Army Round up-Highlights

 Army Round up-Highlights

I escaped from daylight round up of university students in 1971 in Peradeniya University Under Sirima.
The army guy who headed the round up operation happened to be from my college (contemporary but not one of my class mates).
 

None from the Arunachelum Hall of Residence was taken out.
 

I do not claim any credits.
 

The JVP, had placed improvised bombs on top of our room’s ceiling, I was told by the said lieutenant.
 

What happened to the undergraduates, from other halls of residence, I still do not know. None of my class mates, most of whom are living healthily even today had any lineage to extreme ideas.
They are/were all over the world and in Ceylon.

This is true of my batch mates (most of them are Tamils, none Muslim except one guy from Malaysia, lost contact with him after graduation) of the Medical Faculty.
We had a grand get together in India in 2009 (I did not attend) and in 2018 in Kandy.
There is guy in my batch who can organize a get together on the drop of a hat (mostly out of his own pocket).
Mind you he was a professor (field withheld). Unfortunately he has had a Transient Ishaemic Attack and I have lost contact with him.
 

Then, polishing a bottle of V.S.O.A or Gin and tonic was our pastime, and some are veterans in that sport.

He was here recently but I advised him to take the flight back before the election. He did not but remained in Ceylon for good.
 

In 1983 I was abroad when ethnic bashing was unleashed by UNP.
 

I was here in 1984 briefly. I was in Ceylon in 1984 clearing my unaccompanied luggage at the naval port when J.R.J. was having a putative referendum with a Muttiya (a pot).
 

Fast track to 1989, I was Number Three on the D.J.V.P’s hit list and I saw the dead bodies dumped in Digana.
 

The vegetable vendor who sold his last stock of vegetables to me was killed by “Deshapremies”.
His neck was cut on the back and he bled to death. Mahaveli Security did not let him into my clinic, a walking distance from his home in spite of repeated requests.
With few stitches, I could have saved him.
There was no electricity and I had a generator in my clinic and stocked all ice creams of the neighboring boutiques and dished out ice creams free to kids who came to the clinic.
Tea was free on my account and I had cartoons of milk in stock. I bought all the milk cartoons preempting D.J.V.Ps blackouts.
 

A little girl (my favorite kid) died in her father’s (DJVPs blackouts) lap asking to be taken to me. 

She suffered from asthma.
 

A little Muslim girl who had over 70% burns was under my care and I saved her.
A kid with appendicitis (a foreigner) was transferred to Kandy in our car (no ambulances, then).
 

This is my explanation for why I do not practice NOW. I did my part when doctors were hiding or going abroad!

 
My name was Number Three (a JVP sympathizer told me) in the JVP hit list and I was asked to leave by one of my laborers.

My crime working for Americans.
 

I saw him few weeks later and never after presumed killed by the army. His name was Tennakoon. He was a messenger for DJVP.
 

When I was coming home alone, they were digging the road so that a vehicle could not pass (but I managed) and I stopped to have a peep of dead bodies dumped to the Mahaveli River.
 

There were no crocodiles then in Rajawella but they were transported from Mahiyangana and they slowly went back to Mahiyangana on their own accord.

Mind you Ceylon is a typical Buddhist country by deeds not by Buddha’s sayings.

Reproduction
The police arrest even the drivers of vehicles transporting cattle illegally.
Why didn’t they arrest the ‘white van driver’, who claimed to have taken humans to be fed to crocodiles?
It is a crime to aid and abet criminals.
Legal action should be taken against the government politicians who are shielding the ‘white van driver’.
Will the police explain why they have not arrested him and those who are giving him refuge?
 

Science In Action

 Science In Action
Scientific Jargon
 
To appreciate the nature of matter from direct observation (concrete operational thinking -Piaget's psychoanalysis) to conceptual thinking (formal operational thinking) scientists use modeling and jargon words.

The approach of a biologist (investigating of biological phenomena) is to develop a  microscope to visualize the small particles that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

This is what Hook did (not Dr.Hook).

The microscope has its own limitations by nature of the optics (lenses) utilized. When one comes to a level where the resolution of the microscope was a handicap scientist with curiosity (in the last century) developed the electron microscope. The electron microscope actually gives a negative image of a sub-cellular structure somewhat similar to a negative of a photographic image before printing. This static pictures taken as serial images in different planes of cutting (tissues have to be cut to very thin sections by embedding into plastic resins) have to be interpreted in a functional way for us to understand the three dimensional impressions (in a way the human eye can visualize images) of sub-cellular material and at this point the thinking process of the mind takes over the interpretation of the observable but grossly enlarged (out of proportion to the real state of the matter) image.
 
The image (physical) and impression (thought process) has to merge at some point of our thinking to make meaning out of the non-sensible static image.

There is a big difference between a cartoon and a image of a electron microscope. Even a child could understand the pun involved in the cartoon but to understand the image of an electron microscopic  it has to be interpreted and made into a plane picture perceptible to the eye.

Some degree of imagination and thinking has to be utilized to understand the reality at microscopic level.This process of transformation into conceptual image develops over time. In some its development is rudimentary.

From concrete operational (direct experience) thinking  to formal (acceptable to science and teaching of science) operational thinking is a very big step in psychological development.

What is amazing is that children (and many adults, too) do not shed their direct experience (and their thinking with it) when the conceptual development is progressing in their development (which has inherent variability).

This is the handicap (in a way blessing in disguise) the children from the age of  8 to 16 years undergo and overcome.

Bombarding with factual knowledge at this stage of development is a serious problem from the point of view of the child.

It is believed that conceptual development occurs at the age of 16 and many do not develop this even at 30 years of age and even then function at a very rudimentary stage.

There is another barrier that is associated with psychological development.
It is the language itself.
 
The language and grammatical structure did not evolve in parallel with science and it's development.

Language development and acquisition pre-dated the development of science by more than 2000 years.
 
It is only in the last hundred years that the Language of Science started integrating  with the standard languages of the West.
 
Scientific terms that emerged in the West were not kind to Eastern languages and if not for the Pali Language (specially Abhidhamma terminology) teaching Science would have been much more difficult.

Unfortunately the people who started translating scientific terminology went in tangent to the tenet of Pali which was meant for a different purpose.
 
By doing this they not only destroyed Sinhala and also distorted the proper interpretation of Pali Language with a strong bias on ethical and moral principles based on soteriology (salvation from bondage of Sansara, the repeated cycle of birth).

The end result is that we are producing poor quality scientific thinkers and educators.

Add to this in the last thirty years the Computer Languages took some bearing in the modern world. It is called the binary language taking its roots from the property of electricity so that the computer terms can be converted to machine language.

Unfortunately, there is a trend in this country where people with limited understanding of computing (but with commercial interest) try to translate computer language into ordinary Sinhala.

This attempt is going to be a total failure by all standards.

I should make some observations as a Linux Convert (considering that any stealing including computer software as a form of crime not acceptable to the five precepts).
In a computer shop in Kandy recently, some school going children were making complaints to the shop assistant as regard to a CD they have purchased. They were unable to install the said software package without the password which they had to get from a Colombo address by telephone. 

I was inquisitive because this was in Sinhala but my gut feelings were that this was a pirated version.
I was right.
The perpetrator has copied an entire package and had the audacity to suppress (that is also possibly a pirated password) the password file and place his own graphic interface in Sinhala with a alphanumeric (English) number of his own as  a password.

This is cheating at three levels to make a few bucks from poor school children not literate in English.

I told those young boys you better learn Computing in English by doing that you would probably improve your English, too.  
They had an agreeing nod but whether they have the tenacity  for such an endeavour is open to question.
 
This shows how backward our education system is?

I am one who believe that Sinhala is not the stream to learn science in a constructive way form my childhood and I need to be proved otherwise by the learned educationalists in the department of education.

If our planners especially the education specialists do not take heed to this scenario our education will be behind by hundred of years (already lagging behind in comparison to Asian neighbours including Korea).

The scientific and computer jargon is a serious handicap to exchange of information.

Quite oblivious to any national needs the scientist take leaps and bounds in introducing new concepts and jargon in this world.

The latest terms I learned were transcriptome and proteome (two new words in genetics).
 
Bit of a hack and a crack at the scientists is worthwhile at this stage of my open communication.

Why the scientists cannot think of some simple terms instead of quantum, quarks, lepton and photon and the like?

