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.