There was once a thing called environment;
thoughtfulness was its primary requirement.
Then we discoverd Oil
and put an end to toil.
But also created a lot of disheartenment.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Environment~ ~Fun~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Those looking to the US for technological innovation and scientific leadership in the 21^st century [OK, enough with the 21st already, we need a new mirage to chase!] can stop now. It's not gonna happen. Trust me.

Via the pages of one of my friend's advisor* and his advisor* [--- more fun links here!] I reached this amazing page - Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair 2001.

Elementary school kids won prizes for such amusing projects like
"She tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them... conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey"
and "how specifically complicated pine cones are and how they reveal God's design in nature."

Middle school children were far more scientific and demonstrated that
"life cannot come from non-life through natural processes - placed all the non-living ingredients of life - carbon (a charcoal briquet), purified water, and assorted minerals (a multi-vitamin) - into a sealed glass jar. The jar was left undisturbed, being exposed only to sunlight, for three weeks. No life evolved." 'Elementary', Holmes would have said!

High schoolers, of course, with their superior ability for rational thought, greater knowledge of the physical sciences, and apparently, greater ability for brutality, tackled such mind numbing concepts as "Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria" [Christians for Untreatable Diseases?];
"Maximal Packing Of Rodentia Kinds: A Feasibility Study" [No, you'll never guess what that means, our minds just don't operate that way] - "The Rodentia [using fancy words makes stuff more scientific of course; I know I've done it!] were placed in a cage with dimensions proportional to a section of the Ark.... Although there was little room left in the cage, all Rodentia were able to move just enough to ward off muscle atrophy."
and "Thermodynamics Of Hell Fire" [Now that's something I can't even imagine how to start thinking about. By a long shot. My brain will probably crash if I try that!]

There are more links on this page that promise to show you "a wonderful scale model of a section of Noah's Ark made with popsicle sticks" [Yes, it's a little mentioned fact, but the whole sentence goes - 'On the seventh day He rested; and set up a popsicle factory.]

*Before you not visit the Advisors' pages and form a negative opinion of them, let me clarify that they are actually against this stuff too. They probably laughed as hard as I did too. So there is still hope, though perhaps only a fool's hope.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Science~ ~USA~
Edited on: Monday, September 27, 2004 12:31 AM
;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ThingsMyGirlfriendAndIHaveArguedAbout.com - It's a Loooooooooooong list, but very funny, [let me rephrase that - it's rip-roaringly, outragiously comical] and perhaps, if you take it the right way, educational. :)
Via BoingBoing

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~
Edited on: Sunday, September 26, 2004 4:18 PM
;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1) Where can I get scores (for playing on the piano) of Indian and western music? Fr free of course...

2) Which is a good domain name seller/DNS hosting service? Does it work out cheaper to buy the domain name for longer term?

3) Which is a good chess book for learning basic strategies, tactics, opening and endgame moves etc?

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Arts~ ~Me~ ~ThisBlog~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bill Maher's Victory Begins at Home is a mandatory viewing if you are interested in either of = Standup Comedy, America, Planet Earth

Do watch it.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Arts~ ~Fun~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Take a look at the feature from Nature [Flash version, pdf version]
Qusetions asked to both candidates include issues like Foreign student/scientist policy, Scientific advisory commitee bias, Missile defense, bioweapons, consumption level in the developed nations, GM food, stem cell research, and of course, the greenhouse effect.
Whether the answers actually mean something, or are just election PR, is somethign to think about..

- Chinmay

Categories - ~~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So here's a short video from the National Cancer Institute that explains in simple terms how nanotechnology will work against cancer.

In the next video, I think they'll feature my work :)

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Me~ ~Science~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I can't believe I've not mentioned this before! Red vs. Blue - The Blood Gulch Chronicles has finished its season 2, so it's about time you watch it. Of course, even the low resolution [which is pretty acceptable, by most standards] avi's total a respectable 796 MB [Trailer, Episodes 00-38, and Episode 28.5, plus 9 miscelaneous clips], so it's not a easy to get. You could buy the DVDs, but where's the fun in that?