Why not use the words like fashion, style, charm, elegance, appeal, quality and the ordinary word like bugs (bed bugs and other bugs)?

Aren't they (scientists) inelegant people?

Only scientific word I love to mention is Chaos especially because we are in chaos in education sense.

Modeling

Modeling is an acceptable way of expressing situations which we cannot observe directly.
Models help us to understand what we observe and predict what will happen in situations that we cannot observe. Eventually we may become so convinced of the reliability of the model or the security of the model image and that we tend to accept it as total reality without any objection or question.

The distinction between the model and the reality disappears in our teaching of science and in turn this inhibits the acceptance of new ideas.
 
The atomic model is a good example and everybody accepts it as a good model and almost certain reality but a few thinkers deviated from this mode of thinking and went into talk about quarks and antiparticles and the like.

Our educationists in science also have gone into hibernation after the atomic model and canceling the practicals for the advance level examination (due to inherent inability to hold examinations full proof so that some elements can doctor the results) is one example of this squint eye phenomenon.

It is high time at least from "middle school age" the children are brought up looking for both knowledge and wisdom with open mind rather than "programed minds"of the education department.

Restricting them to free books published by the education department which are probably 30 years outdated is not the panacea for a long term problem of updating and "learning on the go".

Know Your Enemy

Know Your Enemy

This time round Americans have got it wrong.

 I will not comment on Israelite except revisiting two stories.

They are worse than Indians.

Duplicity is their tactics.

1. When we were fighting L.T.T.E in Ceylon Israelite came into our help but with a difference. 

In the same building Israelite were helping L.T.T.E on the sly. 

Our military strategists got to know it very late. 

Israelite supplied arms to both sides.

We managed to stop long range missiles going into the hands of L.T.T.E, just in time.

2. Recent events are much worse. 

 While Arugam Bay, on Sri Lanka's east coast, has seen an increase in Israeli tourists and residents, particularly those visiting after mandatory military service, there are no established Jewish communities or synagogues in the area. The presence of Israeli tourists, including those who have established businesses, has led to some local concerns about cultural shifts and potential tensions.

 

 In late 2024, there were reports of security threats targeting Israeli tourists in Arugam Bay, leading to increased police presence and travel warnings from the Israeli government.

 

During the GAZA Atrocities, new recruits to Israel army had a lot of mental breakdowns which they were reluctant to admit.

They were sent to Ceylon to recuperate in our East Coast. 

They came as tourists but they did not use our tourist guide lines. 

They had their own shadowy tourist industry to keep them away from our secret services. 

We have a stupid government in Ceylon and treated these guys as top class tourists. 

They were spending a lot.

It is our Muslim brothers who exposed the scam.

Coming to Americans;

American believed Israelite on face value.

Iranians were not experimenting with nuclear arms.

That was a big deception.

There is no proof.

I think Iran will finish Israel in entirety.

They will not admit or declare it as Americans did.

If they leave any remnants left they will rise again. 

Iranians know it very well.

End this agony for another 50 years, is their goal.

Israel is on the back foot with Iron Dome breached and penetrated. 

They won't get a second chance.

Hit hard relentlessly.

They flatly refused Russian involvement for peace. 

Russian meant quick diplomacy.

Why the refusal?

There is no clear answer.

Besides, Iranians have not used their new missiles in a war footing.

They have to test them and refine and find malfunctions, if any.

They need to get the network of spies established inside Israel.

Foot Soldiers on the ground is a valuable asset.

Air strikes will not be enough.

Ground level penetration is mandatory.

They are using their brain.

 

Brains against brawn is their tactics.

 

Thuggery will not work.

This war will go on for sometime and their is no quick salvo.

This is war not a salvo.

I won't be surprised, if Iran asks for total surrender of Israel when the time is right. Thinking and things can turn around 360 degrees in war, in a matter of few weeks.

But that point is long time coming.

Americans did not assess the real potential of Iranian Resolve.

That is to the disadvantage of America.

I am not a military guy but a scientific analyst.

I believe I got at least one point right.

That is Brain against Brawn.

HeLa Cell Line

 HeLa  Cell Line
 

I was hesitant to make medical facts, here.
This is just to make a point to guys or girls who doubt it.
Normal cells of embryonic origin die after about 50 cell cycles.
The process of cell dying is called apoptosis.
Cancer cells have unlimited (lacks apoptosis)  cell division capacity.
This should be read with Cell Cycle Events.
 
HeLa  Cell Line
HeLa is an immortalized cell line used in scientific research.
It is the oldest human cell line and one of the most commonly used.
HeLa cells are durable and prolific, allowing for extensive applications in scientific study.
The line is derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African American mother of five, after whom the line is named.
 

Lacks died of cancer on October 4, 1951.

The cells from Lacks's cancerous cervical tumor were taken without her knowledge, which was common practice in the United States at the time.
 
Cell biologist George Otto Gey found that they could be kept alive, and developed a cell line. 

Previously, cells cultured from other human cells would survive for only a few days, but cells from Lacks's tumor behaved differently. 

Prof A.D.P Kalansuriya and Philosophy

 

Prof A.D.P Kalansuriya
We decided to have a “short weekly discussion” in the University of Peradeniya and invited few guys and girls. 

In the first discussion we had about 10 and in one of the subsequent discussions, one guy (I did not know) in a national dress, who came from the Buddhist background, started arguing on a flimsy point slanted towards Buddhism, off the track of professors theme by many a mile.
Professor in his inimitable way, tried to put him on the track with very short doses of philosophy. 

This idiot went on in circles and after waiting awhile, annoyed to the brim, I blasted this guy and told him, we came to listen to philosophy not Buddhism (this idiot’s interpretation, not Buddha’s) and you better get out of this room or I will throw you out physically.
I got up from my seat and showed him, I meant what I said.
He with few of his followers left the room and there was one other guy (may be my very young brother in law) beside me left in the room.
Professor had a bright smile in his face and after a pause said these guys cannot understand a simple term in philosophy.
That is the problem I am faced with.
We continued to have the discussion as planned and in subsequent discussion I was the only guy left.

Prof ADP Kalansooriya
The above incident brought us together and he had few medical problems (he never sought any advice from me) that made our encounters more frequent.

He was probably the last true philosopher we had. 

His thesis in UK was accepted without a hitch, in early sixties, not in any way slanted to Buddhism.
I was lucky to have received a free copy of his last book, related to language games in philosophy.
It was very heavy stuff in content and English terms, which I had to refer the dictionary to grasp his thoughts.
That was the only book in my life I read one chapter at a time (several times) and never proceeded to next chapter without getting hold of his dialectical and eclectically themes.
Listening to him over six to ten close door sessions made me well prepared.

One of his attempts was to get us out of the rigid often prejudiced views. 

He said philosophers are also trapped in this same dilemma.

He encouraged us to think “out of the box” and showed us the way out of a dogma.
I am very thankful to him and he is no more.
He succumbed to a medical misadventure just like Monte Gopallawa, his only and the last student (he died before him).

Coming back to "Looking for absolute truth", I organized symposium and invited him for short introduction to philosophy in Sinhala.
I of course dished out the science theme and after a few introductory remarks made into "a question and short answers".
That was the last time I addressed a public lecture 25 years ago.
I try my level best to avoid any.
Simply because the general public want to be inside the box.
 

Getting them out is difficult philosophically.

Teaching Science-02

  Teaching Science-02

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Weather as a Model for Scientific Investigation
As an example the weather can be investigated in a scientific way. This examination is not complete or comprehensive but taken as an instruction model for discussion and refinement. The limitations inherent in any model in illustrating a scientific fact (as a form of analogy) is also discussed briefly.

Whether one studies mathematics, chemistry or physics, science teachers are very comfortable in using equations to explain scientific themes. These equations have well balanced structures and are ideal for explanation (not investigation) of scientific notions but may fall short of that reality. That is something I would like to delve into.

My intention is to highlight the fallacy of using equations and equilibriums to state scientific facts as absolute truths (In a philosophical sense - the meaning of the word meaning?).

This approach of equations and equilibrium fails miserably when discussing the pattern weather and its behaviour.

This was what I have encountered as a child and still do and the recent tsunami was an eye opener to rekindle my latent interests in science of weather reporting. Even though this is not and attempt of in depth to analysis of weather or its reporting, an oblique reference is made to weather as a focal tenants of disagreement with the way the science is taught in our class rooms.

