Humans – I love em! :)

Bathroom Biscuit Observation

Try this at home!

Experiment:
After eating some biscuits, spit on a wet floor [bathroom] and observe [from about 50-75cms] carefully at the point where you spit and its immediate surroundings.

My observations:
1) A sudden circular clearance grows starting right after the circumference of spit whose radius expands rapidly which slows down and halts.
2) I also noted that apart from circular portion expanding, there were tiny circular disturbances on the wet floor portion right after the wet clearance from above. These disturbances [circular - like the ones formed when a drop falls on a calm water surface] continue to move in the radial direction even after about 1 n half to 2 sec after spit + clearance formation.

What bugged me:
1) Why the hell is there an exploding wet-clearance radius?
2) What continues to travel even after 2 secs! after impact? that too in the horizontal plane?
This was my KVPY project for scholarship. Or so i thought i’d be.

Summer of 2006:
I tried reading books on thin films etc to know if the problem is addressed, however, i was completely lost in jargon. i thought, may be a a more sophisticated observation would reveal a looks-complex simplicity and make me avoid the books. Honestly tried for a cam but no luck. One day forced myself to a very old govt. library and guess what!

The reason there is an explosion, is because of a simple elegant thing called surface tension! if you guessed it right away – great! ever seen oil drop on a surface of wet water floor? apart from the colorful diffraction patterns, the centre heavy oil drops sinks, and there is a clearance of the wet floor around. force of surface tension acts according to perimetric length, so the clearance [border of water on wet floor] expands till the force equals the outward force of the surface tension of the oil. [in our observations the oil drop was the spit+biscuit particles] [will be valid in case of any two liquids (fluids?) with relative differences in surface tension]

I still could not reason the second observation untill yesterday my dear buddyVikram [read as Denny Crane] showed me this video. [Never completed the project on time]
October 22, 2009:

So the reason for second observation is, at the time of impact – tiny water drops [/spit drops?] are thrown away in a radially outward horizontal direction, which skim the surface of the wet water surface while simultaneously reducing the drops volume all this causing small delicate superb ripples! skimming! – hence the time! Like a ballet dancer! Musical !

Case closed?
Further:
1)What is the role of biscuit particles in the spit? or will just the spit do?
2)What creates the tiny drops right after the impact?
3)The tiny drop motion – the physics of the projectile and ripples under an ultra slow cam!

Thanks da Vikram!. That feeling on finding a piece of a puzzle I love!

PS: You are a good observer if you must have wondered what i was doing – eating biscuits in a bathroom, spitting and observing it from a distance of 75cm.

Kaki King – TED

When I was a child, I thought if time could reach forwards and backwards infinitely, doesnt that mean that every point in time is really infinitely small and therefore somewhat meaningless? So we really dont have a place in the universe as far as on a timeline, but nothing else does either and so therefore, every moment is really the most important moment that has ever happened including this moment right now. – Kaki King, TED

Dudh Sagar – Goa

october!

there is lot more to goa than just beaches, i ll try to document about a few, as it turns out i got a fetish for water scapes.

if you are around in goa during this time of the year a must see, -takes a day, spot is the dudhsagar waterfalls. the falls open only during the 2nd or 3rd week of october, before which it is not very easy to reach. but this is the best time of the year to see them, which otherwise dry up pretty fast. the falls are on the river mandovi and get the name obviously from the milky white foamy water.needless to say very exotic, serene and thankfully isolated sufficiently from humans. if one is an adventure enthusiast, here is a must go.

to reach there is a thing in itself. nothing good comes free effort. so gang up and go get goa. destination dudhsagar.incase you dont have time for a complete day for this make sure you see it atleast when on train on the konkan railway lines [left side] when enroute the hubli-londa-madgoan[marmagoa]-vaso track, right after castle rock station, and between the tunnel numbers 17 and 13[?]

to reach there, from goa, one has to first reach kulem. [local trains starting ~7am from vasco via madgoan], this is the best bet to reach there in most comfortable way, instead of burning out money on road transport and time. from kulem, the falls are about a 15 kms away into the sanctuary. here is where the ride begins

first the boring way. there are mahindras in kulem, exclusively which operate to take people to the falls, [the other reason your hired vehicle is useless] not any vehicle is allowed into the sanctuary, the mahindras ride costs a bit, 500 per person odd. up and down. the road into the sanctuary is real bumpy and needs crossing the mandovi river twice [trice?] whichis fun in itself. during this time of the year one cannot walk the way because of the same reason. the river turbulence is real high. that you do need a mahindra for it. [during other seasons when the falls are open one can walk upto the falls] ok, so mahindra takes you there gives you sufficiently good deal of time and gets you back. suits family – kids and elders. sometimes have weird conditions. ask full details.

