 3 -- Inside, Inbetween and Outside

Let us take the earth for a minute . What we under the surface - (core)
What is on the surface - water, air,animals,humans....
What is above the surface - Nothing = something=Everything. Can you believe there is nothing between you and the stars except some layers of materials that you can't even see?

Do you know you don't live inside the earth but outside the earth's surface?

Human kind can use the surface above to fish or cultivate or do everything else to make more of what is available on earth. Transform one to another. Take those silicon  make them an iphone and play angry bird.(aka industries)

Jared Diamond's book - Guns, Games and Steel has been a great inspiration to me . I listened to some of the talks from satguru (isha yoga). These folks are as concerned about the concept of materials as much as you.

Look at the world around you. If 50 billion people have died before us, 7 billion living today what is your place? If you are not the body(keep growing in my case it first grew vertical then horizontal and when not check vertical+horizontal making it oval), not the mind(keeps changing) then what are you?

If a 5 year old picture of you represents you what is it representing?

Side track - By the way - do you ever think you are an animal? - Every animal living with human kind is a domesticated animal. The dogs are wolf family. The cats,cows,horses,goats, sheeps ,camels,hen - can you imagine them in the wild? Do you own your land? Do you get annoyed when you see an insect or an ant? (get that bug spray). How dare it entered your house? We are very territorial folks. The next time you till the spider. Think.

Blog Post #11- Isomorphic - 49 heads in a coin toss means what?

Back to probability.

Knowledge is knowing and knowing that you have the knowledge.

(Confusion is a fashion)

In Probability I ( and you too) were taught that we should toss a coin, skip to dice and finally to cards. We didn't know what to roll or toss or pull for 3 or 4 or 5 and any other numbers.

Even with this limited knowledge we struggle with probability.

Coin toss problem has a sample space of HH, HT,TH and TT .

A 2 baby problem might have a similar sample space of BB,BG,GB,GG ( G = Girl , B = ? You guessed it. Intelligent fellow..keep up the good work)

Coin toss and Baby problem are called isomorphic. Now don't toss the baby to get the coin out.

Now if have 2 kids and one of them is named Arnav then the problem doesnt have the same sample space and one of the kids name has been fixed. still following?

The question - if i toss a coin 49 times and got 49 heads what do you think will happen when I toss the coin again.

Did you say head ? - Why? ( Because the coin looks skewed towards head)
Did you say tail ? - Why? ( Because the coin looks to be due for tail.. after 49 heads it is time for tail)
Did you say 50/50 - Why? ( The other events are independent.This is a new toss so the probability of head/tail is the same.)

Now that you know the knowledge you acquired is useless in probability let me pose the life question - If I was mean to you 49 times the next time I meet with you will I be ??? ( you guessed it right. I will still be nice but you never know)

Blog Post #10- 5 Elements

This blog co.gains Sanskrit ,ancient language references..google for keywords for more fun.

My aim is start the journey by asking questions.. ask and you will get the answer.

Seek and you shall find.

Listing 5 elements on this earth is as easy as 1,2,3,4,5.
Is it?

Earth, Water, Air,Fire and ????

??? = Ether , Maya ,Spirit whatever.

Earth is made of what?
Water is made of what?
Air is made of what?

Read the mantra pushpam - ancient Hindu mantra.

The connection is there -
 Fire inside water (Hydroelectricity?)
Water inside fire (Steam?)
Earth in water (minerals) and goes on and on.

If you know sanskrit you will know the secret and since you dont know sanskrit google for translation and you will get some weird explanation as to what is the secret inside Mantra Pushpam ( I tell you documentation is important. Clear and simple documentation is essential and since ancient Hindu documentations are few and far between we don't know the answer)

Why is fire in this list?

What is fire? What is it made up of?

The next time you hear panja bhoodam do understand they are mysteries .. which never got revealed.

What does this have to do with Chidambaram?

What do you know about Cambodia and why these 5 are important in conversion (yes forced conversion) to Hinduism ?

Blog Post #9- Pythagoras brotherhood, Numbers and language

Brothers of Pythagoras of Samos

While there were many Pythagoras there was only one Pythagoras of Samos.
While there were many Jesus there was only one Jesus of Nazareth ( from the house of David. What happened in Bethlehem and why is Jerusalem important will be covered in the future. Also why is Jerusalem important for Muslims will also be covered. Also why is Jerusalem important to Jews will be covered .. oh my god everyone loves to be in Jerusalem no wonder!)