I have started addressing this in the Part 1 of the essay and this should be read in continuity with that and the Part 3 of my own observations that follow.

In weather an equilibrium state is never achieved in a scientific sense. It illustrates the uncertainty principle in general. Instead of an equilibrium state, cyclic phenomena are evident in weather patterns Weather is discussed in some detail below. The order and change (chaos) can be grasped without any difficulty unlike other scientific principles. The cyclical nature is apparent when one talks about monsoons and inter-monsoonal rain. What is evident is constant change but the order only becomes apparent because of repeated sequence of events (change and cyclic change adequately fits into this notion).

The cyclic nature of the phenomena is studied when forecasting of weather and it behaviour.

The model is the cyclic pattern of the water cycle.

Discussion is based on a scientific description of clouds and their behaviour which I copied from a web site with modification to suit the current discussion. To begin with there were over a hundred new scientific and technical words in in a short space of few passages. That is what I consider as the biggest handicap to a student or an average inquirer with open mind.

I would attempt to put that in perspective in simple terms as is possible but there is no guarantee.

It as a bold attempt since the few passages that I cover involve the entire package of scientific domains form physics to chemistry to mathematics to dynamics and logic and logistics.

Building Clouds

Although the formation of clouds can be quite complex in full detail, it can be simplified for a wider nonscientific audience.

There are two basic ingredients to satisfy formation of clouds; water and dust.
On earth naturally occurring clouds are composed of either water in its liquid or solid state. On other planets, where the surface atmosphere is different from that of the planet earth clouds may form from other compounds and that is not under discussion.

Thus, the primary recipe in forming clouds is water.

Collection of a sufficient quantity of water in a given space in its vapour state at a given time when the essential prerequisites (the temperature, the altitude, the pressure and the movement of molecules) are met the water vapour is transformed into clouds in either liquid or solid state.

The water vapour content of the atmosphere varies from near zero to about 100 percent, depending on the moisture on the surface beneath and the air temperature and condensation.

The water vapour content at a certain point of time and space needs to be ideally saturated to form clouds.

Next, recipe one needs is some dust.

Without "dirty air" there would likely be no clouds at all or only high altitude ice clouds. Earth atmosphere is never clean as one would expect it to be for healthy living (man's perspective). Even the "cleanest" air found on Earth contains about 1000 dust particles per cubic meter of air.

Neither a large amount nor large particles nor all dusts would satisfy the primary needs of forming clouds. Dust is needed for condensation (nidus or the nucleus) sites on which water vapour may condense or deposit as a water droplets (liquid) or ice crystals (solid). Certain types and shapes of dust and salt particles, such as sea salts and clay, make the best condensation nuclei. With proper quantities of water vapour and dust in an air parcel, the next step that has to be satisfied is the cooling of that air mass (i.e; cooling of the air parcel having a dust content of particular size and shape ) to a particular temperature conducive for the formation of cloud droplets or ice crystals (suspended in air in as a massive aggregation).

Viola, the clouds are formed.

Just as there are many ways to prepare a recipe, there are many different ways to form clouds. The recipe can be expanded with new ingredients for the precipitation to occur.

Professor John Day, the Cloud Man, has taken the simple cloud recipe, added a few more details and continued it until it makes precipitation(rain).
He calls this The Precipitation Ladder.

As with a simple recipe, he begins the process with the basic ingredients of dirty air and water vapour. As with cooking it is regulated (in real sense there is no regulators but changing states) to achieve the desired effect. He takes the ingredients through the rungs of the ladder in several stages (several processes) to form a cloud.

Ascent and Expansion are two of the main processes that result in the cooling of an air parcel in which clouds will form. We mostly think of moving air as wind flowing horizontally across the surface. (The movement of air is almost chaotic in a scientific sense but not random).

Air moving vertically is extremely important in weather processes, particularly with respect to clouds and precipitation. Ascending air currents takes the process up the Precipitation Ladder. The processes are assumed to be reversible. With descending air currents the process comes down the ladder reversing the effects until finally water vapour and dust are left in the air stream (mass of atmosphere) of movement.

There are four main processes occurring at or near the earth's surface which give rise to convergence, convection, frontal lifting and physical lifting of the ascending air.

Convergence occurs when several surface air currents in the horizontal flow move toward each other to meet in a common front. When they converge, there is only one way to go and it is upwards only. An area of low pressure (cell) build up on the surface of the earth is an example of where the converging air currents result in rising of air at the center of the converging currents. The air at the center rises to accommodate the redistribution of various air pressures (wind) that build up due to variable degree of cooling and warming of the atmospheric air creating low and high pressure points in the atmosphere. Convection occurs when air is heated by contact with a warmer land surface until it becomes less dense than the air above it. The heated parcel of air will rise until it has again cooled to the temperature of the surrounding air.

Frontal lifting occurs when a warmer air mass meets a colder one. Since warm air is less dense than cold, a warm air mass approaching a cold one will ascend over the cold air. This forms a warm front.

When a cold air mass approaches a warm one, it wedges under the warmer air, lifting it above the ground. This forms a cold front. In either case, there is ascending air at the frontal boundary.
Physical lifting, also known as orographic lifting, occurs when horizontal winds are forced to rise in order to cross topographical barriers such as hills and mountains. Whatever the process causing an air parcel (volume or quantity) to ascend, the result is that the rising air parcel must change its pressure to be in equilibrium with the surrounding air. Since atmospheric pressure decreases with altitude, so too must the pressure of the ascending air parcel. As air ascends, it expands. And as it expands, it cools. And the higher the parcel rises, the cooler it becomes.

Now that the cooling has begun the air parcel is almost ready to form a cloud.

The air parcel cools until condensation point is reached.
The next several rungs of the Precipitation Ladder describe the processes through to the condensation of liquid water.
As the air cools, its relative humidity will increase -- a process Prof. Day terms humidification. Although nothing has yet happened to change the water vapour content of the air, the saturation threshold of the air parcel decreases as the air becomes cooler. With decreasing saturation threshold the relative humidity increases proportionately.

Cooling is the most important method for increasing the relative humidity but it is not the only one.

Another is to receive more water vapour through evaporation or mixing with humid air that come in contact (cloud that has already formed) with the result of moving air currents containing more (various degrees) water vapour.
To form a cloud, humidification may eventually bring the air within the parcel to saturation. At saturation the relative humidity is 100 percent. Usually a little more humidification is required to bring the relative humidity above 100 percent, a state known as supersaturation, before a cloud forms. When air becomes supersaturated, its water vapour condenses out.

If the quantity and composition of the dust content is ideal, condensation may begin at a relative humidity below 100 percent. If the air is very clean, it may take high levels of supersaturation to produce cloud droplets. But typically condensation begins at relative humidity a few tenths of a percent above saturation.

Condensation of water into condensation nuclei (or deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei) begins at a particular altitude known as the cloud base or lifting condensation level.

Water molecules attach to the particles form cloud droplets which have a radius of about 20 micro meters (0.02 mm) or less. The droplet volume is generally a million times greater than the typical condensation nuclei.
Clouds are composed of large numbers of cloud droplets or ice crystals or both. Because of their small size and relatively high air resistance, they can remain suspended in the air for a long time, particularly if they remain in ascending air currents. The average cloud droplet has a terminal fall velocity of 1.3 cm per second in relatively still air. To put this into perspective, the average cloud droplet falling from a typical low cloud base of 500 meters would take more than 10 hours to reach the ground.

Forming Precipitation

We know that all clouds do not produce rain that strikes the ground. Some may produce rain or snow that evaporates before reaching the ground, and most clouds produce no precipitation at all. When rain falls, we know from measurements that the drops are larger than one milli meter. A raindrop of diameter 2 mm contains the water equivalent of a million cloud droplets (0.02 mm diameter). To get some precipitation from a cloud, there must be additional process within the cloud to form raindrops from cloud droplets.