option 2. you walk down on train tracks[13kms]/take a life from one of the trains[yes! a lift! talk to the goods train drivers ] from kulem.there are always good number of trains leaving kulem at any given point of time. the driver would likely slow down the train n ask you to get down mid way [after about 8-9 kms from kulem] and leave you there amist a spooky hilly no man zone, with the tracks, that point you to where you ought to go. and so one has to walk the extra 4-5 miles to the falls. however, i promise that will be one of most memorable walks ever. that lanscape, dripping train tunnels, the first glimpse of the falls -is a #$@#%#$^% feeling [that is not sensorship -i just dont think there are wrds for that], and then comes the real deal in this train track detour, the train track is at about mid of the height of the falls. so now, one is gotta get down to ground zero! there is a small unnoticeable tunnel between tunnels x and y. [i know x and y! i just dont want to be a spoiler] which takes you or a rather green slippery steep path down to the falls. monkeys and leaches await to welcome you. [as much as i love to tell you how good that trek is, its best left unsaid in the spirit and code of adventurers]

pure cold water! rejuvenating experience.

the rocks below there are real slippery. and flow of water is real turbulent and gushy. each year atleast 2 people die at the falls. there is a big billboard WARNING sign asking people to be careful.

DO NOT try to swin near to the vortex of the falls. there is no getting any help [not even a cell signal or easy transport] for about 10kms. BEWARE.

some pics from last year
to the most awesome set of guys i went there with.
love them all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUNCH

Sound of Sirens

You look up lying on the bed and you could bet you see the blades of the fan spinning slower than the usual, the immediate loudest thing is that of you – typing the key board, in a rumbling backgrounds of nearby traffic. The distinct sound the space bar makes, is suddenly apparent. The humming of the desktop fan and the horns from the traffic signal impinge their impatience, if you are not plugged to the loose dangling wired earphones. You start to wonder if any of this mattered? What of all is or anything is important? Who the bloody hell cares to listen? And then like a cold wind gushing through the edges of the windows – that forceful spooky sound of a gale wind, there goes the sirens, the sirens of the ambulances. Stopping sincerely to the signals, announcing the icy near deaths encounters. You count them, about four every hour, sometimes more, you wonder the obvious. You lie down on the bed and realize that your breaths hitting on the pillow sound like screaming school children, you feel thuds, the heartbeat doesnt seem to sound like it should but just as monotonous thuds. You close your eyes and hate to see flip art instanstces of people who were dear and died. Shutting down every light possible – you cover the rug over head and it only makes the collages more colorful, the voice in your head starts to mutter, and there is you – forcing sleep on it. There are sirens. There is silence. The voice goes what the fuck is this? and more sirens. More silence. The voice is yelling and you and only you can hear.

Solitude is a haunting temptation.

Remembering ‘Wilson – Cast Away’ and ‘Old Boy’

All Alone

Jog Falls

after n repeated attempts to go to jog falls i did finally go there. n boy! what a place it is! and we got lucky, as it has been raining in shimoga n around jog falls for the past week. the water in the falls, is  now more primarily because of the downpour. so as like vikram says, i was at the right place at the right time. [recently jog falls has lost its grandeur because of a dam upstream].

Jog falls is the highest water plunge in India, on the river Sharavati. located in Shimoga district of karnataka. we started from Blore, majestic. at abt 11Pm, towards shimoga[every 20mins a bus]. we got down at Sagar [70km after Shimoga town] at about 6 Am, which happens to be the nearest place to jog falls, we learnt there is a direct bus to Jog falls everyday from blore majestic bus stop. from sagar another bus 30kms is Jog. we reached Jog at 7 30 odd.

heavy rains greeted us all the way. by the time we manged to get a room [300 bucks a day]  in mayura [govt tourist accom] we were completely drenched. we were also disappointed to see a grand covering of mist on the falls. we could see nothing. no one could tell if it would clear.

just trying our luck we took a site seeing trip auto wala [150 bucks -negotiable] hu took us to the famous mungaru malai shooting spot. the Jog falls is basically has a view from the either side. front n back. u could see the mouths of the falls in the backview [mungaru malai view] or from the so far misty front which are a full front view.

still having no luck with the mist, we were just hanging around, in a spot constructed to view the falls, from the back end. our eyes were thirsting for a glimpse. one glimpse. n holly molly, in few seconds after we came to that spot, a gentle wind blew. it was a hill side wind. it open up the falls to us like like some giant curtains. exactly from the mid. the scene that followed cannot be descibed in words. utter majesty. we later got to see the view from the front also, the pic above is the same.

raja, rani, roarer, n rocket are splits of the falls, aptly named, just go there rembering these names, u ll know why they were named so. the site seeing tour continued to a top view of power house, n the site of mouth of rani falls. each of them is a scenery i ll cherish long. totally worth it.

one could as well visit the same day, to shimoga were in are a wild life sanctuary [open till 5pm] and a dam [4 pm].  we were late for the sanctuary, but we went to a shiva temple. 20ft tall. on the side of tunga river. amidst brilliant lush padddy fields n apricot farms. if well timed can complete this whole trip of jog falls n shimoga in a day considering back to back night journeys.[we did it, we were back in blore by 5 am the next day]

wrd of advice: take clothes appropriately enuf and that suit which heavy rains.

thank you voodoo. :’)
pics and vids [mind heavy rains. we managed somehow ]

PS: easier to reach from Goa.