Back to Greeks (let us skip the Romans for now. Rome was built in the night not in a day anyways!!!)

Anyone could join Pythagoras brotherhood. Pythagoras will give twice the wealth you gave him and you promise not to tell anything about any of the research in the brotherhood.  Since Pythagoras was protected by King Minos and also let Pythagoras marry his daughter. Pythogoras brotherhood included her - a sister for others.. sisterhood or brotherhood or both?

Centuries later we came to know the brotherhood's obsession about numbers. They liked perfect numbers .

Perfect number 6 and 28.

6  Divisors 1,2 and 3. 1+2+3 = 6

God created world in 6 days. Rested on 7 . Because number 6 is perfect.

28. Number of days required for moon to go around earth.Big deal. Menstrual cycle for woman which is critical to maintain hum an race on earth. Big deal!.

So what about 26? One of the few numbers between a square (5 square = 25) and a cube  ( 3 cube = 27).

Studying numbers doesn't provide a practical value. But it fascinates people .  I am glancing through a book now called 'play at work' and you will be surprised that collectively we spend 5 million hours a day on Angry bird. Now wonder the birds are angry!

Gamification is as useless as studying the numbers.

Humans created 2 different intelligence encoding strategy. Language and Math.

If you cant read you wont know anything. If you dont know math you may not understand much.

It took religion to represent zero. Shiva means nothing. Nothing means Shivan.
Shivam - Shunyam.

When you take this concept back to the math we get this interesting representation from language to math.
Where it gets interesting is all numbers we use are arabic except 0.
Between Hindu-arabic numbers we are covered. Base 10 - numbers 0 to 9 capable of representing all numbers of earth is a earth shattering (it never shattered any earth unless there was an earth quake) phenomenon. Think!!!

If you dont want to think then try multiplying XXCCVV times IVX and tell me the answer. Once you finish that without using google translate the following greek quote
Τα πάντα ρεί

Blog Post #8 - Kitchen faucets and Sheena Iyengar

Until you watch Sheena you wont know how difficult is it is choose and why choice hurts businesses and customers.

I wanted to buy a Faucet and as you can guess I broke mine. A simple cartridge replacement resulted in $188 Delta Izak from Homedepot.

Now that I have a new kitchen Faucet the question was how long did it take to choose -- hours. Do i want one handle or two. Soap dispenser or not. Handle on side or top. Do i want base plate or not? Do i install it or Lowes? Where is the putty? (What is a putty and why do i need it and what else do i need.. That youtube video from Lowes said...).

Delta or Moen. Why?

What is a spray and steam?

Ok. The message is don't break your faucet or else you have to choose!

Check this ted talk

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDMQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fsheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html&ei=UqxmUr_8D4PW2gXF04FQ&usg=AFQjCNEnzOwox6oTFXG02HcPlBk8avF_1w&sig2=JmvmJ5AoywegK2eiz9cg_Q&bvm=bv.55123115,d.b2I

Blog Post #7 - Three cups of tea and Born to Run

Different books with different topics but one theme..

The mountains and the canyons.
The tribes and their life style.


My next book to read will be

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

Why? I am obsessed about the pure heart and lifestyle of the tribesmen in Baltistan and Copper Canyons Tarahumara.


I am thinking wow, they guys are carefree and live a simple pure life. Is it really true? Jarod Diamond breaks this notion in this book The world until yesterday. Once I read I will let you know.

Blog Post #6 The last lecture..Alice and Scratch

What is the Connection between Alice and Scratch

Alice.org and http://scratch.mit.edu/

Kids are all digital natives but not digital creators .. We need to encourage programming earlier in kids. Do what?

Write if then else loop classes and instances when the kid is 6?

Yes. But let the complexity be embedded in the software and the wrapper be programmed by kids.

Anyone can program as long we define the program as an initiative to let users express their ideas in digital medium.

Try it out. Teach your kids or any kids or the kid in you.

There is always something to learn..something to teach and something to read about what to learn and teach.

Blog Post #5 - Reading Books - Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week , TED Talks and Fermat's last theorem

Let us start with numbers

(1)

where , , , and  are integers, has no nonzero solutions for  has come to be known as Fermat's Last Theorem. It was called a "theorem" on the strength of Fermat's statement, despite the fact that no other mathematician was able to prove it for hundreds of years.