The best way is probably to go to the archives pages and download the episodes.

Also, PhD Comics moves on... Slackenerny is now in 'The Thesis Zone', which will without doubt be rather funny...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~GeekStuff~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Installed a bunch of new programs on the new desktop in school.

The main is the Mozilla Suite, which is a fantastic collection (Browser, Mail Client, IRC Chat Client, HTML editor) of applications. If you take some time to explore the many small but thoughtful features included, you'll be more than rewarded, although even with the default config, it runs great! I had tried to use Mozilla once before but give up - hadn't been able to configure some things to my liking. Now that I spent some time on it, I've been able to configure it just fine.

The reason I looked at Mozilla once again is that I was looking for a good calendar program. The Mozilla Calendar, which is based on the open iCal standard, is quite satisfactory too.

Another great OSS I got is The GIMP 2.0. Again, I had looked at GIMP before, but Windows installation was only available for GIMP 1.2 (this would be around March/April '04 I think). Haven't had time to use it much, but from what I've seen, it should be as good as PS6/7.

For people who want to type on the computer in Indian languages, there's Baraha 6.0 [Thanks to Rohit Marathe for pointing out the prog.] Originally designed to type Kannada language, it now enables you to type in all four Dravidian languages and also Devanagari. I found it very easy to type marathi right into MSWord. Runs great, AFAICT.

Other than that, I've installed Azureus - a BitTorrent Client, TClockEX [Hint: "|" is the line break operator].

Also worth mentioning are some applications that I had before - iTunes [I still keep using Winamp 2.91 though... iTunes 4, Windows Media Player 10, Real Player 10, all take up too much memory], some PowerToys for XP, Spybot S&D, Thingamablog [Now 1.0b2], WinMX [Now 3.53], an finally, WordWeb [3.02 - Pronunciation key]. For fun, there's some stuff [most of it still beta] on SourceForge Gaming Foundry.

Why then, have I not installed OpenOffice? Because I got a Vanderbilt licensed MSOffice 2K. How about Linux? As you might know, I had made my laptop XP/Mandrake 10 dualbooting. Now even my desktop has both XP and MandrakeLinux 10.

All in all, feel deeply grateful to the OSS/FS and GNU community, as well as other people who write software and give it away for free. [Which is not to say that I always have animosity for those who do it for money, only when it's so full of bugs! ;)]

BTW, now my desktop looks like this!

- Chinmay

Categories - ~GeekStuff~
Edited on: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 1:09 PM
;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Say a guy makes some changes in an IC engines so that they burns 20% less fuel, run cooler, and almost completely removes knocking and stalling, what do you think will be the response? Awards? Royalties? Admiration and recognition?

Not so for Somender Singh. Since May 2001, he's been trying to get some attention of the industry to his US patent, without much luck.

Here's a Popular Science article on Singh and his engine. [which I got to from this GoodNewsIndia page] [Incidentally, the whole August issue of PopSci is dedicated to the 'Future Car']

[At last call, it seems Tata Motors might be looking at this with some seriousness.]

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Science~ ~World~

;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So here I am! Back after a long three month break!

Feels great to be back in the labs nad getting my hands all covered with nanoparticles [ok not really... we use protection ;)], but my apartment is still a mess with people moving in and out, guests and what not... But I guess the dust will settle down soon enough [and I will have to do a lot of vacuuming after that :) ].

Anyway, in a new lab now with a new comp, 17" LCD screen and Nvidia 9600 card with 256MB dedicated memory being the highlights.

Also a blazing hot Thingamablog v.1 to blog with! [BTW, it seems I have done some "cool stuff" with my blog!]

What more could a geek ask for!

So once again, come here once in a while, to see what I find as I explore my stochastic consciousness.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~GeekStuff~ ~Me~ ~ThisBlog~
Edited on: Sunday, September 05, 2004 12:38 PM
;  permalink
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~