The next rung of the Precipitation Ladder is Buoyancy or Cloudiness which signifies that the cloud water content must increase before any precipitation occurs. This requires a continuation of the lifting process. It is assisted by the property of water of giving off heat when changing from vapour to liquid and solid states, the latent heats of condensation and of deposition, respectively. If the vapour first changes to a liquid before freezing, then there is the latent heat of condensation released and followed by the release of the latent heat of freezing. This additional heat release warms the air parcel and adds to the lifting effect. In doing so, the buoyancy of the parcel relative to the surrounding air increases, and this contributes to the air to rise further rise.
Now in the cloud, there must be a Growth of cloud droplets to sizes that can fall to the ground as rain without evaporating. Cloud droplets can grow to a larger size in three ways.

The first is by the continued condensation of water vapour into cloud droplets and thus increasing their size until they become droplets. While the first condensation of water onto condensation nuclei to form cloud droplets occurs rather quickly, continued growth of cloud droplets in this manner will proceed very slowly.

Second, growth by collision and coalescence of cloud droplets (and then the collision of rain drops with cloud droplets and other drops) is a much quicker process. Turbulent currents in the clouds provide the first collisions between droplets. The combination forms a larger drop which can further collide with other droplets, thus growing rapidly in size. As the drops grow, their fall velocity also increases, and thus they can collide with slower falling droplets.
A 0.5 mm-radius drop falling at a rate of 4 m/s can quickly overtake a 0.05 mm (50 micro meter) drop falling at 0.27 m/s. When drops are too large, however, their collection efficiency for the smallest drops and droplets is not as great as when the drops are smaller in size. Small droplets may bounce off or flow around much larger drops and therefore do not coalesce. A drop about 60% smaller in diameter is most likely to be collected by a large drop.
Clouds with strong updraft areas have the best drop growth because the drops and droplets stay in the cloud longer and thus have many more collision opportunities.

Finally, it may seem odd, but the best conditions for drop growth occur when ice crystals are present in a cloud. When small droplets form, liquid water should be cooled well below 0º C (32º F) the freezing point. In fact, under optimal conditions, a pure droplet may reach - 40º C (or 104º F) before freezing. Therefore, there are areas within a cloud were ice crystals and water droplets co-exist. The ideal condition necessary for precipitation, in other words, rain has been duly satisfied.

The technical terms that were associated with the passage I obtained from a web page (which I have changed to make the flow as I would have wished) are enormous and even with a mastery in English language and grammar one may find it difficult to understand the scientific concepts in its entirety. Put that into simple English is difficult enough but I would make an attempt to simplify the contents.

Summary

For the synthesis of the above discussion in simple terms simple enough for younger age group (instead of 7 stages) person to understand I would break it down the concept of cloud formation into 3 or 4 essential stages without upsetting the authors description of the events in a hypothetical environment.

1.Formation of water vapour in a focus of dust particle of a particular shape and size.

2.Ascent of that tiny water vapour mass enclosed around the dust particles with the change in wind currents

3.Cooling and Condensation at high altitude

4.Acquisition of a particular size when gravitational pull brings it down (down to earth attitude) to the earth surface.

Next part of the discussion I would make my observations on the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, change, chaos, gravity, entropy and thermodynamics in a superficial and philosophical point of view.

Teaching Science-01

  Teaching Science-01

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Approach to teaching science is changing in the West. It is realized that in spite of the rapid advances in science (in the past century) the
benefit of science has not filtered down to the masses, specially to the young (in and out of school). When out of school the young adult has
no way of furthering his or her basic learning in science for ones own benefit functionally and socially. The school should be a place to make young people learn in a constructive way (not irrelevant factual knowledge) and apply that knowledge with common sense and with a scientific approach. There are inherent
religious, ethnic and educational prejudices that one has to circumvent to achieve these goals without upsetting the social sensitivities. Young children are brought up in various ways according to the way of life they are born to. Some are enriched and others are deprived of valuable opportunity due to many factors beyond the control of the child. The school should be the ideal place that can change this social disadvantage and teaching science with a new and scientific way is desirable and is found to be wanting.

The art of teaching science has to change form what it is now in our schools.

The top down approach and the the assumption that the teacher as a sage knows all what the students should know has failed in this country and elsewhere whether it is the East or the West.

In the West however, there is a changing attitude to teaching science (in a more pragmatic way). My attempt here is to look at this problem in a child's perspective rather than the teachers perspective. It is not possible for a teacher to know (for that matter even a doctor to know all the aspects of medicine) all the aspects of science.

A mixture of integrative approach and pooling of resources rather than training pure science teachers is what is intended. Instead of a purely scientific and academic exercise it should be broad based taking the child's development stage and the social background.

The medium of instruction and the command in whatever the language that is utilized to teach is also important. Bombarding factual knowledge to young is not what is required.

What should be tested or trained is not the memory and factual contents but the way of thinking based on scientific reasoning.
It is the thinking capacity that should be developed not the retention capacity.


Even though I attempt this at the university level the outcome is not as it is expected by me in general.

What is required is to make students ready for acquiring concepts appropriate for their psychological development. Children vary in their stage of development not only in the capacity but also at what level they achieve certain milestones of conceptual development.

Brief description of the psychological development is necessary before discussing the outcome based teaching (OBE). One should not expect the children to grow developmentally in a rigid programmed pattern. Even though they follow a general pattern some are slow and some are fast in acquiring conceptual skills. It is a normal behaviour of conceptual development and it is not that a particular child is stupid or very smart. It is the way they are born with and teachers task is for the whole class to achieve a certain level of competence (achievement) in thinking science.

To cover a particular syllabus forced on them by the hierarchy in the education department who do not have a good understanding (but just follow what was prescribed for the past 40 years without any revision) of the current trends and thinking in education. Changing requirements of the higher education should be balanced by the new way of thinking and approach in teaching science.

From concrete operational (direct experience) thinking to formal (acceptable to science) operational thinking is a very big step in psychological development. This change occur around 5 to 7 years of age and go on until 16 years of age. What is amazing is that children (and many adults too) do not shed their direct experience (and their thinking with it) when the conceptual development is progressing in their development (which has inherent variability).

This is a handicap (in a way blessing in disguise) the children from the age of 8 to 16 years undergo and overcome. Bombarding with factual knowledge at this stage of development is a serious problem from the point of view of the child. It is believed that conceptual development occurs at around the age of 16 and many do not develop this even up to 30 years of age and even then the conceptual development function at a very rudimentary level.


There is another barrier that is associated with psychological development. It is the language barrier itself. The language and grammatical structure did not evolve in parallel with science and its development. Language development and acquisition pre-dated the development of science by more than 2000 years. It is only in the last hundred years that the Language of Science started integrating with the standard languages of the West. Scientific terms that emerged in the West were not kind to Eastern languages and if not for the Pali Language (specially Abhidhamma terminology) teaching science in Sinhala would have been much more difficult. Unfortunately the people who started translating scientific terminology went in tangents to the tenant of Pali which was meant for a different purpose. By doing this they not only destroyed Sinhala but also the teaching of science by distorted interpretation of an ancient language.


The end result is that we are producing poor quality scientific thinkers and educators. I am one who believe that science should be taught in English very early in children's education. Not only this will help improve the English that the children would learn to use and would be an advantage in grasping difficult concepts in later life (especially when they proceed to higher studies).

Having seen students struggling to understand simple concepts in their first year at the university and the introduction English language learning before commencing their academic career has not improved or remedied the problem as it is today my impressions are somewhat biased and the reader should excuse me for that.

Having said that English is not an difficult language to learn and English is a very good supplement even if one wants to learn purely in ones own mother tongue.


Conceptual Development

Modeling is an acceptable way of expressing situations which we cannot observe directly. Models help us to understand what we observe and predict what will happen in situations that we cannot observe. Modeling a scientific concept is an acceptable scientific tool in advancing a concept or an idea. Eventually we may become so convinced of the reliability of the model or the security of the model image. Then we tend to accept it as total reality without any objection or question. The distinction between the model and the reality disappears in our teaching of science and this in turn inhibits the acceptance of new ideas. The atomic model is a good example and everybody accepts it as a good model and almost certain reality but few thinkers deviated from this mode of thinking and went into talk about quarks and antiparticles and the like.

Our educationists in science have gone into hibernation after the atomic model and canceling the practicals at the university entrance for the advance level examination (due to inherent inability to hold examinations full proof so that some elements can doctor the results) compounded the already deteriorating approach to teaching science in schools. This is one example of the examples of skewed (squint) eye view of the teaching and education in general. We have let this phenomenon (science teaching without experiment and investigation at least at a rudimentary level) progress for nearly 40 years without a review.

