Sony and Bose = Flaunt material

Alright! Here is some thing very different from my routine metaphysical ranting and ramblings ;-). We purchased a 40-inch LCD television Sony KLV-V40A10 and a Bose Cinemate Digital Home Theatre Speaker System. Though I have not put every thing together as of now, the stuff looks pure flaunt material. The speaker system is not exactly one of the best that bose has to offer but it is certainly the best for the price and not to forget the various features packed in the unit. For more info on the T.V. and the Speaker System just click on the image and you will be taken to the company website.

But the problem is that the Cable T.V. signals are so bad here that any top of the line T.V. will never be put to the limit. More over the cable transmits mono audio which is no good for pushing the Bose system. There is the Hathway set-top box thingy in the market nowadays that promises MPEG quality video and stereo sound output which will be much better that the traditional cable TV but it failed to work in my house because we have got in-wall cable wires which are not setup properly.

There is a lot of work to be done to get this thing up and running to a good quality show but till then I leave you with the pictures of the T.V. and the speaker system.

Some more good quotes (dogs)

I found these set of quotes on dogs. Some of them might be a little senti, but they make a lot of sense (especially to the ones who have had dogs). Thought I will post them here:

1. Money will buy a pretty good dog but it won't buy the wag of his tail. - Josh Billings

2. Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. - Mark Twain

3. The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too. - Samuel Butler

4. Dogs have more love than integrity. They've been true to us, yes, but they haven't been true to themselves. - Clarence Day

5. A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself. - Josh Billings

6. Animals are such agreeable friends--they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. - George Eliot

7. A dog's best friend is his illiteracy. - Ogden Nash

8. If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain

9. What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, what counts is the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain

10. The reason dogs have so many friends is because they wag their tails instead of their tongues. - Unknown

11. There is no faith which has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog. - Konrad Z. Lorenz

12. Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage. - Agnes Repplier

13. "The greater love is a mother's; then comes a dog's; then a sweetheart's." - Polish Proverb

Terrorists: What's to be done?

Terrorists are amazing people. They are very clear about what they want to do and have no doubts in their minds. They have no “un-absolutes” in their life and are either on one side or the other. There is no middle path for these guys.

I wish they use this kind of fervour for the benefit of the society instead of killing innocents (for those terrorists who do that).

Terrorism is but one side of the coin where the overall ideology is very narrow and heavily in favour of one thing (or way to responding to external "stimuli"). In other words terrorism is extremism. The other side of the coin is absolute non-violence (like Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology) which is again a kind of extremism because it is heavily in favour of one kind of approach no matter what .

What most of us have been suggesting is the middle path. Middle path will be, that we first talk and do good justice to it and if talks fail, neutralize them with over-whelming force. Force can neutralize individuals but it cannot wipe out an idea. You kill a few, a few more will come and then a few more and then more and so on. The mindset of the people (terrorists especially the religious fundamentalist types) you wish to talk to might be set in stone and they might not compromise. Whether their demands are fair or not, their ideology may attract many followers and continue to live in the long run.

As I see no path promises a complete solution. A few questions linger on:

How do you deal with extremism? Do you reply with extremism (Not necessarily violence as there is this other side to the coin) or walk the seemingly impossible “Middle-path”.

Most important of them all:

How do you destroy an ideology?

Remember one thing: not all terrorists or naxals are bad. Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad and many others were called terrorists by the British government (when they ruled India) but they were and are heros to us. Even to this date we study about them in our history books under the sub-heading “Revolutionary Terrorism”. It’s all about the point of view.

I remember reading some where about the American Independence struggle. It is said that the declaration of independence was signed by a set of men and sent to the then king of England (George I guess, dunno the number though) and then they fought a war with GB and won their freedom. Those men went on to become great freedom fighters, father of the nation and some got their picture on the currency notes much later. Had they lost the war and if they were caught alive, they would be termed as terrorists and would be executed by the British and today we would remember (if we would) them as terrorists.

With reference to religious fundamentalists who are terrorists I know one thing that violence can be used to control it but not finish it. The remedy for such terrorism might be religion itself. The followers should be made aware that the basic postulate of a religion is not to destroy or kill but to create and preserve. Religion should be presented in a form that motivates people pursue higher studies and realize that mission of every person born here is to futher the cause of mankind by unravelling the mysteries that exist in this universe. And this can only be done in the form of cult movements of religious renaissance like the bhakti cult or the sufi movement. Religion is the opium of the masses and if this opium can be used to spread/ create terrorism it can also be used to curb/ kill terrorism.

A passage from Bible

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

Dance Bars Reopened

It is good to know that the dance bars have been reopened. I think this was a quality and realistic decision by our judicial system which otherwise resorts to utterly failed attempts at moral policing and cultural conditioning of the masses (not to forget the role of the polity in pushing the judiciary).