Graph Theory

recently,  i got intersted in representing all my friends in facebook on  nodes.  i came across this thing called guess, the graph exploration system [free software]. one could map all friends on fb using this app.  [use the "guess" output from the app n use it in the software above]

as a thought. what if we all were all represented as simple nodes.instead of what we are on our social networking sites. a higher order sort of a thing. which will map all our ol activities. the activities in themself being nodes in it self. [maybe a different color or a different plane]

so supposing we could integrate all our friends on all our networking sites. and map them into clickable nodes. say give these a color green. all of ones interests into another set of nodes say red in color. avinash wants to take it to a newer level all together, what i buy[ebay], what i do [twitter] all of them shud be integrated and made into nodes of different color.

so once we are all connected. n u reach me, by clicking couple of nodes, n u ll know where all i m ol active in. who all i hang out with. what all i like. n so on. a true online being. an online life. a speck.

ofcourse one would ask why would you want to do that?
importantly to ease ol navigation.
however this information could be a great deal of danger to the privacy. and subject of gross exploitation. i learn such tools are adopted to study terrorist groups.

other thoughts:
1) exploration of the six links [or sever person] separation theory
2) np problems seem to have adopted a cunning way when it comes to protien folding. maybe there is a vague study prospect from here. i m just hand waving.
3)friend circles, group dynamics, political strats, behavioural traits?

i deleted my facebook btw.

Dawkins’ Ten Commandments

In his latest book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins presents his own Alternative Ten Commandments. I enjoyed the list so much I wanted to share it here. [Edit: it has been pointed out that this list was not written by Dawkins, but only offered in his book. Whoever wrote it, I think it is a great list of principles.]

1. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you

2. In all things, strive to cause no harm

3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.

4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder

6. Always seek to be learning something new

7. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.

8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

10. Question everything

____________________________________________________________
i have copied as is from here -> this sounded like me

Edit: following sabya comment

The simplified Two commandments.
1. Empathize
2. Question

Love it

Essay To No One

well i m writing this essay. an essay to no one. there is no topic. no content. no conclusion. its nonsense anyway. so why read? well, to evaluate the magnitude of madness? maybe comprehend those little feelings we always seem to know are present but remain sunk in the depths of thought? or amuse or mock at yet another attempt to say something in the deafening noise of soceital ramblings? i certainly not sure why i m writing this. but more importantly, should i be knowing it – knowing every action, every emotion that i long to express? may be its just an accident in time that i m writing this. its just words anyway, this very passage is very likely to have been thought before, but may it could have been documented too, just may be it never made it to your read, aint it amazing? you are reading this – a different version – another author, but a same old idea.

that brings me to question, why does one long express? what is this itch that humanity seem to suffer from – to express? why does one want to paint? write essays or poetry? sing or dance? why must a human soul find its relevance in its expressions? what of any of this will ever matter? is this a vain attempt to be remembered as a faint memory? – a nostalgia? and hence to live longer, cheat the physics of death? or may be its a sub conscious effort to pass the time learned wisdom to a fresher audience and hence boast about the  reasoning and intellect of the author, but wisdom cannot be taught, written or imposed, then why bother? well, how about, to open the channels of the unknown? maps of the unseen? to reason out the truth? but why would one even bother the effort, and steal the excitement from an equally curious other men. perspectives are not universal, the chronological happenings in such a vast sample set are not unique, so here is my way of telling a tale in a version of my own, well if so unique why even try to generalize, why make maps for the benefit of a lost nomad? how can one be lost, there is no where to go in the first place. nothing that is so important in life. death apart. then why ask these questions? and act like we know what it is that mattered. its just a life. why ask where to go? just hang around, be here a while, and it all be over. in this vastness of assumptious pathless truth.

what to do while being here? one doesnt want to be waiting for it to tic the ultimatum. that seem so tasteless.so what do we do, while we helplessly roam around this place? may be we could sing along? may be read out loud- stories of men, who journeyed for joy. see  those landscapes. or write a poem. paint a smiling lady in her curly hair. share a joke, a learning, a trick to the human itch. to emote. all this remembering that there is no where to go, no one to impress. and to be a no one. and more so, to empathize being a no one.