It is high time at least from "middle school age" the children are brought up looking for both knowledge and wisdom with open mind rather than "programed minds"of the education department. Restricting them to free books published by the education department which are probably 30 years outdated is not the panacea for a long term problem of "learning on the go" especially in science.

Australian teachers researching in science teaching are introducing many models of art of teaching science and I would like to jot down some thoughts about one of them in some detail with my own adaptation of that model. It is called the 5E Model (I am quite at ease with the Japanese 5S model of Quality Training) and worth some elaboration. Students acquire a certain level of conceptual development on a scientific phenomenon that is discussed based on 5E Model. The focus is on a observable topic or phenomenon.

Engage
Students express their views and grasp of a particular phenomenon (or a topic) and study any connection with what they already seem to know at a particular age of their development. The teacher generate the new idea or the concept without any factual information.

Explore
Students explore the phenomenon and use their own language to express and discuss the phenomenon in their own understanding and experience without any hindrance from the teacher who act as a facilitator rather than a disseminator (discriminator) of knowledge. Students generate new ideas based on hands on activities.

Explain
They explain the phenomenon in scientific terms and teacher help to develop new ides and concepts and terminology.

Elaborate
The teacher introduces new challenging situation and students apply what they have learnt to a new situation and modify their concepts accordingly. This is the application of the newly acquired knowledge to a given problem. Problem oriented but evidenced base learning is gradually introduced and facilitated.

Evaluation
The students reflect on the preconceived views (ideas) to the post conceptual development of the new scientific theme and teacher allows ongoing development of the theme as and when the experience of the class improves with new situations and problems (the class encounter). Building on a sound base of conceptualization children learn and understand more complex phenomena.

A layer of conceptual (idea) development is formed on top of the already existing concrete operational thinking which each student inherit differently without upsetting their own previous preconceived ideas and thinking capacities. There is no label attached to the previous conceived idea as either right or wrong but a modified version of the previous concept is laid on top the previous experience which each student inherited with their own experience or lack of it. The thinking capacity is developed instead of retaining capacity. Unfortunately there is tremendous variation of memory capacity of children. The top or the surface (outermost) layer is kept open ended for further ongoing improvement and development of new ideas and concepts. The approach is not rigid as it is in the book oriented learning expectation of the department of education.

In effect there are there layers of conceptual development.
Layer 1 Students already perceived thinking and ides
Layer 2 The new concepts developed with exploration and explanation
Layer 3 Open end for further facilitation with new experience and understanding

The third layer is kept open in true scientific spirits that what is understood is kept for further development and refinement. With this level of understanding and maturity students could enter what ever the type of further education they wish in their life. It should not be a static and should not end up abruptly at advanced level examination. The concept of continuous learning should be ingrained in the minds of school leavers who are encouraged to learn in their own pace and time rather than regimented time scale as prescribed by the education department.
Before elaborating with some examples that can be used in the class room

I should introduce few of my own 5ES to make the grand total ten.

The

1)Evidence based
2)Expansion of the
3)Experience of the individual to
4) Encourage true
5) Emancipation of knowledge leading to right thinking and wisdom.

Whatever the field of study one is free to apply this framework of exploration.

My intentions are to promote open discussion.

Teaching Science-03

 Teaching Science-03

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Even though the discussion would end up with the illustration of the basic scientific tenants of uncertainty principle, the change and the chaos inherent in any physical or biological cycle, the conceptual development of the themes that are involved are giant steps for young minds.


The frog leap attempt is the way to reach the summit of discussion.

To come to the final conclusion one has to go through the layers of scientific concepts and behaviour pattern of nature.

The fact of the matter is constant change.
But because these changes have patterns that tend to recur in somewhat of a predictable pattern, the sequence of events that recur are called cycles and the term equilibrium is introduced to bring a concept of static nature to a dynamic change that would be chaotic if not for the patterns of regular behaviour.

The persistence of patterns gives order and consistency to recurrent events.

Weather is an ideal ground to base the conceptual thinking. That was the reason for its choice in the first place.


Having said that the professional meteorologists meager capacity to predict the weather and his negligible ability to control it warn against the complacency of the scientific notions and the teachers (myself in this discussion included) limitations.


Equilibrium states

A man with science would like to simplify facts of life for the purpose of explanation. The equilibrium states is a model well tried out for stating concepts. Sometimes in this process of simplifying facts he destroys the true tenants of reality but that is beside the point at this stage of discussion.

For the purpose of discussion we take few examples of equilibrium states.

Cycles
1.Day and Night
2.Diurnal rhythms
3.Circadian rhythms
4.Rain and the Monsoons
5.Populations and the Birth and Death of individuals
6.Photosynthesis and the Respiration
7.Clouds and the Rain
8.Wind and Pressure
9.High tide and Low tide
10.Chemical Equations

Concepts

1.Pressure
2.Temperature
3.Gravity
4.State of the Matter
5.Radiation
6.Energy
7.Thermodynamic Principles
8.Entropy
9.Atmosphere
10.Air (water vapour )and Matter (dust)

Only term not listed up there is the Time for a valid reason. To explain the day and night we need a artificial measurement be that it may be seconds, minutes, hours or days, weeks and months and years. The seconds (small but perceptible enough) and days have a meaning for the clock manufacture but the minutes and hours are arbitrary ingredients. Similarly hours and days have a meaning to the teacher and the parents and the weeks and months have no meaning (to the child).

For the child it is the play and no play (work) or the schooling and holidays and the rest of the classifications (weeks and months) are arbitrary and meaningless approximations in his life's experiences.

In a scientific sense what the child needs is to be exposed to enough experiences adequate for his perceptual (development) thinking capacity and certainly not a rigid science syllabus. I have no intention of discussing each scientific principle except a few that would have some meaningful expression in the child's mind.

Exploration

The explanations of the themes can be attempted by studying a model or an exploration. A cloud chamber in the laboratory can be a model (difficult to simulate) but in real terms unnatural for a young mind. I would go for an exploration (observation, adventure and discovery) instead of demonstration with a virtual class of students.

This exploration is laid in the in the neighbourhood of the Hantana Ranges.

Why the Hantana Range?

It is simple.

A living laboratory to investigate the laws of nature?

How the modern man is destroying it or trying to restore it to order is an object for further discussion.

Perspective

The knowledge is incremental and the wisdom is not. Acquisition of knowledge without the ability to shed prejudices (be that it may be colour, creed, class, sex or the knowledge itself) already ingrained in the conceptual development is the biggest hindrance to modern day learning.

If the correct conditions are provided the development of wisdom (peace associated with it) will ensues and of course the harmony of the world at large.

Experiment an Eco friendly one

There can be many variations to this skeleton of experimental inquiry. This is something I would have wished as a child but never was given thought by the scientific teachers of the yesteryear. But I made my inquiry not necessarily in a scientific sense but silently (rationally as was feasible at my age ) in my own time and space.

There are many more like me in this generation who are left without a guide in the search for knowledge for fun and game.

The exploration should consist of small teams. Should be limited to 5 to 10 for easy administration and division of labour without duplication of efforts and the efficiency of management.

First of all they should obtain a contour map of Kandy city (I doubt any school in Kandy have it except some understanding of the perimeter of 2 mile radius).

Then the team should identify sites for exploration for either 250 or 500 feet ( Kandy-Peradeniya bridge as a base of 1500 to 1600 feet)elevation intervals (altitude.

They should camp in these sites initially on day time (cycle) and subsequently at night (parents would go berserk.

With the day time data and their imagination they should be able work out their predictions and strategies for night. With the integration in mind, the Boy's Scouts and Girl's Guides in schools should have their own contribution to this thematic learning and experience.

I have few site for the students to investigate. They are as follows.

1.Hantana Peak (with Radio Ceylon organizing the infrastructure requirement).
2.Peradeniya River Basin (at the Campus, Peradeniya Garden and the Water intake- with Peradinya Garden, University and the Teaching Hospitals providing the infrastructure requirements).

3.Kandy Lake and the surrounds

4.And many more sites.

The equipments necessary are the minimal and what would be used by the meteorologists of Kandy. For the data the students could not obtain, the meteorologists should provide inputs of basic data (especially nocturnal).

Thermometers, barometers, compass and litmus paper would suffice.

They should make some weather balloons and few kites themselves for fun and experiment.