Whether the dance bars are open or closed, the prostitution business will not be largely affected. Nor will anybody be able to stop the girls working there from getting into prostitution because the system lacks that ability. Moreover it is the men who run the system and it also the men who indirectly run these dance bars and prostitution. Prostitution is one of the most organized businesses in our country (put some of the big players on test and they might just get an ISO 9000 or other such certification) and only lacks a legal sanction.

It will be impossible to remove it from our society because it’s the society that created it in the first place. How can I say this? A few months ago there was a report on NDTV about nude dance shows in the elite class hotels of pondicherry. They were worst when compared to those dance bars. The hordes of men who were visiting such shows were not criminals or anti-social elements but the rich, well-to-do and the middle class people who wanted to relax after a day's hard work. I am sure that it these men are asked on camera about prostitution or dance bars they will despise it and talk about how it’s a cancer to the society.

So here is the society some of us want to civilize by closing the dance bars. Ok close the dance bars and these girls will be forced to go to the private parties that many such men have on their farm houses and there the risk will much higher (if you know what I am talking about). How many places are you going to go and how many dance shows will you shut down? What media is showing is just a tip of the iceberg.

Do you think that when dance bars were closed, there were no dace bars operating out there? NO. There were definitely a few dance bars open and working as usual. Needless to say, they were able to exploit the loop-holes in our system and were undetected or may be intentionally over-looked by the keepers of law (police).

What alternatives do we have for the employment of those girls who will otherwise be unemployed if the dance bars are permanently closed. We are not able to satisfy the employment needs of the educated section itself (of which some dance bars girls may also be a part), set aside the hundreds those girls.

Government is a big joke. It’s all on papers and nothing in practical. Of the people who visit these bars there are many people from the government also. Criminals....government is full of them and most of them create all the nonsense than happens outside these dance bars, if at all.

Looking at the bigger picture, I do not think anyone is to be blamed. Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world and dance shows are not far behind. It is the biological make-up and psyche of man and frankly nothing can be done about it. The arms of law are long and iron but it is after all, blind. Even if you close the bars the show will go on.

I recommend that let the dance bars be, go ahead and legalize prostitution ss well so that some sort of order can be brought into this business and people don't have to be hypocrites. Not to forget the revenue government can make by way of taxes from all those people who are getting richer by the day from such businesses.

Good quotes

1. Crime cannot be tolerated. Criminals thrive on the indulgence of Society's understanding. - From the movie Batman begins

2. I have plumbed the depth of Human cowardice and I realized that there is only one way to be right and that is to be in power. - Georges Bedault

3. Jis ke pas power hota hai, uska wrong bhi hamesha right hota hai - From the movie Sarkar (On a similar note as quote number 2)

4. A war represents a failure of diplomacy. - Tony Benn

5. Non violence leads to the highest ethics which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. - Thomas A Edison

6. Passion for destruction is part of how a child discovers the world - Paulo Coelho (in 11 minutes)

7. Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. - Timithy Leary

8. A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. - John F. Kennedy

9. The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. - Niccolo Machiavelli

10. Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders. - Tom Peters

11. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few. - Shunryu Suzuki

12. The time has come to choose between what is right and what is easy - From the movie Harry Potter and the goblet of fire

I think these two are the best I have ever read:

13. Religion is the opium of the people. - Karl Marx

14. Hate oppression. Fear the oppressed. - V.S. Naipaul

Absolutism or un-absolutism? My Views

(Follow the original discussion here)

Definitely un-absolutism.

Careful study of the ancient texts (Gita is particular) shows that the ancients had the knowledge of parallel universes and time travel (I do not imply that they were able to travel in time because I frankly don't know about that). Concept of parallel universes is an excellent point and it kind of refutes my thought and the ancient texts themselves.

"Death of a body/moksha of a soul is an absolute and death it self is the ultimate truth."

With reference to the issues like:

Israel/Palestine/Syria/Egypt.

India/Pakistan/Kashmir/US/China

LTTE/Sri Lanka/India/Norway

Congress/BJP/Left Front/Third Front/The common man

There is nothing absolute and there will be no absolute because of the imperfections in intelligence (wrt mankind). The very way we have evolved, developed systems, sub-systems and setup a way of life is imperfect and "un-absolute". To elucidate this, here is a simple observation:

At the dawn of the age of reason (the time when the ape became intelligent and started calling himself man) every one was equal and today the society is divided into haves and have nots. Why?

The system and its users are imperfect.

Stephen Hawking once said that developing a theory of every thing will be like knowing the mind of god. I believe that our mission is to work for removal of imperfections and make the un-absolute absolute. However, our inherent imperfections, hypocrisy and inability to resolve/ accommodate conflict of view-point will never let that happen or at least it seems like that). When I am really pissed-off, I say "intelligence is a bane".