Let us read this in Latin

 "Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadrato-quadratum in duos quadrato-quadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet" (Nagell 1951, p. 252). In translation, "It is impossible for a cube to be the sum of two cubes, a fourth power to be the sum of two fourth powers, or in general for any number that is a power greater than the second to be the sum of two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition that this margin is too narrow to contain."

so what is the big deal?

One of the Ted Talk  I watched toady talked about teaching kids statistics and Probability. The Drunkard walk is a book that should be mandatory reading for every one.!!!

Think about this problem - if there are 11 people soccer players and 2 teams = 22 and 1 referee, how many people do you think share the same birthday? What is the probability?

Answer 50.8%

Really?

If you take one person and check the birthday of the remaining 22 people  and keep repeating this process till you find unique sets of people you will have 231 birthdays to test!.. did you know that?

http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox^[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday. By the pigeonhole principle, the probability reaches 100% when the number of people reaches 367 (since there are 366 possible birthdays, including February 29). However, 99% probability is reached with just 57 people, and 50% probability with 23 people. These conclusions include the assumption that each day of the year (except February 29) is equally probable for a birthday.

Ok. Enough math!!!!

No. not enough.

Blog Post #4 - My Bahamas Travel - What i learned !

1. Bahamas is an island nation where people understand tourist bring revenue. They treat tourist nicely and help the tourist where ever they see them

2. Being an island nation Nassua being the capital cruise ships dominate the day scene.

3. US currency can be used everywhere and us and local currency can be used interchangeably

4. They speak Victorian english. No problem when it comes to communication.

5. All American food chains can be found - subway,Sbarro,Dominios and Burger king. Starbucks everywhere. Good for vegetarians. A big mcdonalds near US embassy.

6. If you visit Nassua you will also visit Paradise island. $4 per person / water taxi or road taxi.

7.Our cab driver Marvin Born and brought up in Bahamas wanted to vacation in colorado. Mountains with snow. This answered my question where do Bahamians want to go for their vacation!

8.Local travel is by Jitneys. Wave your hand anywhere pay 1.25 per person (us dollar ok.. no problem)
Very friendly drivers.

9. Bahamas has changed columbus/discovery day to National Heros day.Makes a lot of sense after learning what columbus did to locals and where real locals went to (answer - Haiti )

10. Clean beach,Pirate museum is awesome,Bahama Mama is great

11. Don't forget to buy a conch (pronounced Konk) .. with your name on it and also after alteration can be used as a Horn.

12. Discover credit card is widely accepted. Use Master card for greater discount.Always ask which one has a great discount.

13. Being vegetarian I don't know how conch tastes...no comments there but can tell you that you must go to Fish Fry (a group of hotels ) to eat

14. There is a people to people program run by ministry of tourism. I didnt use it but would strongly recommend it as it lets you connect with local people and you can meet them in church,civic place or at their home

15. Dolphin encounters at Blue Lagoon was awesome. Dont forget to take a water proof camera.

16. We were in Wyndham. Great resort . No regrets. you can use the sheraton (sister property) resort amenities. Great garden games,hammock,paddle boat .kayak. Motorized vehicles cost more.

17. Athena Mediterranean food was great.

18. All big brand names hand bags et all can be found along with imitations.

19.Take bus 10 to go to cable beach/Sheraton/Wyndam. 12b takes you all across town including Jaws beach (where they shot Jaws movie)

20.Chinese signs proclaiming they own Baha Mar. Promising a lot of jobs. An one bed room residence is 1.2 million. I stopped asking about price after that.

21. Harbor island has pink sands. Take a taxi to go to old bridge. Bahamasferries.com is their website. you can book a day tour and see the pink sands. You can also stay in other 'out' islands.

22. Visited Fort Charlotte - got scared to see an interior of a dead end room.. They build this waiting for french who never came!

23. Think africans taken to this island and speaking english. It is all a matter of history. Slavery has played a role in inhabiting the island.

24. Prime minister's office and house were visible from roads. If they don't like their president they said they will vote them out!Democracy at work not craziness!

25. The bus driver Phil took us to airport. Yes big bus with 2 more folks (a lady and man) and all happily took our bus to the airport!.NP291 was his license plate and we used his bus every day and he agreed to drop us at the airport.

26.Kids loved the Sheraton Jacuzzi. We spend most night there.