The whole exercise may take months of planning and execution but at the end of the day the students are enriched with meaning and understanding why we do something.

All the concepts mentioned above and many more that would arise from simple questioning and inquiry would cover the entire syllabus with minimum of theoretical knowledge.

Since the education department have canceled the advanced level practical examinations for many decades and the university has no intention of recommencing them this is the only way to rekindle the scientific inquiry and true scientific breeds.

It is the need of the day I believe.

I have avoided the exact methodology (things to be recorded by the students ) since it may look like the passage I have used for discussion.

However just to illustrate a point the student should gather at the bridge that lay across the court complex in Peradeniya and study the contents of the stream (The KUNU Ela).

It is an ideal place for a pilot project for the students before embarking on an ambitions project.

I have used this for a theoretical discussion in a global sense to make aware of the complexity involved in doing research and weather reporting.

It should not be taken in literal or metaphorical sense but with open mind to discover the uncertainty principle which is the binding rule of the Universe.

The words that I have encountered in the passage are given below for objective examination by the teacher who may think like me and the list is not comprehensive.

In every 20 words there was a technical term and it is staggeringly high for a small mind.

Would clutter even an adult mind.

If the conceptual understanding is introduced in a half baked manner the damage it does for conceptual thinking is irreversible.

List of words

1.liquid
2.solid
3.states
4.vapour
5.content (zero to about 4 percent)
6.atmosphere
7.air
8.temperature
9.dust
11.condensation nuclei
12. nuclei
13.ingredients
14.precipitation
15.The Precipitation Ladder (model)
16.stages
17.processes)
18. form
19.Ascent
20. Expansion
21.cooling
22.air parcel
23.air pockets
24.wind
25.flowing
26.horizontally.
27.vertically
28.weather processes
29.currents
30.reversing
31.air mass
32.convergence
33.convection
34.frontal lifting
35.physical lifting.
36.Convergence
37.surface
38. space
39.Frontal lifting
40.warmer
41.dense
42.ascending air
43.frontal boundary
44.Physical lifting
45.orographic lifting,
46.topographical
47.barrier
48.(volume - quantity)
49.pressure to be in equilibrium
50.expands
51.condensation
52.relative humidity
53.humidification
54.saturation
55.threshold,
56.vapour content
57.Mixing of more humid air mass.
58. Boundary
59.Supersaturation
60.condensation
61.Condensation of water onto condensation nuclei
62.deposition of water vapour as ice on freezing nuclei
63.altitude
64.cloud base
65.lifting condensation level.
66.ice crystals
67.average cloud droplet
68.terminal fall
69.velocity
70.Buoyancy or Cloudiness
71.property of water
72. latent heats of condensation
73.deposition
74.Freezing
75.heat
76.cumulus clouds
77.vertical growth.
78.continued condensation
79.collision
80.Turbulence
81.currents
82.bounce off
83flow around
84.updraft
85.collision opportunities.
86.conditions for drop growth
87.optimal conditions
88.co-exist

Thieves in the Post Office

 Thieves in the Post Office

Stealing (thieves in the post office)the post and Increasing the Postage
 

Increasing the postage is no remedy to the systematic stealing by unscrupulous agents in the main sorting house in Colombo.
 

I have lost two cheques sent from USA over the past three months.
 

I get an email before posting the cheque from USA.
 

I did not want to complain to the local Post Office (Peradeniya to be precise) since the lot working there are very good and I say it is probably the best post office in Ceylon (Kandy does not get this accolade).
My unofficial inquiries revealed that there is a gang in Colombo who scrutinize all the mail, especially coming from Middle East (where illiterate house maids enclose currency notes in their letters) and open them and steal the money and destroy the mail.

This is happening from 1970s (it is more rampant under current regime where illicit dealers have actually become ministers).
 

I can remember my brother in UK used to send Wilkinson blades (for cutting thin tissues for advanced level practicals) and they used to put a magnet and detect them (I started losing them) and this operation was terminated abruptly.
 

When I was in Colombo I did some investigation and that revealed they use steam to open the letters.
 

This Buddhist country has become a robber barons country now.
 

They even steal the ballot paper.
That is the only development we can boast about.
I think use of automation and postal code is a way forward but still these guys will find a way to steal.
Manual sorting should be minimized.
 

I am posting this to my principles in USA.

All my mail (including UK and Germany ) including books and magazine I have  subscribed to are tampered with.

It is ridiculous for a government (they become political stooges without proper backbone) servants to raise this issue once retired and from  a safe house abroad.

They do precise little when holding an important post and become wiser after retirement (once pension is granted)!

We have a government auditor gone blind after throwing acid on his face by culprits involved in a grand fraud.

He recently exposed a judge who is illegally possessing a wild baby elephant in his safe house. He was immediately posted to a non-functional pool.
Then we had a mass scale fraud on rebating VAT on non existing letter of credit business.
Only one of the racketeers went into prison.
Others are still holding the posts.

There is no functioning Public Service Commission or Bribery Commission, all the crooks are having a gale of a time.

This includes our cricket board, too.
 

Reproduction
August 15, 2014, 7:22 pm

Sri Lanka Post (SLP) has increased the postage by 100% beginning this month, I am surprised as to why the SLP is not looking into measures such as using the POSTCODE, to reduce cost and lessen the burden on the customers. Increasing the postage will not carry letters across to the addressee from the point of posting any faster than before. The POSTCODE on the other hand which has many benefits can achieve faster delivery of mail at lesser cost. I am unable to understand the Persistent avoidance of the SLP to use the POSTCODE, for the last 17 years. The time has come now to deserve everybody’s attention to it.

SLP introduced the POSTCODE in 1997. Since that day it never used it, nor was there any visible attempt to use it during the last 17 years. The POSTCODE is considered as a very important and a useful system, sometimes essential by the postal services around the world. I am really puzzled by the unimportance, the uselessness and the disregard shown to the POSTCODE by the SLP. Perhaps, it is of interest to all of us to know, the purpose of introducing the POSTCODE, if the SLP had no intention of using it.

System of indicating the POSTCODE in the postal address is widely used by the Postal Services. It is used by 75% of the postal services in the world. According to the UPU (Universal Postal Union) records, 142 out of the 192 UPU member countries were using the Postcode system by the end of 2012. The purpose of the Postcode is to aid in mail sorting, by both mechanized and manual methods. It enables you to pre-sort your mail, bypassing a number of sorting processes and thereby reducing your cost and also sorting your mail faster. Since SLP does all its mail sorting manually, it has an added benefit to the SLP by eliminating the need to read the post town, written in different languages, thereby a solution to the Lack of Tri-lingual competence of the mail sorting staff which is definitely a problem to the SLP.

The SLP has never announced any reason nor has given any explanation for not using the POSTCODE at any time during this long period of 17 years. There is no indication about not using it even in its website; it gives practically no information about the POSTCODE, in there. It only gives information of a problem of towns in Sri Lanka having similar names. And gives long descriptions of how the OCR machines sort mail with all the technical details of it. And at the ends it states, that it is a brief explanation about the POSTCODE and its PURPOSE. (Not the purpose I explained in the preceding paragraph) However not forgetting to mention, "now it is mandatory" to provide the POSTCODE "in every piece of mail" that you post, and warning you of dire consequences for failure to do so including the loss of your letters. Is there anything more funny than, asking us to use a non-existent POSTCODE.

I believe the SLP owes to its customers a definite explanation of its stand on non-using the POSTCODE and there is no better time than now to do it. I also take this opportunity, to congratulate the SLP for being able to host the APPU Ex- Co meeting here next month.

Raja Wickramasinghe
(Retired Deputy Post-Master General)
CANADA

Art Buchwald

 September 9, 2022
Art Buchwald
The remarkable career, and long-hidden pain, of satirist Art Buchwald

Humor columnist Art Buchwald in his Washington office in 1977.
His satirical strategy: “The writer must be careful he is not accused of being a hater of mankind.
The best way to do this is to abuse people and make them laugh while you’re doing it.” (Charles Bennett/AP)

Review by Eric Weiner
Asked if he ever read the humorist Art Buchwald, Richard Nixon replied: “No, no I don’t think he is funny. He is certainly not serious.”