P.S. I am not a pessimist though I may appear to be one because nothing is absolute.

Meanings for "absolute" (ref. answers.com): Perfect in quality or nature; complete, total, utter, unqualified, unconditional, unlimited, supreme, fixed.

Reservation Issue: After a long time some thing comes from my heart

I was browsing through CL's website (www.careerlauncher.com) and found that they have a discussion board for various topics under the sun. I found a topic on the recent announcement by the government to hike the reservation quota and I jumped in and posted this:

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I infer from the Ancient Texts that Ekalavya was denied the claim to fame by biased Dhrona because he was from a backward caste. According to Dhrona, Arjun was "meant" to become the greatest Archer in the world and he ensured that by asking for Ekalavya's thumb as Guru Dakshina.

The immemorial texts clearly show how this concept of caste system has been ruining us since a long time. I strongly believe that powerful measures should be taken to remove this cancer from our society and abolish caste system and reservations based on it. For those who think that we do not practice caste system, please note that I think that allocation of seats or quotas based on caste system means belief in and practice of caste system.

In the previous paragraph I have mentioned "Powerful measures". By this I mean measures that change the mindset of the people and bring all sections of the society at par without doing injustice to any. I do not think that our current political system is capable of doing this. It is all about vote bank and keeping some people happy at the cost of others.

I believe that even if the right person is empowered to do the job, he or she will be unable to perform his or her duties honestly because their primary worry will be securing their position or making the best of it for their personal life before they loose it. Our politicians try to secure short-term gains, sympathy and votes by announcing such flimsy policies as increase in reservation.

I am not sure about this but I had read some where that the drafters of our constitution had introduced reservation/ quota system to ensure that all sections of the society come at par with each other. They expected this system to be abolished as soon as that would happen. The expected date for this was 1980 or so. However, from what I know, the efforts to bring all sections of the society on a level playing field have been dismal. Instead formidable efforts (like reservations etc) are being put in to divide, subdivide, polarize and destroy the very foundations of our already crippling society (in terms of human development index).

I know very few of you will like this, but I think that democracy is the culprit. If we take away the democracy from the people and empower Mr. or Ms “Right”, things will be fine.

Why do I say this? Because I think that every such move or announcement by our politicians, when it polarizes the society, pushes it one step closer to a civil war.

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I have written out my mind and I have lots of thoughts regarding this that branch out over a broad range of topics but this is not the time to discuss them. As my friend had once said:

No one will listen to you even if you are right but have been a non achiever.

IQ tests on tickle

Ever heard of Tickle.com. I gave an IQ test on this website a few days ago (just for fun types). The told me that my intellect type is Visual Mathematician ;-) and my score: 131. I then gave another test where in my true color came out as black (as if I did not know. BTW black happens to be one of my favorite movies, so I guess you see the relation.

Then on checking my mail box I had this mail asking me to pay (why does every body ask only me ;-)) to view a detailed analysis of my IQ test result. I being stingy (as I have always been) did not :-) and moved on. And guess what, today they sent another mail saying that I am a top performer (how come??) and provided me my scores for free (kind of, I now get newsletter from Wal-Mart which goes into the junk mail folder of my inbox ;-)).

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Excerpts from the test analysis:

You have a strong ability to process visual-spatial and mathematical information. These skills combined with your strengths in logic are what make you a Visual Mathematician.

You're able to understand patterns visually and in numbers. That means your mind can create a mental picture for any problem. In addition to that skill, you possess an intelligence that allows you to apply math to that picture, too. That helps you manipulate multiple parts of the picture (or problem) to come up with a solution. You have a strong ability to process visual-spatial and mathematical information. These skills combined with your strengths in logic are what make you a Visual Mathematician.

You have many skills that are critical to success and problem-solving. Your talents help you understand the "big picture," which is partly why people may turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. You flourish in environments where tasks are clearly defined, and you are a whiz at improving processes and making things more efficient. Your ability to detect patterns and your skills in math and logic, make it natural for you to come up with ideas and theories that simplify processes for everyone.

Outside of work, Visual Mathematicians tend to do well at strategic activities like chess. It must be that ability to recognize patterns — both as they are and how they develop. Regardless of how you put your mind to use, you've got a great set of talents. You will be able to envision a clear path and calculate the risks, and more importantly, the rewards, of anything you take on.

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Setting every thing aside, I found it so difficult to remember all the rules of chess that I gave up learning chess ;-)hehehehe. I hardly get to see or read such good stuff about myself. BTW any of you using World space Satellite Radio. People, trust me it’s AWESOME. Channel 202 (System) is HEAVEN.