Nixon was wrong — on both counts. Buchwald was funny and serious. In the tradition of Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, he concealed deep wisdom in the seemingly silly and farcical. As for Nixon’s potshot, Buchwald was not the least perturbed. “As a humor columnist, I need Nixon,” he said. “He’s been great for me. I’m going to run him for a third term.”

Over the decades, Buchwald was equally grateful for many other presidents, including Jimmy Carter (“I worship the very quicksand he walks on”) and Bill Clinton (for obvious reasons). Only George H.W. Bush let him down. “Nothing to write about, everything was dull,” Buchwald is quoted as saying in Michael Hill’s brisk and engaging biography, “Funny Business: The Legendary Life and Political Satire of Art Buchwald.” Meticulously researched and delivered in a taut, almost staccato style, “Funny Business” glides along the surface of Buchwald’s remarkable life, venturing wide but not especially deep.

Random House
In his column, published for decades by The Washington Post and, at its peak, syndicated to 550 newspapers around the word, Buchwald often crafted creative, tongue-in-cheek solutions to the nation’s problems. Gun violence out of control? Impose a federal mandate to cut off all Americans’ trigger fingers at birth. (“The Constitution gives everyone the right to bear arms. But there is nothing that says an American has to have ten fingers.”) Bogged down in the Vietnam War? Instead of dropping bombs, drop American autos that had been recalled. The unsuspecting North Vietnamese “would proceed to kill each other” with the faulty cars, he quipped.

Some of Buchwald’s satires were so spot on they were mistaken for truth. When in 1964 he wrote a column titled “J. Edgar Hoover Just Doesn’t Exist,” many Americans believed him. Hoover, clearly not amused, called Buchwald “a sick alleged humorist.” John F. Kennedy briefly canceled all White House subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune, at the time the newspaper that carried Buchwald’s column. Lyndon Johnson, irked by Buchwald’s criticism of the Vietnam War, ordered the National Security Agency to secretly surveil the humorist. Buchwald took heat from both ends of the political spectrum, but he found “the extreme Left” pricklier. Satirizing them, he said, “takes a little more guts.”

Following
For the most part, though, those on the receiving end of Buchwald’s “Buchshots,” as his barbs were called, took it in stride, or even played along. Buchwald’s satire was biting, but the bites were delivered so slyly that recipients rarely objected — or even knew they had been bitten.

A young Buchwald articulated the satirical strategy that he stuck with throughout his long career: “The writer must be careful he is not accused of being a hater of mankind. The best way to do this is to abuse people and make them laugh while you’re doing it. It indicates that the writer is just having a good time and he’s really your friend. The abuse will stick.”

The first two-thirds of “Funny Business” reads like a journalistic fairy tale. There is Buchwald in Paris dining at the city’s finest restaurants and rubbing elbows with Lauren Bacall and a young Robert Redford. There he is at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago, and on Broadway, watching “Sheep on the Runway,” the play he wrote. There he is receiving the Pulitzer Prize. And, all the while, there he is hunched over his trusty Olivetti typewriter, chomping on a cigar and making it look oh so easy. Life was good, or so it seemed.

The truth is that Buchwald, like so many comedians, had a dark side. When the black dog, as Winston Churchill called his depression, nipped at his heels, Buchwald turned to humor, “the greatest defense in the world.” And it worked. Until it didn’t.

In 1962, he suffered a debilitating bout of depression and was briefly hospitalized the following year. For many decades, he kept his struggle secret. Finally, in 1991, he went public, teaming up with fellow celebrities and depressives Mike Wallace and William Styron — the “Blues Brothers” they called themselves — to raise awareness about the disease.

Hill skillfully chronicles Buchwald’s ups and downs, relying heavily on a treasure trove of correspondence he unearthed: letters between Buchwald and A-list celebrities on both coasts, including Ted Kennedy and Charlton Heston. Some of these missives are more illuminating, and funnier, than others. At times, the book reads less like a biography and more like a document dump.

“Funny Business” contains plenty of laughs but also elicits pangs of sadness. The reader feels sad for Buchwald, who for so long felt compelled to hide his struggle with depression. Sad for the passing of an era when the nation had a common conversation, even if it was one conducted in raised voices. And sad for today’s comedians, inheritors of the Buchwald tradition, who must find ways to be funny when the news satirizes itself.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Buchwald suffered several setbacks, including a bitter and protracted lawsuit over the movie “Coming to America,” a film that Buchwald claimed was his idea. Next followed a series of painful health crises until, in 2006, he entered a Washington hospice. His days were numbered, but that number turned out to be much higher than anyone suspected.

Weeks, then months, went by, and Buchwald was still alive and funny. His kidneys began functioning again. He actually gained weight. From his hospice bed, he conducted radio interviews (“I had nothing else to do”) and welcomed visitors to what became known as Buchwald’s hospice salon.

When he finally did die more than a year later, Washington A-listers gathered to honor him. But it was fellow humorist Dave Barry who best captured the big-hearted comic genius that was Art Buchwald. “He talked funny, he wrote funny, he lived funny, and damned if he didn’t find a way to die funny.”

Eric Weiner is the author, most recently, of “The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers.”

Funny Business
The Legendary Life and Political Satire of Art Buchwald

By Michael Hill

Nostalgia of Peradeniya Campus

This piece was done during MaRa Regime!

Nostalgia of Peradeniya Campus

I decided to update this with minimal (there were lot of spellings and grammatical mistakes, which I do not care ) change to the contents, in the name of Nirmal Ranjith.
 
Intellectuals are persecuted for telling the truth like what happened to Hippocrates.
This was what happened to Nirmal Ranjith in broad day light.

Pol Sambol, Kiri Bath and and cup of tea were the standard diet of a student, outside the university residences.

Within the university residences we were served, with cheese, butter, Parippu, beef, fish and Cadju or Cashew (for the pure vegetarian students from Jaffna) on a regular basis.

No wonder most of the non-resident student would come for Gajai and Wala on weekends when many of us go home to tell our parents that the food in the campus was horrible (a big lie) to supplement our liberal pocket money which were spent on cigarettes, alcohol and once a year gambling during the Perahara Carnival.

One should not take that we did not go to the cinema.
That was my addiction to save the time on reading (Godfather, French Connection, English Classics-not my favourite, though)

I used to hit the first day first show since, if somebody tells me the plot I never use to enjoy the film and fortunately most my friends used to find a boarding place near a theatre / cinema and would be in the queue well before me and jumping the queue was not an issue or offense.
 

This was the time of decline in English Education in in Ceylon, including Kandy and the crowd that hit the cinema was selective and would accommodate minor idiosyncrasies of out time.

Swapping a seat to accommodate a girl friend was a done thing but they used to go to the balcony and we visited balcony only for our beer during the interval.

Unfortunately some of our professors also used to hit the show on the first day, my professor in particular.

But our modus operandum was changed and skipped the first two days and go to the 9.30PM show and that also was only to the gallery for 60 cents and the money saved was well spent on beer and if the show was bad we would leave after a round of beer sometime well before the interval.

Suffice is to say the back row was reserved for us by default for English shows and when we start to move in for a Sinhala film "Market Somes' (city thugs) would move forward leaving the back row empty.

We used to command respect from even these guys those days and that was the respect for an undergraduate of yesteryear.

To recap good quality Pilsner Beer (we could not come to halls of residence drunk, though--now even booing, smiling and even cracking a joke of political nature is prohibited by Chinthanaya) was Rs.1.80/= and two of us could enjoy a round meal or mixed grill for Rs.10/= which included a liberal tip for the waiter.

I would go home have a little nap and have a run round the lake with my dog till all the smell of alcohol is dissipated to fresh air around Kandy City and I never wondered what my friends would do-may be they went to the gym).

This is the way we kept our friendship and never got involved with private life of others.

We were fiercely independent.

I promised our team which I captained that I would throw a party (lunch) if our team wins the inter-university championship and that was the only encouragement that was needed to lift the cup, beating Colombo on a Penalty shoot out.

I never liked the way Colombo guys reacted to the defeat and they turned down my offer for a round of refreshments on my account (not University).

I still wonder what happens to people when they migrate to Colombo from far away villages and many of them become monsters (or is it ministers), in no time including village politicians.

The cost for the lunch for the entire team wit beer was Rs.110/= and that was raised by me on one day of gambling at the carnival.

Thank god we did not have Casino then but Tombola only in Kandy Lake Club and I never told the guys how I got the money but I made sure I got some extra cash from my mother too, in case guys would double my expenses on beer.

Now my mother is no more, it is more than enough time I kept all these secrets from her which she would only know from heaven.

I believe she still won't believe that her small brat was capable of such feats.

Extra Rs.10/= was the tip for the waiter with left over beer.

What was obvious none of us had the gene for alcoholism unlike our politicians, even when the prize of alcohol was very cheap.

We soon graduated to VSOA (Very Special Old Arrack) and the price was Rs.7.50 at Union Place Grill (with a full birds-this was the time cats and dogs meat were substituted for chicken) in Colombo.

Soon afterwards, I was baptized with 6 rounds of beer in a Pub in London and that was the last time I had a drink with that crowd and told to myself,     I would never have in excess of a glass of beer and that is also with good company and never with a crowd of drunkards.

But I could not resist myself half a chicken for lunch and another half a chicken at night (free from NHS on days I was on night duty) and liberal amount of fresh milk instead of beer (half that from the NHS).

Now to the present moment and cup of Ceylon Tea.

It was only today, I went out to buy some bananas and the Muslim guy who sells me good banana and runs a tea shop round the corner got little chatty now the Vesak fever was over.

I asked him how many cups he makes from a Kg and I told him unless his raises the price of cup of tea he has to close the shop for good.

He was not convinced.

I told him tea has gone up in price even before the election by 100%.

I told him if I put two good blend tea bags in a cup (without water or sugar) it costs Rs. 90/= and the cheapest brand costs Rs. 75/=.

(Needs little explanation here to see how simple arithmetic is used. Two tea bags will cost only Rs.7 to 10 but when it is made in to a cup of tea it is called value added and it is rounded up by ten times-in other word value added means a profit is 10 times.)

It used to be Rs.25/= if one bag is dipped (dipping a tea bag into hot water costs, 10 times) 10 years ago but 50 if two bags were dipped. 

Now the price of tea has gone up by 100% and if one asks a cup with two bags it costs Rs.100/= or more.

Two years ago, in a reasonable hotel in Kandy (not 5 Star-one needs a decent swimming pool for that classification) the price of tea pot for two was Rs.175/= (before the election-the last time I went there- mind you not Mesna).

I met one of my colleagues (freshers at the campus) who was a director in an education institution (after about 20 year lapse) and we went for a chat and some tea (the waiter refused to serve a tea pot) and I had to go to the manager to make my order placed.

I tendered Rs. 500/=, my friend almost got a heart attack, and left the balance as the tip, since the waiter who served us was almost slavish after my little intermission with the manager.

Kandy already has lost the trick of the trade, the Kandyyan Hospitality.

Now my friend is retired but works as the vice principal in a private school in upcountry, and his kids are abroad doing well, whenever I meet him with his wife, he used to remind this 'Tea Episode' and I retort, if the president can have a Hopper for Rs. 200/=, I am just helping out our tea Industry.

Gods only know how much it costs now.

But I can assure you that the take away prices of food items have doubled, in this city.

I give a break for my family members (all adults) and stay at home with the dog (cannot afford to hire a watcher and thieves have increased in numbers even in our neighbourhood and practically every house had been broken into either in day / or in night).

I do go for 'take away' regularly and spend and eat out once in a way when friends from abroad visit me, since thing have improved security wise in the night.

The cost of a meal for my dog (including fish for the dog) and me which was Rs.450/= will cost now over Rs.1000/=.

That was my experience last time round.

Strangely, enough in Majestic City in Colombo a tiny piece of fish is Rs.250= (10 times value added) and a buffe that costs over Rs.650/= per head was so horrible (another place in the Colombo City) none of us finished the meal and went to an American take away and had ice creams of all sorts to satisfy our hunger and drown the anger with delight.

There is something horribly wrong in our hospitality trade.

There is no exaggeration here.

This is the miracles happening in broad day light.

I have to spend Rs.100/= for cup of milk tea (if somebody else make the tea for me) and from 6 cups (in 10 years) I have come down to 2 or three a day and very soon I will stop drinking Ceylon tea.

I have cut it down to one but mind you that cup is virtually a beer mug and my daughter estimates it to be an equivalent of (minimum) 750 milligrams of caffeine derivatives.

In other words three (3) cups of tea in one.

I am gad to say in three years in Australia, I have weaned myself off and drink the light blend and not the strong blend.
 
I went to say to  him,  for the last one year, I do not drink tea in my office and he was not convinced.

He still sells his plain tea for Rs.10/= and he has to have 100 to make Rs.1000/= his turn over for a day.

I do not think he gets 30 even though he works 7 am to 7 pm (12 hours).

In my case, I have to make my own cup of tea and stay away from drinking tea while on work.

I told him to make as much tea as possible from his bulk tea strainer for him to stay in business and display the price one (1) Kg tea in a prominent place in Sinhala and let the customer calculates the number of tea one can make from a kilo of tea.

They are very poor in arithmetic's and would blame the Gods or Tamil State Worker for the price but never the present government to which they are immunized and anesthetized.

Coming back to University, the teachers and students should do their teaching and studies without a cup of tea. We must teach students that tea is addictive and it is good only for foreigners. For teachers who are asking a pay hike should stop drinking tea and coffee and should drink the miracle water the government promised them before and during the elections.

The miracle water in the university is none other than 'Pol Arrakku'.

If they go for an audience with our ex president I am sure they will be provided with a different type of miracle drink that would make them to think that the miracle will come in two years after the predicted end of the world and with new world order taking shape where intellectuals are persecuted for telling the truth like what happened to Hippocrates.

History repeat itself!

That is a normal phenomenon.

Our Rivers

 Our Rivers

Some years ago I remember walking around the campus and finding all the bridges were badly maintained including the Railway Bridge in Peradinya and Panideniya.
I decided to write up something on river basin management.
If I remember correct I send a draft to a English National Daily but they never bother to publish it or publish a similar article highlighting how Kandy as a district was neglected by politicians for the last 35 years or so.
The politicians past and present once they assume duties come to Kandy as a routine pilgrimage in a motorcade (now in helicopters) over these dilapidated bridges and do sweet nothing afterward. This cycle goes on ritualistically since they never get out of their cars or from their air conditioned rooms except for choreographed editions of their meeting of the electorate.
So I decided to publish them in the open, that means in the web.
Three years after that a shoddy job was done at Peradeniya Motor Bridge (nothing probably for Railway Bridge) and still the Peradeniya town is under threat due to earth slips. Most of these damages were initialed by heavy construction undertaken to construct telecommunication towers and some name boards in the hill above the Peradeniya town.
If one walks along the river side of botanical gardens cracks were visible on the road for decades but nobody took notice of all these symptoms and signs and the negligence by successive governments went on unabated. They provide lip service come elections and after that they move to Colombo and never come to Kandy even on December holidays.
Kandy had been a neglected city after the British left for good.
I have stated these observations based on my limited sphere of activity and everybody who is somebody should observe what is neglected in his or her sphere of activity and record and report them for the local government to act upon them.
But I cannot remember anybody acceding to my requests and comments.
However, I did not go into details of landslide since my understanding about is limited but my experience of it from childhood is enough to say the least.
I have seen part of the massive Ampitiya Uduwela landslide more than 50 years ago when many people left that village for elsewhere in fear.
Now in Kandy no place is safe.
In addition, during the Mahaveli Development the land reserves were divided among some of the kith and kin in public service and politics for a pittance and that also had encroached upon the river basin.
The management of the river basin was left to mother nature.
In addition heavy equipment used and detonation used over the past 30 years have even compromised heavy tension wire installations. They even remove the wires and reinforcement used to anchor the pillars. Enough damage is done one day high tension wires might even fall on our head nobody would give a damn.
Roughly a year ago Kandy train could not go past beyond Panideniya for three days due to stretch of the track above collapsing on to the drain. This part is still not fully serviced and the trains do go pass that point to Kandy daily.
I have decided to stop going by this train since one is not sure whether one would return safely home the same evening.
It is time we forget about Mega Projects and divert our attention at least to refurbished the existing infrastructure before they fall apart completely. This is how the public service is managed and it is getting worse by the season. There are so many ministries and there is no coordination to say the least.
The events that are unfolding in Kandy and around are due to lack of foresight and negligence by the authorities holding high posts.
This cycle will repeat ad lib!